Let's be honest, the wolf sidekick art was added because of the number of wolves tamed by Nat 20 Animal Handling checks in the first session of Lost Mine of Phandelver 😛
I often get grumbly about dragons and devils and demons and drow "needing" real class abilities, but it's true that's a pain to implement for each and every one of them - making this fabulous. I imagine beast master rangers will also find it a godsend. As for patrons, a party could all be sidekicks to a patron "non player player character class."
Honestly I like the very first UA up too Tasha’s. I’ve played more NPCs than 5e classes with the side kick system, and they all worked out well, without overshadowing the PCs. I remember having to make a healer so my friends had a healer for the game and I basically made the same system but without all the finer details. I took a frontline medic and gave them more low level spell slots for healing, the healer feat, and made them as a bare bones fighter for leveling and called them a hospitaller of the silver hand. It leveled fine and never got in the way of what other people wanted to do. It’s important to think about what they players are trying to do and not get in the way of that role. If I jumped into a game someone already had, I’d be pretty happy to just prepare a few archetypes and pass them by a DM use the noble with a prodigy Use a solider with the warrior, and use a scout with the expert Your in the game and your see what people are doing without stepping on anyone’s toes.
The thing that jumps to mind with sidekicks, aside from beastmaster ranger pets, is the Ravnica guilds that give your PC a bunch of npc followers. Once you get 25 renown in Boros you have about 20 CR 1/2 soldiers following you around. The one or two that have been with you since 3 to 10 renown need warrior levels just so you can leave them in charge of the others while adventuring and not come home to find they all died at the hands of the CR 8 henchman that escaped from your big fight with the CR 12 big bad. Also, for some reason Selesnya gives you a dire wolf at 25 renown. That wolf needs at least two thirds of your character levels in warrior levels just to get by at whatever level you are by the time you hit 25 renown. I'm making a Loxodon bard who acts as an ambassador for the Selesnya conclave. He'll have a wood elf bodyguard riding around on that dire wolf. The elf will be a cr 1/2 soldier and the dire wolf will have warrior levels. If my bard dies I'll just switch over to the wolf and upgrade his warrior levels to fighter levels. I look forward to seeing how many elf riders my wolf will go through in the campaign.
Yes! Glad to see a return to the non-humanoid sidekicks. I recall the UA putting a requirements for for example the expert class to be able to speak, but there's a lot of potential for having a wolf be an expert tracker that howls to grant inspiration.
I know this video is a few years old, but I just started playing DND about 6 months ago. I now play in one campaign and DM another on alternating weeks for a group of mostly experienced players. The game I play in just ended a campaign and we are starting a new one in two weeks. In the previous campaign I purchased a Mastiff as a piece of gear. It was mostly for role playing and carrying stuff but it occasionally jumped in during combat when appropriate. I enjoyed having it in the game but was disappointed that there was no mechanism for it to level up with the group or even grow as a contributing though minor part of the party. Then, a month ago I discovered the sidekick mechanics and, with DM approval, I adapted my mastiff accordingly. It was great. Now, for the new campaign we are starting, I adapted the standard Shadow monster (adjusted its CR down to 1/8 rather than 1/2 so it wouldn’t be game breaking at early stages) as a Sidekick. It’s essentially the spirit of my dead father who follows after my Gloomstalker Ranger character and occasionally intervenes on my behalf when I am in danger. To start it has two abilities: it does a weak version of the shadow’s standard attack (max of 5 damage and saps a bit of strength), and it can diffuse its spectral substance to make a 10 ft cube of the darkness spell to help hide me. It adds a little bit of extra ability for my character, but it really amplifies the role playing aspect of my game. With the sidekick mechanism, the shadow can grow along with our party and stay within the intended rules. I think it’s awesome.
I am already using the UA version of sidekicks for a wolf pet my shepherd circle druid has befriended. She is a near necessity too as aside from the druids wild shapes, the only other person in the party who is a melee frontline fighter is the monk. The simplicity is nice to have next to the demanding logistics that is the druid class.
I think one part of this new rule that people are overlooking is that it gives players a chance to play characters that are not usually available as playable races. For example, a player could play as a magmin or as a jackalwere or as a swarm of rats. Using a sidekick as your main character may not only be for new player, it could also be for players who simply want to play something a little weird, this gives that player the rules to do that.
These last two sage advice remind me of the stuff on mcdm's campaign, the chain, with all the followers of the officers and the extra reactions or feats(?) the core group get to do during combat, like the physicians ability to allow a downed PC to spent hit die to get up. I like the ease of the new* battle pets.
