Unearthed Arcana Unearthed Arcana Fighter: Samurai, Sharpshooter, Arcane Archer & Knight

I'm getting, like, unhealthy amounts of mad, clicking on that broken link.

 

[Connorsrpg]

Do you think everybody participating in a joust has three class levels of fighter (knight)? Because the knight NPC in the Monster Manual would indicate otherwise.

Nope. But it only takes 1 for the tourney to be ridiculous!

I like to picture these sorts of things 'in the world'. Must be something else other than the very feline 'you ALWAYS land on your feet'... even if knock off by lance, giant club.. in full armor, etc. I really don't picture knights being the most Dextrous, cat-like members of group, esp in armor!

 

[TheCosmicKid]

Nope. But it only takes 1 for the tourney to be ridiculous!

No, that's the one where the dismounted knight rolls up onto his feet without breaking the motion, grabs his surprised opponent's leg, and hauls him off his horse like a boss.

I like to picture these sorts of things 'in the world'. Must be something else other than the very feline 'you ALWAYS land on your feet'... even if knock off by lance, giant club.. in full armor, etc. I really don't picture knights being the most Dextrous, cat-like members of group, esp in armor!

If you watch experienced people move around in armor, they're not exactly inverted turtles. I wouldn't want to get up on the parallel bars in full plate or anything, but as far as standing upright goes, that's probably something a knight should be able to do before he thinks about going anywhere near bad guys.

 

[Thurmas]

The very limited number of arcane arrows for the Arcane Archer really bugs me. If we were going up against the big bad final boss and I only got to fire one or two arcane arrows for the entire fight, I think I'd be pretty upset. Other then those two arrows, I'm no different then some random guy with a bow. I would have liked to see a few things. Either 1/3 caster with a spell list only related to some Arcane Archer spells, which I think would give a good amount of options. No cantrips or a limited cantrip list. Gives you a nice series of spells that can be used sparingly through the day, or all of them at once during a big major fight if needed. Either way, you aren't limited to just one or two. Alternatively, a list of abilities that have less dramatic effects but much more frequent uses such as:

Level 3: You gain the ability to imbue your arrows with magic. Whenever you take the attack action on your turn, you may choose an arcane energy ability you know to imbue your arrows with. You may only choose one ability each attack action. Choose two imbue abilities from the list of abilities. You gain an additional ability at 7th, 10th, 15th and 18th level.
Level 7: You no longer require a quiver of arrows. As you draw your bow an arcane arrow appears. Attacks with this arrow count as magical for overcoming resistance and
immunity to non-magical attacks and damage.
Level 15: Some other cool arrows, with a limited use of one/short rest or long rest. Ie, target is silenced, target is blinded, target is restrained, target is dealt 4d6 damage, target is slowed.
Level 18: You can apply two imbue arrow effects with your shots.

Arcane Energy:
Beguiling Arrow: Using enchantment magic, when you hit a target with an arrow imbued with this arcane energy, their attacks against you have disadvantage.
Vampiric Arrow: Using necrotic magic, when you deal damage with an arrow imbued with this arcane energy, you heal one hit point. This increase to two hitpoints at level 9 and three hitpoints at level 16.
Donkey Punch Arrow: Using evocation magic, when you hit a target with an arrow imbued with this arcane energy, you may push them 5 feet in the direction the arrow was traveling.
Slowing Arrow: Using abjuration magic, when you hit a target with an arrow imbued with this ability, the target loses their reaction until your next turn.
Grasping Arrow: Using conjuration magic, when you hit a target with an arrow imbued with this arcane energy, thorny brambles appear around the target and their movement is reduced by 5 feet until your next turn.
Piercing Arrow: Using transmutation magic, your attacks imbued with this arcane energy deal +1 force damage. This increase to +2 at level 9 and +3 at level 16.
Seeking Arrow: Using divination magic, your attacks imbued with this arcane energy get +1 to hit. This increase to +2 at level 9 and +3 at level 16.
Misleading Arrow: Using illusion magic, when your arrow impacts a surface, you may have a sound or image as per the Minor Illusion cantrip appear where the arrow hit.

This only took 5 minutes, and it may not be perfect, but it gives you more stuff to do then a special arrow or two during a combat. Kind of like Warlock invocations.

