Four New Subclasses in Unearthed Arcana for Barbarians, Monks, Paladins, and Warlocks

I know a lot of people were hoping for something akin to Xanathar's Guide to Everything this week, but I wouldn't rule out such an announcement coming in a few months, given all the subclasses they've been testing.

Today's UA brings us the Path of the Beast for Barbarians, the Way of Mercy for Monks, the Oath of the Watchers for Paladins, and the Noble Genie Patron for Warlocks.

Path of the Beast essentially lets you play as some kind of lycanthrope. I've often thought that it would be fun to skin a Barbarian character as a werewolf, whose Rage represents him transforming into his lycanthropic form. This subclass is built along similar lines - allowing you to take on bestial aspects in your rage, including growing natural weapons like a toothy maw, claws, or a spiked tail.

The Way of Mercy is another take on Monks as a healing class (the Monk in my primary campaign uses an older UA subclass called Way of Tranquility.) But this subclass really plays them up as being both a bringer of life and a bringer of death, with the ability inflict necrotic damage and even summon a miasma of death around them, while also allowing them to, of course, heal. There's also a cool table for flavor - monks of this way tend to wear masks that obscure their faces, and there's a table of creepy masks for you to wear.

Oath of the Watchers is really freaking cool, and is basically a Paladin Oath built around defending the world from otherworldly threats. Focusing on vigilance, you can help allies on their mental saving throws, turn fey, fiends, elementals, and aberrations, and punish spellcasters when their spells fail. I really like the idea of playing a paladin as a UFO conspiracy nut.

The Noble Genie patron is built around the idea of genies always wanting to collect things - the terms of the pact are sort of reflected in the mechanics, as you get various ways for your patron to sort of claim ownership of things and people, banishing foes to the genie's menagerie on the elemental planes, and carrying around a vessel that allows you to create a tether to yourself and your patron's menagerie to a willing creature for various benefits.

I like all of these subclasses and am just feeling more and more excited for these to all come out in some new book later in the year.