I feel like a general trend for this UA is to turn alot of potential class features or general rules into spells, most of which are automatically unlocked at certain levels for the relevant classes. While I am not really sure this is a "bad" design choice per say, I do not really see the appeal of doing so.
For example, if Sorcerous Vitality is a 3rd level spell ONLY available to the sorcerer class, and every sorcerer prepares the spell freely after 5th level, why not just make it a class feature rather than a spell? I suppose using it as a spell introduces an easy way for it to scale as you level by upcasting.
I dont know, it seems like its effectively a class feature with extra steps, so I am not sure I am on board with this design choice.
Mechanical simplification -- by making it a spell, they answer most of the questions on how it interacts with other parts of the game.
And, as mentioned above, it means there's no other resources to track.
The weapon properties are a good addition, but Graze seems like it's tons better than the rest. You are always guaranteed to do at least your strength/dex modifier in damage every time you swing?
I do t think it’s all that strong. If you hit, which you should be doing more than half the time, it does nothing for you. And as you get to higher levels 4-5 points of free damage isn’t really that much. Other things like knocking someone prone for no action, then getting advantage on you other attacks is pretty great. As is a no save move the enemy 10’. Or an extra attack with cleave, and that’s a 1/turn thing, so if one enemy tries to move away and draws an OA, seems like you get to attack it’s buddy, too. Honestly, I’d put graze at or near the bottom of my list. I might take it when I can add a second property, but I wouldn’t use it as a primary choice.
I have read it very superficially, and only what really interests me (which are the spells and the three classes of arcane casters). My first impression is:
- I love what they have done with the wizards. Especially that they can modify their spells. Without a doubt, it will be the first class to which I do the playtest, since it has always been one of my favorite classes. And I really want to try it, really.
- I have mixed opinions with the warlocks. On the one hand I really like that his spell casting ability is variable. I also like something that a lot of people are going to hate, which is that they are now half casters. What I don't like at all is that the Mystic Arcanum is now an eldritch invocation. That makes picking up Mystic Arcanum a must, and takes away from other customization options. In addition to the inconsistency that at level 11 you can cast a level 6 spell, but you don't have level 5 spell slots until level 17. Yes, you can choose level 5 spells with your Mystic Arcanum at level 9, but it still seems very strange and confusing to me. That's going to have to be fixed somehow. Oh, another thing I like is that pacts are now cantrips.
- I like what they have done with the sorcerer. His innate magic has a lot of sorcerer flavor to it, and it's something I really like. Anyway, I thought they were going to enhance his role as a blaster more. I have to look at it better, since his new cantrip seems to be going a lot in that vein. But I expected a lot more in that regard. Still, I like it.
Scribe Spell being itself a spell makes absolutely no sense
Like Xukuri, I hate most of the warlock changes, as well as forcing sorcs to have spells like chaos bolt whether it makes sense for the character or not
I guess they're going back to the 1E days, when Read Magic and Write Magic were both spells. I think I actually prefer it to the current separate spell-scribing rules.
So if you tear the Scribe Spell page out of their spellbook, they can then never learn another spell? Cool beans
Well, this really is a game. If your DM does that to you, he's an *******.
You could still have the spell prepared, as this cuts the time and materials needed for you by half.
And maybe it would be good if the wizards always had it prepared for class, and that way the situation you mentioned would be avoided.
But anyway, if you are playing with a wizard, and your DM rips the page of the book in which you have Scribe Spell, is such a ******* thing to stop playing with that guy for life.
Overall underwhelmed. They destroyed the warlock, the wizard got better, the wizards casting method with a spell book makes the bards know all spells from these schools thing seem way OP, there were some okay changes to the martials but not nearly enough. like brutal critical is better than it was, it still sucks hard though as a replacement for a 3rd attack. And the barbarians rage damage still scales like terribly. I do dig the option to bonus action to extend the rage. But I think they need to either way cut back on numbers of spells per day and assume 1-2 encounters per day, or they need to scale the number of rages way way up even with the more generous ways to maintain a rage. And really did primal champion need to get cut in 1/2. Oh and while I'm complaining unarmed defense make it 10AC+STR&Con dex does not increase it, and have it so your con bonus is added to all saves at level 10 on while raging.
