D&D 5E "Fixing" 5e's Least Well Performing Classes

[doctorbadwolf]

Who's saying that warlocks under-perform? I thought they were one of the classes that was in danger of being OP this edition.

Lotta people find warlocks fustrating in play.

None of these classes are actually underpowered. They just have satisfaction issues that are fairly easy, IMO, to solve.

 

[Helldritch]

My DM also adhere's to the 6-8 encounters unless story dictates otherwise. I'm pretty good at pacing myself.

If you came out and said "hey, I don't really want you guys to short rest right now." I'd accept it, of course after notifying you that short rests aren't something that can be easily abused to begin with(everyone loses something in a fight even after a short rest).

If you were just trying to be like "Oh, this place is dangerous. The enemies are really smart and will bust down the barricades."

That's easily the best scenario for us. We have a barricaded defensive position and the enemies are moving towards us. Even if they all try to crowd around, we have the ability to seal off certain entrances with spells from the long resters to have them funnel in (with the tanks basically being near the door). Turning it into a sort-of meatgrinder.

Of course, assuming I think you did this for the sake of realism and not just to screw with us. An unlimited amount of enemies would be bothersome but we'd be able to stand our ground for the most part otherwise. I wouldn't be trying to "break your game" either. It's only natural to hold a defensive position and let the enemies funnel towards you.

Never would I do the bolded part. Random is random. But depending on the random and zone you're in. Reinforcements can happen.

 

[Chaosmancer]

I fully agree with the ranger fixes. I've essentially melded the Class Variants, Revised and base ranger together. Took a lot of those level 1 abilities from the Revised and made them additional small bits you can gain from the Deft Explorer Ability. It makes it so you have some choices, and you won't eventually get all of them.

I also gave the prepared spells, just like the paladin.

Last thing to do for them is fix a few real crappy spells (Flame Arrows, Grasping Vine, and the like) and they are golden.

Warlock, just moved some things around. Redid Hexblade into the "Cursed One" and took their martial stuff to just add to blade pact. I tend to start at level 3, so no real thematic problems expected from that.

Then just some minor stuff. Taking the invocations that say "cast this spell 1/day with a warlock slot" and saying"cast it once for free, and later as a warlock slot". Gave them essentially Proficienyc spell slots, which is a little more powerful, but hasn't been noticeable yet.


Monk I'm still ruminating on. A combat buff at 11th and a little more ki seems to be the best fixes, but I'm not sure yet. And I think the 4e monk needs to just be re-written. I need to look back and see how I handled that when I did my big rewrite of everything. Oh, and fix the capstone.

I gave them the ability to use the basic ki actions (flurry, step, defense, maybe the eye one from CV) for free. It is level 20, it should rock.


And sorcerer was just a complete rewrite. I still need to find a way to test it and see if it is too powerful or not.

 

[DeviousQuail]

I don't have issues with any of the more common classes usually mentioned as being bad, except one. And it's a minor complaint really.

Way of the 4 elements monk. With the expansion books and increased spells, the choices the monk can invoke should be expanded to reflect that. And I think they should be able to choose one elemental cantrip. And another at level 6, 12, and 18 (or somewhere around there) to have a total four cantrips, one for each element.

It did feel weird that one of the first things to come out after the 5e core books was Elemental Evil. All those elemental themed cantrips and spells that would've been perfect for the 4E monk. To future proof the class they could've done a "you get one X level spell, it must have a fire, earth, wind, or water theme", instead of having a set list. WotC could post their official list of spells that are covered, while allowing each table to make their own decisions.

 

[Stalker0]

Monk

So I designed an alternate monk that I had a player playtest for me (its in spoilers below if you want to take a look). I tried a lot of improvements, and I liked most of them. However, if your look at a minimal list of changes from that run these would be the best changes imo.

