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.

 

[Jefe Bergenstein]

I think adding hope in the form of a successful revolution in one of the city states actually made things darker in that the other Sorcerer Kings cracked down to make sure that the same thing didn't happen again and the council that ruled after the fall of the sorcerer king was eating itself.

I'd honestly run the Verdant Passage as the opening adventure path and draft the campaign book assuming Kalak was slain and Tyr is free.

 

[mamba]

I mean, it's an official WotC D&D book.

An awful lot of people will defend whatever they do, no matter how bad.

maybe, but the reverse seems to also be true. Some people just object to everything WotC does and would be way less critical if a 3pp were to release the exact same book

The reality is, they could put out a totally generic fantasy setting, that loses absolutely everything about Dark Sun thematically and tonally and in terms of ideas, except that it's desert survival and technically some (but probably not all) of the main bad guys are Sorcerer-Kings, and which also was say, too short, and mostly a mediocre adventure and bestiary, and a lot of people would still rate it 4/5 and say "I liked it!".

probably

But it'll be disappointing if they do.

same

 

[Jefe Bergenstein]

I do not get WOTC's obsession with pissant damage boosts. Bleed is a whopping Cha modifier damage to one hit a couple times per rest. When the damage bump wont kill a rat, I don't want it. The preserver gives 1d4+ druid level, which is needlessly randomized by a worthless amount. Make it Wis+Level to speed play. Stop making me roll d4's!

Wasn't the whole purpose of advantage/disadvantage to make the modifiers actually worth remembering?

 

[MonsterEnvy]

No, I think it's a good choice. Marlos Urnrayle was artificially transformed into a medusa via magic gone wrong, and so functions as an example of an exception proving the rule. Likewise, other instances of a "male medusa" were the maedar, which were a separate kind of creature with their own characteristics.

That's explicitly how Medusas were created in 2014 via a curse.

 

[Ruin Explorer]

maybe, but the reverse seems to also be true. Some people just object to everything WotC does and would be way less critical if a 3pp were to release the exact same book

For sure, but they tend to do so in a different way, and it doesn't get as much purchase. The dedicated D&D-hater community isn't generally hugely interested in individual releases it seems.

 

[Mirrorrorrim]

No. The important aspect of the fiction is GONE.

The fiction is: Divine and Nature Magic do not harm the world. Arcane Magic harms the world, inherently, and must be used in specific and careful ways to avoid doing that harm.

Wizards will not defile by default and have to work to preserve. Nor will Sorcerers. Or Arcane Knights. The message of "You have to be careful with arcane magic" is gone.

Instead you must CHOOSE to Defile. You must make the active choice to BE a Defiler. And ONLY Sorcerers can ever CHOOSE to Defile.

It's a very different message. It has trappings, but the underlying narrative, that Arcane Magic is inherently destructive, is gone.

And then slapping Preserving onto Druids just goes to show a complete misunderstanding of the message. Because Druids cannot Preserve with Nature Magic. They don't have to. It doesn't Defile by default.

Between the hurdles of figuring out the best way to advance past 30-year old game design, and what our society deems acceptable (the world isn't fond of grimdark hopeless slavery and SA breeding), no matter what, the story has to change in some way. So why not mess with the magic a bit more, so there are more class options? Or are we really saying that paladins and clerics (I've not seen elemental clerics) have no place in a modern Dark Sun setting? Because classes are no longer "power source"- based, between the Order of the Ancients paladins (which seem primal), and psionic sorcerers, warlocks, and warriors, and other themes, they really mix it up.

Consider the idea of 4 types of magic power, and that Arcane magic itself is not what inherently defiles:

• Defiling Magic - In the past, the "Bad Guys" (Sorcerer Kings) found an way to draw more magical power from life and the world itself, and used this power to conquer the known world, mostly wiping out most other casters and magic traditions, and turning the realms under the dark sun into a wasteland that couldn't recover without serious primal magic (like salting the earth). It's still one of the most popular magic traditions because the existing dark societies of dark sun train this kind of magic, to be competitive with one another. It is also the reason many people hate "arcane" magic, because the arcane Sorcerer Kings poisoned the public opinion against arcane magic.
• Psionic Magic - Is a tradition that does not defile and is among the most common kind of magic that is trained alongside defiling (Templars are psionic casters, even if the Sorcerer Kings are defilers).
• Preservation Magic - This primal druidic magic is the ONLY magic that can heal the previously defiled land. It's rare and sacred. PCs and NPCs are rare.
• Non-Defiling Magic - Rarer arcane/primal/"divine" traditions, as they have been mostly stamped out in the past, but are making a comeback due to rediscovered teachings and traditions, and the efforts of those who struggle against the defilers. PCs and NPCs are rare.

Now what they need are new Origin and/or General Feats that allow other casters ways to Defile or Preserve, which would fit, as they are already have Wild Talents planned that do something similar.

 

[Kurotowa]

Here's the thing about Preserving and Defiling. If there's going to be mechanics for them, and not just a couple of subclasses, I bet my bottom dollar it's going to be generally applicable rules and not rules specific to Wizards and only Wizards. Because 5e is not 2e, and as people have often commented quite a lot of classes have spellcasting now.

What have we got for arcane casters? (Not that "arcane caster" is a defined game term in 5e, but I digress.) In just the PHB there's Bards, Sorcerers, Warlocks, Wizards, Eldritch Knight Fighters, and Arcane Trickster Rogues. Not to mention all the "kinda magical but not using actual spell slots" classes.

Any general use Preserving and Defiling rules is going to apply to all of those. Which means it's going to different than what came before, and almost certainly not show up in any UA playtest.

 

[mamba]

• Preservation Magic - This primal druidic magic is the ONLY magic that can heal the previously defiled land. It's rare and sacred. PCs and NPCs are rare.

should be Restoration

• Non-Defiling Magic - Rarer arcane/primal/"divine" traditions, as they have been mostly stamped out in the past, but are making a comeback due to rediscovered teachings and traditions, and the efforts of those who struggle against the defilers. PCs and NPCs are rare.

Preserving still defiles, just less, so things can recover, there is no real non-defiling

Now what they need are new Origin and/or General Feats that allow other casters ways to Defile or Preserve, which would fit, as they are already have Wild Talents planned that do something similar.

yes, anyone else should still be defiling/preserving (as in defiling less)

 

[Superchunk77]

I do not get WOTC's obsession with pissant damage boosts. Bleed is a whopping Cha modifier damage to one hit a couple times per rest. When the damage bump wont kill a rat, I don't want it. The preserver gives 1d4+ druid level, which is needlessly randomized by a worthless amount. Make it Wis+Level to speed play. Stop making me roll d4's!

Wasn't the whole purpose of advantage/disadvantage to make the modifiers actually worth remembering?

It's almost as if all of the talented game designers quit or were laid off by WotC?

 

[UVAtom]

Awesome. Now do Birthright.