Only just started looking through. Haven't even got to the classes yet. I do like the idea of weapon mastery - adds a bit of interest and tactics to weapon users (and an idea stolen from Pathfinder?).
Interesting thing about the spells: They note that Viscious Mockery and Dissonant Whispers have been removed from the Arcane spell lists but will still be available to bards. And there are extra spells "connected" to either warlocks, sorcerers or wizards. This makes me wonder if they will implement a feature that I've heard a lot of people talk about - a slight step back to class-specific spell lists, perhaps in addition to the general arcane/divine/primal lists.
I think this would be a good idea. Bards only get Viscious Mockery and Dissonant Whispers, unless some other feature says otherwise (like an Aberrant Mind sorcerer could still get Dissonant Whispers). And this opens the door to shoving the smite spells back to a Paladin-specific list. This feels a lot better to me than, e.g, any old divine spellcaster getting access to smite spells and similarly for other iconic class spells.
Scribe Spell being itself a spell makes absolutely no sense
Like Xukuri, I hate most of the warlock changes, as well as forcing sorcs to have spells like chaos bolt whether it makes sense for the character or not
I guess they're going back to the 1E days, when Read Magic and Write Magic were both spells. I think I actually prefer it to the current separate spell-scribing rules.
So if you tear the Scribe Spell page out of their spellbook, they can then never learn another spell? Cool beans
Well, this really is a game. If your DM does that to you, he's an *******.
You could still have the spell prepared, as this cuts the time and materials needed for you by half.
And maybe it would be good if the wizards always had it prepared for class, and that way the situation you mentioned would be avoided.
But anyway, if you are playing with a wizard, and your DM rips the page of the book in which you have Scribe Spell, is such a ******* thing to stop playing with that guy for life.
It's not a question of DM vs player. It's a question of "it makes no sense in the world of the game"
Like, how does that spell even get invented? How did the first wizard add that spell to their spellbook, if there wasn't yet a spell to add spells to a spellbook?
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Active characters:
Carric Aquissar, elven wannabe artist in his deconstructionist period (Archfey warlock) Lan Kidogo, mapach archaeologist and treasure hunter (Knowledge cleric) Mardan Ferres, elven private investigator obsessed with that one unsolved murder (Assassin rogue) Xhekhetiel, halfling survivor of a Betrayer Gods cult (Runechild sorcerer/fighter)
Interesting thing about the spells: They note that Viscious Mockery and Dissonant Whispers have been removed from the Arcane spell lists but will still be available to bards. And there are extra spells "connected" to either warlocks, sorcerers or wizards.
I assume that's what's happening, yeah -- Vicious Mockery will be to bards what Eldritch Blast is to warlocks
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Active characters:
Carric Aquissar, elven wannabe artist in his deconstructionist period (Archfey warlock) Lan Kidogo, mapach archaeologist and treasure hunter (Knowledge cleric) Mardan Ferres, elven private investigator obsessed with that one unsolved murder (Assassin rogue) Xhekhetiel, halfling survivor of a Betrayer Gods cult (Runechild sorcerer/fighter)
They’ve effing ruined Warlocks!!! They got rid of Pact Magic and just made them half-casters. The coolest part about Warlocks was that they didn’t have the same kinda spellcasting as everyone else. They said they were gonna make eldritch blast and hex into class features, which got me super excited, but they didn’t. They just added a class feature that grants those spells, and then they went the opposite direction and turned what are currently class features into spells too!!!
I feel like a general trend for this UA is to turn alot of potential class features or general rules into spells, most of which are automatically unlocked at certain levels for the relevant classes. While I am not really sure this is a "bad" design choice per say, I do not really see the appeal of doing so.
For example, if Sorcerous Vitality is a 3rd level spell ONLY available to the sorcerer class, and every sorcerer prepares the spell freely after 5th level, why not just make it a class feature rather than a spell? I suppose using it as a spell introduces an easy way for it to scale as you level by upcasting.
I dont know, it seems like its effectively a class feature with extra steps, so I am not sure I am on board with this design choice.
I’ll take it a step further and point blank say I absolutely hate it as a design choice. I don’t care if it does “streamline” resource tracking, 5e is already over streamlined as is. I was hoping for a little grit to be added in with this UA, and instead they’re just making it even more samesame. I hate it. 0/10, do not recommend.
