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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[Kobold Avenger]

I think scornful rebuke should be only 1/per round, maybe not necessarily requiring a reaction though.

The celestial warlock, I feel they should imply a little more unpleasantness about it, instead of "the urge to annihilate undead" it should be to "urge to annihilate all sinners". I feel all Warlocks should have something "unpleasant" about them, even if many players and DMs ignore that.

I'm not too impressed by the Cavalier, because of the existence of the Battlemaster.

The Circle of the Sheppard is alright, still not impressed by Faithful Summons, and why do they even mention commands? Since in most cases you couldn't give commands if you met the conditions to have Faithful Summons happen. Maybe they should be allowed 1 command when that happens, like "Get help!" or "Get me out of here!"

For the invocations:
Why does Frost Lance not also do cold damage? I know hardly anything resists, is immune or vulnerable to force damage, but I think the creature slowed by it should take mixed force/cold damage.
I feel that Ghostly Gaze should have a longer period of use too.
Tomb of Levistus almost reminds me of an ability from a certain Team-based shooter, except that it doesn't heal.

 

[FormerlyHemlock]

I just noticed that Maddening Hex is nigh-certain death to anything you manage to Hex. You don't even need to cast a spell in their presence. Now the "crush a toad" exploit is actually an interesting exploit:

(1) Hex a toad in the morning as a weird voodoo ritual.
(2) Kill the toad as part of the ritual.
(3) Go visit the king.
(4) Use your "bonus action" to Hex the king (see previous discussion about why bonus actions are lazy design because they result in things being defined by gamist jargon instead of in-world events--it's undefined whether or not the warlock has to do something overt to hex the king, or if he just has to "use his bonus action" and nothing else). Doesn't matter what attribute you Hex but let's say Int just for fun.
(5) Leave the room and go visit your aunt.
(6) Crush the king's sanity, doing (Cha) damage repeatedly until the king dies.
(7) You've got a perfect alibi--you were visiting your aunt when the king died.
(8) ???
(9) Profit!!!

For additional fun, crush the king's sanity when one of your hated rivals happens to be alone with him. (Chain Pact warlocks will be better at detecting when is a good time.)

 

[MechaTarrasque]

I am surprised that they didn't try to rehabilitate the oath of treachery paladin into an oath of liberation, but there is always Xanathar's Guide.....

The shepherd druid v2 kind of reminds me of the favored soul v3, in that they have doubled down on the role for subclass.

The celestial warlock channels the invoker pretty well. I wouldn't mind it if there were some invocations that suggested some celestial patrons (even if they didn't require celestial patronage). I am glad they added a new invocation for the chainlocks, although I was hoping for something that made the familiar a little better in combat (still a sweet scout). I don't recall trickster's escape from before, but it seems very flavorful and helpful.

 

[Raunalyn]

So with the new Kiss of Mephistopheles you no longer need to be hell-pact or even choose fireball as one of your hell-pact spells to get access to fireball? That is weird/interesting/nice.

Maddening/relentless hex don't specify what "cursed by a warlock feature" means. Don't want to see DM/players fighting over this.

Improved pact blade is part feat ta/patch (your weapon should already count as a focus) and part useless in most games (you are going to find a magic weapon at some point).

It doesn't specify, but I don't think that's the intention.

The way I read it (and the way I'd play it if I allowed this in my game) is that you should also have access to the Fireball spell to benefit from this invocation; it doesn't give it to you for free. I know it doesn't say that in the prerequisites, but I think that's the actual intention.

 

[ppaladin123]

It doesn't specify, but I don't think that's the intention.

The way I read it (and the way I'd play it if I allowed this in my game) is that you should also have access to the Fireball spell to benefit from this invocation; it doesn't give it to you for free. I know it doesn't say that in the prerequisites, but I think that's the actual intention.

They said in the article linking to the pdf that they got feedback that the invocations shouldn't be tied to pacts so they removed the pact requirements. But Fiend pact is the only way to get access to fireball because it is the only pact that offers the spell. So I think they need to decide what they are going for with this.

 

[Li Shenron]

I see only improvements compared to previous versions!

