Take a closer look at many of the specific class options in the latest Unearthed Arcana with this conversation between –THIS IS A AN AUTOMATIC CAPTION TEXT from YouTube, so it’s not “perfect”.
My advice is to use it just to help people like me that are not english speaking, to understand the Video/Podcast
Yeah, so the Rogue

and the Wizard are both

so solid in their base classes

and they have pieces that

all need to be there.

And with this UA, we wanted

to not force anything.

We didn’t want to put in replacements

or enhancements just because we could.

– [Todd] Yeah.

– We really wanted to be targeted.

And because of that approach,

the Wizard and the Rogue got just enough.

(Todd laughs)

Wizards are now gonna

have some versatility

with their Cantrips.

– [Todd] Right.

– There are a few spells that we added

particularly to help

the divination sub-class

but all Wizards are gonna

be happy to get them

if given certain character concepts.

The Rogue, they got one, but it’s a biggy.

– [Todd] Yeah.

– It is the ability

to use their cunning action to aim

thereby giving themselves advantage

on their next attack

roll on the same turn.

The trade-off though,

is they have to give up

all of their movement that turn.

– [Todd] Yeah.

– They can’t have moved

before using it and as soon as

they use it their speed drops to zero.

So, this really is for the Rogue

who is locked toe-to-toe

in malaise with their foe,

or the Rogue who is

safely ensconced in some sniper position.

– [Todd] Right.

– And also for the

Rogue, who is in a group,

maybe where there are

no malaise combatants

to help set Sneak Attack up.

– [Todd] Yeah.

– Many Rogues are actually

gonna have no need for this.

Because many Rogues are in

groups that have a Fighter

or a Barbarian or somebody

else who is setting up

Sneak Attack for them, round

after round after round.

This is really for that Rogue who

doesn’t have a malaise buddy,

they’re in fights where

there’s nowhere to hide.

– [Todd] Yeah.

But, by golly, they would really love to

be able to use their Sneak Attack.

And if anyone’s wondering, oh my goodness,

is this overpowered?

No, it is not.

The Rogue is actually

designed assuming they are

using their Sneak Attack almost every

single time they take a turn in combat.

– It’s the key, well, it’s one of

the key features of being a Rogue.

And yeah, if you’re going to

have friend within five feet.

– Well, but again, if you don’t

and there’s no place to

hide, this aim option

gives you a way to use your Sneak Attack.

We also had other intents for this.

The Rogue is designed in many ways

to be the agile action hero,

and of all of our classes

the Rogue is the person who,

let’s say you knock them prone.

And normally when you’re knocked prone,

you’re attacks have disadvantage.

The Rogue of all people, should be able to

line up a shot, while laying on the ground

with their hand crossbow and fire.

Being able to aim to wipe their

disadvantage away from being prone.

So, this,

this option, it’s one option

but its applications are

extremely powerful and appealing.

– I love it, it’s like being a Wolverine.

But yeah, the term,

the saying, a knife

fight in a phone booth,

comes to mind (laughs).

– [Jeremy] Right, right.

– Like this Rogue, that’s what the Rogue

should be good at, is

that kind of situation.

– [Jeremy] Yeah.

– You do all these wonderful things for

Rangers and Fighters and

I’m very excited about both.

I’m strongly considering

playing a Fighter now.

You just keep on giving

goodness to the Warlocks.

Which, I like Warlocks, there’s a lot

of juicy goodness with the Warlocks.

And there’s a theme in this UA,

to a certain degree, of helping.

I’m seeing this more

and more in your design.

Helping everyone else.

You’ve got a, now you have a Talisman.

And you, primarily the

function of this Talisman

for a Warlock, is to help somebody else.

To help them with Skill Checks, or–

– Well, no, the Warlock

can use the Talisman

just to help themselves, but it is true

that its full potential is unlocked

when you give it to somebody else.

– [Todd] Right.

– And this arose when we were looking at

the Pact Boon options that

are already in the game.

And people have let us know,

can we at least have another option?

‘Cause even though people

love Pact of the Blade

and Pact of the Chain

and Pact of the Tome,

it was like, maybe another one.

So, we had fun creating the Talisman.

– [Todd] We’re never gonna

stop asking for more!

– Oh, I know!

(Todd laughs)

But it,

it was non-interesting to us,

to design something that is essentially

just like the others, but

with a different aesthetic.

I wanted this to be functionally

different in some way.

To speak to a different play experience.

So that, also Warlocks felt

like they had more options.

That if you want to go the

full Spellcaster route,

you can often take Pact of the Tome.

If you really like the notion

of having a little critter

who is helping you out,

whether it’s a little

fiendish critter or a fey

critter or something else,

well, Pact of the Chain is great.

And if you really love

the kind of Warrior Mage

kind of aesthetic, well, you

can get Pact of the Blade.

