D&D 5E New Unearthed Arcana: Wonders of the Multiverse

WotC has posted a new Unearthed Arcana featuring the Glitchling race, the Fate domain, and a handful of backgrounds, feats and spells.

In today’s Unearthed Arcana, we explore D&D character options from across the multiverse. This playtest document presents the glitchling race; the Fate Domain cleric subclass; and the gate warden, giant foundling, planar philosopher, and rune carver backgrounds. Additionally, a collection of new feats provide links to giants and other primordial forces of the planes, while a selection of new spells highlight the power of fate and chance.

Wonders of the Multiverse | Unearthed Arcana | Dungeons & Dragons

Explore character options related to the Wonders of the Multiverse! This playtest document presents a new race and subclass and a collection of new backgrounds, feats and spells, all for use in Dungeons & Dragons.

dnd.wizards.com

 

[Kobold Stew]

Glitchling.

• Armored plating feels too strong to me -- 13+Dex is what mage armor, draconic sorc and lizardfolk get. Why would/should this be stronger? Who benefits?I'd suggest 13+DEX, allowing a shield, would still be of use in most cases. It might be different if this were their Main Thing, but it isn't. In addition to the limited flight/superjump ability (eclipsing the races with superjumps), there's...
• Balance Chaos. This seems very powerful. Helps with death saves, sure, and saves vs damage when you are low on HP. Keep one use for that when needed. But it leaves 1-5 uses per long rest where it helps substantially ensure that you get a hit when you need one; first roll in a big combat almost all the time. Particularly good for a rogue looking for SA when there's no advantage.

Fate Domain.
I love clerics, but there is nothing here that is inspiring or makes me feel I want to play it.

Backgrounds.

• The addition of the free feat is clearly here for all and sundry. a key aspect will be working up the list of feats available to the (established/PHB) backgrounds. Skilled and Tough aren't enough. What about adding: Athlete, Charger, Defensive Duelist, Elemental Adept, Healer, Mounted Combatant, Skulker, Tavern Brawler. Let's get a wider range of feats in the game.
• More interesting to me how specific these are. Why do we need "Planar Philosopher" when we have Sage? Is there a history of "Giant Foundling" stories that were dying for mechanical support? These seem to be specifically targeted for upcoming books (all well and good), buty in addition to upscaling the power of backgrounds (though the free feat), there is also a narrowing of the ambit of what these backgrounds represent. That seems more interesting to me, especially since the option to tailor your background is RAW in the PHB.

Comments of Feats to follow.

 

[Crimson Longinus]

I don't much care for the glitchling, but some of their mechanics make me really wish they would redo the warforged. Being a proper construct and that armourplating both seem like they would make sense for the warforged.

 

[Kobold Stew]

Planar Feats.

• Let's start with Scion of the Outer Planes, which is (in my opinion) the best-written and most useful of the planar feats. This is pretty good: you get one resistance and one cantrip. Much less that Magic Initiate in terms of "weight", but something I could see myself choosing for a character who wanted an attack cantrip only and didn't want a familiar (for example). THere's a range of options that aren't quite choose-one-from-column-a-and-one-from-column-b, which is good. What I like most about the feat is that there's no attempt to limit the choice of the plane that gives you power based on your alignment. It would be so much fun playing a lawful cleric or paladin, powered in part by a Chaotic Outer Plane. I like the feat design because it opens up story possibilities. All six options are kind of cool.
• The other Scion feats, with the prof/long limit, just feel lacklustre.
• Planar Wanderer almost works perfectly. It provides something that has been implied in the game since Xanathar, in a way that makes it useful. Let's start with the story concept, of a plane-hopping character. That both (a) is an amazingly cool story and (b) one that won't come into play in almost every campaign. We see this tension in the expression of the Horizon Walker: at level 3 you can detect any portal within a mile of you (cool, but they then need to exist, and won't fit a typical dungeon crawl) but you have no special abilities to access other planes, at any point. (Really, would it have broken anything to let an 11th-level Horizon Walker cast Plane Shift once/long rest, able to affect willing creatures only?). So you have the ability to Detect planes, assuming they exist, which is either central to the campaign or not-even-a-ribbon. Everything else in the subclass is combat-focused.
• So here's a feat that shows exactly what the HW could have given: the DCs on Portal Cracker are pretty high, but it gives players a chance to hop planes (assuming the portals exist by DM fiat). This should be a skill that HWs get from level 3. Portal Sense gives the detecting ability a much smaller range (30 feet -- so it becomes blind chance unless you have reason to believe something is there anyways). The Planar Adaptation gives a resistance that gives SOMETHING from the feat when the portals just aren't part of the campaign.
• So why does Portal knoweldge and cracking require being a Scion? I would at least open it up to Horizon Walkers (which incidentally maintains the 4th level prereq as default). I still think that Horizon Walkers should be able to planeshift as their level-11 feature, just slightly ahead of other spellcasters, for non-combat uses only.

