User:Guy/5e Class Reviews

in which I brutally, carelessly, and impatiently review the first 10 levels of random "5e Non-spellcasting Classes"

let's see what parts of them I could steal for my own awful takes on classes

Star Rating

✮✰✰✰✰ - Reading this hurts. I probably skimmed most of it as a result.
✮✮✰✰✰ - I can read most of the traits without feeling bad but there's not much here I'd want to revisit.
✮✮✮✰✰ - Seems functional but bland; or sporadic interesting ideas amongst flaws.
✮✮✮✮✰ - A-tier. Several good ideas worth stealing. Maybe balanced, but I didn't dedicate enough time to gauging that.
✮✮✮✮✮ - I would want use it without changes. To be fair several official classes don't even meet this bar.

Absolute Healer

✮✮✰✰✰

Simple weapons and no offensive abilities. This thing is here ENTIRELY to restore hit points and support.

Seems like an underpowered paladin. It can Lay on Hands at a similar rate, and can trade some LoH hp for three or four very specific spells. There are some supportive features but almost everything it can do is only responding after your party takes damage, and isn't as strong in that role as a dedicated cleric, paladin, or arguably even bard would be. Surprisingly underpowered. Subclasses help but not enough.

Using "LoH pool" for more stuff in a paladin/champion class is an idea. Nothing else I'd want to pick up personally.

Alcoholic

✮✮✰✰✰

The more time passes, the more I personally dislike this trope... More of a dex fighter than a monk though.

Bonus points for Alcohol's Respite unique take. It's almost like making your own fighting style, picking 2 benefits and 2 drawbacks. They don't strike as well balanced unfortunately. Feels redundant with bog-standard fighting styles at 2nd level.

Molotov seems like it should be an option, not a core feature. Same with "Drinking Buddies," which at 6th level feels a bit late for advantage on Cha checks, but maybe that's nitpicking. Even this gets Extra Attack.

Subclasses are disappointingly "be like a fighter" or "be like a monk." This should have been a subclass, frankly.

Amalgam

✮✮✮✮✰

HUGE points for originality. Possibly the most unique, versatile, fun-seeming core concept I've seen after ~25 reviews. Balance and formatting both could use a lot of work, but I'm mostly hunting for ideas here. Love that there's a bit of a twist on the standard Extra Attack which ties to the class's unique features. Still bogged down by boring features like "attacks count as magical."

But still, overall, I personally wouldn't want to dedicate a whole class to this idea. Seems perfect as a subclass for something like PF Alchemist, or a biological Artificer, or some other half-caster maybe.

Anti-Mage

✮✮✰✰✰

All noteworthy features do nothing unless you're fighting a spellcaster. Which outside of rare adventures is definitely going to be a minority of the time — probably a tiny minority of the time.

Archer

✮✮✰✰✰

An underpowered dex-fighter that can for some reason get expertise in one skill from Acrobatics, Sleight of Hand, and Stealth.

Gets trick shots, which pretty much just seem to be what I call techniques. But for some reason only gets four specific trick shots and never any more. To be fair they're pretty powerful, but not really enough to make up for lacking things like Action Surge. Also their uses are tied to Wisdom modifier (I guess to encourage Perception? A neat idea I suppose since this class is otherwise god-stat-only).

5th level Extra Attack. 11th level volley, doesn't seem like enough of a power boost but the token feature any bow-focused class would need at some point.

Subclasses are a weird mix mostly bowered from other classes, like Uncanny Dodge or a boost to Con saves for some reason. Nomad tries to be a skill monkey.

Everything here strikes me as dex fighter. It's a surprisingly common trend I've seen. Fighter works literally just as well as this class at being an "archer" archetype (if you really don't want magic powers, which is I assume why they don't want to be a ranger). Yet for some reason a lot of players aren't satisfied with that. I don't understand it. Maybe make a subclass called "archer" just to satisfy them, idk.

Archer, Variant

✮✮✰✰✰

Based on archer, uses almost the same volley & similar trick shots. Uses a poorly-balanced ki system. Everything here seems like it should be a fighter/ranger subclass at most.

"Bird Trainer" is the only unique subclass but it doesn't seem like it belongs here. More like a ranger subclass since they can get a companion and do everything this class is trying to do anyway.

