Hey folks-

This is going to be a long post... that's what happens I don't post for a bit I guess.

First of all, the previous winners (note, these will not be added to the playtest packet, as the playtest packet will be move to being the KCAA draft shortly, and these are not going to be in KCAA, probably).

1) Warlock - Pactbreaker

This is a unique one: a Warlock that has severed the pact with their patron and now wields orphaned otherworldly power. I put a bit of summary of my process over on the Discord when I first published for those that want some insights into the design direction:

This has gone few drafts, because the question of "wtf is a Pactbreaker Warlock looms large?"; in the 5e mythos, a Warlock does not lose their power if they break their pact with the patron, while in the common sense mythos, their power is usually gone.

My view is that both of those are possible, and a Pactbreaker is the 3rd possibility. Breaking your pact severs your connection, but if you had claimed enough of the power, you just stay a warlock. If the patron still had full control, you lose your power. But if the power wasn't fully claimed nor fully able to be revoked, you become a pactbreaker—a mortal stuffed with rampant 'dead' power you struggle to control.

The journey of a pactbreaker is making that power theirs. They are not a Sorcerer, born with the power and perfectly adapted it from the start, rather they are poorly fitting mortal container, who, even as they bend the power to their will and learn to control, are being mutated and warped by the otherworldly power within them into an increasingly overworldly being themselves.

GMBinder Link: https://www.gmbinder.com/share/-OzSEQFbdTjw6ORH0Jm3

2) Paladin - Oath of the Dragon

The number two winner from the last time was the Oath of the Dragon Paladin.

This is a bit of an interesting one, because, let's face it, 'Dragon' is a sort of odd ideal—does this mean you've sworn of to a Dragon? That you want be a Dragon? That you just think Dragons are awesome? That you are a Dragon and you think you are awesome, because, lets face it, Dragons have the ego to gain magical powers from pure self confidence...? All of the above?

On top of that, while dragons have shared traits, they also have quite a lot of diversity—chromatic and metallic dragons share some traits, and have some radical differences.

So the oath is a bit flexible to customize what sort of Dragon Paladin you are based on the virtues you believe and how you've come to this oath. I think that should do a pretty good job representing most of the things people could be coming to the idea with, but let me know if you feel it's missing something.

GMBinder Link: https://www.gmbinder.com/share/-OzSEqjW48FCO1jTRlgL

3) Cartomancy Occultist

So, these wasn't actually a Patreon poll winner, this was a Kickstarter poll winner, but as I've never posted it to Patreon, I figured now as is as good a time as any to include it. This one is in the Playtest packet, keep an eye on the August Playtest Packet when I post it for the PDF version.

August Subclass Poll: Paragons

With Paragon marching toward 1.0, it's time for another Paragon poll. This poll will be a bit more limited than the last one, because this will probably be the final subclass for the 1.0 version, so I want to curate the options to make it a bit more well rounded (meaning dropping out options that, while possibly still have room for a subclass, already overlap somewhat with existing options).

To owe some explanations for that ones that are dropped from the last poll:

Mutant. Mutant was actually intended to be one of the 4 'launch' subclasses, along with Prodigy, Divine, and Gifted. But, while I still think it may show up, it has some degree of conceptual overlap with Symbiotic, Vampiric, and Augmented. There are already a lot of Paragons that lean in that more monstrous direction, despite that being more of an exception to the rule (people like to vote for edgy options!). So, while it may return, its dropped from this list.

Transformation. Likewise, it overlaps a lot with what Symbiotic ended up being, since Symbiotic is pretty flexible about how exactly it works, and generally serves as 'your powers come from a second form you can transform into'). I could see how to do a different one, but its too similar (there are some options here that cover aspects of it as well).

Pursuit of Light. I have no real problem with doing this, but with Pursuit of Lightning winning last time, its probably better to do something more-different than that. Light covers a fair number of things Lightning doesn't and visa versa, but they also have some overlap, and lights damage type would also overlap with fire in most cases unless it wanted to go more radiant, but there's other options for more radiant. Will probably do light/shadow options in the future.

Pursuit of Aim. Dropping this for now. Ranged Paragons have proven somewhat troublesome, and I'm not sure how much I want to encourage them. This may come back in the future. I have some ideas in this direction I'll talk more about in the future.

A few others were dropped for not getting many votes and just wanting to focus the list. I did however add a few new options.

None of these options are 'dead', they will probably return in future polls, but they've been dropped from the running for the 1.0 run-up release, hopefully that makes sense.