UA: Revised Subclasses

 We have gotten a new Unearthed Arcana - something we've gotten a huge number of in the past year. Are these all intended for eventual publication? Or are they just speculative design? That's the real question.

This UA revises several subclasses that were published largely in Xanathar's Guide to Everything. I've said before that I generally prefer that the designers move on to new ideas - while it would be great to get an update for everything to work better with the 2024 update, the whole backwards-compatibility idea was to make sure that old content, including subclasses, would still work with the new classes, something that's still largely the case.

In other words, as cool as it is to get these revisions, I'd rather they put their efforts toward brand-new stuff.

That being said, the subclasses here are mostly ones that I'm eager to see new takes on.

The subclasses presented are the Path of the Spiritual Guardian (revised Ancestral Guardian) and Path of the Storm Herald Barbarian, the Cavalier Fighter, the Warrior of Intoxication Monk (revised Way of the Drunken Master), and the Oathbreaker Paladin.

In broad strokes, most of the core concepts are the same, though the Intoxication Monk does get a new brewing mechanic that's pretty fun. I'll go over each subclass in its own post.

Circle Magic and You (And Your Foes)

 Heroes of the Forgotten Realms adds a really interesting new mechanic in the form of Circle Casting. It's shockingly compatible with I think most spells already in the game, and could really alter how your players and NPC spellcasters approach the casting of magic.

The idea here is a trope that has long been a part of fantasy: that a mage might be powerful, but a group of mages is even more powerful, and their magic can be more potent in various ways.

Here's the basics: a group of spellcasters (those who have the Spellcasting or Pact Magic features) can get together (within 30 feet of one another) and cast a spell collectively. There's one primary caster, who has to have the spell prepared and is going to be the one who expends the spell slot and potentially material components when the spell is completed (some enhancements require the secondary casters to also expend spell slots).

The action economy of this is fairly simple: the primary caster uses a Magic action to initiate the spell. If the cast time for the spell is 1 action, they have to just maintain concentration until each of the secondary casters has taken an Magic action to make their contribution, and then the spell goes off. If the cast time is longer, each participant needs to continually use Magic actions to contribute (if the casting time is 1 min or more, they also have to concentrate). If a reaction were triggered by the casting of the spell, the initiation of the spell is when that occurs.

Once the last designated secondary caster contributes to the spell for the full duration, the spell is cast. If something interrupts it, like concentration being broken, the spell fails but the spell slot(s) is retained as well as any material components.

Effects you can add to a spell are the following:

Augment: increase the range of a spell (with a range of 5 feet or more) by 1000 feet per secondary caster, to a maximum of 1 mile.

Distribute: For spells that require concentration, each secondary caster also maintains concentration on the spell, and as long as at least one of the participants maintains concentration, the spell persists.

Expand: Increase the area of effect by 10 feet in one dimension per secondary caster (though spheres just get an increased radius). Each secondary caster must contribute a spell slot of any level to accomplish this (not expended if the spell fails).

Prolong: Extends the duration of a spell that lasts 1 minute or longer. 1-3 secondary casters increase it by 1 hour, 4-6 by 8 hours, and 7 or more increase it by 24 hours. Secondary casters must contribute a spell slot.

Safeguard: For area effect spells, you can carve out safe zone comprised of contiguous 5-foot cubes equal to the primary spellcaster's spellcasting ability modifier plus one for each secondary caster. If the spell effect moves (like Cloud Kill), the zone moves with it.

Supplant: For spells with costly components that are consumed, each secondary caster can reduce the gold cost of the component by 50 g. Each secondary caster must contribute a spell slot (not sure what happens if this reduces the cost to 0 - I'd probably rule you can go without the component).

    So, now that we know what it does, how would we use this?

Naturally, this is in a player-facing book, so players would be encouraged to try this out. Most classes in D&D have the Spellcasting feature (and with Pact Magic, Warlocks push the potential participation even further into the majority). While Barbarians, Monks, and all but a single subclass each of Fighters and Rogues will be left out of the fun, I'd guess that at most tables, the majority will be able to take part.

Given the requirement for everyone to participate, I suspect that in a lot of cases, you'll want to use this feature out of combat, though not exclusively.

I think the likely best possible use of this is extending the duration of powerful spells. Lots of spells have 1 minute durations, which is code for "you don't get to cast this before the fight starts." Powerful spells like Conjure Minor Elementals come with a big cost in basically taking your whole first turn to get started. If you try to cast it while anticipating a fight, the DM could reasonably say that you won't really benefit from its full duration. But if that duration is upped to an hour, or eight hours, that becomes something you can truly have going right from the start.

Similarly, if you have a big party, casting a bunch of buff spells before a long rest with 24 hours of extended duration could be really good.

All this being said: I really like this for NPCs, and in particular, villainous NPCs.

