D&D (2024) New One D&D Playtest Shows Us The New Druid & Paladin

WotC has released the fourth One D&D playtest document. This 29-page PDF includes the druid and the paladin with Circle of the Moon and Oath of Devotion subclasses.

Druid. The Druid class and Circle of the Moon subclass are ready for playtesting here.

Paladin. The Paladin class and Oath of Devotion subclass are ready for playtesting here.

Feats. Several revised feats appear here for your feedback, with more revised feats coming in future articles.

Spells. More spells are ready for playtesting, with a focus on smite spells, Find Familiar, and Find Steed.

Rules Glossary. The rules glossary has been updated again and supersedes the glossary in previous Unearthed Arcana articles. In this document, any underlined term in the body text appears in that glossary, which defines game terms that have been clarified or redefined for this playtest or that don’t appear in the 2014 Player’s Handbook.

Claim Unearthed Arcana now! - D&D Beyond

www.dndbeyond.com

 

[Xamnam]

Long Rests now explicitly grant the Unconscious condition, and instead of simply listing combat, it is now broken by rolling initiative or taking damage.

 

[Clint_L]

Ooooof massive nerf to Moon Druids. I sense a lot of players wanting to keep using the 2014 version.

Edit: on the other hand, Divine Smite didn't get nerfed. I expected it would be changed so that you had to declare it before your attack, though it would only use up a spell slot if you hit. But I guess they are fine with using it for opportunistic mega-criticals. Fair enough.

 

[Reynard]

Not that it really needs said, but this certainly confirms there has been no major shift in design philosophy or intent since the OGL kerfuffle. It makes me wonder even more what Black Flag and similar 5E-alikes are going to have to do to differentiate themselves while also being commercially viable as a continuation of 5E.

 

[dave2008]

Looks like Epic Boons will be in the PHB now:

 

[Undrave]

'Channel Nature' is a good umbrella term for Wildshape and all those 'Instead of Wildshape' features, but I don't particularly care for how it makes Druids sound more and more like just a weird Cleric who can shapeshift...

 

[Vael]

Looks like generic statblocks for most player-facing material ... wildshape, familiars, mounts. Summoning spells will likely get the same treatment.

Wildshape is more generically powerful for all Druids, that's nice. No longer a source of "free" healing too, you retain your current HP. A lot more of the class's power has moved into the core Druid, the subclass feels like it's holding less.

ETA: So ... looking at the Primal spell list, Moon Druids get to cast Abjuration spells while in wildshape ... which is all the healing spells. Nice.

 

[gametaku]

Ooooof massive nerf to Moon Druids. I sense a lot of players wanting to keep using the 2014 version.

Edit: on the other hand, Divine Smite didn't get nerfed. I expected it would be changed so that you had to declare it before your attack, though it would only use up a spell slot if you hit. But I guess they are fine with using it for opportunistic mega-criticals. Fair enough.

But it is nerfed, it's only once per turn and you can't use it with a spell.

 

[dave2008]

Sad to see the Slowed condition go. I hope they bring it back

 

[dave2008]

The made dying a condition:

DYING [CONDITION]

---

When a player character drops to 0 Hit Points, that character has the Dying condition, which replaces the following rules in the 2014 Player’s Handbook (page 197): “Falling Unconscious,” “Death Saving Throws,” and “Stabilizing aCreature.”

While Dying, you experience the following effects:

0 Hit Points. You have 0 Hit Points. If you regain any Hit Points while Dying, this condition ends on you.
Knocked Out. You have the Unconscious condition.
Death Saving Throws. At the start of each of your turns, you must make a death saving throw, a special save that isn’t tied to any ability score. You’re in the hands of fate now; roll a d20. If the roll is 10 or higher, you succeed. Otherwise, you fail. A success or failure has no effect by itself. The successes and failures also don’t need to be consecutive; keep track of both until you collect three of a kind, the effects of which are described below. When this condition ends on you, reset the number of success and failures to zero.
Rolling a 1 or 20. When you make a death save and roll a 1 on the d20, it counts as two failures. If you roll a 20, you regain 1 Hit Point.
Three Failures. On your third failure, you die.
Three Successes. On your third success, you regain 1 Hit Point. This condition ends on you as normal, but you are still Unconscious and start a Short Rest. You remain Unconscious until you regain any Hit Points or until another creature uses an action to administer first aid to you, which requires a successful DC 10 Wisdom (Medicine) check.
Damage. If you take any damage, you suffer one death saving throw failure. If you suffer a critical hit, you instead suffer two death saving throw failures.

 

[Vael]

I'm liking the change to Smite spells. Cast on a Bonus Action ... immediately after striking a target. No longer do they eat up Concentration.