 

[Veltharis ap Rylix]

Why do we need "Planar Philosopher" when we have Sage?

It's pretty blatantly a background meant to represent Planescape Faction members.

 

[Tonguez]

I don't much care for the glitchling, but some of their mechanics make me really wish they would redo the warforged. Being a proper construct and that armourplating both seem like they would make sense for the warforged.

Yeah very much this, I kept thinking warforged with a jetpack the whole time
although having a little one-eyed cue-ball flitting around the place might be a fun visual

 

[Kurotowa]

It's pretty blatantly a background meant to represent Planescape Faction members.

Indeed. My Planescape Lore is rusty so I couldn't recall the exact names, but one look at the Planar Philosopher Personality Traits and I said, "Oh yeah, those are the Sigil Factions alright." Like really blatantly so.

 

[cbwjm]

the second problem can be overcome by putting a setting book, as they do not make books for single classes in this edition.

the first point needs data analysis which they could probably hire or seal one from the parent company as that would not be review bombing the abilities as such but more likely say near constantly in feed back about how psionics is not magic thus they can be isolated and discarded.

They could put it in a book like Tasha's. They added the artificer class to the book, but the full book doesn't focus on it. I know the artificer came out in the Eberron books first, but that doesn't mean that a full class couldn't be released in one of the book of options.

 

[Parmandur]

The addition of the free feat is clearly here for all and sundry. a key aspect will be working up the list of feats available to the (established/PHB) backgrounds. Skilled and Tough aren't enough. What about adding: Athlete, Charger, Defensive Duelist, Elemental Adept, Healer, Mounted Combatant, Skulker, Tavern Brawler. Let's get a wider range of feats in the game.

Yup, I expect as they start testing for the 2024 Core changes we will see more on this. Stuff like "Criminal gives Dungeon Delver" and so on.

More interesting to me how specific these are. Why do we need "Planar Philosopher" when we have Sage? Is there a history of "Giant Foundling" stories that were dying for mechanical support? These seem to be specifically targeted for upcoming books (all well and good), buty in addition to upscaling the power of backgrounds (though the free feat), there is also a narrowing of the ambit of what these backgrounds represent. That seems more interesting to me, especially since the option to tailor your background is RAW in the PHB.

To see where they are going with this, it is good to consider how they used Backgrounds with a free Feat to differentiate the five Colelges in Strixhaven, or how they tested out Baclgrounds for Wizards of High Sorcery and the Knights of Solamania for Dragonlance coming up. A big part of how they are using these to create distinctive character stories is also the limited follow-up Feat tree.

 

[Havrik Stoneskimmer]

I don't mind the idea of "Criminal gives Dungeon Delver" but what happens to people who don't want to deal with the complexity of feats? Either feats are no longer optional, or the entire table has to decide whether or not feats will be allowed in the campaign.

 

[Parmandur]

I don't mind the idea of "Criminal gives Dungeon Delver" but what happens to people who don't want to deal with the complexity of feats? Either feats are no longer optional, or the entire table has to decide whether or not feats will be allowed in the campaign.

Well, in my experience the frustration for people who don't like Feats (basically everyone I've ever played with) is in choosing the darned Feats. Now, if the Feats come in an easy to digest narrative package, like "Criminal gets Dungeon Delver due to their suave skills," I don't thinknwe have the same problem. Because Background is a very good mechanic that people glum onto easily.