Tal'dorei Subclass Review - Wizards

 With no new Warlock patron from the Tal'dorei guide, we come to the final subclass found in the book: Blood Magic for Wizards. Blood Magic is associated with the Claret Orders, a secretive group of monster hunters who use this magic to protect the innocent, though the techniques can also be abused by evil people too.

Indeed, on a flavor note, this would be a great option if you wanted to play a dark wizard (though Necromancy is obviously already there) and perhaps wanted to play up that creepy warlock feel while having the flexibility of a wizard.

At 2nd level, you get Blood Channeling: while under your maximum hit points, you can use your own body as a spellcasting focus. Additionally, you can spend life to make up for the costly components of a spell. If you cast a wizard spell that requires costly components, you can choose to take 1d10 necrotic damage per 50g of the cost of the component instead of providing it. The damage can't be reduced in any way, but if you go to 0 HP because of this, the spell fails but you retain the spell slot.

This is not something I'd recommend using a ton - if you wanted to cast, say, Summon Fiend without its material component, you'd need to take 12d10 necrotic damage. Most high-level spells have costs in the thousands, which would mean at least 20d10, though I think one spell for which this could be clutch is Plane Shift - taking only 5d10 (an average of 27.5) in order to potentially get your party out of the Abyss. Not too bad, frankly.

At lower levels, though, with component costs of 50 or fewer gold, this might be more practical - 1d10.

Additionally at 2nd level, you get Sanguine Burst. When you roll damage for a spell that's 1st level or higher, you can take necrotic damage (irreducible) equal to the spell's level to reroll dice equal to your Intelligence modifier (minimum of 1). This, I think, is a far easier one to use - at most you're paying 9 life. If we're talking about, say, a Fireball when you're level 5 and have a +4 to Intelligence, and we're assuming you're rerolling 1s and 2s, this would mean paying three life to change the spell's average damage from 28 to, well, 30.67. But you'd only actually use it if you rolled a bunch of 1s and 2s, so...

I'll be honest, I don't know how powerful things like this and Empowered Spell are, but the cost here is pretty low (though note that any damage will force a concentration saving throw if you have a concentration spell up, so bear that in mind if you have bad luck with dice).

At 6th level, you get Bond of Mutual Suffering. If a creature hits you with an attack, you can use a reaction to force the creature that hit you to take the same amount of damage you took. You can't use this on constructs or undead, and you can only use this once per short or long rest.

So, first off, I've discovered that I don't really like abilities you can only use once per rest, unless they're really overwhelmingly huge. This is something you might save for if you get hit with a critical strike, but that might never come. Also, make sure not to use this on something like a fire elemental, which is immune to the damage it deals.

At 10, you get Glyph of Hemorrhaging. When you damage a creature with a spell, you can curse it for 1 minute. While cursed, whenever the creature is hit by an attack, it takes an extra 1d6 necrotic damage. It can make a Constitution saving throw against your spell save DC at the end of its turns to end the curse.

Like the previous one, you can't use this on constructs or undead, and you can only use it once per short or long rest.

So, a party-wide Hex as a free bonus for hitting something with a damage spell. Not bad - and in fact, incredible if you have fast-hitters like a Monk or Fighter in the party. I think this is one of those things that you should be able to do multiple times - maybe PB times per long rest?

At 14, your Bond of Mutual Suffering can now be used twice per rest - ok, sounds like they heard my complaints.

Also at 14, you get Thicker than Water. Whenever a spell or magical effect causes you to regain hit points, you regain an additional number of hit points equal to your proficiency bonus.

Additionally, while you concentrate on a spell, you have resistance to bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing damage from nonmagical attacks.

Ok, now this is pretty good. Concentrating on a spell is Wizard Rage? That's pretty awesome - and also will often make it easier for you to maintain that concentration. The extra healing you get should also help to offset the HP you're spending on your 2nd level features, which could encourage you to use them more.

Wizards are one of those classes where the subclass is not quite as important as the base class, and so it can hard to evaluate just how powerful a subclass is. The flavor here is very strong. Again, I think the level 6 and level 10 features would be more fun if you could use them more often. Vampiric Touch feels like a really flavorful spell to use for this subclass.

And with that, we've gotten through all the subclasses out of Tal'dorei Campaign Setting Reborn. Sadly, my own Wildemount game has been on something of a hiatus lately amidst Covid cases, a DM's missing wallet, and theatrical projects, but I'm expecting to start playing again next week (hoping my Spelljammer game also picks up again, though at this point one of the players has decided to run a Kids on Bikes game on night when our DM is unable to run, which I suspect will continue to be most weeks at least for a while).

I've found that the subclasses from this book have some strong flavor. Mechanically they feel just slightly behind the evolution WotC's own subclass philosophy has gone on in the past couple years, but all are certainly playable and could be a lot of fun.

I'm a little sad that the Blood Hunter wasn't published in the book, as I'm coming around to the possibility that it's actually a decently balanced class.

Tal'dorei Subclass Review - Sorcerers

 Skipping the Ranger and Rogue, which do not get subclasses in this book, we come to the Runechild Sorcerer.

The lore here is somewhat broad - essentially, you simply have magic because you... got magical powers. While I find that a little underwhelming, it does suggest a "standard" sorcerer that doesn't really exist out side of maybe Wild Magic (which I've tended to think of as more of a novelty than a subclass you pick for power).

At level 1, you get Essence Runes. You start with one essence rune, and get another with each level-up, making it a bit like Sorcery Points, except you get them at level 1 and it's a separate resource to track. Indeed, the correlation here is important, as when you spend Sorcery Points, at the end of the turn on which you used them, a number of essence runes you have become charged. Additionally, you can use a bonus action and spend 1 Sorcery Point to convert two essence runes into two charged runes.

If you have 5 or more charged runes, you emit bright light in a 5-foot radius and dim light for another 5 feet.

