D&D 5E xanathar's guide to everything class options thread

[Mephista]

Hrm. Some good, some bad.

I'm actually really happy with the druid and the bard subclasses. They feel good. I'm kinda interested in running a hexblade, even without the sword if I must, just because I think the idea of a curse master is pretty neat; a solid idea that no other class has run with yet. Kind of want to run a forge cleric with the new crafting rules, just because it feels like something to try.

I also want to hit up an Arcane Trickster with the new Elven Accuracy feat and shadow blade, but that's another matter.

I'm kind of disappointed in the new Fighter and Rogue subclasses, though. Insightful tries to be all Sherlock Holmes-y, but I just don't see the use in day-to-day operations of an adventurer. Insightful Fighting and its derivative abilities feels worse than relying on the usual rogue tricks. Scout... meh. Not different enough from regular rogue. Sorcerer... in short, you're playing a cleric with metamagic instead of channel divintity. Not much to say other than I wonder how good the spells will be. Shadow, I actually find disappointing. Its a giant Point sink, making it so you can't do much of anything else when you use your features.

 

[tuxedoraptor]

This combo actually does not work, so removed.

In return for wasting everyones time, I want us all to do two things:

1. yell loudly at WotC to fix the ranger already

2.imagine xanathar as the president of the united states.

 

[Demetrios1453]

So, I purposely waited to start my ToA campaign until Xanathar's came out, and, not too surprisingly, when it came to making characters today, all six of my players chose subclasses from Xanathar's (which is why I delayed the start, since I knew this would likely happen with most, if not all of them). So, now I have a group consisting of:

Variant Human War Magic Wizard
Variant Human Inquisitive Rogue
Hill Dwarf Gloom Stalker Ranger
Half-elf Shadow Magic Sorcerer
Wood Elf Circle of the Shepherd Druid
and a Lizardfolk Cavalier Fighter (yes, he had to come up with a convincing backstory for that one ).

It looks to be a fun and pretty balanced group - at least until the jungle or the dungeon starts killing them off...

 

[Mistwell]

as someone pointed out on giant in the playground, celestial pact warlock + aasimar is a very nasty combo, as you get a bonus to radiant damage and aasimars can add radiant damage to everything, at least once a rest. Thus you can deal ALL the damage with an aasimar.

I don't think it works. They get to add the damage to a radiant damage ROLL ,and the radiant damage the Aasimar gets is a fixed amount which is not rolled.

 

[Warmaster Horus]

It seems to me Hexblade 1 (or 2)/ Paladin X will be a popular combination. They can increase the crit range, which helps Paladin a lot, and change their attack and damage bonus stat to charisma eliminating the MAD issues with Paladin, and provide some spell slots to power smites.

I chose Hexblade 1 and all the rest Sword Bard. Full caster with mad melee skillz.

 

[THEMNGMNT]

I don't have the book yet, but I think a Fallen Aasimar Hexblade Warlock could be fun. I also like the Rogue Scout and Blade Bard.

 

[Iry]

I am somewhat sad that Hex Warrior and Improved Pact Weapon do not work together with bows and crossbows. So no Hexblade Archers. Not that they really needed it, but it would have been a fun option.

 

[Mistwell]

I am somewhat sad that Hex Warrior and Improved Pact Weapon do not work together with bows and crossbows. So no Hexblade Archers. Not that they really needed it, but it would have been a fun option.

Why doesn't it work? I thought they do? "If you later gain the Pact of the Blade feature, this benefit extends to every pact weapon you conjure with that feature, no matter the weapon’s type."

Question to Jeremy Crawford on Twitter:
Hello JeremyECrawford! Does this line from the Hexblade mean that if you have Pact of the Blade you can use the Hex Warrior feature with a two-handed weapon and get your Cha mod to attack and damage rolls? Thanks!

Answer from Jeremy Crawford on Twitter:
When we wrote "every pact weapon" in Hex Warrior, we really meant every pact weapon.

Question: Does that mean if you bond with a magical bow, like a +2 Longbow or something, you can use your Charisma modifier for the attack and damage rolls?

Answer: "Every" really means every.

 

[Arial Black]

What they did to Empowered Healing is interesting, purehaps the most interesting change, it not only can be applied to your spells, you can apply it to spells of your allies if they are within 5 feet of you.

I'm confused.

I have the book, but even so I can't tell which of these is correct re: Empowered Healing:-

* you can apply it to the healing spells cast by a caster who is within 5 feet of you

OR

* you can apply it to healing spells which target creatures who are within 5 feet of you

Is it the caster of the spell or the target of the spell that must be within 5 feet of you to gain the benefit?

 

[Iry]

Why doesn't it work? I thought they do? "If you later gain the Pact of the Blade feature, this benefit extends to every pact weapon you conjure with that feature, no matter the weapon’s type."

I suppose you are right. "No matter the weapon's type" would definitely seem to imply an exception to the "Must lack the two-handed property". And the quotes you provided from Crawford are very explicit and informative.

Thank you!