D&D (2024) New Survey Results | Druid & Paladin | Unearthed Arcana | D&D

WotC has shared a new video going over the survey results following the drud and paladin playtests for One D&D.

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For those who don't have time to watch the video, here are some general notes.

Paladin

• Did extremely well in terms of satisfaction
• All class and subclass features scored 70% or higher - lowest was Divine Smite at 72%
• Got some pushback in written feedback on being able to smite on ranged attacks - class identity concerns, Paladin viewed as melee-centric class, ranged smites might eat into Cleric/Ranger identity too much
• Positive feedback on redesigned smite spells - may become paladin exclusive spells down the road

Druid

• Wild Shape feedback seems to be split - slight majority saying "never want this Wild Shape in print", slight minority saying "this is their favorite version of Wild Shape they've ever seen"
• People love the texture and differences in beast options in '14 Wild Shape, but are open to feature being easier to use (i.e. don't want players to have to weigh the merits of 100+ stat blocks every time they want to use Wild Shape)
• Will have another take on Wild Shape next time Druid appears in Playtest UA
• General concept of Channel Nature seems to have gone over well, but want to see more done with it
• Expected feedback for restoring elemental forms for Moon Druids, but instead found people wanted to lean more into Lunar themes
• Want Moon Druid forms to be more resilient, but still want to reign in power at high levels (frequent/unlimited uses of Wild Shape constantly refreshing HP total)

 

[mellored]

Well... what makes a smite?

Extra damage when you hit with a weapon attack?
Extra RADIANT damage when you hit with a weapon attack?
Extra Damage when you hit with a weapon attack, with a mechanical rider effect?

IMO, it depends on the effects

Radiant Blinding someone would be divine smite.
Thunderous Teleportation would be arcane strike.
Tripping would be martial.

Obviously there will be overlap and fuzzy lines, but in general.

 

[fluffybunbunkittens]

Tripping would be martial.

If 'tripping' means 'hitting the ground so hard it makes someone fall down way over there'!

 

[Mistwell]

I want the druid wildshape to have a stated numerical power they can put into a wildshape and a long list of options to choose from to buy with those wildshape power points and combine into a creature they wildshape into. So for example you start with a baseline template and then if you have 6 wildshape power points, and you want darkvision (1), climbing speed (1), one natural attack (1), a second natural attack (2), and 40 speed rather than 30 (1), you craft your creature as that and then describe what you look like.

 

[Neonchameleon]

If I'm being honest, I think Eldritch Knights and other fighter/mages should get something like smite attacks because I think infusing weapons with magic for effects is just a smart, thematic thing for those sorts of archetypes.

Something like - but smites themselves feel non-arcane. The only type of damage I'd expect a fighter/mage to channel through their sword is electrical or possibly fire. Instead it would be more like spell bonus actions (either dazzling flashes or grabbing with shocking grasps et. al.) or actively enchanting their weapons magic weapon style or with ongoing elemental damage.

 

[Neonchameleon]

I do think that melee/strength based combat needs buffs, but I'd rather buff strength/melee up to the level of dex/ranged than do the opposite and nerf ranged/dex down.

Because either way, the full casters are laughing at both.

The thing here is what the warriors are missing isn't actually damage. If the fighter hit automatically and did a million damage per hit in melee they'd still be useless against someone they couldn't reach and do no more than a commoner in the social and exploration pillars.

 

[Justice and Rule]

Something like - but smites themselves feel non-arcane. The only type of damage I'd expect a fighter/mage to channel through their sword is electrical or possibly fire. Instead it would be more like spell bonus actions (either dazzling flashes or grabbing with shocking grasps et. al.) or actively enchanting their weapons magic weapon style or with ongoing elemental damage.

When I was making my Revised Fighter, my idea was to spend a spell slot to be able to switch between damage types like Electric, Fire, Cold, or Thunder. It was underdeveloped, but it was because that was the part of the class I focused on least.

 

[mellored]

If 'tripping' means 'hitting the ground so hard it makes someone fall down way over there'!

Sounds primal.

 

[Knight_Marshal]

The way to do wild shape is like this:
Keep the templates.
Create themed packages that you can apply one to a template.
If you want to become a tanky bear, add the package to the land template that gives extra AC and HP.

If you want to be a giant spider, add the package that gives a poison attack and the ranged grapple.

Any creature can be created this way.
You can also add the spider package to the air template and give people nightmares!