Interesting thing about the spells: They note that Viscious Mockery and Dissonant Whispers have been removed from the Arcane spell lists but will still be available to bards. And there are extra spells "connected" to either warlocks, sorcerers or wizards.
I assume that's what's happening, yeah -- Vicious Mockery will be to bards what Eldritch Blast is to warlocks
They should both just be class features and not cantrips.
I dunno, I actually rather like Warlocks being half casters. Pact Magic was always stressful for people. They either hoarded the slots and never spent them, or blew them both right away and had nothing left to spare later.
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Canto alla vita alla sua bellezza ad ogni sua ferita ogni sua carezza!
I sing to life and to its tragic beauty To pain and to strife, but all that dances through me The rise and the fall, I've lived through it all!
Scribe Spell being itself a spell makes absolutely no sense
Like Xukuri, I hate most of the warlock changes, as well as forcing sorcs to have spells like chaos bolt whether it makes sense for the character or not
I guess they're going back to the 1E days, when Read Magic and Write Magic were both spells. I think I actually prefer it to the current separate spell-scribing rules.
So if you tear the Scribe Spell page out of their spellbook, they can then never learn another spell? Cool beans
I think they want to go for the flavor of wizards from older editions. Where another wizard needed to teach you some initial spells so you could become a wizard. And wizards where a group guarding heir secret techings.
I dunno, I actually rather like Warlocks being half casters. Pact Magic was always stressful for people. They either hoarded the slots and never spent them, or blew them both right away and had nothing left to spare later.
The simple and easy fix for this is to slightly expand available slots. You can do this without losing the flavor of having to make interesting tactical decisions.
I am definitely going to be writing a strongly worded letter about what they did to Pact Magic. Look what they've done to my boy!
Dear Jeremy,
Pistols at dawn. Name the place.
Your obedient servant, A dot Sirius
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Active characters:
Carric Aquissar, elven wannabe artist in his deconstructionist period (Archfey warlock) Lan Kidogo, mapach archaeologist and treasure hunter (Knowledge cleric) Mardan Ferres, elven private investigator obsessed with that one unsolved murder (Assassin rogue) Xhekhetiel, halfling survivor of a Betrayer Gods cult (Runechild sorcerer/fighter)
I dunno, I actually rather like Warlocks being half casters. Pact Magic was always stressful for people. They either hoarded the slots and never spent them, or blew them both right away and had nothing left to spare later.
The simple and easy fix for this is to slightly expand available slots. You can do this without losing the flavor of having to make interesting tactical decisions.
Or make short rests easier, or give them some other easy method to recharge slots like a short ritual.
Barbarian: Overall positive. I like the emphasis on Rage as being a source of primal might rather than just GRR MAD, and allowing Rage to drive a third-ish of the game's skills with SHEER MUSCLE is hilarious and will lead to some lulsy Pillar Man shenanery. Basic access to Weapon Mastery is basic access to Weapon mastery, and Indomitable Might being at a level you might actually see is also fun. A raging barbarian can almost give an Expert a run for their money as a skillmonkey through the power of MUSCLES, which is comical. Elsewise the overall barbarian chassis didn't change all that much, which is fine because the overall barbarian chassis was pretty solid. The improved Berserker is actually playable now, with Frenzy being dramatically improved in a novel way I can heartily approve of. The focus on Reckless over Exhaustion is a good thematic choice for a Berserker, and Retaliation coming online sooner is awesome. Overall? Approve.
Fighter: Overall positive-ish, though I admit my early scan of the UA leaves it a little unclear how their monkeying with Mastery properties works. At high levels it almost feels like Baby's First Maneuvers/Superiority, just attached to a specific weapon rather than general use. Action Surge got nerfed hard, but also it kinda needed it to tamp down on stupid multiclass builds. Fighters can use Surge to do all the things they generally used to do with Surge but no more double-spellcasting nonsense, which is a net positive. Second Wind is less of a pointless joke outside Tier 1 play, which is beneficial. Indomitable got weird, I wish they'd just make it so you could automatically succeed on a save as a mini Legendary Resistance thing. That would be both simpler and cooler, but bleh. The fighter chassis also didn't change much, which is less cool than it was for barbarian but also not really bad. The Champion is still absolute ******* garbage, I will never understand people's fascination with that abyssmal subclass, but eh. There will be better subs later. Overall? Ambivalent.
