Deep dive into the latest playtest subclasses for D&D 2024.
The unearthed arcana train has slowed down a little lately, but maybe that’s no bad thing. It gives the subclasses a little more time to bake. We also get a few less subclasses with just the 4 this time round.
Apocalyptic also happens to be an interesting name for this UA. It brings up associations of the Dark Sun setting. And with mentions of gladiators and sorcerer-kings, we think this might be a specific UA for a future Dark Sun setting revamp.
Enough of the speculation though. Here I’m going to take a deep dive into these playtest subclasses to see just how well they stack up mechanically.
What’s included in the playtest?
The playtest comes with 4 brand new subclasses (and one of them is actually a druid, we haven’t had a druid subclass in an Unearthed Arcana yet this year). They are:
- Druid: Circle of preservation
- Fighter: Gladiator
- Sorcerer: Defiled sorcery
- Warlock: Sorcerer-King Patron
If you want to check out the full playtest material, you can find it all here. Just remember that this is playtest material and will likely change before we get the final version.
Druid: Circle of preservation
What is it?
Preservers and healers of the natural world, these druids can restore vitality to the ruined and barren parts of the land as well as protect them from corruption and decay.
Is it any good?
Protective spells
The known spells are decent. The likes of bless, lesser restoration, greater restoration, death ward and sanctuary are all great, protective and restoring spells. Plant growth is good too.
Protection from poison is a little too situational while beacon of hope works if you want to engage in a lot of healing. Overall, it’s a decent set of spells for a druid you want to dedicate to healing and protection, which doesn’t really exist in the 2024 rules yet.
Preserved land is very potent
For a minute, without concentration, you can grant a decent number of scalable temporary hit points or recover allies from the poisoned or frightened conditions (both of which are very common). There’s no limit on the number of creatures affected, you can move the cube with a bonus action (and it only requires a bonus action to invoke in the first place). And this happens every turn it’s active.
For me, this is a very powerful feature the druid can probably use for most tough encounters. For comparison, the circle of the land’s land’s aid feature is instantaneous and heals or harms 2d6 (scaling with levels to 4d6 at level 14). This harm or healing will average 7HP at level 3, 10.5 at level 10 and 14 at level 14. For comparison, preserved land grants temporary hit points that scale at leach level starting at 5.5 at level 3, but by level 9, this is 11.5. At level 10 it’s 12.5 and at level 14 it’s 16.5. so it’s usually more hit points than land’s aid, occurring each turn over the course of a minute!
And preserved land gets even better at higher levels
Add to all of this the fact that by level 6. It’s going to increase constitution saving throws by probably +3-5, which is very strong for spellcasters (like the preservation druid) and damage enemies that enter it. That’s a lot compared to similar druid features.
At level 14, the area gets way bigger and you can use a reaction to halve damage to someone in the area. Basically, this is really good!
Student of preservation feels annoying to track
So sometimes you don’t use material components from spells which I guess is to preserve hands for shields and weapons. A shield is useful for a preservation druid, but weapons are likely less useful so juggling what’s in your hands shouldn’t be a big issue. But then not consuming a material component 10% of the time is not only rare, but a fiddly extra to deal with when casting a spell. I can see many players just not bothering with this or forgetting about it.
Facilitated restoration makes it easier to restore
This one feels a little more balanced. Free castings of lesser and greater restoration is going to be useful often enough and this should be plenty of free castings so you won’t need to use spell slots on them again. You can also use a levelled spell with your bonus action when doing this because it doesn’t consume a spell slot.
Verdict
Preserved land makes this a really strong subclass! In my opinion, too strong! This is a lot of continuous temporary hit points, plus it does almost everything else under the (dark) sun over a full combat. The spells are just solid though while student of preservation is awkward and unwieldy.
One other thing to point out is that things like protection from poison and even lesser restoration to some extent, become a bit redundant in the face of preserved land.
The main tactic with this build is going to be placing preserved land in all the right places and coordinating with allies. I just feel that compared to the other wild shape equivalents that other druid subclasses get, that this is just too strong. I think this needs weakening and student of preservation needs rethinking completely. So this is a 5/5 for pure power, but definitely needs work mechanically.
5/5
Fighter: Gladiator
What is it?
Gladiator’s are both brawlers and performers. They build up the crowd with theatric combat while possessing the skill and competency to backup their bravado.
