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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Zardnaar" data-source="post: 7575100" data-attributes="member: 6716779">Levels 5-10 Heroes of the Realm Level 5 is a big power up to the game. Cantrips scale in damage, martial types double their attacks, and level 3 spells arrive such as fireball, hypnotic pattern, and spiritual guardians. This is also mostly the sweet spot of 5E (say around level 4-8 or so). Additionally most relevant class features come online and several combos+ maximised ability scores can come into play so at level 8 you can have 20 in your prime attribute and a feat or two. Spell casters by level 9 and 10 can also drop a level 3 spell almost every round (5 or 6 of them) and if you have multiple casters you are looking at such a spell every round if they pace them right and sometimes 2 or 3. Anyway onto the tiers. In addition you can have up cast lower level spells such as a hold person being thrown at 2 or 3 targets. Tier 1Bard: Lore The lore bard jumps up to tier 1. This is because you get magical secrets which lets you steal spells from other classes and bard dice scale to d8's and refresh on short rests. With cutting words you can also debuff incoming attacks. At level 10 you get more magical secrets for 4 new spells. Since these can be from any class you can cherry pick Paladin and Ranger spells that they themselves can't cast until level 17 or so or mix and match spells from numerous classes. For example a Bard who wants to be a blaster can pick up eldritch blast, hex, fireball, and destructive wave. Mr Invoker might be a sad panda at that point. Cleric: Life A better melee option than the light cleric the heavy armor+ healing upgrade with channel divinity and more spells having one of these in your party is kind of easy mode now. There are better fighting cleric, there are better blasting clerics but in effect this cleric gets more spell slots due to how good the healing is. IN effect it frees up extra spell slots to blast, buff etc. Spiritual guardians+ armor go for it. Your extra damage at level 8 is radiant damage which is one of the best types of damage to do as sod all is immune/resistant to it and it can hurt undead more.Cleric: Light.The light cleric gets a lot better at these levels. This is because they can an additional use of radiance of the dawn which continues to scale and its on par with a lot of level 2 spells. And you can use it twice per short rest. You also pick spells like fireball and wall of fire. A light cleric can wade into melee with spiritual guardians up and then unleash radiance of the dawn and since spiritual guardians might last more than one fight they can do this a lot. Or they lob a fireball then waltz in with spiritual guardians. Due to the abundance of clerical radiant damage spells even fire immune critters will barely slow this beast down. the flare ability can also be used at range on allies and you get an unnamed damage bonus at level 8 on your cantrips. Some players think the sun shines out their ass, with this cleric they can back it up. Paladin Oath of the Ancients and Vengeance. These two archetyes jump all the way to tier 1. One is very good defensively and the other is better at dealing damage. I like the Oath of the Ancients better however as its spell list fixes up some of the problems Paladins have with misty step and moonbeam for example offering mobility and a small AoE. The Path of the Ancients aura however is even better- it grants resistance to all spells. Your allies will love you, massive saves bonus on save or suck and they take half damage from direct damage spells. Your DM will hate you. The avenger gets a weaker aura effect but can start using spells like misty step, haste, hunters mark etc to deal more damage than the oath of the ancients Paladin. Classic defence vs offence, and I personally like the Oath of the Ancients better as its a lot better on the defence while the Avenger is marginally better on offence YMMV though. Sorcerer: Dragon. The Dragon Sorcerer is tier 1 (briefly) as you are roughly at the pinnacle of its power relative to the other classes. At a most basic level the Dragon Sorcerer is pure artillery but you can also make a decent melee option or buff specialist. Haste+ greenflame blade semi decent AC and shield as an option for example (or be a mountain dwarf). You can also do things like twin haste and greater invisibility and that right their is pure power. You won't match a wizards versatility but you're more powerful, tougher, better saves, and better at social skills. Right now you're better than the average wizard IMHO and roughly on par with the best of them. Wizard: Diviner and Abjurer. The two best PHB wizards IMHO. In this tier you can pick up some great rituals that actually matter and the diviner has one of the most powerful abilities in the game but you don't get to use it that often. Wizards also benefit a lot more from hitting level 9 and 10 since they basically have the best spell list in the game. With more spells come more utility and the abjurer can start using their ward ability a lot more than low levels in effect granting more hp to allies. Tier 2Bard: Valor. The Valor Bard gets up upgrade mostly because the second attack comes online and bard dice refresh. You also get magical secrets at level 10 and if you're an archer you can pilfer the Rangers Swift Quiver spell and make 4 attacks a round which of course combos with the sharpshooter feat. For the most part you are still an underwhelming warrior type but the rest of the Bard abilities keep your head above water. Cleric:Tempest, Nature and War. The other 2 clerics that are not quite as good as the light and healing clerics although the tempest cleric is a lot stronger relative to what they were in the previous tier. The Nature cleric picks up  a great defensive ability vs common elemental damage and the Tempest cleric can go around dropping maximised shatters. Both are fairly decent at melee combat as well using spiritual guardians. The war cleric also gets an upgrade due to the power of spiritual guardians. The war cleric also gets an untyped damage bonus while the other two deal bonus elemental damage, one is better than the other. Druid: Moon. Moon Druid Wild Shape doesn't scale very well and some of the better combat forms are also huge which means using them tend to be difficult in dungeons and/or you block or get in the way of your own allies. At level 10 you do get the elemental forms which are great and at that level the Moon Druid is tier 1 again. In general spells start getting better than wildshape however which scales poorly.Druid. Land. Like most casters the land Druid jumps up a few slots. Several of the land Druids terrain options offer some very powerful spells that come online at this tier level such as lightning bolt, haste, greater invisibility etc and you get more of them due to natural recovery. If you are a healer that is a lot of goodberrys or a few extra healing spirits to go around. Paladin Oath of Devotion. Paladins in general get a massive bump at level 6 due to their aura. This is a unique class ability and its one of the most powerful in the game. With bounded accuracy a +3 to +5 bonus on all saves is great and in effect the Paladin is proficient in all saves and grants that bonus to nearby allies. This is on top of more spells and other class abilities. The Oath of Devotion Paladin is tier 2 for the sole reason the other 2 are just a bit better. One thing to notice is with aura the shield of faith spell is great in dungeons as concentration rolls are a lot easier. Ranger: Hunter. The hunter continues to hang around due to how good the class is and its exploration pillar and spells. Fighters will likely over take it i damage especially if they are using hand crossbows but you are still competitive with a bow+ hunters quarry. Without feats the Hunter is clearly better. However damage isn't everything and the the Ranger is no slouch in that department either. A Melee hunter Ranger might all down to tier 3 here as you are probably dual wielding or going sword and board with a shield. Sorcerer: Wild. This one will vary but you are still a primary caster with a great spell list and sorcerer points. If you DM hates you this might be tier 3 depending on how he rolls with you class abilities. I think we houseruled you have a 50/50 chance of regaining your chaos thing in each encounter. At the worst you will be tier 3 but PHB Sorcerer options are limited(the other non PHB sorcerers are better IMHO another day for them though).Warlock: The warlock tumbles down as their 2 spells they can cast per short rest start to come up a bit short vs all of the daily slots other casters get. Still they can cast a lot of high level slots relative to the other casters and they may be able to use 4-6 level 4 and 5 spells per day with 2 short rests. However their spell list is a bit anaemic. Still Eldritch Blast+ hex keeps doing its thing, you're still charisma based and you get more invocations which can offer great utility. Wizard: The rest of them. All wizards get a massive boost in power from level 5 and more than the other casters as they creep closer to level 9 and 10. However a couple stand out a bit more and the gaps between what left is fairly marginal although invokers and transmuters may be slightly ahead of the pack but not enough to kick the rest of them down to tier 3. In general you will pick up rituals, get more money to acquire rituals and things like water breathing and leomunds hut are very useful. Tier 3Barbarian: Path of the Totem Warrior. No real change in position. You get more rages, and you can pick up some exploration pillar type stuff and generic Barbarian abilities.Clerics: The rest of them. The only primary casters at level 3. The cleric spell list is decent but it doesn't really have many synergies with what the Knowledge and Trickery clerics offer. None of these clerics are that good at anything that matters (melee, ranged, healing etc). They are just at the bottom of the cleric heap and yeah they are supposed to offer a it more utility and side helping of skill monkey etc but in that situation just play another class instead. They are not bad as such by any means, but are outclassed by other classes in similar roles.  Fighter: Battlemaster+ Eldritch Knight. The EK moves up a spot, the Battlemaster falls down a spot along with the Champion. The EK picks up war magic so at these tiers they can use the cantrips from SCAG and have 2 attacks which is a great deal. And they get a few more spells. The Battlemaster doesn't scale as wellbut both ighters gain an extra ASI at level 6 and 8 so you can get some combos up quite early (say 20 dex+ sharpshooter and crossbow expert or GWM+ PAM). Relative to the other clases though they continue to sink further the closer to level 10 you get.Monk Way of the Open Hand and Shadow. Monks lose their comparative damage bonuses over the other warriors at level 5 but they pickup stunning strike so they gain a side helping of controller. The fist Monk is more focused on combat while the Shadow (Ninja) is more focuses on utility. You keep getting more ki points which means the Shadow Monk will have ample use of pass without trace and the Open hand one can trip people left right and centre. They are better at combat than say a Rogue but Rogues are better out of combat hence they are bother tier 3.  Rogues: All of them. Rogues are unchanged but around level 9 its the start of a downward slide IMHO. The mid level abilities IMHO don't add up to much and after level 8 taking the next 5 levels or so as a fighter or hunter ranger are really a better option IMHO. You will give up 3d6 sneak attack but gain dex to damage on your off hand, an extra attack+ class features.  Tier 4Barbarian: Path of the Bezerker. No change from the previous tier for much the same reasons. This class is tier 4 all the way up. Fighter: Champion. Well fighters struggle outside the combat sphere. The problem for the Champion is in the mid levels its not any better than the other 2 fighters, or even any of the other warriors. Its a one trick pony that is not even that good at its trick (combat). Its nice and simple though so there is that and its what it was designed for.  It gets better later but by then its to little to late IMHO. Tier 5. Long story short. No change for the Beastmaster and Way of the 4 elements Monk. </blockquote>

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