UA: Phantom Rogue

 Continuing our horror-themed subclass UA review, we're on to the Rogue, a class that likes to stick to the shadows, but fit in many fantasy sub-genres. The Phantom, though, is one directly associated with the haunting specter of death. Published initially in Tasha's Cauldron of Everything, the Phantom gets a little bit of "cleave" damage. Let's see what the proposed changes are:

Level 3:

Wails from the Grave remains the signature features of this subclass, and allows you to essentially hit a secondary target with half of your Sneak Attack (rolling separately, which I think means it won't scale up with a crit) and dealing Necrotic damage, as long as you can see the target and they're within 30 feet. You can do this a number of times per day equal to your Dexterity modifier (minimum 1).

    The old version of this was limited to a number of times equal to your proficiency bonus per long rest, so, this is likely to mean better scaling until mid-tier-3, and then falling behind in tier 4. (I think they also generally have tried to move away from PB-scaling class features because they don't require as much class investment if you're multiclassed).

    I haven't actually seen a Phantom in play (which, to be fair, describes plenty of subclasses,) but I think that this is a nice bit of extra damage for a class that probably needs a slight damage boost, and also has the added benefit of letting you put some damage on a target that either has a very high AC or on which you're struggling to get Sneak Attack. Naturally, though, in single-monster fights, this gives you nothing.

Whispers of the Dead allows you, when you finish a short or long rest, to gain an additional skill or tool proficiency until you use the feature again. This is unchanged form the Tasha's version.

    Rogues of course benefit a lot from skills proficiencies, especially with Reliable Talent coming online earlier than the 2014 version.

Level 9:

Tokens of the Departed has you gain two Soul Trinkets when you finish a long rest, which last until you finish your next one, and they teleport to you if you move more than 30 feet from them. You get a third at level 13 and a fourth at level 17. You also regain an expended soul trinket if you use a reaction when a creature within 30 feet of you dies.

You can use the Soul Trinkets in the following ways:

Death's Knell lets you use Wails of the Grave without expending a use of the feature, destroying the trinket.

Life Essence means that while you have at least one Soul Trinket on you, you have advantage on Death and Constitution saving throws.

Spirit Query lets you take a Magic action to expend the trinket and cast Augury with no spell components, using Dexterity as your spellcasting ability.

    So, the big change here is that you get some free Soul Trinkets every day without having to be near anything dying, which is a real buff and makes this more reliable (especially because Rogues often do want to use their reaction). The other interesting thing is that Spirit Query in the Tasha's version simply let you use up a soul trinket to ask the spirit associated with the trinket a yes-or-no question, whereas now you full-on cast the Augury spell. This is probably better, because if the spirit was of a hostile creature, they might not be all too inclined to answer truthfully.

Voice of Death lets you cast Speak with Dead once per short or long rest with no spell components, which is brand new, and thematically cool. Speak with Dead is, of course, the kind of utility spell that really depends on the adventure, but if we consider this a ribbon, that's fine.

Level 13:

Ghost Walk lets you, once per long rest, or if you destroy a soul trinket, to use a bonus action to get a fly speed of 10 feet (with hover,) a hazy form against which attack rolls have disadvantage, and incorporeal movement, for ten minutes.

    While worded differently, this feature appears to be unchanged, with the sole difference being that it's no action to end it early, rather than a bonus action.

Level 17:

Death's Friend has two sub-features:

Death's Lament allows you to deal your Wails of the Grave damage to the target of your attack as well as the secondary creature.

    Interestingly, I don't know that this works in a single-monster encounter, as I think you still need a second target to trigger Wails of the Grave. I'd probably change that, because this could potentially be a nice damage boost for this level.

Draw of Death gives you one soul trinket when you roll initiative with none remaining.

    I like this sort of "little more gas in the tank" feature to help with long days with lots of fights.

And there we have the Phantom revamp. I believe this is all buffs, which is probably good. I've always liked the concept of the Phantom, though given that it came out with the Soulknife, I was more drawn to that subclass (and am currently playing one).

Rogues are a class that I think a lot of combat-focused theory-crafters tend to think is underpowered, but I do think their value as powerful skill-focused characters shouldn't be undervalued. And while the Wails from the Grave feature is the real headliner here, and one that is a combat enhancement, I think there's some fun utility to this class.

