Hawk Diesel
Adventurer
So after posting a similar thread early last year, and me now being older and (I'd like to think) wiser, I thought I'd give this another go.
First, let me clearly state my presuppositions and design goals:
1) Capstones should not be about maintaining game balance. That got left behind long ago. Each Capstone should in some way be literally game-breaking. This is the territory of Epic Level Play.
2) While Capstones should be game-breaking, there should be a semblance of balance between classes. It's probably not going to be perfect, but maybe eyeballing it to be close is good enough.
3) Capstones should be FUN! The capstone is the sole reason for a character not to want to multiclass. A good capstone should entice a player enough that the decision to multiclass is going to be a hard one.
4) I am not including the Ranger or the Druid just yet. I see both classes as problematic (Ranger for the obvious reasons, and Druid because I feel their Wildshape ability should be more standardized and easier for a player to use without access to the Monster Manual and whatever new official monsters come out).
With that being said, I will provide the Capstones I currently have, along with any reasoning behind various changes.
Artificer
[sblock=Artificer]
Soul of Artifice
At 20th level, your understanding of magic items is unmatched, allowing you to mingle your soul with items linked to you. You can attune to unlimited magic items at once, though you must follow the normal rules regarding how many magic items you can benefit from. In addition, you gain a +1 bonus to all saving throws per magic item you are currently attuned to.
Reasoning: So the only change I made for this capstone is upping the number from attuning to 6 magic items to attuning to unlimited magic items. While the artificer is design to make magic items along the way, this ability does rely a bit on DM fiat to actually provide magic item rewards. I don't love it, but it certainly fits the artificer and is unique among what other character classes could achieve.[/sblock]
Barbarian
[sblock=Barbarian]
Primal Champion
At 20th level, you embody the power of the wilds. Your Strength and Constitution scores increase by 4. Your maximum for those scores is now 24. In addition, while raging, if an attack against you would normally deal piercing, bludgeoning, or slashing damage, you can use your reaction to ignore it and take no damage.
Reasoning: Primal Champion is a great capstone. You become stronger and hardier than any other player could. But what if you haven't invested the ASIs to max out your Str and Con? This gives you an option that allows you to truly shrug off damage and be the wild rager a barbarian represents.[/sblock]
Bard
[sblock=Bard]
Superior Inspiration
At 20th level, you are an endless font of inspiration and support to your team. You have unlimited uses of Bardic Inspiration, though you can never use more than one per turn. Additionally, whenever you or someone you inspired rolls a Bardic Inspiration die, roll the die twice and take either result.
Reasoning: In the original PHB versions, by level 20 Wizards can turn 2nd level spells into cantrips. Clerics can call upon their gods and ask them for personal favors and have confidence that they will answer. This seems right along those lines.[/sblock]
Cleric
[sblock=Cleric]
Divine Recovery
At level 20, through prayer you can regain immense stores of divine energy to drive your most powerful spells. Once per day when you finish a short rest, you can choose to recover one 6th level spell slot, one 7th level spell slot, one 8th level spell slot, and one 9th level spell slot.
Reasoning: So this one has me stumped a bit. Initially I thought Divine Intervention was appropriate as is. I mean, asking your deity for a personal favor once every 7 days seems legit. But there are a couple of things about this ability that bother me. For one, it is a HUGE jump. It goes from a 19% chance of working to absolutely going to happen. Also, it has the longest reset value of any ability, let alone capstone ability. But perhaps the biggest issue I have with this ability is that it completely relies on DM fiat. The DM has total control. Sure, guidelines stipulate that any cleric spell or domain spell would be appropriate. But still, I think we can actually do better. I just don't know where I would go with it. And I also have a slight sense that maybe each domain should have a unique capstone. But that is a lot of work too. I'm not above doing that work, but I just am not sure what direction to take it. So I thought I would go with this. Wizards, Sorcerers, and Warlocks all get greater access to lower level spells to cast more consistently. I thought Clerics are the masters of Miracles, so it might be more appropriate to give them higher spell slots. But I have no idea if this works compared to the other.[/sblock]
Druid
[sblock=Druid]
In progress upon completion of my own tweaking to address and revise the class as a whole.[/sblock]
Fighter
[sblock=Fighter]
So I'm giving my reasoning for the fighter upfront before the capstones because it is such a drastic change. First of all, making 4 attacks is a SUPER WEAK capstone. Especially when an Eldritch Blast can make 4 attacks by level 17. In fact, if you follow the normal progression established in the structure of the fighter, they should get 4 attacks at level 17. However, they artificially delayed the final attack in order to make it a capstone. I'm not sure why they did this, but I disagree.
