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

[sengmeng]

Tarquin's subclass is shelved for the time being, considering abandoning him until he fits the theme better and going with the Circle of the Void druid. PEACHes welcome.

[Ilerien]

Now, let me take a look...

Spoiler: druid circle of the void

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Fill the Void
Beginning at 2nd level, as a reaction to a creature you can see taking an action, you may spend a use of Wildshape to gain the ability to take the same action on your next turn. If the action was a spell or consumes a spell slot, you must do the same and must have a slot of the level that the spell or ability consumed. Static numerical values, such as bonuses to attack rolls or save DCs, are the same as they were for the original creature who took the action, but you reroll all associated dice.
You must fill all criteria to perform this borrowed action; a touch spell stills requires you to have a target in your reach, sneak attack still requires advantage and a finesse or ranged weapon, divine smite would still require a hit with a melee weapon attack, etc. If something prevents you from performing the action when it is your turn, this ability is wasted.

Hmm... If a barbarian uses reckless attack, do you have advantage on your attack? How about a wolf's pack tactics? Can you haste your entire party if you have a sorcerer with twinned spell around? Innate spellcasting and its variations like mystic arcanum, do they not consume your spell slots? Ancient red dragon's fire breath? Yochlol's mist form, are you stuck in it if nobody ever uses this action around you again?
I see several potential issues here. First, even restricted to you party members' abilities, just copying actions will certainly open a whole new can of worms at the table. Talk about ambiguity... Second, monster abilities aren't intended to be used by player characters. I'm aware that we have wild shape, but beasts generally don't have anything game-breaking in the hands of a player, and 5e seems to be over with "pick a monster" approach in favor of "here is a special stat block with some variables for you" one with regards to what mechanics players can access. Third, everything goes out of the window when this druid attains 20th level. Tbh, I'd decouple it from wild shape and restrict what actions you can mimic to "attack" and "cast a spell".

Void Strider
Beginning at 6th level, any time you use your reaction, you may teleport up to 30 feet to an unoccupied space you can see, and take one adjacent willing creature along, who appears in an unoccupied space adjacent to the one you appear in.

I really want to take sentinel feat as this druid. And find a way to obtain a shield spell somehow.
Seems both potentially abusable, as a lot of features and circumstances grant reactions, and kinda out of player's control, as reactions are triggered by external circumstances.

Hunger of the Void
Beginning at 10th level, you add Counterspell to your spell list and always have it prepared. If you successfully counter a spell, you gain a slot of the level that was used to cast the countered spell that can only be used to cast that spell. If that spell is not otherwise on your spell list, that slot is the only one you can use to cast it. You may only store one such slot and spell at a time.

Seems fine! You can make it simpler, though, by decoupling it from spell slots altogether. Just change the wording to "you can cast this spell at the level it has been cast once until the end of your next long rest, and you can have only one spell stored this way at any time".

Mystic Conduit
Beginning at 14th level, as a reaction to seeing a creature within 30 feet of you cast a spell, you may spend one of your slots of an equal level to become the point of origin of the spell and change the target at your option. The caster's slot is not consumed, but they must be willing to allow this to happen or it fails and your reaction is used up.

I'm imagining this druid peeking around the corner and casting meteor swarm initiated by a party wizard and then teleporting away.
Interestingly, this looks a more restricted and clearly defined version on the 2nd level feature with one distinction: it doesn't consume a use of wild shape. Kinda becomes irrelevant at 20th level unless the 2nd level feature doesn't allow you to copy your sorcerer's twinned haste. ;)
Also, do you have to expend a spell slot if your party member casts something without using a spell slot?

"Nature abhors a vacuum" says the ancient wisdom. By embracing nothingness, the space between stars, the Circle of the Void druid leaves themselves an empty vessel, inviting outside forces to fill that nothingness as needed, just as nature does when a gap appears in the ecosystem. The Circle of the Void druid mimics those around them and allows mystic energy to flow into and through them, sometimes for offense, sometimes for defense, and eventually learns to use the nothingness in between spaces as a path to travel instantly over short distances.

I'm sorry to say this (after Tarquin's subclass received the same treatment ), but, overall, only 14th level feature has anything to do with support or sacrifice: it, essentially, provides spell slots for other spellcasters of your party. Which, depending on the party, might see very little use. The 6th level feature has some support potential, but its weird trigger takes control over it out of your hands unless you specifically build this druid around getting reactions as often as you could. Other that above, it's more "hold my beer" subclass than "so you don't have to" one. ;)

Also, it might be just me, but this one doesn't feel like it should be a druid subclass. Maybe a sorcerer? Or a fighter with spell slots?
I have a sorcerer subclass converted from 3.5e Incantatrix, but I'm reluctant to post it because it has exactly one sacrifice/support feature (incidentally, directed at party spellcasters too), and even if it comes at 1st level, it's still not enough to feel thematic, in my opinion.

