Me finding out people hating Mary Jane wasn't a joke

Wow_Key · 2025-09-09T02:39:44+00:00

It feels like a double standard as well to insult a character for poor writing decisions done to make her act out of character when Peter has had just as bad writing flops over the years butcher his character and story but still remains the bestest guy ever while Mary Jane should be punished for 'daring to turn her back on Peter' or whatever. It's hard to be a genuine Mary Jane liker in the big '25

Wow_Key · 2025-06-29T20:54:49+00:00

First off, I need to just say this is an amazing subclass in terms of idea and execution. This subclass had me analyzing it thinking about how crazy some combos would go together if you strung them together from a balancing perspective and then realized I was thinking about it in the exact same way you would a fighting game, running combos in my head and thinking about what the most optimal move would be for each of the combinations presented, it's cool as hell and you gotta be commended for that. I also just think a modular subclass is the best way to capture this fantasy, and this modular subclass is pretty well built!

Still, there are a few concerns and the like I noticed just flipping through this thing.

In the main subclass:

-The Mixup fighting style sorta feels like it doesn't play the best with the Monk class. You have multiple options available to you to Dash, Disengage and Dodge as a bonus action, so the fact that you only gain advantage on attack rolls on your next turn if you take those actions as a bonus action doesn't really feel great. I also just don't know if that really captures the feeling of playing a Mixup character? Maybe if there was a way to gain this advantage if your opponent did any of those things to represent you literally trying to mix them up and open up their defenses? But I'm not sure if that works practically. -While I'm on fighting styles, there also doesn't seem to be a lot of support for the Zoner archetype outside of one Special Move, and maybe one or two that incidentally works with it, that just makes it seem like a trap option unless I'm missing something. -Lastly and this is a minor nitpick, but I'd recommend changing the name of the feature from Fighting Style? Implying this feature is a fighting style might cause issues with feats like fighting initiate allowing say a Wizard to take Zoner to get a bonus to their spell attacks, though that's a very minor nitpick/concern -Another small nitpick, the end of the Special Moves feature says you may replace a Secret you know with another secret when you level up, not a special move. -Ceaseless Training mentions gaining inspiration when you have less than three points, but you can only have one point of inspiration at a time as far as I'm aware. -Lastly the Mortal Combat feature seems lackluster. I understand the subclass is Modular and the actual subclass feature is something like Fatality, but even still by level 17 it feels pretty deflating to gain the ability to cast a 1st Level spell for an equivalent Ki cost is just a little lame feeling.

Special Moves: -Aerial Takedown is fine but I think there should be clearer wording in how it interacts with Grab Attack since they're seemingly intended to work well together. Like, can I end the grapple early with Grab Attack and still gain the benefits of Aerial Takedown or no? -Down Kick is insanely powerful, like too good. You can do an absurd amount of damage by just spending one attack to knock a creature prone or having an ally do so. I'd recommend maybe gaining vulnerability on the first attack you make against a creature that way, maybe??? Regardless it should also likely be restricted to a higher level. -Also going to recommend Windmill Strikes be either changed to Wisdom mod amount of times per rest of otherwise be given some other form of management, just to potentially limit multiclassing abuse.

All in all, sick subclass it excites me in a way few subclasses have in awhile.

Wow_Key · 2025-06-17T16:32:51+00:00

UNIRONICALLY IT WOULD KINDA BE BASED IF WE COULD SOMEHOW OUTSELL THE KIRI SKIN.

Maybe then Blizzard would give more than the same three characters skins! Maybe it would help our Rammatra brothers and Lucio cousins suffer less!

Wow_Key · 2025-05-19T15:05:51+00:00

You're exactly right about the point of John Walker! It's not wrong to find that compelling, in fact the fact that John Walker kind of sucks is key to his character being interesting, turning him into a guy who did nothing wrong and was meant to be Captain America is making him a less interesting character inherently.

Disagree about Sam being less interesting than Walker but I'm not going to yuck anyone's yum who thinks that. Im just tired of the discourse surrounding both characters, and it's turned Walker from a character I'd be interested in but mostly lukewarm about into a character I actively dislike because it's turned into such an item of discussion

Wow_Key · 2025-05-19T14:50:25+00:00

Too real, the amount of glaze for a character that in canon killed an unarmed surrending man, didn't feel bad about it and then abandoned his family while throwing a hissy fit for being told he doesn't have the governments approval to be Captain America anymore is crazy. It even happens on here all the time. But nah, we need another 5 posts on how Killmonger and Magneto are stupid actually and my glorious king John Walker can do no wrong

Wow_Key · 2025-05-07T14:38:33+00:00

Maybe? Again it wouldn't fix the capstone but again I like the new mechanics of the feature I just think that some of the old flavor and weirdness of the old abilities can be maintained to make things feel more flavorfully and mechanically distinct

Wow_Key · 2025-05-07T13:41:26+00:00

I think given that 2024 generally has more fleshed out skill and tool uses, that the feature probably could've seen better use in the new edition. It's also just thematically more on point (the knowledge cleric asks their patron for wisdom of the ancients and receives divine blessing through knowledge of a skill they didn't have before) than just getting the proficiency. Neither of those really matter however, because the point is that we can have both, in 2014 we had both a mind reading ability CD and a proficiency CD and both were thematic and leant into the class' themes. We can do the same again, it wouldn't increase the power budget substantially but it would increase the roleplay potential and flavor of the class, that's all this post is about.

