New Unearthed Arcana Brings Back Five Subclasses

Five existing D&D subclasses are getting a rework in a newly released Unearthed Arcana. Four of the subclasses come from Xanathar’s Guide to Everything, while the fifth is the Oathbreaker subclass for Paladins from the 2014 Player’s Handbook.

The revised subclasses are:

• Path of the Spiritual Guardian Barbarian (previously Path of the Ancestral Guardian)
• Path of the Storm Herald Barbarian
• Cavalier Fighter
• Warrior of Intoxication Monk (formerly Way of the Drunken Master)
• Oathbreaker Paladin

The Path of the Spiritual Guardian has received a revamped Spiritual Protectors ability with a choice of effects. The Storm Herald’s Storm Aura now scales with Rage damage and the Raging Storm now has redesigned environments. The Cavalier’s Unwavering Mark no longer has limited uses. The Warrior of Intoxication now has the ability to create potent drinks that grant abilities when drank. The Oathbreaker has received some updates bringing its abilities in line with the revamped Paladin’s ability.

The survey for the new subclasses opens on November 6th.

 

[Neonchameleon]

It is a trope from the original source material, not from the west, and not racist. It's an actual Chinese style of martial arts imitating the movements of a drunk person. See here. There was also a 1970s film about it, from Hong Kong.

Two famous Jacke Chan films. The 1978 Drunken Master was his breakout film. Low budget, good storytelling, and a classic with movements but no actual intoxication. The 1994 film Drunken Master II/The Legend Of Drunken Master had Jackie's character powering up when drunk but not too drunk. Both are classics of Hong Kong Martial Arts cinema.

 

[Not a Decepticon]

Warrior of Intoxication is a dumb name

 

[Remathilis]

"Cocaine is my god". Marvel what were you doing that character and dialogue?

Marvel was laughing..Snowflame is a DC character.

 

[coyote6]

Marvel was laughing..Snowflame is a DC character.

From the New Guardians book, IIRC. And that was an...odd book.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

Holy...so stupid.

Yeah….completely nonsensical, as the actual martial arts tradition being referenced doesn’t involve intoxication

 

[Kurotowa]

Character concept time! The new Oathbreaker Paladin gets a per-hit damage increase from Aura of Hate. And you know what goes well with per-hit damage? Dual wielding, of course.

I roughed out several permutations, and a Finesse Dual-Wield Oathbreaker looks like it holds up. Aura of Hate on top of Divine Favor and Radiant Strikes hits that critical mass of per-hit damage buffs needed to really sing. However, I think you want to skip the Dual Wielder feat. There's just too many other Paladin abilities competing for that Bonus Action slot. Instead, take Defensive Duelist to make up for the AC lost from not using Plate armor.

Style wise, I think it has good potential. Instead of being the classic "fallen Paladin turned Dread Knight" you're running around in leather armor with twin swords, summoning zombies and causing terror and being a goth badass that no one expects to break out Divine Smite and Lay on Hands.

I've been trying to fit together the pieces for a dual wield Paladin since they loosened the Fighting Style restrictions. Genie Paladin had the AC, but I couldn't square the circle between taking Dual Wielder or not. Oathbreaker and its Aura of Hate neatly solves the problem for me.

 

[kigmatzomat]

Alchemical Monk would have been better...

 

[pawsplay]

I'm guessing Drunken Master or Drunk Monk didn't sounds right to someone.

Open Fist Drunk.

 

[rustythorn]

We have a new UA! One that updates several older subclasses, finally with a couple of Barbarian ones. We have the Spiritual Guardian Barbarian (formerly Ancestral Guardian), Storm Herald Barbarian, Cavalier Fighter, Intoxication Monk (formerly Drunken Master), and Oathbreaker Paladin.

Direct link.

Designer insights.

What do you mean bring back? Where did they go?

 

[doctorbadwolf]

So blame Yuen Woo-ping and Ng See-yuen. You calling them racist or colonizers?

if my cousin who has actually grown up identifying and being identified as a Mexican makes a joke about Mexicans or parodies a Mexican media trope or the like, it isn’t racist.

If I do it, it is racist. Even if I learned the joke from him.

Now the original 5e Drunken Master does a decent job of not actually pushing the idea that you are drunk, and leaving it up to the player whether it’s more Jackie Chan movie character or more historical martial arts form inspired in play, so im not confident in saying that it is necessarily racist, but it is the kind of trope that an American game publisher with no Chinese cultural consultants involved in that project should be quite careful using, because a misstep could very easily lead to a racist product.