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.

 

[Al'Kelhar]

Hmm, a few initial thoughts.

Twilight cleric bonus proficiencies: What about someone who worships the moon or stars, or lurks in the grey between night and day, or whose presence on the earth is but a shadow, yells "I wear full plate armour and carry a greataxe"? Thematically inappropriate and unnecessary given the domain's other bennies (which are substantial - that Twilight Sanctuary is seriously at the upper end of cleric domain channel divinity features).

(Here's a suggestion for the designers of cleric domains - how about laying off the bonus weapon and armour proficiencies, which just makes clerics fighters with spells, and throw around a few defensive bennies, like thematically appropriate damage resistances and advantages on saving throws? For the Twilight cleric, I'd be inclined to give it, as a class feature, the elven racial features immunity to sleep and trance).

Druid Wildfire Circle: As a druid circle concept, this is just giving players an excuse to play a druid that blows stuff up and is given rules permission to do so with some "destruction is necessary for life to flourish" kinda roleplaying crap. For the unimaginative players who can't grok sorcerers and wizards but who still want to just burn things. Which is odd, because mechanically it's quite complex. A whole unnecessary archetype designed for the World of Warcraft generation. Now get off my lawn. Which is fire resistant. And grows quite well with just fertilizer and water, thank you very much.

Onomancer Fateful Naming: So you can cast bless 3+ times per day for free, so long as you know the name of one of its targets. You know, like yourself? Or any of your adventuring buddies? Yes, I know bless is a concentration spell, so it has a minor cost in the action economy, but it's still the most OP 1st level spell in the game, given "bounded accuracy". Fateful Naming should be limited to a couple of spells that do something bad to the bad guys. Bane is fine; I'd replace bless with hex.

Cheers, Al'Kelhar

 

[Charlaquin]

I kinda wish the Wildfire Druid actually turned into the fire elemental instead, just so we can have another circle that uses Wild Shape in battle but differently than Moon.

THIS!

 

[Parmandur]

The Twilight Cleric would fit very well for a M:tG style playable Vampire.

 

[Kobold Avenger]

Hmm, a few initial thoughts.

Twilight cleric bonus proficiencies: What about someone who worships the moon or stars, or lurks in the grey between night and day, or whose presence on the earth is but a shadow, yells "I wear full plate armour and carry a greataxe"? Thematically inappropriate and unnecessary given the domain's other bennies (which are substantial - that Twilight Sanctuary is seriously at the upper end of cleric domain channel divinity features).

Generally there's 2 routes that Cleric subclasses take, either it's Heavy Armor/Martial Weapons + Divine Strike, or it's Potent Spellcasting. Though with Potent Spellcasting there's a very limited number of damaging Cleric cantrips at the moment (like 2 if you include Xanathar's Guide).

 

[Leatherhead]

Twilight Domain.
Not intended for use with bad teenage or problematic adult romance novels.

Domain Spells
This spell list is full of MVPs. I don't think I have ever seen such a stacked list. I figure the only reason Leomund’s tiny hut is on there, is because Catnap isn't in the PHB, but that's a heck of a trade up.

Bonus Proficiencies
A martial Cleric eh? That doesn't strike me as totally congruent with the whimsical and ethereal flavoring of "twilight." On the plus side, it totally gives this Cleric a niche that no other Cleric really covers: The Archer.
Too bad there still aren't any archery compatible Booming Blade type spells.

Eyes of Night
There would have been some joke about humans and halfings finally being able to "see the light" here, but did you know there are 20+ official races that don't have access to darkvision now? We have come a long way from the PHB where seeing in the dark was normal. Anyway, this is the reason they don't have Dancing Lights. Add on that Unlimited range and group-share and you have a solid ability.

Vigilant Blessing
This is kind of weirdly worded, it seemingly lasts forever until used. But it's hard to knock advantage on Initiative which can be passed off to someone else as needed.

Twilight Sanctuary
1d8 thp every turn, even on everyone, is kind of meh. Especially considering it doesn't scale. Ending the Charmed or Frightened conditions at will could just save you from a TPK. But the real draw here is the synergies of creating your own dim-light bubble, which is mostly just inflicting disadvantage on your enemies attacks with impuity until you get the next ability. One question that absolutely needs to be answered: How does this interact with the Darkness spell?

Steps of the Brave
A strangely grouped package of abilities. Resistance to fear is almost a ribbon considering there are ways to become immune to it. The real draw here, of course, is the flight speed. Creating your Twilight bubble, then flying up into the air to rain destruction on your foes has never been so safe! And they call this ability "brave" hah.

Divine Strike
Psychic damage is actually a pretty good element. The hidden synergy here is that it applies to any weapon, including the longbow, which you conveniently have proficiency in. Granted +1d8 damage isn't exactly top of the line in terms of damage scaling, but expect this to be an integral part of the new FOTM Hexbow builds, should this subclass make it to print.

Midnight Shroud
And the capstone ability is giving your entire party Devil's Sight. Yeah, that's really damn underwhelming for a capstone. Even if it is the logical upgrade to your twilight bubble, if you were trying to exploit your Darkness to this degree, you would have already been a Warlock by now. And if you weren't going for that angle you should be casting some higher level spells instead, like maybe one of those 9th level spells you just got access too! This is a level 14 capstone, at best.

Thoughts
Shadow of Moil is the only spell that turns normal light into dim light. Other than that, there is only Darkness for your light dampening needs. There really should be a few more low level spells capable of doing this kind of thing.

That aside, this subclass is stacked like pancakes. I am in awe of the synergies and incidental power plays it can perform.

Circle of Wildfire
You can tell WotC lives on the West Coast. My lungs still remember the 2018 wildfire season.

Circle Spells
You get a bunch of burn. Also Raise Dead for some reason. But not any new healing spells, despite what the subclass would insist it's themes are.

Summon Wildfire
Yet another way to use your Wildshapes for something other than turning into a wolf. This time you get your own wickerman who explodes when they pop onto the battlefield. Also, it's the latest in a long line of pets that are better pets than the Beastmaster's. Poor, poor Beastmaster, one day Rex will have their day (well, if they ever bite the bullet on their "no revisions" policy that is.) Anyway, the darkhorse ability of this hunk of burning love is it's offensive teleport. Not only can you get your party set up just how they like, you can add a bit of injury to the insult you just served on the enemy.

Enhanced Bond
Your fire damage and healing powers are boosted by 1d8 when your Wildfire is out. Also your Wildfire can be the origin for any spell that doesn't have a range of Self. You could have it toss out Thunderclap or Poison Spray (hah) for you. Maybe have it Stone Shape the floor directly beneath it to make a hole in the ground. And I guess have it Cure Wounds at a distance if you are one of those people who didn't pick Healing Word for some reason. This ability was a lot more exciting when I read it as the exact opposite kind of range limitation.

Flames of Life
You get a reaction based Healing power. Kind of nifty. Also useful for trolling someone because it can be told to burn instead of heal.

Blazing Endurance
Now this is a capstone. You strait up ignore getting knocked out once per day, and instead "come back" with a truckload of temp HP, and you get to burn the sod who had the audacity to make an attempt on your life in the first place! Thematic, powerful, and fun~!


Thoughts
This is begging for the name "Circle of the Phoenix". I still maintain some kind of "fire-eating" ability would fit into this subclass snugly, maybe in place of Flames of Life. Also the healing half of this subclass isn't bold enough. Sure there is a bump to healing and a "free" heal, but it feels like it takes a backseat to the burning half of the subclass. At any rate, this opens the door to other elemental themed druids.

Onomancy
What's in a name? Too much and too little it seems.

Bonus Proficiencies
Well it's a ribbon. At least you get another language that might be useful for learning all those names.

Extract Name
A one turn charm that can give you the targets True Name. Which is supposedly the cornerstone of this subclass, what allows it to "fuel" the other powers. Unfortunately, you only have one shot at this, ever. Also it's a Wisdom save for some reason despite Charisma fitting more. This ability just doesn't feel right. And that's not just because it practically assured to fail against any target where you would actually need it and thus shut down half of your subclass powers. A saving throw? This couldn't have been a blood price or something else costly but actually possible?