 

[Dualazi]

Well well well, it’s finally here. I’ll admit this is one that I was really looking forward to, to see how they’d handle expanding one of the classes I’ve been most critical of. There’re some clear hits and misses here, so I hope feedback can craft this group into a winner. Now, on to my own subjective opinions.

Arcane Archer

This is one of the ones I have more problems with than not. First off, why does this only apply to bows, and not crossbows? Given that this is the one fighter variant that didn’t get rapid strike, you can’t even really argue it’s about speed of fire.

Second, create magic arrow is strictly inferior to Steady Aim, covered later. It has fewer uses, worse damage potential, and doesn’t help with cover. Its one saving grace is the force damage, but I don’t know that this is enough to save it.

Archer’s lore joins a cadre of other skill bonuses the various paths get, and I like that. It’s a nice bone to throw to other pillars of play. Conjure arrows should really just get tacked on to the 3rd level stuff, there’s no way this merits a path bonus.

Ever ready arrow is…bad. It really just means you get an extra 2d6/4d6 at least once per combat, and that’s nothing to write home about.

Deadly Arrow – now you get at least 4d6 once per combat! Yay! Still bad.

Arcane Shots is just maddening. Out of all the options they could have used here, why are so many of them more-or-less tank options? Beguiling, Brute Bane, and Defending are all defender focused options on a character obviously not built for it. Bursting is low, non-scaling AoE in a small area. Seeking is tried and true but questionably useful. Piercing is good, and shadow seems super abusable with some rogue levels.

Knight

This one is better, though I don’t like how it can’t decide if it wants to be a genuine tank or a mount specialist. Maybe they couldn’t find enough different abilities for each?

Born to Saddle: Nice usability bonuses, but nothing game changing and nothing that makes you reliably feel different about being a mount user. I can only imagine most people who like using mounts enter combat on them and/or take the mounted combat feat.

Implacable Mark: Great stuff here, glad to see the marking mechanic make a return. Having a limitation on the number of uses for reaction attacks is aggravating though, since its activation is out of the fighter’s hands.

Noble Cavalry: The bonus skills are nice, though I would have like an addition buff to the mount in some way.

Hold the Line: the 4e defenders are back, baby. Good stuff here, and without the usage limits of the Mark retribution.

Rapid strike: Good, but doesn’t belong. It makes sense on Samurai/Sharpshooter, but this subclass reaaaally needs more on the mounted front. Seriously, all it gets is the mounting speed bonus and skills tertiary to being a classic noble.

Defenders blade: Even more good tank stuff, with additional defenses on top. I like it, adds definition to the class without requiring anything new really, and it’s thematically fitting.

Overall, I really like the knight. If they drop the mounted stuff and change rapid strike it could go from 4/5 to 5/5.

Samurai

Pretty strong overall, I dislike Fighting Spirit quite a bit, both thematically and mechanically. Everything else is workable.

Fighting Spirit: My first question is, are other fighters somehow lacking in fighting spirit? These bonuses are really strong, but they’re also pretty bland and don’t really fit with the classic romantic vision of a Samurai. I’m honestly surprised they didn’t go the route of say, Iaijatsu, which would be better, if not original.

Elegant Courtier: I like this one. It helps less common fighter stats be useful and still expands OoC options.

Unbreakable Will: Great design here, fitting with the discipline Samurai are famous for while being strong and simple.

Rapid Strike: Boring but strong, as usual. I have a sneaking suspicion Samurai the origin for Rapid Strike due to synergy with Fighting Spirit.

Strength Before Death: Pretty awesome. Would be broken if not for the long rest requirement, but as it is it’s a pretty sweet last stand ability.

Sharpshooter

I’m very pleased they released a non-magical counterpart to the Arcane Archer. That alone is worth celebrating, all the more so because this one is actually really good.

Steady Aim: The cover ignore is alright, but that damage amp is insane. With action surge you could be looking at 96 extra damage in a round at 20th level, and it’s pretty great at other junctures as well. Note that this doesn’t work with Rapid Strike, so maybe there’s an argument the sharpshooter should have something else at level 15.

Careful Eyes: Great. 2 strong skills and a new way to use them make this one a win.

Close Quarters Shooting: I dislike that this removes some of the thinking involved in a character (I only need one weapon now forever) but it’s really fitting and works well, so in the end it’s good.

Rapid strike: same as before.

Snap shot: Honestly the weakest part of the whole subclass. If you have advantage you could be doing this anyway with rapid strike 3 levels earlier, and even if you don’t, it boils down to one extra attack per combat. Tiny boost to alpha does not a level 18 feature make. Scrap it.

