D&D 5E Blue Magic

djvehovec · Feb 11, 2017

Hello!

One of my players is new to D&D and a huge Final Fantasy fan. We were discussing various characters/jobs and what they might be in D&D.

Later on, out of curiosity I did some searching and, of course, there's lots of homebrew versions of many of the jobs. My imagination thus inspired, I took a stab at one of them myself: the Blue Mage.

Since I have a very sporadic group, getting much playtesting done will be a challenge, and in fact there has been zero playtesting of the idea I had. Nevertheless, I threw it up at the DM's Guild. It is my first foray into creating a character option like this. Here's a link:

Blue Magic class option

I am fully prepared for the gamut of positive and negative feedback. It was an idea I had and who knows? Maybe it is lightning in a bottle or at least with some work could be halfway decent.

Ancalagon · Feb 12, 2017

... I think you aren't getting much feedback because your post leads the reader to believe this is going to be some kind of wizard, but it's a barbarian path!

So the reader may see that, go "wth that isn't what I was told" and just leave.

Ath-kethin · Feb 12, 2017

Also, many of us are wary of clicking on links that take us off of this site. especially when they are in the very first post form a user.

djvehovec · Feb 13, 2017

Not sure what might lead someone to think wizard in particular; I thought it might be intriguing or enticing enough to get people to check it out.

Fair enough point on being hesitant to click on links. I would prefer engaging through the DM's Guild rather than sharing the content in a forum post, so I will have to accept and deal with the reluctance, which is understandable.

All that being said, based on the feedback I received elsewhere, I did some revising to clarify the language and rethought some of the abilities gained by leveling.

Thank you again for your insights, they are absolutely appreciated and any other thoughts you or anyone else has I look forward to hearing and giving thought to while I work to refine and improve this idea.

Xohar17 · Feb 15, 2017

Azure lore: I don't think gaining proficiency in arcana is thematically adequate to the subclass, since as the fluff says, its a kind of primal understanding.

Affinity: I think the ability is almost useless as written, why expend a rage to make use of one ability? since I suppose it still costs an action to use them (or whatever kind of action it uses), I would make it so you can use a spell even outside of rage once per short rest.

Reflection: I like it, but is pretty limited to only when you learn a new ability, I wold expand it to be able to do it on any ability that could be learned, even if you already know it or if you don't want to learn it.

Overall it has potential, but I think is a little rough around the edges, and I really didnt expect it to be a barbarian subclass of all classes!

FormerlyHemlock · Feb 15, 2017

djvehovec said:
Not sure what might lead someone to think wizard in particular; I thought it might be intriguing or enticing enough to get people to check it out.

Well, you mention "Blue Mage". "Mage" in (A)D&D has always been associated with wizards. It makes me think of a mage who is maybe focused on illusions, or protection spells.

As a public service to those who haven't looked at the preview: the Blue Mage seems to be a barbarian equivalent to the Eldritch Knight. 1/3 caster, Con-based magic with the ability to consume abilities from defeated foes.

Ancalagon · Feb 15, 2017

Hemlock said:
Well, you mention "Blue Mage". "Mage" in (A)D&D has always been associated with wizards. It makes me think of a mage who is maybe focused on illusions, or protection spells.

Exactly. It could have been a sorcerer type, or some kind of alternative class of magic user (a mystic? etc)... but still a magic-user, as in a class who's main focus is the use of magic.

FormerlyHemlock · Feb 15, 2017

Ancalagon said:
Exactly. It could have been a sorcerer type, or some kind of alternative class of magic user (a mystic? etc)... but still a magic-user, as in a class who's main focus is the use of magic.

And to be fair, when you actually look at the class it's a bit more magic-y than the DMs' Guild description makes it sound. It's a 1/3 spellcaster of sorts.

It's just a marketing problem: need to make sure customers' expectations align with the product. That's why I want people in this thread to know what it is, so that those who find monster-eating(?) biotech barbarians cool can go check it out at the original link: http://www.dmsguild.com/product/204...-primal-path-for-barbarians?src=newest_in_dmg

djvehovec · Feb 15, 2017

Thank you for all the responses here, i absolutely appreciate it!

When i posted the first draft of this idea, i had no allusions that it would need more work, revision and refining. Certainly, i'll take all these thoughts and suggestions into consideration while i continue to work on this concept.

As to some specific comments...

I threw the Azure Lore in there because i imagined these characters would be knowledgeable about things like aberrations, magical creatures and just magic in general. i can envision a character with relatively high Intelligence following this Primal Path - logically, it's a path to unusual power and having concrete knowledge about creatures and arcane mysteries might aid in the journey. At the same time, perhaps the character has a low Wisdom; it's certainly not very wise to seek out dangerous creatures with the intention of getting hit by their strange powers!

For Affinity, after making a spreadsheet of every possible ability one could gain from creatures in the Monster Manual, Volo's Guide to Monster and the Tome of Beasts, there were several that i thought a character might want to use out of combat. But i wanted to keep it tied to rage as both a limitation and to keep the spirit of the subclass.

Reflection i wanted to put some kind of limitation on that would prevent overusing it. I like the idea offered here though. Thanks!

Originally i thought of this as a sorcerous origin, and it was more about acquiring spells cast on the target. I really wanted to incorporate the creature abilities though, and building this as an option for existing full casters felt way too powerful - you would have both spells AND creature abilities. The barbarian came to mind because i reasoned they would have the toughness to withstand purposefully trying to get hit with effects, they didn't have conflicting abilities and it would be a quirky option to give your barbarian some unusual abilities and expand what they could do. Plus i felt like tying it to rage would impose enough limitations so it wouldn't get out of control.

I'll work on the language and flavor text as well, to make it more clear when people check it out.

Thank you again for sharing your thoughts and helping me while i work to refine and balance this concept!

Gray Blackhelm · Mar 3, 2018

Good ideas. Unfortunately, this should be considered a "Spellcasting" class. Considering it carries "Mage" in the title, I do believe using it as a sub class or specialization would be better, rather than Homebrewing under the Barbarian. I think I know where you were going with it, and if you were using the Rhonso as inspiration, you could still use that mechanic as a racial feature rather than a Class. Good creativity, poor execution. I'm working on a Final Fantasy campaign myself. Let's get together and bounce ideas around.