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The Path of the Ancestral Guardian was one of the five subclasses reworked in the May 2017 Unearthed Arcana. Название: Dungeons and Dragons Neverwinter Год выпуска: 2014 Жанр: MMORPG, 3rd Person, Massively multiplayer Разработчик: Cryptic Studios Издательство в России: Perfect World Entertainment Версия: 14. Bits and pieces of Defender Marking also turn up such as Protection fighting style and Sentinel feat. New totem spirits are offered as part of the Sword Coast Adventurer's Guide, specifically the Elk and the Tiger, which give powers relating to augmented movement and enhanced jumping respectively, which is honestly a little silly. It got an alternative write-up in Volo's Guide to Monsters that shares some, but not most, of the base race's traits. Now granted, I haven't seen the final version of the rules yet, but they were missing from the playtest and not mentioned in the free preview so I'm assuming there's no innovation to speak of on that front. The exceptions are humans, half-elves, half-orcs, and tieflings. For an example; the Border Elemental Plane of Air would look like an infinite sky with lots of floating islands in it, perhaps even the size of continents. As such, its bonus spells are an odd mix of physical boosters, protective buffs, and also includes the Dominate Beast and Insect Plague spells. A melee attacker can do some things well and hit hard, but we're back to wizards and other spell-casters have enormous spell lists of things that often overlap with what other classes do and verge on making them irrelevant at high levels. The final package, as delivered here in the Players Handbook, shows their commitment to having the game be fun, and fun for everyone.
On the January 12, 2016, Wizards of the Coast released the under the - effectively making the core rules and much of the more generic fantasy content in 5th edition free. Ability scores can give small bonuses to your dice rolls. Characters can be to get bonus to rolls. Universal d20-based system of roll-over target numbers. Classes get features as they reach new class levels. Hit points, class-based hit dice. Multiverse in PHB looks like old with the best ideas from the cosmology added. If a character has an 'advantage' for a skill roll or combat roll, the player rolls two d20 and takes the better one. If a character has a 'disadvantage', roll two d20 and take the worse one. These advantages and disadvantages cancel each other out, and do not accumulate; you will only ever roll two d20 and choose one. Attributes are the same ol' six, but more important than before. They're used for skills checks and saving throws. Ability score increases are now class features, meaning that you have the potential to lose them if you multiclass. Most classes get 5 ASIs, at levels 4, 8, 12, 16, and 19. Rogues get a couple extra, and Fighters get a couple more than Rogues. Feats are now fewer in number and more potent. If a character wants to obtain a Feat, they have to give up one of their Ability Score Increases to gain access to it. In order to maintain the 'bounded accuracy' system described above, ability scores have a 'soft cap' of 20, which can only be broken using rare magic items, or exceptional circumstances such as the Barbarian's level 20 feature. There is a hard cap of 30, which cannot be exceeded by any means. Target numbers including Armor Class are capped hard; no more DC 80 skill rolls, no more AC 120 monsters. Swarms are still a problem, as are clever little shits like ; no more Superman characters. No more skill points; either you have proficiency in a skill, or you don't. Seems small, but see above about skill checks and ACs not getting stupid large even at high levels. Saving throws are like skills checks. Each class is proficient in two attributes for saving throws, so they get to add their proficiency bonus. So when a Cleric gets hit by a charm spell, that's a wisdom save: d20 + wisdom bonus + proficiency, versus the spell DC explained below. No more 'fort','reflex','will' per level, although Constitution, Dexterity, and Wisdom are still the three most common saves. This has been around since Dragon Magazine was still a print magazine, but it's codified right there at character generation. The exceptions are humans, half-elves, half-orcs, and tieflings. It is very similar to 3e Sorcerers. Older players may recognize this system from the Final Fantasy 1 and Wizardry vidyas. This lets you choose some of the class features you get as you level up. Paladins have the Oath they swear, bards have the College they join, etc. Character background is now a mandatory part of character generation. For example, a Criminal has a contact in the criminal underground, or a Sailor being able to get free passage for their party in exchange for assisting the ship's crew. Backgrounds also have tables players will roll on to get two Personality Traits, one Ideal, one Bond, and one Flaw, though like most tables of this nature the player can just choose whatever sounds best to them or come up with their own that fit the background 'cause this is a roleplaying game. This has often been a house rule but now it's codified and it will likely push people into using the fanmail mechanic more often, and roleplaying for benefits instead of being entitled to a hero point with every long rest. Additionally, you can only ever have one inspiration token at any given time, effectively incentivizing you to spend it quickly and not hoard it. Presumably this is all to help out new players with the idea of playing a character that isn't of their own personality, but it also probably helps the players who view their characters as walking stat blocks with little to no personality into trying actual roleplaying for once. The PHB even explicitly suggests working with your DM to come up with a custom background if none of the ones in the book really fit your character. Notably, the bard's performance can also grant inspiration. Starting equipment is now decided with the use of a list for a given class, as well as equipment granted by choosing a background. Some things in a list give you an option, such as choosing between two kinds of weapons or item packs. It's an awfully generous amount of items to start with when you add it all up. Of course, you can roll for starting gp like in older editions, but you stand a decent chance of rolling poorly, and considering how the monk's starting item set alone has the potential to be worth more than the maximum roll for their starting money 22. Official online supplements are being released to cover some of this with the first one including all the -specific races as options , and the DMG does offer very free-form rules for homebrewing new races off the template of the old. Bastard swords and spiked chains are nowhere to be found. Hand crossbows are now martial weapons after 4th edition downgraded them from exotic to simple. Instead, the rules tell the player to use equivalents for flavor katanas are just longswords, etc. The has yet to make a 5e appearance despite the battlemaster being the Eldritch Knight to its wizard and the Warlord being a core class from 4e. The DMG has rules for epic boons, but there's not much support beyond this. Consequentially the Monster Manual lacks epic monsters like Atropals and. The atropal is now in Tomb of Annihilation, but it has a much lower CR. Official material and pre-made adventures soft-cap at around level 12 to better support the Adventure League. Paladin flavor definitely leans towards the Good alignments, but focus is given on following their archetype's Oath rather than a specific alignment. PC racial traits are more like 4E than other editions. There are no ability score penalties, level adjustments, or favored classes. Second Wind lives on as a class feature for Fighters. Bits and pieces of Defender Marking also turn up such as Protection fighting style and Sentinel feat. Action Points live on in the Fighter as well, in the form of Action Surge, which lets a Fighter make a second action on their turn, but needs a short rest before getting this extra action back. In 4e, a short rest was a 5-minute breather, and it was generally assumed that you'd get a short rest after every encounter. In 5e, a short rest is more like a 1-hour lunch break, so you won't get them as often. The use of hit dice to regain hit points during a short rest is based on 4th edition's healing surges. Psychic damage type is still here. Poison is also a damage type in this edition, but since Poison damage was a 2e thing that 3e chucked out for some absurd reason, it doesn't really count. Lightning and Thunder damage retain their 4E names instead of Electric and Sonic. Feywild, Shadowfell and Elemental Chaos have all survived the transition. Nine spell levels return from previous editions, but as in 4E, spell effects don't scale with caster level, other than the aforementioned attack cantrips. Instead, lower-level spells can be cast in higher-level slots for more potent returns, like targeting additional enemies or dealing more damage. Cleric's Channel Divinity and the 'ritual' mechanic for spells were also introduced in 4th edition. All ability scores are used for saving throws although not the same way as 4E. The 's iconic cantrips appeared as available to wizards, sorcerers and warlocks in the Sword Coast Adventurer's Guide, along with a Wizard archetype that roughly fits their M. Spellcasters get a small number of 'cantrips' that they can cast at-will. The attacking ones are sort of equivalent to weapons, and scale up with level. Non-cantrip spells do not scale up their effect with character level, but they may have bigger effects if cast using a higher spell slot. For instance, the 1st-level spell Burning Hands 3d6 damage does 4d6 when cast as a 2nd-level spell, 5d6 as a third-level, etc. The caster either prepares a number of different spells each day cleric, druid, paladin, wizard or uses all the spells in his repertoire ranger, sorcerer, warlock, bard which are then freely cast using spell slots. Some spells can be cast as rituals, usually utility stuff. They take an additional 10 minutes to cast as a ritual, but don't use a spell slot. Some spells, like buff enchantments or protection abjurations, have a continuous effect maintained by 'concentration'. The spellcaster can maintain concentration as a free action, but can only keep concentration going for one spell. Concentration can also be broken by taking damage if the caster fails a Constitution saving throw. Another change to spellcasting is that many spells have been compressed into one; instead of having six different buff spells, one for each stat, there is now one and you pick which stat to buff when you cast it. Examples of spells that have this are the Runes spell series and the Symbol spells. Spells are no longer cast with XP as a required component. If you use your last charge in such an item, there's a 1 in 20 chance that it will be destroyed roll a D20 after charges drop to zero, item disintegrates after use if you roll a 1 , but otherwise it will regain a number of charges based on the item each morning. So, if you're careful and lucky, you can keep using the same wand or other item throughout your career. Resistance, vulnerability and immunity are simplified. Also, any of these matters is applied explicitly after any circumstances - example given in the PHB is a character with Acid Resistance being hit for 25 Acid damage whilst under a spell that lowers damage by five, so the initial 25 damage is lowered by the spell first, then resistance gets applied, so only 10 Acid damage is inflicted. Creatures and characters now have a set move speed per turn, instead of a move action, allowing them to split up their movement however they wish throughout their turn, including between attacks. They can also affect their surroundings indirectly simply by existing. Eventually, it's nothing but pure element wherever you look, unless you head back towards the Material Plane. And then, beyond the Elemental Planes, you have the Elemental Chaos, where they all go mad and become a swirling tide of insane elemental matter and energy, giving you stuff like 4e's Riverweb, mountains of burning ice, seas of liquid salt, storms of acid, etc. For an example; the Border Elemental Plane of Air would look like an infinite sky with lots of floating islands in it, perhaps even the size of continents. The real official setting for 5e i. No other setting has gotten a full-blown splatbook so far, but bits and pieces have been updated in Unearthed Arcana articles and the more FR-centric pieces of content include the same kind of sidebars as the corebooks, taking some of the sting out of Wizards overlooking good and interesting settings in favor of the most generic and overused one. The first non-FR adventure came out in March 2016; sees make its way into 5e, in the form of yet another retelling of the original adventure that started it all. The Tales from the Yawning Portal adventure book includes classic adventures from the Greyhawk setting, but also offers suggestions in how to place them in other settings. Many races have subraces; they must choose to be a specific kind of that race for further added bonuses. This carries over the 4e philosophy of not completely screwing players who want to build something unconventional, like a halfling barbarian or a half-orc wizard. The first DMG includes rules for custom-building subraces and whole races, with the and used to demonstrate the rules. It got an alternative write-up in Volo's Guide to Monsters that shares some, but not most, of the base race's traits. Not terrible, even if laughably outclassed in almost every way by other races with similar stat bonuses. Short and stout, grumpy but loyal, love digging, and tough as a hammer sammich. They get a +2 bonus to Constitution, have Darkvision, protection against poison, training with axe and hammer weapons, training with several kinds of artisan's tools, the usual dwarven armored movement and stone knowledge. They get two subraces; Hill and Mountain. Hill dwarves are wiser +1 Wisdom and even tougher than regular dwarves, giving them extra maximum hit points equal to their character level. Mountain dwarves are more warlike, getting +2 Strength and free proficiency with light armor and medium armor. However, it's a good choice for a character who wants melee a bit, like a blade-pact warlock. They also get Sunlight Sensitivity, though tweaked slightly; in addition to taking disadvantage to attack rolls and Perception checks when they or their target is in direct sunlight, they can't use their spell-like abilities if they're in direct sunlight. Grace translates to a +2 bonus to Dexterity, keen senses give them Darkvision and proficiency in Perception, they are resistant to charming and immune to sleep, and they trance instead of sleeping. They get three subraces; high, wood and dark. High elves are the magically adept elite. Wood elves are the iconic forest-dwelling primal elves. Strangely, although the Sword Coast Adventurer's Guide contains rules for Half-Elves of Aquatic Elf ancestry, there are no rules for a pure-blooded Aquatic Elf, but it's only logical that it'll come out in a following supplement or Unearthed Arcana. If it does, we at least know, from the way the other half-elf subraces worked, that it'll include a 30-ft swim speed. And those expectations turned out to be right with the November 2017 Elf Subraces Unearthed Arcana. Your Constitution score increases by 1, you know Aquan, and you have proficiency with the trident as if you weren't already like Aquaman , the spear pretty much a stand-in for a harpoon , light crossbow like a harpoon gun , and the net going with the fisherman theme. Avariel are the winged elves of the Forgotten Realms, nearly driven to extinction by dragons. You have a flying speed of 30 feet while not wearing heavy or medium armor, and know Auran. And that's about it. Unless you are in it for the flavor, there is really no reason to pick them, seeing how there are plenty of better races with flight out there. The Grugach of the Greyhawk setting are xenophobic, isolationist forest dwellers, known to massacre anyone unfortunate enough to stumble into their realm. They get a Strength score increase of 1, a proficiency with the spear, shortbow, longbow, and net going with their savage theme. They can choose a single cantrip from the druid spell list, using Wisdom as their spellcasting ability. Their xenophobic nature also manifests itself by having their ability to speak Common replaced by Sylvan, so you better use a background feature to learn it. Ironically, the fact that they are now basically insane BDSM eleves from a different plane makes them seem allot like a. They get a Charisma score increase of 1, and the choice between chill touch, spare the dying, or thaumaturgy, with Charisma as their spellcasting ability. Once per short rest, they can also teleport up to 15 feet to an unoccupied space they can see, and gain resistance to all damage until the start of their next turn. Forest Gnomes are the more mystical, nature-affiliated gnomes, gaining +1 Dexterity, having the minor illusion cantrip as a racial ability, and being able to speak with any natural animal that is Small or smaller. With supported, but the race thankfully missing after playtest, these seem to hold up as the Kender replacement. Rock Gnomes are the iconic tinker gnomes, gaining +1 Constitution, being more adept at puzzling out magic items, alchemical objects and technological devices, and starting the game with a set of tinker's tools that let them cobble together small, harmless gizmos like clockwork toys, fire starters and music boxes. In the corebook, it's explicitly stated that these should be used for playing Tinker Gnomes if you're running a game. Deep Gnomes got added by the Elemental Evil Player's Guide web-feature from the WotC website. There was a printed reveal in the Sword Coast Adventurer's Guide, but the versions are absolutely identical. They can also grow beards, something that may have been in previous editions, but is directly addressed in this one. The best PHB race for any Cha-based class, due to their tremendous versatility, and easily has the most raw power. Look at it like this: imagine if, as a variant human, you got to pick a feat that gave you +2 charisma, an extra skill, darkvision, and charm resistance plus sleep immunity. It might not be the optimal feat for your build, no, but can you easily deny that it beats out any other feat in the game for raw power? Well, a half-elf is essentially a variant human who gets a feat like that. The Sword Coast Adventurer's Guide includes rules for half-elf racial variants, allowing them to have sub-races like several other races. Basically, they can trade out their bonus skill proficiencies for the other elf races' bonuses. Any kind of half-elf can trade for an upgrade to darkvision and proficiency in perception, half-high elves can gain a wizard cantrip, half-wood elves can gain a five-foot speed boost or an improved ability to hide in the wild, and both of the above can gain elf weapon training. Meanwhile, half-Drow gain Drow Magic, while half-Aquatic Elves have a 30-ft swim speed. This effectively makes them the best in the game and gives barbarian-lite abilities to any other classes. This new design eliminates the culturally awkward standard of male orcs forcing themselves on human women, to the point of actually raising the idea that the race could be used for playing a half-dwarf, half-orc. They usually don't have any greater goal beyond a simple, pleasant life. They get +2 Dexterity, they're Small sized, their Lucky trait lets them reroll various results of 1, they're resistant to fear effects and they can move through spaces occupied by creatures that are Medium-sized or bigger. Their two subraces are Lightfoot and Stout. Lightfoot halflings are sneaky even by Halfling standards, able to use Medium-sized or bigger creatures to hide behind and gaining +1 Charisma. Stout halflings are rumored to have dwarf blood, and so they get +1 Constitution and identical poison protection. The Sword Coast Adventurer's Guide includes the Ghostwise halfling subrace, which gets +1 to Wisdom and the ability to telepathically communicate with one creature nearby creature at a time. The playtest release featured the of as yet another halfling subrace. Of course, if an official Dragonlance playbook ever comes out doubtful, at this point, given the lackluster success of it in 3. Either they get a +1 bonus to all ability scores which is better than any previous edition of the game has trained you to believe, but still kinda bland , or they get +1 to any two ability scores they want, a free skill proficiency, and a free feat which, as usual, rocks. The feat option, given how strong feats are in 5th, can actually make it very hard to choose any other race, even ones that specialize in a specific area, over humans for a build given the sheer rapidity of power the variant human allows. Like half-elves, they got upgraded with subrace options in the Sword Coast Adventurer's Guide. Hellfire simply replaces their Hellish Rebuke spell-like ability with Burning Hands, the Devil's Tongue option alters their list completely, trading in all their spells for mind-affecting choices, and choosing Winged means giving up all spells in exchange for a 30-ft fly speed, which is kickass. The corebook tiefling is used for the diabolic breed, but demonic tieflings get +1 Con instead of +1 Int, increase their hitpoints by half their character level so a level 20 one gets an extra +10 HP , and randomly generate their spell-like abilities at the end of each long rest. The October 2017 UA Reprinted in Mordekainen's Tome of Foes also gave Tieflings a bevy of subrace options based on who their patron god is. Each gives differing racial spell-like abilities as well as +1 to a differing stat instead of Intelligence. Surprisingly simple and effective; +1 to Dexterity and Charisma, Duplicity automatically proficient in Deception , and Shapechanger can polymorph into any humanoid of your own size that you have seen, or back to your true form; your gear doesn't change, and you revert to your true form upon death. Pretty much all of the 3e variants made it through as sub-types. Basic racial profile is +1 Dexterity, Darkvision, and Shifting bonus action, lasts for 1 minute, gain temp HP equal to level + Constitution bonus and a sub-race derived bonus, can shift once per short rest. Gotta pick a sub race from the following: Beasthide: +1 Constitution, shifting grants +1 AC. A +1 AC bonus is more than it sounds like in this edition. Cliffwalk: +1 Dexterity so +2 Dex total , shifting grants a 30 ft climb speed. Nice utility, as all alternative movements are. Longstride: +1 Dexterity so +2 Dex total , shifting grants ability to Dash as a bonus action. Good for other Dex-based classes, completely redundant for a or high-level. Longtooth: +1 Strength, shifting grants a 1d6 bite attack that automatically initiates a grapple when it hits. Good for a control fighter and the like. Razorclaw: +1 Dexterity so +2 Dex total , shifting grants claw attacks, which can be used as bonus actions to make Dex-based unarmed strikes that deal slashing damage. Unarmed strikes may only deal a single point damage, but the real power of this ability is essentially two-weapon fighting without needing the fighting style to add the ability score modifier to the damage roll. Wildhunt: +1 Wisdom, shifting grants advantage on all Wisdom-based checks and saving throws. Good for mage-hunting and utility. Very simple, yet very effective: +1 Strength and Constitution, a flat +1 AC bonus, and the benefits of being a robot. They don't need to eat or breathe, trance for 4 hours per day instead of sleeping for 8 hours, and immune to disease. All of these are somewhat abusable, so your DM might tone them down. On the plus side, they no longer have healing penalties and such. You're trading in a lOttttt for that flyspeed, so make sure your DM's actually going to let you use it. Only four varieties this time; Earth, Air, Water and Fire. Air Genasi gain +1 Dexterity, have Unending Breath can hold their breaths indefinitely when not incapacitated and can cast levitate. Fire Genasi gain +1 Intelligence, darkvision, fire resistance, and can cast the produce flame cantrip, plus burning hands at level 3. Water Genasi gain +1 Wisdom, can breathe water and air, have acid resistance and a 30 ft swim speed, and get the Shape Water cantrip, plus create or destroy water at level 3. Also, got a lot more cultural tweaks than just about anyone was expecting. They also have horns, which they are automatically proficient with, that deal 1d10 piercing damage, offer advantage on shoving checks, automatically shove when used as part of an Attack action, and can be used to gore an enemy as a bonus action even after a Dash. Finally, they have Labyrinthine Recall giving them perfect recall of any path they've traveled down, land, dungeon, or sea and Sea Reaver proficiency with navigator's tools and waterborne vehicles. The drawback is, once you complete the goal that brought you back from the grave, you die well and truly, passing on to the afterlife with no further possibility of resurrection. This represents the eladrin's attunement to each of the four seasons, which affects their personality, roleplay-wise, and they can adjust their seasonal attunement each short or long rest. Gith get +1 intelligence and the mage hand cantrip, regardless of subrace, and that's