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.

 

[Remathilis]

No contradiction. The feedback was simply “do you like this y/n”. They don’t read the comments, it’s too expensive and difficult to analyse. Allowing comments is just a ploy to encourage people to participate. Thus the lore is still changed even though the reason for the change was voted into the bin.

The 2025 UAs started using the Stoplight system for rating. Green meant go, Red meant stop, Yellow meant proceed with caution. Until they psion UA, you could not leave a comment on a red or green response. So even so, it didn't matter why you were giving them the thumbs down, just that you were.

If the PDK got enough red votes, it was going to die. I assume it did. The reasons people gave it red was inconsequential. They went with plan B. They pulled up the old version and said "what can we do to fix this that doesn't involve a dragon?" They probably also got a lot of feedback on things like using the generic name (to make it more usable outside of the Realms) and things that weren't viable anymore (can't complain about it being tied one specific dragon type if you're removing all references to dragons).

All that said, I will be shocked if the feedback on the subclass did anything to change the Cormyr lore or faction info. All we lost was the "take a sub, get a dragon" mechanic and instead got a support-oriented fighter.

 

[mellored]

No contradiction. The feedback was simply “do you like this y/n”. They don’t read the comments, it’s too expensive and difficult to analyse.

AI can read hundreds of thousands of comments and give a summary for very cheap.

It is no longer expensive or difficult.

 

[ECMO3]

They didn't give a flying fig if the fantasy of a chivalrous knight and his dragon steed fit the prior lore of the Purple Dragon Knight because their is probably a decent explanation of why the two are now linked.

It is not the prior lore, it is the new lore they published in the UA.

In the UA they said the "PDKs are paragons of valor ... rally to the causes of justice and freedom .... protect the innocent ... enlisted from any realms where chivalry is in abundance ..."

I think what Banana is saying is those traits do not go with Amethyst Dragons. It fits Gold Dragons and Silver Dragons, but Amethyst Dragons are aloof and detached and are NOT these things.

Unless they are going to wholesale change the lore on Amethyst Dragons as well.

 

[ECMO3]

Instead what we got was a subclass that no longer reflects that theme rather than a rejection of the theme itself.

You really don't know that this is true.

I fully believe the new lore was created specifically for the subclass and the subclass was not a byproduct of the lore because I don't know how anyone logically gets to PDKs working with Amethyst Dragons.

Also to be clear I did complain about the theme, but I also complained about the mechanics. The UA PDK "Amethyst Dragon" is the lamest Dragon in the game and IMO the worst mechanical execution of a Dragon of the 3 classes or subclasses with a "Dragon" pet.

 

[Necropolitan]

Again, it has been 125 years and two planetary catastrophes since we've revisited the PDKs. A lot can change in that time, even to knightly orders, as I've detailed above with real-life examples. There is no "butchering" of the lore. The lore remains intact. But that lore is what the PDKs were, not necessarily what they are, especially after so much time has passed.

Things...can...change.

Multiple people have spelled out exactly why this was a bad change to the lore that doesn't work and makes no sense.

Nobody was asking for this and way more people complained about it than were happy.

I fully believe the new lore was created specifically for the subclass and the subclass was not a byproduct of the lore because I don't know how anyone logically gets to PDKs working with Amethyst Dragons.

100%.

It would be like if Illithids were changed to rip brains out with barbed whips because that way they're 'Mind Flayers.' Sure they could come up with some reason for the change, but it would still be obvious nonsense.

 

[Demetrios1453]

Multiple people have spelled out exactly why this was a bad change to the lore that doesn't work and makes no sense.

Nobody was asking for this and way more people complained about it than were happy.

The lore can work and it can make sense. I can immediately think of a good half-dozen scenarios that could have taken place in the 125 missing years for this to be the end result, and likely even more given a bit to think about it.