Spoiler

Altered Monk Table

Level​	Proficiency Bonus​	Martial Arts​	Ki Points​	Unarmored Movement​	Features​
1st	+2	1d4	—	—	Unarmored Defense, Martial Arts
2nd	+2	1d4	2	+10 ft.	Ki, Unarmored Movement
3rd	+2	1d4	3	+10 ft.	Monastic Tradition, Second Wind
4th	+2	1d4	4	+10 ft.	Ability Score Improvement, Transcendent Defense
5th	+3	1d6	5	+10 ft.	Extra Attack, Stunning Blow
6th	+3	1d6	6	+15 ft.	Ki-Empowered Strikes, Monastic Tradition Feature
7th	+3	1d6	7	+15 ft.	Evasion, Instinctual Form
8th	+3	1d6	8	+15 ft.	Ability Score Improvement
9th	+4	1d6	9	+15 ft.	Unarmored Movement Improvement
10th	+4	1d6	10	+20 ft.	Purity of Body
11th	+4	1d8	11	+20 ft.	Monastic Tradition Feature
12th	+4	1d8	12	+20 ft.	Ability Score Improvement
13th	+5	1d8	13	+20 ft.	Tongue of the Sun and Moon
14th	+5	1d8	14	+25 ft.	Adamantine Soul, Step of the Spirit
15th	+5	1d8	15	+25 ft.	Timeless Body
16th	+5	1d8	16	+25 ft.	Ability Score Improvement
17th	+6	1d10	17	+25 ft.	Monastic Tradition Feature
18th	+6	1d10	18	+30 ft.	Empty Body
19th	+6	1d10	19	+30 ft.	Ability Score Improvement
20th	+6	1d10	20	+30 ft.	Perfect Self

Unarmored Defense: AC = 11 + Dex + Prof Bonus

Martial Arts: Same

Ki – At the start of your turn, gain 1 Ki, to a maximum of your Ki points noted in the chart. You can spend that KI on the following abilities.


· Step of the Wind: When performing movement, spend 1 Ki and gain the effect of the Disengage or Dash actions (or spend 2 KI to gain both). Your jump speed is doubled for movement.

• Patient Defense: As a reaction when an attack roll is made against you, spend 1 Ki and gain the benefits of the dodge action until the start of your next turn (still costs Ki)
• Flurry of Blows: When using the Martial Arts bonus action, spend 1 Ki and gain an additional unarmed attack. The Martial Arts bonus attack counts as a Flurry of Blows attack for abilities.
  
  
• Diamond Soul: When making a saving throw, spend 1 Ki to become proficient in that save.

Unarmored Movement – Same

Monastic Tradition – Same

Second Wind - As the fighter, but using the Monk's level.

Transcendent Defense: You can spend 1 KI to reduce falling damage or the damage from a ranged attack by 5 times your monk level. This ability can be used once per round.

Stunning Blow: When using Flurry of Blows, you can choose 1 hit against a target to be a stunning blow. The target must make a constitution saving throw or be stunned until of your next turn. You can use this ability once per round.

Ki-Powered Strikes: Your attacks count as magical weapons and can drain the KI from other living things. When you make a critical hit on an enemy that is not a construct or undead, you regain 1 Ki.

Evasion: Same

Instinctual Form: When incapacitated or unconscious, you can still take reactions.

Purity of Body: Same


Tongue of the Sun and Moon: Same

Adamantine Soul: When using Diamond Soul, you gain advantage on your roll.

Step of the Spirit: When using Step of the Wind, you gain a fly speed equal to your speed. If you don’t maintain the ability each round, you fall.

Timeless Body: Your body does not age, and cannot be magically aged. You require no food, water, or air. You cannot suffer the effects of fatigue

Empty Body: Same


Perfect Self: You can use two bonus actions and two reactions each round.




Open Hand Monk Abilities

Open Hand Technique (3rd Level): Same

Ki Combination (6th level): When you regain KI using KI Empowered Strikes, you can spend that KI to make an immediate unarmed strike. Your open hand technique can work on these attacks.

Tranquility: Same

Quivering Palm: Same

1) Patient Defense: Now a reaction, used when you are attacked or forced to make a reflex save.
2) Step of the Wind: You can spend 2 ki to use both abilities at once (aka disengage and dash)
3) Unarmored Defense: AC = 11 + Dex + Prof Bonus (Wisdom is no longer required for basic AC)
4) Ki - At the start of the monk's turn, if it has not used any KI since the last round, regain 1 KI.
5) KI Powered Strike - (5th level). Monks attacks are magical weapons and can drain Ki from living things. If you score a critical hit on a creature not a construct or undead, regain 1 Ki.
6) Stunning Blow - Only allowed 1 per round.

So with these changes, I focused on the monk's flexibility. You now only dodge when you need to, and it doesn't mess with your offense or mobility. You can dash and disengage together...because your a monk damn it and your supposed to be the pinnacle of mobility. You can regain Ki with crits, with is a fun flavor and a cool moment for the monk in combat.

But most important of all, Ki is now a tactical resource. Its a special resource, the one "per round" recovered resource. You can finish a fight and nigh instantly regain your Ki. You can regain Ki in combat...but to do that you must stop using it for a time, so in long fights you still have to be stingy about when to use it. Because of this I also limited STunning blow, you can stun round after round, but you can't attempt 4 stuns in a round. Ultimately this made the monk less reliant on stun as his one thing that actually made him cool.

