D&D 5E What Would Your Perfect 50th PHB Class List Be?

[Levistus's_Leviathan]

It does, and someone on the Wizards staff has cracked a joke about this before.

A Cleric is just a Warlock, with a Divine Patron. Something to that effect.

I dont like it at all.

Not really. Lorewise, in 5e, Clerics get their spells from their faith in their god (or a part of the universe if you're in Ravnica or Eberron), like how 5e Paladins don't get their magic from a god but from upholding their Oath and Tenets. Warlocks are literally given their magic for making a pact/deal with an extremely powerful magical entity. No faith involved for Warlocks.

It's kinda the inverse of the "Gods need Prayers Badly" trope. If a God in D&D gets their power from faith/prayers, the people who channel their faith can get part of its power from praying.

(In my campaigns, levelling up as a Cleric happens because you become even more devoted to your god/aspect of the universe, so as you level up, you have to roleplay your cleric as being even more devoted to your god's cause than you were at lower levels.)

 

[Horwath]

So d12 HD Rogues?

with current 5E giving rogues d12 would not break anything.

 

[Ashrym]

I stand corrected

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I am shocked and disappointed that there are so few tech and lore classes on this list.

I expected more "I invented a FN SCAR 165 on the weekend" nonmagical Tinkers, "Yeah baby! A gimmick that's it! High explosives!" Alchemists, and "I may be weak but my bear isn't" Beastmasters.

We already had non-magical tinkers. They were part of the Dragonlance system and came from gnomish society. I would definitely prefer to keep artificers as a magical gadget class and had a blast with my mad gnome tinker back in the day. It's worth a revisit.

It does, and someone on the Wizards staff has cracked a joke about this before.

A Cleric is just a Warlock, with a Divine Patron. Something to that effect.

I dont like it at all.

There is a big difference in the basic lore here.

Clerics are divine casters, which in turn requires a medium to access and cast magic per the PHB side bar on arcane versus divine magic. It can follow tropes such as needing worshippers and prayer or whatnot. This implies they can be cut off from or denied magic even if the rules do not cover that event.

The same cannot be said for warlocks. Warlocks are still arcane casters regardless of the similarity in having a patron. This means that whatever bargain and/or rituals they undergo to become warlocks changes them, making them capable of directly access and using magic without that medium and cannot be cut off from their magic.

Divine versus arcane seems superficial and the difference might be subtle, but it makes a difference when deities continually grant power to followers while patrons permanently change warlocks and teach power more like a business contract. To me.

 

[Levistus's_Leviathan]

with current 5E giving rogues d12 would not break anything.

It might not break anything, but it does feel weird. Like, really weird.

 

[Ashrym]

It might not break anything, but it does feel weird. Like, really weird.

That and "because it probably wouldn't hurt anything" isn't a strong reason to do anything.

 

[Horwath]

It might not break anything, but it does feel weird. Like, really weird.

well, as HPs are not precise, you can explain that rogues are REALLY good at avoiding, even outside of mechanics like uncanny dodge or evasion

 

[doctorbadwolf]

Subclass-replacing-niche-class has worked in some cases: no one is calling for an assassin base class, for example.

I’m definitely not alone in calling for an assassin base class, if you look outside this thread and forum.

 

[Remathilis]

I’m definitely not alone in calling for an assassin base class, if you look outside this thread and forum.

What does the assassin base class do that the rogue/assassin or monk/shadow doesn't?

 

[Greg K]

An Addendum to my list after reading the thread about non-spellcasting Rangers:
Paladin:

• Ideally, Paladin loses its spell list and receives abilities from their Oath that are fueled by Conviction Points (kind of like Ki fuels monk abillities).

Holy Warriror: add Holy Warrior class, hybrid/divine caster that receives some spells and abilities based around the deities domain, to my list. These abilities could be fueled by Faith Points.

Ranger: Thinking the class needs to be split and reworked. Maybe the Monster Slayer should be its own class (leave dragons in the Ranger class).

 

[doctorbadwolf]

What does the assassin base class do that the rogue/assassin or monk/shadow doesn't?

I made a whole thread about it, if you're really interested.

D&D 5E - Assassins, Alignment, and Archetypes

So, some of y’all may already know this, but the Assassin is one of my very favorite RPG character concepts, and I am very unsatisfied with its representation in 5e. Now, I didn’t expect an Assassin class in the PHB, but when I read the Assassin Rogue archetype... nope! That’s certainly a type...

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