Hmmmm - I wonder if the way they incorporated Healing + Damage into every Cleric via Channel Divinity: Divine Spark might be a hint to Warlock getting Eldritch Blast as a base feature.
We also got Hunter's Mark as a base feature for Rangers .... something many MANY people all over the interwebs were advocating for.
I fully expect that’s what’s going to happen regarding Eldritch Blast.
I expect them to, but I really hope they do it in a more flexible way; I've played a few warlocks and never gone the eldritch-blaster route, I'd much rather see them do something that allows for a choice of cantrips to be viable. Alternatively they could just make eldritch blast generally available on the arcane list, but lower its damage dice, then move pacts to 1st-level (since sub-class will presumably go to 3rd) with one offering an early boost to a chosen cantrip (so eldritch blast can still be stronger for a low level warlock), then pact-specific eldritch invocations building on top of that?
Warlocks are going to be weird in general. I do not think they want any class making a whole lot of character long decisions at level 1. I could be wrong, but this may mean that something like invocations get pushed to level 1 instead, something that can be traded out on level up, or maybe on long rests, just like spells. So level 1 would be 1 or 2 invocations level 2 would be an invocation and your pact choice and level 3 being the subclass kind of like how the Cleric is.
Though to be fair they did specifically state that ALMOST all classes would follow the 3,6,10,14. So it is going to be curious to see which one doesn't and which levels, because we know it won't be the 3 that is off. My money is on none of them being off, but the Paladin having a 5th one, their level 20 feature has always been subclass dependent so I am guessing they will be 3,6,10,14, and 18. Making them the only class that isn't just 3,6,10,14.
But I'd like to see the life domain ability still apply to ongoing healing effects like aura of vitality.
I agree with everything other than this. Any bard/cleric with access to third level spells should not be able to heal 2d6+5 every turn and also cast an additional spell on that turn. Especially if you throw in metamagic adept for extended spell.
Using Dash outside of combat is rarely particularly meaningful because time tracking out of combat is rarely very precise and the rules for travel pace don't care what your speed is.
I always thought travel pace was related to groups but individuals moved faster based on their speed/abilities. Like having horseshoes of speed means you can travel faster between towns than if you don't have them.
I am glad they got rid of the bonus action flight thing for Ardlings, but this ability for Racer is still problematic. At least they aren't snatchers anymore, being able to grapple and move and bonus action move all on the same turn - unless they're a rogue. A rogue using cunning action to take the dash action as a bonus action will get this boost, right? Maybe it needs to say When you take the Dash action as your Action (not as a bonus action). The amount of the speed boost is also a little out of control imo, like is getting more than +30' really necessary? Just how proficiently can you run? I think 5x prof. bonus would be better.
Racer (Deer, Dog, Horse, Triceratops). When you take the Dash Action, your Speed increases for that Action. The increase equals ten times your Proficiency Bonus.
Speaking of movement, I don't know what it is with the extra movement on bonus action stuff. Can we just not? And unlimited teleport, really? At least Fey Step is once per rest.
Cloud’s Jaunt (Cloud Giant). As a Bonus Action, you magically Teleport up to 30 feet to an unoccupied space you can see.
Yeah in 10- saves the demon or whatever is going to roll moderately high once so that is basically flavor text.
There is a caster martial disparity so some nerfs are probably needed, not sure if this is a good one though.
I had a campaign thrown off the rails by a player with a dagger, that doesn't break daggers. If he had cast hold monster then beat it to death would that have made your campaign work out better.
Hold Monster is an 8th level spell it should be much more powerful than a 4th level spell, the fact that you see them as comparable means original Banishment was WAY overtuned and needed a severe nerf. People complain endlessly about how OP casters are because they have so many encounter ending spells and need a nerf, you cannot say that and then complain when they nerf spells. I very much hope that all the encounter enders get nerfed in the same way at least those of a spell level <= 5th. I can live happily with 1/day encounter enders at high levels, but current spells make casters routine encounter enders from level 3 which both hurts game balance and makes caster power kind of stall out - you can't really get more powerful than ending an encounter with 1 spell.
Cloud's Jaunt and all the other Goliath Giant Options are PB per long rest:
Giant Ancestry. You are descended from Giants. Choose one of the following benefits—a supernatural boon from your ancestry; you can use the chosen benefit a number of times equal to your Proficiency Bonus, and you regain all expended uses when you finish a Long Rest
However, teleporting PB/lr is still a bit too powerful for a species feature.
