Shadowdark Western Reaches Stretch Goal: New Classes

I think a fair number of the third party character classes, including ones from people who are extremely good at marketing themselves, are pretty bad. A lot of people just straight converting 5E content instead of paring it down to the essentials, which is what Shadowdark does for class, ancestry and monster design.

The bold part is endemic, and drives me crazy. There's this assumption that a Paladin must, of course, have Lay on Hands. Or a Barbarian must, of course, have a rage mechanic. Etc.
 

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The more exotic wizard spells could be jealously guarded by schools of magic.
Eg To learn spells x y and z you have to join the Green Wizards . And you must not create scrolls of or teach outsiders these spells on pain of death. Also, all your spells with a visible effect are tinged green, and something something.

Some Priest spells could be gatekept by subcults.
 




Not as potentially interesting at alchemist or librarian, but there's definitely some interesting design space here. I'm guessing this will be a pet class with a single undead minion that upgrades with level and talent rolls, along with a limited new spell list.
 

Not as potentially interesting at alchemist or librarian, but there's definitely some interesting design space here. I'm guessing this will be a pet class with a single undead minion that upgrades with level and talent rolls, along with a limited new spell list.
IME, D&D often fails at providing a satisfying necromancer. I'm not surprised that people would want to see Kelsey take a crack at designing one.
 

Not as potentially interesting at alchemist or librarian, but there's definitely some interesting design space here. I'm guessing this will be a pet class with a single undead minion that upgrades with level and talent rolls, along with a limited new spell list.

Yeah I hope thats how it goes. I'd like to see what her handling of Pet Classes looks like as a benchmark.

I've mulled over the Paladin the last few days and I really like it, I was preaching her design's from the core game to the scrolls, and everything in there to my son yesterday on our hike, and I'm still surprised at how much I like it.
 


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