where the similarities end. As a result, it included assorted Zendikaran races, from humans and elves to goblins, vampires, merfolk and kor. A Kor is a Medium sized creature with +2 Dexterity and +1 Wisdom, a base speed of 30 feet, a climb speed of 30 feet can't use if encumbered or in heavy armor , free proficiency in Athletics and Acrobatics, and the Lucky and Brave traits as per your basic Halfling. Unlike traditional , these ones come with legs, so they can actually walk around on land like. They're Medium sized creatures with +1 Charisma, Amphibious can breathe air and water , and a Swim speed of 30 feet on top of their base speed of 30 feet when walking on land. They have to pick one of the three Creeds to follow, which functions as a subrace choice. All cantrips cast with their highest racial bonus so Wisdom for Emeria, Intelligence for Ula, Charisma for Cosi. Ula Merfolk follow the Creed of Water, giving them +2 Intelligence, free proficiency in navigator's tools and survival, and a Wizard cantrip of their choice. Cosi Merfolk follow the Creed of the Trickster, giving them +1 Charisma and +1 Intelligence, free proficiency in Slight of Hand and Stealth, and a Bard cantrip of their choice. Medium sized and with a base speed of 30 feet, they get +2 Charisma and +1 Intelligence, Darkvision, Resistance Necrotic , and the Blood Drain ability. This is a special attack that they can only do on a target that is willing, restrained, grappled or incapacitated; it inflicts 1 piercing damage and D6 necrotic damage, which A: is deducted from the target's maximum hit point value and B: heals you of an equal amount of damage. The target can shake off this effect by taking a long rest, but if killed by this attack, then they become a Null a unique sort of zombie, but which isn't statted in the booklet. They are Small creatures with speed 25 feet, bolstered by having +2 Constitution, Darkvision, the Grit trait resistance to Fire and Psychic damage, unarmored AC is 11+Dex modifier , and they have to choose one of the three Tribes to belong to, though none of them are really spectacular choices. Grotag Tribe Goblins receive free proficiency in Animal Handling. Lavastep Tribe Goblins have Advantage on Dexterity Stealth checks made in rocky or subterranean environments. Tuktuk Tribe Goblins receive free proficiency in thieves tools. Tajuru Elves gain +1 Charisma and two free proficiency slots, each of which can be spent on any skill or tool of your choice. Yes, this is basically the Mountain Dwarf's Dwarven Toughness racial feature but twice as good. However, this turned out to be WoTC playing it vague and the end result was that there were only thirteen races in it, one of which was effectively a reprint. The Monstrous Adventurers mark the first return in 5th edition of racial ability score penalties, something that brought a lot of and from those who hated this idea and those who loved it. Not helping is that of all the races in the book, only the orc and the kobold get these penalties. Now, most fans of monstrous humanoids called bullshit on this reasoning, since 5e's lore was essentially the same lore as was used in 4th edition and they still got a PC writeup there, without the lore trying to claim they're unable to defy their evil nature like orcs. Hell, the yuan-ti pureblood got a writeup, and they're power-hungry manipulative sociopaths who only see other races as meat! The rejection of gnolls did get a little more justified when the book came out and revealed the official 5e lore for gnolls was essentially 4e's lore, but doubling down on the demonic corruption angle and completely removing all the stuff about gnolls having free will and being able to reject. Of course, this change in lore from 4e was met with huge amounts of. They're a multitudinous species divided into three subraces, Protector, Scourge and Fallen, rather than having switchable variant racial traits like the tiefling does. Finally, Fallen Aasimars get +1 Strength, cause a fear check in anyone who sees them transform, and can inflict bonus Necrotic damage with their attacks whilst transformed. Naturally, they had to undergo a fair amount of changes, since 5e wants to avoid letting PCs be Large. Many grumbled about what the need for this was, given we'd already gotten perfectly good stats for them earlier, especially when it turned out that, unlike the aasimar, they'd received no changes of any kind. Not even in cultural information. Which is useful as you can't speak except through your mimicry trait, which is pretty much the only downside to the kenku. They are surprisingly fitting, since they were first introduced as a player character race in the Forgotten Realms setting. They're one of the few races that get +1 to three stats - Strength, Constitution and Charisma - instead of +2 to one stat and +1 to a second. Medium sized, 30ft land and swim speeds, amphibious, can cast Fog Cloud at will and Gust of Wind at 3rd level and Wall of Water at 5th level once per day with Charisma, telepathically talk to water-breathing creatures, are Resistant to Cold and immune to deep water environments. Exactly which ones are broken is and forever will be , but general agreement is that the would-be orc and kobold will be far happier using re-colored half-orcs and halflings as a template, respectively, and that the yuan-ti pureblood is gob-smackingly powerful enough to make even the blush. Essentially, you've got a natural fighter base with a built in level of rogue. They're actually surprisingly powerful; +2 Dexterity, +1 Constitution, speed 30 feet, Small, Darkvision, can do bonus damage equal to their level to a creature that's bigger than they are once per short rest, and retain their Nimble Escape feature from the Monster Manual. Many think a goblin is kind of redundant, although actually it's just a case of good synchronization; being able to Disengage or Hide as a bonus action is hugely beneficial for any hit-and-run fighter. But +2 Con is good for anyone, and hobgoblins have always had a strong arcane tradition to them anyway. Unfortunately, their stat blocks are rather less than fun as, much like in , they've been kind of gimped. It's hard to say which has elicted more complaints; the triple-Jeopardy of negative traits Small, Sunlight Sensitivity, -2 Strength or the Grovel trait. In all fairness, Grovel is kind of powerful - a 10ft burst of combat advantage for allies once per encounter is seriously buffing them - but the flavor text is infuriating for anyone who, y'know, doesn't want to portray their kobold as a , joke character might be worth trying to convince your gm to let you it as a subsonic howl. That said, Pack Tactics is incredibly strong due to ANY form of advantage cancelling out disadvantage. What makes a kobold powerful is not that they have access to Advantage, but that they can pretty much never have Disadvantage when near an ally. This opens up a GWM kobold, or a long range sniper kobold as actually viable options. Put a Kobold on a Wolf mount for extra shenanigans. As for their crunch... Charm and Fear and the Githzerai Psionics trait. Aside from the new Vahadar subrace for elves +1 Wis, 1 Druid cantrip of your choice cast with Wis , it featured... Hedonistic and self-interested, an Aetherborn has Charisma +2, +1 to two ability scores of its choice, is a Medium creature with 30 feet base speed, and has the Darkvision, Menacing free proficiency in Intimidate , and Born of Aether Resist Necrotic traits. An aetherborn can use the rules for inventing and manufacturing a magic item to transform itself irrevocably into a darkling, in which case it gains the Drain Life trait a natural attack that inflicts 1d6 Necrotic damage on a victim and heals the aetherborn for that much. If the darkling goes 7 days without using this ability, it loses 1d6 maximum hit points per week without feeding; only feeding followed by a long rest will restore this degraded health. Weirdly, despite the fact that one of the Five Gods is Oketra the True, the God of Solidarity, there is no catgirl or race in this booklet. There are two kinds of Aven; the more scholarly ibis-headed, who are naturally drawn to revering Kefnet, the God of Knowledge whom they resemble, and the more war-like hawk-headed, who tend to devote themselves to Oketra, God of Solidarity who is, ironically, a goddess depicted as a. All Aven get +2 Dexterity, are Medium sized, have a base land speed of 25 feet, and a Fly speed of 30 feet, but they can't fly if wearing medium or heavy armor, or if they're encumbered. Ibis-Headed Aven get +1 Intelligence and Kefnet's Blessing, which lets them add half their Proficiency Bonus, rounded down, when making an Int check for a skill they don't have Proficiency in. Hawk-Headed Aven get +2 Wisdom and the Hawkeyed trait, which grants them free Perception Proficiency and negates the long-range attack penalties when using ranged weapons. This leads to strong, culturally encouraged, ties between siblings, and even impacts their stats. Khenras are a Medium-sized race with +2 Dexterity and +1 Strength, a speed of 35 feet, the Khera Weapon Training feature, which gives them free proficiency in the khopesh, spear and javelin, and the Khenra Twins feature - which requires you to decide at character creation if you have a twin. If your twin is alive, so long as you are within sight of your twin, you can reroll results of a 1 for attack rolls, ability checks and saving throws second result stands. If your twin is dead, or you were one of the rare singleton births, you're Immune to Fear. They stand unique amongst the races of 5e so far because they're the first non-bipedal race to get an official writeup; these resemble the iconic Abomination, having a humanoid upper torso, a cobra's head, and a slithering tail in lieu of legs. They get +2 Consitution and +1 Intelligence, are Medium sized, and have a base speed of 30 feet. Their Speed Burst feature lets them choose to spend a bonus action to lower their torso to the ground and pull themselves along with their hands, increasing their speed by +5 feet for the turn due to the boost - of course, they need to have both hands free before they can do this. Poison Immunity speaks for itself, and Poisoner's Affinity gives them free proficiency with the poisoner's kit. Finally, they have two Natural Weapons; Bite and Constrict. Both can be used as an option for an unarmed strike. A Bite Attack deals 1d4 + Str mod Piercing damage and forces the victim to make a Constitution save DC 8 + naga's Con modifier + naga's Proficiency bonus or take 1d4 Poison damage. A Constrict Attack deals 1d6 + Str mod bludgeoning damage and automatically grapples the target DC to escape is 8 + naga's Str modifier + naga's Proficiency bonus. So long as they have someone grappled in this way, the target is restrained, but the naga can't make another Constrict Attack until they let them go. The main attraction of the race aside from playing TMNT is their shell, which gives them a base AC of 17 and stops them from wearing armor. They can also withdraw into it, giving another +4 to AC, and granting advantage on strength and con saving throws, but disadvantage on dex saving throws and removal of their ability to do anything but emerge from their shell. Used carefully, this ability makes them one of the tankiest races in the game. It also adds some notes on how to make Ixalan Merfolk, Vampires and Goblins function as subraces of Zendikaran ones. They're divided into two subraces; Green Merfolk are denizens of the wet, humid rainforest, whilst Blue Merfolk prefer a subaquatic lifestyle. Green Merfolk get +2 Wisdom, the Wood Elf's Mask of the Wild trait, and a cantrip spell-like ability that keys off of Wisdom. Blue Merfolk get +2 Intelligence, the Lore of the Waters trait free proficiency in the History and Nature skills , and a cantrip spell-like ability that keys off of Intelligence. You also regain hit points equal to the necrotic damage inflicted with Bloodthirst. Ixalan Vampires can also take the racial feat Vampiric Exultation, which lets them give themselves a Fly speed of 30 feet for 10 minutes once per short rest. They lose Labyrinthine Recall and Sea Reaver traits that would be rarely used at best, but that added character , and swap out their flexible ability score bonus for a flat +2 strength, +1 constitution. This archetype defines a lot of the special abilities that the class gets, and usually starts making itself felt on second or third level. In a blast to the past, requires a certain level of ability scores before a player can choose to multiclass. Much simpler than 2e's dual-classing mechanic, though; all of the core PHB classes only require a 13 in the necessary stat, and apart from the Monk, Paladin and Ranger who need 13s in two stats and the Fighter requires either Strength