Figuring Out What You Can Get Away With Using Kits in Draw Steel - The Mountain Shadow

 Draw Steel doesn't use practically any of the familiar terminology one might know from D&D. Hit Points are Stamina. Intelligence is Reason. Tiers are Echelons. Among these unfamiliarities are the names of classes. While you could consider each of Draw Steel's nine classes a rough equivalent to one found in 5E D&D (though in the case of the Talent, the equivalent is either WotC's UA-tested Psionic class, or it's MCDM's own 5E Talent,) not one of them shares the name with a D&D class. Spellcasters channeling divine power are Conduits rather than Clerics. Warriors who channel a primordial might are Furies instead of Barbarians.

But while I think you could create a pretty satisfying "conversion chart" if you wanted to play your D&D character in Draw Steel, there's a nuance here that I think is worth noting:

D&D classes, and most fantasy RPG classes, have an aesthetic that they achieve both through abilities and the kind of gear they wear. Classically, a Paladin is a knight in shining armor - specifically, they wear heavy armor and tend to have some bulky weapon that they're either wielding with two hands, or using along with a shield.

But Draw Steel does something really interesting: roughly half of the classes (the Censor, Fury, Shadow, Tactician, and Troubadour) get something called a Kit. These are, on the surface, a kind of set of equipment, but what they really are is "what vibe are you going for?" Kits do have a significant mechanical impact, but they're designed in such a way that you are not by any means forced to go the traditional route regarding what your character will look like when fighting monsters.

And Kits are designed to be usable by every (with some small exceptions) class that uses kits.

Naturally, if you're thinking of the Shadow as Draw Steel's equivalent of the Rogue, you'd assume that the best option is something like Cloak and Dagger, or perhaps Sniper. These would probably work out just fine for a Shadow, and I don't feel like I have the play experience to even begin to determine whether they're more optimal choices.

Kits do a few things: the kind of armor they come with is reflected by increasing your maximum Stamina (though sometimes it's not armor, but just hardiness associated with the kit). They'll also tend to come with some kind of damage bonus, and it's here where we really wanted to be thinking about how we create our character.

Each also comes with a Signature Ability, which will be one of the things you can do for free when you're conserving your Heroic Resources (or still earning enough to use any Heroic Abilities). Nearly all of these abilities allow you to choose Might or Agility with which to make your power roll. And that's notable, because every single class that gets kits will have either Might or Agility as one of their highest stats. There are a handful that require you to choose between one of those two and the three "mental" characteristic scores, but given the way that stat progression is always good, you should be fine taking these as well (I'd thought perhaps that Furies might not be able to optimally use these, as they don't get automatic scaling with Reason, Intuition, or Presence, but given that each also allows either Might or Agility, the two stats Furies also always get the best progression with, they should work for them as well).

So: let's talk about this idea that I've had: The Shadow, while being the game's analogue for the Rogue, can use any of these kits, and I'd like to see how effective I can be if I take a really off-label kit: not Sniper, not Cloak and Dagger, not even Spellsword. I want to take The Mountain.

The Mountain is, actually not entirely unlike the character of the same name from A Song of Ice and Fire, a heavily-armored warrior who fights with a heavy weapon. Examples given are Greatswords, greataxes, mauls, and morningstars (this latter one I generally view as a one-handed weapon, but that might be D&D's influence on me).

The other bonuses that we get with the Mountain kit are the following:

We get +9 to our Stamina per echelon (not level - so we get 9 at level 1, then another 9 at level 4, another 9 at level 7, and finally another 9 at 10, meaning a total of 36 by the time we hit the cap).

We also gain a +2 bonus to our Stability. Stability is a stat that is essentially your defense against forced movement. If something tries to Push, Pull, or Slide you, you get to subtract your stability from the distance they do that, and of course if that reduces it to zero, they don't get to move you at all.

We then get a melee damage bonus of +0/+0/+4, which means that we get a big bonus when we get a tier 3 result on strikes that have the melee keyword, but no bonus on lesser rolls.

    This, I think, will be the big limiting factor: Shadows have a pretty hefty mix of ranged and melee abilities. If we go with the Mountain kit, we'll really want to focus on melee because that's where we're getting our bonus damage. Now, the good news is that Shadows are going to be able to hide pretty easily. As per the rules on Hiding (Heroes p. 258) if you're hidden from a creature, you gain an edge on ability rolls against them until the end of your turn, even if you break out of hiding before you make that roll (such as, for example, emerging from cover to strike at them). Edges (and especially Double Edges) are going to be massive for this kit, and a Shadow has a pretty reliable way to get one.

Before we get into other build choices, let's finish up with this kit:

The Mountain signature ability is Pain for Pain, which is a melee attack that does 3+A/M (agility or might, naturally we're choosing agility, and so I'll just show that option) or 5+A or 13+A (the tier 3 result incorporates the kit's damage bonus, so we don't add 4 on top of this). At level 1, that'll mean 5, 7, or 15 damage.

The ability has a special effect, which is that if the target dealt damage to you since the end of your last turn, this deals additional damage equal to your Agility (again, or Might if you were some other class).

