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

[Crim the Cold]

The worst part is when they expect you to buy your own clown shoes because you're the manager. Still, the company car is nice, even if you have to carpool with 15 other guys.

Best response I've had to that statement. Thanks for the laugh.

[sengmeng]

Best response I've had to that statement. Thanks for the laugh.

Oh, I'm no stranger to the circus. Considering how much responsibility Crim now has, would someone other than him like to nominate themselves as an interim contest manager while Animorte is unaccounted for?

[Just to Browse]

I am responsible for no clowns, aside from a couple cats who act like clowns, so I'll put up a thread.

Vote here!

[Just to Browse]

I totally forgot to post the 1 week reminder (thanks for voting and bumping the voting thread, playswithfire). Tomorrow is the last day to vote! Please get your votes in.

If folks are like me and forgot about voting until now, we could push this one out another week.

[playswithfire]

Still torn on this one between

- Channeling celestial/Infernal power building towards shape-shifting into a creature of that type

- what if The Subtle Knife/ the Portal video game series/ the blink spell was a subclass?

[Just to Browse]

The tactical ramifications of a blink / teleporter subclass sound very cool, so that's definitely where my vote goes.

[BerzerkerUnit]

Warp Wave Fighter is up. I felt inspire and hammered out the Alpha in probably less than an hour.

I imagine it will catch a lot of flack for "no save forced teleports" but it's dependent on a hit and even dropping them from the sky, still probably less damage on average than just dealing normal damage.

The level 18 features are weak, but there are 2 of them. Tentacle hands and feet or crab claws are probably the most useful on average, if not the bug eyes.

Giving a mini recharge of the primary feature when you Action Surge feels good and it technically scales as you get a second use. I wish I could have moved the mutations up... I guess I could move them to 10 since they're fluff and add the line about them changing when you 2nd Wind early...

I'm looking forward to feedback no matter what.

[Notafish]

I realized after I typed up my notes for the Truth Seeker Ranger that it overlaps somewhat heavily with published material. On top of that, I don't like how the Ranger leaves the combat-mechanical heavy-lifting to its subclasses - it leaves less room for unique ribbons, and fewer mechanical options from the base class to tweak. So I'm revising the Truth-Seeker as a paladin.

Regarding the Warp Wave fighter, I think the theme is solid, but I do think that some of the level-3 Warp Slash features could be saved as higher-level enhancements. I do think the "teleport enemies" ability comes online too early, in part because it makes including cliffs in a low-level dungeon much more of a liability for the monsters. I also think that Incontiguous Weapon needs to either have a range or a line-of-sight restriction.
On the other hand, as a player I would want to get the 18th-level Aberrant Warrior features much earlier, both so I'd have more of a chance to use the unique powers and so that I can roleplay a horrible mutant at a level where the character might plausibly need to interact with the public.

[BerzerkerUnit]

I realized after I typed up my notes for the Truth Seeker Ranger that it overlaps somewhat heavily with published material. On top of that, I don't like how the Ranger leaves the combat-mechanical heavy-lifting to its subclasses - it leaves less room for unique ribbons, and fewer mechanical options from the base class to tweak. So I'm revising the Truth-Seeker as a paladin.

Regarding the Warp Wave fighter, I think the theme is solid, but I do think that some of the level-3 Warp Slash features could be saved as higher-level enhancements. I do think the "teleport enemies" ability comes online too early, in part because it makes including cliffs in a low-level dungeon much more of a liability for the monsters. I also think that Incontiguous Weapon needs to either have a range or a line-of-sight restriction.
On the other hand, as a player I would want to get the 18th-level Aberrant Warrior features much earlier, both so I'd have more of a chance to use the unique powers and so that I can roleplay a horrible mutant at a level where the character might plausibly need to interact with the public.

Thanks so much for your feedback!

