D&D General why do we not have an armourless half caster?

[Paul Farquhar]

Monk, or ranger, or Dex eldritch knight or Dex artificer.

Really, armour isn't a big deal in 5e, you don't get much in return for giving it up.

Spellcasting is a big deal, but bounded accuracy means you there isn't much "fight" to gain in return for sacrificing half of it.

 

[Mind of tempest]

I think there would absolutely be design space for such a thing mechanically. I don't know how it would fit thematically.

It doesn't exist because 5e D&D is not a "character class of every permutation" system. It's a "here are the dozen or so most iconic classes from the history of the game" system, that then tweaked those classes to fill many of the different possible permutations. But each and every role does not necessarily get the arcane and divine version, the caster, half-caster, and non-caster version, and the heavily armored, mediumly armored, lightly armored, and unarmored version.

I think for such a thing to be added to this edition of the game there would have to be an iconic fantasy or pop culture "class" people clamored for which lent itself to being an unarmored half-caster. I don't know what that would be.

For anyone who justs wants to play such a character in 5e I recommend just playing a bladesinger multiclass with fighter or rogue. It's fun.

that is the problem there never was one, the books have all moved in an incompatible direction and video games or anime do not tend to do the world-building for it just being literal say fighter mages a multi-class design, not a full idea and psionics have more or less fallen out of favour every from sci-fi to fantasy or even newer superhero things.

We did this for the "Adventurer" class (where every thing you get is via feats), to create a generic Unarmored Defense, equal to 10 + DEX + an ability score of your choice other than Dexterity.

STR - You know how to use your power to push attacks aside and off-balance your enemies.
CON - Your stamina keeps you moving in a fight, making you hard to hit.
INT - You analyze the situation and your opponents' movements, removing yourself from harm's way.
WIS - Your insight into danger has given you a sense of how to avoid it as much as possible.
CHA - Your confidence and poise allows you to position yourself in unexpected ways, fooling your attackers.

Or something like that...

thematically I have no idea either as non have even solved that with the rangers let alone another half-caster.

 

[John R Davis]

Not a great fan of using every stat to eventually do everything.

You end up with a PF1 kineticist and badly thought out ridiculousness ensues

 

[GMforPowergamers]

Does bladesinger count?

Yes and no...

I would love a 'magus' or 'dusk blade' style gish that used the artificer spell chart had it's own dedicated list of spells...but used a spell book with them and got unarmed defense (either Con, Int or Cha...I could see any of them)
and I would still give them barkskin as a spell they could learn

 

[jmartkdr2]

Yes and no...

I would love a 'magus' or 'dusk blade' style gish that used the artificer spell chart had it's own dedicated list of spells...but used a spell book with them and got unarmed defense (either Con, Int or Cha...I could see any of them)
and I would still give them barkskin as a spell they could learn

I generally agree: an arcane half-caster with its own spells would be awesome, or at least a weapon-focused artificer subclass.

But the reason we don’t have any official versions of that is the designers think it’s already covered. And technically they’re right, even if many attempts have fallen rather flat.

 

[GMforPowergamers]

I generally agree: an arcane half-caster with its own spells would be awesome, or at least a weapon-focused artificer subclass.

But the reason we don’t have any official versions of that is the designers think it’s already covered. And technically they’re right, even if many attempts have fallen rather flat.

yeah the hex blade, eldritch knight and the bladesinger (and even the artificer) do have it kinda covered... I just want something more. especially what all 3 miss out on is that 'spell list' I want a weapon attack spell and a cause melee havok spell that ONLY they can use... maybe mixed with some smites or smite like spells without giving those to the wizard too.

 

[Mind of tempest]

I generally agree: an arcane half-caster with its own spells would be awesome, or at least a weapon-focused artificer subclass.

But the reason we don’t have any official versions of that is the designers think it’s already covered. And technically they’re right, even if many attempts have fallen rather flat.

it is true the designers think that but honestly it never quite works it is more like you're given something close but if you care it does not truly work, plus a new half-caster would be cool and an artificer is more a three-quarters caster for some mad reason.

yeah the hex blade, eldritch knight and the bladesinger (and even the artificer) do have it kinda covered... I just want something more. especially what all 3 miss out on is that 'spell list' I want a weapon attack spell and a cause melee havok spell that ONLY they can use... maybe mixed with some smites or smite like spells without giving those to the wizard too.

it is not just the spells and you can't give it smites as those are paladins thing, it needs a theme as well but I have yet to see one of those made.

 

[jmartkdr2]

Also, the main place I see this kind of character is video games, and they usually just explain it as how fighters work in their settings.

 

[DEFCON 1]

There is absolutely not one of us who couldn't right now do a class feature swap by giving the Barbarian's Unarmored Defense feature to the Ranger in exchange for Favored Enemy or Natural Explorer. We could all do this right now for a PC of ours and have an "unarmored" half-caster this very moment (if indeed that flavorless mechanical class was actually necessary.) WotC doesn't need to put it in a book for us to make that swap. Heck... if someone wanted to play a more true-to-form 4E Avenger, they could swap out Divine Sense for Unarmored Defense and play an unarmored "Avenger" paladin to their heart's content.

As @Benjamin Olson stated... WotC doesn't make new Classes just to fill out new game mechanic combos. They make Classes when they have stories for them. If there's no quality Class story, they aren't going to make a new Class just for the sake of making it because there's a mechanical niche that could be filled (like "unarmored half-caster" or "arcane half-caster".)

 

[GMforPowergamers]

it is not just the spells and you can't give it smites as those are paladins thing, it needs a theme as well but I have yet to see one of those made.

The hex blade already gets a smite spell and the ranger gets a +x damage and ensare spell that might as well be a smite. so no that isn't just a paliden thing... the base divine smite is (swap spell slot for radiant d8s) but the spells can be taken... or you can make a varriant (like the rangers did)