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View Full Version : D&D 5e/Next Unfathomable occultism: Lovecraftian sorcerous origin (PEACH)



Requilac
2018-01-04, 11:01 AM
Hello everyone, I am back once again to present to you another homebrewed lovecraftian sub-class. Here I am working on making a sorcerous origin for ,well, sorcerers. Everything should be thoroughly explained in this link (http://homebrewery.naturalcrit.com/share/HJ-x6EWJGtz) here. This was more or less my attempt to create a class for someone that had gained their powers in a similar manner to a star spawn of Shoggoth, specifically Wilbur Whateley from The Dunwich horror . If you have no idea who that is then do not worry too much, it is not really necessary for you to. Any suggestions on how to improve or change this class are very much appreciated. I am slightly concerned that it may be overpowered, but I cannot quite tell why. My biggest skepticisms are over aura of dread and illusionary displacement.

nickl_2000
2018-01-04, 11:45 AM
My opinion

Aura of Dread (level 1)
-What is the Save DC based on? You spell DC?
-You need to have an addition on here that one who makes a save is immune to this effect until they complete a long rest
-Is it worth considering that they lose the condition when they leave the aura?
-Also, it would make way more sense from a flavor perspective to give someone the "Frightened" condition. They have basically the same effect. Especially if you have them lose the frightened condition when they leave the aura (or possibly they get advantage on the save to eliminate the condition when they are no longer in the aura).
-The AoO reduction is to much. A potential -5 to AoO against you? That is brokenly powerful. Applying frightened is enough, just drop this ability in my opinion



Also, as you have said, illusionary displacement is powerful. However, it only effects ranged attacks, so it's useless against melee and it's an 18th level ability. An 18th level ability should be powerful.

Requilac
2018-01-04, 12:46 PM
My opinion

Aura of Dread (level 1)
-What is the Save DC based on? You spell DC?
-You need to have an addition on here that one who makes a save is immune to this effect until they complete a long rest
-Is it worth considering that they lose the condition when they leave the aura?
-Also, it would make way more sense from a flavor perspective to give someone the "Frightened" condition. They have basically the same effect. Especially if you have them lose the frightened condition when they leave the aura (or possibly they get advantage on the save to eliminate the condition when they are no longer in the aura).
-The AoO reduction is to much. A potential -5 to AoO against you? That is brokenly powerful. Applying frightened is enough, just drop this ability in my opinion

Also, as you have said, illusionary displacement is powerful. However, it only effects ranged attacks, so it's useless against melee and it's an 18th level ability. An 18th level ability should be powerful.

1) Yes the save DC is equal to your spell save DC. I assumed that would go without saying but if there is confusion over it I will directly state so.
2) Good catch, can't believe that did not cross my mind before. It shall be added in.
3) I meant to add that in, but I guess I must have forgotten to. It should be there now.
4) I thought that poisoned would be a better depiction as to what exactly was going on. The aura is sapping their vitality and making them sluggish, not quite scaring them away. It is probably more than a little strange for a feature which triggers a wisdom saving throw to poison the enemy, but I do not quite see anything wrong with it. Frightened is not a bad choice at all, but I believe that poisoned is more suitable.
5) The big issue though is that only beasts and plants or going to become frightened, not everyone, so it is not actually enough. Especially considering the fact that plant monsters are extremely rare and past level five almost all beasts are a trivial nuisance at best. Perhaps this wan't detailed well enough, but the main point of this feature is to make it easier for you to escape from melee enemies. In this case the OA reduction is just as important, if not even more important, than the actual aura itself. I am not going to get rid of it unless I absolutely have to. I am also struggling to see how a -5 to OAs is overpowered for a class that really should not be entering melee in the first place. Would it make things better if the reduction was reduced to a -2 or it simply imposed disadvantage on the attack roll. Or I could just allow them to use a bonus action to disengage, like a limited version of the rogue's cunning action. The avoidance against OAs is such an integral part that I may be willing to scrap the aura just so I can keep the OA reduction.