This monk I found was able to be more carefree with his Ki, he was able to run like the wind, actually tank some hits while having an actual offense... and never felt OP compared to other classes.



Sorceror
I've said before that mechanically the Sorc can be strong, it just needs a bit of help. So a small list.

1) Sorceror's don't use material components for spells unless there is a gold cost.
2) More than one metamagic can be used at once (I've tried it in my games, doesn't break the bank in the slightest).
3) A few metamagic changes:

a. Distant Spell: A range of self becomes touch. This cannot be combined with Twin Spell.
b. Extend Spell: The duration is doubled. Further, any roll to dispel or counterspell this spell has disadvantage on the roll.
c. Careful Spell: If a spell does an effect on a successful save, there is no effect.

4) Some extra spells known.

 

[FrogReaver]

So, a lot of energy has been spent due to the obnoxious hyperbole of saying that a given class "sucks" because it doesn't do a thing one wants it to do, or is 5% under a "baseline" that isn't actually anything like a reasonable "baseline".

/snark

Why don't we, instead, talk about what would "fix" those classes for the people who have a bad experience with them?

Monk:

Runs out of ki too much? Give them +Wis mod ki at level 2, and let them regain wis mod ki once per day as an action or maybe regain wis+prof by spending 10 minutes in meditation.

Doesn't have enough "boom"? Let's workshop some extra things to do with ki, and some level 11 upgrades to Patient Defense and Flurry of Blows, to go with the level 9 upgrade to Unarmored Movement.

Patient Defense, at level 11, could upgrade to allowing a reaction attack when missed by a melee attack, or allow you to move as a reaction when you get hit while benefiting from Patient Defense?

Flurry of Blows, at level 11, could upgrade to add your proficiency bonus to all damage rolls with your Flurry of Blows.

Name Pending something something Thousand Stars, you spend a bonus action to add your proficiency bonus in damage to damage with thrown weapons, and double their range. You can make a single attack with a thrown weapon as part of using the ability. Also add to Martial Arts the ability to draw a weapon as part of every attack, regardless of number of attacks. At level 11, the benefits last until the end of your next turn.

Bond of The Earth, as a bonus action you enter a deeper state of balance within yourself. You add your Wisdom modifier to saves against charm or fear, and gain THP equal to your martial arts die +wisdom mod.

Senses of The Hunter, bonus action, you gain advantage on perception checks? Later you get darkvision or improve your darkvision? Maybe just "no disadvantage in dim light"?

Ranger:
The spells known are just too damn low, you guys. Give them known spells equal to half their ranger level rounded down plus their wisdom mod, and then add extra spells to Hunter and Beastmaster.

Not enough? Take all the replacements from the Class Feature Variants UA and make them Enhancements.

Sorcerer:
Give them +Cha Sorcery points at level 3. Give them their Sorcery points at level 1. Give them spells known equal to half sorc level + cha. Let them replenish Cha mod sorcery points during a short rest. Give them an extra metamagic at each tier.
Also they should get signature spells that they cast for cheap or without a slot x/day, or something.

Warlock:
Give spells known equal to half level plus cha. Give third spell slot at level 5, 4th at 11, etc. Fold some of the invocation taxes into pact boons and into eachother. (eg, blade pact lets you get extra attack) Make the patron spells auto-known.

if we can’t agree that the class is underpowered or how much it is underpowered by then throwing some arbitrary amount of more power at it is most likely to make things worse.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

if we can’t agree that the class is underpowered or how much it is underpowered by then throwing some arbitrary amount of more power at it is most likely to make things worse.

No

 

[Sword of Spirit]

There's 2 things to this.

1. On the first day, right after session 0, it's understandable. You don't quite understand the DM's style and you aren't sure of your resting opportunities. Now, the thing is that at level 1, none of these characters (except for warlock) have their resources to waste anyways, so you can take the time at level 1 to adjust to your DM without worry.

2. The classes that need short rests tend to get short rests more often. We, on forums, tend to have semi-decent defenses on a class taking a short rest after every single resource spent even out-of-combat. Most DM's, though, don't quite know how to prevent a short-rest when the party barricades a room. Time-pressures are really lame and predictable and alot of DM's don't even use them.

In theory, they aren't all that good, but if you take any hour available to you to rest, you'll have more than just 2 short rests, even in a day with only 2 encounters.

I honestly don't think taking more short rests is normally an issue. My hard cap is 4 per long rest and if I didn't care about fighters not using Second Wind to regenerate all day I wouldn't even have that.

IMO what is more important is that you average at least 2 (on an "adventuring day").

 

[FrogReaver]

No

yes. See I can do that too

 

[doctorbadwolf]

yes. See I can do that too

I don’t particularly care.