Ranking the Subclasses From Arcana Unleashed

Analysing all the subclasses from D&D’s latest rules expansion.

8th: Arcana domain cleric

What are they?

The arcana domain focuses on the worship of the god’s of magic, seeking their own magical knowledge. For this reason, they tend to borrow capabilities from wizards.

Strengths

• Can dispel magic while healing
• Use channel divinity to enhance spells cast
• Have access to high level wizard spells

Weaknesses

• Their best feature doesn’t arrive until level 17
• Dispelling and healing don’t always go hand in hand

How effective are they?

The arcana domain is a decent magical disruptor with some wizardly spellcasting. At level 17, they get a big boost to their spellcasting, but before this, feel very average. Dispel magic while healing is sometimes very useful and the channel divinity option is fairly good, especially if you can work in spells that cause multi-target saving throws. Overall though, this subclass is just Ok.

3/5

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7th: Enchanter Wizard

What are they?

Wizards that specialise in the school of enchantment. They can use magic to cloud the mind and manipulate. This grants them charms, hypnosis and even mind control.

Strengths

• Great at nullifying certain enemies
• Have strong capabilities with enchantment spells with more of these spells known and the ability to upcast them to target multiple targets without expending spell slots.
• Have some defensive capabilities too which allows you to redirect some attacks from you to another creature.

Weaknesses

• Enchantment spells can be a little limiting in combat.
• Enchantment upcasting only works on a handful of spells and no longer works on some of the best options.
• Altering memories is quite situational as a capstone subclass feature.

How effective are they?

Upcasting enchantment spells is enough to save this subclass from being a bit lacklustre. The rest of the features are just OK or a bit situational. They particularly excel at nullifying enemies and have some protective effects too.

3/5

6th: Necromancer wizard

What are they?

Specialising in the school of necromancy, these wizards are adept at animating dead bodies into undead servants.

Strengths

• Can summon lots of undead minions.
• Enhancements to their familiar stack nicely with some of the new familiar feats and spells, including battle familiar.
• Undead minions are tougher and hit harder than normal.
• Can summon more undead minions than most other characters.

Weaknesses

• Minions aren’t that good at hitting meaning their damage output is likely limited.
• This may mean some enemies see them more as a nuisance than a threat and simply ignore your meat shield. This may be more problematic at higher levels, against heavily armoured foes.

How effective are they?

Necromancers are the ultimate meat shield casters. They can summon and animate a bunch of minions simultaneously with enhanced durability for both their minions and themselves. They manage this fairly well, just don’t expect your minions to hit an awful lot against heavily armoured foes.

4/5

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5th: Arcane archer fighter

What are they?

Arcane archers use magically enhanced techniques to aid them in ranged combat.

Strengths

• Excel at ranged combat.
• Can enhance some attacks with magical effects.
• Have some out of combat utility.

Weaknesses

• Gain no boosts in melee combat.
• Fighters for ranged combat tend to be a luxury most parties can’t afford as they’re needed in melee.

How effective are they?

The arcane archer is a hugely improved subclass that now feels like a worthwhile option for a ranged fighter. Arcane shots will let you deal plenty of conditions as well as enhancing your damage output and there’s even a bit of utility in here too. Comparing to the battle master shows that while the arcane archer gets less uses of their special techniques, those techniques are more potent.

Score: 4/5

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4th: Vestige patron warlock

What are they?

Warlocks that have made a pact with a forgotten god that has lost their power. This makes the relationship between patron and warlock much more symbiotic as the patron needs the warlock as much as the warlock needs the patron.

Strengths

• Have a companion to provide support.
• This companion becomes enhanced as you gain levels.
• Really flexible options for vestige spells as you can choose from a few different cleric subclasses.

Weaknesses

• Vestige companion requires your bonus action to be effective in combat.
• Without the vestige companion, the subclass has very little capabilities beyond the base warlock class.

How effective are they?

Solid companion class that adds extra damage and resilience to your build (in the form of a meat shield). It’s not too dissimilar from the beast master ranger, but I’d argue that a companion fits a warlock better due to lower demands on their bonus action.

Score: 4/5

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3rd: Transmuter wizard

What are they?

Wizards that specialise in transmutation magic. This magic allows them to transform and alter matter.

Strengths

• Excel at transmutation spells.
• Can empower with a range of buffs both for in combat and for out of combat utility.
• Are adept at making constitution saving throws making them better at concentration.

Weaknesses

• Can require some creativity to get the best out of them.
• Some options are not necessarily the best on a wizard (like natural weapons from alter self). Although there is enough choice that you can often ignore these options in favour of others.

How effective are they?

Transmuters have a spell or feature for most situations (even more so than most wizards). They’re pretty great in combat and even better out of it with loads of utility options. Sadly, their early features are a tad average, but they go from strength to strength, especially at levels 6 and 10. Just be aware that there’s not much here that directly damages, but a standard wizard is quite capable of such things anyway. This is still a strong subclass though.

Score: 4/5

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2nd: Conjurer wizard

What are they?

Specialise in conjuration magic which allows them to summon minions and teleport adeptly.

Strengths

• Can easily teleport around the battlefield. This is like a better misty step without a spell slot so your action is free to cast levelled spells too.
• Excel at casting conjuration spells.
• Summons are extra resilient and can even be splintered into 2.
• Maintain concentration on conjuration spells really well.

Weaknesses

• Getting the most out of conjurers means using summon spells a fair bit. Because these require concentration, it means they can concentrate on other spells less.

How effective are they?

Conjurers do a great job of both teleporting and producing robust summons that can last. This also sneakily makes them the kind of wizard that can be stingy with spell slots, meaning they should run out of spell slots less often, especially as they should fail concentration saving throws less often.

Score: 4/5

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1st: Warrior of the mystic arts monk

What are they?

1/3 spellcasting monks like the eldritch knight and arcane trickster that can weave martial arts and spellcasting into their combat.

Strengths

• They can cast spells and naturally have a strong spellcasting ability for this.
• Can weave cantrips and eventually low level spells into their attacks to combine strikes and spells into their combat.
• Have loads of utility through spellcasting.

Weaknesses

• Don’t have access to higher level spell slots and gain more powerful options more slowly than other spellcasters.

How effective are they?

The warrior of the mystic arts accomplishes the same thing that the eldritch knight does for the fighter; a spellcasting subclass that can weave spells into their attacks. It approaches this in practically the same way too. This is no bad thing though as the eldritch knight works really well. All of this makes for a top tier monk subclass that can hit harder and has way more utility than other monks.

5/5

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Overview

Arcana Unleashed manages to land most of its subclasses in that sweet spot of 4/5 which makes them solid and worth taking without feeling weak or overpowered. That’s some commendable balancing. But there is one subclass that feels better than the rest and that’s the warrior of the mystic arts monk. Their spellcasting makes them an excellent utility option and the way they can weave spells into their many attacks seriously increases their damage output, options and general versatility.

None of the subclasses stand out as poor options, though the arcana domain cleric and enchanter wizard are both a bit average. The arcana cleric in particular struggles for an identity, but this is typical of cleric subclasses, especially when they have no subclass features between levels 6 and 17.

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Which Arcana Unleashed subclass do you think is the best? Let me know about it in the comments below.

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