4e Mystic project

Well, not really.  I’ve decided to rename my take on the Monk class “Mystic Monk” in homage to the Cyclopedia’s Mystic class, in order to differentiate it from Wizards’ in-playtest monk class.  I made a few more changes, including one to an epic destiny feature I hadn’t previously noticed was broken (even for a level 30 ability).  I think it’s more or less in its final form now.  The one major thing I might change is the power source:  currently it’s still using Ki, which is deprecated.  Aside from that, I foresee no more than a few small tweaks as further play catches minor problems I’d previously missed.

There are design decisions I would make differently if I’d known when I started the project what I now know about the game.  I think the process has helped me get a better grasp of the way 4e classes work, though.  If I ever get the urge to write up another class, I’ll be able to apply what I’ve learned here.  And I’ll know what I’m getting into — 30 levels of powers is no easy task, I can tell you.

I think, in general, it might be a better idea to expand the system by homebrewing new class builds, rather than new classes entirely.  Sometimes, though, the existing classes just don’t come close to what you want, and that was the case for the monk when I began this project.  In the end, I guess it turned out pretty well.  It’s a straightforward class, but it seems to do what I meant it to, and it seems to be roughly balanced against other classes.

4e Monk project update

I’ve completed the latest revision to my 4e Monk project.  The largest changes this time around are to the Inner Eye and Quivering Palm mechanics.

Inner Eye no longer allows the use of Wis bonus to AC and Reflex instead of Dex or Int; feedback rightly pointed out that this made monks depend on too few attributes for comfort.  I think I willfully overlooked that for a while in an effort to preserve some of the traditional feel, but this way does work out a little bit better for gameplay.  As an alternative, instead of granting a straight +3 AC bonus, you could let Inner Eye provide half the monk’s Wis modifier; this is a little weaker at heroic levels and a little stronger at epic levels, but shouldn’t cause a large balance issue.  (Remember to round down, though.)

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News roundup

A couple of shorter topics that wouldn’t make for good single posts (at least by my wordy standards).

First, a quick update on my fourth-edition monk replacement class.  I made a number of minor changes a couple of days ago, and it’s looking good so far — at least at lower levels.  I still haven’t had a lot of opportunity to test it at high levels.  I have my eye on a couple of things that seem as though they might be overpowered right now (World Breaker’s Hand and the epic destiny “encounter-power-as-at-will-power” trait being the two biggest).

All told, balancing a class in 4e is a tricky process.  If any of you are actually using this class (or a variant) in play, I’d appreciate any feedback; it’ll help me get it to work.

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Gleemax’s Failure and other thoughts

At this point, it’s pretty old news that Wizard of the Coast’s Gleemax is dead.  (My excuse?  I don’t do news; I do commentary.)  At least, Gleemax will be dead in September, presuming one can consider it “alive” now.  And Wizards’ publishing arm is going to be pulling back to focus on its Magic: the Gathering and Dungeons & Dragons brands after the end of 2008.

There’s a lot of discussion about what exactly this means.  Randy Buehler’s post (which I thank Critical Hits for referring me to) reads, in part:

Wizards of the Coast has made the decision to pull down its Gleemax social networking site in order to focus on other aspects of our digital initiatives, especially Magic Online and Dungeons & Dragons Insider. We continue to believe that fostering online community is an important part of taking care of our customers, but until we have our games up and running at a quality level we can be proud of, it will be the games themselves that receive the lion’s share of our attention and resources. (emphasis added)

Chatty DM finds this an encouraging sign.  His is the guardedly optimistic approach:  that WotC has realized it’s overextended itself, trying to offer too much too soon, and is scaling back to concentrate on their key properties.  And, moreover, that this signifies a change in their… corporate policy, I suppose.  A redefinition of their scope of operations.  Working on doing a couple of things well, rather than a lot of things piecemeal.

I’d like to believe that.  Maybe I’m just a cynic, but I remember WotC’s earlier foray into the internet with the third-edition E-Tools.  In particular, I remember that grand promises were made, and that in the end the tools were delivered past deadline and missing promised features.  And that what features there were were not necessarily user-friendly.

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4e Monk project update

I updated my 4e Monk class somewhat.  Many of the powers were balanced around the assumption that a monk would be using a 1d6 attack and would not have access to striker bonus damage.

The first assumption was untrue because of their proficiencies, although its impact would be fairly minor.

The second assumption was untrue because of multiclassing, and was not so easily fixed.

Damage from powers has generally declined across the board, but the monk now has access to a 1d6/2d6/3d6 bonus damage effect.  He can apply this damage once per round when striking an enemy who is already under the effect of Quivering Palm.  The base Quivering Palm effect, in turn, is no longer limited to one target at a time; I’ll see whether that needs to change as I continue to test.

Aside from the damage, certain effects were changed or removed for balance purposes.

I haven’t yet gotten around to revising the paragon paths or epic destinies to match.  That’ll be my next step.  Some of those are pretty overpowered.