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#Post#: 13072--------------------------------------------------
Classes to Choose From
By: Karahl Date: May 8, 2014, 6:00 am
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4th Edition Classes to Choose From:
Ardent
The ardent is a Psionic Leader from the Player's Handbook 3. The
ardent's psionic powers revolve predominantly around the themes
of empathy and telepathy, allowing them to manipulate the
emotions and minds of their enemies and their allies in battle.
The Empath: The predominant motif of the ardent is
manipulating emotions. Enemies are hindered by plaguing them
with guilt, fear, doubt and rage; allies are bolstered with
courage, confidence, hope and joy.
More than Mind Control: Ardents have some telepathic skills
as well, but predominantly they use emotional manipulation to
attack their foes.
Psychic Powers: The source of their combat effectiveness.
Your Mind Makes It Real: Half of an ardent's attacks are
rooted in the target's own mind. The other half is typically
rooted in the great big weapon the ardent is hitting them with.
Artificer
The artificer is an Arcane Leader from the Eberron Player's
Guide. These mages specialise in "imbuing" temporary
enchantments into physical objects or other people. Even spells
that don't directly enhance armor or weapons still use a
physical object as the source for a spell to, for example,
create a burst of electrical energy.
Science Hero: In a way.
Sufficiently Analyzed Magic
Assassin
The assassin is a Shadow Striker from Dragon Magazine. They are
similar to the Assassins of 3.5 in that they are differentiated
from regular Rogues by having access to magical powers; 4e
Assassins use shadow magic to enhance their stealth and to
attack their foes.
Casting a Shadow: The reason why they are a "Shadow" class
is because they can literally control darkness to attack their
enemies or aid themselves.
The Dark Arts: What shadow magic is.
Instant Awesome, Just Add Ninja
Master Poisoner: The Assassin gets some powers based on
using poison; the Executioner "sub-class" for Essentials relies
upon using different kinds of poison for its attacks.
Executioner (Assassin)
The executioner is a Martial and Shadow Striker sub-class of the
assassin from Dragon magazine and Heroes of Shadow. It differs
from the standard assassin by not having attack powers (except
for certain weapons), instead using only basic attacks modified
by powers and poisons.
Instant Awesome, Just Add Ninja: The Way of the Ninja guild.
Avenger
The avenger is a Divine Striker from the Player's Handbook 2.
Avengers are described as being practicioners of strange,
cult-like variants of mainstream religions, giving them access
to divine powers that regular Clerics don't possess. They often
serve as assassins, executioners or special agents for their
faith — and not always with the blessing of their patron god's
mainstream church.
Badass Preacher
BFS: As strikers, avengers prefer to wield double-handed
weapons for maximum damage. Swords are favored, but hammers,
axes and various big hurty things also get their look in,
depending on an avenger's personal faith.
Church Militant
Holy Hand Grenade: The avenger's role is to be a living one
of these, using the most offensive array of divine powers to
slay the enemies of their church.
The Hunter: The role of the avenger is typically to hunt
down and destroy enemies of the faith, while the cleric's is to
heal and lead the faithful and the paladin's is to defend the
faithful.
Religious Bruiser (If not a Church Militant)
Warrior Monk
Barbarian
The barbarian is a Primal Striker from the Player's Handbook 2.
Savage, brutal warriors from the wilderness, barbarians eschew
armor in favor of endurance and agility, calling upon the primal
spirits of their tribe to possess their bodies and imbue them
with supernatural powers in the form of "rages".
Animal Battle Aura: A common effect, as their big powers
revolve around letting spirits, including animal totems, possess
them.
Barbarian Hero
The Berserker: Made more fantastical by having their berserk
rages A: stem from spirit possession, and B: grant them magical
powers, like being surrounded by burning flames.
Dual Wielding: The "Twinclaw" path for the barbarian focuses
on wielding two weapons at once.
Magma Man: The "Stonefire Rager" paragon path.
