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.

 

[Ruin Explorer]

Right, 5 huge regions that are subregions of a gigantic continent. Comparison:

• Tablelands of Athas: 100-120,000 square miles, like a large Western State of the U.S., the whole Setting in fact
• Calimshan: about 224,000 square miles, so approaching the size of Texas or the Ukraine
• The Moonshae Isles: about 100,000 square miles, somewhere between the size of Michigan and Iceland
• the Dalelands: about 258,000 square miles, the size of Texas or the Ukraine.
• Icewind Dale: sort of the exception here, being a 3,600 mile area, or about the size category of Delaware, Azerbaijan or Kosovo...though with undefined wilderness ess boundaries beyond.
• Baldur's Gate: depends on how they do this, the city is about a third of a mile squared, BG3 covers about 20 square miles (or about a San Marino), the original game is over 20,000 square miles (or about Bosnia, West Virginia, or Croatia)...but the Western Heartlands are really big.

So, point being, the FR covers at least 3 areas in-depth fairly similar to the entirety of Dark Sun in scope, let alone the rest of Faerûn which is also covered briefly. I would expect less Gazateer material than all of that for the Tablelands.

Yeah, I get that. It would be nice: but with a much more concise Setting I could see an excellent single book rendition being very plausible.

Whilst I am sure your size comparisons are correct I would suggest that Dark Sun, as a setting, is more detailed and complex than those five regions typically are in the FR. The last time we got real turbo detail on them was what, 2E? The actual size doesn't really inherently matter, I would suggest, because you can go into insane detail on a single town or be vague about a Pangaean mega continent

Also wow are they really doing the Moonshaes in detail, not the Moonsea region or is that a typo? Because that'd be a hell of a choice lol. The Moonsea is the absolute heart of the FR in many ways (yes yes I know) maybe moreso than the Sword Coast or the Dales even, and skipping it in favour of Jaunty Celtomania Theme Park Land (with a side order of stereotypical Vikings) is... brave lol.

 

[Parmandur]

Tomb of Annihilation as well! What a menace lol!

It's not impossible with De Armas and Armin I agree. They might be able to handle it and even keep slavery (hopefully steering hard away from US South vibes more towards Roman vibes). But it is a bit believe it when I see it!

Edit - Ironically I think slavery is still a poor fit for Dark Sun because the scarcity-based society means slaves (especially big butch 5000 calorie a day types!) are less likely to be economically efficient as compared to a brutalized underclass or serfs or similar, who you don't have to feed, clothe, provide water and health care for and so on, and can just horrifically underpay or overtax because they're desperate.

I think slavery would work fine with modern sensibilities if the framework is similar to the 4E assumption of PCs being based out of the revolutionary state of the Free City of Tyr opposed to the villainy of the Sorcerer Kings.

 

[UngainlyTitan]

Tomb of Annihilation as well! What a menace lol!

It's not impossible with De Armas and Armin I agree. They might be able to handle it and even keep slavery (hopefully steering hard away from US South vibes more towards Roman vibes). But it is a bit believe it when I see it!

Edit - Ironically I think slavery is still a poor fit for Dark Sun because the scarcity-based society means slaves (especially big butch 5000 calorie a day types!) are less likely to be economically efficient as compared to a brutalized underclass or serfs or similar, who you don't have to feed, clothe, provide water and health care for and so on, and can just horrifically underpay or overtax because they're desperate.

That is a very astute point. The Romans reduced their dependence on slaves in the early empire period due the 3 major servile wars in the previous century (of which Spartacus was only the last). The with no major conquest in the empire era, slave got too expensive and the security costs too high.

 

[Parmandur]

Whilst I am sure your size comparisons are correct I would suggest that Dark Sun, as a setting, is more detailed and complex than those five regions typically are in the FR. The last time we got real turbo detail on them was what, 2E? The actual size doesn't really inherently matter, I would suggest, because you can go into insane detail on a single town or be vague about a Pangaean mega continent

Well, yes, certainly, as can seen by Baldur's Gate and Icewind Dale being far more "zoomed in" than the other three, although all five are getting 30-40 pages of focused gazateer in the new DM book. I have no doubt that the Tablelands could get more than 30-40 pages...but then again, maybe not much more? I would expect a detailed breakdown of Tyr as a home-based, but not quite as much on the rest of it.

Also wow are they really doing the Moonshaes in detail, not the Moonsea region or is that a typo? Because that'd be a hell of a choice lol. The Moonsea is the absolute heart of the FR in many ways (yes yes I know) maybe moreso than the Sword Coast or the Dales even, and skipping it in favour of Jaunty Celtomania Theme Park Land (with a side order of stereotypical Vikings) is... brave lol.

The whole offering is getting a player side writeup in the Heroes Guide, and there is player material focused on the 8 Facrions including the Zhentarim (each Faction gets a Bsckground and benefits for Relnown growth, we know at least the Purple Dragon Knight Renowkn leads to a dragon egg...), but the 5 areas getting DM side in depth Gazaterss include the Moonshae Isle, NOT the Moonsea (too close to the Dalelands, too thematically like Baldur’s Gate?). The material for the Moonshaes apparently focuses on the Feywild, soooo..yeah, expect a lot of American Celtish stuff and twee Fairies...

