Sometimes when you’re playing Dungeons & Dragons, you want to try your hand at being the villain. Being a hero is fine and all, but it’s absolutely overplayed for the most part. Unearthed Arcana has been released, and with it comes four subclasses for the villains at your table to try out.
The villainous options include subclasses for the cleric, druid, fighter, and sorcerer. On top of these subclasses, you’ll get options for having your character follow a villainous path. These paths provide your character with new villainous feats and a bit of a story explanation for helping them walk this new villainous path they’ve chosen. Here’s every villainous option in the Unearhed Arcana.
4
Circle Of The Titan
Druid
Protectors of Earth, these druids will sometimes go overboard, meting out punishment on anyone who doesn’t view the land as they do. This awakens the Titan Form that comes with this druid subclass. Circle of the Titan brings three new Wild Shape forms in the Behemoth, Leviathan, and Insectoid.
You get elemental damage of your choice when in your Titan Wild Shape. You can become Huge or larger and ignore terrain issues for several conditions, and you can swallow a creature after becoming Gargantuan.
Unfortunately, this class doesn’t feel very villainous, and the abilities aren’t better than other druid options available. The coolest part about this subclass are the new Wild Shape options, though some of these abilities you’ll find in other Wild Shape options you can choose. Your Insectoid form can distribute health points to allies, though. There’s just not much fun or villainous options here, and even the higher-level abilities aren’t worth the investment.
Using the Path of the Lich or Path of the Death Knight options included in the Unwarthed Arcana can help create a backstory and more villainous involvement with this class choice.
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3
Demonic Sorcery
Sorcerer
Sorcerers get the Demonic Sorcery subclass. Your demonic villain era comes from the Abyss, and you’ll manifest this in your appearance as well, helping to sell your villainous ideals. The wickedness and disorder of the abyssal plan should help steer your villain into a cool role-playing direction.
Your new abilities include a demon lashing that deals 1d4 slashing damage and pulls the enemy toward you or gives Disadvantage to attacks against you for a turn by using one Sorcery Point. Level 18 allows you to summon a fiend on the field with the Summon Fiend spell with no component costs.
The most interesting ability is using Innate Sorcery for Abyssal Aura. This Abyssal Aura creates a point of emanation that has several effects, including:
- Sticky Webs – Create difficult terrain that a creature will need to use an action to roll and get out of.
- Caustic Ooze – Creates difficult terrain that deals Acid damage on failed saves.
- Terrifying Screams – The emanation deals Psychic damage.
- Enthralling Spores – Creates a heavily obscured area that can Charm enemies.
- Poisonous Foliage – Creates a lightly obscured area with demonic flora that deal Poison damage on a failed save.
- Enervating Bones – Bones come from the ground, dealing Necrotic damage to those hit.
The variety here makes these options viable for sorcerers who are usually stuck with the same spells for an entire level. The drawback of course is that you must roll, and the desired outcome may not be what you want. The variety available, however, makes up for the randomness while keeping the spirit of the base class. Higher levels let you roll twice and choose which effect you’d like to use.
The only drawback here is that it doesn’t necessarily feel villainous, just like some demonic force controlling you. The available option of enforcing Disadvantage is great, and the expanded spell list is a given, but it doesn’t end up playing as powerful or unique as you’d think in the end.
2
Hell Knight
Fighter
A great villainous option, Hell Knights can easily tie their backstory into the Nine Hells, as they are the champions of devils, cambions, and night hags from the Nine Hells. There are several additional options available in the UA for how you might have come to be a Hell Knight as an added bonus. You learn Infernal, can see in magical and non-magical darkness, and can imbue your weapon to make it a Hellfire weapon that deals its regular damage or fire damage, your choice. You gain Resistance to Fire damage while wearing armor or a shield, and you ignore Fire Resistance when using a weapon.
The cool part about your weapon is the added infernal and advanced wounds mechanic. You get to deal additional d6 damage with your ingernal wound die. When you level up, you can make a wound you’ve created on an enemy explode into several different types of damage, with some types of damage emanating from the wound and hurting others in the area.
For even more added damage, your Action Surge can make your armor explode into a fiery emanation point from you, dealing Fire damage. The blistering wounds you leave behind give you an additional d6 of damage when you reach level 15, and when your weapon reduces a creature to 0 Hit Points at level 18, they become a Lemure in the Nine Hells.
There’s a lot in this subclass, and the way it all builds on the fiery theme of a Nine Hells servant works so well. Your fighter has so many options for dishing out extra damage, making it well worth an investment for the fighter who wants to add extra damage die on every roll. The added bonus of an easy way to slide into a viallinous backstory makes this a great UA addition as well.
1
Pestilence Domain
Cleric
Plague and pestilence are the main aspects of this subclass, calling forth the gods of rot, pestilence, plague, poison, disease, and famine. This makes the subclass easy for integration, as playing up a staple aspect in areas in most campaigns, you can easily have your player invest in creating or causing these issues as they travel. As far as mechanics, the subclass gets its own spell list. The suspected options are here, including Blight, Contagion, Detect Poison, and Disease, etc.
The real fun comes in your Channel Divinity ability, Plague Blessing. Giving levels of Exhaustion for combat while also serving a roleplay purpose with the plague symptoms that help tell the story of your players makes this UA option one of the most interesting. Having your plague burst from a creature at zero hit points adds even more versatility, making this a strong villainous option.
Add the ability to transform at level 17, and your Cleric feels like an entirely new and creative class. This version is such an interesting triumph for a villain that it’s well worth trying out.
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