D&D Base Class Contest XIII Voting Thread

[MoleMage]

This is the voting thread for the thirteenth base class contest Based in Science (https://forums.giantitp.com/showthread.php?620836-D-amp-D-5e-Base-Class-Contest-XIII-Based-in-Science).

The rules are simple. Vote for your top three picks, in order. You can't vote for yourself. A number 1 vote is worth 3 points, a number 2 vote is worth 2, and a number 3 vote is worth one. You can (and are encouraged) to vote even if you didn't submit an entry this time around.

You can also suggest or vote on what you would like the next contest's theme to be. Currently in the suggestion box are Dragons, Heroes from Myths, Partial Casters, Divine Judgment, Other Media, and Breakfast Cereal Mascots, but don't feel as though you need to limit your suggestions to those themes; a larger pool means more options to vote on next time. I'm also going to allow votes for any theme that hasn't been used for at least six contests (so right now that adds Who Needs Sword or Sorcery, Terror, The Elements, Doesn't Meet Expectations, Chill Out, Monster Mash, and Remix Mastery). If you missed a contest or had another idea for a previous theme, you may get your chance again!



Entry
Creator
1st
2nd
3rd



Pilot (https://forums.giantitp.com/showsinglepost.php?p=24762910&postcount=2) (Gadgets cont. (https://forums.giantitp.com/showsinglepost.php?p=24762914&postcount=3))
Old Harry MTX
3
1
1



Botanist (https://forums.giantitp.com/showsinglepost.php?p=24772415&postcount=5)
MoleMage
1
3
1



Chirurgeon (https://forums.giantitp.com/showsinglepost.php?p=24779204&postcount=7)
Breccia
2
1
2



Super Scientist (https://forums.giantitp.com/showsinglepost.php?p=24832090&postcount=8)
BerzerkerUnit
0
1
2



Technological Artist (https://forums.giantitp.com/showsinglepost.php?p=24832277&postcount=9) (Inventions (https://forums.giantitp.com/showsinglepost.php?p=24832909&postcount=10))
noob
0
0
0




The voting period will be three weeks, ending at the end of the day on January 3rd. The following day I will tally these results and declare a winner. For the curious, the tiebreakers I will be using are:

1st tiebreaker is whether both participants voted. If one did not, they lose the tie.
2nd tiebreaker is total number of 1st place votes. The entry which got more 1st place votes will win the tie.
There is no 3rd tiebreaker. If both entrants voted and both entries reached their total score with the same number of 1st place votes, the tie will stand.

[noob]

There is many things that I did not have the time nor the idea to write in my class before the deadline was reached.
1: Inventions powered by style are not supposed to work when invisible (because how would people see how stylish the invention is if it is invisible?).
2:In general there is a lot of messes about how the rules are written: for example I forgot to specify for inventions replicating spells that when replicating concentration spells you need to concentrate.
I also wrote in an horrible way the upcasting description of the power leggings.
The description of the Mind transfer operation is a mess and I forgot to specify you needed to create this invention while both the robot and the creature are still and that the invention stays part of the robot and can not be used for other things.
I should also have written that the simulacrum shares your style pool if it is a simulacrum of a technological artist.
3: I did have plans for some specific robots like a robot that can encase a creature to protect it or some flying robots meant to use weapon inventions(or the holographic projector) that would make those count toward their own style cost(so that you can have up to 10 gun drones for example) and possibly a big slow bulky robot meant to be able to use multiple weapon inventions(or holographic projectors).
4: If I got the time to browse all the spells I could have made a list of spells to pick from for spell based inventions instead of writing it is up to the gm to allow or disallow.
Anyway you are supposed to disallow invisibility and its variants as it goes against the theme of the class.
5:I had potential plans to make custom illusion projectors like the custom weapon(you combine multiple components to get one illusion projector) and potentially do the same thing with abjurations if I had the needed creativity.
I did think about adding tertiary weapon effects like "frost: freezes water and the damage of the weapon is frost damage" and "fire: sets things on fire" or even "tar spreading: makes the terrain within the area be difficult terrain" but I did realise I had to do all the branches.

