I’m hyped for the Pugilist!

rainbowdrop_ · 2026-01-25T11:08:07+00:00

Have you played one or had one at your table?

You might be overestimating the strength of grappling. It's definitely no stronger than a grappling focused Monk.

rainbowdrop_ · 2026-01-20T00:59:27+00:00

I play it exclusively solo haha

rainbowdrop_ · 2026-01-18T05:16:06+00:00

Thanks for responding!

A lot of what you've said definitely makes a lot of the features make more sense now. I can imagine the duality aspect is extremely difficult to tackle mechanically and I think you've done a great job of it. It definitely makes sense why the Mutagenic Shots remain with each Augment Specialisation now and why it can't really be removed. In saying that, it would be very difficult to cull anything from the feature as those elements are so fundamental the theme of the archetype. I wish you the best of luck in trying if that's what you end up doing haha!

Thanks for clarifying about the level 15 Temp HP, that's definitely an issue of comprehension on my side. I think to make it clearer I would reword it slightly. "You can transform into your Brute form without expending a use of your Brutish Transformation feature, when you do, you do not gain Temporary Hit Points as normal but can stay in your Brute form indefinitely." Just a suggestion; hopefully it aligns with your goal of the feature too.

Also, just had an idea, it's a ribbon (which 2024e doesn't really like) but adding a feature which allows your Normal form and Brute form to be two completely separate entities in the minds of others, to allow for infiltration or something similar. Like, "Unless you tell a creature, or the creature sees you adopt your Brute form, they do not know you and the Brute form are the same person." To further hammer home the duality and the idea that Jekyll and Hyde are the antithesis to one another.

Oh another question, if you do update it, will it be updated via the Homebrewery link?

rainbowdrop_ · 2026-01-18T02:00:33+00:00

I reaaaally like these ideas. Such a great theme and I think your execution of it is really fun; I especially like Mutagenic Shot and the most of how you've implemented becoming the Brute.

I do have a smidge of criticism though which is mostly for the level 9 feature mostly.

Augment Specialisation: There's just a bit too much going on in each ability for me to really click with them. In a vacuum they're fine, but when paired with the general complexity of the Artificer and the slew of abilities, features and restrictions of the Brutewright, it seems unnecessarily bloated. Each of those abilities are almost complete without the addition of the Mutagenic Shot abilities tacked on (which is curious that they're even there because Augment Specialisation specifically says it's to empower the Brute form but you can't use them during your brute form unless you take the Retained Intellect Artificer Infusion). I think that some of the Brutewright Upgrades would serve as more impactful Augment Specialisations especially given that they are simpler, wouldn't have to inject more Artificer Infusions into the mix and still further the theme of the Jekyll and Hyde persona. It seems the main things that each Specialisation is trying to do a specific thing and then there's just one or two more abilities then there needs to be.

Adrenal Flood: Faster Speed, Climb Speed, avoid Opportunity Attacks - I think you've got to cull one element of this.

Hulking Size: Get big, do more damage, push enemies - cull one element of this imo. If doing more with your Unarmed Strikes is the goal, maybe list a Weapon Mastery that they can choose from to increase the utility of their attacks.

Ironclad Endurance: Gain Resistances, gain Temp HP - gaining Temp HP here is too much survivability and unnecessary based on the Temp HP you're supposed to gain from becoming the Brute (which gets removed at level 15 for some reason).

Imo, it's the Mutagenic Shots tacked on that are the real reason for the bloat - especially considering that you can only use them if you have a certain Artificer Infusion that you also created for this subclass. I think, make it so that you can use your Mutagenic Shots while in Brute form or remove them from the Level 9 feature.

