New D&D 5e Base Class Contest: Discussion Thread

[Notafish]

Thanks for the review and suggestions! I'll do my best to get a final draft by the deadline:)

[animorte]

The Snowman is complete (-ish), featuring Hail and Ice-olation!

I have no doubt that each critique I made on other entries will no doubt have found it's own variation of the same problems throughout mine.

[Just to Browse]

Right under the deadline, well done!

I also finally just finished design notes for the jasarker. Very happy that I no longer have to think about hide armor.

I don't have time to give a thorough review of the Snowman until next week, so I've done a quick skim. Hopefully you see this before the deadline 🤞

Snowball: Really great idea. Your snowball needs to specify its larger range. Ex: spears are have "Thrown (20/60)" because they can be thrown normally within 20 feet or thrown with disadvantage within 60 feet. I think it would be nice if the snowball also had Finesse and could deal damage using Dex, but I haven't taken a deep enough look at the rest of the class to see if that causes problems with subclasses or whatnot.

Snowflake: Loving the concept of the marking mechanic, and the damage gives him an interesting combat pattern. I think Restrained is much too strong of a rider, though. I would recommend both spreading the control effect out to later levels and probably also adding a cooldown or rest resource to it.

Personal Flurry: I think at such a high level, you could safely make your friends immune to the snowman's features instead of just giving them advantage, since it's mostly just protecting them against prone and a small bit of damage?

[animorte]

Right under the deadline, well done!

I also finally just finished design notes for the jasarker. Very happy that I no longer have to think about hide armor.

I don't have time to give a thorough review of the Snowman until next week, so I've done a quick skim. Hopefully you see this before the deadline 🤞

Ah, yes! Much appreciation indeed. I practically live on here, so I'm always up to date.

Spoiler

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Snowball: Really great idea. Your snowball needs to specify its larger range. Ex: spears are have "Thrown (20/60)" because they can be thrown normally within 20 feet or thrown with disadvantage within 60 feet. I think it would be nice if the snowball also had Finesse and could deal damage using Dex, but I haven't taken a deep enough look at the rest of the class to see if that causes problems with subclasses or whatnot.

Fixed. I originally considered making Snowball a cantrip actually. I decided against it so the class could benefit from Strength as a primary stat if it wanted to. I shall indeed fix the range and finesse isn't a bad idea either.

Snowflake: Loving the concept of the marking mechanic, and the damage gives him an interesting combat pattern. I think Restrained is much too strong of a rider, though. I would recommend both spreading the control effect out to later levels and probably also adding a cooldown or rest resource to it.

Fixed. I went with incapacitated at first, but yes the constant rider effect could be nasty considering how consistently the class will be able to hit multiple times a turn at later levels. I'm thinking perhaps that the same creature can't be affected (for a specific period of time) after it fails once?

Personal Flurry: I think at such a high level, you could safely make your friends immune to the snowman's features instead of just giving them advantage, since it's mostly just protecting them against prone and a small bit of damage?

Fixed. I wanted to do a "handing out snow gear to resemble protection," but couldn't decide on how to implement the concept. Yeah, this should be fine considering there are very few threats anyway, melting being the main one.

[Notafish]

I think this is under the deadline?

It's not pretty, but I took the spoiler tags out: The New Orc Ranger

[sengmeng]

Also, Uff Da is weird. It's used for commiseration ("Uff Da, that was a rough patch yah went through there, bud") to low-key complain ("Uff Da, sure is a lot of snow I need ta shovel today") or when something is being annoying ("Uff Da, buddy, yah sure can go on and on about your aunt for a while there, don't 'cha know.") I don't think I've heard it used for celebration or in a positive light, but then, I don't hang around the older generations much outside of work. Minnesotans my age generally use it as a signal for exasperation, basically.

Yeah, you hit it on the head. I think animorte was confusing it with "sköl."

[animorte]

I think this is under the deadline?

Absolutely!

