Tasha's, Class by Class - Druids

 Druids are a highly versatile class with a lot of spells unique to them. While in they're generally not thought of as quite as powerful healers as Clerics, they are a rather unique and powerful type of spellcaster, and also get the iconic Wild Shape feature, which in Tasha's new subclasses, can be used for other purposes as a kind of new resource. But let's get into class features first!

New Spells:

Druids get some new spells from Tasha's (three of the new Summon spells) as well as some additional spells from the PHB (and Xanathar's? The wording is a little confusing, and I don't recall which spells are PHB versus Xanathar's). Anyway, Druids can now also prepare/cast: Protection from Good and Evil, Augury, Continual Flame, Enlarge/Reduce, Aura of Vitality, Elemental Weapon, Revivify, Divination, Fire Shield, Cone of Cold, Flesh to Stone, Symbol, and Incendiary Cloud.

Wild Companion (2nd level): You can now expend a use of Wild Shape to cast Find Familiar without needing components. The familiar is fey instead of a beast (which I thought was default for the spell, but ok) and in this case only lasts a number of hours equal to half your druid level.

    It makes a ton of sense that a Druid should be able to call on little nature spirits in the form of animals to assist them.

Cantrip Versatility (4th level):

Whenever you get the ability score improvement feature, you can swap out one of your druid cantrips for a different one.

    Quality of Life, always good.

Subclasses:

Circle of Spores:

This is a reprint from the popular Spore Druid from Guildmaster's Guide to Ravnica. In addition to being able to damage nearby foes with your cloud of spores, you can also use it to gain a massive number of temp hit points (4 times your level) and you also get a bit of necromancy, including Animate Dead as a circle spell and also letting you use your reaction to turn a beast or humanoid that dies within 10 feet of you into a zombie with 1 hit point under your command for the next hour.

Basically, it's the ultimate creepy druid subclass. While it was clearly designed very specifically to fit with Ravnica's Golgari Swarm, it's easily translatable to other settings.

Circle of Stars:

The Circle of Stars focuses a lot on divination - a druid who's deeply connected not just to terrestrial nature, but also the kind of hum of the universe. As such, there's a strong focus on divination magic - you actually don't get any circle spells, except kind of guidance and guiding bolt. But you do get three special forms you can spend your Wild Shape charges on - these are all starry constellations which either give you extra magical attacks, boosting your healing, or improving your ability to maintain concentration on spells.

There's definitely an otherworldly vibe to this subclass, which is a real change of pace for Druids, who are usually very decidedly of this world (well, except I guess Circle of Dreams).

Circle of Wildfire:

Wildfire has two major focuses - fire damage and healing. While I'd be very tempted to play this as a sinister, Wickerman-style druid, the general idea behind it is fire as a source of renewal. You do get circle spells here, which are nearly all some form of healing or fire damage (sadly you don't get fireball, as you did in UA). This subclass' alternate use of Wild Shape lets you summon a Wildfire Spirit, which has one of those scaling stat blocks similar to the Battle-Smith's Steel Defender, and which you can command with a bonus action.

The spirit fights alongside you, but also buffs your fire damage and healing, and can help friendly creatures get out of a jam if they're in trouble with a teleport ability.

    So, to review, I really love the flavor of these Druids - each of which is, again, doing something pretty unusual and unique among Druid subclasses. Circle of Spores is already a very popular subclass to come out of GGtR, and it's nice to see it here in an AL-legal printing.

    I think a good sign for any subclass is that you can really conjure a unique visual for each of them, and all three of these look very different in my head. Also, if my Ranger dies in Tomb of Annihilation, I'm totally rolling a Wildfire Druid whose solution to finding Omu is to just burn down all of Chult (it could really use it.)

Tasha's, Class by Class - Fighters

 Fighters are a great workhorse class in 5e - nothing terribly fancy, but really solid at dishing out the damage or soaking it up. In the game I'm currently running, one Fighter started playing their Warlock alt, while another has been too busy to play, and I've been shocked at how much longer my monsters are surviving in combat without the Fighters. Let's get to class features:

Class Features:

New Fighting Styles:

Blind Fighting: (does this look familiar.) You have blindsight out to 10 feet, allowing you to effectively see things in that range even if you're blind, including invisible creatures that aren't successfully hidden from you.

