D&D Subclass Contest Chat Thread 2: Joke Entries Win with Alarming Frequency

[Psyche]

Sorry I haven't been present for these last two contests! I know this one isn't over yet but when it is I am ready to host again if you want to take a break animorte.

[BerzerkerUnit]

I know there's only a few days left, but I wanted to get in some reading and provide my input on other entries. Enjoy!

Spoiler: The Deckbuilder Wizard

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I have played... A lot of deck-building games so this was really cool to see. Right off the bat I'm concerned with how the spell deck will work if you draw a card that serves a wildly different purpose than what you need. Of course, Card up Your Sleeve somewhat addresses this as well as the capstone.

I appreciate how much work you put into clarifying various adjustments for increasing or decreasing the spell level as necessary.

Thanks for reading, friends! Let me know what you think and feel free to poke some holes in mine.

Thank you so much for your feedback!

Target playstyle would be to keep a spelldeck and a spell book. Since you decide what's in the deck you can hard cheese by only downcasting, IE stack the deck with higher level spells and only use lower level slots, or keep the deck limited in purpose like all control or all direct damage or all summons.

[animorte]

About 12 hours left until I close the submission thread. Get in all final edits!

[animorte]

So You Don't Have To submission thread for the next contest!

Congratulations to our victor of Hold My Ale, BetweenComments presenting The Brewmaster!

[BetweenComments]

Thank you to everyone who voted for me! Hmmm... have others doing things for you... going to have to think on this for a bit.

[Itsfrank]

Wow thank you so much for the votes. I went from none from my first entry to that. Both barbarians too. What can I say

[BetweenComments]

I think I have created the most dastardly type of Warlock to possibly exist: Middle Managment. Mechanically it is subclass themed around turning the rest of your party into mini-warlocks, with you acting as the patron.

EDIT: Well, I was going to link to the entry on the contest thread, but apparently I need more posts for that.

[sengmeng]

I think I have created the most dastardly type of Warlock to possibly exist: Middle Managment. Mechanically it is subclass themed around turning the rest of your party into mini-warlocks, with you acting as the patron.

EDIT: Well, I was going to link to the entry on the contest thread, but apparently I need more posts for that.

Heh, check out my Eldritch Pyramid Schemer entry for contest 22. It'll be interesting to see how much overlap there is.

[animorte]

Heh, check out my Eldritch Pyramid Schemer entry for contest 22. It'll be interesting to see how much overlap there is.

Definitely caught myself going back to other contests for inspiration, and trying to avoid accidentally copying the exact same thing.

[Ilerien]

Definitely caught myself going back to other contests for inspiration, and trying to avoid accidentally copying the exact same thing.

Went back, double-checked and actually noticed a sorcerer able to apply metamagic to other spellcasters' spells. Still, I think my submission is different enough from that one.

[BetweenComments]

Heh, check out my Eldritch Pyramid Schemer entry for contest 22. It'll be interesting to see how much overlap there is.

goes to look at

Hu, yeah it seems we had a fairly similar idea. Though it appears that we had a fairly different execution of the concept where you seem to focus more on the Warlock granting spell casting while mine focuses more on the Warlock expressing their power using others.

[animorte]

On this note of previous contests, during that period of transition when different people were filling in as host, the list was not maintained (as I have done in the base class) but I have been gathering that information.

It should be updated, nice, and pretty in the next few weeks.

[Old Harry MTX]

Ok guys, even if I started some time ago I've only now managed to give a semblance of completeness to The Inspiration. The reasons for this delay are as follows:

• The subclass is particularly weird, so it took me a while to figure out what I wanted it to do, and how.
• I had very little time recently.
• Since the theme of the contest is "So You Don't Have To", I wanted to experiment by delegating part of the work to ChatGPT (which, however, was of little help to me given the strangeness of the subclass, while on other ideas it turned out to be surprising brilliant, not to say terrifying...).

The result still needs several tweaks, and, more than anything else, there's a big elephant in the room: how fun is this idea actually?

As for the subclass itself, I had to group three features at the 3rd level, mainly to be able to make it playable, and I added a further feature at the 4th level which replaces the ASIs, since its ability scores become useless.

