On my initial read through of the PHB I've noticed that fourth ed. isn't very Concept Friendly, and that you are better off picking your Race, Class and Abilities first, and then coming up with a Roleplaying Schtick that works with it. Does anyone have any advice for fitting Pre-Existing Concepts into 4e?
Go for effects rather than mechanics.
For instance, my current character in 3.5 is a half-orc pugilist (custom prestige class) with base levels in thug (UA fighter variant) and barbarian, wielding enchanted gauntlets and using two-weapon fighting to offset the lack of flurry of blows (monks are banned in this game). This is problematic: no gauntlets, no half-orcs, no thugs, no pugilists, and no expanded rules for unarmed combat.
I hemmed and hawed about this for a while until I realized that what I was really looking at was an Orc (MM) Ranger taking 2-weapon fighting tree and proficient in katars - using a flavor text, I rework katars into brass knuckles (mostly just changing the name and treating them as maces, since there is no longer a difference between slashing and bludgeoning weapons and the mace-based fighter powers were closer to what I wanted from his eventual fighter multiclass). Barbarian Rage is hard, but the orcish racial power seems to help out.
Since the only reason I'd taken half-orc over Orc in the first place was because of that "dazzled in daylight" thing, this is actually closer to my original concept than my 3.5 version was.
I suppose, and I started building one of my ideas based off of effects but then I noticed that having a character with a High Intelligence no longer conveys any bonus unless your a wizard. That basically kaiboshed the Suave and Tactical Swashbuckling Fighter I was planning on using for a game we had on hold until 4e came out.
Take a look at the rogue and the warlord: those two classes basically took over the Swashbuckling and the Tactical aspects. I could totally see your fighter as either a Artful Dodger rogue multiclassed to a warlord for some shouty-man abilities, or a Tactical Warlord multiclassed to rogue for some mobility and sneak attacking powers. He won't be a Fighter in the hard and fast sense, but he'll be the Tactical Guy who Buckles the Enemies' Swashes.
There are rules for Multiclassing?
Yes, but it's more of a dip than an actual multiclass - you get the ability to use some basic powers and abilities from your second class, but not all of them. Unless you take the second class as a paragon path, but that's another issue. Read up at the end of the feats chapter on the multiclassing feats.
Well I suppose that helps a little, I was HOPING that 4e was going to be MORE concept friendly than 3.5, not less.
Class-based systems are rarely concept friendly, I'm afraid. For that, you really need to go with classless skill-based point buy.
But yeah, 4E is more restrictive, and you'll need to finesse a few things, until you figure it out.
What I am seeing happen fairly frequently is that many concepts were originally developed around the assumptions of the 3E paradigm and that causes problems because 4E has structured many things differently - it's not that the concept is harder to work into mechanics, as it is that you need to look at different mechanics than you would have before. The brawler character described a few posts up is a great example of that.
I'm sure at a later date they will release a PHB with more depth on multiclassing/custom classing.
The answer is no, they do not, because they are from different games and game systems entirely.
3.5 Character concepts are built upon 3.5 rules. 4th edition has a new ruleset, and concepts built upon thoses rules will not easily translate over. If someone wants to play a Fighter/Druid with 3.5 feats and 3.5 prestige classes in a 4th edition game then he is trying to fit a square wookie into a round White Wolf game.
Don't create additional limitations upon yourselves by using character concepts outside of the ruleset. Instead use the 4th edition ruleset to come up with character ideas.
There's about a 50/50 chance your neat concept will fit into 4e. And about a 90% chance that it won't fit like you remember.
That said, with some minor tweaks, some of my 3.5 characters adapted well. Some became even better in 4e. Others, mostly multiclass, didn't.
For instance, my aasimar cleric of Pelor adapted nicely into a human cleric of Pelor. With the way the cleric powers work, the 4e version fits my concept of him much better. My human warblade became a nice human fighter. My current adapted build even took a couple multiclass feats for warlord, which fit his background as a officer in the Last War. (He was an Eberron character.)
On the other hand, my sound/electricity storm based sorcerer doesn't adapt to a wizard because there just aren't enough thunder/lightning spells. My multiclass concepts generally don't work at all.