I can imagine in some kind of siege-like situation, attackers might have a number of mages hurling fireballs, but with a group of apprentices around to allow them to throw them from a mile away, well out of range of the fortress' archers. An evil group of necromancers might create a massive Cloudkill spell (or Doomtide, one of the new ones) to sweep over an entire village and kill everyone there.

A (relatively easy) objective in a combat encounter could be to prevent the circle-casting of a powerful spell. Maybe some powerful villains are trying to resurrect a deadly champion or leader, using the Supplant option to do so without the costly component. You need to charge in and break up the spell before they can complete the spell.

I think the benefits here are interesting, but not so powerful that it's going to totally take over the game. Naturally, I'll need to see it in action (and talk to my DM about whether he'll allow it in the campaign with two wizards and two paladins in the party - sorry to our sole Fighter/Rogue). My own regular six players in my Ravnica game are also all-but-one spellcasters (the Ancestral Guardian Barbarian, who does technically get spells from that subclass). In fact, the current adventure they're on (high stakes long-term, but the least danger they've been in the whole campaign - they're doing challenges for each of the five Strixhaven colleges) would really benefit from that extended-duration buff idea, given that they're told the gist of the challenge they're facing the night before, and it's just one big encounter per day.

Anyway, I'm curious to see how much this sees play at tables. I liked the Bastion system presented in the core rulebooks, but I don't hear a ton about people actually using it.

Forgotten Realms Books in Early Access

 While I'm going to try to grab the physical copies at my local game store when they come out in two weeks, I saw that yesterday, pre-orders for Heroes of the Forgotten Realms (and Adventures in etc.) were available and those of us with Master Tier subscriptions get to access them now.

I got the Heroes book - mostly I intend to stick with physical media, though I've got to say that I really tend to use online, digital versions of the content even if I have the book because I run D&D on my laptop (the game I DM I also run online, making this quite natural). But when it comes to character options, I really like to have it all in D&D Beyond for my own character sheet purposes.

5E veterans are no strangers to the Forgotten Realms, which has served as the default setting for 5E, the major published adventures from Tyranny of Dragons through Icewind Dale (I think?) being almost all FR-set adventures (Curse of Strahd isn't, obviously being a Ravenloft one, though I think it assumes you're getting there from the Forgotten Realms, and Descent into Avernus also starts off in Baldur's Gate).

While I doubt that WotC would like the comparison to be drawn, this two-book set is arguably the 2024 update to Sword Coast Adventurer's Guide, a book that is primarily known for giving us some of 5E's worst subclasses (but also a few really good ones and the best cantrips for Bladesingers, Valor/Sword Bards, Arcane Trickster Rogues, and Eldritch Knight Fighters).

Still, despite the many, many adventures set in the Forgotten Realms, some of which have extensive "Gazeteers" with lore that's not there specifically for the adventure but just to flesh out the location (not to mention Baldur's Gate 3 and Honor Among Thieves,) SCAG was the closest we got to an actual campaign setting guide. I think these books aim to serve that purpose.

I've only got the Heroes volume, which I've got to say, feels like it has most of the parts of a setting guide, if perhaps a little thin. The approach here is less "here's a chapter on every neighborhood in Waterdeep" and more a broad overview of the continent (or at least the northwestern part of it, which includes everything from Thay to Icewind Dale, as well as the Moonshae Isles off the coast).

Naturally, as the Heroes book, this is the one with character options. There aren't any new playable species (the ones in the PHB are more or less "the ones you find most often in the Forgotten Realms" anyway) but we get some new subclasses, backgrounds, feats, and spells, as well as some factions with renown tracks, some new items (some magical, some actually mundane), and a new gameplay system called Circle Casting.

Getting more backgrounds is definitely welcome: while I think you're still better off using old backgrounds to pick your own ability bonuses and origin feats, we at least have more to choose from so you'll be more likely to get the things you want. Several of these also have new feats, whose power I'm not totally sold on (I'll need to do a closer look).

Obviously, the thing that always gets me excited is new subclasses, and there are eight of them.

Three of these subclasses are returning: the Knowledge Domain Cleric (last seen in the 2014 PHB), the Banneret Fighter (last seen in SCAG as the Purple Dragon Knight,) and the Bladesinger Wizard (seen both in SCAG and revised in Tasha's, making it the most published subclass in 5E, I think).

The new subclasses we got are the College of the Moon Bard, the Oath of Noble Genies Paladin, the Winter Walker Ranger, the Scion of the Three Rogue, and the Spellfire Sorcery Sorcerer.

At a cursory glance the one that excites me the most is the Noble Genies Paladin, which is the only Paladin subclass that strongly encourages you to go with a Dex build. The Bladesinger also looks, if anything, even more powerful than it was before (again, cursory glance) with the ability to use Intelligence for weapon attacks (I think I'd still go with a finesse weapon because you'll benefit from Dex for your AC).

While in testing they made a Purple Dragon Knight that actually had a purple dragon companion, the Banneret is now much more similar to the SCAG version of the subclass, at least thematically. Now, I always considered the SCAG PDK to be the most boring subclass in all of 5E. The Banneret is still built around sharing basic Fighter features with the party, but I need to take a closer look to see if this one is better (at the very least, it might give the Champion some competition for simplest subclass).

