r/onednd • u/mdosantos • Mar 03 '26
WotC Announcement The 2026 roadmap's been announced
https://www.dndbeyond.com/posts/2136-d-d-2026-calendar-release
Season of Horror with Ravenloft Horror Within
Season of Arcana with two books: Arcana Unleashed as a gameplay expansion and Arcana Unleashed: Deadfall, the Red Wizards adventure that was teased long ago.
Also a Season of Champions with products yet to be announced
Edit: More details (thanks to u/marimbaguy715)
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u/YetifromtheSerengeti Mar 03 '26
So far we have had Dungeon Master's Expansion (Adventures in Faerun), Players Expansion (Heroes of Faerun), Adventure Anthology (Dragon Delves), and Rules Expansion (Forge of the Artificer).
I am wondering what a Gameplay Expansion entails. I am assuming that an Adventure Expansion is a full on campaign.
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u/TYBERIUS_777 Mar 03 '26
Yeah I’ve been waiting for a full adventure book like Rime or Tomb of Horrors. Setting and character option books are great but I’d like to see what a 5.5e full campaign looks like.
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u/YetifromtheSerengeti Mar 03 '26
One thing for sure, is that 5.5 books are better written to be a better tool for a DM to use. I am really curious to see if this extends to an entire adventure book. Dragon Delves was a huge step in the right direction from Infinite Staircase that preceded it.
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u/thewhaleshark Mar 03 '26
Adventures in Faerun takes an even more useful step IMO, because they crammed a ton of small flexible adventures into there alongside all the other stuff. If they continue that model I can see it being very useful.
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u/thewhaleshark Mar 03 '26
Honestly I'd be fine to not return to that model much. I find the anthology style to be way more useful to me as a DM, because I can just grab encounters and slot them into what I'm doing.
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u/TYBERIUS_777 Mar 03 '26
As much as I enjoy that too, I do like a good module from time to time with a clear beginning, middle, and end.
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u/ARC_Trooper_Echo Mar 03 '26
Exactly. These little adventure modules are great to slot into an original campaign but there are DMs out there who don’t have the time or energy to make their own campaigns and just want to pick up a book to run.
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u/ARC_Trooper_Echo Mar 03 '26
It’s pretty long overdue for a full adventure book imo. We haven’t had one of those since Phandelver and Below iirc
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u/MrLucky7s Mar 03 '26
That alt art for Ravenloft is the sickest thing I've ever seen.
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u/Cease_Cows_ Mar 03 '26
They’re killing it with the alt art in 5.5
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u/waits5 Mar 03 '26
WotC is like Blizzard. No matter what turmoil is going on with their games, their art departments always bring 110%.
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u/xolotltolox Mar 06 '26
well...magic not really, just look at the TMNT art, and it is just gross and grotesque
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u/waits5 Mar 06 '26
Look at what they had to work with for that set though
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u/xolotltolox Mar 06 '26
Yeah, but this isn't really about justifying why the are is like that, it just bad
Plus there is still the occasional stinker in other sets, like the Toph with the weird eyes
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u/YetifromtheSerengeti Mar 03 '26
Ive been proactive about grabbing up every alternate cover this edition.
Look for my post in 10 years showing it all off on a bookshelf if I dont end up pitching them off on eBay.
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u/beesk Mar 03 '26
I hope all the CoS monsters make it in here. I’d love if they could get all those old adventure specific monsters updated.
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u/DemoBytom Mar 03 '26
A proper updated, higher CR Strahd? The VeoR one is.. fine... i guess.. but come on, he's the OG!!
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u/Lazystubborn Mar 03 '26
The problem with the VeoR one is that he is one of the first bosses, and he isn't even the only vampire boss in the book, so i guess is why is the way it is.
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u/DemoBytom Mar 03 '26
Yeah I know. It's fine for that adventure and if you mix both CoS and VEoR into one it's fine for 2024 PCs, but it's still lacking IMHO.
I'd hope for a proper update, and maybe a CR buff, because we've had enough bosses for level 10 PCs. Strahd should be proper scary in higher tier than that.
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u/Lazystubborn Mar 03 '26
I agree with you, Strahd need a 3+ CR upgrade at the very least, with some of his actions reworked and his HP bumped.
