Unearthed Arcana New UA Paladin and Bard.

There's a new Unearthed Arcana in town! "The bard receives a new Bardic College feature: the College of Eloquence. Additionally, the paladin gains a new Sacred Oath feature: the Oath of Heroism."

 

[doctorbadwolf]

Yep, extremely powerful, and opens the way for some smitable crit fishing if you are somehow able to get advantage on the roll. Interesting ability.

I like the flavor of Glorious Defense. Seems a bit weak for a 15th level ability, but also fun to use. The capstone also looks interesting.

Will give the smite crit fishers an option other than vengeance with 3 levels of champion fighter or a level of hexblade warlock, which is nice.

 

[OB1]

Hmmm, going back to the Wild Barbarian path, that makes a lot of sense in the context of The Beastlands or Arborea. I wonder if all the recent sub-class UAs could be tied to a specific outer plane?

As for these, I really like the Bard's Inspiration spawn feature. That could really lead to a massive couple of rounds. And the Paladin's level 20 is just insane.

Loving all three of these recent UAs.

 

[MonkeezOnFire]

I just had another interesting thought about the Oath of Heroism. The designers have clarified that for the purposes of Find Steed sharing a spell with your mount a spell that targets only you is "A spell that targets only you is one that has a range of self and no area-of-effect parenthetical." Expeditious Retreat that a Heroism paladin can cast is one such spell. So once you get a mount it can start dashing twice for some extreme mobility. It gets even crazier with a pegasus from Find Greater Steed.

 

[Bitbrain]

My opinion.

BARD - College of Eloquence
Undeniable Logic is too strong in my opinion. Completely renders Heightened spell metamagic obselete.

Infectious Inspiration should just give you the ability to inspire two allies at a time.

PALADIN - Oath of Heroism
Oath Spells. Replace Enthrall with Enlarge/Reduce.

Beyond that, I’d say it works fairly well as a Champion Fighter, in some sort of “only spellcasters permitted” game.

All in all, I think that this new round of UA PDFs is intended for the next 5e Magic the Gathering campaign guide.

EDIT
You’ve all convinced me. Undeniable Logic is not overpowered. I stand corrected . . . By your logical reasonings.

 

[Charlaquin]

Haha it’s a forum debater and a White Knight!

 

[gyor]

Quick hot take:

Seems kind of White Mana to me. Also, strangely Hellenic...

My first thought when reading them was Theros, they don't fit Zendikar, but they fit Theros to a T.

The Bard is like a Greek Philosopher and the Hero is the personal Champion of the Gods, maybe a demigod even.

 

[Parmandur]

My opinion.

BARD - College of Eloquence
Undeniable Logic is too strong in my opinion. Completely renders Heightened spell metamagic obselete.

Infectious Inspiration should just give you the ability to inspire two allies at a time.

PALADIN - Oath of Heroism
Oath Spells. Replace Enthrall with Enlarge/Reduce.

Beyond that, I’d say it works fairly well as a Champion Fighter, in some sort of “only spellcasters permitted” game.

All in all, I think that this new round of UA PDFs is intended for the next 5e Magic the Gathering campaign guide.

I think you are right.

 

[Parmandur]

My first thought when reading them was Theros, they don't fit Zendikar, but they fit Theros to a T.

The Bard is like a Greek Philosopher and the Hero is the personal Champion of the Gods, maybe a demigod even.

I agree, this is very Theros-ish. Very interesting...

 

[Kobold Avenger]

Is that related at all to the White Lotus school of 4e?

The Crusader class got access to that school and a lot of it was about team work. In 4e a bunch of the team tactics related powers of the Warlord was inspired by the White Raven School.

 

[gyor]

Hmmm, going back to the Wild Barbarian path, that makes a lot of sense in the context of The Beastlands or Arborea. I wonder if all the recent sub-class UAs could be tied to a specific outer plane?

As for these, I really like the Bard's Inspiration spawn feature. That could really lead to a massive couple of rounds. And the Paladin's level 20 is just insane.

Loving all three of these recent UAs.

They also tie into rescent and upcoming MtG card set worlds. The first two, especially the Barbarian fits Eldraine the current set location, the second fit Zendikar, which slated for fall 2020 and this current one fits Theros which is slated for Theros 2020.

I'm thinking instead of a single MtG setting, a compilation of MtG settings. One else suggested this in another thread, I forget who.

Next month's should confirm it.