Looking for Non-magic classes for 5E

[NRSASD]

Hello everyone!

While I did enjoy Tasha's quite a lot, I was a bit disappointed in the lack of support for more non-magical classes. I was hoping some of you would be familiar with non-magical alternatives to classes. I've taken a look at the Lord of the Rings Player's Guide and while it's moving in the right direction, it has a fair amount of setting specific stuff that would have to be stripped out and replaced to make it usable. Specifically, I'm looking for:

Non-magic Ranger
Non-magic Bard
Non-magic Healer
Non-magic Intelligence Primary Stat (maybe an alchemist or tactician of some sort?)

All suggestions are welcome, but first hand experience is preferred when possible. As always, thanks for any and all help!

Cheers,
NRSASD

P.S. If this should be in homebrew feel free to move it, thanks mods!

[Bobthewizard]

I feel like you could do all of those ideas with Rogue.

Non-magic Ranger = Scout, mix in some fighter or barbarian
Non-magic Bard = Swashbuckler with entertainer background
Non-magic Healer = Thief with healer feat
Non-magic Intelligence Primary Stat = Inquisitive/Mastermind

[Minice]

Grigor sang for all of his friends.

Played his drums every night at the inn.

And in combat played his mighty ''axe'' with all his passion.

Grigor was better at his instruments and more inspiring than the bard in our party.

Grigor led every encounter with his wits and cunning strategies of running in first.

Grigor healed all of his companions in spirit and in him taking the damage instead.

Grigor was good barbarian.

[CheddarChampion]

You could take a look at the classes and subclasses in "Adventures in Middle Earth." The game copies a lot of general stuff from D&D 5e but changes characters to be based around having little to no magic.

Examples include the Scholar which is a (mostly) nonmagic wizard/cleric, the Wanderer which is a nonmagic ranger, and the Warden which is a nonmagic bard.

I use that game's rules about who does what when traveling when I run 5e now, but that's besides the point.

[Twelvetrees]

I haven't seen any of these in play, unfortunately, but here are some options.

There was an Unearthed Arcana article (https://dnd.wizards.com/articles/unearthed-arcana/modifying-classes) that had a version of the ranger without spells in early 2015. The Poultices feature might satisfy some of yur desire for a non-magic healer, too.

The 5e Homebrew Compendium (https://forums.giantitp.com/showthread.php?481588-D-amp-D-5e-Homebrew-Compendium-2) has many variations on non-magic subclasses and classes. I list a number of them here, but if none of them are to your taste you can always dig deeper into the compendium.



Non-magical Ranger options

alacktherof's Non-magical variant ranger (https://forums.giantitp.com/showthread.php?407589-Non-magical-variant-ranger-in-need-of-perspective)

Ninjadeadbeard's Ranger Overhaul (https://forums.giantitp.com/showthread.php?420706-Ninja-s-Ranger-Overhaul-(Alterations-and-New-Archetype)-PEACH)

RobD's Variant Ranger (https://forums.giantitp.com/showthread.php?442703-The-(condensed)-variant-Ranger)

Mongobear's Overhaul of the 5e Ranger (https://forums.giantitp.com/showthread.php?485011-Total-Overhaul-(including-Archetypes)-of-the-5e-Ranger)

Conundrumist's Ranger Revision (https://forums.giantitp.com/showthread.php?486561-Yet-Another-Ranger-Revision-to-add-to-the-5e-Zeitgeist)

Gort's Spell Free Ranger (https://forums.giantitp.com/showthread.php?487675-Ranger-Archetypes)

This be Richard's Ranger Rework (https://forums.giantitp.com/showthread.php?487726-Ranger-Rework-(PEACH))

simonb530's Revised Ranger (https://forums.giantitp.com/showthread.php?482123-Revised-Ranger-Base-Class-and-Three-Archetypes-Hunter-Beastmaster-amp-Spirit-Invoker)

Ugganaut's Ranger without Spells (https://forums.giantitp.com/showthread.php?501035-Ranger-without-Spells-(PEACH))

Revlid's Wanderer (https://forums.giantitp.com/showthread.php?501146-The-Wanderer-New-Martial-Class-Ranger-Replacement-PEACH)

KOLE's Ranger Remixed (https://forums.giantitp.com/showsinglepost.php?p=23932113&postcount=7)

Mourne's Spell-free ranger (https://forums.giantitp.com/showthread.php?599991-A-Ranger-Without-Spells)

Spell-less ranger (https://forums.giantitp.com/showthread.php?595643-By-request-Workshopping-another-Ranger) by the forum, started by Kane0

Mrbassman's Scout (https://forums.giantitp.com/showthread.php?488996-Scout-5e-Adaptation) is a new class, but is similar to the ranger.



