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.

 

[Levistus's_Leviathan]

If they couldnt deal with male knights having mustaches, I dont see how they deal with major themes of DarkSun.

Are mustaches one of the major themes of Dragonlance?

 

[Eubani]

Are mustaches one of the major themes of Dragonlance?

For the Knights of Solamnia they were

 

[Levistus's_Leviathan]

For the Knights of Solamnia they were

I do not think mustaches are a “theme.”

 

[Eubani]

I do not think mustaches are a “theme.”

It was tongue in cheek. A better way of describing it would be Theme no, culture yes.

 

[Henadic Theologian]

Yup. Don't care. You have the 2e books already. Play that.

I'm looking forward to hopepunk, but considering two of the options in the UA are defiler and templar, I don't think they are shying away from edgelord options.

Oh come on, for Hopepunk you have Radiant Citadel. Darksun is supposed to be Dystopian.

Anyways I note that Sorcerer King Pact works well in FR as well with Gilgeam and the Dead Three, Auril, ect...

 

[Levistus's_Leviathan]

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.

If the 'good guys can win' and fundamentally change the setting, its not grimdark.

Grimdark is not an entirely useless genre, but nihilism is entirely anathema to why I love, consume, and create fantasy media. Too many people and writers think grimdark means “no one can ever be happy, nothing matters, and any character that is momentarily happy or cares about anything meaningful needs to be abused by the plot until they get with the cool kids and become nihilistic naughty words like everyone else in the story.”

If Homelander gets away with everything in Season 5 of The Boys TV show, it will ruin the entire series for me. I don’t want to consume useless garbage where the moral is “everything is and always will be awful, so there’s no point in fighting for what’s right.”

I don’t want to consume books that read like novelized suicide notes. I don’t want to watch shows or movies that tell me humanity is a foolish endeavor and that we might as well give up in the fight for freedom, justice, and happiness. I would not want to run or play in a setting where there is no point. Where the group knows from the start that they have no hope of defeating the villains or improving the world and nothing of importance can be done.

Stories of hope are always important, especially now when the world is rapidly getting worse. And nihilism helps those that are actively ruining the world by telling you there’s no point in fighting back.

Dark Sun is and must be hopepunk. The heroes can overthrow the Sorcerer-Kings, slay the Dragon, and start to heal the world. If they cannot, there is no reason for the setting to exist. There is no use for a setting or story that tells you life is pointless and you were a sucker for caring.

http://www.stephenrdonaldson.com/EpicFantasy.pdf

 

[Njall]

The parry is 1/long rest? For, on a good day, +3 or +4 AC - so like a really Shield spell, something an EK can do a hell of a lot more than 1/long rest, and that also a Battlemaster can do multiple times per short rest with Evasive Footwork giving +Battlemaster die to AC - which even at low levels averages +4.5 AC, and that just goes up, that scales, unlike this (that's not reactive but unlike this it applies to every attack and also gives a free Disengage, and Shield also applies to every attack after it's cast, unlike this).

Not sure if anybody's addressed this (it's a loooong thread, sorry guys), but the "parry" seems to be at will. What's 1/long rest is the "counterattack" part.

 

[Levistus's_Leviathan]

No. Every piece of media does not have this issue, only those that get remade. Instead of remaking media, I'd like to see new media be made.

We have become a civilization of artistic pillagers and creative parasites. Shame on us.

I am just as tired as everyone else of the endless cycle of reboots and sequels that have been plaguing Hollywood for decades, but remaking media by adapting or stealing from older stories is often a good thing.

Do you not see any irony in your post in a discussion about D&D? D&D shamelessly stole from Tolkien, Howard, Moorcock, Vance, Lovecraft, and more. And Tolkien stole from Beowulf and Norse Mythology. And Beowulf stole from The Bible. I could go on.

There is nothing new under the sun. Remaking or reimagining older media is not inherently bad or immoral. A new Dark Sun book is not a symptom of societal or artistic decay. Especially when this is the first Dark Sun book in 5e. Most current players were born after Dark Sun was originally published.

I, for one, have been asking for an official Dark Sun book for years now. I promised my players we’d do a Dark Sun campaign if it were ever given an official 5e book.

 

[Veltharis ap Rylix]

Sure. Oral traditions were necessary to pass on ideas from one generation to another. Inevitably, improvisation and mutations occurs. Thanks to the printing press, that is no longer necessary. I can read A Princess of Mars without the need for bards, orators, and rapsodes to butcher or reinterpret Edgar Rice Burroughs's original.

If someone is inspired by Edgar Rice Burroughs or believe he/she can do better, a new book/setting/film/comic book with a new world and set of characters can be invented. No need to disrespect the original art.

Similarly, Timothy B. Brown and Troy Denning created Dark Sun. That setting can be reprinted as is. No need to butcher or reinterpret.

What I don't understand is why the WotC posse is so deprived of artistic vision and creativity that they can't create their own setting that incorporates everything like about another setting and excludes everything they don't. They can make a post-apocalyptic wasteland setting without butchering or reinterpreting the world of Timothy B. Brown and Troy Denning.

If the WotC posse can do better than Timothy B. Brown and Troy Denning, I see let them try. Let them have at it. But I don't see why they need to lean on Timothy B. Brown and Troy Denning's work as a crutch. Are they so artistically inferior that they cannot measure up? Perhaps--perhaps not.

And no, I do not care about corporatists arguments. Let's keep politics out of art/gaming/everything meaningful to the human condition.

The invention of the printing press hasn't stopped people from reinventing and reinterpreting stories in the decades and centuries after they were first printed, nor has it stopped stories from utterly disappearing when they fall out of the public consciousness to the point that people stop bothering to print or circulate them.

Physical books don't last forever, whether hand-written or printed, and digital books only last as long as the device they're stored on does.

Sooner or later, someone has to create a new copy if that story is to continue surviving.

 

[Minigiant]

I'd congratulate you for your touch-typing mastery but I guess you won't read it until you're back from A&E!

That said I'm not really sure what's wrong with:



It's a bit Captain Planet but like, a lot of Druid subclasses are and a lot of D&D subclasses are kinda Saturday morning cartoon. I don't think it's too wrong for Dark Sun so long as these guys are losing/hunted/etc.

My eyes work again.

I meant the mechanics.

Preserve Land is a game slowing, difficulty sapping, cheap feature one gets at low level.

I thought we all had the discussion about cheap recharging THP already on the hardcore and design side of the community.