Various topics between the two versions vary.
Guidance and Prerequisites
Unearthed Arcana
For a player character to gain a sidekick, there are some prerequisites to be met. The sidekick can be any creature from the Monster Manual or other D&D book, and these prerequisites are necessary:
- Its challenge rating must be 1 or lower.
- The two of you must be friends.
There is no mention of minimal or maximum party-size (aka number of players) that limits the number of sidekicks in a group of PCs.
Both the Expert and Spellcaster classes requires the creature to "have at least one language in its stat block that it can speak".
Essentials Kit
In the adventure booklet included in the Essentials Kit – Dragon of Icespire Peak – the Running the Adventure chapter recommends having a sidekick if you, as the DM, are running the adventure for a single player. The sidekick must be one chosen from the Sidekick Cards included in the box.
The characters presented in the Sidekick Cards are humanoids of various races with at least one level of one of the Sidekick classes. There are no other requirements in this version.
Leveling Up
Unearthed Arcana
A sidekick gains a level whenever the associated PC gains a level.
Whenever you gain a level, your sidekick also gains a level. It doesn’t matter how much of your recent adventures the sidekick experienced; the sidekick levels up because of a combination of the adventures it shares with you and its own training.
Essentials Kit
The Sidekick explicitly counts as a PC for the purpose of sharing experience points between the party members. The Sidekick rules says:
As you and your sidekick adventure together, your sidekick gains experience points and reaches new levels the same way a player character does [...]
Hit Points
Unearthed Arcana
Whenever a Sidekick gains a level, it gains a Hit Die based on its creature size (d4 for Tiny, d6 for Small, d8 for Medium, etc).
Essentials Kit
The creature Hit Die is always a d8, as the Appendix deals only with the Sidekicks presented in the Sidekick Cards in the box, which are all humanoids.
Ability Score Improvement
Unearthed Arcana
There is no guidance regarding which ability score you should increase when a sidekick gains such feature.
Essentials Kit
For each of the three classes, there is guidance to what ability score should be increased. For Warrior is +2 to Strength, for Expert is +2 to Dexterity, for Spellcaster is +2 to Intelligence or Wisdom, depending on its spellcasting ability.
Sidekick Classes
The classes available to sidekicks are the same for both UA and Essentials: Warrior, Expert, and Spellcaster. They, however, have different features for each level.
Unearthed Arcana
The UA classes have a complete table of features, from levels 1 to 20.
Essentials Kit
The Essentials Kit only presents a table of features per level ranging from levels 1 to 6. This limitation is due to the adventure included in the box: Dragon of Icespire Peak is meant to be played from levels 1 to 6.
Warrior
This section compares the levels 1-6 of the Warrior class.
\begin{array}{|c|c|l|l|}
\hline
\textbf{Level} & \textbf{Prof. Bonus} & \textbf{Unearthed Arcana} & \textbf{Essentials Kit} \\ \hline
\text{1st} & \text{+2} & \text{Second Wind, Bonus Proficiencies} & \text{Martial Role, Selected Proficiencies*} \\ \hline
\text{2nd} & \text{+2} & \text{Danger Sense} & \text{Second Wind} \\ \hline
\text{3rd} & \text{+2} & \text{Improved Critical} & \text{Improved Critical} \\ \hline
\text{4th} & \text{+2} & \text{Ability Score Improvement} & \text{Ability Score Improvement} \\ \hline
\text{5th} & \text{+3} & \text{Extra Attack} & \text{–} \\ \hline
\text{6th} & \text{+3} & \text{Ability Score Improvement} & \text{Extra Attack} \\ \hline
\end{array}
*By "Selected Proficiencies", I mean a preselected set of proficiencies. The Warrior from the Essentials Kit has the following proficiencies already chosen:
- Saving Throws: Constitution
- Skills: Athletics, Perception, Survival
Both versions are proficient with all armor, shields, and simple and martial weapons.
Expert
This section compares the levels 1-6 of the Expert class.
\begin{array}{|c|c|l|l|}
\hline
\textbf{Level} & \textbf{Prof. Bonus} & \textbf{Unearthed Arcana} & \textbf{Essentials Kit} \\ \hline
\text{1st} & \text{+2} & \text{Expertise, Helpful, Bonus Proficiencies} & \text{Helpful, Tools, Selected Proficiencies*} \\ \hline
\text{2nd} & \text{+2} & \text{Cunning Action} & \text{Cunning Action} \\ \hline
\text{3rd} & \text{+2} & \text{Jack of Many Trades} & \text{Expertise} \\ \hline
\text{4th} & \text{+2} & \text{Ability Score Improvement} & \text{Ability Score Improvement} \\ \hline
\text{5th} & \text{+3} & \text{Extra Attack} & \text{–} \\ \hline
\text{6th} & \text{+3} & \text{Expertise} & \text{Extra Attack} \\ \hline
\end{array}
*By "Selected Proficiencies", I mean a preselected set of proficiencies. The Expert from the Essentials Kit has the following proficiencies already chosen:
- Saving Throws: Dexterity
- Skills: Acrobatics, Performance, Persuasion, Sleight of Hand, Stealth
Both versions have proficiency with light armor and all simple weapons. The Unearthed Arcana version also gains proficiency with two tools of your choice, while the Essentials Kit version gains proficiency with rapiers, shortswords, and possibly with thieves' tools and a musical instrument (these last two from the "Tools" trait in its stat block).
Spellcaster
This section compares the levels 1-6 of the Spellcaster class.
\begin{array}{|c|c|l|l|}
\hline
\textbf{Level} & \textbf{Prof. Bonus} & \textbf{Unearthed Arcana} & \textbf{Essentials Kit} \\ \hline
\text{1st} & \text{+2} & \text{Spellcasting, Bonus Proficiencies} & \text{Magical Role*, Spellcasting**, Selected Proficiencies***} \\ \hline
\text{2nd} & \text{+2} & \text{Magical Recovery} & \text{–} \\ \hline
\text{3rd} & \text{+2} & \text{–} & \text{–} \\ \hline
\text{4th} & \text{+2} & \text{Ability Score Improvement} & \text{Ability Score Improvement} \\ \hline
\text{5th} & \text{+3} & \text{–} & \text{–} \\ \hline
\text{6th} & \text{+3} & \text{Potent Cantrips} & \text{Potent Cantrips} \\ \hline
\end{array}
*The Essentials Kit Spellcaster has the Magical Role feature, which defines the Spellcasting Ability for the sidekick character. It only allows for Intelligence or Wisdom to be chosen.
In the Unearthed Arcana version, the Spellcasting Ability is chosen in the Spellcasting feature, with Charisma being a possible Spellcasting Ability too.