Now, Circle Casting:

One of the tricky things with a system like 5E is how one handles a "great working of magic." In fantasy stories, a big, important spell is often a real project to undertake, rather than something you can just invoke with a couple magic words.

Circle Casting doesn't give you fully new magic to perform, but it does allow you to alter spells with the help of your friends: multiple spellcasters (those with the Spellcasting or Pact Magic features) can contribute their Magic Action to boost your spell and provide it with some enhancement: you might increase the range of a spell (enormously significantly: 1000 feet per secondary caster) or distribute concentration, so that as long as one contributing caster maintains concentration, the spell remains in effect. You can also expand the area of a spell (again, more per contributing caster) or extend the duration (how would you like a Divine Favor that lasts 24 hours? You'll need seven friends, but you can do that). You can also use this to carve out safe areas within an AoE spell, or reduce the cost of material components that are consumed by spells (in theory, with enough people, you ought to be able to reduce it to 0).

This is a really interesting knob for players to turn in their spellcasting: the range extension, for example, would allow for you to send Fireballs at a fortress miles away, and it also means that a lot of those spells that would be really good to cast pre-combat, like Conjure Minor Elementals, but often can't because of their short duration, can now last long enough to get them up and running before you get into a fight and allow you to use your action on other things.

Furthermore, some of the new spells that are presented in the book have special bonus options for how you can alter them with circle casting. As an example, the 4th level Bard/Cleric/Warlock spell Doomtide, which normally creates a mind-wracking fog that is both darkness and deals psychic damage, and also reduces targets saving throws, can be Circle Cast with a minimum of 5 secondary casters and a new material component, and doing so makes the range 1 mile and the duration indefinite (with no concentration required) as long as none of the casters cast it again, with this requiring a 3rd level spell slot from each secondary caster.

I believe that you'll still be able to get your chosen secondary circle casting effect on top of the indefinite duration and range extension (the most likely one to pick would be Expand, which, with a minimum of 5 casters would mean you're turning that 20-foot sphere into a 70-foot radius sphere, which is gigantic.

I feel like Circle Casting probable deserves its own post, which might reiterate some of the stuff I've blabbed about here.

Anyway, it's been over a year since the new PHB came out, so a book with new character options is a welcome thing. Forge of the Artificer was meant to be out by now, but we'll have to wait a bit longer for that (though not incredibly long, I think - I believe it's due in early December, which is just over a month from now).

Checking Out Grim Hollow's Monster Hunter

 Well hey, the last post was my attempt to start a monster-hunting variant of the Ranger from more or less scratch, and I realized that I am not the first person to have this idea.

Ghostfire Gaming (whose podcast I listen to frequently) has their Grim Hollow setting, a Dark Fantasy world that really matches the gothic-horror vibes that I often like to use (though I'd say my setting is a little broader, and honestly, the more comfortable I get with homebrewing, the more I'm likely to push it fully into modern-fantasy/New Weird vibes, though the latter certainly contains plenty of horror elements along with sci-fi).

Anyway, I splurged (eh, it was 40 bucks) on the Grim Hollow Player's Guide to get a look at this as well as the several subclasses within on D&D Beyond.

The Monster Hunter's intended flavor and vibe is certainly the kind of thing I've been trying to figure out. Let's see how they approach it:

One of the most remarkable aspects of the class is that it's designed with the intent of making an Intelligence-focused martial class. While Paladins like Charisma and Eldritch Knights use Intelligence for their spellcasting, the intent, as I see it, with the Monster Hunter is that you truly set Intelligence as your primary stat, and rely on Dexterity or Strength as a kind of secondary thing. It's arguably more akin to a Battle Smith Artificer in this sense, though it comes by it in a very unusual way.

Actually, this idea doesn't truly kick in until level 5, when you get Expert Strike. This feature lets you add your Intelligence modifier to attack and damage rolls with weapons and unarmed strikes.

    Now, the reason that I think this incentivizes putting Intelligence first is that it will boost both ranged and melee weapons, giving you more versatility. That being said, ultimately it'll be very powerful to get Intelligence up along with one or both of these stats. Because it kind of breaks one of the unspoken design rules in 5E, which is that outside of magic items or the Archery feat, you shouldn't be able to get an attack bonus that's higher than +11.

Let's assume that we're focusing on Dexterity and Intelligence. I whipped up a Monster Hunter at level 9 (where my Wizard is, currently) and built him around Black Powder Pistols (there's actually a bit of redundancy using the Blackpowder Pistol Expert feat with another core Monster Hunter feature - I'll need to see if there's any other feat to ignore the loading property, though I guess there's always Gunner from Tasha's). Rolling stats, I got actually some insane ones, but if we figure the usual of starting with a 17 in one stat and a 16 in another, by the time we hit level 5, if we get a General Feat that boosts our 17 stat (Mage Slayer feels appropriate as our level 4 option) we're looking at, say, +4 to Dex and +3 to Int, meaning we've got a +10 to hit at level 5 and +7 to damage rolls. That could even be +12 if we take Archery as a fighting style - but let's say we don't in case we want to remain versatile (I took the Advance Weapon Proficiency fighting style to get the Blackpowder Pistols).

