Unearthed Arcana Revived, Noble Genie and Archivist Revisited in UA

The latest Unearthed Arcana replaces the Revived, Noble Genie, and Archivist subclasses with new versions called the Phantom, the Genie, and the Order of Scribes.

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dnd.wizards.com

 

[Benjamin Olson]

Also now I have Jean Genie stuck in my head so THANKS! Could be worse I guess.

Outrageous. You'll have to scream and bawl.

 

[Levistus's_Leviathan]

If I were to play a Scribe, I'd probably abuse the hell out of the damage-type swapping. Change all Magic Missiles to radiant damage against shadows to instantly destroy them all, change Jim's Magic Missiles into Fire against mummies, cause Meteor Swarm to do psychic damage and Earthquake to do fire damage.

 

[Guest 6801328]

If I were to play a Scribe, I'd probably abuse the hell out of the damage-type swapping. Change all Magic Missiles to radiant damage against shadows to instantly destroy them all, change Jim's Magic Missiles into Fire against mummies, cause Meteor Swarm to do psychic damage and Earthquake to do fire damage.

It probably would be smart to come up with some constraints, or things could get really silly really fast.

 

[Hatmatter]

Or Bigby's Handy Guide...

Ha! Love it!

 

[Benjamin Olson]

I'm glad to finally have a Wizard who is incentivized to be the classic image of wizard with spellbook open in one hand, casting in the other. Up until now it has just been an impractical thing to do that occupied a hand and put you most important possession in danger. And on the latter point they even get to replace it for nearly free if it is lost. It is also the only Wizard where I would not object to players just directly swapping gold for spell copying rather than buying supplies. The magic quill just makes it vanish to power itself.

All wizards are stronger in a campaign where the DM actually gives you opportunities to find or buy spells, but I would say this one is extra dependent on that as they both have a copy all spells at a discount class feature and because their top level subclass ability requires having spells they can afford to lose for at least a while, a lot smaller sacrifice if you've copied a bunch of extra stuff over the prior 13 levels.

I also just like that it is a very broad archtype with flexible lore. It fits almost any traditional wizard character reasonably well, and having a semi-generic generalist wizard option is nice.

In a similar vein I'm glad they dumped the "discovered you were once dead" thing from this Rogue. "Develops mystical connection with death at level 3" is a lot more flexible subclass lore than "used to be dead, didn't notice it until level 3", which could be a cool character, but it's way to specific a cool character.

 

[Levistus's_Leviathan]

In a similar vein I'm glad they dumped the "discovered you were once dead" thing from this Rogue. "Develops mystical connection with death at level 3" is a lot more flexible subclass lore than "used to be dead, didn't notice it until level 3", which could be a cool character, but it's way to specific a cool character.

I do like this change. I mean, combine this with the Hollow One from Wildemount, and make a cool backstory, and you have an awesome character, but it's not built into the subclass anymore, which makes it more flexible.

 

[Fenris-77]

It probably would be smart to come up with some constraints, or things could get really silly really fast.

You've just described the entire process of designing RPGs.

 

[Hatmatter]

I do like this change. I mean, combine this with the Hollow One from Wildemount, and make a cool backstory, and you have an awesome character, but it's not built into the subclass anymore, which makes it more flexible.

I doubly concur. I thought it had great narrative possibilities when reading The Revived months ago, but it does feel unnecessarily too specific. Also, it was hard for me to reconcile that particular narrative element with being exclusively a subclass for a rogue. I kept thinking: "Great idea...but what happens if a wizard realizes he or she had died before, or a fighter, or a bard, or a monk, etc."

Also, I think the Phantom's Wails from the Grave is far richer than The Revived's Bolts from the Grave, which seemed to me too be a little too much like a video-game feature that came out of nowhere. "I think I lived a past life and past through the gates of death before; now I can shoot black lightning!"

I am really liking these revisions.

 

[Levistus's_Leviathan]

I doubly concur. I thought it had great narrative possibilities when reading The Revived months ago, but it does feel unnecessarily too specific. Also, it was hard for me to reconcile that particular narrative element with being exclusively a subclass for a rogue. I kept thinking: "Great idea...but what happens if a wizard realizes he or she had died before, or a fighter, or a bard, or a monk, etc."

Also, I think the Phantom's Wails from the Grave is far richer than The Revived's Bolts from the Grave, which seemed to me too be a little too much like a video-game feature that came out of nowhere. "I think I lived a past life and past through the gates of death before; now I can shoot black lightning!"

I am really liking these revisions.

I agree 100%. Revived was too limiting and confusing, also a bit video-gamey, which WotC should avoid after 4e. The Phantom is a lot cooler in flavor, broader, and has better mechanics, apart from the semi-useless Soul Trinkets.

 

[cbwjm]

I think the issue with "finding them again" is that if you wrote it in a backup spellbook, then you can drop spells, and then just cheaply replace them by using your quill to recopy the spells into your normal book. Which makes it much less of a cost.

Except you still need to wish to restore them which is the real cost of that ability. Without the wish you can't copy or relearn the spells or even cast them from a scroll.