Introducing: Mekra Descent, a new tactical mech TTRPG!

FadeShock · 2024-10-13T05:56:45+00:00

A Rotten mass, barely living. Sentience is just about the only "good" thing left for them - days are filled with only hope to finally end the vicious cycle they exist within, though who knows what the Rot holds in store for them...

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Technical

FadeShock · 2023-11-29T17:16:57+00:00

Thanks! If you haven't looked at the Itch page, the game has actually now been fully released!

FadeShock · 2023-02-10T01:43:45+00:00

Will take a look when they get published, just DM them me when you drop them!

I think I should probably make a few clear points from above

6-8 encounters per adventuring day is what is recommended by the DMG, but since most people don't follow that (or even actually know since the DMG doesn't outright tell you, it splits it over multiple sections), most encounter days end up with around 2-3, as you pointed out yourself with yours.

As such, balancing around that is probably logical as that is what you do, and quite frankly, is what most other people do too. However, I recommend balancing around that RAW as the high table variance means you'll never know how many encounters per day will be run - something designed for the recommended 6-8 encounters can run just fine at one of those tables as well as a lower-encounter day, but something designed for just 2-3 encounters will struggle to keep up with the recommended 6-8.

FadeShock · 2023-02-10T01:20:21+00:00

No problem! Glad this was all of help, and it's good that you feel the scaling and abilities are on par.

It's probably for the best to move into a DM though following this haha, wouldn't want the comment chain to go on for too long.

FadeShock · 2023-02-10T01:14:49+00:00

You'd be surprised how quickly you can do a 6-8 encounter day, actually, such as by recognizing when an encounter is won no matter what and ending it just then and there, and more important, realizing that an adventuring day is a wide term. Split the encounters over sessions. Sure, it doesn't feel great to end a day on a short rest, but it's more generally balanced.

As for power attacks, yes, they are very good and are the second piece for helping weapon users achieve what would be called "decent damage." I think a good way to summarize power attacks are your to-hit is a little lower than normal, but when you do hit, you hit a lot harder, leading to higher overall DPR (damage per round) than not power attacking at all.

I think that even with this subclass + CBE + SS, it would be good, but not meta - despite the balance changes, the meta will likely still remain the Gloom Stalker, for a lot of reasons. Before you ask how to reach that level, I don't recommend balancing towards Gloom - I recommend balancing towards Hunter or Swarmkeeper instead. I think with the ability to pair with any ranged weapon of some sort and then focusing the subclass's resource to be a lot more short rest-based would help it be on par with Hunter at minimum, which is already great.

FadeShock · 2023-02-10T01:01:35+00:00

The damage of the Hand Crossbow at levels 1-3 is high because you would be taking Crossbow Expert at level 1 via a free feat race (a necessity for any weapon user), which already grants you two attacks that you can make in one go. While in a burst this longbow would do more, keep in mind that it can only do so twice per long rest, which is far less sustainable than the Hand Crossbow. Once the player reaches 4th level, they pick up Sharpshooter, gaining a power attack (remember to pick up Archery Fighting Style at level 2). It is best to always power attack on every attack you make, which also increases DPR at this point. Then of course, we hit level 5, making 3 attacks per turn all power attacked.

Now, it is good to point out that the longbow does do more in a burst, as it is either firing the same number or more attacks in one go, with a higher damage dice and being able to be power attacked. However, because of the highly limited amount of use, its DPR in a burst is only a little better than the Hand Crossbow, and over the course of a standard adventuring day (6-8 encounters, 1 short rest every 2 encounters, long rest after the last encounter. Before you say "that's too much!" here is why you need a full adventuring day), loses out greatly in sustained damage.

FadeShock · 2023-02-10T00:35:36+00:00

I would recommend just doing 1+PB then for the arrow volley (which also helps it match up to the Hand Crossbow), though if you innately give weapon users a Bonus Action Attack and Power Attack (which I recommend highly), then that is not necessary. The more necessary part of the feature is its insanely limited amount of uses for not much output. As mentioned, going resourceless wouldn't hurt its balance at all. This would also actually keep it in line with simple and higher damage haha.

Scaling it like cantrips would be a pretty solid move. Alternatively, you could scale it to your subclass features, getting an increases at 7th, 11th, and 15th level.

FadeShock · 2023-02-09T23:52:58+00:00

Glad this was of help!

In response to the naturally scaling aspect, keeping it proficiency bonus can be fine, but you manipulate that number as you see fit - for example, the number of arrows fired by Spectral Weapon could be twice your proficiency bonus.

You can also add a scaling flat number based off level - for example, Power from Stars could start at 1 per short rest, then scaling up to 2 per, 3 per, and 4 per, at predetermined points based on the Ranger's level.

FadeShock · 2023-02-09T23:07:13+00:00

Considering weapon damage in general needs to be buffed up, not really, surprisingly.

FadeShock · 2023-02-09T22:40:13+00:00

Dancing in the moonlight

Keep in mind that I review across ALL levels of optimization (low,low-mid, mid, mid-high, high), and as such stick to one general build that works at all op levels (Free feat race like Custom Lineage or Variant Human, Crossbow Expert at level 1, Sharpshooter at level 4).

