I wonder why we're not looking at the Necromancer Wizard, too. Feels like a big omission from this list....
Reanimator
Overall, I'm into the idea of a Frankenstein Artificer.
- Jolt to Life is a cool vibe, but in practice seems very niche. Most of the time, your party members are not going to want to go down, and when they do, 1 hp isn't what they want to come up with. It'd probably be better if it was an enhancement to any creature you heal rather than a burst of light damage with a < 1/session use (like, maybe someone you heal deals some lightning damage with melee attacks). Relying on an ally to be at 0 hp to use a feature is just a way of saying that you're not really going to be using that feature.
- Reanimated Companion probably should require a corpse as a raw material. It's pretty OK overall, but necrotic damage from its attacks means that it'll be kind of useless vs. undead (and so in many encounters in a horror campaign), and I don't like the vibe of the death burst. "Exploding minions" is pretty hacky. Definitely a (tired) trope, so whatever, but I'd rather it be useful while alive than viewed as a sacrifice. Also, it'd improve Jolt to Life if you could use it on your KO'd companion, and going boom removes that option. It's also weird that it dies when you hit 0 hp - that's NOT the way the Monster works, and takes away that resonance with the source material. Your companion doesn't have its own life, which is just thematically hollow.
- Strange Modifications is fine, but really centers the class around the companion, which...means that the companion's relatively minor annoyances just get worse.
- Improved Reanimation seems pretty fun, but it's likely you have a pretty good view of the aesthetics of your reanimated companion by this level, and dramatically changing that isn't super appealing.
- Promethean Reanimation has a great name, though I'm disappointed at its surface-level meaning. The actual feature is a bit of a random grab-bag, so it seems kind of hard to keep in mind. The bits of it are decent enough, though the most notable bit is the Life Siphon, which further cements the corniness of the exploding companion.
College of Spirits
Overall, the idea of a bard that uses spiritism/crystal balls/ouija boards/tarot cards is an OK one, though it's a bit of an odd fit for "bard." It's not exactly resonant with the idea of the magic of music and performance.
- Channeler is a bit of a grab-bag. It's also got one significant problem: it prescribes the tools you can use as the Spiritual Focus. This is creativity-killing, and highlights that there's some basic gaps in the equipment list (you can't use a Fantasy Planchette as a spellcasting focus, sorry!). OTOH, one perhaps unintentional thing I do like is that you get a free set of playing cards. There's something kind of cool about the Spirits giving you an item you just find in your backpack or something. It works here in a way it might not in other classes.
- Spirits from Beyond has a critical issue. I like the die-roll nature of the ability, and having to play with what the random chance gives you, but consuming a Bardic Inspiration die is just asking for this to not (usually) be used. You could use that die for something practical and effective, OR you could take a chance and do something flavorful, but potentially useless. Roll Beloved on the first round of the first fight of the day? Roll Arsonist against a fire elemental? Guess you just wasted a significant part of your distinct flavor. Generally love the improved action economy and the focus again on Spirits rather than Tales, but the latter exacerbates the "why is this a bard?" issue.
- Empowered Channeling is a bit of a problem. The d6 boost happened at 3rd level before, and relocation to LV6 is fine. However, Spiritual Manifestation is just encouraging more people to use one of the biggest problem spells in the game more. This feature is replacing the old Spirit Session feature, which wasn't the best designed, but had something that it sucks to lose: a ritual consulting spirits. Having a séance with the party was cool and flavorful and it sucks to lose that!
- Mystical Connection is fine and was fine, but kind of highlights the problem with the random generation: if it's good to be able to control it, the randomness is just a negative thing that needs to be fixed rather than a fun part of the feature.
Grave Domain
Yeah, glad to see this return, "death but not undeath" is an important bit of cleric vibe.
- Circle of Mortality is improved with the damage bonus, but is missing spare the dying as a bonus action. And, the necrotic damage makes the damage less useful than it could be, especially for hunting undead. I like that Bloodied helps enable this.
- Grave Domain Spells is generally better thought out than the previous iteration of this archetype, focusing this more on being an undead-fighting subclass. I am a bit wary of that being a monolithic focus, but the spells are good for it.
- Path to the Grave is overall a fine revision.
- Sentinel at Death's Door is a big improvement. Much less likely to be forgotten, much more likely to be used.
- Divine Reaper is also pretty clearly improved. I am fond of the synergy between the new Enhanced Necromancy feature and the domain spells. It's a little system mastery-heavy, but then again, it's also a high-level feature.
Hollow Warden
"Become the Monster" has some legs. Overall, this subclass seems to be one of the most "2024 native" designs I've seen, and I'm liking a lot of it. Probably one of my favorites in this pack.
- Hollow Warden Spells seems basically fine. Good creepy forest vibes. Kind of love the phantom steed / Sleepy Hollow potential.
- Wrath of the Wild seems good verging on a little too good. Fear via action denial is a fun way to do it, though weird that this bypasses any of the bravery that usually applies to the Frightened condition. I'd think that being supernaturally courages would help negate that. I like that it centers Hunter's Mark - gives a strong "I am hunting you" vibe to that mark.
- Hungering Might seems nice. I really like that it heals you when Bloodied, feels like "consuming" the target in a way that feels appropriately monstrous.
- Rot and Violence is solid. Flexible damage types that are all thematic, and a fun use of weapon masteries in a way that feels magical and supernatural, too.
