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.

 

[Charlaquin]

How would you adapt the lore/concept of the Scion of Three subclass to somewhere not FR? I'm just trying to think how it would work for my own homebrew setting and I'm hitting a dead end.

Either bring the dead three over, or create a new trio of death gods. Or drop the deity connection entirely and make it like, a particular assassin’s guild and make the three options of Dread Allegiance be three disciplines they teach or something.

 

[mellored]

Good catch, there. Should probably work like unarmored defense, giving you a new way to calculate AC rather than a bonus.

Alternative AC calculations are, I believe, all armor alternatives. That is to say, both they and armor set your AC to a fixed number plus bonuses, and they're intentionally mutually exclusive. This Genie Paladin feature is designed to supplement Light armor, so mechanically there's no way to work it as an alternative calculation. It has to be a bonus.

Notably, you can't use defensive style if you aren't wearing armor.

Also, dance/genie might have high AC, but I'm not sure it's really that strong overall.

 

[Jeremy E Grenemyer]

It could be the lore though.

It doesn’t have to replace what came before, it can simply add to it. You don’t think FR got its long, rich history by never changing anything ever, do you? A living setting like FR is constantly evolving, adding new developments. This could be one of them.

FR got its long, rich history by designers paying attention to to, and being mindful of, what came before (4E excepted).

PDKs as presented would only add contradiction, would upend Cormyrean law and tradition, and invite into Cormyr’s territory the last thing anybody wants (dragons).

Purple Dragon “Knights” never had any lore support, but WotC have seen fit not to let it die through the editions. Better, then, to write lore for the PDK that fits Cormyr than to upend over 1500 years of its history, as this current incarnation does, merely because someone wants fighters to ride dragons.

 

[Kurotowa]

Also, dance/genie might have high AC, but I'm not sure it's really that strong overall.

Yeah, Dance/Genie goes way too hard on that one stat.

Overall Genie Paladin isn't even that bad, if you're not doing some crazy minmax that sacrifices other important traits. Plate armor is AC 18, Studded Leather armor with Dex 20 and Cha 14 is AC 19. That's a pretty small difference. All it's really doing is incentivizing a Finesse type build a little. You're not really outpacing Plate armor until Tier 3, and by that point you have to seriously consider the difference in magic item selection.

 

[Bladesinger]

Moon Bard -- I always appreciate associations with druids because this is reminiscent of earlier bards in DnD and mythology. I can't expect anyone to not be using Tales of Mirth because a saving throw penalty seems much better than the other options. Primal Lorist should be more clear on whether Druidic includes Speak with Animals like the druid ability does, otherwise it's just a ribbon.

Knowledge Cleric -- I also like the scholarly spellcaster and can see myself playing this as an alternative to many of the bards I've played.

PDK Fighter -- This is bit different for a fighter. I'm going to side with the people who think the name should be indicative of the subclass and not just a name. Updated lore is easy enough and a sidebar is even easier. It's a pet class with some tactical options.

Genie Paladin -- I don't think the idea of a paladin with sworn oaths to genies has ever crossed my mind. The concept is interesting and I don't think the armor options a too much for a paladin. I do think Minor Wish looks excessive at that level. That looks like a lot of auto-success.

Winter Walker Ranger -- I see a lot of flavor here. I'm not sure how I feel about the focus on cold yet, but it is giving me bard vibes of some the those legends. The options look useful enough and there is a bit of dark twist in the flavor that I appreciate.

Scion of Three Rogue -- This seems a bit to focused on the Forgotten Realms with the selection of gods. I would only take a sidebar for other settings, however. I'm not a big fan of the vibe. It seems to go too far on the darker side for heroic adventurers.

Spellfire Sorcerer -- I really like this as a newer and better alternative to the Divine Soul. The full range of cleric spells isn't there, but the important basic healing is. Absorb Spells using Counterspell to absorb Sorcery Points is an interesting mechanic. Crown of Spellfire looks useful even if 7 Sorcery Points is a bit expensive. I might be inclined to burn a few low to mid level spells with Font of Magic to use this ability more often. This might be my favorite sorcerer subclass if it makes the cut.