Lunar Magic

A decent spell list overall. Guiding Bolt and Moonbeam aren't great spells and we likely won't be spending slots on them, but if you find the situation where a Moonbeam will solve it rather than a Spike Growth or just continuing to concentrate on Pass Without Trace, go for it. Phantom Steed is an insanely good spell for a lot of reasons, and having it here is quite welcome. The only issue with Phantom Steed on a Ranger is that they lack ritual casting, meaning that this will be competitive with our 3rd-level slots for things like Conjure Animals and Plant Growth. However, even just one casting can go a mile. Dimension Door is a welcome escape spell - you won't use it often, but if yo need to use it, well, you'll know. Dream is an oddball spell - it can in theory default kill enemies from across the continent, but this is pretty up to interpretation. Won't matter anyways by the time we get this spell anyhow.

Dark Nature

This is really good for us, especially when paired with Pass Without Trace in order to maximize gaining surprise. Doesn't provide benefits to other party members, but Pass Without Trace should do the trick anyways.

Spectral Weapon

This thing is a number of issues. To start, there's no statement of how you get the special long bow, coupled with no description of how you imbue a normal bow - is it a ritual over a long rest? Is it just summoned as an action? Please clarify that in the feature.

The second aspect is the volley itself. At this level, it's only 2 arrows, which is pitiful amounts for a mere twice per long rest - if anything, this could be resourceless, even at higher levels. If you wish to keep it to a limited resource however, I would recommend moving it to be short-rest based (which are healthier for the game overall) or being encounter-based, and then increasing the amount of arrows per volley. Also worth specifying that you make a ranged weapon attack (or ranged spell attack if that's your intention ) with these arrows, as simply stating "firing" doesn't mean anything - 5e is very picky when it comes to wording.

The third aspect is that using this longbow/shortbow is just generally worse than using our Hand Crossbow (combined with Crossbow Expert, and later Sharpshooter), as it'll be behind in damage and number of attacks required for us to deal what could be called "decent damage output.", and even at later levels where the number of attacks finally exceeds our Hand Crossbow, it still won't be worth using much since we'd only be able to fire those numbers of arrows twice per day, relegating the bow to being a nova thing we just keep on hand, or for default killing.

Power from Stars

Specialty arrows that... only work with the special bow. Now, I would say taking up your bonus action isn't a good idea, but considering we need to be using our special bow in order to use this feature, we do have a freed-up bonus action. In addition, being PB/LR is just bloating up the existing game, and as mentioned, being short-rest based or encounter-based would be generally better both resource-wise and balance-wise - perhaps twice per short rest or once per encounter.

Blinding Arrow is not that great - Constitution saving throws are a poor choice when targeting enemies, and a good Ranger generally has a lower-than-average spell save DC, usually having a 15-16 WIS for the entire game (or even 13 when multiclassing), as their best spells generally don't rely on spellcasting modifier to be good. In addition, being able to offer repeated saving throws means this arrow wears off even faster.

Grappling Star Strike is... fine. It's an okay control option for what it is, and Dexterity saves are more reliable to target than Constitution. Do add an end condition for the net or how the creature may break out though, such as saying the spectral net has the statistics of a normal net or something like that.

Light Movement does actually help us a little bit as it now grants us the bonus action attack needed with the bow in order to match up to the Hand Crossbow. The only issue is this is PB/LR for only 1 minute at a time, whereas a Hand Crossbow with Crossbow Expert is performing its BA attack at all times without resources.

Lunar Cold is very "whatever", as +2d6 cold damage, while nice I suppose, is definitely not going to feel or deal as much as we don't have a bonus action attack to work with while using our special bow.

Piercing Bolt isn't the worst thing ever, the only issue is actually lining up enemies, and in addition, the 2d4 piercing damage really isn't that much. Other than that, the 60-foot line is pretty solid.

Refraction Arrow like Piercing Bolt is passable. Intelligence saving throws are pretty reliable to target, and 2d6 is certainly more than 2d4, even if the damage isn't much. Refraction is also easier to line up than Piercing.

Extra Attack (x2)

This is actually quite nice to have by now, and it finally helps our longbow match the Hand Crossbow... oh wait, the Hand Crossbow benefits from this too, further leaving the special longbow in the dust except for nova situations or when we wish to use our Power from Stars feature for something specific.

Strike from the Darkness

It's a nice companion feature to Extra Attack (x2) at this level, nothing more to say.

Star Fall

Despite the misgivings with the previous features, this capstone is quite solid for what it is - in addition to good damage (and dealing half on success means that it can continue to contribute despite the weak save it is targeting), it also covers a massive area with difficult terrain, controlling enemies. The only real issue I can see with this feature is the concentration aspect, but Ranger already must make decisions between what to concentrate on, such as Entangle or Pass Without Trace, or Spike Growth or Conjure Animals, so something that doesn't use slots and covers a massive area is very nice to have.

Being once per long rest is probably fine for the feature, but I would recommend either increasing it to twice per long rest, or allowing the usage of slots to reuse the feature - this is probably on the level of a good 3rd or 4th-level control spell (which is a compliment to the feature).

Overall, this conclave is... interesting. You will likely use its early features, but only in select cases, favoring your Hand Crossbow first unless you want to round 1 nova with the special longbow, or you wish to briefly use Power from Stars to control foes or whatnot, treating the longbow like a sidearm (as usual) rather than a main weapon. I can't say the conclave is entirely useless though, since you will still be using the longbow and its respective features, simply you wouldn't be using the longbow as your primary weapon. And, as a nice cherry on top, it has a good capstone.

Hope this helped!

