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.

 

[LuisCarlos17f]

If my memory doesn't fail, I read Brom stopped to work for TSR becuse he was asked to do only DS art.

In my game the templars were divine spellcasters.

If Vecna wanted to cause troubles in Ravenloft to take revengue against the Dark Powers Kalidnay could be a "weak point" where to attack. And this could cause the creation of an Athasian version of the demiplane of the dread with new city-states and SKs.

I don't like the rest of Athas could be "visited" by PCs because ordinary biological life can't survive there.

Now I am remembering the revenants could be a PC specie/race in 4e, and then these could survive the necrotic damage in the Athasian deathlands.

 

[overgeeked]

In my game the templars were divine spellcasters.

In the fiction and the earlier editions as well.

Templars as one of the few divine casters in Dark Sun is a really big deal.

 

[pukunui]

In the fiction and the earlier editions as well.

Templars as one of the few divine casters in Dark Sun is a really big deal.

Yeah, I mean, in the original box set, they're come under Priest along with clerics and druids.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

This is my very personal interpretation of course, and not everyone may agree with it, but for me the core theme of Dark Sun is always that power has a price, and how you pay that price and who you pay that price to, matters.

Defilers steal life force from others and from the world to pay for their power. Preservers skim a little off the top, but deliberately choose to handbrake themselves and limit their own power relative to defilers, in order to avoid that sort of rampant destruction. Druids draw their power from their lands, and pay for it in protection, guardianship, and the sweat and labour of cultivation and care. Clerics strike bargains with the tortured shrieking Athasian elemental spirits for power, and in return are obliged to promote and purify ‘their’ element. Templars choose to serve an evil tyrannical monster in exchange for their power, and of them is demanded obedience and the subjugation of one’s own conscience to one’s master. If a Templar can make that pact and then simply nope out while still retaining their power, for me personally it undermines that whole ‘what did you sacrifice?’ question for them.

Of course, the because this is Dark Sun the lore is inconsistent - psionicists draw upon their own inner discipline for power and give up basically nothing. But in general…

I guess I can see that, but it seems like it completely kneecaps any character development that isn’t a huge mechanical pain the butt for such characters, making it basically just not worth bothering to play. Meanwhile, the Templar that works against their patron is an actual story, with a character that has an actual conflict baked into their character, including a powerful enemy.

 

[Kurotowa]

If my memory doesn't fail, I read Brom stopped to work for TSR becuse he was asked to do only DS art.

I wouldn't be surprised. Some artists hit their groove and stick with it, but a lot of them have a drive to try new things and get really creative. I was just reading an interview with the director of Devil May Cry 5, who left Capcom because all they wanted him to do was make Devil May Cry 6. He said to himself "I'm 55 years old, each of these games takes four or five years to make, if I don't get out there and try my hand at brand new games now I'm going to be too old for it soon." So he quit Capcom and went to a small studio so he could do something new and different.

Brom getting pigeon holed as "The Dark Sun Guy" must have really cramped his style.

 

[Chaltab]

When I was running a Dark Sun game in 5E I made a big chart of every class and subclass that showed which ones preserved, defiled, or neither.

I actually just had Sorcerers not exist as a class except a Defiler in the setting actually invented one rather like the new UA by running experiments on normies. Instead of hit dice, the class burned literal days off their own life each time they cast a spell--a day per spell level.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

If my memory doesn't fail, I read Brom stopped to work for TSR becuse he was asked to do only DS art.

Doesn't mean he couldn't be persuaded to return, especially if presented with an opportunity to do a different take.

He is only 60.

They got Tony DiTerlizzi back to do at least a little art for the new Planescape.

 

[Mecheon]

If I had a player who was dead set on playing an aasimar or similar race that didn’t exist in ‘traditional’ Dark Sun, that’s 100% how I’d do it. Make them a unique Pristine Tower mutate. Of course, if the player wants to play a gnome because they love gnome culture and gnome society and have written a backstory full of their large extended gnome family of cheery wacky clockwork inventors … that would be a bigger problem. But that’s a session zero issue.

Also I do think its worth noting that a lot of the races that even the 4E stuff says don't exist in Athas? They..,.. Kind of exist in Athas or at least have 'close enough' equivalents.

Like, let's just admit it: Tarek are just orcs

 

[Zardnaar]

Yeah, I mean, in the original box set, they're come under Priest along with clerics and druids.

Priests but not divine.

 

[Ruin Explorer]

I should ask you that… it’s right there “You might be the only one of your kind in the world, but there is no reason you can’t play the character you want to play”, “It’s possible to find individual members - or even small enclaves - of <all the races that are not part of the setting>”

Contrast this with 2e’s explicit list of races and guideline "The notes given on roleplaying each race are also very important, since a character earns additional individual experience point awards when played according to these racial descriptions"


sure, they could be added, but the book did not say anything remotely like the above, which is all I did say

Like I said, this is to me staggeringly petty. It's just explicit vs. implicit - there's nothing more to it.

The RP thing is totally meaningless waffle because it's just not how 5E does XP. It's like getting mad because 5E doesn't have THAC0 or something. It doesn't support your argument at all.

Honestly, I like the setting quite a bit, but I feel like anyone who really thinks that “no gnomes” or “no orcs” are vital elements of the setting is mistaken.

Yeah I think there's a big difference between "these are the major species and cultures of the setting", and "OMG IF EVEN ONE ORC EXISTED THE SETTING WOULD BE RUINED!!!". I think if you started just slapping in all the standard D&D races/classes/subclasses etc. as having a significant presence in the setting, then you would be making something that wasn't Dark Sun, because it's a more focused setting. But individuals created by magic or even small enclaves or the like? That's not really an issue, and also it's been something that's happened all the time even with official TSR/WotC books.

I think it's good to lay out what's intended because it makes it a lot easier to get everyone on the same page for character generation and so on. If you don't take a stance on what species are "typical" in a setting like this, you're likely to get the usual random selection of weirdoes, even if the group is happy to allow non-standard ones, whereas I think it tends to be a bit more compelling is people focus on stuff that's more specific (it'd be helpful to have Athas-specific subraces here).