And here's where my theoretical understanding could use a bit of real-world play experience: I don't know how often Shadows can expect to take damage. Naturally, in Draw Steel, every attack hits, so a certain amount of damage is unavoidable. But while a Null, Censor, or Fury is always wading into the thick of it, I don't know if a Shadow's general game plan is going to be more about not being in a position to be attacked in the first place. Certainly, if we're committing to this kit, we'll get some benefit from taking a bit of damage, though of course that comes with the drawback of... taking damage.

The stability bonus for a Mountain kit is also potentially going to push us into a role we might not necessarily want to take: a Mountain is hard to move, so it seems suited to being a kind of immovable object on the battlefield. However, this might still benefit us in the sense that monsters that try to drag us where we don't want to go will have a harder time doing so.

So: let's talk subclass and general build.

For subclass, we're picking this based on vibes. Shadows have three subclasses, the Colleges of Black Ash, Caustic Alchemy, and Harlequin Mask. The first is all about magically teleporting around and using abyssal magic (conveniently, Draw Steel's demons come from the Abyssal Wastes, so D&D veterans will have an easy time associated abyss and demons,) the second is about poison and smoke bombs and such, and the last is a trickster that uses illusions and guile.

The vibe I want to go for is a kind of gothic phantom: a nightmarish implacable dread knight hunting the monsters down. And so, Black Ash is the one I'm inclined to pick here.

This is going to make you very mobile: you can teleport 5 squares as a maneuver (or more if you spend Insight for each additional square) and you can also teleport as a triggered action when you take damage, halving the damage as you do so, with the same Insight-for-increased distance deal.

I think the assumed use for both of these is to get away from foes and slip into cover (the maneuver lets you attempt to hide even if observed). But consider this: you will be so, so freaking good at chasing down enemies trying to stay at range. Indeed, if there's one thing that melee-focused characters can always use, it's mobility.

Vanishing from sight only to appear behind a foe, potentially without their noticing, before you hack them down with your greatsword, is a real vibe.

So: we're using our extreme mobility to position ourselves easily in melee. Naturally, this is going to encourage us to take mostly melee abilities. We can always make ranged free strikes if we can't get into melee with a foe (though this is going to be somewhat underwhelming damage). I believe that even if we use an ability that can act as both a melee and ranged strike, we only get the +4 bonus if we are using it in melee, but it might be good to pick such abilities just to give ourselves some flexibility.

I Work Better Alone, a melee/ranged strike that deals 3+A/6+A/9+A damage and gives us a Surge before we make the power roll if none of our allies are adjacent to the target certainly fits in with our style. We're going to be hunting the foes on the edge of the fight. Alternatively, we could go the opposite route and take Teamwork Has Its Place, which does the same base damage but gives us 1 surge if there is an ally adjacent to the target (this one also works on objects).

Here, I might say you should really consider your party's composition. If you have a lot of melee allies, THIP might be the better option, but if you've got mostly ranged friends, IWBA will be more reliable.

You Were Watching the Wrong One does nearly as much damage (3+A/5+A/8+A) and gives you a surge if there's an ally within 5 squares (a pretty decent range,) and then further gives an ally a surge if you're flanking with them (and flanking will be a little easier for us to manage given our mobility). This is an obligatory melee ability, though, so it's a commitment. That said, flanking will be very good for us, especially if we can pair it with hiding to get a double edge and let us get that juicy +4 bonus on any roll above an 11.

I honestly think any of the Shadow's four abilities could be good, but I'm inclined to take I Work Better Alone for the theme of what we're doing, and if we can't get the bonus effect on it, we can always go with Pain for Pain if we get its bonus effect. IWBA will also work at range, if we need to do so - I'd flavor this as perhaps throwing a barbed knife or even chipping some piece of the terrain off and pelting the foe with it.

Now, let's pick Heroic Abilities.

Once again, I think we might steer clear of any abilities that can't be melee strikes, though hybrid options are of course more flexible.

Now, is our job to focus primarily on damage output? Or do we want a bit of battlefield control? Once again, party composition is something to consider, but I think if we're trying to feel like a monster out of a nightmare... damn, I guess both options make sense.

The options that speak to me are Disorienting Strike and Eviscerate.

The former is pure melee, but it lets us deal damage (slightly more than our signature abilities) but also lets us slide the target 2/3/5 squares, and we can then shift into any square the target leaves when we slide them (once again, giving us insane mobility). Sliding is very good - it's the most versatile type of forced movement and can set our allies up nicely. Also, if we slide them right into a wall, they could take additional damage

Eviscerate can be either ranged or melee, and actually does the same damage as Disorienting Strike, but instead of sliding, we can impose the Bleeding status if their Agility is below our potency (remember that we can spend the surges we get with IWBA on making those potencies higher). The Bleeding is Save Ends (meaning each turn there's just a 50% chance that the status ends) and can mean more damage if they want to actually do anything on their turn.