 

[Mournblade94]

Again, it has been 125 years and two planetary catastrophes since we've revisited the PDKs. A lot can change in that time, even to knightly orders, as I've detailed above with real-life examples. There is no "butchering" of the lore. The lore remains intact. But that lore is what the PDKs were, not necessarily what they are, especially after so much time has passed.

Things...can...change.

But why? Why change the lore the entire reason people adopt a campaign setting in the first place.

They used that stupid time jump as a method to dumb the lore down (wotc words AND mine). If you're not using the established lore you are using the setting in name only.

4e was FR in name only and 5e tried but didn't do enough to fix that mistake. This would be a further step down the FR on name only direction.

Its like when a showeunner takes an established fiction like Wheel of Time and completely rewrites everything to make the show unsatisfying for fans. The dragon rider PDK have no relation to the real ones from lore.

In a campaign setting book lore is much more important to me than mechanics. Lore can change and it does. But arbitrary changes ruin the setting when the established lore isn't applied correctly.

WOTC already tried to cover this with the old lore was no longer relevant. For fans that's a BAD thing.

 

[Jensaarai]

AI can read hundreds of thousands of comments and give a summary for very cheap.

It is no longer expensive or difficult.

yeah sure, let's trust the thing that can hallucinate randomly and without care, and how the only way to truly know if it did hallucinate is if you read the "hundreds of thousands of comments" to confirm or deny, which kinda... defeats the point of the summary... hmm

 

[Demetrios1453]

But why? Why change the lore the entire reason people adopt a campaign setting in the first place.

They used that stupid time jump as a method to dumb the lore down (wotc words AND mine). If you're not using the established lore you are using the setting in name only.

4e was FR in name only and 5e tried but didn't do enough to fix that mistake. This would be a further step down the FR on name only direction.

Its like when a showeunner takes an established fiction like Wheel of Time and completely rewrites everything to make the show unsatisfying for fans. The dragon rider PDK have no relation to the real ones from lore.

In a campaign setting book lore is much more important to me than mechanics. Lore can change and it does. But arbitrary changes ruin the setting when the established lore isn't applied correctly.

WOTC already tried to cover this with the old lore was no longer relevant. For fans that's a BAD thing.

Some fans. I'm rather looking forward to the change and see what the history is behind it. Or, if that's not gone into detail, having an enjoyable time using my imagination to come up with interesting possibilities.

Also, the Wheel of Time series was pretty decent, and downright awesome in Season 3. This coming from someone who started reading the series in the '90s. You can see my enthusiasm for it in the TV series thread elsewhere on this forum.

Edit. As for your initial question of "why". Because the status quo is boring. Changing things (to a reasonable degree - the time skip I will agree was way over the line, but, you know, I've learned to live with it) makes the setting more lively and lived-in, more real. There's no reason to just print the same thing over and over again - change some things up! Make some changes to make it interesting! Inspire our imagination with some new things and new directions from time to time! How can it be a living, breathing world without some change?

It's not change for change's sake. It's change because change occurs when time passes. Change occurs. And since change occurs, some things have to change. Since this is a fictional world, it may seem arbitrary, but thats just inherent when doing this within the genre. The PDK changed because change occurs when time passes, and since something had to change for the sake of verisimiltude, it ended up being them. Because, I'm betting, if they had left them alone and chosen something else, the complaints from some quarters would have been just as loud about whatever this different thing that had been changed.

 

[mellored]

yeah sure, let's trust the thing that can hallucinate randomly and without care, and how the only way to truly know if it did hallucinate is if you read the "hundreds of thousands of comments" to confirm or deny, which kinda... defeats the point of the summary... hmm

You're thinking generative AI. That's supposed to make stuff.

You just need much simpler sentiment analysis. It doesn't generate anything, just counts the sentiments.

I.e.
75% of the red comments where about lore changes.

You can do it yourself on any modern computer. Here's a link if your curious.
https://www.datacamp.com/tutorial/text-analytics-beginners-nltk