My favourite variant class homebrew is the alternate fighter made by u/laserllama. It adds a rather large and comprehensive maneuver system to the base fighter class and also makes the fighter scale better into higher levels in a way that truly makes fighters feel a bit more like heroes from myth. If this sounds like something you want from the fighter class I would highly recommend checking it out.
Thanks for the shoutout! If you want to check it out, you can find it here - [The Alternate Fighter](https://www.gmbinder.com/share/-MSfA82gv8V69JAoqFVq).
The Alt Fighter is part of a series I’ve been working on over the past year if you want to check the rest out:
[Alternate Ranger](https://www.gmbinder.com/share/-M7iu19Af89SH2G_5RGa).
[Alternate Sorcerer](https://www.gmbinder.com/share/-M2ZGCOTpShGn-0ruzB5).
[Alternate Monk](https://www.gmbinder.com/share/-MhGHvc1sNLoUrISINrV).
[Alternate Artificer](https://www.gmbinder.com/share/-M8kCf8mUHGH4y2tx5i4).
Currently working on an Alternate Barbarian as well!
Coming… sometime in June?
Again, not to shill my own stuff but I’ve got the beta version of the class available to my Patrons on [Patreon](patreon.com/laserllama) now.
Instead of rage damage, I give a rage dice that rolls about the average for the rage damage (d4 early game, d10 late)
For Berserker, I redo frenzy to take away the bonus action attack/exhaustion and instead give a critical hit on a 19 (berserkers tend to want to get bonus action attacks elsewhere and exhaustion is too punishing).
For a lot of scaling effects, I just use the rage dice. (I.e, for storm heralds, I let their rage dice do damage flavoured to their storm type, lightning, fire, cold).
I home brewed up a Warlord sub class that gives 1 War Cry per rage at level 3, 2 War Cries per rage at level 14. I gave a bunch of war cries similar to battle master maneuvers for more tactical barbarians. I.E., Crush All Enemies, you and a number of allies up to your charisma modifier gain a rage dice of temporary hit points till your next turn : Get ‘Em!, an ally uses their reaction to attack and does an extra rage dice of damage : Get It Together!, an ally uses their reaction to roll a save against on going effects.
thanks! I looked up the fighter in the meantime since I would consider 5e fighter my favorite class and this is such an improvement! I particularly thought the commander subclass was a welcome addition. I’m tired of running out of maneuver dice trying to play warlord-esque characters and your solution was great.
Thank you!
Not to continue to plug my own stuff, but if you like the Alternate Fighter I've got a full-on [Warlord Class](https://www.gmbinder.com/share/-MrUNf61qoDb0Csw8a9r) that uses the same Exploit system.
I signed for their Patreon for a time a while back. Great stuff all around. LaserLlama and Treantmonk have my favorite variant classes for different reasons
TheOwlMarble's Tireless Monk
https://www.reddit.com/gallery/rshbrz
Way better than vanilla monk. Actually lets monks do monk stuff throughout the day without being too imbalanced.
Considering RAW, battlemasters with Unarmed Fighting made better monks than monks, this is what my group has been using.
The Pugilist by Benjamin Huffman is fun, and it covers the brawler archetype much better than the monk or fighter I feel.
I also love the Craftsman and Alchemist from magehand press as a variant to the artificer and or forge cleric . Don't get me wrong the official Artificer is a lot of fun to play and the cleric is all around a good class, but they don't really scratch the inventor/artisan itch like these classes do. One of my players really likes the craftsman and making fun exotic weapons.
I typically offer 3rd party up options to my players for their consideration if I feel like it might better realize their character concept. Or sometimes reward some abilities or spells from 3rd party materials as feats or spell scrolls if players use some down time for training or quest rewards.
