The Spirit Master 2.0 - Unlike any Class you've played before!

Jojo's was definitely one source of inspiration! :)

Depending on what flavor you go for, a Spirit Master could also work a lot like a Pokémon trainer or a mage from the Fate series.

I made it a priority to make the class fit into standard medieval D&D settings first and foremost though. Themes of possession, communing with spirits and elemental summoning fit into them very naturally.

If you're interested in playing a stand-user though, you'd be hard pressed to find a more perfect class for it than this one! ;)

I took a look at the full PDF - it looks dope! This class seems to be (with a somewhat cursory glance) to be flavorful, balanced, and exploring a space that isn't currently populated in the standard ruleset. My only note, really, is that I am somewhat surprised that you've elected to not have an Undead spirit. It just seems like that would be one of the first ones I'd cook up, since, you know - spirits. Something to think about.

This looks really good! I just wish that I could get the PDF to work!

This is super-interesting feedback!

I'm absolutely ready to make changes as needed. If mute is too good, I'd rather take your suggestion to heart and fix it.

Allow me to make a case for it though:

• The SM's spell reportoire is more limited than that of any other class. By level 6, an SM has only 3 spells - and can effectively cast each of them once. At level 6, their reportoir for the whole day could look something like this:
  o) Sleet Storm (Water Elemental)
  o) Mute
  o) Fear
  The fact that mute is first level means that it's available early, but it's not cheap at any character level. Casting it will always eat up a large amount of your resources.
• Mute is very situational. You may find creative uses (such as casting it at a guard to keep it from blowing into an alarm trumpet before you take it out), but generally if you bring it and don't encounter spellcasters, it's only useful for Vital Reciprocity which is generally less powerful than casting an actual spell.
• If this spell was on any other caster, it would be far more powerful. All it costs is a spell preparation. Meet some casters? Great! Whip out mute for great effect! It got resisted? Cast it again! The SM simply can't do that. They can invest in the Versatile Powers perk to help with preparation, but that's quite costly and they still can't cast it twice in a day.
• Speaking of saving throws, mute working is far from guaranteed. Enemy spellcasters are already rare in the various monster books and if you do run into one, there's a good chance it's a mage, conjurer, flameskull or somesuch - a wizard type with an excellent INT saving throw! The monsters (CR 5ish) have +6 to their saves, so a level 6 SM (DC 15) has only a 40% of actually landing mute on them. Against ideal targets (like an oni), you'd be up against a +2 INT save, leading to a 65% chance of success.

So you've picked this spell that is useless in most situations, and carry it into every encounter hoping the stars will align - and when they do, 1 out of 3 times, you'll still waste your action and a big spell slot for nothing - and you get no second try. Onca a SM spell is cast, that spell can't be cast again until you long rest.

There's more though:

• Even if they fail their save, it doesn't mean they simply lose their turn - that oni, flame skull etc. simply does a regular attack instead of casting a spell (in this case 30 melee damage and 20 fire damage respectively). Yes, you prevented a worse outcome, but the enemy is still around and dealing damage.
• A fiendish manifestation with access to mute could simply cast a spell like fear or visions of regret instead*.* These spells are applicapble in almost every combat situation and have even more powerful effects (incapacitation) - at the same cost of 1 spell slot. Succeed with mute against a very specific type of target and you force them to take a less ideal action - OR cast fear on almost anything and if they fail, they lose their turn (at the very least). I personally wouldn't favor mute here.

I can see how one might worry that mute would severely limit an epic BBEG caster the DM created, but other spells like polymorph would be even more fight-ending and costs the same resources. Basically, that BBEG may have to burn a legendary resistance against mute - just like they would against polymorph.

Considering your suggestion, I feel like it would be too harsh a measure. Going back to the ideal target - an oni (who both doesn't have a great save, rather low spellcasting ability and tries to cast an exceptionally strong spell - cone of cold). It would have 50% chance of successfuly casting despite being muted. That means the SM needs both the oni's save and the ability check to fail - or nothing happens. Taking both chances into account - even in this rare, ideal scenario - mute would only have a chance of 32,5% to have any effect at all - and even if it does, it only limits the targets options where other spells incapacitate completely.

I agree that mute might be too difficult to shake after you fail your save, but I feel like the SM player should be rewarded with at least 1 turn of impaired casting on an enemy if they are lucky enought that mute gets through.

How does this compare to other caster classes or those with summon x spirit spells?

In terms of damage output, the melee damage of a manifestation (that's built for it) is similar to that of a pact of the blade warlock. The numbers work out beautifully to where the DPR of your spirit will be relevant from level 1 to 20, but actual martial characters will clearly be more effective.

In terms of casting, the Spirit Master is more limited in spell selection and flexibility - having to switch spirits mid-combat and pick spells carefully to get the most out of them. A wizard, sorcerer or warlock will have access to more reliably useful spells in all situations, but the Spirit Master also has powerful limited features to accentuate their kit.

