Talk:Battle Fiend (5e Subclass)

I'm concerned that this martial archetype is still too powerful, even after the recent edit that reduced the page's power level. Comparing the Fiendish Force feature to the similar Brute Force feature of the brute from Unearthed Arcana, the battle fiend's damage boost increases a lot faster than the brute's. The brute only gets +d6 once it reaches level 10, while the battle fiend has had +d6 since level 7, and that's about to increase to +d8. The brute's damage boost caps out at +d10, while the battle fiend has almost twice that at +d20. The brute also gets the damage increase as its only feature, while the battle fiend also gets Relentless Endurance, which is also kind of a strong feature. I have no problem with the Fiendish Critical feature since it mirrors the champion's enhanced critical. The concept behind Fiends Deal is interesting; to my knowledge there is no fighter archetype that gets any sort of pet/companion, but I do not like the way it is executed here. For starters, in 5th edition, an incubus and a succubus are the same creature. I am also very concerned that the damage increase to the companion's attacks as the battle fiend levels further could lead to ridiculous damage numbers, especially in conjunction with the Fiendish Force feature. Also, you gain the feature at level 10, but it gets a power boost at level 8, which doesn't seem quite right. Fiendish Survivor is just outright a better version of the champion's Survivor ability at a lower level, and allows the battle fiend to effectively recover to full HP between every fight, which breaks the hit die economy. The chain attack seems like it could allow the battle fiend to do too much damage in a single action, though I suppose it's not too out of line with stuff like meteor swarm.

TL;DR the main issues I take with the page are the damage increase per attack, that there are two powerful features both at level 3, and the power of the companion. I recommend nerfing Fiendish Force to be in line with the brute's Brute Force and removing or nerfing the damage scaling on the companion's attacks. — Geodude (talk | contribs | email)‎‎ . . 16:59, 11 April 2019 (MDT)

I've been asked to give this a second pass. The minor tweaks to Fiends Deal and Survivor aren't enough to bring this to a reasonable power level in my eyes; though reducing the bonus damage to be in line with the brute's definitely helps, my concerns remain regarding the other class feature gained at that level, when the brute gets the damage increase as its only 3rd-level class feature. Fiends Deal's damage increase still makes the companion too powerful in my opinion, especially with the Babau, which has Multiattack. This still needs work before it's at a point where I'd be comfortable allowing it in my game. — Geodude (talk | contribs | email)‎‎ . . 20:00, 14 May 2019 (MDT)