I'm kind of obsessed with forced movement, and I do like the idea of this implacable shadow dragging a foe back into the danger they've been trying to escape, but I also think that the horror-movie vibes of inflicting bleeding could be hard to pass up. 1d6+the creature's level is not a small amount of damage to inflict possibly multiple times per round.

For our 5-Insight ability, in terms of pure damage, Coup de Grace is pretty appealing: it's pure damage, but that damage is 2d6+7+A/2d6+11+A/2d6+16+A, for both ranged and melee. So, if we assume we're doing this in melee, our averages at level 1 are 16, 20, or 29 damage. To put that in context, most Platoon-level monsters (the ones that a Director can throw at a 1:1 ratio with players of the same level) at level 1 have 30 Stamina. Most of what you face are Horde or Minion monsters, and so this is going to nearly always kill a level 1 monster that isn't something like a Brute or Defender.

Shadowstrike is another option that just lets us make two strike signature abilities in a row. I Work Better Alone, if we assume we're using this with the right conditions (and surely we are if we're spending our 5 Insight on this heroic ability) will deal 5/8/15 damage in melee, so two of them would mean around 10/16/30, along with two surges, which we could pour into damage to add (at this level) 2 to each strike, so potentially around 14/20/34.

It's honestly comparable. Shadowstrike will be better if we can consistently get Edges on our rolls, and I think you could also make the argument that it's more flexible, as we might find that Pain for Pain is more optimal. So, Shadowstrike might be the one to go for (there are two others but one is ranged-only and the other is built for multi-target, and I think we're orienting around single-target burning).

    So, this gets us through level 1. I don't think I'm going to go through further levels, just because I don't know that I have the energy or the level of Insight (haha, get it? The Shadow Heroic Resource) into actually playing the game to know if these are good choices.

But I do think what it shows is that you can build a functional character that goes a really different route from the conventional. I think we could really terrify some enemies with this build, and I just love how much kits let you go off the beaten path with these classes.

The Summoner in Playtest for Draw Steel

 While the game has only been out for a couple weeks now (and still only in PDF form,) MCDM is testing out a tenth class for Draw Steel that didn't make it into the core rulebooks: The Summoner.

The Summoner does what it says it does: you summon minions to do your bidding and fight alongside you. Most classically, the "iconic" subclass for it is the Necromancer, or "Undead Portfolio," but you can also specialize in Elementals, Fairies, or Demons as the other three subclass options.

As I've been playing Diablo IV since it came for free on the PS+, I of course gravitated to the Necromancer, and I think that the design here seeks to replicate the feeling that you get in Diablo games where you have a massive number of minions fighting for you.

Summoners use Essence, like Elementalists, as their Heroic Resource, but Summoners also effectively get a second resource in the form of Minions. You get to pick two Signature Minions from your subclass, and you'll automatically get two brand new minions at the start of each of your turns, as well as two when combat itself begins (so 4 by the start of your first turn - if they're still alive).

Your minions work like minions controlled by the Director does - you organize them into two squads, and each squad pools its stamina together in the same way. Squads make actions together. You can  attack with them via Strike for Me, a free triggered action that goes off when you either make a triggered action to make a free strike or use a signature ability, which then has a number of minions determined by your power roll make free strikes instead of using the triggering ability.

    So, in case you weren't already getting this: this is a complex class. They actually warn players that this is an advanced class that you probably want to save for after you've gotten a bit of Draw Steel under your belt. I imagine this will be very popular among Directors who get a chance to play and are very familiar with playing with minions.

    I do wonder a bit about this Strike for Me feature - that it might be easier to simply make a Signature Ability for Summoners that allows them to have a certain number of minions make their strikes.

Summoners have their two types of Signature Minions that get automatically summoned, but they can also spend Essence to summon more powerful minions. For example, your standard Signature Skeleton has 2 Stamina and a Free Strike damage value of just 1. But a Grave Knight, which comes at two knights for 3 Essence, and this one has a Signature Ability that can do up to 9 damage and inflict bleeding and has 6 Stamina.

    As a note, one thing I'm trying to wrap my head around is that it looks like one of the 3-cost minions for each subclass has a signature ability, while most only have Free Strikes.

Summoners all have the Call Forth ability that lets you spend Essence to summon additional minions - 1 for each Signature minion and then the set number of minions for the higher-cost ones.

    The point is: Summoners are built to fill the battlefield with minions that will fight for them. I think it has the potential to be very powerful - if nothing else, you can crowd the battlefield to restrict enemy movement by putting a bunch of minions in the way.

    What I worry is that I'm not sure there's any way this isn't going to bog down combat by a lot - a Summoner is going to need to take the time to position all of their minions and then figure out what they're doing. I think holding to a strict interpretation that any given squad can only do one main action is going to make this a little better, but you're still commanding yourself and two (and I think later more) squads.

    It's kind of fascinating to see, given how D&D's 2024 revamp really tamped down on the ability to summon lots of creatures into battle. I know that MCDM is somewhat contrarian toward the direction 5E has gone (in some places justified, in other places I think it comes off as contrarian for the sake of itself). That being said, I understand the impulse: the class fantasy of a Necromancer is very much that "army of the dead" feeling.

