- Lightning Absorption on the Companion states that it regenerates HP equal to Lightning Damage dealt to it, but it's immune to Lightning Damage, so...yeah. Maybe "it regains a number of Hit Points equal to the Lightning damage rolled", or strip the immunity and instead it gains twice the damage (or regains equal instead of taking damage).
To be fair, this is very reminiscent of the "Insert Damage Type" Absorption feature some monsters have, for example the Iron Golem has this feature, even while its stat block stats it is immune to Fire damage.
Fire Absorption: Whenever the golem is subjected to fire damage, it takes no damage and instead regains a number of hit points equal to the fire damage dealt.
So maybe the wording should just be changed to something like the above?
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
"Meddle not in the affairs of dragons, for thou art crunchy and taste good with ketchup."
So I’m guessing these are going to be in the October book that I don’t think has been named yet, so a few of us were possibly right about getting a Halloween spooky book. As a Warlock fan I’m very happy to see them getting some more 2024 subclasses and an extra Artificer is always welcome
So I’m guessing these are going to be in the October book that I don’t think has been named yet, so a few of us were possibly right about getting a Halloween spooky book. As a Warlock fan I’m very happy to see them getting some more 2024 subclasses and an extra Artificer is always welcome
The October book was my thought as well. Although they do have a history of releasing UAs for multiple books. So could be some of them for somewhere else, maybe 🤷♂️ Like I could see the Ranger in the lorwyn setting book they have coming.
And it’s always possible that not all of them make it through the playtest, so we might not see them all.
I get that Reanimator is meant to be a Dr. Frankenstein inspired subclass, and I think the companion idea is really cool, but I have just one big question:
Why is it an undead? Shouldn't it be a Flesh Golem, since those already are based on Frankenstein's Monster? It even has the lightning absorption, so we're past the most heinous part of such a stat block. Not everything "Horror" themed has to be Necromancy in nature.
It's weird that of the Artificer subclasses, none are focused on crafting golems. (Also a little weird that Reanimator doesn't get a tool proficiency, but I'll leave that one aside.)
I get that Reanimator is meant to be a Dr. Frankenstein inspired subclass, and I think the companion idea is really cool, but I have just one big question:
Why is it an undead? Shouldn't it be a Flesh Golem, since those already are based on Frankenstein's Monster? It even has the lightning absorption, so we're past the most heinous part of such a stat block. Not everything "Horror" themed has to be Necromancy in nature.
It's weird that of the Artificer subclasses, none are focused on crafting golems. (Also a little weird that Reanimator doesn't get a tool proficiency, but I'll leave that one aside.)
The Battle Smith creates something that can essentially be flavored as a golem if you want to.
As for Hexblade... I get the idea is that 2024 Pact of the Blade includes the actual weapon proficiency, so you don't have the awkward thematic overlap of 2014 Hexblade with Pact of the Blade. But I think it loses the plot in a couple places:
First of all, the name. If you have no incentive to use a melee weapon anymore and can substitute in point-blank Eldritch Blasts, what's the point of being called a Hexblade. The idea of "well you get your power from a cosmically powerful weapon" is weirdly specific if you aren't required to summon a weapon anymore.
"Well you can make a weapon manifest around the target!" Okay but we're not getting Spiritual Weapon out of that, the weapon isn't attacking them, it's a purely cosmetic element that makes it harder to hide when you Hex someone outside of combat to give them a bit of bad luck.
If it's going to be a subclass focused on the "Hex" part of the name instead of the "Blade", cursing the target and getting benefits from that, then why not make it "Patron: The Hag" or something and focus on classical Fairy Tale Witch themes instead of melee?
Even if Pact of the Blade provides you with the weapon proficiency, you still lose out on scaling weapon attacks with Charisma and have no way to acquire medium armor/shield proficiency as Warlock without multiclassing into Paladin, the latter of which is pretty big for a subclass with a melee focus. (Edited because I forgot about the Cha-scaling on Pact, my b.)
Hexblade's Curse didn't use Concentration before, so you could instead combine it with spells like Darkness, Blur, or over 70 other enhancements, debuffs and attacks before multiclassing - and more importantly, being in melee didn't put you in constant danger of having your main class feature be interrupted. If it's not going to include an element like "When casting Hex, you can choose to inflict its effects on the target without using Concentration but the effect ends after 1 minute," then being forced to use Hex the way Ranger uses Hunter's Mark makes me think this odd hybrid should have just been a melee-focused Ranger subclass.
And if you're pushed by the theme to lean into melee anyway... then the attempt to split it from Pact of the Blade has already failed.
My guess is that they really wanted to address the issue that hexblade was rarely played as a proper subclass and was instead mainly a very powerful multiclassing dip. However, I think moving the first subclass features to level 3 mostly did that already.
