Dog [5e Class]

[Grek]

Dog
Hit Dice: 1d8
Proficiencies: Unarmed attacks. No Armour. Dexterity and Charisma Saving Throws. Proficiency in Playing Cards, plus 3 from from Athletics, Acrobatics, Survival, Stealth, Investigation, Insight, Medicine, Intimidation, Performance or Persuasion.
Equipment: A collar with your name on it, and (a) water bowl or coating of mud; (b) ball, stick or bone; (c) an unlimited supply of love, slobber or shed fur (pick two).

1. A Dog's Life, Man's Best Friend, Keen Senses
2. Catch, Growl
3. Doggy Archtype
4. Ability Score Improvement
5. Uncanny Dog, Well Lore
6. Very Good Nose (Detect Evil and Good)
7. Ability Score Improvement
8. Doggy Archtype Feature
9. Very Good Nose (Detect Poison and Disease)
10. Ability Score Improvement
11. Very Good Nose (Detect Traps)
12. Play Dead
13. Ability Score Improvement
14. Doggy Archtype Feature
15. Very Good Nose (Sense Emotion)
16. Ability Score Improvement
17. Very Good Nose (Detect Magic)
18. Doggy Archtype Feature
19. Ability Score Improvement
20. Go to Heaven

A Dog's Life: You are a dog. Your race and background instead indicate the race and background of your original owner. You gain all the normal benefits of that race and background, except that you are a Beast rather than whatever type of creature you would normally be, you age in dog years, you cannot speak or write in any of the languages you know, and your base Speed is always 30 feet. You don't have thumbs (or hands, for that matter) and cannot wield weapons, but your unarmed attacks do 1d8 damage when you use it to bite. Likewise, you cannot use tools, but you give allies adjacent to you advantage on any tool use check for which you are proficient. It is generally not possible to multiclass into Dog without magical assistance, but multiclassing into something else uses the normal multi-classing rules with a requirement of 13 Int from the Dog portion of the requirements. While not wearing armour, your AC counts as being 12 + Dex Modifier.

Man's Best Friend: If a Humanoid or Giant pets you, plays fetch with you or gives you food, you become Best Friends until you or they take a long rest. They understand what you are trying to communicate with your woofs, wags and growls (treat this as a common language), and you may spend your bonus action to move up to 30' directly toward one of your Best Friends. You may have an unlimited number of Best Friends - Dogs aren't the best at counting.

Keen Senses: You gain advantage Wisdom (Perception) checks that rely on hearing or smell. If you have an item from a person you are trying to sniff out, add your proficiency bonus to any Wisdom (Survival) checks to track that person. This stacks with the regular proficiency bonus for being proficient in Survival.

Catch: At 2nd level, you learn to play catch! As a reaction, you may move up to half you speed in order to intercept a thrown object, dropped or falling which could fit into your mouth. You must put yourself somewhere along the line between where the object was thrown and where it would have landed (or hit). If this object was thrown as part of an attack, the attack does no damage to anyone if you catch it. Once you've caught an object, your mouth is full and you may not use your bite attack until you release the item you've caught, reducing your unarmed damage back down to normal. You may only release an item to catch another item, during a short rest, or when someone proficient in Animal Handling or Sleight of Hand spends an action to get the item away from you. You also drop items held in your mouth if you become incapacitated.

Growl: At 2nd level, you also learn to growl very loudly. As an action, you may force one creature within 50' who is NOT your Best Friend to make a Wisdom Save or become Frightened with a DC of 8 + Proficiency Bonus + Charisma Bonus. This lasts for ten minutes, or until they become your Best Friend. If a creature saves against your growling, further growling will have no effect until after the end of your next turn. (For example, if you growl at a dragon on turn 1 and it saves, you cannot usefully growl at the dragon until your action on turn 3. But you could growl at the wererat in the corner instead.) If you growl at a creature that is immune to being Frightened, all of your Best Friends gain advantage on attack rolls against that creature until the start of your next turn.

