Now this seems like a literal nightmare for balance reasons, but this is for funsies, not actual logical building.
Inspired by @Doronmovies on Youtube
This would actually work quite well for several classes, although some might seem a little bit silly compared to pre-existing classes.
- Shaman Tank: We know that Fire is the Element associated with Enhancement, Air with Elemental, and Water with Restoration. We’re missing Earth, and with that, the durability and tenacity of that Element. Using Totems to generate improved versions of Earth Shield, aggro-generating totems that turn your chain lightning into an aggro ability at the cost of damage, and using a 1-hander and shield could make for a very interesting class that functions similarly to a hybrid of Bear Druids and Brewmaster Monks, building energy to spend on damage mitigation, healing and aggro-abilities to keep the enemy focused on them, and punish the enemy if they try to go and attack somebody else.
- Ranged Warrior: As Baldur’s Gate 3 has shown, the Gamer Community needs to throw a Mother-Lover at another Mother-Lover to feel complete. Rather than steal Hunter’s ranged weapons (although that would be both hilarious and cathritic), leave the Warrior as a Strength-based ranged class called the Hurler. Axes, spears, staves, daggers, random party members and stunned enemies, the Hurler Warrior can Y E E T them all with glorious ease. Blending abilities from the Arms and Fury speccs into ranged variations, such as Mortal Strike-like ability to deal large amounts of damage and inflict a bleed or heal-reduction ability, Whirlwind to hurl weapons around you, Go For The Eyes to blind or daze a target, and of course, YEET to pick up a stunned, feared or dazed enemy and have a short window of opportunity to throw them, ala the Heroic Leap ability, and deal damage to them and whatever enemy units they land on or near, or to pick up a Party Member and yeet them, either getting them out of harm’s way or hurling them back into the thick of the fighting and dealing damage to the enemy in the process.
- Ranged Rogue: Now these guys will steal the Hunter’s weapons, but function as ranged DoT and combo-builders rather than roll your face across the keyboard and win at life. Poison, bleeds, stuns and slows, much of the Rogue’s normal abilities translated to ranged attacks instead, and possibly could vary between 2-handed ranged weapons and the return of throwing weapons? Or maybe dual-wielding pistols?
- Stealthy Hunter: Since turn about is fair play, a Hunter who uses stealth rather than overwhelming ranged supremacy or a dedicated animal companion to assist them. Rather, the Hunter uses poisoned weapons, traps and melee to attack the enemy, and can summon pets for a short-term duration from their summoning list to provide certain benefits. Tenacity Pets grant additional health and defensive/‘Hail Mary!’ abilities, Ferocity are a straight up DPS boost, and Cunning Pets provide utility and disruption abilities, each type of pet appearing for a set, and short, amount of time to provide a bit of extra DPS and activating certain Stealth Hunter abilities while they are present. Can dual-wield because why can’t Hunters dual-wield anymore, Blizzard?
- Melee Priest: AKA the Inquisitor, trading the bulk of their ranged abilities for short range ones and various auras that can expand to about 20 or 30 feet around them and provide various effects to both enemies and allies. Smite and Power Word: Pain remain their staples, but do more damage the closer the Priest is to the target, as do the Inquisitor’s healing spells. Auras are where the Inquisitor shines, with Aura of Light/Salvation provides a boost to all healing effects that allied targets receive while within this aura, Aura of Shadow/Damnation, provides a boost to all damage taken by hostile targets within the range of this aura, and Aura of Castigation, which increases the attack speed of allied targets and reduces the spell damage allied targets take, but also provides to minor DoT to all allied targets within a raid or party while within that aura’s effect. Ultimately the Inquisitor remains a DPS specc and the more ‘Faith’ they have built up (think similar to a Shadow Priest’s Insanity bar), the less damage they take, making unleashing their Auras a tactical choice since they are right in the thick of the fight, and they are cloth-wearers. Their barrier shields are only going to absorb so much before some very angry Heretics introduce their stabby bits to the Inquisitor’s fleshy bits.
- Blood Mage: Basically a healing specc for Mages, relying upon draining life and magical energy from hostile targets and producing HoT and Mitigation abilities on their allies, and debuffs and nasty status effects on their enemies. Animus Bolts are their basic ability, both doing damage to the target and draining chunks of life energy, which fuels a bar of runes similar to a Death Knight’s Runes, and they can then spend those runes to create effects, either whirlpools of blood that heal allies and sap the life out of enemies, flood the enemy’s veins with corrupted essence or speed up the metabolism of their allies, or even summon Blood Elementals to swarm the enemy, rapidly filling their Runes and allowing accelerated healing, while with each Blood Elemental slain, the nearest allies gain additional health as the disrupted life energy flows into them. A short, fast and nasty series of combos that keeps the Mage and their allies topped up, but without a steady stream of life essence, the Blood Mage can rapidly fall off and thus needs to make sure they manage their resources carefully.
