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[roserysttrpggarden]

Apocalyptic Subclasses UA review

Hi there~!

Well, it's that time of the month again, no, is isn't a period. It's WOTC putting out their newest batch of unearthed arcana for 5e 2024! I am definitely not a month late for this!

Anyways, this document contains four brand spanking new subclasses based around the apocalypse (basically the dark sun setting, but it isn't officially called that in the UA), those being the Circle of Preservation Druid, Gladiator Fighter, Defiled Sorcery Sorcerer, and the Sorcerer King Warlock.

In this write up, I will give an overview of each of the subclasses, as well as giving my thoughts on each subclass, what I like, what I dislike and more, and then give my overall thoughts on this UA package right at the end. Let's go.

Circle of Preservation Druid

The first subclass in this UA drop is the Circle of Preservation, a druid that's about, get this...Preserving nature, shocking, I know. Limited flavor aside, how does the subclass itself fair?

The circle spells are decent enough, Bless is always good, Lesser and Greater restoration are nice, Death ward is good to have, an overall decent spell list.

My issues with this subclass begin, just about right away with the Preserve Land feature, which lets you expend a Wildshape use to create a 15-foot cube of revitalizing energy that either grants 1d4 + Druid level in temporary hit points, or ends a Poisoned or Frightened condition of a creature that ends its turn in the radius. For those familiar with 5e, this might be giving you PTSD flashbacks to the Twilight Sanctuary feature, granted, this version is weaker in some ways, that being its only a 15 foot cube as opposed to the 30 foot sphere that Twilight Sanctuary was (though unlike the former, you can move around the preservation area, since it isn't centered on you) and you get on average 1 less temp hit point, but I am still concerned about the number of temp hit points this feature gives, Twilight was known for being able to make the party neigh invincible, and while I haven't personally playtested the class, I have a feeling the same could happen here.

The last feature you get at 3rd-level: Student of Preservation is a ribbon, you can cast druid spells without material components, and you have a 10 percent chance not to consume a material component as part of a spell, which is nice but, why is there a codified percent? How am I meant to determine it? Do I roll for it? Is it up to the DM??? It's so confusing to have a built in percentage in the dice rolling game. Oh you also get proficiency with an artisan tool, which is nice.

6th-Level nets us the Improved Preservation feature, which grants us an all allies in our Preserved Land a bonus to CON saves equal to our Wisdom modifier, as well as a mini spirit guardians effect that deals 2d10 damage on a failed save, in addition to halving an enemies speed, as if Preserved Land wasn't strong enough I suppose? 10th-Levels Facilitated Restoration lets us cast Lesser or Greater Restoration a number of times equal to our WIS modifier without expend a spell slot, not exactly the most original feature for 2024, but I guess it makes sense for the preservation theme.

And the subclass capstone is Sacrosant Land, which increases the range of Preserved Land to a 30 foot cube, and lets us use our Reaction to half the damage a creature within the cube takes, simple but effective.

Final Thoughts. Yeah I don't like this subclass very much. Power wise, I worry the subclass might run into similar issues that Twilight Sanctuary was rather infamous for (IE: Bumping up the needed difficulty of an encounter by several CR). Granted, a 15 foot cube is much, much smaller than Twlights 30 foot sphere, but the preserved land area also gets several additional benefits as you gain levels on top of the temp HP, like a mini spirit guardians and bolstering Con saves (one of the most important saves in the game), whereas Twilight Sanctuary only ever gets an upgrade at 17th level, which is the end of the adventure for an average campaign. I obviously can't say anything definite about its power since its still in playtest, and I haven't tried this subclass, but I am still cautious about its power. I also don't vibe with the flavor of the subclass that much, obviously for the apocalyptic/dark sun style campaign its great, but it also feels kind of, generic in a sense? Like oh, you are a druid that protects nature...Like what most people envision a druid doing anyways, it's not that there isn't potential in the subclass, I just don't think the theme is super strong. Next subclass.

Gladiator Fighter

The next subclass is the Gladiator fighter, the best way to describe this subclass is that you're a showman or wrestler (a bit like the gladiator movie) turning every battle into a theatrical performance, but will said performance bring glee? Or put me to sleep?

The first feature the Gladiator fighter gets is Brutality, where once per turn you get to activate a Brutality effect, which adds an extra Weapon Mastery property to an attack, and adding an additional effect on top of it, to briefly go over each option

Bleed adds the Sap property and causes the target to take extra damage equal to your Charisma modifier

Bluff adds the Vex property and causes the next saving throw you make to be made at advantage

And Stumble adds the Topple property and allows the target to only take an Action or Bonus action on a turn, not both.

Bleed and Bluff are good, Stumble I think i kind of meh, though that might be out of my disdain for the Topple property as a whole, but the features decent overall. You also gain the Combat Theatrics feature at this level, which grants proficiency with your choice Acrobatics, Athletics, Deception, Intimidation, or Performance. As well as granting a bonus to any Acrobatics and Athletics checks you make equal to your Charisma modifier, not a crazy ribbon, but it fits the "Fight for the crowd" idea that gladiators are known for.

7th-Level brings us the Flourish Parry feature, which lets you add your Charisma modifier to your AC in response to an attack, and if it misses, you get to make a melee attack against them, which also allows you to use one of your Brutality effects without expending a use for it. You can only make the counterattack once per long rest (meaning the parry itself is infinite use), interestingly though, you can regain an expended use of the counterattack whenever you use Second Wind, which I think is neat. I do wish this feature was instead a taunt personally, the parry and counterattack fits, but I also think a "get over here and fight me" style taunt would fit the showman vibe, but that's just a personal gripe.

The next feature you get is Bolstered Brutality, which adds the following three options to your Brutality feature

Rive adds the Cleave property and lets you add your ability modifier to the cleave attack

Rush adds the Push property and lets you move up to your speed without provoking opportunity attacks

And Stagger adds the Slow property and causes the target to suffer disadvantage on the next saving throw it makes.

All of these options are alright, with Stagger probably being the standout for its potential to combine with save or suck effects, not a bad improvement overall.

15th-level grants you Brutal Resurgence, which lets you regain one use of Brutality when you use Action Surge, or when you use Second wind to regain hit points, which means by this level (assuming you have a +4 in your Charisma at least) you can have up to 9 uses of Brutality, not counting the uses you'd get as part of Flourish Parrys counterattack which is a shame, but hey, i'll take more uses of my core feature any day.

Rounding off this subclass at 18th-level you get the mutilate feature, which lets you, once per turn force a Bloodied creature to make a Constitution saving throw, and on a failed save they either can only make one attack as part of the attack action, or have their speed halved and suffer a -2 penalty to their AC, which lasts until they regain hit points. The best part? This feature only goes on "cool down" once a creature fails its saving throw, so you can keep doing this over and over until they finally fail their save

Final Thoughts. Yeah honestly? I like this subclass. I wouldn't say its great, but I do like how it utilizes all the weapon masteries, and I like the idea of a showy prize fighting style fighter, which the subclass revels in. That being said, I do think it needs some improving, in which I have listed some ways it can get buffed bellow.

Brutality: I'd change it from once per turn to once per attack action, it'd function largely the same, but it would have better synergy with Action Surge, which the subclass encourages the use of thanks to Brutal Resurgence, speaking of which.

Brutal Resurgence; I'd remove the "to restore hit points" cause from the feature, since you already are encouraged to spend Second Wind to regain a use of Flourish Parrys counterattack, I also just don't think being able to regain the counterattack, and a use of Brutality at once is that crazy in the grand scheme of things?

Mutilate: I think it'd be fine if you could use this against non bloodied creatures, it's 18th level for crying out loud, why does the capstone only work near the end of a combat? But to keep the critical injure theme, maybe have it where, if you do use it on a Bloodied creature, you extra damage equal to half your Fighter level + Charisma modifier, maybe half as much on a successful save too? Maybe let you regain a use of it after using Action Surge, or maybe when you score a critical hit cause its just so exciting? Something like those to give it the slight push it needs to turn it from an okay capstone to a great one.

Other than those changes, I generally like the gladiator for what it is, certainly better than the bruiser fighter that was in the pre release UA's, that's for sure. Onto the next subclass.

Defiled Sorcery Sorccerer

Our next subclass is the, third new sorcerer subclass in the UA (the lucky bastards), titled: Defiled Sorcery. (As a side note, I hate that all 2024 sorcerer subclasses have sorcery in their name)

Rant aside, this subclass is all about draining the life from yourself and foes alike, using them to bring rot and devastation upon the world, defile it if you will.

The Defiler spells is, meh? A lot of poisoning which, while on making sense for thematic reasons, I hope I don't have to tell you why it isn't particularly strong. That being said, inflict wounds, bestow curse and hallucinatory terrain are nice.

The core feature this subclass provides you is Defile and Empower, which lets you, once per turn to expend and roll a number of hit dice equal to half the level a spell you cast, adding it to the damage of the spell you caster. Alternatively, you can force a creature within 30 feet to make a Constitution save, or you can steal their hit dice to replicate the same effect

6th level gets you the Corrupted Caster feature, which nets you two benefits. Firstly, whenever you create a spell slot using sorcery points, you gain temporary hit points equal to 1d6 per the level of the spell slot you created, and if a creature hits you with a melee attack while these are active, they take Necrotic or Poison damage equal to your Charisma modifier. Your sorcerer spells and features also ignore resistance to Necrotic and Poison. Getting a mini armor of agathys when you create a spell slot is always nice, ignoring Resistance to Necrotic and Poison isn't that helpful (last I checked I don't think sorcerer gets that many poison or acid spells, besides the ones on the Defiler spells table) but it makes sense, and if you are gonna lean into being a necrotic and poison caster, ignoring resistance is obviously welcomed.

14th-Level grants you the Withering Aura feature, while Inate sorcery is active, you emit a 15 foot emmination that both reduces damage you take equal to your Charisma modifier, and if a creature dies in your auras radius, you regain 1d4 Sorcery points. The reduction in damage is nice and pairs nice with both Defile and Empower and Defilers Ward, additionally, while 1d4 isn't a whole lot of sorcery points, regaining sorcery points is still nice to have, its an alright feature all around.

Rounding this subclass off, 18th-level gets you the Superior Defiler feature, which causes you to be immune to being Poisoned and Exhaustion, increasing your Withering Aura to a 30 foot aura, and causing anyone in the aura to be unable to regain hit points. This is, honestly a meh capstone, the best part is probably the poison immunity and the improvement to defiler aura, the other two features are meh

Final Thoughts. I think this subclass is alright, there's nothing that particularly stands out as "wow I love this" or "this shit is ass," its just a bunch of decent features, there's really nothing else I can say about this subclass to be honest. Onto the final subclass.

Sorcerer King Patron

The last subclass in this UA is the Sorcerer King Patron warlock, your patron is, for lack of better words, a fascist, and you channel and enforce their authority. It's also a partially psionic subclass? I assume it cause the sorcerer kings from dark sun are partially psionic? But if any viewer is familiar with the Dark Sun lore, you can correct me on that one in the comments.

To start, the Sorcerer King spells are rather decent: Command, Fear, Compulsion, Dominate Monster and Synaptic Static are all great, you also get Compelled Duel and two smite spells which, I think is a little odd cause the subclass doesn't particularly feel martially, but they do fit the overwhelming authority thing the subclass has going on, so i'll take it. You also get the Tyrants Herald feature at this level, which grants proficiency in Intimidation (expertise if already proficient) and you get to cast command as a Bonus action

6th-level grants you the Decisive Edict, whenever you cast a pact magic spell, you create a 30 foot emmination that causes creatures to either gain advantage on their next attack roll, or become Frightened on a failed wisdom save, you can only use it once per short or long rest, and regain a use whenever you utilize Magic Cunning. Personally? I like the idea of the feature, but I hate that you can only use it once, on top of needing to expend a Pact slot to use it, like for a Warlock, a pact slot is already a big resource to expend as a Warlock (even with magical cunning) like even if it means reducing the range or making it so you can only target like, a number of creatures equal to the level of the pact slot instead? The ideas good, but needs more refining

10th level grants you Vindictive Rebuke where when a creature hits you with an attack roll, you can use your Reaction to have it reroll the attack, and if it misses you, it takes Psychic damage equal to your Warlock level

And finally, at level 14, you get the Absolute Tyranny feature your capstone, which lets you target an extra creature when you cast command, and any creature that you Frightened automatically fails its saving throw against any Command spell you cast. Do I have to reiterate how strong the feature is? A free "upcasting" of command, and a way to make creature automatically fail their saving throw against it? If you combine this feature with Decisive Edict, you could cast command, use the Oppress option, frightened a creature with it, and then cause the creature to fail its save against command. Its not a particularly innovative capstone, but it is really good for what it is.

