With a huge weight off my mind today thanks to some totally non-gaming-related news, I feel that I can look forward with less trepidation to future, exciting things, including the release, later this month, of Tasha's Cauldron of Everything, the spiritual successor to Xanathar's Guide to Everything, which injected wonderful new content into 5th Edition D&D.
There are new subclasses for us to get used to, most of which are pretty freaking cool looking.
So, I'm going to go class-by-class and pick which subclass appeals to me the most. Now, not all of these subclasses are brand-new, and I'll probably skew a bit toward those that are. Let's begin!
Artificers, which were brought in with Eberron: Rising from the Last War, are getting their setting-agnostic publication with all three of their original subclasses. The Armorer is a new, fourth one, and I'll be honest, I'm sort of torn. Mostly, I'm leaning toward that one or the Battle-Smith, though the Artillerist is also pretty appealing (any subclass that gets access to Fireball is pretty exciting.) I think ultimately that the Armorer might win out, given that I like the idea of being some kind of steampunk/magepunk Iron Man.
Barbarians are getting Path fo the Wild Soul and Path of the Beast. While Wild Soul seems like a lot of chaotic insanity, the fact that with Path of the Beast you can more or less play as if you're a full-on werewolf is too much for me to pass up. (I've written a character backstory already.)
Bards get College of Eloquence and College of Creation, the former of which is a reprint. Eloquence is actually really good for a number of reasons. That said, Creation is a really wonderfully whimsical subclass, which fits well with the Bard (though if College of Spirits ever comes out, man is that my top pick.)
Clerics get Order, Twilight, and Peace domains. The answer here is pretty obvious - Twilight brings with it such a rich potential for visual description, along with some cool effects to play with regarding light.
Druids get Circles of Stars, Spores, and Wildfire. While Circle of Spores, published originally in Guildmaster's Guide to Ravnica, wonderfully captures a potentially creepy side of Druids, I can't really ignore Circle of Wildfire, which could really allow my Wicker Man Druid to take on its true form. It doesn't hurt that it's got great damage and healing abilities.
Fighters get the Rune Knight and the Psi Warrior, which are both pretty cool. I'm going to give the edge to the Rune Knight here primarily because the other psionic subclasses appeal to me a bit more (also, the character I've played the most is an Eldritch Knight, so a knight with magical abilities is less novel to me - which, granted, you could say of the Rune Knight as well.)
Monks get Way of the Astral Self and Way of Mercy. The Astral Self one is fairly cool, but I've got to hand it to the Way of Mercy for being utterly creepy, even if you're a good guy. Also, as the first monk subclass that can heal others, it's going to be a welcome addition to most parties.
Paladins get the Oath of Glory and the Oath of the Watchers. The former is a reprint and also a subclass that never really drew my attention all that much, so I lean toward Watchers. The Watcher oath is one I'd really like to try in a modern setting, flavoring it as a UFOlogist or something like that.
Rangers get the Swarmkeeper and the Fey Wanderer. The Swarmkeeper is pretty nutso, which is fun, so I could see trying that out.
Rogues get the Phantom and Soulknife. The Soulknife is probably the psionic subclass that most excites me, so I'd be very into that.
Sorcerers get the Aberrant Mind and the Clockwork Soul. While the Aberrant Mind would really fit with my general taste for cosmic horror in my D&D, I think I really like the idea of an oddly mechanical sorcerer - it acts as a kind of opposite counterpart to the Wild Magic sorcerer - if one is connected to the plane of Limbo and the other to the plane of Mechanus. So I kind of love that (especially the suggestion that when you cast a spell, your eyes turn into clock-faces.)
Warlocks get the Fathomless and the Genie. Man, I gotta go with Genie, right? Not only do they eventually get Wish, but I've also always felt genies were an underused fantasy creature. Also, I love the idea of using the bottle as a kind of poor man's Mordenkainen's Magnificent Mansion.
Finally, we have the Wizard's Bladesinging and Order of Scribes. I'll be honest, I wasn't too enthused about Order of Scribes at first, but it's grown on me. While I do like magic/melee hybrids (and after playing an EK for so long, having one that gets the full range of magic spells would be nice) I think I'd go scribe in this case.
Now, if only I had enough D&D games to play that I could try all these out...
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