36 thoughts on “Purple Dragon Knight Unearthed Arcana D&D 5.5”
Honestly… 2 subclasses with focus on Int is 1 too much for me, although it makes sense for both. For this one in particular, I feel like it should be Wisdom, just because Animal Handling is a Wisdom skill and it makes sense that it extends to these mount related features.
This should have been a new subclass, probably a Dragonlance subclass if they wanted it themed. A Banneret subclass that has a lot of support abilities would have been better separated from a dragon rider subclass. It also doesn't really fit with existing lore for Cormyr, if memory serves. The Purple Dragons just got the name from an ancient dragon in the area, not because they rode dragons into battle.
Are they maliciously screwing the lore, Disney style? Or is this just ineptitude? I do like this as a CHA based class, but calling it a PDK and rateffing the lore is inexcusable.
One thing that can be mentioned during the survey to maybe make them change the Int to Wis, is that Mounted Combatant (which one can assume is on the short list of feats for all Purple Dragon Knights) lets you increase Str, Dex, or Wis.
Wisdom and animal handling for a pet centric class feel like a no brainer. I am prety sure they will change it before it becomes oficial. However, I am not a fan of pet classes outside of ranger. I am already a bit displeased with everyone being able to have a familiar.
I agree, this is a cool subclass mechanically. The real miss here is on the lore. This IS NOT the Purple Dragon Knight OF CORMYR. It's a dragon knight, which is cool and interesting, but it definitely doesn't meet at all with the massive amount of lore we have for Cormyr and the Realms. It's almost as if whoever created the subclass doesn't know anything about the Realms, or even worse, thinks we want the deep lore of the setting changed. I mean, the best part of using the Realms as a setting is having the vast trove of lore available. Throwing it out the window leave us little reason to use the Realms at all. This applies to the spellfire wielder, too, but we can cross that bridge when we get to it.
I'm ok with the argument of Charisma over Intelligence. Seems more thematic for a dragon to rely on being frightening or impressive to the point his ennemies can't land attacks. I think the biggest downside is the lack of scaling for the dragon. With a maximum of +8 to touch and 1D6+5 damage, it's not worth forgoing one of your attacks at lvl 15 and it will be a negligeable amount of damage at this level. So either they up that by adding the PB or they give mutliattack based on half the PB. Quite simple.
This class is dumb on so many levels, discarding old lore is poor already, but Amethyst Wyrmling are born at medium size with a 60 foot fly speed… they could have just made up a dragon, or chosen one with less pedigree. Intelligence is properly paired with a psionic dragon though.
Feels insulting that something as intelligent as a dragon refuses to take any action unless you tell it to. Don't like the companion mechanics in 2024 for the most part.
So another companion subclass? Seems like a missed opportunity. Whenever somebody posts ‘what class/sublcass would you like to see?’ One of the most common responses is ‘A battlefield control martial’ ‘Warlord’ It’s never ‘another companion subclass’
So, I know you said you wished Stalwart Bond used your full proficiency bonus, but under CR it says that its own proficiency bonus is equal to your proficiency bonus. Presumably it’s adding both bonuses to things it’s proficient in and where Stalwart Bond is applicable?
Charisma would work well to portray a commander, an envoy, or even a diplomat (I would like WIS better just because its saves are more common but CHA seems more fitting).
That said I find the subclass capstone underwhelming, the type of thing that is good but feel like nothing changed… To the point that I would change a tail attack or a berserk mode, I'm more in favor of being just "True Sight or something else not combat-related just so it can be something cooler.
They said it's int because of the purple dragons. But also i think that int is better because we already have 4 classes that are cha based, 4 that are wis based but we only have 2 with artificers that are int based. So giving the rogue and fighter int based subclasses feels kind of fine by me.
From a lore side seems like the only thing the archetype author have read about the Forgotten Realms and Cormyr is the archetype name itself. An awful retcon, and not the only one in the arcana. The whole arcana is filled with strange, misplaced concepts like "genie patron paladin", "wannabe circle of the moon bard", "drakewarden fighter", "faerun's not-a-wild-magic sorcerer" and "outcast's village secret service ranger". Some of those are even a good concepts, and would be fun to play, but not the way how they are invaded into the lore.
