Talk:Stand Master (5e Race)

I can't really say I'm a fan of this, but it took my a while to pin down exactly why. I think one of the greatest charms of Stands in JJBA is the aesthetic of it. In terms of actual abilities, Stands don't do much more than any other fighting anime/manga powers. The idea of a separate entity hosting the power, and the aesthetic that comes with it, is a huge part of what makes Stands so cool, in my opinion anyway.

Obviously, there's far more to JJBA as a series than just this aspect of things, but what I'm getting at is that I think a Stand user would function far better if it was merely someone reimagining a class/race combo to fit the aesthetic, rather than making a brand new thing. For instance, I could possibly use the stats of a human fighter, but describe the character itself as being able to manifest an entity with the abilities of said fighter. It might require a little bit of technical tweaking in some specific cases, but it's easily doable. You could also reimagine a familiar or something in a similar way.

When trying to make a Stand user into its class or race, however, you're basically forced to limit it substantially. Here, you've limited the player to choosing between a small number of existing Stands, which basically just removes the ability to actually do something unique with the concept. The problem is that you don't really have any other choice; after all, you can't just let players make up some ability and stats on the fly, and by that point, reimagining existing stats simply becomes a lot easier and a lot more feasible. --Calibri (talk) 01:38, 11 August 2020 (MDT)