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

 

[Mort]

That's driving me crazy. 4E is Fourth Edition dad gummit! Now get off my lawn!

Sorry, drove me crazy too at first. But I guess I just started doing it too.

 

[Chaosmancer]

Plasmoid Monks are gonna be sweet I think...No need to get rid of armor to fit into any space.

I actually am more interested in seeing what they can do as warriors. There have to be more exploits to unlimited psuedopods than I'm imagining right now.

 

[Chaosmancer]

The intended design is to cast Spells instead of doing things like Flurry of Blows. The Ki value of each Spell is identical to their Spell Point value using the DMG variant rule, because the Monk is always a Spell Point 1/2 Caster. The normal Monk abilities are costed out like Spells.

Can you name another subclass where the intent is to lose access to base class features to cast spells?

 

[Chaosmancer]

Well at least we’re in agreement on that.

You mean like how at 6th level a paladin can cast 6 spells per day (4 1st level and 2 2nd) but can’t smite if they do so? Sounds about equivalent to me.

Monks also have abilities that don’t require spending Ki.

I think we can both agree that half-casting is kinda bad.

There is a difference in kind though.

A lv 6 Paladin who uses all of their spells as spells cannot Divine Smite. However they still have access to: Divine Sense, Lay on Hands, Divine Health, Channel Divinity, and Aura of Protection.

A lv 6 Monk who uses all their ki on spells can't use Flurry of Blows, Step of The Wind, Patient Defense, throwback on Deflect Arrows, or Stunning Strike. Leaving them with only... increased movement speed, the other half of deflect missiles, Ki-Empowered Strikes, and Slow Fall.

A paladin lost access to a single ability, and still has Three abilities that take actions and one major defensive ability. The Monk lost access to Five abilities, and only has passive abilities left. No active abilities at all.

 

[Chaosmancer]

You can forage for food and water in most environments. The amounts of food and water you find are quite high, 1d6+WIS mod pounds of food and 1d6+WIS mod gallons of water. Medium and small creatures only need 1 pound of food and 1 gallon of water per day, according to 5E. A character with a decent WIS mod will automatically cover the assumed party of four characters. After the first few levels, spell slots are plentiful enough that worrying about food and water is a waste of time.

Plasmoids eat through osmosis. You can literally dump food and water onto your head and you still "eat" it. How many tinderboxes does one party need? Plasmoids have darkvision, someone will have the light cantrip, or dancing lights, or a lantern or a torch.

Plasmoids revert to a state that's easily confused with a rock or piece of scenery when they sleep. They don't need a bedroll.

If you're going into super cold environment, sure. Super hot environments just mean more water consumed.

As a monk you're likely to have athletics and/or acrobatics trained. After 9th you can walk up walls. A grappling hook might be handy.

Most of that's true for the solids. Plasmoids don't need most of that stuff.

That is an interesting point. However, I'm curious about "need" vs "desires". Sure, you can just have food slopped onto your body and eat it, but is that the most enjoyable way to eat, or would you like a plate to select food off of?

Honestly though, this is what makes me the most excited about Plasmoids, you have these questions that are actually going to have the potential to come up and be discussed about "what would this type of being be like" that just tickle me.

 

[Chaosmancer]

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.

But how is that functionally different from a Paladin with platemail and a two magical shortswords?

I love monks having these abilities, but let's not put stock into them that doesn't exist. Martial Arts is mostly a very long-winded way of giving them the dual-wielding fighting style and letting them finesse staves. Unarmored Defense is roughly equivalent to wearing armor. Having magical hands is only because they are the least likely to get magical weapons, which most martial characters will have by 6th level in most games.

This is something kind of frustrating about Monks, is that the class fantasy includes no armor and no weapons, and so a decent chunk of their power budget was spent making them equivalent to people wearing armor and using weapons... but that confers no real advantages in the majority of situations. Most PCs aren't hindered by the fact that they wear armor or use weapons, it is the default assumption.

 

[Mecheon]

Spelljammer's "mantis people" were the thri-kreen. Specifically and explicitly.

Oh yeah, it was hecka obvious the Xixchill were Kreen, but they kind had them as their own 'ooo maybe they're something else!' thing for a bit

Which was probably going to be "Yeah they're just Kreen" in later Dark Sun stuff, but, well.

 

[Bolares]

I disagree. I’ve never seen any monk played in a way that tracks with that. Every monk I’ve ever seen uses their other abilities more than they use Stunning Strike.

Every monk I've seen is a stunning strike machine...

 

[Ruin Explorer]

I'm sure it's been said in the 33 preceding pages (late to the party as usual!) but Planesjammer just got about 1000% more likely, especially given we have both stuff like "Astral Elves" and Giff. Thri-Kreen is pretty random but maybe they've just to got them in here to get started on them for DS book. Though they would work pretty well for an updated Spelljammer or Planesjammer setting.

Pretty much all of the key Planescape races are already in D&D of course (poor old Bariaurs, but I don't think anyone really misses them).

The mechanics are a bit dull for most of these, which is slightly odd. I expected a bit more from the Thri-Kreen, whose actual stand-out ability now seems to be telepathy. I feel like they should have given Plasmoids a better name, too.

 

[jmartkdr2]

I'm sure it's been said in the 33 preceding pages (late to the party as usual!) but Planesjammer just got about 1000% more likely, especially given we have both stuff like "Astral Elves" and Giff. Thri-Kreen is pretty random but maybe they've just to got them in here to get started on them for DS book. Though they would work pretty well for an updated Spelljammer or Planesjammer setting.

Pretty much all of the key Planescape races are already in D&D of course (poor old Bariaurs, but I don't think anyone really misses them).

The mechanics are a bit dull for most of these, which is slightly odd. I expected a bit more from the Thri-Kreen, whose actual stand-out ability now seems to be telepathy. I feel like they should have given Plasmoids a better name, too.

I actually disagree, this implies to me they're not going to combine the settings. I think we're gonna see a single book with short descriptions of those two, plus a section on planeswalking, and maybe some other stuff.