Community

And now, in immaculately cheesy television host fashion, let's go to Ironblue with the weather!

Thanks Dark! Check out this forecast for the upcoming paragraphs... We've got some widespread Gloom accumulating here, and we're even getting small pockets of... you guessed it... Dark Matter developing along this warm front, with highs approaching absolute Dimness!

Take care around these example powers, ladies and gentlemen. There is a high chance of Debilitation continuing well into this post.

Now that I can't possibly go any lower, I'd like to recognize the effusive and totally egregious praise from Dark080Matter. I swear, he did all the actual work. I'm just a yes man. :D

Without further ado, or any possible kind of ado for that matter,

The Shadow Power Source:

Thematically, it is going to comprise classes whose “magical” Powers draw their form/essence from the Shadowfell. Granted, we have already been told that it’s a false parallel to try to link a Power Source directly to a Plane, but the Shadow power source somehow appears to work better than others with this. Still, leaving that aside our best guess is that the Shadow power source will include concepts like Illusions (based on what we’ve heard Shadow is getting this), Shadow Evocation or Conjuration (drawing forth Shadow energy and sculpting it to match an intended effect) Necromancy and Necrotic energy of all types (blades wrapped in Death energy for example), and Dimensional abilities (teleporting through the Shadowfell, cloaking themselves in Shadow, etc.)

But regardless of what classes end up filling the “Roles” for the Shadow power source, what thematic and flavorful link might all these classes have mechanically? While it may be a poor judgement of just how the Shadow power source is treated in 4e, we decided that the Tome of Magic’s ‘Shadowcaster’ would be the best source to consider while looking for clues as to how this might occur.

What finally came tumbling out of my head was an extension of the idea of the “Fundamentals of Shadow” that the class gets. Except rather than essentially just glorified Cantrips these basic secrets of Shadow magic would become At-Will powers that alter or “shape” other powers (‘Mysteries’ or ‘Secrets’, perhaps) that the Shadow power source has. A lot of the flavor of the Shadowcaster class revolved around shaping, mutating, or bending “Shadow substance” to achieve the desired effect, and this idea would extend that concept by allowing the Shadow classes to personalize their Powers every time they cast them.

The exact mechanics of this might be similar to the Paladin’s use of Lay on Hands: Say at first level the Illusionist/Necromancer/Beguiler etc. has the At-will ability to apply one of 2 different Fundamentals to his Encounter or Daily powers, and could use this ability a total of 3 times Daily. They would (vast majority) be Minor or Move actions so that the character could then use their Standard action to use their Power. These Fundamentals would be linked to various Keywords, and could only be applied to Powers that also matched those keywords. This would open up the design on them more while still preventing absurdly broken combos of Fundamentals to Mysteries (Secrets, Powers, whatever). Here are some examples, deliberately drawing from a number of different Roles.

Consider all of these powers to have something like this added to them:

Special: You can use a Fundamental power up to 3 times per day total, but only once per round. All Fundamentals count towards the same daily limit.

Shadow Power Source - Fundamentals]Retinal Burn Class Feature - Fundamental
At-Will [] Shadow
Move Action Fundamental => “ wrote:

Retinal Burn Class Feature - Fundamental
At-Will [] Shadow
Move Action Fundamental => “Single Target” “Illusion”
Add the following effect: Next turn target is affected by same Power again at a -4 to hit modifier. If the power already has Sustain or a Duration, that limit is increased by 1 turn instead.

Gloom Field Class Feature - Fundamental
At-Will [] Shadow
Minor Action Fundamental => “Burst or Cone” “Shadow”
Add the following effect: For a number of turns equal to you’re * modifier, all creatures standing in spell area suffer a -2 modifier to Hit.

Dark Glare Class Feature - Fundamental
At-Will [] Shadow
Minor Action Fundamental => “vs. Reflex” “Single target”
Add the following effect: The Power is now vs. Will, and if a successful hit is scored the target is also immobilized for one turn.

Umbral Blade Class Feature - Fundamental
At-Will [] Shadow
Minor Action Fundamental => “Weapon” “vs. AC”
Add the following effect: the Power is now vs. Reflex.

Shadow Kata Class Feature - Fundamental
At-Will [] Shadow
Minor Action Fundamental => “Weapon” “Single Target”
Add the following effect: Gain combat advantage vs. one specified Target for one attack roll in this round or next.

Obviously it would be impractical to completely replace all of the Shadow classes At Will powers with Fundamentals, rather like the Divine classes 'Channel Divinity' features they are just that: additional actions that go alongside the standard progression of Attack and Utility Powers. In a similar note, it's a good idea to stress that all these class features are balanced with power selection at the appropriate level. As these fundamentals might or might not be class-specific (like Channel Divinity), a certain care would and should go into allowing just how mutable a PC can make his powers. Fortunately, the shadow powers themselves will be designed with an eye to fundamental compatibility. A little twist here and there goes a long way.