I wouldn't compare them directly against a caster that uses a summoning spell. A caster's concentration is the most valuable thing they have, so giving that up (alongside a high-level spell slot) would not compare fairly to a Spirit Master who expended neither.

This seems really cool on a first read, but has quite a few built in restrictions that you don't need to worry about with say a wizard or druid, such as the distance between the master and spirit, line of sight, the AC demerit etc. I'm assuming that's a necessary balance thing you've had to do, just a little worried it would feel more constrained than the other party member just using summon spells.

I think you'll find the restrictions needed and reasonable once you play a SM for yourself. Requiring vision and being within 30 feet means that the SM will never be in a completely save spot (which would remove a lot of crucial decision making).

• If the spirit leash didn't exist or didn't require sight, you could summon a spirit and run away and hide behind a corner or in another room while your relatively robust manifestation does all the fighting.
• If you could stop concentrating on a manifestation at any time (as you would for a spell), you could manifest a spirit, have it take an action and then dismiss it again, circumventing the AC penalty and intended Guardian Spirit mechanic. Likewise, you could stop concentrating the moment the manifestation would be targeted by a devastating spell to avoid it.
• If you could command your manifestation via a bonus action (rather than an action), then you could take 2 actions each turn, making your turn considerably longer than anyone else's.

I hope these examples illustrate that some simple restrictions can be very helpful in curbing the need for weird gameplay decisions. In actual play, the SM feels very flexible. For example, you can move in two different directions at once, then switch places (via the Shifter perk) - only an echo knight has that level of freedom.

Only other small thing would be the 15th level 11 day restriction for fey spirits. 11 days for a character isn't too bad, but for the player it could be months of game time without that ability depending on their game

If you want to benefit from the ways of the fey, then you have to do as they do as well. : )
Not breaking a promise or bargain and not lying (directly) shouldn't be too much to ask, so I'm not really worried about this feature causing problems. It's a unique drawback and frankly, lacking another +2 WIS for a while is not the end of the world. Seeing a player scramble to remain technically truthful while withholding crucial information from a NPC should make for a fun scene at the table though. ;)

11 days is already generous, as that's basically over after one downtime between adventures. "A year and a day" would be far crueler...

There's a lot to tackle here - and I'm happy to do so! : )

these guys are basically normal people without their manifestation, ... you have to be able to see the manifestations, they must be close to you… you go blind if you look at spirits ... AND they have not one ability that has any use outside of combat.

..They can’t spellsling, they can’t buff or support, they can’t tank or heal, they can’t deal damage, they can’t party face or socialize.

Your summary really cracked me up - and you described the mechanics correctly for the most part. Looking only at their limitations might give you the feeling that the Spirit Master's are really unimpressive...
... so let me advertise their strengths a bit to compensate:

• Never Alone. Even if you run out of uses of Spirit Manifestation, you regain one when combat starts. A SM will always have a spirit manifestation at their side in combat. You'll not have to rely on your own martial abilities or on slinging cantrips.
• Social Utility. Your spirit grants you specific social features at level 1 and you get an unusual language that could come in handy as well. Celestial grants you proficiency in persuasion and advantage on persuasion checks related to your ideal. No class can rile up a crowd like a SM with the virtue of vengeance or prevent bloodshed like a SM with the virtue of mercy or forgieness. Likewise, a fey spirit allows you to commune with beasts and and a fiendish spirit can make the SM a more effective intimidator than anyone else in the party. Note that you get this feature for each spirit, so by level 3 you'll be especially good in multiple social situations.
• Exploration Utility. Right from level 1, there are perks like exotic form, fey step and shifter that can come in really handy outside of combat. Locked with handcuffs in a jail cell? Summon your water spirit, have it flow through the bars and switch places with it. No other class can do that - and the resource cost for it was next to nothing. Spirit Sight can likewise help you gather information in a way that no other class can. See that guard / king / dragon? Let's have a look into its spirit and find out what they are passionate about or afraid of before we speak to them. See that river? Let's see if it can show us who crossed it recently. Yes, it makes you blind to the material world for a bit, but instead you can see everything that's going on in the spirit world. What appears to be just an empty room can be discerned to be the site of a ritual summoning by SM, who sees the residual fiendish spirits still swirling about. If you are reckles, you could connect to one to find out even more.
• Utility Spells. Admittedly, this is not the SM's strong suit by default. Due to your limited spell selection, picking up spells like lesser restoration, modify memory, seeming, zone of truth, pilfer memory and resurrection is more of a commitment than for other casters, but the options are there and with the versatile powers perk, they become more readily available if you are willing to invest in flexibility.
• Good Damage. Manifestations are designed to deal good damage at all levels of play. Ever seen a pact of the blade Hexblade with a great sword? You can expect the numbers to line up closely (and slightly exceed) with that benchmark at all tiers. Their DPR can't be multiplied with feats (like Sharp Shooter, Great Weapon Master or Polearm Master) though, so proper martial characters will always perform better than a manifestation - as they should!
• Superior Tactical Options. Compared to a melee martial character, a SM can potentially exploit different combat situations much better. Some examples:
  - Enemy starts combat 60 feet away: A barbarian wouldn't reach and spend a turn dashing. A SM can move, summon as a bonus action, give a command as an action, let the manifestation move and multiattack. With a water elemental with Fluidity and Roamer, you could have an "effective melee range" of 85 feet right at level 1.
  - A mass of gnolls breaks through the main gate: You have tools like fireball, sleet storm and fear to capitalize in a major way.
  - 3+ enemies happen to stand in a line anywhere within ~40 feet of you: Use Master's Call to bring your elemental manifestation back to you, then have it move into position and use Elemental Assault for very good damage considering it costs you no resources. Depending on your elemental type, this may also deal extra damage or restrain the targets.
  - Big boss monster: Disabling individual targets comes easier to a fiendish spirit than to most casters. Between Wicked Arcanum, Undermined Confidence and Feed of Power, you have many tools to making saving against your save-or-suck spells difficult - and if you combine them all, then only legendary resistance will prevent a target from becoming incapacitated and/or tragically suicidal... : )
• Good defenses: At level 1 manifestation will be at 15 AC. Despite being a a full caster, a SM can enjoy AC similar to wearing medium armor as long as they position themselves as not to be overwhelmed with too many attacks. Alternatively, they can stand far enough away that enemies have to deal with the manifestation's AC - as moving to the SM would incur too many opportunity attacks (which your manifestation may also specialize in). By level 8, it's very possible to have a fey manifestation with 19 or 20 AC to protect you. Having Elemental infusion on each of your spirits can also allow you to become resistant to two common damage types, while also helping to circumvent your enemies resistances.
• Powerful Spell Slots: Your spells are limited in some ways - but they all are powerful in the right situation. A level 5 SM with fireball and scorching ray on their elemental and rain of brimstone on their fiendish spirit can rival even a wizard's blasting ability for example.
• Manifestation Abilities: When you first summon a spirit in combat it does something extra if positioned right - at no resource cost. Let's say you are level 7 and have 4 encounters a day. Your celestial manifestation giving everyone 10 temporary HP on your first turn in combat will add up quite rapidly. If you have a group of 5, that's a potential 200 extra HP (though not all of them will be used)! If you utilize both summoning effects well each combat, you'll have a good impact with your bonus actions alone.
  Likewise, big abilities like Holy Light, Volatile Connection and Feed on Power can give you very strong turns even when you're out of spells.

I sincerely hope these point have raised your appetite to play a SM! :)

Regarding concentration:
You can concentrate on a manifestation and don't have to make CON saves to maintain it unless you are hit directly. If your manifestation then casts a concentration spell, you get to also concentrate on that. Hitting the manifestation will not end the spell - and attacking you directly is more difficult than it is with other casters - due to Guardian Spirit, Mystic Protector, Redirect Hatred, Dependable, Guardian Angel, etc..
Still, picking up feats like Lucky, Resilient CON or Warcaster would all be good choices on a SM.

Absolutely lovely feedback!

In my mind the themes of a class are just as important as its mechanics, so it's really refreshing to get constructive feedback on that aspect. : )

The flavor text around this is meant to be a mere suggestion (see hihlights). It states:

"While some groups have aknowledged the existance of spirits and encourage young adults to become spirit masters, most people view them with fear and suspicion."

The text was actually more concrete before and I've identified exactly the issue you mentioned, which is why I've dialed it back considerably. I tried to give some inspiration to the reader while also not limiting how Spirit Masters could fit into their setting. It's very possible that my attempts to help DMs fit this class into their worlds still ends up feeling overbearing though.

Is there anything specific in the flavor text that you'd like to see changed?

It's very possible that my bias towards low-magic worlds shines through here, but I think that Spirit Masters being potentially more unsettling than wizards to commoners makes sense. A wizard studies for years in an academy. They can often be discerned as wizards from the way the dress and speak and the way the carry spell books, staves and component pouches on their person. A farmhand or city guard would be somewhat aware that a wizard might cast a spell. With the Spirit Master, it's quite different. Imagine someone you know suddenly changing. The way they act and talk - the way they view the world. Something may suddenly be off about their shadow or cats may hiss at them when they get close. When that person then summons a decidedly otherworldly creature that moves in parallel with them, it would be well within your rights to be freaked out by it.

