D&D 5E If you have a moment, please look over my Homebrew class.

generic

On that metempsychosis tweak
Hello ENWorlders, I have no huge requests here, but, if you have the time, I would greatly appreciate a few notes on the balance of my homebrew class, the Voidbinder.

Tell me what you think of it, and whether or not it's at all balanced, et cetera.

Thank you in advance.

GMBinder Link

or

Google Drive Link
 

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Blue

Ravenous Bugblatter Beast of Traal
I'll do a stream of consciousness as I read version 0.4, with a summary at the end.

Okay, d6 and no armor, but all weapons.

Skill list I'll want to revisit. It's like a greatest hits of DEX & INT (the saving throws) plus perception - the uber skill. The fluff at the beginning was evocative, but non-specific enough I don't know what skills make sense.

Void points - fuel for abilities. Short rest recharge. Let's see what they do. Will call VP.

Unarmored defense - something I like. DEX + INT, not surprising. Glad it has the standard name so the standard Unarmored Defense multiclass rules covers it.

Void Stride - breaks 5e conventions in that there's very little that you activate as a free action. To make more 5e like would probably make it cost either a bonus action but you can disengage or dash with it, or make it a reaction. Hmm, it's a separate resource economy, not the VP. Still short rest recharged.

Okay, need to stop here at 1st level. A few things:
1. Nothing uses VP at 1st level. Push them back to when you start using them, like Sorcery Points.
2. Unarmored Defense with INT+DEX and Voidstride may end up being cherry picked with multiclassing. I can picture a number of wizards who that Unarmored Defense might be worth giving up a level of casting, especially a Wizard Bladesinger that would have INT to AC twice (from different sources so it stacks legally). Voidstride isn't a problem, and really there are so few INT classes I guess this is mostly a quibble - just looking at what corner cases can be abused.

I'm not really sure how a 1st level Voidbinder is supposed to play. AC 15ish is decent with a martial weapon but on d6 HPs? Skirmisher to attack and then use void stride and disengage - but only say twice a short rest. The can work as an archer with no bonuses, but how's that feel like a Voidbinder?

Unreal Stealth - 1 VP hide as a bonus action.

Void Strikes - a VP for a mini-hunter's mark. Bonus action, which seems right. Unlike Hunter's mark you need to spend the Bonus Action each turn. (The VP seem plentiful enough that that's effectively the only cost.)

The equipment list had two light weapons making me thing TWF was on the table, but I haven't seen support for it yet. But that still made me sensitive to bonus action economy. Voidbinder and Void Strikes are both bonus actions. Let's see what's next.

Hmm, I have a section called "Voidbinder Decays" that's blank at the end of a page. Wonder what was there.

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Actually, looking at the level chart, there's a bunch of features at 3rd and they are all missing. Not sure what's up.

Maybe it's a browser issue, will try with another one later.
 

generic

On that metempsychosis tweak
Actually, looking at the level chart, there's a bunch of features at 3rd and they are all missing. Not sure what's up.

Maybe it's a browser issue, will try with another one later.
Thank you so much for your feedback. It may be a browser issue. If you try the Google Drive link, there will be a pdf, which should work across browsers.
 

Blue

Ravenous Bugblatter Beast of Traal
Thank you so much for your feedback. It may be a browser issue. If you try the Google Drive link, there will be a pdf, which should work across browsers.

The PDF worked. Okay, onward!

I see the Voidbinder Decays are the subclasses. Will get to them.

At 5th I see Extra Attack (2) and then at 11th it's Extra Attack (3). I assume these are actually Extra Attack and Extra Attack (2), at the same level fighter gets them. Fighters get Extra Attack (3) at 20th.

Lots of cool abilities. It's unfortunate that cool, well balanced abilities don't need much discussion - picture this as several paragraphs "Yeap, this is good.".

Eyes of the Void - this is actually a pretty powerful package of always on things. It invalidates a lot of DM plots and tactics.

Improved Unreal Defense - wording is a bit odd since Dodge lasts until your next turn. Considering the number of VP you have (which becomes "unlimited" in just 2 more levels), this is effectively all foes have permanent disadvantage to attack you. And it's not even your capstone.

Aspect of Void - now we see why Void Stride needed a different resource count - because it's also the trigger for the capstone where you are immune to all damage but Force. (And AoO). I might add Psychic in there as well, both thematically it wouldn't seem to protect you from that, and also because "only Force" is really, really powerful because of how rare a damage type it is. Most non-spellcasters you will be completely immune to, and as long as you aren't their only target every round, 5 uses per short rest will cover 3-4 rounds of combat times two encounters per short rest.

Okay, the fluff at the beginning described Voidbenders as "people whose dabbling in the powers of the Void has ruined their physical forms and corrupted their souls." None of these features support that. Their physical forms are in good shape, able to attack more than any other class except the dedicated Fighter, there's no "corruption of their soul", which usually isn't too mechanically supported but at least thematically is. I hope the subclasses really double down on these points.

Vortex Decay

Vortex of Blades - 3 VP is trivial for something that lasts for a full combat. I'm starting to worry about stacking at high levels. We're looking at a class that gets more attacks then even the other non-fighter martials, and you can add to weapon attacks two ability scores (either STR|DEX and INT), plus a d4|d6|d8 on every attack. And with bigger weapons than sneak attack. It's not OP, but will keep an eye on it.

Side note, an Artificer (Battlesmith) who multiclasses this for three levels with have INT to attack, INT to damage (twice while using Vortex Delay), 8 VP per short rest to always have enough to use it, Unarmored Defense to add INT to AC, Void Stride (also off INT), Void Strikes and Unreal Stealth. That's pretty impressive.

Nimble Destroyer is nice.

Dancer in the Dark is really powerful. Especially when combined with things like Polearm Mastery, Sentinel, or other things that trigger reactions more. The only time WotC added more than one reaction per turn was a very early UA and they never brought it up again. I'd change this.

Eternal Vortex - every other option like this seems to have a save, or leave at 1 HP, or something. Maybe it leaves you at 1 HP with a bunch of tHP so you don't go immediately down, but the tHP expire in one minute. Go back to the "bodies physically ruined" thing.

But the 8 VP costs feeds right into the next point. I've now seen a the base class one of full subclass. VP are WAY too numerous. You always have enough to do what you want. At 15th level when Eternal Vortex comes into play, you have 38 VP per short rest - about two encounters. Assuming you DIE every short rest and that uses 8, and you use Vortex of Blades in both of them, that's 14 of those 38 in use. You explode with Unstable Body when you die for another 5. That's 19. Say the encounters are 3 rounds each and you use Void Strikes for all of them. That's 3 * 3 * 2 = 18. Total=37 of those 38. You have used basically everything you possibly could as much as you could, including 13 of them spend on dying with appropriate fireworks, and you still can't use all your VP.

Look at the Monk. They need to think when they want to use Ki.

I'd keep the cost of Void Strikes at 1, and half the number of VP you have. That gives 19 points at 15th level. Vortex of Blades every combat and Void Strikes every round will still only be 9 of those points. Still leaving you enough to die every short rest, and come back at full with haste, and still not run out.

So, I just scrolled ahead to see that while not even in the PDF version at 4rd level, there is something else called Void Chants that all Voidinders get.

Will tackle those and the other subclasses tomorrow. Is late.
 

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