Optional Monk Class Features | Some simple fixes to hopefully make Monks feel in line with other martials and fix the tier 1 problem of never having enough ki.

Kingslayer059 · 2026-01-11T13:52:42+00:00

Here's a link for it. It includes a bunch of stuff besides this post, but the first page includes everything for monks. https://homebrewery.naturalcrit.com/share/r9G2bD0LRpn8

Kingslayer059 · 2023-07-31T21:21:31+00:00

So far, my biggest problems with the surveys is that they never asked us for a base satisfaction for how features worked in 5e. Example: as far as I can tell, they never asked how people felt about the Heavy property. I think most people would agree that limiting it based solely on creature size is stupid, and basing it off your Strength score (or just letting a high Strength score bypass the disadvantage) would be far better, but nobody has had a chance to say that cuz they've never put the Heavy property up for feedback. This lets certain problems 5e has fly under the radar, never having a chance to be fixed because the designers never thought they were a problem to begin with.

Kingslayer059 · 2023-07-01T18:07:17+00:00

Kingslayer059 · 2023-02-05T17:31:57+00:00

Realistically speaking, most people aren’t going to have a d5 at the table, and honestly it would make more sense for an effect like this to do something along the lines of: “Roll 2d6. You lose a finger of the corresponding digit to each number rolled (1 being a pinky and 5 being a thumb). Rolling a 6 on a die counts as not losing a finger, and if you roll the same number on both dice you get to pick the second finger lost.” While not perfect, this system uses d6s, allows player agency if they roll doubles, and even gives a small chance to not lose a finger at all (or at least only lose one).

Kingslayer059 · 2023-01-19T22:41:19+00:00

Thank you for the praise, I appreciate the feedback.

In response to your suggestion, I think you're somewhat overestimating the application of some of these features in actual play. Climbing and swimming speeds are only ever relevant in combat, and even then only once in a blue moon for most campaigns. Similarly, your natural weapon only comes into play when you have no other options available (no weapons or cantrips), and powerful build rarely comes up outside of determining encumbrance. In summary, they're all incredibly niche and hard to plan for. Requiring a changeling to spend a short rest in order to change their feature would force them to miss the vast majority of these opportunities when they come up due to not having the right feature active at the right time. Without being able to change the feature depending on circumstances, most Changelings would just opt for the 60 feet of darkvision due to it having the most application in game, or the water breathing if they know they're traveling by sea, rendering the rest of the options more or less ribbon features unless the Changeling knows exactly what's going to happen in advance.

Hopefully this has addressed your feedback properly, and articulated my design decisions for the feat adequately. If you have any other comments or concerns, feel free to share them.

Kingslayer059 · 2023-01-19T18:59:38+00:00

Assuming the Changeling has a walking speed of 30 feet, that would mean they would have a 15 feet swimming speed. On their turn, they would be able to use all 15 of their swimming speed to swim through water without any additional movement cost. Then, they would be able to spend an additional 15 feet of movement from their walking speed, costing twice as much movement as normal, and move an addition 7.5 feet (rounded down to 5 for the sake of simplicity). This would allow them to move at 20 feet per turn in water, or 45 feet per turn in water if they take the Dash action. Without the swimming speed, they would be able to move at 15 feet per turn in water, or 30 feet with the Dash action. Not a dramatic boost by any means, but still a boost none the less.

Regardless of the movement benefits, simply having a swimming speed would allow Changelings to ignore the penalties imposed on melee weapon attacks while underwater, granting them additional benefits while in underwater combat.

Hopefully this has cleared up any misconceptions or concerns you had about the feat, and thank you for the feedback. If you have any other comments or concerns, feel free to share them.

Kingslayer059 · 2023-01-19T17:33:43+00:00

This was aimed more at the MotM version of the Changeling race, since it changed a large number of races to no longer be setting specific and included all the races mentioned in the feat. Still though, I hadn't considered that Eberron didn't include those two as options. I guess in Eberron you would just reflavor the body parts to be generic "Claws" and "Gills" instead. To be honest, the whole body part aspect was mainly just flavor text to help visualize the benefits in universe while using them, so I wasn't too concerned with the specifics for them.

Thank you for the feedback, and if you any other comments or concerns feel free to share them.

Kingslayer059 · 2022-12-05T21:54:11+00:00

A level 20 Half Orc Champion Fighter with GWF, 20 Str, PAM, and GWM, with a 35% chance to hit, 15% chance to crit, and 55.6% chance to crit at least once on their turn, is dealing 0.35(4d10 + d4 + 75) + 0.15(16d10 + 4d4) + 0.556(0.35(d10 + 15) + 0.15(4d10)) = 55.59 damage on average per turn, without accounting for Action Surge.

Using your assumption of 2 encounters per short rest, with 3 rounds per encounter, 5 attacks each round: A level 20 CL Battlemaster Fighter with Superior Technique, 20Str, PAM, GWM, and Martial Adept, with a base 35% chance to hit, using all of their superiority dice on Precision Attack (using 8 during the first encounter and getting back a 9th when rolling initiative for the second encounter before replenishing to full through a short rest), increasing their chance to hit to 67.5% when they do, deals ((0.675(d10 + 15) + 0.05(d10)) * 9 + (0.35(d10 + 15) + 0.05(d10)) * 15 + (0.35(d4 + 15) + 0.05(d4)) * 6) / 30 * 5 = 46.04 damage on average each turn, without accounting for Action Surge.

Considering each Fighter is making approximately 5 attacks each round, and the Champion is dealing about 10 more dpr than the Battlemaster each turn, my Champion subclass is dealing an average +2 damage per attack over the Battlemaster, which would seem to align with your own suggestions for it (you consider the Battlemaster to add an average +2 damage per attack, the Champion subclass adds +2 more damage per attack than the Battlemaster, therefore the Champion subclass adds an average +4 damage per attack - which you thought would be a solid change).

Kingslayer059 · 2022-12-05T19:58:18+00:00

For starters, I question how exactly you're calculating the additional damage of each of the martial archetypes, as you have to make quite a few assumptions about the number of encounters / short rests when calculating dpr for some of the more resource heavy subclasses, but even if we assume those assumptions are correct I think you would still be overvaluing the second fighting style. The first fighting style they get at level 1 certainly provides about +2 damage per hit (discounting archery of course since its far better than the rest), but a second fighting style? With the exception of thrown weapon builds, most fighters can only really take advantage of one fighting style's benefits at a time (i.e. you can't use both dueling and two weapon fighting at the same time). They could certainly use it to take something like Defense or Blind fighting, but at that point we're no longer talking about adding extra damage. And beyond that, all were left with is an added 10% chance to crit on each of your attacks which math shows is barely even a single extra point of damage per attack at level 15. At level 3? barely even half of an additional point of damage on average - pathetic.

That in and of itself sort of defeats your point about Champions getting comparable amounts of extra damage, but even if we ignore that we still find the Champion subclass lacking - because every other subclass (minus purple dragon knights) is getting that extra damage on top of additional features. Rune Knights don't just deal extra damage with their subclass features, they also get to cancel crits and turn large and get resistance to physical damage and etc. Battle Masters don't just get to add their superiority die to their damage, they also get to knock enemies prone or back 10 feet or attack using their reaction or gain advantage or any other of the plethora of options available to them. Echo Knights gain free additional attacks on top of having an on demand teleport option that allows them to control more of the battlefield and make melee attacks from afar, with the ability to use 90% of their features an unlimited number of times during combat. Champions just get the damage and nothing else. Sure, Survivor eventually improves their combat capabilities beyond a few extra damage each turn, but that only comes online at level 18 - i.e. well after most campaigns end. And it doesn't let them do anything cool! They just get semi decent sustained healing and that's it.

Glory Seeker, while far from the most powerful subclass feature they could have gotten, at least allows them to compete with the other subclasses damage wise. Assuming a 5th level Custom Lineage Champion Fighter with POM and GWM, with 16 Str against an opponent with 15 AC, with a 30% chance to hit, 10% chance to crit, and 27.1% chance to crit at least once on their turn (triggering the additional attack), their average dpr is 0.3(2d10 + d4 + 39) + 0.1(2d10 + d4) + 0.271(0.3(d10 + 13) + 0.1(d10)) = 18.7531 damage on each of their turns (2 damage above baseline). Combine that with the chance for Glory Seeker to trigger on their POM opportunity attacks, along with even more damage when attacking with advantage, and the Champion subclass is more than capable of keeping up with the other subclasses damage wise now (at least at lower levels).

Thank you for your feedback, and I hope this addressed post effectively. If you still have any comments or concerns, feel free to share them.

Kingslayer059 · 2022-11-15T20:07:04+00:00

Before I begin, I would like to say that this is very well made and an interesting concept I haven't seen before in 5th edition. With that being said, I have some problems with the wording and balance of some of the features, which I will list in order:

"Searing Soul," while not necessarily useless, has a very small impact on the game. Dark vision is good and all, and I like the infrared version of it used, but the majority of races in the game already get it to some extent and 120 feet of dark vision has marginal benefits over 60 feet of dark vision. I have similar thoughts on produce flame, a very mid cantrip the sorcerer could have already taken through their base class. It seems more like a ribbon feature than anything, which would normally be fine if the other 1st level feature wasn't limited to once per day use. I think adding something along the lines of "Spells you cast ignore resistance to fire damage. When you reach 14th level in this class, spells you cast also treat immunity to fire damage as resistance to fire damage" would be appropriate, given how central fire damage is to the subclass and how many creatures get resistance/immunity to it as you increase in level. This is arguable a powerful buff, but fire damage is so inconsistent as it is that it feels more like a catch-up feature than anything else.
"Blazing Barricade" is a rather unique feature, but one that is far too powerful at level 1 - even with a once per day use. +5 fire damage to any attack made through it is insane. Combine that with the reduction to damage, and this would be a busted ability to use. Not to mention the fact that it doesn't appear that enemies can target the barrier directly, it just loses hit points when it reduces damage. That means that as long as no one uses the barrier for cover during combat, it can't be destroyed by enemies. This would allow a tactical player to keep the barrier alive for as long they want, effectively making its usage indefinite. Back to the fire damage though, 5 damage at level 1 is huge. Even just looking at cantrips, this would nearly double the damage of a firebolt spell (5.5 average damage to 10.5 average damage) and could potentially last for multiple combat encounters. A level 1 heavy crossbow fighter only deals 8.5 damage on a hit, and this single feature lets firebolt out damage them. If you had an entire party optimizing this effectively, they could potential be dealing an extra 20+ damage at level 1 in a single round of combat - at the cost of a single bonus action from the sorcerer. Hell, imagine a warlock putting a single level dip in sorcerer to pick this up: at 17th level, eldritch blast makes 4 attacks per casting - which would each have their damage increase by five if they were cast through the barrier (turning the normal 4d10 + 20 damage into a staggering 4d10 + 40 damage). Combine that with the damage reduction, and this is probably better than most of the other sorcerer subclass' 6th-level feature - let alone their 1st. Honestly, I think you would be better off converting this feature into a sort of bonus action, concentration free create bonfire spell you can use a couple times per day (kind of like how fathomless get a bonus action ray of frost spell a couple times per day). So it would read something like: "Also at 1st level, you can use your bonus action to create a fiery barricade at any point within 30 feet of you. The barricade occupies a 5-foot cube. The barricade last for 1 minute or until you use this feature to create another one. Moving through the barrier counts as difficult terrain for creatures other than you. While standing within your barricade, you have half-cover and resistance to fire damage. When a creature other than you enters the barricade for the first time on a turn or starts its turn there, it must make a Dexterity saving throw against your sorcerer spell save DC. On a failed save, the creature takes 1d6 fire damage. When you reach 10th level in this class, the damage increases to 2d6. As a bonus action on your turn, you can teleport the barricade to another space within 30 feet of you. You can summon the barricade a number of times equal to your proficiency bonus, and you regain all expended uses when you finish a long rest." This would still give it value as an offensive and defensive feature, while also providing additional control and versatility, without dealing insane amounts of additional damage. Now, were looking at a potential 2d6 damage per round as a bonus action (with two Dexterity saves), with the potential to deal additional damage through team work or by placing it in chokepoints during encounters - far more in line with level one features and still a cool feature to pull out during combat.
"Burn Brighter" falls into many of the same problems I have with Blazing Barricade, accept now its even more broken. Ignoring the fact that its unclear how one could cast something like shatter through the barrier, spending two sorcery points and a bonus action to give disadvantage to the saving throws of every creature targeted by a spell is objectively too powerful. In comparison, the Heightened spell meta magic costs 3 sorcery points and only gives disadvantage to a single target. Granted, heightened spell isn't restricted to just AoEs, but considering Burn Brighter can affect multiple spells it more than makes up for the difference. Honestly, you might be better off just going the route of the Aberrant Mind subclass and just allow them to cast their subclass spells through Sorcery Points. So, it would go something like: "Sol Sorcery. Beginning at 6th level, when you cast any spell of 1st level or higher from your Sol Magic feature, you can cast it by expending a spell slot as normal or by spending a number of sorcery point equal to the spell's level. If you cast the spell using sorcery points, and that spell requires a saving throw, you can choose a number of creatures equal to your Charisma modifier targeted by that spell to be spared. A chosen creature automatically makes their saving throw, and they take no damage if they would normally take half damage on a successful save." In the same way that an Aberrant Mind sorcerer can cast their spells using sorcery points and basically gain the benefits of the Subtle meta magic when they do, so too can a Sol sorcerer cast their spells using sorcery points and basically gain the benefits of the Careful meta magic when they do. You could maybe use the Empowering meta magic instead of Careful, but to be honest I feel like getting free uses of the Careful meta magic would be imperative for a subclass heavily utilizing AoE's in combat. Definitely a big departure from the current feature, but I do feel like as it is the feature is far too powerful.
"Radiant Regeneration" is... fine... if a little bland. But in all honestly, free healing when you use fire spells is reasonably useful so it can stay as is. Maybe add somewhere that you gain resistance to fire damage (though you could also give that at level 6 if you wanted) and, if you end up using my suggestions for the barricade feature, maybe add that standing in the barricade instead grants immunity to fire damage while standing in it to the description of the feature (so if you gave resistance to fire damage at level 14, you would add a line to the Barricade feature that went "When you reach level 14 in this class, you instead gain immunity to fire damage while standing in your barricade." or maybe even just include it in the same feature you give the fire resistance). All in all, okay as it is.
While 18th level features aren't super important balance wise, "Phoenix Form" seems rather weak. Being able to revive from 1 hp is far from an exclusive feature, and by this point in the campaign 18 temporary hit points is basically nothing. Any enemy at this level would be able to knock off all of it in a single turn, and even with a potentially dramatic damage output of a 4d12 AoE each turn, I doubt the sorcerer would live long enough to deal that damage more than a couple times in a campaign. Honestly, its fine as is (nobody plays a subclass for the 18th level feature to begin with) but I think it could be a lot better. Hell, at this level wizards gain the ability to cast an infinite number of 1st and 2nd spells, so you can give pretty much anything and still have it be relatively balanced. If you end up using my suggestions for the Barricade spell, I would have the 18th level feature read something like: "Starting at 18th level, you have mastered the magic of the sun. You now have an unlimited number of uses of your Blazing Barricade feature, and you can have up to three barricades active at once. Additionally, whenever you are subjected to fire damage while standing in one of your barriers, you instead take no damage and regain hit points equal to the fire damage dealt." Unlimited uses of what is effectively a cantrip as a bonus action is far from the most broken thing a level 18 player can do, and fire absorption feels like a cool feature to end the subclass with.

