Unearthed Arcana June Unearthed Arcana: Druid Shepherd, Fighter Cavalier, and Paladin of Conquest

The latest Unearthed Arcana from Mearls and Crawford revisits four subclasses from earlier UA articles. "Part of the fun of playtesting is seeing how feedback and play can push a design in new directions. In this month’s Unearthed Arcana, we revisit class material that appeared in previous installments: four subclasses for various classes, along with Eldritch Invocations for the warlock. This material was all popular, and the revisions to it were driven by feedback that thousands of you provided in surveys. The updated subclasses are the druid’s Circle of the Shepherd, the fighter’s Cavalier, the paladin’s Oath of Conquest, and the warlock’s Celestial (formerly known as the Undying Light). One of the main pieces of feedback we got about the Eldritch Invocations is that most players didn’t want them exclusive to particular Otherworldly Patron options, so we’ve opened them up to more warlocks, tweaked them, and cut the least popular ones."

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[GarrettKP]

These and last months revised classes all safe bets to make the next crunch book!

 

[Tales and Chronicles]

The druid's one looks good, I would play that because I like the flavor and the mechanics make them different from the other druids.

The Cavalier I'm not sure. I like the CS dice for fighter, but I find weird that some fighters get this features but not all. I'd like a revised fighter that give access to CS dice to every archetype or keep it as is with only the Battlemaster using the CS.

The Warlock is pretty cool. While the undying light was lacking flavor, this one aknowledge the demand of many players for a ''good'' patron. It reminds me of 4th edition's Invoker. The invocations are nice: I dont do math, but I think the Eldritch smite will make the bladelock more popular. I like how some of the new invocations give you a 1/day cast of a spell without costing a spellslot.

The paladin seems bland, too bad, I like the concept but the execution seems all over the place.

 

[Creamsteak]

I like the druid, Cavalier seems kinda boring to me, love the warlock and I can see myself playing one. I also like the fireball on eldritch blast hit and the "ice block" tomb. Both of those sound fun to play with. The paladin sounds fine to me, especially for some character concepts where you want to really be a servant of Hextor or something.

 

[LuisCarlos17f]

Cavalier, subclass? In Spanish languange we use "caballero" for knight and cavalier.

The knight should be a "variant class", a pack of optional class features but showed like a complete 20 levels class.

 

[GarrettKP]

Cavalier, subclass? In Spanish languange we use "caballero" for knight and cavalier.

The knight should be a "variant class", a pack of optional class features but showed like a complete 20 levels class.

Not gonna happen in 5e. Not their style.

 

[FormerlyHemlock]

The warlock invocations are interesting. Grasp of Hadar has some obvious abuse potential for high-level warlocks, in conjunction with area effects and Repelling Blast.

You could e.g. have the party druid cast Spike Growth, and then Eldritch Blast: Repelling Blast on the first hit for an extra 4d4 damage, then Grasp of Hadar on the second hit for another 4d4, and finally Repelling Blast on the third hit for another 4d4. Call it the Cheese Grater.

It won't work with spells like Wall of Fire that only work once per turn, obviously.

 

[Hawk Diesel]

The Druid seems cool.

I hated the Cavalier the first time around, and I find I continue to dislike it.

I enjoyed the original version of the Undying Light. I would say if any change was needed, it was with the healing dice pool. I'd much rather see something more akin to Lay on Hands or Wholeness of Body with a defined HP pool rather than a dice pool.

The real draw for me are some of the invocations. I am always looking for new invocations, and while some were already largely presented in the last Wizard & Warlock UA, that is the best part of this UA for me. Especially the Frost Lance, Grasp of Hadar, and Ghostly Gaze. The first two make the warlock very effective at controlling enemy movement with Repelling Blast (something I find largely missing from 5e compared to 4e) while Ghostly Gaze is just so freaking interesting. Could be useful with helping the Rogue pick a lock or assisting them disarming traps, directing the rogue to mechanisms that he can't see. Super cool IMO.

 

[Yunru]

So... A Battlemaster with the Mounted Combat feat makes a better Cavalier than this attempt at a Cavalier. Awkward.

 

[FormerlyHemlock]

I'd like Ghostly Gaze better if it weren't restricted to six seconds per short rest. That's just annoying, IMO. Make it "until you lose concentration, as if concentrating on a spell."