D&D (2024) One D&D Cleric & Revised Species Playtest Includes Goliath

"In this new Unearthed Arcana for the One D&D rules system, we explore material designed for the next version of the Player’s Handbook. This playtest document presents the rules on the Cleric class, it's Life Domain subclass, as well as revised Species rules for the Ardling, the Dragonborn, and the Goliath. You will also find a current glossary of new or revised meanings for game terms."

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WotC's Jeremey Crawford discusses the playtest document in the video below.

 

[WarDriveWorley]

It's still an effective spell -- a nice bit of extra damage each round, costing only bonus actions -- but it will no longer be the no-brainer pick that it is now.

It is. However the cleric in my game uses it primarily because it's not concentration. A lot of cleric spells are concentration so in a lot of cases my player has to choose which is the best one for the combat/encounter. His build isn't melee oriented and doesn't do a lot of damage in combat. SW was his way of mitigating that while still having a decent buff/debuff spell going. He's not particularly happy with that direction.

 

[Twiggly the Gnome]

Some thoughts...

Ardling: The way this is headed, I'm even more convinced now that when Shifters are revisited, they need an option to switch out their inner beast, so that they're more like Animal Man or Vixen.

Dragonborn: I know they've said Fizban's is still in play, but in practice, most people will consider the most recently publish version the "real" one.

Goliath: Not really feeling them being turned into medium sized Spriggans.

Cleric: It's probably a futile effort, but I'm ready to neg-rate the hell out of this. For what they represent, I think Holy Order and Domain are mechanically implemented ass backwards.

 

[Sacrosanct]

Which is excellent. I just wish they also had identities instead of waiting for 3 and making the game effectively an 18 level one.

Admittedly I've never really understood this missing out on levels argument. I'm not saying you're doing this, so I apologize if it's coming across this way, but it reminds me of when 5e first came out.

Folks argued that they liked the less powerful lower levels because it allowed those who wanted zero to hero to have it. Others argued against it, saying they didn't want to wait until level 3 to get powers, so they felt cheated out of 2 levels.

And I don't get that. Whether there are 5 levels or 500, it doesn't matter or impact the time you spend playing. It's not like, "Well, I'd like to play, but Tuesdays are only for level 1-2 PCs, so I can't." Just play at the levels you like. That's pretty much how it was always done. And really, hardly anyone plays past the early teens anyway, so no one is really missing out.

 

[Marandahir]

New Goliath answers the question “What if Rune Knight Fighter, but a species?”

I think it's more, "What if we move the Giant Sorcerer from UA into the Goliath creative space?"

The Rune Knight Martial Archetype was an attempt at salvaging the Sorcerer - Giant Bloodline mechanics but narratively it was completely different since it's a class-ability acquisition pathway. Giant Bloodline has always been what Goliaths are about (they're either Half-giants or distant cousins of True Ordning Giants), and it was very much so in line with the Sorcerer class features (where your power comes innately).

Not so incidentally, the Sorcerer is the class that MOST overlaps with the narratives of your Species choice, given that it reflects a power sparking inside of you (as an aside, Psionics are the other truly innate class concepts, and that's why there's significant overlaps between the Psion and the Sorcerer, beyond the core ability choice at least). That power might be from your ancestry, like Draconic Bloodline, or from being born under a certain Moon (Lunar Magic) or being touched by the Shadowfell (Shadow Magic), or hit by a lightningbolt and LIVED when you were an infant (Storm Sorcery), but it's unlike other classes in that your learning is entirely around you learning to hone something that is inside of you rather than learn some external power you're tapping into.

That's the same narrative beyond progressive and powerful Specific Features - see the Tiefling's spells at 5th Level that are innate powers, for example. There's not much to separate the concepts of a Tiefling and an Infernal Bloodline Sorcerer, hence why we don't have an Infernal Bloodline Sorcerer yet (and it took practically the ENTIRETY of 4th Edition before we got the Demon Spawn Theme, and even that was Demon Spawn while the Infernal variation was Infernal Slave, a la you're a Fiend Pact Warlock but not necessarily a Warlock).

This is GREAT design space to allow for Sorcererous concepts INSIDE of the Species byline, freeing you up to be a melee character or something. It's also incredibly similar to the way Dragonborn works with Draconic Bloodline Sorcerer.

 

[GMforPowergamers]

Cleric: It's probably a futile effort, but I'm ready to neg-rate the hell out of this. For what they represent, I think Holy Order and Domain are mechanically implemented ass backwards.

I am still rolling it around in my head, but I like the concept, can you give some detail on YOUR thoughts on this?

 

[Neonchameleon]

Not so incidentally, the Sorcerer is the class that MOST overlaps with the narratives of your Species choice, given that it reflects a power sparking inside of you (as an aside,

Or, depending on how the power manifests, barbarian.

 

[Twiggly the Gnome]

I am still rolling it around in my head, but I like the concept, can you give some detail on YOUR thoughts on this?

I'd probably pare down Domains to some ready prepped spells and a unique channel divinity manifestation. The Holy Orders would be the core that the subclasses would be built around.

 

[Faolyn]

So is a Tabaxi a cat Ardling? Is a Kenku a raven Ardling? The whole Ardling thing just seems so generic and kind of (I hate to say it) lazy. Barely a race, and more just an excuse so that no one has to feel like they can't play their human/animal hybrid of choice.

As you can tell, I have yet to be sold on the concept.

It sounds like ardlings are humans with animal heads and maybe a few other animal features. Egyptian god-style people. I did a similar heritage in the Level Up book I pout out. So that still leaves room for full-on anthro races.

 

[Vaalingrade]

Admittedly I've never really understood this missing out on levels argument. I'm not saying you're doing this, so I apologize if it's coming across this way, but it reminds me of when 5e first came out.

Folks argued that they liked the less powerful lower levels because it allowed those who wanted zero to hero to have it. Others argued against it, saying they didn't want to wait until level 3 to get powers, so they felt cheated out of 2 levels.

And I don't get that. Whether there are 5 levels or 500, it doesn't matter or impact the time you spend playing. It's not like, "Well, I'd like to play, but Tuesdays are only for level 1-2 PCs, so I can't." Just play at the levels you like. That's pretty much how it was always done. And really, hardly anyone plays past the early teens anyway, so no one is really missing out.

The deal is right there in the video: you are now meant to blow through levels 1-2 pretty much immediately.

Levels 1 and 2, regardless of if you want zero to hero or not, aren't actually levels anymore, they're just the tutorial level. Which is (supposed to be) fine if this was the starter set adventure, but those two wasted levels just hang around forever. Yes, you can start at 3, but now you only have 18 levels of play in the game and let's be honest, a ton of people don't like the fun levels, so we actually only have like 8 levels from 3-8.

We're making 10% of the game a non-entity because D&D culture specifically (other games don't do this) has no respect for the intelligence of people who haven't taken up the hobby until recently.

 

[GMforPowergamers]

The deal is right there in the video: you are now meant to blow through levels 1-2 pretty much immediately.

Levels 1 and 2, regardless of if you want zero to hero or not, aren't actually levels anymore, they're just the tutorial level. Which is (supposed to be) fine if this was the starter set adventure, but those two wasted levels just hang around forever. Yes, you can start at 3, but now you only have 18 levels of play in the game and let's be honest, a ton of people don't like the fun levels, so we actually only have like 8 levels from 3-8.

We're making 10% of the game a non-entity because D&D culture specifically (other games don't do this) has no respect for the intelligence of people who haven't taken up the hobby until recently.

we almost never start at 1st anymore... 3rd or 5th are our go to 'start low' and 'start high'