This can be for any reason; mechanically optimized (deva orb wizard), old favorite combo returning (half-orc barbarian, gnome bard), non-intuitive but effective (longtooth shifter polearm fighter, goliath melee-lock, dwarf shaman), or just plain quirky ideas (warforged druid, half-orc swordmage).
Personally, I'm quite excited to play a dragonborn dragon sorcerer or a drow wild sorcerer, because these were ideas I had kicking around in my head already that the system modeled poorly...a character who channels draconic power and a reckless drow magic-user hunting his father. I was trying to conceive them as warlocks until the sorcerer came along, and it's a much better fit...the sheer mechanical synergy is just a bonus.
I'm also very pleased that the half-orc has resurrected a Ruthless Ruffian build I was working on that demanded high Strength, Dexterity, and Constitution and was thus having accuracy problems late in the game.
Other concepts I hope to try:
Deva polearm taclord
Tiefling wild sorcerer
Dwarf shaman
Human avenger
Half-elf valorous bard
Shifter invoker
Elf druid
And he never wildshapes.
My character concept for Sylvahn Feychild, who in 3.5 was a elven warlock/side courtesian, will be realized fully now in 4e. I suppose he is an elf, but he might have been warped by the fey spirits that rescued him as a child enough to mutate his racial qualities to that of an eladrin. He has a pact with the fey, which gives him his favorite spell, eldrich blast, which he calles "Fey-fire," but he also has the powers to transform into and summon beasts... So, this puts him at an odd place racially and class-ly! lol Either way, he is fully possible now in 4e.
Wardens are tied to furries, I mean shifters, half-orcs, dwarves, and probably a couple other really ugly races that I have no interest in.
Invokers are...well, Deva, which is going to be awful Mary Sue candy for a long time. Dwarves and elves probably, too, neither of which are interesting to me, but I could tolerate Elf.
If I play them, I'll probably just end up Human. Though, maybe I could pull off a Tiefling Invoker...
Tieflings could be great balanced invokers if I'm not mistaken.
Salla's idea reminds me of how they went out of their way to put a shifter wizard iconic in the ECS; right after introducing the typical shifter, they used a highly atypical example character. And this was in 3E, where playing a -Int race as a wizard was pretty much made of fail. What's kind of neat is that both types of shifters should make more than adequate wizards now...Wisdom is very nice.
Dwarf Bard; My charismatic, tough dwarf lady gish finally has a class :D
I'm fairly sure Invoker is not a melee class...
Oops, how did that happen :embarrass ... Avenger, I meant.
Then again, I love making characters.
Feat text excerpt:
"When you use your shadow jaunt racial power, your
beast companion can teleport the same distance that
you teleport. You choose which one of you is insubstantial
at the end of the teleport."
Wardens are tied to furries, I mean shifters, half-orcs, dwarves, and probably a couple other really ugly races that I have no interest in.
How... revealing...
Half-Elf Bard
unsure of race, but I want to try a Paladin/Barbarian MC
How... revealing...
What's more interesting is that mpl considers playing a Tiefling, which really is not a pretty race; also that he (she?) considers Devas to be more Mary Sue material than any other fantasy race. ;)
So, race class combos I'm looking forward to:
Dragonborn Sorceror - Booya! What more needs to be said?
Deva Avenger, Orbwizard, Invoker or Cleric - I think I'm looking forward to the Avenger the most, but the others would be fun too.
Half-Elf Bard - It's nice to have more options for leaders. My Dragonborn Warlord is fun, but I'd like to try something different.
Actually, I would like to eventually play every class in PHB2 with the exception of the Barbarian. Of the races, Deva is the only one that strikes me. Most of the rest, I could care less about, but the Gnome I'd like to punt.
How... revealing...
I can't say anything, I consider visual appeal to be a perfectly valid reason for picking a race. It's one reason I don't play elves or eladrin; the ears don't do anything for me. Of course, I *am* a furry, so I'm really looking forward to full shifter racial writeups.
IMO Dwarves are one of the visually appealing races and Elves/Drow/Eladrin are infinitely times more Mary Sue material than Devas.
