Yes, the Arcane One Warlock gets two pools of spell slots, the ones from Pact Magic, and the ones from Spellcasting. Pact Magic works exactly the same as before, coming back on a short rest, while Spellcasting comes back on a long rest. Sorry if that is a bit confusing.

Quote from Third_Sundering >>

Yes, the Arcane One Warlock gets two pools of spell slots, the ones from Pact Magic, and the ones from Spellcasting. Pact Magic works exactly the same as before, coming back on a short rest, while Spellcasting comes back on a long rest. Sorry if that is a bit confusing.

 That's all good! I just want to make sure I'm understanding properly as I'm currently filling out the survey for it. 

Quote from RoughCoronet0 >>

Quote from Third_Sundering >>

Yes, the Arcane One Warlock gets two pools of spell slots, the ones from Pact Magic, and the ones from Spellcasting. Pact Magic works exactly the same as before, coming back on a short rest, while Spellcasting comes back on a long rest. Sorry if that is a bit confusing.

 That's all good! I just want to make sure I'm understanding properly as I'm currently filling out the survey for it. 

Great! I await your reviews. Thanks for asking for clarification beforehand. 

Alright, both surveys have been completed, and I got to say it's fun to do them too. Can't wait for the next round!

Did both surveys, can't wait for more!

i cant wait to play a bladeborn sorcerer with a serrated sword!

Huge thanks to everyone who has given feedback on the surveys so far! It really, really helps. It's already giving me ideas for how to fix and rebalance the subclasses. 

Also, some have commented on specific changes that I have been making to my homebrew subclasses that the official subclasses do not have. For example, my homebrew sorcerer subclasses all get extra always-known spells (except for the Arcane Soul), and the Warlock subclasses get alterations to their pact boons based on their patron. In Levistus's Codex of Curiosities (LCoC) I will add these changes to all of the currently existing subclasses for those classes to get rid of this "power-creep." 

Quote from Third_Sundering >>

Also, some have commented on specific changes that I have been making to my homebrew subclasses that the official subclasses do not have. For example, my homebrew sorcerer subclasses all get extra always-known spells (except for the Arcane Soul), and the Warlock subclasses get alterations to their pact boons based on their patron. In Levistus's Codex of Curiosities (LCoC) I will add these changes to all of the currently existing subclasses for those classes to get rid of this "power-creep." 

 I think that's a great idea. I can't wait to see how you implement these changes into the official subclasses. The subclass specific pact boon bonuses was one of the things I especially liked. 

Quote from Third_Sundering >>

Yes, the Arcane One Warlock gets two pools of spell slots, the ones from Pact Magic, and the ones from Spellcasting. Pact Magic works exactly the same as before, coming back on a short rest, while Spellcasting comes back on a long rest. Sorry if that is a bit confusing.

 I actually drafted 4 Warlock subclasses with basically the same mechanic about a year ago but never finished them. I wrote one that was “Arcane” themed, and the others were Divine, Natural, and Bardic in nature. I’ll post them in spoilers in the clubhouse PM for you to check out if you are interested.

Sure, that would be great! I would love to see them to see what you did. 

I currently have gotten 9 responses on the first survey and 4 on the second survey. This thread has more than 200 views, and my other one has over 850 views. That means that less than .9% of the people who have seen these surveys and homebrew content have decided to give feedback. I am super grateful to those that have given feedback so far, but I need more. If you have not yet given feedback on the surveys for these forms, I would really, really appreciate it if you did so. It won't take long and is not difficult. You just need to read the subclasses and other content and give your feedback on it in the survey. All feedback is welcome and all of it is helpful. 

Again, thank you to everyone who has given feedback and I await further responses. I hate to harp on this, but I really need more feedback for these. 

Here is my review of the first section of Esoterica. 

The Path of the Juggernaut:

First impressions: Reading the starting flavour and thinking about this type of character really wanted to make me play it. The idea of an iron colossus just bowling through enemies really stuck in my mind, and was very different than the normal unarmored axe-wielding barbarian. 

