Elemental Warrior class

[Hyjak]

I'm seeking critique and feedback on an elemental warrior class I homebrewed for my current campaign. Yes, I considered making an archetype of fighter or ranger. No, I don't think that was an adequate solution. Yes, monk way of the elements is an option. No, none of my players were interested in that particular style of play. Okay, now that those caveats are out of the way, I'm specifically looking for feedback on elemental strike damage, cataclysmic strike (the level 20 feature of the class), and the channel element ability that each archetype gets access to. I believe the rest of the features are all largely balanced with regard to the rest of the game and I am curious how those three features in particular measure up. The purpose of this class is to feel like you're incorporating elemental effects/magic into everything they do. These characters have some innate understanding of the elements that allow them to manipulate the elements which really just wouldn't work outside of it's own class. I'm hoping to roll this class out to my group within the next few weeks, so any and all feedback would be much appreciated.

Link: https://docs.google.com/document/d/14oxWkjem-J9rhAAW-l6983HDPuRU2sPUYFyNAXi7zDw/pub

[tuviel023]

I like the class as a whole, but have a few issues.

1) I think that the strike damage is either too high, or should be limited turn-wise (this is especially true if Stormlord gets to apply their Elemental Strike damage to their channeled extra attack), I would personally keep the damage as is and just reduce it down to one attack per turn (perhaps getting a second elemental strike later).

2) Each of the channels should require a bonus action to initiate. I would keep the Stormlord's from being bonus action per turn, as that makes it weaker than fires in terms of damage, unless the strike damage applies to all weapon hits, rather than just one or two.

3) Does Lighting's Swiftness provide an additional extra attack or one extra attack? The wording is a little confusing, but I assume you mean one additional extra attack (which would be 3 total attacks, plus a potential offhand attack, starting at level 5).

4) The wording on Cataclysmic Strike is a little unclear. I'm assuming that you can take one strike per turn and turn it into a Cataclysmic Strike (which is a non-issue if it becomes only one elemental strike per turn anyways), but it really isn't clear if that is once per turn or until you run out of uses. Additionally, do you need to declare that before or after the dice roll/result of roll is declared? If it is before, the five uses seem balanced, if after, that seems a bit much.

[GWJ_DanyBoy]

There's a typo on the spellcasting DC entry. It's listed as charisma when it should be wisdom.

Otherwise it seems like a Paladin with a mix of the Warlock's and Druid's spell lists and a weaker but limitless Smite ability.

My only concern would be that it's a fairly front-loaded class, getting a lot of features at level 1, which might make for some rather strong multi-class combinations. Mixing it with fighter for more extra attacks and action surge would make for a really strong nova at level 12.

[PotatoGolem]

I love the class as a whole, but Stormlord seems way better than Raging Inferno to the point that RI is almost a trap option.

Channel Element: Extra attack vs +2 damage isn't even close. If you land both hits you're doing more than +2 on just the added elemental strike damage alone. Even at 11th level, the extra attack is doing more damage than +5 (and is more likely to hit thanks to bounded accuracy). This may be less of an issue if ES is limited to 1/turn.

People may disagree on the 10th level ability, but I think that resistance to anything requiring an attack roll will probably end up saving you more hit points than burning your spell slots on self-healing. I haven't done the math, so I could be wrong, but it seems way stronger.

The capstone again seems better for lightning. Improved crit is really strong in this edition, and is basically all that the Champion has going for him. Extra good on this class to double ES damage. Whereas the fire one is pretty lackluster. Give up all your attacks for the turn to do (on average, assuming max Wis) 10.5 points of damage on a failed save? Useful if you're being mobbed by kobolds, but basically useless against level-appropriate enemies.

Since fire is also the most resisted/immune element, you're likely to lose a lot more ES damage as well. I'd buff up the fire subclass a bit to make it on par with lightning.

Lightning can also benefit from a 2-level dip into Tempest Cleric to maximize damage, while fire doesn't have that option.