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."

 

[Yaarel]

Opens doc, scrolls to Paladin.

Hopes for Oath of Liberty or Freedom.

Doesn't see it.

Sighs.

The Oath of Heroism seems to me a True Neutral Paladin archetype.

I like the flavor of physical perfection − the heroic ideal.

I dislike the baked-in polytheism flavor.

 

[Twiggly the Gnome]

Tbh, I don't really follow the MtG iconics. I only know Jace in the same way I know Drizzt, from people griefing over the character. But, to be fair, I didn't know wtf Xanathar was until that book came out.

 

[Yaarel]

These are Paladin Oaths:
• White Knight = Redemption
• Black Knight = Vengeance
• Green Knight = Ancients
• Red Knight = Conquest
...
• Blue Knight? = Devotion
• Gold Knight? = Heroism



I think Devotion is supposed to be the White Knight, but the peaceful innocence of Redemption seems whiter.

I am talking about the colors according to Arthurian archetypes.

But these might work for Magic the Gathering colors too.

 

[Blue]

On the Dragon+ Twitch today, Crawford kept business pretty focused on mechanics, though one interesting tidbit is the Oath of Heroes started life as a Fighter but they felt it needed to be more supernatural, so went Paladin.

I am so glad they didn't do another "let's add magic to a pure martial class" again.

 

[Leatherhead]

This rapid fire Release Schedule make me anxious for the next big splat book.

College of Eloquence
Because it wasn't going to call itself the College of Propaganda. Also, I am utterly disappointed at this college's lack of purple prose for it's ability names.

Universal Speech
You can talk the talk, even to things that don't do talk.
They can understand you, but you can't understand them? Major oversight on that. Also, using the inspiration die for the number of targets is very clunky. Something like CHA+die would work better.

Soothing Words
You have Calm Emotions on tap. This basically frees up a spell pick for you. As a talking Bard you would have chosen this spell anyway: It effectively negates the situations where talking isn't an option because everyone is out for blood. Also, it gets rid of fear or charm, should you come across that in combat. Getting it for free is great.

Undeniable Logic
This has two uses:
Firstly, it's basically a bonus action Mind Sliver from the last UA, only more damaging due to the resource cost.
Secondly, it's also Healing Word, with a bonus to saving throws added on top of it. On a short rest cooldown instead of a daily cooldown!

We are just giving this Bard access to all of the best spells without having to use spells now. Yeah, it eats into the Bardic Inspiration Dice. However, at this point you have 3+, and they refresh on a short rest! Oh, and because these aren't actually spells, you can still cast a real spell with your action!

Infectious Inspiration
You effectively get 5 extra uses of Inspiration per day. Because you will be eating a lot of them otherwise. Not very exciting, but it does shore up the obvious weakness of this subclass.

Thoughts
Are we sure this isn't the Psionic Warlord? This subclass is kind of a new direction for subclass design: Instead of becoming a super-specialist, you get all of the things that you would want to have for a talking-bard, and with your general class resources (Feats and Spell Picks) you can instead branch out to pick entirely different things. I kind of like the direction that it's going in, though I am utterly disappointed at the lack of purple prose for ability names.

It took me a minute to realize that Undeniable Logic was a short rest cooldown, because that's not a thing that is supposed to exist outside of the PDK. I am shocked by it still.


Oath of Heroism
Holding out for a Hero.

Tenets of Heroism
You do the punchy things and the daring do, because it's your manifest destiny!~ Leave words for that previous bard.

Spells
You get some physical enhancement, a bit of charm, but of interest here are the ranged attacks. Still no ranged Divine Smite, but it makes you think they are willing at least explore the option now.

Channel Divinity
Peerless Athlete, is ok for someone who is supposed to always be doing something.
Legendary Strike is for crit fishing.

Mighty Deed
More of a warlord power than a power for an Action-Paladin. You bolster your team and demoralize your opponents whenever you crit, for even more incentive when crit fishing. The effects themselves are relatively minor for a level 7 power, the real draw is that you can do it every turn.

Glorious Defense
Whooboy this power is an entire Tier lower than it should be.
Shield on demand. In addition to that, you get to make a free weapon attack against the thing that attacked you when you force it to miss. It's also worth noting that this is a weapon attack, which can be a Ranged Weapon Attack. If only there was a way to make Divine Smite Ranged compatible.

Living Myth
This is just bad. Turning a miss into a hit will be very rare for any paladin that is built for crit-fishing. Advantage on Cha checks is totally against the fluff of "Don't Talk, Just Do" and it's attached to a combat power on a class that doesn't have Counterspell. The only redeeming feature is the ability to turn a failed saving throw into an auto-pass. But that isn't nearly enough to cut the mustard on it's own compared to some of the crazy things that other Oaths get. It's a justification for people to multiclass out of this class and into something that gives them advantage for cheap (as if this subclass actually needed any more of that)

Thoughts
I actually hate this one.

Let's start with the fluff:

The Oath of Heroism is an affirmation of a destined path, one laid out for you by divine hands.
For whatever reason, a god or a group of gods has included you in their machinations. You are not a reluctant hero, but one who fully embraces the idea that great deeds are yours to achieve. You train diligently, sculpting your body and refining your skills so you’re ready when destiny calls.

That's just the definition of every god-influenced Paladin who isn't an Oathbraker! It's not even particularity divinely powered, it's just some shmuck who was told they had "A great destiny" and proceed to get swole until it came knocking for them. So it's failed at being a Charles Atlas styled make-yourself-a-hero because of the god's interference, and it's also failed at being a divinely powered chosen one because the hero in question is more muscle than spirituality.

Now about the mechanics and fluff interactions.
They want you to make a Rapier based crit-fishing Paladin who also sometimes uses a gnomish self-reloading hand crossbow. It's almost like they made a subclass with the express intention of trolling @lowkey13. The only interesting point is the use of the hand crossbow. Unfortunately that part doesn't come online until much later in the character's life, and Divine Smite still doesn't support ranged weapons.

As for the potential book?
Last time I played M:tG was way back in 5th edition. The game, and it's current lore, are almost entirely alien to me at this point. If we were getting a new setting book (other than the one for Eberron), I would like it to be a proper D&D setting, even if it was a brand new one, instead of another crossover.

But I don't think it's a new setting book. I think it's more along the lines of another XGtE book that is in the works.

 

[Urriak Uruk]

As for the potential book?
Last time I played M:tG was way back in 5th edition. The game, and it's current lore, are almost entirely alien to me at this point. If we were getting a new setting book (other than the one for Eberron), I would like it to be a proper D&D setting, even if it was a brand new one, instead of another crossover.

But I don't think it's a new setting book. I think it's more along the lines of another XGtE book that is in the works.

I think Mearls has said numerous times that another Xanathar's is far-off. Like years away.

 

[Guest 6801328]

You know, the Heroism Paladin concept really would make a great Fighter. I don't find any of those abilities all that supernatural/magical (I mean, except for the fact that some of them are fueled by Channel Divinity).

 

[Charlaquin]

"You can reason with any creature. You are eloquent"

Hahahahaha. No.

Delete everything about logic and eloquence and reason.

Each time a forum debater tries to make an argument a wild magic effect with only detrimental outcomes goes off.

Well, it’s a forum debater’s idealized concept of themselves. Gotta have that power fantasy.

 

[Parmandur]

Bard of Eloquence:

 

[Parmandur]

Oath of Heroism: