What niches most need homebrew?

[Tyndmyr]

This is a...fairly subjective question, but in your opinion, what in 3.5 are the niches you feel most deserve some homebrew?

I'd have to say I'd like to see casters with specialized lists, much like warmage does for evocation, though some are already covered.

[Yora]

I would say monsters.
The core classes are actually more than enough, there's spells for everything you can imagine and more, and I think the feats are okay.
The one thing that makes the world more interesting as opposed to character builds, are monsters.

[FMArthur]

Defensive melee. Shields, Two-Weapon Defense, Wis-to-AC and things like Combat Expertise or the Duelist class all try to do the same thing and almost all of them utterly fail at it. "Defensive melee" means reach and tripping in default D&D.

One-handed sword, wielded one-handed is a combat style supported even worse. You can do it with a number of things and be successful, but in a "you can afford to be a few points weaker and it won't have much impact" sort of way where the better option is still to two-hand it.

[Ravens_cry]

Sword and Board could definitely use some work. Guns could be better, but how to make them viable without making them game breaking, like they are in Real Life, especially with the HP system, puzzles me.
Is there any good sling classes? The sling can be a devastating weapon, David wasn't quite as outmatched as you might think, yet I don't see much support for it.

[Gnoman]

Yeah, the DND sling is pretty much the opposite of what reality indicates.


Regarding David/Goliath (spoilered for off-topicness)

Someone did the math and compared it with skeletons of real-life giants. Apparently, there's only one fairly small area where a sling bullet could have done much harm.

[Yora]

In some accounts Goliath is only stunned. The mortal blow comes from David snatching his sword and stabbing him before he got back up.

[Ravens_cry]

Speaking of slings again, people seemed to love to put slogans (http://militaryhistoryblog.wordpress.com/2008/02/12/aerial-insults-the-tradition-of-inscribing-lead-sling-bullets-in-antiquity/) on the bullets. Taking this a step further, imagine an arcane archer like class that can inscribe bullets with various symbol and language based attacks that go off on a successful hit, like power word: pain, symbol of sleep, or explosive runes.

[Thefurmonger]

I'd have to say I'd like to see casters with specialized lists, much like warmage does for evocation, though some are already covered.

^This^

I LOVE the Dread necro and Beguiller, sadly the Warmage never did much for me but some like it.

I would love to see some more like these.

Maybe a Diviner/Abjurer?

A Transmuter/Teleporter?

Got me, but this would rock.

[grarrrg]

This is a...fairly subjective question, but in your opinion, what in 3.5 are the niches you feel most deserve some homebrew?

PrC's for NON-core classes.
Addendum: GOOD PrC's for non-core classes.

Possible suggestion: Dual progression PrC's that combine one of the lesser caster types with... well, anything.

Super Challenge Suggestion: Make a PrC that transforms the Truenamer into something useful.

[Eldan]

Possible suggestion: Dual progression PrC's that combine one of the lesser caster types with... well, anything.

Super Challenge Suggestion: Make a PrC that transforms the Truenamer into something useful.

Honestly, that's pretty much been done already in homebrew. There's at least two contests on this forum focused on doing dual progression classes. Krimm's done a ton of ToB/x dual classes, and they show up for pretty much every combination of systems.

As for truenaming... PrCs would be pretty hopeless, but there's at least two good total system rewrites.

What I'd like to see? Someone rewriting the most overpowered (and most boring) spells.

[jiriku]

I'd like to see more high-end martial feats. Things for melee characters to take that are worth their feat slots at levels 12+.

[Epsilon Rose]

Some binder classes would be nice. There's more than enough vestiges but there aren't many base or prc binder classes to my knowledge.

[Suichimo]

The Duskblade's spell list. Somewhere in the design for that, I think they forgot to include the touch spells. Not to mention it got absolutely no support, even the Hexblade got that.

Would've been nice to see what would've been added to the ToB classes as well if that hadn't been the last book in 3.5, IIRC.

[Kuma Kode]

Possible suggestion: Dual progression PrC's that combine one of the lesser caster types with... well, anything.

There was a discussion in another thread and we pretty much found out there is no binder/psion dual prestige class. So maybe give some of the unsupported classes some love?

