Unearthed Arcana: Arcane Subclasses Review

Introduction

The latest Unearthed Arcana playtest document released on June 26th, this time titled “Arcane Subclasses“. As you might guess from the title, everything here is a spellcaster, and four of the nine subclasses are for the Wizard. Most of the subclasses are updates from the 2014 rules, but the Ancestral Sorcerer Sorcerer and the Tattooed Warrior Monk are both new.

Arcana Domain Cleric

Updated from the 2014 Player’s Handbook, the Arcana Domain Cleric got some improvements to their most iconic features and had some of their weaker features replaced. The spell list is left mostly untouched, replacing Magic Circle and Planar Binding with Counterspell and Bigby’s Hand, which should be considerably more useful.

Arcane Initiate retains its previous benefits (2 wizard cantrips, one skill), but now you also gain Expertise in the chosen skill.

Channel Divinity: Arcane Abjuration was great, but only useful when the affected creature types appeared, which is never a guarantee. The new Modify Magic replaces Arcane Abjuration and allows you to spend Channel Divinity to buff your spell similar to the Sorcerer’s Metamagic. One option lets you grant a target Temporary Hit Points, while the other lets you impose a -1d6 penalty to a target’s save, so you can use it both offensively and defensively as the situation demands.

Spell Breaker, which allowed you to remove an ongoing spell when you healed an ally, has been replaced by Dispelling Recovery. Dispelling Recovery fills a similar niche, but you cast Dispel Magic without a spell slot instead of unerringly removing the spell effect. It’s not as reliable, but you don’t need to upcast Cure Wounds or Healing Word to whatever level in order to remove the spell.

Finally, Arcane Mastery got a minor qualify of life buff: you can now retrain one of your selected spells each time you gain a level. That’s only 3 chances to retrain, but it’s still nice, especially if you learn Wish

Arcane Archer Fighter

The Arcane Archer has been cool but weak dating back to at least 3rd edition, so any time it comes back I have to take a breath and try not to get my hopes up. I can confidently say: the new version has gone from awful to passable. Maybe even fine. Not quite good, but it’s something.

The 2014 version’s biggest problem was the resource pool for Arcane Shot, which was fixed to 2 shots per Short Rest and never scaled, making the subclass extremely disappointing to play if you were doing any significant amount of fighting between rests. The new version now gives you shots per rest equal to your Intelligence modifier, which is much better. Even if you start with 16 Intelligence and never increase it, that’s still 50% more shots per rest. On top of that, Ever Ready Shot was moved from level 15 to level 7.

At level 3 you now get proficiency in both Arcana and Nature rather than picking just one. With passable Intelligence, you might even be good at them. You can now use Arcane Shot with any ranged weapon with the ammunition property, which means that you can use slings with Magic Stone or you could use firearms.

Level 7’s Curving Shot, which was arguably the subclass’s best feature in the 2014 rules, is unchanged. The wording is considerably more explicit, but as far as I can tell the effect is unchanged. Unfortunately, level 7 is also where the subclass stops getting anything new. From then on, it’s minor numerical increases.

Rather than shots dealing 2d6 extra damage and increasing to 4d6 at level 18 (which was insultingly poor), the Arcane Archer now has an “Arcane Shot Die” which starts at a d6 and eventually becomes a d12. Shots deal one or two dice of damage, so technically the damage does scale over time, just not enough that you’ll actually care. The Arcane Archer’s features at levels 10, 15, and 18 increase your Arcane Shot Die and absolutely nothing else, which is both weak and incredibly unsatisfying.

Aside from changes to the damage, I didn’t notice any changes to the individual shots other than the damage changes.

Tattooed Warrior Monk

A fun new concept, but the execution leaves much to be desired. The Tattooed Warrior Monk gives the Monk magical tattooes which allow them to cast spells and produce other useful magical effects. It’s close to a 1/3 caster like the Arcane Trickster and the Eldritch Knight, but not nearly so flexible.