[sengmeng]

Ok, I shelved the circle of the void, and have resubmitted with the lich heritor sorcerer, I don't know guys, this theme might not be for me.

[Old Harry MTX]

Ok, I shelved the circle of the void, and have resubmitted with the lich heritor sorcerer, I don't know guys, this theme might not be for me.

I feel you, I just can't pull out anything interesting...

[Ilerien]

Ok, I shelved the circle of the void, and have resubmitted with the lich heritor sorcerer, I don't know guys, this theme might not be for me.

I can relate! It took me several attempts to think up something thematic: every idea preceding that Companion warlock turned out something not fitting the theme or not worth posting somehow.

[BerzerkerUnit]

I can relate! It took me several attempts to think up something thematic: every idea preceding that Companion warlock turned out something not fitting the theme or not worth posting somehow.

Did I miss the voting thread?

[Ilerien]

Did I miss the voting thread?

Either it doesn't exist, or we both missed it. I'm worried for MoleMage, honestly.

[MoleMage]

Either it doesn't exist, or we both missed it. I'm worried for MoleMage, honestly.

I had kind of a hectic couple weeks entire holiday season, but I am well other than that. I should start getting caught up on my backlist of stuff to do soon and this is on it. Sorry for the delays everyone.

[Ilerien]

I had kind of a hectic couple weeks entire holiday season, but I am well other than that. I should start getting caught up on my backlist of stuff to do soon and this is on it. Sorry for the delays everyone.

Glad to know you're okay!
And nothing to be sorry about. The fact that holidays themselves and days before and after them leave even less free time to do something than regular workdays was one of those unpleasant surprises of adult life. :D

[BerzerkerUnit]

I had kind of a hectic couple weeks entire holiday season, but I am well other than that. I should start getting caught up on my backlist of stuff to do soon and this is on it. Sorry for the delays everyone.

Welcome back and take care!

[nickl_2000]

Same! I'm glad everyone is good, I'm with other though it was an insane December.

[MoleMage]

Okay, I'm back in it. Feeling good, feeling healthy, making threads. Getting caught up. So everyone should go vote!

https://forums.giantitp.com/showthre...-(Open-to-All)

[MoleMage]

New thread is up! https://forums.giantitp.com/showthre...s-Fortunate-II

[sengmeng]

Decided to throw my hat in the ring with the Barbarian Path of Recklessness

[nickl_2000]

I really wish I hadn't created this one earlier as it would have been absolutely perfect for this contest.

Paladin Oath of Two Faces
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1-ua...ew?usp=sharing

Oh well, back to work on my new entry

[nickl_2000]

I decided to use the term "fortune" a little bit differently with my new subclass (although there is an element of chance in there as well). The Coinslinger Fighter.

You magically empower coins and can sling them at enemies. Please feel free to take a look and rip apart all the issues that exist with it.


Reviews for other entries will come early next week

[BerzerkerUnit]

Alright, decided on a Dragon Patron rebuild for my entry. Feedback is appreciated. I’ll be churning out some on what’s been put out so far.

Shifted to really increase the fortune element in a couple ways.

Draconic Luck is like a supercharged Talisman Pact, but only for yourself and stacks with Talisman.

Hoard Access (temporary name, maybe Hoard Accountant) is a gachapon machine you can stock over time.
The DM has a lot of control, interrupted rests keep it from working too easily, but I think the randomness will appeal to some and the ability to use downtime to create a hot list works for me.

Draconic Wisdom pushes your mental checks (not saves or attacks) to near sure things.

Finally, Wyrmself is “I want to be a dragon” the feature. Bonus word count for bladepact users that want to fight like Voltron lions or the Pokémon sword dog.

[Oerlaf]

Having read the Treasure Island once again, I decided to enter this contest with a subclass named... Gentleman of Fortune! Sailors do need the best of their luck to beat storms and ocean, don't they?

[tzurk]

Flagging some ideas for a support-based Artificer build - using magical enchantment/enhancement and bending luck to favour his allies

Working name: Augur

3rd - spell list - buffs/enhancements, focus on reroll spells, modifiers, or advantage/disadvantage

3rd - something similar to Order Cleric's cast spell>ally gets a reaction attack. maybe they can use reaction to grab a single-use 1d4 bonus until the start of your next turn, maybe advantage on the next attack. maybe gain temp HP. maybe gain +1 AC.

5th - hmm - maybe extra attack, but you can replace one attack with the Help action?

