D&D 5E Unbalanced Sub-classes and how to fix them

Which sub-classes (in your opinion) are over/underpowered and how do you fix or rebalance them in your game?

I can't really think of any that are Overpowered.

I will say, I think the Fighter Champion archetype is, if not underpowered, at least Mechanically Boring. In all the AL games I've played, like 70-80% of fighters are Battle Masters, the remainder are Eldritch Knight. Never played with a single Champion. It needs bells and whistles, all it's powers are static bonuses. It needs to be scrapped and replaced with something that gives the player more unique options.

Cleric has a LOT of options because of all the Domains. I have, however, seen a tendency in AL for Tempest Clerics. One game, at a 7 man table, we had 3 Tempest Clerics. So there may be something there worth looking into.

Honestly those are the only two things I've noticed that stand out.

Well, I think some of the sub-classes seem to not deliver on the promos and story of the archtype.

I would put the Way of 4 elements monk near the top of that list. Also, the blade’lock seems to fall into this group as well. I have heard some complaints about the valor bard as well, but have not seen it in play.

I would add that the chaos sorcerer seems to be a more “out there” design that is not presented well (you really need tides of chaos a lot). But I think the sorcerer in general could use some improvement.

I also think that the EK & AT show that the one-third caster does not really do it for a lot of people’s idea of a “gish”.


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Well, [MENTION=6904757]WayOfTheFourElements[/MENTION], I think that the Monk's Way Of The Four Elements subclass underperforms. Basically, I'd reduce all of the main ki expenditures by 1. (Let me give an example of what I mean by "main": Fangs of the Fire Snake would be free to use (1 -1 = 0 ki), just to opportunity cost of picking it. But the d10 extra fire damage would still cost 1 ki each, not also be reduced in price.)

Barbarian's Path of the Berserker is great except for how heavy a cost exhaustion is and how hard it is to remove. I'd allow Berserkers to always ignore one level of exhaustion (always count as one less) and to remove extra during a long rest. They are the only class that doesn't recover all spent uses after a long rest.

Valor Bards seem to not get picked often - but that may be just that Lore bards rock. Can others chime in. I haven't actually seen one played.

Same goes for Land Druids.

PHB Ranger's Beastmaster. There's plenty out there on proposed fixes.

Sorcerer's Wild Mage - if the DM doesn't trigger a surge to recharge Tides of Chaos, there's very little to this class, especially compared to other Sorcerers. I would make it trigger often, but not continuously. More often at lower levels when you have fewer spells to take advantage of Tides of Chaos.

Fighter's Battlemaster is a bit more powerful out of the box than the other fighter subclasses though it evens out. I'd start with 3 superiority dice and give the fourth a few levels later.

Moon Druid is crazy tanky at 2nd and then loses it. It's not a long term problem.

This is just about the PHB subclasses - the others I haven't actually seen enough table play to critique.

It is usually more of a overpowered/underpowered for just a few levels. Those can easily be fixed. Things that looked over or underpowered in the white room often enough proved qute valuable at the table.
Some mechanics are problematic however as they are too complicated or don't really work well with each other. Ranger subclasses have that problem. Wot4e monks too. Ki points are used for everything.

Blue said:

Valor Bards seem to not get picked often - but that may be just that Lore bards rock. Can others chime in. I haven't actually seen one played.

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I don't think that it's that Lore Bards "rock," but, rather, that you can make a better Valor Bard than the Valor Bard by simply multiclassing from a class with better weapons and armor proficiencies (e.g., Paladin, Hexblade, Fighter) for a level or two and then continuing into Lore Bard or Sword Bard for less redundant features.

I believe there are already too many subclasses. Many of them are little more than anemic rehashes of various basic features like "get advantage on this" or "have expertise on that". How many new characters are you creating anyway?

No, what I'm looking forward to is more content to deepen and enrichening existing characters.

That is, content compatible with all the subclasses we've already got as opposed to this deluge of ever more subclasses.

[MENTION=12731]CapnZapp[/MENTION] Exactly this. Plus, we Need a usable artificer and a Mystic aka Psionic which is usable in darksun, means we also Need wild Talent psionics asa a feat.
[MENTION=70582]TiwazTyrsfist[/MENTION] Champion with feats built as a protector tank with shield can be very survivable and powerful in defending other chars.

Gadget said:

Well, I think some of the sub-classes seem to not deliver on the promos and story of the archtype.

I would put the Way of 4 elements monk near the top of that list. Also, the blade’lock seems to fall into this group as well. I have heard some complaints about the valor bard as well, but have not seen it in play.

I would add that the chaos sorcerer seems to be a more “out there” design that is not presented well (you really need tides of chaos a lot). But I think the sorcerer in general could use some improvement.

I also think that the EK & AT show that the one-third caster does not really do it for a lot of people’s idea of a “gish”.


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I think that is a better criteria than over/under powered, which are really party and DM dependent.

The issue with the sorcerer (and the berserker barbarian as the other main example) is that to be effective with them as written, you really need to play a cold, strategic style, which is the opposite of the fluff/theme of the class. The disconnect is irritating--there should be more reward for playing the wizard strategically than for playing the sorcerer.

I agree the third casters and the third martials have problems. Largely because people assume that a third caster really means a half caster and 2/3rds melee type (or vice versa for third martials). Usually I am pro-subclass, but I think the thirds would have been better as half caster classes (maybe one arcane half caster with subclasses based on the bard, wizard, sorcerer, and warlock).

I recall recently seeing a design discussion where it was said they intentially built one simpler subclass for each class for the just grab and go players. I wonder how many of the less interesting, underperform, doesnt deliver etc cases fall into that category when viewed by those who get into the builds part more?

Champion is mechanically straight forward and would need to get a lot of its character from the background and roleplay.

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