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.

 

[Horwath]

Just finished a re-read of the entire playtest 8 packet, and I noticed a few changes to Movement that aren't called out but that I don't remember from a previous Rules Glossary in the playtest. I think both of these changes are terrible, and I'd certainly house rule them back to their 2014 versions.

Breaking up your Move - No longer allows you to move between attacks taken with a single action (so if you drop a creature with your 1st attack, other attacks are wasted?)

writing is terrible, but you can still move between attacks.

Moving around other creatures - Hostile creatures now only count as difficult terrain, allies spaces can be moved thru normally. (no setting up a defensive line to protect others?)

This is bad choice,
if they really want it; I would ask for a bull rush or something check, STR save from the blocking creature, to move through opponents space.
Suffering AoO from anyone that threatens that square(s).

 

[tetrasodium]

Just finished a re-read of the entire playtest 8 packet, and I noticed a few changes to Movement that aren't called out but that I don't remember from a previous Rules Glossary in the playtest. I think both of these changes are terrible, and I'd certainly house rule them back to their 2014 versions.

Breaking up your Move - No longer allows you to move between attacks taken with a single action (so if you drop a creature with your 1st attack, other attacks are wasted?)
Moving around other creatures - Hostile creatures now only count as difficult terrain, allies spaces can be moved thru normally. (no setting up a defensive line to protect others?)

Going to look thru some previous packets to see when these changes appeared, but does anyone else remember survey questions about them?

I'm not sure how you got the impression you came away with after reading it because it's so clear in how irrelevant it makes what is in your hand and where you stand. The change will only further slow gameplay for the rest of the table rather than tightening up on foot dragging players* to speed things up & making meaningful decision points in combat. No it's a terrible inclusion that has been there for many packets as it is in this packet.


* No that's not a player problem because the system incentivized to drag things out jockeying for a swing by swing status update or whatever & that same system makes the optimal choice one where you ignore the meaningful positioning in favor of just halting the game's momentum to decide where is most optimal each swing while everyone else at the table waits for most players to do it repeatedly on their turn.

 

[OB1]

writing is terrible, but you can still move between attacks.

This is bad choice,
if they really want it; I would ask for a bull rush or something check, STR save from the blocking creature, to move through opponents space.
Suffering AoO from anyone that threatens that square(s).

I don't think you can. The writing is the exact same as the PHB, but the PHB contains an entire other paragraph that explains that if you have multi-attack, you can move between each attack. Again, if they leave it this way, I'll still rule you can move between attacks (and that you can't move through enemy spaces), but now that I've seen it, I'll be comment on it in the survey.

 

[Horwath]

I don't think you can. The writing is the exact same as the PHB, but the PHB contains an entire other paragraph that explains that if you have multi-attack, you can move between each attack. Again, if they leave it this way, I'll still rule you can move between attacks (and that you can't move through enemy spaces), but now that I've seen it, I'll be comment on it in the survey.

copied directly from PT8:

MOVING BETWEEN ATTACKS
If you Move on your turn, you can use some or all of that movement to move between the attacks of this action if you have a feature, such as Extra Attack, that gives you more than one attack as part of the Attack action.

 

[tetrasodium]

I don't think you can. The writing is the exact same as the PHB, but the PHB contains an entire other paragraph that explains that if you have multi-attack, you can move between each attack. Again, if they leave it this way, I'll still rule you can move between attacks (and that you can't move through enemy spaces), but now that I've seen it, I'll be comment on it in the survey.

Can you quote the thing you think locks down movement in packet8 like you are describing? This is what I see on page24 of packet8

Spoiler

ATTACK [ACTION]
When you take the Attack action, you can make
one attack with a weapon or an Unarmed Strike.
EQUIPPING AND UNEQUIPPING WEAPONS
You can either equip or unequip one weapon
when you make an attack as part of this action.
You do so either before or after the attack. If you
equip a weapon before an attack, you don’t need
to use it for that attack.
Equipping a weapon includes drawing it from
a sheath, picking it up, or retrieving it from a
container. Unequipping a weapon includes
sheathing, stowing, or dropping it.
MOVING BETWEEN ATTACKS
If you Move on your turn, you can use some or all
of that movement to move between the attacks
of this action if you have a feature, such as Extra
Attack, that gives you more than one attack as
part of the Attack action.

