Community

I think it could be, though I won't buy it. Put simply, everything you like about it is everything I hate about it.

1/ Yes, Dark Sun, please.

2/ OP's idea about gods coming is bad. Athas is a godless world and should stay as such. It is a very important part of the setting.

3/ PC races in the PH3: Thri-kreen, half-giant, maybe aarakoa or pteran. Mul will be in the setting book, as it is unique to Dark Sun. If I saw a mul in FR, I'd have to kick the DM in hte shin.

4/ As for a Batman Begins or BSG style revisioning, I would be down with that as long as they don't violate the very core elements that make DS so very special: savagry, godlessness, despair, ancient secrets being revealed, etc.

5/ Bone/stone/obsidian: I'd rather they take a route of using different weapons rather than just the same fantasy trappings with different materials. A stone sword is impractical and silly, but the jawbone of a half giant sharpened and strapped to a club, that's Dark Sun. I'd like some realism with weapon design in regard to what you make with what weapons, but still have the brutal looking original weaponry.

6/ Templars: Make Templars like the 4e assassin. Not a class, but a classification. This means you can take any divine PC class and strap the title Templar on them. Instead of serving gods, they serve the sorcerer kings. HOWEVER, 4e seems to be getting away from designing NPCs like PCs, and PC templars are shaky at best. My vote is that the only mechanical handling of the templar is as a creature in the DM book.

7/ The Dark Sun Bard: Easily my least favorite element of Dark Sun. It was thrown together with the thinking that they needed a bard, but didn't want to deal with them as an arcane caster w/ all the trappings of defiling/preserving. IMHO, it was silly and I hated it. Note that Bard has been my favorite class since 2e. I'd like the bard to stay as it is in ph2, with the mojo recommended in point 8.

8/ Defiling/preserving: Any and all arcane classes should be allowed, and as a default they are defilers. Defiling is easy. Preserving takes extra time and dedication. make Preserver a Feat and not a class. Make all arcane casters take the Feat as a show of how much harder it is to cast preserver magic than it is to cast defiler magic. Also, allow as a setting mechanic available to all classes a method to empower spells by choosing to defile a little extra. Increase the level of the spell to increase the damage of an attack in regards to the amount of defiling done to the land.

9/ Elemental clerics: Make all divine classes chose an element as a god. Then, to differentiate between the various elements, have Channel Divine feats that add definition to the character, followed by Paragon Paths. I say all divine classes should be open to this. As per my sig, a mul paladin of earth would be damn fun to play.

10/ Advanced beings: Dark Sun was the first D&D setting to have set rules for play up to level 50. 50! How? In order to become an advanced being (dragon, avangion, elemental) you had to go to level 20 as one class (defiler/preserver/cleric) and then dual class to a psion for another 20 levels. THEN you could take a ten level "class" that eventually turned you into a godlike being. Please, Wotc, please keep something like this. No, don't go the easy route that would be very game wrecking and make being a dragon as easy as an Epic Destiny. Make EDs that set the PC up for becoming an advanced being with that going from level 31-40. A level 30 ritual that requires a wizard-preserver with the psion multi-class feat and at least x number of psion powers and x number of psion feats that lets the PC start gaining experience again and taking Advanced Levels. I would also like to see more advanced beings that allow primal and martial characters share the experience of 31-40.

11/ Psionics: Don't know enough about 4e plans, but I love psionics and I look forward to seeing them.