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.

 

[Micah Sweet]

4e had shardmind.

Shardmind was cool, even of it was the ultimate expression of the "band of weirdos" concept of an adventuring party.

 

[Micah Sweet]

Mine either. I've had a winged tiefling and an Aarakocra fighter at my table and they were both strong but not game breaking. Giving a dragonborn wings though is a change that isn't really backward compatible. I would say though either give them flight meaning a flight speed or make winged dragonborn a variant. You could have feats that allow the dragonborn to gain wings too as a suggestion. I have similar thoughts on the Goliath suddenly having supernatural powers and changing sizes. It just isn't compatible with who the goliaths have been. Just make them large or able to grow permanently to large size.

I actually can't give WotC a hard time about that. They never said the 2024 corebooks were going to be compatible with the 2014 corebooks, just other stuff.

 

[Micah Sweet]

They might be too closely tied to Eberron. Most worlds have lycanthropes, so a "half-were" species would work almost everywhere. Warforged are very specifically tied to the Last War in Eberron. They also didn't include kalashtar in MMoM, probably for the same reasons--they don't work without quori.

That was what made me sad about warforged. I love robots, but these were just so Eberron-linked, and they were the only constructed heritage.

 

[Henadic Theologian]

I guess Goliath is the Critical Role influence?

I was kinda hoping for Goblins.

That was my first guess too, but then I remembered WotC referred to the race as "guest".

Then I looked at the class and realized it's for the Bigsby's Giant Book.

Anyways why is WotC so intent on making Ardlings happen? when Aasimar just fit better for the PHB with a long legacy in D&D and multiple settings, and are one of the most popular races.

Unless Ardlings are really for the Planescape slipcase, but just say that if it's the case, misinforming playtests leads to misleading results. Because Ardlings are fine for the Planescape, but there are more deserving races for the honor of PHB status.

 

[Henadic Theologian]

I liked the cleric class, but I'd like Holy Orders to have an Unarmed Order.

If all subclasses are same level no matter the class, make it first level.

 

[Levistus's_Leviathan]

I wouldn't mind it seeing warforged in the PHB.

Hah. That'll piss off the Eberron-haters. I'm all for their inclusion (it's a bit difficult to translate them to other worlds, IME), but I could see a certain section of the fanbase throwing a fit over that.

I'm not all that excited about Goliaths having various ancestries for all the common Giant types. To me it makes Goliaths feel more like diminutive Giants than extra big Humanoids.

Is . . . is that a bad thing? I mean, I'm not a huge fan of D&D's giants (they're mostly pretty boring, hopefully Bigby Presents: Glory of the Giants changes that), but they definitely have more flavor than "Extra Big Humanoid". "Tall person" just feels even more boring than "tall person with some magical traits".

 

[Levistus's_Leviathan]

Then I looked at the class and realized it's for the Bigsby's Giant Book.

Nope. In the video, they said that they've been thinking of adding Goliaths to the PHB for a while now. Unless you think Jeremy Crawford is lying for no reason, they're intended for the PHB.

Anyways why is WotC so intent on making Ardlings happen? when Aasimar just fit better for the PHB with a long legacy in D&D and multiple settings, and are one of the most popular races.

They want the PHB to include a generic "animal person" race so if someone wants to play a Lizard-person, but doesn't own the book that Lizardfolk are included in (or if that animal hasn't gotten full racial statistics in 5e yet), they still get a "better than nothing" playable race option.

 

[JEB]

I want a construct heritage that doesn't have all the Eberron backstory built in.

4E's Monster Manual had super-generic warforged where the extent of their backstory was essentially "built for war in creation forges" - they'd fit quite well into the One D&D paradigm, methinks.

 

[Incenjucar]

Generic warforged should be pretty easy to add. Maybe not all the extra gear stuff they get. But you can also just making another living construct species that ticks similar boxes. There are already glitchlings in 5E per that Wonders of the Multiverse PDF.

 

[Stalker0]

Anyways why is WotC so intent on making Ardlings happen? when Aasimar just fit better for the PHB with a long legacy in D&D and multiple settings, and are one of the most popular races.

They explained in the video. Ardlings scored in the 60s for their polling, which tells them its not "good" but might be "salvagable" with some tweaks. Hence....some tweaks. If it doesn't hit that 70+ margin or even drops lower in this playtest they may drop the concept.