#favourite subclasses

[honourablejester]

While on the subject, my favourite subclasses (so far) for each D&D 5e class:

Artificer: Gonna be honest, I don’t do much with artificers, but just going on vibes, while I understand it’s not the most mechanically brilliant of the options, I still just love Alchemist. I just like me some bubbling beakers, you know?

Barbarian: Ancestral Guardian. I love Zealot, I love Wild Magic, I could be persuaded towards Beast, particularly for small characters (scuttly little beast barbarian gnome, I like the vibes), but it’s still Ancestral Guardian. I want to be a barbarian with a pack of ghosts following them around!

Bard: For the longest time, it was Lore, for similar reasons that Knowledge clerics are my joint first favourite clerics. It feels like the old Irish bards, the oral knowledge and magic, and I had a ghoulish little half-elven lore bard named Feyla Thenn who was a lot of fun. But recently … I really like Creation? It definitely does have that spellsinger vibe, singing things into being, and honestly the ability to just sing myself up 50ft of rope, or a grappling hook, or a ladder, or a key, is just … endlessly useful and fun.

Cleric: If I have to pick one, singular, then Twilight. But it is two, because every time I make a cleric, Twilight and Knowledge have a fist fight in my head, and the only reason Twilight wins is because it’s prettier. I like twinkling sparkly bits. But Knowledge is forever there, loyal and true, waiting for me to return to it. (Tempest is the runner up, because I like big booms and I cannot lie. Also ocean).

Druid: Stars. No competition. If I make a druid, they’re gonna be a Stars druid, unless there’s a compelling setting reason for them to be anything else. I like land druids, I’ll flirt with spores, but as a stars druid I get to turn into a mobile starfield and smite people, and there’s just no beating that.

Fighter: Like the artificer, I don’t do much with fighter, but both Rune Knights and Eldritch Knights have a bit of a draw to them. Particularly Rune Knights. I like the hulking, placid, but smarter and more dangerous than you think sort of vibes they have.

Monk: Again, not my class, but I do enjoy a Mercy Monk. I also weirdly have a fondness for the Sun Soul? I like shiny things and radiant damage, but also the Sun Soul gives me kind of anime vibes? Channeling your ki into a radiant aura. IDK, I’m just weirdly fond of the Sun Soul as a concept.

Paladin: As we’ve discussed, a threeway fight between Redemption, Watchers and Devotion, but my love of John Donne and the imagery of weary gothic knights in a world of darkness forever pulls me towards Devotion first. Though, you know. Cosmic horror definitely gives Watchers some points, and I like the mercy first ethos of Redemption.

Ranger: Fey Wanderer. I like skills and languages! For themes and imagery, though, Swarmkeeper. I want a warforged ‘scarecrow’ ranger with a flock of crows. I want a dhampir or changeling swarmkeeper with a swarm of moths. I like swarms. Swarms are good. I love the imagery.

Rogue: Phantom. Again, fairly big gap between this and the closest runner up. I really like ghosts? Like with the Ancestral Barbarian, I just really like ghosts, and the story potential of a character that is perpetually followed by them. Aided by them. I will also give some points to Swashbuckler, though, because I enjoy a good old fashioned daring scoundrel, and I really like swashbuckler movies.

Sorcerer: Aberrant Mind. Again, I enjoy the horror-themed subclasses? Though having played a Clockwork Soul, I also like their whole ‘return to centre’ sort of feel. And, you know. I enjoy a tempest cleric, so Storm sorcerers also get a look in. And Draconic, because ‘my grandma is a green dragon’ is always fun. I think sorcerer is the main class where I kind of like everybody and will give them all a whirl.

Warlock: Fathomless or GOOlock. Neck and neck. I do enjoy a Genielock, there’s fun to be had with Bottled Respite, and I have a fair few ideas for Celestial too, because I like the idea of being hired, on a mercenary basis, to aid the forces of good. I love the idea of some pragmatic deva somewhere just hiring, no convictions necessary, I will simply pay you in magic to fix this evil for me. It’s a great vibe. But Fathomless and GOOlock fill my cosmic horror love so well. I think the edge might go to Fathomless. Because tentacle. And also ocean. Heh.