Are they any good?
Brutality is like triple weapon mastery for one attack
It only works once per turn, but you get an extra weapon mastery use plus another effect each turn. I really like this and think it gives the gladiator lots of tactics to use in combat.
One quibble perhaps, is I kind of like the idea of this being a charismatic fighter (I guess it’s the Roman equivalent of WWE) but should charisma really make you better at causing a bleeding effect? I’d be more tempted to tie this to proficiency bonus or strength/dexterity, but charisma makes little sense here.
I like the bolder brutalities even better at level 10. Some of these feel like really useful tactical moves.
Combat theatrics makes more sense as a charisma boost
I like the idea of an athletics performer and think this feature works well to make gladiators more skillful. I’d actually almost be more inclined to let them do this feature in reverse. Rather than an extra proficiency, let them use their Dex or strength modifier to add even more to performance, intimidation and/or deception checks. I think that would be more interesting.
Flourish parry is a great defensive feature
A once per round defensive parry is great for upping your defence and once per round isn’t overkill. It also encourages you to invest in charisma.
I do feel like the flourish counter of this is good, but too rare. I think this should be recovered on a short rest, or you get a number of uses equal to your charisma modifier each long rest. Once per long rest is too few I think and second wind isn’t plentiful enough to really rely on for this.
Mutilate has some interesting mechanics
I think the maimed and sluggish effects are problematic enough to cause serious issues for a foe. It will likely encourage healing, but that expends an action (like removing conditions might). I kind of like the idea that you can succeed at this once per long rest, but can try as many times as you like. It’s an interesting approach to preventing an expendable that often might not work. I also like that it only works on bloodied creatures. Like you can cripple them, but you’ve got to do some hard work first.
Verdict
I really like the gladiator. I think it’s tactical, effective and unique. There’s maybe a bit of tweaking required, but I think it’s a really strong option. And on top of that, they make decent party faces and skillful characters. Areas where fighters often fall short. Great for fighters that want to do more than just fight.
5/5
Sorcerer: Defiled sorcery
What are they?
Sort of the antithesis of the circle of preservation, the defiled sorcery sorcerer fuels their power by draining the essence from life around them.
Are they any good?
Defiled and empower is great on AoE spells
We get another new and unique expendable. The use of hit point dice. Here, the sorcerer can choose to expend these to enhance their spells instead of using them to heal themself on a short rest. I think players with short adventuring days are going to get more from this feature because of that.
It’s also interesting that it doesn’t need to be sorcerer hit point dice, just your hit point dice. So of you take a few levels on paladin, you can use d10s instead of d6s which ups some of the potency here and actually doesn’t punish multiclassing.
But primarily, this is going to get the most potent on AoE damage dealers like fireball. This is because it affects one damage roll, not one creature or all damage rolls. So expect fireball and similar spells from the defiled sorcerer.
Some really lacklustre spells known
It’s great that the spells are very thematic, but they also tend to be a bit naff! Blindness/deafness is good and I guess antilife shell can be interesting, but the rest are a bit uninspiring. And there are no AoE spells to use defile and empower on. You can just grab those through the class, but still.
Use less metamagic, cast more spells
Converting sorcery points into spell slots will bag you some temporary hit points. This makes this a more worthwhile exchange to bother with which kind of encourages less metamagic potentially.
Balancing resources
In fact, I’d say this subclass is all about balancing resources, with spell slots, sorcery points, hit point dice and just health in general, everything is about getting the right gains for the right cost.
Siphoning back sorcery points at level 14 does soften the blow of using these for spells slots at least
Defensive subclass
Between extra temporary hit points at level 6 and reduced damage at level 14, this is a slightly more defensive subclass than usual. Note that this damage reduction isn’t a reaction so works as long you have innate sorcery active which could be quite a lot.
Verdict
This feels like a mostly solid subclass. There’s a lot of resources to balance, but it’s not too much. These features also feel substantial enough. There’s perhaps more complexity here than usual, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing.
I think the flavour on this one is great too. A sorcerer drawing power from life fits the class nicely. It’s not the most powerful subclass in this playtest, but that’s not bad, just balanced I think. My only issue is giving them better known spells.
4/5
Warlock: Sorcerer-King patron
What is it?
