Tasha's Spellcaster "Sidekick" Class

[paladinn]

Looking over some leaked Tasha's stuff.. The sidekick classes actually look pretty cool; I wouldn't mind playing one myself!

I'm really looking at the Prodigy "subclass" for the Spellcaster class. It's CHA-based, and gets light armor and simple weapons (like all Spellcasters). But spells can be gotten from the Bard And Warlock lists! It is just me, or is this going to be Really cool? Picking from all the best spells from either list? Eldritch Blast plus all the Bard goodness?

I just wish that Warlock invocations were an option.. sigh.. Agonizing Blast would be soo helpful.. Spam city!

Edit: So if the Bard and Warlock lists are open due to being CHA-based, might the Sorcerer list be open too? :P

[Kane0]

Is there any restriction on multiclassing?

[paladinn]

Is there any restriction on multiclassing?

Evidently multiclassing is allowed, between sidekick classes and/or with "regular" classes. I haven't seen anything to the contrary

[JackPhoenix]

Eh. You pay for that by being a half-caster, and lacking pretty much any class features. All of the sidekicks were hit hard by the nerf hammer since the previous version. The only good thing is the potential to multiclass it with a warlock to stack both Agonizing Blast and Potent Cantrips.

And if you want bard with Eldritch Blast, there are ways to do that while retaining the other bardic goodies. Lore bard, Magic Initiate, the obligatory hexblade dip....


Evidently multiclassing is allowed, between sidekick classes and/or with "regular" classes. I haven't seen anything to the contrary

Well, sidekicks are intended only for NPCs who don't get access to PC classes in the first place....

[paladinn]

Well, sidekicks are intended only for NPCs who don't get access to PC classes in the first place....

From what I've been reading, the sidekick classes are designed to actually be playable now, especially for a more simple experience.

Methinks a spellcaster/prodigy gets more spell slots than a warlock of the same level. But there are no incantations sooo..

I think there is potential there.

[x3n0n]

From what I've been reading, the sidekick classes are designed to actually be playable now, especially for a more simple experience.

It is interesting. As you said, there are lots of words online about versatile uses for the Sidekick rules, many of them said by Jeremy Crawford in an interview on Dragon Talk.

I don't see most of them reflected in the text of the book.

It's in the DM tools section, mentioned as a way to create an NPC, and all of the "you" in the text are clearly the DM.
It does mention it as a good single character for a player who's looking for a simpler experience.
"When you create a sidekick, you choose the class it will have for the rest of its career" (emphasis mine), with no mention of multiclassing.

So his enthusiasm for the more interesting uses of the Sidekick rules seems to be targeted at adventurous DMs and players who are bored with the "real" classes and are willing to extrapolate a bit from what's in the text.

[Segev]

I wonder if the sidekick classes are sufficiently weaker that you could build a subclass (maybe a variant for multiple classes) that, as its primary - or only - benefit gains a sidekick.

[ftafp]

So, the book provides no rules for multiclassing and even says that the class you choose for them is their class for the rest of their career. Crawford implied you can multiclass them in his dndbeyond interview so we'll probably get a rules clarification in Sage Advice soon. My expectation is that he's going to say he'd allow a character to multiclass out of sidekick but either they can't multiclass in or they don't get bonus proficiencies if they do

Hypotheticals aside. It's looking like the strongest sidekicks are going Pixies, Meeseeks, Chwinga and Dolgrim though I imagine they'll all be banned pretty fast from most tables