I'd like to state upfront that this is not what I'd consider the "complete" version of the "Chanter", this post is mostly to see how people outside my social sphere would react especially since I cannot hold anyone's hand while they try to understand it. So far I've had a couple playtests with the Chanter in oneshots around lvl 6 and except for the minor requests and feedback concerning CoS its all been positive. So i figured it was time to see how an open thread about it would go. If you care to read through the class and its subclasses further below then i would be very grateful for any feedback, harsh or sweet.
The Link to the Google Spreadsheet where the Class as well as its subclasses and chants are laid out can be found at the bottom of the post. (Side note, this class was and is made with a slightly altered proficiency system in mind where i break it down into smaller steps, and so i hope this does not cause too much confusion when reading it).
I'll provide a (hopefully) short explanation as to the intention and design that went into it as well, if you care to read it.
First thing to comment on i guess would be the "new" mechanic i made for the class called *Chants*. Chants operate under the principle that they can only be used in combat for now, and that since there is no limit like with inspiration die or spell slots they should be balanced around action economy and be kept around the same level as cantrips in terms of impact and power.
The second component to this are the *Crescendos*. Now crescendos are a lot more powerful but require a lot of setup and so far the balancing of them are hard to grasp without further testing.
All in all the chants have a few issues in my opinion so far. Those being that;
they will slow down combat, thus i don't recommend new players play Chanter or be in a party with one.
The weird concept of granting a character combat effects with no real cost makes the balancing very tight at times and it will most likely lead to a pool of Chants that is hard to expand.
The other thing I'd want to try and explain upfront is the main "status" or "role" of this class.
The main intention of the Chanter when i made it was to create a utility support class that does not focus on healing (we have enough classes that can do that) but instead focused on actually inspiring their friends, to push beyond their limits (hence why chants are in combat only). I tried to then create the basic 3 roles of RPG's within the class, those being the College of Lore (Caster), the College of Swords (Agility) and the College of Valor (Bruiser/Tank), i later added a more druid or ranger like college called the College of Wonders who mainly focus on Traveling and exploring (yes this is a bit too close to the ranger but i also think there are drastically different characters one could make with those 2 options, and besides there are plenty of classes that invade the space of other classes already)
Chanters are as the title suggests meant to replace bards, as they occupy the same in world status as performers and musicians, it's why the Colleges of Lore, Valor & Swords are still present in my homebrew and glamour and whispers are not. mostly because i found it difficult to remake them as they focused a lot more on magic than their alternatives.
Please also keep in mind that this homebrew is not me saying that normal bards are inferior. (this class was mostly born from me and a friend making a world where we did not personally enjoy fitting standard bards in, and this idea of Chanters works a lot better conceptually for us)
Obligatory intro first:
I'd like to state upfront that this is not what I'd consider the "complete" version of the "Chanter", this post is mostly to see how people outside my social sphere would react especially since I cannot hold anyone's hand while they try to understand it. So far I've had a couple playtests with the Chanter in oneshots around lvl 6 and except for the minor requests and feedback concerning CoS its all been positive. So i figured it was time to see how an open thread about it would go. If you care to read through the class and its subclasses further below then i would be very grateful for any feedback, harsh or sweet.
The Link to the Google Spreadsheet where the Class as well as its subclasses and chants are laid out can be found at the bottom of the post. (Side note, this class was and is made with a slightly altered proficiency system in mind where i break it down into smaller steps, and so i hope this does not cause too much confusion when reading it).
I'll provide a (hopefully) short explanation as to the intention and design that went into it as well, if you care to read it.
First thing to comment on i guess would be the "new" mechanic i made for the class called *Chants*. Chants operate under the principle that they can only be used in combat for now, and that since there is no limit like with inspiration die or spell slots they should be balanced around action economy and be kept around the same level as cantrips in terms of impact and power.
The second component to this are the *Crescendos*. Now crescendos are a lot more powerful but require a lot of setup and so far the balancing of them are hard to grasp without further testing.
All in all the chants have a few issues in my opinion so far. Those being that;
The other thing I'd want to try and explain upfront is the main "status" or "role" of this class.
The main intention of the Chanter when i made it was to create a utility support class that does not focus on healing (we have enough classes that can do that) but instead focused on actually inspiring their friends, to push beyond their limits (hence why chants are in combat only). I tried to then create the basic 3 roles of RPG's within the class, those being the College of Lore (Caster), the College of Swords (Agility) and the College of Valor (Bruiser/Tank), i later added a more druid or ranger like college called the College of Wonders who mainly focus on Traveling and exploring (yes this is a bit too close to the ranger but i also think there are drastically different characters one could make with those 2 options, and besides there are plenty of classes that invade the space of other classes already)
Chanters are as the title suggests meant to replace bards, as they occupy the same in world status as performers and musicians, it's why the Colleges of Lore, Valor & Swords are still present in my homebrew and glamour and whispers are not. mostly because i found it difficult to remake them as they focused a lot more on magic than their alternatives.
Please also keep in mind that this homebrew is not me saying that normal bards are inferior. (this class was mostly born from me and a friend making a world where we did not personally enjoy fitting standard bards in, and this idea of Chanters works a lot better conceptually for us)
Link to the Spreadsheet here.
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1_CCh43GV8ATwJ1XxDs8UQshBVpAVKwwbaWB4629t73M/edit?usp=sharing