D&D (2024) Bonus Unearthed Arcana Reveals The Bastion System

A 'bonus' Unearthed Arcana playtest document has appeared, and it shows off D&D's upcoming Bastion System.

This October, we’re bringing you a special treat. While we’re continuing to develop and revise public playtesting material for the 2024 Player’s Handbook, we’d thought you’d enjoy an early look at what we’re cooking up for the 2024 Dungeon Master’s Guide.

The coming Dungeon Master’s Guide will be the biggest of its kind in decades and contain an assortment of new tools for DMs and their tables. In Bastions and Cantrips, we’re showcasing one of these tools, the Bastions subsystem. Dungeon Masters and their parties can use this subsystem to build a home, base of operations, or other significant structure for their characters.

And if you’re raring to test out more character options, we’re also including revisions for 10 cantrips in this playtest packet.

Claim Unearthed Arcana now! - D&D Beyond

www.dndbeyond.com

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[UngeheuerLich]

Interesting bard isn't getting a revision. Guess we're getting 2014 spellcasting and magic secrets verbatim.

I watched the video and don't see how you got to that conclusion.

Bard got over 70% satisfaction rate. So lets see how those abilities exactly work.
That said, chances are that with going back to class lists, spellcasting will really go back to 2014. To mystic arcanum: there are different possibilities. One could be just unlocking the sorcerer spell list etc. But my bet would be chosing two spells which you can swap out each level.

 

[UngeheuerLich]

It's barely better than Running 5e with Tasha and later supps. It's 5.1.

But Going from the current playtest, it will still be a significant upgrade in little details.

A lot of background mechanics and systems have been overhauled and made more usable (like the new grab and shove mechanics).
I guess new players will have an even better start and I guess we old ones might start using a few systems more frequently.

I think the bastion system that allows for spending gold and getting a few powerups and possibilities will actually make players interact with the world.

I am really starting to like what I see and feel that designers will score a critical hit, despite some people's negativity towards everything WotC does.

 

[Parmandur]

It occurs to me, that is probably where the term "store", in the sense of a shop, comes from.

Indeed!

 

[Parmandur]

So the current bastion system really encourages you to treat your defenders like hot garbage! I will explain.

You have a barracks which has defenders. Now, you could build an armory, and for a ton of gold you could give your defenders a sliiiiightly better chance of surviving the next attack.

OR....you don't do that, because the attack is a super rare event (and the chance to lose a large amount of defenders near impossible), and just allow your barrack to refresh 4 new guys next week with not a drop of cost. hehe sorry billy the defender, but your not getting the armor upgrade.....timmy down the road is always looking for work if you get killed in a fight.

Hell it gets worse. It costs 1300 gp at the armory to equip my 12 barracks guys. Or, for just 2k gold I upgrade my barracks and get 12 more guys....virtually guarranting I will never run out of defenders and with no ongoing cost.

That's whybitbisn8mportsnt to give then names and families. Players will then dedicate their characters lives to protecting them.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

thanks!

Count me as another vote for.

I wouldn’t be surprised if the Druid has a way to get extra attack, anyway, in the next test.

 

[beta-ray]

The terminology is throwing me off. An establishment with magic potions on tap sounds like an exclusive club catering to high level murder hobos, not the local public house.

Wouldn't it depend on what kind of world you are playing in? If it is low-level fantasy, then maybe. If it is a world full of magic in everyday life, maybe not.

 

[Tonguez]

Bastions sound cool and I do like random events affecting meaningful NPCs

 

[Neonchameleon]

But Going from the current playtest, it will still be a significant upgrade in little details.

A lot of background mechanics and systems have been overhauled and made more usable (like the new grab and shove mechanics).
I guess new players will have an even better start and I guess we old ones might start using a few systems more frequently.

I think the bastion system that allows for spending gold and getting a few powerups and possibilities will actually make players interact with the world.

I am really starting to like what I see and feel that designers will score a critical hit, despite some people's negativity towards everything WotC does.

I'm in a similar position with one exception; I think that some variant of Flex is needed (although I suppose Graze does the job of simple mastery). All the classes are improved and they were all decent to start with (although that took about five years for the sorcerer and is only borderline with the monk).

But the bad side of 5e was always the DM experience. And we've only just started to see anything there with the Bastion system.

 

[UngeheuerLich]

I'm in a similar position with one exception; I think that some variant of Flex is needed (although I suppose Graze does the job of simple mastery). All the classes are improved and they were all decent to start with (although that took about five years for the sorcerer and is only borderline with the monk).

But the bad side of 5e was always the DM experience. And we've only just started to see anything there with the Bastion system.

I agree with flex.
But if every versatile weapon had flex, it would be a non-benefit. You could just roll that into versatile.

Maybe versatile weapons could just get two different masteries.

I disagree with the DM experience. It is better than the 3e DM experience by far. It is just the unhelpful DMG that leaves a bad taste.

 

[EzekielRaiden]

I disagree with the DM experience. It is better than the 3e DM experience by far. It is just the unhelpful DMG that leaves a bad taste.

Not a difficult bar to clear, considering how utterly awful 3e was. It is quite easy to fly higher than the bottom of the Mariana Trench. Which, I mean, has anyone ever denied that 5e is better than 3e about most serious issues? It is. Even I freely admit that, and I'm no 5e booster. "Better" is relative.

Especially when the edition was explicitly and intentionally built around "you're the DM, you figure it out," while putting out, as you say, an incredibly unhelpful DMG.