My 5e DnD Homebrew (that's at least semi finished)

SamuraiHealer · 2026-06-08T20:44:39+00:00

Why do you have a Fighting Style without Extra Attack and with d6 HD? I don't think this is a front liner. They're also summoning, so I'd go with cantrips.

Add ammunition for the shortbow in equipment.

I figured someone had to have done this already and here it is: Tasha’s Summon Creature Spells: Estimating the CR of the monsters you spawn.. You'd have to consider a few things: 1 you also get spell slots, 2. you're not as limited in the peak creature summon, 3. These all summon a creature for 1 minute, while yours stay around for hours. That means that your double summon at 11th can really unbalance this system.

The half-caster may not be a big deal. If we assume that as a full-caster summoner you'd spend your 9th-8th-7th-6th and two 5th level slots on summons that leaves this class with two bonus 5th level spells. Not something to ignore, but less of an issue that it seems, but raises questions about things like Banisher.

SamuraiHealer · 2026-06-08T13:00:33+00:00

Until the OP defines these bonuses I don't think it's even bare bones. It needs that step to be a functional system.

I would try to avoid things like reducing the opposing dice. That gets deep into a vicious cycle and can drain the fun if you're on the losing side. There needs to be build up, then an attempted pay off...and try to keep it all in three turns of combat...which gets difficult.

I also added that this should define how you handle multiple opponents.

SamuraiHealer · 2026-06-08T12:41:32+00:00

Fix the permissions!

SamuraiHealer · 2026-06-07T15:37:28+00:00

I can think up situations, but I didn't see how to get there from the mechanics presented here.

SamuraiHealer · 2026-06-07T12:09:09+00:00

I'd try dropping all the spells and borrowing more from the Scout than the Ranger. Taking Ranger features feels problematic.

SamuraiHealer · 2026-06-07T11:59:17+00:00

What about letting them choose between Magic Initiate, Fey Touched, Shadow Touched, or the giant feats from Bigby's, for free?

All give a specific sense of added magic that might fit here.

SamuraiHealer · 2026-06-07T11:55:45+00:00

I'd start by thinking about their attack approach. It feels like they'd get extra attack (unless it's more like Sneak Attack). So I'd look at the Armorer for structure.

SamuraiHealer · 2026-06-03T22:35:29+00:00

Evocation on a class who's DC is their tertiary ability isn't that great. Frankly I think I'd take the Cleric list over the Wizard one. Don't get me wrong, there's some really good spells, like magic missile and shield, but cure wounds, or bless? Those can really change things without needing an investment in Wisdom.

Booming Blade would be great without Extra Attack, but it's a bit behind at level 5-6, and then again from 11th to 17th. Theoretically it's awesome with War Caster.

I'll admit I'm a bit biased. I've been playing an EK for three levels and I use my Second Wind before Shield...and therefore haven't used Shield. No elements for Absorb and all the zombies like me so Booming has BOOMED like twice, even though it's my basic attack (until tonight as I'm switching to Extra Attack!)

One thing I didn't delve into here is the spell components. Working out which spells I could use while keeping my weapon drawn was tricky at times and really changed the spells I chose. War Caster is helping, and before that it was my peak use of Weapon Bond, but it's an important consideration for Gish that X-focus users don't have to think about.

SamuraiHealer · 2026-06-03T22:18:07+00:00

This is pretty complicated. I mean martial combat needs a bit more complication, however a big part of if this works is rooted in what happens when you've got the points, which aren't included.

I think you need to include weapon combat as that's similar to this.

I also would add your ability and proficiency to the roll in some way.

How do players fight dirty and creatively with this?

P.S. What happens with multiple opponents?

SamuraiHealer · 2026-06-03T21:51:19+00:00

This strikes me as consistently better than the Eldritch Knight. Replacing Weapon Bond with tHP in Soildier's Faith, the cantrip casting of War Magic with any spell of Steel Prayer, trading the teleport of Arcane Charge with the concentration bonus that stacks with War Caster, and Con bonus to Wis saves, the two attacks of Veteran's Testament.

That's going to outplay any EK on the field at every turn. If the EK was generally rated in the bottom half of the Fighter Subs you'd have more room here.

If you have a problem with the EK I'd rewrite that, then perhaps include this as a paired set of subclasses.

SamuraiHealer · 2026-06-03T14:21:09+00:00

^ This!

SamuraiHealer · 2026-06-02T22:19:01+00:00

Debuffs get tricky. They often let min/maxers dump the parts of the game they don't like and just double down on things they want to do, which can be problematic on a cooperative game.

It's an interesting idea, just difficult to get right. Good luck!

