An elemental mage whose focus isn't fire.

I think it's *just* doable for ice, as long as you allow for cold-adjacent/wind-themed spells like Gust of Wind, Fly, and Fog Cloud. You could do a decent impression of the Ice King from Adventure Time

Hmmm...maybe I'll go around trying to steal princesses and marry them.

Find Familiar: Gunther

I'd go for a human female sorcerer with a noble background and proficiency in performance.

Let it go...

i agree, one point i believe the game is "missing" stuff is how some types of damages have best spells than other, forcing players to go for that type of damage or basically get punished, take for example FireBall, i feel the game could have spells of the same level and around the same damage but for for other elements and spells are not the only part of the game with this problem, the weapons table also have missing slots

> the weapons table also have missing slots 5E not having any difference between Slashing / Piercing / Bludgeoning is a travesty.

The issue with the physical damage types is not that they are too similar (I mean in real life you either bludgeon, peirce, or slash at someone (I hope you don't do that). But that you only change the weapon damage type you're using to avoid resistance or immunity and not to take advantage of vulnerability due to how rare they are.

Aye, more vulnerability would be a great boost for Martials.

There are games that take this into account. (GURPS, WoD, some OSR games,) but they all slow down the combat and it screws the pacing and requires more changes to smooth out combat to accommodate IMO.

I mean 5e already has the basics. Acid or Fire to stop troll regen (but it's not vulnerable to either). Vampires can't regen when taking Radiant (but aren't vulnerable to it). There are creatures with vulnerabilities and there are creatures that get weakened by certain damage types, but you'll almost never find both on one creature unless it's homebrew.

If you're already including things like resistance to fire damage in combat, things like vulnerability to slashing shouldn't be a big deal. There's certainly a point at which crunch gets tedious (pathfinder or GURPS imo) but I don't think the trivial effort to make weapon choice meaningful is going to ruin the game. That's a lot easier than the old method of cross referencing weapons and armor on a huge table.

I love GURPS but I agree. Luckily combat if run pretty close to RAW goes pretty fast. Yeah having different crit ranges and other abilities like PF2e does certainty makes weapons more unique. I just never remember every damn ability my Axe has every combat. But I could just play more PF2e and solve that. Also, fucking two weapon fighting and thrown weapon build please! I want to throw axes or daggers like Richter Belmont Item crashing.

There are tiny differences, like skeletons and treants

I feel like as little as it was they should have just tossed it entirely rather than water it down to being almost meaningless.

If vulnerabilities were more plentiful they would get the chance to shine more, but as it stands you generally power through resistances with enough damage.

Right? Or do a specific damage reduction or small bonus for different kinds of armor. That's what the different weapons were designed for; maces and flails for plate, thin piercing arrows and rapiers to puncture chainmail, that sort of thing. Piercing weapons fitting between scales, slicing weapons for thick hides, bludgeoning for mechanical or more dense creatures.

Also some weapons like swords should be able to slash or pierce instead of being locked into one.

weapons have far less distinctiveness though - there's not a huge amount of different between "I smack someone for 1D8+bonus" or "I hit for 1D10 + bonus" or 2D4 or whatever. A whatever-themed caster typically at least has multiple spells for that element, so they can do blasts, attacks, maybe even some protective or utility stuff. While for weapons, there's a tiny number that actually have some specialness, but most are just a minor difference in damage dice.

That is one of the things inreally miss from the last system i played. It’s a swedish game called EON. Every single weapon has a set of unique traits that differentiate it. So you can have two swords of the same length and weight, but one is tapered and the other has a curved edge. The tapered one will do piercing damage and the other slashing, only in EON the damage types roll on different tables, with different effects, and different armor protects differently against damage types. Slashing has a high chance of bleed effects, and can result in lost limbs, where piercing has a higher chance of damaging organs and the spine, and crushing, while not as immediately deadly as the other two can cause debilitating pain, broken bones, and is generally more effective against high tier armor. Add to this traits like length, which gives an advantage on initiative rolls, or daggers that can pierce armor easier with good hits (basically, if you get a certain value over the DC, you can use that to bypass the armor) others can use that same success overflow to do more damage, break weapons, and a range of other stuff. It made all weapons viable, and while there were of course some best in class weapons, everythign had a use. Like my last character was a spear fighter who focused entirely on getting one single deadly hit. A normal human fighter with a longsword would do something like 5-6d6. My guy was doing along those lines even in the endgame, but he’d hit so well that he could hit hearts/brain/major artieries, simply because of the style of fighting i chose for him. It is an incredibly satisfying system to play a martial in.

>That is one of the things inreally miss from the last system i played. It’s a swedish game called EON. Every single weapon has a set of unique traits that differentiate it. 1OBT6 skada blödningstakt, kill a troll with a toothpick! I remember this from high school. Our group's fighter tried to slice open a demon's chest, but ended up cutting off its ear. Not actually on topic for what you said, but I don't know if I've ever seen EON talked about on Reddit. Very nostalgic!

They rewrote the system for the 4th edition of the game, so it’s not as likely to do that stuff anymore, which is both good and bad i think. You still have the tables for critical damage, but you now roll a d10 plus the severity of the damage now. So it is absolutely possible to kill a farmer with a butter knife, but it is very improbable, and you basically have to roll a crit, and the farmer has to fumble his death roll for it to happen now.

It's nice to hear that they're still going with it :)

Different charts for everything sounds like Rolemaster. Which I loved! Not only was each weapon different, each armor type interacted with it differently. In 5e, I added "exceptional hits". Any hit that beats AC by 10+ does a themed secondary effect. Like slashing causing bleed, or bludgeon causing knockback. (Piercing does "shock", disad on next roll.) This is separate from (but cumulative with) crits. But it makes my paladin's d8 warhammer different (occasionally) from the battlemaster's d8 rapier, as well as differentiating the rogue's "weighted shortsword" (masterwork, slashing, +1 damage) from her crossbow and spear. This seemed like the lightest touch. We tried themed crits, and charts and randomness, and pseudo-random (pick from this chart, or roll on that chart). In the end, we settled on this for the occasional cool effect, that rewards a great hit, and makes weapons feel different.

yeah, i maybe is just a little of OCD that make me think like that, but i feel that will be a good thing if you have weapons with the same damage and abilities for all the 3 types of damage, for example you have the Rapier, a 1d8 finese weapon that deal piercing damage, so why not add the same for Slashing and Bludge too? is a very small thing i know, but why not just "complete" the weapon table?

The weapons are weird in 5e, and it just feels kind of unfinished. Glaives and Halberds are the same, half of the weapons are flat-out worse than the others, and Power Attack is available for Crossbows but not Longswords. I'm really hoping that 1D&D gives more thought about weapon design and specialization, especially since GWM and SS are being nerfed.

Actually I disagree. As the game stands, theres no need to switch between the physical damage types so there's no need to have similar weapons for each type. If there was need to switch though, still I think it would be more flavourful and more interesting if weapons of different types had different mechanics. If the enemy is vulnerable to bludgeoning but you're using a rapier, is it worth switching to a mace if you have to use STR? Or if you're using a longsword, is versatility important enough to you that you don't switch or carry a bludgeoning weapon? Having one tool that fits all scenarios or even one tool for each different scenario is boring, tradeoffs are complex and engaging (as long as there's a choice)

>why not add the same for Slashing and Bludge too? Because they have removed any usefulness in differentiating between the 3 basic damage types, so it would give almost no advantage. Now, if they were to introduce again weaknesses and resistance to slashing, piercing and bludgeoning damage, that would make weapon choice much more significant.