 

[Gardens & Goblins]

Liking Sharpshooter. Frees up the pressure on some 'must have' feat choices. Granted its a matter of min-max perception, but still.

There may be some redundancy if we assume we'll be picking up Sharpshooter the feat (seconding the class name change!) but if we're not - and we don't have to - we can pick up Skulker asap for a sneaky, dex-based fighter type. Don't even need CBE either, so we can pick up Alert instead - and be an actual point man - or something like Mobile to be a bad ass skirmisher.

 

[pemerton]

there's no such thing as 'the search action'.

<snip>

Does it apply to investigate or perception or both? Who knows?

From page 72 of the Basic PDF:

When you take the Search action, you devote your attention to finding something. Depending on the nature of your search, the DM might have you make a Wisdom (Perception) check or an Intelligence (Investigation) check.​

Out of combat it does seem to confer little benefit to be able to do this as a bonus action, but then that is true of some other class/sub-class features too (like the rogue ones that allow doing thief-y stuff as a bonus action).

 

[ChapolimX]

Overall I really like the designs... except that everything is still keyed to short rests.

I've made the point elsewhere, but short rests do not work in our group. We have 6-8 players. It's extremely rare for more than 2 of the PCs to want to short rest. Either there's enough healing in which case the long rest party members shout "continue," or multiple PCs need to long rest. On more than one occasion, some of the party will short rest while the rest of the party refuses and continues the adventure. In 20 years of gaming together, this kind of disagreement has never happened before. It is by far our least favorite mechanic in 5e. I would love it if there were a viable alternate mechanic.

Instead of multiplying by 3 as many are suggesting perhaps you might allow a recharge of abilities on shorter short rests, like 10-15 min, and see if your players can better negotiate with that. This would be more close to RAW but the x3 idea is a more aggressive and definitive solution for your problem.

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[Leatherhead]

I would have gotten to this sooner, but I had to do that work thing.

Arcane Archer
Totally not just an elf thing anymore. Of note, you do get a +2 bonus to attack rolls for being an archer, and most of this stuff stacks with the Sharpshooter Feat, giving the subclass more oomph that it would appear to have at first glance. It also functions more like a warlock than a wizard.

Arcane Arrow
Use your bonus action for an extra attacks worth of damage + an extra mystical effect.
It's kind of like superiority dice, but worse. Considering this is the backbone of the subclass, it doesn't feel like it happens anywhere near enough. Eldtrich knights can at least use a cantrip all day long to make them different than the other fighters. The Battlemaster gets to use their thing more often, and can pick to use it on a hit to prevent the "whiff effect" (though it's less damage). Changing this to a "When you hit with an arrow, you can expend a bonus action to make the arrow gain a magical effect" for most of the shots would go a long way to making this more palatable. Though a Reaction might be more logical at that point.


Archers lore
Get two skill proficiencies. This is a little uninspired. They could have given the subclass some cantrips at least.

Conjure Arrows
Never run out of arrows again. A worthy ability, but it requires tracking ammo, which lots of groups ignore. Adding on a "summon your bow" feature here would smooth it out for such groups and give give an interesting (if weak) ambush option.

Ever-Ready Arrow
This is a really weird mechanic. 10 rounds after you use your last arcane arrow, you get another one. Vary rarely will you get a fight that lasts that long, effectively making it a "Start combat with one arcane arrow if you don't have any" feature, which is like one extra Arcane Arrow if your group is following the Battle-Battle-Rest model of encounters. It doesn't tickle my fancy much. Maybe just making it once per round would be a better option, for kind of a sustained damage VS the burst potential of the Battlemaster dichotomy.

Deadly Arrow
Adding some scaling late game, it's nice enough, if boring, for a capstone.

Arcane Shots
Like maneuvers, but more interesting, sometimes. You get a total of 6 to pick out of the 8, one for each school of magic. Why not all 8? I dunno, some of them are a little redundant anyway.

