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.

 

[Son of the Serpent]

"In fact, if I want a Dwarf or Elf name, sometimes I will still get out the Lord of the Rings books and look through all the names in the appendices for something I like."

That i can understand

Doesntnreally help me understand the names in a d&d book part. But at least this i get.

As far as page batches go i assume the book likely would have come out with more pages a few weeks or months later. Could be wrong though. I dont thonk they have cut more though. Instead i assume theyd find something else to fill the last couple pages.

 

[Hussar]

By the same token, from a purely selfish point of view, I play on Fantasy Grounds. Those tables are all automated for me. I can generate a list of names right in the Tabletop with the click of a mouse. That's a function I didn't have before, and it works pretty darn well. Very handy.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

I thought i made pretty clear that the issue wasnt that i didnt like it. The issue was that i literally dont understand what usefulness people are finding in it. As in it genuinely is confusing me. I dont see anyone having explained the actual usefulness of it which differentiates it from uaing an internet connection. In other words. This is not about preference. This is about me not perceiving any function to be had. At all. You cant realistically say that this is about "what i like" when its been positioned this way the literal entire time.

Also i suppose we'll just have to disagree about whether i made any "insult" per se. But i suppose I'll leave it at that.

For people who prefer referencing physical sources at the table, and for whom it is faster than opening a device and googling, and/or who have never used a name generator or who simply do not like them, it is easier to flip to a known page (See; mental mapping as it relates to reference books) and look at a page than to use a web based name generator.

I, for instance, hate nearly all fantasy name generators. The big one most people point to puts out, IMO, mostly complete garbage for the majority of filtering options. If I don’t have a big chunk of time to flip through the Gygax Big Book of Names, or to search by language and culture, or to consult my Tolkien related resources, or some other deep dive approach, I’d rather grab my analog friend’s physical copy of XGTE, and pick from a table.

Of note, rolling on a table is an entirely useless approach, for me, and for most people I know who also like that section and things like it. Instead, we peruse a list, and find something we like. Often, I will draw a blank, look at a list, not like any of them, and immediately have a name from some recess of my memory or imagination.

Having that in a book that I already reference frequently is nice.

 

[Son of the Serpent]

"I, for instance, hate nearly all fantasy name generators. The big one most people point to puts out, IMO, mostly complete garbage for the majority of filtering options. If I don’t have a big chunk of time to flip through the Gygax Big Book of Names, or to search by language and culture, or to consult my Tolkien related resources, or some other deep dive approach, I’d rather grab my analog friend’s physical copy of XGTE, and pick from a table."

I can relate. I prefer using dead languages though.

 

[Charlaquin]

As far as page batches go i assume the book likely would have come out with more pages a few weeks or months later. Could be wrong though. I dont thonk they have cut more though. Instead i assume theyd find something else to fill the last couple pages.

You are wrong.

A table of names is something they probably wouldn’t have to pay a writer for, as they could pull those names from other sourcebooks, or from the setting bible, or even from their own notes. Filling those extra pages would have meant paying for someone to actually write something to fill them. That would also mean having to do another layout pass, and it might still not hit the right number, so some of that paid-for content would have to be cut anyway. And even if they did do all of that, there’s no way a word of it would have been mechanical content. That takes playtesting.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

This material is probably for a specific setting that this is geared towards, so that works.

No. It doesn't "work". The survey is asking for the class to be assessed for any settings, and given it's potential to break some settings, will be voted down accordingly. I certainly will give it a "1" on that basis, and I'm sure I'm not alone in that. Thus, it will not make it past the 70% mark, and stands no chance at all of making into any publication, and thus the whole survey is a complete waste of time and money.

If I was asked to give a reaction on the bais that it would be restricted to a specific setting I might rate it higher - 3 maybe.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

It was presented as an Invention Wizard. It was even called that.

People didn’t like it. That’s it. The end.

Exactly. It was given a false name that didn't fit the subclass. Names are important, they create a first impression, and if the abilities the class has doesn't fit the name they will be given a low score.

If the druid where presented for the first time as "The Industrialist" people would say "no, why has it got all those plant and animal related powers, it doesn't makes sense, score 1."

 

[cbwjm]

School of invention sort of showed up in the mizzium apparatus which has all of that wonderful wild magic table. Looking back at that subclass it had recycled two abilities from the lore wizard which, sadly, people seemed to almost universally hate.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

Exactly. It was given a false name that didn't fit the subclass. Names are important, they create a first impression, and if the abilities the class has doesn't fit the name they will be given a low score.

If the druid where presented for the first time as "The Industrialist" people would say "no, why has it got all those plant and animal related powers, it doesn't makes sense, score 1."

Um, no. The invention wizard is likely what the name would have stayed, because it was never going to be “Izzet Wizard”, and Invention fit the subclass fairly well.

It’s a subclass for the wizard who tinkers with magic and magic items, and invents new spells and stuff. Just like the Spore Druid would never have been purely built for being a Golgari Druid, the Invention Wizard was never intended to only work as a Ravnica Izzet League Wizard. That was never on the table, to any degree, from any perspective. Full stop.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

No. It doesn't "work". The survey is asking for the class to be assessed for any settings, and given it's potential to break some settings, will be voted down accordingly. I certainly will give it a "1" on that basis, and I'm sure I'm not alone in that.

Then it shouldn’t pass the survey stage.

No subclass in 5e is going to be made to only work in one setting. That isn’t part of the current 5e design paradigm. Period.

If it can only survey well in the context of a specific world, it won’t pass. They put it out to see if the community liked the idea for their home games, and the community said no.