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5e is a vast ocean of potential, but it’s a shallow puddle in terms of official classes. We have a lot of “one-page” options like races, subclasses, feats, and backgrounds, but classes are noticeably lacking compared to other TTRPGs, like Pathfinder 2. If you play this game long enough, you’ll find yourself trying to make a character concept or playstyle that the official books simply don’t support. At this point, you may start to surf the net and find a community of designers working on expanding the game in this way.
Many DMs may feel some hesitation about allowing full classes due to all the moving parts of the machine, and evaluating the general balance of a class is a skill that has to be learned over time. However, there is a bustling community of homebrew enthusiasts that have tested dozens of classes throughout the years. As a founder of one such community, I will at least attest to these recommendations as “acceptable for standard 5e.”
Before hopping into this section, I’ll give the disclaimer here: I am a class designer and have worked with multiple designers appearing on this list, but I was requested to write this article as someone deeply in the third-party Dungeons & Dragons scene. That means my own classes are also here because I tried to fill gaps in the game I haven’t seen others do as well.
Third-party D&D 5e classes in this article:
Accursed
Alchemist
Craftsman
Dancer
Elementalist
Gunslinger
Investigator
Magus
Merchant
Odic
Psion
Pugilist
Runekeeper
Scholar
Sculptor
Shaman
Tarrochi
Vanguard
Guidelines for D&D 5e Third-Party Class Content
I also figured I should let you know a few guidelines I have when it comes to third-party stuff if I’m going to at least allow something for trial at my table:
1.) No multiclassing homebrew into other homebrew. I make the good faith assumption that professional third-party designers at least account for the official class options. However, it’s unrealistic to expect them all to account for every piece of homebrew content out there.
2.) Narrative informs the Role & Vice-Versa. If someone brought me a class marketed as a meat-shield martial warrior, and it got full spellcasting progression, no weapon or skill proficiencies, and expertise? By all means, get weird with it, but I expect a class to have a clear Zone and Role in combat, as well as a roleplay Dynamic.
3.) No exploitable features. I do at least a quick skim of an option to check for things like the “Bag of Rats” exploit, or straight-up unreasonable bonuses. The tell-tale sign that the class likely has issues is if it grants two strong saves (Dexterity, Constitution, and Wisdom) or two weak saves (Strength, Intelligence, Charisma), rather than one of each.
4.) No reskins. This doesn’t mean anything comparable to a 5e class. If there’s a gap that needs to be filled, then by all means fill it. However, renaming a Paladin and making it an Intelligence caster doesn’t exactly do this “gap-filling” for me.
Additionally, I won’t be covering revisions and reworks here either. We’re interested in classes that do something new to earn their spot! So with that all out of the way, let’s start off with…
Accursed
Ross Leiser (Outlandish Adventure Productions)
Disclaimer: Ross is currently remastering all of his classes for 2023. They all perform well for 5e, but he’s aiming to bring them up to his modern standards.
The Accursed Class is all about embracing a curse you’ve been afflicted with to a capacity where you take control of it. We see this kind of concept in all kinds of fantasy, particularly in more grimdark settings, yet the closest we get to it narratively is probably the warlock. For a class that had a lot of “edgelord” potential, Ross’ Accursed handles these darker themes with maturity and just the right amount of “bite” rather than “edge.”
The Accursed is a hard debuffer that plays with detriments in an extremely interesting and innovative way; you can extend your curse to your enemies. For people looking for that kind of “embracing downsides” type of play, the Accursed does so in a way that doesn’t involve an unreasonable amount of tracking, which tends to be the barrier for entry in piloting these kinds of characters. The subclasses all fulfill the narrative expectations you’d have for such a concept, with a Misfortune, Lycan, and Vampire subclass, as well as one for characters cursed by a piece of equipment through the Curse of the Armament. It’s a Platinum best-seller on the DMsGuild for a good reason. I did a full breakdown of the class with Ross over on my YouTube channel, so go check that out if the concept sounds appealing to you!
Zone: Midline/Backline
Role: Striker/Debuffer
Dynamic: Flexible
Alchemist
Taron Pounds (Indestructoboy Designs), or Mike Holik (Mage Hand Press)
Disclaimer: This is one of my classes.
5e is pretty under-serving of this classic fantasy trope. The Blaster playstyle has been exclusively reserved for spellcasters, and martials have been woefully neglected in this edition. Further, the Alchemist Artificer can leave players feeling underwhelmed about the lack of modularity in the option and support for alchemical items as they already exist in the game.
