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.

 

[Scribe]

right now on facebook, so they change the lore or not, bcs this looks like amethys dragon a that guy is riding on it.

View attachment 413367

Man, I am just old lol

 

[Demetrios1453]

I use FR and disallow a ton of races and options that are published. FR was not the arbitrary lore dump until the awful 4e realms became the default setting.

It was literally said by WOTC they needed to dumb the realms down. Where lore wouldn't matter.

Want Dragon Riders? There's a precedent fir that with King Gareth in Damara. Don't just take the name of the Order of Knights based on a rich history and change it for "kewl".

It's been over 100 years and two planet-wide catastrophes since Cormyr has been detailed in anything more than a very cursory manner.

Things change. Things with the same name change. Even knightly orders change. The Order of the Garter today looks and functions nothing like the Order of the Garter did when Edward I founded it in 1348. Saying that the Purple Dragon Knights must always be the same and cannot ever change (even over the course of more than a century) due to their previous lore is like fully expecting King Charles and the other members of the Order of the Garter to suddenly all don armor, hop on horses, and smite their enemies with swords.

 

[Demetrios1453]

This seems really cheesy and weak. This sounds to me like lore made up to justify the subclass, not a subclass made to fit lore

I'd call that clever, not cheesy. It's really no different than the Teutonic Order going from a rag-tag group of knights guarding German pilgrims in the Crusader States to becoming the conquering vanguard of Teutonic nationalism in the Baltic. They maintained the same name, but what it meant changed entirely due to their new mission and circumstances.

 

[doctorhook]

Cormyr and the Dalelands are neighbors, and I wager the lore was supposed to be how the PDKs have expanded their territory to protecting the Dalelands as well. Part of the problem is that the lore of everything outside the Sword Coast was mostly ignored, beyond a vague "things went back to normal" post Spellplague. I would not have been surprised to see that the PDKs (whos charge was a rather small area) got revised into a group with a much larger mandate.

If it were me, I'd have had an Amethyst Wyrm dragon leader shows up in Cormyr, offer up some prophecy that "the knights of the purple wyrm" were supposed to defend Faerun against an upcoming calamity, and offer their services and the services of their kin in helping the knights (hence the bond with Amythest dragons) in order to facilitate the prophecy. The PDKs go from a one-kingdom knighthood into a full-on multi-state faction using the power (and funding) of said dragons, with the intrigue on if the great wyrm was being 100% truthful or benevolent.

But no, let's keep them a niche knightly order dedicated to one single kingdom with no interest in the larger world. Can't be changing the lore...

At least you’ve pitched some lore to try to justify the change! That’s certainly been missing for me so far: any explanation of why this partnership between PDKs and amethyst dragons now exists. As it stands, it’s presented as “They’re Purple Dragon Knights, why wouldn’t they have purple dragons?” which is woefully under-explained.

The other half of this is wondering why tf amethyst dragons are doing this? Are these even real amethyst dragons? And how is 5E now going to explain these “purple dragons” that are clearly mechanically different from all other dragons and grow with their rider’s level? All of this might be explained, but without any explanation it just seems stupid.

It's as ridiculous as the idea that the Red Wizards, a notorious group of zealot arcane spellcasters dedicated to a tyrannical lich far to the East would show up in every town, city, and village selling potions and minor magical trinkets and not be chased out on a rail the second they showed up in Waterdeep or Silverymoon. But they were. Then they weren't. And now they are again. Lore changes.

Red Wizards have been doing that for literally centuries though, diplomatic and economic infiltration. (I always thought the Red Wizards were supposed to be an analogy for the Soviets.) Lore changes, but incremental changes are less surprising.

 

[CreamCloud0]

And how is 5E now going to explain these “purple dragons” that are clearly mechanically different from all other dragons and grow with their rider’s level? All of this might be explained, but without any explanation it just seems stupid.

Well, high fantasy settings do tend to have the fallback excuse of ‘it’s literally magic’, like the order performs a special ritual to bond rider to dragon.

 

[Necropolitan]

Well, high fantasy settings do tend to have the fallback excuse of ‘it’s literally magic’, like the order performs a special ritual to bond rider to dragon.

This is D&D, magic does in fact have mechanics.

They even published novels and adventures to justify the changes between editions.

 

[bedir than]

As it stands, it’s presented as “They’re Purple Dragon Knights, why wouldn’t they have purple dragons?” which is woefully under-explained.

This wasn't stated by WotC. This was assumed by readers because WotC stated nothing.

 

[Azzy]

This wasn't stated by WotC. This was assumed by readers because WotC stated nothing.

ENWorlders love nothing more than assigning motives to WotC's decisions even if there's nothing to support it.

 

[ECMO3]

Things change.

Dragons don't change much in 100 years.

 

[Demetrios1453]

Dragons don't change much in 100 years.

They go from egg to adult in 101 years. Thats a lot of change.