9th - would love to layer something on top of Flash of Genius, just gotta work out a way that doesnt double/triple dip with FoG itself + level 3 boost

15th - a straight power boost to 3rd level ability - maybe benefits become more powerful, or maybe you can share them with yourself or your allies

Will put in some work when I have some more time!

[BerzerkerUnit]

Having read the Treasure Island once again, I decided to enter this contest with a subclass named... Gentleman of Fortune! Sailors do need the best of their luck to beat storms and ocean, don't they?

Alright, nautical rogue is a good concept an I generally like the direction.

I’m a little pressed for time so assume if I don’t mention something at all, I think it’s satisfactory and therefore, quite good as is.

Missing from concept is something that lets you function in water and maybe a ribbon for nautical codes/semaphore ala thieves cant. I think something like “you gain a swim speed equal to your speed during until the beginning of your next turn you use your cunning action.” could work without it just being a swim speed. The semaphore thing is straightforward.

Swinging shove, I’m not a fan of fidgety math and 5e isn’t either. I’d recommend changing this to “if you can swing from something while making a shove attack, you gain a +5 bonus.” I think the default rules would grant advantage so this would be a major boost.

Better Lucky. Please make this proficiency times per long rest OR leave it 1/rest but make it a creature you can see and make it “attack, Ability check, or save.”

Bold Attacker
This doesn’t feel like a capstone to me. It is potent, but passive, using it is a nice boost but doesn’t feel like it will change the tide of a battle. Good luck!

[BerzerkerUnit]

Coinslinger Fighter

I like this a lot more than I thought I would!

I thing it has an easily patched fatal flaw: I think Slings have the loading property? I’ll have to check.

Empowered Coinshot. I’d rather see the base damages increased at 3rd when the value of money is so much higher and shift to two dice whenever you action surge or second wind.

[BerzerkerUnit]

Path of Recklessness

It’s good but has a common issue of the subclass features not really doing anything outside Rage. I like the escalation mechanics.

I think if you decoupled Rage and Taunt/Ferocity, it would be better. Add a bit where Ferocity die increases a size when raging.

I understand what Storm of Blades is intended to do, but it has a minimum two round set up as is and the wording is a little confusing (like it means what it means, but as written allows the inference you somehow give yourself disadvantage after rolling).
I think “When you Reckless Attack, you can instead apply disadvantage to your attacks until the beginning of your next turn. When you do, treat any hit as a critical hit.” As a Barbarian that makes Brutal Critical a major asset and having buddies grant you advantage can be come a core tactic.

Good luck!

[nickl_2000]

Coinslinger Fighter

I like this a lot more than I thought I would!

I thing it has an easily patched fatal flaw: I think Slings have the loading property? I’ll have to check.

Empowered Coinshot. I’d rather see the base damages increased at 3rd when the value of money is so much higher and shift to two dice whenever you action surge or second wind.

Thanks, it's something that people talk about all the time as a concept, may as well bring it to life. I also wanted to make a better arcane archer version 😃

They don't actually, they have the ammunition and range (30/120) properties. Although I am debating adding the ability to load it one handed (this is something that was definitely done in real life).

Interesting, I will consider touching up the damage on early on. Maybe increase a step at low levels and do something different as a capstone?

[BerzerkerUnit]

Thanks, it's something that people talk about all the time as a concept, may as well bring it to life. I also wanted to make a better arcane archer version 😃

They don't actually, they have the ammunition and range (30/120) properties. Although I am debating adding the ability to load it one handed (this is something that was definitely done in real life).

Interesting, I will consider touching up the damage on early on. Maybe increase a step at low levels and do something different as a capstone?

One other thing I might consider would be making all coins "Simple Ranged Weapons with the Thrown property and a range of 10/20, or used as sling ammunition."

Doing the Hawkeye snap should be baked in somehow.

[tzurk]

1st draft of the augur is up. My gut is that I'm happy enough with the theme of the features but might still have some fine tuning about the specifics, the order and/or the power levels.

Will have a look this week at giving some feedback to other subclasses!

[nickl_2000]

Alright, review time:

Spoiler: Elder Dragon

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Spells: Nothing broken here. Everything seems to make perfect sense
Draconic Resistance - how long does the resistance last for if you don't use the immunity? Otherwise it seems fine here.

Hoard Accountant - My gut here says that there is something that could be broken here, but for the life of me I can't figure it out. One of the issues is that given enough time, you could get all the manuals from treasure table H. So, you could boost all your stats by +2 (at level 17, I'm not sure that is necessarily bad, but it is something to keep track of). Also how would that work with returning it? you are technically not using up the tomes magic, it just takes a long time before it can be used again. Also, any time you can pull a wand it would be pretty nice. You take a short rest, trade out your one wand for another one and have all the charges back. However, considering you would need a rest to get the wand, and a second rest of attune to it it is still likely perfectly fine.

