D&D 5e Subclass Contest Chat Thread

[MoleMage]

Starting to review in randomized order, starting with Old Harry MTX's Martial Artist.

Spoiler: Martial Artist

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I'll admit, I'm worried that taking the Battle Master and giving its features to the monk and then adding more on top of it will be too strong. That's my first impression. Now to examine it more closely.


Combat Techniques
The Battle Master's Know Your Enemy feature has a line about Fighter class levels. You may want to clarify if you intend for that to be monk levels in this case.

Maneuvers
If used in combination with Stunning Strike, opponents will automatically fail the saving throws for Disarming Attack, Pushing Attack, and Trip Attack. That seems fine.

Goading Attack combines well with the monk's ability to Dodge as a bonus action, allowing you to give an enemy disadvantage on every attack. Potentially powerful, but it's resource expensive and depends on a failed save.

Iron Skin is bland but functional.

Warrior Within will most benefit binary uses of superiority dice, which means that this feature will push Martial Artists to take Precision Attack. Being able to turn a miss into a hit is of larger importance that a few more points of damage, especially if that hit can be used to land a Stunning Strike.

Action Surge somehow feels less exciting on a monk chassis. I think this is because it feels like a duplicate of the effects that can be granted by Flurry of Blows, Patient Defense, and Step of the Wind. It's still useful. Extra actions always are.



Looking everything over, I wouldn't personally be too enticed by the Martial Artist unless I wanted to make a disarming specialist. Being able to automatically disarm stunned targets and then pick up their weapon and run away at monk speed could be fun, if a little repetitive.


Suggestions
Perhaps Iron Skin or Action Surge could be replaced with some method of converting ki points into superiority dice or vice versa. Being able to dump ki points into causing more damage would certainly shore up that aspect of the monk.

Edit: Hey Molemage, we're at page 50, so we'll need a new thread. Anyone got any fun name suggestions?

Oh dang you're right! Actually, I've never had a thread hit 50 before. Do I need to contact the forum mod about it or just make a new thread?

Ideas:

D&D Subclass Contest II: Joke Entries Win with Alarming Frequency
D&D Subclass Contest II: The Second One
D&D Subclass Contest II: Every Six Weeks, We Ride Anew

[Twelvetrees]

Oh dang you're right! Actually, I've never had a thread hit 50 before. Do I need to contact the forum mod about it or just make a new thread?

I think you should be good to just create a new thread and link to it here. I'll update this post with a link if I find the rules on threads hitting page 50.

Edit: Found this. Looks like as long as you create a new one and link to it, you should be good to go, MoleMage.

[nickl_2000]

Lots more to review! Woohoo, so glad to see so many people entering these contests. Sorry it took so long, but life and work got busy and my spare time was taken with reading and processing Tasha's

Spoiler: Way of the Punchimancer

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Using intelligence as a spellcasting modifier on a Monk is pretty rough. Monks tend to be bad for MADness since they need Wisdom, Dexterity, and Constitution to be effective. With this subclass you need to have intelligence as well, so you need to have decent stats in 4 stats. I would consider making it Wisdom based instead. The other official subclasses that do this are Fighter and Rogue based, both of which really only require 2 stats to function.

Punchimancy - This can be combined with BB/GFB as long as the attacks are made with a weapon instead of punching. I don't see an issue with that since you would normally get two attacks, but I just thought I would mention it.

Deflect Magic - As is, this is way to powerful. The idea is cool, the function is fine, but the issue is that there is no cost to it. It really needs a Ki cost. If it were me I would look at either a cost of 2 ki to do the whole thing, or a cost of 1 ki to change from X save to dex and 2 additional ki to redirect. I realize that this the second is a little bit higher overall, but you only need to pay the redirect when you know you succeed rather than all at once. Plus that 1 ki can be used to change any save for half spell effect to Dex, which allows Evasion to trigger. Now that I type more, I would definitely do 1 ki to change to dex and 2 more to redirect the spell.