I like how the Shepherd Druid is different from both the Land Druid and the Moon Druid, how the Paladin of Conquest is practically the iconic Blackguard (and feels more like Darth Vader than before), and the Undying Light is not dead, only re-fluffed as Celestial now (less special, but I can see how this change makes the archetype much easier to buy into).

Only the Cavalier still leaves me cold and skeptical... if at least they'd replace those 2 "stock" maneuvers (those which are the same as the Battle Master) with something new and Cavalier-only, then the archetype would stand more on its own.

As for the invocations, I must say that they pretty much removed all the least interesting ones. I would have maybe kept Chronicle of the Raven Queen (it's not very useful, but it sounded fun!) and removed Improved Pact Weapon instead, which is uber-boring and probably becomes useless at higher levels.

 

[Sorcerers Apprentice]

Maddening Hex could definitely do with a range and/or line-of-sight restriction. As written a sorlock with subtle spell would be a perfect undetectable and nigh unstoppable assasin.

It doesn't specify, but I don't think that's the intention.

The way I read it (and the way I'd play it if I allowed this in my game) is that you should also have access to the Fireball spell to benefit from this invocation; it doesn't give it to you for free. I know it doesn't say that in the prerequisites, but I think that's the actual intention.

It uses exactly the same wording as other invocations that let warlocks cast spells that are not on the warlock spell list. I'm 99% sure that there is no implicit requirement for the warlock to already know the fireball spell to use this invocation either.

That Unicorn spirit begs for a multiclass with Life Cleric. Goodberries to heal 40 hit points, + everyone gains Druid level in hit points?

Seems pretty strong to me

Going super healing multi-class spam is strong also... Cleric 2 / Druid 2 / Bard X - for full party healing with a single spell slot

The unicorn spirit healing only triggers when you cast a spell that restores hit points to a target. Goodberry doesn't restore any HP when cast. Note that this is worded differently from the Life Cleric ability.

 

[evilbob]

I just noticed that Maddening Hex is nigh-certain death to anything you manage to Hex.

It took a while but I see what you're saying here. While I would personally rule that transferring the spell to a new target would be the equivalent of casting, frankly it doesn't matter if the king sees you or not: Hex is a no-save, no-attack, 1st-level spell that takes a bonus action to cast and lasts a minimum of an hour (but can last 24!). Maddening Hex is no-save, no-attack, no-restriction bonus damage to anything you've Hexed (it does regular damage, not Cha damage, unless I missed something). This effectively lets you kill anything you can see and get within 90' of, so long as you have the time to do it and they cannot access Remove Curse during that time (a 3rd level spell). It's more like: a 5th level Warlock can kill the tarrasque, so long as they can survive being within 90 feet of it for at least part of one turn!

And that's beside the point that between Hex (a 1st level spell) and Maddening Hex you could do an unstoppable d6+CHA bonus damage to a creature each round you hit it. It's like empowering your Eldritch Blast; that cantrip at level 5, assuming you hit twice, would do 2d10+2d6+2xCHA damage a round. Which... actually isn't that bad, compared to a 5th level paladin using a first level spell to smite I suppose, but it would last until the end of the encounter.

Back to the new class options: I like the druid idea in theory, but it feels lopsided; the 2nd level encounter power is extremely strong, but the rest of the powers aren't that good. Summoning wolves is a great tactic but you don't actually care about their HP or damage - that's sort of pointless for what they are really for (absorbing enemy actions and tripping). And the 14th level power is basically, "protect me from getting coup de graced by the DM" - which is just sort of weird. To me it goes back to the idea that a power that only triggers on death is not a good power - it encourages the wrong kind of play. Then again most 5E druids seem to be better in low-level play, and all their higher-level powers are sort of "meh," so they're keeping with that theme.

 

[Valdier]

The unicorn spirit healing only triggers when you cast a spell that restores hit points to a target. Goodberry doesn't restore any HP when cast. Note that this is worded differently from the Life Cleric ability.

That is fair, I could see that interpretation made. It would still work with Aura of Vitality and such spells (not every round but still enough of an extra boost to full heal parties very quickly and easily.

 

[Guest 6801328]

The creature appears with more hit points than normal: 2 extra hit points per Hit Die it has.

There is no try, there is only do.