Hello. I finally got my subclass in a state that I was willing to share it at using the tools, but it appears that the effort I put in for the spells and what not makes it unable to be shared through the homebrew section.
May I post a wall of text for your reviewing pleasure?
EDIT: added name, added wall of text.
Names and labels are not final, just went with came to mind first. Open to suggestions.
EDIT 2: published and replaced wall of text with link to new v1. V0 discussed until post #8.
EDIT 3: didn't think to update the link for the updated iterations, so I will do my best to do so.
On first skim, since you were concerned about the spells not letting you publish, the only spell in your list not in the basic rules is Far Step.
hm. I did try removing the linking bits, but then it also said that I used non-English text after that. Kind of odd, but sure. I just reverted everything and called it a day.
You've got a class with terrible spell progression and a lack of extra attack, and your not giving them something like the artillerists BA cannons (and arcane firearm) or the steel defender (and extra attack) and are just making them rely on adding a few more infusions to items and a BA that adds on average around 6-7 points of attack bonus or AC
I don't think it'd be.. bad to play but I feel like it would be very.. meh in combat to play, lvl 5 would typically be fire a crossbow, give your biggest damage dealer a +5 to hit (only within 10 feet) to hit to wash out his GWM/sharpshooter deficit, and maybe someone +1 AC. I think some people might enjoy that but it feels really fifth wheel to me considering what other classes are tossing out around lvl 5
also for the bonus spells
Hunters mark is pointless, the class is making 1 attack there has to be something else you can do with your super limited spells than drop hunters mark for a d6.
Locate Object This is such a niche spell I can't really imagine anyone would be excited to see this on their list
Clairvoyance is another super niche spell, this isn't a class I feel that thrives well on picking super niche spells with how limited they are, but this can have some uses and I sorta understand the "engineer" portion of why I feel you picked it.. still feel like its a bad one though
The Find familiar and find steed spells I'm not sold on either, I get the engineer feel I think you where going for, kinda crafting a familiar and a steed but the artificer has the homunculus infusion which is a better familiar, granted you could have it and a familiar but this is again a always prepped spell to have the option of summoning something worse than your homunculus, same issue I have with find steed, what makes the spell great for paladins is you wake up prep it, cast it, next day drop it for something better. I suppose the change here is it could spend more time in combat since you always have the spell in your list to re-summon the steed but I don't know how it makes me feel though I feel its better than find familiar
First and foremost: thank you for the feedback, it is greatly appreciated.
Overall, I agree. And I will admit that the original idea premise is inherently flawed. I was going for a backline support type (borderline non-combatant), but finding a way to empower allies without detracting too much from being able to go solo is not easy, come to find out.
The above is the best I could do alone (and not even the first iteration), so I am absolutely open to suggestions.
While I agree that the homunculus is better in combat, I will absolutely defend the familiar for outside of combat because of the sense sharing. Same idea with Find Steed. It provides in-combat mobility, but can also act as a beast of burden, pull a cart, carry an injured person or non-combatant, etc. I feel the utility is there to make it a strong choice. With lots of bias absolutely no bias involved whatsoever.
That said, the rest of the spells I chose based on if they were not already part of a subclass and provided some thematic flavor. I will certainly reevaluate those choices.
And would you say the starting range is fine at 10ft? Imposed for "balance" with a scale up later on (using paladin auras as a template) while also choosing the benefits to not overlap with flash of genius.
Lastly, and probably the most important: how to step up the solo game that can also benefit others. First thing that comes to mind is to borrow from Mastermind or Armor to impose advantage/disadvantage. Something like a "targeting beacon" or added in to Empowerment thematically. One of the concepts was "Forward Observer" so perhaps a special weapon in the form of a "laser designator" or some such.
I won't claim to be a great designer at all so here's just my impressions at first glance and hopefully some others will chime in one way or the other.
Find Familiar - shared senses is nice but that's really all its providing I'm still in the realm of dubious value, the real issue is I can't really find a thematic lvl 1 spell I'd make a recommendation on to replace it with. As it's an engineer and support is the idea the only thing I could really find to possibly suggest is cure wounds or possibly bless.
