D&D General Unearthed Arcana presents another three villainous subclasses

The last Unearthed Arcana gave us some villainous options, including subclasses and feat chains which enabled your character to turn into a death knight or a lich. This week, a new Unearthed Arcana over on D&D Beyond presents us with three new villainous subclasses, following on from the subclasses and feat-chains in the previous playtest document. These subclasses are designed to let players "embrace their inner antiheroes or engage with sinister powers". In this one, we get the Path of Lament (barbarian), Warrior of Venom (monk), and Primordial Patron (warlock).

The barbarian's Path of Lament harnesses sorrow and anguish, leaning into a Banshee's Wail feature which allows the barbarian to cause psychic damage with their voice. The monk's Warrior of Venom enables the character to exude bodily toxins, including hallucinogens and truth serums. This monk also makes use of the Bloodied condition allowing the character's blood to splash onto their attacker when they receive a melee strike, Xenomorph-style. Finally, the warlock's primordial patron is an alliance with a destructive force of nature, such as the Elemental Evils.

You can check out the new Unearthed Arcana playtest here.

 

[ECMO3]

Not really a fan of any of them.

The Banshee Wail is way OP IMO. I also don't like using Constitution for DC or uses. Uses should be either once per short rest or PB per Long Rest and the DC should be based on Charisma IMO.

The way it is now it is going to encourage PCs to invest heavily in Constitution, which makes for a pretty boring 1-dimensional PC.

 

[mearls]

Only had time to look at the barbarian, but it looks neat. It feels like a distinct character.

I also love that they are bringing back story-forward elements. Losing the personality traits from the backgrounds was the single biggest mistake they made in 5.5 IMO. It's easy for hardcore gamers to overlook how daunting it is to create a character from a blank sheet of paper. Elements that add flavor and RP cues are huge helps to players and help hook them into the hobby.

 

[Misanthrope Prime]

Not really a fan of any of them.

The Banshee Wail is way OP IMO. I also don't like the Constitution for DC or uses. Uses should be either once per short rest or PB per Long Rest and the DC should be based on Charisma IMO.

The way it is now it is going to encourage PCs to invest heavily in Constitution, which makes for a pretty boring 1-dimensional PC.

Barbarians typically have high constitution. Why make them unnecessarily MAD?

 

[Stormonu]

Was the last one via feat chain(s)?

 

[Tonguez]

Yeah Im finding most of these new subclasses to be neither villainous nor particularly horrifying- but then thats the nature of 5e and "new" era of DnD play

 

[Weiley31]

Not really a fan of any of them.

The Banshee Wail is way OP IMO. I also don't like using Constitution for DC or uses. Uses should be either once per short rest or PB per Long Rest and the DC should be based on Charisma IMO.

The way it is now it is going to encourage PCs to invest heavily in Constitution, which makes for a pretty boring 1-dimensional PC.

Barbarians are meant to be tanks/take/give hits. High CON plays well with their D12 Hit die, Rage damage reduction, and Unarmored Defence.

It's a feature, not a glitch. If classes like Bard, Monks and what not have stats they key off from, why too should the Barbarian be left out?

1-Dimensional PCs only apply if you don't know how to roleplay or you just want to play a simple character like that.

 

[Kobold Stew]

Path of Lament. A lone warrior driven by their sorrows is a fun enough idea. The mechanics, to me, are for something else: Why does this make you frightening at 6? And while I like the idea of the Banshee's wail ("That is the sound of ultimate suffering. My heart made that sound when Rugen slaughtered my father. The Man in Black makes it now.") the effect at level 10 is going to be huge.

Warrior of Venom. Seems consistent with itself. It is not something that I would ever want to play, though.

Primordial Patron. This is the one that feels solid, and (as others have noted) not especially evil. To me, it is the most interesting and is the only one of the three I would want to play.

• Elemental Node will mean that this warlock fights differently than other warlocks. That, by itself, is the biggest win. It looks like it will favour Pact of the Blade builds. It does well with one-encounter-per-short-rest days, and players will be motivated to pursue that, but they won't be useless if they don't get it (and then not at all limited at level 14).
• Spells. More spells with so few pact slots means most of these will never see use.
• Elemental transmutation might be really fun, but leads to a weird sitaution where the "best" cold-themed build (or acid- or lightning-themed build, or whatever), is the Fire Elemental, and then transmuted. I like the flexibility that represents, but story-wise it feels odd.
• Elemental overflow is written in a way that a Fire-patroned Warlock can transmute all the damage to cold, but still do fire-damage passively.

 

[Not a Decepticon]

Banshee's wail vs envenom weapon....seem....not very balanced against each other....

It's like Barbarian is inherently a class vastly more powerful than a Monk and WotC plays favorites.

 

[Misanthrope Prime]

It's like Barbarian is inherently a class vastly more powerful than a Monk and WotC plays favorites.

Barbarian hasn't had a new subclass since 2024 dropped

 

[ECMO3]

Barbarians are meant to be tanks/take/give hits. High CON plays well with their D12 Hit die, Rage damage reduction, and Unarmored Defence.

It's a feature, not a glitch. If classes like Bard, Monks and what not have stats they key off from, why too should the Barbarian be left out?

1-Dimensional PCs only apply if you don't know how to roleplay or you just want to play a simple character like that.

Because it doesn't make sense and will encourage boring PCs that are little more than tanks.

I get what you are saying about role playing, but a lot of players cringe when PCs who don't invest in social skills try to be the center of social encounters.