Knave (C&S class)

"Chansels (or, if men, Chansiers) seem to be an unflattering stereotype of non-cloak and sword PCs (or players who act like this is a normal dungeon setting?), derogated as unmoored and violent petit bourgeoise, greedy, "only eat one meal a day," uncaring of discomfort, romanceless freaks who take a scientific approach to killing. Damn meal-a-days."

Thats you. You're one of those.

Knave

Assume very high base statistics like HD, toHit or Save. Perhaps even the best amongst the other classes.

Start with a set of munition plate, a shield, spear, battleaxe, crossbow and dozen bolts, 3 jugs of alchemists fire and a backpack filled with other adventuring equipment. All ugly, practical and probably painted black.

Cynic: You are immune to Esprit, Charm, Honor and Love. As long as you are cruelly mocking them the whole time, you may make an extra attack a round against anyone acting on strong emotion.

Crack in the armor: If you ever discover the value of Honor, Love, Friendship or Selflessness and begin doubting your ways, you may try to abandon this class and become a Knight. This will be hard.

Campaigner: You may freely wear armor, several weapons, a pack of equipment and two sacks of treasure without becoming encumbered. You are unbothered by mud, dirt and lack of hygiene.

Meal-a-day: You may eat a third of what normal people eat without your strength waning. You will never suffer from malnutrition, food poisoning or any disease or rot carried by what you ate. You can drink dirty, still and brackish water without any issues. Worth noting actual poison still works.

Delver: You partially learn the indoor map of any underground location you enter - only the shapes, locations and exits of the rooms are revealed to you. You can also function and fight comfortably in cramped spaces.

Marauder: Whenever you enter a location you learn the location of its most valuable treasure. You can loudly ransack a room of everything valuable leaving it a wreck in just a single minute.

Boor: You lack manners, your humour is crude and you probably stole all of your equipment. You are not welcome in any sort of even halfway polite society and suffer a -1 to reaction checks with anyone with a hint of etiquette but get a +1 with soldiers, outlaws, criminals and other fellow assholes.

Mercenary: You are renowned for your efficiency and have an eye for military job offers. Power hungry people with no principles seek you out, and you can easily negotiate up the pay you receive for such jobs.

Dirty fighting: People think twice before challenging you to a duel. Whenever you hit someone in melee combat, roll a d6 for an extra effect:

1. Stun them for 1 round by groin blow
2. Knock them down
3. Grapple or shield bash them
4. Blind them temporarily
5. Shank them
6. Roll twice and combine

When you get "roll twice and combine" three times on a roll you simply kill the opponent by a single blow to the throat or heart. They void their bowels as they pathetically die, and everyone who saw that must save or lose all Esprit they hold and probably throw up.

Single Level Robber

 

I was quite inspired by the "bespoke single-level Cloak-and-Sword class" bandwagon initiated by Loch with his Noble's Man and beautifully continued by Xenophon with Mistimed Quixote so I decided to jump on myself. I present to you a GLOG classlet...

The Robber

Apply stat bonuses as appropriate for a level 3 character for the system. You can never advance in level.

Skills: see below

Starting equipment: lincoln green light armor and cloak, longbow and quiver of a dozen arrows, a wicked shank, an old sword, rope and some other mundane pieces of equipment.

Versatile: You have Skills with the same names as all of your other features.

Archery: Spend a round to aim and select a dime sized point in space that you can see. The bow shot following in the next round will unerringly hit that point. This can mean automatic hits in combat and that you probably always win archery contests, unless some sort of rival of yours takes part in them as well.

Rangering: With all that entails. Tracking, stealth, making fires, identifying plants and so forth. You can sustain yourself and your party for any length of time in the wilderness, but every week there is a cumulative 1:20 chance of the ruler of the land getting really mad at you for poaching.

Intimidation: If you take a person from surprise and threathen them, you may instantly and automatically hit them for doubled damage if they do not comply. They know that. 