Wizard: Illusion. Scribes and Abjuration hold joint second place, I love them both dearly. Bookish wizards and tanky wizards are excellent. But I love the diggy, trickster, seeker nature of illusionists. I love the playing with reality, the use of illusion to hide or reveal truth, the philosophical underpinning of a character that chooses, fully consciously, to pursue this school of magic. Also Phantasmal Force is an evil, evil spell, and I love it. Pick up the Metamagic Adept feat and get subtle spell, have a tonne of fun.

There are probably not surprising for most people, but I hadn’t gone through it by class before. So. Here we are?

[caydesasslesschaps]

basecamp ; beyond, europa

'There's history here worth defending; so we know not to make the same mistakes again.'

[lanaevyssmoved]

thief is so slept on, thank you for spreading the good word!

thief is incredible because more actions = the absolute best way to get more powerful in bg3. assassin is super strong too, but thief is in a different way, and both are super valid and interchangeable for personal taste. thief acts in the same way as adding fighter 2, you want more actions!!!

[five-dregs-in-a-hunter-cloak]

The Destiny community has a unforgiving wrath to it, and I cannot deny I am angry when I think about everything that's happened in the last year or so (Starting with Lightfall's initial flop and now more recently with the layoffs and the (less important but oh my god thanks for ruining your game further) nerfs to everything except banner of war) which leads me to say I will not be buying the Final Shape, but under the scrutiny of my more pessimistic clanmates I will still be playing through Season of the Wish just to experience the full year of Lightfall and get everything from the season pass as I have been doing since SOTSeraph. Whether you do or don't decide to invest in TFS is really not anyone elses business, go for it if you really feel confident or obligated to finish the arc, but I will find myself content clicking the 'uninstall' button and reminiscing all the time I spent on this game making new friends who I now cherish and engaging with a story that has hit me emotionally across the face more times than I can count, and given me characters to cry and laugh and obsess over. Even if it was just for a short time.

It's the memories that count, not the disappointments. I hope one day we can reminisce with smiles rather than frowns.

Per Audacia ad astra, it's been both a pleasure and a wonder to play alongside every one of you, be you a clanmate or a random guardian I ran through in the tower.

[jayne-doe]

exactly one episode in and my brain is already buzzing. i am constructing ocs like bees making honey. i am collecting old fairytales like pollen. i am creating character sheets on d&d beyond and wishing i could draw. nightmare fairytale world how I love thee

[anakinh]

once upon a time vax was my least favourite critical role pc and it wasn't even personal. it was 'i recognize why people would like him but he's just not my type ¯\_(ツ)_/¯'

anyway congrats to ashton for being the first crit role pc i actually dislike.

[eeldritchblast]

30 Questions for your Tav

These questions can be used as an Ask Game or just answering them all for fun character development!

(Dark Urge edition here)

What was your Tav’s place of birth and raising like?

What relationship did your Tav have with their family/guardian(s) growing up? Has that changed with age?

Did your Tav receive any formal or informal education? If yes, how well did they learn? If no, why not?

What hobbies does your Tav have? How did they acquire these interests?

Did your Tav have any formal or informal employment? If yes, what was their job? If no, how did they make ends meet? How did they feel about it?

What is your Tav’s favourite childhood memory?

What circumstances led to your Tav becoming their Class/Subclass?

Did your Tav have any romantic and/or sexual relationships prior to their illithid adventure? If yes, who was it with and what was it like? If no, how did they feel about being single?

What was your Tav doing when they were taken by the mind flayers?

What would your Tav consider to be their greatest skill? Is this accurate?

What would your Tav consider to be their greatest flaw? Is this accurate?

What opinion does your Tav have about the Gods?

How does your Tav feel about the wilderness?

How does your Tav feel about the city?

What motivates your Tav to either embrace or resist the tadpole?

