Looking at UA: Subclasses, Part 2

New month, new Unearthed Arcana! This is part 2 to last month’s UA. The survey for last month’s article is also up, so don’t forget to provide any feedback you have!

This article provides an additional subclass for the bard, cleric, and sorcerer.

Bardic College: College of Creation

These bards can exert control over the Song of Creation, the melody that bards believe to have created the multiverse. College of Creation bards may be planetouched or otherwise associated with the realms outside the Material Plane, though there are multiple ways a character can come into this power.

Bards gain their subclass at 3^rd level and gain additional subclass features at 6^th and 14^th level.

Note of Potential: 3^rd level feature

This feature adds on to the Bardic Inspiration feature. You can create a Note of Potential (a floating music note) whenever you give someone Bardic Inspiration. This Note of Potential floats near the character who was granted inspiration. Its abilities change according to how the character uses the inspiration. The Note of Destruction deals thunder damage when the Bardic Inspiration is used on an attack roll, the Note of Protection grants temporary hit points when the Bardic Inspiration is used on a saving throw, and the Note of Ingenuity allows the character to roll the Bardic Inspiration die again and choose which result to use on an ability check.

This is a fun way to boost the core Bardic Inspiration feature! I love the flavor of a tiny music note floating around the party member the bard inspires. This feature focuses the bard on providing inspiration to others, instead of the College of Whispers or Swords where the bard can augment their own capabilities.

Animating Performance: 6^th level feature

At 6^th level, you can use your action to animate a Large or smaller nonmagical object. This feature contains the Dancing Item stat block, which the animated item uses. You can animate and control the object for an hour or until it drops to 0 hit points. You can use your bonus action to command the object. Also, you can use Bardic Inspiration and command the item in the same bonus action. You can only animate one object at a time and once per long rest, or you can expend a 3^rd level or higher spell slot to use it again.

This is straight out of Disney’s Fantasia. I think the animate object spell is often unjustly passed over for other options, but this is an even better version baked right into a subclass. Follow your dreams and ride your sofa into battle!

Performance of Creation: 14^th level feature

At 14^th level, you can create a nonmagical item as an action. It has to appear on a surface or in a liquid that can support it, so no summoning giant pianos to drop on someone. The item can be Large or smaller, it cannot have a value greater than 20 times your bard level, and you need to use your action to maintain it (if you don’t, it will disappear at the end of your next turn). If you use your actions to maintain the item for a whole minute, it will exist for a number of hours equal to your bard level. You can create an item once per long rest (you can’t have more than one at a time), but you can expend a 5^th level or higher spell slot to use the feature again.

 This feature sounds like a great problem-solving tool for adventuring parties. It’s not clear how creating food would work out (if it disappears, do you still get sustenance if you’ve eaten it?). But, I think this feature can work in a variety of situations with a creative player!

Cleric Divine Domain: Unity Domain

Clerics of the Unity Domain focus on the bonds between people, whether those are bonds of family, marriage, friendship, or otherwise. This section contains a table listing some deities of this domain across different pantheons.

Clerics gain their subclass at 1^st level, gaining additional features at 2^nd, 6^th, 8^th, and 17^th level.

Domain Spells: 1^st level feature

These domain spells focus on supporting the party, including spells like shield of faith, aid, and greater restoration. There are also spells to facilitate communication, such as sending and Rary’s telepathic bond.

Clerics gain access to their domain spells at 1^st, 3^rd, 5^th, 7^th, and 9^th level. These are perfect for a support-type cleric in the party!

Emboldening Bond: 1^st level feature

At 1^st level, you can create a magical bond between two willing creatures within range (30 feet). When those creatures are in range of each other, they can add a d4 to an attack roll, ability check, or saving throw once per turn. This bond lasts for an hour. You can use this feature once per long rest, and you can use a spell slot of any level to use it again.

I am all about this power of friendship stuff, it’s both a useful boon and a fun roleplay idea. It also encourages the party to stick together and not break off on their own.

Channel Divinity: Shared Burden: 2^nd level feature

This Channel Divinity option allows you to spread damage out amongst the party when a creature takes a hit. Everyone involved must be a willing creature and take at least 1 point of damage, but vulnerabilities and resistances are applied after you distribute the damage. You can distribute damage using a number of creatures equal to your Wisdom modifier, with a minimum of one.

This can be a lifesaver in the right conditions! I like the idea of sharing the damage amongst the party. This is great for saving someone from a critical hit!

Protective Bond: 6^th level feature

This feature improves the Emboldening Bond feature. While using Emboldening Bond, the bonded creatures can grant each other resistance to all damage as a reaction (so if one character takes damage, the other can use their reaction to grant them resistance to damage). The resistance lasts until the turn ends.

