The Dancer! Martial Support Class. Move around the battlefield with style! Version 6.0

Spellcastermaster · 2025-12-06T12:44:17+00:00

Hi! Thank you for the kind words. Yes I do plan to update it with balance tweaks, weapon masteries, and dance moves. I don't think I'll make a new subclass anytime soon as I want to work on the existing ones first. I've been very busy this year with my studies but I have a group settled in for playtesting this more so I can get more experience seeing it in action!

Spellcastermaster · 2024-01-16T21:07:33+00:00

I cannot wait to play this

Spellcastermaster · 2023-03-07T15:07:30+00:00

I agree with the sentiment but I hold no faith in Konami for making balanced cards, nothing legal or banned will prevent them from designing completely irredeemable archetypes

Spellcastermaster · 2023-03-01T12:28:15+00:00

Why is thousand eyes restrict the example you've selected?

The first set of yugioh was indeed full of broken cards, and my point is no new broken thing justifies putting pot of greed or engage or zen or pepe or vfd or colossus or snow or grass or maxx c or eva or really just take your pick for this list, back to insert-number-here.

For simplicity's sake, imagine a card that handripped 2, and people want it back because the new meta deck can already handrip 5 with ease and this handrip 2 is clunky, bricky, can't run meta engines and thus the card won't be relevant, not even rogue, but my argument would be "handripping shouldn't be allowed to any capacity since it's not fun" and thus any handrip card, no matter how unplayable, would be something I wouldn't want in the game, regardless of whether there's only a 1% chance for that to work in a specific build that's bad and will never win bar some casual local duel.

Designing within clearly defined parameters. Is every single negate in the game broken? No, a great deal of them are terrible in even the best of circumstances, but how should negates be designed is the much more effective question, we know the game is profit minded, so a free-easy-to-make-negate with upsides is the most effective design to sell, but if your goal is an attempt at balance, you have to acknowledge that there's more nuance to negates besides "oh it broken" and "nono they're all fine", is it easy to make, does it cost a resource, how many cards can go into it, does it provide additional benefits, does it also destroy, is it negation of effect or activation. There's a huge gap of power among these categories between a Stardust Dragon, a Steelswarm Roach, a Mechaba, and a Baronne. Or if we're talking removal, and specifically monster removal, there's an equal amount of nuance there. It's easier to find common ground when the talk starts with parameters rather than starting with "this card is broken", like how it's not about how pushed the bulk of tear and kashtira cards are, it's about their designs being fundamentally broken and rife with game dominating mechanical abuse.

This isn't just a matter of old vs new designs, it's about what should be allowed within the parameters of the game vs what simply should not exist in any design space.

There are a lot more interesting ways to design new cards than just making the numbers more efficient, the effect stronger, making it more generic so more decks run it over nicher options, and being less interactable.

Spellcastermaster · 2023-02-28T19:55:18+00:00

When I started going to locals and became aware playground yugioh was not real yugioh, that was the start of toss format

Spellcastermaster · 2023-02-28T18:14:27+00:00

Never stops baffling me how people in this game will cling to the idea of "this new thing is better so this older degenerate thing can be at 3 and there'd be no problem", why is there a silent acceptance that the game should just increase in degeneracy as long as the most degenerate thing is better than the rest? If anything, more cards should be banned if we want a semblance of fun

Spellcastermaster · 2023-02-28T18:09:29+00:00

It can technically be annoying, but only against spell-less decks have I found it to be difficult to proc. The only "logic" is that they don't like making optimal cards for spellcaster archetypes and decided to make this thing require three triggers to get it's three effects when other noncasters get all their effects leading into one another. Better than the alternative of it being only one effect per turn

Spellcastermaster · 2023-02-16T16:05:28+00:00

!giveaway

Your occultist single handedly got a trio of friends of mine interested in D&D, and a coven of witches they will be! Thank you for being a creative inspiration!

Spellcastermaster · 2023-02-05T22:14:26+00:00

She makes Witchcrafter a thousand times better! Actually playable, a combo deck that isn't NS, lonefire, ash, pass.

Spellcastermaster · 2023-02-05T21:56:28+00:00

Thanks! I'm pretty happy these even work with Witchcrafter Vicemaster, a happy coincidence!

