Jeremy Crawford Gives an Overview of the New Unearthed Arcana

The upcoming Unearthed Arcana playtest packet for One D&D gets a preview from WotC's Jeremy Crawford. This is apparently the largest of these playtest packets so far, and the biggest Unearthed Arcana they have ever done, at 50 pages long.

It contains 5 classes, new spells, new feats, a revised rules glossary, and the new weapon mastery system.

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[Velderan]

And you're missing my point, which is...


This, that WotC very often produces stuff that is not tuned well. Didn't they they were fixing the monsters so they'd actually fit their listed CRs? Haven't people talked for years about how badly done monks and rangers are?


True, but, we don't have the final product, just the playtest. They may change things even more. There may be other rules that we haven't seen that don't jibe well.

Or I could be wrong and everything will work out fine. I'll find a hat and eat it if that happens, but it could happen.

What kind of hat?

 

[Maxperson]

Since healing can't fail it will never trigger the ability, so it's not applicable.

Maybe. We don't know since the rules haven't updated to take the healing(if it shows up in the final version) into account.

 

[Chaosmancer]

True, but, we don't have the final product, just the playtest. They may change things even more. There may be other rules that we haven't seen that don't jibe well.

Or I could be wrong and everything will work out fine. I'll find a hat and eat it if that happens, but it could happen.

Right, you don't know. Saying "but they could change it and make it worse" while also saying "see, look at this bad thing in the playtest" is no different than "but they could change it and make it better" while saying "see, look at this great thing in the playtest". You are just looking for what you want. Point in case.

And you're missing my point, which is...


This, that WotC very often produces stuff that is not tuned well. Didn't they they were fixing the monsters so they'd actually fit their listed CRs? Haven't people talked for years about how badly done monks and rangers are?

You said previously "this is the company that gave us the Twilight Cleric and Silvery Barbs." And sure, they did (though I've never had a problem with either), but they are also the company that gave us the Vengeance Paladin and Magic Missile.

Someone else said that they were the company that gave us The Purple Dragon Knight, well, they are also the company that gave us the Ancestral Spirit Barbarian. The Ranger was pretty weak in 5e? True, but have you looked over the One DnD Ranger? It is a whole different beast and quite good overall.

Sure, they don't always get everything right, and especially not the first time. But... overall they do a good job. The fact we can complain about this subclass or that subclass, or this monster which is out of tune instead of just declaring the entire mess unplayable? It means that the majority of it is fine. So yes, you can predict that One DnD will utterly fail, that everything in it will be bad. But it likely won't. The Majority of it will be good. Will they make some misstep, somewhere? Of course. But the majority of things people seem to be latching onto are small things, and/or things that WoTC seems very much aware of. So, if we are going to gamble on the results, why assume it will end up in the 15% of the bad stuff, instead of the 70% of the perfectly fine stuff?

 

[UngeheuerLich]

And you're missing my point, which is...


This, that WotC very often produces stuff that is not tuned well. Didn't they they were fixing the monsters so they'd actually fit their listed CRs? Haven't people talked for years about how badly done monks and rangers are?

Which was a conscious decision to not errata the books every few month.

The ranger and monk were good enough in actual play. Especially after Tasha upgrades.

So when someone say, Wotc make an unbalanced game, I only see those few examples over and ove again. Which in the grand scheme is not a lot.

So the game overall is quite well balanced... I am still imoressed that noone in 10 years in my groups has complained about having a weak character and I as a DM have never felt that my monsters are not working good enough.


So I don't understand what your point is. Or better your point is indeed a very little point in a wide plane.

 

[UngeheuerLich]

Or I could be wrong and everything will work out fine. I'll find a hat and eat it if that happens, but it could happen.

I am looking forward to seeing a video of that on youtube.

 

[Justice and Rule]

Which was a conscious decision to not errata the books every few month.

The ranger and monk were good enough in actual play. Especially after Tasha upgrades.

Meeeeeeh. The Monk has been alright, it's biggest constraint was locking so many good things behind ki, which it never had enough of. My way around that was just adding one's proficiency bonus to their ki pool. I will say the Fizban model for monks was interesting, though I really think each monk class (and classes/subclasses in general) should have gimmicks that don't require resources so that you always have them.

Rangers, though... the Ranger as a model was just never good and while it may have made it playable, that is an incredibly low design bar to hold. Remember that they got enough feedback that, early on, they were looking to fix an entire class because it was just utterly bad. Even with Tasha's fixes (which come 6 years into the game), still not great.

So when someone say, Wotc make an unbalanced game, I only see those few examples over and ove again. Which in the grand scheme is not a lot.

So the game overall is quite well balanced... I am still imoressed that noone in 10 years in my groups has complained about having a weak character and I as a DM have never felt that my monsters are not working good enough.

So I don't understand what your point is. Or better your point is indeed a very little point in a wide plane.

Your experience is different than mine. I've seen, in particular, the power of casters exceed that of martials pretty consistently, and especially when it comes to certain powerful abilities. I've actively moved people away from certain subclasses (Elemental Monk, Berzerker Barbarian) or even classes (Fighter, Ranger).

Now what gives me a lot of positivity is that I think they have at least done better on a lot of those in the playtest. The Berzerker especially is just a way better, way more interesting version of the first one. They haven't done as well with everything (the Fighter is still very uninspiring), but let's not forget that they are likely doing this because the game is in desperate need of some of the fixes that they have avoided giving for many years. The game is unbalanced, but it still playable and can certainly still be fun as well. But this game isn't particularly well-tuned, and I feel like that is part of the point sometimes.

