I'm always excited for the next UA release. The constant stream of new content is one of the reasons my group decided to play 5e.
But now that I have started a game and my character is on paper, they rarely have any features that I can utilize. It's only been new class options and DM advice. Not a lot of option for characters that are already progressing and looking for something new and interesting to work towards. It would be great if each UA release had at least 1 new feat, spell, item or something that players who already have a campaign going can enjoy in their game.
I don't think you understand what the Unearthed Arcana articles are for.
About the Current UA Series
"have a bunch of D&D content for you to playtest, discuss, and mull over. We have enough material, in fact, that we will be releasing Unearthed Arcana multiple times a month for the next few months. Look for the material on Mondays. We’ll take the things you love and refine them, and we’ll take the things you don’t like and either toss them out or rebuild them. Either way, your feedback is invaluable."
This Is Playtest Material
"The material here is presented for playtesting and to spark your imagination. These game mechanics are in draft form, usable in your campaign but not refined by design iterations or full game development and editing. They aren’t officially part of the game and aren’t permitted in D&D Adventurers League events. As is typical in Unearthed Arcana, the options here been tuned for multiclassing. If we decide to make this material official, it will be refined based on your feedback, and then it will appear in a D&D book."
I don't think you understand what the Unearthed Arcana articles are for.
About the Current UA Series
"have a bunch of D&D content for you to playtest, discuss, and mull over. We have enough material, in fact, that we will be releasing Unearthed Arcana multiple times a month for the next few months. Look for the material on Mondays. We’ll take the things you love and refine them, and we’ll take the things you don’t like and either toss them out or rebuild them. Either way, your feedback is invaluable."
This Is Playtest Material
"The material here is presented for playtesting and to spark your imagination. These game mechanics are in draft form, usable in your campaign but not refined by design iterations or full game development and editing. They aren’t officially part of the game and aren’t permitted in D&D Adventurers League events. As is typical in Unearthed Arcan the options here have not been tuned for multiclassing. If we decide to make this material official, it will be refined based on your feedback, and then it will appear in a D&D book."
I'm not sure you quite understand what they're saying. They're saying that they wants things that they can playtest without starting up a new campaign or building a new character. Stuff they can use with a character thay already have in a campaign where Unearthed Arcana is allowed.
There was one UA article that had a bunch of new feats in it, some were pretty cool a lot of weapon type based ones. But yes I agree I love UA and I"m constantly wanting more, a nice big book of everything so far would be nice too.
Feats and Spells would be a nice thing for them to look at next, though I don't mind if they'd rather wait off- there are some they tested, like "That old Black Magic" or that feats UA from a little while ago.
I'm fairly certain WotC is wondering back and forth across message boards sneaking and lurking around discovering what players are dying to have, and those are the things that have been coming out in the UA posts. Not to mention UA is to playtest concepts, not specifics of the game. A particular feat, or spell is rather easy to playtest internally and doesn't really require a lot of player input before finding its way into a book. There isn't a lot of "concept" to test with feats, spells, etc. WotC wants to gather how well the community is responding to large alterations to the game, like new classes as such before they publish them. UA is not for new content, but for playtesting concepts of eventual content. I think somewhere they have even stated that the content in AU is not necessarily balanced as they are trying to figure out if players/dms are enjoying the conceptual basis for these classes/options.
I want articles on some more DM topics - creating/balancing spells (with some examples), creating new monsters (and an explanation of how to calculate the CR! DMG is awful trying to figure it out). Ways to run an Urban campaign, etc. Not everything needs to be new class types otherwise it turns into 3.5 again.
Right now everything is new player content because they are wanting to playtest those things. They don't need to playtest DM stuff.
The basics for determining a monsters CR is its Hit Dice, AC, damage it deals each round and its average damage it can deal before being killed by the PCs. You can compare these to existing monsters to get an idea of where the new monsters CR should be.
The easiest way to make a monster is just to find a monster that already exists and tweak that. If you want a monster a little stronger just give it more HPs to start out with.
The biggest issue with monsters is that any true formula for figuring out CR is going to be more complex than most players and DMs can handle. And arbitrarily making a monster that you haven't playtested could lead to a TPK that was never possible for the PCs to overcome.
If you are playtesting them first, then CR matters a bit less as you have an idea how challenging they are to the PCs.
Right now everything is new player content because they are wanting to playtest those things. They don't need to playtest DM stuff.
The basics for determining a monsters CR is its Hit Dice, AC, damage it deals each round and its average damage it can deal before being killed by the PCs. You can compare these to existing monsters to get an idea of where the new monsters CR should be.
The easiest way to make a monster is just to find a monster that already exists and tweak that. If you want a monster a little stronger just give it more HPs to start out with.
The biggest issue with monsters is that any true formula for figuring out CR is going to be more complex than most players and DMs can handle. And arbitrarily making a monster that you haven't playtested could lead to a TPK that was never possible for the PCs to overcome.
