D&D (2024) New One D&D Playtest Document: 77 Pages, 7 Classes, & More!

There's a brand new playtest document for the new (version/edition/update) of Dungeons of Dragons available for download! This one is an enormous 77 pages and includes classes, spells, feats, and weapons.

Unearthed Arcana Playtest

Unearthed Arcana Playtest Materials Get Unearthed Arcana playtest content, try it out in your game, and provide feedback! Check back regularly for ...

www.dndbeyond.com

In this new Unearthed Arcana document for the 2024 Core Rulebooks, we explore material designed for the next version of the Player’s Handbook. This playtest document presents updated rules on seven classes: Bard, Cleric, Druid, Monk, Paladin, Ranger, and Rogue. This document also presents multiple subclasses for each of those classes, new Spells, revisions to existing Spells and Spell Lists, and several revised Feats. You will also find an updated rules glossary that supercedes the glossary of any previous playtest document.

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[Remathilis]

We found a bug!

Check the Packet 6 Divine Spell list!

View attachment 289209

Abjuration for Arcane and Conjuration for Divine?

You're right, it's obviously a typo...

 

[Stalker0]

So one general theme with this packet, it seems they are also pulling back on the removal of short rest abilities.

For a while we saw a lot of shift from X per short rest to Y per long rest. But that also seems to be reverting.

 

[Hussar]

So one general theme with this packet, it seems they are also pulling back on the removal of short rest abilities.

For a while we saw a lot of shift from X per short rest to Y per long rest. But that also seems to be reverting.

Honestly? I think the general theme is one of pulling back from a LOT of changes. Everywhere in the doc, all you see is "This is being reverted to maintain compatibility". Over and over again.

2024 is turning out to be a nice little polish job and not much else. So many of the changes are pretty much just quality of life type stuff.

Ah well, next time someone wants to complain about how WotC won't stray outside their lane, I hope they remember that in both 2014 and 2024, anything that wasn't right down the middle of the lane was shut down.

 

[Parmandur]

Honestly? I think the general theme is one of pulling back from a LOT of changes. Everywhere in the doc, all you see is "This is being reverted to maintain compatibility". Over and over again.

2024 is turning out to be a nice little polish job and not much else. So many of the changes are pretty much just quality of life type stuff.

Ah well, next time someone wants to complain about how WotC won't stray outside their lane, I hope they remember that in both 2014 and 2024, anything that wasn't right down the middle of the lane was shut down.

Which is only to be expected based on the methodology, and Crawford laid this out from the beginning. The starting point was a set of still very popular rules: the glass is half full, they are managing to find the areas that improvement is wanted and implementing it. They can keep this up for decades.

 

[Vael]

Now ... to be fair ... if Survey 6 feedback is mixed/lukewarm, that might embolden some more aggressive changes. We've got some of their more out there changes, here's a more conservative design ... which does better? These designs are explicitly in response to playtest feedback, so if this doesn't score well ... or at least fails to delight ...

 

[Parmandur]

Now ... to be fair ... if Survey 6 feedback is mixed/lukewarm, that might embolden some more aggressive changes. We've got some of their more out there changes, here's a more conservative design ... which does better? These designs are explicitly in response to playtest feedback, so if this doesn't score well ... or at least fails to delight ...

That would probavly entail even more conservative changes, based on the history of UA. However, I think what we are seeing in this document is their first serious proposal for publication: no more trial balloons, A-B testing, or out there experiments. This is what they feel confident meets what people have been saying, and could make it into the final book with minimal fine tuning.

 

[tetrasodium]

Now ... to be fair ... if Survey 6 feedback is mixed/lukewarm, that might embolden some more aggressive changes. We've got some of their more out there changes, here's a more conservative design ... which does better? These designs are explicitly in response to playtest feedback, so if this doesn't score well ... or at least fails to delight ...

I f q that it might be such a regression in so many areas that said survey will have difficulty even convincing a lot of people to bother

 

[Micah Sweet]

Honestly? I think the general theme is one of pulling back from a LOT of changes. Everywhere in the doc, all you see is "This is being reverted to maintain compatibility". Over and over again.

2024 is turning out to be a nice little polish job and not much else. So many of the changes are pretty much just quality of life type stuff.

Ah well, next time someone wants to complain about how WotC won't stray outside their lane, I hope they remember that in both 2014 and 2024, anything that wasn't right down the middle of the lane was shut down.

I would have preferred that they strayed further out of their lane than they telegraphed originally, but I understand that wasn't a financially viable option for them.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

When this came up months ago, the only thing that I could come up with that made sense to me, is that it's rebuking negative chi.

Yeah it’s a bad fit.

Note that Banishment isn't Abjuration anymore. It's Conjuration now. Abjuration is becoming more along the lines of "use positive energy to ward from harm," which is opposite of Necromancy, that "uses negative energy to inflict your will on the world."

Wow. I’m glad you pointed that out. I’ll be very vocal about it in the survey.

Seriously? This infuriates me. You can't conjure something out of existence.

Exactly. Just replace the word Abjuration if it isn’t the spell school of abjuring things.

 

[Shardstone]

Honestly? I think the general theme is one of pulling back from a LOT of changes. Everywhere in the doc, all you see is "This is being reverted to maintain compatibility". Over and over again.

2024 is turning out to be a nice little polish job and not much else. So many of the changes are pretty much just quality of life type stuff.

Ah well, next time someone wants to complain about how WotC won't stray outside their lane, I hope they remember that in both 2014 and 2024, anything that wasn't right down the middle of the lane was shut down.

Yep. This proves the thesis from 2014 — it isn't worth the effort for WotC to get experimental and/or innovative because the fans just don't really care for all of that. They want more of the newly defined norm, which is 2014 but with QoL changes to it. So it shall be.