Really the question is how this compares with the old version, and clearly, this is a modest rejiggering rather than a thorough redesign. It's better than the old version, but I'm not extremely excited about it either.

UA: Hollow Warden Ranger

 Dammit, WotC, stop trying to get me to play a Ranger!

Yes, after the Forgotten Realms subclass UA gave us the Winter Walker Ranger, the Horror Subclass UA now gives us a brand-new subclass that essentially turns your Ranger into a dark and spooky monster from the deep woods.

The subclass appears to be a bit tankier than your typical Ranger, and likely would thrive as a dual-wielding character (which the new balance of weapons and feats also seems to push Rangers toward).

Subclass Spells:

1st: Wrathful Smite

2nd: Spike Growth

3rd: Phantom Steed

4th: Hallucinatory Terrain

5th: Awaken

    I'll confess that some of these are going to be profoundly situational, and Awaken in particular feels like something more of a "flavor" spell than one with really obvious utility, though it's one I think is really interesting. Phantom Steed is underrated for both travel and mobility. Still, I don't think any of these are game-changers (Spike Growth is great, but Rangers get that anyway, I think).

Level 3:

Wrath of the Wild enhances your Hunter's Mark in two ways (and yes, they're fully leaning into the "we mainly want you concentrating on Hunter's Mark" design).

Ancient Armor gives you a bonus to AC equal to your Wisdom modifier (minimum 1) while you're concentrating on the spell.

Unnerving Aura causes any enemies that start their turn within a 10 foot emanation of you while concentrating on the spell to have to make a Wisdom saving throw. On a failure, they can take an action or bonus action, not both.

    Practically speaking, I think this is going to mean something like a +2 or +3 bonus to your AC, or perhaps more at higher levels (or if you have really good rolled stats). For a melee Ranger, that's going to be quite nice - with capped Dex, you'd normally have an AC of 17 with the best armor, but this could push it up to 20, and if you cap Wisdom as well, 22. The Unnerving Aura is really dependent on the enemy stat block - lots of them don't have bonus actions, making this useless against them. But plenty do.

Level 7:

Hungering Might gives you a bonus to your Con saves equal to your Wisdom modifier. Additionally, once per turn when you hit a creature with an attack roll while transformed by Wrath of the Wild (i.e., concentrating on Hunter's Mark), if you're bloodied, you regain HP equal to 1d10+Wis.

    Honestly, that's not bad - obviously you never want to be Bloodied if you can help it, but this is going to make it easier to get out of that state. Healing when you need it most.

Level 11:

Rot and Violence has two sub-features that affect your Wrath of the Wild.

Eerie Aura causes creatures that fail against your Unnerving Aura feature to take your choice of Necrotic, Poison, or Psychic damage equal to your Ranger level, and this ignores resistance.

    That's actually a hefty chunk of damage for something that's an add-on to other stuff. It is a save for none, of course, but creatures will fail the save. Now, how many creatures have resistance rather than immunity to those damage types? I'm not sure. But against most creatures, this can be real damage numbers.

Strangling Roots lets you add the Sap or Slow mastery when you hit a creature with an attack roll with a weapon, in addition to the weapon's normal mastery. Notably, both of these are masteries that really only have an effect on a creature once per turn, so dual-wielding isn't going to make this crazy, and these masteries aren't the most powerful ones, but it's nice that you don't have to give up, say, Nick or Vex for this.

Level 15:

Ancient Endurance, once again, is really two features.

Persistent Hunt allows you, when you drop to 0 HP while transformed by Wrath of the Wild but don't die outright, to expend a 4th or higher level spell slot (no action required) and instead your HP becomes 5 times the level of the spell (so 20 if a 4th or 25 if a 5th).

    Naturally, you don't generally want to drop to 0 HP, especially by the time you're at these higher levels, but this is some insurance.

Timeless gives you immunity to Exhaustion.

    While Exhaustion doesn't come up super-often, even in its less devastating form in 2024, it's still really nasty. Practically, while this will make you very good at fighting Salamander Inferno Masters, I think it also effectively means you can go without food, drink, sleep, and I believe even air (because I think suffocation involves getting exhausted). There is some negative synergy, as this makes the Decrease Exhaustion part of Tireless meaningless. But I guess it's also just indicative of further mastery.

