#5e classes

SO, has anyone been wondering what i’ve been up to? The answer is this. This is an idea i had over a year ago and have spent i don’t even know how long tuning and coming up with ideas for it.

Given that it IS an entirely new class remember that if you wanna try it, it needs a LOT of playtesting. And if you have constructive criticism or just fun idea suggestions i’d be happy to hear them to perhaps release updated versions or expanded options in the future.

Thank you everyone for following this blog~<3

Our Ko-Fi: https://the-homebrewists.tumblr.com/ko-fi

Blackbeard-high level rouge

Stede-Wizard

Lucius- Bard (Glamer)

Jim- Oath of Vengeance Paladin

Olu-Oath of Redemption Paladin

Buttons- Warlock

Black Pete- Eloquence Bard

Swede- Bard

Wee John- Barbarian

Frenchie- Lore Bard

Roach- Rouge that took 1 level of Claric

Izzy- Swashbuckler Rouge

Spanish Jackie- High Charisma Fighter

Fang- Fighter

Top Picks:

Cleric – mythology and magic in one neat bundle, with a whole bunch of potential variations depending on which god and what part of their portfolio you pick, plus the part of the story where you are a god’s personally chosen champion. First choice, definitely

Barbarian – are just cool, tanky, tough and full of flavour (story flavour, not edible flavour, although various monsters may disagree), plus again they get some really cool options like the ancestral barbarian, who has their whole spectral lineage behind them, and is just one of the coolest things I’ve ever heard of

Good Seconds:

Warlock – mythology of a smaller and potentially darker flavour than the cleric, bargains with strange powers, a good toothy story (and mechanics) on the perils of choices you can’t take back

Rogue – seems like a better choice for a trickster character than a trickery cleric, despite a domain to the contrary, has a lot of lovely archetypes involved (the silver-tongued thief, the troubled spy, the reformed enforcer, the gambler with the heart of gold), plus the aim is to sneak around and not get hit, which I can cheerfully (and possibly literally) get behind

Paladin – I’ll be honest, mostly redemption and ancients, though devotion is also lovely. Again with the personal champions of gods, with the oaths and knightly principles to go with it, plus I actually like the inherent lawful vs good struggles for a lot of the subclasses

Bard – I have some trouble visualising D&D bards actually at work, because juggling combat and playing a musical instrument at the same time seems tricky, but again if you want a trickster or a spy or a social engineer, bard looks like the place to go. Plus, magical music is a cool idea

Still Cool But Not Instinctive Picks:

Druid – very cool, but cleric sort of yanks my attention their way for most of what I’d want from this class. Aside from the shapeshifting, which is extremely cool, and druid does get bonus points for the more outland, wild mysticism  

Sorcerer – again, still awesome, but falls behind warlocks and bards as the spellcasting class that pulls my attention. The subtle metamagic thing really does draw my interest though, and wild magic as a concept is incredibly cool (and reminds me strongly of Schmendrick from Last Unicorn)

Ranger – the hunter and fighter in the lost, wild and dark places of the world is still awesome as a concept, it’s just not my favourite and therefore instinctive archetype

Wizard – much like the ranger, it just isn’t one of my go-to archetypes, though I do love the idea of the magical scholar. The warlock just wins in the ‘forbidden knowledge with dangerous consequences’ stakes for me, and in my head wizards are too strongly associated with schools, as in physical school buildings and stories, for me to instantly associate them with adventures in my head. Divination, abjuration and illusion all sound cool though

Least Favourite:

Fighter – there is absolutely nothing wrong with this class, it just doesn’t spark anything for me at all. Little bit for the arcane knight, because that feels cool and monster-hunter-y, but the fighter as a concept just doesn’t do much for me. That said, I like polearms

Monk – a bit better than the fighter, and the drunken master sounds fun, but despite my fondness for martial arts movies the monk again just doesn’t spark too much interest from me

Hey everyone, so each week on Sunday I normally do something called a Weekly Patron Poll, where I let my patrons vote on new types of D&D 5e content for me to create (new monsters, magic items, etc.)

Psychic Class

For this week, my normal Sunday homebrews are being replaced with this conversion of the Pathfinder Psychic class into 5th Edition, at the request of several Patrons. The full thing is 17 pages long and took forever to make, but if you want to check it out, it’s free to download for all of my Patrons over at Patreon (patreon.com/kylehall).

So, for those of who don’t know, I’m a pathfinder boi. That was my first ttrpg system, and it is still my one of my favorites. This has made it so that I tend to judge 5e by a lot of pathfinder standards, which I am aware and always remind myself when I think “man, that 5e thing is fucking stupid”. 

But, this is sometimes well founded. One of my friends plays both systems, and while he prefers 5e cause it’s more streamlined, he thinks a lot of its design decisions are stupid as shit. He absolutely hates truestrike (though, after talking with some other people, everybody seems to hate truestrike). He thinks a lot of the standard animals aren’t very great (the one that he talked about for a while was the hyena, cause its stats don’t really make sense when looking at what the animal can do and the role it fills, even when considering balance). And I agree with him. I think 5e is a pretty good game, but it’s got some big flaws*. But the biggest one to me is the bard.

Ok, so, let’s look at the bards basic design. They have a pretty nice selection of weapon and armor proficiencies. Combine this a d8 hit dice, that makes them a decent front line fighter to help supplement that role in the party. They have a few skills they get to be proficient with (playing a human or half-elf only makes this crazier), and after a few level s they get expertise and jack-of-all-trades, which makes them literally the best skill monkeys. That’s real fucking dope, as that’s the role they’ve been filling for several editions at this point. 

They also get their bardic colleges that turns them into a psuedo of other classes, allowing them to be a little more specialized in a wider range of roles. That’s really fucking good (just really love the sub-class thing 5e does and hope to see more d20 games do it).

But...then they get full casting ability, and that part is what bothers the ever living shit out of me. The bards is supposed to be a supporting class, not a guy who can take over a role in the party whole sale. With full casting, they can replace the wizard or sorcerer. And I mean...it wouldn’t be so bad if that was how they where built, but they have all the other stuff I talked about before. A full caster that’s a decent fighter, a fantastic skill monkey, and who can also be a able to do some of the things that the other classes can do? That doesn’t strike anybody else as a little much or a little over powered?

Like I said, I’m aware that me being introduced to this kind of thing from pathfinder is shaping how I think about this, but I still that making that bard a full caster is overkill. Midcaster at most, this way they still get up to 6th level spells and are still pretty good casters, but just like with their weapon and armor stuff, they aren’t a perfect replacement, and instead are supplemental to the classes whose main role is to be a fullcaster.

so i offered to give someone a quick summary of the 5e dnd PHB classes, which i then read out to my friends, who then implored me to post it on tungle dot hell

so... here we go