Martial Archetypes pt1 - Way of the Single Strike Monk

Martial Archetypes - Redesigning

I've done a few homebrew classes and archetypes in my time as a DM and player. 5th Edition has proven a pretty easy format to work in, with all the spell casters sharing from a set spell list. Since all of the Homebrew stuff was either based off or used elements of pre-existing homebrew, that i found didn't quite fit my play style, i have never seen fit to share any of it - as they weren't really wholly original works. 

The Need for Complex Martial Archetypes

I recently started playing in a campaign, that used powerful abilities inherent to your character, fuelled by a daily pool of power points. In order to access these powerful, essentially 'super powers', we had to forgo using spellcasters, and stick to melee classes.

While this is so far proving interesting; its been a little difficult adapting to the Melee class play style. I've played a monk before, and while it offered excellent one-on-one potential, i often found myself falling into the habit of 'okay, its my turn, i will...attack'. Flashback to playing a bard, and i would have several (hundred) different options each turn; and sure, the Bard is great at battlefield control, so she should have a ton of options. But even the glass-cannon sorcerer has so many more things to choose from than a fighter or barbarian.

Now it is, in many ways, probably intentional. In a role-playing game you need different play styles to cater for everyone - some people don't like min-maxing battlefield tactics, or keeping track of various effects. Some people just like to hit things - they don't care too much for the mechanical side of the game.

Now this is all well and good; until you notice that all the simple and straightforward to play classes are Martial; and while some of the archetypes buff up the complexity a bit, its no-where near on par with the magic users. I thinks its good to have a mix of complex and simple classes, i just wish that choosing to play barbarian because of the theme and idea, didn't limit you mechanically. I  want to play him because he's cool, not because he's simple.

And so this first series is aimed on re-vamping the Martial classes with some archetypes that add a bit more complexity and tactics to the class; with a strong focus on new, interesting playstyles, that differ not just from their class, but from the overall playstyles of pre-existing 5th edition.

And so i present: the first draft of the Monk archetype - Way of the Single Strike.

Delaying and stacking attacks

There was a Nintendo 3ds game a while back; Bravely Default. Squeenix's attempt to return the jrpg to its oldschool roots (think FFVI). The core mechanic of the game, intended to shake things up, was the default system. You had your 4 heroes, who all had their attacks each turn; but on each of their turns you could choose to instead be 'Brave' and borrow their actions from their next 3 turns. Front stacking 4 turns worth of a characters actions would deal a large amount of damage, or healing, but leave them useless for the next 3 turns. Alternatively you could Default on an action, effectively storing that heroes action for later, where they could unleash their multiple actions at once with no further penalty.

The System, though simple, allowed for some interesting interactions with enemies. If you knew a boss would be weak after a massive attack, you could forgo your attacks, storing them for an opening later. If you knew a creature was low lvl, you could have everyone spend all 4 turns of their attacks, hoping that it would be enough to blast the creature down, before  it had 3 free turns of attacks. Or if things looked dire, your healer could burn his next few actions at once getting everyone up to full.

When attempting to design classes that 'play' differently, not just have a different theme; the idea of delaying attacks for more powerful attacks, is one that influenced the mechanical implementations of my Homebrew. The Way of the Single Strike is an attempt at creating an acrhetype wholly based around sacrificing your constant damage output for key moment deadly strikes. Those of you familiar with Iaido, the Japanese martial art of swift sword drawing, or the recent Anime One punch man, might find this archetype a spot of fun.

This is, of course the first draft, so it might not work quite as intended. I would very much appreciate any feedback: thoughts, ideas, and experience from playing with it.

Martial Archetypes pt2 - Path of the Unbound Soul Barbarian

Barbarians - The 'I attack' Class

Turn 1:
Bard casts hypnotic pattern, neutralizing the 1st mob of minions, then inspires the Druid who's sneaking up behind the boss.
Druid is in position, he activates panther form, initiates sneak attack on boss.
Sorcerer launches a fireball into the second mob of minions, killing everything, ever.
Barbarian rages, then attacks.

Turn 2:
Bard uses cutting words on the boss's a.o.e attack, casts blind on him, limiting he's offensive ability.
Druid knocked out of beast form, conjures a number of pixies to aid in battle.
Sorcerer Counterspells the enemies Disintegrate on the Bard, then animates a number of industrial tools in the area to attack the boss.
Barbarian attacks. Again

Turn 3:
Bard notices the boss has shrugged off blindness and that all the minions are dead. He spots the large belt of assorted bombs on the boss and casts minor illusion to make them all look like their fuses are lit. The boss detaches and throws away he's dangerous weapons.
Druid Cure Wounds on the bard who's looking rough.
Sorcerer fireballs again, because the rules of dungeons and dragons told him he ought to do that a lot.
Barbarian attacks.
Conjured Pixies polymorph the party into dinosaurs, then the other pixies make the polymorphing ones invisible, then they all hide.
DM quits.

Now imagine the boss can fly, and replace 'Barbarian attacks' with 'Barbarian runs to where he hopes the boss might land. Hopefully.'
See a trend?

Not everyone who wields a giant axe is an simpleton...

You really have to roleplay as a barbarian. More so than other classes. I mean there's not much else to do. But i'd rather roleplay because i want to and because its fun, than because i'm bored.

Do you like smashing things in a furious, aimless, rage like Conan or Toblakai? Do you like fun game mechanics that require tactics, order of operation, options, or general thinking? well choose one, because apparantly you can't have them both. I talked about catering to the varied D&D audience briefly in the last post - the idea that you need different levels of complexity class options, so that every type of player can find something that fits their play style.

But what about the people who put roleplaying first? The people who choose Barbarian because of its awesome theme, instead of its simplistic playstyle? And what if they want their experience to be complex or tactical? Are they told simply no? Go play another class. That's not in the essence of what D&D is - a roleplaying game. An escape from reality into fantasy, where we get to play out the colourful array of every character we have ever thought of, or wished to be. We shouldn't have to settle, on playing something we don't want to, just because its the only class with interesting mechanics.

If you wan't to play a Barbarian then by Bahamut you should. And if you want to be engaged mechanicaly while doing it - then you should be able to do that as well!

Enter the Unbound Soul...
This is, once again, a first draft and constant work in progress. Any helpful feedback and critique would be much appreciated. In particular the number of Soul Dice at each level increment.

Two abilities in this path use auto hit damage effects. While upfront this may seem overpowered when compared to most 5e spells, i'm hoping the factor of the effects also damaging you and any allies hit will help balance it. The idea is that the Barbarian can gamble her consistent Aoe damage against her ability to manage the larger risk element of her powers.