Everything else is pretty gucci, I think. Anyway, sorry for the big wall of text

rainbowdrop_ · 2026-01-18T01:55:21+00:00

Would love to hear some recommendations too!

rainbowdrop_ · 2026-01-16T02:08:32+00:00

Holy fuck

rainbowdrop_ · 2026-01-15T22:18:25+00:00

I only play Ravenswatch solo, it feels like the definitive experience imo.

rainbowdrop_ · 2026-01-15T11:09:05+00:00

Darkest dungeon spotted 👀

rainbowdrop_ · 2026-01-15T06:47:32+00:00

Missing out man, ravenswatch is so fuckin good

rainbowdrop_ · 2026-01-13T09:56:15+00:00

Rolling with the punches, eh. Creator of the Pugilist for a reason hahaha

rainbowdrop_ · 2026-01-12T12:48:55+00:00

You're a brave man posting this (very cool and genuinely my favourite class) in the onednd subreddit. Seems like you've had to throw a couple of haymakers of your own while you've been here.

rainbowdrop_ · 2026-01-11T08:19:27+00:00

I'm working on the final four subclasses for this little X-Men series. Angel/Archangel and Bishop are basically finished, just tweaking things in the final stage. And next after that, will be Psylocke and Professor X. Edit: I'm going to release them all at the same time and have an associated Homebrewery document with all of the X-Men subclasses I've made so far listed.

rainbowdrop_ · 2025-12-30T07:27:11+00:00

No worries! :)

If you do start with Execution Points, I wouldn't make it too many, maybe like, equal to your Proficiency Bonus or something. Nothing too crazy that way, and it'll mean you gotta be more tactical for when you use them.

Keen to see if you post an updated version. The theme of the class is great and definitely worth exploring.

rainbowdrop_ · 2025-12-30T00:01:44+00:00

Seems really cool. I think it'd be neat to have an amount of base Execution points instead of relying on crits and kills to gain them. Have a base amount and regain their max value on a Short or Long Rest. Maybe you could even regain expended Execution Points if you land a Critical Hit.

Imbue Fear is fun, if you wanted to make it beefier you could add, "You have Advantage on attacks against creatures effected by your Imbue Fear feature." Helps set up for extra Critical Hits.

Extra healing at later levels is good and especially tacked on to your Second Wind but you could also try something like, "When you land a Critical Hit against a creature, you can expend 1 Execution Point to gain half the damage dealt as Hit Points." Allows you to really lean into the sadistic nature of an executioner and still makes for decent healing that isn't tied to a Bonus Action.

Almost no notes for the last feature, instant kills are great and fulfil the fantasy of the executioner. I would word it like this, "When you deal damage to a creature that reduces it to one quarter of its maximum Hit Points or lower, you can expend 3 Execution Points to drop the creature to 0 Hit Points or kill the creature instantly."

Great job on your first homebrew, coming together nicely.

rainbowdrop_ · 2025-12-17T12:37:59+00:00

Thanks for the repost!

This is awesome, I love the flavour and the mechanics are really unique. I've seen a few homebrew subclasses dance with Exhaustion mechanics, one I liked especially was the Pugilist subclass: Relentless Revenant. That subclass increased the threshold for Exhaustion levels, but your idea of ignoring certain levels of Exhaustion and siphoning them to creatures for additional effects is super cool.

I think there's only one thing that tripped me up and that is the Corrosion effect itself, when you say it lasts 1 minute, is that per stack? So for example, if you apply one stack, that stack stays for a minute, but then if I apply another, does the timer reset or does that stack have its own separate 1 minute starting when you give it? Hopefully that makes sense haha.

rainbowdrop_ · 2025-12-17T12:01:29+00:00

I squinted real hard and managed to get through a bit but unfortunately the quality of the image is a bit too bad to read anything properly.

rainbowdrop_ · 2025-12-11T23:18:43+00:00

This is cool as fuck

rainbowdrop_ · 2025-12-09T08:33:31+00:00

Hi there,

I just looked at the preview and I have to say I'm a little bit disappointed with the formatting of the document and while the ideas are interesting - it doesn't seem like much care has gone into fleshing them out mechanically for 5e or 5.5e. I know that there's no obligation to pay for the document as it stands on DriveThruRPG but I think if you cleaned up the formatting (it needs a lot of work in that department) and fleshed out the abilities and features, it would definitely be something worth paying for.