Fateful Naming
Free Bless is really nice. At level 2 anyway. All you need is your name, or your familiar's name, or perhaps a Fighter party member who you managed to use Extract Name on. At later levels, you have better things to concentrate on.

Resonant Utterance
Oh joy, it's not-metamagic, we all know how well that went over the last time it was tried on a Wizard subclass . This time it's limited to half of your Wizard level per day, though I doubt you will ever run up against that limit. You start off knowing only two. So you better pick wisely. And one final rule, they don't work on any spell that doesn't cost a spell slot, which means cantrips and your signature spells are out of the running for these bonuses. Talk about anti-synergy.

Absorption.
You go through all the trouble of learning a true name and all you get are 3d6 temp hps when you damage the target? Yes, it scales. No, that's still not worth it.
Devastation.
Heightened Spell, but with True Names™! You could have been a Diviner, you know.
Dissolution.
2d8 extra force damage, scaling. Evokers were also an option.
Nullification.
A free Dispel Magic. Now that's handy. Though you might want to consider an Abjurer if you are trying for an Anti-caster Wizard.
Puppetry.
It's Repelling Blast. But nowhere near as abusable.
Sympathy.
You spells are now guided missiles. That's really fun.

Inexorable Pronouncement
You get two more Resonants. You don't get the rest of them because lets face it, only three are really worth having anyway.

Relentless Naming
For a class all about names, they aren't very good at naming things.
If you are doing damage, you can use the awesome power of True Names™ to change the damage to force or psychic damage. I take it back Twilight Cleric, at least your capstone is thematically appropriate and fits the core class.

Thoughts.
I would be disappointed, but I have extremely low expectations for UA Wizard subclasses to begin with. Still, I severely doubt this one will make print unless they are mandated to make a wizard subclass in the next splat and run out of other ideas. As for the True Name theme, that makes me disappointed. Previous lore has played them up to be win conditions in their own right, but here they amount to little more than some extra damage and a slightly harder to make saving throw.

 

[Xenonnonex]

Twilight Domain.
Not intended for use with bad teenage or problematic adult romance novels.

That aside, this subclass is stacked like pancakes. I am in awe of the synergies and incidental power plays it can perform.

And it is still a better love story than Twilight.

 

[Hussar]

Now I really, really want to play a Twilight Cleric/Assassin in our Dungeon of the Mad Mage campaign. What a scout. That would actually be freaking cool.

 

[Xenonnonex]

Now I really, really want to play a Twilight Cleric/Assassin in our Dungeon of the Mad Mage campaign. What a scout. That would actually be freaking cool.

Twilight cleric/assassin/gloom stalker ranger. In darkness you would not be able to see yourself.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

As for the True Name theme, that makes me disappointed. Previous lore has played them up to be win conditions in their own right, but here they amount to little more than some extra damage and a slightly harder to make saving throw.

Yes, I think this is a good point. I've done stuff involving the true names of demons and devils in the past, the existence of this class in the world would trivialise it. I would probably feel the need to ban it, simply for story reasons.

It kind of would work well in a setting where this was the only kind of wizard magic available.

 

[LuisCarlos17f]

The truename is an interesting concept for fluff (lore or background) but not for crunch (gameplay). It's an almost at-will power, but with lower limit of options than the sorcerer. Sometimes I have thought about using that game mechanic for a bard playing the "music of the spheres" or cleric talking the dark speech (from the "Book of Vile Darkness") or the words of creation ("Book of Exalted Deeds").

I miss the binder class and the vestige pact magic, and the parangon/racial/monster/template classes, and the martial adepts from "Tome of Battle: Book of Nine Swords".

My suggestion is Dreamscarred Press to be hired as subsidiary to publish the remake of magic of incarnum, and Mage Hand Press for the classes as the warden or the warmage. Some 3rd party publishers have got some really good ideas.

I also advise a "brainstorm" about the idea of the return of the Chronomancer (sourcebook from 2nd AD&D) with concepts as the time spheres (as uchronies, parallel worlds or alternative timelines).