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.

 

[Kurotowa]

If a player wants to play a different species to those normally found in the setting, it’s either because:

More or less true. I would just add a more middle ground:

d) They came to the table with a character concept already in mind and are failing to engage with the setting and campaign premise.

In which case they need to be gently told to save it for the right time and to maybe look a little more closely at the setting brief for ideas that would be suitable for this specific campaign.

 

[pemerton]

in comparison the 4e/5e version of this is a mild suggestion to not use other races unless it mildly inconveniences you.

We're talking about a voluntary leisure activity - game play - based around creating a shared fiction. So how can it be anything other than this?

There must have been plenty of people playing gnomes in Dark Sun during the 2nd ed AD&D days, for just this reason - no one can stop them if they want to!

 

[humble minion]

“I’ll kill them with the power they were foolish enough to give me.” Is an extremely good story beat.

See; Spawn, Ghost Rider, etc

That would work for many stories, in many settings.

In Dark Sun, where ‘how you get your power matters’ is such a core theme, it wouldn’t work for me personally. But you do you.

 

[mamba]

We're talking about a voluntary leisure activity - game play - based around creating a shared fiction. So how can it be anything other than this?

and that is why the settings are not particularly distinct… notice my solution was not to say that they are not allowed but to adopt them to DS the way the 2e races were (not necessarily the same twists, just not bog standard)

 

[Staffan]

Back in 2e (I think this was as early as Dragon Kings, but I could be misremembering and can't be hedgehogged to check), the notion was that at some point some kind of weird beings had created some kind of metaphysical connection between the elemental planes and the sorcerer-monarchs which was used to empower their templars. The beings themselves had died out at this point (so no, becoming a level 20/20 defiler/psionicist and then starting on the path to dragonhood won't let you make your own templars), but the elemental energy kept flowing. This was an explanation for why the magic wielded by templars (clerical/elemental) was different from that of the sorcerer-monarchs empowering them.

This could easily be extrapolated to sorcerer-monarchs forging links to their templars that they can't affect once forged. But I do think that should the sorcerer-monarch in question die, the energy should stop flowing unless they can find a new sugar parent. This was a huge plot point back in the day – the templars of Tyr only had their political and martial power to rely on once Kalak died, and the same applied to the templars of Draj, Raam, and Balic in the revised boxed set.

 

[Ruin Explorer]

In any case, in comparison the 4e/5e version of this is a mild suggestion to not use other races unless it mildly inconveniences you.

This just is simply factually not true.

Why say something that is so easy to prove isn't true? Can you explain?

Also rule 0 means the same was true in 2E lol.

 

[humble minion]

Back in 2e (I think this was as early as Dragon Kings, but I could be misremembering and can't be hedgehogged to check), the notion was that at some point some kind of weird beings had created some kind of metaphysical connection between the elemental planes and the sorcerer-monarchs which was used to empower their templars. The beings themselves had died out at this point (so no, becoming a level 20/20 defiler/psionicist and then starting on the path to dragonhood won't let you make your own templars), but the elemental energy kept flowing. This was an explanation for why the magic wielded by templars (clerical/elemental) was different from that of the sorcerer-monarchs empowering them.

This could easily be extrapolated to sorcerer-monarchs forging links to their templars that they can't affect once forged. But I do think that should the sorcerer-monarch in question die, the energy should stop flowing unless they can find a new sugar parent. This was a huge plot point back in the day – the templars of Tyr only had their political and martial power to rely on once Kalak died, and the same applied to the templars of Draj, Raam, and Balic in the revised boxed set.

Yeah, I think the principle was that Rajaat had bound these creatures to the sorcerer-kings in the Pristine Tower, and the procedure couldn’t be done again. It was a pretty transparent attempt to post-hoc justify why templars could cast clerical magic while the sorcerer-kings that granted templars power could not, of course. And now templars are warlocks and cast arcane magic, the need for that rationalisation seems to have largely disappeared.

And of course elsewhere in the DS lore, in Lynn Abbey’s books, you have Hamanu specifically aware of what spells his templars are using at any specific moment as they petition him for aid, and being able to withhold, grant, or alter the spells they use at his desire.

Which is just to say that the DS lore is a contradictory mess and any attempt to extract an authoritative version of ‘true canon’ from it is doomed to failure, so WotC and individual DMs shouldn’t be too afraid of updating or diverging from it to make a better game and story.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

It’s be nice if, when you aren’t willing to actually engage once challenged, you would just not reply to me on the topic which you aren’t willing to engage with.

It makes the interaction needlessly frustrating to no good end.

Mod Note:

Be the change you want to see on the boards.