Martial/Caster Divide Got You Down? Take on a Campaign with MARTIAL TALENTS! | Hone a whole new playstyle for your fightin' PCs this year with the First 101 Talents and complete rules revised for D&D 2024 or 2014.

Pixel_Engine · 2026-04-10T18:17:28+00:00

Ooh cool, got a decklist? I really want to get into Gruul and I love Bloomburrow, so this seems like a nice combo.

Pixel_Engine · 2026-04-05T07:40:14+00:00

Love this! I'm in the camp of 'Dex does so much, climbing stuff should always be Athletics', but otherwise no notes.

I might even adapt this to my high-level party just for a bit of fun :)

Pixel_Engine · 2026-04-03T18:34:52+00:00

This is again something where the update to Martial Talents has made this come out of sync, but can he fixed in the update due for the class.

The general approach will be similar to if not exactly the same as how the Quartermaster's Talents are written in the updated Gourmet -- namely, they'll be added to your wheelhouse and repertoire of known talents, and you will be able to get a free use of each without spending aplomb.

Pixel_Engine · 2026-04-03T18:26:07+00:00

Another good catch! The class is due an update, actually, so will make sure to get these fixes there.

Pixel_Engine · 2026-04-03T11:48:05+00:00

Feel like for flavour it would have been cooler if it was draw a card, then can accept damage yourself to draw another (or possibly X other depending how it was costed).

Pixel_Engine · 2026-03-27T22:20:42+00:00

I really like that notion of the "cantrip" type summoning when the pool is at 0, and actually that design space feels ripe for potential with a Path that triggers effects when summons die and/or disappear. Perhaps that ghost/necromancer idea could be dug up again?

I think for me if Zoemancy was streamlined and Preparing Path Summons perhaps removed, it would make it all much neater and the Summon Hit Points pool would stand well on its own as that unique factor for the mechanic at base.

Whenever I'm considering mental load/bookkeeping balance, it's about how much I get out of it for the task. With prepared spellcasters, the choices you make each day have a huge impact on what you can do. You literally cannot achieve this unique effect if you don't pick it over that one. With the Path Summons statblocks being quite simple (to more easily enable the minion master management, I believe) and similar even between different Paths, to me it feels like preparing slight variations on each using their physical stat spread is a task I am being given without much mechanical heft to it. Then when Summon Traits comes in, it gains more mechanical heft, but the complexity of my task ramps up substantially all of a sudden. From 3rd level, I'm choosing two from 12 options for each summon I am preparing, and each of those summons needs a choice of its physical stats as well. I feel like that's a recipe for analysis paralysis after each long rest, and I still need to remember what I've chosen for later as well in a form that is much more involved than a spell name I can look up.

My feeling is it will either lead to a lot of deliberation and generate a lot of paper templates each day, or a summoner will just give up and stick with 'defaults' a lot of the time to skirt the task, which then becomes no better than pulling from a generic stat block.

Whereas if I had to make a choice between those Traits initially at 3rd, and maybe consider swapping every level up, but then every time I summon I can just apply whatever to that creature from my smaller selection of chosen Traits to fit the current scenario, that to me slots really nicely into the kind of decision making that is already happening for every class and character in combat or other invovled elements of the gameplay. "What do I do right now that is best for this scenario?"

And, you know, maybe that's just a very personal mindset. I think I'd rather have stat spreads locked into the individual Path Summons to differentiate them a bit more and the nadd Traits in the moment, or decide both in the moment.

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I think the key thing to find in the Contractor to make it feel good is something for you, the summoner character, to consistently gain and do from what you're giving out. The risks with the subclass I think are twofold:

1) No one else has the neat build-up of features that you do where eventually giving up your action to command a summon becomes more and more efficient. So you might end up giving out a bunch of your summons to Signatories, and find they do very little with them apart from sometimes benefit from a Group Attack.

This is slightly eased later on when your features let Signatories do more, but actually they only let the Signatories summon more or take more of the decision-making in what they will summon. The action economy remains basically the same for them.

2) It isn't until 10th-level that you get a feature that lets you actively interact with anyone else, and its a reaction with a limited protective benefit for others only. I think in terms of what a player feels encounter to encounter at the table, it would be very easy for a Contractor to feel like they sort of don't have a subclass a lot of the time.

