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Nerdarchy > Dungeons & Dragons  > Using D&D 5E Unearthed Arcana Class Options for Worldbuilding

Using D&D 5E Unearthed Arcana Class Options for Worldbuilding

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D&D Unearthed Arcana class

Limited Edition cover for Xanathar’s Guide to Everything from Wizards of the Coast.

Due to the recent announcement D&D Beyond will fully launch on August 15, my mind has turned back to Xanathar’s Guide to Everything (or perhaps forward, since as of the writing of this article it’s still four months away from its release).

I’m really excited to see the new character options that are going to be available. Obviously we have a strong idea of some of it thanks in so small part to Wizards of the Coast’s Unearthed Arcana. There are some good ones out there. And there are some failures, too.

But no matter how good or bad, I’m not a fan of letting my D&D players use the class archetypes. The reason is very simple. Unearthed Arcana is subject to change because it’s test material.

The designers knew going into it what they had needed work. Partially because a lot of them did some really cool things, and really cool can either be largely ineffective or overpowered.

Unearthed Arcana in your D&D campaign

That’s why they released revised versions of some of the Unearthed Arcana D&D class archetypes. The sorcerer’s favored soul, as an example, is drastically different between the two versions. That’s not even including whatever version is going to exist in Xanathar’s Guide to Everything, nor does it include individual Dungeon Master adjustments to the class archetype if they felt something was over- or underpowered.

Experienced D&D players may be willing to deal with the turbulent iterations, or maybe your group decides whatever version you start with is the version that you end with, but I’m not a fan of that idea. I’m willing to make house rules I know will need continual fine-tuning for some things, such as the way the beast master ranger’s beast companion works. But I’m less willing to keep up with D&D class archetypes that haven’t been thoroughly vetted. Doubly so being that I’m the first among my friends and family to get into tabletop RPGs, and I’m not willing to deal with that with new players. I’d allow the artificer and mystic for experienced players only, since WotC is confident enough with them to publish them (albeit on DMs Guild), and it’s going to be a long time before we see a new source book that will include them.

Exploring NPC options

Despite my unwillingness for my players to use them, I think that the Unearthed Arcana class archetypes do have a place in my D&D games.  They can help shape the world. Using the three class archetypes in the video that was sponsored by ArmorClass10.com as an example, these class archetypes can provide very useful opportunities, because it doesn’t matter if the skills and abilities for an NPC change or if they’re over- or underpowered in relation to the rest of the party, and the things Unearthed Arcana provide are very interesting.

Monk (drunken master)

D&D class

Drunken Master (Sony Pictures, 1978), starring Jackie Chan

In D&D, deities are real. I don’t mean that to be a commentary. Since the gods can manifest on the prime material plane there is no doubt that they’re real. It’s not a matter of whether you can believe in their existence. It’s a matter of which one you choose to place your faith in, if you choose to place your faith in any of them at all.

Just because they’re real doesn’t mean  everyone is going to choose to follow them. However, it’s at the very least human nature to want to believe in something. That’s why agnostics exist after all. They believe in something bigger than them but they’re not sure what that thing is.

Since you can’t refute the nature of D&D gods, or even existence itself, atheism and agnosticism can’t really exist. But not everyone will want to put their faith in them. That’s really where monks and monasteries come in. While clerics and paladins worship the gods in temples and druids spend their time attuning themselves with nature, my monks work more like warrior-philosophers. Each monastery focuses on a philosophical code, a different way of life, or a pursuit of knowledge.

As an example, a drunken master can be a part of a monastery that studies forms and movements of the physical body, in the same way a way of the long death monk would be in a monastery that studies the aftereffects of death, and they could’ve developed the style after years of research in taverns and bars.

Paladin (oath of redemption)

At first, when I saw this Unearthed Arcana class archetype, my immediate thought was how useless it is. Other than being a meat sponge, which can too effectively be circumvented, it’s not very useful. However, when rewatching the video for this article, when I heard Nerdarchist Dave call this the “Jesus Paladin,” it got me thinking. The oath of redemption paladin isn’t a great class archetype but it is very thematic. It would be a good fit for a messianic figure of some kind, where the abilities enforce the character over any in-game mechanic or function.

Ranger (monster slayer)

D&D class

Ranger from fourth edition Dungeons & Dragons Player’s Handbook. [Art by William O’Connor]

Thematically, the monster slayer ranger is very specific. It seems very nearly tailor-made for Critical Role’s Slayer’s Take, or any other similar organization. They would make perfect for-hire NPCs, specifically when hunting specific creatures.

Making the class option available to players means you can allow them to go against giant monsters more powerful than they can handle by themselves, giving them the thrill of being in a fight that they’d normally have to wait for higher levels for. Their specific nature means they aren’t necessarily going to be a major part of anyone’s D&D campaign, but the class archetype is designed in such a way that they’re good generic fighters, like champion fighters.

Of course, none of this means you can’t include Unearthed Arcana in your D&D game. This is just my preference, but if you’re like me then these are three great examples of thinking about how you can use Unearthed Arcana to flesh out your world a little more.

I have no doubt there are many, many more ways to include it all. I would suggest going back and looking through Unearthed Arcana to see what else you can include in your D&D game, especially the clerics because I’m fairly certain some version of both of the class options will be in Xanathar’s Guide to Everything, and it’s not a bad thing to have them built in to your world before the final version comes out. Having taken a recent look myself, I’m going back and adding deities to my pantheon to account for the forge and grave Domains.

Have fun, good luck, and stay nerdy.

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Joshua Brickley

Despite looking so young, I'm in my mid-30s (36, to be exact). Up until I was 21, I focused a lot of my attention on stage acting, mostly local and school theater. At some point, I felt a need to change my life's direction, so I joined the Air Force. After 10 years, where I was an Intelligence Analyst and Mission Coordinator, I was medically retired. I went back to school and got my Bachelor's in English, focusing mostly on literary theory and rhetorical criticism, at the University of the Incarnate Word. In this next chapter of my life, I'm turning my attention towards tabletop RPGs.

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