An interesting take on it, certainly something that would be worthwhile to keep with Warlock until you get the level 14 or even 17. Which alone makes this a really good subclass

Spoiler: Divine Domain: Serendipity Domain

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Domain Spells: The only one that I think would be a great addition here would be Mirror Image. it seems to fit into the idea of it all very well.

Uncanny Insight - An interesting ability, although not for the feint of heart or newer player. I could see this being a real time suck for a player who doesn't know the cleric spell list really well. Also, it could be a gigantic pain over several sessions to remember all the spells that have been cast before. I think one of the biggest impacts of this is that I would never have to prepare revivify, I cna just switch out to it in case someone dies. That alone makes this ability worth it. That being said, if you wanted to simplify this you could say. "Once per day, you can cast a spell on your cleric spell list that you don't have prepared, this still uses a spell slot like normal." Doing something like this means I don't have to track the spells I've already cast.

Spoiler: Rogue Subclass: Gentleman of Fortune

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Dastardly Opportunist - This is a great ability, but I just don't see it coming up enough to make it worth being the only think you get at level 9. I would love to see an ability that is more active here as well as the passive ability you have mentioned.

Better Lucky than Good - Can I use this with advantage? So, I roll a 1 and a 2, can I turn the 1 into a 20?

This embodies the idea is a fun way, but it feels very passive. A lot of the abilities are ones that you are just waiting for the right situation to trigger. I wouldn't mind seeing a minor modification to make it more active and you being able to choose when you do some things.

Spoiler: Artificer: Augur

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Sharpen Focus - Is this an every round type thing? Does it need to be activated?

I was pleasantly surprised by this class. I am not a fan of divination in general, so I was prepared to say that it wasn't for me. I think you did a really good job of balancing in combat abilities and out of combat abilities.

Coinslinger Fighter

I like this a lot more than I thought I would!

I thing it has an easily patched fatal flaw: I think Slings have the loading property? I’ll have to check.

Empowered Coinshot. I’d rather see the base damages increased at 3rd when the value of money is so much higher and shift to two dice whenever you action surge or second wind.


One other thing I might consider would be making all coins "Simple Ranged Weapons with the Thrown property and a range of 10/20, or used as sling ammunition."

Doing the Hawkeye snap should be baked in somehow.

You are completely right
"At level 3, a coin is considered a simple ranged weapon for you and has the finesse and ranged (15/30) properties and you can use it as a sling bullet"


I touched up the damage to "When slinging coins, you deal 1d6 damage with a copper, 1d8 with a silver piece, 1d10 damage with an electrum and gold piece, or 1d12 with a platinum piece. "

[tzurk]

@nickl, thanks mate. The level 5 feature is intended to be a one-time permanent choice - do you want to whack stuff with your hammer or do you want to stand at the back and firebolt (or do you want to BB/GFB and do both?) - will have a play with the wording to straighten that out.

the start of the reviews! I will edit this post as I get through more of them. please take my non-expert views as just that - the plain jane eye of an average gamer - I may well be wrong on a lot of these points!

Elder Dragon:

Spoiler

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Spells - seem mostly on song except for Catnap. It would be a fun way to say, cast Armor of Agathys first thing in the morning and then use another slot to immediately (well, almost) refresh both/all of your slots for the day - which I think is cool, flavourful, and far from OP, so I like it mechanically, just struggling to see a thematic link (not that every spell on every subclass list has one anyway!).

Draconic Resistance - could probably do with some clarification - how long does the resistance last once you gain it? An hour, 8 hours, until you use this feature again? The reaction should have a clear trigger too - I imagine it's taking damage of the same type as your resistance, but that isn't explicit
Draconic Luck - reads fortune to me, and probably fine power wise. Not 100% sure about the scaling - compared to Divine Souls' Favored by the Gods, it starts slightly weaker but ends up stronger, and gets prof bonus uses per long rest rather than one per short/long - again, starting out weaker and then getting stronger. It is much better than the Wild Magic Sorcerer's Bend Luck, but that says more about Wild Magic than your subclass, and roughly equivalent to the Fiend Warlock's Dark One's Own Luck. This is my long winded way of saying this is a good and useful feature. You should probably specify when you roll the dice - e.g. before you know the result.

