For fun, I have recently started revisiting/reworking some of the subclasses from the Sword Coast Adventurer Guide which have been "forgotten" (read as: not reprinted in later books). In each, I have tried to stick to the same theme the subclass was going for, but redo some of the abilities (or replace them) to make them more fun to play.
For this first part, I have worked on the Path of the Battlerager barbarian, Arcana Domain cleric, and Banneret (Purple Dragon Knight) fighter. For abilites I have altered, I put notes on what I wanted to change and why in blue.I would love to hear feedback on the changes and how they can be improved
Path of the Battlerager
Path of the Battlerager (revised)
Known as Kuldjargh (literally "axe idiot") in Dwarvish, battleragers are followers of the gods of war and take the Path of the Battlerager. They specialize in wearing bulky, spiked armor and throwing themselves into combat, striking with their body itself and giving themselves over to the fury of battle.
Battlerager Armor
When you choose this path at 3rd level, you gain the ability to use spiked armor as a melee weapon, which deals 1d4 piercing damage on a hit. You are considered proficient in using the armor spikes as a weapon and use your Strength modifier for the attack and damage rolls. While you are wearing spiked armor and are raging, you can use a bonus action to make one melee weapon attack with your armor spikes against a target within 5 feet of you.
Additionally, when you use the Attack action to grapple a creature, the target takes piercing damage from the armor spikes equal to your proficiency bonus if your grapple check succeeds. Any creature which is grappling you (or is grappled by you) also takes this damage at the start of each of its turns.
Notes on changes: 1) Modified the language so that the armor spikes can be used as part of your Attack action as well and not limited to the bonus action attack. Clarified the language to explicitly state you are proficient in attacking with the spikes 2) Changed the grapple damage to scale with your proficiency bonus instead of being a flat “3.” This allows the damage to naturally increase as you level up and remain impactful if you choose to multiclass. 3) Allow the grapple damage to apply while any grapple is maintained and not just when you initiate the grapple, which gives a slight power boost and makes more sense to me thematically.
Reckless Abandon
You channel the spirit of the Kuldjargh, abandoning any sense of self preservation and empowering your drive to destroy your enemies. Beginning at 6th level, when you use Reckless Attack, you gain temporary hit points equal to your Constitution modifier (minimum of 1).
Additionally, while raging and wearing spiked armor, if a creature hits you with a melee attack while you have these hit points, it takes piercing damage from the armor spikes equal to your Strength modifier.
Notes on changes: I added an ability similar to Armor of Agathys to allow for some extra damage output and to make the pool of temp HP more impactful. Thematically, I am not sure it makes much sense to have extra damage tied to your temp HP for a nonmagical effect, but I like the change mechanically. I guess you could say something like you are “channeling the spirit of the battlerager '' when you recklessly attack or something.
Spiked Armor Mastery
Beginning at 10th level, you have a mastery over using your spiked armor and gain the following benefits while wearing it:
Attacks made using the armor spikes deal 2d4 damage instead of 1d4.
Piercing damage dealt by the armor spikes count as magical for the purpose of overcoming resistance and immunity to nonmagical attacks and damage.
If you hit a creature that is grappled by you with an attack made using the armor spikes, the target has disadvantage on the next Strength (Athletics) or Dexterity (Acrobatics) skill check made to escape the grapple.
Notes on changes: This is an entirely new feature. In order to keep the influence of the spiked armor competitive, I increase the damage dealt by attacks to 2d4 (on average a little better than 1d8) and make all damage from the armor spikes (attacks and passive abilities) magical to overcome resistances. There are also a few bonuses to trying to maintain/escape grapples while you wear the spike armor, which I think makes sense thematically. That being said, it could make this subclass’ grappling potential a little too good (stacking disadvantage on your enemy with your advantage from raging).
Battlerager Charge
Also at 10th level, you can take the Dash action as a bonus action while you are raging.
Spiked Retribution
Starting at 14th level, when a creature targets you with a melee attack, you can use your reaction to mark the target. Until the end of its turn, each time it hits you with a melee attack you deal piercing damage with the armor spikes to the attacker equal to your proficiency bonus if you are wearing spiked armor, and are not incapacitated. While raging, you deal additional damage equal to the value shown in the Rage Damage column of the Barbarian table.
Notes on changes: Small debuff by changing the ability to use your reaction and only affect one creature at a time, but overall boosted the power by making it scale with proficiency bonus instead of a flat “3”. Raging further boosts the power by allowing you to add your Rage damage to each instance. This also combines with the modified Reckless Abandon where your potential “free” damage output is Str + Prof+ Rage Damage for as many attacks as the creature makes.
Arcana Domain (last updated 6/6/22)
Arcana Domain (revised)
Magic is an energy that suffuses the multiverse and that fuels both destruction and creation. Gods of the Arcana domain know the secrets and potential of magic intimately. For some of these gods, magical knowledge is a great responsibility that comes with a special understanding of the nature of reality. Other gods of Arcana see magic as pure power, to be used as its wielder sees fit.
