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.

 

[Remathilis]

I think something to consider is that WotC is designing these subclasses in tandem with the setting guide that is focusing on specific areas of the Realms. And those areas are going to get some lore work done on them. The Moonshaes are getting a fey glowup to make them less Faux-Ireland. Callimshan is getting some sensitivity reading and focusing on the genies that ruled it in 4e. (Please include genasi, please include genasi). Cormyr is probably getting a greater dragon focus and the knighthood changing to dragon knights. BG is playing on the urban strife seen in BG3 and DIA, Icewind Dale is getting a survival horror focus. Each subclass reflects the themes of the area it's focusing on. (Knowledge, Spellfire and bladesong appears to be along for the ride).

Some people are reading this like this is the next "of Everything" book where it needs to feel generic and applicable everywhere. I don't think that's completely the right way to look at it. The lunar sorcerer is uniquely Krynn, despite some generic wording, and makes sense when you consider them in the context of High Sorcery rather than moon magic.

Which is to say, I think it's hard to say if the dragon-riding PDK is appropriate for Cormyr because outside a few paragraphs in SCAG, we've not been to Cormyr since the Spellplague and restoration. Cormyr could have adopted draconic protectors against some threat leading to the PDKs becoming an inclusive order of dragon riders. It sure as hell wouldn't be the first time and established group changed it's MO (looks at Zhent mercs a Red Wizard merchants...)

But this highlights the issue of playtests WotC has always done; we're looking though a glass darkly since we don't always know what else is changing. It's hard to see if this hits the spot since we don't know the background and we're not spotting for balance. We're just supposed to see if the item passes the vibes check I guess...

 

[mellored]

Anyone else think the PDK dragon should be based on Cha instead of Int?

It's a bond with an animal, and it makes more sense for an envoy to have Cha.

 

[TwoSix]

This to me is not an argument against changing the PDK. 4e’s lore was way cooler than the stuff it replaced.

This. The sum of the argument to not change the class concept boils down to "Don't retcon." Whereas I tend to approach it from the idea "If it was kind of boring before, let's just retcon."

Again though, Forgotten Realms is still a living setting. Just because the purple dragon knights haven’t yet been dragon tamers doesn’t mean they can’t become dragon tamers. That can be a new development in the setting, if that seems to be something the playerbase would like.

Or we don't even need to retcon, we can just add new lore. It's not the 1300s anymore! It's almost 1500 DR. New things happen.

 

[GarrettKP]

Anyone else think the PDK dragon should be based on Cha instead of Int?

It's a bond with an animal, and it makes more sense for an envoy to have Cha.

They picked Int because it’s a Psionic bond with a Gem Dragon, but I agree Char is what it should be. We already have multiple Int based Fighters. We need more variety.

 

[Neonchameleon]

Oath of the Noble Genies is solid mechanically,

Can't agree thanks to the OTT light armour - and it doesn't feel at all like a driving oath in the way the other oaths do.

Spellfire sorcery looks pretty weak, but my 5,5e-fu is weak so it's very possible I'm missing something.

Spellfire sorcery is honestly fine - and looks like a good functional alternative to the doesn't-work-in-actual-play Divine Soul Sorcerer especially if you think opening up an entire spell list at low level is bad. It basically dishes out temp hp roughly equal to your total hp across the day for doing what you would anyway and otherwise gives you a solid foundation as a blast-medic with Cure Wounds, Aura of Vitality, and both Restoration spells. (The only actively bad spell offered is Flame Strike - and Guiding Bolt goes very well with Sorcerer's Rage)

 

[Stormonu]

I don't know about anybody else, but I really dislike the name/mechanics of the 20th level Genie Paladin's ability. If it's going to be called Minor Wish, I think it should actually be a lesser version of Wish - In this case, the ability to use any spell off anyone's spell list of 4th level or lower (1 spell level lower than the highest spell level the Paladin can cast) or one use of a 5th level paladin spell whether or not they have it prepared. If they want it to be giving a person a use of Legendary Resistance, then name it that instead.

 

[mellored]

IMO: Drop the "purple' from PDK and just have "dragon knight". It's more generic.

Also drop Rally Surge. It's a hold over and doesn't fit.

Lore: the order started with an Amethyst dragon, and they are still the most common and the order is still named after then, but the order has expanded to include other Gem dragons. (Not chromatic, they wouldn't cooperate)

3: Cha based, choose a gem (metallic?) dragon, which determines it's breath attack.

3b: telepathy instead of comprehend language (maybe? Doesn't fit for metallic)

7: as is.

10: dragon gains some spells. (I.e. Sapphire cast legend lore, emerald cast pass without trace).
Possibly scale dragon breath a little more to make up the damage loss.

15: as is

18: gain your dragon's resistance.

 

[Leatherhead]

I don't think the new PDK actually works beyond the "It's cooler than the old PDK!" reaction. It's kind of a mess, really.

For starters, they half removed the old subclass leader role in order to give fighters a pet. It's not that fighters don't have room for a pet class, but this one still has some old leader baggage because the old PDK was a leader, and it kinda suffers for trying to do two things at once. Pick a lane, please.

Secondly, its obviously themed to be a dragonrider, but you can't even begin to do that until level 7, which is like halfway through most campaigns. And naturally, the flying part is still heavily restricted until level 15. There has to be a better way to realize this particular fantasy. If the core story of the subclass doesn't come online until after most campaigns have ended, it's probably not meant to be.

Thirdly, I've got to say it. Its kind of weird that you are taking a baby out to fight for you.
Like did this have to be a hatchling? I know wyrmlings have been fair game to fight for a long time. But this could have just as easily been some kind of spirit. I understand Drakewardens do basically the same thing, they summon a spirit that takes the shape of a Drake (which is technically something more like an animal than a true dragon anyway). So they can sidestep the issue.

 

[TwoSix]

But the real issue is that WotC need to stop faffing about and just flat-out make a pet controller class. They keep trying to do the job with subclasses, all the subclasses work different ways, and none of them are satisfactory. Excrete or vacate the chamber pot. Yes, a certain tiresome fragment of the fanbase will wail about you going all anime - ignore them. Have a pet controller class (think of a better name than that...) that can be a dragon rider, a necromancer with one potent undead servitor, the owner of a genie bottle, the master of a hound pack, etc etc etc. Just do the job properly and stop trying to do it all with subclasses!

I'll be honest, I simply don't trust WotC's design chops to pull a full pet class off. It's not-trivial design that even AAA video games can struggle with.

 

[Kobold Stew]

Sure, and if this was the first time the subclass was being printed, I would agree that the generic “banneret” option was the way to go. But, it’s a second pass at an existing subclass that was called purple dragon knight, and there’s already demand for revising into something to do with purple dragons.

Even more than that, though:

this over-writes the pre-existing subclass, which was pilliried when it came out, and which has been apparently very seldom played. Sure, there are some, but the PDK in SCAG was not well received. The pivot makes sense.