Lycan Class

[uncut rover]

A shape-shifting warrior driven by instincts above all else

Hi! I'm looking for feedback on the first five levels of my Lycan class. I wish to know if the flavor is cohesive and if it's mechanically distinct enough to be justified in existing as its own class.

The Lycan is somewhere between a Monk and a Druid, a nonmagical shapeshifter that relies on simple and natural weapons in both humanoid and beast form to thrive in battle and navigate the wilds.

I felt the need to create something like this because I love the wildshaping archetype, but so much of the Druid's power budget is in its full spellcasting progression, whereas I am very interested in wild shaping but not very interested in spellcasting.

I've gone through some different names - from Therianthrope to Chimerist - but I feel like Lycan is simple, clear, and packs enough of a punch to be a keeper.

[uncut rover]

Hi Gorou 🥺

@versed pasture I got like immediately posted over in brewtwo earlier but i'd really appreciate your two cents here if you find the time? :3

[versed pasture]

I am suddenly cackling

I saw the thread notif and was trying to read it at work

is it intentional that greater wild shape has no use limits or timer attached?

[uncut rover]

Yes

But it also doesn't give you hp

[versed pasture]

I was going to try to play devil's advocate here and ask "why can't this be a subclass on X class"

but best I could think of is a pick two of monk druid barb

I'm sure someone could do it but it is not me

I do have a question though, how many subclasses do you think you could get out of this concept while not straying too far from the base concept or stepping on the core classes+arti?

[uncut rover]

i mean, it could absolutely just be a way too complex monk subclass, but it'd be doing too much. maybe nothing too powerful, but too many new options

or a druid that instantly loses all of its spell slots x3

but from the get go the similarities were pretty much there to a str/con/wis monk/druid

[uncut rover]

plenty of really cool and weird evolutionary groups with cool animal specific abilities, i think. without crossing over into others' territory though...ive never felt like that was a huge problem for subclasses, the 1/3rd other class ones, so long as they were worse than the original?

i think either the blood hunter lycan or path of the beast barbarian are the closest you could get to this idea? but those miss out on the simple weapon focus

[versed pasture]

you do anything new in here

[uncut rover]

oops hi. i was working on the ecoterrorist's tiered invocations mostly because i felt like i hadn't added enough plant stuff and im trying to put together a bigger "wild compendium", and now i was just pumping out a bunch of dual purpose cantrips for that, i havent really added much to the lycan, i should submit the first 5 levels to reboomus though and ask if i can join table 1 there

[versed pasture]

Almost guaranteed he'd say yes

What clade do you think you'd use?

Question actually, do you think you're going to use more words from species classification like genus and what have you?

[uncut rover]

i'm not sure what i'd use it for, i think i'm not really correct with my use of clade anyway 😓 just a cool sounding word,,
if i ever try my hand at making beast stat blocks (i am planning to but i dont really love working on monster that much) i might categorize them by clade
and i might slip more like, classification words in ability names? but i think in terms of categorizing i'll try going by clade,, :3c