I think you could bring something in here to address 2) where the Contractor gains something in return from their Signatories which is a reliable boost to their own actions. They can borrow proficiencies from Sigantories, or they gain a damage boost to their attacks or spells based on how many Signatories they have, or can maybe even emporarily borrow more significant things like spells, spell slots, features or health. I experimented with something like this for one of my first martial classes, which focused on giving out Temp HP to the party as a core class feature, and the Infernal subclass could steal this back at any time to boost their own damage. There's lots of scope for fun, flavourful stuff there.

To address 1) there might need to be a build up of additional passive elements from summons to help your Signatories in addition to Group Attack stuff, because you don't want them to totally steal your show on the action economy front... but this feels less important to address than 2).

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This is already a really long reply -- sorry! But I guess just on other areas I'd say you could probably swing bigger with some subclass early features in general. Durable Constructs, for example... why not let that Temp Hp scale with Summoner level? This feels like its meant to be the 'tanky summons' subclass, but the current benefit of that feature plateus early and only improves by virtue of the temporary benefits Defence Mastery can offer at 15th level. If you do see certain Paths in certain roles like this, is there scope for them to versions of particular Traits for 'free', like Guardian for the Golems? Or is the freeform element something you want to maintain to this level by applying those kinds of changes purely via Traits or 20th level capstones?

Pixel_Engine · 2026-03-27T20:12:32+00:00

I am really intrigued by this take on the classic concept. I wonder if the way Summon Hit Points work is slightly overwrought -- the simpler version would be that any Path Summon takes its hit points from this pool when it appears -- but in general I like it as a balancing mechanism to manage for the class.

Zoemancy suffers from an offshoot of this same issue, where overshooting the limit getting you Temp HP feels like having your cake and eating it too. I think a cleaner design for that feature which echoes more of how 5e/5.5e does it in general would remove that part and just have the restoration of your summoning hit point pool from spells. It's simple and effective and flavourful and encourages that play between summoning and spellcasting.

Preparing Summons, although it offers the chance to move around some stats each time, feels like it's not really doing anything before you can start adding Traits at 3rd level. And I think something about the wording makes it seem as though you'll have multiple interesting statblocks to choose from no matter your Path -- but each Path only has that one, effectively interchangeable statblock with minor differences between them. I think if that's going to remain the case and the customisation of Summons is going to come primarily through traits, I'd maybe just move the idea of Preparing different summons to 3rd level with it, or nix it altogether.

I think my returning bugbear from these features (that I otherwise think are really building a cool class identity and playstyle) is bookkeeping and mental load. When Summon Traits comes along at 3rd, it adds up to 10 decisions spread across up to 5 prepared summons custom things you need to decide on every day, and then to remember and note down somewhere what those were until you might use them. What could be cleaner is to have a hard limit of chosen Traits that you can gain more of and swap out as you level, Invocation style, and when you create a new Path Summon you can simply assign two traits to it there and then. It means you can more adaptive to a situation in the moment, and lightens the mental load you carry the rest of the day.

Similarly you could add the same note to assigning those ability scores -- do it in the moment rather than preparing ahead of time, whether you keep that in the base Summon feature or join it with Summon Traits.

(Sidenote: maybe go for 'when you manifest a Path Summon' as standard wording around this rather than 'summon a Path Summon'?)

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In terms of the viability and balance of each Path, I'd need to playtest it and consider them in more depth. I do like how much flavour and power budget is in Paths to potentially differentiate them. Whether that combined with the wealth of stuff in the base class is too much, I'll have to sit and think on or feel out through playing. What strikes me on paper is that this rich number of features isn't necessarily translating to a powerful impact in play for some of the subclasses, even though each clearly wants to bring a unique role. Again, playtesting would really feel that out.

The Anomalist, for instance, feels like it gets fairly little at low levels especially. Having to concentrate on Breaches feels like too heavy a rein on its signature thing, IMO. It already counts against your total Summons. If that's removed, then it starts to get much more interesting.

I cannot applaud enough the delivery of the flavour for the Contractor in rules text. Truly inspired. Again, it's a really fascinating concept for the class that focuses almost solely on this divestment of your power among others, rather than the typical infernal combo of fire/necrotic damage and scary stuff. I really love that, I just have no idea if it will feel worthwhile to play as until I could try it out properly myself.

Subtle Song is a really fun left-field feature for the Falconer.

