The upcoming Dungeons and Dragons Arcana Unleashed sourcebook will add a ton of new character options for players to select from, but an early preview has already revealed the upcoming nine new magical factions and the backgrounds and original feats for each one.
Nine Arcana Unleashed Backgrounds and Feats Revealed
The next major sourcebook for Dungeons and Dragons releases in September, but DMs and players already have a good idea of what it will include. In addition to new DMs and arcana-themed subclasses, Arcana Unleashed is going going to include a ton of new inspiration for character creation.
One of those tools that players will be able to take advantage of is a long list of magical factions that can act as new background options. Each new background option will also have a suggested Origin Feat, as well.
The full list of new magical factions includes:
- Agent of the Ninth Quill
- Bejeweled Conclave Spy
- Cosmic Dawn Experiment
- Covenant of the Grave Recruit
- Crucible Storm Chaser
- Horizon Weaver Initiate
- Phantasmic Circus Trouper
- Seer Apprentice
- Ward of the Sheltering Hands
Here is a detailed breakdown of each magical faction and its accompanying Origin Feat:
Agent of the Ninth Quill
Characters with this background are cunning agents of intrigue with a penchant for thievery. You’ve fallen in with a group of sophisticated saboteurs and learned a thing or two about picking locks and stealing magic items along the way.
Origin Feat: Arcane Infiltrator
You’ve become a bit of an expert in sneaking past the guard — and skedaddling once they realize they’ve been fooled. You learn the Friends cantrip, and can take the Dodge action as a Bonus action a number of times equal to your Proficiency Bonus.
Bejeweled Conclave Spy
Bejeweled Conclave Spies use their talent for stagecraft, diplomacy, or politics to uncover the secrets of the powerful—and then exploit that knowledge to advance their faction’s position. Though you never know who might be part of their whisper network, they are known to prefer those with skill in enchantment magic, entertainment, and subterfuge, like Enchanter Wizards, Bards and Rogues of all kinds, and sometimes charismatic Sorcerers and Warlocks..
Origin Feat: Arcane Eloquence
Your words carry more weight. Make the audience laugh—or blush—with Vicious Mockery, and add 1d4 to your Deception, Intimidation, and Persuasion checks.
Cosmic Dawn Experiment
Products of strange circumstances, characters with the Cosmic Dawn Experiment background have been altered by forces beyond their understanding. Whether your initial transmutation was intentional or accidental, you now find yourself drawn to the Bringers of the Cosmic Dawn, an amoral faction of transmutationists preparing for the arrival of otherworldly entities.
Aberrant Sorcerer Sorcerers, Pact of the Great Old One Warlocks, and Transmuter Wizards are especially drawn to the Bringers of the Cosmic Dawn.
Origin Feat: Transmuted Anatomy
Through magical augmentation your body has been warped, increasing your Speed by 5 feet and giving Advantage on Saving Throws to resist shape-shifting against your will. (Use this Resilient Anatomy to prevent being turned into a toad by an enemy’s Polymorph, or to maintain a shifted form when hit by a hostile Moonbeam!)
You can also take a Reaction to add 1d4 to your Constitution Saving Throws a number of times equal to your Proficiency Bonus.
Covenant of the Grave Recruit
As a Covenant of the Grave Recruit, you’ve acquired a predilection for the ghastly and the morbid and a fascination for the boundaries between medicine and necromancy.
The faction itself is largely amoral, with no tolerance for cackling lich villains in their ranks; in fact, they often work to suppress undead hordes and evil necromancers, as such behavior stymies the progress of the community’s research, endangers innocent academics, and is downright unbecoming.
Origin Feat: Arcane Undertaker
Your studies of the border between life and death are paying off. With the Arcane Undertaker feat, you will learn one Cleric or Wizard Necromancy cantrip, add 1d4 to History and Medicine checks, and once per Long Rest gain Heroic Inspiration when you take the Help action to stabilize a creature with 0 Hit Points.
Crucible Storm Chaser
Whether you seek danger solely for the thrill or a blinding passion for the pursuit of knowledge, you find yourself drawn to these hazardous magical phenomena.
Origin Feat: Arcane Overload
Tap into your inner reserves. You learn the Fire Bolt cantrip, and once per Long Rest when you deal damage with an Evocation spell, you can add your Proficiency Bonus to one damage roll of that spell.
Horizon Weaver Initiate
You are drawn to travel the planes, or perhaps to the barriers between worlds. Whether out of academic curiosity, insatiable thirst for exploration, or a sense of duty to keep interplanar passageways safe, you make your way to the Horizon Weavers, who educate you in their ways of teleportation.
Though Horizon Weavers specialize in all forms of Conjuration magic, their predilection for extraplanar travel attracts many Druids, Rangers, and Wizards to their order.
Origin Feat: Portal Jumper
Walking into traps is for other, less worldly wanderers. Once per turn, you can spend 15 feet of movement to teleport 15 feet—a number of times equal to your Proficiency Bonus per Long Rest—though you must be able to see your destination.
You also gain Resistance to Necrotic, Psychic, or Radiant damage, reflecting your prolonged exposure to otherworldly energies or indeed other worlds themselves.
Phantasmic Circus Trouper
Though they may share the gossip they’ve overheard from their audience or help smuggle friendly characters away from danger, the Phantasmic Circus is less interested in spycraft and subterfuge than most of the other factions listed here. Entertainers of all kinds, particularly Bards, Rogues, and Illusionist Wizards, join the Phantasmic Circus.
Origin Feat: Arcane Artist
Permanently upgrade your character’s storytelling skills with Minor Illusion. This single cantrip ensures you can always support your tall tales with a horrifying visage of a villainous lich or replay that growls in the woods you heard for the party’s Ranger.
Additionally, once per Long Rest, when you cast an Illusion spell, you can grant one nearby ally Heroic Inspiration.
Seer Apprentice
It’s time to consult the universe. Perhaps before, you reached for a deck of cards, a bag of runes, or a crystal ball? As an apprentice of the Seers of Sea and Sky, you have learned to look up at the sky and into the depths, finding omens in the natural world.
These discoveries, and others, are collected in the Seers’ web of libraries across the world.
Origin Feat: Arcane Omens
You learn Guidance, a deservedly beloved cantrip. Additionally, you can take a Reaction to add 1d4 to your—or a nearby ally’s—failed Saving Throw a number of times equal to your Proficiency Bonus.
Ward of the Sheltering Hands
The kind people of Sheltering Hands helped you when you were in need, and you are determined to pay that generosity forward.
Whether you’ve always been an altruistic person or were a bit of a scrooge until you were profoundly changed by the selflessness of others, you currently find yourself wanting to help those who need it.
Origin Feat: Arcane Safeguard
Your time with Sheltering Hands taught you how to look after yourself and others. You learn the Resistance cantrip, and you can cast it as a Bonus action a number of times equal to your Proficiency Bonus.
Further reflecting the magnanimity of your spirit, when you take the Help action to aid an ally with their Ability Check, they gain Temporary Hit Points equal to your Proficiency Bonus.
That’s a ton of information for players to absorb, but hopefully it helps provide some inspiration for new characters that players can take into their new campaigns when Arcana Unleashed officially arrives.
Be sure to check back soon for lots more Dungeons and Dragons news and updates.
Dungeons and Dragons is available now physically at local game shops and digitally through D&D Beyond, Roll20, and similar online services. Pre-orders are currently live for Arcana Unleashed.
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