Although the subclass description doesn’t say it, the sorcerer-kings were tyrannical leaders of the world of Athas (of the Dark Sun setting). They themselves possessed phenomenal magical power. This playtest potentially broadens the scope of a sorcerer king a bit. But maybe that’s just a diversion so we don’t know what they’re cooking. Either way, these patrons aren’t up to much good, but they do have power so a warlock is going to do what they do and make a pact to use that power.
Is it any good?
Solid spells and psionics…
The spells are solid. I really like synaptic static, the smite spells are an option for a melee warlock and while it’s not quite as good as hypnotic pattern, fear is still a good spell.
There’s some versatility here too. Sending for messages, compulsion and fear for some crowd control and hold person and dominate person for some single target save or suck effects.
Apparently, your spellcasting for these spells is also kind of psionic, so no verbal or material components. That means sneaky spellcasting is a possibility. You can cast hold person on a guard or command, and no one will know why they’re acting weird.
Command is useful now
Command is a perfectly decent spell, but I rarely feel like spending an action or a spell slot on its single turn effect. But with voice of tyranny, it’s now a bonus action and doesn’t require a spell slot a few times each day. You can also cast it psionically. Now it feels really useful and worthwhile. Get enemies to drop their weapons or shield. Have them bow to your magnificence (dropping prone) and then slaughter them on their knees. Now you’re being a good little tyrant’s pet!
Incredible intimidation!
Proficiency and expertise in intimidation plus a high charisma is going to make you a bit terrifying. Character builds may want to lean into this, and this is the kind of thing that might influence your personality too. Sure, you don’t have to be evil to be a Sorcerer-King patron warlock, but that terrifying presence isn’t for nothing.
Decisive edict will have a big influence on a round
This is kind of a once per combat feature that will have a big impact to sway the encounter. You’re affecting a lot of creatures potentially with this, especially if you’re playing a melee warlock. A 30ft range is nice and there’s no action economy being spent here as it occurs when you cast a spell.
Basically, your allies get advantage on attack rolls and your enemies may become frightened. That’s a lot! It might be a little too much. I’m not sure without playtesting but I suspect this may get reduced a bit. Perhaps it’ll only be used once per long rest or the range will be cut. But I think this is really good and I like the approach, it might just need a tweak.
Reactionary protection
I think we’re seeing more uses of reactions in these playtest materials, and the Sorcerer-King patron is no exception. This is a particularly good version of this I think. Reroll a hit and cause damage if they miss. The damage is more potent than other variations I’ve seen (the same as your level rather than an ability score modifier). It’s going to work best for a high defence warlock (because the reroll is less likely to hit) and against enemies that don’t have really high bonuses to hit, but those creatures also tend to hit less hard.
Making fear matter
I really like this last feature. It takes a bit of effort to make it work, but double target command plus automatic command on those frightened by you is quite good. This makes the fear spell more useful. The same with decisive edict. And even intimidation If your GM will allow a looser interpretation of being frightened rather than a mechanical one. This isn’t mind control, but it is subjugation under the iron fist of a tyrant’s representative and that’s quite terrifying.
Verdict
I really like the flavour and uniqueness here and I think everything feels very useful about the Sorcerer-King patron. I do wonder if decisive edict is a little too powerful, but otherwise, I think that this is not just a really strong and unique set of features, but is also powerful without being completely unbalanced. It might need a few tweaks after playtesting, but I think this is the core of a really good subclass.
5/5
Summary
These subclasses have had longer in the oven (or at least longer since our last Unearthed Arcana) and you can tell. There’s also less subclasses being worked on at the same time. I think that these subclasses all manage to be unique, fun and mechanically, if not perfect, at least fairly close to where they need to be. All of this while experimenting with new ideas and approaches.
Yes, I do think the circle of preservation needs a bit more work and yes I do think there are some tweaks required. But that’s what playtesting is for.
I think the designers have had a fair bit of heat this year because of the patchy quality of the Unearthed Arcana we’ve received, but I think that what is clear is they’re listening to feedback and adapting. Less is definitely more and I’m intrigued to see what they have in store for these subclasses (a Dark Sun setting book I assume).
What do you think of the new apocalyptic subclasses? Let me know in the comments below.
Spotlight on the D&D 2024 revision
All the latest updates on what’s changing with the 2024 rules revision.