Additionally, I really wanted to incorporate a fighter's choice of fighting style within the capstone. This would give your fighting style meaning and be a more defining feature of your fighter. And so I created capstones based on which Fighting Style you chose.
Fighting Style Mastery
By level 20, you have mastered your particular style of fighting. You gain the benefits below associated with your fighting style. If you have more than one fighting style, you may choose which mastery benefit you gain.
Peerless Archer
Requires the Archery fighting style
Your arrows always sail true and deal maximum damage. Once per round when you make a ranged attack, you can choose to have your attack automatically hit and deal maximum damage. The target must be within the maximum range of your ranged attack. You can choose to use this ability even after you have made your attack roll, but before you know the result of the roll.
Supreme Street Fighter
Requires Dueling fighting style
When you fight, you fight to win. Whenever you attempt to use the Shove, Grapple, or Disarm action, you gain a +10 bonus. This bonus also applies when you defend against these types of actions.
Additionally, when a hostile creature misses you with an attack, you can use your reaction to force that creature to repeat the same attack against another creature (other than itself) of your choice. The new target must be within 5ft of you.
Ultimate Defense
Requires the Defense fighting style
You have become a walking fortress. While you are wearing armor, you gain resistance to all damage types.
Brutal Weapon Fighting
Requires the Great Weapon Fighting style
The thunder in the distance is not from lighting, but the shockwave of your destructive assaults. Whenever you wield a weapon in two hands that has the two-handed or versatile property, you may double number of damage dice normally used for such a weapon.
Marvelous Bulwark
Requires the Protection fighting style
You become safety incarnate for those around you. You no longer require a reaction to activate your protection ability. When a creature you can see attempts to attack a target other than you that is within 5 feet of you, that attack is made with disadvantage.
In addition, when a creature you can see successfully attacks a target other than you that is within 5 feet of you, you can use your reaction to negate the damage dealt by the attack. You must be wielding a shield to use this ability.
Terrible Onslaught
Requires the Tunnel Fighter fighting style (From Unearthed Arcana)
Nobody gets by you unscathed and your weapon flashes and dances in a blur. Opportunity attacks never require you to use your reaction. Creatures that are forced to move out of your reach now draw opportunity attacks. You can even make opportunity attacks against targets that use the Disengage action, as well as targets that have abilities that would normally prevent opportunity attacks. I think this one needs some work.
Two-Weapon Master
Requires the Two-Weapon Fighting style
Your grace and speed wielding two weapons is simply unmatched. You gain an additional attack when you use the Attack action while wielding two weapons. In addition, whenever you use a bonus action to attack with your off-hand weapon, you can make two attacks instead of one.
Penetrating Shot
Requires the Close Quarters Shooter fighting style (From Unearthed Arcana)
Your ranged weapon attacks can penetrate almost anything in their path, striking multiple enemies with a single shot. Whenever you make an attack with a ranged weapon, you can choose to have your attack become a line effect that fires forward in a line that is 5ft wide and 30 feet long. You make your attack roll as normal, but every target in the path of the line must make a Dexterity Saving Throw (DC = to the value of the attack roll). Those that fail take damage from the attack as if they were the target.
The shot can penetrate most barriers, but it is blocked by 1 foot of stone, 1 inch of common metal, or 3 feet of wood or dirt. This ability does not reduce cover in any way.[/sblock]
Monk
[sblock=Monk]
Perfect Self
If you start your turn with 0 Ki Points, you immediately regain 1 Ki Point.
Reasoning: This ensures that the monk ALWAYs has Ki points to do their signature abilities. But since it limits it to one per turn, you couldn't perform endless stunning strikes, nor spend all your Ki Points on your turn only to use one to get advantage on a saving throw.[/sblock]
Paladin
[sblock=Paladin]
Ultimate Smite
At level 20, the divine power infused in your attacks is relentless and enduring. Whenever you hit a creature with a melee weapon, the creature takes an extra 2d8 radiant damage, rather than 1d8 radiant damage. If you also use your Divine Smite with an attack, you add this damage to the extra damage of your Divine Smite.
Additionally, whenever you expend a spell slot to use your Divine Smite ability, roll a d6. On a roll of 4 or higher, you regain the used spell slot.
