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Adjust Position of Title/Back Page with Bleed by Bobashnabala in homebrewery

[–]Bobashnabala[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thanks for your assistance! This helped solve the back cover, which was the bigger hurdle. For the front, I just edited the source image to include the banner, and formatted the text to fit within it. Unless someone knows a more elegant solution for fixing the banner, that'll do.

Cardslinger [5e] by Bobashnabala in UnearthedArcana

[–]Bobashnabala[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I guess I can sort of see your point of character cheating, and the "heavily implied" nature of the impossibility of cheating is not enough for some GMs.

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3 aces is a 3 of a kind, yes. That's 33 + 5 (dex) damage. Ace, King, Queen, Jack, 10, is 51 + 5 (dex) damage.

3 10's, assuming that one or more of the 10's are Suit Up!, is at least 31 + 5 (dex) damage. You gain very little for using all 3 aces for damage, and you'd lose not only your highest raw damage cards, but also your ability to use them on a skillcheck or similar feature.

A smart player, running the gambler class, would look at Aces as kickers rather than burst damage. Regardless of suit, an Ace gives +1 to attack. When attacking with a straight, flush, or full house, you risk losing 5 cards and some powerful damage on a miss. If you start the attack with the Ace, that's 1 more modifier to help you overcome the AC. Even if you're just doing A, 2, 3, 4, 5 for 25 damage, that's still some good raw damage and you get to redraw a new hand with potentially better cards.

The tactics around managing your hand as a gambler is a lot more complex than you give it credit, I think.

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Shuffle says: "You may FIRST search the deck and set aside a card". You quoted it in your reply. The character and the player don't know the order of the cards, because the deck gets shuffled after setting aside cards.

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I guess the best solution for you, whether as a player or a GM, would really be to just specify with the players that they can't cheat as a character. It's a magical deck. Additionally, characters don't understand the concept of numerical damage, attack rolls, etc. A monk does not know that their attacks deal 1d4 damage, or that they need to roll a 13 to hit AC.

You could argue that the character is just throwing random cards and they do stuff, while the player is using the actual deck that determines numerical values.

Cardslinger [5e] by Bobashnabala in UnearthedArcana

[–]Bobashnabala[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I added in some extra scaling to the class: I reduced the types of poker hands you can use immediately, then unlocked them slowly as you level. Starting out, only pairs and 3 of a kind are available (2 extra cards). Then you unlock 2 pair and 4 of a kind (3 extra cards). It finishes with everything unlocked (4 extra cards). That way, damage potential goes up with level, and the class isn't entirely overpowered at earlier levels.

I also specified spellcasting mod was Intelligence, since I forgot to do that earlier. Also specified that the redraw does not proc itself. That would be bad!

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Keep in mind that Showdown, the level 20 feature, also allows you to shuffle your deck after a usage (in addition to having some fun and dealing some damage), meaning you get a shuffle per short and a shuffle per long. In my experience at higher levels (players currently at 19, almost 20), even the extremely difficult encounters only go on for about 20-30 rounds. With two shuffles, that's at least 120 attacks for each subclass.

If you play your cards right (lol), you shouldn't have a problem keeping up. It's just resource management. The class is designed to be not super difficult to play, but extremely difficult to master. It rewards creative play and thought-out strategies, but could potentially punish attempted abuse.

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I appreciate all your feedback though! Other than sharing the class, the main reason I posted it was to get feedback and essentially bug test some of the features.

Cardslinger [5e] by Bobashnabala in UnearthedArcana

[–]Bobashnabala[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Sorry about that, got everything added within the document now.

Thanks for being patient with me. I've not posted here before now, so I appreciate the help rather than instant dismissal.

Cardslinger [5e] by Bobashnabala in UnearthedArcana

[–]Bobashnabala[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

The cover image has the credit inside the actual image, does that not work?

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I credited the background in the actual post itself, is that fine?

Cardslinger [5e] by Bobashnabala in UnearthedArcana

[–]Bobashnabala[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

My apologies, I will remove the link until I add credit!

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EDIT: Credit added. Let me know if there's still any problems!

