You can make a Spirit Caller quickly by following these suggestions. First, Wisdom should be your highest ability score, followed by Constitution or Dexterity. Second, choose the hermit background.
Class Features
As a spirit caller, you gain the following class features.
Hit Points
Hit Dice: 1d6 per spirit caller level
Hit Points at 1st Level: 6 + your Constitution modifier
Hit Points at Higher Levels: 1d6 (or 4) + your Constitution modifier per spirit caller level after 1st
Proficiencies
Armor: Light armor, shields
Weapons: Simple weapons
Tools: None
Saving Throws: Wisdom, Charisma
Skills: Choose two skills from Arcana, Deception, History, Insight, Medicine, Nature, Perception, and Religion
Equipment
You start with the following equipment, in addition to the equipment granted by your background:
(a) a shortbow and 20 arrows or (b) any simple weapon
(a) a shield or (b) any simple weapon
(a) an explorer’s pack or (b) a priest’s pack
Leather armor and two daggers
Spirit Flames
At first level, you gain the ability to snatch a fragment of a departing creature’s life energy. As a reaction when a medium or smaller creature that is not undead you can see within 30 feet of you dies, you can create a Tiny Spirit Flame, which hovers around you in your space. You can make the spirit flame invisible or visible again as a bonus action. You can have a number of Spirit Flames equal to twice your Wisdom modifier.
Call Spirits
At first level, as an action, you can extinguish one spirit flame and take 1d4 necrotic damage, which cannot be reduced or prevented in any way. When you do so, you summon an incorporeal, indistinct spirit in a space you can see within 120 feet of you, which uses the Called Spirit stat block (its proficiency bonus is equal to yours). The spirit lasts for one month, until it is more than 120 feet away from you, or until reduced to 0 hit points. The number of spirits you can have summoned at a time is equal to the number shown in the Spirits Called table.
Command Spirits
On your turn, you may use your action to command any number of spirits you control to move up to their speed and use any action in “Chapter 9: Combat” in the Player’s Handbook, with the exception of the “Use an Object” action (the spirits are incorporeal and cannot manipulate physical things except to attack). You may instead use a bonus action to command any number of spirits you control to move up to their speed and take either the Dash, Dodge, or Hide action. The spirits do nothing if you issue them no commands, and you may issue a different command to each spirit.
Ghostly Whispers
At second level, at the end of a long rest, as long as you have at least one Spirit Flame, you can choose a skill or tool proficiency you lack. You gain that proficiency until the end of your next long rest.
Phantom Fury
Starting at second level, you may use your bonus action to extinguish one Spirit Flame. Until the end of the round, all your Called Spirits’ attacks do additional necrotic damage equal to your Wisdom modifier.
Ghostly Calling
At 3rd level, choose a Ghostly Calling, choosing from the Calling of the Warrior Spirit and the Calling of the Protector Spirit. Your Calling grants you features at 3rd level and again at 6th, 11th, and 15th level. Each Calling is detailed at the end of the class description.
Ability Score Improvement
When you reach 4th level, and again at 8th, 10th, 13th, and 18th level, you can increase one ability score of your choice by 2, or you can increase two ability scores of your choice by 1. As normal, you can’t increase an ability score above 20 using this feature.
Shadow Strength
At 5th level, your connection to the powers of death strengthen your own life force. When you drop to zero hit points, instead of making death saving throws, you can extinguish all of your Spirit Flames (minimum 3) to become stable.
Consult the Ghosts
At 9th level, you gain the ability to converse with those in the realm of the deceased. You can extinguish a Spirit Flame to cast speak with dead. Once you do so, you must finish a short or long rest before you can do so again.
Magical Rend
Also at 9th level, your spirits’ Spectral Rend attacks count as magical for the purpose of overcoming resistance and immunity to nonmagical damage.
Otherworldly Sight
At 12th level, you gain the ability to temporarily peer into the realm of spirits. You can use a bonus action to extinguish a Spirit Flame. For a number of minutes equal to your Wisdom modifier, you can see into the Ethereal Plane, though you cannot affect things in it or be affected by them. In addition, you know the type, distance and direction of all undead and fey creatures within 100 feet of you, even if they are behind cover. However, this feature cannot detect creatures warded against divination magic.
Traveler of Many Worlds
At 16th level, you can extinguish two Spirit Flames to cast the etherealness spell. When cast in this way, all your spirits become ethereal as well. Once you cast this spell in this way, you must finish a long rest before you can do so again.
Empowered Rend
At 17th level, the damage type of your spirit’s Spectral Rend becomes force.
Phantom Walk
At 19th level, you become partially incorporeal. You can use a bonus action to activate your Phantom Walk. For the next minute, all your speeds decrease by 10 feet, and you can move through walls, creatures and other objects as though they were difficult terrain. You take 3d10 force damage if you end your turn inside an object. You can use this feature a number of times equal to your Wisdom modifier, and you regain all expended uses when you finish a short or long rest.
