Talk:Way of the Vampire Slayer (5e Subclass)

Hello again, fellow wikian! When it comes to vampire hunters, monks would be one of the last class I would imagine, until now. I guess I was too prejudiced after all! Here are some comments I would like to make:

• Premise. Correct me if I'm wrong, but are you making a reference to the 3.5rd prestige class Slayer, or Buffy the Vampire Slayer? I have never watched the latter, so I'm not the one to judge, but the sudden introduction of "the Slayer" somewhat confuses me. Perhaps you can elaborate who and what the Slayer is, and why they hunt vampires (and not psionic creatures, if you're referring to the 3.5rd prestige class).

• Portent. A nice supporting feature, somewhat fits to monks as well, but I'm not exactly sure how this relates to vampire-hunting. I must be prejudiced, but when I think of "vampire hunting" my mind directly sprints to ranger's Favored Enemy feature.

• Divine Sense. So basically, you cast a very short and double-ranged version of detect evil and good. Again, if it's about vampire hunting, maybe you can make it passive but limits your senses to vampires, or at least undeads. It's a wonderful feature that grants you a free yet useful 1st-level spell, but personally, if it lasts for about 6 seconds or so, it won't be worth an entire action.

• Vampiric Aspect. "He who fights monsters should see to it that he himself does not become a monster," as Nietzsche said. Nice feature and all, but having advantage on saving throws at a cost of 1 ki might be a bit too powerful, perhaps?

• Slayer's Resilience. Okay, I'm afraid to say this, but passive and limitless self-healing feature is downright discouraged. A round is just a time unit of 6 seconds for combat convenience, so basically this means you regain hit points every 6 seconds. That alone makes clerics and other healers obsolete, and you are basically self-sufficient. I suggest either changing it to temporary hit points (which, thankfully, does not stack) or change it into something entirely else.

In short: A lovely paradigm-shifting archetype, but some features could be improved, and in general, I see some features are rather out-of-place. However, I must say that when this archetype is complete, I just can't wait to have it on my Ravenloft campaign. Vampire-hunting monks... Perhaps one of the, if not the, most awesome vampire hunter I've ever seen since Abaraham Lincoln. --WeirdoWhoever (talk) 13:44, 9 April 2017 (UTC)

Thanks for all the useful feedback! This subclass is based around Buffy the Vampire Slayer, which is why the portent feature is included and why I selected the monk subclass (martial arts already conviniently existed). I do seem to forget to add the limiters to the regeneration in a subclass's initial iteration often - for easy balance I made the feature identical to the Fighter-Champion's. If you have any other suggestions I'd love to hear them- two heads are better than one, after all. (Oh, and The Slayer does refer to Buffy) --‎AngelsAndAarakocra

Oh, so it was a reference to Buffy the Vampire Slayer! What a shame I have never watched the show myself. But if that's the case, I really should take back some of my comments above:

• Reference. Although I've never watched the show myself, but I'm pretty sure that vampires are not the only things Buffy hunt (TV Tropes is a getaway drug, apparently). Forget about my rants on "Why feys and fiends?" above - now it all makes sense.

But still, I think there should be at least a short sentence that introduces who the Slayer is, since some people who have never seen or even heard of Buffy the Vampire Slayer would ask the same thing like I did. You don't have to be explicit on this: A sneaky description that makes sure it's that Summers girl from Sunnydale High would do. (I just did a quick skim through Wikipedia just to make that one line myself, heh.)

Oh, and maybe you can try Copyright Disclaimer template to make sure that you're making a Buffy reference. That way there would be less headscratchers.

• Other Features. I think... I think for now, this is all I can help you. I see the Slayer's Resilience part was a misunderstanding, I don't see why it's not balanced. Other features seem rather nice... So I think that's it for myself.

Maybe some other fellow wikians could help you out. Maybe you can add Request Review template on the page to get more reviews from others. --WeirdoWhoever (talk) 15:03, 9 April 2017 (UTC)

Thanks for the disclaimer suggestion and the other help, and please do tell me how this subclass compares in power to others if you do end up using it in a Ravenloft campaign- I can always make balance changes later.