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JNAProductions
2021-09-18, 12:02 PM
HIT POINTS
Hit Dice: 1d8
Hit Points at 1st Level: 8+Constitution Modifier
Hit Points at Higher Levels: 1d8 (5)+Constitution Modifier

PROFICIENCIES
Armor: Light Armor
Weapons: All Simple Weapons
Tools: Any two artisan tools
Languages: Any two languages

Saving Throws: Intelligence, Wisdom
Skills: Choose any two, and then two from Arcana, History, Investigation, Nature, Religion, Insight, Medicine, and Perception

EQUIPMENT
You start with the following equipment, in addition to the equipment granted by your background:
-Any two weapons your are proficient in, with two copies (if thrown) or 20 pieces of ammo (if it uses ammo)
-Any simple melee weapon
-Leather Armor
-Any pack

Scholar


Level
Proficiency Bonus
Features
Knacks
Talent Dice


1st
+2
Talent, Expertise
-
1d4


2nd
+2
Knacks
2
1d4


3rd
+2
Archetype
2
2d4


4th
+2
Ability Score Improvement
2
2d4


5th
+3
Improved Talent
3
3d6


6th
+3
Expertise
3
3d6


7th
+3
Archetype Feature
3
4d6


8th
+3
Ability Score Improvement
3
4d6


9th
+4
Skilled
4
5d8


10th
+4
Guarded Psyche
4
5d8


11th
+4
Greater Talent, Reliable Talent
4
6d8


12th
+4
Ability Score Improvement
4
6d8


13th
+5
Archetype Feature
5
7d10


14th
+5
Of Sound Mind And Body
5
7d10


15th
+5
Expertise
5
8d10


16th
+5
Ability Score Improvement
5
8d10


17th
+6
Perfected Talent
6
9d12


18th
+6
Archetype Feature
6
9d12


19th
+6
Ability Score Improvement
6
9d12


20th
+6
Scholar Supreme
6
9d12



Expertise
At levels one, six, and fifteen, select two skills or tools you have proficiency in. When making a check with this skill or tool, double your proficiency bonus.

Talent
At level one, you gain a pool of Talent Dice. This starts at 1d4, and increases in both number and die size as shown on the table. Any ability that requires someone to make a saving throw against a Talen is against a DC of 8+your proficiency modifier+your Intelligence modifier. Your Talent Dice pool is set to full after the completion of any rest. Additionally, you my regain a single Talent Die by taking an action. A creature may benefit from multiple Talent Dice at one time, but no more than their proficiency bonus. (For instance, a fellow level one PC could have up to two Talent Dice actively helping them. If you were helping a fifth level PC, they could have up to three.) There is no limit to the number of negative Talent Dice that may be applied to a foe, but the Talent Dice providing a bonus or penalty to the same score do not stack. Unspent Talent Dice disappear after one minute.

At level one, you may use Talent Dice in the following ways, affecting a creature that can see or hear you within 30'.

Spring Away
You may grant this Talent Die to an ally as a bonus action. This Talent Die may be spent as a bonus action by the ally to add the result rolled to their AC against Attacks of Opportunity until the start of their next turn.

Skillful
You may grant this Talent Die to an ally as an action. This Talent Die is spent as part of an ability check, without any further action required, and is added to the total score.

Hit 'Em Where It Hurts!
You may grant this Talent Die to an ally as a bonus action. This Talent Die is spent as part of a successful attack, without any further action required, and is added to the damage roll.

Dampen
You may grant this Talent Die to an ally as a bonus action. This Talent Die is spent as a reaction to reduce damage from a single instance of damage equal to the amount rolled, to a minimum of 0.

Knacks
At level two, you gain two Knacks. These are special abilities you've developed after research and contemplation. You unlock more Knacks as you gain levels in this class, as shown on the table above. You may trade one Knack for any other Knack you qualify for when you level up. You may also trade a single Knack by taking a week of study.

Archetype
At level three, decide whether you wish to be a Student Of War or a Researcher. This grants you features at levels three, seven, thirteen, and eighteen.

