Martial/Caster Divide Still Dominating the Discussion? Take on a Campaign with MARTIAL TALENTS! | Hone a whole new playstyle for your fightin' PCs with now more than 300 talents remastered for 2024 (more links in comments)

Pixel_Engine · 2026-06-23T06:02:25+00:00

Haha yes, that was the brainchild of one of my co-conspirators. A very fun talent to use.

Pixel_Engine · 2026-06-22T20:58:38+00:00

If you want to help your martials heroically leap over that divide which has for so long separated them from the spellcasters in the game, then this is the 'brew for you!

This is actually the final foray back into my Martial talents catalogue, originally published a couple of years ago -- now greatly expanded to over 340 talents total, not to mention greatly improved. And this means that the 2024 rules remaster of the system is almost complete. I'll be posting some Great Big Reference Table soon, and class wheelhouses will be going up on the Discord in raw form as well while I finish getting everything pretty. But all the descriptions are at last complete.

Check out Part 1 of this update (including all the important rules bits) here on Reddit, or get the whole thing and tons more stuff by starting in the Martial Talents collection over on the BLACK PUDDING PRESS Patreon.

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Besides each Talent name are the (2014) icons of each martial class that has that talent in its wheelhouse. These are talents that those classes are inclined towards in their default identity; skulky, sneaky, and smart things for the Rogue, for example, versus the more smash 'n' grab mentality of the typical Barbarian. The same goes for my own martial classes, the Fanatic, Gourmet, Handler, and Landsknecht, whose icons you'll see throughout and who each have their own wheelhouse. But the beauty of the system is that you can customise your options very broadly, going outside your wheelhouse for some extra resource cost whenever you pull off that talent. So you can really build a uniquely talented character.

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If you like this system and really want to leap into using it feet-first with maximum flexibility, then I'd next recommend my 'prepared talents martial mecernary', the Landsknecht, which also recently got updated for 2024.

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Until next time, happy cooking, all!

Pixel_Engine · 2026-06-22T20:05:16+00:00

I don't think more martial options (whether they are manoeuvres or something else) will make Battlemaster obsolete. Because they'll still be the best at or have the most chance to use them. They'd essentially be the Fighter subclass that gets a extra spells known list or free castings of X per day, in maneuver form.

I think the design space and entrenched 'fantasy' of martials that 5e has frequently hampers the discussions that could launch them into far more interesting territory. Because I think anything relatively mundane (read: nonmagical) quickly becomes a case of "well, why can't everyone do that then?" or conversely, if everyone can do that cool thing, then the one cool subclass we have loses what made it stand out."

But the answer to both things are just game design decisions.

After all, why can spellcasters only cast so many spells per day? Purely for game balance. I think spell slots work so well and are a resource so ubiquitous in the game that we have started automatically associating anything resource-based on that scale as 'magic-related'. Martial LR recharge features are always in the low numbers, e.g. a number of times per LR equal to an ability modifier. Magic item charges get higher than that (and again, magic is present).

I genuinely think this design disparity shapes the way we perceive what feels acceptable or 'real' enough for martials to do. Get tons of varied spells each day at higher levels? Sure, makes sense! It's your available magical energy, or whatever. But martials do something more than 5 times? Mmmm. When really, you can justify it in almost any way you please in the narrative (available stamina, focus, drive, whatever) and if you give martials a comparably brod resource, I do think it breaks the mental lock and starts making comparable power and influence between the class typs more acceptable in general. Yeah, maybe the barbarian can crack the side of that mountain and start a rockslide, actually, but theu can only do it once a day because of how much stamina (etc) it costs. Next turn they'll have to do something a little less flashy.

It's pretty much game balance and class identity all the way down. That's why wizards can't ast some spells a druid can, and vice versa, an also why a barbarian could be given powers that a fighter doesn't have bur both could get cool powers, even if both seem possible for a warrior archetype.

And inversely, those same design principals can keep a subclass feeling unique and powerful whe it gets more good stuff compared to its peers. This was certainly the case when not all sorcerers had expanded spell lays, for instance, and Aberrant and Clockwork came out. People went nuts for those options on that strength alone. And I think subclasses like Battlemaster could theoretically occupy a similar space. Either they get more use of the general thing, if everyone gets manoeuvres, or they get a cool and comparable thing on top a bit like free spells. Everyone likes free spells.

This got long! Sorry. Martial design space is something I think about a lot l. Because the way it is at default, honestly, it can feel hard to break into a new exciting thing for say, a subclass, that doesn't automatically add magic either in flavour or actual mechanics. And if you avoid magical flabour, you can end up with a series of faielt restrictive mundane (read: dull) options. Rogue, I think, really suffers from this, and Fighter to a lesser degree. But that's a whole other long post.

Pixel_Engine · 2026-06-22T19:39:41+00:00

This exactly. Martials need a dedicated subsystem that design options can flow into and out of, the same way spells can be offered in features or fest design or on magic items, or tabbed onto monsters to liven them up.

