Obviously, "last minute" is a bit of an understatement, given that we've got anywhere from fifteen to twenty-six months before the thing currently codenamed (guys, relax, it's a codename) One D&D is released.
But with the "Expert Classes" UA due to arrive some time tomorrow (hopefully early) I thought I'd put forth a couple ideas for what I'd like to see of these classes.
Bards:
Ok, first, confession time: I have never really gotten into the Bard. I know there are people who absolutely love them, and who swear that they're a really powerful, good class. But I have never been able to wrap my head around why they say so.
I have, at the very least, been able to run a campaign for over two years in which my best friend plays a Bard, so I now have a fair amount of second-hand knowledge. As a DM, the ways in which he manages to kick ass tend to be mass crowd-control with spells like Confusion and Hypnotic Pattern. But these aren't exclusive to the class.
Anyway, long story short, this is the class I have the least real insight to provide. Bardic Inspiration is a big deal, and at higher levels it can be quite powerful (adding a d12 can really swing a roll) though classically, players forget to make use of it.
Personally, if I had my druthers, I'd want Bards to get a fourth subclass feature level. They're the only class that only gets these features at three levels (most get subclass stuff four times, and a couple get them five times) but I also imagine this would really fly in the face of backwards compatibility.
Frankly, I also think the following redesign of Bardic Inspiration could make the class feel way more effective and powerful: Rather than as a bonus action on their turn, and lasting for 10 minutes or until used, if a Bard could give their Bardic Inspiration as a reaction when a friendly creature within range that can hear them makes a d20 test - perhaps letting the roll happen, but before the results are complete (a little more in line with the Artificer's Flash of Genius) this would make the feature way easier to use.
But that's pretty much what I've got.
Rangers:
So, Rangers got buffed in a number of ways in Tasha's, giving a lot of options that made them more versatile.
Favored Foe was a... noble idea that just fell apart in execution. I think you could potentially fix it in a few ways. The first would be to allow it to persist without requiring concentration. After all, Rangers are half-casters, and a feature that prevents them from using concentration spells that isn't, itself, a concentration spell, seems like an odd 1st-level, baseline feature.
What I'd be tempted to do is actually fold in Foe Slayer at level 1, rather than level 20. I might then borrow some of the concept of Favored Foe - namely, being able to designate someone as your foe a limited number of times per day, to keep the power of this under control.
Let's try this as an example:
When you hit a creature with a weapon attack, you can choose to mark them as your Foe. While marked in this way, you deal additional damage with your weapon attacks equal to your Wisdom modifier, including the attack that marked it. The foe remains marked until you mark a different foe, your marked foe dies or you finish a long rest, whichever comes first. You can mark a foe in this way a number of times equal to your Wisdom modifier, and regain all uses of this feature when you finish a long rest.
Until higher levels, you're unlikely to see this adding more than one or two damage (though a Druidic Warrior/Shillelagh build could get a lot out of it) but it emphasizes the Ranger as a real single-target-focused character, which feels right.
As an Expert class, we know that they'll be getting Expertise (which they already effectively get on one skill with the "Canny" part of Deft Explorer form Tasha's). The Ranger, of course, is the character who should be really reliable on guiding the party through wilderness. I don't know if this will simply be accomplished by giving them more traditional Expertise or if they need something else.
Rogues:
Rogues are honestly, I think, a pretty well-designed class for the most part. In combat, missing out on Sneak Attack can be pretty devastating. I also think a lot of players don't totally understand Sneak Attack - I've had to explain numerous times that having an ally in melee with the target is only necessary if you don't get advantage on the attack.
Here, I'm eager to see, most of all, the Assassin subclass revisions. On its surface, the Assassin ought to be one of the absolute core Rogue subclasses. But the Infiltration Expertise and Imposter features are ludicrous - they're basically not features, because they explain stuff that any creative player should be able to do. Now, to be fair, Assassinate and Death Strike, the other two subclass features, are really powerful when they go off, but it feels like this should all be balanced out a bit better.
Ultimately, of course, we're going to get a much better sense of what to expect tomorrow.
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