If you are playtesting them first, then CR matters a bit less as you have an idea how challenging they are to the PCs.
The problem is when it comes to Spellcasting monsters - the DMG states average damage per round - with so many options for spells, this becomes a large range variant.
I want articles on some more DM topics - creating/balancing spells (with some examples), creating new monsters (and an explanation of how to calculate the CR! DMG is awful trying to figure it out). Ways to run an Urban campaign, etc. Not everything needs to be new class types otherwise it turns into 3.5 again.
Would absolutely love to see some guidelines on homebrew, especially with homebrew integration coming up for Beyond.
That said, I'd really like to see revised rules for Prestige Classes. I loved them in 3.5, but I heard their first foray into it wasn't well received. But PrCs are pretty easy (well, "easy") to adapt a character to.
I'm always excited for the next UA release. The constant stream of new content is one of the reasons my group decided to play 5e.
But now that I have started a game and my character is on paper, they rarely have any features that I can utilize. It's only been new class options and DM advice. Not a lot of option for characters that are already progressing and looking for something new and interesting to work towards. It would be great if each UA release had at least 1 new feat, spell, item or something that players who already have a campaign going can enjoy in their game.
I like this idea a whole lot. I've been wanting more Feats, Items, and most of all Spells for a long time.
Exactly. There's plenty of options for new characters, but I'll never get to run many of these unless I'm constantly playing new characters.
I don't think you understand what the Unearthed Arcana articles are for.
About the Current UA Series
"have a bunch of D&D content for you to playtest, discuss, and mull over. We have enough material, in fact, that we will be releasing Unearthed Arcana multiple times a month for the next few months. Look for the material on Mondays. We’ll take the things you love and refine them, and we’ll take the things you don’t like and either toss them out or rebuild them. Either way, your feedback is invaluable."
This Is Playtest Material
"The material here is presented for playtesting and to spark your imagination. These game mechanics are in draft form, usable in your campaign but not refined by design iterations or
full game development and editing. They aren’t officially part of the game and aren’t permitted in D&D Adventurers League events. As is typical in Unearthed Arcana, the options here
been tuned for multiclassing. If we decide to make this material official, it will be refined based on your feedback, and then it will appear in a D&D book."
That may be the case. But they're testing mechanics, not story. If they're wanting to test, then they just have to talk to the DM.
If you're the DM and you want to test, talk to your players.
There was one UA article that had a bunch of new feats in it, some were pretty cool a lot of weapon type based ones. But yes I agree I love UA and I"m constantly wanting more, a nice big book of everything so far would be nice too.
*Cough* *Cough* They shut down the Codex, the exact thing you were looking for.
Feats and Spells would be a nice thing for them to look at next, though I don't mind if they'd rather wait off- there are some they tested, like "That old Black Magic" or that feats UA from a little while ago.
I'm fairly certain WotC is wondering back and forth across message boards sneaking and lurking around discovering what players are dying to have, and those are the things that have been coming out in the UA posts. Not to mention UA is to playtest concepts, not specifics of the game. A particular feat, or spell is rather easy to playtest internally and doesn't really require a lot of player input before finding its way into a book. There isn't a lot of "concept" to test with feats, spells, etc. WotC wants to gather how well the community is responding to large alterations to the game, like new classes as such before they publish them. UA is not for new content, but for playtesting concepts of eventual content. I think somewhere they have even stated that the content in AU is not necessarily balanced as they are trying to figure out if players/dms are enjoying the conceptual basis for these classes/options.
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ModeratorI want articles on some more DM topics - creating/balancing spells (with some examples), creating new monsters (and an explanation of how to calculate the CR! DMG is awful trying to figure it out). Ways to run an Urban campaign, etc. Not everything needs to be new class types otherwise it turns into 3.5 again.
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Wary the wizard who focuses on homebrew, for he can create nightmares that you wouldn't even dream of
Right now everything is new player content because they are wanting to playtest those things. They don't need to playtest DM stuff.
The basics for determining a monsters CR is its Hit Dice, AC, damage it deals each round and its average damage it can deal before being killed by the PCs. You can compare these to existing monsters to get an idea of where the new monsters CR should be.
The easiest way to make a monster is just to find a monster that already exists and tweak that. If you want a monster a little stronger just give it more HPs to start out with.
The biggest issue with monsters is that any true formula for figuring out CR is going to be more complex than most players and DMs can handle. And arbitrarily making a monster that you haven't playtested could lead to a TPK that was never possible for the PCs to overcome.
If you are playtesting them first, then CR matters a bit less as you have an idea how challenging they are to the PCs.
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View User Profile
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View Posts
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Send Message
ModeratorSite Rules & Guidelines || How to Tooltip || Contact Support || Changelog || Pricing FAQ || Homebrew FAQ
If you have questions/concerns, please Private Message me or another moderator.
Wary the wizard who focuses on homebrew, for he can create nightmares that you wouldn't even dream of
They bring new spells this week. Just level 1, ok, but maybe someone heard us...