all right hello welcome to another
dragon plus a live stream I am your host
as always Bart carolyn with me as he is
every other week thankfully is jeremy
crawford lead designer of the players
handbook and lead rules designer of
Dungeons & Dragons hello everyone I
almost waved too soon that was a wait
he’s still introducing me yes I am cause
we are going to be covering the most
recent unearthed Arcana for the class
feature variance which has a wealth a
trove of material to talk through so
we’re gonna dive right into it really
quickly I will just say at 2 p.m. look
forward to beyond heroes and for
everyone participate in an extra life
we’re an hour event at Seattle
Children’s Hospital on Saturday from
12:00 to 3:00 so if you tuned in or
participated or spread the word thank
you sooo so much thank you so yes if you
do have questions for a class feature
variance please do put them in chat
preface them in question you might want
to if you haven’t already printed out
your own copy of unearthed Arcana it’s
also available on the DMV website
download it now and you might want to
follow along as we’ve got a lot to cover
so we have if I am correct in my number
a ssin 12 classes would you like to
discuss them in order chat choice or
roll a d20 a so I I think we should let
this died to side but we’ll roll it will
tell us which class to go to first yeah
before we go to that class I’d love to
talk really quickly about the one
feature that’s here for every class okay
and I’ll talk a little bit about the the
article as a whole sort of what what’s
the thought process behind it alright
let’s see 9 9 that is the rogue the
rogue whoo the road is a juicy place to
start so this honor
Arkana is unlike the ones we’ve done
recently and in fact the son Arthur Kahn
is unlike any on earth or Cana we’ve
ever done in that it provides class
feature variants for every class in The
Player’s Handbook
this is actually an approach I told the
community we were going to explore and I
think probably two years ago or more
I mentioned that we were exploring the
possibility of alternative class futures
and here they are now I remember that so
yes promise fulfilled yes yes we
sometimes we sometimes work in what I
think of as a battleship time and what I
mean by that is battleships sometimes
take a long time to turn but we get
there particularly because we’re often
working on multiple books at once yes
also doing a game mechanic experiments
like what you see here in this on earth
Arcana so finally it’s day has come and
what we wanted to do is let people
experience classes that they already
like in new ways say you love playing a
cleric you love playing a rogue or you
know whatever class it is that your
favorite you’ve played a bunch of them
over the last five years and you’d love
to return to the class but with with at
week maybe two two weeks maybe three
depending on the class since each class
gets a sort of variable number of
variants in this article so really it’s
a new way for you to engage with your
class all of that said an important
thing to clarify is first off like all
in Earth Arcana this is play test
material yes it’s not an official part
of the game if it does become an
official part of the game as we say in
the article it’s up to each dungeon
master how much if any of this they
would like to make available at their
table my recommendation for this kind of
thing is DMS talk with your players see
what they want and if they’re all like
yeah let’s do it then you know let them
go wild with this material you might
have some players who really don’t want
to be bothered with considering
something outside
players handbook or maybe one other book
like Zenith ours guide to everything and
the thing is that’s okay you don’t
actually need everyone at a table to
adopt these options because remember
this is a co-op game it’s okay if people
are sort of pulling from different pools
of options for this game because
ultimately the characters are all there
to support each other I because someone
might have anxiety that oh my gosh my
character took one of these new
versatility options but Jane she didn’t
want those options for her character is
my character unbalanced relative to hers
it’s a co-op game your characters aren’t
in competition with each other if Jane
doesn’t want the option Jane’s character
is balanced in that Jane is getting the
experience she wants that’s that’s the
important thing to remember with options
like this it it we have designed them so
that they can be basically turned on
altogether or just maybe one or two of
them get turned on by the diem and maybe
for some of the players but then other
players might say no thanks flexibility
is really the name of the game here okay
so speaking of flexibility yes we have a
feature that we included for every class
in the game if you want to turn it on
it’s called proficiency versatility and
versatility is a word that’s going to
come up a lot in our talk today because
again a big thrust of this is let’s give
people options proficiency versatility
is for any of you out there who’s made
you’ve made a character you get up to
fourth level eighth level some later
level and you realized I have never used
this history skill or I thought my
character was going to be an
investigator but I took my character in
another direction and have not really
leaned on my investigation skill or the
campaign has gone slightly different or
you could even have somebody who maybe
you had their backstory they were a
circus performer and so you gave them
proficiency in acrobatics but in play
you might have decided your care
has become bookish maybe a little bit of
a couch potato and you don’t have any
use for acrobatics people change we we
change I am not as slim as I used to be
and so to represent those sorts of
transformations you can if you turn on
this option let one of your skill
proficiencies go away and then adopt a
new one in its place this as we say in
the description represents you letting
one of your skills atrophy as you pick a
new skill proficiency now we have tied
this to when you get the ability score
improvement feature partly because skill
proficiency represents often an