I vote for Divine Judgment.
First place goes to Pilot (although the way you can stack many things on single attacks at low levels is worrying and I needed quite some time to realise you essentially got 1.5 levels per level but the concept is quite great and there is a lot of gadgets to read about especially in low levels were it does matters because those are played more.)
Second place goes to Super Scientist (the random aspect is probably very fun for all those who appreciates the wild sorcerer and here it actually happens every day)
Third place goes to surgeon(The only flaws I have seen is that only one subclass actually have options to heal without magical items and it is also the subclass that allows to get to work your fighting option on all the monsters otherwise the surgeon is massively annoyed in an undead based campaign with few healing items: if you can not really predict what the campaign will be there is only one good option: xenobiologist and the second flaw is that your fighting ability lags behind once you start getting at high levels(10+) but it does not matters since high levels are rarely played so that is not a real flaw).

[Old Harry MTX]

First place goes to Pilot (although the way you can stack many things on single attacks at low levels is worrying and I needed quite some time to realise you essentially got 1.5 levels per level but the concept is quite great and there is a lot of gadgets to read about especially in low levels were it does matters because those are played more.)

Wow thankyou!

To tell the truth, I have been thinking about your observation for some time now, and I am looking for the best way to limit the number of gadgets that stack without naming them directly on a case-by-case basis. Anyway it is a change that I will do at the end of the voting ^^

Here we go:

The Botanist: It's not a secret that i like this one.
The Super Scientist: Well made, and I like the mechanics that let you get something out of the failures, very themed.
The Chirurgeon: A non-magical healer, and more. Very interesting class.


In any case, I believe that all the entries, even if few, were of the highest quality this time!

For the next contest I have no particular preference, at most I can say that the one I like least is Breakfast Cereal Mascots ^^

[Breccia]

Yeah...I had "go back and fix the Chirurgeon up" on my to-do list before finals and an, um, 2020 holiday season. Never really got around to it.

That said:
1) Gotta give it to the Pilot on this one. Balancing issues aside, it looks very well developed and ripe for further subclasses/additions.
2) I actually really liked the Botanist, in no small part to the risk taken in making such a class in the first place.
3) It was a tough call, but the Super Scientist felt like a well-made version of the "alchemist class" which is always a way to get my attention.

As always, fun contest! When things lighten up around here I hope to enter another one.

[noob]

Wow thankyou!

To tell the truth, I have been thinking about your observation for some time now, and I am looking for the best way to limit the number of gadgets that stack without naming them directly on a case-by-case basis. Anyway it is a change that I will do at the end of the voting ^^

I reserve the space here for my votes, now that I have a few days off I should finally have time to reread all the entries!

Simple solution: Write that for gadgets that applies to an attack you have the right to apply one gadget at a time for a given attack.
As for high level gadgets it does not matters very much.

[MoleMage]

Chirurgeon. My initial reading is that it looks a little weak, but I couldn't be sure without playtesting it, and I'd definitely be willing to do that if asked, so I'm giving it here.
Pilot. I still have my worries about the built-in-multiclass, but the mechanical streamline did a lot towards making it look nice, and as a class it looks fun to use.
Super Scientist. The random nature of your features each day means it would be a little too unreliable in play in a longer campaign, though the subclass "guaranteed" features make up for it some. Would be...Super (ha)...entertaining in a one-shot or zanier campaign though.


As for theme, we currently only have one vote, and I don't want to create chaos (or at least not that kind of chaos), so I'll abstain unless a tiebreaker is required.

[Morphic tide]

Guess I'll push for that tiebreaker, lol. Monster Mash for my theme vote. For the rest, it's a bit frustrating because they all break something of how things normally work out. I'll be ignoring the pile of basic editing issues natural to any relatively-farted-out homebrew to focus on actual results because if I start getting into the wording issues I am losing hours on that.

