D&D 5E Archetypes to add to 5e

[Paul Farquhar]

What stops a Rogue or Ranger with the Outlander or Urban Bounty Hunter from making traps right now? That doesn't seem like Class power material.

I think some better rules for PC trap creation are what is needed.

I don't see the connection between trap making and bounty hunters myself - was Baldur's Gate 2 responsible? I rarely see pop-culture bounty hunters resorting to traps.

 

[Paul Smart]

Not really a subclass, more a variant but I would love to see a rule where you could pick your casting stat. Want a Warlock that casts off intelligence. Sure. I Cleric who casts off Charisma. Sounds good to me.

 

[Parmandur]

I think some better rules for PC trap creation are what is needed.

I don't see the connection between trap making and bounty hunters myself - was Baldur's Gate 2 responsible? I rarely see pop-culture bounty hunters resorting to traps.

That would be great: dunno about gating said rules behind Subclass features, though.

 

[Aldarc]

Mearls made some good points about how it shackles their ability to make more of either pact or patron options, which is seen in controversy over the Hexblade.

I would disagree with Mearls. A big part of the controversy of the Hexblade had far more to do with how it was perceived less as a "Patron" but more as a blatant "fix" for the Blade Pact, such that Hexblade was overwhelmingly the optimal way to play a Bladelock. The Blade Pact should be what the early features of the Hexblade offers such that a Hexblade was not even needed. So, IMO, the problem has less to do with Pact-Patron choices and more to do with how they designed the Blade Pact. But if they are beholden to being "evergreen" then they obviously can't go back and retroactively fix it. Mearls's "solution" though seems more like throwing out the baby with the bathwater.

 

[Blue]

Not really a subclass, more a variant but I would love to see a rule where you could pick your casting stat. Want a Warlock that casts off intelligence. Sure. I Cleric who casts off Charisma. Sounds good to me.

I've played around a little with this, but it was targetted to switching to INT only. WIS is one of the major saves plus important skills, switching to that is usually a big step up. CHR checks, at my table, are much more common than INT checks. Lots of social skills going on. INT, on the other hand, both made sense thematically and wasn't a power boost.

I had only thought about it for bards (to become sages, historians, teachers and storytellers) and paladins (for an arcane god, to become gish). But I can see it for others to some degree. Except Sorcerers, that seems an foundational part of their fluff. But I wouldn't let that stop me as long as a player was willing to reskin to INT.

 

[Parmandur]

I would disagree with Mearls. A big part of the controversy of the Hexblade had far more to do with how it was perceived less as a "Patron" but more as a blatant "fix" for the Blade Pact, such that Hexblade was overwhelmingly the optimal way to play a Bladelock. The Blade Pact should be what the early features of the Hexblade offers such that a Hexblade was not even needed. So, IMO, the problem has less to do with Pact-Patron choices and more to do with how they designed the Blade Pact. But if they are beholden to being "evergreen" then they obviously can't go back and retroactively fix it. Mearls's "solution" though seems more like throwing out the baby with the bathwater.

Well, he wasn't saying this was forthcoming. The context was someone in his Twitch chat asking if there were any plans to "fix" the Hexvlade-Blade pact awkwardness, to which Mearls gave a firm "no," but noted that "if we did it again" they would merge pact and patron in the Warlock economy back together.

 

[Aldarc]

Well, he wasn't saying this was forthcoming. The context was someone in his Twitch chat asking if there were any plans to "fix" the Hexvlade-Blade pact awkwardness, to which Mearls gave a firm "no," but noted that "if we did it again" they would merge pact and patron in the Warlock economy back together.

Then I shall pray that they never get the chance to do it again.

 

[Parmandur]

Then I shall pray that they never get the chance to do it again.

"I have altered the edition...pray that I do not alter it further..."

 

[Tales and Chronicles]

On the subject of the warlock: I'd just fuse the warlock and the cleric together. In some ways, they are the more or less the same thing: a servant of a higher power, given some powers to further the patron's agenda. Keep the short rest slot, fuse the 2 spell lists together, change the name ''Arcanum'' to ''Revelation'' and change the ''pact of the blade'' to the Boon of the Regalia that let the player bind/summon a light or medium armor, a shield and a martial weapon (heavy armor with an Invocation).

Archetypes: These are generic Pact, possibly representing a specific creature (ala warlock) or a divine entity/domain (cleric)
Fey
Fiend
Dragon
Eldritch stuff
War
Light
Life
Shadow
Knowledge
Undeath
Tempest
Forge

At level 3: choose a Boon:
Boon of the Regalia: as described above
Boon of Binding: aka Pet subclass, animals of Cr 1/2, gain the fey/dragon/celestial/fiend type.
Boon of Incantations: the ritual caster one

 

[MechaTarrasque]

In 4e, hexblades didn't just get generic magical weapons, but got specific magical weapons, and I think that is what MM was going for in terms of

On the subject of the warlock: I'd just fuse the warlock and the cleric together. In some ways, they are the more or less the same thing: a servant of a higher power, given some powers to further the patron's agenda. Keep the short rest slot, fuse the 2 spell lists together, change the name ''Arcanum'' to ''Revelation'' and change the ''pact of the blade'' to the Boon of the Regalia that let the player bind/summon a light or medium armor, a shield and a martial weapon (heavy armor with an Invocation).

Archetypes: These are generic Pact, possibly representing a specific creature (ala warlock) or a divine entity/domain (cleric)
Fey
Fiend
Dragon
Eldritch stuff
War
Light
Life
Shadow
Knowledge
Undeath
Tempest
Forge

At level 3: choose a Boon:
Boon of the Regalia: as described above
Boon of Binding: aka Pet subclass, animals of Cr 1/2, gain the fey/dragon/celestial/fiend type.
Boon of Incantations: the ritual caster one

If they were to do something like this, I would prefer they combine the bladelock, melee-focused cleric, and paladin into a magical melee class (maybe crusader since champion is a fighter in D&D and a similar class in PF), the non melee-focused clerics and tomelocks into a separate caster class, and the chainlock become part of a pet class, but more focused on the 4e idea of warlock's ally