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."

 

[DND_Reborn]

Boy, the UA stuff is really grasping at straws...

I hope none of this stuff makes it into books but I can always remove it if it does.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Boy, the UA stuff is really grasping at straws...

I hope none of this stuff makes it into books but I can always remove it if it does.

I've got a former 3E alienist wizard in my 5E campaign. I suspect that player will be excited to summon tentacley monsters with the new spell.

 

[DND_Reborn]

I've got a former 3E alienist wizard in my 5E campaign. I suspect that player will be excited to summon tentacley monsters with the new spell.

I'm happy for him, but none of this stuff will ever see the light of day at my table.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

I'm happy for him, but none of this stuff will ever see the light of day at my table.

That's true of about half of WotC's output (and more than that of TSR's output) for me. Different strokes for different folks. You'd all be very bored if only the stuff I used got printed. I'm sure that's the case for most tables.

 

[NotAYakk]

So you have 17 "units" of skin.

Uncommon takes 1 unit.
Rare takes 2
Very Rare 4
Legendary 12

Not quite, because the torso is only usable for VRare/Legendary.

Scalp (Uncommon)
4 Limbs (2 Uncommon each, 1 Rare, or 0.5 Very Rare)
2 Torso (Very Rare, or 0.5 Legendary (also requires 2 limbs))

That is more specific.

Scalp: 1 unit
4x Limb: 2 units
2x Torso: 4 units each, only for VRare or Legendary

Alternative.

Or base it off these two Loads:
Legendary, 5 units of other
2 VRare, 9 units of other

That looks simplest.

U: 1
R: 2
VR: 4

Anyhow, you can stack BloodFury, Claw and Rare Barrier.

18 AC unarmored, +1 magical fists, 19-20 crit range, 4d6 crit bonus damage (plus temp HP), reaction melee riposte when damaged.

That is a crazy strong single attundment.

Swap the AC for a silver absorbing tattoo (psychic) on a bear totem barbarian and go to town. Advantage, +3[w]+4d6 crits, 19-20 crit range, riposte reaction, half damage from everything period.

 

[Dausuul]

Spirit Shroud's upcast scaling needs to be toned down. +1d8 per higher slot level is ridiculous. A 5th-level version of this spell does more damage per hit than actual 5th-level spell Holy Weapon's 2d8, which is already quite good.

I'm not so sure it needs the nerf. It's an excellent spell, don't get me wrong, but it has some major drawbacks compared to holy weapon:

• You can't put it on somebody else. Holy weapon can be cast on the deadliest weapon-wielder in the party; give it to a PAM fighter or a frenzying berserker, and watch them go to town. Spirit shroud can only be used by you, the caster, which means you have to a) be an effective melee combatant and b) have 5th-level spell slots. This is not impossible, but you're not going to get as much mileage out of it as a dedicated martial.
• It's a concentration spell that forces the spellcaster into melee. The risk of losing concentration is high. With holy weapon, you have the options to put it on someone else or use it with a ranged weapon, allowing you to stay in the back rank.
• The duration is capped at 1 minute, so even if you do hold concentration, you will never get more than one combat out of it. Holy weapon, with a 1-hour duration, can be sustained through multiple battles.

 

[MarkB]

So you have 17 "units" of skin.

Uncommon takes 1 unit.
Rare takes 2
Very Rare 4
Legendary 12

Not quite, because the torso is only usable for VRare/Legendary.

Scalp (Uncommon)
4 Limbs (2 Uncommon each, 1 Rare, or 0.5 Very Rare)
2 Torso (Very Rare, or 0.5 Legendary (also requires 2 limbs))

That is more specific.

Scalp: 1 unit
4x Limb: 2 units
2x Torso: 4 units each, only for VRare or Legendary

Alternative.

Or base it off these two Loads:
Legendary, 5 units of other
2 VRare, 9 units of other

That looks simplest.

U: 1
R: 2
VR: 4

Would a dragonborn or tiefling's tail count as a limb? How much coverage does an aarakocra's wing count for?

 

[Chaosmancer]

Am I misreading you, or do you somehow have the idea that Barrier Tattoo doesn't let you use a shield? Because it specifically says you can. Also there's a big difference between having AC 18 and having AC 18 for one round when you spend a spell slot.

Anyway, you're talking white room theorycraft where you have free picks from the entire magic item list, not what PCs might be happy to find as loot. But even if we assume you can build your character with the certainty of getting this magic item... you're looking at it from the wrong end. It's not an item for boosting the AC of a melee focused character. They tend to have pretty good AC naturally. It's an item for boosting the AC of characters who don't typically have good AC because they don't come with heavy armor prof or high Dex.

I understand that, they also don't generally come with Shield proficiency. In fact of the "most likely to want this instead of armor" list I can think of.. only the Barbarian and Hexblade can use shields.

