What Do I Know About First Impressions? Unearthed Arcana: Expert Classes, Part Two–Spell Lists, Class Groups, and Feats

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DnD_Bug_4c_8_RGBWe’re back for part two of this very, very large undertaking. If you didn’t start with Part One, well, I’m not your boss, read these in whatever order you want to read them. I just wanted to lay the groundwork for some of the changes we see in the classes later on, because some of the nuance of why things were done the way they were lies on how the adjacent rules have been changed. Also, just for some added context:

This time around, we’re going to look at class groupings, spell lists, and feats. We already saw this a bit in the Rules Glossary, but a lot of the design space in this area is invested in the idea of creating a broad definition, then referring to that broad definition, rather than fully describing items multiple times, and standardizing similar, but not identical, traits and rules from the 2014 rules. 

I understand this, and to an extent, I think it makes sense for designers to design “forward” to make their lives easier, but as I said last time around, I think there are some pitfalls to this kind of design. Namely, referring to the same boxes sometimes makes you think of the boxes and not the final result, and referring to a broad definition seems simpler, but sometimes makes someone scrabble to refresh their memory of that broad definition to make sure they remember all of the nuance since the rules aren’t explained in plain language when they appear.

Class Groupings

This Unearthed Arcana is referred to as “Expert Classes” because all of the D&D classes are, as of now, and unless changed later in the playtest, assigned to a broad category. Those categories are:

  • Expert
    • Bard
    • Ranger
    • Rogue
    • Artificer
  • Mages
    • Sorcerer
    • Warlock
    • Wizard
  • Priests
    • Cleric
    • Druid
    • Paladin
  • Warriors
    • Barbarian
    • Fighter
    • Monk

Now that these broad categories have been defined, they can use them as requirements and as a means to reference other rules. For example, in the feats, some feats are already constrained to a particular group. 

It’s hard to draw too many conclusions from this at the present. The primary element that they have identified with the Expert classes is that they all gain Expertise of some kind. All of the Mages group get Arcane spells. All of the Priest group get either Divine or Primal magic. All of the Warriors “deal and endure many wounds.” 

The two most concrete elements we have seen in this document is to standardize the levels at which classes within a group get their subclass abilities, and to provide a prerequisite for feats. We know that means they have changed all of the Expert group to 3rd, 6th, 10th, and 14th, but that strongly implies that Druids and Paladins will probably be moving their subclasses to 1st level. Lots more on this when we get to the classes themselves, but the definition of “backward compatibility” is really taking a beating if all of the changes in this playtest remain in place.

Spell Lists

We already saw a preview of the spell lists in the previous Unearthed Arcana for One D&D. This time around, we see the whole spell list, going from 0 to 9th level, for all of the Arcane, Divine, and Primal spells. I don’t want to spend a lot of time dwelling on the lists as a whole, other than to point out that if you look at the class groupings, and you see some classes that had unique spells to that class, those unique spells are probably part of the overall spell list now. That means smite spells end up in divine lists, and things like dissonant whispers end up on the Arcane list. 

I’m still working out how I feel about this. I’m not going to say it’s good or bad, but as with some of the other “bundling” that has appeared throughout this document, I think taking some of the unique spells that only belonged to one class and making them more universal does remove some of the personality built into those classes.

Speaking of bundling rules for broad definition, it seems like some classes will be getting access to spells in this format: 

“You have access to the [Arcane, Divine, or Primal] spell list, and may choose spells from the [insert list of spell schools].” 

That means that schools suddenly become more important than they were previously, outside of a few corner cases and wizard specializations. That also leads us to some spells that switched schools in this document, and I suspect many of these changed schools not from a “story logic” standpoint, but so they aligned better with what classes they wanted to have what spells.

The changed spells are:

  • Aura of Vitality (Abjuration)
  • Blindness/Deafness (Transmutation)
  • Contingency (Abjuration)
  • Cure Wounds (Abjuration)
  • Dancing Lights (Illusion)
  • Earthquake (Transmutation)
  • Flaming Sphere (Evocation)
  • Glibness (Enchantment)
  • Hallow (Abjuration)
  • Healing Word (Abjuration)
  • Mass Cure Wounds (Abjuration)
  • Mass Heal (Abjuration)
  • Mass Healing Word (Abjuration)
  • Power Word Heal (Abjuration)
  • Prayer of Healing (Abjuration)
  • Produce Flame (Evocation)
  • Reincarnate (Necromancy)
  • Sending (Divination)
  • Shatter (Transmutation)
  • Stoneskin (Transmutation)
  • Telepathy (Divination)
  • Thunderwave (Transmutation)

I don’t really want to spend too much time arguing spell schools and what spells should be where, but there are a few internal logic fails for me on that front. Thunderwave is a quick burst of power, that generally denotes evocation, but they want bards to have access to it. Anything that does damage that sticks around as an object from round to round, instead of just exploding or what have you, has generally been conjuration, but I’m sure there are some class consideration reasons that they wanted to bump things like Flaming Sphere or Produce Flame into Evocation, probably to make sure they are the kinds of things only Wizards or Druids are playing with, versus other classes.

