D&D (2024) Unearthed Arcana Playtest Packet 6 Video

[Elodan]

I find my enthusiasm waning with the rollback of the exhaustion and uniform subclass progression changes.

Why keep something clunky because the new version didn’t reach an overwhelming enthusiastic response. I’d be curious to see what the results would be if there was a direct comparison between the two.

I don’t get how it’s ok to make all the subclass features start at level three but not the remaining levels. The 3rd level change breaks pure backward compatibility as it is.

Luckily, we have and are getting interesting takes on 5E with Level Up, Tales from the Valiant, and C7D20.

 

[DEFCON 1]

Not excited or unexcited about the packets because they are exactly what I've thought they were going to be... a cleaning up of uneven game mechanics. And since I've already cleaned up all the mechanics I had a problem with in the 5E14 books... whatever WotC does for 5E24 is fine. I'll either stick with my own fixes or switch over to theirs. Either way doesn't matter to me.

Weapon Masteries were I think a cool little new system so if it sticks around, that's fine. Didn't blow me away, but then again most game mechanics don't blow me away because game mechanics are extremely overrated for RPGs in general in my opinion.

By the same token, subclass features all starting at level 3 is fine by me... because it'd be nice for people to finally accept that game mechanics are not necessary to tell you who your character is. You can be a Cleric of a God of War at 1st level just by saying and roleplaying you are a Cleric of a God of War, even if you don't get a "game mechanic" for the War Domain until 3rd. You can have made a pact with a devil in your character's backstory (meaning even before 1st level) and that can be true even without having yet taken your 1st level of Warlock and your 3rd level subclass selection. You just say that this is who your character is.

As far as Exhaustion... I like the six levels of 5E14 more than just the -1 to -10 of 5E24, so I'm fine with that having gone away. Especially since I've already re-ordered the six levels myself and will continue to use my re-ordering regardless of whether WotC does or does not re-order the penalties themselves going forward.

And finally I thought Epic boons were so incredibly lame because they were basically just a random additional mechanic that had little to no actually long-term power or game-changing effect, so I'm glad they are gone as being supposedly this big character-changing feature:

Epic Boon of Fate: Add 2d4 to a single d20 roll. Whoopie! At 20th level you can add +2d4 to a roll... meanwhile a Cleric could add a +1d4 back at 1ST LEVEL with the Bless spell! So getting a second d4 19 levels later was supposed to be this big thing?!? Really?!? Uh... no. And the War Cleric got to add a +10 to an attack roll of theirs at 2ND LEVEL! 18 levels earlier and their bonus is so much higher!

Epic Boon of Spell Recall: Roll a die and you don't lose the spell slot of the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, or 4th level spell you cast. Great! In what possible world do any of us play in where any of us at 20TH LEVEL run the risk of running out of 1st, 2nd, 3rd, or 4th level slots where regaining one actually matters? Oh, I want a fifth 1st-level slot so I can cast Shield again? Okay... well I can just use one of my unused 2nd level slots cause I ain't going to be using all of those before we take a long rest anyway. So I don't need to Recall crap!

Epic Boon of Energy Resistance: Gain Resistance to a damage type. That's it. The same exact power that characters have already gotten by the myriad of magic items, racial powers, by the Absorb Elements spell, the freaking Bear Totem Barbarian -- all of them acquirable back in like Tier 1. And this is a 20TH LEVEL "boon"? NO. It is a complete and utter waste.

Epic Boon of Peerless Aim: Turn a missed ranged attack into a hit once per combat. That's all. A 20th level character in a fight where they probably are hitting on like 8 of the 13 total attacks they already are making throughout the combat can instead hit on 9 of 13. Wowie. That adds so much to my character.

And these are just a sampling of the crap game mechanics they were giving out as supposed "epic boons".

You want to know an actual Epic Boon? The Cleric's Divine Intervention at 10th level when they roll successfully. Because THEN... the player through the character can ask for anything they might need in the story of what the party is doing... and the DM can then use their own knowledge and interpretation and improvisation to actually give the character something worthwhile within the narrative of what is happening-- something that does not need or warrant any "game mechanic" that is going to just adjust a die roll here or there. The Cleric is in a desperate situation... they cry out to their god for aid... and their god ANSWERS THEM and HELPS THEM. THAT is an "epic boon". And Clerics could get it at 10th level if they got lucky.

Or like @Stalker0 made a thread about... the Wish spell is an actual Epic boon-- provided of course the DM doesn't do the inane and stupid "make sure you say what you want grammatically correct, otherwise I'm going to F you on it!!!" crap that so many DMs supposedly have done in the past. No... this is a 20th level Wizard ability! They should be able to re-write reality! However they want! They Wish for something to happen and IT JUST HAPPENS. THAT'S a boon! THAT'S what makes 20th level so goddamn important!

