Which class options deserve revisiting and which should stay in the archives?
Over the years, Wizards of the Coast (WOTC) has released loads of playtest material for players to try out. Some get published and others get relegated to the depths of the Abyss.
After a year full of new Unearthed Arcana (UA) character options to playtest and covering each one, I wanted to wind back the clock and look at all the classes and subclasses WOTC have released for playtesting. I’ve decided to take a particularly careful look at those that never got a full release and give my two cents on which deserve raising from the dead and which should stay buried in Wizard’s archives.
Which classes and subclasses never got released
Let’s start with all the classes and subclasses that never got a full release. Just be aware that some class options do change name before they’re eventually released (like the path of the wild soul barbarian, which eventually becomes the path of wild magic or the revived rogue which became the phantom). When this has happened, I’ve not included them below if the essence of the option remains the same.
Artificer
- Archivist
- Gunsmith
The archivist struggled with identity, attempting to be a recorder of knowledge, but actually bending the concept of an archivist far beyond recognition. Instead, what we got was a builder of an intelligent neural interface that can harm and buff. Fortunately, the removal of the archivist made space for the ironman inspired armorer, a much more appropriate option for an artificer.
The gunsmith was a precursor to the artillerist, but rather than creating a cannon companion, the gunsmith had an enhanced gun and shells of their own to fire. It’s distinct enough to count as a different subclass, but the artillerist definitely works better.
Bard
- College of satire
The bard lacks a jester subclass and perhaps the college of satire should have been it. The subclass had some interesting approaches to hit and run tactics, but without the martial clout of the swords or Valor bards it needed to make this count.
Cleric
- City domain
- Fate domain
- Protection domain
- Unity domain
Many of the cleric domains struggled with their identity. For example, why would anyone worship a city god (what even are city gods). It was dull and didn’t really work.
The exception here is the fate domain which is interesting and works thematically and it’s a shame it didn’t end up released.
Druid
- Circle of the primeval
- Circle of twilight
The circle of the primeval teased the chance to summon and even ride a dinosaur companion. Conceptually it was incredibly exciting and a surprising omission considering the execution wasn’t far off.
The circle of twilight had the potential for serious nova damage, especially combined with area of effect spells and the extra healing it dealt. It was definitely lacking in balance and needed a complete rethink.
Fighter
- Brute
- Knight
- Monster hunter – This one later became a ranger subclass.
- Scout – This later became a rogue subclass.
- Sharpshooter
Some of the fighter subclasses struggled a little to fit in the right niche. Scouts made more sense as rogues, monster hunters as rangers and knights are basically a magic-less paladin. Sharpshooters fit a fighter archetype, but were competing with the arcane archer as your ranged specialist.
The brute conceptually works for a fighter, but it was definitely overpowered. The damage scaling, their excellence at all saving throws and their consistent self healing in combat made them extremely difficult to keep down.
Monk
- Way of tranquility
The way of tranquility was sort of uneven. The healing was quite substantial and really easy to merge with attacks, but also occupied the same space as the way of mercy. Some features felt frustratingly situational while others, like douse the flames of war, completely nullify an enemy with no subsequent saving throws on later turns. This all made for an uneven subclass.
Mystic
- Order of the avatar
- Order of the awakened
- Order of the immortal
- Order of the nomad
- Order of the soul knife
- Order of the wu jen
The psionic spellcasting precursor to the Psion, for which we’ve had a couple of UAs for D&D 2024 already. The mystic is a spellcaster without spells. Instead, they have the equivalent of spells that use psi points that can be increased to enhance potency with pages of different options available.
I think the big problems here are that mystics struggle to keep up with the power scaling and resilience of martials, while also struggling with the power scaling of spellcasters. The other issue is that the mystic required an entirely new system that’s like spells, but not spells. This is a huge amount of design work that would need expanding each time a new subclass was released. Ultimately, this is too much effort for a class that functions worse than other classes.
Paladin
- Oath of heroism
- Oath of treachery
The oath of treachery is an interesting one. It’s a like the oathbreaker and it’s the blackguard subclass. Sadly, the illusory duplicate falls flat due to its action requirement and having other ways to gain advantage. There are also retreat options that seem at odds with the blackguard’s aggressive nature.
For the oath of heroism, it occupies the same role as the oath of glory.
Ranger
- Primeval guardian
The main problem with the primeval guardian is it relied on assuming a form that restricted your movement speed to 5ft. Not even a treant is that ponderously slow.
Sorcerer
- Favoured soul
- Giant soul
- Phoenix sorcery
- Psionic soul
- Sea sorcery
- Stone sorcery
The sorcerer has a whole swathe of subclasses that never made it to release. Some are understandable like stone sorcery, which built you into a more durable sorcerer with proficiency in martial weapons, but then failed to give you the attacking prowess to make it worth making melee attacks. Sort of like a poor man’s paladin. You could smite with one attack and less durability.