I've got to say: I love the vibes here. But are these mechanics enough to get me to play a class I feel didn't quite get the glow-up it deserved in the 2024 PHB? I'm not sure.

Actually, for the Horror themed subclasses, I wouldn't have minded them taking another crack at the Monster Slayer subclass from Xanathar's.

I guess to me, the version of a Ranger that I'm most interested in playing is an expert on terrifying monsters in the vein of Solomon Kane, Geralt of Rivia (though ability-wise he's clearly an Eldritch Knight) or the many exaggerations of Abraham van Helsing (the actual character from the novel is less intrepid monster hunter than knowledgeable academic). This subclass is very much leaning into more of "I am the monster from the woods" than being the one to hunt it, though that's very cool in its own right.

I am still disappointed with the continued focus on Hunter's Mark - why do Rangers have so many concentration spells if the design of the class seems to be built around always using this one?

UA: Grave Domain Cleric

 Grave Domain is actually the Cleric subclass that I have the most familiarity with, running a 5-and-going campaign with one as well as having one as our healer in Curse of Strahd, as well as of course watching Caduceus in Critical Role's second campaign. It's a very solid subclass that has always been great for bringing allies back from the brink. Let's see how the UA alters it - naturally, we'll be seeing the removal of its enhanced cantrip as that's now a baseline class choice.

My sense on my first reading of it was that it actually incorporates some ideas from the 2014 DMG's Death Domain, but let's look closely:

Domain Spells:

Cantrip: Chill Touch

1st: Bane, Detect Evil and Good

2nd: Gentle Repose, Ray of Enfeeblement

3rd: Revivify, Vampiric Touch

4th: Blight, Dispel Evil and Good

5th: Hold Monster, Raise Dead

    Here are the changes: You don't automatically get Spare the Dying, and you lose False Life, Death Ward, and Antilife Shell, getting instead Chill Touch, Detect Evil and Good, Dispel Evil and Good, and Hold Monster.

Chill Touch of course is now a touch spell, making it harder to use than before. Spare the Dying's old benefits from this subclass are less important now that it's a ranged cantrip anyway (though having it as a bonus action was really nice). Blight, again, is not very good, but it's not a change. I suspect that Detect Evil and Good is there to replace Eyes of the Grave. Dispel Evil and Good is actually pretty strong (and kind of a misleading name, as the dispelling is kind of a secondary use of the spell).

Level 3:

Circle of Mortality has two sub-features:

Pull of Death lets you, once per turn, when you cast a spell or hit with an attack roll and deal damage to a Bloodied creature, they take an extra 1d4 Necrotic damage.

    Not a ton, and if you're fighting little dudes you might not need the extra damage when they're already bloodied. When the enemy is beefier, though, I don't know if 1d4 is going to make an enormous difference. Still, fun.

Return to Life works like the old feature, letting you maximize healing on a target that is at 0 HP with your spells and Channel Divinity healing.

Path to the Grave lets you use a bonus action and a channel divinity charge to curse a target within 30 feet, giving them disadvantage on attack rolls and saving throws until the start of your next turn. When you or an ally hit the target with an attack roll, you can end the curse early (no action required) to make the attack deal your choice of Necrotic or Radiant damage equal to 1d8 + your Cleric level.

    Ok, so there's a lot to unpack here. The old version would make the target vulnerable to the damage of the next attack that hit it, and also cost an action. So, this could be considered a nerf in some ways, but also a buff. If you lined up to ensure that the next thing to hit it was a Paladin who burned their highest level divine smite, you could land an absolutely devastating hit. Now, the damage is not strictly speaking flat, but it's much more regular. When you get this at 3rd level, you're adding 1d8+3, which is actually not too far off from doubling an attacks' damage anyway. By level 10, it's 1d8+10, or 14.5 average damage. A Barbarian hitting with a Greatsword and Great Weapon Master who has 20 Strength by this point would be doing an average of 19 damage here. So, the damage is a little lower, but let's consider the positives:

First, you have the curse elements - if you have a scary boss monster, cursing it to havd disadvantage on all attack rolls and saving throws for a round (and as a bonus action) is quite strong. You're also not beholden as much to the initiative order - if you really want to use this on the Paladin's really big hit rather than the Monk's many smaller hits, you can wait to set it off. But actually, given that it isn't scaling with the power of the hit anyway, you don't need to worry about that.

I'm tempted to say this is a qualified buff.

