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 ...

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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]

But that’s the thing. The reason spells are the way they are - fire and forget, limited use - is purely gamist. And then a “consistent” explanation is slapped on top and it’s all good.

But as soon as it’s not magic, we must adhere to rigorous physics and real world rules.

So of course the classes can never be even remotely balanced. Non-magic classes are working with one arm tied behind their back.

The problem isn't that that non-magic must adhere to real world physics, it's the outdated notion that the game even needs non-magical classes.

The fighter is a relic. Designed when magic users had 1 spell per day and clerics didn't get a spell until 2nd level. Magic (and by magic, I mean every supernatural source of power be it ki, spells, psionics, incarnum, planar energy, etc) is in every part of the game now. Except fighters. They must never touch any sort of magic even once (subclasses excluded) because the guy who likes playing Boromir will be sad and meanwhile those who want fighters out of myth and legend ALSO don't want supernatural explanations why they are mythical despite the fact every mythic hero in legend has a reason they are beyond mortal limitations (divine blessing, bloodline, magical artifacts, etc).

So you get this nebulous zone where the fighter is tugged back and forth between doing mundane things nonmagically and doing supernatural things nonmagically when the obvious problem is "nonmagically". Once you remove that and allow the fighter the same crazy origins that fuel monks, bards, barbarians and every other class (and yes, the rogue should get in on the fun too and get magical toys. He pretty much does). I want fighters tapping into the power of the Multiverse. Fighters with draconic blood or the blessing of the Gods. Fighters who use psionics, chakras, or chaos magic. I want fighters a cut above common soldiers and guards as a wizard is to a scribe or a rogue is to a common pickpocket.

Remove. The. Notion. The. Fighter. Is. Non. Magical. You solve all the problems with the fighter by giving him the tools and the story needed to compete with the other classes.

 

[tetrasodium]

In case you truly haven't got the point, lemme explain.

Again.

Say one adventure has you clear out a goblin cave. You move from one dungeon room to the next. Each fight or encounter takes place a few minutes after the last one, tops. If you run from room to room, encounters can be separated by as little as one combat round, or not at all.

In order for long rest classes to not be utterly irrelevant, the rules pretty much steer you into fighting for 15 minutes and then calling it a day. (I mean that literally, do google "the 15 minute adventuring day")

So we drop that useless and senseless rule and instead say, if you take a breather, say pausing five minutes without anything happening, that counts as a long rest.

And balance between characters is restored without needlessly having to come up with stupid reasons the goblins just sit on their hands for 23,5 hours.

---

Say the next adventure takes the heroes across a big frikkin desert. You definitely don't want or need a random monster popping up every 2 minutes or so. Instead, what you want is several days of nothingness interpunctuated by the occasional encounter.

In order for long rest classes to not utterly dominate (since going nova is the obvious norm when the next encounter takes place three days from now), we also drop the useless and senseless rule "you gain back all your powers after sleeping for one night".

Instead we say, you only gain the benefits of a long rest if you sleep for a night at an oasis or other safe haven. Which obviously is something the adventure controls access to.

And balance between characters is restored.

---

Point is: the default assumption, which partly is "sleeping for the night counts as a long rest" but more importantly is "long rest works the same all the time", works against adventure writers. It is a bad rule that makes writers avoid some stories for no reason.

Don't argue spells must be replenished by sleeping because that's "realistic". It's magic. There's zero reason to shackle yourself to "realism" (rolls eyes) for this particular rule when just about everything else isn't.

Rests need to happen at the speed of plot, just as everything else. Saying this is the job of the most core of the core rulebooks: the Player's Handbook.

It should specifically and explicitly say that rests happen when the DM says they do. You can ask what you need to do to achieve a rest, but you should expect the answer to be tailored towards the specific adventure you're currently having. There is no default assumption. Every single adventure should adopt the habit of telling the DM up-front, just as you tell the DM the intended level range of the party and such.

---

Look, I might come on strong, but I'm basically explaining to myself and everybody else just how far the game needs to go to break the current expectations and finally make long and short rests work.

It's either that or drop the dichotomy.

Either way, please remember this issue doesn't make my list of top three things I want 6E to do.

Just going to ignore that the design of 5e is one where short rest classes get to dig in to take a "breather" every fight or two so they can nova through the next fight or two and whine that if they don't get their rests every time they burn their resources as fast as they could thst they are useless beside the long rest classes the gm is Allowing to "utterly dominate"?