Sorcerer: I like where they're going with the sorcerer. Sorcerous Burst is weaker than Fire Bolt at low levels, sure, but every time you add a d6 you improve the spell's chances of dealing extra damage. At higher levels you've got a very high chance of throwing extra damage, and exploding dice just feels like a sorcerer mechanic. Untamed power you don't have full control of? Check. Chaos Bolt being an always-on spell is less sexy but it does provide a solid way to use low level spell slots in early blasty encounters. The new suite of Sorcerer class-features-as-spells abilities is an interesting way to tie their class features into their normal class economy, though I do think Sorcery Incarnate sounds cooler than it is given the lack of high-level spell attacks worth bothering with. Gonna be a lot of Scorching Ray spam on that one, methinks. I do wish Incarnate came with some form of damage resistance since you're literally turning into magic, but that's what playtest is for. Dragon sorcerer is more or less the same it's always been, just tuned up at the cost of no more permaflight and with a pseudo-breath weapon. Overall? Approve, with high hopes for future iterations.
Warlock: Now this is a hot take and I am here for it. Half-castering warlocks is a ballsy move, but honestly I'm on board. If they do it right they could provide a basis for solving the whole Lack of Arcane Gish issue, and honestly? I would rather have half casting than "I get full caster spell progression but only two whole ass spell slots to use for ninety percent of my career and if I ever use them on a low-level spell that doesn't scale I'm wasting my magic so I have to give every warlock the same ******* spell list because there's almost nothing that scales the way Pact Magic wants to scale so liking useful tech spells like Expeditious Retreat means I'm warlocking wrong so my whole game plan is nothing but cast Eldritch Blast and pray I'm never in a position where my spellcaster has to act like a spellcaster." Or, in short: **** Pact Magic. I've played multiple warlocks, and Pact Magic is never the reason I play them. The best way to play a warlock is to largely forget Pact Magic exists save as an occasional bonus, and that is just so much utter bullshit. Plus we don't need three full-flight Arcane casters and half-castering Warlock gives the class more room to do other cool shit. Increasing the emphasis on Eldritch Invocations and replacing all the janky "you can cast [X] once with a Pact slot per long rest" Invocations with Mystic Arcanum is a lovely simplification, especiallyt when Invocations are pretty much the entire reason to play the warlock class to start with. The choice of casting modifier per Pact is delightful and opens up SO MANY cool new Warlock stories that just weren't a thing before when every single warlock had to be a smooth-talking hypercharismatic horny boi. There's honestly not many changes here I'm not 100% down for, I like this new warlock. Fiend pact is still boring, but it does what Fiend pact always did for people who liked Fiend pact, and the Pact Spells being granted rather than choosable is a huge plus. Overall: strong approve, I am a firm fan of this direction for the warlock.
Wizard: Another class with relatively light changes, mostly just consolidating rules in better places. The big changes are Modify Spell, which is generally much stronger than Metamagic but more narrow in its deployment, and the ability to permanently modify certain spells for extensive cost later on with Create Spell. Want a Fireball that doesn't burn your allies so they stop accusing you of war crimes? Now's your chance. It's a fun little interaction. And frankly it's about god damned time wizards got something like Academic. The game's foremost brains should be allowed to do Brain Things better than the ******* bard. Evoker subclass is still a little anemic, especially when Modify Spell exists, but ehh. Once you get Overcharge you have a subclass, I suppose. Overall: Approve, but not super strongly. It's mostly the same wizard with a few new bells and slightly earlier access to its good stuff, so huzzah I guess.
Glossary/Everything Else: It's a big fuggin' document. I'll read everything else when I can. Cut me some slack. q_q
Interesting thing about the spells: They note that Viscious Mockery and Dissonant Whispers have been removed from the Arcane spell lists but will still be available to bards. And there are extra spells "connected" to either warlocks, sorcerers or wizards.
I assume that's what's happening, yeah -- Vicious Mockery will be to bards what Eldritch Blast is to warlocks
If at least some of the ranger spells do not become ranger only it will really show the inconsistent treatment of ranger. at the same time the value of magical secrets redesign gets less. I am fine with bard being the only class to steal other classes spells(and arcane trickster the subclass).
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Only on one spell at a time, since it loses effect when you cast Modify Spell again.
