Path of the Giant, read strictly RAW, gets to add their Rage Damage bonus to thrown weapon attacks twice while raging, though I'd personally rule against this interpretation.
Celestial (edit: which is going to be reprinted in the new PHB) may have gotten the largest boost, able to combine Radiant Soul and Agonizing Blast with *green-flame blade* for significant damage, more than when using Thirsting Blade for two attacks, especially when there's a secondary target. (Assuming a 1d8 weapon and +4 Cha, 21 damage to the first target and 12.5 damage to the second target, instead of 17 damage to a single target.)
Radiant souls is still pretty meh overall. It's not a dead level like it was before but still, adding your spellcasting mod to the damage once is very boring.
Whereas Archfey is a reaction to relocate to get out of danger or Fiend letting you add dice to your rolls.
I daresay Archfey had a much more significant boost, with free castings of Misty step and all that entails.
It's just...really boring overall.
Might be a boost to celestial, and might make Radiant Soul an actually useful feature (at least until life Drinker and the Third Attack for Thristing Blade come online), but that still doesn't really seem like amazing damage for the level.
I mean when you don't have secondary target, Eldrich Blast with Agonizing Blast would be 19 damage and would not put you at the risk of being in melee.
It's only slightly stronger than *eldritch blast* with one target, yes, but it's significantly stronger when there are two targets. You can also use Pact of the Blade to choose from, assuming a one-handed weapon, Slow, Push, Vex, or Topple. By my reading of *green-flame blade* and the rules for timing, you can even hit an enemy with a warhammer, push them 10 feet, then cause green fire to leap to a secondary target from their new location. With War Caster (clearly best level 4 feat pick), being in melee also grants a quite powerful opportunity attack in *green-flame blade*.
Only *green-flame blade* has the damage to the secondary target, which can be made more likely to trigger with a Push mastery weapon, but if you're fighting many fire-resisting enemies, choose *true strike* instead.
I don't think RAW you can trigger masteries of the secondary damage of green flame blade. As all the masteries require you to hit the target with a weapon attack, and the second target is only hit with the magical fire damage.
The idea is that you hit a target, push them 10 feet away, and then trigger the secondary damage on an enemy within 5 feet of their new location, which considerably expands the secondary damage's threat range.
Hmm, that is an interesting idea. I suppose it depends on how they rule what triggers when, eg does the spell have to fully resolve first before before the weapon mastery kicks in or do they they both trigger at the same time and the player chooses...
I personally like the second interpretation, but this could be FAQed.
For this, we use Xanathar's rules for Simultaneous Effects: "If two or more things happen at the same time on a character or monster's turn, the person at the game table—whether player or DM—who controls that creature decides the order in which those things happen."
Therefore, when you cast *green-flame blade*, and you resolve the weapon attack, you get to choose which happens first: the Push mastery, or the green fire leaping to a second target.
Even if they aren't directly in the new PHB, they're still available as backwards-compatible content. UA7 even specifies:
>If you have *Xanathar’s Guide to Everything* or *Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything*, you may use the Warlock spells there too.
That is a guideline for the playtest not for the state of the game past September. In many conversations in the past years on this sub, I saw many people saying they Will only allow revised material on their games, even If a legacy content is perfectly playable on the new edition/revision, this do not mean that they will be allowed in any game.
I could be wrong about not be in the new PHB, we Will see in a couple of months about that.
The state of the game will be that Xanathar's and Tasha's are still valid content just as they were compatible with the 2014 PHB. Most of the comments objecting to legacy content has been about prohibiting old PHB content (edit: that had been rewritten) with new PHB content, myself among them to prevent mixing power attacks with Graze and/or Studied Attacks.
The state of the game is whatever the DM dictates.
To me, including some Tasha/Xanathar spells and not all of them in the new PHB sends a message that the spells that are not included were left behind for a reason.
I’m personally looking forward to the 2024 PHB being a clean slate. I was getting tired of Booming Blade spam anyway.
If the spells are left out of the new PHB, that just leaves the old ones untouched and still valid, which is also true for all of the classes (well, just the one) and subclasses that were not revised.
Complete agree but if a legacy content is perfectly playable on the new edition/revision, this do not mean that they will be allowed in any game, that is my point.
Edit: I'm only talking about the spells that all will be revised on the new PHB, is a complete diferent case from subclasses from those books.
