DDN Blog: Wizards with a License to Kill

A previous blog post on background and themes made it pretty clear that backgrounds and themes are just going to be respective packages of skills and feats, though other information drops hinted–or could at least be interpreted–that they might confer other benefits as well.

This post states that themes and backgrounds “also give a character class access to the feel that’s traditionally been in the keeping of another class”. It then explains that in prior editions if someone wanted to play a spy that they would probably start as a rogue, or at least multiclass into rogue as soon as possible.

I can agree with this statement–though not with the one about a wizard of any edition acting like a spy, especially “to great and wonderful effect”–because rogues get a lot of skill points/trained skills that make them ideal at sneaking, lying, and information gathering. So, yeah, if any class can pick any skills then it opens up a lot of concepts that you might be unable to easily and/or reliably realize. It also clarifies that classes must have a core identity and mechanics that are fundamental to that class.

In other words this sounds like “classes give you class features”. I wonder if feat choices will let you pick up class features from another class, like in 4th Edition, or boost logical/thematic/iconic combinations of two or more other classes, like fighter/wizards, rogue/assassins, druid/barbarians, ranger/druid/paladins, etc.

Ultimately what I take away from this short post is still that backgrounds and themes largely exist to speed a player through character creation. What I do not know for sure is the order of operations; you can pair of any background and class, but what about themes? From the sounds of the slayer theme I guess that classes will at least have specific theme options, which I liken to sample character builds from 3rd and 4th Edition, though I could also see them having generic or broad themes that are largely applicable to multiple classes.

What I am curious about is if backgrounds will do more than just dole out skill bonuses. For example, will the spy background provide a network of contacts? Will themes only determine your feats, or will they also provide other benefits like they did in 4th Edition? Does a wizard with the farmer background still have access to Arcana, or whatever a wizard uses to deal with magic stuff? Can a fighter start with the slayer theme, but then move more into the realm of archery if the campaign direction warrants it?

Feywild Themes

I am really pleased with the timing of the recent Feywild love, because my group has pressed me into re-visting Erui, a homebrew campaign that I ran and shelved over a year ago.

The first article is really in name only intended for the Moonshaes, a region in Forgotten Realms (which as an aside has an interesting-looking related article that I will write about later). In addition to giving some advice for reskinning some existing themes out of Neverwinter Campaign Setting, we also get the Sarifal warden and Callidyrr dragoon themes and a new varient elf.

Sarifal wardens start out with a turn-long aura that grants scaling energy resistance/vulnerability to your allies and enemies respectively. Level 5 gives you a bonus to Nature and lets you cast Spirit Fetch once per day for free, and level 10 gives you a Fortitude bonus.

• Sarifal Advisor (level 2 daily): You can summon a pixie that cannot attack, and is better than you at Arcana, Nature, and Stealth. It can also talk to natural and fey animals, and you can use its senses for a turn. Mostly I can see this being good primarily for social roleplay situations.
• Light of Sarifal (level 6 daily): A sustainable aura that imposes a damage penalty based on your highest stat.
• Level 10 is different; instead of choosing from a specific power, you can instead choose from blur, mirror image, shadowed moon, or warlock’s leap.

Callidyrr dragoons are like elite knights that are geased, but are generally charged with going on adventures anyway. On the plus side, violating the geas just causes a memory wipe, which could have some interesting side effects. You start out with Mounted Combat and a free martial weapon of your choice, making it ironically not too well suited for the types of classes that I would most often expect. Level 5 gives you a bonus to Diplomacy and Intimidate, and at level 10 you can use Diplomacy instead of Heal for triggering a saving throw or second wind. Oh, and you can do it at a distance. Fucking sweet.

