User:Kydo/Class Builds

The following are major character themes from movies, literature, and video games, which are not represented by the core material in a mechanical way. Each section explains what it is, different forms it has taken in the past, some commentary on the basics of how it would likely work in 5e, and finally a list of reasons why it wasn't included and common problem areas with such classes which would need to be overcome.

Blood Magic.

Blood Magic emerged from video games as an alternative to the standard spellcaster. In most video games, spellcasting is essentially purchased through a currency called MP, (magic points). The way MP works in these games almost mirrors the growth and consumption of HP. So, someone put 2 and 2 together and made a class that puts out powerful spells for cheap, but eats HP instead of MP, forcing them to be careful with their magic.

This is a fairly new thing, and only really got big around 2013 with the release of Dragon Age. Some, like the blood mages of Dragon Age, just convert HP into MP for spellcasting. Others, like Suitengu from the anime Speedgrapher, manipulate the blood itself and use it as a tool or weapon, changing its form and density at will.

5e does not have MP. (In fact, thus far, no edition of D&D has ever had MP in the core rules) So, if you want to represent blood magic in 5e, you're going to need to get creative! The obvious method would be to spend HP to recieve spell slots or metamagic effects. If it is built like a sorcerer, you could spend HP to earn sorcery points. You could also spend HP to cast spells directly, cutting out the spell slot middleman. Instead of literally consuming HP, you could take ranks of exhaustion for particularly strong effects. You could consume HD for spells or spell effects. Finally, you could create class features which consume HP and generate "magical" effects.

I'm pretty sure the main reason they did not include blood magic in the core book is because it endorses and glorifies self-harm in the most literal possible way. They were trying to make the game more accessible, and including such a heavy topic would not have been to their benefit. Blood magic is kind of a new, fad-like trend, with very little literary history or mythological merit, so it really doesn't fit the tone of D&D either. It also reduces character flexibility, because every character of this class MUST be of the persuasion that the benefits of their self-harm justifies itself, despite nobody else feeling the need to go so far. Mechanically, blood magic is extremely risky, no matter how broken OP your magic is, you are GUARANTEED to take damage every time you do something. This can cause such characters to become a burden to the party, either draining healing resources excessively, or saving their powers until absolutely necessary making themselves an inactive observer to the action. If they don't play it safe and waste healing resources, such a character faces a very high chance of random mortality, which is no fun.

If you make one of these classes, avoid healing magic like the plague. If they heal less than the spell cost, it's a waste of time. If they heal more than the spell cost, they have infinite restoration. At most, allow them to do "blood transfusion" healing, transferring HP or HD to their allies from themselves, or taking ranks of exhaustion from their allies into themselves.

The Master.

As far as protagonists go, this is another fairly recent invention. The Master is not really a hero in their own right- rather, they call upon some physical agent of their will to act on their behalf. Whether they call on a single powerful ally, a group of close partners, or a swarm/army of minions, the effect usually winds up being the same- their leadership saves the day through the effort of their servants.

Despite being a pretty new, mostly video game driven trend, this archetypal character has appeared in a wide variety of forms! You, of course, have your standard Summoner, who typically calls on just one powerful being to aide or replace themselves in combat. This powerful being usually grows stronger with the character. Summons are usually not present between combat encounters, and it is rare for it to even be possible to call them for any purpose other than combat. Then you have your makers, the guys who build their agents. These could be golems, robots, clockwork soldiers, gengineered abominations, patchwork zombies, or beings of pure magic. Usually, these agents are semi-permanent. You can keep one, upgrade it over time, possibly even tear it apart and start over from scratch! Then you've got your befrienders, these would be your Pokémon trainers, beastmasters, warchiefs, some necromancers, etc. They aren't given agents, nor can they just make 'em up, they have to befriend, (or enslave) their allies as they encounter them. (The obvious problem here is that your character's personal development is entirely reliant on the DM's campaign plan and whatever mechanic allows you to assimilate NPCs.) And, finally, you have riders, typically in the form of a knight or dragon rider, but a mech pilot may also count if their giant robot also has a mind of its own of sorts.

So far, 5e only has 2 options that grant subordinate NPCs: the beastmaster archetype for rangers, and the knight variant for the noble background. The way 5e has handled NPC companions, (pets, steeds, hirelings, familiars, etc.) has been negligent at best, and just plain lame at worst. If you're going to build a class of this type, you'll either need to do a lot of technical explanation on the ins and outs of player authority over servant autonomy, or fall back on a variant rule to justify its mechanics. (After all, it isn't really an NPC any more if the player is fully playing that character)

I think the primary reason this type of character was so heavily avoided, was because extra PCs as class features are very hard to balance correctly. They don't factor into the EPL formula well at all. Worse, unlike standard gear and class features, allies are mortal- they can be taken from you at a moment's notice and for no reason. Having mechanics for replacing them in that eventuality is necessary. NPCs don't really increase on level either, so an ally who was stronger than you when you were level 5 may be totally useless by the time you're level 10. Additionally, each ally a player controls gives them whole extra turns of play- disproportionate to the other players, turning the rest of the party into observers. On a more philosophical note, such a character isn't much of a hero. They're more like the guy who calls batman, as opposed to being batman himself. It's hard to take someone seriously when their greatest threat is to call their mommy on you.