Feats

So, now we have feats. There are a whole lot of feats in this UA, but there are some trends I wanted to address. Additionally, because I wanted to summarize things like levels and requirements all in one place, please accept my commentary in the form of a table. I’m a data specialist during the day. My love language is spreadsheets.

Anyway, about those trends. First and foremost, these are the first of the “above 1st level” feats we are seeing now that the paradigm has moved to feats no longer being optional, and feats having a level associated with them. Specifically, most of these feats are 4th-level feats, with a few 1st-level and 20th-level feats thrown into the mix.

All of the fourth-level feats have an ability score increase built into them. In addition, Ability Score Increase is now just a feat that gives you two ability score increases instead of the one tacked on to all of the 4th level feats.

I’m already a little leery of feats having varying power levels, but I wanted to address something that jump out at me as I was looking at these feats. Every 4th level feat has an ability score increase. You can take 1st level feats, but that kind of throws off your expected advancement. As much as I hate that there is expected advancement, you could fix this very easily.

Every four levels, you get an Ability Score Improvement. Ability Score Improvement, as a feat, lets you get a second one if you use your feat in that manner. All the rest of these feats, you can design without worrying about “balancing” an ability score advancement into the 4th level feats, or making a 1st level feat too unattractive. We’ll see where goes, I guess.

Epic Boons from the Dungeon Master’s Guide also got added to feats. While some of this logic touches on the class redesigns, I wanted to talk about it here. Sure, Epic Boons were kind of an interesting concept to reward players with abilities if they kept playing after they were 20th level. But I’m not sure any of them felt so compelling as to redesign classes to get them at 20th level, instead of getting them if you kept playing after you reached 20th level.

Some of the ones introduced really aren’t that jaw-dropping. The reason they were reworked into feats is so that if you have characters that want to take a feat instead, they can do that, or if they gain new feats by adventuring past 20th level. But as much as these are jaw-dropping, they definitely aren’t to scale with the 1st and 4th level feats we have seen so far. I guess this feels like a lot of effort put in a direction I’m not sure is all that exciting.

Feat

Level

Prerequisite

Notes

Repeatable

Fighting Style: Archery

1

Warrior Group

It’s interesting that we introduce groups, then introduce exceptions. Rangers get access to Warrior group feats even though they are experts, and I’m pretty sure the same will be true of Paladins.

No

Fighting Style: Defense

1

Warrior Group

See above

No

Fighting Style: Dueling

1

Warrior Group

See above

No

Fighting Style: Great Weapon Fighting

1

Warrior Group

See above

No

Fighting Style: Protection

1

Warrior Group

See above

No

Fighting Style: Two-Weapon Fighting

1

Warrior Group

See above

No

Lightly Armored

1

None

Removed ASI, added medium armor and shield training. Pushing this one down to 1st level, this is one of the few that removes an ASI, but is a little more useful for the extra training involved.

No

Ability Score Improvement

4

None

If you’re going to make feats standard, this makes sense.

Yes

Actor

4

Charisma 13+

Level requirement and ability score requirement added, constrained specifically to perform instead of deception. So if you are the DM, you may want to be generous enough to frame Ability Checks as things that can be considered Perform checks as much as possible.

No

Athlete

4

Strength, Dexterity, or Constitution 13+

Level requirement and ability score requirement added, added climb speed, which obviates a lot of the Athletics skill. So much climb speed.

No

Charger

4

Any Martial Weapon Proficiency

Added ASI, changed damage to a die instead of a flat bonus, added extra movement. I actually like more random abilities, so I’m fine with shifting to a damage die instead of a flat bonus, but also, with the “old” crit rules back in place, that’s another die that can be doubled on a critical hit.