• Dragoon Warding (level 2 encounter): An adjacent ally gains a AC and Fortitude bonus, and you take hits on melee and ranged attacks.
• Dragoon Parry (level 6 encounter): An interrupt that gives you a bonus to AC and Reflex against a melee attack targeted at you, and the enemy grants combat advantage for a turn.
• Dragoon Summons (level 10 daily): You summon an ancestral defender, which I guess is a natural animate that packs a damage boosting aura, can heal as a minor action, and take hits for allies as an interrupt. The downside is that it cannot attack, but then it is a defender.

Llewyrr elves are eladrin that can swap out their Arcana bonus for Insight and use long- and shortbows at the expense of Eladrin Weapon Proficiency.

The second article is a tad shorter, giving us the wild hunt rider and oracle of the evil eye.

Wild hunt riders give you a Perception bonus, but only when looking for a creature. On the plus side you ignore partial concealment entirely. At level 5 you can use Phantom Steed once per day for free, using Arcana or Nature (whatever is best). At level 10 you gain a bonus to save against effects that hinder your movement.

• Wild Hunt Leap (level 2 encounter): You can jump your speed, and gain combat advantage for a turn if you land next to an enemy.
• Moonfire Aura (level 6 daily): A small aura that negates invisibility and concealment. It is not friendly, so you gotta be careful.
• Relentless Pursuit (level 10 encounter): If an enemy moves away from you, you can teleport next to it as a reaction, and you do not need line of sight. Awesome.

Oracles of the evil eye are unfortunate victims that undergo a ritual that results in them gaining a fomorian’s iconic…well, eye. You can an at-will minor power that causes a non-marked creature to take a piddling amount of automatic psychic damage after damaging you. Like “normal” evil eyes it only works on one creature at a time. At level 5 you gain a bonus on Bluff and Intimidate, and at level 10 you gain low-light vision (or darkvision if you already had low-light vision).

• Eye of the Fomorians (level 2 daily): You can a bonus to Perception and can see invisible creatures for the encounter.
• Urge of Destiny (level 6 daily): An ally deals bonus damage for the encounter. If the creature marks them, they deal even more. 
• Evil Eye Mesmerism (level 10 encounter): A reaction that prevents a creature from attacking you at all for a turn if it misses you.

Aside from the elf variant I pretty much liked all the new themes for one reason or another. The oracle and dragoon can introduce some interesting adventure hooks–such as a key villain or memory loss plot hook respectively–and social roleplay elements to a game. I am also liking the ritual freebies, which if nothing else will hopefully encourage players to try more out (especially with the heroic rituals article).

Character Themes: Born from Shadow

Only two themes, this time? Oh well, at least they are shadow-oriented. Now if only I was able to run a L.A. Noire-type campaign that takes place in Gloomwrought (or hell, Eberron) I would be in business. I think WotC should do some sort of compilation and throw it in a book, perhaps with one of those random-background generator tables.

Student of Evard starts you out with essence of death, which deals scaling bonus damage against an adjacent creature that you hit with an attack. The damage is nice, but you also take some damage. To make matters worse, it also scales. At level 5 you gain a bonus on skill checks related to nethermancy and necromancy, and you can also use the Last Sight Vision ritual once a day for free. At 10th-level the skill bonuses double, and you also gain an attack bonus with shadow powers for the first round of combat.

• Dark Focus: A level 2 daily utility that lets you burn a healing surge for a reroll. Kind of like arcane defiling, but only you pay the price.
• Shadow Vision: A level 6 encounter utility that grants you dark vision for a turn. Lame.
• Dread Blessing: A level 10 daily utility that is similar to dark focus in that you burn a surge for a reroll, but this one targets allies, grants a bonus, and if the reroll still fails you do not expend it. Very nice.

Gloomwrought emissary starts you out with strike from shadows, which lets you lump on weakened when you hit a creature granting combat advantage with a melee or ranged attack. As a minor bonus you can also shift a short distance. Level 5 gives you a staple bonus to Diplomacy and Streetwise, while level 10 lets you reroll a Charisma-based skill once per day. Eh…could be better, but at least it fits the theme.