How does your Tav feel about killing?

How good of a liar is your Tav? How do they feel about lying?

What is your Tav’s greatest fear?

What is your Tav’s greatest desire?

What is your Tav’s greatest regret?

How does your Tav feel about love?

Has your Tav become particularly close to anyone romantically and/or platonically in their journey? If so, who, and what is the relationship like? If no, why not?

What are 2-3 songs that your Tav would relate to?

What first impression does your Tav give off to strangers?

How does your Tav feel about what others think of them?

Does your Tav have a treasured item with them? If yes, what is it and why is it special? If no, how do they feel about item sentimentality in general?

How does your Tav feel about giving and receiving orders?

How well does your Tav function under pressure?

What advice would you give to your Tav?

What are your Tav’s intentions/goals after the end of the game?

[prokopetz]

Can you go over what is going on with Paladins and Clerics in DND, not from a mechanical or in universe perspective, but from what different sources/genres/tropes they are drawing on? They always seemed to have too much overlap in the basic concept to me to make sense as separate things in the dnd classes/stock character line up.

Clerics originated way back in the pre-OD&D days, when the game that would become Dungeons & Dragons was still a fantasy roleplaying add-on intended to be paired with your favourite historical wargame. One of the players in Dave Arneson's original Blackmoor campaign had an army whose commander/player character was a vampire named Sir Fang, who proved to be sufficiently overpowered that a mechanical "hard counter" was desired.

This ended up taking the form of a vampire-hunting priest character heavily inspired by Peter Cushing's turn as Abraham Van Helsing in the 1958 Christopher Lee adaptation of Bram Stoker's Dracula; that vampire-hunting priest in turn developed into what would become one of original flavour D&D's three core classes (the other two being the fighter and the wizard – the thief/rogue came later).

The paladin, meanwhile, was originally a direct, 1:1 lift of Holger Carlsen, the protagonist of Poul Anderson's 1961 fantasy novel Three Hearts and Three Lions, and was introduced as a subclass of the fighter – rather than a class of its own – in the 1975 Greyhawk supplement. Over the game's editions it's wandered from being a fighter subclass, to being a high-level "advanced class" to which qualifying characters can switch at 10th level, back to being a fighter subclass, and finally to a core class, where it's generally remained.

So, in short, the cleric was originally a purpose-built hard counter to vampire PCs loosely patterned after Peter Cushing's Abraham Van Helsing, while the paladin was originally for people who just really wanted to be one specific Poul Anderson character.

(I'm sorry if that's not a terribly satisfying answer, but you need to understand that practically everything in old-school D&D is a 1960s or 1970s pop culture reference – it just doesn't read that way to modern audiences because nobody gets the memes anymore.)

[ranboolivesaysstuff]

DO YOU HAVE A FAVOURITE DND SUBCLASS TO PLAY AS

I like playing dragonborns I know that isnt a subclass but I like dragonborns

[lazylittledragon]

I'm so curious, I've been scanning your posts for evidence but haven't found anything, so can I ask what class/subclass Cyra is? Dorian is clearly a beastmaster ranger, but Cyra is a mystery to me! She gives necromancer vibes, but that might just be bias on my end since my favourite Tav is also a necromancer 😂

she's a rogue/thief!

she's actually sort of the opposite of a necromancer, she's much more interested in playing around with dead bodies than bringing them back to life

[mambadou]

The dropout Community is crying out for "Oops! All-Bards", especially the ones who watch both D20 and Play It By Ear (which is a lot of us). For context, the idea is the party is (unsurprisingly) all bards or musical characters, the DM would probably be Brennan, or our good fella Ross Bryant. We have tons of options for a cast, including...

