Dungeons & Dragons Releases New Unearthed Arcana Subclasses, Strongly Hinting at Dark Sun

Wizards of the Coast has released four new D&D subclasses for playtesting, all of which have heavy thematic ties to the post-apocalyptic Dark Sun setting. The four subclasses, released as "Apocalyptic Subclasses," include the Circle of Preservation Druid, the Gladiator Fighter, the Defiled Sorcerer, and the Sorcerer-King Patron Warlock. Although not stated outright, the Gladiator and Sorcerer-King Patron are explicit nods to the Dark Sun setting, set in a ruined world ruled by Sorcerer-Kings where gladiatorial fights were common.

The Circle of Preservation Druid creates areas of preserved land that grants buffs to those who stand upon it. The Gladiator adds secondary Weapon Mastery properties to their attacks, with bonus abilities. Notably, the Gladiator uses Charisma as its secondary stat. The Defiled Sorcerer can expend its hit dice to amp up damage to its attacks and can also steal the life of its targets to deal additional damage. The Sorcerer-King Patron gains a number of abilities tying into tyranny and oppression, with the ability to cast Command as a Bonus Action without expending a spell slot, causing targets to gain the Frightened Condition, and forcing those who attack them to re-roll successful attacks.

The survey for the subclasses goes live on August 28th.

 

[mamba]

At the same time, Dark Sun was never "woke", exactly because it treated a lot of thorny and potentially controversial topics directly and without dancing around them, which I think is only a good thing. Dark Sun is the antithesis of "woke" because, instead of going for a safe corporate product made for thoughtless consumption, it took a risk at treating controversial topics and maybe offend someone.

that is an interpretation of woke I don’t think I have ever seen used

 

[LuisCarlos17f]

Maybe the 5e will be softer but this shouldn't mean to betray its original essence. Let's use this example, the comic "marvel zombies" where our favorite supeheroes eat people. We know they are one of the gorest titles published by Marvel. Could they appear in the Disney+ animated show "What if"? They could, although the key was no showing blood or bitting. This was not necessary to cause fear to the audience.

Let's remember to fight against a tyrant isn't easy if this literally can read your mind.

I am surprised because the centuries the SKs were ruling until the begining of the age of heroes were relatively "boring". During that time the humans from the History books would be doing a lot of different things, learning and adquiring experience. But suddenly in the novels the SKs begin to fall like flies.

How to say it? SKs may be good villains but Dark Sun needs a wider gallery of villains. The region of Tyr has got a lot of monsters but DS can't be only "to kill the defiler of the week". It is like the comics where the superheroes have to face an unknown and new supervillain.

* Could wood elementals to be hurt by defiling magic?

* It is understandable that authors express their own views in their works, but compared to others, I do not feel that I have spent my money to suffer propaganda that tries to make me feel guilty if my own opinion differs from that of the author.

* Zuggtmoy, Demon Queen of Fungi, could send agents from her layer in the Abyss toward Athas working like false prophets creating fake hopes. Others could sell ilegal mushrooms, those when you bite one you start to say nonenses about "to rescue the princess Peach in Browser castle".

 

[Chaltab]

That goes back to how some settings have heroes as the enforcers of a relatively benign quo where the villains are those who threaten the normal operation of the world. These are easy to make long term RPG settings because you can always come up with a new threat.

Dark Sun is another type of setting where the villains maintain the status quo and a hero would naturally work against that. The problem with that (from a meta persepctive) is that once the status quo changes then the setting is fundamentally different than the original pitch.

Kind of makes me appreiciate Keith Baker's approach to Eberron where the game always starts just after the Last War and answers to mysteries are up to individual DMs.

 

[Kurotowa]

Dark Sun is another type of setting where the villains maintain the status quo and a hero would naturally work against that. The problem with that (from a meta persepctive) is that once the status quo changes then the setting is fundamentally different than the original pitch.

Kind of makes me appreiciate Keith Baker's approach to Eberron where the game always starts just after the Last War and answers to mysteries are up to individual DMs.

I was just thinking the same thing. Dark Sun really needs a fixed Year Zero starting point. One where things are generally pretty bad, but on the cusp on change here there and the other place. Situations only waiting for a band of plucky heroes to come along and tip things into action. And then future supplements never try to advance past that Year Zero point, they just fill in more location details or background info.