Reasoning: I like the paladin capstones based on the oath. But a paladin's unique ability is to smite. This allows them to smite more often and harder.[/sblock]
Ranger
[sblock=Ranger]
In progress upon completion of my own tweaking to address and revise the class as a whole.[/sblock]
Rogue
[sblock=Rogue]
Stroke of Luck
At 20th level, you have an uncanny knack for succeeding when you need to. If your attack misses a target within range, you can use your reaction turn the miss into a hit.
If you successfully hit a target and can apply sneak attack damage, you can use your reaction to maximize your sneak attack damage.
Finally, if you fail a saving throw, you can use your reaction to treat the failure as a success.
Reasoning: I thought the original Stroke of Luck was on to something. But I didn't think it went quite far enough.[/sblock]
Sorcerer
[sblock=Sorcerer]
Limitless Font of Magic
At 20th level, whenever you begin your turn with 0 sorcery points, you immediately gain 3 sorcery points.
Reasoning: Sorcerers will always have access to metamagic. Alternatively, if they run out of spell slots, they will always have access to at least a 2nd level spell slot.[/sblock]
Warlock
[sblock=Warlock]
Eldritch Master
At 20th level, as a bonus action you can enter a special state in which you become a conduit of nearly unlimited power. For the next minute, you can cast any spell from your Pact Magic feature without needing or expending a spell slot. Once you use this feature, you must finish a long rest before you can do so again.
Reasoning: The original sucked. If you are able to take one minute to regain your Pact Magic spell slots, you are probably in a position to just take a short rest and regain them normally. This new one seems appropriately epic. Originally I had created a capstone for each Patron (similar to the Paladin), but those have been difficult to balance well.[/sblock]
Wizard
[sblock=Wizard]
Signature Spell
When you reach 20th level, you gain mastery over two powerful spells and can cast them with no effort. Choose two 3rd-level wizard spells in your spellbook as your signature spells. You always have these spells prepared, they don’t count against the number of spells you have prepared, and you can cast those spells at their lowest level without expending a spell slot. If you want to cast either spell at a higher level, you must expend a spell slot as normal.
Reasoning: How is two extra castings of a 3rd level spell more powerful than turning a 1st and 2nd level spell into cantrips? This is how you get powerful necromancers and wizards capable of razing villages to cinders and ash.[/sblock]
First, let me clearly state my presuppositions and design goals:
1) Capstones should not be about maintaining game balance. That got left behind long ago. Each Capstone should in some way be literally game-breaking. This is the territory of Epic Level Play.
2) While Capstones should be game-breaking, there should be a semblance of balance between classes. It's probably not going to be perfect, but maybe eyeballing it to be close is good enough.
3) Capstones should be FUN! The capstone is the sole reason for a character not to want to multiclass. A good capstone should entice a player enough that the decision to multiclass is going to be a hard one.
4) I am not including the Ranger or the Druid just yet. I see both classes as problematic (Ranger for the obvious reasons, and Druid because I feel their Wildshape ability should be more standardized and easier for a player to use without access to the Monster Manual and whatever new official monsters come out).
With that being said, I will provide the Capstones I currently have, along with any reasoning behind various changes.
Artificer
[sblock=Artificer]
Soul of Artifice
At 20th level, your understanding of magic items is unmatched, allowing you to mingle your soul with items linked to you. You can attune to unlimited magic items at once, though you must follow the normal rules regarding how many magic items you can benefit from. In addition, you gain a +1 bonus to all saving throws per magic item you are currently attuned to.
Reasoning: So the only change I made for this capstone is upping the number from attuning to 6 magic items to attuning to unlimited magic items. While the artificer is design to make magic items along the way, this ability does rely a bit on DM fiat to actually provide magic item rewards. I don't love it, but it certainly fits the artificer and is unique among what other character classes could achieve.[/sblock]
Barbarian
[sblock=Barbarian]
Primal Champion
At 20th level, you embody the power of the wilds. Your Strength and Constitution scores increase by 4. Your maximum for those scores is now 24. In addition, while raging, if an attack against you would normally deal piercing, bludgeoning, or slashing damage, you can use your reaction to ignore it and take no damage.
Reasoning: Primal Champion is a great capstone. You become stronger and hardier than any other player could. But what if you haven't invested the ASIs to max out your Str and Con? This gives you an option that allows you to truly shrug off damage and be the wild rager a barbarian represents.[/sblock]
Bard
[sblock=Bard]
Superior Inspiration
At 20th level, you are an endless font of inspiration and support to your team. You have unlimited uses of Bardic Inspiration, though you can never use more than one per turn. Additionally, whenever you or someone you inspired rolls a Bardic Inspiration die, roll the die twice and take either result.
