D&D (2024) One D&D Expert Classes Playtest Document Is Live

The One D&D Expert Class playest document is now available to download. You can access it by signing into your D&D Beyond account at the link below. It contains three classes -- bard, rogue, and ranger, along with three associated subclasses (College of Lore, Thief, and Hunter), plus a number of feats.

Unearthed Arcana Playtest

Unearthed Arcana Playtest Materials Get Unearthed Arcana playtest content, try it out in your game, and provide feedback! Check back regularly for ...

www.dndbeyond.com

 

[Weiley31]

You know, crazy thought, I wonder how all these changes are gonna screw with 3PP and their current usage of the "current" 5E rules and paradigms.

 

[DEFCON 1]

It also seems (based on personal experience) like the play culture has drifted toward a more literal-minded, rules-driven kind of play than was originally envisioned, which only exacerbates things.

Heh, you're wrong, LOL, it hasn't drifted that way... it has ALWAYS had those players from the get-go... despite WotC continually banging the gong the entire time about "Rulings, Not Rules" and for people to just change stuff they didn't like. For whatever reason... some people just can't stand not playing this game Rules As Written... as though that's somehow a purer game or something. And they hate that WotC just won't adjust the rules to the way THEY want them to be so that they can play RAW and have the rules play exactly the way they want them to go.

 

[fluffybunbunkittens]

I mostly welcome the changes to two-weapon fighting in the packet but this feat seems pretty bad.

Dual-Wielder looks utterly terrible, yeah. It lost the +1 AC in the transition, while feats like War Caster just got the +1 stat smacked on top of it.

Dual throwing axes need this feat to draw both of them..? So a niche fighting style has a feat tax.

 

[DEFCON 1]

You know, crazy thought, I wonder how all these changes are gonna screw with 3PP and their current usage of the "current" 5E rules and paradigms.

People actually use 3PP? I figured the way people tend to talk around here, 3PP are all completely unbalanced and untested crap that they don't have time to sift through, and instead just wait for WotC to eventually create the rules they want to use.

 

[Mistwell]

LOL sad obsession with drawing and stowing weapons from WotC continues, despite the fact that maybe 5% of D&D groups enforce that even partially.

In the five different groups I've played with, all of them enforced the rule. I think your assumptions are false based on my experience, and you think mine are false based on yours, so I am guessing this is something WOTC knows better than either of us.

 

[darjr]

Heh, you're wrong, LOL, it hasn't drifted that way... it has ALWAYS had those players from the get-go... despite WotC continually banging the gong the entire time about "Rulings, Not Rules" and for people to just change stuff they didn't like. For whatever reason... some people just can't stand not playing this game Rules As Written... as though that's somehow a purer game or something. And they hate that WotC just won't adjust the rules to the way THEY want them to be so that they can play RAW and have the rules play exactly the way they want them to go.

Not just rules as written, but needing things more spelled out in more fine detail. Hadozee glide for instance, initially the problem is solved by natural language, imho, gliding isn’t falling. However many couldn’t except that, enough so WotC felt they needed to change it, and I think it’s less elegant for it.

 

[Bill Zebub]

Disappointing that Expertise is still just a bland numbers boost rather than actually letting you do anything cool and unique with a skill application. That might actually give some martial/caster parity. Of course, that would require them spending more than 10 seconds on the skill system.

Yeah exactly what I was trying to say in reaction to the video.

 

[Charlaquin]

From reading the Light [Weapon Property] and Equipping Weapons under the Attack [Action] section it looks like the Quick Draw bullet for the Dual Wielder feat does very little. It lets you draw or stow two weapons when you could normally only draw one. But with the new equipping rules you can equip or stow a weapon before or after any attack made with the Attack Action. The Light weapon property says

"When you take the Attack Action on your turn and attack with a Light weapon in one hand, you can make one extra attack as part of the same Action. That extra attack must be made with a different Light weapon in the other hand, and you don’t add your Ability Modifier to the extra attack’s damage."

Nothing in there says you need to already have a different Light weapon in your other hand to make use of this extra attack. So you could take an Attack action, draw a weapon with the Light property, attack with it, tell the DM your going to make an extra attack, draw another Light weapon in your off hand, and attack with it. Unless I missed something it seems like anyone can draw two weapons in a round as long as they are both Light.

By my reading, the extra attack is being made with the Light weapon property, not the Attack action, and therefore does not allow you to draw a weapon before or after making it.

 

[CleverNickName]

Heh, you're wrong, LOL, it hasn't drifted that way... it has ALWAYS had those players from the get-go... despite WotC continually banging the gong the entire time about "Rulings, Not Rules" and for people to just change stuff they didn't like. For whatever reason... some people just can't stand not playing this game Rules As Written... as though that's somehow a purer game or something. And they hate that WotC just won't adjust the rules to the way THEY want them to be so that they can play RAW and have the rules play exactly the way they want them to go.

There's a level of validation that comes with it, maybe? Like, seeing one of your own houserules make it into the published book of rules would make you feel like you were right all along, and that everyone else was wrong? It's the only reason I can come up with, anyway. (Nevermind that the first rule in the DMG is "you can make your own rules," folks always forget/ignore that.)

 

[Charlaquin]

Dual throwing axes need this feat to draw both of them..? So a niche fighting style has a feat tax.

They do in the 2014 rules too…