New UA: Wonders of the Multiverse!

[Amnestic]

Also yet another batch of spells where wizard gets every single one. Boo, hiss.

I thought House of Cards was originally meant to be a less obnoxious Tiny Hut replacement but it's a way to create do-it-yourself cover...though I'm also not clear if people inside it can fire out from the bottom floors? Lack of a ritual tag really hurts it as a 3rd level spell though, when there's so much other tasty alternatives at that spell level.

I think I'd rather see it Ritual with a "only one house of cards active at a time" clause.

I like the concept but I think the execution of it is lacking at the moment.

[BRC]

Also yet another batch of spells where wizard gets every single one. Boo, hiss.

I thought House of Cards was originally meant to be a less obnoxious Tiny Hut replacement but it's a way to create do-it-yourself cover...though I'm also not clear if people inside it can fire out from the bottom floors? Lack of a ritual tag really hurts it as a 3rd level spell though, when there's so much other tasty alternatives at that spell level.

I think I'd rather see it Ritual with a "only one house of cards active at a time" clause.

I like the concept but I think the execution of it is lacking at the moment.

With how easy it is to knock down, it feels like it's supposed to me more of a tiny hut replacement than anything with combat potential. A flavorful way to get some space and shelter for the party to crash in, but which is very hard to actually use in combat, although for a third-level spell that has the utility of a big tent, I think they're a little too cautious about it, making it really easy to knock down means you don't want to use it if there's any chance of getting attacked, because the whole house could be brought down on your heads.

[P. G. Macer]

People who don’t take one of those feats get a free one still.

I know that, and should have made that clear in my first post, but look at the list of feats those who don’t have a special background can choose from. Half of them are pretty lackluster (in my opinion).

[Yakmala]

Enchanters are going to have fun twinning Antagonize when they have two melee enemies within range of each other.

[Polyphemus]

I’m really not a fan of the feat trees, even with backgrounds giving feats. Part of the issue IMO is that WotC is clearly designing with 5.5e in mind, but we’re still in 5.0 until sometime in 2024, so people who are using older content such as the PHB backgrounds because they fit their characters better are left out in the cold until then.

This is ultimately a minor quibble, but I really don’t like how the new feat-ed Backgrounds don’t give sample Ideals, Bonds, and Flaws, and act like a Trinket table is adequate RP compensation. I know that we can just right our own IBFs, but it feels very lazy on Wizards’ part, in keeping with their recent “I dunno, you figure it out” design philosophy, which places a greater burden on the consumers of their products.

Eh, I mean in the UA article itself they even say "if you have some characters with backgrounds that don't give them a feat [i.e. all the pre-Strixhaven ones] then here is a curated list of suggested free feats to give them to compensate", so I don't think it's that big a deal unless the DM is for whatever reason unwilling to do this, and if they're going to use the UA Backgrounds, it's going to be with a new character, presumably, so it's not like they'd even have to crowbar a new free feat onto an existing character, I'd think?
Like in general I had an initial knee-jerk reaction of "nope, don't like that" to the idea of Background-tied feats, but over time the concept's grown on me, and these ones are IMO an improvement over the Strixhaven ones, at least in terms of flavor. I hope that as they play more in this space going forward, as it pretty clearly seems that they will be, that they'll further fine tune it.

That second point, though, I am wholeheartedly in agreement with. It bugged me with Van Richten's, though at least they had the decency to give big lists of personality traits, ideals, and flaws for "horror backgrounds" in general instead of the individualized lists for the rereleased Haunted One and Investigator (and with the Haunted One there's also the CoS list to fall back on). But then with Strixhaven, we get just a list of Personality Traits tied to each college, and nothing more? That sucks, and I don't like that it's a continuing trend here. I know I can make up my own, but that was always true, and I genuinely find the listing of them in the books helpful for quick and dirty characterization with a new character I don't necessarily have a solid idea as to who they are starting out.