Naturally it's a very different thing in video games, but I think about the two class specializations in World of Warcraft that very much fit into this mold: the Unholy Death Knight is the game's necromancer equivalent (though you're a heavily-armored melee character) and the Demonology Warlock is the equivalent of this one's Diabolist (I will quibble here a bit: like D&D, Draw Steel draws an - arguably more dramatic - distinction between demons and devils, and the Diabolist summons demons, despite the fact that Diablo means very specifically devil. In a lot of languages, Vs and Bs are interchangeable. This subclass should be Demonologist. /End soapbox rant.) Anyway, WoW's examples both find ways to get a lot of minions out there. Demonologists have one of their core rotational abilities summon up to 3 imps that blast targets for 12 seconds, and so at any given time you might have as many as 18 or more of these guys shooting at your enemies in addition to the larger demons you have summoned. Unholy Death Knights have a somewhat more cyclical experience, where one of their 1-minute cooldowns can summon up to 4 undead minions on top of your permanent ghoul.

The thing is, in WoW, as well as in the (also Blizzard) Diablo games, the behavior of these minions is automated, so it doesn't really slow the game down in any way.

I think even as someone who feels pretty confident that I could run Draw Steel as a Director at this point, I would really want to have this class well and truly internalized before I'd inflict a 15-minute turn on my fellow players.

I'll be curious to see how things develop as the playtest goes to a wider audience. I think they might just embrace the complexity and sell it as an advanced class, which might be fine. But I do imagine that Directors might feel the need to ban it if players aren't really on top of their shit.

UA: Sorcerer-King Patron

 Yeah, it's Dark Sun.

The last of the Apocalyptic Subclasses options, this Warlock subclass has you working for one of the tyrannical Sorcerer-Kings, or potentially any grand and powerful tyrant.

And yes, before we get into it, it's a little funny to have a patron who is just straight-up a member of another class. But I also think the Sorcerer Kings are meant to have gone beyond mere mortal status, more along the lines of Emperor Leto Atreides II from God-Emperor of Dune.

Sorcerer-King Spells:

1st: Command, Compelled Duel, Wrathful Smite

2nd: Hold Person, Mind Spike

3rd: Fear, Sending

4th: Compulsion, Staggering Smite

5th: Dominate Person, Synaptic Static

Also, this feature allows Psionic Casting, which allows you to ignore verbal and material components (except those consumed or that have a cost) with any of the spells on this list.

    Weird that they make the material component specification given that none of these spell use consumed or costly material components.

    But this is a cool list - lots of spells that upcast well for a Warlock, and some all-time bangers like Fear and Synaptic Static. There's a bit of a pressure to go Bladelock, which is fine, but I think you'll be ok as a Blastlock as well.

Level 3:

Tyrant's Herald gives you the following:

Intimidating Presence: You gain proficiency in Intimidation and also have Expertise in it.

    I mean, expertise in Intimidation does feel like something Warlocks should get more easily.

Voice of Tyranny: You can cast Command as a bonus action for free Cha times per long rest.

    Command is a solid spell, and while we won't be upcasting this, getting several free casts of it that we can also do along with our action is really cool. As a note: Command is 100% the Voice from Dune, as used by the Bene Gesserit. You can do some nasty things with Command (I think the 2024 version is theoretically more limited, but I'll always allow a creative player to do cool things if they can come up with a one-word directive).

Level 6:

Decisive Edict:

When you cast a spell using a Pact Magic slot, you can cause a 30-foot eruption of magic around you. Within that area, you can choose for each of creature to either Marshal them, giving them advantage on attack rolls until the end of their next turn, or Oppress them, Frightening them on a failed Wisdom save until the end of their next turn.

Once you use this feature, you can't use it again until you finish a Short or Long Rest or use Magical Cunning (so basically, until you regain a Pact slot).

    I don't worry too much about that limitation, because the activation on the expending of a spell slot is already going to be close to that same limit anyway. This is a nice bit of tide-turning, making the following round much better for you and your allies, and the 30-foot emanation means you can do it even if you're fairly far from the action. Of course, advantage is cheap in 2024 rules, but the fear effect could be very handy if the monsters fail their saves.

Level 10:

Vindictive Rebuke:

When an enemy hits you with an attack roll, you can use a reaction to force them to reroll the d20 and use the new result. If this causes the attack to miss, the creature takes psychic damage equal to your Warlock level.

You can use this Cha times per long rest.

    This is a decent defensive ability, and even if you still get hit, it can be some insurance against critical hits. The damage you can deal with it is quite decent, but definitely the main attraction is the chance to prevent a hit.

Level 14:

Absolute Tyranny:

When you cast Command, you can target one additional creature within the spell's range. A creature frightened by you automatically fails its save against your Command spell.

    Ok, I love how this brings features together. Command upcasts to target more creatures, so if casting with a spell slot, this is less exciting (as by this point we'll be hitting 5 targets, so a 6th is not that much). But consider this:

    You cast Synaptic Static on a group of, say, four enemies. As you do so, you use Decisive Edict, so in addition to a bunch of psychic damage, some of them are now frightened. You can cast Command on the ones that are frightened as a bonus action using Voice of Tyranny, because you're not expending a spell slot so the "one spell slot spell per turn" rule isn't violated, and it works automatically.