Final Thoughts. Honestly, I like this subclass way more upon rereading it than I did on an initial read through, the features arn't exactly the most innovative, but every feature here synergizes well withh eacother and fits the tyrannical ruler theme the subclass is going for, they knocked it out of the park with this one.

Closing thoughts

Overall, I think this UA packet was decent, definitely better than the Arcane subclasses UA (which I forgot to do a review of). There's definitely some work to still be done, i'm concerned about Preservation Druid after all, but I think at a baseline, this is probably my favorite of the UA's they've done so far, at least there weren't any previous subclasses for them to butcher this time.

That's about all I have for this Unearthed Arcana review, If you enjoyed my late night ramblings about D&D's playtest content, I hope you'll join me again for any future reviews I do, or anything else I put up on this blog.

Stay safe, go out and play some D&D, see you later and bye.

[roserysttrpggarden]

Hi there~!

I come to you all with the first draft of a brand new class i've been working on: The Juggernaut. Inspired by the likes of Guts, Reinhardt, and Mordekaiser, the Juggernaut is a knightly class that focuses on protecting its allies using nothing more than heavy armor, shields, and big weapons (and perhaps some magic depending on the subclass).

In this write up, I plan on giving a brief overview of the juggernaut class, what its role is, how to play it, its subclasses, as well as my design process when creating it. Without further ado, lets get into it.

Playing a Juggernaut

The Juggernaut is a full martial tank that I envision as a defensive focused counterpart to the Barbarian, while the former focuses on dealing high sustained damage and taking hits, you focus on hampering your foes, in additional to taking damage for your team. To accomplish this, the Juggernaut uses the following:

Weakened: Weakened is a new condition exclusive to the juggernaut class, which it applies by landing attacks with juggernaut weapons or by grappling/shoving foes, creatures that are weakened deal less damage and have their speed reduced. As the juggernaut grows, it gains new ways to apply weaken, as well as additional effects to those with the Weakened Condition.

Sentinels Aura: Another key factor in the Juggernauts gameplay loop is its sentinel aura. Like the paladins aura, its a radius that extends from the juggernaut so long as its wearing heavy armor. This aura allows the juggernaut to further reduce the movement speed of Weakened creatures, as well as allowing you to use your Reckless guard reaction, which lets you become the target of an attack originally meant for your allies, and make an attack against the attacker if they miss you. The aura also gains improvements later on depending on your chosen dedication.

Reactions: With its defensive nature in mind, the Juggernaut focuses on utilizing reactions to achieve its goats. At later levels, the juggernaut is able to take multiple reactions per round as well as not being able to loose its reaction.

Subclasses

Within this document, there are eight subclasses (known as dedications) for the juggernaut, each of which are meant to provide alternative ways of control/tanking. The subclasses included within this document are as follows.

The Battlemind is a psionic focused subclass similar to a Psi warrior or Soulknife, it manifests psychic powers to push and pull foes, create barriers of psychic energy, as well as redirecting oncoming attacks from itself and back to its enemies.

The Devastator is your archetypal juggernaut (similar to the devotion paladin or champion fighter) dealing extra damage to weakened creatures and being able to reduce damage it takes.

The Hellion is a fiendish subclass with a focus on dealing damage and terrifying its foes.

The Martyr is a divine subclass that is able to transfer damage its allies take onto itself, as well as burning its foes with righteous judgement. After all, how dare they even think of harming your allies.

The Stoneguard calls upon the powers of the earth to raise up parts of the land as pillars or walls, using them to provide cover, or to wreck havoc upon their enemies.

The Titanslayer is a giant subclass best suited to taking on any dragons, krackens or tarrasques that your party may come across, you're able to grow large, deal more damage, and becoming an immovable force.

The Undertaker is the death themed subclass that areas of desecration that rot enemies within them, as well as bringing back fallen foes as temporary Sentinels to fight alongside them.

And lastly: The Weave Guardian is a magical subclass that grants temporary hit points to its allies and turn a casters magic back at itself.

Design Goals

My overall goal for the juggernaut class was to make you (metaphorically) feel like a huge force on a battlefield, like you are this massive presence that your foes simply cannot ignore without consequences. Each of the Juggernaut features are designed to put your enemies in a loosing minigame where they have one of two bad choices:

Option A: The opponent attacks one of your allies, potentially dealing less damage and triggering one of your potent reactions (such as Reckless guard), which could result in them eating a reaction attack to the face.

Option B: The opponent attacks you, which isn't great since you're a d12 class with heavy armor and a focus on Constitution. While also potentially dealing less damage.

When put together, the juggernaut is meant to do three things: Take hits, disrupt enemies, and waste time, everything a good tank should be doing.

The juggernaut was also designed to fill the full tank where the other official classes can't, sacrificing raw offensive power for sheer defense and control. The Barbarian, while also having a d12, is more of a striker with the ability to take a lot of hits. Additionally, while subclasses like the Ancestral Guardian barbarian and Cavalier Fighter do provide the "i will take hits for my enemies" tanking fantasy most would expect, there's only so much disadvantage on attack rolls against anyone by yourself can do to draw enemy fire (IE: what if they just throw a fireball). Is is with the juggernaut that I wanted to have a full class that can fill in that tank fantasy without you needing to take a specific subclass/feats to do so

Lastly, I wanted to create a martial that felt very different to play than the likes of your Barbs, Fighters or Monks. While martials are my favorite to play and write for, I do think the official martials is lacking variety in terms of playfeel (If you ever seen people criticize the martials for only taking the Attack action on their turn, you'll get when I mean), each of 5e's current martials are strikers that occasionally dip into other roles depending on subclass/feat choice which, while isn't the biggest deal, is still an area I think can use improvement. It's this lack of variety that lead me design the Juggernaut as I did, while the class still uses the same weapons/shields the other martials do, my hope is that the Juggernaut has its own play identity, where the focus is more on reacting to threats as they happen.

That's all I have to yap about in regards to the Juggernaut. Feel free to bring the class to your tables, as well as provide any feedback you might have for the class (Such as spelling, power, etc). And make sure to share it around with people you know.

That's about all I have for today. I hope you enjoy the juggernaut and any other homebrew I may put out. Stay safe, have fun, and go make some homebrew.

[roserysttrpggarden]

The Exalted Class Playtest 2

Hi there! It's been a while, hasn't it?

I come here today with a second playtest of my original martial class for D&D 5th-edition: The Exalted.

For those that either haven't seen this class before or need a refresher, The Exalted is a class inspired by folklore heros and demigods such as Achilles, Sun Wukong, Maui, Cú Chulainn and more, you are an individual that, weather it be through a great beast you've slain, a legendary weapon, or a gift from the gods themselves-have awakened a spark of divinity within yourself. You now harness powers previously reserved for the gods, channeling your willpower into powerful Providence abilities.

Since the last playtest, the class has been just about completely reworked and refined. This document contains the full level 1/20 Exalted class, as well as 8 subclasses (known as deific dominions), 38 aspects, and three new conditions used in exalted class features.

Feel free to leave any comments or feedback you might have, bring this class to your tables, and share it around with those you know.

That's about all I have for today. I hope you enjoy the exalted and any other campaign Stay safe, have fun, and go make some homebrew.

[roserysttrpggarden]

Psion Class UA review

Hi there~!

So, just sixdays ago as of the time of writing this, WOTC has put out a brand new UA for the new Psion class, D&D 5th-editions first new class since the Artificer released all the way back in 2019 (and was later reprinted in tasha's). For those familiar with 5e history at all, this is not the first time WOTC has attempted a psionic class, as back in 2014's UA they tested (and subsequently scrapped) the Mystic class from 2015 to 2017, i'm glad WOTC has decided to give a psionics class another go around, as I believe there's so much to the psionic concept that two subclasses and a couple of spells/feats can't accomplish on their own, but how does the new Psion fair?

I'm going to give my unfiltered thoughts on everything in this document so far, from the Psion base class, the subclasses, the spells and the feats. Strap in, cause this is going to be a long post, so I hope you don't mind listening to a nerd ramble for however long this ends up being.

The Base Class

Unlike the Mystic before, the psion is a full caster similar to the likes of sorccerer, druid and wizard, thus it's base features are similar to the listed classes: d6 hit die, Int as the focus ability score, INT and WIS save proficient, simple weapon proficiency (with no armor training). Nothing groundbreaking if you've played a 5e caster before.

The first feature the Psion gets is spellcasting, which, is exactly the same as the other full caster thus-far, with the added ability to ignore verbal and material components on any psion spell it casts, unless the spell has a material component it consumes or that has a GP cost, while not a massive benefit, it is thematic for a Psion, so I like it. The spell list itself also rather solid, with lots of control/utility options such as Command, Sleep, Hideous Laughter, Hold Person, Invisibility, Mirror Image, Fear, Fly and more, it feels like a solid mix of the bard and sorccerer's spell list.

Also at level 1 it gets the Psionic Power feature, it gains four d6 Psychic energy dice (similar to the Psi-warrior or soul knife) which it can spend on two abilities at this level: Telekinetic Propel and Telepathic Connection, the number of dice, as well as the size of the dice increase as you gain levels in Psion. Both of these are essentially better versions of the Telekinetic and Telepathic feats, still not bad to have.

At 2nd-level the Psion gains two features, firstly, the psion gains access to disciplines, which i'll cover after wrapping up the base class, you gain two disciplines at this level and gain more as you level up, think of the disciplines as essentially maneuvers you can spend your energy dice on. Also at this level you gain the Psionic mode feature where, as a Bonus action, you can enter either and Attack or Defense mode for one minute, twice per long rest. Attack mode allows any attack roll, spell or psion feature you use to ignore resistance to Psychic damage and, when you roll for damage with a Psion spell, you can spend an energy die to rereoll a number of damage dice equal to your Int modifiier, meanwhile, Defense mode grants you resistance to Psychic damage and allows you to, as a Reaction to failing an INT, WIS or CHA save to roll a energy die, adding it to the total. Aside from the boring name, I like this feature a lot, it's usefulness varies depending on how often you're dealing with Psychic damage (much less creatures resistant to it), but for the situations you do, it's alright.

After getting your psion subclass and feat, Psionic restoration is basically the same as Font of Inspiration on the bard. Psionic Surge is an interesting feature that I have some thoughts on, first off, I like the idea of the psion using hit point dice, there's so much fiction about psions hurting themselves to unleash their powers, and I think it accomplishes the idea very nicely, however, I also feel its rather late to introduce hit point dice mechanics, but besides that gripe, its an alright feature. To finish off the Psion base features, Enkindled Lifeforce is an alright capstone, spending two additional hit dice to add two energy die to a psion feature is decent, though unless you were running low on energy dice, i'm not sure how often you'll end up using this feature, but hey, it's still better than the ranger capstone!

Final Thoughts. Well, it sure is a spellcaster alright. The features here are decent, but nothing that makes me wow'd (though that is expected of a full caster like this), but I like what's presented so far. In general though, I feel like some of the tracking elements of the class should be toned down, as you have to track spell slots, energy dice, and hit point dice all at once, and for me, that's a bit too much to track all at once. Not that i'm against complex classes (I like writing complex classes myself), but I still think it'd improve the player experience if at least some of the tracking was toned down, but more on how i'd improve that in the last section of this review, for now, let's move onto the disciplines.

Disciplines

Now onto the Disciplines.

