Unearthed Arcana Unearthed Arcana: Barbarian and Monk

Unearthed Arcana makes an unexpected return (the last one was back in May) with a three-page PDF containing two subclasses -- Path of the Wild Soul for the barbarian, and Way of the Astral Self for the monk.

 

[Wrathamon]

Warforged = Magic Star Wars Droids

 

[Parmandur]

Warforged = Magic Star Wars Droids

All science fiction robots are golems using science as magic.

 

[Jay Verkuilen]

at the same time it creates great story moments that are memorable. The one ability I dont care for is the take damage to give someone their spell slots back. It seems ripe for some exploit.

It's certainly one of those "know your table" things, but I really dislike "roll on this chart... who knows what's going to happen?" abilities or ones that induce a lot of friendly fire, especially when they're the core of a build's play. Were I in the DM's chair, I'd certainly thumbs down a Wild Magic Sorcerer and I'd probably do the same with this build. As I said, that's me.

I totally agree about the give a spell back ability being ripe for exploitation.

 

[Garthanos]

1. If your opinion of Eberron includes believing it has robots then your opinion of Eberron is irrelevant. Sorry, I don't make the rules.

I have instead stolen that and turned it into full metal alchemist style animated armor

 

[Garthanos]

Golems aren't robots.

Golems are corrupted hobbits.

/ducks

I am actively starting to appreciate you ... stop it.

 

[Garthanos]

Well, no, the word robota goes back in Slavic languages for "forced labor," i.e. slavery. Applied to artificially created forms comes from the play R.U.R ("Rossum's Universal Robots") by Karel Čapek doing a modern take on the Golem legend with a touch of Marxism:

"The play begins in a factory that makes artificial people, called roboti (robots), from synthetic organic matter. They are not exactly robots by the current definition of the term: they are living flesh and blood creatures rather than machinery and are closer to the modern idea of androids or replicants. They may be mistaken for humans and can think for themselves. They seem happy to work for humans at first, but a robot rebellion leads to the extinction of the human race."

Obviously, the Warforged are not robots like the ones assembling cars in factories, but they are straight up literary robots.

OK you stop it too that is a sweet bit of trivia - I will not be forgetting soon.

 

[lkj]

Well, no, the word robota goes back in Slavic languages for "forced labor," i.e. slavery. Applied to artificially created forms comes from the play R.U.R ("Rossum's Universal Robots") by Karel Čapek doing a modern take on the Golem legend with a touch of Marxism:

"The play begins in a factory that makes artificial people, called roboti (robots), from synthetic organic matter. They are not exactly robots by the current definition of the term: they are living flesh and blood creatures rather than machinery and are closer to the modern idea of androids or replicants. They may be mistaken for humans and can think for themselves. They seem happy to work for humans at first, but a robot rebellion leads to the extinction of the human race."

Obviously, the Warforged are not robots like the ones assembling cars in factories, but they are straight up literary robots.

Since you mention Karel Čapek, one of my favorite books is War with the Newts. Clearly Karel had a few themes he like to revisit. Anyway, very funny book.

AD

 

[cbwjm]

Golems are robots: change my mind.

I do tend to see them as the fantasy version of robots/androids or even cybertronians minus the transforming (I disagree with the whole vehicles are tools argument for making a warforged transformer)

 

[Parmandur]

at the same time it creates great story moments that are memorable. The one ability I dont care for is the take damage to give someone their spell slots back. It seems ripe for some exploit.

I want to check the math, but I think the trade-off, like with Sorcery Point to spell slot conversion, is actually a net loss of "energy." It might allow for some cheesey situations, but the designers have previously expressed not particularly minding if corner case cheese is possible in previous options.

 

[Parmandur]

I do tend to see them as the fantasy version of robots/androids or even cybertronians minus the transforming (I disagree with the whole vehicles are tools argument for making a warforged transformer)

Actually, if they formalized it a little bit, I can easily see why House Cannith might have made a Navy Seal style Warforged commando who could act as a ferry for a small group of fellow commandos.