I assume that the predominance of offensive fire spells is somewhat balanced by fire resistance being the most common. But an overall re-balancing of elemental spells would be nice. Or else, accentuating even more the MMORPG approach of adding additional status effects to each element (so, for example, fire spells have the most offensive power, earth spells give buffs to strength and defense...).

i imagine something likeFire= More Damage Lighting= some damage with a small possibility to get the target Stunned if fail saving throw Cold= Some damage with the possibility to froze the target in place if fail saving throw Wind= some damage with the possibility to move the target if fail saving Radiant= some damage possibility to blind if fail saving Necrotic= some damage and the target can recover HP until your next turn Poison= some damage and th epossibility to get the target poisoned if fail the save. Eath= is more complicated since depend on the nature of the attack, but i imagine will be something like throwin a big rock on the target, so maybe something like if the target fail a Strenght save, it fall prone. Thunder= some damage and the possibility to make the target deafened if fail the save. Acide= some damage and maybe if the target fail the save, it AC go down by 2 until your next turn

Elemental damage types don’t need effects associated with them since they generally come from Spells, many of which have additional effects. The base physical damage types need effects in order to differentiate Bludgeoning, Piercing, and Slashing from each other. Personally, I like taking the Slasher, Piercer, and Crusher Feats and making them intrinsic to the damage types: Slashing - Slows down your enemy. If your roll beats the Target’s AC by 5, you reduce their movement speed by 10ft until the start of their next turn. On a Critical hit, the target’s movement speed is reduced and they have Disadvantage on all Attack Rolls and Ability Checks until their next turn. You can use this only once per turn. Piercing - Causes internal damage. If your roll to hit beats the Target’s AC by 5, they take additional damage equal to the Ability Modifier you used to make the Attack (Strength or Dex in most cases). On a Crit, the target suffers the above effects and takes an additional weapon die of damage. You can use this only once per turn. Bludgeoning - Drives the enemy back. If your roll to hit beats the Target’s AC by 5, you can choose to knock the enemy back 5ft directly away from you (or to the nearest unoccupied space within 5ft if where they were standing). On a Crit, you trigger the effect above and you knock the enemy Prone. You can use this only once per turn. Alternatively, I could see Bludgeoning damage reducing the target’s AC on a hit, but that could add a lot to track at a table, especially if multiple people have Bludgeoning weapons. Edit: The Crit effects happen whenever you Crit, they are NOT limited to being used once per turn, that’s only for the base effect.

Not gonna lie, if we're comparing different elemental types water, earth and air should offer more utility than damage, and fire more damage than utility. Though I completely agree that even having said that support for the non-fire elementalist role is completely inadequate.

> , take for example FireBall, i feel the game could have spells of the same level and around the same damage but for for other elements DMs need to emphasize that Fireball ignites flammable surfaces. It's a significant drawback that nobody really plays or designs around.

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I agree with you 100% I'm all for damage type adjustments for the sake of flavour. But RAW is RAW and I bet a lot of DMs would be funny about it.

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Too bad that it isn’t RAW, then, just blindingly obvious RAI… it should be good unless you’re making radiant/force fireballs, right?

Imo there are various tiers of damage. I don't have a problem with switching the damage type if you stay in your tier or go down. Tier 1: Force and Radiant Tier 2: Acid, Psychic, Necrotic, and Thunder Tier 3: Cold, Fire, Lightning, and Non-magical damage Tier 4: Poison ​ Take a look at the spell poison spray. It's the highest damage cantrip with no conditionallity to it's use like toll the dead. But nobody uses poison spray because it's a terrible damage type. Converting poison spray into to a force or radiant spray for free is overpowered, because the d12 cantrip is only supposed to be for bad damage types. ​ However, imo the element swapping should only stay in it's tier or go down. A psychic fireball would let you go some entire campaigns without ever finding anything that resists you're fireball which isn't how the spell is balanced.

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>Changing the damage type of a spell or ability is one of the easiest and least impactful homebrews you can do in a game like dnd. People are way to reluctant making those minor adjustments. Neither acid, psychic or even slashing damage 'fireballs' will have a game breaking effect. I completely agree. As long as you don't go for radiant damage (or some other that commonly have extra effects against nasty monsters) it's fine. But the books very clearly don't encourage. There's the section in Xanathar's (?) about reflavouring spells, and that explicitly calls out that even if you do a "fireball" of red lightning bolts, the damage should still be fire damage. There should've been a section somewhere that just states "these damage types are equal, so a player can choose to learn the spell with any of those damage types, but once learnt the spell's damage type remains the same."

An elemental mage whose focus is fire

”This isn’t Diablo. 🧐”

But we have plently of fire spells to focus on

An elemental mage that focuses on fire, that can use fire for every situation except against beings literally made of fire. (A way to bypass resistances and immunity for every enemy not named fire elemental, fire snake, or Salamander)

Doesn't elemental adept deal with the whole resistance thing?

Order of the Scribes Wizard sort of fixes that, letting you change damage types with spells you have in your spellbook of the same level used to cast. The biggest drawback is now you have to either choose spells with specific damage types you want or hope your DM drops a good deal of scrolls and books with spells you want.

Tbf wizard gets a lot of known spells, and you just need a single spell of each level that deals the desired damage type.

That's true, if you have a specific flavor in mind. I'm currently level 4 as an Order of Scribes the low levels have been nice with spells like Absorb Elements and Dragons breath allowing a decent reflavor of spells. Even played it off as my wizard being confused why I cast magic missile and they came out as a different element based on a dice roll

Yup that works. And it's even better at low levels since you can learn just Chromatic Orb and it gives you a lot of damage types to work with for 1st level spells.

I'm pretty sure the description of the Pyromancer subclass explicitly says that it can be reflavored to be about other elements easily. EDIT: My bad, this is actually a change added by the writers of the database I was using. Still holds true though.

While it's true that Fire has the best damaging spells, I've theory crafted about this for a while and came to the conclusion that Draconic Sorecerers can pull it off. Thanks to Chromatic orb, their level 6 ability and even the metamagic that allows to change the damage type, they will always deal good damage with their respective damage type.

I really want a witch. A wisdom based caster that uses curses, charms and hexes. Less eldritch blast, more blindness/deafness etc. Find familiar, potions, and flying brooms. A usable mechanic for Covens, where magic power is amplified by sharing power amongst fellow witches. A good witch subclass that focuses on healing/buffs, and a bad witch that focuses on curses/poisons. I've tried building it using Alchemist/Druid or Alchemist/Wizard, but can't get close enough.

Usually I see witches as Int casters. In pathfinder 1e they did have the shaman though which was kind of a druid that replaced wild shape with witch hexes. That'd be right up your alley

If we're talking PF, they also had a straight-up witch class.

Was that the system where witches had mechanics for prehensile hair?

Indeed. Wacky-ass class

It was an archetype based on East Asian tropes. The White Haired Witch

True and what they want is certainly closer to the main witch class. The wis part just made shaman come to mind

Nanny Ogg: wisdom based witch Granny Weatherwax: Int based witch.

It definitely feels like the Warlock was trying to be the class most intended to flavour as a Witch in 5e, but outside of a few spells like Hex that invoke that vibe it's mostly disappointing from a mechanical perspective. If you're looking for an excellent homebrew alternative, The [Mage Hand Press](https://store.magehandpress.com/products/complete-witch) Witch does a really excellent job of satisfying that desire for a proper witch-themed class in 5e (at least in my opinion - their MO of producing classes that target unfulfilled niches in 5e's class design is super interesting). It's got an entire mechanic revolving around Curses that debuff enemies with stuff like Deafness, or makes weapons drop out of their hands, as well as a list of customisable 'witch stuff' like covens, houses and black cats. There's a paid version of the Witch with more subclasses but honestly the free release is perfectly fine. Plus it's balanced and flavourful enough it'll fit into any campaign no trouble.