Zach Reino (We know he plays D&D, has appeared on Hello From the Magic Tavern)

Jess McKenna (She'd be a total newbie, which would be so fun to see, unless she's learned to play since Dungeons and Dating on Offbook, has appeared on Hello From the Magic Tavern. EDIT: Jess has learned to play dnd, how fun)

Ross Bryant (Long time player, DM, has appeared on Hello From the Magic Tavern)

Rashawn Nadine Scott (currently the lovely Viola on Burrow's end, is in a DND podcast which I unfortunately cannot remember the name of)

Jiavani (unaware of her D&D experience, a Play It By Ear regular, insanely funny inproviser)

Zeke Nicholson (unaware of his D&D experience, an Offbook & Play It By Ear regular)

Mano Agapion (If Ross DMs, then there's an open spot in the dome! Host of Play It By Ear, Unaware of his D&D Experience)

There's so much else you could do with a concept like this, if everyone's a different subclass, what if their characters are themed around different musicals? Or different genres of music? @samreich we're counting on you

Edit: Please give cast suggestions in the tags! Resident Horny Bisexual Theatre Kid grant got mentioned, and also once offbooker Lou Wilson, who was there for one of my favourite Offbook songs: "No thank you, Too Scary!" (Episode is 68. Monster Kids for those wondering)

The Full list of potential cast members:

Zach Reino

Jess McKenna

Ross Bryant

Brennan Lee Mulligan

Rashawn Nadine Scott

Jiavani

Zeke Nicholson

Grant Anthony O'Brien

Lou Wilson

Krystina Arielle

Sam Riegel

Liam O'Brien

[asexual-disaster]

Fantasy high junior year, predictions/wishlist.

More Fig/Fabian one on one moments, and more Riz/Kristin. I’m obsessed with these duos and I feel we don’t get them nearly enough.

Gorgug changes subclass + puts more level into artificer

More Pok gukgak. Whole family reunion. (I just really love him)

More Riz sexuality scenes; this is important to me because he’s my favourite and I’m aroace. Just give me more.

A couple break up. ( moneys on Kristen/tracker but gorgug/Zelda are a contender)

Ragh love interest!!! Please!!

The bad kids trying to find prom dates (I saw someone else say this and I truly need it)

Another queer arc idc if we’ve had a bunch I want more.

Bad kids parents wedding

Gilear dies, again

Something involving porter

Just more aelwyn , I’m very excited for her sort of redemption arc as such

They all have pretty bad ptsd from the nightmare forest

Domestic nights at mordred manor , like movie night (this is more a request than a prediction)

More of Zayn Darkshadow , and his friendship with Adaine.

A Kristen arc with her brothers, like she left her home because it was unsafe for her but she cared about her brothers so much. She must be feeling SOMETHING about leaving them there

Riz gets a tail. I want that little fucker to have his tail grow in god please

Riz wears a beanie now. (Thank YOU for this suggestions because god I need it).

The cubby family make an appearance!

Gorgug spends some time with his biological parents

Sandra Lynn gets her shit together

[dungeonofthedragon]

Favourite Fanmade Blades Playbooks

There is so much cool Blades in the Dark content out there. Here are three of my fave fanmade playbooks!

I have taken a feature from The Drowner playbook for my Leech who has a powerful connection to leviathans. It's a spooky and evocative playbook that feels perfectly at home in Doskvol.

Want to play a master of weird lil critters? Always! Swarmkeeper is one of my favourite Ranger subclasses in D&D 5E. It comes as no surprise then that I also really love The Swarm, a BitD playbook all about controlling little critters.

We have an orphan child in our Shadows crew. Between the severed digits, demonic encounters, and the crew being locked in Lord Scurlock's basement, he's had a rough time of it. Play an Urchin crew and you ruin the life of not just one kid, but a whole bunch of them!

[thehomebakery]

Okay, so this is one of my favourite subclasses I've created, and I want to play it so bad!

Based on one of the most iconic monsters, this subclass allows you to summon spectral eye rays to chaotically control(?) the battlefield 👁👁

You can find the PDFs for this subclass right HERE after becoming a free patreon member.

Additionally, if you do enjoy what I do and would like me to be able to make more of it, please consider supporting me financially by becoming a paid member.

