Before we start, I'd like to give a great thanks to the "DM Mentor's Guild" discord, for without them I wouldn't have been able to make this build at all! Make sure to check them out! This server has experienced DMs with a knack for helping others tell an immersive fantasy, balance encounters, and fix game related issues. If your question requires a personal touch, there's no one I'd refer you to over the good guys at the "DM Mentor's Guild" server!
This is a guide for how to play Spider-Man in DnD 5e. Of course, it will be impossible for this to be all-encompassing, but I’ll do my best.
“With great power, comes great responsibility.”
Race.
Peter Parker isn't a mutant, but rather just a human. Due to the spiderbite, he’s far from your normal high schooler, however, so we’ll make him a Variant Human! Variant Humans get a feat at level 1, and we’ll be taking the Crusher feat to weave to yank enemies with our webs and launch them with our super strength! This feat gives us the ability to move a creature 5ft, once per turn, when you hit with an attack that deals bludgeoning damage. Additionally, when we crit on an attack, all attacks against our target have advantage until the start of our next turn. Finally, we may boost our Strength or Constitution by +1, and we’ll choose Constitution. As a Variant Human, we are also able to increase 2 of our stats by +1. Let’s boost Dexterity and Wisdom for better web-slinging and stronger Spidey-Senses! Finally, let’s grab Perception as a skill, to represent our peak ability and health!
Stat Array.
Peter’s got a wide array of abilities, so to cover this we’ll be using Point Buy, which gives us 27 points to put in our stats, which start at 8 as a default. Each increase above 13 will cost 2 points instead of 1.
9 points in Dexterity! Spider-Man is a slippery, nimble fellow with an agile fighting style! Our Dexterity will be 15 + 1 = 16, with a +3 modifier.
5 points in Wisdom! Peter’s always had a good heart and a just head on his shoulders. Additionally, Wisdom represents his senses, like Spider-Sense! Our Wisdom will be 13 + 1 = 14, with a +2 modifier.
5 points in Constitution! Spidey definitely can take a beating, but he’s more of the more frail characters of Marvel. Our Constitution will be a 13 + 1 = 14, with a +2 modifier.
5 points in Intelligence. On top of being nimble and perceptive, Peter’s smart beyond measure- to the point where he made his extremely strong, chemically binding web fluid by himself! Our Intelligence will be a 13, with a +1 modifier.
2 points in Strength. Spider-Man can lift metal fortresses, but we just can't have everything. Still, we can’t dump it. Our Strength will be a 10, with a +0 modifier.
0 points in Charisma. Peter’s a nerd who constantly gets picked on by Flash Thompson. Even as Spider-Man, he’s not exactly appreciated by the people of New York. Yeah, yeah, I know -he still had to have amazing Charisma to bag Gwen Stacy, Mary Jane, and Black Cat- but we can’t have everything. Our Charisma will be an 8, with a -1 modifier.
Background.
Peter Parker was a high schooler that, by circumstance, was bit by a radioactive spider, did a wrestling gig, saw his uncle die -you know the story already. Let’s grab Deception to lie to Aunt May, and Investigation, to devise tactics to defeat our enemies! Let’s call this the Web Head background.
Spider-Man is a fast, nimble hero who crawls walls and prefers to dodge attacks over tank through them, so we’ll kick them off as a Monk 1!
Let’s grab Athletics and Acrobatics as skills, to do whatever a spider can. We gain proficiency in Strength and Dexterity saving throws. We are also proficient in all simple weapons and short swords. For our artisan’s tool, let’s grab Tinker’s Tools.
Our favorite wall-crawler wears nothing but his costume in action, so it’s good that all Monks gain Unarmoured Defense! We gain a new way of calculating AC; 10 + Dexterity modifier + Wisdom Modifier! In other words, our AC does not come from armour, but from quickly evading blows and predicting attacks through Spider-Sense!
We also gain Martial Arts! We may use Dexterity instead of Strength for Unarmed Strikes or Monk weapons, which means that we can viably use all of our martial jabs and kicks. Furthermore, when rolling damage for a unarmed strike or monk weapon, we may role our martial art’s die + our Dexterity or Strength modifier in place of our usual damage. Our starting die is a d4. Finally, when we hit with an unarmed strike or Monk weapon on our turn, we may make an unarmed strike as a bonus action.
We’ll use Unarmed Strikes for our punches and kicks, and for our web shooters, we will actually use a sling! Why? It’s a 1-handed ranged weapon that does bludgeoning damage. With this, we can use our Crusher 5ft pull with our unarmed strike, which is our super-strength, or with our sling, which is yanking an enemy with our web shooters.
Monk 2.
At this level, our training allows us the ability to harness the mystic energy of Ki, which is a representation of our Spider Powers! We have Ki points equal to our Monk level, and regain all Ki on a short rest. Our Ki save DC is equal to 8 + proficiency bonus + Wisdom modifier. We may use Ki to fuel the following effects:
Flurry of Blows: Right after we take the attack action, we may spend 1 Ki point to make 2 Unarmed Strikes as a bonus action! This is a combo!
Patient Defense: We may spend 1 Ki point to take the dodge action as a bonus action. This is you focusing on dodging.
Step of the Wind: We may spend 1 Ki point to take the dash or disengage action as a bonus action! Be the spider JJJ just can’t squish!
Finally, we gain Unarmoured Movement at this level. While wearing no armor or a shield, we gain a bonus to our movement speed, which makes sense given how slippery Spider-Man is. Right now, it’s +10ft, and it’ll increase as we level up.
Monk 3.
At the 3rd level, All Monks get to choose a Monastic Tradition! For skirmishers like Spider-Man, Drunken Master is the best pick (you don’t actually have to drink for it to work).
As a Drunken Master, we gain proficiency in Performance, which we use to emulate our alter-ego ( also, use it for the dance ), and Brewer’s Supplies, to brew some New York joe.
All Drunken Masters also gain Drunken Technique, which gives us +10 movement speed and the benefit of the disengage action, when we use Flurry of Blows.
We also gain Deflect Missiles as a 3rd level Monk! As a reaction to being it with a ranged attack, we may deflect it, reducing the damage of the attack by 1d10 + Dexterity modifier + Monk Level. If we reduce the attack’s damage to zero, we may throw the projectile back as a monk weapon using the same reaction, at the cost of 1 Ki point! Catching a projectile and throwing it back is just the thing Spider-Man would do.
Monk 4.
At this level, we gain our First ASI! As a Monk, we desperately need them, so let’s not squander this bonus and boost our Dexterity by +2! Our Dexterity is now 16 + 2 = 18, with a +4 modifier!
We also gain Slow Fall at this level! As a reaction, we may reduce the damage from a fall that we take by 5 times our Monk level! It would be a shame if you took falling damage from your own jump, after all?
Monk 5.
At this level, we gain Extra Attack! When we take the attack action, we may make 2 attacks with that action! Spider-Man doesn’t take his rogue’s gallery down with one powerful strike, but with many rapid ones.
Additionally, we also gain Stunning Strike at this level! When we hit with a creature with an attack, we may expend 1 Ki point and force our opponent to make a Constitution saving throw. If they fail, they are stunned until the end of your next turn. This is you webbing up your opponent!
Alright, we’ve got a decent amount of martial ability and spider strength, let’s grab a few more specific abilities. To do that, let’s multiclass into . . .
Wizard 1!
All Wizards get Spellcasting, but we’ll reflavor yours as abilities you get courtesy of your radioactive blood, and/or your gadgets! After all, Spider-Men in general are at least a little bit mystic due to the Web of Life and Destiny. With how quick-witted you are, Intelligence will be your spellcasting modifier. As a Wizard, we get a spellbook for our spells, which for you is just your school notebook.
For Cantrips, we’ll pick . .
Mage Hand, to yank items towards you with a thwip.
Light, which is a light.
Mending, which is webbing something back together.
1st level Wizards also get to add 6 spells into their spellbook! Let’s grab . . .
Shield, which is a Web Barrier.
Longstrider, even more dexterous movement.
Catapult, which is using your webs to slingshot an object.
Gift of Alacrity, for even better reflexes.
Thunderwave, which is our impact webs.
Jump, which is how we’ll do web swinging. It isn’t climbing and isn’t flying, but I think this is a good compromise. With this and Step of the Wind, we have a 60ft long jump and a 18ft high jump.
As a 1st level Wizard, we also get Arcane Recovery, which allows us to, once per long rest, recover spell slots with a total level equal to or less then our Wizard level. The spell slots recovered cannot be above 6th level, to reload and gain more ammo!
Wizard 2.
2nd level Wizards get an Arcane Tradition, and the War Magic Tradition is the pick for superheroes that apply their intelligence in both rigorous study and brutal combat!
War Magic Wizards gain Arcane Deflection, which allows us to gain a +2 bonus to AC against the attack or a +4 bonus to that saving throw as a reaction. If we use this feature, the only spells we may cast next turn are cantrips. This is great for us, since we rely on weapon attacks anyway! This is our Spider-Sense.
We also gain Tactical Wit, which allows us to add our Intelligence modifier to our Initiative!
For our new spells, lets learn . . .
Silvery Barbs, which is distracting our enemy with a spurt of webs!
Identify, which is us using our Intelligence to figure out a mysterious magic item.
Wizard 3.
For our Wizard spells of this level, let’s learn . . .
Web, which is an AOE web (duh).
Earthbind, which is yanking Green Goblin down with webs.
Okay, we’ve got everything we need from Wizard, so let’s jump back to . . .
Monk 6.
At 6th level, we gain Ki Empowered Strikes! Our Unarmed Strikes now count as magical for the purpose of overcoming non-magical resistance.
As a Drunken Master Monk, we gain Tipsy Sway! This gives us two benefits:
Leap to Your Feet: When we’re prone, we can instantly flip off the floor, costing us only 5ft movement instead of half.
Redirect Attack: When we are missed with an attack role, we may spend one Ki point to cause that attack to hit one creature within 5ft of us, other than ourselves.
Both of these abilities are very fitting for Spidey!
Our unarmoured movement bonus increases to +15ft.
Monk 7.
At this level, We gain Evasion, which allows us to take half damage from a failed Dexterity save, and no damage from a successful Dexterity save! This is also a good ability for Spider-Man.
Additionally, we gain Stillness of Mind! As an action, we can end one effect on ourself that is causing us to be charmed or frightened. Spider-Man’s always had a good heart and a strong will, so it makes sense that it would be difficult to sway him with charms or frightens.
Monk 8.
At this level, we gain another ASI! Let’s boost Dexterity by +2 to cap it off at 18 + 2 = 20, with a +5 modifier! Now we’ve got the maximum amount of nimbleness that we can achieve.
Monk 9.
At this level, we gain an Unarmoured Movement Improvement, which allows us to run up walls and across water. Running up walls is our wallcrawling, and I guess across water is some shoe gadget you made?
Monk 10.
At this level, we gain Purity of Body, which makes us immune to poison and disease. Spider-Man’s got super-healing, after all.
Our unarmoured movement bonus increases to +20ft.
Monk 11.
At the 11th level of Monk as a Drunken Master, we gain Drunkard’s Luck! We always have a bout of luck when we need it most, as whenever we make an attack, save, or check and have disadvantage, we can spend 2 Ki to cancel out the disadvantage.
Monk 12.
Another ASI at this level. Let’s boost our Wisdom by +2 for higher AC and greater Spidey-Senses! Our Wisdom is now 14 + 2 = 16, with a +3 modifier!
Monk 13.
At the 13th level of Monk, we gain Tongue of the Sun and Moon! We are now able to understand all spoken languages, and all creatures that speak a language can understand what we can say! Spider-Man is beloved world-wide.
Monk 14.
At this level, we gain Diamond Soul! We’re now proficient in every single saving throw, including death saves, and if we fail a save, we may spend a Ki point to reroll!
Our unarmoured movement bonus increases to +25ft.
Monk 15.
All 15th level Monks gain Timeless Body! We no longer suffer the ill effects of aging and cannot be aged magically. I guess this explains why was perpetually in highschool (yeah I know the real reason is the comic line restarts).
Monk 16.
At this level, we gain another ASI! Wisdom is important for us, so let’s boost our Wisdom by +2! Our Wisdom is now 16 + 2 = 18, with a +4 modifier.
And finally, we’ll cap off our webbed wonder with . . .
Monk 17.
This is our final Drunken Monk Feature, Intoxicated Frenzy! When we use Flurry of blows, we can make up to 3 additional attacks with our bonus action, provided that each Flurry of blows attack targets a different target.

Pros 

We are extremely mobile! 55ft movement base, 110ft movement on a dash, 220ft with two, 20ft horizontal jump and 18ft high jump with Step of the Wind and the Jump spell, and we can crawl on walls and run on water! We’re really hard to pin down, especially since we can disengage for free when using Flurry!
We’ve got great defenses! 19 AC, Proficiency in every save, we can remove disadvantage for 1 Ki, we can reroll for 1 Ki, +5 to AC through Shield, +2 for free through War Magic, and +4 to saves also through War Magic.
We’re great at handling crowds, as we can make 7 attacks with Flurry of blows as long as we hit a different creature each time, and can make a Stunning Strike attempt on each hit!
Cons
We dipped Wizard for Web, but we have a really low Spellcasting Modifier and as such a really easy save to beat.
We missed one of the best Monk features, Empty Body.
A sling is just worse than a shortbow (in DnD, slings are crazy IRL)
Black Suit Spider-Man Quickbuild
Miles: “Let’s go man, before he gets too far!”
Peter: “No . . . he’s mine . . .”
Miles: “You sure? He’s got big teeth.”
Peter: “So do I.”
This is still Peter, but now he’s making use of the dark powers of the Symbiote, so he’ll still be a Variant Human but instead of Crusher, we’ll grab Eldritch Adept and gain the Mask of Many Faces invocation, which gives us at-will castings if Disguise Self. This’ll be how we shift from
our classic and black suit.
Our main stat is Strength.
Take 1 in Monk for Martial Arts.
Put the following 6 levels in Barbarian, which fits the much more brutalistic nature of your newly adopted fighting style. Take the Beast subclass for large symbiote weapons! Your maw is conjoining your arms and spawning a giant toothy jaw, your claws are tendrils at the tip of your fingers, and your tail is a great black tentacle that leaps out of you. Not to mention, you can crawl and jump(webswing) long distances now too. We’ll be using the Barbarian’s unarmoured defense.
Put the next 2 levels in Monk and take the Astral Self subclass, which we’ll reflavor as our stretchy symbiote attacks. We’ve got 3 Ki, with 9 over the course of the day, assuming 2 short rests.
Put your remaining 11 levels in Barbarian. Infectious Fury is placing a mote of your symbiote within your target and making them attack your ally. Or, it’s just scaring the shit out of them if you choose the other option. Call of the Hunt is giving a bit of your symbiote to the entire party.
Venom Quickbuild
“We are Venom.”
While building Black Suit Spiderman I noticed that the build would also work perfectly for Venom, which makes sense.
This build would be the same as with Black Suit, but we’ll grab a 1 Rogue level at the beginning and grab Expertise in Strength and Intimidation.
Carnage Quickbuild
“I am the ultimate insanity! I am CARNAGE!”
This build is the exact same as Venom’s, except we grab Rogue 2 after level 6 of Barbarian for Cunning Action, and we’ll put Expertise in Acrobatics instead of Athletics.
Spider-Gwen Quickbuild
“All right, people, let's start at the beginning one last time. My name is Gwen Stacy. I was bitten by a radioactive spider, and for the last two years I've been the one and only Spider-Woman. You guys know the rest . . .”
This build is the same as the original, except instead of Crusher we’ll grab Mobile, and we’ll take a 1 level Rogue dip after our Wizard levels for Expertise, which we’ll put in Perception and Acrobatics.
Miles Morales Quickbuild
“Okay, let's do this one last time, yeah? For real this time. This is it. My name is Miles Morales. I was bitten by a radioactive spider. And for like two days, I've been the one and only Spider-Man. I think you know the rest . . .”
Miles is a high schooler who was bitten by a radioactive spider, just like Peter, so he’ll be a Variant Human too, although for him we’ll grab Mobile instead of Crusher for hit and run tactics. He’ll still use a sling for webs. Make sure to grab Sleight of Hand to swipe the USB from Peter.
Our main stat is Dexterity, but we also want decent Wisdom for AC and saves.
From there, put all 20 levels in Monk and take the Ascendant Dragon subclass. We can change our unarmed strikes to elemental damage, so this is how we get our lighting abilities (don’t use it for any other damage type because that’s out of character!). Same thing goes for Breath of the Dragon - it’s a blast of Lighting Wings unfurled is our web swinging, and Aspect of Wyrm and Ascendent Aspect are already built off of flavor we’ve already established. Empty Body is our invisibility, and Stunning Strike is a zapping stun.
Spider-Man 2099 Quickbuild
“What has yesterday done to tomorrow?”
Miguel O’hara is a human, but his DNA was overwritten with that of a spider, so we’ll choose Simic Hybrid, and our level 1 mutation will be Nimble Climber. ( Ask your DM if you can have the Sunlight Sensitivity trait )
Our main stat is Dexterity, but we also want decent Wisdom for AC and saves.
Put 5 levels in Monk and choose the Open Hand subclass. Our Open Hand Technique is our super strength and agility, and Stunning Strike is injecting someone with our venom. Choose Grappling Appendages, which are just your claws.
From there, put 2 levels in Rogue ( ask your DM if you can use Sneak Attack on Unarmed Strikes ) for Cunning Action and Expertise. Take Expertise in Athletics for grapples and Perception for your super hearing and supervision.
From there, put 2 levels in Artificer and grab the Repeating Shot infusion for your organic webbing, Sending Stones, which are tech communications, Goggles of Night for your darkvision, and the Wand of Detection, which is your AI Lyra doing a scan for you.
From there, put 3 levels in Wizard and take the Conjuration subclass, which gives you a 3d printer you can use to make small items with. Choose all the spells that we chose in the original build.
Then, dump the remaining 8 levels into Monk. Wholeness of the body is our healing factor, and Tranquility is simply us being hard to hit.
Spider-Noir Quickbuild
“Wherever I go, the wind follows. And the wind smells like rain."
This Peter was bitten just like our Peter was, so we’ll make him a Variant Human. Instead of Crusher we’ll grab Gunner for your revolver.
Our main stat is Dexterity, but we also want decent Wisdom for AC and saves.
Put 5 levels in Monk, choose Kensei, and grab a Revolver. Our Stunning Strikes are Knock-Out punches.
Put 3 levels in Fighter and take the Blight Fighting style to fight in pitch black darkness. Choose the Battlemaster subclass. Grab Trip Attack, Feinting Attack, and Ambush.
Take 2 levels in Rogue for Cunning Action and Expertise. Take Expertise in Athletics and Stealth.
Take 3 levels in Wizard and choose the Divination subclass, which is your Spider-Sense. Choose the same spells as the ones we chose for our initial build, except swap out Earthbind for Spider Climb.
Dump the remaining 7 levels in Monk.
Peni Parker Quickbuild
“私の名前はペニ・パーカーです。私は 3145 年のニューヨーク出身です。父のロボットの中に住んでいるクモと精神的なつながりがあります。そして私たちは永遠に親友であり続けます。”
Peni Parker wasn’t given power by a radioactive spider, but she bonded with it -oh, and that spider controls an anime mech that she pilots. Let’s make Peni a Variant Human and grab Telekinetic, which is you pulling or pushing something with webs.
Our main ability will be Intelligence.
Put all 20 levels in Artificer, and choose Armourer as your subclass to get your SP//dr mecha.
Choose the Guardian Model. We’ll be wearing Full Plate.
Choose Enhanced Defense, Goggles of the Night, Enhanced Arcane Focus, Armour of Magical Strength, Boots of Elvenkind, Slippers of Spider Climbing, Boots of Striding and Springing, Ring of Jumping, Belt of Hill Giant Strength, Ring of Protection, Spell-Refueling Ring, and Helm of Awareness as infusions.
Pick Booming Blade, Sword Burst, Guidance, and Thorn Whip as cantrips. Prepare Web, Spider Climb, Stoneskin, Haste, Absorb Elements, Detect Magic, Faerie Fire, Identify, Jump, Longstrider, Kinetic Jaunt, Dispel Magic, Glyph of Warding, Water Breathing, and Alarm. We also get Magic Missile, Thunderwave, Mirror Image, Shatter, Hypnotic Pattern, Lighting Bolt, Fire Shield, Greater Invisibility, Passwall, and Wall of Force.
Booming blade is a sonic strike, Sword Burst is a 360 swipe, Guidance is looking something up, and Thornwhip is a grappling hook. Web, Jump, Longstrider, Kinetic Jaunt, and Spider Climb are typical spider-person stuff. Stoneskin, Absorb Elements, Alarm, Fire Shield, and Dispel Magic are SP//dr’s defenses. Detect Magic and Identify are scanners, Faerie Fire is targeting systems, Glyph of Warding is a trap ( I guess you can do that now? ), and Water Breathing is just SP//dr being airtight. Magic Missile is web missiles ( yeah I know it’s a stretch ), Passwall is smashing through a wall, Wall of Force is a forcefield, Lighting Bolt and Shatter is techy stuff the mech probably can do (?), Haste is a battle focus, and Greater Invisibility is out of character so don’t use it.
Spider-Ham Quickbuild
"I was bitten by a radioactive pig."
Spider-Ham was a spider that was bitten by a radioactive pig. Instead of trying to comprehend the logic check that such an origin demands, let’s just make him a Gnome, which fits since he’s a tricky, short fella. Specifically, a Forest Gnome, and we’ll use Minor Illusion for our cartoon shenanigans. We’ll use a light hammer for our mallet.
Our main stat is Dexterity, but we also want decent Wisdom for AC and saves.
From there, the build follows our original Spider-Man build, except instead of taking 3 levels in Wizard, we’ll take 3 in Warlock. Choose the Hexblade subclass.
Take the Beast Speech and Improved Pact Weapon invocations.
Take the Pact of the Blade boon. This is your hammerspace.
For cantrips, grab Prestidigitation, True Strike, and Mage Hand. For spells, learn Shield, Hex, Expeditious Retreat, and Shadow Blade.
Expeditious Retreat is just running fast, Prestidigitation and Major image will be used for cartoon stuff like making a lightbulb appear over your head. True Strike is waiting for the right time to strike. Shield is dodging out of the way, Hex is a combat focus, and Shadowblade is a random weapon pulled out of hammer space ( it deals psychic damage because your opponent can’t comprehend that they’re being beaten by a pig ).

WARNING THIS POST IS VERY LONG!!! EDIT: FORMATTING! PLEASE FORGIVE ME!
So I added Warpstone to my 5E game. For the uninitiated its the Warhammer equivalent of Uranium/Weapons Grade Fissile Material. Was it a mistake... perhaps. My players procured it, rolled to refine it, and then paid a substantial amount of gold to have it fashioned into weapons. Currently I have 1 fighter and 1 barbarian that possess these weapons. As it stands whenever the Barbarian Rages, or the Fighter Action Surges, they must roll on the "Warpstone Weapon Table" as detailed below.
The weapons are only +1, but as you can see they have a little more "umph" than your typical +1 weapon. The players are lvl 7, and the ultimate culmination of the weapons table results in a "Wish" (Scroll to the bottom to see effects)... currently, this is what I have (plus some more, but it exceeds the post length).
I need your help to tell me just how badly I screwed up... or if I can make this work. If this seems like something I can manufacture into a table, and if it gains traction within the community I will post a link to the google doc, otherwise... here it is in its bastard glory...

