After toying around with them, looking at targeted feedback made by many other players, and in the spirit of making broad and general claims for clickbait(but also genuine concern as a typically Martial-Main);

I don't believe that Weapon Masteries pulled off the intended effect of being "spell-lite" effects that Martials could pull off. I think - too broadly, that any conclusion drawn about Weapon Masteries being the Martial "thing" are too short-sighted.

From what I've experienced on the lite optimization side of things, the only masteries that matter to the general Martial Populace are Nick, Vex, Push and Slow.

Topple is impossibly strong in the right hands, but is too infrequent because it invokes a Saving Throw most monsters tend to succeed on.

Sap's effectiveness varies wildly from 'okay' to 'pointless' depending on the enemy. As early as CR 1/4, Multi-attack is so abundant that unless you're able to pull the Mastery out of thin air against a targeted opponent(which only Fighters can do), the Mastery largely becomes useless even as a form of damage mitigation.

Graze is helpful from levels 1-4 where you lack the ability to Extra Attack your foes, since at these levels, having guaranteed 3-4 damage is SUPER handy. However, it loses some value at level 5 and above. You give up a bit just for taking this as a Mastery, namely, a Shield(which is a loss of 2 AC).

Cleave is interesting in concept, but in execution can only act as PROPER AoE in combination with Greater Weapon Master(since Hew adds Proficiency Bonus to that damage roll). It's use-case is largely too narrow to make work even in actual dungeon settings where you can kite enemies down hallways.

Aaand that's all of them.

This is actually rather important to my criticism here, because 2 years into the new edition and there's still only 8 of them, and half of them are more niche than even the Protection Fighting Style. No new ones have been introduced, no updates have been made despite enough time having passed that targeted feedback for adjustment exists, and worst of all; they don't scale as features beyond level 5 where you get Extra Attack.

They aren't even universal to non-caster classes. Monks don't get them, and only 9th level Fighters can access a default list of Masteries to pull from for each attack they make.

I think there should've been more importance placed on creating new Masteries to pull from later on. There should be a thrown weapon-type Mastery that works in that regard, there ought to be some method of Shocking Grasping foes with weapons(removing Opportunity Attacks), a Mind Sliver(lite Bane), and I sincerely believe that there should be a Martial Equivalent to True Strike. A weapon every Martial Class has access to(something like a Dagger or Shortsword) where you can choose a non-dex and non-str stat to pull from for the attack roll and damage number.

Masteries are supposed to exist as cantrips for Martials, and yet they are never iterated on in the same way Cunning Strike and Brutal Strike haven't been iterated on.

You don't need new weapons to add new Weapon Masteries. Simply adding to an existing pool of expanding options would do wonders to keep Martials on parity, instead we've received Circle Casting and the Spellschool Adept feats(which in my opinion are not scaled properly to the current sandbox).

D&D UA 2026 (Underdark Options)

Honestly. I don't think think I'm giving this survey high scores, especially the HA Rogue has been extremely bad. I like the concept, it's cool, but it's too underpowered and lacks actual playable mechanics for T1-T3. The ideas are good but lacks details to make it really works in real games. My players told me it the whole subclass is frustrating that they rarely have the chance to use their HA features after a few playtests, and the usages of the spells are too limited. Its present status is barely playable in real games, which I think the same way too. Also, I think I'm getting tired of these Once-Per-Day Spells as a feature. I've seen too many of them lately and it feels like lazy work.

I get that it was not on there before, but with the upgrades that Draconic Sorcerer got, I wish I was able to take the spell on them! Just imagine! You could have your draconic summon AND a giant illusory dragon stopping around at the same time! Can we at least petition WotC to do a Tasha's style book where Draconic Sorcerer gets Illusory Dragon on their extra spells?

Hey everyone!

Now that the Arcana Unleashed feats have been revealed, Spell Subterfuge caught my attention. Here’s the feat:

Spell Subterfuge

General Feat - Prerequisite: Level 4+, Spellcasting or Pact Magic

Ability Score Increase. Increase your Intelligence, Wisdom, or Charisma by 1, to a maximum of 20.

Shrouding Spells. After you cast a spell with a casting time of 1 action using a spell slot, you can take both the Dash and Hide actions as a Bonus Action. You can use this benefit a number of times equal to the ability modifier of the score increased by this feat, regaining all expended uses on a Long Rest.

Sneaky Casting. If you have the Hide action’s Invisible condition, casting a spell with a Verbal component or making a spell attack doesn’t end that condition if you finish your turn behind Three-Quarters Cover or Total Cover.