At level three you’ll pick 2 Beast Tattoos. Each allows you to cast a Cantrip and do one other cool thing which is usually casting a Level 1 spell by spending Focus Points. At level 6 you’ll pick a Celestial Tattoo which, again, lets you cast a spell for Focus Points. At level 11 you’ll pick a Nature Tattoo which you can activate to get a damage resistance and Advantage on one type of save. Unfortunately, you can only change tattoos on a long rest, so you’re stuck guessing which tattoo will work best.

Finally at level 17 you pick a Monster Tattoo. The effects are rougly equivalent to level 3 spells. Yes, you’re level 17. Great, but not at this level.

I think the concept here is great, but the effects are too weak. Activating most of the tattoos takes an Action, too, which means that you’re not taking the Attack action in combat. That’s sometimes fine, but the effects rarely justify that action cost.

Ancestral Sorcery Sorcerer

There has been a long-running joke that sorcerer is nepotism magic, and this subclass makes that joke on its own. The Ancestral Sorcery Sorcerer says “do you know who my ancestory is?” and then magic happens. Jokes aside, it’s mostly fine.

The subclass spell list is mostly great and includes several excellent spells from the Cleric’s spell list including Guidance and Spirit Guardians. You also get Yolande’s Regal Presence in case you want Wizard Spirit Guardians, too. The theme of the spell list isn’t clear to me, but it’s not a bad spell list.

The subclass’s features depend almost entirely on Innate Sorcery: you lose everything except for the free prepared spells when Innate Sorcery isn’t running. It’s a great combat buff for the Sorcerer, but it does mean that you need to budget for that resource cost. Also, when you use Innate Sorcery, your ancestor manifests as a ghostly spirit. This doesn’t have an explicit mechanical effect, but it’s fun flavor.

At level 3 Ancestor’s Lore lets you add Charisma to all Intelligence checks and you get proficiency in a knowledge skill (Arcana, etc.). This means that the Sorcerer can finally compete with the Wizard on knowledge skills, but your party probably still expects you to be a Face.

At level 6 you get Counterpsell and Dispel Magic for free and can cast each once per day without a spell slot. When you do so, Counterspell imposes Disadvantage on the save you get Advantage on the ability check with Dispel Magic, so they’re unusually effective. For an Unearthed Arcana about arcane stuff, this UA sure doesn’t like countering and dispelling magic.

At level 14 your Innate Sorcery now comes with an aura that knocks approacing enemies prone or makes them Frightened. Combine with Yolande’s Real Presence for maximum shenanigans. Oh, you also can’t lose Concentration by taking damage.

At level 18 you get Advantage on saves vs. spells, which is great at this level because enemy spellcasters are abundant. You an also choose to automatically succeed on a saving throw against a spell once each time that you use Innate Sorcery, which is absolutely amazing.

Mechanically, I think this one is pretty good. I think the spell list needs another look, but I think I wold play this as-written.

Hexblade Warlock

With the Hexblade’s signatue gimick (use Charisma with weapons) now attached to Pact of the Blade, the Hexblade is still on a quest for a new identity. Players want it to be the go-to melee Warlock, and this version is closer to that than the previous Unearthed Arcana version, which I described as “all hex, no blade.” This version is more blade, still plenty of hex, but it still needs a lot of work.

Hexblade’s Curse is now closer to its 2014 version, allowing you to pick one creature and try to ruin its day. Unfortunately, the effect is pretty dismal. If the creature drops to 0, you heal a bit. You also get a +2 AC bonus when you’re within 10 feet of the target, but only if you’re not wearing armor or a shield. Do you know what else provides +2 AC? Light armor, which Warlocks are proficient in. So you’re expected to get Mage Armor, which means that you’re locked into Armor of Shadows or Magic Initiate, and you’re locked out of magic armor.

Applying Hexblade’s Curse is normally a Bonus Action, but you can also apply it when you cast a spell that curses the target, such as Hex or Bestow Curse. That’s a really nice convenience compared to the 2014 version. Unfortunately, it won’t help when you’re just moving Hex.