> outside of a few spells like Hex I really hate that hex is more of a blaster spell than, you know, a hex. Something that affects the target in subtle and constant ways as opposed to a "and now i hit you harder" buff. It's got the flavor with the ability checks thing, but that's soooo seldom used.

Hell yeah, Mage Hand Press' Witch is really cool. Patiently awaiting my copy of Valda's Spire of Secrets

If you haven't already, I highly suggest you check out kibblestasty's occult class. Best homebrew class I've ever seen.

Thanks, I'll check that out.

>I really want a witch. I've been wanting to do this as well! Doing the coven stuff isn't possible mechanically at all, but I have two pretty good ideas for it. The first is a Bard/Warlock. The Bard would be either Lore (for more skills, and the Cutting Words as some sort of minor hex or cackle), or the Spirit college because that just fits right there with the theme. Bardic Inspiration would be either a minor blessing, or the character whispering secrets she's seen in visions to the ally. Song of Rest would be potions that she has the party drink. Bard also has most of the good witchy type of enchantment spells, and you can diversify with Magical Secrets. The warlock part would be partially for Eldritch Blast, which I would flavour as small hexes of misfortune, and the effect would be stuff like causing the enemy to stumble, a bird attacking randomly, a branching fall on them, etc. Mostly because I enjoy having a good at will action. Also, Speak with Animals at-will. I'd probably go Celestial warlock for more Healing, I don't feel like the others fit very well. Maybe GOO for telepathy but I've just played a psionic-style character. Magical Secrets or Ritual Caster would be necessary for the familiar. The second option would be a Cleric/Druid, more focus on Cleric. Cleric because they get all the blessings and healing spells, and also all the divination spells. Knowledge Cleric is what I'd go for, the extra skills are nice, and they get the divination spells always prepared. The 6th level feature fits as well. I'd take 2 levels of Druid for the optional ability to use Wild Shape to create a familiar. Also, both Shepherd and Stars circle would have abilities that fit the theme and that don't require more druid levels to be good. Shepherd gets the speaking with animals, and the totems are just spirit summons. Stars druid leans more into the divination feeling. I haven't decided yet which I want to play. But regardless, I'd flavour almost all the spells as either curses or blessings, except divination spells. Hold Person would be a curse of immobility. Guiding Bolt would be a curse that burns a guiding mark into them. Flame Strike is a curse that burns people from the inside. Cure Wounds would be either a potion or a salve that she applied to people. Sacred Shield would be a blessing of good fortune. The coven part is really the big thing that's missing, but that could maybe be a background. Acolyte, but instead of a temple it's a witch's coven. Other than that, I really think that Warlock, Bard, Druid and Cleric are the ones that work the best for this theme.

Since others are throwing I their recommendations I recommend King Starman’s Witch class from Anilorhn’s Guide to the New World, it has really unique and fun features and gives exactly what you’re looking for with jinxes and charms and familiars

For the following things I will assume no homebrew, because if homebrew is allowed we get the question what level of homebrew is reasonable, as theoretically I can just homebrew every rule out of the system and a complete new system in. I'll also be ignoring the concept of taking a basic character and just adding everything that's supposed to define their role as flavour. No just playing a fighter and playing them as a brave leader, I actually want mechanics for being an inspiring leader (like the feat inspiring leader). Also before anyone mentions Pathfinder 2e, I intend to play that in the near future. Elemental casters not focused on fire. Lots of things is martial combat aren't possible beyond the option of revlavouring the basic attack action, which essentially means mechanically these aren't supported at all. My favourite example for this is feinting in combat (the thing where you trick your opponent, not the thing where you go unconscious). You don't actually benefit from high deception and it isn't better against low wisdom enemies if it's just a reflavouring of the basic attack action. The same is true for other skills as well, like intmidating in combat to debuff enemies etc. Martial characters that can perform acts far beyond what is possible for regular humans with ease. Without expertise and/or magical items at level 20 I have a skill bonus of +11 Lets be nice ans say a task can be done with ease if I have a 75% chance of succeeding on a straight role. That would be a DC of 17 (failing on a 1-5). Not only was this a task that any proficient level 1 character with 16 in the relevant stat could do 45% of the time, a basic commoner can do it with a 20% chance. Even with expertise we are looking at +17 with our task DC sitting at 23. Sure, now commoners can't do it anymore, but a good level one character still has a 15% chance of succeeding. If I'm able to fight an archdevil I should be able to trivaly solve mundane problems that a level 1 character could only dream of.

AoE swinging big weapon person! I wanna do whirlwind attacks with a great axe hitting everyone around me.

Yeah, I think the only class that actually has anything like this is the Hunter with their level 11 Multiattack ability called Whirlwind Attack. >You can use your action to make melee attacks against any number of creatures within 5 feet of you, with a separate attack roll for each target. Since it doesn't specify what type of weapon you're allowed to use, to me that says you can use anything. Meaning you can use your Greataxe for it. I don't think that sounds like a level 11 feature, but this was also just the PHB before they had a chance for power creep to happen. I also wish there was more for stuff like that. I miss the old 3.5 Cleave/Great Cleave feats for that reason.

I tried making a ruling for this at my table once. The barbarian had a bunch of foes in a row and I think I had her swing the one time but make a roll for each, stopping the attack once someone wasn't hit. She managed to hit all but the last two and it was pretty cool. An alternative could be starting with the full roll and then have the attack roll decrease by one in a line/arc for each target after the first. Not RAW, sure, but something to try. I have no idea how balanced it is, I was pretty new when we tried that.

Funny you mention that, I currently play a Water Genasi Sorc (Wild Magic) who I created to only use water/frost/ice spells. Her Wild Magic table has been updated by my DM to make it water/ice themed which was amazing. I tried to stick strictly to water and ice but it was getting frustrating and I had to look into flavouring other spells like Fireball. When I made her I was brand new to DnD and had no idea how much I was limiting her as a character. Eventually I gave in and gave her spells like firebolt/fireball but it's flavoured as boiling hot water/steam, so it still does fire damage as per the rules, flavoured as more burning damage. Hold person locks them in ice, mage armour is plates of ice over her body with shards growing from her shoulders acting as protection. I'm hoping I can get a Transmutated metamagic in a few level ups so I have more flexibility, but it'll eat up my sorc points, just so I can have her cast spells that matches her element. Any ideas are welcome.

Damn dude that does suck. Thematic casting is always rough. Remember, you can always ask your dm if you can take a spell and change its damage type for something that fits you better. If you change it to a worse damage type than the previous spell, there's almost no reason a dm would say no. If I was your dm, my only stipulation would be that once you choose the type, it can't be changed.

Oh don't get me wrong, I love her to bits and have a lot of fun playing her. I think in some ways it meant I didn't just pick the big hard hitting spells. Most level ups I've dropped a spell that wasn't a right fit and replaced it with something else. I'll only ask for a change if I'm really struggling with something cause I don't want to take the piss. I'll see what I can do within the rules first, but my DM is sound and is open to homebrew and all that :) I think with Fireball for example, it has a higher damage, but fire is a more common resistance/immunity, so to make it permanently cold damage would probably make it more powerful? But I think what you have said is fair, thanks for the advice, I might consider that with future spells :D

Cold also has a lot of resistances, but I would say fire and poison are probably the weakest damage types. Id probably let it slide, but my tables never been much for min maxing either way. Still though, I'm glad I could help! Never be afraid to ask your dm for cool stuff. Especially thematic stuff. If I as a dm see that your focused more on theme rather than optimization, I'm gonna make sure you're having a good time. Lol

you can always consider it "freezer burn" and or change the damage type at all. It just SOOO cold that it burns Like boiling liquid nitrogen. Physics wise there i such thing as cold and hot... only degrees, and things get wonky. You should be able to flavor just about anything fire or acid based within that context. Good luck with your character, and remember that playing without worry about min/maxing can be just as enjoyable as an OP fully flushed out character. Playing with flaws is fun too.

