Coldforged: Subclass Paths
Each Thursday this year, I focus on a different aspect of the world I’ve created and played D&D in for over 20 years, in the hopes of honing the ideas and cementing enough in place to settle the world in my own mind. This week, I look at the new subclasses I’m considering building.
Classes and Paths
While I am, generally, happy with the classes and subclasses in the PHB and Xanathars, it feels like a campaign setting is a solid way of putting together
Barbarian: Wildblood
The Barbarian paths of presented in the two books showcase a strong and powerful warrior, and the wildblood does no less. Instead of focusing on natural or internal rage or zeal, however, the Wildblood barbarian becomes one with the elemental powers coursing through the world, channeling the direct and powerful forces of Air, Fire, Ice and Stone. This path will likely do elemental damage and gain powers when connected to specific elements as well as gain traits related to the elements.
Bard: Talespinner
A Talespinner bard is able to take the words that they speak, sing, or chant, and turn them into images and half-formed creatures of shadowstuff and illusion. These feared and revered bards are able to entertain by simply speaking. Talespinners are masters of Enchantment and Illusion spells, seeking to deceive their audience through tightly interwoven spells and speeches. When it comes to combat, Talespinners are able to draw upon the grand wealth of their learning to create dangerous creatures and fearsome images from their deepest imaginations.
Cleric Domain: Fire
Priests of the Fire Domain worship the elemental power of fire itself, and all the pantheon of gods, both good and evil, within the fire family. They are able to speak brilliantly and passionately about their beliefs, able to turn a sympathetic crowd into a sea of fervent believers. Clerics of Fire summon heavenly and demonic fires, able to cleanse or damn with the least touch. Clerics of Fire are warriors and Nobles with a blazing personality and powerful voice.
Cleric Domain: Earth
Priests of the Earth Domain worship the power of stone, earth and rock as well as the entire Earth Family of Gods. The are deep, stoic and powerful beings who channel the stability and strength of the stone into themselves and their world. They are pillars of communities and staunch defenders, but are also often seen as cold and uncaring as they let the harsh truths of the world abrade their flock, weathering out the weak to produce a rock hard core.
Cleric Domain: Water
Preists of the Water Domain worship the ocean and the powers of water itself, as well as the entire family of Water Gods. These priests are mercurial and playful, and while they often take care of people they deem worthy of their affection, they bring their entire wrath down on their opponents, drowning them in a deluge of waves. Many Water priests are seen on ocean vessels and in seaside villages, protecting and guiding.
Cleric Domain: Air
Priests of the Domain of Air, like the rest of their elemental brethren, worship the air and sky as well as their representative gods. They are often knowledgeable and kind but also reclusive, living lives at the tops of mountains and in the fringes of windswept plains. They seek the lofty sky and look to it as a resource for learning and for the essence of life itself. Many Air Priests are mysterious and cautious, having to hear more than just a fanciful tale to be persuaded to assist.
Druid: Circle of Seasons
Seasons come and seasons go, year after year, and the Druid of the Circle of the Seasons is there to assist at any time it is needed. In winter, when the weak are whittled out, in the spring when new life comes and takes the old, in the summer, when the heat breaks the spirit of the strongest, and in the fall, when the harvest comes and calls for those who’s time has come. the Circle of the seasons packages four distinct Druid paths into one, but each aspect complementing the other in order to maintain the order within the world.
Monk: Arcane Fist
The Monk of the Arcane Fist started out as a uniquely Killbaran concept, combining the learning and study of a wizard with the self reflection and meditation of a monk. Able to tap into their inner selves to cast spells without components and imbue their fists with elemental powers, the ways of the Arcane Fist spread across the continent until every kingdom was harboring their own with their own unique take on the path.
Paladin: Oath of Piety (Templar)
While many paladins swear to a code, the Templars swear directly to a divine being. Templars are the faces of their god in battle, and they are the bulwark behind which their flock takes refuge. They have a powerful and wealthy network of templars and church officials that they can call on in time of need, as well as a flock of utterly devoted individuals willing to pledge their lives.
Ranger: Longstrider
While there are many things in this world that cause suffering and evil to thrive, most of them are extremely far away from each other. The Longstrider excels both in getting to the enemy, and taking them down quickly, learning swiftly from combat with their foes and dispatching them with the most efficient way possible. Longstriders survive in the most difficult terrain and the most difficult situations with but a growl of the stomach and a stern look of reproach.
Rogue: Thug
There are many petty thieves, sneaky assassins, and other deliberate and delicate characters capable of subterfuge and stealth. Then, there are the thugs. Ever good sneaky thief needs a
Sorcerer: Marchblooded
The Marchblooded sorcerer is tied to the innate power of the beings in the Iron Marches. It could be an Angel, a God, or an accursed, but within their blood runs the elemental powers of the Iron Marches. The Marchblooded sorcerer mixes an affinity for metals with the power of the elements in order to harness the fundamental fabric of the other world and make it manifest on the world He is good at summoning and at conjuring sheer, raw elemental power from beyond the planar boundries.
Warlock: Accursed Patron
The Warlock with the Accursed Patron has sold his body to the demon queen in trade for expansive and powerful elemental abilities. Similar to the Marchblooded, they have access to powerful elemental abilities and a swath of otherworldly abilities which they can call on to protect themselves and assail their enemies.
Wizard: Cryomancer
The Cryomancer is the master of Ice Magic, studied and interred into their body as a very part of their being. Cryomancers spells aren’t the most powerful or the most flashy, but they do hinder the enemy significantly, freezing them in place, chilling them to the bone, and ensuring that they aren’t particularly mobile when they are acting.
Wizard: Pyromancer
A Pyromancer is the king of Fire Magic, able to control and subdue the primal fire of the planes and bend it to their use. They are unsubtle, unstable, and very harmful to their enemies. While other mages study ways to make the opponent less hazardous, the Pyromancer believes in one axiom above all others: If the enemy dies first, they can’t kill me.
Wizard: Aeromancer
Aeromancers control the wind around them and create powerful and damaging blasts of wind to harass and control their opponents. While they don’t always pile out damage, they are able to be direct and deadly with the air they weild. Mostly, however, they are aiding and assisting their allies in getting into a better position to enable a stronger and more powerful counterattack.
Wizard: Hydromancer
The Hydromancers is a defensive master of the waves. Able to create enormous quantities of water from nothing, as well as extracting it or adding it to creatures, means that this powerful discipline can protect their allies and also wash away all resistance.
Wizard: Geomancer
Geomancers are the undisputed masters of the battlefield. Able to shape the earth as they see fit, they are often in the middle of a fight ensuring that the opponents never get a chance at harming their allies. With the ability to mold the very earth they stand on, they are rarely in a position of weakness, and are able to demolish the opponents fortifications and other siegeworks in moments.
Wizard: Electromancer
The electromancer is a close cousin to the Pyromancers, but where they pyromancer is a wild and devastating weapon of mass destruction, the Electromancer has much more control over their element, picking and choosing their target or targets before unleashing a barrage of electric power at them and their friends, eliminating them from the world, and destroying the traces that remained.
Well. That is a look at the classes I’m going to be trying to create over the next few weeks, as I’ve finished creating the spells and am in the process of getting them reviewed by people I trust and do not trust – just to make sure they are well balanced.
Until next time!