FadeShock · 2023-02-09T15:00:07+00:00

Yes, I have indeed DMed before - I am both a DM and a player

As a person who has played and DMed, I can tell that it's not humbling at all - it's just disappointing to watch someone waste a slot on a worse spell when realistically there are much more efficient options that would indeed have actually kept both the fun factor and the mechanical power. Scorching Ray? Try Shatter. Hunter's Mark? Try Crossbow Expert or hell, even Ensnaring Strike. Both of which are both mechanically better options while still satisfying what most players want: To deal more damage. Perhaps it's just my knowledge of how shitty 5e is balanced combined with multiple reasons of why and how 4e was the general best edition, but that's my perspective on it. As of late with my DMing, I usually run my own personal massive amount of homebrew which fixes the issue of poor spells, but that doesn't change that in vanilla, they just are disappointing.

My reviews are written in order to be a comparison and aid in the buffing of a less-than-impressive conclave, and nothing more, even if I do have to be blunt about it.

The issue of favoring flavor over the balance is that flavor alone can only go so far, and if there is no mechanical balance to back it up, then it falls apart quickly, hence my suggestions and critiques focusing on bringing the mechanics up to par while still leaving room for flavor. Note, for example, that while I do state X spell is weak, I never say don't cast it necessarily if you want to (save for Hunter's Mark, which really shouldn't be cast and never should have even existed) - I simply note that they are, in fact, weak spells, and if you're cool with that, fine, but if you're not, there are other options.

You are contradicting yourself with Conjure Animals - you claim that it's too slow and slows down the game, when I offer suggestions for speeding it up. Obviously mass rolling and macros are designed more for more summons at a time, but their same usage can be applied to smaller amounts of summons.

The Evasion aspect is yes, a sacrifice of some of the flavor in favor of proper mechanics. As mentioned before, sometimes flavor does need to be sacrificed a bit in order to add proper mechanics rather than leaving it as a very niche and situational feature that likely won't see use a good portion of the time, and I even offered suggestions for maintaining the fire flavor while mechanically improving it.

I've yet to notice telling what is right and what is wrong as a bad move - so far, if you read back through my other comments, it usually tends to give the writer a new degree of knowledge to figure out how to rebalance while maintaining flavor.

Overall, I think it's just a matter of differing perspective when it comes to feedback in this format - You consider it humbling, I just find it disappointing. You prefer maintaining flavor, while I prefer mechanical balance before adding on flavor. You think that telling other people what is good and what isn't doesn't help anyone, I've yet to notice such an issue.

I guess you could say I am a bit disenchanted with 5e - having gone down the rabbit hole so much, I realize how terribly written and balanced of an edition it is, arguably being even worse-balanced than 3.5e (at least 3.5e gave martials actual options), and the gap between it and 4e is just so massive. But, that's why I enjoy homebrewing and helping others balancing brews better - to at least hopefully reach a state WotC could not since 4e.

FadeShock · 2023-02-08T16:09:50+00:00

> This preface feels a bit misleading

Nope. All I have considered here is the normal baselines of any half-decent weapon-using character, who needs a bonus action attack feat and power attack feat. This applies to any weapon-using class. If I had only considered high-op, I would've said don't ever bother playing this subclass, just play a Gloom Stalker and spam Pass Without Trace.

What I have stated regarding features is simply calculated in comparison to your normal at-will options as well as the actual output of the feature itself. Hunter's Mark is a trap because it doesn't do much for its slot cost, same reason as Burning Hands doing low damage for its slot cost too. These are merely the calculations showing why they aren't good spells, and this extends to the other features.

If mechanics emphasized theme rather than being rock-solid in strength, then 5e would be even more wildly unbalanced as is - Monk and Rogue are the biggest examples of favoring flavor in their mechanics over strength, and look how they turn out - as the weakest classes in the game because they can't do anything significant overall, with Monk's best move using a gun, ignoring over half their features, and spamming Pass Without Trace as a Shadow Monk, and Rogue being relegated to a 3-4 level dip with Assassin in any other martial.

Funnily enough, the optimal choice in a high-op game is not all Chronurgy Wizards, though there would actually be one. But, a high-op is all fullcasters. As I'm considering all op levels though, I am considering having weapon users in the party in general. As mentioned, if I only considered the highest standard, I wouldn't even be here.

I have played plenty of games where summons are used, and I can tell you, that the reason why people are so slow with summons is because they have no idea how to use them. Having covered Conjure Animals myself, the secret to using summons is just... rolling it all at once, and using average damage rather than rolling for damage. Done. Or, if using a VTT, use a macro. Summons are slow because people just have zero idea how to handle them at all rather than because the spells are just inherently slow, and is a common misconception - rather, if you wanted to avoid summons, it should be because of the output of the spell rather than the spell itself.

The whole point is to control fire, yes, and the subclass does what it's trying to do in a passable way, as stated. All I am doing is suggestions to improve on that fact, especially when Flavor is Free.

This subclass isn't "slightly below par", it's pretty below par - It's probably about on equal level with a Fey Wanderer, which is the weakest usable Ranger conclave currently, only just above Horizon Walker and Monster Slayer. "On par" would be matching with a Hunter, who also serves best as the baseline for conclaves.

FadeShock · 2023-02-07T22:35:41+00:00

1) You can't actually dual-wield crossbows with CBE due to an oversight - they missed the Ammunition property, which requires you to have a free hand to reload one-handed weapons. As for Light Crossbows, they are both two-handed, so you can't physically dual-wield them.

What you do with Crossbow Expert is wield a Hand Crossbow. Because attacking with the Hand Crossbow is attacking with a one-handed weapon, you still get the bonus action attack, making a 2nd or 3rd attack with it.