If you expend a charged rune to use one of your subclass features, it returns to being an inert essence rune, and all charged runes revert to inert runes when you finish a long rest.

Ok: recap: there's a secondary resource like an afterburner for your Sorcery Points.

Also at 1, you get Runic Magic. This works very similarly to the extra spells granted to the Aberrant Mind and Clockwork Soul, giving you more spells and letting you swap them out for abjuration and transmutation spells from the Sorcerer, Warlock, or Wizard spell lists.

These spells are: Longstrider, Protection from Evil and Good, Lesser Restoration, Protection from Poison, Glyph of Warding, Magic Circle, Death Ward, Freedom of Movement, Greater Restoration, and Telekinesis.

None of these are big damage spells, but given the tiny number of spells a sorcerer can learn, the broad utility here might be quite appealing.

Also also at level 1, you get Glyph of Aegis. When you take damage, you can expend any number of charged runes as a reaction, and then roll d6s for each rune expended, reducing the damage by the total.

So, clearly we're incentivized to use our Sorcery Points liberally to thus give us this other resource - it's an interesting balancing act. It might not be a bad idea to start off your day spending SP to charge runes (as it's more efficient, albeit without any beneficial effect from the SP spent) to make sure you have a few to start with. While it's still randomized a bit thanks to the fact that the aegis is d6s, you can at least choose how potent your defense is in response to how much damage you would otherwise take.

At 6th level, your Glyph of Aegis is upgraded. As an action, you can expend up to 3 charged runes and touch a creature, who then gets to roll the number of d6s equal to the charged runes expended and reduce the next instance of damage they take by that amount if it happens in the next hour.

Obviously not as flexible as the one you use on yourself, and you won't necessarily know if the next strike they take will be big enough to warrant 3d6. Still, this lets you do a little bit of team defense, which is nice.

Also at 6, you get Sigilic Augmentation. When you make a Strength, Dexterity, or Constitution ability check, you can expend a charged rune as a reaction to gain advantage on the roll. Additionally, if you have to make a Strength, Dexterity, or Constitution saving throw, you can use a reaction and expend a charged rune to gain advantage on the save. However, using it for a saving throw is something you can only do once per long rest.

This is interesting. Honestly, I find using it for ability checks more interesting than with saves, as it competes for your reaction with Glyph of Aegis. Getting advantage relatively on demand on Dexterity checks seems pretty useful.

And still at level 6, you get Manifest Inscriptions. As an action, you can expend a charged rune to reveal hidden or invisible arcane traps, marks, runes, wards, sensors, or glyphs within 60 feet of you, causing them to glow with dim light for 1 minute.

During this minute, you have advantage on Intelligence (Arcana) checks to discern the nature of any magic revealed this way, and if they mean something in a language you can't read, you can understand them while they are glowing as if you did understand the language.

Obviously, this feature is going to be a lot more useful if your DM likes to make magical traps. I really like the flavor of it, though.

At 14, your Glyph of Aegis die becomes a d8 rather than a d6.

Also at 14, you get Runic Torrent. When you cast a spell, you can expend 2 charged runes to cause the spell to deal Force damage rather than its usual damage types. Additionally, all creatures that are targeted by the spell or within its area must succeed on a Strength saving throw or be pushed up to 15 feet away from the spell's point of origin or get knocked prone (you choose). You can use this once per short or long rest.

So, almost nothing is unaffected by Force (Helmed Horrors and similar monsters are, I think, the sole exception. (No, wait, Amethyst Dragons are resistant at least,) and Force is not an option for Transmute Spell. The pushback is also pretty hefty. I guess I'm slightly underwhelmed by the fact that this is only once per rest, but to be fair, you could potentially hit a lot of enemies with this using an AoE spell.

Finally, at level 18, you get Arcane Exemplar. Once per long rest, you can expend a charged rune to transform into a being of pure magical energy and get the following benefits: You have a flying speed of 60 feet, creatures have disadvantage on saving throws against your sorcerer spells, you have resistance to damage from spells, and whenever you cast a spell of 1st level or higher, you regain hit points equal to the spell's level.

These transformation and its benefits last until the end of your turn, but you can expend a charged rune at the end of your turn (no action required) to extend the feature's duration until the end of your next turn. When the transformation ends, you're stunned until the end of your next turn.

Ok, so this is interesting: it's an Ult that reminds me a bit of the way that the Shadow Priest's Void Form worked in World of Warcraft for a few expansions. Once you go into this, you want to try to keep it up until the fight is over - which shouldn't be hard as you can just use Metamagics to charge up your runes on your turn. And it's quite a powerful state to be in.

So, ultimately, what do we think of the Runechild? I actually think it's pretty cool - throwing in another resource to keep track of is maybe a bit much given that Sorcerers are already tracking spell slots and sorcery points, but it'd be easy enough to just write a number of charged runes and make sure it's not more than your sorcerer level. 

And, frankly, I do think that this gives a "classic sorcerer" vibe that you don't really get with Wild Magic or Draconic Bloodline. I honestly didn't expect to like this one, but here we are!

Tal'dorei Subclass Review - Paladin

 With the Way of the Cobalt Soul covered, we now move on to the other homebrewed subclass that was featured (albeit in a more limited capacity) in Critical Role's second campaign. The Oath of the Open Sea is, I'd argue, one of the clearest "Chaotic Good" paladin oaths, with its emphasis on freedom and its values of adaptability.

We only got to see the level 3 features of this subclass at work on Critical Role, though this included the Marine Layer channel divinity that seemed to have such limited use until it became extremely important in the climactic boss fight of the whole campaign. Travis Willingham's Fjord was primarily a Hexblade Warlock, a subclass that works very well multiclassed with paladin, but the character was arguably more paladin-like in personality.

As with any paladin oath, this comes with the tenets that define it - I usually skip past these, as they're really much more important to roleplay flavor and don't have any mechanical meaning, but given that I've tended to do a full post for each of these subclasses, I'll throw it in.