Archer, 2nd Variant

✮✰✰✰✰

Mostly the same as the last two but it gets Quick Fire at 2nd level which is just... bad.

"Search as a free action" is almost neat. But honestly just take fighter or ranger, you'll get a more fun (and balanced) take on everything here. Again.

Armed Infantry

✮✮✮✰✰

"Weapon specialist" trope fore firearms.

One of few classes that doesn't openly strike as overpowered, assuming it's used in a modern setting. Even if you account for the weirdly anachronistic nature of this class, the features are mostly bland. Only feature at 1st level is literally just making ammunition, in overly meticulous detail that might not even be useful depending how much bullets cost otherwise. Later on it gets ideas that are a little more interesting, but still of questionable balance.

Bandit

✮✰✰✰✰

A poorly-executed idea that is literally just "I do more damage" and "I can without fail smell EXACTLY where the treasure is." Seems almost deliberately anti-fun. Weird magic powers around sucking in treasure make no sense, and feel almost intentionally bad.

Subclasses like brigand, pirate, marauder are also not up to snuff imo.

Some of these ideas are "interesting" but the execution leaves much to be desired. I could see a fighting style or fighter/ranger subclass derived from this page being fun, maybe? Potential.

Barbarian, "Old School" Variant

✮✮✮✰✰

Intentionally minimalist. I'd personally take a bare-bones barb in a different direction.

I never really liked the "you can't read or write" thing from older editions.

"Smell Magic" is interesting to me but that's about it.

Not awful at what it tries to be, but not much to pilfer here.

Barebones

✮✰✰✰✰

"Monk but tough" trope.

Wording is often bad. Some of the feature names give me pain, personally. Strikes as poorly balanced across the board. Has stances/styles. Seems hyper-focused on specific manga tropes or edginess that would seem really cool to someone, but unfortunately not to me. Nothing to pick up here. Moving on.

Battle Hedgehog

✮✮✰✰✰

"Weapon specialist" trope.

In this case, spiky armor. It's a unique one I'll give 'em that.

But that's about where my praise ends. It's another bland/underpowered Extra Attack class in practice. For some reason forces you to make monk-like strikes with spiked gauntlets.

Scaling AC bonus at 5th/11th/17th level is a notable idea for a defensive class. In an alternative world where fighting styles scale with level I could see Armored Defense (or whatever) doing that.

"Pokey Defense" is the only truly unique thing here and it isn't exactly that useful. Give it to a magic item.

Should be a magic item or (at most) a fighter subclass.

Bear Knight

✮✮✮✮✰

Barbearian.

"Transform into a bear using bear hide" sounds cool. But in practice the main feature strikes as a less-finely balanced version of a barbarian's rage.

Some of the side features like "moving as a bear would" to climb and gain better senses are the best parts.

I absolutely like parts of this class, especially the more aesthetic ones. (Magical honey spellcasting subclass tho.) I'd like to use pieces of it as options for my dumb "surge" class idea, so basically A-tier on this grading scale.

Behemoth

✮✮✰✰✰

"What barbarians and fighters wish they could be," huh.

Unfortunately it's pretty boring for such a lofty summary. Reaction to gain resistance to one attack per rest is blander than I'd like and that's all it has unique from those other classes until 5th level, where it gets a feature that just... deals more damage per hit, full stop. Boring yet still exploitable in a bad way.

"Weapons count as magical for overcoming magic resi--" and I don't even want to finish this sentence. Subclasses are similarly boring.

In terms of pure damage balance it's probably fine enough but idk why anyone would want to play this.

Black Knight

✮✮✮✰✰

"Magic item is my class" trope

In this case cursed black armor that "becomes the true vessel of your soul, as your body dies inside it." Etc. Not what I hoped from the name.

The myriad of restrictive 1st level features seem like they should belong to a race, not a class. Wouldn't be a bad race option if tweaked just right ngl.

"Armor Excess" is an arguably overpowered amount of extra hit points that restore on short rests (or if that isn't fast enough, expend hit dice to get them back... apparently without an action). Plus bonus AC on top of that.

Forms weapons, standard fighting styles, standard extra attack, omits Dex (Stealth) disadvantage, and that's basically it for the levels I care about. All kinda bland there.

The ability to "absorb" magic armor (negating the realest limitation here apparently). Kinda neat, maybe an excuse to balance it in a party loaded with magic items.