Very Good Nose: At 6th level, you may reproduce the effects of Detect Evil and Good at will. At 9th level, you may instead use Detect Poison and Disease. At 11th level, you may use Detect Traps. At 15th level, you may use Sense Emotion. At 17th level, you may Detect Magic. Unfortunately, you can only detect things within a foot radius of your nose using these spells.

Doggy Archtype: At 3rd level, you determine learn who the Good Dog is and whether or not it is you.

Uncanny Dog: At 5th level, you gain the ability to communicate with all humanoids, even if they are not your Best Friend (yet). Also, whenever an attacker that you can see hits you with an attack, you can use your reaction to halve the damage against you.

Well Lore: At 5th level, you have an instinctive knowledge of the direction, distance and condition of the nearest creature trapped within a well. While Good Dogs use this to mount rescues, Bad Dogs use this to create compasses.

Play Dead: At 12th level, you learn to play dead! Whenever you would normally make a death saving throw, you may instead choose to recover a hit die as if you had just taken a short rest. Additionally, whenever you are wearing a collar and would be disintegrated, imploded, incinerated or otherwise instantly killed, you vanish and leave the collar behind. If even a single creature mourns your loss, you reappear during their next long rest alive and whole. These abilities can only be used once per long rest each.

Go to Heaven: All dogs go to Heaven, regardless of alignment. Most must wait until they die. But at 20th level, you don't have to. You may Plane Shift to any Good-aligned Outer Plane (or campaign equivalent) as a bonus action. You can also Plane Shift back to the last non-Heaven location you were in in the same way. Both of these abilities require a short rest in between uses. If you're a Good Dog, the Celestials will even be pleased to see you.

---

Good Dog

A Good Dog: At 3rd level, any creature who inquires aloud as to the identity of the Good Dog while within earshot of you instantly realizes that you are the Good Dog and becomes your Best Friend. All Celestials and children under the age of 10 are automatically your Best Friend, even without asking.

Belly Rubs: At 3rd level, you may attempt to solicit food and belly rubs from Humanoids and Giants by wagging your tail at them. Such a brazen display may only be done once per short rest and requires that you remain prone while soliciting affection. All such creatures within 50' of you who fail a Charisma saving throw (DC of 8 + Proficiency Bonus + Charisma Bonus) are charmed by your antics until such time as they become your Best Friend, or you attack them, or one minute has passed.

Face Licks: At 8th level, you may lick adjacent Best Friends as a bonus action in order to let them make an additional saving throw against any effect(s) which would leave them charmed, frightened, incapacitated, diseased, poisoned or otherwise unwell. If they are dying, they automatically stabilize. This ability may only be used once per long rest per person.

The Goodest Dog: At 14th level, you may call upon the Goodest Dog once per long rest. Treat this as using Conjure Celestial to conjure a Couatl, except that the Couatl's true form (for its Change Shape ability) is that of a very friendly dog.

Cold Noses: At 18th level, your Face Licks ability works once per short rest per person instead. Once per long rest, it can restore one of your Best Friends to full health as long as they haven't been dead for more than a minute.

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Bad Dog

A Bad Dog: At 3rd level, your Best Friends become "Best Friends" instead. You may not have regular Best Friends, only "Best Friends". The first time that you bite someone who is your "Best Friend" in round, it deals an extra 1d6 damage per two Dog Levels you have. Being "Best Friends" doesn't stop you from growling at someone, either. Undead and anyone with infested with fleas is automatically your "Best Friend".

Good Dog?: At 3th level, you are filled with resentment at a world that does not think that you are a Good Dog. You gain proficiency with the Disguise Kit and with Deception, and apply your proficiency bonus twice when attempting to conceal the fact that you are Not A Good Dog. While you still may not use an actual Disguise Kit (no thumbs), you can roll around in mud to the same effect.

Fleas: At 8rd level, your fleas get entirely out of control. Any creature not immune to poison who touches you, attacks you or becomes frightened of you is automatically infested with the horrible little things until they take a bath. With soap. Once cured of your fleas, they are immune to your particular strain for a week.

