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View Full Version : D&D 5e/Next A fighter archetype and a sorcerer bloodline (PEACH)



hymer
2015-01-18, 08:50 AM
Though it's currently shelved, I'm looking to expand a homebrew 5th edition campaign. I'd like some extra options for subclasses, and I'd like some fresh eyes to look at what I've come up with so far. I'm mostly worried about balance issues, in the sense of whether someone would even pick these options, or perhaps feel compelled to pick them because they're much better than the others. I'm not trying to fix any existing balance issues there may be with the choices, but I'd like to be as sure as possible this won't be all-or-nothing options.
Thanks in advance!


Knight of the Hart
(Fighter archetype)
This order of knights spans the North, accepting aspirants from all cultures and races. They stay out of the turmoil of politics, and focus their efforts on safeguarding civilized lands from attack, most especially from the hobgoblins of the north.

Bloodied but Unbowed (3)
Whenever you are struck by a sneak attack, or similar attack that increases weapon damage, you reduce damage received by half your class level, to a maximum equal to the extra damage dealt. This is counted before any Resistance you may have. You also take damage from critical hits as if they were normal hits.

Patrolling the Frontier (7)
You gain proficiency in Perception and Survival. If you are already proficient, you may add an extra half of your proficiency bonus to these rolls. This is not cumulative with Expertise.

Versatility (10)
You gain an additional Fighting Style from the class feature of that name.

Duty to Fight (15)
Twice per long or short rest, you can, as a reaction, gain temporary Resistance to one type of damage of your choosing. The resistance lasts until your turn has come and gone two times.

Through the Night (18)
At the start of each of your turns, you regain hit points equal to 5 + your Constitution modifier, if you have no more than half your hit points left. You don’t gain this benefit if you have 0 hit points.


High Elf Bloodline
(Sorcerer bloodline)
Your innate magic comes from a high elf mage ancestor. His or her highly magical nature reverberates down the ages, causing even distant descendants to sometimes show remarkable magical talent.

Link to the Eternal Forest (1)
You can speak, read and write High Elf language. Whenever you make a charisma check when interacting with high elves, your proficiency bonus is doubled if it applies to the check.
You also learn two cantrips from the Druid list, and a first level druid spell.

Arcane Recovery (6)
You can regain some of your magical by meditating. Once per day when finishing a short rest, you can choose expended spell slots to recover. The spell slots can have a combined level that is equal to or less than half your sorcerer level, and none of the slots can be 6th level or higher.

Tremendous Concentration (14)
You can concentrate on two Concentration spells at the same time, but you must pay two sorcery points every round while doing so. Losing your concentration means losing both spells.

Eternal Spirit (18)
You gain access to more druid spells. You can pick a second and a third level spell to add to your list

Scarab112
2015-01-18, 02:16 PM
The Knight of the Hart seems to be very similar to the champion, except instead of getting increased critical hit range, it gets resistance to critical hits and other extra dice attacks. The result will be a Fighter that can't deal as much damage and is slightly better at not dying, which without a good way to encourage people to attack him, will result in him being ignored in favor of other targets.

The Sorcerer bloodline is kind of meh. In terms of fluff, you should probably call it a Fey bloodline instead, since those are inherently magical creatures similar to elves. Learning druid spells is interesting, but some of the other features just feel like generically improved magic. If you really wanted to keep arcane recovery, I would make it get back sorcery points instead of spell slots. The ability to concentrate on two spells isn't really worth that many sorcery points, since you could just as easily twin a spell, and to use this effectively, you'd need to twin two spells for 4 of the spell concentrated on at once. While that might be nice for a party wide fly or haste buff, it'll eat through your spell points way too quickly to be very useful.

hymer
2015-01-18, 02:26 PM
The Knight of the Hart seems to be very similar to the champion, except instead of getting increased critical hit range, it gets resistance to critical hits and other extra dice attacks. The result will be a Fighter that can't deal as much damage and is slightly better at not dying, which without a good way to encourage people to attack him, will result in him being ignored in favor of other targets.

It's a good point about aggro. We do play with feats, and I expect anyone going for something this tanky will take the feats to back it up. Still, maybe there should be a little something.


The Sorcerer bloodline is kind of meh. In terms of fluff, you should probably call it a Fey bloodline instead, since those are inherently magical creatures similar to elves. Learning druid spells is interesting, but some of the other features just feel like generically improved magic. If you really wanted to keep arcane recovery, I would make it get back sorcery points instead of spell slots. The ability to concentrate on two spells isn't really worth that many sorcery points, since you could just as easily twin a spell, and to use this effectively, you'd need to twin two spells for 4 of the spell concentrated on at once. While that might be nice for a party wide fly or haste buff, it'll eat through your spell points way too quickly to be very useful.

No reason I should explain the whole fluff here, but it fits perfectly in the campaign world.
As for arcane recovery, sorcery points and spell slots are interchangeable, so it's not much different.
You're right about it being very expensive in spell points. I'm very reluctant about allowing multiple concentrates, but this isn't a good way to do it. Maybe it costs the spell's level, and then lasts up to a minute. Haste is the exact spell I had in mind. Or maybe I should come up with something entirely different.

Thank you much!

Amnoriath
2015-01-18, 09:14 PM
It's a good point about aggro. We do play with feats, and I expect anyone going for something this tanky will take the feats to back it up. Still, maybe there should be a little something.



No reason I should explain the whole fluff here, but it fits perfectly in the campaign world.
As for arcane recovery, sorcery points and spell slots are interchangeable, so it's not much different.
You're right about it being very expensive in spell points. I'm very reluctant about allowing multiple concentrates, but this isn't a good way to do it. Maybe it costs the spell's level, and then lasts up to a minute. Haste is the exact spell I had in mind. Or maybe I should come up with something entirely different.

Thank you much!

1. One of the major problems with the Champion is that while it can make criticals more often it actually deals the lowest damage per hit in comparison to other fighting characters. This compounds that and doesn't really provide much of strategy to compliment its tankiness. While people may declare the Barbarian a major damage dealer at base it is more like a consistent hard hitter with a wonder shot every once in a while. The Barbarian does have some abilities that provoke to being a tank without a save whether it be flanking without facing rules, disadvantage to anyone else, or giving advantage it provokes the attack.
2. While it is a cool ability it isn't all that flavorful and it is twin spell+ so one needs to be careful.

hymer
2015-01-19, 05:21 AM
1. One of the major problems with the Champion is that while it can make criticals more often it actually deals the lowest damage per hit in comparison to other fighting characters. This compounds that and doesn't really provide much of strategy to compliment its tankiness. While people may declare the Barbarian a major damage dealer at base it is more like a consistent hard hitter with a wonder shot every once in a while. The Barbarian does have some abilities that provoke to being a tank without a save whether it be flanking without facing rules, disadvantage to anyone else, or giving advantage it provokes the attack.
2. While it is a cool ability it isn't all that flavorful and it is twin spell+ so one needs to be careful.

1: As I said, I'm not looking to 'fix' any of the existing options. Fighters' individual hits may be less than others (but this is much too simple a statement to show the reality of options available), but then they make a lot more of them. To put that in perspective, I can't think of any other character that can make 12 attacks in a round, all under their own power.
That said, I agree that giving up offence for defence is generally substandard, and something needs to be done to give the tank a way to influence where enemies go and what they do.

2: Yeah, I agree, and I've changed it. I've decided against meddling with concentration.

Thanks a bunch!