New Unearthed Arcana Subclasses: College of Eloquence and Oath of Heroism

They're coming out with a lot of these lately, aren't they?

In the latest Unearthed Arcana, we get new subclasses for Bards and Paladins. After new ones for Barbarians, Monks, Sorcerers, and Warlocks, it seems like the folks at Wizards are really getting on the subclass train.

Should we read much into this?

Three books in 5E have expanded subclass options: Sword Coast Adventurer's Guide, Xanathar's Guide to Everything, and Guildmaster's Guide to Ravnica. While the first and last of those were a bit limited - giving just one new subclass to not all the classes (only two in Ravnica,) one could argue Xanathar's main feature was the addition of 2-4 subclasses for every existing class.

Now, Unearthed Arcana is, to be fair, just a testing ground for new ideas. But in the past, it has hinted toward future releases - the Order Domain and Circle of Spores were both first tested there (we also had School of Invention and the Brute Fighter archetype, the former of which became an Izzet-league magic item and the latter... just sort of wasn't that interesting and got dropped.)

I'm going to go totally wild with speculation here: I think we might be looking at ideas for a new major sourcebook. It could be another broad-scope book like Xanathar's, or it could be a campaign setting book. If it's the latter, these latest subclasses made me think of Planescape, given that Oath of Heroism feels very appropriate to Ysgard, and College of Eloquence feels very appropriate to Mechanus. That said, I'm not sure that the Cosmic Horror-themed Warlock and Sorcerer subclasses from last time quite fit into that concept. We could simply be looking at another general sourcebook.

But let's get into those, shall we?

College of Eloquence gives you many options to calm people down and gain advantage on charisma checks. One of the coolest elements is that, at high levels, when people use their Bardic Inspiration you've given them, they actually get to keep it if the check failed despite the bonus die. And if it does succeed, you can "chain" it to another creature at no extra cost.

College of Heroism has a lot of things that seem, frankly, kind of overpowered. There's a lot here where you gain benefits from critting or you have an easier time critting (which is always fun on a paladin, given divine smite,) and at higher levels you get to use a reaction to boost your AC when you get hit (with no limit on how many times you can use it) and your level 20 "super mode" lets you, among other things, just choose to succeed on an attack roll every turn, or choose to succeed on a saving throw.

Anyway, it's all fun stuff. And it's nice to see these coming out at a decent clip.