1. Pilot by Old Harry MTX: Behaves slightly similarly to Incarnum, with the investiture of Steam Points, and the Gadget Slots function along similar lines. However, it doesn't level the Gadgets like a subsystem normally would, leading to table space dedicated to the universal Saving Throw bumps, and "wastes" quite a bit of space on mechanically-dubious functions served by entirely ordinary equipment (Nail Gun, I'm glaring at you). I place it on top because it works the most as an actual subsystem one can readily expand outside subclasses, given it has a resource that's expended while also operating as more than "Spells, except" with the passive properties of the Gadgets and their upgrades.

2. Chirugen by Breccia. While firmly being the least work into a "subsystem" able to expand in that it seems to have literally no centralized mechanic (I assume the studying of creatures was intended to operate along those lines, but no crunch was given to that fluff), it is actually written out properly and doesn't have any readily apparent breakage in its use. While the lack of any external functions leaves it very "penned in", what it has to work with is a very bluntly useful "support Rogue" operational area, even if the scale of either leaves much to ask for.

3. Botanist, by MoleMage. Because I'm a softy for minionmancy, though this suffers the non-subclass Necromancer issue of not really scaling anything properly. Putting it last because it has a lot of issues with scaling, especially in terms of action economy because the attacks are without exception on the one-per-turn activations. But beyond failing to resolve natural problems of a minionmancer in 5e's framework, it's quite solid, instead of bloating into comprehensive lunacy like the Technological Artisan's escalation of Style Points or being bluntly random in basic uses like the Super Scientist.

[BerzerkerUnit]

1. Chirurgeon- Really liked 2/3 of the subclasses and the general concept of a mobile non casting healer.

2. Botanist- I like plants.

3. Pilot- this was a dense system but I thought over all well thought out.

Monster Mash has my vote for next contest. Thanks to all for participating!

[MoleMage]

Voting time is over, new contest on the way!

Our bronze medal this time goes to the master of plants, MoleMage's Botanist! Summon sproutlings, then shoot your crossbow while they go to town on your foes! The Botanist earned 10 points, the same as the Chirurgeon, but the Chirurgeon earned it through more 1st-place votes, meaning...

Our silver medal this time goes to the devious medic, Breccia's Chirurgeon! Heal your friends, and sever your foes' arteries with extreme precision. The Chirurgeon also earned 10 points but won through the 2nd tiebreaker.

And finally, our gold medal, our blue ribbon, our 1st place winner, is none other than Old Harry MTX's Pilot! Wear your golem suit and craft golem gadgets to go with it! Want a flamethrower or a counterspell shield! There's (probably) a gadget for everything! The Pilot earned 12 votes, securing its victory!

With two last-minute votes, Monster Mash is our next theme. Looking forward to seeing what you guys do with some monsters. Look for the new contest shortly.

[Old Harry MTX]

Voting time is over, new contest on the way!

Our bronze medal this time goes to the master of plants, MoleMage's Botanist! Summon sproutlings, then shoot your crossbow while they go to town on your foes! The Botanist earned 10 points, the same as the Chirurgeon, but the Chirurgeon earned it through more 1st-place votes, meaning...

Our silver medal this time goes to the devious medic, Breccia's Chirurgeon! Heal your friends, and sever your foes' arteries with extreme precision. The Chirurgeon also earned 10 points but won through the 2nd tiebreaker.

And finally, our gold medal, our blue ribbon, our 1st place winner, is none other than Old Harry MTX's Pilot! Wear your golem suit and craft golem gadgets to go with it! Want a flamethrower or a counterspell shield! There's (probably) a gadget for everything! The Pilot earned 12 votes, securing its victory!

With two last-minute votes, Monster Mash is our next theme. Looking forward to seeing what you guys do with some monsters. Look for the new contest shortly.

Thank you very much everyone, if anyone is interested I am working on the Homebrewery version, which from now on will be the updated one.

You can find it directly in my signature.

[Breccia]

1st place winner, is none other than Old Harry MTX's Pilot!

Congrats to Ol' Harry! And thanks everyone hosting and/or participating, these contests are fun :)