Anyone tried playing on yet? What "god team" did you support?
How would you convert the Invoker to 3.5? An Archivist from Heroes of Horror?
-Well, what is it, to begin with?
Heh, that would help.
how many classes will 4e have, all the combinations, 50+?
personally don't like it, that's why we play with only three classes, and it's almost a classless system
my impression on it, it's greed
how many classes will 4e have, all the combinations, 50+?
personally don't like it, that's why we play with only three classes, and it's almost a classless system
-Hey, 3e had plenty of classes, and plenty of Prestige Classes. Same thing with 2e, with the Kits. I find no problem, there. I'd rather have a lot than a little, with too much choice rather than not enough.
The Invoker class is to come out in PH2 and is a divine controller class. They have a distinct anti-primordial theme in that they hold allegiance to a single diety but serve and call upon all groups of dieties to hamper and destroy in divine fire all who oppose the gods. Their ancient power is rumored to come from a divine fragment of their god invested by personal ritual into the invokers themselves, but getting audience to the ritual is even more secret and difficult. They use rods and staffs as implements for their prayers. They are rumored to have been the first allies to the gods during the ancient primordial-god conflict.
-So...They are Clerics who serve entire pantheons? That's nothing new.
-The main problem is that the Faerûnian Pantheon is a misnomer, and you probably know. It's make more sense to have them worship and be empowered by regional pantheons, or if you want to use the 4e data, specific deities and their exarches and servants, in a sort of self-contained pantheon.
I'd divide Invokers in a regional aprouch too.
In the 14th century realms some of the following organisations might have had invokers among them (I like to link them to the broader monastic monk and paladin orders):
The Triadic Knights_____Torm Tyr Ilmater Helm (Hoar?)
The Zhentharim________Bane Cyric Loviatar Garagos Beshaba (Hoar?)
The Old Order_________not sure wich gods... the seven old gods perhaps?
The Order of Sun Soul__Selune Lathander Sune Sharess Tymorra
The Suns of Ankh______The Mulhorandi pantheon
The Scribes of Adama___Semphar's traditional (divine) values
The Runestaffs________ adapted from the Runeclaws, Luthic's ancient female orc monk order; works for or against the orcish pantheon when it benfits their freedom
The Eyes of Gruumsh___Nuf said.
The Voice of Hin ______the halfling pantheon
Knights of the Weave__the gods of Dweamerhart
These characters would make good teacher or advisor figures.
I think in 4E this class loses some of the regional/racial pantheon charm if they leave the class unchanged. It will be alot easier to implement though, as not much else than the channel divinity powers can determine the flavour of your invoker. It's also more lenient in the choice of gods, so a Onal'Tel Seldarine would invoke Correllon for magic but Lolth for power in shadows aswell, as the racial gods aren't as isolated anymore.
Emerald Enclave (Eldath, Mielikki, Silvanus) and the druids of the Tall Trees
Knights in Silver (Mielikki, Lurue, Mystra, Selune, Sehanine Moonbow)
Moonstars (Sehanine Moonbow, Oghma, Mystra)
Order of the Crescent Moon (Clangeddin and Selune)
Fangshields (Lurue, Nobanion, Selune)
Fellowship of the Purple Staff (Helm, Lathander, Sune, Chauntea, Selune, Nobanion)
Zakhara would have lots of these Invokers
not sure about Kara-Tur
At the dawn of time, the gods who inhabited the Astral Sea warred with the primordials of the Elemental Chaos, the mighty beings who shaped the world out of formless void. The greatest of the gods' mortal agents in that war were invokers, imbued with a fragment of the gods' own might to fight alongside them. No other mortal servant of the gods can claim the same kind of power. Through rites of investiture, avengers, clerics, and paladins gain the ability to manifest echoes of that power, uttering careful prayers and channeling divine energy through their holy symbols. You, however, channel your god's power directly. No mere symbol can contain it, for you speak the words of creation, shaping the universe to your and your god's will.