To conclude, I report the comment of ChatGPT itself when I submitted the last draft:

Overall, this subclass seems to have a unique and interesting concept of existing only as an inspiration in the minds of their followers. Here are my thoughts on each feature:

• Comforting Memory: This feature is quite innovative, but it may need some tweaking to balance it properly. The ability to assign Hit Dice to other creatures is a powerful way to increase their survivability, especially since the bard doesn't have to expend any resources other than their level-up progression to do so. I would suggest limiting the number of followers who can benefit from this feature, and perhaps making it a bit more challenging to assign the Hit Dice (such as requiring the bard to spend some time or effort doing so).
• What would it do in my place?: This feature is interesting in that it allows the bard to delegate some of their abilities to their followers. However, I'm not sure how often it would come into play in a typical campaign, as it seems situational. The ability to regain uses of the feature with a short rest is a good balance, though.
• Inspirational Presence: This feature is solid and fits the theme of the subclass well. It provides the bard with additional uses of their Bardic Inspiration feature, which is always useful in combat. The ability to let another creature take certain actions is also a nice touch.
• Versatile Inspiration: This feature is quite powerful, as it allows the bard to gain features from other bard subclasses without having to multiclass or sacrifice any of their own class features. However, since it replaces Ability Score Improvements, it does limit the bard's overall power level somewhat. I would suggest adding some limitations to this feature (such as requiring the bard to have a certain level of experience before gaining access to it).
• Role Model: This feature is interesting and provides some additional utility to the bard's allies. The ability to use Countercharm is useful, although it may not come into play frequently. The ability to let an ally cast a spell using the bard's spell knowledge is a powerful ability, but the DC seems low given how high-level this feature is.
• Never Fade Away: This feature is straightforward and provides the bard with some additional flexibility in combat. Allowing an ally to cast a spell or make an attack action can be quite powerful, but it does require the bard to use their own action to do so.

Overall, I think this subclass has a lot of potential and provides some interesting mechanics that fit well thematically. However, it may need some balancing and tweaking to make sure it doesn't become too powerful or too situational in play.

[Notafish]

I'm still working on mine, and regretting my big mouth. My initial idea of "druid with animal friends that isn't a PitA to run/DM and ALSO doesn't use boring generic statblocks" might be too tricky to fit in a subclass.

Being lazy is hard work.

[BetweenComments]

Thought I'd give my thoughts on each submission as we have a week left.

Spoiler: The Inspiration

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I have very mixed feelings on this subclass.

On one hand it is mechanically well executed and extremely unique. Like, how it completely changes how your character functions yet still thematically is so in line for a Bard is, well, inspiring.

On the other hand I'm really worry how fun this is to play. Like outside of other people pr'ing how they miss you, this subclass completely shuts you out of the Roleplaying part of a tabletop RPG. It's... I mean I get its core to the concept of being a martyr or muse, but the ability to not interact on the world outside of distributing buffs to others I feel could get quickly boring.

Maybe as a slight rework this could turn you into some type of familiar for the whole party? It would keep the mechanical effects but allow you to have agency of your own.

Spoiler: Sorcerous Origin: Incantatrix

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So my disclaimer on this is I have only played one game of 3.5e, and it was corebook only so I'm not very familiar with the Incantatrix as an idea. I like the concept of a pure magic sorcerer however the level 6 version of this feels very heavy. Like you have the ability to: use metamagic on others, learn more metamagic, spend less on metamagic, and be better at anti magic. I think pairing this down to something like, use metamagic on others+one of the other two metamagic themed ones would tighten up the subclass and move its power to be consistent with other Post-Tasha Sorcerers.

• Improved Metamagic: Probably the biggest power boost of the three, but it also goes against the theme of cooprative metamagic.
  
• Unwind Spell: This feels a bit over kill? Vatic gaze already makes you the best possible counter speller, so this is just extra.
  
• Bonus Metamagic Option: I'd probably keep this one, flexibility is something sorcerer lacks and this both makes you much more flexible and makes Cooperative Meta Magic better.