The rest seems fine to me. I'm not a huge fan of the abjuration and pick a school choice, but I did notice that you don't allow picking outside of school like the AT and EK, so it will probably be fine. I don't see anything overtly broken from the Wizard spell list to give to a monk, so even with the choice of schools it should be good.

Overall, I like the monk caster like this. It gives a martial class like the monk more to do outside of combat (something that is sorely needed in my opinion).

Spoiler: Monastic Tradition: Way of the Chameleon

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There is a lot to unpack here, so I will do my best to look everything over and try to find anything overly powerful or broken.

Restriction: Humans only - So, Tashas tried to move away from classes available to certain classes only, but this is homebrew so that's cool and certainly fits into the idea of it all.

Bonus Proficiency - Thanks for the "if you already have it" piece. That is important.

Aptitude Focus - It's unusual to pick at any point during a long rest. Typically the designers do at the end of a long rest for the specific purpose of when you get interrupted you don't have a chance to change first. Just a little bit of an odd point, but one that isn't a huge deal. Wow, this is a wall of text. Sorry, this is taking some time to parse through all the way. I think it is okay as it, but you may want to look to add a little bit of formatting to make it easier to read.

Floating Talent - This is interesting, it certainly opens up a lot for the monk. I will have to see if there is a way to break things with it. I do like that you can get better feats on a monk class that is generally MAD and doesn't get to see as many feats as other classes.

Rapid Refocus - I don't see the point of regaining 6 ki from this. When you take a short of long rest as a monk, you get all your ki back.


Amok Focus (Barbarian) - The shield bonus seems like it may be a little much, but it is very fitting for this. I don't think it would be to broken when combined with everything else on a monk.

Ranger and Warlock - I am not a huge fan of a monk getting access to Hex and Hunter's Mark without multiclassing, but official sources have allowed this so *shrugs* I guess I should just get over it.

I'm sorry this isn't as in depth as others, there is just so much to parse through. I will say, this is absolutely the closest to the theme there could possibly be and would be a ball to play (I love options, and there are so, so many options). Overall in balance, I think there may be some issues in there and way that you could abuse the system. However, I think the best way to see that would be through play testing rather than a review to begin with. I would definitely need to see how the spell casting works with the Ki costs.

Spoiler: Naturalist

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Wild Watcher - Give other options for skills if you have already have these. It's annoying to not get a feature because of a choice you made earlier.

Catch and Release - I didn't expect this, but I like it and it fits into the theme.

Area of Study - Is this a one time choice? Can you change it at levelling? Just based on Tasha's it seems like it should allow for changing at some point.

Celestials - Light spell being considered sunlight is killer in the right place. It may not impact most campaigns, but in the right one it will completely destroy it (CoS for example). I would consider something else personally, something more universal

Elementals - Two resistances that you can change at a short rest is to much. To be more comparable it would be better to give 1 and make it changeable at a long rest.

Fey - So, this is effectively invisibility on demand. There are cantrips that require concentration. So, you need to at least make it levelled spells, but I think that this may still be to powerful with levelled spells.

Spoiler: Woodcarver, a artificer with druidic planty abilities

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The spell list seems fine, and while Guardian of Nature makes sense to be great tree only from a flavor perspective I wouldn't bother limiting. Artificers will rarely be strength based, but if someone wants to let it go.

Nature’s blessing - How do you tell it to do a different action? Free action, bonus action, what exactly?

Druidic knowledge - Mention that these are considered Artificer spells for you, so we know that you use Int as the casting stat.

Root down - This looks like an out of combat utility more than anything else. Not a bad thing, but I don't see it being used in combat very often.

Mighty oak - Strength and Con seem odd choices for an artificer. Int and Con would make a lot more sense to me.

You have got some great feel and flavour here. I really like this class, and it does a great job of applying a natury feel to a very metal based class.

Spoiler: Circle of Spirit

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So, this isn't an exciting review at all. I don't see anything wrong with this or any issues. I think it's a good implementation of borrowing from Monk without completely stealing from the monk (not an easy thing to do). Wholeness of Mind does seem like it would be a lot of healing. Have you run the numbers on this at all?

