Purple Dragon Knight Retooled as Banneret in D&D's Heroes of Faerun Book

The much-maligned Purple Dragon Knight Fighter subclass is being retooled towards its original support origins in the upcoming Heroes of Faerun book. Coming out of GenCon, an image of a premade character sheet of a Banneret is making its way around the Internet. The classic support-based Fighter subclass appears to have replaced the Purple Dragon Knight subclass, which received a ton of criticism for not resembling the Purple Dragon Knight's traditional lore.

The Banneret's abilities includes a Level 3 "Knightly Envoy" ability that allows it to cast Comprehend Language as a ritual and gain proficiency in either Intimidation, Insight, Performance, or Persuasion (this appears unchanged from the Purple Dragon Knight UA), plus a Group Recovery ability that allows those within 30 feet of the Banneret to regain 1d4 Hit Points plus the Banneret's Fighter Level when the Banneret uses its Second Wind ability. Scrapped is the Purple Dragon companion that the UA version of the subclass had, which grew in power as the Purple Dragon Knight leveled up.

The Banneret was the generic name for the Purple Dragon Knight in the Sword Coast Adventurer's Guide. The Banneret/Purple Dragon Knight was originally more of a support class that could provide the benefits of its abilities to its allies instead of or in addition to benefitting from them directly. For instance, a Banneret's Action Surge could be used to allow a nearby ally to make an attack, and Indomitable could allow an ally to reroll a failed saving throw in addition to the Banneret.

 

[Veltharis ap Rylix]

I've never been much of an FR-lore enthusiast, so I have no real issue with a new version of the Purple Dragon Knights as a knightly order that form pacts with amethyst dragons.

My biggest complaint against the playtest PDK was always that it was way too locked into a very specific type of dragon, when I felt it should be more customizable, in the vein of the Drakewarden Ranger. A class that can support both this new take on the Purple Dragon Knights (assuming the updated organizational lore survived the retooling of the subclass) and githyanki soldiers riding red dragons.

So I do hope they take another crack at a "Dragonrider Knight" subclass somewhere down the road. Perhaps a hypothetical Dragonlance supplement?

 

[Amethyst Dragonlord]

It's a bad news for me.Is there some general feats that require PDW rook origin feat to give character a dragon mount?

 

[doctorhook]

Hallelujah! It’s encouraging to hear that WotC actually responds to criticism about butchering their own lore. A Purple Dragon Knight with a literal dragon pet makes as much sense as a Fighter with a fighter jet.

 

[Charlaquin]

Terribly lame.

 

[Veltharis ap Rylix]

Hallelujah! It’s encouraging to hear that WotC actually responds to criticism about butchering their own lore. A Purple Dragon Knight with a literal dragon pet makes as much sense as a Fighter with a fighter jet.

The new PDK subclass didn't make it in, but that doesn't necessarily mean that the new take on the Purple Dragon Knights as an in-universe organization was tossed out as well - at the very least, some of the art @GarrettKP posted from GenCon seems to indicate that they're still working in amethyst dragons and the occasional dragonriding knight.

Or maybe just that they didn't have time to redo the art...

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[Charlaquin]

The new PDK subclass didn't make it in, but that doesn't necessarily mean that the new take on the Purple Dragon Knights as an in-universe organization was tossed out as well - at the very least, some of the art @GarrettKP posted GenCon that seems to indicate that they're still working in amethyst dragons and at least the occasional dragonriding knight.

Or maybe just that they didn't have time to redo the art...

Oh, so we get the worst of both worlds? Delightful. Great job, lore defenders, you really stuck it to WotC with this one!

 

[Paul Farquhar]

Very sad. Rabid fanbois with a canon fetish turn an interesting subclass into something as boring as F.

 

[Cergorach]

Very sad. Rabid fanbois with a canon fetish turn an interesting subclass into something as boring as F.

We can add a very cool Gundam into D&D Forgotten Realms as a core feature... But I hope we'll all find it inappropriate for official core D&D and FR releases. A world feels like a world when it's internally consistent, those lore fans pointed out a flaw that WotC should have know, it's writers should have known. WotC F-ed up, not the lore fans.

You want Dragonriders? There's a very appropriate setting for that, it's called Dragonlance. And if your DM wants to allow those in their FR campaign, that's absolutely awesome. But to be honest, it has very little place in a FR core product.

In the past we've had more products where such a subclass would have fitted in perfectly, heck, it would have fit into Dragon's Delve if it wasn't just an adventure collection.

It's a good call for the FR books.

 

[Crimson Longinus]

I think more general "warlord" subclass is far more usable that some super specific and weird thing*, so this seem like a good direction.

* A lot of the newer sub classes unfortunately are like this.

 

[Valetudo]

I'm glad that it's trying to warlord the fighter again. I think these upcoming books are going to be 5.24s real test to see if the new crew can hold their own.