And yes, Eyes of the Grave is missing, so you'll need to use Detect Evil and Good, which to be fair, is more versatile.

Level 6:

Sentinel at Death's Door has gotten an interesting change: first off, it only protects creatures who are Bloodied, which is obviously a nerf. However, rather than canceling critical hits, you now instead use your reaction to halve the damage of an attack.

    Mathematically, this is actually better against crits, unless it's a spell attack that adds no modifiers (which very few monsters do, I think). After all, an attack that does 3d12+7 on a hit has an average damage of 26.5, and a crit with that does 6d12+7, or 46 on average. Halving that crit will make it do 24 damage on average instead, which is lower than if it were only changing it to a normal hit.

    I think the challenge here will be deciding when to use it on a non-crit. It's the same number of limited uses. The restriction to Bloodied targets will also limit how much you can use it, but you'll be using it on people who really need that damage reduction.

Level 17:

Divine Reaper has two sub-features:

Enhanced Necromancy says that, when you cast a spell of 5th level or lower from the Necromancy school, or one from the Grave Domain Spells table, and when that spell targets one creature, you can duplicate the spell targeting a second creature within range, similar to the DMG's Death Domain Reaper feature. You still have to provide costly or consumed material components if the spell has them.

    Notably, with the shuffle of spell schools for certain spells, we need to consider what we can actually use this on. The list is not super-long, but outside of the domain spells, we are looking at Toll the Dead, Spare the Dying, Inflict Wounds, Bestow Curse, Feign Death, Life Transference, Speak with Dead (there's a trip - hopefully you can alternate which you ask with each question), and Contagion.

Keeper of Souls is somewhat different, but thematically similar: Once per short or long rest, when an enemy dies within 60 feet of you, you can cause yourself or another creature you can see within 60 feet to regain HP equal to three times your Cleric level, as long as you're not incapacitated.

    The old version of this could be used once a round (neither version takes any action on your part, which is cool) but the healing was the number of hit dice the slain creature had, meaning that the healing was rarely very much.

    Now, of course, it's far more limited in use, but the heal is far more substantial - starting off at 51, and hitting 60 when you're level 20. Depending on how many short rests you get, that might out-heal the old version, but I do think there's something kind of comforting about being unable to run out of this. I might increase its uses (maybe Wisdom modifier per long rest) while nerfing the heal (perhaps to just your Cleric level.

Overall, I'm on the fence about this subclass revamp. There's a lot that's similar but different. I suspect that players who already like Grave Domain might bristle at the changes here, but I also think if this subclass were presented to me and I had never seen the old version, I'd think it was pretty decent.

Next, we'll talk about the other brand-new subclass in this UA, the Hollow Warden Ranger!

UA: College of Spirits Bard Revamp

 Bards are, I'll be honest, one of my least favorite classes in D&D. I know that plenty of people love playing them, and all the power to them, and for sure they're one of the classes that has the most useful stuff outside of combat. But I've never really wrapped my head around them as a combat class, except for the martial subclasses of Valor and Swords.

However, when Van Richten's came out with the College of Spirits, I was really excited at the prospect.

The problem, though, was that some of the mechanics were... a little clunky. So, let's take a look at the revamp in today's UA.

Unlike the Reanimator, which was a fully new subclass, I'm mainly going to be comparing and contrasting, though in the interest of giving a clear picture, I will go through each feature.

Level 3:

Channeler combines the Guiding Whispers (giving the Guidance cantrip and extending its range by 60 feet) and the Spiritual Focus feature. Spiritual Focus is a little different: As before, it gives you new options for what to use as a spell focus, which includes a deck of playing cards (no longer only Tarokka) as well as the Crystal or Orb Arcane Focus options, a Candle, or an Ink Pen. The only one removed is a Skull, which is lame. Additionally, you gain proficiency in the Playing Card Gaming Set (so if you want to win at card games, you'll be better at that now!). Also removed is a Spirit Board - but honestly, this is the sort of thing that I'm never going to be a stickler on as a DM.

Tales from Beyond is now Spirits from Beyond, and the primary change is that its action economy has become more efficient. As before, you expend a BI die as a bonus action and roll on a table to get a random effect.

The big change, though, is that effect happens immediately, rather than requiring an action once it's rolled to use the result, which is, honestly, massive. It does mean you can't "bank" one, as before, but I think this is well worth losing that ability to be able to do this more efficiently.