Alright, I'm caught up until someone else throws something in. Great entries everyone.

[Old Harry MTX]

Thankyou for your feedback!

I'll admit, I'm worried that taking the Battle Master and giving its features to the monk and then adding more on top of it will be too strong. That's my first impression. Now to examine it more closely.

At the beginning I had this doubt too, then I considered that a monk obtains its Monastic Tradition feature at levels considered milestones, in particular the 11th and 17th, while the fighter does not. The real milestones of the fighter are in fact all proper to the base class. With that in mind, and considering that the monk is notoriously a class that is a bit subdued compared to the others, I thought I had enough space for everything else.

Combat Techniques
The Battle Master's Know Your Enemy feature has a line about Fighter class levels. You may want to clarify if you intend for that to be monk levels in this case.

You're absolutely right.

Maneuvers
If used in combination with Stunning Strike, opponents will automatically fail the saving throws for Disarming Attack, Pushing Attack, and Trip Attack. That seems fine.

Goading Attack combines well with the monk's ability to Dodge as a bonus action, allowing you to give an enemy disadvantage on every attack. Potentially powerful, but it's resource expensive and depends on a failed save.

Totally agree

Iron Skin is bland but functional.

I think this feature is almost necessary for any monk. In any case, in its simplicity I believe it gives the right fighter feeling.

Warrior Within will most benefit binary uses of superiority dice, which means that this feature will push Martial Artists to take Precision Attack. Being able to turn a miss into a hit is of larger importance that a few more points of damage, especially if that hit can be used to land a Stunning Strike.

I would say that in general Precision Attack is still the best maneuver.

Action Surge somehow feels less exciting on a monk chassis. I think this is because it feels like a duplicate of the effects that can be granted by Flurry of Blows, Patient Defense, and Step of the Wind. It's still useful. Extra actions always are.

I don't know, the idea of ​​being able to do a lot of things in one turn actually teases me a lot. I don't find it redundant, on the contrary... XD

Suggestions
Perhaps Iron Skin or Action Surge could be replaced with some method of converting ki points into superiority dice or vice versa. Being able to dump ki points into causing more damage would certainly shore up that aspect of the monk.

Hmm, I don't really like the idea of ​​giving the monk more superiority dice than the fighter, and also it seems a little redundant considering Warrior Within. Also, regardless of how much more fun the class would be, I feel I would lose a bit the "borrowed from fighter" feeling...

Thanks again for the comments!

[Ilerien]

There is a lot to unpack here, so I will do my best to look everything over and try to find anything overly powerful or broken.

Many thanks for the review!

Restriction: Humans only - So, Tashas tried to move away from classes available to certain classes only, but this is homebrew so that's cool and certainly fits into the idea of it all.

The clause about lifting the restriction tries to accomodate for this :)

Aptitude Focus - It's unusual to pick at any point during a long rest. Typically the designers do at the end of a long rest for the specific purpose of when you get interrupted you don't have a chance to change first. Just a little bit of an odd point, but one that isn't a huge deal. Wow, this is a wall of text. Sorry, this is taking some time to parse through all the way. I think it is okay as it, but you may want to look to add a little bit of formatting to make it easier to read.

I tried to emphasize that a chameleon changing anything in their active foci will first lose "old" effects and then gain "new" effects. Will try to think up a more elegant way.

Rapid Refocus - I don't see the point of regaining 6 ki from this. When you take a short of long rest as a monk, you get all your ki back.

Thank you! There's definitely a bug here.

Amok Focus (Barbarian) - The shield bonus seems like it may be a little much, but it is very fitting for this. I don't think it would be to broken when combined with everything else on a monk.

Kinda compensates for necessitating decent Strength, I think.

Ranger and Warlock - I am not a huge fan of a monk getting access to Hex and Hunter's Mark without multiclassing, but official sources have allowed this so *shrugs* I guess I should just get over it.

I see some potential to break the balance with them, but... probably, not overwhelmingly.

