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.

 

[doctorhook]

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.

Is this a problem of the drunken master archetype, or the monk class itself? Because I don’t see this subclass as appreciably more “Asian” than the other monk subclasses—they’re all racialized. Western-style “monks” don’t do martial arts, and “Kensei” even borrows a Japanese word for its name.

So if we’re pointing fingers about racism, don’t think the drunken monk is the main part of the problem; it would be the whole monk class. (This is something that “Level Up: A5E” neatly fixes, btw.)

Also someone else suggested a relationship between drunkenness and colonialism… as if Asia hadn’t invented alcohol all on its own long before meeting westerners? It would be a different conversation if the “warrior of intoxication” was all about chasing literal dragons around an opium den.

 

[Kurotowa]

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

They didn't go anywhere. It's us who moved. We're in "not technically a new edition but really it is in a lot of ways" land now. And they're revising a lot of the subclasses that originally appeared in Xanathar's Guide to Everything to be in line with the new mechanics and evolved design guidelines, because that book is almost 8 years old and that's a generation ago in TTRPG time.

 

[Mirrorrorrim]

Seems like they want to capture the visual of the Drunken Master without continuing to straight up steal the term "Drunken Master".

"Warrior of the Drunken Fist" captures the drunk aspect and trope better, I agree... But are they really drunk? Look at the subclass abilities and brews... are they ever described as intoxicants? Or are they magical alchemical brews (dare I say "potions")?

What names might we come up with for what the subclass actually does?

Warrior of the Staggering Brew
Warrior of Mystic Brewmastery
Warrior of Alchemic Indulgence

 

[doctorhook]

Warrior of the Staggering Brew

I like the word “staggering” for the fighting style, it captures the types of motions without suggesting drinking, if getting away from that is the goal.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

I like the word “staggering” for the fighting style, it captures the types of motions without suggesting drinking, if getting away from that is the goal.

Yeah, I was toying with Acrobat, but Staggering works better .

 

[Charlaquin]

I like the word “staggering” for the fighting style, it captures the types of motions without suggesting drinking, if getting away from that is the goal.

Warrior of Staggering? It’s better than intoxication but I’m not sold

 

[doctorhook]

Warrior of Staggering? It’s better than intoxication but I’m not sold

”Staggering Style” sounds okay, it’s the “Warrior of…” format that’s dragging butt on this one

 

[Stormonu]

WOTC: "Let's rename the Way of the Drunken Master to the Warrior of Intoxication."
Also WOTC: "Name the 3rd level ability Drunken Technique."

 

[Gradine]

I'm just not entirely convinced it's trope that needs to be turned into a full archetype for the game at this point, in the year 2025 (2026, presumably for the actual published product), both for cultural sensitivity issues and for the promotion of alcohol issues (given the game is still, ostensibly, being targeted at least in part towards teenagers).

That said, a more generically-inclined "fool" monk archetype; one centered around the whole "obfuscasting stupidity" trope that can easily encompass a "drunken" style monk without explicitly signaling alcohol use.

 

[Mirrorrorrim]

”Staggering Style” sounds okay, it’s the “Warrior of…” format that’s dragging butt on this one

The "Warrior of" format is indeed challenging to incorporate. "Staggering Style" doesn't capture what the subclass is mostly about, which is drinking brews. But certain mundane brews can make you stagger, so... how to fit the following together?

"Warrior of..." + "staggering/stumbling/tipsy movement style" + "brew/draught/drink container"

I still like Warrior of the Staggering Brew. Because brews can do that to you.
Warrior of the Tipsy Cup/Goblet/Flask/Bottle
Warrior of the Sloshing Bottle

I dunno, man. I'm not sure they have an answer either. They certainly shouldn't keep "Intoxication" with all the negative feedback we're going to give. It's a sticky wicket.