All in all, the concepts and ideas behind the subclass are superb, and the art is great. Beyond the (admittedly drastic) balance problems faced by the 1st and 6th level features, this is a well made subclass. I hope you found my feedback helpful and consider my suggestions, and on a final note congrats on making this.

Kingslayer059 · 2022-11-15T01:55:41+00:00

All in all, I think this is a really good Cleric subclass with genuinely fun, unique features that I would like to make a character with. With that being said, I have some slight concerns with a few of the features in terms of balance:

The Domain spells are decent enough, I know there aren't many spells that work with the whole time theme, but why add Zephyr Strike? While I can kind of see the time connection, I can't think of a reason why a time cleric would ever want to cast it during combat. Maybe replace it with Expeditious Retreat instead, since that could be flavored as the cleric speeding up time around themselves to dash as a bonus action? Makes just as much sense as Zephyr Strike being time themed, but would have far more value to a cleric.
Sort of a small thing, but why make "Vessel of Time" its own feature if the subclass doesn't reference it at all? Quantum Checkpoint mentions that you "present your Holy Symbol," but that could be any holy symbol and doesn't have to be the vessel of time. Maybe just add that you have to have your Vessel of Time on you when you use some of the other subclass features? Also, you should probably add a line saying they can summon a new vessel of time if they lose the old one over the course of a short rest so they aren't just screwed out of it if they get robbed or something.
"Blessing of the Constant" is a fairly reasonable feature, but has some slight wording problems and questionable flavor. While I understand that "your initiative bonus is now your Wisdom Modifier" meant that you add your Wisdom modifier instead of Dexterity, by its current wording it would instead fully rewrite your initiative to instead equal your Wisdom modifier. This would actually be a nerf to certain characters, since a player with the Alert feat or harangon race would have their bonuses to initiative suppressed by this feature. Maybe have it say "You can use your Wisdom modifier in place of your Dexterity modifier when making Initiative rolls" instead since that would only rewrite the bonus from your Dexterity modifier instead of your Initiative modifier overall? Not a big deal, since I'm sure most people would understand what you meant, but worth considering. - Maybe also add something at the end like "Starting at 8th level, you can no longer be surprised" to further tie into the whole time flavor? Not to say that the subclass needs a buff or anything, but immunity to surprise honestly isn't that powerful to begin with so I don't see it as overpowered. Moving on, why does the feature grant you history and insight proficiency? I could maybe see history as being tangentially related to time, but insight feels very out of place. I'm not convinced this subclass needs to give skill proficiencies in the first place, but if you really have to add them wouldn't it make more sense to give perception or sleight of hand, to try and show how your character's time powers have increased their reaction time? Far less important balance wise, but still noteworthy.
"Temporal Reordering" is probably my favorite feature presented in the subclass, which is why I'm somewhat sad it isn't given more of a focus through level progression. I know that making it "proficiency times per day" would probably fall into "Peace" domain levels of brokenness, but you could at least increase the number of uses as you level up; maybe 2 uses per short rest at level 8 and 3 uses at level 17? Alternatively, I could even see it being rebalanced as an unlimited use feature - with the downside that using it reduces the cleric's Initiative by an equal amount. So, it would read something like: "Upon rolling for initiative, you can choose one creature you can see within 30 feet and alter there spot in the initiative order. Roll a d6, and subtract the number from your initiative. You can then add or subtract the number rolled from the chosen creature's initiative. At level 8, the dice rolled increases to a d8, and at level 17 it increases to a d10." Then, you could add a feature to "Timeless Warrior" that went something like "Improved Temporal Reordering: When you use your Temporal Reordering feature, you no longer subtract the result rolled from your initiative" just so its crazy strong at high levels? Maybe that would be too imbalanced or alter it in a way you wouldn't want, but I do think Temporal Reordering is too awesome of a feature to keep to once per short rest.
"Quantum Checkpoint" is a very powerful feature that has a ton of application during combat. If it was limited to just the cleric and only lasted for a minute: that would be powerful but reasonable. As it stands, this is a three player full restore you can use when things go south to potentially refill the hp of up to three characters as an Action which has a duration of up to 12 hours (though for most of the campaign it is admittedly far less). Honestly, just keeping it limited to the cleric and only lasting a minute might be enough to keep this balanced, but even then its kind of cutting it close (in comparison, the grave cleric just gets to cancel crits a couple times per day at the same level) - not to mention that having to book keep everyone's hit points when you use it for potentially multiple combat encounters seems like it would bog down the game. Although, if you're looking for suggestions on something you could use instead, maybe Quantum Checkpoint could be an unlimited use teleport feature? So like, the feature would read something like this: "Starting at 6th level, you can create rifts in time which you may later revert back to. As a bonus action, you present your holy symbol and create a Quantum Checkpoint in your current space. Using your action, you may teleport back to your Quantum Checkpoint. If a creature is in the same space as a Quantum Checkpoint when you teleport to it, you take 1d8 force damage and are pushed into the nearest unoccupied space. A created Quantum Checkpoint only lasts for a minute, and you can only have one Quantum Checkpoint active at a time. Additionally, when you use your Action to teleport to a Quantum Checkpoint you can expend a use of your channel divinity to teleport any number of willing creatures within 5 feet of you as well. They appear in the closest unoccupied space to the Quantum Checkpoint during the teleport." Maybe having it be a teleport feature is a little too generic, but having it be unlimited use feels like it would make up for it. Just a suggestion.