Mechanical simplification -- by making it a spell, they answer most of the questions on how it interacts with other parts of the game.
And, as mentioned above, it means there's no other resources to track.
I do t think it’s all that strong. If you hit, which you should be doing more than half the time, it does nothing for you. And as you get to higher levels 4-5 points of free damage isn’t really that much. Other things like knocking someone prone for no action, then getting advantage on you other attacks is pretty great. As is a no save move the enemy 10’. Or an extra attack with cleave, and that’s a 1/turn thing, so if one enemy tries to move away and draws an OA, seems like you get to attack it’s buddy, too. Honestly, I’d put graze at or near the bottom of my list. I might take it when I can add a second property, but I wouldn’t use it as a primary choice.
I have read it very superficially, and only what really interests me (which are the spells and the three classes of arcane casters). My first impression is:
- I love what they have done with the wizards. Especially that they can modify their spells. Without a doubt, it will be the first class to which I do the playtest, since it has always been one of my favorite classes. And I really want to try it, really.
- I have mixed opinions with the warlocks. On the one hand I really like that his spell casting ability is variable. I also like something that a lot of people are going to hate, which is that they are now half casters. What I don't like at all is that the Mystic Arcanum is now an eldritch invocation. That makes picking up Mystic Arcanum a must, and takes away from other customization options. In addition to the inconsistency that at level 11 you can cast a level 6 spell, but you don't have level 5 spell slots until level 17. Yes, you can choose level 5 spells with your Mystic Arcanum at level 9, but it still seems very strange and confusing to me. That's going to have to be fixed somehow. Oh, another thing I like is that pacts are now cantrips.
- I like what they have done with the sorcerer. His innate magic has a lot of sorcerer flavor to it, and it's something I really like. Anyway, I thought they were going to enhance his role as a blaster more. I have to look at it better, since his new cantrip seems to be going a lot in that vein. But I expected a lot more in that regard. Still, I like it.
Well, this really is a game. If your DM does that to you, he's an *******.
You could still have the spell prepared, as this cuts the time and materials needed for you by half.
And maybe it would be good if the wizards always had it prepared for class, and that way the situation you mentioned would be avoided.
But anyway, if you are playing with a wizard, and your DM rips the page of the book in which you have Scribe Spell, is such a ******* thing to stop playing with that guy for life.
Overall underwhelmed. They destroyed the warlock, the wizard got better, the wizards casting method with a spell book makes the bards know all spells from these schools thing seem way OP, there were some okay changes to the martials but not nearly enough. like brutal critical is better than it was, it still sucks hard though as a replacement for a 3rd attack. And the barbarians rage damage still scales like terribly. I do dig the option to bonus action to extend the rage. But I think they need to either way cut back on numbers of spells per day and assume 1-2 encounters per day, or they need to scale the number of rages way way up even with the more generous ways to maintain a rage. And really did primal champion need to get cut in 1/2. Oh and while I'm complaining unarmed defense make it 10AC+STR&Con dex does not increase it, and have it so your con bonus is added to all saves at level 10 on while raging.
Only just started looking through. Haven't even got to the classes yet. I do like the idea of weapon mastery - adds a bit of interest and tactics to weapon users (and an idea stolen from Pathfinder?).
Interesting thing about the spells: They note that Viscious Mockery and Dissonant Whispers have been removed from the Arcane spell lists but will still be available to bards. And there are extra spells "connected" to either warlocks, sorcerers or wizards. This makes me wonder if they will implement a feature that I've heard a lot of people talk about - a slight step back to class-specific spell lists, perhaps in addition to the general arcane/divine/primal lists.
I think this would be a good idea. Bards only get Viscious Mockery and Dissonant Whispers, unless some other feature says otherwise (like an Aberrant Mind sorcerer could still get Dissonant Whispers). And this opens the door to shoving the smite spells back to a Paladin-specific list. This feels a lot better to me than, e.g, any old divine spellcaster getting access to smite spells and similarly for other iconic class spells.
It's not a question of DM vs player. It's a question of "it makes no sense in the world of the game"
Like, how does that spell even get invented? How did the first wizard add that spell to their spellbook, if there wasn't yet a spell to add spells to a spellbook?