The gods of this domain are often associated with knowledge, as learning and arcane power tend to go hand-in-hand. In the Realms, deities of this domain include Azuth and Mystra, as well as Corellon Larethian of the elven pantheon. In other worlds, this domain includes Hecate, Math Mathonwy, and Isis; the triple moon gods of Solinari, Lunitari, and Nuitari of Krynn; and Boccob, Vecna, and Wee Jas of Greyhawk.
Arcana Domain Spells
Cleric Level
Spells
1st
Detect Magic, Magic Missile
3rd
Nystul’s Magic Aura, See Invisibility
5th
Dispel Magic, Magic Circle
7th
Arcane Eye, Mordenkainen's Private Sanctum
9th
Planar Binding, Teleportation Circle
Arcane Initiate
When you choose this domain at 1st level, you gain proficiency in the Arcana skill, and you gain two cantrips of your choice from the wizard spell list. For you, these cantrips count as cleric cantrips. Whenever you gain a cleric level, you can replace one cantrip you gained from this feature with another cantrip from the wizard spell list.
Note on changes: Wanted to increase the versatility by allowing the cleric to periodically switch out their wizard cantrips, because it feels bad to pick one at 1st level only to realize later that something else would be more useful. Changed out Magic Weapon for See Invisibility as this seems more useful for a cleric focused on dealing with otherworldly creatures. Changed out Secret Chest for Private Sanctum as I dislike domain spells that come with a costly component and this plays into the “Dr. Strange” flavor of having a secret magical sanctum.
Channel Divinity: Arcane Abjuration
Starting at 2nd level, you can use your Channel Divinity to abjure magical and otherworldly creatures.
As an action, you present your holy symbol, and one aberration, celestial, construct, elemental, fey,fiend, or ooze of your choice that is within 30 feet of you must make a Wisdom saving throw, provided that the creature can see or hear you. If the creature fails its saving throw, it is turned for 1 minute or until it takes any damage.
A turned creature must spend its turns trying to move as far away from you as it can, and it can't willingly end its move in a space within 30 feet of you. It also can't take reactions. For its action, it can only use the Dash action or try to escape from an effect that prevents it from moving. If there's nowhere to move, the creature can use the Dodge action.
After you reach 5th level, when a creature fails its saving throw against your Arcane Abjuration feature, the creature is banished for 1 minute (as in the Banishment spell, no concentration required) if it isn't on its plane of origin and its challenge rating is at or below a certain threshold, as shown on the Arcane Banishment table.
Arcane Banishment
Cleric Level
Banishes Creatures of CR
5th
½ or lower
8th
1 or lower
11th
2 or lower
14th
3 or lower
17th
4 or lower
Note on changes: expanded the number of creature types that can be turned by this effect. While the ability is still situational, it can now be used more often.
Spell Breaker
Starting at 6th level, when you restore hit points to an ally with a spell of 1st level or higher, you can also end one spell of your choice on that creature. The level of the spell you end must be equal to or lower than the level of the spell slot you use to cast the healing spell.
When you reach 11th level, you can use this feature to end a magical effect that is causing that creature to be charmed or frightened instead of ending a spell effect.
Note on changes: Wanted to include a way for this ability to be useful on the battlefield when dealing with monsters that can produce magical effects, but not necessarily by using spells. In this way I made the ability similar to the bard’s Countercharm ability. Decided to have that option unlock later so that it is not directly competitive with the bard’s ability, since Healing+automatically ending the effect is arguably better than Countercharm (which does not heal and only grants advantage on their next save against the effect).
Potent Spellcasting
Starting at 8th level, you add your Wisdom modifier to the damage you deal with any cleric cantrip.
Arcane Mastery
At 17th level, you choose four spells from the wizard spell list, one from each of the following levels: 6th, 7th, 8th, and 9th. You add them to your list of domain spells. Like your other domain spells, they are always prepared and count as cleric spells for you.
Banneret
Banneret (aka Purple Dragon Knight)
A banneret is a knight who inspires greatness in others by committing brave deeds in battle. The mere presence of one in a hamlet is enough to cause some orcs and bandits to seek easier prey. A lone banneret is a skilled warrior, but a banneret leading a band of allies can transform even the most poorly equipped militia into a ferocious war band.
A banneret prefers to lead through deeds, not words. As a banneret spearheads an attack, their actions can awaken reserves of courage and conviction in allies that they never suspected they had.
Rallying Cry
When you choose this archetype at 3rd level, you learn how to inspire your allies to fight on past their injuries.
When you use your Second Wind feature, you can choose up to three friendly creatures within 60 feet of you. Each one regains hit points equal to your fighter level, provided that the creature can see or hear you.
Battlefield Commander
Starting at 7th level, you learn three maneuvers from the Battle Master archetype: Commander’s Strike and two others of your choice. You learn one additional maneuver of your choice at 10th, and 15th level. Each time you learn new maneuvers, you can also replace one maneuver you know with a different one.
Superiority Dice. You have four superiority dice, which are d6s. A superiority die is expended when you use it. You regain all of your expended superiority dice when you finish a short or long rest. You gain another superiority die at 15th level.