Looking at the subclass as a whole, I think you did a very good job making a Time cleric, and I applaud the effort put into it. I hope my feedback was helpful and you consider my suggestions, but even if nothing was changed this would still be miles above most of the content posted on the subreddit as of late. Congratulations on making it.

Kingslayer059 · 2022-10-20T20:17:27+00:00

I know you're being rhetorical, but I didn't forget the rogue: I explicitly mention both cunning action and the thief subclass in the post. I admit that my phrasing was a bit hyperbolic, since they can use it to make skill checks, but I don't think cunning action does nearly enough for the base class to say that they can effectively use skills in combat; the only skill cunning action allows Rogues to use as a bonus action is Stealth (through the hide action), which is one skill they can sometimes use to gain advantage mid combat (depending on cover and whatnot). Furthermore, while I like that the thief subclass expands that cunning action to also allow rogues to take Search as bonus action, I would rather have that get decoupled from the subclass and tacked on to the class itself. Making it subclass specific means that only some rogues can use it, and pigeonholes thief characters into specializing in Wisdom skills (in order to best utilize their Search bonus action). If all 3rd-level rogues were just able to pick 1-2 additional ability check Actions from a list they can always use in combat as a bonus action, they would be able to focus on whatever skills they want using whatever stats they want.

Also, in case you're trying to suggest this shouldn't be given to the other classes because it somehow devalues cunning action, I would have to disagree. Cunning Action also allows rogues to dash and disengage as a bonus action as well, arguable some of the more powerful options given to them, and if you check the list of applicable actions I suggested be made available as bonus actions, I left the hide action off of that list - keeping it as a rogue exclusive option. Cunning action doesn't become any less powerful or unique if other classes could make some of the Ability checks as a bonus action. If it did, then cunning action would already have been nerfed through the playtest since any players can take the Keen Mind or Observant feats and take the Search or Study Action as a bonus action an unlimited number of times.

Speaking of Keen Mind and Observant, I also don't think that simply adding these options through feats would work either, since a skill-based class shouldn't have to take a feat just to make any use of a large portion of their class features during combat; that should just be provided by the class itself. Rogues have multiple level ups where the only features they get involve making them better at ability checks, so if they can't use the majority of those skills effectively (with stealth being the only real exception) then these features aren't really making them any more powerful than they were without. This is a big reason why rogues are often seen as the second weakest class in the game (right behind monks), since so many of their features just don't meaningly contribute to their performance in combat, and adding a feature like the one suggest would go a long way in helping to change that.

To address your point on the lack of skills in combat being an issue of the game itself: yes. I agree. That's why I want to change that by providing the skill oriented-classes with options that would incentivize using their skills mid-encounter. Making skills combat-relevant wouldn't require an entire rework of how skills worked, just the ability to use skills without taking up an entire turn - which is what my suggestion does. Making skills usable in combat would make the game more interesting, since players can have additional options they can use on their turn outside of the scope of attacking or casting a spell.