Ability Score Improvements
At levels four, eight, twelve, sixteen, and nineteen, you increase any two ability scores by one, or any one ability score by two. You cannot increase an ability score above your maximum using this.

Improved Talent
At level five, your skill with Talent Dice improves. You may now use it at up to 60', and gain the following new options.

Defend
You may grant this Talent Die to an ally as an action. This Talent Die may be spent as a bonus action, and adds the roll to the ally's AC until the end of their next turn.

Taunt
You may force an enemy to make an Intelligence save against this Talent Die as an action. If the save is failed, they must subtract the Talent Die's roll from any attack roll they make or from the save DC of any ability that forces a save that does not include you as a target, until the start of your next turn.

Precision
You may grant this Talent Die to an ally as a bonus action. This Talent Die is spent as part of an attack roll, without any further action required, and adds to the attack roll.

Preserve
You may grant this Talent Die to an ally as a bonus action. This Talent Die may be spent as a reaction to add the result rolled to a saving throw.

Skilled
At level nine, gain proficiency in any three skills.

Guarded Psyche
At level ten, you gain proficiency in Charisma saves. If you already had proficiency in them, you gain proficiency in either Intelligence or Wisdom saves.

Reliable Talent
At level eleven, whenever you make an ability check that adds your proficiency modifier to it, treat any result of 9 or less on the die as a 10 instead.

Greater Talent
At level eleven, your skill with Talent Dice improves further. Your range increases to 90', you unlock new options, and you may now perform an additional Talent as part of an action or bonus action used to grant a Talent Die. You may only perform an extra Talent once per turn, for a maximum of three Talent Dice given in one turn (one as a bonus action, one as an action, and one bonus).

Scholarly Refutation
You may use this Talent Die as a reaction, when a creature within 60' of you and visible casts a spell. You cast Counterspell from a slot equal to half the result of the Talent Die roll, rounding down to a minimum of 0, using Intelligence as your casting score. Note this can let you cast Counterspell below its normal lowest level-when doing so, it automatically counters only spells equal to or less than the slot level, with Cantrips being counted as a 0th level spell.
You may only use this Talent a number of times equal to your proficiency bonus. You regain expended uses whenever you complete a rest.

Hit 'Em Harder!
You may grant this Talent Die to an ally as a bonus action. This Talent Die may be spent as a bonus action to add the result rolled to every damage roll made this turn.

Greater Dampen
You may grant this Talent Die to an ally as an action. This Talent Die may be spent as a bonus action to reduce every instance of damage taken by the amount rolled until the start of their next turn, to a minimum of 0.

Impair
You may force an enemy to make an Intelligence save against this Talent Die as an action. If they fail the save, their next saving throw is reduced by the roll of the Talent Die.

Of Sound Mind And Body
At level fourteen, you gain proficiency in Strength, Dexterity, or Constitution saves.

Perfected Talent
At level seventeen, your skills with Talent Dice is unmatched. Your range increases to 120', you unlock new options, and you may now use two Talents with each action or bonus action, instead of merely once per turn.

Greater Precision
You may grant this Talent Die to an ally as an action. This Talent Die may be spent as a bonus action to add the result rolled to all attack rolls made this turn.

Greater Preserve
You may grant this Talent Die to an ally as a bonus action. This Talent Die may be spent as a bonus action, to add the result rolled to all saves made until the end of their next turn; or as a reaction, to add to all saves made for the remainder of the turn the reaction was spent on.

Enfeeble
You may force an enemy to make an Intelligence save against this Talent Die as an action. If the save is failed, they subtract the Talent Die's roll from all d20 rolls they make on their next turn.

Scholar Supreme
At level twenty, you increase your current and maximum Intelligence by four, to a maximum of thirty; and increase any one other ability score's current and maximum by two, to a maximum of thirty.


Student Of War

Martial Aptitude
At level three, you gain proficiency in martial weapons, medium armor, and shields. Additionally, you gain three HP, and one additional HP for every level you take in this class.