Make Me Wanna Shout: Thunder-spirits provide a number of
magical warcry-based powers; there's a dedicated character path
to using these battle-cries called the Thunderborn.
Nature Hero: By way of drawing magical powers from the
spirits of nature.
Throwing Your Sword Always Works (They have a feat that lets
them do this)
Unstoppable Rage
Beserker (Barbarian)
A Martial/Primal Defender/Striker introduced in Heroes of the
Feywild.
The Berserker: Well, duh.
The Mario: A reasonably good Defender, and a pretty decent
Striker.
Turns Red: When bloodied, the go into an...
Unstoppable Rage
Bard
The bard is an Arcane Leader from the Player's Handbook 2. Bards
use the inherent magic of stories, songs, music and dance to
achieve a wide variety of effects. They specialise in
demoralising their foes and bolstering their allies.
The Bard
Jack of All Stats
Magic Music
Make Me Wanna Shout
Musical Assassin
Music for Courage
The Power of Rock
Wandering Minstrel
Skald (Bard)
The skald is an Arcane and Martial Leader sub-class of the bard
from Heroes of the Feywild.
Battlemind
The battlemind is a Psionic Defender from the Player's Handbook
3. These psionic characters channel raw psychic energy through
their bodies, weapons and armor to achieve spectacular feats of
martial skill; the flashiest psionic powers allow them to
transform their very bodies.
Chrome Champion
Fan Nickname: Parts of the community not too impressed with
the class's heavy focus on physical melee combat and
nonindicative name were quick to coin the term "fightbrain".
Flash Step: The signature technique of the Harrier path for
battleminds, and they have a number of generalist powers that
allow this to be pulled off.
Maybe Magic, Maybe Mundane: It's noted in the Psionic Power
splat that many battleminds actually don't realise their powers
are magical in nature until and unless someone more
knowledgeable points it out, instead chalking their spectacular
feats up to "luck" and "skill".
Made of Iron: And more literally than other examples.
Psychic Powers
Super Reflexes
Cleric
The cleric is a Divine Leader from the Player's Handbook.
Ceremonially invested with a connection to the Astral Sea,
clerics draw upon divine powers to aid their allies and impair
their enemies.
Combat Medic: The best class in the game at healing, but
also heavily armored and quite adept at cracking skulls in his
own right.
Frickin' Laser Beams: A cleric who chooses mostly ranged,
radiant damage prayers is known as a "laser cleric", because he
or she basically runs around throwing beams of energy to hurt
his enemies.
Healing Hands
Holy Hand Grenade
Technical Pacifist: With the Pacifist Cleric feat, a cleric
who damages a bloodied enemy becomes stunned. Using a
non-damaging power that lowers defenses or creates vulnerability
is fine.
Turn Undead
Warrior Monk
Warpriest (Cleric)
The warpriest is a Divine Leader sub-class of the cleric from
Heroes of the Fallen Lands. It differs from the standard cleric
by having specific domains as class features (and not having
Turn Undead).
Druid
The druid is a Primal Controller from the Player's Handbook 2.
Druids communicate with the primal spirits of plants and
animals, and have a deep personal connection to a greater spirit
known as the Primal Beast, which allows them to assume all
manner of bestial or monstrous forms. Some druids even master
the art of assuming the forms of swarms of creatures.
Bee Bee Gun
Nature Hero
Summon Magic: Some druids can summon animal spirits to fight
at their sides.
Voluntary Shapeshifting: The class feature of the druid,
with one path (the "Swarm Druid") differentiated because of his
ability to become a swarm of creatures.
Sentinel (Druid)
The sentinel is a Primal Leader sub-class of the druid from
Heroes of the Forgotten Kingdoms. It differs from the standard
druid by being a melee weapon-user, and having an animal
companion based on a season chosen as a class feature.
The Beastmaster
Bond Creature
Protector (Druid)
A Primal Controller reminiscent of the Wizard. Introduced in
Heroes of the Feywild.
Fighter
The fighter is a Martial Defender from the Player's Handbook.
