A Few Questions about Creating a Class [Archive] - Wizards Community

A Few Questions about Creating a Class [Archive] - Wizards Community

Post/Author/DateTime Post
Angelic_Demon
11-17-07, 06:00 PM I'm in the process of creating a new class, but I had a couple of questions before I crack down on building it...here's a little bit of background information on this class.

The class is called the Chosen. Basically, they're ordinary people who have been granted special abilities because their ancestors have been touched by deities. (This is a special group of people in a story I'm writing, and they each share in common the fact that they have an ancestor whose genes were altered to make them more powerful)

The first question is this: what should this fall under? Prestige or Base class? (Or even race?) Chosen are generally able to be what they want class-wise, but they get special abilities from their deity. But the problem I have is that I don't know of any specific requirements for becoming a Chosen. So one could hypothetically become a Chosen at level 1 (Or 2, if I don't know the rules of PrC's correctly)

So then, I figured...well, what about race? Maybe it's a custom race? But on the basis of the story the Chosen appear in, they can be any race, so long as their ancestors were touched by a god. It's clear that this is a problem. What do you think about what it should be?

The second question is more rule-based, since I don't have an available book on hand. I've looked at a few custom PrC's and BC's, and I noticed a few special classifications for abilities. What, exactly, do these mean? (They come directly after an ability, and I've seen both (Ex) and (Su))

I would appreciate any help that anyone can offer to me. I'd like to get started on this new BC/PrC/Race as soon as possible, and I need this information to begin.
dman11235
11-17-07, 06:16 PM Okay, first here. (http://forums.gleemax.com/leaving.php?destination=http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php%3Ft%3D55947) But it looks like this should be a template. Kind of like half-celestial. In fact, that may just work for what you want, they have celestial, fiendish, anarchic, and axiomatic (not sure the proper names, they're in the Planar Handbook), so that's every alignment.

As for (ex), (su), and (sp), they denote extraordinary, supernatural, and spell-like abilities respectively, and have been used since the PHB. For further info check out the PHB or the SRD (link in my sig) under "special abilities".

And if you do want a class for this, look at the Favored Soul (CDivine) and flavor it slightly differently.
Cartigan
11-17-07, 06:20 PM Sounds like the Favored Soul class, but whatever. I'm sure that could use a reworking anyway. What you want also does sound like a template.
Alpha_Moose
11-17-07, 06:29 PM First I would look at the link that dman11235 has. It's OneWinged4ngel's "On the Philosophy of Class Design" and it has very good ideas.

On to your ideas. First off, think if this actually has to be a class, or even if there has to be any special rules governing the 'Chosen'. Could they just be other random classes and explain their abilities by their touch of the divine? You could have Sorcerers, Clerics, Druids, or even Barbarians and simply reflavor them so that their abilities all come from their ancestry. This is probably the easiest if you want to represent a wide array of powers.

If you want rules governing this or don't want a character's entire abilities to come from them being 'Chosen', you could either use templates (as dman11235 has said) or you could use modified versions of Dragonmarks from the Eberron Campaign Setting. If you don't have it they are basically (mechanically) feats that grant people a spell-like ability. There are least, lesser, and greater versions of the marks (a feat chain similar to Weapon Focus). There's also Bloodlines (http://www.systemreferencedocuments.org/35/sovelior_sage/unearthedBloodlines.html) and Spelltouched Feats (http://www.systemreferencedocuments.org/35/sovelior_sage/unearthedSpelltouchedFeats.html) from Unearthed Arcana that can give you some ideas.
dman11235
11-17-07, 06:50 PM You could even use the CChampion alternate class features to signify this. It's all about the divine, so that works well. Oh, and sorcerer does already have the flavor of "my ancestor was an X", as does the warlock (a bit). And one class that I like that Rich Burlew made is called the Champion, it's on the GiantITP site under Gaming.
Angelic_Demon
11-18-07, 04:07 AM Thanks for the responses! They're helping me as I start to flesh out this new...thing. So after reading some of these, I have to ask a few additional questions.

First off, how exactly do Templates work? It's looking like the most viable option for the Chosen, but Wikipedia doesn't provide much information, and while I did find a nifty chart of most (If not all) of the different Templates, but it doesn't provide a whole lot of information to help. This leads me to the next question...

One point about the Chosen is that they don't necessarily know about their heritage right from the start. Some of the characters who are Chosen in the storyline I wrote learned that they were Chosen at a later age, and from there they were able to start evolving their powers. That's one reason why I thought it should be a PrC, because it's a slow process. So my next question is this: does a Template allow characters to have altered stats, but still have growth like a class does?

I looked over the various Templates that WotC built (I presume), and it looks pretty promising. The only problem here is the growth, which is why my first thought was a PrC or BC. I appreciate all the help.
dman11235
11-18-07, 08:19 AM That's where Bloodlines (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/variant/races/bloodlines.htm) come in. They let you apply a "template" over time as you realize your ancestry.
Angelic_Demon
11-24-07, 03:17 AM Alright. Looks like Chosen is a Bloodline. But now the last thing that remains is creating the actual Bloodline, and getting approval from my playgroup. So...since I don't really want to post this on the boards right away until it's complete, (Plus, I have no idea where, if anywhere, it would be posted) could anybody who is fairly good at judging if a Bloodline is decent or not send me a PM and I'll post the alpha version?

I'm worried that my inexperience in creation for D&D will cause this one to be overpowered. Underpowered isn't really a problem...I just think I may have gone a tad overboard.