investment of training of practice and
so it felt narrative ly a little odd if
we say let you do this every time you
leveled up okay so we decided let’s
instead tie this to your ability score
improvements which are already
representing a possible sort of more
holistic improvement of your character
seemed like a perfect time in your
characters narrative arc and also in
your game mechanical arc to make these
sorts of adjustments I also wanted us to
tie it to ability score improvement for
another very purposeful reason and that
is classes that get more ability score
improvements get more options to swap
things out which we want we want classes
like the fighter to have a bit more
flexibility here than say a class that
gets fewer ability score improvements
because versatility is an element that
we highlight a bit more in some classes
over others all right shall we jump to
the road let’s jump to the road so yes
again we’re looking at the on earth or
can a class feature variants you can
download this now from the DMV website
so proficiency versatility available for
all the classes we rolled our D 12 we
came up
with the rogue and what what new
variants are available for the road the
rogue gets one new variant and it is as
I like to say it is a juicy one the
rogue’s variant is the option again if
it gets turned on in your game to be
able to use your cunning action to take
a new sort of special kind of action
that we call aim for those of you who’ve
played a rogue you know that cunning
action lets you hide disengage – and
then some of our subclasses add
additional options for your cunning
action this is adding the ability to aim
to the suite of options and really aim
is is a way for a rogue who might be
locked in melee combat with somebody or
who is ensconced in a sniper position to
give themselves advantage on their next
attack role there’s a cost though the
cost is you can’t have moved before you
aim and once you aim your speed is
dropped to zero for the rest of your
turn so you’ve got to be committed to
staying put to line up your shot right
this has several effects one it’s a
pretty straightforward way for a road to
set up their sneak attack sneak attack
requires you either to have advantage on
your attack role or for you to be
attacking somebody who is adjacent to
one of your friends because you have
those two ways of setting up your sneak
attack most rogues are able to sneak
attack almost every time they attack and
that’s by design we we expect rogues to
be able to sneak attack almost all the
time yes and we also expect rogues to
you know when they need to to hide and
whatnot but sometimes a rogue has no
place to hide
they have nobody’s helping them set up
their shot and so the rogue here gets to
set it up themselves but it’s dangerous
rogues can be a little squishy and so if
you decide to stay
but that might mean that ogre is running
you down so you know this is it gives a
nice choice the other twist I love with
this is it also gives you the ability to
essentially scrub disadvantage off you
because also one of the rules of sneak
attack is let’s say you don’t have
advantage and you’re attacking somebody
who’s next to one of your buddies you
can sneak attack them unless you have
disadvantage on your attack role by
aiming you can get rid of disadvantage
because for everyone who who doesn’t
remember if you have both advantage and
disadvantage as my quest they cancel
each other out so then you have neither
some people sometimes people get
confused and they think you have both at
the same time in it it’s impossible I’m
going to roll three dies so yeah in in
the rules there’s no such thing as
having both disadvantage and advantage
if you have any number of instances of
advantage versus any number of instances
of disadvantage they cancel each other
out one instance of disadvantage would
cancel out a million instances of
advantage and vice versa so again one
option for the rogue but it’s juicy how
about you roll notice all right class we
do next let’s move them go on to another
d12 role really quickly while we are
rolling I did want to mention as we
spoke quickly off-air ever on rising
from the last war releases very very
soon so will most likely talk about that
in our next dragon plus I look forward
to it
yes oh and we’ve got to raffles we’ll be
doing today one for a copy of dungeon
mayhem and because it is also releasing
shortly one for a copy of Dungeons &
Dragons at force versus Rick and Morty
fantasy role-playing adventure I think
I’m a Googler II required this it’s an
ID
you’ve got to re-roll Motorola yes it’s
gonna be nines all the way down 11 so
that is the my class the Warlock whoo
the Warlock okay
the Warlock gets a number of fun new
options to play with in
on earth Arcana starting off with a
feature called spell versatility
remember I said you’re gonna hear that
word versatility a lot yes
very thematic to the variants today yeah
so what this feature is gonna let the
warlock do is whenever they finish a
long rest they get to replace one spell
that they learn from their pack magic
feature with another spell from the
warlock spell list the new spell must be
the same level as the spell they replace
so here’s the context for this warlocks
are what people sometimes refer to as a
spells known class this is as opposed to
the classes that prepare their spells
each day those classes the sort of the
main representatives of that family of
spell casters being the cleric the druid
and the wizard paladins can also prepare
their spells but then then you have
classes like the Warlock and the ranger
who really have a in the sorcerer who
have a list of spells they know that
they go back to over and over again and
they can only swap out one of those
spells when they level up and then when
they do that swap out it can be for any
spell from their list that they’re
capable of casting so this gives a new
option it is when you finish a long rest
you also get to swap out one but it has
to be the same level as the spell your
swapping out so not quite as much
flexibility as when you level up but it
gives you at least a little bit of
flexibility and the reason why we’re
introducing this to see what people