• Jibber Feint is a level 2 encounter utility that lets you automatically cause one enemy to grant combat advantage for the next attack levied at it.
• Ghostwalker is a level 6 encounter utility that renders you insubstantial for a turn, and lets you fly before your turn ends.
• Noble’s Decree is a level 10 encounter utility that basically lets you double your Charisma modifier for a Diplomacy or Intimidate check.

Student of Evard is pretty nice, and while the Gloomwrought emissary is thematic enough it just feels underwhelming in the same way that a 3rd Edition bard was mostly good for auto-winning Diplomacy checks.

Character Themes 3: Heroes of Virtue

I’d apparently overlooked this installment of Character Themes, which gives us chevalier, guardian, hospitaler, and noble.

CHEVALIER
These guys get a chivalrous code sidebar, allowing you to add irritating classic paladin-like limitations to any character.

…

Yay…?

Actually the sidebar specifically mentions that the code varies from culture to culture, just that “most” would agree on the list as a good start, at least. I actually like this theme because it lets any character gain benefits with a mount beyond what you could get by picking up Mounted Combat. Really nice for characters that want to play a mounted fighter, paladin, ranger, cavalier with summon steed, or whatever and get a bit more out of it.

For starters you gain a power bonus to Athletics and Acrobatics checks while mounted to jump, swim, or “hop down”. The bonus applies to you and your mount, and you can use whichever modifier is better, so that’s cool. You can gain an encounter attack that lets you immobilize a creature that you hit with a charge attack. At 5th-level you get a power bonus to Diplomacy and Intimidate checks, and at 10th-level you gain a power bonus to all saving throws, though none of these abilities are contingent to you being mounted.

• Battle riding: An encounter-immediate interrupt that halves the damage your mount takes from an attack, and lets it shift a square. You have to be mounted for this to work, however.
• Indefatigable: A daily-minor action that lets you gain hit points equal to your surge value without having to spend a surge, and you gain make a save.
• Loyal stand: An encounter-minor action that creates an aura 1 effect that grants you and all allies a bonus to AC, as well as reducing forced movement effects by 1.

GUARDIAN
This starting feature is great for defenders, or a character that wants to add a bit of defender to their character; if an ally within 2 squares is hit by an attack, you can shift next to your ally and swap positions as an interrupt, causing the attack to hit you instead. As an added bonus you get to make a basic attack against the attacker. At 5th-level you gain a power bonus to Insight and Perception, which is pretty nice. 10th-level lets you designate a character as your “bonded charge”; you can sense your charge so long as he/she is within danger and a mile, as well as the general direction and distance. Finally, if an enemy hits your charge, you gain an untyped attack bonus against it for a turn.

The feature does mention that your charge must be someone you are sworn to protect, and that you generally cannot designate someone who is better at combat than you are. Most of the time, I’m guessing that this means you can’t use it on other party members, but I could see it working without balance issues.

• Guardian’s defense: An encounter-minor that grants you and one adjacent ally a power bonus to all defenses, as well as preventing anyone from gaining combat advantage against either of you.
• Ready for anything: A daily-no action that “unsurprises” you if you start combat surprised.
• Watch out!: An encounter-immediate interrupt that causes an attack against an adjacent ally to hit you instead, and you get to burn a healing surge if you want.

HOSPITALER
Your starting feature lets you heal a creature that takes damage as an immediate reaction, but since it is based on your Wisdom modifier it kind of limits which classes will get any mileage out of it. As an added benefit, you gain a power bonus to attack rolls against the enemy that triggered the power. At 5th-level you can freely requisition food and lodging from temples affiliated with you. Eh…not so hot, especially since most heroes could get that shit for the price of a favor quest (and all the XP and loot that that implies). At 10th-level you can use your starting feature twice.