Interception: When a creature you can see hits a target other than you within 5 feet of you with an attack, you can use your reaction to reduce the damage by 1d10 + PB, to a minimum of 0, if you're wielding a shield or a simple or martial weapon.

Superior Technique: You learn one maneuver of your choice from among those available to the Battle Master archetype. If a maneuver requires your target to make a saving throw, the DC is equal to 8 + your PB + your Strength or Dexterity modifier (your choice.) You gain one superiority die, which is a d6 (added to any dice you get from other sources.) The die is used to fuel your maneuvers, and is expended when you take the maneuver. You regain the die on a short or long rest.

Thrown Weapon Fighting: You can draw a thrown weapon as part of the attack to throw it, and when you hit with a ranged attack with a thrown weapon, you get a +2 bonus to the damage roll.

Unarmed Fighting: Your unarmed strikes deal bludgeoning damage equal to 1d6 + your strength modifier on a hit, and if you aren't wielding weapons or a shield when you make the attack roll, the d6 becomes a d8. Additionally, at the start of your turn, if you're grappling a creature, you can deal 1d4 bludgeoning damage to it.

Martial Versatility (4th level):

When you get an Ability Score Improvement, you can either change your Fighting Style to a different Fighter fighting style, or if you know any maneuvers from the Battle master archetype, you can replace it with a different manuever.

New Maneuver Options:

Ambush: When you make a Dexterity (Stealth) check or an initiative roll, you can expend one superiority die and add the die to the roll, as long as you are not incapacitated.

Bait and Switch: When you're within 5 feet of a creature on your turn, you can expend one superiority die and switch places with that creature, provided you spend at least 5 feet of movement and the creature is willing and not incapacitated. The movement doesn't provoke opportunity attacks. Roll the superiority die, and you or the other creature (your choice) gains a bonus to AC equal to the number rolled until the start of your next turn.

Brace: When a creature you can see moves into the reach you have with the melee weapon you're wielding, you can use your reaction to expend a superiority die and make one attack against the creature, using that weapon. If the attack hits, add the superiority die to the weapon's damage roll.

Commanding Presence: When you make a Charisma (Intimidation,) a Charisma (Performance,) or a Charisma (Persuasion) check, you can expend one superiority die and add the die to the ability check.

Grappling Strike: Immediately after you hit a creature with a melee attack on your turn, you can expend one superiority die and then ry to grapple the target as a bonus action. Add the superiority die to your Strength (Athletics) check.

Quick Toss: As a bonus action, you can expend one superiority die and make a ranged attack with a weapon that has the thrown property. You can draw the weapon as part of making this attack. If you hit, add the superiority die to the weapon's damage roll.

Tactical Assessment: When you make an Intelligence (Investigation), an Intelligence (History), or a Wisdom (Insight) check, you can expend one superiority die and add the die to the ability check.

    Hoo! That's a lot of maneuvers. It's pretty clear that WotC feels the Battle Master was the most successful of their Fighter subclasses, and I'd expect for similar gameplay concepts to be baked into the Fighter in general in any hypothetical 6e.

Subclasses:

Psi Warrior:

This is another of the psionic-themed subclasses, in this case leveraging your psychic abilities to be a better warrior. Like the Soulknife, you'll have a number of Psionic Energy dice that get bigger as you level up, and you get more of them as your PB goes up (you have a number equal to twice your PB, so you start with 4.) You spend these dice on various abilities, or sometimes to get additional uses of other abilities.

The abilities you get for this include various kinds of telekinesis, as well as the ability to deal a bit of extra force damage to targets you hit. There are also some defensive abilities to reduce damage you take and give allies cover.

Rune Knight:

The concept of this is that you've learned a number of magical giant runes that you can carve into your weapons and armor to get various effects. You also have a feature that lets you become Large in size, and later Huge, granting bonuses to your damage, as well as Strength checks and Saving Throws.

This is a pretty thematic and customizable subclass (though by 15th level, you'll know all but one of the rune options.) Also, a lot of the runes grant you abilities outside of combat, which is a nice thing for the Fighter, which tends to be a pretty combat-focused class.

