Unearthed Arcana Unearthed Arcana: Starter Spells; Plus UA Returning To Monthly & Sage Advice Returning

Chaos Bolt is the first Sorcerer-only spell. Interesting.

What I've read so far looks really good. I like the idea of Ceremony quite a bit, but some of the effects (Investiture!) might be a little overpowered.

 

[Tales and Chronicles]

Robert J. Schwalb is credited as a writer in the original 5e Player's Handbook. Maybe they've brought him back to help write "Midway."

He's the one who made Shadow of the Demon Lord. He also worked on some books from previous editions with what seems to be a taste for evil/demonic lore.

 

[Jefe Bergenstein]

There's roll d20 vs DC, of course, that's it. But, there's a number of ways to use that (shy of inventing your own).

le'see, dramaticized arm-wrestling could include:

Intimidate Check to 'psych out' your opponent
STR check to beat him quickly
CON check to wear him out as you struggle
Bluff check to feign weakening so he makes a final push while you're still able to handle it.
STR check to put it to bed.

By spreading it out over 5 checks, you can even out the swinginess of an opposed check, and ratchet up some drama.

You still get advantage for turning your hat around backwards right?
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[Jefe Bergenstein]

Surprised more hasnt been said about Guiding Hand. The wording on this one is weirdly overly specific (someone in the history of time needs to have visited it and put it on a map). I'm not a fan of a random 1st level spell letting you find your way to the Lost Tomb of Duke Dunderhead... that should be an adventure in itself, not following a wayfinder in a video game. This spell should specifically let you find your way to common landmarks, not obscure lost knowledge just because one person went there before.

 

[Lanliss]

Surprised more hasnt been said about Guiding Hand. The wording on this one is weirdly overly specific (someone in the history of time needs to have visited it and put it on a map). I'm not a fan of a random 1st level spell letting you find your way to the Lost Tomb of Duke Dunderhead... that should be an adventure in itself, not following a wayfinder in a video game. This spell should specifically let you find your way to common landmarks, not obscure lost knowledge just because one person went there before.

Specifically, it needs to have been mapped. If it was just recorded in a book somewhere ("In the Great fields, past the large mound") this spell will not work. Also, it doesn't work if all maps to a location are destroyed, if I am reading it correctly. It requires a map "In existence", not "That previously existed". Also, as others have pointed out, it is only in a straight line. It could lead through all sorts of terrible things, across seas and through Volcano Fields.

 

[Jefe Bergenstein]

Specifically, it needs to have been mapped. If it was just recorded in a book somewhere ("In the Great fields, past the large mound") this spell will not work. Also, it doesn't work if all maps to a location are destroyed, if I am reading it correctly. It requires a map "In existence", not "That previously existed". Also, as others have pointed out, it is only in a straight line. It could lead through all sorts of terrible things, across seas and through Volcano Fields.

And that doesnt strike you as a bizarre level of specificity for 5E? Or that it lets you find any secret location known only to one person because they have a map to it? As a first level spell?

Sorry fighter, jumping an extra foot breaks my v-tude. Here noob wizard, have access to 100% accurate secret knowledge. Cus magic shouldn't have any limits!

 

[Lanliss]

And that doesnt strike you as a bizarre level of specificity for 5E? Or that it lets you find any secret location known only to one person because they have a map to it? As a first level spell?

Sorry fighter, jumping an extra foot breaks my v-tude. Here noob wizard, have access to 100% accurate secret knowledge. Cus magic shouldn't have any limits!

Any villain intelligent to have a secret fortress would be intelligent enough to know that this spell exists, or at least know better than to have an actual map to your secret base. Seriously, if someone is stupid enough to have a map to their secret base, they deserve to be beat by a first level spell. I wouldn't even give my minions written directions to it without some code that only my minions know. Otherwise, it would be word-of-mouth or a guide.

 

[ClearlyTough69]

it lets you find any secret location known only to one person because they have a map to it? As a first level spell?

I don't think it does let you do this. It lets you find a *major landmark* and gives examples of mountains, cities, castles and battlefields. These are not inconspicuous little things: they're things you can see from miles away. Duke Dunderhead's tomb is safe for the time being. And of course, the DM ultimately controls which landmarks have been mapped, and whether those maps still exist.

I'm just imagining the only map to an important site for the PCs being destroyed by their enemies. The hand, suddenly bereft of its steadfast certainty, starts circling the caster, questing for the right direction. It strains at all points of the compass with growing urgency, before frantically orbiting the caster, faster and faster, whirring and whirling and whistling as it gains speed. As it bursts upon the sound barrier it explodes inflicting 1d4 thunder damage to all within 10 feet of the caster, including the caster, and an extra 1d4 psychic damage to the caster. The PCs are now lost...

 

[Eubani]

You are both assuming that the designers and players base want more mundane gear, and assigning motives to the developers on why your wish hasn't materialized.

If you want it, design it and put it up on DM's Guild. Be positive and proactive.

I was not assigning motives in regards to armour and weapons the statement regarding them being too much overhead was quoted directly from Mike Mearls.

 

[FormerlyHemlock]

Better pacing? You mean because 5e lets a long rest re-set just about everything very simply, rather than resting so many hours to memorize such level spells, then 15 or 10 minutes/spell level to actually memorize them - or, alternately, if none of you are casters, up to 6 weeks to get all your hps back?... 5e is vaguely balanced around this semi-mythical 6-8 encounter / 2-3 short-rest 'day' (24 hr period in which you are allowed one long rest). Were it not for the short rest mechanic, that would just be a simplification of AD&D's complicated system of memorization and mostly-superfluous coverage of natural healing too slow to matter, that mostly just (IMyouthfulX) boiled down to ' we're outta spells & low on hps, - we go back to town and rest.'

I can see the dissatisfaction with the former, but not so much the appeal of the latter as a 'better pacing' alternative.

Yes, that short-rest/long-rest reset is essentially what I'm talking about. 5E is ostensibly designed around attrition instead of bursty challenges because of all the short-rest powers, but the unit of attrition is weird: eight hours of downtime will fix everything that's wrong with you, usually. If you stick to the 5E idiom, even the worst (and most amusing) curse that you'd get from opening the Mummy's Tomb would be fixable by a 3rd level Remove Curse spell, and a horrible disease is fixable in a single action by a paladin or a 2nd level spell from a cleric. That's pretty anticlimatic--though you could embrace the trope and just make the curses really horrible ("all of your limbs turn into tentacles") to the point where Remove Curse becomes mandatory for any dungeon delver, but now you're on that other alternative I mentioned of "5E PCs in an AD&D dungeon."

 

[FormerlyHemlock]

Snare: It's an alarm spell. It works fine for what it is, don't you think? You see no use to alarm spells?

It's not just an alarm spell. As written, it is a Tarrasque- or Tiamat-killer. It's like a no-concentration Otto's Irresistible Dance.