I just want to whine and moan (no UA)

[Daithi]

I really liked getting Unearthed Arcana once a month, and I'm disappointed they don't do this monthly anymore. We've only had the Artificer this year and half the year is already over. The same applies to Mike Mearl's Happy Fun Hour. I miss my occasional "fix". Sometimes the stuff wasn't that good, but other times it would be great. I'm kind of Jonesing for another UA fix.

So, that's my whining and moaning for the day. Apologies if it was annoying.

[Kane0]

I would like to mimic these sentiments. It was nice to see what the devs were up to and thinking about, not so much radio silence. The actual content was of a lesser concern, more of a springboard to the communication which I felt was the important part.

[Waterdeep Merch]

This actually taught me to love third party supplements. DM's Guild is a great resource, provided you're okay with the idea that a lot of what you find will be hilariously unusable. There's some real gems in there, several of which I offer as options in every game I DM. Shout out to Izzy's Airships A La Carte, the Greasemonkey's Handbook, Magic Item Compilation, and Fortresses, Temples, & Strongholds. Excellent stuff.

Kobold Press has my heart for major third party publishers, and their Heroes' Handbook is fantastic if you're a player and you think you can get your DM on board with it. There's probably more playable options in there than the PHB. Tome of Beasts is pretty well-respected, too.

Frog God Games can be pretty dodgy with their balance; I like their adventures, but I almost never use their player-centric stuff. As exciting as they seem on paper, avoid Fifth Edition Feats and Mystical Companions, because oh wow are they a mess. Book of Lost Spells is better, so long as you've got the patience to flip through it.

[Dork_Forge]

I too miss the UA, when it was once every two weeks it was amazing but now nothing. In general I feel it's rather worrying, we've had one true player supplement this edition (XGTE and what a 3rd of that is collecting already released material?) and the rest has been lore books with an over abundance of race options (some of which are just plain OP:Aasimar, Yuan Ti, Warforged etc). At this rate with the UA looking like it is we will probably only get a published version of the Artificer this year, I love the Artificer but that's an underwhelming amount of non-race player options for almost 2 years now.

[jaappleton]

Its no secret UA is put out when Jeremy Crawford says so.

Mearls's Happy Fun Hour was Mearls pumping out ideas, which would then (occasionally) get kicked over to Crawford, who would mold the concept and proposed mechanics to be balanced.

Crawford was on vacation for awhile earlier in July, doing the "D&D In A Castle event" in... Scotland? England? Whatever, he got back early last week. Figure he's got a week to catch up on stuff.

Now, in an interview for the upcoming Baldur's Gate 3 game, Mearls and the developers mention how subpar the Ranger was in terms of translating it to a video game. Favored Terrain selections could be totally wasted, etc. Mearls agreed, and mentioned "alternative class options". When pressed for a response, Crawford confirmed these would be coming "over the summer".

We're now halfway through July.

So... That's all I know.

I said elsewhere on this forum that you have to figure they'd release SOON, as in within the next three weeks or so. Simply because they're kind of running out of time with the whole 'over the summer' thing. But that's only my summation, my own conjecture.

I know they'd been working on Saltmarsh for awhile, that's what Kate Welch was up to for awhile. Mearls had been leading point on Baldur's Gate 3, and Crawford & Perkins have been handling Descent Into Avernus.

However... I of course echo the sentiments of others. I mean, while I understand entirely that they've been hard at work handling adventure books, they couldn't set aside a couple hours a week throughout a month to go over one of the Happy Fun Hour subclasses, tighten it up, and put it out there for UA?

Additionally, XGtE, the last subclass book we got, was released in 2017. Since then, to my recollection, there's only been two other subclasses officially released: Order Domain & Spore Druid, which were part of Ravnica, which isn't AL Legal (to my knowledge). Wayfinder's Guide to Eberron has no subclasses, and is in an odd state of quasi-UA. If you discount that, that's essentially one subclass expansion in the entire 5 years of 5E, aside from SCAG (Which, while official content, was primarily done by... Green Ronin or Kobold Press? It was primarily done by third party). So... One WOTC written subclass book, in five years.

I am actually an advocate for taking their time to have the content balanced as opposed to pumping out everything and everything on a whim, similar to how they handled 4E, but I do think they're somewhat dragging their feet a bit.

EDIT: We've had two UAs all year so far. Artificer, and then its revision with new subclasses. We're halfway through July, and there's been two UAs all year. So before anyone complains about "Oh its free content how can you complain-"

Stop.

Unearthed Arcana for 5E was designed as playtest material, so that they get valuable feedback to ensure A) Its balanced, and B) Its what fans are looking for as they seek to continue to grow 5E.

So no UA means no new player option content. And there's a lot more players than DMs. There should be more player content coming, and coming soon, but... The lack of UA indicates that there isn't.

And THAT, everyone should be worried about.

[Man_Over_Game]

If I had to wager a guess, they're planning on releasing another big book like Xanathar's, and they're trying not to screw the pooch like they did with SCAG and Ravnica. Something with the new subclasses, the Artificer, and some other fun bits.

Or, at least, that's what I hope.

[Dork_Forge]

If I had to wager a guess, they're planning on releasing another big book like Xanathar's, and they're trying not to screw the pooch like they did with SCAG and Ravnica. Something with the new subclasses, the Artificer, and some other fun bits.

Or, at least, that's what I hope.

They're releasing a fully official (to me Wayfinders Guide and Guildmaster's Guide just aren't fully official books and it shows in their content) Eberron book at the end of the year, which is where we'll likely get the Artificer. So unfortunately the earliest we're likely to get another Xanathar's is early next year but with how dry UA is most likely later than that.