D&D 5E D&D New Edition Design Looks Soon?

WotC’s Ray Winninger has hinted on Twitter that we may be seeing something of the 2024 next edition of D&D soon — “you’ll get a first look at some of the new design work soon.”.

 

[TwoSix]

Level Up's Adept class is quite an adept re-imagining of the monk.

What you did there, I see it.

 

[Ruin Explorer]

the idea works the mechanics need an overhaul but we are getting that but it needs to be more iconic it needs to be able to stand alone without the copycat drow or the human for the lord of the rings. note I am building on your point not disagreeing.

Yeah and not just them, it needs to fit a multitude of characters/classes from across fiction and videogames. It's just incredibly common to see someone (sometimes an elf, often a woman) with a bow, wearing green or similar tones, often with an animal companion, and/or an ability to talk to animals, and they're not a Druid or someone super-mystical.

Give me a reason why they can't do that that isn't about fear or greed.

Define "greed".

I think the key reason WotC won't do that is the same reason they always immediately totally shut down the previous edition, which is that they're terrified of splitting their playerbase, and especially terrified (from experience!) that if they do, someone else will swoop in and do their "older" edition better than them (the OGL makes this easy to do, and 5E has the OGL), and grab that playerbase which they voluntarily split off.

Is that about "fear"? Absolutely. It is. Fear is what motivates them. So you want a reason not about fear/greed? Well, you want a fake reason. Because that's the real reason right there.

Something that's arguably "greed" factors in as well, because they're scared of losing a lot of money. And to them, even if say, only 10% of the players went with the "old edition" version, that'd be "a lot of money".

So what WotC are proposing to you is that they do a backwards-compatible 5.5/6E, and you can keep playing with your old, "Apology Edition" materials, but can also buy some of their new stuff. However they do want you to change, in that they're going to stop publishing copies of the old PHB and so on.

 

[Ruin Explorer]

Level Up's Adept class is quite an adept re-imagining of the monk.

From what I can see that does seem like movement in the correct direction, for sure. My feeling is WotC aren't going to do anything clever with Monk, sadly, not until they do a full edition with more limited backward compatibility.

 

[TwoSix]

To be fair, after the new PH comes out there will be very few un-updated races. I'm not sure how strong a consideration that is.

And if they want to include 1st level feats, they could reduce ASIs to +2 or two +1 to balance it.

My gut feeling is that "all of your old books will work with the new books" is going to be a selling point. I could be wrong there, and they certainly might break something even if that's their intent, but that's my hazy expectation at this early stage.

Granted, they could absolutely handle the few un-updated races with a paragraph or two, so maybe that's the most likely scenario.

 

[Micah Sweet]

Yeah and not just them, it needs to fit a multitude of characters/classes from across fiction and videogames. It's just incredibly common to see someone (sometimes an elf, often a woman) with a bow, wearing green or similar tones, often with an animal companion, and/or an ability to talk to animals, and they're not a Druid or someone super-mystical.

Define "greed".

I think the key reason WotC won't do that is the same reason they always immediately totally shut down the previous edition, which is that they're terrified of splitting their playerbase, and especially terrified (from experience!) that if they do, someone else will swoop in and do their "older" edition better than them (the OGL makes this easy to do, and 5E has the OGL), and grab that playerbase which they voluntarily split off.

Is that about "fear"? Absolutely. It is. Fear is what motivates them. So you want a reason not about fear/greed? Well, you want a fake reason. Because that's the real reason right there.

Something that's arguably "greed" factors in as well, because they're scared of losing a lot of money. And to them, even if say, only 10% of the players went with the "old edition" version, that'd be "a lot of money".

So what WotC are proposing to you is that they do a backwards-compatible 5.5/6E, and you can keep playing with your old, "Apology Edition" materials, but can also buy some of their new stuff. However they do want you to change, in that they're going to stop publishing copies of the old PHB and so on.

That's what I thought. Fear and greed (mostly fear). I just hope the new stuff can be separated out in some easily identifiable way, as WotC has decided this time not to do it for us.

 

[Ruin Explorer]

That's what I thought. Fear and greed (mostly fear).

I mean, that's free-market capitalism for you. There's a strong market incentive to limit competition, and actually WotC have been fairly daring in going against that with stuff like the OGL (doing the OGL again after being burned by it is, is actually kinda bold/confident, even if it's just because the GSL burned them worse), but at the same time their own actions with the OGL and so on mean they have more (at least semi-legitimate) fear that they might lose market share to a competitor.

 

[GMforPowergamers]

He man/ SHe ra just got new shows (okay months, a few years not like yesterday) both are warriors with powers.
Thor is getting a hit or miss movie, but it's full of mythological warrior ideas...

Spoiler: thor and heman

in both Thor love and thunder and the new He Man we get a big concept of 'power of friendship"
I will use the heman example assuming less people will be mad

He man used to just call down the power of greyskull and share it with his cat/mount... in the new show instead he shares it with friends/allies... instead of I have the power it is very much WE have the power...

I don't expect Batman or Captain America to be out of theaters for long (although who plays them will be in question to some)

Jon Wick I think still has another movie coming.

LotR has a new series coming on Amazon prime and I doubt we will see many wizards (and talking amazon I will be honest I have a 'the boyz' thread I am going to make soon)

Game of thrones is coming back with at least 1 show maybe 3 or 4.


I don't expect new Conan (I would love it though) but I do see these as things that may influence D&D going forward...

 

[Mind of tempest]

3e to 3.5 was 'back compatible' with a free pdf/print pamphlet at gencon.

However even if you started useing sword and fist or defenders of the faith... more and more you would find that complete warrior and later complete divine replaced them. It also showed that some Prestige Classes didn't get updated and if a DM let you use a 'not updated PC class' would be like useinf a UA today that has been abandoned or remade in a book... sure some will let it in but you shouldn't count on it.

man, that sounds horrible I hope we do not end up like that again.

also, the thread for my arcane halfcaster is up

 

[GMforPowergamers]

From what I can see that does seem like movement in the correct direction, for sure. My feeling is WotC aren't going to do anything clever with Monk, sadly, not until they do a full edition with more limited backward compatibility.

I think a unarmed combatant that can be a puglist/boxer, a street runner, and/or monk without making them all monks

 

[TwoSix]

I think a unarmed combatant that can be a puglist/boxer, a street runner, and/or monk without making them all monks

I'd argue that "unarmed combatant" is a broad enough archetype to support a class, and "Shaolin-style monk" could be a subclass of that.