Unearthed Arcana Unearthed Arcana Fighter: Samurai, Sharpshooter, Arcane Archer & Knight

flametitan said:

I don't remember there being rules that said shortbow arrows couldn't be fired from a longbow or vice-versa.

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I think the distinction is "but not a crossbow".

cbwjm said:

I do like the use of superiority dice for subclasses other than the battlemaster, however, as it stands the design space of those subclasses is front loaded since levels 10, 15, and 18 are used to expand their superiority dice. I would rather that they had new and interesting abilities at those levels instead, even keeping the d8 size throughout and gaining something new at levels 10 and 18 would be better than the same abilities as the battlemaster.

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Just to clarify and expand my comment, I also like the fact that they are exploring new mechanics. The reason I'd like to see the superiority dice in other archetypes it's because the Batlemaster is a very nice mechanical toolbox but is lacking thematically. As Mearls already admitted the PH Martial Archetypes do not have too much meaning in a "in world" perspective. Now that they're addressing this "issue" I think the superiority dice, one of the most praised fighter innovations by my experience, deserves to get a new wrap with this philosophy in mind. Perhaps it can be as simple as Battlemaster "Builds". But I don't care if it comes later. And I still like the Battlemaster as an option for a player who wants to play with the toolbox.

MechaTarrasque said:

I think they will. The only reason to repost something from a previous UA is if the feedback was negative before and they want to see if the new version gets more love, or if they were doing a massive redo of a class (the last UA ranger).

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That makes a lot of sense. The only thing that makes me curious is that I don't think they took a pool after every UA. Perhaps they did and I lost some but I don't think so. But in the end these pools aren't the only way to get feedback. At least they're saying they read the foruns and message boards.

They're really interesting Archetypes I like the Knight best and salute the 4E Fighter marking ability for more sticky defender type.

Sacrosanct said:

They are making ever ready arrow too complicated. just say it's an additional use of arcane arrow and keep it simple. the "get another arcane arrow 1 minute after your final one" seems too messy, and I'd probably just handwave it away to what I suggested anyway.

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I think the point is you will always have an arrow even if you chain a bunch of encounters together without a rest, but by making it a min, longer than most fights last it doesn't break the power for any individual encounter.

The Knight seems to be "sentinel feat: the subclass". Much like Sharpshooter seems to also emulate that feat.
I imagine that's the feedback WotC wants. To see if people like the idea of classes that copy feats for games that don't use them. Or if people want distinct mechanics.

The Samurai is meh, and really needs a generic name. Sword sword or something. It's really bland, just gaining extra proficiencies.

The arcane archer is pretty cool though.

turkeygiant said:

I think the point is you will always have an arrow even if you chain a bunch of encounters together without a rest, but by making it a min, longer than most fights last it doesn't break the power for any individual encounter.

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Pretty much. It guarantees that you'll have 1 use of Arcane Arrow per encounter. It's just a different way of achieving the Battle Master's Relentless ability: "...when you roll initiative and have no superiority dice remaining, you regain 1 superiority die." They could have phrased the Arcane Arrow ability the same way: "...when you roll initiative and have no uses of Arcane Arrows remaining, you regain 1 use of Arcane Arrow."

Either way, I like it.

The more I think about it the more happy I am that we didn't get more spellcasting options, or more superiority dice.

As a thought exercise. How do you think a Knight holds up to say a Battlemaster (or Champion) with Sentinel (like having one more feat/ASI to spend). Is there enough here for a distinct subclass? I know feats are optional, but I would really hate for a subclass to only be appealing in a feat-less game.

What about Sharpshooter and the Sharpshooter/Crossbow expert feats?

I liked the arcane archer as a feat rather than a full blown class, but whatever, power creep and bloat is inevitable I guess.

turkeygiant said:

I think the point is you will always have an arrow even if you chain a bunch of encounters together without a rest, but by making it a min, longer than most fights last it doesn't break the power for any individual encounter.

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If only there was a term that has already been in D&D to describe an ability intended to be usable a minimum of once per encounter.

Arcane archer: smells a lot like what might happen if you just added some more spells like ensnaring smite and played an eldritch knight. That said, it avoids the spells per day and spell list management, creating a more straightforward approach to the concept. I'm not entirely sure it's different enough to a battlemaster to own it's niche, but it's certainly ok and seems balanced.

Rapid strike shouldn't be a bonus action. This just devalues dual wielding even further from it's current state, and it's already awful. The only upside here is that it doesn't stack well with polearm master, but it's only an upside because polearm master is ridiculous, not because this should be a bonus action.

Knight: marks are very metagame, and I dislike them. Same goes for gaining multiple reactions in a round. Same goes for halting movement. Additionally the entire super-sticky defender thing makes for un-fun combats and generally screws with encounter balance. Finally - what makes this a knight? I get that way back in 3.5e, there was a knight that was the prototype for the defender, but it did so by issuing challenges to foes that could understand them. The thematic knight and this class don't bear any resemblance to each other. This one is just full of awful and awkwardly written rules and has no redeeming features.

Samurai: Elegant courtier is basically the only thing here that says samurai to me. Mechanically it's better than the barbarian at what the barbarian is supposed to do (ie - rage), and that's before adding in the base fighter features. Again - not really any redeeming features.

Sharpshooter: Kind of feels like this is completely unnecessary. I guess it has a niche if feats are disallowed? Careful eyes is stupid, since there's no such thing as 'the search action'. Does this let people search an entire dungeon as a bonus action? Who knows? Does it apply to investigate or perception or both? Who knows? How can it help you pick out hidden enemies when that is part of marching order and occurs out of combat? It can't! Will you still be crap at it since the only thing that matters is your wisdom score and whether you have expertise? Yes!