The latest Unearthed Arcana has arrived and offers Dungeons and Dragons players three brand-new subclasses to experiment with.
UnderDark Options Introduces Three New D&D Subclasses
Arcana Unleashed is all set to drop a ton of new content on the Dungeons and Dragons community when it releases in early September, but players who want to brew a new character right now don’t need to wait any longer.
The latest Dungeons and Dragons Unearthed Arcana playtest content has arrived a few weeks ahead of Arcana Unleashed and the Underdark-themed player options are full of exciting new opportunities.
The biggest highlight of the new materials are the three new subclasses for players to test out:
- Path of Unlight Barbarian
- House Agent Rogue
- Imaskarcanist Wizards
Here is a preview of what each subclass is all about, but players can dive into the full Unearthed Arcana materials to read all the specific rules:
Path of Unlight
Unlight is a mysterious and powerful form of magic originating in the lowest depths of the Underdark, among the people of Deep Imaskar. Unlight does not merely banish darkness from the Underdark; it infects those exposed to it, transforming them and making them both physically strong and supernaturally aggressive. In other words, Unlight exposure is a perfect match for the Barbarian class.
A Barbarian on this path has been infected by Unlight, which is associated with Radiant damage. When the Barbarian rages, Unlight bursts from their body, burning enemies and illuminating the darkness. More importantly, the Barbarian can infect enemies with Unlight, causing them to continuously burn. In D&D 5.5, a Barbarian’s Rage can also have uses outside of combat, and the Path of Unlight reflects that by granting a raging Barbarian Blindsight and Expertise in Perception, as they become supernaturally aware of everything illuminated by the Unlight emitted by the Barbarian’s own body.
House Agent (Rogue)
House Agents work as spies for one of the powerful drow houses of Menzoberranzan, where deception and intrigue are so commonplace as to be expected. These Rogues excel at social infiltration by charming their way into a place, extracting information from a fool with a loose tongue, and backstabbing enemies on the way out. Their house sponsor also gives them a bit of magic to assist them on these missions.
Rogues are known for leveraging their reliable skillsets. This Rogue’s skillset is primarily social. Its subclass features incentivize building relationships with NPCs and either manipulating or backstabbing them.
Many of the subclass’s abilities loop through the Attitude and Influence systems: you gain Advantage (and therefore Sneak Attack!) on Friendly creatures. You don’t suffer penalties when you try to use the Influence action on Hostile creatures. You can use the Influence action as a Bonus action. This makes the House Agent’s silver tongue an asset both during and outside of combat!
Imaskarcanist
The Imaskarcanist subclass describes Wizards following in the traditions of Deep Imaskar, located in the lowest levels of the Underdark and first described in 2003’s Underdark, a book for D&D’s 3rd edition. In that book, Deep Imaskar is protected by the Great Seal, an enormous magical ward which also illuminates the city and sheds light strong enough to grow food. In the years since, the magic of the Great Seal—now known as Unlight—has split into two competing strands, each taught by one of the Imaskarcana, intelligent artifacts sacred to the people of Deep Imaskar.
The Imaskarcanist is a master of both these strands of magic, using Unlight both to heal and to harm. On one hand, they can bolster allies with the invigorating magic of Unlight, but they can also infect enemies with Unlight’s burning radiance, causing them to explode when killed! But Unlight burns the Wizard’s inner life force, represented in the game by the Wizard expending their own Hit Point Dice to fuel their abilities. Imaskarcanists also retain other secrets of Deep Imaskar, such as a facility with magic items and knowledge they use to create powerful wards like the Great Seal.
All three subclasses sound like they are full of interesting flavor and could be used to make characters for an Underdark-themed campaign. Additionally, the options could easily be used for a campaign in a traditional setting and the characters would just have a background story related to the Underdark.
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