Deathly Summoner
At 20th level, all your spirit’s attacks do an additional 2d8 force damage. In addition, your spirits can be up to 400 feet away from you without discorporating. You must follow all other rules for summoning spirits.
Calling of the Protector Spirit
Giver of Life
At 3rd level, you can weave the forces of life and death to aid those in need. As a bonus action, you can touch a non-undead creature and cause it to regain hit points equal to 1d8+your Wisdom modifier. You can use this ability a number of times equal to your Wisdom modifier, and you regain all expended uses when you finish a short or long rest.
Inured to Phantoms
Also at 3rd level, you become indifferent to the touch of death. You gain resistance to necrotic damage.
Ghostly Shield
At 6th level, your spirits can protect those around them. Once a turn, if a creature within 5 feet of one of your spirits takes damage from an attack, you can command the spirit to use their reaction and block the attack, reducing the damage taken by 1d12 + your Wisdom modifier.
Armor of Shadows
At 11th level, your AC increases by 1 for each Spirit Flame you have, to a maximum increase equal to your Wisdom modifier. As an action, you can extinguish a number of Spirit Flames up to your Wisdom modifier and touch a non-undead creature other than you. That creature gets a +1 bonus to AC for each Spirit Flame extinguished in this way, which lasts until you finish a long rest.
Mighty Helpers
At 15th level, your Ghostly Shield can be used more than once each turn, but an attack can be blocked by a spirit only once.
Calling of the Warrior Spirit
Echoes of Battle
Starting at 3rd level, the undead company you keep has trained you in the use of weapons. Choose up to four weapons that have the ranged or one-handed properties. You gain proficiency in those weapons. At the end of a long rest, as long as you have one Spirit Flame, you may exchange one of these proficiencies with another that meets the same requirements.
Whirlwind of Attacks
Also at 3rd level, as a bonus action after at least one of your spirits but less than half (minimum one) attack, you may make one attack using a weapon you are proficient with as a bonus action.
Vicious Wraiths
At 6th level, your spirits become more resilient. Their hit points when summoned and maximum hit points increase by an amount equal to your Wisdom modifier.
Departed Warriors
At 11th level, you learn to rally your troops even as they fall. When one of your Called Spirits dies, the rest gain a +5 bonus to attack rolls until the end of your next turn.
Specter Legion
At 15th level, each of your spirits gains the following trait:
Pack Tactics. The spirit has advantage on attack rolls against a creature if at least one of its
allies is within 5 feet of the creature and the ally isn’t incapacitated.
I've been working on a homebrew class focused on summoning and directing individually weak minions. Before I actually give it to players to playtest, I thought I'd put it her and see what people think of it. Any feedback is welcome, though I may defend something I wrote if you suggest changing it, provided I have a specific reason for wanting that feature. Please don;t let that dissuade you, though - anything and everything helps!
You can make a Spirit Caller quickly by following these suggestions. First, Wisdom should be your highest ability score, followed by Constitution or Dexterity. Second, choose the hermit background.
Class Features
As a spirit caller, you gain the following class features.
Hit Points
Hit Dice: 1d10 per fighter level
Hit Points at 1st Level: 10 + your Constitution modifier
Hit Points at Higher Levels: 1d10 (or 6) + your Constitution modifier per spirit caller level after 1st
Proficiencies
Armor: Light armor, shields
Weapons: Simple weapons
Tools: None
Saving Throws: Wisdom, Constitution
Skills: Choose two skills from Arcana, Deception, History, Insight, Medicine, Nature, Perception, and Religion
Equipment
You start with the following equipment, in addition to the equipment granted by your background:
(a) a shortbow and 20 arrows or (b) any simple weapon
(a) a shield or (b) any simple weapon
(a) an explorer’s pack or (b) a priest’s pack
Leather armor and two daggers
Call Spirits
At first level, you gain the ability to snatch a fragment of a departing creature’s life energy. As a reaction when a medium or smaller creature that is not undead you can see within 30 feet of you dies, you can create a Tiny Spirit Flame, which hovers around you in your space. You can make the spirit flame invisible or visible again as a bonus action. You can have a number of Spirit Flames equal to twice your Wisdom modifier. As an action, you can extinguish one spirit flame and take 1d4 necrotic damage, which cannot be reduced or prevented in any way. When you do so, you summon an incorporeal, indistinct spirit in a space you can see within 120 feet of you, which uses the Called Spirit stat block (its proficiency bonus is equal to yours). The spirit lasts for one month, until it is more than 120 feet away from you, or until reduced to 0 hit points. The number of spirits you can have summoned at a time is equal to the number shown in the Spirits Called table.
Command Spirits
On your turn, you may use your action to command any number of spirits you control to move up to their speed and use any action in “Chapter 9: Combat” in the Player’s Handbook, with the exception of the “Use an Object” action (the spirits are incorporeal and cannot manipulate physical things except to attack). You may instead use a bonus action to command any number of spirits you control to move up to their speed and take either the Dash, Dodge, or Hide action. The spirits do nothing if you issue them no commands, and you may issue a different command to each spirit.
