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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[lkj]

Well, given Mearls comments (disclaimer: that I'm recalling from memory) that the fighter subclasses didn't end up with enough of an identity, perhaps this 'siloing' of maneuvers for different archetypes is an experiment to address that. Maybe they are creating different archetypes using superiority dice to experiment with the idea that the fighter subclasses can have a unique identity by creating a restricted but flavorful versions of the battlemaster.

In other words, perhaps they are going in exactly the opposite direction of the one I just suggested.

I will also be making stock market predictions shortly. So get out your notepads and betamax recorders!

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[Tectuktitlay]

I'm still not getting the thoughts about the Insightful Fighting. How is it not perfectly fine as-is?

So, a Thief doesn't have any extras added to the sneak attack. They are quicker at doing other rogue-ish stuff, like picking locks and whatnot, instead.

Assassin's have a more limited form of bonus to sneak attack, but in exchange they do enormous amounts of damage to anyone they get the drop on. Even at merely third level, anyone they surprise is going to be taking a massive 2d8+4d6+modifiers damage that first turn. Eventually, that turns into a ridiculous (2d8+20d6+modifiers)x2 on a successful Con save, death on a failed Con save. And being as sneaky with expertise, etc, an assassin should be able to get the drop on people pretty consistently.

Arcane Tricksters get magic. Flat out, they get spellcasting. Yeah.

Swashbucklers get to sneak attack anyone who is adjacent to one of your allies, or anyone who is not adjacent to anyone but you, all day, every day. Swashbucklers get rewarded by being able to sneak attack anyone who is careless and isolates themselves, as they duel people.

Inquisitives get rewarded by being able to consistently sneak attack one person, as long as they stay focused on that one person. They're almost like Avengers in that sense. They pick an enemy, and stay focused on it, or take a chance (since it requires a successful contested check) if they wish to start Insightfully Fighting someone else.

Not seeing anything remotely unbalanced with that ability.

 

[GreenTengu]

The Revenant has a problem that, if you break down the races, the weight of the mechanics in the subrace is not equal. If you take an Elven subrace and apply it to a Halfling, it would be way more powerful than any Halfling subrace because the bulk of the Halfling beneficial mechanics are in the main race with the subraces adding just a bit of flavor because the Halfling subraces are very similar... Meanwhile Gnomes get basically no worthwhile mechanics in their main race and all their benefits are in the subrace.

So creating a "floating subrace" that you are supposed to be able to plug into any race is going to inherently be unbalanced. It wouldn't have been had the designers set forth to make all subraces just as mechanically powerful from the outset, even if that meant subraces have subraces with some identical features, but since the initial races have already been written up, you can't just pretend they are all equal or even meant to be equal.

Both of the subclasses at first glance seem to be to have features that are generally all equal or better than what other subraces get at those levels. The Monster Hunter in particular seems like a flat out vastly superior version of the Battlemaster who might not be able to choose as many maneuvers, but has some solid basic ones and all other features are superior.

The Inquisitive Rogue has a terrible name and the whole "this action requires you not to move during your turn" seems an awkward mechanic unless there is another, similar ability in the game that this can be compared to. The ability to lock onto a target and get sneak attacks against it for the next 10 rounds also seems quite imbalanced. It would be fine if it were worded so it only affects the next attack, but continuous for one minute until applied to another character is a bit much.... Particularly given that it is based off making a skill roll in which the class already makes certain you can't make a bad roll at when using, thanks to being a Rogue you can easily have double proficiency bonus in and the target is defending with charisma-- and most enemies have much lower charisma than they do wisdom.

Thematically though, I do like all of these ideas. It just feels like the precise mechanical implementation of them could use maybe some more tweaking.

 

[MechaTarrasque]

I think what I like most about the Monster Hunter is Hunter's Mysticism--we don't have a lot of "dabble in magic" except for the magic initiate feat in 5e, and it seems like that ought to be more of a thing in a fantasy world (I think the same thing about psychic powers, which is why I was hoping it would be more feat than class). Even the warlock is more "all in" that "dabble."

I wouldn't mind adding hunters mark to the "spell list" (if 2 or 3 spells is a list).

 

[UngeheuerLich]

I like the fighter archetypes. The addition of skills and the easy to go superiority dice use is definitely attractive for casual gamers.
It also adresses the concern that the fighter gets nothing out of combat.
It also adresses the problems with the ranger.
So overall. Well done.
I agree that the revenant replacing the subrace is not the best choice. I'd rather have straight stat modifications and some negative ability added.
Maybe even reduce hp by 2 per level. And raise constitution. Maybe lower all other stats. Difficult, but better than random drawbacks.

 

[Vicar In A Tutu]

The fighter archetype is so generic that I'm falling asleep just reading it.

 

[I'm A Banana]

Every time a new fighter subclass feels like it has to use superiority dice as a Generic Mechanic in this game about make-believe magical elves, it is literally worse than the Holocaust and the Great Leap Forward and the Red Scare all rolled into a ball.

This bit of empty hyperbole brought to you by My Personal Pet Peeves. My Personal Pet Peeves: getting in the way of actual conversation since 1981.

For real, though, can we get a different mechanic? Anyone? Beuller? No? Okay, I'll just be over here flailing wildly. Dang it, this is the psionics flavor text all over again.

 

[Galendril]

The Inquisitive is such a clunky name. I'd call them Investigators in my game.

 

[vpuigdoller]

I kind agree with the above statements, looking forward, I would love to see more druid options.

 

[Queer Venger]

Detective is too modern..... Since when has Sherlock Holmes been modern?


Anywho on too the main topic!

I actually like this month's UA for once! Hallelujah!

Monster Hunter: Seems pretty ok. I feel you may be trading a bit much for some of the abilities but its still pretty effective depending on the campaign. All in all pretty solid. It also brings the idea of Superiority Dice being a tried and true "Fighter Thing" to the forefront which im totally ok with!

Inquisitive: Sneak attack for days! Seriously give this dude a level of fighter and the Tough feat and you can pile on that front line damage, and on top of that you have eyes for days too!

Revenant: I like the idea of cross race Sub-Races. Seems like a cool idea and may be a good happy medium for some of the more esoteric "Half-X" Races. Now the only caveat being figuring out what should be the race abilities to go to the chopping block.

Since Doyle's character was one of the early precursors to modern forensic science, duh!