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.

 

[mamba]

It's less fear of innovation, and more that they stressed that striping a players abilities away for "story reasons" is an uncool move that a DM ought not to do.

that might explain the patron part, but not the defiling / preserving. They are also not going to say this race / class does not exist in this setting. Everything has to be essentially the same, with a different coat of paint on top

 

[LuisCarlos17f]

I had forgotten now aasimar should appear in DS 5+e

Fiends can be summoned in Athas. Maybe even created their own continents in other continents because they don't need organic food or water.

I was thinking about the martial adept crusader (3.5 Tome of Battle) class working like a templar but... could a warblade or a swordsage use martial maneuvers without arcane defiling effect? Technically would be ki or spirit power, not arcane magic.

I miss the option to know new city-states and new SK created by the players because somebody could show a really good new idea.

I like the idea of a savage tribe whose spirit totem was some kaiju-like creature

Other idea is in the cleasing wars some groups built underground vaults like in Fallout videogames and after the death of Borys they dare to send shardminds toward the surface to explore.

* Other point is if Hasbro wants a production or a videogame of DS the setting could be rebooted, at least because they trust more in a group of scripters.

 

[Echohawk]

They are also not going to say this race / class does not exist in this setting.

I posted two examples of WotC doing exactly that in 5e books up-thread.

Is there some reason that you believe that WotC won't take the same approach for a Dark Sun book, despite this precedent?

 

[Remathilis]

that might explain the patron part, but not the defiling / preserving. They are also not going to say this race / class does not exist in this setting. Everything has to be essentially the same, with a different coat of paint on top

They have put soft bans on species before in Ravnica, Theros and Dragonlance, they can do so here. I don't think they will ban classes though: even adding the psion to the mix, there is only 15 classes in the official game and I don't think they want to constrain that. No setting has yet removed a class and I don't think they are going to start.

 

[UngainlyTitan]

Yeah expanded ritual casting would be key, because 5E has an utterly bizarrely tiny number of spells that can be ritual cast, and hard-locks rituals to (casting time +10 minutes) which also means far less can be done with them. But even then the issue remains that 5E is balanced around combat, so you'd need to have some way to stay balanced there and also not be too dull. Maybe do like the Warlock in Dark Age of Camelot back in 2003 and have you super-slowly (i.e. ritual) cast a combat spell that's then "stored" in a limited number of slots (ironically this might end up rather similar to 5E's current Warlock in practice).

Agreed, it is one of my few ongoing disappointments with 5e is the lack of development with rituals. I think more spells should be ritual, and some should be ritual only.

 

[SkidAce]

I know, That's the game-convenient way of dealing with the problem that WotC as a whole promotes, which I loathe because I find it against the spirit of what warlocks (and clerics and paladins) ARE.

A warlock makes a pact with their patron. Pacts bind both parties, by definition, and pacts can be broken. The patron grants the warlock/templar power, and in turn, are promised ... what? 5e basically leaves that question entirely up to the DM, which i find very weaksauce.

I separate the concept of warlocks away from the paladins and clerics.

Clerics and Paladins: ongoing flow of power (to an extent)
Warlocks: trades, no take backs.

This give the warlock more of the "gaining knowledge and eldritch secrets" vibe that I like them to have.

And in this situation, if they betray a SK, they might still level, but gain no new abilities (no more trades) or might stop leveling as a warlock and multiclass into something else.

 

[UngainlyTitan]

I separate the concept of warlocks away from the paladins and clerics.

Clerics and Paladins: ongoing flow of power (to an extent)
Warlocks: trades, no take backs.

This give the warlock more of the "gaining knowledge and eldritch secrets" vibe that I like them to have.

And in this situation, if they betray a SK, they might still level, but gain no new abilities (no more trades) or might stop leveling as a warlock and multiclass into something else.

You can do whatever you want in your game but there is another way to look at it.
I am going to use Willow Rosenberg from Buffy as an example here. In the early seasons she is shown mostly petitioning some ancient god or power when casting spells and as the series progresses, she is shown increasing doing magic without any petitioning. Just straight up doing stuff.
It is fair to consider that at a certain level the warlock has leaned enough to gain further power without the need for a patron.

 

[Kobold Avenger]

that might explain the patron part, but not the defiling / preserving. They are also not going to say this race / class does not exist in this setting. Everything has to be essentially the same, with a different coat of paint on top

I have ideas what sort of Paladins could exist in Dark Sun despite 2e Dark Sun having a ban on Paladins.

In many ways I feel it comes down to "No Oath of Devotion Paladins" as 2e Paladins were pretty well just Oath of Devotion types.

I feel that out of the PHB you can justify an Oath of Glory (which sort of got art in Tasha's Cauldron of Everything depicting one as a Gladiator) and an Oath of the Ancients (they'd be all about restoring the Athas) Paladins. And outside the core 4 you could probably justify Oath of Conquest as another type of Templar, and use FR's Oath of the Genie for a more elemental type.

 

[FitzTheRuke]

Have concerns that the treatment WotC will be along the lines of The Spelljammer slipcase book set or the Planescape one.

Seems to me that they will likely use the upcoming Forgotten Realms books format. One for players, one for DMs. I can't imagine how it wouldn't be obvious to everyone that it is a superior format to the Spelljammer and Planescape slipcases.

 

[LuisCarlos17f]

Some players want their campaing to be grimmdark, others only dark in the begining but more hope in the end, and more one is willing to a bittersweet, where the evil is defeated but with a great sacrifice and a lot of blood, sweat and tears.

Now I am thinking about an ooze monster from 3.5 MMIII, the graveyard sludge, that could be healed both by positive and negative energy at the same time because it was a living undead or like this. Could the graveyard sludge be hurt by defiling magic?

* If DMs want to punish defiling we can create a monster that is summoned to look for spellcasters with a "tainted aura". This monster could be summoned not only by druids and the veiled aliance but the SKs against defilers who aren't under her control.

* If the plane of the mirrors could be canon in DS, could imagine the potential impact?

* Some subclasses linked to arcaned magic could be banned in Athas, but some players could ask a variant version where arcane magic is replaced with divine, primal or spirit magic.

* I doubt seriously to see a DS sourcebook for DMs. About the lore we will see a mini-gazeteer like Greyhawk in DMG 2024. Maybe a monster compedium with some PC species like the tari (Athasian ratfolk).