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Can DnD’s new playtest rescue these tragically mid-tier 5e subclasses?

The latest Dungeons and Dragons playtest aims to turn some of its ‘kind of good’ subclasses into ‘kind of great’ character options.

Dungeons and Dragons art of three adventurers in combat

Dungeons and Dragons used its new Player’s Handbook as an excuse to overhaul some of its worst subclasses, as well as showcase the very best character options it had developed in the past 10 years. Now, with a new playtest document released on January 28, publisher Wizards of the Coast seems to be targeting its more ‘mid’ subclasses.

The three DnD subclasses that are getting reworked – the Purple Dragon Knight Fighter 5e, the Knowledge Cleric 5e, and the Bladesinger Wizard 5e – might not be your least favorite. However, they’re certainly on the more problematic end when it comes to picks for your preferred DnD classes.

That makes them ripe for an update, but will the proposed improvements do the job? Here are the crunchy details for each of the reworks.

Dungeons and Dragons art of a Dwarf Cleric

Knowledge Domain

The original Knowledge Domain was a bit of a jack-of-all-trades subclass. Their divination-focused spells and abilities offered the kind of utility you’d expect from a Wizard. Additional expertise in Int-based skills and the ability to gain a new skill or tool proficiency through Channel Divinity meant they could replace skill-focused Bards or Rogues to an extent, too.

However, there were numerous problems. Knowledge Clerics had weak spell lists with middling utility options and no real combat power. While their first Channel Divinity gave plenty of proficiency flexibility, the higher-level alternative was situational and could easily be replaced with the right DnD spells. Plus, the power of their divinations was very DM-dependent – using these powers at all could feel pointless in the wrong campaign.

So, what’s changed? Almost everything, as it happens. Several spells have been swapped or added to the Knowledge Domain’s spell list, and the vast majority of their powers have been replaced entirely. Here’s what we’re looking at for the DnD 2024 Cleric:

Blessings of Knowledge

Level: Three

You gain proficiency with a set of DnD tools and two skills (from Arcana, History, Nature, or Religion). You also have expertise in those two DnD skills.

This is functionally the same as the original Blessings of Knowledge, except you gain tools proficiency rather than additional DnD languages. Given how quickly you’ll pick up Tongues (and how effectively you can use it), these lost languages aren’t much of a problem. And tools are more handy than they’ve ever been in D&D, if only for minor tasks and crafts.

Dungeons and Dragons art of a female Cleric

Knowledge Domain spells

Level: Three

Augury and Suggestion (the first an excellent Divination spell, the second a more situational enchantment) have been replaced with three very useful alternatives. Detect Magic is a must-have for most D&D parties, and Detect Thoughts helps replace the mind-reading Channel Divinity option that’s been axed from this subclass. Finally, Mind Spike adds a rare damage-dealing option to the Knowledge Domain’s repertoire.

Speak with Dead has been cut, but it’s been replaced with Tongues and Dispel Magic, which are fantastic for utility. Banishment and Synaptic Static have been added at later levels, which makes them feel like more of a threat in a fight.

The majority of these spells function as they did in the 2014 rules. However, Mind Spike has double the range, and Arcane Eye (which survived the spell cull) can be moved as a bonus action rather than an action. Banishment saw a slight nerf to its range, but it’s still a worthy addition to the list.

Dungeons and Dragons art of a Gith Cleric

Mind Magic

Level: Three

Spend a Magic action and a use of your Channel Divinity, and you can cast one of your prepared domain spells without material components or a spell slot. That means you can bypass the costly materials needed for Identify, Nondetection, Legend Lore, and Scrying. Free uses of Scrying is the only option that gets me excited, with the rest feeling too situational to need very often.

However, free spells are free spells. If you’re using Mind Magic to cast Scrying, Mind Spike, Dispel Magic, Banishment, and the like, you can save your actual spell slots for the class’s usual big-hitters – Healing Word, Spirit Guardians, Guiding Bolt, and so on. You can be just as good at traditional Cleric jobs without sacrificing your specialization in utility and divination.

This replaces Knowledge of the Ages, which was a decent utility ability. However, I think this was a necessary sacrifice. The revised subclass is stronger at performing its basic functions, and in exchange it’s lost a Channel Divinity that was only useful for plugging a party’s skill gaps.

Unfettered Mind

Level: Six

Unfettered Mind replaces Knowledge of the Ages, a situational mind-reading Channel Divinity option that also lets you cast Suggestion on your target. It also technically replaces Potent Spellcasting, but that was worked into the core class, so you can still get your extra 1d8 cantrip damage if you want it.

In its place, you have a new ability that essentially forms a telepathic group chat with creatures equal to your Wisdom modifier that are within 60 feet. Plus, if you roll lower than your Wisdom score on an Intelligence-based check, you can use the Wisdom score as your result.

Dungeons and Dragons art of a female Cleric

The telepathy sounds hugely entertaining. There’s no mention of it costing actions, resources, or replenishing on rests, so I assume you can have it switched on at all times.