Bladesinger Wizard -- This just seems to be a bit more streamlined. The subclass takes a slight hit to AC, and pretty much causes the wizard to prepare and spend a slot on Mage Armor but it still going to have a good AC. I don't think Bladesong can be up every combat but it can be up for several of those combats, which means the Bladesinger can play very differently when out of Bladesong uses.





Why wouldn't you play a valor bard if the armor is significant? The difference between a valor bard and a bladesinger wizard is small. The 6th and 14th level abilities are almost identical, but the bard doesn't rely on Bladesong to use some of their abilities.

A lot of reasons, Flavor, Better initial spell list, a lot of abilities like Bardic Inspiration I just don't want, etc. Bladesingers have been my favorite since 2E ( see my Handle ). I haven't been happy with the Lore changes, but that's easily House Ruled. And, to be fair, the armor thing is easily House Ruled as well.

 

[Professor Murder]

SPELLFIRE!!! Holy balls, it's been a while! It kind of slightly appeared in 3.5E but not really. Sadly the Absorb Spells mechanic here is both of kind of silly and will be wildly, insanely less effective/useful than in 2E/3E and even earlier 5E because so many fewer enemies even use actual spells which can be countered - also you're not even going to give them a bonus on the roll? Rude! Could be worse and cute that it's back. Still looking at the rest.

Fond, vague memories of the Spellfire novel makes me have a soft spot for this one for sure. Hoping it gets a bit more of a tweak or two.

 

[Scribe]

Sorta weird to make the Purple Dragon Knight be about having a literal dragon pet when it was never anything like that before, isn’t it?

Pretty much giving up the ghost on even pretending that prior lore matters. Not that Wizards thinks it does, they quit on that front officially some time ago now.

 

[Remathilis]

I do really like how these subclasses evoke the local flavor, which is why the Knowledge cleric and the PDK are the big misses for me here. If these characters could exist in any setting, they're not adding much to an FR book.

I kinda think knowledge domain is the only real generic subclass and it was added because there are a lot of knowledge/magic gods, some of important status like Mystra, and they wanted to reflect that. (SCAG also has the Arcana domain, and the new knowledge domain feels like the live child of both).

But the rest feel pretty FR specific (at least as specific as spores druid and lunar sorcerer). One representing each new area, one that is a unique magic type (Spellfire) and one tied closely with the Realms (bladesong) even if it didn't originate there.

 

[Kurotowa]

I spent a little time today mocking up a Spellfire Sorcerer. It harder to make broad judgments about it, because as a Sorcerer your choice of spells and Metamagic matters as much or more than your subclass. But I do like what's there.

Spellfire Burst rewards regular use of Metamagic, rather than converting your Sorcery Points to more spell slots or blowing them all at once on big nukes with Innate Sorcery and Sorcery Incarnate. Absorb Spells makes Counterspell more rewarding, and makes using Heightened Spell on it more economical. Not a lot, but useful.

The real meat and potatoes of the subclass may be the Spellfire Spells. You get a dash of Clerical healing spells plus some useful fire themed offensive spells. Again, nothing exceptional, but a really solid supplement to your normal spell selection.

Spellfire Sorcerer isn't transformative. It doesn't enable any entirely new character types. But if you want a magic-themed Sorcerer and the randomness of Wild Magic is not for you, Spellfire looks like a great alternative choices.

 

[GarrettKP]

Pretty much giving up the ghost on even pretending that prior lore matters. Not that Wizards thinks it does, they quit on that front officially some time ago now.

This is the worst justification to me for critizing the PDK. Lore changes in every medium. Comics go through evolutions and retcons every few years, movies and shows constantly get rebooted, hell even novels often retcon or contridict themselves if the series runs for more than a few books.

Stagnant lore is boring. WotC should 1000% look for ways to evolve their settings to be more interesting and different for each new iteration. Otherwise why bother printing anything new at all?

Not liking the PDK is totally valid. Hell, even not liking the lore change being this drastic is valid. But to shun any form of evolution just because someone wrote a novel in 1998 just leaves everything stagnant and boring.