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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[Garthanos]

In either case their tracking ability defined them as Rangers far more than choice of weaponry.

Hey how did I get back on this soapbox?

I yanked ...
Of course travelling the ranges (distances and exploration emphasis)

 

[Leatherhead]

(Can you link the source for me to read it?)

Unfortunately the original source is a video.
But I can link you to that.

 

[BookBarbarian]

I yanked ...
Of course travelling the ranges (distances and exploration emphasis)

Bringing it back to the thread, this is what makes Deft explorer so exciting to me.

Its features are ones that I think fit the core identity of the Ranger whether you like your Rangers with spells or no spells, beasts or no beasts, melee or range.

 

[Yaarel]

For some reason, the file I'm getting still has phantasmal force on the bard list.

I see Phantasmal Killer on the UA Bard list, but not Phantasmal Force.

 

[Yaarel]

Unfortunately the original source is a video.
But I can link you to that.

Ok, so I am still watching the video. (Thanks for the link!)

It seems the main difference is indeed between locked options versus unlocked options. The Warlock becomes the ‘most popular class’ of all classes, after people pay to unlock all options. Warlock is 13% of characters, while even Fighter is less at 12%.

So money to unlock options skew the results.

Probably, multiclassing makes Warlock and Sorcerer especially appealing for complex gish builds. So counting multiclass would also skew the statistics.

 

[Li Shenron]

As for the argument that "All Sorcerers will essentially be the same", no, that isn't true, unless its also true for all Clerics, Wizards, Paladin and Druids. Again, why is it ok for a Paladin to know all their spells, but for a Warlock not to?

It's in fact also true for those. Nobody should have had automatic knowledge of the whole class spells list.

 

[Tony Vargas]

Sure. And if 70% of people like it, might get into a book. Early days, yet.

Welcome to 5e! The Big Tent Edition!
Well, gee, thanks, it's an honor just to be nomi-
Stop! 31% of our self-selected respondents don't want your kind here! Get out!

... ever try "defending" from a range

When it was still fun to speculate about such things, yeah, I floated an idea for a ranged fighter - and for an arcane defender who functioned at range using wards, I wasn't alone, either. Not as many attempts as at martial controller, but still a few.

Pushing the humor further for more triggery fun - Aragorn is better as a Warlord (who did have ranged power options) and the Texas rangers most definitely used ranged weaponry

You jest, but we actually had a Texas Ranger in one campaign for a while. Started as a pregen in a playtest of a convention game, but one player liked it so much he played it through Paragon in the regular campaign


.

 

[Parmandur]

Welcome to 5e! The Big Tent Edition!
Well, gee, thanks, it's an honor just to be nomi-
Stop! 31% of our self-selected respondents don't want your kind here! Get out!

Standard must be maintained.

 

[Jay Verkuilen]

Probably, multiclassing makes Warlock and Sorcerer especially appealing for complex gish builds. So counting multiclass would also skew the statistics.

Multiclassing most definitely skews the results and may even make percentages not add to 100%.

 

[Leatherhead]

So money to unlock options skew the results.

You aren't wrong. But those are the people who are paying for D&D content, so they are probably more important for WotC to consider than people who just use the basic rules. Or at least use them as a template to get more people to buy in.

multiclassing makes Warlock and Sorcerer especially appealing for complex gish builds.

Yes. I have often argued that the two classes should have been one class to begin with. But it would be a mistake to discount multiclassing if it is popular enough to help dethrone the Fighter from it's position at the top of the list.