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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[Stalker0]

-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.

this is what I thought at first, but if you read it carefully, it’s not roll the spell level or higher, it’s just roll the spell level. So you need to roll a 1 on the d4 to recover your 1st level spell. It’s a very poorly worded mechanic, it should just simply be a 4 on the d4 refreshes your spell.

 

[Stalker0]

exactly...

at it's core 23 years of D&D has been "roll 1d20 add mod, and try to hit a target number or higher" that doesn't mean every edition is the same

With respect this isn’t how early editions worked. There were a number of things that were % based or you wanted to roll under X value.

It wasn’t until 3rd edition that “higher is always better”, and the rolls were streamlined to be all about the d20

 

[Stalker0]

My one beef with the Paladin is the same beef I have with the 5e one. The cha to saves has been a core part of the paladins identity for a long time, it was THE reason to get high charisma as a Paladin. In 5e you don’t get it until 6th, and now it’s 7th, meaning many Paladin characters will never get that ability.

Now I respect that the power is incredible. I would be fine with “cha mod to saves, but no higher than your prof mod” or something like that. But it annoys me that paladins are only charismatic now for spell purposes (and frankly plenty of paladins can just dump charisma, use spells for smite and buffs, and not even feel it).

 

[Horwath]

with new druid wild shape;
why isn't wild shape now free at-will ability?

it does not give extra HP, it only replaces some abilities with others.

take a look at druid in 3.5E PHB2 variant.

 

[Horwath]

The "regain something when you roll initiative" should really go away.

What is rolling initiative?

I lack resources so I will slap a party member for 1 damage?
Well, the fight is on, roll initiative!


Just bite the bullet and say that short rest is 5min long.

You can do it! It's easy.

 

[Horwath]

Paladin:

so divine sense is not on it's own resource pool, wow, I see so much usage for it now when it competes with Sacred weapon and abjure foe.

It should be an at-will ability that costs Bonus action and lasts until the end of your turn.

 

[Horwath]

I don't like that it takes until level 11 for Druids to be able to wild shape into a tiny form. In practice, this means that most players will never get to use this aspect of wild shape, and I love it at low levels - it leads to excellent role play situations and gives players a lot of problem solving options if they are clever.

agree, it should be level 3 ability at latest.
and it should come with built in advantage on Stealth checks.

 

[James Gasik]

Paladin:

so divine sense is not on it's own resource pool, wow, I see so much usage for it now when it competes with Sacred weapon and abjure foe.

It should be an at-will ability that costs Bonus action and lasts until the end of your turn.

Was it ever used that much before?

 

[Azzy]

A better example is the Cleric. There was the PHB cleric, the PO:S&P cleric, the PO:S&M cleric, the Complete Priest's Handbook cleric, the Dark Sun cleric, the Domains of Dread cleric, the Faiths and Avatars cleric and the Dragonlance cleric which all featured different sphere/spell access.Some added spheres, some removed them, some changed what spells were in the spheres. And none of those were specialty priests mind you, they were all versions of generic cleric. Thus, it was possible in 2e to have four clerics, each built using a different source, to have wildly different spell lists and power levels.

All hail the S&M Cleric, the favored cleric of Loviatar!

 

[Azzy]

Yeah it's so vague and incoherent. It's like, who the hell came up with this? Not a D&D player, I'd suggest. Both that lore and the Druid design make this look like the intern was allowed to write this playtest packet. The essence of the Paladin is the holy warrior, some weird-ass nonsense about "fighting against oblivion", which sounds more like struggling with personal issues than anything else.

Great, paladins are now suffering with Kierkegaardian existential angst.