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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[Parmandur]

It shows again that the monk simply doesn't get enough ki points - the basic heal should cost about half a point.

Oh, boy, that's not correct: the Ki points are pretty precisely correlated to being a short-rest based half-caster using the spell point variant from the DMG.

Incidentally, you were right, this now looks like Xanathar's II: This Time It's Classy is on the way.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

Oh, boy, that's not correct: the Ki points are pretty precisely correlated to being a short-rest based half-caster using the spell point variant from the DMG.

given that ki point progression is linear and spell points are geometric that is mathematically impossible.

Incidentally, you were right, this now looks like Xanathar's II: This Time It's Classy is on the way.

I was thinking more along the lines of Laeral Silverhand's Guide to everything Xanathar chose not to tell you

 

[GlassJaw]

Beast looks cool overall but I still hate that 5E didn't do a better job clearing up the difference between weapons, melee attacks, unarmed strikes, natural weapons, etc, etc.

In general, abilities that grant natural weapons aren't all that great and create confusion. I've read up the differences and I still have questions every time.

For example, can natural weapons be used with Reckless Attack? Reckless Attack states "...advantage on melee weapon attacks using Strength...".

 

[jayoungr]

Why would a healer have a poisonous aura?

Reminds me of Lou When Jie from Thunderbolt Fantasy season 2 who was a powerful monk able to manipulate Ki and is able to use it for healing...

I remembered where the I'd seen the healing/poison thing. It was in Ice Fantasy, episode 5, when the character of Yue Shen, a "Li Healer," is introduced (25:19 in the attached video). A character explains her abilities like this:

"When I was a child, Master Xuan Ta told me the duty of the Healer Tribe is to heal. However, among them, certain individuals are born with deathly auras. Too strong of a deathly aura can kill the patient. It will even implicate the people around them. That's why they can only become martial artists and poison users."

While he's describing this, Yue Shen is wielding a sword with spinning coins to somehow, from a distance, break the aura surrounding a victim of an explosion. When she's done, the victim sits up and seems to be better.

(BTW, Ice Fantasy is a really fun series, for anyone who enjoys C-dramas. It's kind of a Chinese take on Western-style fantasy, with elves and such.)

 

[Paul Farquhar]

For example, can natural weapons be used with Reckless Attack? Reckless Attack states "...advantage on melee weapon attacks using Strength...".

Yes. an unarmed strike is a melee weapon attack.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

I remembered where the I'd seen the healing/poison thing. It was in Ice Fantasy, episode 5, when the character of Yue Shen is introduced (25:19 in the attached video). A character explains her abilities like this:

"When I was a child, Master Xuan Ta told me the duty of the Healer Tribe is to heal. However, among them, certain individuals are born with deathly auras. Too strong of a deathly aura can kill the patient. It will even implicate the people around them. That's why they can only become martial artists and poison users."

While he's describing this, Yue Shen is wielding a sword with spinning coins to somehow, from a distance, break the aura surrounding a victim of an explosion. When she's done, the victim sits up and seems to be better.

(BTW, Ice Fantasy is a really fun series, for anyone who enjoys C-dramas. It's kind of a Chinese take on Western-style fantasy, with elves and such.)

Or that masterpiece of cinema, Rise of Skywalker...

 

[RogueJK]

Yes, I thought of that. It's an interesting direction to take for a paladin that plays differently. It gets around that "core is too powerful for much variation" by competing directly with Smite for spell slots. This subclass doesn't seem to go far enough in that direction though. Something like "Oath of the Lorekeeper" could push it further.

I'd totally play a Lorekeeper Paladin. Sort of like a Paladin-based Eldritch Knight. Or like a Sorcadin that preps their spells each day, and focuses more on using their slots for spells than Smites.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

I'd totally play a Lorekeeper Paladin. Sort of like a Paladin-based Eldritch Knight. Or like a Sorcadin that focuses more on using their slots for spells than Smites.

And with the fluff "sworn to preserve and protect knowledge" - lets sock it to those book-burning inquisitors!

 

[GlassJaw]

Yes. an unarmed strike is a melee weapon attack.

That's fine, but Path of the Beast grants a "natural melee weapon", not an unarmed strike.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

That's fine, but Path of the Beast grants a "natural melee weapon", not an unarmed strike.

As I said, the text needs to be clarified - natural melee weapons are normally treated as unarmed strikes.