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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[Hussar]

Do I have to play the Level Up card again? Not spells. Still feels like a ranger.

Yes. They are spells. They look like spells, work like spell and are spells in all the ways that actually matter.

Other than presentation of cours, which we all know is the most important metric of all.

 

[Hussar]

Or you give rangers new, nonmagical abilities that allow it to be able a handle whatever they come across. Like some of have said, look at the LU ranger.

Which basically just replicates spells.

What is the difference between beast friend knack and animal friendship? If it’s not a spell how come I can only have one animal friend at a time?

 

[Minigiant]

Which basically just replicates spells.

And not all spells. Just the level 1 spells.

Because once you get to level 2 magic, it becomes slim picking of what spells can become replicated with 25 of the communities head exploding.

And if you look at the nonfull casterclass features in 5e., it's clear WOTC doesn't have anyone high on the design team that gets high level martials or is brave enough to confront the community on the premise.

They think 1d10Hunters mark (Ranger) and 2 bonus actions (Rogue) is high level.

I serious want to see how they play internally. Because either they use a buch of houserule or they runwith a light touch.

 

[Bill Zebub]

Which basically just replicates spells.

That's meaningless. You could argue that melee weapon attacks just replicate touch cantrips.

The questions should be, what about spells does it replicate, and which aspects are you trying to avoid?

For me, in the Ranger class, what I most want to avoid is the full spellcasting system (spell selection and slots). There are already lots (and lots) of classes that do that. If I want to play that way, I can choose one of those classes.

After that, I would prefer to avoid abilities with X uses/rest, but I could probably be ok with some of those, if they are structured like Warlock invocations, and ideally if they describe brand new things, not just "You can cast entangle once per short rest." Although even that would be better than choosing entangle as a normal spell caster.

But what I would most like are abilities that are at will (if situational) regardless of whether or not they feel magical.

In other words, it's not the magic I want to avoid in the Ranger class (and other classes), it's the caster mechanics.

 

[Faolyn]

Which basically just replicates spells.

What is the difference between beast friend knack and animal friendship? If it’s not a spell how come I can only have one animal friend at a time?

Hmm, well, beast friend knack isn't magic and requires some roleplaying on the part of the ranger. And the reason is game balance. You might as well ask why D&D bows have a much shorter range than real-life bows, or why fighters suddenly get a second attack at 5th level, no matter how fast or strong they are. Or why an arcane focus can only count as a component for spells that require 9 silver and 99 copper or less, but once it rounds up to 1 gold, it's suddenly not usable.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

Then the ranger becomes someone who has to think and plan around their monster, not just someone who can cast a spell and be done. Your ranger wants to hunt a mummy, then they have to know what mummies in general are weak against and if this particular mummy has any other weaknesses. I'd find that more interesting than just casting a spell that, quite likely, several other classes can also cast (there are very few ranger-only spells). I'm pretty sure that bane items could be very easily be made official.

Anyone can learn to make poisons, or study the weaknesses of monsters, too.

The idea of the ranger in D&D not having magic is absurd. It’d be like saying they should’t use bows.

Magic is a tool set. Why would rangers ignore the toolset of magic when the wilds are full of magical dangers?

 

[doctorbadwolf]

Do I have to play the Level Up card again? Not spells. Still feels like a ranger.

No, they really don’t. They feel like a Scout fighter or something.

 

[darjr]

Huh? I do think it’s a good argument that the Ranger features being spells available to other classes can water down the Ranger as a silo. Interesting.

 

[Micah Sweet]

No, they really don’t. They feel like a Scout fighter or something.

That is an arguable point. Clearly we feel differently.

 

[Hussar]

Hmm, well, beast friend knack isn't magic and requires some roleplaying on the part of the ranger..

No more than animal friendship does. Good grief it’s practically word for word copy pasted from the spell right down to the bit about food.