D&D 5E New Favoured Soul vs Old Favoured Soul

[MoonSong]

Honestly the first favoured soul was awful as a warrior, weapons did not provide anything worth using, and Greenflame Blade and Booming Blade we're better then using extra attack because the weapon choices we're so poor.

With Mage Armour, Green Flame and Booming Blade, and a Staff the new Favoured Soul is actually better in melee combat then a Old Favoured Soul armed with light armour, a spear, and extra attack. New Favoured Soul has +1 more AC, can use it's weapon as an implement to cast spells, +1 hp per level, and Favour of the Gods over the Old Favoured Soul. Either way if you wanted a good fighter, you need to dip into the fighter class for 1 level, which gets you all the good weapons, heavy armour, shields, second wind, a fighting style.

And the Quarter St

Green Flame Blade and Booming Blade are from SCAG. Remember the two-book rule, we cannot compare two things if we are including material from an extra book in the equation, because the designers absolutely won't take them into account for design purposes. If you have a favored soul -old or new- you cannot assume Green Flame Blade and Booming Blade. And even if you assume it, the old favored soul is proficient with more weapons anyway, so there are more chances to land both attacks. And the old favored soul can also take mage armor, in fact is more likely to afford it with the extra known spells. All the new one has is a measly +1 hp for combat.

Besides that, I've been playing an old Favored Soul for a while. And let me tell you, you don't need to be alpha striking to be a worthwhile melee character. All you need to do is contribute and avoid dying long enough to patch everybody at the end. I don't even wear armor or use mage armor and I've yet to be hurt enough to need rescuing. Even the party forgets sometimes that I'm a squishy.

Maybe the quarterstaff is so good that no other simple weapon is worth anything -but in that case, would it hurt to be proficient with other simple weapons in order to have more aesthetic options?-. But even then it pales in comparison to the psychological rush you get from using a spear. A staff is only a stick, a spear is the one universal weapon that connects you with all cultures and millions of souls over the eras. Can you throw a staff? can you dual wield staffs? Besides simple weapons also include the shortbow -the other universal weapon-, can you attack with your staff something more than 60 feet away?

 

[Sunseeker]

Also that wings don't work well with armour anyways.

By 14th leve (a level or two shy of where the official campaigns end) one would hope they could afford some custom armor, or have their armor customized.

 

[Leatherhead]

The new one, while not technically being true to the 3.5 class, is a better concept over all.

 

[gyor]

The new one, while not technically being true to the 3.5 class, is a better concept over all.

I actually agree with you, it's actually more like the 2e Mystic, a Charisma spell casting stay sorceror like divine class that had access to a variety of spells that Clerics often didn't have.

Some similar fluff too as the Mystic usually didn't fit into church hierarchies.

You can even get a familiar like the Mystic had with a feat.

 

[Jester David]

The old one feels inspired by the 3e/4e Favoured Soul.
The new one feels like a generic celestial bloodline that just taps into a familiar name.

There's a lot of less exciting options in the original. A hybrid might be nice.

 

[Mercule]

I don't know if the spells you pick from the Sorceror spell list count as arcane or divine, (personally I'd count them as divine, they power source is still your divine spark) I'm pretty sure the ones who pick from the cleric spell list are divine, I mean they out right call it Divine Magic.

In 5E, there is no arcane/divine split. There are just spells. Spells may come from different sources, but the hard definitions are gone. The term Divine Magic in the Favored Soul write up is just an ability name.

There's no real harm in still calling clerical magic divine and wizard magic arcane. They still are, in most settings . It's just that there is no rules distinction.



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[FormerlyHemlock]

Which Favoured Soul do you prefer, the Old Favoured Soul from the modifying classes UA article, or the New Favoured Soul from the sorceror UA?

As a player, I'd prefer the old Favored Soul because it is broken*.

As a game designer and a DM, I prefer the new Favored Soul** because the old Favored Soul was broken.

* By which I mean, it dominates all the other sorcerers. It doesn't dominate all the other classes, and you will still see wizards and druids in play, but you will see very few wild or dragon sorcerers in a campaign which allows the old Favored Soul, unless you give those subclasses domain spells as well.

** Either that, or give domain spells to all the other subclasses. As a game designer, I actually prefer that solution the most because it adds a lot of flavor, but that ship has sailed... it doesn't look like they're going to retroactively add domain spells to sorcerers as a "thing."

 

[FormerlyHemlock]

With Mage Armour, Green Flame and Booming Blade, and a Staff the new Favoured Soul is actually better in melee combat then a Old Favoured Soul armed with light armour, a spear, and extra attack. New Favoured Soul has +1 more AC, can use it's weapon as an implement to cast spells, +1 hp per level, and Favour of the Gods over the Old Favoured Soul. Either way if you wanted a good fighter, you need to dip into the fighter class for 1 level, which gets you all the good weapons, heavy armour, shields, second wind, a fighting style.

The old Favored Soul was proficient in medium armor and shields. Why would you ever settle for AC 12 when you could have AC 17?

Extra Attack is primarily useful for tricky things like the (DMG) Disarm maneuver or Shove--things that you don't get out of melee cantrips--or using a longbow at long range. It's marginally useful (moreso if you somehow acquire Athletics Expertise), but the real win here is medium armor/shields and free cleric domain spells which practically double your spells known.