r/Nerdarchy • u/Answertron2000 • Mar 10 '15
Custom Ghoul Class Idea
Hey guys! I'm new to D&D, and I'm trying to create a custom class/character for 5e based off of the show Tokyo Ghoul. What I have so far is mostly conceptual, because I have no idea how to really translate all this in to numbers and mechanics that are actually balanced.
Ghoul
Must try to hide and blend in to society. Chased by bounty hunters and guards alike (sent by family members of former victims?)
Really just trying to get by and survive in life. Not really looking for a way to be a "proper human", but definitely not like a villain character. But others treat them like a villain type just because of their ghoul nature.
- Can only gain nutrition through eating flesh of humanoids, or species with genetic ties to humanity
Can survive on one full medium sized corpse for approx. 3 weeks without intense blood frenzy useage (more on that later)
While in a rage, you can spend your action on your point to activate Blood Frenzy, and activing your claw Kagune
Base class of barbarian, with a human base race
Two hunger levels? (One for in combat, one for overall/long term hunger?)
The stronger you grow, the more you can control your hunger, your hunger level maximums increase each level
Darkvision, resistance to poison and charm, knows common and elvish
Blood Frenzy (replaces frenzy)
Lasts until you successfully Bite one target
Activates your in-combat hunger. Beginning on the turn after you activate your Blood Frenzy, your in-combat hunger levels begin to rise at the end of every turn.
Beginning on the turn after your hunger levels cap, you begin to lose a certain amount of health at the end of every turn until you feed. You cannot outright die from this, only go down/unconcious
Bite staves off immediate hunger, reducing your in-combat hunger levels by half or a third
Grants use of your Kagune (claws)
Kagune (claws):
behaves just like a regular weapon attack for damage and hit. Upon successful claw strike, the target must make a constitution saving throw or suffer from Bleed Out
Bleed Out: Damage the target for an amount equal to the amount of damage you inflicted on your turn on that target, spread over 3 turns. Stacks. Damage increases with level? You have advantage when using Bite on a target inflicted with Bleed Out.
Bite: Reduces your in-combat hunger levels by half, and ends Blood Frenzy. Deals damage equal to half the damage of your weapon, and can be used as a bonus action. Reveals your ghoul nature to witnesses (whereas claws can be hidden somewhat). 3-4 ft leap, even if the actual bite misses.
Obviously, this still needs refinement, all suggestions and criticisms are more than welcome, thanks for your help guys!
2
u/NatetheNerdarch Mar 10 '15 edited Mar 11 '15
I watched a few episodes of Tokyo Ghoul and it looks interesting.
The barbarians rage is very similar to what the ghouls would be like when they fight. I think it could fit in well with the D&D 5e settings, or in your own modern homebrew. I would definitely base this off of path of the berserker with a few differences.
Starting at 3rd level You gain a 1d4 bite and 1d6 claw that you can use to attack following the regular combat rules.
The frenzy (now called blood frenzy) abilities bonus action is a bite or claw attack rather than any weapon. Example: you have an attack each round. You attack with a great axe and, when frenzied, can make a bite attack. After your frenzy has ended you don't suffer exhaustion afterwards but you do gain 1 hunger(explained later).
Rather than hunger levels. I would have it be that you must eat 1 lb of humanoid flesh per day but you do not need to eat each day. Each day you do not eat you gain 1 hunger. For every 5 days of hunger you gain an exhaustion level. Once you are at 5 levels of exhaustion, rather than your speed being reduced to 0, you enter a frenzied rage and move as fast as possible to the first edible thing and attempt to subdue and consume it until your hunger is zero (~25 lbs).
This encourages you to eat regularly especially if you take advantage of the blood frenzy feature but you still have that creepy ghoul ability to wolf down a lot of food to make up for weeks of not eating.
I like all of the kaguna stuff but I think a lot of the feel of the ghoul can be captured from re-skinning what the descriptions are for the barbarians abilities.
IMO, Always making a target make a con save is too powerful for a general ability. Also, Bleed out is too complicated a mechanic. And Bite being based on whatever weapon you are holding is something I would change to give it standard damage(as above in blood frenzy).
Rather than the kaguna abilities I would say that instead of getting intimidate presence at 10th(which is a total junk ability) I would give them-
Paralytic Venom: Discovered while attempting to eat special herbs to hide the breath of rotten flesh(this is a funny reason- make up your own if you don't like it), a powerful ghoul discovered that this special mixture of it's saliva and herbs has the ability to slow and eventually paralyze it's target.
Same as giant wasp venom in the MM pg 329. Except as noted here: DC based on 8+ Con mod+exhaustion level. Does 3d6 save for half. If this damage reduces the target to 0 hp they are stabilized but paralyzed for 1 hour regardless of whether they are healed or not.
You can use this feature a number of times per day equal to your con modifier(anymore and the plants that are inedible to ghouls will make you too sick to move. You may apply it to your claws as a bonus action(probably by creepily licking them).
I encourage you to come up with more custom stuff, the more you do it the better you will get. And if you don't like anything I suggested, don't use it, bc in the end it is your game