D&D: WotC Drops A New Arcane Subclasses Playtest Packed With NINE(!) Subclasses
Wizards make up almost half of the new Arcane Subclasses playtest, but don’t worry, there’s a little something for everyone.
WotC released another Unearthed Arcana yesterday, with little enough fanfare. Especially for an Unearthed Arcana packed with nine different subclasses. There’s a little something for more classes than you’d think, though Wizards do get the meatiest portion. But you’ll find new options for Fighters, Monks, Clerics, Sorcerers, and a revised Hexblade (plus four Wizard options) in the new Arcane Subclasses playtest.
A New Playtest – A New Era At WotC
Change is in the air at Wizards of the Coast. And nowhere is that more visible than the setup layed out in the eleven-minute overview video linked above.
Todd Kenreck had a certain visual style that’s missing from the new setup. If you look at the comments for the video, a good chunk of them are something like “missing Todd already.” But we’re not here to talk about the changing staff at WotC. We’re here to look at Arcane Subclasses.
And there are nine of them in this playtest. Most are returning/updated versions of subclasses that were featured in 5th Edition, though there are a couple of subclasses that didn’t have a 5E version: notably the Tattooed Warrior Monk and the Ancestral Sorcery Sorcerer. Side note, they gotta come up with a better name for Sorcerer subclasses. I know it’s too late, but typing out Sorcerery Sorcerer is just going to get weirder the more we do it.
The other seven subclasses are not unexpected ones. These are subclasses that have, honestly, needed some love since 5E. So it’s nice to see them get any attention – though without spoiling the pot ahead of time, I can already tell you that this survey is going to be a contentious one.
Especially since it opens next week? It’s so fast. Almost worryingly fast – the surveys are out without much time to actually playtest things. And then they close in just a few weeks. So far we’ve had one a month, which is a marked departure from the glacial trickle at WotC in the previous decade, so, not complaining too much.
I’m just worried the playtests will be more vibe checks than anything. That’s the price you pay for quick turnarounds, though.
Arcane Subclasses – Not Just For Spellcasters
New era at WotC aside, it feels good to see that more than just spellcasters are featured in the Arcane Subclasses playtest. We’ll do a deeper dive on each of the subclasses in the coming days, since some of them are quite different from their 5E incarnations.
For now, here’s a quick overview of what you’ll find. Starting with a fresh take on the Arcana Domain Cleric. One of the two “good” subclasses from the Sword Coast Adventurer’s Guide, the Arcana Domain Cleric gets a few updates that make it a little more magic-focused.
Then we have the Arcane Archer, a Fighter subclass that has been struggling since it was released in Xanathar’s Guide to Everything. Thankfully the designers of this iteration understood that you need more than just two uses of the thing that your subclass is all about. Though I suspect this one will still be starting fights.
The Tattooed Warrior Monk is a new take on the Monk. Though the concept is one that dates all the way back to 3.5 Edition D&D, which is wild. This subclass is all about magical tattoos, a concept that D&D got right once and has been struggling to figure out how to get it right again ever since. In 5E, magical tattoos were kind of middling at best. And in 5.5E, that tradition might hold out, a very brief once-over for the class does not instill hope, but stay tuned for a deeper dive.
Even More Options
Ancestral Sorcery on the other hand, gives Sorcerers a cool new tool and roleplay option. Now your magical power can be given to you by an extraordinarily powerful ancestor. Someone who wielded such amazing might that a fragment of it made its way to you and now you have your evil wizard uncle’s magical spark guiding you through the expression of your powers, or whatever. You can make it be whatever you want, but it feels uncle to me.
Hexblade Warlocks get a second pass in the Arcane Subclasses playtest. We saw a reimagined Hexblade just over a month ago – and now it’s time for round two. It seems way more curse-focused than before, but hey, that’s how the cookie crumbles. I personally liked the earlier version better, but there’s been some promising course-corrections that give me hope for the next one.
Then there are four Wizard subclasses returning from the old 5E PHB: the Enchanter, Conjurer, Necromancer, and Transmuter. They largely do what you expect, as long as what you expect is having access to Misty-step like effects in some cases.
Happy playtesting!
