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View Full Version : D&D 5e/Next Take a Level in Badass. No, seriously. (PEACH)



Crisis21
2018-01-30, 02:50 PM
For the uninformed: PEACH means 'Please Evaluate And Comment Honestly'. So, yeah, feedback is always appreciated. It really helps the homebrew process.


Prestige Class: Badass

Requirements:

Strength, Dexterity, and Constitution 13: Badassery requires a fit body. You must be able to handle the rigorous training that will come your way.

Proficiency in Athletics and Acrobatics: The training for Badassery is hellish. If you can't perform up to standards, you won't survive.

Saving throw proficiency in two of the following: Constitution, Dexterity, Wisdom: Badasses have to be able to survive whatever the world throws at them. Those who aren't already well on their way cannot be expected to take the hellish training ahead.

Character level 5th: Badassery doesn't come to the unexperienced. The untried cannot even dream of calling themselves badass.

Complete a renowned task: Being trained as a Badass isn't about getting a specific task to perform. No, it is about being recognized for performing above and beyond your own ability. You don't seek the masters of Badassery to ask if you have met their requirements. If you have performed well enough to warrant their training, they will find you.


Class Features:
Hit Dice: 1d12 per Badass level
Hit points 1d12 (7) + Constitution modifier per Badass level
Proficiencies: One saving throw proficiency of your choice, all armor (including shields), all weapons (yes, including improvised and exotic).
Equipment: None

Leveling guide:
Level 1: Armor or Weapon Mastery Bonus Feat, Fisticuffs, Badassery
Level 2: Mook's Nightmare
Level 3: Bonus Feat
Level 4: Not Lucky, Good
Level 5: Bonus Feat, Ultimate Badassery

Bonus Feat: When you take your first level in this class, you may choose one Weapon or Armor Mastery Feat to take. You may take an additional Feat of your choice at your 3rd and 5th Badass levels.
(Weapon and Armor Mastery Feats include: Blade Mastery, Crossbow Expert, Fell Handed, Flail Mastery, Polearm Master, Spear Mastery, Shield Master, Medium Armor Master, Heavy Armor Master)

Fisticuffs: Increase the damage of your unarmed strike by one die size (minimum 1d4). Your unarmed strikes are treated as if they had the Finesse property (you may add either your Strength or Dexterity modifier to damage).

Mook's Nightmare: At your 2nd level of Badass, you become the terror of the rank and file of your foes. When you move on your turn, you may retaliate against any enemy that takes an Attack of Opportunity against you without using your reaction. When you do this, you roll your attack as normal, but deal damage as if you rolled a '1' on all dice.

Badassery: You may gain advantage on any roll you make. When you do, you may grant one ally of your choice Inspiration. When you use this feature, you may not use it again until you complete a long rest. When you reach 5th level in this class, you also regain use of this feature after a short rest.

Not Lucky, Good: You do not suffer disadvantage unless at least two conditions would impose it. In addition, all creatures within 30 feet of you may not re-roll or otherwise change the result of an attack, ability check, or saving throw.

Crisis21
2018-01-31, 02:43 PM
Comments?

Criticism?

Laughter?

Rotten Tomatoes?

JBPuffin
2018-01-31, 04:38 PM
Huh.

It's kind of boring feature wise, but dear gods. Not hard to qualify for - take Resilient in one of the two your base class isn't proficient with either at level 4 or as a VHume and take a background that gives you both Acrobatics and Athletics (or VHume skill training+background/class skill, or...). Basically, you take this and finish your build much earlier than everyone else. I could take this after 5 levels of Wizard, pick up Blade Mastery, Warcaster, Sentinel, and Savage Attacker, and GFB/BB my way to the Swordmage Finals. I could take all 3 Dragonborn racial feats and Spear Mastery on my Open Hand Monk and...feel better about my terrible life choices, I guess? I could take Sharpshooter, Crossbow Expert (one of those two counts as a Weapon Mastery feat, if not both of them, as far as I understand it - might want to clarify that), Elven Accuracy, and Silver-Tongued, and become a half-elven god(dess) of archery just by being that awesome.

I...I want to build things with this class and see how ridiculous it can get, but dang. There aren't many Prestige Classes for 5e, and this certainly feels like a proper prestige class.

Lalliman
2018-01-31, 04:59 PM
It's cool, I like it. It's powerful, but it also has some pretty inconvenient entry requirements, so I guess it balances out.

It is a bit strange that you basically have no choice but to take the Resilient feat if you want to enter this class. As far as I recall, that's the only way to get two of those saving throw proficiencies within a reasonable level range.

Since level 2 and 3 give nothing but generic bonus feats, I wonder, couldn't this have been a three-level prestige class? It's nice to have a way to get more feats than the usual allotment, but I don't see why it would be tied to this specific class.