Find Steed - Yeah like I said I think it has more value than the familiar spell its a funky spell though and very DM/Campaign dependent on its combat utility some DMs will let it help in combat unmounted I've seen others say no and if your playing campaigns indoors or caves or underground or.. just so many places being mounted isn't helping, that it being always on your spell list is... not really sure how I'd feel seeing that, but again this could be just personal pref and someone else might come along saying its a fantastic pick =]
Item overdrive I'd just remove the range limit entirely, it takes your BA to use item empowerment to distribute 2-4 points (typical campaign) than you can add another +3 tops to one of those boosts, usable 5 times a day (at most still a decent amount). I wouldn't say this rivals a paladins aura to have to have a short range since the paladin always benefits as well as the entire party if they are in range and it costs zero actions to use. Also while yeah a +5 to hit or so on a person is hefty thats basically advantage and the class itself isn't doing a whole lot on its turn to aid in combat. Playing the class might reveal I'm wrong but my gut instinct is that item overdrive isn't to strong being unlimited in range. As for a suggested change to maximum overdrive if it was changed.. no really sure honestly perhaps a total rework of the ability into something new?
I won't claim to be a great designer at all so here's just my impressions at first glance and hopefully some others will chime in one way or the other.
I disagree. You are doing an excellent job by providing a much needed different perspective.
As such, I have changed quite a bit. And finally realized what I had done wrong with the spells so that I could publish it.
Changed spell list around, added a damage component to core abilities and renamed them to be a little more fitting with the evolving theme, I think.
Changed the range from 10ft/30ft to 30ft/In sight. Reasoning behind that is I do not want it to overpower Flash of Genius too early while still getting more powerful at a higher level where Flash does not.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
To post a comment, please login or register a new account.
Hello. I finally got my subclass in a state that I was willing to share it at using the tools, but it appears that the effort I put in for the spells and what not makes it unable to be shared through the homebrew section.
May I post a wall of text for your reviewing pleasure?
EDIT: added name, added wall of text.
Names and labels are not final, just went with came to mind first. Open to suggestions.
EDIT 2: published and replaced wall of text with link to new v1. V0 discussed until post #8.
EDIT 3: didn't think to update the link for the updated iterations, so I will do my best to do so.
https://www.dndbeyond.com/subclasses/908945-magic-network-engineer
Post away, it's your thread. May want to change the thread title to include the subclass name.
Helpful rewriter of Japanese->English translation and delver into software codebases (she/e/they)
On first skim, since you were concerned about the spells not letting you publish, the only spell in your list not in the basic rules is Far Step.
Helpful rewriter of Japanese->English translation and delver into software codebases (she/e/they)
hm. I did try removing the linking bits, but then it also said that I used non-English text after that. Kind of odd, but sure. I just reverted everything and called it a day.
eeh, this reminds me a lot of the alchemist.
You've got a class with terrible spell progression and a lack of extra attack, and your not giving them something like the artillerists BA cannons (and arcane firearm) or the steel defender (and extra attack) and are just making them rely on adding a few more infusions to items and a BA that adds on average around 6-7 points of attack bonus or AC
I don't think it'd be.. bad to play but I feel like it would be very.. meh in combat to play, lvl 5 would typically be fire a crossbow, give your biggest damage dealer a +5 to hit (only within 10 feet) to hit to wash out his GWM/sharpshooter deficit, and maybe someone +1 AC. I think some people might enjoy that but it feels really fifth wheel to me considering what other classes are tossing out around lvl 5
also for the bonus spells
Hunters mark is pointless, the class is making 1 attack there has to be something else you can do with your super limited spells than drop hunters mark for a d6.
