A new UA has just dropped over on wizards (Unearthed Arcana 2020, Subclasses Part 5). It contains the Way of the Ascendant Dragon monk and, more importantly, the Drakewarden ranger. It looks pretty cool to me and I fancy playing it at some point. Just wondering what other folks thoughts on it are?
It looks like a step towards a beast master 2.0 without announcing it that way, blending the primal beast options from the UA CFV, upcoming TCoE, and the steel defender. It's a whole different subclass that has a companion but just one type of companion. Could the beast master just get a second errata (for clarification and added bonus action command) and the "beast" restriction be expanded to include aberrations, celestials, constructs, dragons, elementals, fey, fiends, monstrosities, oozes, plants, and undead (I do this anyway. If a favored enemy choice of "fey" is chosen, you can add that to the "beast" as a creature type allowed for your companion.)? Or would that admit too much fault? LOL!
I like the idea of different types of creatures being open to the ranger, but (unlike my interpretation of the beast master abilities) this whole subclass really does just feel like the find steed spell from the paladin's spell list added as a subclass.
Companion Action Economy - WotC has definitely learned their lesson in how to have the player use companions. It allows a near identical (haven't check if it is 1 to 1), as to the artificer's battle smith companion, which from my experience is overall superior than the beast master's, unless you're playing a drizzt clone/look alike and want to dual wield.
Summoned Companion - Instead of running to the issue with beast master's "oh my companion died when can I get a new one" or the DM makes you gain an animal companion. The feature just straight up allows you to summon the companion for a time, as compared to the beast companion which you always have.
Not all features focus on the companion - one thing that always bothered me about the beast master is all the features are about empowering the companion and never the ranger. I understand that with a companion based subclass the companion needs to get attention since it would be the main feature, but if the ranger doesn't get buffs then your only strength increases are tied to your class.
Con
No spells known list - I understand that the beast master didn't get one either but neither did the hunter and since the release of the xanathar ranger subclass it felt to me that WotC was leaning towards making this a part of their "new design philosophy" towards ranger subclasses. including keeping this in other ranger UA subclasses (Swarmkeeper/Fey Wanderer). I understand that with the inclusion of the pet you gain a ton of utility but that shouldn't remove part of their overall design.
Beast Master 2.0 - I do love the idea of playing this, and how it's different from the beast master, but I just can't shake the feeling of this is just a beastmaster 2.0 if WotC doesn't do a good job in updating the beastmaster. (Thus why even though I know WotC is making changes, I decided to make my own beastmaster.)
Companion Growth Spurt - I'm not sure if it's just me, but I find it a bit weird that the companion jumps from being small to large. Why not add a time, my suggestion being 7th level, where the companion is a medium size?
I know there's probably more than just this, but these are my initial thoughts about this at the moment.
I feel like a fair number of RP-heavy players are going to want their drake with them all the time, not just for a limited number of hours. Otherwise whenever you're not in battle, you've got nothing going on. If you're not combat heavy, or if you're in a campaign with someone else who has find familiar, you've got pretty much nothing to contribute.
There's already a thread discussing this UA, and I gave my full, detailed, in-depth thoughts on it here, but I will also comment in this thread.
This ranger is cool, I love the flavor, and absolutely want more draconic player options in 5e. I have my fingers crossed for a Draconomicon book next year, and want more subclasses like these (I've already created a Dragon Rider Fighter and Dracon Patron Warlock, and was going to make a few more). I love dragons, and this game that is named after Dungeons & Dragons should have more content for playing as and with dragons. I love the theme of this subclass, and the name is freaking awesome. However much I love the name and theme of this subclass, the mechanics don't live up to the hype of a Drakewarden.
First, the first part of its name, "drake." The name is cool, I really like it, and it is a perfect name, but it unfortunately does not fit this subclass. Drakes are cool. Drakes in 5e are basically medium-sized, wingless, unaligned, unintelligent, nonspeaking, and more bestial and magical "dragons" than true dragons. However, this drake does not fill this "standard" or "5e definition" at all. It is small, until it strangely becomes large at level 15. It doesn't have wings, like other 5e drakes, until it very suddenly does/can at level 7. It has no alignment, but is not listed as unaligned strangely. It's even more strange that it is decently intelligent, but has no alignment, while [Tooltip Not Found]s are less intelligent than this drake companion, but it has an alignment (neutral). They also can speak, only Draconic, though, as well as it being more of a draconic drake than a bestial drake, unlike the other drakes in 5e.