This was the reason I set out to make my own Alchemist earlier this year, and why–up until then–I allowed the Mage Hand Press Alchemist at my tables. The reason I list both here is because I think both create a different type of alchemist. Mine embraces the crafting elements of 5e as they already exist, and Mage Hand Press’ opts for an approach similar to–but distinct from–Pathfinder’s alchemist. If you’re more familiar with the Pathfinder alchemist, I’d suggest taking theirs. It comes down to preference here, but allowing for both multiclassing within each other may lead to some interactions you hadn’t really planned on, and it’s not what I built mine around.
Zone: Backline
Role: Blaster/Support
Dynamic: Brain
Craftsman
Mike Holik (Mage Hand Press)
I have talked about my issues with artificer in the past on my channel, and my desire for a totally martial, engineer type of class. While I haven’t gone through Mage Hand Press’ Craftsman thoroughly enough to totally vouch for it, I trust the designer’s sensibilities enough to at least allow someone to give it a shot at my tables. The class is an extremely modular option, with the entire document encompassing 64 pages, but I feel the overall amount of content here might hurt newer player buy-in.
It’s quite a lot to wrap your mind around, but the Craftsman seems to be the closest thing I’ve found to hitting the idea I have in my mind for an engineer in this game. For those of you looking for that MacGuyver-style character, feeling the Artificer didn’t scratch the itch, you might consider picking up the Craftsman over on Mage Hand Press’ storefront.
Zone: Flexible (this is so highly customizable that it can be hard to handle)
Role: Striker/Supplier
Dynamic: Flexible
Dancer
Taron Pounds (Indestructoboy Designs)
Disclaimer: This is one of my classes.
In late 2020, I started to wonder why there wasn’t a pure martial support in fifth edition. This combat role has mostly been relegated to spellcasters that focus on buffing and debuffing spells, and there didn’t seem to be much outside of haste for buffing your allies’ action economy.
As a big fan of the Fire Emblem series, I took inspiration from the dancers there and built the Dancer class for Dungeons & Dragons to be one that could cash in their actions to energize their allies, and performed various dance flares to buff and debuff. This one has seen some actual-play love, and I’ve been working on an update as of late to fill it with brand-new artwork before it goes to print. The class is constructed to optimize your party’s features to their fullest extent, and rewards building out your flare portfolio for party cohesion in a way I feel 5e has been really missing.
Zone: Midline
Role: Support
Dynamic: Face
Elementalist
Ross Leiser (Outlandish Adventure Productions)
Disclaimer: Ross is currently remastering all of his classes for 2023. They all perform well for 5e, but he’s aiming to bring them up to his modern standards.
If the Four Elements Monk isn’t fulfilling your Avatar: the Last Airbender fantasies–and let’s be honest, we know it’s not–then you need to check out the Elementalist by Ross Leiser. Alternatively, you might favor the Lacer by Alex Tanner for all the element-bender flavor, but Tanner’s Lacer definitely embraces the source material far more. Both classes succeed in achieving the concept, but the Elementalist feels more setting agnostic in my opinion, and will definitely be less difficult for newer players to pilot.
The Elementalist hits the narrative core of what Four Elements attempted, but expands the concept out into a unique half-caster martial artist gish that doesn’t lean so hard into the Avatar inspiration as to only create one type of character. You can absolutely create an Elementalist as a spellsword that feels totally divorced from the Avatar roots, in a way that makes me think you could build a party of Chrono Trigger-style gishes of all Elementalists creating intertwined magic combos.
Zone: Midline/Backline
Role: Striker/Blaster
Dynamic: Flexible, likely either Face, Guide, or Heart
Gunslinger
heavyarms
Around 2016, there seems to have been some kind of zeitgeist that firearms couldn’t work in Dungeons & Dragons without doing ridiculous damage numbers for a weapon and including clunky Misfire mechanics as some means of balancing them out. It also seemed like no Gunslinger class was embracing the classic American Western fantasy of firearms, and was instead always leaning towards the singular trope of your character being “the first to design a firearm in the world.”
In late 2020, I knew heavyarms had been working on a Gunslinger and hit him up to get in on playtesting it with one of my players in an Icewind Dale campaign. In play, this thing absolutely rocks. It’s a devastating striker with a reduced crit range mechanic that fluctuates a-la a Rage-like reset. Of all the Gunslinger classes I’ve seen in the homebrew space, the version heavyarms dished out has been my favorite take on the concept to the point of considering this the “definitive” Gunslinger for D&D.
Zone: Backline
Role: Striker
Dynamic: Flexible, likely either Face, Scout, or Sneak
Investigator
Mike Holik (Mage Hand Press)
For those of you Dresden fans, the Investigator is going to be right up your alley. Going off the One D&D terminology, the Investigator is an Expert class that gains a measure of spellcasting through a ritual-only system, justified by the class’ narrative as an exorcist and occultist. I personally feel the class name doesn’t totally convey what it’s all about and could have possibly been better suited as an “Occultist”, but I can also see some of the martial leaning on some of the features possibly having pushed Holik and Mage Hand Press away from that idea.