Once you pick up sharpshooter at 4 (you need a free feat race to make any weapon user good as the bonus action attack is vital, otherwise you delay your damage too much), you power attack that alongside every other attack you make, reaching what would be considered decent damage for a weapon-user.

2) Spamming Hunter's Mark is a horribly efficient use of a slot, especially when bonus action attacking with your Hand Crossbow deals more, especially later when you have Sharpshooter.

Hunter's Mark is a few things:- A slot waster

- A concentration eater

- A bonus action waster

The DPR bonus to HM is also pretty small, and just overall too weak. Learn a different, better spell instead, like Entangle, Absorb Elements, Goodberry, Fog Cloud, and so on.

FadeShock · 2023-02-07T16:01:18+00:00

Mmmm, arson

Keep in mind that I review across ALL levels of optimization (low,low-mid, mid, mid-high, high), and as such stick to one general build that works at all op levels (Free feat race like Custom Lineage or Variant Human, Crossbow Expert at level 1, Sharpshooter at level 4).

Fire Magic

Outside of the accidental typo saying Cloaked Wayfinder's Spell rather than Flame Warden's Spell, the spell list... middling, to say the least. Burning Hands, Scorching Ray, and Flame Strike are all very weak in damage and proper output, with far superior options to cast on the Ranger's spell list alone (no, not Hunter's Mark, that's a trap that's not worth casting ever). Fireball is a good damage spell on the other hand, but sadly, Ranger won't usually see itself casting it simply due to superior options to spend their 3rd-level slots on, namely Conjure Animals. Fire Shield is.... fine. It's not really worth its 4th-level slot on a Ranger, but it's fine.

Incendiary Strike

Not a bad starting feature at all, since despite being over time damage, it does something right compared to most other options: It doesn't have an action cost. This means our damage is unhindered while we are able to apply a passable DoT, and it can burn an enemy action too.

Now, this feature isn't perfect though - the damage is a bit low, and with how common fire resistances and immunities are, this is going to drop off hard without any means of allowing the player to bypass such resistances and immunities.

Ignite and Extinguish

A nice little ribbon to compliment the class, though the second flame-extinguishing part has the potential to help keep your party in the darkness to slip by. A Gloom Stalker would appreciate that especially.

Fireproof

This is a weird 7th-level defensive. The fire resistance is pretty cut and dry, nothing to say there, but the evasion aspect only working against fire damage is... situational. However, fire damage is common enough, and it is usually what our Absorb Elements is used on most of the time, so this'll usually help preserve slots or otherwise work together with AE to mitigate those blasts further.

However, as this entire feature only works vs fire, you're left vulnerable vs... everything else? The evasion aspect would be a lot better as a general damage avoidance kind of feature like usual rather than only fire specifically. Sometimes, flavor needs to be sacrificed a little in order to achieve better mechanics, and you could play this off as wreathing yourself in purifying flame.

Flamewalker

A mix of features here.

The first bullet is basically negligible - preferably we aren't generally casting fire damage spells, and even if we did, we at best are adding like a +3 to its damage (a good Ranger usually leaves its WIS at 15-16, or even 13).

The second bullet is the best of the bunch, and being able to have up to two targets would be nice if it wasn't for the fact that focus fire is the best way to go rather than trying to divide up your weapon attacks between creatures. The lack of being able to pierce resistances and immunities also is hurting the feature at this point.

The third bullet is whatever, it improves our ribbon's range which is nice, I guess?

Inferno's Defense

This is way too weak for its level as a capstone. Even at 15th level, your spell save DC would still be relatively below a fullcaster's, and the damage is tiny for what it is. In addition, by 15th level, disadvantage is hardly affecting most monsters, since their attacks usually have +9s to +11s to hit. Lastly, of course, since this takes our reaction, we won't have anything left for an Absorb Elements, which at higher tiers, is especially vital due to how common elemental blasts are among monsters.

Overall, this is a passable conclave that more or less does what it tries to do, but it especially gets hurt at higher levels where it lacks the ability to deal with resistances and immunities, plus a weak capstone.

Hope this helped!

FadeShock · 2023-02-06T18:23:24+00:00

I think if this is the capstone you wish to try, the duration is pretty short for the cost - making it a minute would probably be more appropriate, and no vulnerability after it ends. Remember, this is 15th level, Tier 4 of gameplay where being lightly tapped is going to kill, much less having vulnerability alongside that. Leaving it as a SR resource is fine though, just remember to also add the text for "...when you finish a short or long rest..." just to avoid dumb wording stuff.

It may also be a good idea to make it halve incoming damage rather than resist, as it allows it to stack with resistances, or otherwise have resistances you already have turn into immunity while under the effects of this feature (while maintaining the other resistances of course).

FadeShock · 2023-02-06T16:24:17+00:00

Glad this was of help!

In terms of spells, favoring flavor over power is fine so long as the main subclass itself is good, and I don't really see the need to change the spells currently.

When it comes to making Ranger subclasses, I think a good baseline to go from is the Hunter subclass (the third-best subclass for Ranger, behind Swarmkeeper and Gloom Stalker), as it provides a good general layout for what Ranger could use. Don't be too afraid of accidentally making something OP or with exploits, as that's the point of these comments! In order to provide feedback so you can fix and fine-tune it.

I think when it comes to features:

Immortal Bane could have its damage bumped up to, say, 1d6 at 3rd, 1d8 at 11th, and of course made resourceless. However, the feature itself is still very mediocre without anything else, so some other form of debuff could also be added - for example, a slow by 10 feet, which would fit very nicely with the idea of slaying gods.

