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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Neonchameleon" data-source="post: 9233044" data-attributes="member: 87792">My normal pitch for 5e is that it will do 70% of the work for 30% of the effort of previous editions. It's not the biggest, it's not the best, but it's relatively simple and does a relatively large amount by D&D standards. But you're asking for esoteric character concepts, of which there are a fair number.I'd start with the Echo Knight Fighter. It's badly explained and Crawford's "clarifications" only made things more confusing. But it's basically a multiversal warrior (think Everything Everywhere All At Once - or Terry Pratchett's Trousers of Time) who instead of summoning skills from alternates summons the fading shades from dying echoes of potential timelines that did not in fact come to be. Such as one where that door was unlocked so they walked over there (where you summoned them from) and then you switch places with them. (I should mention that the Battlemaster subclass plays pretty well and has a different visceral feel to anything else while the Rune Knight is possibly worth looking at).Next up are a couple of esoteric Warlock concepts; the Warlock feels like a mix of the 4e class and its own thing:<ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Gap Year Genie. This is a genie-pact warlock whose patron is only known as "But da-ad" and whose focus is a small black square of warm obsidian. And just waves this black square to use their Invocations</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Recovering Athlete. This poor warrior was crippled in the arena through foul play and their patron took pity on them and couldn't fix their body but did give them magic. So they, with no theoretical magical training approached it the same way they had combat training. They only knew a couple of spells and simply did not know you're not supposed to be able to cast Disguise Self a hundred times before breakfast as part of your training regimen. Which is how they've taken what were supposed to be spells and turned them into Invocations.</li> </ul>Seriously, with Warlocks look at the Invocations you can cast At Will for character inspiration. I've given <a href="https://www.enworld.org/threads/warlock-great-old-one.701801/post-9230928" target="_blank">some guidance in another thread</a> but there are a lot of things you can do based round the idea of leaning your concept on some at will magic; a deep dive into the Warlock is recommended especially if the 4e version inspired you (Undead and Fathomless are two great new patrons and you have many of the old ones).Next up is the Paladin. And the Paladin takes the 4e Essentials Oath-driven Paladin with the oath not the alignment being the important part and extends on the concept. So non-alignment based Oaths such as the Oath of the Crown are new (the "classic" Paladin is the Oath of Devotion while Blackguards are either Oathbreakers or Oath of Conquest). But what I actually love about the 5e Paladin is, with DM support, the ability to lose faith and change your Oath without losing all powers; an Oath of the Crown Paladin might lose faith after realising they are working for a bastard and go into nihilism with the Oath of Glory before realising that people do matter and trying to make up for everything they did for the tyrant with the Oath of Redemption - changing subclasses. Major character turning points rather than lock-in and a lot subtler and more interesting than Paladin -> Blackguard. (There is no direct falling mechanic). Not bolding the subclasses because it's the transition that I like here. I am however going to say that a lot of Paladins are built with one level of Hexblade Warlock in order to be able to use Charisma as their melee attack stat. This is considered one of the strongest (and easiest to use) classes going.Next the Barbarian. 4e made the Barbarian into something other than an angy fighter by having primal magic flowing through them and summoning spirits. 5e simplifies then expands on this (Berserkers and Battleragers are 3.X inspired and mechanically bad, Totem Warriors and Storm Heralds are 4e and good while Ancestral Guardians are 4e adjacent and workable) and allows you to build more simply than 4e ever did. Most of the PHB and Xanathar's are covering some 4e concepts, while Xanathar's and later supplements have things like Zealots, Giants, Wild Magic, and Beast transformers.Then the Monk (which is going to get a huge glow-up with the forthcoming PHB). Monks aren't good - but they aren't 3.X or 1e monks either (even if the "caster" Four Elements and Sun Soul suck). Shadow ninjas with an at will teleport from shadow to shadow are fun. Drunken Masters are mostly one-shot potential. Astral Self's psychics and Mercy's balanced healers are, I think, new - while although from memory you could just about do the Ascendant Dragon in 4e you had to go into the weeds.Artificers are an ... interesting try. They aren't the OP nonsense of 3.5 or the generic nonsense of 4e. However the Alchemist and Armourer are underpowered and the Artillerist is campaign specific depending on whether you can expect to have your cannon up. Their biggest problem is they don't create permanent items, but a Battle Smith with their pet robot and probably a gun, and in the right campaign the Artillerist are both new and good.Bards are one of the strongest classes; ninth level spells and some Other Stuff plus the ability to poach spells from other classes. I'm not sure what will inspire you here - but it's worth mentioning that if you had some 3.X bard concepts that didn't quite work it might be worth going back to them. (The subclasses are mostly good).Most of the rest of them are intending to be the old classes and 5e frequently only really started doing new things with Tasha's. So rapid fire.<ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Rangers needed a complete revamp in Tasha's - but the Swarmkeeper, the Fey Wanderer, and possibly the Drakewarden are new and interesting - and Horizon Walkers and ninja Gloom Stalkers are non-generic returnees</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Druids have Moon as bigger shapeshifters than in 3.X while working more like that than 4e. More interesting may be Wildfire with their flame-pets, Spores as fungus focused, and Stars. We're soon to get Sea</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Rogues are far better implemented than pre-4e although you can autopilot them. Cunning Action is great; Bonus (a.k.a. Swift a.k.a. Minor) action to Hide, Dash, or Disengage for a lot of mobility. The new esoteric stuff is all in Tasha's; the Soulknife (think Psylocke from the X-Men Cartoons - or any skills based "psychic spy"), and the soul-collecting Phantom</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Sorcerers aren't as weak as in 3.X but pre-Tasha's you have far too few spells known. This means that the only two worthwhile subclasses are the Aberrant Mind (a.k.a. Psion) and Clockwork Soul from Tasha's. This is going to be fixed in the 2024 iteration of the rules.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Wizards and Clerics are nothing new other than very minor twists, other than that you can laser-cleric. They're all about the spells.</li> </ul></blockquote>

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