It doesn't trouble me much that Bugbear Rogues get to sneak attack from all the way across the room. Nah. Unless they get some kind of double stacked sneak attack that gives them Advantage, or extra damage, it's all kosher. I am more troubled with the idea that *any* class can get sneak attack. Admittedly, this becomes trivial beyond tier 1, but I have been talking about low level play for the main part.
You want to talk about Bugbears, Ranged Weapons, and possibly sneak attacks? Sure! Let's play.
Bugbears max out at about 8 feet tall. They have very long arms. That Long-Limbed trait lets them reach things that are 10 feet away. Their knuckles must be pretty near dragging on the ground when they walk. So what happens if they get a longbow specifically crafted to take into account those long arms? Is the bow 10 feet tall? How long are the arrows? They are going to need to be pretty thick or they will snap like toothpicks when the Bugbear tries to use them. My memory tells me that arrows are shorter than the bow is tall, so let's put them at a nice comfortable 8 feet long. As long as the Bugbear is tall. They've got to look like they are carrying a rack of javelins on their backs with feathered fletching. That's going to take quite a quiver. Shouldn't they get some benefit from this? They are launching things like skinny spears with metal tips that might well be barbed.
What's the damage of a Longbow at Bugbear scale? The normal one does 1d8. What the range? (150/600) like the normal one? What advantage does the Bugbear get? Can't compare it to a lance, that would be silly. Going to have to go with a Pike. 1d10. 18 pounds, but that's really not what they weigh, that's just because they are terribly awkward to move around. They are meant to be used in tight formations. So we can leave the range alone and just go with a touch more damage.
How about a crossbow for Bugbears? That's got to be an enormous construction. We are getting dangerously close to Siege Engine territory now. It normally takes something like three people to use one of those things effectively, but hey, Bugbears are pretty strong. So what if they need to use a lever or a crank to pull the string back? Mere wood probably won't handle it, better use metal. Now that we have hammered that out, how long and how thick are the quarrels? Crossbow Bolts are shorter than arrows. Perhaps about the width of the bow itself? They wouldn't be all that much longer than the crossbow or they couldn't fit. Three feet wide should like a nice width for a crossbow, so three foot long bolts seems about right. About as thick as your thumb? That's a good rule of thumb. Bugbears would have pretty darned big thumbs too. That's easily an inch thick. Let's go with an inch and a half. Nobody should have any quarrel with that.
What's the damage of a Heavy Crossbow at Bugbear scale? The normal one does 1d10. What's the range? (100/400) like the normal one? What advantage does the Bugbear get? Nothing really comes close. The ammo for a normal heavy crossbow bolt only weighs in at one and a half pounds. We can leave it at that. Damage of 1d12 sounds fair.
Now we have some pretty neat sneak attacks at range, don't we? Let's assuming a score of 20. 1d10 or 1d12 points of damage plus 2d6 plus score modifier. At first level, without a crit, that's 3 plus mod. 8 to 29 at the maximum. Crit? 2d10 or 2d12 points of damage plus 4d6 plus score mod. At first level that's 6 to 8 plus mod. 11 to 13. 44 to 48 plus mod. 49 to 53. Am I being absurd? You betcha! I am taking the absolute maximums here when I talk about them.
Y'all do whatever is fun. We all seem to agree that Bugbears should not be player characters anyway. I'm just here for the laughs. *wanders off muttering about Artificer enhanced crossbows, ways to get around ammo and loading, and hand crossbows for the ever popular crossbow in each hand akimbo fighting style*
I've recently seen some talk about some of the subclasses and races being too OP, and wanted to see if someone maybe had a list with short explanations as to why they're overpowered?
I've seen this as well, but to be honest I don't feel like any are actually overpowered. I agree with Stormcall in that I feel like its more that some subclasses ultimately feel pretty inconsequential to the game. Yes, Hexblades, are very strong - I have one now in one of my campaigns - but I dont feel like she has completely outshone the other characters. She did a ton of damage to a Vrock and in the next session got completely demolished by a Roper. I think a lot of the OP talk is DM's getting frustrated by their encounters seeming too easy at the table but that's also shaped by how many rests they're letting their parties take, how they're running their monsters, etc. If you've got a character that seems like its "OP" you as the DM have so many ways you can adjust for that.