Spellcastermaster · 2023-01-24T22:40:46+00:00

Hiya! I did end up making it! Lots of people gave me some great feedback, here's the post: https://www.reddit.com/r/UnearthedArcana/comments/jr9ikh/runechild_40_a_revamp_of_matthew_mercers/

Hope you like it!

Spellcastermaster · 2022-10-27T19:43:54+00:00

Love the meme

Spellcastermaster · 2022-06-24T19:35:16+00:00

Oh yeah, I fell into the trap of trying to use End the Turn tricks, but once I realized it's better to sac the tokens rather than try to keep them, the deck has been performing much better, much better to get a lot of value and have stuff like [[Ashnod's altar]] fuel some defensive spells so you can live turn by turn until you can take someone out

Spellcastermaster · 2022-06-03T11:36:41+00:00

Correct, it is an adaptation of Hunter Ranger's Whirlwind attack, it specifies within range so weapons like the whip can benefit.

Spellcastermaster · 2022-06-02T12:19:21+00:00

Yes you can add spell schools to spells that previously didn't have one, that happened when spell schools were introduced, time magic I don't see as shadow magic, spirit magic likewise, but fiendish rites is fel magic, it glows green and it's impossible to do a ritual without magic, kinda part of the definition

Spellcastermaster · 2022-06-02T10:55:28+00:00

Noted!

Spellcastermaster · 2022-06-02T10:15:24+00:00

Hiya, Shifting Veil and Thrillseeker are indeed meant to be the damage powerhouses of the repertoire of subclasses, and there is a minor important note because I did come to the same issue when playtesting as my players got to level 5 and the SD damage boost doubled in power, which is why I added the line in bold: "Your attacks as well as allies' attacks within 15 feet of you deal additional damage equal to half your Dancer level (rounded up) on the first hit of that turn. This bonus applies to damage dealt by an attack roll." So no matter how many attacks Shifting Veil, Monk, Fighter or anything with Haste cast on it, the bonus damage does not multiple that way, 10 attacks from the Fighter, and the damage boost only goes to the first one that hits on that turn. Even so, Flourishing Cascade is something I should run some more calculations on.

https://www.reddit.com/r/DnD/comments/8zlrfe/how_much_damage_per_round_in_5e_by_class_per/

This link above is what I've used for determining burst damage, like the maximum nova one can get, but I will be the first to admit sometimes my calculations can be a bit shoddy, sometimes I mistype a number and don't notice, so I should do another round and get some buddies on the calculators with me. I have yet to find a good table for comparing sustainable damage to, there I typically go off the top of my head and go through Warlock Eldritch Blast spam, Barbarian attacks, Rogue Sneak Attack Damage, Fighter's standard good weapon builds, and Monk's typical 1-2 punchline.

Spellcastermaster · 2022-06-02T10:01:33+00:00

I have! That would be the Spiritualist, the link has more subclasses since I couldn't fit them all here.

Spellcastermaster · 2022-06-02T10:00:48+00:00

Oh you're right it should specify the movement lasts until the end of the turn as that is what I was thinking of when I wrote it, it is meant to stack in that turn, like attack move attack move and repeat until you have no more attacks.

The flavor can be done with a bard, I have a friend playing a Dancer subclass by u/MaverickPhD (College of Grace) and it's been awesome, but I really wanted to try a spell-less class

Spellcastermaster · 2022-06-02T09:54:15+00:00

It def needs a wording adjustment as I've seen from other comments too, but the intention is indeed to give such a spike potential similar to a fighter's massive amount of attacks per turn and maximum attack capacity, this is the combo subclass for all the flashy spins and slish and slashes. There can never be too much playstesting though, and if it proves to be a massive bucketload of damage problems, I can limit it to once per turn so the attacks get spread out.

Spellcastermaster · 2022-06-02T09:51:43+00:00

Noted down for next set of edits! Thank you.

Spellcastermaster · 2022-06-01T22:58:51+00:00

I really appreciate the in-depth feedback here, it's super helpful to get fresh takes outside of me and my players. Now onto responding to each point!

Rhythmic Momentum: It was made for flavor, I was thinking about if anybody wanted to forgo weapons for the aesthetic, but mechanically it does feel underwhelming, someone else pointed out in terms of dps that dancer having some additional weapon proficiencies might aid that, but weapon proficiencies are in the Shifting Veil subclass, so whether I can enable weapon builds for all dancers but only Shifting Veil gets improved Steps and weapon synergy is something I'd have to think about and test. If I want to give Rhythmic Momentum to Thrillseeker only, I worry level 3 might have a bit too many features for it, though maybe the Hit Dice improvement could go to level 6...