[tegu-the-tegu]

Flavoured Artificer Concepts

Artificer is by FAR my favourite class in Dungeons and Dragons, primarily for how customisable they can be with regards to their flavour; because of the ability to cast through any tools you are proficient in, it gives a LOT of range to how your magic works. As such, I will put some ideas I have had to build unique Artificers.

An Artillerist that uses woodworking to carve totems; they are flavoured as a tribal shaman that summons the spirits of magical creatures to aid in battle. Their flamethrower turret conjures a dragon spirit to burn their foes, their protector turret calls the spirit of a unicorn to protect the virtuous, and their ballista invokes a manticore spirit to pepper distant foes with spikes. Their other spells can also be flavoured this way, such as Thunderwave being flavoured as an Aerosaur spirit emerging from a totem and flapping its wings to blow enemies away!

A Battlesmith that uses leatherworking to create a horrific stitched Frankenstein's monster for their steel defender. Every time they kill things, they skin the corpses to repair their hideous flesh monster. Or, if you prefer, you could stick with the shamanistic theme from the Artillerist entry, and use leatherworking to maintain the pelt of the first wolf you killed; its spirit inhabits that pelt, and defends you to this day!

An Alchemist that uses chef's tools to create supernaturally delicious food that cures illnesses and grants supernatural abilities. I have actually played this, he used brewers supplies to create caustic acidic drinks, had peppers so hot that it made your breath ignite to cast fire spells, and he would spray sticky toffee over the area for web. He would make food puns, and was named Guido Fiero.

An Armorer that uses jeweller's tools to create bling that imbues them with magical powers. A circlet that grants a force field, a ring that shoots lightning, a pair of bracelets that create thunderous shockwaves when brought together. Then, when you hit level 9, you can have distinct infusion tied to each one! A circlet or diadem or whatever for head armour, necklace for chest armour, anklets for boots, and bracelets or rings for the weapon! Perfect for a wealthy nobleman artificer who wants to broadcast their glamorous lifestyle.

There are loads of other things you can do with each tool proficiency, and it's a shame that the class is so easily pigeonholed into "The Tech Class". Not to say I don't like the gnomish tinker that creates fantastical and crazy gizmos to mimic magical effects. Hell, my character in the campaign I'm not DMing is exactly that, an autognome (Flavoured to look like a normal gnome in the face, so they appear normal when wearing their clothes) that woke up one day in a tinker's lab next to his deceased creator, and then left to try and find a purpose in the world. He has an insect motif, so all of his spells and things are flavoured as small clockwork insects he makes.

But the point is, while that's a staple of the Artificer class fantasy, there are loads of other ideas to flavour it! A calligrapher that writes arcane runes in the air, a potter with a terracotta soldier for a steel defender, a weaver that knits arcane circles, a painter whose drawings become magical effects, a glassblower whose glass figurines come to life, I can't think of one for cartographer's tools, but I bet there is a dope idea in there somewhere!

Even as I mentioned before with leatherworking, you can have the exact same class, the exact same subclass, and the exact same tool, and STILL have wildly different flavour! One is Doctor Frankenstein, the other is a mystical shaman with a spirit guide!

Anyway, that's today's rambling. I would also do a thing on subclasses the Artificer could have, given they only have four, but that's a whole other rant. Besides, this is already a thesis.

[wereavocado]

(saw your post about your pronouns, I just wanted to use them for you >:3)

This is Avocado!! It is a therian and otherin and I think its types are very interesting. It likes DnD and I'd like to know which race and class are it's favourite. It also likes theatre! Its blog is very interesting, i discovered its blog when a post appeared on my dashboard. I hope it's having a great day/night and that I could make it smile :3

Thank you so so much for this it really did make me smile 😭

To answer your question, it’s reaaally hard for me to pick one favorite race, so a few of my favorites are Dhampirs, Kenkus, tieflings, Yuan-Ti, and Gnolls (homebrew player race).

My favorite class is definitely druid. Everytime I make a character I have to resist the urge to just make them another druid. My favorite subclass is circle of the moon.

Thank you for asking! And this was very affirming to read :D