Locate Object This is such a niche spell I can't really imagine anyone would be excited to see this on their list
Clairvoyance is another super niche spell, this isn't a class I feel that thrives well on picking super niche spells with how limited they are, but this can have some uses and I sorta understand the "engineer" portion of why I feel you picked it.. still feel like its a bad one though
The Find familiar and find steed spells I'm not sold on either, I get the engineer feel I think you where going for, kinda crafting a familiar and a steed but the artificer has the homunculus infusion which is a better familiar, granted you could have it and a familiar but this is again a always prepped spell to have the option of summoning something worse than your homunculus, same issue I have with find steed, what makes the spell great for paladins is you wake up prep it, cast it, next day drop it for something better. I suppose the change here is it could spend more time in combat since you always have the spell in your list to re-summon the steed but I don't know how it makes me feel though I feel its better than find familiar
other picks are fine, flavorful and of decent use
First and foremost: thank you for the feedback, it is greatly appreciated.
Overall, I agree. And I will admit that the original idea premise is inherently flawed. I was going for a backline support type (borderline non-combatant), but finding a way to empower allies without detracting too much from being able to go solo is not easy, come to find out.
The above is the best I could do alone (and not even the first iteration), so I am absolutely open to suggestions.
While I agree that the homunculus is better in combat, I will absolutely defend the familiar for outside of combat because of the sense sharing. Same idea with Find Steed. It provides in-combat mobility, but can also act as a beast of burden, pull a cart, carry an injured person or non-combatant, etc. I feel the utility is there to make it a strong choice. With
lots of biasabsolutely no bias involved whatsoever.That said, the rest of the spells I chose based on if they were not already part of a subclass and provided some thematic flavor. I will certainly reevaluate those choices.
And would you say the starting range is fine at 10ft? Imposed for "balance" with a scale up later on (using paladin auras as a template) while also choosing the benefits to not overlap with flash of genius.
Lastly, and probably the most important: how to step up the solo game that can also benefit others. First thing that comes to mind is to borrow from Mastermind or Armor to impose advantage/disadvantage. Something like a "targeting beacon" or added in to Empowerment thematically. One of the concepts was "Forward Observer" so perhaps a special weapon in the form of a "laser designator" or some such.
I won't claim to be a great designer at all so here's just my impressions at first glance and hopefully some others will chime in one way or the other.
Find Familiar - shared senses is nice but that's really all its providing I'm still in the realm of dubious value, the real issue is I can't really find a thematic lvl 1 spell I'd make a recommendation on to replace it with. As it's an engineer and support is the idea the only thing I could really find to possibly suggest is cure wounds or possibly bless.
Find Steed - Yeah like I said I think it has more value than the familiar spell its a funky spell though and very DM/Campaign dependent on its combat utility some DMs will let it help in combat unmounted I've seen others say no and if your playing campaigns indoors or caves or underground or.. just so many places being mounted isn't helping, that it being always on your spell list is... not really sure how I'd feel seeing that, but again this could be just personal pref and someone else might come along saying its a fantastic pick =]
Item overdrive I'd just remove the range limit entirely, it takes your BA to use item empowerment to distribute 2-4 points (typical campaign) than you can add another +3 tops to one of those boosts, usable 5 times a day (at most still a decent amount). I wouldn't say this rivals a paladins aura to have to have a short range since the paladin always benefits as well as the entire party if they are in range and it costs zero actions to use. Also while yeah a +5 to hit or so on a person is hefty thats basically advantage and the class itself isn't doing a whole lot on its turn to aid in combat. Playing the class might reveal I'm wrong but my gut instinct is that item overdrive isn't to strong being unlimited in range. As for a suggested change to maximum overdrive if it was changed.. no really sure honestly perhaps a total rework of the ability into something new?
I disagree. You are doing an excellent job by providing a much needed different perspective.
As such, I have changed quite a bit. And finally realized what I had done wrong with the spells so that I could publish it.
Changed spell list around, added a damage component to core abilities and renamed them to be a little more fitting with the evolving theme, I think.
Changed the range from 10ft/30ft to 30ft/In sight. Reasoning behind that is I do not want it to overpower Flash of Genius too early while still getting more powerful at a higher level where Flash does not.