Specialising in all kinds of armor and weapons, fighter paths
mostly differ depending on what array of equipment they prefer;
Badass Normal: Fighters explicitly have no magic
whatsoever... and can stand up and kick ass just as much as any
magic-user ever could.
The Berserker: The Battlerager Fighter Build, from Martial
Power
Charles Atlas Superpower: Though their powers are explicitly
not magical in nature at all, fighters can still pull off
superhuman feats by virtue of "training hard".
Combat Pragmatist: The Brawler Fighter Build, from Martial
Power 2
Dual Wielding: The Tempest Fighter Build, from Martial Power
Luckily My Shield Will Protect Me: The Guardian Fighter
Build, from the Player's Handbook
Made of Iron
Weapon of Choice: To the extent that fighter powers, feats
and paths/builds are differentiated based on what kind of weapon
they prefer.
Knight (Fighter)
The knight is a Martial Defender sub-class of the fighter from
Heroes of the Fallen Lands. It differs from the standard fighter
by not having attack powers, instead using only basic attacks
modified by stances and powers.
Knight in Shining Armor
Simple Staff
Slayer (Fighter)
The knight is a Martial Striker sub-class of the fighter from
Heroes of the Fallen Lands. It differs from the standard fighter
by not having attack powers, instead using only basic attacks
modified by stances and powers (and being primarily a Striker
instead of a Defender).
Bow and Sword in Accord: Due to the slayer's use of basic
attacks and high Dexterity, they can do this better than other
fighters.
Simple Staff
Invoker
The invoker is a Divine Controller from the Player's Handbook 2.
Possessing a direct connection to astral power and the gods by
nature instead of by investiture, with example reasons including
being chosen by a god or having divine lineage, invokers are
often at odds with the other Divine classes and especially
established churchs, who view them as dangerous outsiders and
potential heretics as often as they view them as messiahs and
chosen ones.
Bolt of Divine Retribution: Several powers have you calling
these down on your opponents.
Divine Intervention
The Heretic: May be viewed as one for eschewing the church
for a more direct connection to the deity.
Mission from God: And not the church, which is what
separates Invokers from Clerics and Avengers.
Summon Magic: The only Divine class which has access to
these powers.
Monk
The monk is a Psionic Striker from the Player's Handbook 3.
Monks channel their psychic powers through their bodies through
combat training, learning to turn their bodies into psychically
imbued weapons and perform superhuman feats. As they gain in
skill, they also learn to expel that energy for more explicitly
supernatural powers, such as hurling blasts of energy.
Bare-Fisted Monk
Carry a Big Stick
Fragile Speedster: Monks aren't good at wearing armor and
they have low health, but they are amongst the most mobile
classes.
In a Single Bound: The monk has a lot of techniques that
include leaping ridiculous distances.
Invulnerable Knuckles: A monk's path feature is that their
unarmed hands are valid weapons. This means a monk can punch to
death things like living statues of solid metal without breaking
their hands.
Ki Blasts: The monk's various projectile attacks
Kung-Fu Sonic Boom
Psychic Powers: The source behind their "ki powers".
Simple Staff
Supernatural Martial Arts: Justified by the fact that
they're psionic.
Walk on Water
Warrior Monk: While the monk is not necessarily religious,
Religion is a monk class skill, and training in it is a
prerequisite for the Radiant Fist paragon path, which is
particularly Divine.
What Could Have Been: The monk was originally supposed to be
a "Ki power source" class, but the developers were unable to
justify it as anything other than "Psionics with an Asian name",
so they simply folded it into the Psionics power source.
Paladin
The paladin is a Divine Defender from the Player's Handbook.
Divorced from their traditional restraints of Character
Alignment must always be Lawful Good, 4e Paladins are the
armored defenders of the faiths... All faiths. Meaning that
paladins of gods like Melora, Asmodeus and Gruumsh are all
perfectly valid in 4th edition.
Character Alignment: No longer required to be Lawful Good in
and of itself, now a paladin has to be of the same alignment as
his/her deity.