Let us chose Int, Wis, or Cha when you get the subclass. Instead of adding half your Prof to ability checks and saves, they should just add your full Prof to the base ability scores and le that scale up everything from their ability checks and saves to their AC, HP, and attacks. The checks and saves would scale up at the same rate, this would just allow the dragon to scale up in other ways too. Also, multi-attack on the dragon at level 7 would be real nice. Replacing one of your attacks for a 1d6+Int attack is very not worth it, that and change tandem attack to add in one free attack whenever you take the attack action (this could possibly be given at level 7 instead), and make it a multi-attack in whenever you use the extra action provided by Action Surge along with its current wording. One single extra 1d6+Int attack isn't much especially at that level, but it still lets you feel like the dragon is doing something, and getting 2 free dragon attacks whenever you Action Surge is gonna feel amazing. Sacrificing one of your, arguably more powerful, attacks for 2 dragon attacks feels like a much better trade off, even though numbers-wise you're probably still better off making one attack yourself.
At least one or two of these changes would be nice, would be nice.
Why does this subclass suck as much??? You're supposed to be raising a damn dragon, but the dragon doesn't even have stats comparable to a normal wyrmling even at level 20! I can understand not wanting to overpower the subclass, but dont call the companion a "Amethyst Dragon" when it is more like a Ambush Drake from Tyranny of Dragons with wings taped on and minor telekinesis twice a day. The "drake" from the drakewarden is so much better then this actual "dragon"…
I rather take my fighter, brush my teeth for an charming smile and look for a "real" dragon as an ally… 😉 There must be an heartbroken steel dragon lady somewhere arround….
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Honestly… 2 subclasses with focus on Int is 1 too much for me, although it makes sense for both.
For this one in particular, I feel like it should be Wisdom, just because Animal Handling is a Wisdom skill and it makes sense that it extends to these mount related features.
This should have been a new subclass, probably a Dragonlance subclass if they wanted it themed. A Banneret subclass that has a lot of support abilities would have been better separated from a dragon rider subclass. It also doesn't really fit with existing lore for Cormyr, if memory serves. The Purple Dragons just got the name from an ancient dragon in the area, not because they rode dragons into battle.
Who's old enough to remember the video game, Joust? That's what the medium dragon immediately made me think of.
Every Fighter is better than every Ranger…
They should have made the dragon companion a wyvern or Dragonet. I feel like having it be an actual dragon undermines dragons as a whole.
Are they maliciously screwing the lore, Disney style? Or is this just ineptitude? I do like this as a CHA based class, but calling it a PDK and rateffing the lore is inexcusable.
Agree with the over abundance of Intelligent Fighter.
Psi-warrior should have been Wisdom.
PDK should be Charisma.
And Why do the Fighters have a mental stat to make them better with their abilities
but Bladesingers will use their Intelligence to make them better fighters?
I would argue that for concept i would push back GWM to level 8, and not lose to much on the way thanks to this subclass. ❤
At level 15 rend should have reach 10ft
One thing that can be mentioned during the survey to maybe make them change the Int to Wis, is that Mounted Combatant (which one can assume is on the short list of feats for all Purple Dragon Knights) lets you increase Str, Dex, or Wis.
Wisdom and animal handling for a pet centric class feel like a no brainer. I am prety sure they will change it before it becomes oficial. However, I am not a fan of pet classes outside of ranger. I am already a bit displeased with everyone being able to have a familiar.
Why not just call it Dragon Knight and avoid getting into all these lore implications and retcons???
do you think the INT requirement is to make certain multiclassing unviable?
I agree, this is a cool subclass mechanically. The real miss here is on the lore. This IS NOT the Purple Dragon Knight OF CORMYR. It's a dragon knight, which is cool and interesting, but it definitely doesn't meet at all with the massive amount of lore we have for Cormyr and the Realms. It's almost as if whoever created the subclass doesn't know anything about the Realms, or even worse, thinks we want the deep lore of the setting changed. I mean, the best part of using the Realms as a setting is having the vast trove of lore available. Throwing it out the window leave us little reason to use the Realms at all. This applies to the spellfire wielder, too, but we can cross that bridge when we get to it.
I'm ok with the argument of Charisma over Intelligence. Seems more thematic for a dragon to rely on being frightening or impressive to the point his ennemies can't land attacks. I think the biggest downside is the lack of scaling for the dragon. With a maximum of +8 to touch and 1D6+5 damage, it's not worth forgoing one of your attacks at lvl 15 and it will be a negligeable amount of damage at this level. So either they up that by adding the PB or they give mutliattack based on half the PB. Quite simple.