Deva any Divine Class
Drow Barbarian
Halfling Barbarian
If there is a feat to make it worth it, Drow Shaman-Dark Pact Warlock multiclass
or
If there is a feat to make it worth it Halfling Shaman.
Shifter ranger
Half-elf Dhampyr Bard
Gnome rogue or artificer-rogue/rogue-artificer
Shifter Druid
Goliath Warden or Barbarian
i'll have to homebrew a dracolexi paragon path >_<
What's more interesting is that mpl considers playing a Tiefling, which really is not a pretty race; also that he (she?) considers Devas to be more Mary Sue material than any other fantasy race. ;)
Ugly is not only the opposite of pretty. Dragonborn, for example, look neat. They are not ugly or pretty. Now, I still wouldn't want to play one because I'd have a hell of a time actually getting into a character that looked so alien.
Deva is a race I would like in theory, except that they are fluffed as reincarnated, and I'm not a fan of that, and they're practically angels. Everyone's going to want broken wings and crap like that. Elves have too much baggage. I don't know, they were cool when I was 10. Eladrin have the same problem, except they can teleport and that might override my disinterest. Drow are ok, but, I don't like Strikers and not much else uses that stat spread. Dwarves have abilities I love, but...the men are so craggy and hairy...some of the women look nice, but the men...
So, I like Tieflings. They have bonuses to my two favorite stats. I'm not big on their backstory, but whatever. They look basically human with some horns or whatever. No big deal, nothing says they have to be huge. I like Genasi, because again, they look basically human with some cool glowy tattoos. Humans and Half-Elves look, well normal.
The true outlier is that I love Kobolds. I have no idea why. They have always been my favorite non-standard race and would continue to be so if their stats weren't so...weird. Dex and Con? Nothing uses that. I'd be a Kobold Warden, but the small size kills big weapon use.
But anyway, girls get more good looking options. No fair. (And no, playing a girl did not go over well.)
- Minotaur Shaman. Based off a favorite 3e (human then but the same 'character)/WoW character.
- Minotaur Barbarian. Same as above, but never got to play him in 3e (darned level adjustments).
- Human Invoker of Ioun, or maybe Erathis. I always like Human controllers, the extra at-will option always seems nice to have. Invoker just seems awesome.
- Remaking my Dwarf Cleric as a Dwarf Avenger.
- Reflavor an Elven 'Storm Wizard' idea I had as an Elven Druid.
- A Warden of some sort. Like the class so far, but I'll need to see the full write-up/feats/etc. to be inspired for a full character concept.
- A Deva of some sort. Same reasons as Warden.
I may be inclined to make some Shifters once I read more of the fluff. Any of the new deities in PH2 could also easily spawn new character concepts.
Already tried out two of them a little bit, but here's my initial few PH2 concepts, in somewhat order of likeliness to happen:
- Minotaur Shaman. Based off a favorite 3e (human then but the same 'character)/WoW character.
- Minotaur Barbarian. Same as above, but never got to play him in 3e (darned level adjustments).
- Human Invoker of Ioun, or maybe Erathis. I always like Human controllers, the extra at-will option always seems nice to have. Invoker just seems awesome.
- Remaking my Dwarf Cleric as a Dwarf Avenger.
- Reflavor an Elven 'Storm Wizard' idea I had as an Elven Druid.
- A Warden of some sort. Like the class so far, but I'll need to see the full write-up/feats/etc. to be inspired for a full character concept.
- A Deva of some sort. Same reasons as Warden.
I may be inclined to make some Shifters once I read more of the fluff. Any of the new deities in PH2 could also easily spawn new character concepts.
New deities?
I get to recreate a NPC from an earlier edition as a PC, a minotaur gladiator, a deva whose last incarnation didn't go quite right so he re-incarnates as a barbarian and perhaps a goliath warden.
Bel
Goodness. All the trouble will be picking one.
A Warforged Avenger comes in at a pretty close second; the picture in my head of it is simply priceless.
New deities?
