D&D 5E Unearthed Arcana: Travelers of the Multiverse

New free content from WotC - the latest 4-page Unearthed Arcana introduces six new races: astral elf, autognome, giff, hadozee, plasmoid, and thri-kreen.

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dnd.wizards.com

Looks like Spelljammer and/or Planescape is back on the menu!

 

[Paul Farquhar]

I see no reason to suspect they will get rid of Phlogiston.

It's pointless. And most people won't understand the reference.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

True Life: Mending, great! The healing spells? Remove! If you are a construct, you are a construct! I have no reason to expect they would remove it, but I know thats the feedback I will provide.

Mending has a casting time of 1 minute, and so it can only used out of combat. Immunity to healing word is a HUGE drawback.

 

[LuisCarlos17f]

If Planescape or/and Spelljammer return then the DM Guild should allow 3PPs to publish sourcebooks, and I guess somebody will have some crazy idea, for example a mash-up of the Robotix, a forgotten Hasbro franchise as a living construct whose pieces can reasamble thanks a special "ectoplasmatic+nanotechnology" "gray gloo", or a crystal sphere as a affectionate parody or rip-off of Buck Rogers.

Dark Sun will come back, you can bet it, but the key is if sooner or better.

Is there in 5th Ed any spell to repair? something like healer magic but for constructs.

 

[clearstream]

I find the specificity around rests both interesting, and possibly worrying.

You can finish a long rest in 4 hours if you spend those hours in a trancelike meditation, during which you remain conscious.
When you take a long rest, you spend at least 6 hours in an inactive, motionless state, instead of sleeping. In this state, you appear inert, but you aren’t unconscious.
You do not require sleep and can choose to remain conscious during a long rest, though you must still refrain from strenuous activity to gain the benefit of the rest .

Race-by-race rest rules feels like a risky design-move to me (notwithstanding we have some already, but this is doubling down on it). In play, it is more streamlined to have rests sync up across the party, and to my taste there is low narrative value in differentiating specifically on resting.

They seem to be at pains to give the benefit of conscious-while-resting to some races. That either doesn't matter, or it does matter in which case unconsciousness amounts to a hefty penalty on races that don't have such a feature. Like darkvision it is wrong-minded for the game designers to create yet another form of never-be-human. And like darkvision, you have to ask - what is the really valuable reason for taking that tool away from DMs? The game is more varied when there can be darkness (that matters) and sleep (that matters).

It just seems like an odd design decision. I contend that if trance and darkvision were erased (or at least exceedingly rare), the game would be in a better place. More varied. Less obviating things that could and should matter.

 

[NaturalZero]

Spelljammer has always intrigued me but I had never read the books when they first came out. I'd been thinking about adapting the setting to run in 5e and bought some of the original stuff on PDF.

I've been trying to envision exactly how you'd run a game with phlogiston everywhere and it seems like a huge pain in the ass to deal with as a DM. I know my players and everything would be on fire, all of the time. They'd use cantrips to set fires, alchemist's fire to set fires, tar to set ships on fire, et al. It only makes sense that pirates and illithids would be using fire to deplete the oxygen from an enemy ship's atmosphere since the occupants can't actually die and can be collected afterwards. Fire, all of the time, seems like a horrific and devastating tactic for anyone wanting to mess someone up outside of wildspace. If they get rid of phlogiston, I won't miss it at all.

 

[Lyxen]

Spelljammer has always intrigued me but I had never read the books when they first came out. I'd been thinking about adapting the setting to run in 5e and bought some of the original stuff on PDF.

I've been trying to envision exactly how you'd run a game with phlogiston everywhere and it seems like a huge pain in the ass to deal with as a DM. I know my players and everything would be on fire, all of the time. They'd use cantrips to set fires, alchemist's fire to set fires, tar to set ships on fire, et al. It only makes sense that pirates and illithids would be using fire to deplete the oxygen from an enemy ship's atmosphere since the occupants can't actually die and can be collected afterwards. Fire, all of the time, seems like a horrific and devastating tactic for anyone wanting to mess someone up outside of wildspace. If they get rid of phlogiston, I won't miss it at all.

Honestly, from our Spelljammer Campaign, very little happened in the phlogiston. It's huge and there are no objectives in there, it's mostly a means to travel from one sphere to another. Most of the action happens inside the crystal spheres where the phlogiston problem does not exist.

And even if it exists, well, it's up to them to be careful and it's an interesting limitation for the party.

