I got fanmail!

Real, legitimate, non-spam fanmail!

I know!  I can’t believe it either.  It even included phrases like:

“Reading your response method was very refreshing… very pleasant.”

“I can’t believe the ease with which you speak of 4e, and haven’t even cracked the core books open!  You write like one of the game designers, and you write much more maturely than a college student…”

“I can’t wait until you have played it a while… I think your intellect and your personality will become a valuable resource for those of us who need a bit of re-set perspective.

It’s nice when someone says, “Did you look at it this way?” in a teaching, sharing sort of way.  And then, with delight, you say, “Oh!  No.. but.. wow!  Cooool!” “

“Your site, and your comments on other blogs, are fresh, witty, and enrich the people who read them, encouraging critical, creative thinking.”

and

“Be careful, because if Mearls reads your posts, they might try to kidnap you and let your vision guide the development of this edition over the next few years. :)”

It was in response to some comments of mine that I left on another blog, rather than this site in particular, but still.  It always surprises me that people read what I write.

In the same email exchange, however, I got asked some questions.  It seems that, despite the fact that I have yet to do a full readthrough of any of the three core 4e books, I have become somewhat of an authority on the subject, specifically character design.  If you disagree that I have become such an authority, shut up, I’m having a moment here!

So he asked me for my advice on converting two of the favourite characters/concepts of his group and players from 3e to 4e.  Well, I’m all too happy to oblige!

The first, well, it went as follows:

I have a zinger for you, which I may post to your site.  I had a friend play a drow cleric in Forgotten Realms which I ran, who worshipped an elven deity presented in Dragon magazine–Darahl Firecloak.  This god was lawful, not chaotic, and he was kinda a loner, he did not dwell in Arvandor.  His portfolio included earth and fire.  This drow thought of himself as an Illythiiri, a pre-cursed dark elf and was lawful good.  He was a great character.

How would you build a drow cleric that exhibited earth and fire divine powers?  Would you wait for the FRPG to detail genasai, or rework the powers?

First off, forget what you know from 3e.  3e mentality would go “Okay, so he needs to be a Cleric with Earth and Fire Divine spells.”  There is only one way to build such a character.  Maybe more if you count Shugenja, Favoured Souls, or Druids as variant Clerics.

Throw that all out in 4e!  Check out page 54-55 in the 4e PHB.  You’ve always been able to alter flavour text, but just in case they didn’t make it clear enough, it’s now in the freaking book!  So if something seems like it would fit mechanically, throw out the flavour that doesn’t fit, and you’re good!

So let’s start from scratch.  We need:

• drow
• LG
• worships screwy elf god
• fire powers
• earth powers
• divine flavour

So, let’s see.  We’ll start off assuming that the character is a primary healer, rather than a blaster.  Base class: Cleric.  Cleric actually gives a good number of fire powers.  And the many Cleric powers that do radiant damage can easily be reflavoured as divine fire.  Change the damage type to fire, if you want.  No problem.

Earth powers are somewhat more tricky, though, as it depends on what you mean.  There are a variety of spells that could be called Earth spells.  But let’s look at the Earth domain.

1. Magic Stone
2. Soften Earth and Stone
3. Stone Shape
4. Spike Stones
5. Wall of Stone
6. Stoneskin
7. Earthquake
8. Iron Body
9. Elemental Swarm

Now, some of these, of course, aren’t replicable.  And some (Magic Stone) don’t even really deserve to be attempted.  But we can take the flavour of all of this and build up a convincing fire/earth cleric.

How about we go level by level for a bit.  I won’t list every power or feat, but I’ll list the ones that work the best.  On top of these, you can reflavour as many other powers as you want.

1. Race: Drow
   Class: Cleric
   At-Will: Sacred Flame
   Daily: Avenging Flame
   Feat: Arcane Initiate (Thunder Wave as an Encounter power, reflavoured as follows:
   The ground before you ripples with force, tossing nearby enemies back with ease.
   Hey, look, we got in an “Earthquake” power, and we’re only level 1.)
2. Utility: Shield of Faith (Reflavoured something like this.*)
3. Okay, y’know what?  Ignoring the radiant powers, if you can’t figure out a way to reflavour either “Split the Sky” or “Command” into earth-based powers, you need some improv classes.  Here’s a hint: Change “Command” to attack Fort instead.
4. Feel free to grab the Novice Power feat and swap your level 1 encounter power for “Icy Terrain”.  Oh, wait, did I say Icy Terrain?  I meant “Spike Stones”!!  Just change the damage from cold to physical, and tada!
5. …really, do I need to continue with this?

