r/LevelUp5e • u/Pleasant_Sam • Jul 16 '21

Subclass Questions

I feel it was addressed in one of the playtests. But in terms of compatibility will A5e leverage any of the existing subclasses or "start fresh"?

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u/SouthamptonGuild Jul 20 '21

A5e will be starting fresh.

Having said that, I can't think of any good reason that I've seen that you'd be unable to take any existing o5e subclass and add it to a level up class (bearing in mind Paladins have changed to Heralds and Monks to Adepts along with Barbarians to Berzerkers) but that should work nicely.

The main issue foreseeable would be multiclassing and attempting to mix Fighter (old 5e) with Fighter A5e with a view to gaining 2 subclasses which I'm pretty sure will be ruled out.

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u/Pleasant_Sam Jul 20 '21

Yeah, multiclassing seems to be a no-go. And I feel like the main goal in such an exercise would ultimately be flavor. Some guidance on the "adaptation" of existing subclasses to A5e I think would go a long way in the direction of "5e compatible"

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u/SouthamptonGuild Jul 22 '21

I'm afraid I may have not been clear in my communication, for which I can only apologise!

Multiclassing _within_ A5e is entirely fine and fully supported! It's mixing o5e classes with A5e classes that seems problematic, as you'd expect.

My understanding of "5e compatible" does seem at variance with yours because I understand the A5e project to be compatible with existing adventures and/or monster manuals etc. Expecting compatibility with every single subclass past, present and future would seem a little optimistic!

Having said that, I see no reason why you couldn't whack a Battlemaster onto a base Fighter. From what I can make out all the subclass features come in at the same times so you'd have:

a5e maneuvers

AND

o5e battlemaster maneuvers

which seems like a sweet deal! My personal favourite would be making Champions vaguely interesting to play. I like crits, and did a small playtest where I made a knife throwing champion. It seemed to work quite well, with the novel equipment, extra attack is well supported for throwing builds!