1. Warp Explosion: The weapon overloads with chaotic energy causing a massive explosion. The Weapon is destroyed in the process. Roll a d100, This is the radius of the explosion. Every creature within the radius must roll a DEX Saving throw DC 18. Full damage on a failed save, half on a successful one. For each level of the Wielder roll 1d20, this is the damage caused by the explosion. Any creature caught in the radius of the explosion that fails the DEX save may choose to roll on the Warpstone Weapon table to take half damage instead.
   
2. Corruption: The wielder's flesh begins to mutate and warp, causing physical deformities. Roll 4d6, this is the time in hours the player is affected. Roll 1d6, 1= R leg, 2= L leg, 3= R arm, 4= L arm, 5= Torso, 6= Head. If a leg is affected Speed is reduced by half. If an arm is affected the wielder has disadvantage on attack rolls. If the torso is affected the wielder rolls an additional d10 and their max HP is reduced by that number. If the wielder's head is affected they roll 1d6: on a 1-2 the player is blinded, on a 3-4 the player is deafened, on a 5 the player is muted, and on a 6 their nose falls off. If the player's nose falls off only Greater Restoration may reattach the player's nose to their face. If the number of hours before a player's nose is reattached exceeds the number of hours this effect impacts the player, then then the player's nose disintegrates and the player takes a permanent -2 to persuasion rolls, and -2 to perception rolls involving smell, the player gains a permanent +4 to intimidation rolls. If a player's nose suffers disintegration the only way to restore it is through a wish spell.
   
3. Mind Warp: The weapon's influence seeps into the wielder's mind, causing hallucinations and delusions. Roll 4d6, this is the time in hours the player is affected. During combat, at the beginning of their turn the player rolls a WIS saving throw DC 19, on a failure they may only use an action, reaction, bonus action, or movement. On a success they may take their turn as normal. While out of combat the player has disadvantage on all perception rolls until the effect ends.
   
4. Taint: The wielder's presence becomes repulsive, attracting malevolent entities and causing social ostracism. Roll 4d6, this is the time in hours the player is affected. Player has disadvantage on all CHA rolls and NPC's will treat them with disdain.
   
5. Soul Erosion: The weapon gradually drains the wielder's life force, weakening them over time. Roll 4d6, this is the time in hours the player is affected. On effect, and at the beginning of each hour, the player rolls a CON saving throw starting at a DC 18. On a failure the player may choose one of the following: roll a hit die and lose max HP equivalent to the die roll, roll 1d4 and reduce their STR ability score by that much, or take 2 levels of Exhaustion. On success the player suffers no negative effects and the DC for future saving throws is reduced by 1.
   
6. Warp Madness: Exposure to the weapon's energies drives the wielder to madness, resulting in erratic behavior. Roll 1d100, this is the time in hours the player is affected. Roll an additional 1d100 on the long term madness table. If the player rolls a 1 or 100 at any time they must roll an additional 1d100 on the indefinite madness table. If the player's rolls result in indefinite madness roll the only cure is through a Wish spell.
   
7. Uncontrolled Mutation: The wielder's body undergoes uncontrolled and unpredictable mutations, leading to physical instability. Roll a STR saving throw DC 17. On failure the player Rolls 1d6, 1-2= Leg, 3-4= Arm, 5= Torso, 6= Head.
   

- If a leg is affected Speed is reduced by half.
- If an arm is affected the wielder has disadvantage on attack rolls.
- If the torso is affected the wielder rolls an additional d10 and their max HP is reduced by that number.
- If the wielder's head is affected they roll 1d6:
- 1-2= the player is blinded.
- 3-4= the player is deafened.
- 5= the player is muted
- 6= their nose falls off. If the player's nose falls off only Greater Restoration may reattach the player's nose to their face. If the number of hours before a player's nose is reattached exceeds the number of hours this effect impacts the player, then then the player's nose disintegrates and the player takes a permanent -2 to persuasion rolls, and -2 to perception rolls involving smell, the player gains a permanent +4 to intimidation rolls. If a player's nose suffers disintegration the only way to restore it is through a wish spell.

1. Chaotic Feedback: Wielding the weapon causes chaotic feedback, resulting in random magical effects on the wielder. Roll 1d100 on the Wild Magic Surge table.
   
2. Psychic Instability: The weapon disrupts psychic abilities, causing psychic powers to become unpredictable or uncontrollable. The player rolls 1d10, this is the time in minutes the player is affected. The player rolls 1d100, this is the radius of the effect in feet.
   

The player becomes a psychic lightning rod, any psychic damage that is dealt within the radius of effect is instead redirected towards the player.

1. Warp Sickness: The wielder experiences chronic illness and weakened vitality due to prolonged exposure to the Weapon's Warp energies. The wielder must succeed on a Constitution saving throw DC 15 or take 4d10 radiant damage, suffer one level of exhaustion, and emit a dim, greenish light in a 5-foot radius. This light makes it impossible for the creature to benefit from being invisible. The light and any levels of exhaustion caused by this effect end when the affected player takes a long rest.
   
2. Reality Fracture: The weapon creates temporary ruptures in reality around the wielder, causing unpredictable and dangerous phenomena. The player must succeed on a Wisdom saving throw, DC 14 or it can’t take reactions until the effect ends. The affected target must also roll a d10 at the start of each of its turns; the number rolled determines what happens to the target, as shown on the Reality Break Effects table.
   

1–2 = Vision of the Far Realm. The target takes 2d12 psychic damage, and it is stunned until the end of the turn.
3–5 = Rending Rift. The target must make a Dexterity saving throw, DC 15, taking 2d12 force damage on a failed save, or half as much damage on a successful one.
6–8 = Wormhole. The target is teleported, along with everything it is wearing and carrying, up to 30 feet to an unoccupied space of your choice that you can see. The target also takes 2d12 force damage and is knocked prone.
9–10 = Chill of the Dark Void. The target takes 2d12 cold damage, and it is blinded until the end of the turn.
At the end of each of its turns, the affected target can repeat the Wisdom saving throw, ending the effect on itself on a success.

1. Dark Resonance: The weapon resonates with dark energies, attracting malevolent entities and increasing the risk of possession.

Roll a d20:
- 1 = the Mists of Ravenloft appear and the DM determines the dread realm the party is transported to. - 20 = a portal to Avernus opens and the DM determines if a hellish host erupts from it, or drags the party in.
- 2-9 = Summon Lesser Demons (the demons are hostile to everyone).
- 10 = Summon Greater Demon which is hostile to everyone.
- 11-19 = Summon Fiend which is not immediately hostile.
If a summon effect occurs roll an additional d10 to determine the level of the casting. Any number below the spell's level; causes the spell to fail. Otherwise it is up-cast to the appropriate level. If the spell is 10th level it is to the DM's discretion what comes through the warp.

1. Curse of the Warp: The weapon carries a potent curse that brings misfortune and calamity to the wielder and those around them. If the Remove Curse spell is used, as an action, the player may become unattuned from the weapon and the curse's effects will diminish. Otherwise the weapon must be destroyed.

- Roll 1d12, this is the number in months the player is affected by the curse.
- Roll 1d10 to establish one of the following effects:
1: The victim has disadvantage on attack rolls, if an effect would grant the player advantage or add to their roll it instead has the opposite effect.
2: The victim can’t communicate using language, whether through speaking, sign language, writing, telepathy, or any other means.
3: The victim gains 3 levels of exhaustion that can’t be removed while the curse endures.
4: When the victim finishes a long rest, they must succeed on a DC 15 Constitution saving throw, or their hit point maximum is reduced by 1d10. If this reduces their hit point maximum to 0, the victim dies, and their body crumbles to dust.
5: When the victim takes damage, they take an extra 1d10 necrotic damage. This effect can’t happen again until the start of the victim’s next turn.
6: A monster hunts the victim relentlessly. Even if the monster dies, it rises again or a new one takes its place 24 hours later.
7: The victim gains vulnerability to one damage type.
8: The victim’s Strength, Dexterity, or Constitution score is reduced to 3, and the victim can’t be raised from the dead while the curse lasts.
9-10: The victim gains a Dark Gift.

1. Warp Addiction: The wielder becomes addicted to the sensations and power granted by the weapon, leading to reckless behavior to satisfy their cravings. Roll 1d100 on the indefinite madness table 3 times. A greater restoration spell or more powerful magic is required to rid a character of indefinite madness.
   
2. Haunting Whispers: The weapon whispers sinister thoughts and temptations to the wielder, gradually eroding their moral compass. Roll 1d10, this is the time in minutes the effect lasts. Upon being afflicted, and every minute, or at the beginning of each turn if in combat, the player must Roll 1d100 on the short term madness table. The character must then roll a CHA saving throw DC 10 or suffer the effects of madness as well as count the saving throw as a failure. On any success all madness effects are ended and any failed saves are removed. The character is deafened for the remainder of the effect's time. On a Failure they begin to become corrupted by evil forces, after three failed saves their alignment shifts to chaotic evil.
   
3. Soul Corruption: Wielding the weapon corrupts the wielder's soul, staining it with dark and malevolent energies. Roll 1d100 on the short term madness table. While affected the character must roll a CHA saving throw DC 18. On a success the madness effect is ended. On a Failure they are corrupted by evil forces and their alignment shifts to chaotic evil.
   
4. Energy Feedback: The weapon unleashes bursts of chaotic energy upon striking, causing harm to the wielder as well. On a hit, roll 1d6 to deal additional force damage to the target. Half of any damage dealt by the weapon is redirected to the wielder in the form of force damage.
   
5. Power Drain: The weapon drains the wielder's own strength and vitality with each strike, making them weaker over time. On a hit the player rolls 1d4 losing an equivalent amount of STR and Max HP. These are restored at the end of a long rest or by Greater Restoration.
   
6. Reality Deterioration: Prolonged use of the weapon causes the wielder to lose touch with reality, leading to confusion and disorientation. The wielder is affected as if under the effects of the confusion spell.
   
7. Ethereal Binding: The weapon binds itself to the wielder's soul, making it difficult or impossible to part ways with the cursed weapon. The character is gradually consumed with a paranoia surrounding the loss or destruction of the weapon. If the weapon is lost, unattuned to (via remove curse), or destroyed, the player rolls 2 hit dice and their max HP is reduced by the amount rolled. Only greater restoration may restore the lost HP.
   
8. Warp Consumption: The weapon consumes the wielder's essence, eventually turning them into a twisted servant of Chaos. Roll 1d100 on the short term madness table. While affected the character must roll a CHA saving throw DC 19. On a success the madness effect is ended. On a Failure they begin to become corrupted by evil forces, after three failed saves their alignment shifts to chaotic evil.
   
9. Corrosive Touch: The wielder's skin becomes corrosive, causing anything they touch to dissolve or decay. Roll 1d10, this is the time in minutes this effect lasts. Any items the player is currently wearing begin to take damage. A player may use their turn to drop their gear. At the beginning of each turn the player rolls a d20. On a 1-5 any armor, weapons, or gear the player is still touching, rapidly disintegrate into a pile of goo. The player has advantage on rolls to grapple, a grappled creature or an object the player interacts with takes 6d6 acid damage.
   
10. Painful Paralysis: The wielder experiences temporary paralysis and intense pain, making movement difficult or impossible. Roll 1d10, this is the time in minutes the player is affected. At the start of each turn the player rolls a CON saving throw, DC 12, or they become paralyzed. A player may choose to fight the paralysis by rolling a hit die and taking an equivalent amount of damage, but their speed is halved and they have disadvantage on any attack rolls made while affected by the paralysis.
    
11. Rotting Flesh: The wielder's flesh begins to rot and decay, emitting a foul odor and attracting disease-ridden vermin. Roll 4d6, this is the time in hours the player is affected. The player has disadvantage on stealth rolls or attempts to hide. At the start of each turn roll 1d20. If the roll is less then 10 roll 2d4, that many diseased giant rats are summoned. They are hostile to everyone and always attempt to bite the affected player.
    
12. Fractured Bones: The wielder's bones become brittle and prone to fractures, causing constant pain and limited mobility. Roll 4d6, this is the time in hours the player is affected. The player has disadvantage on STR and CON saving throws and ability checks that use those modifiers. Additionally, the player has vulnerability to Bludgeoning and Force damage.
    
13. Warped Nervous System: The wielder's nerves become erratic and hypersensitive, resulting in chronic pain and involuntary muscle spasms. Roll 4d6, this is the time in hours the player is affected. The player has disadvantage on DEX and INT saving throws and any ability checks that use those modifiers. Additionally the player has vulnerability to Lightning and Psychic damage.
    
14. Cursed Blood: The wielder's blood becomes toxic, causing sickness and weakness when exposed to others or ingested. When a player is damaged they may use their reaction to cover an opponent within 5ft with their blood. The player may also cut themselves as an action and throw their blood at an opponent. Upon being hit with the player's blood the affected creature must roll a CON saving throw DC 15 or suffer disadvantage on any attack rolls.
    
15. Deteriorating Vitality: The wielder's life force weakens, leading to fatigue, decreased physical endurance, and overall diminished health. Roll 1d4, this is the time in days the player is affected. While affected the player has disadvantage on attack rolls and STR and CON saving throws and ability checks that use those modifiers. At the start of each day the player must make a CON saving throw DC 12. On a failed save they roll half of their hit die and take an equivalent amount of damage. If the player doesn't have enough hit die to roll they instead take 2 points of exhaustion that cannot be removed until this effect ends. A greater restoration spell ends this effect.
    
16. Uncontrollable Tremors: The wielder experiences uncontrollable shaking and tremors, impairing their coordination and precision. Roll 4d6, this is the time in hours the player is affected. The player has disadvantage on DEX and STR saves and any ability checks that use these modifiers. The player also stutters when they speak. Any spells that use verbal or somatic components are subject to a a DEX save equal to the player's spellcasting modifier. On a fail the spell does not occur.
    
17. Warped Sensations: The wielder's senses become distorted, leading to constant migraines, sensory overload, or loss of sensation. Roll 4d6, this is the time in hours the player is affected. The player has disadvantage on WIS and INT saving throws and any ability checks that use those modifiers. Additionally the player has vulnerability to Thunder and Psychic damage.
    
18. Necrotic Aura: The wielder emits a malignant aura that withers nearby plant life, causing wounds to fester and heal slowly. Roll 1d10, this is the time in minutes this effect lasts. Roll 2d10, this is the size of the aura in meters centered on the warpstone weapon. Any creature that enters or starts its turn in the aura, must make a CON saving throw DC 12 or take 2d6 necrotic damage. While in this aura any attempts to heal or stabilize someone automatically fail.
    
19. Tainted Aura: The wielder's presence causes discomfort and repulsion in others, resulting in social isolation and rejection. Roll 4d6, this is the time in hours the player is affected. While affected the player has disadvantage on CHA and WIS saving throws and any ability checks that use this modifier.
    
20. Darkened Vision: The wielder's eyesight becomes compromised, causing impaired vision, night blindness, or distorted perception. Roll 4d6, this is the time in hours this effect lasts. The player's vision is reduced to 10 ft and if they have darkvision or truesight it is disabled. The player also has disadvantage on perception rolls.
    
21. Slowed Metabolism: The wielder's metabolism drastically slows down, leading to weight gain, sluggishness, and reduced physical performance. Roll 1d12, this is the time in months the player is affected. While affected the player only needs to eat the equivalent of one day's food per 10 day.
    
22. Uncontrolled Growth: The wielder's body experiences abnormal growth spurts, resulting in disproportionate limbs or excessive height. Roll 1d12, this is the time in months the player is affected. Upon being affected and at the beginning of each month roll 1d6, 1= R leg, 2= L leg, 3= R arm, 4= L arm, 5= Torso, 6= Neck. Then roll 1d6, add an equivalent number of inches to the affected body part. These changes can only be reversed by a greater restoration spell after duration of the spell has occurred.
    
23. Depleted Vitality: The wielder's life force drains rapidly, leading to chronic weakness, pale skin, and a fragile constitution. Roll 1d10, this is the time in minutes the player is affected. At the start of each turn roll a CON saving throw DC 12, on a success roll a hit die and take an equivalent amount of damage. On a failure, do the same thing, but reduce your maximum number of hit die by 1. If the player has no hit die remaining, whether by depletion from the effect or if their hit die pool is reduced to zero, they must instead roll 1d4 and subtract the result from their CON score. Any of these effects can be reversed by Greater Restoration.
    
24. Inflammation: The wielder's body becomes chronically inflamed, causing joint pain, swelling, and reduced range of motion. Speed is reduced by half. If the player uses the Dash, Dodge, or Disengage action they must roll a CON saving throw DC 12. On Success they may move their full speed (it cannot be doubled as with the Dash action), or take the respective action, but they will take one point of exhaustion. On failure the player takes one point of exhaustion.
    
25. Searing Burns: The wielder's skin is prone to painful, blistering burns from even the slightest exposure to heat or sunlight. Roll 1d10, this is the time in minutes the player is affected. The player takes 2d10 radiant damage when it starts its turn in sunlight. While in sunlight, it has disadvantage on attack rolls and ability checks.
    

... I have place holder descriptions for every value after this one, but I wanna fast forward to the ultimate...

1. Wish of the Warp: The weapon transmutes into a dense bead of unstable bright green chaos energy. Although the weapon is lost in the process, the wielder may make one wish. This effect only lasts for a single round, if a wish is not made during the round of combat the energy is unleashed and a chaotic explosion occurs. The wielder is the only creature not affected by the explosion.

So my group has been playing 5e for a bit over a year and a half. We have 5-6 players every week, including the DM. We were all brand new to the game except my buddy who began us all on our fantastic journey.
Anyway, since we began it’s so crazy to see the progress we have all made as absolute noob players and as DMs. We now have 4 people who can DM so we hardly ever miss a weekend. I learned a lot from the first character death, which hurt more than I thought it would. I can feel it still and have a hatred of scarecrows now. From dying because we didn’t know about duck, dive disengage or dodge to banishing my first aberration as a player this last weekend. It’s been a real fun ride and I feel super lucky to have such a consistent group of people to play in person with. I hope you all had some amazing sessions this weekend and would share some of them with me.

So my group has been playing 5e for a bit over a year and a half. We have 5-6 players every week, including the DM. We were all brand new to the game except my buddy who began us all on our fantastic journey.
Anyway, since we began it’s so crazy to see the progress we have all made as absolute noob players and as DMs. We now have 4 people who can DM so we hardly ever miss a weekend. I learned a lot from the first character death, which hurt more than I thought it would. I can feel it still and have a hatred of scarecrows now. From dying because we didn’t know about duck, dive disengage or dodge to banishing my first aberration as a player this last weekend. It’s been a real fun ride and I feel super lucky to have such a consistent group of people to play in person with. I hope you all had some amazing sessions this weekend and would share some of them with me.

I am not arguing that this style of TTRPG shouldn't exist (especially given that quality CRPGs can be quite rare). Just wanted to see if this is something many others have felt - moving away from crunchier combat-oriented TTRPGs.
I have played and enjoyed lots of Pathfinder 2e, along with some oneshots here and there of Lancer, ICON and Gubat Banwa. The more I have played, the more that this experience has made me think that these combat systems feel like they work better in a CRPG (Computer RPG video game). We have basically been doing as we smooth out play of Pathfinder 2e with Foundry VTT and many supporting modules. When I play in person, its quite a bit more frustration and management in comparison.
The Rarity of Improvisation
What I found is that in Pathfinder 2e, the combat is so well designed to give interesting decision-making while in combat, that there really isn't any desire to improvise at the tables I have played. And improvising rulings is really why a human GM is so valuable. But even when we do have improvisation that a computer couldn't handle, adjudicating fair and balanced rulings for improvised actions is difficult in a system with so many rules, even with the guidance provided by PF2e like this.
I've seen several situations where either the player or GM attempted some creativity and found it very difficult for it to actually work well compared to the much more efficient option of using your typical features because often if its not a one time option (drop a chandelier or rockslide) then its abused. And given that CRPGs are designed by professional level designers with playtesters, these environmental aspects are often better used in CRPGs.
CRPGs are Much Faster
Tactical Chess-like Combat is a lot faster when computers manage most of the rules. I am sure everyone can understand this even when playing in multiplayer of Baldur's Gate 3 or Divinity 2 even when you have a good set of foundry modules to support your game.

Some Arguments for why TTRPGs are great for this playstyle that I wanted to Address

The Combat is fun, but the Computer only can handle more linear campaigns unlike a GM
A very fair point. My argument is that we often play different TTRPG systems for different experiences. I am not going to throw in a horror oneshot into my Pathfinder 2e (of which the PCs are basically Superheroes), instead I will run a Dread oneshot. System Matters. And if what I want to experience is player narrative control, why am I bothering with these long, clunkier than CRPG combats when I can have those combats elsewhere.
Combat is a break from Roleplay
I think this is the best argument of their inclusion - one that I personally don't agree with my own playstyle. But I have seen many feel this way online. Often when I run more narrative games that need players highly engaged for the whole session, these 20-40 minute breaks are what they need to refuel.
Of course, I have also seen the opposite where these breaks are where they are almost fully disengaged, so its a matter of playstyle and I can see this being quite helpful. For my playstyle, its like we are playing two very different games and one often interrupts the flow of the other - just my experience of D&D 5e being the entry point has normalized this disruptive game flow.
Combat is Roleplay
I feel these systems are too mechanized in treating your PC as more of a Pawn/chess piece to really feel like this is the case. Yeah, in some cases, you can have some great roleplay from decisions you made. Rather than heal the downed PC, you charged forward.
But these games reward optimization and efficiency and usually the table expects it. If you were to suddenly roleplay being terrified and running away, you entirely throw off the balance of the encounter and can easily screw over the other players - so this roleplay is very limited whereas other games where combat is faster, more narrative, more cinematic and less needing tight balancing to function would better support more dramatic roleplay in combat. And the cinematic combat style often handles improvised actions because again we don't need to fine tune the balance around these actions.
How does everyone else feel about these tactical RPGs more focused combat rules, especially as you have played more? Have you moved away from this playstyle?

I recently joined a third level game with a House of Cards Warmage and while I'm enjoying the Warmage in general this subclass just feels horrible. I understand that it's a gambling-themed subclass, but House of Dice seems to operate much more smoothly and actually does something most turns when you call on it.
Deck of Fate monopolizes your bonus action and can't be used if your cantrip misses. The most impactful hand is a straight flush. for 12 extra damage. But a 5 card draw has a 0.00139% chance of happening so I'd expect a lot more oomph from it. Yes, you can play undesirable cards to go for a better hand, but you're either spending HP or more than likely combat will end before you can get the hand you want.
High Stakes needs a more powerful effect or a different cost. Self damage is rare in 5e and spending 2hp to draw a single card just doesn't seem worth it even if you're trying to set up a straight flush. Compared to how other self damage stuff like Bloodhunter works (with more impactful, reliable effects for losing hp) this just feels like throwing away hp.
Dealer's Choice is mostly fine, but leaving the effect entirely up to the DM seems odd on a chance-based subclass. If the DM gives you an unhelpful effect, you can't even try again without a rest. It also takes a bonus action meaning you can't play cards on the same turn.
Card Reading isn't compatible with High Stakes and only gives you a 25% chance once a round to get a pseudo-Cunning Action on a class that isn't overflowing with reasons to use Disengage, Dash or Use an Object. Just feels very weak for level 15.
Ace in the Hole is good, but most campaigns will never see it.
Fold gives you a once/rest Shield, which would be handy if it came online early but Fold requires you to be level 10 to do something a level 1 caster can easily accomplish.
With Gamble a 1/rest reroll isn't bad, but Cheat is an extremely niche cantrip that doesn't feel worth taking compared to almost anything else on the Warmage's list. It also seems odd that you need to keep the cantrip permanently learned, but part of the trick is that it's affecting you constantly, in case you get ambushed with a game of Go Fish i guess?
Am I missing something here? Most of the Valda's options feel really solid even outside of Warmage. House of Cards is fun in theory but most of the time it does absolutely nothing and when you do proc a valid hand the effects are really minor.

