Theorycrafting: Mixing Subclass features

[Wasp]

Hi everyone!

Just a hopefully FUN thought experiment:

If you could choose from all the different subclass/archetype features of a class every time you reach a new level that provides such a feature, what would you do?

So as a fighter you could choose for example the level 3 Champion features at level 3, the level 7 Battle Master feature at level 7 and so on (but not a level 3 feature at level 7)...

What would you play under such rules? And how broken would that be?

[Throne12]

As a DM I do something like this but with races. I let my players pick what ever race abilities & stat bumps then they reskin to be any race they want. Example a player pick the high elfs stuff but there race is halfling.

[elyktsorb]

Best Rogue

[jas61292]

It would obviously depend on what class I'm feeling at the time, but, for example, having a Barbarian grab one of the strong Totem features at three, but then grab Berserkers Charm and Fear immunity while raging instead of a more fluff ability would be fantastic.

Exactly what I do would also depend on how things work whit a feature relies on or augments a previous subclass ability. Could you pick up the Champion Fighter's 18-20 Crit without first picking up their 19-20 Crit? So the exact build I pick might vary. That being said, an example of something I might find fun would be...

A Rogue that takes the level 3 and 17 abilities of Mastermind, and the level 9 and 13 abilities of Assassin. Clearly not a combat character, but having so much non-magical disguise and infiltration expertise on one character would be a lot of fun to me.

[Wasp]

How about the following?

Barbarian
Level 3: Bear totem (Totem Warrior)
Level 6: Mindless Rage (Berserker)
Level 10: Battlerager Charge (Battlerager)
Level 14: Rage beyond Death (Zealot)