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View Full Version : D&D 5e/Next Rogue Subclass: Reaver(PEACH)



Williamnot
2021-12-23, 06:47 PM
One of my players wanted to play this Reaper class (https://www.dandwiki.com/wiki/Reaper_(5e_Class)), which is a little underwhelming, and playing as it would be fairly boring. I decided that it would be better as a rogue subclass using Sneak Attack dice. So, with a new name to add a little shine, here it is:

Reaver
You have become well acquainted with the life force that is inside everyone. You are able to see a magical manifestation of this life force and are able to manipulate it. Whether you found this power intentionally as a way to eliminate targets with more subtlety, or were chosen by Death itself to carry out its work, you are now responsible for it.

Soul Reave
Beginning at 3rd level, you may take an action to choose a creature within 10ft of you. That creature must make a Constitution saving throw. On a fail, they take necrotic damage equal to your Sneak Attack dice. On a success, they instead take half of that damage rounded up. The saving throw DC is equal to 8 + your PB + your Dex modifier.

Previtalize
Beginning at 3rd level, you learn to manipulate your own life force to give yourself a small burst of energy. When you are hit with an attack, before damage you may use your reaction to gain temporary hit points equal to half of your Sneak Attack dice, rounded up. Temporary hit points gained this way are lost at the end of every round.

Soul Thirst
When you reach 9th level, you are able to pull yourself towards the life force of a foe. When you use the Soul Reave feature, you may instead choose a creature within 40ft. You then teleport up to 30ft to an unoccupied space you can see, getting as close to the chosen creature as possible before using the Soul Reave feature. You must complete a short or long rest before you may use this feature again.

Unrelenting Harbinger
Starting at 13th level, you are able to manipulate your own life force to push beyond your limits at the risk of your own health. As a bonus action, you may choose to gain hit points equal to half of your Sneak Attack dice, rounded up, or to use the Soul Reave feature. When you use this feature, you must succeed a DC 20 Constitution saving throw or take one level of exhaustion. The first time you use this feature after every short or long rest, you automatically succeed the saving throw.

Face of Death
Beginning at 17th level, your mastery in the manipulation of life is horrifying. When you target a creature with the Soul Reave feature for the first time, you can choose for them to automatically fail. That creature becomes frightened of you for its next two turns. You must finish a short or long rest before you may use this feature again.

JNAProductions
2021-12-23, 07:23 PM
By half your dice, do you mean roll your SA dice and cut the result in half, roll half the dice, or half the total number of dice?

Put another way-at level three, when I get Previtalize, do I get 2d6/2 THP, 1d6 THP, or 1 THP?

If it's the last one, it's probably underpowered. If it's either of the first two, though, probably too good-Uncanny Dodge (at 5th level) is a reaction to halve damage against a single attack. This does 3.5 (at level three) THP, or cuts the damage in half of a 2d6 attack. Not so great, but it scales-at level 11, you get an extra 10.5 HP every time you're targeted. Sometimes Uncanny Dodge will be better, but frequently Previtalize is the superior choice-and Rogues are already surprisingly tanky with halving damage from ONE attack.

Breccia
2021-12-23, 09:20 PM
This subclass seems to be the "second chance" subclass.

Can't Sneak Attack because you don't have advantage or a flanker? Do necrotic damage instead. Even if they save, it's better than a non-Sneak Attack.

About to take damage from a few smaller, rather than one large, source? Gain the temporary hit points instead of Uncanny Dodge.

Can't close the distance to strike? Teleport with Soul Thirst. Sure you can only do it once, but it's better than letting a round go by without an attack.

In other words, rather than being a subclass that offers new abilities, it feels more like a subclass that does the existing abilities, but with more versatility. In other words, it's the Rogue Champion. Except with way more style.

I will say I'm not a fan of Face of Death. It's basically a Sneak Attack that automatically hits for almost full damage, and automatically causes Disadvantage on attack rolls for two turns. (Barring immunity to fear and/or necrotic damage) That's figuratively and literally a killer opener, turning what would normally be a challenging boss fight into 18 seconds of effectively one-sided beat down. Bear in mind, not even a Legendary Action can end that two-round fear that never misses. I guess, to put it another way, can you name a monster in the manual that can do something like this to a PC? "Fred, before your Fighter attacks, he takes 35 damage and also has Disadvantage on all your attacks for his first two rounds. No, there's no saving throw. Also he's just out of melee reach and you're not allowed to get any closer." I know it's a capstone, but always-hit no-save cripplers like this and I have never gotten along.

The good news, of course, is a lot of things resist/ignore necrotic, a lot of things aren't scared, and of course a dragon or wizard could just throw energy attacks which don't use attack rolls. So it's not an automatic I Win Button. But it's really vicious.

Williamnot
2021-12-24, 02:59 AM
By half your dice, do you mean roll your SA dice and cut the result in half, roll half the dice, or half the total number of dice?

Roll half the dice was my intention.


[Previtalize] does 3.5 (at level three) THP, or cuts the damage in half of a 2d6 attack. Not so great, but it scales-at level 11, you get an extra 10.5 HP every time you're targeted. Sometimes Uncanny Dodge will be better, but frequently Previtalize is the superior choice-and Rogues are already surprisingly tanky with halving damage from ONE attack.

Uncanny dodge may have blanked from my brain while I designed this. Thank you for the feedback.