But, I think we are talking past each other to a degree. I'm looking at this as "how does this stack up to other items of similar values"

The Uncommon is invisible studded leather that does not require proficiency. Essentially any class I can think of can do better than this. Maybe Sorcerers would like it, but it is really not worth an attunement slot.

The Rare (taking up an entire limb for tattoo) is invisible half-plate, also does not require prof and does not give stealth penalty. Sure, for a wizard with a 14 dex, suddenly having a 17 AC is pretty nice. Certainly wouldn't turn my nose up at it if I had a free attunement slot. For any non-caster class who actually has the armor... just better to have the armor in most cases. Because, if we assume you get this Rare item that costs attunement, maybe you could instead get a different rare item that costs attunement. And that item is likely to offer you a better bonus, like a Ring of Spell Storing for a random example. That item can offer a lot of flexbility for a caster.

For example, a Monk with an 18 Dex and 16 Wis (not unreasonable) has the same AC that this tattoo provides already. Getting a Rare Ring of Protection gives them better AC and Better saves. 14 Wis and it is equivalent AC and better saves.

Also, in my estimations, not penalizing stealth is only as valuable as your stealth score is anyways. If you only have a +2 for stealth, rolling normally or at disadvantage isn't making a massive difference, because you are likely not stealthing anyways.

And we run into the same thing with the Very Rare (takes up entire torso or two limbs) invisible plate. Again, for a monk or barbarian, hardly worth the attunement slot. For a caster like a wizard, it could be quite nice, but it is a Very rare item. This is supposed to be equivalent to a Staff of Power, which gives +2 to hit, damage, stacking +2 Ac, and 20 charges for casting a variety of spells.

Sure, not all items of the same rarity are made equally, but "make my wizard have armor" is a meh item at best. Especially since, lest we forget all of our magic items, Elven Chain is a rare armor that does not require attunement. Everyone is proficient with it and gives a 14+ max 2 dex, so it is quite comparable to the first two levels of this tattoo in terms of benefit without preventing you from using other items.

I'm not so sure it needs the nerf. It's an excellent spell, don't get me wrong, but it has some major drawbacks compared to holy weapon:

• You can't put it on somebody else. Holy weapon can be cast on the deadliest weapon-wielder in the party; give it to a PAM fighter or a frenzying berserker, and watch them go to town. Spirit shroud can only be used by you, the caster, which means you have to a) be an effective melee combatant and b) have 5th-level spell slots. This is not impossible, but you're not going to get as much mileage out of it as a dedicated martial.
• It's a concentration spell that forces the spellcaster into melee. The risk of losing concentration is high. With holy weapon, you have the options to put it on someone else or use it with a ranged weapon, allowing you to stay in the back rank.
• The duration is capped at 1 minute, so even if you do hold concentration, you will never get more than one combat out of it. Holy weapon, with a 1-hour duration, can be sustained through multiple battles.

I had forgotten about the hour long duration of Holy Weapon, that is a really good and salient point.

Also the fact that this is a self spell instead of a touch spell, but I think that part was understood.

 

[Ibrandul]

Also, these summon spells make me think we're in for Manual of the Planes / Planescape / Spelljammer / Manual of the Magic: The Gathering Planes, sometime around the holidays.

And tattoo magic was a huge part of Planescape: Torment.

 

[Gladius Legis]

I'm not so sure it needs the nerf. It's an excellent spell, don't get me wrong, but it has some major drawbacks compared to holy weapon:

• You can't put it on somebody else. Holy weapon can be cast on the deadliest weapon-wielder in the party; give it to a PAM fighter or a frenzying berserker, and watch them go to town. Spirit shroud can only be used by you, the caster, which means you have to a) be an effective melee combatant and b) have 5th-level spell slots. This is not impossible, but you're not going to get as much mileage out of it as a dedicated martial.
• It's a concentration spell that forces the spellcaster into melee. The risk of losing concentration is high. With holy weapon, you have the options to put it on someone else or use it with a ranged weapon, allowing you to stay in the back rank.
• The duration is capped at 1 minute, so even if you do hold concentration, you will never get more than one combat out of it. Holy weapon, with a 1-hour duration, can be sustained through multiple battles.

There is, however, one other notable advantage to Spirit Shroud. Holy Weapon only works on a single weapon, so it doesn't help dual-wielders. Spirit Shroud, on the other hand, buffs all of the character's attacks and thus does work with dual-wielding. So, a dual-wielding Paladin or Bladelock is going to get a lot of burst damage mileage from this spell, while still adding an extra +1d8 with a 5th-level slot over what Holy Weapon gets. IMO, that's a bit much.

I would not be opposed, however, to buffing the base 3rd-level damage to 1d10, while still nerfing the upcast to an extra die/2 levels.