Combat Medic
Cool Horse
Healing Hands
Holy Hand Grenade
Knight in Shining Armor
Magic Knight
Warrior Monk
Blackguard (Paladin)
The blackguard is a Divine (with some Shadow) Striker sub-class
of the paladin from Heroes of Shadow. It is more similar to the
cavalier, but chooses a vice instead of a virtue.
Dark Is Not Evil: It is actually possible to play a Good or
Lawful Good Blackguard. Not very easily because your vice will
often put you at odds with your alignment, but possible.
Probably play up the zealousness aspect.
Actually, the way the rules are written, you can't.
Evil Counterpart
Cavalier (Paladin)
The cavalier is a Divine Defender sub-class of the paladin from
Heroes of the Forgotten Kingdoms. It differs from the standard
paladin by having specific virtues as class features.
#Post#: 13073--------------------------------------------------
Re: Classes to Choose From
By: Karahl Date: May 8, 2014, 6:00 am
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Psion
The psion is a Psionic Controller from the Player's Handbook 3.
The "purest" psyker, psions use telepathic and telekinetic
powers to attack multiple foes at once. Some psions are actually
capable of manifesting their thoughts as reality, becoming what
are called "Shaper" build psions.
Crystal Ball: One of the Implements they can use.
Mind Control: The Telepathic build, of course.
Mind over Matter: Telekinetic Build.
Psychic Powers
Simple Staff: One of the Implements they can use.
Squishy Wizard: Like the traditional Wizard, they have lousy
armor and health, but dramatically supernatural powers.
Summon Magic: The Shaper build functions like this, in that
it creates objects and creatures from the psion's thoughts to do
the psion's will.
Telepathy: Telepathic Build.
Ranger
The ranger is a Martial Striker from the Player's Handbook. A
lightly armored warrior, the ranger focuses on offense and
manueverability to defeat its foes. Some go to battle alongside
a bestial battle companion, some are master archers, some favor
melee and ranged combat equally, others wield two weapons.
Badass Normal
The Beastmaster: The Beastmaster Build from Martial Power.
Possible beasts they can fight alongside include giant spiders,
giant snakes, wolves/hunting dogs, big cats, bears and hawks.
Bow and Sword in Accord: The Hunter Build from Martial Power
2
Dual Wielding: Two-Blade Build.
Forest Ranger
The Hunter
Nature Hero
Hunter (Ranger)
The hunter is a Martial and Primal Controller sub-class of the
ranger from Heroes of the Forgotten Kingdoms. It differs from
the standard ranger by not having attack powers, instead using
only basic attacks modified by powers.
Scout (Ranger)
The scout is a Martial and Primal Striker sub-class of the
ranger from Heroes of the Forgotten Kingdoms. It differs from
the standard ranger by not having attack powers, instead using
only basic attacks modified by powers.
Rogue
The rogue is also a Martial Striker from the Player's Handbook.
They rely on surprise attacks and agility to avoid damage while
dishing it out, and excel at crippling their foes to impair
their ability to fight on.
Back Stab
Badass Normal
Combat Pragmatist
Disc One Nuke: Base weapon damage is ~1d6+6 (assuming Dex of
18 and short sword). Ambush/Tactical trick grants combat
advantage in most situations allowing sneak attack (3d6+6). If
you take Surprising Charge feat, +1d6. This alone bloodies a
single target making it easy for cleanup - or on a critical hit,
either does a One-Hit Kill or brings down to a sliver of health.
You may even throw in backstab for a better chance to hit and
additional damage. While highly damaging in normal play,
experienced GMs can counter this tactic by using minions.
Instant Awesome, Just Add Ninja: Stealthy warriors that get
automatic proficiency with shuriken.
Knife Nut
Loveable Rogue
Master of Unlocking
Master Poisoner: The Master Of Poisons paragon path.
Thief (Rogue)
The thief is a Martial Striker sub-class of the rogue from
Heroes of the Fallen Lands. It differs from the standard rogue
by not having attack powers, instead using only basic attacks
modified by tricks and powers.
