Unearthed Arcana Revived, Noble Genie and Archivist Revisited in UA

Dragonhelm · May 16, 2020

jgsugden said:
The big news is in small print:

That sounds to me like they heard the outcry against just making psionics a subclass of magic and are going to release a true psionic class.

I asked Dan Dillon about that, and he confirmed that it is only the wizard subclass. The other psionic subclasses are continuing forward.

Levistus's_Leviathan · May 16, 2020

Dragonhelm said:
I asked Dan Dillon about that, and he confirmed that it is only the wizard subclass. The other psionic subclasses are continuing forward.

I would be very surprised it they went back to making a Psion class, even though I really want one.
The Onomancer can be a bard, easily. The Psion they made a Sorcerer subclass.

Demetrios1453 · May 16, 2020

Whizbang Dustyboots said:
3E monsters say hey, and they miss you.

One thing I can say as an unrepentant monster creator/tinkerer, while 3e had rules that could allow you to easily raise or lower power levels to a monster, or add class levels, the stated final CR (by those rules) for the creature you created tended to vary wildly from actual power levels in play. 5e monster tinkering is a bit more difficult (until you get used to it and practice a bit; 3e monster creation rules were very simple and easy straight from the box), but your results will line up with your intended final CR much more closely...

Xeviat · May 16, 2020

Ooooof ... 10 minute short rests on the Warlock is simply too much. I'm shocked and surprised this was a thing. It invalidates the warlock's 20th level ability. Big no. No no no.

cbwjm · May 16, 2020

Xeviat said:
Ooooof ... 10 minute short rests on the Warlock is simply too much. I'm shocked and surprised this was a thing. It invalidates the warlock's 20th level ability. Big no. No no no.

It's only once per day and can be used in addition to the level 20 ability, it doesn't invalidate it.

Xeviat · May 16, 2020

cbwjm said:
It's only once per day and can be used in addition to the level 20 ability, it doesn't invalidate it.

Oh, was it once per day? Okay, that makes it different.

It still means it's more powerful than a capstone ability since it applies to the whole party.

doctorbadwolf · May 17, 2020

Elfcrusher said:
My post was purely a response to a comment about 3e stat blocks.

But, if you want to talk about fluff, I am a fan of sparser fluff. Skimming through the 3e FRCS my take is that the word count is about four times what it needs to be to convey the information. I don't need long prose, in fact I don't want long prose because I'm not reading for entertainment I'm reading to prepare for a game. (Ed Greenwood is not Herman Melville.).

(For the opposite approach, check out The Secrets of Skyhorn Lighthouse and The Corruption of Skyhorn Lighthouse, by Kelsey Dionne, on DMs Guild. I recently downloaded them and love the format; rarely am I ready to run an adventure with as little reading.)

EDIT: To make my point a little more clear, I'm talking about taking something like this:

Sewer halflings are a peculiar sub-branch of halflings, which some sages say are distantly related to Lightfoots, although this theory has never been confirmed. The timid Sewer halflings reside in the extensive sewers of cities like Luskan and Waterdeep, although there have been sightings in smaller cities throughout the Realms. As one would expect from creatures that reside in the sewers, sewer halflings are filthy. They can be useful allies, however, for they are inveterate hoarders and consequently can be a....blah blah blah

And condensing it to:

Sewer Halflings (timid, filthy, hoarders)
Location: Luskan, Waterdeep

OTOH, I hate the second example. I’ll never use something with that little information. At that point I’m better off just making up my own stuff. A paragraph or two let’s me know enough to actually use them, without any extra work on my part.

Guest 6801328 · May 17, 2020

doctorbadwolf said:
OTOH, I hate the second example. I’ll never use something with that little information. At that point I’m better off just making up my own stuff. A paragraph or two let’s me know enough to actually use them, without any extra work on my part.

I'll acknowledge that the information was sparse, but what was in the prose version that was missing in the summary version? Because the point was that both versions contain the same quantity of useful information.

Weiley31 · May 17, 2020

NPCs can have Subclasses/features. Your not the ONLY Bladesinger out there.

Also, is it just me or have I been mispronouncing Djinni wrong this whole time? *Pronouncing the hard "D" in it like "D-Jin"?

cbwjm · May 17, 2020

Xeviat said:
Oh, was it once per day? Okay, that makes it different.

It still means it's more powerful than a capstone ability since it applies to the whole party.

Oh it's definitely a good ability. Another benefit is that at the level you can finally bring in allies you can use it as a place to hide for a long rest. Who's going to suspect a battered lamp or bottle as something that holds the party.