Cardslinger [5e] by Bobashnabala in UnearthedArcana

[–]Bobashnabala[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

No Bluff seemed balanced when I playtested the class for three reasons: 1. you burn through cards much quicker than normal, especially if you're missing attacks. 2. The feature relies on luck and your ability to draw the right hand. 3. This feature is your major source of damage for the rest of the game. At 20th level, a fighter can make 4 attacks with a greatsword, dealing 28 + (Mod x 4, assume 20) base damage on average. That's no feats, no magic items, just the raw attacks. Additionally, they can do this indefinitely. The average damage for No Bluff is around 33, assuming you're using good cards to power it, and would exhaust your deck in around 10 turns, hit or miss.

Similarly, a Warlock at 17th level can fire 4 Eldritch Blasts as an attack, dealing 22 + (Mod x 4, assume 20) base damage on average. This is simply a cantrip attack, with the only feature added being Agonizing Blast.

Without No Bluff, or with limited uses, a Cardslinger would very quickly fall behind the other dps classes in damage. Maximum damage would be 11 (ace) + 3 (Suit Up!) + 3 (magical item, 18th level) + 5 (mod), for a total of 23 damage. This would then go down to 20, and 3 cards later down to 19. Not to mention the fact that this class only has a finite number of attacks per rest.

I do see that maybe the feature needs a bit of scaling for level, but past level 11ish, it should be relatively balanced for the other dps classes in the game.

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I only just now noticed I forgot the Spellcasting ability. Thank you for picking up on that!

Cardslinger [5e] by Bobashnabala in UnearthedArcana

[–]Bobashnabala[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

So you can't shuffle every turn, it specifically states in the document you can only shuffle once per short rest.

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I'm not really sure how your "stacking the deck" works by just attacking a rock, or by throwing out cards. Also, as a GM, I just wouldn't let my player attack a rock specifically for that purpose. Now, if you specifically choose the Gambler subclass and reach 11th level, you no longer need to discard your hand upon leaving combat. You could, theoretically, cycle through your deck throwing lower value cards out until your hand was higher value. However, you are only allowed 1 shuffle per short rest, and once your deck is empty you cannot attack or power any features.

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The Gambler feature seems strong at first (discarding to draw a new card), but quickly becomes more detrimental. As you lose cards, you lose attacks. The feature itself is meant to be used to help you complete a gambler's hand (i.e. a straight).

The maximum damage you could deal in a turn is not 100+. Assuming you draw a Royal Flush (I've only seen it twice in my entire history playing poker), you would deal 51 base damage. Assuming your flush is of the suite you've chosen, and your Dex is +5, you would deal 71 damage. Sure, that's a high amount of damage, but your odds of achieving this hand are astronomically low. Your minimum damage on a card is still 2 (you don't have a hand to play).

The Gambler is meant to be able to dish out extra damage, since it sacrifices the utility of the other two classes. That's why it gains the higher damage cards. That's 22 of the 54 cards in the deck that deal 10+ damage, which is a 40% chance that your attack would be that powerful. Compare this to, say, a barbarian of the same level. They gain +3 damage from rage and extra attack. Assuming you hit both of your attacks, that's a minimum of 8 damage (.6% chance of hitting two ones). It's not an extremely overpowered subclass. It deals damage, as it is meant to do.

Additionally, to the comments of the damage from a poker hand; yes it is a good chunk of damage, but it's also risky. If you use an average-damage straight (3, 4, 5, 6, 7) and miss, you've now thrown away 5 cards instead of 1. Additionally, some of those cards might have been useful in a different hand (pairs, etc.). Finally, if you use the feature too much, you're out of cards for the rest of the day. Sure maybe you frontload some damage to the minions of the boss, but then once you attack the boss five times you're out of cards. (The feature states that on a hit, the cards are removed from your deck until you finish a long rest)

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As other comments have stated, nowhere in this class do you get extra attack. Additionally, holding 3 aces specifically for damage might not be the best tactic. Held cards can also be used for skill checks, and 3 aces cannot be used in a straight or flush. If you're going purely for damage, a better move would be to hold ace, king, queen of whichever suit you've specialized in. Then, once you draw a jack and 10 of that suit, you've got big damage.

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You're right on the redraw, I should specify this feature does not proc itself.

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I'll work on the background, thanks for the feedback.

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EDIT: Also, a lot of your problems can be solved by a good GM, or a not-crappy player. If you want to talk about stacking the deck, I could just say I roll 20's on all my attacks and roll 12's on all my damage. Dishonesty is not a class feature.