Mail Bane: At 14th level, you gain a special hatred for all who would flaunt their filthy penmanship by carrying the written word around with them. All creatures who are carrying letters, books or other forms of writing becomes your "Best Friend" - you are able to recognize such creatures on sight. Additionally, whenever you eat a spell scroll, you gain the ability to cast the spell within once (as if by reading the scroll) regardless of whether you meet the normal requirements to do so.

Dire Heartworms: At 18th level, your fleas somehow become infested with Dire Heartworms. Once per long rest, when a creature dies when infested with your fleas, you may have two dozen dire heartworms (mechanically identical to constrictor snakes; see the Monster Manual for details) erupt from the corpse. These creatures are frightened by you and your companions. Roll initiative for the heartworms as a group - they each attempt to constrict, kill and crawl into a nearby creature other than you and your companions, with any heartworm unable to find prey slithering off in search of warmth and food. These heartworms (thankfully) expire after spending one hour (cumulatively) outside of a warm body.

---

The Dog with the Gun

Good? Bad?: At 3rd level, every time someone attempts to acquire information about you using divination, they must first pass a Wisdom saving throw. Failure indicates that they learn nothing, save that you are the Dog with the Gun. Whenever someone fails a saving throw with respect to you (including the one from this ability or from Growl), you may elect to have them become your Best Friend until you use this ability again.

Cybernetic Paw: At 3rd level, of your paws has been replaced with a powerful metallic paw. In addition to looking totally sweet, it also has a built-in double barrel shotgun. Twice per short rest, you can use it to blast everyone within a 15 foot cone, inflicting 1d8 damage damage per two levels and forcing anyone damaged to take a Strength save (DC 12 + 1/2 Dog Level) or be thrown back 30 feet and knocked prone.

The Smell of Napalm in the Morning: At 8th level, your Very Good Nose ability loses their range limitation with respect to your Best Friends and all weapons, traps and poisons that you are aware of count as your Best Friends for the purpose of this and other Dog class features. You are also able to become Best Friends with Undead, if they pet you, feed you or play fetch with you.

Klaatu Barkada Nikto: At level 14, you learn to play Deadite. Whenever you use your Play Dead ability to recover from dying, you may elect to return from the dead as a spooky undead Dog. Your type changes to undead, you gain immunity to necrotic damage, and your bite attack inflicts the Poisoned condition (no save) for one minute in addition to its normal effects. You may cease to be a Dogite by using the once per long rest resurrection ability of Play Dead or through any other method which would restore an undead creature to proper life. As a Dogite, Go to Heaven instead sends you to Hell (or any other Evil-aligned Outer Plane and/or campaign equivalent).

Hail to the King, Baby: Due to a complicated inheritance dispute, you become King of a small and perplexing kingdom in a distant land. Once per long rest when you use your Play Dead ability (or otherwise in grave peril - ask your DM), you may have a dozen Ogre Bailiffs in knightly armour (as per page 237 of the monster manual, except with AC 15 and better smelling) burst onto the scene and attempt to grapple (with a Strength (Athletics) check of +6) all miscreants that would dare threaten the Royal Person. Although they will not otherwise fight on your behalf, they will happily serve you as any strong but not-too smart servant would until your next short rest.

[Weyroc]

Does this open up racial prestige classes such as Woofer and Pupper?

[Lemmy]

This is one of those joke classes that are fun and effective enough that I'd seriously play one for a whole campaign!

[Lalliman]

This is awesome. Full of little jokes but still sensible enough to be playable. Great job.

The only broken part is Growl, which frightens someone for a whole hour without a recurring save. I'd probably just change it to the standard one minute, with a recurring save each round.

For a while now I've been considering making a Cat class as a joke. Guess I should go do that now, so Cat and Dog can be played side by side.

Edit: The only thing I'm missing is that I'd expect the dog to be faster. Wolves have movement speed 40 feet.