or Dex , the classes only need one sufficiently high stat. Now gains armor from Con when not wearing armor, so you can roleplay if you want. Also offers critical damage bonuses, the ability to survive anything that doesn't kill you outright at one hitpoint with the DC going up until you get medical attention , and the usual barbarian super-speed and dodge bonuses. Plus, if you stack up three, you're at disadvantage on all saves and attacks. Still, the other features aren't bad, and nobody's making you Frenzy every combat. Mix-and-matching totem animals by selecting different powers at different levels is technically allowed by the book, though it makes a point of noting that doing so is rare. New totem spirits are offered as part of the Sword Coast Adventurer's Guide, specifically the Elk and the Tiger, which give powers relating to augmented movement and enhanced jumping respectively, which is honestly a little silly. A sidebar on Uthgardt totems shows how swapping abilities around can be used to make more unique totems; specific examples include the Eagle totem, but replace level 6 feature with that of the Elk totem , the Thunderbeast Totem Bear totem, but replace the level 14 power with that of the Tiger totem and the Treeghost Totem Bear totem, but replace Speak With Beasts with Speak With Plants. Like the Bladesinger it has a recommended racial restriction only , and it grants proficiency with spiked armor, enhanced abilities for attacking with spiked armor and permits Dashes whilst raging, and changes the temp HP from using Reckless Attack to the user's Con modifier. The Path of the Ancestral Guardian was one of the five subclasses reworked in the May 2017 Unearthed Arcana. Now can routinely get spells from other classes' spell lists, plus some rogue skillmonkey powers, all on top of their own unique musical abilities. The ability to cherry pick spells is amazing, since each class has a few broken options. Swift quiver nets you four attacks at level 10, animate dead gives you your own personal army, etc. Hilariously, this means that one of the most often-derided classes in the game is now one of the best picks for. Taking the College of Swords gives your bard free proficiency with scimitars and medium armor, the Two-Weapon Fighting Style class feature, the Blade Flourish ability, an extra attack, and. The Blade Flourish is its most distinctive class skill; three new uses for Bardic Inspiration that requires you to be wielding a dagger, longsword, rapier, scimitar, or shortsword - Defensive Flourish boosts AC, Trick Shooter's Flourish enhances your ability to accurately throw a dagger, and Unnerving Flourish lets you frighten a creature into telling you stuff instead of killing it. Is a nimble, lucky bastard, specializing in trolling enemies. Still the best healer with the Life domain. Former Turn Undead now became Channel Divinity, which has a number of uses - including turning undead. Domains grant additional ways to use Channel Divinity. Basic clerics are no longer so heavily-armoured like before, and have access to basic weapons only, so they don't make paladins look like copycats. Don't worry, War and Tempest domains grants both Heavy Armor and martial weapons back, while Life domain grants heavy armour and Death martial weapons. The Cleric archetypes are Domains, and there's a lot of them. The Cleric offers a lot of versatility, losing out to the wizard only because of a somewhat less-comprehensive spell list, though Life's your best bet if you want a healbot. Doesn't make you a minion-master like the Necromancer Wizard -- not even giving you Command Undead, which means the Necro-Wizard is finally better at being a necromancer than a Death Cleric -- the way it did in editions past, but gives you some bonus necromantic spells and features revolving around pumping out necrotic damage. Hilariously, the PHB itself acknowledges that death and its clerics aren't necessarily evil, and lists multiple non-evil death gods in its various appendices. Wizard cantrips, the ability to Turn aberrations, celestials, fae, elements and fiends, add Wisdom to cantrips, and gaining 1 Wizard spell from each of the 6th, 7th, 8th and 9th level options, which don't count against your daily prepared allotment, at 17th level. Pretty fucking dope, but can feel a little powergamey. They get bonus proficiency with heavy armor, the ability to turn a non-magical weapon or suit of armor into a +1 version for a day, which is a power they can only use once per day, the ability to create simple items as part of a short rest no, there's no real mechanical bonus to that , +1 AC in Medium or Heavy Armor, Fire Resistance which ultimately improves itself to Fire Immunity , a once-per-turn Divine Strike that lets yo deal bonus fire damage, and the ability to gain Resistance to non-magical physical damage whilst wearing heavy armor. They get protective bonus spells, the ability to impose disadvantage on combat rolls by enemies within 5 feet who're attacking someone else, a Channel Divinity that lets you armor an ally with an aura that burns the next guy to strike that ally, gaining healing when you cast a heal-spell on others, a radiant damage Divine Strike, and the ability to gain two damage resistances from the list of Slashing, Piercing, Bludgeoning, Necrotic and Radiant, which you can change every short rest and which you can transfer to someone else with a touch. The special Channel Divinity is basically a mass Charm Person that lasts until the end of your next turn or if the target takes damage, but you get the choice to knock those charmed creatures prone. At 6th level, you get the the spell slot regained must be equal to or lower than the spell slot used to cast the enchantment spell. Much like the War and Tempest domains among others you get Divine Strike at 8th level, dealing force damage in this case. The capstone at 14th level lets your allies deal bonus force damage to a creature that you hit and deal Divine Strike damage to. Plane Shift: takes place on a world ruled by worship of five gods, and as such you shouldn't be surprised that there are new Cleric Domains to be had from it; Solidarity, Strength, Ambition, and Zeal. There's also a God of Knowledge, but that's in the PHB. Its bonus spells relate to group-targeting heals and buffs, such as Bless, Guiding Bolt, etc. It grants proficiency in Heavy Armor and several features. At level 1, Solidarity's Action lets you spend a bonus action when using Help to assist an ally's attack to make a weapon attack of your own, which you can do Wis bonus times minimum once per day. At 8th level, you get Divine Strike, which lets you bump up the damage on one weapon attack per turn by +1d8 +2d8 after you hit level 14. Finally, at level 17, you get Supreme Healing, where you automatically heal the maximum possible amount when using a random roll-based healing effect. As such, its bonus spells are an odd mix of physical boosters, protective buffs, and also includes the Dominate Beast and Insect Plague spells. At level 1, you gain Acolyte of Strength 1 Druid cantrip, Proficiency in 1 of Animal Handling, Athletics, Nature or Survival and proficiency in Heavy Armor. You get the same Divine Strike feature as the Solidarity Domain at level 8, and finally, level 17 gives you Avatar of Battle; permanent resistance to all physical damage that comes from non-magical sources. Its bonus spells are all about cheating or manipulating; Bane, Ray of Enfeeblement, Vampiric Touch, Dominate Person, etc. At level 1, you get the Warding Flare ability, which you can use 1 or Wisdom modifier times per day, whichever is greater. This lets you impose Disadvantage on an assailant's attack roll against you as a reaction, provided that you can see them and they're within 30 feet - oh, and they're not immune to being blinded. Aside from the obvious misleading effects, although it's only got a 120 range, you can cast spells through it, and you can tag-team with it to gain advantage on attack rolls. Level 8 gives you the Potent Spellcasting feature, where your offensive Cleric cantrips inflict +Wisdom modifier bonus damage. Finally, at level 17, Improved Duplicity lets you make up to 4 duplicates with Channel Divinity instead of 1. Its bonus spells are all offensive based, either directly Destructive Wave or indirectly Searing Smite , and heavy on the thunder and fire damage. You get free proficiencies with martial weapons and heavy armor, and the Priest of Zeal feature at level 1. Usable 1 or Wisdom modifier use the higher of the two times per day, it lets you use a bonus action after making an attack to make an extra weapon attack. Your level 2 Channel Divinity, Consuming Fervor, lets you spend Channel Divinity uses to maximize fire and thunder damage. At level 6, you get Resounding Strike, which means your thunder attacks will knock any target that is Large or smaller back 10 feet when they hit. At level 8, you get Divine Strike, which functions the same as Solidarity and Strength's version. Finally, at level 17, you get Blaze of Glory: once per day, when reduced to 0 hit points by an attacker that you can see, you can use your reaction to move at full speed towards that bastard and make a melee weapon attack with Advantage that deals +5D10 weapon damage type damage and +5d10 fire damage if it hits. Whether it hits or not, you then collapse on the spot, either dead or dying, depending on how badly hurt you were beforehand. Proportionately less powerful than , but still enjoy all the power and versatility of being a full caster. Also Archdruids of the Moon have an obscene amount of hit points. Can expend spellslots to heal themselves in animal form. Combined with turning into a bear, this makes them pretty good tanks. They're characterised with rather hippy-esque overtones, much like the Oath of Ancients. They have a feature that lets them heal others for a given amount per day, the ability to create an illusion-veiled campsite that's hard to find and which gives them and their buddies home-court advantage in combat, an at-will teleport feature with a d4 turn cooldown, and the ability to stack on a dispel magic on a healing spell three times per long rest. Spirit Bond now calls forth a Bear, a Hawk or a , with the newcomer granting Advantage to Perception checks and essentially turning your healing spells into group-targeting spells for free. Also, Guardian Spirit now provides free healing to your summoned beasts and faeries, restoring HP equal to half your druid level each turn they end within the aura of your Spirit Totem. Wildshape not only boosts the damage of these spores, but also grants some temporary HP. Enemies who die to these spores can even become temporary spore-zombies as soon as level 6! This keeps the druid for being stupid awesome at polymorphing. Notably, there is an absence of the Dire Wolf among the lists arguably the best early wild shape form. Who's a glorified dip class now? That said, if one wants to dip fighter, it's certainly worth attempting, as it offers a lot of powerful benefits at relatively low levels. Many versions of the fighter make use of a special resource called Combat Superiority dice, which are d8s upgrading to d10s at level 10 and d12s at level 18 that they can burn to fuel certain combat maneuvers. Subclasses are called Martial Archetypes, and they're where the Fighter gets most of its fun goodies. There aren't any active components to it, but, again, it's a simple archetype. The more complex of the two non-spellcasting core fighters, with the ability to play more of a support character or status-effect monkey while still wearing heavy armor and smashing shit up with whatever weapon you like. It starts off slow but gradually gets a bunch of useful spells, particularly when they can pick a limited number outside the abjuration and evocation schools at higher levels. The SCAG also pumped them up like a big syringe full of 'roids, because one of their signature abilities is cast a cantrip followed by a weapon attack and the SCAG added a couple spells with built-in melee attacks. For example, if a Purple Dragon Knight uses her second wind, then three allies within 60 feet also gain health as if they'd done the same thing. As you can see, it still falls into the same old pitfall of the Cavalier, in that it's not much use if you're not playing a game where it can't have a steed to run around with. Got a reprise as part of the June 2017 UA, as essentially more of a mounted Battlemaster than anything. While it loses Combat Superiority, it gains a reaction ability to grant bonus AC to allies and the power to draw aggro from others. You get three choices of free proficiency between Acrobatics, Athletics, Investigation, Medicine, Nature, Perception, Stealth or Survival, the ability to burn Superiority dice on the