Lastly, Badassery should say "when you reach 5th level in this class".

Edit: It's funny how JBPuffin and I said basically opposite things. To clarify, I tend to play without VHumans, with nerfed versions of the most powerful feats (e.g. Sharpshooter), and recently without backgrounds, so that's skewing my judgement. If you play like a normal person there's certainly some potential for overpoweredness here.

Morphic tide
2018-01-31, 05:39 PM
This is... Shallow, to say the least. I like the Badassery ability, because Inspiration, unlike Advantage, is a mechanic that sees little to no playing with, and Not Lucky, Good is a useful ability to hand out... when enemies have Feats or racial abilities. It'd work better as negating rerolls in general and bypassing some of the numbers mechanics, like turning Advantage into a flat bonus/Disadvantage into a flat penalty instead of the normal mechanics.

If I were to make my own version, I'd make it about mitigating the various luck mechanics in the game and being able to be particularly extreme at mook-slaying and survival, getting out of crazy action sequences alive far more reliably than they really should be able to and just completely invalidating hordes of nobodies. Stuff like making additional attacks with separate targets at the cost of reduced damage for each, but no penalties to attack rolls, with each attack you make, regardless of the source of the attack. Then having stuff that improves durability a bundle, like stepping up your hit dice to a particular minimum (d8 at 2nd, d10 at 4th) and getting mechanics to do the Short Rest recovery with extra bonuses to improve this, possibly including being able to recharge them mid-combat, one way or another.

Crisis21
2018-01-31, 07:20 PM
This is... Shallow, to say the least. I like the Badassery ability, because Inspiration, unlike Advantage, is a mechanic that sees little to no playing with, and Not Lucky, Good is a useful ability to hand out... when enemies have Feats or racial abilities. It'd work better as negating rerolls in general and bypassing some of the numbers mechanics, like turning Advantage into a flat bonus/Disadvantage into a flat penalty instead of the normal mechanics.

If I were to make my own version, I'd make it about mitigating the various luck mechanics in the game and being able to be particularly extreme at mook-slaying and survival, getting out of crazy action sequences alive far more reliably than they really should be able to and just completely invalidating hordes of nobodies. Stuff like making additional attacks with separate targets at the cost of reduced damage for each, but no penalties to attack rolls, with each attack you make, regardless of the source of the attack. Then having stuff that improves durability a bundle, like stepping up your hit dice to a particular minimum (d8 at 2nd, d10 at 4th) and getting mechanics to do the Short Rest recovery with extra bonuses to improve this, possibly including being able to recharge them mid-combat, one way or another.

Hmm... Okay, how about this revision: Take away the Bonus Feat at 2nd Badass Level and grant an ability called 'Mook's Nightmare'. Basically, you can retaliate against any and all Attacks of Opportunity, but you deal minimal damage if you hit. Also, changed Not Lucky, Good so it negates the first level of disadvantage and suspends Luck like a Paladin aura within 30 feet of the player.

As for the blandness, part of why I gave Bonus Feats instead of original class features so much was to make this a prestige class that could fit almost any build. After all, there's many kinds of badass out there. As for toughness, well, they get d12 hit die and an extra saving throw proficiency (for a minimum of four(!) on taking the first level). That's pretty tough to begin with.

Here's the revision:

Mook's Nightmare: At your 2nd level of Badass, you become the terror of the rank and file of your foes. When you move on your turn, you may retaliate against any enemy that takes an Attack of Opportunity against you without using your reaction. When you do this, you roll your attack as normal, but deal damage as if you rolled a '1' on all dice.

Not Lucky, Good: You do not suffer disadvantage unless at least two conditions would impose it. In addition, all creatures within 30 feet of you may not re-roll or otherwise change the result of an attack, ability check, or saving throw.

JBPuffin
2018-02-01, 12:41 PM
Hmm...this does change things. Now it's more definitely a class made for a melee character who's not providing support to the party's Rogue, taking Inspiration from the Bard, etc. Badassery and Not Lucky, Good also mean your Inspirations usually go to the backline rather than, say, your fellow tank. Gives them more identity, that's for sure, but it does certainly change what characters I would use it for.e

Crisis21
2018-02-01, 11:37 PM
Hmm...this does change things. Now it's more definitely a class made for a melee character who's not providing support to the party's Rogue, taking Inspiration from the Bard, etc. Badassery and Not Lucky, Good also mean your Inspirations usually go to the backline rather than, say, your fellow tank. Gives them more identity, that's for sure, but it does certainly change what characters I would use it for.e

Yeah, this does lean it more towards a frontliner than a support character, but I think it can still be pretty solid no matter what class you started with.

Also, would it be overpowered to have Mook's Nightmare negate damage from AoOs if you knock out the guy attacking you?