If you are building one of these character classes, there's a lot of logistics that you need to cover, just to make it work. You need to explain what servants are available and how they are obtained. You need to explain when they are available, as opposed to being trapped in another plane or tiny sphere. You need to explain how many agents you have at your command and how many you can command at once. You need to explain how your agents grow over time or, if they do not, what you must do to augment or replace them. You must explain the boundary of authority for controlling the character. At what point does the DM have more authority over your class feature than you do? You need to explain what happens if your agent is ever killed and how to replace or restore them if they permanently die. You must figure out how to calculate the mechanical advantage of having extra ground coverage, area control, and more actions and turn time than other characters of your level, and keep that advantage on par with other characters of your level. It is very, very complicated to do right.

Time Warp.

The time mage is an uncommon character type, whose biggest media roles have all been Final Fantasy games. (And in those, it's really more of a gravity wizard, as very little time travel is used.) Still though, it's a unique mechanic with a modern media draw, and it needs to be addressed. Time magic is, as you may expect, simply a spell list of time-manipulating effects.

5e does have some effects which would fall under this, but carry different themes. Generally, time magic would focus on spells which:

• Give bonus turns
• Revert the effects of a turn
• Manipulate initiative
• Arbitrarily grant rerolls
• Prevent characters from taking turns or making actions
• Manually alter a character's age
• Actually travel forward or backward in time
• Predict the future (IE: force a predetermined result)
• See the past

The obvious problem with a dedicated time magic class, is that it is entirely passive! On its own, it lacks the capacity to front a decent fight of any sort! As a consequence, they are entirely dependent on their party, incapable of filling any role other than support. What's worse, when filling that support role, they make their allies nearly unstoppable. They mess with the action economy 5e's balance is predicated upon and eliminate the consequences of bad luck or poor strategic decisions. There is no way to effectively counter these effects, or account for them when building encounters, or balance them against other classes. And the worst problem of all, is that a character of such a class would throw a monkey wrench into the flow of combat which would make it complex, confusing, and slow.

On a practical level, time magic only makes sense as a subset of magic in general, like a school of magic, or a sorcerous origin. This allows the caster to still fill other roles,and put up a fight, by using other types of magic. Even then, its most powerful spells, the ones which blatantly reorder initiative order and alter turn availability, are so potent that they should not even be accessible until the character is somewhere in the fourth tier of play- which means things that make perfect sense for a time wizard to do cannot be done until that time wizard is already the master of time travel- which would be disappointing to anyone playing such a class.

Mimic. Duplicates enemy and ally powers. May also shapechange or disguise self May read minds or be telepathic !!! Lacks independent greatness !!! Cannot be prepared against !!! Chardev at the mercy of campaign plan

"Self-Improvement" Mutant Cyborg Self-Enchanting/curse Undead augmentation Tattoos/Runes Permanently modifies their own body, altering powers !!! Glorifies body-modification !!! Selfish

"Trapper" Creates environmental hazards Explosives/Demolitionist Runes Hunter-Trapper/Fisherman !!! incapable of a meaningful offensive push. !!! Imbalanced field control

"Psion" Telekinesis Elemental Kinesis Astral Projection and Dream Walking Divination and Precognition Telepathy !!! Insane option power; nothing can contain them!

"Leech" Wraith Vampire Thief Magic Vacuum Absorb enemy currencies to add to self. !!! Dynamic has the effect of double potency !!! Dynamic generates free healing with a bonus !!! Selfish

"Wall" Maximizes durability, HP, AC Accumulates resistances and immunities May gain DR Attack prevention, damage prevention !!! Cannot be thretened so always slowly wins !!! Selfish !!! Slows down combat, as it is offensively weak

"Grey Mage" Debuffs enemies Creates environmental obstructions/hazards Inflicts conditions Buffs Allies !!! Lacks independence !!! Lacks offensive weight !!! Lacks defensive weight

"Hypnotist" Charmer Illusionist Alters enemy behavior Takes control of enemies Paralyzes enemies Puts enemies to sleep Causes enemies to flee !!! Disrupts encounter balance in incalculable ways

"Maker" Enchanter Artificer Merchant Focus on crafting system Creates unique permanent gear for team and self !!! Makes treasure worthless !!! Lacks independent effectiveness !!! EPL cannot be calculated accurately !!! Party retains character benefits in its absencecharacter of this class MUST be of the persuasion that harming themselves is a perfectly reasonable and justifiable sacrifice in the face of all other options.