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.

 

[Staffan]

What is stopping Dark Sun characters (especially characters like templars or defilers) from being outright bastards?

"I don't know how to explain to you why you should care about other people." —Lauren Morril
"If there's no great glorious end to all this, if nothing we do matters... , then all that matters is what we do."—Angel

Some people have power fantasies of getting all the power and lording it over other people. For other people, the power fantasies consist of getting power and using it to actually help people. And I think that's actually quite common – I'm sure both Bethesda and Larian and other video game companies have numbers on how many people play heroic vs villainous paths in their various games.

 

[mamba]

What is stopping Dark Sun characters (especially characters like templars or defilers) from being outright bastards?

nothing, but if you need external punishment for your deeds to stay on the good path, how good of a person are you to begin with…

There is nothing preventing the characters to play the heroes rather than some shady scum lusting for power

 

[Zardnaar]

Athas is also the one where they published rules for surfing druids back in the day. TSR watered it down to begin with, Mind Lords of the Last Sea exists.

Whatever we get isn't going to be as that as, that.

This is also why I'm a 1st box originalist.

Surfing druids were a joke by a freelancer. He expected them to get cut in editing.

Chaos and carnage in TSRs dying days.

 

[AdmundfortGeographer]

This is also why I'm a 1st box originalist.

I am as well. I even never liked the expanded regional map because in my mind it radically broke with what The Wanderer’s Journal said was beyond the Tablelands. Though I gladly selectively imported back material from the Revised era to my personal expanded Tablelands.

 

[Zardnaar]

I am as well. I even never liked the expanded regional map because in my mind it radically broke with what The Wanderer’s Journal said was beyond the Tablelands. Though I gladly selectively imported back material from the Revised era to my personal expanded Tablelands.

I don't mind the expanded map but PCs shoukd know bupkiss.

The last sea is very far away as well. I kinda like Halflings as blue age original stock.

 

[Remathilis]

nothing, but if you need external punishment for your deeds to stay on the good path, how good of a person are you to begin with…

There is nothing preventing the characters to play the heroes rather than some shady scum lusting for power

Please keep in mind this inquiry came from Steampunkette's idea that preserving should be precipitously weaker than defiling with no tradeoff other than "it's the right thing to do". Which is a noble sentiment, but its horrendous GAME balance because a choice that is between a bad choice and a good choice (not in alignment, but in quality) is no choice at all. Further commentary on this seemed to lend itself to "well, it's Dark Sun, of COURSE the morally right choice should be harder, weaker, and more difficult to make", which is ultimately me putting two and two together and asking "if Dark Sun puts (morally) good characters so far on the back-foot compared to amoral or evil ones, what is the incentive to play one?"

Most D&D settings put the forces of evil and good on relatively equal footing. Ravenloft puts good in a weaker position to evil but punishes using evil options. Dark Sun puts good in a weak position but doesn't offset it in any way. Not only is Dark Sun more brutal and harsher to survive in but picking morally good choices forces you to do it with one hand tied behind your back. Which is why, outside the warm-fuzzys you have in tummy as you die, would you ever pick the weaker options?

Now if Defiling offers a trade (for example, a quicker path to power but at the cost of corruption) then preserving being the slower, safer option becomes viable. But if defiling is superior in every way except you are a bad person to use it, it's not balanced. You are balancing a mechanical benefit (increased power) with a role-play restriction (you're a bad person) which places the onus on the DM to balance (the DM must chase defilers out of every town and village, even if that sabotages the current adventure).

Ultimately, I'd prefer a system that places a mechanical benefit and hindrance on both styles of play, so that there is no mechanical incentive to "play bastards". That way, players who want to play heroes don't feel they are gimping themselves compared to playing villains. Good is already on the back-foot in Athas, there is no reason to incentivize evil characters further.