Speaking of movement, I don't know what it is with the extra movement on bonus action stuff. Can we just not? And unlimited teleport, really? At least Fey Step is once per rest.
Cloud’s Jaunt (Cloud Giant). As a Bonus Action, you magically Teleport up to 30 feet to an unoccupied space you can see.
Read the whole feature from the beginning:
Giant Ancestry. You are descended from Giants. Choose one of the following benefits —a supernatural boon from your ancestry; you can use the chosen benefit a number of times equal to your Proficiency Bonus, and you regain all expended uses when you finish a Long Rest :
Cloud’s Jaunt (Cloud Giant). As a Bonus Action, you magically Teleport up to 30 feet to an unoccupied space you can see.
Personally, I don't really like an abundance of limited use pseudo-spells and innate magic. I'd rather that different giant legacies provided proficiencies and other passive benefits, like hill giants' advantage on save vs poison and ability to eat or drink unpurified water and uncooked and even rotten food, cloud giants' proficiency in deceit and gambling set, etc.
lots of good, on my first read. But I have a nit-pick.
Species: A biological species is a group of organisms that can reproduce with one another in nature and produce fertile offspring.
While I agree the need to separate from the idea of race, species is really the wrong term. many of the player creature types (race/species) are really all just Human with additional details, and can interbreed with each other. Which BTW in science is the test of species. Elves, Humans, Dwarves, tieflings, orcs and a few others can interbreed in past lore, specifically in the same way a ring species interbreeds. Orcs and elves can't mix, but other than that they can all mix together. (in the play test material they are changing it so they can all mix)
However in the lore there were some races that could not mix. Gnomes, and Lizard Folk being the top two.
So if we go with species it would be:
Human based: Elves*, human, dwarf, halfling, tiefling, aasimar, changeling, firblog, gith(yanki/zerai), goblin, goliath, shifter, triton, "lineages", kalashatar, and orc*
*elves and orcs can't mix due to god feud.
Other species: Gnomes, most the reptile people, most of the dragon people, most of the elemental people, most of the bird people, and others. ( I use most, as there are cases in the lore of D&D where some humans have mixed into some of these even. I blame bards and wizards.)
Gnomes have more in common with a ruby or a diamond than most other biological races, and in the lore couldn't breed with other creatures other than gnomes.
I would suggest using terms like Ancestry and Lineage if you want to break from the use of Race, in most cases it is more accurate.
This is false. There are many distinct species that can interbreed when human bring them together because reproductive incompatibilities only evolve when two species interbreed frequently normally and this is deleterious. The scientific definition of a species is currently a high degree of reproductive isolation to account for the many many cases where two species can successfully interbreed but just don't because they live in different locations or are active at different times of day or just look different enough that they don't recognize each other as viable mates.
Since half-Xs have been removed from the game and lore is left completely open to interpretation in 5e, it is entirely valid to call them species since e.g. in Spelljammer typically they evolved on different planets, and DMs can choose how often they cross breed in their HB worlds.
Speaking of movement, I don't know what it is with the extra movement on bonus action stuff. Can we just not? And unlimited teleport, really? At least Fey Step is once per rest.
Cloud’s Jaunt (Cloud Giant). As a Bonus Action, you magically Teleport up to 30 feet to an unoccupied space you can see.
Read the whole feature from the beginning:
Giant Ancestry. You are descended from Giants. Choose one of the following benefits —a supernatural boon from your ancestry; you can use the chosen benefit a number of times equal to your Proficiency Bonus, and you regain all expended uses when you finish a Long Rest :
Cloud’s Jaunt (Cloud Giant). As a Bonus Action, you magically Teleport up to 30 feet to an unoccupied space you can see.
Personally, I don't really like an abundance of limited use pseudo-spells and innate magic. I'd rather that different giant legacies provided proficiencies and other passive benefits, like hill giants' advantage on save vs poison and ability to eat or drink unpurified water and uncooked and even rotten food, cloud giants' proficiency in deceit and gambling set, etc.
Agree! I first read them as unlimited and thought they were crazy powerful then saw the pbtplr and thought the race was super boring now. Just more bookkeeping for a few minor bonuses per day that can be replicated by tons of other things. Their grow in size feature is the only thing that is actually special...