My last time as a player I played a Yuan-ti Enchantment Wizard which seemed very strong on paper - but in practice I probably could've had more of an impact with a different subclass even if I still wanted to focus on enchantment spells. The poison resistance was barely relevant and I was only able to successfully use Hypnotic Gaze and Instinctive Charm a few times. I still had fun and was able to have one or two moments where my character was really impactful but generally those seemed more like because I was a wizard - not necessarily an enchantment wizard.
It doesn't trouble me much that Bugbear Rogues get to sneak attack from all the way across the room. Nah. Unless they get some kind of double stacked sneak attack that gives them Advantage, or extra damage, it's all kosher. I am more troubled with the idea that *any* class can get sneak attack. Admittedly, this becomes trivial beyond tier 1, but I have been talking about low level play for the main part.
Sneak attack fails to bother me even in tier 1. A two weapon style fighter or a monk can do as much damage without needing to worry about the conditions for applying sneak attack.
It doesn't trouble me much that Bugbear Rogues get to sneak attack from all the way across the room. Nah. Unless they get some kind of double stacked sneak attack that gives them Advantage, or extra damage, it's all kosher. I am more troubled with the idea that *any* class can get sneak attack. Admittedly, this becomes trivial beyond tier 1, but I have been talking about low level play for the main part.
You want to talk about Bugbears, Ranged Weapons, and possibly sneak attacks? Sure! Let's play.
Bugbears max out at about 8 feet tall. They have very long arms. That Long-Limbed trait lets them reach things that are 10 feet away. Their knuckles must be pretty near dragging on the ground when they walk. So what happens if they get a longbow specifically crafted to take into account those long arms? Is the bow 10 feet tall? How long are the arrows? They are going to need to be pretty thick or they will snap like toothpicks when the Bugbear tries to use them. My memory tells me that arrows are shorter than the bow is tall, so let's put them at a nice comfortable 8 feet long. As long as the Bugbear is tall. They've got to look like they are carrying a rack of javelins on their backs with feathered fletching. That's going to take quite a quiver. Shouldn't they get some benefit from this? They are launching things like skinny spears with metal tips that might well be barbed.
What's the damage of a Longbow at Bugbear scale? The normal one does 1d8. What the range? (150/600) like the normal one? What advantage does the Bugbear get? Can't compare it to a lance, that would be silly. Going to have to go with a Pike. 1d10. 18 pounds, but that's really not what they weigh, that's just because they are terribly awkward to move around. They are meant to be used in tight formations. So we can leave the range alone and just go with a touch more damage.
How about a crossbow for Bugbears? That's got to be an enormous construction. We are getting dangerously close to Siege Engine territory now. It normally takes something like three people to use one of those things effectively, but hey, Bugbears are pretty strong. So what if they need to use a lever or a crank to pull the string back? Mere wood probably won't handle it, better use metal. Now that we have hammered that out, how long and how thick are the quarrels? Crossbow Bolts are shorter than arrows. Perhaps about the width of the bow itself? They wouldn't be all that much longer than the crossbow or they couldn't fit. Three feet wide should like a nice width for a crossbow, so three foot long bolts seems about right. About as thick as your thumb? That's a good rule of thumb. Bugbears would have pretty darned big thumbs too. That's easily an inch thick. Let's go with an inch and a half. Nobody should have any quarrel with that.
What's the damage of a Heavy Crossbow at Bugbear scale? The normal one does 1d10. What's the range? (100/400) like the normal one? What advantage does the Bugbear get? Nothing really comes close. The ammo for a normal heavy crossbow bolt only weighs in at one and a half pounds. We can leave it at that. Damage of 1d12 sounds fair.
