Unearthed Arcana Unearthed Arcana Subclasses Part III: Artificer, Druid, and Ranger

The third in the recent spate of D&D subclasses from WotC! "Continuing our series of new D&D subclasses in 2020, Unearthed Arcana presents three more for you to playtest: the Armorer for the artificer, the Circle of the Stars for the druid, and the Fey Wanderer for the ranger. Today’s article also includes some new infusions for the artificer."

https://media.wizards.com/2020/dnd/downloads/UA2020-Subclasses03_0224.pdf

 

[MechaTarrasque]

I know this is a little more steam punk then Eberron is supposed to be (and for the love of Lolth, no one needs another "Is Eberron steampunk?" digression), but I would prefer the armor to be large and have the artificer be inside it working some kind of control panel.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

I don’t really get Iron Man from the Armorer. Like, beyond “guy in special armor”...

I guess with integrated weapons from infusions, but if that’s the goal, make that possible from level 3. It’s just armor.

Like, look at it this way. You’ve got the active abilities, and a suit of magical plate armor. That...is fine, but it’s weaker than just giving a suit of normal armor, since normal armor could just have all those infusions (head, shoulders, knees, and toes) without any fuss.

 

[PsyzhranV2]

I don’t really get Iron Man from the Armorer. Like, beyond “guy in special armor”...

I guess with integrated weapons from infusions, but if that’s the goal, make that possible from level 3. It’s just armor.

Like, look at it this way. You’ve got the active abilities, and a suit of magical plate armor. That...is fine, but it’s weaker than just giving a suit of normal armor, since normal armor could just have all those infusions (head, shoulders, knees, and toes) without any fuss.

I'm guessing that with the Level 9 Armorer feature specifically giving you the ability to infuse different parts of your armour separately, the design intent for infusing armour in general is that the whole thing inly counts as one object that can only hold one infusion that applies to the whole armour.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

I'm guessing that with the Level 9 Armorer feature specifically giving you the ability to infuse different parts of your armour separately, the design intent for infusing armour in general is that the whole thing inly counts as one object that can only hold one infusion that applies to the whole armour.

It really genuinely can’t mean that, though. There is no rule stopping you from wearing bracers of archery while wearing plate, after all.

 

[Leatherhead]

It really genuinely can’t mean that, though. There is no rule stopping you from wearing bracers of archery while wearing plate, after all.

Well you do get the benefit of infusing magic plate with the Armorer. Which is really nice if you snag a suit of Adamantine Armor or the like.

 

[Chaosmancer]

It really genuinely can’t mean that, though. There is no rule stopping you from wearing bracers of archery while wearing plate, after all.

I am actually coming to think that the level 9 ability is in response the the level 3 ability.

The Power Armor specifically grows to cover your entire body, this means it would cover your boots, you couldn't seperate out the bracers of the armor for bracers of archery, ect.

That raises the question though, what is the benefit of your armor covering your entire body?

 

[Stoutstien]

I am actually coming to think that the level 9 ability is in response the the level 3 ability.

The Power Armor specifically grows to cover your entire body, this means it would cover your boots, you couldn't seperate out the bracers of the armor for bracers of archery, ect.

That raises the question though, what is the benefit of your armor covering your entire body?

Can't be poked in the eye?

 

[doctorbadwolf]

I am actually coming to think that the level 9 ability is in response the the level 3 ability.

The Power Armor specifically grows to cover your entire body, this means it would cover your boots, you couldn't seperate out the bracers of the armor for bracers of archery, ect.

That raises the question though, what is the benefit of your armor covering your entire body?

Right, exactly! It’s just an image thing, so why give it negative mechanical consequences?

 

[Ashrym]

I looked at it and my first impression was that artificers getz MOAR AC? ;-)

Not sure that was necessary, especially along with the temp hp benefit. Temp hp is what's really good about artillerists and the heroism spell. I do like the magically powered power armor concept though.

You learn how to use your artificer infusions to specially modify the armor enhanced by your Power Armor feature. That armor now counts as separate items for the purposes of your Infuse Items feature: armor (the chest piece), boots, bracers, and a weapon. Each of those items can bear one of your infusions. In addition, the maximum number of items you can infuse at once increases by 2, but those extra items must be part of your power armor.

There was some confusion on this earlier. The armorer subclass does increase the total number of items infused. These extra two just can't be handed out like others can.

I think 2 extra infusions is pretty good.


The druid should have wildshapes based on constellations. I saw that earlier and agree.

The ranger is interesting. It looks like the psychic damage is more applicable to multiple targets instead of concentrating damage on one target. I like the flavor, not sure if it's good mechanically or not just looking at it.

I am curious as to how it plays along with the UA for alternative features that gives rangers a lot more spells already. More spells via alt class abilities plus free spells known via subclass seems to give a lot to rangers. We're up to rangers knowing as many spells as lore bards at that point.

A bard ends up with 22 spells known. With both UA's the ranger ends up with 24 spells known. The bard also has 22 spells slots. The ranger has 15 spell slots plus 7 free castings of primal awareness spells plus the free castings of hunter's mark for up to 5 more castings (concentration free). We actually have rangers casting more spells per day than most classes.

That strikes me as a bit odd with better weapons, better hit points, better armor, additional damage abilities, another skill from cunning will, and adding wisdom modifier on top of charisma for charisma checks (likely simply using WIS double duty). Running out of reasons to play a warlock kind of fast there. ;-)

 

[Paul Farquhar]

Right, exactly! It’s just an image thing, so why give it negative mechanical consequences?

This isn't what is intended. The armour does not prevent you from wearing magical boots.

This is what the level 9 ability is for:

1) You can infuse the weapons. You cannot put an infusion on the integrated weapons prior to level 9, because the target of a weapon infusion must be a weapon, not armour.

2) You can have the intergrated weapons and armour infused at the same time. Normally one item can have no more than one infusion.

3) You get two extra free infusions. So you could have your weapons and armour infused and still have 3 (at level 9) infusions left over which you could use, for example, to infuse your friend's weapons and armour.