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.

 

[ECMO3]

In short, there will still be Cormyr knights riding amethyst dragons, except you don't get to play one. Enjoy your second wind burat heal.

This is not true. Any player can ride a dragon.

I had my Kender Conquest Paladin riding a dragon in the last Dragonlance campaign I played.

 

[tombowings]

We are talking about a bunch of cut-rate paladins (Because, let's be brutally honest, the game already had a knightly class, its the paladin) who's only noteworthy thing is having a neat name that barely makes sense with them.

The paladins is a spellcaster by the WotC posse's definition. Most fantasy knights aren't magic men.

 

[ECMO3]

This is an incredibly tenuous analogy. Anyway, my point is not “you dislike this particular change, therefore you’re afraid of any change.”

I'm not. I love a lot of the changes made in modern d&d compared to the older versions, just not this one.

Also are they going to retcon the lore on Amethyst Dragons too as they are not really purple as they age and are more oriented to a psion pet than a fighter pet.

What WotC asked was do we like this subclass. I liked the subclass.

I hated it. Mostly because it was called a Purple Dragon Knight and that does not fit the Forgotten Realms lore (and to be clear I don't need to use the flimsy change to the lore they made to support this even if it is published).

Even without the name though I did not find the subclass mechanics particularly appealing. I don't particularly like the 2014 subclass either. We will see about this new Banneret when it is published, maybe it will be awesome, maybe it will be worse than either of those bad iterations of the PDK.

In any case it is not appropriate to name a subclass after a faction anyway. It is too confining. It would be like having a Red Wizard subclass or a Harper subclass. Regardless of how cool the mechanics are (and the UA PDK was not cool IMO) this makes the characters space for story too confining and narrow.

 

[Weiley31]

I

In any case it is not appropriate to name a subclass after a faction anyway. It is too confining. It would be like having a Red Wizard subclass or a Harper subclass. Regardless of how cool the mechanics are (and the UA PDK was not cool IMO) this makes the characters space for story too confining and narrow.

Ya those should be kept as factions with their own Renown systems. For the PDK, a high renown would get ya either the Hippogryph or the Amethyst Dragon as a mount.

 

[ECMO3]

Ya those should be kept as factions with their own Renown systems. For the PDK, a high renown would get ya either the Hippogryph or the Amethyst Dragon as a mount.

I would agree, assuming that is that lore.

Also I just remembered this - but purple is the color of the Cult of The Dragon in Faerun, which is an evil Chromatic Dragon cult, creating yet another disconnect.

 

[Maxperson]

Score another win for generic over interesting. A generic knight subclass would be nice, but not at the expense of the purple dragon knights which deserve a subclass in the Forgotten Realms books.

 

[doctorhook]

We are talking about a bunch of cut-rate paladins (Because, let's be brutally honest, the game already had a knightly class, its the paladin) who's only noteworthy thing is having a neat name that barely makes sense with them. The 'oh its was a black dragon but more purple' is a terrible origin story, and what most folks probably know the PDKs for is being an incredibly eh support class in NWN and far inferior to just going straight fighter or throwing in some Champion of Torm, or being one of the worst subclasses in 5E.

So now a decent name is, once again, wasted on a dull, useless organisation and potentially another bad subclass, rather than getting any interesting 'why should we care about these people' to it.

If PDKs are a boring organization, why not just put them to bed? Why the need to retool them into something that makes little sense for PDKs and even less sense for amethyst dragons?

Deep dragons being called purple dragons was a 4E thing and pretty blatantly not applicable to their 5E versions who aren't, y'know. Purple, instead going for more of a cave dwelling salamander look. Also, you'd know there's another purple dragon, from Dragon Magazine, the ol' laser breath one

The ol’ Dragon mag purple dragons were such a deep cut with no significant role in D&D, so the 4E lore to roll them into deep dragons was pretty benign and probably brought them more attention than they’d had in years.

Anyway I find this whole line “They’re called Purple Dragon Knights so they should get purple dragon pets!” to be really juvenile, as if D&D players can’t understand the name of faction not being literal. Perhaps the Emerald Enclave should live in a literal castle made of emeralds? Does everyone in the Order of the Gauntlet get a special magic gauntlet? Are we gonna cut up the membership cards of any Harpers who can’t play the harp?

 

[bedir than]

Also I just remembered this - but purple is the color of the Cult of The Dragon in Faerun, which is an evil Chromatic Dragon cult, creating yet another disconnect.

It's rather common for a color to be used by both good and evil orgs

 

[Clint_L]

For me, the only thing I care about is that they change the name of the subclass so I no longer have to explain it to beginners. Banneret is fine. "It's a knight."

 

[ECMO3]

Anyway I find this whole line “They’re called Purple Dragon Knights so they should get purple dragon pets!” to be really juvenile, as if D&D players can’t understand the name of faction not being literal. Perhaps the Emerald Enclave should live in a literal castle made of emeralds? Does everyone in the Order of the Gauntlet get a special magic gauntlet?? Are we gonna cut up the membership cards of any Harpers who can’t play the harp???

THIS!!!