Skip to main content

D&D Next Creative Ideas

"When you use your IMAGINAAAATION you can do anything!"
-Spongebob Squarepants

I have spent a lot of time reading and re-reading the DnDNext playtest packet (October 29) version.  Doing so, I've come up with a list of positive conclusions.  This doesn't specifically mean the game is perfect, but it is at a stage that I really enjoy.  I discussed what I liked about classes in the previous posts, but today I want to stretch out and talk about a little creativity that players might want to think about when playtesting.

Class-wise, I really don't see a need for a barbarian.  I feel like by training certain skills and taking certain manuevers, a Fighter would feel enough like a barbarian, just like how other builds would feel more knightly.  That being said, here are some ways I think the other classes could work.

Artificer - Buy lots of alchemical items, take the Healer feats that allow creating of healing potions, healer's kits and antitoxin.  I can see this build being a rogue, but focus more on skill use and trap building/disarming.

Barbarian - Fighter with powerful attacks/weapons.  Feats should reflect toughness and better hit points.

Bard - Probably a duelist fighter.  Jester/Performer backgrounds work well.  Be sure to buy a musical instrument.  The feats that allow you to cast wizard spells give the arcane feel to the class, but for people just wanting to play traveling bards/rogues, there is a definite way to convey this feel.

Crusader/Paladin - Either build a strong fighter cleric, or a Fighter will the Religious feats that grant you Cleric spells.

Ranger - Fighter build with Survivalist feats/background.  Benefits with nature-ish things help.

Class-wise, the only feelings that I can't really evoke is Druids.  Maybe building a Wizard a certain way with nature type backgrounds/skills.

---------

When the playtest was first announced, I really wondered about how all the other races would be presented.  So far, none of them have been.  I was initially somewhat upset about this, mostly because I waited for a really long time for the goblin to make their PC appearance in 4E.  I'm not sure how that will work in DnDNext, but at this point, it doesn't matter.  Re-flavoring things is key here.  Here's some race ideas and what I would use if players didn't want to play dwarf, elf, human or halfling in the playtest (just in order to be a different character).

Goliath/Half-Giant: play a Dwarf

Eladrin: High Elf (not sure if players realized this)

Satyr: Elf, with the Licensed Fool background feature

Goblin: Halfling

Kobold: Halfling

Half-Elf: Wood Elf

Drow: Elf (give them the Darkness spell for free)

Mul: Dwarf

---------

Re-flavoring monsters works easily too.  For example, if I want to playtest in the snow covered continent of Vellyn, I can simply re-skin orcs/gnolls to be yetis.  I wouldn't play with powers/modifiers, as the point of this playtest is to play, not tweak rules and complain about them.  However, describing things is completely up to you.

Sometimes, monsters can have slight alterations.  If I remove the fly speed from the pegasus, for example, I get a unicorn.  Pretty neat, huh?  I would also search through old monster manuals to see what kind of creatures fall under "Griffon" and other creatures.  That way, you could use a hippogrif as well as a griffon.  An Aranea without the shapeshifter power could easily be a thri-kreen.

In conclusion, the playtest packet allows a lot more creativity that can necessarily be seen at first glance.  Continue to play, continue to provide feedback, and we'll eventually get that final version we've all been eagerly looking forward to.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Gen Con 2012 (or There and Back Again)

"Well I'm back." - Samwise, The Return of the King I spent this last weekend at Gen Con, and, due to traveling, did not get a chance to update Artificer's Intuition.  My apologies.  I hope that everybody enjoys had a good weekend without an update from me. :) The Wizards of the Coast booth in the central showroom had a lot of awesome things.  I got my drow dice bag and was able to get my d4 just from getting my picture taken with Lolth, the Demon Queen of Spiders.  I think she looks scarier here then on the cover of the Monster Manual 3 (no offense to the artist). Me, in shocked surprise.  Note the hobbit-like backpack I'm wearing.  There was also a really cool statue of Drizzt Do'Urden and Guenhwyvar. The worst thing for me was that soon after my near-death encounter with Lolth, I spied a drow wizard receiving the blessings of the spider goddess for himself.  I needed to watch my back. I spent the next couple of hours on Satu

Revisiting 4th Edition - Fortune Cards

An interesting mechanic that caught my eye as I returned to 4e was that of Fortune Cards. As I previously stated in an earlier post, one of the stores by my house still had a few packs of Fury of the Feywild. Those that have read this blog or read my tweets know that I am huge fan of the Feywild and the fey creatures that inhabit that realm, so when I was perusing 4e things from the past, picking up packs of cards with 'Feywild' in the set name was a no-brainer.                                                                                                                        As I tweeted while writing this post, it's amazing to me that despite the Fortune Cards arriving on scene circa 2011, there is very little record of them online. It's difficult to find images of many of the cards, even when googling their specific names! I find that to be quite shocking, especially since I can find card lists and images for the Star Wars CCG and Lord of the Rings TCG, both of

Revisiting the Trinket Lord

As I’ve gone back to dive into the options that are 4e D&D, I took another hard look at something near and dear to my heart: my 4e published article, The Trinket Lord. Published in Dungeon 205 (August 2012), it was another article in the Court of Stars series about the Archfey. With GenCon 2017 occurring right now, I figured it's a good time to talk about such things again.  I had always found the Court of Stars articles extremely intriguing and full of adventure hooks, but when I pitched this article, only two existed, The Prince of Frost (Dragon 374) and the Bramble Queen (Dungeon 185). The Trinket Lord was originally pitched back in April 2012, when WotC accepted article submissions for their Dragon and Dungeon magazines. My contact for the entire process was Greg Bilsland (which was a major “whoa!” moment for me). I consider my relatively short interactions with Greg to have been extremely insightful, as he gave me a good mix of compliments and critiques and helped me