Unearthed Arcana Unearthed Arcana Subclasses Part III: Artificer, Druid, and Ranger

The third in the recent spate of D&D subclasses from WotC! "Continuing our series of new D&D subclasses in 2020, Unearthed Arcana presents three more for you to playtest: the Armorer for the artificer, the Circle of the Stars for the druid, and the Fey Wanderer for the ranger. Today’s article also includes some new infusions for the artificer."

https://media.wizards.com/2020/dnd/downloads/UA2020-Subclasses03_0224.pdf

 

[Stoutstien]

A thought I had last night. The design of Artificer subclasses has really focused on having your Bonus Action filled every turn, and your damage output really depends on it. However that doesn't seem to be the case with the Armorer; in Guardian mode you only need to use Defensive Field when you've been hit, and Infiltrator doesn't have anything at all. But then it hit me that all Artificers have an option for unlocking a Bonus Action attack with the Homunculus Servant infusion. In fact, that's probably the expected play mode they balanced the damage output around.

So for anyone playtesting one or just running the numbers, don't forget about the Homunculus. It's not just for Alchemists!

Also Thunder Fists/Lighting Launcher need to count as Magical. Otherwise you are Iron Man: jack useless edition against resistant/immune to Non-Magical damage.

I haven't seen a single case of a NPC being resistance to thunder or lightning from non magical sources only. It's all or nothing plus they can just add an infusion to fix it as well.

 

[Chaosmancer]

Also Thunder Fists/Lighting Launcher need to count as Magical. Otherwise you are Iron Man: jack useless edition against resistant/immune to Non-Magical damage.

I've never seen monsters that are immune to all non-magical sources in 5e. Usually they specify non-magical bludgeoning, slashing and piercing.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

Also Thunder Fists/Lighting Launcher need to count as Magical. Otherwise you are Iron Man: jack useless edition against resistant/immune to Non-Magical damage.

There is no destinction between magical and non-magical energy damage.

 

[Anton_Lenore]

Indeed. For comparison, look at the cavalier subclass. At level 3, you can mark a target imposing disadvantage on their attack rolls if they attack someone else.
This artificer gets the same thing at level 3. And a whole laundry list of additional abilities on top of that. At level 3.

Totally unbalanced.

I'm a little hesitant about them imposing disadvantage on anyone they hit regardless. Compared to the cav fighter which only works within 5ft. I'm going to have to see an actual play to make a call there.

On top of the fact that the Cavalier gets additional abilities on top of the "marking ability" as well, keep in mind that the UA version of the Cavalier [the Knight] also didn't have to be within 5ft. of the target to impose disadvantage.

And if that's not enough to quell any worries about the Armorer becoming an official subclass someday, Jeremy Crawford himself has said that they intentionally let UA material be a bit OP because it's less work balancing things by taking away from something overpowered than having to rework something that ended up feeling too underpowered. With something underpowered, the improvements they add may then end up making it too overpowered. This way they can just skip that step.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

It will be interesting to see what we get next month, now we have had two for each class (if you include archivist).

 

[Hussar]

On top of the fact that the Cavalier gets additional abilities on top of the "marking ability" as well, keep in mind that the UA version of the Cavalier [the Knight] also didn't have to be within 5ft. of the target to impose disadvantage.

And if that's not enough to quell any worries about the Armorer becoming an official subclass someday, Jeremy Crawford himself has said that they intentionally let UA material be a bit OP because it's less work balancing things by taking away from something overpowered than having to rework something that ended up feeling too underpowered. With something underpowered, the improvements they add may then end up making it too overpowered. This way they can just skip that step.

That's very true. I like the Armorer. Cool idea. Just think the mechanics need a bit of a tweak.

 

[Stoutstien]

On top of the fact that the Cavalier gets additional abilities on top of the "marking ability" as well, keep in mind that the UA version of the Cavalier [the Knight] also didn't have to be within 5ft. of the target to impose disadvantage.

And if that's not enough to quell any worries about the Armorer becoming an official subclass someday, Jeremy Crawford himself has said that they intentionally let UA material be a bit OP because it's less work balancing things by taking away from something overpowered than having to rework something that ended up feeling too underpowered. With something underpowered, the improvements they add may then end up making it too overpowered. This way they can just skip that step.

In not even that sure it's OP other than it's spell list. Even the at-will THP scale slowly enough for it not to be a concern for me.(kinda pissy Because that was the idea I had for my barbarian fix).

In the end imposing disadvantage on attacks is the only thing the guardian armor has until lv 9.

The flavor is there but the crunch leaves me wanting. Maybe allow them to integrate weapons into the armor and treat it as the SSI as well might help. Shoulder mounted MM cannon.

 

[Chaosmancer]

In not even that sure it's OP other than it's spell list. Even the at-will THP scale slowly enough for it not to be a concern for me.(kinda pissy Because that was the idea I had for my barbarian fix).

In the end imposing disadvantage on attacks is the only thing the guardian armor has until lv 9.

The flavor is there but the crunch leaves me wanting. Maybe allow them to integrate weapons into the armor and treat it as the SSI as well might help. Shoulder mounted MM cannon.

I can see that, the crunch just feels like it could use a little bit more to show that this is magical power armor.

 

[Kurotowa]

I can see that, the crunch just feels like it could use a little bit more to show that this is magical power armor.

I think they're leaving a lot of that to the infusions you put on it. It's not a terrible idea, but in this version that doesn't really mature until you get the Level 9 ability. Which is not ideal, but what's the alternative? Level 5 is taken up by Extra Attack and Level 3 is already jam packed.

 

[Stoutstien]

I think they're leaving a lot of that to the infusions you put on it. It's not a terrible idea, but in this version that doesn't really mature until you get the Level 9 ability. Which is not ideal, but what's the alternative? Level 5 is taken up by Extra Attack and Level 3 is already jam packed.

one solution is to change the integrated weapons into a feature that allows them to integrate an existing weapon into the armor. It would take some words are going to make sure that they don't necessarily have to have the weapon in their hand but you don't want to give them open hand either.

Limited to simple weapons at first and then you can scale into martial weapons at level 9. Integrated weapons do an additional one D4 lightning or thunder with the corresponding rider effect.