aforementioned checks, the ability to boost attack rolls with Superiority dice, the ability to boost AC and half damage if the attack still hits whilst wearing light or medium armor, and the Ranger's Natural Explorer feature, except you get new terrains at levels 7 and 15. Weirdly, the Scout would later get added as an archetype for the Rogue as well. Its core trick is summoning an Arcane Arrow, a magical arrow that counts as magical no duh and does 2d6 force damage upgrading to 4D6 at level 18. Initially, it can only fire 2 Arcane Arrows per rest, but at 15th level, it now recharges its last Arcane Arrow after 1 minute. It also gains the ability to conjure a bundle of 20 non-magical arrows for 10 minutes at 7th level, and two bonus skills out of Arcana, Athletics, Nature, Perception, Stealth and Survival. For Arcane Shots, it's got Beguiling Arrow charm the target so it can't attack one of your arrows , Brute Bane Arrow target's physical damage is halved until the end of your next turn , Bursting Arrow explodes in a 10ft blast on a hit , Defending Arrow impose Disadvantage on the target's next attack , Grasping Arrow wraps the target in brambles that slow it and inflict slashing damage if it moves, unless it spends an action ripping them all off , Piercing Arrow blasts through all targets in a 30ft line , Seeking Arrow fire a homing arrow and Shadow Arrow reduces the target's visual range. Unfortunately, this archetype was so weak that it ended up getting a revamp in May 2017. For one, its basic Arcane Shots no longer get to do straight damage without some special effect, and they can no longer magically summon arrows. On the plus side, it gains an Arcane Shot when starting a fight, making sure one shot is always available. It also gets the power to re-roll missed shots. Noble Cavalry gives the knight its choice of either two bonus skills from the list of Animal Handling, History, Insight, Persuasion or Religion, or else a bonus language. Rapid Strike lets a knight trade off having combat advantage on a weapon attack to instead make an extra bonus attack. Finally, Defender's Blade lets it use its per-round reaction to deliver an opportunity attack and gives it +1 AC when wearing heavy armor. Fighting Spirit lets it gain Resistance against Bludgeoning, Piercing and Slashing damage for 1 turn changed to Temp HP three times per short rest. Elegant Courtier lets a samurai add its Wisdom bonus to its Charisma bonus when making Charisma checks to please or persuade a member of a high social class, and also grants the samurai its choice of either a bonus skill History, Insight, or Persuasion or a bonus language. Unbreakable Will gives the samurai proficiency in Wisdom saves or in its choice of Intelligence or Charisma saves, if it's already got the Wisdom proficiency. Rapid Strike lets a samurai trade off having combat advantage on a weapon attack to instead make an extra bonus attack. Careful Eyes lets it take Search checks as a bonus action and gives it proficiency in one skill from Perception, Investigation or Survival. Close-Quarters Shooting means that not only does the sharpshooter not suffer combat disadvantage for firing on someone within 5 feet, but if it hits a close-ranged opponent with its ranged attack, that creature can't take reactions until the end of the turn. Rapid Strike, yet again, lets a sharpshooter trade off having combat advantage on a weapon attack to instead make an extra bonus attack. Finally, Snap Shot means that if the sharpshooter takes the Attack action on the first turn of combat, it can make an additional ranged weapon attack as part of that action. Now every attack deals extra damage that scales by level, saves gain +1d6, and it can regain HP if they start a battle seriously damaged. They still gain a bonus fighting style and crits do extra damage based on level. As before, Monks have a resource called Ki, which they use on a number of abilities granted by their archetype. It also gives them the fist of the north star. Sun Soul monks get ranged attacks, letting them throw bolts of magical radiance around whenever they want to naturally, they're proficient in such attacks. They can spend ki to spam these energy blasts like regular monk fists, spend ki to mimic the effect of Burning Hands after they hit someone, they develop what amounts to a fireball attack that does Radiant damage, which can be further enhanced with ki, and they eventually can set up an aura of light that has the added effect of being able to burn someone who hits you in melee. Holds up well as the long-time undead-smiting monk sub-class. Was reprinted in Xanathar's Guide to Everything. And that's just your first feature! This archetype got some revisions on the May 2017 UA. Level 6 gives them access to Tipsy Sway, which lets them, with the use of a Ki Point, use a reaction to being missed by an enemy melee attack to make that attack instead hit a third individual within 5 feet. Drunkard's Luck, their 11th level feature, gives them the ability to spend 1 ki point before making a saving throw to gain Advantage on that save. Finally, at level 17 they gain Intoxicated Frenzy, which means they get +3 attacks maximum of 5 whilst using Flurry of Blows, so long as they aim each attack at a different target. The flavor of the default Oaths is clearly leaning towards either a Good all or Neutral Ancients, Vengeance alignment. Smite now uses spell slots, and there is a number of Smite spells, allowing a paladin to burn his foes, hit them with lightning, or torment them for their sins on attack. Sadly, no ranged smites aside from casting Branding Smite on a ranged weapon and almost no ranged spells. Their famed lay on hands ability is now a kind of pool they can draw on in discrete intervals, and they eventually get some auras to buff their teammates. Paladin's Vow is now tied to his archetype or Oath. Their buff aura and personal immunities let them shrug off mind-control, their capstone turns them into demon-and-undead-slaying living rod of sunlight, and their spells are basic religion stuff. Their aura grants resistance to all spell damage, which is sweet, one of their personal abilities slows their aging and lets them shrug off incapacitation once per day, and their capstone transforms them into a regenerating fast-spellcasting nightmare for the bad guys, who also get disadvantage on their saves vs. Blackguards wish they were this cool. Has a number of -type abilities, with powers like issuing challenges that force enemies to fight the paladin. Their Channel Divinity can mimic the effects of one of their spells, compel duel, and has the bonus of healing allies nearby. You can also intercept damage for an ally within 5 feet, and have advantage on saving throws vs. It quite amply fills the Blackguard's former shoes as a fiend and undead-cavorting, black magic-wielding black knight type character class. Oathbreaker paladin must be Evil, but there's actually nothing saying that other Paladins can't be evil so long as they still uphold their Oath although once you break your oath, you cannot redeem yourself while evil - apparently, even if you began as an evil Vengeance paladin. All focused on crushing the weak and exerting its own strength. This one got some touchups in the March 2017 UA. If you think the Oathbreaker might be too powerful, this is your style. These guys specialize in nonlethal ways to take down opponents, mixed with some tanky attributes in order to give them the guts they need to survive the effort. The XGE print removes the obstructive restrictions of utter pacifism, but also removes the unarmored AC boost. And you can only start attacking too when you get the Extra Attack feature. It also grants proficiency in a mental stat saving through Wis by default. Originally a 3E Prestige class. Kinda like the Warden from 4E, who turned into some super-nature form. Armored with bonus spells relating to fighting powerful magical critters, it excels at fighting one particular creature at a time, with tricks like scouting out vulnerabilities, negating abilities that would let their victim flee from a fight, and enhanced killyness against their victim. Also, if you're using the Revised Ranger ruleset, they gain an Extra Attack at level 5 as well. The XGE edit adds in a more mage-hunting feature, with the ability to outright foil the casting of a spell and smack them even if it does work. Beastmasters built from this variant get to halve damage their companion takes instead of sharing spells since, y'know, no spells to share. The September 2015 UA article on WotC was dedicated to a revised low-level 1-5 Ranger class, based apparently on WoTC noting a lot of players were giving them the feedback that the Ranger was kind of weak and unsatisfying to play, with many class features feeling restrictive or difficult. These Rangers can pick between the Guardian dish out temporary hit points as a bonus action , Seeker force a target to confer advantage or Stalker buff yourself or an ally to do extra damage with melee attacks. It also retains the Fighting Style, Natural Explorer, Primeval Awareness, Ability Score Improvement and Extra Attack class features from the vanilla. However, it has no spellcasting of any kind. Notably, extra attack was excised from the class proper and given to every archetype but the beastmaster, favored enemy now comes with a baked-in damage bonus but only offers two choices in the class's entire lifespan, and Natural Explorer now works in any terrain. Some of their derpier abilities have had their cost reduced or been generally-reworked to be more useful. Also have some very-appreciated boosts towards mental defense and the ability to fight invisible enemies with their keen ears, which are fun expansions of the idea for a class that frankly needed a bit of a boost even in. One of their iconic abilities, the Cunning Action, lets them Dash or Disengage as a bonus action every turn, which is insanely powerful for the hit-and-run applications alone. At higher levels, you also get to taunt an enemy into attacking only you. You can also find out if you're smarter than someone, so feel free to let your ego run wild. Was reprinted in Xanathar's Guide to Everything. It represents a ranger-y kind of rogue, with super-speed and ambushing powers, free proficiency and expertise in both Nature and Survival, and, at 17th level, the ability to make an extra sneak attack on a second target. They're also the only full caster in the game to lack ritual casting. Then again, they're the only caster in the game to get natural proficiency in Constitution saves, which are needed to maintain Concentration, so there's that. Unfortunately, because game designers don't pay attention, if you don't pick fire you're screwing yourself: it has almost half again as many eligible spells as lightning or cold, the next highest, while acid and poison may as well weep in the corner. Also, the ability to control the wind and weather, and that kind of thing is very useful for navigating a ship. This one has gotten considerably rewritten multiple times. The Revised Subclasses UA rewrite was less drastic, mostly switching around features. It's been fairly generally mocked; not so much for being kind of boring as for the fact it places all its emphasis on its Mantle of Fire, which it only gets to use once per day. Soul of the Sea gives them the Amphibious trait and a free Swim speed. Shifting Form lets them halve damage from opportunity attacks, move through enemy spaces, and squeeze through openings that're 3 inches in diameter or larger. Finally, Water Soul basically turns them into a water elemental that happens to take a humanoid form, resisting all damage from physical attacks permanently and no longer needing to eat, drink or sleep. Generally held up as the most interesting, if not the best, of the variants included. Although given respect for its crunch, it's also pretty soundly mocked for the fact that, beyond the fluff of its AC-boosting trait, it has absolutely nothing to do with earth magic at all. If anything, it's essentially a 5e revamp of the , complete with iconic aegis mechanics adapted for 5e. This one gains the Heart of Fire scorch all creatures of your choice within 10 feet with fire damage whenever you cast a fire spell , Fire In The Veins gain Fire Resistance, ignore Fire Resistance when burninating others , Pyromancer's Fury use a reaction when hit in melee to torch the attacker , and Fiery Soul you're immune to fire, all fire effects from you ignore fire resistance, your fire attacks can burn Fire Immunity targets as if they were only Fire Resistant. In addition to their pact, they get additional customization through a pact boon - a spellbook with cantrips which can be upgraded to include rituals , a magic weapon mostly useful to take advantage of some of the