Active characters:
Carric Aquissar, elven wannabe artist in his deconstructionist period (Archfey warlock)
Lan Kidogo, mapach archaeologist and treasure hunter (Knowledge cleric)
Mardan Ferres, elven private investigator obsessed with that one unsolved murder (Assassin rogue)
Xhekhetiel, halfling survivor of a Betrayer Gods cult (Runechild sorcerer/fighter)
I assume that's what's happening, yeah -- Vicious Mockery will be to bards what Eldritch Blast is to warlocks
Active characters:
Carric Aquissar, elven wannabe artist in his deconstructionist period (Archfey warlock)
Lan Kidogo, mapach archaeologist and treasure hunter (Knowledge cleric)
Mardan Ferres, elven private investigator obsessed with that one unsolved murder (Assassin rogue)
Xhekhetiel, halfling survivor of a Betrayer Gods cult (Runechild sorcerer/fighter)
They’ve effing ruined Warlocks!!! They got rid of Pact Magic and just made them half-casters. The coolest part about Warlocks was that they didn’t have the same kinda spellcasting as everyone else. They said they were gonna make eldritch blast and hex into class features, which got me super excited, but they didn’t. They just added a class feature that grants those spells, and then they went the opposite direction and turned what are currently class features into spells too!!!
Crawford, dude, put the pipe down.
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I’ll take it a step further and point blank say I absolutely hate it as a design choice. I don’t care if it does “streamline” resource tracking, 5e is already over streamlined as is. I was hoping for a little grit to be added in with this UA, and instead they’re just making it even more samesame. I hate it. 0/10, do not recommend.
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They should both just be class features and not cantrips.
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I dunno, I actually rather like Warlocks being half casters. Pact Magic was always stressful for people. They either hoarded the slots and never spent them, or blew them both right away and had nothing left to spare later.
Canto alla vita
alla sua bellezza
ad ogni sua ferita
ogni sua carezza!
I sing to life and to its tragic beauty
To pain and to strife, but all that dances through me
The rise and the fall, I've lived through it all!
I think they want to go for the flavor of wizards from older editions.
Where another wizard needed to teach you some initial spells so you could become a wizard.
And wizards where a group guarding heir secret techings.
I am definitely going to be writing a strongly worded letter about what they did to Pact Magic. Look what they've done to my boy!
The simple and easy fix for this is to slightly expand available slots. You can do this without losing the flavor of having to make interesting tactical decisions.
Dear Jeremy,
Pistols at dawn. Name the place.
Your obedient servant, A dot Sirius
Active characters:
Carric Aquissar, elven wannabe artist in his deconstructionist period (Archfey warlock)
Lan Kidogo, mapach archaeologist and treasure hunter (Knowledge cleric)
Mardan Ferres, elven private investigator obsessed with that one unsolved murder (Assassin rogue)
Xhekhetiel, halfling survivor of a Betrayer Gods cult (Runechild sorcerer/fighter)
Or make short rests easier, or give them some other easy method to recharge slots like a short ritual.
SO.
Barbarian: Overall positive. I like the emphasis on Rage as being a source of primal might rather than just GRR MAD, and allowing Rage to drive a third-ish of the game's skills with SHEER MUSCLE is hilarious and will lead to some lulsy Pillar Man shenanery. Basic access to Weapon Mastery is basic access to Weapon mastery, and Indomitable Might being at a level you might actually see is also fun. A raging barbarian can almost give an Expert a run for their money as a skillmonkey through the power of MUSCLES, which is comical. Elsewise the overall barbarian chassis didn't change all that much, which is fine because the overall barbarian chassis was pretty solid. The improved Berserker is actually playable now, with Frenzy being dramatically improved in a novel way I can heartily approve of. The focus on Reckless over Exhaustion is a good thematic choice for a Berserker, and Retaliation coming online sooner is awesome. Overall? Approve.
Fighter: Overall positive-ish, though I admit my early scan of the UA leaves it a little unclear how their monkeying with Mastery properties works. At high levels it almost feels like Baby's First Maneuvers/Superiority, just attached to a specific weapon rather than general use. Action Surge got nerfed hard, but also it kinda needed it to tamp down on stupid multiclass builds. Fighters can use Surge to do all the things they generally used to do with Surge but no more double-spellcasting nonsense, which is a net positive. Second Wind is less of a pointless joke outside Tier 1 play, which is beneficial. Indomitable got weird, I wish they'd just make it so you could automatically succeed on a save as a mini Legendary Resistance thing. That would be both simpler and cooler, but bleh. The fighter chassis also didn't change much, which is less cool than it was for barbarian but also not really bad. The Champion is still absolute ******* garbage, I will never understand people's fascination with that abyssmal subclass, but eh. There will be better subs later. Overall? Ambivalent.