[Grod_The_Giant]

The features are cute (though Lalliman is right; Frightening someone for an hour is too much), but a few mechanical points:

Proficiencies: Tooth and Claw. No Armour. Constitution and Wisdom Saving Throws. Perception, Survival, Playing Cards and two from from Athletics, Acrobatics, Stealth, Investigation, Insight, Medicine, Intimidation, Performance or Persuasion.

That's a lot of skills. I also wouldn't force Dogs to be proficient in specific skills, since that kind of goes against 5e design. (Also, I've had some real unobservant dogs in my day)

A Dog's Life: You are a dog. Your race and background instead indicate the race and background of your original owner. You gain all the normal benefits of that race and background, except that you are a Beast rather than whatever type of creature you would normally be, you age in dog years, you cannot speak or write in any of the languages you know, and your base Speed is always 30 feet. You don't have thumbs (or hands, for that matter) and cannot wield weapons, but your claws and teeth function as two scimitars and a longsword respectively. Likewise, you cannot use tools, but you give allies adjacent to you advantage on any tool use check for which you are proficient. It is generally not possible to multiclass into Dog without magical assistance, but multiclassing into something else uses the normal multi-classing rules with a requirement of 13 Int from the Dog portion of the requirements. While nor wearing armour, your AC counts as being 12 + Dex Modifier.

The light armor part is... okay, though I'd kind of prefer a Barbarian-style "Dex+Con" unarmored AC. The "claws and teeth" part is less good. It's structurally awkward, goes against the standard way of handling natural attacks, and I foresee weird interactions with the rest of the game. (For instance, does it count as "touching" something? How do I wield my bite with two hands? Etc)

Catch: At 2nd level, you learn to play catch! As a reaction, you may move up to half you speed in order to intercept a thrown object which could fit into your mouth. You must put yourself somewhere along the line between where the object was thrown and where it would have landed (or hit). If this object was thrown as part of an attack, the attack does no damage to anyone if you catch it. Once you've caught an object, your mouth is full and you may not use your bite attack until you release the item you've caught. You may only release an item to catch another item, during a short rest, or when someone proficient in Animal Handling or Sleight of Hand spends an action to get the item away from you. You also drop items held in your mouth if you become incapacitated.

Um. what? Why can't you drop things? I see the joke here, but it's not worth the weirdness of not being able to open your mouth again. The ability is limited enough (only thrown objects, only 1/round) that it doesn't need a balancing factor.

Growl: At 2nd level, you also learn to growl. As an action, you may force one creature who is NOT your Best Friend to make a Wisdom Save or become Frightened with a DC of 8 + Proficiency Bonus + Charisma Bonus. This lasts for one hour, or until they become your Best Friend.

Frightened is a significant debuff. As noted, "one hour" is way too long, especially for an at-will ability. I'd make it much shorter, add a new save every round, or both.

Tail Wags: At 3rd level, you may attempt to solicit food and belly rubs from Humanoids and Giants by wagging your tail at them. Such a brazen display may only be done once per short rest and requires that you remain prone while soliciting affection. All such creatures within 50' of you are charmed by your antics until such time as they become your Best Friend, or you attack them.

Once/short rest, permanently Charm everyone around with with no save? Yeahbutno. Should have a Wisdom or Charisma save, and last an hour at most. Also, given the prone requirement, should probably be called "Belly Rubs?"

Good Dog?: At 3th level, you are filled with resentment at a world that does not think that you are a Good Dog. You gain proficiency with the Disguise Kit and with Deception, and apply your proficiency bonus twice when attempting to conceal the fact that you are Not A Good Dog.

This doesn't do much, since you're explicitly prohibited from using tool kits.

Perhaps more importantly, though, the class lacks combat-structure.