think is we know that many people will
make basically a spell selection and
then have buyer’s remorse yes and and
and take it as a warlock
yes oh you have experienced this buyer’s
remorse well it and I think that it gets
to the heart of why is the versatility
is there are a great many of fun fun
options in the game and locking into any
one of them that’s your character and
being able to move the parts along the
way try out a new thing along the way
that is just great that
it just gives you more this has nothing
to do with my analogy but there’s more
crayons in your boxes I like that
analogy it was for Emma’s adventure here
but so I am I wouldn’t say completely
flakey where if I get bored with a
character I’ll want to have it die so I
can make it a new one but I have been
known to have that thought process where
like okay well I’ve now played with all
the tricks that this character can do
maybe I want a completely but no no if
my character now has added options that
gives them a longevity of interest to me
and that that’s exactly what we’re
shooting for because and here’s another
dimension to this one of the reasons why
I would love to see this get embraced
and make it into the game officialy is
as we’ve seen over the last five years
people loving fifth edition playing you
know countless campaigns of it one thing
that’s very clear is every group levels
up at a different rate meaning in some
groups you might gain new levels rapidly
and if you’re playing a spell’s known
class like the warlock you might get to
swap out your spell’s pretty often like
the wait in a particular campaign might
not be very long right but we know there
are other groups where the satisfaction
in their campaign is usually centred on
narrative goals character development
some groups actually don’t like getting
up to the high levels and they really
slow down advancement so they’re they
get to stay in sort of their sweet spot
yes
I don’t want those groups to be punished
because the flexibility mechanic that we
put into their class relies on them
leveling up this provides another way
for a group that might not level up very
often to give spells known characters a
little more flexibility so that they’re
not waiting you know potentially three
to five months of real time before they
finally get to get that spell that they
regret taking off their spell list and a
lot of it is while we were and
campaign against frost giants but now
we’ve moved on to fire giants
so you know at what point do the if I
can modify what my character can bring
to the adventure accordingly at a much
greater rate my character becomes more
useful to me and I’ve got a bit more of
a loving feeling towards it yeah yeah
well and one other thing and I’m
spending a little time on spell
versatility because we’ll actually come
across it in several of the other
classes yes it’s not just a warlock
option I’ve noticed some concern online
and it’s even a concern we discussed on
the design team of questioning does this
step on the toes of classes like the
cleric the druid and the wizards sure
the the spells prepared classes paladin
as well part of their stick is every day
they get to prepare their list of spells
yes here’s the thing they get to change
their entire list of spells every day
right so letting another class swap out
one spell really is not undermining the
feel of those classes or their
flexibility they still have a
flexibility that is you know above and
beyond this this again I see a sort of a
mercy particularly for a group where
leveling up does not happen very often
well I support an endorsed of this spell
versatility well because maybe this will
cause you to stop throwing your warlocks
off cliffs and seeking some quick end so
you can make Mike Merle’s about that I
had a back channel of conversations like
just which by the way I we’ve talked
about on this show before I fully
support people retiring characters when
they want when they want to stay in the
current campaign but maybe try something
else
all right that spell versatility for the
war like what else can we talk about for
the Warlock okay so the Warlock also
gets something that you’ll see in
several of the other spell casting
classes
as well and that is a list of additional
spells to add to that they’re their
class spell list so again some
additional flexibility in some cases
these are spells that we we sort of
think of as like huh we probably should
have had them there a first place and
then other others are just sort of fun
experiments to see well what would
happen if a class suddenly got access to
these spells what I wanted to jump ahead
to is the warlock also gets something
people have been asking for for the
warlock for a while and that is a new
pact boon option warlocks in The
Player’s Handbook have the pact of the
chain they have the pact of the blade
and then they also have the pact of the
tome those three are joined here by the
pact of the talisman this pact along
with the eldritch invocations the new
ones in this document that support it is
all about defensive options and also
helping your companions this was a sort
of a realm ice play style that we wanted
to explore in the warlock because we
already in the warlock do a good job of
offensive abilities
trixie abilities beguiling abilities
whereas we have not provided many
options for the warlock players who
would like to be a more sort of support
character may you know making their
group more resilient increasing the
group’s survivability that kind of thing
so if you look at the various talisman
options you’ll see that together they
they create this network of aid to a
group my favorite being that if you take
one of these invocations your talisman
warlock can literally save your
companions life because if they have
signed their name on the magic on this
oh I’m sorry
that’s pact of the tome no the talisman
ones again lots of protection miles so
we also have some info
locations for the pact of the tome my
favorite one there is the one where they
signed their names and and literally are
prevented from dying because we also
wanted to explore some of these support
options in the pact of the tome so pact
