So I have been thinking about creating a class for D&D where the player is a Priest which I know I could do that with a Cleric, but I was thinking more of in terms of a class that has penalties for attacking things directly and the class would be restricted to only male characters. The basics of the class would be a complete focus on being passive there would be some perks that the class would have which would make it worth playing as one thing I can think of is what I would call "Self-Sacrifice" which would allow a Priest character to take fatal damage of another PC and be brought down to 1HP as the ability would give all but 1 of the Priest's HP to the PC that would have received the fatal damage though if PC were to be fully healed then the remaining HP wouldn't grant temp HP for the PC but go back to the Priest. This ability would only be able to be used twice and then a long rest is needed. I also would make it so a Priest could start a "Prayer" which would grant all allies Advantage as long as the Priest maintains concentration which the player would roll a D20 on their turn having to roll a 10 or higher to maintain the "Prayer". That's all I have any other ideas for improvement would be welcomed
but I was thinking more of in terms of a class that has penalties for attacking things directly
That's gonna make combat a slog, but you can still accomplish that with a cleric. Just play a support focused cleric, say healer or buffs
and the class would be restricted to only male characters
Uh, that's gonna be a yikes from me dawg. This completely goes against the 5e design philosophy of, well, basically doing away with nonsense restrictions like race or gender.
As for the rest of what you describe, that can be achieved with existing classes like cleric and paladin, both of which have subclasses that focus on support and defence.
for me it would be that the Priest wouldn't be able to weld weapons as for the male only that could be problematic but a sub-class that is restricted to female Priests but the class would mostly be for a homebrew campaign I'm working on myself as the class itself would be seen as "non-magical" in my story even if it's magical but in the story I'm working on magic is seen as dangerous and always "evil" to which only Priests weld "good" magic. That being said in my story they have advanced medicine and medical services that are not magical but science related
Remove Spirit Guardians. It's thematically strong, mechanically not ideal because it requires you to be up close in combat, and you do need to offset some stuff if you're giving the priest such powerful spells.
Remove the necromancer spells to offset gaining some spells.
I would probably leave fire bolt but have it originate from the sky though I wouldn't have fireball or scorching ray. I would leave Spirit Guardians as it would fitting I would mainly try to combine parts of the Wizard, Cleric, and Paladin spell list removing any attack spells altogether from all the lists leaving all of the aid and buff/debuff spells though I'd have to decide which to add
You can make the self sacrifice a channel divinity. The prayer is basically a bless spell. And instead of giving the subclass more weapon or armor proficiency, you can give incentives to not use weapons (like adding WIS to AC as long as you havent made an attack roll since rolling initiative).
This. The first rule of creating a new class is: don't. That's the last resort.
Building a class that takes penalties for engaging in combat is also a complete non-starter. A class that can't fight is dead weight in many kinds of D&D adventures. Give bonuses for engaging in pacifism, not penalties for engaging in combat.
I also agree the gender restriction is silly and pointless.
Uh, that's gonna be a yikes from me dawg. This completely goes against the 5e design philosophy of, well, basically doing away with nonsense restrictions like race or gender.
As for the rest of what you describe, that can be achieved with existing classes like cleric and paladin, both of which have subclasses that focus on support and defence.
Not that I disagree with your intent, Dave, but subclass restrictions based on race do actually exist. I don't like the rule, but Bladesingers are officially restricted to Elves and Half-Elves, aren't they? And Battleragers to Dwarves? The fact that lore states this and ALeague enforce this just makes me scratch my head sometimes about what the direction the dev team is really trying to go in.
Bladsinger and Battlerager aren't restricted to elves and dwarves only, the books that present them state that typically only those races in the Forgotten Realms can be those subclasses, but you're completely free to ignore that.
That being said, I still think there's a wide gulf between restricting based on fantasy race and restricting based on gender. Just seems ick to me.
How about a wizard subclass? Hear me out! Level 2 gives you some healing spells and some kind of buff mechanic. The wizard is the only spell casting class that doesn't have a healing spell so this might fit an interesting niche anyway.
How about a wizard subclass? Hear me out! Level 2 gives you some healing spells and some kind of buff mechanic. The wizard is the only spell casting class that doesn't have a healing spell so this might fit an interesting niche anyway.
But why? The OP wants to make an ANTI-attacking class. It's the exact opposite of what they're trying to achieve
Bladsinger and Battlerager aren't restricted to elves and dwarves only, the books that present them state that typically only those races in the Forgotten Realms can be those subclasses, but you're completely free to ignore that.
That being said, I still think there's a wide gulf between restricting based on fantasy race and restricting based on gender. Just seems ick to me.
Like I said, I agree with you that neither race nor gender restrictions to playing classes or sub-classes ought to exist, but aspects of the development team seem to think it's a good idea to preserve some subclasses for particular races. The default in AL is that Bladesingers and Battleragers are race restricted. The optional rule is that this restriction be lifted, which probably doesn't have to be said for non-AL games, but there we are.
