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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[Stalker0]

That doesn't make any sense.

5 mins is pretty much identical to 1 hour, except it doesn't destroy the dramatic flow of the scenario in the same way.

The point of the person you were quoting is.... they don't see any difference between a 5 minute short rest, and just removing the mechanic entirely and having the party "short reset" after each encounter.

Aka characters just have abilities they can use in every encounter with no attrition.

So there is a consequence of going to 5 min over 1 hour....not saying that isn't a consequence worth paying but it is there.

 

[Ruin Explorer]

EDITED: Split out into separate post because I was editing it into the post when @Ruin Explorer liked the original post without this additional response, and I want to clearly delineate these as two separate subposts of the same overarching thread, which may or may not have the same reaction.


I don't want to put words in people's mouths or assume I know what they would say, but I've got a fewuser names in mind that I think would agree with me if they were posting right now. Or might half-agree with me. And WotC certainly seem to be testing bringing SRs back into the playtest, so I imagine that's evidence that a lot of people LIKE SR-recharge abilities too, and that the Prof.-Bonus / Day recharge abilities had reached the limitation of their usefulness in fixing the underlying balance problems. But that's just my guess…

I think there are two separate issues:

1) Should there be Short Rests.

2) Should they be 1 hour.

A lot of people would say no to 1, but probably less than 70% of people, so by WotC's logic they stay.

But I don't think WotC has remotely considered the length issue, which is one of the major objections to Short Rests "as is". One hours is just insanely long and feels like characters basically putting their feet up. A lot of people don't even get that long for lunch in the US, and whilst I do in the UK, it feels pretty lengthy - like I can go do some shopping, go to the post office and so on during a 1 hr lunch break. Sheesh I used to reliably walk nearly a couple of miles during that time and do some shopping. Trying to tell me that's how long it takes to do these minor recharges, bandaging and stuff for D&D just seems nonsensical.

The point of the person you were quoting is.... they don't see any difference between a 5 minute short rest, and just removing the mechanic entirely and having the party "short reset" after each encounter.

Aka characters just have abilities they can use in every encounter with no attrition.

So there is a consequence of going to 5 min over 1 hour....not saying that isn't a consequence worth paying but it is there.

Here's the thing though - even 4E didn't do that - 4E's "encounter" powers came back after 10 minutes. And that did make a difference, at times. I know because I played 4E. So anyone saying "Well it makes no difference!" is just factually in error - it does - if an encounter goes into another in under 5 minutes, and that does happen, fairly regularly, in D&D, it matters.

 

[Parmandur]

I have, across multiple groups, and so have many others. You never saw any problem with Feats being optional, and indeed basically claimed you'd never seen a Feat in actual play at one point, so I think we can say your experience is probably an outlier.

I mean, not seeing a Feat in play is apparently quite normal, per WotC and Beyond data, hardly an outlier. Mathematically, it is not a change, since the ASI schemata around which Feats are balanced is still at work. Honestly, I'm not sure I won't still just opt for the ASI Feat most of the time.

 

[mamba]

That doesn't make any sense.

5 mins is pretty much identical to 1 hour, except it doesn't destroy the dramatic flow of the scenario in the same way.

It makes everything 'immediately' rechargeable, there is no price to pay, no consequence for using your abilities, when you have infinite uses. With a one hour short rest, you at least lose that time, and maybe cannot afford it. If you have everything back after an encounter, resource use becomes meaningless.

Once skill recharge is gone from short rest, it can be cut to 10 minutes or so, until then I rather have it at 8 hours

 

[Ruin Explorer]

I mean, not seeing a Feat in play is apparently quite normal, per WotC and Beyond data, hardly an outlier. Mathematically, it is not a change, since the ASI schemata around which Feats are balanced is still at work. Honestly, I'm not sure I won't still just opt for the ASI Feat most of the time.

You won't initially because it's not available at L1 but you do get a Feat then lol. We'll see what's available at later levels. It isn't in any current playtest package, so I think it's premature to rule things out.

 

[Ruin Explorer]

It makes everything 'immediately' rechargeable, there is no price to pay, no consequence for using your abilities, when you have infinite uses.

I've played 4E, so I know this isn't really true, nor even a real problem. I've also played 5E where people did Short Rest regularly, and it wasn't a problem. If anything, it was more balanced.

It's outright false to claim resources become "meaningless"

As for "at eight hours", well, if we eliminate Short Rests as recharging stuff, sure, then we could rebalance the entire game. But WotC is committed to not doing that.

 

[FitzTheRuke]

The hypocrisy and special pleading angle on that post is incredible, given it's directed at me, when we've got people here making a dedicated effort to kick up an edition war.

Hypocrisy? Pot meet kettle. There was only a minor amount of edition warring on this thread until you posted the post that I quoted and kicked it up by a large factor. While on the other hand, you won't find ME edition warring. I like ALL the editions! You really didn't notice what you kicked up? Honestly, from a bystander's perspective: You tossed kerosene on a minor fire.

At any rate, I'm going to take you at your word. If you (as you say) want to lessen edition-warring then I recommend that you talk about something other than edition-warring. I'm going to take my own advice now. Peace!

How 'bout dem UAs?

 

[Zaukrie]

I'm experimenting with the first short rest is one minute, the next fifteen, then an hour. Then it resets to one, etc. It's more complicated than WotC would do.....

 

[FitzTheRuke]

People disagree as to how exactly Short Rests should be changed or eliminated, but it's a surprisingly close to unanimous agreement that "1 hour Short Rests" suck.

For sure. IMO, they should probably be 10 minutes. 1 hour is just the worst choice. But, for some reason, I don't think they're going to do much at all (in the end) with Short Rests.

 

[Parmandur]

You won't initially because it's not available at L1 but you do get a Feat then lol. We'll see what's available at later levels. It isn't in any current playtest package, so I think it's premature to rule things out.

The current packet has the "+2 to one attribute or +1 to two attributes" 4th Level Feat, and I believe Crawfodd is on record thst it is one. The Background Feat is definitely here to stay, but that's been in every book since 2020. Whether most will bother with non-ASI Feats at 4 and after...I have doubts, based on 9 years now of never seeing it.