D&D (2024) Wargamer Takes Shot At WotC for Not Respecting Forgotten Realms Canon.

[ECMO3]

This is an odd thing to say.

If a subclass is published that says such-and-such about some fictional elements (like an order of knights), that is a bit of fiction about those knights and their order.

It is not published.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

I think a little perspective is warranted here. The article you linked to was posted a month ago. Wargamer seems to produce a lot of articles each day. Two days ago they posted 12 articles in a single day. The author of that article has published 25 articles on Wargamer in the last week.

With all that context in mind, Wargamer seems to "take notice" of a lot of stuff every day. I doubt that a single article one month ago is really going to be making waves at WotC, or reflects much more than an opportunity for the site to get a few more clicks. It's not exactly investigative journalism.

Using AI to create articles?

 

[MonsterEnvy]

"Journalists".

Click bait from a click bait site is not exactly all thwt interesting.

I would say the thread is more clickbaity than the article.

 

[ECMO3]

Using AI to create articles?

I am wondering if they used AI to create the subclass!

 

[Parmandur]

I think the FR jumped the shark with the Time of Troubles and the FR Adventures book.

I can respect that: I've become something of an FR Originalist recently, and while I would ignore the Time of Troubles, I enjoy Forgotten Realms Adventures quite a bit (hence my avatar) so I would still use particularly the city Gazateers from that as a resource.

By the time you get the Steppe Event, however, the goose is throughly cooked.

 

[Mistwell]

Hold up, no. This is a really demeaning thing to write, I expect better from you. It isn’t a minor grievance for those of us who really are into Forgotten Realms lore AND who spend our money to buy these books. It isn’t meaningless to us, and being utterly dismissive of people who care, even if you don’t agree, is just flat out passively aggressively rude.

Claims that the Purple Dragon Knight was an important part of the Forgotten Realms setting ring false to me. Yes, I am saying as a fan of FR that it is in fact pretty meaningless in the grand scheme of things and I think you claiming your view represents "those of us who are really into Forgotten Realms" isn't a good look. It's no more or less representative of my view of FR, and I loved the new subclass as finally fulfilling on the Fairy Tale Knight trope I've always wanted with very minor sacrifice of a relatively minor knighthood theme in FR that had very little meat to it. They made it much better, it will fit well into FR, and I welcome this change. I don't think it will be difficult to explain the change in the setting.

As for the article, the author is not agreeing with the sentiment, just reporting they saw the sentiment, admitting they know littler about the setting, and admitting they know so little about the topic they confused a Paladin with a Fighter. The spin that "even video game journalists are sick of WotC not respecting canon" was false spin and it's fair to point that out.

 

[Mistwell]

My problem with the pdk is that they took a really bad subclass and said here's a poopy warlord. Now instead of fixing it into a good warlord, they are making it a bad mount subclass. If you want to make a mount subclass, use the cavalier.

It's a GREAT mount class. If that's your issue with it, I recommend this video. I think it's would be an exceptionally powerful mount subclass.

 

[ECMO3]

It's a GREAT mount class. If that's your issue with it, I recommend this video. I think it's would be an exceptionally powerful mount subclass.

I think you misquoted me. That said, aside from the name, there are two big problems with the class as written.

1. The Dragon can die and unlike other pet and familiar classes, you can't just resummon another one. Letting you use second wind to revive it is ok ... as long as you did not use all your second wind uses (which saving one for this is a penalty itself considering how much more powerful second wind is). But if you are out of second wind and it does die, that is the end of it. At 10th level your dragon gets killed with disintegrate and that is it, most of your subclass abilities no longer work ... permanently.

2. It is an Amethyst Dragon, something only the most ardent players are going to even identify with. Gem Dragons themselves are kind of D&D adjacent with how they are presented and used and not very central to the game. The Dragon themed WOTC adventures SODQ and Rise of Tiamat don't even have Gem Dragons. The new monster Manual does not have them. It would be much more appealing if it was a Gold Dragon I think.

 

[Staffan]

My problem with the pdk is that they took a really bad subclass and said here's a poopy warlord. Now instead of fixing it into a good warlord, they are making it a bad mount subclass. If you want to make a mount subclass, use the cavalier.

The issue with turning it into a good warlord is that the fighter has too much stuff in the base class, leaving little room for power in the subclass. That's why we need a dedicated warlord class instead.

 

[ECMO3]

Claims that the Purple Dragon Knight was an important part of the Forgotten Realms setting ring false to me.

To be clear it is the Purple Dragons that were part of the lore, not the Purple Dragon Knight.

If it is not important then why did they name a subclass out of it? What you are suggesting is they picked something obscure from the corners of the Forgotten Realms and decided to misuse the name for something they wanted to build. Wouldn't it be easier to just come up with a new name?

This is even more true when you consider the purple color and how it drives you to a certain type of Dragon that is itself obscure, both in the Forgotten Realms and in the broader D&D community?