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.

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[cranberry]

Interesting that they picked moon as the base subclass, rather than land.

Probably because it is the most popular Druid subclass.

But if these changes stay the way they are, moon druid may drop to the bottom of the list.

 

[Weiley31]

I really like that equipping weapons etc is now almost a nothing. Same as I played it, nothing more boring than taking hands, yawn. I will, still, ignore it totally

Honestly, I've completely ignored that in all my games that I just do weapon equipment, de-equipment, and what not as all free actions. So, no loss for me.

 

[mellored]

I agree. Playing the Moon druid felt like being railroaded into bear druid at lower levels, and at late game a mammoth druid. The generic animal templates grants creative freedom.

Yes, but I also liked being a snake who could grapple, or a spider who could climb walls and shoot webs.

It should be generic stat block for generic wild shape.

And moon druids get to pick up additional features, like grapple, reach, web, antler charge, poison stinger, more movement, tremorsense, prone on an opportunity attack, proficiency in a certain save, ect...
Leading into the elemental features at higher level.

 

[James Gasik]

'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...

Isn't that what Druids have been for most of their history? I remember them just being specialty priests in 2e.

 

[James Gasik]

My thoughts:

• Happy metal armour restriction has gone.
• Not a fan of the new wildshape. Especially combined with the fact that they're doubling down on wildshape being the main core feature of druid. What if I want to play a nature themed caster not based on turning into animals?

Nature Domain Cleric?

 

[Mephista]

I don't have a problem with the template approach myself, but there's definitely a division in the community between "As long as I can reskin a mechanic to fit my narrative, it's fine" and "The unique mechanics are what helps shape the narrative for me."

Nah, that's not it - it has nothing to do with templates and reskinning. Its more about having to pick and choose random Beasts with each CR jump that would work. The problem is that you basically either went bear at low levels, or you absolutely sucked. Then as you went into higher levels, you had a narrow range of option if beasts with narrow application. You could shapeshift into a dinosaur or gorilla! Or, put another way, you felt forced to turn into a dinosaur or gorilla.

 

[Sacrosanct]

Isn't that what Druids have been for most of their history? I remember them just being specialty priests in 2e.

The 1e druid had some overlap, but felt pretty distinct from the cleric class.

 

[Kobold Avenger]

Some first impressions
-Druids can wear metal armor now, they get light armor training and no reference to whether it's metal or not
-As expected Wildshape uses set statblocks in the class entry itself
-You can become a Wildshape from that looks like an Owlbear if you want
-Channel Nature, was expected as something to generalize Wildshape and other subclass uses of that
-Circle of the Moon, instead of becoming an Elemental, you can become an Elemental version of a beast
-Looks like they're looking to fix the Channel features and multi-classing basing use on levels in a class
-No word on whether multi-classing you add class levels together if using with classes with channel together
-Healing Blossom is light on healing with WISx1d4 hp healed, but it's useful with Wild Resurgence
-Sort of disappointed you can't wildshape into a tiny flying creature like a crow for the purposes of scouting out something at lower levels.
-They definitely as expected restricted Divine Smite to only once per turn
-You can smite with Unarmed Strikes of Ranged Weapons now! That means my concept of a Paladin in a fancy 18th-century military uniform armed with a sword and pistol, can smite with the pistol now.
-Paladins can pick any fighting style now
-Changes to Channel Divinity is of course something expected for the Paladin, and they get more uses, but Divine Sense is now connected to this
-Abjure Foes is good higher level addition to what Paladins can do with Channel Divinity now
-Radiant Strikes is just Improved Divine Smite renamed
-Ability Scores can be raised above 20 if your 20th level, and it doesn't compete with your Epic Boon Feat choice which is great
-A free spellslot level casting of an Oath spell is a good thing for having Oath Spells, maybe all Paladin subclasses might get that feature
-Oath of Devtion's Holy Nimbus is once per day with expend a 4th level spell for more uses, it's almost the same power level before despite being at 14th level.
-Epic Boons now also raise ability scores, up to 30, which adds more to epic level play I guess.
-Epic Boon of Spell Recall is now actually something I'd want a spellcaster to have, since any spell slot 4th or below can be retained with a 1d4 roll. That means unlimited 1st level spells.
-Epic Boon of Fate, is now something you have to track uses independently of anything else, and might not get fully restored with a long rest.
-Find Familiar can be boosted with high spell slots (as it has its own statblock), though I need clarification on what spell slot it uses if cast as a ritual or with the Wild Companion Channel Nature ability (I'm guessing minimum level).
-Find Steed, if it's of a form that you want then it's probably Unicorns or Nightmares for a bunch of characters. It also has its own statblock and can fly if a 4th level slot is used. It's not specified if you use the minimum spell level when using Faithful Steed, or if it's at the highest possible spell level you can cast even if its free.
-Spell list as a keyword beside the spell name might be helpful when looking through spells

 

[Weiley31]

I find it interesting that they are pulling a mechanic from the Barbarian, a certain amount of Class Specific Feature and using it to replace the amount of X=Proficiency Score.

Was eventually having six uses of X generous/too much in the end?

 

[dave2008]

How does all this not constitute a new edition, I ask you?

That is funny - I had the exact opposite impression: "well, this is clearly just an update of the existing edition."

We all look at things differently!