New Unearthed Arcana Released, With 8 New Forgotten Realms-Themed Subclasses

Today, Wizards of the Coast has announced a new Unearthed Arcana playtest featuring eight new Dungeons & Dragons subclasses that will appear in the upcoming Forgotten Realms Player's Guide. The new subclasses include five classes tied to Forgotten Realms regions, as well as the return of the Knowledge Domain Cleric subclass from the 2014 Player's Handbook and the Bladesinger Wizard subclass and Purple Dragon Knight Fighter subclass from the Sword Coast Adventurer's Guide.

Each of the five remaining subclasses are themed to one of the five regions explored in the Forgotten Realms Adventure Guide also coming out in November. The College of the Moon Bard subclass is tied to the Moonshae Isles, the Winter Walker Ranger subclass is tied to Icewind Dale, and the Oath of the Noble Genies is tied to Calimshan. The Scion of The Three is tied to the Dead Three (of Baldur's Gate fame). Meanwhile, Spellfire Sorcery dates back to 2nd Edition and can both heal allies and harm foes.

The eight new subclasses can be found below:

• College Of The Moon (Bard)
• Knowledge Domain (Cleric)
• Purple Dragon Knight (Fighter)
• Oath Of The Noble Genies (Paladin)
• Winter Walker (Ranger)
• Scion Of The Three (Rogue)
• Spellfire Sorcery (Sorcerer)
• Bladesinger (Wizard)

The Forgotten Realm's Players Guide comes out on November 11th.

 

[Kobold Stew]

An interesting mix here. Some initial thoughts:

College of the Moon:

• being able to reduce a successful save by a bardic inspiration die will be very effective in a teamwork situation. Nice. Is it enough to carry the subclass? Not sure.

Knowledge Cleric:

• Blessings of Knowledge needs to be reworded: players are incentivized not to be proficient in Religion until level 3, so that they can get proficiency and expertise at the same time. (Fix: gain proficiency in any two skills and gain expertise in any two on the list). A Thaugmaturge is additionally getting +3-5 on these checks.
• Unfettered Mind. Works like the Rogue's relable talent. I don't think this encourages you to dump your Intelligence, since you wil want to achieve above 20 in an INT-check regularly.

Purple Dragon Knight.

• Feels solid, but quite MAD. Intelligence governs attack and damage of the dragon. But a M size Mount at level 7 will be useful.
• The mount's landspeed should be 40'.
• I like the free language; I think only Rogue and Ranger have the ability to learn a Rare language (?).

Genies Paladin:

• IA Charisma bonus to AC is pretty good, and means a Plaladin will look different -- light armor,etc.
• Being able to switch resistance every turn in your emanation at level 7 is pretty effective.
• This feels like it would be really fun to play.

WInter Walker Ranger.

• This seems fun, and the level 15 metamorphosis is spooky fun.
• Fortifying Soul at level 7 will be useful, but not really tied thematically.

Scion of the Three Rogue.

• I'm not sure I like the evil-framing of the subclass; like, I get it, but that your core identity as a good rogue would be defined by being cursed feels limiting to me.
• the teleport-and-attack is obviously powerful, and I like that they are operationalizing the Bloodied condition.
• Again you are incentivized to boost Intelligence, which is nice.
• Strike Fear at level 9 is always going to be worth 1d6 of your SA dice, but the payoff with Battle Tyrant comes pretty late.

Spellfire Sorcery

• I'm not the best judge of Sorcery abilities, I think: this does not feel particularly inspiring.
• Spell list seems very versatile.
• Absorb Spells seems really cool, if you can use it, but that will vary widely by campaign.

Spellsword.

• The limits on uses of Bladesong are not constraining in any way. And it is just so powerful: AC bonus, Attack with your casting stat, speed bonus, Concentration check bonus, plus you get a free skill and weapon proficiency. It just feels like so much.

 

[UngeheuerLich]

A Paladin with CME?????!!!!!!!

That spell needs a nerf anyway.

 

[UngeheuerLich]

Off the top of my head it shouldn't be too bad. Assume that the Paladin will be Dex-based, but they're splitting abilities and at most levels they will probably have less or similar AC to their Heavy armoured counterparts.

Nah. Not ok. Other classes that have their best stats as armor bonus can't don armor or wear a shield.

A barbarian gives up too much focussing on dex, a monk can't even use a shield.

Armor, shield, dex and charisma does not sound right.

 

[Tonguez]

I'm not a fan of the new Purple Dragon Knight.
I would like to see a Fighter subclass with a pet, but I would rather see two different subclasses, one dedicated to leadership and support, and another dedicated to the companion, rather than mixing the two and diluting them both.

I agree when I saw they were reviving the Banneret I was hoping they'd move it to being an actual Warlord/Marshal class, giving it a pokemon and rally at level 10 doesnt do that

 

[Lieslo]

Winter Walker Ranger has a lot of Cold damage spells but surely many of the creatures in Icewind Dale would be immune or resistant to Cold damage?

 

[Kobold Stew]

Overall, the Fighter, Paladin, and Ranger seem like the ones that I would most liek to play right away. Cleric is solid. Obviously, the Wizard too, but Bladesinger has always been overclocked.

 

[Kurotowa]

Scattered thoughts:

Noble Genie Paladin is really cool thematically. And the "Add Cha mod to AC if you're in Light armor" immediately makes me want to stat up a dual wield finesse Paladin with Defensive Duelist. But I know if that feature goes through there's going to be a crazy Bladelock multiclass build with it.

Purple Dragon Knight being recast as a dragon rider is really cool. And I think it fits the Fighter better than Drakewarden did Ranger, honestly. A bit MAD, but that's not unusual.

Spellfire Sorcerer is a nice callback. And some of the real juice for it is hidden in the Spells list. Cure Wounds, Aura of Vitality, Lesser and Greater Restoration, and Flame Strike? It's like they said "Divine Soul Sorcerer never quite hit right, so let's just grab a few of the highlights and give those specifically instead." I like it.

Bladesinger Wizard got what everyone really wanted, which is weapon attacks with Int. Maybe now people will actually use it as a gish subclass and not just a standard Wizard with better AC and Concentration saves.

 

[Scribe]

Ah man, is there a direct download? My desire to log in to Beyond is 0.

 

[the Jester]

I object to the Knowledge domain being characterized as a Forgotten Realms domain. It was a basic, well-loved, and much-played PH domain. It shouldn't appear in a campaign-specific book, but rather in a book of generic options.

 

[Kobold Stew]

I object to the Knowledge domain being characterized as a Forgotten Realms domain. It was a basic, well-loved, and much-played PH domain. It shouldn't appear in a campaign-specific book, but rather in a book of generic options.

Ha ha ha.

Don't worry, they'll reprint it when the time comes....