Unearthed Arcana Waterborne Adventures: New from Unearthed Arcana

I, for one, am very pleased with the different options for existing classes over completely different classes.

I don't really have an balance thoughts. Balance isn't an issue with me unless it's incredibly flagrant.

 

[Krakenspire]

Finally I can play my house Lyrandar dragon marked wind captain. Now is he a storm sorcerer or a swashbuckler....

I agree the dual wield options don't look the best for the classic musketeer feel, however two dirks look pretty good on a pirate or the cutlass hand crossbow combo etc.... This also works well with the dual knife fighter with a dagger in his teeth swingin from the rigging flinging blades around. Swashbucklers don't necessarily work with rapier and dagger, swashbuckler refers more to an attitude than one type of fighting style, hence the name of tojour l'audace. The musketeer swashbuckler in my mind is more of a three level dip into rogue with main class being fighter battlemaster. A professional duelist as it were... and it's much easier to get your feats with the fighter than the rogue. But yah I see the frustration. It's a conflict between mech benefits and feel for the character.

 

[Kalshane]

I somehow completely missed that both weapons had to be light without the Dual-Wielder feat. I assumed it was only the off-hand weapon. Previous Edition-itis, I suppose.

That being said, I'm going to house-rule that Rapier and Dagger are allowed for two-weapon fighting without any feat expenditure. It's slightly better than dual short swords/scimitars because you still get the 1d8 from the rapier on rounds you use the bonus action for something else, but I'm okay with that.

 

[Sword of Spirit]

Maybe I'll make the main-gauche a martial non-light, non-thrown dagger than also grants a +1 AC. Rogues get proficiency in it. You'd need the dual-wielder feat to use it properly, but if you do take the feat you have a real reason to consider it. 1d4 damage and +1 AC is probably comparable to 1d8 damage.

 

[gyor]

Minataur Bladelock, make his horns his Pact Weapon. Think about it.

Wild Elf and Mariner fighting style, 35 feet swim and climb speed, nice combo.

Minataurs also make good favoured souls, the horns make up for the Favoured Souls having no good weapons to start out with.

Builds that benifit most from Mariner fighting style, Dex based Dual Weilding Paladins (its the only fighting style Paladin's get that incourages Dex), Archer. and TWF Fighters (get Archery fighting style or TWF style first, then later mariner), most rangers give up too much to take it, but it fits the flavour well. Might also be good for a Razor Claw Shifter or Changeling Paladin who wants to make the most of they're gifts.

 

[edutrevi]

I hope for a "Unearthed Arcana: Dark Sun" one day...

 

[Staffan]

I hope for a "Unearthed Arcana: Dark Sun" one day...

I think an UA: Dark Sun would require a robust psionics system before it could be of any use - and a psionics system would probably be bigger than they could fit into an UA.

And they already made the same mistake 2e and 3e did regarding psionics: the wizard can already do pretty much everything a psion should be able to do, which means that the psion must distinguish herself from the wizard through how they do things, not what they can do. That's already one of the main criticisms aimed at the sorcerer, and adding a third class with powers that are a subset of the wizard's with some minor differences in how they're used would be problematic.

A better design would have been to account for the psion from the start (assuming you do want them in the game), and reserve many of the traditional psychic abilities for them. On the other hand, many of those abilities are fairly iconic to wizards as well. The old "middle-ground" of differentiating spell levels wouldn't work in 5e, because here a spell's level does not depend on the class.

 

[Sword of Spirit]

I hope for a "Unearthed Arcana: Dark Sun" one day...

Dark Sun would be difficult in an UA article, because it needs an extensive bestiary to go along with it.

Dragonlance on the other hand, is very doable. Kender, Draconians, subclasses for Knights of Solomnia (paladin) and Wizards of High Sorcery (wizards) is about all that is necessary.

 

[Jeff Albertson]

Dark Sun would be difficult in an UA article, because it needs an extensive bestiary to go along with it.

Dragonlance on the other hand, is very doable. Kender, Draconians, subclasses for Knights of Solomnia (paladin) and Wizards of High Sorcery (wizards) is about all that is necessary.

Totally, and gully dwarves!

 

[Parmandur]

For what it is worth, Mearls just stated on Twitter that the gore attach is NOT an u armed strike, nor eligible as a Monk weapon by design...

Dark Sun needs serious DM tools as it is so fat off default.

Psionics could be done in AU, easily; base don the MM Psionic monsters, they will probably draw off the same mega spell list as the other classes.

 

[asorel]

For what it is worth, Mearls just stated on Twitter that the gore attach is NOT an u armed strike, nor eligible as a Monk weapon by design...

Dark Sun needs serious DM tools as it is so fat off default.

Psionics could be done in AU, easily; base don the MM Psionic monsters, they will probably draw off the same mega spell list as the other classes.

Psionics will require at least some unique "spells," as their focus of power is different from other casters (Greater focus on telekinetics and similar, I believe? I've yet to play Dark Sun). There will be some overlap mechanically, as I assume some Psionic powers will be refluffed versions of existing spells such as Disintegrate, but with spell components removed. They also have to my understanding a different method of casting, similar to the spell points variant in the DMG.