D&D 5E Swappable archetypes

[Saeviomagy]

So it occurs to me that the eldritch knight archetype and the arcane trickster archetype are very very very similar in power, to the point where I might consider swapping one for the other (ie - have a fighter with arcane trickster or vice versa). There are some issues there, to be sure - like a rogue/eldritch knight casting high powered cantrips and following up with a sneak attack, but still not much better than assassin I don't think.

Given that - and given that archetypes for a class should be roughly equivalent, it seems that it should be ok to swap out other rogue and fighter archetypes. A fighter/thief, a rogue/battlemaster, a fighter/mastermind all seem pretty fair to me (and actually gives a path to something the fighter desperately needs: non combat abilities!).

What other archetypes can people find that should be swappable?

 

[lowkey13]

*Deleted by user*

 

[GMforPowergamers]

I have allowed the spell limits to switch with no issue (so arcane trickster with only abjur and evoc spells)

 

[Saeviomagy]

[MENTION=6799753]lowkey13[/MENTION]: The main problem with that one is that monks don't get rage, so most of the berserker abilities don't work and nor will half of the totem warrior abilities (which is a shame - because it would be cool to have an eagle monk). Similarly with swapping out monk powers: they tend to key off of ki, pun intended.

I suppose that you could work some system of ki/rage equivalency? (ie - you can spend a point of ki to get a benefit that requires you to be raging, and raging somehow gives you ki to spend). But it's a bit less straightforward than the rogue/fighter ones.

 

[Miladoon]

Most archetypes run off of a class feature. Champion and Battlemaster are fairly generic but you wouldn't want to have a Barbarian/Champion although most of your combos you can get with multiclassing. The synergy just comes later.

I have considered letting a Bard1/Wizard2 take the College of Valor archetype. That way the Bard subclass features can run off of Bardic Inspiration.

 

[GMforPowergamers]

I wonder if champion would make rogue sneak attack too powerful (crit 18+)

 

[Miladoon]

It would be like assassin, but more often and not waiting for the DM to say surprise round. And every rogue would wield two weapons.

EDIT: If they are not already

 

[Saeviomagy]

It would be like assassin, but more often and not waiting for the DM to say surprise round. And every rogue would wield two weapons.

EDIT: If they are not already

And not semi-guaranteed at the optimal time (ie the start of a fight). And no double damage (because getting 18-20 is two features, so its trade would include death strike). And a rogue should dual wield if he's not using his bonus action elsewhere. And there's significant risk in passing up a hit to hope for a crit later in the round. Pretty much even imho.

 

[dregntael]

I'd be pretty interesting to see what a battlemaster version of different classes like ranger, rogue, paladin, or barbarian would play like. Though it would probably be a little underpowered since the fighter gets comparably little from their subclass.

 

[meomwt]

I think the problem with mix-and-match archetypes is that some get a lot of level-based benefits, whilst others get fewer. It might create under-or over-powered PC's if it were allowed.

That said, a generic "adventurer" archetype, which could be applied to any character without making them over-powered, might be an interesting experiment in UA one month...