UNEARTHED ARCANA 2020

Subclasses Revisited
This Is Playtest Material itself. These rogues take knowledge from the
The material in this article is presented for playtesting dead and become immersed in negative energy,
and to spark your imagination. These game mechanics eventually becoming like ghosts. Thieves’ guilds
are in draft form, usable in your campaign but not value them as highly effective information
refined by full game design and editing. They aren’t gatherers and spies.
officially part of the game and aren’t permitted in D&D Many shadar-kai of the Shadowfell are masters
Adventurers League events. of these macabre techniques, and some are
If we decide to make this material official, it will be willing to teach this path. In places like Thay
refined based on your feedback, and then it will appear (Forgotten Realms) and Karrnath (Eberron),
in a D&D book. where many necromancers practice their craft, a
Here are some things to keep in mind: Phantom can become a wizard’s confidant and
• The character options you read here might be more right hand. In temples of gods of death, the
or less powerful than options in the Player’s Phantom works as an agent to track down those
Handbook. If a design survives playtesting, we adjust who try to cheat death and to recover knowledge
its power to the desirable level before official that might otherwise be lost to the grave.
publication. How did you discover this grim power? Did
• In early playtests such as this, character options are you sleep in a graveyard and awaken to your
rarely tuned for multiclassing. We are nonetheless new abilities? Or did you cultivate them in a
interested in multiclass-related feedback, accounting temple or thieves’ guild dedicated to a god of
for it if we finalize the design for publication. death?
This document revises a few designs that
appeared in Unearthed Arcana in the past. The Whispers of the Dead
revisions here focus on some subclasses that 3rd-level Phantom feature
were liked enough by playtesters to receive Echoes of those who have died begin to cling to
further development but that could use another you. Whenever you finish a short or long rest,
look from the community. you can gain one skill or tool proficiency of your
Here are the subclasses you’ll find in this choice, as a ghostly presence shares its
document: knowledge with you. This proficiency lasts until
you use this feature again.
Phantom, a revised rogue subclass that was
previously called the Revived
The Genie, a revised warlock subclass that was
Wails from the Grave
3rd-level Phantom feature
previously called the Noble Genie
Order of Scribes, a new wizard subclass that As you nudge someone closer to the grave, you
reimagines the Archivist subclass can cause deathly wails to be heard near them.
Immediately after you deal your Sneak Attack
Rogue damage to a creature on your turn, you can
target a second creature that you can see within
At 3rd level, a rogue gains the Roguish Archetype
30 feet of the first creature. Roll half the number
feature. Here is a playtest option for that feature:
of Sneak Attack dice for your level (round up),
Phantom.
and the second creature takes psychic damage
equal to the roll’s total, as wails of the dead
Phantom sound around them for a moment.
You can use this feature a number of times
Many rogues walk a fine line between life and
equal to your proficiency bonus, and you regain
death, risking their own lives and taking the lives
all expended uses when you finish a long rest.
of others. While adventuring on that line, some
rogues discover a mystical connection to death

