D&D 5E Homebrew class: the PARAGON

[DND_Reborn]

Quick question: did you mean for the size increases to also affect the size opponents you can grapple or shove, or is that only for Wrestling Trial?

 

[DND_Reborn]

@TheCosmicKid : Here is my blend of many of your features into a Barbarian subclass. I had to tweak things and such, and there is still a lot of ideas from Paragon I would love to incorporate, but with the Barbarian base-class, I think much of it works ok. What are your thoughts?

 

[TheCosmicKid]

I thought the Hard As Steel feature would be useful as an alternative. Also, a single level dip into Barbarian (likely for Rage!) would give you Unarmored Defense as well. Now, if your table doesn't play with multiclasing, that would be different, but IME nearly all tables use it.

We use it, but I try to allow for tables that don't, or for individual players who might not want to or don't think it fits their character. Rage might not be a good fit on a Gentle Giant, for example. And it's not like the barbarian has a monopoly on this feature: it already stole it from the monk.

I went with disadvantage because, personally, I don't like the mechanic of figuring out the penalty. Also, with Heroic Stature + Muscle Mass and a STR 30 at maximum, you'd be accepted a -5 to hit for effectively +10 to damage all the time. You would still be +11 with max proficiency, same as everyone else, but +20 total to damage. Factor in something like GWF and it would jump to +30 damage. Doesn't that seem a bit overkill? I know you removed Extra Attack to compensate for this, but there are ways to get additional attacks as well.

I don't worry about GWF in my designs, on the theory that if there's a problem when you combine a build with GWF, the source of the problem is GWF. Case in point: a 20th-level fighter with GWF is getting +60 damage in total, and can double that with an Action Surge.

Well, this is where improvised weapons come in. An improvised weapon is supposed to have damage equal to a normal weapon if it mimics it in the eyes of the DM. The base "improvised weapon damage" is simply for items that don't mimic weapons. The jawbone of an ass would be a "club" and should do damage accordingly.

Maybe instead have the feature something akin to Dueling? When you attack with an improvised weapon you gain +2 damage or something?

A club deals 1d4 damage. Going from 1d4 to 1d8 is effectively +2 damage. Except it plays better with Heavy Hit.

For myself, at least, I am trying to eliminate the straining damage mechanic. I don't think features should involve damaging the PC, and I don't believe any other class has features that do (I could be mistaken, but I can't recall any right now).

I'm not in love with the implementation myself, I need to clean it up a lot. And I want to use it sparingly in any case, because it's supposed to have the flavor of "pushing yourself to the breaking point in an emergency", not "using your health as an everyday resource". But given the precedent of characters like John Henry, I think the idea has a place as a unique mechanic for this class.

So, some (very) quick number estimates this morning leads me to believe you are probably pretty close with Heroic Stature + Heavy Hit adding so many dice in damage. However, I would most certainly add a limit of once per turn or round even for Heavy Hit to avoid multiclass abuse, etc.

I might be able to do something a little more elegant if I combine Heavy Hit and Great Cleave as a special action.

Quick question: did you mean for the size increases to also affect the size opponents you can grapple or shove, or is that only for Wrestling Trial?

Presently the latter, although it's still up in the air how much wrestling specialization I want to reserve for the challenger and how much should be in the base class.

@TheCosmicKid : Here is my blend of many of your features into a Barbarian subclass. I had to tweak things and such, and there is still a lot of ideas from Paragon I would love to incorporate, but with the Barbarian base-class, I think much of it works ok. What are your thoughts?

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It's underpowered until you hit 14. Barbarian subclasses usually have a significant source of bonus damage at 3rd level, or else a really good defensive ability. A couple of situational/ribbon features aren't going to measure up. Beyond 14, it starts to run into the same bounded accuracy and (to a lesser degree) Extra Attack problems as we're dealing with in the full-class version. Plus from a rules comprehension standpoint it might be confusing how it interacts with the barbarian's capstone ability. Although I do like how with the bonus there, 2 remaining ASIs and +4 from the capstone, it's just possible to reach 30. That's neat.

On a nitpicking point, for Demolish, I'd favor double damage over ignoring the damage threshold for objects and structures. Ignoring the damage threshold means the paragon is somehow able to saw through a steel door with a 1-damage spoon if he wants to. The ability should encourage huge hits, not enable small ones.