Now we have some pretty neat sneak attacks at range, don't we? Let's assuming a score of 20. 1d10 or 1d12 points of damage plus 2d6 plus score modifier. At first level, without a crit, that's 3 plus mod. 8 to 29 at the maximum. Crit? 2d10 or 2d12 points of damage plus 4d6 plus score mod. At first level that's 6 to 8 plus mod. 11 to 13. 44 to 48 plus mod. 49 to 53. Am I being absurd? You betcha! I am taking the absolute maximums here when I talk about them.
Y'all do whatever is fun. We all seem to agree that Bugbears should not be player characters anyway. I'm just here for the laughs. *wanders off muttering about Artificer enhanced crossbows, ways to get around ammo and loading, and hand crossbows for the ever popular crossbow in each hand akimbo fighting style*
Making up a bunch of stuff that's found no where in the rules doesn't prove anything about whether a particular class or race is overpowered.
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Find your own truth, choose your enemies carefully, and never deal with a dragon.
"Canon" is what's factual to D&D lore. "Cannon" is what you're going to be shot with if you keep getting the word wrong.
6th, opinions were solicited, and I am giving mine. If nothing else, I amuse myself. I think my opinions are more useful to the discussion than yours, since all you seem to be doing is being dismissive. I am giving my 2 cp in overly long and excruciating detail. At least people know exactly what I am talking about, in four part harmony, with full orchestration.
There are two "problems" with the classes. 1. paladins Many DM'S on Youtube and myself have found that groups with paladins are significantly stronger than groups without. The Paladin is also the most rounded class by design, offering a lot of utility and good talents (since charisma-based) for social encounters in addition to a lot of melee punch. The drawbacks are almost non-existent, as the various oath options offer something for everyone and the ranged deficits are negligible in a core melee system. The whole thing is completed by idiot-proof functionality. 2. multiclasses Even though I can understand the urge of some players to mix the classes, the balance in the (each) system is messed up by the free combining by the player.
In my Opinion the single most strongest Race is the variant human. And with every new feat that comes down the line it gets even better. While Races that grant flying certainly buff the Charakter in the first tier of play the variant human excels in tier 2-5. If you pick a feat with an ASI you get some cool features and are equal to other races that usually get Darkvision and some other nice flavour gimmicks. If you take a feat withour ASI you maybe one ability point behind other races but will in the best case get some really powerful features. Here are some Examples:
Monk/Fighter with Crusher feat
Sorcerer with Metamagic Adept
Any CC-Class with Sentinel or Eldritch Adept for Devils sight
Wizard with telekinetic
Any Class with fey touched, luck
Sure all these feats are good on their own, but choose these ones at level 1 boosts the Caracter extremly in tier 1 gameplay und makes better builds available 4 levels erlier then for other races.
But that is just a problem if any of your players has a problem wih the capabilities of another member of the party. Dnd 5e isn't perfectly balanced, but that's fine as long as it causes no trouble at your table.
Neither is arguing with me, but you still do it. :-)
I disagree. If someone is putting incorrect or false information in a thread (or is just playing around with homebrew ideas), it is important to correct it (or highlight that it is homebrew) so that new players/DMs reading the thread do not get confused about the rules they are trying to learn.
So, arguing that something is incorrect/false/homebrew is important to a discussion. How someone chooses to go about highlighting that and arguing it is a different matter.
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I don't know if such-and-such is OP, but there are certainly player builds that cause me to have to adjust or rethink certain challenges I lay out for the party. Those would include:
Races with flight - this trivializes a lot of early game stuff
Artificers/chainlocks/other pet classes - having an expendable minion to scout and trigger traps requires different approaches to these things if you want to keep them challenging
Eloquence bards - make you rethink social encounters. What kinds of social challenges can you put forth that can't simply be Persuasion'd to death?
Builds that rely on spells like conjure animals or conjure woodland beings can totally break encounters both in terms of balance and just basic playability. You need to counter this without completely invalidating it if you want to keep it in the game.
For what it's worth, I agree that bringing up homebrew racial rules is not relevant and potentially misleading in a discussion of what official content is considered OP. Rating the various power levels of homebrew content is an entirely different and much longer discussion.
