Unearthed Arcana: A touch of (more) magic

[Wilb]

Finally!

EDIT: Clerics suddenly became a bit better as cantrip blasters...

[TenaciousJ]

On first glance, I only really noticed Hand of Radiance, Primal Savagery, Toll the Dead, Healing Elixir, and Zephyr Strike as spells that would have a significant effect on building characters.

[sambojin]

I don't know. Ceremony looks REALLY good, depending on your reading of "can only benefit from this once" is.



So, state that you really, really like Zog the Half Orc. Because it's +2 AC and saves all day long. He makes you really hard
(also, you can do group marriages. It doesn't say two people, just the people you touch. Seriously one of the best pre-BBEG buffs ever. As long as you can deal with the consequences)

Investiture is a nice way of handing out Hex to people that are mono classed if you're a Cleric/Lock. Great for shooters and extra attack meleers. Only lasts an hour, and takes an hour to do, but still a nice ability to have. It has to be properly prepared, but there's ways of doing that (MI Hex is prepared for instance, while normal Lock slots aren't).

Or just give someone +d4 on ability checks for the next day. This includes initiative checks too.

Seems really good for 25gp and an hour of your time. Sure, you'll have to faff about setting up camp a bit longer, but 24hr non-concentration buffs are pretty rare.


So is it just non-stacking? Or can they only use the listed benefit once during that time period? Or can they only have the spell cast on them with that benefit once in their entire lifetime? All readings are reasonable. I'm pretty sure it's the last one though. Kind of like you don't usually marry the same person twice, it's actually "the thing it says is happening", not just a spell. You are now married, on the cheap, by a priest you know. And you've only got one foreskin, so use it wisely (note: that's not a coming of age thing anywhere really, it happens way earlier. Maybe in tribal Africa?). But by the time you've all come of age, gotten married to each other, and dedicated yourselves to religion, that's about a 2-3 week campaign gone at one casting a day. Then you just never prepare the spell again.

Who says I can't have three wives, two husbands and a pantheistic approach to religion? Elves are weird, and don't seem to consummate enough anyway. Which suits Zog fine.


(you could probably re-fluff the marriage thing as becoming "lifelong battle-brothers" or something if you wanted. It still can only be done once, but it saves Zog wearing a dress. It wouldn't be white anyway......)

[TenaciousJ]

The silly marriage suggestion still doesn't work because the last line is "A creature may only benefit from this once ceremony just once," not "these creatures" or "this group." misread the argument on this one - it's still a ritual on divine prepared casters, so it hurts nothing to have it available for the one time you'll ever benefit from it.

I just didn't list it earlier because don't see it as something that enables new character builds or significantly empowers existing ones.  Hand of Radiance and Toll the Dead enable cleric blasting without Magic Initiate or a multiclass dip.  Barring stuff like also using Booming Blade or Green-Flame Blade, Primal Savagery does the Shillelagh thing better than Shillelagh because it scales up its damage, and at level 18 a druid wouldn't have to consider the attack capabilities of its wild shape forms.  Zephyr Strike finally gives rangers something to benefit their melee builds.

Investiture doesn't work with Hex either since a cleric/warlock doesn't prepare Hex.  Hex is only available as a spell known currently.  It would work with spells gained via cleric, druid, paladin, and wizard.  Divine Favor is close enough to the benefit of Hex.

[8wGremlin]

Death Cleric picks up another Necro cantrip - Toll the Dead, now they can twin of those bad boys off!

Warlock/Sorcerer can now twin Healing elixir helps with a Coffee Drow's healing issues.

Tomb lock can pick up:

Ceremony   (conjuration, ritual)
Guiding hand (divination, ritual)
and Wild cunning (transmutation) - which the text description says is a ritual as well

[TenaciousJ]

Warlock/Sorcerer can now twin Healing elixir helps with a Coffee Drow's healing issues.

Twinnned Spell calls out spells with a range of Self as invalid for the metamagic.

[8wGremlin]

Warlock/Sorcerer can now twin Healing elixir helps with a Coffee Drow's healing issues.

Twinnned Spell calls out spells with a range of Self as invalid for the metamagic.

Phew, well that's a relief.

thanks TenaciousJ

[Amechra]

Chaos Bolt seems like it would combine amazingly with the Empowered metamagic. At the very least, the chance of you rolling a match goes up immensely, and you'd (theoretically) have much more control over the damage type.

EDIT: Toll The Dead seems like it almost supplies a viable Eldritch Blast alternative for Warlocks, too.

[TenaciousJ]

Chaos Bolt seems like it would combine amazingly with the Empowered metamagic. At the very least, the chance of you rolling a match goes up immensely, and you'd (theoretically) have much more control over the damage type.

EDIT: Toll The Dead seems like it almost supplies a viable Eldritch Blast alternative for Warlocks, too.

Elemental Adept has some interesting interaction with Chaos Bolt too.  1s and 2s aren't desirable, but they're more likely to give you a jump.

[Amechra]

Chaos Bolt seems like it would combine amazingly with the Empowered metamagic. At the very least, the chance of you rolling a match goes up immensely, and you'd (theoretically) have much more control over the damage type.

EDIT: Toll The Dead seems like it almost supplies a viable Eldritch Blast alternative for Warlocks, too.

Elemental Adept has some interesting interaction with Chaos Bolt too.  1s and 2s aren't desirable, but they're more likely to give you a jump.

Not by too much, though - you're going from 1/8 to ~3/16.

Oh, and as a side note: man, Toll The Dead is stupidly good for Eldritch Knights, thanks to War Magic. Meanwhile, Infestation is just plain funny on a Sea Sorcerer - smack someone for a little damage and then make them move 20ft in a random direction.

[Wilb]

Is toll the dead good for bards? or at least lore bards?

[TenaciousJ]

Lore bards aren't built for cantrip damage innately, so I prefer Vicious Mockery to hand out disadvantage on attacks.

Toll the Dead is good as part of a suite of cantrips like Sacred Flame and Hand of Radiance because you have alternatives when you encounter a creature with that consistently passes one kind of saving throw.  If you want to rely on a single cantrip for damage, pick something with an attack roll.  AC is variable, but the success rate of attacking AC is less variable than attacking saving throws.  Some creatures have proficiency and/or advantage on savings throws against spells.  A party with a lore bard has a high chance of creating advantage situations to increase the accuracy of an attack roll cantrip too.

[awaken_D_M_golem]

Cause Fear ... is good and scales ok-ish.

Guiding Hand ... is Find The Path from previous eds, excepting the "known" part.  I like it.

Healing Elixir ... you called DoggieNose "Pizza" and they don't deliver out where you are.

Primal Savagery ... Druids auto pick at level 10.

Puppet ... I want to like this, but I'm thinking Disguise Meta for out-of-combat, otherwise an iffy bf control.

Sense Emotion ... shhh don't call it psionics you'll mess up the sensor info.

Snare = ritual Hold Person upgrade, chokepoints only, tough to save against

Sudden Awakening ... dangit cain't stab mah buddies in their sleep no more

Toll The Dead ... autopick at level 3 for Domains with the level 8 +Wis damage.  Don't like it at level 1, not enough things to do for round 1 while other damages are going on, but not a problem at level 3.

Unearthly Chorus ... Friends With Benefits eh?  Yeah you shoulda heard the "singing" sweeeeet.  Not an enchantment = very good.

Virtue ... bad action usage.

Zephyr Strike ... can get rid of a few dip combos = good.

Wild Cunning ... this seems like a stab at gygaxian DMs, you could already do pretty much all of this, unless DM was being cheap.  I guess it's a nice index of an ability.