Unearthed Arcana Unearthed Arcana: Variant Rules

Not the most useful of articles for me... I won't use any of it. Nothing wrong with it, but I've tried all the ideas in prior editions and determined they were not my cup of tea. I see nothing in 5E that would make the player rolling, Vitality or their version of alignment an improvement for my games.

 

[Dire Bare]

1. Battlesystem
2. Eberron
3. Class Design Variants
4. Waternborne (the file says v3, are there several versions? what changed in them?)
5. Variant Rules

Not sure about versions of the individual articles, but the list you have looks about right.

 

[Leatherhead]

The name of the file of this article shows "UA5" which means it is the 5th in the new series (the WotC site shows that there was a previous Unearthed Arcana column but which was ended and then it stated again for 5e) so please confirm if these are the 5 articles published so far:

Here is everything I found:

http://www.enworld.org/forum/showthread.php?449626-Additional-Character-Rules-List

So, yes, 5 of them. Unless I missed some.

 

[psiconauta_retro]

Here is everything I found:

http://www.enworld.org/forum/showthread.php?449626-Additional-Character-Rules-List

So, yes, 5 of them. Unless I missed some.

NICE, thanks!!!

 

[Dausuul]

Mmm... don't see myself using any of these. That said, I'm glad they continue to explore variations and new ideas. The Vitality rules are good stuff, if a bit rough around the edges, and if I were looking for a solution to the "hit point problem," I would definitely consider this one. (For reasons of pacing, I am likely going to be using slow rests in my next campaign, so the "hit point problem" is not an issue for me.)

 

[Fralex]

I gave it a lot of thought, and I think I want to try creating an alignment system based around the four temperaments:

-Sanguine: Associated with blood and air, seeks out stimulation and excitement, acts with spontaneity
-Melancholic: Associated with black bile and earth, seeks out security and preservation of tradition, acts with diligence
-Choleric: Associated with yellow bile and fire, seeks out identity and cooperation, lead by idealism and emotion
-Phlegmatic: Associated with phlegm and water, seeks out knowledge and reason, lead by logic and objectivity

[sblock=read more]A creature's nature leans towards one temperament in particular, or might be split between two temperaments. There is much variation within each temperament; this is just a list of general trends and tendencies. All creatures, including fiends, celestials, elementals, fey, and even undead, have a temperament.

Creatures from the inner planes have souls. The soul directs a creature's life force, or spirit, under the guidance of its temperament. It is the source of its free will. Less-developed souls, like those belonging to animals, are more subject to the whims of their temperaments (instincts). Creatures living in the Feywild have especially volatile souls, making them incredibly capricious and spirited, jumping from one temperament to another on a whim. Creatures living on the Shadowfell have especially inert souls, making them listless and apathetic, their attitudes towards anything rarely changing. The nature of an elemental's soul is not well understood, but it tends to be incredibly focused on bringing its temperament to the forefront, which generally matches the associated element.

Creatures from the outer planes lack souls, but their temperaments have an additional component to them: Spiritual polarity. Those residing in the upper planes have temperaments infused with positive energy, while those in the lower planes are imbued with negative energy. My goal for this alignment system was to not have any metaphysical properties that directly correspond to Good or Evil, Right or Wrong. So the effects spiritual energy has on a creature are best-described as a powerful feeling of transcendence and empathy on the positive end, and a total lack of empathy combined with intense selfishness and a desire for dominance on the negative end.

Altruism and sacrifice come naturally to celestial beings, as their positively-charged beings give them a sense of inner completeness and a need to put their spirit's excess energy to use. An angel never feels envy or greed, because it lives in a state of constant spiritual satisfaction. It seeks to improve itself only as a way to better-serve its cause. While it can experience fear, the overwhelming positive energy that flows through its being gives it endless courage to overcome it. Sacrificing oneself for the greater good is not even considered a question; it's merely a calculation of whether doing so is worth it.