[sandmote]

A sort of hybrid starting with a knockoff of the UA revived rogue and the aberrant feat tree from Lords of Madness. Then working in additional buffs to the initial damaging effect. The smattering of abilities you can choose come early, to bias you toward and specific aberrant influence you're looking for. Somewhat considering moving the first half of Attackers From Beyond to 9th level, moving Mindful Sneak to 17th, and dropping the second half of Attackers From Beyond entirely? On the other hand I do want Mindful Sneak earlier too, so its a tougher choice without hearing from anyone else.

I do feel this subclass is somewhat awkward in reference to BerzerkerUnit's submission and I wish I'd gotten around to posting a bit earlier. I don't think they overlap enough to make them too similar (I wouldn't have posted it if I did) and having inhumanoid traits is something I consider expected for a nonmagical aberrant themed subclass, but two immediately after the other feels awkward.

[BerzerkerUnit]

Took some of the advice presented and shuffled Warp Wave Warrior features around.

I toned Portal Strike down by limiting it to Large and smaller. That limit is taken away at 15th.
Incontiguous Weapon is limited to melee attacks (so you have to be in melee to trigger it) but it voids range and cover for the duration.

Level 7 took a hit and is now mostly a ribbon, but it lays the groundwork for 10th which is a fair amount of flexibility but nothing earth shattering.

Warp Slash Improvements got moved to 15.
Rending Terror now has a domino effect on creatures that try to help their friends. Entirely a ribbon, mostly for a bad guy.

I always love Lovecraftian horror schtick, so this is a pretty compelling fighter to me (go figure, I wrote it).

But I think if you want a high octane aesthetic on a lower end power curve, this is your guy and it can be easily refluffed for faerie magic, demonic forces, x-men schtick and so on.

Thanks in advance for any further feedback!

[playswithfire]

"Subtle Knife" Rogue 90% there. Having trouble coming up with a more fun capstone; stuck at "you can cast planar travel once every d4 long rests"

[sandmote]

Notes:

Warlock Patron: the Elder Constellation
Death's exploitation doesn't specify how the additional spirits work. I assume the effect is intended to have you choose a number of squares equal to 2 + half your warlock level, each of which are contiguous with at least one other chosen square?

Fury of the Constellation is missing an effect for the Radiance gift.

The existing features seem solid, and its a neat concept.

Oath of the Truth-Seekers
The base ideas for the spell list and the Channel divinity options seem solid. Straight up truesight as a paladin aura seems a bit strong, but there isn't enough right now for me to say much more than that.

Fighter Subclass: Warp Wave Warrior
Vestigial Limbs sure do use a lot of text to say the natural weapons have the finesse property.

Otherwise I'm curious why the number of uses of warp slash is based on ability scores rather than proficiency bonus or a flat number. Particularly, there isn't a guarantee a PC will have a modifier high enough to spend uses of Warp Slash to regain Shatter Reality. Yes, I know an actual fighter PC should be able to get there 99% of the time, but I personally don't like the possibility being there.

Additionally, I'm not entirely clear how spending uses of Warp Slash to regain Shatter Reality works. Would you spend the uses of Warp Slash when you cast Summon Aberration or could you finish a short rest, spend the uses of Warp Slash to recharge Shatter Reality and then take another short to get the uses of Warp Slash back?

That Incontiguous Weapon doesn't specify you have to use the same weapon is neat; you can thrown a javelin and on a hit finish the target off with your maul or greatsword. I really like that as a tactical option. It isn't as consistent in a white room as the Echo Knight's echo, but it can get past defenders with opportunity attacks and damaging area effects.

Wizard School of Extradimensionalism
The demiplane feels like a massive amount scaling for 5e.

Rope trick can be cast as an action, so maybe allow a character with this subclass expend a spell slot to move into the demiplane as an action? That would allow it to serve as an emergency escape as well as a safe spot for a short rest?

For Improved Demiplane each party member regaining that many hit points and getting to do so again after another one is busted. Maybe limit it to temporary hit points equal to your wizard level at the end of a long rest?

A neat idea, but it feels more like a 3.5e prestige class than a 5e subclass.

