Dungeons & Dragons Announces Horror Subclasses Unearthed Arcana

Twiggly the Gnome said:

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



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

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Doesn't seem that would be too hard to require a corpse to use. But I can see the complaint that you can't summon your Frankenstein until you kill something. Maybe they can make it where you can reuse the parts? Idk. My own version was permanent until killed.

So disappointed there is no Wizard (Necromancer) subclass announced for this. Wizard had, I think, the most number of subclasses removed between the 2014 and 2024 PHB, and when given the opportunity to finally put one of them back in they put two Warlock subclasses in instead, AND an Artificer subclass (a class which hasn't even official come out yet)? Disappointing.

I hope, as @FitzTheRuke mentioned, it's going to be in the release and they're not playtesting it because they're satisfied their internal playtesting was good enough.

Reanimator, you say?

Reanimator Artificer???!?!?

Science and Tech Necromancer? Herbert West, Frankenstein etc?

Well done WotC. I've never been so excited for a D&D character class before.

Quick thoughts:

Aritficer: reanimator. Really fun idea. You should need a corpse to make a companion.

Bard: spirits. Another hit. Smattering of Wild Magic, with a sepulchral theme. I love how more abilities come online as your bardic die gets bigger. Really fun design.

Cleric: grave. Completely solid, stronger than in XGTE.

Ranger: hollow warden. Everything is buyilt around Wrath of the wild, and it's very strong. Ancient Armor will give +3 AC on top of medium armor, better than plate, but not broken like the Genie Paladin was. Unnerving Aura very powerful. For everyone who has complained about Rangers forcing you to use Hunter's Mark, this seems a pretty solid riposte, and could be a really fun, dex-wielding melee character. Peoiple will be excited because Phantom Steed is on the spell list.

Rogue: phantom. Solid and playable, as before. Soul trinkets need a bit of a rewording -- are you capped at 2 (then 3, 4) trinkets? I think "regain" implies a cap, but it is not clear. They are easy enough to get in any case.

Sorcerer: shadow. The Hound was the best part of this subclass, imo, and so losing it is a disappointment. Extended Summon undead, though, is pretty cool.

Warlock: Hexblade. This seems very powerful -- the level 3 abilities will be a lot of fun to play, but give a combat flexibility that will overshadow other classes. And the spell list! the PHB 2024 had worked to protect class-specific spells for the half-casters, keeping the lore bard from taking them, but that has lasted all of six months. Here the Hexblade is getting ranger and paladin spells at 5 and 7 that normally only come online at 9 and 13. This is overclocked out the gate.

Warlock: undead. I'd never spent time thinking about this subclass before -- it's thematically tight, and the possibility of changing spells to necrotic damage every turn is evocative.

Mistwell said:

So disappointed there is no Wizard (Necromancer) subclass announced for this. Wizard had, I think, the most number of subclasses removed between the 2014 and 2024 PHB, and when given the opportunity to finally put one of them back in they put two Warlock subclasses in instead, AND an Artificer subclass (a class which hasn't even official come out yet)? Disappointing.

I hope, as @FitzTheRuke mentioned, it's going to be in the release and they're not playtesting it because they're satisfied their internal playtesting was good enough.

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Death domain and spores druid also didn't get in the mix. I guess we're going to have to wait for yet another spooky subclass book.

Mistwell said:

So disappointed there is no Wizard (Necromancer) subclass announced for this. Wizard had, I think, the most number of subclasses removed between the 2014 and 2024 PHB, and when given the opportunity to finally put one of them back in they put two Warlock subclasses in instead, AND an Artificer subclass (a class which hasn't even official come out yet)? Disappointing.

I hope, as @FitzTheRuke mentioned, it's going to be in the release and they're not playtesting it because they're satisfied their internal playtesting was good enough.

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My guts feeling tell me that the reanimator is a failed attempt for necromancer in inside test but good enough for aritficer after some repackage.

Bae'zel said:

Reanimator Artificer???!?!?

Science and Tech Necromancer? Herbert West, Frankenstein etc?

Well done WotC. I've never been so excited for a D&D character class before.

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Sadly it’s still magic. (Sub)Classes can’t not have some magic somewhere in WotC D&D.

Bae'zel said:

Reanimator Artificer???!?!?

Science and Tech Necromancer? Herbert West, Frankenstein etc?

Well done WotC. I've never been so excited for a D&D character class before.

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It does seem to be the stand out new addition to the list. It's a theme that so obviously fits the Artificer I can't believe I've never seen it suggested before. And I'm already picturing a Dwarven Reanimator who rants "Flesh is a machine! One to be crafted and mended and recycled by my hand, as any other."

I'm a little worried about how well it fits with the base Artificer class, when it has even more of a minion focus than the Battle Smith. Minion subclasses often run into issues where they don't benefit well from magic items, and the Artificer is all about loading themself up with magic items. But I expect I'll make time to stat up a test character later this week and see how the numbers fall out.

The Wizard Necromancer might be a "surprise" added to the subclasses for other classes when the horror book comes out.

If so, the designers already have a clear idea about what features for it would prove popular.

When deciding the subclasses for the 2024 Players Handbook, the Necromancer was considered, but deemed insufficiently popular. Their rationale was, even when the Ranger sucked, it was still widely popular. So the lack of widespread use of the Wizard Necromancer was understood as lack of interest.

At least not enough interest for a core rules option.

But as an option for a thematic setting, the Necromancer might work well. And, the designers would have already been thinking about it.