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Message: <blockquote data-quote="NotAYakk" data-source="post: 8553136" data-attributes="member: 72555">The sorcerer at level 1 is a problem, because its differentiation from Wizard is its subclass feature.The Wizard gets arcane recovery (1 more slot/day on a short rest) and int+1 spells preped, and 6 spells in the spellbook.The Sorcerer gets 2 spells known and a subclass.Assuming a 16 casting state, that subclass should be balanced against arcane recovery, 2 spells prepared, and 4 spells you can both swap with overnight and cast as rituals.  Plus a restricted spell list.Sorcerer subclass level 1 features are inconsistent in how good they are.  Sometimes they are good, sometimes not; so you get a relatively wide swing between "great dip" to "you are a wizard, but worse, harry".For the barbarian, their T3/T4 class features are hot garbage; at least prior to capstone.Their defensive features of note are:(a) A few hits/day at low HP (1-3 per short rest).(b) A shoring up of some "lose rage" weaknesses(c) 2 more uses of their level 1 class ability (rage)which isn't bad.  Mainly, what you get out of these levels is 10 levels of d12 HD.  And maybe some ASIs to boost your con.Their offensive features of note are:(a) 2 more uses of their level 1 class ability (rage)(b) A 1 more point of damage per hit while in rage.(c) A tiny and inconsistent boost to damage from critical hits (brutal critical).  It is only 0.65 damage per swing with reckless (3x over 3 levels).The damage per swing (always reckless) from T3/T4 (assuming 50% baseline hit rate) before capstone adds up to 2.7 damage per swing.  So before you might be doing 11.5 per swing at 10, and 14.2 at 19, a 23% boost.  Meanwhile, your HP (and those of foes) basically double.It is really anemic.Their utility features in T3/T4 before capstone:(a) Better strength checks.The capstone is:(a) Unlimited uses of rage (utility, offence, defence)(b) +4 str/con almost uncapped (so +40 HP, +2 to hit, +2 to damage, +2 to strength checks, +2 to str/con saves, +2 AC unarmored).For the Barbarian, core class features, there is basically a vacuum between 7 and 20 (exclusive).In theory subclasses could make up for this.  But that is a lot of weight for subclasses to carry.The same is true of the Ranger; their level 11 feature is from a subclass.Design-wise, I wonder if it would have been better to design subclasses as a set of optional class features?Like, you have your baseline class.  It has class features at every level.You can optionally take a subclass.  You can do this at level 1, or at any level where it matches the story.If you have a subclass, you can swap certain base class features for features from your subclass.  Or not.The game design advantages here are:(a) You can play a subclass-free game of 5e.  Simpler characters.(b) The baseline, subclass-free classes can be balanced against each other, without reference to subclasses.(c) The features you swap out for the subclass can be balanced, item for item, against the primary class features you swap them.  And because each swap is optional, you are free to ignore a bad subclass feature; and subclass designers are "kept honest" by this.A side benefit is that each subclass can pick different features to swap.  A subclass might offer a trade for (extra attack 3) on a fighter, for example.</blockquote>

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