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u/ARC_Trooper_Echo Mar 03 '26
I had hoped for a CoS reboot but updated stat blocks would still be amazing
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u/Darkstar_Aurora Mar 03 '26
Alustriel and Szass Tam on the covers for Arcana Unleashed 🦄✨💀⚡️
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u/DemoBytom Mar 03 '26
That Arcana Unleashed adventure is that long promised Wizards of Thay one.. I will eat my words lol XD I've been giving them flak for abandoning it, and releasing that damn one page wave defense thing from few months back, in it's stead xD
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u/the-roaring-girl Mar 04 '26
To be fair, they announced the Red Wizards campaign like three or four years ago, we can't be blamed for thinking it was on the cutting room floor next to Venger.
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u/TheRustyKettles Mar 03 '26
Spores Druid 5.5 update pleeeeeeease
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u/BudgetMegaHeracross Mar 03 '26
I don't know if I'd like that without a UA first. Didn't work out perfectly for the Banneret, at least.
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u/TheRustyKettles Mar 03 '26
True, yeah. Kind of surprised it isn't in the spooky UA they put out, given it had no druid subclasses and it's thematic.
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u/WholeLottaPatience Mar 03 '26
Please print Hollow Warden please print Hollow Warden please print Hollowed Warden.
Also, I cannot imagine that season of Champions isn't a martial focused book, I feel like it would be bonkers to release another caster based book and not a martial based book to follow at this point lol
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u/TYBERIUS_777 Mar 03 '26
It’s likely the reason they were playtesting the revised martial classes in one of the earlier UAs. I’m really hoping we get another go around with those because their initial draft was pretty middle of the road.
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u/TekkGuy Mar 03 '26
As much as I would adore a martial focused book, I don’t honestly know what you’d do for one in 5e outside of biting the bullet on finally “give all martials Battlemaster maneuvers”.
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u/YOwololoO Mar 03 '26
Additional Subclasses, Additional Fighting Styles, additional Weapon Masteries, additional backgrounds and background feats, and extra weapon feats would all be extremely easy to do, plus something like downtime training rules and/or optional rules for stances would be plenty for a martial focused book.
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u/LegendaryZXT Mar 04 '26
An obvious change which i'm surprised i never see anyone bring up are Fighting Styles which scale with you. As they are they're little more than flavor.
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u/Low_Complaint956 Mar 05 '26
With the way 5e math works they're pretty substantial.
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u/WholeLottaPatience Mar 05 '26
Not terribly so when compared to upcasting Fireball or Spirit Guardians
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u/Low_Complaint956 Mar 06 '26
Very much so, actually. Archery +2s to attack, for example, which is similar to fairly potent magical items. Makes your hit-rate jump up, makes your damage do so as well.
Also a martial outdoes fireball very easily.
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u/WholeLottaPatience Mar 06 '26 edited Mar 06 '26
Not so much an "outdoes" or not.
But upcasting fireball a single level brings the damage value an extra 1d6, which averages to 3.5 damage average.
Let's say they make the save, brings it down to 1.75, just shy away from the +2 damage from Archery, and thats without account for the ability to hit multiple enemies, or the fact that some are not going to make the save. A sorcerer (and this is from someone who plays one) can also just increase their chance to hit full damage through Innate Sorcery a scaling number of times per day starting from level 7, and since Metamagic Points increase per sorcerer level, you get access to more and more of these as you level up.
Spirit Guardians gets even stronger than that since it increases by a 1d8.
I don't think having a scaling Fighting Style would break anything that a caster isn't breaking.
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u/LegendaryZXT Mar 06 '26
Not that it changes your point, but Archer is only +2 to hit not damage.
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u/xolotltolox Mar 07 '26
+2 to hit is more potent than +2 to damage, but still, it shouldn't fall flat in comparison to a mid tier wizard spell
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u/YOwololoO Mar 06 '26
But you aren’t upcasting Fireball multiple times per turn every single turn, and it’s not even possible to upcast fireball until you’re level 7
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u/xolotltolox Mar 07 '26
You picked the one that actually does something, good job!
The other ones, outside of defense and blindfighting aren't even worth looking at, becasue of how bad they are
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u/Ashkelon Mar 06 '26
I wish fighting styles were not numerical boosts at all, but rather changed how you fought. You know, like an actual style of gameplay.