At level 3 you also get Unyielding Will, which is intended to help your maintain Concentration on spells while in melee. If you get hit while concentrating on a spell, you do 2d6 dmaage in an emanation. Unfortunately, that never scales. Once per long rest you can choose to succeed on a failed Concentration save and also get some Temporary Hit Points. That’s great, but it’s not enough to get through a day.

At level 6, Malign Brutality helps you intermingle spells and weapon attacks and lets you chase the targe tof Hexblade’s Curse if they try to run away. I’m really happy with this one.

Level 10’s Armor of Hexes has been reworked. It now lets you spend a Reaction to reduce incoming damage from the target of your Hexblade’s Curse. If you’e soloing an enemy, this is fantastic.

At level 14 you get to crit your cursed target on a 19, and once per long rest you can turn Hex into area damage. You can spend a spell slot to do it again, but it is not enough damage to justify doing so. You also recover Hexblade’s Curse more often, so you can use it a few more times per day.

Overall, I think this is better than the previous UA version, but Hexblade’s Curse needs to actually do something at level 3.

Conjurer Wizard

Conjuration magic in DnD is good at one thing: bringing thems from one place to another place. This encapsulates both summoning and teleportation, and the Conjuration Wizard has been split between those two concepts since at least 3rd edition, often struggling to be good at both at the same time. The 2014 Conjuration Wizard was further limited by how few summoning spells they got in the PHB, and didn’t really get good until we got Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything and the updated summoning mechanics.

The new version of the Conjurer Wizard sticks to Benign Transposition and buffing its summoning spells, but updates both to fit better with the 2024 rules. Unfortunately, they dumped Minor Conjuration, which wasn’t an amazing ability but felt very novel, creative, and thematic.

Benign Transposition is in a frustrating place balance-wise. It’s basically Misty Step as an Action instead of a Bonus Action, but you can also swap places with a willing creature. If Benign Transposition a Bonus Action, it’s better than Misty Step. If it’s not, it’s arguably worse. Either way, you get it once per day unless you’re willing to spend a Level 2 spell slot, in which case you’re more likely to cast Misty Step anyway.

It’s frustrating design situation, but I think making Benign Transposition a Bonus Action at level is fine. It’s basically an upgraded Misty Step similar to other subclasses like the Fey Warlock. We do eventually get Benign Transposition as a Bonus Action, but not until level 14.

Level 6 brings Durable Summons, which was the Conjurer’s level 14 feature in the 2014 rules. They changed the math so that the THP scale with level, which makes a ton of sense, and it’ll make Summon Whatever spells a bit more impactful. But you don’t get any summon spells for free, so technically you could shoot yourself in the foot by not knowing how to summon stuff. I don’t why you’re playing a Conjurer at that point, but you do you.

Durable Summons does apply to your familiar when you cast Find Familiar, but burning 10 gp every day to summon it so that you can put Temporary Hit Points on it does feel silly.

I would love to see Minor Conjuration come back. It was never powerful enough to upset the game, so I think they could just add it as written without worry about balance issues. I would also love to see a Malign Transposition feature and/or the ability to swap two allies. I would also love to see another summoning-focused feature on the class. Maybe something with Find Familiar as a low-level option.

Enchanter Wizard

The Enchanter Wizard is the closest that the Wizard will ever get to playing a Face, and only because they can use spells instead of social skills. They also get abilities that buff allies and debuff enemies, sometimes including dominating them and controlling their actions. Historically, Enchantment has been one of the most offensively powerful schools of magic, though the subclass wasn’t great.

The updated version of the Enchanter Wizard is a mixed bag much like the 2014 subclass. They’ve abandoned the powerful but risky Hypnotic Gaze in favor of Echanting Talker (+Int to Charisma checks) and Vexing Movement (cast an Enchantment then spell, then run for the hills). Enchanting Talker is excellent, but Vexing Movement does not fit the theme here.

The fantasy of an Enchanter is controlling a situation by controlling the creatures in that situation. Vexing Movement is a panic button for a Wizard who has lost all control of a situation. That’s what Expeditious Retreat and Misty Step are for. I don’t need a class feature for it.