Second, the second part of its name, "warden." Wardens are meant to watch over something, which this subclass does no more than other ranger subclasses. There's also wardens from previous editions, which this subclass is nowhere closer to than other druid subclasses.
Third, its features. Most of the features focus on the Drake Companion, which is fine, but I would like the subclass to have more that focuses on the Drakewarden. Thaumaturgy doesn't really fit this ranger that well, it being small is very weird and seems like a purposeful attempt to stop small creatures from mounting it for some strange reason. The damage for the bite attack doesn't add the drake's Strength modifier to it for some reason. The choice of flight or swimming (everyone will choose flight), which doesn't make sense for a drake. Drake's Breath isn't bad, but it doesn't really fit drake's that well, and is basically a worse fireball at later levels.
I like the theme of this subclass, but don't like the features.
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I absolutely love this subclass, but there's a few issues with it. First, there's the mounting situation. At 15th level, when the drake increases to large size, it is pretty obvious that this is mainly for the purposes of using it as a mount. After all, they're not making it go from being too small to be ridden by any official race to being large enough to be ridden by any official race just for it to be used as half cover from attacks. However, by RAW, unless I'm mistaken, an exotic saddle is needed to ride any aquatic or flying mount, and even if you got an exotic saddle for your drake, it would just leave it behind when the duration expires. Of course, this issue is tiny, and most players will ignore it, but it would be nice if one of the features specified that it could be ridden without a saddle. Also, it is an intelligent creature, at least as intelligent as a white dragon, and yet it has no alignment. And yes, this issue is also tiny, but it would be nice to know if the drake would be neutral by default, or if it shared your alignment. Something I really like about this class, but at the same time kind of dislike, is that it leaves a lot of blank information. The fact that it doesn't specify where your drake goes when it's not by your side, or what its species normally does or behaves like when in the wild, or why it can change its anatomy and elements so easily is kind of annoying since it leaves me wondering what the heck my drake really is and where it came from, its also great because that also means that it can be anything with just a bit of flavoring. The drake could be a piece of your soul that you summon from within you by breathing elemental energy that takes a draconic shape and solidifies, or it could be a creature from the plane of dreams or the astral plane that changes its elemental nature every time it is summoned. And for those who want to always be with their drake for RP reasons, you could say that it is always with you in a tiny sized baby form, and it grows in a burst of elemental energy when you need it. Overall, this sublclass is a really cool concept. I mean, just imagine how powerful you would feel using thaumaturgy to increase the volume of your voice and cause tremors while yelling your drake's name to the sky and summoning it with a lightning bolt that strikes right behind you and takes the shape of a mighty winged drake.
so I'm started a new one shot (technically 3 parts) to see if we like the new Odyssey book and one of my players is actually using this play test for me and I went ahead and made this rule my self it totally worked this way in the first "Episode" we did the only problem that we thought of was when the dragon goes from small to large but since Beast masters have theirs all the time it shouldn't be to bad you just have to set ground rules for it first
I'm not sure if its allowed (I can take it down if DDB doesn't like it) but I made this for anyone that uses DDB it's probably not the greatest but at least my player can use it now. I also made a small dragon and large dragon companion for the time being as well all 3 will be deleted when they add this to play test (hope theirs is way better than mine)
Any time an unfathomably powerful entity sweeps in and offers godlike rewards in return for just a few teensy favors, it’s a scam. Unless it’s me. I’d never lie to you, reader dearest.
I mean, yes, but only when compared to the Beast Master in the PHB. Not compared to UA Beast Master, Battlesmith, Circle of Wildfyre Druid, or any other animal companion. It's not even really OP when compared to the Xanathar's Guide to Everything ranger subclasses. Its also kind of bad in some ways when compared to the Xanathar subclasses, as it doesn't get an additional spell list., which it should, IMO.
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beast master isn't underpowered, it's just filled with trap options that suck in new players and leave them wanting. Played correctly (read good pet selection), beastmasters put out just as much damage as other rangers. Many new players gravitate towards beastmasters, then pick trap options, play the character poorly and wonder why they suck.
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Any time an unfathomably powerful entity sweeps in and offers godlike rewards in return for just a few teensy favors, it’s a scam. Unless it’s me. I’d never lie to you, reader dearest.
I did not say the beast master is underpowered, though I do think it is, but that's a different conversation. This compared to the current official beast master is more powerful than it, but that doesn't make this OP.