1:35 Dual-wielding Lances!!! ⚔
Yay Fire Emblem Wyvern Rider ❤
I think WIS instead of INT so that way it feels distinct from the other INT fighters, but also distinct from Paladins so steering away from CHA.
This class is dumb on so many levels, discarding old lore is poor already, but Amethyst Wyrmling are born at medium size with a 60 foot fly speed… they could have just made up a dragon, or chosen one with less pedigree. Intelligence is properly paired with a psionic dragon though.
Fighter spellcasting ability is INT.
It's really cool 'n all but It's so different from the original version, I almost feel weird calling it the same name
Thanks for the video Chris! I agree with your assessment, Charisma would be more flavorful.
Feels insulting that something as intelligent as a dragon refuses to take any action unless you tell it to. Don't like the companion mechanics in 2024 for the most part.
So another companion subclass? Seems like a missed opportunity. Whenever somebody posts ‘what class/sublcass would you like to see?’ One of the most common responses is ‘A battlefield control martial’ ‘Warlord’
It’s never ‘another companion subclass’
So, I know you said you wished Stalwart Bond used your full proficiency bonus, but under CR it says that its own proficiency bonus is equal to your proficiency bonus. Presumably it’s adding both bonuses to things it’s proficient in and where Stalwart Bond is applicable?
I think they're keeping the fighter subclasses intelligence-based because they don't want to step on the toes of the Ranger and the Paladin
Charisma would work well to portray a commander, an envoy, or even a diplomat (I would like WIS better just because its saves are more common but CHA seems more fitting).
That said I find the subclass capstone underwhelming, the type of thing that is good but feel like nothing changed… To the point that I would change a tail attack or a berserk mode, I'm more in favor of being just "True Sight or something else not combat-related just so it can be something cooler.
They said it's int because of the purple dragons. But also i think that int is better because we already have 4 classes that are cha based, 4 that are wis based but we only have 2 with artificers that are int based. So giving the rogue and fighter int based subclasses feels kind of fine by me.
The fighter class i always wanted. Would be cool to have the drake ranger in the party as well.
Had a Paladin hexblade hobgoblin that casted Find Steed to get a Warg and used a charisma based hex lance and smites.
the fact its not actually a purple dragon and instead an Amethyst(Gem) dragon is dumb af
I think that they don't want you multiclassing paladin or ranger for double up pet. I think that is why they picked int instead of wis or cha
From a lore side seems like the only thing the archetype author have read about the Forgotten Realms and Cormyr is the archetype name itself. An awful retcon, and not the only one in the arcana. The whole arcana is filled with strange, misplaced concepts like "genie patron paladin", "wannabe circle of the moon bard", "drakewarden fighter", "faerun's not-a-wild-magic sorcerer" and "outcast's village secret service ranger". Some of those are even a good concepts, and would be fun to play, but not the way how they are invaded into the lore.
Let us chose Int, Wis, or Cha when you get the subclass.
Instead of adding half your Prof to ability checks and saves, they should just add your full Prof to the base ability scores and le that scale up everything from their ability checks and saves to their AC, HP, and attacks.
The checks and saves would scale up at the same rate, this would just allow the dragon to scale up in other ways too.
Also, multi-attack on the dragon at level 7 would be real nice. Replacing one of your attacks for a 1d6+Int attack is very not worth it, that and change tandem attack to add in one free attack whenever you take the attack action (this could possibly be given at level 7 instead), and make it a multi-attack in whenever you use the extra action provided by Action Surge along with its current wording.
One single extra 1d6+Int attack isn't much especially at that level, but it still lets you feel like the dragon is doing something, and getting 2 free dragon attacks whenever you Action Surge is gonna feel amazing. Sacrificing one of your, arguably more powerful, attacks for 2 dragon attacks feels like a much better trade off, even though numbers-wise you're probably still better off making one attack yourself.
At least one or two of these changes would be nice, would be nice.
Why does this subclass suck as much??? You're supposed to be raising a damn dragon, but the dragon doesn't even have stats comparable to a normal wyrmling even at level 20! I can understand not wanting to overpower the subclass, but dont call the companion a "Amethyst Dragon" when it is more like a Ambush Drake from Tyranny of Dragons with wings taped on and minor telekinesis twice a day. The "drake" from the drakewarden is so much better then this actual "dragon"…
I rather take my fighter, brush my teeth for an charming smile and look for a "real" dragon as an ally… 😉
There must be an heartbroken steel dragon lady somewhere arround….