D&D 5E (2014) 5e has everything it needs for Dark Sun

[Sithlord]

Really really needs a Templar as warlocks with their patrons being the dragon kings

 

[Steampunkette]

Really really needs a Templar as warlocks with their patrons being the dragon kings

Definitely a good solid narrative choice!

Maybe as a more "Magic-Focused" Templar Sub-Order right next to Paladin-Templars as a more "Martial-Focused" Templar?

I could definitely see them doing something like that. Or even have it so that different Sorcerer-Kings favor Warlock Templars or Paladin Templars making one or the other more common in their city-state?

 

[Sithlord]

Definitely a good solid narrative choice!

Maybe as a more "Magic-Focused" Templar Sub-Order right next to Paladin-Templars as a more "Martial-Focused" Templar?

I could definitely see them doing something like that. Or even have it so that different Sorcerer-Kings favor Warlock Templars or Paladin Templars making one or the other more common in their city-state?

i like warlock, but I can definitely also see an oath to the dragonking. Yeah we can mix that up depending on which dragonking from whatever city.

 

[Remathilis]

Dark Sun 5e = 4e Dark Sun lore changes + VRGR/ERLW style presentation. If we're lucky, we get an Artificer style psionics class that acts like a spell-point sorcerer with appropriate spell list. That's it.

If Ravenloft taught us anything, it's that WotC ie not afraid of stripping a setting to bare studs and rebuilding it to suit their current design paradigm. They are not beholden to prior edition lore and are willing to bend the setting to match the game rather than the game to match the setting.

As to addressing psionics, they might do a new class as described above, or more subclasses, or making a Dark Gift like system. But I don't imagine it will be anything like a new mechanical system the Mystic was trying for.

 

[Steampunkette]

Dark Sun 5e = 4e Dark Sun lore changes + VRGR/ERLW style presentation. If we're lucky, we get an Artificer style psionics class that acts like a spell-point sorcerer with appropriate spell list. That's it.

If Ravenloft taught us anything, it's that WotC ie not afraid of stripping a setting to bare studs and rebuilding it to suit their current design paradigm. They are not beholden to prior edition lore and are willing to bend the setting to match the game rather than the game to match the setting.

As to addressing psionics, they might do a new class as described above, or more subclasses, or making a Dark Gift like system. But I don't imagine it will be anything like a new mechanical system the Mystic was trying for.

Oh, it -absolutely- won't be the Mystic! That ship sailed.

But they have settled in on the new "Psionic Dice" model. If they make a new psionic class they'll probably expand that from a "Wimpy" version used as subclasses to a "Meaty" version used by the full class. Kinda like how Eldritch Knight spellcasting is much weaker than a full on Wizard's spellcasting, but the basic mechanics are the same.

Perhaps making the true Psions into "Cantrip Casters" who get a pool of Psi Dice equal to their Proficiency+Int Mod that they can use to add damage or effects to the "Psionic Talents" they get to learn, or Expend entirely for a special effect.

Probably have the dice increase in size as you gain levels so their talent-cantrips grow in power to a greater degree than a Wizard's cantrips, but since they never get full-powered spellcasting it sort of evens out in the middle, somewhere.

As far as narrative "Stripped to the Studs"... Ech. I vehemently disagree. The old lore is there, repackaged in the new lore, and reflavored to favor the action-horror direction 'cause they finally realized that D&D isn't actually great at doing slow-build gothic horror.

 

[NaturalZero]

If Ravenloft taught us anything, it's that WotC ie not afraid of stripping a setting to bare studs and rebuilding it to suit their current design paradigm. They are not beholden to prior edition lore and are willing to bend the setting to match the game rather than the game to match the setting.

As a huge Dark Sun fan, I'd be thrilled if they treated 5e DS like they did 5e Ravenloft. Pretty much every concept and story hook was enhanced.

 

[Remathilis]

As far as narrative "Stripped to the Studs"... Ech. I vehemently disagree. The old lore is there, repackaged in the new lore, and reflavored to favor the action-horror direction 'cause they finally realized that D&D isn't actually great at doing slow-build gothic horror.

I don't think we're disagreeing as much as you think we are. They took the setting down to the fundamentals and then added the stuff they wanted back in a new or updated way. They didn't feel beholden to make the kitchen the same size or layout because that's what it was like before, they put in a new kitchen that kept elements of the old but did so in a new way.

