Xanathar's Guide - Official Videos describing Confirmed Subclasses

[Spiritchaser]

“Rule with an Iron Fist. Once you have conquered, tolerate no dissent. Your word is law. Those who obey it shall be favored. Those who defy it shall be punished as an example to all who might follow.”

I hadn’t thought of conquest paladins in Dredd terms, but when presented with the suggestion, it is a very good fit

[Eragon123]

https://youtu.be/z-PgBcVaUkw

Oath of Conquest Paladin

[Rogerdodger557]

https://youtu.be/z-PgBcVaUkw

Oath of Conquest Paladin

Yesssss.....

I will say this excites for potential cheese between Conquest of Crown pallys. Conquest's channel divinity makes enemies fear him, and not get closer. Crown's is to make enemies not get further away.

[Azreal]

Yeah. It’s hard replicating one trick ponies where the trick is really extreme.

Imagine trying to replicate Charlie's base ability. ;)

[Eragon123]

Imagine trying to replicate Charlie's base ability. ;)

Honestly I’d probably ask for a racial ability that let me have a cantrip akin to charlie’s Base ability then go wizard and hope like hell my DM doesn’t make me start learning welsh.

[nickl_2000]

Paladin - Oath of Conquest
https://youtu.be/z-PgBcVaUkw

JC presenting
-This is a darker subclass of Paladin, deeper than Vengeance
-Paladins who believe so much in Law and Order that they will conquer them to make sure that they do follow it
-"A Bit like Saruman in Lord of the Ring before he goes bad"
-Talk about in the book that there are some of these Oath's that are Paladin of the Devils, and there is a slow boiling civil war within the subclass
-Very Effective at striking fear into others
-As they level up have an Aura where people who are frightened of them not able to move
-Scornful Rebute, if you strike them in battle they can make you take psychic damage in return

[alchahest]

Half plate is medium armor which he is proficient in.

Cant recall Conan wearing anything heavier than that.

Frenzy isnt a mindless rage. You're in total control of your PC. He might not frenzy (he might just rage), but he can if he wants.

Im sure in the books Conan gets tired and exhausted after some battles. That him using frenzy.

I'm having trouble remembering the name of the story where it features most, but he was dressed in the same full plate that the knights he was leading had on, and his opponent (I can't remember if it was Thoth Amon) was using magic to control the weather in a massive battle where the Cimmerian and, I believe, his Aquilonian subordinates, were ambushed

edit: it was Hour of the Dragon that I'm thinking of. bonus points for being a story with Pallantides in it!

[Unoriginal]

Conan indeed wore full plate in Hour of the Dragon. Well, until an evil wizard's curse forced him to rest in his tent, at which point one of his subordinates took his armor to lead the army to not demoralize the troops. Which lead in said subordinate dying in a magic-assisted ambush.

[alchahest]

I'm certain he'd worn a full suit on more than one occasion, especially in his older years, but Hour of the Dragon is the big one.

And speaking of Conan, I think the unnaturally silent lions in Tower of the Elephant are one of the scariest things I've ever pictured. Like, Here's this masterful warrior who's fought dragons, unearthly horrors, giant snakes, Centuries-Dead Powerful mages, etc, and the scariest thing is an otherwise mundane lion that just happens to exist completely silently.

[Temperjoke]

Paladin - Oath of Conquest
https://youtu.be/z-PgBcVaUkw

JC presenting
-This is a darker subclass of Paladin, deeper than Vengeance
-Paladins who believe so much in Law and Order that they will conquer them to make sure that they do follow it
-"A Bit like Saruman in Lord of the Ring before he goes bad"
-Talk about in the book that there are some of these Oath's that are Paladin of the Devils, and there is a slow boiling civil war within the subclass
-Very Effective at striking fear into others
-As they level up have an Aura where people who are frightened of them not able to move
-Scornful Rebute, if you strike them in battle they can make you take psychic damage in return

This is one of the classes I had hoped would make it.

[Eragon123]

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DMmjxfTUMAAT_Tn.jpg

here's the table of contents again. but in real picture form!