I think the typical thing you'd get from a WotC class would be either to add your Intelligence only to the damage (even that's rare) or simply fully replace your Strength or Dexterity with Intelligence. By allowing you to add Int on top of the other stat, you have the potential to skew the numbers significantly.

However, the approach to Extra Attack is very, very unconventional:

Monster Hunters get a feature that will let them make an attack as a reaction in nearly all rounds (especially if they're using a ranged weapon) with their 3rd level feature, Studied Response. If a creature you can see within 60 feet makes an attack against you or an ally, you can attack them (I think before their attack resolves) as a reaction - and if you miss, you get your reaction back!

However, you don't get the standard, normal Extra Attack until level 11.

So, this raises some interesting questions, balance-wise. Are Studied Response and Expert Strikes more than a compensation for waiting until tier 3 for Extra Attack?

Let's math it out a bit:

First, let's consider solely Expert Strikes. Studied Response is probably going to go off very often, but there are scenarios where it won't, like if you're focused on melee weapons and the monster isn't close enough for you to attack.

If we have our +4/+3 spread like we mentioned above, and let's say we're attacking with a pretty standard 1d8 weapon, naturally 1d8+4 twice (17 average) is going to do better than 1d8+7 once (11.5). However, because we're also adding the Intelligence to our attack, the math gets more complicated:

Let's assume we're fighting a Nightbringer Vampire (a fitting and thematic foe) and one that a level 5 character could reasonably go up against (it's a little on the tough side, but I also think this math works for levels 5-7). The point, ultimately, is that they have an AC of 16. That means that our standard Extra Attacker is going to have to roll a 9 or higher to hit, giving them a 60% hit chance. Our Expert Striker, though, only needs to roll a 6 to hit, giving them a 75% hit chance.

So, Expert Striker is doing 75% of 11.5 (8.625), plus 5% of 4.5 (.225, for crits) for a total average of 8.85.

The Extra Attacker is doing 60% of 8.5 (5.1) plus that same .225, or 5.725, but twice, for a total of 11.45.

The latter is clearly better until we look at the potential for a reaction to use Studied Response, which adds another 8.85. If that's every single turn, we're looking at 17.7 damage per round. It turns out that as long as we're getting to use Studied Response about 30% of the time or higher, we're managing to outclass standard Extra Attack.

Obviously, this is just one scenario.

What I will say, though, is that Extra Attack is only partially a damage boost (it is a big one) but it's also a "feel good" boost. In tier 1, when you only get one attack per turn, missing really, really sucks. Extra Attack makes it more likely that you'll feel like you did something useful on your turn.

In a system like Draw Steel, where you can't miss, there's no need for something like Extra Attack. But in D&D, as it works, this smoothing can feel more satisfying than one big blow - something Rogues often struggle with.

Again, though, with Studied Response, you sort of get Extra Attack anyway - and even earlier than other classes.

I'll also note that dual-wielding seems very strong with a system like this - you can pick up the Two Weapon Fighting Style feat, but even if you don't, I think you'll be adding Intelligence to attacks with your off-hand strike.

Anyway, the book not only has this class with four subclasses for it, but also I believe three subclasses for all 12 PHB (2024) classes (sadly no Artificer - it's not in the SRD). So, I'll be doing a more thorough review (not sure I'll make posts about all of it, but I'm eager to see what I might allow in my campaigns).

An Alternative Ranger Fantasy

 Rangers, in 5E, don't have a great reputation.

I don't think they're unplayable: the truth about D&D is that if you're not trying to optimize the life out of your characters, you'll probably do fine (and the irony is that optimization is often about big bursts of nova damage, whereas the only real situations that can challenge a mid-to-high-level party are lengthy, sustained attrition of many fights without rest).

But I think there's a problem you run into with the Ranger:

Exploring a territory on a big hex grid is certainly a style of gameplay that you can do in D&D. The Ranger is, ostensibly, meant to be the best class to lead a party through such a challenge.

The thing is, I don't think that's really how people tend to play D&D these days - at least not most. Combat and social encounters both have the advantage of feeling like scenes in a fantasy movie, whereas crossing long stretches of wilderness is handled via montage (I'll make a brief nod to Draw Steel's use of "montage tests" to handle such challenges). They're not the meat of the story - they're the necessary transitions from one high-stakes scenario to another.

And given that I think D&D is played more cinematically than it may have originally been conceived for, this area of the game gets de-emphasized, and thus the Ranger's primary strength is pushed to the side.

Thus, I think I've tended to prefer an imagined version of a Ranger that's focused less on navigation, and more on monster-hunting.

