This page will be used to group discussion of the differences in character classes for the Azeryani campaign. For the most part, classes will remain unchanged, with multiple world specific feats available to most characters being the largest difference. Paragon Paths and Epic Destinies will also be mostly unchanged, though new ones will most certainly be added.
One case where a class will see quite a bit of alteration is the Cleric. Clerics of the four Azeryani gods will have many more differences than just their Channel Divinity effects. Class Features, and even the base class may be altered significantly. For the most part, the Multi-Class feat system will be used to priests of a specific god to have a different base class from Cleric, but to substitute in specific class features and abilities from the Cleric class associated with their deity. As it stands, I may wait until Divine Power comes out to flesh out this system.
In addition, the Sword Dancer will be a new build option for Monks, unless I find a better existing class to base them on. As Sword Dancers are a critical component to religious ritual in the Empire, the class will see a full work up in these pages.
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Clerics Response
I generally agree, though I think your choices in stats have driven you down a singular path, as you pointed out. There are others. When the Eberron Player's Guide data is added next month you'll see some more options, and Divine Power will certainly add more, along with Domains (which REALLY should have been in the PHB.) I'm waiting on that supplement before I start working up Azeryani priests in earnest.
As most of you know, the Azeryani temples to Areela (Life), Draconis (the Numinous, Magic/Change/Time/Knowledge), Kele (the World), and especially Tashan (Death) wiull play a huge part in any Azeryani campaign. In addition, the followers of Kethrain (the Creator) are embroiled in intermittent war with Azeryan and will be a factor. Also, the ability to "create" your own godlings to worship will still be part of the game. Gods in this universe are powered by belief and draw their power from worshipers. The very act of worship can bring a "god" into being, or empower an existing or long "dead" power with sentience and deific abilities.
With the sundering of the walls between worlds, many extra-planar creatures have come sniffing around Kele, seeking worshippers and the power that brings them in this world.
The demon princes have not ceased their covetous attempts to seize power on Kele, and they have many secret worshipers.
The worship of Senesri (Death in Life, an aspect of Tashan) has flared to open prominence in the kingdom of Voortra, and undead armies clash constantly with the troops of the High Priestess of Death.
The Atlanteans worship their King as a god, in a way, though their dogma is science and atheism. They are able to draw power from him in ways many consider no different from the priests of "real" gods.
Priests, paladins, ritual dancers, and other devout followers of each of these beings will have very different powers and abilities, beyond simply having different Channel Divinity effects. Ideally, I'd like to leverage the multi-class rules, perhaps adding the Channel Divinity ability to the feat in exchange for a restricted list of powers and class features to draw from.
More to come...
Cleric Concerns (Michael McKay)
Taking up your offer that we could rebuild the characters if desired, I once again did an analysis of all the spells (and most of the feats) available for Dyson. This convinced me that Anton's complaint about limited choices was pretty valid - basically there are a lot less options (for things like choosing powers) than it first appears. There were very few things that I could have done differently, although perhaps some of this was the very big difference in attributes between cleric build types. Dyson uses Wisdom, and than Charisma; whereas most of the battle clerics powers mostly are Strength vs. AC. That means I'm unlikely to choose those powers because they will not be very effective. This is both because of my lack of an attribute bonus (which I'm sure other classes share), but also because AC is normally higher than the other defenses. Hence the lack of an attribute bonus is worse than usual when trying to overcome the AC defense.
I wonder to what extent the other classes have these types of problems. I have not looked much into the classes that have been expanded, anyone care to opine on how has this improved?
Having gotten those generic 4.0 points off my chest, I think increased differentiation for clerics makes a lot of sense. Would not be surprised if that happened in the cleric expansions - dates back at least to 2nd edition DnD.