Level Up (A5E) Class redesign

[doctorbadwolf]

I disagree. You can have generic "cultures" without a setting. For example:

Mountain, Hill, River, City, Rural, Swamp, Esoteric, Artisic, Pragmatic, etc. could all be generic cultures without a setting. Now, a setting guide should come with unique cultures for that setting, but generic ones are sufficient for a core book IMO

Yep. You take the generic Mountain culture, and then start asking questions, to build a setting's specific cultures.

There can be extremely different cultures occupying the same geographical terrain. Nomadic, Rural, Urban, Metropolitan, Utopian, etcetera.

Sure, you could have a Nomadic Culture that happens to be in the Mountains.

But it uses the very small set of rules set there for the Nomadic Culture, while their settled neighbors use Mountain Culture stats.

Rules for cultures will be abstracted and simple, even in a crunchier 5e.

 

[glass]

Are there any classes in PF1e that aren't in 5e that could be ported over?

Lots. Alchemist, Cavalier, Investigator, Inquisitor, Oracle, Summoner, Gunslinger, Vigilante, Spiritualist, Medium, to name but a few. But...

Or is the work in porting them just as hard as doing them from scratch?

...probably. Even apart from the numbers being on completely different scales, some features will be based on subsystems that do not exist or work completely differently. And even those feture which actually work as written will be of completely different values. Basically, you could take the overall concept and maybe a few mechanical ideas, but you would basically be recreating them from scratch.

_
glass.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

Lots. Alchemist, Cavalier, Investigator, Inquisitor, Oracle, Summoner, Gunslinger, Vigilante, Spiritualist, Medium, to name but a few. But...

...probably. Even apart from the numbers being on completely different scales, some features will be based on subsystems that do not exist or work completely differently. And even those feture which actually work as written will be of completely different values. Basically, you could take the overall concept and maybe a few mechanical ideas, but you would basically be recreating them from scratch.

_
glass.

Out of curiosity, what is the difference between the Oracle, Spiritualist, and Medium?

 

[Cadence]

Out of curiosity, what is the difference between the Oracle, Spiritualist, and Medium?

Oracles are divine fulll casters who are forced in to their role and have a curse.

Spiritualists are psychic 6-max casters who are fused with a phantom.

Mediums are psychic 4-max casters who get their powers by channeling various spirits.

 

[glass]

Out of curiosity, what is the difference between the Oracle, Spiritualist, and Medium?

Oracle is, more or less, a divine sorcerer or spontaneous cleric. They cast spells from the cleric list, but only know a limited nuber and cast them spontaneously. They are not required to serve a particular god (even in settings where clerics are), and they have a curse mechanic that is kinda a mixed blessing. For example, the Tongues curse gives them an extra langage (more at higher levels), but in combat they can only speak that language, so unless someone else in the party speaks Celestial, you cannot communicate with the rest of the party until combat is over.

The Medium is basically the 3.5 Binder with different flavour text; they chose spirits each day that give them bonuses, so in theory they can choose what they want to be good at each day. Unfortunately the bonuses they get scale up with level but very small, so at lower levels it is more a case of choosing what you want to be slightly-less-terrible at for the day. Sorry for the rant, but this class always feels like a missed opportunity to me!

Spiritualist's main shtick is that that have a ghost companion who follows them around and can give them certain bonuses. Sorry this one's a bit vague; I like the idea, but I haven't got around to playing one yet.

ETA: Archives of Nethys links if you want to see for yourself (free and legit):

Oracle
Spiritualist
Medium

_
glass.

 

[Charlaquin]

Something I’d really like to see more of in LU is casters that mess around with the formula for spellcasting. The Warlock is my favorite class in 5e, and part of that is the additional build decision points thanks to Invocations, but also part of it is the different approach to spell slots. It’d be really cool if in LU there wasn’t just one odd class out, but if sorcerers actually used spells differently than Wizards, who used them differently than clerics, etc.

 

[KnightOfTheGrey]

Are there any classes in PF1e that aren't in 5e that could be ported over? Or is the work in porting them just as hard as doing them from scratch? Just wondering if that would be a reason for some folks who might not otherwise to check it out.

Lots. Alchemist, Cavalier, Investigator, Inquisitor, Oracle, Summoner, Gunslinger, Vigilante, Spiritualist, Medium, to name but a few. But...

...probably. Even apart from the numbers being on completely different scales, some features will be based on subsystems that do not exist or work completely differently. And even those feture which actually work as written will be of completely different values. Basically, you could take the overall concept and maybe a few mechanical ideas, but you would basically be recreating them from scratch.

_
glass.

Some of them fit straight in easily. Pathfinder Gunslinger/Swashbuckler would be a Rogue version of the Battle Master archetype (panache/grit points and maneuvers), Inquisitor would be a teamwork-centered Paladin archetype, Summoner would be something like Beastmaster Ranger ported over into Wizard, that kind of thing. Most of the rest barely make sense even within Pathfinder (you have to be playing a very specific kind of campaign for Vigilante to make sense at all and even if you are having to worry about only one player's secret identity is a weird narrative-focus issue).

 

[Horwath]

some things I would like to see.

1. removal of armor and weapon proficiencies based on race/class.
Just add minimum strength for all weapons and armor.
"racial" weapons and armor can have their str requirement be lower by 2.
I.E. dwarfs have all armor str requirement lower by 2. Elves have longbow and one handed swords str requirement lowered by 2.

2. Idea of "capstones" at 20th level that bring something new to the class should be scrapped as 99% of campaigns will not get there.
highest level that a "new" mechanics is introduced to the class should be 10th or 11th.
All other "class features" after those levels should only be improvements of already present features.

3. Lower class HP bonuses for higher Tiers of play.
I.E. barbarian that has d12 HD gets 7 HPs per level.
in tier2 it should be 6,
in t3 it should be 5,
in t4 it should be 4,

 

[tetrasodium]

some things I would like to see.

1. removal of armor and weapon proficiencies based on race/class.
Just add minimum strength for all weapons and armor.
"racial" weapons and armor can have their str requirement be lower by 2.
I.E. dwarfs have all armor str requirement lower by 2. Elves have longbow and one handed swords str requirement lowered by 2.

2. Idea of "capstones" at 20th level that bring something new to the class should be scrapped as 99% of campaigns will not get there.
highest level that a "new" mechanics is introduced to the class should be 10th or 11th.
All other "class features" after those levels should only be improvements of already present features.

3. Lower class HP bonuses for higher Tiers of play.
I.E. barbarian that has d12 HD gets 7 HPs per level.
in tier2 it should be 6,
in t3 it should be 5,
in t4 it should be 4,

Lower HP, possibly even coupled with DR & something like saying every die in a monster's attack counts as a separate attack. It wouldn't really matter if a fighter only got 3-4+con/level instead of 6+con/level if they occasionally got a point of DR & A cr5 reventant's 2x 2d6+4 fist attack were 4x 1d6+4 fist attacks. That would also mean that when a cr5 revenant is a mook type threat that a cr1/4 zombie is about as threatening as a small child in a fight but still dangerous if it went after you in your sleep or while you were stunned rather than completely harmless even if your 3 digit hp pool were in a coma & braindead when it walked up.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

Idea of "capstones" at 20th level that bring something new to the class should be scrapped as 99% of campaigns will not get there.
highest level that a "new" mechanics is introduced to the class should be 10th or 11th.
All other "class features" after those levels should only be improvements of already present features.

This would definitely be a complete deal breaker for me.