D&D 5E What Would Your Perfect 50th PHB Class List Be?

[LordEntrails]

Fighter
Magic User
Thief
Priest

Fighting Man - Someone who doesn't use magic
Priest - Someone who uses divine magic
Magic User - Someone who uses arcane magic.

Thief's not needed!

 

[DEFCON 1]

Basically decide once and for all if classes are meant to be merely packages of game mechanics, or if the fluff and story to each class is actually important.

If it's the former, then strip away any extra classes whose main functionality is duplicated (IE we only need one full caster, not the five we currently have.) Divine magic, primal magic, psionic magic, and arcane magic are all the same thing-- they are all magic-- so you don't need multiple classes with the same exact spell slot progression table to get that across.

If it's the latter... then remove Multiclassing entirely and go further in on subclasses that touch upon a secondary identity so that the story and fluff of the main class and its secondary theme can be built together and made for one cohesive narrative whole. Maybe then we'd stop seeing pointless multiclassing that occurs ONLY because the game mechanics between two classes line up via primary ability scores and thus you can get MOAR POWER by doing so... despite the narrative reason for that multiclass happening never getting touched upon (see: almost every single combination of the four CHA classes getting multiclassed out the wazoo.)

 

[R_J_K75]

None. My opinion for years has been to get rid of classes entirely and let the player pick abilities, feats, or whatever you want them called and truly build the character they want to play. I'd say similar to 2E Skills & Powers or ordering off a Chinese menu.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

15 classes, three additions and five renamed.

Artificer
Ascetic
Champion
Cleric
Dreadnaught
Expert
Fighter
Greenseer
Incantor
Psion
Ranger
Rogue
Sorcerer
Warlock
Wizard

Can you explain your renames? I’m intrigued!

Artificer
Barbarian
Bard
Cleric
Druid
Fighter
Monk
Oracle
Paladin
Psion
Ranger
Rogue
Sorcerer
Swordmage/Duskblade/Arcane-Gish-Class
Warlock
Wizard

What would the Oracle be?

 

[Levistus's_Leviathan]

What would the Oracle be?

Wisdom-Focused Divine Half-Caster with Cantrips, like an Artificer. They'd also get Channel Divinities, focus on divination and warding magic, and also get some Chronurgy Dunamancy spells. At higher levels they'd get extra/enhanced senses, and eventually Truesight. (There would be a "Battleseer" subclass that could momentarily see into the future to see what their enemies are going to do and counter it before they can even do it, and similar concepts.)

 

[BookTenTiger]

This is absolutely not what WotC is going to do, but if I were in charge....

• All classes go only to Level 10
• Move all class features to be within those levels
• Characters can continue to level to 20 or beyond, but they must do so in a different class

 

[doctorbadwolf]

Wisdom-Focused Divine Half-Caster with Cantrips, like an Artificer. They'd also get Channel Divinities, focus on divination and warding magic, and also get some Chronurgy Dunamancy spells. At higher levels they'd get extra/enhanced senses, and eventually Truesight. (There would be a "Battleseer" subclass that could momentarily see into the future to see what their enemies are going to do and counter it before they can even do it, and similar concepts.)

Interesting. Why not give some degree of special sense right from the start? Perhaps a scaling bonus to saves vs charm and on checks to see through illusions? I would definitely want to see the Sight as a thing this class is special for brought to the very front.

Either way, I like it.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

This is absolutely not what WotC is going to do, but if I were in charge....

• All classes go only to Level 10
• Move all class features to be within those levels
• Characters can continue to level to 20 or beyond, but they must do so in a different class

What if you took the first two bullets, and instead of the third, you get;

• Every level after 10 you have a choice of options, some obvious for certain character types, others more broad or out there, to choose from.

Basically, after a certain point of power, you just defy the constraints of any archetype.

 

[ECMO3]

Full caster: d6 HD
2/3 caster: d8 HD
1/2 caster: d10 HD
non-caster: d12 HD

So d12 HD Rogues?

 

[Charlaquin]

Keeping in mind that this is for a 50th anniversary edition revision of 5e and not a totally new edition with a different class/subclass structure, I would say the current class list, plus Artificer and Warlord. I also wouldn’t say no to an arcane half-caster and a dedicated psionic caster, but neither is a high priority for me.