Twilight Warrior Base Class (with alternative casting system) [PEACH]

[DeanHavok]

Dean here again, this time with no questions and only balance concerns/comments. I hope you really did want feedback . To be clear, I'm giving honest feedback with no intent to make you feel either small or large, simply hoping to help you make this class even better than it already is.

Ok, so the class is a halfcaster. The ones WotC have released thus far are the paladin and the ranger, and as you yourself have compared this to the paladin, I'll just use that as a bouncing board. I totally understand that they're by no means accomplishing the same goals necessarily, just that they should have similar power distribution in theory, and I'm afeared the TW is underpowered, of all things. So.

Below are the basics that every class share. Paladin has advantages in most of the categories, but if the power is sufficiently represented elsewhere, not a biggy.

Spoiler: The Basics Compared

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Hit die: Paly d10 > TW d8
Armor: Paly All armor/shields > TW light/medium/shields
Weaps: Paly simp, mart == TW simp, mart
Starting Equipment: Paly 4 items > TW 3
Skills: Paly 2 == TW 2

Next, the big one for the TW with less of a focus for the paladin- spells. While the paladin does have more castings per day by the mid levels, the TW takes the cake with ease for potential levels out of their spells, with the assumption of 2 short rests. One BIG thing to note is that every paladin can prepare from the entire paladin spell list (45 spells, not including oath spells) and end up having 13 prepared spells at level 20 with a charisma of 16, whereas the TW ends up knowing only 7 from your awesome list of incantations (25, by my count).

Spoiler: Spells Comparison

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Spells/day and maximum spell levels (one level 1 spell= 1 level, level 4 worth 4, etc) at each level they get a higher spell/incantation level (assuming 2 short rests, one long rest each day):
Level 2: Paly 2/day, 2 levels; TW 3/day, 3 levels
Level 5: Paly 6/day, 8 levels; TW 6/day, 12 levels
Level 9: Paly 9/day, 16 levels; TW 6/day, 18 levels
Level 13: Paly 11/day, 23 levels; TW 9/day, 28 levels
Level 17: Paly 14/day, 36 levels; TW 9/day, 45 levels

Almost done. The less easily compared items- non-spell class abilities. This is where I'd like to raise my concerns, but lets look at the data first and then I'll say my piece.

Spoiler: Paladin Class Abilities

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Paladin:
Level 1:
Divine Sense: Minor, detection ability. Helpful, but not direct power
Lay on Hands: Integral to the class, by 20th level you can heal 100hp to anyone, in addition to end diseases and such. Big money.
2:
Fighting Style: Major perk, non class specific but very nice to have
Divine Smite: Putting those extra spell slots to use in a different way. Medium sized bonus, 5d8 at 17th level is nice but not enough to stop a wizard from yawning.
3:
Divine Health: Immune to disease, situational. Might come up a lot depending on the DM, might not.
Archetype: I'll get to these separately, but it's worth noting the levels are 3/7/15/20, so you get a capstone from your path with paly
4/8/12/16/19:
ASI: standard stuff.
5:
Extra Attack: enough said.
6:
Aura of Protection: Pretty nice, Cha is the prime steak of Paladins mentally, so that's probably at least a +2 or +3 to all saving throws within 10 feet/30 at 18
10:
Aura of Courage: No scares within 10ft/30 at 18. Not as good as the last one, I think, but still nice indeed.
11:
Improved Divine Smite: good stuff, 1d8 extra in melee same as what you've got at level 11 for TW, which I approve of wholeheartedly.
14:
Cleansing Touch: Boy this one's good. number of times/day just "see that spell? yeah, me neither".

