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

 

[Gammadoodler]

I've made my peace with spellcasting rangers some time ago. I think they would benefit from a feature similar to the Artificer's spellcasting-with-tools feature.

Huntsman's Mysticism:
You must cast you spell using either a component pouch, a herbalist kit or hunter's tools. At the end of a long rest in the wilderness, you can make a DC 10 (or higher if the DM declares the terrain as barren) Wisdom or Intelligence (Survival) test. On a successful test, you can ignore the material components of your spells as long as they are not consumed until the end of your next long rest.

On the one hand, I like this. On the other, I think it leapfrogs a step.

It'd be nice if there were a few interesting, mechanically potent and adeventure-relevant uses for such tools that don't use spellcasting first. Uses that might reflect how an expert in such tool use would deploy them without a requirement to directly manipulate the pervasive magical essence of all things.

Hunters Mark is sort of an example of this. It's a spell that makes you better able to see or hunt a creature and applies a non-specific damage rider to your attacks on that creature. Why does this need to be a spell? Why does reality need to be warped in order for a ranger to focus on a target?

I don't mind the idea of adding magic on top of that. It just feels like we're skipping the foundational stuff so we can make up some magical stuff.

 

[Micah Sweet]

The Ranger genuinely needed a rework (and I think at the very least a level 1 Ranger no longer feels remotely like a poor man's level 1 Fighter), and there are a few other changes I think actually addressed problems or seem to serve some sort of discernible purpose (I'm not sure I like the new two weapon fighting, but it's attacking a needlessly complex system so I'm glad to see them working on it). But to me mostly this seems like a lot of change for change's sake.

That doesn't make the changes terrible per se (although I think spells prepared being tied to spell level, and making memorized casters prepared, spellcasters are genuinely terrible changes). But my overall impression is that this all seems pretty aimless and pointless. If this is all OneD&D is going to be, than it really is nothing but a refresh to force me to buy new core books.

If they seemed to be going through everything with a few clear (preferably stated) goals in mind, whether they were simplification, or addressing common complaints, or even something I have no interest in like fixing the CR system I would have a lot more respect for the process even if I didn't like or agree with all the changes. But at this point I think goal one for the bulk of changes (if not for the most important ones) is to change things just enough that you can't use your old 5e PHB in a 5.5e game.

That is  exactly what they want.

 

[Micah Sweet]

. . . They buffed the class a ton. This version of the class is objectively more powerful than the 2014 PHB version. The new version gets Cantrips and 1st level spells, get to change all of their spells on a long rest (except Hunter's Mark, which is automatically prepared), concentration-less Hunter's Mark, and 2 Expertise at level 1. The 2014 Rangers didn't get spells until level 2 (and never got cantrips), only got to change a single spell when they leveled up, and got two very campaign-dependent abilities that required you to talk with the DM in order to get the most out of your abilities (which just lets you ignore most parts of the Exploration Pillar).

And that's just level 1. The newer rangers are just objectively better in how usable their features are and in pure numbers. How in the world did they become "less desirable" to you?

Because they don't feel like a Ranger. They don't fit the archetype in pop culture of what a Ranger is.

 

[Grantypants]

There's an error in the ranger's sample spells. They're supposed to get two first-level spells and two cantrips at level 1, plus Hunter's Mark, which doesn't count against the number of spells you can prepare. But the sample has four spells including Hunter's Mark, so there should be another first-level spell in there.

 

[DarkCrisis]

Because they don't feel like a Ranger. They don't fit the archetype in pop culture of what a Ranger is.

Pretty sure WoTC stopped caring about that awhile ago. Like Paladins can even be godless!

 

[gorice]

Pretty sure WoTC stopped caring about that awhile ago. Like Paladins can even be godless!

Don't remind me!

 

[Uni-the-Unicorn!]

Pretty sure WoTC stopped caring about that awhile ago. Like Paladins can even be godless!

They always were, they just didn’t admit it

 

[DarkCrisis]

Don't remind me!

Really you can’t do Low Fantasy anymore in D&D. Every class has some kind of magical effect or at least near supernatural.

That 5th Ed version of Lord of the Rings coming down the pike looks really good. Especially if you want something a tad less Warcraft.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

Interesting they made Study an action. Guess it was too ad-hoc before?

I think the designers, as individuals, just really like keywords and tags and other jargon with mechanical significance, and the only thing that made 5e start out with “natural language” was backlash against the very structured and precise 4e.

 

[TwoSix]

Because they don't feel like a Ranger. They don't fit the archetype in pop culture of what a Ranger is.

The problem with Ranger is trope creep. Any character with some fighty skills that has a little extra "something", and that isn't an obvious sword&board fighter or knight type gets lumped into ranger.

Ranger can't be a tough mountain man, a wilderness guide, a sharpshooter, a beast wrangler, and a woodland mystic all at the same time. It can't simultaneously be used for Legolas, and Jon Snow, and Katniss Everdeen, and Geralt, and Sylvanus, and Daniel Day-Lewis in Last of the Mohicans. Even with subclasses, it's covering too much ground.

It needs to pick a lane and stay there.