of the tome gets some new invocations
pacted the chain gets one which makes
your familiar a little more combat ready
by allowing you to have it attack with
its bonus action that’s my pack yeah so
there you go
pacted the tome is going to be much
better now at also making a
concentration saving throws so you were
referencing gifted the protectors yes
the pact for the impact of the tongue
together so this one is the ability as
you were talking about to literally save
a companions yes if their name is signed
in your book of shadows and they drop to
0 hit points the book will cause it so
that they drop to one hit point instead
but this can happen only once per day so
watch out if you have if you have a
member of your group who likes to like
your warlock oral themself off a cliff
and waste and waste the life-saving
power of your book of shadows I kind of
like the the flavor of it where you can
magically erase a name from your book as
well so you can be on the naughty list
or the nice list that’s right yes
actually in fact you can imagine this
you could play Santa Claus the warlock
whose Book Of Shadows is the naughty and
nice list yes I I fully endorsed this
character concept is someone make Santa
the warlock with the out of the tome yes
I would love to see any variety of Santa
as various figures how those would play
out yes I can go a number of ways yeah
more like certainly one of them yeah
yeah
so the Warlock I could honestly talk
about every single one of these
invocations excitedly because I’m
excited about every single one of them
but we’re already 30 minutes and we have
only 10 more to go
so please though people send us your
they don’t have any questions or
comments about particular invocations
also we will on our website have a
survey soon please let us know what you
think your feedback is vital as we
decide where to go next with these
variants hmm all right should we roll
the die here for our next class 3 3 is
the cleric all right our friend the
cleric at least you hope you hope the
cleric is your friend it’s so that they
might help keep you alive yes and I see
another versatility coming up that’s
right here is that word again
versatility but instead of having spell
versatility that feature which clerics
don’t need because I already mentioned
they prepared their spells every day
they have one now called cantrip
versatility so far in fifth edition if
you pick a cantrip you are stuck with it
now many DMS will allow players to
change elements on their character sheet
yes but we wanted to explore having an
official way to do it yes and so clerics
now whenever they gain a level in their
class can swap out one of their cleric
can turrets for another cleric can trip
again gives a little bit of flexibility
you might have your character concept
might have been I was a wagon you know a
wagon mender and I had my mending
cantrip but I’ve never used it yes I
would really love to have light instead
it’s time to clean out the closet I
never wear this that’s right this is
this is so you can sort of invite Marie
Kondo into your character sheet um think
the thing that might have brought to you
some fun and say goodbye to it as you
invite something else onto your
character sheet and there is something
to what you said at the beginning there
it you always want a friendly
cooperative relationship with the
dungeon master and the players but it is
nice where certain changes like that
aren’t dependent on DM Fiat it’s it’s
baked in where oh okay I officially am
sanctioned to be able to mix and match a
bit along the way exactly and we also
though you’ll notice we don’t say change
all your cameras
this one right I’m you level up the
reason for that is we want to provide
some additional versatility while at the
same time acknowledging some stability
in your character is important just for
the sake of your characters identity yes
so that there is a sense of this is the
still the same person right but again
with a little release valve so you can
change something because part of the
reality is part of us being authentic
people in our world is we all change yes
we have we have abilities that atrophy I
used to be able to play the piano I used
to be able to read music anytime now I
look at and look at music I’m like wow I
I have completely like yeah I were a D&D
character I have lost my proficiency
with reading music and playing the piano
it came up in the Goonies she had to
remember her piano Alice yes from way
back when yes I had trombone lessons
from junior high there’s no way that
would work out anymore yeah Marie Kondo
she doesn’t say throw it all away and
start from scratch
no keep those things that give you joy
yes and then say goodbye to the things
that and thank them right to the things
that might have brought you joy I don’t
anymore
this can’t rip will now go to a new
spellcaster that’s right joy yes because
I can guarantee you there is a player
out there who is loving the mending can
trip so mending is not its feelings will
not be hurt say goodbye to it
I bet especially in the next week with
the release of a Barone rising from the
last war there will be many artificers
happy to give that mending cantrip new
life all right so the cleric gets also a
new spell options including a few smite
sand auras from the Paladin spell list
the reason for this is some cleric
players like to conceive of their cleric
as sort of a holy warrior where’s their
other cleric players who who think of
their cleric more of as sort of a priest
who might even walk around in a robe
rather than in full armor we we we have
heard loud and clear from the commune
that cleric players like to be able to
have both archetype supported within the
cleric class so this is just a part of
us providing that dual support they get
a new channel divinity option mm-hmm
which is the ability to basically burn a
use of your channel divinity to get back
a first-level spell slot
this is here because there are times
when your turn undead has no use and and
even the channel divinity from your
subclass might have no use in a
particular session and sometimes even in
an entire adventure this is for that
cleric who’s like like I have this
resource I would love to be able to use