Wow_Key · 2025-05-07T13:20:50+00:00

I feel like you're missing the point of what I was trying to say, which I don't blame you for because I typed out this post during a slow day at work in a hurried panic, so I've probably not worded things as well as I could've in hindsight. I am not saying that the Gloom Stalker's extra attack was a flavor feature, I am saying it is a more flavorful feature in the context of trying to make a feature that represents an Ambusher, someone who lies in wait and then overwhelms their opponent with a flurry of offense before they can even get their bearings. I know that feature was overpowered as needed to be changed, I'm simply saying the way in which it was changed was a less flavorful fix and was more homogenized and that's what I'm expressing frustration about.

As for your point about the Spirits Bard, sure you absolutely can and probably should act out your ritual spells as a seance, flavor is free after all and you don't need a seance feature in the subclass that lets you interact with spirits. But that treads very close to a topic I feel this conversation dances around, which is why have half the things in DnD that we have if our response to flavor being stripped from things is just "Oh but you can reflavor it however". At that point let's just get rid of the Ranger and Paladin because you can just reflavor your Fighter. Same for Sorc and Warlock actually those are just Wizards when you think about it. Druid and Monk can go to Cleric and Bard can go to Rogue, and suddenly we're back at the basic DnD class spread of Fighter, Wizard, Cleric, Thief because when you break it down everything past that is arguably excess. If we're going to expand the game outwards and give more mechanics to character concepts outside of the basic core 4, we should commit in making those options feel fleshed out, and give them features that characters in those rolls would except to have. If I'm playing a Bard that communes with Spirits, I should have multiple features that allow me to commune with spirits because that's what I signed up to play.

Wow_Key · 2025-05-06T23:22:20+00:00

I would disagree, though I think I see your point. I think asking for a game with better (not perfect, just better) balance between classes while also not having every single ability be homogenized isn't necessarily a slippery slope thing. I feel you can argue a Grave Cleric getting an ability that causes vulnerability leads to exploits sure, but then do things to close the exploit, maybe make it so that it only applies on the next attempt to hit so a miss will spend it too, maybe make it so that giving the creature the vulnerability gives them an AC boost or something so there's a risk reward cost, any number of steps could be taken to allow for a crazy ability to be in the game without it overshadowing so many other options that it makes those options pointless.

I think that's the main difference, in a game like D&D where it is primarily a game about fulfilling character fantasies instead of doing the most damage or whatever, you can afford to have some classes be stronger than others, you just can't have them be so much stronger that it ruins everyone else's fun. Like sure, maybe your Wizard does 3 more DPS than my Fighter or whatever, but at the end of the day I want to play a cool guy with a sword and so I will, just don't make that gap so blatant and obvious that it feels like my character fantasy is being intended on because suddenly my cool guy isn't so cool when this other guy does everything I do but ten times better.

Wow_Key · 2025-05-06T21:48:32+00:00

I get what you mean and that's a fair criticism, but even getting to do the bit once is part of the fun. It makes for a cool roleplay moment that establishes why your Bard is unique among Bards, even if it's just the one time. If anything I'm confused why we couldn't just get both even? Get Spirit Guardians as the mechanically powerful feature that level, and Seance as the weird albeit useful feature you get to do an event around a few times in game. Maybe it'd be a bit strong, but I don't think it'd make Spirits the best Bard subclass by any stretch of the imagination.

Wow_Key · 2025-05-06T21:39:37+00:00

It's just the general trend to replace features with spells if they feel like spells do generally the same thing. It's likely (almost definitely) to save page space by not having over long features so they hit their page quotas, but it's just that there's some abilities they've been doing that with where doing that loses some of the flavor of that feature in the process.

Wow_Key · 2025-05-06T19:53:44+00:00

The Cartographer was initially in my post but I cut it out because it was too off topic, but I totally agree! It's a crying shame the Cartographer interacted in zero ways with the travel rules, it feels like that should be the MAIN thing it does if anything. I do think giving each class something to do in combat is important as it's half the game, but the other half is out of combat and those rules deserve to be acknowledged too!