But instead we got things like being able to "Misty Step for free once per combat" like you got with the Epic Boon of Dimensional Travel-- an ability the ELADRIN ALREADY DO FROM THE BEGINNING OF THE GAME WITH A RACIAL FEATURE FOR PETE'S SAKE!

Granted... it's not like the actual 20th level subclass abilities were any better... but we already knew they were just mainly game mechanical crap. So just stick with the crap we know, rather than replace it with NEW crap. Because it's a waste of our time reading it and their energy designing it all.

 

[fluffybunbunkittens]

I will always encourage rants about the epic boons! The best thing they can do with them is take them out of taking up space in the feat list and throw them in the trash!

By which I mean, give them to the Fighter as class features.

 

[Mirrorrorrim]

I'm honestly just shocked that weapon masteries are going forwards... Because it's actually a completely new element, rather than a gently massaged old one.

But why are Paladins getting them? Ranger and Rogue are Experts, it's fine, but Paladin is now in the Priest category, isn't it? They don't need this, when they can just smite!

The storytelling concept of "Weapon Mastery" is too ubiquitous to not give a little taste to every weapon-focused class. Non-warriors should be able to get just 1. But the Warriors should get a little more benefit from that ability, and Fighters even more so.

Spellcasting is ubiquitous too. Note that in comparison, every class interacts also with spells (or at least has a subclass that does anyways). It's the same thing. It's a mechanic that can pull a lot of weight, so they want to use it more.

 

[mamba]

Ever since they started rolling back changes, I am less excited about the playtest. Why even bother / get excited for something when chances are the same crap survives again because somehow getting 69% approval is too little or something gets rolled back because they asked the wrong question.

At this point I'd rather wait until we have a final book and take a look then, less to be disappointed about. I'd much rather have them tweak what was not rated high enough than throw it out, from my perspective pretty much all of it could easily have been better than what we have in 5e today. Chances are I will take a peek anyway however

 

[Amrûnril]

There has always been, and will always be, an implied setting for the game. It will never be a generic set of fantasy game rules and it's a strength of the game that it has an implied setting rather than a generic set of rules. "Tasha's Hideous Laughter" is better for common language and lore for the game than simply "Hideous Laughter" or "Cause Laughter."

I don't have a particular problem eponymous spell names. The Tasha referenced in the spell could be a real character in a given setting, but it's equally possible that the story of Tasha is a fiction within the fiction, or that the spell name isn't diegetic.

What I have a problem with is the PHB telling players that, regardless of the setting the DM describes, a specific set of alternate planes of existence are canonically real and connected to it. While individual tables will always be free to ignore such assumptions, the developers are getting in the way of creative worldbuilding if they set the default expectation that a homebrew world is merely a subpart of their own pre-existing setting.

 

[Zaukrie]

I don't have a particular problem eponymous spell names. The Tasha referenced in the spell could be a real character in a given setting, but it's equally possible that the story of Tasha is a fiction within the fiction, or that the spell name isn't diegetic.

What I have a problem with is the PHB telling players that, regardless of the setting the DM describes, a specific set of alternate planes of existence are canonically real and connected to it. While individual tables will always be free to ignore such assumptions, the developers are getting in the way of creative worldbuilding if they set the default expectation that a homebrew world is merely a subpart of their own pre-existing setting.

Nothing in the rules says "regardless of what the DM says." That's made clear in the books.

 

[Uni-the-Unicorn!]

…there is absolutely no way that ODND fixed the issue of T3 and T4 being unplayable.

Funny, we have played in both (tier 3 right now) and never had more fun playing D&D. Not sure why you think it is unplayable

 

[DEFCON 1]

Personally I think the game teaching every single player and DM that they should ignore the books is an exceedingly good and important lesson. So them putting in the stuff about the "multiverse" and forcing DMs to learn how to pretend it isn't there is a net positive. Because the last thing WotC, I, or probably anyone wants is a DM who thinks the game has to be written to THEIR specific wants and needs.

That is a belief we need to drum out of DMs early and often.

 

[Uni-the-Unicorn!]

Yes indeed they did! Because the new fatigue 'did not get enough excitement', which is just a made-up requirement when they want something to fail - no-one is ever going to be EXCITED about new fatigue rules, which they never used in the first place, because of how gruesome they were.

They base acceptance on, mostly, survey feedback. While I think their threshold may be too high, it is not because they want something to fail. They just don’t want mess up something that has worked.

Personally I prefer the 2014 exhaustion to the playtest version so I hope it stays. But I agree that some time the requirement for passing has left interesting ideas in the cutting room floor. I just don’t think the new exhaustion mechanic was one of those