[nickl_2000]

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DMmjxfTUMAAT_Tn.jpg

here's the table of contents again. but in real picture form!

Thanks, I updated the original post

[DracoKnight]

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DMmjxfTUMAAT_Tn.jpg

here's the table of contents again. but in real picture form!

SUPER hyped for this book, both as a player and a DM.

EDIT: Where did you find that/who tweeted it?

[Dudewithknives]

This is one of the classes I had hoped would make it.

The problem I have is what happens when someone in the group disagrees with what the Conquest Paladin thinks?

Group wants to be subtle and sneak into the castle in disguise, CP wants to lead a charge at the gates.

Group wants to go talk to the thieves guild to get info, CP says they can't because they are criminals.

The tenants of CP just seem unconducive to group play and can easily be played LE.

I have fewer problems with conquest than I do redemption though.

[nickl_2000]

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DMmjxfTUMAAT_Tn.jpg

here's the table of contents again. but in real picture form!

Interesting.
4 whole pages of Racial Feats.
22 pages of new Spell Descriptions (and 3 of new Spell Lists)

[Aett_Thorn]

And I love the cleric sidebar.

[jaappleton]

Still a little pissed that it took them a week to actually reveal the Table of Contents.

[Dudewithknives]

Interesting.
4 whole pages of Racial Feats.
22 pages of new Spell Descriptions (and 3 of new Spell Lists)

So casters get 22 pages of new stuff, martials get... anything?

[nickl_2000]

So casters get 22 pages of new stuff, martials get... anything?

More new subclasses than casters?

[Dudewithknives]

More new subclasses than casters?

That is not new options to already playing characters, that is an option to a base class. Every new Spell is new options for everyone of the caster class.

Ex.

Sorcerer or wizard or whoever class, gets 15 new spells,
Every character old and new gets to use it.

If fighter/barbarian or whoever gets a new subclass it means nothing to anyone not playing that subclass.

[thepsyker]

Interesting.
4 whole pages of Racial Feats.
22 pages of new Spell Descriptions (and 3 of new Spell Lists)

And apparently just Racial Feats, so none of the Weapon, Skill, or Tool feats made it in apparently? Disappointing.

[Foxhound438]

That is not new options to already playing characters, that is an option to a base class. Every new Spell is new options for everyone of the caster class.

Ex.

Sorcerer or wizard or whoever class, gets 15 new spells,
Every character old and new gets to use it.

If fighter/barbarian or whoever gets a new subclass it means nothing to anyone not playing that subclass.

you're forgetting feats, but leaving that aside what do you want them to do? there's currently no universal "martial (((spell))) system" in 5e. martials get what their class features give them and equipment.

ps. it looks like there might be new magic items, which are historically better on martial characters anyway

[Waterdeep Merch]

That is not new options to already playing characters, that is an option to a base class. Every new Spell is new options for everyone of the caster class.

Ex.

Sorcerer or wizard or whoever class, gets 15 new spells,
Every character old and new gets to use it.

If fighter/barbarian or whoever gets a new subclass it means nothing to anyone not playing that subclass.

Feats are the only things they could realistically add that could affect martials across the board like that, as all martials are otherwise far more self-contained. I'm happy there's finally some new feats after all this time, though I do wish they'd do more.

So long as they don't create anything that's so good it becomes the boring-but-mandatory choice, like the +1 attack feats of yore. Maybe a few good defensive feats, or utilitarian? It's why I liked the skill feats UA so much.

[ZorroGames]

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DMmjxfTUMAAT_Tn.jpg

here's the table of contents again. but in real picture form!

Some material there that could be quite useful! Gracias.

[Dudewithknives]

you're forgetting feats, but leaving that aside what do you want them to do? there's currently no universal "martial (((spell))) system" in 5e. martials get what their class features give them and equipment.

ps. it looks like there might be new magic items, which are historically better on martial characters anyway

And thus why there will always be a power discrepancy.

Every new book adds new options for casters to pick from, but martials get nothing but new base character options, with power creep this if going to end up like 3.5.