Roguish Archetype: Ether Blade
Weight of the World feels more 17th level to me. It's about a 57% increase in the damage of your sneak attack (before differences in damage type), which feels more in line to the Assassin's Death Strike, the Thief getting an extra turn in on the first round, and the Phantom getting +50% sneak attack dice. Actually, the mean damage increase is slightly higher than the Phantom's 17th level feature, so unless you also give some way to make it easier to use the subclass's other features, Weight of the World is probably in line with Death's Friend.

Otherwise its very psionics-lite and I like it.

[WarrentheHero]

"Subtle Knife" Rogue 90% there. Having trouble coming up with a more fun capstone; stuck at "you can cast planar travel once every d4 long rests"

Is this the "Ether Blade" that's currently listed? I like some of the ideas you've presented but I think it's a little underpowered.

Spellcasting

The use of Spell Points is sort of novel but sort of clunkily implemented. For one, you start with 3 points but a 1st-level spell costs 2, so you end up with only one spell per day and a spare point you can only use for Slip Through Space. It becomes better as you gain points, but at max level you have only 20 points. An Arcane Trickster at level 20 has 44 points, so you've got fewer than half of what an AT has with a much more limited spell selection and other features that compete for points with your spells.

I'm not sure what the best solution for this clunk is. I think I'd start with increasing the Points you get to 5 and go from there. That gives you 2 spells w cantrips and 1 Slip. That's probably fair for the AT's 2 spells (with more selection) and 3 cantrips?

Slip Through Space

Love the concept, love gaining Advantage to trigger Sneak Attack, good stuff here. You could probably streamline this by making it a Bonus Action similar to Misty Step, since a Rogue who wants to use this and move on the same turn will just use Cunning Action anyway, so a Bonus Action just gets at that same interaction.

The Walls are Thin

Love the idea but it should be boosted up to a minute. Warlock gets this same thing at Level 7 (Ghostly Gaze Invocation). GG requires Concentration and is a range of 30 feet, but having round limits greater than 1 and less than a minute are unusual for 5e.

The Weight of the World

This is great, no notes. Upgrades existing class features, has an immediate impact you feel almost every turn, and the silent-casting is appropriate for theme of the class and has some hidden power in some situations. Don't understand the name though.

stuck at "you can cast planar travel once every d4 long rests"

If you grant Plane Shift just make it once per day, no need for more restrictions. The party mage can probably do it anyway so you won't actually be creating very much power for the party as-is.

That said, to keep the theme of "slipping through places you shouldn't be," I suggest some way of letting them actually walk through walls, maybe looking at the Ghost Step Tattoo from Tasha's for guidance, PLUS invisibility or something to that end. In my mind that would help sell the idea of the class as a sort of 'planar trespasser' more than a simple Plane Shift. The best class features should do things a Wizard can't simply do with spells, which is difficult because Wizards can do a lot with spells.

[WarrentheHero]

Wizard School of Extradimensionalism
The demiplane feels like a massive amount scaling for 5e.

First, thanks for the feedback! Any and all is always appreciated.

As for the Demiplane power, yeah it's pretty vast, but I tried (emphasis on tried) to make it mostly a flavor/narrative thing. It's not something you can do in combat, it's not something you can use to cheese teleports, but it has some creative uses. Most levels have a 'demiplane feature' for flavor and a 'combat feature' for actual use.

Rope trick can be cast as an action, so maybe allow a character with this subclass expend a spell slot to move into the demiplane as an action? That would allow it to serve as an emergency escape as well as a safe spot for a short rest?

At 2nd level its power applications are similar to Rope Trick in that it is a refuge you can sit in for an hour, but its slower to use and you can't shoot out of it. So early on it's little more than a very safe way to Short Rest. Gating access to the Demiplane is a big way that I am able to limit its power and potential bustedness. At 6th level it becomes like a better Tiny Hut instead of a better Rope Trick, since you can no Long Rest in it.

For Improved Demiplane each party member regaining that many hit points and getting to do so again after another one is busted. Maybe limit it to temporary hit points equal to your wizard level at the end of a long rest?

I don't think it's that much healing: at level 6 it's +6 to your team, weaker than even a Prayer of Healing. It doesn't match even that spell until level 13 or so.