What the Warlock was really missing

was the more support Warlock.

A person who has made a pact,

but not necessarily for selfish reasons.

And who might be using this magic,

whatever its origin, to help

not only themselves but others.

And so, the Talisman is a way to do that.

That said, we even provided

some support options

also for the Tome Warlock by giving you

the ability to save a friend from death

by having them sign their

name in your Book of Shadows.

‘Cause we wanted to do a

little, some more flavorful

things with the Book of Shadows

when we were doing this

on Unearthed Arcana.

– I love that.

It’s almost the opposite

of the Book of Death.

If you were a fan of the Death series.

– [Jeremy] Right, right.

(Todd laughs)

– But yeah, to write your friend’s

name down and that will save them once.

– [Jeremy] Yeah.

– Is lovely, and so narrative, it makes

the Book of Shadows way

more interesting to me now.

– [Jeremy] Yeah.

– The other one I am

totally in love with is

the one where you can cast sending.

Tell me about that, because that

is such rich narrative flavor.

– Yeah, so here you can,

again, if someone has signed

their name on the special

page in your Book of Shadows

that has to do with this

communication, you can communicate

with them wherever they are in the world.

And you write the message on that page,

and they hear it mentally

and then they can mentally

respond, and their message

appears on the page.

And again, it’s just, the Warlock is

such a fertile ground when it

comes to this kind of flavor.

– [Todd] Yeah.

– Always fun to design for.

And also, there are some more invocations

as well in this UA,

some of which are for the Talisman.

Again, there are the ones we’ve just been

talking about for the

Tome, and then we even

have one for Pact of the Blade.

– [Todd] Yes!

– Which is the–

– [Todd] Very interesting!

– Yes, it’s instantly don a Suit of Armor

and be proficient with it.

– Yeah, you got that little bit

of that Iron Man thing going on.

What’s interesting about it to me is,

’cause everyone thinks Hexblade.

But Hexblade is, because I’ve played

a Hexblade that was eight strength.

So, I had a very wispy,

skinny Vincent Price man

who could carry a fail fancy sized

GRPG sword (laughs)!

– [Jeremy] Right.

– ‘Cause you get to use

your charisma modifier.

But, so, elder charmer as an invocation.

You touch a piece of armor, any armor,

and you’re proficient with it.

That means Platemail, but Platemail has

a strength requirement.

– [Jeremy] It sure does.

– So, now you, I see that as an advantage

of maybe you wanna play a big,

buff Warlock (laughs), right?

– Yeah, yep, yeah.

So, you, it’s just providing more options.

– [Todd] Yeah.

– And that is again what this

Unearthed Arcana is all about.

New fighting styles also appear for

the Fighter, the Ranger and the Paladin.

– [Todd] Unarmed is very interesting.

– Yeah, yeah, because people

have, people have told us

they’d love to have a

character who’s very effective

with unarmed fighting, without

necessarily being a Monk.

Because the Monk is our

premier, unarmed fighter.

But we decided we would give an option

for Paladins, Rangers and Fighters.

We also give Rangers and Paladins

the option to essentially not

take a regular fighting style,

and instead learn Cantrips,

because some Rangers

and Paladins really want to delve

deeper into the magical

side of their class.

And this gives them that option.

– The extended spell list also,

again, there’s this theme.

The Talisman has this very like,

help your party, feel to it.

Now the Book of Shadows

has the same thing.

You’re helping with communication,

you’re helping flat out save their life

by having their name in there

and this is the character

I tend to like to play, but

I don’t wanna play a Paladin.

Right?

And now, you’re giving me the option

to be the Warlock that actually cares,

or is trying to help the party,

or has a loved one they want

to make sure is always safe.

Ranger now has Warding Bond.

I thought that was very interesting

because you could be a Ranger who is

just shooting arrows,

but someone out there

you’re now currently protecting.

– Yeah and,

we included several buffing spells

on the expanded Ranger

list for several reasons.

One, I love the classic

concept of the Ranger

going all the way back to first edition,

of the Ranger essentially

being to the Druid

what the Paladin is to the Cleric.

– [Todd] Yeah.

– And I think you and I

have talked about before.

The Ranger originally had to be good.

– [Todd] Yes!

– In first edition D&D,

there was no such thing as evil Rangers.

– Oh yeah, I was a neutral, good Ranger.

I showed you my original character.

I had wonderful premonition

for an eight-year-old.

– And so, I always love it when we

have a chance to lean into the

Ranger not just as the person

who’s roaming through the wilds,

but is roaming with a purpose.

They’re roaming to protect,

not only the natural world,

but also the people who travel through it

and the people who reside there.

These buffing abilities are

also there for the Beast Master.

A Warding Bond is actually a way

for the Beast Master to

protect their companion.

