Talk:Earth Bender (5e Class)

24-10-2018 Small re-work and fixes on Earth Bender[1]

Changes I've made so far and why

-Made Emergency Armor usable more than just once a day: ability seemed underwhelming and straight out useless in comparison to other Benders, especially Fire.

-Corrected many mistakes including spells amount: Metal Bending said that on 3rd level you get 3 spells, 6th level 5 spells, 4th level (??) 7 spells and 17th level 6 spells (??). Corrected to how it should be based on other benders and subelements:

1/2/3/4 cantrips, 3/5/7/10 spells on 3/6/11/17 level.

-Added two columns to the table: Spells/Cantrips and Spell Level. The way in which it was written before was just too hard to figure out what to take and on what level, very confusing.

-Fixed text formatting in few places so the abilities are easier to read

-Changed Warhammer to Bludgeoning weapons. There is no reason why class should be limited to that one specific weapon and nothing else.

-Added a clarification stating that bonus spells and/or cantrips granted by class and subelements do not count against the amount of known in total as shown in the table.

What I still plan to do and why

-Rework spells

-Spell amount is not consistent across classes and subelements

-Some spells and cantrips are not balanced properly. Example being cantrip Stone Fist. Ridiculously overpowered if you ask me.

-Completely get rid of spells. Benders are not casters. I will basically rename Spells to Bending Techniques or something like that. In my opinion Bending is an extraordinary ability and should not be disabled by anti-magic fields and such. Still thinking about it.

Re-balance some abilities

There's a lot to do, but great example is True Earthen Armor; Metal Variant. +15 is a bit too much, it should give different benefits. Full plate armor +3 along with the shield +3 would give player 26AC total, while this ability gives AT LEAST 25AC and that's if the PC's Con and Dex are at 10(+0). If both are at 20(+5) then it's 35AC. I fail to see how and why a makeshift armor is so much better than legendary equipment.

-Add a way to recharge Ki Points in a lore-friendly and not OP way. The amount of abilities that cost Ki and the cost itself is a bit overwheling, sometimes making the class feel extremely limited.

I plan to do it in a balanced way so the class(es) are fair and on pair with the official content to best of my ability. Earth Bender is almost finished and I will publish all changes soon. I will also look at rest of the Benders at a later time. I want each of them them to be consistent but also unique in comparison to one another.

Changes and reasoning behind them

Patient Defense

This change originated in getting rid of Dex to attack/damage bonus. It didn't sit right with the class as the Earth Benders are supposed to be strong and sturdy. Also leaving it as Dex + Con when Dex served both defense and offense, while being also the spell casting abilities was just too much, had to spread it out a bit.

Jing Die and Emergency Armor

Emergency Armor was just underwhelming to a whole new level, this ability was straight out useless, that's why instead of being able to only use it once per long rest I made it the way it is now.

Bending Ability

That was just some weird wongo-bongo, mixing two abilities into one. At first I made Constitution the "spellcasting" ability but as you can imagine it was way too strong, too good and too convenient. Wisdom makes sense and keeps the balance.

First Features: Earthen Armor

With no limits as it was at first this ability was just ridiculously powerful. You could basically become untouchable for melee and ranged attacks.

Seismic Senses

Progression of this ability speaks for itself and I'm rather happy with it.

Unyielding

This ability is inspired by Fire Bender, as that was the only class out of this bunch that could regain Ki Points, which I also renamed to Chi Points, because reasons and lore friendliness. Considered how much utility this class has I wanted to give it some way of regaining Chi Points during long and dangerous fights. During playtesting this ability proved to be really good but also random, as it triggers automatically when you reach 50% hp and have at least 1 Chi missing. It's unreliable, but it's there and even +1 is better than none at all.

Reinforced Strike

Bypassing magic resistance and immunities out of nowhere seemed weird, and out of place, leave empowering melee strikes with Ki to monk. Also one more reason to utilize Weapon Enhancement.

Redirect Earth

This ability just makes sense in my eyes. It's not too strong but it has it's uses and reasonable cost. It's nothing more than adding flexibility to the class.

Shaky Landing

Yo, I did some math. Previously this ability could deal 2000 damage or 1000 if enemy made his save. And it was for 4th level. What. The. Heck???

Sturdy Spirit, Solid Soul and Soles

I don't even remember what was there originally, something weird like immunity to fear and ability to at will end being incapacitated. I still feel like what I've made is a bit too much.

Elemental weapon and Armor

I wanted to give all elements something different than the Earth Element, not just make them plain better, I wanted to leave a reason to still pick up good ol' earth, you know? Also old version was overpowered, with range, crits, damage and stuff.

Rock Strengthening

Same story as with Shaky Landing, some RIDICULOUS combos were possible, insane amounts of damage for very low Chi cost.

Next step is working on the techniques, I have a bunch of them prepared and each will have it's own page. I also plan on working on other benders, all of them will have Wisdom as bending ability to keep the balance between them.

Ask questions, make suggestions, I really like this class and I'm currently playing as an Earth Bender in a campaign, at this point seems fairly balanced and not standing out in comparison to the rest of the party.

To All The Editors

I'm about to make some major changes to this class. I'm restoring some of the features and abilities that I had originally written, but I am keeping many of the changes that you all have made. If, after you read through all of the changes, you don't agree with my view of the class, I am open to discussing possible changes. I'll be very open to purely balance-based changes, but there are a few elements that I will stand my ground on (pun somewhat intended) in relation to certain features. If we still can't reach an understanding, please make a class variant instead of editing this class.

Although I do appreciate the attention this class has gotten and the balance adjustments that have been given to it, I would have appreciated a message sent my way letting me know you wanted to make these changes. Just a note for future desires to edit. Again, I am very appreciative of the improvements you all have given this class.

WiserVisor (talk) 21:44, 14 February 2019 (MST)

avatar kyoshi was an airbender avatar. she just used earthbending to move kyoshi esland.