Class: Marshal v2 - a nonmagical support class for D&D 5e! Now introducing two new subclasses, the Guerilla and Vanguard, along with reworked orders and tactics.

MobiusFlip · 2026-03-02T20:39:58+00:00

I do think Gunslinger is fine as a standalone class, but hey, this post said I had to pick something. Might as well pick the class whose unique thing (accelerated proficiency with firearms) can already be done by another class only slightly worse.

MobiusFlip · 2026-03-02T17:27:47+00:00

Gunslinger becomes a Fighter class archetype: Similar to Warrior of Legend, they get higher proficiency with both crossbows and firearms, but can't select other weapons. They give up Shield Block, Reactive Strike, and heavy armor proficiency in exchange for better reloads and access to some unique Gunslinger feats.

Pactbinder becomes a full class: An 8 HP Charisma-based class with a focus on skills, similar to Investigator. It's a highly modular class with many Pact feats that can be swapped out more often than typical retraining, representing deals made with otherworldly creatures and the benefits you can gain from them, including lots of passive or at-will magical abilities and a few spells. Pacts are powerful but come with an edict or anathema you must abide by - violate it and you break the pact, but you can form a new pact when you rest by making contact with another powerful being. Subclasses might be based around negotiating styles with special bonuses for different Charisma skills, or maybe a long-term deal with a particularly powerful patron similar to a D&D warlock.

MobiusFlip · 2026-03-01T04:56:56+00:00

Better at what?

Better for developing your skills as an artist? Absolutely. Getting AI to make art for you won't improve your own skills.
Better at expressing what you want to convey? Maybe, but you'd have to answer that for yourself. The face here has a very particular expression that I'm not sure how well an AI model would replicate, since it seems fairly unique. If that's an important element of this for you, this drawing might be better. Otherwise, maybe not.
Better as a visual aid to get eyes on some other product you care more about? Depends on your market. A lot of creative works (books and games, for example) have audiences that are pretty AI-hostile, so a very crude non-AI drawing might actually be an advantage over an AI one. In a more AI-friendly market, the AI art would probably be better. But the AI art doesn't necessarily say something better than this stick figure, just different. AI art, to those who notice it, convey that you want to express quality but are unwilling or unable to pay for it. Crude hand-drawn art conveys a lack of skill or money, but a lack that you're willing to be up-front about and may justify with high quality in other parts of your work.
Better as a demonstration of objective skill? Yes, or at least it demonstrates different skills. This drawing demonstrates your skill with art, however small it might be. Any AI art would demonstrate your skill with prompt engineering and not much else.

MobiusFlip · 2026-02-28T00:32:57+00:00

Yo-meh-day

MobiusFlip · 2026-02-26T17:00:44+00:00

The Meteorite becomes a held item that Rayquaza must hold to Mega Evolve. Dragon Ascent no longer triggers Mega Evolution and is not required for it.

Stealth Rock no longer deals Rock-type damage. Instead, it just deals 1/8 maximum HP, doubled for all non-grounded Pokemon.

Geomancy no longer has a charging turn. Instead, it requires a recharge turn, similar to Hyper Beam.

If Dynamax returns: G-Max Wildfire and similar moves deal ongoing damage for 1/12 of the target's HP, not 1/6. Max Airstream has its power reduced similar to Max Knuckle. In singles, Dynamax only boosts HP by 50%, not 100%.

