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.

 

[Remathilis]

Every bloody thread.

Can you all take your weeing contest about which setting is bestest and contain it to a single thread? Eberron, Ravenloft, Metaplot, Dragonlance, and Canon are NOT part of this playtest. The Cleric and Three Races are. Yet half this thread are the same people who show up in every thread arguing about the same things like what they is going to change the other's hearts and minds. Some people want to dig into these changes, discuss the mechanics, figure out what the heck Ardlings are supposed to do, etc.

 

[Levistus's_Leviathan]

Other people agree with you, so it must be objectively true?

I personally have no stakes in most metaplots. I'm just an observer watching things that happened, for the most part. And I saw the consequences of metaplots and then made my opinion of them. I didn't go searching for evidence for an opinion that I already had. In fact, I originally liked metaplots. After seeing how bad they were for settings and the game, my view changed.

 

[Maxperson]

This. This right here. This is why Eberron is better. This to me reads as a dude in a tuxedo with a monocle and cigar saying "you don't have any right to the setting, I own it, it's mine, you're forced to go along with anything I do to the setting". Eberron, on the other hand, says "I don't care what you do with the setting, it's not mine, it's yours. Make it yours. Do whatever you want. Here, I've given you a bunch of mysteries to find the answer to, do whatever you want".

Eberron is exactly the same. You have zero rights to input or agency over what the company does with it. Case in point. In 5e they changed your unchanging Eberron and attached it to the rest of the multiverse. And that's a very major change as it allows in clerics who know their gods from other worlds. If you view them as tuxedo wearing guys, so be it. That's how IP works. You have no rights to their IP.

You can include the metaplot in your game without the owners of it forcing the metaplot into the setting books.

No I can't, because it doesn't exist unless they put it out for me.

No. Quality exists. You can include things in your setting that are objectively bad and harmful to playing the game there.

Excellent. Prove to me that your opinion on this means that the setting is objectively bad. With actual facts and not just your repeated and unsubstantiated declarations.

If the setting is "ruined" for people by having Elminster and Drizzt removed, they didn't actually like the setting as a game setting. They liked it as a story setting. Which is not prioritizing the needs of the game, and thus, bad for the game.

Those characters are part of the setting. The setting isn't the dirt. It's the lore which includes major characters that in now way hinder or diminish the PCs unless the DM causes it. Removing the major NPCs is equivalent to altering Eberron so that the gods are knowable and verifiable.

Newer DMs often fall into traps that veteran DMs don't. Making the setting "stupid proof" is a good quality.

Attempting to stupid proof the game would itself be exceptionally stupid. It simply can't be done and even if you removed high level NPCs, DMs are fully capable of creating tons of them. I could run an Eberron game tomorrow and plunk and Elminster strength NPC into every city. The only way to even come close to curbing high level NPCs in a setting would be to cap PC levels at like 5, but even that wouldn't work completely.

You can't curb stupid, so it's best not to even try. Instead you ignore stupid and just put out a good product with advice on how to avoid mistakes.

Gestures vaguely at all of the discussions over the past decades of people angry that a metaplot ruined the setting for them. The Spellplague, the Faction War, the Prism Pentad, Die, Vecna, Die!, some of the sequel series of Dragonlance, and so on.

So you know that people are far more likely to be vocal and complain and stay silent when they like something, right? This is human nature. That often creates an illusion that the bad outweighs the good. So you're going to need more than an anecdotal gesture at complainers. You'll need real facts.

 

[Minigiant]

Every bloody thread.

Can you all take your weeing contest about which setting is bestest and contain it to a single thread? Eberron, Ravenloft, Metaplot, Dragonlance, and Canon are NOT part of this playtest. The Cleric and Three Races are. Yet half this thread are the same people who show up in every thread arguing about the same things like what they is going to change the other's hearts and minds. Some people want to dig into these changes, discuss the mechanics, figure out what the heck Ardlings are supposed to do, etc.

Can I say something setting related.

If this playtest has Ardlings, Dragonborn, and Goliath will be in the PHB...

Can a brother get a new freaking setting with this races as a base assumption in the crafting of the setting?

Who are the Gods of Ardling and Goliaths? Do they like Corellon, Grummush, and Moradin? And which domains do they grant?

Because WOTC finally are thinking about making Minigiants as a core PHB race and Minigiant doesn't want to wait until 8th edition for Minigaint's brothers and sisters fully accepted somewhere.

They are already nixing Half Elves, Half Orcs, and Half Dwarves.

 

[Henadic Theologian]

The Forgotten Realms also had a huge headstart on Eberron.

Greyhawk had huge start over FR, DL a shorter one, FR still won.

 

[Incenjucar]

Can I say something setting related.

If this playtest has Ardlings, Dragonborn, and Goliath will be in the PHB...

Can a brother get a new freaking setting with this races as a base assumption in the crafting of the setting?

Who are the Gods of Ardling and Goliaths? Do they like Corellon, Grummush, and Moradin? And which domains do they grant?

Because WOTC finally are thinking about making Minigiants as a core PHB race and Minigiant doesn't want to wait until 8th edition for Minigaint's brothers and sisters fully accepted somewhere.

They are already nixing Half Elves, Half Orcs, and Half Dwarves.

Presumably:
Ardlings > Beast Lords or setting applicable universal nature or beast deities
Goliaths > Primordials or setting applicable universal strength or elemental deities.

 

[Henadic Theologian]

Can I say something setting related.

If this playtest has Ardlings, Dragonborn, and Goliath will be in the PHB...

Can a brother get a new freaking setting with this races as a base assumption in the crafting of the setting?

Who are the Gods of Ardling and Goliaths? Do they like Corellon, Grummush, and Moradin? And which domains do they grant?

Because WOTC finally are thinking about making Minigiants as a core PHB race and Minigiant doesn't want to wait until 8th edition for Minigaint's brothers and sisters fully accepted somewhere.

They are already nixing Half Elves, Half Orcs, and Half Dwarves.

Sounds like Ardlings will worship the Beast Lords for Gods.

Goliaths have been around since 3.5e here are their Gods.

"Religion
Most goliath tribes revered nature and the primal forces. Goliath shamans were known as "skywatchers"[14] or "sunspeakers"[4]. They also worshiped a pantheon of six deities:[28]

Kavaki, the Ram-Lord, was the guardian and creator deity of the goliaths.[28]
Kuliak, the Dead Goddess, was said to have once been a goddess of mountain springs, but was spurned by the other gods after she overslept and failed to lead the goliaths to water. Thus she became instead the goddess of the dead and of exiles.[28]
Manethak, the Wise Hunter, was the god of both hunting and knowledge.[28]
Naki-Uthai, the Brave Climber, was the god of mountains, climbing, and bravery.[28]
Theleya, the Fertile One, was the goddess of fertility and growth.[28]
Vanua, the Harbinger of Woe, was the god of natural disasters and misfortune.[28"

 

[Henadic Theologian]

Presumably:
Ardlings > Beast Lords or setting applicable universal nature or beast deities
Goliaths > Primordials or setting applicable universal strength or elemental deities.

Agreed on Ardlings, although in Mulhorand I can see them worshipping the Mulhorandi Gods.

Goliaths in 3e had their own Pantheon
(see the above post) although given the new lore Giant Gods would also be fitting, maybe some others based on region of the tribe.

 

[Henadic Theologian]

Goliaths should still get energy resistance like the did in Frostmaiden.

 

[Minigiant]

The playtest Goliaths are too close to giants for their 3E pantheon to really work. They either need a new one or adopt the giant one somehow.