Saving Throws. Some of your maneuvers require your target to make a saving throw to resist the maneuver's effects. The saving throw DC is calculated as follows:
Maneuver save DC = 8 + your proficiency bonus + your Strength or Dexterity modifier (your choice)
Additionally, when a friendly creature you can see within 60 feet hits with a weapon attack, you can use your reaction to expend a superiority dice and apply one of your known maneuvers to that creature’s attack, provided it can see or hear you. To be a valid choice, the maneuver must trigger when you hit with an attack and must be applicable to the type of weapon used by the friendly creature. For maneuvers applied this way, the friendly creature rolls the superiority die and the maneuver save DC is calculated based on its proficiency bonus + Strength or Dexterity modifier (its choice).
Notes on changes: An entirely new ability to replace the Royal Envoy feature. Since the theme of this subclass seems to be “support your friends by extending your fighter abilities to them” I felt like a logical way to expand upon this would be to give the banneret some maneuvers with the ability to grant specific maneuver benefits to allies’ attacks. To balance this with a Battle Master, they dont get maneuvers until 7th level, they overall know less maneuvers and have less superiority dice, and their superiority dice start at a d6 and dont improve.
Inspiring Surge
Starting at 10th level, when you use your Action Surge feature, you can choose one friendly creature within 60 feet of you. That creature can make one melee or ranged weapon attack with its reaction, provided that it can see or hear you.
Starting at 18th level, you can choose two allies within 60 feet of you, rather than one, to make one melee or ranged weapon attack. Alternatively, you can choose one ally within 60 feet of you to take one of the following actions of its choice using its reaction: Cast a Spell, Dodge, Hide, Search, or Use an Object. The ally must still be able to see or hear to take this action, and if it takes the Cast a Spell action it can only cast a cantrip.
Notes on changes: For the 18th level improvement, I opened up the possibility of granting certain full actions to a single creature rather than granting weapon attacks to two. Even when limiting the spellcasting to cantrips, I think this is a buff that overall will help the Banneret support the party more equally rather than favoring those with strong martial capabilities. I do think that granting a full action (even with the limitations) is still strong enough to merit waiting until 18th level to unlock.
Heroic Bulwark
Beginning at 15th level, you can extend the benefit of your Indomitable feature to your allies. When a friendly creature you can see within 60 feet fails a saving throw, you can use your reaction to use your Indomitable feature, allowing that ally to reroll their save and use the new roll. If the ally still fails its saving throw after rerolling, you do not expend a use of your Indomitable feature.
Notes on changes: I did not like that the original Bulwark was limited to Int, Wis, and Cha saves. Instead, the banneret can now help a single ally with ANY saving throw. To help the ally, it also does not require that you were targeted or failed your save. The added benefit is that if you try to use this feature to help an ally and it ultimately fails, you do not expend the feature so you can try again with another ally or yourself.
I have my own revision to Battlerager (in my sig), and I had some similar ideas. The primary goal was to make grappling/shoving relevant, worthwhile actions in the typical combat.
With Battlerager Armor, I folded the armor attack directly into grapple/shove. When you make a successful grapple or shove in spiked armor, you deal 2d4 damage to the target. And then the rage bonus action must be a grapple or shove. I also had the "sustain damage" idea, but its a bonus action - essentially an auto-success grapple attack. Some of your 10th level features I included here as well, although they don't kick in until later and they assume you'll get magical spiked armor at some point.
My main other concern was the size limitation of grappling. I wanted this fighting style to remain relevant when fighting big things. So I stole the Climb onto a Bigger Creature optional rules and explicitly gave them to Battleragers with only a grapple required to initiate it. This way you can get cinematic scenes like a dwarf jumping off a cliff, grappling a dragon in the air, and wailing away on it as it's flying around.
My main other concern was the size limitation of grappling. I wanted this fighting style to remain relevant when fighting big things. So I stole the Climb onto a Bigger Creature optional rules and explicitly gave them to Battleragers with only a grapple required to initiate it. This way you can get cinematic scenes like a dwarf jumping off a cliff, grappling a dragon in the air, and wailing away on it as it's flying around.
Thats pretty cool. The cinematic scene that evokes for me is the dwarf grappling a monster's leg and then using spikes (maybe on a set of gauntlets) to climb up the thing
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My warlord subclass also overlaps with Banneret quite a bit, primarily because Banneret is somewhat channeling the 4e warlord and I'm outright trying to replicate it. One comment I have there is that Inspiring Surge is needlessly limited.
If you use Action Surge yourself, you get a whole action - which is typically going to be 3-4 attacks. Exchanging that for one ally attack is only going to be worth it if that ally is a rogue, and even then it might not always be better. I say trade an action for an action, whether that means casting a spell or extra attacks or whatever. Yes, it's a bit stronger than vanilla Action Surge but its largely a lateral move.
I had the same idea with reversing Heroic Bulwark to be "ally first," although I let the fighter reroll as well if they are targeted by the same effect.
My warlord subclass also overlaps with Banneret quite a bit, primarily because Banneret is somewhat channeling the 4e warlord and I'm outright trying to replicate it. One comment I have there is that Inspiring Surge is needlessly limited.
