D&D 5E Subclasses: What Can You Envision?

[Bitbrain]

Well, here's one I've been working on lately.
I had intended it to be a pact of the dragon warlock, but somewhere down the road it morphed into what I thought Mister Terrific and Green Lantern might look like within D&D.

TECHNOMAGE (WARLOCK OTHERWORLDLY PACT)
Technomage Warlocks gain their powers from being infused with alien technology so advanced as to be indistinguishable from magic

TECHNOMAGE EXPANDED SPELLS
1st --–-- Tenser's Floating Disk, Detect Magic
3rd --–-- Mirror Image, See Invisibility
5th --–-- Blink, Lightning Bolt
7th --–-- Arcane Eye, Dimension Door
9th --–-- Bigby's Hand, Wall of Force

NANOTECH BOND
At 1st level, you gain the following benefits:

• Your proficiency bonus is doubled on all Intelligence checks and skills with which you are proficient.
• You know the shocking grasp cantrip.
• You have proficiency with shields.

MISTY ESCAPE
At 6th level, whenever you take damage, you can use your reaction to teleport up to 60 feet away to an unoccupied space that you can see.
Once you use this feature, you cannot use it again until after you finish a short or long rest.

IMPROVED NANOTECH
At 10th level, you have resistance to lightning damage.

CLOAKING DEVICE
At 14th level, you can use a bonus action on your turn to become invisible.
If you make an attack or cast a spell, the invisibility is suspended until the start of your next turn.
You can dismiss the invisibility on any of your subsequent turns as a bonus action.

 

[CapnZapp]

I'm mainly interested in new mechanics. That is, subclasses that doesn't just rehash existing abilities (getting advantage there, imposing disadvantage there) and slap new fluff on top.

I mean things like how the Battlemaster adds a completely new maneuvers subsystem, the way an Arcane Trickster gives spells to a Rogue, and how different Wizard schools grant completely unique abilities that nobody else get.

So far, the UA design has been incredibly cautious in this regard. I guess so far the Psion/Mystic has stretched the envelope the most, but that's not a complete offering (as far as I'm aware). Sure there has been a few attempts with Artificer, and the Arcane Archer got a magic arrow thing, but "too little too late" is my general summary so far.

 

[77IM]

...Warlord. ZING!

 

[MonkeezOnFire]

In 4e I never got to it, but I planned for my rogue to become a dagger master. The knife nut is a trope that the current rule set doesn't support very well, the rogue is strictly better off with short swords/scimitars. I'd really like to see them make a subclass that can utilize the dagger and be competitive.

For sorcerer I'd like to see demonic and infernal bloodlines. It would be cool to see features that have risk/reward like sacrificing some hp to restore sorcery points for these.

 

[77IM]

I tend to think in terms of character concepts that I can't easily make. Right now that is:

Elsa. Sure, I could re-flavor a silver dragon sorcerer, but if we're going to reflavor things, we could get by with half the classes in the current PHB. Logic extends to other elemental sorcerers.
Cleric of Sune. Or any other other deity of love/beauty/art. Using Light and Life domains seems weak.
Cleric of Tharizdun. Or any other deity of darkness/destruction/evil. Using Death and Trickery domains seems weak.
Warlord. I can get pretty close with the right combination of skills and feats (in particular, Inspiring Leader is actually a pretty good feat that works well for this) but I am one of those people who thinks a fighter subclass would be nice, too.
Strength-Based Monk. This concept is so crippled by MAD that it needs mechanical support to work properly. And it's popular in the fiction so it should have worked better right out of the box.
Fiendish Sorcerer. Because warlocks are cool, but if you really want to be evil, it should be in your blood.
Favored Soul. Well, 1 out of 7 of my pet concepts now have mechanical support! That's not too shabby!

 

[DEFCON 1]

I've downloaded a whole mass of sub-classes from the UnearthedArcana reddit, so I've haven't had any remaining ideas pop out as thinking they had to be done. My folder of fan-made subclasses include:

Archetype: Calvary, Gladiator, Gunslinger
Circle: Beast, Deathbloom, Fountain, Root, Spirit, Swarm
College: Charity, Faith, Fool, Fortune, Heraldry, Love, Requiems, Two Courts
Conclave: Geomancer, Monsterheart
Domain: Civilization, Commerce, Freedom, Prophecy, Protection, Time, Travel
Forte: Paramour, Tinkerer
Oath: Ancestors, Vigilance
Origin: Cosmic, Earth, Fire, Greenheart, Ooze, Spiritualist, Water
Path: Brawler, Skinchanger, Sylvan Warden
Patron: Celstial, Cosmic Machine, Crone, Elemental Lord, Fallen Angel
Tradition: Chronomancy, Grey Guild, Three Spirits Adept
Way: Drunken Master, Metal Fist, Tattoed Temple

 

[Tony Vargas]

In 4e I never got to it, but I planned for my rogue to become a dagger master. The knife nut is a trope that the current rule set doesn't support very well, the rogue is strictly better off with short swords/scimitars. I'd really like to see them make a subclass that can utilize the dagger and be competitive.

That could work for either a fighter or rogue sub-class, or both, 5e's handling of finesse is so much more straightforward. The key might be a combat style or feat or something that works best with finesse weapons, and another with thrown weapons - AFAIK, those groups intersect at the dagger. Thrown weapons in general could use a little more, too.

...Warlord. ZING!

Warlord. I can get pretty close with the right combination of skills and feats (in particular, Inspiring Leader is actually a pretty good feat that works well for this) but I am one of those people who thinks a fighter subclass would be nice, too.

A Warlord would take a full class. The PDK is an example of how far short fighter archetypes fall of handling the concept. The fighter chassis is just too focused on DPR & toughness to leave room for everything a Warlord would need - without pulling back on those basics a little, any archetype packed with enough functionality to hold a candle to the original Warlord (let alone explore what might be done with the concept without the restriction of formal Roles*) would completely overshadow other fighters like the PDK & BM.

I tend to think in terms of character concepts that I can't easily make. ...Strength-Based Monk. This concept is so crippled by MAD that it needs mechanical support to work properly. And it's popular in the fiction so it should have worked better right out of the box.

OTOH, I wonder if some 'monk' (ie martial-artist) concepts couldn't work well as a fighter archetype.

Fiendish Sorcerer. Because warlocks are cool, but if you really want to be evil, it should be in your blood.
Favored Soul. Well, 1 out of 7 of my pet concepts now have mechanical support! That's not too shabby!

The Sorcerer probably has the greatest need for new sub-classes.




* The Warlord was a 'Leader' / secondary-defender for the most part, and a lot of it's powers (like a lot of martial powers) were clearly toned down or limited to avoid stepping on the Controller Role. In 5e, there'd be no need for that, and the concept could be more fully explored.

 

[QuietBrowser]

So, query; I think I heard something about a Mystic mk 3 UA coming out next week, but does anyone know if there's plans to do more subclass-granting UAs in the near future?