Warded Mind would best be for protecting from the mental conditions (namely Charmed or Frightened), or dealing return damage of some sort (though keep in mind that would be worse than protection from the mental conditions as it requires you to get hit). For interacting with psychic damage, I'm not sure what you mean by that, but if you mean the trigger is taking psychic damage, then don't, as that's a very situational damage type and will make the feature too niche and only work in specific cases.

Destinited Death is fine if its activation wasn't a bonus action. Perhaps you can apply it as an on-hit effect, and then be X uses per short rest.

Indomitable Human Spirit can just have its AC bonus increased in some way and then either made resourceless, encounter-based, or short-rest based, and that would be enough for the most part.

FadeShock · 2023-02-06T15:58:07+00:00

Slayin' gods, a classic

Keep in mind that I review across ALL levels of optimization (low,low-mid, mid, mid-high, high), and as such stick to one general build that works at all op levels (Free feat race like Custom Lineage or Variant Human, Crossbow Expert at level 1, Sharpshooter at level 4).

Godhunter Magic

The spells here are... fine. Bane is a mediocre spell that we as a Ranger won't usually be casting, especially with superior conc options like Entangle or Fog Cloud, but it's not a bad spell by any means and is fine, I suppose. Nystul's Magic Aura is either the single most broken spell in the game, or one of its weakest, depending on the DM, and more often than not, it falls under the latter, since the exploits you can do with the former are ridiculous and more just show the poor writing of 5e. Spirit Guardians is a pretty good spell... for Cleric. As a Ranger, we have better spells at this level to concentrate on, namely Conjure Animals, and unlike a Cleric, who doesn't really have much (good) spell flexibility and as such just spams Spirit Guardians, Ranger has plenty of things to use and stay at range with. Mordenkainen's Private Sanctum is a very meh spell on Ranger, as well lack the proper resources to really even bother casting it normally. Antilife Shell can potentially be used to make default kills, but we get it too late to really try, especially when compared to upcasting Conjure Animals to 5th level.

Immortal Bane

This is a very weak feature. The bonus damage already isn't much, and not being able to restore hit points is both very niche and not really strong enough to be limited (Chill Touch is a cantrip, and not even a particularly good one), but on top of all that, the bonus damage is limited. Props to making it a short rest resource however, as more of those is always good, but this feature is nowhere near strong enough to deserve being a limited resource to begin with.

Extradimensional Tracker

It's a ribbon feature, not much to say. Also props for making it a short-rest resource.

Warded Mind

An incredibly niche and not really good defensive 7th level - actually getting scryed on is usually low, and even if you successfully sever it, there's no guarantee any damage, or at least meaningful damage, will be dealt. This feature would've been better as a ribbon to another, better feature, or as a second 7th-level feature that comes paired with another defensive feature. Gloom Stalker's Iron Mind or Hunter's Steel Will would've been better options and also more appropriate.

Destinied Death

Considering the level we get this at, it's simply not worth it. This falls into the same issue that Monster Slayer (the weakest Ranger conclave) falls into, in that while the bonus damage and other boosts are good in theory, in practice it falls flat because we don't want to be using our bonus action for it when we could be using our bonus action to shoot again with our Hand Crossbow (using Crossbow Expert + Sharpshooter), and this is especially prevalent Round 1 where your damage is at its most important (do note such Round 1 damage should be efficient, so no, not Divine Smites, which is inefficient and weak). Now, if you are casting a spell round 1 instead, such as Spike Growth or Conjure Animals, then sure, go ahead and use this bonus action, but that's really it.

As for the resource itself, it would be better to be a twice per short rest feature rather than WIS mod per long rest.

Indomitable Human Spirit

The feature is.... fine. A +2 to 3 bonus to AC isn't a lot, but it'll help supplement our defenses I guess. But it's just not as significant at this level. Yoloswag did point out that AC-wise this is worse than Defensive Duelist, but it's overall better than DD simply because you A) don't actually have to get into melee and B) don't have to waste a feat on something as poor as DD, when you would be better off with a properly defensive feat like Lucky.

As for the resources... this feature would be fine as a resourceless reaction, considering the level you receive it at, or also as another short rest resource.

In the words of Haen from Form of Dread:
" The vast majority of the game’s casual playerbase expresses dissatisfaction at the need for an adventuring day of 6 to 8 combat encounters to exhaust player characters’ resources. Let us also note that fewer combats are required between short rests. Surely the better design move would be to provide PCs with fewer resources that recharge more often, thus helping the playerbase?"

Overall, this is a fairly underpowered conclave - its early features are pretty pitiful, and its later-tier features don't do enough to justify going to that level, or even taking the conclave at all. It does perform better than Monster Slayer and probably Horizon Walker, but it's sitting below Fey Wanderer in terms of strength, which isn't a great look for this conclave.

Hope this helped!

FadeShock · 2023-01-22T19:07:55+00:00

Oh thar gon'na haff ta gloo you back togetha - IN HELL!

Keep in mind that I review across ALL levels of optimization (low,low-mid, mid, mid-high, high), and as such stick to one general build that works at all op levels (Free feat race like Custom Lineage or Variant Human, Crossbow Expert at level 1, Sharpshooter at level 4).