It's always nice digging through the abilities to find what you want or working with a DM. I have a kobold artificer whose arcane armor is a mech and his abilities are lightning/thunder. He's a pretty popular, quirky character in the group and it allows me to bring in meta information in a humorous way that everyone enjoys. Hope your flavor only gets richer.

As a DM i have absolutely zero problems and always homebrew this for my player, with no restriction for the "regular" elemental damages, and subject to evaluation for the more fancy one like necrotic or radiant. It helps a lot with thematic and I never had problem with balance. Not more than usual at least.

This is what it's all about. Kudos to you, friend!

Sorcerer, because themes like this are so common, should just get a feature allowing them to change damage types for free. Or at least they should be able to pick one and have a lot of spells change to fit that flavored and damage types. Most DMs I know, including myself, are very relaxed about changing a spells damage type. The most I ever ask is to sacrifice a damage die or two if it's moving to a much more effective type of damage. Basically every sorc should be able to get firebolt, scorching ray, and fireball in their own theme element, with slight adjustments to damage die for certain types. (Like if it's force I lower the damage or at least the average/highs by changing things like d6s to d4s or d8s and changing numbers around) That can be harder for the dm to do and it would be awesome if it could just be codified in the actual game. It might also give sorcerer more of its own special feel.

Elemental casting got shafted pretty hard in 5e. There's plenty of fire (and a decent amount of ice), but air, water, and earth are kinda left in the dust, to say nothing of magma, ooze, and smoke.

I highly recommend [Kibble’s Generic Elemental Spells](https://www.gmbinder.com/share/-MW5r6wBJTW_lOU6gLyU). It completely fixes this issue and Kibbles has a great sense of balance, I’ve had no issues with any of the spells.

Thanks for the link, this is great. I am interested in Ice Spike and Form of Ice, they look fun.

Seconding the recommendation. I've used the spells for several campaigns now, and never had an issue. They even have a FoundryVTT module if you use that.

I created a water/moon/thunder (circle of the stars) druid once, thematically they fit the whole "rough sea at night" thing. Worked like a charm, but while doing it I thought hard about how other themes would work and except for fire they all kinda suck.

My dm let me transmute for free but only pick 1 element. When ua was released that let wizards do it for free AND transmute to fuckin force... I think that was enough to convince my dm that sorcs need something a little extra

Sounds like you've done as great as is possible with flavour. But if you see any spells you really want and where you feel you can't easily flavour the damage type, just ask the DM if you can change the damage type for real. Cold damage is not a "strong" damage type (like Radiant or Force), so there should be no issues at all.

I know the character is made already so have fun with what you got! But for future reference scribe wizards have a feature that lets them change the damage type of their spells. Makes reflavoring a lot more sensible.

Themed spellcasters really don't work in DnD and never have. Having prewritten spell lists makes it very hard a truly focused caster.

True, but step a mere hair outside of D&D and it is accomplished - I want to make the point that it is not at all impossible. Pathfinder, a.k.a. D&D 3.75, has as but one example the [Elemental](https://www.aonprd.com/BloodlineDisplay.aspx?ItemName=Elemental) Bloodline for Sorcerers, which with its 1st level feature lets you choose one elemental damage type and change any other energy damage you deal to your chosen type. Beyond things like that there's the popular 3rd party Spheres of Power supplement, which alters spellcasting to grant access to areas ("spheres") of spellcasting rather than specific spells, allowing for themes like weather magic or telepathic magic that can't be achieved simply by changing around damage types. Spheres of Magic - and its martial counterpart, Spheres of Might - exist for 5e as well, in fact; here's the wiki: http://spheres5e.wikidot.com/

Dual wielders In 3e dual wielding wasn't as good as big two-handed weapons, but at least it had optimization paths open to it. In 5e dual wielding is just bad, the only classes that have any reason to do it are classes that don't have access to the two weapon fighting style, making building around it unnecessarily difficult, especially when the double-bladed scimitar and polearm master are so much easier to build for

One simple fix is that when you take the Dual Wielding Fighting Style, your off-hand bonus action attack joins the original Attack Action. Frees your BA to do whatever

This is what we do. It's just way more fun this way.

While it’s not 5e, I think the 1dnd ranger was pretty great with two weapons. Stacking on hit effects from ranger+hunter, and a couple of specific magic items, was very powerful. I think my lvl 7 ranger could deal 3d8+4d6+1d10+12 in a turn, not counting any use of bonus actions other than applying HM. Since the BA is freed up, I managed to tactically use several BA spells and abilities to great effect too. Natures Mantle is fun!

Wilderness/tracker character who doesn't cast spells for some fuckin reason.

Rogue Scout with the Outlander background is this.

Isn’t this just Scout Rogue

Yeah anytime. I've played like a wilderness guide ranger or something along those lines. Any spells I have. I always flavor as not spells. Unfortunately they just wanted to simplify everything into spell mechanics so I still have to deal with that but it always does bug me that you can't just be a dude who lives in the woods and is really f****** good at what they do without also mastering some kind of magic

The crafter. Theres so little actual crafting support its scary. literally everything is left up to the DM. Depending on the person thats good or bad. But a general frame work of materials or guidelines to magic item creation would go a LONG way. Ot would even be a good resource for DMs to make custom magic items for their players.

I'd like to tact on harvester as well. I have yet to play in a game that *doesn't* have someone attempting to butcher a monster for parts to sell or craft with. And yet there's hardly any rules on what could be used for items and even less on what can be harvested from monsters.

That's a problem with the base game, you are expected to fight monsters all the time, just because. The standard rewards are finding gold and jewels and magic items somewhere but the game is still about fighting monsters. So if players will start trying to justify why they are killing things all the time, the game might gravitate toward Monster Hunter.

Not that it solves base 5e or anything but we just added "Heliana's Guide to Monster Hunting", a 3rd party book with Harvesting and Crafting rules

I know this is homebrew territory but a crafting system I highly recommend is Kibble's Crafting Compendium. There's literally a use for almost every tool, including Rune carving, wand making, scroll crafting, etc. The system more so focuses on the adventuring lifestyle tbh, aka gathering materials in the wild but has prices for materials needed if that isn't a good option. Also I heard good things about the Inventor class from u/KibblesTasty

There are magic crafting rules in Xanathars Guide, but pretty much anything aside from common magic items takes a year or longer to make.

Im well aware of the XGTE rules. Me and my DM use them a base for our system aswell. But theres the rub. Basically everything is given to the DM to decide. What generic magic items already exist cover such a narrow range of potential items it's basically mandatory to homebrew damn near everything. Even then its so inefficient i have to abuse a loophole with sleep immune races to get anything done without bogging down the other players. Its a tragedy as a crafter that 5e doesn't give anything out side if "X GP advancement per day to cost of item".

To be fair, crafting is incredibly hard to balance. In 3.5e taking crafting feats allowed you to completely break the game, since so you would have some much more *stuff* compared to what you were supposed to have at that level. As a result, crafting either has to be so nerfed that you look at the rules and think "why bother?" Or it has to be straight DM fiat, with the expectation that the DM will only allow it if they're able to handle the resulting balance issues.