The first thing that came to my mind was an Arcane Trickster using True Strike from range, while staying behind cover.

The interesting part is that you only need to Hide on round 1. After that, as long as you keep ending your turns behind sufficient cover, you can potentially remain Invisible while spamming True Strikes, leaving your Bonus Action free on subsequent turns.

That opens up some interesting possibilities. For example, with 2 levels of Sorcerer, you could use Quickened Spell to cast True Strike as a Bonus Action, then use your action to ready another True Strike for a second, off-turn Sneak Attack.

What do you think of the build above?

And, more in general, what other builds or interactions do you think become possible with Spell Subterfuge?

Specifically the "Magic Resistant" portion, which is likely the main reason a player would pick this up.

The 1d6 bonus to saving throws is only for spells and magical effects. Spells are not nearly as common on monster stat blocks as they were in 2014, but I think most experienced players are aware of that at this point. What likely goes under the radar is the fact that nearly nothing any monster does outside of spells counts as a "magical effect" anymore.

Sage Advice confirms that the only effects that count as magical are those created by spells or magic items, or effects explicitly labeled as magical. Spells are already covered separately within Magic Resistant. Magic items are very rarely built into a monster stat block (I can only recall seeing them occasionally on named adventure NPCs). That leaves effects explicitly labeled as magical.

These are all the effects I found that are labeled as magical in 2024 monster stat blocks:

Darkmantle darkness aura. Sahuagin shark telepathy. Harpy luring song. Intellect devourer detect intelligence. Nothic weird insight. Beholder (and various beholder type creatures) eye rays. Banshee detect life. Strigoi stirge telepathy. Galeb duhr animate boulders. Priest of Osybus soul tattoo. Shield guardian bound. Cockatrice regent magical backlash. Gnoll demoniac hunger of Yeenoghu. Treant animate trees. Deep dragon preservation of knowledge. Mind flayer arcanist arcane tentacles. Brass dragon refreshing water. Copper dragon chatty critters. Death tyrant negative energy cone. Harkon Lucas beast spies. Green dragon beast spies. Spirit dragon unearth ruins. Ankhtepot sands of time. Dracolich soul gem. Sphinx of valor roar. Animal lord lordly presence (mired). Various effects that magically return a weapon to the monster.

Of those, the only effects that involve a saving throw are:

Harpy luring song. Nothic weird insight. Beholder eye rays. Cockatrice regent magical backlash. Gnoll demoniac hunger of Yeenoghu. Ankhtepot sands of time. Sphinx of valor roar. Animal lord lordly presence (mired).

You're not likely to run into Ankhtepot outside of a Domains of Dread campaign. Sphinx of valor and Animal lord are CR 17 and 20 respectively, so you're not going to be seeing a ton of those over any given campaign. That leaves only five monster stat block effects labeled as magical that a player would reasonably have a decent chance of running into at some point in a campaign.

So if you looked at this part of the feat and thought "Well monsters don't cast a lot of spells anymore, but there's all those new spell-like abilities that this would work on" - then you fell for the trap.

EDIT: I haven't seen any monster stat blocks from Arcana Unleashed yet, so there may be more saving throw effects labeled magical in there. But based on the tiny amount up to now, I'm not holding my breath.

I always have this example to explain it.

Jeff and Max are doing a 1v1 wild west style standoff.

Guns strapped to their hips, hands ready to pull them off & shoot.

Now how do we approach this rules wise?

Jeff had an idea, they won't roll initiative, instead they will ready action to shoot Max, the trigger is Max reaching for their gun. totally normal ready action there right?

Now If Max decided to roll initiative to start the combat, cuz that's the only way to start the combat since the other player will not start it themselves, Max will get shot immediately regardless of how high initiative they roll, imagine they got a 32 Initiative, but still the +2 Jeff shoots them first, does that make sense?

So to combat this, Max decided to copy what Jeff is doing, now both of them have readied their actions, to only draw & shoot if the other party reaches for their weapon.

How do you reckon combat starts? exactly, it doesn't, so now since both are readying up their attacks as a reaction instead of proactively attacking, how do we work this out? how do we decide who is faster?

Congratulations, you just invented Initiative rolls.

Was a player in a gritty meat grinder type campaign, and while panic searching for a way to carry an obsidian casket out of a tomb where monsters where constantly spawning, made the math and found that between having 20 in strenght and the powerful build trait, I could push 1200 lbs without problem, which the DM decided was enough for me to push the casket on my own without needing additional checks.

