Unearthed Arcana The Unearthed Arcana Is Back With Cleric's Unity Domain!

This week's Unearthed Arcana has reappeared, with a renamed cleric domain and a replaced cleric ability! "Unearthed Arcana presents three new subclasses for you to playtest: the College of Creation for the bard, the Unity Domain for the cleric, and the Clockwork Soul for the sorcerer."

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The Love Domain is now the Unity Domain:

"A sense of oneness shines at the heart of healthy communities, whether bound together by friendship, blood, faith, or some other uniting force. The gods of unity deepen such bonds and delight in their strength.

Clerics of these gods preside over marriages and other familial bonding customs, but they also nurture the emotional bonds of friendship and camaraderie. Their divine blessings bolster and protect allies in battle through these deep bonds and turn aside malign influences."

The Impulsive Infatuation power has been replaced with Shared Burden which allows you to distribute an ally's damage taken amongst other willing creatures.

 

[Panda-s1]

NANI!?

But seriously, is that a bad thing? I wouldn’t have gotten into D&D 5e if it hadn’t been for the fact I was watching Yona of the Dawn when my dad asked me if I wanted to join his gaming group. He told me I could recreate Hak and Gija fairly accurately in the game...

uh, can you point out where I said it was?

(really though I was gonna point out how "Large, spectral cogwheels appear hovering behind you." is actually way more anime but okay)

 

[Panda-s1]

sniff sniff

Smells like Planescape to me...

is there a reason everyone is only now saying planescape is coming? last I checked they've referred to mechanus in 5e material numerous times before.

 

[Undrave]

That makes it a little less useful than I thought, but still not bad.

Why is it less useful? You send the bulk of the damage to your Bear Totem Barbarian and they take half of the that! Meaning the overall group has taken way less damage than they would, and its on someone with HP to spare to boot!

 

[THEMNGMNT]

As much as I liked the Love domain, I have to admit that Unity is pretty cool. It's like a more interesting version of the Life cleric.

Still wish the Clockwork sorcerer had some sort of physical change to make them more machine than man...

 

[Benjamin Olson]

It's really odd that they seem to often include a large number of extra spells for the UA Sorcerers when having a very limited number of spells goes against the (questionable) design principle of the class. I'm perhaps a bit bitter because they dropped them completely from the published Storm Sorcerer without giving them anything to keep them up to parr with the other subclasses (they should at least be able to have access to call lightning!).

I think the new Bard subclass is pretty weak, at least in terms of the level 3 ability. Most of the subclasses get both multiple abilities at level 3 and, with the exception of the Valor Bard the ability that invariably centers around using inspiration dice is something they themselves can do. This one just adds a rider to when other players use your inspiration. Even when I've handed inspiration out to players who are actually good about using it there is a fair chance they end up saving it for a moment that never comes until it expires. There's also a chance they just roll very well or hopelessly poorly for the duration and have no use for it. I much prefer when the bard has a special way of using some of their inspiration die themselves rather than just adding a rider on other people using it.

But I guess if there's a contingent of people who just really want a Bard with a pet it serves a function. And, of course, to each their own taste.

 

[TheCosmicKid]

I think that is the only case of /3 or higher in the entire 5e game. It should have been 2 willing allies; halved is both faster, and gets most of the oomph.

It's not /3. It doesn't say it has to be an even split. You just distribute the damage as you please.

And if there's one criticism I have of the Unity cleric, it's that the two-person bond ability looks like a relic of the old Love theme, and Unity should be more about larger groups than pairs. So Shared Burden is perfect for the subclass. The more, the merrier.

 

[CleverNickName]

uh oh looks like d&d is starting to cater to the anime crowd :U

If it weren't for Fullmetal Alchemist, I might never have warmed up to warforged and artificers. I mean, I'd probably never play one myself, but as a DM? from a storytelling perspective? I can kinda see it now.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

is there a reason everyone is only now saying planescape is coming? last I checked they've referred to mechanus in 5e material numerous times before.

The character options and subclasses in the last few UA releases have all been a grab bag thematically, beyond all mapping pretty well to planar characters.

 

[Panda-s1]

If it weren't for Fullmetal Alchemist, I might never have warmed up to warforged and artificers. I mean, I'd probably never play one myself, but as a DM? from a storytelling perspective? I can kinda see it now.

man look I'm into anime, too, and I'd be lying if I said it didn't leak into me playing D&D, but I'm just trying to point out a wayward reference in the most joking way possible.

 

[CleverNickName]

man look I'm into anime, too, and I'd be lying if I said it didn't leak into me playing D&D, but I'm just trying to point out a wayward reference in the most joking way possible.

Sorry, I didn't read the whole thread and I hadn't yet seen where people were challenging/arguing?/pestering you about the D&D+anime thing. Your post just reminded me of FMA, that's all.