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.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

Because everything (it sure feels like) is filtered through an American bias.

D&D is Americana. It doesn't exist in a cultural vacuum. Other countries have their own take (e.g. Warhammer).

 

[SableWyvern]

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

I hold a fundamentally opposite position. Nothing exists that can't be a PC; all it takes is for a given group to decide they want it as a PC and a willingness to make it so.

That, of course, doesn't mean that everything must have official support for PCifying it, which I would guess is the point you're trying to make, but I do think the ability to make your game anything you want is one of the fundamental strengths of the hobby, and I tend to jump and and down a bit whenever I see wording that implies otherwise.

 

[mamba]

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.

how they address the feedback is up to WotC, but a druid ‘restoring’ the land for a minute would be better off doing literally anything else to restore the land, if the goal was to actually restore / improve it

There's also the issue that this doesn't really count as restoring the land

absolutely agree, it’s a waste of time. The only reason to ever do this is anything else the feature does. A druid telling you they are restoring the land with this is lying to you.

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.

yes, a trend I absolutely hate. Nothing is allowed to actually have consequences, it is just there for minimal flavor

 

[Alzrius]

I hold a fundamentally opposite position. Nothing exists that can't be a PC; all it takes is for a given group to decide they want it as a PC and a willingness to make it so.

Very well said. It's worth noting that this idea goes all the way back to the beginning of the hobby, being found on page 8 of the "Men & Magic" booklet of the original 1974 D&D boxed set.

 

[Thagdal]

That's correct. Borys appears to have first been named in the novel The Prism Pentad Book 2: The Crimson Legion (April 1992), but isn't mentioned in a game product until The Complete Gladiator's Handbook (June 1993), which is literally just a single mention. Even the Dragon Kings (May 1992) hardcover refers to him at just "The Dragon of Tyr".

Also named (has a card as a fairly weak monster champion) in the spellfire darksun boosters in '94

 

[Alzrius]

Also named (has a card as a fairly weak monster champion) in the spellfire darksun boosters in '94

Pedantic nitpick: Dark Sun didn't have a dedicated booster line in the Spellfire CCG (unlike, say, the Forgotten Realms), and Borys was a part of the initial set of cards printed for the game (305/1st).

 

[LuisCarlos17f]

Now I am thinking about time-traveling in Athas. Let's imagine a crononaut from the future travels to the past to warn, but the one who listen her warning chooses that can't be avoided and then he kills the time-travel... what if this murderer becomes in a dark lord like Thakok-an?

In other worlds the History can't be altered by the time-travelers because the gods and the chronomancer guilds work to avoid it, but in Athas only the sorcerer-kings could stop the changes by the time-travelers.

Other point is the possible level of damage by the Brown Tide in the end of the Bue Age within the Athasian Feywild, the "land-within-the-wind". Maybe there is a "layer" that is like Athas in the blue age, at least a part of the original biosphere that could be useful in the future for the recovery of Athas after the end of the SKs.

Other idea is an "Athasian Heaven", but this celestial plane some times is invaded and conquerer by some outsider faction, and when this happens their is a "planar shaterring" and the "tainted zone" is sent toward the Grey, working like a demiplane that could be explored by PCs.

* Will you put the "psionic" PC species (dromites, elans, xephs and maenads) in your Athas 5e if these are updated?

* Now I am imagining in Athas like an update of the incarnum soulborn. It would work with some touchs of monster-summoner and binder. The soulborn would summon an incarnation like the soulmeld "soulspark". This summoned creature also could work like a biopunk simbiont exosuit.

 

[Remathilis]

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

WotC is being too cute by half. You notice no The Dark Sun related verbiage appears anywhere in the "Classes of the Apocalypse" UA? They don't even call it Dark Sun when we all know it's Dark Sun because they don't want people comparing it to old Dark Sun. People are going to people, but the point was not to see how this feels as a concept with 30 year old lore, but how it feels as now.
Maybe UA should start being more specific with their products. I can certainly understand the desire to not give away huge amounts of material as UA (esp lore or mechanics that aren't the subject of scrutiny) but the fan reaction is always to assume that what we know is the full picture when we know nothing.
I chalk it up to the D&D community being full of homebrewer DMs who fancy themselves game designers.

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

And that is a valid criticism. I made that one myself. Same with preserver plants only lasting for the effect length. What i don't feel is helpful is things like "the subclass doesn't match how preserving [or defiling] was presented in 2e" because we don't know if that's the only thing preserving or defiling is. We know that's one aspect. I think it would be wise to approach things like this as "this doesn't feel like it is doing enough to capture the feel of the preserver or defiler" vs "this isn't what 2e said they were."

 

[Graylion2018]

So ... unfortunately I cannot read the 93 pages in between. I read , 2, 92, 93 and I would guess my comments have been echoed many times over.

I have loved Dark Sun since I first touched it for the grim and gritty off the beaten path world building. Nothing was left untouched or not defiled. Yet there was a small glimmer of hope for the spark of resistance and rebellion. I also love the push that psionics gained from Dark Sun / The Will and the Way.

So when I saw this my heart skipped a beat. Both with concern and excitement. Would I love to have Dark Sun return? Absolutely! However not if it is Dark Sun in logo only. Dark Sun is a brutal land with consequences. A grim and mature story that most likely does not fit the current branding or the skill to present these themes without silting them down.

If this is an attempt to provide some flavor options and some type of apocalyptic source book that is not Dark Sun it would be interesting. And could be fun options for new and veteran players of 5e. But it would not be Dark Sun.

Hope we learn more about this within our current Kings Age.

 

[SkidAce]

Okay. So they need to bin D&D. The core playloop of D&D is endless slaughter. That's a Bad Guy™ playstyle. The Good Guys™ don't endlessly murder anyone and everyone that gets in their way. And yet, that's the core of D&D...and has been since 1974.

I feel you might be exaggerating for effect a little bit.

We never have played "endlessly murder anyone and everyone that gets in their way"

But we do kill Bad Guys.