Underdark UA

Didn't see a thread on this, a new Unearthed Arcana dropped today: Underdark Options. Includes a new Barbarian, Rogue, Wizard, and a new villainous feat path (Mindflayer.)

This one.... Feels like a bit more of a miss to me, or at least undercooked. The wizard is fine I guess, if uninspired, but the rest could use more time in the oven.

Some interesting theming, but yeah i think it needs a little more time in the oven. Weirdly the Imaskarcanist almost feels like it started as a Theurge type wizard that was reflavored to be creepy. Like someone was remaking Invoker from 4E but put it somewhere else.  

i 100% agree the Barb subclass is the biggest let down iv ever seen from them when it comes to martials 

the 3rd level feature isnt enough to stand on its own and honestly shouldnt be buffed more it needs an actually feature and just let that be the ribbon feature its trying to be 

6th level great now you have half the skill expert feat and the blind sight fighting style... and thats it? its all good i bet 10th level is better right? 

10th level... this just makes me sad... you get a feature that does tickle damage but thank god the enemy gets a save to end it dont want that 1d6 doing anything and also thank god its just on every hit so the DM will prob just give up rolling the save just bc its a waste of time and wasting game time. 
BUT! dont worry you get Resistance to radiant damage... once your game is over or close to being over and for the 10 to 20% of tables that go to 20th your game is half way over. 

14th level you get an AOE feature that does 1d12 damage as a bonus action once per long rest unless you give up a rage and you can only do it while you rage and the bad effect thats with the save? blinded for 1 round max. 
congrats barbs youve become an uncommon item (gem of brightness) 

now for the positives 
the saves use your Strength and thats it.
im a little lost as to what the theme of this barb is suppose to be the flavor text says you are basically a beacon and burn your enemies but unless your enemies are commoners the only thing you are doing with damage like this is maybe a sunburn? and whats up with your capstone your big ending thing being what amounts to a ever ever so slightly better gem of brightness.  WOTC what are we doing? how many times do we have to teach you this lesson?! we dont want a resistance to our theme mid way or when the game is over 

if i had to offer some suggestions then id offer this. 
take 3rd and buff its damage to double the rage damage or make the AOE bigger and have all enemies in the light that hit you take the damage (so it includes ranged attacks) and have it remove the invisible condition from anyone in the AOE. basically so it acts like a faerie fire 

take 10th level and also give it at 3rd level. 

6th level? eh needs more 6th level is usually the strong buff for barbs with 10th level being the dead level up so now it can see good and ... not see good when its bright? tf are we doing here that last part wouldnt matter from the suggested 3rd level change 

idk man im at a loss for this one it legit feels like they looked at the faerie fire spell and said make it a subclass for barb? 

The Barbarian feels pretty on-par with Battlerager.

On the path of unlight, the big problem is that the level 3 feature is... underwhelming. The level 6 feature is quite good (blindsight, expertise in perception, and can base perception on strength because of primal knowledge), the level 10 and 14 features fairly average.

On the house agent, the Charming Presence feature is weak (how often do you use the influence action in a situation where being able to do it as a bonus action matters?) and the backstab feature is nearly useless (you have no easy way to apply charmed, and creatures are rarely friendly once combat has already started). They could fix both of them by making charming presence have a means of applying the charmed condition.

The wizard seems fine, and has the interesting feature of actually being able to cast a glyph of warding with their max level spell slot.

 The Path of Unlight (that is a terrible name, by the way) reminds me of the Path of the Zealot 5.0, except useless.

Quote from Pantagruel666 >>

On the path of unlight, the big problem is that the level 3 feature is... underwhelming. On the house agent, the Charming Presence feature is weak (how often do you use the influence action in a situation where being able to do it as a bonus action matters?) 

 My groups have tried to talk their way out of tight situations in combat (wich I usually treat as an influence action) and have been successful with that approach. Doing it as a bonus action means you can do it twice on your turn, as an action and a bonus action or do something else (dash or dodge).

I don't quite see the Path of Unlight's 3rd level Radiant Rage feature as being as bad as people are saying, at least as far as the damage goes. The damage starts low, but it does technically scale more than it seems because at higher levels not only is your Rage Damage higher but enemies are likely to get more attacks. The damage could end up accumulating to a reasonable amount for something that doesn't cost any action economy.

