Unearthed Arcana Unearthed Arcana: Cleric, Druid, Wizard Options

In another new Unearthed Arcana (these things are coming out fast right now!) the cleric receives a new Divine Domain option: the Twilight Domain; the druid gains a new Druid Circle option: the Circle of Wildfire; and the wizard gains a new Arcane Tradition feature: Onomancy, the magic of true names.

 

[Yaarel]

Looking at the bonus spell list of the druid subclass, it really is making me think of a red/green druid.

Yeah.

The D&D of Magic The Gathering is less interested in the five, and more interested in the ten combinations.

• Red-Green
• Red-Blue
• Red-White
• ...

Etcetera.

So, if looking for MTG-isms in the UA articles, it is probably helpful to look for a combo.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

If people didn't know what to do with it, why would WotC want to publish it?

Because they where about to publish the thing that told people what to do with it.

Why release tin openers? Because you are about to release tins that need opening.



Basically, you are arguing "all Subclasses must be generic enough to work in any campaign setting". Which sounds fine, just throw out the True-Name wizard, until you realise that it would prevent WotC ever doing Dragonlance properly, with it's Solamnic knights etc, or Dark Sun with it's Templers.

You are pushing for the generification of all campaign settings, by banning anything that makes them unique.

 

[Parmandur]

Because they where about to publish the thing that told people what to do with it.

Why release tin openers? Because you are about to release tins that need opening.



Basically, you are arguing "all Subclasses must be generic enough to work in any campaign setting". Which sounds fine, just throw out the True-Name wizard, until you realise that it would prevent WotC ever doing Dragonlance properly, with it's Solamnic knights etc, or Dark Sun with it's Templers.

You are pushing for the generification of all campaign settings, by banning anything that makes them unique.

Nah, just stuff that people don't want. If people don't want to open tin cans, no reason to mass produce the tin can opener.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

Nah, just stuff that people don't want. If people don't want to open tin cans, no reason to mass produce the tin can opener.

But if there are no tin cans (and no one knows they are coming) how are they supposed to judge if the want to open them or not?

 

[Parmandur]

But if there are no tin cans (and no one knows they are coming) how are they supposed to judge if the want to open them or not?

The metaphore is getting pushed past it's limit here. It's more like the flavor of what's in the cans. If a flavor that gets tested isn't received well enough to roll out nationally, like say sardine ravioli, it's not a creative failure on the part of the food company to not roll out the flavor. Even if there is some cultural context about the history of sardine ravioli that people might find interesting.

When WotC tests an archetype, they primarily want to know about people's gut reactions. That's the point of UA, to get that smell test. They want to sell every book to as many people as possible, so they want options that will appeal with no context. The Spore Druid was honestly just as weird, and got a lot of grumpiness on the forums, but it made it into the book because it had 70% appeal. The system is working for WotC.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

The metaphore is getting pushed past it's limit here. It's more like the flavor of what's in the cans. If a flavor that gets tested isn't received well enough to roll out nationally, like say sardine ravioli, it's not a creative failure on the part of the food company to not roll out the flavor. Even if there is some cultural context about the history of sardine ravioli that people might find interesting.

When WotC tests an archetype, they primarily want to know about people's gut reactions. That's the point of UA, to get that smell test. They want to sell every book to as many people as possible, so they want options that will appeal with no context. The Spore Druid was honestly just as weird, and got a lot of grumpiness on the forums, but it made it into the book because it had 70% appeal. The system is working for WotC.

This is, quite frankly, garbage.

The favour of the izzet wizard is absolutely spot on if you know it's supposed to taste of izzet wizard. If you expect it to taste of Universalist Mage, it will taste off. Context is everything, especially when it comes to gut reactions.

If this is what WotC actually think, they would be better off rolling a D20 and taking any subclass that scores higher than 14.

Personally, I think (or I hope) they aren't that stupid.

 

[Parmandur]

This is, quite frankly, garbage.

The favour of the izzet wizard is absolutely spot on if you know it's supposed to taste of izzet wizard. If you expect it to taste of Universalist Mage, it will taste off. Context is everything, especially when it comes to gut reactions.

If this is what WotC actually think, they would be better off rolling a D20 and taking any subclass that scores higher than 14.

Personally, I think (or I hope) they aren't that stupid.

I mean, they are pretty open about the testing process, and what they are looking for in the feedback. They only want to publish options people want to use. That's their path to avoiding 3.x style bloat.

 

[gyor]

This is, quite frankly, garbage.

The favour of the izzet wizard is absolutely spot on if you know it's supposed to taste of izzet wizard. If you expect it to taste of Universalist Mage, it will taste off. Context is everything, especially when it comes to gut reactions.

If this is what WotC actually think, they would be better off rolling a D20 and taking any subclass that scores higher than 14.

Personally, I think (or I hope) they aren't that stupid.

Exactly, because when the Izzet Wizard is misrepresented as generalist, most people are going to be comparing it to both expectations and vibe of their ideal generalist wizard, because that is the standard they have been ask to judge it by.

 

[gyor]

I mean, they are pretty open about the testing process, and what they are looking for in the feedback. They only want to publish options people want to use. That's their path to avoiding 3.x style bloat.

These subclasses aren't bloat, 17 pages of names, now that is bloat.

 

[Parmandur]

Exactly, because when the Izzet Wizard is misrepresented as generalist, most people are going to be comparing it to both expectations and vibe of their ideal generalist wizard, because that is the standard they have been ask to judge it by.

They never said it was a Generalist. They put it out there as the Wizard equivalent of the Wild Mage Sorcerer, and people didn't want it.