 

[The Myopic Sniper]

Maybe instead of "Hunter's Mark" for the Ranger, they should have "Nature's Smite" which would be a ranged version of Divine Smite with appropriate damage type for Rangers.

They should probably also port over Eldritch Smite as an invocation from Tasha's for the Warlock if they decide to keep them a half caster as well.

 

[tetrasodium]

The problem with Weapon Masteries is that they are... well, sloppy. Things that are going to be happening in a game like D&D where you can have a bunch of martials with 2 or 3 attacks every turn at higher levels. If you are going to attach them to weapons, the effects should be simple and automatic rather than forcing a die roll.

Even smarter than that, though, would be to just give martials maneuvers and have certain maneuvers restricted to certain kinds of weapons (Polearms, piercing, bludgeoning, light, dexterity-based attacks, etc). That way you have way more control over the balance of these things as well as how many are likely to be tossed out.

Agreed. It would be one thing if the masteries were in a game or for a class where the user had one attack or the entire attack & damage were part of a single opposed roll, but that's not d&d & certainly not 5e. With these we are going to have

• Alice: "I'm going to attack this thing with my greataxe... [d20 roll] does 12 plus 5 umm.. seventeen hit?"
• Bob watching: ...
• Dave: ...
• Cindy: ...
• GM: "Yea, give me damage"
• Alice: "[d12 roll]I reroll ones & twos because of [feasture] so [d12 roll]... eight plus five umm... 12 slashing... and it looks like my cleave should hit this other monster here so I get another attack right?
• GM: Yes
• Bob: ...
• Alice: "I'm going to attack this thing with my greataxe... [d20 roll] does 11 plus 5 umm.. sixteen hit?"
• Dave: ...
• Cindy: ...
• GM: "Yea, give me a damage roll"
• Alice: "[d12 roll]I reroll ones & twos because of [feasture] so [d12 roll]... eight plus five umm... 12 slashing... and it looks like my cleave should hit this other monster here so I get another attack right
• Dave: ...
• Cindy: ...
• Bob: ... blinkblink stare stare...
• GM: ... blinkblink stare stare... "cool Bob you're up"
• Alice: "Hold on, I still have more, I'm going to unequip my greataxe as part of that attack & as part of my next attack I'm going to draw my pike.. but before that I'm going to move between attacks because the attack action explicitly allows me to. I'm going to move here
• Dave: ...
• Cindy: ...
• GM: "You were making a second attack?"
• Bob: blinkblink stare stare...
• Alice: " yea does [d20 roll] 4 plus 5 umm nine hi
• Dave: ...
• Cindy: ...
• Bob: [Looks up from cell phone to mumble "Bardic inspiration!"]
• Alice: [more dice rolling]
• GM: Yea that hits.. give me damage
• Alice: "Cool [rolls dice & mumbles math] Looks like nine damage" blinkblink stare stare...
• GM: blinkblink stare stare... "It's still alive... bob you"
• Dave: ...
• Cindy: ...
• Alice: "Hold on I'm going to move here "
• GM: "ok Alice... is it bob's turn or do you have more?"
• Alice: "... ... No I'm.. wait no I'm going to bonus action second wind [rolls dice]"
• GM: "Dave you're up, monsters are still alive"
• Dave: ...
• Cindy: "[looks up from phone] Sorry bob, figure everyopne will want to know that I ordered a pizza, should be done about the time alice finishes her next turn"
• [timeskip through the turns of Bob &Dave]
• Cindy: "I cast web on this area, everything in it needs to make a DCxx dex save"
• GM: [rolls some dice] "looks like these two are webbed & this one saved"
• Cindy: "Portent, it rolled a 3"

Spoiler: Bob & dave's turn

Look at Alice's turn & maybe swap some weapon names to use different weapon properties, it's probably going to look similar between levels five and ten just before getting even longer for some of them at eleven.

The weapon mastery properties turn the majority of the classes* into 3.x style god wizard level interactions in the combat round but a good number of them get to do it in a start check progress stop check progress change direction restart staccato. Worse still It's the crunchier types on the upper end of the damage curve doing it rather than the robe wearing nerd trying to avoid being sniped by or poked at literally anything of any CR.

* Fighter barbarian ranger paladin maybe rogue maybe bard etc. Even if a martial class doesn't get a mastery by default they are too good to not make getting at least the main weapon choice's mastery property a charop priority