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New Class - An Early Preview of the Warden! A primal tanky controller that brings the wrath of nature to your front linena
🕑 Added 2022-04-10 21:52:40 +0000 UTCDisclaimer. This is not a finished class. You can playtest it if you want (it is being playtested as we speak) but it is not yet complete.
This is something like a 0.7. Things will still change and move around. Most of the text that isn't mechanics is a placeholder (even if I've been told people prefer the intro the way it is...). If you were around for the 0.8 version of Psion, you’ll remember that it was quite a bit different than the current incarnation.
What is "the Warden"?
Warden is an idea of a class that comes from older editions, primarily 4th edition, and is defined by a role, and a theme. The theme of the class is the Primal power source. This is the same sort of power that Druids draw on. It is the power of raw elements, primordial beasts, and ancient forests.
Second, and perhaps more important, is their role. They were "Defender". Roles don't exist in 5e in the same way, but I wanted to carry through that idea of making a class that had a primary focus on durability and control, as that's how I feel tanking works in 5e. They don't "manage agro" like a video game so much as they "place themselves in the way" and tie up enemies.
That said, classes in 5e (and particularly the ones I make) are flexible things - you have tools to do a lot of different things, and in time those tools will expand further as it gets fleshed out. This class should generally be thought of as "not a caster", but is technically something of a "1/4th" caster - this is because they are inherently bonded to supernatural power, and it makes sense for them to have thematic tools related to their primal bond, but is a pretty small part of their mechanical power budget.
For ways to get a mental framework of the class, it’s sort of like a martial druid, a storm herald Barbarian (if they had the power budget to be cooler than they are), an Cryonetic Elemental Mind Psion, or an Oath of the Ancients Paladin - those are sort of the bordering elements from other classes that it goes beyond and plunges into. I would say what most defines it is less that that nothing else has touched the thematic space, and more that nothing else fills the same role it does.
A major part of working on this observation in my groups and many of the groups that I’m familiar with is that there’s been a lack of new interesting frontline options that shake up gameplay, leading to more groups that hard struggling to fill that durable front line. I didn’t make this just to address that, but it’s a factor - I wanted to come up with something new and interesting that specialized in being in the thick of things, and would open up more group compositions. Having a solid front line controller often means that squishier characters have more freedom to not die horribly.
Major Tools
- Wardens are a d12 class that get substantial built in Damage Reduction and decent AC. Practically speaking in testing, they have a fairly similar durability to Barbarians, with some pros and cons.
- Primal Interdiction can be thought of as a mirror image to Reckless Attack. The Warden itself is a bit of a turtle that is hard to attack, which generally means enemies won’t want to attack it, but Primal Interdiction flips that around - not only does it discourage attacking the Warden’s allies, it encourages attacking the Warden, which leads to…
- Most Wardens have various reflection abilities granted by their subclass. Wardens don’t do super amazing damage (they do quite a lot of martial damage in most cases) but in control, reflected damage, and durability they contribute quite a lot.
- Wardens were typically quite good at shrugging off saving throws, and this is partially represented by the over
To Do List
- I’ve had some concern about “aura of damage reduction” being too fiddly to track, but in practice it’s fairly easy, and probably easier to track and remember than Aura of Protection, but it’s something I’m keeping an eye on.
- Endurance Dice are fairly limited, but the Warden doesn’t seem weak enough to give them more at the moment. They used to be smaller and more numerous and replaced the Warden’s damage reduction, but I found that was far too tedious in practice, and this is a good bit more streamlined to play.
- Flexibility. I’m going to continue to include new Manifestations that help increase a Warden’s role flexibility. Right now they work pretty well “as intended” but I want to see them better at being adaptable to other roles.
PDF (This will be depreciated, but there for folks where GMBinder doesn't work).
Comments
Marc Wilebski
Thank you VERY much for the pdf version. Yeah I think it is me that usually has "problems" with gmbinder