Runepriest
The runepriest is a Divine Leader from the Player's Handbook 3.
They use ancient runic sigil patterns, remants from the creation
of the world, to call upon the powers of the gods and manifest
spectacular effects.
Drop the Hammer: "Wrathful Hammer" runepriests gain
proficiency in military hammers and maces.
Heroes Prefer Swords: The "Serene Blade" build.
Instant Runes: The basic nature of their class; they sketch
a rune on an item or in the air, and the rune instantly
manifests as their power brings it into being.
Status Buff
Seeker
The seeker is a Primal Controller from the Player's Handbook 3.
Empowered by the primal spirits to seek out and slay the enemies
of the world, the seeker's weapons are conduits to the spirit
world, making them a shout-out to the spellcasting abilities of
Rangers in editions past.
Nature Hero
Trick Arrow: Any projectile or throwing weapon used by a
seeker can channel a spirit in it, allowing it to perform all
manner of strange effects. These include turning blood into
acidic slime, making barbed vines sprout from the victim's body,
and dissolving in mid-flight into a ravenous swarm of
flesh-eating locusts that start gnawing their way into the
target.
Shaman
The shaman is a Primal Leader from the Player's Handbook 2.
Blessed with the truest connection to the spirit world, shamans
are intermediaries between mortals and the spirits. Accompanied
by a powerful totem spirit ally, shamans call upon the spirits
to empower their allies.
Bond Creature: The "spirit companion" class feature is the
center of a shaman's offensive skills and many spells.
Nature Hero
Sorcerer
The sorcerer is an Arcane Striker from the Player's Handbook 2.
Possessing an innate affinity for raw, wild magic, sorcerers
unleash devastating surges of arcane power. Sorcerers are
defined by the type of magic that resonates with their soul;
dragons, chaos, storms and cosmic energy.
Breath Weapon: Many Dragon Magic powers are described as
these.
Glass Cannon
In the Blood: One possible reason for a sorcerer's powers.
Knife Nut: Can cast spells through daggers.
Simple Staff
Squishy Wizard
Swordmage
The swordmage is an Arcane Defender from the Forgotten Realms
Player's Guide. Lightly armored, if at all, swordmages combine
martial training with any sort of light blade or heavy blade
weapon with arcane magic, channelling spells through their
swords to create a wide variety of offensive techniques.
Fire, Ice, Lightning: They have other powers as well, but
these are their main go-to elements for damaging opponents.
Genius Bruiser: They require a high Intelligence stat to
function, like most Arcane characters, but their combat role is
based on mixing it up in the melee.
Magic Knight: Perhaps one of the purest examples of a "Gish"
class to be made for D&D.
Squishy Wizard: Averted, at least in theory. They may be
weaker than other Defenders, but they have the highest armor and
health of the Arcane classes and their "Aegis" literally shields
them from harm by boosting their Armor Class.
Teleport Spam: Not quite so adept at it as the Battlemind,
but Swordmages get a lot of teleporting moves.
Weapon of Choice: Go on, guess.
Though, because their class is keyed off of using "Light
Blade" class weapons and "Heavy Blade" class weapons, it's just
as viable for a swordmage to be wielding a scythe, glaive or
khopesh as it is for them to carry a dagger or sword.
Warden
The warden is a Primal Defender from the Player's Handbook 2.
Charged with defending the natural world from all who would
despoil it, wardens allow primal spirits to use their bodies as
a conduits to the physical world, allowing them to command
nature around themselves or to shapeshift into inhuman,
spirit-bestowed forms to do battle with.
Combat Tentacles
Gais Vengeance: Their class fluff actually explains they
have been empowered by the Primal Spirits to defend nature.
Luckily My Shield Will Protect Me
Made of Iron
Nature Hero
Warlock
The warlock is an Arcane Striker from the Player's Handbook.
Forging bonds, voluntarily or otherwise, with all manner of
strange and eerie entities, warlocks wield Black Magic as the
most offense-orientated of the Arcane classes.
