Purple Dragon Knight Retooled as Banneret in D&D's Heroes of Faerun Book

The much-maligned Purple Dragon Knight Fighter subclass is being retooled towards its original support origins in the upcoming Heroes of Faerun book. Coming out of GenCon, an image of a premade character sheet of a Banneret is making its way around the Internet. The classic support-based Fighter subclass appears to have replaced the Purple Dragon Knight subclass, which received a ton of criticism for not resembling the Purple Dragon Knight's traditional lore.

The Banneret's abilities includes a Level 3 "Knightly Envoy" ability that allows it to cast Comprehend Language as a ritual and gain proficiency in either Intimidation, Insight, Performance, or Persuasion (this appears unchanged from the Purple Dragon Knight UA), plus a Group Recovery ability that allows those within 30 feet of the Banneret to regain 1d4 Hit Points plus the Banneret's Fighter Level when the Banneret uses its Second Wind ability. Scrapped is the Purple Dragon companion that the UA version of the subclass had, which grew in power as the Purple Dragon Knight leveled up.

The Banneret was the generic name for the Purple Dragon Knight in the Sword Coast Adventurer's Guide. The Banneret/Purple Dragon Knight was originally more of a support class that could provide the benefits of its abilities to its allies instead of or in addition to benefitting from them directly. For instance, a Banneret's Action Surge could be used to allow a nearby ally to make an attack, and Indomitable could allow an ally to reroll a failed saving throw in addition to the Banneret.

 

[Sorcerers Apprentice]

You could have had a freaking dragon pet. You instead got healing for your party 1/rest on you use of your second wind.

And the PDKs are still riding Purple dragons, just not you.

Sounds like the PDK arrangement is more like dragons with knight pets. Not sure how you'd represent that as a D&D class.

 

[I'm A Banana]

A bunch of psychic knowledge-seeking dragons having a secret reason to ally with a group of humans seems like a natural story hook to me.

And what did the book do with that potential? Anything interesting? Seems like not.

 

[Remathilis]

And what did the book do with that potential? Anything interesting? Seems like not.

That's the DMs job. See also: the Day of Mourning (Eberron)

 

[bedir than]

And what did the book do with that potential? Anything interesting? Seems like not.

Upgraded the Purple Dragon Knights to a continent-wide faction with renown and bastion options for players.
Gave the players member benefits. There's a bunch of lore on this in the Factions section as well as in the Cormyr section as well.

There's also an interesting interplay between the Knights and the dragons because they don't have the same goals.

 

[I'm A Banana]

That's the DMs job. See also: the Day of Mourning (Eberron)

But, like, the people who wrote that material, they didn't bother to communicate any ideas about why that might've happened? Anything about what's going on in the minds of the people who did this? One possibly deceased ancient dragon has a vision of another world and just can't resist how super cool it would be to be ridden around by a group of knights? The Day of Mourning has a dozen potential causes embedded into the setting and the story. This does not (as far as I am aware).

Upgraded the Purple Dragon Knights to a continent-wide faction with renown and bastion options for players.
Gave the players member benefits. There's a bunch of lore on this in the Factions section as well as in the Cormyr section as well.

There's also an interesting interplay between the Knights and the dragons because they don't have the same goals.

Sounds like there's more than just the goofy vision of Krynn, then. What are the different goals? How are the dragons using the knights? How are the knights using the dragons?

 

[bedir than]

But, like, the people who wrote that material, they didn't bother to communicate any ideas about why that might've happened? Anything about what's going on in the minds of the people who did this? One possibly deceased ancient dragon has a vision of another world and just can't resist how super cool it would be to be ridden around by a group of knights? The Day of Mourning has a dozen potential causes embedded into the setting and the story. This does not (as far as I am aware).



Sounds like there's more than just the goofy vision of Krynn, then. What are the different goals? How are the dragons using the knights? How are the knights using the dragons?

I'm browsing the book while reading and the PDK situation is both books in multiple sections.
What I can see is that they spent thousands of words on this. It wasn't handwaved.

 

[I'm A Banana]

What I can see is that they spent thousands of words on this. It wasn't handwaved.

Ah, good! I did think this story had potential if they didn't phone it in, and it sounds like they saw that, too. Great news.

So...maybe best of both worlds? A good lore update AND a decent leader-y fighter?

 

[Selas]

Ah, good! I did think this story had potential if they didn't phone it in, and it sounds like they saw that, too. Great news.

So...maybe best of both worlds? A good lore update AND a decent leader-y fighter?

Except that the lore was definitely done with the UA PDK in mind, which people rejected in a vacuum. Now we got a slightly upgraded Banneret from SCAG that doesn't quite match the added lore

 

[I'm A Banana]

Except that the lore was definitely done with the UA PDK in mind, which people rejected in a vacuum. Now we got a slightly upgraded Banneret from SCAG that doesn't quite match the added lore

PDKs are still knightly inspirational leaders, so that's a fine lore match. And their tension with the dragons is preserved - the two don't depend on each other, in a mechanical sense, and so if their goals conflict, it would make some sense. And, neat trick about leader classes is that NPC allies like dragons still count as allies, and can still be buffed with the knightly abilities.

Plus, we don't have to deal with another wonky pet subclass trying to make an alien version of an actual creature something they get as a companion.

We deserve a solution for befriending NPC creatures that isn't "it's on my character sheet that I get a dragon to ride."

 

[mearls]

Upgraded the Purple Dragon Knights to a continent-wide faction with renown and bastion options for players.
Gave the players member benefits. There's a bunch of lore on this in the Factions section as well as in the Cormyr section as well.

There's also an interesting interplay between the Knights and the dragons because they don't have the same goals.

Yeah, I think this gets lost in thinking about the change. It's the key driver to making them bigger players across Faerun. IMO FR struggles a bit with being too regional. Having more global groups helps give it more of a cohesive feel (again, IMO, YMMV, etc).