Unearthed Arcana Unearthed Arcana: Revenant Subrace, Monster Hunter, and Inquisitive

There's a new Unearthed Arcana up from WotC's Mike Mearls, and this month it looks at Gothic Options for your D&D game, supplementing the themes of the recently released Curse of Strahd. The Revenant is a new sub race which can be applied to any existing race, the Monster Hunter is a fighter archetype, and the Inquisitive is an archetype for rogues who excel at solving mysteries. "This month, Unearthed Arcana takes a look at a few new character options appropriate to gothic horror.The revenant subrace provides an interesting way to bring a character back from the dead—a useful option if you’ve lost a character in the mists of Barovia. The Monster Hunter and the Inquisitive are two new archetypes for the fighter and rogue, respectively, well suited to the challenges of Ravenloft or any other gothic horror campaign."

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Find the 3-page PDF here!

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[Shroomy]

I'm not really a fan of this revenant implementation (you should at least be considered undead), I love the monster hunter archetype, and think the inquisitive has promise, though I'm not a fan of the name.

 

[Quartz]

My first impression is that Insightful Fighting seems a bit too powerful, most particularly when combined with Eye for Detail. And it lasts for a minute - typically the rest of the combat. It's much more powerful than the Shield Expert feat, which, while knocking the target prone, only lasts one round (assuming the target gets up). Perhaps have it automatically end after a successful Sneak Attack?

 

[DEFCON 1]

My first impression is that Insightful Fighting seems a bit too powerful, most particularly when combined with Eye for Detail. And it lasts for a minute - typically the rest of the combat. It's much more powerful than the Shield Expert feat, which, while knocking the target prone, only lasts one round (assuming the target gets up). Perhaps have it automatically end after a successful Sneak Attack?

I don't know if Insightful Fighting and Shield Expert are meant to be compared like that. IF is merely allowing for Sneak Attack to just the rogue, it's not granting Advantage or anything like that. Whereas knocking someone prone with SE is granting Advantage to every PC who can attack that target in melee. So the fact that one lasts a minute the other lasts until the target stands up seems to be an apples/oranges comparison.

 

[Salamandyr]

I love the flavor of the monster hunter, but from a mechanical standpoint, it just seems like a battlemaster who can't do as much with his superiority dice. And the flavor easily appends itself to both the hunter ranger (who one could argue is already exactly this) and the vengeance paladin.

Love the inquisitive, and between this and the swashbuckler, they might actually get me to play a rogue one day.

 

[Reinhart]

While not especially daring, this is probably the most ready-to-play Unearthed Arcana yet.

Revenant is powerful and nearly unstoppable, but great for a narrative game where you're giving a player a 2nd chance to wrap up their loose ends before moving to a new character. Monster Hunter actually succeeds at creating a fighter that is functional in combat, exploration, and interaction! Inquisitive has a few minor mechanical issues and doesn't carry as much fun flavor, but seems like it shouldn't create many problems. I just wish WotC would retire floor-mechanics like Ear for Deceit. They make it so that rolling is either pointless or they don't help at all. Those types of mechanics just don't create a very fun or interesting result.

 

[ZeshinX]

Definitely not a fan of this revenant implementation. Frankly it shouldn't be a player option (and I do love player options). I mean, it's an undead creature returned to unlife by what amounts to a sheer force of will to complete a very specific task and should be significantly more powerful/potent. This is not something a PC should control (I do miss the 2e "becomes DM-controlled" things, like becoming a lycanthrope, vampire, revenant, etc).

The archetypes are welcome, if a touch underwhelming. I've seen these concepts done far better as 5e classes. If I recall where I'll update this.

 

[MonsterEnvy]

This is not something a PC should control (I do miss the 2e "becomes DM-controlled" things, like becoming a lycanthrope, vampire, revenant, etc).

It says that for Lycanthropes and Vampires in the Monster Manual.

 

[Quartz]

I don't know if Insightful Fighting and Shield Expert are meant to be compared like that. IF is merely allowing for Sneak Attack to just the rogue, it's not granting Advantage or anything like that. Whereas knocking someone prone with SE is granting Advantage to every PC who can attack that target in melee. So the fact that one lasts a minute the other lasts until the target stands up seems to be an apples/oranges comparison.

I'm not so sure. Shield Expert will typically only grant advantage to 2-3 people - typically the one or two on the front line and maybe the rogue who can dart in - and then only for one round. This is blanket sneak attack for 1 minute.

