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.

 

[Superchunk77]

. . . You might want to actually consider what we are looking at here.
1) Dark Sun's take on arcane magic is very setting-specific, and probably unnecessary for more generic content, which is what these UA suggestions are at the moment.
2) Destroying the plants and the land's ability to sustain life in an area when you cast a spell has no mechanical weight to it. Even if the UA documents were concerned with balance, said destruction would not be a factor in these subclasses.

1) Then that's even more of a suggestion that we are not going to get an actual "Dark Sun" book, but rather, something more generic, like a Doomspace book for Spelljammer.
2) In Dark Sun it does. If you dared to defile in the presence of other sentient beings, they would usually lynch and kill your character. Defilers (and mages in general) had zero tolerance in cities, or anywhere close to them. If you wanted to be a defiler (or mage), you either had to hide it really really well (which took a lot of effort) or live out in the wastes amongst the beasts.

 

[Superchunk77]

Ah, I didn't interpret that to apply to the on-the-fly Method Two, but now I see how one could; thanks for pointing that out. Although... looking at it again, it's only a choice for the first spell cast in a day, so it's still not a choice you make for every spell cast. And the result's pretty dicey compared to the 4e implementation, where you can almost guarantee that defiling is a power-up, or at least not a negative (aside from harming those around you).

There was a dragon magazine article that came out that mimicked the metamagic effects we saw arcane casters get in 3.5e. I can't remember the precise issue, but it had all kinds of effects you could apply to the spell when defiling, and your casting time decreased as well.

 

[LuisCarlos17f]

In Ravenloft the evil ones are more powerful but they suffer their own curses and punishments.

If you behave well only for the reward or punishment then you aren't really a good person but like a tamed dog. Heroism is when you choose to do the right instead the easy.

The preserver and defiler magic is (an allegory) about responsibility towards the environment. Responsability may mean giving up a short-term benefit to avoid long-term harm. Nobody said true responsability with the Nature was easy or fun.

Defilers can be more powerful but if you don't work for some SK then you have to keep it secret or everybody will want to kill you. Do you hope a defiler and a druid PC can go together to a tavern to drink beer? It may be worse if there is some trick to detect defilers. Maybe the veiled order discovered some way to detect them.

I guess Sadira, Agis and company will be introduced like iconic characters even if the novels aren't canon.

* Are you going to respect the canon in your games? Maybe you would rather your own PCs to be the heroes who killed the SKs.

Are you willing to add the psionic PC races to your DS game? fraals, xephs, elans, maenads, shardminds, synads or dromites.

I would bet the banning of PC species and classes in DS will end because it is against WotC's philosophy for 5e.

Were there Athasians from the end of the green age who could predict the cleasing wars and then they warned to their people to evacuate or to hide?

Could the rest of Athas to be conquered by creatures that don't need water or food? for example elementals or fiends.

I have got an idea for an Athasian infernal plane. It is like a jungle but all the plants are poisonous (or at least the taste is horrible), but the fruit and nectar from flowers. You are reincarnated into a beast, a prey or a predator. If you are a prey you have to avoid the predators, and if you are a predator you have to hunt and to fight for the hunt domains. If you die you reincarnate into a beast again.

* Some SKs have got a poor or boring background and you want them to be killed as soon as possible. I would bet some players could invent new and interesting SKs.

 

[SableWyvern]

2) In Dark Sun it does. If you dared to defile in the presence of other sentient beings, they would usually lynch and kill your character. Defilers (and mages in general) had zero tolerance in cities, or anywhere close to them. If you wanted to be a defiler (or mage), you either had to hide it really really well (which took a lot of effort) or live out in the wastes amongst the beasts.

Well, that's not mechanical weight, that's in-world consequences. But if you're playing Dark Sun and choose to ignore the moral, ecological and social consequences of what it means to defile, that's not the fault of the setting.

 

[Superchunk77]

Well, that's not mechanical weight, that's in-world consequences. But if you're playing Dark Sun and ignoring what it means to defile, that's not the fault of the setting.

There was some mechanical weight, defilers would become corrupted over time. Gaining a penalty to Charisma and encounter checks in addition to their body physically mutating.

 

[MonsterEnvy]

Can I ask where in the 4th Ed books this is discussed? Not doubting you at all, but I recently managed to get hold of copies of both the 4e setting book and the monster book, and this material just isn’t in there, along neither is any of the lore about the deep setting history, the origins of the sorcerer-kings etc. The name ‘Rajaat’ isn’t even in the index. Nor is ‘Borys’, and if the Dragon gets a stat block then I can’t find it.

Was this in a supplement or a Dragon mag article or something? I largely dropped out of D&D during 4th edition, so I didn’t really keep up. The philosophy of the 4th Ed DS line seems to have to leave all that to the individual table (which I think isn’t a bad idea, to the point I’d consider using the 4th Ed material as player handouts for a PC-centric Prism Pentax rerun simply BECAUSE it doesn’t spoil all that stuff), but not sure if I missed a resource somewhere.

The Dragon is in the creature catalog.

 

[pukunui]

I always thought it was a bit goofy that the Dragon’s name is Borys.

 

[Echohawk]

Can I ask where in the 4th Ed books this is discussed?

Dark Sun Campaign Setting, p208:

Dark Sun Creature Catalog, p30:

 

[MonsterEnvy]

I always thought it was a bit goofy that the Dragon’s name is Borys.

I don’t think the original book ever mentioned his actual name, and even when it was revealed the number of people who it are a little over a dozen. To basically everyone he is just “The Dragon”

 

[pukunui]

I don’t think the original book ever mentioned his actual name, and even when it was revealed the number of people who it are a little over a dozen. To basically everyone he is just “The Dragon”

Yes, but I’m not a random peasant living on Athas. I know his name is Borys and it kinda ruins the mystique a bit.

Also, I was looking up DS lore the other day and saw something about one of the sorcerer-kings killing a different dragon. I didn’t know there were any others!