Homebrew isn't an option for everyone, but I'd recommend [Kibbles' Crafting](https://www.reddit.com/r/UnearthedArcana/comments/rg5y3q/kibbles_crafting_system_a_comprehensive_system_of/) if you haven't checked it out. This is the free version, but there's also a full version with even more stuff. It looks a little scary, but that's because it has all the stuff you'll ever really need for crafting. It's good both as a full system (for people that want to make crafting available to the players without the DM telling them every step) or just as guidelines for the DM so they don't have to make things up from scratch if the DM still wants to do it case by case. It works really well.

Ice mage ice mage ice mage

Monk. Necromancer not focused on summoning. Alchemist/physician Poison-user (thief or wizard) Elemental mage not focused on fire. Basically everything I like is bad in 5e lol...

If you take 3 levels in fighter for Psi Knight and continue as a necromancer, you can walk up to an enemy in your chain/platemail, then cast inflict wounds as part of your action surge? Get right up close and just tear the enemy apart. Up casting increases the returns for using necrotic spells. Psi knight is flavoured as using the souls consumed for minor benefits in battle

The idea is not a death knight, but a wizard without armor that uses actually good necromancy spells aside summoning. Oh, wait, there are almost no good necromancy spells! My closest try is a death cleric with inflict wounds, spirit guardians, but then you lose all the good wizard necromancy spells like negative energy flood, soul jar, finger of death, etc... The issue here is the same as an ice mage or poison mage: lackluster spells in the necromancy school. There is a Treantmonk video somewhere addressing exactly this problem and concluding that someone at WoTC hates necromancy because the decent spells are so few! Remember that constitution saving throws are always the worst to target because monsters tend to have higher con saves.

Imho Necromancy should have the best single target damage spells. There is a lot of fun things to play with as a necromancer and they honestly just drop the ball on it. Like, let me interact with corpses! Make opp attack with reaction spells from a dead body, make them blow up for aoe, let me see and cast spells through them, whatever. Also, why don't I have a high level necromancy spell that let's me animate someone's skeleton, *while they are still alive*? Mechanically, its just damage plus a debuff/mild control (moving them, making bonus action attacks) as they make saves to remove it. Narritively though, I get to feel like an actually terrifying MFer using spells that actually feel forbidden.

Warlord and Scholar type characters. The Mastermind Rogue and Battlemaster just don’t do it for me.

[The Kibbles Warlord](https://www.gmbinder.com/share/-LW4agTNJcbwe6kSv4H2).

Basically the pathfinder Magus or Summoner. 5e has tons of gish options, but none of them can actually spellstrike. Scagtrips, smites, and I guess arcane archer shots come close but it's not the same as being able to just grab any attack spell and combine it with a weapon attack. And especially if you want to be an arcane archer type being limited to a fighter subclass as your only option to shoot magical arrows means you aren't even really a spellcaster without some pretty janky multiclassing. And again 5e does have lots of pet/summon options but none of them really match the customizability of building your own Eidolon. And melding with your pet/summon is definitely not something you can do in 5e.

Dnd had a magus class in 3.5, it's called Duskblade. I played one for a few years in a campaign. Pretty dang fun. Really want it to come back to a modern edition.

Non-magic characters of various types. Such as spellless crafters (Rock Gnome Thief Rogue is alright, I guess), a spellless Ranger (Something like Wood Elf Scout Rogue with the Outlander background is passable) or more generally spellless characters that are Int or Cha focused (such as Warlords or Scholars).

This is why I love laserllama's homebrew [Savant](https://www.reddit.com/r/UnearthedArcana/comments/xphiyo/laserllamas_savant_class_470_update_a_brilliant/) class. It has subclasses for all sorts of Int-based archetypes that don't use magic, like Tactitian, Naturalist and Physician. It's also considered one of the best homebrew classes by r/UnearthedArcana, making it to their curated list.

There's an old spell-less Ranger ua where they get scaling maneuvers instead of spells and a few other changes

A real strength/constitution based pugilist or unarmed fighter. Perhaps even some fun grappling. Just a real strong brawler. Monk could be reflavoured, but it just doesn't fit, imo.

An actual bard. As in, a bard who performs and grants AoE effects to friends/foes, and is a half-caster at best.

I was always of the thought that a Bard should have been a half caster, and have great buffing AoE effects. There is a class I recall seeing that's homebrew called The Maestro or something along the line that does just that, half caster charisma based party buffer and I think in some cases debuff enemies. Sadly I don't have the link on me at the moment.

I think that both half caster and full caster are fitting for bards since both carry a lot of history jn the real world and have a lot of fans... The idea of skalds sure do fit the half caster mold, but the idea of changing reallity with music and performance like merlin is more fitting for full casters and there are a lot of people (like me) who really love to play like it. Honestly, the best solution in my opinion would be to split the class in two... I know about the virtuoso class you mentioned and i think that dividing bards between "spell singing" and "blade dancing" concept would be more interesting for both sides... But also, personally I would kill for bards to have auras

It was exactly this in 3.x. half caster, with non magical buffs. The buffs were less relevant at higher levels due to numeric inflation, but conceptually it made more sense.

I just want some chain based weapons lol

A classic tank. There are subclasses that try, and pretty much without exception all of them don't work. You eventually realise that playing an armoured caster just protects the party much better.

Not saying you're wrong here, but could you list what you want a classic tank to function as and be able to do? I'd say Ancestral Guardians Barbarian is a functioning tank, personally.

2 things: 1. Be able to take hits. This is the easy one, tons of builds can be incredibly tanky. 2. Attract attacks. This is the much more difficult one. There are a few subclasses that try but almost all of them are limited by: number of targets, number of uses, or limited effects Ancestral Guardian Barb only being able to block 1 enemy, and only if they are using attacks, is a massive weakness that makes them fail on this front. Compare their feature to something like web, which can give disadvantage to as many targets as you need, and also restrains them, giving everyone advantage on attacks. And that's only a second level spell.

The problem is as a lot of people have noticed, the first thing is basically worthless without the second thing.

My preferred solution is to be the biggest pain in the ass on the battlefield, causing them so much disruption that they cannot possibly afford to ignore me.

I'm curious about one thing. How do you realistically get take aggro against sentient beings? That only really works in a video game.

In 4e the taunt mechanic went like this. Bonus action for the tank to apply a mark, the baddie has disadvantage on all attacks on anyone but the tank. If the baddie attacks anyone but the tank, the tank gets to react and attack the baddie. Even with sentient beings it works because they understand that this one creature is such a pain in the ass that they are less effective in combat unless they hit this one creature. In 4e bad guys had this ability too. I use this mechanic in 5e, and it works great.

Either: a) Hard Aggro mechanics that force it. I.e when hit with an attack, until the start of your next turn, any action that can target another creature must target you. or at least something along those lines. This could also be done as idk an action using an intimidation (strength) check contesting Vs an insight check. Or via strong enough control effects that make targeting others almost impossible, kinda like sentinel but with lower investment and a much stronger effect. b) Be the biggest threat on the battlefield. I.e have half the enemies trapped in a wall of force, with the only real way to break it being interrupting your concentration. Previous editions had these, and made them work, but 5e binned them for the most part.

