Monday, October 26, 2020

Draconic Subclasses for Monks and Rangers in the Latest Unearthed Arcana

 If you like Dexterity and Wisdom, as well as all things draconic, you'll be excited to see the latest Unearthed Arcana, which introduces the Way of the Ascendant Dragon for Monks and the Drakewarden for Rangers.

Both of these are dragon-themed subclasses, which means breath weapons, damage resistances, and yet another better iteration of the Beast Master Ranger.

Let's start with the Monks:

The theme here is that your Monastic tradition is based on some kind of draconic influence - maybe your monastery was founded by a dragon, or perhaps your learned ancient draconic techniques, or perhaps you learned how to channel your ki from a dragon.

At 3rd level, you get two features: Draconic Disciple and Breath of the Dragon

Draconic Disciple: Channeling your draconic ki into your unarmed strikes, you get the following benefits:

When you damage a target with an unarmed strike, you can change the damage type to acid, cold, fire, lightning, or poison.

If you can't already, you learn to speak, read, and write Draconic.

If you fail a Charisma (Intimidation) or Charisma (Persuasion) check, you can use your reaction to reroll the check. Once this feature turns failure into a success, you can't use it again until you finish a long rest.

    So first off, while the damage-type change becomes less relevant when you hit level 6 and you're doing magical bludgeoning damage (which almost nothing is resistant to,) this will help you out in early levels with any nasty, resistant monsters, and of course let you take advantage of vulnerabilities. The language thing is cool flavor (and more languages is always fun.) The reroll for those Charisma checks reminds me of the College of Eloquence Bard, where you get to keep the feature until it actually succeeds, which is pretty damn cool.

Breath of the Dragon:

You can channel your ki into destructive waves like the dragons you emulate. When you take the attack action on your turn, you can replace one of those attacks with an exhalation of draconic energy in either a 20-ft cone or a 30 foot line that is 5 feet wide (your choice.) Choose acid, cold, fire, lightning, or poison. Each creature in the breath must make a Dexterity saving throw against your Ki save DC or take two rolls of your martial arts dice of the chosen damage type on a failure, or half as much on a success. At 11th level, this become three dice.

You can use this a number of times equal to your proficiency bonus, regaining all expended uses when you finish a long rest. You can also spend 1 ki to use it when you have no other uses available.

    This is probably the real headliner for the subclass. While the damage isn't enormous (even 3d8 at level 11 is only an average of 13.5, compared to 9.5 for a hit with an unarmed strike assuming you have +5 Dexterity) the fact that this replaces not the full action, but simply one attack (though it's limited to one per turn,) it's an AoE that can hit multiple targets, and you can use it many times, this is a really good ability. Plus, being able to shape the breath and change its damage type on a whim makes my poor Blue Dragonborn very jealous (I really wish he could do some kind of forked lightning attack in a cone. It'd be way, way more useful.)

At 6th Level, you get Wings Unfurled

When you use Step of the Wind, you can unfurl draconic wings that vanish at the end of the turn. While you have these wings, you get a flying speed equal to your walking speed. You can use this a number of times equal to your proficiency bonus, regaining uses on a long rest. If you don't have any uses yet, you can spend 1 ki point (in addition to the one you spend for step of the wind) to use it again.

    This is a pretty cool utility feature, and depending on how much verticality you're working with, might allow you to escape from some nasty situations. Outside of combat, it'll let you travel pretty far (your movement speed is already pretty high as a monk, so dashing with both action and bonus action will mean you can fly a pretty long distance.)

At 11th level, you get Aspect of the Wyrm:

You now radiate draconic ki, which allows you create a protective aura.

As a bonus action, you create an aura that radiates 30 feet from you for 1 minute. You choose acid, cold, fire, lightning, or poison and gain the following effects:

You and your allies gain resistance to the chosen damage type.

When you or an ally is hit with an attack made by a creature in the aura, the target that was hit can use its reaction to deal an amount of damage of the chosen type equal to a roll of your Martial Arts die to the attacker.

Once you use this bonus action, can't until you finish a long rest or you spend 4 ki points.

    An on-demand aura of resistance can be very useful, especially if fighting, oh, say, a dragon! (Though dragons' immunity would make the aura less useful for retaliation.) But this definitely brings some useful utility for the party.