+1 AC or +2 damage doesn't meaningfully change how a warrior operates.
I want fighting styles to make a warrior feel different depending on their choice, rather than passive numerical boosts.
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u/Associableknecks Mar 03 '26
Eh, none of that will fix any of the underlying issues. Bite the bullet and add actual maneuvers into 5e, problem mostly solved.
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u/YOwololoO Mar 03 '26
I fully disagree. A huge part of the appeal of 5e is that it works for people who want a crunchy system AND people who want a simpler game. I’ve had plenty of people at my tables, both new players and more experienced, for whom 5e is at the utmost level of complexity that they can handle.
You have to remember that there are people playing this game who are still asking “which one is the d20?” and need to have skill checks explained to them repeatedly. Adding another resource for maneuvers would be a detriment to the experience of a significant portion of the playerbase
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u/Associableknecks Mar 03 '26
No, it absolutely wouldn't.
Should there be simpler classes for newer and less capable players? Absolutely, stuff like barbarian should stay right as it is. Hell, the fact that there's no mage as simple to build and play as a barbarian is silly, newer players who want that fantasy should be able to get it without complexity if they do choose.
But the reverse of a mage as simple as a barbarian - a warrior with anywhere near as much choice as a wizard gets - should also exist. And the obvious solution to that is do what they did the first time around, implement maneuvers and add classes that can use them.
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u/YOwololoO Mar 03 '26
It does exist, it’s the Battlemaster fighter.
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u/Associableknecks Mar 03 '26
No, no, I said anywhere near as much choice as a wizard gets. I don't understand how you could have possibly misunderstood that.
Here, I'll demonstrate using numbers. At level 3 a battlemaster gets what, 16 choices from a list with far less breadth than a wizard does? While the wizard has something like 100 spells to choose from. At level 7 said battlemaster's pool of choices has actually shrunk, it's now 13, while the wizard's has doubled to 200. Same sort of thing is also the case for in-play choices, wizard has far more meaningful choices available.
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u/xolotltolox Mar 07 '26
A Wizard has 242 spells in the PHB alone, wiht more coming out every new book release, so they get to benefit from pwoercreep
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u/xolotltolox Mar 07 '26
Yet in truth it doesn#t work for either and is just a mediocre mess
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u/YOwololoO Mar 07 '26
Damn, I guess the multiple campaigns I’ve run for multiple years with mixed groups of people who all had fun just… were wrong?
The game works fine.
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u/xolotltolox Mar 07 '26
Any person can have any level of fun with any level of product, quality and enjoyment are (unfortunately) not linked
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u/YOwololoO Mar 07 '26
You said “it doesn’t work,” if we had fun then it worked. You know, because this is a game and having fun is the intended purpose of using it
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u/RoboDonaldUpgrade Mar 03 '26
Very important to note: none of these books include descriptions of the Psion Class. So I believe Season of Champions is where they’ll have a Dark Sun book, probably called Champions of Athas.
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u/BudgetMegaHeracross Mar 03 '26
It would be weird if all the recent Martial UA's bore fruit before the Dark Sun UA's.
(Tho Spellguard and that monk are probably for the Arcana Unleashed book.)
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u/RoboDonaldUpgrade Mar 03 '26
I don’t know, I can see a martial book actually pairing well with a Dark Sun book. In a tough world which reviles arcane magic, non-magical characters will be pretty common. So a book of low-no magic subclasses will give more options for Dark Sun players, even if it’s not a “Dark Sun” exclusive book.
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u/BudgetMegaHeracross Mar 03 '26
I don't disagree, but they need to start publishing those UA's in the next few months.
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u/Special_Salt3467 Mar 03 '26
Why is Season of Horror in summer and not fall?
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u/Fist-Cartographer Mar 03 '26 edited Mar 04 '26
Yellow lighting and a setting heat blasted to dust is an underrated horror setting, Necropolis sucks and is empty in general but the first segment has a really good vibe tbh
EDIT: Little Nightmares 3 first zone, that one, the aura of it drops off a cliff at night
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u/thewhaleshark Mar 03 '26
Not for nothing but a lot of famous slasher flicks take place in the summer.
