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The Duelist - A 5th Edition Class

From

Darren Kenny

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$2.95

The Duelist

Mastery of the Blade

While every peasant can pick up a sword and dub themselves a ‘warrior’ it takes a person with true skill to become a duelist. While fools will rely on magic, or even worse their ‘brute strength’, only one who is a tactical genius can rise to the ranks and master the art of the duel. As blades cross you weave between blows, striking at your opponenets weak spots and rending life from their body with a single blow.

Stances & Styles

Naturally offence and defence are two scales every good duelist must measure, one nevertheless finds themselves favouring one or the other. A duelist may overhwelm their foe with a flurry of strikes and precise killing blows, or sit patiently and retaliate with devastqating counter attacks, elegant dodges and graceful deflections. These styles are only amplified by the stances of the duelist, tactical positioning that allows for quicker movement, better defences or even expose a foes more fatal weak spots.

Reviews

Gage R: "Since many of the abilities run off the action economy the class is able to hit hard or defend without feeling overpowered, and the small damage bonuses mesh well with the fact that the class slowly builds up to making more attacks via its later abilities (Especially in the case of the Poised Duelist). The class is good for both mechanics and character when building a cultured fighting noble or a lightly armed and armored warrior straight out of One Thousand and One Arabian Nights or Sinbad."

DnD Character Lab: "Utilizes Reactions better than anything I've seen in 5th Edition so far."

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Reviews (2)

Discussions (2)

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Joshua M March 31, 2022 11:08 pm UTC

PURCHASER

I like it! I think it's definitely on the stronger side, but I am hesitant to call it too strong. In response to commenter Gage R: I believe the Killing Blow feature to be okay. Compared to GWM, which we all know is standard for the vast majority of STR based martials, the damage output is weaker (it really makes sense to take averages here instead of maximized dice rolls; another thing pointing to Killing Blow being more reasonable than GWM when comparing damage) but the ratio is better. GWM's ratio is -5/+10, while here we have (on average) -2,5/+3,5. And that is at Level 11. If you truly wanted, you could hit 60 damage / round with a proper GWM+PAM build by Level 6. I truly believe Killing Blow to be fine. Slapping a -5 penalty on that would make Killing Blow way too weak. Although the damage averages increase once we factor in the bonus from Fine Finesse. All in all: Seems okay to me, since it's balanced by the smaller hit dice, the high level requirement and inability to gain resistance to incoming damage...See more like other glass cannons such as the rogue do. Meaning: Either you go in hard, or you're never coming out again. Tanking isn't an option in light armor and with a d8.

There are however things I think could have been better. The Turtle Stance. You reduce the attack *roll*, and that should be precisely mentioned.
The DC for Disarming Strike is 2 lower than it (imo) should be. Why make an exception? Battlemaster Fighters have the same ability, and I don't see a reason to change it here. Considering bounded accuracy etc. I think it ends up being... fine. Yet unconventional.
Weak Spot & Surgical Precision seem a bit - excuse me - lazy to me. I think it should be coupled with a check like Insight, Nature, whatever or be tied "a minute of observing" or similar (again, see Battlemaster Fighter). It shouldn't just be "bonus action, there you go".
Evasive Maneuver could have come earlier. At 17th level, the damage reduction becomes too irrelevant to be used as often as this imo cool feature deserves to be. 11 damage less just doesn't cut it, starting at 17th level.
Master of the Duel. WAY TOO STRONG. Limit to 1 per turn. You are effectively giving out a 50-70% damage boost at Level 20 (since the ability bonus doesn't double). EVEN WORSE when a flame tongue or similar exists. I realize we are talking Level 20 here, but still. May I remind that this is in addition to the 4th attack granted by the Blade Dancer.
Grand Finale from the Blade Dancer. Not soo happy about the exhaustion. But since this just a softer "1/LR" limitation it's fine. Compared to Action Surge at this level, this pales in comparison.
Drunkard. I believe this to be the weakest of the subclasses. BY FAR. I even went all-caps for that. Because... Well, since other subclasses hit VERY hard or avoid getting hit in order to counter, the drunkard... has more HP to tank with. With a d8, no shield etc., I see little synergy. There is no point in getting more HP, except for being able to take a few more blows before going down. In return, you don't deal additional damage (like I would associate with a drunken brawler) and you gain no "outburst of rage" when reaching low HP. I believe the drunkard to be the opposite of what the class wishes to achieve, and that is portraying a skillful duelist, controlling their enemy masterfully. The drunkard seems like the one the duelist *doesn't* aspire to be.

But on to the good stuff! Of which there is A TON! And even more! I love it! Especially features like Counter Point, the Stances, Disarming Strike and.... *drumroll* the subclasses. Absolutely fantastic design. I love how they truly feel different, going more offensively on one and more defensively on the other. It remains to be seen, how well the "not getting hit" part of the Poised Duelist holds up at higher levels, but I am optimistic. The Blade Dancer has a fantastic "signature move" ability that really stands out. Some would say "it's just action surge", but with the complete package of the class, it certainly *feels* way cooler than just action surge. And that is coming from someone who doesn't think that fighters are bland.

All in all, this is an elegant Duelist in an uncomplicated package. Giving you everything you need right here. It is a fine serving of the best maneuvers from the Battlemaster and unique ways to maximize your damage output. A very solid 4 Star recommendation from me. 4 Stars because the balance is a bit off in some parts and one subclass offers very little. If you set my perceived balancing issues right or if the buyer is aware of them and limits their power a bit, therefore playing more responsively (your DM will thank you), this is a solid 5/5 Stars. Fantastic job.

Darren K April 01, 2022 8:33 am UTC

CREATOR

Reallly appreciate the detailed feedback! This is a pretty old class so it badly needs a revamp. I'll take your reccomendations into account when I'm giving it some polish!

Joshua M April 02, 2022 11:32 pm UTC

PURCHASER

Glad to hear that! I just discussed the class with another party member of mine in a game where I'll play a 9th level duelist, so I can get some hands-on experience and see how my theorycrafting holds up. I also changed my mind about the Level 20 feature. I didn't realize it used a reaction. The feature is absolutely fine, the power level is nothing to worry about here. I'm curious about changes you might make, but even if you change nothing, I'm totally thrilled to play one and I think nothing is in *dire* need of changing. Except the drunkard. hehe.

Gage R June 30, 2020 1:21 pm UTC

PURCHASER

Now that you have made some changes to Fine Finesse, the opposite problem now arises. Whereas before it was too weak, It is now too strong. Same goes for Killing Blow. I think a good compromise would be to have Fine Finesse be applied once during the Duelist's turn. At early levels, before Extra Attack, that +2 being applied once per turn will still be stronger than the old +1, while at later levels, a +6 applied once per turn isn't so bad. Also, I'd recommend returning Killing Blow to a solid -5. It was already strong enough, and by far one of the favorite abilities of my Duelist player. His reaction to the -1d4 was that a strong ability was now made OP (remember that the 1d10, unlike the +10 to damage of the great weapon master, multiplies on a crit, potentially dealing up to 20 damage).

Other than that, I still love this class. We're still using it in games even up till now. I also noticed you updated to 2.0, but I forgot to read the changelogs before updating. What were the changes?