Given that all the options on the table have different names, and the effects are different unless they were just shuffled around, I'm just going to list them here. Obviously, there are only 6 options to start, and as your BI die goes up, you'll eventually get 12.

(Note here that "BI" mean "a roll of your Bardic Inspiration die")

1: Beloved: heal a target for BI+Cha

2: Sharpshooter: deal BI+Cha force damage to a target (notably, there's no attack or save here)

3: Avenger: Until the end of your next turn, any creature that hits the target with a melee attack takes BI force damage.

4: Renegade: The target can immediately use its reaction to teleport up to 30 feet to an unoccupied space it can see.

5: Fortune Teller: The target has advantage on D20 tests until the start of your next turn.

6: Wayfarer: The target gains Temp HP equal to BI+your Bard level, and while they have these Temp HP, their speed increases by 10 feet.

7: Trickster: The target makes a Wisdom save. On a failed save, they take 2BI psychic damage and are charmed until the start of your next turn, or half as much with no charm on a success.

8: Shade: the target becomes invisible until the end of its next turn, or until it makes an attack roll, deals damage, or casts a spell. When the invisibility ends, each creature within 5 feet of it must succeed on a Con save or take 2BI Necrotic damage.

9: Arsonist: The target makes a Dex save and takes 4BI on a failed save or half as much ona  success.

10: Coward: The target and each creature within 30 feet of it must make a Wisdom save or be frightened until the start of your next turn. While frightened, a creature's speed is halved and they can take either an action or bonus action, not both.

11: Brute: Each creature in a 30-foot emanation originating from the target must make a Strength save. On a failure, they take 3BI Thunder damage and are knocked prone. On a success, they take half damage only.

12: Controlled Channeling: You pick one of the other options.

    So, again, as I said before, the change to have these happen immediately will, I think, make it a lot easier to use these abilities. It does seem like they're reoriented to be a little more aggressive. I think they're probably pretty good, overall, though the random element of course makes it a little unpredictable - something that's fun but of course somewhat less powerful (though I think all of these will be useful in combat).

Level 6:

Empowered Channeling replaces Spirit Session. This has two sub-features.

Power from Beyond allows you, once per turn, when you cast a Bard spell that deals damage or restores HP, to add a d6 to a damage roll or the "total HP the spell restores," which I think means it would be limited when doing something like Mass Healing Word.

Spiritual Manifestation gives you the Spirit Guardians spell, and you can cast it once for free per long rest. You can also, once per short or long rest, cause the spell to gives you and allies Half Cover within the spell's emanation.

    So, Power from Beyond is fine, if a little underwhelming (I might have made it a BI die to scale a bit). Spirit Guardians is a good spell. What makes me sad here is the flavor of Spirit Session. Bards, of course, can get lots of other spells now with Magical Secrets (albeit at higher level) but I really loved the notion that this is a "séance" class.

Level 14:

Mystical Connection lets you roll twice on your Spirits from Beyond table and choose between the options when you use the feature. Weirdly, they took away the option to pick any of them when you roll the same on both dice.

    Now, of course, the 12 option allows you to do this. What are the odds of getting it? In the old version, your odds of rolling the same value are one in whatever your max roll is, so once it's up to a d12, it's 1/12. At this level, I believe it's a d10, so 10%. With this, once you are up to a d12, you have a roughly 16% chance to roll a 12 on either d12, compared to a roughly 8% chance to roll the same value twice. So, you should be able to choose more frequently, but only after your BI die upgrades to a 12.

I think the subclass is probably a bit more powerful now, at the cost of a bit of its flavor, which is a shame. I think they could easily just bring back Spirit Session as a secondary 6th level feature and it wouldn't be overpowered.

Honestly, with the 2024 changes to Bards, I'm a little more inclined to actually try one out, and this subclass is one I'd consider.

UA: Reanimator Artificer

 Fun fact, my back-up character when I was playing in Curse of Strahd is one I came up with after Van Richten's came out, and was going to be a Battle Smith Artificer from Lamordia named Werner Von Zerhen, whose Steel Defender was going to be a kind of flesh golem constructed from dog parts (though in a humanoid shape).

It turns out, there's an even more fitting subclass we're likely to get for such a theme. How is it mehcanically?

