D&D 5E New Unearthed Arcana: Folk of the Feywild!

Wander into the magical realm of the Feywild with our latest Unearthed Arcana: Folk of the Feywild!

Your character can be a member of one of the new D&D races: fairy, hobgoblin of the Feywild, owlfolk, or rabbitfolk. Which will you choose?

Playtest now:

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[Reynard]

What benefits do they get to balance that? Or do you just penalize them? Because they already have a penalty when it comes to using Heavy weapons.

The question of mechanical balance versus "realism" has plagued D&D since the beginning. I personally don't see any problem with ignoring mechanical balance for verisimilitude but lots of folks dislike it

 

[R_Chance]

I think you should start using Ymmviha (Your mileage may vary in heavy armor)

When I finished laughing it started me thinking about flight endurance, soaring vs. active flight (flapping those wings), momentum, maneuverability, and other trivia related to flight

 

[doctorbadwolf]

Bald Eagles can lift about a fifth of their weight. That stray bit of trivia came up with concerns about them predating small pets years ago (not my concern btw). So, that was unlikely (if you didn't include teacup dogs / puppies / kittens). I don't know about other raptors but I imagine the information is a search away. I look at flying in armor about the same way as swimming in armor. It should have an impact. I'd say overall encumbrance should be the limiting factor, either penalizing, limiting, or prohibiting it. That's my 2 cp. Do I need to say it? Ymmv

Yep, and most heavy armor should be within that range. Also, eagles IIRC are not heavy flyers, but are much faster than birds like owls. For flyers with a higher fly speed I’m fine with lowered encumbrance and stricter “weight you can fly with” rules, but giants birds IRL (Haast’s eagle, for instance) could carry off fairly large prey like dogs and human children.

So, with plate armor in the PHB already being weighted at the high end of historical plate armor weight, and that being around 1/4 of a 6’ tall buff guy’s average weight...

IMO, it’s like when people balk at parkour stunts until you show them what freerunners do routinely IRL.

 

[Parmandur]

Could be. No harm in giving suggestions, in either case. Even if they do name the "Hobgoblin of the Feywild" something other than that bland name, I'm probably still going to go the boggart-route.

Just a point, I could definitely see them withholding the "true names" of the Owlfolk (Strix?) and Rabbitfolk (I-have-no-idea) to avoid spoilers for a setting book, but Hobgoblins of the Feywild seem less likely to have spoilers by dropping their true name for whatever book these are coming out in.

Part of the in hindsight hilarious dynamics of the discourse around the "Hellenistic" UA for Centaurs band Minotaurs was people arguing with Crawford on Twitter that the crunch for Minotaurs and Centaurs didn't match the Monster Manual. Crawford just kept pointing out that they were different from the MM versions, though he didn't elaborate.

These are not MM Hobgoblins, and the text makes that clear in a clunky fashion.

 

[R_Chance]

Yep, and most heavy armor should be within that range. Also, eagles IIRC are not heavy flyers, but are much faster than birds like owls. For flyers with a higher fly speed I’m fine with lowered encumbrance and stricter “weight you can fly with” rules, but giants birds IRL (Haast’s eagle, for instance) could carry off fairly large prey like dogs and human children.

So, with plate armor in the PHB already being weighted at the high end of historical plate armor weight, and that being around 1/4 of a 6’ tall buff guy’s average weight...

IMO, it’s like when people balk at parkour stunts until you show them what freerunners do routinely IRL.

Field plate weighs about 45 pounds and fits well. Carrying the weight on foot isn't that bad. Is that all the encumbrance they have? Probably not. Weapons, back packs with various items in it, belt pouches, clothing / boots, etc. It all adds up and that's why I suggested encumbrance totals, not armor alone. I would think a sliding scale from unencumbered to light, medium etc. That's getting pretty picky and a lot of people might just want "yes / no" categories. Strength would factor in to encumbrance as well. It's not that I don't want flying characters (I played EPT, 1975, which had flying non-humans - the Hlaka), I just want some verisimilitude and something to offset a really significant advantage over non flying characters.

And I don't want to see freerunners trying it in plate armor with weapons

 

[Parmandur]

what then? It's killing me! What?!

Impossible to know, but:

A. The Draconic Subclasses and Fey Lineages seem to be for the same product, based on UA timelines.

B. The only products to have both Subclass and Lineage options are Setting books.

So

C. These appear to be for a Setting book.

Of course, they could be for separate books, or they might put Subclasses into a Monster or Adventure book for the first time, or something more radically new.

