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.

 

[pukunui]

I haven't read the whole thread (it's already at nearly 150 posts!), but I'd like to throw my hat into the ring as another who would prefer some kind of option for other magic users to preserve or defile. I don't want specific druids being the only ones who can preserve, while specific sorcerers are the only ones who can defile. That's far too limiting!

I really really like Radiant Citadel.

I like that it exists. I like what it set out to do. I just think the execution wasn't as good as it could have been.

Spoiler: off-topic

For one, I would have liked more connections with the Radiant Citadel in the adventures themselves, even if it was just a "If you're using the Radiant Citadel ..." bit at the beginning, like we got with both the Infinite Staircase and Golden Vault adventures.*

Something as simple as, "If you're using the Radiant Citadel, the Concord Jewel takes you to X location" (instead of seemingly dumping you on the road or in the middle of nowhere) and/or "If you're using the Shieldbearers, the PCs' superior tells them to do Y" would have sufficed.

I also feel like the adventures themselves could've done with a bit more cooking. Some of them feel half-baked. Others are a bit too railroady. But that's the case with all of the anthologies so far. They're all mixed bags.

*I guess they got enough feedback along those lines about the Radiant Citadel book that they did start including more connections in subsequent anthologies.

 

[Gradine]

Yes, of course. No one's arguing against that. What they're responding negatively to is an existing thing being taken and radically changed to make something completely different for people who don't like the original. Make something original for the people with different tastes.

Which would be great if we lived in a world where IP wasn't king. But it is. Which means WotC can't actually make a desert-y, post-climate-apocalyptic world that isn't Dark Sun, because, as I've mentioned before, people would just complain why they didn't just remake Dark Sun, so they can't win that way. And the fact is kind of undeniable that what people, and specifically what WotC's current audience wants out a desert-y, post-climate-apocalyptic world is something where there's actually a glimmer of hope. That's the current reality of the situation; it's WotC's best bet at a turning a profit (a thing that is, unfortunately I would argue, necessary for them to do), and that's reality. Nobody is owed IP-fidelity. Of course, nobody is also owed changes to IP either. It boils down to a business decision, and this is, quite frankly, the right decision.

And while I hate to hit up the extremely low hanging fruit of the old "nobody's kicking down your door and-" saw... but I mean... that really is the answer to the question of whether anything currently existing is being taken away. What you're really despairing is the prevailing tastes of the primary audience no longer matching your own, which means you're not getting new things that cater to your tastes, which does suck but is a different thing entirely losing something you already have. And I'm not unsympathetic. I know a day will come what's hip and with it will be very far from my own tastes and opinions. But I'll at least try not to begrudge those who are finally able to get the things that they'd most like to see in the world. Even if we're still an IP-obsessed society that almost always immediately buries anything new and daring and interesting, and the new versions of the things I love become things I don't love.

I mean, either that or we'll all be dead or dying in a desert-y, post-climate-apocaltypic world where there absolutely isn't a glimmer of hope for us. In which case... I guess we'll still have our imaginations.

 

[Scribe]

It's also a take not founded in anything but fear.

And all 5e setting "updates" lol

 

[darjr]

OK calling it now.

The new CR 4 campaign is post apoc and so is the Unearthed Arcana. WotC and CR are working together on CR4.

Just throwing it out there in silly shenanigan style.

 

[bedir than]

And all 5e setting "updates" lol

Spelljammer wasn't destroyed, nor did it invert the expectations of the past setting.

Ravenloft is not a joyous, happy filled fun zone, the inversion of its past.

Planescape is not a land locked away from contact with the other planes, the inversion of its past.

There's no way to think that every re-released setting is an inversion of what they used to mean without redefining what words mean

 

[Steampunkette]

As I said, I suspect a fear chain that will allow defilers of other classes to exist. There may also be preserver feats that augment healing and growth so that characters not druids can preserve. Something like a feat that can allow a wizard (for example) to defile vegetation to gain a bonus to magic.

What I think might change is the notion that magic is either preserver or defiler with no middle ground. They may (and I am absolutely spitballing) set it that magic harms the land slowly, but defiling does it quickly in exchange for power and preserving is actively trying to undo the damage (well, like trying to bail water out of a sinking boat with a solo cup). Thus setting up magic to have three moralities:

Normal: "yeah, I know magic harms the land, but it's already harmed and there is nothing I can do about that." (Apathy)
Preserver: "it might not be much, but I am doing what I can to undo the damage, or at least erase the damage I would otherwise do" (actively helping)
Defiler: "screw it. My personal power is worth the damage I do. We're all doomed anyway, so I'll get mine before I die." (Actively harming)

Any similarities between these opinions and current voter attitudes are completely coincidental.

