D&D: Matt Mercer Releases Two New Subclasses On D&D Beyond
Two new subclasses have hit D&D Beyond, taken straight from Critical Role Campaign 2–an all-new Paladin and Monk ready for adventure today!
One of the defining parts of Critical Role’s campaign are the custom classes Matt Mercer works up to help tailor the characters to his campaign. And you might be thinking, well, if these classes were made to play with certain themes in a certain campaign, how readily do they play with the rest of D&D? Well you’d be right to wonder–but if there’s one thing a D&D Player loves its more options, even if they need a little bit of adapting to fit into whatever campaign you’re playing in. Unless you’re playing in something like Wildemount, in which case, go nuts! Take a look at a new Paladin Oath, made for Fjord, and the Way of the Cobalt Soul. You can find them available for free on D&D Beyond, just click ‘enable Critical Role content’ and they’re there.
Oath of the Open Sea
The Oath of the Open Sea calls to sea-faring warriors, swashbuckling sailors, and journeying guardians who seek the thrill of an endless horizon. Driven to seek the adventure and mystery across and beneath every endless oceanic expanse, paladins who swear this oath stand against those who would deny the liberties afforded to likeminded travelers, rooting out the tyrannical and corrupt that claim any shore. Such guardians believe in the natural beauty of the sea, often making offerings and prayers to entities or deities like the Wild Mother or Storm Lord that influence safe passage, while often feeling called to hunt those monstrosities that seek to terrorize and spoil the waters with wanton violence and ill intent.
This class is all about travel and freedom and the open ocean. And as such, it’s very marine-focused in its abilities, starting with its Channel Divinity
- Marine Layer. As an action you can channel the sea to create a thick cloud of fog that surrounds you and heavily obscures the area for 20 feet in all directions, following you as you move. You and all creatures within 5 feet of you instead treat this fog as lightly obscured. This fog lasts for 10 minutes, spreads around corners and cannot be dispersed.
- Fury of the Tides. As a bonus action, you can channel the powerful might of the waves to bolster your attacks for 1 minute. Once per turn for the duration, when you hit a creature with weapon attack, you can choose to push the target 10 feet away from you. If the target is pushed into an obstacle or another creature, they take additional bludgeoning damage equal to your Charisma modifier.
And as it grows in power it only becomes more about liberating oneself from the restrictions of movement. It looks like it’d play pretty well in any ocean-focused campaign.
Way of the Cobalt Soul
Driven by the pursuit of knowledge and their worship of the Knowing Mentor, the archives of the Cobalt Soul stand as some of the most well-respected and most heavily guarded repositories of tomes, history, and information across Exandria. Here, young people seeking the clarity of truth and the strength of knowledge pledge to learn the arts of seeking enlightenment by understanding the world around them, and mastering the techniques to defend it. To become a Cobalt Soul is to give one’s self to the quest for unveiling life’s mysteries, bringing light to the secrets of the dark, and guarding the most powerful and dangerous of truths from those who would seek to perverse the sanctity of civilization.
The monks of the Cobalt Soul are the embodiment of the phrase “know your enemy”. Through research, they prepare themselves against the ever-coming tides of evil. Through careful training, they have learned to puncture and manipulate the spiritual flow of an opponent’s body. Through understanding the secrets of their foe, they can adapt and surmount them. Then, once the fight is done, they return to record their findings for future generations of monks to study from.
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Made famous by Marisha Ray playing Beau, the Way of the Cobalt Soul is all about unearthing knowledge. Famously they can learn special weaknesses whenever they spend ki points to do a flurry of blows:
- Damage Vulnerabilities
- Damage Resistances
- Damage Immunities
- Condition Immunities.
…as well as use your reaction to attack them whenever they miss you. That alone makes it one of the stronger monk subclasses out there, but what I really love is how active it makes the monk feel. Every turn is potentially your turn when you’re a Cobalt Soul Monk.
Later abilities draw on this mystical erudition to accomplish even greater effects. You can click above to see the whole thing for yourself.
All in all, these classes feel like they’ll play well in any campaign, so give them your best shot.
Happy Adventuring!