To be sure: every class in D&D is a monster-hunter. That's kind of the whole thing. But I do think there's a strong archetype of the monster-hunting expert. Think Abraham Van Helsing (especially when later authors have taken liberties with him, like that apparently-terrible Hugh Jackman movie that made him look a lot more like Solomon Kane) or Geralt of Rivia (who is probably more of an Eldritch Knight Fighter).

The fantasy here is that you're someone who has extensive knowledge about the nature of monsters - something hinted at in the now-defunct Favored Enemy feature from the 2014 Ranger. You're the one who understands its weaknesses and how to avoid its most devastating attacks.

In terms of gameplay, it seems that this fantasy should allow you to get real, significant combat benefits if you're able to identify what you're going to fight ahead of time.

That, admittedly, can be tough: some DMs like to run adventures where there's a ton of foreshadowing, with a monster fight coming after numerous opportunities to determine what the monster is, but other DMs (or adventures) have monsters that come out of the blue to try to surprise the players.

First off, let's come up with a name for this class. And I think that name is, simply enough, going to be Hunter.

Yes, that's a little confusing because that's the "generic" Ranger subclass. But I think it sums up what the class is meant to do: hunt.

And I do think I'd want this to be its own full class, rather than a Ranger subclass. I just think there would be too many competing design elements to allow this fantasy to spread its wings.

This isn't going to be a full class breakdown, it's really just some ideas about what you'd get at, like, 1st level.

First things first:

The class would be a martial class (proficiency with simple and martial weapons) and probably, like the Ranger, get light and medium armor. Dexterity would also be the most likely primary ability.

However, unlike the Ranger, I don't think this is a spellcaster. I think we're going to eschew spellcasting and get more bespoke utility options. The intent here is that they should be competitive with Fighters and Barbarians in terms of damage output, if perhaps a little lower at Range (just to pay the tax for being far away from your enemies).

I do think that we'd have a use for one of the mental stats, to set DCs for various class features. We could go Wisdom like the Ranger, though I'd be tempted to go Intelligence instead, because of how this idea of this class would be that its strength is in your extensive knowledge. What I might do if it were going to use Intelligence is give the class a way to add its Intelligence modifier to Survival checks made to track monsters.

Now, the core idea here would be that you can take a moment (maybe a minute, maybe just an action or even bonus action) to prepare yourself to fight a particular kind of foe: specifically, you'd determine this based on creature type. Doing so would allow you to deal more damage to foes of that type for the duration of the effect.

As I conceived it, I figured that you'd be applying some particular kind of venom to your weapon, but now that I think about it, it might just add to your normal weapon damage - which would help deal with the fact that so many monsters are immune to poison.

Now, two things:

First off, there would need to be a mechanical way for the Hunter to discover what kind of monster they're going to fight. If we do make this just a bonus action, maybe we don't need to worry about that so much. But I would like the Hunter to have some feature that won't leave wiggle room for a DM to prevent them from determining the type.

Second, I also think this damage bonus would maybe be a flat increase against any foe, but with a bigger bonus for the selected monster type. Let's say you're tracking what you've determined is a Gelatinous Cube, and so you set your target type to Oozes, but while following the eerily clean path left behind by the ooze, you're attacked by Displacer Beasts.

If our Hunter's Venom (or Hunter's Stratagem, maybe?) isn't attuned to Monstrosities, you'll still get a little extra damage on these guys. Off the cuff, I figure it might be that the universal bonus starts off at a flat 1, and perhaps goes up to a flat 3, 4, or maybe 5, but then if it is our selected monster type - we catch up with the Gelatinous Cube, we get to add an additional d4.

Now: is that flawed design? After all, it's a bit of a hat on a hat - a damage bonus that then becomes... a bigger damage bonus?

One option would be simply to double the damage bonus - given that we like to make it dice so that it can double on a crit, we might say that you're getting an extra d4 of damage to start, and then that eventually goes up to a d6 and then a d8, but that we get to make it 2d4, 2d6, and then 2d8 against the selected type of monster.

Initially, my thought was that you'd have to take some time prior to the fight - maybe a minute or even ten - to make your preparations. The problem, though, is that it feels like the class is relying on the DM giving hints as to what is coming next. Depending on the campaign, that could be more or less likely, and we want class (especially base class) design to be as universally applicable as possible.

One of the frustrations with the 2014 Ranger was how your Favored Foe and Favored Terrain were both useless if you didn't happen to be dealing with the ones you built your character around. By making this Hunter's Stratagem (and I think I like that name for it) a bonus action, you can do it once you've gottten into combat.

Now, even then, there's a bit of trickiness - the DM might be using a monster that is of an ambiguous creature type. Say you face some Gnolls, well, in 2014 they were humanoids and in the 2024 rules they're fiends, and it also wouldn't be unreasonable to guess that they're monstrosities.