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Tokens of the Departed again, you must finish a long rest or destroy one
9th-level Phantom feature of your soul trinkets as part of the bonus action
you use to activate Ghost Walk.
When a life ends in your presence, you’re able to
snatch a token from the departing soul, a sliver Death Knell
of its life essence that takes physical form: as a 17th-level Phantom feature
reaction when a creature you can see dies within
30 feet of you, you open your free hand and a When you use your Wails from the Grave
Tiny trinket appears there, a soul trinket. The feature, you can now deal the psychic damage to
DM chooses the trinket’s form or has you roll on both the first and the second creature.
the Trinkets table in the Player’s Handbook to
determine it.
While the soul trinket is on your person, you
Warlock
At 1st level, a warlock gains the Otherworldly
have advantage on death saving throws and
Patron feature. Here is a playtest option for that
Constitution saving throws, as your vitality is
feature: the Genie.
enhanced by the life essence within the object.
You can have a maximum number of soul
trinkets equal to your proficiency bonus, and you The Genie
can’t create one while at your maximum.
As an action, you can destroy one of your soul You have made a pact with one of the rarest
trinkets, no matter where it’s located. When you kinds of genie, a noble genie. Such entities are
do so, you can ask the spirit associated with the rulers of vast fiefs on the Elemental Planes and
trinket one question. The spirit appears to you have great influence over lesser genies and
and answers in a language it knew in life. It’s elemental creatures. Noble genies are varied in
under no obligation to be truthful, and it their motivations but are all arrogant and wield
answers as concisely as possible, eager to be power that rivals that of lesser deities. They
free. delight in turning the table on mortals who so
love to bind genies into servitude, readily
entering into pacts that expand their reach
Ghost Walk across the multiverse.
13th-level Phantom feature
You choose your patron’s kind or determine it
You can now phase partially into the realm of the randomly, using the Genie Kind table. Each kind
dead, becoming like a ghost. As a bonus action, of genie is associated with a particular element,
you assume a spectral form. While in this form, as shown in the table.
you have a flying speed of 10 feet, you can hover,
and attack rolls have disadvantage against you. Genie Kind
You can also move through creatures and objects d4 Kind Element
as if they were difficult terrain, but you take 1 Dao Earth
1d10 force damage if you end your turn inside a 2 Djinni Air
creature or an object. 3 Efreeti Fire
4 Marid Water
You stay in this form for 10 minutes or until
you end it as a bonus action. To use this feature

Genie Expanded Spells

Spell Level Genie Spells Dao Spells Djinni Spells Efreeti Spells Marid Spells
1st detect evil and good sanctuary thunderwave burning hands fog cloud
2nd phantasmal force spike growth gust of wind scorching ray blur
3rd create food and water meld into stone wind wall fireball sleet storm
4th phantasmal killer stone shape greater fire shield control water
invisibility
5th creation wall of stone seeming flame strike cone of cold
9th wish — — — —

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Expanded Spell List former space. Once you enter the vessel, you
1st-level Genie feature can’t enter again until you finish a long rest.
Genie’s Wrath. Once during each of your turns
The Genie lets you choose from an expanded list when you hit with an attack roll, you can deal
of spells when you learn a warlock spell. The extra damage to the target equal to your
Genie Expanded Spells table shows the genie proficiency bonus. The type of this damage is
spells that are added to the warlock spell list for determined by your patron: bludgeoning
you, along with the spells associated in the table (dao), thunder (djinni), fire (efreeti), or cold
with your patron’s kind: dao, djinni, efreeti, or (marid).
marid.
The vessel’s AC equals your spell save DC. Its
hit points equal your warlock level plus your
Genie’s Vessel proficiency bonus, and it is immune to poison
1st-level Genie feature and psychic damage.
Your patron gifts you a magical vessel that If the vessel is destroyed or you lose it, you can
grants you a measure of the genie’s power. The perform a 1-hour ceremony to receive a
vessel is a Tiny object, and you can use it as a replacement from your patron. This ceremony
spellcasting focus for your warlock spells. You can be performed during a short or long rest,
decide what the object is, or you can determine and the previous vessel is destroyed if it still
what it is randomly by rolling on the Genie’s exists. The vessel vanishes in a flare of elemental
Vessel table. power when you die.