I feel like I could write a whole lot about the person in this story as we played together for 4 years, but it’d probably be chaotic and maddening to look at all at once. This is a small portion of my time with this person but is a time I remember very well because it was my campaign.
It was my first dnd campaign, and so far, my only dnd campaign, but before this, I have 20 years of experience being in and running forum literature roleplays. Things like worldbuilding, stories, and making characters aren't hard for me but the mechanics inherent to DnD/TTRPGs DMing were a new experience for me, as was answering out-of-character questions on the fly and putting my foot down about adult bullies.
The bratty player in this story, we’ll just call Brat. For the sake of anonymity and because we played various characters/classes, everyone else will be referred to as an animal, I hope that’ll make the word soup minimal!
Lastly, to be completely fair, I’m going to include my mistakes along the way too. I don’t think I’m a perfect person and I know there’ll be people who read this and come out of it thinking I’m an asshole… That’s alright. I’m writing this just to get it off my chest, and whatever you think of me or my table, I hope you enjoy the read.
A good place to start would be describing my campaign; I feel more comfortable doing things 100% homebrew, so that’s what it was. It was a small-ish setting, urban medival fantasy with humans being a rare people. Money was a little more scarce, but that was because the campaign was built on the idea that the campaign would mostly be about solving mysteries (and maybe doing hired detective work) and/or heists. The PCs started off as regular joes who would become heroes (or anti-heroes) over time.
It was a very puzzle and dialog heavy campaign where battles were risky, but the point was that once they knew the villain’s weaknesses, that they could easily beat them up. I put a lot of work in making the puzzles interesting and included physical puzzles, and homemade maps of the city so that they could triangulate criminal activity, predict where they might find witnesses, look for weakpoints in security, etc.
Small tangent, but making physical puzzles was, while fun, extremely time-consuming and tiring. We had two sessions per week, and I’d have to run a campaign for the whole month (8 sessions) before I’d get a break and it’d swap to Dog’s campaign. Dog and I often asked if we could alternate sessions per week, or only have one session a week, but Brat wouldn’t allow it. Brat said if we had both campaigns in one week, he’d be confused about what happened in which setting. I don’t remember the reason we stuck to two sessions per week, but I remember Brat insisting on it, and since we played at his house, he kind of had final say on all of this stuff…
Anyway, back to the setting explanation: they went into battles guns blazing, they’d be at real risk of dying. The players all knew the nature of the setting, and after a few sessions, they actually preferred the mystery solving and the feel of basically being the scooby gang except they were in actual supernatural danger.
Because I wanted them to be below average, the character creation was 3d6 down the line with the ability to swap 2 ability scores, that way if you wanted to play a wizard, you could still make intelligence your highest score. Since we were already at the table for my spouse’s [Dog] campaign, before we went home, I had them roll their ability scores there.
A lot of them were really bad, but everyone also had a 16 or 18 in the mix. Our bloodhunter, Bird, had a constitution of 5! But again, that was the point; they were all weak and had to both rely on each other and use their heads. However, Dog rolled miraculously well, and with his racial modifiers, his ability scores were: 18, 12, 12, 13, 10, 10. Since I didn’t want everyone else to feel like one PC was way stronger, I offered that any PC with very low scores could have a magical item or two to start.
Bird chose to have something akin to Winged Boots, but with the caveat that it would bind his PC’s limbs, so the purpose of the flight was more for utility or escapes, though if the party was creative, they could come up with this or that way to use this in battle too. It worked, because a big portion of the population in the setting was aarakocra, so flying was sometimes important to reach houses or special gardens.
There was a drunken monk in the mix (who isn’t too relevant to the story) who had okay scores, so we compromised and he got a free brewer’s supplies, and a nicer place to sleep than the others at a lower rent/upkeep cost.
Brat wanted a +2 quarterstaff, and I gave it to him. Then, before session one, Brat also wanted something else for his aarakocra PC: a dive attack.
Me: No, I don’t think that’d be fair…
Brat: But enemy aarakocra have it, so I should too!
Me: It’d probably break the game; if they don’t have it on the player version, then it’s with good reason.
At first, he said that made sense, but he didn’t actually let it up. Brat really likes confrontation while no one else does, I’ve learned to stand up for myself and say “no” a lot more because of him but even still, it’s not fun to do. And so, I eventually caved, and so it was at least a little balanced, I said that if he ever rolls a nat 1 when doing this, that he’d take fall damage.
I wouldn’t recommend allowing this. It’s not actually a good trade-off and it meant his aarakocra was like a yo-yo when outdoors; flying up as high as he could and then dive-attacking before flying to safety again. I should mention, Brat’s aarakocra was a monk, so this character could disengage and fly pretty far.
Having an aarakocra monk around comes with a lot of woes as a DM but I think at a lot of tables, it would be fun…. Just don’t have a brat who doesn’t think about the other characters at all having one. I’d balance encounters for the whole party to face, but since Brat was in the air, that meant the other players, including Bird with his 5 constitution, were tanking the blows while Brat went unharmed for the whole fight. When I started to include archers/flying enemies to better distribute the damage and give him a proper challenge, Brat would fuss about how I made enemies specifically to fight his monk…
And yeah, I guess I did. But at that point, their characters were wanted criminals, so it did make sense in-world that the bounty hunters knew to have bows, bolas, or spells. Even still, Brat was never in danger of dying, even in these fights, because I never made it ALL flyers/archers, and his allies looked out for him more than he looked out for them.
And how did they become criminals? Well, they were tracking down an illegal animal fighting ring, with the animals being cute little mimic-foxes (kitsunes but.. Sticky and turning into furniture!) They found a baby mimic-fox who escaped and with Dog’s beast speech, they were able to learn that the fox’s family was still held captive. They set out to find leads using detect magic, and soon enough they found an unsuspecting suspect with a briefcase that was made of or held magic that was very similar to the mimic-fox.
The suspect was walking the streets in broad daylight, likely heading to the secret headquarters of this operation. The party formulated a plan; Brat would fly Dog, who was a tortle, into the air and hurl him at the suspect. They did this, Dog survived, but the suspect and their paltry 20hp did not and was smeared across the city streets for all to see.
Brat’s character tried to lure the fox out of the briefcase (or make the fox stop being a briefcase, the specifics weren’t known) and when he failed, he sat down on the curb next to the body, and waited for the fox to transform on its own. It didn’t, so Brat was inevitably arrested. Brat was upset that 1. Anyone noticed (a murder in broad daylight on city streets), 2. That the guard showed up within ~5 in-game minutes.
I remind, he murdered someone in broad daylight and then SAT DOWN by the body thinking a magic fox would conveniently pop out of a briefcase even though he failed his animal handling check.
In the chaos, Bird’s bloodhunter died, and Dog’s tortle fled out of the city. After session, Dog decided he wanted to retire his tortle and remake an old character of his he loved, a rogue, for the inevitable prison break that’d happen next time we played. Bird rolled up a new character too; a teenage air genasi who was unjustly arrested by the murderers of his father.
Since they were very much criminals now, I started putting in more criminal organizations, devil-run casinos, underhanded government officials, etc for them to potentially buddy up with if they wanted (or else turn in to regain some reputation). One of the underhanded government officials was a wizard who helped them escape prison by teaching the party wizard, Cat, some spells and helping her make high level scrolls.
Before going to meet the wizard in-person, they got sidetracked and ended up beginning a new mystery. That’s fine, and when they ended up stumped, they decided to go to the wizard for a hint. The thing is, the hint was only needed because Brat always hogged the puzzles. I’d make physical puzzles, like flyers with cryptic messages or a stack of letters that help date who was where and when a murder might have happened, etc etc. It’s a rewarding experience if any of you want to try this out, but only do it if you don’t have a Brat.
Brat loved my physical puzzles so much that he hogged them. He was often the sole person holding the crafts I made, only handing them off to command others to fill out a certain part of them. If it was letters, he’d recite the important information--or the information he thought was important. One of the puzzles, writings from a villain, included magically enchanted letters that all said something akin to, “Would you kindly” in them and these kindly letters were all addressed to one npc. I did this because I knew for a fact that Dog loved Bioshock, but the rest of the party were also avid gamers--or, all but Brat.
If they had seen this, or at least Dog, then they could have deduced that these letters were casting suggestion on this npc, and from there they would have a huge clue in their mystery.
Since Dog (or the others) didn’t hold those letters for himself, and that part wasn’t recited out loud by Brat, they ended up stumped for long time... I’d even made like 5 or 6 letters too, and at most, my table had 5 players, so all of them could have held at least ONE letter for themselves to look over for clues, but they didn’t get to. Brat held ALL the letters!
Anyway, this wizard-hinting moment was another situation like that. It wasn’t a reference to a piece of media, but it was a cipher that could still use more than one pair of eyes on it. And again, there were multiple physical papers, but only one person was holding them; Brat. Once the wizard had given them a little hint, Brat finally gave Bird and Dog some of the papers, but only after commanding them to do a specific action with them. “Copy these two together,” “Line these up!”
Cat wasn’t given any bit of the puzzle to work with. So, in the meantime, the wizard talked to Cat and gave her some polymorph potions to help them on their current mystery. The potions were monstrosity polymorphs; two would turn them into Gricks, and one was for a Winter Wolf. These potions were kind of a reward for finishing the “prison break” quest and making a new ally, and everyone in the party knew they were going to be rewarded, but since Brat was speaking very loudly, no one but Cat heard me hand over the potions.
I had faith that Cat would tell them, but maybe I should have repeated myself. I’m certain those potions could have come in handy for what mess the party would end up in next…
The puzzle led them to a thieves guild, with the deciphered message clearly stating they knew things about Villain and wanted to defeat Villain, a tyrannical mad wizard who controlled a city with an iron fist.
They entered the thieves guild, located in the waterways under a city, and came across a criminal patrol immediately. The henchmen told them that they’d take them to their leader but that they needed to be blindfolded and bound as they traveled through the maze-like passages to the center of their hideout. Some of the party agreed but Brat refused completely, understandably distrusting the henchmen, but it devolved into Brat threatening that, if they kept insisting on the blindfold, he would rat them out to the Villain, and this turned a fight which ended with the henchmen dead.
That’s fine, they were only just entering the lair, they could lie about who did this or even just leave and come back later. The thieves could easily assume Villain did this!
The party continued into the lair, stumbling across a storage room hidden under a city bridge. The entrance had a trap that exploded, hurting Dog, Cat, and Bird. The party searched the room, found only basic supplies like rope and cloaks, and decided they’d take a short rest in the storage room. They piled boxes in front of the exploded doorway, but naturally, more henchmen and the Thief Queen came around to see what was all the ruckus. They found their infiltrated storage room and their dead allies, and yeah, Cat tried to talk their way out of it but didn’t roll high enough to meet the high DC given the horrible situation they were in. A fight ensued, and Brat started yo-yo-ing around the fight since he was safely outside of the storage room thanks to disengage.
Brat took all of 1 damage in the whole fight. Even as Dog and Cat were dying in front of him, he kept leaving the range of the enemies, giving no chance for them to escape or the three enemies anyone else to attack, and Dog and Cat’s characters perished. Bird, injured as he was, had been closest to the door and when the fighting started, he fled. The city streets were right above, so once he was on the city streets, he was safe.
RIP, Cat wizard and Dog rogue.
Another situation with Brat in this campaign was Brat hated making Charisma rolls. You’ll remember at the beginning, Brat’s character also got magical items, just like the 5 constitution Bird character did. As I remember it, Brat’s character had an especially low charisma, like a 5 or 6. It’s VERY easy to get low ability scores with 3d6 no-mercy-rules. I distinctly remember joking at one point that maybe his monk was ugly or stinky (me and him are snarky people, and I wasn’t forcing his character to be ugly, I was just joking lightly), and then there was a situation where they were faced with a dirty cop and after talking to him for a bit, Brat needed to make a persuasion/deception roll.
As soon as I said that, Brat freaked out. “Why do I need to do that!? My point makes perfect sense!!” We’re dealing with a villainous cop, he could tell you to screw off if he doesn’t like your tone. He rolled, he failed, and they had to sneakily kill the cop instead.
So, it was about the point where the characters died, that one way or another, I noticed at Brat’s monk had a 10 charisma, and actually, all his ability scores were really good, they were: 12, 17, 15, 8, 18, 10. This caught me by surprise.
These scores are on par with, if not overall better, than Dog’s first character. They’re even very conveniently placed, while Dog’s tortle was a warlock with eh charisma and high strength, Brat really lucked out in having his Dex and Wisdom be his highest ability scores!? And his lowest, the 8, was his intelligence! Why would I give him a magical weapon at all if, on a 3d6, he got such great numbers??
At the time, I had no proof. I asked him directly, as well as the other party members, about this and he said he didn’t change it, that it was always like that. He said I was misremembering and probably thinking of Bird’s 5 constitution. So… I dropped it.
I planned to say something right now about how DnDbeyond doesn’t let you check if someone modified their sheet, but I just did some exploring in the characters’ sheet and found that you can check what the PC picked for their 4th level ability score modifiers…. And what ability scores they picked at the beginning and the method of picking. I’m sure more experienced 5e players immediately recognized the numbers above as Standard Array.
He… He cheated. Brat turned his character to standard array at some point in my merciless 3d6 down-the-line campaign. Before anyone can say maybe he mixed it up with another campaign; none of our campaigns use Standard Array. This was an intentional choice.
But I’m only realizing this just now, months and months after my campaign died. This coming Thursday from when I post this, I’ll be a player in his campaign. Someone better pray for me because the devil is on my shoulder saying some pretty tempting stuff. I guess just… Keep in mind that his character is grossly overpowered compared to the others, on top of having a free +2 weapon, and oh, he’d often take the magical loot, even if it wasn’t useful to him (ex, a bladed fan that was a martial weapon).
Anyway, during the tyrannical Villain story arc, Bird found a strange magical gemstone. If you’ve seen Critical Role campaign 2, it felt like staring into the beacon except for nothing ever happened; there was no benefit to it. The reality of the stone was that it was cursed and would always return to its owner. Bird didn’t know this at first, so he stared into it a lot, trying to figure it out, making arcana checks but always rolling too low.
Brat hated these moments, groaning and telling Bird out of character that he was wasting his time. Brat was always giving Bird a hard time since Bird liked to express and describe how his character was feeling, and since this character was an air genasi, Bird described their hair turning stormy when angry, becoming fluffy and light when happy, etc.
Brat loathed this. He’d tell Bird to stop, calling it annoying and stupid, it was a waste of time, Brat would treat Bird’s descriptions like they went on for an hour. Brat would be laughing at him and trying to get the rest of us to join in, as if it was obvious to hate on roleplaying… but I loved these descriptions. Bird always got very invested in the world and his characters, what DM doesn’t want that?? Whatever mistakes I made, whatever you come out thinking of this party, let me assure you that Bird was exactly the kind of player you wanted at your table. Bird could be very smart and attentive, and then sometimes he’d see something dangerous and touch it anyway, showing off the result the DM thought up (a trap, etc). A lot of that is a Brat story for another day but regardless, Brat hated whenever Bird did anything roleplay-heavy or suboptimal/foolish.
After defeating the tyrannical mage, they had in-character downtime. Brat took up a janitorial job at a casino but purely worked, just choosing to earn as much coin as possible while Dog and Bird balanced jobs and friend time, and in the process, they got chummy with the owner of the casino, an incubus, and the wizard who helped in the prison break. Cat’s new character, a theatrical kenku rogue, settled into the group dynamics during this time.
Through the wizard and incubus, the party started learning about these strange little happenings in the ocean. There was a mystery in the ocean, something big and dangerous, and it was possible that, with time, the wizard or incubus could help them out exploring that, but this was a big puzzle to solve and with no immediate leads, so it was on the back burner for the party.
The party got a new quest to check out a canyon that was suddenly flooded, risking the business of an adventurer’s tavern at the bottom of it. They got info from the tavern keeper and a bunch of TNT to clear out any blockage they found.
The plan here was that the canyon itself was an open-sky dungeon; they’d trek down the canyon (the water was ankle/calf deep depending on the characters’ heights, so they could all walk), fighting Kuo-toa along the way, or befriending them, or whatever.
Brat flew one way down the canyon, found it was empty, then the other way, and found there were aggressive Kuo-toa, and a manmade (kuomade?) dam that was causing the flooding. Returning to the rest of the party, Brat hatched a plan in which he’d fly each of them INDIVIDUALLY through the enemy-filled canyon and stick them someplace close to the dam so they could bypass all the fights but the “final” one.
No one but me was a confrontational person and I was DM, I wasn’t going to stop them from yet another foolhardy plan that involved both splitting the party to the highest caliber, they are welcome to make their own decisions as a party, so Brat pushed them into doing the plan. The first one he flew to the end of the dungeon was Cat.
Stealth wasn’t really an option in broad daylight when the enemies had already seen the aarakocra before, and when Brat dropped Cat off, he did so while Kuo-toas were aggressively moving toward her. He stuck Cat on a 20ft high lip on the canyon’s cliff walls; it was shallow, she was trapped with no place to hide nor have cover from any attacks. Brat decided they wouldn’t be able to reach her and left.
I felt so bad…. But Kuo-toas can climb and are equipped with spears, nets, and sticky shields. Still, I made them climb VERY slowly so that Cat could kill some of them, but even pulling my punches this time, it was clear Cat would die. After attacking Cat for a little bit, I had the enemies back off to go defend the dam and ready for what they assumed was a bigger enemy attack. I didn’t want Cat to lose her second character already, basically right after the last one, and again because Brat ditched her!
Luckily, the remainder could come in one go; Bird’s air genasi could levitate, so Dog be flown by Bird while Dog merely held on to this person-shaped balloon that was Bird. So, at least they were all together now, but the thing about bypassing a whole dungeon when the enemies are very aware you’re there is that they bunch up and are ready to kick your ass all at once.
The kuo-toas were guarding their precious dam and a fight breaks out. It’s a daring battle and the PCs are pulling out everything, but eventually, they’re defeated. I forget if they were all downed or if some of them were still conscious and surrendered, but regardless, they lost and the kuo-toas decided to drag them into their cave and speak with them. They explained that they will protect their dam but were afraid the party was sent by the government and that this would incite a war the little fishy guys were sure to lose. They explained they left the ocean because of a great ghost in the waters that could control wind, creating horrible storms, and was commanding an increasingly large army.
Through their descriptions, matched with what the incubus and wizard detailed, Bird figured out that this ghost was his murdered father turned powerful vengeful spirit. Bird gasped and delightfully explained his theory to the party.
Brat: That’s stupid.
Brat didn’t believe it was at all possible that Bird’s dad was now a strong ghost, even though at this point they’d been scooby-doo-ing all over the place and ran into ghosts and powerful necromancers before. And plus… Bird was right, but after that, Bird seemed discouraged and dropped it.
I was furious but there was no way to say anything without giving them the knowledge of god and ruining Bird’s backstory fun more, so I kept a pokerface and hoped I could make future hints that were more clear. Still… I wish I said something--anything--because all I did was watch as one player swiftly and successfully bullied another player out of pursuing their backstory.
For now, the party decided the kuo-toas couldn’t stay there, but they could move them to that city the tyrannical mage had lived in since they knew that underneath there was a clean waterway that was now emptied out of a thieves guild. They begin escorting the kuo-toas there.
In the previous weeks, over text, Brat had told me he wanted his monk to come across more monks and religious figures. I asked him what kind but he wasn’t too specific, just sort of the serene inner-peace kind so his mercy monk (yes, a mercy monk was leaving everyone to die continuously) could learn more and be around more like-minded folk. This was part of Brat’s backstory pursuit.
They’d been going to corrupt cities for a while and there’s no monks in the bustling loud cities, nevermind corrupt ones, but the party knew for a fact that these kuo-toas had monks among them since they just got their butts beat by some fishy flurry of blows in the mix. With a small trip ahead of them, this was a great opportunity for Brat to pursue their backstory.
Uhh nope, never mind.
As much as Brat requested to roleplay stuff for his backstory, he doesn’t seem to want any of it. Maybe he just didn’t want to learn anything from fishmen monks, but whatever the case, he spent the entire trip’s downtime herb hunting by himself in the woods and then complaining when he didn’t get enough herbs to make healing potions. (We were using a homebrew herb-foraging and potion-making pamphlet he found and gave to me, and I even upped the number of dice rolled for the results… but it was still a roll to see how many you got).
He was impatient like this a lot. For leveling up, my campaign was XP-based because in a milestone campaign, I saw how he constantly pestered the DM (Dog) for level ups and what constituted a big enough “milestone” in order to level, and I figured having numbers would make it clear and stop this behavior. It didn’t. He complained instead about how little xp I gave out… But I wasn’t trying to be skimpy with the xp, they even defeated a vampire once and double-leveled (I didn’t divide the xp correctly, oops).
Also, something else he liked to do was hold your choices against you, and with this we reach the final arc of my now-dead campaign, just one volume in the years with Brat, but anyway, let’s get on with it.
Back in town again, Bird and Dog were by themselves and came across a traveling merchant and professor with an interest in archaeology/anthropology, think of her like a tiny Blathers from Animal Crossing, but willing to give cash for your finds. Bird decided to see what Tiny Blathers would think of the mysterious cursed stone he’d been ogling for several sessions now.
Tiny Blathers really liked the stone, she didn’t know what it was but was willing to buy it. Now, unknown to the party, this is basically free money; the stone WILL return to Bird the next day and as a result, they’d understand a bit more about the stone. Right now, the stone hadn’t done anything else for them, so they start talking price. Tiny Blathers offers 10 gold for the stone (I don’t remember what the price was exactly, but money was rarer in my setting, so let’s just say 10g, which was like getting 100g in a typical 5e campaign). They haggle for a little bit before settling on a price, but the whole time, Brat is fussing out of character.
Then, suddenly, Brat is back with Bird and Dog, metagamingly teleporting in, and starts joining in on the haggling. I forget if I asked how he got there, but regardless, he was there and not leaving, and was demanding Tiny Blathers play 50 gold for the gemstone. Brat says that they have another buyer lined up willing to pay that amount and passes his deception check, but Tiny Blathers disappointedly says she doesn’t have that amount of money and the sale doesn’t happen.
Luckily, Dog befriends Tiny Blathers and finds out she’s going to an archaeology site, a recently-uncovered ancient temple, and would like some guards. They’re hired. The mission getting there and going in is filled with ghosts and undead. They start learning about how the area was a small town that was attacked in the war and something kind of beast was running toward the soldiers at the time.
In the temple, they uncover that it wasn’t a holy site but a brothel, and the zombies within are the patrons and employees of the location, and while they learn a lot about the area anyway, the building itself is rather small and simple; its made up of four big rooms (with only small bedrooms splinting off from one room), each room led to the next, creating a walkable circle, but the rooms parallel with each other were not enterable to one another, you had to go around one way or the other.
In one of the rooms, there was a trapped beast; an enormous kitsune that couldn’t transform because of a magical knife stuck in its head. The beast was asleep when the first members of the party, Bird and Dog led the way into the room with Cat behind them being all rogue-y, and they mistook the amount of fur as some old brothel luxury bed or something. They got DEEP into the room before they realized they were surrounded by this enormous fox’s body, and now Dog and Bird were far from either exit.
My original plan with this big fox was that, while powerful, it was trapped, so it could only stick its paw or muzzle out the doorways and the party could have a relatively safe but daring fight as stone crumbled down from above and whatnot. But this alone wasn’t a death sentence because when the kitsune saw people for the first time in centuries, it demanded they remove the knife from its head to free it.
I forget if the party pieced together that the kitsune had killed people here in ancient times but regardless, they knew the big fox was sus and dangerous. An important note; while stuck, this kitsune could move around within the room he was in, so even if it was cramped and he was on his belly, he could attack Bird and Dog anytime and if they fled, he could get attack of opportunity no matter the direction they picked. Bird and Dog began talking with the beast, with Dog mostly concerned about what would happen once the fox was free, and Bird asking what they’d get in return.
The kitsune told them that he’d return to his master once freed, but since Dog and Bird were clearly cautious, the kitsune also offered to return their favor with one favor of his own, that he could be called upon any time to help them out just once.
In the meantime, Brat had moved to the room parallel with the fox chamber, aka the one room the fox 100% could not attack in any form. During this, Cat was basically playing telephone with Message, allowing the characters to talk to one another. Brat did NOT like the idea of them only getting one favor and demanded they get as many favors as people in their party, aka the ability to call on an ultra powerful monster FOUR times (or maybe five? I don’t know if he would have demanded one for Tiny Blathers).
The kitsune was insulted by this and refused, saying one was plenty, that he had his own master to obey, not them. Brat insisted and wasn’t backing down at all, and the kitsune was growing increasingly irritated. The party was getting a little more chaotic in their conversation, they weren’t reaching any compromise with each other, and they were running out of time before this fox attacked someone. Bird and Dog were the closest to the kitsune, even though Brat was the one arguing and insisting, he wasn’t in any actual danger.
Then, while everyone was talking, Bird grabbed the knife and pulled it out from the fox’s head, freeing him. The kitsune thanked Bird and left the ancient brothel, returning to the surface, and soon followed by the party. The conversation with the kitsune was short but amicable; he would keep his promise of one favor, and he gave them some hints of who his master could be, and then teleported away.
Brat was livid. He was so angry with Bird for not getting four favors, for doing something impulsive, and in response, Bird could only say “It’s what my character would do,” but frankly, if it wasn’t for Bird, there was an extremely high chance he and Dog would be taken hostage or eaten. Again. Brat wouldn’t let it go, saying how his monk won’t want to work with Bird’s character, and even called Bird’s character brain-damaged.
After that, in text, Bird told me he wanted to retire his air genasi character and bring in someone else. He decided a more serious, jaded character would work better with the party. I told him I didn’t want him bullied out of his character but he definitely didn’t want to play his genasi anymore.
Since the genasi was retired, I felt like I should at least give a confidence boost by explaining that he was right about the ghost in the water; it was his genasi’s dad, that he probably saved the party against the fox, and that Bird made a lot of decisions on his own that implicated the party in murders too. Nevertheless, we decided that, in the night, the genasi would be summoned by his father, and run off to be with him in the ocean, leaving just a note for the party to fine. At least this character got some kind of conclusion.
Bird’s new character never got to be played. My month for sessions was up and we swapped over to Dog’s campaign, and how that campaign went, and how that month ended, is a Brat story for another time… But after that, Brat didn’t let the kitsune situation go. Anytime Bird did something foolish or curious, Brat would call what Bird did stupid and harken back to this moment with the kitsune, Brat was extremely harsh on Bird to the very end.
But we never did return to my campaign. Brat kicked Bird from playing, and since it was his house we played at, we couldn’t do anything other than say we disagreed and liked roleplaying with Bird. Brat asked me once to continue my campaign anyway and I told him I have no interest in doing so without Bird…
And that’s how my first time DMing went, I hope it made for a good story. Now, I’m off to plot with Dog about what to do this coming Thursday in Brat’s campaign...

