Unearthed Arcana Unearthed Arcana: Four New Subclasses

There's a new Unearthed Arcana from Ben Petrisor, Dan Dillon, Bill Benham, Jeremy Crawford, F. Wesley Schneider. This one has four new subclasses Path of the Beast (Barbarian), Way of Mercy (Monk), Oath of the Watchers (Paladin), Noble Genie (Warlock).

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[JPL]

"Noxious Aura" = Fart Monk.

 

[RogueJK]

And I can't think of too many in-game uses for the Hand of Mercy. It almost seems like a ribbon.

Edit: I misread. The below analysis is for Hands of Healing, not Mercy.

I'm digging the Iron-Monkey-meets-Plague-Doctor vibe of the subclass. And I actually like that particular ability.

I agree that, on its own, a few points of healing on its own is not a great use of an action or a Ki point mid-combat. But it's a way to convert leftover Ki to party healing before a short rest, which saves HD.

And more importantly, what makes it really useful in combat is the added ability to use it as part of a Flurry, replacing one of the bonus attacks for a Hands use for no additional cost. (Flurry already costs 1 Ki anyway.) So instead of just spending 1 Ki to only use Hands, this means you're spending that same 1 Ki point to do a full standard no-Ki Monk attack routine (Attack + Extra Attack + Bonus Attack) and use Hands to toss in a bit of healing to boot.

Plus, at 11th it eventually becomes somewhat similar to a Paladin's Lay on Hands, in that it can remove some debuff conditions.

So this would be useful for the Monk to use to continually top off themselves or the party Tank in battle, and remove debuffs as needed. Especially when combined with something like the Mobile feat, so the Monk could hang just outside melee range, then on their turn dart in, attack 3x, toss a few HP and remove a debuff on a frontliner, then dart back out of range without drawing OAs.

 

[tetrasodium]

Wow, these are pretty awesome. The barbarian & paladin fit in perfectly among some of eberron's druidic sects (The Gatekeeepers especially). The monk feels like it fits somewhere between the Restful Watch & BoV seekers& a few of the other dominant faiths in eberron. Interestinglyit's the first time I saw a monk archtype that didn't look like it would need rough edge smoothing to fit one of my eberron games.

I was originally confused about the warlock noble genie going by name alone & was dreading some generic FR novel inspired subplot only to grin with glee because it fits so well with how elemental spirits & such work in darksun!

 

[OB1]

First off, love everything but the Genie pact, which, while I love the concept, probably needs to go back to the drawing board.

Now for a wild theory. These last six months or so of UAs seem to keep flipping between the outer and inner planes (in the same UA as well as overall). How about a two or three book connected set this fall?

Guide to the Inner Planes - Feywild/Shadowfell, Elemental Planes, Overview of select classic settings (Greyhawk, Dragonlance, Dark Sun, Nerith, etc); along with new player options
and
Guide to the Outer Planes - Outer Planes, Sigil, Spelljammer; along with new player options

or

Players Guide to the Multiverse- Classes, Spells and alternate player rules for the D&D Multiverse
and
DMs Guide to the Multiverse - Guide to inner and outer planes along with overview of select classic prime material settings
and
Monsters of the Multiverse - Monster Book to support DMs Guide

 

[Kobold Avenger]

My thoughts:

-The Path of Beast is the lycanthrope Barbarian subclass so many have wanted. Never would have thought they'd be infectious too.
-The Way of Mercy Monk needs to be renamed, as I don't think having a noxious aura is that merciful. Maybe something like the Way of Life and Death. I like that they can inflict a lot of damage on a poisoned creature, even though a lot of things are immune to poison.
-The Oath of the Watcher I remember being from Happy Fun Hour, I feel that Celestials also need to be added to the creature types it's abilities work against, they're extraplanar creatures too, and many Watcher Paladins (and some Celestials themselves) are not going to necessarily be of good alignments.
-For the Genie Noble Warlock they should ditch that persuasion check. I know they want to encourage the Warlock to sacrifice treasures, but rolling to use your own special ability like that is awkward. Maybe make it so that sacrificing a valuable treasure enhances what the patron might do.

 

[Prakriti]

I agree that, in combat, a few points of healing on its own is not a great use of an action or a Ki point. But it's a way to convert leftover Ki to party healing before a short rest, which saves HD.

That's Hands of Healing. Hand of Mercy is the 17th-level ability that puts a creature into suspended animation. And in re-reading the ability, I see where I went wrong: I thought it could only be used on friendly creatures, which is not the case. Since you can use it on enemies, it is essentially a Banish effect. That's really good, especially since the victim doesn't get a recurring save. Only the monk can end the effect early.

And your analysis of Hands of Healing is spot-on. You're right, it has great utility outside of combat. I'm liking this subclass more and more...

 

[RogueJK]

Ah, gotcha. Misread.

 

[Sacrosanct]

Love way of the beast. Always wanted a lycanthrope type character and this does it without the curse part. Not fond of the monk or paladin. largely because not every class needs to have an archetype for everything scenario Not every class needs a healer. Not every class needs to fight Githyanki or whatever.

The warlock will be OP, I think. Tether to the rogue who is stealthed and sneaky ahead, and you cast spells through them. You don't even need to be in the immediate area or detected. Invisible rogue is just a conduit for you casting spells while you stay safe. Or tether to the tank and let loose all your short range devastation while you remains safely away. Lots of scenarios.

 

[Prakriti]

-The Oath of the Watcher I remember being from Happy Fun Hour, I feel that Celestials also need to be added to the creature types it's abilities work against, they're extraplanar creatures too, and many Watcher Paladins (and some Celestials themselves) are not going to necessarily be of good alignments.

The problem is that, at four creature types, the Watcher's list is already too long. Compare it to the Oath of Devotion and Oath of Ancients, which only have two creature types on their turn list. Giving the Watcher five would be blatant power creep.

Edit: I mean, it's already power creep. To be balanced, the Watcher should only have two creature types on its turn list (elementals and aberrations probably make the most sense.) Either that, or remove Watcher's Will (the other half of Channel Divinity), and include all four or five creature types.

 

[Larrin]

Does anyone else get a Plague Doctor vibe from the Way of Mercy monk? They wear masks, they heal, they gas...