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.

 

[SkidAce]

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.

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Agreed. We had AD&D pixie as a PC. (Granted I learned a lot about what works and what doesnt)

 

[Paul Farquhar]

One way of dealing with preserving/defiling would be to keep track of Defilement Points for the party. These could have an effect on the large scale game - faction reputation, bastions etc (as well as making the players feel suitably guilty when they rack up a dozen Defilement Points whist trying to save the planet).

 

[FitzTheRuke]

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

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

The complaints generally seem to be about what isn't in either of those books (and the inflated price for the page-count) than what is in them. (Other than the totally borked Ship-to-Ship rules. What's there sucks, and what isn't there... is rules that are any good.)

 

[Kobold Avenger]

The complaints generally seem to be about what isn't in either of those books (and the inflated price for the page-count) than what is in them. (Other than the totally borked Ship-to-Ship rules. What's there sucks, and what isn't there... is rules that are any good.)

Too many are complaining about a really detailed cosmology which the original Planescape Boxed Set never had.

The original 2e Boxed Set's coverage of the rest of the multiverse was roughly equivalent to the material in the current DMG about the multiverse. 5e Planescape is definitely meant to use the DMG to cover the rest of the multiverse. There is no book that's a "Manual of Planes" in WotC's 5e product line so far.

 

[overgeeked]

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.

The trouble is the “Bad Guys” always just happen to be whoever gets in the PCs’ way.

The term murderhobo exists for a reason. Prisoners never seem to survive. Shops and businesses get robbed or burned down. People are tortured for information. Entire sentient species are labeled evil so they can be slaughtered en masse.

Just the few I could think of. The list of ways most PCs are overwhelmingly evil is much, much longer.

 

[Azzy]

The trouble is the “Bad Guys” always just happen to be whoever gets in the PCs’ way.

The term murderhobo exists for a reason. Prisoners never seem to survive. Shops and businesses get robbed or burned down. People are tortured for information. Entire sentient species are labeled evil so they can be slaughtered en masse.

Just the few I could think of. The list of ways most PCs are overwhelmingly evil is much, much longer.

That doesn't sound like the games that I've experienced.

 

[SkidAce]

The trouble is the “Bad Guys” always just happen to be whoever gets in the PCs’ way.

The term murderhobo exists for a reason. Prisoners never seem to survive. Shops and businesses get robbed or burned down. People are tortured for information. Entire sentient species are labeled evil so they can be slaughtered en masse.

Just the few I could think of. The list of ways most PCs are overwhelmingly evil is much, much longer.

Agreed that all those thing can happen. But not to extent you imply. It really depends on individual groups, and you always hear about the horror stories.

No shops burnt down here.

 

[LuisCarlos17f]

We could see a "Wanderer's guide of the Shatered Lands" with a chapter about geography and the city-states, other chapter about PC species and the rest a monster compedium.

Other option could be a generic sourcebook about post-apocaliptic campaigns and Athas would be only a chapter. This would introduce a magitek version of Gamma World, with rules about mutations, monsters, PC species and magitek.

Here there is a serious risk if new player options (PC species or subclasses) are released after DS 5e... Should these be allowed or banned? For example the asheranti and the bukha from 3.5 Sandstorm, or the tutle-like crucians.

* Other idea is thanks dessert mirages the dune-travelers can visit certain secret zones in the plane of the mirror. The good new is there you can find enough water and potential food to feed a great city. The bad new is you can't settle for a long time everything will be devastated by a cyclic catastrophic storm. Then the main groups are massive caravans always migrating. If they are lucky they can be in a zone almost a decade.

* I am not going to apologize about killing evil guys. If those gnolls listened reggaeton then they had to be terminated without mercy, and besides they spoilered me the end of the last season of Games of Thrones.

 

[overgeeked]

Agreed that all those thing can happen. But not to extent you imply. It really depends on individual groups, and you always hear about the horror stories.

No shops burnt down here.

Those are all examples from games I've played in or run. I'm usually the odd man out asking if we can find a better way to deal with things while the rest of the group delights in slaughter. That's been consistent across over 40+ years of play.

 

[SkidAce]

Those are all examples from games I've played in or run. I'm usually the odd man out asking if we can find a better way to deal with things while the rest of the group delights in slaughter. That's been consistent across over 40+ years of play.

I hear yah, our experience is similar but results seem to differ.