3.5e Dragon Shaman to 5e

[carrdrivesyou]

So I've been working on this for a while now, but the thing my friend and I can't seem to agree on are the auras. Small, passive, but always on buffs. She thinks that they make things too easy for everyone, meanwhile, I think that's the entire point of the class. It's the best "5th Man" of the group, so to speak. Below, I have adjusted the auras to better fit 5e's framework and power scaling, but she is insisting that these are "game breaking." I can't bring myself to agree, because at best, these are preventing drops in the bucket for damage at level, or granting expertise to a narrow subset of skills to someone who has to stay relatively close to you to benefit from it. Please let me know if I am in the wrong here or if 5e is just that bad at accepting homebrew that isn't sword swinging or spell slinging?

Level = Aura Bonus
1st to 4th = +2
5th to 8th = +3
9th to 12th = +4
13th to 16th = +5
17th to 20th = +6

Energy Shield: (7th Level or Higher) Choose a damage type: acid, cold, fire, lightning, or poison. Any creature within 5 feet of you that strikes you with a melee attack takes damage of that type equal to twice your aura bonus. You can use a bonus action to change the damage type of this aura.

Lore: This aura grants you a bonus on Intelligence (Arcana), Intelligence (History), and Intelligence (Nature) checks.

Power: This aura grants you a bonus to melee weapon damage rolls. The damage type is acid, cold, fire, lightning, or poison, chosen when you project this aura. You can use a bonus action to change the damage type of this aura.

Presence: This aura grants you a bonus on Charisma (Deception), Charisma (Persuasion), and Charisma (Intimidation) checks.

Resistance: This aura reduces acid, cold, fire, lightning, and poison damage that you take by an amount equal to your aura bonus.

Resolve: This aura grants you a bonus on Constitution Saving Throws made to maintain your concentration on a spell, as well as on Saving Throws against fear, paralysis, and sleep effects.

Senses: (7th Level or Higher) This aura grants you a bonus on Wisdom (Perception) checks, Wisdom (Insight) checks, and on initiative rolls.

Toughness: This aura reduces bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing damage that you take from nonmagical weapons by an amount equal to your aura bonus.

Vigor: At the start of each of your turns, this aura gives a number of temporary hit points equal to twice your aura bonus. You don’t gain this benefit if you have 0 hit points.

Shadow: Your aura dampens the presence of those around you. This aura grants you a bonus on Dexterity (Stealth) and Dexterity (Sleight of Hand) checks.

[Larbek24]

So the first questions are: Is the range still 30 ft. and do the auras still stop working once your unconscious?

About the bonus: it is higher and increases faster than in 3.5 but it is obvious that you based them on the proficiency modifier. With that I have the question is it the proficiency modifier or is the aura bonus only linked to your dragon shaman level?

About the auras:
-Power and Energy Shield seem completely fine to me.
-I think Resistence and Toughness are fine but they feel un-5e-y with 5e not being that fond of flat bonuses. The big question with that is does the damage get reduced before or after resitance or vulnerability?
-Toughness seems strange in my eyes. It looks really strong at the early level but weak in later levels. Maybe only have it give the aura bonus temporary HP per round but the problem would be that this would make it even worse in higher levels.
-Lore, Presence, Resolve, Senses and Shadow effectively give proficiency/expertise/super-expertise depending on what the character already had. I think that these are the most problematic. They are really strong and can make checks trivial (especially if you have "super-expertise") because at least in my experience many checks are balanced around having proficieny. The easy (and boring) way to 'balance' them would be just give advantage instead of a bonus.

Honestly I think that 5e doesn't like flat bonuses or things that can stack with each other very much. But it should be possible maybe you have to replace the more problematic auras. Other auras that may inspire you could be the Draconic Auras from "Dragon Magic", the minor and major auras of the Marshal from "Miniatures Handbook" or the Commander Auras from "Heroes of Battle"

[Kane0]

5e tends to shy away from static bonuses and instead hand out extra dice, see Bless as an example. The bonus you have follows proficiency bonus but presumably is locked to class level to avoid dipping a few levels into the class and getting full progression while multiclassing out elsewhere, that's good. I would recommend just swapping the static bonus to the equivalent die size (DMG has it, but basically +2 is +1d4, +4 is +1d8 and so on).

Energy Shield: If this is an aura for your party it should probably use their reactions
Lore: Seems fine
Power: Maybe limit to once per turn if it applies to all your party
Presence: No Performance?
Resistance: All at once? I would just pick one and be able to swap using a Bonus Action
Resolve: Seems fine
Senses: Seems fine
Toughness: Again should probably use reactions if it applies to the whole party
Vigor: Maybe just one roll
Shadow: Seems fine

Of course, this is without knowing a lot of other things like aura range, how many you can have at a time, what other features you are giving this class, etc, etc.

[carrdrivesyou]

So the first questions are: Is the range still 30 ft. and do the auras still stop working once your unconscious?

About the bonus: it is higher and increases faster than in 3.5 but it is obvious that you based them on the proficiency modifier. With that I have the question is it the proficiency modifier or is the aura bonus only linked to your dragon shaman level?

About the auras:
-Power and Energy Shield seem completely fine to me.
-I think Resistence and Toughness are fine but they feel un-5e-y with 5e not being that fond of flat bonuses. The big question with that is does the damage get reduced before or after resitance or vulnerability?
-Toughness seems strange in my eyes. It looks really strong at the early level but weak in later levels. Maybe only have it give the aura bonus temporary HP per round but the problem would be that this would make it even worse in higher levels.
-Lore, Presence, Resolve, Senses and Shadow effectively give proficiency/expertise/super-expertise depending on what the character already had. I think that these are the most problematic. They are really strong and can make checks trivial (especially if you have "super-expertise") because at least in my experience many checks are balanced around having proficieny. The easy (and boring) way to 'balance' them would be just give advantage instead of a bonus.

Honestly I think that 5e doesn't like flat bonuses or things that can stack with each other very much. But it should be possible maybe you have to replace the more problematic auras. Other auras that may inspire you could be the Draconic Auras from "Dragon Magic", the minor and major auras of the Marshal from "Miniatures Handbook" or the Commander Auras from "Heroes of Battle"

The aura would remain at 30ft, because the 10ft paladin one is just pitiful and never seems to affect anyone other than themselves.

5e doesn't like flat bonuses due to bounded accuracy, but at most, the bonus is anywhere between half a guidance or a full bardic inspiration. Advantage by comparison is roughly equal to a +5 bonus. 4tHP at 1st level for the party is strong, but 12tHP at 20th is barely noticeable.

In theory, I could swap the flat aura bonus to add dice instead, but i think that would make things get even further out of hand. Assuming the following progression of: +2 = d4, +3 = d6, +4 = d8, +5 = 2d4, +6 = 2d6, it makes things even more potent than they currently are.

I will certainly look into the other aura classes from 3.5 for more inspiration though.


Of course, this is without knowing a lot of other things like aura range, how many you can have at a time, what other features you are giving this class, etc, etc.

You can project 1 aura at 1st, can project 2 at 9th, and 3 at 18th by my current progression.