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.

 

[Sacrosanct]

I just dropped a player to zero in tonight's game, first round. Maybe your DMs need more skill... or more cruelty.

But seriously, it's quite an indictment of how soft the death mechanics are in 5e that someone thinks that it's underpowered to bring a bleeding-out player straight back into combat with a cantrip. That would be game-breakingly powerful in most iterations of D&D.

For real. Of my last 5 Shadowdark PCs, only one survived more than a couple hours of real time game play

 

[Remathilis]

For clarification, I've read them...in parts, and DM'd and played them...in parts, so...Really good question. 1) I was hoping it would be better with minor revisions as the module was updated (it didn't), and 2) we smoked a lot of pot and drank a lot of beers, amongst other things...so that may have something to do with it. We never did get through the whole adventure in any of its iterations, so that may say something. Im not trying to knock it or detraxt from anyones enjoyment of it but I personally dont understand why its been redone 4 times. I'll take a (3) book, (no hardbacks) revision of the "Sword of the Dales" trilogy over some crusty vampire any day. You find a magical item in Strahds boudoir, Oh sorry that was just his decanter of never ending Miralax.

Hey, everyone plays different. Strahd is a classic for a lot of players like the Tomb of Horror is for others (and having playing ToH, I can honestly say it's overrated unless your favorite play style is "read the DMs mind").

 

[R_J_K75]

I can honestly say it's overrated unless your favorite play style is "read the DMs mind").

I havent run or played any iteration from start to finish, but I can say the parts I did adapt the 3.5 module to d20 Modern for a few sessions

 

[Horwath]

Melee ranger has so many uses of FE and slots that concentration isn't an issue. And this Subclass add WIS to AC and con saving throws.

again fail at design,
what it promotes?
100% shillelagh build, as any other will under perform.

Ranged ranger is still one of the best and reliable damage dealers,

reliable, but low damage dealer

a great skill monkey,

this is true, rogue is still better, but it should be.

and the only viable melee/ranged switch hitters besides champion fighter.

that is somewhat true, still need to focus on one.

Rangers only trouble is damage after level 10.

long before that, about level 5 ranger starts to drop off.

 

[jgsugden]

There is no need, WotC's ownership of all of those remains beyond doubt. You can be sure that the instant any of them approached the public domain (95 years after original publication I believe) there would be a shedload of 3PP for them announced.

You're talking copyright, which is 90% of the story - that is 95 years if created before a certain date and 70 years beyond the life of the 'author' for items created after 78 ... which some pessimists might say is one of the reasons we often used to get cute stories about how a very small child came up with a chartacter.

The other 10% of the idea is trademark which has a use it or lose it element that has to be re-proven every 10 years.

And then there is non-US IP laws ... which also can involve use it or lose it provisions and contractual provisions that also factor into the use it or lose it discussions. I believe Enworld forums may house an old thread on the ~2010 Gamma World boxed set that talked about the IP issues that allowed them to get the chance to make the boxed set. It allowed them to test out the "Your D&D character reduced to a deck of cards" idea that was going to aim to make D&D character building a CCG.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

The other 10% of the idea is trademark which has a use it or lose it element that has to be re-proven every 10 years

If trademarks were an issue, there would be a ton of knockoffs, since many of those IPs haven’t been used for a lot longer than 10 years!

The way is works is you have to show willingness to defend a trademark, you do not have to use it. See the nu-TSR attempt to use the old TSR logo. WotC have never used it, but they still own it. And 10% of an IP?! What trademarks actually matter? The Dark Sun logo is the only one I remember, and that includes text, so is protected anyway. Want to use a knockoff logo for your dim sun restaurant? I doubt anyone cares.

As for other territories, I believe copywrite on text is only protected for 65 years in the UK. I’m sure the thought of a UK only bootleg Dark Sun being published in 35 years time has WotC quaking in their boots! But there is nothing they can do about it anyway, since it goes from the date of original publication. Wether or not you do anything with it in the meantime makes not one jot of difference.

As for your Gamma World example, it wasn’t a commercial product. They could have shut it down but it wasn’t worth the cost of the lawyers and the negative publicity.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

Just started, and right away this stood out:

View attachment 404794

How often do they think players are using Spare the Dying? That seems really weak for something almost never used.

It’s not about frequency, it’s about impact. The subclass has plenty of stuff that will be used in every fight.

Yeesh, the hexblade no longer grants armor or weapon proficiencies. So your "spectral blade" has to be a simple weapon?

Your spectral blade can be anything, you aren’t necessarily wielding it, it’s your patron. If you want to wield it, take pact of the blade.
Hexblade is designed so that you’re not losing anything if you play it as primarily a chain warlock or tome warlock. None of the features require weapon attacks, just attacks.

But still super squishy because you're stuck in light armor?

 

[doctorbadwolf]

Melee ranger has so many uses of FE and slots that concentration isn't an issue. And this Subclass add WIS to AC and con saving throws.

Ranged ranger is still one of the best and reliable damage dealers, a great skill monkey, and the only viable melee/ranged switch hitters besides champion fighter.

Rangers only trouble is damage after level 10.

The Ranger’s biggest issue is that using its central class feature makes it effectively not a spellcaster while it’s active. Too many other Ranger spells use concentration, including Ensaring strike which should be bread and butter alongside hunters mark, but can’t be.

 

[Weiley31]

One of the perks of the Tales of The Valiant Ranger is that it's Hunter's Mark(Mystic Mark) feature doesn't have concentration AND it scales up a bit. Cuz I do agree that for the WoTC Ranger, it's whole Hunter Mark dependance is weird with Concentration

 

[Kobold Avenger]

Copyright is shorter in Canada as there's Popeye's Supplements which outright uses the Popeye character to sell supplements, proteins, fitness nutrition stuff and other things like that, which has existed since 1989. While I've heard of the copyright has not yet expired in the US.

For WotC I think they generally try to publish something on each of there settings at least once every 10 years.