D&D (2024) One D&D Survey Feedback: Weapon Mastery Spectacular; Warlock and Wizard Mixed Reactions

Jeremy Crawford discusses the results of the Packet 5 Survey:

• Weapon Mastery at 80% approval, and all options except for Flex scored similarly. Crawford says that Flex is mathematically one of the most powerful properties, but will need some attention because people didn't feel like it was. This feature is in the 2024 PHB for 6 Classes, guaranteed at this point.
• Barbarian scored well, particularly the individual features, average satisfaction of 80% for each feature. Beserker got 84% satisfaction, while the 2014 Beserker in the 2020 Big Class Survey got 29% satisfaction.
• Fighter received well, overall 75% satisfaction. Champion scored 54% in the Big Class Survey, but this new one got 74%.
• Sorcerer in the Big Class Survey got 60%, this UA Sorcerer got 72%. Lots of enthusiasm for the Metamagic revisions. Careful Spell got 92% satisfaction. Twin Spell was the exception, at 60%. Draconic Sorcerer got 73%, new Dragon Wings feature was not well received but will be fixed back to being on all the time by the return to 2014 Aubclass progression.
• Class specific Spell lists are back in UA 7 coming soon, the unified Spell lists are out.
• Warlock feedback reflected mixed feelings in the player base. Pact magic is coming back in next iteration. Next Warlock will be more like 2014, Mystic Arcanum will be a core feature, but will still see some adjustments based on feedback to allow for more frequent use of Spells. Eldritch Invocations were well received. Crawford felt it was a good test, because they learned what players felt. They found the idiosyncracy of the Warlock is exactly what people like about it, so theybare keeping it distinct. Next version will get even more Eldritch Invocation options.
• Wizard got a mixed reception. Biggest problem people had was wanting a Wizard specific Spell list, not a shared Arcane list that made the Wizard less distinct. Evoker well received.

 

[Charlaquin]

Look on reddit, Remathilis is far, far from alone on this, this is actually the angriest I've seen fans in this whole process. I think WotC miscalculated here.

Redit is probably an even less reliable barometer for the D&D community at large than ENWorld, which is kind of impressive.

 

[Shardstone]

Sure

Just more proof that anything Crawford says is ultimately meaningless and that D&D has no real coherent vision behind it. Cheers, sorry for berating you before.

 

[Charlaquin]

Just more proof that anything Crawford says is ultimately meaningless and that D&D has no real coherent vision behind it. Cheers, sorry for berating you before.

I mean, it was perfectly clear to me that he was absolutely not saying that was off the table. Maybe ‘y’all just misunderstood what he was saying.

I appreciate the apology though.

 

[ProfessorDetective]

Sorcerers are about innate magic. I strongly believe that no Sorcerer magic should ever need a material component. They should be able to ignore all mundane material component requirements that don't have a monetary value, or require an object to utilize, like Augury or Identify, or Chromatic Orb. Instead of Chromatic Orb they can have their own Sorcerer spells that have flexible energy options, like Sorcerous Burst, Chaos Bolt, and Arcane Eruption, each of which don't equire material components.

If the material component is absolutely necessary, it isn't innate, and Sorcerers shouldn't be able to cast it as a sorcery spell. They aren't going to suddenly be able to cast Chromatic Orb or Identify without the expensive item required to cast it.

I've been using some homebrew from DNDWiki and that basically just moved the Arcane Focus to the "Class Features" section of the sheet. I agree on moving the spells with costed materials off of the Sorcs list, as well.

 

[ProfessorDetective]

Then just make 4th list.

Wizardry
Contains all the formulaic scholarly magic.

Wizard could scribe any Arcane or Wizardy spell to their spell books.

No other classes gets access to Wizardry. Simple.

That could also work for Psychics... or Artificers... or even Ritual Casting...

 

[Mistwell]

I still think it's off the table and still suspect the next version will not be short rests but something else. If it's short rests then sure, I am happy to apologize. I didn't think I was berating you though.

 

[ProfessorDetective]

I'm happy about these lack of changes. The less the core changes, the less time that third party designers need to spend revising their stuff to fit the new core and the more time they spend actually pushing 5e design forward, since they're better at evolving 5e than WotC is.

Or just ignore this OneDND business and fully move to the Creative Commons SRD as the "standard" foundation.

 

[Mistwell]

I think people are missing something on the use of versatile. I thought a lot of melee-types who had access to some spells were the ones using it a lot. You needed a hand free to cast a spell, but for those rounds you were not casting a spell or casting a spell which didn't require a hand, then you used two hands.

 

[Azzy]

I wasn't fond of the homogenized spell lists, I was just starting to begrudgingly accept them. So this is a win, I guess.

As a fan of the Warlock, I'm glad that Pact Magic is back in.

Glad to hear that Weapon Mastery is locked in. I'm very happy about that. But since just about every class is getting it, fighters need something else to give them their own identity.

I liked the idea of the unique Wizard spells, but they were rather clunky as spells and should have just been class features ().

 

[Charlaquin]

I still think it's off the table and still suspect the next version will not be short rests but something else. If it's short rests then sure, I am happy to apologize. I didn't think I was berating you though.

I mean. The monk is right there in packet 6, recovering its Ki on a short rest. It’s still possible that won’t be how pact magic works in packet 7 (though I doubt that will be the case), but either way I think it’s plain to see that recovery of primary resources on a short rest is 100% on the table still.