**Each version of the Spellcasting feature has a different spell slot progression (shown below), along with other differences:
- The Unearthed Arcana version has a spell list associated to one of the PCs classes that can conjure up to 9th level spells (Warlock included), and a Spellcasting Focus associated with such class. Spells and cantrips can be chosen freely from the associated spell list, following the progression below (the last three columns represent the Spell Slots):
\begin{array}{|c|c|c|c|c|c|}
\hline
\textbf{Level} & \textbf{Cantrips Known} & \textbf{Spells Known} & \textbf{1st} & \textbf{2nd} & \textbf{3rd} \\ \hline
\text{1st} & \text{3} & \text{2} & \text{2} & \text{–} & \text{–} \\ \hline
\text{2nd} & \text{3} & \text{3} & \text{3} & \text{–} & \text{–} \\ \hline
\text{3rd} & \text{3} & \text{4} & \text{4} & \text{2} & \text{–} \\ \hline
\text{4th} & \text{4} & \text{5} & \text{4} & \text{3} & \text{–} \\ \hline
\text{5th} & \text{4} & \text{6} & \text{4} & \text{3} & \text{2} \\ \hline
\text{6th} & \text{4} & \text{7} & \text{4} & \text{3} & \text{3} \\ \hline
\end{array}
- The Essentials Kit version has no spell list associated, independent of the chosen Magical Role. Both spells and cantrips are previously chosen for each role, and it has no Spellcasting Focus. It follows the progression below (the last two columns represent the Spell Slots):
\begin{array}{|c|c|c|c|c|}
\hline
\textbf{Level} & \textbf{Cantrips Known} & \textbf{Spells Known} & \textbf{1st} & \textbf{2nd} \\ \hline
\text{1st} & \text{2} & \text{1} & \text{2} & \text{–} \\ \hline
\text{2nd} & \text{2} & \text{2} & \text{2} & \text{–} \\ \hline
\text{3rd} & \text{2} & \text{3} & \text{3} & \text{–} \\ \hline
\text{4th} & \text{3} & \text{3} & \text{3} & \text{–} \\ \hline
\text{5th} & \text{3} & \text{4} & \text{4} & \text{2} \\ \hline
\text{6th} & \text{3} & \text{4} & \text{4} & \text{2} \\ \hline
\end{array}
***By "Selected Proficiencies", I mean a preselected set of proficiencies. The Spellcaster from the Essentials Kit has the following proficiencies already chosen:
- Saving Throws: Wisdom
- Skills: Arcana, Investigation, Religion
Both versions are proficient with light armor and simple weapons.
Other details
Finally, it is important to note that the Unearthed Arcana content is playtest material, and therefore, can be unbalanced. The Essentials Kit version is official, but the lack of progress after level 6 limits the official rules for Sidekicks.
Best Answer
Let's run through these. All statements are from the perspective of the Ghosts of Saltmarsh Appendix. All statements are sourced from a comparison of the UA Article and the Ghosts of Saltmarsh Appendix A
Action Economy has been Changed
In the UA, on its turn a ship could Move its speed and fire all weapons--or half of its weapons (rounded down) if the ship was at half-crew or less. They didn't really have Actions apart from "move and shoot every round."
In Ghosts, a ship can take multiple Actions per turn, dependent on how fully staffed it is. For example, a Galley (max crew 80) may take 3 actions--2 if at 40 crew or less, 1 if at 20 crew or less, and 0 if depleted to 3 crewmen or less.
Movement (Yes, Moving is now an Action for ships), and each discrete type of weapon the ship has consumes an Action to use. Each action option may only be used once per turn. So you cannot move multiple times or fire the same weapon set multiple times.
In general, a ship with a full crew has enough Actions to Move and Fire all of its weapons in a single turn. However, crew losses will force you to start choosing between your available actions
There are no official stats for an Airship
Those were in the UA article, they are not in Ghosts.
Maps and Descriptions
Saltmarsh added sample maps for ships, as well as detailed descriptions of said maps, with expanded descriptions of each type of ship beyond what is in the PHB.
Superior Ship Items
Effectively Magic Items for ships...Ghosts added these.
Officer Action renamed
UA called it 'Fire at Will,' Ghosts calls it 'Take Aim.'
Rules added for Crew Casualties in combat
Mostly guidelines on how to adjudicate what happens if someone Fireballs the deck of your ship.
Downtime Activity: Managing a Ship removed
It's gone. No trace of it in Ghosts.
Altered Hazard Rules
Hazard rules were condensed and heavily altered. The generic 'Everyone rolls for a hazard and adds their results together' Hazard rules are removed. Instead, there are a total of 5 Hazards listed that can occur, each with their own set of outcomes depending on success or failure.
Each hazard lists which specific officers are able to contribute to resolving the issue. Each eligible officer, along with the Crew as a whole, participates in a group check against a variable DC to determine how well they handled the crisis. There are 4 possible outcomes: Total Success (every die rolled generated a Success), Success (More or equal Succeeded than Failed), Failure (More Failed than Succeeded), and Total Failure (All dice rolls failed)
Extra stuff