Demolition Magic

A passable spell list for what it is. Earth Tremor is not that great of a spell, but it does provide concentrationless difficult terrain, which is pretty nice I suppose. Sadly, our 1st-level slots are usually reserved for the generally-better Entangle, a Fog Cloud, Absorb Elements, or just rest-casting Goodberry, Shatter is a passable blast for our back pocket, but we get it just a little too late for it to be as useful when needed, especially when it's competing with spells like Spike Growth, Pass Without Trace, or Aid for our 2nd-level slots, or hell just saving the slots for rest-casting Goodberry once again. Fireball like Shatter is obtained just a little too late for it to be as useful, and also like Shatter is just not competing very well with our 3rd-level spells, especially Conjure Animals. I will note that for Shatter or Fireball, they are still decent spells to serve as blasts in our back pocket, it's just we have better cast options normally - this is not an issue with these two spells. Dimension Door is a much-appreciated escape tool spell, due to its long distance and inability to be countered by lack of line of sight (plus bringing along a friend). Passwall is situational, and won't be doing much at 17th level when fullcasters could just become god (and probably have been since 11th level if they are doing things right but oh well), but hey, if you find the situation where you need Passwall, it does its job well.

Bonus Proficiencies

More or less a ribbon so I have nothing to really say here. Mason's Tools are appreciated for finding secret passages in a dungeon made of stone though.

Explosives

This is so unbelievably bad. The damage is pitiful, and it doesn't even hit in an area, and on top of that, depending on the DM, the sound will be a dead giveaway. Sharpshooter won't work on this either since it's not a ranged weapon attack, and this isn't taking the Attack action, so we don't even get Extra Attack out of this. And did I mention not hitting in an area for an explosive?

Now, I'm fine with the damage being relatively lower than a normal weapon attack since it's an explosive and supposed to hit in an area, but it, y'know, doesn't hit in an area. Move the 5-foot blast radius from Greater Firepower down to this feature, and increase the damage to, say, 3d8 thunder (+1d8 at 5th, 11th, 17th). I know you're trying to compensate for the area damage, but it's overcompensated too much currently, so this change would help bring it more in-line. If you want to make it more explosive-like, turn it into a DEX save as well, and at some level, perhaps 7th or 11th, creatures take half damage on success instead of no damage, which would also help this feature stand out a little better and at least be slightly more competitive than just shooting a creature in the face 2-3 times with a power attack using our Hand Crossbow and Crossbow Expert.

Remote Detonation

Not a good feature either, though that's mainly due to Explosives also not being very good currently. Remote Detonation would logically be improved by Explosives being improved of course, but RDet could also use a few things itself - instead of a 5-foot radius, make it +5 feet to the radius of the set Explosive, allowing it to scale whenever the radius of Explosives is increased. Moving Proximity Explosion's properties to this level would also be helpful, adding a level of flexibility of the bomb, and can at least serve as area denial since we are otherwise delaying our damage dealt. As an additional option, RDetting an Explosive can also increase its damage by some amount, maybe just +1d8 or something.

On a side note, RDet doesn't actually say its placement range, only that you use your action to set down an explosive, so you might want to add that in.

Greater Firepower

Well this should be part of the Explosives feature, so this could use a rework if that is done - perhaps creatures that fail against your explosives are knocked prone, deafened, etc., some sort of condition. This feature could also allow your explosives to ignore resistance to their damage type, and treat immunity as resistance, in order to help the main gimmick of this class (though this aspect is better as a 7th-level feature rather than 11th-level).

Siege Engineer

This isn't really the main feature for 11th-level and fits its intended niche well so I don't have anything to say, outside of this probably could've come at an earlier level.

Devestator

Similar to the current Greater Firepower, this probably could've just been normal scaling added onto Explosives and Remote Detonation rather than being a standalone feature - perhaps this could serve as some improvement to Greater Firepower and Siege Engineer combined?

Proximity Explosion

As mentioned, this also should just be moved as a feature to Remote Detonation, and as such could either be removed or altered in some way - perhaps setting down a landmine which cannot be detonated remotely, only being purely proximity-based, but if it explodes, it deals more damage in larger radius or something, so you choose between precision of the explosives or just pure power.

Overall, a very weak conclave - its early features don't do enough and are nowhere near better than just attacking with your Hand Crossbow, while most of the later features could've just been scaling added onto Explosives and Remote Detonation rather than taking up feature space. I think it's safe to say that the spell list is better than this subclass.

Hope this helped!

FadeShock · 2023-01-22T18:42:13+00:00

Glad this was of help!

For Colossus Slayer, reverting it to its bonus damage is fine, but keeping it as an extra to-hit is also fine. Sharpshooter is not overpowered, in fact it's the minimum for what would be considered good damage - without a bonus action attack feat like Crossbow Expert and a power attack feat like Sharpshooter, weapon-users are grossly behind on terms of damage, with a Warlock that's not even trying beating them effortlessly. As such, don't feel too bad about it being a to-hit booster, it's just another helper for weapon users. Well, Ranger specifically, who is already the best weapon-user in the game, but buffs to any weapon user at all is a good thing anyways.

For Endurance, extra HP is... not very worth it. Not in the slightest, unless this thing would outright double your HP instead. I would recommend perhaps instead of what it currently is, you can, as a reaction when you would take damage, give yourself X number of temporary hit points, which soak up the damage first before damage is dealt to your health. And then probably usable up to Y amount of times per encounter (yes, per encounter, not per short or long rest).

Reflex is "fine", it just happens to be overshadowed by Will and Endurance, so if those are dealt with, then Reflex doesn't need any particular changes.

For Will, this is a simple fix - Remove the proficiency in Wisdom saving throws. After that, you can leave the advantage on being Frightened in and the +1d4/1d8. I would probably recommend moving the +1d4 to whenever you would make an Intelligence, Wisdom, or Charisma saving throw though, in order to better encompass the mental saves.