Hello! I just finished playing through the entire main campaign (UB Installed) for the first time today. I wanted to give my genuine feedback on this game with it fresh in my mind. I'll be going through some categories I feel the game deserves consideration on and ways it did well or could improve. At the end I'll give a summary and a final rating in totality. In the end these thoughts are my opinions and are able to be changed. Nothing here is an attack on the game or anyone else's experience.
Also, spoilers so read at own risk.
My Party:
- Rogue (Duelist, Rapiefreehand and shortbow)- Cleric (Law Domain, Mace or Axe/shield)- Wizard (Court Mage, freehand/shield)- Ranger (Hunter, hand crossbow/shield)
Categorical Review

1. Mechanics: 10/10 port of DnD 5e. Absolutely marvelous transfer of the tabletop to CRPG. At times it felt like I was playing a triple-A title in how smooth and accurate the mechanical interactions played. I encountered no bugs or problems whatsoever, and every time I thought a mechanic should operate a certain way, that's how it worked. I think this is the primary strength of the game: It's fun to play. So many games fail here that it's astounding. And yet I'd be happy to play through the main campaign again with a new party.
2. Story: 2/10 hooooot mess. The voice acting was moderately well-done but inconsistent across the different races, which broke immersion; elves sounding british or american, dwarves sounding scottish or british or american, orcs sounding cockney or russian or native american despite living together. The dialogue alternated between passably interesting and hilariously non-sequitur. Almost no plot points had any foreshadowing to build them up, sometimes I couldn't even tell what was going on, like when chasing down the green gem there was no explanation for the pocket dimension or whatever illusion we were in. There was minimal understanding of what was going on at any given time. Characters were invariably 1-dimensional, with the exception of the Ceannard. Some moments (maybe intentionally) were so badly written it felt like a DM who had no time to prep for the session and just flew by the seat of his pants. I would've taken the voice lines as tabletop satire if there was a touch more forethought and humor, but the dialogue never got meta and therefore seemed to take itself seriously, always following a rigid formula of "snarky observation, single-phrase question, or cringe sarcasm" from each party member. The character model acting was barebones, which is fine and didn't take away from or contribute to anything in particular. I sincerely appreciated that the cutscenes didn't try to be something they weren't and were almost exclusively exchanges of words, which made a lot of sense and kept things short and sweet. Finally, the ending was not clear and felt more like an opening cutscene than an ending slide: did we succeed or did we not?
3. Difficulty: 9/10 Played on standard difficulty. Felt like the game was slightly easy towards the end, a little difficult at the beginning. 5e's own design flaws coming through more than anything else, though. Some enemies had a single gimmick, the worst offenders being the Soraks, who were a single special move + HP sacks. The best enemies were the ones with dynamic environmental interactions, type variance, battlefield mobility, and responsive AI routines such as Goblins, who would run away and try to kite you with Disengage once their ogres or wolf allies perished. Also the Brood of Blood and the Dark Apprentice/Ghoul/Skeleton enemies were quite well balanced and the *perfect* amount of challenge without being frustrating, having fun environmental interactions with light, or fighting you in dark rooms. Bosses generally had a pretty good means of staying alive long enough to be a threat. It wasn't too hard to keep party members alive either, or get them up if they were downed. I never had to use Revivify, myself.
4. Character design: 6/10. Soraks were uninspired at best, unfortunately. Their lore could've been so much more, but yet somehow they're mind controllers, shapeshifters, assassins, political intrigue masterminds, tacticians, and spymasters all at once while being unable to speak? Felt weird that these dudes were unknown and yet infiltrating society for decades without anyone so much as catching a hint of their existence or presence. NPCs had decent looking armor but you couldn't edit what you had or find their version, sadly. Every monster ported over from DnD 5e looked great and thematically contributed to enjoyment. It was never distracting from the gameplay, adhered to realism, and fit the game's artstyle, so I give it above an average.
5. Environment design: 9/10. I would give it 10/10 but sometimes an area was just clearly rushed or not made well. The final mission is the worst offender, unfortunately. The Lava Forest was also oddly laid-out. The Id was super cool and atmospheric, if bizarre. Otherwise, though, I would actually say out loud "I love this game" while traversing the Necropolis or the Dark Castle, my personal favorite parts.
6. Music: 10/10, always fitting for every scenario. Battle music was fantastic simply because I never got tired of it. Master Mind's ambience was great. Ending battle songs, The Battle of the Rift/Last Stand, was heroic and probably made the fight the great campaign capstone it is.
7. Puzzles: 7/10. I liked how some puzzles would make me think outside the box with the physical environment.
8. Performance: 8/10. Played on minimum graphics, occasionally there'd be a brief stutter or lag but overall it ran pretty great. Game never froze or crashed once, which is something not even triple-A studios can often boast. Navigating menus could get tedious because of the brief delay but this was consistent and not a performance issue necessarily.

Things the game did right:

1. Scavengers mechanic
2. Difficulty curve
3. Mechanical clarity
4. Off-brand subclasses were pretty cool, with a couple misses among mostly hits
5. Where Solasta tweaks/balances 5e it does a great job
6. No overarching time limit for the campaign

Improvements I'd like to see:

1. Better party inventory management, though I see why it is how it is. It was a hassle to have the strength character manage everything, sometimes. I think the encumbrance system is a good thing, overall.
2. Less bloat in the trash items: bro how many types of poison and poison crossbow bolts are there? Similarly, anti-toxins were basically useless and just became another thing to sell, by the end.
3. Better way to obtain specific magic items: or more ways to improve rapport to Brotherhood with more factions so I can get the things I need. Let the high-tier relationship be exclusive, but with a diverse party I felt slightly stifled by the end of the game.
4. Meaningful faction relations: I didn't mind needing to build rapport with faction vendors, but it felt strange that there was never a time the relationship with them could go down instead of up.
5. Looting options: A customizable filter to loot only certain types of loot in bulk would be helpful, such as all coins/scrolls/crafting materials while leaving weapons/armor behind.
6. Many of the UB quality-of-life improvements should just become default in the future, truthfully
7. Slightly more frequent, and more complex puzzles. The one outside Astradeia's keep with the pool of water and the treasure in the hole was PERFECT, took me a few minutes to figure out.
8. More niche skill usage like animal handling or Performance. Re-attempts at opening locked chests. More locked chests that I can come back to later if necessary.

Really enjoyed the game, already recommended it. Had a wonderful experience and am about to dive into DLC and modded campaigns!
tl;dr 9/10 awesome game

Dying in 5e has some problems, and I've not seen other systems rectify this in a meaningful way. For starters, when a character drops to zero hp, they're effectively removed from the game until someone brings them back. This is not only boring, but incredibly disengaging. There is no agency for the player, and the DM is stuck in a situation where they have to make monsters ignore the unconscious player or execute them. Depending on the situation, either of these options can feel unfair or unfun. Of course, a good DM can work around this, but should they have to?
So, here are some changes to death in 5e that should make it more engaging for the table. As always, I'm open to opinions.

Death

When a character's HP is reduced to zero (0) they are Dying. At the beginning of a Dying character's turn, they choose to either (a) make a Death Saving Throw or (b) automatically fail a death saving throw and make a Desperate Action. Afterward, their turn ends. Failed Death Saving Throws are only removed on a long rest. When a Dying character takes damage, they automatically fail one (1) Death Saving Throw.
Dying. While Dying, a character's speed is halved and cannot use reactions or concentrate. Attacks made against the character have advantage, and saving throws other than death saving throws made by the character have disadvantage. When a character's HP is raised above zero (0), the Dying condition is removed.
Desperate Action. When a character takes a Desperate Action, they make one (1) of the following types of actions: move, take an action, or take a bonus action. Characters cannot make more than one melee or ranged attack regardless of the creature’s abilities or magic items.
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In addition to the above changes, the following spells have changes. Only the changed fields are listed - if a part of a spell is not here, assume it is the same as normal:
Spare The Dying
1st level spell
You touch a living creature and remove all Death Saving Throw failures from it.
Death Ward
You touch a creature and grant it a measure of protection from death.
The first time a character would fail their third Death Saving Throw, the character instead loses all failed Death Saving Throws and gains 1 hit point. The spell effect then ends.
If the character is subjected to an effect that would kill it instantaneously, that effect is instead negated and the spell effect ends.
Here are a couple of non-spell mechanics that can be added as well:
Medicine. As an action you make a DC 12 Wisdom (Medicine) check to remove a failed Death Saving Throw from a creature who is not dying. A character can only have this ability used on them once per long rest.
Medicine Kit. This kit is a leather pouch containing bandages, salves, and splints. The kit has ten uses. As an action, you can expend one use of the kit to remove a failed Death Saving Throw from a creature who is not dying.

I am currently struggling to figure out what would be the best combination of 2-3 of these 4 subclasses for a level 16 multiclass gish. These are from the Unfinished Business mod for the 5E based game called "Solasta Crown of the Magister" all game mechanics are the same as 5E.
These subclasses are:

Sorcerer: Mana Painter Sorcerer

Level 1

• Mana Absorption

Your Charisma modifier is used (if higher) instead of other ability modifiers on your saving throws against spells and other magic effects.

• Mana Painter Origin Spells

In your list and always prepared:

I Entangle II Barkskin III Sleet Storm IV Fire Shield V Conjure Elemental 

Level 2

• Mana Drain

Make a melee spell attack. On a successful hit, the target creature takes 1D10+your charisma modifier Force Damage, and you regain 1 Sorcery Point. You need to take a Short Rest to recover this power.

Level 6

• Mana Tap

When you finish a Short Rest, you can regain a number of Sorcery points equal to half your Sorcerer levels (rounded up). You must complete a long rest to use this ability again.

Sorcerer: Forceblade (Sorcerer equivalent to Hexblade Warlock)

Level 1

• Arcane Weapon

When active on a weapon, its attacks count as magical and you use your spell casting modifier for your attack and damage rolls.

• Expanded Spells:
  I Thunderous Smite
  II Misty Step
  III Haste
  IV Fire Shield
  V Mind Twist
  VI Globe Of Invulnerability
  
• Martial Training
  

You gain proficiency with light armor, medium armor, and martial weapons.

Level 2

• Mana Shield

You can use your bonus action to gain temporary hit points equal to your sorcerer level + Charisma modifier for one minute, a number of times per long rest equal to your proficiency bonus. If you are out of uses, you can spend two sorcery points instead.

Level 6

• Cantrip Attack

You can replace one of your attacks with a cantrip.

• Extra Attack

You gain an extra attack and can now attack up to 2 times in your turn.

Level 14

• War Sorcerer

When you hit with an attack or deal damage with a spell, add your Charisma modifier as bonus force damage to one damage roll of that attack or spell.

Warlock: Soulblade (Hexblade warlock in Solasta)

Level 1

• Armor and Weapons

You can wear Light Armor, Medium Armor and Shield and also gain proficiency with martial weapons.

• Expanded Spells:
  I Shield, Wrathful Smite
  II Blur, Branding Smite
  III Blinding Smite, Elemental Weapon
  IV Phantasmal Killer, Staggering Smite
  V Banishing Smite, Cone of Cold
  
• Soul Empower
  

You can empower a weapon with souls. It counts as magical and uses Charisma modifier for attack and damage rolls.

• Soul Hex

You can curse one creature you can see within 30 ft. While in effect: • You add your proficiency bonus to damage against the cursed creature. • Your critical threat range increases by 1 against the cursed creature. • You gain hp equal to your warlock level + your Charisma modifier when the cursed creature dies.

Level 6

• Spiritual Pact Weapon

You can summon forth a spiritual form of a weapon from your pact as a free action. As a bonus action, you can direct the weapon as desired to attack your foes. The weapon moves up to 20ft each time before striking.

Level 10

• Soul Shield

You can use the power of souls to defend yourself. As a reaction, you can grant +5 to your armor class until the start of your next turn.

Level 14

• Master Hex

You can use Soul Hex twice times per short rest now.

Bard: College of War Dancer (Kinda like a swords Bard but with more attacks per turn)

Level 3

• Armor and Weapons

You can wear Light Armor, Medium Armor and Shield and also gain proficiency with martial weapons.

• Dance Of War

You are inspired until the start of your next turn, and can use your Charisma on to hit bonus. You are immune to difficult terrain, your speed also increase by 15', and you can switch your weapon freely. After spending your main action you gain a Momentum that can be use to attack, dodge, disengage and dash. It makes your attack stronger but less accurate and the effect varies between weapons you use to make attack. You can have a maximum Momentum equal to half of your proficiency bonus rounded up. Your dance ends when you use a non-melee weapon or miss an attack unless you spend a bardic die to prolong it. The Momentum duration is also extended by 1 round if you reduce your enemy to 0 HP.

• War Casting

Advantage on concentration checks as well, be able to use your weapons as spellcasting focus, and be able to perform somatic components of spells while holding items.

Level 6

• Improved War Dance

Starting at 6th level, you can also cast cantrips with your momentum.

Level 14

• Focused War Dance

Starting at 14th level, you can use your Charisma attribute on concentration saving throws during a war dance.
Sorry for the Info Dump, my initial Idea was to start with one level of Mana Painter sorcerer for the CON save proficiency and the Mana Absorbtion level 1 feature. After which I would take 5 levels of Soulblade warlock for Charisma weapon attacks, Eldritch Blast+Agonizing Blast, Devil's Sight and Thirsthing Blade Invocations. then 10 levels in War Dancer Bard for those cool momentum attacks which can be up to 4 attacks per turn of which 2 are Booming blade or Green Flame blade equivalent cantrips. Do consider that my main objective with this character is to be mostly a good weapon attacker while keeping a good amount of spell utility. I understand that I lose spell progression due to multiclassing. Im considering if it might be better to just do 6 levels of Forceblade Sorcerer into the 10 War Dancer bard instead. What would you recommend?

https://www.dandwiki.com/wiki/Mender_(5e_Class))
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Class Features

As a Mender you gain the following class features.
Hit Points
Hit Dice: 1d8 per Mender level Hit Points at 1st Level: 8 + Constitution modifier Hit Points at Higher Levels: 1d8 (or 5) + Constitution modifier per Mender level after 1st
Proficiencies
Armor: Light armor Weapons: Simple weapons Tools: Herbalism kit, Doctor's Tools) Saving Throws: Constitution, Wisdom Skills: Choose three from animal handling, Arcana, History, Insight, Medicine, Perception, Persuasion, and Religion
Equipment
You start with the following equipment, in addition to the equipment granted by your background:

• (a) a quarterstaff or (b) any simple weapon
• (a) a light crossbow and 20 bolts or (b) a shortbow and quiver with 20 arrows
• (a) Explorer's Pack or (b) Priest's Pack
• leather armor, doctor's kit
• If you are using starting wealth, you have 3d4 x10 gp in funds.

Table: The Mender

LevelProficiency BonusFeaturesLife Points1st+2Life Force#Life_Force), Healing Burst#Healing_Burst), Doctor's Knowledge#Doctor.27s_Knowledge)42nd+2Far Burst#Far_Burst), Mender's Rebuke#Mender.27s_Rebuke)43rd+2Path of Virtue#Path_of_Virtue), Calming Burst#Calming_Burst)64th+2Ability Score Improvement#Ability_Score_Improvement)65th+3Healing Surge#Healing_Surge), Return from Death#Return_from_Death)146th+3Path of Virtue Feature#Path_of_Virtue)147th+3Mender's Eyes#Mender.27s_Eyes)178th+3Ability Score Improvement#Ability_Score_Improvement)179th+4Holy Shield#Holy_Shield)2710th+4The Power of Medicine#The_Power_of_Medicine)2711th+4Path of Virtue Feature#Path_of_Virtue)3212th+4Ability Score Improvement#Ability_Score_Improvement)3213th+5Life Spring#Life_Spring)3814th+5Avatar of Life#Avatar_of_Life)3815th+5Hope Springs Eternal#Hope_Springs_Eternal)4416th+5Ability Score Improvement#Ability_Score_Improvement)4417th+6Path of Virtue Feature#Path_of_Virtue)5718th+6Source of Life#Source_of_Life)5719th+6Ability Score Improvement#Ability_Score_Improvement)6420th+6True Resurrection#True_Resurrection)64

Doctor's Knowledge

At 1st Level, you have learned the very important techniques of a doctor. Your Doctor's kit can be used as a Healer's kit with unlimited uses. If you lose your Doctor's kit, you can make a new one by obtaining a Healer's kit with at least 5 uses left. Then it will take 2 hours and 10 gold pieces to convert the Healer's kit into a Doctor's kit.
In addition, you have proficiency in Medicine and you can double your proficiency bonus for checks made with Medicine.

Life Force

A mender is filled with positive energy. This energy is represented by your life points, which fuel your other class features.
Life Points
You have a pool of life force that you can channel into others. The energy that you can access in this way is represented by a number of life points. You have a number of life points equal to the amount shown on the Life Points column on the mender table.
You can spend these points to fuel your life force features. You start knowing one such feature: Healing Burst. You learn more life force features as you gain levels in this class. The maximum number of life points you can spend at a time is equal to your Mender level.
You regain all life points when you meditate for one minute per life point regained at the end of a long rest.
Healing Burst
The primary use of your life points is a Healing Burst. As an action, you can spend up to your maximum number of life points to touch a creature and cause them to regain hit points equal to 1d8 x the number of life points spent. Only life points spent in this way count for this effect.
If you target an undead with this feature, it instead takes an amount of radiant damage equal to the amount of healing that would have been done. An unwilling target may make a Dexterity saving throw with a DC of 8 + your proficiency bonus + your Wisdom Modifier to move out of the way before your energy reaches them.
Quick Burst
You can spend 1 additional life point to use your Healing Burst as a Bonus Action, rather than as an action.
At 11th level, you can use quick burst without spending additional points.

Far Burst

Beginning at 2nd level, you can use your Healing Burst from a distance. When unleashing a Healing Burst, the mender may spend an additional life point (up to the normal maximum). If they do, the range of the burst is increased to 30 feet.

Mender's Rebuke

Also at 2nd level, whenever you use your Healing Burst to restore a creature's hit point, you can use a reaction to force a hostile creature within 5 feet of your target to make a Constitution saving throw (DC 8 + your proficiency bonus + your Wisdom modifier). On a failed save, that creature takes radiant damage equal to the amount of hit points you restored on the target and is pushed 10 feet back, or half as much on a success and is not pushed.

Calming Burst

Also at 3rd level, you can channel calm emotions through your Healing Burst by spending an additional life point. If you choose to do so, the target creature may make a saving throw against one effect that requires an Intelligence, Wisdom or Charisma save to resist that is affecting them, ending the effect on a success.

Path of Virtue

At 3rd level, you chose a path of virtue, focusing your healing energy to a particular form of use. Choose between Preventative, Restorative, Weakening, Supportive, Combative or Medicinal, all detailed at the end of the class description. Your choice grants you features at 3rd level and again at 6th, 11th, and 17th level.
Mending Aura
A constant aura of life emanates from your body. Any friendly creature that is reduced to 0 hit points while within 10 feet of you is automatically stabilized.
In addition, your chosen path of virtue grants additional benefits to your mending aura. Benefits that grant bonus to saving throws are not cumulative with the bonuses granted by paladin auras or other menders auras.

Ability Score Increase

When you reach 4th level, and again at 8th, 12th, 16th and 19th level, you can increase one ability score of your choice by 2, or you can increase two ability scores of your choice by 1. As normal, you can't increase an ability score above 20 using this feature.

Healing Surge

At 5th level, whenever you spend Life Points to restore hit points to a creature, a surge of life overtaken his body. At the start of its turn, that creature can take one of the following actions as a bonus action: Dash, Dodge, Disengage or make a single attack with a weapon.