If you use Action Surge yourself, you get a whole action - which is typically going to be 3-4 attacks. Exchanging that for one ally attack is only going to be worth it if that ally is a rogue, and even then it might not always be better. I say trade an action for an action, whether that means casting a spell or extra attacks or whatever. Yes, it's a bit stronger than vanilla Action Surge but its largely a lateral move.
I had the same idea with reversing Heroic Bulwark to be "ally first," although I let the fighter reroll as well if they are targeted by the same effect.
I think there may be misunderstanding on the Action surge. You arent trading your Action Surge for another creature to take an action. You still get to take your full action, its just that instead of granting 1 attack to two allies, you grant one ally the ability to take a full action from the choices provided. So, at 18th level, you can either take your extra action with two allies making an attack, or you can take your extra action and let one ally take an extra (limited) action.
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I was looking at the Oath of the Watcher Paladin's Channel Divinity. Do you think it would be too powerful just to change the Arcana Cleric's CD to be more similar ? Their effects are basically the same, but the Paladin's targets every creature within 30 feet whereas the Cleric's only targets a single creature. A few things to consider:
1) A cleric can use their CD up to 3 times per rest, whereas a paladin only ever gets to use theirs once per rest
2) The Arcana Cleric has the rider effect after 5th level that they get to freely banish creatures of a certain CR or lower that fail their save
Do you think it would be too powerful to allow the Arcana Cleric to target more extraplanar creatures with each use of their turning effect?
I was looking at the Oath of the Watcher Paladin's Channel Divinity. Do you think it would be too powerful just to change the Arcana Cleric's CD to be more similar ? Their effects are basically the same, but the Paladin's targets every creature within 30 feet whereas the Cleric's only targets a single creature. A few things to consider:
1) A cleric can use their CD up to 3 times per rest, whereas a paladin only ever gets to use theirs once per rest
2) The Arcana Cleric has the rider effect after 5th level that they get to freely banish creatures of a certain CR or lower that fail their save
Do you think it would be too powerful to allow the Arcana Cleric to target more extraplanar creatures with each use of their turning effect?
It's absolutely normal and expected for Cleric and Paladin CDs to compete with each other directly - the design intent is self-evidently for it to be like spellcasting, where Clerics get to use their CDs more often in exchange for other Paladin powers Paladins get (and also, note that by default, Clerics only get 1 subclass CD while Paladins get 2). Of course, some CDs are inherently more powerful than others - Conquest gets an absolutely incredible one, for example - but let's highlight the differences between the Watcher CDs and the Cleric version to emphasize what needs to be paid attention to. I'll also include some other relevant oaths. I'm going to use the term "turn" to refer to the Cleric-wide CD of Turn Undead, and emphasize differences.
All Clerics: Turn all undead within 30 feet.
Arcana RAW: Turn 1 celestial, elemental, fey, or fiend within 30 feet; low CR creatures are Banished as the spell for 1 minute, which means if they're not from the plane you're on they stay gone unless they can return, or if they're from the plane you're on, they return automatically. This is a slight nerf compared to standard destruction of low CR.
Ancients RAW: Turn all fey and fiends within 30 feet with the following buffs and nerfs:
Nerf: Targets must be able to hear you - a target that can see you but not hear you is not turned.
Nerf: Low CR targets suffer no extra harm.
Buff: Turned targets have their true form revealed if it is concealed by any effect, explicitly including illusions or shapeshifting.
Devotion RAW: Turn all fiends and undead within 30 feet with only the standard Paladin nerf of low CR targets suffer no extra harm.
Watchers RAW: Turn all aberrations, celestials, elementals, fey, and fiends within 30 feet, with the following buffs and nerfs:
Nerf: Targets must be able to hear you - a target that can see you but not hear you is not turned.
Nerf: Low CR targets suffer no extra harm.
Nerf: Turned targets can take reactions.
As you can see, the Watchers CD is substantially nerfed in exchange for its power in that it allows turned creatures to take reactions, but also there's no balance - Devotion is radically better than Ancients despite both being in the PHB. Since it's related to the above, as a reminder, Detect Evil and Good and Protection from Evil and Good work on the full Watchers set plus undead, but Dispel Evil and Good doesn't work on Aberrations - the Watchers CD set of targets is like Dispel Evil and Good but swaps Undead for Aberrations.
What I think makes the most sense, honestly, is to expand out the set of types Arcana works on, so you can just send almost anything away:
Aberrations (remember, some are native to the Prime Material, and Slaad are from Limbo, but most are from the Far Realm)
Constructs are treated as being from Mechanus, regardless of actual home plane.
Constructs are a very weird type. You can't tell from the statblock that a golem by definition has an elemental inside it, while a scarecrow has an undead, etc. In theory, this should only work on extraplanar constructs, but it's a lot easier to just send them all away. Thematically, since high-CR targets are merely turned, Mechanus makes the most sense in terms of overriding the construct's programming. Note that Modrons have nothing in their statblock directly telling you they're genuinely from Mechanus - they have the Monstrosity problem detailed below in terms of being extraplanar creatures.
Undead are either treated as being from the Shadowfell or from Orcus's layer of the Abyss, regardless of true home plane, DM's choice.
This lets you use the mono-target CD without wasting it if you screwed up the target's type and it was really undead the whole time.
