Unearthed Arcana New UA: 43 D&D Class Feature Variants

The latest Unearthed Arcana is a big 13-page document! “Every character class in D&D has features, and every class gets one or more class feature variants in today’s Unearthed Arcana! These variants replace or enhance a class’s normal features, giving you new ways to enjoy your character’s class.”

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[Pauln6]

It's clear to me that Spell Versatility is meant to allow the other casters to CATCH UP to the Wizard. That's why the Wizard isn't getting as big a 'boost'. They don't need it.



Because it's busy bookkeeping?

Really? Compared to the wizards, mystics, or hit points?

 

[Benjamin Olson]

And so the power creep starts....


(Sorry, been away from Enworld and just read about this.)

Maybe. They do seem to often throw ideas into unearthed arcana sometimes that they don't really intend to use all of together, or to test whether they have to gimp them.

They do seem to have not appreciated how some of these would play multiclassed. The most obvious instance being that a Talisman Warlock/Bard would spend most of the game statistically better at the skills they don't have proficiency in. The more important one is that the two level Rogue dip is already powerful enough. It's sort of too powerful for a Rogue, but at least there it saves us from so many DM v. Rogue player debates over whether they can hide to set up a sneak attack.

Also I think they've made a mistake with the Monk comparable to the Healing Spirit mistake of not thinking through how it might be exploited of combat. If I'm going into a short rest with any unspent Ki, why would I ever not use it to heal? Hopefully they'll limit how many times you can use it before actually publishing it.

 

[Parmandur]

What scares me about the popularity of this idea is... why people want the game to be EASIER?

I mean, seriously, are you guys having trouble staying alive in the edition which has the most generous (not)dying rules? Are you NOT having fun with the first edition that really gives you always at least one new thing to do every level up if you want?

So why this desperate need for a free boost? Why aren't people who have played the game for 5 years asking for MORE challenges in a MORE difficult adventure? Why the laziness of wanting an EASIER game?

It sounds to me like in 3e where a lot of people were not really playing or buying the game but were only pirating and talking about it online, endlessly complaining the game needs house rules, playing the social subgame of "character builds" for PCs who were never really played at a table, and always talking about "high powered games" with everyone boosted... and pretending that doing so is for "experienced" or "hardcore" players!

No dear... hardcore players need no stinking boost! And need no wimpy "I don't have the right spell, this game is unplayable, let me take a nap and I will have exactly what I need tomorrow".

I tell you what... I play this game with my little children, and I am PROUD of the game sometimes giving them a hard time exactly because they don't have the right tool for the job, so they have to think harder. It's even damn educational, even if (or maybe because) sometimes they FAIL because of that!

So how the hell grown up adults who think they are better than average at this game (let's face it, most of us here do) would want the game to be EASIER now, after 5 years? Or are you all worried that the rest of the world with their lower IQ will not want to play D&D with you because it's still too hard? That would be the only reasonable explanation...

Crawford goes into this in the Beyond interview: this is to service tables who play with elongated leveling, so a player doesn't go 7 or 9 months of regular play sessions between leveling without the ability to respec. Accommodations for different playstyles, just as the Ranger alternate features help tables that don't go as deep into the exploration rules as the original Ranger design intended.

 

[Parmandur]

Maybe. They do seem to often throw ideas into unearthed arcana sometimes that they don't really intend to use all of together, or to test whether they have to gimp them.

They do seem to have not appreciated how some of these would play multiclassed. The most obvious instance being that a Talisman Warlock/Bard would spend most of the game statistically better at the skills they don't have proficiency in. The more important one is that the two level Rogue dip is already powerful enough. It's sort of too powerful for a Rogue, but at least there it saves us from so many DM v. Rogue player debates over whether they can hide to set up a sneak attack.

Also I think they've made a mistake with the Monk comparable to the Healing Spirit mistake of not thinking through how it might be exploited of combat. If I'm going into a short rest with any unspent Ki, why would I ever not use it to heal? Hopefully they'll limit how many times you can use it before actually publishing it.

The multi-class test phase is one of the last steps in play-testing, several steps after the UA surveys are collected.