Spoiler: Druidic Circle of Friendly Critters

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Some ideas on how to avoid templates but keep this from being a pain in the neck to play/GM.
[*][Easy as the Moon]: Have this class summon the creature that it would wildshape into, instead of actually wildshaping. Then have the creature be commanded as a (action or bonus action, would need to test the balancing). Subclass features would most likley give it magical attacks, increases its max CR/movments earlier, basically a less tanky Moon Druid that can cast spells more often.
[*][Harder on GM]: Theme it around conjure animals, but add a slot system where the subclass can only have certin combinations of animals summoned and learns more over time. Have subclass features improve your summons.
[*][Compromise] Use a template system with an invocation like system to grant things like flight or better grapples. [/LIST]

[Old Harry MTX]

Spoiler: The Inspiration

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I have very mixed feelings on this subclass.

On one hand it is mechanically well executed and extremely unique. Like, how it completely changes how your character functions yet still thematically is so in line for a Bard is, well, inspiring.

On the other hand I'm really worry how fun this is to play. Like outside of other people pr'ing how they miss you, this subclass completely shuts you out of the Roleplaying part of a tabletop RPG. It's... I mean I get its core to the concept of being a martyr or muse, but the ability to not interact on the world outside of distributing buffs to others I feel could get quickly boring.

Maybe as a slight rework this could turn you into some type of familiar for the whole party? It would keep the mechanical effects but allow you to have agency of your own.

Thankyou for your feedback! Yes, i have the same concerns, but i think I will try to push on the "What would it do in my place?" feature before reworking anything.

The idea is that the player can continue to take an active part in the investigative and deductive processes of the campaign, while also maintaining a minimum but acceptable level of interaction with the world through a sort of "temporary possession" on a willing creature.

I hope to find the time to make these fixes!

[Notafish]

Well, I stuck with it, but I think i just updated the Shepard Druid for 1DD. https://forums.giantitp.com/showsing...43&postcount=4

[Old Harry MTX]

Ok Guys, i think i have made the last fixes on The Inspiration. I haven't followed BetweenComments's suggestion to transform the player in a sort of familiar, but I have rewritten "What would it do in my place?" in a way that should give the player enough interactivity and at the same time place the right stakes to avoid shenanigans.

Hope to have time to make some quick reviews of the other entries in the remaining days!

[animorte]

Apologies for my lacking presence during this run, we've been going through a moving process for a few weeks. What's everyone else's excuse!?

Anyway, let's get those entries dropped in and/or finished in the next ~12 hours.

Head on over to the voting thread and toss in your votes and opinions!

[animorte]

Guys, since this time we have very few entries I think I will drop only one preference instead of three, if you are ok.

Based on this notion, I think it's fair that we each make a vote for first and second place for entries (especially in case of tie-breakers), unless anyone has objections?

[BetweenComments]

Based on this notion, I think it's fair that we each make a vote for first and second place for entries (especially in case of tie-breakers), unless anyone has objections?

I think I'd prefer if we still did the full 3 point ranking system. At least for me and my fellow subclass authors its the same amount of effort as ranking a 1st and a 2nd, plus it lets non-authors express their opinion on the ranking of all of the entries (effectively giving a 3, 2, 1, and 0 point option for each entry).

[animorte]

The voting process will stand as normal.

[Old Harry MTX]

Ok, edited my post to add my vote preferences!

[animorte]

For that last contest, So You Don't Have To, I had the idea for a towel-boy/water-boy/ball-boy type thing (probably as a Fighter) that would give away it's fighting style (and other class features), and doing its best to stand on the side-line/bench.

Went through a bit of moving and starting new job process so didn't really have the time, but I wanted to share the basic ideas of it with my fellow homebrewers.

[BetweenComments]

For that last contest, So You Don't Have To, I had the idea for a towel-boy/water-boy/ball-boy type thing (probably as a Fighter) that would give away it's fighting style (and other class features), and doing its best to stand on the side-line/bench.

Went through a bit of moving and starting new job process so didn't really have the time, but I wanted to share the basic ideas of it with my fellow homebrewers.

Ah, thats sad, a coach/cheerleader style fighter sounds really funny.

[BetweenComments]

Finished my Elemental Warlock!

[animorte]

I'll put in a vote for 2-week extension. Anybody else? I notice we have a few still incomplete.

[Notafish]

I'd like an extension, too. Even if I can't get a submission together, I'd still like to see some of the in-progress entries.

[BetweenComments]

I agree, I’d highly prefer its more of a contest than 2 people.

[animorte]

New deadline for submissions is midnight, June 27th!