Seems that WoTC is warming up to the Dark Sun setting. They just released an Unearthed Arcana with 4 Dark Sun sub classes. I wondered how they would handle something like the defiler and they just made it a sorcerer subclass. This doesn't make sense in regards to the original Dark Sun lore but I guess you have to make concessions when updating it to 5.5ed and it does kind of make sense when you consider the difference between preservers (regular wizards) and defilers. They also created a subclass for warlocks. Warlocks didn't exist back in 2ed. Many of the existing sub classes wouldn't work as the Dark Sun cosmology is very different from other settings, but that just gives room for many more subclasses to be created. I can already think of several. Gladiators are just a fighter subclass rather than being a separate class and looks cool. And the druid subclass is very druidy, lol, and fits the setting perfectly.
Here are some issues with updating the Dark Sun setting to 5/5.5ed.
Templars are closer to traditional clerics than clerics are in the setting. Templars serve the sorceror kings/queen and get their spells from them as if they were deities (they're not, it's complicated). Clerics worshiped the elements (and para and quasi-elements in later supplements) and they had different spell lists based on which element they worshiped. I always imagined water clerics being treated as minor deities themselves, at least in the Tablelands (the main setting). All of this is easily solved with subclasses.
Paladins didn't exist in the original Dark Sun setting. Some of the 5/5.5ed subclasses, especially the darker ones, could work I guess.
Bards were very different in the original Dark Sun campaign, they were closer to rogues and were more of a spy class that didn't get any spell casting like traditional bards do.
The one stickler I see is races. The races in the Dark Sun setting were radically different from other settings and some races were killed off in the genocidal war that lead up to the 2nd cataclysm (no gnomes :( ). And halflings are the original humanoid race that all other humanoid (and many not-so-humanoid) races sprang from in the first cataclysm, minus the kreen races. They would have to massively change the Dark Sun lore here.
The original halflings still exist, hidden away, and have access to organic technology. And then there are the fun to play feral halflings from the jungle.
There are also the advanced beings, the sorcerer kings/queen. Evil quasi-deities and on the path to becoming a dragon. Traditional dragons did not exist in the setting. Only one true Dragon existed. There was one who was close to finishing the path but was killed off by the Dragon, but became undead as a result and can no longer advance on the path. There was one that tried to take a shortcut on the path and was killed by the other sorcerer kings and ended up with his own Domain in Ravenloft. And then there was the one that was killed in a rebellion. And then the one true Dragon was killed shortly after that. The sorcerer kings/queen are very powerful and no longer age but they are not true deities and can be killed off much more easily. They also introduced the good counterpart to the dragon, the avangion of which only one exists and has not completed the path yet (the art for them looks weird).
Here are some issues with updating the Dark Sun setting to 5/5.5ed.
Templars are closer to traditional clerics than clerics are in the setting. Templars serve the sorceror kings/queen and get their spells from them as if they were deities (they're not, it's complicated). Clerics worshiped the elements (and para and quasi-elements in later supplements) and they had different spell lists based on which element they worshiped. I always imagined water clerics being treated as minor deities themselves, at least in the Tablelands (the main setting). All of this is easily solved with subclasses.
Paladins didn't exist in the original Dark Sun setting. Some of the 5/5.5ed subclasses, especially the darker ones, could work I guess.
Bards were very different in the original Dark Sun campaign, they were closer to rogues and were more of a spy class that didn't get any spell casting like traditional bards do.
The one stickler I see is races. The races in the Dark Sun setting were radically different from other settings and some races were killed off in the genocidal war that lead up to the 2nd cataclysm (no gnomes :( ). And halflings are the original humanoid race that all other humanoid (and many not-so-humanoid) races sprang from in the first cataclysm, minus the kreen races. They would have to massively change the Dark Sun lore here.
The original halflings still exist, hidden away, and have access to organic technology. And then there are the fun to play feral halflings from the jungle.
There are also the advanced beings, the sorcerer kings/queen. Evil quasi-deities and on the path to becoming a dragon. Traditional dragons did not exist in the setting. Only one true Dragon existed. There was one who was close to finishing the path but was killed off by the Dragon, but became undead as a result and can no longer advance on the path. There was one that tried to take a shortcut on the path and was killed by the other sorcerer kings and ended up with his own Domain in Ravenloft. And then there was the one that was killed in a rebellion. And then the one true Dragon was killed shortly after that. The sorcerer kings/queen are very powerful and no longer age but they are not true deities and can be killed off much more easily. They also introduced the good counterpart to the dragon, the avangion of which only one exists and has not completed the path yet (the art for them looks weird).