Reflecting Charm is a purely defensive comabt option which, again, is great for a Wizard that has lost control of a situation. It’s basically Hellish Rebuke that also mitigates incoming damage. It’s pretty good, but a second defeensive feature in a row doesn’t feel good.

Split Enchantment was the highlight of the subclass in the 2014 rules, essentially doubling the impact of your most powerful spells. It was exceptionally powerful. The new version got the Twin Spell treatment, cutting down the list of eligible spells to a paltry handful.

Bolstering Belief replaces the Enchanter’s worst 2014 feature, and it’s actually pretty good. Charm and Fear effects are abundant, and giving Advantage on saves against them which could last an entire adventuring day is pretty great. This is the first feature in the entire subclass that directly helps your allies, but you’ve been cowering in corners and panicking since level 3, so it does feel like an odd exception to the rest of the subclass.

I’m not happy with this one. Enchanters are my favorite type of Wizard, and I would not play this subclass.

Necromancer Wizard

The fantasy of the Necromancer Wizard is to create undead thralls and have them do stuff for you like fighting and carrying you on a palanquin. The 2014 version helped with that a little bit, but without making it so central that you were incentivized to do nothing else. The new version gives you essentially no incentive to create permanent undead, instead handing your Summon Undead and calling it a day. Also, you need to have your spellbook in your hands at all times for… reasons, I assume.

The first feature is Grim Harvest at level 3. In the 2014 rules it healed you if you killed a creature with leveled Necromancy spell. Nice when it worked, but unreliable. Thew new version gives you resistance to Necrotic damage and lets you pass out Temporary Hit Points when you cast a leveled Necromancy spell. Much more reliable. Definitely an improvement, in my opinion.

Level 6’s Grave Power lets you recover from Exhaustion faster and lets you ignore resistance to Necrotic damage. Fine, but not super impactful. Fortunately, you also get Undead Thralls at this level.

In the 2014 rules, Undead Thralls made your animated undead more durable and made them deal more damage, which was intended to keep them useful past when their CR stopped being a threat. It helped, but it wasn’t amazing since it didn’t help with attack bonuses. Even in 5e’s bounded math, a +5 to hit from a skeleton will rarely hit beyond low levels.

Level 10’s Undead Secrets provides a panic button if you drop to 0 hp. The undead theming is dubious.

Death’s Master at level 14 provides two benefits. First: you can spend a Bonus Action to grant THP to undead which you have created or summoned. There’s no usage limitation, but each creature can only be affected every 24 hours. Still, it’s a decent buff. The second benefit allows you to add a secondary benefit when you use Grim Harvest to grant THP to a creature.

In the 2014 rules, the Necromancy got Control Undead at level 14, which was an excuse to go hunt down a Nightwalker and turn it into a pet. It was unpredictable and depended heavily on what undead your DM was willing to put in front of you, but it was very thematic.

Transmuter Wizard

The 2014 Transmuter was focused more on polymorph effects, and had the Transmuter’s Stone as a low-level feature to keep you happy until you were high enough level to cast Polymorph. The new version flips that and abandons Polymorph in favor of focusing solely on the Transmuter’s Stone. You’ll now get the ability to add a second effect, and you can now change the effect each time you cast a Transmutation spell with a spell slot, making the feature much more powerful and engaging. You’ll also get Enhance Ability for free.

However, I’m not sure if this is the fantasy that folks want from the Transmuter. While the Transmuter’s Stone is a great effect and it’s a great choice for a Wizard if you can’t decide on a subclass, I think focusing more on Polymorph would have catered more to the fantasy of the Transmuter than this version does.

Final Thoughts

Some great ideas, especially with the new subclasses, but there is still a lot of work to be done here. The mechanics are frequently underwhelming and don’t deliver on the fantasy that want from man of these subclasses. A few, like the Arcana Domain Cleric, very close and just need some fine tuning, but most of what’s here needs a lot more thought.

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