Subclasses of Tal'Dorei

 Tal'dorei Campaign Setting Reborn is a new release from Darrington Press, the games publisher wing of Critical Role. While not an official WotC release like Explorer's Guide to Wildemount, this book shares a very similar structure, exploring the continent that served as the primary setting for CR's first campaign with the adventures of Vox Machina.

This is sort of a sequel to the older, and I believe out-of-print Tal'dorei Campaign Setting book that released a few years ago, around the beginning of campaign two, providing updates for the setting twenty years after the events of campaign one. Among other things, it tells the fate of the members of Vox Machina, including stat blocks for every member - whatever form or plane they happen to be in at this time.

In addition to details about the world and its people, Tal'dorei brings nine subclasses (some of which I believe were published in the original version,) including the Way of the Cobalt Soul Monk (a.k.a. Beau's subclass from campaign two) and the Oath of the Open Seas (Fjord's paladin subclass from campaign two).

I don't want to go into minute detail given that this is a 3rd party book that just came out, but I having read through the subclasses, I have a basic gist of them, and overall I think that they're generally pretty decent - I haven't given any of them a really thorough read, to be clear, but I think it looks like there was some care given in the design to make the features feel powerful and interesting.

Barbarians get Path of the Juggernaut. The general vibe of this subclass is that you can really knock your enemies about, with a lot of forced movement. You can even eventually kind of pinball a foe toward one of your allies and give them a chance to make an attack as the enemy gets pushed toward them. There's also a feature here that is sort of the opposite of Reckless Attack, letting you take disadvantage on your attacks to give foes disadvantage on theirs, which seems solid for when you're surrounded by foes.

Bards get the College of Tragedy, which might be my favorite in terms of flavor. Essentially, this class is all about turning failure into a benefit for yourself - it softens the blow when allies roll natural 1s and when foes get off critical hits, with these events fueling your subclass features.

Clerics get two domains: Moon Domain and Blood Domain. Moon domain I think does have a slight overlap thematically with Twilight Domain. Blood Domain plays into a larger theme of Hemocraft (another kind of special magic, like Dunamancy in Wildemount, though tied less to specific spells) where you can more effectively exsanguinate foes and spend some of your own health to empower abilities.

Druids have Circle of Blight, which gives you another "dark" druid subclass, and honestly works really well for a concept I had for a Circle of Spores druid I'd come up with a while ago. This lets you defile the land around you and create blights as combat pets.

Monks, of course, get Way of the Cobalt Soul, which you could see being effectively playtested over the course of Campaign Two, and thus a lot of this will be fairly familiar - you use your abilities to draw forth information from your foes and have the ability to gain multiple reactions.

Paladins get Oath of the Open Sea, which we saw a little of in Campaign Two (though I think Fjord only ever took three levels of Paladin, sticking with Warlock for the rest). There's a strong emphasis on freedom here - including two new spells (which are also oath spells) that emphasize that sense of freedom and mobility.

Sorcerers get the Runechild, which gives you various runes that are activated when you spend sorcery points, and can be used for various abilities - essentially extending the life of your sorcery point resource.

Finally, Wizards get Hemocraft. This lets you spend HP to enhance the power of your spells (while also getting some survival buffs to compensate).

I'm always excited for new subclass options, but I'm often sort of skeptical about 3rd party sources. However, from my first cursory glance at these, none of these subclasses are bogged down in useless features, and I suspect some might be quite powerful.

Once I do more thorough review of them, I might start allowing them in campaigns I run.