Frankly the same goes with most of the recent races? Like people have had a lot to say about floating ASIs and whatnot, but frankly I support where WotC's coming from with that, and most of the new/revised races have had more flavorful abilities than they used to, IMO--really my biggest problem on the mechanics side is retiring the old versions off D&D Beyond for those who didn't buy their associated books before the cutoff date. Even if they weren't always terribly interesting, I'd rather have those available to use if the fancy strikes me than not, especially since I can just use the Tasha's rules to give them the floating ASIs anyway, and mostly use them for their other mechanics.
My biggest problem, though, is the lack of lore. The Harengon, the Fairy, the Owlin, they all have severely underwritten lore sections. And again, I do understand the logic behind that, not wanting to say anything too prescriptive, and carry on with problematic generalizations/essentializations of an entire race or species, yadda yadda yadda; like, I get it, I do. I just also want The Lore about how these races act or are treated in Forgotten Realms, or Strixhaven, or whatever official setting they're supposed to be in. Like I often don't even use the Lore, I just think it's fun to have in case I want to crib some of that lore for home-brew purposes; I could always make up their lore for my home-brew, I want to know what they're like in this official setting, y'know?
Also, the Age category becoming "uhhhhh, assume a century unless we say it's longer" feels Weird and Bad, and I'm 90% certain it's chiefly because the change came with the Fairy, which had nothing in its writeup to say they live longer than elves or eladrin, when in my opinion, Fairies should be biologically immortal until and unless they're killed by outside causes, like LotR elves.
...And I know that's petty, but it bugs me, y'know?

That said I do like the blurb of the glitching we got here, even if I would like maybe a bit more; the accompanying video they posted on YouTube about this UA described them as a "cousin or sibling to" the concept of the Rogue Modron. I'm guessing the "sent out to gather data to bring back to Mechanus" is so you can be a mostly-independent entity without the pressure of "Mechanus wants to re-assimilate you into the Modron collective" hanging over your head. ;P

[Amechra]

I give Cartomancer points for letting me play Yugi in D&D... but the rest of the UA is just kinda bleh. The only giant feat that actually does something interesting is Keenness of the Stone Giant (a specialist in throwing weapons who gets to prepare their own special ammo is pretty neat). Everything else is just... uninspiring.

[Psyren]

Thanks to Warrior Spirit, now my wizard really CAN get a monk, fighter, or barbarian as a class feature Better in some cases since it's charm and poison immune.

[Damon_Tor]

I give Cartomancer points for letting me play Yugi in D&D... but the rest of the UA is just kinda bleh. The only giant feat that actually does something interesting is Keenness of the Stone Giant (a specialist in throwing weapons who gets to prepare their own special ammo is pretty neat). Everything else is just... uninspiring.

It's annoying though that the feat doesn't boost Dex and the weapon it gives you can't be used with Str. Unless I'm missing something. But anyway, the feat might be cool on a ranged battlemaster who likes Quick Toss. 1d10 damage with a knock prone effect as a bonus action is really solid.

[kazaryu]

That too. Is it really just about using a bonus action instead of an action?

to be fair, being able to cast certain spells as a bonus action can make them much more viable, especially for half casters. think like, a paladin or EK casting greater invisibility as a BA. but yeah, for a full caster this is relatively minor, likely best of a warlock.

[t209]

Seeing Glitchling's Vestigial Flight's "If you are still aloft at the end of
the turn with nothing else supporting you, you fall", any idea for flying over and jump on the foe?

[P. G. Macer]

Seeing Glitchling's Vestigial Flight's "If you are still aloft at the end of
the turn with nothing else supporting you, you fall", any idea for flying over and jump on the foe?

I’m pretty sure the rules from Tasha’s about falling onto another creature take precedence.

If a creature falls into the space of a second creature and neither of them is Tiny, the second creature must succeed on a DC 15 Dexterity saving throw or be impacted by the falling creature, and any damage resulting from the fall is divided evenly between them. The impacted creature is also knocked prone, unless it is two or more sizes larger than the falling creature.

Combined with the more general rules from Xanathar’s about falling, this seems to preclude sustaining fight by jumping on other creatures Super Mario Bros style.

[animewatcha]

Thoughts on old Rune carver feats versus the new ones?

I prefer the old ones as they allowed a bit of versatility amongst the spells known casters and thematic a bit with rune knight.

[Sigreid]

I continue to be unimpressed with the current dev team. Oh well.

[Jervis]

Thoughts:

- Glitchling is insanely good, getting free better-than-Mage-Armor AC constantly AND three other solid traits on top of that (plus a favorable creature type).
- First Ordered Cleric and now Fate Cleric? Where are the chaotic ones?
- Insightful Striking is nice but Strands of Fate using concentration is criminal. Visions of the Future giving concentration-free Foresight is nice.
- More feats in backgrounds, this is definitely the new norm.
- I'll go through the feats and spells later, too many for now.



They appear to be human in shape/size judging by the description, so I think they'll be closer to inevitables than modron personally.