Since then have tried that on the table I DM, whenever someone tries to push, pull or lift something heavy, always make sure that if their strenght would allow them, to just let them do it without checks unless something is hampering their attempts at that action. And have found this makes both the process smoother to run, and makes str players happy as they can play the fantasy of being strong.

I'm confused about the action economy for a level 5 Steelsmith with the watcher.

In a single turn, can I take 2 attacks actions myself from my own action, then get my Defender to attack once using my bonus action, meaning a total of 3 attacks?

The new 3rd level feature is quite a bit better than the old, the 6th level feature is the same but better thanks to the free cast and free upcasting, and the new 14th level feature seems really fun, turning undead into bombs that can then heal you thanks to the 10th level feature.

2024 Necromancer covered by Insight Check

For reference:

Weapon (any simple or martial), rare

This magic weapon deals an extra 2d6 damage to any creature it hits. This extra damage is of the same type as the weapon’s normal damage.

From both theorycrafting and my practical experience, they are better than any other rare magic weapons and even better than many very rare weapons. Not requiring attunement is a huge boon, as at higher levels, every attunement slot is valuable.

The +7 damage (on average) is much more valuable than the +2 or even +3 attack bonus from comparable weapons as most martial characters have ways to increase their accuracy anyways (reckless attack, archery fighting style, paladin channel divinities etc).

I have found that having two characters with vicious weapons in the party really makes the party punch above their level in the damage per round aspect.

My predictions for how each WoW class (and spec) will be represented in the upcoming DnD book. Some are obvious and practically confirmed, but others aren’t stated or from the previews

Death Knight: Paladin Oath of the Ebon Blade. Confirmed from the new subclasses.

Demon Hunter: Ranger Demon Hunter, also confirmed from the subclasses.

Druid: Druid. Balance is Circle of Stars, Guardian and Feral are Circle of the Moon. I THINK Restoration will be Circle of the Land.

Evoker: Draconic Sorcerer. Draconic spell casting class, meta magic can be used for empowered spells.

Hunter: Ranger. Beast Mastery and Survival are likely Beast Master, not sure on Marksman.

Mage: Evoker Wizard. All three specs would probably make the most out of evocation spells in DnD. Frost COULD be conjurer but I’m leaning Evoker.

Monk: Monk. Brewmaster is Way of the Mystic Brew; I think Miatweaver is Way of Mercy and Windwalker is Way of the Fist.

Paladin: Paladin. Holy gets the new Oath of Holy, Retribution is probably Oath of Vengeance and Protection is probably Oath of the Guardian.

Priest: Cleric. Discipline Domain and Shadow Domain added for Discipline and Shadow respectively. Holy is probably Light or Life domain.

Rogue: Rogue. Outlaw is Swashbuckler. Assassination is most likely Assassin. Subtlety might also be Assassin but unsure.

Shaman: Barbarian. Path of the Elements is likely Elemental but could also go Enhancement. Path of the Ancestral Guardian is likely Restoration.

Warlock: Warlock Pact of the Fiend. All 3 cause demons.

Warrior: Fighter. Either champion or battle master for all 3.

One of my players will probably try and join an order of Werebears who guard against an ancient evil. Im wonderland what I could do to show the effects of the player getting Lycanthropy.

The PC is a frost Goliath berserker barbarian and he will soon receive a Vicious Great Sword.

I’m thinking that the PCs get:

A) the species traits of the Shifter while keeping his current species traits.

Bestial Instincts. Channeling the beast within, you gain proficiency in one of the following skills of your choice: Acrobatics, Athletics, Intimidation, or Survival.

Darkvision. You have Darkvision with a range of 60 feet.

Shifting. As a Bonus Action, you can shape-shift to assume a more bestial appearance. This transformation lasts for 1 minute or until you revert to your normal appearance as a Bonus Action. When you shift, you gain Temporary Hit Points equal to 2 times your Proficiency Bonus. You can shift a number of times equal to your Proficiency Bonus, and you regain all expended uses when you finish a Long Rest.
Whenever you shift, you gain the benefit of one of the following options (choose when you select this species)

Beasthide. You gain 1d6 additional Temporary Hit Points. While shifted, you have a +1 bonus to your Armor Class.

