Playtest (A5E) Level Up Playtest Document #10: Adept

Welcome to the 10th Level Up playtest document. This playtest contains a candidate for the first 10 levels of the game’s adept class. The adept is a renaming of the monk of O5E, and allows us to portray a wide variety of unarmed combatants.

Level Up Playtest Document #10: Adept — Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition (A5E)

Welcome to the 10th Level Up playtest document. This playtest contains a candidate for the game’s adept class.

www.levelup5e.com

When you have absorbed the playtest document, please take the survey and let us know what you think!

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[R_J_K75]

I gave it a good skim and the one thing I noticed was Battlefield Etiquette. This feature seems out of place to me doesn't quite fit with the theme of the class, unless there's more to come that hasn't been revealed yet.

 

[Marandahir]

Adept is nice as a name for those who played the English-language versions of <i>Golden Sun</i>. For veteran D&D players, however, the name instead evokes the NPC caster class from earlier editions…

 

[R_J_K75]

For veteran D&D players, however, the name instead evokes the NPC caster class from earlier editions…

I don't have a better suggestion for renaming the class but you're right, and that's how I feel. It reminds me of the NPC from other editions. I don't think its representative of what the class does at face value. If I didn't know the class and someone asked if I wanted to play an Adept I wouldn't think unarmored warrior.

EDIT: ...unarmed warrior.

 

[FitzTheRuke]

I have one complaint:

"Hurricane Walk Requirement: Gale Walk Your step is so light you seem to float in the air. You can use a bonus action and spend 1 exertion to cast fly on yourself. You also have advantage on Stealth checks related to noise. The effect lasts until the start of your next turn."

Can you just say "gain a 60-foot fly speed" or something to that effect rather than "cast fly on yourself"? I freaking hate having to cross-reference rules. (At all, but especially when the fly spell pretty much just gives you a fly speed. It's not like its effect is multiple paragraphs or anything. Why make people look it up?)

 

[FitzTheRuke]

Adept is nice as a name for those who played the English-language versions of <i>Golden Sun</i>. For veteran D&D players, however, the name instead evokes the NPC caster class from earlier editions…

It's also already both a Background and an NPC-Monster stat block in current 5e, IIRC

 

[WarlockkingNelzul]

I would think the name ascetic would have been a better choice, also i second the whole using strength as the armor stat instead of dex, let the O5e monk subclass do the dex thing, this could be a more brawler tank kinda bareknuckle fighter

 

[RangerWickett]

Other name options were considered:

Apex
Aspirant
Physio
Striker
Summit
Unleashed
Zenith
Kickpuncher
Batman
The-Option-Formerly-Known-as-Monk (TOFKAM)
Tryhard (seriously, who thinks, "That dragon over there - Imma gonna punch it"?)

 

[Zaukrie]

I have one complaint:

"Hurricane Walk Requirement: Gale Walk Your step is so light you seem to float in the air. You can use a bonus action and spend 1 exertion to cast fly on yourself. You also have advantage on Stealth checks related to noise. The effect lasts until the start of your next turn."

Can you just say "gain a 60-foot fly speed" or something to that effect rather than "cast fly on yourself"? I freaking hate having to cross-reference rules. (At all, but especially when the fly spell pretty much just gives you a fly speed. It's not like its effect is multiple paragraphs or anything. Why make people look it up?)

I second this request.......are you really casting a spell, or can you fly? Let them fly! (and I hate cross-references).

 

[Dire Bare]

Other name options were considered:

Apex
Aspirant
Physio
Striker
Summit
Unleashed
Zenith
Kickpuncher
Batman
The-Option-Formerly-Known-as-Monk (TOFKAM)
Tryhard (seriously, who thinks, "That dragon over there - Imma gonna punch it"?)

Well, clearly kickpuncher is the way to go!!!

I like @WarlockkingNelzul's suggest of ascetic. Adept fits, I think, but it doesn't have zing. BECMI D&D referred to this class as the mystic, but I think that has the same problems as adept. The name issue is hard, nothing leaps out and says "THIS IS IT!" Well, except kickpuncher!

 

[RangerWickett]

Ascetic has the issue that it doesn't work for, like, Conor McGregor, who certainly punches well but hardly lives a life of restraint and detachment.

There was a small contingent that pushed for setting aside 'backwards compatibility,' which would have allowed for more finagling with the tropes of the game's classes, but the overall sense was that this would reduce the appeal of the book.

If I could redesign classes from the ground up, I'd take a page out of Gamma World 4e, where you picked two roles and smushed them together. You could be a Telekinetic Cockroach, or a Fire Robot, or a Spider Ghost. For a D&D-style game, there could be maybe 12 talent paths, and whenever you gained a level you could pick two paths to advance down.

Or if you've played The Witcher 3, every time you level, you get a point to put into a new power, and there are something like 20 powers that get new perks and options. You usually pick one specific build, mixing two or three styles of melee, or certain types of alchemy, or certain different spells. This would be like that, though streamlined because your brain works differently than a video game.