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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[Hexmage-EN]

How is this "backwards compatible"? This is basically D&D 5.5e, everyone is going to be forced to use this or be left behind in products. Heck at this rate it's almost a whole new edition with their changes.

Typical.

They're not that much different than the many class and race variants we've already gotten over 5E's lifespan.

 

[see]

3rd edition Druids couldn't take on Tiny forms until level 11 either.

Which is just wrong. Druids be allowed to take tiny forms as soon as they gain the ability to take animal shapes - at 7th level, just as Gary Gygax intended.

 

[Pedantic]

They're not that much different than the many class and race variants we've already gotten over 5E's lifespan.

There's an established rules framework for that from several editions if they wanted to do it that way. You'd label these "variant Druid" or presented the abilities as "alternative class features."

This is pretty clearly at least on par with the changes from 3e to 3.5.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

I feel you, but it shouldn't be hard to fix. Drop the Animal of Land/Water/Air and replace with a list of features that you pick from when wildshaping. Higher levels get to choose both more features per use and better features (like swim/flight). Keeps it simpler than 2014 without loosing the wonderful variety. Moon Druids get even more feature choices (magical attacks/resistance/etc). Change the 2nd level ability from Find Familar to Familar Form. Stat block is the same, but when you drop to 0 HP you revert.

I disagree. I think having the base statblocks is good, they just need to sub-divide each of them like they do for the summon XYZ spells, and not limit the forms nearly as much. You can layer on secondary traits on top of that, but I don't want a list of traits I have to build the entire beast out of. I want to choose like 3 things, max, at level 1, when I change shape. Enviroment, subtype, and 1 secondary trait is just about perfect. I guess 4 if size is choosable, which it should be. Level 1 you should be able to choose from tiny, small, or medium, with large and huge coming later.

Like why are druids waiting until level 9 to fly? Seriously? What level spells are we casting by level 9? 5th level? A wizard can make what, 3 creatures, fly by this point? And climb speed needs to wait until level 5?! lol nah that's terrible.

Okay, halve the damage you deal when you're tiny, fine. Waiting until levvel 11 to be able to go tiny is terrible. Tiny having a shorter time limit while still using your use of channel nature is terrible. Combining all of that? Absolutely not worth using.

Up thread some are implying that the new wild shape is not for out of combat use. It definitely remains useful out of combat. It’s in combat that is the problem!

The inability to be tiny severely hampers scouting, unless size stuff works differently in the 2024 PHB.

But other than not having an HP boost while in beast form, I don't see anything wrong in combat. I do think that it would make more sense to simply restrict spellcassting to spells that target only yourself while using wild shape, though. Either that, or you should be able to burn slots to get extra damage.

3rd edition Druids couldn't take on Tiny forms until level 11 either.

That edition was so busted I don't think we can usefully use it as a comparison for anything related to balance, frankly.

 

[Minigiant]

I am totally confused... do you mean the 4e Monk? They are at least in tune with the elements...

I mean the 5e design team isn't really in tune with the majority of the 5e audience.

How the 5e design team plays and what they think is cool
AND
How the 5e audience plays and what they think is cool

are different things.

That's what those gray Design Notes boxes on Channel Divinity and Epic Boons are about. Obviously unbalanced stuff that few peope wanted still made it into the playtest and was trounced.

 

[James Gasik]

Which is just wrong. Druids be allowed to take tiny forms as soon as they gain the ability to take animal shapes - at 7th level, just as Gary Gygax intended.

I was just commenting that this has happened before, and I don't remember anyone batting an eye about it last time, lol. Also, "as Gygax intended" has some flaws as well, like not being able to turn into anything larger than a black bear, and you can only change into a specific form once per day. So by the time you get this ability, it's not terribly useful (3 attacks per round doing 1-3, 1-3, and 1-6?) and never gets better.

 

[TerraDave]

I disagree. I think having the base statblocks is good, they just need to sub-divide each of them like they do for the summon XYZ spells, and not limit the forms nearly as much. You can layer on secondary traits on top of that, but I don't want a list of traits I have to build the entire beast out of. I want to choose like 3 things, max, at level 1, when I change shape. Enviroment, subtype, and 1 secondary trait is just about perfect. I guess 4 if size is choosable, which it should be. Level 1 you should be able to choose from tiny, small, or medium, with large and huge coming later.

Like why are druids waiting until level 9 to fly? Seriously? What level spells are we casting by level 9? 5th level? A wizard can make what, 3 creatures, fly by this point? And climb speed needs to wait until level 5?! lol nah that's terrible.



The inability to be tiny severely hampers scouting, unless size stuff works differently in the 2024 PHB.

But other than not having an HP boost while in beast form, I don't see anything wrong in combat. I do think that it would make more sense to simply restrict spellcassting to spells that target only yourself while using wild shape, though. Either that, or you should be able to burn slots to get extra damage.
.

on size and scouting: does it by RAW, or is it more an interpretation? With these you can make WIS based stealth checks.

The loss of the animal HP is a huge, huge nerf in play. And the so-so stats don’t make up for it.

 

[Zaukrie]

Given that they added a bunch of new conditions, I'm skeptical that's the reason...

Good point. I got nothing.

 

[UngeheuerLich]

I mean the 5e design team isn't really in tune with the majority of the 5e audience.

How the 5e design team plays and what they think is cool
AND
How the 5e audience plays and what they think is cool

are different things.

That's what those gray Design Notes boxes on Channel Divinity and Epic Boons are about. Obviously unbalanced stuff that few peope wanted still made it into the playtest and was trounced.

Ok. That is a very strange take... but probably a playtest is to get in tune with the players. If they would not try things out, it would be no playtest would it?

 

[see]

Also, "as Gygax intended" has some flaws as well,

Well, sure. 'Twas part of the joke.