    Notably, Command is not a charm effect, so it will work on any kind of creature. At worst, an auto-failing creature will waste their action following the command. (Immunity to fear is not uncommon, though.)

Overall Thoughts:

    There's certainly some light pressure to go Bladelock here, as I mentioned above. I do think that you'll want to have some source of better armor - starting off as a Fighter before multiclassing into Warlock the rest of the way is going to solve several of your problems.

    I think this could be a lot of fun to play. Once again, like many of these subclasses, it might be a fun challenge to figure out a way to play these as heroic characters (though D&D has always allowed for villain protagonists). This one's certainly a subclass for the Dune fans.

And that concludes our look at the Apocalyptic subclasses. My general impression is that they're all decent, and possibly quite powerful indeed. Each has a strong central mechanical concept that ties to its theme, which is always what you want in a subclass.

I feel like we're due for some announcements of future D&D books, but so far, no official word.

Critical Role Campaign 4 Details

 Today we got some big announcements for Critical Role's 4th campaign!

As we already knew, Matt Mercer is going to be changing seats to play as a PC in this campaign, while Dimension 20's Brennan Lee Mulligan (who has run stuff for CR in the past) will be helming the campaign. But what about the new details?

First off, somewhat to my surprise, the game is going to be using D&D - specifically the 2024 version of 5E. While they're very proud of the huge success that Daggerheart has been, they decided that for now at least they'll continue doing shorter-form games like Age of Umbra with Daggerheart while leaning on the familiarity everyone has with 5E. (I've been going through Age of Umbra, and it's entertaining, but much as there were a lot of rules questions in the early days after converting Vox Machina from Pathfinder to 5E, the game does encounter a little friction with the brand-new system).

Another reason to stick to 5E: with Jeremy Crawford and Chris Perkins working for Darrington Press now, the two of them have been able to help create bespoke character options and flesh out the world for the 4th campaign. They are, after all, two of the central figures behind 5E, and lead the 2024 revamp.

Secondly, the campaign is going to be a broad, West Marches-style game. What this means is that there are 14 - yes, fourteen - core cast members for the campaign. This includes all 8 of the core Critical Role folks, along with Robbie Daymond, Luis Carazo, Aabria Iyengar, Alex Ward, and Whitney Moore.

However, the thirteen players aren't all going to be at the table together. The players are divided into different groups: Soldiers, Seekers, and Schemers, based on the style of adventure that the players prefer.

The Soldiers will have a more combat-focused story in the campaign, with classic monster-fighting. Schemers will be involved in a lot of cloak and dagger and political intrigue. Seekers are going to explore and discover lore across the world.

And what world is that? Aramán.

Aramán (sorry, as an American, we don't have accented letters on the keyboard, so this is probably going to be come Araman in these posts very soon) is a fully new world. 70 years ago, the gods and mortals of Araman went to war, and the gods were slain. Now, in the power vacuum that has followed, various factions and individuals vie for power and seek to determine how the world will work in the absence of such powers.

Evidently, Perkins and Crawford are heavily involved in helping Mulligan build out this setting, and I have to imagine we'll get a Darrington Press campaign setting book for it (perhaps for both 5E and Daggerheart?)

The three groups' stories will be happening simultaneously, and I think the idea is that individual characters might migrate between groups at times.

It's a profoundly ambitious project, but I also think that if anyone has the resources to pull off such a thing, it's this group of people. I'll be excited to check it out when it launches in October.

UA: Defiled Sorcery

 If you had any doubts that this UA was Dark Sun themed, this and the Warlock to follow really cinch it. Dark Sun is ruled over by warring Sorcerer Kings whose magic has blighted the land. If you want a bit of that dark magic, look no further than this subclass, and become a Sorcerer King/Queen/Monarch yourself!

Defiler Spells:

1st: Inflict Wounds, Ray of Sickness

2nd: Blindness/Deafness, Ray of Enfeeblement

3rd: Bestow Curse, Vampiric Touch

4th: Blight, Hallucinatory Terrain

5th: Antilife Shell, Contagion

    So, off the bat I don't know if I'm crazy about any of these spells, except maybe Antilife Shell and Blidness/Deafness. Attack spells are obviously better now for Sorcerers thanks to Innate Sorcery.

Level 3:

Defile and Empower:

(Buckle up, this one's a big one).

Once per turn, when you roll damage for a spell you cast using a spell slot, you can roll a number of your unexpended Hit Point Dice (Hit Dice? What are we calling them these days?) up to a number equal to half the level of the spell slot expended, rounded up, and add the total rolled to one damage roll of the spell, expending the hit point dice.

Life Steal: Alternatively, instead of drawing on your own life force, you can try to steal life from another creature you can see within 30 feet. The creature makes a Con save versus your spell save DC (creatures immune to exhaustion succeed automatically). On a failure, in place of rolling your Hit Point Dice, you roll a number of the creature's unexpended hit point dice (up to half the level of the spell slot expended, rounding down, but still with a minimum of 1 die) and add the total to one damage roll of the spell, and the creature's hit point dice that you rolled are expended for them.