However you do point out a big oversight on my end which is not limiting it to once/long rest, which it should be. You are right that it could lets a group just take two Short Rests and keep gaining extra HP that way. It should have a limit on it. As for Temp HP vs real healing, ultimately that doesn't matter too much to me. Making it purely Temp would be downgrade in power, but that's not necessarily a bad idea.

A neat idea, but it feels more like a 3.5e prestige class than a 5e subclass.

In fact it is inspired very heavily by the Planeshifter Prestige Class from 3.5's Manual of the Planes. Granted, that Prestige class doesn't get their Planar Seed until about Character Level 19
and it grows WAY slower than this, but you defnitely accurately sniffed out the inspiration. That said, very many subclasses have their origin in 3.5 Prestige Classes. Arcane Trickster, Eldritch Knight, Draconic Sorcerer, and the like are all Prestige Classes that have made their way into 5e.

Roguish Archetype: Ether Blade
Weight of the World feels more 17th level to me. It's about a 57% increase in the damage of your sneak attack (before differences in damage type),

I may have misinterpretted this feature but I think it only boosts their Spells, not their Sneak Attacks. So it is a pure direct-damage increase, but not so heavily as it would be if it was Sneak Attack.

[playswithfire]

Roguish Archetype: Ether Blade
Weight of the World feels more 17th level to me. It's about a 57% increase in the damage of your sneak attack (before differences in damage type)...

Otherwise its very psionics-lite and I like it.

It's increasing the spell damage, not sneak attack. While some of those are also d6s, a lot are d8s, so the increase is smaller (and it's a 1/3-1/2 caster, so I figured it could use the buff.
A lot of what I wanted was for the sneaky rogue to stop making so much noise with the thunder spells, but, at level nine, I thought it also needed a damage buff.

The use of Spell Points is sort of novel but sort of clunkily implemented. For one, you start with 3 points but a 1st-level spell costs 2, so you end up with only one spell per day and a spare point you can only use for Slip Through Space. It becomes better as you gain points, but at max level you have only 20 points. An Arcane Trickster at level 20 has 44 points, so you've got fewer than half of what an AT has with a much more limited spell selection and other features that compete for points with your spells.

I'm not sure what the best solution for this clunk is. I think I'd start with increasing the Points you get to 5 and go from there. That gives you 2 spells w cantrips and 1 Slip. That's probably fair for the AT's 2 spells (with more selection) and 3 cantrips?

They get their spell points back on a short rest. It is still pretty limited early on, but I tried to scale it as basically a spell point warlock half-caster. Could still maybe give it another point or two, though.

Love the concept, love gaining Advantage to trigger Sneak Attack, good stuff here. You could probably streamline this by making it a Bonus Action similar to Misty Step, since a Rogue who wants to use this and move on the same turn will just use Cunning Action anyway, so a Bonus Action just gets at that same interaction.

Yeah, I know that's cleaner but I kind of like you having the option of doing it multiple times per turn.

Love the idea but it should be boosted up to a minute. Warlock gets this same thing at Level 7 (Ghostly Gaze Invocation). GG requires Concentration and is a range of 30 feet, but having round limits greater than 1 and less than a minute are unusual for 5e.

Yeah, this was very much based on that ability. I didn't want it to be concentration so you could have it up while blinking to use that to move through walls and making it, initially, shorter seemed like a good tradeoff, but it is awkward. Maybe just coming two levels later is enough to justify removing the concentration.

That said, to keep the theme of "slipping through places you shouldn't be," I suggest some way of letting them actually walk through walls, maybe looking at the Ghost Step Tattoo from Tasha's for guidance, PLUS invisibility or something to that end. In my mind that would help sell the idea of the class as a sort of 'planar trespasser' more than a simple Plane Shift. The best class features should do things a Wizard can't simply do with spells, which is difficult because Wizards can do a lot with spells.

Something like the tattoo definitely feels more fun; thanks for mentioning it (and the rest of the feedback).

[sandmote]

In fact it is inspired very heavily by the Planeshifter Prestige Class from 3.5's Manual of the Planes. Granted, that Prestige class doesn't get their Planar Seed until about Character Level 19 and it grows WAY slower than this, but you defnitely accurately sniffed out the inspiration. That said, very many subclasses have their origin in 3.5 Prestige Classes.

If it's once per day the healing is probably fine.

But when I meant it felt like 3.5e, I meant the rate the demiplane scales rather than the inspiration, with the effect being extremely limited at 2nd level and the area of the plane surpassing the area of earth's moon at 10th level (19.6 million square miles for the demiplane and 14.6 million square miles for the moon's surface). Contrast the 8th level Demiplane spell, with creates a room smaller than a typical house in many modern countries.

As a mechanical note I didn't notice earlier, you didn't specify you can't bring objects out of the demiplane. So in theory you could make a completely safe version of the plane of mineral, with a higher concentration of valuable gems, and sell what you mine from it.

It's increasing the spell damage, not sneak attack. While some of those are also d6s, a lot are d8s, so the increase is smaller (and it's a 1/3-1/2 caster, so I figured it could use the buff.
A lot of what I wanted was for the sneaky rogue to stop making so much noise with the thunder spells, but, at level nine, I thought it also needed a damage buff.

Yep, very much misread that; my bad.

[Just to Browse]

Some feedback:

Spoiler: Warp Wave Warrior

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Portal Strike, Incontiguous Weapon, and the mutations are all really fun. Hard to pick a favorite feature.

The way this is written, the second half of Portal Strike is the only effect that has any uses tied to it. If that's the case, I think it should just be a separate feature, trading one attack for a 30' teleport. Rending Terror is also probably a little too strong, esp the improvement.

The mutations coming in early is a little more confusing to me than flavorful. I think this would better served with a paragraph of flavor text at the top of the class, that tells players they can RP their transformations before lv10, kind of like the RP guidance that says paladins can claim to be a part of a certain oath early.

The mutations are really fun, but I'd prefer to see them either condensed, or have redundant ones given different tactical niches. Vestigial Limbs and Unnatural Joints are both grapple mutations, while Deviant Proportions and Tentacular Phalanges are both tanking / blocking mutations. Maybe have a mobility-centric mutation and a ranged attack mutation?

Spoiler: Aberrant Infiltrator

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I'd prefer if Aberrant Blood list was slimmed down, with each option being a more complete package. Mix-and-matching feels unthematic (like picking up underwater breathing without a swim speed), and a few of the features (Aberrant Vision, Tenacious) are pretty strong without being all that evocative, while other features (Buoyant, Tentacles) are evocative while being kinda weak. It would be nice to pair them up, even if it means fewer options in the list.

Concussion Blast is definitely too strong. I don't think there's any level where you can safely put an at-will save or stun. I like the idea of a mini mind flayer blast and it feels invasive in a way that's super thematic, but I don't know how to handle the power level. Is there a lesser condition you can put on this? Maybe something related to hiding, or something that sets up sneak attacks so infiltrators can go blast => sneak attack => blast => sneak attack every 2 turns?

Mindful Sneak (hee hee funny name) is cool, but there are a lot of altered conditions here. I think you get better clarity if you just write out the entire ability.

Love Mind Ravage on a class like rogue. Encourages you to dive in, explode, then Cunning Action to get out.

Attackers From Beyond is really cool. I personally would love to see some of these come earlier, like animal messenger could be a 3rd-level benefit without any problems to really hit that infiltrator vibe home from the very start. Maybe that's not the way to go, just something that came to mind.

Spoiler: Wizard School of Extradimensionalism

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The fantasy of this is just awesome. I love that the demiplane grows bigger and more fleshed-out each time you gain features.

I don't think this forum has specific policies, but it would be good to cite the generator you're using for these pictures.

I'm not sold on the planar seed idea. The 1,000 lb weight seems bound to give the GM a headache. I assume it's heavy to discourage theft, but it doesn't make theft impossible (or prevent "reverse theft", i.e. the PC is kidnapped and their seed is left behind), at which point the PC will be stripped of their coolest class feature anyways. So it's not solving a relevant problem and it's creating other potential problems. Maybe there's something cool here, I'm just not convinced it's worth the hassle.

You should specify whether other people can plane shift to the demiplane (is it possible to even create a tuning fork for it?), and if so, at what level.

Planar Shortcut feels a little clunky. I think you could just make it an action to disappear & reappear, and describe it as stepping briefly into the private demiplane. Does this require having the seed?

Planar Collapse is missing a word. "[..] you can choose two creatures you can [see], possibly including yourself, each within 120 feet of you [...]". The first part of the feature is pretty spicy, I'm iffy on the second bit.

Spoiler: Ether Blade

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I am personally not a fan the spell points system as the primary mechanism here. It's meant to be an alternative for certain kinds of games, so I'd prefer for this to operate more like the arcane trickster or to just operate on a bespoke resource system since that's kind of what the class features are doing already.

A built in cantripping gish rogue is cool, though I don't see rogues wanting to use a whole lot of these spells. There's not a lot here to set up the usual sneak attack gameplay, but a normal rogue isn't going to make nearly as good use of the strong spells (like hold person) as their SAD mage counterparts, and I don't know if they can afford to buff themselves with concentration effects like haste if they're going to be fighting in melee combat.

Slip Through Space and The Walls Are Thin are both really evocative, and my favorite things about the class. I'd love to see some more effects that set up or reward melee sneak attacking because it's usually so dangerous by default, especially if they can somehow integrate with combat patterns that use Cunning Action.

I Need Lunch is OP pls nerf

[WarrentheHero]

Some feedback:

Thank you! Love hearing feedback on stuff, especially things that are disliked so they can be worked on.

The fantasy of this is just awesome. I love that the demiplane grows bigger and more fleshed-out each time you gain features.

Thank you! I've always loved having a 'home base' and this is just sort of the ultimate form of that. An earlier draft included a bulleted list of stuff to add to your plane with a limited number you could choose, but I scrapped that in favor of a more free-form "just sorta choose how it works" that I think is much more inviting.

I don't think this forum has specific policies, but it would be good to cite the generator you're using for these pictures.

Good point! I added a small credits section at the end including the generator (Dream.AI) and also the original source of inspiration, the Planeshifter Prestige Class from 3.5

I'm not sold on the planar seed idea. The 1,000 lb weight seems bound to give the GM a headache. I assume it's heavy to discourage theft, but it doesn't make theft impossible (or prevent "reverse theft", i.e. the PC is kidnapped and their seed is left behind), at which point the PC will be stripped of their coolest class feature anyways. So it's not solving a relevant problem and it's creating other potential problems. Maybe there's something cool here, I'm just not convinced it's worth the hassle.

I see it more as a flavor/ribbon thing: It is the origin of an entire plane and is massively heavy despite fitting in the palm of one's hand. But since you have this special bond with it, you can carry it around easily. That's the idea, anyway. I'm quite fond of it but it's not so important as to be above being cut if need-be.

You should specify whether other people can plane shift to the demiplane (is it possible to even create a tuning fork for it?), and if so, at what level.

Done. Planar Expansion at 10th level specifies it can now be Plane Shifted to with its own frequency for tuning forks.

Planar Shortcut feels a little clunky. I think you could just make it an action to disappear & reappear, and describe it as stepping briefly into the private demiplane. Does this require having the seed?

I did worry about clunk on this ability. The idea is you can jump into your Plane in an emergency, spend a round to heal up or cast a buff spell, then pop out. If you just want to traverse distant without taking a moment, you can just pop out as a bonus action on the same turn. Making it a simple momentary teleport with planehopping for flavor is fine, but doesn't quite get at the idea. It might be better to lose that round of safety in favor of a teleport just for simplicity and readability's sake.

Planar Collapse is missing a word. "[..] you can choose two creatures you can [see], possibly including yourself, each within 120 feet of you [...]". The first part of the feature is pretty spicy, I'm iffy on the second bit.