I'm probably wrong, but I have in my head that somewhere it was mentioned that they were bringing back some old deities in PH2, namely St. Cuthbert. Or maybe I'm thinking of DP, or I'm just crazy
Gnome bard -- I keep meaning to make one, but I never seem to get a chance. Now seems like a good time.
Half-elf bard -- I want to try both sides of the bard.
Deva avenger -- Looks like fun, both the class and the race. Might try a dwarf avenger instead, even if it's not as optimized.
I'm probably wrong, but I have in my head that somewhere it was mentioned that they were bringing back some old deities in PH2, namely St. Cuthbert. Or maybe I'm thinking of DP, or I'm just crazy
To the best of my recollection they haven't said they were going to do that. I recall one poster who thought they were going to, so you might have read his opinion and thought it was something that was confirmed. *shrugs* Oh they are going to introduce primal spirits though. Those are beings that are basically diety level.
X Avenger
Dwarf Avenger of Moradin. His cloth armor is smiths clothing and we wears a giant hammer (Mordenkrad ?) to forge the world into a better place
Also, Warforged Infernal Warlock McAvenger. Not sure on the stat synergies off the top of my head but it would be interesting flavor-wise.
EDIT: Would a Warforged Druid wild-shape into mechanical beasts?
"I wild-shape into an Iron Defender!"A razor claw shifter with the predator aspect Druid would be a fun multi-class as well, lots of claws and shape-shifting.
Looking forward to a Deva, just not sure what type.
EDIT: Would a Warforged Druid wild-shape into mechanical beasts?
No.
Dragonborn Rogue with the Barbarian MC feat and Adept Power (Thunder Hawk Rage, assuming it isn't changed from the preview version.) Once per day, in one encounter I can knock prone an adjacent enemy every round until I'm KO'd? Yes, please.
I'm pretty sure that power was pretty much specifically called out as ridiculous, and was one of the planned changes.
EDIT: Would a Warforged Druid wild-shape into mechanical beasts?
That's totally what I would do if I made a Warforged Druid :D.
OK, then ... how about a Wolf or other dog-like creature that just happens to *look* like an Iron Defender? Basically, since the Warforged it made of metal and wood, should it be able to wild-shape into something with flesh?
I'm agreeing fully with you. There is no rule "All wildshape forms must look like a real animaly/beast/thingy. I would totaly allow it. It hinders a Druid in more situation than it helps. Try to hide in the woods while looking like a zoid without the weapons.
OK, then ... how about a Wolf or other dog-like creature that just happens to *look* like an Iron Defender? Basically, since the Warforged it made of metal and wood, should it be able to wild-shape into something with flesh?
The druid wild-shape description specifies you turn into a 'natural or fey beast', or the generic Primal Beast, which leaves out constructs, RAW.
If you want to house rule it, knock yourself out.
1. Drow/Avenger
2. Shifter/Aerialist Rogue
3. Gnome(deep hopefully)/Bard
4. Doppleganger/Bard
A half-orc or two played against type, but I'll have to wait and see the details. In 3.0 I had a half-orc sorcerer (which might not be as unusual flavorwise in 4e); ranger with Foe Hunter PrC, his hated enemy was orcs; and druid (he hated his appearance - his goal was to qualify for the Shifter PrC (=3.5 Master of Many Shapes), which allowed humanoid wildshape).
A razorclaw shifter TWF ranger - the name's Logan, Bub.
Maybe a bard or barbarian - they never interested me in earlier editions, but I might give the new versions some consideration.
I don't have DDI, so I don't know enough about the rest to speculate. I'll just wait and see.
Oh, and my 2 cp on the warforged druid question: Fluff =/= crunch - you can use the stats of a natural or fey creature and still look like a leather-and-wood construct (after all, warforged use the same mechanics as non-construct races).
Something Deva, just kinda like them, maybe, depending on what comes out in Arcane Power, Swordmage.
Not too much else running through my mind right now as far as PH2, really liking the classes, races are pretty cool.
Also, Unknown, the druid was pretty much made with Fluff != Crunch in mind, wildshape doesn't change your stats at all, just allows you to use powers with the Beast Keyword, and disallows others.
-Deva Avenger
-Human Druid