Battle Master Builds:

This isn't actually a new feature, per se, but there are 12 suggested builds for battle master Fighters, focusing on particular strength and styles. Again, I think WotC really likes the Battle Master. The suggestions they grant are the Archer, Bodyguard, Brawler, Duelist, Gladiator, Hoplite, Lancer, Outrider, Pugilist, Shock Trooper, Skirmisher, and Strategist, each with suggested Fighting Styles, Maneuvers, and Feats. It's a fun little bit, though for players who have already got a strong idea of what they want to do, it'll read mostly as filler.

    So, overall, I think the Fighter subclasses bring some interesting ideas. The Rune Knight feels like an attempt to have another highly customizable subclass like the Battle Master, though the relatively small number of runes to pick from means it won't be quite at that level.

Tasha's, Class by Class - Monks

 Hey, have you been sleeping on Monks? Monks are one of the coolest, craziest classes in 5e, and while I think some people might be turned off by what they view as a limited class fantasy (which... buckle up when you see these subclasses) the number of cool features Monks get is really over-the-top and awesome.

So let's see what they get in the new book!

Class Features:

Dedicated Weapon (2nd level):

When you finish a short or long rest, you can touch a weapon, focus your ki on it, and count that as a monk weapon until you use this feature again. The weapon has to meet the following criteria:

It has to be a simple or martial weapon. You must be proficient with it. And it must lack the heavy and special properties.

    So no, you can't start using a maul as a monk weapon. The proficiency element does limit this somewhat - after all, the weapons monks are proficient with are already mostly monk weapons. But this would allow you to use, for example, a Longsword (my Drunken Master actually has a Sunblade that he'd really love to use as a Monk weapon - but can't because while anyone proficient with a shortsword is considered proficient with it, it's technically a longsword.) But given that some races, backgrounds, or, you know classes you might have multiclassed into, grant other weapon proficiencies, you could start using other weapons. For example, a Dwarf might use a Warhammer. Or a wood elf like my Monk could make unarmed strikes after shooting things with his longbow.

Ki-Fueled Attack (3rd level):

If you spend 1 ki point or more as part of your action on your turn, you can make one attack with an unarmed strike or a monk weapon as a bonus action before the end of the turn.

    While a lot of ki-abilities either take a bonus action or can be used while you're making an attack anyway, this should make non-attack ki moves a little more appealing, as you can still hit things.

Quickened Healing (4th level):

As an action, you can spend 2 ki points and roll a Martial Arts die. You regain hit points equal to the number + PB.

    Just a nice bit of self-healing.

Focused Aim (5th level):

When you miss with an attack roll, you can spend 1-3 ki points to increase your attack roll by 2 per ki point spent, potentially turning the miss into a hit.

    This is pretty amazing - potentially giving yourself a +6 bonus to your attack roll. If you really need to land a hit, this can be a lifesaver, and it's pretty great that you'll know exactly how many you need before you spend your ki.

Subclasses:

Way of Mercy:

Hey, want to play a creepy monk? And a creepy monk who's also a healer? There are, admittedly, already a lot of tables with options to suggest how you can flavor various subclasses that I've already covered, but this one struck me in particular: Way of Mercy monks typically wear a signature mask of their order - the illustrated option being that of a Plague Doctor, which is always cool.

Way of Mercy monks get both Hands of Healing and Hands of Harm. The latter is straightforward, allowing you to add necrotic damage to your strikes by spending Ki (and a fair amount, I'll say - Martial Arts die plus Wisdom). But the former allows you to heal a creature you can touch by that same amount if you either spend 1 ki point as an action, or replace one of your unarmed strikes from Fury of Blows.

This improves, letting you use them more often without spending ki as you level up. You also gain the ability to cure blindness, deafness, paralyzation, poison, and stuns with your Hands of Healing, or inflict the poisoned condition with Hands of Harm.

Eventually, you can spend 5 ki points to bring someone back to life once per long rest, healing them for 4d10 plus your Wisdom.

Way of the Astral Self:

While not precisely the psionic monk I had dreamed up, the Way of the Astral self really leans into the mystical side of things. It's also a subclass that pushes a Monk to actually prioritize Wisdom over Dexterity (though ideally you'll max both eventually.)

