D&D 5e/Next Trying to delete this thread of mine [Archive]

Icecaster

2019-01-21, 12:28 PM

Uh, well alright let's give this a go, shall we? After having read through each subclass (and totem animal option), the majority of these features are overpowered and/or poorly balanced. It's a common mistake early in the learning curve of homebrewing, so I wouldn't worry too much about it, but I'll go through and we'll see what I can find. You do seem to have a knack for game language, though, so across the board: Well done on that.

Alchemic Mixer
The name seems a little dull, in my opinion. Calling oneself a "mixer" doesn't sound very fun. In addition, without fluff, I'm left with no idea as to what the actual goal of this subclass is, how one becomes an alchemic mixer, or why on earth it's a ranger subclass. If somebody wanted to use this at my table, they would need a good explanation of why their ranger is also an alchemist, and as is, the subclass offers no explanation. Why not switch it to something like a fighter, who frequently takes part in studies? Do these mixers study? If so, what allows them to use their Wisdom as opposed to Intelligence (more on that later, though)? I would really suggest even a few sentences of fluff to set the stage for what somebody (especially a DM, since you want people to allow the use of this subclass, and that's up to the DM) can expect from the subclass.

Bonus Proficiency
Bonus Proficiencies* Proficiency with alchemist's supplies is only natural, but I do wonder why I've been given proficiency in Medicine. Arcana seems more appropriate, given the theme of brewing, or perhaps Nature to find needed ingredients. Medecine seems out of place, and with no fluff to explain it, I would suggest swapping that for something that more directly pertains to the theme if you don't drop it altogether.

Alchemical Coatings
Straight off the bat, this looks much more efficient with ranged weapons than melee. Melee has 10 chances to hit once, but ranged has 3 chances to hit 3 times, meaning with a high attack stat and the archery fighting style, you'll almost surely be hitting more often than you won't be; therefore, you'll be hitting for more damage on average using ranged. There's no good way around this, but that means that the majority of this subclass should be balanced off of the fact that ranged characters will perform better than melee. I'll talk about the coatings themselves later. Kudos on the potency rules, that's often an oversight in these kinds of situations, and it looks good. Again, I find myself wondering why the usage of Wisdom over Intelligence. I understand the mechanical reasons why, so that the ranger is not more MAD, but fluff-wise it feels odd. I don't have Xanathar's with me, or I would look up specific rules on alchemist's supplies, but I would imagine the majority of checks involve Intelligence. The progression seems like it scales nicely. Starts out useful and remains useful throughout a player's career. Most features don't need this heavy of a progression, but balanced off of other rangers the damage seems fine. Bonus action is fast for this kind of bonus, but with so many things frequently competing for a ranger's bonus action, I can accept this as well.

Extra Attack
Yep, makes sense. Nice remembering to add this for those of us who use it.

Thicker Coatings
So first, melee finally doesn't have its biggest disadvantage: one hit only. Now it has two, but ranged now has five, ensuring it keeps its top spot. However, the name seems misleading for the ammunition. How would thicker coatings let you apply to more pieces of ammunition? The name leads me to believe you are more focused on melee than ranged. To account for both melee and ranged in the feature, I might involve something like "efficient" somewhere in the name, possibly followed by "coatings" or "alchemy." The additional progression at 14th seems fine since the current 14th feature is almost exclusively harmful to use.

Quick Coating
This feature is nice if, and only if, one of two things happen:
(1) You are a dual-wielder, in which case you now bump your attacks to four, rivaling an archer's five, and you can keep going on a miss. 11th level feels a little late to shore up this weakness, though, and ranged gets nothing.
(2) If you are holding a melee weapon while standing next to your friend who is wielding a melee weapon. RAW, you can coat his too.
There's one main problem with this feature, being that it gives no bonus whatsoever to ranged, unless ammunition pieces count as a weapon. If so, then this feature feels lackluster because it gives access to a measly one more ammunition piece, and also because it does the same bonus as every other feature thus far, making it boring. I recommend reworking the feature or replacing it.

Combined Coating
Why would you somebody this feature? Combining two different damage types gives no inherent bonus, and if you involve a save-included coating makes the save easier. It would be mechanically better and much more efficient to just use the coatings separately instead of wasting two of them for worse effects than using just one.

Alchemical Coatings
You get all of the coatings you need right at 3rd level: Holy Oil and Paralytic. Paralytic is strictly better than Poisonous Venom. Stunned is a better debuff than poisoned and they're otherwise the exact same. Poisonous Venom is redundant and therefore bad. Likewise with Holy Oil, radiant is the second least resisted damage type in the game (force is first). This makes Holy Oil almost strictly better than any other "damage type" coatings. You might want a backup coating in case you do end up fighting a celestial, but the odds are against it. That said, applying stunned on several attack rolls is wayyyyyyy too good. And at level 3? Con save makes it worse but boy-o would I be in a hurry to use that as often as I possibly could. That's the way to shred through a boss' legendary resistance, right there, and you can keep them coming after that at higher levels, too. For this to be playable, Paralytic needs to be removed or changed entirely. Additionally, I might add different debuffs or changes to some of the other coatings so that they aren't all overshadowed by Holy Oil and (after the removal and eviction of Paralytic) Poisonous Venom, because poisoned is a really good debuff too. I won't say poisoned is too good, but honestly I'd still be using Poisonous Venom almost exclusively over Holy Oil. I would suggest making the poisoned debuff last until the end of the target's turn on only the initial save. Since you can do it several times, you could still poison them for longer, but it wouldn't be overpowered. The coatings should involve tactical decisions, not simple pointing and saying "Ah, yes. This one is best. I'll take four please." One might use another coating if they were fighting something they knew had a vulnerability they could exploit, but that barely ever comes up. Revise the coatings, tweak some things in the features, top it all off with some fluff, and I'd allow this at my table.

