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.

 

[Stalker0]

throw Arnold Schwarzenegger and Simone Biles in the water and see who swims better.

In terms of swimming speed, and ability to move through current?…Arnold in his prime would smoke Simone assuming neither is particularly trained in swimming.

Michael Phelps squats 385 lbs, he’s no 8 str weakling. If you asked him to do a lifting competition or a gymnastics competition, pretty sure he would be better at lifting.

 

[tetrasodium]

While I do agree with you in general (I don’t do strict encumbrance either), if I had a player trying to wear heavy armor wjtb an 8str I would give it at least some lip service, and do a quick check of the general weapons and equipment they have.

That said I do agree 5th is the worst edition for dumb stats in a while.

1) strength - used to affect all damage (even ranged and finesse). Now does not.
2) int - used to effect your number of skills. Now does not.

So these stats are a lot more dump-able than they used to be.

Agreed on the attributes but speaking as a gm who prefers players use encumbrance* 5e fails pretty hard there by having an encumbrance system designed to mechanically nullify its own reason to exist by being so excessively generous up until the gm starts using neutronium filagree and similar to Jack up the weight of everything

* I also track my own when I'm a player.

 

[CapnZapp]

In terms of swimming speed, and ability to move through current?…Arnold in his prime would smoke Simone assuming neither is particularly trained in swimming.

Michael Phelps squats 385 lbs, he’s no 8 str weakling. If you asked him to do a lifting competition or a gymnastics competition, pretty sure he would be better at lifting.

Whoosh.

The point is that nobody wants to play a nimble and fast hero, say Robin Hood, only for the DM and the rules to go "ACKCHYALLY YOU SWIM BADLY".

Physical heroes should be able to pull off physical feats. Nobody cares if Arnold is a bad dancer or Simone Biles would drown in a kiddie pool.

Either you're a dashing swashbuckler, a bulky killer or rugged cutthroat... and you're physically fit.

Or you're a weak lute player, a nerdy bookworm, or a soft initiate... and you need magic to scale walls and swing ropes.

Asking a Fighter or Rogue to be excellent in BOTH Strength and Dexterity just to run around a battlefield is completely stupid and unreasonable.

 

[CapnZapp]

That said I do agree 5th is the worst edition for dumb stats in a while.

1) strength - used to affect all damage (even ranged and finesse). Now does not.

So these stats are a lot more dump-able than they used to be.

I remember I started a 5E thread years ago where I identified eleven(!) different tweaks to d20 that favor DEX over STR. Individually they all come across as fair, but when combined just takes the edition over the brink.

Now it is only because of specific (and overpowered) feats that Strength remains relevant at all.

Nobody wants Strength to matter (so you can be a slender, small or feminine hero and still kick massive ass)
Nobody wants Constitution to matter (it's just an attribute tax)
Nobody wants Intelligence to matter (because my head hurts)
Nobody wants Wisdom to matter (because... look, a new TikTok!)

If you just look at the direction WotC has taken the game, you'd think they're headed towards a future where only Dexterity and Charisma matters.

 

[CapnZapp]

5e fails pretty hard there by having an encumbrance system designed to

I consider 5E encumbrance to be a fig leaf.

It's not good. It's not meant to be used. It's only there so noone can accuse 5E of not having encumbrance.

 

[tetrasodium]

I consider 5E encumbrance to be a fig leaf.

It's not good. It's not meant to be used. It's only there so noone can accuse 5E of not having encumbrance.

I think it's more poison pill aimed at the concept to ensure the gm doesn't try to replace it with a more useful equivalent or something. Someone decided that it's "fiddly"* unfun to track and a thing that adds nothing to the kind of game they run. With that decided, anything not in service of that was stripped away and the values were set so high they made it pointless to track.

* God what a useless word for discourse

 

[UngeheuerLich]

I remember I started a 5E thread years ago where I identified eleven(!) different tweaks to d20 that favor DEX over STR. Individually they all come across as fair, but when combined just takes the edition over the brink.

Now it is only because of specific (and overpowered) feats that Strength remains relevant at all.

Nobody wants Strength to matter (so you can be a slender, small or feminine hero and still kick massive ass)
Nobody wants Constitution to matter (it's just an attribute tax)
Nobody wants Intelligence to matter (because my head hurts)
Nobody wants Wisdom to matter (because... look, a new TikTok!)

If you just look at the direction WotC has taken the game, you'd think they're headed towards a future where only Dexterity and Charisma matters.

And you are partially right but not completely. I hope Int gets some functionality back. I still don't see how str is more useful than it was im AD&D 2e for example, except for a fighter. Cha never mattered. Int was also not important except for spellcasters and I wis was useless too.
So at least 5e is traditional there if you look at it that way.

Dex was the uber stat: two weapon fighting, added even to heavy armor armor class. Ranged attack modifiers (2 attacks per round with bow). Bonus on initiative.

So I really don't see how 5e made everything worse.

 

[James Gasik]

And you are partially right but not completely. I hope Int gets some functionality back. I still don't see how str is more useful than it was im AD&D 2e for example, except for a fighter. Cha never mattered. Int was also not important except for spellcasters and I wis was useless too.
So at least 5e is traditional there if you look at it that way.

Dex was the uber stat: two weapon fighting, added even to heavy armor armor class. Ranged attack modifiers (2 attacks per round with bow). Bonus on initiative.

So I really don't see how 5e made everything worse.

3e and Pathfinder's Str x 1.5 damage for two handers and Power Attack being primarily a Strength-based Feat were pretty huge. If we had something like that back, I don't think we'd hear a peep about how great Dexterity is, lol.

Curiously, even though it was the start of the "wussification" of Strength (since what stat did hit and damage was based on class), I think 4e handled stats better, by having two possible sources of defense bonuses.

Strength or Constitution made you more resilient against things that required fortitude. Dexterity or Intelligence made you more able to evade attacks. Wisdom or Charisma gave you willpower to resist mental assault.

The "six saves" of 5e doesn't really do enough, because most saves are still Dexterity, Constitution, or Wisdom. Sure, the rare Intelligence or Charisma save can be rough if you fail it, but there's not a lot of them.

And Strength saves are woefully underutilized. Add to that no real attempt at Skill parity, where some stats are rolled very often for checks, and others....not so much.

Another way I'd fix this is to make some adjustments to armor. First, I'd have Medium Armor let you use Strength or Dexterity to determine your AC. Second, I'd make the Heavy Armors that require that big ol' 15 Strength have better AC. Full Plate having a base of 19 might be enough to put Strength builds over.

Just a thought, however.

 

[CapnZapp]

I think it's more poison pill aimed at the concept to ensure the gm doesn't try to replace it with a more useful equivalent or something.

Sorry that's a conspiracy theory.

WotC has nothing to gain by actively preventing you from using encumbrance.

They do have something to gain by deflecting people that would otherwise accuse their game for being silent on encumbrance.

 

[UngeheuerLich]

3e and Pathfinder's Str x 1.5 damage for two handers and Power Attack being primarily a Strength-based Feat were pretty huge. If we had something like that back, I don't think we'd hear a peep about how great Dexterity is, lol.

Maybe. Actually I would like to have the power attack option for ste attacks back as a general rules variant.

Also, i'd add a point blank of 30ft for ranged attacks and beyond that: no dex bonus to damage.