New Unearthed Arcana 10/26/2020

[jaappleton]

https://dnd.wizards.com/articles/une...na/subclasses5

[EggKookoo]

Way of the Ascendant Dragon and Drakewarden

Ascendant Dragon has an arguably better breath weapon than a dragonborn.

Edit: jaappleton started a thread with the same topic, so go there.

[EggKookoo]

Wow, missed it by one minute.

[PhoenixPhyre]

One interesting meta-feature here is the "one (or more) free use" thing for the monk subclass. They only have to pay ki to use the features after all those free uses are gone. I kinda like that--it gives you a free use pool, but you can break your limits by paying a scarce resource. Not sure if it's totally balanced, but...

I'd probably apply the same thing to Frenzy. You get one (or maybe 2?) free activations, then pay exhaustion after that.

[jaappleton]

Wait which of us made the topic first? I AM CONFUSION

[RogueJK]

Ascendant Dragon has an arguably better breath weapon than a dragonborn.

It's a better AoE option than Sun Soul's Burning Hands too.

[PhoenixPhyre]

One interesting meta-feature here is the "one (or more) free use" thing for the monk subclass. They only have to pay ki to use the features after all those free uses are gone. I kinda like that--it gives you a free use pool, but you can break your limits by paying a scarce resource. Not sure if it's totally balanced, but...

I'd probably apply the same thing to Frenzy. You get one (or maybe 2?) free activations, then pay exhaustion after that.

(switched from the now-going-away other thread on this topic).

[KorvinStarmast]

I'd probably apply the same thing to Frenzy. You get one (or maybe 2?) free activations, then pay exhaustion after that.

The artificer get that with the canons: one free one, then pay with a spell slot.

[Sam113097]

Drakewarden looks like a very fun subclass- I know that there are many players that would love to have a dragon by their side. I'm assuming these are too late for Tasha's Cauldron of Everything?

[stoutstien]

More features keying off prof bonus. Personality not a fan.

The drakewarden is interesting in that it takes the smoother action economy of the battle smith and adds a much cleaner way of determined prof bonus for the pet.

An aoe monk option is new(other than 4E). At 1 ki after you blow all your starting charges means the breath attack is pretty spamable

[EggKookoo]

Wait which of us made the topic first? I AM CONFUSION

You posted yours before mine, I think. I did sit on mine for a bit while I tweaked what I was going to say, so it's possible I started mine first. Regardless, I'm happy to have this be the "real" thread.

[Aett_Thorn]

Dragon-themed subclasses are fun, though I think that always having the ability to switch to whatever damage type you want might be a smidge too powerful. Still, probably not a huge deal at Monk damage levels.

11-th level Rangers getting to swap out their third-level spells (or above) for basically a conical Fireball is pretty nice, though.

[EggKookoo]

The drakewarden is interesting in that it takes the smoother action economy of the battle smith and adds a much cleaner way of determined prof bonus for the pet.

I find this interesting: " If you are incapacitated, the drake can take any action of its choice, not just Dodge."

Just this weekend, our artificer got knocked unconscious and we weren't immediately sure what his Steel Defender could do. We decided to stick with the "rules do what they say" mindset and assume since the PC wasn't able use his bonus action, the Defender couldn't attack. I wonder if that'll be a change to the Tasha's artificer, to bring it in line with the drakewarden.

[Tvtyrant]

Big fan of the Monk, having a minion popping option is always nice and I like where they are going with the design of uses and then Ki when runs out.

[Teaguethebean]

The Monk is the first monk I am actually interested in playing for the first time is a long long time but the Drake Warden looks like it will be what the beast master was always meant to be, though I still have no interest unless they make changes to the core ranger in Tasha's.

[Amechra]

I really love the Monk... but would it have killed them to base stuff off of Wisdom instead of your Proficiency? The Hexblade has made me hate features like that on principle. That being said, I do really like the "you get X free uses of this feature per long rest" thing, since it means that the WAD can actually nova (unlike other Monks).

The Drakewarden is pretty cool - I wish Perfected Bond cam online a little earlier, though, since being able to ride your Dragon Friend is half of the point.

[stoutstien]

I find this interesting: " If you are incapacitated, the drake can take any action of its choice, not just Dodge."

Just this weekend, our artificer got knocked unconscious and we weren't immediately sure what his Steel Defender could do. We decided to stick with the "rules do what they say" mindset and assume since the PC wasn't able use his bonus action, the Defender couldn't attack. I wonder if that'll be a change to the Tasha's artificer, to bring it in line with the drakewarden.

Aye. I've made it standard for my tables for BM and BS pets to acted in a limited capacity if the player goes down.

[Vogie]

Way of the Ascendant Dragon feels like someone really wanted to write a novel, but was assigned a subclass instead.

I find this interesting: " If you are incapacitated, the drake can take any action of its choice, not just Dodge."

Just this weekend, our artificer got knocked unconscious and we weren't immediately sure what his Steel Defender could do. We decided to stick with the "rules do what they say" mindset and assume since the PC wasn't able use his bonus action, the Defender couldn't attack. I wonder if that'll be a change to the Tasha's artificer, to bring it in line with the drakewarden.

I completely agree - Drakewarden as a whole feels really good

As an aspiring designer, giving the companion a magical-damage attack from the get-go also avoids the boring "at X level the attacks become magical" ribbon... that is a nice subtle touch.

[EggKookoo]

Aye. I've made it standard for my tables for BM and BS pets to acted in a limited capacity if the player goes down.

How do you answer the question of, "if my pet can act on its own when I'm incapacitated, why can't it act on its own when I just don't give it an order?"