Spoiler: Twilight Warrior Class Abilities

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Level 1:
Solar Weapon: Cool thematically, and lets you spend solar energy, but besides giving you a weapon if you're unarmed and act as a focus for solar incs, doesn't DO anything. Which is fine, just worth noting.
Lunar Shield: Again, cool thematically, and you need it to spend lunar energy, but this is unfortunate for anyone who wants to dual wield, go ranged, or two hand it. UNLESS your intent was to seperate the bonus action from the shield, and that you can ward someone without the shield being out. Then the only problem is a lunar astral focus.
The bonus action is nice if you have nothing else to spend it on, for sure, except no incantations on the same turn. Bit of a pain, but since you can really only cast at most 3 incantations per encounter, not likely to come up often.
2:
Celestial Mediation: Doesn't do anything itself, just helps you to get ready to do something. As an action. That seems like a steep cost to shuffle around the mana system no other base class has to deal with.
3:
Archetype: Again, to be mentioned seperately, but the levels are 3,6,10,18. Worth noting.
5:
Extra Attack: Same as paly, good stuff to have.
7:
Bind Fates: Hmm. Not sure how to feel about this one. On the one hand, the stuff you give your bro is REALLY good, obviously. On the other hand, while the drawback is fair enough, we T-Warriors are squish town. If we had a d10, this would make more sense, but right now we can barely take hits that target us alone, and don't have the advantage of heavy armor to try and ward such attacks off. The tanking aspect of this ability is a little out of place. Risk/reward, fair enough. Just worth thinking about. It is a very unique ability, though.
11:
Solar Strikes: same as paly, except the TW version doesn't have to be melee, which is GREAT for flexibility... except for lunar shield biting our ass, unless it doesn't.
14:
Constant as the Sun: Mmmmph. I have the same problem with this as I do favored terrain. It's incredibly situational, and very seldom going to come in handy. Even if you can forced march without penalty, what about your group? Do you just leave them in the dust? I'm not sure how much value once can get out of this ability.
15:
Inconstant as the Moon: This one, however, is beautiful. A little RNG magic, but not too much so as to be stifling. 3/day is pretty nice, though I might be tempted to make it Wis mod/day (min 1) to give some flexibility, especially since the big focus of the class, spells, is already on the short rest timer. Just my opinion, though.
20:
Equinox: Well, I dunno. I'd have to see it in action, but I get the feeling it's going to be underwhelming. As a capstone, you get to feel like a fullcaster for likely just one or maaaaybe two incantations. Ehhhhhhhh. That's what your other class is for.

I'll include a summary of my concerns at the end as well as in the above comparison.

Last item on my list, Archetype comparison. The way I see it, archetypes serve one of two functions with rare exception- to specialize the class further into its own role (like a wizard's school, or a cleric's domain) or to diversify the class and allow it to leak into other roles (eldritch knight for fighters, or bladesinging for wizards).

Spoiler: Archetypes Compared

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Paladin:
3: List of spells known, once/rest options
7:Aura/Minor Mobility
15:Aura/Once per long rest/new way to attack
20:damaging auro/paragon of your class in some way(angel, champion, etc) for 1min/1hr

TW:
3: skill/darkvision, and either changing points around helps you prepare to do something else but doesn't actually do something itself
6: change of damage type, one can snuff out small lights
10:sphere of invis or truth. These are cool.
18: bigger dark sphere of blinding/damage sphere.

The concern I'd like to raise here is with the current renditions of Twilight Paths; the TW doesn't have very much change between one or the other, except which kind of spell you can cast more frequently- which again, is already very limited by design. Beyond that, one skill or darkvision, a change in damage type (doesn't add any power, situational in its usefulness, though nice for flavor), and two upper level abilities, which in theory are very nice, and something I'd love to see more of their flavor and flexibility. The problem with the level 10/18 powers for me is that the dusk ones don't feel that different from each other thematically, and both classes are essentially doing the same kind of thing, just with different outcomes. Both get two spheres that do stuff. I'm not that moved in either direction when its put in those terms (obviously they're cooler than that, but there's a point I'm struggling to make).

For the class as a whole, consider what kind of identity you want the base class (before the archetype choice) to have within a party. What role(s) does it fill? Healer, Tank, Sneaky, Face, Trap-Finder, Brawler, Spellcaster, etc. If the answer is a large number or "player's choice", fine, but I think it could use more guidance from you as the creator. Off-tank melee halfcaster like a melee rogue or a paladin? Bump the hit die to a d10. Squishy damage dealer? d8 is fine, but here comes the next thing.

