Right or wrong good or bad from my experience players want to have good things happen when they make good decisions and bad things happen when they make bad decisions
I thought it was amusing that you talked about a character carving out their eye & replacing it with the Eye of Vecna & you had to nearly immediately rub your eye, like the thought of it made you have a reaction.
Also in 3e the Handbook of Paladin's or Cleric's, not certain which now, had a prestige-class called the Pale Master who was more or less a great necromancer's second in command, to the point where they had bone armor for a while (I think it regenerated.) & eventually replaced their limbs with skeletal ones, making them more resilient & maintained their strength & other abilties even after the changes, but adding more.
Ok so I've been playing with a new homebreed wizard subclass i thought up in my head called the spellshot so here we go The spellshot You are a wizard who has learned to combine wizardry with firearms and have dedicated your resources to improving your arcane firearms Arcane firearms (2nd level for 2014 or 3rd level for 2024) You gain proficiency in firearms and you can use them as your arcane spell casting focus Spellshot tricks (2nd level for 2014 or 3rd level for 2024) You have a number of spellshot points equal to twice your proficiency bonus and you have access to the following spell shot options you can use your points for and you can use your intelligence mod for attack and damage rolls instead of dex you can only use one option at a time unless specified otherwise Quick draw shot (1 point cost): when you cast a spell that uses an action you can fire your firearm at a target of your choice as a part of the same action Empowered shot (1 point cost): when you fire a firearm you can add a cantrips effect to the attack you can use this even if you already used an option before Magical gun skill improvement 6th level You can now attack twice with your firearm when you take the attack account and you gain more spellshot options Reactive shot (1 point cost): when you cast a spell using a reaction you can shoot your firearm as a part of that reaction Improved empowered shot (2 points cost and you must use this instead of the normal empowered shot): when you hit creature an attack from a firearm you can spend a spell slot to add 1d8 per spell slots level to the damage of the firearm if I'm the attack but you can only use this option once per turn Expert spell shot options 10th level Rapid fire shot (3 point cost): you can make a number of additional attacks with your firearm equal to your intelligence mod when you take the attack action and these stack with your normal attacks you can make with your firearms Blasting shot (3 point cost) when you make an attack using your firearm as an action you can force creatures in a 60ft cone radius to make a dex save taking half damage of the firearm on a failed save instead of making attack rolls as your action Mastered spell shot 14th level You have mastery of your arcane firearms now and have mastered the ultimate spell shot option Homing arcane shot (4 point cost) once per long rest when you use one of your other spell shot options you can use this to guarantee all your attacks land this turn and you can add your wizard level as additional force damage to each attack This is my attempt at a gun mage so tell me what you think about it sin and don't be afraid to tell me what needs to be improved
This is an interesting one. My major question is, why is this a wizard? That is the one thing I am having difficulty wrapping my head around. The question I really must ask is what inspired this type of a hero?, and how does that mesh with someone whom diligently studies magic. I am thinking about the gunman in the movie the dark tower while reading this. That kind of aesthetic seems to be fitting, from my perspective. I think you’re right about the intelligence being the optimal ability for this class. My only real critique of the abilities is the level 6 ability reactive shot. If the character used say shield against a foe within 5 feet of them, making a ranged attack would be at disadvantage, making that ability less appealing unless you remove that disadvantage with the ability which I think is cool. This would need some testing as it seems like it could very well be overpowered, but after some research I think you could have something here.
@TheSinisterheroes ok to answer your first question I always imagine this gunslinging mage to be a wizard I just personally think it suits the direction I'm going for here and second question I made this with the intention of pairing this subclass with the Gunner feat so I didn't see a reason to cover that weakness since a single feat ignores both the reloading property and the disadvantage at close range but I want to hear you out perhaps you can explain to me why it's better to tack on a fix for these two problems even though I can simply just pick up the Gunner feat just tacking it onto the subclass but that's if you really think doing that is better
@@TheSinisterheroes I also wanted to make a better version of the artillerist artificer because I thought it could've been better but I made it into a different subclass for the wizard instead
You don’t want a subclass to need the feat to work. Then your not the subclass your the feat + wizard. A good example of this is the cavalier fighter. The subclass gives you the ability to force attacks aimed at your mount to aim at you instead. This is important because killing a mount would be devastating. That is also part of the mounted combat feat. Giving you the survivability you need to make the subclass work. Now the feat does also give you a few more things, but you can go without it and be totally fine. If you didn’t have that ability baked into the subclass, then it just wouldn’t work. The feat adds to the subclass, and definitely makes it way stronger, but you are not crippled without it. By incorporating parts of the feat with the subclass you make the subclass stand on its own. Maybe make a special spell shot that ignores reloading for a minute. Or make it so you can make multi attacks as part of that skill for a minute. That would make it feel like the mode in red dead where it slows down and you can shoot 6 times during a duel. That would feel really cool. My point of view for feats especially for casters comes down to is this worth not upping my spell save? Also some games are run without feats. How would this subclass work in that setting?
Great advice about letting players see the results of their actions reflected in the setting(s)!
Right or wrong good or bad from my experience players want to have good things happen when they make good decisions and bad things happen when they make bad decisions
I thought it was amusing that you talked about a character carving out their eye & replacing it with the Eye of Vecna & you had to nearly immediately rub your eye, like the thought of it made you have a reaction.