Armored with Steel: Not much to say, but you will likely end up at around the same AC as an unarmored barbarian. Slightly less if they go all in an ability scores, slightly more if they don't. 

Charge: I liked the idea behind this, and it is the core feature of the whole subclass. But it could use a little cleaning up on the wording. 

Also at level 3, you gain the ability to shove through and harm creatures you charge into. While raging, an amount of times on your turn equal to your proficiency bonus, if you have moved at least 10 feet in a straight line before reaching the space of a creature no more than one size larger than you, if you have enough movement to make it to the opposite side of the creature's space, you may force the creature to make a Strength or Dexterity saving throw (their choice). The DC for this saving throw is equal to 8 + your proficiency bonus + your rage damage bonus + your Strength modifier. A creature that is prone makes this saving throw at disadvantage, and a creature that cannot move automatically fails on a Dexterity saving throw against this feature.

 

The first sentence makes sense. The second is where it starts to get a little confusing. Basically, if you have enough movement to get through a creatures space and you have already moved ten feet, you can force them to make a saving throw. And you can do this a number of times equal to your proficiency bonus. I get the feature, the sentence is just very badly worded. I also don't see the need for a proficiency bonus cap. 

The effect is perfectly good and thematic. I like the ability to choose between strength or dexterity, and have different problems occur depending on what you choose. 

Fast: Bowling ball power increases. I like this ability.

Sieging Charge and Juggernaut are both good as well. 

Overall thoughts: A very cool subclass that needs a little language cleanup. My only other concern is the thematic and small mechanic overlap with the Battlerager. I know one focuses on spiked armor, and the other on more mobility, but there is a similarity.  

Moon Domain

I liked this subclass a lot, and it made me want to actually play a Cleric. I don't even like Clerics, but this made me want to play one.

Bonus profs: I didn't expect martial and heavy armor, but okay. 

Watchfulness: Solid defensive ability, and promotes working in dim light or darkness. 

Crescent Ward: Powerful, but not broken. Good on a character like a Bladesinger that rarely get hit, but if it does tends to fall apart fast. 

Moons Resilience: Okay, not bad.

Divine Strike: I would have expected empowered cantrip, but I guess this was more intended to be a weapon-wielding subclass. 

Moon's Eternity: Solid capstone and support feature. 

Overall, I unique take on a more defensive Cleric. 

Archer

To be honest, I don't really see the need for an Archer subclass. There aren't any others focused around a specific type of weapons, and Archery isn't exactly one that needs help. Nevertheless, I know some of the other people I have played with have expressed desire for such a subclass, so even if I would not play it others would. 

Keen Sight: Expertise on a Fighter, interesting. 

Archer's Eye: Half Proiciency bonus is rather clunky. I would instead do something like "At Third level, you can activate this feature once" and have it scale with levels in the actual class. This discourages dipping.  The actual effect is powerful, but I doubt that it is broken. 

Unfettered: I presume you mean that the target you are opportunity attacking has to been within five feet? IF not, then you could be an incredible suppressive fire piece. 

Honed Focus: You needed to concentrate on Archer's Eye? Huh, that is more balanced than I thought. 

Swift Shots: A powerful, if a tad bit vanilla, ability. 

Overall, this looks a lot like the Champion of archers. Nothing stands out too much, but all the features work together. 

I'll do the Arcane One in my next post, I have to go right now. 

The Arcane One

This is by far the most different and groundbreaking of the subclasses. This turns the Warlock, a already very strange class, and something of a 7/8's caster in to, I don't know, a 11/10's caster? From the flavor of the subclass, it seems like it would a Warlock+ subclass, one that just enhances the base class without really changing the game play. But it is nothing like that, and I like it. 

