A Faulty Historian: Why This Class Doesn't Work
Well, I’m disappointed. Last night we played our first Forgotten Realms adventure. The game was great. My new character; however, was not. I had spent so much time deciding on this class.
Okay, in all fairness it was not one put together in the actual PHB but it looked sturdy and like something I would really enjoy playing. Instead what I discovered was that this class is in absolutely no way designed for combat.
Now, I’m not saying that in order to participate in combat that you must have a slasher tank that deals unrealistic damage at every turn. What I am saying is that the historian does practically NO damage. Though we are all first level characters my damages (even at full power) were dramatically lower than the rest of the players. For instance, the average damage dealt by another player’s daily powers was around 12 meanwhile mine couldn’t seem to do above 5.
Then the rest of the At-Will and Encounter powers made it so I had to be in a spot adjacent to any target to use them. It was not always feasable and there were points where I had to pass my turn. It really just didn’t work very well. The power cards created for this character were just too weak.
Currently, I am trying to redesign the character whilst maintaining as much from the original as possible. I really enjoyed my concept; it just needs some tweaking. That is why I am thinking of leaving the character as a gnome, not changing my stats, keeping my name and background but simply changing the class over to a Rogue. With a rogue I should be able to even keep many of my skills in thievery and history.
I am looking forward to next weeks game and a ‘new and improved’ character. And if anybody wants to take a look at the Historian power cards to see if they can be improved, by all means, let me know. I would be happy to send them along. I don’t want to see this class vanish. I think it could be excellent!
Assuming this is the Historian Class referenced on the ENWorld boards, it looks interesting.
Under no circumstances would I ever take the “There’s One Born Every Minute” at-will (I think the name refers to the players who take it, not the opponent). But otherwise it seems solid.
However I would invest in a feat at 1st level or soon thereafter to get you a better weapon. Because you are limited to Simple Weapons (or a couple of equally low damage martial weapons) your damage output is really bad. But simply spending one feat on a better weapon (ideally a superior weapon) ought to fix that and make your damage on par with any other non-striker.
Carl
I can attest to the fact: That class just didn’t work. It could have had something to do with fighting a White Dragon, though.
Is there some way you can provide support to the rest of the party during combat instead of being directly involved? It’s pretty boring to just sit back and do nothing, or nothing useful but options like helping someone else be better might work.
Also, one player I know used to never fight. Instead he ran around documenting everything. “Oh, cool! Goblins do that? I have to write that down and inform the Adventurer’s Guild!” He had a lot of fun
Maybe the class ‘doesn’t work’ because there’ s a lack of scope for non-combat related activities in your current adventure? I’m very adverse to the idea that every class should have combat as its main focus and be balanced against all the other classes in terms of combat prowess.
As Viriconda says maybe your character can carry out some scholarly research during the adventure and gain xp for doing this – especially when she(?) reports back to the Sage’s Guild and gives a presentation on her findings. Talk to your GM about it.
I don’t really think our group as a lack of scope in our current campaign. What I think is that the Historian class just isn’t really meant for combat and to be honest that is my favorite part so I don’t really want to play something that I can’t go up against a bad guy with. I like being able to do some damage.
I don’t really care about being the one to take out the enemy. I don’t have to have the the final swinging blow or even a lot of power; just enough so I feel part of the game.
I am hoping that at some point the powers could be made a little stronger ~ oh and I’m not sure the Historian I have is the one that someone was mentioning because the “There’s One Born Every Minute” at-will power was not even available to me. I think I must have found another one.
As far as a “lack of scope”, it was the very first adventure in the campaign, which began with about two hours of playing where not a single die was rolled, followed by a puzzle trap, then a single combat.
What I think the problem is, is that when roleplaying happens, everyone can participate, when puzzle-solving happens, everyone can participate as well. But if everyone but one person is able to contribute to combat, that one person is going to feel left out. So having a class which is able to hold their own in combat is important.
Ah, Dicemonkey, but does everyone contribute to the puzzle-solving process equally? There’s the rub. I usually find that with puzzle-solving, there will be some players who work harder and/or are better than others. And some characters will have more relevant skills than others too. So not everyone contributes equally to the puzzle solution. By the same token, not everyone will necessarily expect to contribute equally in terms of dishing out combat damage either.
But maybe that’s just our playing style – in which characters tend to have their moments in the spotlight according to their own specialisations, rather than the ambience of everyone feeling the need to be included equally in everything. I entirely accept that other groups may prefer the latter.
I’m only saying that I don’t think the class needs to be regarded as faulty or that it ‘doesn’t work’ because of its low combat capability. Maybe it just wasn’t the ideal choice for someone who really enjoys damage output.
Maybe the class title ‘Historian’ should have been a bit of a clue though