D&D Subclass Contest XXIV Voting Thread

[MoleMage]

Contest 24 is done, with 12 complete entries this time!

Simple rules. Vote for your top three picks in order. You can't vote for yourself. A number 1 vote is worth 3 points, a number 2 vote is worth 2, and a number 3 vote is worth one.

Entry	Creator	1st	2nd	3rd
Barbarian: Path of the Troll-kin	Damon_Tor	3	1	3
Monk: Way of the Hin Fist	Ilerien	2	1	0
Sorcerer: Tree of Life	Crim the Cold	0	0	0
Bard: College of Reputation	Snowben Gaming	1	0	1
Monk: Way of Elasticity	nickl_2000	0	1	2
Bard: College of the Celebrity	Kuulvheysoon	0	2	1
Druid: Circle of Iron's Might	BerzerkerUnit	1	1	1
Artificer: Gunman	Oerlaf	0	0	1
Fighter: The Hildolfr	Arkanist	0	3	1
Barbarian: Frog Sage	quindraco	1	0	0
Monk: Way of the MAN	sengmeng	0	0	0
Rogue: The Thug	mr_stibbons	3	2	1

Classes unrepresented in Context XVII: Cleric, Ranger, Paladin, Warlock, Wizard

Warriors of Old carries over from last time, along with four randomly rolled themes from the current valid pool. Remember you can vote for two themes; your top pick earns 2 points and your second pick earns 1.

Theme	Description	1st	2nd
Warriors of Old	Subclasses from previous editions	4	1
Hold the Line	Stationary subclasses	3	4
Points for Everybody	Subclasses with resource points	1	2
Refine Mayhem	Remake an existing subclass	2	1
Keep it Simple	Simple subclasses	1	3

This voting thread will stay open until the end of the day on August 22nd. The following day I will post with the tallied results and declare a winner, then post the next contest thread. Good luck everyone!

[Oerlaf]

1. Rogue: The Thug. I like the balance of the class. I like the concept, and this is one of the archetypes I would play myself.
2. Fighter: The Hildolfr. I have just three words to describe it: battlemaster on steroids. I enjoy it.
3. Druid: Circle of the Iron Fist. Druid that ignores the taboo on wearing metal is something many players would like to try.

Theme voting:
1. Warriors of Old.
2. Refine Mayhem.

[nickl_2000]

1. The Thug - I will follow what I said before. This is a good implementation of the concept and the theme. It's simplicity in action, but at the same time it gives you more option and things to do during combat.
2. Way of the Hin Fist - It may or may not be known, but I have a soft spot for Monks. Always have and always will. This is a good little twist on the concept that fits incredibly well into my mind canon for a monk.
3. College of the Celebrity - It's a fun take and something that fits way to perfectly into the Bard subclass.

1. Hold the Line
2. Keep it Simple

[mr_stibbons]

1.Way of the Hin fist-I feel like this has a strong flavour and mechanics that provide that flavour without being overly complex.
2 The Hildolfr- A a solid fighter archetype with plenty of mechanical depth, and the kind of epic flavour I like in 5e
3. Path of the Troll Kin- a very intriguing fluff concept, showing up an number 3 for possibly being a bit undertuned.

Theme votes
1.Warriors of Old
2. Hold the Line

[Kuulvheysoon]

1. Way of the Hin Fist: I'm not going to lie, I'm as much a fan of the size-differential mechanics as you are (See the Death Delver Bronze medal for Iron Chef XXXV, where I abused size mechanics). The only thing that truly irks me here is the Halfling requirement (which you do later specify is completely optional), but there's still the proficiency to Religion and advantage on halfling religious practices which make no sense with that lifted.
2. Thug Archetype: Clean, simple, easy. I would have preferred a bit more complexity, and the 9th level feature is a little anemic. But it's hardly the first nor last subclass to have bum levels. The capstone is a little on the weak side as well, but that's 17th level, and balance is gone by that point already.
3. College of Reputation: Not sure what it is, but I just like this one?

As for the next Theme, I'm going to toss my votes (in order) to Refine Mayhem and Hold The Line.

[Arkanist]

First off, thanks to everyone who sent in subclasses - I loved reading all your homebrew! It was hard picking my votes, but here they are:

🥇 1. Path of the Troll-Kin: The troll is an iconic D&D monster, and this subclass lets you tap its abilities with simple, evocative mechanics. The fascinating and monstrous idea of being able to make a healing elixir out of your own blood clinched this as my #1. Great work, Damon_Tor!

🥈 2. College of Celebrity: There's more than one way to be big. The sense of arrogance that pervades the class' favor, as well some very useful mechanical tricks help this stand out among its competition. Thanks for making this, Kuulvheysoon!

🥉 3. Way of Elasticity: Sometimes, big doesn't mean there's a lot of you - just that there's enough of you to stretch like disgusting, fleshy taffy. Maybe it's because I main Dhalsim in Street Fighter, but most likely it's because this subclass lets you do some cool things that you really can't do otherwise, with a strong visual throughline of a stretchy body. nickl_2000, you did good!

Theme Voting:
1. Hold the Line
2. Points for Everybody

[Twelvetrees]

I haven't had much time to spare recently for homebrewing, but I can at least cast my votes.

Subclasses

1. Frog Sage: I found this delightfully silly and well executed.
2. Path of the Troll-kin: Overgrowth might have a little too much synergy with heal, but it leans into the theme well, elaborating on it with a specificity of form.
3. The Thug: Simple and straightforward, with enough flexibility to remain interesting. The 9th level ability also happens to be one of the best pieces of homebrew I've seen for a mundane way to shut down a spellcaster. That's admittedly not really relevant, but I wanted to make note of it.

Theme

1. Warriors of Old
2. Keep it Simple

[sengmeng]

1. Rogue: Thug

2. Monk: Way of Elasicity

3. Barbarian: Trollkin


Theme:

1. Keep it Simple
2. Hold the Line

[BerzerkerUnit]

1. College of Reputation
2. College of Celebrity
3. Path of the Troll-kin

1. Stationary Subclass
2. Simple

[RickAsWritten]

1. Damon_Tor's Primal Path- Path of the Troll-kin
2. BerzerkerUnit's Circle of Iron’s Might
3. nickl_2000's Monk: Way of Elasticity

1. Refine Mayhem
2. Hold the Line

[Ilerien]

So many good entries this time. Really hard to pick favorites.

1. Druid: Circle of Iron's Might
2. Rogue: Thug
3. Fighter: The Hildolfr

Contest themes:

1. Warriors of Old
2. Points for Everybody

[Crim the Cold]

Hopefully I can still vote.

1. Path of the Troll-kin
2. The Hildolfr
3. The Gunman

1. Points for Everybody
2. Warriors of Old

[MoleMage]

Alright I'm still running behind but I have tallied the votes.

In 3rd place, we have the smallest subclass in this contest of giants, it's Ilerien's Way of the Hin Fist. The halflings took home 7 points today.

In 2nd place, it's not the hulk but it's close! Damon_Tor's Path of the Troll-kin earned a total of 14 points as much as first place, but since Damon_Tor didn't cast a vote, the tiebreaker goes to...

In 1st place, sometimes crime isn't clever or suave but it's still crime. mr_stibbons's Thug roguish archetype earned 14 points as well, and won the tiebreaker to take 1st!



As for themes, Hold the Line was the winning theme with 10 points earned. Warriors of Old earned 9 points and will be in next month's voting pool again guaranteed.