Ghostly Whispers
At first level, at the end of a long rest, as long as you have at least one Spirit Flame, you can choose a skill or tool proficiency you lack. You gain that proficiency until the end of your next long rest.
Phantom Fury
Starting at second level, you may use your bonus action to extinguish one Spirit Flame. Until the end of the round, all your Called Spirits’ attacks do additional necrotic damage equal to your Wisdom modifier.
Ghostly Calling
At 3rd level, choose a Ghostly Calling, choosing from the Calling of the Warrior Spirit and the Calling of the Protector Spirit. Your Calling grants you features at 3rd level and again at 6th, 11th, and 15th level. Each Calling is detailed at the end of the class description.
Ability Score Improvement
When you reach 4th level, and again at 8th, 10th, 13th, and 18th level, you can increase one ability score of your choice by 2, or you can increase two ability scores of your choice by 1. As normal, you can;t increase an ability score above 20 using this feature.
Spirit Ability Score Improvement (Optional)
Whenever you gain an ability score improvement, instead of increasing your own ability scores, you may choose to increase the ability scores of your spirits instead, permanently changing their stat block. You cannot have the spirits take a feat, but all the other rules for ability score improvements still apply.
Shadow Strength
At 5th level, your connection to the powers of death strengthen your own life force. When you drop to zero hit points, instead of making death saving throws, you can extinguish all of your Spirit Flames (minimum 3) to become stable.
Consult the Ghosts
At 9th level, you gain the ability to converse with those in the realm of the deceased. You can extinguish a Spirit Flame to cast speak with dead. Once you do so, you must finish a short or long rest before you can do so again.
Magical Rend
Also at 9th level, your spirits’ Spectral Rend attacks count as magical for the purpose of overcoming resistance and immunity to nonmagical damage.
Otherworldly Sight
At 12th level, you gain the ability to temporarily peer into the realm of spirits. You can use a bonus action to extinguish a Spirit Flame. For a number of minutes equal to your Wisdom modifier, you can see into the Ethereal Plane, though you cannot affect things in it or be affected by them. In addition, you know the type, distance and direction of all undead and fey creatures within 100 feet of you, even if they are behind cover.
Ethereal Hunter
At 14th level, you can choose to affect and be affected by creatures in the Ethereal Plane while using your Otherworldly Sight. You choose when you first use the feature.
Traveler of Many Worlds
At 16th level, you can extinguish two Spirit Flames to cast the etherealness spell. When cast in this way, all your spirits become ethereal as well. Once you cast this spell in this way, you must finish a long rest before you can do so again.
Empowered Rend
At 17th level, your spirits’ Spectral Rend attacks do an additional 2d8 damage, and their damage type becomes force.
Phantom Walk
At 19th level, you become partially incorporeal. You can use a bonus action to activate your Phantom Walk. For the next minute, all your speeds decrease by 10 feet, and you can move through walls, creatures and other objects as though they were difficult terrain. You take 3d10 force damage if you end your turn inside an object.
Deathly Summoner
At 20th level, there is no limit to the number of spirits you can have summoned at a time, though you can summon no more than 7 in one day. In addition, your spirits can be up to 400 feet away from you without discorporating. You must follow all other rules for summoning spirits.
Calling of the Protector Spirit
Giver of Life
At 3rd level, you can weave the forces of life and death to aid those in need. As a bonus action, you can touch a creature and cause it to regain hit points equal to 1d8+your Wisdom modifier. You can use this ability a number of times equal to your Wisdom modifier, and you regain all expended uses when you finish a short or long rest.
Inured to Phantoms
Also at 3rd level, you become indifferent to the touch of death. You gain resistance to necrotic damage.
Ghostly Shield
At 6th level, your spirits can protect those around them. Once a turn, if a creature within 5 feet of one of your spirits takes damage from an attack, you can command the spirit to use their reaction and block the attack, reducing the damage taken by 1d12 + your Wisdom modifier.
Armor of Shadows
At 11th level, your AC increases by 1 for each Spirit Flame you have. As an action, you can extinguish any number of Spirit Flames and touch a non-undead creature other than you. That creature gets a +1 bonus to AC for each Spirit Flame extinguished in this way, which last until you finish a long rest.
Mighty Helpers
At 15th level, your Ghostly Shield can be used more than once each turn, but an attack can be blocked by a spirit only once.
Calling of the Warrior Spirit
Echoes of Battle
Starting at 3rd level, the undead company you keep has trained you in the use of weapons. Choose up to four weapons that have the ranged or one-handed properties. You gain proficiency in those weapons. At the end of a long rest, as long as you have one Spirit Flame, you may exchange one of these proficiencies with another that meets the same requirements.
Whirlwind of Attacks
Also at 3rd level, as a bonus action after all your spirits attack, you may make one attack using a weapon you are proficient with as a bonus action.