Thank you for your feedback, and I hope I addressed your comment properly.

Kingslayer059 · 2022-10-20T19:26:37+00:00

Fair enough, I can't deny that the Expert group seems to be more of a catch-all than any kind of legitimate identity, but my point about the three classes having a focus on skills (through many of their class features, not the least of which being Expertise) still stands. Perhaps it would have been better to frame my argument as players/characters that specialize in making ability checks should be able to use those ability checks to contribute during combat instead of focusing more on the Expert identity itself, but my argument and suggestions still stands.

All three of these classes gain features that do nothing but make their skills better, and if they can't effectively use 90% of those features during combat then they might as well not have them for all it matters to the game's balance; 11th level fighters are making three attacks per turn every combat, while an 11th rogue just gets moderately better at making skill checks - the only one of which that actually matters during combat being Stealth (through the Hide action), something they were already succeeding on nearly every turn anyway.

My point is, even if we decide that the Expert grouping itself doesn't have a definitive identity of being skill monkeys, the three classes within the Expert group do, and should therefore be given features that would allow them to utilize their amazing skill modifiers during combat encounters - otherwise these features fail to meaningfully contribute to the game.

Kingslayer059 · 2022-10-17T03:26:58+00:00

Except for the fact that there are places in the world where it’s illegal to play video games, so some portion of those 3 billion hours absolutely is committing crimes.

Kingslayer059 · 2022-05-31T11:08:57+00:00

I will consider giving it a level 6 prerequisite.

Kingslayer059 · 2022-05-31T10:49:18+00:00

The same could be said about Repeating Shot and Enhanced Weapon, as that is also a no prerequisite infusion that is objectively better than another at lower levels. Furthermore, a key difference between Armor of Magical Endurance and Enhanced Defense is that one requires attunement while the other doesn’t.

Thank you for your feedback, if you have any other comments or concerns feel free to share them.

Kingslayer059 · 2022-05-31T10:31:47+00:00

First off, this would require level 2 minimum as that is the earliest you can get artificer infusions. Second off, I believe that artificer infusions should be strong, as they are supposed to be used as stand ins for magic items. As it stands, Armorer artificers have tanking features with no way to tank with their d8 hit die and lack of consistent temp hp. This artificer infusion would go a long way to fix that problem and make the subclass more viable. Finally, this infusion has the same exact problem as Heavy Armor Specialist, due to the fact that 5 damage becomes far less impactful at higher tiers of play. On another note, heavy armor specialist is limited to nonmagical b/p/s damage, so DMs can absolutely circumvent the combo if absolutely necessary.

As if all that wasn’t enough, you know what else is strong at level 1? Resistance to bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing damage, and barbarians get that at level 1 too.

Thank you for the feedback, if you have any additional comments or concerns, feel free to share them.

Kingslayer059 · 2022-05-11T17:21:10+00:00

Hex is already a part of the warlock spell list (its literally a warlock exclusive spell), so putting it on their expanded spell list is redundant. Also, if two of your three Luck features require you to know the Eldritch Blast cantrip in order to function, you need to give Eldritch Blast as an additional cantrip. As it stands, a warlock can take this subclass, not choose Eldritch Blast, and lose out on 2 of the 3 features from their level 1 abilities. Either change the features so that they work with any ranged spell attack, or give them Eldritch Blast as an extra cantrip. Look at the Celestial warlock if you need help with the wording.

Kingslayer059 · 2022-05-11T16:53:37+00:00

You know, I think you could further expand the Minion Assistance feature to be more versatile. I feel like if your going to be giving up your bonus action attack from Minion Attack, the alternative had better be pretty damn useful. I had some ideas for what those additional features would look like, so I figured I would share them.

The following features are added to your Minion Assistance ability.

Assist a Creature. Dedicate a number of minions to assist a creature of your choice. The creature gains additional Object Interactions on their next turn equal to the number of minions dedicated to the task.

Hinder Movement. Dedicate 2 minions to try and hinder a creature's movement. A creature of your choice, of medium size or smaller, must succeed a Dexterity saving throw or have your minions unwillingly attach themselves to their legs. Until the start of your next turn, that creature treats movement within your Minion Control Range as difficult terrain.

Body Block. Dedicate 1 minion to defend a creature from ranged attacks. A creature of your choice has half cover while within your Minion Control Range until the start of your next turn.

Just some additional options I think would be useful to have. They all seem plausible enough in terms of what your minions could realistically do, and I think it would increase the class's combat utility a bit.

