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.

 

[Scribe]

I think, if I understand correctly, you're okay with the good guys winning, but only if it's futile/minor in the larger picture or temporary?

Pretty much.

Its a topic near and dear to me, but I dont see grimdark = nihilism. I see it as stoicism but...its a topic for a different thread at this point and I'm in a much better mood this morning so we can discuss elsewhere if anyone cares lol

 

[Plaguescarred]

This UA gets me mixed feelings toward crunch but fluff wise the thematic is cool enought, especially if it herald the return of DARK SUN setting! My last forray into the burned world was during 4E Ashes of Athas so its a while ago.

 

[Weiley31]

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

It will ONLY be ruined once Guiliman marries his Space Goth Elf Waifu.

Until then, bring on the Female Space Marines and Custodes.


Editor's Note: I'm lying, I hope HE DOES marry his Space Goth Elf Waifu.

 

[FitzTheRuke]

There's absolutely no logic that I can see to what you're proposing. You keep falsely saying that just because male medusa are also a thing, a "medusa" is still understood to be female, even though that's not going to be the case 50% of the time (assuming that there's a 1:1 ratio of male and female medusa as per Fisher's principle), and so "female" is no longer inherently understood to be part of what makes a medusa what it is, regardless of your wrongfully insisting otherwise.

Yeah, we're just not going to agree on this. You seem to think that something not being exclusively a thing makes it not that thing, and I don't know how you can consider that to be superior logic.

At any rate, I didn't come here to argue with you about medusae. But this isn't really about medusae, is it? It's a general take on how adding aspects to things somehow takes away aspects they already possess. I assume that it's not about medusae, or I wonder what it's doing in a thread about Dark Sun.

No one is going to argue with you that it takes away the exclusivity of those aspects, but equating it to diminishing those aspects? You're going to get pushback.

Again, your medusa argument is flawed, because nothing has changed for any given female medusa that shows up in your game. She's the same as she's always been.

 

[Scribe]

It will ONLY be ruined once Guiliman marries his Space Goth Elf Waifu.

Until then, bring on the Female Space Marines and Custodes.


Editor's Note: I'm lying, I hope HE DOES marry his Space Goth Elf Waifu.

I'd accept a lot of stupidity, but if the Emperor gets up and is a 'good guy' its over.

 

[Steampunkette]

Your reasoning is absolutely bizarre to me. The medusa is still a female creature. Just because it is also a male creature doesn't change that! It might not exclusively be a female, but it still can be. Your description: Snakehair, Stoney-eyes, female STILL EXISTS AS A THING. It has not been taken away, like you're trying to pretend.

BTW, My previous "yet again" was not in reference to specifically YOU, but to this entire line of argument (the larger one that has little to do with medusae, that you brought up with your attempt to use the medusa as an example.)

For the sake of argument, let's move it off "Male and Female" 'cause, y'know, transness is a thing. Let's go for snake hair.

So the identifying characteristics of a Medusa are:

1) Snake Hair
2) Petrifying Gaze
3) Female

We're gonna change that to:

1) Reptile Hair
2) Petrifying Gaze
3) Female

So now you can have a Medusa whose hair is Monitor Lizards. Not their heads, just the ENTIRE MONITOR LIZARD dangling off her head, attached by the tail to her scalp.

When you look at her, having a cultural expectation that she'll have snakes for hair, will you see her and go "Oh, that's a medusa"?

How about if it's just Alligator Heads attached to her scalp facing in all directions? How about Geckos so she can have a nice 'pixie cut' in comparison?

No. Having Snake Hair is an identifying characteristic. Taking that identifier and broadening it doesn't mean you can't have the "Classical Medusa", for sure, but the others don't look like what we think Medusa looks like as a cultural expectation.

Dark Sun is the same way. You could "Expand" an element to allow for more variety, but Dark Sun loses some of it's tightness and definition in the process. And the more elements you "Expand" for variety, the less like Athas the world is going to look.

 

[Sacrosanct]

I'm more disappointed in the remake of Harry Potter, considering that there isn't enough time between the movies and the series to do anything more than rehash the same plot but with more filler.

I'm more disappointed in the HP remake because it means more money to you know who (pun intended).

 

[Alzrius]

Yeah, we're just not going to agree on this. You seem to think that something not being exclusively a thing makes it not that thing, and I don't know how you can consider that to be superior logic.

If you want to define what something is, you have to be able to describe it, which means citing what characteristics it has. If a particular characteristic isn't present a large portion of the time in that thing's general population, then it's not part of what makes that thing what it is. Why you keep denying a self-evident truth is beyond me.

At any rate, I didn't come here to argue with you about medusae.

Well given that my first mention of this wasn't directed at you, whereas your first mention of it was to aggressively disagree, you quite clearly did come here for that.

But this isn't really about medusae, is it? It's a general take on how adding aspects to things somehow takes away aspects they already possess.

I'll direct you to my initial post on this point, which is about adding something to things without taking away the characteristics they already possess. It's just that you can't seem to tell the difference, for some reason.

I assume that it's not about medusae, or I wonder what it's doing in a thread about Dark Sun.

Maybe don't assume people's motivations.

No one is going to argue with you that it takes away the exclusivity of those aspects, but equating it to diminishing those aspects? You're going to get pushback.

I'm not sure what you mean by "diminishing," other than having fewer definitional characteristics of something makes that thing that much harder to define. Is a medusa that's male, has centipedes for hair, and has a gaze that plane-shifts you to Acheron still a medusa?

Again, your medusa argument is flawed, because nothing has changed for any given female medusa that shows up in your game. She's the same as she's always been.

Except we're not talking about "any given" instance of a medusa; we're talking about our understanding what makes a medusa what it is. A singular exception doesn't change that; normalizing that exception does.

 

[mamba]

Your reasoning is absolutely bizarre to me. The medusa is still a female creature. Just because it is also a male creature doesn't change that!

it removes female as an identifying characteristic for a Medusa. A male medusa is not a female creature

 

[Remathilis]

I'm more disappointed in the HP remake because it means more money to you know who (pun intended).

That too, but not relevant to the topic.