Oozes are sent to Juiblex's layer, regardless of home plane.
Certain specific Monstrosities (Gnolls, Leucrottas, Minotaurs, Merrow, and Lamias are demonic; Xvarts come from a demigod who used to be a demon; Sphinxes appear to work for an array of outer plane creatures) are actually extraplanar in origin and should be included, sent to the appropriate layer of the Abyss (or for Sphinxes, just decide for each Spinx what its boss is). I've left them out, but a variety of other monstrosities are deeply extraplanar in origin, usually due to infection (Kruthiks, Yuan-ti) but there are others (all Sorrowsworn are from the Shadowfell). The problem is that Monstrosity is such a generic term you usually have to read a statblock's entire fluff blurb to even hope to understand what plane it's from, because the statblock doesn't note it. Up to you if you want to really dig deep enough to figure out which Monstrosities are extraplanar. One default you can use is Baphomet (who actually is the source of Minotaurs), as most Monstrosities are animalistic.
You might consider letting the ability work on Gith.
What I think makes the most sense, honestly, is to expand out the set of types Arcana works on, so you can just send almost anything away:
Aberrations (remember, some are native to the Prime Material, and Slaad are from Limbo, but most are from the Far Realm)
Constructs are treated as being from Mechanus, regardless of actual home plane.
Constructs are a very weird type. You can't tell from the statblock that a golem by definition has an elemental inside it, while a scarecrow has an undead, etc. In theory, this should only work on extraplanar constructs, but it's a lot easier to just send them all away. Thematically, since high-CR targets are merely turned, Mechanus makes the most sense in terms of overriding the construct's programming. Note that Modrons have nothing in their statblock directly telling you they're genuinely from Mechanus - they have the Monstrosity problem detailed below in terms of being extraplanar creatures.
Undead are either treated as being from the Shadowfell or from Orcus's layer of the Abyss, regardless of true home plane, DM's choice.
This lets you use the mono-target CD without wasting it if you screwed up the target's type and it was really undead the whole time.
Oozes are sent to Juiblex's layer, regardless of home plane.
Certain specific Monstrosities (Gnolls, Leucrottas, Minotaurs, Merrow, and Lamias are demonic; Xvarts come from a demigod who used to be a demon; Sphinxes appear to work for an array of outer plane creatures) are actually extraplanar in origin and should be included, sent to the appropriate layer of the Abyss (or for Sphinxes, just decide for each Spinx what its boss is). I've left them out, but a variety of other monstrosities are deeply extraplanar in origin, usually due to infection (Kruthiks, Yuan-ti) but there are others (all Sorrowsworn are from the Shadowfell). The problem is that Monstrosity is such a generic term you usually have to read a statblock's entire fluff blurb to even hope to understand what plane it's from, because the statblock doesn't note it. Up to you if you want to really dig deep enough to figure out which Monstrosities are extraplanar. One default you can use is Baphomet (who actually is the source of Minotaurs), as most Monstrosities are animalistic.
You might consider letting the ability work on Gith.
I like the idea of expanding the options available to what they can turn. Set the Arcana cleric apart as the subclass that can turn almost anything. Reflavor it slightly that it is abjuring both otherworldly AND magical entities to encompass the strange things of the material plane. Even if it isnt permanently banished, taking something out of the fight for 1 minute is still pretty great. I think anything except Beasts, Dragons, Humanoids, Monstrosities and Undead makes sense. Im a little shakey on Constructs, but it would be more fun to include them imo
For fun, I have recently started revisiting/reworking some of the subclasses from the Sword Coast Adventurer Guide which have been "forgotten" (read as: not reprinted in later books). In each, I have tried to stick to the same theme the subclass was going for, but redo some of the abilities (or replace them) to make them more fun to play.
For this first part, I have worked on the Path of the Battlerager barbarian, Arcana Domain cleric, and Banneret (Purple Dragon Knight) fighter. For abilites I have altered, I put notes on what I wanted to change and why in blue. I would love to hear feedback on the changes and how they can be improved
Path of the Battlerager
Path of the Battlerager (revised)
Known as Kuldjargh (literally "axe idiot") in Dwarvish, battleragers are followers of the gods of war and take the Path of the Battlerager. They specialize in wearing bulky, spiked armor and throwing themselves into combat, striking with their body itself and giving themselves over to the fury of battle.
Battlerager Armor
When you choose this path at 3rd level, you gain the ability to use spiked armor as a melee weapon, which deals 1d4 piercing damage on a hit. You are considered proficient in using the armor spikes as a weapon and use your Strength modifier for the attack and damage rolls. While you are wearing spiked armor and are raging, you can use a bonus action to make one melee weapon attack with your armor spikes against a target within 5 feet of you.
Additionally, when you use the Attack action to grapple a creature, the target takes piercing damage from the armor spikes equal to your proficiency bonus if your grapple check succeeds. Any creature which is grappling you (or is grappled by you) also takes this damage at the start of each of its turns.