I personally have mixed opinions on glitchling. For one thing, they really should just make them modrons. That’s a nitpick admittedly but playable modrons sound hilarious. The actual take I have on the AC is that it’s… weird. Using standard starting stats with a 16 in Dex this starts out the same as a Tortle though Tortle can work without dexterity investment letting something with shields like a cleric have that 19 AC with shields. And I think that’s kind of what this is trying to do.

Without magic items and assuming they didn’t do something weird like MinMax a custom lineage for 18 Dex at the start; standard stat and feat progression with Dex investment will put them going from 17 from levels 1-3, 18 levels 4-7, and 19 at level 8+. So basically Tortle for Dex characters instead of shield using ones. Though that much AC on a character who doesn’t get shield proficiency is a bit weird. That said a Bladesinger can probably do something stupid here going to a maximum of 24 AC, which is only one less than a hypothetical all 20s Monk/Wizard. This is likely a response to people just not using races with 13+Dex AC in favor of just getting medium armor and or being a Tortle. Since heavier armor and Tortle don’t require stat investment it makes them very attractive to a caster.

Honestly I don’t find this massively problematic. It’s great for, ironically, rogues and monks because it gives the prior more survivability over all with the latter getting an option to boost their AC outside of bumping wisdom. But if i’m playing a spellcaster or half caster or full martial i’m probably just using a Tortle or using their existing armor proficiencies. I would use this on a Ranger or fighter that uses ranged weapon though since it gives very good AC that doesn’t depend on a shield, as well as the aforementioned rogue and monk. In that sense it is a buff to the CBE meta so that would be my only issue.

[Sigreid]

I personally have mixed opinions on glitchling. For one thing, they really should just make them modrons. That’s a nitpick admittedly but playable modrons sound hilarious.

Just tell your table they're modrons and be done with it.

[Jervis]

I continue to be unimpressed with the current dev team. Oh well.

I feel you brother. Everything is Prof uses per long rest which was my main gripe with their design for the last while and it’s looking like they’re not to keen on changing. That part alone is making me unhopefully for the 2024 revision. The cleric is underwealming, it seems like they’re too scared to make good CDs now that they’ve unleashed peace and twilight onto us. Cartomancy is actually decent though, lets you disguise the casting of prestidigitation which is meh but a BA spell is kinda big. All of the other feats can be summed up as “words words words words you can only use this proficiency times per day”. They’re boring. And the new flight from glitchling has me worried that they’re gonna nuke flight outside of magic going forward which I find especially annoying.

[Envyus]

I prefer the new stuff so far.

[MinimanMidget]

Everything is Prof uses per long rest which was my main gripe with their design for the last while and it’s looking like they’re not to keen on changing. [...] All of the other feats can be summed up as “words words words words you can only use this proficiency times per day”.

Glad to know I'm not the only one who finds this particularly annoying. It's been a problem for a long time, and it'd be easy for them to fix it in 5.5, but it seems like it's going to be one of the defining traits of the update. As opposed to, say, wings being a defining trait of a Glitchling, despite only meaning anything twice per day.

[Psyren]

I enjoy Scion of Elemental Water (grants a push/pull effect you can use to move allies around + Thaumaturgy) and Scion of Elemental Fire (grants Dancing Lights + Produce Flame that you can quicken.) SEF is nice for an Alchemist as it gives them a decent use for their bonus action.

[Hael]

I personally have mixed opinions on glitchling. .

Yea im not super impressed with the glitchling AC. Its certainly a good feature, but from an opportunity cost point of view its still basically +1 ac and a 1st lvl spell slot for sorcerors/bards/wizards or an invocation for warlocks. Some races get permanent flight, which is what, a third lvl spell and a third lvl slot? This also doesn't scale super well with magic items, or with class features, so its more of an early game race. As you say, its best use cases are for off kilter builds like Kensai archers and things like that.

The vestigial wings is just a prof/day jump using movement speed, which isnt that impressive.

Their best features imo is the construct tag and the reroll.

The combined total, doesnt strike me as OP. Its a good race, but not winged tiefling powerful. The mechanics seem about right to me.

[JackPhoenix]

All the "Scion of elemental whatever" feats, except fire, feel pretty weird in their cantrip choice. What does Thaumaturgy has to do with water, thematically? Not like we have elemental themed cantrips... sure, they are from non-core books, but it's not like WotC is above releasing the same content multiple times to pad the books (or sell a book made entirely out of previously released stuff, but made worse).