it yes this gives you an ability to do
so and it I mean and again it can be
quite nice giving that Clerk just that
little extra versatility of all right
I’ve got another slot which I can now
use on any of my first level spells I
have prepared today it’s very rewarding
to feel useful yeah that’s that’s a nice
I feel good the the final one blessed
strikes in the cleric is a potential
replacement if a person would like to
have it for two different features in
the cleric class every subclass in the
cleric at eighth level gets either the
divine strike feature or the potent
spell casting feature divine strikes
boosts your weapon attacks wears potent
spell casting boosts your your can trip
damage blessed strikes if you’re willing
to forego potent spell casting or divine
strike instead just gives you a d8 of
extra radiant damage that you can apply
to a weapon strike or a spell and the
reason why we wanted to offer this up as
an option is many clerics are versatile
in that many clerics will go back and
forth between fighting with a weapon and
using their spells and so we wanted to
give clerics the ability to
sort of walk that versatile road and
take blessed strikes as an alternative
okay now they’re the limitation with
blessed strikes is that it affects only
one of your damaged roles on a term so
it is it’s a little constrained but more
flexible in its application shall we
roll for the next sure really quickly
I’m just gonna mention again we’re going
through the classic feature variance
from unearthed Arcana I know we’ve got
one if not our second raffle is underway
at the moment we’ve been going through
class by class I’ve got one question
here it’s a bit broad from the beginning
you mentioned a lot of these features
tend to hit when they get to their
ability score increase so only one of
the features I’m sorry if people choose
to take a feat instead of their ability
score increase could they still swap out
one skill proficiency yes the intention
is yes okay
yeah because even if you use the feet
optional rule you are still hitting
ability score improvement on your class
table and so really the intent here is
when you hit that even if you take a
feat instead on true you would still get
to swap out one of your skill
proficiencies okay and that that is
definitely the example of something that
we could make clearer in a final version
of this so I love that question so we
have rolled a six we are on the monk
mad monk alright the monk the monk gets
three feature options yeah and one of
which has two sub options so the first
one again hitting on this note of
flexibility gives monks who might have
some extra weapon proficiencies because
of their race or some other source say
they’re multi classing gives them the
ability to customize their list of monk
weapons bunks normally for their monk
weapons and get all simple melee weapons
and short swords mm-hmm
you do have some characters who enter
the monk class take elves for instance
many elves have bonus weapon
proficiencies dwarves also often have
bonus weapon weapon proficiencies we
would love fur for those monks to be
able to use those weapon proficiencies
as monk weapons and so we decided to
give them this customisable list with
the limitations that we have built-in
this also is going to work for a monk
who might decide they want darts to be a
monk weapon they want a sling to be a
monk weapon and those are proficiencies
all monks start with but the current
monk weapon rule in the players handbook
does not allow those ranged weapons or
any of the characters other weapon
proficiencies to apply narrative Lee
that does make sense in a way as an elf
I’ve been training with these particular
weapons as all elves do but as a monk as
an elven monk I would still be training
with these weapons as all elves do so
how would those plans so this is it
seems like a narrative Lee logical means
to do so with certain restrictions can’t
be heavy can’t be two-handed so it’s
it’s not breaking the mechanics of a
monk weapon but still keeping it in the
flavor of the character you’re trying to
play exactly now if any of you out there
if you’re playing a monk and you’re
thinking well I’m not playing a race
that gives me weapon proficiencies I’m
not Multi classing then I would say
stick with the monk weapons in the
players handbook because there you just
it you know you just get all your simple
melee weapons and move right along this
is really meant for the character who
has these extra goodies and this is a
way for the monk to really incorporate
those goodies into their monk play the
second level monk feature key fueled
strike it says if you spend one key or
more as part of your action on your turn
you can then immediately make
unarmed strike as a bonus action monks
already have a number of built-in
features that use the bonus action so
it’s important for me to remind everyone
here you can only ever take one bonus
action on your term so what this is not
doing is giving you an extra bonus act
here’s what it is doing and it’s rather
subtle and this is why I love having
conversations like this with you and
with with all of you listening
so we can get into sometimes the
subtleties of game options like this
mm-hmm many monks will have no use for
this but for the monks this is designed
for this will be a godsend if you’re
playing a way of shadow monk or a way of
the four elements monk or any other monk
who has a special action that
essentially gobbles up to your action on
your turn does not include any of the
regular triggers for your sort of
martial arts bonus attack or your flurry
of blows this now gives you a new way to
use your subclasses key
burning abilities and still get in your
unarmed strike so for instance if you’re
playing a way of the four elements monk
and you spend a key point to unleash one
of your elemental spells you can also go
Kabam with your fists or your your foot
or whatever it is you’re using to make
your own arm strike in addition to your
spell casting so this is going to be a
boon for monks or members of certain
subclasses and still keeps the monkish
under arm striking flavor exceptionally
strong across Oh a bit more across the