Return from Death

At 5th level, you learn how to restore someone's ejected life energy back into their body. As an action, you can spend 5 life points to touch a creature that has died in the last minute. That creature returns to life with an amount of health as though you had used your Healing Burst on them with 3 life points. This ability can't return to life a creature that has died of old age, nor can it restore any missing body parts, though it can reattach any that are within 10 feet of the body.
If you use this ability on a creature that has been dead for longer than one minute, nothing happens. However, the next time you use this ability on the same creature, it is treated as though it had died one week earlier.

Mender's Eyes

At 7th level, you can see the life force of others simply by looking at their physical form. Using a bonus action, you can look at a creature and determine what its current and maximum hit points are, as well as see any temporary hit points it might have.
In addition, you can also see how far gone the fallen are. When looking at any part of a corpse, you can see how long the creature has been dead and what the cause of death was.
This feature has no effect on undead or constructs.

Holy Shield

At 9th level, your love of your companions motivates you to protect them further. Whenever you use your Healing Burst on a creature, a shield made out of positive energy surrounds your target, granting it a +2 bonus to its AC until the end of your next turn.
In addition, you can spend 2 life points to cast shield of faith, without spending spell slots.

Medical Treatment

At 10th Level, whenever a creature rolls hit dice to restore hit points during a short rest, you can use your doctor's tools to increase the amount of hit points regained by 1d4 + your proficiency bonus + your Wisdom modifier. If the creature is affected by a disease or poison, their negative effects end.

Life Spring

At 13th level, you have reached a point where even when you feel depleted, you have more energy in you. You may spend one minute in meditation to regain half your Mender level in life points. Once you have done this, you cannot regain life points in the same manner until you have finished a long rest.

Avatar of Life

At 14th level, you have gained a mastery of life even in its most fickle moments. If you're reduced to 0 hit points, you may immediately forfeit all of your death saving throws to have your spirit take on the form of an Avatar of Health. You may also use an action to enter this form. While in this form, your spirit retains your life points and Mender features. You cannot move away from your body, nor can you make attacks. You can target your own body with your Return from Death ability while in this form, and you may also use your Life Spring ability as a bonus action instead of taking the normal time. At the end of each of your turns and whenever your body takes damage, you lose 3 life points. If you are ever reduced to 0 life points while in this form, your spirit detaches from your body and you can no longer use your Mender features until you are brought back to life.
Once you use this ability, you can't do it again until you finish a long rest.

Hope Springs Eternal

At 15th level, when you roll initiative and have no life points remaining, you regain 7 life points.

Source of Life

When you reach the 18th level, your mending aura grows in power. The aura radius increases to 30 feet.
In addition, whenever an ally start its turn within the aura radius, that creature regain a number of hit points equal to your Wisdom modifier (minimum of 1), as long as that creature is below half its maximum hit points.

True Resurrection

At 20th level, your magic powers have reached their peak. You can cast the spell True Resurrection once, being unable to do so again until you complete a long rest.

Combative Virtue

Menders who follow the combative virtue heal their allies while in the heat of the combat, throwing themselves in harms way to save fallen companions, bringing them back from the grasp of death.
Combat Ready
Starting at 3rd level, you have been trained in the art of war. You gain proficiency with medium armor, martial weapons and shields.
In addition, while you have at least 1 life point, you can add your Wisdom, rather than your Strength or Dexterity, to your attacks and damage rolls with weapons you are proficient with.
Aura of Battle
At 3rd level, you shed an aura that emboldens and empowers your allies. When a creature inside the aura causes or takes damage, you can use your reaction to increase or reduce the damage by 1d8.
Extra Attack
At 6th level, you can attack twice, rather than once, when you take the Attack action on your turn.
In addition, you can replace one of these attacks for one use of Healing Burst.
Battle Mender
At 11th level, you can heal your allies as you strike down your foes. Whenever you hit a creature with a weapon attack, you can use your Healing Burst, without using an Action.
Anger of the Healer
At 17th level, all the anger that is bottled up inside you now explodes out in the form of the creature made out of pure positive energy. This construct of light has the statistics of any creature of your choice with a CR of 6 or lower, but it is a construct, instead of its original type. Any damage caused by that creature is radiant damage, rather than the normal type of damage.
The creature acts on its own turn, rolling initiative as normal. It is friendly to your allies and follows your commands, and is also able to understand any languages you speak.
The creature lasts for 1 minute, disappearing after that. Once you use this ability, you can't do it again until you finish a long rest.

Supportive Virtue

Followers of the supportive virtue path are driven to empower their allies, by infusing them with life.
Empowered Cantrips
Also at 3rd level, you learn the cantrips guidance and resistance. When you cast these cantrips, the die rolled for their effects becomes a d6, instead of a d4.
Empowering Aura
At 3rd Level, any friendly creatures within your Mender's Aura area can add your Wisdom modifier to their Strength, Dexterity and Constitution checks and saves.
Courageous
At 6th level, you have gained the ability to empower your allies with courageous perseverance. As a bonus action, choose one friendly creature within 10 feet of you. The target gains temporary hit points equal to your mender level + your Wisdom modifier.
In addition, the creature gain Advantage on saving throws against the frightened condition while it has these temporary hit points.
You can have only one creature under the effects of Courageous at any given time. You can't use this ability again while a creature has the temporary hit points granted by this ability.
Perfect Courage
At 11th level, your courage ability gives absolute bravery to your allies. The target of your courage ability becomes immune to the frightened condition. If the target of the ability is currently frightened, the condition is suspended while it has the temporary hit points.
Aura of Might
At 17th level, any friendly creature that start its turn inside your Mender's Aura gain a bonus to their damage rolls equal to your Wisdom modifier until the end of its turn.

Weakening Virtue

Weakeners use their powers to take away powers from the enemies
Weakening Blast
At 3rd Level, you can use your Action to shoot a blast of weakness at an enemy you can see. That enemy rolls a d4 and subtracts the result from the next ability check, attack roll, or saving throw it makes. The die rolled increases to a d6 at 11th level.
Weakening Aura
Also at 3rd Level, any hostile creature inside your mender's aura has a disadvantage equal to your Wisdom modifier to their Strength, Dexterity and Constitution checks and saves.
Empowering the Weak
At 6th Level, when there is an ally within 30 feet of you who would have Disadvantage on an Ability check, Saving throw, or Attack roll, you can use your reaction to give them Advantage on the roll instead.
You can use this ability a number of times equal to your Wisdom modifier (minimum of 1 use), and regain your uses of it after completing a long rest.
Life Drain
At 11th Level, you gain the ability to drain the vitality from your foes. When you use your weakening blast against an enemy, you can use a bonus action to also cause 3d10 necrotic damage to force the creature to make a Constitution saving throw, or take 3d10 necrotic damage on a failed save.
When you cuse this damage to the target, you gain temporary hit points equal to half the necrotic damage dealt.
Rending Aura
At 17th Level, any hostile creature inside the mender's aura has their AC reduced by your Wisdom modifier.

Preventative Virtue

Followers of the preventative virtue put their emphasis in stopping their allies from getting harmed.
Aura of Protection
Starting at 3rd level, any friendly creature that start its turn inside your Mender's Aura gain temporary hit points equal to your Wisdom modifier. They lose the temporary hit points after leaving the aura.
Aura of Resistance
Starting at 6th level, any friendly creature inside your aura area gain a bonus to their saving throws equal to your Wisdom modifier.
Protective Burst
When you reach the 11th level, whenever you use Healing Burst on a creature, until the start of your next turn, any damage taken by that creature is reduced by your Mender's level.
Shielding Aura
Finally at 17th level, any friendly creature inside your mender's aura is considered to have half cover against creatures outside the aura.

Restorative Virtue

Mender's from the restorative aura are the true menders, completely focused on restoring the vitality and health of their allies.
Aura of Restoration
At 3rd level, any friendly creature that start its turn inside your aura while affected by a harmful spell, effect or condition that allows for a save to end the effect can instantly use its reaction to make another save, adding your Wisdom modifier to the result.
Heal Energy
At 6th level, you can harness the healing energy from the plane of positive energy. You have a pool of healing power that replenishes when you take a long rest. With that pool, you can restore a total number of hit points equal to your mender level x 5.
You can use the pool in the following manners:
Mend Wounds. As an action, you can touch a creature and draw power from the pool to restore a number of hit points to that creature, up to the maximum amount remaining in your pool.Restore. You can expend 5 hit points from your pool of healing to cast lesser restoration, without spending spell slots.Heal Energy Rebuke
At 11th level, the healing energy can also harm your enemies at the same time it restore the vitality on your friends. Whenever you spend heal energy, any hostile creature within 5 feet of the target of the chosen effect takes radiant damage equal to the amount of heal energy spent.
Heal Energy Regeneration
At 17th Level, you have become so skilled at using Heal Energy that you can now regenerate it. When you have no Heal Energy left, you regenerate an amount of Heal Energy equal to your Wisdom Modifier at the start of your turn while in combat.

Hi everyone! First time poster! I haven't been DMing for long (5 years) and something I have noticed at the 5E D&D table is that some turns really suck when the player misses. Especially in games where there are 5-7 turns per round (including all allies and all enemies in one quick DM turn).
I think this can disengage some players. A friend of mine inspired me to come up with one thing that might improve D&D and I thought of giving everything 2 ACs (maybe 3?). This came from my love of playing RPGs and JRPGs. I realized that I would be sad if 40% of the time. If my hits miss I would be frustrated with the video game. D&D is not all about combat, but combat is a really fun part of D&D and some players get disillusioned when we get to that part and they missed most of their turns, or felt like they contributed nothing because they missed 2/3 hits and everyone else didn't.
I feel AC can make a battle frustrating when having a bad luck day. So, I thought up of giving all creatures multiple AC numbers. One is the true AC and that will be what's in the DM Books, etc. Then, there's a half-damage AC. This will be lower, but the player will deal half-damage to the target because they rolled low (the attack bounced off the armor, blocked with a shield, etc) because it hit and made an impact, but was not a great hit. This would allow players to be able to 'hit' more and remain engaged and feeling like they're still contributing and hitting, rolling damage, etc. There is the possibility of lower ACs with lower damage hits. I know that 1/2 damage is the benefit Casters have in terms of using slots, but they also don't have to roll to hit, it's more of a Save Throw for enemies. However, this multi-AC system might help when spellcasters use cantrips as well.
PCs can try and whittle monsters down instead of just running away because they can't hit them, but if a monster is too strong, a DM can make that apparent with beating the PCs down with a monster's damage, etc.
Let me know what you think of this made-up system rule.
What do you think could be the downsides?
What do you think could be the upsides?
I feel this might really use the range of the d20 and keep players engaged in battles more since they have more of a change to hit.

As you may or may not be aware, Dungeon Dad has a video on the Janni, a fifth type of genie composed of all four elements, native to the Prime Material. Now, it just so happens that I myself had always wanted to update that creature to 5e as well, so naturally I took a look.
I was actually rather dissapointed, since the updated version seems designed to be as close to the original version as possible, rather than to line up with the other four extant genies of 5e. So I decided to write my own version that has as much in common with the other four genies as possible. For example, there are a number of spells that all four canon genies know in 5e, such as a version of conjure elemental restricted to elementals of their own native element (for the Janni I decided it would make the most sense to simply remove that restriction entirely). I also put them on the Elemental Chaos rather than the prime material, since that seems like the perfect spot for them, though they can also be found on all other elemental planes, and indeed the prime material on occasion.
Another problem with the janni video is that it seems to predate the release of the Genasi and the genielock, and thus fails to provide us the corresponding material. I've got you covered there too.

Genie, Janni

As varied in personality and outlook as they are in physical makeup, the Jann are genies from the Elemental Chaos composed of all four elements. Their skin is vibrant and changes color with their mood, and their hair is wild, iridescent, and stands on end during moments of emotional excitement.
Living within grand palaces that incorporate smoothly carved statues and reliefs, bubbling refreshing ponds and fountains, blazing warm hearths and furnaces, and fresh fragrant incenses and aromatics, the Jann’s home is the Elemental Chaos, through they can also be found on all elemental and paraelemental planes, and even occasionally the Material plane.
Their mixed composition means they can find comfort in a wide range of environments and peers, and as such they are the most social and easygoing of the genies. They readily assimilate into the culture and society of whatever people they find themselves amongst (especially fellow genies and jann), to the point that more than one traveling merchant or delegate has scheduled an audience with the local lord or magister in the land they’re visiting, only to be quite surprised when the individual they are taken to happens to be a 10ft tall genie. Nonetheless, just like most people, the jann prefer to live amongst those of similar mindset and outlook to themselves, so for example Jann who live amongst Efreeti will most likely be Lawful Evil and ones who live amongst Marids will most likely be Chaotic Neutral.
Janni
Large Elemental, Any Alignment Armor Class 17 (natural armor) Hit Points 187(15d10 + 105) Speed 30 ft., fly 30ft, see below Roll Initiative! +2
STR 22 (+6) DEX 15 (+2) CON 24 (+7) INT 15 (+2) WIS 15 (+2) CHA 17 (+3)
Saving Throws Con +11, Wis +6, Cha +7 Damage Vulnerabilities see below Damage Resistances Force Damage Immunities see below Senses blindsight 30ft., darkvision 120ft., Passive Perception 12 Languages Primordial and one other language of the DM’s choice Challenge 11 Proficiency Bonus +4
Amphibious. The janni can breathe air and water.
Elemental Demise. If the janni dies, its body dissolves into a smoking lump of hot mud, leaving behind only equipment the janni was wearing or carrying.
Chameleon skin. Jann have vibrant skin that changes color with their mood, and as such a janni has disadvantage on deception checks made to hide it’s true feelings on a given matter.
Self-preservation. When reduced to ¼ its maximum hit points or less, the janni will disengage and flee. Triggering this counts as slaying the creature for purposes of awarding EXP. This ability does not trigger if either the janni is not currently on the plane of Elemental Chaos or if it’s currently fighting for something it’s willing to die to defend. [This is just something I put on all my homebrew monsters to remind the DM to do this]
Innate Spellcasting. The janni’s innate spellcasting ability is Charisma (spell save DC 15, +7 to hit with spell attacks). It can innately cast the following spells, requiring no material components:
At will: chaos bolt, detect evil and good, detect magic 3/day: absorb elements, tongues 1/day each: conjure elemental, gaseous form, invisibility, plane shift, elemental bane
Elemental Stance. Jann can attune themselves to one of the four Elements as a bonus action. When the janni first appears, roll 1d4 to determine which Element it’s currently attuned to: 1=water, 2=earth, 3=fire, and 4=air.

• While attuned to Water, the janni has a visible aura of mist about it, is immune to acid damage, is vulnerable to fire damage, has a 30ft swimming speed, and can cast the following additional spells: Tasha’s Caustic Brew (at will), Vitriolic Sphere (3/day), and Maelstrom (1/day). If the janni takes any amount of fire damage, reroll its attunement immediately.
• While attuned to Earth, the janni has a visible aura of dust about it, is immune to bludgeoning damage, is vulnerable to thunder damage, has a 30ft tunneling speed, and can cast the following additional spells: Earth Tremor (at will), Stoneskin (3/day), and Transmute Rock (1/day). If the janni takes any amount of thunder damage, reroll its attunement immediately.
• While attuned to fire, the janni has a visible aura of smoke about it, is immune to fire damage, is vulnerable to cold damage, has a 40ft walking speed, and can cast the following additional spells: Hellish Rebuke (at will), Ashardalon’s Stride (3/day), and Immolation (1/day). If the janni takes any amount of cold damage, reroll it’s attunement immediately.
• While attuned to air, the janni ‘s clothes and hair flutter in an audible breeze. It is immune to lightning damage, is vulnerable to bludgeoning damage, has a 60ft flying speed, and can cast the following additional spells: Zephyr Strike (at will), Lightning Bolt (3/day), and Chain Lightning (1/day). If the janni takes any amount of bludgeoning damage, reroll it’s attunement immediately.

ACTIONS
Multiattack. The janni makes two scimitar attacks.
Scimitar. Melee Weapon Attack: +10 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 13 (2d6 + 6) slashing damage plus 7 (2d6) force damage.

Pact of the Genie (Expanded Spell List)

At 1st level, the Genie lets you choose from an expanded list of spells when you learn a warlock spell. The Genie Expanded Spells table shows the genie spells that are added to the warlock spell list for you, along with the spells associated in the table with your patron's kind. This table details spells granted by the Janni, an additional choice for the warlock patron.
Spell Level - Janni Spells
1st Chaos Bolt (XGE) 2nd Dragon’s Breath (XGE) 3rd Elemental Weapon 4th Chaos Storm (Homebrew, see below) 5th Summon Draconic Spirit (FTD)
Elemental Gift (Janni Patron)
At 6th level, you begin to take on characteristics of your patron's kind. You now have resistance to a damage type determined by your patron's kind. Warlocks who make a pact with a Janni gain resistance to force damage.
CHAOS STORM
4th level Evocation Casting Time: 1 Action Range: 90ft (20ft radius sphere) Components: V, S Duration: Instantaneous
You point your finger to a point you choose within range, which then erupts into a warbling mass of chaotic energy. Each creature in a 20-foot-radius sphere centered on that point must make a dexterity saving throw. A target takes 1d4+1d6+1d8+2d10+1d12 damage on a failed save, or half as much on a successful one. After rolling, choose one of the d10s. The number rolled on that die determines the spell's damage type, as shown below:
1: acid 2: cold 3: fire 4: force 5: lightning 6: poison 7: psychic 8: thunder 9: radiant 10: necrotic
If you roll the same number on both d10s, the spell's magic is magnified. Reroll the spell's damage and add the new value to the first roll, determining the damage type as per the table above. This new roll can potentially magnify the spell again.
When you cast this spell using a spell slot of 5th level or higher, each target takes an extra 1d6+1d4 damage every time damage is rolled, for each slot above 4th.
available to: sorcerer.
​

Chaos Genasi

Tracing their ancestry to the genies of the Elemental Planes, each genasi can tap into the power of one of the elements. Air, earth, fire, and water — these are the four pillars of the Material Plane and the four types of genasi. Some genasi are direct descendants of a genie, while others were born to non-genasi parents who lived near a place suffused by a genie’s magic.
A typical genasi has a life span of 120 years
Chaos genasi originate from the Jann, the elemental-composite genies of the Elemental chaos, though they can also arise when two other genasi of differing types breed. Their parentage’s mixed composition lends them great versatility and adaptability.
A Chaos genasi’s skin changes color based on their current emotional state. A chaos genasi’s hair is iridescent and liable to stand on end during periods of emotional excitement. Chaos genasi eyes are prone to heterochromia.
Creature Type: Humanoid Size: Medium or Small. Speed: 30ft. Ability Score Increase: Your Constitution score increases by 2 and one other ability score of your choice increases by 1. Languages: You may speak, read, and write Common and Primordial. Darkvision: You can see in dim light within 60 feet of you as if it were bright light and in darkness as if it were dim light. You discern colors in that darkness only as shades of gray. Elemental Resistance: Whenever you finish a short or long rest, roll 1d4. 1=Acid damage, 2=Fire damage, 3=lightning damage, and 4=bludgeoning damage. You are then resistant to the corresponding damage type until your next short or long rest. You may also opt to, instead of rolling, choose the result directly. Chameleon Skin: You have vibrant skin that changes color with your mood, as such you have disadvantage on deception checks made to hide your true feelings on a given matter. Attune to the Elements: You know one cantrip from the following list: Shape Water, Firebolt, Booming Blade, or Magic Stone (choose when you select this race). Starting at 3rd level, you can cast the Absorb Elements spell with this trait, without requiring a material component. Starting at 5th level, you can also cast the Elemental Weapon spell with this trait, without requiring a material component. Once you cast Absorb Elements or Elemental Weapon with this trait, you can’t cast that spell with it again until you finish a long rest. You can also cast either of those spells using any spell slots you have of the appropriate level.

• Intelligence, Wisdom, or Charisma is your spellcasting ability for these spells when you cast them with this trait (choose when you select this race).

PLOT HOOKS

Most of the plot hooks on the actual janni video should work fine here (save for the one revolving around a janni trying to grow powerful enough to grant wishes, since with my version they aren't weaker than any of the other four types, who I noticed were all the exact same CR). Since my version of the janni can be of any alignment, most other genie-related plothooks should work okay too. Since they integrate into other genies' society so well, you could even just take an existing plot involving genies and pepper a few jann here and there. One idea I came up with is a janni who runs a mercenary company of warlock assasins who, since they're resistant to force damage, specialize in taking out other warlocks.
However, I do have one other idea I should give special note to. Since I kept the "Janni live on the prime material" clause to a slight degree, but removed the restriction to the dessert, I developed an idea revolving around the, say, chamberlain of the players' home kingdom happening to be a janni, who we'll call Ali. Ali has been serving the crown faithfully for centuries. He originally married into the royal family long ago, became King Consort when his wife ascended to the throne, and then later King proper when her mortality eventually got the better of her. He ruled dutifully and justly for centuries, but eventually stepped down for one reason or another to let his genasi prodigy inherit the throne. This particular kingdom thus became famous across the lands for being ruled by a dynasty of genasi, though Ali tends to have trouble remembering precisely how many generations removed he is from the current ruler.
The first and most obvious route to go here is that the party are all government officials of some sort, and Ali is the patron of any warlocks in the party (I could even see Ali managing an entire knightly order of genielocks and crown paladins). If the party has any chaos genasi, then that's another possible point of connection. If said genasi isn't a noble, then perhaps the capitol city is peppered with Ali's illegitimate and unrecognized children (genies are size Large, after all, which means size Large genitals).
But aside from how the party is connected to Ali, perhaps there's a faction of racist whatever-supremacists that's come to power in the land, and they don't particularly like being ruled by weird magic halfbloods. Perhaps Ali has fallen into a depression from having to watch the mortal descendants he helps raise form birth die of old age over and over and over again, and so has retreated to the Elemental Chaos to mope and play Linkin Park all day. Perhaps Ali has simply tasked the party with going out and finding several other male Jann willing to move to the capitol city, just so he has a more plausible defense in court against all those illegitimate children looking for child support.
Side note: I also came up with this goofy mental image of a Janni munching on flaming coals like popcorn. Not sure how to work that in, but there you go.