Reconnaissance: Given time to plan and spy on a non-dungeon location you may look at its indoor map and get a simple description of any room on it that you ask about.

Heroic Outlaw: As long as you steal from the rich and give to the poor, the common populace will protect and support you. Anyone who you've personally helped or embarrassed holds Esprit for you. You probably won't be killed by anyone who does, at most beaten up and captured. If they try to execute you anyways, someone will invariably help you break out.

Fencing: When swordfighting with someone you count as protected by heavy armor and a shield and when you would kill them you may instead nonlethally embarrass them, removing them from the scene if desired. Also consider the other meaning of the name for this ability.

Orc Hyperwar Hypercube

A certain treasure room exists deep in some low level of a dungeon, concealed by many traps and secret doors. It contains one hundred copies of the most horrible weapon in all of existence - see post name. The room is only theorized to exist based on some vague passages in dungeon-born books, but the most important and definitely most perplexing property is that it will "rise to the surface and announce itself to the world when the setting hyperwar begins". Scholars debate what exactly does that mean.

Separate writings have been found detailing what is the function of an OHH. Apparently, when activated, it will release a dreadful army of 1 000 000 orcs. They are armed in accordance to the technology level of the area where they are released, and will unquestioningly follow the command of the activaor.

This is ridiculous and obviously fake. Surely no such thing has any chance to exist, right?

A level 3 dungeon for 5e

I have recently realized that I have never actually played any of these high-crunch tactical grid combat modern heroic RPGs as intended. Reading about encounter balance and all that actually got me interested in a more formulaic, structured game as an experiment. So I joined a 5e "westmarch" server ran by a friend and started running.

Notes about the balance of this one: The characters start at level 3 and there are three of them. There are piles of magic items and gold as despite starting at third, the party has no extra equipment. The group is expected to be able to finish all 3rd level content in one adventuring day, take a long rest, then return to finish up the adventure which should take them to 5th level.

The Hook:

An entrance to a dungeon has been unearthed recently, a few days of walking from the nearest settlement. Another, weaker party has recently ventured in, but have never returned. 

The Map:

 

  

The Key:

1. Entrance room. Stairs lead up, outside of the dungeon. Party will notice the dungeon is in bad repair, moist and overgrown with moss, dungeon grass and other vegetation. Table in the south-east corner is overflowing with rotting food. Hidden amongst the decay is key number 1.
2. There is a gelatinous cube in the western alcove. Within the cube there floats a Shield +1 (emblazoned with an eye, whole shield transparent from the wielders perspective) and a Belt of Gender Bending (braided blue with a silver buckle). To the east there is what seems like an archway to nowhere. Searching that spot will reveal a secret door.
3. On the eastern wall there is chalk writing "Beware of the gelatinous cube to the south". North-west corner is overgrown with a huge bush. Investigation will reveal a heavily overgrown and dangerous crawlspace that only parties with a ranger may travel through. In another corner there is a discarded backpack containing 300gp, a coil of rope, a torch, a Healing Potion, a holy symbol and a whistle.
4. This room is occupied by a small group of a false ogre and three orcs. The false ogre is wearing Gauntlets of Ogre Strength and will revert back into a normal orc should they be removed. A few benches and weights are placed in the room which they use for excercise. They have a Potion of Climbing, an Immovable Rod and 600gp hidden in a locked chest. The ogre has the key.
5. Six identical statues stand in two rows depicting armored warriors. A Magic Mouth announces to "Speak the command word!". The command word is "Sheakorak". Upon activation the statues will announce that each will perform one service. If asked to fight treat them as Animated Armor. Statue 2 will actually behave randomly when its time to act, and statue 6, which radiates evil if detected for, will betray and backstab the party given the opening.
6. A place of horrible slaughter - the floor is covered with the blood and guts of 4 adventurers torn to bits by claws and fangs. They have already been looted, but one of them is laying on a plaque which fell to the floor. The word "Sheokorak" is inscribed on it.
7. A wandering Dungeon Merchant has set up shop in this room. He is a cloak covered figure, with two large glowing eyes and smile under the hood being the only distinct features. Detects lies, never lies himself, cannot be haggled with but might accept exchanges, never engages in combat and immediately teleports away with his inventory should violence or thievery be attempted. All of these qualities are immediately apparent to anyone who sees him. His wares are displayed on the table next to him in the south-west corner of the room:
   Key number 2 (merchant will gladly disclose that the keys are used to open the double door to room 18) for 100gp
   Boots of Striding and Springing for 500gp
   Half-empty Keoghtoms Ointment (2 uses) for 200gp
   Golden Acorn (immediately grows into a great oak when thrown into soil) for 200gp.
   The left door north is locked (DC18), the key held by the skeleton sniper.
8. A powerful Skeleton Sniper (as skeleton, armed with longbow, 2 attacks, 24 dex, 17 AC) equipped with Bracers of Archery takes cover here behind a wooden barricade. He will fire upon anyone crossing the chalk line (dotted line down south) and try to run if they approach from another direction. Firing at him from south will yield no effects as long as the barricade stands. He is aware of the secret door to the west.
9. A statue of a thinking man stands by the west wall of this room. His head is backwards, facing the ceiling. Anyone touching this magical object will have their highest and lowest ability score swap values. Obviously, this only works once per person. This effect can be undone by Greater Restoration or winning a deadly fight while pretending to be a different class, say a heavy armor fighter could try a rogue-like approach, or a wizard could take up a greataxe and mimick a barbarian. Both methods are apparent to the one cursed.
10. This room belongs to a group of six goblins. Their arrows are poisoned, dealing extra d10 poison damage on a hit should a DC13 constitution save be failed. This poison disappears after four hours without dipping it in goblin piss. Their sleeping places, packs and piss pots are by the northern wall. 3000sp can be discovered if those are searched. The door west is barred. Generally, the goblins are positioned by the southern exit, ready to ambush anyone going down the corridor where they have discovered a pit trap. (Passive perception of 16 or better to notice seams and slight sagging of the floor. Opens when heavy weight is placed on it, such as two adventurers, dropping them down 10' and onto goblin-placed punji sticks dealing 2d10 damage unless a DC14 dexterity saving throw is passed. A 1-foot ledge around the pit is safe to travel.)
11. The stairs from south go down 15' into this 5' deep pool of opaque shit-water. An Otyugh inhabits the pool, and will telepathically prompt anyone standing on the edge of the balcony above to jump in. It can reach people standing on the balcony with its tentacles, but not if they are in the corridor behind it. If no targets present themself, the otyugh hides under the balcony until they go away. It is too big to pursue through the door on top of the stairs.
    Given a search, a clogged grate will be revealed on the western wall. At the end of the pipe behind it there is a room with a slide that goes god knows where and a chest of treasure containing 800gp, a Robe of Powerlessness (brown with silver trim), a Healing Potion, a Potion of Hill Giant Strength and a Club +1 (a good looking stick)
12. This room is filled with a tranquil aura and faint blue light emanating from a magical fountain by the southern wall. The fountain is a statue of a woman in robes pouring from a flask, and the water in the pool under it is perfectly clean. Drinking from it restores 2d8 HP, but only works once per day for any given person. The door west is sealed with holy writs and wax, standard way to ward off evil forces. The sealing may be trivially removed given a few minutes.
13. A dank malignant aura fills this room. At the far end there is a withered corpse of an armored man. He has the following items in his pack: Scroll of Cure Wounds, a rip-activated Scroll of True Strike and 700gp. He is wearing Adamantine Plate Armor however the item is ruined now and must be repaired for 1500gp to be usable.There are several alcoves along the walls here filled with piles of bones, yielding a Scroll of Light and 250gp if searched. Disturbing any feature of this room will cause the corpse to emit an ear-piercing shriek, awakening 3 Skeletons and 4 Shadows.
14. Two one-way doors lead to this room, seemingly locking the party in. There is key number 3 on the floor here. A plaque on the eastern wall reads "You are stuck here forever!". The simplest way to escape this room is via the secret door to the north. Random encounters do not appear here.
15. Upon entering this room by the north-western door the wimpy orc hiding behind a wooden wall will pull the trigger on a triple crossbow trap which performs three attacks at +8 to hit against the opener, each dealing d12 damage on a hit. He is likely to surrender if whatever went through isn't killed by that. He hid 200gp in his little fort. A pile of rubble in the south-east corner conceals a secret door.
16. This is the surveilance room of Mage Delimal, the current lord of this dungeon. It appears to have been hurriedly abandoned minutes before the party arrives. Alchemical equpment worth 350gp is sitting on tables here. In many drawers and chests around the room there can be found several useful items mixed in between wizardly junk: Potion of Healing, Wand of Magic Detection, Amulet Of Proof Against Detection And Location. Searching this room is not without risk - one of the drawers is full of yellow mold. On one of the walls there is a large number of glass balls showing sights from many invisible arcane cameras spread around the dungeon. Spot marked "Main Ball" is glaringly empty. There is one such screen for every non-secret area except room 18, leaving very few blind spots. Close examination and a successful DC15 investigation check will reveal that one of the cameras is suspiciously pointing at the wall leading to room 17.
17. By the western wall there stands a large painted statue of a demonic being with two heads, one of a goat, the other of a wolf, body and and four man-like arms holding real scimitars, legs of a spider, wings of an eagle and four ruby eyes worth 350gp each. Should it be interacted with, it animates with the statistics of two manticores without tail spikes.
18. This is the main room of Mage Delimal where he resides together with his two Tiger familiars. The only door leading here has three keyholes which must be activated simultaneously by the three numbered keys found around the dungeon. Delimal may simply pass through it as if it wasn't there. He sits on a throne by the west end of the room, behind him there is a treasure hoard containing the following: Lesser Scroll of Weapon Upgrade, Main Ball, 1000gp worth of silver coins, self portraits and monster paintings. There is a massive 10'x25' empty dining table with many chairs along it in this room as well.