The last thing you want for Dark Sun is a metaplot that goes around fixing things and taking out all the major villains.

 

[Remathilis]

I was just thinking the same thing. Dark Sun really needs a fixed Year Zero starting point. One where things are generally pretty bad, but on the cusp on change here there and the other place. Situations only waiting for a band of plucky heroes to come along and tip things into action. And then future supplements never try to advance past that Year Zero point, they just fill in more location details or background info.

The last thing you want for Dark Sun is a metaplot that goes around fixing things and taking out all the major villains.

To be perfectly honest, most settings benefit from a Year Zero continuity. TSR pushing Metaplot changes to Dark Sun, Ravenloft, Planescape and Dragonlance did a lot more to damage those settings than help them. I don't think of many people who look on the The Greyhawk Wars, Grand Conjunction or Faction War with warm feelings.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

Metaplot is a cynical ploy to try and force players to buy every product when it comes out in order to keep up.

 

[Staffan]

I was just thinking the same thing. Dark Sun really needs a fixed Year Zero starting point. One where things are generally pretty bad, but on the cusp on change here there and the other place. Situations only waiting for a band of plucky heroes to come along and tip things into action. And then future supplements never try to advance past that Year Zero point, they just fill in more location details or background info.

The last thing you want for Dark Sun is a metaplot that goes around fixing things and taking out all the major villains.

I doubt we'll have to worry about "future supplements" – Wizards starting with 4e hasn't been particularly fond of "sub-product lines" the way we had in 2e and 3e. If we get a Dark Sun book, and it seems we will, we'll get a Dark Sun book and then they'll open it up on the DM's guild. Possibly two if they're splurging (player's book and DM's book + adventure).

To be perfectly honest, most settings benefit from a Year Zero continuity. TSR pushing Metaplot changes to Dark Sun, Ravenloft, Planescape and Dragonlance did a lot more to damage those settings than help them. I don't think of many people who look on the The Greyhawk Wars, Grand Conjunction or Faction War with warm feelings.

I'm in the minority among Dark Sun fans who believe that the post-metaplot Dark Sun setting is a better setting than the original, mainly because there's more variety among the city-states of the Tyr region and because the setting expands beyond that. You still have three city-states ruled by sorcerer-monarchs, but you also have a fake sorcerer-monarch (Draj), anarchy (Raam), fledgling democracy (Tyr), and merchant council (Balic). You also have some interesting threats on the horizon, with undead to the south and the thri-kreen empire to the west that just got a convenient way of getting off their grass plains and hitting the Tyr region. There was apparently also some meta-plot about the original life-shaping halflings making a comeback, having been off in space in the Messenger comet, but the line was canceled before that became official.

Metaplot is a cynical ploy to try and force players to buy every product when it comes out in order to keep up.

I agree that metaplot is generally bad, but I don't think the point of it is to try to force players to keep up. What I think it is is game designers wanting to be storytellers, so that's what they do. In the specific case of D&D, I also believe that the novels generally made the company more money than the game stuff (at least in the short run) – I believe @JLowder used to work in the TSR book publishing department and discussed that in some threads – so when the needs of the novel line and the game publishing line collided, the novels tended to win.

 

[Scribe]

Metaplot is a cynical ploy to try and force players to buy every product when it comes out in order to keep up.

100% and its generally to the detriment of the original setting.

 

[TheSword]

If there’s one thing this thread shows me, it’s how much baggage people bring to this setting. So many assumptions and judgements on a product that hasn’t been more than hinted at. It’s like folks are playing out their grievances and differences through the medium of Dark Sun. So much is being over-complicated

• It shouldn’t be overtly offensive but that doesn’t mean it needs to be sanitized.
• Sure players can play slightly edgy characters - including Templar’s with rebellious instincts. Just like in Eberron one could play half daelkyr and in Pathfinder you could be a vivisectionist. It doesn’t mean you’re a bad person, or that your character will be full on evil. it’s just an interesting angle. Some people would prefer to be Batman.
• It’s quite possible that plant destroying effects will be tied to the game world and not the class. As both preservers and defilers use plant energy on Athas. That is how it was done in the 3e Athas.org version. Plant like could easily be made akin to a material component.
• It’s possible to nod to the existence of slavery in a setting without it being played out Uk in excruciating detail.

 

[Scribe]

It’s like folks are playing out their grievances and differences through the medium of Dark Sun.