Unearthed Arcana June Unearthed Arcana: Druid Shepherd, Fighter Cavalier, and Paladin of Conquest

The latest Unearthed Arcana from Mearls and Crawford revisits four subclasses from earlier UA articles. "Part of the fun of playtesting is seeing how feedback and play can push a design in new directions. In this month’s Unearthed Arcana, we revisit class material that appeared in previous installments: four subclasses for various classes, along with Eldritch Invocations for the warlock. This material was all popular, and the revisions to it were driven by feedback that thousands of you provided in surveys. The updated subclasses are the druid’s Circle of the Shepherd, the fighter’s Cavalier, the paladin’s Oath of Conquest, and the warlock’s Celestial (formerly known as the Undying Light). One of the main pieces of feedback we got about the Eldritch Invocations is that most players didn’t want them exclusive to particular Otherworldly Patron options, so we’ve opened them up to more warlocks, tweaked them, and cut the least popular ones."

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[Gladius Legis]

The Eldritch Smite looks like a poor choice, IMO. The Warlock has so few spell slots that a simple +Xd8 damage on one melee attack hardly seems worth it.

It's the same amount of damage per equivalent level spell slot as the Paladin's Divine Smite. If you're going to argue this is weak, then you'll have to argue that is too.

 

[Xeviat]

Oh hey look, easy Short Rest Cure Wounds.


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[Staffan]

It's the same amount of damage per equivalent level spell slot as the Paladin's Divine Smite. If you're going to argue this is weak, then you'll have to argue that is too.

The difference is that the paladin has more spell slots, albeit lower-level ones. Up to 10th level, the warlock only has two spell slots (per short rest), while the 10th level paladin has a total of 9 slots of 1st through 3rd level.

And the warlock's slots can generally be used to do more interesting things. Blight with a 5th level slot would deal 9d8 (save for half). A fiend-pact warlock could fireball for 10d6. Or you could cast fly, hold monster, or hypnotic pattern.

 

[Gladius Legis]

And the warlock's slots can generally be used to do more interesting things. Blight with a 5th level slot would deal 9d8 (save for half). A fiend-pact warlock could fireball for 10d6. Or you could cast fly, hold monster, or hypnotic pattern.

A Bladelock with Thirsting Blade and a longsword pact weapon would do 8d8 + 2xSTR on an Eldritch Smite turn w/ 5th-level slot (smite extra damage of 6d8 is hit-confirmable), which is more single-target damage than Blight.

Sure Warlocks have spells they can cast, but Eldritch Smite gives the Bladelock a very reliable single-target damage option in melee combat. It's not like Paladins don't have other interesting things to cast other than Divine Smite, either (Bless, Command, Find Steed, Aura of Vitality). Both classes will experience tradeoffs in gameplay, but their Smite options are nice to have around if they need to bring single-target pain.

 

[Hussar]

cool

 

[variant]

They did. The Celestial pact is the Undying Light renamed.

It doesn't resemble it at all. The name is different, most of its power and where it derives its power from are completely different. It isn't the same subclass, no matter what they say in the PDF.

 

[Tales and Chronicles]

It doesn't resemble it at all. The name is different, most of its power and where it derives its power from are completely different. It isn't the same subclass, no matter what they say in the PDF.

Well, the undying light had the ''problem'' of not having a well defined, sentient Patron, so they just switched it to fit the whole ''radiant beings'' theme more closely. In term of powers, they mostly get the same things, just not in the same order:
+Cha to fire/radiant damage
Free sacred flame
Radiant+blind counter-attack at 0 hp
Healing+Temp Hp battery

Its a matter of perception, but to me its very similar.

 

[daviddalbec]

They killed greatweapon hexblade builds right? I don't see any reason to do a STR build, except for the 2d6 instead of 1d10, but the amount of cha riders all over negate that. I'd like to see a heavy weapon invocation, or some love in the final hexblade version.

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[Ath-kethin]

Is there a list of all the unearthed arcana, specifically in order of release?

There is on my hard drive:

View attachment 84893

 

[gyor]

Hexblade gets mention in the hex invocation which basically confirms it's in XGE, along with the Celestial Patron.

I think a Aasimar Paladin/Celestial Bladelock multi class would be interesting, both get a sort of Lay on hands effect, as does the Aasimar.

I do think maybe Celestial Patron needs to be toned down a bit, it's a lot more powerful then the other Patrons.

I mean by level 20 it get a pool of 20D6 healing, which is like 2 level 9 cure wounds spells, and a 2 level cure wounds spell.

+Charisma damage to fire and radiant damage cantrips.

And more it seems, a bit over powered.