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.

 

[FitzTheRuke]

Honestly the main addition I made running Dark Sun was Shardminds. The idea was that a fragment of the Living Gate fell to Athas millions of years ago, before it was cut off from the rest of the multiverse, and getting burried deep underground. Though, a lot of it was blasted into fine dust and spread over the planet. Nearly everything on Athas has tiny fragments of the Living Gate in it, which is why Psionics and strange mutations are so prevalent.

And of course some larger fragments have awakened as Shardminds.

I have mixed feelings about Shardminds. They were extremely unpopular in 4e, and I think that it was because of the design. People like their characters to look cool and this, I think many would agree, is not great:

Perhaps if they looked a little more like a person, say something like this (though, you know, by a human artist):

 

[Chaltab]

I have mixed feelings about Shardminds. They were extremely unpopular in 4e, and I think that it was because of the design. People like their characters to look cool and this, I think many would agree, is not great:
View attachment 415969
Perhaps if they looked a little more like a person, say something like this (though, you know, by a human artist):
View attachment 415972

I had never known they were unpopular, TBH. They were at least popular enough to get multiple 5E homebrew conversions.

I always thought they looked neat and I think the AI one there looks pretty generic by comparison.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

I’m not familiar with them, but I’m thinking Tholian.

I don’t have an issue with very alien PCs, we already have thri-kreen.