There are a number of things that come to mind (low-level paladins, hexblade multiclass, aarakocra) but only one thing is so OP that it's been outright banned in my group. The Circle of the Moon Druid. We tend to run short, lethal, low-level campaigns where nobody's likely to get higher than 5th level if that. And the Moon Druid is just ridiculous at low levels.
There are a number of things that come to mind (low-level paladins, hexblade multiclass, aarakocra) but only one thing is so OP that it's been outright banned in my group. The Circle of the Moon Druid. We tend to run short, lethal, low-level campaigns where nobody's likely to get higher than 5th level if that. And the Moon Druid is just ridiculous at low levels.
The way Moon Druid wild shape scales is definitely problematic, a level 2 turning into a Brown Bear is nuts (bear stats are slightly messed up in general -- they originally didn't get proficiency bonus to hit but that got errata'd and suddenly OP).
So here's something that has forced me to rethink a number of encounters that wasn't a Class or Race or anything, but a Feat...
Sharpshooter. At low levels, a Ranger with a +1 bow and decent DEX with Sharpshooter trivializes uh... most enemies. I've basically had to double up on enemies or start including enemies with higher HP pools because the Ranger would just Sharpshooter everything to death. I've got an Evocation Wizard in my group and the tactical nuke of the party is still the Ranger.
So here's something that has forced me to rethink a number of encounters that wasn't a Class or Race or anything, but a Feat...
Sharpshooter. At low levels, a Ranger with a +1 bow and decent DEX with Sharpshooter trivializes uh... most enemies. I've basically had to double up on enemies or start including enemies with higher HP pools because the Ranger would just Sharpshooter everything to death. I've got an Evocation Wizard in my group and the tactical nuke of the party is still the Ranger.
While I do consider sharpshooter overtuned, it's just the low level extreme case of '5e is balanced for fighting inside dungeons'. Outdoors, you can easily run into cases where nominally challenging foes will never be able to attack before the fight is over because they die before they get in range of any attacks they have (and likewise, melee PCs might as well go take a nap). Overland, you pretty much need enemies that have massive range or simply aren't attackable before they engage (burrow, invisible stealthy creatures, teleport, etc).
So here's something that has forced me to rethink a number of encounters that wasn't a Class or Race or anything, but a Feat...
Sharpshooter. At low levels, a Ranger with a +1 bow and decent DEX with Sharpshooter trivializes uh... most enemies. I've basically had to double up on enemies or start including enemies with higher HP pools because the Ranger would just Sharpshooter everything to death. I've got an Evocation Wizard in my group and the tactical nuke of the party is still the Ranger.
Yeah. Sharpshooter. I like the concept, but once you get into mid Tier 2 and Tier 3, it feels like a Fighter with the Archery fighting style feels none of the drawback of the -5 to attack and can almost guarantee +20 and +30 damage on 2 or 3 attacks against enemies 300 feet away behind 3/4 cover. Action surge and you get nova damage of +40 or +60 extra damage from sharpshooting on 4 or 6 attacks
There are a number of things that come to mind (low-level paladins, hexblade multiclass, aarakocra) but only one thing is so OP that it's been outright banned in my group. The Circle of the Moon Druid. We tend to run short, lethal, low-level campaigns where nobody's likely to get higher than 5th level if that. And the Moon Druid is just ridiculous at low levels.
The way Moon Druid wild shape scales is definitely problematic, a level 2 turning into a Brown Bear is nuts (bear stats are slightly messed up in general -- they originally didn't get proficiency bonus to hit but that got errata'd and suddenly OP).
I don't understand the love people have for bear forms. I was even viciously attacked on Reddit just for questioning it. The Dire Wolf is a better land-based CR 1 combat form, in terms of the brown bear. I'll grant the bear gets a lot better with barkskin at druid level 3, but we're talking about dl 2.
I don't understand the love people have for bear forms. I was even viciously attacked on Reddit just for questioning it. The Dire Wolf is a better land-based CR 1 combat form, in terms of the brown bear. I'll grant the bear gets a lot better with barkskin at druid level 3, but we're talking about dl 2.
