There's a mystical moment in every adventurer's life when you stare deeply into your character sheet, question every subclass you've ever loved, and think: "Is this really better… or did they just rename it again?" Welcome to the UA 2025 Subclass Update—where barbarians downgrade, fighters glow-up, monks chug things, and paladins summon skeletons with the enthusiasm of a dad discovering Bluetooth for the first time.
Show Notes
In this episode of the RPGBOT.Podcast, the team dives into the Unearthed Arcana 2025 Subclasses Update, a grab bag of returning classics and rebalanced favorites from the 2014 rules. Some subclasses got fresh polish; others… got "updates." Randall, Ash, and Tyler walk through each major subclass, offering analysis, jokes, and a metric ton of sandwich discourse.
Covered Subclasses:
- Path of the Spiritual Guardian Barbarian – Once the iconic barb tank, now notably nerfed. The new "choose-your-effect" system softens its once-reliable battlefield control. Result: "Meh, but fixable."
- Path of the Storm Herald Barbarian – A clear upgrade with better scaling, damage options, and flexible aura selection. A quiet winner in this UA.
- Cavalier Fighter – Surprisingly buffed. Constant marking, battlefield lockdown, and double reactions at high level. The table unanimously loves the glow-up.
- Warrior of Intoxication Monk – Formerly Drunken Master. New Mystic Brews add fun, flavor, and chaos—but the name flops harder than spilled ale. The team unanimously prefers "Warrior of Libations."
- Oathbreaker Paladin – Now with better necromancy tools and improvements to Aura of Hate. Gains Conjure Undead to avoid relying on friendly necromancers. Not perfect, but more self-sufficient.
Key Takeaways
- Spiritual Guardian took a noticeable hit, losing its fully reliable taunt-and-protect combo in favor of weaker pick-one options.
- Storm Herald received meaningful boosts, including scalable aura damage and flexible environment selection.
- Cavalier emerges as one of the strongest defenders in the UA thanks to unlimited marking and battlefield control.
- Warrior of Intoxication has fun ideas but clunky execution, suffering from naming issues and overly slow brew mechanics.
- Oathbreaker finally feels like a playable subclass on its own, thanks to Conjure Undead and improved aura integration.
- Overall: a mixed bag, but with more wins than losses—and lots of potential polish before the final books.
Join the RPGBOT Patreon
Love episodes like this? Want to shape them as they happen?
Join the RPGBOT Patreon to:
- Listen LIVE to RPGBOT.Podcast recording sessions every week
- Access the entire RPGBOT.net catalog completely ad-free
- Enjoy ad-free recordings of the RPGBOT.Podcast
- Get early access to special projects, interviews, and deep-dive episodes
Support the show, support the work, and help us keep producing the most detailed and ridiculous tabletop content on the internet.
Welcome to the RPGBOT Podcast. If you love Dungeons & Dragons, Pathfinder, and tabletop RPGs, this is the podcast for you.
Support the show for free: Rate and review us on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or any podcast app. It helps new listeners find the best RPG podcast for D&D and Pathfinder players.
Level up your experience: Join us on Patreon to unlock ad-free access to RPGBOT.net and the RPGBOT Podcast, chat with us and the community on the RPGBOT Discord, and jump into live-streamed RPG podcast recordings.
Support while you shop: Use our Amazon affiliate link at https://amzn.to/3NwElxQ and help us keep building tools and guides for the RPG community.
Meet the Hosts
-
Tyler Kamstra – Master of mechanics, seeing the Pathfinder action economy like Neo in the Matrix.
-
Randall James – Lore buff and technologist, always ready to debate which Lord of the Rings edition reigns supreme.
-
Ash Ely – Resident cynic, chaos agent, and AI's worst nightmare, bringing pure table-flipping RPG podcast energy.
Join the RPGBOT team where fantasy roleplaying meets real strategy, sarcasm, and community chaos.
How to Find Us:
In-depth articles, guides, handbooks, reviews, news on Tabletop Role Playing at RPGBOT.net
Tyler Kamstra
Ash Ely
Randall James
Producer Dan
Time Stamps
1) 14:46.015
2) 30:59.032
3) 46:08.023