Designing a new class for D&D
If you take a look through the core rulebooks for Dungeons & Dragons 5.5e, you'll find twelve core classes: Barbarian, Bard, Cleric, Druid, Fighter, Monk, Paladin, Ranger, Rogue, Sorcerer, Warlock, and Wizard. Now, in a game like D&D, these twelve classes can pretty much cover any playstyle, and reflavoring your features is free. When I made the Rings of Astra, I had a strong desire to include a playable version of the Artificer. The Artificer is a class that has been published in a few official books, but always seems to get slightly tweaked in each new iteration. When I first began designing the class, I was certain that an Artificer was what I was making, but the class slowly took on a similar but noticeably different shape. In this post, I'd like to explain my process behind how I created the new playable class in the Rings of Astra, the Arcanist.
See the Vision
Before I begin any sort of design, I set myself some high-level goals for what I'm trying to create. This step comes before any sort of rough drafts or ideation because I believe it's always important to have a loose vision before putting anything on paper. If you set too strict of boundaries right from the start, you lose the ability to improvise and find the fun in your designs.
From the start, I knew a few things I wanted to include to set my class apart:
The Arcanist is a support-first class. Your impact is through helping your allies.
The Arcanist uses resources to create boons. You generate tangible effects.
The Arcanist is at their best with more information.
While many of the classes in D&D are support-coded, I always feel like supporting allies comes second to the class' primary roles. Yes, a Bard grants Bardic Inspiration, but you're also a full-caster with some of the greatest spells in the game. A Cleric heals, but the optimal way to heal is to not heal until someone hits 0HP. I wanted the Arcanist's support capabilities to feel stronger than anything else. Helping an ally is always a good decision.
Next, I knew I wanted to have some sort of resource management with the class. I have a soft spot for archetypes like the Battlemaster Fighter, where you have a limited amount of energy but can spend it however you wish. My concept was to create temporary items that you or your allies could use. Since the Arcanist isn't combat-focused, it would almost always make sense to pass off your creations to an ally to deliver maximum damage.
Finally, I needed the class to feel tactical. The whole idea of a magical tinkerer is that their knowledge is their superpower, not the items they create. If an Arcanist knows what is coming, they can strategically prepare their gadgets to best serve them.
With my goals defined, I was set off on outlining some rough traits that would support the overall vision of the class. Working off of a vision like this is helpful, because you can quickly decide if a class feature is something that feels like home in the class. If a feature feels too combat-focused, abstract, or universally-powerful, that feature probably should be scrapped or iterated on.
Find the Fantasy
Once I had a rough layout of how I wanted the class to work and a draft of the class features, I next went on to think in terms of the players. I always start with the vision to get the base of the class, but knowing what the players are looking for is where the true design process starts. I've played a lot of D&D with a lot of different people, and so I've gotten pretty good at understanding why certain classes/characters work. There is always a fantasy that is being played out. A valiant Paladin surges forward to protect their allies and be the hero. A ancient Wizard pours over his tomes, selecting the perfect spell for the situation at hand. To continue defining the Arcanist, I need to think about what kinds of fantasies my players are looking for.
The Arcanist is a tactical class, so I know that if someone is picking up the Arcanist, they're likely looking for a chance to outwit or generally pull off some "big moves". That means taking some attention to include features that can dramatically change the tide of battle. I need to be careful though not to make such features good in every situation.
At the same time, I also know that some people will be looking for the long-term magic item creation found in several iterations of the Artificer class for more of a "slow-burn" class experience. That means I really need to nail the feeling of progression, where the players reach milestone levels that grant them some class-defining features.
Now, I can't determine exactly how a player builds their character, but I can push them in certain directions using subclasses. I decided to include three subclasses, one for alchemy, one for machines, and one for pure magic-items. I can use these subclasses as jumping off points for what features belong to ALL Arcanists versus which features should belong to only a specific type of Arcanist.
Testing and Iteration
Playing a character from Level 1 to Level 20 in a normal D&D setting takes a very long time. To make sure that the class feels balanced at different levels, I ran one-shots at various levels with an Arcanist in the party. I played as the Arcanist in some of the scenarios, but for the most part I tried to let people who had never seen the class use it. The exception to this is the high-level play of the Arcanist, which I let someone who had played previous levels test. I wanted to make sure that at the high-level, a player knew their bread and butter.
Now, one downside of this class is that because I designed so many choices and options for players to take, running every permutation of end-game Arcanist is nearly impossible. I tried to spread out the distribution of how each playtest Arcanist was built in order to cover my bases the best. Currently, I'm running my own long-form campaign with an Arcanist at the table. It's been a great way to notice what works about the class, and where it falls short. I'm still refining it, both in terms of mechanics and in terms of presentation. I think the difficulty with many complex RPG rules is that they aren't approachable. I still think that the Arcanist has a ways to go, but I'm very happy with out it turned out.
Feel free to download and check it out!
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