Biofeedback is decent, 6ish temp hit points at the level you get it is always nice to have for how squishy you are, even moreso given how hungry the class is for hit dice at level 7 and beyond, Destructive Thoughts sounds good on paper, but unfortunately, there aren't that many conjuration or evocation spells on the psion spell list (much less ones with a saving throw), not counting subclass-specific spells, the only spell you have that could synergize with destructive thoughts is Shatter, which isn't a bad spell per say, but it's still only one spell for most of your career until you get Blade barrier (which is a 6th-level spell by the way). Devilish Tongue, Expanded Awareness and Tactical mind all basically do the same thing (allowing you to add an energy die to the influence, search and study action respectively), they're fine, It's cool they're using the new actions, no complaints. Ego whip is, rather odd to say the least, it replaces an opportunity attack (which, unless you're a Metamorph, you're not gonna be close enough to use this, nor should you be that close) the effect is okay? I guess, reducing speed and the next damage roll the target makes is decent, but I also have no idea why you would be in range to even use the opportunity attack trigger in the first place unless you were a metamorph, it's alright.

Id Insinuation (try saving that five times fast) is one of the stronger disciplines available, removing a d6 (up to a d12) from a saving throw is crazy good, only bolstered by the fact that the Psion has a lot of strong Enchantment spells on its base spell list: Charm Person, Command, Sleep, Hold Person, Fear, Confusion, Compulsion, and Geas are but some of the great spells this discipline affects, this and the next discipline might be a must pick, which is Innerant Aim, I don't know if I need to tell you this, but adding a +3 to an attack roll at the level you get this is crazy good, on top of the fact that the die is only spent if the attack hits, so you could just keep using this discipline until you finally hit someone. Psionic backlash is good, but I honestly think is too wordy for its good, first you spend an energy die, then roll two energy die, subtracting the total from the triggering attack roll, and you force it to make a Wis save, and it takes Psychic equal to the two energy die if it fails, it's not a bad effect, I just think the wording is really clunky for what it is, I feel like if it was instead you roll one die, subtracted it from the attack roll, and if the attacker misses they then took psychic damage it'd work much better.

Psionic Guards is situational, but good, cleansing a Charmed or Frightened off yourself is good, and being able to use this discipline on top of an additional one is nice too, no complaints. And lastly, swift precognition is also really strong, expensive yes, but i'm not gonna complain about being able to cast Blade Ward, True Strike or Banishment as a Bonus Action, unfortunately, most divination spells (especially at higher levels) are roleplay/utility spells, so I don't know how much use you'll be getting out of those spells, but besides that, this is a good discipline.

Final Thoughts. Generally, the disciplines here are decent, but I think could still use some work. I feel rather mixed on the disciplines that revolve around certain spell schools, some are really good-bordering on too good like Id Insinuation and Swift Precognition, while others, such as Destructive thoughts don't feel that well balanced around the schools they're meant to interact with, I honestly think some of the stronger disciplines could just be given at higher levels (like invocations) and it'd be better. I also think two of the disciplines (Id Insinuation and Psionic Backlash) are a bit wordy for what they do and can use some additional cleanup (and tactical mind should be renamed since there already is a fighter feature called that). With the disciplines covered, lets move onto the next part.

Subclasses

This document comes with your subclasses for the Psion: The Metamorph, Psi Warper, Psykinetic and Telepath.

The Metamorph is the gish subclass of the Psion, based around you using your mind to physically warp and alter your flesh. The expanded spell list is decent, a nice mix of healing + gishy spells like Haste and Stoneskin, the organic weapons are all good (though I think the maul could have higher damage), getting the bladesinger/valor bard extra attack is nice, also being able to expend an energy die to cast Cure Wounds as a bonus action, and add the energy die to the healing is nice to have with how squishy the subclass is. Mutable form is a good improvement to extend limbs, and each of the three benefits are good in their own right. To round off this subclass, Life bending weapons is a decent enough capstone, getting a mini smite + healing your frontline party members is decent.

Final Thoughts. this is by far my favorite of the subclasses in the document, I'll admit, I am biased since I am a fan of gish subclasses, but I think this has the most interesting concept of the currently existing gishes, my one criticism of the class is that it doesn't get anyway to improve it's defense, which sucks for a d6 class that has no armor training, nor the Shield spell to make up for it. I feel like the subclass needs some kind of natural armor, or something similar to the draconic resilience feature on the Dragon sorccerer, The subclass is also rather bonus action heavy, as both extend limbs and quickened healing require you to use a bonus action, so I think some action compression could be helpful. But besides those two gripes, I love this subclass.

The Psi warper is the teleporting subclass, that teleports things, and itself (riveting, I know). Keeping with that, the expanded spells provide all the essential teleporting spells like Misty step, Blink, Haste, Dimension door and Steel Wind Strike, you also gain a free casting of misty step once per long rest, which you can replenish by expending an energy dice, which, while very unoriginal for 2024 still isn't the worth to have, you also can now teleport creatures with Telekinetic Propel rather than just pushing them, its nothing but, but its still okay. Warp space is really cool, increasing shatter's radius to be equal to fireball, and adding a pull effect is nice and I could see it comboing real well with a blaster caster on your turn. Duplicitous target is good, but I wish you could use it on an unwilling creature, cause the idea of having a boss kill its own minion sounds fun to me. Rounding out this subclass, Mass teleportation is okay, I guess you could teleport a group of enemies into the air so they fall? but otherwise, this is a really boring capstone.

Final Thoughts. Unfortunately, I do not have nearly as much praise for this subclass as the Metamorph before, while this subclass pair sreal nice with a spike growth druid, a cleric concentrating on spirit guardians, or anyone with the fireball spell, nothing about the subclass feels that flavorful or punchy in a way you'd want a subclass to feel if that makes sense, and all the features presented just feel very boring aside from the Shatter improvement, like the archfey warlock feels like a much more interesting teleporting subclass than this. The psiwarper isn't a bad subclass by any means, I just think there can be more done to make the concept interesting.

The Psykinetic is the subclass that amplifies the psions telekinetic and blasting potential. It's expanded spell list has a decent mix of control and damaging spells like Thunderwave, Shield, Slow, and the ever-powerful Wall of Force, it's enhancements to Telekinetic propel are also nice, if nothing crazy. Empowered attack mode is crazy good, 60 foot flying speed at only 6th level (if I recall the Fly spell at this level is only 30 feet) and adding your INT modifier to your spells is really good. Enhanced Telekinetic Crush is pretty bad for its level, granted, telekinetic crush does affect a big area (being a 30-foot cube), but I feel the feature needs some extra bit of spice to really feel worth it, like maybe grappling or restraining creatures that fail their save?. For the final feature of this subclass, Heightened Telekinesis is a fine enough capstone, spending 4 dice to make telekinesis concentrationless, and allowing it to target gargantuan creatures and objects is good, nothing much more to say about it.

Final Thoughts. This subclass feels rather middle of the road for me, the features here are decent, empowered attack mode is really, really good for what it's worth, but nothing wows me about this subclass like the metamorph before, also despite sentence summary of the subclass stating quote "Mold Psionic Force for Creation and Destruction" there isn't a lot of creating with its class features, I mean it does have spells like Wall of force and Stoneshape to fit the theme, but I think its funny non of the creation idea is represented in this class features themselves, but that's ultimately a nitpick on my end.

The last subclass presented in this document is the Telepath, this is your bread and butter "doesn't do too much but expands what you were already doing" subclass, like the bezerker barbarian or the champion fighter. The expanded spells are decent, Bane, Command, Counterspell, Compulsion and Confusion are always nice to have, Mind infiltrator is unfortunately a ribbon feature, and an expensive one too at that, for the situation you'd need this feature it's good, the same thing goes for Telepathic Hub, it's a decent improvement to Telepathic connection, but nothing more than that. Empowered Defense form is decent improvement, d4 to a saving throw, and sharing that with people you're telepathically connected with is good, and potent thoughts is a decent damage boost, similarly, telepathic bolstering is good, turning failed attack rolls or checks into success's is always gonna be a good feature given the kind of game 5e is. To finish off this subclass Scrambled Mind is a really good capstone (and probably the best capstone of any subclass in this UA). The improved radius is massive, and causing two effects to anyone that fails its saving throw is really good.

Final Thoughts. Despite ending on a high note, this subclass is probably my least favorite of the four presented, it's without a doubt the best subclass out of combat, which is not something i'll ignore, but I feel like most of the features don't feel super evocative/punchy, I wouldn't call it outright bad, there's just nothing much interesting or great about this subclass.

Spells and Feats

The last thing i'll be covering from this is the new spells and feats introduced with this UA.

Summon Astral Entity is a decent summoning spell, nothing crazy, but I won't complain about more tasha's summoning spells, telekinetic crush is a decent blasting spell, and a group prone is always nice for any martials in your part. And for the last of the new spells, Telekenetic Fling is an interesting signature cantrip for the Psion. If you're curious, the returning spells are basically the same with the sole exception of mind whip, which now only prevents opportunity attacks, no longer canceling reactions (which is similar to many former reaction disablers).

Onto the feats. The kenesis feats (such as pyrokenesis) generally aren't that interesting, just giving you a couple extra spells + allowing you to any bludgeoning, piercing, slashing or psychic damage you deal to the damage type listed (such as fire for pyrokenesis). Clairsentience seems decent for an exploration based campaign, and Biokinesis i'd imagine is really good for a Life domain, cause being able to add an extra d4 to cure wounds or healing word is an okay bump. There's really nothing much to to these feats, they're by far the weakest aspect of this UA document in my eyes.

Closing thoughts and Suggested Changes

Overall, I like the Psion, I wouldn't say any part of it blew my mind (haha, get it), but for a rough first draft I think they did a good job, and I appreciate WOTC for trying to bring a new class to 5e after avoiding it like the plague for years. Not to mention, if this UA signals that they're gonna be coming out with more classes for the 2024 ruleset, I'm looking forward to see what other classes the team could cook up, not that I don't mind playing a barbarian or fighter, but It's always nice to have a full new class to really sink your teeth into (full warlord class maybe?)

However, despite me liking this UA, I still thing there's room for it to improve, so I want to suggest some rather rough ideas for the class that (at least in my eyes) would improve the class as a whole

Casting with Energy Dice: As I mentioned in the base class section, an issue I have with this psion is the amount of tracking you have to do, so I think an easy was so simplify things would be to make psionic energy dice its main resource, and it can cast Psion spells by spending energy dice at a rate of 1 + the level of the spell, it'd inevitably man the class features, disciplines and subclass features would need to be reworked, but I feel like it'd make give the Psion more of its own identity, while also cutting down on the tracking.

Hit Dice Usage: Personally, I like the hit die usage in this, it represents the idea of a Psion burning their vitality away to fuel their abilities, which is on brand for characters like eleven or jean grey, but I think their usage comes on a bit late if they're meant to be core to the Psions design, An easy way to go about this is maybe at 5th-level the Psion can get an ability that says "Whenever you would expend an energy die on a Psion feature, you can spend yourPhit point dice instead of some or all the energy dice."

Free up that Bonus Action: I touched on this very briefly with the metamorph subclass but I want to elaborate on it more here, the class has a lot of features that want to use your Bonus Action, from psionic modes, to disciplines, and several subclass features such as Teleport or Extend limbs, so I think some of these features could either be changed to require different actions, such as you at later levels being able to use a Psionic mode as a Reaction to rolling Initiative, or to have some abilities be compressed into one, like Extend Limbs activating as part of Psionic mode, rather than as its own Bonus Action.

With that being said is about all I have to say about this Unearthed Arcana, this will probably end up being my longest review I've done yet, but oh well.

I hope you enjoyed my ramblings on this UA, be sure to stick around this blog if you want to hear me ramble about other UA content, or anything else that comes to mind really. If you've read this far into this blogpost, then i'm glad you did.

Have fun, go out and make some homebrew.

[roserysttrpggarden]

Horror Subclasses UA review

Hi there

So, out of the blue WOTC has released a new Unearthed arcana, titled "Horror subclasses" about 4 days ago from me writting this blogpost, and similar to my review of the Peta D&D subclasses and the Forgotten Realms UA, I want to comb over the document and just put all my thoughts onto one singular tumblr post. Grab a coffee or whatever your currently desired beverage might be, cause this is gonna be a long one.

Reanimator Artificer

The first subclass detailed in the document is the Reanimator Artificer, if the name didn't make it obvious, it takes a lot after Frankenstein, allowing you to control an undead minion powered by science! Thematically, I already love this subclass, a Frankenstein necromancy artificer is such a cool idea for a subclass, and I love that artificers are no longer stuck to having just 4 subclasses like they were in 2014, but will my praises continue for this subclass?

