I've been surprisingly drawn to the primal power source in 4e, I agree with a few other posters that it got a really cool and well-defined identity that it never had before. Druids (and, for the love of Glob, RANGERS) casting divine spells always seemed flavorfully awkward. With the primal power source as written, there's just enough wiggle room to borrow whatever fantasy or mythological interpretation of the spirit world inspires you to create a cool character in relation to it. I even fluffed the 4e monk I played as ambiguously primal--he interpreted his abilities as the product of rigorous training and a special gift from the ancestor spirits of his tribe, although I left it open to interpretation that he may have been performing those superhuman (superhalfling?) feats through his own innate psionic prowess, interpreted as an external gift.
That said, I do really appreciate the way the arcane power source in 4e was handled, not in the least because they balanced. the. freaking. Wizard. Finally. Also, the variety of gish options available among the arcane classes is excellent and, if this thread is any indication, speaks to a strong desire by players to play those characters. And heck, why not? They're fun. But the coolest thing about 4e arcane classes is how compatibly they hybrid into one another. Wizard, Artificer and Swordmage can hybrid in any combination and be awesome, to say nothing of the Swordmage|Warlock. I was ridiculously excited when the Warforged got an Int/Con option. Also, the Skald. The Skald is the coolest take I've seen on the Bard class yet, although I do appreciate the Cunning and Valorous builds in the PHB2, also.
I'm not a huge fan of the divine power source, and I think 4e divine characters really suffer from how little crunch their choice of deity confers as a basis for character fluff. Shouldn't fighting against a Cleric of Bahamut, a Cleric of Sehanine, and a Cleric of Lolth feel a little different? On the other hand, introducing the Invoker and Avenger really expanded the divine archetype to places it hadn't been before. The Avenger suffers a touch from lacking a niche to fill, but the concept is fun and the striker mechanics are unique, so it works out. And the Invoker is just bad ass. The Runepriest could have been, too, if the poor guy got any support.
Like divine, martial got some new life breathed into it with the addition of the Warlord and the almost complete overhaul of the Fighter to give it an actual identity, and let it do some things Fighters have never really done before--in my first 4e campaign when we hit level 7, the player of our group's fighter felt weird using Come and Get It at first, because he had trouble justifying the flavor as martial, but once he got used to how awesome it was, he stopped being too concerned.
My only experience with a PP psionic class in 4e was a few sessions as a low-mid heroic Battlemind. It was fun enough, and the tricks were cool and combined with the Con/Cha build to set the groundwork for a conceptually fun character, but the PP system lends itself to very narrow character building, so that no matter how many powers they printed for the Battlemind or Psion, there would still only be a dozen or so at-wills across 30 levels that actually got any use. But for playing it once? That's half the fun. You're given a complex but small tool box, and you have to find a way to cover all the bases of your role using just that amount of stuff. And in terms of class design for 4e, I do need to voice my support for the development team deciding to create the Battlemind as a new and unique class with its own concept, rather than rehashing the "Psionic Warrior." And while I haven't played an Ardent and their actual powers don't look especially enticing, the concept is fun and unique, and I could see trying it out for a short campaign.
Divine just doesn't really do anything for me. I don't really like the whole "I'm my god's tool, yippee!" aspect of the power source.
Psionics, as usual, seemed like it might be interesting at first but then was poorly implemented. The scaling of power points is atrocious. The only thing keeping me from writing off the source completely is that I like the Monk, and his full disciplines are a lot of fun.
Primal is my absolute favorite, not because of the classes, but I just think the story of the primal spirits and stuff is really amazing.
Divine and Arcane. Divine because I've always liked to create odd combiniations of class and race, like gnome fighter, dwarf wizard, etc, and I love to add a deity into the mix. Arcane because I like the concept of magic and wizardy stuff in general.
We summoned a devil once. All we used was the D&D books, too. It was pretty kwazy.
God of Arrested Development and Intelligence Resident Left Hand of Stalin and Banana Stand Grandstander Pie-Cooling-On-A-Windowsill of the House of Trolls In the morning HK'll be sober but you'll still be a meatbag. I know I misspell "Danke" in my posts. It's an inside joke. "Ten cents gets you nuts." -George Michael Spoiler:Show
''Being president is like running a cemetery: you've got a lot of people under you and nobody's listening.'' —Bill Clinton
You are not a moral man. There are not enough middle fingers in the world for you.
"Heroes"...I wish I had those. I remember in my first-ever campaign one PC went around shootin all the unconscious baddies in the head to gain Dark Side Points...
Whaaaaaat?!??
Wow...way to waste perfectly good potential slaves.
Er...no wait I mean..uh...something not evil!
(Quotes screwed up on the next one, won't give the poster's name. It's in the Best Lines thread on the D&D forum)
First, an experience from a game I played in a few years back. Our DM didn't like 3.5 as a whole but liked parts of it. So he hands us a big ass rules packet for his modified FR campaign, complete with quotes from important NPC's on the front. I can't remember most of the HRs, just that some how gods like Cyric and Bhaal existed at the same time, despite the obvious problems there. In the end the game became a problem more because of the railroading than the HRs, but it ended with this classic line, after our ranger tried to disarm the strange woman following us WITH HIS BOW: DM: You just killed (insert random noble sounding name here) JP: Was she important? Jack: Dude, she's quoted on the front of the rules packet!
"Why in the wide,wide, world of all things irrational would I help you? -Daniel Jackson "Fun will now commence." -Seven of Nine
Cut the last encounter on your way out after dealing with the Darth. He's the BBEG. Treat him as such. Play up that Darth Revan is THAT much of a badarse. When the shuttle landed, I had no less than 13 JEDI MASTERS step off the shuttle. The PCs were slack-jawed. After the meetup with Bastila (as she's carrying Revan's body), only TWO jedi masters remained with her. Let me tell you, the player whining about not getting to fight Revan himself shut up pretty quickly when he saw that.
1. Cleric cast protection from fire on Tank. 2. Tank goes in and get surrounded by enemies. 3. Wizard cast fireball and blows them up. 4. ??? 5. Profit
I go by the saying," If it ain't friendly fire then it's not working."
Martial and arcane. Martial because, well, who doesn't like betting the tar out of stuff? and Arcane because magic is cool. It allows me to do whatever I want. i can throw fireballs at orcs. i can make it rain boulders on trolls. And i can be GANDALF
I fight for freedom. I fight for justice. I fight for honor. I fight for VENGEANCE.Beware, all you monsters, all you villains, for you have unleashed the wrath of Edward Darkforest. May your god have pity on your soul.
My favorite is is psionics, just because you aren't beholden to anyone for your power. What if, one day, one of those CharOpers overthrew the gods? Or the spirits? Or the Shadowfell? Or the embodiment of magic? My next is martial, for the same reason. I do agree that martial is more powerful. Next, arcane, shadow, primal, and divine in that order, according to how easy it is for someone else to overthrow the thing that is powering you.
The reason I like psionics more is you don't need arrows, or new swords, or all that stuff.
My favorite is is psionics, just because you aren't beholden to anyone for your power. What if, one day, one of those CharOpers overthrew the gods? Or the spirits? Or the Shadowfell? Or the embodiment of magic? My next is martial, for the same reason. I do agree that martial is more powerful. Next, arcane, shadow, primal, and divine in that order, according to how easy it is for someone else to overthrow the thing that is powering you.
The reason I like psionics more is you don't need arrows, or new swords, or all that stuff.
It may bear noting that, by the rules-as-written, there's no way to lose your powers, regardless of your source.
Another day, another three or four entries to my Ignore List.
