D&D dropped another playtest on June 18, revisiting some villainous subclasses it currently has in the pipeline. The Circle of the Titan Druid, the Hell Knight Fighter, and the Demonic Sorcerer are all back for another round, and they’re looking significantly better. From the changes made, it’s obvious Wizards has paid close attention to fan feedback.
Circle of the Titan
Take, for example, the Circle of the Titan Druid. When we first saw this beefy boy two months ago, I called the subclass an excellent concept that was wonky in its execution. I lamented the spell list’s lack of thematic spells like Enlarge/Reduce, and I pointed out the surprisingly low armor class.
Both these issues have been addressed in the new playtest. Cure Wounds and Longstrider have been replaced with Enlarge/Reduce and Thunderwave – win! Stoneskin has also been swapped with Fire Shield.
As for defensive options, you now get the Toughened Hide ability as part of your level-10 Primal Havoc feature. This lets you spend a spell slot and gain an AC bonus equal to half its level. Plus, your three Titan forms have all had a base AC and temp HP increase. You can now only spend 10 minutes in this form, but that’s a worthy trade-off for the increased durability.
There are some other quality-of-life tweaks too. Shock Wave now lets you knock enemies prone whenever you move half your speed (rather than when you transform or spend a spell slot), which is much more generous. Swallowing enemies now deals more acid damage than before, too.
Each Titan’s Rend damage scales much better, and they’ve had a few individual tweaks – many of them balance nerfs. The Leviathan’s Fog-Cloud-style ability has been replaced with a Con save for Poison damage. The Behemoth deals slightly less damage with Incandescent Breath, and Rampager now requires you to spend a spell slot to use it as a bonus action. Lastly, the Insectoid can’t use Flyby until level 10, , has its Energizing Pollen damage reduced, and its Hive Mind feature is gone.
Hellknight Fighter
The Hellknight Fighter was another subclass fans loved the flavor of, but it had some teething problems. The result? Pretty much buffs across the board.
Hellknight Weapons, for example, now last much longer, and you can choose whether they deal cold, necrotic, or fire damage. You’re no longer limited to inflicting an Infernal Wound once per turn, and your Advanced Wounds feature always applies an extra effect to attacks – with a bonus power if you roll a six. With such a big upgrade, it makes sense that this new version only triggers once per turn.
At higher levels, your resistances can now be necrotic, cold, or fire damage, but this only synergizes with heavy armor now. Additionally, Hellfire Surge has its emanation range doubled, and it now requires no saving throw to deal extra damage to enemies within it.
At the very highest levels, we’ve got entirely new toys to play with. The ability to treat a 1 as a 6 for Infernal Wound has been absorbed into your level-seven feature. Level 15 now introduces Devil’s Misfortune, a reaction that lets you roll your Infernal Wound Die to reduce incoming damage.
Lastly, at level 18, Infernal Bargain gives you Inspiration if you roll a six on the Infernal Wound Die three times before your next turn. This can be used to force a target to reroll a D20 test, and if they succeed, you gain a spent use of Indomitable or Second Wind. If it fails, you lose hit points – a real devil’s bargain.
Demonic Sorcerer
According to a D&DBeyond post, fans’ biggest request for Demon Sorcery was reduced randomness and the risk of using your signature abilities in melee. Accordingly, your level-three Abyssal Rupture can now target an area within 30 feet. The damage has been upped, but this feature no longer gives attack rolls against you disadvantage – fair enough.
Demonic Spells has been overhauled to feel more demonic. That does mean we’ve lost bangers like Misty Step and Spider Climb, but we’ve gained Spike Growth, Web, Bestow Curse, and Giant Insect. Abyssal Realm (formerly Abyssal Aura) is less random, replacing a table of effects with three options to choose from – and more flexibility with where you can place it.
Abyssal Conduit has been adjusted to account for the buffs at lower levels. That means we now have a 30-foot sphere for Abyssal Rupture, and rather than a way to roll better on a random table, we always have the Summon Fiend spell prepared. We can also cast it without concentration with a duration of one minute. That fiend also has advantage on attacks while in our Abyssal Rupture.
Playtesters with good memories will know the Sorcerer’s old capstone gave us a very similar fiend-summoning ability. Now, we have Abyssal Explosion, a 30-foot sphere of energy that deals 8d6 force damage to enemies that fail a COn save. Failure also means being incapacitated.
What about all the other villains?
We saw a heap of dastardly subclasses in the first villainous playtest, but only three appear here. Wizards explains in its D&DBeyond post that three of the four remaining subclasses were so damn popular, they need no further playtesting. We should expect to see the Path of Lament Barbarian, the Pestilence Cleric, and the Warrior of Venom Monk appear in future books on the DnD release schedule with just a few minor tweaks.
That just leaves the Primordial Warlock, who received a fair bit of negative feedback, and Wizards says “we’re putting on the backburner for now”. Still, one dud in a roster of awesome-looking new subclasses is pretty good going.
It’s refreshing to see D&D working on something that isn’t just fifth edition remasters. It’s extra refreshing that these new options for DnD classes feel thematic and interesting to play. It’s extra extra refreshing to see D&D making full use of fan feedback and its newly-established Community Advisory Group. Hopefully, this is a design trend that continues.
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Source: Wargamer
