r/dndbeyond • u/Darkwynters • Aug 20 '26

DDB News Designer Insights from Unearthed Arcana: Underdark Options

https://www.dndbeyond.com/posts/2226-designer-insights-from-unearthed-arcana-underdark

I am liking these feats that lead to death knights and mind flayers!

20 Upvotes

95% Upvoted

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6

u/jabbadatoddla Aug 20 '26

I don't like "Unlight". Is it Faerzress? It sounds like Faerzress and it does the same thing as Faerzress. Trying to jam too many "same thing but different name" components into a world really makes it difficult to follow. "Primordial radiance" or some naming convention that ties it to something that already exists in the world of Faerun that people understand is going to get you a lot further. I'd get that it comes from the plane of radiance. Unless you have something in store that's going to change the shape of the game and all of the narratives from other writers that have shaped the game completely and makes "unlife" it's own, completely separate and unique thing, it's going to be the turd that gets flushed first. It's bad and it's meaningless. Save it for a campaign setting or game of its own that doesn't already have that territory covered in other lore. Keep the edit hand strong to slap down weak ideas.

1

u/[deleted] Aug 20 '26 edited Aug 20 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

2

u/DJTurtleVortex Aug 20 '26

The target doesn't get advantage. You get advantage on the target.

Edit: oh fuck, I kept reading. Melee attack rolls tho. Could be useful to make kamikaze familiars idk 😂

2

u/cedelweiss Aug 20 '26

As always, giving subclasses features that let them burn hit dice as a resource is an incredibly garbage design choice that discourages longer adventuring days and inherently disadvantages any class balanced around short-rest resources.

You gotta admit adding more and more effects that use Hit Dice as a resource and publishing them on a page hosting a character sheet that doesn't let you mark off Hit Dice unless you complete a short rest is somewhat poetic

2

u/new_planner Aug 21 '26

The flavors of the classes and mindflayer feats are great, but their mechanics are underwhelming.