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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[tetrasodium]

I wonder how much of this is intended to address power creep in other areas. The UA Artificer Battlesmith seemed on the verge of being a better Beast master than the Ranger. This UA solves that issue, probably. So there might be some power creep, but at least this might help making it balanced power creep.

the ranger being a bad beast master isn't reason to make everything else similarly bad, it's a reason to fix rager beastmaster. Some of the changes are doing that, but others are really breaking of some of the FR trops baked into classes at low levels of their core design s& allowing tropes from other settings to be slotted in there instead.

 

[Charlaquin]

This might be my favorite UA to date!

The Aim Cunning Action option for rogues is NUTS! If you thought Sharpshooter was OP before, wait until every Sharpshooter character starts taking a 2-level dip into rogue for at-will Advantage on their -5/+10 attacks.

 

[Hussar]

This might be my favorite UA to date!

The Aim Cunning Action option for rogues is NUTS! If you thought Sharpshooter was OP before, wait until every Sharpshooter character starts taking a 2-level dip into rogue for at-will Advantage on their -5/+10 attacks.

That thought occurred to me as well. Never minding that this would allow the rogue to sneak attack at long range so long as they had Sharpshooter.

Sniper time!

 

[nexalis]

Best UA article I've ever seen. I'm somewhat disappointed that they did nothing to address warlock spell slots. Most groups I play with have far fewer than the expected number of short rests per day, so the warlock gets seriously gimped.

 

[Urriak Uruk]

I think that it's more "Rather than reprint every core class with fluff & boundaries more linked to eberron than FR, there will be some fluff & some optional x replaces/extends y ability" things like how PF archtypes work

I dunno, this combined with all the new subclasses seems like a new Xanathar's to me... none of this stuff smells like a specific setting, unless it's a "meta-setting" like Planescape, MagictG or even Spelljammer which barely needs an explanation...

If they did this, the subclasses, new DM rules, and new spells, that's a book.

 

[RSIxidor]

Thought vomit, apologies: Blessed Strikes is a good replacement for Cleric 8. Good to see another use for Wild Shape for non-Moons. All fighters getting access to a battle master maneuver as a fighting style is kind of intriguing. A couple of the added maneuvers might be too much. I like the monk weapon variant. Ki-based healing is also nice. Paladins can take a fighting style to get cleric cantrips, nice, and more fighting style options. Everything Rangers get here is really good, except I don't like Fade Away. It's quick to use but only lasts 6 seconds. Changed from an exploration to a combat ability because of that, I think. Should last some time based on wisdom, IMO. I like beast companions being specific options but not sure how well the feature will work. Cunning Action to get advantage is incredible. Sorcerer stuff is okay (changing damage type is good, though). Warlock invocations are mostly nice. Good fighting style options added for all the fighting style classes.

When does PHB2 come?

 

[Tales and Chronicles]

I must say, I was already quite satisfied with the ranger, but those changes are really great. To me the ''revised ranger'' is a closed subject. The new warlock invocations are really cool and most of them were needed (the armor one for non-hexblade blade-locks and the one who let the chainlock make a bonus attack with its familiar).

At last, new metamagic! With Sorcerous Fortitude, Elemental spell, quicken spell and dragon origin, I can make a somewhat interesting sorcerer gish.

 

[tetrasodium]

I dunno, this combined with all the new subclasses seems like a new Xanathar's to me... none of this stuff smells like a specific setting, unless it's a "meta-setting" like Planescape, MagictG or even Spelljammer which barely needs an explanation...

If they did this, the subclasses, new DM rules, and new spells, that's a book.

not necessicarily a specific setting so much as fixing wrongs like the ranger & chopping off some of FR's setting baseline boundaries inflicted on classes to allow other settings to be less jarring & in need of homebrewing to fit. Take the bard spell list additions for example; Keith Baker has long talked about hoe the dhakaani used bards rather than clerics because they were not very faithful people for various reasons... the new spells on that list greatly help there. Similar can be say for all the education allowing skill changes or learning cantrips is normal not rare & mystical ways of gaining cantrips

 

[Salthorae]

my interpretation was that you can draw as many weapons as you have attacks. So a fifth level dual wielding fighter could draw and throw three daggers (2 normal plus bonus offhand weapon), all with an additional +1 damage.

Raw you can only draw one weapon a round using your Free Object Interaction. A Dual Wielder can draw two weapons with that Free Object Interaction, but that's it.

This fighting style would let you draw as many weapons as you have Attack/Extra Attacks.

I don't know anyone who even considers changing all their spells on a day to day basis anyway.

I know my Druid had a default load out ready, plus a few secondary choices I kept in mind in case of specific situations and some I never even considered preparing.

I mean if I COULD change my spells know on a long rest for a Sorcerer? I'd certainly do it. It hasn't been an option so it' hasn't been something considered, but I regularly use the swap spells known at level-ups. I can only imagine I'd do it on long rests regularly as well.

 

[Parmandur]

So now who doesn't think something like Xanathar's 2 isn't in the works?

Still doubt that: a few pages of variant rules and a handful of Subclasses could still mean approximately anything.

 

[Sacrosanct]

This might be my favorite UA to date!

