D&D 5E Did you like one Playtest version better than the final 5e PHB?

[Rune]

Bards and sorcerers did both show up. The warlock never did though.

The bard was towards the end in a couple of the playtest packets but the sorcerer only showed up once and it was fairly early on. It was awesome though. Had a unique mechanic and was quite different then the wizard. It wasn't fully developed but I liked it a ton more than what we ended up with.

A lot of the playtest was great and to be honest, a 50-50 split of Playtest/Final would probably be my "ideal" 5E incarnation. It's pretty obvious that they significantly dialed back much of the expanded options and choices in the final release.

Pretty sure there was a warlock in one of the packets (along side a sorcerer)*. The sorcerer became more draconic as it leveled. The warlock traded beauty for power. I based a character on that warlock (and Tracy Ullman’s character in Robin Hood: Men in Tights) that was a halfling cook named Pretty Polly. She’s been recycled many times since, sometimes as a gnome, sometimes as an NPC, and not always as a warlock. But the original was a lot of fun.

* That was a long time ago, however. I will concede that it is possible I am misremembering and both were differing versions of sorcerer.

 

[Charlaquin]

LOL seriously! What the heck happened that ended up so we got stuck with 5E as is???

A lot of it was changed during internal playtesting. The open playtest was largely to market the new edition and figure out what the players wanted it to feel like. The internal playtesting was to nail down the details.

They should re-release some actual D&D Next core books with those rules. I would buy them in a heartbeat.

You can still find the documents floating around the internet. They’re really interesting to go and re-read every once in a while. While I like 5e, I still mourn for the loss of the game the playtest hinted at.

Bards and sorcerers did both show up. The warlock never did though.

The bard was towards the end in a couple of the playtest packets but the sorcerer only showed up once and it was fairly early on. It was awesome though. Had a unique mechanic and was quite different then the wizard. It wasn't fully developed but I liked it a ton more than what we ended up with.

The warlock did show up. It was in the same packet as the sorcerer. It’s actually pretty similar to the warlock we got in the PHB, broadly speaking. The details evolved, but the core mechanical concepts stayed pretty consistent.

There’s no one specific packet I miss most, but there are a lot of elements from a lot of packets I wish had made it. The sorcerer is definitely one of the biggest ones though.

 

[Weiley31]

Pretty much the NEXT Sorcerer.

Didn't the Warlock have like it's version of Wildshape or something as well.

 

[Charlaquin]

Pretty sure there was a warlock in one of the packets (along side a sorcerer)*. The sorcerer became more draconic as it leveled. The warlock traded beauty for power. I based a character on that warlock (and Tracy Ullman’s character in Robin Hood: Men in Tights) that was a halfling cook named Pretty Polly. She’s been recycled many times since, sometimes as a gnome, sometimes as an NPC, and not always as a warlock. But the original was a lot of fun.

* That was a long time ago, however. I will concede that it is possible I am misremembering and both were differing versions of sorcerer.

The sorcerer became more draconic as they spent Sorcery Points (though they were called Willpower at the time). That was the coolest thing about it, in my opinion. The general consensus was “this is a cool class, but it doesn’t feel like a sorcerer,” mostly because it shifted roles from caster to melee fighter depending on its Willpower pool.

I think they threw a beautiful baby out with that bath water - the idea of sorcerer features caring about how many Sorcery Points you had. Imagine if, for example, the wild magic sorcerer’s chance of a wild magic surge increased as their sorcery point pool depleted. They’d have this awesome tension between exercising more control over your spells now via metamagic, but having less control later due to wild magic.

 

[Rune]

Imagine if, for example, the wild magic sorcerer’s chance of a wild magic surge increased as their sorcery point pool depleted. They’d have this awesome tension between exercising more control over your spells now via metamagic, but having less control later due to wild magic.

Yoink.

 

[Charlaquin]

Didn't the Warlock have like it's version of Wildshape or something as well.

No, the warlock’s thing was that they got “Minor Invocations” that they could use at-will (Eldritch Blast was one of these) and “Lesser Invocations” that they could use by spending one of your “Patron’s Favors,” of which you had 2 and regained them on a short rest. Presumably at higher levels they would have gained “Greater Invocations” but the Warlock disappeared from the playtest before getting the chance to get levels after 5th detailed. They also had no mechanism for actually casting proper Spells, but their entire spell list (which only went up to 2nd level spells, cause again, only 5 levels were detailed) consisted of ritual spells.

You can easily see how this evolved into the warlock we have today. “Patron’s Favors” became Warlock Spell Slots, with the effects “Lesser Invocations” becoming warlock spells and “Minor Invocations” becoming cantrips and Invocations. I would also assume that the Invocations that let you spend a warlock spell slot to cast a spell once per day and/or Mystic Arcana evolved from what they had in mind for eventual “Greater Invocations.” The Oops, All Rituals spell list became the Book of Ancient Secrets Invocation for Pact of the Tome warlocks.

What you might be remembering as the “warlock’s version of wild shape” was that every Invocation you learned came with some sort of cosmetic change. It added a really cool bit of flavor that presumably got scrapped because internal playtest era didn’t like having a class dictate how they could describe their characters.

 

[Tales and Chronicles]

For those interested:
The Sorcerer and Warlock both showed up only once. The sorcerer was only up to level 3, sadly, and the Warlock did not have spells, only invocations that could replicate spell effect.

The bard showed up in the 10th playtest, as a 1/2 CHA caster, with new songs influencing all allies in an aura. It was pretty good.

 

[darjr]

The playtests were certainly a wild ride. Loved a few of them VERY much. Especially the ones where getting advantage was fun and more extemporaneous.

 

[Helldritch]

Yes, I do miss the Next playtests era. A lot was hinted at, but got hacked for no apparent reasons that I or my friends are aware of. 5ed is fun, but some of the playtests ideas were really great. I kept the files. Maybe one day....

 

[DND_Reborn]

Your not stuck with 5e as is. Its D&D - you & those you play with can modify it however you please.

Oh, come on... you know what I mean. If you followed my posts at all you know I house-rule the crap out of the game as it is...