No Greater Life than a Life Lived Free - here, the tenet refers both to the paladin's desire for freedom and the conviction that those who would deny others their freedom should be defeated.

Trust the Skies - this one emphasizes a respect and awareness of nature and reading its signs.

Adapt Like the Water - this is about embracing a fluid strategy and ability to change course and react to changing circumstances.

Explore the Uncharted - here, the tenet drives the paladin to pursue knowledge and delve into the unknown to better protect the innocent.

Your oath spells are Create or Destroy Water, Expeditious Retreat, Augury, Misty Step, Call Lightning, Freedom of the Waves (a spell added in TDCSR,) Control Water, Freedom of Movement, Commune with Nature, and Freedom of the Winds (likewise found in TDCSR).

Freedom of the Waves (3rd level spell) allows you to conjure a kind of tidal wave that forces creatures to make a Strength save or take damage and be knocked prone, but you can also ride the wave to use it for movement and also designate friends who are immune to it if they're in the area.

Freedom of the Winds (5th level spell) allows you to fly at a 60 ft speed and get advantage on checks to avoid getting grappled and on saves against being restrained or paralyzed. You can also use a reaction to teleport 60 feet when you're targeted by a spell or attack, and if you're out of range of the triggering effect when you reappear, you're unaffected, though this ends Freedom of Winds early.

So, I like these spells (which are otherwise available to Druids, Rangers, and Sorcerers,) though I think the only other really awesome oath spell here is Misty Step.

At 3rd level, you get Channel Divinity options: Marine Layer and Fury of the Tides.

Marine Layer lets you, as an action using your channel divinity, create a cloud of fog that surrounds you out to 20 feet in all directions, moving with you and centered on you. The area is heavily obscured, but you and creatures within 5 feet of you treat it as only lightly obscured. The fog lasts 10 minutes, and unlike most fog effects, can't be dispersed early unless you choose to end it.

So, obviously, if you have powerful ranged attacks like Eldritch Blast, this can be very powerful. But I do think that anyone going full paladin with this is going to find this ability can be frustrating - generally you need to get within 5 feet of a target in order to hit it with a melee attack, and so you'll be giving the benefit to your foes - indeed, you could even make things harder on your party if an enemy gets between you and an ally - meaning they get to see your party member while your ally can't see it.

Honestly, this is something of a recurring theme in these subclasses - features that can, under certain circumstances, hurt your allies rather than help them. I think I'd maybe make a homebrew adjustment that only your allies within 5 feet of you get to see through the fog.

The other option is Fury of the Tides. As a bonus action using your channel divinity, you can get a boost to your attacks for 1 minute. Once per turn during that minute, if you hit a creature with a weapon attack, you can choose to push the target 10 feet away from you. If pushed into an obstacle or another creature, the target takes bludgeoning damage equal to your Charisma modifier.

So, this feels much easier to use well. Indeed, technically you could flank with a friend and ping-pong the target between the two of you (I think this might play well with a Juggernaut Barbarian).

At level 7, you get Aura of Liberation. This 10-ft aura prevents you and creatures of your choice from being grappled or restrained, and also allows those under its effects to ignore movement and attack penalties for being underwater. Creatures that are already grappled or restrained when they enter the aura can spend 5 feet of movement to escape unless bound magically. Like other paladin auras, this extends to 30 feet at level 18.

Ok, now this is pretty good. For one thing, a lot of very dangerous monsters, especially sea monsters (like Krakens) can only swallow a creature if they have that creature grappled, so this totally prevents anyone from suffering that fate. But it also negates all sorts of things like Web, Entangling Roots... hell, this can even protect a character from a vampire's bite! (Well, at least in most circumstances). It also makes underwater combat significantly more viable - though it's here that I find it bizarre that Water Breathing isn't on the oath spell list.

At level 15, you get Stormy Waters. As a reaction, you can deal 1d12 bludgeoning damage to any creature that enters or leaves your reach. The creature must also make a Strength saving throw against your spell save DC or be knocked prone.

So, first off, that damage is unavoidable, as it happens prior to the Strength save. Also, this isn't an opportunity attack, meaning you could actually trigger this with your own Fury of the Tides. Push them away and then run the other way, forcing them to run back to you... it could be kind of ridiculous.

Finally, at level 20, your Open Sea paladin ult is Mythic Swashbuckler. As an action, you get the following benefits for 1 minute. You can do this once per long rest.

- You have advantage on Strength (Athletics) checks and gain a climbing speed equal to your walking speed, or if you already have a climbing speed, that speed is doubled.

- If you're within 5 feet of a creature and no other creatures are within 5 feet of you, you have advantage on attack rolls against that creature.

- You can dash or disengage as a bonus action.

- You have advantage on Dexterity checks and Dexterity saving throws against effects you can see.

So, this is interesting - you basically get to be part Rogue and part Barbarian (getting parts of Cunning Action and somehthing like the Swashbuckler Rogue's features, as well as Danger Sense).

As usual, making this an action makes it a little painful - it's what makes the Glory and Watcher paladin ults a little more attractive - that and that you can spend 5th-level spell slots to do it more than once per day, whereas Open Sea seems like it's using a slightly older 5th Edition precedent.

Generally speaking, I think paladin subclasses are always cushioned by the fact that the paladin class in general is very strong. I think the Aura of Liberation here is a really powerful feature that could be absolutely clutch in high-stakes situations. Even though we saw Marine Layer work brilliantly the one time, it does seem like it's only in rare circumstances that it will be all that useful.

Still, I really like the way this puts paladins in a flavor context that is usually the realm of Rogues, and any enemy-moving abilities that don't have a saving throw can be quite strong. So, I'd consider this one.

