A character that infused themselves with shadow and even becomes a shadow. The shadow monk isn’t this, so I’d make it a rogue.
A scholarly monster expert. The guy who knows how to fight various monsters after years of careful study, and can translate that into giving bonuses to his friends in the fight. Basically if Volo was a competent person. Placing it is a tough call, but one of the skill heavy classes would probably work best.
The Acrobat/Athlete. A character whose whole primary concept is athletic and acrobatic movement taken to a heroic level.
Warden. Warrior who transforms but is still using their weapons, not turning into a bear or whatever. Becoming treelike to hold the line, taking on animal aspects, etc.
Warrior who is physically protected by their faith, and whose hand is guided by same. This is the most vital part of the 4e Avenger, and it was no translation into 5e without weird MC builds that would come with mountains of features that make no sense for the character.
The Captain. 4e did it with the Warlord. Star Wars Saga did it with several talent trees for the Noble. 5e just doesn’t really do it. Even the Mastermind Rogue isn’t quite there. I’d prefer a class that has Warlord as a subclass over a Warlord class, bc Warlord is a small concept compared to the Captain.
The Priest. Related to the avenger, this is a holy person who isn’t given armor and lots of weapons, and unlike the avenger isn’t expected to wade into the melee. Cleric subclass with a Mage Armor or Unarmored Defense option? This one could just be an Armor of Faith spell, probably. Give it to Paladins as well.
Shaman. A caller of spirits. No, as much as I enjoy the Sheppard Druid, it doesn’t get there. If the totem was a spirit creature, that could move and do things, and the shaman could cast spells through, then it would mostly be there.
A proper summoner. 5e is wary enough of this concept that it might require being either a class (so that the summoning is your primary competency), or use spells slots to empower. We may get this in a psionic class, which is a weird place for it IMO, but I’d rather see it in its own class, with interesting variations as subclasses. Barring that, give multiple classes an archetype like that, that has a pet that is empowered using spells/spell slots.
Sabatuer. A rogue most likely, who debuffs enemies and breaks defenses, and has some social engineering features as well.
More shadow archetypes in general.
Warlock that hacked Pact magic and is essentially their own patron. also, a primal spirits warlock, a proper Death Patron (not a Pact with a lich or whatever), and a djinn patron.
Someone who alters themselves in unnatural ways, like the mutagen based Bloodhunter.
Wizards of Nature
Inquisitor Rogue, essentially a killer of spellcasters, and supernatural creatures, with heavy flavor of protecting the people from supernatural evil.
A Spell Thief that doesn't wait until level 17 to steal spells.
A gish that doesn’t choose between casting spells and using their weapon. More spells could solve this need, as long as they’re fairly spread out, but it would also be great to have a subclass that just does this from the jump, with a feature to add elemental damage or other magical effects to attacks with a weapon.