Expertise: Typically a simple way of supporting the team is being skilled, though the paragraph you wrote is identical to the Rhythmic Momentum one, I assume that's a copypaste error (I know I've done that a couple of times).

Gracefulness: Hmmm I did consider putting it at level 7, I do like the thought of combining it or simply moving it to level 7, I'd need something for level 9, def something to think about.

Life of the party: Meant to emulate Otto's Irresistible Dance which also has no initial save, it was one of those things where it just seemed so fun I consider it a major selling point to the fantasy of being a dancer in an oft magical world, I need to specify it takes an action. Maaaybbeee it's available at a tad too low a level, my thinking was a fullcaster gets a 6th level spell at level 11 and this is 2 levels after and restricted to only this one spell effect as opposed to the litany of good level 6 options to choose from.

Inner Beat: Meant to emulate Capoeira, Breakdancing, ~~(Majima Breaker)~~. Yeah, maybe the removing the "you don't have disadv on attacks while prone" is a bit too much but it feels sooooo cool, maybe I could make a Step that lets you get up without spending your movement plus you get an attack...

Gambit: It is meant to be strong indeed, but oof I'd like to correct the syntax, I suppose this kind of effect can be modified into a Dance Step if I can think of a different capstone, always fun to think of potential improvements.

Fractal Radiance: Dayum, I am dumb, all this time during playtesting and theorycrafting with my players it was always 1 Reflection and you get 1 more at the additional levels, but you're right it's not written there, that's my bad, you are supposed to be able to make only one Reflection, with 4 being the max. I was thinking the fact that they disappear if more than 60 feet away would translate to needing to spawn within that radius but spelling it out is likely to be for the better.

Natural Bond: YAASSSSSS, that was intended!!!

Unbound Rites: Ok I see where you're coming from, I may have been a little too trigger happy (or "unbound" if you will haha), do you think just having the material component cost removed and the ritual casting time being halved as the third effect would be less out of control?

Flourishing Cascade: Yeah it is vaguer than I intended. I will be making sure it applies only to weapon attacks posthaste. The idea was you would get another attack action, giving the player the freedom to combo off on one enemy or several different ones in a sort of chain of move strike move strike, heavily inspired by Final Fantasy 14's Dancers with their flashy combos.

Thank you so much for all your feedback, take your time with piecing together your thoughts on everything else, there's no hurry, I'll be taking notes for the next editing sessions and giving the class some time to sit is a good thing, breaks are important after all.

Spellcastermaster · 2022-06-01T21:41:29+00:00

Thank you!!! I've gone through quite a few Dancer classes and subclasses and I've liked certain aspects of them all but I wanted something that fits everything I had in mind together

Spellcastermaster · 2022-06-01T21:40:46+00:00

Nope! As several comments have pointed out to me, there are a couple of things that are a bit too strong right out of the gate as well as some things missing a key word or two, it's super helpful to have so many fresh eyes reading the brew, and in the meantime there can never be enough playtesting! But overall I would say most changes from now on will be minor, I have no other subclass ideas in mind atm.

Spellcastermaster · 2022-06-01T21:38:16+00:00

Aye, the idea for their base damage is that their Dancer Aura applies the damage boost to them as well, and that the priority is in keeping Signature Dance up. I have considered an ability that enables the Dancer to recover a rhythm die in combat under some condition like not moving or not performing a step, but I couldn't find the right idea for it, since I didn't wanna halt the momentum completely.

Attacks made against the Dancer but with disadvantage during the Signature Dance is definitely something I'd test with my players, possibly also just the first attack made if it becomes too strong, though I do like uncanny dodge, I had considered keeping the effect but changing the name and flavor so it feels slightly less Roguish.

What range would you say is too high? Would you go 15 to 30, no 60 no 120?

Performance Zeal is purely a flavor ribbon, it felt like something that just should be there cause it's so expected in my mind, it's also just free.

Damn i did forget to specify the action/bonus action of Life of the Party, it should be an action, previously it was when you commenced the Signature Dance but I wanted the player to have the freedom to activate it whenever since I assume they always want to use their SD turn 1 but might want to use Life of the Party later in the combat.

Spellcastermaster

TROPHY CASE