College of the Moon review
Lore: While I know quite a bit about the Forgotten Realms, I admit I’m not familiar with the Moonshaes. If this archetype existed in previous editions, I guess it makes sense to bring it back, but the base archetype just isn’t doing anything for me. We already have a Fey Bard subclass in the Glamour Bard and a lore keeper bard in the Lore Bard. There’s also a bit of overlap with the Spirit bard. This doesn’t really feel deserving of its own niche. It’s also pretty setting specific and I prefer my subclasses to have a broad enough archetype that they could fit in pretty much any setting. Just thematically I don’t like this subclass.
Moonshae Folktales: An action to activate, choosing one of three options, and it lasts until you use an action to choose a different option. It might be better if this was reworded so you choose an option at the end of a long rest, but can change to a different option out of combat.
Tale of Life - Seems pretty weak. Not only is it for some reason limited to once a turn, but it also consumes your bardic inspiration only to heal a small amount. Compare it to the early healing abilities of the Life Cleric or Stars Druid, and it definitely seems underwhelming.
Tale of Gloam - Situationally useful, but also underwhelming. If it allowed for them to take the Dodge action it would be better and useful for Rogues and Monks.
Tale of Mirth - I swear a different subclass gets something like this. Add this to the pile of overlap it has with other subclasses.
Primal Lorist: A cantrip and skill is nice, and Druidic is nigh useless.
Blessing of the Moonwells: Does Moonbeam count against your maximum amount of prepared spells? Casting it as a bonus action a limited amount of times is nice, and probably worth a 3rd level spell slot. The glowing is basically pointless, and healing is fine.
Bolstered Folktales: Boring. When will WotC learn that having a capstone ability that just slightly improved abilities you got earlier is not sufficient?
Overall, I’m not a fan. Lots of overlap with other subclasses both mechanically and thematically. I cannot imagine myself or any of my players being inspired to play this subclass. I would prefer for this to be scrapped and replaced with something else.
Knowledge Domain review
Lore: Basically the same as before. However I wonder if the Arcana Domain is being absorbed into this subclass.
Blessings of Knowledge: Fine. Artisan’s tools proficiency makes less sense than languages, though. Maybe they could give a choice between the two if this subclass is meant to include crafter gods like Gond.
Knowledge Domain Spells: Wow! 3 spells per level! Mostly utility spells, but still. Knowledge clerics will certainly know more spells than basically anyone else. Detect Magic and Comprehend Languages are completely new and free additions, Augury and Suggestion was changed to Detect Thoughts and Mind Spike. Speak with Dead is replaced with Dispel Magic and Tongues. Banishment is new and Synaptic Static are new. It seems to me that this is definitely subsuming the Arcana Cleric’s niche, and probably filling the role of a psionic cleric subclass. Huge upgrade. Most of these spells aren’t useful in combat, so it’s probably not too much.
Mind Magic: Interesting. Both former channel divinities were removed and now they only get this option. It’s good. Definitely has an Arcana Cleric vibe even if the original subclass didn’t get anything like this.
Unfettered Mind: Cool. Telepathy is nice, definitely makes me think this is the Psionic Cleric subclass. It definitely fits for my current setting. And the “replace the roll with set number” abilities are always good, even if Int checks are less common and important than others.
Divine Foreknowledge: Yet another completely new good ability.
I actually want to play a Knowledge Cleric now. What was quite possibly the most boring Cleric subclass before is now pretty good. I like this subclass and it could be printed pretty much as is.
