Player's Handbook 2 had significantly less issues than Player's Handbook 1. The V-class structure was nowhere to be seen, and the Striker mechanics were different. But the defender in the book, the Warden, left a bit to desired, and the Barbarian was a bit lackluster...
Avenger
This is a nit picky change, but Avengers in my version get a free bonus Domain feat from Divine Power that matches one of their deity's domains. It's just a nice way to further customize the divine classes, and isn't strictly necessary. But it's fun. Oh, and Avengers us their Wisdom to make Melee Basic Attacks.Barbarian
Barbarians' defenses are... well, too low seems redundant, but it's true. Giving them higher HP doesn't help the fact that nearly every shot that gets thrown at them hits, and hard at that. There are two ideas that I have to help with that: up the Barbarian's AC and punish people for hitting the Barbarian.Presence of the Savage
If you're wearing light armor or no armor (cloth) you may use either your Constitution or Charisma modifier instead of Dexterity or Intelligence to AC.
Punisher
Whenever you are hit by a melee attack the attacker is dealt damage equal to either your Constitution or your Charisma modifier+3. At level 11 this damage becomes 6+Constitution or Charisma, at level 21 it becomes 9+Constitution or Charisma modifier damage. This rule has not been playtested. I'm pretty certain it'll work out pretty well, given that it's just the melee attacks and that'll make people dance away from the barbarian and, given that the Barbarian can get places pretty easily that means you give him another charge!
Horrific Charge
Whenever you charge you add either your Constitution, Dexterity, or Charisma modifier to your damage roll. This increases to mod+3 at 11th level, mod+6 at 21st level. You may also use any At-Will, Encounter, or Daily powers on a charge.
God, that looks terrifying. The barbarian is now a charging engine of destruction that'll mow down anything in his path. Again, this stuff isn't playtested, so please try it out and let me know what happens. I look forward to it!
Druid
Druids' only real problem lies in their inability to deal damage while in Beast form, so augment all their damage a step as done in the Player's Handbook 1.
Invoker
As a matter of fact, I think the Invoker's powers should be Charisma-based, not Wisdom-based. A mouthpiece of the gods that isn't Charisma-based? Riiiiiiight...
Warden
Wardens are so... there's so much potential there, and it's all in their marking powers, which are held back. They really shouldn't be Immediate reaction, because that means you can only use them once a round, which is very limiting. Move it to an Opportunity Action for both of them, and things will become more interesting on the battlefield. Promise.
These are the basic modifications I'd make to each of the classes. They make the classes more effective and flavorful, and give relevance to the tactical situations you'll run into in play.
Thought on the barbarian: it's a striker class, so why not (instead of dealing damage to attackers) give the class a damage-boosting ability like Hunter's Quarry instead? The more they get hit, the more they Hulk Up, and thus a barbarian who's hit hard will hit back harder. That makes more thematic sense to me than a tanky barbarian.
ReplyDeleteAlso: "A mouthpiece of the gods that isn't Charisma-based?"
Exodus 4:10, NYAH. "Moses said to the Lord, 'Pardon your servant, Lord. I have never been eloquent, neither in the past nor since you have spoken to your servant. I am slow of speech and tongue.'"
Actually, in all seriousness, this does point to something: there's a marked difference between the Invoker and the Paladin, which is borne out by their primary stat. They're both channels for their deity, but the paladin channels the raw might and presence of their deity. The invoker is the one who speaks with the authority of the deity, "invoking the name". Sounds Wisdom-y to me.
Anyhow, looks good!
Barbarian: I thought of that, but I thought about it for awhile, and decided to go with my option because it triggers on the barbarian being hit, NOT him taking damage, thus giving you the ability to knock out the opponent before he ever deals damage! That's a much deadlier thing, and keeps people actually afraid of the barbarian in close quarters as opposed to "if he hits me he'll do more damage. I'll just make sure to be out of his hair by then." I'd like it to be more concrete than a promise, I want it to be a "If I do this I'll be hit immediately." It just seems more threatening to me.
ReplyDeleteI agree to a certain extent, but the trouble is that most of the fluff of the Invoker doesn't follow that line of thought. Unlike the others, the Invoker has a shard of his god living inside of him. That sounds like a huge boost to personality to me, but I'll think it through more.
And thank you!
This probably just shows how bad a geek I am, but... would it make any sense in the mechanics of D&D (i.e. mechanics I've heard bits and pieces of, but don't truly know -- hence, this is a real question from me) to give the barbarian a "counterattack", i.e. an extra (I say extra in case some similar mechanic is available for characters by default based on some stat) opportunity to strike at the attacker immediately before or after the attacker's attempted strike? (Probably before, 'cause if I'm the Hulk and some midget runs up to me with a knife [you call that dinky little thing a sword?] of course I'm going to hit him first.) If the problem with upping the barbarian's general attack strength is that he still has to pull off an attack before it matters, I think the problem with giving an automatic, stat-based penalty to hitting the barbarian is that the potential attacker can simply calculate how much HP they'll lose if they attack the barbarian and decide whether it's worth it. A (boosted if similar mechanics already exist) counterattack opportunity would mean that there's greatly increased risk to engaging the barbarian in melee combat, without it being a simple computable penalty. That way some players actually make the mistake of getting themselves clobbered by the barbarian precisely because they know it could pay off or not, rather than simply doing some math ahead of time to determine whether it pays off. And of course, I have no idea if this is feasible because I'm thinking of battles as playing out with moves in order a la Final Fantasy, because, um, because I played Final Fantasy back before it was on the Playstation and, consequently, before it consisted mostly of Cloud and Cloud knockoffs angsting? Yeah.
DeleteHe does get an automatic "attack". I just made it an auto-hit.
ReplyDeleteI guess I'd have to try it to see if I think the standard auto "attack" needs buffing then; thanks for hearing me out. ;^)
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