Tal'dorei Subclass Review - Monk

 As we skip past the Fighter, which did not get any subclasses in TDCSR (to be fair, it got the Echo Knight in the Wildemount book,) we come to The Way of the Cobalt Soul for Monks.

Unlike most of these, we got plenty of exposure to the Cobalt Soul subclass thanks to the character of Beauregard in campaign 2 of Critical Role, and saw, essentially, the long-form playtesting of this subclass. While Monks are a class that favors Dexterity and Wisdom, monastic traditions in the real world tend to involve a lot of study, and the Cobalt Soul Monk is all about getting power from knowledge.

At level 3, you get Extract Aspects. When you hit a creature with one of the attacks granted by your Flurry of Blows, you can analyze it. An analyzed creature remains analyzed until you finish a short or long rest. When the analyzed creature misses you with an attack, you can immediately use your reaction to make an unarmed strike against the creature if it's within your reach.

Additionally, when you analyze the creature, you learn all of its damage vulnerabilities, damage resistances, damage immunities, and condition immunities.

Ok, so: I freaking love this. As a DM, I'm often tempted to play coy with the mechanical nature of monsters, hiding important and actionable information from players lest they run roughshod over my precious monsters. But I have to fight that temptation and, for example, make those high Arcana, Nature, or Religion checks actually count for something tangible. This is a different avenue toward that knowledge, but it's the sort of thing that players should be able to gain if they work for it. The retaliatory attack is fine, but gets better later on.

Also, the fact that this doesn't simply go away when you use it on other foes is quite nice.

At level 6, you get Extort Truth. This essentially allows you to get the effects of Zone of Truth on a single target if you hit them and spend 1 ki (you can also choose not to deal damage with this, if you're not actually fighting the creature), with the target making a Charisma save against it. While affected, any Charisma checks against the creature are made at advantage. While its use in combat is questionable, other than trying to intimidate the target (Berserker Barbarians and Swashbuckler Rogues might be able to get some use out of it) Monks are often a little short on abilities that can be useful in social encounters, which is why I think this is a cool thing to get. It's also relatively cheap at 1 ki. 

Also at 6 you get Mystical Erudition, which allows you to learn a new language and gain a new skill proficiency from among Arcana, History, Investigation, Nature, or Religion, or, if you already have proficiency in one of those, you can get expertise in it.

Again, this emphasizes Cobalt Soul as the "smart" monk, even if you don't have high intelligence. I think this feature is fine. The only issue I can see here is that neither of the level 6 features have combat implications, which is usually the case for other Monk subclasses.

At level 11, your Mystic Erudition gives you another skill or expertise from the same list.

Also at 11, you get Mind of Mercury. This is probably the biggest deal: once per turn, if you've already used your reaction, you can spend 1 ki to take an additional reaction - so no, you can't use this to turn Extract Aspects into a machine gun by spending all your ki, as it is limited to one per turn and one per triggering effect, but this can make you a lot more flexible, getting to make opportunity attacks or use Slow Fall even if you've already done something. Pairing this with a feat like Sentinel (as Marisha Ray did with Beau) can be quite good.

At 17 (a level that CR2 didn't get to, as they finished out at level 15) you get a third Mystic Erudition.

Also at 17, you get Debilitating Barrage. If you hit a creature with an unarmed strike, you can spend 3 ki points to cause the creature to gain vulnerability to one damage type of your choice for 1 minute, or until the end of a turn in which it has taken the damage of that type. If the creature is resistant to that damage, the resistance is suppressed for 1 minute, rather than gaining vulnerability. A creature that is immune to the damage type is unaffected. And a creature can only be affected by this feature once, gaining immunity to it for 24 hours.

Ok, so here's the weird math: Normally, vulnerability and resistance merely cancel each other out - much as advantage and disadvantage do. And thus, normally, adding more onto the pile doesn't change that flat state. But in this case, you're not piling vulnerability on resistance, but rather just removing the resistance. Thus, say, a Grave Cleric, would be able to use Path to the Grave, and now that you've removed the resistance, the full effect makes them truly vulnerable.

Technically, I believe you would be able to use this as something of a Monk smite, as it's triggered when you hit the target and not when you damage it, creating a small window to burn the ki points on a crit and then do double damage with that crit.

Also, of note, the effect persists to the end of any turn in which it takes the chosen type of damage. As such, if you use unarmed strikes for your main attacks and pick bludgeoning damage, the rest of your hits will also benefit. But strategically, you could also instead choose something like force damage in order to set up your Wizard's Disintegrate to do an absolutely obscene amount of damage.

Monks are, I think, one of the most underrated classes in D&D - sure, they might not look as good as other melee classes when you calculate their average damage on paper (though if they can rest up regularly and get those ki points back, they're still pretty awesome just with Flurry of Blows) but in practice, they just have so many cool things that I really encourage skeptics to give them a try.

The Cobalt Soul monk is, I think, a pretty cool subclass. Its emphasis is, like Monks in general, I think, setting up your allies to kick a lot of ass, which can be very useful. In terms of raw power potential, this might not match, say, the Way of Mercy, but I think there are a lot of fun and useful abilities here that empower the already fairly strong (and fun) Monk base class.

Tal'dorei Subclass Review - Druid

 Moving on with our subclass review, we come next to the Druid. Here, we have the Circle of the Blighted. While the Circle of Spores is an example of a "darker" druid subclass, the Blighted explicitly has the druid now been corrupted as well by the corruption to the land to which they are connected.

Thus, this is a dark and even potentially villainous, or at the least tragic subclass for the Druid.

At 2nd level, you get Defile Ground. This allows you to use a bonus action to corrupt a 10-ft radius circle of land centered on a point within 60 feet of you for 1 minute. It's difficult terrain for creatures hostile to you, and when a creature in the area takes damage from an attack or spell for the first time on a turn, it takes an extra 1d4 necrotic damage. You can move the circle of corruption up to 30 feet as a bonus action. Flying creatures are unaffected. And you can use this once per short rest.