The Dark Arts
Dark Is Not Evil: Spelled out in the handbook.
Deal with the Devil: Literally, with the Infernal pact.
Other choices include the Fey pact, Star pact, Dark pact (made
with assorted shadowy entities) and Sorcerer-King pact.
Lovecraftian Superpower: The other motif behind the Star
pact.
Magic Wand
Star Power: Star Pact warlocks, who gain their powers by
making a pact with an Eldritch Abomination that lives among the
stars.
Hexblade (Warlock)
The hexblade is an Arcane Striker sub-class of the warlock from
Heroes of the Forgotten Kingdoms. It differs from the standard
warlock by having a melee weapon granted by its eldritch pact,
making it similar to Elric of Melniboné.
Evil Weapon: According to one of the pacts.
Infernal Pact gets the Blade of Annihlation, a BFS
Star Pact gets the Starshadow Blade, a reskinned Bastard
Sword.
Gloom Pact Whips it good with the Scourge of Exquisite
Agony.
Fey Pact gets two: Either the [[BFS Sword of the White
Well]] or the Blade of Winter's Mourning AKA the best weapon in
the game.
Magic Knight
Summon Magic
Binder (Warlock)
The Binder is an Arcane and Shadow Controller Warlock subclass
from Heroes of Shadow. It differs from normal Warlocks by being
geared towards controlling the battle rather than dealing
massive amounts of damage.
An Ice Person: At-will power slows opponents with cold.
Summon Magic
Warlord
The warlord is a Martial Leader from the Player's Handbook.
Badass Normal
Boring Yet Practical: A Warlord is a sub-par fighter and a
sub-par healer, but grants immense tactical advantages to the
rest of the party - bonuses to initiative, extra moves, extra
attacks. Great for the strongly teamwork-oriented player, but a
poor choice for those who yearn to be The Hero. The saying is:
"A barbarian hits you with his axe; a warlord hits you with his
barbarian."
The Captain
Drill Sergeant Nasty
Genius Bruiser
Maybe Magic, Maybe Mundane: Somehow, without any knowledge
of spells, a warlord can make his teammates move faster, attack
more often, hit harder, and otherwise act exactly as if certain
powerful magical enhancements had been applied to them.
The Strategist
Wizard
The wizard is an Arcane Controller from the Player's Handbook.
Crystal Ball: Orb of Imposition Features.
Glass Cannon
Magic Wand: Wand of Accuracy Features.
Not That Kind of Mage
Simple Staff: Staff of Defense Features.
The Smart Guy
Spell Book: Spellbook Features.
Squishy Wizard
Summon Magic
Mage (Wizard)
The mage is an Arcane Controller sub-class of the wizard from
Heroes of the Fallen Lands. It differs from the standard wizard
by having schools of magic as class features.
Casting a Shadow: The Nethermancer school from Heroes of
Shadow.
Necromancer: The other school from Heroes of Shadow.
Playing with Fire: The Pyromancy School.
Witch (Wizard)
The witch is an Arcane Controller sub-class of the wizard from
Heroes of the Feywild.
Vampire
Vampires. Obviously. A Shadow Striker class from Heroes Of
Shadow.
Bare-Fisted Monk: Vampires are geared towards melee combat,
and have literally no need to use weapons, as one at-will power
(which doubles as a basic attack) does 1d10 damage at first
level; this puts their basic damage on par with a fighter using
a greatsword.
Blood Magic: The powers that cost them healing surges are
flavoured as such.
Cast from Hit Points: Many of their powers become stronger
if you sacrifice a healing surge.
Dark Is Not Evil
Healing Factor: The only class that heals itself
automatically. This means that anything that doesn't instantly
kill them will just make them angry.
Lethal Joke Character: Very weak in combat, dealing lower
damage than even the Assassin. Also, Made of Iron.
Our Vampires Are Different: Close-combat experts that
develop magical powers which put the original Dracula to shame.
Voluntary Shapeshifting: Into a bat.
Weakened by the Light
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