Blit_Wizbok
2016-08-11, 08:15 PM
Made a fun Fighter subclass today: The Dervish
First the abilities, then I'll describe my thoughts and reasoning behind them :]
New weapon:
Scythe - 2d4 (slashing) - finesse, reach, 2-handed
This is a fighter subclass. They get new abilities at levels: 3, 7, 10, 15 and 18
Level 3:
SWEEPING STRIKES: When you use your Action to attack an enemy with a melee weapon you can use your Bonus Action to make a melee attack against a different creature that is within 5 feet of the original target, and within your reach.
REAPER'S GUARD: When you reduce a hostile creature to 0 hit points, or hit a creature with a critical strike, you gain temporary hit points equal to your Constitution modifier + your fighter level (minimum of 1).
Level 7:
DEFLECT: You can use your reaction to deflect or destroy the missile when you are hit by a ranged weapon attack. When you do so, the damage you take from the attack is reduced by 1d10 + your Strength (or Dexterity) modifier + your fighter level. If you reduce the damage to 0, and the missile is non-magical, you can cleave through it, destroying it.
Level 10:
IMPROVED CRITICAL: Your weapon attacks score a critical hit on a roll of 19 or 20.
MOB DYNAMICS: Chaotic battles against waves of foes have sharpened your senses and given you masterful awareness of your surroundings. You can easily spot a recognizable face or a familiar voice through a gaggle of people, or make out what someone is saying over the tumult of a crowded room. Additionally, you can move around people with unprecedented ease. Moving through an ally's space is no longer considered difficult terrain.
Level 15:
WHIRLWIND: Once on your turn, when you take the Attack action, you can use one of your weapon attacks to attack all enemy creatures within your reach. You make only one attack roll, and use that outcome for determining if you would hit each creature.
Level 18:
SUPERIOR BREATHING: You gain an additional charge of Second Wind. You regain both charges when you finish a short or long rest.
----------------------------------
I've always wanted a sort of scythe-wielder in D&D. I was a major fan of the Dervish in Guild Wars, and the image of a hooded figure cleaving through enemies like a whirling lawnmower of death is one I've never really gotten over.
I tried to design a character with the ability to strike at multiple foes, should they be foolish enough to group up, while also having some sustain so the player doesn't instantly die to multiple attacks. With this and the GW Dervish in mind, I created the scythe as a new melee weapon.
The idea behind the scythe is to give the fighter a finesse reach option. I always wanted more interesting finesse weapons, and scythes (if you've ever seen them used for reaping) require only as much strength need to hold it. They're all about letting the blade do most the work, and you just controlling where it goes, hence, finesse seemed natural. As for the 2d4 damage, I wanted more weapons that do 2 dice of damage to synergize even more with Great Weapon Fighter. It doesn't compete with the heavy weapons for damage, and fills a nice little niche I think the game was missing. Unique and memorable without overpowered-ness, just how I like it.
The abilities of a Dervish came fairly easily to me (especially because some of them were clones of other classes). As mentioned before, I wanted good area damage, and self-survivability for the Dervish. A melee character that can handle groups. For this I created Sweeping Strike and Reaper's Guard. Sweeping strikes really feels right, and gives the fighter something to do with his/her bonus action (assuming no Two Weapon Fighting). The immediate downside to this is that, depending on the DM, catching enemies within 5 feet of each other can be uncommon. I played with the idea of letting you attack any creature within your range as a bonus action, but I thought that'd be a bit much, and may look rather silly in an RP sense. Another option is to allow the scythe under the umbrella of the Polearm Master feat (which I think is a good idea). That way if the player doesn't encounter clustered enemies often, they can still use that feat to give them something to do with their bonus action.
Reaper's Guard is a shameless duplication of the warlock's Dark One's Blessing. However making it scale off of constitution gives more perks to putting points towards your heath. It also would incentivize a less experienced player, who may not understand just how valuable constitution is, to put points there. My hope is this will save them from getting low con, and then thinking the class weak when they get hacked to bits by 3 orcs.