I'm sorry this isn't as in depth as others, there is just so much to parse through. I will say, this is absolutely the closest to the theme there could possibly be and would be a ball to play (I love options, and there are so, so many options). Overall in balance, I think there may be some issues in there and way that you could abuse the system. However, I think the best way to see that would be through play testing rather than a review to begin with. I would definitely need to see how the spell casting works with the Ki costs.

Again, your thoughts are much appreciated, and I undestand there's a lot of text to process.

[Twelvetrees]

Responses to comments

Spoiler: Martial Artist - Old Harry MTX

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Thankyou for your feedback!

Glad to give it. Your responses are appreciated as well - I've learned a different way to look at the same subclass.

At the beginning I had this doubt too, then I considered that a monk obtains its Monastic Tradition feature at levels considered milestones, in particular the 11th and 17th, while the fighter does not. The real milestones of the fighter are in fact all proper to the base class. With that in mind, and considering that the monk is notoriously a class that is a bit subdued compared to the others, I thought I had enough space for everything else.

I hadn't considered the ratio of power between base classes and subclasses. That's an excellent point.

I think this feature is almost necessary for any monk. In any case, in its simplicity I believe it gives the right fighter feeling.

Can you explain why you think it's necessary? From my anecdotal experience, the monk's ability to Dodge as a bonus action allows them to deal with incoming attacks well.

Hmm, I don't really like the idea of ​​giving the monk more superiority dice than the fighter, and also it seems a little redundant considering Warrior Within. Also, regardless of how much more fun the class would be, I feel I would lose a bit the "borrowed from fighter" feeling...

Thanks again for the comments!

Your subclass, your rules.

Spoiler: Naturalist review from nickl_2000

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Wild Watcher - Give other options for skills if you have already have these. It's annoying to not get a feature because of a choice you made earlier.

Good call. I'd used the wording for the Scout as a base here. Changed to offer other choices.

Catch and Release - I didn't expect this, but I like it and it fits into the theme.

Thanks!

Area of Study - Is this a one time choice? Can you change it at levelling? Just based on Tasha's it seems like it should allow for changing at some point.

It took me a while to mull this one over, but I'm thinking that's probably the right choice. Added an option.

Celestials - Light spell being considered sunlight is killer in the right place. It may not impact most campaigns, but in the right one it will completely destroy it (CoS for example). I would consider something else personally, something more universal

I was worried about that. Changed to double the radius of spell effects that shed light.

Elementals - Two resistances that you can change at a short rest is to much. To be more comparable it would be better to give 1 and make it changeable at a long rest.

I'm comparing this feature directly to the School of Transmutation's Transmuter's Stone for balance considerations. The Naturalist has a narrower list of effects, so I'd like to keep some flexibility. I'm going to strike a middle ground and change it to one resistance.

Fey - So, this is effectively invisibility on demand. There are cantrips that require concentration. So, you need to at least make it levelled spells, but I think that this may still be to powerful with levelled spells.

Thinking it over, this does pair too well with allowing a character to easily maintain Concentration.

Replaced it with something weird.

Continuing the randomized review order.

Spoiler: Bard: College of Gospel

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First impressions
Where are versions 1.0, 1.1, and 1.2?

I love the introductory description.

Bonus Proficiencies
I'm curious. Why advantage and not double profiency bonus?

Channel Divinity

If you gain additional Channel Divinity options from your domain, you can employ them.

Can you specify when you gain these additional options? Are you intended to gain them at the same level as a cleric of the same domain?

Hymn of Relevation
I'd be really tempted to pick Life Domain and combine this ability with Bless. Not terribly cheesy as far as combos go, but allowing people to add two dice to an attack roll would be fun.



The simplicity with which you merged cleric features into a cohesive bard subclass works in your favor. There's nothing too wacky here, but nothing needed to be. I'm reminded in a good way of 4e's hybrid characters.

Edit: For new thread titles, I'm a fan of this one.

D&D Subclass Contest II: Joke Entries Win with Alarming Frequency

More ideas:
D&D Subclass Contest Chat Thread II: College of Wordiness
D&D Subclass Contest Chat Thread II: Circle of Discussion
D&D Subclass Contest Chat Thread II: School of Communication

[Lvl45DM!]