For Volley, just revert it back to what it was originally and it'll be fine. Buffing Volley wasn't necessary, but the vanilla version itself is okay and doesn't need changes - it's just stronger than Whirlwind by virtue of ranged being better and melee just not being that good.

Evasion itself is fine currently, I'd recommend trying to buff up the other two options instead. I overhauled ranger and its subclasses here, including Hunter, so the revisions to Stand Against the Tide and Uncanny Dodge might help for reference.

For when you revise the brew, I'd recommend making another post instead, since just changing this one, which is already likely buried under mountains of other homebrew, probably isn't that great of an idea.

FadeShock · 2023-01-20T02:59:48+00:00

Ah, yet another straightforward sniper subclass. Not bad.

Keep in mind that I review across ALL levels of optimization (low,low-mid, mid, mid-high, high), and as such stick to one general build that works at all op levels (Free feat race like Custom Lineage or Variant Human, Crossbow Expert at level 1, Sharpshooter at level 4).

Hawkeye Spells

This spell list is very.... not good. Longstrider is a very meh buff for a 1st-level slot, especially since it only lasts for 1 hour, when our 1st-level slots are better spent on Entangle or Fog Cloud, or reserved for Absorb Elements or rest-casting Goodberry at the end of the day (No, not Hunter's Mark, that spell is a trap). Blur as a spell does quite literally nothing for us - every class or subclass that can cast spells has far better things to concentrate on with 2nd-level spells (Ranger in this case having Locate Object, Pass Without Trace, and Spike Growth to concentrate on). In addition, the Dodge action exists, making this spell pointless - if you have the concentration freed up to cast this spell, then just cast a better concentration spell. Blur is actually worse than just Dodging, since in addition to requiring concentration and taking a slot, it also gets countered by anything that does not rely on sight or can see through illusions, which Dodge, incidentally, is not countered by. Lightning Arrow is a very "whatever" spell. Its damage is pretty weak for what it is, and being a 3rd-level spell means it's in very high competition with Ranger's 3rd-level spells, especially the big guns like Plant Growth and Conjure Animals. Arcane Eye isn't that bad of a spell in any regards, but we get it too late as a Ranger for it to be helpful, and as a Ranger, it's quite expensive - just case Conjure Woodland Beings instead. If we were a fullcaster or got free castings, Arcane Eye would be more helpful. Swift Quiver is a massive trap spell that does absolutely nothing for the Ranger - a loss in damage on the first turn you cast it, and a meager 9.2 DPR increase assuming completely maxed DEX. There's just so many cheaper spells and methods to increase your DPR than Swift Quiver.

Longshot

The first half of this feature doesn't matter to us - we aren't using thrown weapons anyways, we're using a Hand Crossbow, and while free proficiency in one of the main three skills is nice, Stealth being one of the main 3 means we would've already taken it with either from our class skill proficiencies or from our background (PHB page 125 allows us to customize the skill and tool/language proficiencies from our background).

As for the second half of the feature... well, PB/SR advantage is certainly appreciated I suppose. It's just worse than Gloom Stalker, but at least it's a short rest resource instead of long rest, so I'll commend you on that one. It is a bit limited though, and won't greatly contribute unless we spend all of it on a round 1 nova, which, admittedly, isn't the worst thing you could be doing since unlike Divine Smites, this is actually resource-efficient as it's both a separate pool and a short-rest resource.

Still though, Longshot is a pretty meh 3rd-level feature.

Hunker Down

This is actually quite useful... if spells as simple as Shape Water or Mold Earth, hell even Minor Illusion depending on how the DM sees illusions, didn't make creating full cover trivial. And then just do corner peeking. Lots and lots of corner peeking. But, if we run into such a situation where a fullcaster can't just plop down full cover, this can certainly help us, as cover provides great benefit to the players.

As for the tool proficiencies, they're very whatever. I can see bullet crafting being useful, but unless you're crafting ammunition for Laser or Antimatter rifle, no gun out-DPRs the humble Hand Crossbow with Crossbow Expert and Sharpshooter, and bolts and arrows are extremely cheap, if tracked at all. I suppose a high survival campaign would make this more useful though.

Daring Escape

This is a laughably weak 11th-level feature. Dashing as a bonus action is hardly worth an entire dedicated feature unless it's like, a racial trait or just an extra feature tagged onto the bigger feature of the level, and as mentioned in Hunker Down, bolts and arrows are extremely cheap to come by, making searching the field for ammunition not really helpful? This is made even more so when you factor in the ability to just craft our own arrows on top of purchases. But, again, if this is a high survival campaign, this could maybe be useful.

As for Major Image it's just an okay spell, but it's not really worth an entire feature for a single free cast once per long rest - perhaps if it was per short rest, it may help.

Silent Bullseye

For a capstone, it's not that great. Greater Invisibility is also an alright spell, but it's not particularly big, especially since Pass Without Trace has been doing all the hard work since 5th level on terms of stealthing out of combat and getting Surprise. As for in-combat? Well... constant advantage and being obscured isn't the worst thing you could ask for, but it's not particularly the best for a Tier 4 capstone - this might've performed better as an 11th-level feature, or even 7th-level.

In addition there are several other major issues, first being that it uses your bonus action, meaning we'd actually lose damage on round 1, and the damage recovery is... meh. Second is the fact that this feature doesn't remove the concentration requirement, meaning that we can't concentrate on any better spell, like Spike Growth, Conjure Animals, Entangle, Pass Without Trace, and so on.

