J-H
Hero
A. No Fighter, Rogue, Cleric, Wizard.
I read this as "pick 4" so here we go.
1. Paladin handles the faith/church/healing role, with subclasses leaning more martial or caster. Not as tough as the reworked Barbarian, but they are the only ones who have access to magical healing, smiting, and extraplanar anything.
2. The Warlock chassis derives its power from all sorts of weird bloodlines like sorcs used to. It covers all of the arcane casting, with a better invocation list and extra invocation choices to pick up different thematics including scholarly cultivation, specialization in particular spells/spell types, etc.
3. The Barbarian gets reworked where armor style isn't relevant and "rage" is always on, representing martial prowess and the ability to parry and partially deflect even the blows that hit. Heavy armor is reduced to use on horseback; although you can run in head-to-toe jousting plate, historically people didn't.
4. The Scout or Ranger class pulls from rogue and ranger features to create a non-magical base class with heavy skill use. Subclasses can lean towards urban or wilderness environments, melee mobility vs. archery, etc. Some form of Cunning Action would probably stick around, and it would be able to use skill checks to do things in combat. Think Acrobatics as a contested check to avoid OA attack rolls, or Advantage lets you deal extra damage equal to your Medicine check, or make a Sleight of Hand roll vs. the enemy's Passive Perception to feint to gain Advantage on your attack roll, or make an Athletics check to try to shove an enemy when you hit, etc. I'd go through the skill list and find ways to apply about 50% of it to combat as skill trick options to be used at will.
B. No Plain Human, or Tolkein style elves, dwarves, orcs, or halflings.
If I'm pulling from D&D species in general, we get:
1 & 2. Lizard people & dragon people (different, but alike enough they hate each other). The lizard people and dragonborn are probably the dominant species, but since they're both carnivores they are dependent on large herds of livestock for food. This means they need lots of land and a relatively low population density, so there is room for more on the margins. The dragonborn probably have strict social & status rules, while the lizard people are more flexible.
3. Sentient skeletons (nobody's quite sure why some of them wake up after being dead, it's a mystery). Since everything is the same size, it doesn't matter what species they're from. They can fit into any civilization, but different cultures take different approaches. They can be "just folks," designated slave labor, evil threats, trusted lifetime servants (think court eunuchs), or subject matter experts thanks to their long lives.
4. Frog people. More Frog from Chrono Trigger, less Bullywug. Mobile, perceptive, good at swimming, and probably idealistic.
5. Tree people. Full on photosynthesis with sun dependency, long lifetimes, etc. They probably move slower, but have better AC and self-healing. They fill the nature-lover/elf slot by culture, but their durability makes them tend towards juggernaut or support roles on the battlefield instead of mobility and flexibility.
6. Planetouched as the primary "human" stand-in. Varieties of genasi and elemental crossovers. No tieflings because I'm tired of evil edgy and devilish imagery. Good at nothing in particular, but each variety has some sort of magical edge in terms of an elemental resistance, a few innate spells, and a physical trait (fire: darkvision, air: better jumping+innate feather fall, earth: spider climb on rock surfaces, etc.). This is the only species choice to get innate spellcasting of any sort.
I thought about merfolk/tritons/sahuagin/whatever, but underwater is really a hard place to adventure.
I read this as "pick 4" so here we go.
1. Paladin handles the faith/church/healing role, with subclasses leaning more martial or caster. Not as tough as the reworked Barbarian, but they are the only ones who have access to magical healing, smiting, and extraplanar anything.
2. The Warlock chassis derives its power from all sorts of weird bloodlines like sorcs used to. It covers all of the arcane casting, with a better invocation list and extra invocation choices to pick up different thematics including scholarly cultivation, specialization in particular spells/spell types, etc.
3. The Barbarian gets reworked where armor style isn't relevant and "rage" is always on, representing martial prowess and the ability to parry and partially deflect even the blows that hit. Heavy armor is reduced to use on horseback; although you can run in head-to-toe jousting plate, historically people didn't.
4. The Scout or Ranger class pulls from rogue and ranger features to create a non-magical base class with heavy skill use. Subclasses can lean towards urban or wilderness environments, melee mobility vs. archery, etc. Some form of Cunning Action would probably stick around, and it would be able to use skill checks to do things in combat. Think Acrobatics as a contested check to avoid OA attack rolls, or Advantage lets you deal extra damage equal to your Medicine check, or make a Sleight of Hand roll vs. the enemy's Passive Perception to feint to gain Advantage on your attack roll, or make an Athletics check to try to shove an enemy when you hit, etc. I'd go through the skill list and find ways to apply about 50% of it to combat as skill trick options to be used at will.
B. No Plain Human, or Tolkein style elves, dwarves, orcs, or halflings.
If I'm pulling from D&D species in general, we get:
1 & 2. Lizard people & dragon people (different, but alike enough they hate each other). The lizard people and dragonborn are probably the dominant species, but since they're both carnivores they are dependent on large herds of livestock for food. This means they need lots of land and a relatively low population density, so there is room for more on the margins. The dragonborn probably have strict social & status rules, while the lizard people are more flexible.
3. Sentient skeletons (nobody's quite sure why some of them wake up after being dead, it's a mystery). Since everything is the same size, it doesn't matter what species they're from. They can fit into any civilization, but different cultures take different approaches. They can be "just folks," designated slave labor, evil threats, trusted lifetime servants (think court eunuchs), or subject matter experts thanks to their long lives.
4. Frog people. More Frog from Chrono Trigger, less Bullywug. Mobile, perceptive, good at swimming, and probably idealistic.
5. Tree people. Full on photosynthesis with sun dependency, long lifetimes, etc. They probably move slower, but have better AC and self-healing. They fill the nature-lover/elf slot by culture, but their durability makes them tend towards juggernaut or support roles on the battlefield instead of mobility and flexibility.
6. Planetouched as the primary "human" stand-in. Varieties of genasi and elemental crossovers. No tieflings because I'm tired of evil edgy and devilish imagery. Good at nothing in particular, but each variety has some sort of magical edge in terms of an elemental resistance, a few innate spells, and a physical trait (fire: darkvision, air: better jumping+innate feather fall, earth: spider climb on rock surfaces, etc.). This is the only species choice to get innate spellcasting of any sort.
I thought about merfolk/tritons/sahuagin/whatever, but underwater is really a hard place to adventure.
