Another instalment of UA is out, a sequel to the last one – with more Villainous Options, this time for the Barbarian, Monk, and Warlock.

Let’s see what we’re working with today.

Barbarian – Path of Lament

You use your regrets and sorrows to fuel your rage. An interesting idea, especially in terms of roleplaying potential – though it’ll need some good communication with the GM to really maximise its impact, especially if you’re eyeing this from level 1.

Banshee’s Wail (Level 3)

When you activate your rage, or as a bonus action while raging, you can force each creature of your choice within 30 feet of you to make a CON saving throw. On a failed save, they take psychic damage and are deafened for 1 minute; on a success, they take half damage. The amount of damage taken is a number of d12s equal to your rage damage bonus. So at level 3, the rage bonus is 2, so it’s 2d12. You can use this a number of times equal to your CON modifier per long rest – or you can replenish all uses by expending one use of your Rage.

This looks pretty good – a nice chunk of damage to multiple enemies, this can probably clear out a room full of fodder on its own. 2d12 on average is 12 damage, more than enough to clear a room full of kobolds or goblins – or, at least, leave them easy pickings for your party. Also, since this is a bonus action, you can follow it up with your own attack! Deafened isn’t that powerful of a condition, but it’s got its niche uses, and it certainly fits thematically.

Commune with the Dead (Level 6)

You can cast Speak with Dead as a ritual. A “filler” feature, but it’s alright. Nothing much I can really say here.

Horrifying Strike (Level 6)

Once per turn, when you hit with a STR-based attack roll while raging, you can force the target to make a WIS saving throw or become frightened until the start of your next turn. No limit to the total number of uses, so you can spam this every single round – and because the DC for the saving throw is based on your own CON, it’s going to get pretty reliable, even against tougher targets.

Otherworldly Ambush (Level 10)

You can’t be possessed, and you gain resistance to cold and necrotic damage while raging. More importantly, however, your Banshee’s Wail is now an execution; if a target fails its saving throw, and if it has HP equal to or less than your barbarian level, it drops to 0 HP instead of taking damage. At a first glance, this sounds pretty good – but considering that at this point your rage damage bonus is +4, so you’re rolling 4d12; an average damage of 24 against your level of 10. Even against enemies with Resistance to psychic damage (and I’m not sure there are that many), it won’t be as effective. Only enemies with immunity to psychic damage will be really affected – so primarily constructs, which admittedly is quite nice but not really something to be very excited about.

If they wanted to keep the “instantly drop to 0” feature, they could have done it so that it happens after the damage is dealt – but reduced, of course. Maybe half your barbarian level, or equal to your rage damage bonus? It also doesn’t feel like the “bypassing immunity” aspect is intended, but adding something like “it only happens if the target isn’t immune to psychic damage…” feels a bit cumbersome. Honestly, I’d go to a couple of different directions instead: First option, is to have some additional effect – without any HP threshold. Something like – the target can’t take reactions, or they can only take one of bonus or full action, or/and their speed is reduced to half. Another is to have an effect if the damage does reduce a target to 0 – making them rise as an undead or spawning some kind of spirit would perhaps be too complicated, but you could do something like giving disadvantage on the saving throw for your next use of Horrifying Strike, or using your reaction to make everyone else take additional psychic damage equal to your rage bonus. Anyway, there are a lot of things that could be done differently, but I’m getting carried away. Also – why is the feature called “Ambush”? It doesn’t give me a very ambushing feel.

Sorrow Form (Level 14)

When you activate your rage, you gain some additional benefits – usable once per long rest. These benefits are:

• You are immune to the Charmed and Frightened conditions and can’t gain Exhaustion levels.
• When a creature fails its saving throw against Horrifying Strike, it takes an extra 2d10 necrotic damage, and you regain that much HP.
• You count as an undead.

This is very nice; recovering a bunch of HP every turn is amazing, extra damage is always great, and the immunities are quite useful. As for the undead part – I’m sure that there’s some cheesy strategy you can do, but it’s probably more likely to work against you.

