Deep dive into the latest playtest subclasses for D&D 2024.
A few months ago, Wizards of the Coast released an Unearthed Arcana dedicated to arcane subclasses. Sadly, it didn’t quite land right with subclasses like the tattooed warrior really not working well, while others, like the arcane archer just felt a bit bland and uninspiring.
We already saw the hexblade get a refreshed playtest and now we’ve got 6 of the other 9 getting their own refresh. This means that only the arcana domain cleric and the ancestral sorcery sorcerer have survived (so far) without a re-released playtest.
Since I’ve already covered the previous unearthed arcana, I’m going to keep this one a bit briefer and just focus on whether I think these subclasses have improved enough in their latest iteration.
If you want to check out the full playtest material, you can find it all here. You can also check out my analysis of the original arcane subclasses unearthed arcana.
Fighter: Arcane Archer
The arcane archer got a decent glow up in the previous Unearthed Arcana and I thought it was OK without being particularly exciting. It could have released as it was and basically been a ranged battle master. It was a little boring though with basically every feature tied to their arcane shot options. Not bad, but a little uninspiring.
The updated version has definitely worked to alter things. Arcane shot potency increases are now baked into the original level 3 feature, allowing unique features at the levels these increased as well. They’ve definitely tried to give the arcane archer a bit more utility and a bit more evasiveness, which works for an archer type. There’s a bit more Hawkeye in this archer than there was before.
You can now shoot hookshot arrows, create magical shadows to help with sneaking and use an arrow to unlock things. You can’t completely replace a rogue this way, but you can help them a bit.
At higher levels, you can also push enemies away from yourself and use a reaction to move away from attackers and make a reaction attack against them. This plays nicely into the evasiveness you’ll want from an arcane archer.
There’s a couple more minor changes too like always getting an arcane shot use restored when you roll initiative. Curving shot also makes more sense, detailing how the missed shot ricochets towards a new target rather than a new shot without ammunition. This feels more reminiscent of a powder mage magically guiding their ammunition.
Verdict
I think these changes just nudge the arcane archer in the right direction. It just about fulfills those dreams of playing Hawkeye and just adds that bit more to the arcane archer’s repertoire.
Some might criticise the lower power of later features, but I think this is offset by the increased power of arcane shot making these perfectly fine in the context.
4/5
Monk: Tattooed Warrior
I was really unimpressed by the tattooed warrior last time round. I even went as far as to give it a 1/5 (I’m rarely that harsh). The features just didn’t work well together, were inflexible, had heavy focus point costs and some options just weren’t very good. I think it also missed the point of magical tattoos. They should enhance, not grant spells as a general rule.
Many others shared my sentiments and the tattooed warrior has had a complete rethink. The approach has changed a bit, but is only slightly better. This starts at level 3 with beast tattoos being less spell focused and more effect focused. Individually, the benefits are small and generally a bit situational. You do get 2 of them at least but they still feel a little uninspiring, especially when a spellcaster in the party likely nullifies the utility you’ll provide here anyway from cantrips.
I think the level 6 tattoos also struggle too. Being better at finding traps and hiding is fine, being better at studying though is rubbish (who really thought they wanted a magical tattoo to be better at studying). Even with the good tattoos, we’re just lacking anything that gives the tattooed warrior any greater power.
A changeable damage resistance is better, but why anyone would choose sea storm over volcano is beyond me. Volcano has the 3 most used damage types in the game, sea storm has 3 of the least used, so just go for volcano (this problem of trying to squeeze tattoos into these arbitrary types remains problematic in this iteration too).
Level 17 is the first time it feels like the magical tattoos do anything substantial. You’ve got flight, breath weapons (that replace just 1 attack), regeneration and mirror image without expending action economy. These are all pretty good and flight isn’t limited to 10ft (which was criminal in the previous playtest).
Verdict
This version is only marginally better than the atrocious version last time! I just don’t feel like the tattooed warrior gets anything interesting until they hit level 17, which is a shockingly long time. The damage resistances are fine, but that’s their best feature up until that point which should never be the case for damage resistances.
I actually think they need to abandon this approach altogether and instead give a bunch of tattoo options that do basic stuff like +1 AC, flight speed, regeneration, enhanced attacks etc, lock more powerful options behind attaining certain monk levels and have players pick their enhancements in a modular way, layering their tattoos in a way that suits what they want to do.
