During San Diego Comic-Con I got to speak with Amanda Hamon about what is upcoming.
Michael: So today I am speaking with Amanda Hamon, senior designer on D&D at Wizards of the Coast. Hi Amanda so what is the big debut this year at SDCC for Dungeon and Dragons?
Amanda: We are showing off early preview copies of Arcana Unleashed and Arcana Unleashed Deadfall. Which are releasing worldwide on September 16th.
Arcana Unleashed is a gameplay expansion, which has lots of player-facing character rules to infuse more magic into your game.
New subclasses, feats, backgrounds, spells and magic items. And there’s a bunch of Dungeon Master facing content as well in there with magical factions that map to one of the eight schools of magic in the game.
They’re themed after the schools of magic and they have a whole story behind them, leaders, characters, places, plots, and things that are ready made for Dungeon Masters to use in their own games.
There are also magical patrons that are themed after different types of maps and there’s even a very short first-level adventure in the back of the book
Michael: So, is it a good introduction to D&D?
Amanda: Exactly, introducing new players, very geared toward new Dungeon Masters and it’s geared towards the new roles and content as well.
Michael: Is it all new content?
Amanda: Six of the eight subclasses are updates from earlier 5th edition, but there are two brand new subclasses included along with everything else in the book.
Michael: What are the two new subclasses?
Amanda: One of the new subclasses is the Vestige Patron Warlock.
Michael: What makes the Vestige Patron Warlock different than another version of a warlock?
Amanda: The Vestige Patron is all about warlocks finding power from a dead or a dying god. It is a sort of a symbiotic relationship with a dead or a dying god that the player creates or the Dungeon Master creates.
They’re more thematic and they’re based on the way that the player or the Dungeon Master wants them to be.
The primary component of that subclass is a Vestige Companion. You can choose undead fiend or celestial for that companion, and then they get different abilities around those themes. They map to the type of deity that the warlock is worshiping and getting their powers from.
The other brand-new subclass is the Warrior Mystic Arch monk, which is a spell casting monk, similar to the Arcane Trickster Rogue.
This Spellcasting monk can cast cantrips when they do flurry of blows.
Michael : So that kind of leans on a martial arts / magic kind of role-playing character?
Amanda: Yeah, that’s the idea.
Michael: I almost think of him like Shang-Chi if you were to compare them to a Marvel character archetype. Hand to hand but also can utilize some mystic arts.
Michael: Will there be special edition covers as well?
Amanda: Yes, there are both traditional and special edition covers.
Amanda: So that’s Arcana Unleashed and then Deadfall is an adventure campaign.
Whereas Arcana Unleashed is all bright colors and you see Illustrial Silverhand, you know, beseeching you to do good with your magic.
And then the sort of like flip side, the dark reflection of that is Deadfall. Which takes place in the fey.
It’s also worth mentioning the map packs that we’re doing. There are 10 maps, so five front and back full color maps that are thematic to High Magic in D&D.
So, if you’re running a magical campaign with magical things in it, then there is something that will probably work for you.
Michael: Are there plans to continue making map packs going forward?
Amanda: Yeah, those are going to be a regular occurrence.
Michael: Thank you so much for taking us through it.
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