Unearthed Arcana Unearthed Arcana Returns to Monthly With Some Revised Subclasses

the fighter’s Sharpshooter subclass was, by far, the least popular

No one in their right mind liked that abomination. A terrible concept from the start.

 

[UngeheuerLich]

Blue, what they're saying is that the current TWFing rules require you to take a bonus action after using the attack action to make a melee attack. I believe they were saying that the TWFing style should allow you to make your offhand attack as part of your attack action, and not as a bonus action.

Blades don't get shield proficiency, do they?


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No. The particular problem of the blade is that you need to take the ATTACK ACTION to be allowed to make an offhand attack. The blade uses an ACTION to make a melee attack with a bonus. (Flourish). No problem before level 5. You can either TWF or flourish which is a bit like rogue cunning action. But at level 6 you don't get extra attack which allows you to make 3 attacks including your offhand but you just make an extra attack with flourish. So TWF is completely useless from level 6 qnd beyond.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

I'm disappointed that a kensei cannot use a glaive (naginata), was looking forward to that.

I've added a Dueling Spear, for lack of a better generic weapon name, that is reach, two handed, 1d6, and Finesse. I thought about giving it versatile, but you only get Reach if it is used two handed, rather than upgraded damage, but that is more complicated than 5e wants weapons to be.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

Anyway, I think these all run a little more smoothly, and just work better, than the first attempt.

Well, maybe not FS, but I've never cared about that concept or enjoyed it, and I try not to critique the design of concepts I don't like.

Sword Bard is a little weird with the two weapon fighting, and I can't tell what the intent actually was because the wording seems so obtuse on the subject, and it have TWF fighing style as one of only two options.

But I allow all Fighting Styles any time Fighitng Styles are in a feature, and it's never caused a problem, and I'd probably go Mariner with a Sword Bard, anyway.

someone said that the 10 foot speed bonus would only be useful if you're using a polearm, and I wonder what kind of games would lead a person to that conclusion. Definitely not anything like the games I play in. My current low level Monk definitely notices the difference in speed, as does my shadar-kai, who in the writeup im using get extra speed while in dim light or darkness. Especially when there are snipers and casters on the enemy team. Which is almost every fight, because we never use random encounters, and most of the time we fight intelligent enemies, not just beasts or the like.

Maybe something in there is why I value a 10 foot bonus to speed more than some others do?

Anyway, the push from Mobile Flourish should probably be 5ft, plus BIDiie+Cha mod, or something. Maybe just make it 10ft plus die result. The die result is just a ribbon added to the actual ability, I figure. A way to make it not that would be to double it, so you push 5ft plus twice the result of the roll. However, Cha mod plus the die result is more reliable, and very similar average numbers.

I'd also kinda like it if there were at least one flourish that helped your allies. Opening up the target to attacks from your team, or something.

Some tweaking of the flourishes, and figure out that wording issue, and I'd play it, though.

 

[Dualazi]

Pretty unhappy with this last of the reliable UAs. Seems like they didn’t fix many of my concerns with anything, and I’m surprised and annoyed that sharpshooter was as ill-received as it evidently was, since it was one of the few offerings that didn’t suck in the list of subclass reveals.

Random thoughts:

Arcane Archer

Magic arrow is really boring and really effective, which isn’t a great combination. It also makes finding that first +1 bow/ammunition largely meaningless.

Arcane Shot: still ignoring crossbows for no discernible reason, maybe they were annoyed they actually were usable this edition. The options are likewise still tied to short rests, and unless I’m mis-reading this you never get more than 2 charges to use those options with before level 15, which also only grants a conditional extra charge at the start of combat. This is pretty garbage design in my opinion.

Curving Shot: The real highlight of the class to me, a cool ability that really defines the archetype and will see lots of use.

Arcane Shot Options: I don’t even really know where to begin with this one, there are so many problems present. First, their saves scale of Int, which no arcane archer wants outside of this, so I predict many will find playstyles that minimize this, such as bursting and grasping arrow, which have less reliance on saves. Second, it falls right into the trap of the alchemist and battlemaster, with all (supposedly) equal options available from the start. This means that, like the battlemaster, subsequent levels are less interesting or desirable because you already have your best moves from the start. Third, for techniques that will average use of 1/encounter (assuming the 6-8 recommended encounters), these effects are incredibly underwhelming. Maybe it's because the AA is married to the fighter chassis, but it seems like wizards is terrified of giving them abilities that are more than glorified riders.

Kensei

Path of the Kensei: Still terrible, just a different variety of terrible from the old one. Heavy and special properties are verboten because reasons, but don’t worry, the longbow favoritism shines through just in case the arcane archer wasn’t enough for you. Also pretty much discards the identity of the Kensei as a master of one weapon.

One with the Blade: Alright I guess, at least it isn’t as power-creepy as Magic Arrow.

Sharpen the Blade: still a boring numeric increase with a steep cost. The only real abuse I can think of here is to further amp up an already magic item, but by that point in the game I’m not sure it’s necessary. Doesn’t use concentration though, which is a plus.

Unerring Accuracy: Given that the monk can use dex with their new kensei weapons and that they have access to Sharpen the Blade, I’m not sure that doubling down on accuracy increases is the most productive capstone for the subclass, and it’s criminally boring to me as well.

I second concerns others have voiced about favored souls being stuck with healing spells or bards having issues with the wording on flourish, but these two classes are the ones that really needed another pass and it looks like they didn’t get it. If I wanted to be an arcane archer I would just play EK over this option, and kensei fails at being its original concept of a weaponmaster and as being a warrior-monk. Got my hopes up after the last racial feats UA but I guess that was to be short-lived.