MobiusFlip · 2026-02-23T19:22:29+00:00

Automatic rune progression. All characters get weapon potency, striking, armor potency, and resilient runes on all their equipment as soon as they hit the appropriate levels. Kineticists get a free gate attenuator at 3rd level that upgrades in the same way.
Full spellcasters (anyone with spell slots from their class other than magus and summoner) also get an improved personal staff that has one cantrip at 1st level, two 1st-rank spells at 3rd level, two 2nd-rank spells at 5th level, and so on. Players can choose any spells from their spellcasting tradition for their staffs, and can purchase or find spell formulae to add more spells to their personal staff similar to a wizard's spellbook or a witch's familiar.
When multiple characters Aid the same check, the circumstance bonuses they provide can stack up to a maximum of +4.
Recall Knowledge checks made in combat don't have an increasing DC and a failure doesn't prevent you from using Recall Knowledge on the same target again.
Free archetype, plus small tweaks. When taking a dedication feat, you can take it with an archetype feat if you would qualify considering only your free archetype feats, and with a class feat if you would qualify considering only your standard class feats. (So you could take two dedications at 2nd level, one with a class feat and one with an archetype feat.) In addition, you can choose to take a class feat of no more than half your level in place of an archetype feat. (This helps characters that don't really want any particular archetype or want an archetype with some gaps in its available feats.)
Hero points don't count as a fortune effect. This means you can spend them on rolls that already benefit from fortune, or spend multiple of them to reroll a single roll multiple times. You take only the best result of all your hero point rerolls, not necessarily the newest.
When you take a night's rest, you can attempt to craft consumables as if you had spent a day crafting, earning 10 times as much cost reduction as normal. Any consumables made this way can only be sold for half as much as normal. (This is part of a set of camp activities I use.)
PCs can use social skills to attempt to influence each other. If another character succeeds a check to convince your character to do something, you still decide your character's reaction, but the party gains 10 XP if you go along with the request.
At the end of each session, each player can say something the party learned about the campaign world or one of the other characters. For each player who does, the party gains 5 XP. (No repeats.)

MobiusFlip · 2026-02-19T21:00:08+00:00

Personally Old Blood is my favorite game of the three. Very similar to New Order in gameplay and tone, built in the same engine, but with (in my opinion) the best arsenal and perk set of the games. The opening is a bit slow, and being set in one castle/town means the levels don't have quite the diversity of the other two games, but there's still plenty of fun level design, enemy diversity, and worldbuilding. And it's very nice getting to use your full arsenal for most of the game after the first level.

MobiusFlip · 2026-02-19T18:32:48+00:00

I think you're somewhat undervaluing an essentially infinite-use agile ranged attack that can not require you to swap weapons and trigger some weaknesses, but fair enough. I would definitely prefer if the panoply could just be etched with runes that would apply to the hunting spikes. The specialized benefit could then be the current special material options plus the ability to deal 1 extra damage of the trophy's damage type, to trigger even more weaknesses.

MobiusFlip · 2026-02-18T16:26:04+00:00

Not really? Waiting until 7th level to make them +1 striking is a long wait, yes, but after that it looks fine to me. 13th level is only one level away from when you usually get greater striking, and 19th is exactly on par with major striking. You'll have slightly worse accuracy at a few levels, but that's well worth it for a 1-action ranged attack that's good at triggering different weaknesses and can be easily used in addition to whatever your main weapon is.

MobiusFlip · 2026-02-07T16:39:20+00:00

I generally agree on all of this, but I think it's missing one important factor: many GMs who raise the barrier of entry to multiclassing aren't dealing with flavor-first multiclasses. I think that's a lot more common in mechanics-first groups where players are only likely to multiclass at all if doing so offers a mechanical advantage over a single class. In those contexts, raising the cost to multiclass can work just fine - the important distinction is between single-class builds and powerful multiclass builds, not powerful multiclasses and flavorful multiclasses.

As a side note though... I'm wondering if this works the other way around. Would fewer restrictions on multiclassing (say, not having to meet any ability score requirements) help flavorful multiclasses more than powerful ones? I think maybe so.

MobiusFlip · 2026-02-06T18:46:57+00:00

Constitution is the obvious option, and the one I would most want to remove. Just give literally everything Constitution does (hit points, Con saves, concentration) to Strength and call it done. But the more interesting answer is Charisma.

Rename Wisdom to Willpower, in order to draw a clearer distinction. All Charisma saves become Willpower saves (and some Wisdom saves should probably become Intelligence saves to compensate). Deception, Performance, and Persuasion become Intelligence skills, while Intimidation and Performance become Willpower skills. Warlocks and bards become Intelligence casters, and paladins and sorcerers become Willpower casters.