[Thunderous Mojo]

All the "Scion of elemental whatever" feats, except fire, feel pretty weird in their cantrip choice. What does Thaumaturgy has to do with water, thematically? Not like we have elemental themed cantrips... sure, they are from non-core books, but it's not like WotC is above releasing the same content multiple times to pad the books (or sell a book made entirely out of previously released stuff, but made worse).

I agree.

First we have the Clockwork Amulet in XGE, (which is a fun common item), then we get the Clockwork Sorcerer, and now we have the Channel Divinity from the Fate Domain.

Runes, Runes, and more Runes. Does a Rune Knight need more opportunities to pick up more Runic powers?

I pity the poor Horizon Walker, that boils their theme down to a single feat.

(At least let the Horizon Walker’s Detect Portal ability have increased range similar to how the Telekinetic feat increases the range of Mage Hand acquired from another source).

Recycle, Re-Package….this feels more like an album of studio recording outtakes posthumously released by an artist.

These features were designed by Tupac!

I think I will pass on Planescape and Ikoria Settings…(which is what, I suspect, these features are designed for.)

[Amnestic]

Yea im not super impressed with the glitchling AC. Its certainly a good feature, but from an opportunity cost point of view its still basically +1 ac and a 1st lvl spell slot for sorcerors/bards/wizards or an invocation for warlocks.

Any armour wearer prioritising dex (so rogues, dex-rangers, dex-fighters, etc.) will see it be worth the equivalent of +2 studded leather, a "very rare" item. That's pretty solid as far as AC boosts go.

[Sigreid]

I prefer the new stuff so far.

And that's fair enough, the world would be dull as heck if everyone had the same opinion about everything. I've been around long enough to know that sometimes I just have to decide things aren't for me and deal with it.

[Dr.Samurai]

Anyone know what the vestigial wings on the Glitchling is about? Lore-wise I mean, like what inspired that trait?

I was really worried there wouldn't be a feat that grants Misty Step in this one but thankfully I got to page 7 and there it was .

Honestly, the whole "this grants you spells" thing is tired at this point.

But I also don't like the other stuff they're doing either, which to my mind continues to make terrain obstacles less and less challenging. Glitchlings get a fly speed, we get another feat that grants Misty Step, and another one that grants a fly speed. Or the various ways you have of handing out Advantage in this article, or bypassing low rolls.

I get the appeal of this, but it just seems like cheapening everything. I like the Fate Cleric's ability to reduce divination mishaps by 25%. That's cool.

Summon Warrior Spirit needs to meet an unhappy end as well. Here Bladesinger, have weapon proficiency, have a higher AC than the martials, here take Extra Attack as well. Oh, and also you can summon a martial for one hour as well teehee...

[Zhorn]

Anyone know what the vestigial wings on the Glitchling is about? Lore-wise I mean, like what inspired that trait?

My guess is (edit: and many others in the thread having already suggested as such) it's a spin on the rogue modron from the variant sidebar MM p224

Spoiler: image

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[Gignere]

Anyone know what the vestigial wings on the Glitchling is about? Lore-wise I mean, like what inspired that trait?

I was really worried there wouldn't be a feat that grants Misty Step in this one but thankfully I got to page 7 and there it was .

Honestly, the whole "this grants you spells" thing is tired at this point.

But I also don't like the other stuff they're doing either, which to my mind continues to make terrain obstacles less and less challenging. Glitchlings get a fly speed, we get another feat that grants Misty Step, and another one that grants a fly speed. Or the various ways you have of handing out Advantage in this article, or bypassing low rolls.

I get the appeal of this, but it just seems like cheapening everything. I like the Fate Cleric's ability to reduce divination mishaps by 25%. That's cool.

Summon Warrior Spirit needs to meet an unhappy end as well. Here Bladesinger, have weapon proficiency, have a higher AC than the martials, here take Extra Attack as well. Oh, and also you can summon a martial for one hour as well teehee...

They could always do it but now they do it at fifth level instead of 13th via simulacrum.

[Millstone85]

Anyone know what the vestigial wings on the Glitchling is about? Lore-wise I mean, like what inspired that trait?

My guess is (edit: and many others in the thread having already suggested as such) it's a spin on the rogue modron from the variant sidebar MM p224

Still surprising because winged modrons (i.e. monodrones and quadrones) get a proper flying speed of 30 feet, and the rogue sidebar says nothing of limiting this trait.