That’s perfect for scouting or social situations where you need to communicate with your friends covertly – there’s not even a somatic component to give away your brain whispers. Plus, you don’t have to target willing creatures, so this could be a creative way to spook NPCs.

Divine Foreknowledge

Level: 17

The old subclass was capped off by a divination ability that let you learn the history of a particular object or area. The usefulness of this entirely depended on the situation, plus how creative or generous your DM was feeling.

It’s been replaced with a once-per-long-rest ability that gives you advantage on all D20 tests for an hour. Maybe less explosive than getting a narrative bombshell, but more consistent, and far more likely to impact your game overall.

Dungeons and Dragons art of knights on horseback riding away from a castle

Purple Dragon Knight

The 2014 Purple Dragon Knight subclass gave the core class some rare healing and support options, plus a reason to dip into Charisma and juggle a Face role. This was a novel and flavorful take on the typically straight-edge martial, but the execution was extremely poor.

Many of its abilities were triggered by the class’ core features, which scaled slowly and only offered a handful of uses per day. Plus, compared to many later Fighter subclasses, it had far too few abilities (and even no level-18 capstone to play with).

This playtest completely overhauls the flavor of the subclass (to the chagrin of lore lovers and anyone who wants to play a Support Fighter). There are some solid design changes here, but just as many cause me to feel apprehensive about the subclass’ new direction.

Knightly Envoy

Level: Three

Formerly a level-seven ability called Royal Envoy, Knightly Envoy now grants an extra language and the ability to cast Comprehend Languages as a ritual, rather than just expertise in Persuasion. Flavor-wise, the Purple Dragon Knight is no longer a charmer, and their utility is at around the same level. But at least their level-seven ability slot is available for something that actually feels useful.

One key thing to note is that you must use Intelligence as your spellcasting ability for Comprehend Languages. This is the first of many subclass abilities that require you to dip into Intelligence, making this a MAD Fighter that may have less flexibility when it comes to feats.

Dungeons and Dragons art of a Fighter in plate armor, holding a sword

Purple Dragon Companion

Level: Three

Rallying Cry, a third-level feature that healed targets based on your Fighter level, wasn’t a bad subclass ability – it was simply far too limited in its uses. It’s now been entirely replaced with Purple Dragon Companion, which gives your character a small dragon buddy. If you think this sounds an awful lot like the DnD Ranger’s Drakewarden subclass, you’d be right.

The Purple Dragon Companion’s stats are very similar to the Drakewarden companion’s, although I’d say they’re slightly worse. These dragons do get a twice-a-day Con-save area control ability in the form of Gravity Breath, plus a fly and swim speed, but there’s not much else to write home about at this stage.

The biggest issue is that their armor class, attack modifier, and damage modifier all rely on your Intelligence score. This is a classic case of a summoner class where you’ll need to choose between buffing yourself or buffing your animal companion upon DnD level ups. And given that, without adding your Intelligence modifier, the Dragon companion has a +3 attack and 1d6 damage die, it hardly seems worth the investment.

On the upside, the dragon is easy to re-summon if it happens to die in combat. Plus, it can be commanded with a bonus action, which isn’t too harsh on your action economy (unless you’ve taken some bonus-action-heavy feats, of course). This stuff will be important for later abilities, which upgrade your companion.

Dungeons and Dragons art of a Gith riding a dragon, sword raised, towards a Gith casting a spell

Dragon Rider

Level: Seven

A new seventh-level feature to replace the one that got moved, Dragon Rider turns your companion into a Medium-sized creature that can now serve as a mount. It can’t use its fly speed while you’re riding it, and its Gravity Breath can now deal 2d6 force damage as well as push or pull enemies in a 30-foot cone that fail their Constitution saving throw. Plus, when you use Second Wind, it also restores some HP and a use of Gravity Breath to your companion.

This subclass has already skirted one of the biggest issues with mounted combat by making your Dragon Companion easy to re-summon if it perishes in battle. However, at Medium size, it synergizes poorly with the essential Mounted Combatant feat. An enemy needs to be one DnD size smaller than the mount for you to have advantage on attacks against it, and that looks very unlikely with a medium-sized dragon.

Mounted combat can be a lot of fun, and the Dragon Companion makes it more consistent than with any war horse bought from the store. However, it’s far from an optimal build at this stage.

Rallying Surge

Level: 10

When you use Action Surge, you can choose up to three allies within 30 feet to take one of two possible reactions. Either they make a melee attack (no spells allowed), or they move up to half their speed without triggering opportunity attacks.

This is an improved version of the subclass’ original feature, which only allowed one extra friend to make an attack. It’s a lot more impactful, and it creates some fun tactical opportunities, but you can still only use it once per short rest, so you’ll need to be quite sparing with it.

