Unearthed Arcana Latest Unearthed Arcana Introduces Rogue & Ranger Archetypes

New UA (1/16/2017): Ranger and Rogue

The new UA is up, you can see it here:http://media.wizards.com/2016/dnd/downloads/2017_01_UA_RangerRogue_0117JCMM.pdf

 

[Blue]

Well if your not Gutz carrying around a 7'-8' long Large greatsword would be very cumbersome. I would let them do it I guess, but I would probably come up with quite a few appropriate disadvantages. That being said, i would allow them to use large weapons at double weapon die when they are large.

Two oversized short swords shouldn't be much larger than two greatswords. Ranger fighting styles still favor one handed or dual wielding over two handed weapons, and I'd guess over half of rangers attack using Dex over Str to want finessable weapons.

 

[mach1.9pants]

What/where are the rules for larger weapons? The PHB says look at weapon properties, heavy. Not exactly relevant!

 

[Redthistle]

Meh. At 15th level, that trick is already possible via Regeneration spell; and Lore Bards have been doing essentially the same thing to their allies since 6th level w/ Aura of Vitality. Variant humans may have been doing it since level 1 with the Healer feat.

You're still vulnerable to insta-death, and getting grappled/kidnapped by a dragon to kill in isolation (away from help, including the aura); you're still vulnerable to petrification from a Medusa, or brain-eating by an Intellect Devourer, or getting Plane Shifted by a Rakshasa to the Elemental Plane of Fire, or getting shredded by a horde of zombies who auto-crit you to death and then start eating you on the same turn you go down to zero HP.

... and termites. And carpenter ants. And crazed gamers with chain-saws who've stumbled into the wrong game, because they heard that "here be zombies".

 

[FormerlyHemlock]

If your argument is that the dungeon master can still kill you if he wants, that is true to anything. Giving someone the ability to cast Wish at will still let the dungeon master kill you, but it does not stop it from being OP. (This was an intended exaggeration)

My observation is that the ability is not likely to be transformative for PCs. Anything that could kill you before can probably still kill you in the same way that it was already. Things that couldn't kill you, now are even worse at killing you.

Maybe there are synergies I'm overlooking though. E.g. if you had a swarm of rats that had been turned into rhinos by Animals Shapes, the Guardian shape would be nice for keeping your rhino army intact--or at least the ones within 30' of you.

I expect them to tone it down just because at-will group healing is so un-idiomatic for 5E, but even if they didn't, I don't see why it wouldn't be fine in play. Lore Bards can already heal thousands of HP per day by 15th level; a ranger who can restore you up to half HP (thus leaving you still in danger of insta-kills and death by swarms/disintegration/etc.) doesn't change the universe of monsters that a party of four PCs can kill successfully.

If you can think of any really powerful combos, better than anything which already exists, I might change my mind. But aside from Animal Shapes/minionmancy, I can't think of any. And minionmancy/Animal Shapes is already covered pretty adequately by Animal Shapes' free HP anyway, and by Inspiring Leader.

 

[nexalis]

One of the small peeves I have with the Rogue class is that every rogue has to know Thieves' Cant. This doesn't really fit in with my concept of a wilderness scout, a swashbuckler, a duelist, or any of a dozen other archetypes that I would otherwise like to express using the Rogue class. It makes my left eye twitch.

 

[slightlyprime]

bugbear in guardian form using a reach weapon has a 20ft mellee range

 

[Greg K]

The Horizon Walker and Forest Guardian don't fit the style of campaigns that I run so they will never get used in my campaigns. As for the Scout, it reminds me of why I dislike several classes not receiving their subclasses at first level.

 

[cbwjm]

The Horizon Walker and Forest Guardian don't fit the style of campaigns that I run so they will never get used in my campaigns. As for the Scout, it reminds me of why I dislike several classes not receiving their subclasses at first level.

I sometimes feel the same way in regard to first level archetypes. I still wish that each class followed a unified system for subclasses gaining each subclass level at the same time as every other class. It's partially a selfish desire though since I'd like to make a handful of universal subclasses that could be picked up by any class or subset of classes.

Sent from my SM-G925I using EN World mobile app

 

[dave2008]

Two oversized short swords shouldn't be much larger than two greatswords. Ranger fighting styles still favor one handed or dual wielding over two handed weapons, and I'd guess over half of rangers attack using Dex over Str to want finessable weapons.

I'm not sure what your point is, I was talking about Large sized greatswords. However, a Large short sword would be 2x as long (aaproximately 5.5-6 feet) and 8x the weight (16 lbs +/-). That is a lot different I think. Carrying around two of those would be quite unwieldy for most people, probably even heros

Now, obviously you could just use 2 greatswords for a game, but that is not what I was talking about.

 

[dave2008]

What/where are the rules for larger weapons? The PHB says look at weapon properties, heavy. Not exactly relevant!

There is suggestion in the DMG to add one weapon die for each category over medium, but it is not a rule and doesn't apply to PCs