D&D (2024) D&D playtest feed back report, UA8

[darjr]

Jeremey Crawford and Todd Kenreck discuss the high satisfaction scores for the Druid, Monk, and Barbarian classes, particularly noting the Monk's exceptional rating, in the 90's, Jeremey votes for it to be the most improved class even over the Ranger. The survey results influence ongoing development, aiming for 70% satisfaction or higher. They share details on revised spells and conjuration spells, all well-received. The They address misconceptions about release dates and cover art, revealing ongoing work on the Players Handbook, Monster Manual, and Dungeon Masters Guide. May 24th NOT being the release date, they'll still be working on the books by then. The Dungeon Masters Guide will feature a streamlined encounter-building system that they are internally testing and iterating upon. The speaker expresses excitement about celebrating D&D's 50th Anniversary and hints at upcoming announcements and events throughout the year. Jeremy ends discussing his love of the game.

Note the above is an edited chatgpt summary.

See also the DnDBeyond article https://www.dndbeyond.com/posts/1656-survey-results-on-players-handbook-playtest-8

 

[darjr]

raw transcript in spoiler.

Spoiler

hello everyone today we are talking
about Unearthed Arana and we got some
very exciting survey results and we have
a bunch of other updates but this was a
very well scored survey yes it was
wonderful to enter into the new year and
see the survey report that our staff
members went through carefully looked at
the feedback and discovered that people
really loved overall what we offered in
unearth Arcana number eight for the
players hbook that UA was focused on the
Druid the Monk and the
Barbarian and all three of the classes
the features that we presented scored
really well starting with the Druid the
features that we presented there which
were a revised wild shape and uh revised
features for circle of the Moon those
all scored in the 70s and above and for
people who haven't been with us
throughout this journey always good for
you to know that our goal is for things
to score a 70% satisfaction score or
higher and we we view that as a
floor and once something has sort of
landed on the 70% % satisfaction floor
we then in our internal development and
play testing look at what satisfied
people who took this survey and how can
we increase the volume so I bring that
up to say the on Earth Arcana is never
the end of our work it's an important
information Point that's a part of our
game development work and we can look at
it and see all right people really like
this and how can we give them more of
that so it was really good news for us
that the circle of the Moon features and
wild shape now are in the satisfied
territory now when we get to the
features that we offered in the
Barbarian and monk there we are in the
Super satisfied territory so the
Barbarian features that we presented
which focused on introducing uh the
brutal strike mechanic a new active
feature that we offered for the
Barbarian there we're looking at
satisfaction scores in the 80s we also
had a revised version of the path of the
world tree also scored in the80s so as
soon as you are in the 80s you are
looking at really high
satisfaction but we then went even
higher in the
monk so and the Monk
might might finish out this players
handbook on Arc series as the most
improved class now for a while I was
ready to give that award to the ranger
right and the ranger was is astoundingly
well uh positioned right now because it
it was low scored in the past and now
the class is in the 80s well right here
at the end of the race of most Improv
proved the monk zoomed past the ranger
appropriate
exactly the monk spend spent some of
their now more plentiful discipline
points to race past the Ranger and most
of the features that we offered in that
revised version of the monk were in the
'90s in terms of percentage now it is
rare for us in the UA process and this
is true for the UA process going back
the past decade it is rare for things to
make it into the '90s one of the reasons
why it's difficult for things to get
into the 90s is the DN audience is so
large and has such varied tastes so you
know there might be something that one
person dearly loves in in a subclass or
a feat or a spell or another feature of
the game that we present that they
really love but there might be somebody
else where it's just not their thing
yeah so it's really unusual given uh the
size and and diversity of our audience
for something to generate so much
unified satisfaction for it to start
approaching 100% satisfaction right and
we actually saw that with several of the
features uh in this revised monk now
there's more because because that
unearth Arcana also presented
revised versions of several of the
game's core healing spells cure wounds
healing word and others those all scored
in the 80s right and we also presented
some new takes on some of the
conjuration spells from the 2014 Players
handbook we knew that they were
experimental uh the 2014 versions of
those spells allowed you to summon one
or more creatures Within a certain uh CR
range and people who've played with
those spells know that they can be quite
fun but they can also be quite
disruptive right and so we experimented
with some totally new takes on those
spells uh versions of them that really
uh moved away from summoning a stat
block and instead summoning a special
effect that's themed to Fay or animals
or Elementals or one of the other kinds
of things that you could conjure with
them we did that because in the 2024
players handbook we're going to be
including the summoning spells that we
originally introduced in Tasha's
cauldron of everything and those spells
summon a creature with a stat block and