Speaking of movement, I don't know what it is with the extra movement on bonus action stuff. Can we just not? And unlimited teleport, really? At least Fey Step is once per rest.
Cloud’s Jaunt (Cloud Giant). As a Bonus Action, you magically Teleport up to 30 feet to an unoccupied space you can see.
It is not unlimited. They can use it a number of times equal to their proficiency bonus.
Speaking of movement, I don't know what it is with the extra movement on bonus action stuff. Can we just not? And unlimited teleport, really? At least Fey Step is once per rest.
Cloud’s Jaunt (Cloud Giant). As a Bonus Action, you magically Teleport up to 30 feet to an unoccupied space you can see.
It is not unlimited. They can use it a number of times equal to their proficiency bonus.
I made that mistake on the first reading too. I thought some of these were way overpowered until I saw the PB limitation.
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Thanks for pointing that out about the pb uses. I still think it's a lot of teleportation. Just kind of waters down cool class features like shadow step imo. But I like the Goliath in general. I think it will be an especially fitting choice alongside elemental subclasses.
Thanks for pointing that out about the pb uses. I still think it's a lot of teleportation. Just kind of waters down cool class features like shadow step imo. But I like the Goliath in general. I think it will be an especially fitting choice alongside elemental subclasses.
This isn't the first species between 5e and One D&D that has teleportation though. The Eladrin and Shadar-Kai both had teleportation in Monsters of the Multiverse.
And we have no idea what Shadow Step and similar class features are going to look like going forward.
Thanks for pointing that out about the pb uses. I still think it's a lot of teleportation. Just kind of waters down cool class features like shadow step imo. But I like the Goliath in general. I think it will be an especially fitting choice alongside elemental subclasses.
This isn't the first species between 5e and One D&D that has teleportation though. The Eladrin and Shadar-Kai both had teleportation in Monsters of the Multiverse.
And we have no idea what Shadow Step and similar class features are going to look like going forward.
Yeah in 10- saves the demon or whatever is going to roll moderately high once so that is basically flavor text.
There is a caster martial disparity so some nerfs are probably needed, not sure if this is a good one though.
I had a campaign thrown off the rails by a player with a dagger, that doesn't break daggers. If he had cast hold monster then beat it to death would that have made your campaign work out better.
Hold Monster is an 8th level spell it should be much more powerful than a 4th level spell, the fact that you see them as comparable means original Banishment was WAY overtuned and needed a severe nerf. People complain endlessly about how OP casters are because they have so many encounter ending spells and need a nerf, you cannot say that and then complain when they nerf spells. I very much hope that all the encounter enders get nerfed in the same way at least those of a spell level <= 5th. I can live happily with 1/day encounter enders at high levels, but current spells make casters routine encounter enders from level 3 which both hurts game balance and makes caster power kind of stall out - you can't really get more powerful than ending an encounter with 1 spell.
As pointed out its a 5th level spell not 8th, and again outside a singular extra planar being banishment is not encounter ending. If there is singular creature with 50ish hit points many a martial is encounter ending at the same level, woo. Balance things fine, but this is not balance. This just says hey spell casters sit back and be buff bots for the martials because casting spells at the enemy is a waste of your action.
The animal ancestry options seem to be split into things all special speed related but they also seem to have an additional more generic addition as well.
Climber - Climbing speed and a once per turn + PB to damage of an unarmed strike.
The climbing speed is good. That once per turn boost is... meh. On the one hand it by not specifying any damage dice it doesn't conflict with any other potential boosts to unarmed strikes such as with Martial Arts, Tavern Brawler, or the Unarmed Fighting Style. But on the other hand it doesn't even change the damage type from the default bludgeoning. Something you might expect with claws or sharp nails.
Flyer - Reaction to negate fall damage, advantage on the ability check from the Jump Action.
The fall damage negation is good. I don't know if it's worth costing your reaction... but I also don't know if it's particularly likely that you'll have spent your reaction in the same round that you're thrown off a cliff. The advantage on the Jump Action... Doesn't seem like much? On the one hand it cancels out the disadvantage from a standing leap but on the other hand there's still no point to using the Jump Action in any scenario where the Dash Action will suffice. If I'm taking a race who's claim to fame is excellent jumping talent I want to be able to leap fantastically and regularly. I want my Jump Action to be (potentially) somewhat better than the Dash Action.
