New Unearthed Arcana Brings Back Five Subclasses

Five existing D&D subclasses are getting a rework in a newly released Unearthed Arcana. Four of the subclasses come from Xanathar’s Guide to Everything, while the fifth is the Oathbreaker subclass for Paladins from the 2014 Player’s Handbook.

The revised subclasses are:

• Path of the Spiritual Guardian Barbarian (previously Path of the Ancestral Guardian)
• Path of the Storm Herald Barbarian
• Cavalier Fighter
• Warrior of Intoxication Monk (formerly Way of the Drunken Master)
• Oathbreaker Paladin

The Path of the Spiritual Guardian has received a revamped Spiritual Protectors ability with a choice of effects. The Storm Herald’s Storm Aura now scales with Rage damage and the Raging Storm now has redesigned environments. The Cavalier’s Unwavering Mark no longer has limited uses. The Warrior of Intoxication now has the ability to create potent drinks that grant abilities when drank. The Oathbreaker has received some updates bringing its abilities in line with the revamped Paladin’s ability.

The survey for the new subclasses opens on November 6th.

 

[WanderingMystic]

I saw somewhere "Warrior of the Drunken Fist" and I think it fits perfectly.

Warrior of Intoxication sounds like someone who eats bad shellfish to get their powers.

The chuds are going to have a good one just from that name alone.

This is a name that I can get behind. The original name was changed in part due to the fact that Warrior of the Drunken Master is just a bad name. Warrior of Inebriation is even worse than Warrior of intoxication however Warrior of the Drunken Fiat at least sounds like a name you might hear

 

[Parmandur]

Thanks for crunching the numbers! If we count the 8 subclasses in Psion and Apocalyptic as earmarked for a Dark Sun book and not the new Everything book, that means there's probably two further UA releases to bring up us to quota. Which is not too surprising, if it's not coming out till mid 2026 or so. Good to know for calibrating expectations.

Well, 5 of those options in Tasha's were first published in Eberron Rising from the Last War and Mythic Odysseys of Therros, ao it is not necessarily for just one or the other.

It is the case that the only similar series of UA in 5E history came before Xanathar's, Tasha's, and the 2024 rulebooks, at least, the only comparable sets in terms of number of tested options.

 

[Kurotowa]

Well, 5 of those options in Tasha's were first published in Eberron Rising from the Last War and Mythic Odysseys of Therros, ao it is not necessarily for just one or the other.

Hmm. How close together were those? Rising was Nov 2019, Theros was July 2020, Tasha's was Nov 2020. So I suppose there's precedent for reprinting material within a year.

And looking at the release days, both Tasha's and Xanathar's were in the big Nov release slot. So maybe Dark Sun goes in the June/July release slot, and the new Everything book is still a year off in Nov 2026? Certainly they've been iterating on some of these subclasses, and the later releases will need time for that too.

 

[Uta-napishti]

Dronk Monk, LOL.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

Still very confident the new class (Psion) is for Dark Sun still, as are the “Apocolyptic Subclasses.” Everything else definitely feels “Everything” like.

Probably both. They are not going to add a new core class then force people to buy a setting they may have no interest in in order to get it.

 

[Parmandur]

Hmm. How close together were those? Rising was Nov 2019, Theros was July 2020, Tasha's was Nov 2020. So I suppose there's precedent for reprinting material within a year.

Thst series of UA that covered those 3 books went from May 2019 to May 2020. His series began in May 2025.

And looking at the release days, both Tasha's and Xanathar's were in the big Nov release slot. So maybe Dark Sun goes in the June/July release slot, and the new Everything book is still a year off in Nov 2026? Certainly they've been iterating on some of these subclasses, and the later releases will need time for that too.

That could make sense, but hard to say since they are varying things up.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

Having played one, the vibe I got was storms come in all different types. Thunderstorms, blizzards and of course...

I think it would make more sense for the abilities to be classed by storm type rather than terrain. So Sandstorm, thunderstorm and blizzard.

And they should all impede vision.

 

[Mistwell]

I’m not sure the magical beverages are actually alcoholic. They don’t say anything about intoxicating the character, they have effects like letting you breathe poison or resist radiant damage. It feels more like PF2’s mutagen alchemist than an actual drunken master…

Made with Brewer's Supplies. For a class with Intoxication in the name now.

 

[Xethreau]

It's almost certainly a matter of sensitivity; Martial arts that mimic drunken swaying are often a little over-stylized in media and it often reduces the character in question to an alcoholic, which some tables do not want to have that vibe if anybody in the group has traumatic correlations to people who drink excessively.

Besides, of all the things a D&D character can be personality-wise, alcoholic is by far towards the top of the list and usually one of the worst offenders for clichés. Unmarrying it slightly from explicitly being drunk (you're legally intoxicated if you've had small amounts of alcohol so it's at a least a little more realistic than being rip-roaring drunk) is a good move to alleviate that without completely stripping away its identity.

Yeah so, in my view, the drunken master is kind of a racist trope, not the least reason being for the colonistic legacy of weaponized alcohol addiction. And l agree with you about the pains of alcoholism on family systems: alcoholism can destroy lives, no matter the context. But the martial arts movies are so fun that I guess WotC wanted to add this trope anyway??

But in this revision, instead of addressing the core problems, WOTC is doubling down on it. If it's not about intoxicating beverages, then WHY is it about intoxicating beverages??

If WOTC were trying to support people with "traumatic correlations to people who drink excessively," especially if that correlation is racially coded, then they have failed stupendously both through its name and through its design.

 

[Twiggly the Gnome]

Or why should alcoholics have all the fun, other substances are now on the menu, Jem Hadar anyone?

Now I can do a D&D version of this guy...