Not sure if those wings actually help with the flight. Maruts fly too, and can even hover, but their wings are definitely for show.

Spoiler: image

Show

[Psyren]

All the "Scion of elemental whatever" feats, except fire, feel pretty weird in their cantrip choice. What does Thaumaturgy has to do with water, thematically? Not like we have elemental themed cantrips... sure, they are from non-core books, but it's not like WotC is above releasing the same content multiple times to pad the books (or sell a book made entirely out of previously released stuff, but made worse).

Yeah I can definitely see 5e's closed ecosystem being a growing problem. They want to stick cantrips/spells in these new feats but the only cantrips they can count on people having are the PHB ones. PF1 solved this by just embracing open-source for all their splat, but D&D it seems will never do that.

At best we can hope that the 5.5e PHB has more spells in it than 5.0.

[KorvinStarmast]

My take on the latest "I wonder what they are smoking verse" UA thing.

As a glitchling, you have the following racial traits. Creature Type. You are a Construct.

No. Stop doing this. Give PCs the humanoid type. KISS principle.

Size. You are Medium. Speed. Your walking speed is 30 feet.

Thank you.

Armored Plating. Your metal skin is reinforced with armor plates. While you aren’t wearing armor, your base Armor Class is 14 + your Dexterity modifier.

No. What's wrong with a simple +1 like the warforged? This is spilling over into class features, not race features. No.

Balance Chaos. When you make an attack roll or a saving throw and roll a 9 or lower on the d20, you can balance chaos and treat the roll as a 10. You can balance chaos in this way a number of times equal to your proficiency bonus, and you regain all expended uses when you finish a long rest.

No. This is more powerful than Halfling's lucky trait - works on any roll from 1 through 9 un modified. It more or less ignores Bounded Accuracy which is a core piece of the design framework.

Living Construct. You were created to benefit from several spells that preserve life but that normally don’t affect Constructs: cure wounds, healing word, mass cure wounds, mass healing word, and spare the dying.

Hard no. If you are gonna be a construct, Pay The Price. Stop it with the Needless fiddly bits. Stop with egregious violations of KISS principle (which was one of the attractions of this edition as it came out, seemed to at least nod to the KISS principle).

Ordered Mind. You have advantage on Wisdom (Insight) checks and on saving throws made to avoid or end the charmed condition on yourself.

OK, like the elf thing.
Vestigial Wings. Not OP, OK for PCs to occasionally do something cool. Limited resource.
Grade: D to D-.

Fate Cleric: Hard no, and too fiddly in any case. Do we really need another cleric domain? No.

In addition, until you finish a long rest, when you cast a divination spell that includes a chance the DM gives you no answer or a random reading—such as augury, commune, or divination—reduce that chance by 25 percent.

Divination spells are already muddy, all this makes them is muddier.
Ties That bind:
Too fiddly, reduce the time to ten or one minute. Weird variation on Bardic Inspiration, which lasts ten minutes. Tries to be both Hex and BI, can't make up its mind. Gag me with a d20.
Strands of Fate:
For a minute, concentration required, you can do what a Mastermind Rogue does at will at level 3. Uses a reaction. Keep the conc penalty as that precludes any number of useful spells or you'd be able to do this on top of bless.
Insightful Striking
Not sure if d6 or d4 is proper here; similar to mind sliver which is a cantrip. Buff/debuff kind of thing. Limited use.
Potent Spellcasting: Same as other clerics, no issues.
Free Foresight: why not ten minutes? I can see why not the full 8 hours that foresight uses, can live with "lasts for a minute" though. Leave as is.

Overall grade: C to C-.

Gate Warden background. *Shrug* I've seen better custom backgrounds.
Any feat added to a background is gonna get a hard no from me unless WoTC goes back and gives very PHB background a feat. All the rest of the backgrounds: no.

OK, this whole feat tree/feat chain feature: don't like it. Still don't, but I think I understand the inclination behind it: they are trying to make background as important as, or more important than, race and/or class.

Spells:
(The summoning spells seem to fit with the Tasha's precedent set to tone down the summoning and general minionmancy)

A. "Hello, we are Wizards of the Coast, and we make a collectible card game. We will add cards to this game too since we can't help ourselves, Hasbro demands product fusion"

B. Spray of Cards: "Hi, we are Riot Entertainment, Twisted Fate would like to have a word with you"
C. House of Cards: "Yes, we are running out of ideas"