Player-Led Class Variations

[Nagog]

Hey yall! I hope the day finds you well!

For my current campaign, I've decided to allow my players some creative freedom in adjusting the way some of their class features work. While I have a handle on most of them, there are a few things I figured I should get some feedback on before OK-ing.

Firstly, most Ranger subclasses get an ability that allows them to add 1d8 to the damage of an attack they make, typically only once per round. While each of the subclasses has a different way of implementing it (with varying durations, targeted/generalized, damage types, etc.), it's fairly consistent as a flat 1d8 extra damage per round. Would the power scaling be adjusted greatly if that extra damage were changed to an extra 1d4 to all weapon attacks? Against a single target the average damage would remain the same, but it would allow the ranger to be more viable against swarms, particularly once they gain Extra Attack.

Secondly, and as a much more general question, how do you feel about allowing Warlocks/Artificers to make their own custom Invocations/Infusions in a similar way that Wizards (under some DMs) can make their own spells? In that same vein, what about Sorcerers making their own Spells/Metamagics?

[OldTrees1]

1)
1d8 per round => 1d4 per attack?
Extra Attack + TWF = 3d4 ~= 7.5 ~= 1d8+3

Ranger -> Hunter -> 11th level -> Volley = +1d4 damage per enemy in a 10ft radius? That is probably ~5 enemies.
5d4 ~= 12.5 ~= 1d8+8
But maybe it is still okay?

2) How I feel
Warlock Players with the DM can make custom Invocations.
Warlocks can select Invocations (even custom ones) but cannot make custom ones. (I just don't think the fluff matches the character doing it)
Artificers can make custom Infusions.
Sorcerers can make their own Metamagic and Spells.

[Man_Over_Game]

The Ranger change feels balanced, it's just boring. It doesn't really describe any particular power or talent of the Ranger, as it's not circumstantial. Rangers don't usually have spam-happy powers, and are the exact opposite of simple. If you were going to add something like this, I'd make it something akin to Sneak Attack, where it has some kind of cost or requirement before you can utilize the effect.

That could just be spending 50%-100% of your speed, or requiring the target to be afflicted by a condition, or granting you the extra damage whenever you're Concentrating on a spell, or when you're NOT Concentrating on a spell, or so on. Something like a flat damage bonus is something that the Barbarian would use, because we associate simplicity with the Barbarian, and even then it's more circumstantial (requiring Rage, requiring Strength) than the proposed +1d4.

I'd be fine with some modified invocations, just gotta be careful since most invocations that people pick are power-creep options that don't ever really turn off and don't really have any future cost (like spell slots).

I'd definitely be fine with some new metamagics. WotC did those a disservice, and there should be a LOT more of them.

Personally, I'd like to add one for each Sorcerer Origin. For example:

Draconic: may change the damage type of a spell that uses a Draconic elemental type to your elemental type for no cost, or for 1 Sorcery Points if you use it with another Metamagic.
Wild Magic: Roll on the Wild Magic table for 1 Sorcery Point. You must use this Metamagic if this would refresh your Tides of Chaos feature. You can also use this to reroll a die rolled for the Wild Magic table, but each reroll costs twice as much as the last (with the first reroll costing 1 Sorcery Point)
Shadow: If you are not in Bright Light, you can select another location you can see that's not in Bright Light to conjure your shadow of yourself for 2 Sorcery Points as a Bonus Action. You can swap places with it as a Reaction, before or after you cast the spell. It is destroyed if you or it are submerged in Bright Light, lasts 1 minute, and only one shadow can be conjured this way at a time.
Storm: When using your Tempestuous Magic feature, you can have it also affect any creature affected by the triggering spell, or adjacent to the target (if it only affected one target). This costs 1 Sorcery Point per creature affected (other than you).

Stuff like that. Stuff that adds versatility and theme to the otherwise-bland Sorcerer.

[MrStabby]

So for the ranger... this is probably less good, depending on what you fight.

So with on eattack this looks bad.

For one attack plus a bonus action attack it still looks bad as using the BA for an attack frequently conflicts with a lot of other ranger spells and abilities.

For two attacks it is still not great - the d8 can be added to either that hits. D8 for either vs 2d4 only if both hit. Not great.

Two attacks and a BA attack? Still not great - 2 of three attacks hitting is probably the norm, where it barely breaks even and it is still using your bonus action.


So to really come out ahhead you would need two attacks, a BA attack and probably a reaction attack... which is leading to a PAM/Sentinel build which is in turn probably less good than just an archery build. The exception might be spells like lighning arrow which require a ranged weapon attack but can hit a load of stuff - depending on how you rule what the d4 would be added to it might go so far as to still not be worth worrying about.



As for everything else, go for it. Players doing cool bespoke stuff is awesome. I recently stuck my guide to players for generating custom spells here:
https://forums.giantitp.com/showthread.php?618184-Spell-Creation-Rules. I think the principles could easily be adjusted for any of the other items you list.