Level Up (A5E) What's In A Capstone?

A capstone feature represents the highest point of your adventuring career: that special ability you get when you reach 20th level in your chosen class. It’s a reward for countless adventures — and, of course, you usually get it just as your adventuring career ends.

With that in mind, we wanted our capstone class features to be something special. Not an interation of a previous ability. Not a numerical improvement in something you can already do. Something new, something special, something to strive for. Something big.

Capstones are intended to feel a little overpowered. After all, you’ll only get to use it for a short time. This is where you get to show off!

The below features are playtest material. With the Kickstarter only 10 weeks away, this will be the final public playtest. As always, we fully expect you to not like some of this stuff — that’s the point of playtesting. It lets us adjust course based on the feedback we get.

All capstone features are gained in their relevant class at 20th level.

What’s In A Capstone? — Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition (A5E)

A capstone feature represents the highest point of your adventuring career: that special ability you get when you reach 20th level in your chosen class. It’s a reward for countless adventures — and, of course, you usually get it just as your adventuring career ends.

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When you have read the playtest document, please fill out the playtest survey. Thank you!

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[Darkwynters]

I like the paladin one!

 

[Tonguez]

I do like the Beserkers followers, its very Conan especially when they are implicitly Garrisoned somewhere convinient (unlike the inconvience of the Clerics tail of commoners)

I would have liked to see a more Beastmaster like cap for Ranger although I suppose the Stampede ability could be seen as Tarzan calling the Elephants

still considering the others …

 

[CleverNickName]

Oh man. The paladin looks great! But put me down for an Archdruid.

Some folks will probably say that it doesn't matter. So few characters ever make it to the level cap...and they take so long to get there, and they won't be played for very long once they do.

I disagree, though. I think that the "capstone" for any character class should be a springboard for the next stage of their career, the next chapter in the D&D campaign. I would have new "Epic Subclasses" that get chosen at 20th level (or whatever the level cap is set at), which gives them the abilities they need for adventuring at levels 20 and up.

BECMI had the Immortals. 3.5E had the Epic Level Handbook. Level-Up could have Epic Subclasses.

 

[Morrus]

Don't forget to take the survey! It's the last playtest, and we've included a few extra general Level Up questions at the end.

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[Faolyn]

Questions and comments!

Adepts: If you combine these two abilities--spending 1ex. to change your MA die to a d12 and 5ex to do max damage--does this mean that, since if you roll a 12 on this MA die you get to roll a second MA die and therefore add 24 damage to the total?

Bard: Nice! Very superstar here.

Berserker: This reminds me--are you doing your own version of the Epic Boons from the DMG? Doesn't really matter, but this is a neat ability. I imagine the book will go into detail about what the followers are actually like, statwise.

Cleric: Tell us what to think for ourselves, oh Shepherd!

Druid: Is Seen is a type of component now? I can't recall if you said that before. Also wow, yeah, Archdruids have some power now. Almost no components are needed, insta-kill and super-raise abilities 1/day (do they really need true resurrection? Raise dead isn't enough?), and super-elemental creation? Day-um.

Fighter: Have we heard about Maneuver Mastery before? Does this mean you know every maneuver in the book, or just the ones from certain traditions? I'm assuming if it's the latter, then you'd either have to learn all or most of the maneuvers from a particular tradition to Master it. Also, I like the Superior Accuracy trait.

I'm also interested in the picture that goes with it. Does that illustrate a particular fighter archetype?

Herald: While very nicely flavored, it seems awfully weak in comparison to the other capstones since it's unlikely that getting killed in this manner will happen very often. Honestly, it would still feel a bit weak if they came back at half or full hp because it's so unlikely to happen. (And let's face it: at 20th level, if you actually get killed, the killing blow is as likely to be 51+ damage as it is to be 50 or less.) This feels like they should have an extra ability in addition to this. Maybe something that lets them do extra Smite damage, or perhaps their Strength or other score should increase like the Berserker's does.

Marshal: Interesting abilities to choose from (yes, I know this was in the playtest packet). I eagerly await the info the books have on strongholds.

Ranger: You probably want to phrase the bit "creature of that element with CR 7 or lower is drawn to your presence and becomes your loyal companion" as "an elemental of CR 7 or lower." Since you brought up wood and ice in the druid section, I'm hopeful that we'll get to see more non-typical elementals in the MM.

Rogue: TIL I am a 20th-level rogue, since people often fail to spot me even when I'm just sitting there. Also, skill mastery? Nice.

Sorcerer: Your spellchecker exploded on ya. Appropriate, considering their other ability.

Warlock: I had to reread this one to make sure I got it. Necrotic is the default, but it doesn't have to stay that way. I would have made force the default, since you made EB a class feature. Highest Arcanum seems very cool and flavorful.

Wizard: No hit point reduction with Greater Intensity? Now that's an interesting tease for the base ability, which I imagine comes at level 11 or higher. Hey, @Steampunkette, take note of this for your S&S world. Also, true seeing sans seeing invisibility? Very interesting--plus makes the see invisible spell potentially quite useful even at this high a level (and frees up the slot you no longer need to spend on true seeing).

 

[Darkwynters]

Maybe when herald is killed, they release a holy fireball! I agree, 50 HP of damage is a little small and maybe they come back after the battle once per long rest. Seems unfair to make a player wait a couple of sessions to get their beloved herald back.

 

[Faolyn]

Maybe when herald is killed, they release a holy fireball! I agree, 50 HP of damage is a little small and maybe they come back after the battle once per long rest. Seems unfair to make a player wait a couple of sessions to get their beloved herald back.

You misread the ability. They come back in 1d4 rounds. They then can't use the ability again for a month.

 

[Darkwynters]

Ahhh, nice… but still a holy fireball would be neat!

 

[Darkwynters]

I thought all criticals do max damage? I mean having the Adept get an automatic one is cool.