Vicious Wraiths
At 6th level, each of your spirits gains the following action option:
Multiattack. The spirit makes two melee attacks with its Spectral Rend.
Departed Warriors
At 11th level, you learn to rally your troops even as they fall. When one of your Called Spirits dies, the rest gain a +5 bonus to attack rolls until the end of your next turn.
Specter Legion
At 15th level, each of your spirits gains the following trait:
Pack Tactics. The spirit has advantage on attack rolls against a creature if at least one of its
allies is within 5 feet of the creature and the ally isn’t incapacitated.
Feedback 1: saving throws proficiency 1 should be from "good" and one from "bad" groups of saving throws. "Saving Throws Proficiencies come in two groups, the “Good” saves of Dexterity Constitution and Wisdom, and the “Bad” saves of Strength, Intelligence, and Charisma. The “Good” saves are far more common to roll, and therefore more valuable as proficiencies. Generally, each class should get one good save and one bad save, or rarely two bad saves with a benefit of a few more skill proficiencies or other bonuses. Also, one of the proficient saving throws should be the class’s primary ability score. " Reference Source
Second, why try and tight-cast the class into a hermit background? Would the class not work as well with literally any other background? if so thats an issue.
Third, include the spirit stat block anyways.
Fourth, Unlimited spirits can be too easily broken and abused and is not balanced.
Fifth, why a 1d10 HP hit dice? is this a subclass of fighter? or a stand alone class? because the wording says both. this is unclear and needs to be cleared up.
Sixth, is otherworldly sight overcome things immune to divination as well?
Seventh, Ethereal hunter is not balanced.
Eighth, empowered rend. Just their damage going from necrotic to force is a monumental plus. but adding 2d8 is over the top for the 17th. the additional 2d8 would be better than a lot of level 20 capstones as a stand alone still even.
Ninth, is there a limit to how many times you can phantom walk?
Tenth, Death Summoner now basically puts an 833 limit on called spirits vs the unlimited. so thats a potential of dealing 1666 d8 force damage in 1 round of attacks just from your spirits or an average damage of 7497. This has NO balance to it. (but there can only be soo many in...) Whats to stop people from keeping them in a "portable hole" or anything like that and just "dumping them all out" Or having an "unseen servant" dump them out, or etc. or a hireling. It needs work. Or lets go another way. combine it with ghostly shield and . 1d12 + wisdom mod. 833 d12 +5. Once per turn sure, but then add Mighty helpers, now you can do it as many times a round as needed provided its only 1 spirit per attack, so essentially, no matter who gets attacked at this point, they take on average 11.5 less damage.
Eleventh, Armor of shadows is not balanced at all either. a +10 to AC.
Twelfth, Multiattack... beast master ranger, where this is one of its greatest boosts, gets this at level 11. You're getting this at level 6. Additionally.... thats 833 spirits potentially with TWO attacks each, that deal a ton of force damage, comparatively. This is also completely unbalanced.
Thirteenth, +5 to attack rolls each time a spirit dies. again,. up to 833... this has NO BALANCE AT ALL.
Fourteenth, Spector Legion. Just say "spirits permantly have advantage on all attacks. There's never going to be a situation where there isn't atleast one within 5 feet of it, barring AoE spells and only 1 survived, but has a +5-4000 on its attack.
Fifteenth, Overall, its a good concept of a class, but there are some things to work out. EX: If you're getting basically +10 to AC, can have 10 of these flames, be nigh-impossible to kill, and have up to 833 meat shields and fighters for you... The hit dice should be no greater than a D4, while you still work on balancing some of the other things.
I cannot imagine anyone would let this operate in any of their campaigns currently as it is extremely unbalanced, and this character alone doesn't even need a party to be a party of as currently constructed. Hopefully this feedback helps you. Its a good 1st draft.
Thanks for your feedback. I tried to include the stat block, but D&D Beyond hates me. Anyway, there's the column of maximum Spirits Called in the table... believe me, many parts of this are unbalanced, but I can tell how much abuse would come of having unlimited meat shields.
- Changed CON save to INT. Good insight, thanks!
- For this one, I simply tried to include a background for the quick build like the other classes do. While it would work just as well with anything else, I figured that hermits just make some small amount of sense flavor-wise. But that's completely optional.
- Changed to d6 hit dice. Where are you seeing anything about fighter?
- No, it is not. Added that.
- Deleted Ethereal Hunter
- You're right. Made 17th level feature the force damage and the extra damage the 20th level capstone
- Yep, WIS modifier. Added that too.
- Yeah... just got rid of unlimited spirits. It seems like an appropriate capstone, but it's just too overpowered.
- Okay, put a cap equal to WIS modifier. Still pretty powerful but from the playtesting I've been doing, I've found that spirits die and need to be replenished quickly enough that you rarely have more than 3 at a time.
- Yeah, from playtesting I already figured out that was overpowered. Changed to just make them a little tougher.
- Not having unlimited spirits makes this far less overpowered.