While setting agnostic, I feel the Investigator really shines in high-roleplay, intrigue campaigns and is likely truly at-home with more Lovecraftian D&D tables. So if you’re looking for more alternate classes to fill out a “thieves’ guild” for a Dragon Heist game, the Investigator could feel more appropriate for the cast of characters than any other mage.
Zone: Midline/Backline
Role: Striker/Support
Dynamic: Brain
Magus
Benjamin Huffman (Sterling Vermin Adventure Co.)
Huffman was one of the first homebrew designers to do class design with the level of polish we’ve seen become the “norm” for paywalled third-party work. It was his Pugilist, which we’ll talk about later, that inspired many aspiring designers (including myself) to take on class design as a professional endeavor.
The Magus was Huffman’s follow-up to his acclaimed Pugilist, and he delivered my favorite take I’ve seen on a gish spellsword class yet. Before this, spellswords were relegated to either Paladin, Warlock, or Bard and didn’t really fulfill the idea of an arcane gish. People had previously recommended reskinning Paladin as some arcane Intelligence smiter, and that’s just not exciting.
Huffman’s Magus stands out as something mechanically and narratively distinct from any existing official options. The Magus also innovated on 5e design conventions by developing a new spellcasting scaffolding, a flexible ability score for your spellcasting ability, and subclass-dependent spell lists. Each of the subclasses oozes with flavor, all inspired heavily by archetypes present in various Japanese roleplaying video games.
Zone: Flexible
Role: Striker/Support; Blaster potential
Dynamic: Flexible, Casting ability-dependent
Merchant
Taron Pounds
Disclaimer: This is a product I worked on.
The Merchant was the first class I wrote as a professional designer, one I wrote as the Charisma answer to Artificer. It’s a high-support spellcasting class with a focus on supplying you and your party with items you’ll need throughout your adventure essentially on-demand through their Portable Storefront feature. I wanted to make an item specialist that focused on mundane items rather than magical ones, so if that sounds appealing to you, go check it out over on the Dungeon Masters Guild!
Zone: Midline
Role: Support, Supplier
Dynamic: Face
Odic
Ross Leiser (Outlandish Adventure Productions)
Disclaimer: This one’s getting a remaster.
I’ve referred to the Odic as a “master’s thesis” on 5e design. Ross took on designing this one as a challenge to himself after seeing Reddit comments claiming a spellcaster that used Hit Points as a resource couldn’t work for 5e.
While “blood mage” as a class seems to be appealing for grimdark campaigns, it can lead to some unpleasant narratives at the table. This is especially true if players glorify the self-harm elements of the narrative. The Odic bucks this by emphasizing it’s a class of sacrifice rather than self-harm, where the magic saps your vitality rather than hurts you.
It’s a complex class to play compared to 5e options, as you dip into your hit points to fuel your spellcasting. This is an element of tracking that might turn some people away, but the Odic has been by far my favorite attempt at a Constitution caster.
Zone: Midline
Role: Support, possible Healer
Dynamic: Guide, Heart
Psion
KibblesTasty
There have been tons of attempts at bringing Psionics to fifth edition, but I haven’t seen anything that really hit the nail on the head quite like Kibbles’ Psion. More often than not, I’ve seen Psionic classes require the complexity of a spell point caster, offering the same amount of power, but with fewer restrictions because… I don’t know… “psionics” I guess?
Kibbles’ Psion doesn’t require a whole world of buy-in and reels back the resource tracking from the Unearthed Arcana Mystic class. If I’ve got a player telling me they want to play a psychic character, this is my go-to for now. There are a few others currently in development I’ve got my eye on as well, including one by Darrel “Drunken Yoda” Dominguez that I have been excited to watch develop in my community.
Zone: Backline
Role: Controller
Dynamic: Brain
Pugilist
Benjamin Huffman
Well, here it is. This class inspired so many of us homebrewers to pursue professional design. Benjamin’s Pugilist is one of the only classes to rival the popularity of Matthew Mercer’s Blood Hunter. The thing is so solid, it was at one time even discussed for inclusion on D&D Beyond.
The premise is simple: Monk’s thematics are tied into mysticism that just doesn’t hit the mark for a variety of unarmed brawlers. If you want a pure, bare-knuckle brawler, the whole Ki mechanic could feel like it detracts from your character’s aesthetic. Further, the Monk isn’t intended to be played as a class that sticks to the frontline, which really hurts the power fantasy some are trying to get out of the concept.