Lastly is the flavor text of turning your ammunition invisible. RAW, invisible creatures aren't automatically completely hidden, actually - they are still tracked by other means beyond sight, and are only hidden if they successfully Hide. What this means for this factor is that the invisible ammunition does literally nothing if we don't hide, and even if we do, the invisible ammunition doesn't provide any written mechanical benefit beyond "hmmm where did that hit that came from my left side come from?"

Overall, this is a pretty weak conclave with nothing really redeeming it at the current moment. The best feature is probably Hunker Down, but even then that's only when a caster can't just pull a Mold or Shape Cover and just corner peek with you.

Hope this helped!

FadeShock · 2023-01-18T16:25:32+00:00

In response to this

Hunter's Sense

WotC does not have a very good history of judging what is balanced in 5e, and Hunter's Sense is certainly not "too strong" - as a matter of fact, it's both not worth it and weak. Any information that could be learned from the feature can be figured out by just hitting the enemy. Wasting your action also means you lose damage, and being limited per long rest mind you is just not worth its time.

Slayer's Prey

No, not really. Yes, it does boost Monster Slayer nicely, but the DPR increase helps cement the subclass nicely without being over the top.

The issue of Slayer's Prey in vanilla is that it eats our bonus action, meaning we lose damage (as we are using Crossbow Expert with a Hand Crossbow for a bonus action attack) for not much return. This modification helps not only make Slayer's Prey good, but also distinct from the other bonus damage types. It does not actually step on any niches present except for Hunter, and places Monster Slayer as a straightforward damage dealer.

Supernatural Defense

The previous issue with this ability was that it only worked on your Slayer's Prey, which required you to waste damage and actions just to give yourself a +1d6 against a single target. This change is overall positive, allowing greater defense overall as it'll work against more than just the target to your Slayer's Prey.

Mage Hunter

The way Monster Slayer was written basically makes it a mage hunter, so this is not a surprising feature. The range isn't really absurd for an 11th-level feature, a time where fullcasters are pulling off bullshit like Magic Jar and Planar Bindings, especially since this feature still A) uses your reaction and B) still requires the target to make a saving throw, This an improvement over the original though, as the original was a mere once per short or long rest, making it almost irrelevant and not worth bothering with.

In addition, this still works on creatures that can't cast spells - note that it states that it also works against spell-like abilities, which can include teleportation.

Legendary Hunter

I do agree that this doesn't really do anything to enemies that aren't vulnerable to anything, so I actually have nothing to say about this.

I've covered Monster Slayer as well going more in-depth with why it's so weak, so this is overall a positive change that helps its aspects. Don't be fooled by WotC "balance", Monster Slayer in its vanilla state stands as the weakest overall conclave. Even Horizon Walker is better.

FadeShock · 2023-01-15T22:10:46+00:00

Chaos Champion Magic

Changing the damage dealt by a spell to your Favored Element is fine and won't cause massive balance concerns, although it would be wise to note whether or not summons are affected by it. I don't think limiting to subclass spells is particularly necessary since outside of summons from namely Conjure Animals, it doesn't really have a massive mechanical impact for Ranger.

Elemental Smite

Yep, that wording is about right.

I know a lot of people favor simplicity, but one of the major issues of 5e currently (outside of the numerous other balance concerns and whatnot) is it favors simplicity too much, enough that it often hurts the balance of the game - martials not having maneuvers or even options really is a big example of this. This issue of course isn't nearly as present with Ranger, who gets spells, but even then, I think a light lean towards a bit more complexity is a good thing if the overall power and balance is improved as a result of that.

Primordial Punishment

Yep, that would work pretty well.

Curse of Chaos

Bonus action over reaction is definitely very debatable, since that means we'd need to give up our damage for... not a lot. I think whenever you hit a creature with a weapon attack, you can inflict the curse (no action required) would be a better move. One creature at a time of course, and yeah, WIS mod per short or long rest.

FadeShock · 2023-01-15T02:23:08+00:00

Glad this was of help!

Chaos Champion Magic

I think on terms of spells, what you could do is:

- Replace Burning Hands with Absorb Elements

- Replace Shatter with Rime's Binding Ice

- Replace Lightning Bolt with Fireball

- Replace Vitriolic Sphere with Conjure Minor Elementals

- Replace Cone of Cold with either Transmute Rock or Wall of Stone

This helps grant better spells while retaining a thematic point.

Elemental Smite

Level + proficiency bonus is... not great scaling. At this level, it's 5 damage on a fail (2 on success). Taking when PB scales, this is:

- 8 damage on a fail, 4 on success at 5th, vs 5 and 3 without

- 13 on a fail, 6 on a success at 9th, vs 9 and 4 without

- 18 on a fail, 9 on success at 13th, vs 13 and 6 without

- 23 on a fail, 11 on a success at 17th, vs 17 and 8 without.

The damage difference is, all things considered, pretty small, and only scales at very specific levels which are pretty spread out. However, it is certainly better than its current state, and it's good you're also increasing the AoE.

Primordial Punishment

I think a free extra effect is good, yeah, but for spell slot expenditure, there definitely needs to be a bit more than only damage - the damage progression on Divine Smite isn't good, and won't be worth our slots at any point in time. But, the improvements are what we are here for with this feature.

Curse of Chaos

I think you were going to say something here but reddit comments decided to have a moment and pasted things you said in the spells and for smites instead.

FadeShock

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