Spikes - A weight-activated trap which causes thin steel spikes to strike out from holes in the floor dealing 6d4 damage to every frontliner, half on a DC14 dexterity save. Passive perception of 15 or better notices thumb-sized holes dotting the floor.
Three blades - A scything blades trap activated by pressure plate. Passive perception of 15 or better notes three thin and long seams in the wall. Deals 3d8 slashing damage, half on a DC14 dexterity save to all characters in a 10' cube, which is likely the two frontliners of the party.
Flame - A continual flame torch is attached to the wall here. It will stop working when removed. It shines bright light for 30' and dim light 30' beyond that.
TP - circular, bound teleporters. Will transport anyone stepping through to the other one.

Random Encounters:

Every time the party backtracks, spends plenty of time in a room or makes a loud noise, roll a d6, on a 1 an encounter appears. Random encounters are always Easy, whatever that means for any given party. Example encounters for 3rd level: 5 giant rats, 2 orcs, 9 fire beetles.

Homebrew Parts unexplained above:

• Belt of Gender Bending - The only effect of this minor cursed item is reversing the physical sex of the wearer. It may not be removed until a Remove Curse is cast, but thereafter it ceases to be cursed at all and may be equipped and unequipped freely. It appears as a Belt of Hill Giant Strength to identification.
  