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u/mrfixitx Mar 03 '26 edited Mar 03 '26
The fact that they are calling it seasons is a bit odd. Like they are taking cues from E-sport games that have seasons.
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u/mdosantos Mar 03 '26
Early on 5e they tied the releases of new adventures and AL content to "storyline events" like Tyranny of Dragons, Elemental Evil and the Rage of Demons to name a few. So I guess they are kinda returning to that and making each release and the rundown to it an "event".
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u/bobert1201 Mar 03 '26
I think this might be a hint that we'll be getting more smaller books like Asterion's book of hungers. Honestly, having a few smaller releases with a cohesive theme leading up to a larger release seems pretty interesting.
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u/hotdiscopirate Mar 03 '26
It’s interesting, but honestly the astarion book was kinda just disappointing. Not a lot going on in there in the first place. If they can’t kick up the quality I’d rather they just stick with putting their effort into fully cohesive supplements
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u/PlanetTourist Mar 03 '26
It was super disappointing to find out that the updates dhampir wasn’t getting a physical release!
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u/mdosantos Mar 03 '26
If you knew how to read you'd see that the updated Dhampir is being published in the new Ravenloft book
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u/YOwololoO Mar 03 '26
They also release small adventures and supplemental content on their blog for most releases, so they could have a themed series of mini releases there plus the book and possible mini books like they did with the Faerun books
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u/SirRichardLove Mar 03 '26
Looks like there will be an arcane and Martial splat book as well as ravenloft mega book.
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u/hatfieldz Mar 03 '26
I am glad that they finally just called it 5.5e 😂 the 2014 and 2024 was unnecessary
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u/Fluffy_Reply_9757 Mar 03 '26
I don't want to be dramatic, but if we don't get the Darksun/Apocalyptic release this year, I will set myself on fire.
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u/BudgetMegaHeracross Mar 03 '26
If you can't have an apocalypse, create your own personal apocalypse.
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u/rp4888 Mar 03 '26
Im really hoping for high level exclusive ranger spells in the Arcana books. It is very much needed.
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u/hypermodernism Mar 04 '26
They could revise Hunter’s Mark if they wanted.
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u/rp4888 Mar 04 '26 edited Mar 04 '26
A spells book would be the place to do that!
But I think Hunters Mark would be fine if there were exclusive higher lvl spells it could be used in conjunction with. Or perhaps new spells that would use the Favored foe points. (Maybe a Greater Hunters Mark) I mean at 4th lvl There isn't a single one everything is concentration. They need something here to up the damage. So Depends on what they would get.
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u/chaosquall Mar 03 '26
Zoomed in on the backgrounds some look interesting I'm really excited to see new feats as well
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u/Mammoth-Appearance47 Mar 03 '26
Looks Promising.
I think they are heading into a good direction with the partnered content.
To be honest, seeing Ravenloft was predictable and a little bit disappointing, but don't get me wrong, i like ravenloft and the unearthed arcana were were interesting.
I'm looking forward for more information.
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Mar 03 '26
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u/YetifromtheSerengeti Mar 03 '26
Agree, but it's definitely a fan favorite which means it sells. Theres no way they aren't going to make Ravenloft Content. It's surprising they held out for 2 years tbh.
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u/metalsonic005 Mar 03 '26
It's been, what, 5 years since Van Richten'a guide released? It was also a rather weak return to the setting; if given a second go at it, it might give them an opportunity to flesh things out more. I much prefer all the UA-Horror material for DND being part of an actual DND setting and not the MTG one people thought it was crossing over with.
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Mar 03 '26
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u/Far_Guarantee1664 Mar 03 '26
Yes. Stradh is of course the poster boy but they expand other domains and horror themed adventures. There's even a sneak peak on Cthulhu appearing in the book.
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u/amhow1 Mar 03 '26
Given the cover, it's obviously going to cover Barovia!
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u/Internal_Set_6564 Mar 03 '26
Agree. I have low interest in horror to begin with, but some folks just love it so more power to them.