Reasoning: In the original PHB versions, by level 20 Wizards can turn 2nd level spells into cantrips. Clerics can call upon their gods and ask them for personal favors and have confidence that they will answer. This seems right along those lines.[/sblock]
Cleric
[sblock=Cleric]
Divine Recovery
At level 20, through prayer you can regain immense stores of divine energy to drive your most powerful spells. Once per day when you finish a short rest, you can choose to recover one 6th level spell slot, one 7th level spell slot, one 8th level spell slot, and one 9th level spell slot.
Reasoning: So this one has me stumped a bit. Initially I thought Divine Intervention was appropriate as is. I mean, asking your deity for a personal favor once every 7 days seems legit. But there are a couple of things about this ability that bother me. For one, it is a HUGE jump. It goes from a 19% chance of working to absolutely going to happen. Also, it has the longest reset value of any ability, let alone capstone ability. But perhaps the biggest issue I have with this ability is that it completely relies on DM fiat. The DM has total control. Sure, guidelines stipulate that any cleric spell or domain spell would be appropriate. But still, I think we can actually do better. I just don't know where I would go with it. And I also have a slight sense that maybe each domain should have a unique capstone. But that is a lot of work too. I'm not above doing that work, but I just am not sure what direction to take it. So I thought I would go with this. Wizards, Sorcerers, and Warlocks all get greater access to lower level spells to cast more consistently. I thought Clerics are the masters of Miracles, so it might be more appropriate to give them higher spell slots. But I have no idea if this works compared to the other.[/sblock]
Druid
[sblock=Druid]
In progress upon completion of my own tweaking to address and revise the class as a whole.[/sblock]
Fighter
[sblock=Fighter]
So I'm giving my reasoning for the fighter upfront before the capstones because it is such a drastic change. First of all, making 4 attacks is a SUPER WEAK capstone. Especially when an Eldritch Blast can make 4 attacks by level 17. In fact, if you follow the normal progression established in the structure of the fighter, they should get 4 attacks at level 17. However, they artificially delayed the final attack in order to make it a capstone. I'm not sure why they did this, but I disagree.
Additionally, I really wanted to incorporate a fighter's choice of fighting style within the capstone. This would give your fighting style meaning and be a more defining feature of your fighter. And so I created capstones based on which Fighting Style you chose.
Fighting Style Mastery
By level 20, you have mastered your particular style of fighting. You gain the benefits below associated with your fighting style. If you have more than one fighting style, you may choose which mastery benefit you gain.
Peerless Archer
Requires the Archery fighting style
Your arrows always sail true and deal maximum damage. Once per round when you make a ranged attack, you can choose to have your attack automatically hit and deal maximum damage. The target must be within the maximum range of your ranged attack. You can choose to use this ability even after you have made your attack roll, but before you know the result of the roll.
Supreme Street Fighter
Requires Dueling fighting style
When you fight, you fight to win. Whenever you attempt to use the Shove, Grapple, or Disarm action, you gain a +10 bonus. This bonus also applies when you defend against these types of actions.
Additionally, when a hostile creature misses you with an attack, you can use your reaction to force that creature to repeat the same attack against another creature (other than itself) of your choice. The new target must be within 5ft of you.
Ultimate Defense
Requires the Defense fighting style
You have become a walking fortress. While you are wearing armor, you gain resistance to all damage types.
Brutal Weapon Fighting
Requires the Great Weapon Fighting style
The thunder in the distance is not from lighting, but the shockwave of your destructive assaults. Whenever you wield a weapon in two hands that has the two-handed or versatile property, you may double number of damage dice normally used for such a weapon.
Marvelous Bulwark
Requires the Protection fighting style
You become safety incarnate for those around you. You no longer require a reaction to activate your protection ability. When a creature you can see attempts to attack a target other than you that is within 5 feet of you, that attack is made with disadvantage.
In addition, when a creature you can see successfully attacks a target other than you that is within 5 feet of you, you can use your reaction to negate the damage dealt by the attack. You must be wielding a shield to use this ability.
