D&D 5E Archetypes to add to 5e

[Undrave]

Circa 2002 to 2004, a player in my campaign had a halfling Barbarian with lots of skill in Cooking. His family ran an inn, and he joined the party to travel to other lands for new recipes he could bring back home. During the party's travels, he acquired a reputation as a chef that preceded him. As a result of this reputation, the party gained an audience with a king, but he also found himself challenged to cook-offs on a handful of occasions.

Sounds like a hoot!

I guess a Gourmet Hunter could also be a Ranger now that I think about it.

 

[DEFCON 1]

If you want INT used... especially for the rogue... make Investigation the skill needed to find traps and secret doors. BOOM! Not a single rogue will dump INT.

That's been my split from the beginning... Perception finds hidden creatures and things that can move, Investigation finds inanimate objects and things.

 

[Undrave]

If you want INT used... especially for the rogue... make Investigation the skill needed to find traps and secret doors. BOOM! Not a single rogue will dump INT.

That's been my split from the beginning... Perception finds hidden creatures and things that can move, Investigation finds inanimate objects and things.

Yeah but a Rogue gets Expertise so they only need like a 1. Besides, that's a very limited scope of things and doesn't help make OTHER non-Rogue more likely to be 'smart'.

 

[DEFCON 1]

shrug I guess it all depends on the DCs of the traps you set. Plus, when you use Investigation for traps and doors, I find I tend to get fewer Rogues using their Expertise on it because they also have Thieve's Tools, Perception, Deception, and Sleight of Hand to also possibly take instead.

At my personal tables the players rarely just "dump INT" as a standard operating procedure, simply because they like being able to find secret doors plus actually get answers to life's Arcana, Religion, History and Nature questions.

Obviously if other DMs don't use Investigation for that stuff or have players making knowledge checks (or if the entire group is kept together all the time so that all knowledge checks just default to the wizard repeatedly), then sure, the PCs won't tend to need it. But that doesn't mean a DM can't decide to actually make it a more useful stat if they really want to. They just have to choose to run their game in such a way that it becomes more necessary.

 

[Xenonnonex]

5e is mostly about the Forgotten Realms. Wizards should go through the FRCS and Player's Guide to Faerun and the other 3e supps to think about what to include and what to discard.
We got the long death monk and purple dragon knight from the Player's Guide. Convert the other prestige classes into archetypes and you have a lot to work from.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

5e used to be mostly about FR.

Staff has changed, and so has setting preferences.

 

[Yaarel]

5e used to be mostly about FR.

Staff has changed, and so has setting preferences.

Since 5e polytheism is always ubiquitous and coercive, everything still seems "FR" to me.

I am waiting to see Eberron. The first thing I will do is do search and find for every time the letters "god" or "deit" occurs, and then decide if 5e will ever have a non-FR product.

 

[Arnwolf666]

One D&D archetype not covered so far is the old school Christian cleric with Sticks to Snakes and Part Water. But it's understandable if they choose not to go there, and it was never a good fit with D&D polytheism.

It would be handy for more historical fantasy settings.

 

[Arnwolf666]

I've always wanted a "physical transformation/body horror" Barbarian archetype.

Two for Bards I can think of are a College of Dirges (necromancy focused) and College of Hymns (psuedo Cleric basically). I've seen both in homebrew (even made one of them myself), but having official stuff is always nice.

A Chaos-esque domain for Clerics has been mentioned, and one that I would like (I think Order fits for Law, and maybe Trickery works for Chaos, but it's a loose fit.) Another domain I'd like to see is Travel, but that's more personal preference then anything.

This is more gameplay than story, but a dedicated Blaster Druid would be nice to have.

A Throwing based Paladin would be neat, just don't really know how you would tie that to an oath.

I would like an Undead sorcerous origin, maybe have it leech life and turn it into sorcerer points?

Noble Genie Warlock is one that I am honestly surprised hasn't even been mentioned by WotC.

For a new class, I'm always

I can see why they did though, considering Multiclassing is an optional rule and mainly leads to powergaming anyway.

Exactly!!!

 

[Arnwolf666]

The Cleric class is weird in the D&D tradition.

Essentially it is a healbot with lots of staying power (defenses, hit points, etcetera) but with weak offensive powers (sub par weapons, sub par spells).

Its only ‘flavor’ is problematic: the baking of a specific multiverse setting into its mechanics.

In other words, the Cleric actually lacks its own character concept, and the setting flavor replaces it.



Aspects of the Cleric traditions that could be useful are:

• gish − full caster with melee combat survivability
• domains − ability to choose a thematic set of spells
• healer − access to healing spells and features as one of the domains

Flavorwise, both the Warlock and Cleric can derive their powers from powerful creatures.

The Warlock makes a ‘bargain’, a pact, to gain powers. This is its distinctive character concept.

Perhaps what could give the Cleric its own character concept is, it gains its powers from a specific spiritual community.

The themes of the specific spiritual community, then determine the spell list.

Potentially, the Cleric is the most ‘linguistic’ character concept. The powers come from the semiotic language of symbols, ideals, and themes.

Ultimately, the character concept is the magical power of words, in the language that a specific spiritual community speaks.

If so, the player needs the freedom to choose from a diversity spiritual communities, or pioneer a new spiritual community, in order to give the player latitude to personalize ones own unique character concept.

I would really like cleric archetypes for simulating the historical role of clerics in society. Especially if they can get into pantheism, animism, prophets, oracles, etc.