Dire Wolf: attack +5/10, against AC 12 with advantage half the time DPR is about 8. AC 14/37 hp is eHP 67 against attack bonus +4. DPR*eHP = 536
Brown Bear: attack +6/19.5, against AC 12 DPR is about 14.6. AC 11/34 HP is eHP 49 against attack bonus +4. DPR*eHP = 715
Barbarians with Great Weapon Master feat deal crazy high damage, especially at lower level when enemy AC isn't going to be high, as the Reckless Attack offsets the attack roll penalty pretty much completely.
The problem I have with them is their Long Limbed racial trait. Just an extra 5 feet of range. It seems trivial enough at first glance, but when you look at it for a while... Just how far away can they be and still make a Sneak Attack? Take a simple example. A Bugbear Rogue armed with a Rapier. Rogues are built to use Dex, Bugbears get one extra point in that, good to go. If you let them roll their scores that lets them sneak attack, at first level; 1D8 + 2D6 + dex. 8 to 25 with a 20 dex. On a crit that's 2D8 + 4D6 + dex. 11 to 45. From 10 feet away.
I'm really not comfortable with any of the races outside the Player's Handbook, and I'm a little iffy about some of them.
Any rogue can get sneak attack on attackd with any ranged weapon, so an extra 5 ft is kind of nothing compared to 80ft of a short bow.
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It doesn't trouble me much that Bugbear Rogues get to sneak attack from all the way across the room. Nah. Unless they get some kind of double stacked sneak attack that gives them Advantage, or extra damage, it's all kosher. I am more troubled with the idea that *any* class can get sneak attack. Admittedly, this becomes trivial beyond tier 1, but I have been talking about low level play for the main part.
You want to talk about Bugbears, Ranged Weapons, and possibly sneak attacks? Sure! Let's play.
Bugbears max out at about 8 feet tall. They have very long arms. That Long-Limbed trait lets them reach things that are 10 feet away. Their knuckles must be pretty near dragging on the ground when they walk. So what happens if they get a longbow specifically crafted to take into account those long arms? Is the bow 10 feet tall? How long are the arrows? They are going to need to be pretty thick or they will snap like toothpicks when the Bugbear tries to use them. My memory tells me that arrows are shorter than the bow is tall, so let's put them at a nice comfortable 8 feet long. As long as the Bugbear is tall. They've got to look like they are carrying a rack of javelins on their backs with feathered fletching. That's going to take quite a quiver. Shouldn't they get some benefit from this? They are launching things like skinny spears with metal tips that might well be barbed.
What's the damage of a Longbow at Bugbear scale? The normal one does 1d8. What the range? (150/600) like the normal one? What advantage does the Bugbear get? Can't compare it to a lance, that would be silly. Going to have to go with a Pike. 1d10. 18 pounds, but that's really not what they weigh, that's just because they are terribly awkward to move around. They are meant to be used in tight formations. So we can leave the range alone and just go with a touch more damage.
How about a crossbow for Bugbears? That's got to be an enormous construction. We are getting dangerously close to Siege Engine territory now. It normally takes something like three people to use one of those things effectively, but hey, Bugbears are pretty strong. So what if they need to use a lever or a crank to pull the string back? Mere wood probably won't handle it, better use metal. Now that we have hammered that out, how long and how thick are the quarrels? Crossbow Bolts are shorter than arrows. Perhaps about the width of the bow itself? They wouldn't be all that much longer than the crossbow or they couldn't fit. Three feet wide should like a nice width for a crossbow, so three foot long bolts seems about right. About as thick as your thumb? That's a good rule of thumb. Bugbears would have pretty darned big thumbs too. That's easily an inch thick. Let's go with an inch and a half. Nobody should have any quarrel with that.
What's the damage of a Heavy Crossbow at Bugbear scale? The normal one does 1d10. What's the range? (100/400) like the normal one? What advantage does the Bugbear get? Nothing really comes close. The ammo for a normal heavy crossbow bolt only weighs in at one and a half pounds. We can leave it at that. Damage of 1d12 sounds fair.
