D&D (2024) First playtest thread! One D&D Character Origins.

[Zaukrie]

Tremorsense and other things....seem kind of backgroundy to me. Some of the cantrips also. I'm clearly not in the majority here, but I'm unsure yet how I feel about the various racial traits.

 

[Cadence]

Yes the are. They are calling it D&D One.

That name strikes me as the absolute worst thing about it.

 

[dave2008]

Tremorsense and other things....seem kind of backgroundy to me. Some of the cantrips also. I'm clearly not in the majority here, but I'm unsure yet how I feel about the various racial traits.

Well that is why this is a playtest. Take the survey on 9/1!

 

[Faolyn]

It feels weird not to have half-elves or half-orcs, but I figured this was going to happen (see PF2e note above).

I'm not happy about the half-whatevers at all. I like how Level Up does it: one heritage's traits and another heritage's gifts. For this edition, I'd put an asterisk next to certain racial traits and let you swap one for another race's asterisked trait (with the idea that the asterisked traits are all of "equal value").

I HATE the Lineages of Gnomes and Elves. HATE. As of Spelljammer, we have seven types of elves (high, wood, drow, shadar-kai, eladrin, sea, and astral). Four of them are separate races with semi-unique mechanics, and three are options of a generic "elf" race that is only differentiated by the spells and cantrips they gain. Ugly, bad, No! Make High elf, Wood elf, and (especially) drow unique separate races like sea, eladrin, shadar-kai and astral elves are. Give wood elves and high elves something more interesting than bonus spells. And for the Love of Corellon, don't give High Elves Misty Step when we already have THREE other teleporting elves! Bad, Lazy, No!
Gnomes are just the same: sub-races without using that word. Either make both gnomes separate "races" like the deep gnome OR blend them into one race equal parts tinker and forest fey.

I would actually go in a different direction. Have elves. The end. Drow, wood elves, high elves, whatever... all different cultures. Just let the player pick if they want dancing lights, prestidigitation, or druidcraft. Ditto for gnomes. Let them choose the cantrip and pick from speak with animals and a new 1st-level spell with a 1 gp material component that create a clockwork toy.

If new elf subraces come into play, then just give a brief description and say "add cantrip name to the list of spells you can choose when you decide to play an elf."

I'm not sure how I like the crit-rules. I'm likewise ambivalent about the nat 20/1 on saves/skills, but they don't kill the game. I also like inspiration being more accessible because most of the time, I forget to award it and my PCs forget to use it.

At my table, we allow up to three inspiration at a time. At the end of each game, the DM gives one inspiration and then the players, as a group, award one inspiration to a different player.

Eldritch Blast not on the Arcane List means its either 1.) Not in the game (unlikely) 2.) Warlock exlcusive and not cherry-pickable or 3.) no longer a spell but a class feature. My money's on 2.

I'm actually kind of upset they didn't create an eldritch spell list, like how PF2 has an occult spell list.

 

[dave2008]

That name strikes me as the absolute worst thing about it.

I mean, just like 5th edition, they will simply refer to it as Dungeons and Dragons on the books, etc. I can't believe people are getting so worked up over what it is called.

 

[darjr]

Yes the are. They are calling it D&D One.

That’s just the code name for the playtest. Isn’t it?

 

[cbwjm]

I

Dragonborn were fine in Fizban. This feels like a step back, but I haven't run the math to see if and how badly...

I skimmed past dragonborn because I thought they were the same, not sure how I feel about this change and think I prefer the replace an attack version of Fizban's. I really don't think they need to Revise dragonborn again.

 

[Sir Brennen]

Tremorsense and other things....seem kind of backgroundy to me. Some of the cantrips also. I'm clearly not in the majority here, but I'm unsure yet how I feel about the various racial traits.

Tremorsense seems like a reasonable "all dwarves have this semi-magical ability" to me, but Forge Wise definitely feels like a cultural thing that could vary by individual.

 

[darjr]

I may be wrong about the D&D one name.

 

[dave2008]

That’s just the code name for the playtest.

Yes, its seems more the code name for the 3 pillars going forward. They will just call it D&D on all the books, etc.