Currently there are a few areas where I think once more is added in from the phb it will help as well as some balancing / RP aspect thoughts.
The first thing that comes to mind is some balancing tweaks to the ranger class there is a guide for leveling animal companions to make beast master hunters a more balanced more effective option.
https://www.gmbinder.com/share/-LIn8DWYLBZgmAR0dSQMIts a public resource and it does help make each animal companion feel more valuable and better scaled with the ranger class as oppose to its current state where the spider more or less hogs the glory away from other pets.
Another notation is some of the current ranger subclasses just feel like a weaker favored enemy / favored terrain option the path option replacement does feel like it is a good aspect but little tweaks here could make this a lot better. Assuming you would like more suggestions or more detailed feedback on this I can provide it. Same for more options based on basic animal companion options.
The next thing that comes to mind is getting access to more classes up to level 4 while higher levels are being tweaked would help with RP options rumor mill has it that bard, paladin and druid will be coming before xmas unsure if this is true but its been teased on the rumor mill. Hopefully true but the more we have access to these and some low level multi classing the more your going to get a flavor or players RPing evil characters.
Right now based on playing through myself while some of the companions tend a little more on the evil side. Shadowheart, Asterion and Laz'eal to stand having a few different companions in the early access also would give us some more options to choosing to play evil or good like siding with the goblins in the opening campaign or choosing to go with the evil druids if we had options to trade off 1 companion for another here could really tweak and help make the story go smoother. Where now it feels like your a little bit pushed away from this. To really truely expand on this having some of these options would be really good and there are characters already in chapter 1 that could easily push for both sides and some interesting choices.
There is the Tiefling Bard would be a good option for a companion as well as the 1 Tiefling Fighter who feels more like she could be a ranger companion and ties really well into the story plot as a possible companion just NW of the Druid Grove. I cannot remember her name off the top of my head but I can try and find it later. Both characters have very compelling backgrounds.
Adding additional classes there could easily be options for a potential paladin companion from the group in conflict with the tiefling, a barbarian if you chose to side with Minthara. Goblin Priest from Gut. There are lots of druid options that a little tweak could make them viable. There are alot of teaser options that could be played with once additional classes are added that would really helps expand the already great chapter 1 play and make it better and feel more compelling and impactful with your choices.
As noted you could present the choice of joining the paladins of tier vs the Tiefling encounter to be a choice of a Paladin or a Ranger in early play. Similar with Minthara where you could get the benefits of choosing between Wyll and the red hobgoblin It think is hame is Raz'gul.
Shadowheart or Gut or Minthara also gives some options for interesting potential character choices.
There Rp options and choices would feel really impactful and thought provoking for players where based on what they do they are going to be presented with different companions earlier in the game and only get the other options at a later time. It would make the choices you make feel a lot more impactful.
Maybe having Kagha join could be an interesting choice as well. Especially if maybe she had a giant snake form. Interesting options for an evil side play through or as punishment to help her atone if you do not exploit her ventures with the shadow druids where there could be a subplot that helps you convert her to the good guys as the story goes later on.
The more options that get included in the early access play like the stuff above the better it would make an already great game feel.
Personal Request would be adding a ferret familiar
If anyone from Larion likes anything I posted above I would be more than happy to add additional commentary on that.
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General things I think everyone wants but don't expect to see anytime soon but still would be nice/personal would like to see them at some point
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Dragonborn, Genasi, Aasimar, Gnomes, Goblins, Orcs, Half Orcs. (I expect these are a ways off but with companions it could be an interesting way to work a few of them in before they are added officially).
Moon Elves, Wild Elves - Feels like they were forgotten.
Varient Human - Having that feat choice early out would be a dream for some characters.
It would be nice to see it but I dont picture it getting added outside a dlc content patch would be the artificer since 5e only really has 13 official Classes. Right now its the only one that has been forgotten as well. 1 more couldn't hurt could it? DLC worthy even as a side note. (Id pay for it).
Oathbreaker paladin, Hexblade and the celestial option for warlocks.
Personal sadness we have no champion fighter subclass yet but I know things take time.
While I feel like a lot of the classes are a ways off the sooner we get them added at lower levels the sooner the game can be checked for balance at all levels so I hope we get these quickly in early access. From the looks of it we do have some of them making small appearances. Barbarian there are a couple of npcs, like wise for rangers, paladins, druid and bards. No Signs of the sorcerer or monk anywhere I have really noticed yet.
6 person parties but I think almost everyone wants that not a huge deal at this point but it would be nice.
Unique story plot rewards for each companion you finish there subplot with, Like maybe having Asterion you get a vampire character unique. Gyll maybe you could get his demon mistress as a companion, Shadowheart that artifact could be a powerful item just for her. Gale is probably the hardest to think of something for because right now hes the most underwhelming origins character and he really asks for a lot whatever you get off him really would need to be exceptional to be worth it. Laz'eal - unique githyanki gear. More origin characters with a DLC would be nice as well if those kind of benefits were added to them id pay for dlc content with good origins companions down the road.
Mercs sooner would be nice but you can exploit that a little currently with the multiplayer option if you can get a friend to make characters for you to use in a multiplayer story line for the time being to help make your party options a little better on that no rush so its less of a rush to get that included.
More magical scimitars. (Every balders gate game seems to forget the scimitar wielders) - for every player who likes to play melee classes besides myself I include this.
Faster access to multiclassing would also be good though i see this as well as being closer to live release but soon it is added better for balance testing. Just getting all the base classes is more important.
A little bit more randomness with some drops from monsters / bosses would also be nice to an extent but not needed for early access. (Including it as a feedback thought however just incase it would still be appreciated).
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Biggest take away hopes
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More classes as soon as possible will help for balance testing the sooner we get those in early access. The more final races and classes added the sooner. You guys (Larion) will be know if there are any balance adjustments you need to make and the more you will see players diversify there choices that maybe your not seeing as much of as you might with more classes. Players get more into rping those different choices faster when they can build that character that they feel fits what ever idea there little brain is floating with. Also sooner the additional classes get added sooner big fans of those classes will jump into play because some people may just not have even picked it up yet because they are like
my favorite class can't be played yet.
Ranger Animal Companion Balance...right now basically no one uses anything but the spider from the look/sounds of it. I included that content from the gm's binder sight because it seems like it might be helpful on the whole for making more evenly balanced animal companions improve beast master and just make players more engaged with the class. As it looks like there are still tweaks need to be made to the ranger a lot from early access.
- I will check in on this post regularly if anyone does want to include comments and update it as early access moves along. With additional thoughts / removing things from the list as they get added to the game to keep the post fresh and up to date.