• Rip-activated scroll - To activate this scroll one must rip it, which takes as long as the casting time of the spell and generally requires both hands.
• Robe of Powerlessness -  A horrible cursed item which appears as a Robe of Protection to identification, but actually reduces the wearers intelligence and strength to 3 and prevents them from using any of their magical powers. The robe can be removed easily, but only a Remove Curse followed by two casts of Enhance Ability will restore power to the victim.
• Something having the statistics of two monsters means doubled hit points and number of attacks.
• Mage Delimal - Stats of a Mage, possesses two portent dice, has a constitution score of 16 hence 67HP, sees all invisible things, knows all spells known by normal mages except for fireball which he replaceswith lughtning bolt, all divination spells and the following extra ones which take the form of blasting horrible insights directly into the targets brain: Mind Sliver, Mind Spike, Raulothim's Psychic Lance, Synaptic Static. He is armed with the following magic items: Arcane Grimoire +1, Robe of Protection, Scroll of Counterspell and a Potion of Heroism which he drinks to prepare for the group. He used to be a barbarian but has taken a liking to magic after touching the statue in room 9. He wears blue robes and has no hair at all, with geometric patterns and a fake beard tattooed on in its place. He has taken over this location and is currently engaged in research about how dungeons work, spying on its inhabitants via the surveilance network and performing many experiments. Even though adventurers are a natural part of a dungeon life cycle, Delimal is furious that the party dares interfere in his experiments and is willing to kill them unless they return all treasures and promise to never return. While in room 18 he has a more difficult time spying on the goings-on of the dungeon as he uses the Main Ball which observes only one chosen arcane camera at a time. His two cats are utterly loyal, never take damage from his spells and are guilty of wiping out the previous adventuring party.
• Lesser Scroll of Weapon Upgrade - This rip-activated scroll targets one non-magical weapon and enchants it to grant a +1 bonus to attack and damage rolls.
• Main Ball - This Crystal Ball is powered by an air elemental imprisoned inside. With Delimals death the enchantments binding it there fail and the sphere begins cracking, releasing the venegful spirit after three rounds. The elemental will seek to unload its rage on the closest living being, likely the PCs. With the destruction of the main ball, all arcane cameras in the dungeon cease to function.

Breakdown and Notes:

XP awards from winning encounters:

Level 3:

Gelatinous Cube - 450xp

False Ogre, 3 Orcs - 1500xp

Animated Statue traitor - 200xp

Skeleton Sniper - 450xp

6 Goblins with poison - 600xp

Otyugh - 1800xp

4 Shadows, 3 Skeletons - 1375xp

Orc with crossbow trap - 100xp

Total: 6475xp

Level 4:

Double-manticore statue - 2100xp

Mage Delimal, two Tigers - 6400xp

Air Elemental - 1800xp

Total: 10300xp

Treasure:

Level 3 - 3500gp, 8 permanent, 11 consumable, 2 cursed

Level 4 - 2400gp, 3 permanent

items counted here are those that the party is actually expected to acquire and use

You know, 5e adventurers are way tougher than the actual system math would suggest. Theorethically this is over twice the daily XP budget that the adventurers are supposed to do without long rests, but a decently built party can absolutely overcome it.

The Magic-User (ATLOG class)

The Magic User

The practice of magic is twisting one's brain into aberrant forms as to accomodate the hyperdimensional patterns of spells and to withstand the retention their otherworldly fuel. After all, magic is the domain of gods, spirits and monsters, not mortals, and one cannot think like a mortal if they desire this power.

You may only wear light armor and use basic weapons: daggers, staves, darts, slings

A Magic, Patterns, +4 spells known
B Arcana, +1 arcanum
C +1 arcanum
D Wizardry, +1 arcanum

A - Magic: You have a number of Magic Dice equal to your templates. You may memorize up to [templates+1] spells. When casting from your head, your spells go off at initiative. Casting from a book you are holding takes several rounds and is impractical in combat. You may change one memorized spell per hour of rest. All spellcasting requires loud chants, exaggerated somatics and complete concentration. If it is disrupted by damage or another such event before the spell is finished, the magic does not come to effect. To learn a spell you must acquire a page the full pattern is written on or research it yourself.

A - Patterns: You know one of these forms of arcane notation: Black, White, Red, Blue. This determines what spells you have access to, including your starting ones. All magic-users begin with the spell Wizard Eyes, included in the 4.

