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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[Bill Zebub]

But, I'm fairly willing to put money on the idea that if Plane Shift were removed from the PHB, very, very few people would even notice.

And some percentage of those would merely be looking for evidence that everything WotC is doing is Bad.

 

[Parmandur]

Man it took me a lot of re-reading to parse that.
Have you a link to the Perkins quote? My impression regarding the lack of high level play comes from analysis of active character builds on D&DBeyond but has never surveyed people as to why campaigns end or deep analysis of that nature.

My view is that the game is 10 years old, one book for high level play would not kill them.

Well, there is one book thst goes to 20.

I couldn't find the exact discussion (it was on some podcast or Convention panel), but basically what WotC has discovered is that there are some people who like playing high level, and some who don't. Separately, there are some people who like running publish material, and some who prefer making their own stuff. Turns out the Venn overlap between people who like playing high level and who like running published stuff is very, very low...and not just because of a lack of material. I recall that this was a part of a conversation a out why the Level end for the big campaign books went down from 15: most people who bought and used the books wanted to start a new campaign well before Level 15.

So, for high Level play, providing Monsters and DM tools is a better bottom line profitable enterprise than publishing Adventures thst don't have an audience.

 

[Parmandur]

@UngainlyTitan I found the following from an AMA, shortly before they stopped doing 1-15 books (Curse of Strahd on, the endgame is more like 10-11 usually, Dungogrom the Mad Mage and the anthologies are the only books that go past 13):

"DMs tend to customize their campaigns more an more as their characters gain levels. It's hard to create high-level adventures that will serve tens of thousands of DMs. Also, our research shows that a relatively low percentage of campaigns make it to levels 16+. However, that doesn't rule out high-level content in the future."

 

[UngainlyTitan]

@UngainlyTitan I found the following from an AMA, shortly before they stopped doing 1-15 books (Curse of Strahd on, the endgame is more like 10-11 usually, Dungogrom the Mad Mage and the anthologies are the only books that go past 13):

"DMs tend to customize their campaigns more an more as their characters gain levels. It's hard to create high-level adventures that will serve tens of thousands of DMs. Also, our research shows that a relatively low percentage of campaigns make it to levels 16+. However, that doesn't rule out high-level content in the future."

Thanks, I found Dungeon of the Mad Mage very hit or miss at least at the level I ran it (12 to 17). One of the thing I noticed watching high level CR is that Matt Mercer really throws the kitchen sink at the party and they mostly survive it.

 

[mellored]

Thanks, I found Dungeon of the Mad Mage very hit or miss

Sounds appropriate.

 

[Parmandur]

Thanks, I found Dungeon of the Mad Mage very hit or miss at least at the level I ran it (12 to 17). One of the thing I noticed watching high level CR is that Matt Mercer really throws the kitchen sink at the party and they mostly survive it.

I mean, they have 7 PCs (sometijes more!). The DMG just gives up on even trying to offer advice at that point.

DotMM being hit or miss is an example of how difficult it is to write high Level material for unknown high Level PCs: you as DM know what your party is capable of, but the number of potential combos is a.bit much for Perkons to take into account.

 

[UngainlyTitan]

I mean, they have 7 PCs (sometijes more!). The DMG just gives up on even trying to offer advice at that point.

fair point but I think the approach is a clear indicator of the power of high level characters.

DotMM being hit or miss is an example of how difficult it is to write high Level material for unknown high Level PCs: you as DM know what your party is capable of, but the number of potential combos is a.bit much for Perkons to take into account.

The encounter guideline is a problem in 5e and it gets worse as one get to higher and higher levels. It is not, in my opinion the issue with DotMM which is more of "What the hell are we doing here?" kind of issue.
Ok, many of the encounters are well below what the party is capable of (except the odd one that is not) but the real issue is to address the question "why are we doing this" and the adventure does not provide much in the line of answers.
It is both too big and not big enough.
It is not big enough (on a given level) to give a true sandbox campaign setting where the party has to engage with the locals and make alliances in order to survive, nor are the different level engaged with one another in a meaningful way. Nor does it give a really good reason to be there in the first place.
I think one would be better off getting one of the older version of Undermountain and adapting that for 5e.

 

[James Gasik]

fair point but I think the approach is a clear indicator of the power of high level characters.

The encounter guideline is a problem in 5e and it gets worse as one get to higher and higher levels. It is not, in my opinion the issue with DotMM which is more of "What the hell are we doing here?" kind of issue.
Ok, many of the encounters are well below what the party is capable of (except the odd one that is not) but the real issue is to address the question "why are we doing this" and the adventure does not provide much in the line of answers.
It is both too big and not big enough.
It is not big enough (on a given level) to give a true sandbox campaign setting where the party has to engage with the locals and make alliances in order to survive, nor are the different level engaged with one another in a meaningful way. Nor does it give a really good reason to be there in the first place.
I think one would be better off getting one of the older version of Undermountain and adapting that for 5e.

I still have my maps for Ruins of Undermountain. Sadly, I haven't had much luck with running dungeon crawls with modern D&D; rather than have lots of minor encounters as the party pushes forward, I find myself having to use only major encounters because it's too darned time consuming otherwise.

 

[Maxperson]

Do players actually use the Planeshift spell? I've never seen it cast by a player in all the years I've played D&D.

I've seen it used a handful of times. Certainly less than 10 times over the last 40 years. It's rare for sure.

 

[Maxperson]

It's laughable in terms of the amount they're changing, based on the current playtest material and what they're saying.

1E to 2E would be a better comparison, if we look at realities instead of spin.

2e probably should have been 1.5. I think the biggest change was adding the proficiency system. Most of the rest was the same or very similar to 1e.