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

The class received poor marks during playtesting.
purple dragon knight.jpg


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.

 

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Christian Hoffer

Christian Hoffer

Adding in a partnership with a gem dragon to a knightly order isn’t a flaw in internal consistency. It’s just an evolution. The year for the books is 1501. It’s been a long time since the PDKs were formed. People, places, and organizations can and do evolve over time.

To me this sounds like an excuse to make a Dragon rider subclass - putting the Lore in to support the subclass, not an evolution of the Lore.

Also if it is an Evolution of the Lore why a purple Dragon? The prominent Dragons of Cormyr include Red, Gold, Black, Faerie Dragons and a Song Dragon. Wouldn't one of them make more sense?
 

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People hear claim they want the world to expand and grow, but when the dragon knights of Cormyr get actual purple dragons, they whinge about how that isn't cannon to the lore as described in 1985 and WotC should not deviate from it, and then on the next breath complain how WotC can't create anything new and reprints the hits again and again.

Just explain why it is specifically the Purple Dragon Knights that ride Dragons? Why THAT subclass ..... I mean why don't we make the Scion of the Dead Three the Dragon rider subclass?

Moreover if we want a Dragon riding class why are we putting it in a setting-specific book that does not really feature many Dragon riders. It would make more sense in a Tasha's type splatbook or maybe Spelljammer where they DO feature lots of Dragon riders in the setting.
 



ostly, the name “purple dragon knight” conjures the mental image of a knight either riding or trying to slay a purple dragon. And that sounds cool and interesting, but then the subclass doesn’t live up to that image.

I get this argument, but we are talking about the Forgotten Realms specifically. This is a Forgotten Realms book, not a generic D&D splatbook and while that may be the mental image for someone not familiar with the Lore it is not the image for anyone who is familiar with the Lore.

Also while people find the idea of riding a dragon to be cool, I think far less find an Amethyst Dragon specifically to be cool.

They could call it "Red Dragon Knight" make it a Red Dragon and have it in a generic splatbook or a spelljammer book and it would be way cooler from every angle without any Lore problems.
 





"Hey, Amethyst Dragons. We're the Purple Dragon Knights. Y'all are purple dragons. Wanna team up? It'll be so cool!"

Except the Dragons in the area are not Amethyst Dragons and what do the Dragons get out of it. They would have no interest in said arms race.

Let's also be clear that according to the UA subclass they were not allies, but more servants of the PDKs bred and raised from eggs (you could even say slaves of the PDKs)
 

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