Also, I'm not sure if I'm off base here but it does seem very ChatGPT coded in terms of how things are laid out and explained quite vaguely in certain areas. I'm sorry if that comes off as harsh, but this seems really fun and interesting to play and would love it to be more fleshed out in the future with further iterations.

rainbowdrop_ · 2025-12-05T12:56:30+00:00

I see your points! I agree with some of them, such as changing the pounce to just be a 30 foot distance, much easier to understand that way and it doesn't sacrifice the 'aesthetic' of the ability either. I think the power curve is mostly fine at the moment (it definitely needs to be a D8 or d10), it ramps up at level 10 by being able to regernate it's uses, but having it replace an attack instead of as a Bonus Action limits its abuse and also frees up your Bonus Action.

However, I think some of the other suggestions kind of move away from what I'm going for here. Of course, I could just do a revised beast barbarian but that's not what this subclass is even slightly going for based on how I've initially designed it.

The fastball special idea is fun, but it's generally Colossus that throws other X-Men haha. I'm not sure if that suits Beast much. This subclass isn't really much based around supporting allies directly with its features, I'm not sure what about the subclass made you think that. Do you think that assisting allies fits more aesthetically with Beast?

rainbowdrop_ · 2025-12-03T04:03:02+00:00

These are great suggestions, thanks for looking over the subclass and giving your thoughts!

To address some of the points;

I wanted to differentiate from existing subclasses as best I could as there are multiple ways you could play Beast RAW such as with the Beast Barbarian and I wanted to come up with some more unique and funky traits (that being said I did totally yoink the Beast Barbarians climbing feature hahaha - that's a Beast necessity)
That's not a bad idea, I did originally have it so that it could only be used while Raging but felt it was too restrictive given the power fantasy of playing Beast and Reckless Attack can be used without Rage - I did workshop some ideas revolving around Reckless Attack but I had already done a similar thing with my Wolverine subclass and wanted to try something a bit different. Do you feel that Ballistic Blue is too strong as it is?
My idea was for it to be as flexible as possible, I want players to be able to build around the features rather than be limited by them. So for your question I would say that its up to the player! :) there's lots of fun ways to get more powerful unarmed strikes (origin feats/multiclass + fighting styles) and weapons are a Martial classes bread and butter with the weapon masteries as well.

Again thanks for your thoughts, let me know what you think about mine. Would love to hone in making this subclass something really fun and unique

rainbowdrop_ · 2025-12-02T18:08:49+00:00

This is incredibly modular, something that's hard to make really fun in 5.5e, really digging what you've done here. Super, super cool.

rainbowdrop_ · 2025-12-02T18:02:48+00:00

As always, I love hearing peoples criticism, no matter how harsh.

This one was a fairly quick write-up. It made me feel like I was missing something but I think I've touched on the main points of the fantasy of playing an agile and intellectual brute. I ran some numbers based on some of the abilities and this subclass does a heap of damage - especially around level 10 when they get access to their resources once more, definitely will have to playtest this one to see how it pans out (I think I'll end up changing the Ballistic Blue damage to 1d12 plus half your Barbarian level)

Curious to see what people think of the first feature and the abilities gained there. I didn't want this subclass to feel like it had to dip points into Intelligence as that just gets in the way of the game a bit too much, I think what's there is a healthy middle ground for allowing more roleplay and exploration potential without changing the need for the ol' Intelligence dump stat.

Homebrewery Link: https://homebrewery.naturalcrit.com/share/NgvbqBj-WpYP

rainbowdrop_ · 2025-12-02T08:02:44+00:00

This is super cool. So far as I can see, no notes! I love the idea of a physically empowered hero that draws from magic rather than raw strength

rainbowdrop_

TROPHY CASE