Unearthed Arcana Unearthed Arcana: Cleric, Druid, Wizard Options

In another new Unearthed Arcana (these things are coming out fast right now!) the cleric receives a new Divine Domain option: the Twilight Domain; the druid gains a new Druid Circle option: the Circle of Wildfire; and the wizard gains a new Arcane Tradition feature: Onomancy, the magic of true names.

 

[Eric V]

He didn't say that online name lists are only available on forums, but that forumites are going to be aware of these things that most players probably won't think of looking for at all. The lists in a book: very useful.

You think people are much more stupid than I do, apparently.

Google is the go-to for anything people might be interested in.

 

[bedir than]

Dude, the list of fantasy names I've used aren't on this forum...I find them elsewhere on the Internet, with a minimal Google search. For free. Your bolded parts above are serious hyperbole unless all these players don't have internet connections...

I never made the claim that players don't have internet connections.

I will make the claim that the vast majority of people new to D&D want and desire a list of names that are appropriate to the setting and are more willing to trust the publisher than random websites.

 

[Parmandur]

You think people are much more stupid than I do, apparently.

Google is the go-to for anything people might be interested in.

Yes, but most people won't think to go find a name list: it won't so much as occur to them.

My belief in human ignorance, stupidity and laziness knows no bounds.

 

[Eric V]

I never made the claim that players don't have internet connections.

I will make the claim that the vast majority of people new to D&D want and desire a list of names that are appropriate to the setting and are more willing to trust the publisher than random websites.

"Trust the publisher" about a bunch of fantasy names??!!

That's a little too extra for me; I'll leave this topic alone now.

 

[Parmandur]

"Trust the publisher" about a bunch of fantasy names??!!

That's a little too extra for me; I'll leave this topic alone now.

Yes, trust the people making the game to provide a quick and easy currated name list.

 

[lkj]

The only thing I really don't like about the Wildfire druid is that it doesn't feel particularly wild. With the targeted and often selective attacks of both its summon and its other class features, this should be called the Carefully Controlled Fire druid.

I find myself slightly bemused by this whole subclass. IRL, part of my work involves studying the effects of fires on forests. And wildfires naturally come in several flavors. There's the big stand replacing fires like we've seen in Yellowstone (in the 80's) and occasionally in the northwest. Big massive conflagrations that wipe everything out and herald the beginning of a new cycle of forest development. And these only come very occasionally (maybe a century or two in some cases). Then there are low intensity surface fires-- like you historically got in the Sierra Nevada of California-- that are much more mellow, burn off the surface fuels and occasionally torch a tree. These happened much more frequently, maybe every decade or two.

In both cases, the occurrences are 'natural' in the sense that in the particular forest and climate those fires happened on their own and the systems are adapted to them. In California, we started putting out all those mellow fires for about 100 years. Fuels built up and now we get much bigger conflagrations (this is in the mountains, coastal Cal aways had big conflagrations. different system).

Anyway, a lot of work in recent decades has been putting fires back into these mountain forests with controlled burns.

This is a long ramble to say that fire is an interesting and complex thing on the landscape. When I read the wildfire subclass I read it fully expecting to pan it ecologically. But they kept it so generic that it wasn't specifically 'wrong'. And now I just don't know what to think.

Which is a long way of saying, knowing too much about a particular thing sometimes makes one completely useless for providing playtest feedback for a fantasy game.

AD

 

[Parmandur]

I find myself slightly bemused by this whole subclass. IRL, part of my work involves studying the effects of fires on forests. And wildfires naturally come in several flavors. There's the big stand replacing fires like we've seen in Yellowstone (in the 80's) and occasionally in the northwest. Big massive conflagrations that wipe everything out and herald the beginning of a new cycle of forest development. And these only come very occasionally (maybe a century or two in some cases). Then there are low intensity surface fires-- like you historically got in the Sierra Nevada of California-- that are much more mellow, burn off the surface fuels and occasionally torch a tree. These happened much more frequently, maybe every decade or two.

In both cases, the occurrences are 'natural' in the sense that in the particular forest and climate those fires happened on their own and the systems are adapted to them. In California, we started putting out all those mellow fires for about 100 years. Fuels built up and now we get much bigger conflagrations (this is in the mountains, coastal Cal aways had big conflagrations. different system).

Anyway, a lot of work in recent decades has been putting fires back into these mountain forests with controlled burns.

This is a long ramble to say that fire is an interesting and complex thing on the landscape. When I read the wildfire subclass I read it fully expecting to pan it ecologically. But they kept it so generic that it wasn't specifically 'wrong'. And now I just don't know what to think.

Which is a long way of saying, knowing too much about a particular thing sometimes makes one completely useless for providing playtest feedback for a fantasy game.

AD

As a trained Medievalist...welcome to my world.

It's a thin veneer for making a Druid that can go pew pew and burn stuff. Probably the fluff is being written to throw us off the tracks as to what they are doing, too, so take it with a grain of salt.

 

[lkj]

As a trained Medievalist...welcome to my world.

It's a thin veneer for making a Druid that can go pew pew and burn stuff. Probably the fluff is being written to throw us off the tracks as to what they are doing, too, so take it with a grain of salt.

For sure. And I'm definitely in better shape than you. Once in awhile my IRL senses start tingling when I'm playing D&D. You must have had to develop an off switch to avoid seizures.

AD

 

[MarkB]

As a trained Medievalist...welcome to my world.

It's a thin veneer for making a Druid that can go pew pew and burn stuff. Probably the fluff is being written to throw us off the tracks as to what they are doing, too, so take it with a grain of salt.

Yeah, it seems that way. To me, a Wildfire Spirit should be barely contained and just dangerous to be around. I was fully expecting it to have something like a constant Fire aura that damaged nearby creatures and set objects on fire. Maybe portray the flipside by having its flames instill the soil and ash left behind with a mild Plant Growth effect that would make whatever next grew there stronger and more abundant.

EDIT: Sorry, I feel like I just made @lkj twitch with that description.

 

[Leatherhead]

The only thing I really don't like about the Wildfire druid is that it doesn't feel particularly wild. With the targeted and often selective attacks of both its summon and its other class features, this should be called the Carefully Controlled Fire druid.

Yeah It should be renamed Circle of the Phoenix.