Warlocks are quite similar in this regard and WotC makes no attempt at highlighting how unsettling they must seem to common folk - instead the Warlock text dictates that warlocks lust for power and knowledge - which may be a much more egregious overreach than what i did. In the end, I think WotC and myself are trying to do the same thing - convey cool ideas to spark the imagination. if there is any way I can do that without appearing as restrictive, I'd love to explore that.

I'm flattered!

In revising this class to 2.0, I've made great strides in service of making it less expensive than it was before. While my main goal is to present players with interesting choices, I also try hard to keep things as quick and fluid as possible - especially in combat. Once a player has wrapped their head around this class, they should (hopefully) be able to make decisions quickly - keeping turns short and snappy.

But you are right - the Spirit Master is probably best suited for players who are already very speedy turn-takers... : )

Thank you so much! :)

If you get a chance to play it, please make sure to let me know how if goes!
So far, I've heard that people playing the Spirit Master find the 2.0 version of the class far simpler to play and more fun.

I'm also curious to learn which perks people find most attractive - and if there are any that they wouldn't consider viable at all - so that I can make further tweaks.

Absolutely!!

Two Spirit Masters will not only differ quite a bit in terms of mechanics and what they can do, but crucially, they will 100% be wildly different in terms of character concept and flavor as well.

The changes were quite drastic actually. I'll add a link to a full changelog to my first post soon!

Yeah, but the number is a 2 now though.

I've mentioned the most major changes in the post above. I'd be happy to provide a full change log for those who are interested - just didn't want to bore anyone completely new to the brew with dozens of lines of minute changes. ; )

I'll do a write-up and add a link to it to my initial post!

I haven't even seen that show yet.. but now I want to check it out! ;)

Yes!

Spirit Masters rely on the melee attacks of their manifestations for round-to-round damage dealing. This is both a limitation that underlines their mechanical character and also presents a nice counterpart to the warlock who is particularly effective at range via eldritch blast. Much like figthers and barbarians being two sides of the same coin (one disciplined and well-trained, the other relying on near-feral brutality), the Spirit Master and warlock are opposites as well. One serves as apprentice to a mighty being while the other is themselves a master of a being too faint to even take shape on its own.

Mechanically speaking, a Spirit Master needs to get somewhat up-close and personal with their foes, meaning that the player will always have to make meaningful decisions around their positioning. They want to be close enough to let their manifestation reach into melee - or stand next to it to guard them from attacks - all while staying away from enemy groups, as being targeted by too many attacks in the same round is one of the Spirit Master's defining weaknesses.

Thank you!! :)

Absolutely love your enthusiasm! :D

You can trust that I've spent considerable time crunching numbers and interviewing play-testers to make sure any DM can allow this class at their table without worry. If you end up playing a Spirit Master later down the line - please let me know about it!

Energy infusion is a great way of getting a rogue to sneak attack out of turn and reposition - or to allow your sorcerer to "dual cast" empowered fireballs when the situation is just right!

Basically, you'll be in charge of handing out extra spotlight-time to your friends! : )

I suppose a Spirit Master can be quite menacing... ; )

Hmmm... You may be right.

I wanted to make it clear that the Spirit Master under no circumstances gets to make 2 perception checks to notice something, but might have ended up with a needlessly complicated wording. It feels like a bit of a balancing act between keeping the text short and easy to read vs. presenting it in a lengthier manner that prevents any chance of misunderstanding...

The second spirit is there to provide tactical depth and diversity to the class. It really opens up a tremendous amount of customizability and unique decision making, so I'm quite happy with it.

In terms of roleplaying, it's up to the player how much they want to lean into either spirit. If you find the relationship to a fiendish spirit especially interesting for example, you can downplay the influence of your celestial one - or you can make the diminishing influence of your celestial spirit an integral part of your thematic character progression! : )

Damage reduction is always applied before resistance. The Heavy Armor Master feat has the same mechanic, so that particular question has been clarified many, many times by now. : )

Adding new perks, manifestations and such is very tempting, but I try my best to prevent feature-bloat. This is important to keep things simple, keep the required reading to a minimum and lower the workload of any DM who scans each page for balance before they allow the class at their table.

Someone suggested producing a supplement with additional options seperately. That way, those who are already familiar with the SM and want more get exactly that, while those who are completely new to the class don't have to worry about even more stuff. I'd still only go for this though, if I feel like I can add new ideas and themes that are meaningfully different and worthwhile.

Edit: Spirit Masters make excellent NPCs and foes in combat! However, make sure that your players understand how Guardian Spirit works. If they live in a world with Spirit Masters, then it should be common knowledge to the PCs that manifestations can easily be overwhelmed by multiple attackers going for their master.

If your players are not aware of this mechanic, they may find fighting a SM confusing or frustrating. On the other hand, if they do know how it works, focusing down Spirit Masters and watching their manifestations fizzle and fail can be really fun and rewarding. ; )