Monday, November 29, 2021

Who Gets a Subclass Next?

 One of the consistent things we've gotten over the life of 5th Edition has been more subclasses. I actually think it's brilliant: most of the classes have a solid basic design (though Rangers needed the love they got in Tasha's, and I think if Favored Foe had been better-designed, they would have nailed it) which allows for a less deeply involved design to subclasses.

The classes in the PHB got a sort of wildly varying number of subclasses, with some classes only getting two choices while Clerics and Wizards were utterly awash in options. Since then, we saw a couple books add subclasses: Sword Coast Adventurer's Guide actually added them for several classes, though only a handful of these options are any good (that was a weird book). The biggest additions to these lists were the rules-expansion books, Xanathar's Guide to Everything and Tasha's Cauldron of Everything. The former reprinted some (though not all) of the SCAG subclasses, while Tasha's gave us all the subclasses from the Ravnica, Theros and Eberron books (along with the whole Artificer class, which got a fourth subclass in Tasha's).

Beyond the SCAG subclasses, we haven't seen reprints of the subclasses out of Wildemount or Ravenloft, though the latter came late enough that there likely wasn't the time or inclination to put them into Tasha's.

Most recently, Fizban's Treasury of Dragons gave us its two subclasses.

All this is to say: what do we think could be getting new subclasses in future books?

But we've also got to come and address an obvious thing: future "of Everything" rules expansions will bring new things for everyone, so that kind of comes out as a wash.

The other major thing to consider is what books that aren't those but that would likely have subclasses will come out next.

Indeed, every campaign setting book has given us new subclasses (Eberron did as well, though for a brand-new class). That seems like a logical place to find them. The addition of new ones in what is more of a monster sourcebook with Fizban's Treasury of Dragons was a bit surprising - I do think that WotC is pushing to add player-facing options to books that players would be less likely to get for themselves - we're seeing this with playable races in Wilds Beyond the Witchlight and Strixhaven. We'll have to see if this trend continues.

But, let's throw the floor open to speculation.

The most recent Unearthed Arcana featured "travelers of the multiverse," which seemed to strongly imply that we'll be getting a Spelljammer campaign setting book some time in the next year or so. However, in addition to that, I think that the inclusion of the Thri-kreen could also suggest a return to Dark Sun as well (fingers still crossed for 5th Edition Planescape, though I'll be patient).

With that in mind, let's consider what we might see in such sourcebooks, subclass-wise.

Before we start, let me just count out the subclasses we've seen added in books that didn't give broadly to many classes - sticking with those who provided subclasses to two classes at most. (So I'll ignore SCAG for now):

Artificers: 3 (Alchemists, Artillerists, and Battle-Smiths in Eberron, along with the whole class)

Barbarians: 0

Bards: 2 (Eloquence in Theros, Spirits in Ravenloft)

Clerics: 1 (Order in Ravnica)

Druids: 1 (Spores in Ravnica)

Fighters: 1 (Echo Knight in Wildemount)

Monks: 1 (Ascendant Dragon in Fizban's)

Paladins: 1 (Glory in Theros)

Rangers: 1 (Drakewarden in Fizban's)

Rogues: 0

Sorcerers: 0

Warlocks: 1 (Undead in Ravenloft)

Wizards: 2 (Chronurgy and Graviturgy in Wildemount)

    So, there's definitely a bit of disparity here. What might we speculate on, setting-to-setting?

Spelljammer:

Here's my ambitious take: given that this is a science-fantasy setting, I actually think that an Artificer subclass would make a lot of sense here. The challenge, of course, is accessibility. The Artificer is not in the core rulebooks, and as such, the general policy has been to never require someone to own anything other than the core 3 in order to use any other book WotC has released. That said, we did see one spell in Fizban's that could be used by them, so might we see this requirement relaxed? (This is why I really hope to see the Artificer in the "5.5" PHB in 2024). Now, what the subclass actually does is something I'm not so sure about - I think having a subclass that could emphasize a connection to ships or other forms of spatial travel could be interesting. Another option would be to lean into space-themed weapons, having something like a ray gun - though whether that would use the actual Laser Pistol stats from the DMG or not would require some consideration.

I think a space-age vibe for a subclass could work really well for this setting, and in fact, it could work quite well for the Rogue. Having a subclass that fits with more of a Han Solo-type, or perhaps one built around using space, gravity, and trickery of that general theme could work really well.

Dark Sun:

The rugged world of Dark Sun is, I believe, largely inspired by Dune by way of Mad Max. Water is scarce, and conventional materials like metal are hard to come by, while magic destructively saps the life from the world and psionic powers are a big thing.

In that kind of anarchic environment, I think a Barbarian subclass makes a lot of sense. I know we just got three "psionic" themed subclasses in Tasha's Cauldron of Everything, but I could imagine connecting the Rage mechanic to some kind of mental power. I haven't had a chance to play a Psi Warrior or Soulknife yet, but if the Psionic Energy die system works as a mechanical through line for this theme, it could provide a basis for this subclass (though with care to make sure it's not too similar to the Psi Warrior.)

To round out classes that have been a bit neglected, a Sorcerer subclass could be interesting - arcane magic is extremely dangerous in the Dark Sun setting, and its use is seen as a massive taboo (despite the fact that the powerful rulers of the setting are Sorcerer-Kings, afforded god-like devotion). Admittedly, any Sorcerer subclass could play the role of the forbidden magic, but perhaps one that directly leans into the defiling nature of magic on that world could be interesting.

These are the two settings for which I think we have the most evidence that we're going to see them soon, and those are my estimated guesses. Again, the Artificer remains the baby sibling among the 5th Edition classes, giving it only 4 subclasses when I think the next lowest number for a class is 7. It does have its logistical hurdles, but I'm hoping we'll see WotC either A: allowing a kind of branching-off of the Core Rulebooks to iterate on stuff in the central rules-expansion books (the fact that they're releasing a bundle of Xanathar's, Tasha's, and Mordenkainen's Monsters of the Multiverse, which appears to be a revision and redesign that combines elements from Mordenkainen's Tome of Foes and Volo's Guide to Monsters, makes me think perhaps these are intended to be the next obvious books for DMs to add to their collections,) and B: as I've mentioned before, including the Artificer in the next version of the Player's Handbook.

Anyway, I imagine that in the next month or so we're going to get some announcements about upcoming books for early 2022, which should settle whether we've been correct in our assumptions about Spelljammer.

No comments:

Post a Comment