As a note, this would presumably be working with the revamped Artificer coming in Forge of the Artificer, though I think in practical terms, the biggest change there would be the way that infusions work (though I will say that, unless they took away Firearm proficiency, all Artificers could now actually use guns thanks to True Strike becoming one of their spells).

The Reanimator, honestly a bit like the Battle Smith, is a pet subclass, but your Reanimated Companion is far more expendable than the Steel Defender.

Reanimator Spells:

Cantrip: Spare the Dying (remember that this is now ranged for everyone, its range extending as you hit higher levels)

1st: False Life, Witch Bolt

2nd: Blindness/Deafness, Enhance Ability

3rd: Animate Dead, Lightning Bolt

4th: Blight, Death Ward

5th: Antilife Shell, Raise Dead

    While very thematic, I don't know that I'm blown away by this list. Blight in particular is one of those spells that is worse than it seems, and especially given that, as a half-caster, we're not going to see it until we're level 13, I don't imagine it would see much use. I'm surprised we get Animate Dead instead of Summon Undead, though I suppose that it's slightly more thematic. Lightning Bolt, of course, is both thematic and also a good spell, even when we have to wait to get it as a half-caster. Witch Bolt, of course, is much better than it used to be, though I'm not yet convinced it's good, so much as not utter crap. Enhance Ability is some classic utility, and while I don't see it get used a lot, Blindness/Deafness is, I think, a pretty good spell.

3rd level:

Jolt to Life enhances your Spare the Dying cantrip. A number of times equal to your Intelligence modifier per long rest, you can modify the spell to restore 1 HP to the target, and to cause creatures in a 10-foot emanation around it to take 1d4 plus half your Artificer level (rounded up) lightning damage, or half as much on a successful Dex save.

    I'd love it if you could specify that it only hits foes - you could wind up dealing a chunk of damage to your allies with this. But it does give you effectively some extra healing that works a bit like when a Paladin just spares a single point of Lay on Hands to pop someone up. If you've got an ally who's got 2 failed death saves and you can't get to them for a Cure Wounds, this is quite good. The damage is not huge, but also not nothing.

Reanimated Companion is the real centerpiece of the subclass. Once for free per long rest, and then just for any spell slot thereafter, you can use an action and any of your tools to create a Reanimated Companion, which has its own scaling stat block. The Companion lasts until you finish a long rest, or if you take an action to dismiss it early, or if you die.

Like most subclass pets, the companion requires a bonus action for you to command it, or it will just take the Dodge action.

Now, what's this thing do?

It's not terribly tanky, its AC capping at 15 unless you can boost your Intelligence modifier higher, and its HP is 4+4 x your artificer level (so 16 at level 3, and 84 at level 20). But that's almost by design.

The companion has a melee attack that deals 1d4+2+your Intelligence modifier in Necrotic damage and prevents opportunity attacks. It's also immune to Lightning damage, and will be healed instead by Lightning (which gives you an interesting alternate use for Witch Bolt and Lightning Bolt).

Finally, when it dies, it explodes, and each creature within 10 feet has to make a Dex save or take 2d6 necrotic damage (save for none).

    So, essentially, you're going to have your Reanimated Companion fighting on the front lines while you're casting cantrips from afar. You probably want to make sure that the companion isn't near allies in case it explodes. A bit underwhelming at this level, but then again, at level 3, just having another body on the field can be helpful, and while the damage isn't enormous, the fact that it uses the stat you're pushing anyway means it should be reasonably consistent.

Level 5:

Strange Modifications allows you to make some enhancements to your companion when you create them. You choose from among the following options:

Arcane Conduit allows you to cast spells from the companion's position (though you have to use your own senses). And once per turn, when you cast an Evocation or Necromancy spell while the companion is within 120 feet of you, you can add your Intelligence modifier to the damage.

Ferocity allows the companion to make two Dreadful Swipes rather than one.

    Of these choices, I think Ferocity is going to be the clear default, though I suppose if you're expecting to do a lot of AoE spells, Arcane Conduit would be good. You are just getting more attacks with the companion, so I'm not sure it compares favorably to the Extra Attack Armorers and Battle Smiths get, where a lot of bells and whistles can be attached to their attacks. Still, probably decent.

