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.

 

[Parmandur]

They do not have programming that simulates emotion; they demonstrably have souls indistinguishable from other mortal races. The open questions are why and how they have said souls.

That seems to be part of the point behind the Archivist Subclass for the Artificer, based on what Jeremy Crawford said. But then, that opens up the question of what is a soul in D&D...

 

[lowkey13]

*Deleted by user*

 

[shadowoflameth]

Astral monk seems like a good psychic subclass (it is almost like you are punching people...with your mind)--I wonder if this is a prelude to psychic melee subclasses.

Those poor flumphs, summoned just to blow up. I'm so sad....

Other than magic reserve, everything else looks very interesting for the wild soul barb.

So as written it looks like the arms are only a weapon not actual usable arms. So no grappling with them?

 

[gyor]

Just reading the description of the new Eberron book suggests to me that these subclasses are not being designed for that book.

 

[gyor]

I’d argue that it’s only even magitech by a fairly loose definition. The train doesn’t even have wheels. It’s levitated and propelled by a spell. There are no guns, and no actually mechanical machines. By far, most magitech worlds have actual post medieval or even futuristic technology that is fueled by magic. Eberron doesn’t. It has magic that sometimes looks like things we did with tech IRL, and solves many of the challenges that we solved with tech.

That’s an important difference. It dramatically changes how people approach the setting.

There is no pseudo science running the airship, and the clever inventor is a magical enchanter, and the living golem isn’t mechanical at all, but has living wood that acts like muscle and bone, and either a soul or something like enough to it that they can be magically resurrected.

Those differences are absolutely vital to understanding the setting. Full stop.



Anybody I pull off the street will immediately understand the difference, and their initial thought that this is some sort of magically animated mechanical creature will be successfully corrected, once I explain that it is in fact not a robot, but a sentient golem made of living wood and stone. I might have to explain what a golem is, because most people don’t actually know the term in any context, but that’s the main potential confusion.

If you wouldn't call it magitech or steam punk what would you call it?

 

[cbwjm]

Magipunk. Warforged take the place of automatons in steampunk

 

[gyor]

Ya know...the timing for this test would also work very, very well for the Rick & Morty boxed set. And the potential zaniness is a real fit there.

Those evil bastards, will i have to buy this box???

The Barbarian is zany, the monk is more serious. So I don't think its Rick and Morty.

Both share a theme that R&M are unlikely to display, planar.

 

[Shardstone]

Lots of people in this thread just really hate new ideas, don't they? Shame on WotC for trying to get us beyond the days of angry barbarians and simple fighters! Damn everything new, everything creative, everything to push Fantasy somewhere further beyond!

 

[Gradine]

The Barbarian is zany, the monk is more serious. So I don't think its Rick and Morty.

Both share a theme that R&M are unlikely to display, planar.

The Monk is basically Azura's Wrath, which is the zaniest self serious game ever.

I also very much assumed the Rick and Morty game would involve planes

 

[RSIxidor]

Isn't R&M always teleporting to other planets or universes or something like that? All my R&M knowledge comes from playing the VR game, and it definitely had some of that.