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.”

News Archive | Dungeons and Dragons

Read the full archives of Dungeons & Dragons news, Sage Advice, Unearthed Arcana, and D&D Studio Blogs.

dnd.wizards.com

 

[Salthorae]

I'm honestly pretty excited to roll up a punchy Ranger/Berserker.

I just re-watched Thor: Ragnarok and the Unarmed Strike Fighting Style has me pumped to do a Storm Herald Barbarian/Storm Sorcerer (Booming Blade, Lighting Lure, Shocking Grasp, Thunderclap cantrips, I choose you!).

Or maybe tempest cleric, but... I don't see Thor as the wise type. He's very charismatic though

Oh and some fighter in there somewhere for Fighting Style

 

[Parmandur]

I just re-watched Thor: Ragnarok and the Unarmed Strike Fighting Style has me pumped to do a Storm Herald Barbarian/Storm Sorcerer (Booming Blade, Lighting Lure, Shocking Grasp, Thunderclap cantrips, I choose you!).

Or maybe tempest cleric, but... I don't see Thor as the wise type. He's very charismatic though

Oh and some fighter in there somewhere for Fighting Style

Sorcadin.

 

[Salthorae]

Sorcadin.

YMMV - Thor always felt more Barbarian in medium armor than Paladin to me. Storm Herald (sea) seems perfect to me. Not the most optimized build to do Barbarian/Sorcerer/Fighter, but I like it thematically.

 

[OB1]

I like the idea of the spell versatility for bard, sorcerer (especially), and warlock. However, I think it should reset your spell list to your defaults after a long rest (or "lasts until you complete a long rest" as it would be written) so it gives you one flexible spell per day, rather than the ability to respec your character with a few days notice. Limiting them to 5th level spells or less also seems like a good idea. Letting the Battle Master switch a maneuver should also reset after a long rest.

Even if it were done that way, it feels like wizard still needs something to keep its versatility up. I'd suggest an enhancement to Arcane Recovery that allows them to switch one of their prepared spells when they use Arcane Recovery.

This is a really smart solution. Will be suggesting this on the survey.

 

[Garthanos]

YMMV - Thor always felt more Barbarian in medium armor than Paladin to me. Storm Herald (sea) seems perfect to me. Not the most optimized build to do Barbarian/Sorcerer/Fighter, but I like it thematically.

Comic book Thor is a paladin... most definitely. Mythic Thor nyeh.

 

[Tony Vargas]

It's a highly specific character concept, but it is a valid narrative concept. Now supported by the rules!

I don't know if it deserves an exclamation point. Now (5 years in), supporting a rather obvious thrown-weapon-specialist concept that worked in 3.0 or 4e from launch (albeit, probably best as a rather exacting Fighter/Ranger build* in 3e, and rogue in 4e), and 1e ever since weapon specialization was introduced in Dragon magazine (hmmm...actually that was about 5 years from PH to UA).

 

[Immoralkickass]

I mean, a barbarian with this wielding a pole arm with mastery and sentinel feat is gonna wreck havoc on the battlefield. I’m not saying it’s objectively better than fast movement, but it certainly isn’t garbage. Not when you think tactically instead of only considering “40ft always vs 45ft conditional”. It just has to be comparable. And I think it does. In spades.

If the barbarian has PAM and Sentinel then this feature is just rubbish, as it eats your reaction.

 

[Sacrosanct]

If the barbarian has PAM and Sentinel then this feature is just rubbish, as it eats your reaction.

Only when you use it. Which apparently is super rare according to you, which infers most of the time they would still have the benefits of sentinel. It does, however, set you up to extremely well to get those opportunity attacks on each subsequent round.

 

[Parmandur]

I don't know if it deserves an exclamation point. Now (5 years in), supporting a rather obvious thrown-weapon-specialist concept that worked in 3.0 or 4e from launch (albeit, probably best as a rather exacting Fighter/Ranger build* in 3e, and rogue in 4e), and 1e ever since weapon specialization was introduced in Dragon magazine (hmmm...actually that was about 5 years from PH to UA).

Well, you could use thrown weapons previously. This just opens up new horizons for the future if the game.

 

[NotAYakk]

"can draw" is just to make it viable as an option. +1 damage is the entire style when comparing; compared to +2 to hit from ranged, or +2 damage from duelist (which also gets a bigger die on weapons), that is pretty sad.