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

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

 

[Lanliss]

Ok, quick question that looks mostly harmless. One of my players is a Spell-less UA revised ranger, as he wanted a lower magic ranger. Would Arcane shot work as a replacement for battlemaster dice on the Spell-less ranger, balance wise? I don't see why not.

 

[BookBarbarian]

Samurai's fighting spirit gets the benefit of reckless attack without the disadvantage and the most powerful part of rage three times per short rest. Are Samurai supposed to be this similar to Barbarians?

 

[Chaosmancer]

Other than the Sharpshooter, the other classes really don't pull on feats that heavily.

The only other one that does is the Knight and Sentinel, but the majority of the knights stuff is very different from sentinel, barring Hold the Line.

I love how the Samurai Unbreakable Will gives a choice if you happened to take Resilient (Wisdom) before 10th level.


I find it the phrasing of Defending Arrow to be weird. "You use abjuration magic to weave a charm that disrupts your enemy’s magic. A creature hit by this arrow suffers disadvantage on the next attack roll it makes before the end of your next turn."

Though I suppose this is easily understood that all fighting is actually done with magic after all

Also Brute Bane and Beguiling are awesome defensive options.

 

[Hitdice]

I checked with Crawford on Twitter, and the intent for Ever-Ready Arrow is that after using your 2 normal "per-rest" uses, you have unlimited uses after that, but with a 1-minute recharge time in between. So basically, one per combat. Still feels like it's not enough, basically the whole archetype is built around getting a single trick shot per battle, maybe two. I wonder how it would be if the number of uses was increased to be on par with the Battlemaster, and the Force damage was reduced somewhat to compensate.

I'm not breaking any new ground here, but it's important to remember that Arcane Archer interacts with fighter stuff. It's fine to say that you only get one or two trick (with one additional per 10 more rounds of combat) shots per battle, but those have to be considered in terms of extra attacks, fighting styles, action surges, second winds, etc. At first glance, Arcane Archer works for me as non spell slot dependent arcane elf flavor fighter subclass. Full disclosure, I may change my mind the first time I play it at the table if I roll 1s all night.

 

[phantomK9]

I checked with Crawford on Twitter, and the intent for Ever-Ready Arrow is that after using your 2 normal "per-rest" uses, you have unlimited uses after that, but with a 1-minute recharge time in between. So basically, one per combat. Still feels like it's not enough, basically the whole archetype is built around getting a single trick shot per battle, maybe two. I wonder how it would be if the number of uses was increased to be on par with the Battlemaster, and the Force damage was reduced somewhat to compensate.

If that is the case they should have probably said, "You gain an additional use of this ability when you roll initiative."
This would copy how the Battlemaster refreshes one of their Superiority Dice.

 

[The-Magic-Sword]

Man i'm loving these, I mostly focused on the Knight and the Samurai and I have to say, i think this is some really great design work, knights get a feature implying they would do well as cavalry without compromising their ability to function in non-cavalry situations (which is the classic trap of the cavalier).

Samurai I think is the real winner, it functions equally well with a focus on strength or dexterity, which makes it kind of safe for people that want to play the armored samurai of history, or the agile samurai of modern pop culture. It has an amazing pair of combat features, and then devotes the rest to backing up the flavor in a way that is situational, but kind of likely (i feel as if most generic dnd campaigns will involve an interaction with a noble at SOME point) it's also incredibly thematic- giving it the turn interrupt, and the opportunity to rip your enemy to shreds when combined with fighting spirit... it's so iado. But it's restricted to when you would fall to 0, so it's hard to cheese for DPR, which is fine.

We'll need some more words in there to give us a better idea of where the bonus turn takes place and how to rule on it- it seems to take place after the attack has hit, but right before damage is finalized- which means gaining resistance would work, but moving out of the way wouldn't i guess.

 

[Xeviat]

If that is the case they should have probably said, "You gain an additional use of this ability when you roll initiative."
This would copy how the Battlemaster refreshes one of their Superiority Dice.

