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.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

Except, far more people tout Dexterity as the uber-stat in 5e as it is now. Expanding that further doesn’t feel as sensible as a feat or a subclass feature for specific acrobatic builds.

Irrelevant to the issue.

The game has a flaw. The existence of another separate flaw doesn’t change that.

 

[Pauln6]

Irrelevant to the issue.

The game has a flaw. The existence of another separate flaw doesn’t change that.

The game will always have flaws. Patching one flaw in a way that makes other flaws worse isn't the best patch. So again, we come back to a feat and a subclass feature, which allow specific builds without wider consequences. Doesn't the athlete feat need beefing up?

 

[Yaarel]

Strength (Athletics) needs to be the go-to for every kind of mobility check in the game, especially for body stunts and body coordination.

One cannot climb without balance. One cannot jump without falling. It is all one ability to check.

Strength is agility.

Strength is gross motor skills.

Strength is every athlete and gymnast.

 

[Pauln6]

Strength (Athletics) needs to be the go-to for every kind of mobility check in the game, especially for body stunts and body coordination.

One cannot climb without balance. One cannot jump without falling. It is all one ability to check.

Strength is agility.

Strength is gross motor skills.

Strength is every athlete and gymnast.

Yeah, I think merging the 3e skills into two broad categories was bound to cause issues and calling one of them Acrobatics conjures mental images of things that weren't originally covered by the 3e tumbling and balance skills.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

The game will always have flaws. Patching one flaw in a way that makes other flaws worse isn't the best patch. So again, we come back to a feat and a subclass feature, which allow specific builds without wider consequences. Doesn't the athlete feat need beefing up?

I don’t care? I wasn’t commenting on feats.

 

[Chaosmancer]

Well, if I had to guess, I think it comes down to the fact that, unless you're dealing with a raging river or a severe undertow, most people can swim enough to stay afloat for a short time.

And if aquatic movement is on the table, I don't think most DM's intend for their party to helplessly drown.

But climbing? Well, for a lot of people, the first time you try rock climbing, you instantly realize "holy heck, this is hard". You have to rely a lot on your upper body strength, gravity is fighting you and you don't have a naturally buoyant medium to work with. You can't just pick a direction and flounder or wade towards it, you have to carefully identify and reach for handholds.

And in D&D, the failure points are different as well. One has you start drowning, a process that can take some time. The other has you fall and take damage, usually in the same turn.

So I think some people have a tendency to think of one of these circumstances being more extreme than the other, even if the rules don't necessarily reflect that. I remember for many years, the rule was if you don't have Swimming as a proficiency or skill, you just couldn't do it.

And I watched many DM's reject that, because it was unrealistic to expect all characters to be trained swimmers.

But climbing? The game has a long legacy of people just not being able to do it without special training!

That's just my experience, I could be way off base.

I think I agree with you that it is IRL perception at play. Which is why I try and remind people of the rules. It isn't that the rules are exceptionally unclear, but that people are assuming a set of rules which do not actually exist.

 

[Pauln6]

I don’t care? I wasn’t commenting on feats.

If you are absolutely certain that there is only one way to achieve what you want then just do that in your game. Acrobatics is an amalgam of the 3e tumbling and balance skills and there were discussions about trimming the skill list before they did it partly because there were not enough skill points to go around I.e. the same argument you are raising now in relation to the separate skills.

E.g. https://forum.rpg.net/index.php?threads/d-d-3-5-consolidating-the-skills-list.327686/

All you are advocating, presumably, is to amalgamate some more so that all traditional rogue skills are rolled into one dex-based skill so that all rogues, and anyone else who trains in that one skill, are good at the thieves' abilities from 1e plus jumping and acrobatics with no ancillary investment in stats and skills?

It won't break the game, albeit it will lead to rogues being quite samey with the exception of subclass abilities and other classes with fewer skill options also becoming good at the same skills as rogues. That puts me off it tbh because I like players to have choices, even suboptimal ones, and I like there being different ways to achieve a desired result e.g. expertise in Athletics, Investigation, or Perception to overcome a low strength, intelligence, or wisdom scores, or stat investment in relevant skills, or feats, or subclass abilities.

If none of the existing options are enough for you, just change your game.

 

[Pauln6]

I think I agree with you that it is IRL perception at play. Which is why I try and remind people of the rules. It isn't that the rules are exceptionally unclear, but that people are assuming a set of rules which do not actually exist.

While playing devil's advocate, it occurs to me that there is one elephant in the room that we haven't addressed, which is why jumping, climbing, and swimming are not affected by heavier armours and encumbrance?

It might well be that a weak rogue in light armour should actually be better at climbing, swimming, and jumping than a strong character who is weighed down by penalties. Has anyone done any real world experiments of people swimming in Chain or Plate Mail? ;-p

 

[tetrasodium]

While playing devil's advoxate, it occurs to me that there is one elephant in the room that we haven't addressed, which is why jumping, climbing, and swimming are not affected by heavier armours and encumbrance?

It might well be that a weak rogue in light armour should actually be better at climbing, swimming, and jumping than a strong character who is weighed down by penalties. Has anyone done any real world experiments of people swimming in Chain or Plate Mail? ;-p

It's not applied because streamlined & simplicity threw ACP on the monorail to brockway and ogdenville.

 

[Pauln6]

It's not applied because streamlined & simplicity threw ACP on the monorail to brockway and ogdenville.

Well, that's all right then!