Spellcasting: Interestingly, this both gives cantrips and goes all the way to fifth level slots. Cantrips aren't super necessary on a Warlock, but having extra utility is nice. You probably won't take damaging ones, because Eldritch Blast. At first level, you are going to have three times as many slots as a normal warlock. This is a huge power difference, and gives you a lot more flexibility that most 'locks. I don't really know at all how balanced this is, and I can't really work it out in my head. I would need to play a game with this to truly understand the interactions that these abilities create.

Arcane Boon: Noice. I really like these abilities, but this puts the subclass even more ahead of other warlocks. If you add similar abilities to the other subclasses, then it should all balance out. 

Arcane Recovery: More spell slots, spell slots all the time. Now when you short rest, you get even more back along with your regular slots. 

Empowered Casting: Boring yet powerful. I'm not really sure this subclass needs this, it doesn't really feel on flavor for the class. 

Spell Resistance: Solid. 

Overall, very very cool, but I don't really know how it would work in practice. 

Circle of the Sun

The counterpoint to the Moon circle. It would be fitting if they focused on hunting wicked shapeshifters that destroyed the natural order, but that is not the case. Instead they appear to be intermediaries between the natural world and the forces of the divine, different than most druids that end up being "Defenders of Wildlife." 

Extra Forms: Both the Phoenix and the Angel have fly speeds, and a rather lot of it. Most druids aren't able to fly until ninth level (I think?), so this is certainly a benefit. The progression throughout the day is thematic. On to the actual stats. 

The Phoenix is very powerful. It doesn't have that much health, but that is the only thing it is really lacking. Ridiculous speed, solid damage output, and a very potent ability on death. I'd like to point out that at second level, anyone who fails the Bright Death save will be taking twenty radiant damage. It also has a powerful damage rider and a large AOE. The biggest downside is that it does not discriminate between friend and foe. 

The Angle is also similar. It encourages use of a weapon, probably a quarterstaff blessed with Shillelagh. It is slightly weaker offensively, but also has magic resistance. 

Stag also has a fly speed, which I did not expect. It looks like a solid all rounder, and is better against buildings and hard targets. 

Holy Strikes further encourages you to enter melee, and apparently still works while wild shaped. I guess that means it stacks with the Angels extra 1d8 as well?

Divine Traveler even more encourages you to stay in a form for combat. Non magical damage is likely rare at that level, but against minion enemies this is going to be great for your survivability. 

This is certainly powerful, and rather similar to the Moon Circle in that is will be incredibly, possibly oppressively, powerful at second level. Unlike Moon, this subclass does not peak and fall. It stays at a fairly high level of power throughout. I don't really get much of a Ambassador vibe from this, though. It feels more like a champion or warrior than a peacemaker. 

Elemental Warrior

This subclass blends Fighter with Sorcerer similar to how Eldritch Knight mixes it with Wizard. It heavily relies on x-blade type cantrips, and ones focused on specific elements. 

Spellcasting: similar to EK, but with Evocation and Transmutation. Not much to say, pretty standard. 

Elemental Potency lets you stack blade cantrips with extra attacks. It also blends Extra Attack and Spellcasting better than War Magic, which doesn't synergize with either. 

Bond of the Elements: Solid, not bad, not too good. 

Primordial Fuel lets you channel a little bit of Blood Hunter. You take as much as you deal out, but it seems good for finishing off a boss. Allows for dramatic moments where the fighter falls apart, using their last strength to channel surging energies into their foe. 

One with the Elements: Not too exciting, allows for more versatility. 

Overall, this looks like a better rework of Eldritch Knight with a multicolored twist. 

Bladeborn Sorcerer

Now this feels very similar to your Arcane Gish. The main problems with a melee sorcerer right now are: they have no encouragement to go into melee, they blow over in a stiff breeze, and most of their metamagics work better from far away. 

