Revisiting 4th Edition - Character Choices Revisited

In the first installment of my 4e plans, I discussed the book options I was going to give my players, along with my first pass of supplemental content. I received some feedback, which I wanted to address as I continue this creative exercise.

One of the comments brought up was about using the Neverwinter Campaign Guide for other themes, only reflavoring them for whatever purpose I wanted to for a Points of Light setting. I was glad to get that feedback, as I had considered Neverwinter (it sits proudly on my bookcase as a source of inspiration), but didn’t open it at all due to thinking the content was too Realms-specific. There are some really solid theme choices, such as the Bre’gan Daer’the Spy, which allows drow the use of choosing a utility power to gain their famous levitation (although this was also stated to be an option for the drow racial utility powers).

Taking all the themes in the book, here’s how I’m re-flavoring them to something Nentir Vale appropriate. Others are still up in the air.

Neverwinter Noble --> Heir of Nerath

Oghma's Faithful --> Seeker of Knowledge

Harper Agent --> ??

Dead Rat Deserter --> Dead Rat Deserter

Iliyanburuen Guardian --> Guardian of Ce

Uthgardt Barbarian --> Tigerclaw Barbarian

Pack Outcast --> Pack Outcast

Heir of Delzoun --> Dwarven Heir

Renegade Red Wizard --> Fugitive Necromancer

Scion of Shadow --> Scion of Shadow

Devil's Pawn --> Devil's Pawn

Spellscarred Harbinger --> Chaos Touched

Bregan D'aerthe Spy ---> Drow Infiltrator

My good friend P@ caught my passive aggressive reference to him and decided to call me out (as good friends often do). So, I am adding the shifter to the campaign options, per his request. I’m also adding a few others, despite there being no racial utilities for them to use.

Gnome (PHB2)

Goliath (PHB2)

Shadar-kai (Playing Shadar-kai, Dragon 372)

Shifter (PHB2)

Warforged (Eberron Player’s Guide)

Despite these races not having their own racial utility powers, I decided I wanted to allow them as options. Gnomes are in so many fey books and supplements, it would just feel strange not to include them. Heroes of the Feywild even has gnome feats! As for goliaths, I think they have a lot of cool things going for them too. When I think of goliaths, I always think of Kai Nuq Sin, Kevin Shinick’s character from the Robot Chicken D&D series. Lastly, the warforged has tons of a cool miniatures to be used as PC's, and I think they would have a really cool place in a Nentir Vale campaign. Robot Chicken also gave us the loveable Ranrock, played by Zeb Wells ("He ran, and then he rocked").

At this point, I’m sure there are readers saying “why not just allow everything?”. While I understand the question, I feel like putting down a list of options helps keep me focused as a DM and writing hooks and bringing players into the world. Are there a ton of races? Yes indeed, but they are also many of the common ones associated with D&D. You don’t see me including Shardminds, Githzerai, Mul and Thri-kreen (although, to be honest, I really thought about throwing the thri-kreen into the mix as well). In fact, with the list I’ve included, I feel like there’s a good way to separate the options into the planar themes I’ve embraced with the Essentials books. I also think that 4e had a huge wealth of content (the amount of monthly articles they put out was staggering), and that people should go back and dive into the things that interests them in particular. I might have way more options than I need, but at the same time, I feel like I'm crafting the 4e experience that I want to DM.

Another set of optional rules that I want to make part of my game would be Skill Powers. First found in PHB3, Skill Powers are utility powers that can only be taken if a character has training in the specific skill they are associated with. Using these would allow another level of customization with utility powers, as (most) characters can now choose a class, race, or skill power, further giving them a new option of customization. Into the Unknown had additional skill powers as well, so there's lots of ideas to play around with for the characters, which is something I know certain players can appreciate. Others can just focus on class powers and abilities, but have the option to build and craft a unique character experience is something that appeals to me greatly.

My favorite of these racial/skill utility powers are the at-will ones, since having additional at-will actions is just exciting to me, and there’s less worry about burning a daily. I know most people tend to want to use all encounter powers first, simply because they believe they can just take a short rest and reclaim them. This is probably another topic for the column about my thoughts on adventure design and how I plan to make use of these abilities. In fact, I've already started pulling DM content that I want to have when I brew these adventures.

I also want to play with two different tools introduced in 4e. They both arrived post-Essentials, so I didn’t get the opportunity to use them much. The first is the Despair Deck from The Shadowfell: Gloomwrought and Beyond, and I want to use it for connections to the Shadowfell, Abyss, and anything that could fall under the lines of horror.

The Despair Deck has cards centered around a three themes: apathy, fear, and madness. In some situations, I can use all the cards in the deck. For others, I can elect to have the characters draw from a certain subtype. For example, if the characters are fighting Far Realm horrors, I might elect to have them draw from the madness deck, while being trapped in a cathedral being attacked by a zombie horde could be fear.

The second addition to the game involves something that helps the players more, but since I’m on the side of the players, I want to throw it in to shake things up a bit. I’m talking about Fortune Cards.

At the start of each encounter, the Fortune Cards are shuffled, and each player draws one card. They can play one card a turn, and at the start of their turn they can discard their card to draw a new one. This creates a few different combat options for everybody, and some of the cards can be flavorful too (for example, having Cold Iron when fighting fey). My FLGS has packs of Fury of the Feywild, but if I want to expand my collection some more, I might have to start looking online. I’m not too worried though. I also have a large amount of promo fortune cards from one of the Lair Assaults I purchased. It’s called Covered Retreat (not pictured), and I believe it’s from Temple of the Sky God.

Adding Fortune Cards to the game has also made me add this theme to the mix. Perhaps a player will take it to maximize the campaign rules.

Character Theme: Fatedancer, Dragon 401

With that being said, I think this is where I will end for the time being. Let me know what you think, as this is a project that is continually changing and getting revised.