Yeah, you hit it on the head. I think animorte was confusing it with "sköl."

I'm glad to have learned something new!

[animorte]

Don't forget to swing by the voting thread!

Spoiler: a bit of admiration

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Gnomes2169 and Just to Browse consistently make me feel like the two of your are in a league all your own and it's truly inspiring. It provides me with the desire to put even more effort into the improvement of my own creations, provided I have time. (I believe this contest particularly revealed the weakness of my own.)

My wife even agreed, "Yeah, the snowman is not your best work."

[animorte]

Congratulations on victory for sengmeng with the Minnesotan!

Game Night submission thread is ready to go!

[sengmeng]

Congratulations on victory for sengmeng with the Minnesotan!

Game Night submission thread is ready to go!

Thanks for the votes! My Viking ancestors are smiling on me.

[animorte]

We currently have an uncontested entry in the submission thread. If anybody cares to put up a challenge, there's only a few days left!

Otherwise, after that the next theme will be Who Needs Swords or Sorcerery, as it was a tie in the votes and I flipped a coin.

[Old Harry MTX]

We currently have an uncontested entry in the submission thread. If anybody cares to put up a challenge, there's only a few days left!

Otherwise, after that the next theme will be Who Needs Swords or Sorcerery, as it was a tie in the votes and I flipped a coin.

Sadly, I no longer have the time I once had to devote myself to writing an entire class. At least I find the Cardsharp a very interesting entry!

[Just to Browse]

Very close to finished on my entry, mostly working on formatting / equipment / skills. I'll put it up for now and try to get it polished before the deadline.

edit: Okee should be done. Squeaked that one riiiight under the deadline.

[animorte]

Here is the voting thread! The process will be a little different this time around. Good luck!

[animorte]

Congratulations to our winner of Game Night, Just to Browse with Makijenji!

The next contest submission thread is ready to go. Who Needs Swords or Sorcery?

[BerzerkerUnit]

My brainstorming spoiler is full of alpha mechanics in roughly level progression. Any feedback on what I have so far is appreciated.

[Just to Browse]

The Fool is now complete.

My brainstorming spoiler is full of alpha mechanics in roughly level progression. Any feedback on what I have so far is appreciated.

Late on the response here. I like the idea of swapping masks. The most interesting part to me was the 100 faces subclass, and I'd like to see that expanded upon in the main class if possible. The idea that you can swap between a bunch of different forms is really interesting.

[BerzerkerUnit]

The Fool is now complete.



Late on the response here. I like the idea of swapping masks. The most interesting part to me was the 100 faces subclass, and I'd like to see that expanded upon in the main class if possible. The idea that you can swap between a bunch of different forms is really interesting.

Thank you so much for the feedback!

The Fool does look fun, I have a player I know would love it and will give him a look the next time I start a campaign. That said, some minor edits are probably needed since I think you changed some of the feature names. Like Unwitting Strength seems to reference the L15 Wheel of Fortune ability? I believe it happened somewhere else as well. Still, great work!

[Just to Browse]

Blegh. At some point I had the bright idea to try and jam the name of every major tarot card in there, which led to me renaming a bunch of stuff, and I think I probably missed a ton. I'll try and go through the writeup line by line soon to get everything consistent. Editing is a massive weakness of mine.

[SyntheticHuman]

I've started work on the Apothecary, a support class that creates formulas and solutions to aid or sabotage others. So far, I've got a few rather unique mechanics I'm trying my darndest to balance. Once I have something readable, I'll post it for feedback.

[Just to Browse]

Gave a once-over of the Apothecary. I like the idea of harvesting from creatures a lot. Had a few notes:

• The class should probably offer the option for Herbalism Kit proficiency since Alchemical Genius requires it for some features.
• Basic Alchemy seems a little weak. Biting Solution looks solid, but Incandescent's damage is very low (and might need more aggressive scaling than the other options, since HP scales so quickly) and Slowing Solution is pretty weak without Double Dose / Misting Formula.
• I would prefer to see some more Adv/Disad instead of some of the +/- bonuses so it's not quite so easy to stack buffs & debuffs.

