The most exciting part of a new Dungeons and Dragons book is always the new options for DnD classes. That’s why, when I grabbed an early review copy of Arcana Unleashed at Gen Con, I dove straight into the subclasses first. We’ve seen plenty of these new spellcasters in playtesting, but now, their final versions are out in the world. And I have opinions on them.
Here’s a summary of each subclass from Arcana Unleashed, which isn’t available widely until September. Based on a close readthrough and a few dice rolls, some are winners, others less so:
Winner: Arcana Cleric
The Arcana Cleric was never my favorite subclass, but it was already fairly strong in 5e (especially at high levels). Arcana Unleashed has made it slightly better.
Your domain spells are improved, with excellent options available at low levels. The high-level spells are closer to the ‘okay’ territory, but that won’t be an issue when you see the rest of your subclass features. The Channel Divinity option is way less situational, now adding tasty temporary HP (2d8 + Cleric level) or a saving throw debuff to the target of your spell. I’m a big fan.
Similarly, the capstone has been enhanced. It still gives you a roster of high-level, always-prepared spells, but now you can swap them when you gain a Cleric level, giving those final three levels some lovely flexibility.
The only real nerf is to your sixth-level Dispelling Recovery feature. You can use it more often than the previous 5e feature, triggering it when healing or removing conditions via spell. However, rather than ending a spell effect equal to your spell slot’s level, you just cast Dispel Magic for free. That means only level-three or lower spell effects are guaranteed to end without a dice roll.
Personally, I’m okay with the change. The lower-level buffs give us plenty of power, so I expect this was a consistency tweak to stop our Cleric from being totally broken.
Winner?: Arcane Archer
The Arcane Archer has been pushed and pulled in all directions, presumably in an attempt at balance. I don’t think it always succeeds, but I think the changes overall are positive.
This is most evident in your Arcane Shots. Your uses of this feature now rely on your Intelligence modifier, which means you can fire far more frequently than before, provided you go MAD and invest heavily in Intelligence. It makes builds trickier, but it at least solves the Arcane Archer’s lack of resources.
All shots deal damage before level 18 now, and some – like Piercing, Seeking, and Enfeebling shot – have new features that add strategy to your decision-making. The trade-off is a few nerfed shots, and a generally lower ceiling on the damage each can do. This is less sexy and explosive, but it stops any one shot from being the obviously optimal choice.
Beyond Arcane Shots, I think the Archer has seen a net improvement. Its features now work with crossbows, and Magical Ammunition has been reworked to be far more tactical. Depending on how you use it, you get a free Fog Cloud, Knock, or climbable vine (60 foot longer than in the last playtest) – neat!
We lose our ability to overcome magical resistance, but that’s not so bad, as Wizards has moved away from spamming non-magical resistance in monster stat blocks. Instead, we have entirely new features at levels 15 and 18. Both focus on maneuverability, with different degrees of success.
Indomitable Teleport, brand-new since playtesting, which only lets you teleport when you succeed on a save after using Indomitable, feels too infrequent to be really exciting. I’m a bigger fan of Masterful Shots, which gives you a way to back up from melee attackers without triggering opportunity attacks – pretty crucial for a ranged striker.
Winner: Warrior of the Mystic Arts Monk
The Warrior of the Mystic Arts isn’t going to win points for originality. It’s basically an Eldritch Knight, but with access to the Sorcerer spell list instead of the Wizard’s. You literally get the Fighter subclass’ spellcasting, War Magic, and Eldritch Strike features – just reflavored for a Monk, and at slightly earlier levels.
However, I’m still calling this subclass a win. What it lacks in creativity it makes up for in quality. The revamped Monk was already tremendous fun, but a handful of combat-supporting spells could be even more of a game-changer. I’d argue the ability to replace an attack with a cantrip or spell feels even better on the Monk, who hits little and often, than the Fighter, whose strikes are fewer but more fearsome.
My favorite feature by far is Mystic Focus, which lets you convert spell slots into Focus Points and vice versa. A big part of 5.5e’s approach to the Monk was giving it more access to its main resource, so this is a lovely bit of added flexibility.
Loser: Vestige Warlock
I really wanted to love the Vestige Warlock. It’s by far the most entertaining character concept in the book, but the actual realization is bland and middle-of-the-road. As much as I want an unpopular god as my over-involved Patron, this is one of those subclasses whose ideas have been done better elsewhere.
The Vestige Warlock is a companion class in the same vein as Beast Masters, Battle Smiths, and Drakewardens. Your patron manifests as a Vestige Companion, whose type and special powers can be changed whenever you summon them. The stats on your buddy aren’t too bad, but they don’t scale as you level up. Also – at least at lower levels – their powers aren’t very impressive.
Basically, once a day, you can either: give a creature disadvantage on attack rolls for one minute; swap places with your companion if they’re within 60 feet; or give 2d8+Charisma in HP and end an ally’s condition. This upgrades to once per rest from level six, but they’re still not overwhelmingly impressive bonus actions.
I’m not impressed by the Warlock’s other subclass features, either. Vestige Spells gives you some always-prepared Cleric spells, but your limited spell slots puts a cap on how useful that can be. Spell slots are especially scarce if you choose to use Vestige Recovery, a level-10 feature that saves your companion from temporarily dying in exchange for a slot. Given that you can re-summon your Vestige Patron whenever you like, this hardly seems worth it.
The capstone feels good, at least. Summoning your companion essentially lets you cast Summon Celestial, Summon Fiend, or Summon Undead for free, for one hour. The Vestige Warlock isn’t a terrible subclass by any stretch of the imagination. It’s just painfully alright.
