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.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

Magipunk is going to have people comparing it to Shadowrun. I'll look into this Gas Lamp Fantasy.

Good. They should do that. It owes a lot of cyberpunk.

Warforged are closer to the idea of post-human synthetic people than to steampunk automotons, and the Houses are very much cyberpunk megacorps. Combine that with the fact that both draw upon noir detective stories, and a noir focused Eberron game is very similar to fantasy cyberpunk.

Then, if you focus on pulp adventure instead, it gets closer to psuedo-victorian fantasy pulp.

Either way, it retains all the other elements that make it unique and distinct from any of those things.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

The Wisdom to attack isn't that important, because you can still use Strength or Dexterity without having to focus on Wisdom. Though you probably have invested some in Wisdom as a Monk, you probably didn't invest in at as your primary stat. The Wisdom in place of Strength checks and saves is more interesting, I think. That allows for a Monk that focused on Dexterity to somewhat more reliably use more interesting tactics in combat, such as grappling and shoving, alongside making the spectral arm attacks, if they pumped Wisdom up a bit. Depending on how exactly the arms work, they might even be able to grapple or shove at 10' reach.

EDIT: Radiant is nice but Way of the Sun Soul also gets radiant with a 30' ranged weapon at 3 and doesn't seem to be that significant. This being melee, at least don't have to worry about provoking.

It means you can focus your ASIs on increasing wisdom first, rather than dex. Mechanically you are still probably slightly better off as a dex monk, but thematically a wisdom monk is desirable, and it works well for races that get a bonus to wisdom but not dex (e.g. dwarf, firbolg, aasimar, githzeri, tortle, loxodon).

It does mean at low level you are likely to find your combat power severely diminished when your ki runs out.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

No, it's not. Eberron is a mix of post-100yrs War, post-Seven Years War, and industrial revolution, with some fairly light early 20th century elements.

They didn't have railways or street lighting post-100yrs War or post-Seven Years War (Post-100yrs war is pretty much standard D&D). They didn't have commercial air travel in the industrial revolution. Tech-wise Eberron is firmly in the early 20th Century. If you look at the period of commercial airships, that puts Eberron firmly between 1920 and 1940. Which is also, not coincidently, the period of the pulp adventure novel.

It's quite different politically of course.

 

[landylee]

Yeah, quite a bit of wackiness in that Wild Soul Barb.
Two of the best, IMO:

• ally gains a spell slot basde on a d4 then the Barbarian takes force damage equal to five times the number rolled
• magic surge summons exploding intangible spirits that look like flumphs!

Yeah, it's so complicated!

 

[Plamodu978]

Guys look at that Astral Monk.
I think we Got a Stand User in dnd

 

[doctorbadwolf]

They didn't have railways or street lighting post-100yrs War or post-Seven Years War (Post-100yrs war is pretty much standard D&D). They didn't have commercial air travel in the industrial revolution. Tech-wise Eberron is firmly in the early 20th Century. If you look at the period of commercial airships, that puts Eberron firmly between 1920 and 1940. Which is also, not coincidently, the period of the pulp adventure novel.

It's quite different politically of course.

It has predominantly kings and nobles, and airships are a big part of nearly all fantastical/anacronistic industrial revolution depictions. It's...damn near universal.

Politically, it's nothing like the 1920s or 30s, and a great deal like the early to mid 1800s in some places, more like the mid 15th in others.

Politics is much more important than what tech exists. People don't live like the 1920's in Eberron. There aren't tractors. Nothing like cars are commonplace. Sending stations are vastly more like telegraph services than even early telephones. Teleportation never existed in the real world, but it's an expensive luxury form of travel in Eberron, like chartering a fancy private jet. Trains and steam power in general, and thus machine automation, existed during the industrial revolution, as did the telegraph.

The point being, Eberron is not psuedo-any given decade. It's it's own thing, that has as much industrial revolutions and post-7 years war elements as it does turn of the 20th century elements.

 

[Arilyn]

Yes.

That said, the feywild is the Twilight Saga of D&D.

Ohhh, do they all play feywild baseball?

 

[Parmandur]

They didn't have railways or street lighting post-100yrs War or post-Seven Years War (Post-100yrs war is pretty much standard D&D). They didn't have commercial air travel in the industrial revolution. Tech-wise Eberron is firmly in the early 20th Century. If you look at the period of commercial airships, that puts Eberron firmly between 1920 and 1940. Which is also, not coincidently, the period of the pulp adventure novel.

It's quite different politically of course.

I mean, it is different, but the threat of a World War 2 equivalent hangs overhead in Eberron, too. Maybe with Cthulu, Dragons and a Warforged Soviet empire if the Lord of Blades gets his way. Very interbellum vibe.

 

[Parmandur]

It has predominantly kings and nobles, and airships are a big part of nearly all fantastical/anacronistic industrial revolution depictions. It's...damn near universal.

Politically, it's nothing like the 1920s or 30s, and a great deal like the early to mid 1800s in some places, more like the mid 15th in others.

Politics is much more important than what tech exists. People don't live like the 1920's in Eberron. There aren't tractors. Nothing like cars are commonplace. Sending stations are vastly more like telegraph services than even early telephones. Teleportation never existed in the real world, but it's an expensive luxury form of travel in Eberron, like chartering a fancy private jet. Trains and steam power in general, and thus machine automation, existed during the industrial revolution, as did the telegraph.

The point being, Eberron is not psuedo-any given decade. It's it's own thing, that has as much industrial revolutions and post-7 years war elements as it does turn of the 20th century elements.

It actually seems a blend of different eras that specifically aren't usually done by D&D.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

It actually seems a blend of different eras that specifically aren't usually done by D&D.

Whiiiich is kinda what I just said.