[Maxilian]

And thus why there will always be a power discrepancy.

Every new book adds new options for casters to pick from, but martials get nothing but new base character options, with power creep this if going to end up like 3.5.

Well... that's not entirely true, have in mind that some Martial classes take advantage on Spells (Remember that needed buff that the EK and Rogue Caster got with SCAG? (Melee cantrips)), so it depends, also... anyone could pick Magic Initiate and Ritual Caster, so as long as we get enough cantrips and lvl 1 spells it may still help other non-full casters, heck even a Helf could take advantage of new cantrips.

I hoped the skill for feats would have made it, it would have given the martial classes much more options (Mainly Rogue and Fighter cause they are the ones with more ASIS available and monk are way too mad too think much about feats)

Note: You do have a point though

[Dudu]

So casters get 22 pages of new stuff, martials get... anything?

Your old dnd issue of having casters with access to a plethora of tools while martials basically beat foes with attacks. Roll to atk, if hit, roll for dmg. The diversity is all on the caster side.

4.0 tried to fix it, but made a bland system imo.

Personally, I think maneuvers should be more diverse and not be a Battlemaster thing. Battlemasters would have their on mechanic on top of maneuvers, that would be avaible to every martial. Paladins and Rangers would have half maneuver progression while Fighters would have full. Stuff like that.

The one publication that got the closest to diminish the diversity gap between casters and martials was Tome of Battle.

[Foxhound438]

And thus why there will always be a power discrepancy.

no? I mean, martial classes can feel weak in some contexts, but casters still have limitations, and martials get way way way more class features across the board, and those featues are generally about as good as spells, plus or minus "burst" vs. "sustained". In fact, in some contexts, casters are at a huge disadvantage to martials due to their reliance on spell slots.

and as far as the advantage of having "new options" goes, it's more or less going to forever be in negligible increments that will really never make a big difference compared to launch. Remember, every caster only gets to prepare so many spells at a time, and every time they drop one spell for a new one, they lose the utility of the original spell. it's a trade off. I mean, look at the EEPC: it came with a ton of neat new spells, but most of them are only side grade at best to existing ones, and in the few cases where it provides something new (wall of sand being a low level wall spell, snilloc's snowball swarm giving a 2nd level cold damage AOE, investitures being neat buff effects, etc) none of those really "took off" and became a significant power spike for casters, because they all still take slots to cast and they all require you to drop a spell prepared that you might rather have, and a lot of them take concentration which totally kills them when haste is a spell in the PHB. The only exception to that is absorb elements, but it's more niche and less powerful than Shield, so not everyone even takes it.

[samcifer]

Your old dnd issue of having casters with access to a plethora of tools while martials basically beat foes with attacks. Roll to atk, if hit, roll for dmg. The diversity is all on the caster side.

4.0 tried to fix it, but made a bland system imo.

Personally, I think maneuvers should be more diverse and not be a Battlemaster thing. Battlemasters would have their on mechanic on top of maneuvers, that would be avaible to every martial. Paladins and Rangers would have half maneuver progression while Fighters would have full. Stuff like that.

The one publication that got the closest to diminish the diversity gap between casters and martials was Tome of Battle.

I personally liked the way they did 4e. Fighters became more than an 'attack with weapon, hit? roll for damage. End turn' kind of playstyle. The powers helped them feel like a more varied class.

[DanyBallon]

And thus why there will always be a power discrepancy.

Every new book adds new options for casters to pick from, but martials get nothing but new base character options, with power creep this if going to end up like 3.5.

Long time ago, arcane casters had d4 HD, couldn't cast in armor, must select their spell in advance, etc.
But every edition removed some of these limitations because the players told the designers that it was not fun having limitations, and now we are complaining about arcane casters being too powerful? I guess we only have ourselves to blame for that.

I don't mind seeing casters getting more new options, as I understand that it's far easier to create a new spell, than a new feat or a new features to replace or add on top of an existing one. If in my group we feel that casters are getting the upper hand all too often, I'm lucky enough to play with people that don't mind using nerf to bring back balance, instead of trying to move everything up