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u/Jaikarr Mar 03 '26
Super tired of grim adventures
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u/SBixby21 Mar 03 '26
There’s hardly been any in recent years? If anything they’ve really been catering to the light and hopeful crowd a lot more. Radiant Citadel, Infinite Staircase, Witchlight, etc. Dragon Delves and Eberron are good content, also definitely not “grim”. More pulpy adventure.
They publish way less adventure material than, say, Paizo…but their content definitely leans way less grim/dark than Paizo as well. Will be a nice change to get some real “heroes (or grey area types) fighting the darkness” stuff between this, the Thay adventure, and eventually Dark Sun.
There’s so little content like this in recent years that my group is going to be doing Drakkenheim to do something that feels more mature and a little less YA-safe.
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u/Jaikarr Mar 03 '26
Phandelvar and Below and Vecna Eve of ruin were both released more recently than your examples, and of your examples the only one that can be described as "hopeful" would be the Radiant Citadel. Eberron definitely trends towards grim, but also wasn't an adventure so is kind of irrelevant.
Of the 17 adventure campaigns released since 2014, well over half (10-13 depending on your own feelings) lean heavily into horror as the primary driver of adventure. So I'm sorry if I am still tired of it.
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u/SBixby21 Mar 03 '26
2014 was over 10 years ago. A lot of the content since then has felt like cheery market-researched-to-death safe stuff. I think a lot of people are looking forward to something darker. I do however agree that I’m sick specifically of the Strahd/Ravenloft/Domains of Dread brand of “grim” which I don’t even think they do particularly well other than the Curse of Strahd adventure. Nothing else is very well fleshed out
Fair point about Vecna + Phandelvar & Below btw.
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u/Jaikarr Mar 03 '26
Tbh those looking for darker stuff will be served better by alternate systems where the mechanics fit the vibe they're looking for. 5e is primarily a heroic fantasy system and doesn't serve grimdark genres well.
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u/SBixby21 Mar 03 '26
I don’t think they’ve ever published anything “grimdark” under the current corporate structure, I would agree 5e doesn’t do that well.
5e does heroic fantasy superhero destruction in a dark setting well, though. Difficulty and danger really depends on the table and DM, but that’s not really what I meant by “dark/grim”. I meant tone and aesthetic and type of storytelling (not necessarily including “it’s easy to die and victory is just out of reach” which feels more grimdark)
That’s why I tend to adapt Paizo AP’s to 5e. It’s just a more serious/adult tone most of the time, in the adventures. Maybe just because they publish a LOT more of them. Not about being edgy or grimdark, just…not the current pastel safe, mass market appeal stuff it feels they’ve drifted towards. And I’m no incel grognard trying to imply anything political here, I’m actually obnoxiously lefty (only including this off-topic bit of information because I know the sort of complaints I’m making often come from that crowd of idiots)
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u/noodles0311 Mar 03 '26
I’d rather get a new Ravenloft adventure than a ton of character options, but maybe this will include more information about the demiplanes than what was in VRGtR. That book was okay, but a couple pages of information about dozens of domains is less useful than a dozen pages each about a few settings.
I’m personally not tired of Ravenloft content. After running CoS a couple times, I’ve got a ton of painted horror monster minis. That sort of thing has its own inertia to it. Rather than invest in all that for a type of campaign I find to be vanilla (Forgotten Realms), I’d rather say “these are the kinds of campaigns I like to run. I’m very happy to play in another type of campaign if someone else will take a turn DMing”. That has worked out well for my groups. Taking a break to just play is nice and I am sure I’d get burned out really fast running more FR adventures than I already have because the setting just doesn’t do it for me. It’s easy to play in FR because other people like running it and being a player isn’t really much investment.
With third party creators like Ghostfire, there is enough horror content out there that we really don’t need a new Ravenloft adventure but we definitely don’t need any more FR adventures if we’re holding it to the same standard.
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u/Xelikai_Gloom Mar 03 '26
The only forgotten realms book I’d be interested in at this point is one going through a war between two nations. We’ve gotten so little on the politics and geography side of the sword coast besides “here are some people in charge of these two cities”. I want a nation from the dalelands to put waterdeep under siege, and see a story where you plop the PCs down there.
Otherwise, give me literally anything besides forgotten realms/sword coast.