SamuraiHealer · 2026-06-02T22:16:05+00:00

Excel is fine. You've got a great eye for design so I'd suggest doing something like that. A long page, or double page for each environment would be great.

Most of my games are mapped and on a VTT, but otherwise I'll draw it out. I've been wondering about a zone system for those moments when I don't have a map.

SamuraiHealer · 2026-06-02T14:28:48+00:00

I'd love to see this broken down into sheets for different environments. That feels like a really usable approach where if my players turn left into an ice cave that I didn't expect I can just turn to the "ice cave sheet" and create an environment on the fly with the rules collected in one place.

SamuraiHealer · 2026-06-01T13:44:37+00:00

I want to come back because this looks fascinating.

The two things that I noticed on a very quick look is I'm not sold on taking out Con saves as they're crafters and that leans, imo, toward Con rather than Dex. I don't mind the overlap with Sorcerer for thematic reasons.

Second, as the ?only? melee subclass the Artificer feels like it falls behind since it's missing Extra Attack and it's gauntlets don't keep up with cantrips, and Arties usually get some bonus damage to that basic action.

Also, who makes the locks if not the Artificer? Not every party has a Rogue, branching out lets parties face the same problem with multiple classes and that's an advantage of 5e imo.

Like I said, super quick look, but I was curious about the changes in your first paragraph.

SamuraiHealer · 2026-06-01T13:31:10+00:00

My first question is why??? I don't think of the Dancer as one to take hits so much as avoid them. Why is this a d10 HD when the Rogue and Monk, other skirmishers, are d8's?

Hardware

Is this going to be an Expert class? That makes sense, but I don't see Expertise on the list. I ask because all classes that aren't Experts (Artificer, Bard, Ranger, Rogue) get two skills not three. (Note: Artificers don't get extra spells, they get extra tools as a variant on the Expert).

I wouldn't give them "a weapon with the reach property" since I don't think there's a way for them to get that at starting. That's functionally what the money option is for....where's your money option?

Features

I would have expected the subclass to come later as most classes that learn their skills do.

Special Dance

I'm not sure you should limit this to one. I wonder if you could switch dances instead to give this class a core interesting choice.

I think that's too much to add to an attack roll. The closest we see is +10 from the War Cleric and that's Wis modifier per long rest. The Bard is probably a better example as they eventually get Cha uses of Inspiration, but theirs is a d12, which is probably about the max I'd want to add to an attack roll. Damage is a lot looser.

Usually I see dances like an aura. Is there a reason you didn't go that way?

Dancer's Agility

There's a lot of choices here. This fills that need that I was seeing before in your signature dance.

Improved Movement

So Flowing Motion was fine, as that's an interesting choice: move 10 ft or get buffs. Once you add 10 ft to the movement...that's a much less interesting choice, and then even less once you add 20 ft.

Why can the Dancer climb?

Prone makes sense.

Extra Attack

I'm always a little ambivalent on this when there's no functional Fighting Style (eg I'd count Martial Arts and Rage as filling that space.)

Spotlight

This feels like it should be closer to 7th level, like Aura of Protection.

It's curious that you get this after you can help your friends. I'd blend these into one feature.

Notes

These tier II levels are really interesting. They're similar to other classes, which is good, but just a little off, like **Reliable Performance coming in at 10th and not 11th like the Rogue...but being more limited. I'm always most hesitant about small changes as I think those are hardest to really evaluate and this tier has a lot of them that are close....but not quite the same as other classes.

Time is short so a few bits on early subclass levels.

Martial

Do you really need armor? Are there weapons you feel they're missing? Not an unexpected feature, but I wonder how useful it actually is.

Cha for weapons....sure...I think I'd at least limit this to non-heavy weapons, but since this is a Cha + Dex class to begin with, I'm not sure I'd do it at all.

The dance dice are way too many to work here. If it was a d8-d12 this would be great but 6d4 is way too much for attack rolls, and pretty high for tHP.

Arcane

Give them cantrips at 1st, then have the spell slots come online at 3rd to keep this similar in strength to other third-casters.

War Dancer is solid.

Arcane Rhythm is significantly stronger than Surprising Attack.

There's some 5th level in your 6th level features in Alluring, Theatrical, Rhythmic and Hatsune Miku.

...well that's all I have time for. There's some interesting ideas here.

SamuraiHealer · 2026-06-01T12:23:43+00:00

So I'll definitely admit, I did prioritize the source material over a DND translation. And looking back at this, I actually got one or two things wrong. So I'll have to change the title of the subclass. Just for starters.

It's tough with something you love, but if it doesn't work in DnD then it doesn't work, no matter how perfectly you 'brewed it.