Thus, I might be tempted to add an element to Hunter's Stratagem that, as part of the same bonus action, you can also take the Study action to determine the creature type of a creature you can see within, say, 60 feet. The DC for this should, I think, be set by the rules to prevent any hostile DM shenanigans - perhaps the DC equals 10 plus half the creature's CR, rounded down (so that anything CR 1 or lower is only going to be a DC 10, but then you'll cap out at 25 for something like the Tarrasque or Aspect of Tiamat).

To aid with this, I think the Hunter would probably get expertise, but perhaps only in Intelligence skills - you can kinda sorta pick a "favored enemy" by picking Nature if you want to go after Dragons, Beasts, Elementals, or Plants, or picking Religion to go after Fiends, Celestials, and Undead.

Another possibility for how a Hunter benefits from fighting the specific creature type it has picked for its Stratagem is simply giving them advantage on attacks. Now, yeah, advantage is a bit cheap in 2024 D&D (Hunters might use Rapiers, Shortbows, Pistols, etc., to just get it via weapon mastery) but perhaps it could be something we build on.

As I see it, base classes want to give you something cool and new when you get a new class feature, while subclasses are often best when they build on and add flavor and unique functionality to existing features.

I'll confess that I don't think I have a full 20-level concept for this class. Given that I think we'd avoid giving them spellcasting (a potent feature, but one that I feel is sometimes a band-aid for less clear and specific class features you could have).

I do think that our Hunter would get several of the non-class-specific features the Ranger gets - they'd for sure get Extra Attack and Weapon Mastery, and I think I'd also give them a Fighting Style (er, free Fighting Style feat, I guess, is how that would technically be classified).

The Hunter's Stratagem die would be a really core, central feature - something whose scaling would probably be on the big class table. It might take some iteration to find the ideal form - whether it's a die or flat damage.

While we'd want to keep this fairly broad in terms of what kind of monsters you're hunting (my go-to image would be a Gothic Horror one that hunts vampires or werewolves or the like, but that might not fit your Ancient Greece-themed campaign).

There's room for another few big ideas: one might be a few defensive options - maybe these you choose at a short or long rest, but something like being able to boost your AC, pick a damage resistance, or get advantage on a type of saving throw.

    I think one of the big challenges to the core fantasy of this class is that that fantasy is, to a large extent, about having time to prepare yourself. In campaigns where things are relatively on-rails, or at least very firmly planned out ahead of times, this can work - if the DM knows that the party is going to face a force of goblinoids, it can be very flavorfully lined up that they realize there's some fey influence here.

But there are at least two scenarios where this kind of thing doesn't really work: one is innocuous - the DM might have a more improvisational style, saying they have some ideas prepared of course, but they're mostly responding to what the players do. The worse version is if the DM goes out of their way to screw over the Hunter by always putting in red herrings. In D&D as it currently exists, this isn't such a bad thing, because classes aren't built around fighting specific creature types (I will say that I did throw some Breath Drinkers at my party a little while back, which are coded to look very much like undead that would be weak to radiant damage, when in fact they're aberrations that absorb and are healed by radiant damage, which did result in one very bad turn for the Cleric, but that was about it).

As we learned with the 2014 Wild Magic Sorcerer, it's not a good idea to put core class features into the hands of a DM - your class should work the way that it works, without needing permission from the DM.

Now, I know that Ghostfire Gaming has the Monster Hunter class in its Grim Hollow setting, something that I, you know, probably ought to check out given that I suspect (especially given the setting's dark fantasy vibes) approaches this class fantasy as well.

UA: Telepath mk. II

 Given that the Psi Warper subclass was skipped this time (not dropped, but evidently so well-liked that they decided it didn't need further testing) we come to our last Psion subclass for the second round of UA testing.

We've been getting a lot of UAs lately, and I think especially after the delay on Eberron: Forge of the Artificer (FOTA as our default abbreviation?) it's been feeling like a lot of testing and not a lot of official content. But I guess that's ok, and I'm certainly happier to see brand-new stuff (well, at least non-reprint stuff) here with the Psion.

Telepathy is, I think along with Telekinesis, one of the absolute core fantasies of a psionic class. In fiction, these often come hand in hand. I'd argue that you might combine it a bit with what we'd term in D&D as Divination - I'm thinking about Danny Torrance in The Shining getting crucial warnings from his imaginary friend, or Eleven from Stranger Things being tested on whether she can listen in on Russian spies via remote-viewing. I don't think that this subclass focuses on that very much, but we'll see.

Once again, I'm looking at this fresh. My recollection was that the version that came out in May was a bit underwhelming, and given that I first read this UA a good while ago, I have only at the outset of this post the impression that this is, also, a bit underwhelming. Let's take a look.

