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Themes
- Thread starter twilsemail
- Start date
stonegod
Spawn of Khyber/LEB Judge
nope.
CaBaNa
First Post
Sub-proposal, another theme to go with twils.
Renaissance Person
Level 1
Philosophers Lean
You realize that you just don't know, or can't reason. So you ask a friend to do it for you.
Encounter *No Action*
Close burst 5
Immediate Interrupt
Trigger: You roll a d20 for an arcana, dungeoneering, history, nature, religion, diplomacy, intimidate, or bluff check and dislike the result.
Effect: One ally in the burst can reroll the check for you, using their modifier in place of yours. You must use their result.
Level 5
Renaissance Learner
Choose one: gain another language (not supernal), or +1 to a skill you are already trained in.
Level 10
Artisan Talent
Gain training in any one skill.
Renaissance Person
Level 1
Philosophers Lean
You realize that you just don't know, or can't reason. So you ask a friend to do it for you.
Encounter *No Action*
Close burst 5
Immediate Interrupt
Trigger: You roll a d20 for an arcana, dungeoneering, history, nature, religion, diplomacy, intimidate, or bluff check and dislike the result.
Effect: One ally in the burst can reroll the check for you, using their modifier in place of yours. You must use their result.
Level 5
Renaissance Learner
Choose one: gain another language (not supernal), or +1 to a skill you are already trained in.
Level 10
Artisan Talent
Gain training in any one skill.
CaBaNa
First Post
Grew up near The Hanged Man Hobgoblin
Level 1
Duck and Cover
Years of witnessing the carnage near the Hanged Man make you quick on your feet.
Encounter *Move Action*
Close burst 2
You or two allies in the burst.
Gain +2 to all defenses TSNT, and the next time the target shifts before TENT they gain a +1 power bonus to the distance of that shift.
Level 5
The Hanged Man Story Hour
Gain +1 to diplomacy, bluff, and intimidate, once per day reroll any of the aforementioned skills.
Level 10
Heard Tell
Gain +2 to history checks, and training in one skill chosen from arcana, dungeoneering, history, nature, religion.
Level 1
Duck and Cover
Years of witnessing the carnage near the Hanged Man make you quick on your feet.
Encounter *Move Action*
Close burst 2
You or two allies in the burst.
Gain +2 to all defenses TSNT, and the next time the target shifts before TENT they gain a +1 power bonus to the distance of that shift.
Level 5
The Hanged Man Story Hour
Gain +1 to diplomacy, bluff, and intimidate, once per day reroll any of the aforementioned skills.
Level 10
Heard Tell
Gain +2 to history checks, and training in one skill chosen from arcana, dungeoneering, history, nature, religion.
CaBaNa
First Post
Ex-Guard
Level 1
Street Experience
Countless street fights taught you to make that first shot count.
Encounter *No Action*
Trigger: You hit with an at-will or basic attack
Effect: The attack weakens the target TENT, and does an extra 2/5/10 per tier.
Level 5
Every cities the same.
+2 to streetwise checks, and +1 to perception to find something specific.
Level 10
I know what you've done wrong.
+2 to insight, intimidate checks.
Level 1
Street Experience
Countless street fights taught you to make that first shot count.
Encounter *No Action*
Trigger: You hit with an at-will or basic attack
Effect: The attack weakens the target TENT, and does an extra 2/5/10 per tier.
Level 5
Every cities the same.
+2 to streetwise checks, and +1 to perception to find something specific.
Level 10
I know what you've done wrong.
+2 to insight, intimidate checks.
Although I changed my vote to YES to allow WotC themes once they were in Character Builder and easy to access, I will definitely be voting NO to allow player created themes.
Themes are a bad idea to begin with. They are a souped up version of Backgrounds (i.e. free abilities).
I do not know how many PCs with the Ritual Caster feat that I have played that did not get the Alchemist feat as a class feature and I had to think hard about whether that PC wanted to spend a feat on Alchemist to round out the PC's item creating capabilities. Now, a player can just go pick up Alchemist and bang: free Alchemist feat. Yes, that PC doesn't have some other icing on the cake theme, but it effectively gives those PCs that wanted Alchemist a way to gain a freed up feat slot.
