Apothecary, Architect, Rune Knight: Geomancer Advanced Class Information

Last month EN5ider, the 5E Patreon, introduced the Geomancer class. In this week's article, Josh Gentry provides you with three new geomancer orders - Order of the Apothecary (mystical healers), Order of the Architect (builders and protectors), and Order of the Rune Knight (wielders of elements in war). Illustrated by Julio Rocha and Tan Ho Sim.


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Recently on EN5ider:

  • #239. Geomancer: Advanced Class Information. Last month EN5ider, the 5E Patreon, introduced the Geomancer class. In this week's article, Josh Gentry provides you with three new geomancer orders - Order of the Apothecary (mystical healers), Order of the Architect (builders and protectors), and Order of the Rune Knight (wielders of elements in war). Illustrated by Julio Rocha and Tan Ho Sim.
  • #238. ZEITGEIST #5 (Part 2) - Cauldron Born. The conspiracy continues in Flint's dark underbelly. Now at the king’s command it is time for the Royal Homeland Constabulary to rip this threat from its shadowy womb beneath the haunted mountain named Cauldron Hill and thrust it into the light of day.
  • #237. Backstory Feats. An adventurer’s background doesn’t need to end when they begin the adventuring life. The skills learned in an adventurer’s past can grow and develop into lifelong skills throughout their adventuring career. This set of 13 feats uses the 13 core backgrounds as prerequisites and represents the advancement and integration of their old skills with their new experience. The Grifter feat allows a character with the charlatan background to fleece marks like a master, and the Old Salt feat allows a character with the sailor background true mastery over the nautical arts.
  • #236. Expanded Races: Half-Orc. This selection of half-orc subraces includes the barbaric Bloodrager, fiendish Brimskin, deadly Deeplurker, industrious Forgemaker, draconic Scalefang, and the primal Spiritspeaker. By Chris Davies; illustrated by Xanditz.
  • #235. Geomancer: Basic Class Information. The Geomancer class is a spellcaster who uses the environment to tailor their magic, turning the surrounding elements into potent weapons and tools.
  • #234. Monstrous Menagerie: Mythological Spooks. Meet the ghostly Acheri, the cruel Cuca, or the warped Rabisu with these three new monsters sure to liven up your Halloween!
  • #233. Metropolitan Arcana. Twelve new spells for various classes, designed for urban environments. Whether evading guards, catching thieves, or navigating dark alleys, these spells are the mainstay of the city-born caster. Carvel's convoked conveyance, dubious aura, hellish handshake, and verminous shroud are just some of the spells found here, ranging from 1st-8th level spells.
  • #232. The Lodestar: Advanced Class Information. Last month we introduced the orb-wielding Lodestar class. This month we have two new Training Methods for the Lodestar: Imaginative training which enriches the soul, discovering peace by way of indulgence; and Instinct training which melds soul and body, tempering soul fragments to act naturally and instinctively.
  • #231. ZEITGEIST #5 (Part 1) - Cauldron Born. A conspiracy has woven itself firmly into the dark underbelly of the city of Flint. The Royal Homeland Constabulary (RHC) has learned of its existence and knows it has a base beneath the haunted mountain named Cauldron Hill. Now at the king’s command it is time to rip this threat from its shadowy womb and thrust it into the light of day. While they pursue that mission, two other forces are at work in Flint: a cult of dwarven assassins who want to disrupt a peace summit, and a rogue lord of the Unseen Court who seeks a war between man and fey. Either plot will spell disaster for Flint. Can the constables spare the time to stop them before the doom beneath Cauldron Hill is born?
  • #230. Villain Spotlight: Syndrathrax. A mighty CR 27 monster! While technically an ancient red dragon, Syndrathrax’s necromantic transformations and attempted apotheoses have forever altered her. Though she shares the massive size of her fellow red wyrms she is gaunt and skeletal, and her scales sapped of their red luster and now bone white. Thanks to the necromantic energy that permeates her body she radiates a faint spectral glow that she can mask when she chooses--the souls of those that she has swallowed are sometimes seen struggling vainly to escape in this light.
  • #229. The Lodestar: Basic Class Information. Whatever form their training takes, all lodestars possess a fractured soul. To keep themselves from unraveling into madness they must train and hone their skills, becoming masters of both body and mind. The Lodestar class uses lodestones, magical spheres which orbit the lodestar, and which can attack, defend, and more. By Andrew Engelbrite; illustrated by Yihyoung Li.
  • #228. The Mahout: Advanced Class Information. Last month, EN5ider introduced the new Mahout class, a beast-mastering specialist. This month we expand on that class with new regimens to add to the Animalist found in the basic article. The Monstrous Regimen has more in common with fearsome monstrosities than with those of their own kind, and the Oddball Regimen has bizarre and strange pets like gelatinous cubes and cloakers. Also within are new the monster tricks: Confound, Defend, Hunt, Interfere, Mobility, Pack Tactics, Perform, Second Wind, Use Feature, Use Limited Feature, and Work.
  • #227. Anatomy of an Alien World. The DnD multiverse is filled with many worlds... that we know of. But who keeps track of the infinite numbers of fantasy worlds and planes that lie beyond our knowledge or at the end of a mysterious portal or teleportation spell gone awry? Randomly determine an exotic world's topography, species, civilisation, magical elements, and other bizarre aspects like dead or wild magic, different time or gravity, and more. by Jeff Gomez; illustrated by Phil Stone.
  • #226. Spellshaper. Able to control the flow of magic around them, some warriors are destined from birth to live an exceptional existence—and by their very nature become legend. With an impressive degree of martial prowess, spellshapers are fell opponents capable of negating and redirecting mystical forces their foes bring to bear with terrifying counterattacks of raw power. By Mike Myler; illustrated by Aaron Lee.
 