- Ranged Demon Hunters: This one’s fairly simple, a Demon Hunter who prefers to strike at range, trading in their melee talent for using a steady stream of glaives, demonic spells and a disturbing ability to jump around and keep moving to harass and pin down the enemy. Similar to a Havoc Demon Hunter in terms of ability, the Spite specc improves on their dash ability and demonic runes, while also making them a master of hurling and catching their glaives at a superhuman speed, assailing the enemy with Fel-infused weapons that bounce from target to target, delivering terrible injuries that can hamstring, cause horrific bleeding or imbue Fel curses onto the target to slow them down or weaken their defenses. Demon Form gives them additional arms, rather than the Wings of Havoc or the Armored Spines of Vengeance, effectively doubling their ability to unleash pain on the enemy for a short while, and turns their Eye Beams from a deadly short-range AoE into something similar to Darkseid’s Omega Beams, the blasts tight and focused, traveling through each and every target marked by the Spite Demon Hunter’s demonic runes and avoiding all others.
- Healer Death Knight: So we’re gonna get that Necromancer class, one way or another. Necromancer Death Knights function similar to Holy Paladins in terms of mechanics, but use their abilities to siphon blood from their enemies to power other skills, and can use abilities like Death Coil on living targets. Some of their abilities can even provide Undead-like qualities to their allies, but will have side effects that might make the use of these abilities far more tactical unless you want the whole Raid to be baying for your blood. Short-lived summons might also prove useful, such as summoning skeletons which will run towards the nearest allies and explode, wrapping them in shrouds of serrated bone that will bleed anything that attacks them and offer a small bit of damage mitigation, or a bloated zombie that will charge the enemy and then explode, causing all attacks against it to restore health to the attackers.
- Binder Warlock: Some Warlocks really like their Demons. So much so they might want to even get inside them (stop iiiiiiiit) and wear them like a second skin. Enter the Binder Warlock, who literally goes out, binds Demons to them and can then, for a short while, summon that Demon in a unique way that grants the Warlock the abilities and form of that Demon. Imps provide additional ranged options, the ability to blink and phase out of harm’s way, and of course, the ability to explode, prematurely ending the transformation and coating the enemy in revolting chunks of super-sized Imp bits. Fel Hunters move super fast, can absolutely annoy the heck out of any class that uses magic, and the more they absorb, the more Fel Hunters you spawn that will relentless target the nearest enemy marked with your Bite attack. Void Lords become temporary tanks, able to absorb ridiculous amounts of damage and lash out with tendrils of Void energy, either grappling or slapping aside enemies and allowing the Warlock to cast their spells with impunity. Succubi/Incubi/Shivarra allow you to turn invisible, mentally dominate the thirsty, lash enemies with a fiendish whip that heals you and you can finally fit into those programmer socks like you always wanted. And finally, the Fel Guard/Wrathguard is basically the Nerd Rage ability from Fallout 4, granting you superior strength and aggression, able to wail on the targets in melee range with the biggest stick you have in your bags and laugh hysterically as your curses feed into the spilled blood and ichor of your enemies, further weakening the target against both the unimaginable violence you’re unleashing, and the attacks of your allies.
- Ranged Monk: You know how annoying Ken, Ryu and Guile are when they just spam their ranged attack? Yeah, its like that, but cooler. Hadoukens, chi lightning, air-punches and -kicks, the Ranged Monk is a master of manipulating their Chi to perform some amazing things, including firing balls of flaming Chi from their everything, re-creating that one scene from the Star Wars Franchise That Shall Not Be Named where How-The-Freak-Are-You-Back Palpatine throws enough Force Lightning around to wipe out a fleet of star-ships, and using their Flurry of Blow as a long cone attack, similar to an Evoker’s fire breath attack (only NERDS use the arcane version!), dealing rapid damage to anyone who is unfortunate enough to get in range. Basically they’re that one protagonist who specced into nonsense, but useful.
- Druids: Haha no, you guys have enough things to keep track of, we’re not throwing more dirty laundry onto this pile of yours.
Edit
- Ranged Paladins: I’m sorry, I forgot you existed for a moment. Really, Ranged Paladins would work quite well because the origins of the Paladin are only melee based because of their creators. Humans and Dwarves created their Paladins based upon needing sturdy frontline warriors to adequately deal with the Dark Horde’s demonic auxiliaries and the curses of the Orc Warlocks of the Shadow Council, and Tauren Sunwalkers had little reason to specialise in ranged combat, both due to the limitations of their forms (seriously, look at how male Tauren attack with bows, its very underwhelming) and the abilities of their enemies (Mogu pretty much enslaved them through overwhelming numbers of Saurok and Constructs) (There is nothing faster on the plains than the Centaur. Running battles against something twice your speed when you’re protecting a slow convoy is just begging to get drawn away and leave your Tribe vulnerable to assault), while modern Paladins are coming from a variety of other races. Elves of all kinds would favour using a bow over melee weapons, taking advantage of their greater flexibility and cultural biases to deliver arrows infused with Holy magic to burn the Demon, the Undead and the Unclean at a safe range, and you can’t tell me no self-respecting Dwarf is going to see that and not try to make a gun that can do the same thing? Ultimately I could see it being mostly a ranged version of a Retribution Paladin, using Holy Hand Grenades and Holy Water Vials to lay down Consecrations and AoE attacks, while their real strengths lay in single-target attacks that castigate and burn an enemy with the fury of the Light’s vengeance.
What are your thoughts, and how would you add an additional specc to the Classes, and what would it do?
