They are hiding confirmations behind other confirmations now. Everything is confirmed, yet nothing is.
Glitchling.
Rogue Modrons, but also not (Expect more of those porcelain doll characters that people use Warforged and Autognome Stats with)
Creature type: Construct.
I would assume this means non-humanoid PCs are going to happen. The construct type is perhaps the second most impactful creature type to have in terms of what it makes you a valid target for.
Armored Plating.
This is just flat out better than similar “unarmored” racial features. Even the shell of a Tortle is weaker than this power if you have a good Dex score. Heck, it’s better than using Medium Armor most of the time too.
Balance Chaos.
Setting your roll to 10 automatically makes you pass death saving throws, otherwise you aren’t likely to turn a failure into a success unless you are seriously pumping up that particular roll (like an Archer would) and just biffed it on a natural 1 or something.
Ordered Mind.
Advantage on Insight instead of +1d4? Have they finally abandoned that particular mechanic? Advantage against charm is alright too.
Vestigial Wings.
Super-Jumping power.
Thoughts:
Clearly overtuned, but not game-breakingly so. An ideal pick for any Archer, or Arcane Caster.
Fate Domain.
Purportedly the School of Divination via Cleric.
Domain Spells.
Mostly protective spells, a few “Let me ask about the future” spells, and what should have been focused on more: Charm type spells that force creatures to do things. Augury, Commune, Divination. These spells aren’t suitable as features, they are spells PCs cast because they are lost and need a mulligan to get back on the plot.
Omens and Portents.
Sadly, this isn't anywhere as fun as Portent is. It’s just more plot mulliganing.
Ties that Bind.
Finally, some threads of fate manipulation. Oh wait, it’s just Hunter's Mark as a class feature. Which is kind of sad for Rangers, now that I think about it. How long have they been asking for this, and suddenly the Cleric gets it?
Strands of Fate.
Now for REAL fate manipulation, and it's just inflicting (dis)advantage on attack rolls and skill checks. I suppose it stacks with Guidance and Bless at least (as long as someone else casts them, that is). Actually, why isn’t Guidance one of the key mechanics for this subclass? It's way more fun and useful than Augury.
Insightful Striking.
-1d6 to an enemy saving throw is hands down the most useful and most fun ability this subclass has to offer, and they get it at level 6. Sheesh.
Potent Spellcasting.
Standard and whatever.
Visions of the Future.
Foresight isn’t exactly the best 9th level spell, but a free 9th level spell that lasts all day isn’t bad at all.
Thoughts.
Honestly they should have gone with fate weavers with scissors and thread instead of oracles. More charm, more dice manipulation, less 20 questions with your DM. You can even pepper in some premonition power like Spider-man’s Spider Sense if you have to. In fact, that would be great to go with the threads of fate angle that is begging to come out of this subclasses shell.
Backgrounds.
Actually backgrounds are unimportant, due to the fact they are inherently malleable, and it appears they are setting up all backgrounds to get a free feat. So even the free feats aren’t worth discussing in this section, with one caveat:
I must point out that Tough and Skilled are not cool feats, even when they are free. There are way cooler feats, like Chef, or Healer, or Inspiring Leader, that people would rather have. People want actual mechanical representation of their character quirks, not boring stuff like more HP.
I mean, yes, people want more HP at low levels, but that has nothing to do with character creation options and everything to do with smoothing over the bumps of levels 1-3.
Thoughts.
Planescape Confirmed though~
Feats.
I will be doing this in categorized order: Level 1 free feats, their feat trees. And then any stragglers. The best way to parse this kind of information.
Rune Carver Apprentice
Magic Initiate via other means.
Rune Carver Adept
Makes your runes better, PB/Day. The effects are, weak, at best. But it is technically a free action rider on something you were going to do anyway. If it is a free level 4 feat, it’s ok. If you have to spend an ASI on it, pass.
Scion of Elemental Air
All of these elemental feats Scream for the Elemental Evil Cantrips to be reprinted with them. Seriously, they demand it, it would be sooo gooood.
Minor illusion is an OK cantrip (if you have a fair DM) , and a super-jump as a bonus action is handy.
Scion of Elemental Earth
Druidcraft? I suppose if you can’t have Mold Earth it’s nice. Speaking of Mold Earth, you can use a bonus action to create some earthen cover, which is handy for map control.
