Unearthed Arcana New Unearthed Arcana: Rune Knight, Swarmkeeper, The Revived

Another new Unearthed Arcana! "In today’s Unearthed Arcana, three classes each receive a playtest option. The fighter gets a Martial Archetype option: the Rune Knight. The ranger gains a Ranger Archetype option: the Swarmkeeper. And the rogue acquires a Roguish Archetype option: the Revived."

 

[Sacrosanct]

Not to be pedantic, but it's not just Norse mythology. Norse mythology originated from north Germanic mythology. So someone like me (with northern Germanic ancestry) isn't culturally appropriating these myths that the Norseman also share.

 

[Salthorae]

I'm feeling like the Rune Knight has a lot of overlap with the Giant-Soul Sorcerer. A bit frustrating that they get their enlarging ability at 3rd level vs. 14th.

But other than that, they are kind of flip-sides, kind of like Eldritch Knight/Bladesinger as two sides of the coin.

 

[RSIxidor]

I've only had a quick look through so far, looks like the giant sorcerer has had some of it folded into the fighter archetype, I need to have a good look at the runes though. My only problem with the rogue was that I immediately thought that it would be a better background than a specific subclass but unfortunately, backgrounds aren't robust enough to provide cool abilities based on a background.

I also have thought BGs are kind of meh. Wish they were more like what themes were in 4th edition, probably an analog in other editions as well. Even some 5E adaptations turn them into something with actual features instead of, "hope your DM likes doing this stuff" features.

 

[Sacrosanct]

I'm feeling like the Rune Knight has a lot of overlap with the Giant-Soul Sorcerer. A bit frustrating that they get their enlarging ability at 3rd level vs. 14th.

But other than that, they are kind of flip-sides, kind of like Eldritch Knight/Bladesinger as two sides of the coin.

I'm not familiar with the giant soul sorcerer, but what I've seen a few times is that if a class has a spell that does a function (like the enlarge spell) that the caster gets pretty early on, then when they get to higher levels, they get abilities that replicate the spell to a point without the caster needing to cast the slot or prepare the spell

 

[Yaarel]

Not to be pendantic. But.

There were already Scandinavians in Scandinavia BEFORE Bronze-Age Indo-Europeans invaded. The genetic population shows much of the population (such as yDNA I1) was Non-Indo-European (R1a, R1b).

These aboriginal cultures continue to shape Scandinavia today.


Scandinavia persisted as its own cultural zone across various archeological periods.



To confuse the Scandinavians with ‘Germans’ is exactly the same crimes as the N*zis did in the previous century.

Dont do it.

 

[Sacrosanct]

Not to be pendantic. But.

There were already Scandinavians in Scandinavia BEFORE Bronze-Age Indo-Europeans invaded. The genetic population shows much of the population (such as yDNA I1) was Non-Indo-European (R1a, R1b).

These aboriginal cultures continue to shape Scandinavia today.


Scandinavia persisted as its own cultural zone across various archeological periods.



To confuse the Scandinavians with ‘Germans’ is exactly the same crimes as the N*zis did in the previous century.

Dont do it.

No. Not remotely true. Godwining it doesn't help. It's a fact that Norse mythology that you're claiming is in risk of being culturally appropriated came from the Northern Germanic peoples. Norse religion (Norse paganism) is literally a branch off of germanic paganism. In fact, germanic paganism came first.

What you're arguing is that I can't talk about any aspect of Protestant beliefs if I happen to be a Catholic because that would be cultural appropriation. Of course it's not; they are both forms of Christianity, and I'm not culturally appropriating Christianity if I'm a branch of Christian myself that has many shared beliefs.

 

[ScuroNotte]

Great, instead of a new ranger class, they give a new ranger subclass. How about fix the class first before creating a subclass that may need to be changed depending on what the final ranger will be.

 

[Kobold Avenger]

So Swarmkeepers flavour text strongly implies the swarm is all mostly creatures. I'd think rats could have been a viable option, but then that would mean Mage Hand would be like a small tidal wave of rat spirits and flying would be done with a tower of rats.

While I certainly see the connection to the Nameless One and the Revived Rogue, I've felt that the Nameless One was of the Revenant PC Race (which failed as a UA article). Mostly I think the Revived is though just like the recent Wild Soul Barbarian, in that they're trying to see how far they can stretch the concept of a Rogue from it's more conventional ones.

 

[Remathilis]

The only common thing about all these subs is that that are unconventional. A fighter with runes. A necromancer rogue. A fiery pet druid. A chaos magic barbarian. Etc.

It doesn't fit any particular setting well. Not D&D, not even MTG all that well. You could make an argument about being planar, but there isn't a strong planar vibe coming from a twilight cleric or poet bard. Similarly, if it's MTG focused it's all over the place as far as origins; some might fit certain planes, but some do not fit any well and they don't all fit one single plane we know of.

I wager whatever this product is, it's going to be very off-kilter compared to what has come before. It's not another Xanathar book, I feel.

 

[Sacrosanct]

To expand on my above post, I'm assuming we're talking about Norse mythology most are familiar with. I.e., Odin, Thor, etc. The mythology of that originally came from northern Germany (Wotan and Donar respectively). The myths are the same. Only the names went through minor differences. So when you (general you) talk about cultural appropriate of Norse mythology, you need to understand that that mythology isn't just from Norway. It's literally most of northern Europe as a shared set of mythos with the same pagan gods and stories.