D&D (2024) New Unearthed Arcana Playtest Includes Barbarian, Druid, and Monk

The latest Unearthed Arcana playtest packet is now live with new barbarian, druid, and monk versions, as well as new spells and weapons, and a revised Ability Score Improvement feat.

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WHATS INSIDE

Here are the new and revised elements in this article:

Classes. Three classes are here: Barbarian, Druid, and Monk. Each one includes one subclass: Path of the World Tree (Barbarian), Circle of the Moon (Druid), and Warrior of the Hand (Monk).

Spells. New and revised spells are included.

The following sections were introduced in a previous article and are provided here for reference:

Weapons. Weapon revisions are included.

Feats. This includes a revised version of Ability Score Improvement.

Rules Glossary. The rules glossary includes the few rules that have revised definitions in the playtest. In this document, any underlined term in the body text appears in the glossary.

 

[Henadic Theologian]

This is my favorite playtest packet yet. Monk looks great -- ki points (or, ahem, discipline points) have effectively been doubled, which automatically makes the monk massively more fun and strong. Druid seems to be finally in a good spot, assuming that the PH will have enough options for wildshape. Barb isn't that much different but didn't need to be. The small changes to barb are all nice ones. The fixes to healing and summoning are just delightful.

Basically this packet fixed everything I was upset about (monks are weak and bland, druid wildshape was ruined in a previous packet) and also fixed stuff I didn't realize I ought to have been upset about (healing spells suck, too many summoned critters). This is GOOD.

I would happily play this version of D&D, right now, tomorrow, with no tweaks. I feel so much better about 5.5e now.

I'm still calling them Ki points, it's more flavourful.

 

[Charlaquin]

I like Starry Wisp. It's flavorful and makes sense for the Druid (especially wildfire). I would love to have it open for Rangers and Paladins, but I can't remember if they kept or lost cantrips

They lost them as a default feature when they got weapon mastery. But, if Tasha’s fighting style options are still on the table (which, backwards compatibility assumed, they should be) you can always pick them up that way.

 

[Kurotowa]

I agree, I wish they had kept Summon spells as combat, and Conjure as utility. Make it kind of like Find Familiar. You can conjure an animal to help you climb, scout, sniff out threats, guide you through the wilderness... But it won't fight for you. To me that would be a much more interesting Conjure spell.

I mean... isn't that what Find Familiar already does? That's why they gave Druids the new Wild Companion feature, so they can burn a spell slot or Wild Shape charge to get a temporary animal companion to do all those things, using the Find Familiar rules. And if you want an animal pet for your Ranger or Bard or Ancients Paladin, take Magic Initiate as your free starting feat and pick up the spell.

It's hard to picture a way to have magically conjured animal assistants that do more than Find Familiar yet aren't combat oriented.

 

[Charlaquin]

And that won't work because if you like the OG Conjure Spells, your going to hate these Spells.

The original conjure spells are out, mark my words. These may or may not replace them, but something will, and it will not work like the originals. WotC recognizes that the originals cause significant problems, and simply not reprinting them in the new PHB won’t solve those problems because backwards compatibility will allow people to take the original versions. They have no recourse other than to re-work the spells into a completely different form.

 

[BookTenTiger]

I mean... isn't that what Find Familiar already does? That's why they gave Druids the new Wild Companion feature, so they can burn a spell slot or Wild Shape charge to get a temporary animal companion to do all those things, using the Find Familiar rules. And if you want an animal pet for your Ranger or Bard or Ancients Paladin, take Magic Initiate as your free starting feat and pick up the spell.

It's hard to picture a way to have magically conjured animal assistants that do more than Find Familiar yet aren't combat oriented.

I totally understand that the Conjure spells were a mess in combat, but nothing will replace the joy of realizing Giant Owls don't provoke Attacks of Opportunity and conjuring eight of them to fly the characters out of a too-challenging fight.

To this day "eight Giant Owls" is still an inside joke with some of my players.

 

[Parmandur]

The original conjure spells are out, mark my words. These may or may not replace them, but something will, and it will not work like the originals. WotC recognizes that the originals cause significant problems, and simply not reprinting them in the new PHB won’t solve those problems because backwards compatibility will allow people to take the original versions. They have no recourse other than to re-work the spells into a completely different form.

The big compatability issue is going to be Monster and NPCstat blocks and Subclasses thwt great the Spells.

 

[Retros_x]

As a fan of the monk class - I love the changes. More flexibility, more ki points to use, thats just great stuff.

I just wish they would make the level 20 capstone of every class "increase these two ability scores by four (maximum 26)." If you are going to break the ceiling for single classed Monks and Barbarians, break it for everyone who forgoes multiclassing and sticks to 20 levels of their class.

IMO the monk is so MAD, it is a really cool compensation for them. Don't think the barbarian needed it, but I guess its kinda flavorful because the barbarian and the monk are THE classes where the own honed body is the main focus. Definitely don't need it for other classes though although I'll admit it is a nice perk to reward single class builds.

 

[Neonchameleon]

And that won't work because if you like the OG Conjure Spells, your going to hate these Spells.

The problem with the OG Conjure spells is that they clutter up things for everyone at the table. As a DM I'm going to hate you if you Conjure Animals - multiple stat blocks, multiple combos, and no one is ever prepared - and you're forcing a decision on me I am not prepared for and don't really care about. And as a player if yo show up and try to Conjure Animals and aren't fully prepared you're going to be really annoying as you faff with all those stat blocks and make all the players wait. Meanwhile if you use a Tasha's Summon you've got the stat block right there; as a DM I can let you run your own stuff and as a player if you've done the bare minimum you'll be as prepared and lacking in timewasting as all but the most prepared conjurers.

And this is why the OG Conjure spells are out. Unless you're a very skilled player if you take them you are making everyone else's experience at the table worse. And the number of OG Conjure lovers isn't even close to large enough to make up for that.

 

[UngeheuerLich]

I totally understand that the Conjure spells were a mess in combat, but nothing will replace the joy of realizing Giant Owls don't provoke Attacks of Opportunity and conjuring eight of them to fly the characters out of a too-challenging fight.

To this day "eight Giant Owls" is still an inside joke with some of my players.

Conjure elementals were alway having a cast time of one minute.
So maybe the solution is just having a cast time of 1 minute for every conjure spells and a curated list of options. So summoning is for in combat. Conjuring is used before combat happens.

 

[Neonchameleon]

The big compatability issue is going to be Monster and NPCstat blocks and Subclasses thwt great the Spells.

How many of these are there actually in official sources? I get as far as the Lizardfolk Shaman and the Drow Priestess of Lolth.