No

Crossbow Expert

4

Any Martial Weapon Proficiency

You need to have martial proficiency to get this, even though you can use a light crossbow without that proficiency. Added an ASI, added a slight change to using a “light” crossbow as the follow up attack. A lot of these feats that add martial weapon proficiency seem to be charging a “feat tax” that I’m  not fond of. 

No

Defensive Duelist

4

Dexterity 13+

Added ASI

No

Dual Wielder

4

Any Martial Weapon Proficiency

Added ASI, similar but more specific language about treating the non-light weapon as light.

No

Durable

4

Constitution 13+

Dropped the previous version, added bonus action to spend hit dice, advantage on death saves. This one feels like a lot to me, maybe too much. This would have been a great feat to add that “you can do this once, and it recharges when you roll initiative” kicker into.

No

Elemental Adept

4

Spellcasting or Pact Magic Feature

Added ASI, ability largely works as it did previously.

Yes

Grappler

4

Strength or Dexterity 13+

Added ASI, retained advantage on attacking a grappled opponent, added no movement reduction for you when grappling, can grapple while also causing unarmed damage.

No

Great Weapon Master

4

Any Martial Weapon Proficiency

Added ASI, cleaving still works, extra damage is automatic but lower. I’m fine with this, although I’m pretty sure it’s going to be doing more consistent damage across time without taking the penalty, which is skewing PC damage upwards over time.

No

Heavily Armored

4

Medium Armor Training

Largely the same.

No

Heavy Armor Master

4

Heavy Armor Training

Added ASI, damage reduction based on proficiency bonus instead of 3. On one  hand, I don’t think a damage reduction of six is a big deal at 20th level, but on the other hand, CR 20 range monsters already don’t really do as much damage as they probably should.

No

Inspiring Leader

4

Wisdom or Charisma 13+

Added ASI, increased temporary hit points to 2d4+proficiency bonus versus Charisma bonus. So many temporary hit points, from so many sources.

No

Keen Mind

4

Intelligence 13+

Removed direction and time sense, photographic memory, replaced with proficiency and/or Expertise and quick study. Quick study is further quantifying that certain skill uses are a hard-defined “action,” which can be shifted to a bonus action with the feat. Also, this is more proliferation of Expertise, which I feel like is really shooting difficulties all to hell.

No

Mage Slayer

4

Any Martial Weapon Proficiency

Adding ASI, removed attack against a spellcaster as a reaction, added one autosave on an intelligence, wisdom, or charisma save once per long rest. I’m wondering if this one was changed because caster stat blocks may not be using actual spells. If so, this feels less “mage slayer.”

No

Medium Armor Master

4

Medium Armor Training

Added ASI, removed being able to stealth without disadvantage in medium armor, other benefits the same. I’m wondering if this presages some changes to armor types coming down the road. Also, not a huge fan of this change, because I know a lot of rangers that like being “medium armored” and still being the sneaky ambush type.

No

Mounted Combatant

4

Any Martial Weapon Proficiency

Added ASI, added more specific language that does effectively the same thing for attacking unmounted, added advantage to animal handling checks. I mentioned this above, but again, I’m not a fan of these fiddly changes requiring martial weapon proficiency, because sometimes people have a character concept in mind that may not be worth burning a feat to qualify.

No

Observant

4

Intelligence or Wisdom 13+

Removes reading lips, adds range of skills you can be proficiency with and/or Expertise, search as a bonus action. I’m really interested to see what the logic was for removing reading lips was. Also, it’s another feat that broadens how many people have Expertise, and further quantifies ability checks as discreetly defined actions. 

No

Polearm Master

4

Any Martial Weapon Proficiency

Added ASI, made it so you can’t be a polearm master with a spear, retain pole/haft strike, retain opportunity attack when entering area. Unless there is a change coming down the pike for spears and quarterstaves in their own discreet rules, this is not a lot of fun and feels like it just steps on a lot of fun character ideas. I suspect this was done because design is shifting to referencing broad definitions instead of specifics, and this is one of the reasons I don’t like that as an overall trend. 

No

Resilient

4

None

Pretty much unchanged.

No

Ritual Caster

4

Intelligence, Wisdom, or Charisma 13+

You just know two additional spells from one spell list which are always prepared for your, and once per long rest, you can cast them, without casting them as a ritual, at their non-ritual casting speed. This feels weird, especially since you don’t need this if you are a spellcaster to cast ritually. I’m not sure how weird this will feel until we see more spellcasters. 

No

Sentinel

4

Any Martial Weapon Proficiency

Added ASI, largely unchanged otherwise.