The main thing that lowers its score for me isn't the amount of damage but that it requires you to be hit. If you're "lucky" enough to not get hit - or you are facing ranged attackers - then it does nothing. I guess Barbarians do tend to get into enemies faces and tend to have a low AC...still, I would prefer it if the damage was "on a hit or miss" (or half damage on a miss).

I like what you do get at level 6: Expertise in Perception is great and Blindsight is situationally great. But passive/situational features do feel a bit of a let down. I agree with what others have said that this should be the 'ribbon' and you should get something else as well.

Level 10. Resistance to Radiant damage. Great if you're fighting Celestials, otherwise...um...maybe this is intended to come out in a book that includes a hundred Radiant-damage-dealing creatures? Otherwise, yeah. Bit useless on its own. The Infectious Unlight needs bumping. Its technically unlimited to use (with your Brutal Strike) and lasts a minute, but most creatures are going to make a Con save so this is probably not going to do more than 1d6 damage.

Level 14 Brilliant Rage. Blinded is a debilitating condition to give but only 1d12 damage and Con to save against a 1/day feature (unless you have rages to burn). Its a bit of a heavy trade off for a capstone feature.

Finally..."unlight"? Has someone been listening to Midst? :)

Quote from ELPIPINO >>

Quote from Pantagruel666 >>

On the path of unlight, the big problem is that the level 3 feature is... underwhelming. On the house agent, the Charming Presence feature is weak (how often do you use the influence action in a situation where being able to do it as a bonus action matters?) 

 My groups have tried to talk their way out of tight situations in combat (wich I usually treat as an influence action) and have been successful with that approach. Doing it as a bonus action means you can do it twice on your turn, as an action and a bonus action or do something else (dash or dodge).

I think it is important to note that "underwealming" does not mean it will never come up.  Just that its use cases are going to be extremely situational meaning you have a class feature that often feels like dead air. 

My big problem with the rogue subclass is that it is socially toxic.  It has a mechanical benefit to the rogue preempting the party decision to start combat as they get bonuses for attacking currently-friendly creatures... and it has a mechanical benefit to the rogue attempting to preempt the party's decisions to end combat by encouraging them to use their special subclass ability to speak during combat or risk it becoming irrelevant.  Both abilities provided mechanical advantages to main character syndrome, which is not exactly great subclass design.  

A secondary problem I have with it is the lack of save on its stun ability.  While I recognize it takes some setup, since you have to charm them once in combat, this still leads to some bad play patterns.  Stuns are one of those things that are must-saves for monsters... the low level charm effects the subclass receives are not.  This puts the DM in a bit of a position where they have to metaknowledge legendary resistance against something they normally might not burn a LR on, as they risk being stunned for free the next turn.  Adding a save on the stun would fix a lot of this problem, while its usage prerequisites would keep it from becoming Monk 2.0.

All told, this subclass seems a bit half baked and reminds me of some of the third-party subclasses designed by the folks Wizards recently hired - things that have balance issues in both directions and do not think about the table dynamics as a whole.

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On a different note, I think the Wizard seems pretty cool.  Its use of hit dice as a resource feels very reminiscent of James Haeck's work designing Critical Role's content, so I would not be surprised if he had a heavy hand in creating this subclass now that he works for Wizards.  Interested to see how this one develops with more playtesting.  

 Wonder why they are going with Unlight instead of Faerzress. The energy that suffuses the underdark. 

Quote from GnollitAll78450 >>

 Wonder why they are going with Unlight instead of Faerzress. The energy that suffuses the underdark. 

Unlight's easier to spell.

If I am sincere I am more interested into PC species. The return of the deep imaskari as PC specie is wellcome but the traits should be not only practical and power balanced but also interesting and fresh. A free 1st spell slot and a bonus to hide in the underground. A background could offer the same.

What if ismakari had got any trait about biopunk grafts or symbionts? What about the gloamings and the slyths, will they be nerferd? 

 Can we say grimlocks have got ecolocalitation? 

Quote from GnollitAll78450 >>

 Wonder why they are going with Unlight instead of Faerzress. The energy that suffuses the underdark. 

 
To point that this subclass aren't a "FR thing", but a "all D&D" thing.