Overall, the Barbarian looks pretty good. Even Otherworldly Ambush is alright, I just got carried away thinking of alternatives.

Monk – Warrior of Venom

Envenom Weapon (Level 3)

At the start of your turn, you can expend 1 Focus Point to apply a toxin produced from your blood to one Monk Weapon you are holding. The toxin lasts for 1 minute, or until a creature takes damage from that weapon. A creature that takes damage from it is subjected to one of the following effects:

• Slowing Toxin: Until the start of your next turn, its speed is halved, it can’t take reactions, and it can either take an action or a bonus action – not both.
• Venom: The target takes poison damage equal to two rolls of your Martial Arts die.

The effects are pretty good, but the feature seems a bit clunky. First of all, it only applies to weapons, not unarmed attacks – strange, if the toxin comes from your blood. Activating it at the start of your turn is also a bit weird, instead of having it happen on a hit, but I get the reason behind that, it makes more sense “realistically” if you prepare your weapon beforehand. However, I still think that forcing you to use a weapon is a mistake.

Potent Arsenal (Level 3)

You gain proficiency with the Poisoner’s Kit (and also get one for free). When you deal Poison damage with a Monk feature or Monk weapon, you can change it to acid damage. Sure – a pretty standard filler feature.

Toxic Touch (Level 6)

As a Magic action, you can expend 1 Focus Point to force a target you touch to make a CON saving throw or become poisoned for 1 minute. While poisoned this way, it is also affected by one of the following effects:

• Intoxicant: The target is charmed for the duration or until it takes damage from you or your allies.
• Sedative: The creature falls asleep and has the Unconscious condition for the duration. Another creature can use an action to shake it awake.
• Truth Serum: The target can’t knowingly lie for the duration.

Lots of uses for roleplay/investigation, but also in combat; sedative especially, can give you some breathing room if you manage to tag a dangerous enemy, and keep others away from it.

Toxin Refiner (Level 11)

You gain immunity to poison damage. When you take poison damage, your Envenom Weapon options each deal extra poison damage equal to one roll of your Martial Arts die, and you can’t gain this benefit until the end of your next turn. In addition, when you ingest a poison, you regain HP equal to one roll of your Martial Arts die. Another nice but clunky feature – you can’t rely on your enemies to power you up with poison damage, and wasting actions to deal poison damage to yourself seems inefficient. I’m also surprised that you get immunity with this feature, but didn’t get resistance at level 3.

Toxic Blood (Level 11)

When a creature hits you with a melee attack roll, they take 1d6 poison damage. If you are Bloodied, they instead take damage equal to one roll of your Martial Arts die. This is pretty good – automatic damage with no save, and it works for both weapon and spell attacks against you. It also needs the attack to hit, not necessarily deal damage – so it works even through Deflect Attacks, or if the attack would deal poison damage.

Hallucinogenic Breath (Level 17)

When you take the Attack action on your turn, you can spend 2 Focus Points to replace one attack with an exhalation of hallucinogenic vapors at one creature you can see within 30 feet. The target must make a CON saving throw; on a fail, they take poison damage equal to 3 rolls of your Martial Arts die and become frightened for 1 minute or until the take damage. While frightened, they take the Dash action and move away from you on each of their turns. On a successful save, they simply take half the damage. Pretty good both as a damage tool and a control tool – although a minor nitpick again: exhaling to a 30 foot distance, but targeting only a single enemy, seems kinda weird to me. I understand that having it be an AoE, even at a much smaller range, would be quite strong, but then you could also rephrase it to not be a breath attack?

Overall, another decent subclass, but one with a lot of small issues – at least for me. I mentioned I was surprised you don’t get resistance to poison before getting the immunity at level 6 – I’m also surprised that you don’t get a way to bypass poison resistance on enemies, something that’s very common on other subclasses that are centered on a specific damage type.

Warlock – Primordial Patron

You have made a pact with a primordial patron, a force of elemental chaos. You choose a particular element, and your choice affects certain damage types of your features: Air for thunder damage, Earth for acid damage, Fire for, well, fire, and Water for cold. You can change your element when you gain a level.

