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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[Chaosmancer]

A Hallow spell (dimensional lock) and a thin lining of lead built into the walls? It would be weird if they didnt have this.

In a world where your rivals can (and obviously do) hire roving bands of murderhobos capable of casting teleportation/ scying/ divination magic let alone having them on staff as permanent retainers, then yes, I would expect anyone capable of forking out the tens of thousands of GP for walls and hundreds each week maintaining those wallson a keep or similar to have both of those (basic) defences installed.

Even more-so in FR or Greyhawk or Eberron where magic is relatively commonplace (enough that whole battalions of magic users are fielded by kingdoms).

If YOU were building a keep in F/R wouldnt you hire a spellcaster for their professional advice on how to fortify it against magical threats?

Mage: 'We can keep out the enemy army and spies with walls my leige, but anyone with any magic can listen to everything you say, and teleport in here past the walls and murder you with a word'

King: 'Well that sounds pretty messed up! What can be done about it?'

Mage: 'Easy fixed m'lord. You'll need a few hundred gp in lead, an additional 1,000gp for rare herbs, oils and incense, and a freindly 9th level Cleric.'

King: 'Castellan; fetch the High Priest of Lathander. (whispers) also... what is is a level?'​

(I dont know why but the Mage was speaking in the voice of Baldric from Blackadder there).



So? They're vulnerable to death by having their head caved in by an axe. Donald Trump is vulnerable to a bullet to the head.

Try it and see what happens. (Dont actually try it!).

In DnD, the King just gets raised. Unless he cant afford a 500gp diamond for some reason. And then he hires NPC murderhobos (presuming he doesnt have any on permanent retainer on staff) to track down the Warlock with (scrying and teleportation magic).

Long story short, King lives, PC Warlock dies. Actions have consequences.

Again. I agree actions have consequences. I am not saying that they could kill people without consequence.

I am saying it would suck to have to lay out limits like "You have to be within 90 ft of the target" on this ability, because they keep casting hex on something they want to kill and plane shifting or teleporting or otherwise making themselves scarce. The ability works fine if they stay in combat with their allies and fight like normal. It is less fine if I end up with a team of mutli-classed warlocks who hex the enemies then bar the doors as they run and slowly kill the enemies without having to fight them. Then I have to a lot of extra work and nerf an ability that otherwise might have some cool potential uses.

I'd hope my players would be oay with a simple "Hey guys, let's not try and specifically break the game here"


To using the Hallow spell by the way. I googled and found a number, 21,000 sq ft for a castle. Thinking that will be a relatively small one. Hallow is 1,000 gp per 120 sq ft

That is 175,000 gp. Before whatever payments the priest asks for because that also takes 175 days (about six months) of their time. We can easily assume this ends up costing over 200,000 gold. In addition, a single dispel magic removes a 120 sq ft section of the Hallow, I don't know if anyone would be aware of it, and it would need to be replaced.

Going to the DMG, a small castle costs 50,000 gp and takes 400 days.

So... they could get their entire castle hallowed, or they could build 4 more castles.

Not saying they won't or can't, but that is a significant investment of funds to prevent Teleportation.

Its both if that makes any sense.

The biggest myth is that we all live in the outback. We're actually one of the most urbanised (read: live in cities on the coast near the ocean) societies on earth.

As an ex soldier that worked out there in the north and centre of Australia, I can speak from experience when I say it is one harsh place to be.

It is a gorgeous country in its own way though. I forget how alien it must look to everyone else. Who designed the Platapus anyway? What kind of messed up animal is warm blooded yet lays eggs, has the bill of a duck but the body of a beaver, and is poisonous?

Kick ass lifestyle over here though. Its like the States, but with no guns, the climate of LA, good wages, better beaches, free healthcare, and at least 4 weeks paid leave each year. Sucks we're so far away from everything though. Although 200 dollar flights to Asia are pretty cool.

If you ever feel like visiting drop me a line. You can do a guest appearance in our weekly 5E Campaign.

Thanks foe the offer, but I'm a broke college kid. Going to be a long time before I can afford to travel to another country. Unless I feel like driving across the border to Canada.

 

[Flamestrike]

Again. I agree actions have consequences. I am not saying that they could kill people without consequence.

I am saying it would suck to have to lay out limits like "You have to be within 90 ft of the target" on this ability, because they keep casting hex on something they want to kill and plane shifting or teleporting or otherwise making themselves scarce. The ability works fine if they stay in combat with their allies and fight like normal. It is less fine if I end up with a team of mutli-classed warlocks who hex the enemies then bar the doors as they run and slowly kill the enemies without having to fight them. Then I have to a lot of extra work and nerf an ability that otherwise might have some cool potential uses.

I'd hope my players would be oay with a simple "Hey guys, let's not try and specifically break the game here"


To using the Hallow spell by the way. I googled and found a number, 21,000 sq ft for a castle. Thinking that will be a relatively small one. Hallow is 1,000 gp per 120 sq ft

That is 175,000 gp. Before whatever payments the priest asks for because that also takes 175 days (about six months) of their time. We can easily assume this ends up costing over 200,000 gold. In addition, a single dispel magic removes a 120 sq ft section of the Hallow, I don't know if anyone would be aware of it, and it would need to be replaced.