The Reanimator spell list is decent, providing you with a lot of standard necromancy options like false life, blindness/deafness, animate dead and raise dead, with the neat addition of lightning bolt to enhance the frankenstien theming. Jolt of life is a moderate, but alright improvement to spare the dying (although rules as written, it might straight up kill the person your trying to revive, since it doesn't state they are immune to the effects damage), but what we're really here for is the Reanimation Companion, stats wise, its about equal to the battle smiths companion, with the added benefit of exploding upon death, which the subclass semi encourages by allowing you to summon them much faster than the battle smith can (Though unfortunately, you can't summon a new reanimation while an existing one is out) still overall a decent pet.

Strange modifications is good, granting your reanimation extra attack, in addition to being able to cast spells through the reanimation, the last part of the feature is unfortunately pretty restrictive as there aren't that many evocation + necromancy spells to cast on the 2024 artificer spell list. Improved reanimation is a fun feature, allowing you to modify your reanimation into a bloated, gaunt or moist zombie, which grants it different perks (it's also fun to say moist). And lastly, Promethean Reanimation is a good capstone, half cost on revivify/raise dead, increased necrotic burst damage + the ability to instantly explode a reanimation to regain hit points, there's not a lot to say about it, it's just decent.

Final Thoughts: This one is probably my favorite subclass of the entire UA, a frankenstein Artificer is a sick subclass idea, and I generally like most of the class features at a baseline. I think there's still some improvements that can be made for it, for instance, the last part of arcane conduit really won't come up all that often, and the friendly fire from Jolt to Life should be changed as well, but I think compared to the other subclasses, if this one released as is, it wouldn't have too many issues with it. Next subclass

EDIT: I didn't notice this until I reread the subclass, but you don't gain both benefits of Strange modification, instead you have to choose between the two options. I don't know how I misread that since I had the UA Document open while writting, but it definitely makes the subclass worse in my eyes.

College of Spirits Bard

Our next subclass is the first (of many) revisions in this UA document, this one taken from Van Richtens Guide to Ravenloft, for the uninformed, the spirits bard can be best described as the "ghost stories" bard, your songs conjure up random spirits of the dead to aid you.

Channeler combines the old Guiding Whispers and Spiritual Focus feature into one, and it acts the same as its 2014 counterparts did, the spirits from beyond table is generally decent. Empowered Channeling is decent, the spiritual focus improvement-now called Power from Beyond now actually works unlike its 2014 counterpart (Previously, you had to cast a healing or damaging spell through your spiritual focus, which left you with very little options from the bard spell list) you also now gain a free casting of spirit guardians that provides half cover, and mystical connection is your standard "make a random die table less random" feature you see on the wild magic sorccerer and such.

Final Thoughts: Yeah this subclass is mostly the same as its previous version, and unfortunately, I wasn't that much of a fan of the initial subclass, as the Dungeon Dudes have pointed out, this subclass would probably work better if the spirit effects were "riders" to you using bardic inspiration, rather than spending bardic inspiration to use an effect (similar to the existing wild magic subclasses). But honestly, I don't see why this had to be the wild magic subclass for bard, they try to explain that the spirits are "capricious, and what a Bard summons isn’t always entirely under their control." But that feels like the text trying really hard to justify the mechanics, maybe i'll get to my own spirits bard some day, but i'll have to put those ideas aside as I move onto the next subclass.

Grave Domain Cleric

The next subclass is the Grave Domain cleric from Xanathars (also known as death domain, but cooler and less evil) you worship the gods of death and the afterlife, made to thwart those that would dare defy it. I joked about it earlier, but its essentially death domain, but it works better in neutral/typical good parties, rather than the evil death domain. But that's enough ramble, lets get into the review.

The domain spells isn't that different from its 2014 counterpart besides you missing Death Ward, False life and Antilife shell, and a bonus cantrip is always appreciated, Eyes of The Grave is gone, but Circle of Mortality got a slight improvement, allowing you to deal an extra d4 damage to bloodied creatures. Path to The Grave got reworked into causing disadvantage on a creatures attack and damage rolls, as well as causing damage dealt to them to increase by 1d8 + your Cleric level, Sentinel at Deaths door now lets you reduce damage bloodied creatures take (rather than preventing crits) Divine reaper still keeps the previous keeper of souls capstone, while also allowing you to target a second creature with a necromancy spell you cast, so I guess you could do double Revivify's and Blights, it's decent.

Final Thoughts: I both like and dislike this version of the subclass, on one hand, the emphasis on the bloodied condition makes sense for the theme, but I also don't like the new versions of Path to The Grave and Sentinel at Deaths door, i'll talk a bit more about it at the end, but it feels like the features, while more powerful, loose some of the cool factor the previous one had. Like, disadvantage on attacks rolls and saving throws and 1d8 + cleric level extra damage is no doubt better, but I think the vulnerability to next instance of damage is a much more interesting (and cool) feature. With that being said, let's move onto the next subclass.

Hollow Warden Ranger

Our next subclass is the second (and last) original subclass in this UA, the Hollow Warden. The descriptions a little vague, but in essence, its a subclass meant to draw upon the darker, more twisted aspects of nature. Gnarled tree's and beast and all that. It's an interesting idea (and reminds me of Taldorei Reborns Circle of The Blighted), but onto the mechanics.

The spell list provided is decent, fits the theme rather nicely. Unfortunately that's where the nice parts of this subclass ends, cause its next feature "Wrath of The Wild" while good, providing you a bonus to AC equal to your Wisdom and creating an aura that forces people to only use an action or bonus action, it is unfortunately tied to your uses of Hunters Mark

Final Thoughts: I love the themes of this subclass, twisted fucked-up horror ranger sounds cool, and at a baseline I like the abilities presented, but it sucks that almost your entire subclass revolves around using one spell, so if you want to use something like Conjure Animals, you're basically playing a subclassless ranger at that point. Its baffling how the team can repeatedly be told "Hey, having your whole class identity revolve around a non-concentration spell that doesn't scale well is a bad idea" and then. rather than make any attempt to alleviate that problem, decided to double and triple down on this issue, I have to assume WOTC plugs its ears and screams "Lala, I can't hear you" anytime this issue is brought up, cause for it to happen not just in the 2024 UA's, but make it to final release, and then to reoccur with two post-launch subclasses is absurd. Unfortunately, this is not the only time this issue will happen in this UA Document. Next Subclass

Phantom Rogue

And we're back to the revisions, this time the Phantom Rogue from Tasha's Cauldron of Everything, its a rouge that collects artifacts from, and channels the power of ghosts from beyond. As if rouges couldn't be any edgier than they're already stereotyped to be.

This subclass is basically the same as its 2014 counterpart, I mean you can now cast Speak with Dead once per long rest, and you regain soul trinkets upon completing a Long Rest, and can regain one upon rolling initiative if you have none. But that's all the changes

Final Thoughts: Well, it sure is the phantom rogue alright, I don't have too many issues with the base subclass as is (though I honestly think the soul trinkets should be the subclasses core feature) and this revision doesn't do much more to change it so, it's alright, I do wish it interacted with the cunning strike feature that rogues got with 2024, but that's mostly because I love that feature, other than that, I have no other notes on this. Next subclass

Shadow Sorccery Sorccerer

The next subclass is the Shadow Sorccerer from Xanathars Guide to Everything, you draw your magic from the shadowfell and other dark beings,

For starters, this subclass gets an expended spell list unlike its 2014 counterpart, and its alright, Pass without Trace, Hunger of Hadar, Darkness are decent, I wish this UA document came with a revision of summon shadowspawn, because summon undead feels weird to have on this spell list. Eyes of the dark is revised to now grant blindsight and allow you to see through the darkness created by your spells (Though you get no sorccery point castings of Darkness anymore) Hound of Ill Omen was changed to Spirit of Ill Omen, which allows you cast Summon Undead without concentration and without a spell slot, riveting, I know. Shadow Walk is the same, and so is umbral form, except for the fact that Strength from The Grave (which was previously at level 1) is now part of umbral form, I have no idea why, but that's how it is.

Final Thoughts: All I can really say about this subclass is, meh, I dislike that the hound of ill omen got replaced for a free casting of a spell (As if 2024 doesn't have enough features that are just, you can cast X spell without spell slots and it is slightly modified) especially since they could have just done a stat block as has been the trend with summons ever-since Tasha's, I don't know why Strength from The Grave was move to part of the subclass capstone, getting blindsight is cool and all, but the shadow spells have a grand total of 2 that produce darkness, so that part of the feature will only occur occasionally come up, so third level might end up feeling like crap if you either don't cast the subclass spells that often, or you're fighting creatures that can see within your darkness, just a lot of weird choices all around that make me think it needs some more time in the oven. Next subclass.

Hexblade Patron Warlock

Our second to last subclass in this UA is a revision of possibly one of 5e's more infamous classes, the Hexblade warlock, your patron is a cursed weapon, imbuing those that wield it with martial power. In 2014, this subclass was rather infamous as a strong 1st-level dip since it granted you proficiency with medium armor and martial weapons, shield, charisma modifier attack and damage rolls for a non heavy/two handed melee weapon, and the everpowerful hexblades curse feature. With the 2024 ruleset however, the strongest part of the subclass got put on all warlocks using Pact of the Blade, so, how will this version of the subclass fair (subtle foreshadowing, not very well).

The expanded spell list is good, Shield is always nice, Dispel magic too, but the real trouble of this subclass begins right away with Hexblade manifest, which allows you to cast Hex without a spell slot a number of times equal to your Charisma modifier, and when you land an attack against the hex'd target you can choose to reduce its speed to half and prevent it from making opportunity attacks, cause it to take damage equal to your Charisma modifier is it doesn't attack you, or cause it to have disadvantage on its next saving throw. Remember when I mentioned the hunter's mark issue, hyperfixating a subclass design on a single concentration spell (while also not giving a way for it to be non concentration) sucks! And it's nuts that no one on the team has gotten the memo no one likes these kinds of features.

The mediocrity train continues with Life stealer, which lets you regain hit points when you drop a hexed creature to 0 hit points, and deal extra damage equal to your Charisma modifier to the creature, which is nice, but still only works with hex, resilient hex is a decent bump to your survivability (If only against your hexed creature). And for the cherry on top of this crap sundae, masterful hex is alright, crits on a roll of 19/20, dealing the additional hex damage to a second creature and damage cannot break your concentration on hex, hurray.

Final Thoughts: If you can't tell by my tone, they fucking gutted this subclass, holy shit. I understand that the subclass was left in a bit of an awkward place since its strongest feature (Charisma modifier for attack and damage rolls) was made part of pact of the blade itself, but this version isn't it. To get the elephant out of the room, I hate that this subclass forces you to use Hex all the time, cause if you don't, you're playing a subclassless warlock with a few extra spells. I could argue to some extent its worse since the Warlock is a full caster (and given that pact magic auto levels all of your spell sots to 5th) so god forbid you want to concentrate on a 6th-9th level spell and you (understandably) don't wanna cast a 1st-level spell that doesn't scale well. I also hate how most of the previous hexblades curse features were scattered across the later levels, I sure do love waiting until my subclass capstone to be able to crit on a roll of 19 or 20, rather than just getting it as part of my core feature.

And moreover, I don't think this subclass does the "blade" part of its name very well, non of the features really mesh with a gish playstyle, nor require you to use a weapon (though the 2014 version also had this issue) I forget who said it, but I recall someone saying this would fit better as a hag patron than a hexblade and honestly, I agree. It sucks too cause 2024 has both the new valor bard and the bladesinger from the Forgotten Realms UA. It's by far the worst subclass in this UA and a massive letdown for fans of the previous version. But before I loose anymore braincells, let's go over the last of the subclasses in this document.

Undead Patron Warlock

The last subclass presented in the document is the revised version of Van Richtens other subclass, The Undead Warlock (not to be confused with the undying) is you making a pact with an entity of undeath, such as a lich or mummy. I already loved the 2014 version of the subclass

The spell list is mostly the same, though the 2024 version unfortunately looses out on phantom steed in exchange for vampiric touch, it can also ignore resistance to Necrotic damage with Grave Touched, Necrotic Husk also no longer requires you use your Reaction to use, which is nice, and lastly, spirit projection got reworked into superior dread, basically adding most of spirit projections features (Minus the Bludgeoning, Piercing and Slashing resistance) to Form of Dread.