Basically, as a bonus action, you can start to summon more and more of your "astral soul," essentially fighting with your spirit more than your body.

There are a lot of ways the subclass can use Wisdom to replace both Strength and Dexterity, and you eventually get the ability to effective deflect missiles against acid, cold, fire, force, lightning, and thunder damage. The only real downside is that you need to spend ki points to activate any of these features, so you'll need to lobby almost as hard as the Warlock for those short rests whenever you can. The transformation lasts 10 minutes, regardless of how many of your features are active.

    Monks are pretty awesome already, and I think the push into more mystical, supernatural subclasses is a lot of fun. Again, the two presented in this book are very different from one another, which I also count as a point in their favor.

Tasha's, Class by Class - Paladin

     My general feelings about Paladins in 5th Edition is that the class in general is great, while the subclasses are... fine, though I'll say that the level 20 super-modes for each subclass are the kind of thing I wish more level 20 features were like - bright, flashy, and a reward for sticking with the class the whole way.

But let's get into the new class features!

New Spells:

In addition to a couple of new spells in Tasha's, Paladins get a couple from the PHB, namely: Gentle Repose, Prayer of Healing and Warding Bond. Yep, that's it for them!

New Fighting Style Options:

Blessed Warrior: You learn two Cleric cantrips, which count as Paladin spells for you, and you use Charisma to cast them. When you gain a paladin level, you can swap one of these with another Cleric cantrip.

Blind Fighting: You gain blindsight out to a range of 10 feet, allowing you to effectively see within that range while blinded, and also spot invisible creatures that haven't successfully hidden from you.

Interception: When a creature you can see hits a target, other than you, within 5 feet of you with an attack, you can use yoru reaction to reduce the damage the target takes by 1d10 + your PB (they've started abbreviating Profiicency Bonus, and I will too!) to a minimum of 0 damage. You must be wielding a shield or a simple or martial weapon to use this reaction.

Harness Divine Power (3rd level):

You can use a bonus action and expend your Channel Divinity to regain one expended spell slot, the level of which can be no higher than half your PB. You can use this a limited number of times per long rest - once at 3rd level, twice at 7th level, and three times at 15th level.

Martial Versatility (4th level):

When you get an ability score improvement, you can switch your fighting style to a different Paladin fighting style.

Subclasses:

Oath of Glory:

This one we already saw printed in Mythic Odyesseys of Theros. The general theme is athletic prowess and alacrity, improving movement speed and basically reposting foes attacks against you or allies.

Oath of the Watchers:

This subclass is built around defending the world from extraplanar threats. It's very themed around vigilance, with an aura that buffs initiative rolls, rebuking creatures trying to affect your party's minds, and having tools to deal with aberrations, celestials, elementals, fey, and fiends.

    In contrast with Rangers, I think 5e Paladins have been pretty strong since they were introduced. Again, I think the subclasses tend to carry with them some less exciting and powerful abilities (apart from the level 20 capstone,) but that's fine given the overall strength of the class in general.

Tasha's, Class by Class - Ranger

 Ah, the Ranger. The Ranger has always had a poor reputation in 5th Edition, and while not all of that is deserved, there are some features that could use some love.

While most of the new class features in Tasha's are pure additions, for the Ranger, they instead swap them out, in many cases for better, or at least more broadly useful features. So let's get into them!

Deft Explorer (1st level, replaces Natural Explorer):

Giving away Favored Terrain, you get an array of new features at 1st, 6th, and 10th level.

Canny (Deft Explorer): You essentially get expertise in one of your skill proficiencies, doubling your proficiency bonus in that skill. You also learn two additional languages.

Roving (Deft Explorer, 6th Level): Your walking speed increases by 5, and you gain a climbing speed and swimming speed equal to your walking speed.

Tireless (Deft Explorer, 10th Level): As an action, you can give yourself temporary hit points equal to 1d8+ your Wisdom modifier (minimum of +1,) and you can do this a number of times equal to your proficiency bonus, regaining all uses when you finish a long rest. Additionally, your exhaustion level is reduced by 1 if you finish a short rest.

Favored Foe (1st level, replaces the Favored Enemy feature and works with the Foe Slayer feature):

When you hit a creature with an attack roll, you can call on your mystic bond with nature to mark the target as your favored enemy for 1 minute or until you lose concentration (as if on a spell.) The first time on your turn you hit the favored enemy and deal damage to it, including when you mark it, the damage is increased by 1d4. You can use this feature to mark a favored enemy a number of times equal to your proficiency bonus, regaining all uses when you finish a long rest. The damage increases to 1d6 at 6th level and 1d8 at 14th level.

    Overall, I think the main benefit of these is that they'll be active regardless of your environment or foes - while it's cool to have particular prey, this frees a character up to be useful regardless of what the DM throws at you. I don't think Favored Foe is crazy powerful - you're probably better off using Hunter's Mark in most cases.

New Spells:

Rangers get some new spells in Tasha's, but also some access to some PHB and Xanathar's Spells. The PHB ones are Entangle, Searing Smite, Aid, Enhance Ability, Gust of Wind, Magic Weapon, Elemental Weapon, Meld into Stone, Revivify, Dominate Beast, and Greater Restoration.

New Fighting Options:

Blind Fighting: You have blindsight out to a range of 10 feet, allowing you to effectively see when blinded or even if the target's invisible, as long as the target doesn't successfully hide from you.

Druidic Warrior: You learn two Druid cantrips, using Wisdom as your spellcasting ability. When you level up in this class, you can swap one of these with a different Druid cantrip. The cantrips count as ranger spells for you.

Thrown Weapon Fighting: You can draw a thrown weapon as part of the attack to throw it, and when you hit with a ranged attack using a throw weapon, you can add a +2 bonus to the damage roll. (Given that my ranger primarily fights with a Handaxe that the Artificer put Returning Weapon on, this would probably be great for him.)

Spellcasting Focus (2nd level): Rangers can now use a druid focus as a spellcasting focus for their ranger spells (so no more worrying about material components for most spells!)

Primal Awareness (3rd level, replaces Primeval Awareness): You learn additional spells that don't count against your spells known, and you can cast each of them once per long rest without spending a spell slot - though you need to be high enough level to cast them as a half-caster. The spells are Speak with Animals, Beast Sense, Speak with Plants, Locate Creature, and Commune with Nature.

Martial Versatility (4th, etc. level):

When you get an Ability Score Improvement, you can replace a fighting style you know with a different Ranger fighting style. Again, nice Quality of Life change.

Nature's Veil (10th level, replaces Hide in Plain Sight):

As a bonus action, you can magically become invisible, along with any equipment you're waring or carrying, until the start of your next turn. You can use this a number of time equal to your proficiency bonus, regaining all uses on a long rest.

    Holy crap, folks, that's a lot of changes. Roughly half the Ranger class features can be swapped out for these new ones. Let's get to the subclasses (though we won't even be done after that!)

Fey Wanderer:

This type of ranger has a strong connection to the Feywild, gaining some of the magic of that realm. As usual, you get a couple extra spells (that are pretty Fey-themed) as well as the ability to deal a bit of extra psychic damage once per turn. You also get some bonuses to your Charisma checks and ways to turn around charm and fear effects on your foes.

In addition to your spells, you also get a class feature that lets you misty step - making the Fey Wanderer a slippery ranger if ever there was one.

Swarmkeeper:

The main concept of the swarmkeeper is that you have a swarm of creatures - maybe insects or other tiny creatures, or even nature spirits - that can aid you in various ways.

The swarm can augment your attacks with extra damage or moving the target or yourself. Also, amongst the spells you get is Mage Hand, which is just your swarm manipulating objects for you. The capstone allows you to discorporate into your swarm and teleport 30 feet away, making this arguably one of the creepiest ranger subclasses.

Beast Mastery Features:

Ah, perhaps the most maligned subclass of the most maligned class, Beast Mastery in the PHB is an early attempt at a pet-based class that didn't really work out that well. Using newer concepts, this attempts to fix it:

Primal Companion (3rd level Beast master feature, replacing Ranger's Companion):

This lets you magically summon a beast - choosing a Beast of the Land, Beast of the Sea, or Beast of the Sky. While not quite the same as the spirits summoned by the Summon Beast spell (which Rangers can get, though it might be a bit redundant for beast masters) it works a bit similarly. The beast can move and use reactions on its own, but you need to use a bonus action to command it to take an action. You can also, like with the PHB version, use one of your attacks when you take the Attack action to instead have the beast attack.

