Unearthed Arcana Spells & Magic Tattoos: New Unearthed Arcana

WotC has posted a new Unearthed Arcana called Spells & Magic Tattoos. "This document provides a magical miscellany: new spells and a new type of magic item, magic tattoos. Most of the spells focus on an alternative style of summoning: conjuring forth a spirit that assumes a physical form you customize to suit the situation."

 

[Paul Farquhar]

I haven't read through all the comments, but I can't help thinking these summons are connected to Baldur's Gate III.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

Okay the Tattoos scream Forgotten Realms, the summoning spells scream FR, Planescape and MtG. I like the Tattoos, they are fine.

Tattoos are also a big thing in Planescape. Planescape:Torment has tattoo magic item slots instead of armour slots.

 

[Samloyal23]

So what do races covered in fur or feathers do in lieu of tattoos? Inquiring Aarakocras want to know...

 

[MarkB]

So what do races covered in fur or feathers do in lieu of tattoos? Inquiring Aarakocras want to know...

Get a shave - or go pluck themselves.

More seriously, there is a sidebar about making variant versions of the tattoos for other types of body modifications, so just come up with one that works with fur or feathers.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

So what do races covered in fur or feathers do in lieu of tattoos? Inquiring Aarakocras want to know...

Fur is easy - shave, get the tat, the fur grows back.

Feathers are more problematic, and it would depend on how the DM has decided the tats are obtained. They might rule that the magic ink can be injected into the base of the feathers, or use one of the Variant: Body Modification suggestions.

 

[Samloyal23]

Feathers are problematic...

 

[Minigiant]

Ranger magic is nonsense and a hodge podge of random stuff thrown into a badly defined archetype over 30 years.

yeah it's

Druidic Magic but only the plants and animals parts.
but no fey or elemental magic
Except they get elemental weapon magic
just not elementals
plus Argaon's magical healing and mastery of divination
But not Aragorn's Army of the Dead and crystal balls
plus the primary feature of some famous supernatural nature guys in media
but no Tarzan yell
plus water magic
but not desert nor the arctic magic because rangers never go there and they hate sand and snow
and sometimes they punch a wizard and steal a spell or two

"Goth." The word you're looking for is "goth."

Hey. I was trying to be inclusive and include metalhead clerics.

 

[DND_Reborn]

I didn't know that D&D should cater only to you.

Well, it should.

Seriously though, it would be nice if they did at least once in a while... But it caters to the 60% rule and we all know it. Fortunately, the game plays fine if you remove things you don't like and many tables remove things as well as add homebrew/houserules. Even with the UA content our table has approved of, none of it has seen game play. We don't even have that much that used to be UA content, but made it into a book (e.g. the Samurai sublcass in XGtE) that has seen play at our table.

I would rather see UA content that I would use and pay for if published in a book than crap like this then I never would. If this stuff makes into a book, I won't buy it and just be disappointed yet again as they appease the 60%.

To me the problem becomes one of buyer's remorse. If 90% of the material in a release is something I don't want, it would suck to shell out 30-50 dollars for the 10% I do.

Maybe they will eventually release a revised and compiled UA book with all the accepted material after playtesting? If they do, hopefully enough of it will be worth buying to more than 60% of us.

 

[DEFCON 1]

So what do races covered in fur or feathers do in lieu of tattoos? Inquiring Aarakocras want to know...

Understand that not all people can use all magic items. You went with the rare race to play, sometimes there can be drawbacks. Don't worry, there are still several hundred other magic items the aarakocras can use just fine.

 

[Samloyal23]

Hmm... Oh! Birdlike races could cut inscriptions and images into their beaks...
...And most have some bare skin on their hands and feet that could be tattooed.