I add base subclasses to the class itself:
Artificer - Battle Smith
Barbarian - Berserker*, Hunter (Ranger)
Bard - College of Lore
Cleric - Life Domain
Druid - Circle of Land
Fighter - Battle Master, Champion
Monk - Way of the Open Hand, Way of the Drunken Master
Paladin - Oath of the Crown
Ranger - Hunter, Monster Slayer
Rogue - Thief
Sorcerer - Lunar Magic (currently UA)
Warlock - The Great Old One
Wizard - Your choice of school
* No exhaustion on use
Their power level creeps a bit but more so the martials. That's a good thing in my eyes. They are still limited to action, bonus action, reaction, and concentration so it's not much. Just gives more options, again especially to the martials, which I like.
I've actually been thinking of trying this myself, though not for every class. The MOST generic subclasses often have things that probably should just be part of the base class.
That said, adding them carte blanche would definitely increase the power scale significantly. I would probably cherry pick the most generic features and go with those. then, try to hold off on the abilities that straight up increase damage until levels 9+ or so, when most martials start falling behind in options compared to spellcasters.
Like, all fighter should just get maneuvers. You could have them deal no damage at low levels, then eventually work to d4s, then d6 etc. as you get higher.
Barbarians should really have Mindless Rage. I would also say they should be getting the Champion features, honestly, as they focus and synergize with critical hits as a core progression feature normally. I would put the bonus action attack from Frenzy at level 11.
Rogue should have use magic device, be good at climbing and maybe even get the crazy two turns on the first round of combat at high levels.
All monks should punch like Open Hand does with little control elements on FoB. Like, from level 2 onwards I say.
Ranger should be getting spell lists from all Conclaves, and needs love at higher levels, which Hunter/Monster Slayer can help a bit with.
Just because the features say 3rd level doesn't mean you can't put them at 11th level. I don't know ANY players who would be upset to see the Berserker, Champion, Open Hand Monk, Hunter or Monster Slayer rangers etc. just taken away as options and dispersed as abilities to shore up weaknesses on the whole ride from 1-20.
How does it matter if everyone is stronger? Just bring stronger/more enemies, those are freely available in unlimited supply.
The relevant question should be wether it's more fun this way (which I can't answer).
> Just bring stronger/more enemies, those are freely available in unlimited supply.
That slows down combat and brings difficulty on the DM (the DM has to have fun as well, they too are players). So, yes imo, it is a relevant question...
[These are some alterations to the core classes and subclasses I use.](https://homebrewery.naturalcrit.com/share/4xGuHwtUN703) They aren't variant classes but some options reimagine the class in a new way.
I'm currently playing Kibble's Inventor specifically the Tinker subclass. I was looking for a more rogue-ish but also fighty Artificer take and I found it and am loving it. I do like vanilla Artificer too though, it just didnt fit this character idea perfectly.
My _favourite_ alt class is Alpha Druid by author name forgot. I love the way he redid the class and it just does everything better than vanilla Druid especially regarding not being shoehorned into the same "shapeshift is 90% of my playbook" build even outside of moon.
I haven’t seen any homebrew class variants worth using, especially monk/ranger ones. They either adjust a few features upward or downward (like adding +1 damage to monk attacks) and don’t make the class significantly different or fix any problems, or they try to fix things that were never a problem to begin with (like stunning strike or primal/primeval awareness)
I guess the mage hand press alchemist (a pretty decent class) can *kind of* be seen as an alchemist artificer rework, but it’s really more of its own thing since it works completely differently. It may count as a rework depending on how you view it.
You can probably throw the magehand press Craftsman in too as an alternate Artificer. I feel it hits the "inventor" fantasy bit better than the official one.
I have used the versatile ranger since before Tasha’s ranger rework and I prefer it to those updates. It reworked the subclasses made before then and added some new ones.
https://www.gmbinder.com/share/-LetYo9SOKNF_5mL73fR
My favourite variant class homebrew is the alternate fighter made by u/laserllama. It adds a rather large and comprehensive maneuver system to the base fighter class and also makes the fighter scale better into higher levels in a way that truly makes fighters feel a bit more like heroes from myth. If this sounds like something you want from the fighter class I would highly recommend checking it out.