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well that didn't take long (not surprised) they took down my UA copy which is fine I only made it so that my player would have an easier time playing but it got me thinking if they rejected it from being published does this mean that it will drop onto dnd soon? cause I thought we wouldn't see it in UA until like march 2021 does anyone know how fast these things normally get dropped to the public and then added to here as UA playtest
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A new UA has just dropped over on wizards (Unearthed Arcana 2020, Subclasses Part 5). It contains the Way of the Ascendant Dragon monk and, more importantly, the Drakewarden ranger. It looks pretty cool to me and I fancy playing it at some point. Just wondering what other folks thoughts on it are?
I'm not sure how I feel about this.
It looks like a step towards a beast master 2.0 without announcing it that way, blending the primal beast options from the UA CFV, upcoming TCoE, and the steel defender. It's a whole different subclass that has a companion but just one type of companion. Could the beast master just get a second errata (for clarification and added bonus action command) and the "beast" restriction be expanded to include aberrations, celestials, constructs, dragons, elementals, fey, fiends, monstrosities, oozes, plants, and undead (I do this anyway. If a favored enemy choice of "fey" is chosen, you can add that to the "beast" as a creature type allowed for your companion.)? Or would that admit too much fault? LOL!
I like the idea of different types of creatures being open to the ranger, but (unlike my interpretation of the beast master abilities) this whole subclass really does just feel like the find steed spell from the paladin's spell list added as a subclass.
This is how I see it:
I know there's probably more than just this, but these are my initial thoughts about this at the moment.
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I feel like a fair number of RP-heavy players are going to want their drake with them all the time, not just for a limited number of hours. Otherwise whenever you're not in battle, you've got nothing going on. If you're not combat heavy, or if you're in a campaign with someone else who has find familiar, you've got pretty much nothing to contribute.
Birgit | Shifter | Sorcerer | Dragonlords
Shayone | Hobgoblin | Sorcerer | Netherdeep
There's already a thread discussing this UA, and I gave my full, detailed, in-depth thoughts on it here, but I will also comment in this thread.
This ranger is cool, I love the flavor, and absolutely want more draconic player options in 5e. I have my fingers crossed for a Draconomicon book next year, and want more subclasses like these (I've already created a Dragon Rider Fighter and Dracon Patron Warlock, and was going to make a few more). I love dragons, and this game that is named after Dungeons & Dragons should have more content for playing as and with dragons. I love the theme of this subclass, and the name is freaking awesome. However much I love the name and theme of this subclass, the mechanics don't live up to the hype of a Drakewarden.
First, the first part of its name, "drake." The name is cool, I really like it, and it is a perfect name, but it unfortunately does not fit this subclass. Drakes are cool. Drakes in 5e are basically medium-sized, wingless, unaligned, unintelligent, nonspeaking, and more bestial and magical "dragons" than true dragons. However, this drake does not fill this "standard" or "5e definition" at all. It is small, until it strangely becomes large at level 15. It doesn't have wings, like other 5e drakes, until it very suddenly does/can at level 7. It has no alignment, but is not listed as unaligned strangely. It's even more strange that it is decently intelligent, but has no alignment, while [Tooltip Not Found]s are less intelligent than this drake companion, but it has an alignment (neutral). They also can speak, only Draconic, though, as well as it being more of a draconic drake than a bestial drake, unlike the other drakes in 5e.
Second, the second part of its name, "warden." Wardens are meant to watch over something, which this subclass does no more than other ranger subclasses. There's also wardens from previous editions, which this subclass is nowhere closer to than other druid subclasses.
Third, its features. Most of the features focus on the Drake Companion, which is fine, but I would like the subclass to have more that focuses on the Drakewarden. Thaumaturgy doesn't really fit this ranger that well, it being small is very weird and seems like a purposeful attempt to stop small creatures from mounting it for some strange reason. The damage for the bite attack doesn't add the drake's Strength modifier to it for some reason. The choice of flight or swimming (everyone will choose flight), which doesn't make sense for a drake. Drake's Breath isn't bad, but it doesn't really fit drake's that well, and is basically a worse fireball at later levels.
I like the theme of this subclass, but don't like the features.