Magic Endowment is terrifyingly good. You get to Hexblade with the attack stat, lowering the MADness of the build a bit. Concentration checks at advantage is nice, no opportunity attacks will give you impressive mobility. To top it off, you get extra AC equal to your proficiency bonus. And, this ability is highly spammable, starting a two uses and letting you cash in a SP to use it again. This is broken. It fixes all the problems you might have far too easily. A two level dip into this from Paladin is frightening. I'm not sure how, but this needs to be nerfed. 

Extra Attack: Now you can slap down a blade cantrip and get an extra attack on top. Good, as usual. 

Arcane Weapon: Even more damage, and the possibility to spend SP to nova. Really, really good, and too good with the rest of the stuff this class gets. 

Body of Weapons: This will give a Sorcerer an extra fifteen SP per day. Extremely powerful. 

This fixes everything possible problem with a melee sorcerer, but it goes way too far. You will have unparalleled defense, you won't be SAD nor MAD, get loads of extra damage, and a cargo ship worth of extra sorcery points. It faces many of the problems your Gish did, in that it works too well. Everything is useful for the build, and multiclassing only makes it worse. I'll work on some alternatives feature proposals. 

Innate Warrior looks to shore up the defensive end a  good bit as well as give you a bigger pool of weapons to work with. You can achieve an AC of twenty two with maxed dexterity and charisma, but you probably need at least some points in CON to make this build work. 

Finally, the new cantrips and spells. Interesting, the Warlock only gains the cantrips. 

The blade cantrips both have a range of Self(5 feet.) That means that these are only useful with non reach melee weapons, while the Shots work with just ranged weapons. 

Blue Frost Blade: I love controls spells. This one inhibits the creature's ability to take reactions, letting skirmishing players hit and run better. The damage is on par with Booming Blade , and while that is powerful, it is not broken. I also like the way that the damage triggers for this spell. It is neat.

Corrosive Blade: Similar to the above, but instead of losing reactions the target has to sacrifice an attack to possibly escape the ooze. They also aren't guaranteed to stop the damage; they have to make a saving throw. Most of the time, your spell casting modifier will probably be higher then 1d8, so you are dealing more damage in a better type. However, the spell only gets 1d6 extra damage at 5th level, so it balances nicely. 

Static Blade: This one is even more interesting. It triggers when an enemy moves near your target, and allows you to zap both of them. 

Overall, this similar spells manage to be quite different in feel. They aren't just reskins in different damage types, and instead have their own tactical niches. I like these more than Booming Blade and Green-flame Blade in fact. 

Now on to the Shot cantrips. I presume these will be slightly weaker than their Blade counterparts, because archery is generally better than melee. 

Frozen shot works similar to Corrosive blade, just with a CON save instead. It also refers to a CON skill, Endurance. Overall interesting, a way of allowing skill bonuses on what is effectively a save. 

Green-acid shot: In the vein of Acid Splash you can hit two targets with one arrow. Solid.

White-Lightning shot: You get a larger range for the secondary effect, but it only works if the target is holding metal. 

Sonic Shot: Your victim chooses between Deafened or 1d6 damage. At low levels, the damage is better, but as you get to higher levels, most monsters will take the damage. Deafened isn't the worst condition, but works well if you have an invisible player.

Finally, the second level spells. These look like Shadow Blade variants.

Acid Blade's differentiating feature is getting an extra damage dice after a crit. Won't come up that often, but isn't totally useless either.  

Fire Blade: This one goes all in on damage, as if appropriate for fire. You get 2d10 instead of 2d8, and crits catch targets on fire. Better than Acid Blade in every respect save the damage type; Acid is much more rarely resisted than fire. 

Ice Blade mixes damage types and explodes on crits. Good against targets that resist damage, since hopefully one type wont be touched. 

Lightning Blade: This gets versatile, allowing it to deal  much as fire with two hands. Also, you get to bounce around lightning on critical hits. 

Thunder Blade is invisible, and you can't be disarmed when you have it. The crit effect is deafened, which isn't perfect but not terrible either. 