This boosted Jump needs something more: Perhaps the maximum Jump distance is extended similar to how the Racer increases their speed? Perhaps opportunity attacks against the Jumper are made with disadvantage? Perhaps vertical jump distance isn't halved? Perhaps instead of advantage on the check you can jump twice when you take the Jump action, even while in midair? That would fit in well with a powerful *vestigial wing flap, not only that but it would allow for jumping around corners.
Racer - Dash action increases your speed by 10*PB for that action.
This feature is strong and probably bonkers on a Rogue who can Dash with their bonus action. It's no wonder why they didn't bother with any secondary features here. This is applicable with any movement speed you have. Acquire a climbing or swimming speed elsewhere and the Racer can outpace both the Climber and the Swimmer.
Swimmer - Can hold your breath for an hour, swim speed, and Cold Resistance
Not sure why they decided the swimmer needed a resistance on top of the other benefits, though I guess needing a swim speed and needing to hold your breath are both pretty situational benefits, whereas Cold Resistance... is also a situational benefit? Eh, I don't mind it. It doesn't feel like too much.
Divine Magic - 1 Free Divine Cantrip, can be swapped on long rest. Solid option. I like it.
*The whole vestigial wings thing kind of sets you up for disappointment along with the animal group being named "Flyers." I'd rather your jumping prowess and fall damage negation come from being much lighter than one would expect for your size, having hollow yet strong bones, etc rather than being because your wings fail at being wings.
What's the order of operations going to be on a Saving Throw? Let's say that you are near the Paladin's Aura and have Bless running.
You roll the d20 test and fail.
If you have Heroic Inspiration, you can use that immediately after you roll.
But Bardic Inspiration is a reaction another player can use whenever you roll a D20 test. Does that interrupt your turn?
Then there's Resistance which only happens on a failed Saving Throw.. so I am assuming that's the last thing in the decision making process - but once again, it's a reaction so I don't know how that affects the sequence.
What's the order of operations going to be on a Saving Throw? Let's say that you are near the Paladin's Aura and have Bless running.
You roll the d20 test and fail.
If you have Heroic Inspiration, you can use that immediately after you roll.
But Bardic Inspiration is a reaction another player can use whenever you roll a D20 test. Does that interrupt your turn?
Then there's Resistance which only happens on a failed Saving Throw.. so I am assuming that's the last thing in the decision making process - but once again, it's a reaction so I don't know how that affects the sequence.
The current general rule is that whoever's turn it is decides which order to resolve effects when they're unclear, but I would say that effects like Heroic Inspiration that don't require a reaction should occur first, because as long as you have one or more such options you haven't finished rolling the d20 test until you've exhausted them all (or choose not to use them).
Only once the test is "done" as far as passive abilities are concerned is it really "done" in the sense that reactions can now trigger. That would be my interpretation at least.
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The animal ancestry options seem to be split into things all special speed related but they also seem to have an additional more generic addition as well.
Climber - Climbing speed and a once per turn + PB to damage of an unarmed strike.
The climbing speed is good. That once per turn boost is... meh. On the one hand it by not specifying any damage dice it doesn't conflict with any other potential boosts to unarmed strikes such as with Martial Arts, Tavern Brawler, or the Unarmed Fighting Style. But on the other hand it doesn't even change the damage type from the default bludgeoning. Something you might expect with claws or sharp nails.
Flyer - Reaction to negate fall damage, advantage on the ability check from the Jump Action.
The fall damage negation is good. I don't know if it's worth costing your reaction... but I also don't know if it's particularly likely that you'll have spent your reaction in the same round that you're thrown off a cliff. The advantage on the Jump Action... Doesn't seem like much? On the one hand it cancels out the disadvantage from a standing leap but on the other hand there's still no point to using the Jump Action in any scenario where the Dash Action will suffice. If I'm taking a race who's claim to fame is excellent jumping talent I want to be able to leap fantastically and regularly. I want my Jump Action to be (potentially) somewhat better than the Dash Action.
This boosted Jump needs something more: Perhaps the maximum Jump distance is extended similar to how the Racer increases their speed? Perhaps opportunity attacks against the Jumper are made with disadvantage? Perhaps vertical jump distance isn't halved? Perhaps instead of advantage on the check you can jump twice when you take the Jump action, even while in midair? That would fit in well with a powerful *vestigial wing flap, not only that but it would allow for jumping around corners.
Racer - Dash action increases your speed by 10*PB for that action.
