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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[doctorbadwolf]

No, it cannot Attack on it’s turn. It can attack as a reaction when the Warlock uses the attack action and gives one of its attacks to allow it to. This invocation makes it a bonus action instead.

Huh. Hadn’t realized that. The stock chain Warlock is garbage, in that case.

 

[Salthorae]

Sacred Flame to patch up the Paladin's typical weakness in ranged combat, and Guidance because it's, well, Guidance. What more do you need?

Depending on your type of Paladin other options: Spare the Dying or Toll the Dead would be good secondary options as well.

Huh. Hadn’t realized that. The stock chain Warlock is garbage, in that case.

That's always been true, OTOH if I'm worried about my combat effectiveness, I'm not playing a Chain-lock in the first place.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

Depending on your type of Paladin other options: Spare the Dying or Toll the Dead would be good secondary options as well.



That's always been true, OTOH if I'm worried about my combat effectiveness, I'm not playing a Chain-lock in the first place.

The Barbarian option is horrible. Worse than worthless, in that it destroys something valuable.
[/QUOTE]
I mean, it is optional.

 

[tglassy]

Huh. Hadn’t realized that. The stock chain Warlock is garbage, in that case.

That’s not true at all. Having a Familiar with a fly speed, Devil’s Sight, a poisonous sting, the ability to polymorph into a spider, rat or crow, that can turn invisible at will and whom you can see through their senses from any distance on the planet is incredibly useful. Oh, and they can, invisibly, give you advantage on every Attack by hovering 5 ft above the enemy. While invisible. And you’re upset because it can’t attack on it’s turn? Would you like the Familiar to take on the Big Bad by himself as well? He’s not an animal companion, he’s a Familiar. Stock familiars can’t do half that.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

That’s not true at all. Having a Familiar with a fly speed, Devil’s Sight, a poisonous sting, the ability to polymorph into a spider, rat or crow, that can turn invisible at will and whom you can see through their senses from any distance on the planet is incredibly useful. Oh, and they can, invisibly, give you advantage on every Attack by hovering 5 ft above the enemy. While invisible. And you’re upset because it can’t attack on it’s turn? Would you like the Familiar to take on the Big Bad by himself as well? He’s not an animal companion, he’s a Familiar. Stock familiars can’t do half that.

Stock familiars can do all but the invisibility and attacking, and the attack is absolutely never worth it if it costs your action.

 

[Parmandur]

Stock familiars can do all but the invisibility and attacking, and the attack is absolutely never worth it if it costs your action.

You are severely overestimating what the Find Familiar Spell provides, and underestimating what the Chain Pact adds. Like you suggested people do with Monk weapons, take another look.

 

[Dausuul]

Lots of great stuff in here! Especially for the warrior types. And the new warlock invocations are friggin' awesome. The talisman pact is pretty darn sweet, too.

Although... animate dead on the warlock spell list? Seriously? The class that can cast it twice per hour starting at 5th level? That seems... uh... potent.

Inelegant but effective fix to dragon sorcerers with the elemental swap. Except green dragon sorcerers, who can't use it. Poor green dragon sorcerers. Their damage spells are a sad joke, whole categories of creatures are flat-out immune to their favored damage type, and now the fix for every other dragon sorc--the one they need more than anybody--goes right past them. They just can't catch a break.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

You are severely overestimating what the Find Familiar Spell provides, and underestimating what the Chain Pact adds. Like you suggested people do with Monk weapons, take another look.

Meh, the gap isn’t that great unless the chain familiar can use its own actions however it wants on its turn.

And yet, I still think it’s silly to be mad that the invocation that sparked this discussion come in at 9th.

 

[Kurotowa]

Although... animate dead on the warlock spell list? Seriously? The class that can cast it twice per hour starting at 5th level? That seems... uh... potent.

I suspect it's one of those things where it looks stronger in a white room sim where the Warlock has an infinite supply of corpses and no daily activities besides casting Animate Dead and taking short rests. In actual play, Warlocks want to take part in adventurers and use spell slots for adventurer things. You can probably get away with using it twice at the start of the day and counting morning activities like breakfast as a short rest, but beyond that you really need to get on with the day.

 

[renbot]

Wow it gives every spell-casting class the versatility of the wizard. And gives the wizard absolutely nothing.

