Unearthed Arcana: Villainous Options

I’m surprised there hasn’t been an official thread added yet for this but we’ve got a new Unearthed Arcana dropped. Theres four new subclasses, Pestilence Domain Cleric, Circle of the Titan Druid, Hell Knight Fighter, and Demonic Domain Sorcerer, and a handful of feats that seem designed to emulate a slow trans formation into either a Death Knight or a Lich.

With two of the new creative team, James Haeck and Shawn Merwin, coming from Ghostfire Gaming I’m not at all surprised that this first round of UA from the new creative team feels very Grim Hollow in terms of theme but what does everyone else think? Anyone better at analysing mechanics than me got any opinions? 

I'm probaly not better at analysing. But I think some of the Hell knights feature are lacking. I was going to make a post about it. 
And why when I try to mark something to copy-paste it marks so much more, than what I want to/what gets copied?

Some of the stuff seems interesting, others seems mid or bad.

Level 7: Advanced weapons
Purulence of Minauros. Caustic pus erupts from the wound. Each creature in a 5-foot Emanation originating from the target takes Acid damage equal to your Constitution modifier, and the target has the Poisoned condition until the start of its next turn

- Wouldn't this also hit your own character, and potentialy your allies, unless you use range or a weapon with reach? Of course you could just use the other options

LEVEL 10: HELLFIRE SURGE When you use your Action Surge while wearing armor or wielding a Shield, you can superheat your equipment, causing it to erupt with hellfire in a 10- foot Emanation originating from you. Each creature of your choice in the Emanation must succeed on a Dexterity saving throw (DC equals 8 plus your Constitution modifier and Proficiency Bonus). On a failed save, a target takes Fire damage equal to one roll of your Infernal Wound Die and is burning. On a successful save, a target takes half as much damage only.

- 10 foot range. How many are actualy going to get hit? Plus the DC isn't your main stat. Though as a fighter, you could probaly get it to a decent number with their extra feats. But the save is Dex. Doesn't mob often have a decent Dex save? Then there is the damage. A D6 and the are burning. But there isn't a condition for burning. Of course they could mean the burning from Infernal Wound. But it doesn't say that. This seems weak. Even though it's a free thing, when you use 'Action Surge'. But you also have a limited number of those uses. One could compare it to Ember of the Fire Giant, which is better. But does require you have a specific feat, before you can pick it. And you need to pick a feat to be able to pick it

LEVEL 15: BLISTER OF AVERNUS
Your hellfire leaves painful, boiling blisters. When you roll a 6 on your Infernal Wound Die, you can roll another d6 and add it to the damage. The maximum number of d6s you can add to the Infernal Wound’s damage on a turn is three.

- This seems weak for a level 15 feature. Especialy as you can only trigger 'Infernal Wound' once pr. turn. So there is a 1/6 chance of this triggering. Maybe it's just me.

LEVEL 18: HELLFIRE CONDEMNATION
Whenever damage from your Hellfire Weapon or Infernal Wound reduces a creature to 0 Hit Points, the creature dies, and its soul rises from the River Styx as a Lemure in a layer of the Nine Hells of your choice in 1d4 hours. If the creature isn’t revived before then, only a Wish spell can return the creature to life.

- What is the point of this feature? So the NPC can't come back to life. How often does that happen in a campaign?

LEVEL 18: INFERNAL BARGAIN
When you roll your Infernal Wound Die, you can treat a roll of 1 as a 6.

- I guess it's a boost to the level 15 feature. But this  is a level 18 feature. Again, it doesn't seem good

Okay, I like Feat paths as a design idea.

But I don't see how the content of this UA will ever appeal to a majority of tables? This is essentially gaming material for evil PCs (expect maybe the Titan Druid). Back in the day, when the Book of Vile Darkness was published, NPCs were built the same way as PCs. So the content of the book made sense for the DM. Today, this is clearly player-facing. I am already meeting a lot of DMs saying: no way the Scion of Three rogue makes it to their table. I don't see Hell Knight, Demon Sorcerer or Pestilence domain making the way into actual play on a lot of tables. This feels very niche.

It doesn’t necessarily need to appeal to a majority of tables, just a large enough minority. 

Personally, I don’t think I’d be likely to use much of it, as we tend to play good-aligned heroic parties. However, I could potentially see a more comedic, Suicide Squad-like campaign, with a bunch of villains saving the world for thoroughly disreputable reasons. 

I do like the concept of the paths as well, and they could be extended to all sorts of other archetypes: the vampire has been mentioned a few times, but hags, other arch-fey, aberrations (perhaps in some Chthulu-esque campaign) and even celestials could also work. 

The Hell Knight Fighter looks like a toned-down version of the Illrigger without all the cool options.

Playing an evil character in a good world is a lot of fun.