It’s time for more Unearthed Arcana!

We’ve got a slimy Sorcerer subclass, an aquatic Warlock subclass, and a spooky new cantrip! You can also now access the survey for the last Unearthed Arcana. This is a good way to let WotC know what you think of the new playtest content.

Let’s dive in to this week’s UA!

For the sorcerer, we have the Aberrant Mind subclass. For the warlock, we have the Lurker in the Deep subclass. The new cantrip is called mind sliver and is available for sorcerers, warlocks, and wizards.

Sorcerer subclass: Aberrant Mind

This Sorcerous Origin comes from some alien influence on the character—an aboleth, mind flayer, or some other strange planar entity has made its mark on this sorcerer. The article encourages the sorcerer’s player to think of ways that this influence manifests.

Sorcerers get their subclass at 1st level and gain additional features at 6th, 14th, and 18th level. Notably, this sorcerer gets three (instead of one or two) 1st level features.

Invasive Thoughts

This 1st level feature allows the sorcerer to create a temporary telepathic link with another creature. This feature makes it clear that this is a two-way link (whereas a similar feature in the Great Old One patron warlock is a little vague).

This kind of feature is cool and flavorful, and it makes complete sense for a sorcerer like this to have telepathic ability.

Psionic Spells

With this 1st level feature, the sorcerer gains two additional spells at 1st, 3rd, 5th, 7th, and 9th level (a total of ten additional spells) that do not count against their number of spells known. These are spells like dissonant whispers and modify memory, so they make sense thematically.

I really like the idea of this, but that’s a lot of additional spells! Some previous (UA and official) sorcerer subclasses have granted additional spells before, but not so many as ten before. I’d be curious to see how this feature shakes out in play. It certainly gives the sorcerer more options to work with and ensures that they get access to suitably spooky, mind-related spells.

Warped Being

The third and final 1st level feature in this subclass works like the Draconic Sorcerous Origin. The sorcerer’s body has built-in defenses due to their origin, and that grants them 13 + DEX Armor Class when not wearing armor.

This sorcerer is shaping up to be pretty interesting! I wouldn’t have expected this sort of feature, but it’s cool that the character’s body is markedly different from the get-go.

Psionic Sorcery

At 6th level, the sorcerer can cast the spells they gain from Psionic Spells by expending spell slots or sorcery points. If they use the latter option, they don’t need to use components.

This is a big shift for a sorcerer. Usually, they need a bonus action to convert slots to points and vice versa. This feature is limited to the spells they get from Psionic Spells, but those spells cover a range of uses (combat and otherwise). So, this is another strong feature for the subclass!

Psionic Defenses

This 6th level feature grants the sorcerer resistance to psychic damage and advantage on saving throws against charm and frighten effects. Your mind is harder to crack into!

This is like a beefed-up version of Draconic origin’s Elemental Affinity (specifically, the damage resistance part). This resistance is always on, while a Draconic sorcerer needs to spend a sorcery point to gain resistance to their ancestor’s damage type for an hour. At the same time, I’m not sure if psychic damage is all that common (or more common than the elemental damage types, even).

Revelation in Flesh

The origin’s 14th level feature is more focused on exploration. The sorcerer can spend sorcery points to transform their body. They have a handful of options, including gaining a swimming speed, gaining a flying speed, becoming… a slime…?, and gaining awareness of hidden creatures nearby. These transformations last a minute.

These options are a delightful mix of alarming (flavor) and useful (mechanics). Your party will not be able to forget that your sorcerer is weird as all get-out, and that’s beautiful.

Warp Reality

Once the sorcerer hits 18th level, they can casually break reality once a day (once per long rest).

I’m not joking.

The sorcerer can use their action to make a reality-warping aura around themselves that harms and hinders their enemies but not their allies (up to the sorcerer, though). If they end the effect early, they plus any number of other creatures within the aura teleport to a visible location (chosen by the sorcerer) within a mile. An unwilling teleportee has the option to save against the teleportation.

This is a super cool capstone ability for the subclass. I’d love to see how people use this feature!