Thank you very much for your feedback. I had already addressed some of the issues you pointed out through playtesting but forgot to update this page. This is still very much a rough draft, and it's help from people like you that make my ideas playable reality.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Will everyone stop calling him "The Demogorgon"? It's his name, not a title!
Yeah. Read through your updates and such. Significantly better. Probably good for playtesting on a larger scale.
the fighter/other thing. Just an oversight changing fighter on one of the sentences probably, later on I realized with the 2 subclasses it’s an original class but I honestly with that much feedback was too lazy to explain that in my feedback draft. You’ve inspired me to share my “dancer” class and 4 subclasses.
Yeah. Read through your updates and such. Significantly better. Probably good for playtesting on a larger scale.
the fighter/other thing. Just an oversight changing fighter on one of the sentences probably, later on I realized with the 2 subclasses it’s an original class but I honestly with that much feedback was too lazy to explain that in my feedback draft. It was under hot dice by hit points. You’ve inspired me to share my “dancer” class and 4 subclasses.
Neat concept, however it has one glaring problem in my eyes: if something kills all your minions then you have basically nothing you can do in combat, and you have only relatively minor out of combat utility. One big dragon breath attack, or one Meteor Swarm, etc... and you're made completely impotent. Consider all other summons-based classes are full spellcasters so if their summons get obliterated they can fall back on full spellcasting to still be useful.
Specific comments:
Spirit Flames - Problem: you basically have to be a professional exterminator to collect enough souls to maintain yourself a full power. I'd expect this character to spend all their downtime catching & killing rats to ensure they have sufficient supply.
Call Spirits - What is the point of the 1d4 necrotic damage? Surely this will mainly be used outside of combat thus that damage can be restored via resting.
Shadow Strength - This is a bad feature, I would never use it. Players hardly ever make death saves anyway either the enemies hit them when they are down to kill them or they get healed up within 1 round.
Magical Rend - This should be a 6th level feature to be inline with Monk magic fists, Beast Barb magic claws, Shepherd druid magic summons, and Moon druid magic claws
Otherworldly Sight - When would this be useful? Only a handful of enemies can travel to the Ethereal plane and this only lets you see them not stop them escaping in this way so what's the point?
Empowered Rend - Why would you want this? Pretty much the only enemies that can resis magical b/s/p are those with Barbarian class levels, whereas a handful can resist and one or two are immune to force. Magical b/s/p is generally better than force damage.
Phantom Walk - again this seems like a super niche feature. You've already got Etherealness 1/day which is just superior for the purposes of scouting, so this must be meant for in-combat but this is a ranged / backline character so why would they need to walk through walls?
Ghostly Shield - This is confusingly worded. If you need to command them, and it has limited uses then shouldn't it require your reaction to command them? That would be consistent with the Ancestral Guardian Barbarian feature that does something similar. Then the upgrade at level 15 can be it using the spirit's reaction instead of yours.
Armour of Shadows - This is utterly broken, giving a +5 AC to your entire party is insanely powerful.
Echoes of Battle & Whirlwind of Attacks - These seem out of place, the rest of the subclass features are all about buffing your minions attacks but these are about buffing your attacks. But there is a fundamental trade-off where you attacking takes away attacks from your minions. So these and the upper level features are in conflict with each other.
The Spirit Caller
Level
Prof. Bonus
Spirits Called
Features
1st
+2
2
Spirit Flames, Call Spirits, Command Spirits
2nd
+2
2
Ghostly Whispers, Phantom Fury
3rd
+2
2
Ghostly Calling
4th
+2
3
Ability Score Improvement, Spirit Ability Score Improvement (Optional)
5th
+3
3
Shadow Strength
6th
+3
3
Ghostly Calling Feature
7th
+3
4
8th
+3
4
Ability Score Improvement
9th
+4
4
Consult the Ghosts, Magical Rend
10th
+4
4
Ability Score Improvement
11th
+4
4
Ghostly Calling Feature
12th
+4
5
Otherworldly Sight
13th
+5
5
Ability Score Improvement
14th
+5
5
15th
+5
5
Ghostly Calling Feature
16th
+5
6
Traveler of Many Worlds
17th
+6
6
Empowered Rend
18th
+6
6
Ability Score Improvement
19th
+6
6
Phantom Walk
20th
+6
8
Deathly Summoner
Quick Build
You can make a Spirit Caller quickly by following these suggestions. First, Wisdom should be your highest ability score, followed by Constitution or Dexterity. Second, choose the hermit background.
Class Features
As a spirit caller, you gain the following class features.
Hit Points
Hit Dice: 1d6 per spirit caller level
Hit Points at 1st Level: 6 + your Constitution modifier
Hit Points at Higher Levels: 1d6 (or 4) + your Constitution modifier per spirit caller level after 1st
Proficiencies
Armor: Light armor, shields
Weapons: Simple weapons
Tools: None
Saving Throws: Wisdom, Charisma
Skills: Choose two skills from Arcana, Deception, History, Insight, Medicine, Nature, Perception, and Religion
Equipment
You start with the following equipment, in addition to the equipment granted by your background:
Spirit Flames
At first level, you gain the ability to snatch a fragment of a departing creature’s life energy. As a reaction when a medium or smaller creature that is not undead you can see within 30 feet of you dies, you can create a Tiny Spirit Flame, which hovers around you in your space. You can make the spirit flame invisible or visible again as a bonus action. You can have a number of Spirit Flames equal to twice your Wisdom modifier.
Call Spirits
At first level, as an action, you can extinguish one spirit flame and take 1d4 necrotic damage, which cannot be reduced or prevented in any way. When you do so, you summon an incorporeal, indistinct spirit in a space you can see within 120 feet of you, which uses the Called Spirit stat block (its proficiency bonus is equal to yours). The spirit lasts for one month, until it is more than 120 feet away from you, or until reduced to 0 hit points. The number of spirits you can have summoned at a time is equal to the number shown in the Spirits Called table.
Command Spirits
On your turn, you may use your action to command any number of spirits you control to move up to their speed and use any action in “Chapter 9: Combat” in the Player’s Handbook, with the exception of the “Use an Object” action (the spirits are incorporeal and cannot manipulate physical things except to attack). You may instead use a bonus action to command any number of spirits you control to move up to their speed and take either the Dash, Dodge, or Hide action. The spirits do nothing if you issue them no commands, and you may issue a different command to each spirit.
Ghostly Whispers
At second level, at the end of a long rest, as long as you have at least one Spirit Flame, you can choose a skill or tool proficiency you lack. You gain that proficiency until the end of your next long rest.
Phantom Fury
Starting at second level, you may use your bonus action to extinguish one Spirit Flame. Until the end of the round, all your Called Spirits’ attacks do additional necrotic damage equal to your Wisdom modifier.
Ghostly Calling
At 3rd level, choose a Ghostly Calling, choosing from the Calling of the Warrior Spirit and the Calling of the Protector Spirit. Your Calling grants you features at 3rd level and again at 6th, 11th, and 15th level. Each Calling is detailed at the end of the class description.
Ability Score Improvement
When you reach 4th level, and again at 8th, 10th, 13th, and 18th level, you can increase one ability score of your choice by 2, or you can increase two ability scores of your choice by 1. As normal, you can’t increase an ability score above 20 using this feature.
Shadow Strength
At 5th level, your connection to the powers of death strengthen your own life force. When you drop to zero hit points, instead of making death saving throws, you can extinguish all of your Spirit Flames (minimum 3) to become stable.
Consult the Ghosts
At 9th level, you gain the ability to converse with those in the realm of the deceased. You can extinguish a Spirit Flame to cast speak with dead. Once you do so, you must finish a short or long rest before you can do so again.
Magical Rend
Also at 9th level, your spirits’ Spectral Rend attacks count as magical for the purpose of overcoming resistance and immunity to nonmagical damage.
Otherworldly Sight
At 12th level, you gain the ability to temporarily peer into the realm of spirits. You can use a bonus action to extinguish a Spirit Flame. For a number of minutes equal to your Wisdom modifier, you can see into the Ethereal Plane, though you cannot affect things in it or be affected by them. In addition, you know the type, distance and direction of all undead and fey creatures within 100 feet of you, even if they are behind cover. However, this feature cannot detect creatures warded against divination magic.
Traveler of Many Worlds
At 16th level, you can extinguish two Spirit Flames to cast the etherealness spell. When cast in this way, all your spirits become ethereal as well. Once you cast this spell in this way, you must finish a long rest before you can do so again.
Empowered Rend
At 17th level, the damage type of your spirit’s Spectral Rend becomes force.
Phantom Walk
At 19th level, you become partially incorporeal. You can use a bonus action to activate your Phantom Walk. For the next minute, all your speeds decrease by 10 feet, and you can move through walls, creatures and other objects as though they were difficult terrain. You take 3d10 force damage if you end your turn inside an object. You can use this feature a number of times equal to your Wisdom modifier, and you regain all expended uses when you finish a short or long rest.
Deathly Summoner
At 20th level, all your spirit’s attacks do an additional 2d8 force damage. In addition, your spirits can be up to 400 feet away from you without discorporating. You must follow all other rules for summoning spirits.
Calling of the Protector Spirit
Giver of Life
At 3rd level, you can weave the forces of life and death to aid those in need. As a bonus action, you can touch a non-undead creature and cause it to regain hit points equal to 1d8+your Wisdom modifier. You can use this ability a number of times equal to your Wisdom modifier, and you regain all expended uses when you finish a short or long rest.
Inured to Phantoms
Also at 3rd level, you become indifferent to the touch of death. You gain resistance to necrotic damage.
Ghostly Shield
At 6th level, your spirits can protect those around them. Once a turn, if a creature within 5 feet of one of your spirits takes damage from an attack, you can command the spirit to use their reaction and block the attack, reducing the damage taken by 1d12 + your Wisdom modifier.