Telepath Spells:

1st: Bane, Command

2nd: Detect Thoughts, Mind Spike

3rd: Counterspell, Slow

4th: Compulsion, Confusion

5th: Modify Memory, Yolande's Regal Presence

    So, Command is a strong spell, especially as a pure caster. It's basically The Voice from Dune, a big influence on Dark Sun's psionics. Counterspell is not as powerful as it used to be, but still useful (and newer monster design often works in actual spellcasting to multiattacks). My friend's Bard in my Ravnica game has been having a lot of fun knocking foes around with Yolande's Regal Presence - I don't know if it's a great spell, but it's very fun.

Level 3:

Mind Infiltrator:

When you cast Detect Thoughts, you can expend a PED to modify the spell so it doesn't require spell components or concentration, and if you push deeper into someone's thoughts, they are unaware that you're reading their thoughts if they fail the saving throw.

    Players often use this spell without realizing that you are going to need to wave your arms around - I like that in Baldur's Gate 3, the Githyanki guy who uses it on you very clearly performs the spell components. It's not subtle. But it makes sense that you should be able to use this spell without people noticing you doing it. I'd love for this to just prevent the creature from realizing you were reading its thoughts regardless, but it makes sense that on a save, perhaps the reason that they prevent you from reading the thoughts is that they know what you're trying to do. Very flavorful. Also, you can maintain this with some other spell you might already be using.

Telepathic Distraction:

When a creature you can see within range of your telepathy (30 feet by default, and can be extended with the level 1 Psionic Power feature) hits with an attack roll, you can take a reaction to roll one PED and subtract it from their attack. If this causes the attack to miss, you expend the die.

    A kind of more wildcard Shield spell, but nice that you don't expend any resource if it fails to work. PEDs start at d6s, meaning it's probably going to block less than a Shield spell, but at higher levels, you'll actually tend to be more effective - though only against a single attack. Still, you can protect a friend, and generally DMs will call out what they roll, so if you know that you only need to reduce the attack by like two or three, it's probably worth it to try the reaction.

Level 6;

Bulwark Mind:

At the start of your turn, you can expend a PED to give you a few benefits for 10 minutes. You get resistance to Psychic damage, and whenever you make an Intelligence, Wisdom, or Charisma saving throw, you add a roll of your PED to the save (this doesn't expend it). You can't use this benefit if you are incapacitated.

    So, on one hand, I feel like you should just get blanket Psychic resistance. However, adding to all mental saving throws for 10 minutes (and with no action required to set it up initially) is pretty good, even if Intelligence and Charisma saves are very rare.

Potent Thoughts:

You have telepathy out to 60 feet, and you add your Intelligence modifier to the damage of any Psion cantrip.

    The "spellcasting mod on cantrips" is a pretty standard damage boost at level 5 or 6 on a pure spellcaster, so that's fine. The telepathy range of course also extends the reach of your Telepathic Distraction.

Level 10:

Telepathic Bolstering:

When you or a creature you can see within range of your telepathy (now 60 feet, plus potentially more if you boost it) fails an ability check or misses with an attack roll, you can use a reaction to expend a PED, rolling it and adding it to the d20, potentially changing it to a success. The PED is expended only if hte check succeeds or attack hits.

    I feel like this could be phrased better - just say you roll it and then mention it getting expended at the end. What this is is essentially reaction-speed Bardic Inspiration that doesn't work on saves. The reaction speed element is kind of cool, and certainly there are high-stakes ability checks and attack rolls. I assume the flavor here is that you're mentally aiding the character. It's a little dry, flavor-wise, but useful.

Level 14:

Scramble Minds:

You can cast Confusion without expending a spell slot by instead expending four PEDs. When cast this way, you can modify the spell so that its radius becomes 30 feet (way bigger, the standard is 10 feet) and you can choose one creature in the spell's area to automatically succeed on the save. Additionally, when a creature under the spell's effect starts its turn, you choose its behavior instead of rolling.

    The latter part is the really powerful element here. Yes, you get a one-ally Careful Spell, but the key here is that Confusion is a pretty random spell - there's a 20% chance that an affected creature just gets to take their turn as normal. As a note, the random movement from this has no caveat to prevent them running into something dangerous, like off a cliff. Confusion also doesn't function as a charm, so creatures immune to being Charmed can still be affected. I honestly like this, though I might like this more if you could modify the spell when cast with a spell slot by expending, like, 1 PED.

Overall Thoughts:

    So, I think there could be some more here, but I don't hate this as much as I thought I would. I think that Telepathic Bolstering and Telepathic Distraction both feel a little unmoored from the flavor of the subclass - both useful features, but kind of blah. Again, I think there's room to play with some of that "remote viewing" element from genre fiction that has psionics. I think this would be functional, but again, I feel like there's a cooler way to implement this fantasy.

The only thing left from this UA to look at are the spells. A lot are just reprints (though with some revisions) of spells from Tasha's and Xanathar's. Unless we get some new UA before I can get to it, we'll probably take a look at those next.

