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.

 

[bedir than]

They should just bring the drakewarden forward and give us the mashup banneret/cavalier. That would solve the weird naming issue, the desire for Fourth Wing fans to have a riding dragon and not need a retcon

 

[Bladesinger]

For me, most of them are alright. Some are cool, like the Winter Ranger, Genie Paladin and Spellfire Sorcerer, but I'm not digging the lore change to PDK. But, it is what it is. Really not a fan of the lost armor proficiency for Bladesingers. Part of the fun of being a great Gish, IMO, is wearing armor, wielding weapons and casting spells in one package, and not gimped to 4th level spells like the EK. Of course, YMMV and thank god for House Rules.

 

[Charlaquin]

It's just vibes. It also gives me vibes like when a private equity company buys a brand and sells off all the assets underneath the brand but repurposes the name for something completely different and often sub-par. "Unilever buys Ben & Jerry's" style.

I dunno, still seems hyperbolic to me.

Yeah, putting a leader-y fighter in this book (that is better designed than the one in SCAG) and calling it a Banneret and saying the Purple Dragons are a good example of them...sounds perfect.

I’d have been fine with that.

I don't think an FR-specific book really needs to give anyone a character option that has nothing to do with FR, so I'm not worried about the people who just thought the name was cool and didn't care about the context. One of the jobs of an FR-specific book should be inviting you to care about the context.

I mean, we're talking about subclasses for an FR book. It's OK if these subclasses are embedded in FR lore. It is an FR book, after all.

I think it's instructional to look at the Scion of the Three for comparison, since that subclass is ALSO heavily invested in a niche of Realmslore.

Personally, I'm a fan of how deeply entrenched in the setting that subclass is. You could take it to another setting, sure. Maybe file the serial numbers off of the Dread Alliance feature. But it would bring a little bit of that FR vibe to any setting you put it in, and that's a strength to me.

Spellfire is also a very FR thing.

There’s a difference in degree though. Spellfire might be an FR thing, but “magic fire that can heal as well as burn and absorbs other magic” is an extremely cool concept that could easily fit into any setting, and spellfire is a good name for it that sounds like what it is. Scion of the Three is directly tied to forgotten realms gods, so it’s a little harder to port to other settings, but D&D has a long history of bringing gods from one setting to another, sometimes changing names in the process and sometimes not. So, I’m not as into it as I am the spellfire sorcerer, but I’m willing to tolerate its specificity because gods are very nearly setting neutral. But one order of knights from one country within the setting? That’s not just FR-specific, that’s specific to a very small corner of FR. That’s way too narrow to warrant an entire subclass, even within an FR book.

 

[I'm A Banana]

But I don't want something that is evocative of the setting, which is the point I'm trying to make.

The previous existing lore is disappointing. Ever since that concept has been around (I think it dates back to 2e?), the conversation around it has always been:

"Purple Dragon Knight? That sounds cool, where are the purple dragons?"
"There aren't any, they're just regular knights with a dragon logo."
"Oh, too bad."

Repeat for like 4 editions now. And after 30(?) years, they're actually going to give the Purple Dragon Knights purple dragons! Finally, a win for the little guy!

I think it's curious that some of the support about the PDK being a dragon-tamer are the people who aren't really fans of FR, weighing in on FR subclasses, for an FR book.

It's feeling like a roller coaster company asking for advice on building a roller coaster and people who have inner ear problems saying "I like this one, it's slow and has no loops." Or asking someone with a sensitive stomach what their favorite spicy food is.

I do wonder why WotC decided to return to the FR well (BG3, maybe?), but I assume their goal is a product that appeals to FR fans and that maybe attracts some new ones, and that can broadly appeal to general D&D fans. I don't know how much effort they should expend on appealing to people who actively dislike FR.

Like, the rogue and sorcerer subclasses here suffer from the same issue, but respect their origins much better. Meanwhile, knowledge clerics are very generic, but still do what you'd expect them to do. The PDK is the only subclass here that kills the original concept and steals the name for something very different. I'd be fine with it being more generic, and also fine with it being more specific, but this inbetween state of parading around being something it's not is weak sauce.

