What classes will be in the martial power book?

[Sadrik]

What classes will be in the martial power book? Assuming that the "complete" series of books which had 3 classes in them is what they will go with in this book. My speculation is that the classes will be the barbarian, the assassin and a "martial controller" type of character.

Any other ideas or tidbits that we all missed about this?

 

[Pssthpok]

Martial controller seems almost oxymoronic. A dog-master? A trap-setter? An alchemist?

 

[Darkwolf71]

Assassin will likely be a Paragon Path for Rogue.

I can see the Barbarian, maybe some version of the Warblade or Swordsage. (One, not both.) And something new, because they like new things.


I personnaly wish folks would give up the idea of a 'Martial Controller'. YMMV, of course.

 

[Merlin the Tuna]

I've never heard of a martial controller before. What would one look like in d20 terms?

A Swordsage with a focus in Setting Sun would be about as close as you could get, I think.

 

[Flynn]

The Archer is my best guess at a martial controller. It makes the most sense to me, and has an extensive history in D&D, ranging back to the old Archer NPC class in the early days of Dragon. A controller tends to be ranged, and since there are no other ranged classes as yet that aren't magically based, it makes sense that the archer would fill that role from a martial perspective.

But that's only my opinion. I don't think there needs to be this really big super-uber anime whirlwind warrior thing when a basic fantasy concept such as the archer would handle the situation nicely.

My Two Coppers, Anyway,
Flynn

EDIT: And if there isn't one in the Martial Powers book, then I'll write up an Archer and sell it on PDF, for the guys like me that need a little less "whoa" factor in some of our gaming elements so that we don't become jaded by the Vegas-like glitz and glamor of all these "superphat gnarly totally tubular kewl" things that have tended to be marketed right now. 4E sounds like a potentially great game with Vegas-fixated marketing.

 

[Sadrik]

The Archer is my best guess at a martial controller.

It seems that the ranger will be an archer or a two weapon fighter as they are in 3.5. So an archer as an entire class is probably not right.

Assassin will likely be a Paragon Path for Rogue.

That makes a lot of sense. Hmm, so barbarian as a most likely option and...

What about an armored "knight" whose powers are all based on maximizing the usefulness of their armor and possibly mounted combat stuff.

BTW I really like the idea of a martial controller who makes thunderstones, exploding potions, alchemist's fire, grease slicks, tanglebags and other "controller" sorts of things. Alchemist or Mechanist type of character.

Also, we have not heard of any "pet" classes (for lack of a better term).

 

[BarkingDeathSquirrel]

The Archer is my best guess at a martial controller. It makes the most sense to me, and has an extensive history in D&D, ranging back to the old Archer NPC class in the early days of Dragon. A controller tends to be ranged, and since there are no other ranged classes as yet that aren't magically based, it makes sense that the archer would fill that role from a martial perspective.

The Ranger doesn't seem to be magical-based, and seems to be focused on either two-weapon fighting or archery.

Plus, an Archer-type, to me at least, seems better suited as being a striker than a controller (and the Ranger is a striker).

Still, if there is going to be a Martial Controller... I'm going to guess it would be a Defender/Controller hybrid. Something like the Berserker from Iron Heroes (which is, due to its token generation method (and many of its abilities too) much better suited to fighting mass-amounts of creatures, but does well enough as any other class against a single, big creature)

 

[Daniel D. Fox]

A Hound Master would be a really cool martial controller as a paragon path for Warlords. The Warlord commands his faithful servants from afar, basically becoming the equivilent of a "pet-based class" from mmogs, which using his hounds to enact his Warlord powers on his companions.

Or how about a Fighter paragon path called Shieldmaster, who can absorb blows for folks and intercept ranged attacks for fellow allies that are adjacent to him?

What about an Intimidate/Persuasion-based skilled Fighter paragon called the Indomitable Warrior that controls his enemies on the battlefield by using yells and skill checks to draw attention away from his allies and upon himself? Meaning, he uses Intimidates versus Will defense of enemies to get them to engage him?

Much like Flynn, I'm all about the idea of an Archer who can be a martial controller. Unlease a volley of arrows in four squares, causing Damage over Time and a reduction in movement in those particular squares.

 

[The Little Raven]

Assassin will likely be a Paragon Path for Rogue.

Agreed. Assassin is far too narrow for an entire class, especially when it would share something like 80% of it's abilities with the rogue class.

I can see the Barbarian, maybe some version of the Warblade or Swordsage.

As they've already stated that the Barbarian is the same power source as the Druid, I highly doubt he'll be in this book.

I personnaly wish folks would give up the idea of a 'Martial Controller'. YMMV, of course.

Give gamers the hint of a grid and they'll seek to fill it out.

 

[Greenfaun]

I'm guessing Monk and Barbarian, and maybe a third class, but what? Samurai? I hope not. Swashbuckler? Better, but the rogue seems to have that sort of thing covered. So I don't know.

Then lots of powers and paragon paths and epic destinies (man, what a pain to type. Can we just call them PrC's for brevity's sake?) for Fighters, Rogues, Warlords and Rangers.

I'm a little surprised the Arcane book isn't coming out first, though. We know they're actively working on the Swordmage and Illusionist, and there have been vague statements about Necromancers too, but I guess they've got more Martial stuff in the pipe. Weird.