board they in that the intent exactly
and we also purposefully designed this
to be subclass agnostic because they I
mentioned two subclasses but features
like this appear here and there in monk
subclasses and could potentially in the
future so in a way we’re future proofing
that you know if this is embraced and
becomes part of the game it means you
know monks henceforth if they have
abilities like that they’re still going
to get to enjoy there they’re unarmed
strikes finally monks have two new ways
to spend key one
is to improve the range attacks and
another is actually for a monk to heal
themself this is is very on target in
terms of the monks flavor a lot of the
monks abilities are about the health of
their bodies the resilience the physical
resilience this is a way for the monk
who is on the verge of death to tap tap
into their internal key and save
themselves until maybe somebody with a
little more powerful healing can give
them even more of their hip points back
so in many ways this is a an oh crap
key option of I’d you know I have all
this key I haven’t spent in but by golly
I’m about to die well buddy burned that
key and right and and live to fight
another day this yes this very flavorful
energy that I’m imbued with it can it
can I turn it back on myself in case of
dire straits yeah exactly you want to
roll for our next one all right what
should we roll or should we go to chat
because we’ve got a tell you what if if
it’s a new number we’ll go to the new
number if it’s a repeat number I’ll ask
chat which class we should cover next
and it is it is a new class the sorcerer
alright the sorcerer ah I think that was
the end and bren-bren 77 were stuck in
service the sorcerer as well alright so
oh the sorcerer is casting a spell
oh no there it is for a moment I thought
the sorcerer had had vanished vanished
from my from my print out okay so the
sorcerer gets some new spells again
added to their list
they have spell versatility which we’ve
we have already talked about a way for
them to to maybe deal with some buyer’s
remorse
also to have some some character
development and a bit more versatility
pardon me with the sorcerer in
particular by the way we have often
gotten the feedback that people would
like a bit more choice when it comes to
the spells they know so spell
versatility is especially a boon
for sorcerer players who have asked for
that we also have some new font of magic
options font of magic is the name of the
feature of the sorcerer that gives them
their sorcery points that wonderful
resource that allows the sorcerer to
manipulate their own magic which again
is a wonderful part of their story as
people who have magic in their very
blood it makes sense the day of all
people should be able to manipulate
their own magic so we allow sorcerers
now with this option to make a temporary
magic item by transferring some of their
innate magic into that item which is
specifically must be a weapon okay so if
you’ve ever found yourself in a
situation where it’s like oh my goodness
Janet’s barbarian can’t hit that
creature because of their resistance to
non magical weapons
the sorcerer if no one has the magic
weapon spell prepared the sorcerer can
just channel some raw magic into that
weapon to get the job done also the
sorcerer can in a pinch if they really
desperately need advantage on an ability
check they can give that to themselves
and they also have some resilience they
can give themselves like the monk but
rather than true healing they’re able to
give themselves temporary hit points by
channeling some of their internal
magical reserve for those of you who
don’t know temporary hit points are
almost like ablative armor or sort of a
almost like you can imagine it like a
force field that gets sort of punched
through and then it goes away and then
you’re real hit points start taking the
damage we play a lot of Pokemon go and
there’s always you throw up the
defensive shields yes and then it’s gone
and so you can imagine where the monk is
is literally healing themselves the
sorcerer is instead using their magic to
shield themself to give themself this
arcane fortitude then we give the
sorcerer some new meta magic options
meta magic is one of the main
a sorcerer spends their sorcery points
and I think the meta magic option that
we’ve provided that many people will
especially love is elemental spell which
allows the sorcerer to cast a spell that
deals one type of damage and then change
that damage type to another like if
you’ve if you’ve ever wanted to be able
to cast Thunder ball instead of fireball
well elemental spell is how you can do
it James Bond would approve yes yes we
also have given meta magic options for
ignoring half cover and three-quarters
cover and then in that case we’re like
oh my gosh you really really really want
your spell to hit but you missed an
erring spell is a meta magic option that
allows the sorcerer to re-roll the nice
thing about this meta magic option is it
can be paired with other meta magic
options normally you can apply only one
to a spell but let’s say you’ve already
spent sorcery points on a spell and then
it misses this is in a way you can spend
some more sorcery points to try to get
your investment through it’s a bitter
the fallacy of sunk costs god bless it I
cast this thing is going to work but
it’s nice to always hit like then again
narrative Lee it’s like you’re in a
pivotal moment it’s a key scene you just
want your cool thing to go off and it
fizzles like just a second chance and of
course as you rightly imply the dark
reality is your reroll could also yes
right yes well right so fair fair’s fair
like you’re spending points to try it
again but it doesn’t mean that it’s
going to succeed this time go get you
get another rerolls just one more poll
on the slot machines lever we’ve got a
couple of questions one from the monk
one from the sorcerer
you’re gonna field those before yeah
we’re talking about the sorcerer so how
would a wild magic source or utilize of
versatile spells with the new feature
when the subclass has no clasp
oh so spell versatility applies to your
sorcerer spells over all okay not
subclass spells okay so spell