Warlock subclass: Lurker in the Deep

Similar to sorcerers, warlocks also gain their subclass right at the start at 1st level. The Lurker in the Deep patron is a kraken or primordial, some ancient being that lives deep in the oceans of the Prime Material plane or elsewhere. One of the main features of this subclass is the ability to summon your patrons, um, appendages?, so the note box in this section encourages players to customize their appearance according to your patron’s nature.

Warlocks get subclass features at 1st, 6th, 10th, and 14th level.

Expanded Spell List

Each warlock subclass can access an expanded spell list according to their patron. They get two spells each for 1st through 5th level. They can choose from these additional spells when they level up and can choose new spells to learn.

The Lurker in the Deep’s expanded spell list deals with weather and water-related themes, including lightning bolt and control water. Silence is an interesting choice, but it may be related to the crowd-control mechanics this warlock subclass uses, since you cannot cast verbal component spells in an area affected by silence.

Grasp of the Deep

At 1st level, the warlock can summon a tentacle to hit people with (a number of times equal to the CHA modifier per long rest). The tentacle is described as spectral, so it’s probably not literally the patron’s arm swooping in to smack. The tentacle lasts for a minute, and the warlock can use it to deal damage to a target within a decent range around them. The damage also increases at 10th level.

This feature is a weird, fun, and useful ability. You could say that it definitely… makes a splash.

Scion of the Deep

This 1st level feature allows the warlock to communicate (telepathically) with any aberration, beast, elemental, or monstrosity with an innate swim speed. This goes to a range of 120 feet and allows the creature to communicate back to you.

While you could certainly use this to gain an advantage in specific situations, this seems mostly like a neat flavor ability. Not all patron abilities are strange and spooky, sometimes you just become Aquaman.

Fathomless Soul

At 6th level, the warlock gets cold resistance, a swim speed, and the ability to breathe either air or water. Now you can avoid drowning while holding an audience with your patron!

These would come especially in handy during a nautical campaign, but it’s always useful to have damage resistances and exploration abilities in your back pocket. They’re situationally useful, and it feels cool even if you don’t get to use it every session.

Guardian Grasp

This 6th level feature further empowers the tentacle the warlock can summon using Grasp of the Deep. You can sacrifice the tentacle as a reaction to cause you or your ally to only take half damage from a nearby attack.

This might come in handy in difficult fights where an enemy can do a lot of damage in one hit. Or, it can save you when you’re low on health and just need to make it for one more round. Having a reaction ability tied to the tentacle is a nice way to expand its usefulness!

Devouring Maw

Once you hit 10th level, the warlock can feed their patron when they need a snack. They can summon a “manifestation of your patron’s insatiable hunger” as a “translucent maw.” This ability deals damage to those in the area and restrains those who fail a Strength save. Also, if there’s someone in the maw’s area on the start of the warlock’s turn, they gain temporary hit points.

This is a neat feature, and temporary hit points are always welcome, especially since warlocks aren’t the most durable class. It gives you a buffer of hit points while also making trouble for your enemies. Even if they make the Strength save, they’ll have to move to avoid the damage.

Unleash the Depths

The final feature for this subclass kicks in at 14th level. The warlock can call their patron to show up and do one of two things: bail the party out or wreak havoc on their enemies. So, really, both of those options are “bail the party out.” The first option is a fairly generous teleportation ability, allowing you and five willing creatures to be transported to anywhere within 100 miles that you’ve visited in the past day. The second option inflicts a chunky amount of damage on five creatures within 30 feet of where your patron manifests.

This works really well as a culmination of the subclass’s features. At the height of your power, you can bring forth your patron to directly intervene, instead of a spectral representation of them.

New cantrip: mind sliver

This cantrip is available for the arcane casters—the sorcerer, warlock, and wizard. (Yes, I’m a little sad it’s not for bards, but Magical Secrets is always there)

It does 1d6 of damage at the start and requires an Intelligence saving throw, which is one of the lesser-used saving throw types. The cantrip inflicts an additional effect where the target must subtract a d4 from their first saving throw made before the end of the caster’s next turn.

This is pretty useful for spellcasters! Vicious mockery is a comparable cantrip, but it uses a d4 for damage, inflicts disadvantage on the target’s next attack roll, and is only available for bards.

Mind sliver works well for psionic and mind magic-focused spellcasters. I really like this new cantrip, and I hope it sticks around!

What do you think of these new options? I’d love to hear in the comments!