This subclass seems to be the "second chance" subclass. [...]
In other words, rather than being a subclass that offers new abilities, it feels more like a subclass that does the existing abilities, but with more versatility. In other words, it's the Rogue Champion. Except with way more style.

This makes sense, and is pretty glaringly obvious now that it has been pointed out.


I will say I'm not a fan of Face of Death.[...] That's figuratively and literally a killer opener,[...] I know it's a capstone, but always-hit no-save cripplers like this and I have never gotten along.

The good news, of course, is a lot of things resist/ignore necrotic, a lot of things aren't scared

My reasoning was the immunities to necrotic and fear, and that it was a capstone. But you're right of course, thank you for the feedback

Here is attempt two.

Reaver
You have become well acquainted with the life force that is inside everyone. You are able to see a magical manifestation of this life force and are able to manipulate it. Whether you found this power intentionally as a way to eliminate targets with more subtlety, or were chosen by Death itself to carry out its work, you are now responsible for it.

Soul Reave
Beginning at 3rd level, you may take an action to choose a creature within 5ft of you. That creature must make a Constitution saving throw. On a fail, they take necrotic damage equal to your Sneak Attack dice. On a success, they instead take half of that damage rounded up. The saving throw DC is equal to 8 + your PB + your Dex modifier.

Revitalize
Beginning at 3rd level, you learn to manipulate you and your allies life forces to give a quick burst of healing. As an action, you may touch yourself or another creature and cure them of one poison, cure them of one disease, or restore hit points equal to 1d10 + your rogue level. You may also take 10 minutes working with yourself or another creature's life force to cure them of all poisons and all diseases. The target then gains hit points equal to 10 + your PB + your rogue level. Once you use this feature one a target, the target must complete a long rest before the target can benefit from this feature again.

Soul Seek
When you reach 9th level, you are able to pull yourself towards a source of life force. You pick a creature you can see that is within 30ft of you. You instantly teleport to an unoccupied space next to that creature. You may use this feature a number of times equal to your Con modifier. You regain all expended uses when you finish a short or long rest.

Unrelenting Harbinger
Starting at 13th level, you are able to manipulate your own life force to push beyond your limits at the risk of your own health. As a bonus action, you may roll half of your Sneak Attack dice, rounded up, and gain hit points equal to the result, or use the Soul Reave feature. When you use this feature, you must succeed a DC 20 Constitution saving throw or take one level of exhaustion. The first time you use this feature after every short or long rest, you automatically succeed the saving throw.

Field of Blight
Beginning at 17th level, you are able to drain life force from a chosen area. As an action you may choose a point you can see within 60ft of you. For 1 minute, any creature within a 30ft radius of the chosen point has disadvantage on Attack Roles and Saving Throws. This effect stops effecting a creature if that creature leaves the 30ft radius. Any creature that enter the 30ft radius suffers from the effect. You may use an action to move the chosen point. You must complete a short or long rest before you are able to use this feature again.

Bjarkmundur
2021-12-24, 05:19 AM
Saved to my subclass collection ^^
I don't like the 10- minute part of the restoration ability, I think it makes it needlessly wordy for a too-situational difference in function. Other than that I am completely sold.

I think I'll make it with my Planetouched template, or reflavor the Half-Orc to create a revenant/ghost Rider type character. I think that flavor works perfectly with Relentless Endurance

BerzerkerUnit
2021-12-24, 02:38 PM
I think I wrote a Reaper Class for the discussion in the original thread.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/14DBV2STSa-myDin4jXHCHsBJoP-N07rhUQvXUy3elbU/edit

Obviously, I don’t think the rogue is quite the right fit. That’s almost certainly biased but it doesn’t immediately count it as wrong.

There are 2 subclasses that focus on death (Assassin and Phantom), Phantom in particular has a lot of overlap here.

That said, play as you may, good luck!

Williamnot
2021-12-24, 11:27 PM
I don't like the 10- minute part of the restoration ability, I think it makes it needlessly wordy for a too-situational difference in function. Other than that I am completely sold.

The idea was that if you take the proper time to do what you need, you can heal more effectively than you can in combat. It was intended to be a healing ability that you could use to keep a player up in combat or to give a quick boost when a short rest is not in sight/all of your hit dice have already been used. Perhaps putting this function in its own paragraph to make it easier on the eyes would work.


I think I wrote a Reaper Class for the discussion in the original thread.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/14DBV2STSa-myDin4jXHCHsBJoP-N07rhUQvXUy3elbU/edit

Obviously, I don’t think the rogue is quite the right fit. That’s almost certainly biased but it doesn’t immediately count it as wrong.

There are 2 subclasses that focus on death (Assassin and Phantom), Phantom in particular has a lot of overlap here.

That said, play as you may, good luck!

Well, I wish I had seen this earlier. Thank you anyways, I will present both your class and my subclass to my player and see which they would prefer.

BerzerkerUnit
2021-12-25, 01:06 PM
The idea was that if you take the proper time to do what you need, you can heal more effectively than you can in combat. It was intended to be a healing ability that you could use to keep a player up in combat or to give a quick boost when a short rest is not in sight/all of your hit dice have already been used. Perhaps putting this function in its own paragraph to make it easier on the eyes would work.



Well, I wish I had seen this earlier. Thank you anyways, I will present both your class and my subclass to my player and see which they would prefer.

Here's a PDF version (https://drive.google.com/file/d/1vfVtw0k3k4HLFEdTPF6JHeorYve-milY/view?usp=sharing) with some art to liven up the text.