D&D 5E New playtest packet available.

[beej]

I thought that was cha as a bonus to ac for chain mail bikinis

Naw man, everybody knows that con is the stat for working out for those chiselled abs and those voluptuous figures. How else would you explain all those 3.5 Conan clones with Charisma 8?

 

[FireLance]

Iron hide is basically a justification for Chainmail Bikinis and Loincloths of Steel, that many Barbarians seem to have.

Hopefully, we won't get any virulent "5e is sacrificing simulation/logic/real-world physics for balance" posts.

 

[GX.Sigma]

Anyone think it's kinda weird how this Barbarian is weak to magic? Didn't old-school Barbarians have magic resistance?

Anyone managed to find the new exploration rules?

Warder

Negatory. It got me all excited, too.

Anyone else disappointed that so much of the stuff discussed in the Google hangout (weapon dice as martial damage dice, etc.) didn't make it in?

I think they're going to wait until they analyze the feedback from the last packet before they make big changes like that. This was only a minor update.

 

[babomb]

Anyone managed to find the new exploration rules?

Warder

There are a lot of very minor wording changes. On the first page alone,

• "in Dungeons & Dragons" -> "in the Dungeons & Dragons game"
• "feel free to use" -> "you can use"
• "directed at a player" -> "directed at an individual player"
• "wish to do"->"want to do"
• "refer to the ability"->"note the relevant ability"
• "Some bonuses and penalties apply to all checks made with a particular ability. Others apply only under certain circumstances." was deleted
• "suffer a setback as determined by the DM."->"suffer a setback."
• "a contest pits two characters...with success determined"->"a contest pits two or more characters...with the outcome determined"

Throughout the document, they have changed all references to checks "opposed by" or "against" another creature's check to checks "contested by" a creature's check, changed many instances of plurals (e.g., "spells or other effects") to singulars ("a spell or other effect"), changed many "and"s to "or"s (e.g., "bonuses and penalties" to "bonuses or penalties"), and "modifier"s to "ability modifier"s.

For the remainder of the document, I'll skip listing most of the really minor wording changes:

• p. 2: The last paragraph under "Resolving a contest" (an example of a tie in a contest to hide from another creature) was added. (See also change made to the stealth section on page 8.)
• p. 2 Under "Making a Saving Throw", "Some bonuses and penalties apply to all checks made with a particular ability. Others apply only under certain circumstances" was deleted (again).
• pp. 3-4 under "Strength", "break free of a grapple or bindings" was moved from an example of a saving throw to an example of a check.
• p. 4 under "Dexterity", "wriggle free from a grapple" was moved from an example of a saving throw to an example of a check (and also reworded to "squirm free of a grapple").
• p. 7 under "Time", sub-sub-section "Minutes:" added "Some tasks that don't take a lot of time are best measured in minutes."
• p. 8 under "Jump", final paragraph changed from "In either case, you can extend your arms half your height above you" to "Whether you walk before making a high jump or not, you can extend your arms half your height above you during the jump. Thus, you can reach above you a distance equal to the height of the jump plus 1.5 times your height."
• p. 8 under "Stealth", this paragraph was removed, "Ties are a special case in this contest. If a creature is already aware of you before the contest, you fail to hide. If he was not aware of you, you remain hidden in the case of a tie." (See page 2, where a stealth contest was added as an example.)
• pp. 8-9 under "Conditions for Stealth", this text has been significantly reformatted, along with some minor wording changes. The sub-sub-section titled "Stay out of sight." was originally part of the previous paragraph. The text starting with "An environmental phenomenon" was originally a sub-sub-section titled "Obscured Areas". The phrases "heavily obscured" and "lightly obscured" have been set as bold. The sentence starting with "Some monsters and characters have" was previously before the one starting with "A lightly obscured area". A sub-sub-section titled "Being Detected" was removed.
• p. 9 the entire subsection under "Benefits of Being Hidden" has been reformatted and significantly reworded, although the meaning hasn't really changed. "You cannot be targeted by a creature..." was previously "Cannot Be Targeted: A creature from which you are hidden cannot target you..." and "You have advantage on the attack roll..." was "Advantage on Attacks: When you attack a creature...".
• p. 9 under "Perception", the paragraph starting "The line between using Wisdom or Intelligence" has been reworded. Most notably "because it's more about general awareness than it is about attention to detail" was added, "As a rule, if you're not positive that Intelligence is the right choice, then Wisdom is the ability to use" was added, and references to the Search, Listen and Spot skills were removed.
• p. 11 under "The Round", the first sentence of the second paragraph was removed ("The beginning and end of a round seldom matter in the game.").
• p. 11, as noted resolving ties for initiative no longer involves comparing Dexterity scores.
• p. 12 under "Actions in Combat", a sentence was removed ("During most rounds you might attack with a sword, fire a bow, cast a spell, and so forth.")
• p. 17 under "Healing", "after the healing" was added to the end of the last sentence.
• p. 19 in under "Experimental Rule 1: Rests", in the text describing long rests "plus an additional number of hit points equal to your Constitution score" was changed to "plus an additional number of hit points equal to your Constitution score at the end of the rest" (emphasis mine).
• p. 20 under "Invisible", as noted invisible creatures have advantage on attacks. Also, the text "without the aid of magic or a special sense" was added after "impossible to see".
• p. 20 under "Prone", the sentence starting with "Any ranged attack" was separated into its own bullet.
• p. 21 under "Magic", the first three sentences of the first paragraph were removed. They were replaced with a single sentence that was moved from the first paragraph in the "Casting a Spell" sub-section and slightly reworded.
• pp. 22-23 under "Areas of Effect", the sentence specifying whether the point of origin is included in the area of effect or not has been moved to the end of each sub-sub-section as a new paragraph if it wasn't there already.
• p. 22 under "Cylinder", the text has been expanded, and a large portion has been rewritten. It seems to amount to the same thing, though, and I'm not sure what it's intended to clarify.
• p. 23 under "Sphere", the sphere "extends outward" from the point of origin, rather than "explodes outward".
• p. 24 under "Combining Magical Effects", this section previously had two sub-sections, "Stacking", and "Order of Effects". The text that was under "Stacking" has been retained as the second paragraph of the section, but the text under "Order of Effects" has been deleted. It read, "When determining the effects of multiple spells, apply the first spell cast on a creature first, then the second one, and so forth."

Hope that helps!

 

[Szatany]

Iron hide? "Such heroic nonsense."

Ha! I see what you did there

 

[Bluenose]

I haven't been playtesting for a while, so I may be missing something that arises during play.

But ... isn't the Barbarian just directly better than the Fighter right now?

-O

Also if taken literally very silly, as they can heal themselves by beating up the wall or the ceiling while raging. "Checking it's not a mimic." That's my excuse, and I'm sticking to it.

At least at 1st level I don't think the Fighter has a chance. Rage gives advantages, roughly equivalent mathematically to +4 to hit; half damage from slashing/bludgeoning/piercing is better than average damage mitigation of 3.5 from 1d6 Parry if the enemies do 8 damage or more, and if they don't then they probably can't win anyway. There has to be an error with Rage, you get advantage on all attacks while in it without granting advantage in return. I'm sure it should work like Reckless Attack, where you gain advantage but grant it too, but that's not what the rules say and they're what we're supposed to playtest.

 

[Blackwarder]

There are a lot of very minor wording changes. On the first page alone,

snip...

Hope that helps!

Thats cool man but non of this can be mistaken for "Rules for a new system for exploration."

Warder

 

[Li Shenron]

It's clearly the same as the previous package, plus the Barbarian class and a couple of minor fixes.

They probably don't have the new real update ready yet, but just had to release the Barbarian class after Winter Fantasy, otherwise someone would have certainly managed to post it on the web anyway.

OTOH this also means that the next real update is not faraway, a few weeks I guess.

 

[TarionzCousin]

Some of the changes were noted in the "Read First" document, such as Invisibility.

Invisibility.
An invisible creature now has advantage on its attack rolls.

 

[Dice4Hire]

Well, I ahve heard the new Encounters season offers the option of playing it with 5E, so maybe soon?