• You've got a smallish hit die, light armor, and only one significant defensive feature. Look at other d8 combat-classes-- Rogues get bonus action disengages, Monks get probably-higher AC and bonus action Dodge/Disengage abilities, Valor Bards get medium armor, spells, and emergency AC boosting... Clerics get at least medium armor, plus spells, and you have to be in melee. You're going to get hit a lot, and it's going to hurt, and there's not much you can do to stop it.
• You have exactly one meaningful offensive option: Growl. That's it. Your basic attacks kind of stink-- you've got no Combat Style (meaning you can't really TWF), no Extra Attack, no ~11th level damage boost, nothing. And you don't get any special bonus damage to make up for it, like Sneak Attack. You're plinking away about as effectively as a Sorcerer who didn't take a melee cantrip.
• You don't have any of the usually power-boosts around 5th and 11th.

[Lalliman]

Once/short rest, permanently Charm everyone around with with no save? Yeahbutno. Should have a Wisdom or Charisma save, and last an hour at most. Also, given the prone requirement, should probably be called "Belly Rubs?"

This didn't strike me as overpowered because the charm ends when the target becomes your Best Friend, and they become your Best Friend when they pet you, which is what this feature invites them to do. In practice the feature just compels people to approach and become your Best Friend, and then the effect ends. The practical applications would be a) ensuring that you can talk to someone you just met or b) if you're a Bad Dog, meeting the prerequisites for Sneak Attack.

You can't really use the charm effect to manipulate people because they can't understand you until they become your Best Friend and the effect ends. And it's not very useful in combat either, because the charm ends when you attack, and it does nothing to prevent the targets from attacking your allies.

It is potentially exploitable in combination with Uncanny Dog though.

Your basic attacks kind of stink-- you've got no Combat Style (meaning you can't really TWF), no Extra Attack, no ~11th level damage boost, nothing. And you don't get any special bonus damage to make up for it, like Sneak Attack.

Bad Dog does get an equivalent to Sneak Attack. See the 3rd level feature.

All your other points are valid. I hadn't given it that level of thought yet.

[Grod_The_Giant]

This didn't strike me as overpowered because the charm ends when the target becomes your Best Friend, and they become your Best Friend when they pet you, which is what this feature invites them to do. In practice the feature just compels people to approach and become your Best Friend, and then the effect ends. The practical applications would be a) ensuring that you can talk to someone you just met or b) if you're a Bad Dog, meeting the prerequisites for Sneak Attack.

You can't really use the charm effect to manipulate people because they can't understand you until they become your Best Friend and the effect ends. And it's not very useful in combat either, because the charm ends when you attack, and it does nothing to prevent the targets from attacking your allies.

It is potentially exploitable in combination with Uncanny Dog though.

You don't have to let them pet you once they're charmed-- the ability says you "solicit" the attempts, but if you're not right next to them they can't do it immediately, giving you time to get out of the way. Once you hit 5th, you can communicate with non Best Friends, so that works too.

Bad Dog does get an equivalent to Sneak Attack. See the 3rd level feature.

All your other points are valid. I hadn't given it that level of thought yet.

Sort of? I didn't notice that it works on flea-infested things, which means it's not too effective until 8th, at which point it's a strong damage boost.

[Grek]

The only broken part is Growl, which frightens someone for a whole hour without a recurring save. I'd probably just change it to the standard one minute, with a recurring save each round.

Growl is an intentional departure from the usual 'one minute, save each round to end' deal for Frightened in 5e. Most characters get Frightened as a bonus on their real attack. For a Dog, Frightened is the whole attack. You don't get a save to end it each turn for the same reason that you don't get a save to 'end' hit point damage a Fighter or Rogue did to you.

That's a lot of skills. I also wouldn't force Dogs to be proficient in specific skills, since that kind of goes against 5e design. (Also, I've had some real unobservant dogs in my day)

Once/short rest, permanently Charm everyone around with with no save? Yeahbutno. Should have a Wisdom or Charisma save, and last an hour at most. Also, given the prone requirement, should probably be called "Belly Rubs?"

This doesn't do much, since you're explicitly prohibited from using tool kits.

Agreed on less skills, finite duration for the Charm, rename to Belly Rubs, fixing the disguise kit part of Good Dog?.

