D&D 5E D&D New Edition Design Looks Soon?

WotC’s Ray Winninger has hinted on Twitter that we may be seeing something of the 2024 next edition of D&D soon — “you’ll get a first look at some of the new design work soon.”.

 

[GMforPowergamers]

That's a great question. Another one is, "What do players new to D&D actually like about the game, specifically? What keeps them coming back?" Do we know?

in my experience they want more cool options based on anime and comic/comic movies integrated with a magic system that feels more like harry potter and harry dresden... with warriors more along the line of herculese thor and captian america from movies.

my experience is running 'newbie games' at cons and in 2 stores (both closed now)

Warlock, Bard, and Monk all had a lot of love from newbies I saw... often they would become discouraged with monk though. Everyone that took cleric wizard or druid was either SO SUPER into it they spent hours between games on reddit and reading books or overwhelmed... everyone that chose monk ranger or fighter was so underwhelmed none of the ones that stayed kept that character all respect by level 6.

When we just did PHB I saw more teiflings and dragonborn then elves... but elves humans and half elves did get alot (I think more half elfs) I can't remember seeing anyone of them go for gnome, halfling and only 1 woman made a dwarf monk and she stayed for over a year but asked to switch out her character around level 4 for a teifling hexblade.

In general new players are more likely to talk and problem solve... even groups I consider high RP are somewhat used to the 'roll initiative' problem solver that even if it isn't first it is always a back up... new players are more likely to say something like "Oh, I'm not taking damage causing spells" or "Oh i don't need a sword"

the 'newbie game' I saw on off nights with mine at the store that closed before covid was 2 rogues, a warlock, and a paliden all teifling or dragonborn and if what I saw was any indication they didn't have 'fights' but they had 'arguments' instead.

 

[Micah Sweet]

in my experience they want more cool options based on anime and comic/comic movies integrated with a magic system that feels more like harry potter and harry dresden... with warriors more along the line of herculese thor and captian america from movies.

my experience is running 'newbie games' at cons and in 2 stores (both closed now)

Warlock, Bard, and Monk all had a lot of love from newbies I saw... often they would become discouraged with monk though. Everyone that took cleric wizard or druid was either SO SUPER into it they spent hours between games on reddit and reading books or overwhelmed... everyone that chose monk ranger or fighter was so underwhelmed none of the ones that stayed kept that character all respect by level 6.

When we just did PHB I saw more teiflings and dragonborn then elves... but elves humans and half elves did get alot (I think more half elfs) I can't remember seeing anyone of them go for gnome, halfling and only 1 woman made a dwarf monk and she stayed for over a year but asked to switch out her character around level 4 for a teifling hexblade.

In general new players are more likely to talk and problem solve... even groups I consider high RP are somewhat used to the 'roll initiative' problem solver that even if it isn't first it is always a back up... new players are more likely to say something like "Oh, I'm not taking damage causing spells" or "Oh i don't need a sword"

the 'newbie game' I saw on off nights with mine at the store that closed before covid was 2 rogues, a warlock, and a paliden all teifling or dragonborn and if what I saw was any indication they didn't have 'fights' but they had 'arguments' instead.

Interesting, it sounds like, among other things, new players might want a completely different magic system from what non-4e D&D has ever tried. Wonder how that's going to go over.

 

[Charlaquin]

I'll try to stay optimistic, and I'll try to keep an open mind.
But I'm not really interested in a massive overhaul, or a completely new game at the moment. The further they drift from "just add the supplemental materials and errata," the less likely I am to buy it.

I doubt it will be a massive overhaul. Unless you consider some changes to class and race features and making feats a more central thing massive.

 

[dave2008]

an open test would still be nice

Sure, and they said they will. However, it is likely to be more targeted as they are not changing the whole system just bits and pieces. More likely through UAs or something similar.

 

[CleverNickName]

I doubt it will be a massive overhaul. Unless you consider some changes to class and race features and making feats a more central thing massive.

Yeah, agreed. The changes to character creation in Tasha's Cauldron of Everything are as far as as I'm hoping they go. I wouldn't mind the additional changes to alignment (in the errata) and monster stat blocks (in Mordenkainen's), either.

 

[Sacrosanct]

I don't think there will be many surprises. My guesses:

• decoupling of ability modifiers from race
• humanoids default to any alignment
• monster stat blocks remove spell lists and instead have spellcasting abilities defined
• background feat as default

 

[OB1]

But doing so would probably mean cutting off Foundry, Fantasy grounds and Roll20, where the majority of VTT players live.

Maybe. That's why I mentioned that I hope that WotC doesn't cut them off. Even if they do, you'll still be able to play D&D on those platforms, just without any new APs being released for them.
But if it does come to that, I'd personally take the benefit of a dedicated D&D platform that's easier to use because it's dedicated to one system. No one else in my group will touch trying to DM in Roll20. I still fight with that system every week I do prep, and I've got over 1000 hours logged in it at this point.

 

[CleverNickName]

I don't think there will be many surprises. My guesses:

• decoupling of ability modifiers from race
• humanoids default to any alignment
• monster stat blocks remove spell lists and instead have spellcasting abilities defined
• background feat as default

This is what I'm hoping for, actually.
Decoupling of ability modifiers from race? Already done in Tasha's.
Humanoids default to any alignment? Already done in the official errata.
Spellcasting redefined in monster stats? Already done in Mordenkainen's.
Background feat as default? Already done in Dragonlance.

All I need now is to get it all combined into the core rulebooks where my players can find it more easily.

 

[OB1]

Yeah, agreed. The changes to character creation in Tasha's Cauldron of Everything are as far as as I'm hoping they go.

Me too. Perhaps with the addition of a few popular class options, subclasses, feats and spells that have released over the last 8 years. Then redo the MM in MMotM style and add some of Xanthars and Tasha's to the DMG where appropriate. I'll be shocked if it's much more than that. I hope this more a new baseline starting point for 5e than a real revision.

 

[Charlaquin]

Yeah, agreed. The changes to character creation in Tasha's Cauldron of Everything are as far as as I'm hoping they go.

As I said in another post, I’m pretty confident we’ll see the PHB races tweaked to resemble the ones in MMotM, the MM monsters tweaked to resemble the ones in MMotM, and backgrounds and feats tweaked to resemble the ones in Strixhaven and the recent Dragonlance UA. Classes I think will mostly look the same, but with the Tasha’s optional features baked in, most if not all short rest recovery resources changed to PB/long rest (hopefully with the exception of pact magic, but I’m braced to be disappointed on that front), and maybe features that scale based on a secondary ability modifier changing to scale based on PB. But I would not be surprised to see some of the less popular class and subclass features get a power boost as well. I also wouldn’t be surprised to see a few class features get shuffled around a bit so that every class gains its subclass at 1st level. I’m sure some of the wording will be cleaned up, more sidebar reminders of things like when to round down, or that temp HP don’t stack, and for more things to specifically call out that the player decides various descriptive details. But I’d be very surprised to see any system-level changes, like getting rid of short rests as a thing, or re-working the CR math and adventuring day budgets, or getting rid of bonus actions or whatever.