So, the big downside I see here is that, while the difficult terrain bit only affects enemies, the 1d4 damage will hit your friends as well. It's not a huge amount, but that also means it's not a great benefit either. We'll check back in with this feature as we get to higher levels.

Also at 2nd level, you get Blighted Shape. First off, you get some cosmetic changes like blackened veins, gnarled, bony protrusions, etc. Basically, feel free to think of creepy ways your corruption manifests. Either way, you get proficiency in Intimidation (interestingly, it says you gain proficiency in specifically Charisma (Intimidation,) which would seem to imply that it wouldn't work for alternative forms of intimidation (like the classic Strength (Intimidation,)) but I assume this was just a bit of overenthusiastic writing, and that it just means you get proficiency in Intimidation.

Furthermore, you get a buff to your Wild Shape feature, gaining +2 to AC thanks to gnarled spines that protrude from your body, as well as 60-ft darkvision, or an extra 60 feet if your form already has it.

This I find really intriguing, as it's really the first subclass since Circle of the Moon that actually encourages you to use your Wild Shape as it is in the base class, unlike the recent subclasses like Spores, Stars, or Wildfire, that give you simply different features that use your Wild Shape charges. The benefits here are nice (especially given how most beasts have pretty terrible AC) but I don't know if it'll beat being able to use it as a bonus action.

At 6th level, you get Call of the Shadowseeds. If a creature that is not undead or a construct takes damage within your Defile Ground feature, you can use a reaction to summon a Blighted Sapling in an unoccupied space within 5 feet of the creature, and you can have the sapling attack any creature within 5 feet of it as a reaction. Subsequently, the sapling acts on your initiative, obeying your verbal commands.

The sapling's stat block scales somewhat with your level - its AC is 10 plus your proficiency bonus, and its HP is twice your druid level. It makes a single Claws attack using your spell attack modifier as its attack bonus, doing 2d4+PB piercing damage, and then gets to attack twice at level 14. The sapling has vulnerability to fire damage, but resistance to necrotic and poison damage, which becomes immunity at level 10 (along with immunity to the poisoned condition).

The sapling persists until it's reduced to 0 hit points, or until the end of your next long rest, or until you summon another sapling. You can use this feature a number of times equal to your proficiency bonus per long rest.

Now, that PB per long rest feature could be a bit misleading, as you'll only be able to summon your Defiled Ground once per short rest. That said, these things don't have a ton of HP, so you might summon multiple of them per fight. What I find interesting is that, unlike most subclass pets, this one doesn't require a bonus action to command. Also of note is that there's no "magical attack" element to the sapling's attacks, meaning that this becomes far less powerful when facing monsters that require magic weapons to kill.

At 10th level, your Defiled Ground gets upgraded to a 20-ft radius, and the bonus damage goes up to 1d6. Again, I think the feature on its own is not all that amazing (though 20 ft radius is a huge improvement over 10 ft) but the blighted saplings you make with it are probably a bigger deal.

Also at 10th, you get Foul Conjuration. Any beast, fey, or plant you summon (which includes your blighted sapling or creatures conjured via Conjure Woodland Creatures or Summon Fey) get the following benefits:

They're immune to necrotic and poison damage, and the poisoned condition (which is the source of the aforementioned bonus to the sapling at level 10). Additionally, they get "Toxic Demise," which causes them to explode when they hit 0 hit points. Any creature within 5 feet of the creature has to make a Con save or take damage based on the exploding creature's CR. 1/4 or lower does 1d4 necrotic, 1/2 does 1d6. 1 or higher does a number of d8s of necrotic damage equal to the creature's CR, and if the summoned creature doesn't have a CR, it's a number of d6s equal to your proficiency bonus.

As an action, you can cause a summoned creature to explode prematurely, which kills it but also triggers this damage.

So, let me tell you a story about World of Warcraft. Back in the day, Death Knights had an ability called Corpse Explosion. Back then, there was a kind of theme with the class where you'd want to make use of corpses on the battlefield. This one caused a nearby one to explode and do damage to enemies. It was gross and nasty, and I loved it because it fully fit the flavor. This very much has that feel.

Is it good? Well, it certainly adds a little functionality to the Blighted Sapling, and even makes its low HP more of a feature than a liability.

I will say that the immunity to necrotic damage is actually pretty clutch, as it will make them immune to the effects of your Defiled Ground.

Finally, at level 14, your Defiled Ground's damage increases to 1d8 - which by this level I think is even less relevant.

However, also at level 14, you get Incarnation of Corruption. Much like your Blighted Shape, you now gain that +2 bonus to AC while in your normal form, and you also gain resistance to necrotic damage. This is represented through those spines and jagged spurs emerging from your body. Additionally, while within your Defiled Ground, you can use a bonus action to gain temporary hit points equal to your proficiency bonus.

So, let's skip ahead to the overall thoughts on this: I think this subclass has excellent flavor, and I'd be tempted to play one simply to live out that dark druid vibe. Again, I'm reminded of World of Warcraft (the game that was partially responsible for getting me to check out Critical Role, as I knew it as "that D&D stream that the actress who voices Jaina Proudmoore is on,") which has, as part of its lore, the Emerald Nightmare - a corruption within the Emerald Dream, which is kind of inner plane that represents pristine nature and balance. Nightmare corruption tends to manifest as thorns and spines and such protruding from creatures, and this would seem to be a perfect subclass for a Nightmare-corrupted druid.

Mechanically, I think the subclass is a bit overstuffed (true for a lot of the subclasses from this book,) and more importantly it feels like there's a bit of a mechanical mismatch. Defiled Ground can only happen once per short rest, which in practice means about twice a day usually. But Call of the Shadowseeds can be done more often - yet still requires you to use Defiled Ground. Thus you're sort of relying on the DM killing your minions in order to make full use of the feature, which you can still only practically use in two fights per day.