Perhaps more importantly, though, the class lacks combat-structure.

I wouldn't say that the class lacks combat structure so much as that it has an unusual combat structure which is not analogous to that of any other class and which probably needs explained in a header or something. Look at what Dog-hood gives you:

• Mediocre melee attacks, Wizard-tier AC and medium hit dice.
• The ability to move as bonus action or reaction.
• A very strong, at-will debuff effect which limits enemy mobility.
• A wide variety of information-gathering abilities.
• Bursts of one-off survivability at higher levels.

Obviously, you're not supposed to be playing this as a front and center melee combatant. If you try to do that, you won't be very good at it and you'll probably be tragically torn in half by a troll or something. You're a highly mobile crowd control and debuff expert. The basic strategy is to Growl at people and keep out of melee. Your best attack Frightens people at range, Frightened enemies can't move toward you, and you can move as a Bonus action toward your Best Friends. Good Dogs supplement their crowd control with better defenses (Belly Rubs) and allied debuff removal. Bad Dogs supplement their crowd control with sneak attacks and harder to remove debuffs.

[Knitifine]

I would add that dogs generally don't use their claws to attack, so stating them as weapons is a little weird.

[Lalliman]

Growl is an intentional departure from the usual 'one minute, save each round to end' deal for Frightened in 5e. Most characters get Frightened as a bonus on their real attack. For a Dog, Frightened is the whole attack. You don't get a save to end it each turn for the same reason that you don't get a save to 'end' hit point damage a Fighter or Rogue did to you.

But hit point damage becomes less effective against more powerful opponents due to larger hit point pools, in addition to potential AC increases. That keeps a 1st level rogue from killing a Balor with a single good roll. This ability has no such scaling, it works on everything to full effectiveness with only one failed roll required. Like, a 1st level Dog has a 20% chance to frighten a Balor, and once the Balor fails one save against it, it's frightened for a practically indefinite amount of time. This is both thematically and mechanically silly.

Even if this was the dog's only class feature, it would still be broken. Not overpowered per se, but broken because it undermines the intended functionality of the system.

Don't get me wrong, I like the unconventional ways in which the Dog contributes, there's nothing inherently wrong with that. But Growl is just off from being a reasonable mechanic.

[cogsworther]

I love this so much.

You may have meant this as a joke, but Dungeons and Dogs is now official.

[AvatarVecna]

So, I think it's bad form to give any 5e class two Good saves (that is, two from Dex/Con/Wis). You should really give them proficiency in one Good save and one Bad save. I don't really see dogs as being particularly resistant to mind control, although I could see an argument for Cha maybe (if you squint at it real hard). If I were assigning saves, I'd probably assign Str and Dex (similar to a Monk or Ranger, the classes I'd use to build a Dog character if I wasn't allowed to use homebrew). Also, since Ranger seems the better comparison, I'd also suggest letting them pick three proficient skills.

"A Dog's Life" seems pretty appropriate, although I'd recommend that you put the weapon statistics in the class entry rather than referring to weapons the dog can't use. I'd also appreciate clarification on whether you can claw/claw/bite as an action, or if you have to choose between using your bite and using your claws.

"Man's Best Friend" is a serious mobility upgrade, but that's fine enough.

"Keen Senses" isn't on the class table. Also, I feel that rather than double proficiency for tracking isn't appropriate (particularly when it's not a guarantee that you're proficient in the first place). I'd recommend either changing this to "you have advantage on Survival checks to track by scent", or "you have proficiency in Survival (or expertise if you're already proficient)". If you make the latter change, you could keep the base class skill proficiencies at 2, since this would effectively be your third.

For "Catch!", I would recommend giving the player some ability to intentionally release the caught object. If not having such an ability was an attempt to limit how often they could use the feature, I would probably recommend either a short rest limit (maybe Con times per short rest), or if a per rest mechanic isn't to your liking, a Wisdom saving throw against DC 8 + your proficiency bonus + your Charisma modifier (representing how proud you are of your catching ability, making you more reluctant to release your catch the more capable you are). This could also serve as the Handle Animal/Sleight Of Hand DC.