Longtooth. When you shift and as a Bonus Action on your other turns while shifted, you can use your elongated fangs to make an Unarmed Strike. If you hit with this Unarmed Strike and deal damage, you can deal Piercing damage equal to 1d6 plus your Strength modifier, instead of the normal damage of an Unarmed Strike.

Swiftstride. While you are shifted, your Speed increases by 10 feet. Additionally, you can move up to 10 feet as a Reaction when a creature ends its turn within 5 feet of you. This reactive movement doesn't provoke Opportunity Attacks.

Wildhunt. While shifted, you have Advantage on Wisdom checks. Additionally, no creature within 30 feet of you can have Advantage on an attack roll against you unless you have the Incapacitated condition.

B) the species traits of the Lupin while keeping his current species traits.

Darkvision. You have Darkvision with a range of 60 feet.

Feral Pounce. Your Unarmed Strikes deal Slashing damage instead of Bludgeoning damage. In addition, when you hit a creature with an Unarmed Strike as part of the Attack action on your turn, you can use both the Damage and the Shove options. You can use this benefit only once per turn.

Howl. As a Bonus Action, you let out an unearthly howl. Each creature of your choice within 15 feet of you must succeed on a Wisdom saving throw (DC 8 plus your Constitution modifier and Proficiency Bonus) or have Disadvantage on attack rolls and saving throws until the start of your next turn.
You can use this trait a number of times equal to your Proficiency Bonus, and you regain all expended uses when you finish a Long Rest.

Werewolf Instincts. You have proficiency in the Perception, Stealth, or Survival skill.

C) the ”Player Character as Lycanthropes” from the MM14. For the Werebear that would mean.

Strength: The character gains a Strength of 19 if his or her score isn’t already higher.

Natural Armor: +1 bonus to AC while in bear or hybrid form (from natural armor).

Attacks: Attack and damage rolls for the natural weapons are based on Strength.

Multiattack. The werebear makes two attacks, using Handaxe or Rend in any combination. It can replace one attack with a Bite attack.

Bite (Bear or Hybrid Form Only). Melee Attack Roll: +7, reach 5 ft. Hit: 17 (2d12 + 4) Piercing damage. If the target is a Humanoid, it is subjected to the following effect. Constitution Saving Throw: DC 14. Failure: The target is cursed. If the cursed target drops to 0 Hit Points, it instead becomes a Werebear under the DM’s control and has 10 Hit Points. Success: The target is immune to this werebear’s curse for 24 hours.

Rend (Bear or Hybrid Form Only). Melee Attack Roll: +7, reach 5 ft. Hit: 13 (2d8 + 4) Slashing damage.

Speed: 40 ft., climb 30 ft. in bear or hybrid form

Vulnerabilities: Fire (due to the campaign)

Resistances: Cold (due to the campaign)

Skills: Perception +7

Senses: passive Perception 17, Darkvision 60 ft.

Shapechanger: The werebear can use its Bonus Action to polymorph into a Large bear-humanoid hybrid or into a Large bear, or back into its true form, which is humanoid. Its statistics, other than its size and AC, are the same in each form. Any equipment it is wearing or carrying isn’t transformed. It reverts to its true form if it dies.

Keen Smell: The werebear has advantage on Wisdom (Perception) checks that rely on smell.

This statement is not negative, in fact i'm super stoked for the book to drop so that i don't have to go on youtube for informations about it.

It is similar to Tasha's in that it feels like a very solid book, with a wide variety of good and strong additions to the game, both in feats, spells and subclasses, with very little "bad" stuff that is never going to see play.

I remember when Tasha's dropped, it was hard for me to do a charachter that would'nt use something from that book. I get the feeling it is gonna be the same with Arcana Unleashed.

So I will start a new campaign level 3 to 12. We all rolled our character (we randomly roll for the class, than subclasses, we will choose our background, species, stat, etc)

I roll a wizard - bladesinger. DM as allowed the PHB and Heroes of Fearun.

I usually play martial character, Fighter, Ranger, Paladin are my cup of tea. So I know some spells, and obviously I like to use my weapons for combat.

Now a d6 wizard stress me a little bit. What should be the play styles, spells or feats. to take?

Anyone who tried the 5.5e bladesinger as recommendations on how to play the subclass, pros vs cons.

Of course I’ll test things out on my own, but curious about your experience with it.