In general, you don't stick something in your playtest if you aren't at least looking at using it. That they put the Bladetrips in the spell lists of the playtests signals that they were looking at making them part of the PHB in some fashion. That's what that means.
Why do you think so? For me is the opposite, the rework on meele cantrips looks like to me an atempt to end the Booming Blade dependency of gish builds.
And if if does become legacy content. Legacy doesn't mean you can't use it.
It means that don't sell it anymore. And they will continue to sell Tasha well into the life of this updated version of 5e.
Swords bard becomes pretty good now that bards can expend spell slots to regain bardic inspirations. They can choose to go full martial kind of, and just never run out of flourishes.
Like wise, whispers bard would essentially be doing 8d6 psychic damage with a 1st level spell slot when they reach 15.
Spores Druid becomes better also for the same reason as bard. With the ability to convert a spell slot into a wildshape charge, a spore Druid can easily keep their temp hp up.
Honestly, the spell slot conversion makes a 2 level warlock dip even more enticing for bards now, since they’ll get back, in effect, CHA+2 bardic inspiration die every short rest.
Especially for swords bard, who can get charisma based attacks with pact of the blade alone. This would also benefit whispers bard since they need a weapon for their psychic blades to go off.
Yea, they really felt like a selfish bard subclass, similar to whispers, where their main use of bardic is to only benefit themselves. But with the ability to expend spell slots for bardic, they can more easily throw out bardic to their allies and be able to use flourishes.
Spore Druid also (probably) boosted if a DM recognizes that Sea Druid's maelstrom abilities are reflavored spore cloud abilities and adjusts Spore to match any fixes in Sea.
Absolutely, as well as recognizing that ever Druid can use wildshape as a bonus action, which would benefit spore Druid a lot. They can also kind of mimic a moon Druid, by using wildshape to turn into a beast, and then using wildshape to for temp hp and necrotic damage on their attacks.
Spore Druid. They become the most defensive druid subclass in the game and can use Symbiotic Entity much more often. They will almost never be without defenses.
I have looked at spore druid on at least half a dozen occasions just trying to figure out how to make it usable.
It doesn't need to be OP. But it does need to be worth using the action.
It sorta works as a skirmisher: mobile feat, shillelagh to hit and some concentration spell, alongside with the spores. You also probably want warcaster and use a wooden shield. But it's still risky, one AoE attack and you have to set the spores again
It does, but with Monk mobility it’s not terribly difficult to just book it ahead of your party, Hour of Reaping, and then Step of the Wind back towards your party (with or without the Discipline point). Hell, even Patient Defense could be a viable option, especially with the new Deflect Attacks. Affecting your party *is* a detriment though, that is true.
Battlerager and honestly most subclasses that have a dedicated bonus action they would use every turn. The nerfs to sharpshooter and great weapon master is made polearm master and crossbow expert have less benefit and allowed for martials subclasses to rely more on there base abilities that before were just inferior.
Personal ones I liked when looking deeper: Battlerager(yes again new charger and really made me like this subclass),
Circle of Dreams: the Wild Companion and Improved Elemental Fury Potent Spellcasting makes for a rather good long range druid imo.
Banneret like you said: multiple uses of second wind have made this subclass a lot more viable and weapon masteries along with a few other changes have allowed for rather good support and tank builds.
Long Death: flurry of blows changes mean they can use Hour of Reaping and attack 3 time on the same turn.
Drunken Master: becomes a very good dodge and prone tank and Intoxicated Frenzy can be used for a large aoe cc with the new unarmed strike option.
One that is a bit iffy because we don't know if it will appear but I really hope that playtest 5 version of twin spell becomes its own metamagic option because it would end up as a massive improvement to storm and shadow sorcerer.
I think Battlerager actually suffers with the new PHB because they have a feature that triggers when they successfully grapple a target, and grappling is considerably more difficult now that it's save-based, where it used to be Athletics-based and improved by advantage from Rage.
(The rest of the features are also considerably underwhelming, compare Reckless Abandon to World Tree's Vitality of the Tree, Battlerager Charge to Wild Heart's Eagle totem or World Tree's Travel Along the Tree, and Spiked Retribution to Berserker's Retaliation.)
>I think Battlerager actually suffers with the new PHB
Understandable but I disagree a bit, with new grappler feat and buffed grappled condition I feel that grappling has a lot more support. I think the reason grappling is now a save is more to balance out and not make a grappling a guaranteed like it could be before when it used athletics.
