Gardens & Goblins
First Post
There's also a feat in one of the UA's for spears.
http://media.wizards.com/2016/downloads/dnd/ua-feats-v1.pdf
http://media.wizards.com/2016/downloads/dnd/ua-feats-v1.pdf
D&D 5E What makes a good Lancer?
- Thread starter Mephista
- Start date
Cap'n Kobold
Hero
Dragoons are generally mounted infantry, later on becoming light cavalry equipped with firearms. Lancer implies a mounted knight, but you seem to be talking about jumping around on foot.
Can you explain a little more about the sort of thing you're after?
From what you have said, the class seems to be a sort of generally-martial combatant that uses some magic. This is something that 5e has 4 or 5 different variations of.
Do you see the class as wearing armour? If so, I'm thinking Eldritch knight, with the spell restrictions adjusted.
Jump, Fly, Vampiric Touch, Dragon's Breath (XGtE) all sound like spells that they could cast. Then they have a wide variety of feats they can take such as Mounted Combatant, Charger, and Spear Mastery (UA).
Does this sound about right?
Can you explain a little more about the sort of thing you're after?
From what you have said, the class seems to be a sort of generally-martial combatant that uses some magic. This is something that 5e has 4 or 5 different variations of.
Do you see the class as wearing armour? If so, I'm thinking Eldritch knight, with the spell restrictions adjusted.
Jump, Fly, Vampiric Touch, Dragon's Breath (XGtE) all sound like spells that they could cast. Then they have a wide variety of feats they can take such as Mounted Combatant, Charger, and Spear Mastery (UA).
Does this sound about right?
"Lancer" implies a mounted lance-wielding cavalry. D&D, and most rpgs, have not traditionally supported 'mounted' archetypes very well. It is hard to take one into the Dungeon after all. The table top war game genre, whence D&D sprung from, has all different kinds of mounted lancer types though. D&D has also not traditionally supported different weapon styles with much specificity at all over the years. Certain traditional medieval/fantasy archetypes certainly call to mind specific weapons: dwarves with axes (mainly due to Gimli & tLotR), rogues and daggers (though this mainly due to restricting weapons by class and class features such as sneak attack, 4e was the only edition that really incentivised daggers for Rogues), virtually any fantasy & swords. D&D did seem to popularize the cleric hammer/mace meme with the 'no edged weapons' thing, relying on Bishop Turpin legends for inspiration. The spear has not really been prominent in any of these archetypes, outside the mounted 'Knight' type (which D&D does not do well), and phalanx type formations (Greek Hoplites, Roman legions with javelins, pike lines), which D&D also does not do well (but table top war games do very well). All this despite the fact that the spear was probably the most historically prominent and ubiquitous weapon of antiquity. Perhaps it was viewed as to 'mundane' for the legends and myth to grow around it as grew up around swords.
In short, the prominent fighting weapons of D&D are usually that way due to: a) class restrictions (cleric, rogue), b) mythical associations (numerous swords of legend), and c) being the mechanically 'best option' or most versatile weapon available. Spears have never quite had the stats to make them that desirable, despite numerous reach rules implementations over the years (possibly because these rules were not always implemented consistently across groups). I guess you can't just clip a spear to your belt/back and forget about it until you need it again. Furthermore, I would add that D&D combat mechanics have always been somewhat abstract and has not, IMHO, been well served by attempts to make specific weapon tactics distinct in more than the most general sense, even through feats (UA or elsewhere). If one wants a 'spear-warrior' one aught to just give the spear slightly better stats, and people will play spear warriors.
In short, the prominent fighting weapons of D&D are usually that way due to: a) class restrictions (cleric, rogue), b) mythical associations (numerous swords of legend), and c) being the mechanically 'best option' or most versatile weapon available. Spears have never quite had the stats to make them that desirable, despite numerous reach rules implementations over the years (possibly because these rules were not always implemented consistently across groups). I guess you can't just clip a spear to your belt/back and forget about it until you need it again. Furthermore, I would add that D&D combat mechanics have always been somewhat abstract and has not, IMHO, been well served by attempts to make specific weapon tactics distinct in more than the most general sense, even through feats (UA or elsewhere). If one wants a 'spear-warrior' one aught to just give the spear slightly better stats, and people will play spear warriors.
Ancalagon
Dusty Dragon
Correct - to be even more exact, the Dragoon is mounted infantry - they use their horses to get around quickly, but fight on foot. However some units evolved into actual cavalry.
This has very little to do with the FF archetype though... and reading this I see it's one that's evolved and changed over the years, so my idea of a dragoon/lancer may be very different from the OP...
To me the "essence" is sacrificing an action now to go "away" (jump high in the air out of reach) and then attack later with more power. I'm... not sure that's a great idea in D&D, from a tactical perspective.
Example: Party has 1 lancer, 1 cleric, 1 rogue, 1 wizard. Being attacked by goblins and the goblin chief.
Round 1: Lancer jumps, targeting the goblin chief.
Round 2: Lancer hits the goblin chief, doing tons of damage.
... that's great. But that means that in round 1 Lancer has *no impact* on the fight. He's not shielding the other party members. He's not killing 1 goblin with an attack. Nothing.
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mellored
Legend
Jump:
As a bonus action, you can jump in a straight arc towards a target. You can travel twice your remaining speed. You gain a +1 bonus to-hit agains the target for every 20' you moved. If you have spear, you also gain a +1 bonus to damage for every 10' you moved. In addition, you resist fall damage and it never knocks you prone.
High Jump:
As a bonus action you can choose a target up to 120' away horizontally, and as an action you can launch yourself 300' into the air. On your next turn you use your action to come crashing down on your target. The target makes a dexterity saving throw. If it fails, it takes twice the damage equal it would have taken if you hit it with an attack action (including any multi-attack), and cause it to fall prone. If it succeeds it takes half as much damage. If you are wielding a spear, the target has disadvantage on its save. You cannot use this if you do not have room. In addition, you are immune to fall damage.
(Effectively you get 2 turns of advantage and some movement, at the cost of delaying damage a turn. Great for any battle that starts more than 30' away. Plus you can knock down dragons.).
As a bonus action, you can jump in a straight arc towards a target. You can travel twice your remaining speed. You gain a +1 bonus to-hit agains the target for every 20' you moved. If you have spear, you also gain a +1 bonus to damage for every 10' you moved. In addition, you resist fall damage and it never knocks you prone.
High Jump:
As a bonus action you can choose a target up to 120' away horizontally, and as an action you can launch yourself 300' into the air. On your next turn you use your action to come crashing down on your target. The target makes a dexterity saving throw. If it fails, it takes twice the damage equal it would have taken if you hit it with an attack action (including any multi-attack), and cause it to fall prone. If it succeeds it takes half as much damage. If you are wielding a spear, the target has disadvantage on its save. You cannot use this if you do not have room. In addition, you are immune to fall damage.
(Effectively you get 2 turns of advantage and some movement, at the cost of delaying damage a turn. Great for any battle that starts more than 30' away. Plus you can knock down dragons.).
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