Level 9:

Improved Reanimation gives you further options when creating your Reanimated Companion (which stack with the Strange Modifications). These options are:

Bloated, which lets you make your companion Large or Medium (the default is Small) and lets the companion knock Large and smaller creatures back 10 feet when they hit with their Dreadful Swipe, and lets you add your Intelligence modifier to their Death Burst damage.

Gaunt increases the companion's speed to 45 feet, and it gains a Climb Speed and effectively Spider Climb. Also, creatures of your choice that start their turn within 10 feet of the companion need to make a Wisdom saving throw or be frightened until the start of their next turn.

Moist gives the creature a Swim Speed and when it's hit with an attack roll by a creature within 10 feet, the creature takes Acid damage equal to your Int modifier.

    I think all of these have practical applications. Bloated and Gaunt both have some reasonable battlefield control abilities, and Moist is the obvious choice if you're going to be doing any combat underwater. The extra speed (not to mention spider-climb) for Gaunt is attractive, but the Bloated option's pushing capability is very reliable.

Level 15:

Promethean Reanimation gives you a few benefits:

Facilitated Revival cuts the cost of material components for Revivify and Raise Dead in half.

Improved Companion increases the damage of its Death Burst to 4d6, and the Necrotic damage the companion deals ignores resistance (remember that its main attack does necrotic).

Life Transfer allows you to take a reaction if you take damage to drop your companion to 0 HP (triggering its Death Burst) and allow you to regain HP equal to your Artificer level.

    So... I don't know that any of these are as good as they seem. The halved gold cost for resurrection diamonds is only going to be relevant in games where you're struggling for money. Death Burst, even going up to 4d6 damage, is not a ton of damage at this level. And I don't know how many creatures are Resistant to Necrotic compared to how many are Immune.

    The aspect here that I think is probably most relevant is the Life Transfer. If we want to get real fiddly, I don't think this can technically save you from a knock-out, as the damage has to hit your first before it triggers the reaction, but you could use it if you're getting low on HP.

Overall, I think what makes this subclass potentially exciting is how expendable the companion is: while a Steel Defender I think takes at least a minute to revive (even if it's the same single spell slot of any level to do so) the fact that you can create one of these as an action means that you can potentially have a fight where you send one of these in to get slaughtered, hoping it will die and explode, and prepare to just pop another one out on your next turn.

Naturally, Artificers don't have unlimited spell slots, but I do think that an "easy come, easy go" attitude toward your subclass pet is what they're going for here.

I do think that one of the issues with the Artificer as a class is that they sometimes forget that, being a half-caster, they really need something to bolster the fact that they're not getting those higher-level spells until significantly later. I made my own homebrewed alternative to Blight called Despoil, which I think actually punches at an appropriate 4th-level weight class, but even then, that's intended for a full caster to be able to cast it when they're 7th level. A half-caster has to be nearly twice that level to cast 4th-level spells, at a point where 36 average damage is going to be less than the Fighter or Paladin can do on a normal turn without expending any resources, while you're spending one of your most precious ones.

The Companion's attacks, of course, do this to an extent.

Essentially, I think this is a very flavorful subclass but I'm concerned about its overall power level.

Next, we'll look at the revamp to College of Spirits for the Bard.

Unearthed Arcana: Horror Subclasses

 Somewhat unexpectedly, we got a new Unearthed Arcana today, themed around Horror Subclasses.

Given that the last time we got something along these lines, it was an early indication of the announcement of Van Richten's Guide to Ravenloft, I suspect we'll be getting another visit to the Domains of Dread perhaps within a year or so.

As I've stated many times on this blog, Van Richten's is my favorite 5E supplement (except maybe the rules-expansion books, Xanathar's and Tasha's). I know that there was some controversy in the ways that it changed the old canon of the Land of Mists, but I thought it was an excellent example of how to do a sourcebook, really encouraging creativity for DMs and doing its best to put the setting in their hands (I also loathe "The Core" from earlier editions, which placed each domain in a literal geographical arrangement, and far prefer the idea that the domains are each kind of floating in the Mists).

I'll also just lodge a... concern, I suppose, rather than a complaint, that there has been a lot in the 2024-onward stuff that feels like it's treading the same territories we've seen before. The Forgotten Realms subclasses were balanced more toward new ones, though returning us to a setting that we're certainly not unfamiliar with, given that most of 5E's adventures were set there. This UA is primarily focused on existing subclasses, giving them revamps.