 

[Ruin Explorer]

Well, yes, certainly, as can seen by Baldur's Gate and Icewind Dale being far more "zoomed in" than the other three, although all five are getting 30-40 pages of focused gazateer in the new DM book. I have no doubt that the Tablelands could get more than 30-40 pages...but then again, maybe not much more? I would expect a detailed breakdown of Tyr as a home-based, but not quite as much on the rest of it.

The whole offering is getting a player side writeup in the Heroes Guide, and there is player material focused on the 8 Facrions including the Zhentarim (each Faction gets a Bsckground and benefits for Relnown growth, we know at least the Purple Dragon Knight Renowkn leads to a dragon egg...), but the 5 areas getting DM side in depth Gazaterss include the Moonshae Isle, NOT the Moonsea (too close to the Dalelands, too thematically like Baldur’s Gate?). The material for the Moonshaes apparently focuses on the Feywild, soooo..yeah, expect a lot of American Celtish stuff and twee Fairies...

Oh wow they're going for it huh? Damn lol. I don't hate the idea but god the levels of twee may be Chernobyl-like! Calimshan is good to see as it often gets vagued pretty hard but is theoretically very important to the Realms.

 

[kermit4karate]

On a simple factual level, with no judgement, the current US government doesn't disapprove of mentioning slavery. It disapproves of saying it is a very bad thing.

I'd love to continue this conversation, but it would absolutely become political. You lost me right there above, and that is unfortunately exactly where this would go political.

 

[Parmandur]

Oh wow they're going for it huh? Damn lol. I don't hate the idea but god the levels of twee may be Chernobyl-like! Calimshan is good to see as it often gets vagued pretty hard but is theoretically very important to the Realms.

For Calimshan, they brought in an expert, Dr. Shahreena Shahrani (who has also done work for Paizo recently), to remake it as a viable and representative Arabic Setting.

Unfortunately, as someone with three translatuons of the Mabinogion on my shelf and a near-Minor in Celtic Studies, I doubt they are doing similar groundwork for the Moonshaes.

 

[LuisCarlos17f]

My last idea is we have been tricked and before the blue age there was the turquoise age, with more oceans than in the green age, but less than in blue age. It ended because there was a divine war and the winner was "Patriarch Ocean". Then the brown tide was caused intentionally to hurt Patriach Ocean.

The Phyrexians from Magic the Gathering could survive in the other Athasian continents, couldn't them? If there were fiends in another Athasian continent, could these be preys of the demonhive (3.5 MMIV)?

What if there is a "fake Athasian timeline"? Athas becomes the hiding place of several factions of chronomancers. Then to avoid possible time paradoxes or rewritte of the original History a demiplane is created to pretend being the original "sacred timeline". The irony is the timeline where everything is fixed is being fixed is becoming the Athasian version of the Heaven or upper plane. Other timeline is even worse, like hell on earth, not only fiends but plagues of poisonou plants, and plant monsters, that are totally inmune to defiler magic. Let's imagine Poison Ivy(Batman's enemy) ruling an infernal domain.

I would add to Athas 5e more populations and farm zones, and I would stop human sacrifices in industrial scale.

Other idea would be the "mirage zones", when you go to certain places during specific dates, you can find planar portals to alternate Athas. The bad news are some mirage zones are ruled by other sorcerer-kings, and these want to conquer "your" region of Tyr.

 

[UngainlyTitan]

That is a very astute point. The Romans reduced their dependence on slaves in the early empire period due the 3 major servile wars in the previous century (of which Spartacus was only the last). The with no major conquest in the empire era, slave got too expensive and the security costs too high.

Just wanted to add to my post, I do not know when it started but I remember reading that a lot of the farmers in western Europe that became serfs in the early feudal era were originally Roman citizens but their citizenships was conditional to remaining working the land they had been given.
This would appear to have been one of the ways the Romans kept an agrarian population while sidestepping slavery.

 

[Parmandur]

Just wanted to add to my post, I do not know when it started but I remember reading that a lot of the farmers in western Europe that became serfs in the early feudal era were originally Roman citizens but their citizenships was conditional to remaining working the land they had been given.
This would appear to have been one of the ways the Romans kept an agrarian population while sidestepping slavery.

It basically was a barter system for rent: pay the landlord with labor instead of cash. A lot of it ended up being essentially "rent-controlled", which was a part of the system that landlords were eager to replace with uncontrolled cash relationships in the Early Modern era...but that is getting into the weeds about politics at that point.

But back to Dark Sun: it is interesting that Dark Sun seems like it will hit the market around the same time as Brotherwise Games brings the Mistborn RPG to stores, given that the Final Empire setting is about rebels and thieves resisting the regime of an evil enslaver Sorcerer king/demigod.