Talented Attacks
At level seven, you may make a single attack as part of the action taken to use a Talent Die.

Personal Talent
At level thirteen, you may spend a Talent Die without using an action to add to your attack and/or damage roll when you make an attack with a weapon.

Offensive Recovery
At level eighteen, you may once per turn regain a Talent Die when you hit an enemy with a weapon attack.


Researcher

Sagely Oration
At level three, you may use Help as a bonus action, and may Help an ally up to 30' away.

Pinpoint Knowledge
At level seven, you may make an ability check as a bonus action to ascertain a foes weak points. This ability check uses Intelligence and adds your proficiency bonus, or uses an appropriate Intelligence-based skill (usually Arcana, Nature, or Religion) to size up your foe. The DC equals the foe's CR. For meeting the CR and for every five points you surpass it by, you and any ally that is eligible to receive a Talent Die (whether or not you have any remaining) adds +1 to their damage rolls against that class of foe.

Normally, this check must be made once for each class of enemy-meaning that, in an encounter with three goblins and two orcs, you would make one check for the goblins and one for the orcs. You may, however, choose to simply make a check using your Intelligence modifier plus your proficiency bonus against all foes.

You may only make this check once per type of foe in an encounter.

Feature
At level thirteen,

Feature
At level eighteen,


Knacks

Still WIP. Need to finish Researcher and Knacks, at a minimum.

Kuulvheysoon
2021-09-18, 01:34 PM
Quick overview:
Feels a little jank to have free choice of two skills then be limited to a set list.
With Expertise, the current wording allows you to nab tools that aren't artisan tools, like instruments and thieves tools. This intentional?
I think that you might have accidentally left off a column in the main table saying how many Talent dice you have? You keep referencing it, but there's no actual number. Unless the #dX is how many times that you can use it, in which case you're severely lacking in resources in the early levels.
What's the duration on Spring Away? The user needs to activate it, but there's no mention of if it only applies to the next OA, until the start of the ally's next turn, or the full minute.
Must Dampen apply to the next source of damage taken, or can the ally choose to not use it?
Taunt needs a duration.
Maybe change the wording on the final set of parenthesis in Greater Talent to read (one as a bonus action, one as an action, and one extra). Having bonus in there twice might get confusing
Perfected Talent increases the range to 90' again (increased to 90' at Greater Talent as well)
Not sure about the Intelligence cap of 30 on Scholar Supreme; why not limit it to 24 like the Barbarian capstone?
Personal Talent comes really late, imo
Pinpoint Knowledge is a trivially easy DC to meet at early levels, and is merely easy at late levels.

that being said, I like a lot of what you've gotten down as a base here. I'll be keeping an eye on it.

OldTrees1
2021-09-18, 09:25 PM
Talent
At level one, you gain a pool of Talent Dice. Your Talent Dice pool is set to full after the completion of any rest. Additionally, you my regain a single Talent Die by taking an action.

If the pool recharges on a rest, and can be recharged with actions, are you expecting the pool to generally be full?

The Scholar can use the dice in a time intensive encounter, and then use actions after the encounter to recharge. If they can't use the recharge outside of an encounter, then they start an easy encounter and use it to recharge.

I do like the idea of a PC triggered recharge. That makes the Talent Dice feel more like something the Scholar knows how to do if given a moment to prepare.

Reach Weapon
2021-09-18, 09:42 PM
I should echo Greywander's admission that this is a bit of a different take than I envisioned, but there's a lot to like about it. I think I'd recommend:

Proficiencies
Exchange the third tool for a choice of tool, marital weapon, or two languages.

Skills
While I disagree about jankiness, perhaps Scholarly Expertise is where to drive preferred skills, so you can gain the leveled amount of Expertise up to the number of Scholar skills you have proficiency in. (So you'd need to have proficiency in 6 of Arcana, History, Investigation, Nature, Religion, Insight, Medicine, and Perception to get the full benefit at level 15.)

(Increasingly) Skilled
Break the new skills up, perhaps 1 each at 6, 9 and 15.