Illusionary displacement is debatebly more powerful because it only effects ranged attack rolls. Aura of dread is already offering some protection against melee attacks, but is useless against ranged attackers. The point of illusionary displacement is to make it so that occultists could gain defensive measures against both melee and ranged attacks. If I made it so that displacement works against all attacks, then the melee attackers could destroy the duplicate and then let the ranged attackers in to strike. The current wording of it ensures that occultists are at least partially defended against ranged attack. I am pretty convinced that illusionary displacement is indeed even more overpowered because it only effects ranged attacks.

Blackbando
2018-01-05, 10:38 PM
Oh boy, reviewing another one of your 'brews. I really enjoy looking through the stuff you make, Req, and reviewing it.

Aura of Dread
Nothing I can add that hasn't been stated already.

Amorphous Transformation
I like it. It's weird and eldritch as hell, which is perfect for the theme.

Entropic Assault
Kinda an odd feature, I don't really get how this fits the theme. Balance-wise, it looks fine, though.

Planar Stride
Good feature, balanced for a 14th+ level sorcerer.

Illusionary Displacement
Yeah, gonna disagree with nickl_2000, here. This feature is good for an 18th level feature, though I'd personally have made the AC something like 10 + Charisma modifier, for the purpose of magic items increasing your Charisma modifier past 20, or for sorcerers without 20 Charisma at 18th level. I don't really get how this fits the theme, though.

Overall, this subclass is pretty nice. I like it, though it does seem to be a little weird on fitting thematically with Lovecraft.

Requilac
2018-01-06, 08:32 AM
Oh boy, reviewing another one of your 'brews. I really enjoy looking through the stuff you make, Req, and reviewing it.

Aura of Dread
Nothing I can add that hasn't been stated already.

Fair enough, I am just going to decrease the reduction to OAs a -2. That makes it kind of like you are wielding a shield, but can only use it against OAs. That seems fair to me.



Entropic Assault
Kinda an odd feature, I don't really get how this fits the theme. Balance-wise, it looks fine, though.

This one actually is not quite thematically appropriate in game, but it breaks through the fourth wall and actually makes the class really weird. Natural=1 good result. People rolling a 2 and saying “what a shame, I was so close to rolling a natural 1”. Explaining to the other players that “1 rolled a natural 1, that means I do critical damage”. Just imagine seeing that in play. This is not strange at all to the in game characters, but it is to the players, really cementing in the mood.

Illusionary Displacement
Yeah, gonna disagree with nickl_2000, here. This feature is good for an 18th level feature, though I'd personally have made the AC something like 10 + Charisma modifier, for the purpose of magic items increasing your Charisma modifier past 20, or for sorcerers without 20 Charisma at 18th level. I don't really get how this fits the theme, though. [/QUOTE]

The whole AC=15 I was hoping would make it more balanced, specffically for sorcerers without 20 charisma at 18th level. barely any effects increase abilities scores above 20, so i am not going to really focus on that too much. And what is not thematic about it? Lovecraft was all about illusions. That, and the imagery you get while the duplicate is in play is probably very creepy.



Overall, this subclass is pretty nice. I like it, though it does seem to be a little weird on fitting thematically with Lovecraft.

Don’t quite see your case on how it doesn’t fit with the theme.

Aura of dread: your very presence disturbs the nature around yourself

Amorphous transformation: you turn into a glob of melted organs granted movement and sentience, not too unlike what yog-shothoth and azathoth look like

Entropic assault: break through the 4th wall and make natural 1s a good thing, that should speak for itself

Planar stride: the ability to teleport was something shown by many lovecraftian monsters. Of course, that was more interdimensional travel and not quite blinking in and out of existence like occultists do, but teleportation is teleportation.

Illusionary displacement: generating a really visually strange illusion that makes it hard to determine which figure is actually you. That ought to make an enemy who is unfamiliar with you quite confused, possibly even terrified.

Requilac
2018-01-12, 07:51 PM
I have moved the content over to my lovecraftian homebrew compendium, so you will realize that the original link does not work. Just click on the link in my signature and you will find it there. Thank you all for helping me refine this sub-class!