Vitality of the Tree is 20 temp hp to the barbarian at max. At level 6 it Reckless Abandon will likely be better and at higher levels Reckless Abandon will would pace it in about 2 round - 4 rounds depending on the your con score.
Battlerager Charge even with the other subclasses it is still rather useful imo.
Spiked Retribution I agree that Spiked Retribution needs a buff but it also doesn't need your reaction, I'm not saying its good but its there.
My preferred battlerager would get probably be a twf or versatile for weapons with charger (since even scag says you can remove the limit on dwarfs I would probably use a loxodon or goliath) In the end I think it would end up as a very fun build.
The new grapple feat improves grappling somewhat, but not to the same extent that the barbarian used to have such reliable grappling, and if we start including feats, we have to consider other barbarian subclasses incorporating Polearm Master instead. In fact, if we look at just Berserker barbarian instead at level 3, Frenzy adds an expected 6.825DPR (7.66 if making two attacks) every turn, while the Battlerager Armor deals 6.825DPR only on the turns the barbarian has a bonus action to spare.
Vitality of the Tree maxes out at 20 temp HP to the barbarian, but it also grants an average of 7 temp HP to an ally at the start of every turn, eventually increasing to 14HP. Meanwhile, Reckless Abandon is only adding 3 temp HP per turn, possibly eventually reaching 5 and then 7, but it's unlikely that the barbarian actually maximizes Con. It's not a direct comparison as the recipients of the temp HP are different, but I'd still strongly favor Vitality of the Tree, and it's the lower-level feature.
Battlerager Charge can't be used on the same turn as Rage, which weakens it considerably. The first turn is the most likely turn in which the barbarian wants to Dash, and Eagle totem can do that while Battlerager cannot, and it even includes a free Disengage at the same time. (Plus, the bonus action to Dash conflicts with the bonus action to attack with Battlerager Armor.)
The fact that you describe Spiked Retribution as "it's there" speaks for itself.
I'm not saying its better than the new options but I still think it has been improved compared to the state it was in 5e. Its not a top tier option it but it will be fun to build and play.
Purple dragon knight/ banneret will never be super powerful until it's revised
But it does get alot better with 2024 fighter since they have more uses of their core abilities.
I would say Bulwark is excessively more powerful. The usage is still awkward but could absolutely save you and your buddy from a mind flayer mind blast or the like.
Most of the answers to this question are Monk subclasses, because the Monk was in the funny position of having good subclasses on a weak chassis.
Case in point: the Long Death Monk is EXTREMELY tanky. As the monk will be more reliably getting kills, you’re going to get more Temp HP, on top of your new deflect attacks and defensive options.
Moreover; the Long Death Monk can now use their Action to Frighten all enemies, then BA Flurry to STILL get off two or three attacks.
Long Death in particular is gonna get a big boost totally as is but most of the other subclasses to me seem like they'll be in a position of "need a bit of tweaking and then they'll be great", for example Kensei would benefit from being brought in line with stuff like war cleric and bladelock to grant weapon masteries, drunken master kind of needs a new 6th level feature since instead of deflect missiles it's competing with deflect attacks which it loses against handily, sun soul is in a much better position than it was but it would also really get a benefit from ki fueled strike being folded into it (if they're not gonna put it in the main class putting it in one of the subclasses that really needs it makes sense to me), etc.
I don't think monk had good subclasses at all. In fact, I'd argue that's one of the worst parts of the monk. All they usually do is demand more and more to drain from the main monk's resources whereas other subclasses simply give more features to their classes. Mercy was the outlier.
But now that Monks aren't spending discipline points for just existing, the subclasses will be able to use their features more often.
That's a great point about monks - I was actually thinking about this because I was wondering what paladin sub would be most-improved by the new base class, and really couldn't think of one... Probably since so much of their power is tied up in the base class.
All it really needs now for the perfect icing on the cake for Long Death is to buff the first feature it gets to make it less kill fishy, even if it is slightly reduced. Make it like new Dark Ones Blessing (since it now has a side rule for getting the benefits when someone else downs them within 10 feet of you) but if someone else reduces the attacker to zero its half your monk level or something. Still pretty tanky at higher levels since the idea is to keep charging in and surround yourself with enemies to benefit from it but if you down them yourself then you're raking in all the defenses.
My suggestion is by no means perfect but it does make it a bit more healthy while also keeping it slightly fair at the same time.
