D&D (2024) WotC Fireside Chat: Revised 2024 Player’s Handbook

In this video about the upcoming revised Player’s Handnook, WotC’s Jeremy Crawford and Chris Perkins reveal a few new tidbits.

• The books are near final and almost ready to go to print
• Psionic subclasses such as the Soulknife and Psi Warrior will appear in the core books
• Named spells have art depicting their creators.
• There are new species in the PHB.

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[Yaarel]

So... are you opposed to the Sorcerer (Aberrant Mind) and Warlock (GOO) being primary representatives of psionic casters? How important is it that the "Psion" needs a completely different core class spellcasting mechanic? Are the themes not generic enough?

The Goo Warlock and Aberrant Sorcerer are too squick, too Aberration Farrealms to represent an actual Psion flavor or a Psion class. Its power is too external.

At least the Psi War has good innate flavor − ones own mind − that I prefer.

Do people still think that Psionic powers should be based on Intelligence? I don't think so. It makes sense to me that a "psionic" caster is Charisma-based, which is force of will and influence over self and the world, rather than Intelligence-based, which primarily represents memory and reason.

Psion should be a choice of any mental ability: Intelligence, Wisdom, or Charisma, you choose.

 

[Yaarel]

Yes! My entire beef with this whole concept is that they could have added a ton of new material, and yet chose not to.

The 2024 designers wanted to add much more, but the player feedback prevented them.

The fan base seems unready for meaningful change at this time.

At least, psionic is finally officially core.

 

[EzekielRaiden]

I agree with you here, but they are not obliged to be scientifically rigorous. Their motive is generating sales, and I presume they got the sort of information they wanted or could deal with, given corporate variables we don't have access to. Sure, they could have been more transparent about how they would use data, etc., but they aren't obliged to.

The fan base spoke clearly, throughout the playtest, on almost every substantial innovation they proposed. The conservatism ran deep. We cannot absolve ourselves.

I still say that it was already but a trace in the beginning, the highly motivated few, and now the entire population of people who were sampled back in 2011-2014 occupy at best 20% of the fanbase in total, meaning it's a mere ~10% of extant players dictating what the other 90% are allowed to see. It's not a majority. The majority is mostly silent--because they aren't even aware there's a playtest.

 

[Thommy H-H]

OK then, proper rules for object/structural hit points. "Make something up" for things like walls is not sufficient, particularly when you have things like earthquake and druids turning into earth elementals who are specifically good at smashing these sorts of things. And introducing something like "damage threshold" without giving numbers should be considered dereliction of duty.

Yeah, fair point. They don't even include the walking speed for goalposts in those tables.

 

[Neonchameleon]

The 2024 designers wanted to add much more, but the player feedback prevented them.

The 2024 designers on occasion tried to subtract with things like the half-assed half-casting warlock. And player feedback prevented it. And when they tried to add things like the brawler they were just not well done. Just because an idea is new doesn't mean that it's good.

 

[Yaarel]

We don’t know the final count yet, but the ones that were in the Unearthed Arcana playtests were:

Barbarian:
• Berserker
• Wild Heart (formerly called Totem Warrior)
• World Tree (new, does teleportation and plant growth stuff)
• Zealot

Bard:
• Dance (new, focused on unarmed fighting)
• Lore
• Valor
• Glamor

Cleric:
• Life
• Light
• Trickery
• War

Druid:
• Land
• Moon
• Sea (new, focused on aquatic themed stuff)
• Stars

Fighter:
• Battlemaster
• Brawler (was new, focused on unarmed fighting, confirmed to have been cut)
• Champion
• Eldritch Knight
• Psi Warrior (confirmed in the video being discussed)

Monk:
• Elements
• Hand (formerly called Open Hand)
• Mercy
• Shadow

Paladin:
• Ancients
• Devotion
• Glory
• Vengeance

Ranger:
• Beastmaster
• Fey Wanderer
• Gloomstalker
• Hunter

Rogue:
• Arcane Trickster
• Assassin
• Swashbuckler
• Thief
• Psi Knife (confirmed in the linked video; speculated one of the others might be cut to make room for it, since we previously thought each class would be getting 4 subclasses and this would add up to 5)

Sorcerer:
• Aberrant Mind
• Clockwork Soul
• Draconic Ancestry
• Wild Magic

Warlock:
• Archfiend
• Celestial
• Fey
• Great Old One

Wizard
• Abjurer
• Diviner
• Evoker
• Illusionist
• At one point, Jeremy Crawford “confirmed” Necromancer but later walked it back. Speculated Necromancer might show up in the DMG like how the Death Cleric and Oathbreaker Paladin did in the 2014 DMG.

If Necromancer goes into the DMs Guide for "Evil" subclasses, maybe the Assassin Rogue will too?

Then that would be four Rogue subclasses: Knife, Swash, Thief, Trickster

 

[MichaelSomething]

I still say that it was already but a trace in the beginning, the highly motivated few, and now the entire population of people who were sampled back in 2011-2014 occupy at best 20% of the fanbase in total, meaning it's a mere ~10% of extant players dictating what the other 90% are allowed to see. It's not a majority. The majority is mostly silent--because they aren't even aware there's a playtest.

As it should be. We, as the fan base of before, have the honor and duty of preserving the essence of D&D so that future generations of players can experience the game the way it was meant to be played.

 

[Yaarel]

The UA descriptions make it seem that Elves are the opposite of Tieflings. The Elves are Celestial expatriots from CG Arborea, whence counterparts of the Tieflings as Fiend expatriots from LE Hell.

Perhaps the Genasi make it into the Players Handbook. They are notably popular. If so, I hope they are overtly Elemental, with forms that are at least sometimes solid, liquid, gas, and plasma.

 

[Kobold Stew]

I still say that it was already but a trace in the beginning, the highly motivated few, and now the entire population of people who were sampled back in 2011-2014 occupy at best 20% of the fanbase in total, meaning it's a mere ~10% of extant players dictating what the other 90% are allowed to see. It's not a majority. The majority is mostly silent--because they aren't even aware there's a playtest.

Fair enough -- not a majority but an engaged and vocal minority. My point is that it happened enough times that the message being sent was clear, and we (the posters on this board, and the engaged fanbase generally) are complicit.

Squeaky wheels get the grease, and the public, consultative process will defer to loud voices.

 

[Veltharis ap Rylix]

The Goo Warlock and Aberrant Sorcerer are too squick, too Aberration Farrealms to represent an actual Psion flavor or a Psion class. Its power is too external.

At least the Psi War has good innate flavor − ones own mind − that I prefer.

For what it's worth, I believe they've said the Aberrant Mind Sorcerer is going to be rebranded as the "Psionic Soul" Sorcerer in the '24PHB, so chances are pretty good that the Far Realm/Aberration flavoring of the subclass is going to be significantly more optional than it was as portrayed in Tasha's.