Talk:Combat Butler (5e Class)

KrimsonLord: Yeah, I have been reading over this class, and a lot of the later features seem to be redundant and don't add as much as they probably should, and the early features are just worded kinda poorly. In addition, things like the 7th level improvement to the Efficient Servant feature are either overpowered, or poorly worded.

Could you post here the examples of features you think are poorly worded? Anastacio (talk) 05:55, 1 October 2023 (MDT)

Of course. I was pretty tired and didn't go deeper, but its not just poor wording, its redundant and seemingly poorly thought out features as well. KrimsonLord (talk) 18:08, 1, October 2023 (MST)

Efficient Servant: "Starting at 1st level, you can obey commands with diligence and effectiveness. An allied creature within 60 feet of you can use a bonus action to give you a command. This command can be to make a single attack or take the Help action which you can obey the command as a reaction on your turn."

The first sentence is fine, giving a little bit of flavor, but the second sentence should probably be worded as follows:

"As a bonus action on their turn, an allied creature within 60 feet of you can command you to take the help action or to make a single attack against a creature of their choosing within range. You can then obey the command as a reaction."

This part of the feature seems pretty balanced for a level 1 feature IMO, allowing you to use the useless bonus action of many characters to get just a little bit more damage in or to give a boost to another character's skills.

"Starting at 7th level, you can take the actions Attack, Cast a Spell, Dash, Dodge or Hide as a bonus action."

This just plain isn't right. Having a full attack action, casting a spell (with no stated limitations), dashing, dodging, or hiding, all as a bonus action on your turn is too much. More importantly, it doesn't fit with the actual rest of the feature. I feel like it would be better balanced, and more easily understood, if it were something more like...

"Starting at 7th level, allied creatures within 60 feet of you can give you new commands. As a bonus action on their turn, they can now command you to take the dodge action, hide action, or to move up to your movement speed in a direction of their choosing, in addition to the commands already available."

This adds the things they wanted, while also removing cast a spell (which didn't tell you what kind of spell, not that combat butler even has any spells), as well as a full attack action (which honestly should be just for the melee specialized academy of blades).

Just tied to this one feature are a few things that are redundant, or would serve as much better locations to add new commands or command changes. For example Majordomo, the 20th level feature.

Majordomo: "When you reach 20th level, if you roll initiative and have no uses of your Efficient Servant feature, you gain one use."

Just... the efficient servant feature doesn't have limited uses. It just requires a bonus action from a friend, and a reaction from you. This is just useless, and could be better replaced with something cooler. What sorta super servant would you be if you couldn't appear whereever your master is, or always have what they need at hand, useful abilities that could use some extra uses but aren't actually part of the class.

"In addition, you can designate one creature to serve after finishing a rest. Doing so allow you to Dash towards that creature on each of your turns by using your reaction. You must end your movement closer to that creature than you started. Also, you can use the Help action towards that creature as a bonus action."

This is also useless. First off, practically everything in this class uses your reaction, so like, why wouldn't your master just command you to dash towards them. ALSO, the dash action doesn't actually allow you to move, just gives more movement last I checked. Additionally, the ability to help as a bonus action... also redundant and useless when you've been doing something SLIGHTLY worse since level 1.

I dont even know what I would replace this with yet, but there are options. Imma just make a variant since I don't wanna change the class here without the creator's knowing.

House Doctor

This is great at first, but at the end it doesn't tell you how far you can run, or how close you need to be. Also, telling you that you can use a use of the feature to cure a poison or disease should just be something labeled alongside the healing something like, "you can run up to your movement speed towards it and, if you end your movement within 5 feet of the designated creature, either cure a single poison or disease afflicting it, or restore a number of hit points equal to your Dexterity modifier plus your Combat Butler level." Having it say alternatively is fine, but like, it doesn't flow as well as it could. PLUS you only actually get 1 use of this feature, so the fact you can expend a use is just... no. Oh, on top of that include the improper way of referring to short and long rests and regaining uses, and its just gonna confuse some poor player and DM.

Always Prepared

This feature just, doesn't give the details you need in as smooth a way as it could. And at the end, the paragraph talking about uses of the feature just... doesn't work. You can only use it once starting at 13th level? Unneeded info that just confuses things even more than the fact they don't tell you properly that you can use it after finishing a long rest.

Combat Ready

This feature is actually pretty okay, though it again requires you to use your reaction to attack, something you were already doing? And why would you need to make an opportunity attack specifically? The only part I have no qualms with is the final part, allowing you to give the benefits of dodge to an ally within 5 feet is pretty great, and works much better (balance wise I mean) when you need someone to spend a bonus action, and you to spend a reaction to do so.

Living Shield

THis feature seems pretty okay as well, but again uses your reaction. This would be fine, especially since this is definitely a more spontaneous use reaction, but like, its looking like the combat butler needs a second reaction (preferably one used only for combat butler features).

These are just the first few, and last, features, but already they clash with each other, or are poorly written. I can of course give more examples if desired.