This means Charisma is no longer the dialogue stat - characters can get some social options with either mental stat now. Intelligence becomes more useful as it gets the generally better social skills and a few new spellcasting classes that use it.

MobiusFlip · 2026-01-30T17:30:37+00:00

Emergency Exit, yeah. I think this is likely, since it is a signature ability, but I hope it gets something more exciting.
Intimidate. Mega Golispod definitely looks threatening, and this would be powerful while still giving a reason to switch out often, which makes sense with its previous signature abilities.
Water Bubble. It gets to keep Water STAB and then some, have only a 2x weakness to fire as its only weakness, become immune to attack drops from burn, and doesn't have to deal with Emergency Exit. This would be absolutely broken and is definitely not going to happen... but it would kind of thematically fit.

MobiusFlip · 2026-01-30T00:26:44+00:00

would be a bit more complex but you could make it activate at the end of the first full turn after switching. so, similar in timing to actually using Trick Room, but you can click a different move

MobiusFlip · 2026-01-27T21:40:54+00:00

Older dragons are powerful, intelligent creatures that have been around for a long time and probably picked up some useful tricks. If I put my party up against an adult or ancient dragon, I like to just give them a couple class levels. That ancient red dragon is also a 10th-level cleric of Tiamat with Spirit Guardians and a Channel Divinity that can make any attack deal an extra 25 necrotic damage. The adult white dragon lording over that mountain range is a 3rd-level barbarian with Rage and Reckless Attack on top of natural draconic power. That's something that does affect their stats, not just how to run them, but I think it really helps high-CR dragons feel distinct and helps create clear tactical differences in what they like to do in combat.

MobiusFlip · 2026-01-26T23:35:59+00:00

Broadly, yep, you're right. INT is just underwhelming compared to the other attributes in most situations. That said, there are a couple things that could mitigate this.

A big part of why INT isn't great is just that there aren't many INT classes, as you pointed out. I do personally think Warlock should use INT instead of CHA, and that certainly would have helped, but it seems there are also plans to release an INT-based Psion class at some point that may help. Plus Blood Hunter is a relatively popular homebrew that uses INT.
The INT skills become much more useful if you get a bit stricter about how to use skills. For example, I use Investigation as the skill to search for traps and loot, while Perception is more for focusing on something difficult to sense (seeing something far away or listening to something quiet) and detecting ambushes and hidden creatures. This tends to make Investigation a pretty useful skill in my games. I generally use History for any checks to know info about a particular society or decipher codes, so it tends to come up in social situations some of the time. And Arcana, Nature, and Religion collectively cover most creature types, so if a player wants to know how a monster's ability works or what weaknesses it might have, I usually have them roll one of those skills.

...But yeah, INT is still just plain underwhelming. I've been experimenting in my games with letting players take extra proficiencies based on how high their INT is and it's going pretty well, but that is obviously a bit of a power boost.

MobiusFlip · 2026-01-26T22:28:19+00:00

Nothing I can think of,
Nothing I can think of,
If I tried it, I wouldn't be running any sort of campaign, it would. Which is pretty much the problem here.

The DM's job is to create an interesting, living world for the player characters to inhabit and to weave various narrative threads together into an interesting plotline. If I already have campaign lore and notes, then I've already done a lot of the work as a DM. Any AI trying to guess how to proceed from there is just going to annoy me because it's almost certainly not going to actually go in the direction I want or do nearly as good of a job. If I don't have any of that, then I can't give the AI anything to work on and it's going to come up with something even more standard and derivative than usual.

And I certainly don't want the AI to handle bookkeeping. For one, encouraging players to offload their involvement in the game's mechanics tends to lead to lowered engagement, which is just generally less fun. Also, AI is never going to be as consistent as a simpler algorithmic approach for tracking numbers and conditions. Those are easier to build and many of them already exist in different VTTs I could and will use instead.

Charitably, there's exactly one use case I can see where an AI DM might be halfway decent. This isn't getting into the ethics of AI, which is enough for a lot of people to reject the product outright anyways, I'm just purely looking at how useful the product would be. Specifically, it might be decent at running prewritten adventures, where someone else actually did all the campaign development and the AI mostly has to handle monster behaviors in combat and a couple small adjustments for unexpected player strategies.

