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.

 

[mamba]

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.

and yet the blurb says the defiler withers plants while the features never do that. My two complaints were entirely about the text in the UA, not about any relation to DS

If someone goes further in their feedback, then WotC should be able to handle that

 

[Not a Decepticon]

That they have woked Dark Sun into an all ages friendly fairy tale setting ?

Oh, it's easy. They will say that DS has been wokefied...

But that doesn't work when there is 4e Dark Sun, which famously gave everyone pants and introduced Dragonborn and Tieflings into the setting, so everything those people consider markings of "woke" in RPGs been there since last Dark Sun books.

 

[abazaba]

.

 

[Nikosandros]

But that doesn't work when there is 4e Dark Sun, which famously gave everyone pants and introduced Dragonborn and Tieflings into the setting, so everything those people consider markings of "woke" in RPGs been there since last Dark Sun books.

If we are talking about the same category of people, then facts don't really matter to them. Just always raising a stink and dog-whistling like mad.

 

[Phantom_Miria]

But that doesn't work when there is 4e Dark Sun, which famously gave everyone pants and introduced Dragonborn and Tieflings into the setting, so everything those people consider markings of "woke" in RPGs been there since last Dark Sun books.

I don't recall 4e Dark Sun giving everyone pants. The art probably never hit as hard as Brom's stuff but, well, nothing does and nothing will, and there's still plenty of muscled barbarians and alluring sorcerers in 4e art for Dark Sun as far as I know.

 

[SteveC]

If we are talking about the same category of people, then facts don't really matter to them. Just always raising a stink and dog-whistling like mad.

If this is where we are and we are only at the point of testing classes, wow is this going to be a controversial release. If everyone who doesn't like updating the world for Modern Audiences is in this camp, I'm going to take a long pass on the book, and on discussions of it too.

 

[LuisCarlos17f]

Now I am thinking about a fantasy punishment used by the SKs. The criminals suffer a special dark ritual to become elementals, and these used to animate magitek machines. The ritual doesn't work so good with the souls of innocents because after a short time of "penance" soon they recover their freedom. Let's imagine these elementals controling land-sailing vechicles crossing the dessert.

I guess you aren't going to follow the canon timeline but maybe you will wellcome the heroes from the novels.

I see you haven't suggested your own ideas for possible spin-off. For example the trope of crashed spaceship, this time the fraals, and the survivors had to ally with a tribe of crucians (the cousins of the tortles with a bad temper).

* If there isn't the standar divine magic in Athas... then this could be the perfect place to send some exiled divine power. These incarnations or avatars would be very powerful, but not more than the SKs. Even without divine magic they could become the leaders of new secret cults.

* A new idea is the souls of the Athasian sentient beings with a "good karma" can travel to the "land-within-the-wind" where they can live like almost-incorporeal feys or elementals. These souls when work together they can create "taints of fungus". Practically it is a harmless effect but it's a very important detail because this "spirit-fungus" can be used to heal zones damaged by the defiling magic.

* What if there is a shaman class with a special game mechanic for spirit-companions working like the 3.5 vestige-binder?

* Should metal and wood elemental clerics to be allowed in Athas, at least like a secret cult?

 

[overgeeked]

If we are talking about the same category of people, then facts don't really matter to them. Just always raising a stink and dog-whistling like mad.

If we could not lump anyone who likes old-school Dark Sun into the same category as dogwhistling racists that would be great.

 

[Nikosandros]

If we could not lump anyone who likes old-school Dark Sun into the same category as dogwhistling racists that would be great.

Yes, reading what I wrote would also be great. Since I wasn't talking about anyone but a very specific category of people of which there are very few here since they always end up banned.

 

[Nikosandros]

And, BTW, I also like old-school Dark Sun, even though I played only a little in it.