But sadly, in its current form, the tattooed warrior continues to seriously miss the mark for me.
1/5
Wizard: Conjurer
There were 2 issues with the previous conjurer. Firstly, they basically had a teleportation ability that required a magic action which is worse on your action economy than the misty step abilities species like Eladrin and Shadar-Kai have as racial traits. It’s not only an expensive way to teleport, it’s also a bit pathetic from a master conjurer!
The other issue is that your conjurations just weren’t that much more potent.
This new UA addresses both of these issues. Bonus action teleportation kicks in straight away at level 3 and your conjurations now have resistance to most damage types while their temporary hit points last which should be a solid resilience boost.
The big buff is at level 14 now where using certain summon spells will cause 2 of those summons to appear without using extra spell slots and being able to concentrate on both simultaneously. This is really good, and with upcasting, you can have the equivalent of 2 really high spell slots being maintained simultaneously. This is obviously really good, especially with improved concentration and summon resilience. It’s possible it’s a little too good but playtesting will hopefully tell us whether it is.
Verdict
I feel like the designers addressed all the issues the conjurer previously had, and perhaps even took things a little further than I expected. The conjurer feels really good now, and my only concern is whether at level 14, they get too good…
5/5
Wizard: Enchanter
The original 2014 enchanter wasn’t a great subclass with loads of very situational features. The previous UA changed this for more useful features, but these really didn’t fit the theme of an enchanter.
This updated UA reverts back to a lot of those old features, but updates them. The thematics of an enchanter are definitely back with this one. I’d also say that the features are mostly much less situational. That is other than the level 14 feature where modify memory is just a generally situational spell.
Largely, the other changes are good though. Hypnotic presence is worth using as it doesn’t require actions to maintain. Split enchantment makes your enchantment spells better, and instinctive charm is a clever defensive feature that can get attackers attacking allies instead.
Verdict
The good news is we definitely have an enchanter that feels like an enchanter. And largely, the features are good, but not amazing.
A lot of this comes down to the nature of enchantment spells, which generally aren’t my favourites. What can be helped more is the level 14 feature which could do with being less situational. Otherwise, this is a decent enough subclass overall.
3/5
Wizard: Necromancer
The previous UA necromancer did some good things like more life draining and use of necrotic damage and resistances. They also had a bit more resilience too. But some features didn’t land quite right. Teleportation didn’t feel like a particularly necromantic thing to be doing and they weren’t really any better at animating undead than any other wizard.
The good news is that undead created by necromancers do now feel more powerful. They last longer and hit harder. You also get neat tricks with your undead like draining their life force or blowing them up when they die. They’ve also done away with teleportation features too.
Verdict
The necromancer is a bit better balanced now and feels more like a proper necromancer that can actually animate undead creatures and do it better than other wizards.
4/5
Wizard: Transmuter
I thought the previous playtest of the transmuter was good, but the transmutation was minimalistic in the sense that it was more about enhancing than transforming. Enhancing is fine for a transmuter, but you’re really here for the transformations.
The good news is, there’s plenty more transformations with enhanced versions of alter self and polymorph. You also have more flexible enhancements through your transmuter’s stone.
The improved damage of your natural weapons with alter self could have some interesting multiclassing opportunities. 2d6 on unarmed strikes is very good and I can see a shield wielding fighter (Captain America…) making good use of this one handed damage.
I also really like the idea of a polymorphed spellcaster that can still cast spells. This has the potential to make you really tough and there may be some interesting interactions with close combat spells to consider.
Perhaps my one critique is that some of the benefits of early features lack a bit of punch for a standard transmuter. Like darkvision is easy to come by, wizards don’t need lots of speed and natural weapons aren’t great when you have a single attack. I wonder if some more substantially options could have been available here…
Verdict
I think the transmuter is pretty good, especially from level 10. It’s maybe a bit too utility focused early on, but even these features still have their place.
4/5
Summary
The good news is, I think they’ve mostly addressed the issues with the previous UA. Most of these subclasses now feel balanced and thematically correct.
Having said that, the poor tattooed monk remains badly designed. Perhaps we’ll get an update of the update of the arcana unearthed arcana…
What do you think of the updates to these playtest subclasses? Let me know in the comments below.
Spotlight on the D&D 2024 revision
All the latest updates on what’s changing with the 2024 rules revision.
