Wizards of the Coast has released new Dungeons & Dragons Unearthed Arcana. This latest batch of playtest material features new apocalyptic-themed character subclasses, which may hint at the company returning to one of its older, and darker, settings.
The Dungeons & Dragons Unearthed Arcana Apocalyptic Subclass Announcement
As always, the latest Dungeons & Dragons Unearthed Arcana is free to download from D&D Beyond. The new playtest material uses the 2024 rules and features four new character subclasses for the Druid, Fighter, Sorceror, and Warlock. Each subclass appears to take on a darker, postapocalyptic theme.
The Circle of Preservation Druid is all about protection. Druids of this circle can expend a use of their Wild Shape to create a large area of vegetation to grow which heals allies and cures them of certain conditions. At later levels, you can even eschew expensive material components for more advanced spells and have your hallowed areas deal radiant damage to enemies.
The Gladiator Fighter features a combination of martial prowess and bloody showmanship. Their Brutality mechanic lets them layer on additional weapon mastery effects with every hit like Vex or Topple, and can add their Charisma bonus to certain skill rolls. At later levels, the Gladiator also gets a Parry and Mutilate ability, which can debuff bloodied enemies.
The third subclass in this Dungeons & Dragons Unearthed Arcana is the Defiled Sorcery Sorceror. This Sorceror can expend hit dice to increase the damage of a spell attack. The twist is the hit dice spent can either be theirs or the enemy. At later levels, they gain auras which grant resistance to certain damage types and helps them regain sorcery points.
Finally, there is the Sorcerer-King Patron Warlock. As the name implies, Warlocks make a pact with a tyrannical demigod or incredibly powerful magical despot for power. As a result, you can cast certain spells like Command or Hold Person without verbal or somatic components and create auras that can make enemies frightened of you. Their endgame features include forcing enemies to auto-fail attacks.
On the surface, the new Dungeons & Dragons Unearthed Arcana appears to be an innocuous batch of playtest material. But it is no secret that UAs usually allude to future books or supplements that Wizards of the Coast are working on. Their Arcane subclass UA hinting at the new Forgotten Realms books, or the revised Artificer foreshadows the new Eberron book.
With that in mind, there is a strong chance this Unearthed Arcana may imply Wizards of the Coast may return to the apocalyptic world of Dark Sun in a future book. This would be a major departure from the high fantasy of Faerun or the steampunk sensibilities of Eberron.
Dark Sun is set in the post-apocalyptic world of Athas, full of barren wastelands, slavery, and wizard tyrants that use the lives of their subjects to power spells. It has more in common with Mad Max or the classic Conan The Barbarian stories than Lord of the Rings. It is also a notoriously problematic setting packed various negative stereotypes.
Given the thematic text and mechanical function seen in the UA, these subclasses would be right at home in such a setting. But does beg the question as to how WOTC will present the dark themes in the setting if they choose to revisit it in 2024.