Genie’s Vessel Elemental Gift

d6 Vessel 6th-level Genie feature
1 Oil lamp
2 Urn You begin to take on characteristics of your
3 Ring with a compartment patron’s kind. You now have resistance to a
4 Stoppered bottle damage type determined by your patron’s kind:
5 Hollow statuette bludgeoning (dao), thunder (djinni), fire
6 Ornate lantern (efreeti), or cold (marid).
In addition, as a bonus action, you can give
While you are touching the vessel, you can use yourself a flying speed of 30 feet that lasts for 10
it in the following ways: minutes, during which you can hover. You can
use this bonus action a number of times equal to
Bottled Respite. As an action, you can magically your proficiency bonus, and you regain all
vanish and enter your vessel, which remains in expended uses when you finish a long rest.
the space you left. The interior of the vessel is
an extradimensional space in the shape of a Sanctuary Vessel
20-foot-radius cylinder, 20 feet high, and 10th-level Genie feature
resembles your vessel. The interior is
comfortably appointed with cushions and low When you enter your Genie’s Vessel via the
tables and is a comfortable temperature. While Bottled Respite feature, you can now choose up
inside, you can hear the area around your to five willing creatures that you can see within
vessel as if you were in its space. You can 30 feet of you, and the chosen creatures are
remain inside the vessel up to a number of drawn into the vessel with you.
hours equal to twice your proficiency bonus. As a bonus action, you can eject any number of
You exit the vessel early if you use a bonus creatures from the vessel, and everyone is
action to leave, if you die, or if the vessel is ejected if you leave or the vessel is destroyed.
destroyed. When you exit the vessel, you In addition, anyone (including you) who
appear in the unoccupied space closest to it. remains within the vessel for at least 10 minutes
Any objects left in the vessel remain there until gains the benefit of finishing a short rest, and
carried out, and if the vessel is destroyed, anyone can add your proficiency bonus to the
every object stored there harmlessly appears number of hit points they regain if they spend
in the unoccupied spaces closest to the vessel’s any Hit Dice as part of a short rest there.

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Limited Wish • The gold and time you must spend to copy a
14th-level Genie feature spell into your spellbook are halved if you use
the quill for the transcription.
You entreat your patron to grant you a small • You can erase anything you write with the
wish. As an action, you can speak your desire to quill if you wave the feather over the text as a
your Genie’s Vessel, requesting the effect of one bonus action, provided the text is within 5 feet
spell that is 6th level or lower and has a casting of you.
time of 1 action. The spell can be from any class’s
spell list, and you don’t need to meet the This quill disappears if you create another one
requirements in that spell, including costly or if you die.
components; the spell simply takes effect as part
of this action. Awakened Spellbook
Once you use this feature, you can’t use it again 2nd-level Order of Scribes feature
until you finish 1d4 long rests.
Using specially prepared inks and ancient

Wizard incantations passed down by your wizardly

order, you have awakened an arcane sentience
At 2nd level, a wizard gains the Arcane Tradition within your spellbook.
feature. Here is a playtest option for that feature: While you are holding the book, it grants you
Order of Scribes. the following benefits:

Order of Scribes • You can use the book as a spellcasting focus for
your wizard spells.
Magic of the book—that’s what many • When you cast a wizard spell with a spell slot,
spellcasters call wizardry. The name is apt, given you can temporarily replace its damage type
how much time wizards spend poring over their with the damage type of another spell in your
spellbooks, penning theories about the nature of spellbook, as your spellbook magically alters
magic, and exploring the farthest recesses of the spell’s formula for this casting.
libraries. It’s rare to see a wizard traveling • When you cast a wizard spell as a ritual, you
without books and scrolls sprouting from their can use the spell’s normal casting time, rather
bags, and a wizard would go to great lengths to than adding 10 minutes to it. Once you use this
plumb an archive of ancient knowledge. benefit, you can’t do so again until you finish a
Among wizards, the Order of Scribes is the long rest.
most bookish. It takes many forms in different
worlds, but its primary mission is the same If necessary, you can replace the book over the
everywhere: recording magical discoveries in course of a short rest by using your Wizardly
tomes and scrolls so that wizardry can flourish. Quill to write arcane sigils in a blank book or a
And while every wizard values their spellbook, a magic spellbook to which you’re attuned. At the
scribe in the Order of Scribes dedicates themself end of the rest, your spellbook’s consciousness is
to magically awakening their book, turning it summoned into the new book, which the
into a trusted companion. All wizards study their consciousness transforms into your spellbook,
spellbooks, but a wizardly scribe talks to theirs! along with all its spells. If the previous book still
existed somewhere, all the spells vanish from its
Wizardly Quill pages.
2nd-level Order of Scribes feature
Master Scrivener
As a bonus action, you can magically create a 6th-level Order of Scribes feature
Tiny quill in your free hand. The magic quill has
the following properties: Whenever you finish a long rest, you can create
one magic scroll by touching your Wizardly Quill
• The quill doesn’t require ink. When you write to a blank piece of paper or parchment and
with it, it produces ink in a color of your choice causing one spell from your Awakened
on the writing surface. Spellbook to be copied onto the scroll. The
spellbook must be within 5 feet of you when you
make the scroll.

