D&D 5E Fill-in the blanks

Looking at the character "menu" choices in the current packet, what would you like to see added in the future?

Class
Background
Specialty
(I left out races because I think they need a separate treatment)

Try not to go overboard but rather focus on what you think is really missing

Class

Background

Speciality

Some additions (not very original...) from myself:

Class
Background
Specialty

Necromancer. (either as a wizard school or even better a Specialty).

Bard, sorcerer, warlock, multiclassing, gnome, half-elf, half-orc. Done.

I'd like to see some of the following:

Fighters retain their fighting styles of defender [sword n board], slayer [two-hander], tempest [dual wield], sharpshooter [ranged], duelist [one handed/freehand], tactician [buffer]. I don't care to see "fluffy" version of these like "Knight" or "Gladiator", as that fluff I feel should be decided on by the player, or added in via Backgrounds.

Clerics are missing the commerce/traveler/luck and the knowledge/invention/civilization deities.

Rogues I'm good with the current list of schemes.

Wizards should have all eight schools represented, plus scholarly. Although if the abjuration and divination schools cannot be made as worthwhile adventuring traditions, then I'd go with Scholarly; Evoker; Illusionist; Necromancer; Conjurer; Enchanter; Transmuter; Pyromancer; Psionicist.

Paladins I'm good with the three oaths, although personally I'd use the name 'paladin' both as the primary class name and the LG name in place of 'cavalier'.

Rangers need favored enemies for Beasts, Aberrations, and Undead.

Monks I'm good with like three Paths.

Druids right now have a wildshape circle and a spellcasting circle... I'd throw in a healing circle as well. We need another class that has healing as a potential specialization, like we currently do with the cleric.

Barbarians I actually think don't need any 'builds' per se.

Backgrounds I'd add in a whole bunch more (many of which have already been mentioned.

Specialties I'd get rid of entirely. With Race (and Sub-Race), Class (and class build), and Backgrounds... that's all the "story" concepts I think we need. Now we'd absolutely still have the Feats... but I don't see the need to bundle a bunch of them together and put a "fluffy" bow on them. Dave Chalker talked about this at critical-hits.com several months back and which I agree with... how there's just too much fluff weirdness that comes out when you have Race, Class, Backgrounds AND Specialty all trying to "define" who your character is.

After all... if your Background is Priest, do you really need your character's story to include being a Mystical Healer on top of that? Isn't being a Priest that has a feat granting a pair of magical divine cantrips enough to define who you are? (And I'm not even going to get into the whole fighter "Marksman/Sharpshooter" and "Slayer/Reaper" overlapping silliness that I've talked about on other threads.)

Fighter
Cleric
Wizard

Ranger ... check
Barbarian ... check
Magician ... maybe
Thief ... check
Cavalier ... sorta
Acrobat ... needed!

I'd add the Avenger as a Paladin subtype; the "Grey Knight". The Fighter needs an option for the player who just wants a vanilla warrior, which could be called the Brawler or Slayer. While an option for every wizard school might be a bit much to expect in the PHB, I would like to see Conjuration and Enchantment represented there, along with a simple wizard option (e.g. Magician) which could be done by substituting per-encounter('signature') spells for the spells/levels chart.

If the barbarian's sole incarnation so far can be referred to as the Berserker, then other subtypes could be: a more magically oriented barbarian, relying on shouts & elemental effects; a tribal leader type; or a type with an animal companion which it possesses during combat. Druids could use a subtype akin to the "Children of Winter" sect in Eberron, which relies on vermin and swarms. Lastly for now, I'd like to see an "Abomination Slayer" option for the Ranger, which seeks to rid the world of aberrations and unnatural beasts created by mad or foolhardy wizards.

Olgar Shiverstone said:

Ranger ... check
Barbarian ... check
Magician ... maybe
Thief ... check
Cavalier ... sorta
Acrobat ... needed!

Click to expand...

And I presume each of these classes only get a single magic item too, right? Lightning bow, quaking greatclub, hat of creation, cloak of elvenkind, shield of defense and quarterstaff of elongation?