You can also revive the beast if it dies by touching it and expending any spell slot if it's been dead less than an hour - it comes back with full hit points after a minute.

You can also summon a new beast after you finish a long rest, though the previous one will vanish if you do this, or if you die.

The beasts have scaling stat blocks. The Beast of the Land has a 40-ft movement speed, including a 40-ft climb speed, as well as the Charge feature of a Boar, Elk, or Rhino, and its health is 5+ 5x your ranger level (so 20 at level 3 when you first get it, and 105 by level 20). The Beast of the Sea has a swim speed of 60 (but only 5 feet of normal movement) and is Ampibious. Its attack grapples the target. The Beast of the Sky has 10 feet of normal movement but a fly speed of 60 and the Flyby feature (no opportunity attacks when it flies out of an enemy's reach) which is good, as it has less health than the others (it's a small beast, thus its HP is 4 + 4x Ranger level, so 16 at level 3 to 84 at level 20). The Beast of the Land does the most damage, at 1d8 + 2 + your Proficiency Bonus, while the Beast of the Sea replaces the d8 with a d6, while the Beast of the Air does 1d4 + 3 + PB, which I believe should work out to be the same damage as the Beast of the Sea on average, both of which are just 1 average damage below the Beast of the Land, so do as you like!

I believe that any Beast Master feature that applies to the Ranger's Companion should also work with the Primal Companion.

    Overall, I think this feature is good because it's clean and simple, and the built-in ability for the Ranger to bring their companion back to life makes it easier for an RP-focused character to feel ok about sending their beast into battle.

    Frankly, as a DM, I'd allow that mystical bond to persist such that even if technically they're replacing a dead companion they couldn't revive with one with the same stat block, I'd allow for it to canonically just be a longer process for bringing them back. I keep thinking about how in Critical Role's first campaign, Vex was very hesitant to send her bear, Trinket, into battle, given that the bear was such an important figure to her (having lost pets as a kid, I sympathize.) Frankly, I might even allow for a player to flavor the summoning of different types of beasts as simply changing the form of the same animal spirit, similar to how one can shift the form of one's familiar with the Find Familiar spell.

    As you can see, this post is pretty deeply involved - Rangers got a major overhaul with Tasha's. While "viability" isn't really something I care too much about in D&D, I think it does really create a more broadly appealing version of the class.

Tasha's, Class by Class - Rogues

 I've now been able to finally play a Rogue briefly in a kind of substitute game for one of my regular sessions, a Tabaxi Rogue in Wildemount (he's a daring explorer with an English accent and a signature Pith helmet, an archaeologist working for the Cobalt Soul) doing one of the low-level adventures in the Wildemount book. Anyway, they're fun! In Tasha's, we get just one new class feature but two new subclasses!

Class Features:

Steady Aim (3rd level): As a bonus  action, you give yourself advantage on your next attack roll on the current turn. You can use this bonus action only if you haven't moved during this turn, and after you use the bonus action, your speed is 0 until the end of the current turn. Basically, this lets you get advantage, and thus sneak attack if you hit, when conditions aren't terribly favorable - a great option when you want to hit something far from any of your allies and when there's no great place to hide.

Sucblasses:

Phantom:

The concept here is that you've developed a close bond with death on a mystical level. As a non-magic (outside of Arcane Tricksters) class, it's always fun to see Rogues get some supernatural element to their abilities.

The Phantom gets to gain temporary proficiencies when they finish rests - either tools or skills - which really lets them be great at nearly anything.

You also get to deal damage to a second target when you get a sneak-attack - rolling half your sneak attack dice (rounded up, for a change) to deal necrotic damage to the other foe, though this is limited to a number of times equal to your proficiency bonus per long rest - though any multi-target damage is pretty great for a class like a rogue.

