D&D (2024) First playtest thread! One D&D Character Origins.

[doctorbadwolf]

That makes sense. I was a little surprised at your negative reaction, as these seem like changes I would have guessed you would mostly be in favor of. Personally I don’t love everything in this UA, but I do love the general direction, and I’d say most of the changes look positive to me. My biggest gripes are the changes to nat 1s and 20s (which are easy to ignore) and the Aardling race, which I low-key hate. But, I can accept that I’m just not the target audience for them.

Yeah I really like a lot of it, and the stuff I dislike (nat 1s and 20s, crits, halflings, removing half-folk, etc, is fairly unlikely to survive IMO.

Yeah, Stealth proficiency in place of poison resistance or the preternatural ability to hide behind Medium and larger creatures feels like a huge nerf. Though I can see wanting to change Naturally Stealthy since so many DMs outright refuse to let it work the way it clearly says it does (and same for Mask of the Wild), replacing it with Stealth proficiency is just incredibly disappointing.

Agreed. If this makes it to print, I think most halfling players will just use the older version.

It matters because everything coming out from now on, including likely the bulk of 3PP material, will be replaced by the new presentation and format. The 2014 5e will be erased effectively, because the new stuff will still be 5e officially.

This seems extremely unlikely.

 

[Haplo781]

I'll have to recheck out the 5e spell list and what the magic items do... that doesn't seem to match with the last movie with Strange in it that I watched.

But sure, figuring out what to do with the really high level adventurers seems to be a perennial D&D problem. It feels like its also a problem in a lot of super-hero comics and movies too. (My favorite in comics were those years where Thor would only show up when it was really needed for the plot, because he warped things otherwise and was better off on his own cosmic adventures).

You're right.

Strange only wishes he could do what a D&D wizard does.

 

[Veltharis ap Rylix]

Then people would complain that they "need" floating ASI to have two 16 where they want by putting their second highest stat in their +2 and use their free 16 for a secondary attribute.

Its not a rule problem, its a mentality problem. Too many people think the "role" in "role playing" is not "the runaway elf slave who grew up in a mine working every day" but "Two handed axe fighter going into great weapon master" and WotC is actively catering that.

And if the player in question wants to play a two-handed axe fighter going for great weapon master who also happens to be a runaway elf slave who grew up in a mine working all day?

Roleplay and optimization are not mutually exclusive - the only thing locking starting ASIs to race choice does is force optimizers to choose between the two. Floating ASIs give people who like both the option to engage in both without being forced to weigh their desire for system mastery against their desire to try out a race/class combo that would have previously been considered suboptimal.

 

[dave2008]

You'd think so, but the printed EK doesn't learn any spells that enhance attacks - just defenses and some spells that will always be worse attack options than using a weapon.

Yes, really the paladin is the magic knight now that I think about it. That is probably more @Haplo781 's speed.

 

[Haplo781]

Yes, really the paladin is the magic knight now that I think about it. That is probably more @Haplo781 's speed.

No, I want a fighter who gets to be as cool as the other classes. Not a guy who gets his powers from a god.

 

[Umbran]

Mod Note:
The first playtest options, and thus this thread, are about character origins.

Not classes. Not the magic/martial divide.

Please bring it back on topic. Thanks, all.

 

[jmartkdr2]

What's the difference between that and an eldritch knight who knows Fear and Steel Wind Strike? Isn't just "magic, but non-magical" at that point?

Fear is tough to learn because it isn't an abjuration or evocation. Plus the DC is likely to be low since it's int-based which is a tertiary stat at best (con is much more useful

Steel wind strike is fifth level and therefore unavailable without multiclassing.

 

[Bill Zebub]

I have discussed ASI many times on this forum and always the defense for floting ASI will came down to "I want my 18" in the end.

That sounds, to me, more like the strawman put up by people who hate any change because it reminds them that the hobby has grown and doesn’t cater to their demographic anymore. It’s not an argument used by most people (I would say “anybody” but I can’t guarantee that’s true) who want to get rid of racial ASIs.

 

[Bill Zebub]

Either a race is very wise (high amount of mirror neurons or whatever) then it also applies to exceptional PCs of that race or the race is not wise.

Um, no. That just fails at basic statistics.

 

[Micah Sweet]

And martials can break reality by being incredibly strong/skilled.

There's really no rational argument against martials having nice things in a fantasy game.

Depends on what fantasy means to you. It seems to me that to you it means, "literally anything is possible, and reality as we Earth humans understand it has no meaning". That's not a world, even a fantasy one, that I want to play in.