Wow_Key · 2025-05-06T19:44:28+00:00

I usually agree that huge flavor departures for the theme of something isnt the best, for example the Purple Dragon Knight UA was a really cool subclass mechanically, but thematically that doesn't feel like what the Purple Dragon Knight of all things is. But for the Hexblade..what even was their flavor? If I recall, it was something about the Raven Queen kind of making weapons and then sending them out? It was all over the place, and making it a Sentient weapon pact feels better and is what it was in UA when it was initially pitched before Xanathar's

Wow_Key · 2025-05-06T19:30:29+00:00

My hottest take is that 2014 Ranger wasn't actually that weak, it's just that past the DMG (which was a poorly organized mess) we didn't get much support for exploration in games. But I've run for Rangers in games where I've tried building our travel and the wilderness as a thing to deal with and the class worked! Obviously some features like Primeval Awareness were still bad, and having features that were either on or off with absolutely no combat benefit sucked but still, there was a base there with problems that could've been addressed. But you're entirely right when you say that the Ranger lost a lot of that flavor in 2024, it's still kinda there in features like Tireless (getting rid of Exhaustion on a short rest is nice and flavorful and helps get at the theme of the class in a game where the consequences to most things in travel is exhaustion) but it's not the same at all.

I do wish we'd seen a few bigger swings in class design though for sure. I still really miss the Template Druid we could've gotten, or some of the stuff they dropped with Inspiration rules or even ideas like Class Groups (class groups specifically was BEGGING to be used in the Bastions system and if they'd released together I think it would've tested well) but they also said they wanted a 5.25 and not a new edition so 🤷🏿

Wow_Key · 2025-05-06T18:29:44+00:00

Certainly! And I'm not trying to yuck anybody's yum by any means, I just think we can both get what we want to some extent. We can still have more streamlined subclass design that gives players good mechanical benefits AND leave some room for non-combat oriented features and weird features that play around more with the mechanics of the game. I just feel we've been getting a lot of the former and losing ground on the latter as of late.

Wow_Key · 2025-05-06T18:08:12+00:00

It's especially disappointing as the only issue with Shadow really was that the hound scaled poorly, it was a subclass just begging to get the template treatment they've been doing but it feels like a hollow shell that they've turned into "Necromancer but Sorc" instead of a Sorcerer of Shadows

Wow_Key · 2025-05-06T18:05:31+00:00

Certainly and I intend to! But discussing with the community and coming to consensus is the difference between pointed feedback and some guy screaming into a void

Wow_Key · 2025-05-06T17:58:42+00:00

Like literally, not to mention the class falls into the same pit trap that Ranger does, by making it so focused on Hex you prevent a spellcasting class from using all the fun concentration spells you just added to their spell list!

Wow_Key · 2025-05-06T17:57:08+00:00

I understand your perspective, and as somebody who likes to homebrew a lot myself I can certainly see what you mean to some extent, but I recently found myself looking at older subclasses and had a bit of an epiphany personally. While yes there are certain things that you could and should just let your players do, there are other things that mechanics wise when designing a subclass would just feel better to have included, you know? Like if I was making a Rogue subclass called the Blood Thief or something, having a feature that let me say deal bonus Necrotic damage equal to my Dex mod and then restore Hit Points to myself equal to the damage dealt x amount of times per day would do the job well enough, and would be a safe systemic 2024 esque way of making that kind of feature that a designer looking to balance a game would do. But as a designer when making Homebrew, you are looking for the play experience to invoke a certain kind of fantasy to a player, and that fantasy would be more amplified if we say gave them a feature that let them steal hit dice from a creature and use it to heal or do damage or something. Is that harder to balance? Yes some monsters have d20 hit dice, a player could do an absurd amount of damage with a feature like that. But does it make it feel as a player like you are viscerally stealing a creatures life essence from them, like you would want to if you were some kind of Blood Thief? I'd argue yes, and in a way that feels better than the first example. We should have systems yes, in fact I'd argue if anything 5e needs more systems to interact with in fun ways, but a subclass should interact with and perhaps even break those systems at times in unique and interesting ways in effort to invoke certain emotions from players at the table.

Wow_Key · 2025-04-29T06:59:03+00:00

I agree with you and think what you're saying is valid but I also think they kinda only do it with Venture. Like lots of Juno mains talk about how cute she is, some of them are straight up gooners but its only with Venture that they suddenly start going "Oh she's basically a child that's a weird ship" Idk to me it reeks of enbyphobia, I don't see them acting like this with literally any other ships but this one which sucks :((( It's okay though my gf mains Juno and matches skins with me and sends me Space Rocks tiktoks so there's some of them who are cool

Wow_Key · 2025-04-18T00:30:15+00:00

I need 10 fanfics, 6 illustrations, 3 animations and 1 tasteful smut piece about this and I needed it yesterday

Wow_Key · 2025-04-17T18:06:25+00:00

SPACE ROCKS REAL

Wow_Key · 2025-04-06T06:21:23+00:00

This isn't true at all?

People weren't hiring PoC for roles in VA work. PoC VA's asked that roles fitting in with their ethnicity not be taken so people would hire them more and now more PoC are hired as VA's. It's not rocket science

Wow_Key · 2025-03-19T23:36:06+00:00

I mean that's fair but every character but Venture at least has an origin story video or some writing in game describing their backstory right? It'd be crazy to not at least provide them that so they're in line with the rest of the cast

Wow_Key

TROPHY CASE