D&D Delves Back Into the Underdark With New Playtest Options

Wizards of the Coast has released a second round of Underdark-themed playtest material for Dungeons & Dragons, and it’s packed with new ways to build a character from the deep places of the world.

The new Unearthed Arcana: Underdark Options 2 PDF introduces three subclasses and five new species, all drawing on the strange, dangerous corners of D&D’s most storied subterranean setting. The survey opens on D&D Beyond starting September 17, so there’s time to test these options at your table before weighing in.

Three New Subclasses

The playtest features a mix of brand-new concepts and one returning favourite:

• Freedom Domain (Cleric) — A high-Dexterity Cleric built around liberation, movement, and breaking chains. Its spell list was designed with a single question in mind: would this spell help in a jailbreak? Channel Divinity lets allies shake off conditions like Frightened, Grappled, Paralyzed, or Restrained and reposition without provoking opportunity attacks.
• Circle of Spores (Druid) — An update to the subclass originally from Guildmaster’s Guide to Ravnica and Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything, now tuned for 5.5e. The Underdark version leans harder into the myconid connection, granting Telepathy and reworking the old Spreading Spores feature into Explosive Burst — which makes your zombies detonate in a cloud of damaging spores when they die.
• Faerzress Sorcery (Sorcerer) — Built around faerzress, the weird magical radiation of the Underdark. This Sorcerer can create zones of faerzress, ignore its drawbacks, and eventually transform into a being of pure faerzress energy. Lightning damage is the subclass’s signature flavour.

Five New Species

The species lineup is where things get really interesting. Rather than playing visitors from the surface, these options let you play characters who already call the Underdark home:

• Deep Imaskari — Descendants of humans who fled into the depths millennia ago, now infused with the magic of “Unlight.” They create light rather than relying on Darkvision, and gain a versatile Aura of Unlight at level 3.
• Drider — The classic drow-spider hybrid, finally playable. You get Spider Climb, Web Walker, and spells of the Spider Queen, with mechanics inspired by the Centaur from Mordenkainen Presents: Monsters of the Multiverse.
• Illithidkin — Victims (or willing participants) of mind flayer experimentation. They get psionic abilities, Psychic resistance, and telepathy. Notably, this is a separate route from the Ceremorphosis feat path in the previous UA, not meant to be combined with it.
• Kuo-toa — Fishlike humanoids with a talent for creating bizarre, sometimes living idols. Their Deific Manifestation feature lets you cast Find Familiar and mix and match traits from two different forms to build your own little abomination.
• Myconid — Bipedal fungal folk and the ultimate team players. Their abilities focus on building rapport, sharing knowledge, and granting the whole party telepathy through spores.

What the Design Team Is Saying

Senior Game Designer Jason Tondro noted that this UA touches on elements of the Underdark that have appeared before but are being “expanded or transformed in ways we’re not yet ready to fully reveal.” Faerzress, for example, dates back to 1978’s D1 Descent into the Depths of the Earth, while the Deep Imaskari first appeared in 2003’s Underdark supplement.

The material uses the Player’s Handbook rules, and Wizards is clear that these options are experimental — they may end up more or less powerful than what’s currently in the game, and could change significantly before any official publication.

How to Get Involved

If you want to help shape what makes it into a future D&D book, now’s your chance. Try these subclasses and species in your campaign or a one-shot, then fill out the survey on D&D Beyond when it goes live on September 17.

Worth noting: the document includes a content warning for body horror and mind control, so keep that in mind depending on your table.