D&D (2024) Jeremy Crawford Gives an Overview of the New Unearthed Arcana

The upcoming Unearthed Arcana playtest packet for One D&D gets a preview from WotC's Jeremy Crawford. This is apparently the largest of these playtest packets so far, and the biggest Unearthed Arcana they have ever done, at 50 pages long.

It contains 5 classes, new spells, new feats, a revised rules glossary, and the new weapon mastery system.

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[Charlaquin]

I think the implication is that the attack as a whole, including the mastery bonus, is equivalent to a cantrip. But this still seems like a strange comparison, in that attack cantrips are already the magic equivalent of a basic attack.

Agreed

If anything, cantrips are already a bit weaker than basic attacks from martial characters.

That’s pretty debatable

 

[Zaukrie]

In theory I like the idea, I am just hoping for maybe a bit more than what they are giving us as far as weapon mastery goes. A bleed effect on a weapon would be nice, things that grant disadvantage in their next attack would be very cool as well. Personally I want some mechanical difference between a longsword and a battle axe and was a little upset that that is not the case even after the new properties were added. Same for the war pick and morningstar being identical

Agreed

 

[I'm A Banana]

I don’t get the cantrip comparison. “Increase your weapon damage die from 1d8 to 1d10” would give True Strike a run for its money as worst cantrip in the game.

I mean, it's a playtest. If it's weak, we can tell them.

I can totally imagine a cantrip that you'd use when you cast a spell (or maybe as a bonus action, but ick) to give you a damage boost on your next weapon attack. It'd probably be pretty small (like +2 or +1d4), since off-action effects need to be pretty small. And that might still be useless (maybe it just can't be big enough as an off-action option and instead we say "do this instead of an attack and use these dice instead!). But it's totally in the same design space.

 

[Incenjucar]

My objection is that it's a choice-erasing feature. It takes something that has a built-in meaningful choice and removes that choice.

 

[Neonchameleon]

With Flex, your weapon is now just a strong one-handed weapon with nothing else interesting. It basically erases the versatile part of the weapon.

I fail to see the problem with there being simple options that don't require faff as long as that's not all there is.

 

[Incenjucar]

I fail to see the problem with there being simple options that don't require faff as long as that's not all there is.

It's ten kinds of garbage as a weapon property. Make Discount Monkey Grip a feat unrelated to this new system, sure, cool, I'm down, but this is terrible as a part of this system.

 

[FitzTheRuke]

My objection is that it's a choice-erasing feature. It takes something that has a built-in meaningful choice and removes that choice.

I understand what you're saying, but it's not like very much brain power was being used on "Should I two hand my battle-axe, or use a shield? Hmmm...."

 

[Neonchameleon]

It's ten kinds of garbage as a weapon property. Make Discount Monkey Grip a feat unrelated to this new system, sure, cool, I'm down, but this is terrible as a part of this system.

I can't agree. I don't want to play a fighter who Just Hits Things - but there are plenty of people who do. And here's the weapon for Just Hitting Things. Yes it's dull, but some people want that.

And I'm trying to recall if I've ever seen anyone make use of the Versatile property.

 

[Minigiant]

Personality

Golfbag Fighters is not to me the best representation of the core Fighter. Few warriors in fantasy and real life use a golfbag of weapons.

Most warriors use a preferred melee weapon and a preferred ranged weapon.

Ironically the Golfbag Warrior is Iconically the Monk and other Monk adjancents like Ninjas and Pugilists.

 

[I'm A Banana]

I think the implication is that the attack as a whole, including the mastery bonus, is equivalent to a cantrip. But this still seems like a strange comparison, in that attack cantrips are already the magic equivalent of a basic attack. If anything, cantrips are already a bit weaker than basic attacks from martial characters.

Cantrips typically have an add-on effect while martial weapons typically do a bit more damage. The most 1:1 is probably a Longbow and Eldritch Blast, and even that has some nuance in the comparison.

Cantrips will still probably cover more possible narrative space than weapon mastery abilities (there probably won't be a weapon mastery ability equivalent to mending or light or spare the dying....unlesss...), but I like getting martial characters in on the additional effects.

Some of the specific effects (graze, slow, maybe this bonus damage thing) seem kind of weird, but I'm digging the overall idea.

I fail to see the problem with there being simple options that don't require faff as long as that's not all there is.

Yeah, big agree in general. A pure damage boost is a little bit of a weird case though in that it can only ever really fall into one of two camps: either it's tiny and mostly unnoticable, OR it's bigger and thus is the obvious choice in almost every circumstance. Of the two, tiny seems like the better option - you can use it as a default when you're not tripping and flipping and shoving and loving.