• Black - Twisted script of the underworld, used for necromancy and other extremely vile magics. Users get burnt on the stake if found out but can see in the dark.
• White - Formulaic script of the church, used mostly for healing and restoration. Users can turn unholy.
• Red - Chaotic script based on sorceries and elemental powers, used for destructive spells. Users have an affinity for a chosen element, resisting its damage and adding [dice] to the damage of spells that use it. Classics are fire, frost and lightning.
• Blue - Fractal script created from observing the stars and studying psionic brains, used for the widest variety of spells. Users have no special benefits.

More types of magical scripts exist, such as the green “script” of the druids or geometric gray script of the dwarves, however they must be found during play.

B - Arcana: You begin grasping at the deeper truths and underlying patterns of magic itself. Every level you may select a number of arcana from those you are aware of. The following list of 10 is known by every magic-user, but more can be found during play. All of them can be acquired without levelling by special training, but access to it is limited enough as to be equal to powerful magic items in rarity, price and difficulty to acquire.

D - Wizardry: Your magical expertise is now high enough for you to create magical items and train apprentices.

Arcana:
* means you can take it multiple times for different spells.

1. Blasting - You have learned to shoot bolts of deadly energy by the use of special blasting powder. As a bow-range handcannon on the first round of combat, as a bow thereafter. Counts as magical with a bonus equal to a third of your level. Each shot is 20gp, a pouch holds 12.
2. Severance - You have complete knowledge of the state of all enchantments and spells you have cast and can end any chosen one with a thought. Counterspell can work against already established spells.
3. Nullaura - Any changes to your body due to wizardry can be hidden with a thought. You do not sense as a magic user by any form of detection if you do not wish to be. You can cast spells wordlessly.
4. Chaoscast - You may draw on the destructive elemental energies for any big and flashy spell you cast adding +1 MD to the roll and taking its result as damage. Straight up fucking explode on a triple.
5. Permanency* - Cast one spell of your choice which affects only you. The duration becomes permanent. The spell might twist your body in some appropriate manner.
6. Reversal - You may cast any spell in exact reverse manifesting effects that are opposite in some way.
7. Spellmeld - Choose one spell. Your brain twists to perfectly internalize it. Its always prepared for free, you retain MD on rolls of 1-4 and you become an expert in everything the spell is about
8. Gentleness* - Choose one spell. Whenever you cast it the first die is not counted for mishaps, dooms or exhaustion - it simply returns to your pool safely while adding to [sum].
9. Amplify - Take fatigue and damage equal to MD to cast a spell at maximum possible power using all of your remaining dice. This doesn't cause mishaps or dooms but exhausts all your dice.
10. Counterspell - In reaction to seeing a spell being cast you may cast a spell of your own. If it’s opposite to what's being cast (such as an ice wall against a fireball) subtract your own [sum] and [dice] from the opposing spell. Overshooting your counter applies the remaining effects to the original caster.

Wizard Eyes
D: 1 hour R: self
Baseline spell known by any magic user. When under its effects the users eyes go through a weird transformation of the players choosing.
At 1 [dice] allows the detection of magic in the form of vague glowing auras.
At 2 [dice] the resolution improves, allowing vague sensing of invisible objects and determination of the strength of magic.
At 3 [dice] the precision is high enough as to exactly pinpoint invisible objects, read invisible script and identify the kind of magic and at a low chance the presence of curses from the shape and subtle color of the aura.
At 4 [dice] the spell is considered Truesight, piercing illusions, magical darkness and other such obfuscations but losing previous effects.
Finally, at 5 [dice] this spell should, according to theory, reveal the true nature of existence to the caster allowing their gaze to pierce all falsehoods. User goes catatonic, the only cure being to forget.

Fighting-Man (Not overpowered this time) (ATLOG Class)

What's ATLoG? Well, it's my gloghack. This is how I'm introducing it. What's under the acronym is actually very simple to guess, so I will not insult the readers' intelligence by spelling it out.
Noteworthy things about it:

• It's based on OD&D
• Has no ability scores
• Only has two classes (this is one of them) 

I will share it when it's finished.
In any case, here it the class.

