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.

 

[MonsterEnvy]

I am pretty cool on most of Death Knight it’s mainly about giving the powers in the Death Knight statblock.

Maybe have one of the feats give Necrotic damage on a hit.

 

[Maxperson]

I voted everything grass green. Hopefully that's enough to offset someone's vote so we don't get yet another great idea sacrificed to the altar of cranky DMs who then complain how WotC takes no chances.

So did I. The only things I voted yellow on were a few individual abilities I thought should be done a bit differently. I gave nothing red.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

Maybe have one of the feats give Necrotic damage on a hit.

It does, with Wrathful Smite. Remember a monster Death Knight is only going to make around six swings in the entire game, wheras a PC makes hundreds. A power build could be making four or more attacks per turn. So you need to limit the number of uses of an ability on a PC when you don't on a monster.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

I voted everything grass green. Hopefully that's enough to offset someone's vote so we don't get yet another great idea sacrificed to the altar of cranky DMs who then complain how WotC takes no chances.

Hellknight has no great ideas and takes no chances. WotC need a kick when they are too cautious.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

Responded to the survey, gave the Subclasses Green and the Feat Paths Red. Let them know in the comments that explicitly super evil options were a bad place to start with the design.

I think you are PDKing there. Jumping to conclusions without adequate context.

 

[Parmandur]

I think you are PDKing there. Jumping to conclusions without adequate context.

Maybe: gotta be honest, just disliked them.

 

[Pauln6]

I might be interested in the path of the shade.

 

[Remathilis]

Hellknight has no great ideas and takes no chances. WotC need a kick when they are too cautious.

Nah. And I did give feedback, but nothing outside a few specific features got anything but green.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

Nah. And I did give feedback, but nothing outside a few specific features got anything but green.

So what did it actually have going for it? Making the Banneret look good?

 

[Remathilis]

So what did it actually have going for it? Making the Banneret look good?

Low bar, I agree.

I like the aesthetic. It's simple and does buy into the power fantasy of a knight with infernal weapons and armor. My criticism was that the hell dice were too limited and didn't scale well (either you need them to be much more frequent or much more impactful than 1d6 prof/day). Both of those things are fixable in balancing, the concept is sound.

It's the kind of warrior I would consider trying, especially in a Planescape game or something with a sinister edge. Which is how I looked at this.