[MammonAzrael]

Everything found in Tome of Magic.
Everything found in Magic of Incarnum.
Interesting, well-balanced, and flavorful monsters (though check out the GitP monthly monster contest in Homebrew for some quality creations).
Shields and fighting that does include power attack or TWF + extra damage.
I'd say Tome of Battle, expect that it has gotten so much love it may be more well supported that some core classes!
Poison
Defensiveness in general.
Everything else mentioned in the thread!

[Ravens_cry]

Merchants.
Besides the Merchant Prince (http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/ex/20060308a&page=4) prestige class, I see little to no support for this concept, and even that class seems to supports it only in name.
But, call me a nerd, but I love the idea of merchant caravans stretched across the desert, of ships coming into harbour loaded with spices, cotton and tea, of the bicker and barter of negotiation. Buy low, sell high. Yes, I know it was probably an incredibly boring and dangerous life for real, but the whole merchant travelling to far of lands and returning loaded with exotic good is part of many legends, like Sinbad the Sailor.

[Provengreil]

defensive fighting. In vidoe game RPGs, a boss fight is, or at least should be, a 40 minute long endurance test where no one event kills you, but it is instead an epic battle to the bitter end. In dnd, it's all rocket tag, SoS and SoD. I want a boss battle that lasts beyond the time of a buff.

[Andion Isurand]

All the mundanes need homebrew.

[Draz74]

Non-Vancian classes that can truly replace the need for a Cleric in the party. (Preferably Tier 3.)

[Gamer Girl]

1.Racial homebrews. Things that make each race special, different and unique. The race books give a small sampling of feats, PSC, spells, alternative class features, substitution levels and items...but no where near enough.


It can be so boring when you encounter an elf and 'oh he has burning hands' or 'oh that elf has the run feat'. Or look 'another dwarf with a battle axe and power attack'.


2.Divine Magic homebrew. The same problem, a cleric of the god of war and the cleric of the god of magic have mostly the same spells. Each should have unique spells based on their god, expanding the Innate Feat idea. At least two spells a level.

[HalfDragonCube]

Divine Magic homebrew. The same problem, a cleric of the god of war and the cleric of the god of magic have mostly the same spells. Each should have unique spells based on their god, expanding the Innate Feat idea. At least two spells a level.

Aren't there domains for that?

Still, good point, divine spellcasters lack variance in their spell lists.

[grarrrg]

Spells that are good enough to make Evocation not auto-banned.

Basically something to balance out the power of Wizard schools.

[blackjack217]

More Invoker options, specifically good ones.

[Ravens_cry]

Aren't there domains for that?

Still, good point, divine spellcasters lack variance in their spell lists.
Maybe take a page from 1st and second edition and have variant abilities for different gods, like allowing different level of armour and weapon use and more and less spells. I mean, it doesn't really make sense for a god of Peace and Pacifism have clerics potentially geared up like those of a god of War and Destruction.

[Barbarian MD]

"Shields..."


"Shields..."

I humbly submit to you my Shield Warrior (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=192533), posted mere minutes ago. Please be gentle. :smallwink:

[gomipile]

Sword and Board could definitely use some work. Guns could be better, but how to make them viable without making them game breaking, like they are in Real Life, especially with the HP system, puzzles me.
Is there any good sling classes? The sling can be a devastating weapon, David wasn't quite as outmatched as you might think, yet I don't see much support for it.

Well, being a gun person in real life, bows in 3.5 are stronger in a lot of ways than guns in other games or real life. Especially if you consider 1-2 HD to be "average" for a run of the mill human.

So really, guns should just be a flavor thing, like repeating crossbows are. You could go the Deadlands route and make a few guns that do 1d12 damage to justify the EWP feat, though.

[Swooper]

2.Divine Magic homebrew. The same problem, a cleric of the god of war and the cleric of the god of magic have mostly the same spells. Each should have unique spells based on their god, expanding the Innate Feat idea. At least two spells a level.
You may get some mileage out of a refluffed Ardent. In any case, a T3 cleric variant is on my to-do list, though it'll be a while before I can get 'round to it. Working on T3 wizard right now. :smallcool: