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

[CountDVB]

Thanks, @MoleMage. I wasn't sure much on this so I tried using the game-based subsystem of the Wild Card subclass for it.

[Damon_Tor]

Stormscar Fighter
(Using Damon_Tor's stance mechanic)
You have faced the storm, and you know its dangers.

To certain cultures, the weather represents the largest threat to their livelihood, worse even than monsters, bandits, or the drums of war. In those places, the greatest warriors prove themselves by facing down the storm, or the tornado, or the crashing waves of a typhoon. Some special few not only survive, but develop understanding of the storm, and learn to harness the lashing winds or cracking thunder.

Neat! I love this concept, it's very similar conceptually to the storm herald barbarian. I like subclasses that are supernatural without being "spellcasters" and this works well.

Stormscar Stances
When you first take this archetype at 3rd level, you learn to channel the fury of the storm through two different stances: the Cutting Gale stance and the Crashing Thunder stance. Once on each of your turns, you can choose to enter a stance if you are not already in one, or to deepen your current stance by one level if you are. A stance has a depth of 1 when you enter it and has a maximum depth equal to your Wisdom modifier. Every level of depth in a stance gives different cumulative effects.

You can end a stance on your turn instead of deepening it. You cannot enter a new stance on the same turn you end it, and each stance has a unique penalty on the turn that you end it.

"You cannot enter a new stance on the same turn you end a stance" is probably a good general rule going forward.

This is a great take on the system, exactly the sort of thing I had in mind.

Cutting Gale Stance
The cutting gale surrounds you, protecting you as long as you respect its dangerous winds.
While in the cutting gale stance, you gain the following effects:

• Your melee slashing weapons can make ranged attacks against targets up to 20 feet away times your depth in this stance
• Your armor class against ranged attacks increases by 1
• As a reaction when attacked in melee, you can cause your attacker to take 1d6 slashing damage per two levels of depth in this stance
• If you move more than half your speed on your turn, you take 1d6 slashing damage per level of depth in this stance, as you outpace the dangerous gale you have formed around yourself.

When you exit the cutting gale stance, you are blinded until the start of your next turn, as the winds lash at your face.

A more interesting mobility limiter than the one I came up with, I admit.

I'm a little confused how the ranged attacks are supposed to work: if you're throwing the weapon (and it returning to you) it should say so. There are rules issues which crop up if you aren't using the thrown property: for example, as you have it written, using this ability with a longsword would have to use dexterity instead of strength for the attack and damage roll because it's an aspect of the thrown property that allows a thrown melee weapon to use strength for a ranged attack.

I would write this as "Your slashing melee weapons have the thrown property with a normal range equal to 20 feet times your depth in this stance. The weapons return to your hand after you throw them."

Crashing Thunder Stance
You focus your efforts on breaking down a creature through repeated blows. When you attack a creature for the first time while in crashing thunder stance, it becomes your focused target. You may only have one focused target; attacking a different creature causes that creature to become your focused target. Some of this stance's benefits deal with your focused target.
While in crashing thunder stance, you gain the following effects:

• Your melee weapon attacks deal 1 additional thunder damage to your focused target.
• You ignore up to 5 feet of difficult terrain each turn
• Your armor class against attacks made by your focused target is increased by 1 per two levels of depth in this stance
• When you attack a new creature for the first time, before it becomes your focused target, you deal 1d6 reduced damage to that creature with that attack per level of depth in this stance

When you exit the crashing thunder stance, all of your weapon attacks deal 1d4 reduced damage until the end of your next turn, as your focused energies dissipate.

Excellent.

Stormchaser
At 7th level, natural storms do not reduce your or your companions' overland traveling speed, and you never suffer disadvantage on melee or ranged attacks due to high wind or stormy weather.

Pretty niche, but flavorful (and in keeping with the ribbony 7th level features other fighters get). Maybe add to the travel time clause a provision which protects ships you're on board from the negative effects of stormy weather? In my experience it's aboard ships where DMs are most likely to try to use weather to mess with you.

Stance Mastery
At 10th level, you can enter a new stance on the same turn that you exit a different stance. You cannot re-enter the same stance that you just left using this feature.

I'm not sure how exciting of a feature this is going to be. You're penalized pretty heavily for exiting your stances, so it's not going to be something you're going to want to do very often, and even with this ability you're going to want to pick a stance and stick with it for each encounter whenever possible. Maybe give them the ability to ignore a stance-end penalty 1/short rest or something?

Wind Dancer
At 15th level, you have a fly speed equal to your land speed plus ten, but you must touch solid ground at least once on each of your turns in order to stay aloft.

A very neat flight ability. Feels similar to the "end your turn on the ground or you fall" versions, but is more useful and elegant.

Perfected Stances
At 18th level, your maximum depth with all stances increases by 1. In addition, you can choose to increase your depth by 2 or decrease your depth by 1 whenever you could increase the depth of a stance you are in.

Solid capstone.

[Twelvetrees]

Loan Shark is up. Ugh, that took me much longer than I thought it would.

We'll see if I have any time to make comments on the others before the deadline.

[Damon_Tor]

Loan Shark

Rogue Subclass

You've got so many gifts to share with everyone! They'll have to pay you back with interest, of course, but there's no need to worry about that now. You there! You've always wanted to understand Giant, right? Of course you have! Trade in your athletic ability and start speaking with Storm Giants today! They'll surely want to be your friend and take you on all sorts of journeys as they traverse their ocean homes!

General overview: this scores highly on my "would you play it" metric. It looks like fun. And I'd love to understand how you see this working from a lore perspective. That said, I have a little trouble seeing how it fits the chosen theme. It's a good system and I like it, but I'm not sure how well it would work for another subclass unless it was just the same concept on a different chassis.

Everything to follow is quibbles.

Smooth Talker
When you choose this archetype at 3rd level, you gain proficiency in the Deception skill if you don't already have it. Your proficiency bonus is doubled for any ability check you make that uses that proficiency. Alternatively, you learn two languages of your choice.

I have a hard time with features like these: it feels to me like a rogue playing the conman archetype is already likely to have proficiency and expertise in deception, and in general "more proficiencies and expertises from the rogue list" isn't very exciting. Two languages as a consolation prize feels meh. Of course this isn't your only 3rd level ability, so it's free to be ribbony, but IMO ribbons should be more interesting than slightly expanding existing class features.

Loan the Intangible
Starting at 3rd level, you gain the ability to lend moments of great capability to others. To do so, you use a bonus action on your turn to choose one willing creature other than yourself within 60 feet of you who can see or hear you. That creature gains one Intangible Loan, the benefit of which you choose from the table below. You can give out Intangible Loans a number of times equal to your Dexterity modifier (a minimum of once). You regain any expended uses when you finish a long rest.

The chosen creature then owes you one Debt, which you can use to gain a benefit of your choice from the second table. All Debts are removed when you finish a long rest. Using a Debt restores one use of an Intangible Loan.

I feel like this should be tied to cha, not dex. Rogues are already some of the SADest builds, so it bugs me a little when a subclass links magicy stuff to dex.

I would also limit this to humanoids. I feel like there are probably unintended interactions with familiars and other disposables which would be easily circumvented by adding that limit.

[quote]

Intangible Loans
The creature's speed increases by 30 feet during its next turn
The creature gains proficiency in Dexterity (Stealth) checks for 1 minute
The creature can speak and understand Thieves' Cant for 1 hour
The creature is invisible for the duration of their next turn
The creature gains temporary hit points equal to your level
The creature can use a bonus action on their turn to teleport, switching places with you
If the creature succeeds on a Charisma check during a social interaction within the next 10 minutes, the creature they are interacting with is charmed by them for 1 hour
The creature can see from any location within 10 feet of their physical location for 1 minute
The creature can speak and understand any language you know for 1 hour
The creature gains proficiency in Wisdom (Insight) checks for 1 minute
The creature gains a climb speed equal to their walking speed for 1 minute
The creature gains darkvision out to a range of 60 feet for 1 hour

These are neat.

The bonus action teleport needs to say "The creature can use a bonus action on their next turn to teleport" Otherwise the ability is a bit too open ended, and the swap could happen hours later.

Debts
When spending hit dice to heal, you can remove one Debt to use the hit dice of the creature that owes you the Debt in addition to your own hit dice, up to a number equal to your Dexterity modifier
When you make an attack, you can remove one Debt to gain advantage on the attack. The creature whose Debt you removed has disadvantage on their next attack roll
You can remove one Debt as a bonus action to gain proficiency in one skill the creature whose Debt you removed is proficient in. Your proficiency bonus is doubled for any ability check you make that uses the chosen skill. This proficiency lasts for 1 hour and for the duration, the creature whose Debt you removed loses their proficiency in the skill.
You can remove one Debt as a reaction when you fail a saving throw against a spell. You are the creature whose Debt you removed teleport, swapping places, and that creature receives the effects of the failed saving throw.
You can remove one Debt as an action to see through the eyes of the creature you removed the Debt from for 1 minute. For the duration, the creature whose eyes you look through has disadvantage on Wisdom (Perception) and Intelligence (Investigation) checks. Your own ability to make these checks while looking through their eyes is unimpeded.
You can remove one Debt at the start of your turn to double your speed for 1 minute. The creature whose Debt you removed has their speed halved for the same duration.

Also neat

I have some concerns about the efficacy of the teleportation: the debt can be called in hours later, so I feel like there needs to be some kind of distance limitation to prevent this from being used as an extremely efficient means of travel (especially when combined with a familiar who can carry the debt). There are also major issues with this ability and the capstone (see below) that a distance limitation would mitigate.

Debts Must Be Paid
At 9th level, you gain another use for the Debts you are owed. If you are owed at least one Debt, when you are reduced to 0 hit points you can drop to 1 hit point instead. Choose one of the creatures that owes you a Debt and remove one Debt from them. That creature then takes all of the damage you would have taken in excess of the damage that reduced you to 1 hit point.

I like it.

Offer Many Loans
At 13th level, when you use Loan the Intangible, you can choose two willing creatures within 60 feet of you and can choose different benefits for both. As normal, both creatures will owe you a Debt.

I'm not sure if this doubles the number of loans you can make in a day. If so, it seems rather strong. If not, it seems rather weak.

Sell to Anyone
When you reach 17th level, the creatures you target with Loan the Intangible no longer have to be willing targets.

Yeah, that's going to need some kind of a check and balance. Because this gives you the ability to (as one example) teleport someone into a volcano miles away while forcing them to fail a save vs your wizard friend's spell of choice hours after you meet them and from miles away and without a save.

IMO, give them a wis save against 8+cha+prof when you attempt to use it against an unwilling target.

[sengmeng]

Well, I made some last minute adjustments to the Atoner rogue. The bag of rats problem is sort of solved: you can't gain more than the hitpoints the target had before the sneak attack, and also it has to drop the enemy to zero, and you still gain no more than half your sneak attack damage. You can also gain good karma now, and some subclass features only function while your karma is bad, and others only while it is good. Good luck on final revisions!

[MoleMage]

Neat! I love this concept, it's very similar conceptually to the storm herald barbarian. I like subclasses that are supernatural without being "spellcasters" and this works well.



"You cannot enter a new stance on the same turn you end a stance" is probably a good general rule going forward.

This is a great take on the system, exactly the sort of thing I had in mind.



A more interesting mobility limiter than the one I came up with, I admit.

I'm a little confused how the ranged attacks are supposed to work: if you're throwing the weapon (and it returning to you) it should say so. There are rules issues which crop up if you aren't using the thrown property: for example, as you have it written, using this ability with a longsword would have to use dexterity instead of strength for the attack and damage roll because it's an aspect of the thrown property that allows a thrown melee weapon to use strength for a ranged attack.

I would write this as "Your slashing melee weapons have the thrown property with a normal range equal to 20 feet times your depth in this stance. The weapons return to your hand after you throw them."



Excellent.



Pretty niche, but flavorful (and in keeping with the ribbony 7th level features other fighters get). Maybe add to the travel time clause a provision which protects ships you're on board from the negative effects of stormy weather? In my experience it's aboard ships where DMs are most likely to try to use weather to mess with you.



I'm not sure how exciting of a feature this is going to be. You're penalized pretty heavily for exiting your stances, so it's not going to be something you're going to want to do very often, and even with this ability you're going to want to pick a stance and stick with it for each encounter whenever possible. Maybe give them the ability to ignore a stance-end penalty 1/short rest or something?



A very neat flight ability. Feels similar to the "end your turn on the ground or you fall" versions, but is more useful and elegant.



Solid capstone.

Thanks for the feedback!

I added some clumsy wording on the ranged attacks. I was imagining slicing wind blades being launched by the weapon when I originally wrote it, but they should be possible with Strength or Dexterity. Added the "ignore exit penalty" clause to Stance Mastery and Stormchaser now also applies while traveling on a ship.

[MoleMage]

https://forums.giantitp.com/showthre...6#post24909996

Voting time is upon us! Go cast your votes!

[nickl_2000]

https://forums.giantitp.com/showthre...6#post24909996

Voting time is upon us! Go cast your votes!

Looking forward to looking over everyone's entries. It will be a fresh look through of everything. I will try and get a vote out tomorrow.

[Twelvetrees]

General overview: this scores highly on my "would you play it" metric. It looks like fun. And I'd love to understand how you see this working from a lore perspective. That said, I have a little trouble seeing how it fits the chosen theme. It's a good system and I like it, but I'm not sure how well it would work for another subclass unless it was just the same concept on a different chassis.

Thanks for the comments.

My original intention had been for Intangible Loans to allow for the loaning of class features, but that idea slipped away from me by the time I had finished it. You're completely right about the capstone. If I had more time before the deadline I would have liked to revise some of the effects.

[RickAsWritten]

Don't forget to de your civic duty everyone. Only a few days until the contest closes.

And a reminder: you don't have to have made an entry to vote (or give feedback in this thread). We are a chill and open community, and are happy to help anyone that wants to jump into the (highly)addicting world of homebrewing, or to improve their homebrewing skills.

[CountDVB]

Don't forget to de your civic duty everyone. Only a few days until the contest closes.

And a reminder: you don't have to have made an entry to vote (or give feedback in this thread). We are a chill and open community, and are happy to help anyone that wants to jump into the (highly)addicting world of homebrewing, or to improve their homebrewing skills.

I wonder how many people aren't aware of that...

[Ilerien]

And a reminder: you don't have to have made an entry to vote (or give feedback in this thread). We are a chill and open community, and are happy to help anyone that wants to jump into the (highly)addicting world of homebrewing, or to improve their homebrewing skills.

It's indeed kinda sad to see there are many people interested in homebrew (judging by this subforum activity), but not participating in voting.

[MoleMage]

Alright votes are tallied up, and the point differences were narrow this time, with only one point here or there making the difference!

Our third place winner, with 7 points earned, we have Twelvetrees's Loan Shark Rogue! Share intangible abilities, then call the loan due at the right time!

In second place, with 8 points earned, we have MoleMage's Stormscar Fighter. Slashing winds and crashing thunder are your weapons, but be careful because they can hurt you too if misused!

In first place, with 9 points earned (all of them top pick points), we have Damon_Tor's Way of the Stone Foot. Suplex a dragon! Become very heavy, but remember that anchoring yourself to the ground can work against you.

The next contest was set in digital stone already, and I put the thread up earlier. Check out Contest XXI: I Read this in a Book Once II!

Voting has concluded and the new contest is up! I look forward to seeing what sorts of borrowed media we end up with this time.

[Damon_Tor]

Well, knowing the theme ahead of time, I've been working on this for weeks already, so the Path of the Titan is ready for critique.

[nickl_2000]

It's indeed kinda sad to see there are many people interested in homebrew (judging by this subforum activity), but not participating in voting.

It's pretty typical, although there was a higher bar on reviewing and voting in this contest than there has been in other ones. Since several of them were utilizing things from other homebrew classes and subclasses you needed to read more than just the entry, but also the things that the entry is coming from. That is what got in the way for me when I looked at voting. So, I put it off thinking I would do it later. Well it's later and I missed voting completely.

[nickl_2000]

Wow I have absolutely no idea why I'm struggling to get excited about an idea. I've had several ones where I've got "ohhh, I like that" oh it's already been done by the Inquisitive Rogue or Beast Barbarian or something else.

[CountDVB]

I have two ideas for this. One is a serious one, the other... I do not allow if I am allowed to do it, though part of me still wants to do so for the chutzpah of it.

Who should I ask if I should try or should I go and make it anyway?

[nickl_2000]

I have two ideas for this. One is a serious one, the other... I do not allow if I am allowed to do it, though part of me still wants to do so for the chutzpah of it.

Who should I ask if I should try or should I go and make it anyway?

PM/DM/ Whatever Message MoleMage.

[CountDVB]

Went with my first idea, enjoy! Cue the awesome intro!

[Phhase]

Kept you waiting, huh? Pyromaniac Sorcerer is up! Feedback!

Spoiler: Oversized Fantasy Weapon Barbarian

Show

Titan's Grip - I love the support for dual wielding heavy weapons, but maybe categorize by the two-handed property rather than the damage dice? If you can dual wield lances unmounted, why not glaives? Also love the support for weapon summon abilities. I just in general love when subclasses take abilities outside of immediate context into proper consideration.

Argaen Forge - It seems a little odd to have an entire level dedicated to giving yourself the ability to access your class's required tools. Don't get me wrong, I LIKE this - it's great to have the option to simply upgrade what you have rather than having to go bargain hunting for exactly what you need. But the second clause has me a little confused. The ability to do a full week's labor in a day, with no limiters except an exhaustion point? If it's as universally applicable as it sounds, then that means with a few artificer levels, you have a magic item manufactorium with an absolutely massive 7x speed boost. I like the sound of it - just be sure you're ok with having a universal 7x crafting speed boost on demand.


Destroyer - Hm. The feature is fine, it just highlights for me that it seems odd that you're normally completely unable to attack at all with a large weapon while not raging. This feature also gives no combat bonuses, so be sure you're ok with the only combat capabilities granted over ten levels being a few more damage dice with a weapon that is only situationally even usable, and even then with an attack penalty.

Titanic Mastery - Seems odd that this is the capstone rather than the first benefit. Other than that, they look like fun options. Does Titan Sweep make you attack EVERY creature in your reach, including allies? And it seems odd to me that one would consider the cover granted by enemies in the way when throwing a massive weapon at all, and the kill clause is also very situational. Instead, consider forcing each creature hit to make a Strength save or be shoved into an adjacent square by the impact. If a creature makes their save, the attack against the next creature in the line is at -1 (stacking as one goes).

Have your read the Path of Unshackled Steel barbarian subclass? It does something very, very similar to this, but approaches it from a different angle. It does some things better, and other things worse, I recommend reading it if you haven't already.

Spoiler: Library Sciences Bard

Show

Collection of tomes - love the support for options like Mage Hand. I also find the flavor of always having a relevant book immediately on hand, no matter the subject, to be absolutely hilarious (whips out book of 101 pickup lines).

Loose Character - Cool idea! I'm just a bit confused by the death clause, are these magical constructs, or actual people? And how long do they last? Do they require upkeep? Permanent seems a bit odd.

Heroism and villany - What's the difference between protag and antag?

Worlds Collide - Interesting...

Despite getting the gist of the afterword, I am still of the opinion that it's far too powerful for me to play without feeling guilty about it. Also - couldn't you just write your own little original stories in-universe to have exactly what you need at all times? It feels a little...wrong to just create so much, including life, ex nihilo like this.

Spoiler: Draconic Elementalist

Show

Dragon link - Looks good

Draconic Element - Given the existence of gem dragons, you could consider adding sonic, radiant, necrotic, and force as well. The absorption and immunity clauses are a bit strong - could you cast a spell that deals that damage type on yourself to heal/megabuff yourself? Consider Tasha's caustic brew healing you every round for 1 minute. Also, "advantage on casting spells" isn't a thing, but advantage on spell attack rolls is - although I think it's hardly necessary at all, considering everything else. Especially since you could use Scribes Wizard or metamagic to change the element of a spell to conform to your specialty.

Dragon's roar - The sorcery point empowerment clause is very weak (4 points is a steep cost for a measly increase), in contrast to the rest of the feature which I contest is extremely strong. Never underestimate flat damage. Although I'm not sure about spending a sorcery point for this. What if it was proficiency/long rest?

Claws of the elements - Typo: in *tune, not in turn. This is a cool idea for a feature, but the fact that it costs a sorcery point AND concentration AND means you are making a melee attack instead of casting a spell that would probably do more damage, meaning you're a squishy in range of big damage, means that despite the flat damage making it potentially quite strong, especially if combined with Haste or Flurry of Blows, it's really not worth using in my opinion.

Dragon Force - I see what you did there. "Become as if a dragon"? As if a dragon what? Otherwise, seems fine, mostly.

All in all, despite a few wonky balance points to tweak, looks like a cohesive entry! Nice work.

[CountDVB]

Spoiler: Draconic Elementalist

Show

Dragon link - Looks good

Draconic Element - Given the existence of gem dragons, you could consider adding sonic, radiant, necrotic, and force as well. The absorption and immunity clauses are a bit strong - could you cast a spell that deals that damage type on yourself to heal/megabuff yourself? Consider Tasha's caustic brew healing you every round for 1 minute. Also, "advantage on casting spells" isn't a thing, but advantage on spell attack rolls is - although I think it's hardly necessary at all, considering everything else. Especially since you could use Scribes Wizard or metamagic to change the element of a spell to conform to your specialty.

Dragon's roar - The sorcery point empowerment clause is very weak (4 points is a steep cost for a measly increase), in contrast to the rest of the feature which I contest is extremely strong. Never underestimate flat damage. Although I'm not sure about spending a sorcery point for this. What if it was proficiency/long rest?

Claws of the elements - Typo: in *tune, not in turn. This is a cool idea for a feature, but the fact that it costs a sorcery point AND concentration AND means you are making a melee attack instead of casting a spell that would probably do more damage, meaning you're a squishy in range of big damage, means that despite the flat damage making it potentially quite strong, especially if combined with Haste or Flurry of Blows, it's really not worth using in my opinion.

Dragon Force - I see what you did there. "Become as if a dragon"? As if a dragon what? Otherwise, seems fine, mostly.

All in all, despite a few wonky balance points to tweak, looks like a cohesive entry! Nice work.

Draconic Element- Gem Dragons I know are in 3e but not really 5e (that I know of except Sapphire dragon) and I was going off of base stuff, hence the notes added about the additional dragon typing and so on I added to there. And them eating the element is a main point of the inspiration. Like, that's one of the core facets, so making it into a spell or something kinda weakens it.

Though I should note that you cannot use your own spell for the feature. Plus if you're unconscious or so on, you can't use this feature.

Dragon's Roar- I might have miscommunicated that. Let's say you use the feature at 20th level. It would normally do 40 damage. However, for each sorcery point you use, it would go up by half your level, so in this, an additional 10 damage. It's just that you have a cap of 4 sorcery points (a total of 5 sorcery points spent) or 40 additional damage for a total of 80 damage on a successful hit or 40 on a partial hit. The extra sorcery points means you're putting extra oomph in it.

Claws of the Elements- Hmmm.... good point. How about needing a bonus action to activate and remaining active for 1 minute before needing to once more?

Dragon Force- It's not a reference to the band XD. It's what the mode is called.And as for what "as if a dragon" was just me trying to dramatically say being as strong as a dragon.

[CountDVB]

Kept you waiting, huh? Pyromaniac Sorcerer is up!

I love it! It looks like alot of fun though I do think you could do something with cold. Maybe you're burning all the heat from them or something with Coldfire or maybe they suffer a temperatue shock explosion from the sudden conversion of hot to cold?

I am surprised you don't have a feature involving the Pyro's Airblast.

[Phhase]

Draconic Element- Gem Dragons I know are in 3e but not really 5e (that I know of except Sapphire dragon) and I was going off of base stuff

That's fair, I just personally like paying homage to cool things from 3.x that were massacred in the transition to 5e (Which is a great many things).

Dragon's Roar- I might have miscommunicated that. Let's say you use the feature at 20th level. It would normally do 40 damage. However, for each sorcery point you use, it would go up by half your level, so in this, an additional 10 damage. It's just that you have a cap of 4 sorcery points (a total of 5 sorcery points spent) or 40 additional damage for a total of 80 damage on a successful hit or 40 on a partial hit. The extra sorcery points means you're putting extra oomph in it.

Oh, I see, I see. Still not quite convinced, though. Is adding 10 (potentially 5) damage to this attack really worth more than, say, twinning Finger of Death? Between the activation point and the boosting (especially considering you have to max level to get 10 damage per extra point) I'm not convinced that metamagic isn't just better.

Claws of the Elements- Hmmm.... good point. How about needing a bonus action to activate and remaining active for 1 minute before needing to once more?

That helps, but it doesn't fix the fact that everything else a 14th level sorcerer can do is a better idea than making a single melee attack. I get that it fits thematically, and I like the idea, but in this form with no support, it's literally a trap. What if instead of an attack enhancer, it was a burst-style ability? Instead of empowering future attacks that you make, use your action to make an Ora-ora style punch rush of empowered attacks immediately, useable x times per y and either a clause to spend sorcery points to use it again when you have no uses or a clause to spend sorcery points to boost the effect when you do use it. Here, how about this:

At 14th level, you can unleash your draconic might in a blur of furious barehanded attacks. As an action while not wielding a weapon or shield, move up to 30ft without provoking attacks of opportunity. Then, make up to 5 melee attacks, split in any fashion against creatures within your reach. These attacks are unarmed strikes, and you are considered proficient with them for this purpose. Each attack is magical and deals 1d4 + your Strength bonus in bludgeoning damage and your Charisma bonus in the associated elemental damage. You can use this ability a number of times equal to your proficiency score per long rest. If you have no uses remaining, you can spend 3 sorcery points to use it again.

I love it! It looks like alot of fun though I do think you could do something with cold. Maybe you're burning all the heat from them or something with Coldfire or maybe they suffer a temperatue shock explosion from the sudden conversion of hot to cold?

I am surprised you don't have a feature involving the Pyro's Airblast.

Thanks! The issue with cold is it would be weird to be dealing damage that was both fire and cold at the same time. It's not that you have the option to change damage type, it's that all of your damage is now dual-typed. Meh. Just me I guess.

Airblast is a good idea, but there are spells like Thunderwave for knockback, and reflecting projectiles is kinda a monk thing already, not to mention weird to fit into a sorcerer's action economy. And reflecting spells is crazy powerful. I prefer the Axtinguisher finishing move, trading the consistent fire damage for a powerful burst that has the potential to finish them, but relies on you hitting a weapon attack.

[CountDVB]

That's fair, I just personally like paying homage to cool things from 3.x that were massacred in the transition to 5e (Which is a great many things).

Oh, I see, I see. Still not quite convinced, though. Is adding 10 (potentially 5) damage to this attack really worth more than, say, twinning Finger of Death? Between the activation point and the boosting (especially considering you have to max level to get 10 damage per extra point) I'm not convinced that metamagic isn't just better.

That helps, but it doesn't fix the fact that everything else a 14th level sorcerer can do is a better idea than making a single melee attack. I get that it fits thematically, and I like the idea, but in this form with no support, it's literally a trap. What if instead of an attack enhancer, it was a burst-style ability? Instead of empowering future attacks that you make, use your action to make an Ora-ora style punch rush of empowered attacks immediately, useable x times per y and either a clause to spend sorcery points to use it again when you have no uses or a clause to spend sorcery points to boost the effect when you do use it. Here, how about this:

At 14th level, you can unleash your draconic might in a blur of furious barehanded attacks. As an action while not wielding a weapon or shield, move up to 30ft without provoking attacks of opportunity. Then, make up to 5 melee attacks, split in any fashion against creatures within your reach. These attacks are unarmed strikes, and you are considered proficient with them for this purpose. Each attack is magical and deals 1d4 + your Strength bonus in bludgeoning damage and your Charisma bonus in the associated elemental damage. You can use this ability a number of times equal to your proficiency score per long rest. If you have no uses remaining, you can spend 3 sorcery points to use it again.


Thanks! The issue with cold is it would be weird to be dealing damage that was both fire and cold at the same time. It's not that you have the option to change damage type, it's that all of your damage is now dual-typed. Meh. Just me I guess.

Airblast is a good idea, but there are spells like Thunderwave for knockback, and reflecting projectiles is kinda a monk thing already, not to mention weird to fit into a sorcerer's action economy. And reflecting spells is crazy powerful. I prefer the Axtinguisher finishing move, trading the consistent fire damage for a powerful burst that has the potential to finish them, but relies on you hitting a weapon attack.

Yeah, I miss the Gem Dragons too. Heck, if we have the sapphire ones, bring everyone else back in.

Fair point on Dragon's Roar there. I'll see what I can figure out.

I actually really like that idea! I'll tweak it a bit (I think you're always proficient in unarmed strikes regardless), but I very much like it (especially since it could be an homage to a scene from the inspiration, when Natsu fought another Dragon slayer for the first time). Thank you very much!

With Airblast, i was more thinking for things like being able to shove friends out of the way from a distance, putting out fires (after all, you gotta put out that amateur stuff/clean up the mess) and maybe the projectile reflection.

[Ilerien]

By the way, is nominating a ported prestige class from D&D 3.5 stretching it?

The class must fit the theme of the contest. For our twenty-first contest, we are revisiting an old theme: Other Media. It doesn't have to be books; movies, music, TV shows, comics, video games, tall tales, mythological figures, even tabletop games that aren't 5e DD&D are all on the table.

I have a couple of adaptations I consider quite good that have never been shown to general public (yes, I'm a shameless hoarder of homebrew :D) and a brand new beast I adapted from Dragon Age games specifically for the contest before the thread was created with older editions of D&D allowed (to my genuine surprise! ).

[CountDVB]

I updated Draconic Elementalist to 1.2 with the feedback from some more thinking and especially inspiration from Phhase.

[nickl_2000]

First draft of the Artificer, Battling Bowman is out there and ready for review. I will try and get reviews done tomorrow or monday!

[CountDVB]

First draft of the Artificer, Battling Bowman is out there and ready for review. I will try and get reviews done tomorrow or monday!

I spotted a good chunk of those references XD

Also, Antler Arrow fit in because that Quiver is at least 25% Bag of Holding.

Bowman definitely looks pretty good though I am wondering how well it syncs up with the other Infusions and so on.

[nickl_2000]

And here we go again :)

Spoiler: Barbarian: Path of the Titan

Show

Don't forget Cloud and Sephiroth as examples from another genre, although you don't need more support for why this is here, you have plenty.

Titan's Grip - I do have some more questions about "large weapons." Do they lose other properties? What is considered finesse for dex attacks or heavy for GWM? Also, as it is right now, you are allowed large bows and crossbows. Is that okay with you?

Argean Forge - I consider this a fluff ability personally. It's cool thematically and theatrically, but really only makes a difference in the character once they pick up a magical weapon (and I imagine that any DM allowing this class would allow you to find mundane large weapons fairly easily). I feel like level 6 needs something else, maybe an extra skill proficiency or something like that.

Destroyer - Again, this is a cool ability but still pretty fluffy. I am not sure about your games, but the attacking on object doesn't happen all that often that an extra levels worth of skills should be devoted to it. I'm not sure what would fit in here best, but you need another minor or circumstantial ability to make level 10 feel worthwhile getting to.

Titan Sweep - This is a brutal ability, especially with a reach weapon (and a Bugbear). Sure it's somewhat edge case, but a Bugbear with an oversized reach weapon can make an attack with the weapon against all creatures and objects in a 15 foot radius. That has potential to be a lot of creatures and a lot of damage each round.

For the level 14 ability, I don't see myself using anything other than Titan Sweep and Titanic Toss. The other two abilities are good, but nothing compared to the effectiveness of those two in normal situations.

As a side note in your Q&A, as a Giant Ape you don't know how to wield weapons. So, it would be cool but still not that effective.

Overall, I think you have a really cool subclass here, it fits well into the Manga/Comic/Video Game/movie trope and fits the theme really well. As I mentioned in the comments, you have a few levels that are pretty dead and should be boosted.

Spoiler: Bardic College: Library Sciences

Show

A little bit of bolding would make things a lot easier to read :)

Collection of Tomes - Clarification, is this any ability check that utilizes Wis, Int, or Cha or a direct check against Wis, Int, or Cha? This makes a significant difference since otherwise you are effectively giving expertise on more than half the skills (something terribly broken).

Loose Characters - This is an interesting feature, how do you get rid of someone you summoned? How long do they stay summoned?

As a side note, it is unusual that you don't have a use of bardic inspiration usage at level 3

Worlds Collide - How long does this last? What is stopping you from summoning an area in the center of a volcano and sticking people in there?

You have a good theme going here, but I think it needs to be more fleshed out. More of the how longs and more clarification on what you can exactly do.

Spoiler: Sorcerous Origin: Draconic Elementalist

Show

Draconic Element - The damage absorption is a problem here that it allows you to gain HP. If you gain HP through fire and an ally has control flames, create bonfire, or any other cantrip that does fire damage you will never not be at full HP. The better way to do this would be to give THP all the time (no matter how many HP you have). Since current THP are replaced with new THP it helps.

-Lightning - How many lightning attack paralyze? I can't think of any off the top of my head.

Elemental Dragon’s Roar - I'm not saying it's wrong, but it is odd that you don't have variable damage in this at all. Straight damage is not used all that ften.

Dracoelemental Body - So you AC is now 13+Dex+Cha? Seems like that will end up being pretty high for a sorcerer (as in a minimum of 18 AC in a caster class). Other than the AC change, this seems fine to me.

Dragon Force - This seems fine to me.

There is some overlap with the Draconic Sorcerer, but there is enough of a difference that they feel unique.

Spoiler: Sorcerous Origin Pyromaniac

Show

Okay, I really like this class, but I think there are a few possible power problems. For one thing, once you hit level 18 you can completely disable pretty much anyone anytime. Each turn you can cast a Flame Missile (magic missile -> fire) and light someone on fire. Since magic missile cannot miss and there is no save against the level 18 ability I can turn 3 people blind every turn with a first level spell. Then, they either stay blind of waste an action suppressing the flames. You have the ability to completely shut a lot of people down with a 1st level spell.

Hungry Plasma seems like the same thing since a -1 to attack and -1 to AC at the start of each round (especially since they can't stop it before the start of each round). All enemies with weapons and armor will lose it on round 5/6 pretty much all the time.

The other issue I see with this class is that all spells at level 1 deal fire damage and it is completely out of your control So, if you run into something immune to fire before level 18, you literally cannot do damage to it and the Elemental Adept (Fire) feat is basically a feat tax for you.

Caught up for now, as soon as I see more entries I will try and do more reviews :)

I spotted a good chunk of those references XD

Also, Antler Arrow fit in because that Quiver is at least 25% Bag of Holding.

Bowman definitely looks pretty good though I am wondering how well it syncs up with the other Infusions and so on.

I took a look at the infusions and don't see anything that will be a substantial problem. The +1 weapon and elemental weapon will help boost damage overall, but not that much really and this is available to everyone. Returning weapon will allows you to use a thrown weapon instead of a bow for this, which makes the subclass fit more overall genres and types. There are things in there that will certainly help this subclass, but nothing that I look and say "this would be amazingly broken"

[Phhase]

Spoiler: Sorcerous Origin Pyromaniac

Show

Okay, I really like this class, but I think there are a few possible power problems. For one thing, once you hit level 18 you can completely disable pretty much anyone anytime. Each turn you can cast a Flame Missile (magic missile -> fire) and light someone on fire. Since magic missile cannot miss and there is no save against the level 18 ability I can turn 3 people blind every turn with a first level spell. Then, they either stay blind of waste an action suppressing the flames. You have the ability to completely shut a lot of people down with a 1st level spell.

Hungry Plasma seems like the same thing since a -1 to attack and -1 to AC at the start of each round (especially since they can't stop it before the start of each round). All enemies with weapons and armor will lose it on round 5/6 pretty much all the time.

The other issue I see with this class is that all spells at level 1 deal fire damage and it is completely out of your control So, if you run into something immune to fire before level 18, you literally cannot do damage to it and the Elemental Adept (Fire) feat is basically a feat tax for you.

Your point on Hungry Plasma is salient, and I thing I just might make burn damage at the end of turns rather than the beginning. And possibly consider further changes to it after.

Note that blindness doesn't completely shut down all enemies. Enemies that posses blindsight, are immune to being blinded, or that have AOE attacks can still Do Things that aren't extinguish themselves. And if worst comes to worst, if you're in attack range and haven't moved from your tile since last turn, they can still make normal attack rolls at disadvantage on you (assuming that it's an ability that doesn't have a "That you can see" clause). Also note that allies or minor sidekicks/minions can extinguish for them, allowing them to ready their action for when they can see again.

While Magic Missile is powerful in this scenario, it's probably not the most powerful thing that any standard 18th level sorcerer can do.

The "fixed damage type" being a bit of a gimp is intended. The burn effects and the autocrit pseudosmite are VERY strong with the right multiclassing (For example, sneak attack, or Eldritch Smite), so having it keyed off of an inferior damage type is the drawback. And remember, just because they don't take the damage doesn't mean you can't set them on fire, and then Slice the Wick. Hell, some enemies like Fire Elementals probably qualify as Permanently On Fire right from the getgo, opening up Wick Slicing with no setup!

Also, just realized: There's technically no language that prohibits you from changing the damage type of a spell using metamagic! That might help.