Quote from Tony1Adobe >>

First off...I am genuinely excited that these Unearthed Arcana haven't stopped, after this hiatus from last year. I love the anticipation of waiting for these new subclasses!

 

Paladin "Oath of the Watcher":

I love extra-planar characters (similar to the ranger's Horizon Walker), so having a paladin who specializes in neutralizing extra-planar threats is perfect. It also stands apart from the other Oaths by not necessarily being committed to an ideal, but a purpose.

Nice defensive features and support spells, good longevity throughout all levels of play.

 

 

 First off since I'm late to the party I agree with the initial assessment, keep em coming. 

Secondly overall the options are a mixed bag for me.

The barbarian is a dream come true for people liking lycanthropes which is a good thing since how common of a fantasy setting trope they are. Some funky mechanics though but that can be ironed out in final release.

The monk's flavor is palpable to me. Yes the aura is bit confusing but I can envision a character instantly so that's a pass in my books. 

The paladin is the reason for the above quote. I find the quote best describes the issues with the new paladin subclass. Purpose is ranger territory another encroachment to a class that has been thoroughly stepped on. It's even called the oath of the Watcher. Paladins should have a limitation in that their oaths are unquestionable, dogmatic and partly esoteric, it is the only thing limiting an extremely powerful class. Speaking of power the spell list once again seems to be designed to facilitate the most mechanical power to the paladin, I honestly have trouble capturing the theme. For instance wouldn't Magic circle and Glyph of warding make much more sense than Counterspell and Nondetection. Speaking of power one has to mention the insane amounts of free banishments the capstone offers as ridiculous, which I feel would be called too powerful if it wasn't the paladin dishing them out. I feel the need to add that I very much enjoy powerful characters both as a player and as a DM, but it seems to me that there is a blindspot here that should be addressed.

The genie patron seems like an amazing dynamic and it is actually the first one to inspire me to roll up a warlock, I personally think the only thing that needs work is the spell list that could be more elemental-y. Otherwise it looks fun.

I think the barbarian should have another natural weapon option "Gore/Horns". This would probably do 1d10, and increased damage if you charge, possibly 1d6 extra if you move 20 feet before the attack.

Quote from LeviRocks >>

I think the barbarian should have another natural weapon option "Gore/Horns". This would probably do 1d10, and increased damage if you charge, possibly 1d6 extra if you move 20 feet before the attack.

I was just thinking about how they really missed out by not allowing a stag-antlered barbarian to be a thing without flavoring the existing options.

Or hooves, if you shift into a satyr.

Ideally I'd like it to have 4 options similarly to Totem. Fang, Claw, Horn, and for the 4th one, I'd actually elect for a Tail weapon. Of course it could have reach, but perhaps it could also allow the player to do a sweeping attack that lets it hit more than one enemy with one attack or something? 

but the options in the UA are already fang, claw and tail, and totem only had three options, or five if you use the sword coast adventurers guide, what?

Quote from ArtificeMeal >>

but the options in the UA are already fang, claw and tail, and totem only had three options, or five if you use the sword coast adventurers guide, what?

Holy shit, I forgot Elk was a part of the Totem barbarian's options. 

Other than that, I was saying that they should add horns to the other three options, but after re-reading it I kinda forgot to mention "make the tail weapon cooler" thing, but after re-reading it, it's pretty good already, so I take that back. 

how could you forget elk, its like the coolest one, you go so so fast! also the best part about tail is it is an d12 weapon that leaves both of your hands free for other things, so shield barbarian

Holds two Shields and still attacks

Can’t benefit from more than 1 shield at a time though.

Yeah. I just remember a thread where someone was asking about how to use 2 shields and using them as improvised weapons. This bypasses that need. 

Quote from VikingEric >>

Yeah. I just remember a thread where someone was asking about how to use 2 shields and using them as improvised weapons. This bypasses that need. 

 I helped them right the feat they used for it. But RAW, a character can only benefit from 1 shield at a time. Even the homebrewed feat they wrote didn’t change that.