Deflect is the next ability I gave to the Dervish. Nothing's worse then when you're having a nice time hacking enemies to bits and you're suddenly hit with a hail of arrows. Deflect (an inspired name, I know) is the monk's Deflect Missiles, with a little dervish flair. Instead of catching the projectile you destroy it. I felt like it's necessary to give them something against range, considering they're going to be purposefully attacking large numbers of enemies in melee, they should get a little reprieve from the cowards on the back line.
At this point I felt like bolstering the Dervish's damage output, and improved critical is a nice little bonus. Actually, if you do the math, it's an extremely potent bonus, especially with all the extra attacks fighters get. That small percent boost to crit seriously adds up when multiple attacks come together. This also synergizes well with Reaper's Guard, triggering it more without having to get the killing blow; something that will matter as enemies get tougher or less numerous at the higher levels. I also looked at the maneuvers of a battle master, and the spells of an eldritch knight. Those subclasses give fighters a wide range of options when approaching combat, but the Dervish has comparatively few, which I like. I wanted to keep the class relatively simple, and a passive boost to crit seemed like a noticeable boost to damage, without adding any real complication to the character. Also, I can only imaging the dream of hitting a crit on a Whirlwind roll.
Speaking of Whirlwind! I love this ability. It just fits my idea of this character so well. It's a massive sweeping attack that hits all the things! You can only do it once per turn, and it's one of your actions, but it's a direct upgrade to a normal melee attack. There's no reason not to whirlwind with one of your attacks if there's more than one target in range. I decided to make only one roll for all of the attacks because of pacing. Fighters already take a long time to complete their turn. At this level, they have 3 normal attacks, a possible bonus action attack, and a 4th attack from action surge. Add on to that the re-rolling if the player took great weapon fighter, it comes out to a lot of rolling. Cutting down on that by only making one attack roll is a very good thing.
Now for the capstone. I put a lot of thought into the capstone ability; I wanted something that gave health, not just temporary HP. I also wanted something more consistent. As it stands, the Dervish doesn't have any response to damage taken. They can mitigate it ahead of time with Reaper's Guard, and slap down ranged damage with Deflect, but if a big nasty just boops them in the snoot, they don't have any ability to recover from that. I toyed with giving them some sort of health gain based on if they're below half health. Like they siphon a small amount of health per enemy hit, but I felt that that stepped a little too much on the Champion's toes, as they have a passive HP regen when they're below half health for their capstone. I also played with the Dervish somehow marking an opponent, and then gaining HP when they deal damage to it. I quickly discarded this idea, because a "marking" mechanic is something that should run through the entire class, not just be randomly introduced at level 18. I also didn't want something too strong. The Dervish has a lot of really great and powerful abilities. I didn't want to give them too strong of a capstone, or risk making them overpowered.
Eventually, I settled on just improving Second Wind. It's an ability that all fighters have, but none of the subclasses do anything with it. Improving an ability inherent to the fighter also aligns with my idea of keeping this character uncomplicated. I had a few ideas on how I should improve it. I played with 3 options: 1. Double the healing of Second Wind 2. Add your constitution modifier to the roll and 3. Giving 2 charges (which I eventually went with). Now, before I begin, I'd like to explain my interpretation of what the designers intended Second Wind to be. It's not deigned to recover completely from a strike, but to bring an unexpectedly high damaging hit back down to what you thought you were going to get hit for. It smooths out big spikes in damage without entirely recovering from an attack.
For example: As a fighter you're always expecting to get hit. You're level 12 or so, and you expect to get hit for around 30 damage this turn, but the enemy rolls unexpectedly high, and you get hit for 45. You use Second Wind, heal for 17, and bring that damage back into line with what you expected to take.
On this note, flat doubling the heal on Second Wind (option 1) would take it too far away from what I think it was designed to be. On the other side of the spectrum, only adding 5 health (max constitution mod before gear bonuses) doesn't feel very impactful. I decided giving you more uses of of Second Wind is the best option. It's like doubling the healing (if you need it), but spread out over multiple turns, which gives you more flexibility.
