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

 

[Ruin Explorer]

They remove flavor from UA all the time, and Crawford outright admits that they did that here in the video, though he also laughed and said that players can still probably draw conclusions from what's here. But they did scrub what they are working on to remove the context.

Well, if so, they've managed to scrub it so it looks truly terrible lol. And the mechanics are definitely dire. Especially because they're so combat-centric.

 

[JEB]

Thoughts:

• Glitchlings: As a fan of rogue modrons since they were first a thing, kind of put off that the plan appears to be to sideline them in favor of "glitchlings." Gives me vibes of the 3E era, where modrons were shoved aside in favor of inevitables and formians. (Don't get me wrong, I like them too, but there should always be room for silly.) If glitchlings are explicitly defined as a category of creature that include rogue modrons, though, that's OK with me. (Would also suggest ideas like rogue inevitables.)
• Fate Domain: It's fine.
• Backgrounds: These feel like mini-classes at this point, not just a character's backstory template. (Though I do like Giant Foundling.) Beginning to wonder if BIFT is going to be gone in 2024, with far fewer suggested traits. (Particularly noticeable with the Planescape faction background.) Note, BTW, that the backgrounds are designed to be inseparable from the feats.
• Feats: Feat sections became the least interesting section of sourcebooks for me back in the 3E era, especially when feat chains were in play. This is giving me uncomfortable flashbacks to that feeling, for the first time since 5E launched. Maybe they'll feel different split into their respective books? Anyway, I'm wondering if we're going to see a lot of these feats as possible options for a revised Custom Lineage in 2024.
• Spells: Interesting, but IDK about them being so strongly tied to the Deck.

 

[DragonBelow]

Glitchling Clockwork Sorcerer anyone?

Almost as cool as my autognome clockwork sorcerer

 

[Hussar]

Again, removing unnecessary snark. My bad.

 

[Micah Sweet]

You've been accused of being a WotC defender? Seriously? By who? I've never once seen you post anything positive about WotC for years. It's nothing but, 5e is D&D on training wheels, the combat system is crap, the game is broken, nothing works, the players abuse the system endlessly, on and on and on. Unfailing negativity.

And, here we are again. The mechanics are crap yet again.

Do you really think I'm just making this up? Seriously?

What if the mechanics are crap (or at least uninspiring and overly combat-focused, as was claimed)? Are we allowed to call it out then, or should we just stay quiet unless its a rave review?

 

[CleverNickName]

Most folks are likely to, as I said, just go along.

That sounds like a good thing, though. We're talking about a game here--a toy, a pastime. Not a grand philosophy.

 

[Argyle King]

I'm intrigued by the idea of a Glitchling Divination Wizard.

Glitchling Dex-Based Fighter with a shield seems like it could be a pretty good tank

 

[Scribe]

I'd assume that if the backgrounds become tied to feats, a significant section of the playerbase will feel compelled to optimise and certain background/class combos become "mandatory."

Certainly.

It's a weird move, considering what they did to ASI.

 

[humble minion]

Glitchling Dex-Based Fighter with a shield seems like it could be a pretty good tank

This was what leaped out at me too. With the defence fighting style and a 20 dex, I think that's the highest non-magically-assisted AC in the game. You could equal it with a dex 20 wis 20 monk who also somehow got the defence fighting style too, though.

 

[THEMNGMNT]

Glitchling has captured my imagination. Nice compliment to the warforged. Would like to play one as a rogue.

Fate cleric is a great concept. The execution seems dull. But that's my reaction to most cleric subclasses.

Some fun ideas among the feats, but many seem underpowered -- particularly with damage scaling.