Limitless Worlds

Limitless Worlds

Sunday, December 9, 2012

Another Replacement Variant and Playing 4e with B&T

Intro
So I've been looking into D&D 4e for a while. It's nearing the end of its lifespan, and while it remains endearing in some aspects, there are just other aspects I can't wrap my head around. I really favor the classes and races, but I don't want to go through learning all these new things just to play a new edition.

So I decided "Why don't I find an easy way to take the main tropes of 4e and transfer them over to Blood and Treasure?" And I've basically been passively doing it ever since I wrote Heroes of Lore.

Classes
Here is the list of classes in 4th edition and B&T's equivalent, either in terms of pure class or as a variant. These include any classes from Dark Sun, Eberron and Forgotten Realms.

Ardent = Wilder (Coming soon in Psionics of Lore)
Avenger = Inquisitor (assassin variant)
Barbarian
Bard
Battlemind = Warmind (Coming soon in Psionics of Lore)
Cleric
Druid
Fighter
Invoker = Cultist (Cleric variant)
Monk
Paladin
Psion = Psion (Coming soon in Psionics of Lore)
Ranger
Rogue
Runepriest = Runecaster (barbarian variant)
Shaman = Shaman (druid variant)
Seeker = Scout (thief variant, original B&T)
Sorcerer
Warden = Warden (ranger variant)
Warlord = Marshal (fighter variant)
Wizard
Artificer = Artificer (MU variant)
Assassin
Swordmage = Warlock (sorcerer variant)

The only thing missing is the warlock, which I have a quick variant for here. The warlock is a Magic-User variant, and if I could re-write Heroes of Lore, I'd replace the Scholar with this variant. Since "warlock" is already taken as a sorcerer variant, let's call the variant a pactforger.

Pactforger - new variant

The pactforger does not get his magic from study or by being born with it. Instead, a pactforger establishes an agreement with a magical creature in order to gain some of their magic. The pact could be formed with celestials, infernals, elementals, creatures from beyond the veil, dragons, fey or any other inherently magical creature. The pact is almost never spoken of, especially in terms of what the pactforger offered for his power.

A pactforger can inherently cast bestow curse once a day by tapping in to the primal bond of their eldritch pact.

Races

Further, you can easily emulate mostly all "core" races as well. These are races from the 3 Player's Handbooks and the setting books for 4e's three settings.

Dragonborn - Taninim (Coming soon in Races of Lore)
Dwarf
Eladrin - Gray Elf
Elf
Half-Elf
Halfling
Human
Tiefling
Deva - Aasimar
Gnome
Goliath - Juggernaut
Half-Orc
Shifter - Ferals (Coming soon in Races of Lore)
Githzerai - Kith-Yang (Coming soon in Psionics of Lore)
Minotaur
Shardmind - Welgs (Coming soon in Races of Lore)
Wilden - Spriggan (Coming soon in Races of Lore)
Mul - Half-dwarf (Coming soon in Psionics of Lore)
Thri-Kreen - Trinoks (Coming soon in Races of Lore)
Kalashtar - Maenads (Coming soon in Psionics of Lore)
Warforged - Automotons
Changeling - Doppelgangers
Drow - Drow
Genasi - Primals (Coming soon in Races of Lore)

Now some of these aren't exact. The Trinok is not exactly like a Thri-kreen, but it is my answer to the classic  ant-man. If I ran Dark Sun with B&T, I'd use the Trinok. The same goes for Maenads and Kalashtars, but their case is a little different. Though they were separate races once upon a time, they both share a very similar theme and even physical appearance, so I decided to mash them together. If you'd rather have Kalashtars as a separate race, it would be pretty simple to adapt.

End

So that's really the short answer to my quest for 4th Edition on B&T. Seems easily doable, and I hope you guys can take a couple cues from it.

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