Beguiling Arrow
Sanctuary in Arrow form. Useful for getting someone in and out of melee combat.
Brute Bane
The target deals half damage with traditional melee damage types for a round. Useful against brutes that don't have gimmicks or elemental damage, so not as much as you would think.
Bursting
The AoE option, but kind of weak for that. At least there is no save required, meaning you can bring down a group by targeting it's weakest link.
Defending
Disadvantage on one attack, this is no substitute for Vicious Mockery due to it's non-spammable nature. Brute Bane or Beguiling are probably better options for most encounters.
Grasping
Looks cool, until you realize it's a DC10 non-scaling save, which means this effectively becomes "the target spends one action to move normally, or else it takes some extra damage and -10 move" This doesn't even occupy the area to block off a way of escape, just one creature.
Piercing
It changes your arrow into a 30' long lighting bolt. This is kind of rad, and way better than Bursting because it's an attack roll against each target, allowing for your weapon damage and all it's modifiers on each target. Also it scales with level, unlike Bursting. This is also the only option that works if you miss the first target.
Seeking
My favorite, it changes your arrow into a self-guided missile that can bend around cover to hit targets that you can't even see. Not as damaging as piercing, but way more fun.
Shadow
Effectively blinds one enemy to ranged combat for one turn. I guess you could use it to lure a dragon down into close ranged combat.

You are probably going to drop a few of the defensive ones(they are kind of redundant) and pick up Piercing and something for single targets first. Other than that you get nearly all of them so it's just a matter of preference for order.

Thoughts:
The Arcane Archer has traditionally been less of a caster than the Eldritch Knight, for better or worse. I would still like to see a proper ranged weapon cantrip. Anyway, making it so you can fire off Arcane Shots more often and more reliably (with more scaling where appropriate) would shore up the backbone of the class, and giving it some magical non-combat options (seriously, cantrips are great for this) would cement the subclass as solid and flavorful.

Knight
The Defender returns. Only this time with a pony.

Born to the Saddle
It's telling that the first ability for riding they get is an ability that helps them get off the mount. And not in a good way. This should be some way to beef up a mount in general. Give it more hps, and some better saves. It doesn't have to deal damage, just survive a fireball so the knight in shining armor can actually ride their steed into battle. Then let the rest of the Knight's inherent defenerability prevent it from being pasted in general melee.

Implacable Mark
The Marking Mechanic is an optional rule in the DMG. As is the Sentinel feat. But this is better than both of those It allows you to take up to three extra pseudo-reactions per rest.
It works, but I will be ranting about this in a bit.

Noble Calvary
If you didn't know them before, you get some skills in handling an animals or courtly etiquette. And if you did, then you can learn a new language.
I kind of wish this was expertise or advantage in Animal Handling instead. This subclass needs more mounted stuff. It's a minor gripe.

Hold the Line
This takes what's left of the Sentinel feat, makes it better, and then gives it bonus damage. Because why not?

Rapid Strike
This is, confusing, to say the least. Instead of Advantage, you can get a Bonus Action attack. I think it's supposed to simply negate advantage on one attack out of the three you will be doing at this level. But what happens if you have two sources of advantage on the same attack? Can you ignore one and still attack with advantage? Can the Bonus Attack get advantage from either the same source or a different one?
This is an awful headache of an ability that won't be giving much in the way of extra damage. I'm a little confused as to why it exists in the first place. Can't it be replaced with some kind of mounted charge bonus?

Defenders Blade
Unlimited OAs. Well limited to one per turn, but still one for every opponent that you are currently fighting against, from 1 to infinity. RIP short mobile combats and baiting the front line with mooks running by.

Also a +1 bonus to heavy armor, for no real reason. Did they not like the idea of DEX based defenders and then realized there wasn't anything else to prevent it in this subclass or what? That's basically a fighting style as half of a capstone ability on top of something that is already game-changing.

Thoughts:
I don't like this one. At all.
Firstly, it doesn't support the poor mount beyond what the class is doing to function as a defender. So it subclass functions more like a Dragoon (the guys who rode to battle on horses, then got off to fight) than an actual Calvary as it's intended to invoke. Because the first time any kind of AoE looks your way, that horse is going bye-bye.
Secondly, wow, this one takes the action economy out back in the shed and shoots it. I like short combats, I like that players have to pick and chose what threats to check and react to in combat. I don't like being able to lock down everything that walks by you. At best that leads to horribly stagnant combats and it leads to the 5 min workday as your "tank" has eaten up all of their HD due to nobody else using theirs. I almost wish they would have just gone with some passive "auras" that trigger reactions from other players while they are next to you as weird as it would have been to work out narratively.


Samurai
Because katanas were underpowered in the d20 system.

