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.

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[Maxperson]

I would like a rewording of extra attack though. Cantrip + extra attack should be standard.

I like it as a special ability of subclasses like bladesinger.

 

[Henadic Theologian]

Don't remind me!

Which I hate

If they want to test 48 subclasses, all the classes, and everything else they mentioned AND correct errors and things people don't like, they will need to pick up the pace of UA releases considerably.

Agreed although I think we could get the survey results for the first packet soon and an updated version of the origins packet this month in edition to the next class group.

 

[TwoSix]

This is what subclasses are for. Each subclass can be a different lane.

And agreed that Jon Snow isn't a ranger. But the rest of the people you've listed? The alternative in almost all cases is fighter. And frankly if you think that  ranger is overloaded throwing them into the same class as e.g. Brienne of Tarth and Jamie Lannister only makes the problem you outline far far worse.

Legolas is a fighter. He has some nature-y stuff on account of being an elf in a world where "elf" does a ton of work.

Same thing for Katniss Everdeen. She's a bow user who's good in the woods. She has high Dex, and stealth and survival proficiencies. But she doesn't do anything mystical, so she isn't a ranger.

4e, sure, they'd be rangers, because rangers were explicitly martials who focused on ranged attacks. But in 5e, if we take the definition that WotC has given us, rangers are inherently mystical. A character who's good in the woods by reason of skill and training alone is not a ranger.

The ranger class, in-game, isn't satisfying anyone because it's stretched too far, and thus it becomes too hard to pack a lot of flavor in. That means the tropes presented in the class have to be strengthened, both by having a stronger set of class exemplars AND by excluding the border cases from the class definition. No STRangers, no non-magical snare makers, no "just a stealthy archer".

And yes, "fighter" is also far too broadly defined. Way too far, like it could be split into 3-4 classes with subclasses no problem. We need better defined classes with tight mechanical niches and obvious tropes, not even more loosely defined classes with no coherence.

 

[Olrox17]

4e, sure, they'd be rangers, because rangers were explicitly martials who focused on ranged attacks. But in 5e, if we take the definition that WotC has given us, rangers are inherently mystical. A character who's good in the woods by reason of skill and training alone is not a ranger.

A correction: 4e rangers could focus on ranged attacks, but many of their build were melee, and the melee ranger sported the best damage output in the game out of all PC options.
Also, late in 4e they got some mystical power options, but yes, 95% of what they had available was purely martial.

 

[Maxperson]

It might sting even more, I think. Having to deal with a cascading -X penalty to all ability checks, attack rolls, and save throws, sounds pretty intense. And now it can take more than a week to fully recover from exhaustion.

I don't think it will sting more. Not unless exhaustion becomes more frequent and with more levels at once.

With 3 levels of the new exhaustion, you have -3 to attacks rolls, skill checks and saves. With 3 levels of the old exhaustion, you had disadvantage on skill checks, attacks and saves(-5 equivalent) AND you moved at half speed.

 

[TwoSix]

A correction: 4e rangers could focus on ranged attacks, but many of their build were melee, and the melee ranger sported the best damage output in the game out of all PC options.
Also, late in 4e they got some mystical power options, but yes, 95% of what they had available was purely martial.

Fair, but their melee martial prowess was primarily predicated on Twin Slash, and 5e rangers are still good at dual-wielding.

But yes, I did overstate by saying they were primarily focused on ranged. They were much more oriented towards ranged than a 4e fighter was, but were absolutely still excellent in melee.

 

[Maxperson]

omg I missed it was an ACTION

That's okay. It's also a mini haste ability. At 20th level, a strength 20 fighter with a 30 foot move and expertise in athletics(gained through a feat or something) could move 10 feet, jump 30(max jump distance) feet with a roll of 13 or higher, then finish his 20 feet of movement for a total of 60 feet, before he dashes. Even if he rolls a 10, he still goes a total of 87 feet. I can totally see fighters running across an open field hopping their way to the enemy.

 

[Olrox17]

Fair, but their melee martial prowess was primarily predicated on Twin Slash, and 5e rangers are still good at dual-wielding.

But yes, I did overstate by saying they were primarily focused on ranged. They were much more oriented towards ranged than a 4e fighter was, but were absolutely still excellent in melee.

Yes, we could say the 4e rangers were glass cannons of sort (mediocre hp, mediocre defenses, few, if any, defensive utility powers), and that being made of glass is more relevant for a melee character. The 4e melee ranger was high risk, high reward.

 

[fluffybunbunkittens]

That's okay. It's also a mini haste ability. At 20th level...

You would hope people would be doing something ridiculous at 20th level.

A regular lv0 Str10 commoner can jump 10 feet vertically. But only sometimes! Half the time he jumps only 5 feet straight up.

Roof repair certainly got a lot easier with this edition. Everyone's been culturing their chi for that proper wuxia float.

 

[Kobold Avenger]

With the new exhaustion rules, I feel some are going to come up with a house rule that dropping to 0 HP and then recovering from that, gives you 1 level of exhaustion.

Also for Rangers I still want a Urban Ranger subclass called the Vigilante, think of someone like Batman, but as a Ranger.