Because there's a big different between race and gender restrictions, for bladesinger it’s a sacred elven art passed down within them, it makes sense that only elves could you use it except in often rare situations, in the broader scene of things nothing stops a female from learning wizardry or becoming a cleric unless there are actual limitations in the world that say so, which could totally exist and the count is that there would be exceptions like with bladesinger
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Marvarax andSora (Dragonborn) The retired fighter and WIP scholar - Glory
Brythel(Dwarf), The dwarf with a gun - survival at sea
Jaylin(Human), Paladin of Lathander's Ancient ways - The Seven Saints (Azura Claw)
Urselles(Goblin), Cleric of Eldath- The Wizard's challenge
Viclas Tyrin(Half Elf), Student of the Elven arts- Indrafatmoko's Defiance in Phlan
Seems to me that, as DM, you can make any lore justification you want to restrict anything then. So the DMs who like elves for whatever reason will enforce the only-elves rule for Bladesingers. Same for Battleragers and dwarves. Just seems like the devs left behind a Trojan Horse that undermines their own design philosophy of the game. Why do that?
Because these things make sense lore wise, and it’s not the end of your character because oh no I can’t use this one subclass, it doesn’t undermine the main idea of you can be whatever you want because if I really want to be a close range swords person with magic I can do it another way, and just wrapping around the main topic of the gender restriction in the first place if it makes sense for the lore then do it, but if it doesn’t then don’t.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Marvarax andSora (Dragonborn) The retired fighter and WIP scholar - Glory
Brythel(Dwarf), The dwarf with a gun - survival at sea
Jaylin(Human), Paladin of Lathander's Ancient ways - The Seven Saints (Azura Claw)
Urselles(Goblin), Cleric of Eldath- The Wizard's challenge
Viclas Tyrin(Half Elf), Student of the Elven arts- Indrafatmoko's Defiance in Phlan
I'll give that a read though I may just make a subclass for Cleric and just have it in my campaign that the people of my world don't see Clerics as magical while every other magic caster is seen as evil and possessed by demons of the Nine Hells though I don't know if I want to work into my campaign that all magic casters are imprisoned as soon as they develop magical abilities or that people look down on them as "sub-human"
You can call cleric and paladin magic: miracles and spells: prayers. You could also give a pass to celestial warlocks and divine soul sorcerers (or not, and call them a perversion of the Holy arts).
I feel like druids, rangers, and artificers should fall into a grey area of natural/science magic. They use components that contain magic rather than perform magic themselves.
Then bards, eldritch knights, arcane tricksters, sorcerers, warlocks, and wizards would be the arcane magic users.
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So I have been thinking about creating a class for D&D where the player is a Priest which I know I could do that with a Cleric, but I was thinking more of in terms of a class that has penalties for attacking things directly and the class would be restricted to only male characters. The basics of the class would be a complete focus on being passive there would be some perks that the class would have which would make it worth playing as one thing I can think of is what I would call "Self-Sacrifice" which would allow a Priest character to take fatal damage of another PC and be brought down to 1HP as the ability would give all but 1 of the Priest's HP to the PC that would have received the fatal damage though if PC were to be fully healed then the remaining HP wouldn't grant temp HP for the PC but go back to the Priest. This ability would only be able to be used twice and then a long rest is needed. I also would make it so a Priest could start a "Prayer" which would grant all allies Advantage as long as the Priest maintains concentration which the player would roll a D20 on their turn having to roll a 10 or higher to maintain the "Prayer". That's all I have any other ideas for improvement would be welcomed
That's gonna make combat a slog, but you can still accomplish that with a cleric. Just play a support focused cleric, say healer or buffs
Uh, that's gonna be a yikes from me dawg. This completely goes against the 5e design philosophy of, well, basically doing away with nonsense restrictions like race or gender.
As for the rest of what you describe, that can be achieved with existing classes like cleric and paladin, both of which have subclasses that focus on support and defence.
Find my D&D Beyond articles here
for me it would be that the Priest wouldn't be able to weld weapons as for the male only that could be problematic but a sub-class that is restricted to female Priests but the class would mostly be for a homebrew campaign I'm working on myself as the class itself would be seen as "non-magical" in my story even if it's magical but in the story I'm working on magic is seen as dangerous and always "evil" to which only Priests weld "good" magic. That being said in my story they have advanced medicine and medical services that are not magical but science related
If you want your cleric to suck with weapons, then in that case the Divine Soul Sorcerer sounds about right for what you're trying to do.
I double the sentiments of davedamon about limiting gender.
That being said, here are my thoughts in no particular order.
This would be the easiest way to do it anyway.
I would probably leave fire bolt but have it originate from the sky though I wouldn't have fireball or scorching ray. I would leave Spirit Guardians as it would fitting I would mainly try to combine parts of the Wizard, Cleric, and Paladin spell list removing any attack spells altogether from all the lists leaving all of the aid and buff/debuff spells though I'd have to decide which to add
I say just make a cleric subclass. It is easier.