Going to the DMG, a small castle costs 50,000 gp and takes 400 days.

So... they could get their entire castle hallowed, or they could build 4 more castles.

Not saying they won't or can't, but that is a significant investment of funds to prevent Teleportation.

I would think places like the audience room, the war room and the Kings bedroom would at least be so warded?

 

[Corwin]

Are we really going to add yet another unrelated thread to the heap of stealth discussion casualties? The number of interesting topics that have been derailed to death by pages upon pages of that argument are already uncountable.

Please take that conversation elsewhere. I'm begging you, on bent knee.

A) Why is it okay to have half-a-dozen complaint posts about a thread being off topic? Aren't they also off topic?

B) It's not really a stealth discussion. Its about initiative and how surprise works on the first round. Stealth is just being used as the common example for how to make surprise happen. So calm down, please.

 

[Corwin]

Even if the DM decides to allow the sniper to attack outside of combat, the target do still have a chance against the incoming bolt: it's their AC.

I'm fairly certain you completely missed my entire point. And that's probably my fault. For that I apologize.

 

[Satyrn]

Are we really going to add yet another unrelated thread to the heap of stealth discussion casualties? The number of interesting topics that have been derailed to death by pages upon pages of that argument are already uncountable.

Please take that conversation elsewhere. I'm begging you, on bent knee.

The Stealth argument really does sneak up on us, eh?

 

[Raunalyn]

The Stealth argument really does sneak up on us, eh?

Well played...

 

[R_Chance]

5e distinguishes a special type of action called "Reactions" that you can take, once your initiative comes around, even during the first turn when you happen to be surprised. As has been pointed out, one of the features of the Assassin subclass requires that you not only surprise your target, but beat them on initiative. If that helps.

And no, again, the monk in my example was indeed "surprised". He did not see the sniper prior to the shot being taken. He will not get to take an action even though he happened to roll higher on initiative than the sniper. He can't choose to move and dash away around a corner before the shot is fired, for example. No, he cannot leap into the tree and attack the sniper first.


Your use of past tense here did not go unnoticed. Nor how that fact would obviously influence your second sentence. I've found a not infrequent cause of 5e consternation stems from past edition players coming to the table with their past-edition-colored glasses on.

I know what a Reaction is. When surprised you have no Actions that turn, but have a Reaction as that turn ends. At the end of the turn sounds definitive. A bit too late to deflect the crossbow bolt that is in you. It would allow the use of a Shield spell which would be in effect before the next round of combat. Maybe I'm stepping in to some argument I haven't followed about surprise (not that this would surprise me ) but it seems to negate some uses of a Reaction. Maybe I'm being too sequential about it. I just don't see something happening at the end of a turn effecting things which happen earlier during the turn. It could be argued that the bolt is fired and in flight and then it's deflected but that is parsing those seconds pretty tightly. Next thing you know we'll be arguing the speed of a crossbow bolt and the distance involved...

And yes, I started playing D&D in 1974. Give it another month and it'll be 43 years. I'm old.

 

[daviddalbec]

Uhh, no. The Paladin's spell slots do not recover on a short rest.

The Warlock can also maintain concentration on Hex through multiple fights and multiple rests, so it's not like they need to spend a slot every combat to have their Eldritch blast out damaging the paladin's extra attacks.

The Paladin will usually have the unenviable position of spending the first turn of many fights casting Bless. They can't just drop all of their spells on smites when they are such an important support class. If your DM is using kiddy gloves, maybe they can get away with it. But Bless is the biggest DPR boost for most parties.

Maintaining Hex through multiple encounters is tough when you are a melee bladelock without con saves. Even with +3 con, you're losing that spell (cast at max warlock spell slot)in the first combat. If you're a hexblade you mostly should avoie using concentration spells IMO.

 

[Corwin]

I know what a Reaction is. When surprised you have no Actions that turn, but have a Reaction as that turn ends. At the end of the turn sounds definitive. A bit too late to deflect the crossbow bolt that is in you. It would allow the use of a Shield spell which would be in effect before the next round of combat. Maybe I'm stepping in to some argument I haven't followed about surprise (not that this would surprise me ) but it seems to negate some uses of a Reaction. Maybe I'm being too sequential about it. I just don't see something happening at the end of a turn effecting things which happen earlier during the turn. It could be argued that the bolt is fired and in flight and then it's deflected but that is parsing those seconds pretty tightly. Next thing you know we'll be arguing the speed of a crossbow bolt and the distance involved...

You are clearly confusing 'turn' for 'round'. I can see why it would be hard to grok given that.

And yes, I started playing D&D in 1974. Give it another month and it'll be 43 years. I'm old.

Me too! I don't have a problem grokking it, though. I try not to look at 5e through previous-edition-colored glasses. It helps.

 

[gyor]

If your a human hexlock, you can take the feat that grants a con save or take War Magic which should help.