Theorycrafting was fine, and I figured that I understood the trade-offs of half-caster vs. Pact Magic. But in actual use, upon converting one of my Warlock characters, I discovered a few takeaways:

1. Our table plays with appropriate short rests. Usually we get 2 per long rest, but sometimes only one. What we DO have is "pre" rests, which are basically for the Warlock (me). It is at that time that I am able to cast Hex for the day, ever since I got 4th level slots. Even at earlier levels, I would use it for exploration, casting Invisibility to do some scouting (often with friends due to the upcasting inherent with Pact Magic). I would then get a SR so that I would have my slots going into "action". With the half-caster method, I REALLY felt the loss of spell progression. MAs were OK (We played at 7th level), but I found that having to recast Hex for a battle really became a drag. Whereas I would have cast it at 4th level for the day, now I had to decide if I wanted to burn a slot for the benefits or give up the extra damage, which now only applied to one of my EBs anyway. So, since I didn't have Relentless Hex anymore ( it wasn't in the UA), I basically didn't use Hex.
2. My Pact Familiar was less fun. I tend to use the Imp chassis, even if I reskin it for flavor. (Sometimes I use Quasit, all depends on my mood, I guess). I'm used to having Investment of the Chain Master to upgrade the familiar's special attacks (poison or fear). Under the new rules, my familiar's AC and HP were marginally better, but they were way less useful, since the rules say it can only Dodge or Move unless I use a reaction, in which case it can attack. No more Help, Dash or Disengage and it has to use its action every round to stay invisible. This is a MASSIVE nerf, since the 5e familiars use an action to turn Invisible but then are OK to Help or do other actions. This may follow a trend overall by the devs to change the nature of pets, but the difference in play was palpable.
3. Having all the Arcane list available was amazing, though I still found that my biggest problem was managing concentration. This is not a new problem for Warlocks, given Hex, and having the extra cantrips was a great quality of life improvement. Also, having SO MANY more spells prepared was also refreshing. However, as I mentioned in item 1 above, it was a bit of a mirage since if I wanted to use Hex, it would burn a lot of my 1st level slots anyway. Using rituals as a chainlock was a nice change of pace, which basically served as two free Invocations (Eldritch Sight and Eyes of the Runekeeper.) Also, I was able to take another utility spell that I never had access to before, Knock. With Pact Magic, I'd have to swap out spells I didn't absolutely need in favor of higher powered spells, so the extra flexibility in spells was a plus.
4. Invocations were technically better in the UA, but still felt worse, largely due to having so many slots taken my MAs. (Agonizing Blast, Repelling Blast, MA3, MA4 in the UA versus Agonizing Blast, Repelling Blast, Invest. of the CM, and Relentless Hex in 5e). Having rituals in Detect Magic and Comprehend Languages did sort of give me two free Invocations, as did my Pact Cantrip at 5th level. But overall, it just felt less like I was playing a Warlock and more like a... well, I don't know. But it didn't feel satisfying. There's just something about being able to do invocation powers at will, I guess. Maybe I'm just being petulant?
5. Damage was very much the same, but how I played it was different. Under 5e, my Warlock likes to choose between Sickening Radiance and Summon Shadowspawn, since I can cast either at 4th level. Sometimes I like to control an area and push opponents into the field with EB. Other times, I want to have the action economy of a summoned creature along with my EB and Familiar. In the UA, I still took Sickening Radiance as a MA, but skipped the summon since I couldn't cast it at 4th, and in 7th level play, I really need the extra attack from my beast. So instead, I took fly as another MA, which is another spell I am used to having. I really missed my Summon spell! And also, I missed bringing along another party member on an upcast Fly, or two others with Invisibility. THIS IS THE REAL LOSS. While it is true that technically I had more spell slots available at one time, the slots were lower quality and unsatisfying from what I'm used to. Again, maybe I'm just mourning the difference and being petulant?
6. Medium armor training was a nice perk, but seemed lackluster given the omission of shield proficiency. Sure, I didn't have to even consider Armor of Shadows, because why bother? A chain shirt does the exact same thing. But in the old system, I was able to take Medium Armored as my variant human feat, which actually gave me a better AC than the UA. I took Tough in the UA instead, which gave me a nice boost to my HP, but since I got hit more often, it seemed like a wash.

Overall, I completely understand where the devs are trying to go with their changes to Warlock, and I even supported it in theory. But in practice, I have to admit that it just felt a lot less interesting and "weird" (which is generally what I'm looking for in my Warlocks). I think the only way to salvage the feeling of the old Warlock while still accomplishing the short rest fix they seem to desire is to somehow fix the slow spell progression. I have no idea how to do this, but what they've proposed is just not as much fun to play, in my opinion.

Before we start, I'd like to give a great thanks to the "DM Mentor's Guild" discord, for without them I wouldn't have been able to make this build at all! Make sure to check them out! This server has experienced DMs with a knack for helping others tell an immersive fantasy, balance encounters, and fix game related issues. If your question requires a personal touch, there's no one I'd refer you to over the good guys at the "DM Mentor's Guild" server!
I'm really proud of this build, so I hope you like it!
This is a guide for how to play Link from The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time in DnD 5e.
“ However, thine is one boy who does not have a fairy…”
Disclaimer.
Ocarina of Time Link (any link, really) is an extremely powerful character, with multiple abilities we just won’t be able to replicate. There is no way for us to be able to time-travel or change the time from day to night. We won’t be able to lift entire pillars. Some things are just magic items that the DM would need to give. We’ll try our best, though!
Race.
Hylians seem a lot like elves, but unlike elves they can sleep, so instead our Hero of Time will be a Half-Elf. We gain darkvision, which helps us fight in the dark. We also get Fey Ancestry, which gives us advantage against being charmed, and we cannot be put to sleep via magic. We can read and write Common, Elvish, and one other language. Let’s grab Celestial to converse with Sages and other divine creatures. As an elf, our Charisma increases by +2, which makes sense given that he’s got Saria, Zelda, Ruto, Malon, and Nabooru (?? She’s an adult though!) crushing on him. We may also choose two other stats to increase by +1, so we’ll choose Dexterity for acrobatic backflips and Constitution to increase our Heart count! Finally, we get Half Elf Versatility, which allows us to choose features based off of our Hylean Lineage! Link was raised in the Kokiri Forest, so we’ll choose the Wood Elf heritage Fleet of Foot, which gives us a base walking speed of 35ft. The extra 5ft comes from rolling.
Stat Array.
We’ll use Point Buy, which gives us 27 points to put in our stats, which start at 8 as a default. Each increase above 13 will cost 2 points instead of 1.
9 points in Constitution! If you’re like me, then you made sure to grab every single heart piece! Our Constitution will be a 15 + 1 = 16, with a +3 modifier!
7 points in Charisma! Link bears the Triforce of Courage, so it would be a shame to have any lower in this stat! Our Charisma will be a 14 + 2 = 16, with a +3 modifier!
5 points in Dexterity! In Master Quest, your dodge game has to be on point! Our Dexterity will be a 13 + 1 = 14, with a +2 modifier!
2 points in Strength. Link doesn’t have the Triforce of Power, but he had to have been pretty strong to make it all the way through the game. Our Strength will be a 10, with a +0 modifier.
2 points in Wisdom. Link doesn’t have the Triforce of Wisdom ( and he did forget to close the door when he entered the Temple of Time ), but he’s not an airhead, so we won’t dump it. Our Wisdom will be a 10, with a +0 modifier.
2 points in Intelligence. He’s got to have at least average Intelligence to have made it through the Water Temple. Our Intelligence will be a 10, with a +0 modifier.
Background.
Link was a Hylian who was raised by the Great Deku Tree as a Kokiri. Let’s grab Animal Handling to get along with Epona and the livestock and Performance to play our ocarina. Let’s call this the Fairy Boy background. Make sure to grab Ocarina proficiency and Land Vehicle proficiency for your Ocarina and Epona.
Link is a formidable warrior, with a varied array of magical effects and magic items, but he’s also a resourceful and adaptive fellow who can always find the weak spot! For those reasons, we’ll kick off Link as a Rogue 1!
For skills, let’s get Acrobatics for flips, Athletics for climbing and lifting boulders, Perception to hear Gold Skulltulas, and Investigation to solve puzzles in Dungeons.
We gain proficiency in Intelligence and Dexterity saving throws. We are also proficient in light armour, all simple weapons, hand crossbows, longswords, and shortswords, and thieve’s tools.
For now, we’ll wear Light Armour, which is your Kokiri tunic, and hold a short sword, which is your Kokiri sword. Our Boomerang is a boomerang, our Fairy Slingshot is a sling, and the attacking feature of our Hook/Longshot is a hand crossbow.
At 1st level, Rogues get Expertise, which allows us to double our proficiency bonus with two skills or one skill and thieve’s tools. We’ll choose Athletics, which is one of our various strength-enhancing magic items, and Performance, to play magical songs without messing up.
We also learn thieve’s cant’. Consider this to be how you get your word across without saying a word.
Finally, you get Sneak Attack, which is aiming for the weak point! You have 1d6 sneak attack dice at this level, and when you strike with a finesse or ranged weapon, you may add your Sneak Attack damage to the hit. You may only add Sneak Attack to an attack once per turn, and if you either have advantage on the attack, or have an ally within 5ft of the target.
From there, let’s get some more magical ability by multiclassing into . . .
Warlock 1!
With how strong our Courage is, Charisma is our casting stat.
For Cantrips, we’ll pick . . .
Booming Blade, which is a thunderous slam with our Megaton Hammer!
Blade Ward, which is using one of the Great Fairies’ Blessings!
At this level, we know 2 first level spells. Let’s grab . . .
Shield, which is a momentary activation of Nayru’s Love!
Protection from Evil and Good, which will give us an edge against our foes! In particular, using this against Redeads is us abusing Sun’s Song!
For our Otherworldly Patron, we make a pact with the Master Sword itself! We’ll choose the Hexblade patron.
We get Hexblade’s Curse, which is the Master Sword’s power! We can invoke it as a bonus action upon a target to gain many effects. We crit on 19s, deal extra damage equal to our proficiency bonus on each damage roll, and if the cursed target dies, we regain HP equal to our Warlock level + our Charisma modifier. Once we use this feature, we may not use it again until the end of a short or long rest.
We also get Hex Warrior! We gain medium armour, shield, and martial weapon proficiency.
From here on, we’ll wear half plates-. I know it’s a stretch, but call it the chainmail underneath your armor? We need the AC. Anyway, the Deku, Hylian, and Mirror shield are shields, the Master Sword is a rapier ( so we can apply Sneak Attack! ), the Biggoron Sword and Giant’s Knife are greatswords, our Fairy Bow is a longbow, and the Megaton Hammer is a warhammer.
Additionally, at the end of a long rest, we may choose one weapon that we are proficient in that lacks the two handed property and channel our will through it such that we may use Charisma for attack and damage rolls with that weapon. This benefit lasts until the end of the next long rest, and if you gain the Pact Magic feature, this benefit extends to every weapon conjured via that feature, regardless of its type.
This is great, because with Hex Warrior, we can be good with all types of weapons without splitting our ASIs between Strength and Dexterity! We even get to use the same modifier for our spells!
Warlock 2.
All Warlocks of this level again 2 Eldritch Invocations, which are special Magical features. Let’s grab . . .
Eldritch Mind, which gives us advantage on all Constitution saving throws to maintain concentration on a spell.
Eldritch Sight, which allows us to cast Detect Magic at will. Consider this our Stone/Shard of Agony.
For our new spell, let’s grab Hex, which is focusing on an enemy!
Warlock 3.
At this level, we gain a Pact Boon, which is a small gift from the Sages! Let’s grab the Pact of the Blade. As an action, we can create ( and by “create” I mean take out of your inventory ) a pact weapon in our hand, and the weapon counts as magical for the purposes of overcoming non magical resistance. We can also transform a magic weapon into our pact weapon with a ritual, and our bonded weapon can be shunted into an extradimensional space when not needed. Otherwise, our pact weapon disappears if it is more than 5ft away from us, if we create another weapon, or if we die. The great thing about this feature is that we can now use greatswords with Charisma!
Additionally, let’s swap out Eldritch Sight for Improved Pact Weapon, which gives our pact weapon a +1 bonus, and we can summon bows and crossbows with our pact weapon! We’ve got 2-handed, sword and board, and ranged combat covered!
For our new spell, let’s grab Branding Smite, which is our Light Arrows!
Warlock 4.
We gained our first ASI at this level! Since we’ve already gotten an accuracy bonus from Improved Pact Weapon, instead of taking the ASI, let’s swap it out for the Great Weapon Master feat! Now, whenever we make an attack with our Biggoron’s Sword, we may take a -5 bonus to the attack roll, and if we hit, we deal an extra 10 damage! Additionally, when we kill a creature or crit on an attack, we may cleave and make another attack as a bonus action!
With this feat, we really are good at all playstyles. Shield and sword was good for the 19 AC, bows were good to stay out of melee, but 2-handed weapons were lacking because we had only a little more damage than sword and board but less AC, all while being in melee unlike with bows. Now, although we lose out on defenses, we can go all out and do a ton of damage with a great weapon!
For our new spell, let’s learn Hold Person, which is a Deku Nut!
Finally, we gain a new cantrip. Let’s grab Sword Burst, which is a spin attack!
Warlock 5.
At the 5th level of Warlock, we gain one more Invocation! Let’s grab Thirsting Blade, which allows us to attack twice whenever we take the attack action!
Let’s also swap out Eldritch Mind for Gift of the Depths, which gives us a swimming speed equal to our walking speed, and allows us to cast Water Breathing for free, once per long rest. This is our Golden Scale and our Blue Tunic.
For our new spell, let’s grab Elemental Weapon, which covers both our Fire and Ice arrows!
Let’s also swap out Hold Person for Counterspell, which is reflecting a magical effect with our shield!
We’ve gotten some magical and martial abilities, but we need more! And Link plays the Ocarina after all, so we’ll multiclass into . . .
Bard 1!
For our extra skill, let’s grab Survival, since Link grew up in the forest!
Given our skill with our magical songs, our casting stat is Charisma.
For Cantrips, let’s grab . . .
Dancing Lights, which is just the glow Navi gives off.
Thunderclap, which is an AOE slam from our Megaton Hammer!
For spells, let’s grab . . .
Faerie Fire, which is Navi helping us target!
Identify, which is Navi telling us what an item does ( actually on second thought . . maybe we should skip this spell for our sanity . . . )
Let’s relearn Detect Magic.
Thunderwave, which is a jump attack with our Megaton Hammer!
Finally, we gain Bardic Inspiration, which are d6s at the moment. We have a number of them equal to our Charisma modifier, and we regain all uses on a long rest. As a bonus action, we may give this die to an ally. They may then roll the die and add it to 1 attack roll, ability check, or saving throw they make within the next 10 minutes. Link travels alone, but I get the sense that he would be a team player in a party.
Bard 2.
We gain Jack of All Trades at this level! We are now half proficient in all ability checks that we are not proficient in! Link’s an all-rounder.
We also get Song of Rest, which allows everyone to regain an extra 1d6 HP on a short rest.
Finally, for our new spell, let’s learn Heroism, which is feeling heroic.
Bard 3.
Bards of this level also get to choose a Bard College! I really wanted to choose Valor or Swords, but we have more or less everything those subclasses can offer us, so instead we’ll choose College of Lore!
Lore Bards gain 3 Bonus Proficiencies, so let’s grab Intimidation, because using authority of rank to get your way falls under that and that’s what the Gerudo Token does, Insight to be able to tell that Ganondorf was evil at first glance, and Stealth, to get the jump on an enemy!
Lore Bards of this level also gain Cutting Words! When an enemy within 60ft of us makes an attack roll, damage roll, or ability check, we may use our reaction to roll our Bardic Inspiration die and subtract it from the roll, expending the Bardic Inspiration. An enemy is immune to this feature if they can’t hear us or are immune to charms. This is less us debilitating the enemy with our words, and more Navi annoying the enemy so much that they miss their attack.
We may gain 2 skills into Expertise, so let’s choose Perception so we can find all 100 Gold Skulltulas, and Animal Handling, to never fall off of Epona.
Finally, for our new spell, let’s relearn Hold Person.
Bard 4.
We gain another ASI at this level! Let’s boost our Charisma by +2! Our Charisma is now 16 + 2 = 18, with a +4 modifier.
For our new spell, let’s grab See Invisibility, which is our Lense of Truth!
Finally, we gain a new Cantrip. Let’s grab Light, which is reflecting a ray of light with our Mirror Shield.
Bard 5.
At this level, our Bardic Inspiration is now a d8, and thanks to Font of Inspiration, we now regain all of our Bardic Inspiration on a short rest!
For our new spell, let’s grab Plant Growth, which is using a Magic Bean.
Let’s also swap out Hold Person for Hypnotic Pattern, which is an AOE Deku Nut stun!
Bard 6.
At this level, we gain Countercharm, which allows us to play our musical instrument as an Action, which grants all allies within 30ft of us who can hear us advantage on saving throws against being frightened or charmed. The holy song of Hyrule is sure to aid the party when in need.
Additionally, as a Lore Bard we gain a major boon in the form of Additional Magical Secrets! We can choose a spell from any class’s spell list, and learn it as a Bard spell! This is how we get some of our hard to reach spell necessities! We’ll pick . . .
Fireball, which is Din’s Fire, or sending a Bombchu to the location we explode!
Absorb Elements, which is the absorption of our Mirror Shield! We even get to return the elemental damage!
For our new spell, let’s grab Sending to talk to Saria!
We’ve been able to cover the majority of Link’s abilities with spells, but let’s get some features to support our items that are real times. To do that, let’s bounce back to . . .
Rogue 2!
At the 2nd level of Rogue, we gain Cunning Action! As a bonus action, we may Hide, which isn’t too in character but useful, Dash, which is using our Hook/Longshot, and Disengage, which is a backflip!
Rogue 3.
At this level, Rogues get to choose a Roguish Archetype, and for this build we’ll choose the Thief Archetype. Now, Link isn’t ( primarily ) a criminal, but he’s a resourceful character that can quickly change plans for the task at need!
All Thieves gain Fast Hands, which is what we’re here for! Fast Hands allows us to use our Cunning Action to make a slight of hand check, disarm a trap, pick a lock, or use an item! Use this with any neat rewards your DM gives you. Even if the DM gives us no extra stuff, we can use this for our potions, Iron Boots, Deku Sticks, Ocarina ( just to play a song, no magic ), or with bombs!
We also gain Second Story Work, which allows us to spend no extra movement when climbing! This is great because it doesn’t give us a full climbing speed ( that’s more of a Breath of the Wild thing ), but it still lets us be good at climbing when it comes to scalable surfaces!
Finally, our Sneak Attack goes up to 2d6.
Okay! That’s all we need from Rogue, so let’s jump back to . . .
Bard 7!
For our new spell, let’s grab Locate Creature, to find the Boss room.
Bard 8.
We gain yet another ASI at this level! Let’s boost our Charisma by +2, capping it off at 20, with a +5 modifier.
For our new spell, let’s grab Speak with Dead to talk to the Sheikah stones with the Mask of Truth!
And finally, we’ll cap off this absolute blast of a build with . . .
Bard 9.
Our Song of Rest bonus HP goes up to a d8.
In addition, we gain a final spell. Let’s grab Teleportation Circle, which allows us to use Warps and Farore’s Wind.
Pros:

• We’ve got amazing skills! 7 skills, 4 expertise, and half-proficient in everything else! We even add our half-proficiency to Initiative and our Counterspell check!
• We’re really flexible! Ranged and Sword and Board allow usage of Sneak Attack damage, and there is safety in avoiding melee and having high AC respectively! However, Ranged has low AC if we do get attacked, and Sword and Board is of course at more risk of being attacked, and unless we want to spend slots on Shield, 19 AC isn’t the greatest. Great Weapons allow us to abandon our defenses and go in melee with low AC, for the reward of way more damage! On top of that, we have abilities like Faerie Fire and Improved Pact Weapon to offset the Great Weapon Master penalty, and in a pinch we can use Shield to avoid hits!
• We have a ton of utility! Amazing Ocarina and Epona skills, protections like Shield and Absorb Elements, kiting punishment with Booming Blade, a swimming speed and water breathing, anti-invisibility with Branding Smite and See Invisibility, Counterspell, easy elemental damage with Elemental Weapon, movement control with Plant Growth, long distance communication with Sending, Teleportation, AOE damage, crowd shutdown with Hypnotic Pattern, good movement with Cunning Action, and party buff with Bardic Inspiration!

Cons

• Loss of Focus. In trying to do everything good, we’ve missed the opportunity to do one thing in an absolutely busted way.
• Low(ish) HP due to having only d8 hit die with a +3 Constitution.
• No “gish” action economy. We must either cast or attack, we cannot do both at the same time.

Mostly a question in regard in building a monk when overwhelmed with the amount of stuff i can get.
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I have chosen to play a monk in a campaign that is gonna change from 5e to pathfinder 2e. rules include free archtype. though i have come across the ''dilemma'' that you can only have 3 focus point and the additional feats from (student of perfection) give way more spells than anticipated.
Currently already set on tiger stance and stunning fist and tiger slash. while also gaining a lot of spells to engage/ disengage better such as ki strike, rush and wholeness of body. but thanks to free achtype and simply that a lot of these spells are awesome i feel like i am not gonna get the max out of my levels if i keep taking spells without gaining the benefit of more focus points?
alternatively i could maybe change some feats into bonusses that would be more passive or answering niche situations. such as stand still. but do i just overthink this? are the later spell feats worth it even if you dont get to 4,5,6, etc.. focus points? or should i plan more around taking other things such as additional stances or niche abilities?

