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Rerem115
2016-07-09, 05:07 PM
While I was looking through some homebrew classes, I noticed a distinct lack of non-magical Divine classes; a class for those who pick up their sword in the name of their god, and use only the strength of their faith and the strength of their arm to carry the day. Seeking to rectify this, I spent an afternoon brewing up a Crusader class, a non-magical martial class who seeks to spread the word of their church.


Crusader

Class Features


As a Crusader you gain the following class features.

Hit Points
Hit Dice: 1d10 per Crusader level
Hit Points at 1st Level: 10 + Constitution modifier
Hit Points at Higher Levels: 1d10 (or 6) + Constitution modifier per Crusader level after 1st

Proficiencies
Armor: All Armor, Shields
Weapons: all Simple and Martial weapons
Tools: None
Saving Throws: Strength, Constitution
Skills: Choose two from Acrobatics, Animal Handling, Athletics, History, Insight, Intimidation, Perception, and Survival

Equipment
You start with the following equipment, in addition to the equipment granted by your background:

(a) chain mail or (b) leather armor, longbow, and 20 arrows
(a) a martial weapon and a shield or (b) two martial weapons
(a) a light crossbow and 20 bolts or (b) two handaxes
(a) a priest's pack or (b) an explorer’s pack
A holy symbol



Level
Proficiency Bonus
Features


1
+2
Religious Trance, Church Teachings


2
+2
Fighting Style


3
+2
Crusader Order


4
+2
ASI


5
+3
Extra Attack (2)


6
+3
Driven by Faith


7
+3
Order Feature


8
+3
ASI


9
+4
Veteran Campaigner


10
+4
Into the Fray, Religious Trance (3)


11
+4
Holy Fervor


12
+4
ASI


13
+5
Order Feature


14
+5
Unrelenting Strike


15
+5
Tempered Zeal


16
+5
ASI


17
+6
Retribution


18
+6
Order Feature, Religious Trance (4), Trance Damage (2d4)


19
+6
ASI


20
+6
Martyr's Purity



Class Abilities

Religious Trance
As a bonus action, you can enter a religious trance. While you are in this trance, you gain the following benefits:
-Your attacks deal an additional 1d4 damage
-Your walking speed increases by 10 feet
-You have advantage on Strength checks and saving throws
Your trance lasts for one minute. Your trance may end early if you are knocked unconscious or if your turn ends and you haven't attacked a hostile creature or taken damage since your last turn. You can also end your trance early as a bonus action. Once you have entered a religious trance twice, you must finish a long rest before you can do so again.

You gain an additional use of this feature at 10th level, and again at 18th level. At 18th level, your additional damage changes from 1d4 to 2d4.

Church Teachings
Beginning at 1st level, you gain proficiency in Religion if you are not already proficient. If you are proficient, you gain Expertise.

Fighting Style
At second level, you adopt a particular style of fighting as your specialty. Choose one of the following options. You can’t take a Fighting Style option more than once, even if you later get to choose again.

Archery
You gain a +2 bonus to attack rolls you make with ranged weapons.

Defense
While you are wearing armor, you gain a +1 bonus to AC.

Dueling
When you are wielding a melee weapon in one hand and no other weapons, you gain a +2 bonus to damage rolls with that weapon.

Great Weapon Fighting
When you roll a 1 or 2 on a damage die for an attack you make with a melee weapon that you are wielding with two hands, you can reroll the die and must use the new roll, even if the new roll is a 1 or a 2. The weapon must have the two-handed or versatile property for you to gain this benefit.

Protection
When a creature you can see attacks a target other than you that is within 5 feet of you, you can use your reaction to impose disadvantage on the attack roll. You must be wielding a shield.

Two-Weapon Fighting
When you engage in two-weapon fighting, you can add your ability modifier to the damage of the second attack.

Crusader Order
When you reach 3rd level, you join an order that binds you as a Crusader forever. Up to this time you have been in a preparatory stage, committed to the path but not yet sworn to it. Now you choose the Order of Hospitalers or the Order of the Templar, all detailed at the end of the class description.
Your choice grants you features at 3rd level and again at 7th, 13th, and 18th level.

Ability Score Improvement
When you reach 4th level, and again at 8th, 12th, 16th, and 19th 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.

Extra Attack
Beginning at 5th level, you can attack twice, instead of once, whenever you take the Attack action on your turn.

Driven by Faith
Beginning at 6th level, you become immune to Charm and Fear effects while you are in a religious trance. In addition, you end the effect of any Charm or Fear upon entering a religious trance.