Beyond shortening the duration and giving additional saves every round, "Growl" should also have the usual monster fear ability line about "people who save against this effect are immune for a little while". Dogs shouldn't be scarier than dragons.

I would recommend that the range for "Very Good Nose" be either "(your proficiency bonus) ft" or "(your Wis mod) ft". Gives it slightly more range and makes it slightly less dangerous to sniff out some things.

I have no idea how balanced the revival mechanic of "Play Dead" is, but it's the kind of things that's easy for a DM to control when it happens, so that's fine I guess. The ability doesn't seem to specify if you still have to make the death saving throws, though, and I imagine that you should have to (since being able to avoid death saves entirely while also having a guaranteed rez ability for insta-death stuff makes you functionally immortal).

I highly recommend putting a usage limit on the Plane Shifting ability of "Go To Heaven", as a 7th lvl spell at-will, even if it only leads to one plane and back against, is a powerful boon in the hands of the players. Having it as perhaps a Cha mod/long rest thing would still be pretty powerful, but would be vaguely appropriate as a capstone.

All the "Good Dog" abilities seem balanced enough. I will make note that, in regards to Belly Rubs, being charmed doesn't prevent them from fighting in general, but merely from targeting you with harmful effects. I like that this ability isn't type-specific or a friendly AoO, though.

I am unclear about whether a "Bad Dog" can have normal Best Friends in addition to "Best Friends", although I suspect that becoming a Bad Dog prevents them from having Best Friends anymore.

I feel like a Bad Dog should gain proficiency/expertise in Intimidation rather than Deception, but "Good Dog?" is an okay ability mechanically.

You need to either provide creature stats for the Dire Heartworms, or reword the ability to specify exactly what they do and how they do it.

[Grek]

Dire Heartworms use the exact same statistics as a Constrictor Snake. Page 320 of the Monster Manual or Page 305 of the Player's Handbook.

Saves changed to Dexterity and Charisma. Unarmed Attacks simplified. Play Dead regains the usage limit that went missing during some forgotten editing pass. Go to Heaven also gains a usage limit. "Best Friends" clarified.

[Grek]

Growl has been changed to A] not last quite as long, B] not be as spammable against single targets, and C] to do something against things immune to Frightened.

[Mith]

Just letting you know that I will likely be test running this in Curse of Strahd. I have played the original Ravenloft campaign (and the castle isn't that much changed from the original), plus I had planned to DM the module myself with a different group. Currently playing a mute monk, but if he dies (and likely will), I'll replace him with a Good Dog. instead.

Spoiler: Spoilers for CoS: Dog's Backstory

Show

The plan is that the dog is Sergi's hunting hound that is now basically a spirit dog that returns a few days later if he dies. The idea is that I get a character that can contribute with little to no risk of spoiling the experience of the module with meta knowledge as a more regular party member.

[Grek]

As someone who is also running Curse of Strahd, I am extremely excited by this! Let me know how it goes!

[Mith]

While it goes against the concept of the class, my DM and I are looking at adding a bonus action trip if the attack hits simply because it adds something to scale with levels. Bad Dog gets more Damage, Good Dog gets control options.

[Grek]

That's not a terrible idea, honestly.

[Rynjin]

Changing Catch to require someone to take it from you or a fairly high DC Wisdom save might be appropriate to make it more playable.

[Mith]

I don't think this counts as Thread Necromancy for me to post in here again.

I am going to be likely starting a Level 3 Dog tomorrow, and am typing out all relevant features since I find I am increasingly not a fan of standard character sheets for tracking information. Because of this I am doing a second read of the class and am wondering about some potential changes.

1) Catch!: would it work to have either a Will Save to drop the item if you so choose as a free action, or sacrifice a full action to drop the item otherwise? This means you are losing an action, but are not potentially unable to let go of an item until your party sacrifices an entire hour of the day to wait for you to let go of a stick arrow.

