In my current D&D group, our current campaign, Ghosts of Saltmarsh, is coming to a close soon, and we plan to do Descent into Avernus next. At first I wanted to play a wizard, then an artificer, then a monk, and now that a Critical Role book is coming out I want to play a wizard again for that sweet sweet dunamancy. Problem is, our campaign will probably be over before the book is out. I talked to him, and he said he would be willing to work a subclass change into the game. But I also want to get outside opinions. How would you guys handle this in your games?
In ours, once you pass level 3, you're stuck with the subclass you chose. Because, if you are in an established campaign, it wouldn't make sense that your character suddenly changes. If you really want to play a different subclass, just roll a new character and leave the old one behind. ;)
One time my party's wizard ~level 6-7, realized that Transmuter wizards were dumb, so I made a ritual that required several archmages to change him to an Evoker wizard.
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Please check out my homebrew, I would appreciate feedback:
Are you talking about a subclass change (from a different Wizard subclass to dunamancy) or a full class change (from monk to Wizard)?
If you have to choose a subclass before the book comes out, try to pick a similar (guess) subclass and try not to rely on subclass features much (especially when they effect the plot or permanent resources).
Changing low level characters (level 4 and under) can usually be done with no finesse (your wizard is a fighter now) and just retcon the relatively short history.
You can make a temporary character and swap them out when able.
There are all kinds of solutions and they are mostly only limited by DM. And your DM is already okay with you switching subclasses.
What my friends & I do when we start a new campaign with new characters is, each player is given one Reality shift to use at any time in the campaign. This Reality shift can be anything from changing out feats, changing subclass, changing whole class, or race. Sometimes when you make a character the way you think you will like him/her but then later on it might not feel right or you wish you took some other feat, subclass or something. Once you use your Reality shift you are then stuck with that change till you die and make a new character. Also with the Reality shift you new changes affect Reality to the point that you & everyone that ever interacted with you has always known you with these new changes and the old you is erased out of Reality.
Personally if I was dming a situation like this I would engineer a bit of a scenario involving the Wish spell, or some other reality-altering spell.
I did this once when our group wanted to turn a one-shot adventure with pre-generated characters into a real campaign.
The scenario I used had them travel with a magical item merchant across the ocean when they were attacked by a small army of Sahuagin and a Kraken. The merchant told them he could get everyone out, but needed a minute to prepare. So they had to protect the merchant for that time. After the minute was up, he used the last wish from a ring of three wishes to get everyone into a nearby harbour town. Unfortunately, although he really tried to make the wish watertight (that's the minute prep-time) he forgot to specify that they wanted to arrive in the same bodies they left... so those who wanted to reroll could, while those who didn't want to simply "arrived as intended".
It worked quite well and was imo one of the more memorable encounters in the game.
So I think a wish can work for things like this, but I wouldn't make the wish explicitly about a character change. Having it as an "unintended" side effect of powerful magic imo makes the higher level spells seem more mysterious and dangerous and turns the occasion from a "Deus ex machina" into a lesson on the risks of arcane spell casting.
In my current D&D group, our current campaign, Ghosts of Saltmarsh, is coming to a close soon, and we plan to do Descent into Avernus next. At first I wanted to play a wizard, then an artificer, then a monk, and now that a Critical Role book is coming out I want to play a wizard again for that sweet sweet dunamancy. Problem is, our campaign will probably be over before the book is out. I talked to him, and he said he would be willing to work a subclass change into the game. But I also want to get outside opinions. How would you guys handle this in your games?
Dominick Finch
In ours, once you pass level 3, you're stuck with the subclass you chose. Because, if you are in an established campaign, it wouldn't make sense that your character suddenly changes. If you really want to play a different subclass, just roll a new character and leave the old one behind. ;)
I once did a whole class change with the help of a Goddess. That's a quick and easy way to change things, but doesn't work for every character.
Alternatively your character could have a little sabbatical to train under someone to learn new skills thus changing subclasses.
One time my party's wizard ~level 6-7, realized that Transmuter wizards were dumb, so I made a ritual that required several archmages to change him to an Evoker wizard.
Please check out my homebrew, I would appreciate feedback:
Spells, Monsters, Subclasses, Races, Arcknight Class, Occultist Class, World, Enigmatic Esoterica forms
Are you talking about a subclass change (from a different Wizard subclass to dunamancy) or a full class change (from monk to Wizard)?
If you have to choose a subclass before the book comes out, try to pick a similar (guess) subclass and try not to rely on subclass features much (especially when they effect the plot or permanent resources).
Changing low level characters (level 4 and under) can usually be done with no finesse (your wizard is a fighter now) and just retcon the relatively short history.
You can make a temporary character and swap them out when able.
There are all kinds of solutions and they are mostly only limited by DM. And your DM is already okay with you switching subclasses.
What my friends & I do when we start a new campaign with new characters is, each player is given one Reality shift to use at any time in the campaign. This Reality shift can be anything from changing out feats, changing subclass, changing whole class, or race. Sometimes when you make a character the way you think you will like him/her but then later on it might not feel right or you wish you took some other feat, subclass or something. Once you use your Reality shift you are then stuck with that change till you die and make a new character. Also with the Reality shift you new changes affect Reality to the point that you & everyone that ever interacted with you has always known you with these new changes and the old you is erased out of Reality.
Personally if I was dming a situation like this I would engineer a bit of a scenario involving the Wish spell, or some other reality-altering spell.
I did this once when our group wanted to turn a one-shot adventure with pre-generated characters into a real campaign.
The scenario I used had them travel with a magical item merchant across the ocean when they were attacked by a small army of Sahuagin and a Kraken. The merchant told them he could get everyone out, but needed a minute to prepare. So they had to protect the merchant for that time. After the minute was up, he used the last wish from a ring of three wishes to get everyone into a nearby harbour town. Unfortunately, although he really tried to make the wish watertight (that's the minute prep-time) he forgot to specify that they wanted to arrive in the same bodies they left... so those who wanted to reroll could, while those who didn't want to simply "arrived as intended".
It worked quite well and was imo one of the more memorable encounters in the game.
So I think a wish can work for things like this, but I wouldn't make the wish explicitly about a character change. Having it as an "unintended" side effect of powerful magic imo makes the higher level spells seem more mysterious and dangerous and turns the occasion from a "Deus ex machina" into a lesson on the risks of arcane spell casting.
I like that a lot. Definitely gonna keep it in mind.