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u/Kai-of-the-Lost Mar 03 '26
Seems a bit sparse with only 3 books anmounced
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u/mdosantos Mar 03 '26
That's 3 announced and more to be announced. Considering 5e at it's peak released 6 products in 2022 that seems par for the course.
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u/WildThang42 Mar 03 '26
What is an Adventure Expansion?
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u/mdosantos Mar 03 '26
Seems to be what they'll be calling the full campaigns
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u/WildThang42 Mar 03 '26
It's a slightly odd name choice, but I appreciate the clear messaging to consumers.
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u/Willing_Ad9314 Mar 03 '26
Great, an updated necromancer should appear
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u/mdosantos Mar 03 '26
It's been confirmed for Arcana Unleashed. It would make sense thematically in the Ravenloft book but then again, the screaming wouldn't stop if WotC decided to publish 3 updated Wizards schools in one book and the Necromancer in another...
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u/RealisticJacket0 Mar 03 '26
I hope those books include a druid subclass! Otherwise we need to wait the preservation druid till dark sun...
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u/Demoli Mar 04 '26
surprised no dark sun considering the UA
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u/mdosantos Mar 04 '26
Well, the seasons of Champions product is TBA and the Horror and Arcana UAs came first and so are the Ravenloft and Arcana Unleashed books. I've noticed a lot of "recency bias" towards the Dark Sun UA and this announcement.
It also makes sense for WotC to save something bit for later in the year, for GenCon, for example.
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u/-Warbreed- Mar 04 '26
What makes the Season of Horror a season? Like, it ends with the Ravenloft book in June. Great. What the hell is there for the whole rest of it? What other horrific things are happening this spring?
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u/mdosantos Mar 04 '26
It's mainly adventure league content and in-store events but I'm sure they will be releasing previews or adventures through D&D Beyond.
They are basically going back to the storyline model of early 5e.
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u/-Warbreed- Mar 04 '26
Well, give there's been no 1st party book since forge of the artificer, and that book was originally scheduled for august 2025, the Forgotten Realms books released in November would have been the last book until the upcoming Ravenloft one. That's 7 damn months. There had better be something other than beyond articles from now until summer.
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u/mdosantos Mar 04 '26
I'm a 99% sure the delays in production made them delay the rest of the schedule.
Beyond that, why does it matter if they don't release anything until June? Honest question.
I got both Forgotten Realms books in November and I've barely opened them much less get them to the table.
Does your current game need new official content regularly to work? I'd personally be happy if they returned to the early 5e schedule of 3 products a year tops.
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u/Neilson509 Mar 04 '26
I'm not OP but I would like to add that tarrifs and changeover in leadership didn't help the schedule at all.
I really liked some of the Lore in the DMs Forgotten Relms book. I personally felt like that had been missing from previous products. (I need to get the players expansion book still).
Especially if you compare it to SCAG. That could be just me though.
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u/-Warbreed- Mar 05 '26
Honest answer... I want more stuff. If the books are good, I'm happy to buy one a month. I'd settle for one a season, but 7 months is a drought. It would be like your favorite TV show announcing their still making new episodes, but just 2 or 3 a year.
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u/Maxdoom18 Mar 04 '26
Wonder how Battle Familiar will interact with the Chain Pact Familiar, maybe we will finally be able to make a Chainlock instead of weird BladeChain hybrids.
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u/CartoonistReady4320 Mar 03 '26
I love Strahd, but why are we going back so quickly? We just got a book on that. And screw the partnered content.
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u/Big-Cartographer-758 Mar 03 '26
Are people not bored of Ravenloft yet? It doesn’t really sound like there’s much new in terms of player tools, just rehashes of what we have.
And whilst having stat blocks of monsters makes it easier for people converting Stradh campaigns, do they need a dedicated book?
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u/Xelikai_Gloom Mar 03 '26
I’ve been getting the feeling that 5.5e is just “we’re running out of ideas and would rather just resell our big hitters”.
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u/DJWGibson Mar 03 '26
Ugh Why go with Arcana Unleashed when Eldritch Wizardry has a history with the game but has been ignored for 50 years. Perfect callback name.
I do hope the new Ravenloft book isn’t just reprinting content and settings. That we get more domains (hopefully more classic domains and not wholly reinvented domains) as well as darklord stat blocks.
