Love walks lit by starlight? Want to help your friends get over a fear of the dark?
Then you might be interested in the Twilight Domain, the latest playtest option for the D&D cleric! Learn more in this video: there’s another unearthed Arcana for the
THIS IS A AN AUTOMATIC CAPTION TEXT from YouTube, so it’s not “perfect”.
My advice is to use it just to help people like me that are not english speaking, to understand the Video/Podcast
cleric that focuses on a very differentdomain what was the inspiration for this
we have long wanted to have a cleric
essentially of shadow in our early 5th
edition work that cleric of shadow
actually turned into the trickery domain
that’s in the players handbook but this
notion of shadow or darkness as the
opposite of the light domain that is
also in the players handbook and that
notion is stuck with us and so we’ve
been tinkering with this idea the sort
of the shadow cleric and the more we
tinkered with it the more it evolved
into what has become the Twilight domain
where we wanted something not about
total darkness partly because we feel
that we’ve gone to that that design well
several times elsewhere in our class
design and to the source really yeah and
and so rather than going all in on
shadow again which we’ve done before we
wanted to explore a space sort of
in-between and that’s where we ended up
with Twilight that this is a cleric who
might walk in darkness but who also
walks in light and who also walks in the
border territory I also really wanted us
to delve into an aspect of the night of
nighttime that often gets ignored in
fantasy storytelling and that is night
does also when we rest not just when
we’re afraid and often in fantasy
storytelling darkness and night is
associated with terrible dark scary
things and then that’s great I mean we
will continue to do so Indiana fight yes
yes there are there are terrors in the
night but night is also when we rest
night is also especially when we are in
our homes we feel safe night is off in a
quieter time for us and
so I wanted us to again explore that
liminal space between light and darkness
that Twilight Realm where things might
be scary but it also might be a place of
comfort it might be that place that
because the the light isn’t shining on
you harshly you feel safer you feel
calmer and I hope this resonates with
people it anytime we do a more kind of
nuanced archetype like this I’m always
fascinated to find out what my fellow
fans think of it because it doesn’t it
doesn’t have the same broad swing of
light or darkness yeah or the raves
domain yes you know yeah it it there’s a
there is appropriate to a Twilight
domain there’s sort of a quietness about
it but I think there can be a great
power not only in storytelling but also
in life of the quiet places where the
light is softer where things dim a bit
now that all sort of you know sort of
high-level talk aside I think the
subclass just has some neat stuff in it
where we explore for instance the
ability for a character to be able to
see clearly in darkness at any distance
this feature that the subclass gets
right away of being able to see at any
distance in the darkness I’m suspecting
and we’d the team that worked on this
myself Dan Dylan Ben Petrus or and West
Nider
thought people might actually read it so
fast they might they might miss what
makes it special forgetting the DND dark
vision almost always has a range yes
typically 60 feet occasionally a hundred
120 feet but usually it’s only about out
to 60 feet and then beyond that you
can’t see yeah
the Twilight domain gives the cleric the
ability to see in darkness no matter the
distance so already that’s something
special
then they have the ability to give that
ability a limited number of times to
their friends so imagine you’re in you
know the Underdark
or you know you’re trapped in some other
subterranean location you have no light
source this is the cleric who can say
suddenly everyone we can see but still
maintain the darkness because maybe we
want to get the jump on people and we
don’t want to cast the light spell or
use some other means of generating
illumination no now it’s less ethereal
to me now it’s almost like a black ops
team yes so so again and that’s we want
again that that liminal space where this
could be used to you can imagine rid
people of their fear of the dark you
know this could be the cleric who is a
source of comfort to people you know or
you can’t see and we have no source of
light but we can make darkness our
friend but this ability also could be
used to sneak into a place and pull off
an amazing ambush because you are moving
in darkness and all of you able to see
as if you were in the daylight so again
really neat I think in terms of how this
could play out it’s insanely valuable
guide as well in a very weird aside I
think of like Riddick he’s the only
person the Hansie in the darkness and to
have that power like you become you can
become such an instrumental part of the
party and to survive you see that dragon
before the dragon sees you and that and
that was something we talked about being
of use to the group we talked about in
our design because typically when a
person chooses to play the cleric the
cleric so many of his abilities are
about helping other people and the Clerc
certainly has a number of abilities that
are just fun for the cleric but I always
try to make sure there’s something in
the cleric whether it was you know back
then when we were working on the base
class but now in the subclass that
benefits your buddies
and so initially when we did this see in
the dark it actually only benefitted the
cleric but honestly we could do a
feature like that in any class I mean in
fact you know in Zanna thar’s guy we
have the ranger who can you know who is
also a friend to the darkness but here
to really distinguish this subclass from
a similar theme elsewhere we wanted to
make it so that you could help your
friends because that’s again a very
cleric thing to be able to do that’s
also why this cleric is able to give
advantage to themselves or someone else
on their next initiative role this idea
that you can bring vigilance to your
group this cleric is such a friend to
the knight that they eventually gain the
ability to essentially walk on darkness
I really loved when Dan Dylan put that
in the initial draft this idea again of
of this cleric to sort of striding upon
the knight it’s again there’s kind of a
witchy quality to it which also makes it
possible I think to make some cleric
concepts that maybe some of our other
subclasses don’t fully realize you know
if you if you want to make you know a
cleric of the moon you could certainly
do that with some of our other
subclasses you know because the the moon
is associated in myth with many
different things you could associate the
moon with the knowledge domain the life
domain the grave domain yeah
where’s but this this domain lets you
focus more on nighttime itself and your
relationship with darkness and Twilight
and light so I think it’s again it’s a
very rich area not only in terms of what
the subclass can do but also in terms of
the types of clerics you can make with
it it’s such a transitive moment to like
and particularly for kids for some
reason in my mind like you’re waiting
for Halloween and the Sun begins to set
it is a transition
somehow mentally for all of us always
like you know whether you’re going out
and you’re going to party or go see the
movies or go trick-or-treating for candy
there is something about Twilight as the
border of all of that from like the
moment you work even growing up on a
farm you know the moment you are working
to the moment where you can’t work
anymore
and then things are fun yeah you know
there is something I think just kinda
like ingrained in all of us walking on
shadows is always cool yeah can you not
want to do that yeah how does this work
for a lake so that makes a lot of sense
like if you’re a cleric that worships
the moon or moon deity how would you do
this for like a philosophy that’s a
toughy so if if your cleric follows a
philosophy or a force instead of a god
or a pantheon you could imagine a
philosophy of transition or a change or
or a concept of mystery because not only
does this domain give you the ability to
pierce darkness with your sight and
stride upon darkness but this also
allows you to create darkness so in a
way it’s like you have this two-sided
relationship with darkness you can use
it or defang it yeah or you can use it
against others you can conjure up
darkness and then eventually at a high
enough level in the subclass you can
make it so that with the darkness spell
you and your friends can see through it
which again is one of those things where
a person might read it and say yeah big
deal but remember the d’arnaud the
darkness spell the note the darkness
spell cannot be seen through even by
normal dark vision it’s so to have a
group specular walk around in in the
area of a darkness spell yes and keep in
mind when other people can’t see you and
they try to attack you they have
disadvantage on all their attacker all
and if you can see them and they can’t
see you you have advantage on your
attack rolls oh boy could this hold
devastating in certain circumstances so
it’s terrifying my wife and I use
darkness together when we get a chance
to play together
that’s our like go-to we drop some
darkness like show source were warlock
with double sight and it’s just like
one-two punch right again disadvantage
against us advantage for us against them
and then things get really dark if you
get like The Sentinel feet or you have
elderts blast slows people down yeah so
now you have three subclasses that can
all fall in the entire class here but
you know you can have three different
characters up all about the darkness and
and treading that line and that’s very
exciting and very advantageous because
before doing that that trick with
darkness it’s a very alienating effect
mm-hmm
because this is you in the dark all
right the party watching you do this can
you grant that ability to other people
yes yeah and again that is that is the
cleric twist yeah we’re this the
Twilight cleric is able to share this
ability which again might be scary for
your foes but can also then be
comforting for your friends and again
that’s it goes back to the two sided
nature of the Twilight domain
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— Jeremy Crawford (@JeremyECrawford) October 7, 2019