D&D 5E (2024) What should the 15th Class be?

[Minigiant]

one ability is a bit naff even if it is "I can turn into a CR 1 baby dragon" so what else would you have a shapeshifter do at early levels?

its also going to be really unbalanced theres really no way for a Level 5 Dire Wolf shifter to compete with a Level 5 Manticore shifter who has flight and ranged tail spikes.

Well
A Manticore is CR 3
A Dire wolf is CR 1

A CR 3 beast is a Giant Scorpion.

Really, you'd need to create more monsters to get a shifter class to work. That's why only a few have designed it.

 

[Zardnaar]

If it was as easy as that they could just use a 3PP version with the numbers filed off.

WotC aren’t taking “half measures”, they are sticking to the KISS philosophy that was responsible for 5e’s success. They know if the game gets more complex they will loose a lot of players, whereas the (much smaller number of) players who enjoy more complexity can use 3PP.

Yeah more complex editions sell less.

OD&D aside 3.5 and 4E are the worst selling D&Ds ever. Ben Riggs basically made it official.

Core sets Basic line outsold AD&D 1E+2E 4.5 million to 3.5 million units.

Basic boxed sets outsold every other edition except 1E phb and 5E. Two of them combined outsold 1E phb.

. Traditionally you sell about 1-1.5 million units of a phb or boxed set of main editions.

Reality dictates more complexity sells less. You lose the casuals.

 

[Corinnguard]

the druid and shaman are both supposed to sub classes of a different class.

Druids deal with nature, be it nature on the Material plane or what you might call nature on the Inner and Outer Planes. Shamans otoh deal with spirits and a Spirit Realm (if one exists in your setting's cosmology).

If it was as easy as that they could just use a 3PP version with the numbers filed off.

Or they could step aside (not likely) and let a homebrewer like Kibblestasty or Laser Llama create their classes for them. A Narrator could also make use of a 5e-adjacent RPG like Level Up to find something like the Warlord. Level Up, btw, does have such as a class. The Marshall.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

A Narrator could also make use of a 5e-adjacent RPG like Level Up to find something like the Warlord. Level Up, btw, does have such as a class. The Marshall

Or, people who want a more complex game could put their money where their mouth is and buy Level Up.

Setting aside the economics, if WotC catered to everyone other publishers would find it even harder to compete.

 

[Corinnguard]

Or, people who want a more complex game could put their money where their mouth is and buy Level Up

Several of us have already done that.

 

[Zardnaar]

Or, people who want a more complex game could put their money where their mouth is and buy Level Up.

Setting aside the economics, if WotC catered to everyone other publishers would find it even harder to compete.

Or play older editions.

Didn't like 4E, burnt out on 3.X. Went back to 2E had fun.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

Several of us have already done that.

Yeah, what a lot of people fail to understand (including those responsible for the OGL debacle) is that WotC want you to do that. Everyone benefits from a strong secondary market. WotC brings people in, other publishers keep them interested.

 

[EzekielRaiden]

Honestly, this has always struck me as being a little weird. If I ask a melee character's player if they'd like to make another attack, I can't imagine them saying "no, please don't, because I feel like a puppet and you're pulling my strings".

Especially classes that have 1/turn limitations on damage boosts like the Paladin or the Rogue!

You'd think that this would be a bizarre response, but I've seen several people take that stance. As though anyone playing a support-focused character is somehow stealing your achievements simply because they're helping.

Unless it's magic. Magic is fine! Who cares about magic doing precisely identical effects! That's not stealing your character's achievements. That's not making your character do anything at all. It's just magic!!!

I find this particular attitude tedious at the best of times.

 

[EzekielRaiden]

Attack granting isn't a common thing though.

Why not? Like legit. Why not?

And even if that's true, who cares? Dragonborn weren't a common thing before 4e put them front and center. Now, they're the most popular non-human, non-elf race, at least based on the last time we got any data on the subject from DDB.

The Warlords unpopular for a reaaon.

And that is?

 

[EzekielRaiden]

If it was as easy as that they could just use a 3PP version with the numbers filed off.

WotC aren’t taking “half measures”, they are sticking to the KISS philosophy that was responsible for 5e’s success. They know if the game gets more complex they will loose a lot of players, whereas the (much smaller number of) players who enjoy more complexity can use 3PP.

Yes, because new classes in supplemental books that those players who love simplicity would never buy are such a monumental threat.

Pull the other one.