D&D (2024) New One D&D Playtest Document: 77 Pages, 7 Classes, & More!

There's a brand new playtest document for the new (version/edition/update) of Dungeons of Dragons available for download! This one is an enormous 77 pages and includes classes, spells, feats, and weapons.

Unearthed Arcana Playtest

Unearthed Arcana Playtest Materials Get Unearthed Arcana playtest content, try it out in your game, and provide feedback! Check back regularly for ...

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In this new Unearthed Arcana document for the 2024 Core Rulebooks, we explore material designed for the next version of the Player’s Handbook. This playtest document presents updated rules on seven classes: Bard, Cleric, Druid, Monk, Paladin, Ranger, and Rogue. This document also presents multiple subclasses for each of those classes, new Spells, revisions to existing Spells and Spell Lists, and several revised Feats. You will also find an updated rules glossary that supercedes the glossary of any previous playtest document.

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[tetrasodium]

Hmm. Each of the Giants modules has it, and at least the first to Descent Into The Depths Of The Earth series. More recently, Out Of The Abyss has opportunities for it at several points. Seems relevant to me. Did some particular part of the phrasing send your imagination jumping into other genres. I have far too many derailing points like that myself.

The "Enemy stronghold on alert" phrase you used describes a very unusual scenario to actually play through in d&d because it's not really a type of adventure that lends itself well to d&d's mechanics even if hypothetical "opportunities" play out. By contrast in shadowrun games it's a pretty common scenario that results from going loud with lots of mechanical structure to make it interesting and fun for both sides of the gm screen before and after the alarms start calling in security.

 

[Hussar]

How many SWAT teams stop mid raid at a terrorist hideout to have lunch?

The problem with short rests isn't that they are 5 minutes, 15 minutes, an hour, or the length of a Hollywood blockbuster, it's that they are assumed to be needed at all. D&D should be based on resources per long rest and short rests should give you a quick tidemeover until you can really rest, especially if you had a string of bad luck in earlier encounters (bad dice rolls, etc.)

A monk should have at least double the di points per day, but only get a few back on a short rest. A warlock should have additional spell slots (in reality, it should be a half-caster like packet 5, but I don't want to litigate that) and only recover some during a rest ala arcane recovery. A fighter should have multiple action surges and get only one back per day via short rest. Rogues and rangers and sorcerers should also get something back for short rests, (or able to swap something out like swap a spell or a weapon mastery). They way, if you need a short rest, you can go through the hassle of taking one but if the adventure at hand has a time limit, you aren't penalized for not taking it.

But I feel the only thing we're getting is some "recharge you abilities in 1 minute 1/day" and "use a spell slot to recharge" bandaids.

Well, I'm working from the presumption that short rest/2 step recovery is here to stay. I don't believe that they will be changing that any time soon. So, it's not really an issue for me.

The whole "Swat Team raid" idea is a very corner case scenario for D&D. It's pretty rare that you'd have a running battle with zero breaks that clears out an entire stronghold. Additionally, your SWAT team isn't 5 guys. It's a lot more than 5. But, D&D doesn't do that either. So the comparison is a bit suspect.

OTOH, I don't particularly disagree with your point. The counter point though is that you are adding a lot of tracking into the group. Each player now has to track if they've used that short rest recharge or not, throughout that adventering day, that, in real time, might be spread across a couple of weeks of play. How many Action Surges have I used? Did I recharge it last session? Oh, crap, I forgot to write it down... or did I? And, jeez, we didn't play last week because Dave and Julie were on holiday, so, it's been two weeks ... ah man...

The current two step, all or nothing, system does have simplicity going for it.

 

[Hussar]

The "Enemy stronghold on alert" phrase you used describes a very unusual scenario to actually play through in d&d because it's not really a type of adventure that lends itself well to d&d's mechanics even if hypothetical "opportunities" play out. By contrast in shadowrun games it's a pretty common scenario that results from going loud with lots of mechanical structure to make it interesting and fun for both sides of the gm screen before and after the alarms start calling in security.

I disagree.

Hoard of hte Dragon Queen has at least two "stronghold on alert" scenarios that I can think of right now. The Storm King's Thunder adventures often have that - or at least they did when we played them. In fact, IME, nearly every stronghold becomes an Enemy Stronghold on Alert pretty much ten minutes after the PC's arrive.

But, in any case, I don't think it's all that rare. It's pretty common in a lot of adventures. Ghosts of Saltmarsh has a couple of adventures like that. Dungeon of the Mad Mage has all sorts of regions that go on alert and have baddies start actively hunting and resisting the PC's.

I'm not sure why you seem to think it's all that rare.

 

[R_Chance]

It’s not insane for the party to do it, because the players know what the meta game of D&D 5e looks like. It’s insane for the characters to do it, because they don’t have that sort of knowledge and should be like “umm, we’re totally going to get eaten by some giant monster if we just hang around in this room for an hour”. That cognitive dissonance is the problem with the 1 hour short rest.

At what point in a typical dungeon, moving or not, are you not in danger of being eaten by a giant monster? That's kind of part of the definition of adventuring Seriously though, an hour short rest a couple times a day makes perfect sense. After a battle (or just a long tense time moving through dangerous places) you need to calm down / turn off the adrenaline, bandage minor cuts etc., re-adjust your armor and gear, drink / eat something, and discuss your next moves. Oh, and rest / meditate etc. An hour sounds adequate to do that. That gives you some time to recover. If you don't need to recover, you just push on until you do. And at the end of a long adventuring day, comes the long rest.