There isn't a huge amount of variety among these, but each one still feels at least slightly different. 

Okay, here are my resposes to your reviews, Joel. Thanks so much for giving your in-depth thoughts and feedback. It really, really helps, and I appreciate it a ton. 

Path of the Juggernaut

First Impressions: I'm glad that the subclass is something you found cool. If you hadn't noticed, it was inspired by the Juggernaut from the X-Men. Like my other subclasses that are inspired by pop-culture characters, it is not restricted to that certain character. While designing this subclass I just had the image of a minotaur in plate armor charging through the forces of an army to get to a BBEG and a goliath with two-shields bashing their way through enemies. It's nice to see that others generally like the theme. 

Armored with Steel: Yeah, it is possible that a Barbarian with high DEX and CON will have a higher AC while unarmored, but IMO, the benefits from wearing this heavy armor (Charge, Unstoppable Juggernaut) outweigh the disadvantages of wearing it (slightly lower AC with nonmagical armor, disadvantage on stealth, etc). 

Charge: I agree. I wrote that feature in a probably overcomplicated way. It's sometimes difficult to get the ideas into written form. I'll try to clear it up in the next draft. However, I limited to proficiency bonus to keep a Centaur from charging through 6 goblins at level 3 and killing all of them, not requiring any actions to do so. 

Overall Thoughts: Yes, I know there is an overlap with the Battlerager. That was known in designing this, and actually partially intentional, as the Battlerager is a poorly designed subclass and this was meant to be an alternate version of the design space of "filled with so much anger that you literally charge into your enemies" that is actually a viable option. 

Moon Domain

I'm glad that I was able to make a cleric that you would enjoy playing. 

Bonus Proficiencies: I gave them armor as it fits the theme of being king of a "guard" or "watcher" in the night, and weapons to emulate the "hunter" parts of the theme. 

Crescent Ward: Yes, I think it's balanced. It's kind of like giving everyone around you a cloak of displacement that stops working as soon as they're hit. 

Archer

Arcane Archers are restricted to shortbows and longbows. Eldritch Knights are limited to melee combat. Certain Battlemaster Maneuvers are limited to melee weapons. I personally don't think archery needs help, but generic non-magical archery does need help, IMO. 

Keen Sight: Sorry, this may have been strangely written. It just gives proficiency, but if you already had it, you get expertise. 

Archer's Eye: I could just change it so it scales exactly like half your proficiency bonus, but increases at certain written levels, instead of the person having to "calculate" it. The feature was inspired by the feature by the same name from the archer stat block. 

Unfettered: Yes, sorry, that should have been specified. Opportunity attacks with the ranged weapon against creatures that move away while within 5 feet of you. 

Honed Focus: Yes, you had to concentrate on it, as stated in Archer's Eye. I tried to make sure it was not too attractive for multiclass dipping, while still being a good multiclass dip for Rogues and Rangers. 

Swift Shots: It's definitely powerful, and also kind of boring. That was kind of the goal. "Keep it simple, stupid" is my philosophy for most non-magical fighter subclasses. 

The Arcane One

I liked the idea of this, too. It was originally just an "Archmage Patron" subclass, but I expanded it a bit so that you can serve Mystra, the Weave, or some other arcane entity. I also like that it is so different from all of the other warlocks in theme and mechanics. It's not meant to just be a reflavored "you get arcane-themed abilities" but actually a completely different character from a Hexblade warlock. 

Spellcasting: I agree, they're probably not going to take damaging cantrips, more likely used for prestidigitation and other utility cantrips. They will have 3 spell slots at level 1, but only 2 of them recharge on a long rest. It may need some changing, as they will have more spell slots than every other caster. At later levels, I think the balance is mostly fine, but it will need playtesting to be sure. 

Empowered Casting: It was mostly just meant to fit other warlock abilities of the same level and could be replaced. If anyone has suggestions, I could change it. 

