Designer Insights from Unearthed Arcana: Mystic Subclasses

Spellguard paladin add his charisma to another creature's ac forever " For the duration, while the bonded creature is within your reach and is hit by an attack roll, you can take a Reaction to add your Charisma modifier (minimum of +1) to that creature’s AC, possibly causing the attack to miss." I didn't see anything about disappearence of this boon. You should fix the wording

I like the Monk and the Paladin. The other ones feel weird. I will make sure to fill out the survey!

Quote from Nermon >>

Quote from Neverfate >>

Move over Scion of the Three, somehow we have a new "worst D&D 2024 rogue subclass." In record time too. My favorite part is outside of the trigger and immediacy, the Magic Stealer rogue's first feature is legit just a remix of the Scion of the Three's first feature. Use reaction to get Sneak Attack bonus a number of times per day equal to Int. It's the same thing. Are you that strapped for ideas? Not to mention that half of 2024 rogues are Int based now. Can we get a Wisdom or Charisma secondary subclass? 

The rest of the class isn't looking so hot either. Another dodgy feature that involves removing spells from an ally, but a lot of the new MM enemies don't use spells nearly as much as 2014. More useless Cunning Strikes in place of actual class features and then there's never been a reason to play a rogue past 10 in this edition so yeah. That's that. 

 It triggers off of your allies casting spells first of all not just enemies, and second of all the amount of times I've seen a ranger or warlock waste hex and Hunter's Mark because the enemy went down faster than we thought and there was no combat for another hour is incredibly high this lets you give them that spell slot back.

The trigger for its level 3 feature was never in question and I only noted it because it was the only part that varied from the Scion of the Three feature to which I was comparing it to. SotT also has a teleport (into melee no less) which was another incidental difference, but mechanically the intention is very similar. I didn't even mention that the Magic Stealer feature doesn't scale as well as the SotT feature either. It requires the casting of higher level spell slots to scale, whereas the SotT feature just naturally progresses as your rogue gains level. Without the right party or monsters in the adventure, this subclass starts to fail, which in my opinion is poor design. This is repetitive design for what is for now the only other post PHB rogue subclass that might possibly exist for the next year. Another Int based rogue subclass that doesn't actually use it for anything other than a token counter. 

As for replacing a spell slots you've given some of the worst examples (since it will never work on a Warlock past tier 1 play as the Warlock will have level 3 slots only). The primary intention I would imagine for this feature is to replace low level utility spells for the wizard or cleric. Ex: The Wizard casts the Jump spell, uses it to scale jump to the top of the wall, drop a rope for the Rogue to climb and then the Rogue replaces that spell slot that as Jump last for 1 minute and the party only needed one use. OR if the Cleric used Borrowed Knowledge for a task that won't take more than an hour. That's all fine and dandy, but not impressive since the last thing 2024 rogue needs it to be a footnote to the strongest classes in the game. The rogue already struggles in 2024E to stand out in any way that's not "never fails Stealth checks", so why would I ever want a subclass that just makes the strongest class look better than me? It's so dependent on everyone but the rogue. It's unimpressive. 

But hey infinite Nondetection is cool I guess. Not worth leveling this class, but still cool.

Why isn't Unearthed Arcade playtest classes made temporarily available in D&D character creation functionally? This would really benefit the playtesting, none of my players uses paper sheets anymore 

I love the vestige warlock. Super fun and flavorful.

The Warrior of the Mystic arts Monk subclass level 17 feature is straight up, useless. They only have two attacks so there’s no point in that entire feature. Also I would like to suggest changing the oath of the spell guard paladins channel divinity to just giving a flat to +2 AC to the bonded target and not using reaction. The reason why is because this subclass already uses a lot of reaction heavy stuff so it’s really gonna make the choice to do the divinity thing very unlikely. 

Shouldn't the level 17 Mystic Monk feature read "replace each of the attacks" for clarity? Makes it seem like I'm just replacing the attack action with a magic action which is silly. 

I love all of these subclasses, and I think with just a couple small tweaks the Warrior of the Mystic Arts can be VERY potent. 

The one complaint I have is that the Unearthed Arcana is not put on D&D Beyond to use while it's available.  As someone who does use D&D Beyond extensively, I would like to be able to have access to these while they are in play test mode.  I could then provide more useful feedback to D&D Devs and I love helping the community to improve and bring more fun and creative builds to the table. 

The Vestige Patron is absolutely amazing! I love the idea that a Warlock could have a small, godly companion. The amount of flavor that could be added to that is incredible. For instance, this could be the perfect way to play a puppet-like character. Your Vestige could take the form of a marionette, and the actual character could have ethereal puppet strings attached to them. This would work especially well with the Warforged species. And that’s only one potential idea. 

 Am I wrong in thinking that the caster will ritual cast a 1st level spell and then the rogue gives them a 2-3 spell slot for it? 

Quote from Dpramirez66 >>

Sorcerer is more in line with Mystic and innate talent/spiritual mysticism than wizardry.

 The main reason is it removes access to Conjure Minor Elementals which would be powerful for a Monk

Quote from SpaceHav3n >>

Okay, can someone explain to me what I’m missing with the Mystic Monk’s level 17 feature?

You can replace two attacks in the attack action to cast a level 1 or 2 spell that has the cast time of an action? Monk’s extra attack feature ONLY gives two attacks, and your bonus action unarmed strike doesn’t require you to take the attack action beforehand. That’s just a thing you can do.

So, I can use my whole attack action to cast a level 1 or 2 spell and do an unarmed bonus attack… or I can just cast a regular spell of ANY level and still do an unarmed bonus attack…

 My only thought is they intend to say you cast without using a Spell Slot

Pretty cool!

I think the Mystic Arts Monk needs some kind of a ribbon at 3rd level, in addition to their Spellcasting. The other 1/3 casters get something cool at 3rd level as well, so it feels weird that Monk doesn't get one here. It's also unclear what it is that Improved Mystic Fighting Style (17) is supposed to do. Is this supposed to let you replace EACH of the two attacks with a Sorcerer spell of 1st/2nd level? If so, it's not worded very well.

 Why the **** are you giving the one class that shouldn't have any magic, a ******* spell casting subclass. Keep spellcasting away from Monks they don't need it, just focus on making older monk subclasses.

Sorceres have the points to spell slots and back. Clerics and Wizards do not. The point of the subclass is to give Monks spell casting, not to turn them into sorcerers. 

I'm a bit confused by the Monk's 17th level feature, Improved Mystic Fighting Style. What is the benefit of giving up two attacks instead of using the magic action to cast a spell? 

Wow man some wild criticism. 

They would usually be nothing wrong with criticism if it's constructive but some of them clearly are not intended to be constructive. 

Things like creativity when some people literally have a play style that they would love to be able to do that is now available regardless of where I'm at it's inspiring or creative. 

That's an important detail this game. 

The monk is perfection for someone like that. You may not want to be a wizard a blade singer you may want to throw a hands but not have to be a paladin and do those flavors. 

Subclass is not just there for the point of adding a new identity to the class but it's also there to help you create the character you envision. 

I know I'm still struggling to create an artificer monk.

I also had a yuan-ti monk idea waiting in the background. For something that just felt right. And this new Monk subclass. Is perfect. 

The new paladin subclass has potential. For a character I named bastion. Who improvises dual wielding Shields. As his weapon and he's all about protecting people.  This one gets potential though I do wish. The bond could extend to more than one character at a time and didn't take a strong investment of a magic action and resource.  

I would be fine with it targeting one person at a time if I could use a reaction to change it at will. During a fight or something. So then I just have to manage my positioning most the time. 

For my point of view they gave a little bit of everything here. 

They made one or two classes that definitely seem like they're trying to do something creative more than immediately powerful or good. 

And then you got one set of obviously good. That won't really that imaginative because yeah it's kind of another blade singer. 

And I absolutely see no issue with that. The wizard and the wall auction not be the only ones that can to fill that niche. 

Every class should be able to Branch into a play style. 

Without having to go crazy with multi-classing. Which obviously would come with all of its pros and cons

Quote from nitro_dynamite18 >>

What about the Drain Magic feature screams Rogue?

Rogue from X-Men, anyone?

The warlock seems rushed and uninspired but I did quite like the others 

it would be cool if there was a dead god subclass for the cleric similar to the vestige subclass in this article for the warlock.  It would follow the same sort of idea as the warlock subclass with your pc getting stronger as the dead God gets stronger, for as he becomes stronger he empowers you more I just think it’d be cool to have it as a cleric sub class as well or instead especially since that would mean it could be a good dead God rather than some sort of Eldritch Horror which we have plenty of already for warlocks, but I feel like a dead God as a cleric thing would be interesting and new.  However, I still like all the sub classes suggested in this article, including the vestige warlock I just think this would also be a cool idea