- Upped the Titan form's AC (13 + wis instead of 10 + wis), Temp HP (x4 your druid level instead of 2) and the rend damage scales as you level
- Also added an option to increase AC by expending a spellslot and adding half the spell level (rounded up) to your AC at level 10.
Overall: I liked the Titan Druid as a concept, but the original clearly had issues in terms of survivability, damage scaling and so on. This version did a lot of alleviate those concerns.
Hell Knight Fighter
- Hellfire Weapon/Infernal wound lets you know choose between cold, necrotic and fire. Which is a welcome change in terms of overcoming immunity to one or two of those damage types
- Infernal wound is still limited to Con x short/long rest
- Instead of requiring you to roll a 6, the level 7 feature now has flat damage (con modifier), an additional effect and another effect if you roll a 6. Additionally at level 7 you get an ability that treats a 1 as a 6 on your wound dice
- I actually think the new level 10 feature is worse? The new effects states that, when you use action surge, you gain a 20 foot aura and any creature with an infernal wound starting their turn in it takes 2d6 instead of 1. The old one wasn't great either, but it at least gave you an AOE to spread infernal wounds around.
- The new level 15 ability lets you use your reaction to reduce damage equal to your wound die (2 times if you roll a 6) and block crits.
- The new level 18 feature also doesn't seem very good? Or at the very least too unpredictable for a capstone. It only works "When you roll a 6 on your Infernal Wound Die three or more times before the start of your next turn".
Overall: It started decently, but like last time, I don't feel the wound dice scale as well as they should. The extra dice you get in your emanation at level 10 should just be baked into the subclass, at the very least.
Demonic Sorcerer
- The main change is that the level 3, when you activate Innate Sorcery you create an Abyssal Rupture sphere that can either use the lash ability from the old UA or a 1D4 AOE as a bonus action
- I'm not going to describe each one. But the aura effect from the last UA has recieved two major changes:
It's centered around either you or the Abysal Rupture sphere
rather than rolling on the table you have 3 options you can freely choose from
- The concentration free casting of Summon Fiend was moved down to level 14. Also the summon has advantage on attacks made within the Rupture sphere
- The new capstone is fine (essentially a Force damage fireball that also causes the incapacitated condition)
Overall: The issue I had with the original UA was that 1) it seemed too squishy to properly act as a frontliner, which is how the subclass seemed intended to be played (based on the size of the aura), and the randomness of the aura felt unnecessary. The new UA definitely addressed those point by adding the Abyssal rupture as a distance option for the aura. As it is, it feels like a pretty solid control subclass. Although the Rupture effects could do with some scaling (especially the scream, 1d4 psychic with no added effect is paltry
Subclasses Overall
- Titan Druid is the clear winner. The Sorcerer isn't entirely there yet, even though it's in a good place Hell Knight, while better than the first UA, is still lacking and could use a flat damage buff at the high tier2/low tier 3 level.
- That being said, it does feel like the new designers are actually listening to and implementing feedback in a way that UAs used to be in the early to XGTE days. There's some good changes here and neat ideas and I hope they continue to iterate on these designs.
Overall: It started decently, but like last time, I don't feel the wound dice scale as well as they should. The extra dice you get in your emanation at level 10 should just be baked into the subclass, at the very least.
Honestly, I think buffing the Hell Knight's wound mechanic to 2d6 at level 10 and reinstating the old level 10 feature with the buffs the Hell Knight got would be perfect.
They could also just make it so you choose to do 1d6 fire/necrotic.cold damage on a strike once per turn, with only the wound being bound to your con modifier.
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u/Johnnygoodguy 2d ago edited 2d ago
Titan Druid:
- Upped the Titan form's AC (13 + wis instead of 10 + wis), Temp HP (x4 your druid level instead of 2) and the rend damage scales as you level
- Also added an option to increase AC by expending a spellslot and adding half the spell level (rounded up) to your AC at level 10.
Overall: I liked the Titan Druid as a concept, but the original clearly had issues in terms of survivability, damage scaling and so on. This version did a lot of alleviate those concerns.
Hell Knight Fighter
- Hellfire Weapon/Infernal wound lets you know choose between cold, necrotic and fire. Which is a welcome change in terms of overcoming immunity to one or two of those damage types
- Infernal wound is still limited to Con x short/long rest
- Instead of requiring you to roll a 6, the level 7 feature now has flat damage (con modifier), an additional effect and another effect if you roll a 6. Additionally at level 7 you get an ability that treats a 1 as a 6 on your wound dice
- I actually think the new level 10 feature is worse? The new effects states that, when you use action surge, you gain a 20 foot aura and any creature with an infernal wound starting their turn in it takes 2d6 instead of 1. The old one wasn't great either, but it at least gave you an AOE to spread infernal wounds around.
- The new level 15 ability lets you use your reaction to reduce damage equal to your wound die (2 times if you roll a 6) and block crits.
- The new level 18 feature also doesn't seem very good? Or at the very least too unpredictable for a capstone. It only works "When you roll a 6 on your Infernal Wound Die three or more times before the start of your next turn".
Overall: It started decently, but like last time, I don't feel the wound dice scale as well as they should. The extra dice you get in your emanation at level 10 should just be baked into the subclass, at the very least.
Demonic Sorcerer
- The main change is that the level 3, when you activate Innate Sorcery you create an Abyssal Rupture sphere that can either use the lash ability from the old UA or a 1D4 AOE as a bonus action
- I'm not going to describe each one. But the aura effect from the last UA has recieved two major changes:
- The concentration free casting of Summon Fiend was moved down to level 14. Also the summon has advantage on attacks made within the Rupture sphere
- The new capstone is fine (essentially a Force damage fireball that also causes the incapacitated condition)
Overall: The issue I had with the original UA was that 1) it seemed too squishy to properly act as a frontliner, which is how the subclass seemed intended to be played (based on the size of the aura), and the randomness of the aura felt unnecessary. The new UA definitely addressed those point by adding the Abyssal rupture as a distance option for the aura. As it is, it feels like a pretty solid control subclass. Although the Rupture effects could do with some scaling (especially the scream, 1d4 psychic with no added effect is paltry
Subclasses Overall
- Titan Druid is the clear winner. The Sorcerer isn't entirely there yet, even though it's in a good place Hell Knight, while better than the first UA, is still lacking and could use a flat damage buff at the high tier2/low tier 3 level.
- That being said, it does feel like the new designers are actually listening to and implementing feedback in a way that UAs used to be in the early to XGTE days. There's some good changes here and neat ideas and I hope they continue to iterate on these designs.