⚠You can purchase the Thaumaturge on Benjamin's website: www.sterlingvermin.com/store/p/the-thaumaturge-class 🔄You can also find more content from Benjamin Huffman on the DMs Guild: www.dmsguild.com/browse.php?author=Benjamin%20Huffman?affiliate_id=3063449 📡Want a second opinion? Check out @DungeoneersPack 's review: ruclips.net/video/JjkbUdb6HVA/видео.html Thaumaturges are mystics who seek the supernal underpinnings of the multiverse through distinct occult customs. Using the tools associated with those practices, thaumaturges uncover the mundane and magical laws the myriad planes of existence hinge upon-interwoven principles they refer to as the Tapestry. As a thaumaturge’s understanding of the Tapestry deepens, they can intuitively manipulate its strands to cast spells. The thaumaturge is a spellcasting class with three notable features: ✨Flexible Spell List. Instead of learning or preparing spells from a predetermined spell list, a thaumaturge chooses which spell schools they learn spells from. ✨Overcasting Spells. A thaumaturge can overcast spells to either cast a spell as if they had expended a higher level spell slot or cast two lower level spells with the same spell slot and action. ✨Spellcraft Feature. A thaumaturge’s subclass, called a mystic custom, grants them a unique Spellcraft feature that provides additional benefits when a thaumaturge casts a spell using a spell slot. This product is 40 pages and includes the thaumaturge class, 6 subclasses, and 89 new spells.
This looks really interesting. I like the idea of using spell schools as a spell list. My gut says it may be overpowered though, I agree with you that it doesn't seem broken, but maybe dialed up a bit too much.
Hey Chris! That's a good summary of my conclusions about the class. Learning any spell based on spell school is inherently very strong, so throwing in powerful class and subclass features compounds that. I kind of hope classes like this catch on so I can hear about how people make characters with it. I'm only one brain :P
I have bought this book, well the pdf, and while I definitely think there is some cool stuff here with the thaumaturge’s class and subclass features, I ultimately find I just kind of bounce off of it, the only other class I’ve ever looked at and bounced off of is the Artificer. With the Thaumaturge I do believe it mainly has to do with having to lock down so many choices very early in the Class’ leveling along with how it learns it’s spells, it’s a bit more crunch than I am normally up for. With the Artificer, the image in my mind of an artificer is a craftsman and an enchanter of items and 5e Artificer doesn’t feel like that to me, it doesn’t interact with 5e crafting mechanics enough for me to feel like a craftsman class and what enchanting I can do is very limited and not nearly to the extant I enjoy, so if I want to play a craftsman I just play Taron Pound’s Alchemist and if I want to play an enchanter of items I just play Taron Pound’s Runekeeper. That all being stated I do like the additional spells in the Thaumaturge pdf, especially with the offensive divination, illusion, and conjuration cantrips, it’s nice to have such options.
I was a fan of magus and pugilist, even though i feel like pugilist was a little overpowered. This class though seems a little too loaded imo. I feel like having one or two of these would make balancing encounters way harder
Would you consider a video on DND Beyond alternatives, I think a lot of people feel tethered to D&D and would like to disentangle them selves from WOTC, so it might be popular and also keep sticking it to WOTC and D&D Beyond is a giant scam anyway, if you think WOTC just started being monopolistic just look at DND Beyond
I think I'm a fringe case in that I've not used D&D Beyond until recently (and only because someone who paid for it was sharing with me and it was faster for me to look up rules for my content that way). I use Excel or PDFs for my characters, so that's my alternative, haha. I have a video about using super simple Excel for DMs and there's a downloadable for it on the site if that interests you. Having said that, if I find a service that I really like, I'll share it.
@@FlutesLootThanks for your response, I just remember the frustration you expressed with WOTC in a recent video, anyway having recently cancelled dndbeyond and watching all the money I spent repurchasing material I already bought essentially evaporate, but then after checking out pathfinder, and realizing all the free and comparable tools to what I paid thru nose for at D&DBeyond. I can't help but hope there might be some comparable service for players that isn't directly supporting WOTC, we had to pay D&D beyond a monthly subscription for what essentially should have been a $40 app, but WOTC has really limited any competition. I think a lot more people would dump D&DBeyond but are hesitant cause they still want to play dnd but have gotten reliant on it, so many people who just say unsub from D&DBeyond , but want are players options?