UA: Psykinetic mk. 2

 Moving on to the next Psion subclass in the revised UA, we have the Psykinetic. When it comes to psionic character, there are basically two guaranteed, necessary styles of Psion - one that focuses on Telepathy, and another that focuses on Telekinesis. The latter, I'd argue, is easier to make a monster-fighting hero with, and could be argued as the default subclass for such a class (notably, Draw Steel's Talent has both a Telekinesis and a Telepathy subclass).

Looking at my review of it back in May, my general impressions for the previous UA version of this were that I liked it conceptually, but wanted them to do a bit more with it. Let's see how we feel about the revision.

Psykinetic Spells:

1st: Shield, Thunderwave

2nd: Cloud of Dagger, Levitate

3rd: Slow, Telekinetic Crush (a new spell)

4th: Otiluke's Resilient Sphere, Stone Shape

5th: Telekinesis (naturally,) Wall of Force

    Notably, now that Shield is a universal spell option for Psions, this is a little less exciting, but it at least frees up one of your spell options. I imagine practically every Psion will take Shield, so this just gives you that default. The spells here are mostly pretty thematic, though I suppose Stone Shape and maybe Cloud of Daggers are a little more of a stretch (though I think flavoring Cloud of Daggers like you're going all Carrie could work.

Level 3:

Stronger Telekinesis:

Your Mage Hand (which all Psions get automatically) has its range increased by 30 feet (to 60) and it can now carry up to 20 pounds.

    This is fine, but I imagine it's rare that the distinction here will really come up much.

Telekinetic Techniques:

When you use Telekinetic Propel, you can roll 1d4 and use the number rolled instead of expending a PED.

Additionally, when the target fails its save against Telekinetic Propel, you can impose one of the following on them:

Boost: The target's speed increases by 10 feet until the start of your next turn (obviously this would be used when you target an ally and they voluntarily fail the save).

Disorient: The target can't make opportunity attacks until the start of its next turn.

Telekinetic Bolt: The target takes Force damage equal to the number rolled on the PED.

    Interesting question: can your free 1d4 roll deal the damage with the bolt? If so, that's kind of a free bonus action cantrip (admittedly one that does very little damage). The main benefit of this feature, I think, is the ability to do more substantial knockbacks for free. Situationally, these other benefits could be useful (and damage is damage,) but it's nothing major.

Level 6:

Destructive Trance:

At the start of your turn, you can expend one PED to enter a destructive state for 10 minutes. During this time, you have a Fly speed of 20 feet and can hover, and when you cast a Psion spell with a spell slot, you can roll your PED and add the number rolled to one damage roll of that spell - this does not expend the PED.

    The speed here could probably be higher, but the general idea of this seems solid. On AoE spells, the extra die would be a bit like upcasting the spell, for a relatively low investment.

Rebounding Field:

When you cast Shield, and the triggering attack misses, you can expend one PED. The attacker makes a Dex save, taking Force damage equal to the amount rolled on the PED plus your Intelligence modifier. On a success, they take half damage. In either case, you gain temp HP equal to the damage dealt.

    So, this is a bit weird: it's a punishing move but also shores up your defense, and you get more THP if they fail their save. But they also have to miss the attack, and but it can only be the attack that triggers the spell. Personally, I think it would be cooler if this instead pushed targets that attacked you back while your shield was up. Maybe damaging them as well.

Level 10:

Enhanced Telekinetic Crush:

First, for reference:

Telekinetic Crush is a 3rd level transmutation spell that takes an action to cast and has a range of 120 feet. You create a field of crushing energy in a 30-foot cube within range. Each creature inside makes a Strength save. On a failure, the target takes 5d6 Force damage and has the prone condition. On a success, they take half damage only. Upcasting adds a d6 for each level above 3.

So, this feature says that when you cast Telekinetic Crush, you can expend one PED to modify the spell so that affected creatures, regardless of whether they succeed or fail on the saving throw, have their speed halved until the start of your next turn. You can also roll the PED and add the number rolled to one damage roll of the spell.

    I get that it's standardized language, but this is a spell with only one damage roll, so... oh well. The speed-halving on top of potentially knocking the targets prone is interesting: it really makes it hard for them to move from their spot (a big creature with a 40-foot movement speed will only have 10 left to move after standing up). I guess I'm not really inspired here.

Level 14:

Heightened Telekinesis:

You can cast Telekinesis without expending a spell slot by expending 4 PEDs. When you cast it this way, you can modify it so that it doesn't require concentration, but the duration is now 1 minute. However, while casting it this way, you can target Gargantuan creatures and objects.

    4 PEDs is not a tiny number, but if it means a concentration-free 5th level spell and saving the spell slot, that's probably worth it. Telekinesis can be very strong, and it's obviously the most thematic spell for the subclass.

Overall Thoughts:

    Nothing here is bad per se, but I definitely don't find it as exciting a subclass as, say, the Metamorph, which seems to really be doing something new. I think there's probably too much conservatism in the design: a psionic telekinetic feels like they should get a free hovering fly speed or something by level 10. I'd also love to have the ability to throw massive objects at foes. Really, it just feels a bit uninspired, and also overcautious in power.