Dungeons & Dragons’ latest book, Arcana Unleashed, introduced a cornucopia of new options for players who enjoy keeping track of spell slots more than hitting monsters with a sword. Between new subclasses, spells, magical items, and factions, there is enough in Unleashed Arcana to keep even the most ambitious spellcaster entertained for a long time. Still, one element of the book has been hotly debated by the D&D community, and not necessarily in a good way: the new Adept feats.
These eight feats, one for each school of magic, grant every spellcaster access to some powerful spells that were previously limited to Wizards and Sorcerers. According to some players and Dungeon Masters, this has a potentially game-breaking effect, but there’s a very easy way to fix the issue. One of the worst offenders, often mentioned in debates about the new Unleashed Arcana feats, is Evocation Adept.
In D&D, evocation is the school of magic that specializes in materializing elemental energy, usually for destructive effects. Some of the strongest damage-based spells in the game belong to this school, including the iconic Fireball and the always-reliable Magic Missile. The Evocation Adept feat is part of the so-called “half-feats”: it grants a +1 bonus to one ability score (in this case, Intelligence, Wisdom, or Charisma), plus one or more other specific bonuses.
Like all the new Adept feats, Evocation Adept grants two of these bonuses: an extended spell list and a special ability called Fueled Evocation. Both of these have been flagged as problematic for different reasons. The Additional Spell feature grants extra spells to a character’s spell list, one for each spell level from one to five.
Evocation Adept’s list includes Chromatic Orb, Shatter, Fireball, Vitriolic Sphere, and Wall of Force. It’s an impressive arsenal of damage spells; all except Shatter were previously available only to Wizards and Sorcerers. Now, if a Druid character fancies it, they can get this feat at level four (it’s a prerequisite, along with having the Spellcasting or Pact Magic class features) and start flinging Fireballs at their enemies.
To make it worse, Evocation Adept has a Fueled Evocation feature that allows a character who is dealing damage with an evocation spell to add up to two of their unspent Hit Dice to the roll, once per turn. So, the aforementioned Druid could cast a Fireball as a level three spell, dealing 8d6+2d8 damage. A Paladin or Ranger could add 2d10s, thus making the average damage of a level three Fireball cast by these classes greater than a level six one cast by a Wizard — all while wearing armor, keeping their class features, and having more hit points (HP) than a regular Wizard.
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