Elemental Node (Level 3)

As a Magic Action, you can create a 5-foot-radius sphere of elemental magic at a point within 60 feet that you can see. On later turns, you can use a bonus action to move it 30 feet. When the node appears, or when an enemy moves or ends their turn inside it, or when the node moves into an enemy, they make a DEX saving throw. On a fail, they take 1d6 of your elemental damage, or half as much on a success. The node lasts for 1 minute, and you can use it once per short rest or by expending a Pact Magic spell slot to get a use back. Its damage increases to 2d6 at level 6, and 3d6 at level 14.

Not bad, not amazing. An extra bit of sustained damage – pretty much like a level 1 spell.

Elemental Spells (Level 3)

Your standard level 3 feature for spellcasters – you get extra spells that you have prepared, plus extras depending on your element.

Elemental Haven (Level 6)

While you’re within your Elemental Node, you get a +1 bonus to your AC. You can also use a bonus action to teleport to it, or to the nearest unoccupied space within 5 feet of it (usable a number of times equal to your CHA per long rest). Now this is interesting; it makes the Elemental Node a lot more versatile. It also presents a bit of a dilemma: Do you use the Node aggressively to deal damage, or do you keep it back to protect yourself? And do you follow it to keep the +1 AC, even if it gets you into contact with enemies? Additionally, since teleporting to it is a bonus action, you can’t move it and then teleport, so you’ll have to plan a turn ahead if you want to use it as transportation.

Primeval Protection (Level 10)

Your Elemental Node is now 10 feet in radius. You also gain resistance to your chosen element’s damage type, and immunity to it while inside your Node. A pretty big upgrade – the 10-foot radius (or 20-foot diameter) now means that you can semi-comfortably stay inside it while still being away from enemies (“away” in a manner of speaking – not in melee range, at least).

Elemental Harbinger (Level 14)

Your Elemental Node is upgraded again:

• When you expend a Pact Magic spell slot while inside the Elemental Node, you can attempt to pull one creature within 30 feet of the node inside it. They must make an STR saving throw, or be pulled 15 feet towards the Node’s center. This is a little bit confusing – is the creature within 30 feet of the node’s center, or the node’s edge? Well, either way, something at the edge of those 30 feet will still be outside the node. But it’s still a very useful ability – disrupting an enemy’s location, and potentially dealing extra damage to them, all for “free”. And if you want to cheese it, you can do the following: expend a slot to regain a use of the Elemental Node, which is a free action, then cast a spell, to proc this ability twice. Expensive, admittedly, for such a weak effect, but it’s a fun loophole with the rules as written.
• Your Elemental Node now lasts for 1 hour. Pretty useful – this will let you carry it along between battles, if you’re dungeon crawling.
• When you’re within your Elemental Node, you can cast Planar Ally without expending a spell slot. If you do, you can’t use it again for 2d4 long rests.

Pretty good upgrades – nothing that really wows me, but individually they’re all decent. Planar Ally looks like it has a lot of potential, but it’s quite open-ended as a spell, so it depends on your imagination and the GM.

The Warlock also has a couple of new Invocations:

Elemental Overflow (Prerequisite: Warlock level 5+)

Choose an elemental damage type (acid, cold, fire, lightning, thunder). When you cast a spell that deals that type of damage, you can cause elemental energy to wreath you until the end of your next turn. For the duration, when a creature within 5 feet of you hits you with a melee weapon attack, it takes 1d4 damage of that type. You can gain this invocation multiple times, choosing a different damage type each time.

Elemental Transmutation (Prerequisite: Warlock level 2+)

Choose an elemental damage type (acid, cold, fire, lightning, thunder). Once per turn, when you deal damage of any of those types, you can deal the chosen damage type instead.

Nothing too special, and I don’t really see myself taking them over the ones in the PHB, really.

Final Throughs

Surprisingly, I’m ok with all 3 subclasses of this Unearthed Arcana. They’re not too powerful, not too weak, and while they’ve all got their issues, they seem to be perfectly workable choices.