Circle of the Sun

I can see how one would think that this would be an anti-lycanthrope subclass, but as lycanthropes are relatively uncommon, and that the sun fits the theme of a divine druid, I think this works better. It's meant to be sort of similar too, but opposite of the Circle of the Moon, in the sense that they both focus on using Wild Shape to transform into different forms. 

Extra Forms: Yes, they do get a flying speed at level 2, instead of level 8, and it is a huge benefit, but it fits the theme and is a strength of this subclass.

Phoenix: The damage on death is an amount of damage dice equal to your Proficiency Bonus, with the dice size being a d10. You must have misread it as 10 times your proficiency bonus. The average damage is 11, but it can do anywhere between 2 and 20 damage at level 2. At level 20, it's 6d10, dealing at least 6, and at most 60 damage. 

Holy Strikes: Yes, this does work while you are in your wild shape forms, and it does stack with the Angel's bonus. 

Yeah, maybe I should change the theme form ambassadors to travelers and protectors, then. 

Elemental Warrior

Primordial Fuel: Slight misunderstanding here, you take damage equal to how many dice you expend, not the total roll. I could change that if it needs to be a little more punishing, though. 

Bladeborn Sorcerer

Magic Endowment: Okay, I have a few possible fixes in mind. The main one would be to remove shield proficiency, then either get rid of advantage on Concentration or no opportunity attacks, as well as it taking 2 sorcery points to recharge. That would allow them to be not super MAD, still, while needing Dexterity, and Constitution, not be such an effective tank while also being survivable. 

Thanks, I'll look forward to how you would fix it. 

Elemental Spells

Sorry, maybe I'm misreading this, but what do you mean by "the Warlock only gains the cantrips?" Do you mean that the warlock is the only one who can get these cantrips, or that the warlock class only gains the cantrips, and not the other spells?

I agree, there's not a ton of variety, but IMO, they're different enough to have a place. There's not really much to comment on your responses of the spells, but I agree with most of what you say. Thanks for giving your feedback!

Third Sundering, I am wondering whether you would want some of my homebrew subclasses so you learn how to make good homebrew (just joking) - WOW.  Just... Wow.  Bladeborn?  Archer?  I am confused about the Arcane One, but you really have something going here!  When's there going to be a pdf, does anyone know?

 Edit:  One or two problems - some of your subclasses overlap current D&D content, and they are quite OP.  In addition, the Juggernaut is in the Tal'dorei campaign setting as well!  But I'm loving most of the ideas

Thank you? (sorry, I may be not getting a joke here, but I'm a bit confused as to what you mean.)

What are you confused about the Arcane One? I will change it a bit as it starts out with too many spell slots in comparison to other casters, but it isn't super OP (someone in the form said it could beat a lich at level one, which is definitely not correct). 

I do not know when the PDF of this product will be available, as I need to get more feedback on the second form, do a lot of other forms, and finish the other content that will be in the "book."

Yes, I know that some of them are a bit OP. I did this on purpose, as WotC has said they make UA a bit OP in order to scale it back later. I don't think a lot of them overlap with other official D&D content, the Archer is probably the main one. The Tal'dorei campaign guide is not official, and I was not aware that they had a Juggernaut subclass.

Ah well, the Arcane One is too complicated because of the extra spells... Maybe give them an extra warlock spell slot or 2?  Also I said it could beat a lich haha!  It is very OP as written though.

I don't think it's too complicated due to its extra spells. Just compare it to an Eldritch Knignt. They get spell slots up to 4th level that recharge on a long rest, as well as the ability to use Action Surges and Second Winds that recharge on a short rest. Yes, this is a bit more complicated than that, but not too complicated for D&D 5e, IMHO. 

I was assuming that it was you who stated that. It is a bit OP, but not as OP as you suggest. There is nothing about this subclass that makes it any more capable of beating a lich at level 1 than a cleric or barbarian.