• Hospitaler’s prayer: A daily-minor that allows one ally to make a saving throw, as well as granting a small power bonus to defenses for a turn. If the save fails, the bonus gets doubled.
• Radiant stride: An encounter-move that lets you shift your Speed, assuming you can get to an unconscious or bloodied ally, granting you and everyone next to you partial concealment for a turn.
• Fight on, friend: A daily-minor that lets a bloodied or unconscious ally regain hit points equal to two healing surges, and end one save-ends effect.

NOBLE
The starting feature is pretty nice: as a move action you cause one or two allies to shift 2 squares and grant them a defense bonus for a turn. At 5th-level you gain a level 6 armor, weapon, or neck item (you know, one of the essentials), and at 10th-level you get a power bonus to Diplomacy and Insight. Frankly, I’d rather have a stacking feature as opposed to a magic item, especially since it is just a common one.

• Noble influence: As a free action you gain a power bonus to the next Intimidate check you make, and can also use Intimidate in place of Bluff or Diplomacy.
• Inspiring recovery: As a free action you can allow one ally to make a save with a bonus after you succeed on a save.
• Urge to action: Yet another free action encounter, this one allows you to boost an allies initiative result up to yours. Obviously, they have to have rolled lower than you.

Hospitaler seems the most “eh” to me, even in terms of concept. My favorites are a tie between gaurdian and noble. There are a lot of characters that could benefit from either set of mechanics.

Character Themes 4: Heroes for Hire

This week on Character Themes we get explorer, guttersnipe, mercenary, and outlaw.

EXPLORER

You automatically tell which way is north, gain a hefty bonus to any skill check you make to avoid getting lost, and gain an encounter power that lets you ignore difficult terrain as a move action, in addition to gaining a bonus to AC and Reflex for a turn while in difficult terrain. As another bonus, you gain combat advantage against enemies that are in difficult terrain, too. At 5th-level you gain a power bonus to Endurance, gain a Speed bonus while determining overland movement, and grant all your allies a power bonus to Endurance. Finally at 10th-level, you gain a power bonus to Fortitude and an untyped bonus on saves against ongoing poison damage.

Eeeh, that’s not so bad. Granted a power bonus to skills and defenses means that they won’t always stack with leader-type powers, but would probably be really useful in wilderness adventures (or Dark Sun). 

• Stag’s bound: Move action encounter that lets you move your Speed with a bonus, and grants you a massive power bonus to Athletics and Acrobatics checks when jumping, balancing, or trying to reduce falling damage. Also, any jump you make is checked as if you were running.
• Eagle’s eye: Minor action encounter that gives you combat advantage against anything you target with a ranged attack and/or area attack power, and you don’t take penalties for long-range attacks. As an added bonus you also gain a power bonus to Perception when looking for hidden things.
• Lynx’s reflexes: Immediate interrupt encounter that lets you basically auto-dodge a trap attack by shifting a short distance and gaining a power bonus to AC and Reflex against the trap’s attack. I actually like this a lot because even though traps are meant to be combat set-pieces, I find a lot of DMs still use them as hallway nut-punchers.

GUTTERSNIPE

No starting features, here. Instead you gain an attack power that lets you move your Speed and make an attack against a critter’s Reflex that deals damage and slows for a turn. The best part of this attack is that the modifier and damage are based on your highest ability score. The 5th-level feature lets you buy and sell anything for 10% less and more respectively. Normally I allow Diplomacy, Bluff, or Intimidate checks to pull this off, so it isn’t necessarily as good in my games (not that a slight wealth shift is terribly unbalancing anyway). At 10th-level you gain a power bonus to Streetwise, and can make a Streetwise check of any sort as a free action once per day while in a town or city.

• Infuriating taunt: An encounter-immediate reaction that causes a creature that misses you with an attack to take an attack roll penalty when making attacks you until it actually hits you with an attack.
• Fool’s dance: An encounter-minor action that gives you a defense bonus against attacks based on the number of enemies adjacent to you–as well as shift whenever an attack misses–for a turn.
• Unlikely escape: An encounter-move action that lets you end slowed, immobilized, or restrained and shift a short distance (it also works if you are flanked).