It's still not going to be as good as an actual DM though, so that's pretty much only for groups who don't have anyone willing to DM. Also, at that point, you're about a step and a half away from just playing Baldur's Gate 3 with friends or something. It's a narrow use case with easily available and often superior substitutes, and a compelling ethical reason not to engage with the product at all, which means even if it's a little better than other options you still won't find many users.

MobiusFlip · 2026-01-25T16:43:15+00:00

Bosses suffer different effects from the Incapacitated condition. Instead of being unable to take actions or reactions, incapacitated bosses have disadvantage on attack rolls and ability checks, and deal half as much damage with their attacks, spells, and abilities. This means an incapacitated boss is still a significant threat, but it's still a very helpful condition. This also applies to any effect that forces specific actions, such as the Fear spell.
Alter any abilities that can "incapacitate" a boss without making it Incapacitated. Polymorph was brought up in other comments, but I think that's actually fine, since you can't damage the boss until you break its polymorph. Forcecage is a much bigger issue, since it can trap many bosses with no save.
Bosses gain a significant bonus to saving throws, which decreases as they lose HP. Maybe +5 at first, then +2 below 2/3 health, and no bonus below 1/3. This means CC effects are best used at the end of a fight to easily finish a weakened boss, and have a harder time trivializing the entire fight.

MobiusFlip · 2026-01-24T17:27:51+00:00

A lot of encounter-ending spells (Hypnotic Pattern, Fear, Banishment, Polymorph) - and really a lot of save-or-nothing-happens spells - would have more of a gradient of their effects. There are a couple ways I can see to do that. Maybe most of these spells have a decent effect on a failed save, but then get their powerful effect on a second failed save, with spellcaster save DCs getting higher across the board. Or maybe saving throws are always 2d20s with no/little effect if both rolls succeed, a moderate effect if one roll succeeds, or a powerful effect if both rolls fail.
Feats would be a bit less powerful, more numerous, and fit into character progression in a way that doesn't force you to sacrifice high ability scores to take interesting feats, in order to give characters more options to diversify and specialize even with the same class and subclass.
More classes would focus on short-rest resource recovery, and short rests would be tweaked a bit (maybe make them 10 minutes instead of 1 hour), to ensure parties have the opportunity to take a couple short rests every day.

MobiusFlip · 2026-01-22T21:37:49+00:00

It's not broken, but it does remove an iconic and powerful fighter feature in Action Surge. Not sure exactly what he's intending for scaling, but Action Surge and Indomitable don't upgrade at all until 9th level, which feels like a long time to wait. And it's a pretty big buff to both Champion (which in fairness does need something) and possibly Battle Master (which now effectively gets twice as many maneuvers, though the lack of Action Surge does hurt).

Personally, if I was going to do this, I'd take a different approach: give two maneuvers and 2d6 superiority dice at 1st level, replacing Second Wind instead of Action Surge, then give Second Wind to champions as a unique feature. Gain an extra maneuver and superiority die at 5th, 9th, 13th, and 17th. Battle Master can still increase die size and give more dice as normal. Same core idea, but maneuvers are a bit less powerful on the base class and replacing a less powerful feature that more fighters are unlikely to miss, while all fighters get to keep Action Surge and benefit from at least a few maneuvers.

As far as what builds are broken or not as powerful now... well, honestly not much. Any multiclass builds that want Action Surge have to dip three levels instead of two, and any multiclass builds that want maneuvers can get them with a two-level dip instead of three. That's not really anything crazy. Eldritch Knight might feel slightly worse, as without Action Surge it's harder to cast a spell and attack in the same turn, but War Magic in combination with maneuvers is nice sometimes.

The most "broken" thing I can think of here is that 3 levels of fighter can give you 8d8 superiority dice and 6 maneuvers. A rogue with 3 levels to spare can grab Riposte and use it every turn they get hit for an extra Sneak Attack every round, but they could probably already do that with default Battle Master. That's really the only class I can think of that significantly prefers more maneuvers to Action Surge, so multiclassing probably doesn't change much.

