|
I'm going to judge this first on the book as a whole, then each archetype. These opinions are garnered from years of playtesting homebrew but not specifically this supplement:
The Book: While not written using the WOTC writing standards, all text is easily read and understood. The author has a few spelling mistakes. Formatting wise, everything looks good, if a little plain. I really wish the author would have included narrative reasons why these archetypes exist, but the DM is always free to fill that in anyway. Mechanical issues do hold back a few of these archetypes, so I've marked the product down one star.
Abyssal Servant: Excellent flavor. Mechanically sound, adding additional dice to an already damaging class and granting necromatic damage. The archetype doesn't seem to be overpowered.
Arsonist: Finally, for that fire loving freak in your party, they can play something other than sorcerer. I like tying the maximum number of bombs to your proficency bonus. However, the first ability should list how OFTEN you can create these bombs. Short rest? Long rest? Overall the archetype gives you bombs and makes you a sorcerer. It's... ok but I'm not sure it adds much to the rogue.
Blood Seeker: I like the narrative of the class, with you becoming an undead shadow. What I don't like is the adding arbitrary dice to skill checks. Adding a d6, d10, or d12 to stealth based on light level is unintuitive (in the 5e ecosystem). But I think the mechanics here compliment a rogue well.
Death Dealer: This is an overpowered archetype. Allowing sneak attack damage to lower the maximum hit points for a creature dramatically affects encounter balance when healing is taken into account. Based on the first ability of this archetype, I would not allow it at my table. Execution is also an ability which likely doesn't matter, most monsters are exempt from death saving throws.
Heartless Killer: A cold, fearless archetype is great. It's straightforward and while it might lack the complexity of other archetypes, it's 100% in line with the other archetypes except for the final ability. It should have a limit on how often it can trigger (2x per day, or a number of times equal to your Wis mod, or something).
Infernal Ally: Feels more like a sorcerer, warlock, or even wizard archetype but aside from that the class looks ok. I'd change "You can use your bonus action to command your ally to take action", given how the action economy works but this won't break too many tables I'd expect.
Phantom: Aside from Dance of the Mist giving an arbitrary die (instead of advantage or some other existing mechanic) I like this archetype a lot. And even then, the archetype is totally balanced.
Poisoner: I'd have to playtest this, trying out ALL the poisons, but I think everything presented here falls in line with other classes. It also seems like a fun archetype.
Sabatour: Much like the earlier explosives, there is no note to how often you can craft bombs. Countering Constructs is so limited in D&D, I'm not sure this is a good class, but due to that limit I don't think this is overpowered.
Shadow Walker: Not a great archetype. The first ability lets you maximize dice against targets in total darkness, which you later can apply at will to targets.
Smiling Liar: Pretty good. I'm not sure how the final ability would work in play, if you acquired a large number of followers. Also the saving throw equal to your rogue level being tied to a 17th level ability means a good chunk of attempts to resist you will fail. Tenatively I say this is good, but that last ability worries me.
Stinger: This is a pretty awesome archetype right here. Great flavor, solid abilities. I wish there was some fluff to tell us WHY you wanted to become a giant bug, but it's cool.
|
Log In 
