Playtest Report

The playtest for thaumturge took place over three days. The first playtest featured the slayer class and the thaumaturge. The player who was playing the slayer, Chris, was using the predator archetype (more details on that later in the week) as the tabaxi race and the player who was using thaumaturge, Justin, was using warmage with the goliath race. We tested low level play by trying the first dungeon/scenario. The first issue we noticed was that the war mage seemed to have a greater amount of trouble with a more restricted number of cantrips. The slayer, more or less tends to tear through lower level creatures quite easily. Over all, the slayer seemed to do exactly as I predicted it would. Admittedly, Justin was a little out of practice with 5e. He rather quickly burned through most of his spells, so carrying only two cantrips seemed to be overly crippling, as his only cantrips were lightning lure and booming blade.

After our friend Andy arrived (a.k.a. @DM_Starhelm) we switched up the test to a series of CR appropriate challenges in the form of an ever-changing dungeon for level 10 characters. We decided to test these two classes among two other base classes. I joined in as a PC as a Lythari elf (coming soon, but for the sake of the play test used none of the racial abilities. The only effect it had on the character is the standard +2 to Dexterity and a +1 to Wisdom ) totem barbarian, and Andy used a high elf Sun Soul monk. We started this dungeon gauntlet at level 11. The first challenge was two Tannaruks (Volo’s Guide to Monsters), The party was hardly damaged in the first skirmish. What we noticed about the Warmage is that it is important to choose a range of spells that are targeted and area effect spells. Our warmage took a larger range of area effect spells. In close quarters, the warmage poses a potential threat to the party. If the majority of the spells used by the warmage are area effects, the party in a close room like our first encounter was, the warmage is further restricted. The slayer functioned well in the fight, as the slayer is designed to specialize in eliminating weak targets but still function against higher CR monsters. The second fight was against a yochlol in a pitch black cave. The two elves and the tabaxi, of course, have darkvision. The warmage spell list doesn’t have  a light producing cantrip, which from my design stand point, the warmage would be more interested in damage than in utility, choosing to carry a mundane light source. In the fight the darkness was a huge handicap to the goliath warmage. The yochlol, in spider form, nearly killed the warmage in a single turn thanks to the advantage granted to the yochlol’s attacks. The party rested in the cave room, and moved on to a fight with a frost giant everlasting one. The warmage proved to be one of the most useful party members in the fight, using the Elemental Versatility spell formula on ice knife to change the damage type to fire. For those of you that haven’t read Volo’s Guide, a frost giant everlasting one has the regeneration abilities of a troll, and a rage similar to a barbarian. The regeneration ability is undone for a turn by acid or fire damage. From what I noticed, the slayer kept up well with the barbarian and monk for accuracy and damage in these fights. After this fight, the group leveled up to level 11, they made fairly quick work of a young red dragon, and after a hydra. Their final fight was a deadly challenge. A storm giant quintessent, and an iron golem, both of these creatures are CR 16. Despite the odds, the party defeated the storm giant with two party members, the monk and the thaumaturge, before time constraints stopped us, as we had continued this over the course of two consecutive days. 

Our warmage’s closing remarks was wishing there were more defensive spells on the warmage spell list, but upon checking his spell list, a lot of these more defensive spells such as wall of force, and wall of fire, were not taken, nor did he use a shield until after the fight with the frost giant, all the while wearing heavy armor.

The third playtest starred thaumaturges of each archetype I have released so far. This session spanned a good few hours, the characters were each level 10, and increased to level 11 towards the end. The warmage was a hobgoblin (as per Volo’s guide), played by Chris, the beguiler was a tabaxi played by my wife, Kannah,  and the samsaran was a tiefling played by myself. The highlights of this game were watching the tabaxi cast hold person as a 30 foot cone, the warmage destroying an nearly entire gnoll war band with an 80 foot wide fireball cast at 5th-level, and the samsaran casting a mass targeted banishment. Over the course of this one-of adventure, the hobgoblin did fall in battle after having fended off some CR9 champions (Volo’s guide).

I didn’t notice any major flaws in the performance of the warmage as a functioning member of the party, Chris did note that even through he was using a shield and heavy armor, he agreed with Justin that perhaps it  wasn’t more bonuses to AC that was the issue but perhaps more defensive options in the forms of effects where what he suggested. 

Kannah noted that the beguiler abilities at 6th and 10th level were not only difficult to use but, when it came to spell formula options she had fewer viable options at lower levels because of the spell she chose for her lower level spells. Both players expressed a desire for more generalized spell formulas. 

What I noticed about the samsaran, is that it is very hard, at least in the scenario we had, that with one action a turn it makes the samsaran’s turn a very difficult choice when you are in the midst of combat, knowing that you are capable of dealing a good amount of damage,  and also need to heal your party members. The samsaran’s will o’ the wisp doesn’t make this easier, taking the action of the player to attack with the will o’ the wisp. 

With these things in mind, I have been reworking these pieces into the thaumaturge version 2, it isn’t ready yet as I have a lot more work to do for it, as the holidays just ended Monday for me. However changes include:

• A spell recovery option fueled by hit dice.

• Upwards of 15 new spell formulas both generic and archetype specific.

• Two new archetypes, the Fey Warden who focuses on elemental damage and summoning creatures of the wilds, and the Dread Necromancer who focuses on necromancy magic and eventually becomes liken unto the undead.

• New spell formulas for both new archetypes.

• Changes to the existing spell lists and new spell lists for the new archetypes.

I apologize for the continued delay for these projects, but my “team” and I are doing our best to make these homebrew options as functional as possible for you guys. If you have any more questions as we near the next release, I’d be happy to answer them.