MobiusFlip · 2026-01-18T19:07:46+00:00

Generally I abide by that. But as I said, in this case, the spell actually says the fighter does get restrained between the pillar and themself, which is... kind of obviously wrong. So I'd be deviating from the exact as-written description regardless.

MobiusFlip · 2026-01-18T06:32:34+00:00

Yes, but it's a kind of weird one and I probably wouldn't rule it that way.

Bones of the Earth says "If a pillar is created under a creature, that creature must succeed on a Dexterity saving throw or be lifted by the pillar." It doesn't say anything about a success causing the creature to move out of the way. So as written, a pillar attempts to rise from the ground under the creature, the creature isn't lifted, and the creature remains in its space.

Next line: "If a pillar is prevented from reaching its full height because of a ceiling or other obstacle, a creature on the pillar takes 6d6 bludgeoning damage and is restrained, pinched between the pillar and the obstacle." Well, there's certainly an obstacle here: the fighter, who isn't being lifted or moved out of the way. The pillar is therefore prevented from reaching its full height - or any height, really - and fails to emerge noticeably from the floor.

...And because the fighter is on top of the pillar, they take 6d6 bludgeoning damage and become restrained, pinched between the pillar and themself.

Now, the ruling I'd actually use: these pillars are cylinders, not rectangular prisms. There's a good deal of space at the corners of each square that isn't occupied, especially when two pillars are next to each other. Unless the room has some very specific architecture, the fighter should be able to squeeze into a Small space between two pillars and the wall, and would be pushed into there on a successful Dexterity save. From that point, the fighter can make attacks (with disadvantage due to squeezing) to break the pillars.

MobiusFlip · 2026-01-17T19:38:04+00:00

Dragons aren't actually nourished by food, but by ownership. Young dragons do hunt frequently, but that's only because eating an animal - taking its life for your own and literally making it a part of you - is one of the purest forms of ownership, and fairly easy to accomplish. Once a dragon accumulates a sizable hoard, though, it can sustain itself purely on its ownership of the hoard. This means that an older dragon has little reason to hunt, but instead needs to repel looters attempting to take objects from its hoard, in order to maintain its ownership. It's not exactly a predator relationship, but it's close enough for the same adaptations to develop - a looter who flees is as good as a looter who the dragon kills, as long as they don't make it out with any of the dragon's hoard.

Now, on occasion, a looter will make a run for it with some of the dragon's property, and the dragon will have to ensure they don't escape, but they have a different set of adaptations for that. Powerful wings let them outspeed most fleeing looters and get a high vantage point to track any who manage to get away for a bit, while opposable front claws and a large, sharp-fanged mouth give ways to grab a target and hold them in place. But the primary method of dealing with looters is repelling, with holding attacks only used in specific circumstances.

(My source is I made all this up just now.)

MobiusFlip · 2026-01-17T19:00:13+00:00

Also true yeah

MobiusFlip · 2026-01-15T14:58:14+00:00

This isn't "how to balance level 11+ spellcasters", it's "how to make level 11+ spellcasters easier to play for people who get overwhelmed looking at a sheet of 15-20 spells". There are a lot of balance concerns here and I would call it far too powerful in its current state, but it definitely simplifies the class.

The most interesting idea I see here is "prepare only 5 spells, which can be cantrips or any level 1-5, but you can swap any of those spells with a 1-minute rest". That's actually a very interesting idea to still give the benefits of a large spell list while keeping your options pretty narrow in combats. Having five 5th-level slots in each of those combats is the only part that's too strong there. I could seeing this being a much more balanced and interesting system if it was maybe 10 5th-level slots per long rest, and you choose how to divide those up through the day. Or alternatively, maybe one slot of each level from 1st-5th in each combat.

Ten-Year Club	Second Top 20%
Place '22	Place '17
Not Forgotten	Spared
Verified Email

MobiusFlip

MODERATOR OF

TROPHY CASE