D&D (2024) Jeremy Crawford Gives an Overview of the New Unearthed Arcana

The upcoming Unearthed Arcana playtest packet for One D&D gets a preview from WotC's Jeremy Crawford. This is apparently the largest of these playtest packets so far, and the biggest Unearthed Arcana they have ever done, at 50 pages long.

It contains 5 classes, new spells, new feats, a revised rules glossary, and the new weapon mastery system.

​

 

[FitzTheRuke]

but that is what a few of us have been saying. It’s not player side backwards compatibility it’s adventure and DM side.

It sounds like they are saying that outright

Well, only because of insisting that it's not backwards compatible if one has to follow any conversion whatsoever, no matter how minor. AND that it's not backwards compatible even if you can play a fully-2014 made character at the same table as a fully-2024 made character.

For some, that's still backwards compatible (or at least, backwards compatible ENOUGH). For others, that's "AHA! They are LYING about compatibility!". (And others in-between!)

 

[FitzTheRuke]

I dint like the feat option to give everyone some weapon mastery.

Why not? (I mean, I'm not sure that it will be "worth" a feat, but you never know).

 

[Mirrorrorrim]

I dint like the feat option to give everyone some weapon mastery.

Do you like the Magic Initiate feat option that gives non-spellcasters access to spells?

 

[ChameleonX]

My guess is monks will have stances which will allow them to apply different mastery traits to unarmed attacks. So say the Savage Whirling Monkey Stance will allow them to apply cleave while the Iron Mountain Ox will allow them to apply push. Names totally my invention, though there SHOULD be a stance called Savage Whirling Monkey.

This. This should definitely be a thing.

 

[Erandeni]

My guess is monks will have stances which will allow them to apply different mastery traits to unarmed attacks. So say the Savage Whirling Monkey Stance will allow them to apply cleave while the Iron Mountain Ox will allow them to apply push. Names totally my invention, though there SHOULD be a stance called Savage Whirling Monkey.

I though about that too, would be fun, if a bit too similar to fighters imo

 

[HammerMan]

Well, only because of insisting that it's not backwards compatible if one has to follow any conversion whatsoever, no matter how minor. AND that it's not backwards compatible even if you can play a fully-2014 made character at the same table as a fully-2024 made character.

For some, that's still backwards compatible (or at least, backwards compatible ENOUGH). For others, that's "AHA! They are LYING about compatibility!". (And others in-between!)

I don’t think they are lying. I think people on these boards take what they say and pretend it’s going to be fully player and DM compatible when they KEEP saying it’s for adventures not for the PHB.

And it’s not “any” adjustment it’s that we keep seeing new player rules and status effects and even huge rule swaps.

 

[Kinematics]

I dint like the feat option to give everyone some weapon mastery.

Why would this be different to Magic Initiate (can use magic), or Martial Adept (can use Battlemaster maneuvers), or Metamagic Adept (can use sorcerer's metamagic)? Level Up also has a feat for combat maneuvers.

 

[ZetaShift]

I think that's likely it. I think that they released the Druid to see what people thought of the general direction (Fixed statblocks) and weren't ready for the pushback on the execution, which they weren't all that worried about. (It's not the final Druid! Don't panic!)

But they've realized, in this day and age, Panic is the new cool. So, in spite of being very specifically PLAYTESTS, they have to be closer to "ready for prime-time" than they otherwise would be, or the true feedback is going to get lost in the "noise".

That, and they've got to be extra careful right now to not give fuel to any hate-fire.

Tbf Concepts let you know of the direction they intend to make of the class, and the concept just wasn't good. They should include samples of what else could've happened for the class if they had more to it.

 

[FitzTheRuke]

And it’s not “any” adjustment it’s that we keep seeing new player rules and status effects and even huge rule swaps.

Have you managed to actually playtest any of it? I'm playing with everything released so far in multiple games, and you HAVE to mix-and-match to be able to do THAT, and it works fine. I don't see why it would suddenly get harder to do when there's more of it, guidelines on how to do it, and a pass taken to smooth out the rough bits (as is spoken of in this video). It ought to work fine.

 

[FitzTheRuke]

Tbf Concepts let you know of the direction they intend to make of the class, and the concept just wasn't good. They should include samples of what else could've happened for the class if they had more to it.

That would be a MUCH better way of playtesting, IMO. If you released like three versions of a class at a time and asked, "Which is Best?"

That would be awesome. Too bad it's not at all how they do it.