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.

 

[SteveC]

I don't know how to tell you but these people were saying "we will never get Dark Sun Back because WotC/D&D had gone WOKE!" for YEARS, they have been this mad long before the actual process was even greenlighted.

And I don't know how to tell you this, but I've been on Enworld the whole time, and participated in those discussions. And I said the same thing: leave this to the fans and avoid this issue.

I don't know what WotC is going to do with the final product (or if there will even be one) but WotC has told us they want to remove "problematic" content. Okay, let's see what they end up with. Maybe instead of slave pits, they're going to turn the arenas into glorified Squid Games contests. Who knows, right? But as someone who played the original campaign, and smashed slavers and freed people as a thri-kreen, I hope they let us keep the bad guys as bad guys. And keep the cannibal halflings too.

 

[Zardnaar]

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.

Art wasn't the problem in 4E Darksun.

Shoehorning everything in like Dragonborn and Tieflings and the Arabian Night vibe in the fluff were worse.

I don't mind adding new stuff to old but a bit more respect and care.

Athas is prine location to add Genasi for example. And there were hints of similar beings in 2E product.

Same thing for Barbarian class. Easy fit. Sorcerers just need a DS subclass, Warlocks bit similar but not ideal as Templars imho 4E screwed that up espicially as they were arcane in that edition. Templars would essentially be war cleric in 5E rules with an optional origin.

 

[Chaltab]

Athas is prine location to add Henadi for example. And there were hints of similar beings in 2E product.

What are Henadi?

 

[Zardnaar]

What are Henadi?

Autocorrect Genasi

 

[Chaltab]

Thought I was about to get introduced to some rare D&D lore I'd never heard of.

 

[Zardnaar]

Thought I was about to get introduced to some rare D&D lore I'd never heard of.

Nah that's probably some obscure DS adventure or boxed set

 

[Nord Ronnoc]

Autocorrect Genasi

Well, I'm stealing the Henadi for... something!

 

[LuisCarlos17f]

The Athasian genasi were canon in 4e: ember, magma, sand and sun

The ancient rhustili didn't need biopunk technology to survive in the dessert but the rhul-tan from the Jagged Cliffs could investigate with the lifeshaping for example with a machina that purifies the water. This detail may be important because if SKs could use this technology then to feed the population of the city-states should be easier.

What about the paraelemental planes of sun, rain, magma and silt?

Other idea is beyond the cerulean storm there is a t'sa spaceship. They didn't really crashed but it is more complicated. Their spaceship was attacked by klicks (hostile aliens, like the zergs from Starcraft) and the spacejump motor was damaged. Something happened and now the spaceship is near of the cerulean storm. How can they survive? The design of the ship allows them to live in a zone with flood or earthquakes and they have technology for solar farms and lighting rods. The irony is the cerulean storm has defended the spaceship against attempts of attacks by other unit of kliks what survived.

* Would you allow elemental stewards (creatures from 3.5 complete psionic) in your DS game?

 

[Chaltab]

Honestly the main addition I made running Dark Sun was Shardminds. The idea was that a fragment of the Living Gate fell to Athas millions of years ago, before it was cut off from the rest of the multiverse, and getting burried deep underground. Though, a lot of it was blasted into fine dust and spread over the planet. Nearly everything on Athas has tiny fragments of the Living Gate in it, which is why Psionics and strange mutations are so prevalent.

And of course some larger fragments have awakened as Shardminds.

 

[Zardnaar]

The Athasian genasi were canon in 4e: ember, magma, sand and sun

The ancient rhustili didn't need biopunk technology to survive in the dessert but the rhul-tan from the Jagged Cliffs could investigate with the lifeshaping for example with a machina that purifies the water. This detail may be important because if SKs could use this technology then to feed the population of the city-states should be easier.

What about the paraelemental planes of sun, rain, magma and silt?

Other idea is beyond the cerulean storm there is a t'sa spaceship. They didn't really crashed but it is more complicated. Their spaceship was attacked by klicks (hostile aliens, like the zergs from Starcraft) and the spacejump motor was damaged. Something happened and now the spaceship is near of the cerulean storm. How can they survive? The design of the ship allows them to live in a zone with flood or earthquakes and they have technology for solar farms and lighting rods. The irony is the cerulean storm has defended the spaceship against attempts of attacks by other unit of kliks what survived.

* Would you allow elemental stewards (creatures from 3.5 complete psionic) in your DS game?

I woukd wind back to OBS and add stuff that makes sense.

Sidebars for adding extra things based in timeline. No dray for example unless you advance the timeline.

Generally I think you want 8-12 spotlight races. OBS ones add some that make sense eg Athasian Genasi.

Paraelemental clerics I think we're a mistake and I woikd probably do air, earth, fire, water domains. 8 is to many.