versatility allows you to replace one of
the sorcerer spells you know with
another one and this is for sorcerers no
matter what their subclasses I always
feel like this this is trying to stump
Jeremy and it never works that’s a
that’s a good thing looking back at the
monk quickly we had a question does the
new bonus action attack option open up
for flurry of blows or just a single
bonus action attack so again as I
mentioned you only ever get one bonus
action attack so if you’ve already
flurry a blode bonus actioned
wow that was a tortured set yes verb is
perfect yes you cannot do it again okay
yeah it’s one bonus action on your turn
you’ve got to choose I like that you
modified both flurry and blow flick
flurry your flurries of blows yes
attorneys-general yes which one gets the
I love I love internal plurals I knew
yes there’s the passersby
I have never passersby that a surprise
yeah how many people get that incorrect
I imagine I’m probably many but
guaranteed yes it yeah internal plurals
it’s just like one of the one of the
true signs of person is a word nerd
we’re we’re getting goose bumps s inside
the word so are we wrapped up with the
sorcerer yes okay yep again we’re
getting who about ten till the top of
the hour so we’ve been going I think we
can do one more class I’ll do one more
chat about Chat Chat give us a class
that we haven’t hit yet that you would
like us to cover we have covered the
cleric the monk the rogue the sorcerer
and the ranger cover the Ranger
alright the Ranger let’s do it the
Ranger I’m really quick I’ll interject
you’re quite
coming in we are collecting them if we
don’t get through them this time because
we’ve got a lot of the initial material
to to introduce and talk through we will
talk through your questions as best we
can in a future episode
so the Ranger the Ranger has two and a
half pages yes so in this in this
article okay
so I’ll I’ll skim over the simple ones
Ranger gets spell versatility we’ve
already talked about it
Rangers in particular are very
constrained in the number of spells they
know in the number of spell slots they
have so I really really hope the
audience embraces spell versatility if
for no one else
then the Ranger because I think this
will be a godsend for many Ranger
players the Ranger also has an expanded
spell list we were when expanding the
Ranger list particularly mindful of
beefing up the Rangers ability to
support their party also we were looking
at the theme of survivability because we
want the Ranger to be sort of the
ultimate wilderness of Survivor you know
and also the person who you know is most
likely if they’re trapped on their own
somewhere they’re gonna make it yeah or
if you’re or you know if you’re trapped
with one other person and then there the
Ranger the Ranger is gonna get the two
of you through and also some of these
spells pair wonderfully if you happen to
be a beast master Ranger because a
number of these spells have amazing
interactions with the beast companion if
you don’t know what I’m talking about
there’s not time for me to go into it
but read some of these spells carefully
think about your beast masters companion
and oh boy you’re gonna have some fun
so the Ranger has more replacement
options than any of the other classes in
this article we’ve heard your feedback
over the years loud and clear on the
Ranger and as I said a couple of years
ago for the Ranger in particular we
wanted to explore some alternatives so
here they are starting with deft
Explorer this is a new take on the
natural Explorer feature allowing the
Ranger to have a set of survival skill
that are not dependent on particular
types of terrain even though many of us
who’ve played D&D for decades love the
flavor of Rangers having a connection to
particular terrain type yes or having a
familiarity with particular foes the
fact is is honestly in addition after
addition that great narrative often has
gameplay difficulty because where you’re
adventuring and what you’re fighting can
so often really just be up to chance
ending on what the DM selects yes now
this is often easy for a DM to address
in a home game because the DM knows okay
I’ve got this Ranger at my table the
Ranger has these particular terrain
types they’re associated with these
favorite enemies and the DM can
customize the adventure to really bring
as much joy to that Ranger player as
possible but if you’re in a convention
game or somebody is running a published
adventure by the book it can be
difficult for some Ranger players to
feel like they’re maximizing the
potential of these very flavorful
abilities and so we created some
alternatives that essentially are going
to deliver no matter what the terrain is
and then when we get to the the favorite
enemy alternative no matter what it is
you’re fighting deft Explorer gives you
three different sub options you get to
pick you know one of them when you get
the feature then you pick another one at
six level and yet another one at tenth
it gives you some expertise and skills
and makes you extremely mobile and also
one of the the most exciting things
lurking in here is in the tireless
feature where in addition to the Ranger
being able to give themselves temporary
hit points they can also at the end of a
short rest shrug off a level of
exhaustion this by the way we know is
really good in certain circumstances
particularly if you multi class and you
happen to be a berserker barbarian we’re
well aware of that
as as I as I’ve often mentioned before
when we do on our Turkana
when we do class options they almost
never reflect the balance we later do
for multi classing which is one of the
reasons why often low-level things when
they end up in their final form are
changed and often frankly less powerful
because we then have to account for if
someone’s dipping in from another class
or what’s the effect but here you get to
see this in it’s sort of single class
glory yes okay yes enjoy it in your play
test because I can guarantee you if this
makes it into a book it will not be in
this form but the theme of it is likely
to make it and that in an Arctic on is
often what we’re testing we really want
to see do people groove on the themes