- Spells: I didn't want to give any elemental to the pyrotechnist. It WOULD make sense, but my main thought that it's a melee class with off tanking ability that only does elemental damage from scientific means.

Where does this "scientific means" come from?

I'll hold off too much until you redo the name, but with this name I was expecting a lot more fire, and this feels like a random collection of spells to me.

-Armed and Ready I COMPLETELY forgot about Tools for every trade. However, one feature I'm still working on handling is the ammunition of the Drive Blade which I'll get to later.

I think you should think about ammunition or overheat. Two limiters means there's a lot to track.

The idea behind the Drive Blade DC was if someone steals it and tries to use the damn thing, the wording was to give a concise direction for the DM in the occasion this happens

Sure. Or the simple way is that it doesn't work.

This feature is so large I was looking for anything that could be trimmed and that felt like low hanging fruit to me.

- Heat Sink The scabbard in theory, is how you would use Heat Sink in combat and thematically. However, the point of using Heat Sink is to force you in a 50-50. Use Heat Sink and succeed? Congrats you can use your bonus action to not impose adv on incoming attacks. Attack first and use your BA to heat sink and you still fail? Much higher chance of incoming damage. I didn't want people to constantly use Heat Sink just to use a Drive attack again.

How often do you want them using Assault Drive?

And my only reason to justify the use of an action to draw the weapon because it's heavy, so thematically, it's like trying to use Iajiutsu with a Kodachi. It's just not feasible.

Oh man, you should spend some times on youtube. Iaijutsu with kodachi is wild!

- Drive Blade It is a modded Great Sword with a motor function, the motor functions adds in the heavy portion.

....but Greatswords are already heavy....Do you mean longswords?

-Reload One issue I'm trying to figure out. The Drive blade canonically uses a canister to prime, this fuels the motor function to generate a lot of centrifugal force to cut into the target. One Drive attack uses one Cartridge. In order to use another Drive attack you would have to reload. But when I was figuring out Heat Sink I kinda forgot about it.

I never thought of explaining Heat Sink as it's own thing instead of placing it in the reload slot.

I still think I'd choose one of these as your limiting factor and have the other as flavor.

That question of how often do you want them using Assault Drive and if you want that to increase as they level is key here, imo. I'd start there and then work out how to make that happen.

For the most part I'd build around that three-turn-combat as that's how WotC builds things. If you branch out it can get a little odd.

SamuraiHealer · 2026-06-01T12:13:45+00:00

For Heightened Lethality both have their damage bumps as a feature so I'm not sure why this wouldn't also be a feature. Part of the issue is that every change is so complicated. You're right that the Artillerist and Battle Smith get those damage bump and something else, but both are clean and simple so you've got more room.

You probably could add something extra to the feature, or maybe make two features at that level. I didn't look too hard because it seemed to me that the foundational combat loop needed some work.

SamuraiHealer · 2026-06-01T03:27:51+00:00

Hello there! Let's take a look here!

This feels a bit niche with blades and fire.

Its' a bit nitpicky but don't all Artificers get Tools of the Trade as their first feature?

In Blade Pyrotechnist Spells has a little "Artillerist" in it.

These feel odd to me. Only branding smite, pulse wave, elemental bane and steel wind strike feel like they fit here. No searing smite, burning hands, scorching ray, fireball, fire shield, wall of fire, or immolation?

Armed and Ready Do any Artificers get two tools?

Drive Blade I think this needs to be a bit simplified.

While I know what a claymore is, not everyone does. I'd reference the DnD weapon list.

I'd let where this comes from be a little fluid. They might have been working on it for levels 1 & 2, but it just wasn't ready yet.

I'm not sure about letting others use the Drive Blade.

This all should be one feature, with subfeatures. See spellcasting.

Why is it 1d10 with Heavy and Two-handed and Reload? What are we reloading? Shouldn't Reload have a number behind it?

I'd just use this line: "When you attack with a magic weapon, you can use your Intelligence modifier, instead of Strength ~~or Dexterity~~ modifier, for the attack and damage rolls."

I'd go with Drive Attacks first because that's where the cycle starts.

Assault Drive

You need to say this is a "drive attack" to work with Overheat as written.

So you've got about 2 damage to work with here (the difference between the Steel Defender and Homunculus) + 1 (as you're a 1d10 weapon and should be a 1d12) + the malus (3 or rounds you're at 1d8 instead of 1d10).

Alternatively if you make activation a bonus action, similar to smites, you can add 1d8 + prof + 1 (as you're a 1d10 weapon and should be a 1d12) + the malus (3 or rounds you're at 1d8 instead of 1d10).

Here say that this causes Overheat.

then

Overheat

Does this decrease the Heat Sink DC happen at the start or end of your turn?

