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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[Flamestrike]

I think most of the issues I have with resting in 5th (and D&D in general really) is that there is too much of a gap between what is defined as a short rest and what is defined as a long rest. (I also feel like 5E is pretty relaxed on all of the things you can do during a long rest and still be rested.) I like the idea of short rests being shorter, but I'm still fine with long rests being the length they already are.

I've been playing around with the idea of introducing "medium rests," but it's currently just a rough idea.

The format might look strange to this; I just copied from a conversation I was having elsewhere:

"I think 5E's rests are too long, but I think it's still based on some different assumptions than 4E. I know it's not in the book, but I could see 10 minutes for a short and then somewhere between 1-4 hours for a long rest. In either case, if you change long rests to only being 1 hour, I'd consider using something similar to the half-spell-slot thing mentioned in the DMG. If it's not too complicated for people to understand, I'd propose having short rests, "medium" rests, and long rests.

Short Rest - 5 (or 10 minutes), refreshes things that refresh during a short rest.

Medium Rest - 1 hour or more, benefits of a short rest plus spellcasters can recover a number of spell slots equal to half of what they normally get (round down). For example, a third level sorcerer has 4 first level slots and 2 second level slots, so -during a medium rest- that same sorcerer could recover 2 first level slots and 1 second level slot. Spell slots above 5th level cannot be recovered during a medium rest, but may be recovered using other means such as a sorcerer's spell points. Eating a meal and/or using a healer's kit to bandage wounds might allow recover of a hit die or regaining HP as though a hit die were spent.

Long Rest - 8 hours, all resources are refreshed as normal for a long rest. See page 186 of the PHB for details."


What I had in mind for variable times was based on similar ideas to what Flamestrike was saying. A short rest might only be 5 minutes in a relatively safe place. The 10 minute time could be deemed necessary by the DM in areas where an element of danger requires the party to take precautions for safety and security. The same concept is applied to medium rests. I had considered allowing the party to opt to still use the shorter times in dangerous areas in exchange for a higher chance of random encounters or a higher chance of being interrupted by attackers.

Medium Rests are a slightly modified version of how the DMG defines long rests if the heroic options are used.

IMG I use the following:

Short rest: 5 minutes long (short breather, map check, swig of water, bite to eat, 're-org') but you cant benefit from more than one every 4 hours. You can spend up to (half level) in HD each short rest.

Basically you get one 'short rest' per dungeon level, without a 1 hour long immersion breaking 'hole up in an empty room and wait a whole hour for some reason' pause in the action.

Long rest: 8 hours/ overnight type deal. You recover no HP, but you do recover (half level) in HD. At the end of the rest you can spend as many HD as you want to heal. You recover 1 spell slot of each levels (1-5) and 1 spell slot/ mystic arcanum of level 6+. (I also reduce barbarian rages/ day by 1, but give them a fighting style at 2nd level).

This hits the 'sweet spot' for my campaigns. If I need to help 'short rest' based classes, I can always handwave or reduce the 'one short rest per 4 hours' restriction. ("Guys, you have enough time to get the benefits of a short rest now if you want one?")

I find I can back off a bit with 'timed quests' with rests pared back to that level, and my players naturally conserve (rages, spell slots, smites etc) without me really having to do anything to encourage them to do so beyond those mechanics.

 

[Yunru]

In Australia where there are enough mosquitoes the noise keeps you awake at night (and thats before you wake up with a thousand bites on you).

I'm sorry, but now all I can picture is an irate Wizard cssting Silence just to get some damn sleep.

 

[Flamestrike]

I'm sorry, but now all I can picture is an irate Wizard cssting Silence just to get some damn sleep.

I cant begin to tell you how bad they are.

Daytime its the flies. Millions of them. The man next to you will have about 50 on his back, and dozens more flying around him. Youre walking around all day swatting them away.

View attachment 84928

Then, as the sun goes down the flies (almost magically) go away. You get sweet blissful relief as the temperature drops from 40+ celcius (104+ f) and youre out the direct heat of the sun. It goes from maddening buzzing and oppressive heat to silence and peace.

Then you hear the first of a new kind of buzzing.

The mosquitoes army starts to arrive. Within a minute or two of the sun setting, for every fly there was during the day, there are 50 mosquitoes.

View attachment 84929

Its pure hell.

 

[Argyle King]

I think the Shepherd Druid needs to be fleshed out into a separate class. I could see something like a cross between a druid and maybe a warlock or cleric. The spirit animal idea is cool, but losing some spellcasting in exchange for more powers which key off of the spirit would (IMO) be more interesting. I haven't messed around with 5E design enough to know how exactly to go about that, but my gut feeling is that invocations similar to a warlock could work. Alternatively (or maybe in addition), perhaps a slightly different version of channel divinity could be used.