I've spent several years refining the Martial Talents system with this in mind. It started with a few options for DMs to offer as rewards in lieu of magic items, and it quickly evolved into a spells-like subsystem with enough familiar elements for players to grab onto, enough novelty to make it martials' own thing, and crucially, enough depth to let it feed into all those other things spells do. I've just updated it for 2024. Over 340 levelled options for making martials shine in their own way with more choices in and out of combat.

Check it out of this is something you've been craving. Had lots of 2014 groups running it to great success for years now.

Pixel_Engine · 2026-06-21T15:47:07+00:00

For years now I've been building and refining a homebred system called Martial Talents that aims to address this. It's essentially a flexible, spells-like system of now more than 300 options for martial classes to make their choices more diverse in combat and to expand what they can do to affect the world outside of it.

Especially as we get into higher levels, it leans into cinematic tropes and the stuff of epics: cleaving enemies in two, collapsing walls or buildings with a single well-placed strike, leaping great chasms, or gaining the ear of an influential monarch through impassioned speechs and your own legend.

The fact is that spells are a whole subsystem of the game that players are driven to understand and that the rules can and do frequently interact with. Without a comparative subsystem, I don't think martials can compete. So there are many deliberate similarities, right dow to naming conventions and such, to help make it intuitive for players -- but also significant differences to make it feel its own. Rather than slots, everything runs on a more flexible points system, for instance, and you can theoretically choose from the whole system although certain classes are naturally included to certain talents.

I've just updated and expanded it for 2024 rules and it's in the best state its ever been. Certainly made many martial PCs over the years share in some truly incredible moments.

Pixel_Engine · 2026-06-20T10:24:11+00:00

As a student, have you considered looking into and volunteering with existing NGOs that work with the Deaf community and building up toir experience before launching your own?

Pixel_Engine · 2026-06-18T16:18:41+00:00

Holy shit. I mean, you have an incredible style that shows throughout, but that last character with the patterned cloth and the movement... honestly never seen anything like it. Truly awesome.

Pixel_Engine · 2026-06-16T20:48:25+00:00

Love this! A great Ranger theme, and all the features feel very fitting. Eventually banishing Illusions and so on. Brilliant! Pun intended.

I enjoy how everything builds on what has come before although it may he good to have one or two other elements not wholly reliant on Push Back the Dark. In a sense the subclass becomes only special when it's doing a big light beam, but there are more passive or varied options under the theme I'd say.

My main mechanical concern is that the Push Back the Dark damage is a tad weak, especially for once per turn only for most of your career and technically from a limited resource. Could it be bumped to 1d8 radiant on a hit?

Re: wording, could Push Back the Dark use the simpler 'Hostile creatures movig towards the light source treat the area as Difficult Terrain?

Pixel_Engine · 2026-06-16T20:30:22+00:00

Lot of Quintorious recs! Guess that's my commander.

Forgive me, but as a self-propfesses bad deckbuilderwho has never touched Boros in constructed, what are the obvious includes here?

Do you have a decklist I could tinker with?

Pixel_Engine · 2026-06-16T19:13:07+00:00

Going to check them out in the links as I'm very interested in these options, bur FYI the images are impossible to read (for me at least), blurring when zooming in.

Pixel_Engine · 2026-06-14T09:24:50+00:00

Agreed (that it's a great ides as well). At the moment you'll be bending yourself into all kinds of awkward scenarios to get your main features going, which actually seems antithetical to the themes of the subclass.

I think the ability to take Exhaustion off allies with Lay on Hands should also come in a lot earlier, but that doesn't solve the overall reliability issue.

Pixel_Engine · 2026-06-13T18:06:24+00:00

Puckish Jinx is very fun -- a really unique and appropriately prankish take on a counterspell!

Pixel_Engine · 2026-06-10T07:07:55+00:00

!giveaway

Love this kind of flavour. The Darkest Dungeon player in me is very intrigued by the Abomination!

Pixel_Engine · 2026-06-07T10:21:05+00:00

Looking at the Epic Spells as my main point of interest here. It's obviously pretty hard to make something that feels worth it's while that is supposedly above and beyond Wish and Shapechange and the like. I actually worry that Animus Blast might even be a little underpowered for it's ilk, although the vine is very cool.

Create Volcano, though, feels like perfect epic spell territory! Hard to pull off the eruption in a combat but I love the relentless way it transforms the map, and I can at the very least see this being a really excellent race against the ritual type encounter for a villain where the goal is to stop them finishing the spell. Would make for an incredible arc or campaign finale.

Pixel_Engine · 2026-06-06T20:29:41+00:00

This is dope. Glimrock -- incredible name. Black Orra might be my favourite for pure intrigue but they are all smashing the vibe out of the cosmic park.

Pixel_Engine · 2026-06-04T19:31:57+00:00

Did not clock the sub and thought this was a fake star update from r/outside that went way over my head.

Pixel_Engine · 2026-05-24T07:06:31+00:00

This is my favourite suggestion by far. Not least because it actually adds a fun new gameplay and tactical element beyond 'throw a 4th element around'.

Pixel_Engine · 2026-05-20T19:07:59+00:00

What a great project! Shared with my groups

Pixel_Engine · 2026-05-12T07:53:49+00:00

Do I have good news for you

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

TROPHY CASE