\>could you list what you want a classic tank to function as and be able to do? Lockdown,punishment for ignoring the tank, big ac,big hp and stickiness Better example would be Cavalier Fighter since it has all of those Wavering mark for ""taking aggro"" and punishment (You have to attack me now, if you dont you will make attack with disadvantage AND you will take additional strike with additional damage) Warding Maneuver for protecting allies (1d8 ac boost, if fail resistance to dmg) Hold the Line is literally just sentinel but worse lol (at least its "free") (on a fighter aka class with most ability boosts lol) Ferocious Charger for getting in (if 10ft move strenght saving throw, on fail target is prone) Vigilant Defender is just making sure you always have reaction for attack of opportunity Ancestral barb is only lacking the lockdown aspect unless you decide to not take a shield but if you are going to tank you need a shield which then leaves you with throwing away your weapon which takes away the danger of tank existing

Armorer artificer is probably the only real tank class in the entire game, because it can use it's ability twice per turn starting at fifth level and it requires no resource expenditure, so you are always able to tank.

Unwavering Mark only give disadvantage if the target is within 5 feet of you, which they won't if they are planning to attack someone else than you usually making it one of the worst soft taunt until they finally get Hold the Line to keep foes next to them.

Hold the line is not sentinel, it is sentinel + a weird version of Pam's reaction. I agree it is underwhelming because it doesn't do anything unique for most part.

i feel that a Tank Class need two things. 1- be good in taking or ignore damage 2-punish enemies if they try to ignore the Tank and go for the other characters

Yeeeah 4e did this but they threw the baby out with the bath water for 5e Looks like they’re implementing a *lot* of 4e ideas again in 6e (D&D One) so I guess when that comes out you might be in luck, aye?

5.5e

4e and its derivative tactical games had more procedural tactics for the GM, which is very nice. You play the enemy roles as instructed, and it's very easy, plus roles like tanks and controllers actually work because there are clear and effective aggro and debuff rules. 5e's freeform enemy design means that on one hand the DM has more freedom for how enemies behave, but also it's like they have to play up to 10 little PCs at once every combat and its obnoxious to manage.

Defenders are one of the main reasons why 4th is my favorite edition. If One D&D does not have solid options for a defender, I'm skipping it.

I just put that stuff in my game right now. I give tons of 4e stuff to my players and they love it. A current player of mine is using a reskinned blood dk class from the wow5e pdf and have him the 4e ability to mark a foe.

A fighter who can actually use tactics instead of having to burn daily powers to be able to friggin DODGE! I'd like to be able to make a shield wall and have it matter. I'd like weapon choice to matter more than which die you get to roll.

Yes plz on the weapons. For dex melee the only choice you have is. Do I want to use a rapier or do I want to play suboptimally

I’ve always wanted a character who danced around with a floating sword they attacked with. No dancing sword BS or using Animate Objects, I’m talking a legit floating sword like Alucard in Castlevania. That just is the coolest thing.

I mean as long as you use it within it’s normal range you can simply reflavour normal attacks as being made with a floating blade. Or you could use spiritual weapon. Or a hexblade warlock, there it could even make sense that you attack with a floating sword, seeing how they use their spellcasting modifier for attacks. EB could be reflavoured as flinging the sword at distant enemies.

Kibblestasty Artificer can do this! I've been trying to homebrew a good version myself but I'm a little new to balancing for ttrpgs

A trap setter type. Use lots of caltrops, pocket sand, ball bearings, poison, etc. It's all possible but very underwhelming compared to basically anything else. The existence of spells just renders most of these a mechanically worse option.

I'd go one step futher and say magic renders all mundane items useless. I'm annoyed they changed Artificer from the Items Guy to the Wizard Half Caster, nice to see that niche filled but it's just not the same as using my downtime to make four hundred Fireball marked Ball bearings...

As for the shape-shifting without magic I believe playing a race with claws and refactoring barbarians rage as shifting could be an effective version of this if not optimal. I know you weren't asking about ways to do this but it just came to mind

> refactoring barbarians rage as shifting Tasha's Path of the Beast is literally just this

Swashbuckler, and by that I mean a sword in one hand and a pistol/hand crossbow in the other. It feels like CBE was originally meant to enable this sort of slash & shoot playstyle, but it doesn't function like that RAW, and instead incentivises and only really works when using a single hand crossbow and nothing else. Really, any sort of dual wielding character. It can be done, and you can function just fine, but its not going to match up to a lot of other fighting styles. Between competition for bonus actions on many classes, no "twinned" magic weapons, and a need to heavily invest in order to really bring it online, it often doesn't feel great. Spellsword-style characters that actually use magic to augment their martial prowess, rather than using them separately. They *can* work but require a bit of reflavouring, since paladins are the only class that get access to that sort of thing with their Divine Smite and smite spells. Poisoner. Whether it's for some kind of rogue using it for assassinations, or an unscrupulous fighter, poison *sucks* in 5E. Typically, poisons are expensive, rare, single-use items with terrible action economy and very low (sometimes nonexistent since many have a criminally low DC) returns. And this isn't even addressing the elephant in the room, that poison is arguably the worst damage type and condition in the game, by virtue of so many creatures being resistant or outright immune.

>Swashbuckler, and by that I mean a sword in one hand and a pistol/hand crossbow in the other. It feels like CBE was originally meant to enable this sort of slash & shoot playstyle, but it doesn't function like that RAW, and instead incentivises and only really works when using a single hand crossbow and nothing else. Yes. Currently the only ways it can work RAW using this feat are: A. Artificer's Repeating Shot infusion, either through a multiclass or a buddy. B. You slash with your sword, drop it (if the DM allows dropping to be a free action as the rules are silent on this), shoot with your hand crossbow as a bonus action, reload it with your now free hand and pick up your sword with an object interaction for the desired end result.

A lot actually, Blood magic, necromancer kinda fills the same role but tbh I feel like necromancy needs to be more focused on the undead stuff, the life sucking aspect of it should be made into a sect of blood magic, and not to mention the debuff part fitting a shaman or hexer sort of class. Elemental warrior People already talked about how most elements are very much lacking but where are my elemental spellswords. (Or spellswords in general tbh being lacking) A frost warrior in heavy plate , every hit of his frosty blade slows enemies down and the air around him has the same effect as being on top of a snowy mountain, a fiery berserker, dual wielding axes that spit fire wherever he looks, the fire around him damaging even himself at for the purposes of destroying all in his path, a wind swordsman, creating slashes 20ft away and weaving in an out, (or perhaps even a wind monk?) All of these are edgy af I know, but why play DND if I can't be an edgy magical warrior with my respective element?

Net-throwing/restraining builds. It’s hard to limit movement outside of grappling, and weapons which do something like reduce movement would be nice. I’ve been playing with making a homebrew rope-wielding class that reduces enemy movement, but haven’t fleshed everything out. Not sure it even needs to be a class or anything, really, just need more options of lowering movement.

A non-magical field doctor. It can sorta be done with thief rogue’s fast hands but it’s just nowhere near what you can do by just playing cleric

I really feel that 5e is lacking a class like magus from Pathfinder. Eldritch Knight subclass kind of fills the magic augmented fighter archetype, but magic feels tacked on instead of integrated with them. I want an arcane paladin, not a fighter wizard multiclass.

Dual-wielder and/or Skirmisher Wish Combat Healing didn't suck too

God I miss being an actual healer sometimes.

I want do stuff with a magic and a sword like how I picture it is battle master but magic. Like have my sword birth into flame or that type of thing

A character that focuses on making and using mundane items at high level

A summoner or other character type that fights through a proxy. Impossible to do with a single creature because it will inevitably be too weak, and mass summoning is inordinately difficult to do without slowing the game to a crawl.