I want to love this subclass, but I have to wonder if it might have needed a bit more revision.

Tal'dorei Subclass Review - Clerics

 Continuing with our review of subclass options found in Tal'dorei Campaign Setting Reborn, we get to the Cleric. Here, we find two subclasses. I believe one of these (I want to say Blood) was found in the original, now out-of-print Tal'dorei book, but we'll just take it on its own terms.

    Blood:

The Blood Domain is connected in-universe to the Claret Orders, which are basically badass monster hunters who use forbidden magic. This gives us the Blood Hunter class (one that I've sort of come around to and might start letting players take it in my campaigns) but also this divine domain.

If Grave isn't quite enough for you and your DM doesn't let you go with Death Domain, here's another edgelord option!

Your domain spells are False Life, Sleep, Hold Person, Ray of Enfeeblement, Haste, Slow, Blight, Stoneskin, Dominate Person, and Hold Monster. Haste and Slow are both very powerful spells, though while some of the others here are pretty good, I don't know that anything else really blows me away.

At level 1 you get proficiency with martial weapons - no heavy armor, though, so you might simply use a Longbow or Heavy Crossbow as your default move.

Lastly at 1, you get Bloodletting Focus. When you cast a damage-dealing spell of 1st level or higher whose duration is instantaneous, any creature with blood that takes damage from the spell takes extra necrotic damage qual to 2 + the spell's level.

So, it's kind of the opposite of the Life Domain's bonus healing. This clearly sets the Blood Cleric up as a damage-dealer, though I don't know if 3 extra damage on a Guiding Bolt is going to be all that enormous. The best spells to take advantage of this would be AoE damage spells, though Clerics only get a few of those - Sunburst (part of the Tasha's expanded spell list for Clerics) does 12d6 radiant damage to creatures in a 60-foot radius sphere, so around 42 damage, which this would bump up to 52. Sadly, Spirit Guardians doesn't benefit from this because it's not instantaneous.

At level 2, you get Channel Divinity: Crimson Bond. Using your Channel Divinity, you can form a supernatural bond with a creature you can see or one for which you possess a blood sample. The bond lasts 1 hour or until your concentration is broken.

While in effect, you can use an action to learn the target's approximate distance and direction from you, as well as its current hit points and any conditions affecting it if it's within 10 miles of you. You can also use an action to try to connect with the target's senses. If you do so, you take 2d6 necrotic damage and the target makes a Constitution saving throw. If they succeed, the bond ends. If they fail, you can choose to either see or hear through their senses for a number of minutes equal to your Wisdom modifier (minimum 1,) during which you are blinded or deafened (respectively) regarding your own senses. When the conneciton ends, the bond does too.

Regardless of outcome, the target feels a sense of unease when they make the saving throw.

So, this is flavorful as hell. How useful it is is really subject to the sort of campaign you're playing in. Do you have recurring villains? And can you get a blood sample of said villains? Honestly, I think this is more likely to be useful when used on friends, who can donate a vial of blood to allow you to find them should they be captured or otherwise lost.

At 6th level, you get Channel Divinity: Blood Puppet. Using an action, you can target a Large or smaller creature or corpse within 60 feet of you that has blood. A creature must succeed on a Wisdom saving throw or become charmed by you - unconscious creatures automatically fail the save, and are not incapacitated while under the effects. A corpse gains a semblance of life that you control.

On the creature or corpse's turn, you can command it (no action) to move up to half its speed and interact with an object, make a single attack, or do nothing. Animated corpses or unconscious creatures take their turn immediately after yours, and use their statistics as if they were alive/conscious. The control lasts for 1 minute or until you lose concentration.

So, here's one of those cases where I think the wording could be a little more precise - after all, a 9th level Guiding Bolt is still technically an attack. I assume this is meant to mean weapon attack. However, with all the new spellcaster stat blocks that use magical attacks rather than traditional spells as their bread-and-butter, perhaps this becomes quite strong.

This is an ability that could be insanely powerful at higher levels - if you're fighting a group of, say, Evocation Wizards and your party kills one, you can then pick up that body and have it start throwing powerful blasts at its former friends. Also, any foe with sneak attack might wind up being a really good option here.

Also at level 6, you get Sanguine Recall. You can sacrifice health to regain spell slots. The spell slots can have a combined level equal to or less than half your cleric level (rounded up) and none can be 6th level or higher. You then take 1d8 necrotic damage for each spell slot level (so, you get a 2nd and 3rd level slot and you're taking 5d8) and this damage can't be reduced in any way (sorry Aasimar). You can use this feature once per long rest.

So, I don't think there are any heals that can give you an HP profit here (barring really lucky rolls - low for this feature and high for the healing) but taking 5d8 to get a slot to cast Mass Cure Wounds (3d8+Wis to up to 6 people) could be a very effective way to spread life around.

This is also a great thing to use right before a short rest - do your Harness Divine Power and then this, and then just heal up with hit dice.

At level 8, you get Divine Strike, dealing necrotic damage.

Finally, at 17th level, you get an upgrade to Blood Puppet, allowing you to use it on Huge corpses and creatures (puppeteering a dead giant? Yes, thank you.)

Also at 17, you get Vascular Corruption Aura. As an action, you can create a 30-ft radius aura around you for 1 minute. Any hostile creature with blood that starts its turn in the aura or enters it for the first time on their turn takes 3d6 necrotic damage. If a hostile creature in that aura has blood, when it regains hit points, it only regains half the amount it normally would. You can use this once per long rest.

Unavoidable damage in a huge area with built-in IFF? That's pretty good. The healing aspect could be useful, though of course only in some circumstances.

Overall, I think the biggest thing about this subclass is that you'll want to talk to your DM about defining what kind of creatures have blood or not. Does a zombie have blood? What about a Corpse Flower? Fiends have blood, right? Well, not Shadow Demons, maybe. Does a Bone Devil have blood?