Tell me what ya'll think.
First the abilities, then I'll describe my thoughts and reasoning behind them :]
New weapon:
Scythe - 2d4 (slashing) - finesse, reach, 2-handed
This is a fighter subclass. They get new abilities at levels: 3, 7, 10, 15 and 18
Level 3:
SWEEPING STRIKES: When you use your Action to attack an enemy with a melee weapon you can use your Bonus Action to make a melee attack against a different creature that is within 5 feet of the original target, and within your reach.
REAPER'S GUARD: When you reduce a hostile creature to 0 hit points, or hit a creature with a critical strike, you gain temporary hit points equal to your Constitution modifier + your fighter level (minimum of 1).
Level 7:
DEFLECT: You can use your reaction to deflect or destroy the missile when you are hit by a ranged weapon attack. When you do so, the damage you take from the attack is reduced by 1d10 + your Strength (or Dexterity) modifier + your fighter level. If you reduce the damage to 0, and the missile is non-magical, you can cleave through it, destroying it.
Level 10:
IMPROVED CRITICAL: Your weapon attacks score a critical hit on a roll of 19 or 20.
MOB DYNAMICS: Chaotic battles against waves of foes have sharpened your senses and given you masterful awareness of your surroundings. You can easily spot a recognizable face or a familiar voice through a gaggle of people, or make out what someone is saying over the tumult of a crowded room. Additionally, you can move around people with unprecedented ease. Moving through an ally's space is no longer considered difficult terrain.
Level 15:
WHIRLWIND: Once on your turn, when you take the Attack action, you can use one of your weapon attacks to attack all enemy creatures within your reach. You make only one attack roll, and use that outcome for determining if you would hit each creature.
Level 18:
SUPERIOR BREATHING: You gain an additional charge of Second Wind. You regain both charges when you finish a short or long rest.
----------------------------------
I've always wanted a sort of scythe-wielder in D&D. I was a major fan of the Dervish in Guild Wars, and the image of a hooded figure cleaving through enemies like a whirling lawnmower of death is one I've never really gotten over.
I tried to design a character with the ability to strike at multiple foes, should they be foolish enough to group up, while also having some sustain so the player doesn't instantly die to multiple attacks. With this and the GW Dervish in mind, I created the scythe as a new melee weapon.
The idea behind the scythe is to give the fighter a finesse reach option. I always wanted more interesting finesse weapons, and scythes (if you've ever seen them used for reaping) require only as much strength need to hold it. They're all about letting the blade do most the work, and you just controlling where it goes, hence, finesse seemed natural. As for the 2d4 damage, I wanted more weapons that do 2 dice of damage to synergize even more with Great Weapon Fighter. It doesn't compete with the heavy weapons for damage, and fills a nice little niche I think the game was missing. Unique and memorable without overpowered-ness, just how I like it.
The abilities of a Dervish came fairly easily to me (especially because some of them were clones of other classes). As mentioned before, I wanted good area damage, and self-survivability for the Dervish. A melee character that can handle groups. For this I created Sweeping Strike and Reaper's Guard. Sweeping strikes really feels right, and gives the fighter something to do with his/her bonus action (assuming no Two Weapon Fighting). The immediate downside to this is that, depending on the DM, catching enemies within 5 feet of each other can be uncommon. I played with the idea of letting you attack any creature within your range as a bonus action, but I thought that'd be a bit much, and may look rather silly in an RP sense. Another option is to allow the scythe under the umbrella of the Polearm Master feat (which I think is a good idea). That way if the player doesn't encounter clustered enemies often, they can still use that feat to give them something to do with their bonus action.
Reaper's Guard is a shameless duplication of the warlock's Dark One's Blessing. However making it scale off of constitution gives more perks to putting points towards your heath. It also would incentivize a less experienced player, who may not understand just how valuable constitution is, to put points there. My hope is this will save them from getting low con, and then thinking the class weak when they get hacked to bits by 3 orcs.
