5e has been going strong for several years but that doesn't mean it doesn't have room to grow. I've compile several years of homebrew rules here Dungeons & Dragons Verion 5.5 Class and Equipment Rework - Homebrew. Some of these ideas are not original and if I have missed a credit please let me know.
The bard, and ranger saw the largest reworks followed by the warlock and the monk. Most classes except the rogue, paladin and wizard have some changes. Maybe they need changes, I don't know but none have come up. Also in the equipment section I introduce damage reduction back into common play. The simple reason is that even good players in heavy armor were getting downed by unlucky enemy damage rolls. Introducing DR has so far smoothed this out and makes the tanks feel like tanks instead of healing spell sponges. This change also frees up the healers to do other things than constantly heal front line characters.
There are likely a lot of balancing to be done but so far these seem to play well.
First of all, this is very beautifully presented, clearly a lot of work has gone into it!
It's likewise a huge amount to unpack so I'm just going to comment on some things that stood out to me:
Bards
First, I'm curious why the major rework to Bards? I'm currently playing a College of Lore Bard at the moment and I don't feel like it needs any real changes, except maybe the ability to swap out spells as other casters can, which I believe is already in Unearthed Arcana's variant class rules. Magical secrets counting against my spells for example doesn't bother me, as it's still giving me access to an enormous number of spells I can't otherwise have. Just curious what issues you've encountered that make you think Bards need improving to that extent?
Druids
Second thing to jump out is the Druid; I'm not sure of the need to mess with Wildshape personally. It only becomes properly abusable when you get Archdruid at level 20, until then, sure it's "free" hit points but you can only do it twice and you're severely limited on the challenge rating of creature you can turn into, especially for non-Circle of the Moon druids. If changes are needed I think it's not to wildshape itself, but to Circle of the Moon and Archdruid, as otherwise Wildshape actually gets weak pretty fast. If anything it ought to be expanded to also apply to shape-shifting via Polymorph (so you can keep the same INT/WIS/CHA and such), as the way things are other classes can actually be just as good at turning into animals once they get that spell.
Warlocks
I love the greater focus on the patron and its wishes, but I have comments to make on it:
Love that you can make an eldritch version of a different cantrip instead, rather than every warlock necessarily having eldritch blast. Personally I'd drop the thing about discussing a bonus effect, I think boosted damage is enough, the cantrip should just need to inflict damage and then get a boosted damage die.
I'm not sure about adding the player's casting bonus to eldritch cantrips in exchange for what is a pretty minor HP penalty (especially when you're giving all classes more starting HP); eldritch blast for example is already quite powerful given its mixture of very long range, high damage (for a cantrip) and infrequently resisted damage type. I think it's better to restrict the damage bonus to eldritch invocations and drop the HP penalty, and maybe give Agonizing Blast a level threshold (e.g- 5th level).
Personally I think for rebalancing warlocks, more emphasis is needed on improving the other features of warlocks like the pact boons, probably with more invocations that support them. There are actually loads of great ways you can build a warlock, but as things are currently in 5e building an eldritch blast factory is simply the most powerful.
Combat
Fight Defensively: Bit unsure of this, firstly because of how it interacts with things like Defensive Duelist and Shield, it's already possible to get very high AC spikes, and high AC as standard for heavy armour + shield fighters and such, having another way to boost it doesn't seem necessary. We also have the Dodge action, which Fight Defensively would discourage anyone from ever using, especially as the latter is a bonus action and still lets you make all of your attacks. It could even be OP, for example a Barbarian attacking recklessly probably isn't going to miss their proficiency bonus all that much, allowing them to have high AC and half damage while still probably hitting with most of their attacks.
Power Attack: Isn't this kind of like getting Great Weapon Master for free?
Recovery and Rest
Death Saves & Exhaustion: Personally I'd drop this as it is; it disproportionately penalises characters with fewer hit-points (who are already penalised by less bonus starting HP and HP dice), as stacking up exhaustion in a fight could just make an already tough fight increasingly difficult. If you want an alternative, consider giving players a single point of exhaustion if they were knocked out (any number of times), but only at the end of the combat (i.e- once their adrenaline has worn off). This way it becomes more of a quest progress penalty than an immediate combat one, forcing the player to sacrifice HP dice to remove, use greater restoration, or take a longer rest.
Hope some of this doesn't sound too negative; there's a lot to like in these rules, and I'm only highlighting the things that gave me pause and felt need discussing. There might be others but like I say, there's a lot to unpack, this is just what I wanted to comment on after a first skim through.