Armor of Shadows
At 11th level, your AC increases by 1 for each Spirit Flame you have, to a maximum increase equal to your Wisdom modifier. As an action, you can extinguish a number of Spirit Flames up to your Wisdom modifier and touch a non-undead creature other than you. That creature gets a +1 bonus to AC for each Spirit Flame extinguished in this way, which lasts until you finish a long rest.
Mighty Helpers
At 15th level, your Ghostly Shield can be used more than once each turn, but an attack can be blocked by a spirit only once.
Calling of the Warrior Spirit
Echoes of Battle
Starting at 3rd level, the undead company you keep has trained you in the use of weapons. Choose up to four weapons that have the ranged or one-handed properties. You gain proficiency in those weapons. At the end of a long rest, as long as you have one Spirit Flame, you may exchange one of these proficiencies with another that meets the same requirements.
Whirlwind of Attacks
Also at 3rd level, as a bonus action after at least one of your spirits but less than half (minimum one) attack, you may make one attack using a weapon you are proficient with as a bonus action.
Vicious Wraiths
At 6th level, your spirits become more resilient. Their hit points when summoned and maximum hit points increase by an amount equal to your Wisdom modifier.
Departed Warriors
At 11th level, you learn to rally your troops even as they fall. When one of your Called Spirits dies, the rest gain a +5 bonus to attack rolls until the end of your next turn.
Specter Legion
At 15th level, each of your spirits gains the following trait:
Pack Tactics. The spirit has advantage on attack rolls against a creature if at least one of its
allies is within 5 feet of the creature and the ally isn’t incapacitated.
Will everyone stop calling him "The Demogorgon"? It's his name, not a title!
Feedback 1: saving throws proficiency 1 should be from "good" and one from "bad" groups of saving throws. "Saving Throws Proficiencies come in two groups, the “Good” saves of Dexterity Constitution and Wisdom, and the “Bad” saves of Strength, Intelligence, and Charisma. The “Good” saves are far more common to roll, and therefore more valuable as proficiencies. Generally, each class should get one good save and one bad save, or rarely two bad saves with a benefit of a few more skill proficiencies or other bonuses. Also, one of the proficient saving throws should be the class’s primary ability score. " Reference Source
Second, why try and tight-cast the class into a hermit background? Would the class not work as well with literally any other background? if so thats an issue.
Third, include the spirit stat block anyways.
Fourth, Unlimited spirits can be too easily broken and abused and is not balanced.
Fifth, why a 1d10 HP hit dice? is this a subclass of fighter? or a stand alone class? because the wording says both. this is unclear and needs to be cleared up.
Sixth, is otherworldly sight overcome things immune to divination as well?
Seventh, Ethereal hunter is not balanced.
Eighth, empowered rend. Just their damage going from necrotic to force is a monumental plus. but adding 2d8 is over the top for the 17th. the additional 2d8 would be better than a lot of level 20 capstones as a stand alone still even.
Ninth, is there a limit to how many times you can phantom walk?
Tenth, Death Summoner now basically puts an 833 limit on called spirits vs the unlimited. so thats a potential of dealing 1666 d8 force damage in 1 round of attacks just from your spirits or an average damage of 7497. This has NO balance to it. (but there can only be soo many in...) Whats to stop people from keeping them in a "portable hole" or anything like that and just "dumping them all out" Or having an "unseen servant" dump them out, or etc. or a hireling. It needs work. Or lets go another way. combine it with ghostly shield and . 1d12 + wisdom mod. 833 d12 +5. Once per turn sure, but then add Mighty helpers, now you can do it as many times a round as needed provided its only 1 spirit per attack, so essentially, no matter who gets attacked at this point, they take on average 11.5 less damage.
Eleventh, Armor of shadows is not balanced at all either. a +10 to AC.
Twelfth, Multiattack... beast master ranger, where this is one of its greatest boosts, gets this at level 11. You're getting this at level 6. Additionally.... thats 833 spirits potentially with TWO attacks each, that deal a ton of force damage, comparatively. This is also completely unbalanced.
Thirteenth, +5 to attack rolls each time a spirit dies. again,. up to 833... this has NO BALANCE AT ALL.
Fourteenth, Spector Legion. Just say "spirits permantly have advantage on all attacks. There's never going to be a situation where there isn't atleast one within 5 feet of it, barring AoE spells and only 1 survived, but has a +5-4000 on its attack.
Fifteenth, Overall, its a good concept of a class, but there are some things to work out. EX: If you're getting basically +10 to AC, can have 10 of these flames, be nigh-impossible to kill, and have up to 833 meat shields and fighters for you... The hit dice should be no greater than a D4, while you still work on balancing some of the other things.
I cannot imagine anyone would let this operate in any of their campaigns currently as it is extremely unbalanced, and this character alone doesn't even need a party to be a party of as currently constructed. Hopefully this feedback helps you. Its a good 1st draft.