fun magical weapons that require a caster to use, weaker than the others without a bunch of invocations bulking it up , or a more powerful familiar, such as a pseudodragon, imp, or quasit with some benefits over a normal one. Several of them allow you to cast specific regular spells at-will effectively turning them into higher level cantrips. Worth noting also is that with the exception of the warlocks' solitary 6th, 7th, 8th, and 9th level spells, all their spell slots are of the same level capping at 5th and regenerate every short rest, making them the best burst dungeon crawlers in the game. You gain mindfucky spells and the ability to mess with peoples minds, culminting in making mindless ones out of your enemies. Okay, really, you gain some fey powers - the ability to charm people nearby, the ability to teleport short distances, and illusory powers. You also have invocations that deal with support. On top of necromantic bonus spells and the Spare the Dying cantrip, they're somewhat resilient. They eventually come to resemble their undead masters, with advantage on saving throws against disease, slowed aging, the loss of bodily needs like food, sleep, breathing, and an number of regeneration powers to regrow lost limbs and recover hitpoints. Finally undead need to pass a saving throw before they can try and hit them eventually. Not as straightforwardly powerful as some of the others, but offers plenty of utility. It comes with a D6 table of optional character flaws, all of which revolve in some way around fear of the dark or obsession with the light. It gets a bunch of fiery spells Burning Hands, Flaming Sphere, Daylight, Fire Shield, Flamestrike , the Sacred Flame and Light cantrips, resistance to Radiant damage, extra oomph when dealing Fire or Radiant damage, increased reserves of life force, and culminating in the ability to heal others with a touch. In June 2017, they revealed the Celestial Patron for Warlocks, which is a rename of this Patron. It grants curative spells alongside the burninating ones, and a rearranged feature list: Healing Light is now its 1st level feature with some mechanical tweaks , Radiant Soul is now its 6th level feature, and Searing Vengeance is its 14th level feature. Also, Radiant Resistance has been renamed to Celestial Resistance. Rather, it represents a warlock who draws upon the power of an artifact-level magical weapon, using its strength to sustain itself. With called out as perhaps the definitive example of the kinds of blades who are power-sources for these warlocks, a blade pacted Hexblade is the perfect character for playing a expy of of Melnibone. Aside from having a array of bonus spells, like Shield, Magic Weapon, Smite, Blink and Destructive Wave, it's essentially a reiteration of the Hexblade from editions past, with maybe a touch of. For 1st level features, it grants both Hex Warrior proficiency with medium armor, shields, martial weapons; can use Cha for attack and damage rolls with a one-handed melee weapon you are proficient with and Hexblade's Curse. This feature lets you curse a victim for 1 minute once per encounter, gaining a bonus to damage rolls against them, increased likelihood of dealing a critical hit to them, and some free healing if they die before the curse expires. Both of the Hexblade's higher level traits augment the curse; Armor of Hexes level 10 lets you roll a D6 whenever a cursed victim attacks you and make them auto-miss on a 4+, whilst Master of Hexes level 14 removes the recharge requirement for cursing somebody, though you can only have 1 cursed victim at a time - if you curse somebody else, the old curse ends. The only exception to this is the level 6 feature, Shadow Hound, which lets you animate your shadow as a spooky sentinel who can merge with an enemy's shadow to negate their cover bonus and let you always know exactly where they are. This got changed in Xanathar's because it made no fucking sense for the warlock to randomly get a shadow dog. Instead, the Hexblade gets Accursed Specter at level 6, where the warlock curses the soul of a slain humanoid to rise as a player-controlled specter until the next long rest. The 1st level feature, Sentinel Raven gives you a familiar raven without needing the Pact of the Chain that can boost your perception by sitting on your shoulder or become a flying spy, as well as instantly wake you up if somebody tries to shank you in your sleep - bonus is, it comes back to life on its own if it dies. The 6th level feature, Soul of the Raven, lets you turn into a raven whenever you like. Level 10 gives you death protection via the Raven's Shield, in the form of Advantage on Death Saving Throws, immunity to Fear, and Resistance to Necrotic Damage. Finally, at level 14, you become the Queen's Right Hand, which lets you cast Finger of Death once per day. Archetypes are named after schools of magic and grant awesome bonuses when casting spells from those schools - like allowing an Evoker to shape a fireball so it doesn't hurt allies or granting an Abjurer a damage-absorbing shield which recharges as he casts lots of abjurations. All archetypes also get to know spells of their school for cheaper, making spellbook-scribing less of a money-sink. Not as overwhelmingly powerful as they were in 3. Simulacrum + wish can bypass the usual restrictions on both spells for free wishes and infinite simulacra, true polymorph allows you to turn your entire party into pit fiends with no duration limit if your DM is gullible enough to allow such shenanigans. Each one makes writing down a spell from their respective school cheaper and offers some extra effects when casting them. Abjurers gain shielding benefits, Conjurers have benefits for teleports and summons, etc. Best thing 4e did for the Swordmage vs. It is worth noting that there is a very sharp limit on the strength of those items, and by the time you get this ability those items have long since ceased being useful. It was eventually made into its own class. In essence, it lets you pick a Cleric Domain and gain that Domain's powers, though at a lower level than a Cleric would, as well as the ability to learn Cleric spells, although A: you need to learn all of your Domain Spells first before you can add other Cleric spells to your spellbook so, if you didn't take the Life Domain, you can't learn Cure Wounds until around level 10 , and B: other wizards can't copy your clerical spells out of your spellbook. It has been roundly denounced as the most broken Tradition in 5e so far, between arguments that, RAW, an Arcana Domain Theurgist gets Wish at level 14, and arguments about the potential to apply Spell Mastery to Cleric spells like Cure Wounds. Fortunately, it's quite powerful. Its first 2nd level feature, Lore Master, doubles your proficiency bonus for Arcana, History, Nature and Religion checks you still gotta be proficient in the first place and lets you roll Initiative based on your choice of Int or Dex. Level 6's Alchemical Casting lets you modify certain spells by burning an extra spell slot; give up a 1st level spell slot when casting a spell that inflicts damage for +2d6 bonus Force damage, give up a 2nd level spell slot when casting a ranged spell of at least 30 feet to instead upgrade its range to 1 mile, and give up a 3rd level spell slot when casting a spell with a saving throw to increase its DC by +2. At level 10, you gain the Prodigious Memory trait, which lets you use a bonus action to swap one of your memorized spells out for a prepared spell instead once per encounter. Finally, level 14 makes you a Master of Magic, letting you cast 1 spell from any spell list must be a level you can actually cast for, though once per day. This tradition has received a huge outcry for effectively being better at magical flexibility than the entire Sorcerer class is. Perhaps more surprising is that it's not redundant when compared to the Evoker; its powers actually make it more of a tank. Their first features, Arcane Deflection and Tactical Wit, give them the ability to spend a reaction to being hit or failing a Con save to grant themselves +2 AC or +4 to their Con save at the cost of not being able to cast any spells more powerful than cantrips until the end of their next turn and the ability to add their Int bonus to their Initiative rolls, respectively. Their second feature, Power Surge, lets them boost up a group-affecting damage-inflicting spell by doing +2 dice worth of damage once per short rest. Their next feature, Durable Magic, gives them +2 to AC and all saving throws whilst sustaining a Concentration spell. Finally, their last feature, Deflecting Shroud, lets them blast all enemies within 10 feet for half their level in Force damage each time they use Arcane Deflection. It also gains the ability to cast randomized spells. It also steals Lore Mastery's Alchemical Casting, adding in that sacrificing a first-level slot changes the spell's damage type. This class seems to have replaced the as the core -using class, and in fact seems to be able to mimic several psionic classes of former editions, depending on which Psionic Order to chooses to follow. Only two are presented in the UA article, but two others are noted as planned. On that same note, the article only includes progression up to 5th level. It got bumped up to a 10-level class in the February 2016 UA article, which tweaked the disciplines around and makes it more flexible. The March 13th 2017 Unearthed Arcana finally saw the Mystic Mark 3, which brings the class to full 20th level. This brings it to full fruition; aside from having six subclasses, all Mystics now gain access to both Disciplines and Talents. Psionic Talents are essentially the Mystic's equivalents of cantrips, being at-will powers that the Mystic doesn't need to fuel with psi-points. One more aspect of the full version of the Mystic is that it Like, there's literally no ruleswise differentiation between the two; psionic powers are all established to be magical effects. Odds are that this is just so they don't make double the stuff for boosting psionic shit, as some settings do treat psionics and magic as intermiscible. In June 2017, it was stated that the Mystic and Artificer were to be placed on the Dungeon Master's Guild website for further refining, after which WoTC would take the feedback and fandom support from those sites and use it to create the definitive official version of each. As innate abilities, it gets Mind Thrust psychic blasting , Psychic Mind telepathic communication and Object Reading postcognition. The focus of this one is being able to analyze psionic stuff, weaken enemies, and turn into a psionic ghost. The Take 3 rewrite makes this remarkably stronger by giving them ways to regenerate health for free, ending with the ability to cheat death altogether. All their abilities focus on protecting allies and boosting their effectiveness. This ability not only grants swappable proficiency slots, but it also grants the ability to teleport and avoid any sort of damage that they might have come across. The titular knives are psychic weapons that can be finessed and can be boosted by Psi points. It eventually gains the power to ignore armor. These guys mess with Resistances and can even spend Psi Points to cast spells. In June 2017, it was stated that the Mystic and Artificer were to be placed on the Dungeon Master's Guild website for further refining, after which WoTC would take the feedback and fandom support from those sites and use it to create the definitive official version of each. This Artificer is an Intelligence based one-third caster, getting a mixture of and spells with a focus on buffing and boosting alarm, cure wounds, protection from poison, etc. Additionally, they get a pet at 6th level. For subclasses, by default, they get the and the. Of course, they only get a small selection of recipes over the course of their career and they can't stockpile these; a given goody will magically vanish and return to the satchel after 1 minute if it hasn't been used. However, they can use all these tricks as often as they like. They get an Arcane Magazine that gives them a functionally-if-not-technically endless supply of bullets, and eventually the ability to shoot sonic bolts, cones of force, lightning bolts and fireballs out of their gun. Still, they addressed the idea mechanically in a UA article to allow for homebrewing, and included an example. Theirs is practically a lost art, at least partly because they are, like most wizards, secretive and ornery old fucks who hate sharing knowledge and thus being less special almost as much as they hate doing anything with the immense power they theoretically wield. To become one, a player must not only have reached fifth level, but managed to bribe, threaten, or cajole a more-powerful rune scribe into becoming