Also in 3e the Handbook of Paladin's or Cleric's, not certain which now, had a prestige-class called the Pale Master who was more or less a great necromancer's second in command, to the point where they had bone armor for a while (I think it regenerated.) & eventually replaced their limbs with skeletal ones, making them more resilient & maintained their strength & other abilties even after the changes, but adding more.
I have to go back and watch that
They should bring that back. I just love it. I mean it’s what the people want!
@TheSinisterheroes there was a PDF I found that tried to bring many of those handbooks into 5e, but it has been a minute since I ran across it.
Ok so I've been playing with a new homebreed wizard subclass i thought up in my head called the spellshot so here we go
The spellshot
You are a wizard who has learned to combine wizardry with firearms and have dedicated your resources to improving your arcane firearms
Arcane firearms (2nd level for 2014 or 3rd level for 2024)
You gain proficiency in firearms and you can use them as your arcane spell casting focus
Spellshot tricks (2nd level for 2014 or 3rd level for 2024)
You have a number of spellshot points equal to twice your proficiency bonus and you have access to the following spell shot options you can use your points for and you can use your intelligence mod for attack and damage rolls instead of dex you can only use one option at a time unless specified otherwise
Quick draw shot (1 point cost): when you cast a spell that uses an action you can fire your firearm at a target of your choice as a part of the same action
Empowered shot (1 point cost): when you fire a firearm you can add a cantrips effect to the attack you can use this even if you already used an option before
Magical gun skill improvement
6th level
You can now attack twice with your firearm when you take the attack account and you gain more spellshot options
Reactive shot (1 point cost): when you cast a spell using a reaction you can shoot your firearm as a part of that reaction
Improved empowered shot (2 points cost and you must use this instead of the normal empowered shot): when you hit creature an attack from a firearm you can spend a spell slot to add 1d8 per spell slots level to the damage of the firearm if I'm the attack but you can only use this option once per turn
Expert spell shot options
10th level
Rapid fire shot (3 point cost): you can make a number of additional attacks with your firearm equal to your intelligence mod when you take the attack action and these stack with your normal attacks you can make with your firearms
Blasting shot (3 point cost) when you make an attack using your firearm as an action you can force creatures in a 60ft cone radius to make a dex save taking half damage of the firearm on a failed save instead of making attack rolls as your action
Mastered spell shot
14th level
You have mastery of your arcane firearms now and have mastered the ultimate spell shot option
Homing arcane shot (4 point cost) once per long rest when you use one of your other spell shot options you can use this to guarantee all your attacks land this turn and you can add your wizard level as additional force damage to each attack
This is my attempt at a gun mage so tell me what you think about it sin and don't be afraid to tell me what needs to be improved
This is an interesting one. My major question is, why is this a wizard? That is the one thing I am having difficulty wrapping my head around. The question I really must ask is what inspired this type of a hero?, and how does that mesh with someone whom diligently studies magic. I am thinking about the gunman in the movie the dark tower while reading this. That kind of aesthetic seems to be fitting, from my perspective.
I think you’re right about the intelligence being the optimal ability for this class.
My only real critique of the abilities is the level 6 ability reactive shot. If the character used say shield against a foe within 5 feet of them, making a ranged attack would be at disadvantage, making that ability less appealing unless you remove that disadvantage with the ability which I think is cool.
This would need some testing as it seems like it could very well be overpowered, but after some research I think you could have something here.
@TheSinisterheroes ok to answer your first question I always imagine this gunslinging mage to be a wizard I just personally think it suits the direction I'm going for here and second question I made this with the intention of pairing this subclass with the Gunner feat so I didn't see a reason to cover that weakness since a single feat ignores both the reloading property and the disadvantage at close range but I want to hear you out perhaps you can explain to me why it's better to tack on a fix for these two problems even though I can simply just pick up the Gunner feat just tacking it onto the subclass but that's if you really think doing that is better
@@TheSinisterheroes I also wanted to make a better version of the artillerist artificer because I thought it could've been better but I made it into a different subclass for the wizard instead
@@TheSinisterheroes also I figured that if someone was intelligent enough to be a wizard they'd be intelligent enough to use a gun
You don’t want a subclass to need the feat to work. Then your not the subclass your the feat + wizard. A good example of this is the cavalier fighter. The subclass gives you the ability to force attacks aimed at your mount to aim at you instead. This is important because killing a mount would be devastating. That is also part of the mounted combat feat. Giving you the survivability you need to make the subclass work. Now the feat does also give you a few more things, but you can go without it and be totally fine. If you didn’t have that ability baked into the subclass, then it just wouldn’t work. The feat adds to the subclass, and definitely makes it way stronger, but you are not crippled without it.
By incorporating parts of the feat with the subclass you make the subclass stand on its own. Maybe make a special spell shot that ignores reloading for a minute. Or make it so you can make multi attacks as part of that skill for a minute.
That would make it feel like the mode in red dead where it slows down and you can shoot 6 times during a duel. That would feel really cool.
My point of view for feats especially for casters comes down to is this worth not upping my spell save? Also some games are run without feats. How would this subclass work in that setting?