Talent
Some minor adjustments and corrections:

At level one, you gain a pool of Talent Dice. This starts at 1d4, and increases in both number and die size as shown on the table. Any ability that requires someone to make a saving throw against a Talent is against a DC of 8+your proficiency modifier+your Intelligence modifier. Your Talent Dice pool is set to full after the completion of any rest. Additionally, if you have no Talent Die in your pool, you may take an action to regain a single Talent Die. A creature may not benefit from more Talent Dice than a number equal to their proficiency bonus. (For instance, a fellow level one PC could have up to two Talent Dice actively helping them. If you were helping a fifth level PC, they could have up to three.) There is no limit to the number of negative Talent Dice that may be applied, but the Talent Dice providing a bonus or penalty to the same score do not stack. Granted, but unspent Talent Dice disappear after one minute.

Leverage
You may grant this Talent Die to an ally as a bonus action. This Talent Die is spent as part of a contest during combat, without any further action required, and is added to that roll.

(Increasingly) Reliable Talent
Break the floor gain up, so at level 5, you treat results less than 3 as a 4. Upgrade to 7 at 9th, and 10 at 11th.

Scholarly Refutation (Researcher)
At level thirteen, you can use a single Talent Die to attempt to interrupt a creature in the process of casting a spell as if casting Counterspell using a spell slot equal to half the rolled result, with a spell slot under third quietly failing without expending your reaction. The scholar may choose to treat either Intelligence or Wisdom as their spellcasting stat for this ability.

Statistical Inevitability (Researcher)
At level eighteen, at the end of any rest you can preroll up to one Talent Die, and two d20s. You can replace any attack roll, saving throw, or ability check made by you or a creature that you can see with one of the d20 results, or a Talent Die roll with that result. You must choose to do so before the roll, and you can replace a roll in this way only once per turn. You expend the prerolled dice when you do this, but they do not otherwise expire, although you can not have more than the three prerolled values at any one time.

Knacks
A knack for Blind Fighting. You have blindsight with a range of 10 feet. Within that range, you can effectively see anything that isn’t behind total cover, even if you’re blinded or in darkness. Moreover, you can see an invisible creature within that range, unless the creature successfully hides from you.

A knack for Leverage. As long as you have either time or a suitable implement, you can substitute your Intelligence score bonus for Strength ability checks, including contests in combat

There should be one that allows you to McGyver together tools, kits, and other equipment, but I can't figure out how to make that work mechanically.

I'm also thinking there should be knacks to help with underwater, and becoming ethereal.

JNAProductions
2021-09-20, 11:08 AM
Quick overview:
Feels a little jank to have free choice of two skills then be limited to a set list.
With Expertise, the current wording allows you to nab tools that aren't artisan tools, like instruments and thieves tools. This intentional?
I think that you might have accidentally left off a column in the main table saying how many Talent dice you have? You keep referencing it, but there's no actual number. Unless the #dX is how many times that you can use it, in which case you're severely lacking in resources in the early levels.
What's the duration on Spring Away? The user needs to activate it, but there's no mention of if it only applies to the next OA, until the start of the ally's next turn, or the full minute.
Must Dampen apply to the next source of damage taken, or can the ally choose to not use it?
Taunt needs a duration.
Maybe change the wording on the final set of parenthesis in Greater Talent to read (one as a bonus action, one as an action, and one extra). Having bonus in there twice might get confusing
Perfected Talent increases the range to 90' again (increased to 90' at Greater Talent as well)
Not sure about the Intelligence cap of 30 on Scholar Supreme; why not limit it to 24 like the Barbarian capstone?
Personal Talent comes really late, imo
Pinpoint Knowledge is a trivially easy DC to meet at early levels, and is merely easy at late levels.

that being said, I like a lot of what you've gotten down as a base here. I'll be keeping an eye on it.

I understand it might feel a little weird, but do you think it's mechanically bad? Or do you have any suggestions for cleaning the wording?

Expertise is not intentional, but something I'm fine with.

Yes, you start with 1d4, and gain one more die every other level.

Start of the next turn-added that in now.