their teacher, usually through finding a rune that isn't yet in their metaphorical stamp collection. How it is possible for anyone in the world to reach fifth level in the class when advancing requires a higher-level rune scribe is. They also get a few runes for free, just in case the DM is the sort of asshole who likes to give out fun magic items for classes that aren't in the party and never lets them get any new ones. A Background represents who you were before you took up adventuring. Most of them offer benefits to the social aspect of the game, with Outlander and Uthgardt Tribesperson as the two outlying exceptions. Essentially, it's the Career system from , only not tied to class progression. Each also comes with some roleplaying suggestions to help flesh out your character, as well as ways to make the eviler-sounding background more palatable to goody-goodies. This is probably the character component most friendly to homebrewing or personal interpretation, and the rules explicitly encourage this, with the usual DM approval clause. You gain proficiency in Insight, naturally, Religion, and your background feature lets you ring up churches of your faith for free help for your party and freeload on their couch. It also lets you pick a single specific temple, somewhere in the world, where you can expect free assistance. Naturally, it comes with proficiency in Deception and Sleight of Hand, a list of possible cons you're good at running, and a feature that lets you switch to a fake identity when the heat's on, as well as perfectly copy handwriting and statuary so long as you have a sample to study. Proficiency in Deception and Stealth what a surprise , with a background feature that gives you a reliable, trustworthy contact in the criminal underworld, and the ability to stay in touch with him wherever you go. Honor among thieves and all that. It's not just the bard background, okay? Covers a wide variety of different kinds of entertainer, from musician to storyteller to actor to fire-eater. Gains proficiency in Acrobatic and Performance, and has a fun background feature that lets them perform somewhere for free room and board, as well as improving their reputation in places they've performed before. They use their background feature in fight pits and arenas and get free medical care from battling there. Also, luchador or no guts. A folk hero is a lowly peasant kid who did something cool that sent them off on a life of adventure. You can pick what from a list or make up your own. You're proficient in Animal Handling and Survival, thanks to your blue collar roots, and the common people and peasantry love you and will do anything short of dying to protect you. You also gain proficiency in vehicles land , so have fun in high-speed wagon chases. You are proficient in not only the tools of your trade, but in Insight and Persuasion, because art is good and all but you gotta be good at selling it too. Your background feature gives you a huge list of benefits, and the ability to cozy up to bigger boys in the guild with donations of money and magic items: so long as you're in the union, the union's got your back. Guild Merchant: A variant, representing someone who buys and sells rather than manufactures and sells. You can swap out your tool proficiency for proficiency with navigator's tools, a vehicle, or an extra language, and can swap out your starting tool for a mule and cart. Proficiency in History and Persuasion from your classical education, and your background feature not only gives you some basic social benefits from being privileged, and you can get audiences with local nobles. Knight: Even moar military nobles. Instead of the noble's many social benefits, you gain three henchmen who can help you do things. They don't fight, and they'll bolt if you treat them like shit meaning this is theoretically one of the few background features that can be permanently lost, although if that happens your DM is either a dick or you deserve it. But beyond that, they can do a lot of other mundane tasks, and can be given your signet ring and such to grease the wheels for the party. Offers proficiency in Athletics and Survival, and has a background feature that, unlike the social benefits of others, improves your ability to navigate and lets you feed yourself and up to five people without skill checks required, so long as it's not an area of wasteland where nature's bounty is too scarce to allow that. Offers proficiency in navigator's tools and water vehicles along with Perception and Athletics. Your background feature lets you easily secure passage for your party during sea travel via your waterside connections, though doing so means that you'll have to help out along the way. Pirate: The obvious sailor variant. Instead of the sailor's background feature, you've got a reputation, deserved or not, as a mean son-of-a-bitch, meaning that you can get away with some minor criminal offenses, like breaking down doors or skipping out on your tavern bill, because people are too scared of you to confront you or to call the cops. Another beautiful day outside of this man's army. You're proficient in Athletics and Intimidation, and you still have your old military rank, meaning you can throw some orders around and lower-ranking people will obey, you can temporarily requisition supplies like horses and carts, and you can usually get access to friendly military fortresses and checkpoints. You grew up on the mean streets, and to get by you got proficient with Stealth, Sleight of Hand, and thieves' tools. You also have a cute pet mouse and a memento of your poor dead, dead parents, because. Your background feature lets you easily navigate urban environments, moving through them twice as fast as normal out of combat. But you've decided, if you can't beat those pesky adventurers... You gain proficiency in Athletics and Insight, and you can find both the local cops and the local crooks pretty easily from experience. Investigator: A variant for the detectives in the City Watch, rather than the beat cops. Instead of an alternate background feature, you swap out Athletics for Investigation. Not technically dwarf-restricted, although non-dwarves can't take on apprentices of their own. You are proficient in History, Insight, and the tools of your trade, and your background feature gives you the undying admiration of all dwarves everywhere forever. Seriously, dwarves will fight over the privilege of giving you free room and board. You gain proficiency in History and one of the other non-Investigation Intelligence skills of your choice, and your background feature is a mirror of the Sage's: while he gets a good idea of where to go and who to ask to learn vital information, you can easily access any library in the world, paying no fees, easily navigating any political or bureaucratic hold-ups therein, and having access to all but the most secret, sacred, or dangerous of knowledge. Unlike the poncy nobles, you earned your government job. You are proficient in Insight and Persuasion, and your background feature gives you an easy road map to navigating any political situation, knowing who to ask for what, and how to get ahold of things like records or minutes. You work for some kind of big international organization, like the Harpers, the Zhentarim, or the Lords' Alliance. To that end, you're proficient in Insight and any one mental skill of your choice so long as it fits faction theming , and your background feature gives you access to things like safe houses or meetings with other operatives that can help you out with room and board and information, though they won't risk their lives for you. You've moved into perpetually-Medieval not! Europe from somewhere else, whether not! You are proficient in Insight, Persuasion, and , and your background feature makes you a natural curiosity. This has a number of potential uses, whether in drawing attention in a crowd away from your sneaky friends, or being invited to parties for others to gawk at. You inheirited a thing. Anyway, you get Survival and one skill of your choice from among Arcana, History, or Religion, hopefully related to the whatever-the-fuck you inherited. You are proficient in Persuasion, plus either Arcana, History, Nature, or Religion, depending on what kind of Order you joined, and your background feature is basically along the lines of the Acolyte's, though with a few modifications if your order is civic or philosophical rather than religious, and with the caveat that your supporters will risk their lives to help you escape or rally to your defense if they see you wavering. You're a vet from a group of famous mercenaries, and you've decided to start freelancing. You're proficient in Persuasion, because mercs need to also be businessmen, and Athletics, and your background feature not only lets you identify and locate mercs and places where mercs meet, but to maintain a comfortable lifestyle at no additional cost between adventures by freelancing around. You can flavor it different ways, depending on whether you hunt upper or lower crust targets. Anyway, you can pick two skills of your choice from a list of Deception, Insight, Persuasion, and Stealth, meaning it can be custom flavored for different methodologies. Your background feature gives you a contact in any city you visit who can brief you on the local people and places to best let you find your quarry. Very similar to the Outlander, you are trained in Athletics and Survival, and your background feature lets you find twice as much food and water when you forage in the wilderness. It also lets you gain hospitality from other barbarians or nature-loving hippies, and grants you a knowledge of the geography of the North. Or, presumably, whatever other wilderness region you were from if you're not Uthgardt. While very similar to the Noble background, with proficiency in History and Persuasion, your background feature more-or-less just lets you live it up in the city of Waterdeep itself or the proximity thereoff without having to worry about money as your family foots the bill. Look, it's a horror background from a horror campaign, let me have my Ghostbusters jokes! You get free proficiencies in the skills of Insight and Religion, two bonus languages, the basic tools needed to document your findings diary, ink pot, ink pen , a trinket of personal significance, and a pouch containing 10 gold pieces. This background greants you free proficiency in History, Survival, and either Cartographer's Tools or Navigator's Tools, a bonus language of your choice, a map containing the location of a ruin or a dungeon, a bullseye lantern, a miner's pick, a shovel, a two-person tent, a trinket from one of your past dig sites and 25 gold pieces. Kill too many obvious innocents or abuse the power for personal gain too often, and the Inquisition will come for you. You get proficiencies in Athletics, Intimidation, one type of gaming set, and the use of land vehicles. You start the game with a gaming set, a scroll containing the basic teachings of the Five Gods, a simple puzzle box, some clothes, 15 gold pieces, and potentially some cartouches, if you've completed some of the trials already. Your background feature gives you access to free room and board, but only so long as you follow the expectations of both an initiate and a citizen of Naktamun; if you fail to act like a proper citizen, you may end up being branded a Dissenter. You get free proficiencies in History, Religion, a set of artisan's tools and a musical instrument, you start the game with either artisan's tools or an instrument, a vizier's cartouche, a scroll of your god's teaching, some fine clothes, and 25 gold pieces. Your background feature allows you to command initiates and expect obedience, but be careful; abuse this, and your god may punish you for it. In fact, as the years have gone past, a number of complaints have arisen... But then it turned out just how much WoTC intended to cut the pace back. A pace of two or three books a year, with only one of those being as opposed to adventure modules, wasn't what most fans had in mind, and as the trickle of content seems unlikely to advance, it's become more and more galling. Yeah, you can see the difference and get why people are kind of steamed by the sluggishness. Unearthed Arcana has also become a very controversial edition. This wouldn't be so bad, in and of itself, if each UA article didn't tend to be so short, rarely containing more than a single subclass or other idea. The basic complaint is that it all too often feels like WotC is half-assing things, with many suspecting they just slap something together at literally the last minute. Race Design Ironically, one element of 4th edition that people are missing is race design. In comparison, 5e's race design is... Another