Finally, at 17th level, you get Ascendant Aspect:

You gain blindsight out to 30 ft, with all the benefits that entails.

When you damage a creature with your Breath of the Dragon, the energy clings to the target, dealing them one Martial Arts die of damage at the start of its turn, and can repeat the saving throw to end this effect at the end of its turn.

When you activate Aspect of the Wyrm, you can choose any number of creatures within the aura, and they take 4d10 acid, cold, fire, lightning, or poison damage.

    So this primarily buffs the previous two abilities (blindsight, though, is awesome. Get yourself a Devil's Sight/Darkness Warlock buddy and you can go to town on some monsters.) I'd probably change the Breath of the Dragon residual damage to only work if they fail the original save. The automatic damage on the Aura is also pretty cool, and while I don't know how many super-low health monster you'll be facing at level 17, but an average of 22 damage guaranteed on a swarm of monsters is pretty darn nice.

Overall, I think the Way of the Ascendant Dragon has some fun flash to it, and depending on how into dragons you are as a piece of lore, can have some really fun RP potential. Now let's look at the Drakewarden:

The Drakewarden's main feature is a drake companion who fights with you in battle.

At 3rd level, you get Draconic Gift and Drake Companion:

Draconic Gift: You learn to speak, read, and write Draconic if you didn't already. Also, you learn the thaumaturgy cantrip, which is a ranger spell for you.

Drake Companion: You get a drake creature bound to you, which is a small, wingless dragon (though keep reading on that last part.) You can summon it as an action, and each time you do, you choose a damage type (the standard dragon ones.) The drake follows you commands and is friendly to you.

Like a lot of combat pets, it shares your initiative and acts right after you do. It can move and use its reaction, but only takes the Dodge action unless you use a bonus action to command it. The drake remains for a number of hours equal to your proficiency bonus or until it drops to 0 hit points, or if you use this feature to summon the drake again, or until you die. Once you summon it, you can't again until you finish a long rest or expend a spell slot to do so.

The drake has a scaling stat block (like the Artificer's Steel Defender) and can bite for a mix of piercing and its draconic essence damage, and it can use its reaction to add 1d6 of its chosen damage type when a creature within 30 feet of it hits with a weapon attack.

At 7th level, you get Bond of Fang and Scale:

While the drake is summoned:

You gain resistance to the damage type chosen for its Draconic Essence.

Choose one: either the drake gets a 40 ft swim speed and can breathe both air and water, or it grows wings and gains a flying speed of 40 ft.

Finally, the drake's bite attack deals an extra 1d6 of its draconic essence damage type. (this brings the bite up to 1d6 piercing and 1d6 plus your proficiency bonus of its draconic essence damage.)

At 11th level, you gain Drake's Breath

As an action, you or your summoned drake exhales a 30-ft cone of damaging breath. Choose acid, cold, fire, lightning, or poison damage. Each creature in the cone must make a Dex save against your spell save DC, taking 6d6 damage on a fail, or half on a success. This damage goes up to 8d6 when you reach 15th level in this class.

Once you use this feature, you can't use it again until you finish a long rest or expend a 3rd level or higher spell slot to use it again.

At 15th level, you gain Perfected Bond

The drake grows to large in size (from small)

The drake's bite deals an additional 1d6 draconic essence damage (so it's now 1d6 piercing and 2d6 + your proficiency bonus of draconic essence damage).

When either you or the drake takes damage while you're within 30 feet of each other, you can use your reaction to give yourself or the drake resistance to that instance of damage.

    So, overall, I think this is pretty great. While the Drake's attack bonus caps out at +9, for a pet that isn't bad. The Drake's Breath ability is also some serious AoE damage for a half-caster. I think as a DM I'd also allow the ranger to ride their drake once they get Perfected Bond. The drake's reaction is also a nice Hunter's Mark-like damage bonus that you can spread around to others (if a party member crits, for example, you can toss them an extra 2d6 damage.)

I don't think it's logistically possible that we'll see these show up in Tasha's Cauldron of Everything, but I'm always excited to see new ideas go up for testing, and both of these would, I think, be fun to play.

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