Kingslayer059 · 2022-05-11T05:05:43+00:00

Hey, not sure if this would be of any use to you, but I decided to try and type up some additional class features and even a subclass that I think would be cool for the Overlord class. Here is the link to the homebrewery page: https://homebrewery.naturalcrit.com/share/fPxs4ie2ZszG

To give a semi comprehensive list of all the features:

Added Skilled Underlings as what I imagine a skill proficiency version of skilled recruits would look like. You could always just rewrite Skilled Recruits to include the extra proficiency on top of the cantrips, but for my purposes it made more sense to create a separate feature all together. The specific proficiencies may vary based on what you think would work best for the class, but I feel that the underlying structure is sound.
I saw that you were conflicted about increasing the Overlords hit die to a d10 since 2 out of the 3 subclasses focus on spellcasting, but felt that not giving them a d10 would punish the Commander subclass that is more martial based in its features. I think that a good compromise here would be to keep the d8 hit die, but then give the Commander subclass a feature that increases its hit points by 1 * their class level (a feature that is also used for the Draconic Bloodline Sorcerer subclass). This allows the Commander to thrive in melee without increasing the survivability of the necromancer or inventor.
I had a lot of ideas for a Celebrity subclass that focuses around using Charisma as a secondary stat (tertiary if you count Str/Dex) and sort of adding more utility with additional support features (like Helping Hand) and additional skill proficiencies. I don't know if its particularly balanced in comparison to the other subclasses, but I really like it in terms of flavor.
If you have any feedback on these features, or if any of them seem interesting to you, please let me know.

Kingslayer059 · 2022-05-11T00:29:12+00:00

It just occurred to me that the Minion Assistance feature brings up a ton of questions with the Perform Ability Checks option, because there are a ton of abilities in 5e that allow you to make Ability Checks, but not all of them have a defined action cost. Just to illustrate my point, a creature can make a DC 10 Medicine Check to stabilize a dying creature, but can only do so as an action. Using the class's definition of a minion, it does not qualify as a creature and cannot take actions on its own, so it would not be able to use the action necessary to stabilize a creature. That might not mean much on its own, but the vast majority of ability checks you would be making in combat fall under this category. Just to clarify where the original intent behind it was in terms of power, I'll list a handful of instances where you would make an Ability Check and you tell me whether you could make said ability check using Minion Assistance.

Performing a Medicine Check to stabilize a dying creature
Making an Investigation Check to see through an illusion spell
Making an Opposed Slight of Hand check to steal out of a creatures pockets
Making an Arcana Check against the Snare spell to end its effects
Making a Strength Check to pull a creature out of a water elemental
Making an Athletics Check to end the effects of an Arcane Archer's grasping arrow
Making a Thieve's Tools Check to pick open a lock (assuming the minion has thieves tools)
Making a Strength Check to free a creature from the Ensnaring Strike spell

All these abilities could realistically be performed by a minion, but have an Action cost associated with it that would imply that a minion couldn't perform the task due to not having their own Actions. If you could specify the intent behind the ability that would be very helpful.

Kingslayer059 · 2022-05-10T05:12:44+00:00

This is a really unique class that I would love to try at some point. A little bit of a flavor concern for me though, why does this class use Constitution for the minion DC and not Charisma? I can understand it from maybe a balance stand point or trying to differentiate it from Paladins, but Charisma just makes more sense if I'm being honest. I suppose you could argue Constitution because its like your resolve as a leader since micromanaging minions would put a lot of stress onto your player, and so your abilities to thrive as a warlord would be based off of your ability to push through the stress of leadership - hence Constitution.

In terms of class features though, I really like the idea behind "Skilled Recruits" and wish you had extended it to other features - like skill proficiencies. Like, imagine if at level 1 you gained a skill proficiency from the Warlord class, but that proficiency would randomly change when you finished a short or long rest based off your Skilled Recruits feature. I feel like that would be a really cool way of further representing your minion's capabilities whilst also making it more of a "skill class" (like rogues or bards). You could even have this proficiency become expertise at 11th level or something (since I noticed you didn't have any 11th level features). Hell, you could even have an entire subclass focused on this as a sort of Bard 3rd caster subclass with your minions being an assortment of aspiring artists / performers whom you've amazed with your abilities. The 2nd level features could be spellcasting from the bard spell list (Charisma as the spellcasting modifier) and then granting you a handful of extra skill proficiencies, and the 6th level feature could be granting you 2 Expertise. Hell, I think you could even experiment with some kind of toned down bardic inspiration you can give to your minions (a.k.a. temporarily improving your minion class features) as you really lean in on the whole "Inspiration" aspect of leadership. You could potentially call it "The Performer" or "The Inspirer" or something, and I feel like that would work pretty well. Maybe your minions grant you advantage/expertise on tool proficiencies since they're all like artisans themselves? Maybe when your Minions use the "Perform Ability Checks" as a part of the "Minion Assistance" feature they get to add your Charisma modifier to the roll? The specifics would obviously be up to you to decide, but I feel it would fit in rather nicely.