"Invoke Spirit" could have X effect; if your spirit companion is present in the encounter, the power also does Y within the radius of the spirit companion.



Edit: [MENTION=6788736]Flamestrike[/MENTION] - That reminds me of some of the time I spent at Fort Polk, Louisiana for training. I still remember the new lieutenant falling asleep outside and looking like he had chicken pox the following morning due to mosquito bites.

 

[Chaosmancer]

He hasnt hexed anyone yet.

He declares he is using Hex, then initiative is rolled, before the Hex hapens. He doesnt get a free Hex before combat is started.

You might run your games differently, but those are the rules. Declaring an attack simply starts the combat sequence. Then, in turn order, actions are resolved.

Yeah, I do run with old surprise rounds rules. Because the idea of someone declaring "I draw my sword" and then an entire round of combat going off then they get to draw their sword is just too weird for me.

Assuming he goes before the King, he uses maddening Hex. The king orders his men to sieze the Warlock, and lock down the keep.

I'm presuming the King lives in a world where magic (like Warlocks) is a thing. Ergo the audience chamber is dimensional locked (to stop teleportation) via Hallow spell from the local friendly church, and the walls are lined with lead (to stop divination magic). The retainers are all Knights (probably lead by a Champion) plus Veterans and Guards, with a Mage or two on staff (with one likely on staff watching the whole thing with detect magic running).

These are basic defences.

Remove curse works.

And who cares? Even should the King die, he gets resurrected (500gp diamonds arent a big deal for the King - it barely covers the weekly maintence costs for the keep) and the Warlock gets hunted down and publicly hung.

Its not a big deal. You dont need any agreements with your players here. Just hang them if they try (actions have consequences).

Do it once, and they learn pretty fast.

I both agree and disagree.

I agree with the basic defenses and that in my campaign world pulling this kind of stunt would be nearly impossible to pull off.

What about a Baron? A Duchess? Isn't it kind of strange if all nobles have that level of magical defense?

This is why the agreement is necessary. Someone important to your campaign is vulnerable to guaranteed death via Maddening Hex. Assuming a Charisma of +4, every minute that passes is 40 damage to the target. How long will it take the Baron of Smallville to notice something is wrong and send for a priest, the messenger to get to the priest and bring him back and hopefully the priest is at least level 5.

Probably not fast enough at 40 damage a minute.

Sure, this route eventually leads to the character being hunted, possibly being turned in by his allies and him being executed and the player needing to roll up a new character.

But, I'd prefer that if the plan is to kill the Baron, you don't hex and run to the other side of town. Stick around in line of sight and fight just like you would if you didn't have an invocation with no limits on when it can be activated.




The Rest Conversation

Yet more proof that Australia is really Hell and somebody forgot to tell us.

Seriously. I've heard it's pretty there, but everything else I've heard makes it sound like the absolute worst place ever.

 

[Corwin]

Yeah, I do run with old surprise rounds rules. Because the idea of someone declaring "I draw my sword" and then an entire round of combat going off then they get to draw their sword is just too weird for me.

To be a bit blunt, that's a bit of a self-created problem, if you ask me. Obviously, by allowing it to be worded that way, it can create a bit of a disconnect sometimes the way things play out. You are allowing the "declarer" to establish pre-initiative action that is disconnected from the potential of others to react to the obvious stimuli. If instead, they declared, "I will reach for my sword," but it turns out they aren't as quick about it as someone getting to react to it, maybe it wouldn't be so weird?

 

[Argyle King]

There's no surprise in 5E?

 

[Staffan]

There's no surprise in 5E?

Surprise in 5e works a little differently than in previous editions. Essentially, "surprised" is a condition you can have at the start of a fight. When it becomes your turn for the first time, you stop being surprised and then your turn is over. That means that certain things that depend on surprise (most notably the Assassin's Assassinate ability) depend not only on achieving surprise, but also on beating the opponent's initiative.

In 2e, surprise lasted for a whole round. In 3e, if either party was surprised there was a special surprise round where those who weren't surprised could take either a standard action or move (or in 3.0, that was called a partial action). I'm not sure how it worked in 4e.

 

[pukunui]

There's no surprise in 5E?

There is no surprise *round* in 5e.

To boil it down even further from what [MENTION=907]Staffan[/MENTION] said: surprise = lose your turn.

 

[Argyle King]

That's odd. How does that work with stealth?

To clarify: Say my target isn't aware they are being attacked. Hypothetically speaking, let's say I'm a sniper using a crossbow. Attempting to pull the trigger = roll initiative?