That’s where the Pugilist steps into the ring. Trading Monk’s control for the tankiness and Ki for Moxie, the Pugilist fills a massive gap in the game and finally plays the way most newer players are trying to pilot the Monk.
Zone: Frontline/Midline
Role: Striker, possible Harasser
Dynamic: Muscle
Runekeeper
Taron Pounds
Disclaimer: This is a product I worked on.
Again, since this is one of mine I’ll be really brief. I wasn’t satisfied with the lack of support for Rune Magic in 5e. Rune Knight always felt like an underwhelming realization of a classic fantasy theme, and I wanted to key the whole concept out to a full class. You can go check out a full, 70-page preview of it on the Dungeon Masters Guild if you’ve ever been interested in runes as a theme for your world!
Zone: Flexible
Role: Flexible
Dynamic: Brain
Scholar
Benjamin Huffman
The Scholar is an Intelligence-based, martial support that in a way acts as a sort of “Flash of Genius”, the class. Just for the record; it looks like the reaction-based addition to certain rolls was a coincidence in designs. Huffman wrote the Scholar in 2018, published in February 2019, and Eberron: Rising from the Last War was published in November 2019.
The Scholar is a non-magical expert class that embraces the Brain roleplay dynamic to its fullest. On low-combat tables, this class is going to absolutely shine to its fullest. That’s not to say magic is entirely off the table for this class. You can dip into some occult research to gain a limited measure of magic, but the strength comes down to just how reliable the Scholar’s support as a martialist truly is.
Zone: Backline
Role: Support
Dynamic: Brain
Sculptor
Ross Leiser
Disclaimer: Ross is currently remastering all of his classes for 2023. They all perform well for 5e, but he’s aiming to bring them up to his modern standards.
Another gish spellsword, but in a very unique way. The Sculptor is able to manifest a magical “shaped weapon” that hits on a lot of video game and anime character archetypes. Think of it like a “magical MacGuyver”, or a variant Artificer. It’s the only way I’ve ever seen anyone design a fantasy version of the Buster Cannon from Megaman and Metroid–an archetype Ross showed me is going to be in the Remaster. It’s not supposed to be a “definitive gish” class, it’s a gish with a remarkably unique flavor.
Ross is incredibly inventive with magic systems, in part thanks to his background in mathematics. You’ll be able to shape different objects for various situations in a way I wish we could have seen the Artificer take on. It hits so many beats I didn’t realize I wanted, and you can check it out for yourself over on the Dungeon Masters Guild.
Zone: Flexible
Role: Likely Striker, though somewhat flexible
Dynamic: Brain
Shaman
Ross Leiser
Disclaimer: This is a product I worked on.
Embracing ritual casting as an entire class mechanic, the Shaman takes inspiration from Native American and Voodoo practices, as well as the totem Shaman archetype made popular by World of Warcraft. Ross brought on cultural consultants and sensitivity readers to make sure he didn’t game-ify real-world traditions, and what came out of it was a beautiful, modular spellcaster that treats its source material with care.
Zone: Midline/Backline
Role: Support, though Flexible
Dynamic: Flexible, though Face is reinforced.
Tarrochi
Alex Tanner
The Tarrochi is a spellcaster with a playing card-based mechanic, wherein you draw a hand with a standard 52-card deck of poker cards to determine what you can cast. While the idea is definitely a fun and interesting one, my first impressions of the class were that it has a great narrative to roll with, but felt too complex for as little payoff as it was offering. While I have not personally seen the Tarrochi in play, I’ve had a few commenters and community members tell me they ran it and felt it wasn’t any more complex than a normal spellcaster. Because of that, this one’s a soft recommendation because I can definitely see the appeal for tons of people, especially when paired with a Gunslinger for a Weird West style campaign.
Zone: Midline/Backline
Role: Striker/Blaster
Dynamic: Face
Vanguard
Taron Pounds
Disclaimer: This is a product I worked on.
In 2021, I started jotting down a few gaps I felt were left with 5e’s class system. One of the most glaring to me, as a MOBA tank and support main, was a true, dedicated peel tank. After wrapping up my Alchemist, I settled on the Vanguard, a towershield-bearing colossus of a class that traded off Barbarian’s damage output for heavy control and armor. You can check out a level 1-6 preview over on my Shopify and a guide on my YouTube channel!
Zone: Frontline
Role: Controller/Tank
Dynamic: Muscle
Go Try D&D 5e Third-party Classes!
Which D&D 5e third-party classes have you tried? Are you considering a character that uses a homebrew class? How about the classes in this article?
Cast Message in the comments to tell us your plans and experiences with D&D 5e third-party classes. If you enjoyed this article, you’ll likely enjoy my other article about D&D 5e third-party content that is less focused on player classes.