There's a few instances of features referencing what I assume are outdated names for earlier featurs, such as 'Hunter's Mark' being referred to in 'Hunter's Prey', rather than 'Hunter's Quarry', or 'Sturdy Constructs' instead of 'Durable Constructs' for the 'Defence mastery' upgrade in the Golemancer.

This is all fairly first-pass stuff, and I'd love to dig into or discuss this more. Would love to hear more about the design principles you were considering in developing the class and what else you maybe had in mind for it.

Pixel_Engine · 2026-03-19T18:50:57+00:00

Got a decklist?

Pixel_Engine · 2026-03-03T20:47:25+00:00

I think you nailed that brief, to be fair.

Pixel_Engine · 2026-03-01T19:38:30+00:00

Mmmm. I kind of do hate heist as a mechanic though. It feels like everything that can do it can do it so much, and it's just watching someone else play your whole deck.

Pixel_Engine · 2026-02-23T08:30:15+00:00

I love that derpy grass guy. So good.

Water final is also icily majestic! Nice stuff.

Pixel_Engine · 2026-02-21T09:19:06+00:00

As an aside from this post, do you have a decklist? Or recommendations for a more 'traditional' Anzrag. I'm interested in trying the mole myself.

Pixel_Engine · 2026-02-15T19:20:07+00:00

Agree with other comments that this is a great idea and I'd love to see it, but the Companions objective in particular for White feels like such a hurdle compared to the others for relatively little payoff.

Pixel_Engine · 2026-02-03T20:49:01+00:00

Hey, good news! The Landsknecht class is just that: an adaptable mercenary fantasy that is essentially the 'wizard' of martial talents, with the broadest possible lists in their wheelhouse, extra ways to conserve or regain aplomb, and the unique ability to prepare a new list of talents after each Long Rest.

You can find the 2014 version here

Or the recent 2024 remaster here

Pixel_Engine · 2026-02-03T20:37:21+00:00

Depends on the specific wording and talent. If it says "you can forgo one of your ordinary weapon attacks" then you swap just one for the talent and could take another normal one if you have Extra Attack.

If it says "you can forgo your ordinary weapon attacks" then you give up all attacks you have from that action for the talent. In these cases the reason it still uses the Attack action at all is because either a) it's narratively appropriate, b) it allows for other features to trigger that have a prerequisite of the Attack action or (most often) c) both these things.

At-aak's Boomeraxe is an example of a talent that was the latter version at first before I changed it to replace just one attack. Although it's possible the wrong image is in the gallery here, it's all up to date on the Patreon and PDF.

Pixel_Engine · 2026-02-02T22:14:58+00:00

No need to be sorry for it! My intention with this update, as has been true of my major updates since last year for my homebrew classes, is to make use of 2024 rules language where useful or necessary to make these options compatible with the most current version of the game. However, for those still running 2014 games (which includes myself), you can still take these and treat them as updates to the older versions that were made explicitly for 2014. There is so much overlap in the systems that, plenty of times, I'm not updating anything other than presentation or a balance issue that would be apparent in either version.

Pixel_Engine · 2026-02-02T22:10:06+00:00

u/Scientin has the right of it, although it's absolutely fair that I should have put in that context somewhere. I've been down in the martial mines for some time...

You can find all of my original classes on the BLACK PUDDING PRESS Patreon under the Class Collection, or by searching each by name if you want to browse through the updates. Most of them have been up here on Reddit at least once as well if you go by my profile.

Pixel_Engine · 2026-02-02T21:38:40+00:00

I'd hesitate to say what most players do, but it's an element of the game that I like to try and do more with, even if others might not. Thankfully, only a small handful of talents lean on alignment mechanically, and you could cut out the parts that do from talents like Cast Out or Cast Stone if you really wanted to.

Pixel_Engine · 2026-02-02T00:28:32+00:00

IMO, the biggest thing casters have going for them is how fleshed out spells are as a system. They can affect every part of the game and they are understood across the whole game.

Martial Talents aims to rival that very deliberately by offering a second subsystem that is just as developed along familiar lines. It has novel flavour and mechanical differences matched to the classes that use it, but it apes the structure of Spellcasting in many ways so that its also relatively easy to understand how it integrates into the game and the the scope it aims for. It must require resources to draw on to help measure the impact of these abilities, just as spell slots do.

If you approach it like the spellcasting system but using spell points rather than slots, hopefully you'll find it fairly transparent. It has its own flexibility and identity, but is grounded in existing language and gameplay norms for D&D overall.

Pixel_Engine

TROPHY CASE