D&D Subclass Contest Chat Thread 2: Joke Entries Win with Alarming Frequency

[Old Harry MTX]

Thankyou for your feedback!

The CR is very high: the permanent spell-slot allocation as a balance point is a great solution (similar to the "investiture" I used in my wizard subclass) but I'm not sure it goes far enough. Giving a PC an all-day summon stronger than a creature a Moon Druid can turn into is probably going too far. I think if you start with a CR of 1/4 the ranger's level then allow for an upgrade by +1 CR or so when you add the 11th level bonus features it should work okay. If your target is CR 6 at 20th level you match the moon druid's peak without going past it.

Yes, the CR is the thing concerns me the most. I decided to go up to CR 8 because the polymorph spell allows an 8th level character to transform into a CR 8 tyrannosaurus (the beast with the highest CR in the PHB), so I assumed that a level 20 character could somehow summon a creature of equal power, not to mention that I consider the ability to summon a tyrannosaurus a mandatory target for a class called "Kaiju Tamer". Also, a higher CR would also add more room to apply the effects of the "Release the Kraken Cryptid" feature.

But yes, as it is now, this subclass is way too strong when compared to a Moon Druid (not to mention when compared to a Beastmaster Ranger). However I want to try other solutions before (probably inevitably) reducing the CR (E.G. removing or halving the proficiency bonus to AC, working on a different action economy, adding a spell slots cost to special actions...).

And you can increase a creature's SIZE without touching their CR as long as nothing changes but the amount of space they take up and maybe their reach.

This is an interesting solution, but it would almost be just flavor.

I'm not sure the bonus spells do much for you. You could drop the nautical flavor entirely and allow the player to decide if their kaiju comes from the sea, the hollow earth, a hidden island, outer space, a volcano, or whatever else.

I will definitely consider this, even if I find this flavor very thematic, since I consider mythological monsters such as krakens, scyllas, charybdis, hydras, aspidochelones or leviathans as proto-kaiju. XD

However, it would be interesting to create different themes, finding for each a pro and a con, such as the amphibious trait and the low walking speed of the maritime one.

The ranger is the better choice compared to the fighter. If you slightly retooled this as a more generalized beastmaster rework I think it would probably work great.

I'll do my best!