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.

 

[Yaarel]

IMO, just get rid of ability scores.

If you want to be a Druid who is good at athletic and stealth, then go ahead.

I like abilities because they characterize what a character tends to be good at, even without training.

The abilities are useful for flavor. But the abilities need to work better, balance better, and make more sense.


Strength needs to cover EVERYTHING relating to "Athletics" and swashbuckling physical stunts: jumping AND falling, climbing AND balancing. Athletics needs to swallow Acrobatics entirely. Strength handles everything, including all "gross motor skill" body stunts, body coordination, and dodging. Women who tend to have less upper musculature, have high Strength because they are highly athletic. Carrying capacity relies more on Size, plus a Weighttraining skill that the Strength bonus enhances.

Then Strength is the go-to for the daredevil archetype and all mobility checks. Strength becomes a great ability to have, and useful for any character.

Then Dexterity is more strictly manual dexterity, cautious precision, parrying and blocking, and weapons that require a precise steady hand.


The Athletics is solid enough as a concept to function as its own ability.

• Strength
• Constitution

• Dexterity
• Athletics


But if with the six abilities, give all of Athletics (including Acrobatics) to Strength.

Strength is the "parkour" ability.

 

[mellored]

Strength needs to cover EVERYTHING relating to "Athletics"

Why have 2 different mechanics if they are the cover the same things? Litterally the exact same die roll?

The game needs "Strength" or "Athletics", but not both.

 

[Yaarel]

Why have 2 different mechanics if they are the cover the same things? Litterally the exact same die roll?

The game needs "Strength" or "Athletics", but not both.

I am saying: Strength ability = Athletics (and Acrobatics) skill.

Strength would separately apply to a "Weighttraining" skill to attempt to lift heavy loads.


Note, Constitution lacks skills. It represents resilience by different mechanics.

 

[Yaarel]

@mellored

To better respond to your point. The difference between "abilities" versus "skills", is an honest debate between "lumpers" versus "splitters".

When using the eight abilities (Str-Con, Dex-Ath, Cha-Wis, Int-Per), these particular eight are elegantly able to handle most d20 Tests in D&D without needing any skill system.

That said, skills for more narrow specializations, can still add proficiency bonuses to the checks of these eight abilities.

 

[mellored]

@mellored

To better respond to your point. The difference between "abilities" versus "skills", is an honest debate between "lumpers" versus "splitters".

When using the eight abilities (Str-Con, Dex-Ath, Cha-Wis, Int-Per), these particular eight are elegantly able to handle most d20 Tests in D&D without needing any skill system.

That said, skills for more narrow specializations, can still add proficiency bonuses to the checks of these eight abilities.

There is litterally only one Str skill. You can't specialize in it. Everyone with 16 Str can swim as well as anyone else with 16 Str.


IMO.
Remove abilities. Your attacks are simply based on your class.

I.e. fighter has +5 to hit, deals +3 damage each hit, +2 to initiative....
And a feat can adjust those.

Then you do the skills by themselves.

Physical
*Parkour
*Endurance
*Lifting
Knowledge
*Arcana
*Nature
*Religion
Social
*Diplomacy
*Intimidation
*Misdirection
...

 

[Yaarel]

There is litterally only one Str skill. You can't specialize in it. Everyone with 16 Str can swim as well as anyone else with 16 Str.


IMO.
Remove abilities. Your attacks are simply based on your class.

I.e. fighter has +5 to hit, deals +3 damage each hit, +2 to initiative....
And a feat can adjust those.

Then you do the skills by themselves.

Physical
*Parkour
*Endurance
*Lifting
Knowledge
*Arcana
*Nature
*Religion
Social
*Diplomacy
*Intimidation
*Misdirection
...

This is lumping (abilities) versus splitting (skills).

An advantage of having the specific eight abilities is, they balance well compared to each other, so each is a fair player choice.

Having ten or thirty separate skills is difficult or impossible to balance, resulting in trap options and increasing the risk of unbalanced characters and game breaking.

 

[UngeheuerLich]

If it does not help, or add anything to the game... then how does it create a more balanced game?

Again?

Not a lot. Versimilitude a bit. You just can't dump it if you want to carry something (or jump far or high).

I am not the one who goes around telling how unblanaced str vs dex is. And then conveniently ignores rules.

Opposite of oberoni fallacy? The game is unbalanced, because I can just ignore some rules?

Edit: I perfectly know that I introduced a house rule and used a variant in some of my games. This has less to do with str vs dex but melee vs ranged. And versimitilitude (how do you dodge if you are unconscious).

 

[UngeheuerLich]

Snip

You also have some points there.

Just a few comments.
1. I strongly believe those old schoolers (like tenser) were powergamers to the heart. This is why Gygax wrote unfun rules like spell failure chance and spell learn percentage and forbidden schools. And encumbrance. To keep the players from taking always the best options.

2. What you say about str challenges can equally said for wis (don't find a secret door, passive perception), int (miss a piece of knowledge), dex (can't sneak at the right time), cha (can't convince someone), con (can't endure some hardship like weather).

3. I don't want taxes and there is none. For all the different challenges above there is one important rule in 5e: group checks: to sneak around, only halve the group needs to pass. Or sometimes it is even sufficient if one person can do it (maybe with the help of another one).

4. I guess what greatly helps is to have a balanced group with all attributes and skills higher and lower on different characters. And maybe the missing ones replaced with a bit of magic or tools.

 

[Mistwell]

The game can stand to work a bit better.

Deception needs to be Intelligence. One needs to be knowledgeable to fool experts, for example to create a forgery. The archetype for the "clever" trickster (such as Loki) is actually Intelligence. Checks that dont require knowledgeability are more so Persuasion checks that rely on trust.

Then Charisma is for social skills, including Persuasion and Intimidation, plus include Insight to read people.

Perception is important enough to become its own mental ability, and refers to the physical senses and sensation.

Wisdom is more clearly mental willpower, sense of self, and sanity.


• Charisma
• Wisdom

• Intelligence
• Perception

I would prefer the game lean into how it was originally talked about by Mearls and Crawford, that in the right circumstances you can make an Intelligence (Deception) check, or a Strength (Intimidation) check, etc.. That seems to have been de-emphasized over time. I liked it, and I think it should be used more often.

 

[Neonchameleon]

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."

You know what isn't a house rule? Characters with 8 strength having a 120lb carrying capacity and not having to worry about anything less than that other than a couple of types of heavy armour. That's not even a variant rule, it's just the default.