They're trying out new methods.


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[Lanliss]

Other than the Sharpshooter, the other classes really don't pull on feats that heavily.

The only other one that does is the Knight and Sentinel, but the majority of the knights stuff is very different from sentinel, barring Hold the Line.

I love how the Samurai Unbreakable Will gives a choice if you happened to take Resilient (Wisdom) before 10th level.


I find it the phrasing of Defending Arrow to be weird. "You use abjuration magic to weave a charm that disrupts your enemy’s magic. A creature hit by this arrow suffers disadvantage on the next attack roll it makes before the end of your next turn."

Though I suppose this is easily understood that all fighting is actually done with magic after all

Also Brute Bane and Beguiling are awesome defensive options.

I have a pair of players, one is now a Low-magic ranger (Revised Ranger+UA Spell-less ranger, with the superiority dice replaced with Arcane shot.) and the other is probably going to rebuild her Champion Fighter/Swashbuckling rogue into a Knight Fighter/Swashbuckler. I might outlaw the Beguiling arrow, because making the Knight untouchable, with their ability to be so sticky, would be insane. Of course, it would also be fun, so I might not outlaw it...

 

[MechaTarrasque]

Samurai's fighting spirit gets the benefit of reckless attack without the disadvantage and the most powerful part of rage three times per short rest. Are Samurai supposed to be this similar to Barbarians?

I think so, based on the cinematic line. In your basic Tarzan/Wolverine/Hulk fight, the hero is fighting at a base level of ability (X) thumping minions and whatnot, then the big bad annoys them, and they fight harder (X+Y). In your basic samurai movie, the samurai is mowing down minions at a base level of ability (X), and then the big bad insults his honor or makes a big move that proves the samurai needs to go all out (or maybe the leaves on the trees start falling down--samurai movies can be a little random), and the samurai kicks into a higher gear (X+Y).

It is a good question of whether the fighter should have a (mechanically) barbarianesque subclass. D&D fighters haven't traditionally been really about the second gear (being more the automatic transmission then manual in my car-based analogy).

 

[Tony Vargas]

The Knight is - like the Essentials Knight was - a passable 'aggro'-based melee type. It's 'mark' being contingent on hitting every round is a step down from the eKnight's aura or the Weaponmaster's mark upon merely making an attack, but 5e is tuned to hitting more often, and advantage is common, so not as significant as it looks at first glance. Likewise, getting to stop enemies casually walking past you is good, even if it is only at 10th (can't front-load too much in 5e, I guess).

The 15th+ features are a sensible compromise to 5e's multi-attack emphasis, but come too late to matter much.

In summary, not as good as a full-class 'defender' might have been, not too flexible even for a fighter archetype, but a pleasant surprise compared to the BM & PDK.

I can see level dips into Samurai and then main class as barbarian (although I wouldn't allow this for RP reasons under most circumstances)

So he got /really/ angry when he became a Ronin. Or, going the other way, the Barbarian is trained in the Far East ("...the Poetry of Kitai, the Philosphy of Tsung...")

or paladin or assassin rogues (which I also probably wouldn't allow for RP reasons)

Yeah, because RP restrictions'll fix anything.
Heck, just don't use MCing... anyone who's concept combines Samurai with Barbarian can play an Outlander Samurai or Noble Barbarian.

They are making ever ready arrow too complicated. just say it's an additional use of arcane arrow and keep it simple. the "get another arcane arrow 1 minute after your final one" seems too messy, and I'd probably just handwave it away to what I suggested anyway.

Few encounters in 5e are going to go 10+ rounds, so that's a simple (D&D 'simple,' anyway, way to make it a 1/encounter resource as a residual benefit). Clever, really.

But there's nothing else in the game that costs movement without actually being a form of movement.

Nod. In 5e, rather than 'costs a move action,' you could use verbiage along the lines of: "If you have not moved since the start of your last turn..." or "You cannot use your move on the same round."