Dungeons & Dragons releases Villainous Options playtest

Wizards of the Coast has released a new playtest featuring four new "villainous" subclasses, along with two more feat paths designed to transform characters into either a lich or a death knight. Today, Wizards released a new "Villainous Options" Unearthed Arcana. The new document contains four subclasses - a Pestilence Domain Cleric, a Circle of the Titan Druid, a Hell Knight Fighter, and a Demonic Sorcerer, alongside feat paths intended to slowly transform a player character into either a lich or a death knight. While previous D&D books have brought back the concept of mini-feat trees, these villainous paths are intended to be used at every opportunity a feat can be taken.

The Pestilence Domain cleric's core ability allows it to confer exhaustion levels on opponents via use of Channel Divinity. Enemies who die while having one or more Exhaustion level can explode and inflict necrotic damage on others. The capstone ability allows the Cleric to transform into a swarm of pestilence-infused pests.

The Circle of the Titan Druid has a Wild Shape ability that transforms them into various kinds of kaiju-esque monsters, which eventually become gargantuan in size.

The Hell Knight Fighter deals extra Infernal damage that varies in type depending on the ability and eventually transforms foes into minor devils upon their death.

The Demonic Sorcerer likewise grants various kinds of sorcerer abilities Abyssal effects, culminating in the ability to summon a demon to the battlefield once per day for free.

The path feats are interesting - both culminate with a feat that can only be taken at Level 12 or higher and requires a player to have at least two other feats from the feat path. Death Knights gain a pool of Death Points that fuel various abilities, while the Lich gains a Soul Jar and eventually gains the mechanical benefits of being a lich.

The playtest is open now, with a playtest survey launching next week.

 

[Scribe]

Okay, I like Feat paths as a design idea.

But I don't see how the content of this UA will ever appeal to a majority of tables? This is essentially gaming material for evil PCs (expect maybe the Titan Druid). Back in the day, when the Book of Vile Darkness was published, NPCs were built the same way as PCs. So the content of the book made sense for the DM. Today, this is clearly player-facing. I am already meeting a lot of DMs saying: no way the Scion of Three rogue makes it to their table. I don't see Hell Knight, Demon Sorcerer or Pestilence domain making the way into actual play on a lot of tables. This feels very niche.

If the arts halfway decent and Wizards leans into this I may buy it just to support some actual diversity in what they are offering.

 

[JamesLFlowers]

The Hell Knight Fighter seems like a toned down version of the Illrigger without all the cool options that make that class fun. Playing an "evil" character in a world of good is a lot of fun. Fighting on the side of good against Evil A because it furthers the goals of the Evil B you serve.

 

[Misanthrope Prime]

Here's another villainous option I could see them rolling out: use the feat path system to let players become Athasian Dragons if they are truly working on a Dark Sun book

 

[saviirkad]

The thing here is that although the Titans are niche outside combat (there are uses for turning into giant flying monsters that are strong enough to carry people and giant siege attackers) this is a druid; it has wild shape, familiars, and one of the best out of combat spell lists. When a fighter or barbarian subclass has basically no use out of combat I'm going to pass but I don't mind it so much for druids.

My issue isn't that Druid has no use out of combat, I just mean these specific features of the subclass are designed for combat but the drawbacks are enough to discourage their use. The mention of non-combat usage is just about whether I can get enough alternative use to make up for it.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

Combat isn’t just about how much damage you do when you punch things.

 

[SkidAce]

I like that they included some narrative requirements for the DK and Lich paths. Though I can easily see players just passing over them and taking the feat as part of the level-up process without any actual action taken in-game to do so (other than gaining levels). "Oh yeah I'm level 16 and now am a lich." "What? You didn't do anything to get it!" "I took the feats."

saves versus DM glare, at disadvantage...

 

[WhatTheEyeSees]

My issue isn't that Druid has no use out of combat, I just mean these specific features of the subclass are designed for combat but the drawbacks are enough to discourage their use. The mention of non-combat usage is just about whether I can get enough alternative use to make up for it.

You can do double damage to buildings and are not slowed down by rubble. I am pretty sure you can use them out of combat if no-one shows up to stop the rampage as well.

 

[jmartkdr2]

I like that they included some narrative requirements for the DK and Lich paths. Though I can easily see players just passing over them and taking the feat as part of the level-up process without any actual action taken in-game to do so (other than gaining levels). "Oh yeah I'm level 16 and now am a lich." "What? You didn't do anything to get it!" "I took the feats."

On the other hand - Hell Knight to Death Knight is a really obvious progression, and the subclass certainly qualifies as making a deal with an evil entity.

 

[Kurotowa]

I'm seeing some corners of the Internet debate the Titan Druid's relatively weak AC. And after thinking about it and looking over the stat blocks... I think that's a case of the flavor and the mechanics being at odds.

Flavor wise, the Titan Forms are giant monsters that you expect to be big and tough and going blow for blow on the front line. But mechanics wise... they're relatively squishy, but all come with Reach. You're expected to be standing behind the front line martials and swinging over their heads, or making Flyby attacks with the Insectoid form.

Mechanically, I think that's a fine niche. I've already spoken my piece about how hard it is to balance Druids shapeshifting into more martially inclined forms. But I can totally see why a lot of people were expecting it to be a tankier option, given the flavor.

 

[Weiley31]

And another thing, if our Types are changing to Undead via these paths, that means WoTC needs to get comfortable with like the negative downsides to pursuing these paths. Undead can't exactly benefit from healing per se(easy fix since playable constructs have that clause that lets a small number of healing spells affect em).


Again, there need to be sidebars that state "you're a newly made/minted lich/death knight/whatever and your body can still benefit/has some differences from the main mcoy due to such a recent transformation."

That will help avoid a lot of nitpicks/details that will confuse people or cause people to moan and groan. (And I'm usually not one to do so).