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."

 

[Aldarc]

Just not sure what to think of a UA thread without @Parmandur speculating on what future release this UA points to and then having him say "I told you so!" half a year later.

 

[gyor]

Just not sure what to think of a UA thread without @Parmandur speculating on what future release this UA points to and then having him say "I told you so!" half a year later.

I'm surprised he hasn't jumped in yet. Probably busy with family right now.

 

[Maxperson]

Which face tattoo lets barbarians and fighters punch like Tyson?

The chicken.

 

[TwoSix]

Bad? You think Plate Armor with no heavy armor proficiency or Str requirement, that doesn't impose disadvantage on Stealth and can be worn without being visibly armored, is bad? ...I'd hate to see what you consider the minimum to qualify as good.

Seriously though, I agree that it might not be a prime choice for a Str or Dex primary character, but for casters? For any of those Int or Cha gish types that are becoming more common? This is a top tier pick.

It's good if you can plan around it, sure, since you can sacrifice points in Strength and Dex. But how many gishes are not going to have 16-17 AC out of the box already?

For druids, though, moon druids in particular, this is awesome.

 

[MechaTarrasque]

First impressions:

I don't know if Otherworldly Form will get much use from my players, but from now on all those hobgoblins and orcs in Archeron, those elves in Arborea, and, if I am feeling impish, those animals in the Beast Lands are getting this as a permanent thing. I am not sure I am ready for winged dwarves though.

5e's first NG celestials are in a spell? I have mixed feelings about that.

All those summoning spells, and no tattoo lets you summon the monster tattoo'd on your arm?

More summoning spells are always good. I would let the ranger get the fey summoning spell, and add the summon shadow spirit and undead spirit to the oath of tyranny and oath breaker paladins and death cleric's bonus list (I'm kind of hoping they will do a variant bonus spell list with spells outside of the PHB at some point).

 

[MarkB]

It's good if you can plan around it, sure, since you can sacrifice points in Strength and Dex. But how many gishes are not going to have 16-17 AC out of the box already?

For druids, though, moon druids in particular, this is awesome.

That will depend upon whether a tattoo is considered to be "equipment" for wild-shaping purposes, and if so, whether it becomes "worn" or "merged" upon transformation. After all, a normal tattoo would not remain visible while wild shaped.

 

[TwoSix]

That will depend upon whether a tattoo is considered to be "equipment" for wild-shaping purposes, and if so, whether it becomes "worn" or "merged" upon transformation. After all, a normal tattoo would not remain visible while wild shaped.

Fair. I'd allow it, but like a lot of wild shape stuff (and magic item stuff, for that matter) it's going to be a DM's ruling. The nice thing about the tattoo is that it's much easier to argue it should work from a narrative perspective.

 

[Hurin70]

I like the summons. Very cool.

The tatoos seem ripe for abuse though. Permanently giving a character AC 18 (without even needing a shield) is a bit much.

 

[RSIxidor]

I'm late to the party.

Acid Stream is meh.

Otherworldly Form is awesome for everyone who gets it, though certainly some classes get more out of it than others. I wonder if the spell level is right, though. Concentration certainly makes it a little limited.

Spirit Shroud I'm unsure about; I can't see Clerics using this over Spirit Guardians, maybe some Paladins will like it a bit more since they'll more consistently have a second attack, Eldritch Knights are probably getting the most benefit from this but they might still have better options.

The Summon spells overall are pretty nice. I think this is a much better route to take these types of spells than what was in the PHB. I used to maintain a guide on conjuring and when the ruling came out which removed player agency in the summon spells I didn't see much of a point in keeping it going. I like this direction much better. It also keeps away from the "wall of fur" which really was frustrating for some DMs to manage. I wonder if these only lasting an hour is good or annoying, though. They feel a bit like "pets" but they aren't pets that stick around. Maybe scaling the duration with spell level would help. Aside, if I use these as a player, I'm going to theme the conjurations from these spells to somehow be the same spirit that's changed somehow, with ditto eyes. I also don't think I like the 60' fly options.

The Summon Fey Spirit feels like it could be better, and it feels weird that you can summon an elf-looking spirit. I like how the "step" abilities work well enough. I find it odd that this is the only one of these spells that doesn't have a flying or ranged attack option. While Shadow Spirit also doesn't have a ranged or flying option, the abilities seem a bit stronger to make up for it (except Fear, which I think is bad, just because you're in dim light/darkness doesn't mean creatures can't see you so hidden kind of doesn't matter).

Summon Undead Spirit feels like a good frame to make a new Necromancer subclass with. Maybe allowing it to work similar to the variant ranger hunter's mark from a previous UA (some number of casts at basic level per day and no concentration, or maybe make it work like animate dead where they stick around longer). I much prefer this to animate dead and similar. Likewise, perhaps something similar could be used as a basis for a better beast master subclass.

The tattoos are all pretty cool but I'm not sure how I feel about their attunement stacking. At the least, I think there should be a limit to the number of tattoos in some way, maybe higher Charisma gives you the ability to hold more but I'm not sure I like that either. When originally reading this, I somehow managed to miss the section at the start of the tattoos that explained how they take up space. It works well enough that I feel my complaints aren't needed, except for: Illuminator's Tattoo, Masquerade Tattoo don't quite feel like they should take attunement at all. For the rest, attunement does make sense but still not sure about being able to stack all of these together.

 

[RSIxidor]

The tatoos seem ripe for abuse though. Permanently giving a character AC 18 (without even needing a shield) is a bit much.

My opinion is if the tattoos didn't stack, a magic item giving AC 18 wouldn't be that worrisome. It might make sense for it be 17 instead, regardless of the tattoo stacking, but I wouldn't want to reduce it 16 because then I'd feel like the rare version should be 14+max 2, and I wouldn't want to shift the rare or uncommon at all.