 

[Charlaquin]

Plasmoid: It should perhaps be spelled out that the amorphous ability does not apply to gear.

I think it’s intended to apply to gear.

Thri-kreen: The text for the Secondary Arms ability doesn't really address the mechanical issues that will occur in play: can I make a bonus action off-hand attack (or do a spell's s component) whist wielding a shield/2H weapon?

If you’re wielding a two-handed weapon and one light weapon, no, because you haven’t met the requirement for two-weapon fighting of making an attack with a light melee weapon you’re wielding in one hand. If you’re wielding a two-handed weapon in your main hands and one light melee weapon in each of your secondary hands, of course you can use two-weapon fighting with the weapons in your secondary hands. If you have Extra Attack, you could even attack with the two-handed weapon with one of your attacks, one of your light melee weapons with your other attack, and with the other light melee weapon as a bonus action with two weapon fighting.

Can I duel wield hand crossbows and load them with my secondary arms?

Sure, but you’d need Extra Attack or Crossbow Expert to attack with both on the same turn, since they aren’t light melee weapons.

 

[Henadic Theologian]

My point was that not all Aberrations have to be evil abominations from beyond this world. There are in fact options that are benevolent, so a Playable Aberration race (like a Ceremorph) is a feasible concept.

I could see playable Flumphs. Honestly there have been what in 5e terms would be playable aberrations in the past, Elans, Foulborn, and Synads.

 

[Hatmatter]

That, or that Spelljammer is getting a significant rework for 5e instead of just a rules port. Say, one where guns aren't commonplace (thus the Giff changes) and where much of the phlogiston and crystal sphere business has been cut and replaced by astral spelljamming that fits more neatly with the existing material.

Wow, that would be a real shame. The 5th edition era interviews with designers on DragonTalk from say about 2012 on have evinced a respect for the legacy of D&D worlds, monsters, and lore. To attempt to do Spelljammer but "cut and" replace "the phlogiston and crystal sphere business" would not only be a shame to me personally, but inconsistent with what I have heard from how the game's designers attempt to walk the line of iterating in ways that make improvements for a new generation and yet remain respectful for the legacy of the game. I have heard this from Mike Mearls and Crawford and Rodney Thompson once they switched from 4th edition world building to a the D&D Next approach around 2012, and I hear it from Chris Perkins and James Wyatt right up to today. For example, one can listen to how Wyatt geeks out about the AD&D 1st edition dragon turtle in the most recent DragonTalk. Hearing Jeremy Crawford's excitement as he discussed with Keith Baker how to make the 5th edition of Eberron more consistent with D&D cosmology -- complete with crystal sphere -- back in 2019 is another example.

Certainly the D&D team changes or alters some core elements frequently. The Ravenloft book not only altered most of the Dark Lords, but effectively made all of the Domains of Dread islands in the Mists, whereas my 2nd edition box set has a map showing how most (but not all) have a geography linking them. But, I understand the reason they made this change and it enables them to focus on a particular theme and style of role-play that the original Ravenloft campaign was also going for. Frankly, I think the new book did it better. It is a fantastic example of keeping the spirit and yet making changes that amount to improvements.

Now, I have observed how "Planejammer" has become a thing here in the last few years, but to me it is unnecessary to eliminate the Spelljammer cosmology of the Material Plane. I could understand a single anthology-style adventure collection that is multiverse-themed and includes both spelljamming through the Material Plane, crossing into different crystal spheres, and yet also includes plane traveling with Planescape factions, but to rewrite the cosmology itself to combine the two seems both unnecessary and inconsistent with how the current designers approach the game, which is to be innovative while balancing a sort of shepherding approach to legacy.

I like the "phlogiston and crystal sphere business" quite a bit. I have run many a game in that cosmology and from the day the first box set came out, I found Spelljammer to be a refreshing and innovative addition to D&D.

 

[jasper]

I was just thinking .... do you know what we really need in D&D?

Another type of Elf.

I swear, I think WoTC's most prized possession is a device that makes new races by combining a random adjective and "Elf."

Coming In 2024 Snarf elf you have Darkvision even thou you were born on a tidal lock world on the sun side. Trance. Of course the beating sun on you 24 7 for 365 days has no affect on race nappy time.
Coffee Elf. You have 222 feet of Darvision due to looking at your black coffee for decades. You must consume 2 gallons of coffee per day. This gives advantage on dex checks and you can dodge as a bonus action up to your proficieny. Of course you have trance what a little coffee compared to Elf nappy time powers.