Notes on changes: 1) Modified the language so that the armor spikes can be used as part of your Attack action as well and not limited to the bonus action attack. Clarified the language to explicitly state you are proficient in attacking with the spikes 2) Changed the grapple damage to scale with your proficiency bonus instead of being a flat “3.” This allows the damage to naturally increase as you level up and remain impactful if you choose to multiclass. 3) Allow the grapple damage to apply while any grapple is maintained and not just when you initiate the grapple, which gives a slight power boost and makes more sense to me thematically.
Reckless Abandon
You channel the spirit of the Kuldjargh, abandoning any sense of self preservation and empowering your drive to destroy your enemies. Beginning at 6th level, when you use Reckless Attack, you gain temporary hit points equal to your Constitution modifier (minimum of 1).
Additionally, while raging and wearing spiked armor, if a creature hits you with a melee attack while you have these hit points, it takes piercing damage from the armor spikes equal to your Strength modifier.
Notes on changes: I added an ability similar to Armor of Agathys to allow for some extra damage output and to make the pool of temp HP more impactful. Thematically, I am not sure it makes much sense to have extra damage tied to your temp HP for a nonmagical effect, but I like the change mechanically. I guess you could say something like you are “channeling the spirit of the battlerager '' when you recklessly attack or something.
Spiked Armor Mastery
Beginning at 10th level, you have a mastery over using your spiked armor and gain the following benefits while wearing it:
Notes on changes: This is an entirely new feature. In order to keep the influence of the spiked armor competitive, I increase the damage dealt by attacks to 2d4 (on average a little better than 1d8) and make all damage from the armor spikes (attacks and passive abilities) magical to overcome resistances. There are also a few bonuses to trying to maintain/escape grapples while you wear the spike armor, which I think makes sense thematically. That being said, it could make this subclass’ grappling potential a little too good (stacking disadvantage on your enemy with your advantage from raging).
Battlerager Charge
Also at 10th level, you can take the Dash action as a bonus action while you are raging.
Spiked Retribution
Starting at 14th level, when a creature targets you with a melee attack, you can use your reaction to mark the target. Until the end of its turn, each time it hits you with a melee attack you deal piercing damage with the armor spikes to the attacker equal to your proficiency bonus if you are wearing spiked armor, and are not incapacitated. While raging, you deal additional damage equal to the value shown in the Rage Damage column of the Barbarian table.
Notes on changes: Small debuff by changing the ability to use your reaction and only affect one creature at a time, but overall boosted the power by making it scale with proficiency bonus instead of a flat “3”. Raging further boosts the power by allowing you to add your Rage damage to each instance. This also combines with the modified Reckless Abandon where your potential “free” damage output is Str + Prof+ Rage Damage for as many attacks as the creature makes.
Arcana Domain (last updated 6/6/22)
Arcana Domain (revised)
Magic is an energy that suffuses the multiverse and that fuels both destruction and creation. Gods of the Arcana domain know the secrets and potential of magic intimately. For some of these gods, magical knowledge is a great responsibility that comes with a special understanding of the nature of reality. Other gods of Arcana see magic as pure power, to be used as its wielder sees fit.
The gods of this domain are often associated with knowledge, as learning and arcane power tend to go hand-in-hand. In the Realms, deities of this domain include Azuth and Mystra, as well as Corellon Larethian of the elven pantheon. In other worlds, this domain includes Hecate, Math Mathonwy, and Isis; the triple moon gods of Solinari, Lunitari, and Nuitari of Krynn; and Boccob, Vecna, and Wee Jas of Greyhawk.
Arcana Domain Spells
Cleric Level
Spells
1st
Detect Magic, Magic Missile
3rd
Nystul’s Magic Aura, See Invisibility
5th
Dispel Magic, Magic Circle
7th
Arcane Eye, Mordenkainen's Private Sanctum
9th
Planar Binding, Teleportation Circle
Arcane Initiate
When you choose this domain at 1st level, you gain proficiency in the Arcana skill, and you gain two cantrips of your choice from the wizard spell list. For you, these cantrips count as cleric cantrips. Whenever you gain a cleric level, you can replace one cantrip you gained from this feature with another cantrip from the wizard spell list.
Note on changes: Wanted to increase the versatility by allowing the cleric to periodically switch out their wizard cantrips, because it feels bad to pick one at 1st level only to realize later that something else would be more useful. Changed out Magic Weapon for See Invisibility as this seems more useful for a cleric focused on dealing with otherworldly creatures. Changed out Secret Chest for Private Sanctum as I dislike domain spells that come with a costly component and this plays into the “Dr. Strange” flavor of having a secret magical sanctum.
Channel Divinity: Arcane Abjuration
Starting at 2nd level, you can use your Channel Divinity to abjure magical and otherworldly creatures.
As an action, you present your holy symbol, and one aberration, celestial, construct, elemental, fey, fiend, or ooze of your choice that is within 30 feet of you must make a Wisdom saving throw, provided that the creature can see or hear you. If the creature fails its saving throw, it is turned for 1 minute or until it takes any damage.
A turned creature must spend its turns trying to move as far away from you as it can, and it can't willingly end its move in a space within 30 feet of you. It also can't take reactions. For its action, it can only use the Dash action or try to escape from an effect that prevents it from moving. If there's nowhere to move, the creature can use the Dodge action.
