D&D 5E Darksun player backgrounds

[Coroc]

I would imagine that a Sorcerer-King Pact (Dragon-Pact?) Warlock would have healing spells, akin to that of the Celestial-Pact Warlock. Either way, they're clearly defilers, and elemental clerics should be a type of Druid, instead, with the cleric (and paladin) class missing altogether from the setting.

For a Dark Sun game, I'd actually repurpose and/or homebrew some EGW/MOT-style Supernatural Gifts to grant each player, or else give them a bonus feat, to emulate that "Athasians start at 3rd level" schtick from 2e (would also be similar to the heroic themes from 4e that were introduced for the same purpose in that edition's Dark Sun Campaign Setting).

Yes I will not allow feats nor human variant, but every player gets a psi talent from UA Mystic3 (I will use this one for the psionics, specifiacally only the subclasses Awakened Immortal and Avatar and their sciences)
For ASI the players will have the choice between regular ASI and getting an additional psi talent.

 

[Coroc]

I think you need a page or three of prep material for the players. And it should have two sections, common lore their character know. This will give them a feel for the setting and should be written like an Intro to Athas. This way they know about water, defiling and some of the social norms. You might be able to find this from a previous book you can just use. Then you need a second part, a metagaming / OOC discourse that explains that their are very real in-game consequences that will happen regularly if they chose certain builds. This will outline racial predjudices, and their in-game consequences. It will make explicit that if a character if a preserver, they will be persecuted and perhaps killed just because. That magic is a secret they must keep close and if they openly use magic it might just bring the entire city down upon their heads (even if they use it for 'good'). And when the players outline their characters, raise these points to them again.

Then let the game play as it will.

Yes that is about the way I intended to do it. I will use UA Mystic3 for the psionics, and write a little essay about the main features of Athas (Desert, need of water, inferior weapons and armor, lack of metal, psionics, preserving/defiling, elemental clerics, city states, templars and sorcerer kings)

 

[Randomthoughts]

How do I resolve if someone wants to play a cleric or a preserver?

I have no idea about how people can tell the difference between spellcasting, preserving, defiling, and psionics.

I played Dark Sun in 2e and ran a campaign in 4e. Because 4e had different power sources, I highlighted the differences between those, much to the enjoyment of the players.

Everyone had some psionic ability, even if minor (and this was reflected in the mechanics). So, this attracted no attention.

Preserving and defiling were different aspects of spell casting that used the Arcane power source. I did like how the mechanics worked - preserving was the default but defiling granted you a bonus. I don't recall the exact bonus (Advantage IIRC), but it had the cost of very obvious effects like withering plants or draining life force from (damaging) allies. People could feel it when arcane magic was used. I house ruled even larger bonuses to tempt more defiling, but it would attract attention (especially Templars and SKs) like a Jedi would if using force powers in the Rebellion era.

Divine magic was non-existent. 4e had elemental clerics as a theme but no divine classes. The only remaining main power source was primal, which I spun as the antithesis of arcane magic and very rare.

How do I justify that the players

• are in Tyr (and how much do they know about the city)
• have just arrived (where do they come from then?)

My preference would be that they somehow grew up in Tyr, but otoh I do not want them to have many resources and contacts there right from the start. (snip)
- What general knowledge do they have? Only what comes up during the game, aka wing it? (I prefer this for more flexibility)

Since in freedom they are all thrown into the pits quite railroad I do not care to much about their worldly possesions, since they will be (unretrievable) confiscated.

I have the Tyr boxed set and would lay out the map when they were in the city. My campaign also began pre-Freedom and in fact, that never actually occurred. It evolved toward the PCs trying to overthrow Kalak (but alas was never achieved, as the group dissolved for IRL reasons).

PCs could simply start in Tyr, which as a city-state was a big place to accommodate multiple backgrounds and classes. PCs had a basic understanding of the city and how it worked but resources were minimal as SKs and Templars would want to keep the population under their control.

You will have to decide on how to treat clerics if you use 5e rules, perhaps reskinning divine magic to elemental magic.

Finally, one thing you will have to decide is how SKs and Templars and the public treat spell casters and the role the Veiled Alliance plays in your world.