@@admizr5416 I'll see what I can do. What in D&D Beyond are you trying to replace most? I assumed it was the character creation, but maybe that's not the key feature. If I can get a wishlist, maybe I can find something. I've seen people use many tools online before, so I'm sure I can find something.
A lot of interesting choices here? But, for me, way too many choices here up front. I enjoy the crunch but too much crunch up front turns me off, I like the complexity to slowly grow with the character, as those choices are influenced by the roleplay and the challenges of the particular DM's world. I can see where some people would really like this... but I can't say I'd ever play this class myself. It feels like an attempt to port the painful early-level complexity overkill from Pathfinder 2E into D&D 5E. I guess I just prefer to start with a few choices at character creation and slowly let the game tell me how my character's complexity ramps up. In my current campaign, I started with a knowledge cleric, just because I wanted to build a lore-focused character without leaning into the charming bard thing, but the team he's on and the world he's in, he's had to be the team tank and he can slowly develop into that role. I feel like if I was playing a class like this where there's SO MANY choices at first it would either be very hard to that character to adapt or, at very best, all the retraining would be immersion and role-play breaking. Probably really fun for people who are more in it for Voltroning a bunch of different abilities into a Build-A-Bear character upfront but... problematic if your original build idea clashes with the party build or DM's world.
TLDR: very interesting, but if I wanted to play a character with a flood of early over-customization like this, I'd probably just play a Pathfinder 2 game?
Are you objecting to the number of choices baked into the class, or is it more about the need to know a lot about spellcasting in a system with hundreds of spells?
@@FlutesLoot More or less, the huge wave of spell choices and primary and secondary and teritary school choices you have to make in a flurry all at once, at the beginning. It's just... it's an absolutely paralysis by analysis trigger. If this class was as simple as a normal 5e character class for the early levels and sllllllowly you made all the choices that are front loaded in this build, through tier 1 and early tier 2, I do think it'd be a really fun class! But as it stands, it feels like (a) you're locking too much of your build in way too soon before you full understand your party's abilities or the demands of your DM's particular world and (b) only a hard-core optimization crafter could even get through all the choices at level 1 without saying "God, there is so much to do here, this is all too fiddly, I have no idea if half the choices I'm making are even going to make sense in the actual game, screw it, Variant Human Fighter please."
@@FlutesLoot In short, it feels like an amazing platform for theorycrafting characters that never play in a game, if that's what someone's into, but just a mess of too many choices too early for someone not just creating a perfectly-customized white room concept. It seems intimidating to build if you're not way into over-customization and a real bear of a thing to actually play, unless the world and all the other characters are tuned to fitting around it from the start.
@@mikececconi2677 that all sounds fair! As strange as it sounds, that might suggest that Benjamin nailed his design goal and target audience for the class.
If you’re going to keep making content for 5e/WOTC, I’m not going to continue supporting you, dude. I refuse to support people who keep supporting them. It’s one thing if you make system agnostic stuff that could work in 5e… but if it says 5e in the video title? I’m out. F WOTC. F supporting them.
Your call. The corporation behind the game isn't going to ruin my enjoyment of it or halt my support of third-parties who have put money and time into creating products before they ever knew about this drama that would unfold. It was WotC's jilting of third-party creators that upset me in the first place, so it wouldn't make since for me to stop supporting the people who are hit hardest. And I don't need to give WotC a dime.
Refusing to support 3rd parties that make 5e content because you're upset at Wizards for fucking over 3rd parties? That's weird Oh wait you just don't want people that make 5e content to say 5e, cause you're mad about how they are being punished for making content for 5e instead of making system agnostic stuff. Now Wizards is forcing them to make system agnostic stuff so they don't lose their business, just like you are voting to do with your views. Smart Ok real talk though you get how deeply hypocritical your stance is, right OP?
If 5E suddenly starts getting Royalties off of him, that's a reasonable response... Otherwise, you're a bit out of whack. WotC is abandoning D&D5 and moving on to D&D6 (D&D One as they want to call it)... which I was uninterested in ~before~ the OGL insanity. D&D5 isn't my fav version of D&D, but it is fine, and I support the idea of people making the stuff they enjoy. I don't feel they can end the OGL, and even if they can... the 'new' OGL is a non-starter.