That said, these subclasses don't look like they're getting minor wording changes - each seems to have substantive changes. Whether these are buffs or nerfs is something I'll need to compare and contrast.

There are also two brand-new subclasses in this UA, one of which is for the Artificer, which I find very heartening as I always worried the Artificer would be left behind in future supplements.

I'm not sure I'll have the space/energy to review every one of these in a single post, and instead think I'll break it up, with a post for each subclass. But let's do the list of them here:

Artificer: Reanimator

Bard: College of Spirits

Cleric: Grave Domain

Ranger: Hollow Warden

Rogue: Phantom

Sorcerer: Shadow Sorcery

Warlock: Hexblade Patron

Warlock: Undead Patron.

We'll go in that order!

Endgame Clean-Up, I Think, in COE33

 I suspect that one of the inspirations for Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 was Final Fantasy VI.

Not only is FFVI considered by many to be the best of the series (though VII is better-known, with more spin-offs, remakes, and such - and VII is another best-Final Fantasy contender).

The main thing, though, is that you hit a point in the plot where the world opens up significantly, and you can technically just go straight to the end of the game, but there are tons of side-quests.

I'm given to understand after beating the game's story, you can continue to play (good given that it's a game that auto-saves,) and that some people recommend even going right for the final boss/dungeon when you can and saving the other stuff for later.

Right now, I've got a few character-focused quests that seem to be able to upgrade their "relationship level," which then unlocks their final Gradient Attacks. I've finished this on Lune and Sciel (Sciel's doesn't seem to actually require anything beyond talking to her) and I've got missions from Monoco and Maelle to get theirs done.

Now that Esquie can fly and dive underwater, I've got the whole map unlocked, but there are still several areas that say "Danger," implying I'm too low-level to attempt them.

Even the level-appropriate stuff is quite tough. I fought the Chromatic Gold Chavalier in Crimson Forest, which was truly brutal - basically, until I had perfected my parries and almost never actually get hit by its attacks, nor those of the Clair and the Obscur fighting alongside it, I'd just get totally wiped. The worst part is that when your timing is off on one of their swings, it tends to get screwed up on subsequent swings.

But yes, I'm still having a bit of a challenge finding stuff I haven't done that isn't considered too hard for me. One thing I've really needed to work on strategizing is equipping Pictos with good stat bonuses - it was embarrassingly late in the game that I even realized they did anything other than the effect their lumina provided - I wondered why, with the same or nearly the same Vitality, Verso had less than half of Lune's HP, until I realized none of his Pictos buffed it (this made that Chavlier fight more forgiving).

It's interesting coming off of playing Super Mario RPG and then Lies of P. Mario RPG has its own special timed-button dodges and bonuses to your attacks, but until you get into the remake's new post-game content, these are more of a bonus than a necessity. COE33 clearly makes them absolutely necessary - I don't think you can beat any of the, honestly early-mid-game bosses without doing at least decently on parries.

The difficulty of pulling it off, especially against really long combo-attacks, does make it profoundly satisfying when you do pull it off. Difficulty is something of a contentious issue in gaming, and I find myself sort of of two minds:

A game being difficult pushes you to really get yourself in the game's groove, and mastery over a difficult game feels incredible. And yet, I also feel sympathetic to people who feel like they aren't able to experience a game if it's too hard.

I suspect that I would do a lot better playing the original Dark Souls if I went back to it after years of Bloodborne, Elden Ring, and most of DSIII under my belt.

Basically, I love the model of how COE33 plays, and while this is a story that I don't see there being very obvious ways to make a direct sequel (though I haven't beaten the game, so we'll see) I'd love to see Sandfall studio play with what they've developed here. Indeed, if "Clair Obscur" becomes an anthology-style franchise like Final Fantasy, where the world and story moves onto something else, but the game mechanics (and perhaps the fun creatures, like Gestrals) return, I'd be pretty happy with that.

All this being said, I do think I'm eager to play some old Final Fantasy game after this - my roommate just beat FFVIII and is playing FFIX (though he's been drawn into COE33 after hearing me talk about it - and I'm worried that just by looking at my screen he's figured out at least one of the major twists). Still, as much as I'm loving this game, which could be in the "Instant Classic" category, I think I'm probably going to try something a little easier, or at least a little less "perfect rhythmic timing"-focused, next.