- Ancient Endurance is also very good. Negating a KO as a reaction is an extremely useful bit of kit to have.
Phantom Rogue
A rogue that is a ghost is a neat idea. Lets see if this supports it.
- Wails from the Grave is good, and I generally like the move to Dex mod instead of Prof bonus to up the number of uses for lower level characters. Still suffers from the "only one damage type" problem, where it's useless in certain encounters.
- Whispers of the Dead was good before and is still good. A ribbon, but a nice flavorful one. Activates often enough that you're not likely to entirely forget it (even if you probably have one go-to skill for 90% of the time, knowing you can change it is powerful).
- Tokens of the Departed is worse in this revision. The story of the ability is that you use recently dead souls to power some features, and the rest-recharge version works against that story by decoupling it from a death that the rogue was near enough to use. I'm on board with the goal of improving reliability, but I really don't like the rest-recharge here because it works against the narrative. I also am not a fan of how that change impacts the "ask the soul a question" feature, turning it from something flavorful and interesting to "I cast augury." Just expand the deaths that can make a token (a death the rogue can see, a death the rogue knows of, whatever) to improve reliability. Keep death a part of the core of this.
- Voice of Death is solid, but a bit redundant if they didn't break the question-asking aspect of Tokens.
- Ghost Walk was good and is still good!
- Death's Friend is more or less OK, similar to the original design. It's big problem is that it still keeps that decoupling of death and tokens that was frankly a little off-putting in the original design, too.
Shadow Sorcery
This is not a shadow sorcerer. It is a necromantic sorcerer. If this is the design they're going with, they should change the name.
- Eyes of the Dark is improved. Blindsight is especially nice, and works with the themes.
- Shadow Spells are good. It does focus on NECROMANCY and negative energy beyond just "darkness." Which makes it more of a necromantic sorcerer than a shadow sorcerer, and that should be reflected in the subclass title.
- Spirits of Ill Omen is a big miss. The hound was flavorful and unique. Generic undead summoning makes this more of a necromantic sorcerer. Which is fine, but should be reflected in the subclass's name. It's not a bad feature, it's just not as good of a SHADOW SORCERER feature than the shadowy hound.
- Shadow Walk was fine is fine. Still shadowy.
- Umbral Form is a problem. The big thing here is moving Strength of the Grave from a defining trait of this subclass to a capstone ability, which is quite a big move. I'm not much of a fan of it, to be honest - it was impactful at low levels in a way that it won't be at a high level. OTOH, the Umbral Form as a capstone was kind of weak, and adding Strength of the Grave to it does ameliorate that issue. It's a problem, though, when you're looting from a core feature of the subclass. Move that feature back to early levels, and upgrade Umbral Form in some other way.
Hexblade Patron
Gets the reward for Most Improved. Honestly, the original was one of my least-favorite warlock subclasses for the way it locked in Pact of the Blade to a single subclass. The revision here is better in almost every way.
- Hexblade Spells has some interesting changes. I think the revised list here still gives me a blade-using warrior, which is fine and dandy. A little less "mage blade," but that's fine, hexblades have a more narrow niche.
- Hexblade Manifest is a significant change, for the better. It uses the Hex spell specifically, which seems fit for purpose, and the list of effects you can get are very different from the hex benefits from the original design. I kind of miss the ability to get hp from downing a foe, but that's alleviated by the next feature, and the punish mechanic and the disadvantage on saves are both pretty great.
- Lifestealer is pretty nice, giving me back that healing-from-murder action and giving me a Necrotic Damage on a Miss. It's good design. BUT....where's my specter? Not cool removing my ghost buddy from the design, WotC!
- Armor of Hexes is better. A chance of a miss is frequently frustrating, but a guaranteed reduction in damage is consistently good. I liked the original design's boldness, but the revision here is the more playable option.
- Masterful Hex is good. I'm not a fan of increased crit range in general, but the other stuff this feature does is good enough to overlook that, and it's a heck of a lot better than the original's design (which was kind of taken by the Hex spell anyway).
Undead Patron
Hits close to home since I'm playing one of these currently. Let's see how this goes...
- Form of Dead was fun and is fun. The frightened status is a bit narrow, though - I'd love to see it expanded a bit.
- Undead Spells is fine. No objection to the swapped out spells.
- Grave Touched is nuanced, but I think ultimately better. Because any Pact of the Blade warlock can deal necrotic damage now, negating necrotic resistance helps that be used more often. There is a little problem in the wording of the Arcane Necrosis feature, though - this doesn't work on Area of Effect necrotic damage that isn't from a spell. That becomes relevant with the next feature. Also, not sure about the difference between "you don't need to eat" and "you don't get Exhaustion from not eating." Like, do I still need to eat or not?
- Necrotic Husk is good, but the necrotic explosion from Unholy Resuscitation doesn't benefit from the Arcane Necrosis feature that eliminates necrotic resistance. Seems like a loophole. Overall though, good improvement, and this will see more use.
- Superior Dread removes a critical element of the original design: leaving your body behind in spirit form. It's not a bad feature on its own, but the ability to become a ghost and leave your body behind is a VERY FUN thing, and this design is worse for excluding it. Being in two different places is a fun way to play, and this is missing that.
TL;DR: B+. Some really good improvements, but D&D 5.1 continues its tradition of sanding off some of the really interesting edges of design in the name of apparent simplicity. Sometimes, that pays off. In a few places, it really hurts the fun times.