Final Thoughts: I mean, its slightly improved over the original? The 2014 version is already a great subclass so I don't think there's much WOTC could have added, plus ignoring resistance to necrotic is nice since you get slightly pidgeon-holed into using it, no real complaints here. It's just alright.

Closing Thoughts

I generally like this UA way less than the Forgotten Realms UA, the only subclass I really liked from this was the Reanimator, most of the document is filled with milktoast revisions of existing subclasses (unless you're hexblade, which got gutted), and another new subclass which, while good, is hampered by the base class its tied too.

I mentioned this while talking about the Grave Domain cleric but I want to reiterate it here, I feel like a good amount of the revisions had their cool and thematic features replaced with more mechanically powerful, but boring ones (Such as Spirit of Ill Omen or the grave domain channel divinity) and it sucks to see, sure those features might not have been the greatest, but I feel like their respectively subclasses loose a bit of their identity.

Overall, I think this UA round was disappointing, hopefully the second version of these subclasses can fix some of these issues, here's your reminder that the survey for the horror subclass UA goes out on may 13th.

With that being said, that's all I have for this review, I hope you stick around for any future UA reviews, as well as any other content I might make in the future. Stay safe, have fun, and go make some homebrew.

[nocturnal-designs]

Weapon Masteries are....

I mean I guess they're fine. They're not really all that interesting though, and with some forcing saving throws on every hit, they can also just really slow down gameplay.

In order to fix that, I've been working today on Weapon Actions. Inspired by Baldur's Gate 3, Weapon Actions would give a unique ability to each weapon. These Weapon Actions can be used by any character, once per Short Rest, with Martial Characters gaining more uses as their level increases.

Mechanics (with some examples) under the cut

What is a Weapon Action?

Once per Short Rest, when a character takes the Attack action, they can replace a single attack with a Weapon Action. This weapon action is dependent on what weapon they are currently holding.

Weapon Action Save DC

Many weapon actions specify that a target makes a saving throw to avoid some or all of a weapon action’s effects. The weapon action specifies the ability that the target uses for the save and what happens on a success or failure. Here's how to calculate the DC for your weapon actions:

Weapon Action save DC = 8 + weapon attack modifier

If your weapon attack modifier includes any dice (e.g. from the Bless spell), roll the dice and add it to your Weapon Action save DC. You can only do this if you have a bonus to all attacks with that weapon (e.g. you cannot increase your Save DC by using Bardic Inspiration).

Weapon Damage

Weapon Damage refers to the damage you would deal to a creature if you hit it with a weapon attack roll. This includes any extra damage your weapon deals to creatures (e.g. from the Divine Favor spell), and any extra damage creatures would take from a weapon attack (e.g. from the Hunter’s Mark spell).

Roll damage separately for each creature targeted.

Critical Failure

If a creature rolls a 1 on the d20 to save against your weapon action, they automatically fail, regardless of any modifiers, and you roll all the Weapon Damage’s damage dice twice for that creature.

Weapon Action List

Greataxe

Cleave Foes

Make two melee weapon attacks, targeting different creatures within your weapon’s reach. On a hit, a target takes double Weapon Damage. On a miss, it takes half damage.

Greatsword

Shockwave

All creatures in a 30-foot-long, 5-foot-wide Line  must make a Dexterity saving throw, taking Weapon Damage on a failed save, or half as much damage on a successful one.

Longbow

Blot the Sun

Choose a point within your weapon’s long range. All creatures in a 5-foot radius of that point must make a Dexterity saving throw, taking Weapon Damage on a failed save, or half as much damage on a successful one.

Longsword

Spin Attack

All creatures within your weapon’s reach must make a Dexterity saving throw, taking Weapon Damage on a failed save, or half as much damage on a successful one.

War Pick

Impair Armor

Make a melee weapon attack against a creature within your weapon’s reach. On a hit, the creature takes Weapon Damage, and its AC is reduced by 1 for 1 minute. On a miss, it takes half damage only.

Warhammer

Heavy Slam

Make a melee weapon attack against a creature within your weapon’s reach. On a hit, the creature takes Weapon Damage and is pushed 30 feet in a direction of your choice. On a miss, it takes half damage only.

[roserysttrpggarden]

Lunar New Year Subclasses for 5th-Edition

Hi there~! Hope you're day is treating you well, mine is so far.

If you wern't aware, yesterday was the start of the lunar new year, and I figured, why not make some 5th-edition subclasses to celebrate the occasion? Listed within this document are three brands new subclasses themed around the Lunar new year.

First is the College of Fireworks bard, this subclass turns the bard into a blaster by allowing them to create pyrotechnics that they can throw for explosive effect.

Next is the Circle of The Wyrm druid, this draconic subclass transforms your druid into a gish meant to get up close to enemies and devastate them with primordial power.

And lastly is the Way of The Serpent Monk, a poisonous striker, it lets your monk wield polearms and deliver venomous smites that disorient your foes.

I hope you enjoy these subclasses. I should have some more content coming out in the near future so if you enjoy this or any other homebrew I make, let me know

That's all I have for today. Take care, and go make some D&D homebrew.

[roserysttrpggarden]

A review of the 2025 Forgotten realm UA Subclasses

Hi there~! It's been a while, sorry about that, i'm. Never the less, I wanted to give a quick review of the latest subclasses coming to 5e, curtosy of the new Forgotten Realms Subclass UA that was released just today. In this write-up, I plan on giving my thoughts on each of the subclasses, what I like, dislike, all of that jazz. With that out of the way, let's start with the first of the new subclasses.

College of The Moon Bard

The first new subclass in this document is the College of The Moon Bard, which can best be described as what would happen if a druid and bard had a baby, you sing of primal tales and use them to bolster your allies, thematically it's nothing groundbreaking, but it's fine enough.

Both 3rd-level features are already, getting druidic (The useless little shit) a druid cantrip and a skill proficiency is neat, Moonshae tales is decent, I like both Tale of life and Tale of gloam, not so much with tale of mirth cause I swear at least 3 bard subclasses have a "Subtract a roll equal to your bardic inspiration die" feature now. I don't know why it takes a whole action to activate since the creation bard got a similarish feature at the same level just by using bardic inspiration without needing to use an action first, but the feature overall is okay. Blessing of the Moonwells seems decent enough, being able to grant 2d4 temp hit points when someone fails its save against moonbeam is a good enough upgrade (At least the Moon bard gets moonbeam, unlike a certain sorcerer subclass). And Bolstered folktales is alright, it acts similar to the swords bard capstone letting you roll a d6 for tale of life and gloam rather than spending a inspiration die, and it lets you teleport up to 30 feet with tale of mirth, decent effects all around, not a bad final feature.

Overall thoughts on the subclass. It's meh

Knowledge Domain Cleric

Our next subclass isn't new in the context of 5e, but rather a revised version of the knowledge domain subclass from the 2014 PHB (Though this version is basically a new subclass). I hate that people are gonna have to buy the subclass all over again, but there's not much I can do bout that. Let's get onto reviewing the subclass.

For starters, the subclass gets way more domain spells than any other getting a total of 15 spells (Essentially 3 per level), granted, a lot of the spells gained are more out-of combat utility spells but still, I guess it fits the knowledge aspect but damn. As if that weren't enough, their mind magic feature allows them to expend a use of channel divinity to cast one of their domain spells without components, which means you can get free castings of command, dispel magic, arcane eye, banishment, confusion, and synaptic static, which is really good. To round off 3rd-level you also gain proficiency in one artisan tool and expertise in your choice of Arcana, History, Nature, or Religion, those checks might not come up super often but I am not gonna complain about getting two skills to expertise on a cleric. Moving on from the roller coaster of 3rd-level features, unfettered mind is a pretty good, telepathically communicating to a Wisdom mod number of creatures is nice, and being able to use your Wisdom score as the result of an Intelligence check is pretty situational but still appreciated. Divine foreknowledge is also really good, advantage on all d20 tests for 1 hour as a bonus action, that can also be used again by expending a level 6+ spell slot is nice, thematically the abilities kind of weak and miss some of the cool thematic elements of the previous version, but I will concede that the new version is way stronger combat wise.

Overall thoughts, yeah this subclass got a glow-up compared to its 2014 counterpart, and it largely keeps a lot of the thematic elements present on the old version. It might border on being a bit too strong? But for what it is, it's a good revision, Next subclass.

Purple Dragon Knight Fighter

Similar to our previous subclass, the purple dragon knight isn't new in the context of 5e, this one originating from the ever-infamous Sword Coast Adventurers Guide (Scag for short). The subclass was intented to turn your fighter into a commander type, rallying your allies as they fought alongside you. But the subclass was hampered because all of its features relied on your existing fighter features. Like the Knowledge domain before, this subclass is basically something entirely new, it's now the fighter version of Drakewarden for lack of better words, you get a dragon companion that fights alongside you and you can later mount, it's interesting enough, hopefully it'll be better than the original (Spoilers, it is).

Knightly envoy is fine, a free language and ritual spell is neat, the purple dragon companion itself is pretty decent, interestingly enough it acts during your turn, rather than after like the beast masters pet or the summon spells (which makes it work better as a mount) the dragon also has a gravity breath weapon that can push people, which is not bad Dragon rider is nice cause it not only lets you actually ride your dragon companion, but also improves its breath attack, and causes it to regain hit points and a use of gravity whenever you use second wind. Rallying surge is really cool, allowing three allies to either move without provoking opportunity attacks or make an attack as part of action surge is phenomenal, amethyst pinnacle is largely decent, but I wish the tandem attacks were part of the base feature or came at much earlier levels, cause forgoing your own attacks to have your dragon attack is so cool! I just wish it didn't come online near the end of your characters career. Unfortunately this subclass ends out not with a bang, but with a wet fart, while you and your dragon gaining resistance to force and psychic damage is cool, it sucks that the capstone is so, nothing.

Final thoughts on the subclass, it's definitely a marked improvement over the original. But I kind of miss the battlefield commander idea it had going on, which is only present in two of the subclass features. Besides that nitpick I think this version of PDK is good, a dragon rider fighter is always cool. Funnily enough this subclass arguably does a better job at being a dragon rider than than the drakewarden did, but maybe that's discussion to have later. Next subclass.

Oath of The Noble Genies Paladin

We now take a break from the revised subclasses and move on to an entirely new one for the paladin, this subclass is based around revering the elemental planes and wielding the power of the D&D genies. The thematic is rather unique, but it does feel funny to have a genie paladin in 2024 before reprinting the genie warlock. But enough dilly-dallying, lets get to reviewing it.

The oath spells all around are pretty good, with the obvious highlight of you getting the ever broken Conjure Minor Elementals, it's also neat you get the Elementalism cantrip as a bonus. Elemental smite is rather expensive, requiring both a use of divine smite and a channel divinity, but the effects are pretty good (Especially Marids Surge). Aura of Elemental protection is really good, resistance for yourself and all allies within your Aura of Protection is already nice, but being able to swap the resistance at the start of each turn is what really sells me on this feature. Elemental Rebuke is strong but boring, halving damage taken and possibly dealing 4d10 + charisma modifier to an attacker is good, it's unironically better than some of ranger capstones that do a similar effect. The capstone is really fucking good-potentially bordering on overpowered, being able to use your reaction to turn any failed d20 test into a success is massive, even more-so cause you can keep doing this for up to 10 minutes, and like the other 2024 paladin capstones, you can use this ability again if you spend a 5th-level slot, I don't think I can underestimate how strong this feature is.

Final thoughts for the genie paladin. This subclass is really good, the genie theming is really interesting and its features are consistently strong, the biggest gripe I have with the subclass might be noble scion just due to how strong it is, but otherwise, I love it. Next subclass.

Winter Walker Ranger

Moving from one half caster to another, we arrive at the Winter Walker ranger, which is a subclass about braving frigid tundras and taking on those that'd dwell within such regions. I love what this subclass is doing right off the bat, more elemental subclasses are always nice, and a tundra explorer ranger is a sick as hell idea, now how does it translate?

