Unearthed Arcana Spores, Brutes, and Inventors: Unearthed Arcana Brings You Three New Subclasses

While I like the mechanics behind Brute, do we really need another generic fighter? Champion already does that pretty well.

 

[MechaTarrasque]

It's been a while, but there's a new Unearthed Arcana from WotC's Mike Mearls and Jeremy Crawford. There are three new subclasses to playtest, including the Druid Circle of Spores; the Fighter Brute; and the Wizard School of Invention.


Druids of the Circle of Spores find beauty in decay. They see within mold and other fungi the ability to transform lifeless material into abundant, albeit somewhat strange, life.

Brutes are simple warriors who rely on mighty attacks and their own durability to overcome their enemies. Some brutes combine this physical might with tactical cunning. Others just hit things until those things stop hitting back.

The School of Invention claims credit for inventing the other schools of magic—a claim other wizards find absurd. Wizards of this school push magic to its limits. They stretch the known laws of arcane power and strive to reveal important truths about the nature of the multiverse.

 

[BookBarbarian]

Spore is finally trying to address druids that don't want to wildshape. I think that is a neat direction to go.

Brute is the opposite. It's not interesting at all. was Champion and Barbarian not filling the roll of "I want to hit stuff, and don't want to be bothered with much else." Interestingly I see nothing that restricts it to using strength, like Barbarian features, so you could be a skinny, weak "Brute".

Invention seems interesting. It's almost exactly what I would envision for a Dragonlance Gnome, but I would never want to play a Dragonlance Gnome so... Its good I guess?

Still I always like UAs where they through crazy stuff at us to see what sticks.

For me Spores stick and Brutes don't and Inventors... I don't know.

 

[DEFCON 1]

The immediate impression I get from this UA is that they had a whole handful of various game mechanics they wanted us to give our opinions on whether we liked them or not... all to be used in their various other classes/subclasses coming up. But because they weren't ready to show us the full work-ups of those classes/subclasses... they "created" these three subclasses to use as a flavor clothesline from which to hang all the mechanics from.

I mean, the arcane armor just screams Artificer to me. But because they probably don't have the full 20 levels of Artificer to show us for another round of playtesting yet... they create this fake "School of Invention" so that we can see and give opinion on the mechanics before they possibly then incorporate the armor stuff into the Artificer for that classes next playtest.

And the Brute? As FlyingChihuahua says, it's completely unnecessary when we already have the Fighter. But if they want us to tell them whether we like giving out a smaller damage bonus die at a lower level just like they already give out a larger bonus die to many of the cleric domains at a higher level... they made up this basic Fighter subclass to have us take a look.

The eventual question of course being whether anyone will actually ever comment on the mechanics, rather than just rail against the fluff over and over. We might not see it here on the boards... but hopefully they'll get something useful in their surveys.

 

[Satyrn]

While I like the mechanics behind Brute, do we really need another generic fighter? Champion already does that pretty well.

Rather agreed, except that the brute's features appeal more to me - except for Devastating Critical, which just makes me say "oh give something other than yet another feature that just ups my damage."

I'd rather the Champion's Remarkable Athlete slotted in instead

 

[castlewise]

I really like the Spore Druid, its doing neat stuff and has flavor. I also like the Brute but admit that its got a lot of overlap with other subclasses. Personally I'm a little cold to the Inventor. My thought would be that the class might be able to modularly combine different effects to make new "spells" at the cost of spell slot efficiently (i.e. I can spend multiple slots and cast a spell that combines major illusion + sleep). The armor stuff is neat, but feels like a different class. Reckless Casting just seems too random to be useful. I'm having a hard time picturing a situation where I would be happy using the feature.

 

[Satyrn]

Reckless Casting just seems too random to be useful. I'm having a hard time picturing a situation where I would be happy using the feature.

Agreed. Well, until 14th level, at which point we get to burn our numerous 1st level slots and get 2nd level spells out of the deal.

 

[darjr]

I was looking for an urban fighter type, not like a rogue. Brute may fit right in.

 

[zeldafan42]

As an avid Magic player who’s been loving the Plane Shift supplements, the first thing that struck me is that the Circle of Spores and College of Invention are perfect fits for a Ravnica campaign, adding the perfect subclasses for the Golgari and the Izzet respectively.

Although, a friend pointed out something to me...with the way the Circle of Spores’ Fungal Infection is worded, it seems like the zombies it creates can’t move...oversight maybe?

 

[kenmarable]

I'm running Out of the Abyss, so the spore druid might be fun to play with as an NPC. As for the School of Invention, I hope it's not just a flavor hanger to test a mechanic like DEFCON 1 says, because I really like the concept and the mechanics! Admittedly, it is one of those very limited audience sort of things. I can see some players absolutely loving the idea, and the majority having no interest at all.