Dungeons & Dragons releases Villainous Options playtest

Mistwell said:

Seems Barbarian 1 does almost as well and offers more benefits. Unarmored Defense is 10+Dex mod (Wis mod) + Con mod. Technically you can also use a shield with this. And you'd get 2 Weapon Masteries, Rage, and highest hid die in the game. And it sort of fits a Titan.

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I looked at Barbarian, and found most of the features are no better.

Even if you use point buy to start with Con 16, until you raise it you're only getting AC 13 + Wis mod. In other words, the same as the much cheaper Mage Armor option. It only climbs ahead at higher level, and I distrust anything that doesn't come online until 13th level.

The shield and weapon masteries are rendered irrelevant in Titan form. Maybe you could stipulate a humanoid enough form to still use them when you're Large, but without a clause that makes them scale with you there's no way my group would let a Huge Behemoth benefit from Medium sized gear. And having a Huge shield you only deploy right as you shapeshift would be incredibly gimmicky. Besides, if it's just shields, Druids already get those.

Rage fails because it requires you to attack with Str (Titan form does not) and only applies to weapons and Unarmed Strikes (which Titan form technically doesn't use). If there was any way to apply it to Titan form's Rend, I'd be all for it. But I don't see a way to make it work. The forms don't grant a Natural Weapon, they grant a special Attack Action.

A reminder

Power Level. The character options you read here might be more or less powerful than options in the Player’s Handbook. If a design survives playtesting, we adjust its power to the desirable level before publication. This means an option could be more orless powerful in its final form.

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I am not a fan of the flavor of the pestilence cleric. Unless you are in an Aztec setting where everyone who does of a specific thing belongs to the god of that thing, it seems short sighted. Also, disease and bugs are usually under the tempest domain (lots of rain means lots of mosquitoes means lots of disease), and I would rather have a tempest domain that this one.

That being said, I like vermin form and think it would be an interesting thing for warlocks or druids (the thought of "they say this is for X, but it feels like it is for Y" came up several times).

I do like the idea of the titan druid, but I kept thinking a paladin (smite works with unarmed strikes) or a barbarian mechanically getting something like the Elemental Monks's extended reach might work better. You would be more of an energy kaiju than a real one, but IDW is trying in the current Godzilla comics, so maybe that is tolerable.

Speaking of paladins, refluffing the Hell Knight as an Angel Knight (mostly swapping out fire for radiant and some Mt. Celestia layer themed damage for the layers of the 9 Hells) could be an interesting alt paladin. Kind of similar territory to the Zealot Barbarian. Also, I know people have been trying to make the bladelock into a front-line fighter since 5e, usually with a lot of effort for minimal results, so the Hell Knight is a way to do that. And just think of the additional subclasses it could inspire: Knight of the Summer Court, anyone?

I was not expecting to like the Demonic Sorcery Sorcerer, but I really like Abyssal Aura and like Abyssal Rupture. I would like summon demon, but I think for an 18th level ability, they could say you cast it as an 8th level spell. I kind of like the idea of magic user's high-level abilities being "you get an extra high-level spell slot, but you can only use it on something kind of ridiculous." I know what they were shooting for in terms of the bonus spells, but it felt kind of random, maybe replace them with a "demon magic table", which would replace Abyssal Aura (I would be sorry to lose it, but I think it would be worth it).

Mixed feelings on the paths. I don't like the idea, but I do like "you get an extra benefit when you cast a particular spell", which feels like it makes that spell more special because of the subclass or path you are on.

bedir than said:

A reminder

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Talking of power level, I find it remarkable how many therorcrafters fail to understand the mechanical effect of size.

Druid circle of titan sounds like a good idea to sell toys. I suggest to show some picture of kaiju-like monsters inspired in the forgotten Inhumanoids franchise. Could we watch an artificer subclass inspired into Robotix?

I also suspect about a future updated book of vile Darkness. I don't miss the vashals (humans with a vile feat) and jerren (reskined halflings). An update of hellbred(Fiendish Codex II) would be a more potentially interesting PC specie.

I guess after the update of vile darkness we could see a new edition of the book of exalted deeds.

Other point is that sourcebook will talk about slavery, or the theory is wrong and the future title would be like "Fiendish Codex".

Kurotowa said:

Rage fails because it requires you to attack with Str

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Giant ape use improvised weapons and unarmed strike.

It’s only natural weapon attack that specifies wisdom, and strength is always equal to wisdom.

But making melee attacks rather than chucking spells and AoEs is the wrong way to use the titan forms anyway

Paul Farquhar said:

Giant ape use improvised weapons and unarmed strike.

It’s only natural weapon attack that specifies wisdom, and strength is always equal to wisdom.

But making melee attacks rather than chucking spells and AoEs is the wrong way to use the titan forms anyway

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Again we're in "technically possible but not a good idea" territory, because Titan Druid doesn't get Extra Attack. It gets a Multiattack that only applies to Rend. So unless whatever benefit of taking a standard Attack Action is greater than making a second attack, it's a no go.

As for chucking spells, I presume the normal Wild Shape restrictions on spellcasting apply. That's certainly what's implied by the "Circle of Titan Spells" clause about being able to cast those specific spells while in Titan Form. So spellcasting is pretty limited, though Incandescent Breath is fairly good as AoE goes.

I do like these classes: they seem to be perfect for recurring villains. Ones which grow with the party.

Kurotowa said:

As for chucking spells, I presume the normal Wild Shape restrictions on spellcasting apply. That's certainly what's implied by the "Circle of Titan Spells" clause about being able to cast those specific spells while in Titan Form. So spellcasting is pretty limited, though Incandescent Breath is fairly good as AoE goes.

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As is destructive wave (if expensive) and trample (hint - move back and forth over the same enemies). The poison aura and AoE healing are good too. The spell list could do with tweaking to give a few more good options - I would add Bark Skin, Thunderwave and Dragon Breath.

The thing to realise about these forms is they are AoE specialists. Against a small number of strong enemies you have better options, but against numerous weak ones they excel. They are deliberately not stronger than a moon Druid, they have a different function.

Paul Farquhar said:

As is destructive wave (if expensive) and trample (hint - move back and forth over the same enemies). The poison aura and AoE healing are good too. The spell list could do with tweaking to give a few more good options - I would add Bark Skin, Thunderwave and Dragon Breath.

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Again, I'll note that the Behemoth's Rampager ability has a "first time per turn" clause. You can trample a bunch of targets, especially if you knock them down with a Shock Wave first, but you can't tap dance back and forth over the same one.

Still, I broadly agree, if not for exactly the same reason. It isn't that the Titan Form options are especially good at AoE, it's that the Titan Druid is another gish built onto a full caster base class. With those, once you get past low level your spells are always the stronger option, and the gish offerings are the weaker but cheaper alternative. Something you use to clean up minor encounters. When you get to the boss fight, though, it's spells all the way.