 

[FitzTheRuke]

Reminds me of Waterdeep: Dragon Heist.

“We’re gonna do a heist to steal A DRAGON???”
“It’s really more of a hunt for a big stash of gold…”
“So why’s it called dragon heist?”
“Cause in this setting, gold coins are called dragons!”

It’s like the lore explanation was created specifically to trick people into thinking the name described something cooler than it actually is…

Dragon Heist is worse than that (and I enjoyed running it, for the record) because your example continues:

"Okay, fine. They're coins called dragons. So we get to STEAL THEM!"
"Nope. They've already been stolen. You get to go find them and give them back!"
"..."

 

[Kobold Stew]

Really not a fan of the lost armor proficiency for Bladesingers. Part of the fun of being a great Gish, IMO, is wearing armor, wielding weapons and casting spells in one package, and not gimped to 4th level spells like the EK.

When Mage Armor exists, the weight of this concern, for me, is significantly diminished.

A 1-level dip or a feat choice can also give armor or shield proficiencies aplenty. [this is wrong, as noted downthread]

 

[Frozen_Heart]

It's weird that they seem so hellbent on making the drakenwarden obsolete. From changing the dragon sorcerer into a a dragon summoner, to copy and pasting the drakenwarden onto the fighter subclass.

I suspect that we won't ever see the ranger drakenwarden get brought forward into 5.5e.

 

[Kurotowa]

Casting my attention to the Spellfire Sorcerer, a rules interaction occurs to me. Counterspell works by forcing a Con save, now. Does that mean Heightened Spell Metamagic works on Counterspell? To the best of my reading I think it does.

Now normally, this would be a profligate waste of 2 Sorcery Points. But if you're getting refunded 1d4 Sorcery Points on a successful Counterspell, it suddenly becomes a lot more economical. You're still spending the spell slot, and that's hardly nothing, but if you're in a situation where you want to Counterspell then being able to Heighten it would be really nice.

I'd already messed around with ideas for a Heightened Spell using Sorcerer focused on debuff and control spells, after it got improved to cover all saves for the duration of the spell. But I never found a subclass that really fit with that. Spellfire Sorcerer bringing Counterspell incentives, healing spells, and free bonus riders for using Sorcery Points is making me want to revisit the idea.

 

[GarrettKP]

It's weird that they seem so hellbent on making the drakenwarden obsolete. From changing the dragon sorcerer into a a dragon summoner, to copy and pasting the drakenwarden onto the fighter subclass.

I suspect that we won't ever see the ranger drakenwarden get brought forward into 5.5e.

The Drakewarden was basically just them patching the Beast Master. Now that that is fixed, they likely see the Drakewarden as treading the same territory.

 

[I'm A Banana]

There’s a difference in degree though. Spellfire might be an FR thing, but “magic fire that can heal as well as burn and absorbs other magic” is an extremely cool concept that could easily fit into any setting, and spellfire is a good name for it that sounds like what it is. Scion of the Three is directly tied to forgotten realms gods, so it’s a little harder to port to other settings, but D&D has a long history of bringing gods from one setting to another, sometimes changing names in the process and sometimes not. So, I’m not as into it as I am the spellfire sorcerer, but I’m willing to tolerate its specificity because gods are very nearly setting neutral. But one order of knights from one country within the setting? That’s not just FR-specific, that’s specific to a very small corner of FR. That’s way too narrow to warrant an entire subclass, even within an FR book.

So, one way this could go is by making a subclass that works for FR's Purple Dragon Knights and just calling it something else (the "Banneret" option).

Another way this could go is by augmenting FR's Purple Dragon Knights by, idk, making them the pre-eminent group of military leaders in the whole setting, where everyone sends their captains to be educated in the art of war, sort of a fantasy West Point or something, blowing them up real big and highlighting them as an archetype rather than as a niche (the "Spellfire" option). Everyone from Neverwinter to Thay talks about the Purple Dragon Knights and how amazing they are.

But one way this shouldn't go is by deciding that the Purple Dragon Knight is suddenly something entirely different (the current option).