The spell list is alright, a lot of ice spells for obvious reasons, Pass without Trace is really good, I don't really get why is has Remove Curse besides curses being mentioned once at the very end of the subclass description, but I guess I'm not complaining, Frigid Follower is also nice, resistance to a fairly common damage type, on top of additional cold damage on weapon attacks (which ignores resistance) is always welcome. Hunters Rime hurts me, gives me psychic damage as one might say, the effects are nice, 1d10 + ranger level temp hit points is nice and an enemy being unable to disengage is nice, but it's tied to the infamous hunter mark spell, I might go more in depth about it later down the line but for a TLDR. Hunters mark requiring concentration in my opinion leads to either the ranger always using hunters mark, but missing out on the more powerful high-level ranger spells, or the ranger not using hunters mark, but then missing out on class features (Including you 20th-level capstone). Moving on from that, fortifying soul is kind of neat, being able to help your allies regain hit points between rests + granting them advantage against being frightened is cool, Chilling Retribution sounds nice, but (this might have changed with the new monster manual) at 11th-level more and more things are getting immunity to the frightened condition, so while the fail effect is strong, you might not get it off that often. Frozen Haunt pains me, being able to move through walls, gain immunity to cold damage and deal 2d4 cold damage at the start of each turns is good, and the flavor idea of turning into this ghost of winter but man, why is it tied to hunters mark??? Even flavor wise, how does you casting hunters mark transform you into a ghost.

Final thoughts on the subclass, As a whole, I love what the subclass wants to do. I love the theme, a lot of what it wants to present is cool, and hell, I think this subclass handles hunters mark usage better than the Beast master or hunter did, but it just sucks that two of the abilities rely on the use of that spell since you never have a way to cast it without concentration, I think if the capstone wasn't tied to hunters mark i'd be fine but man, it just sucks. With that rather bitter end to the subclass, maybe the next one can boost our spirits, which is.

Scion of The Three Rogue

The next subclass is the "Scion of The Three Rogue" which-as the name suggests, is for rogues that pledge alligence itself to the Dead Three: Bane, the god of tyranny. Bhaal, the god of murder and violence. And Myrkul, a god of death. As if the rogue couldn't get any edgier, but will this edge translate into dead enemies?

Bloodthirst is situational, but rather thematic, dealing additional damage to bloodied creatures is neat, good fight closer, the second part of the ability is also cool-being able to teleport and make a melee attack when someone dies, but I almost wish it was unlimited use, realistically, how often are you gonna get the effect to occur? The ability also becomes useless if you're fighting a solo boss, it's not even a bad effect, I just don't imagine it coming up enough to warrant a limited number of uses per day. You also align yourself with one of the dead three, which get you a cantrip + a damage resistance, it's nothing too big, but still neat to have. Strike Fear kind of sucks for it's level. All it does is give you a new cunning strike option to spend one die to attempt to frighten someone, at base I don't mind this but the fact that- due to the rouge subclass structure, it means you have to wait 6 levels to this feature, and that sucks. if it had another option in addition to the frighten it'd be nice but as it stand, yeah this isn't great. Thankfully Aura of Malevolence is better, dealing int modifier damage to creatures within 10 feet of you at the start of each turn is pretty good all things considered, it also ignores resistance too, so being aligned to Bhaal won't cripple your character (The aura deals poison damage if you're aligned with him, since the damage type is the same one you gain resistance too from Dread Allegiance). Dread Incarnate is a mixed bag all things considered, the advantage on attacks against frighted creatures probably won't come up that much at 17th-level, but treating any 1's or 2's as 3's when you roll damage for sneak attack is really nice, it basically means that, at minimum, your sneak attack will deal 27 damage (assuming you roll really low) at the level you gain this ability, and combine it with the Bloodthirst damage boost means you'll be really good at ending fights quickly, decent stuff all around.

Overall thoughts on the subclass. This is weakest subclass in this document (in my eyes). There's some good abilities here, but most of what this subclass offers feels rather niche. Also, while I haven't brought it up until now since all of these subclasses are very explicitly meant to be tied to the forgotten realms setting, I feel like this subclass is gonna be the toughest to translate to other campaign settings cause the subclass doesn't really have a strong theme beyond being tied to the dead 3, the only other theme I can think of is "Agent of evil god or "Make things deader" which, is already done by the Assassin and Phantom. While the scion of the dead three might have been dead on arrival, maybe the next subclass will do better.

Spellfire Sorcery Sorcerer

The next subclass is the Spellfire sorcery sorcerer (Try saying that three times fast) It's basically a more magicy sorcerer, with you gaining your powers directly from the weave (The forgotten realms source of magic) and using it to blow shit up and heal people. Thematically it sort of reminds me of the old phoenix sorcery subclass from the Unearthed Arcana, but how does it fair?

The spells provided are decent, it's an nice mix of blasting and restorative spells, Cure wounds, Lesser and Greater Restoration, Dispel Magic and Aura of Vitality are nice, the only real stinker on the spell list is Flame Strike, but I guess it fits? (For the record no, you don't get Fireball with this spell list), Spellfire burst is nothing too special, but still neat, an extra 1d6 damage or some temp hit points whenever you spend sorcery points is always welcome. Absorb Spells is really cool, having counterspell auto prepared and being able to regain sorcery points when someone fails its save against counterspell is cool, though I wonder why they didn't make it work with dispel magic since it's also on the spell list? Honed Spellfire is a decent enough increase to Spellfire burst, and lastly, Crown of Spellfire is a pretty good transformation capstone, getting evasion to magical effects is always nice and hey! Wotc finally remembered hit dice were a thing! Overall, not a bad capstone.

Final thoughts on the subclass. I like it, the mix of blasting and healing is interesting, I like how the subclass interacts with sorcery points, I love the thematic of absorb spell, and features overall are pretty decent. Not much more to say about it, it's just a really good subclass. Now we shall move onto our final subclass of today, which is.

Bladesinger Wizard

And the last of the subclasses within this document is a reprint of the Bladesinger wizard from Scag-and later reprinted within Tashas cauldron of everything, for those unaware, the Bladesinger is the Gish subclass of wizard (meaning a spell and sword type of character).

Compared to its Tashas counterpart (And the other revised subclasses in this document) nothing big changed about the Bladesinger, you lost the ability to use light armor, but can now use Intelligence when making attacks with melee weapons, and you can use them as a spellcasting focus. And Song of victory was changed to function like the 2014 Eldritch Knight version of war magic (You can make a weapon attack as a bonus action if you used an action to cast a spell) If my thoughts are correct and you could attack action, make an attack with your weapon -> cast a cantrip- > make a weapon attack as a bonus action then I'd gladly call this a buff, but if that isn't the case then this feature is okay.

Final Thoughts on the subclass, it's still the same old Bladesinger basically, some things got changed, I dunno if not being able to use light armor is that big of a deal due to Bladesongs existing boost to AC + spells like shield being a thing, the buffs are nice but I doubt they'll make anyone go "Omg the Bladesinger is OP now!" I'm scared to see how the new Bladesinger preforms with 2024 conjure minor elementals.

Final Thoughts

To close out this write up, I like most of the subclasses offered here. Granted, none of them make me want to jump out of my seat and beg my DM to let me try them, but they're all baseline decent, I generally like these subclasses more than the ones added with the 2024 PHB. Is there room for improvement? Absolutely! But for a rought 1st-draft of these subclasses, the team did an alright job with them. But what are your thoughts on these new subclasses? Let me know in the

With that, that's all I have to say in this post.Take care, and go make some D&D content.

[roserysttrpggarden]

Accursed Build Guides

Hi There~!

A bit of a different post coming from me, but with the release of my accursed class, I wanted to provide some example builds for the class, not just to showcase what the class can do, but to potentially give you some ideas for your own accursed characters.

To lay out some groundrules, I won't mention multiclassing in this guide, but feats that give you class features (Such as Eldritch Adept) are fair game, I also won't bring up custom lineage or variant human for this as they the obvious go to species and a little boring if you ask me. But enough of that, let's get onto the first build starting with:

The Standard

The Standard is the most basic accursed build I can think of. You simply debuff you foes, and debuff them real good. Nothing-more than that.

Role: Debuffer/Controller

Species: Goblin is great for its ability to bonus action hide and disengage and deal additional damage, Harrengon is also great for adding your PB to initiative and their hop ability, other recommended species include the Shadar-Kai, Eladrin, Fairy and Githzerai

Subclass: Curse of Misfortune is quite literally designed as the "more Accursed for the Accursed" subclass. But for some extra spice, the Curse of The Sickened also works very well and would provided some better damage.

Adaptations: Hex blast and Frenzying Jinx serve us well as 2nd-level adaptation options, Afflict Burden is alright (Though very much depends on your subclass) Instinctive Hex and Hex Mastery are also recommended.

Feats: Fey touched is nice for a free casting of a 1st-level enchantment or divination spell and misty step, Telepathic also works nice for an additional bit of control + some bonus action usage and Warcaster is great for any caster build, though Eldritch Adept could also be depending on your invocation choice. If you're using 2024 rules i'd recommend the Boon of Dimensional Travel or Boon of Fate.

Strengths: You debuff very well, your spell list includes standouts such as dissonant whispers, hideous laughter, darkness, counterspell, dispel magic, fear, confusion, polymorph, hold monster and synaptic static among others. You can also regularly apply disadvantage on attack rolls thanks to your improved Jinx (If you chose Curse of Misfortune) and other effects through your adaptations, put all together you should be the most annoying thing on the battlefield.

Weaknesses: While you do have a d10 hit die and a high con, you don't have many resistances or other defensive options without multiclassing/feats. You also won't be topping the DPR charts anytime, but hey, it's better than nothing.

The Living Bomb

Going from little damage to the exact opposite, The Living Bomber turns your accursed into a mini sorccerer/evocation wizard, able to blast away large swathes of enemies with potent fire spells.

Role: Blaster

Species: Most of the species recommended for the standard are also recommended here, in fact, goblin may be a better choice here than the standard due to its fury of the small feature. But i'll also recommend the fire genasi and the tiefling for flavor picks.

Subclass: Curse of The Immolated

Adaptations: Hex blast is an obvious pick for a damage focused build, as is Frenzying Jinx. Afflict Burden is nice given the immolateds burden, Hex Eruption also works really really for a build focused on AOE damage like ours, as does Agonizing Hex. Other adaptations

Feats: Elemental adept is alright for this build as you might not always want to be overchanneled, Telekinetic is nice to better group up allies for your blasting spells, Metamagic adept could also be nice to get a once per long rest quicken or twinned spell cast. Otherwise, all the feats recommended in the Standard build are also recommended here

Strengths: If you want things to go boom? Well this build will do it. With your cursed overchanneled you can dish out consistent fire damage to multiple groups of enemies, even your single target damage will be more than effective with an empowered Produce Flame and Scorching Ray on your side You can also get around resistance and immunity to fire damage that'd otherwise neuter this single element focused build.

Weaknesses: You're gonna be taking a lot of damage making the most of this build which, while you can take some due to be a con-focused d10 class still isn't ideal. Anything immune to fire damage also poses an issue, even if you you can turn their resistance into immunity.

Tankenstien

The Takenstien build is for those who look at the accursed and think to themselves "I want to be even tankier" and it does exactly that, turning your accursed character into neigh impenetrable wall of hit points.

Role: Tank/Striker

Species: Hill Dwarf is a great choice due to their +1 hit points every level and innate +2 bonus to constitution, the Reborn lineage from Van Richtens would also be a great thematic choice. Other recommended species include the Autognome, Earth Genasi, Goliath, Orc and the Tortle.

Subclass: Curse of Rebirth.

Adaptions: Curse Fighting and Hex Blast are good 2nd-level options, Hex Clutch pulling enemies towards you is great for a tank build, Manifest Affliction and Accursed Onslaught also work well with this build. My other recommended adaptations include Anathema Arcana (For Booming/Green Flame Blade) Arms of The Accursed, Binding Hex. Scourge Strike and Instinctive Hex.

Feats: Tough provides a significant boost to your already high HP, War Caster is great for any melee gish and should make your already heard to break concentration even harder to break, if you're using the 2024 rules then Durable, Weapon Master (I'd choose a weapon with push, sap or slow masterty property.) For higher levels I recommend the Boon of Fortitude or Boon of Energy resistance.