Hoard Accountant - this is an interesting mechanic and kind of unprecedented in 5e - not that that is necessarily a bad thing. I like the randomness (fortune!) as well as more ways to get magic items outside of being an artificer. Hoard is spelled horde on the 5th line. It took me a few readings to understand that you can either request a specific item you've already placed in the hoard or roll for a random one - it might be an idea to make that explicit earlier in the feature, but that could just be my reading comp

do you get the gold for free on level up? ie can i get 40k total out of this feature, or is it "only" 25k total because I have to pay back the old loan before I take out a new one?

Draconic Wisdom - I thought this was saves at first and went - whoa! - but for ability checks, I think this is fine, and not being able to "waste" a use on a crappy Investigation roll that the rogue then aces is a nice quality of life bonus. It stacks with Draconic Luck which is nice, and as written seems like you could keep rerolling until you get a good result, provided you had the uses left - not sure if that last one is intended. Although functionally inferior to just trying again, and potentially rerolling again...

Wyrmself - this is a cool feature that takes the subclass in a very different direction late in the game. I would be tempted to give this form a stat block ala the Wildfire druid's wildfire spirit or the new beastmaster's companion blocks just for ease of reading - there's a lot going on in one big block of text.

Is there a reason you swap physical stats except dexterity? What is the drac form's Armor Class - it reads like it has a unique one, but there isn't one described - meaning that it would be 10 + dex, + prof from the feature (is that why we keep caster form's Dex?) - it could probably be just set to a number - 18/19 seems about right, or 13 + prof if you want it to scale...can you still cast spells in drac form?

Prof bonus uses per day is probably too many - you can shift into this form pretty much every combat at the level you get it, and why wouldn't you? 40 ft concentration-free fly, +5/6 to concentration checks and con/str saves, a free Cone of Cold, good melee without much investment, maintaining all the perks of caster form. I'd suggest maybe twice per long rest ala Wild Shape, but I'm not 100% on that.

I also wonder about this coming so late in the build. I understand it as a sort of capstone ability, but if everything is going to scale, I wonder if this could come online at level 1 somehow - e.g. with a single melee attack - and then grow as you take levels in the subclass. Between Draconic Wisdom and Draconic Luck there's not a lot of "doing", just "changing" rolls, and this might be a power/playstyle bump that could really define the subclass.

Cool idea overall, some definite pings to theme and some good mechanics, just needs a bit of a tidy up for clarity!

Serendipity Domain

Spoiler

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Blurb & spell list - very cool, concise and thematic.

Implements of Serendipity - nice flavour that also allows for some fun out of combat things to happen - a nice feature.

Uncanny Insight - I would probably drop the "provided you haven't cast it" part, and just say you can swap it for any other cleric spell. Scaling at 8th is a bit funny - I was going to say that it might make more sense for it to scale at a subclass feature level rather than a cleric feature level but then I remembered the 8th level cleric feature, although always one of two options (three with tasha's) is technically a subclass feature. Not sure. You could swap it with Twist Fate to let it scale with uses, because I think Twist Fate could probably go to prof bonuses per rest and still be fine (sure it's strong for multiclassing, Peace and Twilight and even Order also exist).

Twist Fate - I really like this, and I also like that you specify you can't get out of it through other features, and I also like that you specify that you keep dis/advantage on the roll. As above I think this might be better as your level 1 feature and turn Uncanny Insight into your CD.

Fortune Teller is a bit wordy but I get the intent and think it's ok - divination has never really been strong in 5e IMO and this doesn't really change that but does add some quality of life to repeat castings. The scaling buff die is really interesting, but also really strong. Not sure if I feel like it's too much, unlimited d8s to out of combat ability checks through guidance actually concerns me more than d8 blesses. Maybe you could choose one of those spells' dies to upgrade? Not sure though. Everyone would probably pick bless then, though bane is IMO one of the most underrated spells in the game.

Level 8 feature is all goods.

Fortune's Favored - I'm struggling to think off the top of my head what these die might be - the only ones I can think of are healing spells and damage. Wish is wish. It definitely fits and the precedent is there with Arcana cleric.

Overall strong and flavourful, I really like this subclass.

Path of Recklessness:

Spoiler

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Taunt & Ferocity - wow, this is a really flavourful mechanic that makes sense and seems intuitive. How has nobody thought of this before? Decoupling it from rage gives the barbarian day-long utility that they sorely miss in general.

Tenacity - a nice defensive buff at the level that most barbs get one.

Scorn (love all of the feature names btw) - does the enemy have to hit with their attack, or just use their reaction to make one in order to trigger this? Or is it just tied to the condition of moving away and triggering the op attack conditions? I'm 99% sure it's the second one but not sure.