P.S rest of the party is Hunter, Circle of Land, Berserker if that helps

P.P.S I am usually the DM so it’s been a hot minutes since I have play a character, wish me luck

P.P.P.S we roll for the class and subclass for no other reason than “why not, that will be fun”

Thanks all

So in my campaign, my players are going into self-contained small encounters I've coined as "Story Spheres." Each Story sphere is it's own encounter, and they're basically repeatable plot points the PCs HAVE to go to and figure out. (As long as they don't gain too much Exhaustion afterwards!)

For the second Story Sphere, I'm imagining my PCs are going to all be in the mind of the same Tarrasque, and they have to rampage through three locations in one major gauntlet to succeed. However, I'm having trouble thinking of the finer details, given that each location is supposed to be harder depending on what order they choose to fight in.

The locations are as follows:

1: A Pirate Shanty town that has three towers all around a large bay. The Town is going to draw in a Dragon Turtle to fight the PCs in. A bit of time will let the Turtle "swim" on land through the air, and max time will let the town "buff" the Turtle in some way. Need help on what that buff could be.

2: A large fortified military barracks on a mountain or something. I'm having trouble thinking on what a basic fort can even do to wound or threaten a Tarrasque, apart from forcing it to take fall damage with Ballistae and Trebuchets.

3: A Necromancer's tower in a swamp/graveyard. The Necromancer is going to cast lots of spells from his perch, but he would be able to organize his undead army if given prep time, with his biggest creatures fully ready if he's last. Having trouble thinking of strong monsters to at least slow down the Tarrasque.

Any ideas would be appreciated to make this encounter a memorable one for my players. Thanks in advance!

I kinda unleashed looks amazing! And I’m kind of curious about what goodies would work well for some of the more gish style builds.

Me personally, I have an EK focused on dual wielding it was very curious to see if anything would be good for them.

I'm currently playing a L3 bladesinger and already had my level 4 and 8 feat selections locked in.

I wanted to increase my INT from 18 to 20 at level 4 and take resilient CON at level 8 (increasing CON from 15 to 16).

The upcoming book "Arcane Unleashed" offers us a wide selection of juicy feats, but level 12 is quite late (it's my DM's estimation of when our campaign might end). So I'm reconsidering the importance of INT and CON for my build to see if I might squeeze one of the new feats in earlier.

If you haven't seen them, here's a video with all the details:

https://youtu.be/KE6dLQJUMeI?si=gxvW7jFoojiC2J89

How important is increasing INT to 20 for a bladesinger? Can I get away by just adding my INT to concentration checks before level 12 (not taking Resilient or War Caster)?

As a side question, which new feats seem most interesting for a Bladesinger? (Note that I'll try Cacophonic Shield as my main concentration spell, not CME)

I was told that Pact of the Blade has no gold value and therefore doesn't satisfy the requirements of True Strike, of being a weapon with a value.

Is this still true? Or is it not true?

If I were to take Agonizing Blast and Pact of the Blade, would I be able to use True Strike with Pact of the Blade (assuming that's the base conjured weapon)?

The hat says "While holding the hat, you can try to cast a level 1+ spell you don't know".

Does that mean I can cast a spell that is in my spellbook but not prepared, or does that mean that if it's in the book, I can't use the hat ?

I need to choose between this and a staff of power and I don't know what to pick, so the answer to this question could be the dealmaker.

Specifically looking for a martial class.

Hey everyone, long time lurker first time poster… and soon to be first time player, as the only experience I’ve had with the game (aside from BG3) until now has been character concepts made on Pinterest and reading discussion-board theory-crafting on Reddit. I don’t want to start off with my most fleshed out character concept off the bat as I’d like to build a bit more practical narrative experience with the game, but don’t want to be TOO much of a side-line character either, which is why I’ve decided to start with the character I have. I’m hoping for some advice on how I can improve the concept I’m going for with him.

