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View Full Version : D&D 5e/Next HUGE Expansion: Aster's Arcane Atlas



AgentMaineSIGMA
2019-02-09, 03:20 PM
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1jaVCHKJfi1LggQSD4cPiJN1ZOqZffNnLFPxKfZzrjjM/edit?usp=sharing

It's been awhile since I last posted my ever-expanding compendium of home-brew content, Aster's Arcane Atlas. As it stands now, this expansion is 36 subclasses long, adds 21 spells, and includes 9 new magical items. With as much as I have here, I'm gonna categorize things on here so it's a bit easier to find what you like, as well as offer critique on certain items!
I'm quite partial to Barbarians, so I've given them quite a few expansions here. Let's run down the line and give a basic summary of each of the new subclasses.
Path of the Giant- One of my goals with this expansion was to give each race a unique subclass, instead of just dwarves and elves. This path is for goliaths, and lets you enlarge yourself while raging and get giant-esque features.
Path of the Horde Breaker- This one is a pretty simple transplant of some hunter-ranger features into the barbarian. You're just great at handling zerg rushes, pretty self explanatory.
Path of the Strider- If fighters and rogues have a caster class, barbarians should too! I went with the nature theme because of the totem barbarian. If you can draw upon nature's power in that way, spell casting like a druid could work too.
Path of Tranquil Fury- The counterpart to Horde Breaker. You become really effective at single-target combat, but have more difficulty when fighting against several enemies.
Path of the Warsong- Entirely based of the pun "Bardbarian", you get a more restricted form of inspiration but you can give it to a bunch of people at once.
College of Curiosity- Restricted to tabaxi because curiosity killed the cat (and because the tabaxi are obsessed with lore), you focus on finding magical items. Not only that, you're obscenely good with them, getting bonuses based on how many attunement slots you've filled and eventually ignoring restrictions on usage.
College of Mirrors- Basically an illusion wizard who quit their job to be a musician. You get illusory duplicate abilities and boosts to your spell casting based on how many illusions are active.
College of Order- The halfling subclass, a martial bard who uses fear as a tool. Different from the College of Whispers in that you can impose fear across several several creatures and you focus fairly heavily on martial combat as well.
Only one for the clerics, because I couldn't come up with more. That said, please enjoy...
Eye of Gruumsh- The half-orc specific subclass, you become a mix of war and tempest cleric. You get a mild form of rage, heal when you kill creatures, and hit hard for a cleric. To compensate? You lose an eye at first level (Gruumsh is a demanding god), and roll sight-based perception checks at disadvantage.
Rather than a lack of creativity, druids only get one subclass because I don't like them. My compendium, my biases.
Circle of Preservation- Every race up through Volo's got a subclass, and this one is for the Firbolgs. You gain abilities all centered around being a pacifistic druid, from better heals to regenerating spell slots when you cast pacifistic spells, this encourages a unique play style that I quite enjoy.
With such a moldable class, fighter gets a lot of unique and varied options that I wouldn't normally have gone for. This includes mech pilots.
Battle Tinkerer- You're short and you pilot a mech. As you level up, you get modifications to your mech. I just really wanted an excuse for mechas in the Forgotten Realms.
Inquisitor- The pseudo-paladin Aasimar subclass. You basically get paladin-esque features but use Battle Maneuver dice to pull them off instead.
Martial Psion- A recent addition requested by a friend. You're a counterpart to the Eldritch Knight, gaining illusion and enchantment spells instead of abjuration and evocation. You can apply a psychic smite type deal on your weapons, and eventually regain spell slots (to a very limited extent) when you action surge.
I love monks so much. There's something so unmistakably cool about the class that, in a word of vampires, dragons, liches, and monsters, decides they want to solve things with their fists. I came up with a lot of these because I love them so.
Way of the Beast- The monastic equivalent of Bear Totem. You emulate the abilities of certain animals to do perform superhuman feats.
Way of the Covenant- I'm pretty meh about this one. You get warlock spell casting and a mildly interesting 3rd-level feature but that's about it.
Way of the Heavy Defense- A monk, but with armor! You take away a lot of the pain of using armor, and actually get bonuses to unarmed strikes because of it. After all, getting decked by someone in steel plate in likely going to hurt more than getting punched by someone wearing a robe.