Storm of Blades - trickily worded (there's a common thread of me struggling to read here!) - I'm not sure you need to say remove advantage if you had it as disadvantage already cancels it out; and if you can then gain advantage from some other source (maybe a readied help?) can you make these attacks at advantage? I also don't think you need to specify the different types of attacks it affects (what is a secondary attack?) - "Until the start of your next turn, all attack rolls that hit count as critical hits" should cover it all. Provided you hit (which, with Extra Attack and Reckless Attack won't be any less likely than a Ranger/Paladin/Bard/Bladesinger swinging normally), this feature will guarantee a BA attack with GWM. I think I like that, though I am a little biased in my opinion that pure martials (and barbarians in particular) don't really need to have their power restrained in a world of paladins and wizards.

Simple, effective, intuitive - this is a cool take. I see the link here of "fortune" and "trusting your luck". Good stuff.

Coinslinger

Spoiler

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Coinslinger - should probably say electrum or gold piece rather than and. Is the "additional damage" in addition to anything, (ie a base damage of 1 for a coin) or is it just explaining that the damage die changes depending on the coin type?

Magical Coins - might be clearer if it says something like "instead of making an attack roll with your coin, you can target a 5 ft square within range." maybe also clarify that doing this only replaces one attack with a sling rather than the whole attack action. I hate 5es language sometimes! The effects all seem to be about right power-wise which is a pretty impressive feat given the variety.

Fast Fingers - no problem here, cool and fluffy.

Both level 7 features add to the theme and seem just right to me. Does "have no ammo" mean you just didn't load a coin, or that you must actually have no ammo - ie no money - to use this feature?

Potent Coinshot - yep, good. I don't even care that with action surge you could drop 8d10 worth of fire damage on somebody @11th level with this, I love it. (did you intend for unavoidable friendly fire with the radius upgrades?)

Eveready - seems about right for this level on a fighter subclass.

Empowered Coinshot - honestly not sure how to cross reference and see how the damage compares at this level. 15d10 fire damage in a 40 ft radius, sounds great, but using all your short rest resources sounds bad.

Tight concept, scales well, matches the theme. Only getting 2 magic coins per short rest will probably feel bad at the start. Without your magic coins, you are pretty much just a baseline fighter with sleight of hand expertise. Could you potentially fold a Crossbow Expert-like ability into Coinslinger allowing you to make an additional attack with a sling?

Jeez, the original Arcane Archer is bad...

Gentleman of Fortune

Spoiler

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my feedback here is a bit all over the place - pls take with a grain of salt! I love the visuals of this class and think that all the abilities fit, but I'm not sure if there's enough for the player to actually do with them.

Whip Climber - a little bit of fluff, a little bit of crunch. A lot of tables seem to conflate athletics and acrobatics anyway, but it's nice to see a mechanical difference here. Does it need to be a whip? I think holding a scimitar in one hand and a rope in the other fits the pirate/sailor image pretty well too.

Swinging Shove - is it important that you cant knock somebody prone with Dex - e.g. via a sly trip? It would be easy enough to fold part of these abilities together and say that you can use your Dexterity modifier in place of your Strength modifier when making Athletics checks. This would also combo nicely with Dastardly Opportunist - if you're giving your allies advantage, they are more likely to crit, which means triggering your own reaction attack.

Dastardly Opportunist - getting another chance for Sneak Attack is huge for a rogue. the conditions are pretty uncommon; maybe this could move to level 3 to be a defining feature of the class, and merge the "whip climbing" stuff into a single feature?

Better Lucky Than Good - I like this feature but think there's a lot of overlap with the Lucky feat and halflings in general. maybe move this to the capstone, and just let yourself select any failed attack roll, ability check or saving throw to be treated as a natural 20?

Bold Attacker - if you do that, this might make a good level 9 or 13 feature - a consistent, passive/defensive ability. I think it should probably last until the start of your next turn rather than the end - letting it expire before giving you the opportunity to refresh it again.

If everything moves the way I suggest, then that leaves a gap at either level 9 or 13. That feels a little too late to gain an innate climbing or swimming speed, though they would be fitting. Running short on suggestions here - might revisit later!

Overall, super cool thematics and a cohesive chassis, I think it's just a little short on fun/active abilities!

[Ilerien]

My sincere gratitude for the reviews! :)

Spoiler

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Domain Spells: The only one that I think would be a great addition here would be Mirror Image. it seems to fit into the idea of it all very well.

Uncanny Insight - An interesting ability, although not for the feint of heart or newer player. I could see this being a real time suck for a player who doesn't know the cleric spell list really well. Also, it could be a gigantic pain over several sessions to remember all the spells that have been cast before. I think one of the biggest impacts of this is that I would never have to prepare revivify, I cna just switch out to it in case someone dies. That alone makes this ability worth it. That being said, if you wanted to simplify this you could say. "Once per day, you can cast a spell on your cleric spell list that you don't have prepared, this still uses a spell slot like normal." Doing something like this means I don't have to track the spells I've already cast.