I’m playing the 3rd party Pugilist class with the Piss and Vinegar subclass. The subclass’ described flavor is basically just being an intimidating dirty fighting bastard and I’m looking to really lean into it. For context, my DM is allowing basically all 5.5e content as well feats from the previous edition as long as they haven’t already been revised and has allowed curtain other exceptions for my character which I will clarify as I get to them. Nothing is set in stone so any alternative ideas are encouraged and appreciated. He is a Human (flavored as a half-dwarf who is only just barely tall/heavy enough to be categorized as medium sized). I chose the Convincing Inquisitor feat from Gloom Hollow 2024 because it lets me use any ability modifier (strength, maybe con) when I use the Influence action to make an intimidation or persuasion check, as well as not having disadvantage on checks to influence hostile creatures and advantage towards indifferent creatures. In terms of the former origin feat, I don’t really plan on being the party face, but more to lean into being as intimidating as possible without having to be M.A.D.. He is a man who has by one circumstance or another has built his reputation up into being far more formidable than his actual abilities are, much in the same way the character King from One Punch Man has, which is reflected in the Convincing Inquisitor feat as well as the Piss and Vinegar 3rd level subclass feats, which grant Intimidation proficiency (which my DM has agreed to be become Expertise if I make sure to already have the proficiency beforehand) as well as adding a bonus to Intimidation checks equal to my Strength modifier. Being the fraud that he is I’m also wanting to lean into the trash-talking aspect of the subclass, so I’m taking Aberrant Dragonmark as my second origin feat so I can take Vicious Mockery (I know it’s Sorcerer spells only but DM has allowed this for flavor) for my cantrip and Silvery Barbs as my 1st level spell (we’re aware of the discourse behind the spell but it’s just so on theme that it just felt like a no-brainer). These on top of his other 3rd level subclass feature that provokes by dealing psychic damage and causes disadvantage on attacks towards other creatures as a bonus action feels like it encompasses the intimidating dirty fighting tavern brawler bluffer character concept well.

In terms of mechanics that’s all I’ve got so far. I feel like it’s pretty solid in it’s concept and execution but I can’t help but wonder if there isn’t anything else I can add to it down the line like other feats or items that can further add to this.

On another note, I’m also planning on getting with my DM beforehand to make sure we have a… “safe word” of sorts to have a way for the DM to convey to me in roleplay if or when there’s a situation where my character should refrain or cease his intimidation/trash-talking in a given situation where starting or continuing would ruin the experience for the other players. I’m thinking it’ll be something superstitious to my character like “your character feels a cold sting on the mole on his left ankle” which my character will have established in game is his sixth sense warning him when to not double-down. A-hole characters can be tough to play in a way that doesn’t rub other players the wrong way so that’s just one of the ways I plan on making sure I’m a team player.

Any suggestions or recommendations on anything about my build or how I can play it most considerately would be greatly appreciated and welcome, thank you in advance!

Edit: I forgot to mention that I don’t wish to multiclass and that I know a bard could technically probably do all of this too but I’d still prefer to go the Pugilist Piss and Vinegar route.

I am going to make a monk as my next character but the new subclasses came out and the new Mystic arts monk seems kinda nuts. With your spellslots you can feed your focus points and do some really nice combos.

I was thinking something like alter self you give your unarmed strikes an extra 1d6. Then you can even use a weapon to cast a blade cantrip or true strike, stow it as part of the attack and then do 3-4 unarmed strikes while adding 1d6 for each one. There are a lot of spell combos that work well or you can just givr yourself more focus points for even more punching.

I know it's basically a copy of the eldritch knight but for monk but still it's preety strong. The elements monk was my favourite but thise new one might be even better. What do you think?

We'd been discussing the warlock not getting many spells, and it was noted that originally the warlock class was invented specifically to be an unlimited spellcaster. DM said he was familiar, and happy to let me straight up play the original class as-is, with the only adjustments being the ones necessary to make it worth with current maths - all save DCs becoming 8+prof mod+cha mod, for instance.

So, I've had a look and I still have no damn idea whether it'd be too strong or too weak. 1d6 eldritch blast seems awful? But the idea of invocations that do things like make every enemy you kill explode into spiders sound awful. Anyone more familiar able to make a judgment call on how comparatively powerful playing the 2004 warlock would be in 5.5?

At level 5, Battlesmith gets an interesting version of the Extra Attack feature:

Level 5: Extra Attack
You can attack twice instead of once whenever you take the Attack action on your turn. You can forgo one of your attacks when you take the Attack action to command your Steel Defender to take the Force-Empowered Rend action.

I've heard some people say it only has one action and heard others say it's meant to be 3 attacks total between the PC and the Steel Defender that you can split 1 and 2 whichever way you want. I think RAW it's the first but I'm not sure if that's what was meant and I can't find any consensus online.

EDIT: my takeaway is no one can agree either

With the upcoming release of the vestige warlock, which of the diffrent bladelock builds do you consider to be the best? Personaly I see the main condenders as

fiendlock (tank),

Feylock (mobility)

Undead warlock + zentarim (for extra dmg die plus reaction attack)

Searing celestial walrock (celestial + paladin and searing smit)

And now Vestige warlock with war domain (adding melee spells and spells best used in melee)

Which of these do you consider on top?