Just continue that trend, and you’ll be fine.  Grab a new Wizard power when you find a good one that fits.  The level 9 Wall of Fire, or level 15 Wall of Ice (reflavoured, of course), for instance.  The only one I’d say is even a must-have, though, is the level 16 Utility spell: “Stoneskin”.

And if you’re GM’s feeling generous, it doesn’t hurt the game to allow the Cleric to use their holy symbol for the “Arcane” powers.  Just watch for broken unintended combinations, but feel free to do it.

(By the way, to continue a thought from above, if the character is to be a blaster, primarily, choose Wizard for your base class, call the powers “Divine”, and grab the Cleric multiclass feat (or even Warlord, for a more martial bent, if you don’t plan on taking any further Cleric powers) for Healing (or Inspiring) word.)

Warmage… well, this one’s just simple!

Do you want high, focused damage?  Base class Warlock (Infernal).  Do you want lots of big flashy area of effect spells?  Base class Wizard.

Whichever one you pick, focus on big damage spells, with some minor battlefield control to round yourself out, and cherry pick some powers from the other class for variety.

Grab damage bosting feats, and… well, whatever else you want, really!  I’d be sure to take History as a trained skill (for military history), but this is really a simple concept.

* Holy hell, there is a lot of Avatar fanart porn on the interwebs!  Never do an image search for any of the girls with SafeSearch off!  She’s 12 years old, FFS!

Today, though, I’m tackling something that I’ve been meaning to for a while.  Specifically, giving a bit of help to Noumenon, who is looking for some workable rules (and more to the point, a second opinion) about casting spells during social encounters.

His problem:

I would like a better way to handle “Charm Person” type spells. I can never start spellcasting in a conversation without making the person so suspicious my DM wants to roll initiative. I don’t want to be reduced to casting a flavorful spell like Hypnotism from around the corner, and I don’t want to waste my feats on silent spells.

Well, unfortunately, I can understand your DM’s point, but he’s taking it a bit too far.

When you cast a spell while someone’s watching you, if it has verbal or somatic components they are going to know you’re casting a spell.

That said, they won’t immediately attack you, unless they’re already unfriendly towards you.

But really, the biggest problem with your DM’s handling of the situation is timing.

Let’s say Tim the Rogue is talking to an unfriendly town guard, and decides to pull a knife and stab him.  Fine, surprise round, stabby, roll damage, and (if the target is still alive) roll for initiative.

So let’s say Billy the Wizard is talking to the same unfriendly guard, and decides to cast Charm Person.  Same thing, surprise round, cast spell, roll saving throw, determine effect.  THEN, if the spell failed, roll for initiative.

If the spell succeeded, the target’s attitude towards you should increase by 2 categories, after which they wouldn’t mind you casting a spell on them, as they’re friendly now.

If the spell fails, however, I’d say there’s a good chance that the target’s attitude towards you might change from unfriendly to hostile (or indifferent to unfriendly).  If the target has allies around, who aren’t targets of the spell, to witness this, they will also likely move down one step.

That said, there are ways to prevent people noticing the spell.  The primary one involves using the Bluff skill to create a distraction.  This should effectively prevent attitudes from dropping, if the save succeeds and the spell fails.  The alternative is, of course, preventing the target from hearing and seeing you while you cast.  Around the corner works (as long as you still have line of sight), but so does just being further away, or in a crowd.

So this one really isn’t a houserule, but rather advice on handling the situation.  I hope it proves helpful to
Noumenon and his DM, as well as anyone else with similar issues.

I have yet to tackle Tommi’s request from back in February, mostly due to lack of time, and then forgetting about it. :P  I may still, but it is quite the complex issue.  Additionally, I foresee at least some of that issue being dealt with by the new 4e rules.  We’ll have to see.

In the meantime, feel free to submit new questions the the Helpline, and I’ll do my best to answer them.