Shielder subclass lets this invincible party member actually protect allies, something these defensive classes often forget to even attempt to do. Standard third-caster subclass, standard more-sturdier subclass.

Blink Mage

✮✮✮✰✰

Misty step, the class.

It deals more damage when it attacks after a misty step. That's literally everything. Oh it also gets Extra Attack of course.

Starts to get some options at 6th level but my eyes have glazed over.

Could be neat as a martial subclass, maybe monk so ki can fuel the misty steps, but definitely not an entire class on its own.

Blood Caster

✮✰✰✰✰

"Caster-but-blood" trope.

"You are what those pesky Wizards are striving to be." Starting to notice a trope in these summaries.

Literally just a (bad) wizard except you expend hp to cast spells, or from your "blood fountain" pool (magic point equivalent but doesn't seem balanced). Not gonna bother detailing the problems here.

Blood Caster, Variant

✮✰✰✰✰

"Caster-but-blood" trope.

Tries significantly harder but has the same fundamental flaws. Bad gramma/phrasing in several features doesn't inspire confidence.

While I'm generally not interested in high levels, this one draws on warlock's Mystic Arcanum for spells above 5th level. It's much closer to being balanced, thanks to that. But there's still nothing here I'd want to use really.

Maybe in a game where hp practically "auto refills" after combat, an hp-casting warlock would make more sense.

Blood Mage

✮✮✰✰✰

"Caster-but-blood" trope.

A warlock, except you use Hit Dice to cast spells (not hp). I appreciate HD for the bloodmagic-trope for several reasons. "Blood Armor" is neat, and recovering all HD after a long rest is good for a class like this.

But overall I feel like "can spend HD to cast more spells" would be a good Invocation. I don't see the justification for a whole class. Nothing else under 10th level popped out to me.

Bodyguard

✮✮✰✰✰

"Defender" trope.

Underdelivers imo. "Defended Target" seems like it's trying to be the class's core feature, but it should do more than +2 AC and the weird multi-target effect, especially considering it eats an action.

Some of the minor abilities are neat but this class feels like it doesn't live up to its name. Gets battle master techniques.

"Watcher" subclass is notable, usually the Perceptive trope is on expert-types but it works much better here actually; execution isn't particularly notable though. Other subclasses don't stand out to me. At this point it feels like quarter-caster should just be a universal subclass somehow.

I feel like the main shtick could work better as just a fighting style.

Bone Breaker

✮✮✮✰✰

"Monk but tough" trope.

Even has renamed ki. Renames flurry of strikes to "combo sequences". Etc.

Do not like the ability to force Exhaustion as a 1st level feature. Seems to have a lot of features like this that I don't vibe with. Using Con heavily is good for this trope tho at least, I'll give it that.

To be fair monk does this thing where it gets fixed features that feel random, which I dislike. (Imagine if as a caster you couldn't pick your spells, the game just decided which ones you'd get.) This class does something similar at points. Having actual ki techniques to choose from is good, wish the OG monk did that.

It doesn't jump out as horribly balanced or poorly designed for what it intends to be, though if I would tweak it personally. It has many ki-moves which could be used to inspire technique ideas.

Ngl monk-but-tough is a fun trope, probably gonna see a lot of it.

Calling subclasses "styles"... almost makes me wonder if you could swap between styles over downtime or something, in another class.

Bounty Hunter

✮✮✰✰✰

Gunsmithing ranger.

Can Search as a bonus action, and Searching a creature (...successfully?) gives an effect like hunter's mark.

That's about it, nothing else below 10th level is unique and worth mentioning. Should've been a ranger subclass at most, or even just a fighting style. A shame because there's a lot of unique little things you could do with the "bounty hunter" idea I'd imagine. Dunno why getting better at knot-tying is a 10th level feature but that's some neat flavor for example.

Boxer

✮✮✮✮✰

"Monk but tough" again though this actually seems relatively well put together. The balance is honestly not there but that's not what I'm mainly judging these classes on anyway.

Considering its ki-equivalent, "rhythm" (Weird name) is only about combat, I personally like that it recharges with each initiative.

There's frankly a lot of good ideas here and for a "my job is to use the Attack action" class it seems like it would be relatively fun to use.

It suffers an issue I have with most ki/technique classes, where the amount of ki something is worth feels loose to me compared to something like spell slots—and too many of the techniques are set in stone, instead of something you can choose from. That's par for the course, though.

