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I know that not all options will be available from the start, but at least reflavoring can take are if the basic options. I am wondering if there are any characters you think D&D next will flat out not be able to recreate. I have three.

1) a sorceror barbarian hybrid. He is a red dragon cursed to live in human form. He attacks primarily with blasts of fire and uses his claws in a pinch.

2) a storm genasi battle mind reflavoured to use lighting instead of psychic damage for mind spike. Using conductive defense he strikes his foes with an electric blade.

3) a pixie executioner with the ghost sound power at will. An encounter utility power lets him summon a realistic shadow image combined with the ghost sound power allows him to pass as human when needed. 

Anyone else have memorable characters that they are worried might be impossible to recreate with next?

Nah, 4e. Can't do them in 3e sadly. That is why I am worried. They are going back in many design respects. If they go too far back then some things will become impossible to recreate.

In general terms, 4e is much more restrictive in player options than previous editions (try creating a Sea Giant PC in 4e, or a Pooka or any of a number of BECMI races, or any type of armored wizard).

On the other hand, the problem you have with your first character is that 3e multiclassing is broken -- it's not that you can't have a Human Barbarian/Sorcerer (you can), it's that a you can't take more than 4 levels of Barbarian without prejudicing your spellcasting power. However, there are certainly prestige classes that provide a draconic theme (dragonhearth mage, for example), and there may be other classes that allow to better model the character concept.
That said, there's no reason why you shouldn't be able to create that character in 5e: you'll have the Sorcerer and the Barbarian, as well as (hopefully debugged) multiclassing.

For the other two characters, the specific powers may or may not be available, though the first is already reflavored in 4e, so you could do the same in 3e: you have genasi, and you don't need a Battlemind, since you've effectively reflavored it to something else. You could use any gish class -- Duskblade, Psychic Warrior, even Paladin (reflavor "smite evil" to an electric strike). Same for a Pixie Assassin -- you'd just have to take a few levels of an arcane class that allows you to cast appropriate Illusion spells (Bard or Sorcerer).

Moreover, in 5e Themes will have a much wider impact, so certain minor capabilities (like ghost sound) may be available even if the primary character class doesn't have it without multiclassing.

In conclusion, (1) your characters could be done even in 3e and (2) while 5e is going back to a more traditional treatment of several elements of the game, it doesn't mean you'll not be able to have at-will minor powers, multiclassing, or reflavoring...

Apr 20, 2012 -- 5:11AM, TheMormegil wrote:

In general I think 4E allows a far wider amount of characters - and right from the start to boot - than the previous 3e. The only thing you can't reliably achieve is a Large or larger PC. I have yet to see a character concept, barring the above mentioned Large or larger creatures, that you can't reliably obtain in 4E.

Not only. You can't have flying races (only "hovering" races like the Pixie). You can't have water-breathing races.  You can't have shapechanging races (only "cosmetic" shapechange).

Characters like the Pooka, Gremlin or Nagpa cannot be replicated. Character classes like the Vancian, or the Channeler Wizard cannot be replicated. Specialist priests cannot be replicated.

Combine this with the extensive imbalance of previous editions effectively negating an amazing number of options as gimping, and I feel safe in saying that 4E has been the edition where the most number of character concepts were successfully supported ever. Of course, this involves reflavoring, which is one of 4E's main features.

4e has the same imbalances: try a Fighter|Wizard and tell me if it is as effective as the Sorcerer|Barbarian (it is not). Reflavoring is beyond the rules, so it is not a "feature" of 4e: read "Color of Magic" from Dragon Magazine 200. At most, it is a preference of 4e players.

G.

I did try recreating these in 3.5. It flat out doesn't work.

Without at will flame spells he would have to rely on melee to much. He can't have an unarmed strike as powerful as my sorcerers claws. The spell slots and spells available don't match the theme at all. No flame spiral, dragon flame mantle, dragon breath, etc. not to mention the AC would be terrible in 3e and he would suck at both jobs if he went a few levels barb a few sorcerer.

The storm soul doesn't work either sadly. At paragon
I took shocking flame and lyrandar wind rider. Every melee attack I made did lightning damage. I even had a few weather control spells and rituals.

Recreating a character is done so you can transition from one edition to the next. Especially if the character has a lot of history and is great to roll play.