Dampen is spent as a reaction when you take damage. It has to apply to that instance, but you'd know whether you were taking 2 or 20 damage before you choose to use it.

Added duration to Taunt.

Yeah, maybe for Greater Talent. I do want to clean it up.

Should be 120', fixed.

Because the Barbarian Capstone interacts weirdly if you got Strength Tomes before you hit 20. It's functionally the same, just with less jank depending on magic items.

Pinpoint Knowledge also only grants a small bonus unless you exceed the DC by a large amount. Do you have a balance concern with it, or do you think it's okay?


If the pool recharges on a rest, and can be recharged with actions, are you expecting the pool to generally be full?

The Scholar can use the dice in a time intensive encounter, and then use actions after the encounter to recharge. If they can't use the recharge outside of an encounter, then they start an easy encounter and use it to recharge.

I do like the idea of a PC triggered recharge. That makes the Talent Dice feel more like something the Scholar knows how to do if given a moment to prepare.

I expect a Scholar to go into almost every encounter with full dice. You do NOT need to be in combat to recharge them.


I should echo Greywander's admission that this is a bit of a different take than I envisioned, but there's a lot to like about it. I think I'd recommend:

Proficiencies
Exchange the third tool for a choice of tool, marital weapon, or two languages.

Skills
While I disagree about jankiness, perhaps Scholarly Expertise is where to drive preferred skills, so you can gain the leveled amount of Expertise up to the number of Scholar skills you have proficiency in. (So you'd need to have proficiency in 6 of Arcana, History, Investigation, Nature, Religion, Insight, Medicine, and Perception to get the full benefit at level 15.)

(Increasingly) Skilled
Break the new skills up, perhaps 1 each at 6, 9 and 15.

Talent
Some minor adjustments and corrections:


Leverage
You may grant this Talent Die to an ally as a bonus action. This Talent Die is spent as part of a contest during combat, without any further action required, and is added to that roll.

(Increasingly) Reliable Talent
Break the floor gain up, so at level 5, you treat results less than 3 as a 4. Upgrade to 7 at 9th, and 10 at 11th.

Scholarly Refutation (Researcher)
At level thirteen, you can use a single Talent Die to attempt to interrupt a creature in the process of casting a spell as if casting Counterspell using a spell slot equal to half the rolled result, with a spell slot under third quietly failing without expending your reaction. The scholar may choose to treat either Intelligence or Wisdom as their spellcasting stat for this ability.

Statistical Inevitability (Researcher)
At level eighteen, at the end of any rest you can preroll up to one Talent Die, and two d20s. You can replace any attack roll, saving throw, or ability check made by you or a creature that you can see with one of the d20 results, or a Talent Die roll with that result. You must choose to do so before the roll, and you can replace a roll in this way only once per turn. You expend the prerolled dice when you do this, but they do not otherwise expire, although you can not have more than the three prerolled values at any one time.

Knacks
A knack for Blind Fighting. You have blindsight with a range of 10 feet. Within that range, you can effectively see anything that isn’t behind total cover, even if you’re blinded or in darkness. Moreover, you can see an invisible creature within that range, unless the creature successfully hides from you.

A knack for Leverage. As long as you have either time or a suitable implement, you can substitute your Intelligence score bonus for Strength ability checks, including contests in combat

There should be one that allows you to McGyver together tools, kits, and other equipment, but I can't figure out how to make that work mechanically.

I'm also thinking there should be knacks to help with underwater, and becoming ethereal.

Proficiency swap... I think I'll make it two tools and two languages.

I don't think I need to break up Skilled or Reliable Talent.

I do like Scholarly Refutation! Definitely gonna add that.


I've got stuff going on today, but I'll try to finish this up soon.

Joe the Rat
2021-09-20, 03:07 PM
Why do your allies have to spend actions/bonus actions to utilize the die for many of these functions? comparing to guidance and bardic inspiration, it seems a bit restrictive.

JNAProductions
2021-09-21, 12:10 PM
Why do your allies have to spend actions/bonus actions to utilize the die for many of these functions? comparing to guidance and bardic inspiration, it seems a bit restrictive.