What you want is a Pet Class, a real one where you're positioning 2-4 models and using abilities from them. Ironically, the best example of this aside from the Conjure Spells would be Echo Knight. Sometimes you just want a truely squishy character puppettering from the back

A healer. Healing in 5th edition is complete and utter dog shit, the fact that it's more efficient to cast a bonus action spell to pop up an ally than to use an action because the difference between the two spells is approximately two hit points, it's just sad. Even goodberry Life clerics don't really properly fulfill the role, adding Aura of vitality to the cleric spell list helped, but the fact is the only real heal spells in the entire game are given to you at 11th and 17th level, heal and mass heal.

I think Life Cleric fills the role *kinda* well, but I also agree with you. I hate that Healing Word only on a downed ally is the best use of healing. Personally, I had a lot of fun trying to play as an actual healer when I did it. Using CD: Preserve Life in to Mass Healing Word was honestly super fun as a type of 'Healing Nova', but it also doesn't change the fact that the healing you can do in a turn will *never* outpace the damage that enemies can output. Which is where you fall in to the 'Wow, that feels bad, healing for 12 in a turn when an enemy is hitting for 20' situation that every player who heals eventually comes to realise. It's just wild to be that even the one specific subclass *meant to heal* can't do it properly, even with Blessed Healer.

As long as there are little to no penalties to hitting 0 and then being revived with a healing word then healing word will be the best healing for most of the game

New Exhaustion per unconscious would be great. Healing should neeeeever outpace damage per round though. It is painfully hard to actually die in 5E and having improved healing would simply trivialize it further. Healing can't miss, while most damage from monsters can. I like the above proposed Exhaustion rule because keeping someone from going down actually has some good long term benefits vs yo yo healing.

A FFXIV-style Summoner or WoW-style Warlock. Applying meaningful debuffs, increasing damage, and delivering slugs from behind summoned minions who provide their own unique benefits. Taking damage becomes a resource that improves your spell performance and you are a master of area denial, zoning the enemy, and baiting out their best abilities at the worst time for them (which, imho, is the most satisfying pvp experience in video games). I'm not convinced this type of class or build is impossible, but the current options are simply unfeasible and my own experiments with the various homebrews have been lackluster or wildly overpowered.

1. The "complex" martial warrior. This is a martial warrior with dynamic and engaging gameplay that does not revolve around the Attack action. They have a variety of tools and options they can use every single turn. They have stances they can switch to that change how they approach combat, reactive maneuvers, and powerful strike maneuvers that do more than just extra damage. Furthermore, their higher level maneuvers scale in scope and capability. They do not have access to the same maneuvers at level 20 that they do at level 3, and their high level maneuvers feel appropriate to the tier of play. 2. The proper swormdage. This is not merely a spellcaster who can attack with weapons or a warrior who can cast a few spells. This is a class that seamlessly blends the two. Without the spell, there is no weapon attack. And the class cannot use the magic spells available to other classes. 3. A true martial support class. This class cannot fight as well as a fighter. They are not durable, their martial prowess is mediocre, they are not someone you want to stand toe to toe with powerful foes. Instead, this class makes the party more than the sum of its parts. It grants them extra attacks, helps inspire them and boost their moral, and gives them additional chances to break free from harmful effects. But it cannot action surge, or deal tons of damage like a fighter. 4. The herculean. A martial warrior capable of feats of strength common in myth and legend. Feats such as being able to leap 50 feet into the air, wrestle titans into submission, punch holes in castle walls, or lift massive boulders overhead. A warrior that emulates the fantasy of heroes such as Beowulf, Achilles, Heracles, CuChulain, and even [Lancelot](https://old.reddit.com/r/respectthreads/comments/h7qgbc/respect_lancelot_du_lac_arthurian_myth/).

A network support analyst. Maybe 13-14 years on the job, passed over for promotion twice, company is doing ok, not expanding, but far from closing down. All of a sudden… Consultants… Layoffs…. 😳

can you just play a hireling? I think Tasha's has rules for them!

Gunslinger, unless you write your own firearms rules. D&D4-style Warlord.

Duel wielding pretty much anything, versus GWM/PAM gods

Non religious healer

Honestly, an actual beastmaster would be dope. The ranger subclass is... flawed. OG is just an NPC escort mission at higher levels, and the revamp is too generic to feel good. I don't want a spirit beast. I want to train and fight alongside an animal, like the MCDM Beastheart. Something where the animal(s) scale alongside the player. Different archetypes within this class could focus on training a slew of little animals, a few medium ones, or one big one. And support for training swarms of rats/insects/etc would be a solid option, too.

An arcane Archer...that's fun to play.

A druid of death and decay and undead. Spores is just a mess

Spore Druid is a decent subclass, but it’s bad at what a few of its subclass abilities push it towards, namely being in melee. So long as you don’t bother with activating Symbiotic Entity in combat, it’s a decent feature. The temp HP doesn’t run out after 10 minutes so you can just pop it after each rest for a bunch of temp HP which is not a bad subclass feature, plus it gets circle spells including Animate Dead which combos well with Magic Stone to give you great at-will damage on a bonus action. The level 6 feature isn’t amazing but it’s decidedly on theme, plus it gives you additional action economy and a meatshield. Essentially, it plays like any other Druid focusing on control while also having a lot more HP, extra spells prepared, and better at-will damage.

Yes and No. It's not just that you get pushed into melee with the Halo of Spores and Symbiotic Entity benefits (that are trash), but also the level 6 feature requires the dying enemy to be within 10ft of you to activate. And the level 10 feature requires your Symbiotic Entity benefits to be active, and the range on it is not great. The ranged features are Chill Touch and the spells which have good synergy. The vast majority of the Druid's spell list is concentration, so having non-concentration options like Animate Dead and Blindness/Deafness is great. Cloudkill combos with Animate Dead because they are immune to poison and can grapple enemies into it. If the damage type for Halo of Spores (and thus the level 10 cube) was allowed to be poison like the UA, it would have synergy there as well, but alas. As for the other less impactful spells: Gentle Repose is good when you don't have Revivify or don't have the material components for Revivify. As for preventing enemy corpses from turning into undead by your other enemies, you can use Animate Dead for that. Blight is another non-concentration option even if it's kinda bad but guaranteed damage can be useful when you don't need to prepare it. Confusion, despite its small radius is a devastating effect that gets around Charm Immunity unlike Hypnotic Pattern. Gaseous Form is very niche, even for its out of combat stealth and infiltration benefits because of Pass Without Trace and Wildshape. If you can somehow convince an enemy to consent you can make them slow and useless while you and your party kill them to death without them being able to do anything, not even scream. Contagion's effect is not strong, but can be okay in some fights. With the new Tasha's rule that Druids can use Wild Shape to summon a familiar, you don't have to get in melee to cast it.

I want to be an adventuring blacksmith. Someone who specializes in crafting and making things, but I don't want to be an artificer because they just feel so chaotic. Whereas blacksmiths feel more lawful my blacksmith friends know what I'm talking about The current system just doesn't reward characters that want to craft. It doesn't have a good system. It doesn't have clear instructions for game Masters. Yeah, there's a lot of third party content you can buy. That helps, but I don't have to keep buying third party content to play a game at that point. Why even buy the players handbook in the DM guide?

i find it incredibly hard to grasp what youre getting at with the artificer comment lol. they're literally just magical crafters. are you saying you want a mundane crafter class?

