Dungeons & Dragons Playtests Four New Mystic-Themed Subclasses

Dungeons & Dragons has dropped their first Unearthed Arcana playtest of 2026, with four brand-new subclasses being tested. Today, Wizards of the Coast posted a Mystic Subclasses Unearthed Arcana playtest to D&D Beyond, featuring four magic-themed subclasses. The new subclasses include the Warrior of the Mystic Arts Monk subclass, the Oath of the Spellguard Paladin subclass, the Magic Stealer Rogue subclass and the Vestige Patron Warlock subclass.

The Warrior of the Mystic Arts is a spellcasting subclass that grants Monks the ability to cast Sorcerer spells up to 4th level spells. The Oath of the Spellguard is designed with protecting magic-casters in mind, while the Magic Stealer Rogue targets spellcasting and can empower their Sneak Attacks with magic stolen from nearby spellcasters. The Vestige Patron Warlock forms a bond with a dying god, with the god taking on a vestige form as a companion. The Vestige companion grows in power with the spellcaster. Notably, the Vestige Patron draws inspiration from the Binder from past editions of D&D.

There's no indication when or what this new Unearthed Arcana could be related to. There are several Unearthed Arcanas not currently attached to an announced D&D product, although two almost are certainly tied to a Dark Sun sourcebook.

You can check out the subclasses here. Feedback opens for the playtest on January 22nd.

 

[Charlaquin]

What are the odds that they're going to force MTG somehow into the great wheel cosmology?

Well, on the Magic side of things, zero. D&D crossover cards aren’t considered “universes beyond” because WotC owns the IP, but they are explicitly non-canon, and the Magic creative team has zero intention of bringing D&D into the M:tG canon in the foreseeable future. Incorporating Magic planes into the D&D multiverse is more plausible, but that’s partly because “canon” isn’t really a thing in D&D broadly. Its individual settings can have canon, but even that is necessarily pretty malleable due to the DIY nature of the game.

They did recently plop Lorwyn into the Feywild.

From the D&D side, yeah, because the great wheel cosmology is kind of baked into D&D in a mechanics. If you port a Magic plane over to D&D you have to put it somewhere, and the feywild makes the most sense for Lorwyn. Shadowmoor could have gone in the Shadowfell, go for a Witchlight Carnival style flip-flopping Demiplane angle, but I suppose that doesn’t jibe as well with the situation in Lorwyn Eclipsed where areas of the plane are shifting less predictably rather than the whole plane changing at once at regular intervals.

5.5e D&D has gone hard on "the multiverse is the default setting", which makes me think they're not going to compromise things like the alignment wheel and ethereal and astral planes and such, so if one multiverse has gotta go, maybe it's MTG's?

M:tG’s multiverse will definitely not change to the Great Wheel in M:tG canon, I’d bet a Year of the Tiger Yuriko on it. But, when porting Magic planes to D&D, yeah, Magic’s cosmology is naturally the one that has to give.

 

[Parmandur]

It’s not impossible, but the public-facing folks from the Magic design team have been pretty explicit about it being a strictly in-universe event, and the stuff that has leaked from it seems extremely Magic-IP-specific. If this UA is MtG crossover related, I think an expansion to Strixhaven is much more likely than anything related to Reality Fracture. Especially since there is a new Strixhaven set coming before Reality Fracture.

I am not saying that they will "merge the multiverses" or bring D&D into Magic...but a D&D product that included a bunch of Magic character options, set out the Magic multiverse a fair shake, and tells a big fat Magic story...done right, it could be a resource for tables to springboard into using Magic stuff more generally.

 

[Parmandur]

Setting aside all the points people have already made about why this is highly unlikely to impact D&D, none of these subclasses suggest “gonzo shenanigans”.

I saw plenty of people complaining about how all the options are hypermafical superheros.

 

[Parmandur]

What are the odds that they're going to force MTG somehow into the great wheel cosmology? They did recently plop Lorwyn into the Feywild.

5.5e D&D has gone hard on "the multiverse is the default setting", which makes me think they're not going to compromise things like the alignment wheel and ethereal and astral planes and such, so if one multiverse has gotta go, maybe it's MTG's?

Like @Charlaquin says, I doubt they will fully merge the streams, but more Magic-themed stuff for D&D rules and D&D Magic cards over time just seems likely. No need to make any "lore" changes.

 

[bedir than]

Planescape is the D&D multiverse setting, other settings should focus on themselves.

Nope.

the D&D multiverse exists whether or not your world has Planescape. All D&D worlds are part of the D&D multiverse, even those that don't connect to others.

 

[Necropolitan]

Nope.

the D&D multiverse exists whether or not your world has Planescape. All D&D worlds are part of the D&D multiverse, even those that don't connect to others.

Nope, you're wrong again.

Each table being able to decide on their own version of a campaign setting doesn't mean every setting is a 'multiverse.'

Planescape is connected to the Dark Sun, Dragonlance, Greyhawk, and Forgotten Realms settings along with numerous others because it's the multiverse setting and "multiverse" in that instance means there's multiple different universes, not that there's infinite versions of the Forgotten Realms.

 

[bedir than]

Nope, you're wrong again.

Each table being able to decide on their own version of a campaign setting doesn't mean every setting is a 'multiverse.'

Planescape is connected to the Dark Sun, Dragonlance, Greyhawk, and Forgotten Realms settings along with numerous others because it's the multiverse setting and "multiverse" in that instance means there's multiple different universes, not that there's infinite versions of the Forgotten Realms.

While you were correct at one time, you are not correct with the current presentation of D&D.
The D&D multiverse, according the books and public statements from people at WotC, is everything that is D&D.

Even your table that denies that it is part of the D&D multiverse is part of the multiverse because all D&D is D&D

 

[Necropolitan]

While you were correct at one time, you are not correct with the current presentation of D&D.
The D&D multiverse, according the books and public statements from people at WotC, is everything that is D&D.

Even your table that denies that it is part of the D&D multiverse is part of the multiverse because all D&D is D&D

No it's not, you're still wrong.

What you're referring to was the book saying you can do what you want at your table, not that your version is equally canon.

The overwhelming majority of D&D fans don't want the settings turned into generic slop.