That was the case in 2014 and still is as of the current packet 6

 

[Micah Sweet]

But that’s the thing. The reason spells are the way they are - fire and forget, limited use - is purely gamist. And then a “consistent” explanation is slapped on top and it’s all good.

But as soon as it’s not magic, we must adhere to rigorous physics and real world rules.

So of course the classes can never be even remotely balanced. Non-magic classes are working with one arm tied behind their back.

Find me magic in the real world, and I'll argue that it should actually work that way. But if not, what you want is to fundamentally change how D&D works. Its fine to want that, but I wouldn't hold my breath.

 

[mellored]

To clarify, I mean daily attrition disconnected from encounter design.

Classic D&D encounter design is daily, split into waves (i.e. rooms) so you don't get overwhelmed all at once.

 

[mamba]

To clarify, I mean daily attrition disconnected from encounter design.

where is the daily attrition coming from, if not from encounters?

 

[Maxperson]

@Sacrosanct @DEFCON 1
Some one pointed out that the spell causes the attacked to take extra damage. Which matches with what sneak attack does. So it looks like those dice would be doubled too. dang.

I'm not entirely convinced. While the language is similar, Sneak Attack doesn't require a bonus action and is not a spell being cast. Spells don't crit unless they have a spell attack associated with it. The Smite spells don't have specific wording to change that general rule, so might not double on a crit. No way at this point to know if it is intended that they double with crits and is an oversight, or if they don't double on a crit.

 

[Hussar]

Find me magic in the real world, and I'll argue that it should actually work that way. But if not, what you want is to fundamentally change how D&D works. Its fine to want that, but I wouldn't hold my breath.

That's not really the issue though.

The issue is that fighters already CAN do 6 impossible things before breakfast, but, unlike anyone else, can never, must never do 7. We accept that HP are wonky and completely unrealistic, but, that's fine because it's D&D. We accept that a fighter can only do a special maneuver so many times before resting - a la the battlemaster - but, not too much. Not too powerful. Only a little bit. What's the difference between a battlemaster's maneuvers and a spell? Pretty much nothing.

But the notion of having maneuvers that cost two superiority dice? Oh hell no. Absolutely not. That would "fundamentally change how D&D works."

So, nothing ever gets changed.

 

[Maxperson]

That's not really the issue though.

The issue is that fighters already CAN do 6 impossible things before breakfast, but, unlike anyone else, can never, must never do 7. We accept that HP are wonky and completely unrealistic, but, that's fine because it's D&D. We accept that a fighter can only do a special maneuver so many times before resting - a la the battlemaster - but, not too much. Not too powerful. Only a little bit. What's the difference between a battlemaster's maneuvers and a spell? Pretty much nothing.

But the notion of having maneuvers that cost two superiority dice? Oh hell no. Absolutely not. That would "fundamentally change how D&D works."

So, nothing ever gets changed.

I don't mind maneuvers that cost 2 or even 3 dice and are stronger. However, if what is being done is clearly supernatural, I want it said that the fighter's skill has transcended mundane and become magical. Split a cloud in half with a sword swing from 10 miles away, but don't try to tell me that it was a mundane skill that did it.

 

[Micah Sweet]

That's not really the issue though.

The issue is that fighters already CAN do 6 impossible things before breakfast, but, unlike anyone else, can never, must never do 7. We accept that HP are wonky and completely unrealistic, but, that's fine because it's D&D. We accept that a fighter can only do a special maneuver so many times before resting - a la the battlemaster - but, not too much. Not too powerful. Only a little bit. What's the difference between a battlemaster's maneuvers and a spell? Pretty much nothing.

But the notion of having maneuvers that cost two superiority dice? Oh hell no. Absolutely not. That would "fundamentally change how D&D works."

So, nothing ever gets changed.

When have I ever complained about superiority dice? I don't care if you can do powerful things, as long as the supernatural is called out. I don't see what you're getting at.

 

[Remathilis]

I don't mind maneuvers that cost 2 or even 3 dice and are stronger. However, if what is being done is clearly supernatural, I want it said that the fighter's skill has transcended mundane and become magical. Split a cloud in half with a sword swing from 10 miles away, but don't try to tell me that it was a mundane skill that did it.

100%

Nobody tries to complain that a bard can't really mock someone so perfectly they have an aneurysm and die; we say, "its bardic magic" and accept it. I want fighter "magic". I want rogue "magic". I want it clearly defined in the lore and the mechanics. I'd LOVE it be a clearly defined as sorcerers where each subclass is the origin of their "magic".