Fighting Spirit
Alpha striking with Action Surge just got even better. This even works with ranged weapons.
As an added bonus, you get some Rage-like resistances for the turn, maybe it will help you survive the backlash that will happen from you running in to alpha the bbeg.
This is also low enough to make any kind of dip into Fighter for alpha strikes even more desirable.

Elegant Courtier
+WIS bonus on a CHA check. That's actually kind of interesting because WIS is a tertiary ability for fighters, and CHA is a quaternary one, so combining the two will give you some kind of decent chance. It's too high up to see any kind of abuse from level-dipping, so it's mostly a novelty.
Oh, and you get another skill or language, just to make it useful regardless.

Unbreakable Will
You get a strong saving throw. Shoring up what is traditionally the Fighter's main weakness in defense.
And if you already have that for some reason, you can pick CHA, because almost nothing attacks INT saves.

Rapid Strike
Nope, it's still a mess. Also it somehow makes even less sense here, because the Samurai needs to use a bonus action in order to invoke advantage in the first place. This could be scrapped in favor of flat bonus damage while using Fighting Spirit. Even if that is boring, at least it synergizes.

Strength before Death
So this is the massive counter-attack that happens before the enemy strikes you trope. Unlike the Knight above, this ability has the decency to be limited to be once per day use, and it functions as a turn so you can do everything. It's a pity that it only happens before you would otherwise be knocked out. I would totally dig this ability being triggerable whenever you are attacked.

Thoughts
This subclass feels kind of fun. Not as good as a battlemaster maybe, but it has it's uses and it props the Fighter up in two of it's weaker areas: Talking to important people and being a bit weak of will. Just get rid of Rapid Strike and make Strength before Death a bit easier to use.

Sharpshooter
The Feat, the Subclass, the Character.

First: Change the name please, this is going to get confusing.

Steady Aim
Three times per rest, you gain all of the good stuff from the feat. Alpha strike synergy ahoy. It even stacks with the feat for absolutely massive damage. However, it doesn't stack very well with Crossbow Expert. The bad news is that it only works on one target. Minor question: Is this a Round Down or Round Up addition?

Careful Eyes
Search as a bonus action. That's different and useful. So useful that it will make the rest of your group mad when you remind the DM you can do it and they can't.
Also a skill, because if you are using search, you better be at least decent at it.

Close-Quarters Shooting
They took the part of Cossbow Expert that non-crossbow users benefited from and put it here. Also they made it better.

Rapid Strike
Oh come on now.
This makes me question if anyone proofread this document, did they seriously copy-paste the same ability three times? It has all the same problems as the Samurai, with the added complication that it's significantly harder to get advantage on ranged attacks. It just keeps getting worse!

Snap Shot
And they complained about crossbows being semi-automatic.
We have gone into maximum alpha-striker territory here. You can attack up to 10 times, all of which get +12 damage from your level and +10 damage from the feat you picked up for being redundant. Additionally you can still cram advantage into that equation somehow, and I'm not sure how this interacts with Haste, so that's like one or two additional attacks you can get on top of all this.

Thoughts:
So this is what happens when you take one feat and spread it across a subclass. I think I like the feat marginally better. It lets more classes get in on the action at the very least.
Of note, even if you pick this subclass, you are still going to pick up the feat. The feat applies all the time to every target instead of just sometimes against one target. The damage also stacks, the only thing that is totally redundant is the cover ignoring feature of the subclass. If this is intended to be a replacement option, they didn't hit the mark.
Although this subclass can technically be used with any ranged weapon, Crossbows need not apply. You just aren't getting as much, even if you favor the Heavy Crossbow because you need to sink a feat just to make it work.

 

[Connorsrpg]

No, that's the one where the dismounted knight rolls up onto his feet without breaking the motion, grabs his surprised opponent's leg, and hauls him off his horse like a boss.

If you watch experienced people move around in armor, they're not exactly inverted turtles. I wouldn't want to get up on the parallel bars in full plate or anything, but as far as standing upright goes, that's probably something a knight should be able to do before he thinks about going anywhere near bad guys.

Yeah, not really the moves I associate with knights, and being able to do it every time. But YVMV.

 

[jbOKgamer]

After reading the UA I liked the Arcane Archer. When I finished reading I realized that the Arcane Archer write up is incomplete. The Arcane Archer should have a 10th level feature.

What should the 10th level feature for Arcane Archer be? I thought maybe it should be a third Magic Arrow.