 

[Horwath]

Can you quote the thing you think locks down movement in packet8 like you are describing? This is what I see on page24 of packet8

Spoiler

ATTACK [ACTION]
When you take the Attack action, you can make
one attack with a weapon or an Unarmed Strike.
EQUIPPING AND UNEQUIPPING WEAPONS
You can either equip or unequip one weapon
when you make an attack as part of this action.
You do so either before or after the attack. If you
equip a weapon before an attack, you don’t need
to use it for that attack.
Equipping a weapon includes drawing it from
a sheath, picking it up, or retrieving it from a
container. Unequipping a weapon includes
sheathing, stowing, or dropping it.
MOVING BETWEEN ATTACKS
If you Move on your turn, you can use some or all
of that movement to move between the attacks
of this action if you have a feature, such as Extra
Attack, that gives you more than one attack as
part of the Attack action.

problem is that they bungled the wording in Move section and made it more clearly in Attack section but it's not in the same place:

"BREAKING UP YOUR MOVE
You can break up your Move, using some of it before and after any action you take on the same turn. For example, if you have a Speed of 30 feet, you could go 10 feet, take an action, and then go 20 feet."


I hope that this kind of word salads get fixed before final print.

 

[tetrasodium]

problem is that they bungled the wording in Move section and made it more clearly in Attack section but it's not in the same place:

"BREAKING UP YOUR MOVE
You can break up your Move, using some of it before and after any action you take on the same turn. For example, if you have a Speed of 30 feet, you could go 10 feet, take an action, and then go 20 feet."


I hope that this kind of word salads get fixed before final print.

Agreed, but this has gone back quite a few packets now without change or clarification. I could be missing one, but it looks like every packet except for the CharacterOrigins (UA packet1) has had some variant of "between the attacks of this action" wording with no effort I've seen from wotc to change that or clarify the ultimate intent of WiP changes.

 

[OB1]

Can you quote the thing you think locks down movement in packet8 like you are describing? This is what I see on page24 of packet8

Spoiler

ATTACK [ACTION]
When you take the Attack action, you can make
one attack with a weapon or an Unarmed Strike.
EQUIPPING AND UNEQUIPPING WEAPONS
You can either equip or unequip one weapon
when you make an attack as part of this action.
You do so either before or after the attack. If you
equip a weapon before an attack, you don’t need
to use it for that attack.
Equipping a weapon includes drawing it from
a sheath, picking it up, or retrieving it from a
container. Unequipping a weapon includes
sheathing, stowing, or dropping it.
MOVING BETWEEN ATTACKS
If you Move on your turn, you can use some or all
of that movement to move between the attacks
of this action if you have a feature, such as Extra
Attack, that gives you more than one attack as
part of the Attack action.

Ah, I missed that they moved the exception from the Move section to the Attack section. Thank you!

So now I just have an issue with being able to move through enemy spaces.

 

[fluffybunbunkittens]

So now I just have an issue with being able to move through enemy spaces.

As I said...

And you cannot move through them unless they are tiny, 2 sizes smaller or 2 sizes bigger than you, same as before.

 

[Mirrorrorrim]

problem is that they bungled the wording in Move section and made it more clearly in Attack section but it's not in the same place:

"BREAKING UP YOUR MOVE
You can break up your Move, using some of it before and after any action you take on the same turn. For example, if you have a Speed of 30 feet, you could go 10 feet, take an action, and then go 20 feet."


I hope that this kind of word salads get fixed before final print.

It looks like both are true, and are only mentioned in the context of the subjects themselves.

When talking about your Move: "BREAKING UP YOUR MOVE"
You can break up your Move, using some of it before and after any action you take on the same turn. For example, if you have a Speed of 30 feet, you could go 10 feet, take an action, and then go 20 feet."

When talking about your Attack action: "MOVING BETWEEN ATTACKS"
If you Move on your turn, you can use some or all of that movement to move between the attacks of this action if you have a feature, such as Extra Attack, that gives you more than one attack as part of the Attack action.

Both are true, not mutually excusive, and don't need to reference each other.