No

Sharpshooter

4

Any Martial Weapon Proficiency

Added ASI, removed bonus damage, kept cover negation and range, can shoot at point blank range without disadvantage. I know sharpshooter was a hot button issue for a lot of people, but I’m kind of surprised this didn’t go the same route as great weapon master, with a static damage bonus once per round based on proficiency bonus. Also, shooting people at point blank range doesn’t really feel like a sharpshooter, and maybe better suited to the Archery Fighting Style feat.

No

Shield Master

4

Shield Training

Added ASI, shove action is more complicated because of changes to shove and grappling, removed dex save bonus from shield, still allows you to use a reaction to negate half damage from a successful save. I’m really curious about the reasoning behind removing the shield bonus to dex saves.

No

Skulker

4

Dexterity 13+

Added ASI, switched a lack to disadvantage to full blindsight out to 10 feet, no language about obscurement levels, just advantage to hide in battle. This is another example of referring to a broad definition instead of detailing the individual benefits, and I don’t see as much of a problem with it here, but I may be missing something. It feels less egregious than the additional movement rates. 

No

Speedster

4

Dexterity or Constitution 13+

All new, ASI for Dex or Con, +10 feet movement in non-heavy armor, dash action negates difficult terrain. The part about negating difficult terrain seems kind of strange, unless this is supposed to be a kind of Flash sort of speedster moving so fast you almost run above things. 

No

Spell Sniper

4

Spellcasting or Pact Magic Feature

Added ASI, removed bonus cantrip, removed range bonus, can attack at point blank range without disadvantage. It’s weird that a “sniper” feat removed the range-boosting part of the feat. They really want to let people have that point-blank range ranged attack with no disadvantage. Maybe that point-blank range should go into War Caster?

No

War Caster

4

Spellcasting or Pact Magic Feature

Added ASI, largely unchanged otherwise.

No

Weapon Training (Mastery)

4

None

Changed from four weapons to proficiency in all martial weapons. I’ve got no problem with this change since it felt kind of fiddly especially compared to multi-classing. 

No

Epic Boon of Combat Prowess

20

Expert or Warrior Group

Changed recharge from short rest to next initiative.

No

Epic Boon of Dimensional Travel

20

Expert or Mage Group

Unchanged, other than clarifying long rest in addition to short rest. Since it doesn’t appear as a boon in this document, I’ll mention it here . . . Boon of Planar Travel really did feel epic, and doesn’t get converted to these rules. 

No

Epic Boon of Energy Resistance

20

Expert or Mage Group

Brand new, can shift energy resistance with a short or long rest.

No

Epic Boon of Fortitude

20

None

Added a bonus equal to your constitution bonus in hit points whenever you regain hit points, once per round.

No

Epic Boon of Irresistible Offense

20

Expert or Warrior Group

Unchanged.

No

Epic Boon of Luck

20

Expert Group

Changed recharge from short rest to next initiative.

No

Epic Boon of the Night Spirit

20

Expert or Mage Group

New, you become invisible in dim light or darkness as an action, and don’t reappear until you take an action or reaction. Given the number of Ability Checks that define what you do with them as an action, you could be reappearing more than you think you would as worded.

No

Epic Boon of Peerless Aim

20

Expert or Warrior Group

Changed to match Combat Prowess, automatically hitting instead of adding +20, also recharges with a new initiative.

No

Epic Boon of Recovery

20

None

Only fail a death save on a 1, once per long rest recover 50% of your hit points.

No

Epic Boon of Skill Proficiency

20

None

New, you know every skill ever. Congratulations. There can be only one.

No

Epic Boon of Speed

20

Expert or Warrior Group

New, you get +30 feet to your movement.

No

Epic Boon of Undetectability

20

Expert Group

New, nobody can see or hear you while you are hidden. So I’m guessing no pinpointing you without having Blindsight or Tremorsense, etc. 

No

Epic Boon of the Unfettered

20

Expert or Warrior Group

New, bonus action disengage and get out of grappled and restrained. This one probably feels the least Epic of all of the Epic Boons.

No

I’m hoping that some of the hurdles that are being introduced via weapon proficiency or class groups fade away somewhat. I can understand the concept of future-proofing your designs to make it easier to slot new elements into your work, but it feels like once the elements get defined, the playtest really wants to start using those divisions now, and not in the future, and that pushes us further from backward compatibility.

And speaking of backward compatibility, that’s going to be a lot of what drives the conversation about classes and subclasses when we look at them in the last installment of this series. I hope you’re sticking with me for this ride.