D&D 5E Which subclasses dropped the ball and how did you fix them

[WayOfTheFourElements]

Oath of Redemption (option). You may elect to receive two abilities that were removed from the Oath of Redemption playtest rules. If you choose this option, you vow to longer wear armor, use a shield, or wield martial weapons.

Armor of Peace. Starting at 3rd level, your commitment to peace allows you to walk into the most dangerous situations unarmored. While you aren’t wearing armor or wielding a shield, your base AC is 14 + your Charisma modifier.​

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Warrior of Reconciliation. At 3rd level, you forswear the weapons of war in favor of simple tools. While wielding a simple weapon that deals bludgeoning damage, you may decide to spare the creature’s life whenever you reduce a creature to 0 hit points.​

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Instead of falling unconscious, the creature is charmed by you for 1 minute. During that time, the charmed creature is peaceful and docile, refusing to move or to take actions or reactions, unless you command it to.​

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You can’t order the creature to attack, force someone to make a saving throw, or cause damage to itself or others. This charmed effect ends early if you are incapacitated or if you or your companions attack the creature, deal damage to it, or force it to make a saving throw.​

 

[ccs]

My groups have never been impressed with the Wild Mage Sorcerer. Wild Magic effects don't happen often enough for our tastes as written.
So anytime someone plays one we tinker with it a bit. Usually tying the chance of WM to the spell slot used. The higher the slot, the greater the odds you'll be rolling on the chart. Sometimes we combine that with a system based on the lv of the Wild Mage themselves.
Now more tactical players would look at what we're doing & recoil, or try & minimize the "risk". Not those in my group willing to play wild Mages.... They'll cheerfully try & set off the surges. As the one guy put it; "If I didn't want to roll on the chart, I wouldn't play a Wild Mage."

 

[Stalker0]

Wild Sorceror: I made two changes.

a. Tides of Chaos, the Sorc can choose to do the ability restore after any 1st level sorc spell is cast. (fixes the "class power is in the hands of the DM issue"

b. Wild Magic Table: The fireball you cast is not centered on yourself. ("no more killing low level parties with a random die roll problem")

 

[TheSword]

Subclasses are utterly optional. The way to fix them if you don’t like them is to not play them, choose one of the many many others.

Quite often I see people who don’t like something’s play style want to change it, rather than just assume it is suited for a different type/style of play than them.

 

[NaturalZero]

Every single wizard "specialization." When all your wizards are blasting sleep, fireball, and come of cold, what you have cannot be called specialists in any meaningful way.

I fixed it my designing what I call True Specialization, and once it's ready for primetime you'll see it on DMSGuild.

I just don't like how spellcasters are divided up in general and the wizard is the worst offender. The necromancer is casting the same spells as the evoker and the oracle. The sorcerer is casting the same spells as the specialist wizard. The conjurer, the dragon sorcerer, the light cleric, the bard, and the warlock just showed up at your table and all cast fireball in the same session. I get that they feel like they have to bow to dnd nostalgia but I think the classes would be more compelling if there were stronger niches.

 

[Ath-kethin]

I just don't like how spellcasters are divided up in general and the wizard is the worst offender. The necromancer is casting the same spells as the evoker and the oracle. The sorcerer is casting the same spells as the specialist wizard. The conjurer, the dragon sorcerer, the light cleric, the bard, and the warlock just showed up at your table and all cast fireball in the same session. I get that they feel like they have to bow to dnd nostalgia but I think the classes would be more compelling if there were stronger niches.

Agreed

And I can appreciate the flexibility the generic nature of spellcasting brings, leaving any differences up to individual tables/groups, but it walks a fine line between flexibility and cop out, IMO.

 

[dmhelp]

• Barbarian Berserker - exhaustion from Frenzy only lasts for one hour
• Cleric Nature - at level 2 gains Druidic Secrets - may also prepare 1st level Druid spells
• Cleric Trickery - at level 6 hex is added as a domain spell
• Druid Circle of the Land - at level 2 gains Fire & Ice - may reverse Druid fire spells at the time of casting to make them cold spells (e.g. may cast cold blade instead of flame blade, or chill metal instead of heat metal)
• Fighter Champion - at level 3 gains Weapon Specialization - choose one weapon type (e.g. greataxes) to increase standard damage dice size by one, to a minimum of 1d8 (1/1d4/1d6 -> 1d8 -> 1d10 -> 1d12 -> 2d8, or 2d6 -> 2d8), this focus may be changed upon every level up
• Monk Four Elements - all Elemental Discplines (except Fangs of the Fire Snake) use a bonus action instead of an action
• Ranger - most subclasses gain Beast Master progression with powers at levels 1 (Ranger's Companion), 6 (Exceptional Training), 10 (Beastial Fury), & 14 (Share Spells) in addition to regular subclass progression, except Gloom Stalkers gain Exeptional Training at level 10 and do not gain Beastial Fury
• Rogue - may also Sneak Attack with all melee weapons/improvised weapons that lack the heavy/special properties (this allows strength builds) and with unarmed strikes
• Sorcerer Draconic Bloodline - at level 1 may choose either Draconic Resilience or Elemental Spells - ability to pick variant Sorcerer elemental (acid, cold, fire, or lightning) level 0-3 spells as ancestry damage type instead (e.g. green dragon may pick a poison variant fireball or a poison variant shocking grasp)
• Elemental Adept - choose 2 of the 3 benefits: damage boost, ignore resistance, and downgrade immunity to resistance (downgrade immunity and ignore resistance cannot be used on the same target); can also choose poison damage type (this is intended for Green Dragon Sorcerer)
• Sorcerer Wild Magic - at level 1 gains Chaos Knife - adds 1d4 to one damage roll with spells, increasing to 1d8 at level 10
• Warlock - receives one additional spell known that must be chosen from Patron expanded spell list
• Warlock Invocations - the following are "half Invocations" (pick two instead of one standard Invocation): Armor of Shadows, Beast Speech, Bewitching Whispers, Dreadful Word, Eldritch Sight, Eyes of the Rune Keeper, Gaze of Two Minds, Minions of Chaos, Mire the Mind, Otherworldly Leap, Sculptor of Flesh, Sign of Ill Omen, and Thief of Five Fates
• Wizard Transmutation - at level 2 gains Enchant Weapon - once per long rest may use a bonus action to enchant a weapon increasing its enhancement bonus by 1 (up to a +3 maximum, duration 1 minute, no concentration, range 60')