Quote from ArtificeMeal >>

how could you forget elk, its like the coolest one, you go so so fast! also the best part about tail is it is an d12 weapon that leaves both of your hands free for other things, so shield barbarian

Eh, I like the idea of a speedy barbarian, but the coolest one in my opinion is definitely eagle. Incredible vision and flight. 

In RAW, the only creature that can benefit from 2 shields is the Fire Giant Dreadnaught, but I wish there were more than one type of shield, and that you could benefit from 2 at once.

I think there should be 5 options for the Beast Barbarian, Tail, Bite, Claws, Hooves, and Horns/Antlers.

Hooves would do 1d6 bludgeoning damage, but be able to push the target back 10 feet.

Horns/Antlers would do 1d10 piercing damage, +1d6 additional damage if you moved at least 20 feet towards the target.

Any thoughts?

hooves seem weird. Horns might be okay but that would be the one to push the target back if any. 

Quote from LeviRocks >>

In RAW, the only creature that can benefit from 2 shields is the Fire Giant Dreadnaught, but I wish there were more than one type of shield, and that you could benefit from 2 at once.

I think there should be 5 options for the Beast Barbarian, Tail, Bite, Claws, Hooves, and Horns/Antlers.

Hooves would do 1d6 bludgeoning damage, but be able to push the target back 10 feet.

Horns/Antlers would do 1d10 piercing damage, +1d6 additional damage if you moved at least 20 feet towards the target.

Any thoughts?

How you flavor the Hoof attack probably depends on which animal you're trying to emulate. Horses get a straight-up hoof attack, but Elk can only use their hoof attack on prone creatures (with great damage for the inconvenience.)

A raging barbarian with a nasty stomp attack would be pretty fun, but you'd have to have a reliable way of getting the target prone.

Quote from LeviRocks >>

In RAW, the only creature that can benefit from 2 shields is the Fire Giant Dreadnaught, but I wish there were more than one type of shield, and that you could benefit from 2 at once.

I think there should be 5 options for the Beast Barbarian, Tail, Bite, Claws, Hooves, and Horns/Antlers.

Hooves would do 1d6 bludgeoning damage, but be able to push the target back 10 feet.

Horns/Antlers would do 1d10 piercing damage, +1d6 additional damage if you moved at least 20 feet towards the target.

Any thoughts?

 1d6 seems a little weak, especially compared to the raw damage potential of the claw (you can make two attacks and then once you get extra attack two claw attacks and one attack with an one handed weapon) as well as the shield synnegies of the tail and the incredible healing abillity of the bite. I'd say maybe increase the damage of hooves to 1d8, or maybe it inflicts prone as well as its push effect. Antlers seem a little stonk, considering feat synnergy potential and the mad high speed of barbarian you might get an charge attack every round and since it is on your head you could make one charge attack on your turn with your 40ft movement and then make one greataxe attack for d12 damage at 5th level and oh boy is that massive, if you find two people 20 ft apart oh boy can you just charge back and forth between them oh boy oh boy

also i really like the new beast barbarian becuase it gives you more variation in your attack rutine, one one handed attack and two claw attacks, one bite and one axe swing, its not much but it is so much better than just using the same weapon and using the same boring weapon swing, like i am shure it gets old but until then oh boy

How does the Barbarian’s claws/bite/tail interact with the new Fist Fighting fighting style?

Don't really think they do interact.  Even if the DM rules that the barbarian is 'unarmed' while fighting with its Beast weapon (which is hotly debateable), the fighting style damage die would be overriden by the Beast weapon.  You could get the extra d4 every round for grappling since that doesn't actually require you to be unarmed, only to hit it with a 'melee attack' (which, theoretically, also means things like Shocking Grasp), but either you're using the Unarmed Style damage die or the Beast Weapon damage die.  In virtually all cases, the Beast Weapon will be better.

The only thing that made me sad was when searching up ways to poison and incapacitate enemies, there were so very few to go with the Way of Mercy Monk. I really wanted to play into that space as I think it's super underutilized in DnD, but reliably triggering it seems really hard.