D&D General What Classes Would You Add to D&D?


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There are some classes from other games that I really like, but don't have a definite home in 5e right now.

From Guild Wars:
Ritualist, paragon, and dervish. Ritualist is closer to a druid or cleric than anything with a heavy focus on channeling spirits. Paragon can probably be a subclass of paladin, but I think it has enough to be its own thing. Dervish was just cool. It's like someone gave a monk a scythe and the ability to go Avatar mode.

From Pillars of Eternity:
Chanter and cipher. Chanters are pretty cool. Their selling point is their big aura that can be offensive or defensive in nature. After chanting enough phrases they can unleash big effects or summon allies. How this would work in 5e is beyond me. Cipher gives you a bunch of mental abilities and have a pretty cool place in the world as mediums (more or less).

From Final Fantasy:
So many. Too many.

Screenshot_20240422_194854_DuckDuckGo.jpg

Not super surprised by my results. I figured Warlock and Sorcerer would be low, but 15% is really low.
 

Xeviat

Dungeon Mistress, she/her
If a Warlord of some kind were added to 5E, I think there's only a few other archetypes that are truly missing classes*. I operate under the principle of "if you can't make 10 subclasses for a new class, it's not a new class", which makes me object to some new class ideas.

  • Elementalist: someone who uses only elemental power. This could be expressed with a sorcerer, but there's too much of the class that would need to be changed to fit. There are enough elements and ways of wielding those elements to make a class (and I did in MOAR Complete for A5E).
  • Weilder: someone who gains their power from a magical artifact. Be they King Arthur with Excalibur or She-Ra/He-Man, this is a trope that isn't well covered by existing classes. This "could" be a fighter subclass, but I think "Magical Warrior" deserves its own class. Luckily, there's one in MOAR Complete.
  • Mystic: I really really really liked the Mystic attempt and was sad they didn't keep making it. It fills a role of a different take on magic, study, and even faith and perfection. There are more than enough psychic archetypes that can't be done well with the existing classes (body control, telepaths, kineticists, mediums...)
  • Shapechanger: last, I think the game really needs a dedicated shape shifter. I've seen too many moon druid players only want to shape shift. There might be enough archetypes here, from were creatures to animal shifters to body Morphers. That could fit into psychometabolism mystic stuff, but being a shifter that can also make telepathic attacks might be odd (and it doesn't fit the intelligent studied insightful bend of the mystic).
What I do think is that a couple of classes should lose some features to make them more broad. I think the Bard is too narrow, and the Bard might be a portion of a larger class. I think the Rogue is too much of a thief still (they all get thieves' tools and thieves' cant), and could be better if those were moved to the thief archetype. I also think an argument could be made to merge the sorcerer and Warlock, and just have the nature of their power source (blood, pact, accident) be a choice (but magic from blood and magic from pact are distinct enough to be separate thematically).
 

Micah Sweet

Level Up & OSR Enthusiast
If a Warlord of some kind were added to 5E, I think there's only a few other archetypes that are truly missing classes*. I operate under the principle of "if you can't make 10 subclasses for a new class, it's not a new class", which makes me object to some new class ideas.

  • Elementalist: someone who uses only elemental power. This could be expressed with a sorcerer, but there's too much of the class that would need to be changed to fit. There are enough elements and ways of wielding those elements to make a class (and I did in MOAR Complete for A5E).
  • Weilder: someone who gains their power from a magical artifact. Be they King Arthur with Excalibur or She-Ra/He-Man, this is a trope that isn't well covered by existing classes. This "could" be a fighter subclass, but I think "Magical Warrior" deserves its own class. Luckily, there's one in MOAR Complete.
  • Mystic: I really really really liked the Mystic attempt and was sad they didn't keep making it. It fills a role of a different take on magic, study, and even faith and perfection. There are more than enough psychic archetypes that can't be done well with the existing classes (body control, telepaths, kineticists, mediums...)
  • Shapechanger: last, I think the game really needs a dedicated shape shifter. I've seen too many moon druid players only want to shape shift. There might be enough archetypes here, from were creatures to animal shifters to body Morphers. That could fit into psychometabolism mystic stuff, but being a shifter that can also make telepathic attacks might be odd (and it doesn't fit the intelligent studied insightful bend of the mystic).
What I do think is that a couple of classes should lose some features to make them more broad. I think the Bard is too narrow, and the Bard might be a portion of a larger class. I think the Rogue is too much of a thief still (they all get thieves' tools and thieves' cant), and could be better if those were moved to the thief archetype. I also think an argument could be made to merge the sorcerer and Warlock, and just have the nature of their power source (blood, pact, accident) be a choice (but magic from blood and magic from pact are distinct enough to be separate thematically).
All of these concepts except the shapeshifter exist as full classes in Level Up. The shapeshifter class is a great idea though..
 

Zardnaar

Legend
PHB none. Last splatbook Blood hunter,Psion, Warlord, gunslinger. Maybe shape-shifting ( similar to moon Druid but better. No spells).
 



If a Warlord of some kind were added to 5E, I think there's only a few other archetypes that are truly missing classes*. I operate under the principle of "if you can't make 10 subclasses for a new class, it's not a new class", which makes me object to some new class ideas.

  • Elementalist: someone who uses only elemental power. This could be expressed with a sorcerer, but there's too much of the class that would need to be changed to fit. There are enough elements and ways of wielding those elements to make a class (and I did in MOAR Complete for A5E).
  • Weilder: someone who gains their power from a magical artifact. Be they King Arthur with Excalibur or She-Ra/He-Man, this is a trope that isn't well covered by existing classes. This "could" be a fighter subclass, but I think "Magical Warrior" deserves its own class. Luckily, there's one in MOAR Complete.
  • Mystic: I really really really liked the Mystic attempt and was sad they didn't keep making it. It fills a role of a different take on magic, study, and even faith and perfection. There are more than enough psychic archetypes that can't be done well with the existing classes (body control, telepaths, kineticists, mediums...)
  • Shapechanger: last, I think the game really needs a dedicated shape shifter. I've seen too many moon druid players only want to shape shift. There might be enough archetypes here, from were creatures to animal shifters to body Morphers. That could fit into psychometabolism mystic stuff, but being a shifter that can also make telepathic attacks might be odd (and it doesn't fit the intelligent studied insightful bend of the mystic).
What I do think is that a couple of classes should lose some features to make them more broad. I think the Bard is too narrow, and the Bard might be a portion of a larger class. I think the Rogue is too much of a thief still (they all get thieves' tools and thieves' cant), and could be better if those were moved to the thief archetype. I also think an argument could be made to merge the sorcerer and Warlock, and just have the nature of their power source (blood, pact, accident) be a choice (but magic from blood and magic from pact are distinct enough to be separate thematically).
@Steampunkette created the Esper class for A5e in Level Up. You can find it in her Paranormal Power book.

As for a Shapechanger, someone needs to convert PF1's Shifter to A5e. ;) Preferably the version from Legendary Games.
 



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