The OGL thing never ended up happening. Just enjoy the game. The anger around it at this point is so neck beard. Anyway, TY for the review. Great as always 👌
⚠You can purchase the Thaumaturge on Benjamin's website: www.sterlingvermin.com/store/p/the-thaumaturge-class
🔄You can also find more content from Benjamin Huffman on the DMs Guild: www.dmsguild.com/browse.php?author=Benjamin%20Huffman?affiliate_id=3063449
📡Want a second opinion? Check out @DungeoneersPack 's review: ruclips.net/video/JjkbUdb6HVA/видео.html
Thaumaturges are mystics who seek the supernal underpinnings of the multiverse through distinct occult customs. Using the tools associated with those practices, thaumaturges uncover the mundane and magical laws the myriad planes of existence hinge upon-interwoven principles they refer to as the Tapestry. As a thaumaturge’s understanding of the Tapestry deepens, they can intuitively manipulate its strands to cast spells.
The thaumaturge is a spellcasting class with three notable features:
✨Flexible Spell List. Instead of learning or preparing spells from a predetermined spell list, a thaumaturge chooses which spell schools they learn spells from.
✨Overcasting Spells. A thaumaturge can overcast spells to either cast a spell as if they had expended a higher level spell slot or cast two lower level spells with the same spell slot and action.
✨Spellcraft Feature. A thaumaturge’s subclass, called a mystic custom, grants them a unique Spellcraft feature that provides additional benefits when a thaumaturge casts a spell using a spell slot.
This product is 40 pages and includes the thaumaturge class, 6 subclasses, and 89 new spells.
This looks really interesting. I like the idea of using spell schools as a spell list. My gut says it may be overpowered though, I agree with you that it doesn't seem broken, but maybe dialed up a bit too much.
Hey Chris! That's a good summary of my conclusions about the class. Learning any spell based on spell school is inherently very strong, so throwing in powerful class and subclass features compounds that. I kind of hope classes like this catch on so I can hear about how people make characters with it. I'm only one brain :P
Id love to see you cover one of Ross' classes maybe the Shaman or Accursed
I'd love to cover them! I have a bit of a backlog of content I've been asked to review, but I'll get to other classes like Ross' in the future.
I have bought this book, well the pdf, and while I definitely think there is some cool stuff here with the thaumaturge’s class and subclass features, I ultimately find I just kind of bounce off of it, the only other class I’ve ever looked at and bounced off of is the Artificer. With the Thaumaturge I do believe it mainly has to do with having to lock down so many choices very early in the Class’ leveling along with how it learns it’s spells, it’s a bit more crunch than I am normally up for. With the Artificer, the image in my mind of an artificer is a craftsman and an enchanter of items and 5e Artificer doesn’t feel like that to me, it doesn’t interact with 5e crafting mechanics enough for me to feel like a craftsman class and what enchanting I can do is very limited and not nearly to the extant I enjoy, so if I want to play a craftsman I just play Taron Pound’s Alchemist and if I want to play an enchanter of items I just play Taron Pound’s Runekeeper. That all being stated I do like the additional spells in the Thaumaturge pdf, especially with the offensive divination, illusion, and conjuration cantrips, it’s nice to have such options.
Well said! All good points.
I was a fan of magus and pugilist, even though i feel like pugilist was a little overpowered. This class though seems a little too loaded imo. I feel like having one or two of these would make balancing encounters way harder
I would rate it on the loaded side, too.
Would you consider a video on DND Beyond alternatives, I think a lot of people feel tethered to D&D and would like to disentangle them selves from WOTC, so it might be popular and also keep sticking it to WOTC and D&D Beyond is a giant scam anyway, if you think WOTC just started being monopolistic just look at DND Beyond
I think I'm a fringe case in that I've not used D&D Beyond until recently (and only because someone who paid for it was sharing with me and it was faster for me to look up rules for my content that way). I use Excel or PDFs for my characters, so that's my alternative, haha. I have a video about using super simple Excel for DMs and there's a downloadable for it on the site if that interests you.
Having said that, if I find a service that I really like, I'll share it.
@@FlutesLootThanks for your response, I just remember the frustration you expressed with WOTC in a recent video, anyway having recently cancelled dndbeyond and watching all the money I spent repurchasing material I already bought essentially evaporate, but then after checking out pathfinder, and realizing all the free and comparable tools to what I paid thru nose for at D&DBeyond.
I can't help but hope there might be some comparable service for players that isn't directly supporting WOTC, we had to pay D&D beyond a monthly subscription for what essentially should have been a $40 app, but WOTC has really limited any competition.
I think a lot more people would dump D&DBeyond but are hesitant cause they still want to play dnd but have gotten reliant on it, so many people who just say unsub from D&DBeyond , but want are players options?