I also think it's important to note that two of the subclass' features require concentration, which is a pretty precious resource in 5th Edition. Honestly, I think Blood Puppet is the coolest and strongest element to this subclass, and might be enough to justify it, though I think its other features are a little lackluster.

    Moon

In the Exandria setting, there are two moons - Catha is the fairly straightforward moon that acts much like the one in the real world, while Ruidus, the mysterious, smaller, red moon that appears at unpredictable times.

The subclass is fairly setting-specific, with references to these two moons in its mechanics. For a broader celestial/nighttime-focused cleric Domain, I'd recommend going with Twilight from Tasha's Cauldron of Everything, but if you're playing in Exandria, let's see how this domain works.

Your domain spells are Faerie Fire, Silent Image, Invisibility, Moonbeam, Hypnotic Pattern, Major Image, Greater Invisibility, Hallucinatory Terrain, Dream, and Passwall.

Honestly, this is a pretty good collection. I particularly like Faerie Fire, Moonbeam, Hypnotic Pattern, and Greater Invisibility here (being an invisible healer could be pretty clutch).

At 1st level, you get Clarity of Catha - when a creature within 30 feet of you makes a Wisdom saving throw, you can use your reaction to give them advantage on that save. You can do this PB times per long rest.

I think this is decently useful, and fairly flexible, if a bit of a minor effect.

At level 2, you get Channel Divinity: Blessing of the Full Moon. As an action, using your Channel Divinity, you can give a willing creature one of the following benefits:

Watchful Moon: For 1 hour, the creature's speed increases by 10 feet and it has advantage on Wisdom (Perception or Survival) checks involving smell or made to track a creature.

Blood-Drenched Moon: For 10 minutes, the blessed creature has advantage on attack rolls against a target if at least one of the blessed creature's allies is within 5 feet of the target and isn't incapacitated.

And it's here where we start to develop a bit of a werewolf theme - the former giving something akin to a bonus to senses affiliated with wolves, and the latter giving, effectively, pack tactics.

The Blood-Drenched Blessing has very clear and good combat applications, while the Watchful one could come in handy in lots of situations.

It's good.

At level 6, you get Channel Divinity: Mind of Two Moons. You can expend a use of Channel Divinity when you cast a concentration spell while already concentrating on another spell, as long as both are Moon domain spells. If you have to make a concentration save, you do so at disadvantage and lose concentration on both upon a failure.

So, while your concentration is harder to maintain, this will allow you to keep up multiple spells. The limit to domain spells is a pretty significant restriction, but this would allow you to have, say, Greater Invisibility and Hypnotic Pattern up at the same time - harder to break your concentration when the enemy can't see you and half of them can't even do anything.

At level 8, you get Empowered Cantrips.

Finally, at 17, you get Eclipse of Ill Omen: As a bonus action, you can manifest an area of reddish dim light in a 60 foot radius around you. Creatures in this area make saving throws at disadvantage, but when you create it, you can designate any number of creatures to be unaffected by it. The eclipse lasts for 1 minute while you concentrate on it - and this counts as a Moon Domain spell for the purpose of using Mind of Two Moons.

Additionally, once per turn when you deal radiant damage to any creatures within the light, you can curse one of the creatures until the eclipse ends, reducing their speed by half and making them unable to regain hit points.

You can use this ability once per long rest.

So, this is a hell of a capstone. It's a massive area, and you can keep stacking that curse up on foe after foe. Disadvantage on all saving throws is pretty massive, and cutting out absolutely all healing is also huge (I really like that the Loup-Garou from Van Richten's does actually require you to get silver weapons to kill it, except that you can get around this with something as simple as Chill Touch).

So, I have to say, I think I like the Moon domain quite a bit. Again, the feature names tie it pretty directly to Exandria, but I think the overall theme of it is pretty strong, and a number of its features as well.

Tal'dorei Subclass Review - Barbarian & Bard

 Oh hey, we never did this!

So, for the most part I tend to avoid subclasses and the like that aren't official WotC publications. But given Critical Role's impact on D&D and the high quality of the two Exandria campaign setting sourcebooks (one being an official publication and the other published by Darrington Press, the publishing wing of CR) I thought it might be worth it to look into the subclasses found in Tal'dorei Campaign Setting Reborn.

Notably, Eberron also got a supplement written by Keith Baker that was not published by WotC. I don't actually have that one, but I'll consider looking at its content as well.

But given that we have a copy of this in the house, I'll start with the subclasses found in TDCSR.

There is no Artificer subclass found here, so we'll skip ahead to the Barbarian, where we find The Juggernaut.

The Juggernaut does not have particularly detailed lore behind it - we're getting more of a core Barbarian archetype of the unstoppable force and built around pushing and shoving others.

At 3rd level, you get Thunderous Blows. When you hit a creature with a melee attack while raging, you can push that creature up to 5 feet away from you in a direction you choose. If the creature is Huge or larger, it makes a Strength saving throw against a DC based on your Strength, staying put on a success.

Honestly, this is pretty powerful - anything Large or smaller will automatically be moved when you hit it. Indeed, if you're a dual-wielder, you can move them up to 15 feet in a single turn with no saves, making you very effective at getting foes away from your allies. Also, I think this subclass will be one of the best for ship or airship-based adventures, or anyone who fights atop big cliffs.

Also at 3rd you get Spirit of the Mountain, which prevents you from being knocked prone or moved along the ground against your will as long as you are raging.

This is probably more situational, but it does make you a kind of anchor on the battlefield.

At 6th level, you get Demolishing Might. Your melee weapon attacks deal an extra 1d8 of damage to constructs, and you deal double damage to objects and structures.

The latter half of this makes me wish that destructible environments were a bigger part of the game, but the first part could potentially be huge in a campaign with lots of constructs. As someone who loves to blend fantasy and sci-fi, my homebrew setting has tons of ancient robots and such, and this subclass would absolutely wreck them.

