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

[Kobold Stew]

Lucky's had the actually obnoxious part of it removed. The original text is below.

You have 3 luck points. Whenever you make an attack roll, an ability check, or a saving throw, you can spend one luck point to roll an additional d20. You can choose to spend one of your luck points after you roll the die, but before the outcome is determined. You choose which of the d20s is used for the attack roll, ability check, or saving throw.​

This got seriously OP when you were making a check with disadvantage or facing an attack with advantage. If you made a check/attack with disadvantage and then used Lucky you could pick any of the three dice, turning Disadvantage into Super-Advantage. Worse than that if you rolled a 20 and something else with Disadvantage you could see that 20, trigger lucky, and turn it into a crit no matter what you rolled on the extra dice.

New Lucky can't be used unless you're simply rolling 1d20 and can't be used for auto-crits. It's a non-trivial nerf and 5-8 Lucky isn't functionally the same.

In 2015 Crawford identified that reading as a potential problem. In my view, they've fixed it, not nerfed a contorted reading.

 

[dave2008]

My degree of disappointment in this playtest material cannot be expressed in words.

Really, I love the new build-a-background guidelines and moving the ASI to backgrounds too. I also like the concept of giving races cool abilities, like inspiration for humans and tremorsense for dwarfs. I'm mixed on the crit changes for myself, but I think it is overall a good idea. I like the slowed condition and magic sources. I'm not sure about the feat changes yet (leveled) and what means going forward, but interested to see where it goes. That's just off the top of my hear after a quick read.

 

[OB1]

Specifically, nat 1s and 20s auto fail and auto succeed on ability checks and saves now as well as on attack rolls (which they rightly pointed out a lot of people would probably be surprised to learn isn’t how it already works), and they’re changing critical hits to only be on weapon attacks (and unarmed strikes) that PCs make; monsters can’t crit, and spells can’t crit. Also, the wording on crits makes it explicitly only double the weapon’s damage dice, so assuming sneak attack and smite and the like work the same way, we can assume those wouldn’t double on a crit. The common theme here seems to be trying to curtail the balancing issues crits cause.

In the video they stressed very hard that this is “just an experiment.” Which tells me they are braced for the very likely backlash against this change and are fully prepared to drop it.

I would guess that the revised classes like Rogue and Paladin, as well as monsters, will have additional effects that still key off a nat 20 (specific beats general). That said, that may be the only real DPR nerf to some 2014 built characters playing next to 2024 characters, since the 2014 PCs won't have the exception in their rules (unless there is another general exception that if you are using 2014 class builds, they retain their double all dice crits). Everything else just seems to be a new way to build to the same math so far. If you are playing new adventures with an entire party in the 2014 rule set, you probably won't notice the difference.

So yeah, I'd call this fully compatible in my book. Can't wait to see what comes next.

 

[Demetrios1453]

I'm on the fence about whether or not to buy new books, but I a new version would be a very hard sell for everyone else in my gaming group. They still give me grief over "forcing" them to buy Pathfinder in 2012, and 5th Edition PHBs back in 2015...I imagine telling them that we are changing editions again time will go over like a lead balloon...

I mean, by that point it will nearly have been 10 years. I understand not wanting to re-buy things, but I'm sure most of them will have replaced dozens of far more expensive items in that time frame. One PHB after 10 years isn't bad, given the normal edition turnover rate.

 

[Charlaquin]

I think it is interesting (?) that a game that is de-emphasizing alignment (IMO) has decided it needs the good version of tieflings, by alignment.

It’s just what planes you can trace your ancestry back to, and has no impact on the individual Tiefling’s or Aardling’s alignment.

 

[FitzTheRuke]

Gut feeling: surprise works differently.

Anyone point out yet that Surprise just gives the surprised disadvantage on Init?

 

[Savage Wombat]

Two thoughts on the changes to criticals:

1) Letting monsters have crits could now be an example of an "opt-in" rules option, where DMs can implement it out of a desire to make the base game more deadly.

2) Reducing critical hits to just increasing the base die would allow for the re-introduction of weapons that have an improved critical range, at least in theory.

 

[Haplo781]

I am fine with that. I liked many of the martial powers, but I disliked the one's that felt like they went beyond martial abilities (blinding everyone in a square with your dagger for example, or magically pulling enemies across the board).

I am an avid HERO player. I would love a good set of martial maneuvers that all martial characters could access.

Ah yes, wizards get to break reality but fighters are bound by "guy at the gym"

 

[Neonchameleon]

In 2015 Crawford identified that reading as a potential problem. In my view, they've fixed it, not nerfed a contorted reading.

They might have fixed it - but that reading was unequivocally the rules as written even if not the rules as intended. The fix might be an errata-nerf but it still makes Lucky a whole lot less powerful.

 

[CleverNickName]

Frankly, they’re probably counting on that, as a big part of how they’re going to try to sell folks on the whatever the digital product is going to be.

The playtest itself is a powerful sales tool...it's that time-honored sales tactic of "make them think it's their idea." Yes, they would like to collect feedback, but they also need us to feel invested in it--give us a personal stake in it. They don't need to listen to us, not as much as they need us to feel listened to.

No judgment here; I know how the sausage gets made and I still love a good hot dog.