Fixed typo. The second half of the idea was pretty much a natural extrapolation of the first part. The first part is essentially deleting distance between two targets. This, in my mind, is not the same as deleting the space between them; you aren't removing things. You're just reaching into the code of the universe, finding the measurement between the two, and setting that parameter to 0. The physical consequence of this is the two creatures end up next to each other. Which in some ways is how a Bag of Holding, the quintessential 'extradimensional thing', works. It seemed reasonable to me to have that essentially apply to your own casting as well, but again, it's sometimes better to kill abilities rather than to have them stay and be confusing/clunky. I'll think on it a little bit but this can be in line for the chopping block.

[sandmote]

I'd prefer if Aberrant Blood list was slimmed down, with each option being a more complete package. Mix-and-matching feels unthematic (like picking up underwater breathing without a swim speed), and a few of the features (Aberrant Vision, Tenacious) are pretty strong without being all that evocative, while other features (Buoyant, Tentacles) are evocative while being kinda weak. It would be nice to pair them up, even if it means fewer options in the list.

I based it off a 3.5e feat tree, so I should have seen this issue coming. On the other hand, I don't really like forcing PCs to slot into very particular aberrations, since the monster type is theoretically supposed to describe particularly varied and alien creatures.

Thinking on this and moving some of Attackers From Beyond's stuff sooner, but I have rewritten Mindful Sneak as suggested. I notice I've dropped it using your concentration and I would appreciate if anyone is willing to compare the two versions to look for other differences.

Concussion Blast is definitely too strong. I don't think there's any level where you can safely put an at-will save or stun. I like the idea of a mini mind flayer blast and it feels invasive in a way that's super thematic, but I don't know how to handle the power level. Is there a lesser condition you can put on this? Maybe something related to hiding, or something that sets up sneak attacks so infiltrators can go blast => sneak attack => blast => sneak attack every 2 turns?

My guess is I didn't rubber duck enough to register which effect I'd written. I've changed it to making you invisible to the target (and only the target) until the end of your next turn on a failed save. That does grant advantage for sneak attack plus a small defensive buff without nearly as much benefit to your allies.

[playswithfire]

Some feedback:

Spoiler: Ether Blade

Show

1. I am personally not a fan the spell points system as the primary mechanism here. It's meant to be an alternative for certain kinds of games, so I'd prefer for this to operate more like the arcane trickster or to just operate on a bespoke resource system since that's kind of what the class features are doing already.

2. A built in cantripping gish rogue is cool, though I don't see rogues wanting to use a whole lot of these spells. There's not a lot here to set up the usual sneak attack gameplay, but a normal rogue isn't going to make nearly as good use of the strong spells (like hold person) as their SAD mage counterparts, and I don't know if they can afford to buff themselves with concentration effects like haste if they're going to be fighting in melee combat.

3. Slip Through Space and The Walls Are Thin are both really evocative, and my favorite things about the class. I'd love to see some more effects that set up or reward melee sneak attacking because it's usually so dangerous by default, especially if they can somehow integrate with combat patterns that use Cunning Action.

4. I Need Lunch is OP pls nerf

Appreciate the feedback

1. Fair; it could just as easily be Reality Points or something, but I couldn't think of a good name and wanted to use spell points as kind of a balancing point, so it seemed reasonable to just give them spell points...though I'm now realizing I had the costs wrong in my head (I was thinking 2,3,5,7,9 vs 2,3,5,6,7), so it ended up slightly more powerful than intended

2. I did mostly pick spells that felt like they were messing with reality (or could be flavored to be so, particularly once the thunder spells became silent force spells) rather than things that particularly enabled sneak attack. The result...does kind of leave it with two very different ways of doing things.

3. Thinking about it now, I can definitely see some interesting options in that vein (banishing/teleporting people hit with sneak attack or forcing adjacent people to move when you dash or disengage), but, honestly, I had been noodling on spell points and warlock half-caster when this contest started and used this as a way to try to do that

4. Back from lunch and gave it an upgraded slip through space that kind of tacks on a monk's empty body

[Notafish]

Truth-Seeker Oath is up!