Original Hexblade was an attempt to make a Gishy subclass for Warlock, but it’s hard to do that coherently when half the support for the concept is over in the Invocations. With the bump to Blade, there’s really no need for that design point as a subclass now.
Even if Pact of the Blade provides you with the weapon proficiency, you still lose out on scaling weapon attacks with Charisma and have no way to acquire medium armor proficiency as Warlock without multiclassing into Paladin, the latter of which is pretty big for a subclass with a melee focus.
Pact of the Blade already makes the attacks use charisma, and you can acquire medium armor from the feat that gives you it.
Original Hexblade was an attempt to make a Gishy subclass for Warlock, but it’s hard to do that coherently when half the support for the concept is over in the Invocations. With the bump to Blade, there’s really no need for that design point as a subclass now.
Yeah, I think they should just leave Hexblade as a legacy subclass and move on. Not that I dislike the concept put forward in the UA, but it seems weird for that to be a "Weapon Patron" when it has no features that pertain to weapons beyond a brief description of there being a sword floating around the target of your Hex. All the other Subclasses at least attempt to give you features that make you more like the Patron in question. And let's be honest, I don't think most people took the subclass because they wanted a Weapon as a Patron, but took it because it was the only way to actually build a Gish Warlock effectively or because it was the best option for a Dip.
My guess is that they really wanted to address the issue that hexblade was rarely played as a proper subclass and was instead mainly a very powerful multiclassing dip. However, I think moving the first subclass features to level 3 mostly did that already.
If that was the intent, they failed miserably. New Hexblade monopolizes concentration because you don't have a subclass unless you're concentrating on hex, and it's objectively weaker, both thematically and mechanically than just dipping 1 level in fighter, and going Fiend Warlock afterwards
Seeing as the new Moderately Armored feat doesn't give you proficiency in shields any more, taking it has only a minor benefit compared to most other feats. That and it raises DEX or STR, rather than CHA, so you'd be giving up an important improvement to your primary stat.
The fact that you don't get medium armor or shields only encourages players to adopt an eldritch blast-based build, since the lack of AC makes you too squishy to risk being a front-line character. The only motivation to use a melee weapon is so you can make use of the smite spells.
It seems more like an oversight than anything else. The Design Note: Hexblade Patron Updates sidebar mentions nothing about removing the Hex Warrior ability that provides proficiency in medium armor, shields, and martial weapons (among other things). I would consider that a major change from the original which, if intentional, should have been listed amongst the other changes in the summary.
If they added Hex Warrior back and Hexblade's Curse, tied all the Hex Buffs to that instead of Hex, I think it would be a bit more appealing as a subclass. That would be a start anyway
Spirit Bard lover here. I'm not sure how to feel, but it's not good.
(Level 3) Give me back my Skull Spellcasting Focus! Wth. I had a whole character built around carrying around the skull of his dead friend to use magic, now that's ruined.
(Level 3) Look, I understand needing to nerf the Tales from Beyond now that it no longer requires a Bonus Action AND an Action to use. IT's just a Bonus Action now. But some of the nerfs feel like they go too far. Like who thought Changing Dragon to Arson was a good idea? It's so boring now. Also Brute now requires Bard Level 15 which makes it much worse even as a Bonus Action. Mind Bender is gone which feels bad, and Avenger was super nerfed. These need to be looked at.
(Level 6) As for Spirit Session, I'll miss the flavor but Empowered Channeling is much more useful in terms of Combat, especially in early levels. It's also just thematically awesome to have spirits guarding you like that. I just wish we could have had both....
(Level 14) Mystical Connection was also nerfed but this time there's absolutely no justification. There's no longer a line that says " If you roll the same number on both dice, you can ignore the number and choose any effect on the table."
Overall, big nerf to flavor and slight nerf to power in Tier 3 and 4. Potentially huge buff to power in Tier 2 with Empowered Channeling.
To be fair, this is very reminiscent of the "Insert Damage Type" Absorption feature some monsters have, for example the Iron Golem has this feature, even while its stat block stats it is immune to Fire damage.
Fire Absorption: Whenever the golem is subjected to fire damage, it takes no damage and instead regains a number of hit points equal to the fire damage dealt.
So maybe the wording should just be changed to something like the above?
"Meddle not in the affairs of dragons, for thou art crunchy and taste good with ketchup."
Characters for Tenebris Sine Fine
RoughCoronet's Greater Wills
Oops - apparently clicked the wrong type of copy when copying it from a discord message. Good catch, fixed now!
They should rename the Hexblade subclass in the UA to Hexweaver and make it Hag themed instead.
She/Her Player and Dungeon Master
Yeah- unless they intend to make a real Gish subclass for Warlocks again, there’s no point carrying the name forward.