Veteran Campaigner
You have learned how to keep pushing on long marches. Beginning at 9th level, when you expend a hit die during a short rest, roll the die twice and take the higher of the two results.

Into the Fray
Your faith drives you to charge into the foe and smite them. Beginning at 10th level, you gain advantage on initiative rolls. Additionally, if you are surprised at the beginning of combat and aren't incapacitated, you can act normally on your first turn, but only if you enter a religious trance before doing anything else.

Holy Fervor
You draw upon your devotion in order to cleanse the world from enemies of your church. Beginning at 11th level, once per turn you may deal an additional 1d8 damage to an enemy struck by one of your attacks.

Unrelenting Strikes
Starting at 14th level, while you are in a religious trance, when you roll a 1 on your attack roll, you may choose to reroll your attack, using the new roll, even if the new roll is also a 1.

Tempered Zeal
Studying the great works of your church has strengthened your mind. Beginning at 15th level, you gain proficiency in Wisdom saves.

Retribution
Starting at 17th level, when you take damage from a creature that is within 5 feet of you, you can use your reaction to make a melee weapon attack against that creature.

Martyr's Purity
Your piety is unsurpassed by mortal beings. You are sustained and protected by your faith. Starting at 20th level, you gain resistance to Fire, Cold, and non-magical Slashing, Piercing, and Bludgeoning damage. In addition, you require half as much food to survive.

Crusader Orders

Order of the Hospitaler
Sometimes the word of a god is more powerful when it comes from a being wielding bandages instead of a sword. Crusaders of the Order of the Hospitaler are those who seek victory through protection and healing, rather than brute strength.

Medical Training
Starting at 3rd level, you gain proficiency with Medicine and Healer's Kits. If you already have proficiency with either, you gain expertise. You can also spend one day and 3 gold creating a new Healer's Kit

Aura of Confidence
While your companions may not share your faith, they may draw strength from your example. Starting at 7th level, while you are conscious, allies within 10' of you gain advantage on saves to resist Charm or Fear. At 18th level, this aura expands to 30'.

Field Medic
You have studied the healing arts to their utmost. Starting at 13th level, if you spend a charge of a Healer's Kit on an ally during a short rest, they are healed a number of hit points points equal to your Wisdom modifier (minimum 1) and when they expend a hit die during that short rest, they roll the die twice and take the higher of the two results.

Hold the Line
Those who cannot reach your allies cannot hurt them. Your will to protect those under your care forces you to stand and fight. Starting at 18th level, at the start of each of your turns, you regain hit points equal to 5 + your Constitution modifier if you have no more than half of your hit points left.

You don’t gain this benefit if you have 0 hit points.

Order of the Templar
It can be said that the only way to permanently stop an enemy is to destroy them. Crusaders of the Order of the Templar are those who devote themselves to war so they can better eliminate foes of the church.

Martial Training
Starting at 3rd level, your weapon attacks score a critical hit on a roll of 19 or 20.

Godspeed
None shall flee from you. Starting at 7th level, you can use your bonus action to Dash.

Furor of the Templar
You know how to land truly devastating blows. Beginning at 13th level, you can roll one additional weapon damage die when determining the extra damage for a critical hit with a melee attack.

Improved Martial Training
Starting at 18th level, your weapon attacks score a critical hit on a roll of 18-20.

ravencroft0
2016-07-09, 07:41 PM
Looks good. Could you suggest a quick build?

Rerem115
2016-07-09, 08:01 PM
Looks good. Could you suggest a quick build?

Hmmm. Any background could work, but soldier or acolyte probably fits best thematically. Sword and board, two-handed, ranged, and two-weapon fighting all have support. Go Strength or Dexterity depending on your primary weapon, and then focus on Constitution, with tertiary focus being Wisdom, especially for Hospitalers. Good feats include GWM, Sentinel, and Polearm Master; if the feat works for a Paladin or a Fighter, it should be useful here.

JNAProductions
2016-07-09, 09:15 PM
Seems a bit much. No one feature (except maybe max healing from hit dice) seems OP, but all together, the package is a little too much.

Rerem115
2016-07-09, 09:37 PM
Seems a bit much. No one feature (except maybe max healing from hit dice) seems OP, but all together, the package is a little too much.

Really? I was almost worried that this class was a bit underpowered :smalltongue:. I balanced this class around having the flavor of a Paladin, but comparable to Fighters and Barbarians in combat, aiming for more tankiness than the Fighter and more damage than the Barbarian.