Once a creature fails their save against this Life Steal aspect of the feature, you can't use Life Steal again until you finish a Long Rest or expend 3 Sorcery points to use it again.

    Whoo boy, that's a lot. Flavorfully, this is freaking awesome. My reading of how this works is that if you try to use Life Steal for this, and they succeed on their save, you just don't get to empower the spell. Targeting larger creatures with Life Steal will give a better reward, but big monsters also tend to have higher Con modifiers, so it's a risk.

    As a reminder, in 2024 rules, you get all your Hit Dice/Hit Point Dice back on a long rest, rather than just half, so you can actually afford to be more liberal with this - as long as you aren't also going to need to heal up a bunch on a short rest.

    The bonus damage here is going to be decent - a bit like upcasting. If you use this with Blight, for example, you'll add 2d6 to the spell's typical 8d8. That's a little less than if you were casting Blight at 6th level. A Fireball could also add 2d6, so for the cost of your own potential healing, you could effectively upcast it to 5th level.

    The real shenanigans here is Magic Missile, which officially only uses a single roll for all of its missiles. Is that how, like, any DMs allow you to run it? Not that I've seen. But RAW, even a 1st level Magic Missile will do 1d4+1d6+1, an average of 7 per dart, or 21 guaranteed damage (ask your DM about this outside of the game before trying to pull it out in the middle of a fight, and don't be shocked if they shut it down).

    Also, as a note, if the party is willing to lend their vitality to this, they can opt to fail their saving throws. Have a Barbarian who is willing to toss a d12 or two your way?

Level 6:

Corrupted Caster:

You gain the following benefits:

Defiler's Ward: when you take a bonus action to transform Sorcery Points into a spell slot, you can roll a number of d6s equal to the level of the spell slot created, and gain Temp HP equal to the total rolled.

    My general experience has been that Sorcerers tend to convert spell slots into Sorcery Points rather than the other way around, but if you make a 5th level spell slot, you'd get an average of 17.5 Temp HP on top of the spell slot, so... a decent bonus.

Strengthened Rot: Damage dealt by your Sorcerer spells and features ignore resistance to Necrotic and Poison damage.

    Sadly, this is probably worthless. Almost no monsters are resistant to either of these damage types. Full immunity in both cases is far more common.

Level 14:

Withering Aura:

When you use Innate Sorcery, you create a 15-foot aura originating from you for the duration of Innate Sorcery, which gives the following benefits:

Defiling Shroud allows you to reduce the damage of enemies within the aura when they hit you with an attack roll by an amount equal to your Charisma modifier.

Essence Siphon lets you regain 1d4 Sorcery Points when a creature dies within the aura, but you can only benefit from this once per use of Innate Sorcery.

    Hot damn, this is good. The damage reduction doesn't take any action or have any limit, so if you get swarmed in melee (not great for a Sorcerer, but it happens,) this can potentially save you a lot of damage, and at least help out even against single big hits. The Sorcery Point restoration can be enormous: you don't have a ton of Sorcery Points to begin with. Using Sorcery Incarnate (the level 7 feature for all Sorcerers,) this could potentially make Innate Sorcery a SP-neutral feature if creatures die near you often enough.

Level 18:

Superior Defiler:

You gain the following:

Fouled Soul: You have immunity to the Poisoned and Exhaustion conditions.

    That's freaking great. Immune to Exhaustion? With the nerfing of Exhausion in 2024, more monsters can actually inflict it, and that's a scary condition. Poisoned is more common, but also less scary (and I feel like maybe less common at these high levels?)

Furthered Defilement: Your Withering Aura increases to a 30-foot emanation, and enemies within it cannot restore HP.

    Bigger aura is good. Shutting down healing is situationally good (and pairs well with the Gladiator Fighter).

Overall Thoughts:

    Conceptually, this subclass is very cool. And I do think Defile and Empower, which is the central subclass feature, has the potential to be very powerful. I also think it'd be an interesting challenge to play one of these in Dark Sun - maybe you're the child of one of the Sorcerer Kings, or you have the potential to become one. Can you be a hero when your power is so destructive?

UA: Gladiator Fighter

 For some reason, we tend to imagine that as civilization crumbles in an apocalyptic catastrophe, entertainment becomes more brutal and cruel. The clear pop-culture analogue I can thing of here is the Thunderdome, from the third Mad Max movie, but pit-fighting does seem to be a signifier of a cruel and anarchic world (even if, historically, the most famous gladiators fought under an unprecedentedly advanced empire).

The Gladiator in this UA is a Fighter subclass that strongly encourages you to go heavy on Charisma, as your fighting is part of a gory performance. As a note, I think that this could pair well with a Warlock dip, though of course remember that most good melee feats will still require at least a minimum of 13 in Strength or sometimes Dexterity.

Also of note, many Gladiator features here require a melee weapon to use, so while most Fighter subclasses are perfectly viable as a ranged build, this one's obligate melee.