Post/Author/DateTime	Post
Angelic_Demon 11-17-07, 06:00 PM	I'm in the process of creating a new class, but I had a couple of questions before I crack down on building it...here's a little bit of background information on this class. The class is called the Chosen. Basically, they're ordinary people who have been granted special abilities because their ancestors have been touched by deities. (This is a special group of people in a story I'm writing, and they each share in common the fact that they have an ancestor whose genes were altered to make them more powerful) The first question is this: what should this fall under? Prestige or Base class? (Or even race?) Chosen are generally able to be what they want class-wise, but they get special abilities from their deity. But the problem I have is that I don't know of any specific requirements for becoming a Chosen. So one could hypothetically become a Chosen at level 1 (Or 2, if I don't know the rules of PrC's correctly) So then, I figured...well, what about race? Maybe it's a custom race? But on the basis of the story the Chosen appear in, they can be any race, so long as their ancestors were touched by a god. It's clear that this is a problem. What do you think about what it should be? The second question is more rule-based, since I don't have an available book on hand. I've looked at a few custom PrC's and BC's, and I noticed a few special classifications for abilities. What, exactly, do these mean? (They come directly after an ability, and I've seen both (Ex) and (Su)) I would appreciate any help that anyone can offer to me. I'd like to get started on this new BC/PrC/Race as soon as possible, and I need this information to begin.
dman11235 11-17-07, 06:16 PM	Okay, first here. (http://forums.gleemax.com/leaving.php?destination=http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php%3Ft%3D55947) But it looks like this should be a template. Kind of like half-celestial. In fact, that may just work for what you want, they have celestial, fiendish, anarchic, and axiomatic (not sure the proper names, they're in the Planar Handbook), so that's every alignment. As for (ex), (su), and (sp), they denote extraordinary, supernatural, and spell-like abilities respectively, and have been used since the PHB. For further info check out the PHB or the SRD (link in my sig) under "special abilities". And if you do want a class for this, look at the Favored Soul (CDivine) and flavor it slightly differently.
Cartigan 11-17-07, 06:20 PM	Sounds like the Favored Soul class, but whatever. I'm sure that could use a reworking anyway. What you want also does sound like a template.
Alpha_Moose 11-17-07, 06:29 PM	First I would look at the link that dman11235 has. It's OneWinged4ngel's "On the Philosophy of Class Design" and it has very good ideas. On to your ideas. First off, think if this actually has to be a class, or even if there has to be any special rules governing the 'Chosen'. Could they just be other random classes and explain their abilities by their touch of the divine? You could have Sorcerers, Clerics, Druids, or even Barbarians and simply reflavor them so that their abilities all come from their ancestry. This is probably the easiest if you want to represent a wide array of powers. If you want rules governing this or don't want a character's entire abilities to come from them being 'Chosen', you could either use templates (as dman11235 has said) or you could use modified versions of Dragonmarks from the Eberron Campaign Setting. If you don't have it they are basically (mechanically) feats that grant people a spell-like ability. There are least, lesser, and greater versions of the marks (a feat chain similar to Weapon Focus). There's also Bloodlines (http://www.systemreferencedocuments.org/35/sovelior_sage/unearthedBloodlines.html) and Spelltouched Feats (http://www.systemreferencedocuments.org/35/sovelior_sage/unearthedSpelltouchedFeats.html) from Unearthed Arcana that can give you some ideas.
dman11235 11-17-07, 06:50 PM	You could even use the CChampion alternate class features to signify this. It's all about the divine, so that works well. Oh, and sorcerer does already have the flavor of "my ancestor was an X", as does the warlock (a bit). And one class that I like that Rich Burlew made is called the Champion, it's on the GiantITP site under Gaming.
Angelic_Demon 11-18-07, 04:07 AM	Thanks for the responses! They're helping me as I start to flesh out this new...thing. So after reading some of these, I have to ask a few additional questions. First off, how exactly do Templates work? It's looking like the most viable option for the Chosen, but Wikipedia doesn't provide much information, and while I did find a nifty chart of most (If not all) of the different Templates, but it doesn't provide a whole lot of information to help. This leads me to the next question... One point about the Chosen is that they don't necessarily know about their heritage right from the start. Some of the characters who are Chosen in the storyline I wrote learned that they were Chosen at a later age, and from there they were able to start evolving their powers. That's one reason why I thought it should be a PrC, because it's a slow process. So my next question is this: does a Template allow characters to have altered stats, but still have growth like a class does? I looked over the various Templates that WotC built (I presume), and it looks pretty promising. The only problem here is the growth, which is why my first thought was a PrC or BC. I appreciate all the help.
dman11235 11-18-07, 08:19 AM	That's where Bloodlines (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/variant/races/bloodlines.htm) come in. They let you apply a "template" over time as you realize your ancestry.
Angelic_Demon 11-24-07, 03:17 AM	Alright. Looks like Chosen is a Bloodline. But now the last thing that remains is creating the actual Bloodline, and getting approval from my playgroup. So...since I don't really want to post this on the boards right away until it's complete, (Plus, I have no idea where, if anywhere, it would be posted) could anybody who is fairly good at judging if a Bloodline is decent or not send me a PM and I'll post the alpha version? I'm worried that my inexperience in creation for D&D will cause this one to be overpowered. Underpowered isn't really a problem...I just think I may have gone a tad overboard.