In an effort to bring 4E into alignment with Greyhawk, I want to start a post strictly for posting the crunch you feel is necessary to make a 4E game in Greyhawk work. We'll start another for NPCs later, and we'll likely split this one up before too long, but I wanted to get some creative juices working and see what everyone can bring to the party.
Caveats:
1. Build for flavor, not power. If we want Power builds, we can go to the WotC boards. They are full of em.
2. Be ready for constructive criticism and be ready to give it. Shouldn't be an issue with this board, but still, it bears repeating.
3.Have FUN!
I'll start the party with a Divinity feat suggested by PaulN6, slightly reworded (namely because I don't have my books nearby so I can actually give something original (sorry Paul!)
(I'll clean up the formating later tonight or tommorow, promise)
Divinity Feat: Laughing Rogue's Joke
The divine power of the Laughing Rogue flows from you to your target and he whispers something into their ear. No one knows exactly what the joke is, but some devout suggest they are told eactly how they are to die.
Encounter * Divine, Standard
Attack: Wis vs Will
Hit: You gain combat advantage towards this target. Save ends.
Unarmed Strike Prerequisite: Str 13, Dex 13, fighter, paladin, ranger, or warlord
Benefit: Unarmed Attack is considered a military melee weapon and damage becomes 1d6. Damage increases to 1d8 at 11th Level and 1d10 at 21st Level.
This is the first step toward putting monks into my 4e game without making a monk class. By centering a monk build around a feat it loses the strictly religious focus and gives players more roleplaying options. Obviously the way to go would be to build this around a two weapon ranger but with the addition of class specific powers various unarmed "traditions" can be added to the game and give other classes a reason to choose and unarmed fighter build.
Last edited by smillan_31 on Wed Oct 01, 2008 2:37 pm; edited 1 time in total
Unarmed Strike Prerequisite: Str 13, Dex 13, fighter, paladin, ranger, or warlord
Benefit: Unarmed Attack is considered a military melee weapon and damage becomes 1d6. Damage increases to 1d8 at 11th Level and 1d10 at 21st Level.
Nicely done. I could see some good flavor using this to make a monkish warlord or fighter, and paladin fits especially well. It needs some feats to augment it at higher levels, grant a few encounter/daily powers (a stunning fist, or a sunder type effect perhaps?). And perhaps a few manuever type feats for Suel/Scarlet Brotherhood style martial arts feats/powers that are not ki-based, but martial or divine in nature.
Anything that greatly changes the way a character is played should be a Class Feature, not a Feat. Rather than make the Unarmed Fighting a feat (which is quite powerful for a feat) it should be a "Class Build Feature". For instance, Fighters choose a weapon type. Allow them to choose Unarmed Fighting.
From a mechanics standpoint, I see the Scarlet Brotherhood being either a Ranger or Rogue that fights unarmed rather than a fighter. Monks of the Scarlet Brotherhood focus on Stealth and Deadly strikes. Allow Rogues to use Unarmed Strike with their Sneak Attack. Give them reasonable damage type but not too much (it shouldn't be higher than a standard weapon without additional feats).
If a Rogue had access to Unarmed Strike, consider what the class has to offer:
* High number of Skills
* Master Infiltrator Paragon Class, the perfect paragon class for a Scarlet Brotherhood spy
* Shadow Assassin, also very SB
* Several Strikes that cause Knockdown, Stun, and Unconciousness; including chokes.
The only thing that Rogue is missing is the Rapid Attacks. For that you could simply Multiclass with Ranger. It would give you a few rapid attacks and you could get a stance out of it.
I'd say that instead of the damage rising with level, that the damage stays static at 1d6, and the DM puts in magic items that modify it like a normal weapon, the feat isn't overly powerful - although it would be better to have it count as a light blade for the purposes of powers, and have the feat grant proficiency. Could then use a swordmage or a rogue, and come up with a very cool rendition of a monk, at least until the actual monk comes out. That way you could have a whole host of unarmed opponents. A unarmed tactician (warlord?) leading a mystic defender (swordmage), a unarmed infiltrator (rogue), and mystic controller (wizard), for a balanced party of all unarmed characters. Limiting them to 1d6 seems like a good way to cut the power level down, without making them sacrifice a class feature, only a feat.
Playtested the Laughing Rogue's joke, and due to player and DM feedback, I am goign to suggest the following change
Quote:
Divinity Feat: Laughing Rogue's Joke
The divine power of the Laughing Rogue flows from you to your target and he whispers something into their ear. No one knows exactly what the joke is, but some devout suggest they are told eactly how they are to die.
Attack: Wis vs Will
Hit: You gain combat advantage towards this target until the end of your next turn.
Changing it to a minor action puts it on par with the existing channel divinity: Divine Luck (+1 to attacks or saves). Having it last until the end of next turn means that it is on par with most of the other abilities of this sort. A cleric multiclassed with rogue will get one or two chances to use his encounter sneak attack ability, or it can be used for when you absolutely positively need to hit (say with a healing strike).
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