Now we have some pretty neat sneak attacks at range, don't we? Let's assuming a score of 20. 1d10 or 1d12 points of damage plus 2d6 plus score modifier. At first level, without a crit, that's 3 plus mod. 8 to 29 at the maximum. Crit? 2d10 or 2d12 points of damage plus 4d6 plus score mod. At first level that's 6 to 8 plus mod. 11 to 13. 44 to 48 plus mod. 49 to 53. Am I being absurd? You betcha! I am taking the absolute maximums here when I talk about them.
Y'all do whatever is fun. We all seem to agree that Bugbears should not be player characters anyway. I'm just here for the laughs. *wanders off muttering about Artificer enhanced crossbows, ways to get around ammo and loading, and hand crossbows for the ever popular crossbow in each hand akimbo fighting style*
<Insert clever signature here>
I've seen this as well, but to be honest I don't feel like any are actually overpowered. I agree with Stormcall in that I feel like its more that some subclasses ultimately feel pretty inconsequential to the game. Yes, Hexblades, are very strong - I have one now in one of my campaigns - but I dont feel like she has completely outshone the other characters. She did a ton of damage to a Vrock and in the next session got completely demolished by a Roper. I think a lot of the OP talk is DM's getting frustrated by their encounters seeming too easy at the table but that's also shaped by how many rests they're letting their parties take, how they're running their monsters, etc. If you've got a character that seems like its "OP" you as the DM have so many ways you can adjust for that.
My last time as a player I played a Yuan-ti Enchantment Wizard which seemed very strong on paper - but in practice I probably could've had more of an impact with a different subclass even if I still wanted to focus on enchantment spells. The poison resistance was barely relevant and I was only able to successfully use Hypnotic Gaze and Instinctive Charm a few times. I still had fun and was able to have one or two moments where my character was really impactful but generally those seemed more like because I was a wizard - not necessarily an enchantment wizard.
Sneak attack fails to bother me even in tier 1. A two weapon style fighter or a monk can do as much damage without needing to worry about the conditions for applying sneak attack.
Making up a bunch of stuff that's found no where in the rules doesn't prove anything about whether a particular class or race is overpowered.
Find your own truth, choose your enemies carefully, and never deal with a dragon.
"Canon" is what's factual to D&D lore. "Cannon" is what you're going to be shot with if you keep getting the word wrong.
6th, opinions were solicited, and I am giving mine. If nothing else, I amuse myself. I think my opinions are more useful to the discussion than yours, since all you seem to be doing is being dismissive. I am giving my 2 cp in overly long and excruciating detail. At least people know exactly what I am talking about, in four part harmony, with full orchestration.
<Insert clever signature here>
Repeatedly asserting something that isn't true is not contributing to a discussion.
Find your own truth, choose your enemies carefully, and never deal with a dragon.
"Canon" is what's factual to D&D lore. "Cannon" is what you're going to be shot with if you keep getting the word wrong.
Neither is arguing with me, but you still do it. :-)
<Insert clever signature here>
There are two "problems" with the classes.
1. paladins
Many DM'S on Youtube and myself have found that groups with paladins are significantly stronger than groups without.
The Paladin is also the most rounded class by design, offering a lot of utility and good talents (since charisma-based) for social encounters in addition to a lot of melee punch. The drawbacks are almost non-existent, as the various oath options offer something for everyone and the ranged deficits are negligible in a core melee system. The whole thing is completed by idiot-proof functionality.
2. multiclasses
Even though I can understand the urge of some players to mix the classes, the balance in the (each) system is messed up by the free combining by the player.
In my Opinion the single most strongest Race is the variant human. And with every new feat that comes down the line it gets even better.
While Races that grant flying certainly buff the Charakter in the first tier of play the variant human excels in tier 2-5. If you pick a feat with an ASI you get some cool features and are equal to other races that usually get Darkvision and some other nice flavour gimmicks. If you take a feat withour ASI you maybe one ability point behind other races but will in the best case get some really powerful features. Here are some Examples:
Sure all these feats are good on their own, but choose these ones at level 1 boosts the Caracter extremly in tier 1 gameplay und makes better builds available 4 levels erlier then for other races.