Terrible Onslaught
Requires the Tunnel Fighter fighting style (From Unearthed Arcana)
Nobody gets by you unscathed and your weapon flashes and dances in a blur. Opportunity attacks never require you to use your reaction. Creatures that are forced to move out of your reach now draw opportunity attacks. You can even make opportunity attacks against targets that use the Disengage action, as well as targets that have abilities that would normally prevent opportunity attacks. I think this one needs some work.
Two-Weapon Master
Requires the Two-Weapon Fighting style
Your grace and speed wielding two weapons is simply unmatched. You gain an additional attack when you use the Attack action while wielding two weapons. In addition, whenever you use a bonus action to attack with your off-hand weapon, you can make two attacks instead of one.
Penetrating Shot
Requires the Close Quarters Shooter fighting style (From Unearthed Arcana)
Your ranged weapon attacks can penetrate almost anything in their path, striking multiple enemies with a single shot. Whenever you make an attack with a ranged weapon, you can choose to have your attack become a line effect that fires forward in a line that is 5ft wide and 30 feet long. You make your attack roll as normal, but every target in the path of the line must make a Dexterity Saving Throw (DC = to the value of the attack roll). Those that fail take damage from the attack as if they were the target.
The shot can penetrate most barriers, but it is blocked by 1 foot of stone, 1 inch of common metal, or 3 feet of wood or dirt. This ability does not reduce cover in any way.[/sblock]
Monk
[sblock=Monk]
Perfect Self
If you start your turn with 0 Ki Points, you immediately regain 1 Ki Point.
Reasoning: This ensures that the monk ALWAYs has Ki points to do their signature abilities. But since it limits it to one per turn, you couldn't perform endless stunning strikes, nor spend all your Ki Points on your turn only to use one to get advantage on a saving throw.[/sblock]
Paladin
[sblock=Paladin]
Ultimate Smite
At level 20, the divine power infused in your attacks is relentless and enduring. Whenever you hit a creature with a melee weapon, the creature takes an extra 2d8 radiant damage, rather than 1d8 radiant damage. If you also use your Divine Smite with an attack, you add this damage to the extra damage of your Divine Smite.
Additionally, whenever you expend a spell slot to use your Divine Smite ability, roll a d6. On a roll of 4 or higher, you regain the used spell slot.
Reasoning: I like the paladin capstones based on the oath. But a paladin's unique ability is to smite. This allows them to smite more often and harder.[/sblock]
Ranger
[sblock=Ranger]
In progress upon completion of my own tweaking to address and revise the class as a whole.[/sblock]
Rogue
[sblock=Rogue]
Stroke of Luck
At 20th level, you have an uncanny knack for succeeding when you need to. If your attack misses a target within range, you can use your reaction turn the miss into a hit.
If you successfully hit a target and can apply sneak attack damage, you can use your reaction to maximize your sneak attack damage.
Finally, if you fail a saving throw, you can use your reaction to treat the failure as a success.
Reasoning: I thought the original Stroke of Luck was on to something. But I didn't think it went quite far enough.[/sblock]
Sorcerer
[sblock=Sorcerer]
Limitless Font of Magic
At 20th level, whenever you begin your turn with 0 sorcery points, you immediately gain 3 sorcery points.
Reasoning: Sorcerers will always have access to metamagic. Alternatively, if they run out of spell slots, they will always have access to at least a 2nd level spell slot.[/sblock]
Warlock
[sblock=Warlock]
Eldritch Master
At 20th level, as a bonus action you can enter a special state in which you become a conduit of nearly unlimited power. For the next minute, you can cast any spell from your Pact Magic feature without needing or expending a spell slot. Once you use this feature, you must finish a long rest before you can do so again.
Reasoning: The original sucked. If you are able to take one minute to regain your Pact Magic spell slots, you are probably in a position to just take a short rest and regain them normally. This new one seems appropriately epic. Originally I had created a capstone for each Patron (similar to the Paladin), but those have been difficult to balance well.[/sblock]
Wizard
[sblock=Wizard]
Signature Spell
When you reach 20th level, you gain mastery over two powerful spells and can cast them with no effort. Choose two 3rd-level wizard spells in your spellbook as your signature spells. You always have these spells prepared, they don’t count against the number of spells you have prepared, and you can cast those spells at their lowest level without expending a spell slot. If you want to cast either spell at a higher level, you must expend a spell slot as normal.
Reasoning: How is two extra castings of a 3rd level spell more powerful than turning a 1st and 2nd level spell into cantrips? This is how you get powerful necromancers and wizards capable of razing villages to cinders and ash.[/sblock]
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