D&D 5E Noble's Stirring words, Help I have an existential dilemma.

[MoonSong]

I have a huge problem, with capital H. You see I just noticed something very, very wrong. I started perusing the OGL version of the Noble class -for no reason, nothing to see here, really, not as if I'm working on something - instead of my design notes. And I just noticed something very very wrong with the Path of the Heart ability Stirring Words.

You see there was an accidental change on the ability so it doesn't work as I intended. The original intention was for your Charisma bonus to apply to Damage rolls of attacks you grant, I don't know why during the creation of the draft I changed it to add your Charisma bonus to Attack rolls by accident. Then during the edition and test this ability was completely overlooked and now we are here one year later.

Now, should I add the change as errata? Should I leave things as they are? Would the path of Heart be nerfed a lot by this change? Has anybody have problems with the ability as written?

-the free OGL version is here http://www.enworld.org/forum/rpgdownloads.php?do=download&downloadid=1359 -

 

[Fanaelialae]

FWIW, when I tweaked the class for use in my own games, that's one of the changes I made.

 

[MoonSong]

FWIW, when I tweaked the class for use in my own games, that's one of the changes I made.

Thank you. I was afraid nobody would answer. What other changes did you make?

 

[TwoSix]

Should definitely be either +Cha mod to damage, or just a flat 1d8.

 

[Fanaelialae]

Thank you. I was afraid nobody would answer. What other changes did you make?

I gave them 1 extra starting skill (to me noble seems like it should be a skill class and this "balances" the change to expertise). I also gave them 7d4 x 10 starting gold, since it felt appropriate that the noble should have the most starting gold, and it didn't seem like it would do any harm. I changed Expertise to grant its benefit to two skills/tools instead of three (just personal preference).

I used the original version of Overwhelming Strike, where the save is based off of Charisma. It's a powerful ability if you can land the hits, so I didn't see a need to make it easy to maximize the DC. It can be justified by saying the noble strikes with conviction.

I changed Noncombatant to the following. I felt like the loss of proficiencies worked but would be difficult to justify in-game, and I didn't care for the ban on casting damaging spells. This change maintains their roles as a support character while still giving the the option to cast something like Ice Storm for the control benefits rather than damage:
Whenever you would roll for damage, you instead deal the minimum amount possible. This only applies to attacks you make, not those you grant others.

For Path of the Heart's Bonus Proficiencies, I added musical instrument as one of the options (it just felt appropriate).

I renamed Cries to Shouts. Personal preference. Cry for Life was renamed to Shout of Defiance.
I removed the part in Cry/Shout for Attention that grants advantage against the Noble (in my version that creature simply doesn't suffer disadvantage on attacks against the Noble). To balance the change I made it an action to use.

I changed the first sentence in Force of Personality to:
At 6th level, you gain proficiency in the Persuasion skill, or double your proficiency bonus if you already are proficient in Persuasion.
I figured that 99% of Noble's will probably start proficient in Persuasion (it seems a very Noble-esque skill), so I thought there should be a benefit to a Noble who starts with Persuasion trained.

I moved Loved by the People to 6th level. I also added the following ribbon to what it grants:
Additionally, while there [in civilization] you and your allies are provided with basic food and shelter at no cost.

I moved Tear of the Pure-Hearted to level 11 because it seems most similar to the 6th level Heal spell, and renamed it to Touch of the Pure-Hearted because I don't want to make my players cry.
Since, unlike Heal, it requires the target to spend hit dice, I expanded the list of conditions healed as follows (since it is a once per day ability, I don't expect it to be a big issue):
...and if he or she is blinded, charmed, deafened, frightened, paralyzed, poisoned, or stunned the condition ends. Additionally, the creature’s exhaustion level, if any, is reduced by 2.

I moved Stirring Words to 14th level, and changed + attack to + damage.

I changed the Path of the Tactician's Rules of Engagement ability to only affect the Noble. I felt like granting it to all/most of the party might be a bit much. Plus, this way Tactical Adaptability may see more use.

For Tactical Mastery, I removed the part about maximizing the superiority dice. It seemed a bit much given that the entire party benefits from the bonus, which could be up to +36 damage on every attack for one round. +6d6 is still pretty amazing but less likely to kill a boss in a single round.

 

[TwoSix]

These are the changes my DM and I discussed after I had played about 4 sessions with the Heart Noble. Note that these are to the En5ider version, not the OGL version, I haven't double checked to see how close they are.

-Simple weapon proficiency is baseline, as well as 3 skills. Heart only got 1 extra proficiency + tool proficiency.

-Hit Die bumped to d8, Brave gets 1 extra HP/level.

-Noncombatant removed. Everyone understood it, but no one really liked it. I remember somebody said it made you seem incompetent, not just overly nice, which detracted from the Disney princess vibe.

-Put something into Aura of Innocence that you lost that ability, as well as the cries, tears, loved by the people, and heart's redemption ability if you took a combat action that resulted in the death of a humanoid, beast, or fey. You gained them back after a long rest where you expressed sorrow for what you had done. Not really a publishable ability, I know, but it works for our group and style of play.

-Pushed vicarious attack out to 3rd level. A couple of people expressed reservations about how good that ability would be to dip for, so we moved it. We discussed maybe giving them a ranged help ability at 1st level, or maybe the Healer feat at 1st level (I used Healer a LOT when I played the noble), but since we started at 3rd, we didn't discuss it much.

-Changed direct ally to use your action the give an ally an action as a reaction. Pretty much action surge usable on others. We saw this as being pretty much a major feature for the noble like Action surge is for the fighter.

 

[MoonSong]

In the end I went ahead and added this piece of errata to both the file and the errata thread.

 

[MoonSong]

-Noncombatant removed...
-Pushed vicarious attack out to 3rd level. A couple of people expressed reservations about how good that ability would be to dip for, so we moved it.

[scolding mom voice]Of course vicarious attack became a powerful dip ability, you removed the counterbalance. Vicarious attack becomes more attractive when you don't renounce personal combat power.

-Changed direct ally to use your action the give an ally an action as a reaction. Pretty much action surge usable on others. We saw this as being pretty much a major feature for the noble like Action surge is for the fighter.

I was wary of doing this so quickly. But glad your group found it appropriate. n_n

 

[TwoSix]

[scolding mom voice]Of course vicarious attack became a powerful dip ability, you removed the counterbalance. Vicarious attack becomes more attractive when you don't renounce personal combat power.

Sure, that's why we moved it!