D&D Subclass Contest XIX Voting Thread

[MoleMage]

Contest 19 is done, with 17 complete entries this time!

Simple rules. Vote for your top three picks in order. You can't vote for yourself. A number 1 vote is worth 3 points, a number 2 vote is worth 2, and a number 3 vote is worth one.

Entry	Creator	1st	2nd	3rd
Wizard: School of Adaptation	Phhase	1	0	0
Fighter: Crusader	nickl_2000	0	1	0
Bard: College of Gospel	CountDVB	0	2	2
Rogue: Moonlighter	Crim the Cold	4	0	0
Monk: Martial Artist	Old Harry MTX	1	0	0
Barbarian: Path of Panic	RickAsWritten	1	1	0
Barbarian: Path of Steel	Lvl45DM!	0	0	2
Rogue: Gymnast	Breccia	0	0	1
Monk: Way of the Punchimancer	sengmeng	1	0	0
Monk: Way of the Chameleon	Ilerien	1	2	0
Wizard: Naturalist	Twelvetrees	0	2	1
Artificer: Woodcarver	mcumoric	0	0	2
Druid: Circle of Spirit	MoleMage	0	3	1
Rogue: Blade of Justice	mythmonster2	1	1	1
Barbarian: Path of Possession	Damon_Tor	2	0	0
Rogue: Beast Crafter	thisdude9001	0	0	1
Fighter: Feywild Warrior	Blackflight	0	0	1

Classes unrepresented in Context XVII: Cleric, Paladin, Ranger, Sorcerer, Warlock.

And for our themes, Refine Mayhem carries over once again as last contest's runner up, alongside four randomly chosen themes. Pick your top two in order, a number one vote is worth 2 and a number 2 vote is worth one point.

Theme	Description	1st	2nd
Refine Mayhem	Remake an existing subclass	3	2
Scaling Strangely	Subclasses that scale from unusual values	0	3
It's Technical	Technologically-minded subclasses	0	3
I Read this in a Book, Once	Subclasses based on other media	4	3
Subsystems Online	Subclasses using homebrew mechanics (new or borrowed)	5	1

This voting thread will stay open until the end of the day on Dec 20th. The following day I will post with the tallied results and declare a winner, then post the next contest thread. Good luck everyone!

[Twelvetrees]

Subclass
1. Rogue: Moonlighter
2. Monk: Way of the Chameleon
3. Bard: College of Gospel

Theme
1. Subsystems Online
2. Scaling Strangely

[CountDVB]

Oh super awesome and happy holidays! Guess no holiday-themed subclass contest XD.

Subclass
1. Wizard- School of Adaptation
2. Rogue- Blade of Justice
3. Druid- Circle of Spirit

Theme
1. Refine Mayhem
2. It's Technical

[nickl_2000]

Subclass
1. Barbarian – Path of Panic - RickAsWritten
2. Circle of Spirit - Molemage
3. Blade of Justice - mythmonster2

Theme
1. I Read this in a Book, Once
2. It's Technical

[RickAsWritten]

1. Damon_Tor's Barbarian: Path of Possession

2. MoleMage's Druid: Circle of Spirit

3. CountDVB's Bard: College of Gospel



1. Refine Mayhem
2. I Read this in a Book Once

[Lvl45DM!]

1: Way of the Chameleon
2: Circle of Spirit
3: Woodcarver

1: I read this in a book once
2: refine mayhem

[Morphic tide]

1. Blade of Justice: Blunt, focused, but still gives a solid degree of versatility, without buckling to "you're a caster now" or being a pile of options, and opens up the playstyle significantly to work very well alongside the class it borrows from when that class is playing into keeping a Rogue focused on damage instead of defending themselves.


2. College of Gospel: It keeps from ending up in the Celestial Sorcerer/Warlock trap of full list access and locking one function, and rather importantly provides something to the initial class's actual abilities. Between the existing degree of overlap and Magical Secrets, there's very little you have to pass up from an actual Cleric in whatever space you want Cleric things for, since you already get to snipe three Domain spells on top of Magical Secrets.