After you reach 5th level, when a creature fails its saving throw against your Arcane Abjuration feature, the creature is banished for 1 minute (as in the Banishment spell, no concentration required) if it isn't on its plane of origin and its challenge rating is at or below a certain threshold, as shown on the Arcane Banishment table.
Arcane Banishment
Cleric Level
Banishes Creatures of CR
5th
½ or lower
8th
1 or lower
11th
2 or lower
14th
3 or lower
17th
4 or lower
Note on changes: expanded the number of creature types that can be turned by this effect. While the ability is still situational, it can now be used more often.
Spell Breaker
Starting at 6th level, when you restore hit points to an ally with a spell of 1st level or higher, you can also end one spell of your choice on that creature. The level of the spell you end must be equal to or lower than the level of the spell slot you use to cast the healing spell.
When you reach 11th level, you can use this feature to end a magical effect that is causing that creature to be charmed or frightened instead of ending a spell effect.
Note on changes: Wanted to include a way for this ability to be useful on the battlefield when dealing with monsters that can produce magical effects, but not necessarily by using spells. In this way I made the ability similar to the bard’s Countercharm ability. Decided to have that option unlock later so that it is not directly competitive with the bard’s ability, since Healing+automatically ending the effect is arguably better than Countercharm (which does not heal and only grants advantage on their next save against the effect).
Potent Spellcasting
Starting at 8th level, you add your Wisdom modifier to the damage you deal with any cleric cantrip.
Arcane Mastery
At 17th level, you choose four spells from the wizard spell list, one from each of the following levels: 6th, 7th, 8th, and 9th. You add them to your list of domain spells. Like your other domain spells, they are always prepared and count as cleric spells for you.
Banneret
Banneret (aka Purple Dragon Knight)
A banneret is a knight who inspires greatness in others by committing brave deeds in battle. The mere presence of one in a hamlet is enough to cause some orcs and bandits to seek easier prey. A lone banneret is a skilled warrior, but a banneret leading a band of allies can transform even the most poorly equipped militia into a ferocious war band.
A banneret prefers to lead through deeds, not words. As a banneret spearheads an attack, their actions can awaken reserves of courage and conviction in allies that they never suspected they had.
Rallying Cry
When you choose this archetype at 3rd level, you learn how to inspire your allies to fight on past their injuries.
When you use your Second Wind feature, you can choose up to three friendly creatures within 60 feet of you. Each one regains hit points equal to your fighter level, provided that the creature can see or hear you.
Battlefield Commander
Starting at 7th level, you learn three maneuvers from the Battle Master archetype: Commander’s Strike and two others of your choice. You learn one additional maneuver of your choice at 10th, and 15th level. Each time you learn new maneuvers, you can also replace one maneuver you know with a different one.
Superiority Dice. You have four superiority dice, which are d6s. A superiority die is expended when you use it. You regain all of your expended superiority dice when you finish a short or long rest. You gain another superiority die at 15th level.
Saving Throws. Some of your maneuvers require your target to make a saving throw to resist the maneuver's effects. The saving throw DC is calculated as follows:
Maneuver save DC = 8 + your proficiency bonus + your Strength or Dexterity modifier (your choice)
Additionally, when a friendly creature you can see within 60 feet hits with a weapon attack, you can use your reaction to expend a superiority dice and apply one of your known maneuvers to that creature’s attack, provided it can see or hear you. To be a valid choice, the maneuver must trigger when you hit with an attack and must be applicable to the type of weapon used by the friendly creature. For maneuvers applied this way, the friendly creature rolls the superiority die and the maneuver save DC is calculated based on its proficiency bonus + Strength or Dexterity modifier (its choice).
Notes on changes: An entirely new ability to replace the Royal Envoy feature. Since the theme of this subclass seems to be “support your friends by extending your fighter abilities to them” I felt like a logical way to expand upon this would be to give the banneret some maneuvers with the ability to grant specific maneuver benefits to allies’ attacks. To balance this with a Battle Master, they dont get maneuvers until 7th level, they overall know less maneuvers and have less superiority dice, and their superiority dice start at a d6 and dont improve.
Inspiring Surge
Starting at 10th level, when you use your Action Surge feature, you can choose one friendly creature within 60 feet of you. That creature can make one melee or ranged weapon attack with its reaction, provided that it can see or hear you.
Starting at 18th level, you can choose two allies within 60 feet of you, rather than one, to make one melee or ranged weapon attack. Alternatively, you can choose one ally within 60 feet of you to take one of the following actions of its choice using its reaction: Cast a Spell, Dodge, Hide, Search, or Use an Object. The ally must still be able to see or hear to take this action, and if it takes the Cast a Spell action it can only cast a cantrip.
Notes on changes: For the 18th level improvement, I opened up the possibility of granting certain full actions to a single creature rather than granting weapon attacks to two. Even when limiting the spellcasting to cantrips, I think this is a buff that overall will help the Banneret support the party more equally rather than favoring those with strong martial capabilities. I do think that granting a full action (even with the limitations) is still strong enough to merit waiting until 18th level to unlock.