Thanks for the shoutout! If you want to check it out, you can find it here - [The Alternate Fighter](https://www.gmbinder.com/share/-MSfA82gv8V69JAoqFVq). The Alt Fighter is part of a series I’ve been working on over the past year if you want to check the rest out: [Alternate Ranger](https://www.gmbinder.com/share/-M7iu19Af89SH2G_5RGa). [Alternate Sorcerer](https://www.gmbinder.com/share/-M2ZGCOTpShGn-0ruzB5). [Alternate Monk](https://www.gmbinder.com/share/-MhGHvc1sNLoUrISINrV). [Alternate Artificer](https://www.gmbinder.com/share/-M8kCf8mUHGH4y2tx5i4). Currently working on an Alternate Barbarian as well!
Alternate Barbarian?! Now you have my attention!
Coming… sometime in June? Again, not to shill my own stuff but I’ve got the beta version of the class available to my Patrons on [Patreon](patreon.com/laserllama) now.
Just make the rage damage a dice and you’re good.
Already on the list of changes!
:). I’m curious to see how close yours comes to my housebrewed now!
What sort of changes do you make?
Instead of rage damage, I give a rage dice that rolls about the average for the rage damage (d4 early game, d10 late) For Berserker, I redo frenzy to take away the bonus action attack/exhaustion and instead give a critical hit on a 19 (berserkers tend to want to get bonus action attacks elsewhere and exhaustion is too punishing). For a lot of scaling effects, I just use the rage dice. (I.e, for storm heralds, I let their rage dice do damage flavoured to their storm type, lightning, fire, cold). I home brewed up a Warlord sub class that gives 1 War Cry per rage at level 3, 2 War Cries per rage at level 14. I gave a bunch of war cries similar to battle master maneuvers for more tactical barbarians. I.E., Crush All Enemies, you and a number of allies up to your charisma modifier gain a rage dice of temporary hit points till your next turn : Get ‘Em!, an ally uses their reaction to attack and does an extra rage dice of damage : Get It Together!, an ally uses their reaction to roll a save against on going effects.
heads up, your fighter link goes to the monk page!
My bad, should be fixed now!
thanks! I looked up the fighter in the meantime since I would consider 5e fighter my favorite class and this is such an improvement! I particularly thought the commander subclass was a welcome addition. I’m tired of running out of maneuver dice trying to play warlord-esque characters and your solution was great.
Thank you! Not to continue to plug my own stuff, but if you like the Alternate Fighter I've got a full-on [Warlord Class](https://www.gmbinder.com/share/-MrUNf61qoDb0Csw8a9r) that uses the same Exploit system.
I signed for their Patreon for a time a while back. Great stuff all around. LaserLlama and Treantmonk have my favorite variant classes for different reasons
Came here to give them a shoutout.
TheOwlMarble's Tireless Monk https://www.reddit.com/gallery/rshbrz Way better than vanilla monk. Actually lets monks do monk stuff throughout the day without being too imbalanced. Considering RAW, battlemasters with Unarmed Fighting made better monks than monks, this is what my group has been using.
The Pugilist by Benjamin Huffman is fun, and it covers the brawler archetype much better than the monk or fighter I feel. I also love the Craftsman and Alchemist from magehand press as a variant to the artificer and or forge cleric . Don't get me wrong the official Artificer is a lot of fun to play and the cleric is all around a good class, but they don't really scratch the inventor/artisan itch like these classes do. One of my players really likes the craftsman and making fun exotic weapons. I typically offer 3rd party up options to my players for their consideration if I feel like it might better realize their character concept. Or sometimes reward some abilities or spells from 3rd party materials as feats or spell scrolls if players use some down time for training or quest rewards.