Strengths: With a d10 hit die, a focus on constitution and many ways to grant yourself temporary hit points should make you fairly hard to kill, evenmoreso if you take tough or are a hill dwarf, you can also deal fairly respectable damage with your enhanced chill touch and the additional damage granted while you have temporary hit points. You also should probably never fail a concentration save again.

Weaknesses: Intelligence and Charisma saves (Especially while you overchannel your curse) are going to be the banes of your existence, you only have your cantrips and level spells (Most of which are debuffs if I made add) to help you out in ranged combat, it's better than nothing, but it still isn't great. Also due to your creature type being undead, be extra careful if you fight a creature with divine smite or sunburst (Or any other effect that's extra potent on undead)

The Hungry Blade

The quintessential gish accursed, this build will be swinging swords and slinging curses one after the other, dealing high damage as it does so.

Role: Striker

Species: Shadar-Kai is fantastic with their bonus action teleport that also provides resistance to all damage types, you can also use them to pick up elven accuracy down the time. Other recommended species include Bugbear, Goliath, Githzerai, Goblins, Harrengon and Tortle

Subclass: Curse of The Warrior.

Adaptions: Curse Fighting and Anathema Arcana (Choosing Booming and Green Flame Blade) Scourge Strike for an accursed smite, as well as Instinctive Hex and Accursed Onslaught. Other adaptions I'll recomend include arms of the accursed for an unarmed striking accursed, Hex Clutch, Curse Eruptions, Manifest Affliction and Hex Mastery.

Feats: Great Weapon Master is great for damage, Sharpshooter even with the new 2024 rules is still a good feat for ranged attackers, warcaster, mobile and sentinel are also go too choices for this build. If you use 2024 rules i'd recommend the Charger feat, as well as the Boon of Irresistible Offense and the Boon of Combat prowess.

Strengths: If it's damage you want, it's damage you'll get with this build. Combining a two-handed weapon with Shadow Strike, additional damage while your curse is overchanneled and potentially adding Spirit Guardians and Scourge Strike on top should make you a formidable front liner, bolstered by your respectable durability. This build can also be turned into a formidable archer with a longbow or crossbow and casting Hex or Malediction.

Weaknesses: As mentioned in the standard build, you don't have many ways to bolster your defense through the accursed alone, which could especially become an issue for both builds. Also focusing your hex points entirely on scourge strike or other more martially spells will inevitably hurt your versatility as an accursed, which especially hurts given your very limited casting ability. The overchannel also might suck to use if lady fortuna isn't on your side, even more than the base martial or martial adjacent classes.

That's about all of the builds I have, I might go more in depth for these builds in the future, and I plan to do some exalted builds when I get to updating that class but in the meantime, let me know how you feel about this type of content.

Take care, and go make some D&D content.

[roserysttrpggarden]

The Accursed Playtest 1

Hi there~! I hope these...Interesting times have treated you well, if you want some reprive from the horrors of life, I come bearing you all a gift. My second custom class for Dungeons and Dragons 5th-edition. The Accursed! An individual who became cursed, and has since learned to control it, turning it into a source of power. If you've ever wanted to play frankenstein's monster, a werewolf, or something like the lich king then this is the class for you.

Playing an Accursed

As previously mentioned, the accursed is a half caster similar to your rangers and paladins, focusing on debuffing and other control effects, unlike all other casters, the accursed uses constitution as its spellcasting ability, for your power now derives itself from your now cursed vitality.

Hex Points: Rather than using spell slots, the accursed gains a tiny pool of points, known as hex points to cast their spells, as well as use other accursed abilities. Similar to ki points or the warlocks spell slots, your hex points are recovered upon completing a short or long rest, allowing you to quickly regain your powers on the fly.

Overchannel: Overchannel is a type of stance the accursed can enter as a bonus action, unleashing their afflictions full power, this could take form as a bestial transformation, or a storm of raw arcane energy. While you overchannel your curse you can spent hit dice, rather than hex points when using your accursed abilities, as well as gaining additional benefits determined by your subclass. However, this power comes at a price, for the entire time your cursed is overchanneled, you suffer from a penality.

Accursed Adaptations: As the accursed gains levels, it gains adaptations, ways its curses evolves to be even more debilitating, these are essentially the accurseds eldritch invocation. However, I tried to design these much more as additional abilities the accursed can use, rather than just passive effects they get, though there are absolutely adaptations that are more passive. Some of my favorite adaptations include Evil eye, which lets you see hostile creatures under the effects of your spells as if you had blindsight. Scourge strike, which lets you spend hex points to deal additional necrotic damage on a weapon attack or unarmed strike (Essentially the accursed version of divine smite). And Manifested affliction allows you to summon a ghostly representation of your curse to aid you in battle.

Subclasses

The accursed document features 8 subclasses for your accursed subclass to choose from, while I won't go into great detail for each, I will list what each one does.

The Curse of The Beast is a lycanthrope subclass that turns an accursed into a ravenous beast, unleashing flurries of strikes against their foes.

The Curse of The Immolated is a blaster subclass focused on dealing as much fire damage as possible, burning enemies to a crisp

The Curse of The Immortal turns the accursed into a healer, bestowing them plenty of temporary hit points.

The Curse of Rebirth is a necrotic tank that empowers itself with temp HP, gaining benefits while it has said temp HP.

The Curse of The Sickened is a potent debuff that slowly chips away at its opponents health with powerful poisons and diseases

The Curse of The Parasite is a flexible striker that uses its variety of mutations to adapt to any combat scenario.

The Curse of Misfortune is your archetypal accursed that debuffs foes and bends fate to its will.

And lastly, The Curse of The Warrior is your archetypal gish that turns the accursed into a potent weapon wielder (Especially if you pick up the more martial oriented adaptions)

Design Goals

The overall goal of the accursed was to create a unique caster that played with the idea of "power at a price" while you wield explosive debuff and control potential (As well as other roles depending on your subclass) you also suffer from severe debuffs and lack much in the way of resistances through the accursed itself. This created an interesting "power budget" when designing the class as I felt like I could get away with bolder abilities due to those debuffs being there. It was also interesting to design for since, to quote someone who's intelligence score is higher than my own (That I don't remember the name of as of writing) 5th-edition is not a system of downsides, the only feature I can think of that debuffs you off is frenzy on the berserker barbarian, and even then that got patched out with the new PHB, so it feels rather interesting to design a class that's build around downsides (Even if you do have a way to get around it temporarily) I also wanted to create an experimental caster for the simple fact that casters arn't my favorite to design for. They're fun to play absolutely! But designing for them feels a little tedious since spellcasting inevitably takes up so much of the classes power budget, not to mention that there's a good chance you'll have to write new spells to fit a specific class theme, and that I don't want to just make a slightly altered paladin or wizard. Here's hoping I succeeded at the later.

That's all you need to know about the accursed before testing the class out for yourself, the document also comes with several new spells, most of which were written for the accursed itself, as well as a 2024 rules conversion guide for those wanting to play the class with the updated PHB. I hope you enjoy the accursed, leave feedback and possibly play the class in your own games.

Have fun and make sure to play some D&D

Link to the PDF here

[roserysttrpggarden]

Content Roadmap (That I definitely won't abandon this time)

Howdy there~! Before we get on with this, I just wanted to say, thanks for checking out the exalted playtest and the peta D&D subclasses write up, feels great being motivated again.

But that's all besides the point, you've come here for an update on my D&D content pipeline (That I promise I won't immediately drop unlike the previous ones) , and I shall deliver! Starting with:

The Exalted

Since the release of the first Exalted playtest, i've been hard at work making a second draft of the exalted, using some of the feedback I've gotten of the class. The next version of the exalted will focus on polishing up the exalted where I can, as well as adding more subclasses and epithets that didn't make the cut first time around. Some example of the new content coming include the avatar of dawn, a subclass focused on defending your allies and warding of threats. As well as the "Thief of Fire" epithet, allowing exalteds to tear into the earth, creating pools of bubbling lava. Don't expect too many changes to the base exalted as i'm relatively happy with how the base class has turned out (At least as of writing) but I hope you'll enjoy all the exciting new content that'll come with the next edition.But moving onto to newer content, first is:

The Accursed

The next original class I have planned is one I have talked about on here before: The Accursed, a constitution based half caster that wields the power of a vile curse. While I won't go into class mechanics, I will give insight into three of the accurseds subclasses, such as the Curse of Misfortune, who weaponizes bad luck. Curse of The Beast, a subclass for all of your lycanthrope needs. And the Curse of The Warrior, the cursed weapon subclass.

I plan to release the class around halloween, alongside the accursed with come with a bevy of new curse spells (To fill out the accurseds spell list) As well as three subclasses: The Path of The Old Ones Barbarian, Curse Seeker Ranger and The Archwitch Patron, which play with the curse theme. The next project I have in the pipeline isn't a new class, but an expansion to one of the existing ones, that being:

Artificer Expanded

Another project I've been working on in the background is a massive supplement to the artificer class, entitled "Artificer expanded" as the title oh-so unsuitably implies, it's meant to add a bunch of new options for your artificer, complete with new spells, infusions, and subclasses (Including new armorer options). Some of my favorite subclasses from it include the Botanist, A druidic subclass that creates gardens that buff allies or debuff foes, Curse Smith, An artificer that dabbles in cursed items, and the Chronobender, a time bending subclass that manipulates speed and initiative. Overall this suplement was made because I enjoy artificer as a class, and I think it sucks that the class has very little support post tashas (And I doubt will every get anymore with the new PHB) so you know what, if WOTC isn't gonna make anything new for the artificer, than I'll be glad to fill that gap myself. I'm not sure if i'll do anymore "Expanded" supplements for classes (though I have considered doing one for druid) but even If I don't I hope you'll enjoy all the new artificer content. The last piece of content I wish to discuss here is my third original class for 5th edition, that being:

The Harbinger

Another class that i've also previously talked about on this blog: The Harbinger. A class that gains its power from signing a contract with a demon, the harbinger is best suited for those wishing to play out their favorite spawn, dante or ghost rider fantasies.

Formerly a half pact caster, since my original post the harbinger has been reworked into a full martial with a tiny bit of casting. The harbinger now burns hellish sigils into its foes to deal additional damage, it also gains a resource called infernal dice that it can use to steal life force, exchange its vitality to heal others, as well as casting "Contract Spells" given to them from their subclass. I've had a blast working on the new version of the harbinger, I don't really have a set date for the class, but I'll hope you tune in whenever I put out that class playtest.

That's about all I have for this little roadmap of mind, regardless if everything goes on as planned or not, I hope you'll stick around for whatever I end up making in the future.

See you around, go out and make some homebrew.

[roserysttrpggarden]

PETA tried to make D&D subclasses and I critique them

Hi there

So, this wasn't a post I anticipated making but just this week PETA (People for the "ethical" treatment of animals) put out three subclasses for 5th-edition (with two accompanying magic items and spells) and cause I have nothing better to do, I wanted to critique (And laugh at) them in a overly long blog post, without further ado, let's start with the first of the three subclasses: The Circle of Empathy Druid

First off, the theme of this subclass is already funny cause druids whole thing is taking to animals but i'll let it slide for now

As for the class features, the circle spells are really good since they get both conjure animals and conjure woodland beings on the same spell list. It's a bit odd that they get three second level spells, but as you'll see later I doubt they payed much attention to 5e subclass formatting. Empathy connection is a really funny feature because not only did the designer forget to give an action trigger (Notice how there's no line that mentions using an action, bonus action or anything to use it) and based on how the text is written its implied you can only use the ability upon gaining your subclass, the other funny thing is that by rules as written, you can establish the connection between a humanoid and say, a rat, then dunk the rat in boiling water, or break its legs, and the humanoid will feel the rats pain, so you can effectively torture someone by torturing an animal. Does that completely go against the subclass's theme? Yes, is it funny that you can do that? Also yes!