Hey, all! I know this isn't exactly the typical post of this subreddit, but I figured that someone here might like it.
Before we start, I'd like to give a great thanks to the "DM Mentor's Guild" discord, for without them I wouldn't have been able to make this build at all! Make sure to check them out! This server has experienced DMs with a knack for helping others tell an immersive fantasy, balance encounters, and fix game related issues. If your question requires a personal touch, there's no one I'd refer you to over the good guys at the "DM Mentor's Guild" server!
This is a guide for how to play Noel in DnD 5e.
“You didn’t think I’d let you off the hook, did you? Finding a heathen worthy of pity is harder than finding marriage material at a speed dating event.”
Race.
Unlike everyone else, Noel’s just a measly human. Let’s make her a little less pathetic and go with Variant Human.
Variant humans get a feat, and to make the most of her lightened polearm by taking the Revenant Blade feat ( Ask your DM if he can waive race restrictions. Otherwise, change your race to Wood Elf, with the movement and hiding abilities being Noel’s cowardice, and trance being explained by her being insane. Use a rapier for now and grab the Revenant Blade feat as soon as you can. )! This allows us to apply the finesse property to a double-bladed scimitar, which lets us attack with Dexterity. In addition, we may make a bonus action attack with a double-bladed scimitar, swinging with its other end. This attack uses a d4 for damage. Finally, we get a +1 to Dexterity, and a +1 to AC while wielding this weapon.
Variant humans get to increase 2 stats by +1. We’ll choose Dexterity and Constitution.
For our extra skill, let’s pick up Performance, for teasing Shiki.
Stat Array
we’ll be using Point Buy, which gives us 27 points to put in our stats, that start at 8 as a default. Each increase above 13 will cost 2 points instead of 1.
9 points in Dexterity! Noel is weak by her own admission, but she can still cleave a commoner in two ( provided the enchantment on her weapon to make it lighter )! Our Dexterity will be a 15 + 2 = 17, with a +3 modifier.
9 points in Constitution! Again, she’s not tough at all compared to the threats of Tsukihime, but she definitely can take more blows than the normal person. Our Constitution will be a 15 + 1 = 16, with a +3 modifier.
4 points in Charisma! For all her flaws, she can be charming at times, and she’s decently pretty well ( I think just the ‘I can fix her’ crowd on their own show that Noel has her own appeal ). Our Charisma will be a 12 with a +1 modifier.
5 points in Strength. Noel isn’t necessarily weak, so we won’t dump it. Our Strength will be a 13, with a +1 modifier.
0 point in Intelligence. Noel’s at least average intelligence given that she’s a teacher, but we need the points elsewhere. Our Intelligence will be a 8, with a -1 modifier.
0 points in Wisdom. Noel’s proper insane. Our Wisdom will be an 8, with a -1 modifier.
Background.
Noel was forced into the job after Noel’s ( or should I say Roa’s? ) actions, but nonetheless -she’s a Church Executioner; a member of a secret sect of the Church, dedicated to purging the world of heresies that should not exist. Let’s grab Religion and History as skills. We’ll call this background the Church Executioner background.
Noel prefers to target the weak instead of fighting someone her own size, so we’ll kick her off as a Rogue 1!
Let’s grab Acrobatics and Intimidation to terrify our prey before we end them in a sweeping flourish! Then let’s get Perception and Stealth, to spot an enemy before you die and hide in the shadows like a little bitch when someone stronger than you rolls up.
We gain proficiency in Intelligence and Dexterity saving throws. We are also proficient in light armour, all simple weapons, hand crossbows, longswords, and shortswords, and thieve’s tools.
We’ll wear studded leather armor underneath our Nun’s habit, and carry 10 daggers, which will be your black keys.
At 1st level, Rogues get Expertise, which allows us to double our proficiency bonus with two skills or one skill and thieve’s tools. We’ll choose Intimidation and Stealth to terrify all those weaker than us and wait for Ciel to arrive when fighting anyone stronger than us.
We also learn thieve’s cant’. Let’s just say this is Latin. No one knows how to speak it these days anyway.
Finally, you get Sneak Attack; a sudden strike, exploiting your enemy’s weaknesses. You have 1d6 sneak attack dice at this level, and when you strike with a finesse or ranged weapon, you may add your Sneak Attack damage to the hit. You may only add Sneak Attack to an attack once per turn, and if you either have advantage on the attack, or have an ally within 5ft of the target.
We’ve got a little bit of unfairness, so from here let’s multiclass into . . .
Fighter 1!
We are proficient with all weapons.
We’ll use a double bladed scimitar as our great halberd, which I think works perfectly, as it’s a polearm-like weapon that uses Dexterity, almost as if it’s been magically lightened!
All Fighters get a fighting style, and for Noel, we’ll grab the Great Weapon Fighting style, which allows us to reroll 1s or 2s on damage dice.
Secondly, we get Second Wind, which allows us to regain 1d10 + Fighter Level in HP as a bonus action. Flavor this as your seagull-ass scream giving you some motivation to fight for your life.
Fighter 2.
At this level, we gain a major boon in the form of Action Surge! This feature gives us an extra action on our turn, once per short rest. That extra action can be used for anything, and works with Extra Attack, when we get that ( spoilers! ). Use those combo extenders!
Fighter 3.
At this level, All Fighters get their Martial Archetype! Noel doesn’t have any magic and isn’t very tactically skilled, so we’ll take the Champion archetype, with her crits being lucky hits.
As a Champion, when we roll a 19 or 20 on an attack roll, it counts as a crit!
Fighter 4.
At the 4th level of Fighter, we gain our first ASI! Let’s swap it out for the Slasher feat! Aside from the name invoking the insane blade-swinging that’s fitting for Noel, we gain 2 abilities. When we deal slashing damage to a creature, we may reduce its movement by 10f, once per turn. Additionally, when we score a critical hit, we terribly mutilate our enemy, and until the start of our next turn, all of its attacks have disadvantage. This type of wounding, that debilitates the target and allows us to play with our food before we go in for the kill, is exactly the type of tactic Noel would appreciate. It’s even better that our increased crit range means we’ll apply the second Slasher ability more often!
Finally, we may increase our Strength or Dexterity by +1. Let’s choose Dexterity, which is now a 17 + 1 = 18, with a +4 modifier.
Fighter 5.
At this level, we gain another boost in power in the form of Extra attack! This allows us to attack twice when we take the attack action! I swear, Noel’s combos in Melty Blood: Type Lumina feel like they last forever . . .
Fighter 6.
Another ASI! We’ll swap this one out for the Defensive Duelist feat! With how worried Noel would be of being hit, this will help out! As a reaction, when we are hit with an attack, we may attempt to use our finesse weapon to intercept it, adding our proficiency bonus to our AC for that attack! Consider this Shielding in Melty Blood.
Okay, we’ve got the basics! From here, let’s get the ability to do some more dishonest tactics by multiclassing back into . . .
Rogue 2!
At this level, we get Cunning Action, which allows us to dash, disengage, or hide as a bonus action! This allows us to dart away from the fight and hide away from the fight!
Rogue 3.
We get a Roguish Archetype, and for Noel the best choice for someone who puts no value in honor is the Assassin archetype!
All Assassins get Assassinate. On the first round of initiative, we have advantage on attacks against enemies who have not taken a turn yet. In addition, when we attack a surprised creature, we automatically score a critical hit! This is great because it means mode dice to reroll and we can automatically apply the second slasher effect!
Finally, our Sneak Attack is now 2d6.
We’ve got guerrilla tactics under lockdown, but Noel is a agent of the church, so we need a bit of holy power. To do that, let’s take levels in . . .
Paladin 1!
We gain Divine Sense as a Paladin, which lets us sense the presence of celestials, fiends, and undead! We may do this a number of times equal to our Charisma modifier, and regain all uses at the end of a long rest. With this, we’ll be able to sniff out Dead Apostles ( to run away from ).
We also get Lay on Hands, with is some holy power. We have a pool of HP equal to our Paladin level times 5, and may expend a number of points to heal an ally by the same amount as an action. We regain all points in our Lay on Hands pool at the end of a long rest.
Paladin 2.
Paladins gain a Fighting Style at 2nd level, and we’ll grab Defense, which gives us +1 AC while wearing armour.
We also gain Spellcasting! Our spellcasting is the result of our ( admittingly weak ) belief in the LORD, so our spellcasting ability is Charisma.
For spells, we’ll prepare . . .
Bless, to give everyone better frame data.
Protection from Good and Evil, in case you run into Vlov!
Finally, we gain Divine Smite! When we hit with an attack, we may expend one spell slot to deal an extra amount of radiant damage! For a first level slot, we deal an extra 2d8 radiant damage ( or 3d8 if attacking a fiend or undead ), and spending higher level slot increases the damage, capping out at 5d8 ( or 6d8 if attacking a fiend or undead )! Use this on a crit, or on your black keys!
This isn’t stated directly in the Paladin class, but we can also create holy water by expending a 1st level spell slot and 25gp of powdered silver. Let’s soak our boots in this, so we can tell if someone's a Dead Apostle by stepping on them ( yes, this is a cannon thing ).
Okay! That’s all we need from Paladin, so let’s bounce back to . . .
Fighter 7!
At this level, we gain Remarkable Athletes! We are now half-proficient in all Dexterity, Strength, and Constitution checks that we are not proficient in! This is great, as not only does it give us more power with skills, but we can also add this to initiative, and we want to go first to use Assassinate.
Fighter 8!
Yet another ASI! Let’s boost Dexterity by +2, to cap off our Dexterity at 18 + 2 = 20, with a +5 modifier.
Fighter 9.
9th level Fighters gain Indomitable, which allows us to reroll a failed saving throw, once per long rest. Consider this activating Moon Drive to get a couple extra seconds to react.
Fighter 10.
At this level, we gain Additional Fighting Style as a Champion Fighter ( at this point, we have 3 Fighting Styles )! Let’s grab Thrown Weapon Fighting to enhance our black keys ( Defense would be more optimal, but I want to make thrown weapons with daggers more viable for us ).
Fighter 11.
We gain another stable feature at this level; Extra Attack (2)! We now may make 3 attacks when we take the Attack Action, or 6 with Action Surge ( 7 with the BA attack )!
Fighter 12.
The ASIs keep coming. Let’s use this one to boost Constitution by +2. Our Constitution is now 16 + 2 = 18, with a +4 modifier.
Fighter 13.
At this level, we gain 2 uses of Indomitable, per long rest!
Fighter 14.
We gain our final ASI at this level. We could boost Constitution, but instead I think we’ll grab Mobile, to even further improve our kiting ability. We gain a +10ft bonus to movement speed, and when we attack a creature, we do not provoke attacks of opportunity from that creature.
And finally, we’ll cap off this build with . . .
Fighter 15!
Our final feature comes from our Champion Archetype; Superior Critical! We now score a critical hit on a 18, 19, or a 20!
Pros

• We’re a Surprisingly great crit fisher! We have a 15% base crit chance, 30% with advantage, which we can easily get due to Assassinate. Due to needing to only crit once for Slasher, we can apply our critical Slasher ability with a 45% ( 3 attacks ), 60% ( 4 attacks ), or 105% ( 7 attacks - Action Surge ) chance ( Advantage - 90%, 120%, and 210% )! On top of that, Assassin gives us crits on all attacks if we get a surprise round, which ends up being 24d4 + 4d6 + 6d8 ( assuming attacking a fiend or undead ) + 35 damage, or 136 damage!
• Thanks to our Defense and Revenant Blade bonuses, we have decently high AC ( 19 )!
• We’ve got pretty decent skills! 7 skills, half-proficiency with Strength, Dexterity, and Constitution checks, and 2 Expertise skills.

Cons

• We gain very little from our Paladin dip, mechanically.
• A Revenant blade does low damage for a 2-handed weapon.
• We have terrible Wisdom Saves.

Before we start, I'd like to give a great thanks to the "DM Mentor's Guild" discord, for without them I wouldn't have been able to make this build at all! Make sure to check them out! This server has experienced DMs with a knack for helping others tell an immersive fantasy, balance encounters, and fix game related issues. If your question requires a personal touch, there's no one I'd refer you to over the good guys at the "DM Mentor's Guild" server!
​
This is a guide for how to play Noel in DnD 5e.
“You didn’t think I’d let you off the hook, did you? Finding a heathen worthy of pity is harder than finding marriage material at a speed dating event.”
Race.
Unlike everyone else, Noel’s just a measly human. Let’s make her a little less pathetic and go with Variant Human.
Variant humans get a feat, and to make the most of her lightened polearm by taking the Revenant Blade feat ( Ask your DM if he can waive race restrictions. Otherwise, change your race to Wood Elf, with the movement and hiding abilities being Noel’s cowardice, and trance being explained by her being insane. Use a rapier for now and grab the Revenant Blade feat as soon as you can. )! This allows us to apply the finesse property to a double-bladed scimitar, which lets us attack with Dexterity. In addition, we may make a bonus action attack with a double-bladed scimitar, swinging with its other end. This attack uses a d4 for damage. Finally, we get a +1 to Dexterity, and a +1 to AC while wielding this weapon.
Variant humans get to increase 2 stats by +1. We’ll choose Dexterity and Constitution.
For our extra skill, let’s pick up Performance, for teasing Shiki.
Stat Array
we’ll be using Point Buy, which gives us 27 points to put in our stats, that start at 8 as a default. Each increase above 13 will cost 2 points instead of 1.
9 points in Dexterity! Noel is weak by her own admission, but she can still cleave a commoner in two ( provided the enchantment on her weapon to make it lighter )! Our Dexterity will be a 15 + 2 = 17, with a +3 modifier.
9 points in Constitution! Again, she’s not tough at all compared to the threats of Tsukihime, but she definitely can take more blows than the normal person. Our Constitution will be a 15 + 1 = 16, with a +3 modifier.
4 points in Charisma! For all her flaws, she can be charming at times, and she’s decently pretty well ( I think just the ‘I can fix her’ crowd on their own show that Noel has her own appeal ). Our Charisma will be a 12 with a +1 modifier.
5 points in Strength. Noel isn’t necessarily weak, so we won’t dump it. Our Strength will be a 13, with a +1 modifier.
0 point in Intelligence. Noel’s at least average intelligence given that she’s a teacher, but we need the points elsewhere. Our Intelligence will be a 8, with a -1 modifier.
0 points in Wisdom. Noel’s proper insane. Our Wisdom will be an 8, with a -1 modifier.
Background.
Noel was forced into the job after Noel’s ( or should I say Roa’s? ) actions, but nonetheless -she’s a Church Executioner; a member of a secret sect of the Church, dedicated to purging the world of heresies that should not exist. Let’s grab Religion and History as skills. We’ll call this background the Church Executioner background.
Noel prefers to target the weak instead of fighting someone her own size, so we’ll kick her off as a Rogue 1!
Let’s grab Acrobatics and Intimidation to terrify our prey before we end them in a sweeping flourish! Then let’s get Perception and Stealth, to spot an enemy before you die and hide in the shadows like a little bitch when someone stronger than you rolls up.
We gain proficiency in Intelligence and Dexterity saving throws. We are also proficient in light armour, all simple weapons, hand crossbows, longswords, and shortswords, and thieve’s tools.
We’ll wear studded leather armor underneath our Nun’s habit, and carry 10 daggers, which will be your black keys.
At 1st level, Rogues get Expertise, which allows us to double our proficiency bonus with two skills or one skill and thieve’s tools. We’ll choose Intimidation and Stealth to terrify all those weaker than us and wait for Ciel to arrive when fighting anyone stronger than us.
We also learn thieve’s cant’. Let’s just say this is Latin. No one knows how to speak it these days anyway.
Finally, you get Sneak Attack; a sudden strike, exploiting your enemy’s weaknesses. You have 1d6 sneak attack dice at this level, and when you strike with a finesse or ranged weapon, you may add your Sneak Attack damage to the hit. You may only add Sneak Attack to an attack once per turn, and if you either have advantage on the attack, or have an ally within 5ft of the target.
We’ve got a little bit of unfairness, so from here let’s multiclass into . . .
Fighter 1!
We are proficient with all weapons.
We’ll use a double bladed scimitar as our great halberd, which I think works perfectly, as it’s a polearm-like weapon that uses Dexterity, almost as if it’s been magically lightened!
All Fighters get a fighting style, and for Noel, we’ll grab the Great Weapon Fighting style, which allows us to reroll 1s or 2s on damage dice.
Secondly, we get Second Wind, which allows us to regain 1d10 + Fighter Level in HP as a bonus action. Flavor this as your seagull-ass scream giving you some motivation to fight for your life.
Fighter 2.
At this level, we gain a major boon in the form of Action Surge! This feature gives us an extra action on our turn, once per short rest. That extra action can be used for anything, and works with Extra Attack, when we get that ( spoilers! ). Use those combo extenders!
Fighter 3.
At this level, All Fighters get their Martial Archetype! Noel doesn’t have any magic and isn’t very tactically skilled, so we’ll take the Champion archetype, with her crits being lucky hits.
As a Champion, when we roll a 19 or 20 on an attack roll, it counts as a crit!
Fighter 4.
At the 4th level of Fighter, we gain our first ASI! Let’s swap it out for the Slasher feat! Aside from the name invoking the insane blade-swinging that’s fitting for Noel, we gain 2 abilities. When we deal slashing damage to a creature, we may reduce its movement by 10f, once per turn. Additionally, when we score a critical hit, we terribly mutilate our enemy, and until the start of our next turn, all of its attacks have disadvantage. This type of wounding, that debilitates the target and allows us to play with our food before we go in for the kill, is exactly the type of tactic Noel would appreciate. It’s even better that our increased crit range means we’ll apply the second Slasher ability more often!
Finally, we may increase our Strength or Dexterity by +1. Let’s choose Dexterity, which is now a 17 + 1 = 18, with a +4 modifier.
Fighter 5.
At this level, we gain another boost in power in the form of Extra attack! This allows us to attack twice when we take the attack action! I swear, Noel’s combos in Melty Blood: Type Lumina feel like they last forever . . .
Fighter 6.
Another ASI! We’ll swap this one out for the Defensive Duelist feat! With how worried Noel would be of being hit, this will help out! As a reaction, when we are hit with an attack, we may attempt to use our finesse weapon to intercept it, adding our proficiency bonus to our AC for that attack! Consider this Shielding in Melty Blood.
Okay, we’ve got the basics! From here, let’s get the ability to do some more dishonest tactics by multiclassing back into . . .
Rogue 2!
At this level, we get Cunning Action, which allows us to dash, disengage, or hide as a bonus action! This allows us to dart away from the fight and hide away from the fight!
Rogue 3.
We get a Roguish Archetype, and for Noel the best choice for someone who puts no value in honor is the Assassin archetype!
All Assassins get Assassinate. On the first round of initiative, we have advantage on attacks against enemies who have not taken a turn yet. In addition, when we attack a surprised creature, we automatically score a critical hit! This is great because it means mode dice to reroll and we can automatically apply the second slasher effect!
Finally, our Sneak Attack is now 2d6.
We’ve got guerrilla tactics under lockdown, but Noel is a agent of the church, so we need a bit of holy power. To do that, let’s take levels in . . .
Paladin 1!
We gain Divine Sense as a Paladin, which lets us sense the presence of celestials, fiends, and undead! We may do this a number of times equal to our Charisma modifier, and regain all uses at the end of a long rest. With this, we’ll be able to sniff out Dead Apostles ( to run away from ).
We also get Lay on Hands, with is some holy power. We have a pool of HP equal to our Paladin level times 5, and may expend a number of points to heal an ally by the same amount as an action. We regain all points in our Lay on Hands pool at the end of a long rest.
Paladin 2.
Paladins gain a Fighting Style at 2nd level, and we’ll grab Defense, which gives us +1 AC while wearing armour.
We also gain Spellcasting! Our spellcasting is the result of our ( admittingly weak ) belief in the LORD, so our spellcasting ability is Charisma.
For spells, we’ll prepare . . .
Bless, to give everyone better frame data.
Protection from Good and Evil, in case you run into Vlov!
Finally, we gain Divine Smite! When we hit with an attack, we may expend one spell slot to deal an extra amount of radiant damage! For a first level slot, we deal an extra 2d8 radiant damage ( or 3d8 if attacking a fiend or undead ), and spending higher level slot increases the damage, capping out at 5d8 ( or 6d8 if attacking a fiend or undead )! Use this on a crit, or on your black keys!
This isn’t stated directly in the Paladin class, but we can also create holy water by expending a 1st level spell slot and 25gp of powdered silver. Let’s soak our boots in this, so we can tell if someone's a Dead Apostle by stepping on them ( yes, this is a cannon thing ).
Okay! That’s all we need from Paladin, so let’s bounce back to . . .
Fighter 7!
At this level, we gain Remarkable Athletes! We are now half-proficient in all Dexterity, Strength, and Constitution checks that we are not proficient in! This is great, as not only does it give us more power with skills, but we can also add this to initiative, and we want to go first to use Assassinate.
Fighter 8!
Yet another ASI! Let’s boost Dexterity by +2, to cap off our Dexterity at 18 + 2 = 20, with a +5 modifier.
Fighter 9.
9th level Fighters gain Indomitable, which allows us to reroll a failed saving throw, once per long rest. Consider this activating Moon Drive to get a couple extra seconds to react.
Fighter 10.
At this level, we gain Additional Fighting Style as a Champion Fighter ( at this point, we have 3 Fighting Styles )! Let’s grab Thrown Weapon Fighting to enhance our black keys ( Defense would be more optimal, but I want to make thrown weapons with daggers more viable for us ).
Fighter 11.
We gain another stable feature at this level; Extra Attack (2)! We now may make 3 attacks when we take the Attack Action, or 6 with Action Surge ( 7 with the BA attack )!
Fighter 12.
The ASIs keep coming. Let’s use this one to boost Constitution by +2. Our Constitution is now 16 + 2 = 18, with a +4 modifier.
Fighter 13.
At this level, we gain 2 uses of Indomitable, per long rest!
Fighter 14.
We gain our final ASI at this level. We could boost Constitution, but instead I think we’ll grab Mobile, to even further improve our kiting ability. We gain a +10ft bonus to movement speed, and when we attack a creature, we do not provoke attacks of opportunity from that creature.
And finally, we’ll cap off this build with . . .
Fighter 15!
Our final feature comes from our Champion Archetype; Superior Critical! We now score a critical hit on a 18, 19, or a 20!
Pros

• We’re a Surprisingly great crit fisher! We have a 15% base crit chance, 30% with advantage, which we can easily get due to Assassinate. Due to needing to only crit once for Slasher, we can apply our critical Slasher ability with a 45% ( 3 attacks ), 60% ( 4 attacks ), or 105% ( 7 attacks - Action Surge ) chance ( Advantage - 90%, 120%, and 210% )! On top of that, Assassin gives us crits on all attacks if we get a surprise round, which ends up being 24d4 + 4d6 + 6d8 ( assuming attacking a fiend or undead ) + 35 damage, or 136 damage!
• Thanks to our Defense and Revenant Blade bonuses, we have decently high AC ( 19 )!
• We’ve got pretty decent skills! 7 skills, half-proficiency with Strength, Dexterity, and Constitution checks, and 2 Expertise skills.

Cons

• We gain very little from our Paladin dip, mechanically.
• A Revenant blade does low damage for a 2-handed weapon.
• We have terrible Wisdom Saves.

Hi All,
I made a post earlier this year about some alternative combat mechanics for 5e. I got some great feedback and after messing around with some revisions and playtesting I feel I have a solid v2 that is much more streamlined and simple to explain/implement. Thus, I present The Fast Action Reactive Tactics System (F.A.R.T.S) v2!
A few things that these rules achieved during play testing:

1. Combat encounters generally go much quicker.
2. Drastically reduces the chance of having a disappointing turn (either PC or DM) where you miss all your attacks.
3. Doesn't invalidate high AC optimization, but also doesn't make it extremely difficult to balance encounters against PCs or Monsters with a high AC.
4. Melee martials who don't have access to spells that ignore AC have a much bigger impact against Monsters with higher ACs.
5. Keeps players tuned in outside of their turn during combat.

A brief reminder of my impetus for developing these rules from my first post:

In the Rules as Written all attack actions using weapons without magical assistance are either hit or miss.
F.A.R.T.S instead creates an Armor Class range for melee combat where players determine how well they hit, instead of a binary hit or miss.
To compensate for the additional damage dealt by melee characters, each player character (PC) is given an additional action every round called a Defensive Reaction. Defensive Reactions are designed to give players a tactical choice throughout a Combat Round to either defend themselves, aid their allies, or finish their enemies.

Armor Class & Dodge Armor Class:

• Standard Armor Class (AC): Calculated using RAW 5e Rules (PHB pg. 144)
• Dodge Armor Class (DAC): Dodge Armor Class is a minimum roll amount needed in order to strike a target with a melee attack. Dodge Armor Class is calculated by subtracting 10 from your Armor Class.

Monster F.A.R.T.S:

DAC is calculated the same for enemies as it is for Player Characters simply subtract 10 from their listed AC.
Balancing Monster stat blocks based on party size*:

• Parties of 3 or less use stat blocks as is.
• Parties greater than 3 add 20% more health per each additional party member.
• Add 1 additional damage dice per each additional party member.

*This assumes PCs are at the recommended level for the encounter.

Combat Using AC & DAC:

• DAC is only a number needed for melee attack rolls. Any melee attack that hits below AC, but above DAC does half damage (tie goes to defender).
• Striking above AC with a melee attack applies full damage (tie goes to defender).
• If the attack roll is below DAC it misses entirely, unless otherwise specified in the attack description. Resistances and/or damage immunities apply as normal.
• Ranged attacks (both weapons and spells) use RAW Combat rules and do not factor in DAC at all. Ranged attacks only hit if above AC.
• If a player uses a feature that downgrades damage (i.e. Uncanny Dodge) the damage is still halved if attack roll was above AC. Damage is not applied if below AC, but above DAC.

