D&D (2024) New Classes for 5e. Is anything missing?

[Mind of tempest]

Is anyone keeping a list of what is desired?

 

[Scribe]

A proper Psion, Gish, and Warlord.

That's it.

 

[aco175]

I voted that fixing the multi-classing rules would fix things. Baring that I would have 100 classes- one for each combo. If I cannot make a rogue/wizard that is viable I want a rogue/wizard class named something. This can have resemblance to each class and be similar but enough different than the wizard/rogue class.

Feats and a choice of abilities at certain levels would make each PC enough unique among the classes.

 

[jmartkdr2]

Other: there's nothing that can't be done with the existing options, but a few concepts that would work a lot better if they were their own class.

Okay, one: Eldritch Knight would be better as it's own class.

 

[bedir than]

Almost every suggestion so far has been quite narrow. They don't fit, at all, the philosophy of 5e with classes being broad archetypes that fit a spectrum of characters from the inspirational literature (stories, books, films, games, comics, etc). Some are so narrow that there's only been a single character outside of the game that's fit.

 

[jmartkdr2]

@Minigiant, me and you are cut from the same cloth in this regard. I love creating classes, and I think, mechanically and narratively speaking, a lot more classes and ideas can be explored very easily using the 5E* framework. But, most people do not want more classes. They either can't keep up with the options, feel pressured by the amount of options, or are afraid that too many options will make earlier options obsolete. These, by the way, are all fair and valid beliefs, and I do not begrudge anyone who feels this way.

But man, just imagine if 5E added some more unique classes that could be expanded. It'd require making new Fantasy material, but ultimately that's what D&D truly does best — make new Fantasy material for us to imagine. Beholders, Mind Flayers, Gith, etc, all of these things are D&D originals, and as are many class concepts. The Druid and Paladin are wholecloth new concepts, the Sorcerer and Warlock reinventions of old real world ideas. If you can take these concepts and expand them into 2-3 archetypes, I think you can do so with a lot more concepts too.

Alas, this would require a different design team. Not a better one, but a different one. To make a game with 15, 20, 25 or so customizable, balanced classes in it requires a strong commitment to that idea that involves taking a risk to go even further than ever before. That kind or risk might not financially play out for Wizards.

Thus, people like us Mini are left just making up new classes on a rotating biweekly schedule, wishing people could see what we see so that we could play in these kinds of imagination-diverse games. This doesn't mean other games aren't imagination-diverse, btw. I'm checking myself just to make sure no one reads me the wrong way as being condenscending or otherwise.

I think that there's a sort of inertia here: 5e doesn't have a strong structure for classes, but there's a soft implied structure and a lot of tradition going on. If we're keeping that, any new class is a big deal and easier to do poorly than well.

Especially since classes are really hard to balance, and unbalanced classes are a bigger problem than unbalanced races, spells, or items.

What would probably go over well enough is a total reset of the class structure to do something very different - as you suggested with a new team - but since everyone's idea of what would be cool is totally different, it's really hard to get past "something totally different could be cool."

 

[jmartkdr2]

An actual Duskblade even though the Eldritch Knight pretty much handles that role in 5E.

Which is the other problem: most suggested classes are "an existing subclass, but it doesn't suck."

Note that the argument against making a new class is rarely if ever "the subclass don't suck." No one really defends Eldritch Knight or says Battlemaster makes a perfect Warlord - they usually just don't see a whole new class as the solution.

 

[Mind of tempest]

Almost every suggestion so far has been quite narrow. They don't fit, at all, the philosophy of 5e with classes being broad archetypes that fit a spectrum of characters from the inspirational literature (stories, books, films, games, comics, etc). Some are so narrow that there's only been a single character outside of the game that's fit.

the cleric is born of no pattern but was hammered to fill one, the range built of a single example and mutated into its present form, is it so bad for us to ask for an icon born from scraps and hopes?
one of these days I need to work with someone to create an example of all these ideas just so they can be made.

 

[Shiroiken]

The only non-setting specific archetype 5E can't currently do using the existing classes is the psion. Psionic subclasses work well enough for a few subtypes, but the core concept of a psion doesn't fit into any of the classes neatly enough. I wouldn't mind a true half-caster warrior-mage, but this is a nit-pick difference between a 1/2 caster and the 1/3 caster eldritch knight.

 

[Mind of tempest]

The only non-setting specific archetype 5E can't currently do using the existing classes is the psion. Psionic subclasses work well enough for a few subtypes, but the core concept of a psion doesn't fit into any of the classes neatly enough. I wouldn't mind a true half-caster warrior-mage, but this is a nit-pick difference between a 1/2 caster and the 1/3 caster eldritch knight.

I think what we need is some fictional examples of the magic warrior hurl them in a metaphorical blender and see what comes out?