3. Path of Steel: Ordinarily, I'd criticize it for being extremely narrow and simply doubling down on what the base class already does, but the big thing is that the Barbarian's "stick in" is a very build-demanding form of meat with little versatility. By giving them the Fighter's meat and a Fighting Style, they can afford to skimp on Dexterity to try for a mental score, and it doesn't just give them the Fighter abilities outright, it tweaks them to better fit with the Barbarian, such as tying the save rerolls to Rage uses.

Theme:
1. Subsystems Online
2. Refine Mayhem

[sleepyhead]

1. Monk: Way of the Punchimancer sengmeng
2. Bard: College of Gospel CountDVB
3. Artificer: Woodcarver mcumoric

1. I Read this in a Book, Once
2. Scaling Strangely

[mythmonster2]

Good work, everyone, loved seeing all the ideas!

1. Path of Possession, Damon_Tor
2. Naturalist, Twelvetrees
3. Feywild Warrior, Blackflight

1. Refine Mayhem
2. It's Technical

[Damon_Tor]

1. Crim the Cold- Moonlighter- This was my favorite by a large margin. I have a few quibbles here and there with some of the execution, but they're extremely minor. Strongly passes my "would you play it" test, which is always how I pick first place.
2. RickAsWritten- Path of Panic- I like this more than I would have expected. I'm kind of a sucker for thematic reinterpretation of features like this.
3. Twelvetrees- The Naturalist- Bonus points for a "favored enemy" inspired mechanic providing general advantages regardless of what you're currently fighting.

1. I Read this in a Book
2. Subsystems Online

[noob]

Why are subclasses so much more popular than base classes in 5e?

[Morphic tide]

Why are subclasses so much more popular than base classes in 5e?

Less effort and more space to work with. "X flavor of Y" has a lot more room to work with than figuring out a base class sized gap in the game, and filling that gap with something that actually fits in with the rest of them. Bounded Accuracy and the other sources of rigid progression make 'brewing up full classes a pain.

[MoleMage]

Very nearly forgot to cast this vote on this last day of voting. Tallies coming tomorrow.

1. Moonlighter. For only really having one feature, it can do a lot of cool things with that feature.
2. Way of the Chameleon. It's a little complicated to use, but the capacity is incredible.
3. Gymnast, because Drop Attack sounds amazing.

1. Subsystems Online
2. I Read this in a Book, Once

[Ilerien]

Subclasses:
1. Rogue: Moonlighter
2. Wizard: The Naturalist
3. Barbarian: Path of Steel

Future contest themes:
1. Subsystems Online
2. I Read this in a Book, Once

[Crim the Cold]

Hopefully its not too late to vote.

1.) Monk: Martial Artist - For some reason this just makes too much sense to me. I feel like this should have been a PHB option.

2.) Fighter: Crusader - The fighter has needed a divine version of eldritch knight.

3.) Rogue: Beast Crafter - This might have been my top pick had it been fleshed out and refined a bit more. Interesting ideas in this one.

Theme picks:

1.) Subsystems Online
2.) Scaling Strangely

[MoleMage]

Time to count up our winnings and get out of here with our borrowed class features. Other than first place, it was a tight race with three classes earning 6 and two classes earning 7 points, but that's why I codified the tiebreaker rules a couple contests back.

In 3rd place, losing the tiebreaker but earning 7 points, it's MoleMage's Circle of Spirit! Master the self, and you master all, and that applies for druids as much as for monks.

In 2nd place, winning out that same tiebreaker by dint of more 1st-place votes, also earning 7 points, it's Ilerien's Way of the Chameleon! Why borrow one class's features when you can borrow them all?

And in 1st place, winning with a staggering 12 points, nearly twice as many as any other entrant, it's Crim the Cold's Moonlighter Rogue! Turn into small, seemingly helpless animals, then use the advantage provided by your cuteness to commit crimes!

For our themes, we had a tie in total points, but Subsystems Online took the greater number of 1st place votes, so what we're going to do is this: Context XX will be Subsystem's Online, and Contest XXI will be I Read This in a Book. There won't be a voting pool for theme next voting thread, and we'll start over with a newly randomized batch of themes in the one after that.