If we grant that these products are for a Setting book, there seem to be four main possibilities:

1. A Classic D&D Setting. This seems improbable, as both UA tests do not fit any existing Setting in particular, but it could still be what's up here.

2. A brand new in-house D&D Setting. This seems least likely, for sundry reasons, but it's possible.

3. A licensed Setting, similar to Acquisitions Incorporated, Rick & Morty, Wildemount, or Stranger Things. This is the real wild card here, and quite plausible. I have no idea what this might be, but it would not shock me.

4. A Magic Setting book. The four big Sets for Magic this year are Kaldeim (Norse myth stuff, would be great for D&D, but these options don't seem to fit), the Forgotten Realms (I could see some sort of tie-in book to the upcoming card Set, not sure these options scream "Forgotten Realms" though, and SCAG already exists), Innistrad (Gothic Horror, doesn't fit any of these options in the slightest, and I wouldn't be surprised if it gets name checked in the Ravenloft book, and mist interesting in my mind (obviously), Strixhaven. Strixhaven is a brand new Setting, about which the Magic team hasn't really started getting deep into yet. The cards come out at the end of April (a good time to announce the next book after Ravenloft, potentially). It's a magical academy Setting, with Elder Dragons playing a foundational role, and owl people (among other Fey shenanigans). Because it's a new Setting, I really wouldn't expect WotC to put out a D&D book for it...but stranger things have happened.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Although books like the Draconomicon and Manual of the Planes are a staple for most D&D editions, so are books like Tome of Magic. I could easily see a Strixhaven book serving a dual role of a drop-in magic school setting what player characters could potentially access from multiple worlds and being a big roll-out of arcane goodies. That would likely require the next UA be a bunch of spells, though.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

Field plate weighs about 45 pounds and fits well. Carrying the weight on foot isn't that bad. Is that all the encumbrance they have? Probably not. Weapons, back packs with various items in it, belt pouches, clothing / boots, etc. It all adds up and that's why I suggested encumbrance totals, not armor alone. I would think a sliding scale from unencumbered to light, medium etc. That's getting pretty picky and a lot of people might just want "yes / no" categories. Strength would factor in to encumbrance as well. It's not that I don't want flying characters (I played EPT, 1975, which had flying non-humans - the Hlaka), I just want some verisimilitude and something to offset a really significant advantage over non flying characters.

And I don't want to see freerunners trying it in plate armor with weapons

Field plate for an adult male human weighs as much as 45 lbs, sure. Making it lighter has drawbacks relating to how much impact is actually absorbed (even modern plate for full contact sport combat, made of titanium, leaves you more worn out and banged up, but just as protected from serious harm), but probably not to a degree D&D 5e should ever try to track.

As well, not all heavy armor is plate.

So, I’m just not seeing how it adds verisimilitude to a situation where a bird...is covering up their whole torso...and it doesn’t interfere with flight.

 

[Parmandur]

Although books like the Draconomicon and Manual of the Planes are a staple for most D&D editions, so are books like Tome of Magic. I could easily see a Strixhaven book serving a dual role of a drop-in magic school setting what player characters could potentially access from multiple worlds and being a big roll-out of arcane goodies. That would likely require the next UA be a bunch of spells, though.

I believe Wyatt and Crawford actually talked about Magic magic spells back with the build up to Ravnica, and how they found they didn't need to actually add many Spells at all, as so much of what's in Magic was already covered in D&D: magic items are a different kettle of fish, and they have rarely bothered to test those at all.

Part of the puzzle around the possibility of Strixhaven is that we know almost nothing about the Setting or the mechanics, other than the crunch revolves around multifaced cards (which tells us next to nothing here), and the fluff is not-Potter/not-Petcy Jackson.

 

[cbwjm]

Part of the puzzle around the possibility of Strixhaven is that we know almost nothing about the Setting or the mechanics, other than the crunch revolves around multifaced cards (which tells us next to nothing here), and the fluff is not-Potter/not-Petcy Jackson.

The lack of info was kind of annoying. People kept bringing it up so I thought it was already out, so far all I can find is a little background, the 2 colour command spells, and some classic spells with new art.

I think it should be a cool setting though, an academy with rival colleges each with their own magical focus. I also like that the colleges are based around 2 colours that generally oppose each other. It should be interesting to see how, for instance, the red/white combo distinguishes itself from the boros of ravnica.