Homebrew Class : The Messiah, a hybrid between Bard and Cleric

[irwindyl]

Hello people,

I've been getting into the 5th edition in the last months and started frantically homebrewing all kinds of features, races, classes and additionnal systems for this wonderful edition
I am soon starting a campaign in an atheistic society, in a godless world (at least the gods have been forgotten by 99% of its inhabitants). One of the characters would be a messiah, sent by one of these forgotten gods to preach His Word accross the world and the rest of the crew would be his apostles. I didn't want to simply twist the cleric class ; i wanted a full on charisma-based divine caster. So here's my crack at combining a Cleric with a Bard : The Messiah character class. It might be a little overpowered in the later levels, although this character would likely be the center of alot of attention and the focus of most of the baddies in a campaign (especially the martyr build).

What do you guys think of it? If you want to use it in one of your games I will be pleased to answer all your questions!

Cheers!

 

[Redthistle]

It might be a little overpowered in the later levels, although this character would likely be the center of a lot of attention and the focus of most of the baddies in a campaign (especially the martyr build).

Before looking at it (I'll get back to this thread after doing so), the fact that you're concerned that it may be overpowered at the higher levels is something worth being concerned about.

Balance is important to this game. In the context of your home brew campaign, it may be less of a problem, but I would not want to introduce a class that has high-level imbalance built right in. Still, it is an intriguing concept.

That being said, I enjoy looking at home brews, and just the idea of trying to build such a class is fascinating.

It might be something in the flavor that one would need if the aim were to adapt the Wheel of Time novels by Robert B. Jordan to 5e, in which case other PCs/NPCs might also be of the same class.

Just imagine: what if the PC was a false Messiah, but didn't know it? If and when one or more of the Messiah's PC apostles realized the truth; would they become that "Messiah's" "Judas"?

 

[Redthistle]

The base class features mostly appear okay to me. A few things:

Divine Patronage: I would change the "never surprised" benefit at level 2 to simply having advantage on the roll to determine if the PC is surprised, and would make the use of the benefit require a long rest. Then, improve the benefit to "never surprised" and regain the ability to use it after a "short or long rest" status at 9th level.

Divine Ascension: "Additionally, you can call on your divine patronage to safeguard an ally." Please explain what is meant by "safeguard".

 

[Redthistle]

The Saint:

Channel Divinity: Aura of Vitality. Should there be a range specified for this feature?

Shield of the Faithful: I just plain like this one, but a bit of clarification re the temporary hit points not stacking would clear it up for me. Do you only mean that they don't stack with another use of Shield of the Faithful, or that they do not stack with temporary hit points from other sources, either?

Celestial Magistrate: This one may be overpowered. Perhaps limiting the uses to once per long rest? If the PC also has Revivify as one of its known spells, he/she could still bring back two creatures in a single day. Then again, it's a benefit that likely won't come up real often, so it might be good as is.

 

[Redthistle]

The Martyr.

Channel Divinity: Righteous Wrath. Sweet.

Extra Attack. Depending on the deity the PC worships, I can't see this as generally appropriate for a martyr. Otoh, moving Blessing of the Martyr from 14th level to this level slot (btw, you didn't specify if Extra Attack was 6th or 9th level; either way, this archetype needs another benefit/feature to fill the missing slot) seems a good fit beginning earlier in the Martyr's advancement.

Celestial Defender. Now, this is a Martyr.

 

[Redthistle]

The Prophet.

All good.

The idea of using Thaumaturgy along with Celestial Messenger - start with a little ground shaking, let your eyes start to glow, and let that booming voice out: cue Neil Diamond, it's a Hot August Night!

 

[Redthistle]

Conclusion: with a few tweaks, imo it's a workable class.

 

[irwindyl]

Interesting idea for The Patronage . The Divine Ascension part basically allows to use your Divine Patronage perks (the crit cancel, the evasion or the instant raise) on an ally a couple times per day.

 

[irwindyl]

The Saint:

Channel Divinity: Aura of Vitality. Should there be a range specified for this feature?

Shield of the Faithful: I just plain like this one, but a bit of clarification re the temporary hit points not stacking would clear it up for me. Do you only mean that they don't stack with another use of Shield of the Faithful, or that they do not stack with temporary hit points from other sources, either?

They stack with other sources but not additionnal uses of Shield of the Faithful.

Celestial Magistrate: This one may be overpowered. Perhaps limiting the uses to once per long rest? If the PC also has Revivify as one of its known spells, he/she could still bring back two creatures in a single day. Then again, it's a benefit that likely won't come up real often, so it might be good as is.

Considering a cleric or a messiah at this level can cast resurrection 3 times a day, revivify another 3 times and true resurrection once, i think giving him some free raises isn't that powerful. I'm thinking of limiting it on creatures that just died (not 1 minute ago like revivify) so it's more of an in combat thing.

 

[irwindyl]

I mostly regarded the Martyr as the martial side of the class. I could some kind of paladin-like smite to the class instead of the extra attack, although giving him more vitality (increase in hit dice maybe) would be a better fit.

Thanks for all your comments Redthistle I'll definitely tweak the class after i do some playtesting with it.