You can make the self sacrifice a channel divinity. The prayer is basically a bless spell. And instead of giving the subclass more weapon or armor proficiency, you can give incentives to not use weapons (like adding WIS to AC as long as you havent made an attack roll since rolling initiative).
This. The first rule of creating a new class is: don't. That's the last resort.
Building a class that takes penalties for engaging in combat is also a complete non-starter. A class that can't fight is dead weight in many kinds of D&D adventures. Give bonuses for engaging in pacifism, not penalties for engaging in combat.
I also agree the gender restriction is silly and pointless.
The Forum Infestation (TM)
Not that I disagree with your intent, Dave, but subclass restrictions based on race do actually exist. I don't like the rule, but Bladesingers are officially restricted to Elves and Half-Elves, aren't they? And Battleragers to Dwarves? The fact that lore states this and ALeague enforce this just makes me scratch my head sometimes about what the direction the dev team is really trying to go in.
Bladsinger and Battlerager aren't restricted to elves and dwarves only, the books that present them state that typically only those races in the Forgotten Realms can be those subclasses, but you're completely free to ignore that.
That being said, I still think there's a wide gulf between restricting based on fantasy race and restricting based on gender. Just seems ick to me.
Find my D&D Beyond articles here
I agree instead of making a new class. Mechanically it's actually like a cleric/sorcerer so just work with that and just make a subclass
Here's a UA of the monk - way of Tranquility.
Even if you don't duplicate the skills exactly use it to inspire similar features based on the flavor & mechanical balance of a Dnd subclass
http://dnd5e.*******.com/monk:tranquility
How about a wizard subclass? Hear me out! Level 2 gives you some healing spells and some kind of buff mechanic. The wizard is the only spell casting class that doesn't have a healing spell so this might fit an interesting niche anyway.
But why? The OP wants to make an ANTI-attacking class. It's the exact opposite of what they're trying to achieve
Like I said, I agree with you that neither race nor gender restrictions to playing classes or sub-classes ought to exist, but aspects of the development team seem to think it's a good idea to preserve some subclasses for particular races. The default in AL is that Bladesingers and Battleragers are race restricted. The optional rule is that this restriction be lifted, which probably doesn't have to be said for non-AL games, but there we are.
Because there's a big different between race and gender restrictions, for bladesinger it’s a sacred elven art passed down within them, it makes sense that only elves could you use it except in often rare situations, in the broader scene of things nothing stops a female from learning wizardry or becoming a cleric unless there are actual limitations in the world that say so, which could totally exist and the count is that there would be exceptions like with bladesinger
Marvarax and Sora (Dragonborn) The retired fighter and WIP scholar - Glory
Brythel(Dwarf), The dwarf with a gun - survival at sea
Jaylin(Human), Paladin of Lathander's Ancient ways - The Seven Saints (Azura Claw)
Urselles(Goblin), Cleric of Eldath- The Wizard's challenge
Viclas Tyrin(Half Elf), Student of the Elven arts- Indrafatmoko's Defiance in Phlan
Seems to me that, as DM, you can make any lore justification you want to restrict anything then. So the DMs who like elves for whatever reason will enforce the only-elves rule for Bladesingers. Same for Battleragers and dwarves. Just seems like the devs left behind a Trojan Horse that undermines their own design philosophy of the game. Why do that?
Because these things make sense lore wise, and it’s not the end of your character because oh no I can’t use this one subclass, it doesn’t undermine the main idea of you can be whatever you want because if I really want to be a close range swords person with magic I can do it another way, and just wrapping around the main topic of the gender restriction in the first place if it makes sense for the lore then do it, but if it doesn’t then don’t.
Marvarax and Sora (Dragonborn) The retired fighter and WIP scholar - Glory
Brythel(Dwarf), The dwarf with a gun - survival at sea
Jaylin(Human), Paladin of Lathander's Ancient ways - The Seven Saints (Azura Claw)
Urselles(Goblin), Cleric of Eldath- The Wizard's challenge
Viclas Tyrin(Half Elf), Student of the Elven arts- Indrafatmoko's Defiance in Phlan
I'll give that a read though I may just make a subclass for Cleric and just have it in my campaign that the people of my world don't see Clerics as magical while every other magic caster is seen as evil and possessed by demons of the Nine Hells though I don't know if I want to work into my campaign that all magic casters are imprisoned as soon as they develop magical abilities or that people look down on them as "sub-human"
I may make it so there are female Priests but they not respected at all
You can call cleric and paladin magic: miracles and spells: prayers. You could also give a pass to celestial warlocks and divine soul sorcerers (or not, and call them a perversion of the Holy arts).
I feel like druids, rangers, and artificers should fall into a grey area of natural/science magic. They use components that contain magic rather than perform magic themselves.
Then bards, eldritch knights, arcane tricksters, sorcerers, warlocks, and wizards would be the arcane magic users.