Unearthed Arcana New UA: 43 D&D Class Feature Variants

The latest Unearthed Arcana is a big 13-page document! “Every character class in D&D has features, and every class gets one or more class feature variants in today’s Unearthed Arcana! These variants replace or enhance a class’s normal features, giving you new ways to enjoy your character’s class.”

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[Salthorae]

I agree that this is the correct ruling, but I also agree that the text needs to make this explicit, perhaps in a "tip" sidebox.

A "tip" sidebox would be nice on this just to eliminate any confusion, though I do think unnecessary personally.

The ruling is accurate. The Beast Master Ranger does substitute ones own proficiency instead of that of the Beast.

But I feel official rules should rely more on clear straightforward English, and less on rules-lawyer convoluted legalese.

I don't see any legalese required. It is straightforwardly stated that this is an enhancement.

Yet you fail to explain what it is that you feel is more appealing about the Barbarian Pounce option.

I too think that Instinctive Pounce is crap, even if it didn't replace Fast Movement. People like to cite specific situations where it might be useful, but those situations tend to be rare. The fact is, flat bonus speed is infinitely easier to use, and you get to keep your reaction for something else.

Lets face it, when have you ever played a Barbarian, and when an enemy end their turn 15ft from you, you thought, if i could move 15ft RIGHT NOW, that'd be great?

There are many times in games when I'd wished I could get another 10 or 15'

I think the only thing that would make this MORE appealing is if it actually included the "pounce" portion and allowed a single attack against a target at the end of your reaction move.

I think the Talisman was meant to be for skill monkey Warlocks. Chain is for familirs, Blade is for combat and tome is for spells. This one is for skills.

Remember, the Boons themselves aren’t much without backup invocations. Summon a weapon, have an imp or get three cantrips. Without invocations, that’s it. Now you can add “get a d4 on skill checks without proficiency”, but you can give it to party members. That’s not insignificant. That’s for every skill check, always. And if you can’t use it, it’s because you’re proficient. At lvls 3-9, that means you could have a better bonus to your non proficient skills than your proficient ones.

And with the invocations, it does quite a bit.

Good call on what kind of Warlock this is for, though with the Invocations it still feels very NPC Warlock to me. Giving their talisman to a chosen PC or to the party in general.

There should be an Invocation to allow some sort of Scrying effect or Clairvoyance/audience to pair with the Bond of the Talisman Invocation I feel like. Or some sort of communication like the Far Scribe Invocation offers to Tome-locks.

Also - good call on Bard/Sorc/Warlock already having versatility on level up. I think in my post I was mixing up the Cantrip Versatility with these more general Spell Versatility since they have that note about Cantrips being Spells and thus qualifying for Spell Versatility.

I would prefer it if the Versatility options were limited to Cantrips and most of them were limited to Level ups, but I can see some of them being Long Rest. Sorcerer especially is the one I like the Long Rest mechanic for, seems thematic for someone who just does magic.

 

[Parmandur]

I don't think this UA and the previous subclass UAs are for the same thing. Mearls has said that any fixes for the base ranger will be given out for free, so I think if this gets approved (and most if not all of it will be if what this thread is saying is any indication), will be released as a free Official PDF like Elemental Evil Player Companion.

Yeah, there is no necessary reason it has to be for the same product, but I think it is. I think these variants might have hit a balance where they will feel comfortable releasing then as options in a full product. Incidentally, I think we now know what the BG3 Ranger will look like.

Now, I've tallied it up, and all of the UA material in the current round comes to about ~34 pages. Add a few pages for art assuming it all passes muster (but it might not). That means the material currently seen is about 10-15% of a hardcover book, depending on the size. What makes up the vast majority of the book remains a mystery.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

I think the Talisman was meant to be for skill monkey Warlocks. Chain is for familirs, Blade is for combat and tome is for spells. This one is for skills.

I believe that is the intent. But in execution it completely fails.

Say the warlock deliberately avoids proficiency in social skills. The talisman gives an average of +2.5, which is slightly better than being proficient in tier 1, but falls behind in higher tiers.