[SyntheticHuman]

Gave a once-over of the Apothecary. I like the idea of harvesting from creatures a lot. Had a few notes:

• The class should probably offer the option for Herbalism Kit proficiency since Alchemical Genius requires it for some features.
• Basic Alchemy seems a little weak. Biting Solution looks solid, but Incandescent's damage is very low (and might need more aggressive scaling than the other options, since HP scales so quickly) and Slowing Solution is pretty weak without Double Dose / Misting Formula.
• I would prefer to see some more Adv/Disad instead of some of the +/- bonuses so it's not quite so easy to stack buffs & debuffs.

I just buffed the Basic Solutions, thanks for bringing that to my attention.
I had intended to use the tools required for Alchemical Genius to restrict the options for classes, as Physician will be proficient in Herbalism Kit and Poisoner will be proficient in Poisoner's Kit, but I'm now realizing that's kind of a roundabout way of doing that. I'll probably just shift that to subclass restrictions.
As for advantage and disadvantage, I'm still working on getting Formulas down, so I'll keep that in mind going forward. Thanks so much for the feedback!

Update: I also just finished and released the second subclass, Poisoner.

[BerzerkerUnit]

Changed everything last minute. Monk/Barbarian fusion "the mystic warrior" is in alpha. Hopefully will have something readable up by end of day.

[Funkeel]

I was going to try and get my entry in by now, but Executive Function is an Epic-Level challenge. Still, I want to say that The Fool is incredible and I might just rip off some of its mechanics whole-cloth since I won't be entering my class in. I hope everyone other than me can get their entry in on time!

[BerzerkerUnit]

Changed everything last minute. Monk/Barbarian fusion "the mystic warrior" is in alpha. Hopefully will have something readable up by end of day.

erm. m. g. Just under the wire. Thank you all for creating an environment that got the ADHD cranking in the right direction.

Here's the link: Mystic Warrior

It's the Monk and Barbarian zipped together to create a warrior that fights using an altered mental state that unlocks seemingly supernatural powers. From there you can flavor it to taste getting Persian Immortal, Rifts Juicer, Shaolin Monk, Zulu Warrior, RRR super cop, Punch Out style boxer (although that was kind of full of stereotypes...) etc etc.

They're already trying to break monk away from its classic aesthetic, they should be doing the same with barbarian, so this is a chance to really jump to something multifunction.

Yes, that much competition for bonus actions is deliberate. The Altered State is the best part of rage, but out of combat insisting on maintaining it may not be the best choice.

Forgot to mention Spirit Points come back on a short rest. I'll update the pdf later.

Thanks again all and I would love feedback when possible.

[animorte]

Sorry for the delay. Voting thread is right this way!

[Just to Browse]

Everyone and their dog is gonna write a battlemaster class in the next contest, aren't they?... hmmmmm

[animorte]

Everyone and their dog is gonna write a battlemaster class in the next contest, aren't they?... hmmmmm

Let's break the mold! (Provided I have time.)

Did you see "I Read This in a Book Once" subclass contest? There were 4 Spider-Man entries.

[Snowben Gaming]

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[Just to Browse]

Let's break the mold! (Provided I have time.)

🫡

Been brainstorming some alternative options:

• Basically every artificer subclass
• 4-elements monk
• Most (all?) of the half-caster subclasses as a dedicated gish
• Bladesinger
• Some of the more option-y Barbarian subclasses could be expanded
• Beastmaster ranger where you focus on the animal companion.

I'd also like to give an old class a glow-up. A 4-elements monk that lets you play something out of Avatar would be pretty slick, but I think I'm going to go for the Storm Herald. There's a lot of cool stuff you can do with storm magic, but Storm Heralds (and Barbarians generally) don't feel that exciting. Lots of opportunities to give the class a glow-up.