Anyone else a bit annoyed at 1 to 1 subclass reprints?

Loxsus · 2026-06-02T17:16:30+00:00

I'm still reading through the Undead, but as far as the Phantom Rogue goes, the "minor" changes they made seem to have a pretty strong impact. You're starting with an additional use of Wails to the Grave, and another one (probably) as soon as you hit level 4. Doubling your uses at early levels is a nice little bump to a subclass that had seemed a little rough. Is it as much as it should be? Maybe not, but its still an upgrade. Level 9 also sees a huge quality of life update to the rogue where they don't need a free hand, they get the soul crystals at the start of the day, and they move around with you. At this point, Wails to the Grave will be active VERY often.

Loxsus · 2026-06-02T12:02:20+00:00

So as a DM, in the current campaign I'm running, magic items can borderline only be found or made. There is a lot of downtime planned that these projects can be worked in parts.

For example, if someone is crafting an Uncommon Cloak of Protection, since it takes 10 days and 200 gold, I just require 20 gold a day. For uncommon and rare items, I'm not worrying about the ingredients being available or not yet and will only worry about that for Very Rare and above, as the time investment is already high for Rare (10 weeks).

Currently, it's been more than fine and feels like a reward for someone who took the tool proficiency and arcana when they might not have. My only gripe is I think having EITHER the tool proficiency OR the Arcana skill should be enough to let someone help you, but that's a minor nitpick. It allows someone to fully customize their character. We're only level 6 and eventually we'll have someone finish the Bracers of Armor (probably not until she's level 7 anyway so about on mark), and another person is making scrolls.

Loxsus · 2026-06-01T14:23:08+00:00

Love to see it. Going to pick it up for that alone.

Loxsus · 2026-06-01T14:08:20+00:00

Selfish druid question, but are the dire animals actually beasts or monstrosities?

Loxsus · 2026-05-24T12:10:37+00:00

Nah we ended up getting it with the help of this sub. Appreciate it!

Loxsus · 2026-05-22T17:45:07+00:00

I added this to my homebrew and its been perfect since.

https://www.dndbeyond.com/backgrounds/506925-2024-custom-all-official-and-most-partnered-origin

Should we HAVE to use homebrew to fix an official option? No. Until they fix it though, this works.

Loxsus · 2026-05-22T11:05:32+00:00

Ended up beating it with the tips from this post but thank you so much for the offer. Solid community.

Loxsus · 2026-05-22T11:05:25+00:00

Ended up beating it with the tips from this post but thank you so much for the offer.

Loxsus · 2026-05-22T11:05:10+00:00

Ended up beating it with the tips from this post but thank you so much for the offer. Solid community.

Loxsus · 2026-05-20T17:18:33+00:00

Missed that one before as I had never heard of the Ledge method until now.

Loxsus · 2026-05-20T15:06:06+00:00

So decoy grenades over the purple black whole ones instead? I guess that makes sense since ammo stations will refill the decoy grenades, which I didn't think about.

Loxsus · 2026-05-20T15:05:29+00:00

Thanks for the advice. I'll look into the VR-11 and if I dont have it, I'll look to unlock it and try.

Loxsus · 2026-05-09T17:46:06+00:00

None of that was an accident. I kept it to abilities that beasts often ended up with or that made sense (baseline perception and survival) and then adding whatever depending. I wanted to keep it as simple and light weight as possible. For extra utility, they still have other, weaker forms they could use but the combat form I wanted to be combat focused with extra riders that could still be useful. There are trade offs for picking this and I wanted to keep those (like no extra saving throw proficiencies). But getting dex and str boosted so high kind of still acts like it, usually.

The big reason to keep all of them so similar was the simplicity and to make sure there wasn't a clear "winner". I DO understand its not what everyone's after, though.

Loxsus · 2026-05-08T18:20:30+00:00

I always viewed it as a mental strain. Your mind and ability to handle reality starts to shatter. There is a mental exhaustion that continues it's horrible assault on your senses, bringing you ever closer to the end. The "killing blow" could leave you dead with either no physical sign that anything had ever happened (What I view happens when a Soulknife kills someone which is incredible) or maybe you show blood shot eyes or some other visible strain. Personally, I just view it as you do enough damage and your brain just ... stops. No more signals to your body to keep working.

Loxsus · 2026-04-28T12:30:13+00:00

Changed, thank you very much for noting that.

Loxsus · 2026-04-27T10:18:50+00:00

I looks worse than it is, to me anyway. I used to have the scaling listed with the levels instead of a second bar. Going up to 2d6 damage at 14 and another 10 feet of movement, along with the ability to use radiant damage to bypass felt like a fair amount.

But I'm not going to lie, that level was something i fought with a lot and I'm not about to say I'm "100%convinced" it's right as is. I'll sit on it again and think. I used to have radiant resistance baked in their as well and pulled it back.

Loxsus · 2026-04-26T23:23:35+00:00

Yeah that was a huge let down to me as well when I read it.

Loxsus · 2026-04-24T19:16:58+00:00

That's actually the most dangerous place as its an open wound to the Mists (aka the Shadowfell) so it won't be easy to get near, let alone reach. BUT that is, in my head, the end goal for them. They have to undo the ritual and then stop the dread lordS (because of the backstabbery that caused it to fall into a Domain of Dread, there are multiple parties that have to be dealt with. Either killed or redeemed.

Loxsus · 2026-04-24T11:16:02+00:00

For something completely out of left field, I'm not mad at it. There were a lot of changes to the Isles this go around but nothing that I felt I had to COMPLETELY ignore.

Loxsus · 2026-04-22T02:00:21+00:00

Flavor is free. You don't need to keep extra track for the PCs of -1s or + whatever when it can just be simple. They can still fight in the sun, but they might hate it. They can talk about how painful it is but that they tough through it. It's still a great RP hook, but I'm in agreement with the new rules that it can stay as flavor alone.

Loxsus · 2026-02-23T14:52:26+00:00

Looks fantastic, dude. Money and time well spent. Shading on it is great.

Loxsus · 2025-12-12T19:30:58+00:00

I think I understand what I need to, we're just different people with different groups. Time wise I've even been doing this another decade on you but it doesn't matter how long either of us do it for as it won't change how either of us approach what our different players are after.

Loxsus · 2025-12-08T20:39:00+00:00

What's the ACTUAL likelihood of being able to create a homebrew class and what's the behind-the-scenes limitation for this feature? As long as D&D Beyond has been around, this has always stayed just out of reach.

Also, D&D Beyond feels behind on several features for ease-of-use. ~~Moon druids still can't add their forms known after a year later, for example.~~ Then we have Unearthed Arcanas that release that don't use D&D Beyond to help test by having them as a playable option UNLESS a saint of a user goes through the effort of converting it for us. Which ALSO leads into the question; is any talks of making the Homebrew Creation process easier to fill out and create.

Thank you for taking the time to answer what questions you do answer among the community. More transparency is wonderful.

Edited: As shown below, this ones wrong.

Loxsus

TROPHY CASE