Perhaps you were trained in a secret monastery, or you studied in a library where the universe's oldest lore was preserved. Or perhaps you experienced the presence of your god firsthand and took a shard of divine power into yourself. You might even be an immortal born into flesh, slowly awakening to the awesome divine power that is your birthright. Whatever your past, you are among the gods' most trusted servants, bound to a covenant in which you swore to use divine power with great care. To what end will you wield that might?
Invoker Overview
Characteristics: Your powers are aimed at controlling your foes: slowing, stopping, or compelling their movement; weakening their attacks; or hedging them in zones of divine fire. You summon angelic beings to face your enemies, and you empower your allies to fight with divine fervor.
Religion: Like clerics, invokers can worship any deity, but few invokers serve gods who are newer arrivals to the pantheon, such as the Raven Queen and Vecna. Invokers dedicated to Bahamut often revere Tiamat as well, worshiping those two gods as the two halves of the slain dragon-god Io. More than most other divine characters, invokers offer prayers to and call on favors from the entire pantheon, for all the gods, whatever their alignments, fought together against the primordials.
Races: Dwarves and devas make particularly good invokers; both the dwarven devotion to the gods and the devas' heritage lend themselves to the invoker's worldview. Ancient and long-lived, eladrin and elves have a racial memory that keeps alive the legends of the first wars between the gods and the primordials, and the two races often follow in the paths of the first invokers. Invokers can be found among all races, however.
Implements
Invokers do not make use of holy symbols, since they believe that their magic predates and transcends such representations of divine power. Instead, invokers make use of rods and staffs as representations of the gods' dominion over the world.
Invokers and Deities
Choice of Deity: Like other divine characters, invokers are dedicated servants of one or more deities. Most invokers devote themselves to a single deity, but all invokers recognize the entire pantheon as worthy of respect (see "Deities," Player's Handbook, page 20). Whereas a cleric might revere Corellon and despise Lolth as a rival and enemy, an invoker dedicated to Corellon recognizes Lolth and her servants as comrades in arms against the forces that seek to destroy the world and the gods. That's not to say that you can't oppose the evil schemes of Lolth's followers if you're dedicated to Corellon, only that you shouldn't lose sight of the grander scheme of things.
Choice of Alignment: Invokers don't gain their power through rites of investiture or ordination, as avengers, clerics, and paladins do. You bear the touch of your god's own hand on your soul, a direct channel through which divine power can flow into the world, shaped by your will. Because you strive to bring your will into perfect accordance with your deity's, your alignment must match your deity's. For instance, an invoker of Moradin must be lawful good, an invoker of Pelor must be good, and an invoker of Ioun must be unaligned.
Could the be split up by domains? Like a group of gods that do knowledge and a group that does music and entertainment..? wait. that's more of a 3e concept. Not that many gods anymore...
Or does the new FRCG tell us the godswar was held in the days prior to the rise of the creator races?
Another way to introduce/deferentiate realmsian invokers could be by divine imagration waves of the gods. So each godly interloper would have its own imigrants of invokers. Mulhorand, Untheric, Netherese, Imaskari, Northfolk, Shou etc. could each have their own minipantheon following invokers.
Groups based on Alignment (IE Lawful Good, Chaotic Evil)
Groups based on Sphere (IE War, Love)
Groups based on Origins ( IE Faerun, Mulhordhi)
Groups based on Race (IE Dwarves, Elves)
Groups based on Divine Alliances (Pentad, Harper gods)
Groups based on Home Plane (IE Gates of the Moon, Banehold)
Things like that might work better then Pantheon as it is not as unified.
I think race or a vaguely related set of goals would be closer to the patheonic ties as described in the quote above. Something like "advancement of all dwarves" or "protection of nature at all costs" seems to be more the kind of ties that would be involved in the pantheons worshipped by this class.
I would make my choice for fearunian Invoker followers among the groups by Divine Alliances, Alignment, Origins, Race and Home Plane the most often. In the long run Spheres who are shared cause animosity among those dieties.
-For those of you who like polytheism, and want to see more of it, there'll be something you'd like in the Realmsvault Annual.
Sorry, I got carried away for a minute. I am lookin g forward to it though.