Bread Chef

✮✮✰✰✰

With a name like that I had to click on it. There's honestly a lot of creative and silly ideas here, but almost all of them are poorly executed. Some are hard to even understand. A bit funny that even a class as out there as this one still gets Extra Attack. Formatting leaves much to be desired too.

I'm not sure there's much here to pilfer that you can't get from the name and the idea of using bread as weapons/spells/familiars.

Pretty much only above 1-star due to sheer creativity. Plus it reminds me of Pizza Tower.

Brute

✮✮✰✰✰

Main mechanic seems to be taking damage to gain "fury" to use techniques. Self-balances somewhat by decreasing fury if a turn is ended without attacking or taking damage. Interesting. I feel like in practice this might be a bit tedious but it could be tweaked; for example simply gaining 1 fury whenever you take 7 or more damage at once, rather than tracking exact hp.

Organization feels sloppy.

Suffers a fundamental flaw imo of needing to take damage to do anything special. Maybe it could be alleviated by having other ways of getting fury (aside walking into a wizard's fireball) but overall this feels like it should be an option and not the fundamental function of the class. Many of its features are just copied from barbarian anyway, especially at later levels, making me think this would be best as a barb subclass/alt.

(Thought this was gonna be about the Brute monster trait.)

Points for a unique idea, but I feel like it should be a fighting style at most.

Bullet Saint

✮✮✰✰✰

"Weapon specialist" trope for firearms. Saint vibe seems to be mostly aesthetic.

Gets Volley early through "Bullet Storm," interesting for being unlimited at 2nd level; strikes as almost balanced if you ignore the last line about targeting the same creature multiple times. Bland weapon repair, Extra Attack & overcoming damage resists. Honestly pretty disappointed in the core features; everything here could slot into a "weapon specialist fighter" subclass, mechanically. The Saint trope doesn't come up as anything but name below 10th level.

A little disappointed there isn't a bog-standard third-caster subclass, this class seems tailor-made for it. There is one that has spells implemented in a weird but unique way, but the other subclasses seem forgettable (kudos for 4 tho and they don't strike as bad).

Titles of the class/subclasses/features are the highlight here. Implementation of the ideas seems mostly okay but not as unique/fun as I hoped. Imagine smiting with a gun.

Cannibal

✮✮✮✮✰

Feels like it should be renamed. Maybe "butcher"... Points for a unique (albeit gross) concept in Hunger/Satisfaction.

Suffers the fundamental flaw of "I gain power by dealing damage" but at least attempts to balance that by limiting it to humanoids.

Points of balance seems wonky. At first impression I disliked the reliance on slashing damage and specific weapons but no, that's actually pretty great for this theme. Still leaves a bit to be desired in the execution.

Higher features drop off a bit. "Ghoul" and "Serial Killer" subclass are honestly good flavor if you want to be this macabre.

I want to use several ideas here, but probably as a subclass or curse ("Insatiable Hunger") instead of class. Still, that makes it pretty good by my harsh standards.

Card Dealer

✮✮✮✰✰

"Battlemaster but with cards"

Personally I want to replace two paragraphs with "you can treat a playing card set as up to 50 darts, with each card effectively a dart while you wield it." Or something like that.

I feel similar about simplifying Dealer's Gambit and its description(s); sensing a trend of complexity here. It effectively functions as BM Maneuvers, but with card aesthetics. Choosing maneuvers is good, but the maneuvers individually aren't as useful/polished as I'd like.

Nitpicky things. Really wish there would be a standard DC for some of the maneuvers instead of "DC 13 + the number of the gambit die rolled to add to this effect." Maybe that's a personal preference though.

One magic subclass, one combat-learning subclass. Both seem fairly decent. "Wild Card" is a neat idea, gaining a benefit on a nat 1 attack roll.

Not the best cardslinger class I've ever seen but there's ideas here.

Card Dealer, Variant

✮✮✰✰✰

Main difference (in the levels I care about) seems to be sloppily-implemented elemental cards at 2nd level.

Subclasses are completely different, and there's more of them, but they immediately strike as imbalanced in terms of mechanics. (Drawing a hand for a random effect is neat tho. Snake Eyes to gain class-fuel is also neat. The Wild Card subclass is just pain to read tho.)