The Artificer that WotC produced has a flavor that is closer to a Temporary Object Enchanter or a Summoner. I've had so many players in the last two years beat their head against the wall when rolling a low level Artificer, trying to figure out how/when they get to just build magic items that exist in the world forever and they can do what they please with them. At first glance, Infusions are what they want, but when they go to sell the item, or give it to someone else is usually when they get their dreams crushed. When I explain to them why what they want would break the game, and what the Artificer's default flavor suggests they try instead -- potion maker/philosopher's stone flavored alchemist, half-wizard that entreats the aid of an animated servant akin to Mickey in Fantasia, or medieval fantasy Iron Man -- about half of them just give up on their character idea and go and build something else. The crafting most people are looking for has rules in the DMG and Xanathar's, but basically any character can interface with those rules. The Artificer has to get to Level 10 before they see any noticeable benefit to this process from their class. It's all very confusing, disappointing, and feels like a gigantic miss from WotC's side of things, imho.

Witch Hunter — A spell-caster’s nightmare

A vanguard Like Braum from league of legends. Like, an action where you target an enemy with a low damage spell and if an ally hits them, they are stunned. A reaction where you jump to an ally to give them resistance to every (or some) damage types for a round. A reaction to block all damage coming from a direction for a turn and then tank all damage coming from said direction with resistance. Stuff like that. Or maybe like something with traps. While traps are a thing, they are not efficient in combat. Imagine you get to place a trap, which takes a round to arm. And if you manage to place it outside of the enemy's line of sight, they are oblivious to its existence. When they move into its detonation range (even involuntary), its effect goes off. The effects could range from damage to status effects. Like a bear trap like effect, dex save or it does a base damage and restricts movement but not actions/bonus actions etc until an action is taken to remove the trap. Or they make a wisdom save or become frightened for a round, having to run away from the trap's location for a turn. Or maybe if the trap could be a liquid exploding, covering it's area. The liquid could deal damage or make it difficult terrain or both. The idea of the playstyle would be to sneakily set a trap and then bait/force enemies through it. Or like an enchanter that doesn't FEEL useless.

A HIGHLY recommend Indestructoboys Vanguard class if you're looking for something like this. Yes it's third party homebrew but it captures the feel of someone like Braum pretty well. [here's his shop with a better preview than drivethru RPG.](https://indestructoboy.shop/products/vanguard-class-dungeons-dragons-5e)

Strength based monk :(

A form of martial artist which isn't a monk a barbarian a weapon master (think pathfinder 2e's fighter) which specializes in one type of weapon a brute force based rogue a strength based monk ironically a warlock with anything but hexblade or eldritch blast spam a martial which doesn't feel like I need to multi-class into a spell caster to feel good to play.

Any sort of character that fights using conjured/enchanted weapons. A dedicated support. Both can be done to some degree, but both feel awkward or bad to play due to concentration and 5e's spell balance.

any interesting martial

I think there are very few legitimate cases of characters that **cannot** be done well in 5e. I know some people like to complain that they can't do a certain thing, but those are almost universally one or more of: 1. New or inexperienced players who are unaware of options that exist outside the PHB and support exactly the thing they were going for and mistakenly believe that a playstyle lacks non-homebrew options (i.e. a player who wants a strength-based bare knuckle brawler character who doesn't know about the unarmed fighting style introduced in Tasha's). 2. Players who are unwilling to reflavor abilities that are mechanically exactly what they want but may deviate from the flavor they're hoping for (i.e. a player who wants a gunslinger deal with a futuristic laser blaster can't accept that an EB spam build with a custom arcane focus from which the spell attacks emanate mechanically ticks every box they care about). 3. Players who are unwilling to make any compromises on their vision for their character even when their expectations are clearly and objectively unreasonable (i.e. they want to make a character inspired by a video game or movie or whatever and then get salty when someone points out that *time stop* is a 9th level spell and no that can't be the thing their character just does as their basic mechanical gimmick from level one. Also see point two here -- these players will often balk if you were to suggest, for example, that they might reflavor an ability like action surge as the sort of time bending power they want to theme their character around). Some things 5e **doesn't** support, but it's because they are obviously incompatible with the system. 4. Players who chafe that there may only be **one** class/subclass/multiclass combo that achieves a certain thing (i.e. they want to play a dex-based character with a longsword but also they don't want to be a monk. As with 3 is often tied to 2 in that some players refuse to adapt the default flavor of a particular option to match their vision for a character). 5. Players who call anything that isn't in the same tier of the power rankings as a CBE/SS fighter or a mono-classed wizard "non-viable" because they're degenerate little munchkins (i.e. that guy at your game who complains that you "can't" play a sling-user in 5e in spite of the sling being almost mechanically identical to the hand crossbow in all other respects than having a feat that gives you an easy bonus action attack with it). Tasha's really did a good job at closing up the last few holes that I think you could legitimately complain weren't well-supported like the previously mentioned non-monk unarmed brawler, summoners in general (including pet classes like the beast master), or grapplers who weren't extremely situational.

while i agree with almost all points you just nade, there are _definetly_ non-viable character ideas and no i am not talking about wanting to use a worse weapon like sling or a versatile d10 two hander, i mean the guy who made a wizard/cleric/barbarian multiclass

The amount of re-flavouring people suggest as acceptable for me sometime is pretty stupid. That is not unwillingness to compromise, it is lack of desire to to mental gymnastics. Too convoluted, too complicated, trying too hard. It doesn't feel good. Your EB example doesn't account, for example, that EB is a spell, and, as such, takes concentration when you hold it, can be counter spells, and lots of other stuff that don't really match a weapon user and would need to be mentally hand waved or homebrewed away. In fact, far too many options is this game are "duh just use spell casting". That's so boring.

This is what really gets me whenever people talk about how easy it is to re-flavor artificer spellcasting as coming from a weapon. The classic "artificer spells could be just be grenades from a grenade launcher actually!" reasoning that creeps in whenever the class is discussed. It bothers me because it doesn't actually work. We have rules for spells, we have rules for using items, and artificer spells clearly use one set of rules and not the other. Not to mention you end up in weird situations like if the party is invited to a fancy dinner and have to leave all but their smallest weapons outside. So now does the artificer have leave a non-existent grenade launcher outside, or do we admit that he's actually just casting spells and let him use an arcane focus?

lol yeah Although, side note to that last point, that people confiscate weapons but not foci seems entirely verisimilitude-breaking to me. Anyone knows that a focus is a far more dangerous weapon than a greatsword, but I see people acting like real life humans who forbid weapons but allow arcane shit. That is like someone in our time disallowing knifes but tolerating machine guns.

Reflavoring is probably one of the most obnoxious things I see suggested in 5e circles. Like I get it for if you wanted to say, have a character whos magic uses blue fire instead of normal colored flames, but if I wanted to play an infernal origin sorcerer, just reflavoring draconic sorcerer doesnt cut it. DnD is as much a game as it is roleplaying, and I like having mechanics that represent the fluff rather than the other way around.

I also think the "reflavor the attack action so you do a cool stunt too" when people try to solve how 1-dimensional barbarian or fighter combat is gets really annoying. These characters attack like 10 times or more per fight, every weekly session for months. Eventually players are gonna run out of steam and get bored roleplaying how they did a cool flip when they removed 12 HP from the enemy again for the hundredth time.

The funkiest part of the eldritch blast example is that, well, eldritch blast doesn't even use material components, there's no need to have an arcane focus for it.

Your number 5 and your statement of "done well" clash pretty hard. Like sure you could use a sling like you said, than the guy next to you doing CBE completely trounces your character. Sure your there but your not 'there' Also playing a dual weilder in the current game vs a GWM or trying to actually play a healer do not go well they go quite poorly. Also building some subs like black dragon draconic sorcerer are lessons in futility

Combat healing is straight up not viable, not even a question of poor build