 

[Parmandur]

Meh, the gap isn’t that great unless the chain familiar can use its own actions however it wants on its turn.

And yet, I still think it’s silly to be mad that the invocation that sparked this discussion come in at 9th.

The Chain Pact Familiar isn't terribly more useful in combat than the normal Familiar, though it is better. It is primarily useful for making the Warlock a weird, Eldritch skill monkey (Blade = Fighter-y, Time = Wizard-yz Chain = Rogue-y). At this, it is successful.

 

[Parmandur]

Wow it gives every spell-casting class the versatility of the wizard. And gives the wizard absolutely nothing.

Cantrip versatility.

Really, this UA just acknowledges that one of the big frustrations people can get is regretting a character build choice, and provides a fair framework to fix the frustration and move on.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

Wow it gives every spell-casting class the versatility of the wizard. And gives the wizard absolutely nothing.

Changing a cantrip at level up, or 1 single spell at a long rest, isn’t giving anyone the versatility of the wizard.

 

[Leatherhead]

Sacred Flame to patch up the Paladin's typical weakness in ranged combat, and Guidance because it's, well, Guidance. What more do you need?

I mean, have you seen what the Druid cantrip list gives Rangers?

 

[Parmandur]

I mean, have you seen what the Druid cantrip list gives Rangers?

The Druid Cantrip list is robust, but consistent ranged damage that scales with level is very good for a Melee bruiser like the Paladin.

 

[Ashrym]

Wow it gives every spell-casting class the versatility of the wizard. And gives the wizard absolutely nothing.

There's spell versatility and cantrip versatility. Wizards are adding cantrip versatility too and it's just a respect option leveling up. It's going to the spell prep classes. Spell versatility allows spells known classes to swap a single spell on a long rest, which isn't even close to how the spell prep mechanic works.

Wizards also added 2 good rituals to mesh well with that mechanic, and a decent buff that used to be available or sorcs instead of wizzies. That last part seems a bit unfortunate to me but sorcs added more spells to the list than wizzies so c'est la vie.

 

[renbot]

Changing a cantrip at level up, or 1 single spell at a long rest, isn’t giving anyone the versatility of the wizard.

In some ways it makes them more versatile. Wizards get two spells per class level of their choice or on average four spells of each spell level, plus whatever scraps the DM and/or module decide to throw their way. So Wizards will NEVER be able to cast the vast majority of wizard spells.

With these variant rules every other spell-casting class can cast any single spell on their list with 8 hours of prep.

So yeah... Versatile.

 

[Ashrym]

For the wizard, I would have totally allowed them to add cantrips to their spellbook and select them each day along with the rest of their spells. It's a house rule I'd already be using if anyone had chosen wizard. I was also thinking of allowing other prepared casters similar versatility but this UA has beat me to it.

How does that work with sorcerers and warlocks? It seems to destroy the one of the sorc benefits (more cantrips) and only feature of tomelocks that doesn't cost an invocation. I can see a house rule like that in a private game that omits those options but I can't see it as a good idea for WotC to do that much damage to those classes in favor of wizards needing moar stuff.

 

[Ashrym]

In some ways it makes them more versatile. Wizards get two spells per class level of their choice or on average four spells of each spell level, plus whatever scraps the DM and/or module decide to throw their way. So Wizards will NEVER be able to cast the vast majority of wizard spells.

With these variant rules every other spell-casting class can cast every single spell on their list with 8 hours of prep.

So yeah... Versatile.

It's true that this might look advantageous due to the spell book restriction, but it's still not better than swapping out multiple spells if spell swapping is important. It also ignores adding spells to the book outside of leveling if all we look at is the level up choices.

The issue is that it isn't every single spell. It's any single spell. Long rests also take 24 hours to gain benefits, not 8 hours.

It's not like where a wizard can swap to a standard downtime list in a day and back to an adventuring list in another day. I think the change in 5e to spell slots for spells prepped over individual preparation like we used to have did more for moving clerics, druids, paladins, and wizards towards 3.x bard and sorcerer styles than this change does to move bards, rangers, sorcerers, and warlocks towards wizards.

 

[unknowable]

I would have to limit these to one choice per appropriate level.

Or it would just be a giant upgrade and no extra choices for classes that only get enhancements.

Also, hilarious that WotC came up with the same hunters mark/favoured enemy solution I came up with around 2 years ago.