Remember, the Boons themselves aren’t much without backup invocations. Summon a weapon, have an imp or get three cantrips. Without invocations, that’s it. Now you can add “get a d4 on skill checks without proficiency”, but you can give it to party members. That’s not insignificant. That’s for every skill check, always.

No it isn't. It's only for those skill that the person is not proficient in. Usually, the character making the skill check has proficiency at least, if not Expertise. Apart from a few edge cases it's useless.

And with the invocations, it does quite a bit.

None of the invocations are of much use, especially to the warlock themselves. Bond of the Talisman - you can teleport to the person wearing the talisman or they can teleport to you. It could be situationally useful, but since you can only select the invocation when you level up, it's unlikely anyone would ever choose it. And it doesn't help with skills in any way. Protection of the Talisman - help in your bad saves can't hurt, but it's hardly awesome, doesn't help with skills, and again looks like you are supposed to give the talisman away to help someone else, which doesn't feel like a very warlocky thing to do. Rebuke of the Talisman isn't to bad - the damage is trivial but the knockback is handy. But it has a major drawback - it only works if the attacker actually hits you. And again, nothing that helps with the "skill monkey" concept.

All in all, I can't see a PC warlock ever taking this boon, although they would probably love an NPC warlock to take it and give them the talisman.

 

[Gladius Legis]

Okay. I’ve read through it a couple times now, and I’ve got some thoughts.

*Clerics don’t need and should not ever have Smite Spells.

I'm actually fine with the two that were added to the Cleric. Wrathful Smite's effect is awesome but the damage doesn't scale, and while Branding Smite's damage can scale, it still scales nothing like the Paladin's Divine Smite and its side effect is only situationally beneficial at best.

Also, Smite spells use up both a bonus action and concentration. The Paladin's Divine Smite does not. The Paladin still has a very real advantage in the smiting category, I can assure you.

EDIT: Also as has been pointed out, certain Cleric domains already had some Smite spells on the list, anyway. So has the Warlock's Hexblade (which I'm less OK with).

 

[Salthorae]

None of the invocations are of much use,

I agree that Talisman seems odd and slightly weak. Honestly, I don't think as a Pact Boon allowing it to stack on top of proficient skills would be crazy. Though it might get a bit much if it were stacking with Guidance (which it would I think).

One of the invocations gives an always-on Resistance effect to non-proficient Saves. That could be huge for a fighter with Wisdom or a Wizard with Concentration save.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

I think the Talisman was meant to be for skill monkey Warlocks. Chain is for familirs, Blade is for combat and tome is for spells. This one is for skills.

I believe that is the intent. But in execution it completely fails.

Say the warlock deliberately avoids proficiency in social skills. The talisman gives an average of +2.5, which is slightly better than being proficient in tier 1, but falls behind in higher tiers.

 

[OB1]

I'd like to see a little more cost associated with swapping out spells for Bards, Sorcerers and Warlocks. Perhaps you have to spend 1 HD per level of the spell you are swapping for to show the toll this process takes?

 

[TwoSix]

I think the only thing that would make this MORE appealing is if it actually included the "pounce" portion and allowed a single attack against a target at the end of your reaction move.

That would make it really good for rogues to dip, as they're always looking for reliable ways to get off-turn attacks. I'm not saying that's bad, but it's a point to consider.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

I'm actually fine with the two that were added to the Cleric. Wrathful Smite's effect is awesome but the damage doesn't scale, and while Branding Smite's damage can scale, it still scales nothing like the Paladin's Divine Smite and its side effect is only situationally beneficial at best.

Also, Smite spells use up both a bonus action and concentration. The Paladin's Divine Smite does not. The Paladin still has a very real advantage in the smiting category, I can assure you.

EDIT: Also as has been pointed out, certain Cleric domains already had some Smite spells on the list, anyway. So has the Warlock's Hexblade (which I'm less OK with).

The cleric is already far too prone to horning in on the Paladins territory. I’m not concerned about the power level of the spells.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

One of the invocations gives an always-on Resistance effect to non-proficient Saves. That could be huge for a fighter with Wisdom or a Wizard with Concentration save.

But not very good for the warlock if someone else is wearing it. And it has the same problem as Resistance - you often don't know who will need to make the save before hand. And tossing magic items between party members was something attunement was supposed to prevent.