Overall my favourite UA in a long time. Mainly because it has tons of elemental based stuff.
Yes I'm biased.
It's interesting. I always look at UA thinking, "What in here could be useful in my homebrew campaign, or at least give me new ideas?"
And there was literally nothing in this batch that caught my eye at all, while some of it seemed actively terrible (like that House of Cards spell)
I assume it's just different things draw different people. I've found elemental themes are very neglected in DnD, especially for non spellcasting classes. These feats finally allow me to play any class while sticking to a theme.
I've been hooked on elemental stuff ever since bionicle back in 2001.
As we've just finished a 1-20 campaign, I'm already setting up a new character to utilise these feats. An earth genasi armourer with scion of earth, giant strike (hill), and vigor of the hill giants.
The last UA covered a lot of these same themes, and I feel like that material was a bit more solid than this.
Glitching seems like it has way too much, and why they think 14+DEX is an appropriate starting AC level is beyond me.
Rune Carver looks to have gotten a bit of a nerf from it's first presentation. At the least, they took out the Cure Wounds option which I thought was both really interesting and really useful for adding healing to unconventional parties. Bummer.
I'm still not sold on feat chains in 5e. Feats are just too far apart and ASIs are a lot to give up. Because some classes are more MAD than others, I just don't think this is the right mechanism to present class-neutral options.
Also not a huge fan of "your DC is based on the ability you increased with this feat." Sometimes you take a half-feat to boost a secondary or even tertiary stat. This mechanic reduces the flexibility of the option.
I assume it's just different things draw different people. I've found elemental themes are very neglected in DnD, especially for non spellcasting classes. These feats finally allow me to play any class while sticking to a theme.
I've been hooked on elemental stuff ever since bionicle back in 2001.
As we've just finished a 1-20 campaign, I'm already setting up a new character to utilise these feats. An earth genasi armourer with scion of earth, giant strike (hill), and vigor of the hill giants.
The last UA covered a lot of these same themes, and I feel like that material was a bit more solid than this.
Glitching seems like it has way too much, and why they think 14+DEX is an appropriate starting AC level is beyond me.
Rune Carver looks to have gotten a bit of a nerf from it's first presentation. At the least, they took out the Cure Wounds option which I thought was both really interesting and really useful for adding healing to unconventional parties. Bummer.
I'm still not sold on feat chains in 5e. Feats are just too far apart and ASIs are a lot to give up. Because some classes are more MAD than others, I just don't think this is the right mechanism to present class-neutral options.
Also not a huge fan of "your DC is based on the ability you increased with this feat." Sometimes you take a half-feat to boost a secondary or even tertiary stat. This mechanic reduces the flexibility of the option.
My homebrew subclasses (full list here)
(Artificer) Swordmage | Glasswright | (Barbarian) Path of the Savage Embrace
(Bard) College of Dance | (Fighter) Warlord | Cannoneer
(Monk) Way of the Elements | (Ranger) Blade Dancer
(Rogue) DaggerMaster | Inquisitor | (Sorcerer) Riftwalker | Spellfist
(Warlock) The Swarm