D&D (2024) Species/Racial/Cultural Subclasses

[Tonguez]

Dwarven Rune Forger - engraving runes and glyphs into stone and steel

Halfling Scrapper - dirty tricks and luck to fight larger opoonents

Gnome Thicket Trickster - using wits, stealth and illusory camouflage

Gnome Mushroom Druid - with a cute mushroom familiar and a wide mycellium network

 

[Mind of tempest]

Hey everyone! The recent UA for the new Forgotten Realms book's subclasses got me thinking about more setting specific subclasses. Normally, I like how D&D's classes and subclasses are fairly generic, and I haven't liked others that were highly specific, like the Blade Singer. But I was thinking back to 3E prestige classes and started thinking about subclasses as storytelling tools for a setting.

That got me and my love of systematic approaches thinking: what other D&D tropes could be represented in subclasses that are thematic to the PHB species (without limiting them to species, just where the traditions started)?

Elves have Blade singers
Dwarves can have Battleragers or Dwarven Defenders

What else is there from D&D's History?

darven rune and scroll casting artificers, as what dwarves think a wizard is is rather different to everyone else.

 

[CreamCloud0]

darven rune and scroll casting artificers, as what dwarves think a wizard is is rather different to everyone else.

imagine what we could really do with that concept if 5e were allowed more than one kind of spellcasting structure

 

[Minigiant]

4e had Paragon path for every race.

 

[Corinnguard]

3e had racial paragon classes in its' Unearthed Arcana book and racial substitution levels in its' various Races books (Races of Destiny, Races of the Wild, etc.).

 

[FitzTheRuke]

It's a slight tangent from the OP, but 4e also had Vampire and Werewolves as classes.

 

[MGibster]

I was always a fan of the 2E Kit, the Breach Gnome, which I later converted to a 3E Prestige Class. Basically, a gnome who specializes in defensive fighting, esp. in narrow spaces - usually to hold off enemies to allow the gnomes in their community to flee or prepare defenses.

I read that as Beach Gnome.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

3e had racial paragon classes in its' Unearthed Arcana book and racial substitution levels in its' various Races books (Races of Destiny, Races of the Wild, etc.).

Those were all fun options. I'd love to see something like those again.

 

[Corinnguard]

Those were all fun options. I'd love to see something like those again.

Monte Cook's Arcana Evolved RPG had something like the racial paragon classes. The setting also offered a character a chance to 'evolve' by consuming an otherworldly item called the tenebrian seeds. Like the racial paragon classes, your character would get three evolved levels which would grant them additional physical, mental and magical benefits.

 

[Misanthrope Prime]

I've been in favor of a background and origin feat that's something like "dwarven traditionalist" that gives the smattering of brewer tools and hammer and armor proficiencies, or "elf traditionalist" which gives rapiers and longbows and such. Theoretically you could take that feat even if you're not part of the corresponding race, to, say, represent a gnome who grew up in dwarven culture.