Unearthed Arcana UA feats, are they trying to allow people to not have to multiclass to get class abilities?

[TrueBagelMan]

https://media.wizards.com/2020/dnd/downloads/UA2020_Feats.pdf

 

[WayOfTheFourElements]

Well, multiclassing and feats are both optional rules. Maybe WotC's research shows that the use of feat is much more prevalent than multiclassing.

 

[jsaving]

My understanding is that the team is split on whether they want to keep multiclassing at all, so yes they are absolutely wanting to gauge the popularity of various alternatives. (And I say that as someone who personally hopes they do keep multiclassing in the game.)

 

[DND_Reborn]

FWIW, feats are more widely used than multiclassing (about 85-90% compared to 50-60%).

I would hate to see MC go, and hope if they decide that route they replace it with "template" subclasses, so each class could subclass into a second class. Think of EK as a Fighter (Wizard) and AT as a Rogue (Wizard). A template could be developed to allow every class the other classes via subclass. A close example would be Cleric (Druid) by adjusting the Nature Domain.

 

[TrueBagelMan]

Would you allow these in your game and multiclassing? I would hate to see multiclassing go since I have never built a PC without it. Am I the only one bothered by Shield Training? Shouldn’t that ability stay to divine casters?

 

[NaturalZero]

4e flashbacks.

 

[Dausuul]

"UA feats, are they trying to allow people to not have to multiclass to get class abilities?"

That is very clearly and explicitly what many of those feats do, so... yes?

Am I missing some implied part of this question?

 

[Ruin Explorer]

FWIW, feats are more widely used than multiclassing (about 85-90% compared to 50-60%).

Yeah, and it makes sense, because MC'ing always means losing something in 5E, at least in theory, because it's 3E-style MC'ing. It's also not something you can do from the beginning of the game - you can't start MC'd, unlike with Feats, where plenty of people still do stuff like give out a free Feat at L1 or the like (or you could be a Vhuman).

I think we want to see MC'ing stick around longer-term, the only way is with 2E-style re-implemented somehow (I think it's doable), where you pick your classes and are MC'd from the get-go.

 

[Levistus's_Leviathan]

I personally like it. You don't have to give up your character class progression for a bit of thematic abilities.

 

[DND_Reborn]

Yeah, and it makes sense, because MC'ing always means losing something in 5E, at least in theory, because it's 3E-style MC'ing. It's also not something you can do from the beginning of the game - you can't start MC'd, unlike with Feats, where plenty of people still do stuff like give out a free Feat at L1 or the like (or you could be a Vhuman).

I think we want to see MC'ing stick around longer-term, the only way is with 2E-style re-implemented somehow (I think it's doable), where you pick your classes and are MC'd from the get-go.

I agree completely. In our main game, we are doing 2e-style MC, so a character level 15 pc is something like 11/11 in class levels. It makes really powerful PCs though, and if I did it again I would make it something like your XP divided by your number of classes +1. But, then it isn't much better than 5E-style MCing as a level 20 PC would be something like 12/12 instead of 10/10 (still better, but nothing like 15/15 if you just divide XP by 2).