Former D&D Beyond Customer of six years: With the axing of piecemeal purchasing, lack of meaningful development, and toxic moderation the site isn't worth paying for anymore. I remain a free user only until my groups are done migrating from DDB, and if necessary D&D, after which I'm done. There are better systems owned by better companies out there.
I have unsubscribed from all topics and will not reply to messages. My homebrew is now 100% unsupported.
Bard - The major rework is because artificer is in my opinion a better designed class. The core mechanic of Artificer is magic items with supporting spells. So if the core mechanic of bard is magical music it should be. The 5 inspiration die per short rest cap means that the bulk of the bards turns are spent not performing (pun intended) their core mechanic. I am a fan of the 3.5/pathfinder bard which were I drew most of my inspiration. So the rework is meant to shift the focus of what bards do with their turns to magical music. My problem with the standard 5e bard is that when I played one, and when I've dm'd games with bard players is that it didn't feel distinct from a cleric who buffs or a wizard who uses spells to control the battlefield.
Druid - This comes from my experience playing a druid where my caster was the tank, due to the large HP pool granted by wildshape. Barbarians, Fighters and Paladins should be tanks, not a full caster otherwise there is a question of build trade-off. Your point about limited CR in wildshape is valid. A large improvement of druid's wildshape would likely have to come at the cost of it's spellcasting to keep some balance between classes. That is an interesting thought though.
Warlock - I've used the change to eldritch blast, costing HP for a trade of better damage, in a game and the warlock stopped being an eldritch blast cannon. The guaranteed damage deters the warlock from mindlessly spamming eldritch blast which is a good thing as it encourages a variety of play. Your comment "more emphasis is needed on improving the other features of warlocks like the pact boons, probably with more invocations that support them" is good and I agree.
Power Attack - Yes essentially it is, but it gives less damage and requires a bonus action. I had a design goal of making weapon choice important such that a greatclub plays different than a rapier. Right now in 5e weapon choice is mostly a non-choice, all you really choose is damage die and whether you use str or dex.
Fight defensively - Haravikk interesting point about defensive fighting. My players have used it in limited fashion when they are feeling afraid and want to turtle. But you are right, they haven't used the dodge action. This is partly I feel that dodge forces a player to forfeit their turn which is boring. Dodge might be the good choice in a realism sense but it's a boring choice for most players so I attempted to find a different way to solve that problem. Your comment about barbarians is noted. It's not something that has come up in play so thank you for flagging that.
Rest and Recovery - I like your comment about the exhaustion penalty coming at the end of combat, it is designed as a quest penalty so that change wouldn't slow down combat as someone has to figure out what exhaustion has done to their character sheet.
5e has been going strong for several years but that doesn't mean it doesn't have room to grow. I've compile several years of homebrew rules here Dungeons & Dragons Verion 5.5 Class and Equipment Rework - Homebrew. Some of these ideas are not original and if I have missed a credit please let me know.
The bard, and ranger saw the largest reworks followed by the warlock and the monk. Most classes except the rogue, paladin and wizard have some changes. Maybe they need changes, I don't know but none have come up. Also in the equipment section I introduce damage reduction back into common play. The simple reason is that even good players in heavy armor were getting downed by unlucky enemy damage rolls. Introducing DR has so far smoothed this out and makes the tanks feel like tanks instead of healing spell sponges. This change also frees up the healers to do other things than constantly heal front line characters.
There are likely a lot of balancing to be done but so far these seem to play well.
First of all, this is very beautifully presented, clearly a lot of work has gone into it!
It's likewise a huge amount to unpack so I'm just going to comment on some things that stood out to me:
Bards
First, I'm curious why the major rework to Bards? I'm currently playing a College of Lore Bard at the moment and I don't feel like it needs any real changes, except maybe the ability to swap out spells as other casters can, which I believe is already in Unearthed Arcana's variant class rules. Magical secrets counting against my spells for example doesn't bother me, as it's still giving me access to an enormous number of spells I can't otherwise have. Just curious what issues you've encountered that make you think Bards need improving to that extent?
