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.

 

[Corwin]

The two weapon fighting option of the blade is a trap.

I don't see how it qualifies for such a descriptor.

You can't engage in two weapon fighting if you are using blade flourish...

Correct. Just like EKs can't engage in Extra Attack when using War Magic. Which is probably even more common than a bard using an inspiration die to flourish, by my (rough) guestimation.

so when you reach level 6, you can either take the attack action and attack twice with a bonus or you use the attack action and attack twice with light melee weapons.

You should have tried playing it in its previous incarnation.

The rest of the blade sounds great though.

It does. Though I haven't played it like I did the previous version, with these flourishes being so different, so I can't say I like it more yet. Though it did fix a few personal bugaboos for me.

 

[DEFCON 1]

The two weapon fighting option of the blade is a trap. You can't engage in two weapon fighting if you are using blade flourish... so when you reach level 6, you can either take the attack action and attack twice with a bonus or you use the attack action and attack twice with light melee weapons. The rest of the blade sounds great though.

At first I was confused from what you said, because I didn't remember anything in the Blade Flourish feature that used bonus actions... what I was assuming you were talking about when you said you couldn't use two-weapon fighting and it was a trap. I thought to myself "Wait, if you're attacking with your action, you still have your bonus action available to fight with that second weapon because the Blade Flourish options no longer use bonus actions!"

But then I realized what I think you were referring to... which is that in order to use your bonus action to attack with a off-hand weapon, you have to take the Attack action with your main hand. And the way Blade Flourish is now written... you don't actually do that. You don't take the Attack action, you just can make one melee weapon attack, increase your speed by 10, and take a Blade Flourish option.

Which makes me wonder if perhaps this is just an oversight on the editing? If Two-Weapon Fighting was meant to be used (as we assume it was, seeing as how they removed all the bonus action requirements on the Flourishes)... then they probably weren't meant to remove the "When you use the Attack action on your turn..." statement like they had on the old version.

 

[DEFCON 1]

Correct. Just like EKs can't engage in Extra Attack when using War Magic. Which is probably even more common than a bard using an inspiration die to flourish, by my (rough) guestimation..

Although Corwin also makes a good point here too-- that because the Flourishes use Bardic Inspiration dice, the bard won't be using Blade Flourish every round because they won;'t have the dice to pay for them. And thus on the rounds when they don't, they can fight with two-weapons.

But that does result in a fairly odd editing choice on their part... which is that they went (in the previous Kuts of Old UA article) from using an Attack action to Blade Flourish and Bonus actions for the flourish moves themselves (which means you can't use Two-Weapon Fighting on those turns)... to having an "unnamed" action to Blade Flourish and NOT requiring Bonus actions for the flourish moves themselves--

--which means you STILL CAN'T use Two-Weapon Fighting on those turns.

As a result... I'm not sure exactly what was gained by making that editing switch. Except perhaps just making it easier to point out that you can only use one Blade Flourish option even though you gain a second attack with it at level 6. But even despite that... the change in wording seems odd and unnecessary.

 

[Edwin Suijkerbuijk]

No more greatsword shenanigans with the kensei, sadly.

but at least your kensai weapon now counts as a monk weapon meaning you don't lose the abilities from your martial arts so you can use dex with your kensai weapon.

 

[DEFCON 1]

...meaning you don't lose the abilities from your martial arts so you can use sex with your kensai weapon.

Certainly gives new meaning to the phrase "blowgun"...

 

[Edwin Suijkerbuijk]

Certainly gives new meaning to the phrase "blowgun"...

damm typos

 

[RSIxidor]

Path of the Ancestral Guardian is my new favorite thing for today.

 

[phantomK9]

I'm really liking a lot of these. I could even see myself playing most of them.
I still don't like the Favored Soul though. The inclusion of requiring the cure wounds doesn't bug me that much but the 6th level ability Empowered Healing seems like the assumption is that all Favored Souls would simply be taking as many healing spells they can or at least one per spell level.

But there is much more to the cleric spell list than healing spells. What if you want to take spells other than healing, this ability then would affect only one spell?

Favored by the Gods still seems to be a rather odd mechanic, just a random 2d4 from no where. Why not make it you get advantage or you are under the effect of bless for one minute? Why 2d4?

 

[castlewise]

At first I was confused from what you said, because I didn't remember anything in the Blade Flourish feature that used bonus actions... what I was assuming you were talking about when you said you couldn't use two-weapon fighting and it was a trap. I thought to myself "Wait, if you're attacking with your action, you still have your bonus action available to fight with that second weapon because the Blade Flourish options no longer use bonus actions!"

But then I realized what I think you were referring to... which is that in order to use your bonus action to attack with a off-hand weapon, you have to take the Attack action with your main hand. And the way Blade Flourish is now written... you don't actually do that. You don't take the Attack action, you just can make one melee weapon attack, increase your speed by 10, and take a Blade Flourish option.

Which makes me wonder if perhaps this is just an oversight on the editing? If Two-Weapon Fighting was meant to be used (as we assume it was, seeing as how they removed all the bonus action requirements on the Flourishes)... then they probably weren't meant to remove the "When you use the Attack action on your turn..." statement like they had on the old version.

Thanks for clearing this up. I was having trouble figuring out what the issue was with Two-Weapon Fighting. This interaction does seem kind of like a "gotcha". I certainly didn't spot it.

 

[Jefe Bergenstein]

The two weapon fighting option of the blade is a trap. You can't engage in two weapon fighting if you are using blade flourish... so when you reach level 6, you can either take the attack action and attack twice with a bonus or you use the attack action and attack twice with light melee weapons. The rest of the blade sounds great though.

Dual wielding really needs to be changed to just have the off-hand attack be part of the attack action as part of the fighting style/feat. It solves so many issues.