D&D 5E Subclasses or Feat Trees? Pros and Cons.

[CreamCloud0]

Oooohh that's a nice idea! So something like 18, 15, 14, 12, 11, 8?

Or plain +5, +4, +2, +1, 0, -1.

more just the regular array/point buy and then the extra +8 to distribute, locking in a certain array may benefit certain classes far more than others

 

[Horwath]

i more meant in the sense that your starting array includes all the ASI you'd expect to have at 16th incorporated into it and you decide what your character is good at the word go.

your method is good too though, just a different approach.

start with 18,16,14,14,12,10 and only way to increase it is magic items(+2 only) and capstone abilities.

 

[Zardnaar]

Heh I'm doing a bit of both in personal D&D.

Martial classes are sonething like this.

Feat
Talent
Feat
Talent
Talent is a class feature. There are Talent trees. Some will have something like archetype.

Eg fighter has
Talent
Defender (archetype)
Champion (archetype).
Weapon specialist

If you pick talents from an archetypes tree you are locked out from other archetypes.

Some have level requirements or specific Talent. This is mostly to gate higher level abilities to the appropriate level.

Since archetypes are locked I can put a bit mire power into some of them as they can't be mixed and matched with other archetypes.

The Talent trees are a mixture of tweaked SWSE, 5E, 4E and 3.5 things. You coukd have a 4E defender alongside Champion both with access to weapon specialist Talent tree.

Feats are mostly 4E or the 5E ones split in half.

 

[Baron Opal II]

I've experimented with both as traditions of Magic.

Subclasses seem...easier ...but it's a commitment when starting your character.

I tried having feats as traditions, I. e. Blood Magic, Enchanter, High Magic, Eldar Magic etc. The feats were a chain, 1st feat cast 1st and 2nd level spells marked as Blood Magic, 2nd feat 3rd and 4th level and so on. Maybe a special ability per feat also.

I've had good success with feat trees.

1st Feat - Know three spells (1st, 2nd, 3rd level) that are a part of that tradition
2nd Feat - Know two spells (often 4th, 5th, but sometimes lower ones) and a pertinent technique
3rd Feat - Know one spell (often 6th, maybe higher or lower) and a pertinent technique

The traditions have specific themes and curated spells. Knowledge of a tradition sometimes grants access to a lore skill at proficiency, or allows the ability to research other spells in the tradition. An important detail is that I only have 12 spells of each level generally available.

 

[SkidAce]

Here is the tradition for Blood Magic, done as feats.

With this framework, I dont care whether the spell caster is a wizard, cleric, bard, whatever. They take as many feats as they want to simulate how far they delve into the tradition.

(I didnt include any unique spells, because well, theres too many to include)

Blood Magic Tradition - Abilities - Kanka

Blood magic is linked to ancient elemental and primal powers. The earliest known practitioners of blood magic were the ages old ogre kingdoms and their allies. Blood magic is intricately tied to the elder primal powers of life and death. Powerful in its scope and applicability, blood magic...

app.kanka.io

 

[SkidAce]

Ahh, I forgot to add the in the Primal feat that they can choose druid spells.