Please check out my homebrew, I would appreciate feedback:
Spells, Monsters, Subclasses, Races, Arcknight Class, Occultist Class, World, Enigmatic Esoterica forms
I absolutely love this subclass, but there's a few issues with it. First, there's the mounting situation. At 15th level, when the drake increases to large size, it is pretty obvious that this is mainly for the purposes of using it as a mount. After all, they're not making it go from being too small to be ridden by any official race to being large enough to be ridden by any official race just for it to be used as half cover from attacks. However, by RAW, unless I'm mistaken, an exotic saddle is needed to ride any aquatic or flying mount, and even if you got an exotic saddle for your drake, it would just leave it behind when the duration expires. Of course, this issue is tiny, and most players will ignore it, but it would be nice if one of the features specified that it could be ridden without a saddle. Also, it is an intelligent creature, at least as intelligent as a white dragon, and yet it has no alignment. And yes, this issue is also tiny, but it would be nice to know if the drake would be neutral by default, or if it shared your alignment. Something I really like about this class, but at the same time kind of dislike, is that it leaves a lot of blank information. The fact that it doesn't specify where your drake goes when it's not by your side, or what its species normally does or behaves like when in the wild, or why it can change its anatomy and elements so easily is kind of annoying since it leaves me wondering what the heck my drake really is and where it came from, its also great because that also means that it can be anything with just a bit of flavoring. The drake could be a piece of your soul that you summon from within you by breathing elemental energy that takes a draconic shape and solidifies, or it could be a creature from the plane of dreams or the astral plane that changes its elemental nature every time it is summoned. And for those who want to always be with their drake for RP reasons, you could say that it is always with you in a tiny sized baby form, and it grows in a burst of elemental energy when you need it. Overall, this sublclass is a really cool concept. I mean, just imagine how powerful you would feel using thaumaturgy to increase the volume of your voice and cause tremors while yelling your drake's name to the sky and summoning it with a lightning bolt that strikes right behind you and takes the shape of a mighty winged drake.
so I'm started a new one shot (technically 3 parts) to see if we like the new Odyssey book and one of my players is actually using this play test for me and I went ahead and made this rule my self it totally worked this way in the first "Episode" we did the only problem that we thought of was when the dragon goes from small to large but since Beast masters have theirs all the time it shouldn't be to bad you just have to set ground rules for it first
I'm not sure if its allowed (I can take it down if DDB doesn't like it) but I made this for anyone that uses DDB it's probably not the greatest but at least my player can use it now. I also made a small dragon and large dragon companion for the time being as well all 3 will be deleted when they add this to play test (hope theirs is way better than mine)
@Isly can you share that? I want to try the drakewarden in a campaign I'm about to start.
I have also made one and its pretty much complete.
my thoughts are...overflippingpowered.
Any time an unfathomably powerful entity sweeps in and offers godlike rewards in return for just a few teensy favors, it’s a scam. Unless it’s me. I’d never lie to you, reader dearest.
Tasha
I mean, yes, but only when compared to the Beast Master in the PHB. Not compared to UA Beast Master, Battlesmith, Circle of Wildfyre Druid, or any other animal companion. It's not even really OP when compared to the Xanathar's Guide to Everything ranger subclasses. Its also kind of bad in some ways when compared to the Xanathar subclasses, as it doesn't get an additional spell list., which it should, IMO.
Please check out my homebrew, I would appreciate feedback:
Spells, Monsters, Subclasses, Races, Arcknight Class, Occultist Class, World, Enigmatic Esoterica forms
beast master isn't underpowered, it's just filled with trap options that suck in new players and leave them wanting. Played correctly (read good pet selection), beastmasters put out just as much damage as other rangers. Many new players gravitate towards beastmasters, then pick trap options, play the character poorly and wonder why they suck.
Any time an unfathomably powerful entity sweeps in and offers godlike rewards in return for just a few teensy favors, it’s a scam. Unless it’s me. I’d never lie to you, reader dearest.
Tasha
I did not say the beast master is underpowered, though I do think it is, but that's a different conversation. This compared to the current official beast master is more powerful than it, but that doesn't make this OP.
Please check out my homebrew, I would appreciate feedback:
Spells, Monsters, Subclasses, Races, Arcknight Class, Occultist Class, World, Enigmatic Esoterica forms
@barraponto https://www.dndbeyond.com/subclasses/641326-drakewarden this is the sub class and you might want these for the dragons stat block
https://www.dndbeyond.com/monsters/1210741-drake-companion-large
https://www.dndbeyond.com/monsters/1210678-drake-companion-small
well that didn't take long (not surprised) they took down my UA copy which is fine I only made it so that my player would have an easier time playing but it got me thinking if they rejected it from being published does this mean that it will drop onto dnd soon? cause I thought we wouldn't see it in UA until like march 2021 does anyone know how fast these things normally get dropped to the public and then added to here as UA playtest