The Fighting Man

There are many kinds of fighting men, trying to list them all would be folly. Know, however, that they are never mere common footmen or civilians driven to take up arms - a fighting-man is someone cut above the masses by the virtue of their affinity for violence... and willingness to use it.

You may freely use all conventional battle equipment.

Gain a [templates+1] bonus to damage, toHit and double that to HP

A Versatile, +2 Abilities
B Second Wind, +1 Ability
C Technique, +1 Ability
D +1 Super-Ability

A - Versatile: Every level you may select a number of abilities from those you are aware. The following list of 20 is known by every fighting-man, but more can be found during play. All of them can be acquired without levelling by difficult training, but access to such training is limited enough as to be equal to powerful magic items in rarity, price and difficulty to acquire.

B - Second Wind: As an action heal as if you had taken a short rest. Regain the use of this ability after taking a short rest normally.

C - Technique: You have finally become badass enough to perform special attacks. Unfortunately you do not know any yet, and will not gain them from levelling. Go and find them, the first one you find can be learnt instantly.

Abilities:

1. Banneret - Your voice can be heard over crowds and combat. If you are appointed the leader of the group you always win initiative ties and you give [level] temporary HPs that last a round to an ally who listens to your command to attack.
2. Battlemage - Gain a save against spell disruption and cast even with your hands occupied. You can also use scrolls if you couldn't before.
   
3. Defender - You count as a wall for the purposes of line of sight, cover and forced movement. Shields give you +1 AC.
4. Destroyer - Apply overkill damage to other enemies in reach of your melee weapon or path of ranged attack. You can finish a melee cleave by throwing the weapon. If you wish so, foes you defeat are strewn about the battlefield in pieces.
   
5. Gadabout - When entering a new city there is a [level]-in-6 chance that you know [dice result] people there. Make a reaction roll for each, worst case scenario you owe them or they don't like you all that much. You have the same chance to know a tidbit of lore about practically anything you encounter. Your rumour-scrounging always produces maximum results and you know if any given one is completely fake. You can use improvised weapons as if they were real weapons.
6. Green Cloak - You belong to a ranger organization and thus you always know the compass direction, if you forage while travelling you find enough food for [level] people, are comfortable in any weather and predict it a day in advance.
7. High-Class Professional - Your slices and stabs are silent, and if you strike someone down in one blow they don't even yell out. Add +d6 damage to your blows if you have advantage. You always have a dagger on your person, hidden so well as to be undetectable without stripping you naked.
8. Horseman - You may emphatically communicate with any thinking creature you are in skin-to-skin contact with, you can fight at full ability mounted on anything, you and your mount count as one creature, using the better AC and Save value and choosing how you distribute damage amongst yourself whenever hit.
9. Iron-Handed - Your fists count as sledgehammers, your hooked fingers as a crowbar, cupped hands as shovels and your firm grip as a vice.
   
10. Lightbringer - In your hands a lantern counts as a shield and a torch as a mace. Torches will not go out if you use them in melee. Rubbing your hands together for a bit works like a tinderbox. You are favored by entities related to light and flame.
11. Panache - Your fighting has style. Rather than kill you can nonlethally embarrass the foe in a way that prevents them from being a problem any longer. If you win a fight with a challenging foe without causing undeserved or disproportionate harm, people who don't like you reroll their reaction with a +2. This even works on people you've defeated before.
12. Poet - When you use an instrument your speed is not halved and activation of bardsong is automatic. Your words can count as weapons which deal emotional damage of your choice on a failed save. Doing that still takes your attack and people can tell when you do that.
    
13. Powder Monkey - Ignore penalties for fighting in smoke and using ranged attacks in melee. You can manufacture your own masterwork bullets. Powder you carry can not get wet or get ruined otherwise when tightly packed.
    