Spoiler: Thoughts

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Mirror image fits definitely better than enhance ability: the reason it isn't there at the time of this post is the subclass had gone through a couple of tweak cycles before I posted it, and, apparently, I forgot to review the 2nd level spell that isn't augury. Nice catch, thank you!

As for Uncanny Insight, the underlying intent of this feature is to show that this cleric somehow knows exactly what they want to cast in advance, similar to Divination wizard. But I do indeed see the cumbersome part of tracking what spells have been used after the last long rest and what haven't. How about leaving a preparation slot open? Or giving it an additional one.
The spontaneity is there either way (as it is with your suggestion as well), so the feature would be indeed a bit unfriendly to newbies, but I can live with that. A player would probably have several go-to spell options to use with this feature.

Spoiler

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Serendipity Domain

Blurb & spell list - very cool, concise and thematic.

Implements of Serendipity - nice flavour that also allows for some fun out of combat things to happen - a nice feature.

Uncanny Insight - I would probably drop the "provided you haven't cast it" part, and just say you can swap it for any other cleric spell. Scaling at 8th is a bit funny - I was going to say that it might make more sense for it to scale at a subclass feature level rather than a cleric feature level but then I remembered the 8th level cleric feature, although always one of two options (three with tasha's) is technically a subclass feature. Not sure. You could swap it with Twist Fate to let it scale with uses, because I think Twist Fate could probably go to prof bonuses per rest and still be fine (sure it's strong for multiclassing, Peace and Twilight and even Order also exist).

Twist Fate - I really like this, and I also like that you specify you can't get out of it through other features, and I also like that you specify that you keep dis/advantage on the roll. As above I think this might be better as your level 1 feature and turn Uncanny Insight into your CD.

Fortune Teller is a bit wordy but I get the intent and think it's ok - divination has never really been strong in 5e IMO and this doesn't really change that but does add some quality of life to repeat castings. The scaling buff die is really interesting, but also really strong. Not sure if I feel like it's too much, unlimited d8s to out of combat ability checks through guidance actually concerns me more than d8 blesses. Maybe you could choose one of those spells' dies to upgrade? Not sure though. Everyone would probably pick bless then, though bane is IMO one of the most underrated spells in the game.

Level 8 feature is all goods.

Fortune's Favored - I'm struggling to think off the top of my head what these die might be - the only ones I can think of are healing spells and damage. Wish is wish. It definitely fits and the precedent is there with Arcana cleric.

Overall strong and flavourful, I really like this subclass.

Spoiler: Thoughts

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Scaling Uncanny Insight at level 8 is a bit weird, but what all official cleric subclasses get at 8th level is a subclass feature, it's just a bonus to spellcasting or a bonus to weapon attacks. It's just TCE essentially folded it into a main class feature. I still would have preferred them to leave this difference in place at least as different damage types for blessed strikes. Still, technically it's a subclass feature.

Twist Fate scales nicely with CD. Decoupling it from CD would require imposing some other artificial per rest limit, and, for example, half PB times per short rest or PB times per long rest feel too powerful for a single level dip into cleric. Though the idea is worthy of consideration, I'll dwell on it. :)

I wanted this subclass to be an ultimate information-gatherer with this divine vibe, and we have spells that allow to ask questions and get answers, so why not get rid of this pesky restriction? Maybe I'll even drop the upcast requirement, just disallow ritual casting in this case.
Also, divinations are kind of niche, so I wanted to present something else to be universally useable. d8 might be too much indeed, I had my doubts at the moment of writing and I'm still undecided.

Trivially, Fortune's Favored would be used to reroll a damage or a healing die, but let me present some examples:

• Wish. Reduce the risk of not being able to cast it ever again from 1/3 to 1/9? Yes, please. Also, a spell you duplicate using wish might have a table of effects.
• Blink. The ability to influence blinking in or out is good. Same deal with mirror image, if I'm to heed esteemed nickl_2000's advice.
• Reincarnate! :D

[nickl_2000]

Coinslinger

Spoiler

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Coinslinger - should probably say electrum or gold piece rather than and. Is the "additional damage" in addition to anything, (ie a base damage of 1 for a coin) or is it just explaining that the damage die changes depending on the coin type?

Magical Coins - might be clearer if it says something like "instead of making an attack roll with your coin, you can target a 5 ft square within range." maybe also clarify that doing this only replaces one attack with a sling rather than the whole attack action. I hate 5es language sometimes! The effects all seem to be about right power-wise which is a pretty impressive feat given the variety.