Dungeons and Dragons art of adventurers meeting a gold dragon

Amethyst Pinnacle

Level: 15

This replaces Bulwark, a disappointing high-level feature with limited power and even more limited uses. Instead, Amethyst Pinnacle finally gives your mount the ability to fly while you’re riding it, and it increases its size to Large. Plus, when you make an attack action, you can forego one attack to let your dragon Rend or two for it to use Gravity Breath.

Unless you want to use the situational push/pull of Gravity Breath or take advantage of its force damage, we can’t see any reason to sacrifice one of your attacks to let your companion get a hit in. Its attacks scale so poorly compared to your regular weapon attacks that it makes zero sense to sub in.

Enduring Commander

Level: 18

Considering the original subclass had no level-18 ability at all, anything is a plus. However, I can’t help wishing that Wizards had been more creative. Resistance to force and psychic damage is fairly good (given how liberally D&D gives high-level monsters force damage these days), but it’s not explosive, impressive, or thematic.

Dungeons and Dragons art of a Wizard casting a spell

Bladesigner Wizard

Alright, it’s not exactly fair to call the Bladesinger a disappointing subclass. It specifically fixes one of the Wizard’s biggest problems (abysmal AC), and it allows you to dabble in martial combat without having to sacrifice any levels for an armor or weapon dip. That gives you access to the most powerful spells in the game while also being able to swing a sword – which is silly strong in the hands of the right builder.

But as far as purely Wizard subclasses go, we’d put this one mid-tier. It’s been a long time since the Bladesinger was the best gish on the market, having been outclassed by Hexblades and (in some arguments) the Eldritch Knight. Plus, it’s still a glass cannon that’ll go down when the right hit lands. Its melee prowess also begins to feel redundant at higher levels – unless you’re really committed to the spellsword fantasy, it’ll be tempting to stand back and just use this subclass for its AC boost.

The playtest’s proposed changes make the Bladesinger’s best abilities slightly better, at the cost of being able to wear any DnD armor at all. The tweaks make the class’ identity a bit stronger, and it seems like its power levels haven’t been hurt, either.

Dungeons and Dragons art of a Dragonborn holding a sword

Bladesong

Level: Three

Starting off strong, the playtest gives you more uses of Bladesong, the flagship feature of this subclass. You can now use it a number of times equal to your Intelligence modifier rather than your proficiency bonus before you need a long rest – so you can power up more often.

Instead of advantage on Acrobatics checks, Bladesong now lets you add your Intelligence modifier to attack and damage rolls instead of Strength or Dexterity. Previously, the Bladesong didn’t get any weapon attack bonus at all, and its damage didn’t improve until level 14. Plus, that damage bonus was limited to melee weapons, and it no longer is. Combined with the fact that Bladesong still adds your Int modifier to AC and concentration saves and increases your speed by 10 feet, this feels very strong indeed.

Bladesong still lasts for one minute, but you can no longer wear armor of any kind if you want to use and maintain it. That’s a slight nerf as you can’t rely on light armor to boost your AC, but between your Dexterity and Intelligence stats, you should still be able to build a beefy defense with ease.

Training in War and Song

Level: Three

This no longer gives you a light armor proficiency, but it does give you proficiency in all melee martial weapons that don’t have the two-handed or heavy property. That’s a bit more flexible than proficiency in one specific one-handed weapon, particularly now that DnD weapon mastery is a thing.

Plus, rather than proficiency in just Performance, you can now choose a skill from Acrobatics, Athletics, Performance, or Persuasion. Acrobatics seems like the obvious choice given how hungry for Dexterity this subclass is.

Dungeons and Dragons art of a warrior in magic armor holding a sword in the air

Extra Attack

This works exactly as before. You attack twice with every Attack action on your turn, and a cantrip that costs an action can take the place of one of those attacks. This isn’t as mind-blowing as it was when it was first introduced to the subclass, as others now offer the same benefit – but that doesn’t stop it being super useful.

Song of Defense

Level: 10

Just like in the 2014 rules, this lets you spend a reaction and a spell slot to reduce incoming damage by five times the spell slot’s level. It can be the difference between life or death in a pinch, especially if Shield isn’t going to cut it – but it’s incredibly expensive resource-wise.

Song of Victory

Level: 14

In the old days, Song of Victory added your Intelligence modifier to your melee weapon attack damage while Bladesong was active. Now, you can make a weapon attack as a bonus action after casting a spell that costs one action.

The Wizard has a few bonus actions to juggle already, but not too many. One is activating Bladesong, which you’d probably have done before even taking your first swing with a sword. The others are useful spells like Magic Weapon and Misty Step – but if you were planning to use those, you wouldn’t have cast your ‘one action’ spell anyway. All in all, this seems like a very useful way to maximize your action economy on turns where you’re not trying to set up a buff or teleport out of danger.

That’s all we have to say about the playtest for now. If you’d like some suggestions for character options to use in your own testing, here’s all you need to know about DnD races and DnD 2024 backgrounds.