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 The chosen spell must be of 1st or 2nd level One with the Word
and must have a casting time of 1 action. Once in 14th-level Order of Scribes feature
the scroll, the spell’s power is enhanced,
counting as one level higher than normal. You Your connection to your Awakened Spellbook
can cast the spell from the scroll by reading it as has become so profound that your soul has
an action. The scroll is unintelligible to anyone become entwined with it. While you are holding
else, and the spell vanishes from the scroll when the book and its spectral mind is manifest, you
you cast it or when you finish your next long can take an action to cause the two of you to
rest. teleport, swapping places. You can teleport in
You are also adept at crafting spell scrolls, this way a number of times equal to your
which are described in chapter 7 of the Dungeon proficiency bonus, and you regain all expended
Master’s Guide. The gold and time you must uses when you finish a long rest.
spend to make such a scroll are halved if you use Moreover, if you die but at least one spell
your Wizardly Quill. remains in your Awakened Spellbook, you can
return to life 1 minute later within 5 feet of the
Manifest Mind book. You revive with 1 hit point. Then roll 3d6.
10th-level Order of Scribes feature The book loses spells of your choice that have a
combined spell level equal to that roll or higher.
You are now able to conjure forth the mind of For example, if the roll’s total is 9, spells vanish
your Awakened Spellbook. As a bonus action from the book that have a combined level of at
while the book is on your person, you can cause least 9, which could mean one 9th-level spell,
the mind to manifest as a Tiny spectral three 3rd-level spells, or some other
construct, hovering in an unoccupied space of combination.
your choice within 60 feet of you. This presence Thereafter, you are incapable of casting the
is intangible and doesn’t occupy its space, and it lost spells, even if you find them on a scroll or in
sheds dim light in a 10-foot radius. It looks like a another spellbook. The only way to restore your
ghostly tome, a cascade of text, or a scholar from ability to cast one of the lost spells is through the
the past (your choice). The spectral mind has a wish spell, which can restore one spell to the
number of hit points equal to your wizard level book per casting.
plus your Intelligence modifier, and it uses your
Armor Class and saving throw modifiers. Whither the Archivist?
While manifested, the spectral mind can hear The Order of Scribes reimagines the Archivist subclass,
and see, and it has darkvision with a range of 60 which originally appeared in Unearthed Arcana as a
feet. As an action, you can hear and see using the subclass for the artificer. That subclass was well liked,
its senses, instead of your own, until your but there was a fair amount of confusion about its story.
concentration ends (as if concentrating on a And many readers thought it might work better as a
spell). wizard subclass. Thematically, the subclass is a perfect
Whenever you cast a wizard spell on your turn, fit for the wizard, who has always been associated with
you can cast it as if you were in the spectral scrolls and the written word in D&D, so we’ve taken the
mind’s space, instead of your own, using its bones of the Archivist and given it new life as the Order
senses. You can do so a number of times per day of Scribes.
equal to your proficiency bonus, and you regain Regarding other wizard subclasses, we can share that
all expended uses when you finish a long rest. neither of the wizard subclasses we’ve presented in
As a bonus action, you can cause the spectral Unearthed Arcana recently—Onomancy and Psionics—
mind to hover up to 30 feet to an unoccupied will be moving forward in our development process,
since they didn’t appeal to enough people and we can
space that you or it can see. It can pass through
explore those subclasses’ themes in other ways.
creatures but not objects. The spectral mind
stops manifesting if it is ever more than 300 feet
away from you, if it drops to 0 hit points, if you
die, or if you dismiss it as a bonus action.

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