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.

 

[Chaosmancer]

To bring up an issue I saw on another thread, and get some thoughts turned towards it, it has been pointed out that the Spirit Bard's level 6 Focus ability is highly limited.

The ability only adds a 1d6 to a spell cast with the focus, but as was pointed out (I think by Nerd Immersion) technically you can only use a focus to cast a spell that requires a material component. No component, no focus. The claim is now going around that this limits the use on healing to only the Regenerate Spell, as Healing word, Cure wounds, ect all lack material components.


I think this is clearly an oversight, but what think you?

 

[Undrave]

To bring up an issue I saw on another thread, and get some thoughts turned towards it, it has been pointed out that the Spirit Bard's level 6 Focus ability is highly limited.

The ability only adds a 1d6 to a spell cast with the focus, but as was pointed out (I think by Nerd Immersion) technically you can only use a focus to cast a spell that requires a material component. No component, no focus. The claim is now going around that this limits the use on healing to only the Regenerate Spell, as Healing word, Cure wounds, ect all lack material components.


I think this is clearly an oversight, but what think you?

This adds a wrinkle of complication... people use Focus to NOT have to think about which spells use which components.

I know material components are often touted as a balancing factor, but aside from those that cost money... they really shouldn't even be there to begin with...

 

[Olrox17]

Bingo.

Also, I dig your style, dude.

My thing with 5th Ed is, after my personal what-have-you with decades of all previous, is they hit it out of the ballpark (2012-2014), and since, have petered...

Yeah, I feel the same way. Amazing start, and then stagnation.

I'm suspecting for the same reason they abandoned the revised rangers; fear of two very different versions of the same material sowing confusion. Anyone who bought and uses the Scag undying pact was not invalidated by some web document they may not know about or a reprint in a new book. The new version, while thematically overlapping, doesn't invalidate the old one.

There is only one undying warlock. There is only one undead warlock. You can choose which one is better, but nobody's choice is changed retro-active to the new version being printed.

I mean, WotC changed healing spirit a few months ago and fans wanted to go to war about how their Xanathar's books are invalidated. WotC is not going to use errata to re-write classes or subs.

I understand why they're doing that, I just don't think it's the best way to handle this. Class variants are probably going to be a thing sooner or later, aye? Why not include subclass variants?

Alternate features for existing subclasses, mix and match however you want, so they would not be leaving garbage trap options around, they would just...give more choices to subclasses that need a bit of help.

That I could get behind, not this "buy our latest fix for this crap you already bought once" baloney.

 

[RSIxidor]

The Bard I really like but I don't love random effects. Since you can "store it" until your next short rest, it's not as frustrating to me as wild magic/wild rage stuff, and it's all beneficial results as well. While the flavor is mostly in Tales from Beyond, Spiritual Focus is simply good. Nice to have more focus options.

I like this Warlock. Form of Dread in particular is exactly the type of ability I want more of.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

This one is still in play test, they usually skew more powerful in the first round. I bet we'll see these two at least one more time in a UA article before publication, and 'the Undead' might even be renamed so it's not as similar to Undying.

And yeah there's TONS of room left unexplored, but that's true of every class out there (except maybe Wizard) because they've barely published anything for players.



What he said! Heck, I wouldn't mind a different type of Feywild inspired pact... it's not like all patrons give out the exact same gift even if they have thematic overlap. I still want my undersea abyss themed Warlock patron and a Star Warlock (the Star Pact flavour in 4e was WILD!), despite the overlap with the GOO Warlock.

I keep tinkering with a Star Pact. It’s a lot of fun.

 

[Charlaquin]

Please stop, right there; I do not think that it is up to you.

It isn’t up to anyone, it’s just a statement of fact that there is a difference between the colloquial meaning of the term and a particular academic use of it.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

It isn’t up to anyone, it’s just a statement of fact that there is a difference between the colloquial meaning of the term and a particular academic use of it.

Well, and the academic term has become a colloquial usage, as well. It can be frustrating that there are multiple colloquial usages of a term, but that’s life.

Heck, the dictionary defines racism in the supposed academic sense above the older sense of direct personal discrimination for a reason. It’s become the normal usage amongst most activists and a huge portion of the population.

 

[Undrave]

It isn’t up to anyone, it’s just a statement of fact that there is a difference between the colloquial meaning of the term and a particular academic use of it.

Well, and the academic term has become a colloquial usage, as well. It can be frustrating that there are multiple colloquial usages of a term, but that’s life.

Heck, the dictionary defines racism in the supposed academic sense above the older sense of direct personal discrimination for a reason. It’s become the normal usage amongst most activists and a huge portion of the population.

I think you guys are going off topic again...

 

[Mistwell]

The United Kingdom in modern times was THE FIRST NATION EVER in the history of the human species TO OUTLAW SLAVERY!

1574, the Philippines bans slavery by royal decree. Lithuania does it in 1588. Russia 1723. England 1772.

And that's just modern history. You said "in modern times...first nation ever in the history of the human species..." but that's also not correct. There were several pre-modern nations which outlawed slavery. The Qin Dynasty outlawed slavery in 221 BC (but don't give him much credit - he did it for cynical reasons to collect more taxes from freed slaves). The Xin Dynasty outlawed slavery in 9 AD (but reinstated it in 12 AD). There are other examples in Medieval times as well.

 

[Guest 6801328]

Bingo.

Also, I dig your style, dude.

My thing with 5th Ed is, after my personal what-have-you with decades of all previous, is they hit it out of the ballpark (2012-2014), and since, have petered...

Whoah....after 5 years of only clicking the like button, @Jeff Albertson comes out of the shadows to start posting a storm!

Guess you're not a bot after all.