D&D (2024) All 48 Player’s Handbook 2024 Subclasses

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The new Player's Handbook contains 12 character classes, each with 4 subclasses, making 48 in total.
  • Barbarian: Path of the... Berserker, Wild Heart, World Tree, Zealot.
  • Bard: College of... Dance, Gamour, Lore, Valor.
  • Cleric: Life, Light, Trickery, War domains.
  • Druid: Circle of the... Land, Moon, Sea, Stars.
  • Fighter: Battle Master, Champion, Eldritch Knight, Psi Warrior.
  • Monk: Warrior of... Mercy, Shadow, The Elements, The Open Hand.
  • Paladin: Oath of... Devotion, Glory, The Ancients, Vengeance.
  • Ranger: Beast Master, Fey Wanderer, Gloom Stalker, Hunter.
  • Rogue: Arcane Trickster, Assassin, Soulknife, Thief.
  • Sorcerer: Aberrant Sorcery, Clockwork Sorcery, Draconic Sorcery, Wild Magic.
  • Warlock: Archfey Patron, Celestial Patron, Fiend Patron, Great Old One Patron.
  • Wizard: Abjurer, Diviner, Evoker, Illusionist.
 

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Except when 5e allows off turn actions with fighting styles or feats or spells. I loved my 5e paladin's regularly blocking attacks against allies off turn once per round from his fighting style.

Except when it provides basic bardic abilities of granting a fiddly inspiration die, or the level 1 upcastable cleric/bard/paladin bless and bane spell fiddly ongoing d4 modifier.

Except for where they are, mostly in the other 4e leadership type class role classes or in martial abilities.
I'm not a Sith. I don't deal in absolutes. All those things are reduced in scale and frequency. Also I'll bet you a dollar that Bane and Bless are getting reworks in Revised 5e. They've already said that the Protection fighting style is.

You can build a team buff focused Battle Master or Bard in 5e. That's not the same thing, as many people have made abundantly clear. Not because it does something different, but because the scale and frequency is much reduced. "Just turn up the dial", they say. Well, it's not that simple. A quantitative different becomes a qualitative one, past a certain point.

The people who want the Warlord back want it back because they loved how 4e played, and the Warlord was 4e gameplay at its most distilled. But you can't transplant the Warlord into 5e without adapting it, and I highly doubt those same people would be happy with a 5e compliant version of the Warlord. They don't want a 5e character, they want a 4e one. To which I say... I'm sorry you're not getting what you want, maybe you should be playing 4e instead.
 

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Looking down the 1st level at-will abilities, what have we got? Give an ally an off-turn basic melee attack, that's very 4e and only works because basic attacks are standardized.
That one is semi-true. But attack granting is still in 5e.
Command Flee to provoke an opportunity attack.
Haste to give an extra action.
Commander's stike.
Give an ally a numerical bonus on their next attack, that's the 4e numbers game there.
Numerical bonuses existed in 1e, 2e, and 3e.

But I doubt any Warlord fan would claim the class identity would be changed if it gave advantage instead of +Int to-hit.
Deny an enemy the ability to move without provoking an Opportunity Attack, that's 4e positional play at work.
So Sentinel is a 4e thing?
And give an ally the ability to shift 1 square, that's 4e off-turn actions and positional play again.
Litterally the dance bard 3 feature to move the ally 1d6 squares (5').
As a Warlord fan, would you really say that a 5e Warlord that has roughly a Battle Master Fighter's ability to do those things is really a Warlord? Of course not.
I have made a viable warlord by Frankensteining existing 5e mechanics together into a single class for a one shot. Not exactly elegant design, but it worked.

And that was several books ago. Stiff like Dance bard 3 would be a perfect addition to graft on.

A more elegant solution would probably be something like you get a d4 tactics die every turn, and a list of battlemaster / bardic inspiration stuff prepared at the start of each day.

At level 2, you get an aura with "when you roll initiative, roll your tactics die. Each friendly creature in the emanation (including you) can add the result to their initiative roll". The aura is there for subclass and choices later.

Level 3 is subclass.
  • Cleric 1/3 caster with healing word and such.
  • Fighter with extra attack.
  • Ranger boosting one who is good at ambushes, giving a boost in stealth in your aura
  • Psionic because that seems to be the 2024 thing, giving your party telepathy and if anyone can see the target, everyone can.
Level 5 you pick up a reaction.

Then you scale your tactics die, feats, more advanced maneuvers, add an effect to your aura, ect...
 
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The people who want the Warlord back want it back because they loved how 4e played, and the Warlord was 4e gameplay at its most distilled. But you can't transplant the Warlord into 5e without adapting it, and I highly doubt those same people would be happy with a 5e compliant version of the Warlord. They don't want a 5e character, they want a 4e one. To which I say... I'm sorry you're not getting what you want, maybe you should be playing 4e instead.
I already have 2 5e versions of a Warlord usable in my game. Adapting 4e stuff to 5e doesn't require some magic trick.
 