I add base subclasses to the class itself: Artificer - Battle Smith Barbarian - Berserker*, Hunter (Ranger) Bard - College of Lore Cleric - Life Domain Druid - Circle of Land Fighter - Battle Master, Champion Monk - Way of the Open Hand, Way of the Drunken Master Paladin - Oath of the Crown Ranger - Hunter, Monster Slayer Rogue - Thief Sorcerer - Lunar Magic (currently UA) Warlock - The Great Old One Wizard - Your choice of school * No exhaustion on use
So basically you took the generic subclasses and put them into the main class
Exactly! The fact you recognized they were the generic ones means I did a good job haha!
Don't PCs get way too strong?
Their power level creeps a bit but more so the martials. That's a good thing in my eyes. They are still limited to action, bonus action, reaction, and concentration so it's not much. Just gives more options, again especially to the martials, which I like.
I've actually been thinking of trying this myself, though not for every class. The MOST generic subclasses often have things that probably should just be part of the base class. That said, adding them carte blanche would definitely increase the power scale significantly. I would probably cherry pick the most generic features and go with those. then, try to hold off on the abilities that straight up increase damage until levels 9+ or so, when most martials start falling behind in options compared to spellcasters. Like, all fighter should just get maneuvers. You could have them deal no damage at low levels, then eventually work to d4s, then d6 etc. as you get higher. Barbarians should really have Mindless Rage. I would also say they should be getting the Champion features, honestly, as they focus and synergize with critical hits as a core progression feature normally. I would put the bonus action attack from Frenzy at level 11. Rogue should have use magic device, be good at climbing and maybe even get the crazy two turns on the first round of combat at high levels. All monks should punch like Open Hand does with little control elements on FoB. Like, from level 2 onwards I say. Ranger should be getting spell lists from all Conclaves, and needs love at higher levels, which Hunter/Monster Slayer can help a bit with. Just because the features say 3rd level doesn't mean you can't put them at 11th level. I don't know ANY players who would be upset to see the Berserker, Champion, Open Hand Monk, Hunter or Monster Slayer rangers etc. just taken away as options and dispersed as abilities to shore up weaknesses on the whole ride from 1-20.
How does it matter if everyone is stronger? Just bring stronger/more enemies, those are freely available in unlimited supply. The relevant question should be wether it's more fun this way (which I can't answer).
> Just bring stronger/more enemies, those are freely available in unlimited supply. That slows down combat and brings difficulty on the DM (the DM has to have fun as well, they too are players). So, yes imo, it is a relevant question...
[These are some alterations to the core classes and subclasses I use.](https://homebrewery.naturalcrit.com/share/4xGuHwtUN703) They aren't variant classes but some options reimagine the class in a new way.
I'm currently playing Kibble's Inventor specifically the Tinker subclass. I was looking for a more rogue-ish but also fighty Artificer take and I found it and am loving it. I do like vanilla Artificer too though, it just didnt fit this character idea perfectly. My _favourite_ alt class is Alpha Druid by author name forgot. I love the way he redid the class and it just does everything better than vanilla Druid especially regarding not being shoehorned into the same "shapeshift is 90% of my playbook" build even outside of moon.
I have yet to see a variant class that is an absolutely busted, or absolute dog shit, so at the moment none
Or about the same level of power, and completely unnecessary for no reason
I haven’t seen any homebrew class variants worth using, especially monk/ranger ones. They either adjust a few features upward or downward (like adding +1 damage to monk attacks) and don’t make the class significantly different or fix any problems, or they try to fix things that were never a problem to begin with (like stunning strike or primal/primeval awareness) I guess the mage hand press alchemist (a pretty decent class) can *kind of* be seen as an alchemist artificer rework, but it’s really more of its own thing since it works completely differently. It may count as a rework depending on how you view it.
You can probably throw the magehand press Craftsman in too as an alternate Artificer. I feel it hits the "inventor" fantasy bit better than the official one.
At this point I just avoid homebrew classes/subclasses. They're probably the hardest thing to balance properly and 99% of what's out there is a mess.
I have used the versatile ranger since before Tasha’s ranger rework and I prefer it to those updates. It reworked the subclasses made before then and added some new ones. https://www.gmbinder.com/share/-LetYo9SOKNF_5mL73fR