Unearthed Arcana Unearthed Arcana: Spirits Bard and Undeath Warlock

We have a new UA release with two subclasses. The College of Spirits Bard is a fortune teller or spirit medium type character with a big random effect table. Meanwhile the Undeath Pact Warlock is a a do-over of the Undying Pact Warlock.

 

[Levistus's_Leviathan]

I haven't been terribly inspired by the Undying, but I don't remember it being mechanically disadvantaged or broken either.

Just, go look at it. If you can't tell why it is awful, probably just google why it sucks.

 

[Levistus's_Leviathan]

Doesn't work. You roll 1 additional die when determining damage, so you can't do the blast and the hex.

And even if you want to claim the hex is a seperate damage roll, it isn't tied to the attack roll then, and so wouldn't qualify.

I would let them role the extra d6 instead of a necrotic d4 from stabbing with a dagger though.

Hex is part of the same attack, but is a different damage roll.

 

[Levistus's_Leviathan]

I don’t know... Maybe it’s just me, but I don’t think it’s super clear-cut which is better between 1d10 force and 2d10 necrotic. A lot of stuff resists or has immunity to necrotic, and very little does to force. Like, it is probably too good, but I don’t think by that much. And the biggest problem is the synergy with Eldritch Blast. I think the best solution would just be to restrict the bonus damage to one roll against one target, just like the Celestial does with Radiant Soul .

In most cases, 2d10 necrotic is way better than 1d10 force. You also get to choose when you do this.

 

[Weiley31]

Undead, Undying... neither of them have Animate Dead on their spell list so I still can't make a damned Warlock necromancer which is all I ever wanted to do with a Warlock.

Class Features Variant UA adds Animate dead to Warlock Spell choices ya Necro you.

 

[Marandahir]

Listened to the first half or so now, Crawford said the main impetus for the Bard of Spirits was to provide a Gothic Horror option to the Bard Class, and distinguishes between the Undead and Undying Patrons story-wise by pointing out that the Undying Patron can be any immortal being and is not exclusively undead themed like this new option is:

I get that. It does feel like mechanically it leans more toward Lich than the Phoenix or Jiaying Johnson or such. Still, maybe it's worth tinkering around with to drift them more apart and really emphasize the Undying as not the spooky patron but the immortality one.

I'd like it if they didn't use names so close together, that said. We had the same problem with a previous UA Warlock - the first take on the Celestial Patron was called the Undying Light, and everyone was like, wait wait wait have you already forgotten the Undying?

Pro-tip: don't use subclass/class names that have already been used somewhere else in the game. We're already in a mess because of Athlete being both a feat (PHB) and a background (MOT).

Maybe we could call this patron "The Living Dead"? "The Death"? "The Risen"?

 

[Charlaquin]

I get that. It does feel like mechanically it leans more toward Lich than the Phoenix or Jiaying Johnson or such. Still, maybe it's worth tinkering around with to drift them more apart and really emphasize the Undying as not the spooky patron but the immortality one.

I'd like it if they didn't use names so close together, that said. We had the same problem with a previous UA Warlock - the first take on the Celestial Patron was called the Undying Light, and everyone was like, wait wait wait have you already forgotten the Undying?

Pro-tip: don't use subclass/class names that have already been used somewhere else in the game. We're already in a mess because of Athlete being both a feat (PHB) and a background (MOT).

Maybe we could call this patron "The Living Dead"? "The Death"? "The Risen"?

I like The Risen a lot.

 

[Kurotowa]

Hex is part of the same attack, but is a different damage roll.

And no where does it say you get to add an extra die to every unique damage source. It says 1) When you hit a creature with an attack you can cause the attack to deal necrotic damage, and 2) IF you substitute necrotic damage AND have Form of Dread active you roll one additional damage die. That doesn't mean every damage source, that doesn't mean mean any necrotic damage, it means it happens once when you hit with an attack.

You might as well argue that a half-orc's Savage Attacks adds extra Hex or Hunter's Mark dice. That's just not how it works.

 

[Weiley31]

I like The Risen a lot.

But then it's almost close to the Revived Rogue UA

 

[Benjamin Olson]

It’s on the expanded Warlock spell list from the class feature options UA. Which... scares me, because it’s broken AF with Warlock spell slots.

It's crazy broken in the mystical land of Theorycraftia, where some sort of rest-all-day Coffeelock has an army of well over a hundred zombies at level 5. In actual play the DM has control of both resting schedules and the supply of suitable corpses, the Warlock often doesn't have slots available at the end of fights when corpse raising is convenient, undead pets get destroyed, and the rest of the group is not always going to wait around for Mr. Warlock to complete multiple extra short rests every day so he can reassert control of his endless army of undeath.

That said, it seems like a good candidate spell for one of those obnoxious invocations that just give you the option to cast a particular spell with special limitations. Because yes, in the hands of the player who REALLY wants Warlock spellcasting for Animate Dead it is a mess waiting to happen.

 

[Weiley31]

Well with the Addition of these two UAs....boy I have alot of Shadar-Kai class options:
Raven Queen Patron UA
Path of the Beast UA
Blood Hunter
Undeath Patron UA
College of Spirits(Dirge Singer/Doom Speaker) UA
Hexblade Patron


Man, I know the Raven Queen is my fave Death Goddess in DND, but I wasn't expecting that many job occupations for her followers. LOL.