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.

 

[Zardnaar]

the math supports my stance here

I doubt they DM and if they do i bet they won't post a sample encounter.

I'll be doing sone tomorrow and asking for some pointers.

High encounter at lvl 3 was brutal last session. They hit lvl 4.

Goblin hexer for the win.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

Not entirely.

Might want to assume your opinion over rides reality and instantly dismissing someone's opinion.

Its hard getting g a single encounter per day thats not a curb stomp or overwhelms the PCs.

New 5.5 monsters hit like trucks.

Even harder to do it abd retain fast combat.

The issue isn't that a single dangerous encounter won't sometimes go pear shaped - it will (and it should, there are no certainties in war, and games with random dice rolls). The issue is that a doom loop of repetitive encounters is in any way better.

If combat is going to be challenging*, there has to be a possibility of the party losing. And that generally means a TPK unless the DM is creative. It's just a matter of if the party goes out in a blaze of glory in a meaningful battle, or are worn out by trivial skirmishes.


*Note that most commonly 5e combat is not played to be challenging. It's like an action sequence in a superhero movie. We know what the outcome will be, but it's still fun watching it play out.

 

[Zardnaar]

The issue isn't that a single dangerous encounter won't sometimes go pear shaped - it will (and it should, there are no certainties in war, and games with random dice rolls). The issue is that a doom loop of repetitive encounters is in any way better.

If combat is going to be challenging*, there has to be a possibility of the party losing. And that generally means a TPK unless the DM is creative. It's just a matter of if the party goes out in a blaze of glory in a meaningful battle, or are worn out by trivial skirmishes.


*Note that most commonly 5e combat is not played to be challenging. It's like an action sequence in a superhero movie. We know what the outcome will be, but it's still fun watching it play out.

Got a sample emcounter?

 

[Paul Farquhar]

Got a sample emcounter?

Hm. My players are pretty casual (and tactically rubbish), I'm not usually trying to kill them when I design encounters, but there was one battle recently that went epic because they came close to losing. I need to check my notes and get back to you.

 

[Zardnaar]

Hm. My players are pretty casual (and tactically rubbish), I'm not usually trying to kill them when I design encounters, but there was one battle recently that went epic because they came close to losing. I need to check my notes and get back to you.

My stink one last session was 2 ogres 4 goblins and goblin hexer.

 

[Parmandur]

That's not exactly true. There is a problem for those who don't want the game to be that easy, but don't know what it is that they are doing wrong because the game no longer tells them.

They can try trading the published Adventures.

 

[Parmandur]

Nothing in RotFM prevents the players taking a long rest any time they like. Just because a dungeon has more than 6 encounters doesn’t create an encounter day that long. It needs to be artificially imposed by the DM, so now it’s not in the rulebook it’s not in the adventure.

As it happens, RotFM only really has one large dungeon, since the players have every reason to rush to the end of the Duegar Fortress without spending time exploring it. My players completed it in two combats and one social encounter, using stealth.

It's really neither hard nor artifical in my experience. And avoiding Encounters to achieve their goals is fun.

 

[Parmandur]

Because the people currently working at WotC do not believe in long encounter days either. The people who designed the game that way have left the company.

Then why do they keep publishing material that uses them...?

 

[Paul Farquhar]

Got a sample emcounter?

2014 ruleset. The party are level 15 and include a Celestial Warlock (chainpact healer), an Eldritch Knight, a Bear Totem Barbarian and a psychic rogue. They find themselves aboard Pietra Van Riese's ghost pirate ship, having royally cheated her much earlier in the campaign. They are missing their sorcerer, who was not involved in the double cross. Pietra is a souped up death knight with fathomer warlock abilities.

She has about a dozen minions.

Aside from missing their primary caster, what really gave the party problems was when the minions started landing grapples and jumping over the side of the ship holding PCs. This temporarily removed the warlock and barbarian for about two rounds, but the rogue and EK where eventually able to take her down, the EK with a sliver of hp remaining.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

Then why do they keep publishing material that uses them...?

They don't. It been nine years since the Death Curse.

And the only adventures published so far for the 2024 rules are in the FR book, and simply aren't possible to run with a long encounter day.