Fiends, by contrast, live with the constant belief that they are incomplete, and in a way, they are. Their negatively-charged spirits mean that even the stupidest of mere mortals is more spiritually-whole than they are, and a demon's life is dominated by lust, gluttony, envy, greed, wrath, hubris, and a total disinterest in acting according to anything other than its most basic, depraved instincts. It always wants more, but what it has is never enough because what it really yearns for is the very concept of transcendence that all fiends scoff at. So it dominates whoever it can, accumulates power and takes pleasure in bringing any creature down to its level, or ideally, below it where the fiend can stomp it into the mud. Creatures of the lower planes treasure mortal souls, one more thing they can never have, and many develop ways to steal them. The raw essence of a soul is an excellent resource for spawning mortal minions inherently devoted to furthering the fiend's goals. Gnolls and orcs are two such examples of races born with souls that have been warped by their creators to serve them.

Undead come in two varieties. Some, like zombies, have souls warped by the magic that created them that compel them to follow the commands of the creator, much like fiend-spawned races. Others are in full possession of their souls and are thus free-willed, like liches. All undead are powered by negative spiritual energy, and are thus subject to the same feelings of jealosy, hatred, and longing that characterizes creatures from the lower planes. Undead hate the living, and will stop at nothing to extinguish the radiant lights that taunt them so. However, because undead do still have souls, those that are free-willed and not too powerful (more power = more overwhelmingly negative energy suffusing you) can sometimes manage to temper these feelings, growing merely apathetic rather than envious, or by focusing all their hatred on one specific individual. This is why many intelligent undead feel more at home in the gloom of the Shadowfell. If you come across a ghost in the Feywild, it has almost certainly been driven mad with rage at the overabundance of life, energy, and freedom. Such spirits are very dangerous.

The nature of aberrations is inherently alien and unknowable. Although traces of familiar temperaments and spirituality levels can be found with strong magic, they rarely match the creature's expected behavior. A wicked beholder might register as spiritually-positive, or a cold and rational mind flayer as sanguine. For the purposes of classification, it is recommended to eschew magical means and simply assign the being a temperament that best-fits its behavior.[/sblock]

 

[Juomari Veren]

Absolutely can't wait to trash this UA in the next survey.

 

[77IM]

Geez, people are so ungrateful. When somebody offers me something for free and it's not what I want, I say, "No, thank you," and move on with my life.

I mean, half the D&D design team is out on jury duty, and the other half was Rodney Thompson. So I actually give them kudos for being able to put together a UA article this month, even if it is just three random clippings from the DMG cutting room floor.

 

[Fralex]

I'm not sure what the purpose of all that extra math is for the "Players Make all Rolls" variant. Can't you just have the players make enemy attack rolls and saving throws? Why would you want to readjust everything so that the DC and roll bonus is swapped? Is it to make it less confusing since higher numbers will still be better even if they represent an enemy action? It doesn't sound that hard to get used to.

 

[Sword of Spirit]

Hmmm, I think my "quotes" are a bit exaggerated, but not all that much. There's been a (tiny) bit of good discussion in this thread of the most recent Unearthed Arcana . . . but so much more needless negativity and complaints.

Not every article will be to your liking, either in topic, length, or perceived quality. Who cares? Move on to something you DO find interesting and useful and go discuss that! Or, offer honest criticism and discussion if you have it in you. But posting just to say, "this sucks" in overwrought language just destroys the mood of the party, IMO.

The thing is, it can be useful to bring up what you have no interest in or doesn't work for you, because it helps identify trends. See, I'm the guy over here who is loving all of the previous UA articles--even the ones I may never use or might only use a small part of. So when I express that this one seems way below par, I'm expressing a clear quality and desirability contrast with the superior former articles. I can't speak for anyone else, but the impression that I get is that I'm not alone in wanting to vote this "least useful UA article."

That being said, my guess is that this is just a bad month, and they had to throw something together, and this is what came out. Looking forward now to next month for high quality and desirability to return.

 

[The Crimson Binome]

I'm not sure what the purpose of all that extra math is for the "Players Make all Rolls" variant. Can't you just have the players make enemy attack rolls and saving throws?

The player might feel bad if they're rolling for the Big Bad and score a critical hit that kills someone. Even though they have no control over it, they still feel like they do.

It's the same logic as to why saving throws were created in the first place - to give the player some small chance to roll well and not die. Even though the die is essentially random, and the player doesn't really have any control over it.