I ran the numbers, and this class has less overall nova potential than just about any other martial class; fighters get Action Surge, and in the case of Battlemasters, maneuver dice, Paladins are a bag of grenades called "Divine Smite", Rogues (especially Assassins) go "KNIFE", and Rangers get all kinds of spells to play with. The only class that the Crusader out-damages in the short run are Barbarians, by virtue of getting one more attack.

For sustained damage, Crusaders deal more than Barbarians and Paladins, a bit more than Rangers, and less than Fighters and Rogues (assuming they can sneak attack every round).

While Crusaders do heal well outside of combat, they have no healing in combat, so Fighters and Paladins would probably be better in extended fights.

I don't know, maybe it is a bit much, but I can't find any particular abilities or combination of abilities that would make this class stronger than the standard martial classes. If you can tell me what I should change so it isn't "a bit much", I'd be happy to take a look, but until then, I have no idea what I have to rebalance. :smalltongue:

JNAProductions
2016-07-09, 09:40 PM
It's actually got better DPR than an equivalent Fighter-same number of attacks, but also has that floating 1d8. (And gets its fourth attack earlier-Retribution is going to trigger a LOT.)

I don't know how you got your numbers, but it's flawed.

Rerem115
2016-07-09, 09:50 PM
Huh. I didn't quite consider that.

Any suggestions as to what an appropriate change would be? I thought that adding an extra d8 would help balance against the utter lack of nova capacity, but if it's not, I could replace the 14th level feature with something else.

Rerem115
2016-07-18, 10:31 PM
*shamelessly bumps own post* I'm pretty satisfied with where it is now, but JNAProductions raised an issue of DPR. Does an earlier extra attack and floating d8 balance against a lack of nova, or is that too strong?

JNAProductions
2016-07-18, 10:48 PM
*shamelessly bumps own post* I'm pretty satisfied with where it is now, but JNAProductions raised an issue of DPR. Does an earlier extra attack and floating d8 balance against a lack of nova, or is that too strong?

DPR is still too high. It's equal to an equivalent Fighter, until you hit level 14, at which it becomes BETTER.

You should not be out-DPRing the Fighter-at least, not on a chassis that's pretty much superior to the fighter.

Amnoriath
2016-07-19, 04:31 PM
I think the real question is why is this a base class? All it is basically is a Champion Fighter with a couple of spliced class mechanics from others and another proficiency. Many of which synergize a bit too well in a direction that doesn't seem all that Crusader like. Adding to this issue you don't have an iconic feature that defines it mechanically or flavor wise. Ultimately as is it would be better served as a Martial Archetype, that way you can focus more on its flavor and purpose.

R.Shackleford
2016-07-22, 10:01 AM
I think the real question is why is this a base class? All it is basically is a Champion Fighter with a couple of spliced class mechanics from others and another proficiency. Many of which synergize a bit too well in a direction that doesn't seem all that Crusader like. Adding to this issue you don't have an iconic feature that defines it mechanically or flavor wise. Ultimately as is it would be better served as a Martial Archetype, that way you can focus more on its flavor and purpose.

Because the base fighter class is a putrid chassis. If you are going to use a 5e base class then make a spell-less Paladin.

OP, this has a lot of potential if I think of anything that could help I'll post a response later.


Edit

OP: You should take a look at this link http://homebrewery.naturalcrit.com/ it can help you make really snazzy homebrew. :)

Amnoriath
2016-07-22, 01:30 PM
Because the base fighter class is a putrid chassis. If you are going to use a 5e base class then make a spell-less Paladin.


1. Suggesting it be a sub-class isn't an endorsement of the Fighter. It is just a way to most of what he wants while focusing on what he needs. I have made my case and presented my fix many a times before. Please don't make this one of those threads.
2. If something is suppose to be a variant it shouldn't change the base flavor. This crusader though has a very clear zealot like flavor, something in which the Paladin does not necessarily have.

R.Shackleford
2016-07-22, 04:45 PM
1. Suggesting it be a sub-class isn't an endorsement of the Fighter. It is just a way to most of what he wants while focusing on what he needs. I have made my case and presented my fix many a times before. Please don't make this one of those threads.
2. If something is suppose to be a variant it shouldn't change the base flavor. This crusader though has a very clear zealot like flavor, something in which the Paladin does not necessarily have.

If you aren't endorsing the class then don't suggest the class. If you want to make good quality homebrew, you don't start with a bad foundation, start with a bad foundation and you are going to have a bad time.

