New Unearthed Arcana is turning into a trend, and I’m not complaining! So far, we’ve gotten UA for the barbarian and monk, the sorcerer and the warlock, and now the bard and the paladin! (The classes who haven’t received UA in this round yet are wizard, druid, fighter, rogue, ranger and cleric—we’ve already covered half of the official classes!)

We’ve got a talkative bard subclass and a heroic paladin subclass in this article. Also, the survey for the sorcerer and warlock UA article is available.

Bard College: College of Eloquence

The College of Eloquence emphasizes the high art of persuasion and rhetoric. These bards are masters of both logical and emotional appeal in their oratory.

Bards get their subclass at 3rd level and receive additional subclass features at 6th and 14th level.

Universal Speech

This 3rd level ability allows the bard to speak with creatures that don’t necessarily share a language (or creatures that don’t speak any languages). You spend a Bardic Inspiration die, roll it, and can speak with a number of creatures you choose equal to the result of your Bardic Inspiration roll. The effect lasts for 10 minutes. It also grants you advantage of Charisma checks to influence the chosen creatures.

Right out of the gate, this is a great example of a cool ability that can get the party out of a bind in the right roleplaying scenario. Or you could just use it to talk to birds, I guess. Note that you still can’t understand the creature, it’s a one-way deal. This is a neat mechanic to use Bardic Inspiration with!

Soothing Words

With this 3rd level feature, the bard can cast the 2nd level calm emotions spell without expending a spell slot. They can do so a number of times equal to their Charisma modifier per long rest (note that there’s no minimum, so in the rare case your bard’s CHA is or becomes zero, you don’t get any).

No other bard subclasses have granted this kind of ability before. The Player’s Handbook bards get additional proficiencies at 3rd level, and the other subclasses have branched out from this, but this is the first time a bard subclass feature has granted an additional spell in this way. One of the College of Glamour features grants conditional access to the command spell, but that’s also at a higher level and doesn’t work the same way. This is interesting!

Undeniable Logic

At 6th level, this bard can use a bonus action and a Bardic Inspiration to harm or help another creature. You have a choice of dealing psychic damage plus disadvantage on the creature’s next saving throw before the end of your next turn (they get an Intelligence save to resist the latter effect), or heal hit points and grant advantage on the creature’s next saving throw before the end of your next turn.

Granting advantage and disadvantage is a big deal when it comes to saving throws. Features that grant advantage or force disadvantage don’t usually apply to saves. So, this is a really useful way to debuff an enemy or help out an ally, especially since it’s on a bonus action. Also, it’s a fun follow up to the iconic bard cantrip vicious mockery, which has similar flavor.  

Infectious Inspiration

The 14th level feature is pretty beefy. First, it allows a creature to hold on to a Bardic Inspiration die it has received if they fail the check they tried to use it on. Additionally, when a creature uses your Bardic Inspiration and succeeds on the check, you can use your reaction to grant another creature Bardic Inspiration without expending a use (you can’t do this to yourself). You can use this feature equal to your Charisma modifier (one use as a minimum) per long rest.

This sounds like a cool way to really stretch out those Bardic Inspiration die. Generally, a bard has a maximum of 20 Charisma (+5 modifier), so that’s 5 uses of Bardic Inspiration. That’s pretty good, especially once you’re at the level where you regain uses on a short or long rest, but this feature allows you to be even more free with them.

I love bards. I think this subclass is rad. I’m also really interested to see how and what changes about these features if (hopefully when) they become official!

Paladin Sacred Oath: Oath of Heroism

Paladins of the Oath of Heroism are enthusiastic about following the destiny awaiting them. A higher power has called them to greatness, and these paladins are willing and ready, training themselves diligently in the meantime.

Paladins get their subclass at 3rd level and receive additional subclass features at 7th, 15th, and 20th level.

Tenets of Heroism

The tenets of each oath aren’t really subclass features, but they are important to the roleplaying aspect of playing a paladin. The tenets for this oath emphasize actions over words and rigorous training. Every challenge a paladin of the Oath of Heroism faces is a test for them to improve and move forward towards their destiny.

Oath Spells

Each paladin subclass receives additional spells as a part of their oath. Notable spells for Oath of Heroism include enhance ability, haste, and, funnily enough, expeditious retreat. These additional spells focus on buffs for the most part, though enthrall and compulsion are also in there.

Channel Divinity

The final feature for this paladin’s 3rd level is their unique Channel Divinity options: Peerless Athlete and Legendary Strike. Peerless Athlete grants advantage to checks using Strength (Athletics) and Dexterity (Acrobatics) for 10 minutes. Legendary Strike makes weapon attacks a critical hit when the player rolls a 19 or a 20 on the d20 for 1 minute.

Both of these options make sense for the flavor identity of this subclass. And, paladin subclass Channel Divinity options are usually situational in nature. However, I’m not super sure about Legendary Strike—it could be really cool, but what if you don’t roll those numbers during the combat you use it in?

Mighty Deed

At 7th level, the paladin can cause either a positive or negative effect on creatures around them when they crit or knock a creature to 0 hit points. The number of creatures they can effect is equal to their Charisma modifier (at least one creature). The paladin can either grant temporary hit points or force a Wisdom saving throw to resist being frightened.

I like this idea! The paladin can grant buffs or debuffs while they’re fighting instead of having to use a bonus action or reaction to do so, which frees up their actions.

Glorious Defense

Once they reach 15th level, the paladin can use their reaction to increase their AC when they are hit by an attack. If the attack misses as a result of that AC increase, the paladin gets a weapon attack against the attacker as well.

This shield-like effect makes sense for paladins, who generally have a pretty high AC. The AC bonus is equal to their Charisma modifier, so that’s a maximum of 5. Since paladins generally wear heavy armor, it already takes a good roll to land a hit, so you probably only need that sort of bonus to force a miss (unless this is a really powerful attacker).

Living Myth

Once your paladin makes it to 20th level, they receive the Living Myth feature, which has one of my favorite first sentences for any feature.

“You can now empower yourself with the legends—whether true or exaggerated—told of your great deeds.” Seriously. It just makes me smile. I don’t even play paladins that often.

You use your bonus actions to receive these three benefits for 10 minutes: advantage on Charisma checks, change a weapon attack miss to a hit instead once per turn, and change a failed save to a success with a reaction. This feature is once per long rest…

… which makes sense, because this is a sufficiently bonkers feature for 20th level. I mean, of course! You made it to 20th level, so this sort of fun and crazy feature is well deserved at that point. This is really fun, and I love the flavor description.

Overall, I think this paladin subclass has a lot of fun roleplaying stuff going for it. Most of the features are pretty cool, too!

Both the bard and paladin get their subclasses at level 3, as do monks and barbarians. Warlocks and sorcerers get their subclasses at level 1. My theory is that WotC is organizing these Unearthed Arcana articles by which classes get subclasses at the same level.

The remaining classes are cleric (level 1), wizard (2), druid (2), fighter (3), ranger (3), and rogue (3). This is assuming that we’re getting UA subclasses for each official class, of course, but let’s be optimistic!

It’s fun to speculate, so I’ll take a guess at which articles we’ll get next. The cleric gets their subclass at level 1 and the others don’t, so that makes things a little less neat, but here’s my guess:

  • Wizard + druid
  • Fighter + rogue
  • Ranger + cleric

No deep reasoning behind it, that’s just my feeling on this.

What do you think of this new UA article? Anything you hope to see in upcoming articles? Let’s talk in the comments!