I do wish the Undead Companion's Death Burst was voluntary, or at least, that the Artificer could disable the Death Burst with a Reaction.
🎵I'm on top of the world, looking down on creation, wreaking death and devastation with my mind.
As the power that I've found erupts freely from the ground, I will cackle from the top of the world.🎵
Charisma Saving Throw: DC 18, Failure: 20d6 Psychic Damage, Success: Half damage
So I’m guessing these are going to be in the October book that I don’t think has been named yet, so a few of us were possibly right about getting a Halloween spooky book. As a Warlock fan I’m very happy to see them getting some more 2024 subclasses and an extra Artificer is always welcome
The October book was my thought as well. Although they do have a history of releasing UAs for multiple books. So could be some of them for somewhere else, maybe 🤷♂️ Like I could see the Ranger in the lorwyn setting book they have coming.
And it’s always possible that not all of them make it through the playtest, so we might not see them all.
People looking at Hexblade Warlock be like...
"Look how they massacred my boy..."
I get that Reanimator is meant to be a Dr. Frankenstein inspired subclass, and I think the companion idea is really cool, but I have just one big question:
Why is it an undead? Shouldn't it be a Flesh Golem, since those already are based on Frankenstein's Monster? It even has the lightning absorption, so we're past the most heinous part of such a stat block. Not everything "Horror" themed has to be Necromancy in nature.
It's weird that of the Artificer subclasses, none are focused on crafting golems. (Also a little weird that Reanimator doesn't get a tool proficiency, but I'll leave that one aside.)
The Battle Smith creates something that can essentially be flavored as a golem if you want to.
As for Hexblade... I get the idea is that 2024 Pact of the Blade includes the actual weapon proficiency, so you don't have the awkward thematic overlap of 2014 Hexblade with Pact of the Blade. But I think it loses the plot in a couple places:
lose out on scaling weapon attacks with Charisma andhave no way to acquire medium armor/shield proficiency as Warlock without multiclassing into Paladin, the latter of which is pretty big for a subclass with a melee focus. (Edited because I forgot about the Cha-scaling on Pact, my b.)And if you're pushed by the theme to lean into melee anyway... then the attempt to split it from Pact of the Blade has already failed.
My guess is that they really wanted to address the issue that hexblade was rarely played as a proper subclass and was instead mainly a very powerful multiclassing dip. However, I think moving the first subclass features to level 3 mostly did that already.
Original Hexblade was an attempt to make a Gishy subclass for Warlock, but it’s hard to do that coherently when half the support for the concept is over in the Invocations. With the bump to Blade, there’s really no need for that design point as a subclass now.
Pact of the Blade already makes the attacks use charisma, and you can acquire medium armor from the feat that gives you it.
Yeah, I think they should just leave Hexblade as a legacy subclass and move on. Not that I dislike the concept put forward in the UA, but it seems weird for that to be a "Weapon Patron" when it has no features that pertain to weapons beyond a brief description of there being a sword floating around the target of your Hex. All the other Subclasses at least attempt to give you features that make you more like the Patron in question. And let's be honest, I don't think most people took the subclass because they wanted a Weapon as a Patron, but took it because it was the only way to actually build a Gish Warlock effectively or because it was the best option for a Dip.
She/Her Player and Dungeon Master
If that was the intent, they failed miserably. New Hexblade monopolizes concentration because you don't have a subclass unless you're concentrating on hex, and it's objectively weaker, both thematically and mechanically than just dipping 1 level in fighter, and going Fiend Warlock afterwards
THEY TOOK AWAY THE SKULL FOCUS FROM SPIRITS BARD!
WHY????? Bring it Back!
Seeing as the new Moderately Armored feat doesn't give you proficiency in shields any more, taking it has only a minor benefit compared to most other feats. That and it raises DEX or STR, rather than CHA, so you'd be giving up an important improvement to your primary stat.
The fact that you don't get medium armor or shields only encourages players to adopt an eldritch blast-based build, since the lack of AC makes you too squishy to risk being a front-line character. The only motivation to use a melee weapon is so you can make use of the smite spells.
It seems more like an oversight than anything else. The Design Note: Hexblade Patron Updates sidebar mentions nothing about removing the Hex Warrior ability that provides proficiency in medium armor, shields, and martial weapons (among other things). I would consider that a major change from the original which, if intentional, should have been listed amongst the other changes in the summary.
If they added Hex Warrior back and Hexblade's Curse, tied all the Hex Buffs to that instead of Hex, I think it would be a bit more appealing as a subclass. That would be a start anyway
She/Her Player and Dungeon Master
Spirit Bard lover here. I'm not sure how to feel, but it's not good.
Overall, big nerf to flavor and slight nerf to power in Tier 3 and 4. Potentially huge buff to power in Tier 2 with Empowered Channeling.