The Aim Cunning Action option for rogues is NUTS! If you thought Sharpshooter was OP before, wait until every Sharpshooter character starts taking a 2-level dip into rogue for at-will Advantage on their -5/+10 attacks.

perhaps. But that means you delay things like getting your extra attack and ASIs by two levels, and each time you use it, you can’t move. I’m envisioning this power like an artillery piece that puts down stabilizing pillars before firing lol

 

[Tales and Chronicles]

Ah also: With the new fighting styles being quite strong, it make the champion with its extra F.S way more interesting.

 

[Parmandur]

I dunno, this combined with all the new subclasses seems like a new Xanathar's to me... none of this stuff smells like a specific setting, unless it's a "meta-setting" like Planescape, MagictG or even Spelljammer which barely needs an explanation...

If they did this, the subclasses, new DM rules, and new spells, that's a book.

It's the beginning of a book: a "meta-setting" like Planescape could still easily be what this is for.

Primarily, these pages boil down to retraining rules... interesting.

 

[dave2008]

I think with this UA, 5e is getting close to the customization sweet point for me, if we had: PHB + racial feats + skill feats (UA) + Variant Features (UA). I would like to see some more variant features options though.

 

[bedir than]

I think Unarmed Fighting is OP. My back of envelope map gives that Fighter more fist-to-face damage than Monks in Tier 1 and maybe Tier 2

 

[Salthorae]

I think Unarmed Fighting is OP. My back of envelope map gives that Fighter more fist-to-face damage than Monks in Tier 1 and maybe Tier 2

Are you considering the extra Bonus Action attacks that Monks can make here? Fighter's don't get that (with unarmed strikes anyway). So they're attacking 1/round until level 5. Monks have the option of attacking at least 2/round until 5th, then 3/round.

Dunno. 3.5-4.5+Str per round vs. 2.5-5+Str or Dex seems on par to me.

EDIT - and then at 5th level, the Monk's jump up to 3.5 per hit and it can be done 2-4 times per round.

This fighting style just increases the damage from Unarmed Strikes, it doesn't let them work with things like Two-Weapon Fighting or other things.

 

[tglassy]

Love love love. This is going to be standard in my games from now on.

Giving Warlocks, Bards, and Sorcerers the ability to switch out spells everyday is a huge blessing. The added spells are a boon as well. I can finally make a Warlock Necromancer with Animate Dead! Why was this not a standard Warlock spell to begin with?

 

[Parmandur]

Are you considering the extra Bonus Action attacks that Monks can make here? Fighter's don't get that (with unarmed strikes anyway). So they're attacking 1/round until level 5. Monks have the option of attacking at least 2/round until 5th, then 3/round.

Dunno. 3.5-4.5+Str per round vs. 2.5-5+Str or Dex seems on par to me.

This fighting style just increases the damage from Unarmed Strikes, it doesn't let them work with things like Two-Weapon Fighting or other things.

Also, the Fighter with this fighting style won't have fists that are magical weapons...seems like a fantastic option for the Champion as a secondary fighting style but hardly OP.

 

[Urriak Uruk]

It's the beginning of a book: a "meta-setting" like Planescape could still easily be what this is for.

Primarily, these pages boil down to retraining rules... interesting.

That would make a fairly odd book... a bunch of player options, plus a whole new setting. I'd assume it would have to cut new races/classes to make room.

This smells more like a PHB2/Xanathar's3 as others have suggested, just seems like a more clear-cut explanation.

 

[Jay Verkuilen]

not necessicarily a specific setting so much as fixing wrongs like the ranger & chopping off some of FR's setting baseline boundaries inflicted on classes to allow other settings to be less jarring & in need of homebrewing to fit.

I seem to gravitate towards running godless or weak gods settings and often make divine casters very rare so having reduced niche protection by power source is helpful. This was something 4E did well by allowing different "power sources" and "roles." (I'm not necessarily saying their layout was the right one, just that the logic is useful; 4E had a lot of useful conceptual thinking, regardless of what one thinks of its execution.)

I don't know that one needs to totally grid out a party like that, but it helps to think of roles in the party in both game design and when building a party and thinking also about the society at large, assuming you care about world building, which I very much like to tie into the classes. For example, in my Desert of Desolation game, the area was cursed and abandoned by the gods; divine casters are common in the original modules (which date to 1E) but felt wrong. So I borrowed some from al Qadim (excellent source material!) and made the faith of many of the tribes to be the Lawgiver, an unnamed sage from centuries ago only known to be a woman, who was explicitly not divine---indeed, much of the Law is specifically guiding followers away from gods, most of which are evil and nasty. Part of the overall story also talks of "the pharaohs and their wives" so I decided that secular power was in the hands of the pharaohs (men) and the lore was kept by the wives (women). Thus the sheik is a man while the spiritual leader of the community is a woman and typical classes would be fighter and bard, respectively. (This is world design, it doesn't really affect PCs.)

So, long story short, expanding the spell lists and making sure there are multiple ways for roles to be met is IMO a good idea. I very much like the warlock invocations, for instance. The Booklock invocations really help open that path up as a healer type character, especially for a Celestial Booklock, that really doesn't feel like a warmed over cleric.