The CORE problem of D&D martial classes: and how Nimble fixes it.

Hey, Evan here and I’m Introducing the Martial classes for Nimble v2 (Nimble 5e) today! (BTW, if you haven’t signed up to be notified when the project launches you can do that right here) But first, a problem:

• What is a D&D Fighter? A big dumb guy with a sword who gets extra attack every few levels.*

• What’s a D&D Barbarian? a BIGGER, DUMBER guy with an axe!** Who gets extra attack every few levels.

• What’s a D&D Paladin? A heavily armored dumb guy who gets extra attack every few levels (but also… magic!)

• What’s a D&D Ranger? A dumb guy with a bow! (who gets extra attack every few levels (and somehow also… magic?)

• What’s a D&D Monk? A stungun on legs, who gets an extra attack every few levels!

Extra Attack is a bad band-aid fix to a core problem in 5e: damage scaling and frequently missing attacks.

To be fair, it does help with these 2 problems (somewhat), but also compounds a worse problem D&D 5e has: Slog. Extra Attack makes turns take longer and longer as you level up and that means more time spent waiting, and less time playing.

MORE vanilla attacks doesn’t make the game more fun or more interesting, it leans into a bad gameplay loop (and possibly the worst part is that Extra Attack isn’t flavorful or really even that interesting).

What’s the answer then? Attacks that are more INTERESTING and FLAVORFUL, rather than simply more numerous. Let’s look at how Nimble 5e fixes this core problem:

There is no Extra Attack feature in Nimble, instead each martial class scales damage in their own unique way:

Barbarian

Nimble’s Barbarian, the BERSERKER, has a new super flavorful mechanic called Intensifying Fury. Each turn you rage, you roll a die and set it aside (1d6 at low levels, all the way up to 1d20!! at high levels***) this is your Fury Die and it’s added to every attack you make. You roll an additional Fury Die each turn as your Rage intensifies.

There is NO limit to the number of Fury Dice you can accumulate this way. However, if your Rage ends, your Fury Dice are lost. Turns don’t take longer as you level up, they just get more AWESOME! (This also has some really cool interactions with which weapons the Berserker uses, their action economy, and the custom abilities they choose from their Savage Arsenal, LMK if you want to hear more about that – just hit reply to this email)

Fighter

Nimble’s Fighter, the COMMANDER, has a new set of abilities they can choose from. Such as, Sweeping Strike: you can attack multiple enemies within range; or Weapon Master: you can specialize in different weapon types to become more effective against different kinds on enemies; and Coordinated Strike! You and a nearby ally can team up and strike enemies even when you normally couldn’t. Enabling some very interesting teamwork and tactical options to open up.

That’s in addition to the Commander’s subclasses, for instance the Bulwark subclass gets this feature at level 7: Juggernaut.  When you use Coordinated Strike, you deal extra damage equal to your Armor and you do not miss on a 1. Nice!

Ranger

The Nimble Ranger, the HUNTER, has a new core ability called Thrill of the Hunt. Whenever you roll Initiative (and whenever a creature you’ve marked dies) you gain a surge of adrenaline that enables additional options in combat. From Multishot, to Hail of Arrows, to Incendiary Trap, to Ice trap and Decoy. You’ll have plenty of tools to deal extra damage, escape dangerous situations and take down foes!

And when YOU deal the killing blow on a creature you’ve marked, you get twice as many Thrill of the Hunt charges – creating very interesting tactical and story-driven situations: “Don’t kill that one, he’s mine!”

Paladin

The Nimble Paladin, the OATHSWORN (or Zealot, LMK which you like better? reply to this email), has a new core ability called Judgment Dice. Whenever you are attacked by an enemy, you gain a Judgment Die (1d8). When you make your first melee attack each round, expend all of your Judgment Dice. If the attack hits you deal additional radiant damage equal to the sum rolled.

Combined with their new ability My Life, for My Friends. You can Interpose for free. The Oathsworn really feels so different from any other class, they WANT to be hit, and they WANT to protect their friends (and are better at it than nay other class). With an Oathsworn in your party, you really feel much more protected. I love it.

Monk

The Nimble Monk, the SWIFT has a new core ability called Swift Fists. Your unarmed strikes are not subject to disadvantage imposed by Rushed Attacks. They’re so fast naturally, their attacks aren’t rushed! Combined with another core ability called Reverberating Strikes. You learn to focus your energy and transfer it as an additional concussive force into your foes. Add bludgeoning damage equal to your Swift level to all of your melee attacks.

Again, creating a unique (and balanced) scaling damage profile across the level curve and very interesting tactical decisions about which creatures the Swift will target as he is much more effective against certain armor types.

 

Each level, every class gets something interesting and unique to scale damage across the level curve. These are just the basics, too — in addition to this each class gets plenty of unique ways they can customize their class, interact with the battlefield, and fulfill their own fantasy.

Super interested to hear your thoughts and questions. Reply to this email, I’ll read every reply!

Next week: the new spells & the spellcasting classes! Also did you know there are OVER 500 spells in 5e. Reply to this email, let me know how many of them you’ve ever read VS just looking up the “best spells for a wizard…“

(BTW, if you haven’t signed up to be notified when the project launches you can do that right here

<3 you guys,

– Evan @ Nimble Co.

 

*Except for the Battlemaster fighter, he’s pretty sweet, but Battlemaster turns take approximately…. forever.

**Okay, reckless attacks is pretty cool. Rage is dumb though! +4 damage at level 20?! 🙄

*** Um, isn’t this super broken? Nope. Removing Extra Attack leaves a lot of design space for very cool abilities like this without breaking the combat math of the game. I’ve been paying very close attention to game balance and expected DPR. I have many spreadsheets and damage modeling tools to make sure damage is right where the 5e system expects it to be across the level curve. That said, we are doing plenty of live playtesting and will do plenty more before final release!