What it would do though is make make preserving an active choice rather than be what you do when you don't defile. But that's just my wild idea. We'll see if it happens.

A feat chain you can pick up is still a massive left turn from the default.

Arcane Magic defiles. You can hold back, use some of yourself, cast carefully, and preserve. But it is supposed to defile.

Arcane Magic didn't get "Stronger" because you defiled in 2e. It was just magic. It was weaker (took longer) if you preserved. So it created this important choice for you and your character.

Having a "Middle Ground" betrays that choice. And turning around and making Preserving stronger (healing, area, whatever) betrays it even harder. Because now you're choosing to either harm the land for more power, not harm the land for more power, or not harm the land for a normal spell.

It becomes a no-brainer that you pick one of the feat trees and then ALWAYS defile or ALWAYS preserve for the power increase, negating the core message of the responsibility of power, and how horrible it has been misused by the Sorcerer Kings.

And now it's Druids that are the Preservers? In the original setting they were masters of a single patch of land or a single piece of sky or one mountain or something. Now they're the preservers?

It just smacks of making it as blandly acceptable and middle of the road as possible.

 

[Steampunkette]

Honestly, @darjr, I wouldn't have put it past them, before now.

Would explain the massive simplification of the setting, making Druids into Preservers, etc. CR and their fandom will eat that up.

But the new campaign's location has already been revealed:

Aramán

Aramán is the name of the world in which the events of the fourth campaign of Critical Role take place.[1] Seventy years before the events of Campaign Four begin, the seven creator gods called the Shapers were slain. They had put their own interests and loyalties to each other ahead of the...

criticalrole.fandom.com

 

[Parmandur]

I really really like Radiant Citadel.

I am so happy they still bring it up in other products.

 

[darjr]

Honestly, @darjr, I wouldn't have put it past them, before now.

Would explain the massive simplification of the setting, making Druids into Preservers, etc. CR and their fandom will eat that up.

But the new campaign's location has already been revealed:

Aramán

Aramán is the name of the world in which the events of the fourth campaign of Critical Role take place.[1] Seventy years before the events of Campaign Four begin, the seven creator gods called the Shapers were slain. They had put their own interests and loyalties to each other ahead of the...

criticalrole.fandom.com

Yea, but the darksun angle from wotc could be a double fake.

Yea, I'm just fooling around. But just in case I wanted to say I called it.

 

[Ruin Explorer]

IF you're going Charisma focused and use Point Buy, you have a +4 bonus by level 4, and can be +5 by level 6 (because fighters get more ASIs). Then at level 15 they get additional uses equal to Second Wind + Action Surge, which is 5 at level 15 and then 6 at level 17. So except for level 3, the Gladiator will be equal to or ahead of Battlemaster in uses. Here is the chart:

As for choices, given it's a weapon master IN ADDITION TO existing weapon mastery, AND an extra benefit on top of that, I'd say they're all equal to or superior to Battle Master maneuvers. I'd say at least half the BM options rarely if ever see use at a table. We all know the good ones, and they're about where these Brutality ones are at.

Even with point buy and 2 ASIs the only way to have 20 CHA is to have 16 STR or DEX when a normal Fighter has 20 STR or DEX so you're hugely worse than them at actually fighting. Why are you ignoring that? You can eventually catch up at the cost of 2 Feats, a pretty huge cost when things like GWM exist.

Ignoring that ruins your entire example. You can Warlock dip if MC is allowed, but you have to account for the dip (it also means you can never use ranged weapons essentially, though you do have non-agonizing EB).

Also where are you getting the jump to 10 from? I forgot they made SW 2/SR in 2024, but AS is still 1/SR. So that should be 8 by calculations. Where are the other two from? I double-checked the 2024 Fighter but I'm not seeing it.

As for choices, given it's a weapon master IN ADDITION TO existing weapon mastery, AND an extra benefit on top of that, I'd say they're all equal to or superior to Battle Master maneuvers.

Yeah I made this comparison correctly, all caps-ing "in addition to" doesn't change the mechanics lol. The extra benefits from the first two are roundly inferior to BM Manuevers including the 2nd weapon mastery (both get the 1st). Only Stumble offers anything special.