Heavy Metal Thunder -- The Warlord and The Spellbinder (Beta 4)

Today's post features two classes based off the the d12 class die:

• The Warlord
• The Spellbinder

Warlord was one of the first few "expansion" classes that I wanted to add, after the first slate was finished (as has been mentioned here previously.)

I personally never quite got the allure of the "lazylord" style of gameplay, but I included it nonetheless, with a few twists of my own; making the Warlord a d12 class was mainly done for two reasons:

• a distinct lack of d12 classes to take inspiration from, in pre-existing d20 systems
• the desire to make attacking a powerful option for the class, rather than always opting to make someone else attack instead

This also meant that Warlord would be a melee-focused class, as per the role of the d12 within the system. It's a class that is more effects-based than damaged-based, in some ways similar to the Ranger.

The Commander archetype can direct allies as either a Standard Action, or when they make an unsuccessful attack. This is intended to allow players to be conservative and just trade their action to their teammates, but to also not punish them for being aggressive and choosing to attack.

The Protector archetype is meant to be a strong battlefield controller, wading into the thick of things to defend allies and punish enemies. 

With the Warlord polished up for Beta 4, their slate is now complete!

Heroes of Martial Might & Divine Power

• The Acrobat (d4)
• The Fighter (d6)
• The Cleric (d8)
• The Paladin (d10)
• The Warlord (d12) 

...

Spellbinder began its life as the Swordmage archetype for the Mage (d4) class. Originally, Mage was the only class that had any sort of teleportation abilities, so it was logical that Swordmage would fit under that umbrella. When I settled on writing 3 slates (and on what shape those would take) the Mage became the Sage, with Wizard and Monk as its archetypes; it made sense to shift an archetype like Swordmage up to a "heavier" slot, like the d12.

As for another archetype to go with the Swordmage, probably one of the first names to come to mind was the Hexblade. In a slate of classes built around arcane magic and shadowy power, it made for a class with an interesting dichotomy to reflect that.

Though not as fiddly as the Essentials version of the class, the Hexblade as presented here takes inspiration from the Fey pact, with its focus on teleporting; this also serves to make this archetype a good fit for the umbrella class. The Hexblade also works well with the d12; it's basically a melee-focused version of the warlock, a class that naturally lends itself to the mechanic of burning reserves (of which d12 classes get the highest number) for powerful effects.

The name "Spellbinder" doesn't seem a great fit at first glance, but I think the archetype names themselves compliment one another. However, the definition of the word "spellbound" references distracting, fascinating, or holding someone's attention (either with the spoken word, or outright magic.) This seemed perfect for a class with one archetype that focuses on distracting enemies to protect their allies (Swordmage) and another that gains their attention in order to punish them even harder (Hexblade.)

I also had intentions of incorporating ideas from the "Binder" (warlock subclass in 4e) just to wrap the name up neatly, but a quick glance at that class showed it to be mostly a ranged version of the Hexblade, and so it was not really suited to a d12 class.


The Spellbinder caps off another slate!

Heroes of Magic & Shadow

• The Sage (d4)
• The Rogue (d6)
• The Bard (d8)
• The Mystic (d10)
• The Spellbinder (d12)

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All of the classes are now set! That means it's time to move on to other aspects of the game's design. Going forward, posts will likely focus on the "GM side" of the system, although player options may see some further tweaks and refinement.

TNP Design will be taking a short break for the holidays, but expect a new post on January 5th.

See you in 2017!

Blood from a Stone -- The Guardian and The Warrior (Beta 4)

Quickly posting the links for the new classes, then I will add content shortly:

• The Guardian (d6)
• The Warrior (d10)

Stay tuned!


The Warrior
As was mentioned in my post about The Rogue, I wanted to make a Scout class that was sort of like a "wilderness rogue." Simple enough, right? Well, the thing about that is, it means the class needs to be the skill specialist of its slate -- which is sort of hard, since a slate like "Heroes of the Wilderness" is bound to have a fair bit of redundancy in the skill department.

Originally, I was planning to have the class use the d6, and focus on two-weapon fighting (harkening to the Essentials version of the Scout -- a Ranger subclass.) A couple problems with this:

1. Already having a d6 Fighter class, with two-weapon fighting as one of its options.
2. Already having a d6 Rogue class, with skillfulness as a major focus. 

I could have easily just reused these mechanics, but it felt sort of wrong. I had "Guardian" penciled in for the d10 spot on this slate, but I decided to swap the two around. It was similar to how I moved Warlock to a d10 slot, when I split it off from the Sorcerer.

What results, is a melee-focused, damage-stacking class, built off exactly the die that is meant to be used that way. Making the "Skirmish" mechanic using a d10 necessitates it working and feeling differently than the Rogue's "Sneak Attack" and I think that's a good outcome.

Skills still presented a problem; I felt the class needed an "urban" archetype or possibly a "spy," to cover the more social-focused skills -- something a specialist should be able to do, but which didn't really fit with a Scout. After much mulling and conversation, the idea of making this archetype into a Skald just clicked.

As a class that exists in Pathfinder as having Bard and Barbarian as its "parent classes," it wasn't too much of a stretch to fit it onto this slate. Similar to a Bard, it made sense for the Skald to be good at social skills, as well as deception. It also gave me the opportunity to make a sort of "two-weapon fighting Barbarian," which I didn't feel worked well as a d12 class. It also sort of lends itself to the Skald being a class from "Heroes of the Feywild" in 4e D&D, as well as the dual-wielding, hidden Bard class from Diablo: Hellfire.

So what we end up with is a more narrowly-focused Fighter in terms of combat, and a more narrowly-focused Rogue in terms of skills. The Scout leans more towards a striker/lurker role, with Skald being more of a support class; each archetype then has a few Role options to choose from, to flesh them out and help them specialize a bit more.


The Guardian
As was mentioned in a previous post, the Guardian kind of grew from the necessity of a landing spot for the Shaman archetype, as well as wanting to do a take on the Warden from 4th Edition.

The name (I think) mainly came from the Warden's daily powers referencing them assuming a "guardian form." Essentially, what these powers do is give you a few passive bonuses (effectively, a stance) and then an attack power you can fire off on that turn, or later in the encounter. The idea from Essentials of using stance powers coupled with "Power Strike" (for both the Fighter and Ranger classes) sort of mimics this kind of mechanic.

However, the specific fluff for the Warden daily powers was not very consistent, so it was hard to come up with something that worked thematically, in as elegant a way as I would have hoped; I looked at the research I had done into the Warden, and mostly scrapped it all, instead going with something closer to the Essentials Ranger.

I tried to emulate something similar to the Stance/Power Strike mechanism, using the combination of totems and spirit manifestations, with burning reserves for more powerful effects. Combine all of that with the concept of using d6 as a damage-stacking class die, plus having a support archetype and a tank archetype (with totems allowing a further degree of role customization) and... there's a lot going on. I expect this class to change a fair bit in future drafts.

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I was kind of on a tight schedule with this post, and these two classes were probably the most work-intensive of the classes that needed to be completed. I might try and rewrite both of them when I have more time, or let that part shake out in playtesting.


In any case, "Heroes of the Wilderness" for Beta 4 is now a complete slate!

• Druid (d4)
• Guardian (d6)
• Ranger (d8)
• Warrior (d10)
• Barbarian (d12)

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Coming up on the next blogpost:

• The Warlord
• The Spellbinder

Check back on Dec. 20th!