Talk:Synergist (5e Class)

Please tell me if there are any revisions or additions that need to be made to make a more balanced class out of the Synergist. Playtesting is always encouraged, and any flaws in the mechanics are fair game for discussion.

Just regarding images, if you are linking to an image under copyright, please link to a version on the copyright holder's own page, and also attribute the artist. Marasmusine (talk) 01:19, 10 August 2016 (MDT)

The class looks amazing and I can't wait to find a campaign to playtest it. That said, there are some immediate balance issues I see in general, but specifically with the fortifier. Fortifier's armor pack has no duration, and is really lackluster in terms of interactivity + interesting power compared to Saboteur's Brand and Supercharger's enchant. Enchant blade also has no duration, even though it says temporarily. It also has no use limit, which could imply a permanent 1d6 damage increase of any element (already strong) but this gets even stronger in that Necrotic and Radiant damage are included, two fairly rare damage types.

Back to Fortifier, a potential level 3 ability would be if someone is the target of a level 1 spell or higher, they will be able to use their reaction to add 1d4 to their AC for a single attack. Its more interactive than a flat +1 and I would say it matches the power of the other two subclasses.

Sword of Premise says it must recharge every 24 hours, is that using the 3 spell slots? 3 lost slots for a +1 sword with 1d8 additional damage is going to be very underwhelming to players. It also feels like an out of place ability for the protection tree. If it is a sword of promise, maybe the player must declare that they will do something, and upon completion of that it will get stronger ("I will not let anyone drop to 0 health today" for example) if the promise thing is just flair, then maybe tie it's power to protecting and damage mitigation. Things like it does its 1d8 damage bonus if someone takes damage near you, or if the intention is that the Synergist gives the sword to another player, maybe the synergist can pre-infuse 3 spells into it that can be cast by the player (which could be open up a lot of cool RP solutions).

Natural Armor is like Armor pack, lack luster for its tier, Fortifier might benefit from having an unarmored AC ability earlier and having that get shared with Aura of protection. I think it would be cool to have another Aura option here, or perhaps something like being able to create barriers to control movement or protect people.

Finally, I would say that it would be good if Auras were cast as bonus actions and didn't require spell slots to be expended. Regeneration is decent, although not at the expense of an 8th spell slot ( Healing spirit is the same effect, same duration and if cast at 8th level is 6d6 per round). Aura's could be reactionary and used in conjunction with the fight to suit the groups needs but not completely turn the tides. Supremacy for example only adds about 15-25 damage a round, which is okay, but not particularly strong for a 9th level. Maybe have an Aura of Haste, which could allow players to double attack and move faster each round. Or an Aura of Repulsion that makes enemies unable to make attacks of opportunity within it and slows their movement.

Spells prepared and "known" spells

There's a problem with this, as the class starts with 1+1 spells known, it doesn't make sense that it could be able to prepare more than that amount of spells, that's why I don't understand why can it prepare spells, yet only knows 2, which means it can only prepare 2, wasting the other(if you got more than +1 in charisma lol) spaces for spells, this is something that in my opinion must be corrected, or if not, well, you could just say the class gets starts preparing any amount of spells from it's list, level+spellcasting mod, AND 1 spell from bard, AND 1 from cleric, this speaking in a level 1 scenario which are usually the most common there are.

By the way, I'm a nobody, nor an expert, just someone who played this, or tried to as I was confused by how it would work, I would appreciate quick response on this matter, thanks.