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.

 

[Mistwell]

A Scion of the Three/Bladesinger multiclass has a lot of synergy.

Human, Alert and Magic Initiate: Wizard for True Strike

Scion Lev 3:
You want to target a bloodied creature, so Dex not as important but still secondary for AC.
Teleports linked to Int
Spellcasting tied to Int
True Strike for attacks and boosting Int was already technically the most optimized option for the new Rogue

Also noteworthy, the teleport is a semi-reliable double-sneak-attack. You see someone die when it's not your turn, you teleport and attack as a reaction, sneak attack is applicable. Compatible with Steady Aim, so you can still teleport 30' while your move is 0.

Bladesinger 3:
Int to AC
Int to attack and damage with weapon, works with True Strike (at least as worded so far)
Int to Concentration checks
Rogue weapon can be spellcasting focus
Additional Skill for Skill Monkey

Bladesinger 6:
Extra attack, which means you're switching from True Strike to two-weapon fighting with a Vex and Nick set of weapons, so 3 attack attempts for Sneak Attack and leaving your bonus action open to trigger Cunning Action/Steady Aim.

 

[JPL]

Light armor paladin makes sense. Can't be running around doing Sinbad / Ali Baba stuff in full plate.

 

[Charlaquin]

I'm not a big FR fan at all but I absolutely hate the PDK incarnation. It feels like a retcon and I don't really see it doing anything that the drakewarden doesn't. Why naughty word with both the lore of Cormyr and Amethyst Dragons when we already have a solution?

Maybe this is a hot take but I really couldn’t care less that it’s a retcon. If you’ve got a subclass called “purple dragon knight” and it’s something other than a knight with a purple dragon, you’ve messed up. If fixing that requires retconning lore only a tiny fraction of the people playing the game have even heard of, there’s no question that retconning it is the correct choice.

 

[Kurotowa]

Light armor paladin makes sense. Can't be running around doing Sinbad / Ali Baba stuff in full plate.

Indeed. I've been mocking up what you can do with it, and I see basically two branches. One is you focus on damage and use one of the TWF Finesse Paladin builds people had already been kicking around, just with a slightly better AC. The other is you really double down on the extra AC and go sword & board with Defensive Duelist, which gets up to some silly AC numbers. Maybe with the Duelist fighting style to keep your damage up a bit, maybe with the Protection fighting style if you really want to embrace the defender role.

Or you just ignore it as a ribbon, like the Barbarian's Unarmored Defense. Nothing forces you to use it, and none of the other features demand Light armor. It's an optional path.

 

[Charlaquin]

Yikes!

The class text for the PDK is written for someplace that isn't Cormyr. Consider:

Although the Purple Dragons were originally founded in Cormyr, new recruits are enlisted from any realms where chivalry is in abundance, including the Silver Marches, Damara, and Chessenta. Characters with this subclass are special among the order...

Firstly, the Purple Dragons are a standing army, not a chivalrous organization.

Secondly, there are no knightly orders in Cormyr's armies! Just as there are no knightly orders associated with, or part of, Cormyr as a nation.

Thirdly, Cormyr recruits its Purple Dragons internally. Never externally.

That's just really bad work. (And I'm the guy who constantly defends WotC, so please understand that I don't write these words lightly.)

Is it though? Or was it bad work to have a subclass called purple dragon knights that don’t tame purple dragons, aren’t part of a knightly order, and are tied to one specific nation in one specific setting that your fanbase is kind of sick of anyway?

 

[TwoSix]

Maybe this is a hot take but I really couldn’t care less that it’s a retcon. If you’ve got a subclass called “purple dragon knight” and it’s something other than a knight with a purple dragon, you’ve messed up. If fixing that requires retconning lore only a tiny fraction of the people playing the game have even heard of, there’s no question that retconning it is the correct choice.

Heck, we've already got a race with an ancestral bond to a specific dragon color (githyanki and red dragons). Add in some lore connections between the two "pacts" to really add some already-existing flavor.

 

[TwoSix]

Is it though? Or was it bad work to have a subclass called purple dragon knights that don’t tame purple dragons, aren’t part of a knightly order, and are tied to one specific nation in one specific setting that your fanbase is kind of sick of anyway?

Remember, you can't spell "Cormyr" without "generic". (Warning: Joke may not work in all languages.)

 

[Frozen_Heart]

The winter ranger is insanely cool. Definitely up there with my favorite 5e classes of all time. It absolutely oozes theme.

I hope in the future they keep down this route for ranger subclasses, using different environments as a base. We have gloomstalker as an underdark ranger, but a volcano ranger, ocean ranger, desert ranger, and jungle ranger could all offer a lot.

 

[Charlaquin]

The winter ranger is insanely cool. Definitely up there with my favorite 5e classes of all time. It absolutely oozes theme.

I hope in the future they keep down this route for ranger subclasses, using different environments as a base. We have gloomstalker as an underdark ranger, but a volcano ranger, ocean ranger, desert ranger, and jungle ranger could all offer a lot.

Too bad it’s tied to such a disappointing base class…

 

[TwoSix]

The winter ranger is insanely cool. Definitely up there with my favorite 5e classes of all time. It absolutely oozes theme.

I hope in the future they keep down this route for ranger subclasses, using different environments as a base. We have gloomstalker as an underdark ranger, but a volcano ranger, ocean ranger, desert ranger, and jungle ranger could all offer a lot.