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.

www.levelup5e.com

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[Faolyn]

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

No, double dice plus double modifiers.

I have a personal houserule where your first die is maxed out, to avoid having crits where both dice roll really low.

 

[Darkwynters]

Ah! So Sin’shee the adept hits an opponent with her 1d6 fists (just using the 10th level 1d6 for the example) and uses Perfect Strike would get 12 dmg. Double max damage!

 

[RangerWickett]

(Small typo in the intro: "not an interation.")

Herald seems oddly underpowered compared to the rest, at least assuming that the game still has the usual access to resurrection magic. Coming back with 1 hp mid-combat seems to invite a disappointing flicker of consciousness before being knocked again, having never gotten to do something. I have a soft spot for paladins, but I'd suggest "Once-per-month when you would be reduced to 0 hit points or otherwise die, you may defiantly stay up. For the next 1d4 rounds you cannot be reduced below 1 HP, but during this time you also cannot regain hit points, and at the end of this time you drop to 0 HP."

With Rogue, hiding as a reaction in plain sight is neat, but forcing them to stay immobile is a bit less fun. Maybe let them remain invisible until the end of their next turn unless they attack, so they have a chance to move to cover.

 

[Steampunkette]

I remain KEENLY INTERESTED to see the full classes. Just a few more months...

 

[Stalker0]

Off the cuff I’d say Warlocks capstone is insanely good, easily the best. All monsters are now vulnerable to my parties fire damage, and I have advantage on almost all d20 rolls, yes please. In contrast….poor poor sorcerer why are you always so ignored? Seriously the warlocks one is crazy strong and way more flavorful than the sorcerer

Wizard has nice flavor. The only thing that make sit worthy is it can penetrate most walls, providing some level of x ray vision at will which can be very very useful. Without that it would be weak

The adept provides for the ultimate single round damage, but once again just gives the class new ways to nova it’s whole load and then be a weak fighter until the next short rest.

The bard one is confusing, the effect lasts for 6 days but you can extend it by 1d4 rounds…i guess to get off that mass suggestion? There’s some neat stuff here got it feels a bit much, could use some trimming.

does the cleric still get an automatic divine intervention at some point? If not this capstone is bad compared to that.

herald one is neat, though not overly powerful for this level, but it feels epic and that’s the most important part.

The Marshall just copies the Paladin, but it also means the two together could grant a +10 to saves, effectively removing saving throws as even a thing, I really would choose something else here

rogue is decent.

 

[EthanSental]

Looking forward to the first of October when this kicks off. Will the pdf be available soon after it ends or a little wait? This might be a physical and pdf backing for me.

 

[dave2008]

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.

They did a survey early on in the process and the desire for epic / immortal rules ranked fairly low. It is not something that will be included in the initial LevelUp books.

 

[dave2008]

No, double dice plus double modifiers.

I have a personal houserule where your first die is maxed out, to avoid having crits where both dice roll really low.

No, by RAW you only double the dice (bold emphasis mine):

Critical Hits
When you score a critical hit, you get to roll extra dice for the attack’s damage against the target. Roll all of the attack’s damage dice twice and add them together. Then add any relevant modifiers as normal. To speed up play, you can roll all the damage dice at once.

For example, if you score a critical hit with a Dagger, roll 2d4 for the damage, rather than 1d4, and then add your relevant ability modifier. If the Attack involves other damage dice, such as from the rogue’s Sneak Attack feature, you roll those dice twice as well.

 

[dave2008]

Ah! So Sin’shee the adept hits an opponent with her 1d6 fists (just using the 10th level 1d6 for the example) and uses Perfect Strike would get 12 dmg. Double max damage!

FYI. Faolyn was incorrect. In RAW O5e, you only double the dice, not the modifiers: Critical Hits

 

[Faolyn]

No, by RAW you only double the dice (bold emphasis mine):

Critical Hits
When you score a critical hit, you get to roll extra dice for the attack’s damage against the target. Roll all of the attack’s damage dice twice and add them together. Then add any relevant modifiers as normal. To speed up play, you can roll all the damage dice at once.

For example, if you score a critical hit with a Dagger, roll 2d4 for the damage, rather than 1d4, and then add your relevant ability modifier. If the Attack involves other damage dice, such as from the rogue’s Sneak Attack feature, you roll those dice twice as well.

By RAW in Level Up you also double the modifier.

It was in the Combat playtest.