D&D World of Warcraft subclasses will swap out classic class features for new abilities

The new Dungeon Masters series has previewed some upcoming subclass mechanics for the upcoming World of Warcraft D&D book. Last night, the first two episodes of Dungeon Masters premiered on D&D’s YouTube channel. This season focuses on the upcoming World of Warcraft book, with players using character options from that book and playing through an adventure inspired by the book. The first episodes revealed some teases as to how the upcoming WoW inspired subclasses will work, with Neil Newbon playing as an Oath of the Ebon Blade Death Knight. The Death Knight is a WoW class and appears to use the Paladin class as a base. Notably, the Oath of Ebon Blade has two features that replace core paladin features. Death Coil is a replacement for Lay on Hands and creates a dice pool of necrotic energy that players can inflict on foes. The size of the pool is based on a player’s Charisma modifier, with players spending an Action to force a creature within range to make a saving throw or be hit by necrotic energy. The Death Knight will also get a new spell called Rune Strike that acts as a counterpart to Divine Smite, with the spell dealing necrotic damage and dealing bonus damage to celestials.

Another new feature in the World of Warcraft book is a revamped pet system. This was partially shown off in the episode, with a Beast Master Ranger gaining the ability to assign weapon mastery features to their animal companion. This means that, when the animal companion makes a successful attack, they can inflict one of the weapon mastery effects chosen by the Ranger. The weapon mastery ability can also be swapped out with every long rest.

A video from the Insight Check YouTube channel confirmed that the Death Knight, Demon Hunter, and Evoker classes are “hero classes,” which are available to Level 3 characters and higher. These Hero Classes require players to choose a specific subclass that alters certain base features of their class. Only the Death Knight and Demon Hunter classes feature changes to their respective classes, while the Evoker changes the Draconic Sorcery subclass.

The new subclasses in the World of Warcraft were not publicly playtested before release. Instead, a secret playtest was held, with testers held by an NDA. The new World of Warcraft book comes out on November 17th.

 

[Milli Rabbit]

Could you expand more on "tier locked" i haven't heard this term in relation to 5e, seems interesting.

Hi, Yeah there are a few variants you can try. The classic from before 5e is E6 where you can't go above level 6 and the campaign becomes about gathering magic items or wealth or whatever.

The second one is setting a level limit for easier horror. Essentially, you have players start at a level and end at a level that allows for a greater horror to always be supremely stronger than the party but they can still make progress. You can actually do this at all levels but usually you keep it to tier 1 to create a sense of powerlessness more easily.

A third option is to create a defined world power range. At higher tiers, you are essentially using it to create superheros. Not just the players but everyone. Your king isn't a Questing Knight. They are an Animal Lord or Empyrean or a Dragon in humanoid form. Their basic knights or guard are mid CR like CR 10-13. At lower tiers, its more down to earth.

You can also just make a campaign that spans a specific tier like tier 2 (levels 6-10). Expand the sessions or XP needed to gain a level. Then, cap progress at level 10 but have a longer portion (like a third) of the campaign be spent at that level. This is something I like to do for tier 3 and 4 because the XP curve there is super fast. I prefer to let players stay at level 20 longer than just the last session of a level 1-20 campaign.

 

[Steampunkette]

This doesn't have to do with the DMG, or a DDB conspiracy, or AI slop. It's in the Player's Handbook, fer Pete's sake:

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"Your DM might start your group’s characters at a level higher than 1. It is particularly recommended to start at level 3 if your group is composed of seasoned D&D players."

Annnnnd it's still a kludge that treats the first two levels as irrelevant.

More experienced players start at any level they like 'cause they know the damned game. They don't need the PHB to tell them that. And the -game- doesn't need to tell players "If you've played D&D before your DM should run a higher level game."

They're already gonna beg for level ups after every session or two, anyhow. So giving them another bludgeon to badger the DM with is just foolishness.

Anyway. I stand by my original joke, and my continued position that making Clerics, Paladins, Sorcerers, and Warlocks wait 'til level 3 to choose their core narrative identity is a terrible design decision.

Honestly they should've just had EVERY class pick their Archetype at level 1 and given the early-stacked classes (Barbarian, for example) a ribbon to define their narrative thread earlier.

Honestly if they'd just fixed multiclassing to start with they wouldn't have to sacrifice RP to slap all archetypes at level 3 and then "Recommend" more experienced players start at 3rd.

 

[MNblockhead]

I do a level 0 funnel, use milestone leveling with far more sessions at low levels and higher levels often being only a sessions or two per level. I didn't know until today that I'm doing D&D wrong.

 

[Clint_L]

Sometimes, with brand new players, I've found starting at level 1 is less "stress" and some players want to start at level 1. Its not always about being adversarial.

Speaking from a lot of experience with beginners, starting at level 1 is MUCH easier for a kid with zero RPG experience. Level 3 adds a whole extra layer of choices that they don't have context for.

Also, in WoW you don't pick your specialization right away, either. And I always loved playing through those early levels. Different strokes for different folks, I guess.

 

[Clint_L]

And to be clear I agree with this recommendation. I wouldn't start a campaign at 1st level unless the group included a new player. With "seasoned" players particularly, many times they already have a character concept in mind, and starting at level 3 at least puts them into the subclass they're looking for to support that concept.

What if they're an experienced player like me who loves levels 1-2 and often make my level 3 choice based on what happens during them?

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

I do a level 0 funnel, use milestone leveling with far more sessions at low levels and higher levels often being only a sessions or two per level. I didn't know until today that I'm doing D&D wrong.

Don't go anywhere; the police are on their way.

 

[Corinnguard]

I do a level 0 funnel, use milestone leveling with far more sessions at low levels and higher levels often being only a sessions or two per level. I didn't know until today that I'm doing D&D wrong.

My DM uses Milestone leveling, but in reverse. A few sessions at low levels and more sessions at higher levels. The latter invokes "Are we there, yet?"

 

[Paul Farquhar]

Don't go anywhere; the police are on their way.

The police? I thought it was the Pinkertons who dealt with unsanctioned fun?

 

[Weiley31]

Don't go anywhere; the police are on their way.

The police? I thought it was the Pinkertons who dealt with unsanctioned fun?

The Pinkertons are being used in an advisory role for your situation. While also providing on hands support.

 

[Weiley31]

Well, I guess Death Knight can be subbed/reflavored as a Blackguard and Forsaken are gonna love Oath Breaker auras.