So, the thread highlighting/about the new classes/subclasses for the new edition has become a multi-page tennis match over a class/subclass from a bygone edition that isn't on that list.

It's like the new edition opens the door to resurrect ye olde "edition wars"... just using a new format/framework instead of "3rd vs. 4th/4th vs 5th." ... MEMMMMM'RIEEEEES, like the CORRRNUHS of my MIIIIIIND, Misty WATUHCULUHD MEMMMMM-OR-IEEEEEES...
 


Sorry for interrupting but could y'all quickly link to somewhere explaining this?

Changing Shove and Grapple from a contest to a saving throw severely nerfed martial options, because that is their best basic built in control. This nerfs strength characters who would make use of this (and those are some of the best non-magic builds in play). It also nerfs Rogues.

For example, playing a Rune Knight with Skill Expert and Tavern Brawler you could be pushing a +11 Athletics at 8th level (and +13 at 9th) on point buy and rolling with advantage while in Giants Might. For comparison an Adult Red Dragon has a +8. In one round with Giants Might and Action Surge you can shove him prone and grapple him very reliably, likely with one action (or half an action if Giants might is already active). From here out the Dragon is immobile and makes all attacks at disadvantage, probably for the entire fight since his chance of breaking out even if he wastes an action is very low. You can drag him around the battlefield and hold him in an allies AOE.

Because this is a contest, the Dragon's legendary resistance is irrelevant. Under the new rules you have only a small chance of this succeeding since it is a save and because it is a save virtually no chance to succeed once you consider legendary resistance.

Make it against something that is not large and you don't even need to go into Giant's Might and can do the grapple part as a bonus action with Tavern Brawler.

This is an extreme example with an optimized build but this applies to all strength-based martials (and to a lessor extent Rogies). Changes to the grapple and shove rules are the biggest nerf, but there are others too - changes to action surge for example.
 
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This is not what we are finding in our ongoing playtest. We are finding that martials have more versatility and their damage is WAY up. Spellcasters don’t feel tons different from 2014.

The martials are more powerful and versatile than they were previously, but so are the casters, especially since it is easier to swap spells. At the top of the food chain the Wizard gets a ton of improvements that widen the gap compared to what it was.

For example, if you are playing a UA playtest Barbarian in a game with a 5E Wizard it is closer than it was before, but if you are playing a UA Barbarian with a UA Wizard the gap is wider. This is especially true when you consider subclasses as the best non-caster subclasses are not in the UA (or the new PHB).

Edit: the WotC videos also point out that weapons oriented classes got a lot more changes. I think once you play them, you’ll agree that they have quite a different feel. Even a subclass as basic as the champion actually has a lot more going on.

I have played some of them (Fighter and Monk specifically). I agree they have a different feel, but I prefer the older versions personally.

The UA Fighter is not that bad. I would rather it did not have the new Weapon Mastery, I think that slows down the game and makes it less immersive and more gimmicky. But overall it is not the end of the world.

I realize people here like the new Monk, but the UA Monk is terrible IMO. It is way OP compared to where it should be considering the history and flavor of the class. The Monk should be weak at low and mid level, that is what the class is about for me and that is what the identity has been since the 1970s. The bad ass brawler beating guys up with their hand should be a fighter until very high levels IMO. The Monk should be more refined and tactical. That is just my opinion though.
 
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The Hexblade is a very popular subclass, but it's also controversial. I'm not surprised that we're not going to see it in the new edition. I suppose there might have been people talking about how they liked it if removing it was brought up for open discussion. But now that it's apparently going away, we'll just hear about how it was a bad class.

As someone playing one, I think it's a perfectly cromulent subclass and I'm enjoying playing it. Does my Hexblade dominate play or is it just better than other options? Nope, definitely not Obviously that's my opinion, but as someone who actually plays one in a fairly typical game, I'd say I at least have an informed opinion and think it definitely deserves to still be around.

My big problem with Hexblade is the patron is a bit off compared to the others. I made a pact with this sword ..... at 1st level ..... :unsure:

Works real well on some builds as a multiclass dip, but that is a niche. As a single class I think it is one of the weaker Warlocks. Sure it is the ultimate bladelock, but that is not saying much when the class mechanics are more suited to either a controller or blaster.

Fathomless, Genie and Undead are substantially more powerful IMO. Fey, Fiend, Celestial and in some campaigns Undying are about equal to a Hexblade.
 

Changing Shove and Grapple from a contest to a saving throw severely nerfed martial options, because that is their best basic built in control.
Yes, but they also buffed grapple as well. It takes 1 attack, not 1 action.

So at level 5, you can grapple, prone, action surge and attack twice (with luck).

Escaping also takes an action. Not a small penalty.
 

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