Also at 6th level, you get Resolute Stance. This is almost the opposite of Reckless Attack. At the start of your turn, you can choose to assume a defensive stance, giving you immunity to being grappled, and causing attacks against you and your own weapon attacks to have disadvantage. Interestingly, I believe that there's nothing preventing you from doing this along with Reckless Attack to simply make straight rolls, which would negate, for example, fighting in magical darkness against something that can see through it (like a Devil).

At 10th level, you get an upgrade to Thunderous Blows, which increases the distance you push them to 10 feet. Again, this is kind of insane, as there's no save against it for Large or smaller creatures - you'll just need to chase them down if you use it on the first attack.

Also at 10th, you get Hurricane Strike. As a reaction when you push a creature at least 5 feet, you can then leap into an unoccupied space next to the creature. If you do so, the creature must succeed on a Strength saving throw (same DC as your Thunderous Blows, though everyone gets to make it) or be knocked prone. The leap doesn't cost any movement or provoke opportunity attacks. On top of that, when you push a creature into a space within 5 feet of an ally, the ally can use its reaction to make a melee weapon attack against the creature.

Ok, so, remember how I mentioned that you need to chase the target down if you keep pushing them away? This makes it a bit easier. The rider at the end also allows you to pinball an enemy between yourself and another ally, which is quite good.

Finally, a 14th level, you get Unstoppable - while raging, your speed cannot be reduced, and you are immune to the frightened, paralyzed, prone, and stunned conditions. This also allows you to rage as a bonus action even while frightened, paralyzed, or stunned, ending those effects on you while you're raging.

So, honestly, this subclass seems like it could be a lot of fun - it's very movement-intensive, and I could imagine it being a bit harder to run in theater-of-the-mind combat. But it definitely seems like the sort of subclass that really emphasizes the strength and sheer momentum of a hulking Barbarian.

    Bards:

Bards get the College of Tragedy, which I honestly think is one of the most inherently funny subclasses, despite its name. College of Tragedy is a subclass fueled by failure, emphasizing pathos and sorrow, and could be played up as an over-the-top downer (I feel like a Shadar-Kai Tragedy Bard would be perfect).

At 3rd level you get Poetry in Misery. If you or an ally within 30 feet of you rolls a 1 on the d20 for an attack roll, ability check, or saving throw, you can use your reaction to regain one expended use of your Bardic Inspiration feature.

So... I think the players and DM need to have a bit of a conversation about how often you can roll ability checks out of combat. Generally, at my tables, you wait for the DM to call for a roll rather than preemptively rolling, say, Insight on an NPC (instead, you say "hey, do I think this guy is telling us the truth?" to which the DM will usually respond "make an insight check.") An exploitative player might just constantly roll perception checks to fish for nat 1s, and I'd recommend that if you have that sort of player, maybe don't let them play this. That said, don't like, have the players roll less frequently simply in order to prevent this feature from going off.

Also at 3rd level, you get Sorrowful Fate. Once per short or long rest, if you or an ally forces a creature to make a saving throw, you can expend a Bardic Inspiration die to make that saving throw a Charisma saving throw instead of whatever it was. If the target fails, you then roll that Bardic Inspiration die and the target takes psychic damage equal to the amount rolled. Also, if the target is reduced to 0 hit points during the next minute after failing the save, the creature is magically compelled to utter darkly poetic final words before they succumb.

So, the latter part is pure flavor, and part of what makes this subclass so silly and hilarious. But this can also be a very powerful effect - turning a Giant's strength save against a Giant Slayer longsword into a Charisma one? They're far more likely to fail it (depending on what kind of giant). The psychic damage is a nice little bonus, too.

At 6th level, we get Tale of Hubris. When a creature lands a critical hit against you or an ally within 60 feet of you that you can see, you can use a reaction and spend a Bardic Inspiration die to foretell that creature's downfall. For 1 minute, any weapon attack against the target scores a critical hit on a roll of 18-20.

This feels fun and flavorful, though I suspect it's somewhat rare for it to go off - could be hugely powerful during a boss fight, but against a random mook, probably not. It's also not necessarily super-likely to trigger.

Also a 6 you get Impending Misfortune. When you make an attack roll or saving throw, you can gain a +10 bonus to the roll, but your next attack roll or saving throw gets a -10 penalty. If not used, the penalty goes away when you finish a short or long rest.

You can't use this feature again until you finish a short or long rest, or you're reduced to 0 hit points.

This is pretty great, actually. I'd probably save this one for really important saving throws, but then you can burn off the penalty with a quick attack roll on your next turn - sacrificing an action to avoid, say, being Disintegrated feels like a fair trade.

At level 14, your Tale of Hubris now increases the critical hit range to 17-20, which finally outclasses a high-level Champion Fighter's crit range. Again, someone needs to take a crit to trigger it.

Also, finally, at 14, youg et Nimbus of Pathos. As an action, you can touch a willing creature and give them the following benefits for 1 minute (during which they are surrounded by mournful music). The target gets +4 to their AC, advantage on attack rolls and saving throws, deals an extra 1d10 radiant damage when they hit with a weapon or spell attack, and scores a crit against targets on a roll of 18-20.

When the minute is up, the target drops to 0 hit points and is dying. You can use this feature once per long rest.

So, honestly, given how powerful this is, I think the downside is almost negligible. A minute is enough to finish all but the most insanely long fights, and with the massive amount of damage this player is going to be able to put out, you should be able to keep someone alive enough to heal them. I'd say Warlocks and Fighters are probably prime candidates for this buff, as they can multiply that 1d10 over more attacks. Paladins, of course, also love to crit.

Overall, I think the College of Tragedy has a lot of fun to it, and could be a wonderful thing at the table into someone good at playing up the kind of melodramatic, or alternatively dry and ironic extremely Goth vibe of this subclass.