Blank
Thanks for your feedback. I tried to include the stat block, but D&D Beyond hates me. Anyway, there's the column of maximum Spirits Called in the table... believe me, many parts of this are unbalanced, but I can tell how much abuse would come of having unlimited meat shields.
- Changed CON save to INT. Good insight, thanks!
- For this one, I simply tried to include a background for the quick build like the other classes do. While it would work just as well with anything else, I figured that hermits just make some small amount of sense flavor-wise. But that's completely optional.
- Changed to d6 hit dice. Where are you seeing anything about fighter?
- No, it is not. Added that.
- Deleted Ethereal Hunter
- You're right. Made 17th level feature the force damage and the extra damage the 20th level capstone
- Yep, WIS modifier. Added that too.
- Yeah... just got rid of unlimited spirits. It seems like an appropriate capstone, but it's just too overpowered.
- Okay, put a cap equal to WIS modifier. Still pretty powerful but from the playtesting I've been doing, I've found that spirits die and need to be replenished quickly enough that you rarely have more than 3 at a time.
- Yeah, from playtesting I already figured out that was overpowered. Changed to just make them a little tougher.
- Not having unlimited spirits makes this far less overpowered.
Thank you very much for your feedback. I had already addressed some of the issues you pointed out through playtesting but forgot to update this page. This is still very much a rough draft, and it's help from people like you that make my ideas playable reality.
Will everyone stop calling him "The Demogorgon"? It's his name, not a title!
Will everyone stop calling him "The Demogorgon"? It's his name, not a title!
Will everyone stop calling him "The Demogorgon"? It's his name, not a title!
Man, I hate tech.
Will everyone stop calling him "The Demogorgon"? It's his name, not a title!
Yeah. Read through your updates and such. Significantly better. Probably good for playtesting on a larger scale.
the fighter/other thing. Just an oversight changing fighter on one of the sentences probably, later on I realized with the 2 subclasses it’s an original class but I honestly with that much feedback was too lazy to explain that in my feedback draft. You’ve inspired me to share my “dancer” class and 4 subclasses.
Blank
Yeah. Read through your updates and such. Significantly better. Probably good for playtesting on a larger scale.
the fighter/other thing. Just an oversight changing fighter on one of the sentences probably, later on I realized with the 2 subclasses it’s an original class but I honestly with that much feedback was too lazy to explain that in my feedback draft. It was under hot dice by hit points. You’ve inspired me to share my “dancer” class and 4 subclasses.
Blank
Ooh, that sounds interesting. Could I take a look at the features?
Will everyone stop calling him "The Demogorgon"? It's his name, not a title!
Neat concept, however it has one glaring problem in my eyes: if something kills all your minions then you have basically nothing you can do in combat, and you have only relatively minor out of combat utility. One big dragon breath attack, or one Meteor Swarm, etc... and you're made completely impotent. Consider all other summons-based classes are full spellcasters so if their summons get obliterated they can fall back on full spellcasting to still be useful.
Specific comments:
Spirit Flames
- Problem: you basically have to be a professional exterminator to collect enough souls to maintain yourself a full power. I'd expect this character to spend all their downtime catching & killing rats to ensure they have sufficient supply.
Call Spirits
- What is the point of the 1d4 necrotic damage? Surely this will mainly be used outside of combat thus that damage can be restored via resting.
Shadow Strength
- This is a bad feature, I would never use it. Players hardly ever make death saves anyway either the enemies hit them when they are down to kill them or they get healed up within 1 round.
Magical Rend
- This should be a 6th level feature to be inline with Monk magic fists, Beast Barb magic claws, Shepherd druid magic summons, and Moon druid magic claws
Otherworldly Sight
- When would this be useful? Only a handful of enemies can travel to the Ethereal plane and this only lets you see them not stop them escaping in this way so what's the point?
Empowered Rend
- Why would you want this? Pretty much the only enemies that can resis magical b/s/p are those with Barbarian class levels, whereas a handful can resist and one or two are immune to force. Magical b/s/p is generally better than force damage.
Phantom Walk
- again this seems like a super niche feature. You've already got Etherealness 1/day which is just superior for the purposes of scouting, so this must be meant for in-combat but this is a ranged / backline character so why would they need to walk through walls?
Ghostly Shield
- This is confusingly worded. If you need to command them, and it has limited uses then shouldn't it require your reaction to command them? That would be consistent with the Ancestral Guardian Barbarian feature that does something similar. Then the upgrade at level 15 can be it using the spirit's reaction instead of yours.
Armour of Shadows
- This is utterly broken, giving a +5 AC to your entire party is insanely powerful.
Echoes of Battle & Whirlwind of Attacks
- These seem out of place, the rest of the subclass features are all about buffing your minions attacks but these are about buffing your attacks. But there is a fundamental trade-off where you attacking takes away attacks from your minions. So these and the upper level features are in conflict with each other.
Add a healing option. Also, it needs to be force damage if in a creature or object