As a Twilight Warrior in its current form, you don't do much. At MAX LEVEL you can cast 3 spells in each fight, which over the course of the day is decent. But the rest of the time in combat you're swinging most likely a longsword for 4d8+Dex/Str. The class provides 3 skills(or two with darkvision) so you're not the skills junky, and Cha isn't important so unless you're multiclassing or really need a face, CHA is probably the dumpstat, so you're not the party face, and you're not likely even the utility spells guy for outside of combat, as you're real nervous about taking away such a big portion of your power to, say, create a minor image, or gain darkvision, instead of using it in combat. Not to mention, a lot of the really clutch incantations are out of your reach in this class, and it leaves it feeling a little mundane in the place where your design prowess shines brightest. The incantations are CRAZY COOL. The fact that they're modular and scalable really add to the experience, like you're building on knowledge you've already accumulated as a TW is neat as sheet. Its a shame to see them all go to your other class at the 6+ cost, and I think that's an area you could explore in theoretically modifying this class, if that's where you feel its power should come from. The capstone has the right idea, but IMHO not the right balance of power given after all that effort to get max level.


TLDR
-I love this class as an idea, and come bearing words of peace and harmony and suggestion.
-The Twilight Warrior feels underwhelming at times, which is heartbreaking because there's so much potential.
-If you change absolutely nothing, I would at least recommend considering upping it to a d10 hit die. If you do increase power elsewhere, don't have to bother, but right now it's a squishy front liner with occasional damage.
-The paladin has one more class feature than the twilight warrior, at level 3 (divine health). Worth noting.
-Twilight Paths should feel more distinct, both from each other and in their own right.
-A number of features don't do anything themselves, just help you do something else. I'm a little wary of that. Solar Weapon, Celestial Mediation, the archetypes swapping around points.
-A BUNCH of the features are about the incantations or celestial points WITHOUT adding power or diversity in play to the class. Thematically pleasing, less pleasing on my char sheet. To fix this, I would personally love to see either more options outside of incantations, especially more that utilize the celestial points. Options are really satisfying to make you feel like you're building your own character, rather than playing someone else's. I could easily see this class fitting into the Path of War maneuvers kind of mentality from 3.5, which is a big compliment from me, I loved those disciplines. This is a place where the Archetypes feeling different from e/o could be fleshed out.
-Learn more incantations plz.
-Either you have a spell, or you have like, zero spells. That's a bad feeling when almost every other class feature revolves around the incantations/celestial points. Perhaps allow the player more incantations as they scale in level, something like "at level X, the twilight warrior can cast incantations of level 1 without taking from their pool of incantations for the rest. At level Y, they can do the same with level 2 incantations, etc etc", OR perhaps "the twilight warrior can save unspent incantations between rests, up to her wisdom modifier at a time" or something.
-To me, the Max cost and the number of max incantation points really don't need to be different. Further, if you decide not to expand the number of incantations, I might suggest increasing the scaling of power up to 6 cost instead of 5; but either way it seems kind of superfluous to have more than you can spend in one blow.
-Clarify the Lunar shield ability at level 1. Can I spend a bonus action to spend one lunar point to do that thing without the shield out? I'd vote for yes, if its not this already.
-Constant as the Sun is underwhelming in the extreme.
-Capstone seems like it's a moment of power (like, 6 seconds) and gone. Meanwhile, Barbs are getting fat money to their STR and CON, Paladins are becoming Angels, Fighters have 4 attacks per turn. I like what it's trying to do for sure though.



I may end up having more to say, but I'd like to reiterate for the final time on this post that I love what you've already done and only seek to help it reach the stars. I mean only the best and have more good in my head to say than bad about the class. Disclaimer disclaimer TM

EDIT: Didn't want to double post, but really I could see this being essentially an incantation based spellslinger. Full spell progression, leave the d8, take away medium armor but leave shields, and.... you'd still be missing cantrips, which is something that probably also wounds your Astromancer, unless I missed the replacement somewhere. I saw the solar shard too late, my bad