Druids
Second thing to jump out is the Druid; I'm not sure of the need to mess with Wildshape personally. It only becomes properly abusable when you get Archdruid at level 20, until then, sure it's "free" hit points but you can only do it twice and you're severely limited on the challenge rating of creature you can turn into, especially for non-Circle of the Moon druids. If changes are needed I think it's not to wildshape itself, but to Circle of the Moon and Archdruid, as otherwise Wildshape actually gets weak pretty fast. If anything it ought to be expanded to also apply to shape-shifting via Polymorph (so you can keep the same INT/WIS/CHA and such), as the way things are other classes can actually be just as good at turning into animals once they get that spell.
Warlocks
I love the greater focus on the patron and its wishes, but I have comments to make on it:
Combat
Recovery and Rest
Hope some of this doesn't sound too negative; there's a lot to like in these rules, and I'm only highlighting the things that gave me pause and felt need discussing. There might be others but like I say, there's a lot to unpack, this is just what I wanted to comment on after a first skim through.
Former D&D Beyond Customer of six years: With the axing of piecemeal purchasing, lack of meaningful development, and toxic moderation the site isn't worth paying for anymore. I remain a free user only until my groups are done migrating from DDB, and if necessary D&D, after which I'm done. There are better systems owned by better companies out there.
I have unsubscribed from all topics and will not reply to messages. My homebrew is now 100% unsupported.
Yeah, I agree about Bards. I’m playing a Whispers Bard and it seems fine to me. No clue why they thought it needed any reworking whatsoever.
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Thanks for the comments.
In response
Bard - The major rework is because artificer is in my opinion a better designed class. The core mechanic of Artificer is magic items with supporting spells. So if the core mechanic of bard is magical music it should be. The 5 inspiration die per short rest cap means that the bulk of the bards turns are spent not performing (pun intended) their core mechanic. I am a fan of the 3.5/pathfinder bard which were I drew most of my inspiration. So the rework is meant to shift the focus of what bards do with their turns to magical music. My problem with the standard 5e bard is that when I played one, and when I've dm'd games with bard players is that it didn't feel distinct from a cleric who buffs or a wizard who uses spells to control the battlefield.
Druid - This comes from my experience playing a druid where my caster was the tank, due to the large HP pool granted by wildshape. Barbarians, Fighters and Paladins should be tanks, not a full caster otherwise there is a question of build trade-off. Your point about limited CR in wildshape is valid. A large improvement of druid's wildshape would likely have to come at the cost of it's spellcasting to keep some balance between classes. That is an interesting thought though.
Warlock - I've used the change to eldritch blast, costing HP for a trade of better damage, in a game and the warlock stopped being an eldritch blast cannon. The guaranteed damage deters the warlock from mindlessly spamming eldritch blast which is a good thing as it encourages a variety of play. Your comment "more emphasis is needed on improving the other features of warlocks like the pact boons, probably with more invocations that support them" is good and I agree.
Power Attack - Yes essentially it is, but it gives less damage and requires a bonus action. I had a design goal of making weapon choice important such that a greatclub plays different than a rapier. Right now in 5e weapon choice is mostly a non-choice, all you really choose is damage die and whether you use str or dex.
Fight defensively - Haravikk interesting point about defensive fighting. My players have used it in limited fashion when they are feeling afraid and want to turtle. But you are right, they haven't used the dodge action. This is partly I feel that dodge forces a player to forfeit their turn which is boring. Dodge might be the good choice in a realism sense but it's a boring choice for most players so I attempted to find a different way to solve that problem. Your comment about barbarians is noted. It's not something that has come up in play so thank you for flagging that.
Rest and Recovery - I like your comment about the exhaustion penalty coming at the end of combat, it is designed as a quest penalty so that change wouldn't slow down combat as someone has to figure out what exhaustion has done to their character sheet.
I look forward to continuing the conversation.
Sorry man, I can't get into it. I had to stop at the misspelling of "Version" on page 1.
How to: Replace DEX in AC | Jump & Suffocation stats | Spell & class effect buff system | Wild Shape effect system | Tool Proficiencies as Custom Skills | Spells at higher levels explained | Superior Fighting/Martial Adept Fix | Snippet Codes Explored - Subclasses | Snippet Math Theory | Homebrew Weapons Explained
My: FEATS | MAGIC ITEMS | MONSTERS | SUBCLASSES Artificer Specialist: Weaveblade
Dndbeyond images not loading WORKAROUND FIXED!!! (TY Jay_Lane for original instructions)
Thank you for catching the typo, there are likely a lot more.
Fixed the title card, and a few typos in bard.
Thank you for the comments Haravikk, making some of the changes now.