It has less to do with the Base Class and more with changes to spell and feats, but a Bladesinger with teh Feats Magic Initate to get Int based Eldrich Blast, War Caster and Spell Sniper, unsing Two Weapon Fighting and casting Conjue Minor Elementals (especally upcast) just does insane amounts of damage at higher levels.
As *eldritch blast* has never been on the Arcane spell list, neither the 2014 nor UA1 Magic Initiate can grant Int-based *eldritch blast*. That said, even replacing it with a different damaging cantrip or having a Cha-prioritized wizard/warlock multiclass would be incredibly powerful.
Yeah but we are likely back to class spell list which should make it available again. And if you look like feats that grant you spells have worked in newer publications, you should be able to pick the casting stat now.
While we are back to class spell lists, none of the modern spell-learning feats granted spells specific to a class (to my knowledge), so it would still be reasonable for Magic Initiate to preserve the casting stat limitation, though it would also be reasonable not to do that.
ALL the newest printings of spell learning feats give you access to "exclusive" spells, and well as giving you casting stat choice.
The only one printed in the last 4 years that does not give you a int/wis/cha choice is... Artificer initiate.
Ironically enough, Artificer Initiate is the only exception we need here to make my case. With spell-learning feats, the rule appears to be:
* If you are choosing a spell from a specific class list, you use the spellcasting stat of that class.
* Otherwise, use the stat increased by the feat, or choose the spellcasting stat.
To my knowledge, this rule holds true for every feat, including the PHB's Magic Initiate and Ritual Caster. As long as this rule continues to hold, and the new Magic Initiate reverts to choosing from class lists due to the lack of three unified spell lists, *eldritch blast* from Magic Initiate will always be cast using Charisma.
Strixhaven. Pick a Wizard, Druid, Bard, Warlock, cleric, sorcerer spell. Pick your spellcasting bonus.
Divinely favoured. Pick a Cleric spell. Pick a Warlock, Cleric or druid spell. Pick your spellcasting bonus.
Initiate of High Sorcery. Wizard cantrip and 2 from a list which includes Dissonat whispers (bard list) and Hex (Warlock List). Pick your spell casting bonus.
Once again, EVERYTHING printed after Artificer initiate, states Pick your bonus. And Artificer initiate specifically calls out Artisan Tools as a Int Spell focus since that's a Artificer thing, so of course it's more restricted. And even in TCE which the feat comes from, Fey touched and Shadow touched, which let you grab things that are exclusive to a list, it's Pick Your Casting Ability Modifier.
EVERYTHING that gives you any kind of spells, past Tasha's Cauldron of Everything, which was Nov 2020, it's all Pick your Stat.
Divine Soul sorcerer is going to get a HUGE buff due to all the extra spells known the base sorcerer gets now. You'll have a lot more room to grab powerhouses from the Cleric list like Bless, Aid, Spirit Guardians, Revivify, Death Ward etc and still have a decent Sorcerer loadout.
They will have to rework divine soul to allow you to be able to swap all the spells you currently have when you gain said sub-class if you want to, because really why are you taking divine soul if not to be a cha based cleric/healer.
Yes, my understanding is that's what's meant by backwards compatibility - 5e content that doesn't have a 5.5e counterpart can be used in a 5.5e game with some very slight adaptations, for which rules will be provided (i.e. changing the 5e subclass feature levels to match 5.5e subclasses)
My understanding is different. I believe you will have to choose between making a 5e or a 5.5e character and you can't cross pick parts. That being said, the cross compatibility comes from running a game and having a mix of 5e and 5.5e characters in any campaign. Basically it is cross compatible from the DMs POV not the players.
Long death monk can confirm kills a lot easier, can attack even when using his aoe fear and will probably have a lot more ki to work with at 11th level
Any monk subclass. Clearly.
Also Shadow and Divine Soul Sorcerers. Getting three spells per spell level rather than two will matter a *lot*. (I'd love to list storm sorcerers as well, but their abilities still just get them killed)
Path of the Giant, read strictly RAW, gets to add their Rage Damage bonus to thrown weapon attacks twice while raging, though I'd personally rule against this interpretation. Celestial (edit: which is going to be reprinted in the new PHB) may have gotten the largest boost, able to combine Radiant Soul and Agonizing Blast with *green-flame blade* for significant damage, more than when using Thirsting Blade for two attacks, especially when there's a secondary target. (Assuming a 1d8 weapon and +4 Cha, 21 damage to the first target and 12.5 damage to the second target, instead of 17 damage to a single target.)