 

[Kobold Avenger]

My input first on the subclasses, most of them pretty good except maybe some changes the Gladiator should get:
-I like the Circle of Preservation Druid, it's quite powerful enough that some people are comparing it to the Twilight Cleric. In my opinion, it's not a Preserver per se, just a Druid that could restore the world.
-The Gladiator Fighter, I like that it does use Charisma, but there's areas I feel it might be too limited by Charisma. Like maybe brutality uses should be independent or supplemented by CHA mod (like prof bonus + cha mod). Or perhaps something like regain or get a free use of a brutality on a crit (and aim for Gladiator being something between Champion and Battlemaster). And there could be areas where CHA mod could be used somewhere else in the numbers. I remember the Gladiator got bonuses for piecemeal armour or something like that in 2e, that sounds like they should get a CHA mod bonus to to AC.
-Defiled Sorcery, for a quick and easy version of what is a Defiler as a representation of what's the most defilerish of Defilers I guess this one is fine.
-The Sorcerer-King Warlock, I guess that's appropriate enough for a Templar.

 

[Staffan]

I don't mind the expanded map but PCs shoukd know bupkiss.

The last sea is very far away as well. I kinda like Halflings as blue age original stock.

Note that Dark Sun, as settings go, is really small. This is the approximate size of the original DS box set map superimposed on a map of the FR Sword Coast:

The revised map is significantly larger, but still not quite the size of the region that has had FR fans complaining the last few years that they've only focused on a tiny part of the setting:

Or, to use real-world comparisons:

Now, the Last Sea is at the very north end of the map so yes, it is quite far away – about 660 miles north of Tyr (a bit longer if you're going to the city). But we're talking about the same distance as Waterdeep to Candlekeep in FR – not exactly next door, particularly not with Athasian terrain, but not "other side of the world" distances.
(For the record, the approximate sizes are 360 x 240 miles for the OG map and 800 x 1000 miles for the revised – so the revised has ~8 times the area with ~2 times the amount of material)

 

[mamba]

if Dark Sun puts (morally) good characters so far on the back-foot compared to amoral or evil ones, what is the incentive to play one?"

the knowledge that you are doing the right thing

Which is why, outside the warm-fuzzys you have in tummy as you die, would you ever pick the weaker options?

yes, I would. In the real world I may not be less or more powerful based on what I choose, but I can face bigger risk and be persecuted more directly for them. Yet plenty of people stand for what is right, despite the cost

As the saying goes, “The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing”

 

[Kobold Avenger]

Other thoughts on Dark Sun, since it seems like they're going to release it in 2026...

For defiling vs preserver mechanics, I think they should go by the assumption that casting arcane magic the standard way is the act of preserving. It's more or less how it happened in previous editions.

I feel defiling should be giving the caster a bonus, with only a tiny drawback.

For species that are the PHB but not traditionally in Dark Sun, a sidebar about them also with the idea that they may come from distant lands since the Tablelands is a small area compared to the rest of the planet.

Goliaths should definitely get their Athasian ancestry with the standard DS one being Humanoid-headed Giants. I know it'll go against previous lore, but they could introduce a Goliath ancestry of the Beast-head Giants along with that.

Thri-Kreen I don't see much changes from spelljammer. Athasian Elves are sort of Wood Elves. Dragonborn are Dray like they did in 4e, and Pyreen are Aasimar. Muls, or whatever revision they're going to undertake could be a new species.

Classes:
-Barbarians are fine as is.
-Bards get a yellow light, with assumed to be either preservers or magic reflavoured into Druidic or Psionic magic.
-Clerics they probably could have made some subclasses for them. Though I guess they could revise Tempest (Air) and Nature (Earth) Clerics and suggest that Light Clerics are Fire Clerics.
-Druids, most fit accept the Sea Druid.
-Fighter, mostly fine as they are, with an emphasis on Psi Warriors given the psionic nature of Athas.
-Monks, probably sort of rare but Warrior of the Elements the most common of the bunch.
-Paladins, as a controversial revision say only Oath of Devotion Paladins are banned (because all Paladins in 2e were basically Devotion Paladins). Others like Glory (who typically become gladiators), Genie or Ancients (part of the Druidic orders) do exist but are rare.
-Ranger, mostly fine as is.
-Sorcerer, other than Defiled Sorcery and possibly Aberrant Mind they're rare.
-Wizard, mostly assumed to be preservers.
-Warlocks, most are Sorcerer-King pact, Fiend and Celestial and Fathomless don't exist. The others are rarer.

-Psions, probably as is since I feel it's going to be the book that introduces them.
-Artificers, mostly rare except mention that some do uncover the Rhulisti art of Lifeshaping, there's rumoured to be a tribe of Halflings on the Jagged Cliff who's uncovered such secrets and that there's Kreen known as the Zixchil who might practice such things.