Quick reviews of other entries:

Elder Constellation Warlock - this is very flavorful, eldritch stuff - I like it more than GOOlock in this respect. The Horrid Sky gifts feel very powerful for coming on-line so early. It feels like there should be more of a cost to using them, maybe.

Warp Wave Warrior - I think this is in a pretty good place with regard to the power curve and implied character arc. The warp slash attacks look fun to use, although I still think that Portal Strike and Incontiguous weapon still need some more rules to prevent abuse.

Aberrant Infiltrator - I also like this take on the aberrant combatant. I think both the Warp Wave Warrior and Aberrant Infiltrator would fit well with a homebrew Aberrant background. My main critique of this class is the 17th-level features use of incorporeal/intangible pseudosummons since I am unsure where this leaves them when it comes to enemies perceiving and targeting them. Does the incorporeal Concussion Blast abberation have hit points?

Extradimensional Wizard - Most Wizards take 17 levels to become gods; this one does it in 10! I'm curious about the metaphysical challenges this subclass would bring to the table. Outside of the demiplane, the perks of the subclass look fun. I especially like the way Collapse Space is described.

Ether Blade - (edited because I missed this one earlier) - I like the choice to go with spell points, since it gives you the flexibility to ignore the 1/3-caster spell advancement, and also shake up the old "proficiency bonus per day" method of rationing abilities. The cantrips are a good power boost (I think Booming Blade works with Sneak Attack, even if it doesn't proc it itself), but I'm not quite sure how they fit in the theme, outside of other abilities mentioning sound. I like the traversal abilities. Walls are Thin looks like it needs a range for the distance you can see.

[animorte]

I totally forgot to post the 1 week reminder (thanks for voting and bumping the voting thread, playswithfire). Tomorrow is the last day to vote! Please get your votes in.

If folks are like me and forgot about voting until now, we could push this one out another week.

I see you picked up where I vanished, and maintained the entire format. So much thanks to you, especially.

And to everyone else, I apologize sincerely for my sudden absence. Life took an unexpected turn for worse. I'm hoping to be more active in this beloved community again soon. I miss it dearly.

[Just to Browse]

🫡 No worries animorte. Life comes first!

[sandmote]

Last minute edits:

• Added a fourth option for aberrant blood
• Switched Mind Ravage to 17th level and Attackers From Beyond (now called Aid From Beyond) to 13th level to be better in line with published rogue subclasses.
• Reflavored the combat effect of Aid From Beyond and took out it giving the target disadvantage on attack rolls when they fail their save.

[WarrentheHero]

Is there a voting thread open somewhere that I haven't found yet?

[Just to Browse]

🤦 I forgot I was the one running the contest.

Gotta finagle some voting themes. I'll put a thread up tomorrow.

[Notafish]

Do we need some new themes? I've only been intermittently involved with these contests, so I have never been sure what themes are perennial, and which are new additions from the MC. If it's something we can crowdsource, I'd be happy to throw in some suggestions

[Just to Browse]

The voting thread is live!

Do we need some new themes? I've only been intermittently involved with these contests, so I have never been sure what themes are perennial, and which are new additions from the MC. If it's something we can crowdsource, I'd be happy to throw in some suggestions

Current policy is that themes are picked at random for voting from a pool, and removed from that pool for 1 year after winning. There's a theme pool on the first post of this thread, but it can't be up to date bc I know we've added topics since moleman updated it, and it doesn't have any notes about when each theme won & was rotated out. So last time, I tried scraping themes from the last 3-4 losing contests, which was a pain. For this one, I picked 4 arbitrary ideas.

I'm thinking of migrating all the themes into a google sheet and marking when each one wins, so that if I take a break someone else can just pick up the sheet and keep running. If anyone wants to float any new ideas, post them here and I'll include them in the doc. Don't worry about dupes--I'll do a pass to make sure we aren't repeating anything (though some overlap between themes seems reasonable).

[animorte]

There was also an idea to pull themes equally from Base Class and Subclass to increase the overall pool. So I would roll dice to select randomly amongst the full list.