D&D (2024) One D&D Expert Classes Playtest Document Is Live

The One D&D Expert Class playest document is now available to download. You can access it by signing into your D&D Beyond account at the link below. It contains three classes -- bard, rogue, and ranger, along with three associated subclasses (College of Lore, Thief, and Hunter), plus a number of feats.

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[TwoSix]

They nerfed exhaustion. Now it's just a -1 to all rolls (and -1 to spell save DC) for every level of exhaustion, and you don't die until Exhaustion 10. That means exhaustion is actually usable now.

 

[Burnside]

Bards:

Using Bardic Inspiration is now a thing you do as a Reaction to somebody failing a D20 Test, as opposed to giving it as a Bonus action and hoping it's useful in the next ten minutes. This is a big upgrade, and I approve.
You can also expend Bardic Inspiration as a Reaction to HEAL people after they take damage. This might be OP tbh.

On the other hand, you have far fewer uses of Bardic Inspiration. It's now Proficiency Bonus times per Long Rest. That does balance it.

You don't get the Font of Inspiration ability until 7th level (used to be 5th). That's the ability that lets you recover Bardic Inspiration on a Short Rest instead of a Long one.

Bard spell list is considerably curtailed. They can only use Arcane magic, and only from the Divination, Enchantment, Illusion, or Transmutation schools.

However, they can now change up their prepared spells on a Long Rest from the entire Bard spell list, a la Clerics, Druids, Artificers, and Paladins.

So at Level 2 Bards get a thing called "Songs of Restoration". This adds a suite of 5 bonus spells to spells known (one at 2nd, 4th, 6th, 8th, and 10th levels). These include healing word, lesser restoration, and mass healing word.

Lore Bard is mostly unchanged but one HUGE change is that Additional Magic Secrets at 6th level is gone, replaced by Cunning Inspiration, which basically makes all your Bardic Inspiration dice roll with advantage. That is a way worse ability than Additional Magical Secrets.

Of note: cantrips (sometimes referred to a 0-level spells in this doc) can be switched out on Long Rests just like levelled spells.

Jumping down to the spell lists. One thing that immediately jumps out at me is that the Booming Blade and Green Flame Blade cantrips don't seem to exist.

Hex is accessible to Bards.

They also pick up a several good spells they didn't have before by virtue of having access to the Transmutation school, including Fly and Haste.

They lose Dimension Door though.

All in all I think this is a solid Bard. Power-wise it has some plusses and minuses over the current Bard. I don't think the Bard NEEDS this overhaul, but neither do I think it's a war crime. I do think the Lore Bard losing Magical Secrets is likely to cause some gnashing of teeth in the community, as that is a much beloved ability for them.

 

[Weiley31]

Also: Guidance is a Reaction now in this. So, it's pretty much Silvery Barbish.

 

[Bill Zebub]

LOL wth? That's a weird thing to make up.

I'm talking about the fact that they got SA on OAs and so on.

My favorite version of that was combined with Mage Slayer. But since that is also nerfed in this packet….

 

[Sacrosanct]

They nerfed exhaustion. Now it's just a -1 to all rolls (and -1 to spell save DC) for every level of exhaustion, and you don't die until Exhaustion 10. That means exhaustion is actually usable now.

That's disappointing, actually. Exhaustion was an excellent mechanic that supported the exploration pillar and made it important. Now it's not really a big deal at all.

 

[Mind of tempest]

I question why they seem to be nerfing rogue do they just want to go back to being a caster or suck time or have they done the math wrong?

 

[rooneg]

I get that everyone likes to beat on the Ranger, but I actually like this version quite a bit. The thing with Hunter's Mark is pretty clearly what they wanted to do with Tasha's version, the extra flexibility in spellcasting is a big deal (and I don't even like casting Rangers, but I have to admit it's a power boost), and Expertise is totally on brand for them. Everything here seems like a fine set of improvements over the PHB and Tasha's versions for me.

 

[TwoSix]

Oooh a rules perversity! You can go further in a round where you jump a 15' gap than one where you jump a 3' gap, because gaps less than 5' count as Difficult terrain, but no penalties are assessed for jumping big distances. Learn2makerules WotC. Come on.

Yea, but you can't make a 15' jump without spending an action, by my reading of it. So it's really equivalent more to Dash. And I don't think Jump+Move makes you go farther than Dash+Move.

The "don't worry about making Jumps for anything less than 5'" is a pretty nice feature. I tended to count minor obstacles like tables or fences as difficult terrain away, but nice to see it official.

 

[fluffybunbunkittens]

Omg, Charger is actually alright for a melee pick and Grappler is actually good for a grappler!

Mage Slayer is somehow worse, for such a specialized feat...

 

[ScuroNotte]

So what's the solution? "This class sucks" isn't exactly good feedback. Genuine question.

It doesn't seem that WoTC doesn't read the previous critiques when they presented alternatives to the ranger class. For example, Tireless is not for me but it is not a standalone feature. And they made the Hunter subclass much weaker than the PHB version. The Hunter class just needed bonus spells and another 3rd level feature. And the Rogue, which was already a strong class, they offer Subtle Strikes which is an overpowered Aim feature with no restrictions. I can offer many alternatives and some alternatives I have read on reddit are more rewarding than this class. The two tables I play on only use homebrew Rangers.