It's an interesting idea. With its power list, it reads much like a normal class, but being Multiclass-only, it allows anyone from anywhere to dabble in being a supernatural mutant without having to sacrifice their original class or power source. One spellscarred could be tossing fire and flame, another could have a twisted, otherworldly limb which slapped enemies through dimensions. No two spellscarred are alike, yet they could still be bound together into one pool of powers. And it has got me thinking, yes indeed.
Could we have more?
Specifically, is anyone else interested in further pseudo-classing, tropes and traits distilled into multiclassing bundles for anyone to use? Offhand, it seems like a great idea to take general concepts, ones not tied directly to power sources or classes, and place them into the hands of the PCs. Moreover, it allows a general concept, such as the already present Magical Mutation, to have a wide variety of traits. Broader than a template, the multiclassing options mean a PC can pick and choose which aspects of the pseudo-class fits his character.
For example...
1) Lycanthropy. Sometimes, that hickey you got from your night of pub crawling means a little more than you thought. We could try to make a werebear, a wererat, a werewolf, a werelion, a werewalrus, and a werenewt, or we could just distill the idea of -thropy into its core essence. A quick feat later, and we can have a bunch of multiclassing powers relating to shifting, healing non-silvery damage, increased physical might, and a nifty selection of animal senses and abilities. When you get infected, hair starts growing all over your palms, you wake up in the middle of the night covered in sticky fluid, and you're getting certain....urges....all you have to do is take a multiclass feat and choose which powers fit your chosen were-animal best. And thus, your inner beast awakens.
2) What most scholars and scientists refer to as "The Deadsies." Kind of like lycanthropy, a lot of different people from many walks of life can end up undead. Sometimes, you want to play a Mummy Rogue, a Wight Warden, a Spectral Swordmage, or a Banshee Bard. Meanwhile, we can distill a lot of the undead traits into a slew of abilities and powers (for those of you who have played Deadlands, think the Harrowed's list of possible powers). The Ghost Wizard takes hovering and phasing powers. The Ghoul Ranger spends his feats gaining more speed and a devastating immobilizer. The Vampire Druid decides that he's got the bat thing covered, so he takes a nifty incorporeal power to mimic mist, plus a claw attack for good measure. The aforementioned Spectre Swordmage, however, can take the same hovering power as the Ghost and the same immobilizer as the Ghoul...but end up a completely different undead. From a certain pool of powers, many possible combinations could be made to embody different types of necrotic charactatures.
3) The Red-Headed Stepchildren. Let's face it. Some concepts just never made it. Perhaps it's the Spellthief, who would work wonders within the new power system, but doesn't justify a class unto itself. Or it's the Blue Mage, able to throw back anything a monster hits him with, perfectly duplicated. Maybe it's the Lockdown trope, able to shut down supernatural abilities, counterspell like no other, or otherwise disable special moves at the cost of his own action.
....Or maybe it's a trend. We can gather together tropes, like the above, into a pseudo-class of its own, based around stealing, disabling, changing, redirecting, mimicking, or outright manipulating the powers of an enemy. Balance it, write it up, and suddenly your Rogue can steal spells, your wizard can counter, your sorcerer can discover blue magic, all with the same multiclass feat.
Or maybe we take other tropes, things that were too specific, too unwieldy, or too outlandish to merit their own class writeup. Grouping them together, we can find mechanical or thematic similarities that bring them together into one, united pool. And thus, a new pseudo-class is born, able to cater to a wide variety of niche ideas.
There are bound to be more possibilities out there, things we can't justify as a full class around which to create a character skeleton. But we can certainly find other ideas, things to give a heart to that anatomical metaphor, creating pseudo-classes and paragon paths to allow our characters to dabble in unique and flavorful abilities.
So. Anyone also interested, perhaps perceiving possibilities previously passed over?
Edit: I cannot spell pseudo. This depresses me.
In fact, the new Assassin article in Dragon has a TON of pseudo-classes.
This could also pretty much generally replicate Racial Paragon classes. I would have liked to see something like this for racial modifications to base classes instead of all the racially specific Paragon Paths. Instead of waiting until you're level 10 to make a Drow Warlock that specializes in Shadows, make it a series of feats that grant replacements for the powers at lower levels.
I am working on a multi-class for my home game, basically it's a scion of tyrannical witch queens who were tempted by an artifact - their powers of dream-walking, shifting age, adapting to magic, and other unique abilities have filtered down to their descendents.