Way of Mortal Arcana- A blood-sacrificing human-exclusive monk. Basically an elemental monk with more traditional wizard spells, like magic missile and such.
Way of the Passive Fist- Much like the Warsong Barbarian, this is also based on a pun. By not attacking things, you get benefits, such as being harder to hit, countering unsuccessful attacks, and reducing damage.
Way of the Soul Searcher- Ever want to be Zenyatta? Well, now that you're a monk who can heal your allies and melt your enemies' brains at a distance, congratulations!
Another favorite of mine, paladins are a ton of fun. As such, I gave them a hefty amount of new oaths.
Oath of the Dragon Queen- We need more evil paladin options than Oathbreaker and Conquest. Now, evil dragonborn can swear to Tiamat, and get really good at elemental spells and killing.
Oath of the Hunt- A ranger-paladin combo! You can now stack smites onto ranged weapons and get favored enemy (for a brief period of time, but hey).
Oath of the Infinite Abyss- Evil paladins! You worship demon lords instead of gods, and it works because I really want it to! You get a necrotic aura, better smites against angels and fey, and some charm abilities.
Oath of the Platinum Dragon- Oath of the Dragon Queen, but for Bahamut! Still restricted to dragonborn. You can buff allies, amp up your natural breath weapon, basically the inverse of everything the Tiamat paladin gets.
Oath of the Sea- Congratulations, you're Aquaman. Your weapon now conducts electricity, you get advantage on massive creatures, and other storm/sea related abilities. Restricted to the Triton, given they're one of the few aquatic races we have so far.
I really want to like rangers, so I tried my best for them. Don't know that it'll be enough, but it's worth a shot.
Beastmaster- I hate the basic 5e beast master. I feel most people do. So I took a shot at a minor rewrite to improve it. Now, your companion's CR scales with your level, you can eventually tame dragons, and they act on their own turn under your commands rather than you giving up your action to command them.
Reptilian Warrior- If your society is based around hunting, you had better be good at it. This lizard folk subclass focuses on enhancing your racial features and making you a stronger hunter, physically more than anything else.
Wraith Warrior- If you've played Shadow of Mordor/War, you've played the Wraith Warrior. You bond to a wraith, and get some nifty arcane abilities out of it.
I couldn't think of much for the rogues, so I just gave a kenku archetype and a new quasi-caster.
Forger- The Kenku-subclass based on mimicry and forgery. Whether in a literal sense (with a forger's kit) or in combat (like a Drunken Master monk), you confuse your enemies, darting in and out of combat.
Shadow Priest- A cleric-rogue hybrid, complete with divine domains. In particular, you learn evocation and divination spells, so you act as something of a seer and a rogue with powerful enough spells to last when stealth isn't an option anymore.
My favorite caster-class in the game by a wide margin. There's so many interesting ideas for your magical origin, and I couldn't help but write a few down.
Aberrant Soul- Hey kid, wanna be a mind flayer? You excel with psychic magic and get generally aberrant abilities.
Gravitation Origin- Two things I love are chronomancy and telekinesis. This subclass is basically an advanced form of the latter, infusing your spells with gravity magic to move enemies.
Infernal Bloodline- Tieflings with demonic magic! If you naturally get some demonic spells from just being any old tiefling, some tieflings must be really good with that type of magic. More specifically, you can cause fear, heal when you kill creatures, grow demon wings, and summon demons.
Temporal Soul- Back to chronomancy, this was my attempt at doing so without breaking the game horribly. I did this by making it boil down to affecting speeds at the earliest level, and casting Time Stop with sorcery points by the end.
While I was never much for warlocks, the most recent campaign I'm in has really changed my mind on them. Here's a few new warlock patrons with some interesting gimmicks.
Godsword- A holy variant hex blade, with a similar spell list and weapon enhancements.
The Kraken- My preferred of the two new patrons, you get a lot of storm abilities and are generally unsettling. A dose of eldritch horror without actually worshipping Cthulhu.
Only one new idea for wizards: construct making and resurrection, through...
School of Technomancy- A gnomish school, where you build a construct that grows with you, gain from killing constructs, and can resurrect them with necromancy spells.

I won't go into spell or item summaries since they're all fairly brief. Please post any comments and/or criticisms below, as I want to make this expansion as good and as balanced as can be. Thank you!