[jaappleton]

I like 'em both.

Monk having a legitimate AoE option for a subclass, while not being too focused on AoE, is long overdue. I know they made Sun Soul but that one really never did much for me, as it was fairly limited in its scope. This one lets me take an attack and fire off a blast of energy. Finally we can have our anime monk!

Ranger with a drake? I dig it. I'm not into pet classes, I'm pretty well documented on being anti-minionmancy because I don't like taking long for my turn (Its a ME thing, nothing against other people using 'em), and who doesn't love the idea of partnering up with a dragon?!

[x3n0n]

I like the "small number of free uses per long rest, spend class resources for extra use" model. I think something like that would have made the Elemonk a lot better at low levels.

The Monk breath looks significantly under-costed, doesn't it? I would probably playtest at 2 ki once you're done with the free ones. (Edit: hm, maybe not overpowered/undercosted, given the action economy? In a 5MWD, would you ever *not* spam this if there wasn't someone to stun?)

I am still deciding how I feel about Monk flight: not that it's too strong, but could almost be too weak given that running up walls and over liquids is coming at lv9, and Step of the Wind already doubles your jump distance. How many new things can you really reach? Neat synergy with Slow Fall, though.

Monk aura is cool. I'm a big fan of "help my friends" and letting them spend their own reactions for the revenge damage. A little bit of Absorb-Elements-style anti-synergy, in that it deals the damage you're resisting, which they are more likely to resist themselves, but oh well.

Monk capstone is cool. Why is the "can see invisible creatures" clause not redundant with having the blindsight in the first place?

[Amechra]

How do you answer the question of, "if my pet can act on its own when I'm incapacitated, why can't it act on its own when I just don't give it an order?"

Well, if you're around, your pet wants you to tell it what to do, because you are Smart and Good, and any ideas you come up with are better than any ideas that it has. If you're incapacitated, your pet is going to try to protect you (because, again, you are Smart and Good).

[Peelee]

WonderMod powers activate! Form of: Merged Thread!

[KorvinStarmast]

20-foot cone for Breath of Dragon
Should be a 15 foot cone to be consistent with PC dragonborn, I think. I like how the damage scales. I like free uses based on proficiency bonus 'free use but costs ki later, and but this does tend to leave dragon born in the dust ... maybe update dragonborn, or maybe scale this back a bit? (Yes, that was a deliberate pun)
Draconic Disciple
While I really like the damage type options, but I wonder if that's not a bit OP, balance wise? And the Intimidation or Persuasion check? Love it. Nicely thematic.

Wings Unfurled
As written, I like this a lot. And if you screw up, slow fall helps you reduce the damage.

11th level feature.
Do one, not both. OP to use both, I think. I'd go for the protective aura.

17th level.
That sure is a lot of features.
a. Just grand blindsight as written in the MM.
b. I like the persistent damage.
c. OK, you automatically have a wave of damage go out and the next turn whomever was hit takes persietent damage. OK. Is this in addition to or instead of the original Aspect of the Wyrm damage?

More features keying off prof bonus. Personality not a fan.

An aoe monk option is new(other than 4E). At 1 ki after you blow all your starting charges means the breath attack is pretty spamable

Yes it is. Dragonborn PCs will stare at you and grumble. Wait, here's an idea.
Dragonborn monk. Name: Hal Itosis

I really love the Monk... but would it have killed them to base stuff off of Wisdom instead of your Proficiency?

I like the proficiency base, but base off of wisdom makes sense if we look at most of the other PHB classes. I can like it either way.

[micahaphone]

The monk seems strong, but more importantly it seems really fun. At 6th level, you can grow wings, fly 90 feet, and breathe 4 martial arts die of damage onto the fools below you in an AOE. And then take no damage from the fall because Slow Fall. That's ridiculously awesome.


I like the "x free uses then cost" thing, really encourages you to make use of your subclass, even when there's a mechanically superior thing to do.


Drakewarden is yet another "beastmaster but we didn't screw it up this time" UA. Always welcome in my book. It's funny that if your drake keeps dying you can keep summoning a new one to swoop on in. It makes me think that there's a magic aircraft carrier of drakes just off screen, who all think you're really cool but only appear one at a time to help because they don't want to make it awkward. At level 5 you'd have 7 potential drakes just waiting in the wings to step in and help out at the right calling whistle!

And I love that the capstone is "ya boi go bigger". the puppy is all grown up.

[jaappleton]

WonderMod powers activate! Form of: Merged Thread!

Thank you kindly!

[PhoenixPhyre]

Ranger with a drake? I dig it. I'm not into pet classes, I'm pretty well documented on being anti-minionmancy because I don't like taking long for my turn (Its a ME thing, nothing against other people using 'em), and who doesn't love the idea of partnering up with a dragon?!

I'm guessing that if that one goes live, it will be a very popular option for my new players. Who all seem to like dragons.

And if I were still running high school games, it would be everywhere, like some kind of scaly plague.

[stoutstien]

How do you answer the question of, "if my pet can act on its own when I'm incapacitated, why can't it act on its own when I just don't give it an order?"

Theatrically they can flavor however they wish. As far as crunch it basically a gentleman's agreement. They are welcome to use the RaW version as well.

[Amechra]

Should be a 15 foot cone to be consistent with PC dragonborn, I think.

Counterargument: The Dragonborn breath weapon should be a 20ft cone. Because that's actually more proportionate than halving the line's length (the volume of a cone is based off of 2/3rds of the height, after all).

[Sigreid]

I have to think about the Way of the Ascendant Dragon. I may like it too much.