so since we were going to have these
spells coexisting we wanted to take
those Troublesome ones from 2014 and
give them a new role in the game well
the good news is it was thumbs up across
the board uh for those revised
conjuration spells they all scored in
the high 70s or in the 80s in terms of
satisfaction this UA is the last UA for
the players handbook uh coming out later
this year and so it really ended this UA
series on a high note and now we are
deep and have been for months deep in
our internal
development not only developing the
elements that have appeared in the UA
series but also the elements that
haven't uh there are going to be some
brand new spells that people will see in
the new players handbook that will be
surprises as well as some other new
features everything is getting very
careful polished
as we try to make this the best players
handbook the game has ever had uh now I
mentioned we're going to be working on
this for a while yeah and we did a
preview of some parts of the players
handbook as well as some art back at PA
unplugged well I was informed that
apparently when we were when we were on
stage I I guess a graphic appeared uh
online that said that the core books
were coming out like in May or something
yeah bit of a surprise for you and I it
was a huge surprise to me as the person
who is the lead designer of the players
handbook uh and uh I just want to
confirm with you and as well as everyone
watching this video that is definitely
not the release date that was never the
release date in fact uh we will still be
working on the books in May yeah so just
wanted to share that uh also saw uh that
I guess some people thought that the
image of the dwarf fighter was the cover
of the players's handbook we have not
revealed the covers yet that's going to
happen later this year that cool image
was an image and I mentioned this at the
panel at Pax unplugged is a cool image
from the fighter section of the new
players handbook and my goodness is that
book jam-packed with Gorgeous art yeah
because for each class we have this this
amazing piece of art to kind of like
help kind of cement and Define like this
is what a fighter is this is a warlock
and then on top of that we have sub
classes that are getting their own
individual art as well exactly and the
book is just ribbing with art everywhere
you go there's art yes uh is lovely yeah
every subass gets a piece of art uh
you're going to see uh more equipment
art than in the 2014 pH more spell art
uh all over everywhere you look in this
book you're going to see beautiful new
art but is you know but with this being
the last on of Tarana isn't the player's
handbook done no far far far from it I
know yeah and and we are working on all
three of the core books uh together yeah
so uh as we continue to refine elements
of the players handbook we are also
doing tons of internal play testing on
the revised monsters that will be in the
monster manual along with the new
encounter building approach that uh
we're dealing with you and I have
chatted in previous videos that we might
send out that new encounter building in
Unearthed
Arana right now we're focused on play
testing that internally instead and uh
what we've discovered is just us
iterating on it over and over and over
again is bearing amazing fruit and what
I can report is that what people are
going to see in the revised dungeon
Masters Guide is a much streamlined
encounter building system oh nice uh
where you are able to just figure out
what is essentially your budget for
Monsters if you're going for a certain
difficulty yeah and you spend that
budget the end and it it's going to be
that simple of a process oh that's
amazing yeah so I'm I'm looking forward
to us uh sharing that with people later
this year uh and we are also continuing
our work on the dungeon Masters Guide uh
we of course have many magic items
making sure you know we're going through
them making sure that the ones that work
great from 2014 will continue to work
great and the ones that maybe uh need
some attention and tweaks get that
attention uh so it it there is a lot
going on but it's exciting and for us on
our design team a really wonderful way
for us to be spending our time during
the game's 50th Anniversary uh because
for us one of the best ways for us to
celebrate 50 years of our favorite game
is to create new versions of the core
books uh what versions that uh we think
will really honor the game honor its
Legacy give people uh exciting new
options and really be this Monument to
this glorious game that many of us have
been playing for most of our lives there
are announcements and events that will
be coming up uh over the course of the
year and uh I look forward to being able
to not only help make some of them
happen but I'm looking forward to them
as a D and D fan uh DND has been with me
almost my entire life and uh I am a d
and and are close in age to each other
uh and so really I have been walking
hand inand with this game uh since
almost the beginning Jeremy thank you so
much for your time thank
you

 

[darjr]

Monk got into the 90s approval

 

[darjr]

@Morrus they confirm that the 24th of may is NOT the release dates of the books.

 

[RoughCoronet0]

Monk got into the 90s approval

I'm not surprised, a lot of people were pretty happy about the improvements to the class.

 

[darjr]

They are iterating on a much more streamlined encounter building system internally.

 

[ART!]

Druid passed their 70% approval "floor", and Barbarian passed 80%.

 

[ART!]

"...several of the game's core healing spells - cure wounds, healing word, and others - scored [80-89%]"

 

[Leatherhead]

Dang the Wildshape revision passed.
RIP templates you were too good for the world.

 

[ART!]

The conjuration spells scored in the 70s-80s%