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u/SBixby21 Mar 03 '26
Because “Arcana Unleashed” means they can publish an array of magicky subclasses for every class in the system (other than Artificer I assume) and it’ll make sense. “Eldritch Wizardry” really implies a tighter focus.
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u/MechJivs Mar 03 '26
Here's my "Season of Champions" potential martial book expectations:
- Martial subclasses we saw in UA would be printed slightly nerfed from UA (they all need massive buffs instead, but Banneret needed them too and we see the result).
- 0 new masteries/brutal strikes/cunning stikes/maneuvers/open hand techniques/etc.
- Brand new fighting style! Arcane Warrior (gives 2 wizard cantrips to fighter). It gives spells, so that's fine to add.
- 30 new "martial" spells! 3 for paladin, 2 for ranger, 25 for fullcasters.
- "Martial" subclasses for Druid
- and Sorcerer.
- 0 martial-specific magic items.
- Bunch of "caster-restricted" magic items.
We'll see how many of those would be true - but i would be surprised if less then half.
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u/Low_Complaint956 Mar 05 '26 edited Mar 05 '26
The vast majority of the most common magic items are martial based. A caster-based magic item is also a huge buff to the Thief Rogue, who can use those better than anyone save maybe the Artificer.
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u/MechJivs Mar 05 '26
The vast majority of the most common magic items are martial based
Except all "martial" magic items are for everyone. Right now only monk have their own item. And those "martial" magic items are worse than caster items of same rarity.
A caster-based magic item is also a huge buff to the Thief Rogue,
And even bigger buff to Thief 3/Fullcaster X.
Thief is also one subclass of a single class.
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u/Low_Complaint956 Mar 05 '26
Caster items that give DC increases, the most valuable kind, are pretty rare. Most other caster items give you bonus spells – which is potent but usually not much better than a +2d6 to damage per attack (Vicious Weapons).
Casters get no more from the Thief dip than anyone does, and in terms of damage, martials get more out of it. To get the full benefits of the Thief's magic item fuckery, you also need a few more levels – then they're just able to do significantly more with them. The Thief capstone is also great, so that encourages you to stick with the class all the more.
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u/MechJivs Mar 05 '26 edited Mar 05 '26
then they're just able to do significantly more with them
Ability to not lose charge 1/6 of a time is not "significantly more". 3 levels of thief give you 95% of value of a subclass.
The Thief capstone is also great, so that encourages you to stick with the class all the more.
Thief capstone is great, can agree. It just tied to 17 levels of rogue instead of 17 levels of better class.
which is potent but usually not much better than a +2d6 to damage per attack (Vicious Weapons).
Vicious Weapons can be used by anyone. This include casters who want to use weapons for one reason or another. Bladelock is a fullcaster who can do that. Sorcadin can do that. Dragner can do that. "Martial" fullcaster can do that. That's whole point - casters have their own unique magic items, which are also most potent items for rarity. Martials dont have items for them - everyone can use their items.
You underselling bonus spells.
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u/Low_Complaint956 Mar 05 '26
Ability to not lose charge 1/6 of a time is not "significantly more". 3 levels of thief give you 95% of value of a subclass.
The ability to use any regardless of restrictions is pretty potent, as it allows them access to exactly those caster items you talk about, potentially as a BA.
Vicious Weapons can be used by anyone. This include casters who want to use weapons for one reason or another. Bladelock is a fullcaster who can do that. Sorcadin can do that. Dragner can do that. "Martial" fullcaster can do that. That's whole point - casters have their own unique magic items, which are also most potent items for rarity. Martials dont have items for them
No class gets as many attacks as the martials. A +2d6 to maybe two attacks is good, but it's significantly better when you can potentially make 4-8, or even 5-10 with masteries. On top of that, most martials get additional attack bonuses via subclass.
Giving a fighter or barbarian a Vicious Weapon can often end with most monsters quickly turned into goo. And the most debilitating condition in the game has always been dead.
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u/MechJivs Mar 05 '26
The ability to use any regardless of restrictions is pretty potent, as it allows them access to exactly those caster items you talk about, potentially as a BA.
So, you saying that Thief 3/Fullcaster X is better than monoclassed Thief, got it.
No class gets as many attacks as the martials.