Dark Sun is going to be the same. So is Dragonlance, Greyhawk, Planescape, and any other legacy setting. It shouldn't surprise anyone going forward.

 

[AdmundfortGeographer]

The elemental clerics would need new domains.

 

[Steampunkette]

I don't think we're disagreeing as much as you think we are. They took the setting down to the fundamentals and then added the stuff they wanted back in a new or updated way. They didn't feel beholden to make the kitchen the same size or layout because that's what it was like before, they put in a new kitchen that kept elements of the old but did so in a new way.

Dark Sun is going to be the same. So is Dragonlance, Greyhawk, Planescape, and any other legacy setting. It shouldn't surprise anyone going forward.

They definitely renovated the kitchen, but that kitchen still has a stove, an oven or two, a standing mixer, and refrigerator. They're just newer appliances with a couple more bells and whistles. Y'know. Got an Icemaker, this time!

The only really "Big" changes to Ravenloft are that there's no central map where all the realms are connected, and the majority of people there are soulless puppets acting out their day to day lives so we don't have to consider why the Dark Powers are tormenting a bunch of innocent civilians just because the ruler of their nation was a complete and absolute prong in life. Everything else is changes to individual domain stories to tell interesting and varied morality plays.

They're not going to do that for Dark Sun, though. Why? 'Cause there's no need to heighten the "Nightmare Logic" aspect of the setting in order to make it more oriented toward Action-Horror. But as I've noted in a different thread... they might make it more "Mad Max: Fury Road" than "Conan the Barbarian Enters the Thunderdome". More Action-Survival than previous editions. Maybe they'll focus on threats to survival beyond combat like they did describing each type of Horror and assign different survival threats to regions?

They're probably not going to remove Thri-Kreen from the setting just because they'd need a thri-kreen race. They're probably not going to erase Psionics from the setting because they don't want to make a Psionics System. They're not going to erase Defiling or Preserving, either.

Why? 'Cause those things are -fundamental- to the setting in the same way Monsters and Mists are fundamental to Ravenloft.

Will they change up the names and genders of the Sorcerer-Kings? Oh, probably. Will they alter the different City-States to fit WotC's current political ideology? Absolutely. Will they make the game more action-oriented? 100%.

But roads connecting the domains isn't what makes the Domains of Dread into Ravenloft. Neither is the suffering of innocent souls. (Yeah, I know, you dislike the "Zarovich is the first Vampire and the Morninglord is gone" but that's less about the setting as a whole and more about Strahd's story... or... more accurately... THIS Strahd. 'Cause the other Strahd and the Morninglord and everything still exist in one of the other versions floating around the Shadowfell... though it should be noted that in this version Jander Sunstar tried to kill Strahd when Strahd wanted another servant.)

 

[see]

Dark Sun needs a Psionic Class.

Yeah, I still disagree.

Psionics existed, sure, but all real power was in the hands of the sorcerer-kings and their minions, and the psionic powers of the former were largely offstage in any event. Heck, the setting later wound up with that all-controlling Order added specifically to make sure there weren't any powerful pure-psionicists running around being influential. Psionics as experienced outside the hands of a psionicist-class PC (which plenty of us never played) was either monster powers or wild talents.

Bards, for example, aren't spellcasting minstrels in Dark Sun. They're Assassins.

We already have assassins in 5e, and instead of calling them bards to fit into long-dead TSR Code of Conduct rules, they're just called assassins. 5e Bards don't need to be reworked to fit into Dark Sun, they can just be marked "not available in this setting".

Preserving takes -longer-.

No, it didn't.

2e Spellcasting had each spell take a number of initiative counts equal to it's level before it went off, remember?

And it took defilers exactly as long. Don't believe me? Let me quote the Dark Sun Campaign Setting boxed set's Rules Book, p.59, emphasis added:

Spells cast by defilers use all the necessary verbal, somatic, and material components. The absence of any of these precludes the successful casting of the spell. The range, duration, casting time, area of effect, and saving throws remain unchanged.

The only initiative effect of defiling was the pain penalty inflicted on other characters in the defiling radius (and oh, man, would it be insane to try to adopt that directly into 5e initiative rules), there was no rule making defiling casting faster than preserving casting.