2) Keen Nose: While I get that at will means that if a Dog is concentrating on looking for either a supernatural presence or intentional trap they can keep looking all day, but would a larger than 1' in front of you work for saying "something is off here" without being a direct indicator of location? I could see it being an invisible supernatural monster, where the dog knows that the monster is around, can make a good survival check to track them to a 5' square and then Detect Good/Evil.

[Twizzly513]

Haha, this is great. Might have to play this in a comedy campaign.

Good boy! Overall a great job homebrewing a class.

[Sicarius Victis]

As amazing as this class is, it gets even better when you think about the fact that it's fully capable of multiclassing. Dog/Monk? Acrobatic martial-artist dog with stunning bite attacks. Dog/Battlemaster? Loyal canine companion that inspires allies through prowess and courage in battle. Dog/Beastmaster? Monster-hunting dog warrior with a monster-hunting dog animal companion! Monster-hunting dog buddies!

[paddyfool]

Quite tempting to suggest a 3rd archetype, called Pack Dog, with general teamwork based abilities, which might include something like these 5 abilities:
- Dogpile (benefits to attacking/grappling an opponent whom an ally has already attacked/grappled),
- Dogpack (gain a bunch of doggy followers, scaling with level)
- Doggy Takedown (the trip ability previously suggested)
- Howl (general debuff, possibly with a buff to pack members)
- Alpha Dog (a bonus to all Best Friends or packmembers who can see or hear you).

A fourth archetype might be Guard Dog, with general aggro drawing abilities, even better perception and a more fearsome growl, perhaps better grappling etc.

And then there's Pit Dog, for a one-on-one scrapper.

However, I may be taking this all a bit too far, and lack the knowledge of 5E mechanics to execute it well.

[Grek]

Added a 3rd archetype, may add the ones suggested in the above post later on.

[Wintorn]

Commenting so I can find this again when I'm not on mobile

[Zhorn]

*gets to play as a good boy*
*happy*

I love this, good job

[Grek]

A special thanks to @jdizzlean (The Mod Life Crisis) for their timely response to my request to get the thread unlocked and for inspiring this fourth archetype.

Metatextual Dog

3rd: Cash Me Osside, Howbow Dah. You may now use your Catch ability to catch dice at the table. Whenever someone rolls a dice and you don't like the result, you may catch the die and force the player to reroll using a different die. You (the player) are not required to hold it in your mouth and are encouraged not to. This is subject to all other limitations of the Catch ability, except for the range requirements.

3rd: I Have No Idea What I'm Doing. You gain proficiency + Expertise with two out of thieves tools, weaver's tools, brewer's supplies and calligrapher's supplies. Also gains the ability to use tools which you are proficient in despite not having thumbs. If your game uses Modern Magic, add hacking tools to the list of options.

8th: Thread Necromancy. Once per long rest, you may animate objects made from using animal-based fabrics. Treat this as Animate Objects with a caster level equal to your Dog level, except that it is a necromancy effect rather than a transmutation effect.

14th: Nobody Knows You're a Dog on the Internet. You may take the Hide action as a bonus action on your turn. If you successfully hide and are subsequently discovered, you appear disguised as something other than a dog. If you do not specify your disguise in advance, you appear as a cat with a cheeseburger. This disguise can be bypassed as any other disguise.

18th: Dog Song. Instead of causing an opponent to be Frightened when you Growl, you may instead choose to sing and cause them to be Charmed by you. Once per long rest, if a creature is charmed by you, and attempts to retrieve a die that you caught in response to that creature's actions, you may banish that creature (as per imprisonment) to the Rick Astley Dimension. While a creature is in the Rick Astley Dimension, it is no stranger to love (there are puppies there); is aware of all of the rule regarding the Rick Astley Dimension (read them the text of this ability), cannot leave under their own power (they are fully committed) and become immune to this ability from all other Metatextual Dogs (they won't get this from any other guy). If you currently have a creature trapped in the Rick Astley Dimension, it is released when you next use this ability.