@@admizr5416 I'll see what I can do. What in D&D Beyond are you trying to replace most? I assumed it was the character creation, but maybe that's not the key feature. If I can get a wishlist, maybe I can find something. I've seen people use many tools online before, so I'm sure I can find something.
A lot of interesting choices here? But, for me, way too many choices here up front. I enjoy the crunch but too much crunch up front turns me off, I like the complexity to slowly grow with the character, as those choices are influenced by the roleplay and the challenges of the particular DM's world. I can see where some people would really like this... but I can't say I'd ever play this class myself. It feels like an attempt to port the painful early-level complexity overkill from Pathfinder 2E into D&D 5E. I guess I just prefer to start with a few choices at character creation and slowly let the game tell me how my character's complexity ramps up. In my current campaign, I started with a knowledge cleric, just because I wanted to build a lore-focused character without leaning into the charming bard thing, but the team he's on and the world he's in, he's had to be the team tank and he can slowly develop into that role. I feel like if I was playing a class like this where there's SO MANY choices at first it would either be very hard to that character to adapt or, at very best, all the retraining would be immersion and role-play breaking. Probably really fun for people who are more in it for Voltroning a bunch of different abilities into a Build-A-Bear character upfront but... problematic if your original build idea clashes with the party build or DM's world.
TLDR: very interesting, but if I wanted to play a character with a flood of early over-customization like this, I'd probably just play a Pathfinder 2 game?
Are you objecting to the number of choices baked into the class, or is it more about the need to know a lot about spellcasting in a system with hundreds of spells?
@@FlutesLoot More or less, the huge wave of spell choices and primary and secondary and teritary school choices you have to make in a flurry all at once, at the beginning. It's just... it's an absolutely paralysis by analysis trigger. If this class was as simple as a normal 5e character class for the early levels and sllllllowly you made all the choices that are front loaded in this build, through tier 1 and early tier 2, I do think it'd be a really fun class! But as it stands, it feels like (a) you're locking too much of your build in way too soon before you full understand your party's abilities or the demands of your DM's particular world and (b) only a hard-core optimization crafter could even get through all the choices at level 1 without saying "God, there is so much to do here, this is all too fiddly, I have no idea if half the choices I'm making are even going to make sense in the actual game, screw it, Variant Human Fighter please."
@@FlutesLoot In short, it feels like an amazing platform for theorycrafting characters that never play in a game, if that's what someone's into, but just a mess of too many choices too early for someone not just creating a perfectly-customized white room concept. It seems intimidating to build if you're not way into over-customization and a real bear of a thing to actually play, unless the world and all the other characters are tuned to fitting around it from the start.
@@mikececconi2677 that all sounds fair! As strange as it sounds, that might suggest that Benjamin nailed his design goal and target audience for the class.
If you’re going to keep making content for 5e/WOTC, I’m not going to continue supporting you, dude. I refuse to support people who keep supporting them.
It’s one thing if you make system agnostic stuff that could work in 5e… but if it says 5e in the video title? I’m out. F WOTC. F supporting them.
Your call. The corporation behind the game isn't going to ruin my enjoyment of it or halt my support of third-parties who have put money and time into creating products before they ever knew about this drama that would unfold. It was WotC's jilting of third-party creators that upset me in the first place, so it wouldn't make since for me to stop supporting the people who are hit hardest. And I don't need to give WotC a dime.
3rd party content creators =/= WoTC
Refusing to support 3rd parties that make 5e content because you're upset at Wizards for fucking over 3rd parties? That's weird
Oh wait you just don't want people that make 5e content to say 5e, cause you're mad about how they are being punished for making content for 5e instead of making system agnostic stuff. Now Wizards is forcing them to make system agnostic stuff so they don't lose their business, just like you are voting to do with your views. Smart
Ok real talk though you get how deeply hypocritical your stance is, right OP?
If 5E suddenly starts getting Royalties off of him, that's a reasonable response... Otherwise, you're a bit out of whack. WotC is abandoning D&D5 and moving on to D&D6 (D&D One as they want to call it)... which I was uninterested in ~before~ the OGL insanity.
D&D5 isn't my fav version of D&D, but it is fine, and I support the idea of people making the stuff they enjoy. I don't feel they can end the OGL, and even if they can... the 'new' OGL is a non-starter.
The OGL thing never ended up happening. Just enjoy the game. The anger around it at this point is so neck beard.
Anyway, TY for the review. Great as always 👌