I'm sure we'll see this area tapped in other products, especially Dragon and campaign settings.
I think it would be the best outlet for a Martial Controller too. Since most concepts proposed either fall in the 'Weapon Specialisation Multiclass' type or are too narrow to create multiple builds over 30 levels you could easily conceive of replacement powers to enforce a secondary controller rolle for Martial classes.
You could also create a Samurai pseudo-class to help encompass the various types of Samurai that one would want.
Looking over the Spellscarred, I was puzzled. Then perplexed. Then perturbed. Then pensive. Then, finally, pleased.
At any point were you peeved? If not, then posing a preposterous point I propose a pointedly pompous particular that picks at your poisonous postulate. This power of persuasion that you so plentifully provide proves quite perplexing to the popular people. In pondering positively about your passionate pensive I am persuaded to proliferate pronouns and say pbpbpbpbpbpbpbpbpbpbp (raspberry)
At any point were you peeved? If not, then posing a preposterous point I propose a pointedly pompous particular that picks at your poisonous postulate. This power of persuasion that you so plentifully provide proves quite perplexing to the popular people. In pondering positively about your passionate pensive I am persuaded to proliferate pronouns and say pbpbpbpbpbpbpbpbpbpbp (raspberry)
That totally goes in my sig now!That aside, I'd actually really love to see more of the Spellscarred type of class. While Weapon Mastery and Dampyr are similar, they dont have the sheer range of powers to choose from that Spellscarred was given. I would totally support the creation of more classes like that. I think the idea of the Undead powers would be an interesting idea - though I'd hazard the guess that it would be difficult to balance. The idea of a Controlling type class would be good too - theres lots of concepts out there that might benefit from such a thing.
At any point were you peeved? If not, then posing a preposterous point I propose a pointedly pompous particular that picks at your poisonous postulate. This power of persuasion that you so plentifully provide proves quite perplexing to the popular people. In pondering positively about your passionate pensive I am persuaded to proliferate pronouns and say pbpbpbpbpbpbpbpbpbpbp (raspberry)
My hat.
To thee I doth tip it.
Watch for other popular concepts to end up here. The necromancer is tipped to end up as its own class, maybe in PHB3, but the developers could decide that working with the dead can be done across the board, and therefore turn the necro into a 'pseudo-class'. Illusionist is another candidate, as is knight or maybe witch.
The Duelist - A Martial class add-on, with a mixture of Stiker and Defender power. Base power combines marking and a Quarry like feature.
Ley Priest - A divine add-on class, with basic access to a channel divinity power.
After I've had a chance to read through PHB II and get a feel for Primal, I'll probably do some sort of Atavist as a Primal MOC.
Ley Priest - A divine add-on class, with basic access to a channel divinity power.
Player: My character found religion. I need to start taking levels in Cleric now.
No you don't!
I've been trying to think of a good name for the "multi-class-only" class concept, without success. "Pseudo-class" is a possibility, though not one I've warmed to yet due to it reminding me of 'pseudoscience'. Looking at it from a Java coding point of view, a multiclass-only class would be an interface, though I doubt that name will catch on.
Watch for other popular concepts to end up here. The necromancer is tipped to end up as its own class, maybe in PHB3, but the developers could decide that working with the dead can be done across the board, and therefore turn the necro into a 'pseudo-class'. Illusionist is another candidate, as is knight or maybe witch.
Perhaps the term "Demi-Class" or "Para-Class" might suffice?
I could see it being used for the old domain/spheres concept, and 'spell school' specialization where you specialize in a certain theme of magic.
Alechemist. Give some cool ranged attacks to martial heroes.
Sorry, the ALCHEMIST is already a Class, a Multiclass, and a ritual-esque concept that anyone can use without using multiple feats or being a particular class.
That's right. The Assassin Dragon article featured one of its many multiclasses a Poison Expert / Apothecary. Alchemy is the ritual-esque feature you can take with a feat or get for free in many classes, and it's detailed in Adventurers Vault. And the class I speak of will come with Eberron - the other build of the Artificer seems to promise an Alchemist class. That is, the other class feature for the Artificer, the one that hasn't been detailed (unlike Restorative Formula), is called Curative Admixture. If that wasn't a cue for a cauldron/potion maker, I don't know what is.