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To help keep the discussion of the UA8 playtest packet organized, here is a thread for discussion of the revised Barbarian. To begin, here are my thoughts on some of the features: Rage: Maintaining rage as a bonus action was a good addition, and it's elegantly presented here. With the reduced...

On Earth, we know that species originate through evolutionary processes, including natural selection, mutation, and genetic drift. In D&D settings, one can make a wide range of assumptions about the degree to which this is true. So long as living things survive and reproduce at variable rates...

In discussions of D&D, I often see arguments based on the assumption of unambiguously real, universally acknowledged gods. While this framework certainly describes many settings, I don't think it's fair to take as given in a game played in as many different settings as D&D. I also think the...

Over the course of the One D&D playtest, a pattern has emerged where multiple weeks pass between the closing of one playtest and the opening of the next. Naturally, as someone who's excited to see new playtest content, I find this a bit frustrating. As I think about it more, though, it also...

WotC has posted a video discussing initial feedback on the One D&D Druid/Paladin playtest, along with survey results from the Expert playtest. Some highlights for discussion: Druid: The developers recognize that the template version of wild shape is contentious. If they retain this approach...

While it hasn't been transformed to the same extent as Wild Shape, the Paladin's smite mechanic still sees some noteworthy changes in the recent playtest packet. I think it would be helpful to have a discussion thread focused on these changes and have included some of my thoughts as a starting...

The One D&D playtest puts forward shared Arcane, Divine and Primal spell lists as replacements for unique class-based lists. I think this is a change with significant costs. Unique spell lists are arguably the biggest factor distinguishing spellcasting classes from one another, so removing them...

In the UAs so far, there are essentially 3 categories of feats, 1st level, 4th level and epic boons. Putting aside the epic boons, it seems like the key distinction between 1st and 4th level feats is that the latter have built in ability score increases. Without those ASIs, I feel like these...

In D&D, most classes have traditionally been associated with specific ability scores. Fighters tend to have high Strength, Wizards high Intelligence, and so forth. In 5e, conforming to these associations is usually key to building a character who will be effective in combat. For most classes...

The Character Origins playtest reworks the Healer feat from one oriented exclusively towards nonmagical healing into one that also benefits healing spells. I think that this is a mistake and that the game would be better served by having separate feats focused on these two goals. While the...

The new Unearthed Arcana previews the idea of feat levels. With only level 1 feats presented so far, it's hard to know what this system will ultimately look like. I am worried, though, that this change will constrain character customization options. This seems most apparent at first level- while...

One of the most discussed features of the new playtest document is that it shifts level 1 ASIs from race/ancestry to background. This follows the change in Tasha's from fixed to floating ASI. Personally, think that getting rid of fixed racial ASIs is generally a good change, and I think that if...

One of the quality of life improvements mentioned in the Future of D&D panel is adjusting the alphabetical organization of the monster manual. A Goristro, for instance, would be listed under G for Goristro rather than under D for Demon. This might also mean interspersing beast and NPC statblocks...

I’m curious as to how common it is for NPCs in various campaigns to be built using the classes presented in the Player’s Handbook. This question ties into both world building (How special is a 1st level character?) and game prep (Is putting together stats for NPCs a worthwhile use of time? Do...

I’ve been looking at the Conjuration subclass, and it seems odd to me that Wizards can’t learn any creature summoning spells (with the exception of Find Familiar) until they gain access to 4th level spells. I understand that there are other types of conjuration spells, and that conjurers are...