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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[GMforPowergamers]

It isn't rewriting, it is new content. Druid 2.0. But built in the same engine, and could play next to Druid 1.0. All part of the same system. Backwards compatible even.

sorry but no. You can't really play 2024 characters with the same class/race as the 2014 characters (atleast no more or less then you could run a 2nd 3rd or 4th edition character next to one)
the change to base rules (status, and spells) the change to where you get what... you have to update a character from 1 book to the other to play at most tables

 

[GMforPowergamers]

Ultimately, it's semantics. The amount of change puts this into 3e->3.5 or 1e->2e territory, by my judgment, but it's not nearly enough change to prevent using both pre and post revision material in the same game. A 2014 druid and this UA druid can play at the same table at the same time.

what vesion of barkskin do you use? how do you explain why one can become small animals the other can't, what about just the spell prep system itself?

 

[Undrave]

I've got a left field proposal for Wildshape; Wildshape should default to specific animal forms, that are unlocked at specific levels, like how prepared spells are laid out for all classes with defaults in the playtest packets. You can turn into a rat at this level, a bear at this level and so on, and then a list of comparable forms should be made available that a druid could pick from instead. By the end of a Druid's career, they should have something like 5-7 specific shapes they know.

That still lets you gate flying, climbing and other special movement modes/beast abilities to specific levels, but lets you preserve some thematic difference between a goat, a wolf and a bear and lets a player make a set of thematic choices about what abilities they care about, without needing a filtered spreadsheet of the MM to do it, and has the nice hook of giving you the ability to offer subclass specific forms.

Having multiple templates for different purposes would be great. Like a big talky herbivore, a bear-like brute for damage, a smaller stalking predator for stealth, and later swimming and flying creatures. Splats could add a giant insect form or two.

 

[Micah Sweet]

what vesion of barkskin do you use? how do you explain why one can become small animals the other can't, what about just the spell prep system itself?

You're forgetting that only the core math matters. Ancillary stuff like many, if not most rules elements people actually use in the game are irrelevant.

 

[Clint_L]

sorry but no. You can't really play 2024 characters with the same class/race as the 2014 characters (atleast no more or less then you could run a 2nd 3rd or 4th edition character next to one)
the change to base rules (status, and spells) the change to where you get what... you have to update a character from 1 book to the other to play at most tables

I have actually played 2024 characters with 2014 characters of the same class/race to compare and it was super easy. Barely an inconvenience.

 

[GMforPowergamers]

WotC's been terrified of flying PCs for years.

I understand (even if I don;t agree) with flying but swim and small sizes seems weird...if anything I would restrict burrow speeds

 

[TwoSix]

what vesion of barkskin do you use? how do you explain why one can become small animals the other can't, what about just the spell prep system itself?

1) Probably the newer one, because I kinda hate the old one. For most spells, I'll probably just let them pick.

2) Why would any 2 people have exactly the same abilities? The nature spirits/deities/whatever their source of power gave them different blessings, that's all. The idea that 2 characters, in the fiction, would expect to gain the exact same supernatural blessings over time just wildly strains credulity.

 

[jerryrice4949]

I'd recommend watching the videos as well as reading the content. They go into a lot of the "why" behind the changes to the classes. For instance, druid is the least played class in 5e, largely because it is so complicated. As a general design goal, they want to move players away from needing access to DM facing material (such as monster stat blocks).

Druid Video

Paladin Video

Wow. I think the Warlock is a lot more complicated.

 

[GMforPowergamers]

They are still there though (in this playtest at least). They even mention the times per proficiency bonus is an issue for some features

oh yeah it isn't gone... you get 1 wild shape back per in this one... just less then I would like

 

[dave2008]

-Epic Boons now also raise ability scores, up to 30, which adds more to epic level play I guess.

That was always an option as a replacement for a boon. From the DMG: