Goobahfish
2022-07-08, 10:26 PM
Hi All,
I have built a Scholar class. It takes inspiration from every scholar/academic/savant/factotum class I could find on the interwebs.
https://homebrewery.naturalcrit.com/share/7lhbe6lZ5Kek
TL:DR version
It is a non-magical academic-style class that focusses on collaborative combat and investigation-style roleplaying.
Mechanically:
The Resource
Insight Die: (Int + 1)/short rest. Increase as you level up. By default can be added to Int checks and saves.
Gambits: Similar to invocations. Grant extra options for Insight Die and different proficiencies.
Combat
The scholar uses a Bonus Action to mark adversaries. You may use your Int for attacks against Marked enemies. You may then use Bonus Action to add a free Insight Die to damage against the marked target (i.e. round 2).
At 5th, instead of extra attack you can use your reaction to add a free Insight Die to an ally's damage roll.
At 6th you get an extra reaction (so you can potentially add this damage twice, thrice at 18th).
Some Rationale
#1: So D&D necessitates combat effectiveness. I didn't want spells, nor 'beat-stick' combat. My theory was that the Scholar should have a 'tactician' vibe where you do things similar to commander's strike (Battle Master). As it doesn't have spells, it needs to roughly compete with classes like Rogues and Monks for damage output.
The idea for this style of character is to gain Insight into monsters (advantage on checks to learn about monsters) so the advantages are more organic than just flat bonuses. That said a certain amount of flat bonuses are necessary to work in 5E.
Out of combat I didn't just want it to be expertise x 20. The gambits are designed to broaden the play-style rather than augment it. The subclasses grant a defacto expertise.
DPS Analysis
At 1st, you can do Weapon damage +D6 (on marked targets)
At 5th, you can potentially do Weapon damage +2D6 damage (on marked targets, bonus, reaction), at 6th this increases to Weapon damage +3D6 each turn (bonus, 2 reactions, which is roughly rogue-like). You need to have helpful allies to achieve this however.
This grows to potentially +4D10 at the end? It feels a little underpowered (sneak attack grants 10D6 by this stage).
Some Concerns
Unarmored Combat is again pretty common and not a horrible way to handle the 'unarmored' scholar vibe. I delayed this to level 2 to avoid single 'dips'. At level 1, the scholar can cope as a light-armor sniper type.
I wasn't sure how to 'peg' the power level of Gambits. Warlock invocations assume a 'decent' caster behind them.
As it stands, the class feels underpowered, but I'm not sure how to tweak it without overtuning it. Any advice would be most helfpul.
I have built a Scholar class. It takes inspiration from every scholar/academic/savant/factotum class I could find on the interwebs.
https://homebrewery.naturalcrit.com/share/7lhbe6lZ5Kek
TL:DR version
It is a non-magical academic-style class that focusses on collaborative combat and investigation-style roleplaying.
Mechanically:
The Resource
Insight Die: (Int + 1)/short rest. Increase as you level up. By default can be added to Int checks and saves.
Gambits: Similar to invocations. Grant extra options for Insight Die and different proficiencies.
Combat
The scholar uses a Bonus Action to mark adversaries. You may use your Int for attacks against Marked enemies. You may then use Bonus Action to add a free Insight Die to damage against the marked target (i.e. round 2).
At 5th, instead of extra attack you can use your reaction to add a free Insight Die to an ally's damage roll.
At 6th you get an extra reaction (so you can potentially add this damage twice, thrice at 18th).
Some Rationale
#1: So D&D necessitates combat effectiveness. I didn't want spells, nor 'beat-stick' combat. My theory was that the Scholar should have a 'tactician' vibe where you do things similar to commander's strike (Battle Master). As it doesn't have spells, it needs to roughly compete with classes like Rogues and Monks for damage output.
The idea for this style of character is to gain Insight into monsters (advantage on checks to learn about monsters) so the advantages are more organic than just flat bonuses. That said a certain amount of flat bonuses are necessary to work in 5E.
Out of combat I didn't just want it to be expertise x 20. The gambits are designed to broaden the play-style rather than augment it. The subclasses grant a defacto expertise.
DPS Analysis
At 1st, you can do Weapon damage +D6 (on marked targets)
At 5th, you can potentially do Weapon damage +2D6 damage (on marked targets, bonus, reaction), at 6th this increases to Weapon damage +3D6 each turn (bonus, 2 reactions, which is roughly rogue-like). You need to have helpful allies to achieve this however.
This grows to potentially +4D10 at the end? It feels a little underpowered (sneak attack grants 10D6 by this stage).
Some Concerns
Unarmored Combat is again pretty common and not a horrible way to handle the 'unarmored' scholar vibe. I delayed this to level 2 to avoid single 'dips'. At level 1, the scholar can cope as a light-armor sniper type.
I wasn't sure how to 'peg' the power level of Gambits. Warlock invocations assume a 'decent' caster behind them.
As it stands, the class feels underpowered, but I'm not sure how to tweak it without overtuning it. Any advice would be most helfpul.