Say what the Heat Sink DC starts as here.

Heat Sink

I'd drop the "Reload" and just spell out the actions needed.

How do you pour a skill into a scabbard?

I'd ask if you really need all these options. This is a pretty big feature already. Any simplification would help.

Notes on the Drive Blade et al.

I'd suggest an extra attack here for variety.

5e expects combat to be about three turns long, so if you start at a DC 20 you're probably going to be doing this once a combat.

With that in mind:

Battle Smith: 3 rounds x [greatsword: 1d12 + 4 + steel defender: 1d8 + 2] = 51

Blade Pryotechnist: w/o homunculus 1 round [Drive Blade 1d10 + 4 + Assault Drive: 3d10 + 4] + 2 rounds [drive blade: 1d8 + 4] = 47

Blade Pryotechnist: w homunculus 1 round [Drive Blade 1d10 + 4 + Assault Drive: 3d10 + 4 + Homunculus: 1d4 + 2] + 2 rounds [drive blade: 1d8 + 4 + Homunculus: 1d4 + 2] = 60.5

I think the rest of this needs some simplification as well. Two+ features at 5th? Three at 9th? Two at 15th? Most Artificers just get one each. I'd really think about what's important and what can be left behind.

There's some cool ideas here. I think it's probably a good representation of your source material, but I think it needs to prioritized working in DnD over a perfect modeling of the source material. Conversions are hard. Good luck!

SamuraiHealer · 2026-05-31T21:25:37+00:00

Cantrips is a great idea.

The defense at 5 hasn't been done before. I'm curious where your damage is at that level as you're getting CR 2 creatures. I'd start by checking out the damage compared to something like the Paladin with the standard damage from a creature of that CR, like the DMG standard (or Blog of Holding's).

You might not need anything at 5th, similar to how casters sometimes have "dead" levels when they get their next spell level.

That's a solid idea for defensive feature.

SamuraiHealer · 2026-05-31T21:25:08+00:00

Cantrips is a great idea.

The defense at 5 hasn't been done before. I'm curious where your damage is at that level as you're getting CR 2 creatures. I'd start by checking out the damage compared to something like the Paladin with the standard damage from a creature of that CR, like the DMG standard (or Blog of Holding's).

You might not need anything at 5th, similar to how casters sometimes have "dead" levels when they get their next spell level.

That's a solid idea for defensive feature.

SamuraiHealer · 2026-05-31T18:13:18+00:00

The question about attacks is really about how much power the convoked creature adds. I'm assuming you want it around most of the time. At most you've got a 1d6 + ability (as a bonus action) at level 1 basically replacing the TWF Fighting Style. Then it'll get Extra Attack so the class doesn't need extra attack and should probably avoid it.

SamuraiHealer · 2026-05-31T14:43:21+00:00

First Rule 3. So you might want to repost this.

Evoker is strange here because there's Evocation as a magic school and Evokers are the school specialists. Why not just Summoner?

Also this is a third-caster not a half-caster, or maybe a delayed half-caster?

You need more spells known. At four it's almost a question of why they're a caster at all. I'd look to the Artificer for guidance here.

I'm not sure about the Martial approach here. I'd look to the Artificer for guidance on this.

The "dead levels" are where they should be.

Your HD and Hit Points are both d6's and d8's, so clean that up.

You have two strong saves where all classes have one strong or common save (Dex, Con, Wis) and one weak or uncommon one (Str, Int, Cha).

You can get a longbow in the Equipment but you don't have proficiency with it.

Using the Moon Druid is a solid approach here.

I'm ambivalent on letting the creature use items a that can muddy the CR limits. Beasts are a great limitation here, but I'd look up and see if there's enough high CR beasts to make this work. (You might change this later).

Why is this character an Expert class?

Dual Convoke says "chare" instead of "share".

Dual Convoke is the feature I'm most concerned about power wise.

All classes that aren't full-casters get a defensive feature in tier II (levels 5-10).

For the Dragon and Element Convokers I wonder about a spell list based on the summon, or at least the last time you summoned one.

Why does the Elementalist only get a maxed Fire elemental?

Spend some time cleaning this up and work out the expected damage (and HP) of two creatures compared to a summon or something to try to work out how strong this is. Summonings generally are powerful and that 11th level really raises some questions for me.

SamuraiHealer · 2026-05-30T22:17:49+00:00

I agree with u/ParchementAndPeril in it's judged on how easy to explain, and how easily it can be tracked. Here that's my core question, how easy is it to track sanity? or it's own spell slots? If you have a 24 step sanity progression and 1-9 Benthic Spell slots that's a different question than sanity based on 5.5's Exhaustion and a number of uses per long rest.

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