What do you miss from the D&D Next playtest?

[CubicsRube]

I wasn't in the Forgotten Realms of Gaming when the D&D Next playtest was zooming around.

Is there something that was in the playtest you liked and it got cut? What was it?

I heard that all fighters orginially used superiority dice, which sounds interesting. How did that work, and how did the subclasses work?

 

[AmerginLiath]

While a small thing, I liked the original version where Skills were by default not set to particular Attributes (and DMs were given more latitude to create new skills or let players find odd corner cases to use skills with various attributes). It seems like a small thing, but it (alongside the new Saves) helped build a system where players/characters would more likely spread out their stats differently rather than optimize choices off of a single stat — or at least have single-stat characters become more skilled (and thus more useful in different facets of the game), just using those skills in different ways.

 

[Tales and Chronicles]

I think the Sorcerer were something else entirely in the playtest, like something were the more you cast spells, the less ''control'' you add over the magic of your origin and it warped your body. Like the dragon sorcerer would grow scales, claws and wings the more you spent slots.

 

[Wulffolk]

That sounds like an interesting way to distinguish Sorcerers from Wizards and Warlocks

 

[Mouseferatu]

Agreed. I didn't see the playtest sorcerer myself, but from what I've heard, it would've been more interesting than what we got. (The sorcerer is one of the few 5E classes I'm truly "meh" on.)

Wasn't there something substantially different about warlocks, too?

 

[CubicsRube]

That sorceror sounds interesting. I would have loved a charact er that was slowly turning into a dragon. How awesome a capstone would that be?

 

[ccs]

(and DMs were given more latitude to create new skills or let players find odd corner cases to use skills with various attributes).

You already have that latitude. And more. You were granted this infinite power back in '74.

As for something I miss? Whatever the Sorcerer was. It had to be more interesting than what we ended up with.

 

[Tales and Chronicles]

Just found some of the old playtest package. The sorcerer actually had:
- d8 HP
- Slow spellcasting (in 5e it would be half-caster)
- Used Willpower point: you depleted Willpower points to pay for spells.
- Sorcerous powers: At lvl1, after spending at least 3 WP in its day, the Dragon sorcerer would grow claws till its next long rest. At lvl 1 the sorcerer also has spell-like abilities that he fuels with its WP ( 1 WP for Dragon Strength), at higher level gains more spell-ike abilities and ''mutations by willpower depletion''.

Very interesting.

 

[Raith5]

From what I can remember the alternative skill system looked really different from previous editions and interesting, but I really did like way the early DND Next system gave all fighters maneuvers and martial dice as a core feature of the class. I think this appeared to give the class a distinct sense of being different type of martial actor than the other classes.

 

[Shiroiken]

There were many different packets, each with different things. IMO the best packet was the second one, where fighters and rogues got skill dice, wizards were still Vancian (instead of spell slots, prepared spells were lost when cast, and you could prepare the same spell multiple times), and the cleric was the type of caster we have now. The rogue's skill dice were useful for doing skill stuff, and sneak attack (which was badly done), and the fighter had combat maneuvers. Sub-classes weren't a thing, since the dice maneuvers and spells allowed a lot of customization. The skills had a skill point system that was interesting, but I think the proficiency system is overall better.

One of the later packets got rid of skills, except for various lore skills. While the method of using the lore skills was crap, I actually like the idea of those lore skills. I tried to incorporate them in as a houserule, but they needed to match up to the tool proficiency, as they were much less useful than full skills. With the expansion of tool use in XGtE, I think I'll fold them into various existing tools and skill, but I'll probably have to add a few tools to fill in a few things.

Oh, and another packet (don't remember which one) you got +1 to an ability score from your race and +1 from your class. This allowed a bit more flexibility in making characters, since you would always get +1 to a primary ability for the class (fighter got +1 Con, IIRC).