 

[tetrasodium]

I disagree.

Hoard of hte Dragon Queen has at least two "stronghold on alert" scenarios that I can think of right now. The Storm King's Thunder adventures often have that - or at least they did when we played them. In fact, IME, nearly every stronghold becomes an Enemy Stronghold on Alert pretty much ten minutes after the PC's arrive.

But, in any case, I don't think it's all that rare. It's pretty common in a lot of adventures. Ghosts of Saltmarsh has a couple of adventures like that. Dungeon of the Mad Mage has all sorts of regions that go on alert and have baddies start actively hunting and resisting the PC's.

I'm not sure why you seem to think it's all that rare.

That sounds like a tiny fraction of the HC itself. Rest and recovery rules can't be built primarily for supporting edge case adventures

 

[UngeheuerLich]

As if there should be something in addition to short rests:

Spend 1 min of catching breath and bandaging wounds:

Spend up to 1 quarter of your hit dice to regain as much HP.
Recharges when you roll initiative.

 

[Hussar]

That sounds like a tiny fraction of the HC itself. Rest and recovery rules can't be built primarily for supporting edge case adventure ms

Sorry, "HC"? Also, "adventure ms"?

I'm drawing a blank here.

My point is, I don't think it's edge case at all. The "alert enemy stronghold" is a pretty common adventure. Which means that 20 minutes, or 1 hour, short rests don't really matter. It's extremely difficult to get either. OTOH, outside of "alert enemy stronghold" the number of scenarios where you could rest for 20 minutes but not for 60 seem to be the outlier IMO.

 

[tetrasodium]

Sorry, "HC"? Also, "adventure ms"?

I'm drawing a blank here.

My point is, I don't think it's edge case at all. The "alert enemy stronghold" is a pretty common adventure. Which means that 20 minutes, or 1 hour, short rests don't really matter. It's extremely difficult to get either. OTOH, outside of "alert enemy stronghold" the number of scenarios where you could rest for 20 minutes but not for 60 seem to be the outlier IMO.

Hard Cover (adventure). The m was a typo and yes there is no meaningful difference between 20 and 60 minutes unless the goal is an unreasonable one of making it easier for a player to bristle when a gm says no or tries to interrupt a rest.

We probably have differing opinions on what counts as a "stronghold". Fortress or maybe militarized castle sure.. crypt tomb old shipwreck cave planar/ecological hell scape etc not so much. It's too easy for players to just shrug off an interruption and go back to the original "lets take a rest"till they complete it untill the patrols and wandering monsters evolve into ones creating a massively unwinnable rocks fall type matchup like the entire dungeon alin a single encounter or something.

 

[Ruin Explorer]

Why is it insane for the players to do it by RAW? The gm probably won't tpk the party or throw out the adventure declaring the bad guys up and left too often. Once you go beyond that the "middle of the dungeon" pretty much only needs to meet a bar of not imposing a DoT in order for the party to complete a rest provided they still exist an hour after the last patrol got stomped.

Question already answered by my post.

It's narratively/fictionally/in-character insane to stop for an hour. You're literally engaging in metagame thinking to defend it being an hour - that's demonstrating exactly the problem I described!

 

[Remathilis]

Well, I'm working from the presumption that short rest/2 step recovery is here to stay. I don't believe that they will be changing that any time soon. So, it's not really an issue for me.

The whole "Swat Team raid" idea is a very corner case scenario for D&D. It's pretty rare that you'd have a running battle with zero breaks that clears out an entire stronghold. Additionally, your SWAT team isn't 5 guys. It's a lot more than 5. But, D&D doesn't do that either. So the comparison is a bit suspect.

OTOH, I don't particularly disagree with your point. The counter point though is that you are adding a lot of tracking into the group. Each player now has to track if they've used that short rest recharge or not, throughout that adventering day, that, in real time, might be spread across a couple of weeks of play. How many Action Surges have I used? Did I recharge it last session? Oh, crap, I forgot to write it down... or did I? And, jeez, we didn't play last week because Dave and Julie were on holiday, so, it's been two weeks ... ah man...

The current two step, all or nothing, system does have simplicity going for it.

I am too. What I want is to have all classes have a reason to do them AND to mitigate the damage of not getting one.

I'm playing a sorcerer currently. IGDAF about short rests because I get nothing for them. No spells, no sorcery points no class features. Nothing. At 20th level, I get 4 sorcery points back on a SR, but that comes 10+ levels too late. So unless I'm hurting for HP, I don't care if we rest or not.

Contrast to a warlock I played prior. Because I didn't know if I would be able to get a rest in, I rarely cast my pact magic. All it was there for was bombs against boss monsters and a teleport escape spell if things went bad quickly. I ended up multi-classing into sorcerer just to use some utility magic.

The warlock sets the pace for requiring frequent rests. The wizard is okay to take one (once) and the sorcerer doesn't have a reason to take one. That's bad design because the friction of resting isn't solely between players and the environment, but between players themselves.

So if short rests are here to stay, the best thing would be to give every class enough of a reason to take one, but not so much that you can't afford to miss one. Goldilocks zone. I think that is a reasonable and achievable goal even given WotC's desire for backwards compatibility.