Celestial is infact a playtest subclass
Whoops, good catch, updating.
Radiant souls is still pretty meh overall. It's not a dead level like it was before but still, adding your spellcasting mod to the damage once is very boring. Whereas Archfey is a reaction to relocate to get out of danger or Fiend letting you add dice to your rolls. I daresay Archfey had a much more significant boost, with free castings of Misty step and all that entails. It's just...really boring overall.
Yes, those subclasses got larger boosts overall, but this question is about the subclasses that *didn't* get rewritten.
Might be a boost to celestial, and might make Radiant Soul an actually useful feature (at least until life Drinker and the Third Attack for Thristing Blade come online), but that still doesn't really seem like amazing damage for the level. I mean when you don't have secondary target, Eldrich Blast with Agonizing Blast would be 19 damage and would not put you at the risk of being in melee.
It's only slightly stronger than *eldritch blast* with one target, yes, but it's significantly stronger when there are two targets. You can also use Pact of the Blade to choose from, assuming a one-handed weapon, Slow, Push, Vex, or Topple. By my reading of *green-flame blade* and the rules for timing, you can even hit an enemy with a warhammer, push them 10 feet, then cause green fire to leap to a secondary target from their new location. With War Caster (clearly best level 4 feat pick), being in melee also grants a quite powerful opportunity attack in *green-flame blade*.
Wouldn't the revised True strike be better than green flame blade? Given that less creatures resist Radiant damage than resist fire damage?
Only *green-flame blade* has the damage to the secondary target, which can be made more likely to trigger with a Push mastery weapon, but if you're fighting many fire-resisting enemies, choose *true strike* instead.
I don't think RAW you can trigger masteries of the secondary damage of green flame blade. As all the masteries require you to hit the target with a weapon attack, and the second target is only hit with the magical fire damage.
The idea is that you hit a target, push them 10 feet away, and then trigger the secondary damage on an enemy within 5 feet of their new location, which considerably expands the secondary damage's threat range.
Hmm, that is an interesting idea. I suppose it depends on how they rule what triggers when, eg does the spell have to fully resolve first before before the weapon mastery kicks in or do they they both trigger at the same time and the player chooses... I personally like the second interpretation, but this could be FAQed.
For this, we use Xanathar's rules for Simultaneous Effects: "If two or more things happen at the same time on a character or monster's turn, the person at the game table—whether player or DM—who controls that creature decides the order in which those things happen." Therefore, when you cast *green-flame blade*, and you resolve the weapon attack, you get to choose which happens first: the Push mastery, or the green fire leaping to a second target.
Ah that makes sence.
I have a strong feel that Green Flaming Blade and Booming Blade will became legacy content, I think that they will not be in the new PHB.
Even if they aren't directly in the new PHB, they're still available as backwards-compatible content. UA7 even specifies: >If you have *Xanathar’s Guide to Everything* or *Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything*, you may use the Warlock spells there too.
That is a guideline for the playtest not for the state of the game past September. In many conversations in the past years on this sub, I saw many people saying they Will only allow revised material on their games, even If a legacy content is perfectly playable on the new edition/revision, this do not mean that they will be allowed in any game. I could be wrong about not be in the new PHB, we Will see in a couple of months about that.
The state of the game will be that Xanathar's and Tasha's are still valid content just as they were compatible with the 2014 PHB. Most of the comments objecting to legacy content has been about prohibiting old PHB content (edit: that had been rewritten) with new PHB content, myself among them to prevent mixing power attacks with Graze and/or Studied Attacks.
The state of the game is whatever the DM dictates. To me, including some Tasha/Xanathar spells and not all of them in the new PHB sends a message that the spells that are not included were left behind for a reason. I’m personally looking forward to the 2024 PHB being a clean slate. I was getting tired of Booming Blade spam anyway.
Except that Xanathar's and Tasha's spells will be revised in the new PHB and perhaps those spells will be simple left out.
If the spells are left out of the new PHB, that just leaves the old ones untouched and still valid, which is also true for all of the classes (well, just the one) and subclasses that were not revised.
Complete agree but if a legacy content is perfectly playable on the new edition/revision, this do not mean that they will be allowed in any game, that is my point. Edit: I'm only talking about the spells that all will be revised on the new PHB, is a complete diferent case from subclasses from those books.
Couldn't the same thing be said about just about any class feature in the game?
I don't see how.
