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Welcome back to Multiclass Mondays!
Multiclass Mondays is a continuation of the “You, Version 2.0″ posts (here and here) that were put up a few weeks back regarding using the Theme mechanics to more effectively multiclass characters. The concept seemed to be a hit with many players and DMs around the Web, so we’re going to go through and provide Themes for all current D&D classes (even Psionics!) and maybe.. just maybe… throw in a few bonus Themes. For now, though, let’s stick to the basics.
Last week, we pulled the curtain off the Bard. This week, we take the Form of the Multiclass Warden.
The Warden is one of the more unusual multiclass sets available. Why? There are exactly two feats for it – Defender of the Wild (mark all adjacent until end of next turn 1/encounter) and the followup Warden’s Endurance (make a saving throw at the beginning of your turn 1/encounter). Handing out any stronger versions of these class features as feats is honestly a little unbalancing. That leaves us with the AC adjustment class features (no way, Jose!) and the mark punishment powers. You need the mark to do mark punishment, so really not much to work with here. The Warden is a very tight class feature package that doesn’t lend well to being parsed out. Warden feats, however, are VERY useful to pretty much anyone since most of them trigger off of ‘you take a second wind.’ Thus we will pull a page from our Warlord segment and do this:
Primal Reverent
Choose Earthstrength, Wildblood, Stormheart or Lifespirit. You may take feats and paragon paths as if you were a Warden with the chosen class feature.
This feat, combined with the Defender of the Wild gives the character essentially two options. You’re either going to take the ‘defend others’ route (Defender of the Wild) or the ‘defend myself’ route (Primal Reverent). What aspect of the Warden appeals to you – marking and punishing or ‘hulking up’ on your second wind? Choose appropriately.
Theme at Level 1
Nature’s Reservist (Multiclass Warden)
Prerequisite: Warden
Theme Feature: Warden’s Fury or Thorn Strike (encounter usage, Dark Sun only)
Lv 1. Theme Power: Warden’s Fury or Thorn Strike (encounter usage, non Dark-Sun only)
The problem here is that the marking Warden multiclass wants mark punishment but the buffing Warden multiclass can’t use mark punishment. Rather than try something really convoluted, we simply offer a choice of two features. Warden’s Grasp is a interesting option for Defenders who already have a “guy right next to me” punishment (Fighter, Battlemind and usually Paladin) where Thorn Strike lets the squishier types hit in melee from two squares away. That melee 2 does come with a pull, however, and it’s almost guaranteed the enemy you hit will be grateful for the positioning so make sure you have a darn good idea what you’re doing.
Theme at Levels 2+
- Lv 2: Nature’s Abundance
- Lv 3: Burst of Earth’s Fury
- Lv 5: Rampant Forest
- Lv 6: Treacherous Ice
- Lv 7: Limbs of the Tree Spider
- Lv 9: Form of the Stalwart Mastodon
- Lv 10: Warding Vines
The basic mechanical goal is controlling terrain and movement-hindering effects with a flavor theme of trees and plants sprouting up for good measure. We’re also trying to avoid powers with class feature kickers; unlike the Warlord who has double-stacking powers, most of the oomph in a Warden power with a feature kicker is in that feature. This is why Limbs of the Tree Spider is used instead of something that better matches the Theme goal.
That’s the Warden. Next time, something much more challenging to hack through – the fricking Warlock. Thanks for reading!
P.S. As an unrelated sidenote, for those of you wondering what the heck was up with the Random Character Generator Pt 2 last week, there was a miscommunication error and a half-finished version was accidentally posted. It has been taken down; the correct version will be posted soon. Sorry for any confusion.
Ryven Cedrylle was introduced to 2nd edition D&D by his father at age 8 and has been hooked ever since. When not out somewhere with his nerd-loving wife, he spends an inordinate amount of time staring at small objects - primarily beakers, stars, books about religion and virtual gaming miniatures. Follow him on 
The warlock will be very interesting; I was just chatting with one of my DMs the other day about the fact that I only run them as multi/hybrids with something else.
Your statement that Warden’s Fury is an interesting option for Defenders who already have a “guy right next to me” punishment leads me to wonder if you intended for it to be Warden’s Grasp that the mc grants.
Either way, is this the first time we’ve seen one of these themes grant an ability which is dependent on the character already having a class feature or power? I’ll grant marks are pretty readily available, but I’m always interested in spots in a developing design where something veers off from the established approach.
Was one of the goals with this project ot never step on the toes of an existing feat?
This is pretty cool right here. Right now I’ve got a player who’s been running a vanilla Warden for about four months but wanted to mix things up at range. I retro-actively turned her into a Warden-Ranger multiclass but haven’t been too happy with the result. I may just take this, plus an Essentials Ranger build, and see what happens. Thanks for more great content!
@Ego –
Re: Warden’s Grasp. um…. yeah. Thanks for the catch! Fixed.
I know not all characters will have a mark, hence the two feature options. As to your second question.. sort of. One goal was to not obsolete any current feats. A few of them might offer variants of a current feat but not outright squash them. As I said in the post, the Warden is a very tightly-contained package that’s difficult to pull individual features from.