that we’re presenting and then we get
into the fine tuning favored foe as I
mentioned is an alternative to favored
enemy we were careful to state in
favored foe that the creature that you
target with this new feature is still
technically your favorite enemy we had
to do that to make sure that this
feature still works with the Rangers
twentieth level feature because that
feature refers to your favorite enemy so
anyone if you’re wondering does favorite
foe work with your 20th level feature
indeed it does and it does so
intentionally that’s why you see the
word favorite enemy right there in the
feature so what does it do it gives the
ranger a free hunter’s mark spell it
it’s added to their list of spells known
and does not take up a spot on that list
and a certain number of times a day you
get to cast the spell without using
spell slots and even without
concentration hmm that last part I hate
to break it to you all this is also
another case of that is unlikely to
survive final game development because
lifting concentration we wanted to test
it just to make sure that it was going
to be widely implemented and used
initially it was a concept we were just
enchanted by yes but any time we fool
around with this concept we almost
always have to pull back from it guys
especially at low level this becomes a
blinking
and two people to dip in okay from other
classes to get a hunter’s mark that they
can cast without spell slots and without
concentration meaning it would then pair
with every concentration spell in the
game but that said everything else about
this feature is I think is a really
fantastic way for a ranger to in the
moment say you were my favorite enemy
and and to use their their primal magic
to make that designation a reality so
there so again sort of narrative Lee
it’s not just well my favorite enemy
like my backstory is orcs attacked the
village or whatever and my campaign we
never encounter orcs however that takes
away one of the Rangers tricks from the
bag of tricks this one lets them keep
that sort of I’m going to block on to an
enemy and concentrate on them flavor of
it exactly okay exactly I am deciding in
the moment you are my favorite enemy
right now and ten minutes from now
someone else might be my favorite enough
and because honestly is again as riches
that that classic flavor can be and if
people love it there’s free to continue
to use that flavor in the favor of enemy
feature in the players handbook for some
campaigns it just does not pan out we
then get to a new fighting style option
the Ranger the Paladin and the fighter
all get new fighting style options in
this article some of the options are
shared by all three of the classes and
then each of the classes gets an option
that is unique to that class the option
unique to the Ranger is the ability
basically to forego taking any of the
traditional fighting styles and instead
learn to can drips from the druid spell
list we wanted to put this out there
because some Rangers really love to lean
into the nature magic side of the class
yes and this allows them to lean even
further how are we doing on time
can I go further than the Ranger two
minutes here oh my gosh there is so much
anything alright well I’m gonna have to
speed talk Rangers also now
get the option to use druidic focus as a
spell-casting focus they get a bunch of
new spell options in primal awareness
this is a potential replacement for
primeval awareness in the players
handbook they get a more supernatural
fadeaway ability that replaces hide in
plain sight
and then Beastmasters we decided in this
article to give Beastmasters two new
beasts options so we actually did not
touch the Beastmasters features in the
players handbook okay instead we
provided two new stat blocks of beasts a
beasts master could befriend and then in
those stat blocks address many of the
concerns people have had about the
beasts master now we designed these to
work seamlessly with the Beastmasters
features so if you’re a beast master
Ranger and you’re wondering does the
scaling up functions inside your Rangers
companion feature apply to these beasts
the answer is yes everything in your
subclass works with these beasts and
then they give you some a little
something extra one of the things I also
love about these beasts is it allows
Rangers to customize the beasts
appearances hmm you decide if you pick
the Beast of the air what sort of
airborne Beast it is if you choose the
Beast of the earth
similarly you decide what sort of
terrestrial Beast this is the other
great thing here is is the flexibility
that we’re offering in that if there is
an animal type that you want because it
has a burrowing speed or constricts
people or it poisons people
this takes none of those options away
you can still pick any of those beasts
from the Monster Manual or another book
these really just add some more beasts
to your menu of options and that will be
especially appealing for anybody who has
wanted their beasts to maybe
more often because these beasts have a
bonus action attack these beasts also
have some amped up hit points they have
saving throw proficiencies they can
understand your speech they if they die
you can bring them back by burning a
spell slot there is a lot of really
juicy material packed into these to stab
locks all right did I do it do I get up
a 201 – oh is that what we started I
think at 101 so we’re at 60 Minutes
events yeah we’ll call it dead on
alright so we’ve been talking through
the class feature variance from the
unearthed of Arcana please do take a
look at the material that’s up on the
D&D website as we speak a survey will
follow in the coming days as well so we
hope you try out the material around
your table and please give us your
thoughts about them as well we’re gonna
switch over here in a minute to beyond
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this one created by Emmet on G with
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thank you for spending an hour out of
your day with us we got through many but
not all of the classes we’ll talk
through some more in future livestream
as well as many of your questions as
well so until then thanks everyone
that takes everyone