Sorcerer: I like where they're going with the sorcerer. Sorcerous Burst is weaker than Fire Bolt at low levels, sure, but every time you add a d6 you improve the spell's chances of dealing extra damage. At higher levels you've got a very high chance of throwing extra damage, and exploding dice just feels like a sorcerer mechanic. Untamed power you don't have full control of? Check. Chaos Bolt being an always-on spell is less sexy but it does provide a solid way to use low level spell slots in early blasty encounters. The new suite of Sorcerer class-features-as-spells abilities is an interesting way to tie their class features into their normal class economy, though I do think Sorcery Incarnate sounds cooler than it is given the lack of high-level spell attacks worth bothering with. Gonna be a lot of Scorching Ray spam on that one, methinks. I do wish Incarnate came with some form of damage resistance since you're literally turning into magic, but that's what playtest is for. Dragon sorcerer is more or less the same it's always been, just tuned up at the cost of no more permaflight and with a pseudo-breath weapon. Overall? Approve, with high hopes for future iterations.
Warlock: Now this is a hot take and I am here for it. Half-castering warlocks is a ballsy move, but honestly I'm on board. If they do it right they could provide a basis for solving the whole Lack of Arcane Gish issue, and honestly? I would rather have half casting than "I get full caster spell progression but only two whole ass spell slots to use for ninety percent of my career and if I ever use them on a low-level spell that doesn't scale I'm wasting my magic so I have to give every warlock the same ******* spell list because there's almost nothing that scales the way Pact Magic wants to scale so liking useful tech spells like Expeditious Retreat means I'm warlocking wrong so my whole game plan is nothing but cast Eldritch Blast and pray I'm never in a position where my spellcaster has to act like a spellcaster." Or, in short: **** Pact Magic. I've played multiple warlocks, and Pact Magic is never the reason I play them. The best way to play a warlock is to largely forget Pact Magic exists save as an occasional bonus, and that is just so much utter bullshit. Plus we don't need three full-flight Arcane casters and half-castering Warlock gives the class more room to do other cool shit. Increasing the emphasis on Eldritch Invocations and replacing all the janky "you can cast [X] once with a Pact slot per long rest" Invocations with Mystic Arcanum is a lovely simplification, especiallyt when Invocations are pretty much the entire reason to play the warlock class to start with. The choice of casting modifier per Pact is delightful and opens up SO MANY cool new Warlock stories that just weren't a thing before when every single warlock had to be a smooth-talking hypercharismatic horny boi. There's honestly not many changes here I'm not 100% down for, I like this new warlock. Fiend pact is still boring, but it does what Fiend pact always did for people who liked Fiend pact, and the Pact Spells being granted rather than choosable is a huge plus. Overall: strong approve, I am a firm fan of this direction for the warlock.
Wizard: Another class with relatively light changes, mostly just consolidating rules in better places. The big changes are Modify Spell, which is generally much stronger than Metamagic but more narrow in its deployment, and the ability to permanently modify certain spells for extensive cost later on with Create Spell. Want a Fireball that doesn't burn your allies so they stop accusing you of war crimes? Now's your chance. It's a fun little interaction. And frankly it's about god damned time wizards got something like Academic. The game's foremost brains should be allowed to do Brain Things better than the ******* bard. Evoker subclass is still a little anemic, especially when Modify Spell exists, but ehh. Once you get Overcharge you have a subclass, I suppose. Overall: Approve, but not super strongly. It's mostly the same wizard with a few new bells and slightly earlier access to its good stuff, so huzzah I guess.
Glossary/Everything Else: It's a big fuggin' document. I'll read everything else when I can. Cut me some slack. q_q
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If at least some of the ranger spells do not become ranger only it will really show the inconsistent treatment of ranger. at the same time the value of magical secrets redesign gets less. I am fine with bard being the only class to steal other classes spells(and arcane trickster the subclass).