D&D 4E Will 4e work for building my character concept?

[wingsandsword]

Okay,

I'm still not too happy about 4e, and I won't be first in line to buy a 4e PHB and will probably run 3.5 for a long time, but in the spirit of being open minded. . .

There is a character concept I've had for a long time and wanted to play, I've never been able to create it well in 3.x, something akin to the Sohei of feudal Japan, temple guardians who were skilled with martial arts, weapons and were practicing priests. Essentially, I want a spellcasting monk with a better weapons selection, something at least similar to the 2e monk class from Spells & Magic and the Faiths & Avatars series.

The closest thing I ever saw to this concept in 3.5 was the Sacred Fist PrC, which came with a big code of conduct that would prohibit the character from using the polearms and other weapons the Sohei were known to use (and I never found a DM that would waive that Code of Conduct for that class, so I've never had a chance to play the concept). Attempts to make a character like this without a PrC were suboptimal to say the least, such as Cleric/Monk multiclass combos, or Cleric into a Monkish PrC that doesn't require monk levels but didn't include continued spellcasting.

Then I saw the idea that Paladin might be a Prestige Class, and Monk might be a talent tree of Fighter. Then the idea of a Cleric/Fighter/Paladin with the right talents selected could create a lightly armored warrior who is skilled with unarmed combat and some martial weapons and cast divine spells, and at higher levels would have class abilities suited for being a defender of holiness.

Anybody else have any character concepts they just can't get right in 3.5 but hope they can create in 4e?

 

[I'm A Banana]

There is a character concept I've had for a long time and wanted to play, I've never been able to create it well in 3.x, something akin to the Sohei of feudal Japan, temple guardians who were skilled with martial arts, weapons and were practicing priests. Essentially, I want a spellcasting monk with a better weapons selection, something at least similar to the 2e monk class from Spells & Magic and the Faiths & Avatars series.

There was a Sohei base class in OA. It worked kind of like a Paladin, but had a sort of Dex-based barbarian rage.

 

[jasin]

There is a character concept I've had for a long time and wanted to play, I've never been able to create it well in 3.x, something akin to the Sohei of feudal Japan, temple guardians who were skilled with martial arts, weapons and were practicing priests. Essentially, I want a spellcasting monk with a better weapons selection, something at least similar to the 2e monk class from Spells & Magic and the Faiths & Avatars series.

I don't know the 2E monk class, but what you describe doesn't seem that difficult to achieve in 3E. Mnk1/Clr19 isn't a bad choice, and there are feats in Eberron CS which let you use specific weapons as monk weapons, and there's no reason you couldn't make a single generic feat that works for any one weapon, so that you could take a polearm.

But it all depends on what abilities you see as integral to the concept, so I'll take your word for never being able to find the perfect match.

Anybody else have any character concepts they just can't get right in 3.5 but hope they can create in 4e?

Since 3E started, I've been looking off and on for ways to make a wuxia swordsman. An agile, unarmoured, mystical swordsman, like the folks from Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. A monk/fighter is should be a good fit, but the lack of synergy kind of sucks.

Book of Nine Swords is more or less there, but it'd be nice to have these options as a part of the core rules, rather than an additional subsystem, and one that constantly attracts suspicious glances at that.