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

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dnd.wizards.com

 

[Jay Verkuilen]

Thrown weapons as a part of an arsenal, no. A guy who focuses exclusively on thrown weapons to the exclusion of bows or melee weapons? Slightly more fringe concept.

One of my favorite characters (long ago) was Buckminster "Bucky" Burrmaster II, the "half-thing" who was a dart throwing specialist! It totally fits for a halfling or gnome fighter, and I could see other examples working for it. I'll agree it's not necessarily straight down the line, but it's not crazy.

 

[Stalker0]

The only thing that really raised my eyebrow was the snipe maneuver. So now the bow fighter can make another attack a round (with extra damage) for several rounds in a fight. People have already been saying that bow fighters are a bit too strong, this seems to even further the gap.

 

[Tony Vargas]

Wizards and Clerics aren't Really dominant anymore.
Sorcerers are more popular than Wizards, and Warlocks are more popular than any other full caster.

Cleric was always more necessary than popular. But, I seem to remember the Big 4 dominating class popularity polls, even quite recently.

Popularity doesn't always track mechanical effectiveness or class Tier or the like, though. The fighter topped the list of most popular classes in 3.5, when it was Tier 5, just a step above hopeless.

3e had the infamous Hulking Hurler among other options.
And 4e was an odd duck for any kind of ranged Fighter, they couldn't even use bows with most of their powers.

4e had 4 full classes that were 100% martial, no casting. Initially, strikers - Ranger & Rogue - were given the ranged options, so you had a deadly knife-thrower and very potent archer at launch, and though it never did tackle the conundrum of what a ranged defender might be like (let alone an all-martial controller), the Warlord got a ranged option in Martial Power 2, as well.

"Fighter" in the usual D&D sense - the non-spell-using, non-magical, non-supernatural, weapon-user - in 4e, was the whole Martial Source, encompassing 4 full classes, 20 or 30 builds (sub classes), and over a thousand exploits (maneuvers).

 

[Yaarel]

Sorcerers are more popular than Wizards, and Warlocks are more popular than any other full caster.

From D&DBeyond, Wizards seem a popular class. Regarding creations of characters.
• Wizards 9800s
• Warlock 8700s
• Sorcerer 7500s

They are pretty close.

 

[Salthorae]

There's already the Martial Adept feat for that so it's not new.

Basically they're not good enough to play that archetype? Again "Git gud"

Also, the Warlock gets their spell from a Patron, not that different than a Cleric getting his from a Deity, so I don't know why a chance to change would be a problem.

Martial Adept has always been a feat for anyone. Sure. This is a fighting style which is a different ball game.

Level 1 Variant Human fighter could start the game with 2 superiority die and 3 maneuvers and have nothing to do with Battlemaster as a fighter. It's just further erosion of that, that's all.

Nothing to do with "they're not good enough". That release valve mechanic already exists.

Or, you know, trying something off the beaten path and not just the same few spells that the charop folks say you have to take. Or having a theme that is cool but proves unworkable. I could think of a lot of reasons. Having some more flex on Cha casters is helpful to keep the game going, too, if character or world concepts push towards Cha casters being dominant. (Yes, the DM could allow these things, but it's nice having "permission".)

I have zero problems with people trying something off the beaten path or cool. But I would say if you want to do that, then don't worry about your overall effectiveness.

I'm playing a combat-focused Giant Soul Sorcerer right now in a game. Completely non-op, but fun, and flavorful and cool to me. My non-optimized spell selection still lets the game be fun for me and it would be weird to this character if he could change spells after he slept.

 

[Gladius Legis]

The only thing that really raised my eyebrow was the snipe maneuver. So now the bow fighter can make another attack a round (with extra damage) for several rounds in a fight. People have already been saying that bow fighters are a bit too strong, this seems to even further the gap.

Yeah. This is a maneuver I would've preferred to see as a melee one rather than a ranged one.

This basically brings bow Fighters up there with Crossbow Expert hand crossbow Fighters, who were already head and shoulders above every other Fighter build. Now all ranged Fighters get to be outrageously superior to melee.

 

[Leatherhead]

From D&DBeyond, Wizards seem a popular class. Regarding creations of characters.
• Wizards 9800s
• Warlock 8700s
• Sorcerer 7500s

They are pretty close.

Those are the old numbers from 2017.

Here are some more current numbers for you:
Druid 5%
Bard 6%
Wizards 8%
Sorcerers 10%
Clerics 11%
Warlocks 13%

D&D: And The Most Popular Subclasses Are...

Can you guess which wizard school has the most students? Which warlock patron makes the most pacts? The results are in, according to D&D Beyond.

www.belloflostsouls.net

 

[Jay Verkuilen]

it would be weird to this character if he could change spells after he slept.

:nod: I think I'd probably want some kind of in game fluff explaining that change and I'd definitely enforce theme. For instance, I'd consider having some kind of spell focusing crystal or totem and I'd definitely want the spell to be thematically related.

Sorcerer is mechanically reasonable but I've often found that it's thematically weak due to the fact that a Shadow sorcerer will often still know Fireball simply because the latter is such a good spell and there is often a serious lack of thematically appropriate spells at different levels. Warlock has similar issues given how limited the spell list is. (Of course this doesn't matter if you are willing to toss that out, but still.)

 

[Parmandur]

One of my favorite characters (long ago) was Buckminster "Bucky" Burrmaster II, the "half-thing" who was a dart throwing specialist! It totally fits for a halfling or gnome fighter, and I could see other examples working for it. I'll agree it's not necessarily straight down the line, but it's not crazy.

Oh, definitely not crazy. But previously more filled by the Rogue as a Class.

 

[Yaarel]

Those are the old numbers from 2017.

Here are some more current numbers for you:
Druid 5%
Bard 6%
Wizards 8%
Sorcerers 10%
Clerics 11%
Warlocks 13%

D&D: And The Most Popular Subclasses Are...

Can you guess which wizard school has the most students? Which warlock patron makes the most pacts? The results are in, according to D&D Beyond.

www.belloflostsouls.net

But popular SUBCLASSES is different from popular classes.

For example, the top three Wizard subclasses were Spellsinging, War Magic, and Evocation, each at 14%. Since only the top three subclasses were considered, the remaining (many) Wizard subclasses werent included in the statistic.

Meanwhile, the top three Warlock subclasses were Hexblade 37%, Fiend 17%, and Celestial 15%. So its top three subclasses under consideration totaled up to more characters than the top three Wizard subclasses.

Yet the Wizard still appears to have more characters created when all of its subclasses are included, not just the top three.