Perhaps another way of limiting it would be to disallow retrying the skill check?

Perhaps we have some of the playtesters here?

 

[mrpopstar]

I really like the concept of the monster hunter.

I don't see myself ever playing a revenant.

The inquisitor looks fun! (Name is awkward, though.)

Could definitely see a bardic college dedicated to ghost stories, monster tales, and frightful sound.

 

[MechaTarrasque]

I like the monster hunter fighter a lot, but between this and the scout, it sure seems like a lot of ranger-y concepts are moving into the fighter. If another subclass of the fighter turns up that gives you a pet and lets you use combat superiority dice to have your pet make an attack along side of yours.......

I usually think of charisma or int as the preferred mental stats for a rogue, so I am pleasantly surprised by the inquisitive rogue.

I like the idea that the revenant is a subrace. I wish they had done that with tieflings, assimar, and genasi. I am pretty sure I can find a use for a NPC dragonborn revenant.

 

[Tectuktitlay]

My first impression is that Insightful Fighting seems a bit too powerful, most particularly when combined with Eye for Detail. And it lasts for a minute - typically the rest of the combat. It's much more powerful than the Shield Expert feat, which, while knocking the target prone, only lasts one round (assuming the target gets up). Perhaps have it automatically end after a successful Sneak Attack?

It's pretty on par with the other "alternative use of Sneak Attack" feature, the Swashbuckler's Rakish Audacity. Adding Cha to initiative, and if you are the only person within 5 feet of a target you SA without needing advantage. It's really not hard to consistently target an enemy that is 5 feet from everyone else, and if it isn't then you're going to get your SA anyhow. Swashbucklers, like Inquisitives, will pretty much always get SA damage in if they hit. That's all Insightful Fighting is doing. It's not granting advantage.

 

[iserith]

These will all fit nicely in my episodic Eberron campaign.

 

[DEFCON 1]

This is blanket sneak attack for 1 minute.

Are you not finding your rogues getting blanket Sneak Attack anyway? Mine certainly do.

The melee rogues almost always are attacking targets with an ally, granting them Sneak Attack. And the ranged rogues are almost constantly firing while Hidden, granting both Sneak Attack *and* Advantage.

So rather than making our Rogue roll a DEX (Stealth) check each round using Cunning Action to receive Sneak Attack and Advantage... our Rogue will roll a WIS (Insight) check one time using Cunning Action to receive Sneak Attack without the Advantage.

I personally am not seeing any over-poweredness here whatsoever. But perhaps you are much stricter when it comes to allowing Rogues to hide during combat?

 

[Jester David]

I rather like how the revenant is a floating subclass. That's an interesting implementation. I dig.

The fighter subclasses was decent but uninspired. Bonuses to attacks and damage mostly. Simple I guess. But it hunts monsters, so there's less flavour to work with.

I dig the Inquisitive. I did an Investigator subclass of rogue for my Heroes of the Mists Ravenloft book on the DMs Guild. Glad to see this is very different type of brainy rogue. Room for both subclasses.

 

[Azurewraith]

Bit of a Meh PDF there. The fighter is a ranger the rogue is a paladin and the revenat is well great for a 1shot not so much an actual campaign.

 

[Ganymede81]

Why didn't they include instructions for making half-orc revenants? Why!?

(Naturally, the half-orc in my group was the one that died last session, and this would have been a lot of fun to implement.)

 

[Louis Brenton]

I think the revenant serves more use as a DM tool to temporarily restore dead characters to life, rather than as a player option. And I agree that it should be considered undead. But I like it & I think it's cool. An interesting application would have been to have a character slain in the Tyranny of Dragons narrative to have been raised as a revenant by Bahamut until the time that the threat of Tiamat is dealt with.

I'm not in love with the name "Inquisitive." I assume it's meant to distinguish it from the name "Inquisitor" in order to put some space between this archetype & the historical Inquisition. Good archetype though.

I think the Monster Hunter has potential. I like some of the more perception/mental aspects replacing some other features in the Fighter package.

 

[Reinhart]

I think the revenant serves more use as a DM tool to temporarily restore dead characters to life, rather than as a player option.

Exactly the impression I got as well. It's a DM option for keeping a player character in the story until their personal narrative is fulfilled. Maybe it's a little heavy handed, but no one is forcing a DM to use it either.

 

[SilentWolf]

I think the revenant serves more use as a DM tool to temporarily restore dead characters to life, rather than as a player option.

Or it serves, also, to allow players to play charachters like The Crow.