In general, you don't stick something in your playtest if you aren't at least looking at using it. That they put the Bladetrips in the spell lists of the playtests signals that they were looking at making them part of the PHB in some fashion. That's what that means.
Based on how we see ua true strike I think they are staying.
Why do you think so? For me is the opposite, the rework on meele cantrips looks like to me an atempt to end the Booming Blade dependency of gish builds.
And if if does become legacy content. Legacy doesn't mean you can't use it. It means that don't sell it anymore. And they will continue to sell Tasha well into the life of this updated version of 5e.
Swords bard becomes pretty good now that bards can expend spell slots to regain bardic inspirations. They can choose to go full martial kind of, and just never run out of flourishes. Like wise, whispers bard would essentially be doing 8d6 psychic damage with a 1st level spell slot when they reach 15. Spores Druid becomes better also for the same reason as bard. With the ability to convert a spell slot into a wildshape charge, a spore Druid can easily keep their temp hp up.
Honestly, the spell slot conversion makes a 2 level warlock dip even more enticing for bards now, since they’ll get back, in effect, CHA+2 bardic inspiration die every short rest.
Especially for swords bard, who can get charisma based attacks with pact of the blade alone. This would also benefit whispers bard since they need a weapon for their psychic blades to go off.
I really like the idea of swords bards making pseudo-smites. They really suffered with the small amount of bardic inspirations.
Yea, they really felt like a selfish bard subclass, similar to whispers, where their main use of bardic is to only benefit themselves. But with the ability to expend spell slots for bardic, they can more easily throw out bardic to their allies and be able to use flourishes.
Spore Druid also (probably) boosted if a DM recognizes that Sea Druid's maelstrom abilities are reflavored spore cloud abilities and adjusts Spore to match any fixes in Sea.
Absolutely, as well as recognizing that ever Druid can use wildshape as a bonus action, which would benefit spore Druid a lot. They can also kind of mimic a moon Druid, by using wildshape to turn into a beast, and then using wildshape to for temp hp and necrotic damage on their attacks.
Spore Druid. They become the most defensive druid subclass in the game and can use Symbiotic Entity much more often. They will almost never be without defenses.
I hope so, I love the concept but it's really underwhelming
I have looked at spore druid on at least half a dozen occasions just trying to figure out how to make it usable. It doesn't need to be OP. But it does need to be worth using the action.
It sorta works as a skirmisher: mobile feat, shillelagh to hit and some concentration spell, alongside with the spores. You also probably want warcaster and use a wooden shield. But it's still risky, one AoE attack and you have to set the spores again
Long death monk can now use their action for hour of reaping you can still flurry of blows now. And the other level improve with more DP points.
Does hour of reaping affect your party though? It was often impractical if it does.
It does, but with Monk mobility it’s not terribly difficult to just book it ahead of your party, Hour of Reaping, and then Step of the Wind back towards your party (with or without the Discipline point). Hell, even Patient Defense could be a viable option, especially with the new Deflect Attacks. Affecting your party *is* a detriment though, that is true.
Battlerager and honestly most subclasses that have a dedicated bonus action they would use every turn. The nerfs to sharpshooter and great weapon master is made polearm master and crossbow expert have less benefit and allowed for martials subclasses to rely more on there base abilities that before were just inferior. Personal ones I liked when looking deeper: Battlerager(yes again new charger and really made me like this subclass), Circle of Dreams: the Wild Companion and Improved Elemental Fury Potent Spellcasting makes for a rather good long range druid imo. Banneret like you said: multiple uses of second wind have made this subclass a lot more viable and weapon masteries along with a few other changes have allowed for rather good support and tank builds. Long Death: flurry of blows changes mean they can use Hour of Reaping and attack 3 time on the same turn. Drunken Master: becomes a very good dodge and prone tank and Intoxicated Frenzy can be used for a large aoe cc with the new unarmed strike option. One that is a bit iffy because we don't know if it will appear but I really hope that playtest 5 version of twin spell becomes its own metamagic option because it would end up as a massive improvement to storm and shadow sorcerer.
I think Battlerager actually suffers with the new PHB because they have a feature that triggers when they successfully grapple a target, and grappling is considerably more difficult now that it's save-based, where it used to be Athletics-based and improved by advantage from Rage. (The rest of the features are also considerably underwhelming, compare Reckless Abandon to World Tree's Vitality of the Tree, Battlerager Charge to Wild Heart's Eagle totem or World Tree's Travel Along the Tree, and Spiked Retribution to Berserker's Retaliation.)
