D&D 5E Unearthed Arcana: Travelers of the Multiverse

New free content from WotC - the latest 4-page Unearthed Arcana introduces six new races: astral elf, autognome, giff, hadozee, plasmoid, and thri-kreen.

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dnd.wizards.com

Looks like Spelljammer and/or Planescape is back on the menu!

 

[Charlaquin]

Nah, because Paladins still have other resources to expend. Paladins get both Spell Slots and Channel Divinities. Monks just get Ki points. Class feature combined with subclass feature instead of using a class feature to fuel your subclass feature. Big difference.

Monks don’t get other resources, but they do get other abilities that don’t consume their one resource. Using Ki points to fuel spells your subclass grants you isn’t meaningfully different than using spell slots to fuel spells your subclass grants you.

I’m not saying 4 elements Monk is good, I’m just saying that @Parmandur ’s assessment that the monk is functionally a short rest based half-caster is accurate. Strip away all the fluff and the monk is effectively to the warlock as the paladin is to the cleric.

 

[Charlaquin]

I disagree. Almost all of the Monk abilities that are worth using are based off of consuming Ki.

do your monks generally wear armor and use martial weapons or something?

 

[Levistus's_Leviathan]

do your monks generally wear armor and use martial weapons or something?

Heh. No. Martial Arts is useful, but not for a 4 Elements Monk that uses their action to cast a spell instead of attack. (Well, the Kensei Monks do wield weapons, but none of the others.)

 

[Charlaquin]

Heh. No. Martial Arts is useful, but not for a 4 Elements Monk that uses their action to cast a spell instead of attack. (Well, the Kensei Monks do wield weapons, but none of the others.)

Ah, gotcha. Yes, I do agree that the dissonance between elemental disciplines and martial arts is a design flaw in the 4 elements monk.

 

[Parmandur]

I disagree. Almost all of the Monk abilities that are worth using are based off of consuming Ki. I've played 2 monks, ran multiple NPC Party Member Monks, and had 3 Monk PCs at my table throughout my time DMing for D&D 5e. I'm familiar with how they work, and am well aware that their useful combat abilities either come from their subclass or are based off of Ki. And Way of the Four Elements Monks throw out the regular, slick Action Economy of the base Monk class (admittedly, this did get a buff in TCoE, but that further proves how awful the subclass is from its base standpoint).

Care to give an example of a non-Ki Core Monk feature that is actually worthwhile to Way of the Four Elements Monks?

Using their hands as magic weapons, getting AC while not wearing any armor, hitting things good in general. Like, take Ki abilities way, Monks are still good at hitting and not being hit. Which most of the time is very handy.

 

[Parmandur]

Heh. No. Martial Arts is useful, but not for a 4 Elements Monk that uses their action to cast a spell instead of attack. (Well, the Kensei Monks do wield weapons, but none of the others.)

A 4E Monk isn't going to cast a Spell every round I a day. And when they don't cast a Spell, they hit real good and can avoid getting hit real good.

 

[vecna00]

This UA surprises me, I honestly thought we would be getting one of the other two top tier campaign settings first: Planescape or Dark Sun. I figured Spelljammer was still on the table, but not likely. I have a feeling this is what Perkins has been working on.

The selection of races definitely has me thinking that these are for different products. Astral elves don't scream "space-faring folk" to me. And while thri-kreen have appeared in Spelljammer (a module or two), they were never integral to the setting.

Although, the kreen's inclusion could be WotC's way of saying "You can have a little Dark Sun, as a treat!"

 

[Levistus's_Leviathan]

This UA surprises me, I honestly thought we would be getting one of the other two top tier campaign settings first: Planescape or Dark Sun. I figured Spelljammer was still on the table, but not likely. I have a feeling this is what Perkins has been working on.

The selection of races definitely has me thinking that these are for different products. Astral elves don't scream "space-faring folk" to me. And while thri-kreen have appeared in Spelljammer (a module or two), they were never integral to the setting.

Although, the kreen's inclusion could be WotC's way of saying "You can have a little Dark Sun, as a treat!"

I definitely think that the Thri-Kreen's inclusion in this article is a way to playtest them in case they ever want to publish Dark Sun (it's a still bit iffy as to whether that's happening soon, due to the controversy around 5e's Psionics system), but I think that if we were getting a UA specifically for Dark Sun, we'd also get Mul and maybe Half-Giants.

I'm guessing that Astral Elves either mean that they're combining Spelljammer and Planescape, having the Astral Sea be where you Spelljam instead of the Phlogiston (and maybe Wildspace), or it could be a revision to the Elven Imperial Navy.

 

[Charlaquin]

I definitely think that the Thri-Kreen's inclusion in this article is a way to playtest them in case they ever want to publish Dark Sun (it's a still bit iffy as to whether that's happening soon, due to the controversy around 5e's Psionics system).

I don’t think there’s really a controversy. They landed on a version of psionics that was popular. Maybe not popular here, but it passed the satisfaction threshold and made it to print. I think anyone who is expecting “one more psionics UA to sort it out” before Dark Sun is fooling themselves. It’s been sorted out, even if you (using the term generally) don’t like what they settled on.

 

[vecna00]

I definitely think that the Thri-Kreen's inclusion in this article is a way to playtest them in case they ever want to publish Dark Sun (it's a still bit iffy as to whether that's happening soon, due to the controversy around 5e's Psionics system), but I think that if we were getting a UA specifically for Dark Sun, we'd also get Mul and maybe Half-Giants.

I'm guessing that Astral Elves either mean that they're combining Spelljammer and Planescape, having the Astral Sea be where you Spelljam instead of the Phlogiston (and maybe Wildspace), or it could be a revision to the Elven Imperial Navy.

Or they're playtesting Astral elves for a future Planescape product or something akin to Mordenkainen's Tome of Foes.

The latter is still a possibility.