The only one that might fit will take some tweaking as I will probably have to rebuild him as a single class wizard and invest heavily into armor feats, then pick up the Wizard of the Spiral Tower paragon path.But as I said, some will, some won't. I suspect most , not all, of the previously core (3.x PHB) based concepts will with a bit of tweaking. The farther out you go, the less likely they are to fit. (With major allowance for those classes that didn't make 4e like bard, druid, and barbarian of course.)
Basically, this charactor was a gnome necromancer. He was a good guy, just obsessed with dead stuff.
His goal in life was to have a demi-plane all to himself where animated dead would act out repetitive things to give the perception of an undead community. For instance, a zombie would take a brick from a pile, put it into a wheelbarrow. Another zombie would take a brick from the wheelbarrow and put it into the pile... so goes on forever.
I think I'm going to end up creating most of his spells again in 4ed rules. I've only had the books for an evening, but anybody know how animate dead spells are going to work? Or if Necromancy is going to even show it's face in 4ed?
I suppose, and I started building one of my ideas based off of effects but then I noticed that having a character with a High Intelligence no longer conveys any bonus unless your a wizard. That basically kaiboshed the Suave and Tactical Swashbuckling Fighter I was planning on using for a game we had on hold until 4e came out.
Intelligence adds to your Armor Class and Reflex Defense, as well as several skills. Each individual skill in 4e is more important than in 3.5, since they each encompass more (e.g., Arcana is Knowledge Arcana, Spellcraft, and the detect magic spell all rolled into one).
Warlords also have a lot of abilities which key off of Intelligence.
Suave Fighters are called Rogues in 4e. Tactical Fighters are called Warlords. Swashbuckling Fighters are called either Rogues or Rangers, depending on whether you use two weapons or one. Fighters don't have a monopoly on melee fighting, and Rangers don't have enforced nature magic.
So your Suave And Tactical Swashbuckler does not use the Fighter class in 4e. It's a mutliclass between Warlord and either Rogue or Ranger.
There are rules for Multiclassing?
Pages 208 and 175 of the Player's Handbook. You multiclass by taking feats. The basic multiclass feat gives you one ability from your 2nd class usable per encounter, one skill from your second class, and makes you count as a member of that class for prerequisites (each one is slightly different, but that's the gist). The power swap feats each give you the ability to swap a different kind of power. There are three of them. Take them all, and you'll have a 3-1 split between your starting class and multi class at 10th level.
If you take just the basic multiclass feat, then you can choose to take a paragon path from your 2nd class. If you take all four multiclassing feats, then you can take the 2nd class as your paragon path. Take a multiclass paragon path, and you'll have a 50/50 split between your classes.
The Eternal Seeker epic destiny isn't technically part of the multiclassing rules, but it does let you choose your powers from any class you want. The only prerequisite is being 21st level, which is a basic prerequisite of epic destinies anyway. Take Eternal Seeker, and 3/4ths of your powers will be multiclass powers.
TL;DR: Yes, there are multiclassing rules. You only get the level-one class features of the class you start as, but you can take powers from any class. The only big limit is that you can take powers from one other class, but that limit is erased by taking Eternal Seeker at 21st level.
I'm trying to create an old Palemaster-ish charactor I had in 3.5 and can't figure it out.
Basically, this charactor was a gnome necromancer. He was a good guy, just obsessed with dead stuff....
I think I'm going to end up creating most of his spells again in 4ed rules. I've only had the books for an evening, but anybody know how animate dead spells are going to work? Or if Necromancy is going to even show it's face in 4ed?
What do you know, my character Bodyknock that my forum profile is named after was a gnome wizard necromancer specialist. He was basically a mad-scientist among wizards, obsessed with learning as much as he could about reanimation and necromancy in order to ultimately find a way to revive the dead through "arcane science".
Unfortunately 4th edition doesn't have the necromancy spells available for player characters in the core rules. I am 99% sure that they will be included in an upcoming supplement of some sort. But until that happens, you'll either have to make do without necromancy spells or try and make your own such spells from scratch. (Some spells are in the PHB, such as Ray of Enfeeblement, but others aren't.)