D&D 5E Unused content

[shadowoflameth]

In 5E, in actual play, have you used any of these at all during the time that they have been published options? I will be posting several polls separately to get a feel for what people are actually doing.

 

[DND_Reborn]

I revised the Way of the 4 Elements and Purple Dragon Knight so they were more to my liking.

But in my four different groups, I have never seen anyone consider these, let alone play them.

 

[darjr]

Question, for others, does running a game with one of them in it count?

 

[Burnside]

While I haven't played them personally, I have seen players use, and enjoy, the Four Elements monk and Purple Dragon Knight fighter - the former in a Dungeon of the Mad Mage campaign I'm currently running, and the latter by a fellow player in a Tomb of Annihilation game (the character did die after about 5 sessions, though).

I would at least consider playing a Mastermind rogue. The Master of Tactics ability is actually really good (granted, everything else about it is pretty bad).

One subclass I have never seen used is the Undying warlock from SCAG, which is very terrible.

 

[GMforPowergamers]

The Purple dragon and master mind both promised ways to play that didn't live up to what was on the tin

 

[Unwise]

Fey Hobgoblins make amazing Masterminds. They have a unique and powerful way of contributing buffs to people every turn. Outside of that exception, I have not seen any good experiences with those subclasses.

In a friend's campaign they misread the 4 elements monk rules and had an entirely separate pool of Ki for their normal abilities and their subclass abilities. Even then they did not outshine the other PCs.

 

[James Gasik]

I've seen one Mastermind played. Seemed pretty neat, handing out advantage all the time.

 

[Tutara]

Mastermind is unplayed content? News to me, it’s one of my favourite rogue subclasses. Everyone’s best friend!

 

[Ruin Explorer]

Mastermind is unplayed content? News to me, it’s one of my favourite rogue subclasses. Everyone’s best friend!

It's just not a good fit for most people's vision of the Rogue, and has a particularly worthless set of 3rd level features - largely because the tool proficiencies are near-useless, and the voice-mimic'ing feature is not mechanically quantified in any way. The level 13 feature is also pretty dreadful, because either it's something that is very rarely going to happen (like, almost never) or it relies on the DM interpreting it (and indeed the cover rules) in a well... atypical way.

It's basically a subclass entirely reliant on a DM both the opportunities for it to work, in terms of adventure design, and actively working to find ways to get the abilities to see usage.

The Help as a bonus action and working at 30' range is cute, but it's Advantage for one attack/roll, and the big problem is that they have to "stick to the plan", because you have to say what you're helping with BEFORE they get their go. And no plan survives contact with the enemy, or rather the next few things happening in the round. So a lot of Help can go unused unless, again, you have a generous DM who interprets it more broadly. Being able to use Help as a Reaction and use it on other people's turns would have been a lot better. Also the 30' range only works when it's used to make attacks, which is dumb.

It feels like a subclass designed by someone with a good imagination and cool ideas, but who had never actually played D&D, only read about it, and didn't realize how very DM-dependent and basically weak a lot of this stuff was.

I kind of like the subclass, it's just not well-designed. Whereas Purple Dragon Knight and Way of the Four Elements are absolute trash-tier design and not even likeable. Four Elements is almost an accidental insult to Avatar fans.

 

[Tutara]

It's just not a good fit for most people's vision of the Rogue, and has a particularly worthless set of 3rd level features - largely because the tool proficiencies are near-useless, and the voice-mimic'ing feature is not mechanically quantified in any way. The level 13 feature is also pretty dreadful, because either it's something that is very rarely going to happen (like, almost never) or it relies on the DM interpreting it (and indeed the cover rules) in a well... atypical way.

It's basically a subclass entirely reliant on a DM both the opportunities for it to work, in terms of adventure design, and actively working to find ways to get the abilities to see usage.

The Help as a bonus action and working at 30' range is cute, but it's Advantage for one attack/roll, and the big problem is that they have to "stick to the plan", because you have to say what you're helping with BEFORE they get their go. And no plan survives contact with the enemy, or rather the next few things happening in the round. So a lot of Help can go unused unless, again, you have a generous DM who interprets it more broadly. Being able to use Help as a Reaction and use it on other people's turns would have been a lot better. Also the 30' range only works when it's used to make attacks, which is dumb.

It feels like a subclass designed by someone with a good imagination and cool ideas, but who had never actually played D&D, only read about it, and didn't realize how very DM-dependent and basically weak a lot of this stuff was.

I kind of like the subclass, it's just not well-designed. Whereas Purple Dragon Knight and Way of the Four Elements are absolute trash-tier design and not even likeable. Four Elements is almost an accidental insult to Avatar fans.

I mean, I have read the subclass, played it and thoroughly enjoyed playing it. I'm not sure why you're explaining to me why I shouldn't like the thing I like, unless I'm misreading you. What you're describing is not my experience of it - perhaps when you played it you had a different experience?