But that is just a problem if any of your players has a problem wih the capabilities of another member of the party. Dnd 5e isn't perfectly balanced, but that's fine as long as it causes no trouble at your table.
I disagree. If someone is putting incorrect or false information in a thread (or is just playing around with homebrew ideas), it is important to correct it (or highlight that it is homebrew) so that new players/DMs reading the thread do not get confused about the rules they are trying to learn.
So, arguing that something is incorrect/false/homebrew is important to a discussion. How someone chooses to go about highlighting that and arguing it is a different matter.
Three-time Judge of the Competition of the Finest Brews! Come join us in making fun, unique homebrew and voting for your favorite entries!
I don't know if such-and-such is OP, but there are certainly player builds that cause me to have to adjust or rethink certain challenges I lay out for the party. Those would include:
For what it's worth, I agree that bringing up homebrew racial rules is not relevant and potentially misleading in a discussion of what official content is considered OP. Rating the various power levels of homebrew content is an entirely different and much longer discussion.
My homebrew subclasses (full list here)
(Artificer) Swordmage | Glasswright | (Barbarian) Path of the Savage Embrace
(Bard) College of Dance | (Fighter) Warlord | Cannoneer
(Monk) Way of the Elements | (Ranger) Blade Dancer
(Rogue) DaggerMaster | Inquisitor | (Sorcerer) Riftwalker | Spellfist
(Warlock) The Swarm
There are a number of things that come to mind (low-level paladins, hexblade multiclass, aarakocra) but only one thing is so OP that it's been outright banned in my group. The Circle of the Moon Druid. We tend to run short, lethal, low-level campaigns where nobody's likely to get higher than 5th level if that. And the Moon Druid is just ridiculous at low levels.
Wizard (Gandalf) of the Tolkien Club
The way Moon Druid wild shape scales is definitely problematic, a level 2 turning into a Brown Bear is nuts (bear stats are slightly messed up in general -- they originally didn't get proficiency bonus to hit but that got errata'd and suddenly OP).
So here's something that has forced me to rethink a number of encounters that wasn't a Class or Race or anything, but a Feat...
Sharpshooter. At low levels, a Ranger with a +1 bow and decent DEX with Sharpshooter trivializes uh... most enemies. I've basically had to double up on enemies or start including enemies with higher HP pools because the Ranger would just Sharpshooter everything to death. I've got an Evocation Wizard in my group and the tactical nuke of the party is still the Ranger.
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While I do consider sharpshooter overtuned, it's just the low level extreme case of '5e is balanced for fighting inside dungeons'. Outdoors, you can easily run into cases where nominally challenging foes will never be able to attack before the fight is over because they die before they get in range of any attacks they have (and likewise, melee PCs might as well go take a nap). Overland, you pretty much need enemies that have massive range or simply aren't attackable before they engage (burrow, invisible stealthy creatures, teleport, etc).
Yeah. Sharpshooter. I like the concept, but once you get into mid Tier 2 and Tier 3, it feels like a Fighter with the Archery fighting style feels none of the drawback of the -5 to attack and can almost guarantee +20 and +30 damage on 2 or 3 attacks against enemies 300 feet away behind 3/4 cover. Action surge and you get nova damage of +40 or +60 extra damage from sharpshooting on 4 or 6 attacks
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Ite from Pantagruel666 >>
I don't understand the love people have for bear forms. I was even viciously attacked on Reddit just for questioning it. The Dire Wolf is a better land-based CR 1 combat form, in terms of the brown bear. I'll grant the bear gets a lot better with barkskin at druid level 3, but we're talking about dl 2.
Barbarians with Great Weapon Master feat deal crazy high damage, especially at lower level when enemy AC isn't going to be high, as the Reckless Attack offsets the attack roll penalty pretty much completely.
Any rogue can get sneak attack on attackd with any ranged weapon, so an extra 5 ft is kind of nothing compared to 80ft of a short bow.