The real flavorful thing is Tokens of the Departed - allowing you to snatch a physical manifestation of a kind of memory of a thing's soul when they die. Carrying it gives you various helpful bonuses, including a sort of single-question Speak with Dead effect.

Oh, and at level 13 you can walk through walls.

Soulknife:

The psionic rogue subclass, Soulknives' real signature feature is that they can manifest psychic blades as part of an attack, which they can either use in melee or throw, dealing psychic damage. You also get Psionic Energy dice, which get bigger and you get more of them as you level up (you have double your proficiency bonus per long rest, but with some abilities to regain them outside of that.) The dice can be rolled to help you succeed on ability checks you'd other wise have failed, and you can also use them to establish a telepathic connection with allies (great for a Rogue.)

Eventually, you can use your psychic blades to teleport or use them to stun targets hit with them. And at level 13, you can turn invisible - pretty useful for a Rogue.

    Both of these subclasses come with some exciting flavor. The Phantom I think would work fantastically in a Ravenloft-type gothic setting. The Soulknife also feels like the most secret of the rogues - your weapons don't even leave any wounds, and they disappear after you hit with them, so good luck investigating that kill! (I feel like House Dimir on Ravnica would be very, very into Soulknives.)

Tasha's, Class by Class - Sorcerers

 Moving onto Sorcerers!

New Spells:

Sorcerers get a bunch of the new spells in Tasha's, but they also, like the Warlock, get a somewhat broader number of arcane-themed spells from the PHB, namely: Grease, Flame Blade, Flaming Sphere, Magic Weapon, Vampiric Touch, Fire Shield, Bigby's Hand, Flesh to Stone, Otiluke's Freezing Sphere, and Demiplane. And they also get the SCAG cantrips.

New Metamagic Options:

Seeking Spell: This lets you reroll the d20 if you miss with a spell attack for 2 sorcery points, and can stack this with other metamagic options.

Transmute Spell: For 1 sorcery point, you can change the damage type of a spell from acid, cold, fire, lightning, poison, or thunder to another from that list.

New Features:

Sorcerous Versatility: When you get the Ability Score Improvement feature, you can swap out either a Metamagic Option or a Sorcerer cantrip for a different one. Again, nice Quality of Life change.

Magical Guidance (5th level): if you fail an ability check, you can spend a sorcery point to reroll the d20 once, potentially turning it into a success.

Subclasses:

Aberrant Mind:

This is one of three psionic-themed subclasses, though unlike the Soulknife and Psi Knight, there isn't any "psionic die" involved. The theme here is that something deeply alien altered you to grant you your sorcerous powers. Of note, this and the other new Sorcerer subclass come with extra spells you automatically learn and don't count against your known spells. You can actually trade these out when you level up, as long as the spell chosen is a divination or enchantment spell from the sorcerer, warlock, or wizard spell list. As an Aberrant Mind, these are listed as Psionic Spells. At 6th level, you can cast these with sorcery points, and if you do, you don't need to provide any components unless material components are consumed for it (so no need for a costly component for Summon Aberration, which is one of them.)

You also gain the ability to form a telepathic link with a creature, which you can use any number of times (but only connect with one person at a time.) Eventually, you can get various body-warping bonuses that allow you to fly, see invisible creatures, swim and breathe underwater, or become squishy so you can squeeze through small passages. The capstone allows you to teleport up to 120 feet and leave behind a spatial implosion that damages creatures caught within it.

Clockwork Soul:

Perhaps the opposite of the Wild-Magic Sorcerer, this has your power tied to Mechanus, the plane of law. Like the Aberrant Mind, you get several spells automatically. These can be traded for abjuration or transmutation spells from the sorcerer, warlock, or wizard list when you level up.

As a Clockwork soul, you have various ways to normalize fate - cancelling advantage and disadvantage, or later, entering a state where you can't roll below a 10 on attack rolls, ability checks, or saving throws.

Overall, the Clockwork Soul has a fair number of defensive abilities, and a capstone that can repair things, heal allies, and end harmful spell effects.

    I've got to say, both of these subclasses play into elements of fantasy that I really like - both the cosmic horror weirdness and the power of rational and mechanical elements. So I'd be a bit torn on which I wanted to play (I might skew Clockwork given that I've already got the Great Old One Warlock.)