Dungeons & Dragons Announces Horror Subclasses Unearthed Arcana

Dungeons & Dragons has announced a new Unearthed Arcana focused on horror subclasses. The new UA, available now on D&D Beyond, introduces a mix of new subclasses and thematic subclasses from 2014 5th Edition. The full list of subclasses are as follows:

• College of Spirits Bard
• Grave Domain Cletic
• Phantom Rogue
• Shadow Sorcerer
• Heblade Patron Warlock
• Undead Patron Warlock
• Reanimator Artificer
• Hollow Warden Ranger

The Reanimator Artificer is built around creating a reanimated companion that can act in combat and explodes when it dies. The Hollow Warden Ranger adds a Wrath of the Wild feature that activates when casting Hunter's Mark and adds various emanation effects while active.

No word on what this UA is related to, but there is a mystery product coming out in October and these horror subclasses could tie into a potential Ravenloft book.

You can check out the full Unearthed Arcana here.

 

[Henadic Theologian]

Ravenloft was my first thought as well, but someone on Reddit pointed out that this actually makes a lot of sense for the upcoming Lorwyn book - specifically tying them to the dark side of the setting, Shadowmoor.

Lorwyn/Shadowmoore was a thought for me as well at first, but if it was for that setting, it would be balanced between darkness & light subclasses and Reanimator doesn't fit it at all, there is nothing like that in Shadowmoor. And Shadowmoor has more of a dark fey theme then undead.

This fits Ravenloft to a T however, amd releasing a Ravenloft expansion right before Halloween is just crazy thematic, and we know a book slot is reserved for October.

Ravenloft is easily expandable and they can bring back the Core.

 

[Remathilis]

I've got a sinking feeling that, perhaps they aren't worrying about print time because this book and the Eberron book won't have physical releases...

I've seen a few independent booksellers preordering for Forge, but I haven't seen a pre-order yet on D&DB or Amazon. I think it would be a mistake, but it's possible.

 

[Kurotowa]

I've got a sinking feeling that, perhaps they aren't worrying about print time because this book and the Eberron book won't have physical releases...

That strikes me as incredibly unlikely and completely baseless.

 

[Reynard]

I've got a sinking feeling that, perhaps they aren't worrying about print time because this book and the Eberron book won't have physical releases...

What could possibly have given you that "feeling"?

 

[DavyGreenwind]

That strikes me as incredibly unlikely and completely baseless.

I hope so

 

[DavyGreenwind]

I've seen a few independent booksellers preordering for Forge, but I haven't seen a pre-order yet on D&DB or Amazon. I think it would be a mistake, but it's possible.

Oh, that's a good sign

 

[sevenbastard]

My guess, in the other thread, is a remastered, updated, expanded Curse of Strahd.

Keep milking that cash cow.

 

[Twiggly the Gnome]

I love that we’re getting a new Artificer that has nothing to do with gears and guns, but...

I HATE that the reanimator can create their undead companion without requiring a corpse to be handy! Way to miss the grave robbing point of the entire archetype.

Yeah, spontaneous generation isn't the fiction here. You should have some dead flesh to reanimate into your Frankenweenie!

 

[UngeheuerLich]

I like all those subclasses. They are way better balanced and written than the old respective subclasses of 5.14 and also better balanced than the last batch of UA subclasses (genie paladin cough cough)

 

[Kurotowa]

Yeah, spontaneous generation isn't the fiction here. You should have some dead flesh to reanimate into your Frankenweenie!

D&D has often struggled to balance the competing demands of fiction and game, and all the Artificer "spontaneously generate your minions and magic items" clauses are absolutely prioritizing game over fiction.

From a fiction stand point, conjuring these things out of nothing is less cool. From a gameplay stand point, having to play "mother may I?" with the DM to get the materials required to use your core class features can be frustrating. How many complaints would we see of "The DM tossed us into a scenario where we're lost in the desert fighting sand elementals and my PC can't do anything!" if there were hard resource requirements? And don't tell me that wouldn't happen, I remember the days of "My DM won't let my Rogue use Sneak Attack because I'm not using Stealth" all too well.

There's a lot of middle ground that can be negotiated, where for cosmetic purposes only the Reanimator uses organic materials that influence the shape of that particular summon. But that's something done between a specific player and DM. As a general baseline rule, I completely understand why they want "Your core class features just always work" to be the standard.