Post/Author/DateTime	Post
#1 nephelim Jun 23, 2008 6:02:39	I love binders. LOVE them. I heard that they were to be wrapped up in Warlocks in 4th Ed, and I grinned. Naturally, I thought, the two were a perfect fit! However, it didn't end up with a Warlock-ish Binder, it ended p with a Warlock that had Binder sprinkles on it. While that's good for Warlocks, my poor Binders got left in the cold, shivering and huddling with the Barbarian, Druid, and Monk for warmth, rubbing their hands together over the still-burning corpse of the bard. So I decided that I might try to make one myself! Normally, I would shy away from trying my had at making new content for a game so soon after a new game's launch, but I figured, what the hell. So I started making my Binder, as a Controller (mainly to add a second controller to the mix) but then I got to the million-dollar question... how do you do Vestiges in the 4E mechanic? I decided that the simplest option was to create them as a suite of powers. Each Vestige would have a set of at-will, Encounter, Daily, and Utility powers - 1/1/1/1 - that it would grant to the Binder for 24 hours, but the Binder would still be limited in the number of these that they could use per day, in the same way that a Wizard's spell-book works. Binders would be able to bind 1 vestige at first level, then one additional simultaneous vestige every 5th level. Each level that they gained the ability to bind an additional vestige, they would learn the binding ritual for two new vestiges automatically. Additional vestiges could be acquired like rituals. Vestiges would be broken down across the first 20 levels, with epic True-binds making up the bulk of the vestiges available from 21-30. A lack of Epic content (outside of the recent Dragon article) will make that tier arguably the most difficult. Vestiges would probably loose much of the scalability of their powers, the same way that most Wizard spells have, but I think that as PC's develop, they will have so many Vestige rituals available to them that they will not be lacking for power. Further, Vestiges would poach powers and such from other classes, granting exploits and prayers, for instance, but only in a functional sense - the Binder's abilities are arcane, despite appearances. Like in 3.5, when designing a Vestige, its important to build-in a Lag. A vestige of level X should not be providing powers of any higher than X-1 at best, more likely -2. A Binder's power lies in the ability to shuffle between Vestiges each day, but their raw "oomph" should not be equal to or greater than a specialist. The only real mechanical issue I've uncovered is what to do with the levels where a PC can swap-out powers rather than accumulate an additional one. For a normal PC, those levels let them open up new options without swamping them with too many choices, and at the same time, giving them chance to ditch unused or outgrown powers. This presents a difficult issues for Binders, as they generally get that same ability every day, choosing a Vestige to bind dependent on the need of the day. Flexibility is what drives Binders, and should not be ignored, but balance is also an issue. The solution I came up with was a little too mechanically heavy, but this is it: As described above, each vestige provides a single Encounter and Daily power. It is those powers that have the option of upgrading later in the PC's career, so an update path is defined for each Vestige's Encounter and Daily powers. On levels where a Binder would normally get to swap out a power, they instead choose 1 Vestige that they know, and progress its granted power along the chain. That update is a permanent change for that vestige, representing a deeper understanding of the Vestige, and a closer bind, thus a more powerful ability, but only applies to that vestige. It is the 4th ed equivalent to the Favored Vestige feat. This limits the upgrade to a single power, just like other PC's, without sacking the Vestige's Flexibility (they can always choose not to bind that Vestige, but give up that power boost if they do) while still keeping some of the flavor intact. Its a bit heavyweight, I think, because it means defining a lot more for each Vestige. This is obviously going to take a lot of work, taking the legend of each vestige and essentially re-doing the powers they grant to fit the 1/1/1/1 schema, and do it within a completely new power-scaling structure. Thoughts?
#2 banatine Jul 14, 2008 8:10:56	it seems you have put a great deal of thought into this already, and i think that the concept sounds very well balanced, while still fitting in with 4th edition's mechanics. However, how would you think that paragon paths would work for binders? would paragons grant you one specific powerful vestige (along the lines of scion of dantalion or tenebrous apostate?), or something more general (like the anima mage?)
#3 generalhenry Jul 14, 2008 8:27:31	http://www.enworld.org/wiki/index.php?title=4E_Binder