Fiddled with The Riddle Of Steel and totally changed the capstone.

I put forth that the next thread should be called Subclass Contest Chat Thread: Subthread

[CountDVB]

Responses to comments
Continuing the randomized review order.

Spoiler: Bard: College of Gospel

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First impressions
Where are versions 1.0, 1.1, and 1.2?

I love the introductory description.

Bonus Proficiencies
I'm curious. Why advantage and not double profiency bonus?

Channel Divinity
Can you specify when you gain these additional options? Are you intended to gain them at the same level as a cleric of the same domain?

Hymn of Relevation
I'd be really tempted to pick Life Domain and combine this ability with Bless. Not terribly cheesy as far as combos go, but allowing people to add two dice to an attack roll would be fun.

The simplicity with which you merged cleric features into a cohesive bard subclass works in your favor. There's nothing too wacky here, but nothing needed to be. I'm reminded in a good way of 4e's hybrid characters.

- I forget to include the edits made. I'll edit in the edits that I made.

- Fair point on the bonus profiency! I'll add that.

- As for Channel Divinity, I think you gain the additional options when you choose that, yeah. I was also inspired by UA's School of Theurgy regarding the text. So when you choose College of Gospel, you do get Hymn of Revelation and the other depends on your domain. For example, if uou chose Life Domain, you would get Preserve Life. If you chose Knowledge Domain, you would get both Knowledge of the Ages and Read Thoughts at the appropriate levels (so you would get Knowledge of the Ages at 2nd level and Read Thoughts at 6th level).

Thank you very much for your words and advice!

Also, I guess this means Elan would be a College of Gospel Bard because of Banjo the Clown (I would assume Banjo the Clown would have the Trickery domain and the new Peace domain (formerly called the Unity domain back when it was in UA).

[nickl_2000]

Oh dang you're right! Actually, I've never had a thread hit 50 before. Do I need to contact the forum mod about it or just make a new thread?

Ideas:

D&D Subclass Contest II: Joke Entries Win with Alarming Frequency
D&D Subclass Contest II: The Second One
D&D Subclass Contest II: Every Six Weeks, We Ride Anew

Responses to comments

More ideas:
D&D Subclass Contest Chat Thread II: College of Wordiness
D&D Subclass Contest Chat Thread II: Circle of Discussion
D&D Subclass Contest Chat Thread II: School of Communication

D&D Subclass Contest II: Joke Entries Win with Alarming Frequency
This is both effective and surprisingly accurate. My more tongue in cheek entries have been by far the most popular.

[RickAsWritten]

Oh dang you're right! Actually, I've never had a thread hit 50 before. Do I need to contact the forum mod about it or just make a new thread?

Ideas:

D&D Subclass Contest II: Joke Entries Win with Alarming Frequency
D&D Subclass Contest II: The Second One
D&D Subclass Contest II: Every Six Weeks, We Ride Anew

D&D Subclass Contest II: Joke Entries Win with Alarming Frequency
This is both effective and surprisingly accurate. My more tongue in cheek entries have been by far the most popular.

*looks at paper-pusher Barbarian*

*looks at music snob Wizard*

*looks at current, cowardly Barbarian*

I feel attacked.














Kidding. I love the name and it has my vote.

I prefer my D&D with more than a dash of silliness anyways. My most memorable moments are shared jokes and awesome one-liners, more than epic fights and harrowing struggles. Thinking about it kinda makes me want to create a Pratchett-ian, aburdist homebrew setting. Hmm...

[nickl_2000]

*looks at paper-pusher Barbarian*

*looks at music snob Wizard*

*looks at current, cowardly Barbarian*

I feel attacked.

*Looks at Pinball Wizard*
*Looks at Barbarian Path of Dumb Luck*
*Looks at Rogue, Tavern Wench*
*Looks at Fighter, Mess Chef*
*Looks at Druid, Circle of the Pocket Monster*
and many others I've written that weren't entered into contests. I was attacking myself

[MoleMage]

Alright everyone, it's time to move to the new thread.

Here's a link!