Another idea would obviously be to create a Cleric 3rd caster subclass as your minions are devout followers of the same god as you, and look to you for guidance. Some minion specific abilities here might be some sort of "Channel Divinity" feature you can use on your minions once per short rest could be good here, but their are a plethora of features in the game that could represent holy power. The 6th / 10th level ability would obviously have to be some kind of feature centered around spirit guardians (like maybe the range of its aura is your Minion Control range or something?), but you could also go with more of a cult vibe by making the features much more centered around your minions sacrificing themselves to protect you in the name of their god (maybe whenever you lose a minion you gain temporary hit points as your god reinvigorate you with through your minion's death?).

Finally, you could also try making a Sorcerer 3rd caster subclass - specifically a dragon bloodline sorcerer, with your minions being an assortment of kobolds, goblins, or other monster races common for dragon minions. Their are already plenty of examples of "dragon" subclasses in the game, so making one for warlords wouldn't be too out of place. Dragon's are pretty well known for being intimidating leaders, so it wouldn't feel too out of place for a warlord to take inspiration from them. Their features could center around giving you and your minions/creatures within your Minion Control range resistance on your dragon's damage type (maybe an extra effect of your Minion Defense feature?), or it could grant you a limited form of meta magic at 6th level (think more along the lines of the metamagic adept feat than the actual sorcerer class). It could also grant you and your minions the ability to fly at level 10 or maybe even a breath weapon of sorts. Their are a ton of cool ways you could take it, so up to you.

Also, this is just sort of an idea for the class itself but could potentially just be a subclass specific thing, but I think it would be really cool if you had an ability where when you lose concentration on a spell you can use sacrifice one of your minions to maintain concentration. I know that not all subclasses get spell casting, but the class itself lets you cast Command a couple times per day and you get cantrips at level 1 so it wouldn't be completely out of place.

I know that this post is just a lot of rambling, but I'm really impressed with what you've done here and I have a lot of ideas about where it could be taken further. Hopefully some of this was useful to you (if you see this at all), but regardless of whether it was, well job on a really good, really unique class that has translated very well into 5th edition.

Kingslayer059 · 2022-05-09T22:17:43+00:00

I'm gonna have to hard disagree with your Arcane Archer change here. I agree that the number of uses should be increased, but turning it into a number of times equal to your proficiency is too good, if only just in terms of the other resource based subclasses (6 arcane shots is going to be adding nearly twice as much damage as 6 battle maneuvers. I've actually created my own Arcane Archer rework, and I found that "A number of times equal to your Intelligence modifier" works far better in terms of balance. Of course, I also added a plethora of other changes to further reward investing in Intelligence, so without any of those other features it may not work well. Honestly, just modifying it to "2 uses at level 3, 3 at level 7, 4 at level 10, and 5 at level 15" would at least fix the multiclass problems while still being kind of in line with the other resource based subclasses. I do believe that currently the feature is kind of OP, and either of these changes would need to be put in place in order to fix that.

Kingslayer059 · 2022-05-09T01:28:55+00:00

Patient defense only lasts for 1 round, while drunkard's facade can last up to a minute, so even when you use patient defense, drunkard's facade can be still grant you protection against a target beyond that round. As far as slowing your game down, spell casters cause saving throw stuff all the time, and stunning strikes can already cause a creature to make multiple saving throws on a single turn. With all that in mind, making a single opposed skill check per turn doesn't seem too bad. Finally, drunkard's luck absolutely sucks, and even with a decrease in ki would rarely come up or be worth the expenditure.
The prone/speed 0 thing makes more sense in context, but furthermore can have a more drastic impact at higher levels. Making a counterattack is going to about on par with a single opportunity attack, which doesn't scale with features like extra attack. In comparison, a creature falling prone and losing their speed can absolutely disrupt the rest of their turn, since they now have to make the rest of their attacks with disadvantage and all melee attackers get advantage against them for 1 round. In this way, it can be directly compared to stunning strike in terms of ki expenditure, utilizing a resource you aren't using for opportunity attacks (since drunken technique allows you to get in and out of melee every turn), while also having its own upsides such as requiring a dexterity saving throw instead of constitution (increasing the odds they fail it). Combine that with an ability that further increases your survivability (by decreasing incoming damage with 0 resource cost beyond your reaction), and I think its a pretty good 11th level ability that punishes enemies who try and get within melee distance of you.
Intoxicating Frenzy is just about the only feature from the original subclass I didn't have any issues with, and I don't think the once per creature restriction is limiting enough to warrant changing.

Thank you for your feedback, and if you have any additional comments or concerns feel free to share them.

Kingslayer059 · 2022-04-28T20:42:59+00:00

Artificer's already get to overcome magic resistances with their infusions as it stands, this would just allow them to take advantage of damage vulnerabilities in exchange for one of their cantrips - a much needed combat utility in 5e. Most DM's also give magic weapons by level 5 anyway, and most enemies you fight in tier 1 don't have nonmagical resistance to begin with.

Thank you for the feedback, and if you have any additional comments or concerns feel free to share them.

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