This feature is strong and probably bonkers on a Rogue who can Dash with their bonus action. It's no wonder why they didn't bother with any secondary features here. This is applicable with any movement speed you have. Acquire a climbing or swimming speed elsewhere and the Racer can outpace both the Climber and the Swimmer.
Swimmer - Can hold your breath for an hour, swim speed, and Cold Resistance
Not sure why they decided the swimmer needed a resistance on top of the other benefits, though I guess needing a swim speed and needing to hold your breath are both pretty situational benefits, whereas Cold Resistance... is also a situational benefit? Eh, I don't mind it. It doesn't feel like too much.
Divine Magic - 1 Free Divine Cantrip, can be swapped on long rest. Solid option. I like it.
*The whole vestigial wings thing kind of sets you up for disappointment along with the animal group being named "Flyers." I'd rather your jumping prowess and fall damage negation come from being much lighter than one would expect for your size, having hollow yet strong bones, etc.
So, I do suspect the cold Resistance was added to make swimmers more enticing and usable since swimming is inherently the least used movement type.
Flyer got shafted and needs help 5th level flight would be cool. Climber is just ok.
The only super strong one is racer and only with one particular class, maybe 2. What you get from divine magic is ok, but it is worse than magic initiate divine 1st level feat.
I want to see them beef up the divine aspect of Ardling. Which would mean climber could stay the same (bludgeoning is, on average, a better damage type than piercing or slashing, but a choice would be nice) swimmer could stay the same. And racer could go down to 5xpb increase on dash. And then give a first level divine spell at 3 and a second level at 5 for divine casting. Probably set spells like they did with high elf (choose cantrip, set 1st, set 2nd).
If they didnt want to go that route, which will make me sad, i would love to see climber provide disadvantage on opponents escape dc from grapples as the climber is digging into their opponents with the same claws that allow them to climb trees and cliffs.
Flyer would 100% need the ability to fly.
Racer is probably still ok, but may need just need a 5 movement increase baseline to be more universal and not just the rogue species.
Swimmer why not just amphibious, why not just water breathing. Doesn't even change that much gameplay wise.
Even with all this I would still want a first level divine spell.
It might be a bit uneven in distribution, but Id like it if Cleric subclasses still granted some 1st-level domain spells. This might mean you end up getting 4 spells at level 3 (two 1st plus two 2nd) but it doesnt feel quite right that your 1st level spell slots can only be used for you class-specific spells and not for any unique or flavorful subclass options, especially since your 1st level slots are the most numerous in your kit.
For example, I have been looking at the Arcana Domain from SCAG alot recently, and if it was restructured in a similar way to Life Cleric I feel like removing Magic Missile and Detect Magic from its kit would be criminal
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Warlocks are going to be weird in general. I do not think they want any class making a whole lot of character long decisions at level 1. I could be wrong, but this may mean that something like invocations get pushed to level 1 instead, something that can be traded out on level up, or maybe on long rests, just like spells. So level 1 would be 1 or 2 invocations level 2 would be an invocation and your pact choice and level 3 being the subclass kind of like how the Cleric is.
Though to be fair they did specifically state that ALMOST all classes would follow the 3,6,10,14. So it is going to be curious to see which one doesn't and which levels, because we know it won't be the 3 that is off. My money is on none of them being off, but the Paladin having a 5th one, their level 20 feature has always been subclass dependent so I am guessing they will be 3,6,10,14, and 18. Making them the only class that isn't just 3,6,10,14.
I agree with everything other than this. Any bard/cleric with access to third level spells should not be able to heal 2d6+5 every turn and also cast an additional spell on that turn. Especially if you throw in metamagic adept for extended spell.
I can’t remember what’s supposed to go here.
I always thought travel pace was related to groups but individuals moved faster based on their speed/abilities. Like having horseshoes of speed means you can travel faster between towns than if you don't have them.
I am glad they got rid of the bonus action flight thing for Ardlings, but this ability for Racer is still problematic. At least they aren't snatchers anymore, being able to grapple and move and bonus action move all on the same turn - unless they're a rogue. A rogue using cunning action to take the dash action as a bonus action will get this boost, right? Maybe it needs to say When you take the Dash action as your Action (not as a bonus action). The amount of the speed boost is also a little out of control imo, like is getting more than +30' really necessary? Just how proficiently can you run? I think 5x prof. bonus would be better.