Deflect is the next ability I gave to the Dervish. Nothing's worse then when you're having a nice time hacking enemies to bits and you're suddenly hit with a hail of arrows. Deflect (an inspired name, I know) is the monk's Deflect Missiles, with a little dervish flair. Instead of catching the projectile you destroy it. I felt like it's necessary to give them something against range, considering they're going to be purposefully attacking large numbers of enemies in melee, they should get a little reprieve from the cowards on the back line.
At this point I felt like bolstering the Dervish's damage output, and improved critical is a nice little bonus. Actually, if you do the math, it's an extremely potent bonus, especially with all the extra attacks fighters get. That small percent boost to crit seriously adds up when multiple attacks come together. This also synergizes well with Reaper's Guard, triggering it more without having to get the killing blow; something that will matter as enemies get tougher or less numerous at the higher levels. I also looked at the maneuvers of a battle master, and the spells of an eldritch knight. Those subclasses give fighters a wide range of options when approaching combat, but the Dervish has comparatively few, which I like. I wanted to keep the class relatively simple, and a passive boost to crit seemed like a noticeable boost to damage, without adding any real complication to the character. Also, I can only imaging the dream of hitting a crit on a Whirlwind roll.
Speaking of Whirlwind! I love this ability. It just fits my idea of this character so well. It's a massive sweeping attack that hits all the things! You can only do it once per turn, and it's one of your actions, but it's a direct upgrade to a normal melee attack. There's no reason not to whirlwind with one of your attacks if there's more than one target in range. I decided to make only one roll for all of the attacks because of pacing. Fighters already take a long time to complete their turn. At this level, they have 3 normal attacks, a possible bonus action attack, and a 4th attack from action surge. Add on to that the re-rolling if the player took great weapon fighter, it comes out to a lot of rolling. Cutting down on that by only making one attack roll is a very good thing.
Now for the capstone. I put a lot of thought into the capstone ability; I wanted something that gave health, not just temporary HP. I also wanted something more consistent. As it stands, the Dervish doesn't have any response to damage taken. They can mitigate it ahead of time with Reaper's Guard, and slap down ranged damage with Deflect, but if a big nasty just boops them in the snoot, they don't have any ability to recover from that. I toyed with giving them some sort of health gain based on if they're below half health. Like they siphon a small amount of health per enemy hit, but I felt that that stepped a little too much on the Champion's toes, as they have a passive HP regen when they're below half health for their capstone. I also played with the Dervish somehow marking an opponent, and then gaining HP when they deal damage to it. I quickly discarded this idea, because a "marking" mechanic is something that should run through the entire class, not just be randomly introduced at level 18. I also didn't want something too strong. The Dervish has a lot of really great and powerful abilities. I didn't want to give them too strong of a capstone, or risk making them overpowered.
Eventually, I settled on just improving Second Wind. It's an ability that all fighters have, but none of the subclasses do anything with it. Improving an ability inherent to the fighter also aligns with my idea of keeping this character uncomplicated. I had a few ideas on how I should improve it. I played with 3 options: 1. Double the healing of Second Wind 2. Add your constitution modifier to the roll and 3. Giving 2 charges (which I eventually went with). Now, before I begin, I'd like to explain my interpretation of what the designers intended Second Wind to be. It's not deigned to recover completely from a strike, but to bring an unexpectedly high damaging hit back down to what you thought you were going to get hit for. It smooths out big spikes in damage without entirely recovering from an attack.
For example: As a fighter you're always expecting to get hit. You're level 12 or so, and you expect to get hit for around 30 damage this turn, but the enemy rolls unexpectedly high, and you get hit for 45. You use Second Wind, heal for 17, and bring that damage back into line with what you expected to take.
On this note, flat doubling the heal on Second Wind (option 1) would take it too far away from what I think it was designed to be. On the other side of the spectrum, only adding 5 health (max constitution mod before gear bonuses) doesn't feel very impactful. I decided giving you more uses of of Second Wind is the best option. It's like doubling the healing (if you need it), but spread out over multiple turns, which gives you more flexibility.
Tell me what ya'll think.