 Howdy how's it going? My name's Davy Chappy, and you know what time it is. Our king may tax us without properly representing us, but at least he gives us cake in the form of new subclasses via the Unearthed Arcana, your semi-official playtest material that comes out literally whenever Wizards of the Coast wants it to. And speaking of coming out, I read all your comments in my special advice vlog that I put out Tuesday, and it's gonna feel great to break the hearts of all you girls and boys, but I'm seeing someone. His name is Boddy Chappy. But this week, we are being given a special look into new subclasses for the Bard and the Warlock, the form of which I always enjoy seeing getting a bit of love, even if it doesn't really need it anymore, and the latter of which I forgot was even a class with as much attention as the official sourcebooks give it. So, there's no point in dilly-ing, and dallying is just for Chad. And as always, keep in mind that a lot of this is just my opinion, so if you are a Chad and you really want a dally, feel free to use your weird made-up words however you want. But with that out of the way, let's begin. So, first up on the list is a new subclass for the Bard that brings seances and ghostly summoning practices to a class that you would have never thought would be the one to use it, but it surprisingly manages to pull it off really well. As a College of Spirits Bard, your dedication to the accumulation of stories takes you beyond the mortal coil as you seek out ghosty goos that can tell you all the secrets that they took to their grave. Walking this path opens up new arcane foci outside of the traditional music types, better reflecting your new role as a medium, such as a candle, a crystal ball, poor York's skull, and even the Taraka Deck made famous by Madame Ava herself. Your psychic training also nets you a ranged guidance spell, and your bard inspiration is enhanced so that you can burn it to gain a random effect, emulating calling out into the ethereal plane for the souls of the lost to come speak with you, learning their tales, and later using them to buff either yourself or an ally, causing a myriad of effects that I am not going to read to you because that is what the link in the description is for. After you've taken your first steps into the spirit realm, you can add a d6 to your damage and healing rolls, you can spend one hour conducting a ritual to gain a spell from any class equal in level to your proficiency bonus or less, and your final ability lets you forsake burning a bard inspiration whenever you learn the tales of the dead, instead taking a d6 and rolling that, thereby giving you constant access to your tales from beyond feature. Alright, so this is going to sound weird coming from me, but I actually think that this class might be too flavorful, and before you hurt yourself in the confusion, let me explain. Mechanically, this class is fantastic. I don't think there's a thing I would change, and I love the way that the tales from beyond ability naturally grows alongside you, as the options that are higher on the list can only be accessed once your bard inspiration die grows to match it. My only issue is that when you look at the concept of what this class is trying to do, it really pushes for the kind of everybody stop and look at me for a while roleplaying that can get really annoying after a short while. Telling a tale can be fun the first few times, and performing a séance can take up a whole hour in real life if your party wants to roleplay it that extensively, but after the first couple of times it happens, the novelty is going to wear off, and either the bard or the DM is gonna end up saying, okay, so you do your ritual and it all goes fine, or you just tell a tale about a yak that saved a city full of burning orphanages. And that is significantly less fun than what you're probably signing on for with this class. The point I'm making is that it'll all be extravagant and awesome the first few times, and then it'll be lame. But I don't know, it's totally possible to push through that as a roleplaying group, and this class is balanced enough to be worth it, so go get them. Moving on, the other subclass that we've been blessed with is the Undead Warlock, which makes a pact with the mythical being of undead nature, like Strahd, Acerarach, or even Vecna. Not to be confused with the Undying Warlock, which makes a pact with the mythical being of Undying nature, like Strahd, Acerarach, or even Vec... wait a minute. In any case, this is supposed to be the evil, edgy version of the Warlock. You know, to contrast with all the other Warlocks, and to prove it's bond to all things necromatic, the Undead Warlock gains the power to call on their Pepper Daddy for help, shrouding themselves in an evil patron pimp cloak and giving them temporary hit points, protecting you from becoming frightened because you are the knight, and using the power of being the knight to constantly force your enemies to make wisdom saves, or else be frightened of you for one turn. Once you reach level 6, your connection to the living world is loosened further, freeing you of the need to eat, drink, or breathe, and allowing you to turn any of your damage into necrotic damage, and even deal an additional dice if you've got your evil pimp cloak on. After that, you start resisting necrotic damage, or become immune to it with the pimp cloak, and later, if you die, you instead just EXPLODE and come right back, because of course, why wouldn't you? Don't you remember Dracula doing that? And then your last ability lets you say, See ya suckers, and peace your spirit out of your body to go wherever, giving both body and soul resistance to bloopa slash damage, and giving you the ability to fly around because, you know, you're a ghost. You can cast necromancy spells without any non-gold components, and if your projected spirit brought its own projected pimp cloak, then you can even heal half of the damage that you dish out. So to all of that, I say... I'm... I'm... I'm sorry, is this a DM subclass? Is that what this is supposed to be? Because I can't see any way in which any of these features would be approved unless that's the reason. The pimp cloak is ridiculous with its constant fear saves, and despite being restricted to only a few uses, that completely ignores how the whole gimmick of the warlock is that it gets things back on a short rest. And once it gets the ability to add a dice to all of its damage rolls, because why would you not do necrotic if that's the benefit, then I have to bring up the fact that warlocks mostly use things that only deal one dice of damage anyway, so you're doubling those dice, which is just what a critical is. Please, double all my elder blast damage. I'm begging you. The mortal husk ability is almost useless unless you play a punchy warlock, because otherwise you're more likely to just explode over all your friends, and why? Why do you explode? Why are you a boomer from Left 4 Dead? The spear projection is fine. I mean, by level 14, you might as well have a really cool gimmick, but coupled with all the other stuff, I'd hazard to guess that you will not be struggling by the time you hit 14. Other than that, there's just not anything to say. It's a weird subclass that fills a thematic roll already filled by another subclass, and sure, undying isn't really all that good, but I don't believe that the alternative is a goth and a cape that's liable to burst on my face. But that'll not do it. I hope you enjoyed this video. Be sure to leave a like, comment, subscribe, check out all my social media in the description below, check out my Twitch stream if you want to talk about today's video, and maybe support me on Patreon so that I can afford to go to the dry cleaners just in case my warlock teammate decides to pop one off. But yeah, Davie out.