Charakter building like in CO?

rustplayer

I was reading an interview and when I read about the guardian fighter and control wizzy it hit me: CO!

In Champions Online, if you are a free player you can choose between several preset charakter builds - however, if you are a paying player you get to construct your own build from scratch (if you choose so). That in addition to the very free charakter building of D&D seems to make it likely that NWO will go the same way as CO charakter-building-wise.

Am I onto something here? :-)

zebular

I could see something similar happening. Personally, Races and Classes are something I wouldn't mind having to buy. However, because how 4e Classes are (much different than previous editions), it looks more like they will just keep releasing more and more of the individual classes like we are seeing released in videos and interviews right now.

For example, along with the Control Wizard we see in Neverwinter, in 4e PnP there are also "War Wizards," "Swordmages," and "Warlocks" to name a few off hand. Then enter the Paragon Paths at higher levels that really allow you to fine-tune your class.

I'd hazard that they'll instead just continue releasing the various Class Builds found in the Official Books rather than trying to turn their version of 4th Edition into a 2nd/3rd/4th mix by allowing the customization earlier editions are known for at lower levels.

iamtruthseeker

Customization actually is done more on the 4E PnP character background (your origin and where you are raised or big event that brought you to your current location,) and theme (what your character has focused on be it a race or carreer or innate ability thing that isn't necessacrily tied to a class or necesarily the background but could still be historical.) For instance, you could be orphaned (background) and end up being a Dead rat gang member but desert them (dead rat deserter Theme.)


Mind you, these are all in the PnP books not the MMO game as they adjust what available skills you access (or what bonuses you get if you wish instead) and languages you know for background, and address powers and additional skills and sometimes bonus feats or unique abilities (like powers sometimes,) for Themes that are balanced for tabletop DM controls and 4e Rules in the books. Backgrounds and themes worked so well, they have carried over into D&D Next/5E as "optional ways to add to your character that uses the six attributes to play your character's abilities"


I can say they have sort of let slip that we will have skills and feat trees, but they have remained very tight lipped on backgrounds (I saw one screen at Gamescon where you selected backgrounds linked to cities I think) and have said absolutely nothing on themes. Even if this were in game, the methods used would obviously have to be rules retooled for an MMO experience, and runs the risk of being too unbalancing and could sadly go the other way of the extreme and just be a "lore flavor text" selection for your character (at creation or as a "biography customization.")


So, it's likely we will NOT be doing any "pay subscription for customization" based on the character 4e backgrounds/themes that have been done for the characters after all (even if not a faithful rule set,) but this doesn't mean we will get the 4e theme and background customization that really shines for our customization in the 4E tabletop games either.

varrvarr

While I like the idea of following the CO example. I don't think it will happen since we've been told that NW will not likely have a sub option at all. My guess is they will make a number of classes based off of the the 4e paragon paths and then sell these options. We'll see what they do, I'm not the biggest fan of non-sub option f2p games, but who knows.