It's also a heck of a lot more freely usable.

At level five, the Bard gets four uses of Bardic Inspiration per rest. And you get to add that to an attack roll, save, or ability check.
At level five, the Scholar gets three uses at the end of each rest, and can recharge them in just shy of twenty seconds of contemplation. This can be added to AC, ability checks, damage rolls, reducing damage taken, attack rolls, or saves. (Though not all at once, of course.)

I'm not deadset on requiring actions to use the dice, but I'd rather err on the side of lower-powered than overpowered to start.

strangebloke
2021-09-21, 02:50 PM
Balance is hard to say? Obviously its a WIP without one of its two core class features defined, but Talents feel... strange. You can give two talent dice to each member of your party, and unlike Bardic Inspiration they don't expire and they're an unlimited resource so it feels like you can just "load up" immediately after every battle, which is... I'm not sure its over- or under-powered, its just weird? You have nothing to do in combat at level 1 except normal combat stuff, but you're also granting potentially 4d4 damage mitigation and 4d4 damage spread about the party? It definitely feels like this gets insanely strong at higher levels once you're stacking 4d8 of buffs on everyone. I'm completely fine with that reading TBH. Just might be a bit boring in combat.

Overall I like what you're attempting to do here but there's a pretty big thematics issue. The talents feel generic and fiddly, just pushing numbers one way or another. Feels like we could use better names for a lot of them, and possibly a line of description. I like "hit em hard!" though it does sort of give me this image of a scholarly elf just yelling at the top of his lungs, which is humorous. The others are more generic, which I realize is probably something you were planning on working later.

I would rename the whole mechanic? If we want to run with the scholar being a meddling sorta-annoying-but-also-helpful archetype, you could do something like... IDK

Helpful Insight
Your mind moves faster than others, enabling you to pick up on things about your surroundings no one else can. At level one, you gain a pool of Insight Dice. This starts at 1d4, and increases in both number and die size as shown on the table. Any ability that requires someone to make a saving throw against a Insight is against a DC of 8+your proficiency modifier+your Intelligence modifier. Your Insight Dice pool is set to full after the completion of any rest. Additionally, you my regain a single Insight Die by taking an action. A creature may benefit from multiple Insight Dice at one time, but no more than their proficiency bonus. (For instance, a fellow level one PC could have up to two Insight Dice actively helping them. If you were helping a fifth level PC, they could have up to three.) There is no limit to the number of negative Insight Dice that may be applied to a foe, but the Insight Dice providing a bonus or penalty to the same score do not stack. Unspent Insight Dice disappear after one minute.

At level one, you may use Insight Dice in the following ways, affecting a creature that can see or hear you within 30'.

Watch out!
As a bonus action, you warn your ally of an incoming attack, granting them this Insight Die. This Insight Die may be spent as a bonus action by the ally to add the result rolled to their AC against Attacks of Opportunity until the start of their next turn.

Oh! let me help with that
You see what your ally is doing and you're pretty sure you can tell them how to do it better. Grant this Insight Die to an ally as an action. This Insight Die is spent as part of an ability check, without any further action required, and is added to the total score.

Your form is off!
You alert your ally as to how they could improve their movements and strike more effectively. You may grant this Insight Die to an ally as a bonus action. This Insight Die is spent as part of a successful attack, without any further action required, and is added to the damage roll.

Brace!
You may grant this Insight Die to an ally as a bonus action. This Insight Die is spent as a reaction to reduce damage from a single instance of damage equal to the amount rolled, to a minimum of 0.

JNAProductions
2021-09-21, 02:52 PM
Talent Dice disappear if not used within a minute. That's noted at the end for the first paragraph under Talent.

strangebloke
2021-09-21, 02:54 PM
Talent Dice disappear if not used within a minute. That's noted at the end for the first paragraph under Talent.

....I don't know how I missed that.

That definitely makes them a lot weaker, I would be concerned for our scholar at level 1 here, not much they get to do.