Scion of Elemental Fire
Dancing Lights is okish, Control Flames would be more on point. Produce Flame as a bonus action is intriguing, but a bit clunky. Easily the weakest of them so far.
Scion of Elemental Water
You know what I am going to say here: Shape Water.
The 10’ of push/pull as a bonus action is really good, possibly the best one of the lot.
Scion of the Outer Planes.
Resistance and a Cantrip? Not bad for a free feat. Though why is there no Force Resistance? Surely Chaos or Law would imply that.
Agent of Order
A half-feat with PB/LR binding smites. It’s hard to say this isn’t worth it, but I have better things to spend an ASI on for sure.
Baleful Scion
Another Haf-feat with smites, only these are vampiric smites. Less worth an ASI than Order for sure.
Cohort of Chaos
It’s wild magic, for attack rolls! So, just, no. There is a reason why crit fumbles aren’t in the core rules.
Outlands Envoy
Add Tongues and Misty Step to your spell list, and cast them once for free per day. There are other ways you could have gotten those spells.
Planar Wanderer
Resistance to damage, and you can crack Portals open. This is a feat anchored for Planescape, but it is still the best one of these so far.
Righteous Heritor
A reaction to reduce damage. So not worth spending an ASI on.
Strike of the Giants
A selection of bonus action smites that work on thrown weapons. If it wasn’t free I wouldn’t recommend it, because it’s actually weaker than the feats I already went over.
Ember of the Fire Giant
You can burst out blinding flame like a Fizbans-Dragonborn. Also fire resistance.
Fury of the Frost Giant
A slowing rebuke when you are hurt by an attack roll. Basically that tiefling thing but icy. Also Frost resistance.
Guile of the Cloud Giant
Gain resistance and teleport as a reaction to being hurt with an attack, actually really handy.
Keenness of the Stone Giant
You get an extreme rendition of the Magic Stone cantrip, that you can only attack with pbXpb/day. This is so bad, did you notice it doesn’t even have the finesse property? So if you are playing a STR character you are using your DEX mod because it's a Ranged Weapon!
Also darkvision. But wow, they messed this one up.
Soul of the Storm Giant
This one is also bad, it creates a 10’ storm around you, for one turn, that inflicts disadvantage on attack rolls and halves enemy speed. This should really last longer.
Vigor of the Hill Giant
You can ignore forced movement as a reaction (handy) and gain more HP when you spend HD as part of a long rest. One of the better giant feats, surprisingly. Considering hill giants being so weak amongst the giants.
Cartomancer
You can use cards as a focus. Dealing extra damage when you do so (Hi to you Magic Missile!).
Additionally, you gain Prestidigitation, which is a fun spell, made even more fun when you can forgo the components of the spell to do tricks.
Finally, you can store a spell to activate as a trap card with a bonus action, which is crazy good. This feat is amazing. And the only bad thing I can say about it is that Artificers can’t use it.
Thoughts
It occurs to me now, that if they really wanted to make feats that level up with you, they should just make feats that level-locked powers instead of doing feat trees where you pick up a half-feat to mitigate the loss of an ASI.
Spells
Antagonize
It’s a direct damage spell that eats up a reaction, at level 3. This is a level 2 effect at best.
House of Cards
Artificers do exist! Unfortunately, this spell kind of sucks. Thanks to the long cast time, it’s only real use is to set up a trap of some kind (or maybe function as a makeshift bridge). And even then it has a ton of problems. Casting the spell as an action would make it useful for setting up some impromptu cover in the middle of combat, and make the spell good.
Spirit of Death.
Summon Undead is way better. Unless you are a Sorcerer, in which case you finally have access to a Summon spell, at long last, even if it is a bad one.
Spray of Cards
It’s like Color Spray and Burning Hands compressed into one spell, but you can only pick one of them at a time. Useful for Sorcerers with their limited spell selection I suppose, but it would have been cool to actually combine the effects. Also, the damage scales badly for some reason.
Summon Warrior Spirit
Finally, a good summon spell for a Sorcerer, and all it had to do is let them summon another class to do the dirty work for them. Will wonders never cease?
At any rate, there are distinct advantages to each summon option. The Fighter is defense, the Monk is control, and the Barbarian is raw DPR.
Thoughts
There is a list of card spells here, and I can’t help but feel like this was meant for a scrapped subclass. Possibly a Sorcerer origin that was just too niche to pass internal playtesting. But wow, that would have been quite the subclass judging from these scraps.
dnd.wizards.com