14. Raised by Wolves - You do not leave tracks as you travel and thanks to your wolf-like sense of smell and an even better sense of taste you may follow all tracks and hunt with ease.
15. Second-Story Worker - Your steps are silent and you tend to “blur” into the surroundings if immobile. Anything a human could climb with tools and preparation you can climb with your body alone, walls beyond human ability will be a little tricky for you. Begin combat anywhere where you could run in one round ignoring creatures.
16. Sharpshooter - You may create special ammunition on the fly. Double the range of all your ranged attacks, fire a bow from any position and ignore penalties for shooting past allies.
    
17. Sticky Fingers - Open locks, pick pockets, fiddle with traps and clockwork, perform legerdemain and stealthily perform somatic components with ease. All of your inventory slots count as quickslots.
18. Swordcaller - You instinctively know all qualities of any weapon you see. Intelligent weapons will call to you from within their dungeons letting you know their location if they would like to be wielded by you.
19. Tricky Footwork - You may perform a combat maneuver in place of your movement. Perform and defend against maneuvers at +2.
20. Reliable - Ignore 2 points of penalties to attack rolls, automatically succeed on tasks that have a 90% or better chance and always deal at least 1 point of damage, even on a miss.

Super-Abilities:

1. Heroic Might - You gain strength equal to that of an ogre, increasing your damage by d6 if the attack would depend on it (all melee, thrown weapons, specifically made bows)
2. Invincible Physique - Your bones are stronger than steel (never break a bone and skip helmets), your blood is thick and clots easily (resist poison and bleeding), your skin glows with vitality (immune to disease), your natural lifespan doubles and your rest healing is always maximized.
3. Fleet as the Wind - Your speed increases by 2, ignore falling damage and perform absurd acrobatics like wallrunning or 2m verticals.
4. Blank Slate - After killing a foe, you may steal one of their features. You can only do this again if you discard your previous stolen ability.

Abilities rumored to exist:

1. Oathbound
2. Mage Hunter
3. Slayer
4. Psych Up

Special attacks rumored to exist:

1. Four Inner Winds
2. Triple Slash Dash
3. Heroic Leap
4. Gentle Touch
   

D&D shields SUCK, here is how to FIX them

The shield is one of the oldest and most fundamental tool of defense. You always first want a shield, then a helmet, then start armoring up the rest of the body. Two handed weapons only really became popular after plate armor was invented, since a shield doesn't offer much when all of your body is metal-covered. And here's my gripe: The mechanic of a shield providing a flat AC bonus can never accurately simulate their true function due to how AC works, that is, the higher it is the more value from each further point. If the bonus is too small the shield is worthless in the hands of an unarmored man, if the bonus is too large then they become too appealing for those heavily armored.
So here I walk in with my magnum opus, perhaps the best house rule I have ever created - the bonus of a shield is determined by armor worn: +4 for an unarmored person, -1 for each "tier" of armor, down to +1 at heavy armor.
This rule effectively creates two AC tracks, so for a shieldless person unarmed / light / medium / heavy armor has 10 / 12 / 14 / 16 AC respectively (or 9 / 7 / 5 / 3 with descending AC), while one with a shield would have 14 / 15 / 16 / 17 AC (5 / 4 / 3 / 2).
This rule has many upsides: It keeps the balance of the standard game by preserving the maximum non-magic AC, it makes the archetype of "guy with a tunic, shield and sword" viable and gives meaning to the otherwise useless chainmail +1 item.
If you plan on using it also keep in mind these things: shields do not work against attacks from behind, can be broken and still take up a hand.

About shield breaking, that should happen through some kind of critical attack effect or such, absolutely do NOT add any kind of rule that allows you to reduce damage/prevent an attack by intentionally shattering them. Shield are meant to absorb blows, how could it be possible to choose to break yours after an attack? And if you say it's the player choosing, not the PC, then that's a disconnect between the two, which is practically always bad. Those rules lead to characters carrying as many backup shields as they can, which is ridiculous, don't really work when shields of the magical variety start appearing, slow down combat, give players a get-out-of-jail-free card should they be about to die, and make shield disproportionately more appealing than two-handing or such.