Fast Fingers - no problem here, cool and fluffy.

Both level 7 features add to the theme and seem just right to me. Does "have no ammo" mean you just didn't load a coin, or that you must actually have no ammo - ie no money - to use this feature?

Potent Coinshot - yep, good. I don't even care that with action surge you could drop 8d10 worth of fire damage on somebody @11th level with this, I love it. (did you intend for unavoidable friendly fire with the radius upgrades?)

Eveready - seems about right for this level on a fighter subclass.

Empowered Coinshot - honestly not sure how to cross reference and see how the damage compares at this level. 15d10 fire damage in a 40 ft radius, sounds great, but using all your short rest resources sounds bad.

Tight concept, scales well, matches the theme. Only getting 2 magic coins per short rest will probably feel bad at the start. Without your magic coins, you are pretty much just a baseline fighter with sleight of hand expertise. Could you potentially fold a Crossbow Expert-like ability into Coinslinger allowing you to make an additional attack with a sling?

Jeez, the original Arcane Archer is bad...

Thanks for taking a look and all the comments, it really helps.

I tightened up the wording on Coinslinger. The idea is that you are doing the coin damage instead of the 1 from the throw or 1d4 from the sling. So, hopefully it is clear now.

Magical Coins - I used your wording, thanks! Also tightened up the other to make it replace a single attack instead of the entire attack action.

Potent Coinshot - You can burn all your short rest resources to do 8d10 damage to multiple targets, but we are a level 10 at this point. A caster has already been dropping 8d6 fireballs for 5 levels. I don't think the damage is out of line if you are looking to burn everything in a single round. Do you think the damage needs a save for half? I chose not to simply for the sake of keeping the game moving, but I could see it being to powerful.

Empowered Coinshot - You are an 18th level fighter. Blade of Disaster deals 4d12 damage a round, Dark Star deals 8d10 damage a round for 10 rounds, Incendiary Cloud 10d8 per round, Meteor Swarm for 20d6 fire 20d6 bludgeoning. I actually don't think the damage is out of bounds with what a caster can do, especially if you are burning all your short rest resources in a single round.

It does give only 2, but the damage is pretty high for level 3 and the area effects can be really, really good in the right party. Even after you have used them up, you are still a fighter with heavy armor prof, ranged attacks, and doing some real damage. I'm not overly concerned about it to be honest.

[tzurk]

@Ilerien, I'm a big fan of removing the upcasting component for fail-free divination spells. Using a spell slot to cast it rather than doing so as a ritual is a big enough resource cost for the guaranteed clarity IMO. I feel like the d6 boost is probably enough to last the career of the Serindipity cleric too and a nice boost for a luck-based class, but again could be wrong there. I just had a thought that as an alternate you could roll 2d4 and take the highest, but a d6 probably feels better at the table.

I can see the reasoning behind keeping Twist Fate & Uncanny Insight as they are. I'm not sure I agree that Twist Fate would be too much for a dip though if it got pushed to prof bonus per long rest, mostly because it cannot "cancel" advantage or disadvantage or be used like Lucky to turn disadvantage into triple advantage - it is really just "another go" at whatever you were doing, complete with the conditions that you were doing it in.

I guess a cheesiest-case scenario would be something like a GWM Vengeance Paladin attacking at advantage through their CD using it to "double" crit-fish on their attack rolls, but at that point if they're investing 13 into Wisdom to multiclass they're breaking away from the 15/8/15/8/8/15 build most "optimal" pallys gun for, so there's an inherent trade-off. I suppose a BM or Samurai fighter could do it better/in a less MAD way. Again, maybe you're right on the power level, and the Uncanny Insight scaling at level 8 is less of an anomaly than it feels - I just can't think of another Cleric that gets something at 8 besides Potent Spellcasting/Divine Strike.

@nickl

You are probably right about the damage being fine - I don't think that saves for half need to be a thing for the subclass. I was just trying to map out in my head the damage potential, knowing that casters at that level can do pretty much whatever they want. I think the choices are fun and varied enough that you'd rarely have a fighter spam the same coin over and over.

I think the way Magical Coins is worded now would limit it to one coin per attack action - maybe it should say "replace one or more attacks"? Hahaha - sorry for the pedantry! or maybe steal the wording from Shove which is mechanically similar: "If you’re able to make multiple attacks with the Attack action, this Attack replaces one of them."

Fair enough on not giving a BA slingshot, it's not like the fighter chassis is weak. I guess it is similar to a low-level warlock only getting 1/2 spells per short rest, and you pretty quickly overtake them on "amount of times I get to do cool stuff".