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View Full Version : D&D 5e/Next Rogue Archetype: Scorpion Heritor



Wartex1
2015-05-09, 10:12 AM
A Scorpion Heritor is a desert stalker, studying scorpions and giving them the arachnid's power. Supernatural and dangerous, these wasteland warriors are not to be made your enemy.

Envenomed Tongue
When you gain this archetype at 3rd level, you are able to develop a dangerous poison in your mouth. Once per short rest, you may coat a single melee weapon or piece of ammunition with deadly poison by licking it as a bonus action. On your next successful attack with that weapon or piece of ammunition, you force the target to make a Constitution saving throw against a DC equal to 8 + your proficiency bonus + your Dexterity modifier. On a failed save, the target takes 2d6 poison damage and is poisoned for 1 hour. On a successful save, the target takes half damage and suffers no additional effects. The damage of this feature goes up by 1d6 at 5th, 9th, 13th, and 17th levels, equal to your proficiency bonus.

Venom Immunity
Also when you gain this archetype at 3rd level, you gain a natural immunity to the poisoned condition.

Scorpion Deception
Beginning at 9th level, you can hide under sand, dirt, and other loose ground with ease. You gain a burrow speed equal to half of your walking speed.

Scorpion Sense
At 13th level, you can feel even the tiniest of vibrations beneath the desert sand. You gain tremorsense out to 20 feet.

Tail of the Scorpion
Reaching the highest state of the Scorpion Heritor, you grow a large barbed tail capable of striking at your enemies. Your tail is a +3 reach weapon with the finesse property that deals 1d8 piercing damage with each strike. You can apply your Envenomed Tongue's poison to the tail without using a bonus action as well, since you do not need to lick it.

JNAProductions
2015-05-09, 10:36 AM
What do you mean by +3 reach weapon? Do you mean +3 to attack and damage? If so, far too powerful.

You already get 1d10 finesse-better than the the best possible value for a Rogue-making it a Legendary magic item as well is too much.

Wartex1
2015-05-09, 10:40 AM
+3 isn't that much compared to other magic weapons (no other special features), and it's only Very Rare. The finesse property was to work with sneak attack, since it's a rogue archetype, and it's reach to actually be better than a weapon that a Rogue would have several levels before. Plus, it's a tail, so Reach makes more sense anyways.

JNAProductions
2015-05-09, 10:46 AM
Magic weapons are only if the DM allows them. They should not be built into a class.

More than that, being a 1d10 Reach Finesse (no other Finesse weapon has reach or 1d10) plus a free rider (action economy matters) is more than enough.

If you want it to be enchanted, allow reforging of magic weapons into stinger sheathes.

Wartex1
2015-05-09, 01:13 PM
A lack of magic weapons that late into the game gives most martial classes a very large disadvantage and not giving those bonuses in some way can easily be considered poor DMing.

Also, the whip is finesse and reach, but only deals 1d4 damage. However, no finesse weapons deal less damage than the respective non-finesse counterpart (rapier is 1d8 and one-handed, while a longsword is 1d8 when one-handed). Reach two-handed weapons deal 1d10 damage as well. In addition, since this feature requires 17 levels of rogue, you cannot get extra attacks with it.

+3 and getting rid of the bonus action required for the poison is both thematic and level-appropriate.

Also, other classes get powerful magic item effects as well, such as the Barbarian getting 4 very rare magic item effects from the same feature.

JNAProductions
2015-05-09, 01:16 PM
My bad, forgot the whip. It's still a bit too powerful in my opinion, but I guess I've nothing more to add to it. We're just of differing opinions.

One note is that you actually can get two attacks-Frenzy Barbarian. (Which is actually a great dip due to Reckless Attack.)

Wartex1
2015-05-09, 01:19 PM
That level of exhaustion is killer, and the rogue doesn't benefit much from that anyways due to relying on strength.

I can change it to a d8 though.

JNAProductions
2015-05-09, 01:21 PM
Woops, Elusive isn't till 18. My bad there.

It's pretty solid against BBEG, and just plain old rage helps a ton for the Rogue's relatively poor survivability.

Changing it to d8 is probably for the best.