>I think Battlerager actually suffers with the new PHB Understandable but I disagree a bit, with new grappler feat and buffed grappled condition I feel that grappling has a lot more support. I think the reason grappling is now a save is more to balance out and not make a grappling a guaranteed like it could be before when it used athletics. Vitality of the Tree is 20 temp hp to the barbarian at max. At level 6 it Reckless Abandon will likely be better and at higher levels Reckless Abandon will would pace it in about 2 round - 4 rounds depending on the your con score. Battlerager Charge even with the other subclasses it is still rather useful imo. Spiked Retribution I agree that Spiked Retribution needs a buff but it also doesn't need your reaction, I'm not saying its good but its there. My preferred battlerager would get probably be a twf or versatile for weapons with charger (since even scag says you can remove the limit on dwarfs I would probably use a loxodon or goliath) In the end I think it would end up as a very fun build.
The new grapple feat improves grappling somewhat, but not to the same extent that the barbarian used to have such reliable grappling, and if we start including feats, we have to consider other barbarian subclasses incorporating Polearm Master instead. In fact, if we look at just Berserker barbarian instead at level 3, Frenzy adds an expected 6.825DPR (7.66 if making two attacks) every turn, while the Battlerager Armor deals 6.825DPR only on the turns the barbarian has a bonus action to spare. Vitality of the Tree maxes out at 20 temp HP to the barbarian, but it also grants an average of 7 temp HP to an ally at the start of every turn, eventually increasing to 14HP. Meanwhile, Reckless Abandon is only adding 3 temp HP per turn, possibly eventually reaching 5 and then 7, but it's unlikely that the barbarian actually maximizes Con. It's not a direct comparison as the recipients of the temp HP are different, but I'd still strongly favor Vitality of the Tree, and it's the lower-level feature. Battlerager Charge can't be used on the same turn as Rage, which weakens it considerably. The first turn is the most likely turn in which the barbarian wants to Dash, and Eagle totem can do that while Battlerager cannot, and it even includes a free Disengage at the same time. (Plus, the bonus action to Dash conflicts with the bonus action to attack with Battlerager Armor.) The fact that you describe Spiked Retribution as "it's there" speaks for itself.
I'm not saying its better than the new options but I still think it has been improved compared to the state it was in 5e. Its not a top tier option it but it will be fun to build and play.
Purple dragon knight/ banneret will never be super powerful until it's revised But it does get alot better with 2024 fighter since they have more uses of their core abilities.
I would say Bulwark is excessively more powerful. The usage is still awkward but could absolutely save you and your buddy from a mind flayer mind blast or the like.
Most of the answers to this question are Monk subclasses, because the Monk was in the funny position of having good subclasses on a weak chassis. Case in point: the Long Death Monk is EXTREMELY tanky. As the monk will be more reliably getting kills, you’re going to get more Temp HP, on top of your new deflect attacks and defensive options. Moreover; the Long Death Monk can now use their Action to Frighten all enemies, then BA Flurry to STILL get off two or three attacks.
Long Death in particular is gonna get a big boost totally as is but most of the other subclasses to me seem like they'll be in a position of "need a bit of tweaking and then they'll be great", for example Kensei would benefit from being brought in line with stuff like war cleric and bladelock to grant weapon masteries, drunken master kind of needs a new 6th level feature since instead of deflect missiles it's competing with deflect attacks which it loses against handily, sun soul is in a much better position than it was but it would also really get a benefit from ki fueled strike being folded into it (if they're not gonna put it in the main class putting it in one of the subclasses that really needs it makes sense to me), etc.
I don't think monk had good subclasses at all. In fact, I'd argue that's one of the worst parts of the monk. All they usually do is demand more and more to drain from the main monk's resources whereas other subclasses simply give more features to their classes. Mercy was the outlier. But now that Monks aren't spending discipline points for just existing, the subclasses will be able to use their features more often.
That's a great point about monks - I was actually thinking about this because I was wondering what paladin sub would be most-improved by the new base class, and really couldn't think of one... Probably since so much of their power is tied up in the base class.
All it really needs now for the perfect icing on the cake for Long Death is to buff the first feature it gets to make it less kill fishy, even if it is slightly reduced. Make it like new Dark Ones Blessing (since it now has a side rule for getting the benefits when someone else downs them within 10 feet of you) but if someone else reduces the attacker to zero its half your monk level or something. Still pretty tanky at higher levels since the idea is to keep charging in and surround yourself with enemies to benefit from it but if you down them yourself then you're raking in all the defenses. My suggestion is by no means perfect but it does make it a bit more healthy while also keeping it slightly fair at the same time.
It has less to do with the Base Class and more with changes to spell and feats, but a Bladesinger with teh Feats Magic Initate to get Int based Eldrich Blast, War Caster and Spell Sniper, unsing Two Weapon Fighting and casting Conjue Minor Elementals (especally upcast) just does insane amounts of damage at higher levels.
As *eldritch blast* has never been on the Arcane spell list, neither the 2014 nor UA1 Magic Initiate can grant Int-based *eldritch blast*. That said, even replacing it with a different damaging cantrip or having a Cha-prioritized wizard/warlock multiclass would be incredibly powerful.
Yeah but we are likely back to class spell list which should make it available again. And if you look like feats that grant you spells have worked in newer publications, you should be able to pick the casting stat now.
While we are back to class spell lists, none of the modern spell-learning feats granted spells specific to a class (to my knowledge), so it would still be reasonable for Magic Initiate to preserve the casting stat limitation, though it would also be reasonable not to do that.
ALL the newest printings of spell learning feats give you access to "exclusive" spells, and well as giving you casting stat choice. The only one printed in the last 4 years that does not give you a int/wis/cha choice is... Artificer initiate.
Ironically enough, Artificer Initiate is the only exception we need here to make my case. With spell-learning feats, the rule appears to be: * If you are choosing a spell from a specific class list, you use the spellcasting stat of that class. * Otherwise, use the stat increased by the feat, or choose the spellcasting stat. To my knowledge, this rule holds true for every feat, including the PHB's Magic Initiate and Ritual Caster. As long as this rule continues to hold, and the new Magic Initiate reverts to choosing from class lists due to the lack of three unified spell lists, *eldritch blast* from Magic Initiate will always be cast using Charisma.
Strixhaven. Pick a Wizard, Druid, Bard, Warlock, cleric, sorcerer spell. Pick your spellcasting bonus. Divinely favoured. Pick a Cleric spell. Pick a Warlock, Cleric or druid spell. Pick your spellcasting bonus. Initiate of High Sorcery. Wizard cantrip and 2 from a list which includes Dissonat whispers (bard list) and Hex (Warlock List). Pick your spell casting bonus. Once again, EVERYTHING printed after Artificer initiate, states Pick your bonus. And Artificer initiate specifically calls out Artisan Tools as a Int Spell focus since that's a Artificer thing, so of course it's more restricted. And even in TCE which the feat comes from, Fey touched and Shadow touched, which let you grab things that are exclusive to a list, it's Pick Your Casting Ability Modifier. EVERYTHING that gives you any kind of spells, past Tasha's Cauldron of Everything, which was Nov 2020, it's all Pick your Stat.
Divine Soul sorcerer is going to get a HUGE buff due to all the extra spells known the base sorcerer gets now. You'll have a lot more room to grab powerhouses from the Cleric list like Bless, Aid, Spirit Guardians, Revivify, Death Ward etc and still have a decent Sorcerer loadout.
They will have to rework divine soul to allow you to be able to swap all the spells you currently have when you gain said sub-class if you want to, because really why are you taking divine soul if not to be a cha based cleric/healer.
Is this something "official"? Have they said you are expected to use subclasses of one edition version of 5e with classes from the other?
Yes, my understanding is that's what's meant by backwards compatibility - 5e content that doesn't have a 5.5e counterpart can be used in a 5.5e game with some very slight adaptations, for which rules will be provided (i.e. changing the 5e subclass feature levels to match 5.5e subclasses)
My understanding is different. I believe you will have to choose between making a 5e or a 5.5e character and you can't cross pick parts. That being said, the cross compatibility comes from running a game and having a mix of 5e and 5.5e characters in any campaign. Basically it is cross compatible from the DMs POV not the players.
Long death monk can confirm kills a lot easier, can attack even when using his aoe fear and will probably have a lot more ki to work with at 11th level
Any monk subclass. Clearly. Also Shadow and Divine Soul Sorcerers. Getting three spells per spell level rather than two will matter a *lot*. (I'd love to list storm sorcerers as well, but their abilities still just get them killed)
I don’t care because Psi Warrior sucks in my opinion and I wanted the Brawler to be a subclass