 

[Sword of Spirit]

No one has mentioned the biggest problem with the current (otherwise pretty cool) kensei implementation: the weapon focused monk subclass is the one that is required to make the most unarmed attacks. Take a look at bullet point 2 of Path of the Kensei. In order to get that +2 AC, you can never take more than one weapon attack per turn, because the bonus action unarmed strike from Martial Arts isn't part of an Attack action, so it doesn't meet the prerequisite for the +2 AC bonus (and if you use Extra Attack once you have it, you still have to use one of those attacks unarmed). You literally have to not use your weapon in order to get that bonus, which is absurd. It runs counter to the flavor of the entire class.

I also don't get why range weapons are even allowed, because I don't recall them being an option in the original AD&D class, but maybe they are going for a zen archery sort of thing.

As far as favored soul, I like what they are doing with it--and I hated the original favored soul and wasn't too keen on the one last time around. But that's because they have transmogrified it to a "celestial heritage" sorcererous origin, rather than a port of the 3e concept. I can understand why people who liked the 3e class might be unhappy with slapping its name on something different.

 

[Xeviat]

No one has mentioned the biggest problem with the current (otherwise pretty cool) kensei implementation: the weapon focused monk subclass is the one that is required to make the most unarmed attacks. Take a look at bullet point 2 of Path of the Kensei. In order to get that +2 AC, you can never take more than one weapon attack per turn, because the bonus action unarmed strike from Martial Arts isn't part of an Attack action, so it doesn't meet the prerequisite for the +2 AC bonus (and if you use Extra Attack once you have it, you still have to use one of those attacks unarmed). You literally have to not use your weapon in order to get that bonus, which is absurd. It runs counter to the flavor of the entire class.

I like it because it gives the low level Kensei a choice: more damage by making all your attacks with your weapon, or more AC. It mimics the choice a fighter has between a shield or a two-hander.

It also gives the high level Kensei a reason to keep their weapon around when their martial arts die equals or exceeds their weapon die.


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[gyor]

I really like how the bard turned out. However, i still think that the AA fighter should get more uses of the ability per short rest, this way it feels too restrictive. Maybe, change the name of the sorcerer subclass to radiant soul?

If you look at the 15th level feature they do get more uses basically.

 

[Guest 6801328]

First reaction is that none of the five would have made my cut list in the first place.

Maybe Ancestral Barbarian and/or Favoured Soul Sorcerer.

Ok, more detailed responses:

Ancestral Barbarian: should it be clarified whether the enemies are aware of this effect? In other words, will it tend to cause enemies to change targets to the barbarian? I'm coming around to this sub-class, actually.

Arcane Archer: I'd rather see many more uses of Arcane Arrow, but remove the bonus damage component. MOAR DAMAGE!!!! is boring design.

Blade Bard: Meh. It's a really narrow concept that could easily be built with a Fighter dip and a Feat or two. But whatever.

Kensai: Ever since the original UA I've thought this is a dumb class. Really it should be the Katana class because the "concept" (if you can call it that) is that it's "just better in every way!". I do have some sympathy for the desire to create, essentially, a fighter who doesn't wear armor. The barrier to realizing that concept purely through RP is that the classes you start with require armor, so maybe it makes sense to put it under Monk. (They can hang out with the Redemption Paladins.) If I were to make a change it would be to only have a single kensai weapon. Maybe a second one at higher level or something.

Favoured Soul Sorcerer: I take back what I said above. This doesn't make the cut. I could actually see a whole new "Divine Sorcerer" class, but trying to shoehorn it in as a sub-class of Sorcerer feels awkward.

 

[gyor]

I'm not crazy about the Favored Soul healing emphasis either. And to add to the dogpile, if the favored soul already has the Empower metamagic, he gets nothing at 6th level.

I like the new Kensei a lot, but I'm disappointed that they can't use glaives or longspears/pikes anymore.

The Blade is much cleaner, but I miss them being good with thrown weapons too. Also, College of the Blade is a much better name than College of the Sword.


The rule for two weapon fighting is: "When you take the Attack action and attack with a light melee weapon that you’re holding in one hand, you can use a bonus action to attack with a different light melee weapon that you’re holding in the other hand."

Blade Flourish isn't an Attack action, it's its own type of action, so the rules for two weapon fighting don't apply to it. I suspect this was an oversight, not an intentional design decision.

Empowered metamagic only works on damage spells, it does nothing for healing.

The Empowered Healing functions as a metamagic, but is not called one which means it stacks with metamagic.

Example twinned cure wounds, you can still use Empowered Healing to reroll any dice you choose.

Honestly I preferred Divine Counterance, although it may have been unbalanced, but at least the fluff got merged into Angelic Form which is cool, and Empower Healing is useful and I like the free cure wounds known.

Over all I like this this version best. My only real complaint is no holy symbol profiency!

 

[Corwin]

I liked the Trick Shot one, as I liked the idea of being a dagger thrower (I even built a carnival knife thrower pregen for a one-shot once using this subclass).

I enjoyed using the Trick Shot flourish as well. Sad its gone. But I get why.

Also, the Mobile Flourish is kinda odd ... if you're using a grid, rolling under a 5 on the inspiration die is useless.

I'm figuring to just say round up. So 1 or 2 squares for the most part. With your odds of getting the 2 squares goes up as your inspiration die size increases. And at 15th-level+ you have chance for 3 squares.