Sidekicks have made me want to do a campaign sort of inspired by modern RPG's (One or two heroes, and a diverse cast of NPC's as their sidekicks). Then, you take these stories you've made and build upon them in a full campaign with more players. Then when you have downtime you go back to the first formula and have your heroes go on solo adventures. One or two sidekicks I've been looking at based on their CR. Night Blade (from DiA): Gives vulnerability (Piercing) to any creature within 5 feet of them. Perfect sidekick for a Rogue. Frontline Medic (from Ravnica): Full plate 3rd level caster that for some reason is CR 1/4? Alright. Slap on Warrior and you have a great frontliner that can bring you up on your feet with a Cure Wounds. Or make it an even bigger spellcaster with the Healer class. Scout & Thug: Just very solid picks for Warrior or Expert.
My Ghostwise Halfling Wildfire Druid has achieved balance now that she has her sidekick. One one hand, the power of light in the form of her Wildfire Spirit. On the other hand, the power of darkness with her sidekick of her own Shadow. Grappling becomes easier as her enemy's strength dwindles to nothing.
So if I get this right, Sidekick classes can be applied to any Stat Blocks up to a certain CR and you get the abilities of both the stat block and the class? If that's the case, sounds just as much fun for PCs to use in oneshots and short campaigns as it would be for NPCs in larger campaigns.
I've been looking forward to this. I've made a character half man/half bear. A man mutated - sort of... by a spell gone wrong. His was previously (backstory) a type of con-man, with a one man traveling pet circus. Now he tries to get by with some petty magic, some of it granted by an amulet, some of his melee strength coming from having big bear paw-hands. Sort of a multiclass wizard(lvl 1 or 2 only - low-to-average intelligence) and a growing fighter. Now the classes from the sidekicks kan give him some role-play background, before endeavoring into campaigns. I see him as sort of CHA/NEU in the beginning, but slowly becoming for rules-oriented and maybe becoming LAW/GOOD in the end... Who knows... Dice will tell...
Should ask Jeremy if sidekicks will be available for Spelljammer as well? Or any other question that may disclose if we are ever going to get that much awaited setting.
Don't worry, if artificer is anything to go off of, it doesn't. Also, I highly doubt we'll ever get a new PC class anyways, until the inevitable Dark Sun source book brings us psionic character options
I feel like this could balance more noodly classes being introduced, appealing to both ends of the spectrum. Which some of the alternative class features already sort of do.
I have two players and their characters, but currently bump the party with two NPCs that were supposed to be played characters... I like the idea of sidekicks for simplicity and that the players can call their shots, not me.
In icespire keep they have a sidekick that was a mage that identified as a unicorn. She was immediately beheaded by the violent orcs of the shrine who worshipped a lightning boar. Such a sad tale. Whaah.
Real question here, ¿what is the model of Jeremy's headphones? Been wondering since the Rime of the Frostmaiden event, his voice sounds sooo good through that mic o:
Those look like regular apple AirPods to me. Dunno if he’s using an external mic that you can’t see.. thought the white mark on his shirt was a lavier mic but it’s probably just a button.
If I have to rule it? No, your beast is meant to be part of your character, fighting like a harmonious unit, the sidekick is a separated char, so it would be hard to balance both functions widouth making a 2in1 overturned hero.
Everyone: "oh boy this is so cool, I can't wait to have a cool animal buddy with class levels. Or I could even play in a campaign where everyone was an animal character!" Me, realizing the utter brokenness available in some CR 1/2 creatures: "hi, I'd like to introduce my character Bob the Blob, he's an oblex spawn fighter sidekick 1 / chronurgy wizard X, with blindsight and exhaustion immunity along with a whole suites of other traits no PC has business having, don't worry he totally won't break the game :) "
Oh, you're not alone. 😊 It could definitely lead to some shenanigans or house rules to help regulate and promote fair play. Either way, I look forward to seeing what concepts come from this.
As per this article (dnd.wizards.com/products/tabletop-games/rpg-products/tashas-cauldron-everything) Tasha's Cauldron of Everything releases on November 17, 2020.
The idea behind creating a way to make running npcs easier on dungeon masters is great, especially for new dms. But there is a problem. We have player characters, which we have one way of creating. Then we have monsters, which are made another way (that you guys haven't really explained well). Now we have sidekicks too. Thats 3 types of characters with different generation types. Thats complexity not simplicity.
It helps people who have players or DM's who will only play published options. That's not me or my group, but this helps thaose groups. It's also a nice simple ruleset that I definitely plan to use (as opposed to taking a more granular approach)
