D&D 5E Homebrew Marshal Class (+Thread)

[doctorbadwolf]

Generally you don't get to pick between a language and a tool. Full choice of tools would be fine though, let them choose their own adventure. Not that picking between an artisan tool and a language is going to break the game or anything, it's just not the usual 5e template for class building.

Backgrounds treat them as equivalent. I’m cool with bringing that to a class.

 

[Garthanos]

I agree. That said, giving a subclass the arcana skill would be one way to explain the ability to 'Marshal' magical effects - fluff it as a particular esoteric training or some such.

Make the Arcana Skill a preq for that maneuver then they can get the skill any which where.

 

[Tony Vargas]

I agree. That said, giving a subclass the arcana skill would be one way to explain the ability to 'Marshal' magical effects - fluff it as a particular esoteric training or some such.

Like the Monk it's based on, such a marshal sub-class might also be able to spend it's points to use certain spells (or meta-magic effects). Counterspelling might be appropriate, for instance.

Backgrounds treat them as equivalent. I’m cool with bringing that to a class.

Doesn't Downtime training also allow you to pick up either languages or tool proficiencies? The feature could interact with that somehow.

 

[Garthanos]

Absolutely. I had considered the idea of the whole class using fluff based on the Spanish Circle (or Thibault’s Circle) and Agrippa’s fencing manuals in very loose terms, but that might be a better fit for a slightly more control oreinted Swordmage style archetype.

I find the fluff very compelling of that one i grant I find it Intellectual Fighter to the core and it could in that regards be part of the footwork manipulation angle in a Warrior Lord archetype.

 

[Fenris-77]

Perhaps we should at least consider what a 1/2 or 1/3 Caster variant of the Marshal could look like. If we focused on Abjuration and a selection of other appropriate spells it would have very much the right feel. I think it's an interesting enough idea to at least deserve a good tire kicking.

 

[Fenris-77]

Points based spellcasting would work too, but I'd need to have a better grip on total points available and likely spell costs before I'd able to weigh that option properly. Are we planning to use the amount of Ki as the amount of mettle?

 

[doctorbadwolf]

Points based spellcasting would work too, but I'd need to have a better grip on total points available and likely spell costs before I'd able to weigh that option properly. Are we planning to use the amount of Ki as the amount of mettle?

Yes. I think the shadow monk works a lot better as a basis for a spellcaster than the elements monk. The base class has more choices of gambits than the monk has to worry about, I’d not dump a couple dozen spells on a subclass on top of that.

what I’d want to focus on is a small handfulof abilities that create roundabout area effects, group buffs, maybe use self spells as buffs for another creature (cast a smite spell or mage armor on another creature, etc) and a good ritual casting feature.

and for sure the ability to make ally attacks magical.

maybe glyph of warding and magic circle, stuff like that.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

Added a level 1 feature, and changed Light The Torch to only affecting the Marshal and 1 other ally in the presence, and the damage boost only affecting that 1 ally.

also changed Hamstring Strike to Advanced Gambits, which opens up additional level gated gambits. I don’t want these to lead to a lot of clutter, so I think some of them should REPLACE basic gambits, or upgrade them, and the rest should do entirely new things.

changed level 6 ability to a specific benefit.

feedback welcome. These are not final, just changes based on feedback and ideas so far.

What about a gambit that lets several allies attack off turn?

 

[doctorbadwolf]

Okay, so, for now I'm going to propose 3 tiers of Gambits. Level 1, level 5, and level 11. If we want to add epic gambits later on, cool, but for now this works fine.

In addition, I think one of the primary Gambits should just be Improved Martial's Gambit. Simply, you spend 1 mettle and target 2 allies with Martial's Gambit. You can either then just make your attacks, or you can really burn through mettle and also do an Attack Gambit like guided strike. There is a really solid basic action economy and resource strategy in choosing your attack(s), your bonus action, and whether to boost the attack action, bonus action, or both, with your mettle.

Let's decrease the number of gambits per tier, and figure out how we want the gambits to scale, instead.

So, Guided Strike. What should it do at level 5? Should it simply do more for the same cost (the ally attack gains a damage bonus equal to your Intelligence mod at level 5), or should it have a "spend 2 mettle instead of 1 and allow a second ally to attack" thing?

To compare to our chassis class, the monk gets Stunning Strike instead of these upgrades. The problem with SS is that it becomes the most important use of ki, and replaces anything else you might want to do, in terms of optimization, unless your tradition gives a really solid boost to Flurry of Blows, or gives you spells to spend ki on.

Thus, the idea of adding the same sort of power boost, but adding it in a way that doesn't make the class compete with itself as much, and keeps the class from becoming "always spend mettle on X ability".


The other big question is, should we present these as a list of things to choose from to learn, or simply, "at this level your gambits improve, and you learn these 3 new gambits"?

 

[Tony Vargas]

The other big question is, should we present these as a list of things to choose from to learn, or simply, "at this level your gambits improve, and you learn these 3 new gambits"?

The former would enable more possible character concepts, of course, so long as the choices are decently balanced against eachother.