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PapaQuackers
2016-09-15, 12:53 PM
Hi guys, this is a class that I've made inspired by a homebrew I saw for 3.5 long ago and by the Mime for Final Fantasy tactics. Please tell me what you think.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Sq5JP7DK78Go6xxVLXgHB2bZ23ou5nyl0CWTuSnref0/pub

clash
2016-09-15, 01:50 PM
This is an interesting idea but it has some issues.
1. Take out the touch attack. It goes against 5e design philosophy. Instead make it a melee spell attack.
2. This class can cast way too many spells. At level 5 it can cast a third level spell 12 times per day which is on par with the warlock ish, but it gets really crazy later on. By level 17 it can cast 9th level spells 42 times a day. All other classes are limited to 1. This needs to be reworked. Too many spells and too high of level.
3. Mimic appearance shouldn't have a caveat pertaining to archetype. This is counter to the design philosophy. Instead limit mimic appearance to humanoids normally and in the path of the beast specify they can also take the appearance of non-humanoids. Dont make someone worse for choosing a subclass. alternatively to keep it the way you have it limit it to non-humanoids normally and add changing into humanoids as a feature of Path of the Changeling.
4. Follow along is just too powerful as a reaction.
5. Mind over matter is just ...weird/confusing
6. For full copy see #3

Once you fix these I can take another look for you and start evaluating if it's balanced well or not.
Again interesting idea, and a good start. It just needs some work.

PapaQuackers
2016-09-15, 04:39 PM
I appreciate the feed back and I think I've accurately addressed all the criticisms put forth. I'd love to hear more of what you think.

clash
2016-09-15, 06:10 PM
I missed the really obvious problem that every 4th level needs to be only an ability score improvement for 5e so you will have to cut some of your features. The exception of level 20 the last asi is 19 instead.

Next, you are still doing a weird Ac thing with your attack roll. In 5th Ac is Ac so that needs to go. If you really it needs a boost to hit give it advantage but i recommend against that.

The spellcasting is better but feels wrong to me. My suggestion that I just thought of is to give the class spell slots like normal but no spell list or spells known. Then it uses spell mimicry to temporarily learn spells to cast with its slots. Learning new ones every day and being very versatile.

PapaQuackers
2016-09-15, 06:31 PM
Ah crap, I completely forgot about that whole ability score improvement thing. Whelp I removed some of my hard earned and hard made Mime abilities to fit in with 5Es design philosophy.

I also Amended the AC thing so it's just a spell attack with advantage.

As for the spell slot thing I had considered that initially but I was worried that you could become a full caster and avoid all of the issues usually involved with being a full caster. For example you could perfectly replicate Wizard spells and still retain Unarmored Defense, Second Wind, and Front of Mana or something. So I figure instead I would give a very limited number of spells with an unlimited selection to choose from.

clash
2016-09-16, 09:45 AM
As for the spell slot thing I had considered that initially but I was worried that you could become a full caster and avoid all of the issues usually involved with being a full caster. For example you could perfectly replicate Wizard spells and still retain Unarmored Defense, Second Wind, and Front of Mana or something. So I figure instead I would give a very limited number of spells with an unlimited selection to choose from.

I see where you are coming from, its an issue of giving them access to 9th level spells without making them a full caster. Mechanically the way you have it now should work alright, but something still feels off about it. If I think of something that feels better I will let you know, until then, what you have for spellcasting wont break anything.

PapaQuackers
2016-09-16, 11:11 AM
Are there any other balance issues you see?

clash
2016-09-16, 03:09 PM
None of the abilities seem broken by themselves. I think the biggest concern is with broken combos requiring high levels in 2 classes that couldn't be achieved by multiclassing. For example at 11th level can you mimic 6d6 sneak attack, improved divine smite, and fighters 3 attacks. Combos like that were never meant to go together and would break the class.

Just this example is 1d8 rapier + 1d8 smite + 6d6 sa + 5 + (switch weapons) (2d6 greatsword + 1d8 + 5 + 10 (gwm with casting bless to compensate))*2 ~ 88 dmg then action surge and do it again for
176 total damage at level 11.

See what I mean. Obviously circumstances need to be ideal but you should have ways of preventing this kind of abuse built in.

PapaQuackers
2016-09-16, 10:07 PM
Ok, I've made a complete overhaul of the DC's for Mimicking as I've realized that flat DCs are an extremely bad thing.

I've also amended the Mimic ability so that it prevents you from mimicking legendary actions.

In addition to that I've added a class feature called Instability which basically dictates that for each ability you attempt to stack on top of another in a single action you gain a 25% chance of failure. So using the example you just provided you would have a 75% that your attack would lose all abilities that would be applied to it. This will obviously not apply if you attempt to use a single ability at once.

I think that's a pretty decent overhaul and I would really love some feedback.

clash
2016-09-17, 08:00 AM
Flat DC's actually aren't too bad because of bonded accuracy. It makes sense that you would get better at mimicking target than worse as you gain levels.

Really good call on the legendary actions. Big area of abuse there that I wouldn't have even thought about.

Your instability isn't a bad approach but I feel one of the best parts of this class versatility and the next best is combining abilities. I had an idea. Instead of limiting each mimicked ability by level why not limit the abilities you can steal by their cumulative level. That way you couldn't make combinations that a muticlass character couldn't normally but you could still combine and maintain your versatility. So for instance if you were level 6 and you copied extra attack you could only copy a level 1 ability while you had that learned. So if you copied sneak attack from a level 6 rogue you would only get sneak attack add if you were level 1. You could even have the cumulative level get little boosts as you level so you could have say 22 levels of abilities at level 20 allowing 2 level 11 abilities if you really wanted but not 3 if that makes sense.

Just an idea.

PapaQuackers
2016-09-17, 09:12 AM
Ok, I've thought about Instability a bit more and I understand the desire to mix and match is pretty strong so I've made it so the penalty kicks in only if you're using more than 2 abilities at once. So using the example below you could still use Sneak Attack and Divine Smite at once no problem but if you tried to use Action Surge on top of that you'd have a 75% chance of failure.

As for the whole Mimicking things at lower level, it's an interesting approach but it's a lot of book keeping and it sort of goes against the whole nature of the class. You copy an ability as you see it right then and there, not as if you'd learned it long ago.

PapaQuackers
2016-09-26, 08:02 AM
Altered a few of the formulas for dcs and class abilities. Feedback is still welcome.