Speaking of movement, I don't know what it is with the extra movement on bonus action stuff. Can we just not? And unlimited teleport, really? At least Fey Step is once per rest.
Hold Monster is an 8th level spell it should be much more powerful than a 4th level spell, the fact that you see them as comparable means original Banishment was WAY overtuned and needed a severe nerf. People complain endlessly about how OP casters are because they have so many encounter ending spells and need a nerf, you cannot say that and then complain when they nerf spells. I very much hope that all the encounter enders get nerfed in the same way at least those of a spell level <= 5th. I can live happily with 1/day encounter enders at high levels, but current spells make casters routine encounter enders from level 3 which both hurts game balance and makes caster power kind of stall out - you can't really get more powerful than ending an encounter with 1 spell.
Cloud's Jaunt and all the other Goliath Giant Options are PB per long rest:
Giant Ancestry. You are descended from
Giants. Choose one of the following benefits—a
supernatural boon from your ancestry; you can
use the chosen benefit a number of times equal
to your Proficiency Bonus, and you regain all
expended uses when you finish a Long Rest
However, teleporting PB/lr is still a bit too powerful for a species feature.
Read the whole feature from the beginning:
Giant Ancestry. You are descended from Giants. Choose one of the following benefits —a supernatural boon from your ancestry; you can use the chosen benefit a number of times equal to your Proficiency Bonus, and you regain all expended uses when you finish a Long Rest :
Personally, I don't really like an abundance of limited use pseudo-spells and innate magic. I'd rather that different giant legacies provided proficiencies and other passive benefits, like hill giants' advantage on save vs poison and ability to eat or drink unpurified water and uncooked and even rotten food, cloud giants' proficiency in deceit and gambling set, etc.
This is false. There are many distinct species that can interbreed when human bring them together because reproductive incompatibilities only evolve when two species interbreed frequently normally and this is deleterious. The scientific definition of a species is currently a high degree of reproductive isolation to account for the many many cases where two species can successfully interbreed but just don't because they live in different locations or are active at different times of day or just look different enough that they don't recognize each other as viable mates.
Since half-Xs have been removed from the game and lore is left completely open to interpretation in 5e, it is entirely valid to call them species since e.g. in Spelljammer typically they evolved on different planets, and DMs can choose how often they cross breed in their HB worlds.
Agree! I first read them as unlimited and thought they were crazy powerful then saw the pbtplr and thought the race was super boring now. Just more bookkeeping for a few minor bonuses per day that can be replicated by tons of other things. Their grow in size feature is the only thing that is actually special...
It is not unlimited. They can use it a number of times equal to their proficiency bonus.
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ModeratorI made that mistake on the first reading too. I thought some of these were way overpowered until I saw the PB limitation.
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Thanks for pointing that out about the pb uses. I still think it's a lot of teleportation. Just kind of waters down cool class features like shadow step imo. But I like the Goliath in general. I think it will be an especially fitting choice alongside elemental subclasses.
And we have no idea what Shadow Step and similar class features are going to look like going forward.
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As pointed out its a 5th level spell not 8th, and again outside a singular extra planar being banishment is not encounter ending. If there is singular creature with 50ish hit points many a martial is encounter ending at the same level, woo. Balance things fine, but this is not balance. This just says hey spell casters sit back and be buff bots for the martials because casting spells at the enemy is a waste of your action.
Thoughts on Ardling:
The animal ancestry options seem to be split into things all special speed related but they also seem to have an additional more generic addition as well.
Climber - Climbing speed and a once per turn + PB to damage of an unarmed strike.
The climbing speed is good. That once per turn boost is... meh. On the one hand it by not specifying any damage dice it doesn't conflict with any other potential boosts to unarmed strikes such as with Martial Arts, Tavern Brawler, or the Unarmed Fighting Style. But on the other hand it doesn't even change the damage type from the default bludgeoning. Something you might expect with claws or sharp nails.
Flyer - Reaction to negate fall damage, advantage on the ability check from the Jump Action.
The fall damage negation is good. I don't know if it's worth costing your reaction... but I also don't know if it's particularly likely that you'll have spent your reaction in the same round that you're thrown off a cliff.
The advantage on the Jump Action... Doesn't seem like much? On the one hand it cancels out the disadvantage from a standing leap but on the other hand there's still no point to using the Jump Action in any scenario where the Dash Action will suffice. If I'm taking a race who's claim to fame is excellent jumping talent I want to be able to leap fantastically and regularly. I want my Jump Action to be (potentially) somewhat better than the Dash Action.
