Alas, Garnet, We Hardly Knew Ye

Let me tell you about my character.

I’ve been playing in a regular game for several years now. We made the switch over to 4e, and after years at the DM helm, I got to play a PC. I was immediately drawn to a tiefling starlock. My DM sensibilities–meticulous attention to worldbuilding detail, a nigh-encyclopedic comprehension of the rules, etc.–combined with my thirst for actually playing a PC combined for me to go a little overboard. I spent hours coming up with his background and hours more tweaking my build. I think I spent a couple of hours just deciding which feat to take.

Playing Garnet was a blast. He was a godless cuss with a touch of Locke Lamora in him. He carried a huge greatsword strapped to his back, which he couldn’t unsheathe much less wield. He delivered the killing blow on Balgron the Fat. He just got his rod of dark reward.

Last week, I dumped my beloved Garnet for the sexy new guy on the block.

After three levels, I’m switching characters so I can play a witch doctor. Not just any witch doctor: Exton, the gnome with the mask of the elements and an unhealthy obsession with fire. I’m still nuts, mind you.

So why the change? Because the witch doctor is fun. (It didn’t hurt that our wizard was also looking to make a change, freeing up the controller role.)

As I was editing the witch doctor, I noticed something I didn’t pick up on with a cursory review. Read through the witch doctor’s power array, really look at what they are doing, and you’ll see something interesting. With most of the core classes, there’s this bare interplay between the color and the effect of the power. In many cases–not all, certainly–you get the feeling that the effects were created and then a bit of flavor text was drafted to suit.

With the witch doctor, I am convinced that Rob went about it the other way round. (And, no, I haven’t asked him.) That is, he thought about what kinds of cool effects should a witch doctor be able to create? Now, how can I draft a power to suit? This is a subtle but dramatic design methodology, because it creates a stronger link between color and mechanics.

A great example of this is inevitable progress of flame:

So a witch doctor creates a serpent of fire that slithers across the battlefield immolating all enemies in its path. Now, how can we create that effect mechanically? Rob makes it a wall (close wall, natch) that removes 1 square of one end and adds it to the other each round. (I’m proud to say that the bit about spending a move action to repeate the advance was my suggestion.)

So I can’t wait to take Exton out for a spin. (Now, if only I can find a suitable mini for a gnome witch doctor.) I’ll post here about our next session and how it goes. In the meantime, I’m happy to report that Mike, our DM, has co-opted Garnet as an NPC. So I’m sure we’ll be seeing the fruits of his twisted, nefarious plotting down the road.

1. rob, March 3, 2009:

   Man, seeing it big makes me realize I should have replaced one of those “Flame”s with “Fire”.

   But that said, I don’t think I ever really thought about it consciously, but you’re mostly right. There are one or two exceptions where there was some clever mechanic I wanted to find an excuse to showcase, but I mostly started with a visual and went from there. Weirdly, this clears up some confusion about my own work. I’d felt I had successfully made the Witch Doctor’s powers feel more raw than the Wizard, but I couldn’t have said why. This, I think, is the answer.

   Tangentially, I also had a very cautionary experience regarding color, the upshot of which is a personal rule: “Do not include the color when you summarize powers for a new player.” We were showing 4E to someone for the first time, and I’d summarized the powers for his cleric on the sheet. As a new player, he logically gravitated to the description of the power rather than the mechanics, and he was frequently frustrated upon discovering he couldn’t light things on fire with Sacred Flame or otherwise do clever things the color text suggested would be reasonable and I think that frustration was an element of his dissatisfaction with the game.

   Now, there’s a bigger problem that hints at which is outside the scope of this conversation, but the smaller lesson I take from it is that the closer the color is to the mechanics, the happier everyone will be.

2. justin, March 3, 2009:

   That’s an interesting point, precisely because it’s so counterintuitive. “Oh, if you’re a cleric, you can call down flames from heaven to immolate your enemies.” Uhm, no, you can’t.

3. nick, March 4, 2009:

   First post to OBE. First-time DnD player.

   I’ve had the chance to witness Garnet in action and I will miss him in our campaign (tear). I’ve also had the chance to play an 11th level control wizard and I thought the powers were a bit limited.

   That being said, I’m anxious to see what justin’s new character brings to the table. After reviewing some of the powers, I am impressed by the granular control that Close Wall Attacks provide (did I miss something, or do all walls have the ability to form whatever shape the caster prefers, so long as the spaces are adjacent?)

   FYI: My PC is an Eladrin rogue, named Fin, that I think lends nicely to the group dynamic. Except for the occasional shouting down dungeon halls when attempting to sneak up on NPCs, his powers are extremely versatile.