Defensive Reactions:

Each PC gets one Defensive Reaction at the start of a round and regains it at the beginning of a new round. Similar to a standard Reaction these are called out either in or out of a players turn whenever the conditions are met:

• Guard: If an attack roll is below AC and above DAC, it does no damage instead. This can be called out after the player has seen the enemy attack roll.
• Health Potion: You can use a health potion. Alternatively you can give another player within 5 ft a health potion, however they will also need to use their Defensive Reaction to drink the said Health Potion.
  • For in-game lore a health potion is considered the size of a small test tube with varying potencies (Greater, Superior, ect.) Whereas other potions are considered much larger and would take a full action to chug.
• Solo Disengage: Disengage from a single target at the player's discretion. To Disengage from all enemies it still requires your action on your turn (or bonus action for our Rouges). At the start of your turn If you perform any action other than using your movement you are considered re-engaged with the target.
• Finishing-strike: At the Dungeon Master's discretion, once an enemy is below 20% health (DM may describe them as significantly wounded) a single PC may make an attack against that enemy one time. The attack must use either a ranged or melee weapon attack or a cantrip spell attack. Players are not allowed to use a level 1-10 spell that requires a full action to cast. This uses the Defensive Reaction for that player for this round. \Note I’ve actually found this is my players favorite addition and wraps up a combat encounter in a quick and fun way.*

Optional Rules:
Whiff: If PC rolls a 1 on their attack roll it’s considered a Whiff and the PC loses their next available Defensive Reaction.
Defensive Stance: On a player's turn if they choose not to use their movement while within 5ft of an enemy they may choose to go into a Defensive Stance instead. This Defensive Stance gives the player an additional Defensive Reaction that lasts until the start of their next turn.
​
And that’s F.A.R.T.S v2! Thanks to everyone who provided feedback before, it really helped me rethink things to make a simpler ruleset. If there was any clarity needed or if you have some constructive criticism I would love to hear it! Once again I would like to stress that I found throughout this process that what theoretically sounds good on paper doesn’t always translate well when actually put into practice at the table. I would highly encourage everyone to give F.A.R.T.S a shot at your own games first before suggesting updates or alterations.
Thanks again and great to be part of this community!

If you haven't read my first post covering Push Weapons here you go:
https://www.reddit.com/onednd/comments/130ldxm/mastering_weapons_a_deep_dive_into_mastery/
If you haven't, allow me to introduce the premise of these Deep Dives.
Ages ago at the start of this play test, Jeremy Crawford mentioned how Character Creation plays a more important role in creating a comprehensive character. i've taken that to heart, and am I now searching all across the OneDnD system to see how it can add to the Mastery system.
This deep dive mostly takes a concentrated look at early levels of the game in Tier 1 and a small dive into Tier 2 and beyond. The reason being that if a Mastery can be used from the get go, it's far stronger than one that needs a late game feature to really shine. For now, I'm mainly focusing on Fighters for these Deep Dives since they have the most interaction with this system but certain things here are still applicable to Barbarians.
In addition to that, this new Update is supposed to be backwards compatible with old content, so we will be including anything in 2014 5e that hasn't been updated by the play test as well.
With all of that out of the way, lets take a deep dive into the Slow Mastery!
What does Slow Do?
If you hit a creature with this weapon and deal damage to the creature, you can reduce its Speed by 10 feet until the start of your next turn. If you hit the creature more than once with this property, the Speed reduction doesn’t exceed 10 feet.
What are the default Slow Weapons?
Slow, unlike Push Weapons, have a greater variety of weapons to choose from. However, there is a much greater disparity between the options. There are only 2 Melee Weapons that Slow, 1 Thrown Weapon, and 4 Ranged Weapons for a total of 7 Weapons with this Mastery.
Club: Light, Bludgeoning 1d4 damage.
Javelin: Thrown 20/60, Piercing 1d6 damage.
Light Crossbow: Ammunition, 80/320, Loading, Two Handed, Piercing 1d8 damage.
Sling: Ammunition, 30/120, Bludgenoing 1d4 Damage.
Whip: Finesse, Reach, Slashing 1d4 Damage.
Longbow: Ammunition, 150/600, Heavy, Two Handed, Piercing 1d8 Damage.
Musket: Ammunition, 40/120, Loading, Two-Handed, Piercing 1d12 Weapons.
Of the Melee options, both are 1d4 Weapons in the Club and Whip. The one thrown weapon is the Javelin which deals 1d6. Meanwhile, all of the ranged weapons aside form Sling deal more damage at a greater distance. Overall two things become clear about early level Slow Weapons. Slow Weapons will not be the strongest Damaging options in the game. And Slow weapons are mostly ranged/Dex focused, meaning they work better on Dex Fighters over all.
For the sake of it, we'll say we can take a melee weapon, thrown weapon, and ranged weapon. Highlights include Whip, Musket, and Javelin.
What Lv 1 Feats can help our Slow Weapons?
Much like Push Weapons, most of the Lv 1 Feats in this play test don't help us. With two notable exceptions.
Tavern Brawler(UA): Now, I know what you're saying. How on earth does Tavern Brawler, which primarily uses Unarmed Strikes, work with build? Well, the answer to that is the final property of the feat, Furniture As Weapon. Because of this Feat, even if you're primarily focused as a Ranged character with a Musket or Longbow, you'll always have the option to pick up any random tiny object around you and give it the properties of a Club. That includes the Weapon Mastery properties. Or a medium sized piece of furniture to use Greatclub's Push on. You won't hit as hard with it since you are a Dexterity build, but it's a fun get off me option. And since Slow can only proc once on each enemy, it's a good way to get someone off of you and a nice use of your 3rd or 4th Weapon Mastery. The fact its Tiny Objects means you will practically never be Unarmed. Live out your Joker pencil fantasies king.
The other way Tavern Brawler contributes is if you do go with a Strength Build with Slow weapons, you can strike an enemy with a Slow Weapon and then move in with your Unarmed Strikes to shove them around.
Fighting Style Feat(UA): With the inclusion of Fighting Styles as Feats it means you can very naturally get multiple Fighting Styles on Feats. This didn't matter much with Push Weapons, but here we have some more options. How having 2 Fighting Styles can synergies with Slow Weapons will be discussed later in the Fighting Styles section.
Strike Of Giants(UA): Back to the Wonders of the Multiverse UA we go! However, it's a simultaneously more limiting and yet more diverse then our first fore through the Feat. Strike of Giants is a Feat that only works with Melee or Thrown Weapon Attack. Meaning it doesn't synergies with any Dex based Slow Weapon except Whip. However, this means it does work with Javelins and Clubs and it has desirable effects for all of them.
Hill Giant let's you knock something prone after slowing it, making its movement speed decrease to 10 when it stands back up.
Stone Giant like discussed with Push Weapons, lets you move something 10ft back this time on top of slowing it 10ft.
Frost Giant doesn't really interact with Slow weapons since it just drops a creatures Movement Speed to 0.
And last there's Storm Giant, which can grant disadvantage on all enemy attacks until the start of your next turn. There's nothing that inherently synchronizes with Slow weapons now, but it is a perquisite for a very powerful option at Lv4 for Melee focused Slow builds.
What Races can help your Slow Weapons?
Goliath(UA): Here we are, back at it again. If there was any doubt on how good the Goliath in OneDnD is the sheer amount of synergy it has the Weapon Master system these breakdowns are certainly starting to say otherwise (Who am I kidding, everyone knows its good lol). Hill's Tumble is much like Strike of Hill Giants, only instead it's automatic with no save.
Our focus isn't on Hill's Tumble though, it's once again on Frost's Chill. Twice per day you can now reduce an enemies speed by 20ft with your Slow Weapon. Which will increase in uses alongside your Proficiency Bonus.
Shifter(MOTM): Remember Tavern Brawler? Well now as a Shifter you can Bonus Action make an Unarmed Strike that does 1d6+Str Damage, can reroll 1's, and now also Shove an enemy away with this Unarmed Attack thanks to Shove on Tavern Brawler. You're now reducing an enemies movement with a Club/Javelin and then pushing them away as an Unarmed Strike so you can retreat freely. It largely benefits Strength based Slow builds over Dex, but can still help by allowing you to push something away with your bonus action so you can move away and safely attack with your ranged weapons.
Minotaur(MOTM): Hammering Horns from Minotaur while not as strong as ShifteTavern Brawler synergy, does offer a way to accomplish something similar without Tavern Brawler. When you hit with a Melee Weapon Attack, you can follow up with Hammering Horns as a Bonus Action to possibly push them 10ft away. While not as strong as Shifter, it's perfectly viable if you want to save your Lv 1 feat for something else.
Giff(Spelljammer): Giff specifically have strong synergy with Musket's. With Astral Spark you're adding your PB onto an a Hit a number of times a long rest equal to your PB. But Firearm Mastery let's them ignore the Loading Property so they can fire multiple Musket Shots at higher levels. It also means they don't have Disadvantage from Long Range. So these Space Hippo's can shoot an enemy anywhere within 120ft and deal 1d12+Dex+PB when they do, then slowing them. It's possibly one of the strongest ranged damage builds in early levels and basically gives you free sharpshooter with firearms.
Notable Mentions:
Human(UA): Extra Feat let's you get an extra Fighting Style on top of Strike of Giants or Tavern Brawler.
Centaur(MOTM): For essentially the same reason as the Shifter. When you run forward and Attack someone with a Melee Weapon Attack, you can make an Unarmed Strike as a Bonus Action. That means you can Slow with a Javalin, then Shove with your Unarmed Strike. The only issue is this bonus action attack requires you to run at least 30ft towards a target, which makes it less flexible and viable than Shifter.
What Fighting Styles help with our Slow Weapons?
For Fighting Styles we have primarily three Build types. The Thrown Weapon Build, the Ranged Weapon Build, or the Unarmed Fighting Build.
Archery: Archery with its +2 to Attack Bonus is very hard to argue against considering so many Slow Weapons are Ranged Weapons. You're just gonna find yourself hitting things more often and Slowing them more often.
Duelist: Duelist speaks for itself, it's a +2 to damage with weapons you wield with one hand. Benefiting all of your Melee Slow weapons since they're all One Handed Weapons. However...
Thrown Weapon Fighting: With Thrown Weapon Fighting you can stack it an Duelist together. Giving you a +4 Modifier on Damage on top of your Strength with Javalin. Meaning your Slow weapons with Javalin, while still not as strong as some of the other weapons, can deal a decent amount of damage on top of the Slow condition. Early levels that's a much more intimidating amount of damage than you might think. And Giff can add a +2 on top of it with Astral Spark. To put it in perceptive, in Lost Mines of Phandelver the boss of the Dungeon is a 27 HP Bugbear. With a Thrown Javalin from a +3 Strength Giff you're dealing 1d6+9 damage for an average of 12 damage. That's almost half the bosses HP at Lv 1 and it's mostly from passives and a cheap thrown weapon. You are also then on top of it, slowing its movement down by 10ft, allowing yourself to outrun it and it's Reach.
Unarmed Fighting: Mainly has synergy with Strength based Unarmed Strikes. Like with Shifter you can Slow an enemy with a Javelin first and then bonus Action Unarm Strike them, now for 1d8+Str. And if you're Grappling someone you deal bonus damage at the start of your turn.
What Feats Help our Slow Weapons?
With lv 4 and Lv 5 on the table and the two feats we get from them, all 3 variations of the Slow builds with Thrown Weapons, Unarmed Strikes, and Ranged Weapons get quite a bit stronger. But amongst them a new build shows itself, the Dex Based Melee Build. Let's see what we got in store for ourselves.
Slasher: Slasher has synergy with only ONE type of Slow Weapon until Lv 7 allows for bigger Slashing Weapons. But even then, Slasher primarily works best on the Dex build that is the Whip, which is also Finesse.
With Slasher and Whip every time you proc Slow you're reducing a targets Speed by 20ft now. And you can do see safely at Reach thanks to the Whip having the Reach property. On top of that 20ft reduction though, we also have Frost Chill's from Goliath(UA). Which means we can completely lockdown any enemy with 30ft of Movement with a single attack and at the cost of a single resource.
Because the Whip is a Dex Weapon, it allows you to switch between it and your Ranged Weapons more effectively. And can either be built for damage with Duelist, or purely kept as a Melee Weapon option and taking Archery for most of your Ranged Fighting.
Soul of the Storm Giant (UA): Soul of the Storm Giant is a Lv 4 ft that requires us to pick Strike of the Storm Giant earlier mentioned. It has a PB limited Bonus Action Aura ability that causes all Attack Roles to have Disadvantage against you. But its other ability activates if an Enemy starts its turn in your aura. When a creature starts its turn within 10ft of you, the range of the Aura, you can force a Strength Saving Throw. If they fail, their movement is halved.
This means you can do the before mentioned Slasher with Frost Chill's to drop two separate enemies Movement to 0, then move in the way of two other enemies, use your Aura as Bonus Action, and drop their movement speed by half. Or, you attack two different enemies within your reach with your Whip, reduce their movement by 20ft each, then activate this Aura. If they fail this Saving Throw they only have 5ft of movement left and can't reach you unless they have Reach. And if they do succeed in reaching you, they have disadvantage against you.
Charger(UA): Charger essentially adds extra damage to any of your Attacks, something that you may need with your weaker damage output, or it allows you essentially add the Push Mastery on one Attack during your turn. Matched with Slasher this means you can reduce one enemies speed by 30ft with Frost Chill, then turn around and reduce another's by 20ft and then launch them 10ft with Charger. Alternatively for Unarmed Builds after using a Weapon to Slow on an enemy, you can use your Unarm Strike+Shove+Charger to send them flying back 15ft away. In this case, you can combine Strength Slasher+Whip to reduce their speed by 20ft, rather than the Javelins 10ft. And with Ranged builds it allows any attack with a Musket to not only Slow an enemy, but also push them further away and out of position with Charger while you yourself are retreating.
Grappler(UA): Grappler adds yet another interesting aspect to your build. Your Attacks against your Grappled foes have Advantage, you aren't Slowed yourself from the Grappled condition, and you can auto Grapple an enemy you hit with an Unarmed Strike during your Attack Action. Using in combination with Slasher and you can shut down one enemy at a distance with Javelin/Whip, and then you can Unarmed Strike with your second Attack to either Shove an Enemy away (Tavern Brawler) or Grapple them (Grappler), forcing them to use their Action to break free. If they can't break free, you can freely drag your enemy around you with one hand while using Whip and Slasher to continue reducing the movement of two other enemies on the next turn, passively choking your grapple target as you do so.
Alternatively, if you use Soul of the Storm Giant, you can Grapple a single enemy after using Slow on them and then use your Bonus Action to Aura. If they enemy you grappled can't teleport away, you've just locked them into a catch 22. When they start their turn Grappled by you in the Aura they have to make a Saving Throw. If they fail it, their Movement which is already reduced by 10ft, is halved again to 10ft. They have disadvantage against anyone except you, the Grappler. But if they try and Attack you, they now have disadvantage against you because of the Aura. If they are able to break the grapple, they can now at best run away 10ft, but doing so causes an Attack of Opportunity from you. If they choose to run you now can use your Unarmed Strike Attack of Opportunity to either Shove them to the ground, knocking them Prone, or Grapple them again. The only way they can avoid this is to use their Action to disengage, but they can't do that because they used their Action to break your grapple. And even if they could somehow disengage, because of Slow they can only move 10ft away. Fight or Flight are both made only in futility. Their only hope is succeed on the Strength Save from the Aura so their movement isn't halved, and also hope your Attack of Opportunity misses them when they run away.
Shield Master (UA): Shield Master's Shield Bash in this version of the game unlike the 2014 version doesn't cost your Bonus Action but instead is free to use whenever you take the Attack Action with a Weapon. Why does this matter? Well, it means with a Whip you can reduce their movement by 20ft with Slasher, Shield Bash them Prone, then with your second attack Shove Punch them away. When they stand up, they only have 5ft of movement. If you have Frost Chill, you can instead drop their movement to 0 with noway to stand back up for a whole round. Or with Charger you can do all of that in One Attack, and then save your extra attack/bonus action for something else. Or you can use the Storm Giants Aura to reduce two enemies speed, and the one that is Prone can stand up, but can't move more than 5ft because of all the Slow's.
Sharpshooter(UA): Sharpshooter, to my knowledge, is the main Ranged Weapon feat you want to take. If you're not a Giff it lets you Attack with Firearms at max distance or Max distance shoot with a Longbow to Slow practically any enemy on a Battle Map. Bypassing cover along the way, or allowing you to fire safely in Melee. Also gives you synergy with Charger(UA) so you can Slow and Push a single desirable enemy at any range.
I do find a particular Weapon Fantasy with the Giff fun though. If you happened to go the Grapple Build, you can Shoot an enemy with a Musket to Slow them, run up and Punch them to Grapple them, then Action Surge pull out a Pistol and thanks to Grappler and Sharpshooter, can pump two 1d10 Shots Point blank into their sternum while holding them in place. It doesn't really add much to the Slow conversation, but its uniquely something only a Giff can do at this point in the game, since all other Races would need Gunner, Sharpshooter and Grappler to pull it off.
Notable Mentions:
Crusher: Crusher on a Club is the only weapon in the game that can both slow and push on a single attack. It's not the sexiest thing in the world, but it helps a lot with getting out of situations and stacks with Unarmed Strikes. Would be fun on a Character that fights like a Cop with a baton or something.
What Fighter Subclasses help our Slow Weapons?
Oh where to begin.
Battle Master: Battle Master helps all three of these Builds in different ways. Quick Toss mean's you are adding a second Javelin every turn at lower levels, and three at Lv 5. With the +9 damage mentioned before now a +10 because of ASI increases, that's 3 1d6+10 Thrown Weapon Attacks for a total passive damage of 30 every time you hit, before any weapon dice are brought in. You can also pivot out of Javelins, using only one to Slow, and then using a stronger Thrown Weapon like Trident for the remaining if you just want to mess someone up.
Sweeping Attack allows your Whip Slasher build to Slasher twice as many enemies if they group up. Under optimal conditions you can reduce up to 4 enemies movement speed by 20ft, or even up to 8 with Action Surge if you can somehow pull that off.
Grappling Strike allows you to pull off Grappler stuff without needing to take the feat as a Bonus Action, it's weaker but helpful if you don't want to hard commit a feat to Unarmed Fighting. Then there's the obvious standouts like Trip Attack and Pushing Attack.
Arcane Archer: It's only natural that a Weapon group that has so many ranged weapons would have some synergy with Arcane Archer. Main stand outs are Grasping Arrow which can reduce a creatures movement speed at range by 20ft+damages them for moving. Everything else is mostly Damage effects and Status effect that are nice to have. Notably however, Magic Arrow really helps with the Magic Weapon problem. Making all your Longbow and Shortbow arrows magical by default means you really only need a Magic Whip or Scimitar for melee if you're going a Dex build.
Echo Knight: More Attacks, More Slows. Pretty much Echo Knight for most of these properties seems to just help you do them more.
Champion(UA): Champions main draw is the early extra fighting style makes your build more diverse depending on how you constructed it. You can grab Unarmed Fighting if you never did before to increase your Unarmed Strike Damage. If you chose Archery and Duelist, you can now also get Thrown Weapon Fighting so you have Accuracy for your Ranged Weapons and Damage for your Thrown Weapons. Or just go Human and take all four Fighting Styles on a single character, switching between a Ranged Bow, your Whip, or fisticuffs depending on what the situation demands and being moderately good at all of them.
All Other Fighters: All Other Fighters are good and work with Slow Weapons, but unlike with Push Weapons, they're mostly doing their own thing on top of using Slow Weapons, rather than having direct synergy the way some of the sub classes did with Push Weapons.
Lv 1-5 Tier 1 of Play: Conclusions and Thoughts
I was surprised to find so many of the Slow Weapons would be on Ranged Weapons, which would make you think they are the king of Slowing enemies down. But honestly, not really. Ranged Weapons having Slow isn't bad, it actually is very powerful being able to hit people from such far distances and mess with their movements. It helps Ranged characters stay alive while helping keep allies safe at Range. But otherwise, I was disappointed to find Ranged Weapons don't have a lot of synergy with their Mastery past this.
Meanwhile, the Whip and Unarmed Strike builds very much surprised me as I looked into them further. Battle Master's with Whip, Sweeping Attack, Duelist, Shield Master, and Storm Aura can do an insane amount of Battle Field slowing while also Shoving enemies prone and doing some moderate area denial.
Meanwhile, Javelins turning into early game high damage weapons if built right that could also synergies really well with Unarmed Strikes that could further lock down an enemy was really cool to see. Or combining all 3 for some fun.
And seeing Giff essentially be the best users of Fire Arms just from their Racial Traits alone felt very cool, even if it isn't quite a Slow build.
I found it very interesting how the Melee Weapons that use Slow play very different from the ones built around Push. Push was largely a defensive style focused on protecting an ally or preventing an enemy from moving into an area to being with. Slow weapons are far more offensive and require you to get up into an enemies face and relative range to Slow and debilitate as many as possible between your Whip, Javalin, Unarmed Strikes, and other features.
I would say in the end, Ranged Slow weapons are probably the strongest slow Weapons early game at lv1-2, except against certain Builds. Once you start getting your Subclasses and feats/extra attack at later levels however, the game opens up hard for Melee Slow Weapons.
Another buff in Slow Weapons favor is once you get to higher levels, its the only Weapon Mastery that can be put on literally any weapon. Replacing an old Mastery or adding on top of one.
Overall impressed with some of the Melee Weapon findings, and kind of disappointed in the Ranged Weapon findings with the only really fun thing being Giff's. Here's hoping one of these Deep Dives will find something a bit more fun for Ranged Weapons down the line!
Next on the Agenda are... Nick Weapons. Oh boy is that one going to be a lot.
TL;DR: Javelins are high damaging weapons now. Unarmed Strikes are kind of good. Whips are crazy when stacking Slasher and is the only weapon that can do it early game. Ranged Weapons can Slow anyone from massive ranges. and Giff are cool gun wielding killing machines. That is all.

Unsolicited advice here
I've been dming a 4/5ths new group recently for 5e, and I have some tips that may help people struggling to get new players to be effective in combat. This all revolves around "buffing" certain characters with items or abilities. This comes from my brain and intuition, so I'd love to hear other opinions on this. I'm not claiming to have incredible experience, but I have talked to more experienced people about this tactic and they have similar thoughts.

1. Always have an in-game reason for a buff. There is nothing more demoralizing as a player than being told "hey I'm buffing your character because you suck" (in better words). Something I like to do is either award a magical item with someone obviously in mind after a quest or fight, or give them some downtime when it works and offer them the chance to take a homebrewed ability.
2. You don't always need to buff someone. There are other ways to accomplish this same fix. I'd recommend talking to your players out of character about this "problem" beforehand. Even a simple, "hey do you understand how all your abilities work in combat?" Can be huge!
3. Buffs should be interesting and unforgettable. One of the most challenging parts of combat as a new player is keeping track of everything. Sure, there are tools to do this, but the reality is that remembering all your abilities and spells as a new player can SUCK!
4. Buff an ability, don't make a new one. See above.
5. Play on the player's strengths! If you have a rogue who forgets to use their cunning action every turn, maybe give them another way to activate their cunning action's effects. (i.e. if you make an attack you can choose to dash/disengage/dodge as a free action). <- not an incredible example but you get the idea. Better yet let them do one of those things only with that after attack effect so that if they remember their cunning action it can combo. i.e. free dash after every hit attack.
6. If____ then _____ works best when it's frequent. It's a lot easier to remember something that happens every time you attack rather than every time you deal >5 damage or something. Again, unforgettable.
7. If _____ then _____ or ______ (your choice). Works even better! The whole purpose of dnd combat is to have choices to help your squad. Giving them choices is what makes you feel powerful as a player. Being stuck in one loop can suck. Again, interesting.
8. Don't OP them. That player will get better at combat, so be careful with how many abilities and items you dish out. No need to watch that fighter become a supersoldier.
9. Balance is like 1% of the game. It ain't a big deal if someone is better in combat than another, as long as no one is getting frustrated.
10. If they don't "get" combat and don't want to do it, just don't. All of my favorite sessions in my short career with this newer squad have been RP based, find what you like and roll with it! We're still growing into combat, so having a lot of RP in between is much more time-friendly.