This boosted Jump needs something more:
Perhaps the maximum Jump distance is extended similar to how the Racer increases their speed?
Perhaps opportunity attacks against the Jumper are made with disadvantage?
Perhaps vertical jump distance isn't halved?
Perhaps instead of advantage on the check you can jump twice when you take the Jump action, even while in midair? That would fit in well with a powerful *vestigial wing flap, not only that but it would allow for jumping around corners.
Racer - Dash action increases your speed by 10*PB for that action.
This feature is strong and probably bonkers on a Rogue who can Dash with their bonus action. It's no wonder why they didn't bother with any secondary features here. This is applicable with any movement speed you have. Acquire a climbing or swimming speed elsewhere and the Racer can outpace both the Climber and the Swimmer.
Swimmer - Can hold your breath for an hour, swim speed, and Cold Resistance
Not sure why they decided the swimmer needed a resistance on top of the other benefits, though I guess needing a swim speed and needing to hold your breath are both pretty situational benefits, whereas Cold Resistance... is also a situational benefit? Eh, I don't mind it. It doesn't feel like too much.
Divine Magic - 1 Free Divine Cantrip, can be swapped on long rest. Solid option. I like it.
Keen Senses - Perception Proficiency. Solid feature. Always useful.
*The whole vestigial wings thing kind of sets you up for disappointment along with the animal group being named "Flyers." I'd rather your jumping prowess and fall damage negation come from being much lighter than one would expect for your size, having hollow yet strong bones, etc rather than being because your wings fail at being wings.
What's the order of operations going to be on a Saving Throw? Let's say that you are near the Paladin's Aura and have Bless running.
You roll the d20 test and fail.
If you have Heroic Inspiration, you can use that immediately after you roll.
But Bardic Inspiration is a reaction another player can use whenever you roll a D20 test. Does that interrupt your turn?
Then there's Resistance which only happens on a failed Saving Throw.. so I am assuming that's the last thing in the decision making process - but once again, it's a reaction so I don't know how that affects the sequence.
The current general rule is that whoever's turn it is decides which order to resolve effects when they're unclear, but I would say that effects like Heroic Inspiration that don't require a reaction should occur first, because as long as you have one or more such options you haven't finished rolling the d20 test until you've exhausted them all (or choose not to use them).
Only once the test is "done" as far as passive abilities are concerned is it really "done" in the sense that reactions can now trigger. That would be my interpretation at least.
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Starting to sound like the stack from magic the gathering.
So, I do suspect the cold Resistance was added to make swimmers more enticing and usable since swimming is inherently the least used movement type.
Flyer got shafted and needs help 5th level flight would be cool. Climber is just ok.
The only super strong one is racer and only with one particular class, maybe 2. What you get from divine magic is ok, but it is worse than magic initiate divine 1st level feat.
I want to see them beef up the divine aspect of Ardling. Which would mean climber could stay the same (bludgeoning is, on average, a better damage type than piercing or slashing, but a choice would be nice) swimmer could stay the same. And racer could go down to 5xpb increase on dash. And then give a first level divine spell at 3 and a second level at 5 for divine casting. Probably set spells like they did with high elf (choose cantrip, set 1st, set 2nd).
If they didnt want to go that route, which will make me sad, i would love to see climber provide disadvantage on opponents escape dc from grapples as the climber is digging into their opponents with the same claws that allow them to climb trees and cliffs.
Flyer would 100% need the ability to fly.
Racer is probably still ok, but may need just need a 5 movement increase baseline to be more universal and not just the rogue species.
Swimmer why not just amphibious, why not just water breathing. Doesn't even change that much gameplay wise.
Even with all this I would still want a first level divine spell.
It might be a bit uneven in distribution, but Id like it if Cleric subclasses still granted some 1st-level domain spells. This might mean you end up getting 4 spells at level 3 (two 1st plus two 2nd) but it doesnt feel quite right that your 1st level spell slots can only be used for you class-specific spells and not for any unique or flavorful subclass options, especially since your 1st level slots are the most numerous in your kit.
For example, I have been looking at the Arcana Domain from SCAG alot recently, and if it was restructured in a similar way to Life Cleric I feel like removing Magic Missile and Detect Magic from its kit would be criminal
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