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."

 

[TwoSix]

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

Not sure I want to open this can of worms, but why? Your posts are giving me a sense that you almost have a sense of repulsion and disgust at the material, and I can't fathom what about it would cause that kind of emotional response.

I mean, it's some new spells and magic items, what about it is so problematic?

 

[MarkB]

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. 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.

The limitation is the amount of area each tattoo occupies on your body. You can have several Uncommon ones, but only a few Very Rare or one Legendary.

 

[Chaosmancer]

These spells ought to make players of conjurers pretty happy.

The tattoos are alright I guess, pretty similar to stuff I've seen from 3pp back in the 3.5 days.

Not bad all in all and the imprimatur of WOTC officialdom will make the magic tattoos a bit more popular. I did think it interesting that they require attunement. Its a good balance measure and given that various rarities cover more of the body, it makes flavorful tattooed man , tattoo monk or similar builds easy to do.

I like that quite a bit.

The magical application method is neat too.

One thing of not, the Spell Storing tattoo does not require attunement, though it does still take up body space. Also, it is one use and the needle does not reappear, so it is more similiar to scroll kept on the body of the individual.

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).

I think the idea is that the monster summoned is quite similar to a Shadow (the monster) so it can hide in Dim Light because it blends into the darkness itself.

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. 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.

There is a limit, the amount of skin you can cover.

Uncommon tattoos take up half of a limb, so you can rough out some math for the upper limit of the tattoo attunement based off of how many limbs you have (scalp is half a limb, Chest and Back seem to be two limbs respectively)

 

[NotAYakk]

By RAW, you cannot put uncommon tattoos on your torso. Those "slots" are only useful for VRare/Legendary Tattoos.

That prevents having 17 uncommon tattoos, which seems like a good design principle. Instead, you cap out at 9 uncommon, plus 2 VRare.

 

[Marandahir]

Feathers are problematic...

Not really. Maybe your Aaarkocra is conspicuously missing a feather here and there, and the missing feathers display a pattern. Maybe they've dyed their feathers with a pattern. Maybe the tattoo is under the feathers: sketched into their scales and skin, and glows through them when activated.

Between the standard and Variant rules, there's no reason to limit Aarakocras' access to Tattoo Magic other than (D&D-)racial discrimination.

 

[NotAYakk]

Not really. Maybe your Aaarkocra is conspicuously missing a feather here and there, and the missing feathers display a pattern. Maybe they've dyed their feathers with a pattern. Maybe the tattoo is under the feathers: sketched into their scales and skin, and glows through them when activated.

Between the standard and Variant rules, there's no reason to limit Aarakocras' access to Tattoo Magic other than (D&D-)racial discrimination.

Maybe these are magical tattoos, and they change the color of the feathers that grow into the same pattern.

 

[Longspeak]

One of the things from the old RIFTS game I really loved was its take on Tattoo magic. I saw this UA and dared hope... But no.

These are cool, I suppose.

I will have to just homebrew my own, probably modeled on Warlock. Spells and Invocations class abilities are tattoos one activates to make use of that do cool things. Probably someone else has already done it if I remember to look for it later tonight.

 

[RSIxidor]

Uncommon tattoos take up half of a limb, so you can rough out some math for the upper limit of the tattoo attunement based off of how many limbs you have (scalp is half a limb, Chest and Back seem to be two limbs respectively)

Thanks! Seems I completely missed the section at the start of the tattoos were it explained this. That actually takes care of most of my complaints around attunement with these tattoos.

 

[RSIxidor]

I think the idea is that the monster summoned is quite similar to a Shadow (the monster) so it can hide in Dim Light because it blends into the darkness itself.

But it can still be seen if the PCs can see into dim light or darkness. Making it a bonus action means it could strength drain, move away into darkness, and then hide. But if it was just dim light? Even humans can see in dim light, though their perception is at disadvantage. I suppose I never thought much about the Shadow's ability in this regards either. I wouldn't be surprised if this has already been debated. Whatever the "RAW" is, I'd let them hide and effectively be unseen but it feels like it shouldn't work in a lot of ways "mechanically."

 

[Chaosmancer]

But it can still be seen if the PCs can see into dim light or darkness. Making it a bonus action means it could strength drain, move away into darkness, and then hide. But if it was just dim light? Even humans can see in dim light, though their perception is at disadvantage. I suppose I never thought much about the Shadow's ability in this regards either. I wouldn't be surprised if this has already been debated. Whatever the "RAW" is, I'd let them hide and effectively be unseen but it feels like it shouldn't work in a lot of ways "mechanically."

It is just like the Wood Elf's Mask of the Wild to. With that you can hid in a light rain. I can see people when it rains, but a wood elf can hide in the rain with no cover.

I guess if it is an issue of "these mechanics don't make realistic sense" that is one thing, but I'm just pointing out the precedence of what they are basing the ability off of