Last summer, WotC upped the damage of monsters. With the introduction of themes, they are yet again giving more power and abilities to the PCs. It becomes an arms race yet again (like previous editions).
When the game has a set number of abilities that each PC can get, yes, there is power creep as more and more abilities are introduced. But at least the PCs are not becoming more complex due to more abilities on the character sheet. The power creep is even more substantial when the game outright hands out more abilities per PC.
And as I've seen on Encounters nights and on Game Days, even low level PCs have quite a few abilities and it's tough for even experienced players to handle all of the options of a class that the player hasn't played before, let alone new players. As more and more creep gets added into the game system and free abilities are handed out to PCs, the PCs get even that much more difficult to play well because they start acquiring a plethora of abilities.
I dislike themes, but as long as it is official WotC material and can easily be added to a PC with Character Builder, I'm kind of begrudgingly ok with it. But I really don't like the concept of adding a bunch of house rule themes.
Themes are a bad idea to begin with. They are a souped up version of Backgrounds (i.e. free abilities).
I do not know how many PCs with the Ritual Caster feat that I have played that did not get the Alchemist feat as a class feature and I had to think hard about whether that PC wanted to spend a feat on Alchemist to round out the PC's item creating capabilities. Now, a player can just go pick up Alchemist and bang: free Alchemist feat. Yes, that PC doesn't have some other icing on the cake theme, but it effectively gives those PCs that wanted Alchemist a way to gain a freed up feat slot.
Last summer, WotC upped the damage of monsters. With the introduction of themes, they are yet again giving more power and abilities to the PCs. It becomes an arms race yet again (like previous editions).
When the game has a set number of abilities that each PC can get, yes, there is power creep as more and more abilities are introduced. But at least the PCs are not becoming more complex due to more abilities on the character sheet. The power creep is even more substantial when the game outright hands out more abilities per PC.
And as I've seen on Encounters nights and on Game Days, even low level PCs have quite a few abilities and it's tough for even experienced players to handle all of the options of a class that the player hasn't played before, let alone new players. As more and more creep gets added into the game system and free abilities are handed out to PCs, the PCs get even that much more difficult to play well because they start acquiring a plethora of abilities.
I dislike themes, but as long as it is official WotC material and can easily be added to a PC with Character Builder, I'm kind of begrudgingly ok with it. But I really don't like the concept of adding a bunch of house rule themes.
Why do we need a default theme out of curiosity? It's really like anything else. If the player has access (book, .pdf, compendium, etc.) to the approved game element (power, feat, magic item, class, race, background, etc.), then the player can take it. If the player does not have access and wants something, then he has to figure out a way to get it (i.e. a friend, cut and paste out of another PC, etc.). We don't have a default background, or race, or class, or any other default game element.
renau1g
First Post
Not sure, technically yes I suppose, but :
■FR-specific Classes, Paragon Paths, and Epic Destinies are not allowed
■In Eberron, the Dark Pact comes from entities from Khyber, whether it be an aspect of the Dragon Below itself, one of the fiendish Overlords, or perhaps an entity of Xoriat.
■Dark Pact Warlock powers which harm party members require consent from affected players.
■FR-Specific Feats are not allowed
■FR Background traits are not allowed. This also applies to other sources (such as Dragon) which uses similar type background traits.
Not sure if Themes would be covered by the background traits, probably be best to have another proposal to ban them...
■FR-specific Classes, Paragon Paths, and Epic Destinies are not allowed
■In Eberron, the Dark Pact comes from entities from Khyber, whether it be an aspect of the Dragon Below itself, one of the fiendish Overlords, or perhaps an entity of Xoriat.
■Dark Pact Warlock powers which harm party members require consent from affected players.
■FR-Specific Feats are not allowed
■FR Background traits are not allowed. This also applies to other sources (such as Dragon) which uses similar type background traits.
Not sure if Themes would be covered by the background traits, probably be best to have another proposal to ban them...