Heroic Bulwark
Beginning at 15th level, you can extend the benefit of your Indomitable feature to your allies. When a friendly creature you can see within 60 feet fails a saving throw, you can use your reaction to use your Indomitable feature, allowing that ally to reroll their save and use the new roll. If the ally still fails its saving throw after rerolling, you do not expend a use of your Indomitable feature.
Notes on changes: I did not like that the original Bulwark was limited to Int, Wis, and Cha saves. Instead, the banneret can now help a single ally with ANY saving throw. To help the ally, it also does not require that you were targeted or failed your save. The added benefit is that if you try to use this feature to help an ally and it ultimately fails, you do not expend the feature so you can try again with another ally or yourself.
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I have my own revision to Battlerager (in my sig), and I had some similar ideas. The primary goal was to make grappling/shoving relevant, worthwhile actions in the typical combat.
With Battlerager Armor, I folded the armor attack directly into grapple/shove. When you make a successful grapple or shove in spiked armor, you deal 2d4 damage to the target. And then the rage bonus action must be a grapple or shove. I also had the "sustain damage" idea, but its a bonus action - essentially an auto-success grapple attack. Some of your 10th level features I included here as well, although they don't kick in until later and they assume you'll get magical spiked armor at some point.
My main other concern was the size limitation of grappling. I wanted this fighting style to remain relevant when fighting big things. So I stole the Climb onto a Bigger Creature optional rules and explicitly gave them to Battleragers with only a grapple required to initiate it. This way you can get cinematic scenes like a dwarf jumping off a cliff, grappling a dragon in the air, and wailing away on it as it's flying around.
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
Thats pretty cool. The cinematic scene that evokes for me is the dwarf grappling a monster's leg and then using spikes (maybe on a set of gauntlets) to climb up the thing
Three-time Judge of the Competition of the Finest Brews! Come join us in making fun, unique homebrew and voting for your favorite entries!
My warlord subclass also overlaps with Banneret quite a bit, primarily because Banneret is somewhat channeling the 4e warlord and I'm outright trying to replicate it. One comment I have there is that Inspiring Surge is needlessly limited.
If you use Action Surge yourself, you get a whole action - which is typically going to be 3-4 attacks. Exchanging that for one ally attack is only going to be worth it if that ally is a rogue, and even then it might not always be better. I say trade an action for an action, whether that means casting a spell or extra attacks or whatever. Yes, it's a bit stronger than vanilla Action Surge but its largely a lateral move.
I had the same idea with reversing Heroic Bulwark to be "ally first," although I let the fighter reroll as well if they are targeted by the same effect.
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
I think there may be misunderstanding on the Action surge. You arent trading your Action Surge for another creature to take an action. You still get to take your full action, its just that instead of granting 1 attack to two allies, you grant one ally the ability to take a full action from the choices provided. So, at 18th level, you can either take your extra action with two allies making an attack, or you can take your extra action and let one ally take an extra (limited) action.
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I was looking at the Oath of the Watcher Paladin's Channel Divinity. Do you think it would be too powerful just to change the Arcana Cleric's CD to be more similar ? Their effects are basically the same, but the Paladin's targets every creature within 30 feet whereas the Cleric's only targets a single creature. A few things to consider:
1) A cleric can use their CD up to 3 times per rest, whereas a paladin only ever gets to use theirs once per rest
2) The Arcana Cleric has the rider effect after 5th level that they get to freely banish creatures of a certain CR or lower that fail their save
Do you think it would be too powerful to allow the Arcana Cleric to target more extraplanar creatures with each use of their turning effect?
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It's absolutely normal and expected for Cleric and Paladin CDs to compete with each other directly - the design intent is self-evidently for it to be like spellcasting, where Clerics get to use their CDs more often in exchange for other Paladin powers Paladins get (and also, note that by default, Clerics only get 1 subclass CD while Paladins get 2). Of course, some CDs are inherently more powerful than others - Conquest gets an absolutely incredible one, for example - but let's highlight the differences between the Watcher CDs and the Cleric version to emphasize what needs to be paid attention to. I'll also include some other relevant oaths. I'm going to use the term "turn" to refer to the Cleric-wide CD of Turn Undead, and emphasize differences.
As you can see, the Watchers CD is substantially nerfed in exchange for its power in that it allows turned creatures to take reactions, but also there's no balance - Devotion is radically better than Ancients despite both being in the PHB. Since it's related to the above, as a reminder, Detect Evil and Good and Protection from Evil and Good work on the full Watchers set plus undead, but Dispel Evil and Good doesn't work on Aberrations - the Watchers CD set of targets is like Dispel Evil and Good but swaps Undead for Aberrations.
What I think makes the most sense, honestly, is to expand out the set of types Arcana works on, so you can just send almost anything away:
I like the idea of expanding the options available to what they can turn. Set the Arcana cleric apart as the subclass that can turn almost anything. Reflavor it slightly that it is abjuring both otherworldly AND magical entities to encompass the strange things of the material plane. Even if it isnt permanently banished, taking something out of the fight for 1 minute is still pretty great. I think anything except Beasts, Dragons, Humanoids, Monstrosities and Undead makes sense. Im a little shakey on Constructs, but it would be more fun to include them imo
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