D&D (2024) Thematic 4 corners of the PHB subclasses

[Parmandur]

There are three factors in play:

All the PHB subclasses, minus a few cleric and wizard, were kept from 14 to 24.
Imported subs from Everything books had to be popular and played.
The subs had to fill a quadrant of options.

That put some classes in different design places then others. The classes that had only two options in the PHB have more design room than the ones with 3/4 choices filled. The cleric and wizard having to pair down options meant they ended up with very similar pairs (attack, protect, deceive, reveal). I also think they tried not to reuse the same themes if possible, which is why glamour (fey) isn't opposed by whisper (shadow) because fey/shadow is a ranger pairing. Obviously, they couldn't do that for every set.

For Bard, I'd say the pairings are Glamoir and Lore (two ways to-do magic, focused on knowledge versus focused on controlling others), and then Valor and Dance (two ways to be a Bard Gish, one focusing on weapon mastery and the other on sheer performance).

 

[Gorck]

ROGUE

This contrast seems strong.
• Trickster (mage) / Swashbuckler (warrior)

This seems the contrast, but I dont quite see how.
• Thief (acrobatics, buildings?) / Assassin (disguise, people?)

Thief deals with ‘things/objects’ and assassins deal with ‘people’. That’s what I see.

I was leaning towards Taran's explanation:

Thief (steals objects)/Assassin (steals lives)

That's the closest I can come to a contrast. Trickster and Swashbuckler are much more obvious as the Wizard/Fighter contrast.

 

[Yaarel]

I was leaning towards Taran's explanation:

Thief (steals objects)/Assassin (steals lives)

That's the closest I can come to a contrast. Trickster and Swashbuckler are much more obvious as the Wizard/Fighter contrast.

Yeah me too.

Thief (acrobatics to take objects) / Assassin (disguise to take persons)

And both can use Stealth.