Others, like favoured soul and sea sorcery, seemed good, but favoured soul may have crossed over too much with clockwork soul while sea sorcery definitely crossed over too much with storm sorcery.
Warlock
- Ghost in the machine
- Raven queen
- The seeker
- Undying light (not to be confused with the undying)
Some warlock subclasses struggled for the right kind of patron, or had crossover with other subclasses. The undying light kind of does both, having both a patron of unknowable energy, and a large crossover with the celestial.
The ghost in the machine was an attempt at modernised magic, which hinted at something closer to science fiction. Unfortunately, none of these attempts really landed, perhaps mainly because they rely on concepts that aren’t really properly realised in the D&D universe right now (AI and hackers).
Wizard
- Artificer
- Lore mastery
- Onomancy
- Psionics
- School of invention
- Runecrafter
- Technomancy
- Theurgy
Before the artificer was released (and even while it was in the works), there were 3 separate attempts to make an artificer-like subclass for the wizard (including just making the artificer a wizard subclass). It soon became apparent that a proper artificer needed more than just an add on to a wizard and deserved its own fully fleshed out features to make it a proper inventor class. This didn’t stop WOTC from dabblling with giving the wizard technomancy and the school of invention though.
Wizards have plenty of subclasses and they nearly had even more. Some of the more interesting ones include onomancy which is the art of enhancing spells through naming. It required setup, but made your wizard very nasty against a single target. Theurgy let you take on features from cleric domains. This became a little uneven as you gained cleric subclass features at higher or lower levels than your cleric counterparts.
Prestige classes
- Rune scribe
Early in the 2014 edition, WOTC played with the idea of advanced subclasses that players could use as a multiclass option once their character had reached level 3+. These were intended to introduce more advanced play options. Perhaps a little too advanced as the concept was quickly abandoned with just the one subclass tested.
Mages of Strixhaven
- Mage of Lorehold
- Mage of Prismari
- Mage of Quandrix
- Mage of Silverquill
- Mage of Witherbloom
Strixhaven is a magical school akin to Hogwarts. To allow players to have a breadth of character options, all sorts of classes can study within each of the houses.
To unify this further, there was an attempt to create a unified subclass for each house that could be used with multiple classes. As you might expect, this became a challenge to both design with multiple subclasses in mind while maintaining the right level of balance. It also meant that some classes got the same features earlier than others. It’s unsurprising that the idea was scrapped for the book itself.
Which classes/subclasses should be brought back for D&D 2024
But which of these were cast off too quickly and deserve a fresh coat of D&D 2024 paint? Below I’ve picked out the options I consider the most promising and would like to see make a return.
Fate domain cleric
The fate domain was quite good, as I’ve found with other foresight subclasses (like clockwork sorcery and the diviner). So it’s a shame it didn’t quite make the cut.
I can only guess at what prevented this, but it was the last subclass in development for the 2014 edition (presumably earmarked for Planescape). My best guess is it either didn’t fit in the book and got cut, they ran out of time with design focus on the 2024 rules or they realised it wasn’t quite the right fit for a multiversal setting.
Brute fighter
The brute was just a pure killing machine that could outlast and out-smash any other fighter. There’s nothing wrong with this. For many, that’s just going to be the most satisfying way to play.
Yes, the UA was too tough and too strong, but that can easily be tweaked. For those times I just want to my fighter to do their best hulk impression, this is the subclass I want to be using.
Mystic/psion
Perhaps this is cheating because WOTC has already signalled they want to bring this one back, transforming the mystic into a Psion.
I have some mixed feelings on this one. I’ve heard the uproar that players want a unique spellcaster that uses a different spellcasting system. I’m generally inclined to agree with that. Why have a psion that’s basically just a psychic sorcerer. That’s a tad reductive though, the psion in the latest UA does enough to differentiate itself from the sorcerer, just about. But I would rather have them being something substantially more unique (as the artificer was).
Having said that, the mystic was exactly that. A completely different kind of spellcaster, and it just became a very challenging set of new not-spells to learn and become familiar with. So I’m not completely against WOTC’s decision to stick with standard spellcasting and grant that flavour through features and subclasses instead, which they have. Of course, the mystic’s approach isn’t the only way to handle an alternate spellcasting system, but it does show that such an approach is going to be a challenge.
Circle of the primeval druid
Probably my number one pick for a revision. If anyone should have a dino pet, it’s a druid. And who doesn’t want to summon a triceratops you can ride and charge into battle.
The UA wasn’t too far off either. A few tweaks to power-scaling and I think this one would have been ready to publish. I’d also argue that we don’t have enough easy ways to get characters involved with mounts, making this appealing in another way.
Which lost classes and subclasses would you like to be revisited in D&D 2024? Let me know in the comments below.