Winner: Conjurer Wizard
Conjurers may gain their most potent powers later on in 5.5e, but they’ve been improved in basically every other way, so it’s worth the wait. This is a subclass Wizards clearly found underwhelming in the past edition, so the updates are rather dramatic. They’re also basically the same as the ones we saw in playtesting.
First-off, Benign Transposition is available from level three. Its uses are now tied to your Intelligence modifier, meaning you can use it sooner and more often. Teleporting isn’t exactly special in D&D these days (it feels like everyone can do it), but not having to spend a spell slot to do so? That does feel magical.
Conjuration Savant now gives you a flat number of additional spells, rather than making it cheaper to copy Conjuration options into your spellbook. I have mixed feelings about this: it’s certainly simpler, but a rich Wizard is now far more limited in how many spells they can learn – and what they can spend their gold on.
Your teleportation gets better as you grow, and you still have extra protection for your concentration by level 10. Your former capstone, however, is now a level-six feature, making buffed-up summons viable sooner. Splintered Summons, the new capstone, lets you summon two creatures at once from a single summon spell – and that always feels sweet for your action economy, even if their HP is halved.
Winner: Enchanter Wizard
The Enchanter’s changes are more slight than the Conjurer’s, but they mostly move in the right direction. Enchanting Conversationalist’s buffs to our Charisma skills mean we can actually play a pretty decent Face. Hypnotic Presence is now at third-level rather than two, but its range is extended by 10 feet, and it lasts a minute without needing to extend the effect, so it’s appropriately scaled.
Split Enchantment, moved from level 10 to six, is also marginally better. It does basically the same thing, but the wording means you’re not limited to targeting two creatures with an Enchantment spell – you can always target one more than the spell’s usual number of targets, making mass enchantments better, too.
Split Enchantment swapped places with Instinctive Charm, which has been upgraded to justify its new spot at level 10. You now only use this feature when you know an attack against you succeeds. Also, you don’t technically need another creature to be within range when you use it, making setup far easier to achieve. Uses are now tied to your Intelligence modifier too, so the frequency has improved as well.
Lastly, there’s Alter Memories. After plenty of playtest experimentation, this looks largely as it did in 5e, but it relies on your Intelligence score rather than Charisma. I get why Wizards did this – it means less stat juggling for the Wizard – but I do feel we lose some of the subclass’ impeccable theme with this change. I’m more into roleplay than min-maxing, though, so take that statement with a pinch of salt.
Loser: Necromancer Wizard
I am always angry at the D&D Necromancer. I’m angry because, as Wargamer’s resident goth, this should be my favorite subclass. But it wasn’t in 5e, and it still isn’t now.
There have been improvements, don’t get me wrong. Necromancy Spellbook, with its necrotic resistance and a beefed up version of Find Familiar, is far less situational than Grim Harvest was. Grave Power makes it easier to reduce exhaustion and lets you ignore resistance to necrotic damage – which would be excellent if we had a slightly better catalog of necromancy spells to work with. This school of magic rarely features in ‘best spells of all time’ lists, and this subclass suffers for it.
Undead Thralls is improved from fifth edition, and it’s slightly better than the version we saw in playtesting, too. Only slightly, though – your thralls have marginally better HP now.
Here we hit on the main problem of the subclass. A free casting of Animate Dead (which you get with Undead Thralls) can only give you two thralls to play around with. Thanks to your special flavor of Find Familiar, you might end up with three undead buddies. That pushes the fantasy of an undead servant horde as far as it can without turning D&D into a bookkeeping nightmare, but it’s still not quite realizing the fantasy we clamor for.
In fact, the subclass attempts to cull your thralls from level 10. Harvest Undead lets you sap your undead for extra HP – useful for a squishy spellcaster, but incredibly expensive given how few thralls you get. Finally, the Death’s Master capstone gives your undead a long-awaited bolster, plus the ability to explode upon death. It’s flavorful and fun, but it feels too little too late to save the subclass in my eyes.
Winner: Transmuter Wizard
The Transmuter Wizard just feels extra good at wizarding in 5.5e. So much so that, if you followed the playtests, you can expect this subclass to look basically identical.
Your Transmuter’s Stone is now available three levels earlier, and its playtest version felt so superior to 5e that Wizards has made no more changes. A spellcasting focus that gives Darkvision, extra speed, or damage resistance? Yes please.
Wondrous Alteration, your other third-level feature, is also pretty dang good. Alter Self with extra steps gives you a surprising amount of utility – though I can’t see Aquatic Adaptation getting used nearly as often as Change Appearance or Natural Weapons. That last one turns you into a concentration machine, after all.
Things are a little less dramatically improved at higher levels. Shapechanger, like in the playtest, lets you hang onto key stats and cast some spells while Polymorphed. Empowered Transmutation makes your non-violent Transmutation spells slightly more potent, which is nice on occasion. Enhance Ability gets a whole lot better, but there aren’t too many other major uses.
Master Transmuter, similarly, is also only slightly better. Major Transformation can be bigger than in 5e, Restore Youth now reduces exhaustion, and Panacea restores HP too. That was all present in the playtest; the only major difference is you now must spend a level 7+ spell slot (rather than 5+) to stop your stone disappearing after activating this ability.
Want to learn more about this year’s DnD release schedule, or just the new Arcana Unleashed content? Hit us up in the Wargamer Discord – we’re a well of arcane knowledge.
Source: Wargamer