The 3.5 Crusader was pretty much the spell-less Paladin. The 3.5 Paladin was very very very much a zealot, they always have been. Using the Paladin is the best choice IF you aren't just making this its own thing.

I would say keep it as a base class, there is a lot with the 3.5 Crusader that works by itself and not a subclass.

Amnoriath
2016-07-23, 07:30 AM
If you aren't endorsing the class then don't suggest the class. If you want to make good quality homebrew, you don't start with a bad foundation, start with a bad foundation and you are going to have a bad time.

The 3.5 Crusader was pretty much the spell-less Paladin. The 3.5 Paladin was very very very much a zealot, they always have been. Using the Paladin is the best choice IF you aren't just making this its own thing.

I would say keep it as a base class, there is a lot with the 3.5 Crusader that works by itself and not a subclass.
1. Ugh, do you really mean to tell me that if I make that kind of suggestion that I should be 100% okay with the base class? I am sorry but that is way too high of standards to force on other people. Besides the base Fighter isn't putrid, it has some issues in that it is offensively based and lacks an iconic feature, but over all having two more ASI's greatly adds some decent utility of their choice as well as shoring up other defenses and health makes it a very viable class in the base system, something in which you don't use. Again I have made my fix and have addressed these issues please focus on helping him. http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?473476-The-Dawn-of-War-5e-Fighter-remix(PEACH)&highlight=dawn+of+war
2. Eh, no not really Paladins had a Lawful Good code in which they had to abide by the Crusader didn't. Also that was 3.5 this is 5e. A Paladin here is not only defined by their Oath but also by their presence. This has neither such mechanics or key flavor.
3. The 3.5 Crusader was an Initiator class, something in which he hasn't shown or said he wants it to be like. Also it's key features often depended on different alignments so unless you want to make sub-classes on them in which the OP clearly doesn't flavor wise it is isn't as large as you think.

Rerem115
2016-07-23, 11:08 AM
If you are going to use a 5e base class then make a spell-less Paladin.


Honestly, that was what I intended to do at first. My problem was that I didn't want to stop at making it spell-less, I wanted it to be entirely mundane, with no explicitly magical abilities. Thing is, if you take away a Paladin's magical abilities, you're left with a greatly weakened Fighter with a few aura abilities and a quasi-religious flavor. So, instead of making a mundane Paladin, I made a religious Fighter. I admit, it probably does need a rework; by the end of the day today, I'll try to make it slightly more palatable.

Rerem115
2016-07-23, 12:27 PM
Reworked and ready for review! I significantly toned down DPR post level 11, changed the level of some features, and tried to give the class more of a core feature.

JNAProductions
2016-07-23, 12:37 PM
Okay, so now you have Rage, except it adds movement speed instead of resistances. Okay.

The only thing that worries me is Veteran Campaigner. That's REALLY DAMN POWERFUL. I'd make it advantage on hit die rolls (roll two, take the highest) instead of just auto-max.

Rerem115
2016-07-23, 12:48 PM
The only thing that worries me is Veteran Campaigner. That's REALLY DAMN POWERFUL. I'd make it advantage on hit die rolls (roll two, take the highest) instead of just auto-max.

Is it? I really had no way to judge, since every DM I've ever played with seemed to forget that short rests exist :smalltongue:.
On average, that's going to be ~4 extra points of healing per die expended, on a feature that is is already unusable in combat, and uses an already limited resource. I could change it to advantage, but in my experience, extra healing in short rests doesn't make much of a difference. With that in mind, I'm legitimately curious, what makes Veteran Campaigner so overpowered?

JNAProductions
2016-07-23, 01:01 PM
Is it? I really had no way to judge, since every DM I've ever played with seemed to forget that short rests exist :smalltongue:.
On average, that's going to be ~4 extra points of healing per die expended, on a feature that is is already unusable in combat, and uses an already limited resource. I could change it to advantage, but in my experience, extra healing in short rests doesn't make much of a difference. With that in mind, I'm legitimately curious, what makes Veteran Campaigner so overpowered?

It's not so much that the AVERAGE healing goes up, it's that the GUARANTEED healing goes up. You can choose EXACTLY how much to heal, while normally there's some randomness involved.

Rerem115
2016-07-23, 01:17 PM
Ah, I see. Edited to give Advantage, instead of maxing healing.

JNAProductions
2016-07-23, 01:19 PM
Ah, I see. Edited to give Advantage, instead of maxing healing.

I'd call this a pretty good class, then. Ready for playtesting, definitely.