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.

 

[Clint_L]

I do agree that it is an annoyance. But it is a house rule to ignore it.

It’s an optional rule, and one that is so widespread that there is a toggle for it on the first page of character creation on DnDBeyond.

 

[Chaosmancer]

I do agree that it is an annoyance. But it is a house rule to ignore it.

Also one classic problem:
"The game is unbalanced because of X".
-"Did you read that rule? It makes X more balanced.
-"Yeah, but it is annoying. So we ignore it."

I disagree that that is what is happening. Encumbrance adds nothing to a strength character. There is nothing they could do after using the rule that they could not do before.

When I lost interest in the Artificer concept I mentioned before, because of Encumbrance? One my friends offered to solve the problem by rolling a high strength barbarian and acting as my pack mule. That is the most immediate result in party dynamics, making the high strength characters act like everyone else's manservant until they find a way to carry what they need without relying on their strength.

That doesn't help balance.

 

[Zubatcarteira]

The variant encumbrance is rough even for strength characters. Iirc, an 18 STR Fighter can barely carry his starting equipment without a penalty, since armor and weapons are so heavy.

 

[tetrasodium]

The variant encumbrance is rough even for strength characters. Iirc, an 18 STR Fighter can barely carry his starting equipment without a penalty, since armor and weapons are so heavy.

Exactly! The variant encumbrance doesn't attempt to create any mechanical pathways to interesting choices, it's just a punishing box checked with a sledgehammer to counter any criticism of the default capacity being so generous that it nullifies its own reason bto exist

 

[UngeheuerLich]

I disagree that that is what is happening. Encumbrance adds nothing to a strength character. There is nothing they could do after using the rule that they could not do before.

When I lost interest in the Artificer concept I mentioned before, because of Encumbrance? One my friends offered to solve the problem by rolling a high strength barbarian and acting as my pack mule. That is the most immediate result in party dynamics, making the high strength characters act like everyone else's manservant until they find a way to carry what they need without relying on their strength.

That doesn't help balance.

It does not need help. Str is good enough without encumbrance.

Just a general thing I noticed with people angry about unbalancedd games. Often they only use parts of the rules. Because the others "don´t add to the game" or are "unfun".

 

[UngeheuerLich]

It’s an optional rule, and one that is so widespread that there is a toggle for it on the first page of character creation on DnDBeyond.

The normal encumbrance rules are rules. Toggling off or using variant encumbrance are the variants. Toggling off might actually be only a variant for the sheet display, as it is sometimes quite annoying if anything you write down on the sheet (not necessarily want to carry) gets added and you are shown as encumbered even when you are not.

 

[Mirrorrorrim]

Every acrobat and dancer needs plenty of physical strength and endurance. What they have less of than Conan and Ahnold is muscle mass or "awesome force".

Every acrobat and dancer who has plenty of strength and endurance has trained to be that strong and enduring. It doesn't mean that their Dex should be used in place those abilities.

Want your 18 Dex character to be able to do well at Str-based athletics? Put points into Strength. Or play a class that has a class ability that bypasses certain aspects (like a monk, or a thief granting a climb speed).

Point-buy systems do not easily allow a character to have a very high Dexterity for basic numerical effectiveness, while also allowing a Strength to be a good jumper, swimmer and climber, and a good Wisdom for perceiving the threats around you, and a good Charisma to influence others, and a good Constitution to endure the physical punishment of an adventurer's life, plus a good Intelligence so you can play a decent critical thinker.

If you dump an ability like Strength, be prepared for the penalties, rather than complain that your super good stat like Dexterity can't be used in its place. Otherwise create a more well-rounded character.

Or use higher stat arrays or other ability score generation methods.

 

[Mirrorrorrim]

Or use higher stat arrays or other ability score generation methods.

It seems to me that the big reason why this problem exists is not the disparity between ability scores themselves, but what the scores are allowed to be (stat generation.) Many players want their character to be able to recognize immenent danger (Wis), and swing one-handed on a rope to save or attack someone (Str), and dodge the dragonbreath (Dex), and persuade the king that their vizier is the lich villain (Cha), or outwit the lich itself (Int), as well as keep standing after every smite of the lich's blackguard guardian (Con), who is bellowing "Why won't you just DIE!?"

Many people want to play characters who have movie/novel-protagonist-level power with high stats overall. The most common stat-generation options do not let a PC be good at a lot of things, like a superhero or well-rounded protagonist can. If the players' fantasy is "superheroic", and the DM's fantasy is "orphans who suck but overcome the bad guys anyway," someone is not going to be happy. As an alternative, I suggest allowing higher starting stats. Maybe something like:

16
16
14
14
14
10 (or 14 if a "dump stat" doesn't fit the party's heroic narrative).

 

[Mistwell]

In official WOTC adventures there seems to be multiple challenges that only a high strength character can surpass barring very strong magic. A lid of something, a portcullis, a slab door, something always seems to be in the way that requires a high strength character.

 

[UngeheuerLich]

It seems to me that the big reason why this problem exists is not the disparity between ability scores themselves, but what the scores are allowed to be (stat generation.) Many players want their character to be able to recognize immenent danger (Wis), and swing one-handed on a rope to save or attack someone (Str), and dodge the dragonbreath (Dex), and persuade the king that their vizier is the lich villain (Cha), or outwit the lich itself (Int), as well as keep standing after every smite of the lich's blackguard guardian (Con), who is bellowing "Why won't you just DIE!?"

Many people want to play characters who have movie/novel-protagonist-level power with high stats overall. The most common stat-generation options do not let a PC be good at a lot of things, like a superhero or well-rounded protagonist can. If the players' fantasy is "superheroic", and the DM's fantasy is "orphans who suck but overcome the bad guys anyway," someone is not going to be happy. As an alternative, I suggest allowing higher starting stats. Maybe something like:

16
16
14
14
14
10 (or 14 if a "dump stat" doesn't fit the party's heroic narrative).

I have at some point done the math and found that you can easily model conan after its description with just the basic array.

Strong and swift like a tiger or something like that:
str 17 (or 16) and dex 15 (or 14).
He was not book wise but smart and perceptive:
Int 8 and wis 12
Great endurance but preferred to don armor and somewhat charismatic:
Con 14 and cha 10

This leaves him with:
STR 16
DEX 14
CON 14
INT 8
WIS 12
CHA 10

Which is achievable at level 1 as standard human.

Problem is that some optimizers don't want to have balanced stats. They want to be good at everything. And STR as a dump stat fits the narrative. And then complaining, or explaining how dex could be used for swimming, climbing, tripping people and so on.
And then compaining how DEX is so unbalanced. Because it does everything STR can do and more.