MERCENARY

Once per encounter–without using an action–you can add on bonus damage and prone when you hit an enemy with an attack, based on the ability score used to make the attack. At 5th-level you get a power bonus to Intimidate and Streetwise, and at 10th-level you gain a power bonus to all defenses while bloodied. This is a really nice addition to any defender, though it has benefits for any melee character.

• Sellsword’s ploy: A daily-immediate interrupt that grants you a small amount of temporary hit points if an enemy hits you while you are bloodied. Additionally you basically shift the combat advantage from yourself to the enemy for a turn.
• I’m right here: An encounter-immediate reaction that lets you shift a few squares after an enemy that moves away from you.
• Brutal survivor: A daily-minor action that grants you temporary hit points every time you kill an enemy, and it lasts for the entire encounter.

OUTLAW 

Another no-action encounter that lets you daze a target if you hit it with a basic attack or at-will and have combat advantage. That’s…really fucking good. It is a good thing that the attack has to be a weapon attack, or it would be an optimizer’s dream. That aside in terms of theme and power, it is still really good for a lot of classes. At 5th-level you pick a terrain type that you can never be tracked in and also ignore difficult terrain for. Okay, that’s not so good, and 10th-level wraps things up with a small power bonus on Intimidate and Streetwise checks.

• Burst of speed: An encounter-minor action that gives you a Speed bonus for a turn, as well as ignoring combat advantage for running.
• Out of sight: An encounter-move action that lets you shift a square, them move your Speed. If you stop in cover or concealment you can make a Stealth check to hide.
• Improvise ambush: A daily-free action that grants everyone an Initiative bonus so long as you aren’t surprised.

Overall it is a good selection of concepts that are very applicable to most character concepts. Of course, you could also mine these powers for monsters (like bandits and street urchins).

Character Themes: Heroes of Tome and Temple

This trio of themes focuses on arcane and divine characters, giving us the ordained priest, scholar, and seer. As with the first four, they function similar to Dark Sun themes, except you also get bonus features at levels 5 and 10.

Ordained priest is a bit different from the norm, in that you get to pick from two encounter prayers; one is for weapons, and the other is for implements, which is good because it works for both “styles” of divine characters–as well as for characters that don’t use implements. Smiting symbol lets you make a melee attack, and giving an ally a defense bonus along with some temp hps. Shining symbol is a friendly-fire close blast that deals radiant damage and imposes a defense penalty. Not to shabby for a freebie encounter. At level 5 you get a Religion bonus, and at level 10 you grant adjacent allies a constant untyped bonus to saving throws.

The level 2 daily utility affects a close burst, and lets each ally make a free save and regain some hit points (more if they are bloodied at the time). The level 6 daily is a slightly larger close burst that grants a hefty defense bonus that you can sustain as a standard action (bleh), though if anyone attacks it goes away for everyone. Finally, the level 10 daily (again) utility creates a small zone that gives a small defense bonus, boosts everyone’s surge value, and deals automatic damage to undead. The best part is that you can sustain it as a minor action.

Scholar gives you a free language from a small assortment and use vulnerability–which you can use for free after you make a Hard DC knowledge check against a monster–giving you a nice defense bonus and damage based off of your Intelligence modifier for a turn, so long as the monster isn’t resistant to it. The bad part is that if you didn’t beat the Hard DC, then you instead deal half damage to it for a turn. So, it is kind of a gamble, but I gather that players fighting the same type of monster for awhile will quickly pick up on what DC is sufficient (as well as take items and feats to boost their “knowledge” skill). At level 5 you get free skill training (or a +2 untyped if you already have the skill) and another language, and at level 10 you just gain every language in the Rules Compendium or Player’s Handbook. You can also make Arcana checks to try and decipher messages written in code or disguised magically.

