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.

 

[pemerton]

From memory, slavery in Dark Sun is not racialised. So I'm not sure why it is being said to more closely resemble US than classical Roman slavery. Roman slavery was chattel slavery, involved frequent sexual violence against enslaved women, etc.

 

[Zardnaar]

The problem is that we again are seeing one part of a tapestry and assuming we have seen it all. For example, the PDK was derided for not matching 2e Cormyr lore without knowing about the background (and feat) the new lore (still a mystery, but clearly the knights are bigger than just Cormyr). I wager when the books come out and people get the full context, we'll get what wotc was doing with the subclass. By then it will be too late.

We don't know the sum and total of defiling and preserving. We have seen two subclasses that focus on them, but like the PDK, we don't know what other mechanics (feats, backgrounds, spells) tie into them nor do we know what changes are being done. We know two subclasses and are inferring the rest based on outdated lore and occasionally incorrect recollections of them. You aren't there to veto the lore, you're their to see if that mechanical expression "feels" like a defiler.

 

[Zardnaar]

The problem is that we again are seeing one part of a tapestry and assuming we have seen it all. For example, the PDK was derided for not matching 2e Cormyr lore without knowing about the background (and feat) the new lore (still a mystery, but clearly the knights are bigger than just Cormyr). I wager when the books come out and people get the full context, we'll get what wotc was doing with the subclass. By then it will be too late.

We don't know the sum and total of defiling and preserving. We have seen two subclasses that focus on them, but like the PDK, we don't know what other mechanics (feats, backgrounds, spells) tie into them nor do we know what changes are being done. We know two subclasses and are inferring the rest based on outdated lore and occasionally incorrect recollections of them. You aren't there to veto the lore, you're their to see if that mechanical expression "feels" like a defiler.

I'm not to worried at this point. I pay very little attention to playtest material. Its on Beyond now do it excludes me in any event.

I'll wait for final product. If it meets my expectations I'll buy it. If not it can stay on the shelf like Dragonlance, Spelljammer and Planescape.

 

[LuisCarlos17f]

I am Spanish and here I imagine slaves like characters from a vintage sword&sandal movies.

I also missed bariaurs and other new PC species in the update of Planescape.

* What if there is a ready protocol to resurrect a SK after this to be killed? Even if Kalak lost a level he would be still a dangerous enemy after to be ressurected. But there is some possibility agents of other SKs were sent to sabotage that protocol.

* Now I imagine archivists (3.5 Heroes of Horror) working like "templars without armour" for SKs but more focused into healing for the citizens and "desk work".

* How to explain the origin of Athasian devas/aasimars if these are now a core PC specie?

* What if after the fall of Kalak any templars could cast divine magic thanks a new no-evil patron?

* Other idea is arcane spellcasters instead defiling can use shadow or cerulean storm like energy sources but the secondary effects may be different, like a mystic Russian roulette some times, like mutations or radomly summoned weird elemental with hostile intentions.

 

[mamba]

We don't know the fiction. We are making guesses based on what we THINK the fiction is based on older editions and a short blurb.

we can certainly use those, that basically is what the blurb is for to begin with. WotC can then decide what to do with the feedback.

Also, saying a druid restoring some area for a minute is not really doing anything remotely useful or akin to what you would expect a preserver to do is definitely valid, no matter the fiction beyond that.

Same with the defiler, the blurb talks about withering plant life but it never shows up anywhere in the mechanics. I don’t need a doctor in DS lore to see a disconnect there

 

[MonsterEnvy]

Don’t know why people are suddenly down on Planescape that was good.

Spelljammer’s problem was it’s length over it’s content.

 

[mamba]

I wager when the books come out and people get the full context, we'll get what wotc was doing with the subclass. By then it will be too late.

if WotC is incapable of 1) presenting the proper context for the class in the UA or 2) figuring out what feedback to use in which way based on what they provided and what the feedback says, then WotC has no one to blame but themselves

There certainly is no point in those giving feedback to self-censor the feedback or trying to second-guess what feedback they should be giving to ‘trick’ WotC into releasing a version they hopefully like.

Give your honest feedback and let WotC worry about the rest. If that somehow does not work then WotC should rethink their approach

You aren't there to veto the lore, you're their to see if that mechanical expression "feels" like a defiler.

it doesn’t, because they are not withering plants when even the little blurb says they do

 

[pukunui]

You aren't there to veto the lore, you're their to see if that mechanical expression "feels" like a defiler.

I'm not vetoing the lore. I'm telling them that their so-called defiler is mechanically something else. Despite their little nod to withering plants in the opening description, there is nothing about environmental damage in the subclass' mechanics. It's entirely focused on drawing magical power from your own life force and that of other creatures. If they billed this as a blood mage and released it for Ravenloft, that would be great. But as a defiler for Dark Sun? It completely misses the mark.

 

[pemerton]

saying a druid restoring some area for a minute is not really doing anything remotely useful or akin to what you would expect a preserver to do is definitely valid, no matter the fiction beyond that.

It's more about being a guardian of the land than a preserver, isn't it? So the issue is not so much that it's a druid restoring an area, but that it's mislabelled.

There's also the issue that this doesn't really count as restoring the land - "nonmagical vegetation native to the region sprouts on ground within the Cube. This vegetation disappears when the effect ends" - but that seems to be more a particular manifestation of a general trend in 5e D&D, to go for relatively superficial colour over profound effects.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

Sigh. You could make the same argument about the setting as a whole. That's the problem.

"I don't want this at my table" is all too often translated to "this shouldn't exist in the game at all."

Nope. They can exist just fine as monster types. A great many things exist in D&D worlds that cannot be PCs.