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.

 

[Kurotowa]

Here's a slightly tangental Dark Sun topic. What PC species options are going to appear in the book?

Half-giants just use Goliath stats. Thri-kreen probably get a reprint. Muls... are an issue I don't know how they're going to handle. Maybe they get a rework and a unique entry like the Khoravar will, maybe they get quietly erased.

I think that's most of the uniquely Athasian species. Which just leaves the issue of all the PHB species that didn't appear in 2e Dark Sun. These days they're a lot more reluctant to forbid PHB options, since they want those to be a universal baseline that settings add to instead of subtracting from. But I don't know how you fit Orcs or Tieflings in Dark Sun very well. I guess we'll see.

 

[Eubani]

Is it me or if equipped correctly and played in the right way the Gladiator subclass could be used as good Swashbuckler substitute?

 

[Neonchameleon]

My takes:

Gladiator fighter is, as already pointed out, a wannabe Battle master

Preserver druid. Thanks, I hate it mechanically. A class with (a) easy access to regenerating temp hp and (b) gets the party to stay in one spot may be strong but will make combat even sloggier

Defiler Sorcerer. I don't want to be faffing with monster hit dice. Needs a bit of a rethink - and that bonus damage cap hurts

Sorcerer King Warlock: Possibly overturned with bonus action Commands, but I like what they are trying to do.

 

[Peter BOSCO'S]

I don't know how you fit Orcs or Tieflings in Dark Sun very well. I guess we'll see.

Tieflings are just people who were Defiled by Sorcerers in-utero, and now they're all freaky looking. I'm not sure about Orcs either, and isn't Athas supposed to not have Gnomes either?

 

[Eubani]

Didn't the Orcs get genocided with several other races in the distant past of the cannon?

 

[Demetrios1453]

Trying to please everyone is a fool's errand as some people are always going to be unhappy. As someone who was resigned to WotC avoiding Dark Sun like the plague for the next decade or so, I'm pleased to see it's likely to be a reality soon. I hope it's not as disappointing as Spelljammer. Even if it is, it's okay if it isn't for me.

The real issue with Spelljammer was the page count. Give it say 32 more pages and use that for ship-to-ship combat rules and sample Wildspace systems (and how to create your own Wildspace systems), then it would have been fine. As it is, it's not totally bad, just incomplete.

Well, other than the completely preventable self-inflicted wound with the Hadozee. But they've seemingly learned from that, if the new FR books are anything to go by.

 

[Steampunkette]

Didn't the Orcs get genocided with several other races in the distant past of the cannon?

Orcs, Gnomes, Kobolds, Ogres, Wemics, Lizard Men, Pixies, Trolls, and Goblins.

Several failed to wipe out the Tari, Aarakocra, Elves, Pterrans, and Giants.

 

[Ruin Explorer]

See, that attitude exists because corps are factually ruining the IPs of our childhood.

When 40K is finally ruined I will likely slip into a depression. As comical as that is.

I get it.

It happened to me already with 40K, all the way back in 1998!

I started playing GW games in about 1988, Adeptus Titanicus, Rogue Trader (1E 40K), etc. Went on to Epic Scale and Space Marine (2E 40K).

That was all great and most of the really good baseline lore for 40K was created between about 1988 and about 1995 or so.

Then came 3E 40K. What an awful, awful humourless, soulless version of 40K that was. Everything that was amazing about 40K was either stripped back hard, or outright removed, including Squats entirely, in what we later learned (though some guessed at the time) was basically a desperate attempt to retool to market to what GW (insanely) perceived as what Americans wanted. And really juvenile stuff was added - the Necrons and the Dark Eldar (the Eldar already included that concept lol!). The T'au were okay, a little boring but not a profound issue.

And 4E and 5E made this worse, just kind of doubling down on weird creepy nonsense that made it seem like they thought the Imperium of Mankind (insane theocratic fascists) were just "Hard men making hard decisions". Absolutely DIAF Games Workshop of that era.

However, time is a flat circle.

From 8E and onwards, things started turning back my way. Humour was no longer illegal in 40K. Light-hearted moments were no longer banned. Hope and the chance that things might improve locally, which had been a thing 1E and 2E, even though most of the place was screwed, were allowed. Chaos stopped being overhyped as much, and the Imperium was back to being some good people but an awful lot of evil lunatic theofascists. Genestealer Cults came back! Squats came back! Cooler than before in both cases. I could go on.

And guess what? A bunch of people 10 years younger, many of them awful 4Chan losers, than me were absolutely weeping that 40K had been "ruined" because the awful, humourless, theofascists-are-the-best 40K their youth was gone. And worse, this new version was (and is) selling much, much better than their version ever did!

But I daresay in 20 years or w/e, we may see awful humourless 40K again, and even if neither of us likes Dark Sun 5E (perhaps for very different reasons), I daresay Dark Sun 6E or 7E may be different again.

 

[Remathilis]

Tieflings are just people who were Defiled by Sorcerers in-utero, and now they're all freaky looking. I'm not sure about Orcs either, and isn't Athas supposed to not have Gnomes either?

They will pull the Dragonlance treatment: list the commonly found races and their place but leave the option for the DM to allow forgotten tribes, last of their kind, and planar interlopers.

 

[Ruin Explorer]

As an eternal adherent of grimdark, the idea that THAT is what hopepunk is, makes it simply anathema to me anyway.

I'm sorry I'm this way.

I mean, I guarantee a bunch of "grimdark" stuff you like is technically equally classifiable as hopepunk. Not all of, it but like, probably a significant double-digit fraction, so I'm not sure I entirely buy "anathema".