At level 2 you can pick up a daily that gives you a power bonus to one skill for an entire encounter. Level 6 is an encounter power that lets you change untyped damage to a specific type for a turn, affect you and any adjacent allies at the time. The level 10 daily creates a sustainable zone that imposes an attack and defense penalty to all creatures of a specific type.

Finally, the seer only gives you an encounter power at the start, cast fortune. It lets you roll three d20s, the results of which are used, in order, in place of the target’s next d20 rolls. You can only use it once per day on a given creature, meaning that it is good for one combat or skill challenge per other party member. At level 5 you get a Bluff and Insight bonus, and at level 10 you can roll twice on Perception checks and take either result.

The level 2 daily is a sustain standard that grants you darkvision, choose to see things from both your position and a space within 20 squares, and make Perception checks to “notice small details”. Level 6 is an encounter that grants you a defense bonus as an immediate interrupt, shifting after the attack is resolved. The level 10 daily is a sustain minor that lets you see invisible critters and objects, and grants you a bonus to Insight and Perception.

I like all of the themes, but my favorite out of the bunch is the scholar (because wizard is my favored class); a well-executed concept that uses knowledge to point out monster weaknesses, though they can make mistakes. This could give a player a lot of social role-playing possibilities. I also like that all the extra languages and ability to eventually be able to just make skill rolls to decipher script.

Heroes of Nature and Lore

Despite a fairly sparse offering of only four themes, this is a nice article. For heathens who do not play Dark Sun, themes are a way to provide mechanical support for your character’s background. To take a quote from the article, a theme can readily answer what you were immediately before you started adventuring. More so than simply taking a rank or two in a Craft or Profession, themes could be used to provide a way for your history to meaningfully affect your character. Mind you, none of them involve bookbinding, basketweaving, or farming, but you never know what future articles or third-party support will bring.

Alchemist

This theme grants you the Alchemist feat (including a complete description of what the feat does), one free formula, and lets you create an item after each short rest for free. The only recipe featured is alchemist’s fire, but then if you’re reading the article then you should have access to the Compendium anyway. The level 5 and 10 features let you learn more recipes for free, as well as granting you an attack bonus with alchemy items that you made.

All of the powers are utilities which can grant an ally a bonus to damage objects, create a zone of smoke while legging it, and creating a zone of difficult terrain that burns creatures knocked prone in it.

I like this because it lets you make an arcanist that also knows alchemy without having to spend a feat on it. The free recipes and free items will also likely encourage their use at the table. 

Animal Master

This nifty theme gives you an animal minion that you can boss around. You get to choose from a cat, dog, hawk, monkey, raven, or a close-enough approximation to your liking. Regardless of which you choose, they act more like familiars than animal companions, having no attacks, a unique trait, and some skills to help you out. You do start with distracting attack, which requires your minion to be within 5 squares and lets you gain combat advantage against a target within 5 squares.

As the name implies these guys are minions, and while most monsters will “normally” ignore them they can be killed, and you don’t have Raise Beast Companion or the ability to reform them out of arcane runoff. If they did, they stay dead, and it takes either a month or an adventure wrap-up to get it back, except at level 5 when you can get a new one every extended rest at the DM’s discretion. 

The theme powers let you command your animal to do various tricks that it wouldn’t otherwise do, grant you a defense bonus and let you ignore flanking, and eventually share senses with it. 

The other two themes are the order adept and wizard’s apprentice. I won’t got into detail here, as I’ve already spoiled half the article. Suffice to say, this is some pretty cool stuff and I look forward to cooking up my own and seeing what other people come up with. Yeah, it adds some more power creep, but not a whole lot (certainly not enough to make me reconsider how I balance my XP budgets).

Edit: Apparently there’s a list of all the themes that will come out this month.

• Chevalier
• Explorer
• Guardian
• Guttersnipe
• Hospitaler
• Mercenary
• Noble
• Ordained priest
• Outlaw
• Seer
• Scholar