Persuasive Resonance is a lot of fluff for what's essentially a mass charm you can infinitely spam (Notice there's clause that states you can use it x number of times per long rest.) Enchanting address is both very clunky and overpowered, it's a very potent control ability that, ironically, is way stronger if you don't have any animals around, cause the feature states they "Must use actions that benefit and protect animals for 24 hours" and it has doesn't have a limited number of uses too, combine this with a divination wizard you could very easily shut down any humanoid you want. Besides that the protective instinct feature is weirdly worded, I feel like the last sentence should read "if the humanoid is within 5 feet of the animal, they become the target of the attack instead" it's also interesting that the creature you use this one has a choice of their saving throw, dunno if it's a good thing, but it's interesting. On the complete opposite end of the spectrum: Natures mirror is kind of funny, but also basically useless in combat, I guess it can get around invisibility? the +2 to wisdom and intelligence checks is situational, but could be useful in some niche circumstances.

To close out my thoughts on this subclass, it's really funny that this is the only subclass of the three that tries to capitalize off of the 2024 PHB, Onto the next subclass!

Oh boy this paladin subclass sure is something. First off, it's way to easy to oathbreak with this subclass. Say for example, you come across a village that's being attacked by oh I don't know, a red dragon, you know, in Dungeons and Dragons. Since your oaths state that you "protect animals from harm" you cannot attack the red dragon in any way without oathbreaking, or what if you get ambushed by an owlbear? Can't fight that without oathbreaking, I would go on but there are so many ways to oathbreak hat the DM borderline has to build most combats around this subclass, and that's just isn''t fun.

Moving on from the obvious flavor fails, the two channel divinitys are pretty good? Beasts fury sucks to read cause it swaps between flavor and mechanical text in the same paragraph, but it's basically an additional 1d6 of damage on the creatures melee attacks and frightening enemies they hit on a failed wisdom save, strong but I imagine the frightening could get very annoying especially once extra attack comes into play, an 11th-level fighter under the effects of beasts fury could possibly impose 3 wisdom saves at once (6 if they action surge) slowing the game down dramatically, it's the same issue that the topple property from the 2024 PBH has, it slows the game way the hell down. Sanctuary of The Innocent is broken, first of the radius is questionable at best, is it centered on yourself? a point you can see? Secondly, granting immunity to damage on all animals is busted when combined with summon beast, conjure animals/woodland beings or even a beast master druid, at the same time the feature doesn't specify friendly beasts so going back to the dragon example, you could end up making the boss invincible for the entire encounter. Guardians refuge is okay, the benefits are sort of decent? But I doubt you'll be fighting that many CR 3 beasts or monstrosities by 6th-level (Not to mention the feature is completely worthless as higher tiers of play) the second benefit is really vague but it could be decent if you have a druid or ranger. Unburden the beasts is a quite possibly the first harmful ribbon feature! Cause by rules as written you say, can't ride on horses, or have them pull a wagon, but it also for some reason doubles the carrying capacity of animals...Despite you not being able to use them to haul your supplies? Such a strange ability. Whispers of the wild is another ribbon that comes on too late to be decent. Humanoid handing is, say it with me folks, really strong if you have a druid or ranger in your party, it's funny that its uses per day are limited to your wisdom modifier (despite paladin not using wisdom.)

For my closing thoughts on the animal liberation paladin, a lot of the abilities are strong on paper, but require you to either multiclass, or have a druid/ranger in the party since it doesn't get any way to summon animals, so even if you somehow don't oathbreak after a session, you're abilities are mostly useless! While I didn't point it out in the feature rundown, it's very noticable that the subclass does not follow the paladin subclass structure at all (3, 7, 15 and 20th level) I have no idea why! Probably because the designer wasn't paying attention!

With that mess out of the way, time to cover the last of the three subclasses: The Warden of The Wild ranger.

The spell list is fantastic, charm person, aid, hold person, dispel magic, and polymorph all on one spell list is amazing, on top of it you also get double the spells that a normal ranger expanded spell list would give, Sabotage hunt is anti hunters mark, there's really not much more to say about it other than rolling a d6 for every damage roll I imagine would get extremely annoying and slow down the game. It's odd that you don't regain a use of this feature upon completing a long rest but whatever, echo's of the wild is a crappy ribbon feature that won't work most of the time, and isn't that helpful even in situations where you can use it, I guess if you have a beast master on your teams it's really good cause you can basically never be sneaked up on but otherwise, it's not that good. Sanctuary is also really good if you have a animals but otherwise, it's alright. Purify life is decent if you really need to cleanse one of your pets (or an ally under the polymorph spell) but otherwise it's alright. The not regaining use on long rest strikes back!

Closing out my thoughts on these sublcasses, it feels very apparent that whoever wrote these really doesn't understand 5e very much (Especially clear with the oath of animal liberation) none of the subclasses follow the 5e style guide all that well, for some reason the term "Being" is used constantly when it's supposed to be creature or target, most of the features gained by these subclasses are either crappy ribbons or are features that, not only range from meh to overpowered, are also super situational to the point that you have to build your party around them.

But that is not all PETA decided to "grace" us with, as the document includes two spells and items (Which are for some reason called tools) so let's go over those as well

Liberate is pretty strong, being able to undo a charm person or confusion on a animal, and instantly breaking a cage open for animals is a lot for a 1st-level spell slot, though the irony in the oath of animal liberation not having this spell is not lost on me, crimson mark is super funny, you spend a 1st-level slot + use concentration to tell is someone is evil. What a masterful display of game design prowess! The two magic items are meh, a magic item version of liberate and a worse bag of holding, yay??

That's about all I have for PETA "attempt" at homebrew, as bad as they are, at least I got a laugh out of them, and hopefully you did too. if you wanna leave your own thoughts make sure to comment or reblog.

Take care and go make some homebrew.

[roserysttrpggarden]

Exalted Playtest 1

Hello there users of tumblr, after a long time in development, I now present the first playtest of the Exalted (Formerly known as the avatar) class for Dungeons and Dragons 5th edition. Originally created as part of my "Homebrew Class Design for Dummies" series, the exalted is a class based on divine heros such as Hercules, Sun Wukong, Cú Chulainn and Maui. As well as the Exalted TTRPG. You are a once ordinary individual that-through one way or another has been imbued with a spark of divine power, you now wield aspects of godly power as you carve your own legacy, weather that be as a great hero, a wise mentor or even a malevolent conqueror.

Playing an Exalted

For the most part, the exalted is a standard martial class, you choose your favorite weapon and you attack with it. However, the exalted has three core characteristics that make it stand out compared to other marital classes. Those being Willpower Points. Each time the exalted takes the attack action, it gains a willpower point, for every willpower point is has accrued it gains a bonus to the damage rolls of its divine implement (The classes signature weapon) Willpower points can also be spent to utilize special abilities, known as Providences

Providence Abilities: Providence abilities are miniature spell like abilities the exalted can preform by spending their willpower points, one example is "Split Heaven and Earth" which allows the exalted to cause a small earthquake, dealing damage to creatures in a 30-foot cone or 50 foot line, as well as creating difficult terrain. Providence abilities are granted both through your subclass, as well as through your epithets

Epithets: Epithets are the other main feature of the exalted, acting like a mix of warlock invocations and channel divinities, they grant you a unique providence ability. As well as granting you a passive ability known as a boon that enhances your capabilities.

Design Goals

Overall my goals for the exalted class are both A: To provide a more in depth and customizable martial and B: To make a class with the same level of flexbility as a cleric (Ie: where a whole party can play a cleric and still fill very distinctive roles) I also wanted the class to sort of redefine how the player thinks of the attack action, similar to a bladesinger wizard or the fizbans dragonborns. Hence why a good chunk of the providence abilities replace an attack action.

That's about all I have to say on the exalted playtest, the document also includes two new conditions, as well as a conversion guide for using the class with 2024 rules. I hope you'll read through the document, give me any feedback you got and possibly use this class for your own tables. Have fun and make sure to play some D&D

[we-are-rogue]

[D&D 5e] Comprehensive DPR Calculator (v2.0)

[by user LudicSavant | GitP Forums, March 2019]

An example of what you can do with this sheet. 

Ever wanted to know just how much Elven Accuracy was really helping you? How about the exact AC you should stop using -5 to hit/+10 damage? Or how many rounds it’d take on average for a Hold Person to wear off? Or just how much the party’s DPR goes up from the Cleric casting Bless? Well, now you can easily calculate all of this and much, much more!

Some time ago, I posted a DPR calculator which has since apparently become the #1 result for such on Google. It factors in a wide variety of things that many DPR formulas posted around here do not, such as advantage/disadvantage, great weapon fighting, elemental adept, riders, DoTs, rounding effects, critical hit chance / damage, when you should power attack (such as with Heavy Weapon Master or Sharpshooter), and so forth. It also will produce a chart showing DPR against enemies of every AC value. Two sheets are currently included; one for attack rolls, and one for saving throw effects.

In collaboration with mathematician AureusFulgens, I have upgraded the calculator even further with numerous additional functions, such as Elven Accuracy, the Lucky feature of halflings, multiple sources of Bless-like bonuses, bonus actions, checkboxes, dropdown menus, custom scripts, etc. Additionally, we have included thorough documentation for the formulas we use and how to accurately calculate probability for just about everything in D&D (including the nitty gritty bits such as “how do you calculate the odds of success with Triple Advantage, Bless, and Bane active at the same time?”)

The sheet can be found here

The documentation can be found here

Just make a copy, enter your basic information like attack bonus and damage dice, and get all the information you want printed out.

Please let me know if you find this useful, if you have any questions, if there is anything even slightly inaccurate, or if there is additional functionality you would like to see provided. Note that this runs a little bit slower than the old calculator, since the new one uses Javascript in order to perform more complex calculations (you’d be surprised at how complex probability math can get for certain rules interactions).

This took a while to put together, so I hope you guys enjoy. And if you do, spread the word!  :)

-Ludic 

[source]

[roserysttrpggarden]

Exalted Playtest + One D&D stuff

Hi ya'll, I hope the last echos of summer are treating you well, I wanted to give you guys an update regarding my content, both the upcoming exalted playtest as well as any future content coming from me.

The Exalted

In the coming days I should have a 1/20 playtest version of the exalted up and ready, it's been a long time coming, but I am really proud of how this class has turned out so far, and I hope you all will enjoy the class as much as I have designing it. I hope you'll alsoenjoy any future classes I decide to put out, such as my previously mentioned accursed or harbinger, as well as anything else I decide to type with my greasy fingers.

But before I go, I also wanted to briefly discuss someone that I haven't talked about yet on this blog, yet with its release I feel that I must. That being-

One D&D

Oh One D&D, also known as the 2024 phb, I have so many thoughts and feelings about it, if you want a summary, It feels like a shitty homebrew revision of 5e hastily put out with little care or though, simply put out as a product despite obviously needing much more time in the oven, no shade to the design team at WOTC themselves, but it's obvious they wern't given enough time to really flesh out this product (If I recall correctly, this whole new edition has almost had as much development time as the entirety of the mystic class from UA) but that's enough of my thoughts on the system, how will it affect my content.

In short, I still plan on making homebrewed content for the 2014 rules, as obviously broken as it may be, it's my trash and I enjoy it. But if you do plan on using the 2024 rules, do not fret, I eventually plan to make 2024 conversions of my classes (Such as The Exalted) at some point, as while I am very apathetic to this new version of the game, I ultimately do want to make it available to the most amount of players, not just those that stick with 2014. It might take a while for me to get to some of my classes, but I hope you'll stick around for when I make those conversions. Anyways, that's about all I had to say for myself, but I want to through this discussion to any other 5e homebrewers out there, how do you plan on handling the 2024 rules? Will you be converting any of your content? Will you stick to making 2014 compatible content? Or move on to greener pastures.

Will all that being said, take care, go out and make some homebrew.

[rain-junkiednd]

EXEMPLAR - CLASS Created by rain-junkieDnD GM Binder and PDF versions (significantly higher quality than image post) More of my work can be found here Artwork by JenZee, Anton Fadeev, Jason Nguyen, Jun Dong Li, and Dominik Mayer Class icon from Game Icons

[tadfools]

Op disabled rbs but they’re right and more people need to read this a few times over

[roserysttrpggarden]

This might be a little off topic but i'd say it's also very valid modify the prexisting modules into your own thing, Legends of Avantris did that for their once upon a witchlight and curse of strahdanya campaign, pretty sure the adventure zone also did that for their first campaign too.

Making a whole new world with factions, characters, gods, etc is tough work, and not everyone might have the time or energy to do that (Among other things) so why not use an existing module as a springboard, especially if you're a newer DM.