Non-magical Bard options

Psikerlord's Spell-less Bard (https://forums.giantitp.com/showthread.php?458317-Spell-less-Bard-for-5e-and-Primeval-Thule)

corjest's Spell-less bard (https://forums.giantitp.com/showthread.php?454937-Spell-less-Bard)

Endal's Revised Bard (https://forums.giantitp.com/showthread.php?544504-Revised-Bard-Class-(Musician-not-Spellcaster)) uses songs instead of spells, but still produces magical effects.

Ninja_Prawn's Princess (https://forums.giantitp.com/showthread.php?482608-Zaydos-Princess-Updated-for-5e) is a new class, but is quite similar to the bard.



Non-magical Healer options

Some of the ranger options might work, but the homebrew classes I looked at all had spells.



Intelligence Primary Stat option

Mourne's Int Based (Non-Caster) Classes (https://forums.giantitp.com/showthread.php?527025-3-INT-Based-(Non-Caster)-Classes)

MoleMage's Alchemist (https://forums.giantitp.com/showsinglepost.php?p=23277785&postcount=3)

Argothair's Tactician (https://forums.giantitp.com/showthread.php?395308-Tactician-Class-(PEACH))

[Grod_The_Giant]

I've got you covered (https://homebrewery.naturalcrit.com/share/EFH74Y_dN)! The Bard, Druid, Paladin, and Ranger as non-casting subclasses, along with non-magical healing subclasses for the Fighter and Rogue. Also a Warlord (https://homebrewery.naturalcrit.com/share/vycshgNVEcQE) base class that's totally non-magical and an Archivest (https://homebrewery.naturalcrit.com/share/qvH69YTUZ) who's creepy-low-magic version of the Wizard.

[qube]

Isn't the artificier non-magical? All the effects are generated by technologie.

[Naanomi]

For completion, a list of existing options without any hint of supernatural influence:

Barbarian (BattleRager, Berserker)
Fighter (Battlemaster, Cavalier, Champion, Bannerette, Samurai)
Monk (Level 1 Only, higher if you are flexible on Ki fluff)
Ranger (Level 1 Only)
Rogue (Assassin, Inquisitive, Mastermind, Swashbuckler, Scout, Thief)

[Dienekes]

So it may not be exactly what you’re looking for but I have this:

https://forums.giantitp.com/showthread.php?610037-Differentiating-Martials-(PEACH)

Which are my takes on making the martial classes all play different from each other on a turn for turn basis. In doing so I took spells away from Rangers and Paladins. Though Paladins are still magical.

In the subclasses for the various classes I have the Minstrel Rogue which is a non-magic bard that actually plays music to provide bonuses to their allies rather than casting spells.

And the Serjeant-At-Arms Fighter that has a few abilities focused on providing temporary hit points and buffing, and removing conditions, which is not non-magical healing technically but covers a lot of the same ground.

There’s also this Warlord I use in my games: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1bRmhnSLJzmXTQaBQz_kuw14jQq0t6PwD/view

It is my favorite warlord type class I’ve seen and has some some subclasses that are primary in Intelligence.

[Ashrym]

Isn't the artificier non-magical? All the effects are generated by technologie.

No. Eberron is a magical industrial revolution instead of a technological industrial revolution. Artificers are more magepunk than steampunk.

What artificers do is focus on creating magical items and effects thematically using objects to produce those effects.


Hello everyone!

While I did enjoy Tasha's quite a lot, I was a bit disappointed in the lack of support for more non-magical classes. I was hoping some of you would be familiar with non-magical alternatives to classes. I've taken a look at the Lord of the Rings Player's Guide and while it's moving in the right direction, it has a fair amount of setting specific stuff that would have to be stripped out and replaced to make it usable. Specifically, I'm looking for:

Non-magic Ranger
Non-magic Bard
Non-magic Healer
Non-magic Intelligence Primary Stat (maybe an alchemist or tactician of some sort?)

All suggestions are welcome, but first hand experience is preferred when possible. As always, thanks for any and all help!

Cheers,
NRSASD

P.S. If this should be in homebrew feel free to move it, thanks mods!

Non-magical bards and rangers can be done to through flavoring barbarian, fighter, and/or rogue builds.

Non-magical healers can be done with the healer feat and medicine proficiency. Insight and persuasion can add to bedside manner. Proficiencies to brew healing potions would be a good idea.

Going beyond that a person is better off creating subclasses for those classes. A full class isn't necessary unless a person has multiple variations in mind for subclasses. Options along those lines were linked above.

A non-magical INT class is rather open-ended.

A scholar is hard to imagine as a class or subclass. Backgrounds like sage cover it well enough. Arcana, investigation, and history on a thief or inquisitive rogue cover Indiana Jones or Lara Croft.

A tactician already falls into the battle master concept. Adding maneuvers to the list based on INT seems like the way to go.

My advice is keep it simple with small changes that demonstrate the tropes you want. Don't do a lot of work for small gains over existing options.

[Joe the Rat]

Are you asking as a player, or as a DM?

[NRSASD]

Thanks for all the input! Now I just need to find time to review it. I'll probably post again with more questions later. In the meantime though, thanks once again!

In response to your question, I'm a DM.