– [Todd] Yes (laughs)!

– And it is also a nice

option for any Ranger

who might use the Animal Friendship spell

to befriend and animal and then

have that animal as an MPC companion.

– [Todd] Right.

– So, some of these additions

are achieving multiple goals for us.

There’s again the broader

narrative of the Ranger as this

nature-flavored protector

but then also helping Rangers who

have beasts who are traveling with them

and they want to give those

beasts a chance to survive.

– That’s what I love about this UA.

And all of the UAs that

have been coming out.

There,

there is some great, juicy strategy

that you are introducing into the game,

but they have narrative and role-playing

consequence at the same time.

You’re getting all of it at the same time.

Giving a Ranger Warding Bond has so many

implications like you just mentioned.

And it’s lovely, I mean,

you also have the Talisman has an ability,

if you’re a Warlock and you use that

and you give it to maybe a Fighter,

not a Spellcaster, you,

they attack that person

who’s wearing the Talisman and they

can get shocked for psychic damage.

And then knocked back 10 feet.

If you’re putting that on a Barbarian

I mean, that’s just a

nightmare (chuckles)!

You’re just making him

even more of a tank.

– [Jeremy] Yeah.

And it’s more of this

players working together to

form this cohesive group

and I adore all of it.

It’s so flavorful and fun

and leads you down a much

more role-playing path.

– And that,

that interaction between characters,

those role-playing options

also are behind the options

that we provided in the

Bard and the Barbarian.

The Bard now has an option to enhance

Spellcasters’ spells

with Bardic Inspiration.

– [Todd] Yeah.

– ‘Cause, baseline Bardic Inspiration

isn’t really doing anything for a spell

that doesn’t involve an attack roll.

And so, this provides an option for

the Bard to assist their,

say their Wizard friend

or their Cleric friend or somebody

who’s primarily casting spells

that don’t involve attack rolls in combat.

The Barbarian really gets

a role-playing option

for one of their features,

which is the ability

to get rid of danger

sends, to instead become

and expert in a couple of skills,

allowing the Barbarian

player to lean more into

a Barbarian who maybe

is more than their rage.

– [Todd] Yes.

And I know most of us who

like playing Barbarians,

and I love playing a Barbarian,

are all about and love

that they’re rage machines.

But also sometimes a person

wants another concept.

And so, that’s here.

Similarly, with the optional

replacement of fast movement,

this is giving the Barbarian a chance

to interact with a tactical situation

in a way they can’t with

just a straight speed boost.

We know not everyone

is going to want this.

It is the nature of the

replacements in this

Unearthed Arcana that people

are going to, in some cases,

want to keep what’s in

the Player’s Handbook.

That’s fine, we designed them that way.

– [Todd] Right.

– We designed them so that you could have

a person at your table who’s using

the Player’s Handbook

version of a feature,

next to a person using the replacement

version of that same feature.

And they’re both going to perform well.

Again, that’s part of these replacements.

They are not like, once and for all

replacing what’s in the

PH, it’s a new option.

And as is again, this entire buffet

that we’ve been talking about.

– [Todd] Is there anything

that came out of this

that is a particular favorite of yours?

Personally, or are you not

allowed to play favorites?

– Ah, so, I am so often the parent

who loves all their children,

and so there is stuff

I love in every single

one of these classes.

And, I mean we have been working

on these for quite a while,

tinkering with them,

revising them, deleting.

I mean, there are actually a lot of things

that died on the cutting room floor.

And that’s the nature of design.

And so, this set of options

that we’ve presented

honestly, if I had the

time, I would love to play

a character who gets to enjoy using

everyone of these

enhancements or replacements.

– Yeah, what do you think that,

have you already started to see feedback?

Because this is a big UA,

this is like an event UA.

– So far people have

been very excited by it.

And I’m looking forward to getting

the survey feedback so that we can dig in.

My hope is that people love them enough

so that we can take

these to the next level.

Because again, just as

a DM and as a player,

I would love to see these

as a part of DMs toolkits.

That when they’re creating a campaign

and they’re considering what’s going to

be special about this campaign?

What options are available

in this campaign?

I think this set of

options are just gonna be

another great tool for DMs to consider.

Particularly to ease pain points,

to bring new smiles to

peoples faces about characters

that they might’ve been

like, I’ve been there,

done that with Clerics or

Bards or Rangers, but now suddenly see

these new options as like,

wow, I thought I was done

playing that class, but

now I’m all about it!

So, it really it, I’m hoping these will

bring fresh excitement for people

about these classes

that they already love.

@ToddKenreck & @JeremyECrawford! https://t.co/grjABvuZuu pic.twitter.com/b6IhiHDFpR

— D&D Beyond (@DnDBeyond) November 8, 2019