I would assume a progression for these powers roughly similar to the Cleric and Paladin pregens we got to taste (and oh was it spicy) at DDXP. A few of these powers might be hardwired into the specific shadow class (ala Cleric's Turn Undead), but many will be the result of a player's hard decision or feat selection. These powers are, of course, very generic, given the 'shadowy' nature of the shadow base classes, and they could apply to a shadow class of any role.

What's the end result, you ask? What are we looking at here? In a nutshell: We now have Shadow classes with a unique spin on power application, resulting in near endless combinations and synergies with future powers and abilities. Because of the mutability that these classes will enjoy, they might find their actual powers lacking to balance this... In return, each and every shadow attack can be twisted and given a new effect depending on the situation of the day. This gives shadow classes a vastly different playing experience than another power source, and helps put one more brick in that road to fun and exciting flavor mechanics.

Why? Because we can.

Thanks for hearing me out on this, Wizards Community! Back to you, Dark080Matter!

Nice... Very nice...

I'm gonna be honest with you, while I thought the shadow fundamentals idea were a nice fit for the concept, I was ratter sckeptical when reading the primal part.
But I've gotta hand it to you. If that's not how rage and wildshape's gonna work, than I have no clue as to what it.

Eeenteresting. I like the way these proposals really get in there and play Tinker-Toys with the action types, descriptors, and usage rates that make up powers. I worry a bit about meta-powers(?) like Dark Glare and Umbral Blade which change the target number of other powers, for that way lies min-maxing madness, but I do note that you've already put a x/day limit on such substitutions, and the fact that they're powers from a different source and class mean they do carry a learning cost.

I think you've demonstrated that the power format has some room to expand for future sources.

Aspect of the Stalker Class Feature - Aspect
Encounter [] Primal
Minor Action, Personal
Sustain: Minor
You gain the following template: +2 to AC and Stealth checks. +1d8 Bonus damage dice to one attack vs. a Target you observed uninterrupted for the whole previous turn when you did not take any attack actions.

(Second bold emphasis mine)

This power got me thinking about what makes up a turn-- you know, the standard + move + minor trifecta-- and how a power might exact its action cost. What if a power source had powers that cost, say, three minor actions? You can take all three actions in one turn (converting the standard and move), or spread them out over two or three turns. Or, what if a power required specifically a standard + move + minor action to activate? Suppose a character had access to three powers with multi-action activation costs; if those costs don't overlap, the character could spend two turns charging up, and unleash all three powers in the third turn.

Hm, that makes taking an action kind of like tapping mana, doesn't it? Well, never mind that for now.

Still, it seems like there could be a power source that would dig complex activations-- perhaps Artifice, or something to do with ley-lines. Unleashing a whole barrage of powers at once seems like it should require a per/day limit to prevent DM sadness, but something about the three action types makes me want to play with how they add up.

What about "inter-character" powers that require actions from multiple participants?

Alas](Second bold emphasis mine)

This power got me thinking about what makes up a turn-- you know, the standard + move + minor trifecta-- and how a power might exact its action cost. What if a power source had powers that cost, say, three minor actions? You can take all three actions in one turn (converting the standard and move), or spread them out over two or three turns. Or, what if a power required specifically a standard + move + minor action to activate? Suppose a character had access to three powers with multi-action activation costs wrote:

(Second bold emphasis mine)

This power got me thinking about what makes up a turn-- you know, the standard + move + minor trifecta-- and how a power might exact its action cost. What if a power source had powers that cost, say, three minor actions? You can take all three actions in one turn (converting the standard and move), or spread them out over two or three turns. Or, what if a power required specifically a standard + move + minor action to activate? Suppose a character had access to three powers with multi-action activation costs; if those costs don't overlap, the character could spend two turns charging up, and unleash all three powers in the third turn.

Hm, that makes taking an action kind of like tapping mana, doesn't it? Well, never mind that for now.

Still, it seems like there could be a power source that would dig complex activations-- perhaps Artifice, or something to do with ley-lines. Unleashing a whole barrage of powers at once seems like it should require a per/day limit to prevent DM sadness, but something about the three action types makes me want to play with how they add up.

I'm wondering...how would that interact with Sustain Minor, Sustain Standard, and Sustain Move? It would be very interesting to see powers that are a Standard+Minor to cast and a Move+Minor to sustain, etc., to improve the tactical options. Or perhaps you can "charge" a power (a la Samus's power beam) by using, say, Standard+Move+Minor one round and a Standard every round up to a certain limit. Particularly since you can trade in actions for Minor actions, they might take a page from SAGA where they use abilities that require 3 swift actions, in one round or distributed (player's choice).

What about "inter-character" powers that require actions from multiple participants?

That would be something I'd love to see.

Hold on....Now that "rituals" are an actual, codified mechanic instead of a fluff thing, maybe you can increase the power of rituals (or decrease casting time) by including more participants to bring the "circle of wizards chanting" thing to life?