Way of Instinct
Here's some good fluff. Short, but it gets the message across. Theme seems fine to me.

Deflect Attacks
Yikes. This is too much. Expanding deflect missiles to melee attacks is too much. A lot more melee attacks come at a monk - a melee character - than ranged, and this opens up the monk to essentially taking 1d10 + Dex mod + monk level less damage every turn. It fits the theme, but it's far too good for level 3. This should be, like, a level 17 capstone. Beyond that, disarming for a ki point is really good. You can just pick up their weapon, presumably, right afterward. I would also say that attacking with unarmed strike or a monk weapon is too good. Deflect missiles counts the throwing-back-of-the-piece-of-ammunition as a monk weapon to determine its damage die because it doesn't have one, making it equal to your unarmed strikes. Attacking with a melee monk weapon that way allows (especially at lower levels, like, say, level 3) for a higher damage die than normally allowed, even for deflect missiles. I would support the as-is counter strike at this level if it didn't involve the damage reduction. This feature is a whole dang lot of too much power.

Sharp Senses
This feature confuses me. When does this reaction expire? At the beginning of your next turn? At the end of your current turn? I'd suggest rewording it a little bit. Besides that, the feature doesn't feel too strong, and it fits the theme very well. Assuming it works the way I think it does, then I like the feature.

Focused Mind
The language here is a little jumbled, but it gets the point across. I also like this feature, and it's a good noncombat feature.

Instinctive State
I'm close to saying this is too much. I think the saving grace here is that I'm assuming the current 3rd level feature will change and this is 17th level. I really recommend increasing the starting ki cost though, to maybe 5 or 6. It'll still be more efficient based on what the feature allows you to do. Overall you've got a good chassis, the main problem being the 3rd level feature

Tempest Warlock
Again, I recommend fluff. As a DM, I know nothing about this warlock's story. Who did they make a deal with? What kind of being? A storm giant king? An air elemental as old as time itself? A living storm? An immortal being made of lightning bolts? As a player, it discourages me because I'm not sure what I would be allowed to play as part of this theme. If I really can play any of those, then say so. Give me something in fluff, otherwise the subclass is almost a waste to make and most people are going to skip over it after reading the title.

Essence of the Storm
Well this feels lackluster. Most patrons give some defining feature at first level, and these guys get... a cantrip? As the wielder of the almighty eldritch blast, the times I would want either of these cantrips are few and far between. That said, it is a start.

Flickering Jaunt
This feature shouldn't happen at 3rd. Was it supposed to happen at 1st? I assume so, because that would fix the problem at 1st. That said, the feature is cool, but I'm confused about the weapon attack. A lot of warlocks don't do weapon attacks much. This also, assuming this is put at 1st level, makes warlock a very, very appealing dip for every martial class. On top of giving every melee a way to reposition themselves without provoking opportunity attacks, this allows another attack every round you get hit. A pretty good tradeoff. And a rogue? That's another chance at sneak attack reliably on most rounds. Removing the weapon attack or swapping this feature with the level 6 feature would solve this problem.

Tempestuous Resonance
Honestly I can't find much I dislike about this feature. The language is good, the effect is useful at all levels without being overpowered, it encourages players to cast lightning and thunder spells without enforcing restrictions, and it adds lightning and thunder resistance, which is flavorful and occasionally useful without being too common of a resistance. I appreciate this feature. As I said in Flickering Jaunt, swapping this for first level and flickering jaunt for sixth wouldn't be a bad swap, and I think this feature works just as well at first. The feature is tactical and flavorful.

Striking Speed
Right, so the tabaxi thing, I think. It seems appropriate, useful, and flavorful. Nice.

Discharge
It's a nice capstone. What essentially is a better version of fireball, but it's flavorful and doesn't use a spell slot, to boot. I also would suggest stunned over paralyzed, the only difference being that people don't auto crit within 5 feet. This subclass looks very good, and, in my opinion, is the best one in the post. With a couple relatively simple tweaks, I would happily allow this at my table.

Dragon Totem
Seems interesting. I like the concept of a tribal dragon warrior.

3rd Level
Seems appropriate. It's powerful, but not better than bear totem, so I'll call it good.

6th Level
Alright noncombat feature. Probably won't come into play as much as the other ones, but it's not too bad.

14th Level
I would call this a problem feature. It's fairly powerful, especially for having it your entire rage, and on top of that it completely nullifies weapon usage in a martial class, which is a problem because if I, as a player, have built my character to be good at using a weapon to all of the sudden have these resources wasted as a better option comes along, I'll feel cheated. Alternatively, if I, as a player, know I can get this feature and can use it instead of attacking with a weapon, I can forgo a real attack stat and rely on that when I actually need it. That would only work at higher levels, though. I would make it deal a little more damage (off the top of my head, maybe 10d6?) and have it usable once per rage.