Level 3:

Brutality:

The central feature of the subclass allows you to augment your weapon hits. Once per turn (though not only on your turn) if you hit a creature with a melee weapon attack, you can add one of the following effects. You can do this a number of times equal to your Charisma modifier (minimum 1) per Short or Long Rest. Each of these lets you tack on an additional weapon mastery effect specific to the brutality effect along with an additional bonus. The mastery is in addition to whatever mastery you're already getting.

Bleed lets you activate the Sap property in addition to another mastery (likely the weapon's default, but of course Fighters can swap those out by mid-levels) and also deal extra damage equal to your Charisma modifier (minimum 1).

Bluff lets you activate the Vex property and also gives you advantage on the next saving throw you make before the end of your next turn.

Stumble lets you activate the Topple mastery and the target can only take an action or bonus action on its next turn, not both.

    I quibble a bit with Bleed here, as it doesn't create some kind of periodic damage effect. Of course, at higher levels as Fighters we can already swap in Sap, Push, or Slow, but we could potentially do that along with this with these strikes. Naturally, I'll always feel inclined to compare this with the Battle Master, but I think the effects that come with the bonus mastery are an interesting wrinkle. You get all three of these (and later more). But unless you're emptying the tank, you'll need to be a little conservative with them.

Combat Theatrics:

This gives you two benefits:

Athletic Flair lets you add your Charisma modifier (minimum 1) to any Strength Athletics check or Dexterity Acrobatics check you make.

    Again, you need to have a decent Charisma modifier for this subclass to work, so this will be a nice bonus when it comes up.

Bonus Proficiency gives you proficiency in your choice of Acrobatics, Athletics, Deception, Intimidation, or Performance.

    Nice, but clearly not the headliner.

Level 7:

Flourish Parry:

As a reaction when someone hits you with a melee attack, you can use a reaction to increase your AC against that attack by an amount equal to your Charisma modifier (minimum 1).

If the reaction causes the attack to miss, you can retaliate as part of the same reaction, making a melee weapon attack against the triggering creature. If this hits, you can use a brutality effect without expending a use of the feature.

If you use this counterattack, you can't do so again until you finish a Long Rest or expend a Second Wind to restore your use of it.

    The real headliner here is that this is a defensive reaction you never run out of. Sure, the counterattack is limited, but every single round, you will be able to potentially parry an attack. Once again, you'll really need a high Charisma for it to be reliable, but unless you have a DM who doesn't tell you the actual attack roll, you'll be able to gauge when it's time to use it. I actually think this makes the Gladiator really attractive as a sword-and-board build - as someone who played an Eldritch Knight with the Shield spell, I can tell you it's very nice to be very hard to hit. This isn't quite Shield, as it's only against one attack, but the unlimited nature is very cool. The counterattack is also nice, but not the thing that gets me excited about it.

Level 10:

Bolder Brutalities:

You gain new brutality effects you can use.

Rive lets you activate the Cleave mastery, and you get to add your ability modifier to the damage of the bonus action attack.

    Cleave's pretty hard to come by - only on Greataxes and Halberds. And this makes Cleave better. One of the big problems with Cleave is that it's useless if you don't have multiple enemies standing next to each other. But being able to choose it situationally, I think, makes it a lot better.

Rush lets you activate the Push mastery and also you can move up to your speed without provoking opportunity attacks.

    I like this: while the obvious thing would be to pursue your target after pushing them, you can also get a ton of extra movement to reposition somewhere safer.

Stagger lets you activate the Slow mastery, and the target has disadvantage on the next saving throw it makes before the end of your next turn.

    This could be a really good set-up to help out one of the spellcasters. Slow is not the most exciting mastery, but disadvantage on the next saving throw? Quite nice.

Level 15:

Brutal Resurgence:

When you use Second Wind to regain HP, you gain an expended use of Brutality. You also regain a use of Brutality when you use Action Surge.

    This is going to significantly increase the amount of brutality you can use. You'll want to ensure you're using enough to not "cap" uses.

Level 18:

Mutilate:

When you hit a bloodied creature with an attack roll, you can attempt to critically injure it. The target makes a Con save (DC based on your Charisma). On a failure, you can choose one of the following effects:

Maimed prevents it from taking more than one attack with the attack action.

Sluggish halves the target's speed and reduces their AC by 2.

These effects last until the creature regains HP.

Once a creature fails its save against this, you can't use it again until you finish a long rest.

    Lots to unpack here, but I love that the target needs to heal up before the effect ends. Against most monsters, that's never going to happen. It is very limited in use, but I love that you have bad-luck protection. If the target succeeds its save, you can use this on your next turn. By the time you get this feature, monsters have hundreds of HP, so bloodied can still mean there's a lot of fight left to go. Also, you can gauge which effect to use: if it's a Marilith or some other monster with a ton of attacks, Maimed will almost neutralize it. If it only does like 2 attacks, it might be more helpful to use Sluggish.

    I'd love to have some way to restore uses of this.

