Unearthed Arcana New Unearthed Arcana - Subclasses 2 [UPDATED]

The latest Unearthed Arcana contains three new subclasses: the bardic College of Creation, the cleric's Love Domain, and the sorcerer's Clockwork Soul.

UPDATE - WoTC appears to have removed this PDF. The link now leads to the previous Unearthed Arcana.

WotC Removes Latest Unearthed Arcana

WotC has removed this week's Unearthed Arcana from its website. Not only has the article's web page itself been removed, the actual PDF has been replaced with last month's "Subclasses, Part 1" PDF (although it's URL still reads... /UA2020-Subclasses02.pdf). The article included three new...

www.enworld.org

 

[Leatherhead]

Hm, when you grant your Bardic Inspiration your Pet gets to act too.

I missed that line!

 

[NotAYakk]

Creating the item: maybe just give it the long duration?

Saying "you have to expend an action to sustain it" is a kind of pseudo-concentration "you cannot do this in combat usefully" thing; or rather, you can only do it in combat if you are completely desperate.

 

[Prakriti]

I also wonder about things like healer's kits, healing potions, antitoxin, alchemist's fire or bags of caltrops and ball bearings... How the rulings work out?

Well, the Conjuration wizard has existed since 2014, and those questions have never been resolved. I had a player once who thought they should be able to summon nearly anything that fit within the size restrictions, because their definition of "object" included things like flasks of oil, Purple Worm poison, bags of caltrops, etc. And there's nothing in the rules that really forbids this sort of thing, because "object" isn't defined within the game.

The wording in this bard subclass seems to be an attempt to resolve at least some of those issues, but it really doesn't go far enough. We really need to know what constitutes an "item" and an "object" within the game. For example, is liquid an "item?" What about a bag of full of caltrops? These questions will definitely come up in play and on Twitter, so the game designers might as well answer them now.

 

[NotAYakk]

Well, the Conjuration wizard has existed since 2014, and those questions have never been resolved. I had a player once who thought they should be able to summon nearly anything that fit within the size restrictions, because their definition of "object" included things like flasks of oil, Purple Worm poison, bags of caltrops, etc. And there's nothing in the rules that really forbids this sort of thing, because "object" isn't defined within the game.

The wording in this bard subclass seems to be an attempt to resolve at least some of those issues, but it really doesn't go far enough. We really need to know what constitutes an "item" and an "object" within the game. For example, is liquid an "item?" What about a bag of full of caltrops?

Sure, it is on the PHB equipment list.

Caltrops (bag of 20)

Dungeons and Dragons (D&D) Fifth Edition (5e) Equipment, Gear, & Items - Caltrops (bag of 20) - As an action, you can spread a bag of caltrops to cover ...

www.dndbeyond.com

The ability explicitly states "such as on that list".

Bags of 21 caltrops are a DM's call.

 

[Prakriti]

Sure, it is on the PHB equipment list.

The ability explicitly states "such as on that list".

The wording is unclear. It directs you to the Adventuring Gear list for examples of things that you can create, but it doesn't say that you can create literally everything on that list. The wording is a little more explicit than the Conjuration wizard's ability, but it's still not clear enough.

 

[Esker]

I'm not sure why this is a problem? It just makes summons a more consistent rule and you don't have to learn a bajillion variation on it all the time.

I should have phrased my comment differently. It's not the rules about controlling your pet that I find samey; I agree that uniformity here is a good thing. But there isn't anything really special about this pet: it's just a thing that can attack and take attacks. It has some nice immunities and resistances, I guess, and the ability to control it when expending bardic inspiration is nice, but otherwise just like any other pet. Don't get me wrong, it's not that having a pet isn't strong, it's just... not that interesting. IMO, obviously.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

And do something else with the capstone,

Summon 1024 quadrones to fight four you.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

The wording is unclear. It directs you to the Adventuring Gear list for examples of things that you can create, but it doesn't say that you can create literally everything on that list. The wording is a little more explicit than the Conjuration wizard's ability, but it's still not clear enough.

I would say it strongly implies that anything on the list can be created so long as it is within the g.p. value.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

But there isn't anything really special about this pet: it's just a thing that can attack and take attacks.

The thing is, it could be pretty much anything, so it's abilities need to be generic.

Depending on the DM, you might be able to do other stuff with it depending on what form it takes. e.g. a chain grapples.

 

[Undrave]

I should have phrased my comment differently. It's not the rules about controlling your pet that I find samey; I agree that uniformity here is a good thing. But there isn't anything really special about this pet: it's just a thing that can attack and take attacks. It has some nice immunities and resistances, I guess, and the ability to control it when expending bardic inspiration is nice, but otherwise just like any other pet. Don't get me wrong, it's not that having a pet isn't strong, it's just... not that interesting. IMO, obviously.

Ah I see. Fair enough.

Maybe if there was a handful of basic forms you could pick from with a unique power? Like, something that can grapple, or block attacks, or something fast enough to make two weaker strikes? Some other thing?