complaint is about two racial traits that WoTC seems to overvalue: Powerful Build and Natural Weapons. Powerful Build in particular gets peoples' goats because... But considering where and how Wizards tends to gravely weight it, often giving negative traits just to offset it, they clearly disagree. Natural Weapons earn flack because they're a hidden trap; whilst that inability to ever lose a weapon is nice, and it's a really fluffy trait, the problem is that as soon as your campaign starts climbing up past first level, your natural weapons become increasingly useless. Firstly, there's no feats to increase the versatility of your natural weapon attacks. Secondly, unless you're playing a , you lose all incentive to rely on your natural weapons once you hit that point where creatures that are become increasingly common, by which point you have long since lost all benefits from your natural weapons by virtue of being a high-level monk short of maybe being able to do slashing damage or something with them. And while in theory the game is designed around magic weapons being rare and unreliable to obtain, in practice virtually no DM holds to that rule, and neither do most published adventures. Plus, it is often very obvious when the creators built a race with care, creativity, and genuine passion to make something fun and memorable, and when they were just lazily splurting out something with zero effort because the fans kept asking them about a race they couldn't give less of a shit about. But the most infamous and obvious example came in the , which is perhaps best described with a brief summary of the , in which begrudingly lays out the basic facts of the and the entire gith race like he's reading notes off a post card as fast as he can, including a brief sidebar about how people kept asking about them, before spending two thirds of the video gushing about the subrace like he's in love with it, going on and on about how much he loves that race and how much he hopes you love it too so he can play it. The fact that one of these things was an overwrought labor of love, and one was a dashed-off product of a begrudging duty is eminently obvious in both the overall design and the overall power level of both races. And even 5e did give the nod to them. But, as mentioned above, it is very obvious that the creators' hears weren't in it. Most of the most traditional monster adventurer races - , , , and , alongside surprise newcomer the - appeared in Volo's Guide to Monsters... This itself would be bad enough, as it gives hide-minded DMs every excuse to ban the races, but it's carried out; the races were all over the place, with some being shockingly weak and others overly strong. One sub-aspect of this complaint is found amongst fans of , whose history as PCs goes right back with the orcs and goblinoids. See, despite the really mechanically strong and well-developed article on gnoll PCs that 4e got, 5e decided to render them completely off the market as potential PCs. From a race misled by a bad choice in patron gods, 5e gnolls were reinvented as little more than demonically-tainted zombies lacking in higher thought patterns who don't even breed, but instead use black magic rituals to turn the corpses of their kills into new gnolls. On the other hand, bothersome and number-crunchy, with games slowing down as players have to keep track of two different characters or scrounge through Monster Manuals for summons. To that end, both options were messily clobbered into bloody dust with the nerf bat. Already seen as one of the weakest PC options in the game, especially at lower levels, the beastmaster archetype makes it even weaker, since all its archetype benefits are devoted to making its animal companion marginally less terrible. However, while it is the worst example in the game, others are just as poor. The Pact of the Chain warlock's familiar, for instance which also needs the PC to expends his or her own options to allow it to attack similarly suffers from the lack of scaling of any kind, and the major benefit offered by such a companion Magic Resistance is undercut by the familiar's tendency to die messily in any kind of AoE attack. It is the weakest warlock Pact option in the game for this reason. Plus, if you want to play a summoner using just the core books... The Player's Handbook in particular offers only a few, fairly weak summoning spells, which in turn can summon only a few, fairly-weak creatures with very poor scaling. Xanathar's Guide to Everything added in a lot more, but even they won't fish you enough to really get out ahead. Indeed, it hurts the Conjuration wizard simply by virtue of him having a lot of class features that boost summoning, but summoning spells being toss. Half-Casters At mid-to-high levels, they scale up very well, but at lower levels, paladins and rangers are just baaaaaad. For one, neither gets Constitution saving throws, which are more common and more useful at lower levels than higher, and neither gets ritual magic. Paladins have to spend their spell slots to smite and so have a few hits per day of keeping up with the other martial classes before being worse versions of fighters, and their pool of healing power is so pathetically low for the first few levels that Wizards apparently agrees, if the fact that every other class in the game with such a pool either regenerates it on a short rest or gets twice as much or more is any indication. Also, while many of said classes can use their healing as a bonus action, if only on themselves, pallies gotta drop everything to lay on hands. Rangers don't get off much easier, with a first level that offers no combat benefits of any kind for a supposedly-martial class. Plus, because one is now a version of Favored Enemy and one's a version of Favored Terrain again, both stripped of any combat benefits they might potentially do nothing at all if the player chooses wrong. Though at least Natural Explorer is a really badass exploration feature. Primeval Awareness is probably the worst non-archetype class feature in the entire game if run entirely as described in the book. That one of its two Player's Handbook archetypes, the beastmaster, is, as described above, probably the worst such archetype in the entire game does the class no favors. Both classes do improve as they gain levels and spell slots the paladin somewhat moreso, since he also swells his pool and has a lot of unique gear like the famous Holy Avenger , and they do get some cool and unique spells that bards love to poach with Magical Secrets at comparatively-lower spell levels. And Xanathar's Guide was kind to both of them, with powerful new archetypes and spells. The ranger did eventually get a complete rework... Sorcerer The is a particularly sore spot for 5e fans because of how underwhelming it is. But, with the loss of , the 3e-style Sorcerer is straight up inferior, because it doesn't have nearly as many special tricks, like more spells per day, to make up for its limited selection - it's literally a wizard with a vastly cut-down list of spells and fewer spells known to boot! Enhance ability is the only really good spell sorcerers get but wizards don't, and they have few-to-no fun unique spells of their own the way bards, druids, or even half-casters like rangers or paladins do to soften the blow. Plus, since said points are the only mechanism by which a sorcerer can gain more spell slots, and therefore regain their traditional advantage over the wizard of having more of their smaller selection of spells per day, any given sorcerer now has to choose between actually using their metamagic or trying to save up for more spell slots. Notably, at the level the player gets sorcery points, they literally do nothing but offer one extra level one spell per day. Also, unlike virtually any other class with similar mechanics in the game, a sorcerer regains nothing on a short rest but hit points from hit dice until level 20, a ridiculous oversight. Notably, of the two core book sorcerer classes, the Dragon bloodline, is pretty nice, offering what's effectively permanent mage armor and the ability to apply one's Charisma modifier to appropriately-elementally-aligned spells right out of the gate... Those who do not are undercut by the lackluster number of elemental damage spells for just about every other element poison especially can go cry in a ditch unless a kind DM lets them take homebrewed equivalents that cause the same effects but with different damage types. And while the Chaos sorcerer is FUN in some ways, it's also, well... FUN, if you know what I mean. And literally needing the DM to remember to call for the PC to roll on a table and get one of their powers back is lame. Also, while wizards were spoilt for archetype options to chow down on like gluttonous children, with eight in the Player's Handbook alone, and tons of others from sourcebooks and UA articles the Lore wizard is still a sore point for in practice being basically better at metamagic than the whole Sorcerer class is , Sorcerers mostly begged for spare change, only getting a few options here and there, and most of those being UA material - which means that a lot of DMs will refuse to let players use them on principle. Most of them weren't bad options per se though the Phoenix bloodline was laughably awful , but they did the class no favors in basically being a weaker wizard. Oh, and unlike almost every other class with even the ranger getting a couple new choices these days , no sorcerer gets any bonus spells from their Sorcerous Origin, despite it being an excellent way to widen the class's option pool a little and mitigate many of its problems. Again, both half-casters know more spells than this full caster. All in all, the sorcerer has become similar to the in 3e - a class that you dip into for some bonus goodies, and then focus on advancing as a , or instead. Even a player who wants to progress primarily as a sorcerer is better served by getting at least one regenerating spell slot from a warlock, just to gain some freaking benefit from a short rest! Sure, they're the only naturally-spellcasting class in the entire game to get proficiency in Constitution saves out of the gate, and in an edition where those are used to concentrate, that's not nothing... It's not truly terrible, but it is easily the weakest full caster in the entire game. What especially incenses sorcerer fans is that the playtest version had some legitimately interesting mechanics to it, where Sorcerous Origin would actually give you special benefits as you ran out of spells - for example, the Draconic Sorcerer would turn into a and gain melee bonuses, making it switch from a caster to a decent fighter. Despite the positive response that the playtest had, WotC still wound up giving us the 5e canon sorcerer. Way of the Four Elements Monk For the most part, the class is quite well liked, especially as it folded the into itself straight out of the corebook. But, one subclass has earned more than its share of complaints, and that is the Way of 4 Elements. In a nutshell, the problem is that while an awesome idea, being literally an style , the subclass's unique powers are arguably overpriced in how much Ki they require to cast which, combined with how hard it is for the monk to regain Ki, means that a player is actually discouraged from using the very powers that made them want to play this subclass in the first place! Although monks do replenish all of their ki when they take a short rest, that's the only mechanic they have for doing so, and that basically means this Way turns the monk in a particularly limited half-caster. Aside from the eternal debates vis-a-vis Faerun vs. Right now, most mentions of these settings are relegated to the backs of Forgotten Realms sourcebooks, discussing how to adapt their ideas to other settings. Even when got official support, most of the hooks revolved around Forgotten Realms characters being taken to the Demiplane of Dread. To add insult to injury, iconic Greyhawk villains like were quietly retconned into Forgotten Realms adventures, and a book containing conversions of many previous modules, most of which were originally set in Greyhawk, was themed around a tavern in the Forgotten Realms, with a limply tacked-on backstory about patrons from other worlds telling stories. Happily, this may have begun to shift with the release of the latest new sourcebook. Mordekainen's Tome of Foes instead chooses to focus on and planar stuff. This may herald the start of a new direction going forward... The company has also released a downloadable smartphone app called Dragon+, designed to be the modern, digital equivalent to the magazines of old. While much attention is given to fluff articles, some juicy crunch is there as well.
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