Unearthed Arcana Unearthed Arcana: What's up next?

[I'm A Banana]

The core idea I feel is essential with the Warlock is that they get their power from an unsettling mysterious entity that makes people uneasy about a Warlock associating with.

So I think only fallen celestials should be the ones getting pacts if there were such a thing.

I humbly submit that if your mortals are not made uneasy about someone who is consorting with the angels in heaven, then your angels are Not Awesome Enough.

BURNING WHEELS IN THE SKY AND TERRIFYING TRUMPETS OF AWE.

 

[Parmandur]

I'd really like them to reiterate that sorcerer is not about BLOOD, it is about a magical origin of many different possible stripes.



Favored soul != "divine blood", it's an origin more akin to 4e's Invokers.



Wild Magic != "chaos blood", it's an origin for your magical powers.



Storm Magic != "elemental blood", it's an origin about developing magic powers because of a supernatural catastrophe.



Dragon Magic might be dragon blood! But it might be some other dragon thing!



I want a sorcerer who, I dunno, augments their limbs with the limbs of a golem. Or gets magical powers by simply wishing for it.



Give me a psionic wild talent sorcerer!

Fair point, but do note that the subclass is called a "bloodline;" main point is that the magic is intrinsic, but not worked for. [MENTION=697]mearls[/MENTION] made an interesting comparison in regards to the Mystic on Twitter (said the Far Realms connection is out, due to survey feedback): Mystics and Sorcerers have their power from within, while Wizards and Warlocks have external sources of power. Mystics and Wizards work for their power, while Warlocks and Sorcerers are about taking shortcuts.

 

[Parmandur]

I humbly submit that if your mortals are not made uneasy about someone who is consorting with the angels in heaven, then your angels are Not Awesome Enough.

BURNING WHEELS IN THE SKY AND TERRIFYING TRUMPETS OF AWE.

...now I wanna play a Warlock whose patron is a Precious Moments sweetheart angel.

 

[CapnZapp]

How about UAs for other things than lukewarm subclasses?

 

[I'm A Banana]

Fair point, but do note that the subclass is called a "bloodline;" main point is that the magic is intrinsic, but not worked for. [MENTION=697]mearls[/MENTION] made an interesting comparison in regards to the Mystic on Twitter (said the Far Realms connection is out, due to survey feedback): Mystics and Sorcerers have their power from within, while Wizards and Warlocks have external sources of power. Mystics and Wizards work for their power, while Warlocks and Sorcerers are about taking shortcuts.

The title of the sorcerer's subclasses is Sorcerous Origin. One of which is a blood line - "Draconic Bloodline." The other is just "Wild Magic."

I have no problem with another being "Wild Psionics!" in contrast to the Mystic's more deliberate, practiced psionic discipline.

 

[TwoSix]

The title of the sorcerer's subclasses is Sorcerous Origin. One of which is a blood line - "Draconic Bloodline." The other is just "Wild Magic."

I have no problem with another being "Wild Psionics!" in contrast to the Mystic's more deliberate, practiced psionic discipline.

My general view is that if could have been a comic book origin story, it's probably good as a sorcerer backstory. Exposed to Ysgard rays, hit by lightning in an alchemy lab, bitten by a magically-infused arachnid, etc.

 

[MechaTarrasque]

+1 to more scary angels in D&D.

 

[DEFCON 1]

The more I think about it and the more of the various thematic ways people keep wishing they could be sorcerers (Genies! Angels! Golems! Reptiles! Storms! The Cosmos! The Feywild! The Shadowfell! The Machine! It just happens!)... the more I realize that I wish Sorcerers were only 1/2 casters like Paladins and Rangers.

The reason? If there are meant to be these dozens and dozens of different ways a person just can just find themselves having magic within them all along... it makes all the Clerics, Wizards, Warlocks and Druids look like chumps. THEY just weren't lucky enough to be one of the myriad of different types of people who just have a magical wellspring inside of them from hundreds of different thematic fonts. Those unfortunate souls have to give themselves over to a god, or make a secretive pact with some ultrapowerful otherworldly deity, or study and work reeeeeeeeeallllly hard through experiments and trial and error to learn to manipulate magic. Those poor saps.

The fifty-seven different off-brand Sorcerers? Hey, good on them! Sometimes being the Chosen people works out! They get to be just as powerful as the stupid nerds who had to work at it, throwing 9th level spells around just like them.

At least had Sorcerers been 1/2 casters... the other full casters could say "Okay, sure... they just had magic manipulation handed to them through a birth quirk of fate. They're born mutants and just rolled well in the genetic lottery. But at least they can't be AS POWERFUL a manipulator of magic as those of us who actually had to put in a bit of effort to gain our abilities."

Doing it that way at least makes devoting yourself to a deity or striking a deal or studying hard a long time seem somewhat worthwhile in the end. You get 9th level spells, while the jock can only reach 5th.

 

[TwoSix]

Doing it that way at least makes devoting yourself to a deity or striking a deal or studying hard a long time seem somewhat worthwhile in the end. You get 9th level spells, while the jock can only reach 5th.

Maybe not half-casters, but if sorcerers had been using the warlock mechanics (and warlocks the sorcerer mechanics), I would have been OK with that. Invocations feel more like a sorcerer thing, honestly.

 

[JPL]

But I figure fewer sorcerers and warlocks make it to high level, BECAUSE they didn't earn it. As a group, they are neither exceptionally smart nor exceptionally wise, and those traits will keep you alive better than a high Charisma score.