It’s interesting that this feature, unlike the shield spell, doesn’t say that the resistance will retroactively apply to the damage dealt. Even if it doesn’t, this feature helps the bonded characters keep each other alive by mitigating the damage the creature may take during the rest of the turn.

Potent Spellcasting: 8^th level feature

As the Rule Tip note box says, clerics who focus on weapons get Divine Strike. Clerics who focus on other things (such as spellcasting) get the Potent Spellcasting feature, which augments their cleric cantrip damage.

Enduring Unity: 17^th level feature

This feature improves the Emboldening Bond and Protective Bond feature. Now, creatures with the Emboldening Bond feature active on them get those and the Protective Bond benefits as long as they are on the same plane of existence—they no longer need to be as close as 30 feet to each other. On top of that, a creature gains several benefits when its bonded creature falls to 0 hit points. The still-standing creature gets advantage on all rolls, resistance to all damage, and they can expend an action to touch their bonded partner and allow them to regain hit points taken from their own hit dice. These benefits last for a minute or until the downed partner regains hit points.

This capstone feature maintains the subclass’s focus on the Emboldening Bond feature and grants some really nifty additional benefits to using it. I like that this subclass revolves so tightly around its initial abilities. I really want to play a character with this subclass!

Sorcerous Origin: Clockwork Soul

The Clockwork Soul origin manifests from a connection to Mechanus, the plane of order and law. Along with this subclass comes a Manifestations of Mechanus table, which can provide some inspiration for how the clockwork magic of law affects your sorcerer’s own spells and appearance.

Sorcerers gain their subclass at 1^st level and gain additional subclass features at 6^th, 14^th, and 18^th level.

Clockwork Magic: 1^st level feature

This feature grants additional spells as you level up as a sorcerer (at 1^st, 3^rd, 5^th, 7^th, and 9^th level). These spells include protective options like counterspell and Otiluke’s resilient sphere, as well as some clockwork-themed options like alarm.

Additional spells are always good for a sorcerer, whose spell options are more limited than, say, the wizard’s. These spells in particular remind me of playing blue/white decks in Magic: The Gathering—negating your enemies’ actions and protecting yourself or your allies.

Restore Balance: 1^st level feature

This 1^st level feature allows you to use your reaction and negate any advantage or disadvantage for a nearby creature’s d20 roll. You can do this a number of times equal to your Charisma modifier (minimum 1) per long rest.

This could allow you to negate your party rogue’s disadvantaged attack roll, helping them get Sneak Attack in the right circumstances. You could also use this against your enemies when they have advantage on your party, like a melee attack on a prone creature.

Bulwark of Law: 6^th level feature

With this feature, you use sorcery points to make a ward that helps reduce damage. The ward can apply to you or a nearby creature, it last until you take a long rest (or use the feature again), and its damage-mitigating abilities depend on how many sorcery points you expend (from one to five points). The number of sorcery points grants an equal number of d8s for the warded creature to use to reduce damage they take. It doesn’t say what happens when the ward runs out of dice, but I’d assume that you could use the feature again to summon a new ward and replace the old one.

I like that this feature helps out your party (or yourself). For one party, this feature may work best with the sorcerer using it on themselves, for another, it could be more helpful protecting someone else. The flexibility in how many sorcery points you can use is also nice; even when you’re running low, you can summon the ward in a pinch.

Trance of Order: 14^th level feature

At 14^th level, you can use your bonus action to gain a series of benefits for a minute. You treat any attack, ability check, or saving throw below a 10 as a roll of 10, and attack rolls against you cannot have advantage. You can do this once per long rest, or you can expend 5 sorcery points to get another use.

This feature allows you to gain some roll reliability and some protection in combat. So you could take advantage of this ability in either a combat situation or a quick social encounter where your results really mattered.

Clockwork Cavalcade: 18^th level feature

At 18^th level, you can use your action to summon “spirits of order” around you. They quickly grant several benefits—they repair any objects in the area (30 foot cube originating from you), they end spells lower than 7^th level on creatures of your choice, and they restore up to 100 hit points divided as you choose amongst the nearby creatures. You can do this once per long rest, and you can use up 7 sorcery points to get an additional use.

There’s something kinda cute about this feature, since you’re summoning these cleaner robots to come and make things better before they disappear. It’s also just plain helpful, allowing you to neutralize spells and heal allies.

I really enjoyed reading these subclasses! Honestly, I’d love to play any one of these! What do you think of these new options?