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TwoSix

Dirty, realism-hating munchkin powergamer
Evaluating 235 and 239 together, since the subclasses do a lot of heavy lifting for this class. A conqueror geomancer is very different from an apothecary geomancer.

Overall, I really like this class. Setting up the environment to get access to the right spells can be challenging, but its an interesting challenge, and the class isn't completely reliant on its spells to function. Stone's blessing is a super charged version of Inspiring Leader, a feat I've always felt was underappreciated. Adding resistances and immunities to characters with the temp HP is a nice touch, and really positions the Geomancer as a more defensive oriented Warlock. I do have a few observations and caveats, though, just some possible touches to make it a little better.

1) You really need to use Xanathar's Guide to get the spell list up to where it should be. Obviously, not something that can be included in the article, but it's good to know.

2) I know the class is based around the 5 classical elements, but an Air/Wind element would be great to make sure the geomancer has a larger selection of "almost always available" spells. I think that's something I'll homebrew in. One of the nice things about having so few spell slots is that increasing the number of spells accessible isn't a huge increase in power.

3) Considering the 9th level ability, not having access to the conjure elemental spell seems off. Feels like it lands right in the geomancer's wheelhouse.

4) Since the class lacks any real use for a bonus action, and it has shillelagh and shield proficiency, grabbing Polearm Master to go quarterstaff and shield seems like an easy call. Conquerors and Rune Knights will probably favor a Str build, but they could also go Wis based with shillelagh. This isn't a criticism! Using a staff as a main weapon seems totally in character for a geomancer.

5) Obviously Apothecary and Architect are more defensive in nature, but I would have liked to see them get some boost to at-will damage at level 6. Potent Cantrip is boring, but could work. These are my favorite 2 of the 4 subclasses, because I like support classes, but they need some additional at-will support since they're warlock style casters, not full casters. Right now, dipping 1 level of arcana cleric for Booming Blade/Greenflame Blade and extra spells is too much of a no-brainer. Maybe some custom BB/GFB style cantrips and a 6th level subclass feature to boost them would be appropriate.

6) I love several of the subclass features, like Conquerer's Decree, Rune of Vengeance, Aura of Wellbeing, and especially Mystic Masonry. Wall of Stone is one of my favorite spells, and I love the potential of building little stone houses all over the place with Mystic Masonry.
 



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