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Seeking Suggestions: Setting Class Archetypes

Started by Xeviat, January 13, 2013, 03:06:33 PM

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Xeviat

Quote from: XathanI think the elemental/physical/mental division works best as you do: it just feels most intuitive.

Me too.

Quote from: XathanIs white magic/black magic just a way of providing analogies, or do you actually intend on having "white mages" and "black mages." I'd lean heavily against actually having white/black magic as actual things in the setting and system if that's what you're thinking - that seems like it'd detract far too much from the elemental theme you have going on, and I love the elemental theme.

The idea would be to have white magic and black magic as the yang and yin of each of the elements. Black magic is overt and destructive, white magic is subtle and helpful. Alternately, I could just embrace the elements and have one primary caster who focuses on pure magic, using all the elements, while having subcasters who specialize in only one element. Or just have a caster for each element, and require multiclassing to learn multiples. I guess that depends on whether I want specialists or generalists to be the norm.

Quote from: XathanTeirs, in my opinion, were one of the very few things I liked about 4e. That division (Vitality, speed, coordination, power) makes perfect sense, although I'd swap Fire and Earth - Fire just doesn't seem like it's about vitality to me, it feel like it's much more...powerful, whereas Earth strikes me as being the more vitality-oriented elements. Unless by vitality you meant "alive" as opposed to "Enduring," in which case ignore me.

I came to the decision that Fire is Vitality and Earth is Strength because of archetypical characters. Heck, just look at "Avatar: The Last Airbender", "L5R", and other asian systems that use the elements. Earth is resilient and powerful. Fire is full of life. Earth guys are big and strong; they have a lot of hp because they have a lot of meat on them. Fire guys are smaller, full of energy; they can be fast or powerful, but it's through a burning of their energy rather than a natural idea. If I end up making my own system in the end, Earth's stat would tie to HP, while Fire's stat would tie to VP, and vitality points could be used to avoid hits (temp hp basically) or to power offensive and mobility abilities.

Quote from: XathanI love the idea that even non-magic classes become "magic" due to the feats they can preform at high levels - it explains some of the insane things d20 systems allow "non-magic" classes to do at higher levels. My question would be, if spells like dispel magic and antimagic field exist in your setting, would they interfere with that type of magic, or is that so innate that there's no concern of interruption, even in the strongest of antimagic?

Likely, if I have dispel magic and antimagic fields, they would only block overt magic, not the internal magic that all high level characters would possess.

Quote from: XathanAn aside: it's been so long since your setting was mentioned beyond mechanical things that my poor sieve-like memory has forgotten some details, but have you considered using Elemental Lords in the place gods occupy in most settings? It seems to fit the magic system quite well.

I don't have otherplanar omnipotent gods; the setting has ancestral spirits and nature spirits. So yes, there are things akin to elemental lords, but also ancient trees, guardians of the forest, and the line of kings. Also, deities who are personifications of relics, like the Swords of the Five Knights.
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