Overall Thoughts:

I think with any Fighter subclass, giving you a menu of things to do is always a good call - and it's a design we see a ton. I'm curious to see if the way this is tied to weapon masteries remains the final design. Only Bleed actually adds damage, and in that case only a modest amount (though at low levels, an extra 3 or 4 damage can be a big deal). The limitation on once per turn does have a little negative synergy with the Fighter's ability to make so many attacks per turn. I really like Flourish Parry and Mutilate here. And I do think Mutilate in particular really gives you that flavor of brutality.

UA: Circle of Preservation Druid

 In a devastated post-apocalyptic world, having Druids who can restore some vitality to the planet is a real asset. The Preservation druid seems to focus on healing and protecting the party while conjuring forth life from the devastated ground.

Before I get into the mechanics, I think this is a clearly desirable hero for a setting like Dark Sun, though in a way I wonder if that might clash with the setting's themes. We'll have to see how they present them.

Circle Spells:

1st: Bless, Sanctuary

2nd: Lesser Restoration, Protection from Poison

3rd: Beacon of Hope, Plant Growth

4th: Aura of Life, Death Ward

5th: Greater Restoration, Hallow

    This has some bangers in it - Bless is a solid workhorse, and Death Ward can be a nice insurance policy. Plant Growth is one of those spells I've heard is very useful, but I don't think I've ever seen it in play (which is likely because I haven't been in a lot of campaigns with druids. I had one in my Ravnica game before the player stepped away, but she was very conservative with spell slots, sticking largely to cantrips).

Level 3:

Preserved Land:

As a bonus action, you can expend a Wild Shape charge to create a 15-foot cube (haha, been reading so much Draw Steel that I almost wanted to say a 3-cube) originating on a point within 120 feet. It lasts a minute, and ends if you're incapacitated or die, or if you move more than 120 feet away from it. You can move the cube as a bonus action up to 30 feet.

Within the cube, nonmagical vegetation sprouts from the ground. If a creature its turn in the cube, you can give them one of the following benefits: They gain 1d4 plus your Druid Level's worth of Temp HP, or you can end a Frightened or Poisoned effect on them. (This is your choice and doesn't require any action - if a foe is there, you don't have to give them anything in it.)

    Naturally, you'll want to maintain this in most fights, and probably use it primarily to bolster allies with the Temp HP. The amount of Temp HP isn't enormous, but it's a nice little buffer to keep them safe.

Student of Preservation:

You gain multiple benefits:

Frugal Casting lets you ignore material components to spells, except those that cost money or are consumed. However, if a material component is consumed, there's a 10% chance that the component isn't consumed.

    This is cool, but I also wonder how often it's likely to come up: how often to people cast spells with consumed components? I doubt it happens often enough to make a 10% chance at a refund feel that impactful.

Tool Proficiency gives you, you guessed it, proficiency in a type of Artisan's Tools.

    Great. Nothing huge, but nice.

Level 6:

Improved Preservation:

You gain two benefits:

Fortify Protectors gives you and allies in the Preserved Land cube a bonus to Con saves equal to your Wisdom modifier (minimum +1).

    This is really nice: Con saves are very common (and include concentration saves). Couple this with a Paladin's aura of protection and you could have some massive bonuses to Con saves.

Reject Desecrators gives your Preserved Land an offensive option. When the cube enters an enemy's space, and when an enemy enters the cube or ends their turn there, the enemy makes a Wisdom saving throw, taking 2d10 radiant damage on a failure and getting their speed halved until the end of their next turn, or half damage only on a success. An enemy only has to make this save once per turn.

    Naturally, moving the cube to encompass your melee characters as well as the monsters they're fighting is a pretty strong move here. Also, because this can deal damage multiple times per round (just not on the same turn,) you could move this into an enemy, and then if they move out of it, have an ally with a Push weapon knock them back into it. It's decent damage at this level, though it might start to feel a bit underwhelming at higher levels.

Level 10:

Facilitated Restoration lets you cast Lesser Restoration or Greater Restoration without expending a spell slot or any spell components. You can do this a number of times equal to your Wisdom modifier (minimum 1) per long rest.

    This. Is. Freaking. Good. Greater Restoration is one of those spells that always feels like it prevents classes who don't have it from truly being a party's healer (even if it doesn't actually restore HP). Getting 5 of these for free every day, with no gold cost, is amazing. Will it come up all the time? Maybe not. But boy is this going to be fantastic for dealing with foes who might, say, inflict Exhaustion (which I'd bet a lot of Dark Sun monsters could do).

Level 14:

Sacrosanct Land expands your Preserved Land cube to 30 feet. Also, when a creature you can see in the area of it is hit with an attack roll, you can take a reaction to halve the attack's damage.

    So, a conditional but targeted Uncanny Dodge. This is actually the kind of thing that starts to be really useful at high levels. Did the Fighter just get crit by that Colossus? This will help a whole lot.

Overall Thoughts:

    I think this is probably a pretty solid healing subclass. I'm actually really happy that they're making Druids more capable healers to give an alternative to Clerics, and these features are solid. Is this the most exciting subclass? Perhaps not. But it's going to be a real solid utility player.