Monday, November 6, 2017

Stranger Things: Zoomer Archetype for D&D 5

"See. Zoomer."
- Maxine "Mad Max" Mayfield

Stranger Things 2 is out and many of you may have binge watched it all by now. We just finished this past weekend and thought it was just as good as season 1.  The newest character introduced is Maxine "Mad Max" Mayfield a new girl from California.  When the boys digress into D&D talk, she makes the statement that she could be a "Zoomer", which gets the predictable results from a bunch of middle schoolers in 1984.

Well, I thought that a Zoomer could totally be a thing.

So here is a Zoomer Rogue Archetype for D&D 5.

ZOOMER

Windrunner by Stanley "Artgerm" Lau
In this world, you have learned there are two types; the quick and the dead.  You prefer not to be among the dead. So speed is not just what you do, it is what you are. Get in fast, attack fast and get out fast. Live another day.

QUICK ATTACK
Starting at 3rd level, you can use the bonus action granted by your Cunning Action to make an extra attack. Strength bonuses do not apply since you are compromising power for speed.

FAST ON YOUR FEET
When you choose this archetype at 3rd level, you gain the ability to move faster than normal; Your base speed increases by 50%. So characters that move at 30 ft can now move at 45 ft.  Terrain that slows down other characters will still affect you, but based on your new movement rate.

UPPER HAND
At 9th level, you may add +5 to your initiative rolls.

BLUR
Starting at 13th level, you move at twice your base speed.  Sneak attacks must still be made at normal movement speed; which is half speed for you.

FASTER THAN THE WIND
When you reach 17th level, you can attack three times per round.  These extra attacks ignore any bonuses due to strength.


Obviously, I have not playtested this, but I think it could work out nicely.
What do you think Max?



5 comments:

Unknown said...

Quick Attack: Almost no rogues use Strength as their damage modifier. They're all using Dex. Now, if you also meant that they can't apply their Dex bonus to damage, then Quick Attack barely does anything, because it's basically the same as using Two-Weapon Fighting. Sure, you can get a second rapier attack instead of an off-hand shortsword attack, so that's a net +1 average damage over baseline two-weapon fighting.

Fast on Your Feet: You probably want a flat add to speed rather than a percentage bonus, so that it gives the same bonus to halfling Zoomers that it gives to human ones - as the halfling's +12.5 ft speed would round down to +10 ft. +10 speed is a solidly useful 3rd-level feature.

Upper Hand: This is fine.

Blur: I don't understand what you mean by "Sneak attacks must still be made at normal movement speed; which is half speed for you."

Faster than the Wind: Attacking more times per round is just... not what rogues are here to do. Sneak Attack damage still can't apply more than once per turn. This results in applying Sneak Attack damage more reliably, since you'll miss with all three attacks per round quite seldom. There's also a very small net increase in damage from additional attacks, but it feels more like a fighter and less like a rogue at this point.

Also, how is this meant to interact with Quick Attack? By a straightforward reading, the rogue goes up to 4 attacks in a round (this feature grants Extra Attack +2, both of which WOULD add the Dex bonus to damage) and Quick Attack grants one attack as a bonus action. If that's what you intend, then you've expressed it correctly, but like I said about seeming more like a fighter and less like a rogue.

Thanks for posting this, and I hope that my critique is helpful rather than hurtful.

Timothy S. Brannan said...

Thanks for this!

I'll read over your notes here and give it a go this weekend.

Nicholas said...

I'd take a look at the Scout from Unearthed Arcana for some inspiration - they're a pretty solid Rogue archetype that does some of what it seems like the Zoomer is trying for.

Doc Savage said...

Not what "quick" means in that context, but cool

tzengrey said...

maybe not giving more movement per turn but being able to perform movement, atack and retire to a more safe place, instead of staying in close combat. with no chance to be attacked when leave enemy action areas. could be nice. a combat tactic that makes several quick bites instead the tank mode.