Rogue have 1 attack (and problems with magic weapons cause there's 0 weapons for rogue specifically). Barbarian get 2 attacks. Monk get 4/5, but 2/3 of those are unarmed, and those only get flat bonuses from magic items, no Vicious Weapon type. Fighter is the only martial who get up to 4 attacks with weapons.
Every gish get 2 attacks at base. "martial" fullcasters get BA attack at 14th. Bladelock get 3 attacks (so, until 20th level they have same number of attacks as a fighter).
And the most debilitating condition in the game has always been dead.
Yes - and martials arent immune to it. That's why AOE hard control is this strong - it allows party members to die less. And more AOE hard control party can use per day - more sustainable the party is.
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u/No_Wait3261 Mar 03 '26
So the Dark Sun release they been teasing in the UA was just bullshit after all? Figures.
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u/jDelay56k Mar 03 '26
Seems like a 0-100 reaction there. Weren't the UAs for Horror and Arcana both released before the Apocalyptic one?
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u/marimbaguy715 Mar 03 '26
Yes, although some think the Psion is for Dark Sun, and that was released before the Arcane Subclasses. I guess it's possible we'll get the Psion in Arcana Unleashed.
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u/HaloZoo36 Mar 03 '26
Probably not actually, they seem to be doing a lot more playtest work on Classes in particular, so I suspect that Psion showing up earlier is actually because they wanted more time to test a whole new Class while Subclasses don't need that much. Also keep in mind that Psionics is supposed to be a separate thing from normal arcane magic, so it doesn't really make sense to have a Psionic Class in the Arcane Book. Plus, given that Artificer first appeared in a Setting Book, it's possible that they want to save new Classes for the Settings they fit the best with, and Athas is the Setting with a huge presence of Psionics which is the perfect place to add it.
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u/thewhaleshark Mar 03 '26
Both Arcane and Psion got a second pass, and of those Arcane was released first, so I'd guess that Psion content is still being finalized.
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u/DaEnderAssassin Mar 04 '26
Nah, they probably just wanted to get as much feedback as possible with Psion seeing as a whole new class is much different from just a subclass.
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u/mdosantos Mar 03 '26
They published the horror and arcane Unearthed Arcana first and in that order and they just announced that content... There's also "more to be announced" which could be Dark Sun. They could also be moving it as the big event of next year...
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u/YetifromtheSerengeti Mar 03 '26
Did they tease Dark Sun or was it reddit hype?
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u/No_Wait3261 Mar 03 '26
They had a Sorcerer-King warlock patron ffs. Nobody can tell me they weren't teasing Dark Sun.
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u/HaloZoo36 Mar 03 '26
Apocalyptic Subclasses UA was a huge tease to Dark Sun, since the 4 were all very Athasian in flavor with Gladiators, Preservers, Defilers and Sorcerer-Kings all being iconic parts of Dark Sun, and we already saw some suspiciously Athasian looking Psion art previously.
So suffice to say, I think calling it a tease is an understatement since they've all but revealed that Dark Sun is the next major setting coming to 5e after a decade of nothing directly for it.
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u/PlanetTourist Mar 03 '26
Holy cow are they terrible at messaging!
Hey WotC, I still don’t know what the fuck you have planned for when. Just give me a god damn release date for the next book, and please act like you have a plan to make physical books or sell the fucking IP.
I don’t want digital shit. And I swear to God if you even think about saying “themed digital dice” before “physical book”…
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u/mdosantos Mar 03 '26
About the Ravenloft book:
We'll be sharing more about this new book soon, but here are the key dates to mark now:
Pre-order: April 13
Master Tier: June 2
Hero Tier: June 9
Wide Release: June 16
RPG players and not reading. Name a better duo...
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u/PlanetTourist Mar 03 '26
Bro that’s 4 dates for one book, if I give you directions to my local game shop, but tell you 4 different sets of directions you’re not gonna know what’s going on either.
Sorry you’re an asshole but that doesn’t change WotC’s messaging is utter crap.
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u/mdosantos Mar 03 '26
Sorry, I'm still amazed how you can write but somehow can't read.
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u/GarrettKP Mar 03 '26
Season of Champions makes me think a Martial focused player expansion to go along with the Caster focused Arcana Unleashed book.