 

[Krachek]

Cross posting this.

DND Beyond just dropped this video with Crawford discussing the new UA

Time Stamped to discussion of Spell Versatility
Non-time stamped

Thank for the post.
a must see interview.
spoiler : if any of these materials come to official, they will be “variant” that can be hand picked at taste by DM. They won’t be an official update of the phb.
again he insist on the “customization“ of the game by the DM. Home brew power!

 

[RSIxidor]

They do seem to have not appreciated how some of these would play multiclassed. The most obvious instance being that a Talisman Warlock/Bard would spend most of the game statistically better at the skills they don't have proficiency in. The more important one is that the two level Rogue dip is already powerful enough. It's sort of too powerful for a Rogue, but at least there it saves us from so many DM v. Rogue player debates over whether they can hide to set up a sneak attack.

JOAT and Talisman should work the same way as each other. I personally think they should both work as JOAT with verbiage that makes it clear they cannot stack. Alternatively, modify JOAT to work as the Talisman does, but still don't allow stacking.

Also I think they've made a mistake with the Monk comparable to the Healing Spirit mistake of not thinking through how it might be exploited of combat. If I'm going into a short rest with any unspent Ki, why would I ever not use it to heal? Hopefully they'll limit how many times you can use it before actually publishing it.

Limiting it to once between short rests would be significant enough, I think. Either that or Wis times a day.

 

[Yaarel]

Okay, but how is it any more self reliant than sorcerer magic? Or even, for that matter, wizard magic which must be learned through years of dedication and study, like any other complex skill?

The idea that the fighter is self reliant and the wizard isn't is just...so damn weird, to me.


Not really. Turn all of this on, and nothing in the game will surpass the power levels of the PHB.

It's just cool new options. That's it.

Heh, personally, I feel the Sorcerer lacks a reason to exist in 5e.

In 5e, the Wizard swallowed up the Sorcerer by becoming a spontaneous spellcaster. Now the Sorcerer is a ghost, an echo of a former life, and a parasitic vampiric one sucking away the Wizards metamagic.

Any glimpse of worth belongs to Psion, who is inherently and personally magical, whether a telepath, telekinete, psychometabolic shapeshifter, or simply a ‘psychic’. The Psion is the X-Men mutants.

Heh, that said.



I view Sorcerers as actually dragons, or actually elementals. Where the Psion uses the power of the mind, the Sorcerer uses the power of its body.

Personally, I prefer Psions to stay away from elemental magic (Earth-Fire, Air-Water). So by default I emphasize the elemental Sorcerers.

But even then Druids make better elementalists and alchemists.



Wizards wield external forces, moreso than ones own personal force. They have inherent magic but use it leverage impersonal forces.

 

[Maxperson]

I wasn't attacking you, man,

Wrong. Any accusation of "troll" is a direct personal attack. Don't do it again.

The interpretation some of you keep espousing is meant to do nothing more than get people who like the feature to spend half an hour typing up a post trying to logically explain why it is incorrect.

Also wrong. My interpretation is a reasonable one given the language and what the ability does. I also feel that changing out one spell over and over is eminently useful, but completely changing every spell you know over a week or two is over the top.

That doesn't make me a troll, and the accusation of such reflects very poorly on the one attacking me.

Question: Spell Versatility only activates on a Long Rest. So on your very first long rest, you get to switch a spell. If I chose to switch a Cantrip, which the UA specifically states I can, what feature did I get that cantrip from?

The Spell Versatility feature, which enhances the spellcasting feature.

 

[Salthorae]

Also wrong. My interpretation is a reasonable one given the language and what the ability does. I also feel that changing out one spell over and over is eminently useful, but completely changing every spell you know over a week or two is over the top.

See my post here, with a video link where Crawford discusses this feature exactly.: New UA: 43 D&D Class Feature Variants

I don't think your interpretation is reasonable from a RAW or RAI based on the UA.

I agree to change every spell you know over a week or two is over the top, but as written currently, that is what the feature allows you to do.

 

[Undrave]

Really? Compared to the wizards, mystics, or hit points?

Nothing else asks you to track how many days you use it