Unearthed Arcana Unearthed Arcana: Wizards & Warlocks -- Hexblades, Raven Queens, and Lore Mastery!

Master of Hexes
Starting at 14th level, you can use your
Hexblade’s Curse again without resting, but
when you apply it to a new target, the curse
immediately ends on the previous target.

Does this mean you can cast it one more time, or over and over again? And does the 1 minute duration reset upon a new target, or does it continue from the previous target?

 

[Mad_Jack]

Does someone knows if the Raven Queen was something before the 4e?

The Raven Queen originated in 4E as far as D&D is concerned, but she's pretty much based on the Morrigan, an Irish goddess. She's largely associated with fate and to a certain extent doom and death in battle, essentially the Celtic version of the Three Fates with a bit of the Valkyries mixed in.

 

[Kobold Avenger]

I'm not a fan of the patron options being too specific for a particular in the case of the Raven Queen.

I like the Hexblade, even though there's already the pact of the blade. I don't like Armor of Hexes, as that's bringing back the concealment roll that 3e had, and it should be clarified what attack rolls get the bonuses from the curse. The Raven Queen just feels like a meh, overall. I like that they've given the Pact of the Blade a massive boost in options, and more invocations are always a good thing. It took me a while to figure out exactly what the "Seeker" patron was, given that I had to scour other UA articles to find out.

The Lore Master, with Alchemical Casting I don't like the boosting the save DC by 2, even if it costs an additional 3rd level slot. I think it's accurate to say that it steps too much on the sorcerers toes.

 

[Tales and Chronicles]

What I like the most about the Hexblade is the possibility to have a better control over your Patron: after all, its in your hand, not at the other end of the Far Realms. You are in constant interaction with your patron. As someone who likes character creation even more than playing the game, I like the idea to create both my PC, his patron and their relation.

Now I want to make an Orc Hexblade as an Eye of Grumsh who received his mighty spear called Blood Tusk after sacrificing his eye and an elven warrior of the battlefield.

 

[TwoSix]

And based on my review, you'd have to have a really special character design cooked up to make a Bladelock that doesn't have a Hexblade patron. Because it's almost as if they thought, "Hey, let's level up the bladelock by giving them an even better patron."

I'd go Hexblade-Blade if multiclassing wasn't around, for the armor proficiencies, but if I can take a Fighter 1 dip and focus on Strength, I'd rather go fiend. The downside to Hexblade-Blade is the lack of synergy between Hex Warrior and Curse Bringer.

 

[lowkey13]

*Deleted by user*

 

[MonkeezOnFire]

I'm a huge fan of the wizard class but even I must admit that the loremaster seems too powerful. The PHB arcane tradition features, by their nature as school specializations, tend to skew towards situational benefits. But this isn't the case with the lore master. All of it's features are almost always applicable no matter what you want to do. And they do come with a cost (once per long rest mechanics, spend extra spell slots), but the pure versatility the subclass grants is a bit too much IMO.

I'd rather see these features recycled and used elsewhere. Somewhere where all kinds of casters can have access to them. Maybe a set of feats, or magic items. I'm not a huge fan of the idea of restricting improved general spellcasting features to one class. Which is one way of saying that I don't think a generalist wizard should be a thing.

 

[Gardens & Goblins]

Totally niche, but as it currently stands, my MtG Vampire-race Archfey Chainlock could enjoy Green Lord's Gift when it comes to feeding..

 

[Proxxy55]

Well, here's the thing. Patrons are trivially easy, because it's literally anything that can give power. Magic weapons? WHY NOT! C'mon ... that's barely even trying. Undying light was the POSITIVE MATERIAL PLANE.

So, yeah, pact boons are non-trivial, which is why they might want to add one or two. But if they add, say, two, suddenly every TRIVIALLY EASY patron gets two more options. If there are six patrons, we now have 12 new Warlocks.

So yeah-

Pact of the Staff. Like tome, but an object. Other than wanna-be Cthulhu, many Warlocks aren't into the book-learnin'. A staff (or other item of power) would be a good pact for a different type of increased spell casting.

Pact of the Shell/Shield.

Pact of the Body. Not just for piercings.

Pact of the Blood.

Pact of the Rider.

Pact of Gold.


...and so on.

(By the way, I'm not saying it's super duper easy to add one or two pact boons; what I am saying is that it is what I was hoping for. Easy does not mean better.)

Wait, you're not even talking about pact boons. lol. Yeah, you're spitting out names, but anyone can do that. What do this boons do?

How is Pact of the Staff, for instance, different from Pact of the Tome? What in the world would Pact of Gold do?

 

[Undrhil]

I agree that the Lore Master options sound more like they should be a Prestige Class, instead of a Wizard sub-class. I can see many spellcasters taking advantage of these abilities. In particular, I like the idea of changing the Saving throw required for a spell. It's situational, since some spells already have nice saves, but if you are going up against a creature with a good Charisma save, it's nice to switch up Banishment to use INT or even STR.

 

[lowkey13]

*Deleted by user*