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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[Krachek]

What a hit!
i was disappointed with Xanathar material for subclasses.
now they got it.

my favorite:

ranger overall.

Spell Versatility. Solve a lot of complaint about spell choice for those classes.

fighter. Battle master was the best fighter, it will be even better. Maneuvers that apply on skills is also a great addition to solve fighter out of combat utility.

warlock. Eldritch armor is an elegant solution for pact of the blade armor lacking.

disappointed
no solution for frenzy berserker.
magical inspiration. Inspiration is strong enough. No need to add on.

 

[Parmandur]

There should probably be a Fighting Style for would-be eldritch knights - 2 wizard cantrips.

Also, honestly, let the Fighter pick Druidic or Blessed Warrior. Won't break anything. The main thing, it seems to me, was for them to give an option for the Ranger and Paladin to have an Artificer-like build with Cantrips.

 

[Lucas Yew]

Probably the best UA in years (though I missed many of them). Wish the final polished version is included in a probable SRD update, being OGL eligible.

 

[Sacrosanct]

I too think that Instinctive Pounce is crap, even if it didn't replace Fast Movement. People like to cite specific situations where it might be useful, but those situations tend to be rare. The fact is, flat bonus speed is infinitely easier to use, and you get to keep your reaction for something else.

Lets face it, when have you ever played a Barbarian, and when an enemy end their turn 15ft from you, you thought, if i could move 15ft RIGHT NOW, that'd be great?

I don’t know, I think having an enemy end it’s turn within 15 ft of you in combat isn’t rare at all. It actually happens all the time. And while not necessarily a barbarian, I absolutely frequently wish I could have my melee PC up closer and further. It’s not just for that round, but sets up the next round as well. How many times has it happened that you’re just short of being able to engage in melee? A lot. So this ability not only allows you to:

• move outside of your turn
• avoid attacks of opportunity while you move
• brings you closer to the enemy which impacts their decisions when it’s gets to their turn (more often than not there are more than just one enemy in the battle)
• allows your allies to get more options (like being able to use sneak attack)

but also does:

• you’re 15ft closer to the caster in the back than you would have been, so your next round you can reach them without needing to dash and smash them to bits
• you’re now in a position the next round to trigger AoO on the opponents who now suddenly find themselves next to you while your party is still out of their melee reach

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.

 

[Blue]

Still going through them, but I wonder why the Battlemaster maneuver options that add to skills aren't the same as other battlemaster uses where you see the result before deciding to use your superiority dice or not.

 

[RSIxidor]

Still going through them, but I wonder why the Battlemaster maneuver options that add to skills aren't the same as other battlemaster uses where you see the result before deciding to use your superiority dice or not.

That's a good thing to bring up when they post the survey. I think it should be uniform, after you see the result.

 

[Delazar]

disappointed
no solution for frenzy berserker.

multi-class Ranger and get Tireless!

 

[MechaTarrasque]

Maybe it is just me, but it seems like this makes the melee cleric and the paladin a little too close (not that they were that far apart to begin with). I think I might have changed blessed warrior to give the paladin a choice of two of: green flame, booming blade, or sword strike, so even when the paladin isn't smiting, his/her gig is still triggering magic by hitting an enemy with a melee weapon.

Random other thoughts:

Instinctive pounce seems good for those spikey armored dwarf barbarians.

Blessed strike seems good if you wanted to be a nonmelee life/tempest/etc. cleric or a melee knowledge/light/etc. cleric.

I like the additional druid spells, both to strengthen them as an elemental caster and as religious type leader.

Wild companion seems particularly good for circle of the land druids, since they don't use wild shape that much, and also those people suffered existential angst that wild shape will show up their druid sheet can now rest easier.

I like favored foe more than favored enemy. It seems like a good way to make hunter's mark a class feature while keeping it a spell.

This is a little niche, but no beast of the sea?

I am glad they are looking at adding a new pact implement, but talisman seems a little weak to me (although the invocations are nice).

 

[Krachek]

multi-class Ranger and get Tireless!

One level dip MC still look like a patch to me.
a clean solution would be to offer an ability similar as Tireless as an option to Danger sense.

 

[tglassy]

I think the Talisman was meant to be for skill monkey Warlocks. Chain is for familirs, Blade is for combat and tome is for spells. This one is for skills.

Remember, the Boons themselves aren’t much without backup invocations. Summon a weapon, have an imp or get three cantrips. Without invocations, that’s it. Now you can add “get a d4 on skill checks without proficiency”, but you can give it to party members. That’s not insignificant. That’s for every skill check, always. And if you can’t use it, it’s because you’re proficient. At lvls 3-9, that means you could have a better bonus to your non proficient skills than your proficient ones.

And with the invocations, it does quite a bit.