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.

 

[chlopac]

In UA, the abilities was tied to intelligence and now they are tied to charisma.

 

[CM]

A dragon knight subclass would've been fine on its own, but hard-linking it to a very specific nation with built-in political loyalties is/was a poor choice for a subclass.

 

[Charlaquin]

Which makes "Purple Dragon Knight" a bad name. But that the subclass is a relatively generic knight-commander instead of some super specific and gimmicky thing is absolutely great in my book. Subclasses should be archetypes that represent several character concepts and fit to most settings.

I mean, I agree in principle. But I don’t think chivalrous knight was really an archetype in need of filling. The Banneret doesn’t feel like a subclass that was made to fill an archetypal role within the fighter class. It feels like a subclass that was made because they were doing a Forgotten Realms book (specifically Sword Coast Adventurer’s Guide) and wanted a Realms-specific fighter subclass to help sell the book. So they went with purple dragon knights as a recognizable realms-specific fighter to connect the subclass to, and then through a thoroughly uninspired handful of fighter-y abilities together and called it good enough to ship.

If 2024 is going to fix the subclass, giving it something mechanically interesting to do is a good place to start. And riding purple dragons seems like an interesting thing for them to do that suits the name. Obviously that ship has sailed because Pelor forbid FR lore ever evolve. But I think it was a better direction than just filing the serial numbers off of an already bland as white bread subclass.

 

[Necropolitan]

Good, there was absolutely no reason to throw out decades of established lore.

WOTC can just release what would have been the 'Purple Dragon-riding Knight' under a different name if enough fans actually want it.

And since the Subclass wouldn't need to be tied to Amethyst Dragons it could have variant abilities depending on what type of Dragon they're bonded to.

 

[Mirrorrorrim]

Which makes "Purple Dragon Knight" a bad name. But that the subclass is a relatively generic knight-commander instead of some super specific and gimmicky thing is absolutely great in my book. Subclasses should be archetypes that represent several character concepts and fit to most settings.

I think this is a very interesting take.

There are people who only want Wizards to publish generic Subclasses that are usable in any campaign. I get it. They are the Core Game publisher.

Then there are concepts that BELONG in specific Campaign Settings. Other 3P products have thematic subclasses. Where are 1P campaign-specific subclasses supposed to be published? There are already some others in Heroes of Faerûn. If they did make a Purple Dragon Knight subclass, why would it not be in a book like Heroes of Faerûn?

Is the problem with the Purple Dragon Knight that it is a niche campaign-specific name, tied to what looks to be a generic Warlord variant?

Or should campaign-specific character options be limited to be only in Backgrounds and Feats?

 

[Pauln6]

In UA, the abilities was tied to intelligence and now they are tied to charisma.

Personally I would like to see options to encourage both like in 4e. Adding half int bonus rounded up to initiative and persuasion might discourage total stat dumping. Adding Charisma to second wind healing might be an alternative.

I think there needs to be more reason for non wizards not to dump intelligence in 5e generally.

 

[Benjamin Olson]

I find it ironic (though of course unsurprising) that some people are so concerned about Forgotten Realms lore, when to me the whole reason I play in Forgotten Realms is that it is a kitchen sink fantasy setting with lots of lore but very little I or anyone I play with care about, such that it can all be changed at will. I've probably spent a thousand hours of my life playing ttrpgs and video games set in the Forgotten Realms and I don't know or remember anything about Purple Dragon Knights other than the mechanics of the subclass in SCAG.

In any case I think the pet dragon variation would have seen more actual play than support Fighter, but we'll see. The main problem with SCAG Purple Dragon Knight was that it played off Fighter features which at the time were once per rest. But the secondary problem is that "improves how you can use existing limited resources" subclasses just generally aren't that exciting or powerful when they are competing with "gives you a new resource" classes. I'd certainly rather DM for the support subclass variant then for another pet subclass.

 

[JPL]

Plenty of room for a Charisma fighter build. I'd like to see more subclasses that put that second-best ability score to good use. Elementalist sorcerer with a high Constitution, tactician fighter with high Charisma, thug rogue with high Strength, that sort of thing. Mostly for the classes that are not already dependent on multiple ability scores.

 

[Rainbow Scissors]

I like the concept, but the execution leaves a lot to be desired.

 

[Remathilis]

Good, there was absolutely no reason to throw out decades of established lore.

WOTC can just release what would have been the 'Purple Dragon-riding Knight' under a different name if enough fans actually want it.

And since the Subclass wouldn't need to be tied to Amethyst Dragons it could have variant abilities depending on what type of Dragon they're bonded to.

Yup. Just like the zhentarium and red wizards are always scheming villains who are kill on sight. Imagine if they tried to make Zhents a mercenary army or the red wizards magic merchants. That would go against decades of established lore. Next you'll tell me there are non evil drow or spellcasting dwarves!