 

[Horwath]

That we know of so far.

Again, WotC is the company that brought us the Twilight Cleric and silvery barbs.

Silvery barbs is a powerful spell, but not gamebreaking.


Twilight sanctuary puts Inspiring leader feat into category of bonus tool proficiency so that is overpowered.

 

[UngeheuerLich]

Now what gives me a lot of positivity is that I think they have at least done better on a lot of those in the playtest. The Berzerker especially is just a way better, way more interesting version of the first one. They haven't done as well with everything (the Fighter is still very uninspiring), but let's not forget that they are likely doing this because the game is in desperate need of some of the fixes that they have avoided giving for many years. The game is unbalanced, but it still playable and can certainly still be fun as well. But this game isn't particularly well-tuned, and I feel like that is part of the point sometimes.

I agree with most points. I also see theoretical imbalance. But at the table, people are feeling that they are doing a lot to help the party. Even the ranger. Even the monk.
Even though wizards have more abilities to help the party it is sometimes a burden. They have to do do this, while fighters and rogues can play as they like.

I think the game is quite well tuned*. Perfectly playable. But still having some imbalances that are probably partially necessary in the D&D genre.


*i have played games where some character classes were totally useless in adventures. Sometimes even the wizards, because designers felt that spells are so powerful that spellcasters only have a low chance to actually cast them without killing themselves...

 

[Micah Sweet]

I agree with most points. I also see theoretical imbalance. But at the table, people are feeling that they are doing a lot to help the party. Even the ranger. Even the monk.
Even though wizards have more abilities to help the party it is sometimes a burden. They have to do do this, while fighters and rogues can play as they like.

I think the game is quite well tuned*. Perfectly playable. But still having some imbalances that are probably partially necessary in the D&D genre.


*i have played games where some character classes were totally useless in adventures. Sometimes even the wizards, because designers felt that spells are so powerful that spellcasters only have a low chance to actually cast them without killing themselves...

What games were these? Sounds interesting.

 

[OldSchoolGamerGirl]

The ranger and monk were good enough in actual play. Especially after Tasha upgrades.

it almost feels like 2 balanced games...

like you take monk, fighter, barbarian, rogue (remove caster subclasses) and make the ranger and paladin the main casters MAYBE warlock or artificer you have some well balanced but not perfect classes.
If you take wizard, cleric, druid, bard, warlock, artificer with the paladin getting a slight boost and the ranger being given a bit of a boost you have okay balanced classes that more or less let you play the same...
the issue is when the default game is a fighter a rogue a cleric and a wizard you are playing at 2 different levels.

 

[OldSchoolGamerGirl]

*i have played games where some character classes were totally useless in adventures. Sometimes even the wizards, because designers felt that spells are so powerful that spellcasters only have a low chance to actually cast them without killing themselves...

I said D&D is 2 games balanced, but RIfts is like 7, maybe 8. Deadlands/savage world can be VERY caster unfriendly.

 

[UngeheuerLich]

it almost feels like 2 balanced games...

like you take monk, fighter, barbarian, rogue (remove caster subclasses) and make the ranger and paladin the main casters MAYBE warlock or artificer you have some well balanced but not perfect classes.
If you take wizard, cleric, druid, bard, warlock, artificer with the paladin getting a slight boost and the ranger being given a bit of a boost you have okay balanced classes that more or less let you play the same...
the issue is when the default game is a fighter a rogue a cleric and a wizard you are playing at 2 different levels.

I see where you are coming from. But we had no issues with fighters playing with wizards and so on either. I guess at very high level the differencewill be noticible though. Until level 10: no problem.

 

[UngeheuerLich]

What games were these? Sounds interesting.

Arcane codex for example. Very caster unfriendly. You can easily burn out forever.

 

[James Gasik]

I agree with most points. I also see theoretical imbalance. But at the table, people are feeling that they are doing a lot to help the party. Even the ranger. Even the monk.
Even though wizards have more abilities to help the party it is sometimes a burden. They have to do do this, while fighters and rogues can play as they like.

I think the game is quite well tuned*. Perfectly playable. But still having some imbalances that are probably partially necessary in the D&D genre.


*i have played games where some character classes were totally useless in adventures. Sometimes even the wizards, because designers felt that spells are so powerful that spellcasters only have a low chance to actually cast them without killing themselves...

Oh you tried to play Mage as well?

 

[Snarf Zagyg]

it almost feels like 2 balanced games...

like you take monk, fighter, barbarian, rogue (remove caster subclasses) and make the ranger and paladin the main casters MAYBE warlock or artificer you have some well balanced but not perfect classes.
If you take wizard, cleric, druid, bard, warlock, artificer with the paladin getting a slight boost and the ranger being given a bit of a boost you have okay balanced classes that more or less let you play the same...
the issue is when the default game is a fighter a rogue a cleric and a wizard you are playing at 2 different levels.

I think we should go back to the old naming scheme, just more of it.

Fighting Dude.
Magic User.
God Squadder.
Skill Brah.
Pact Person.
Conaner.
Hippie.
Annoying Ethicist.
Aragorn Drizzt Hybrid.
Welcome to my Fist.
Magic User 2: Electric Boogaloo.
Tool Time.

Oh, and Target Practice.

 

[OldSchoolGamerGirl]

Oh you tried to play Mage as well?

old or new world of darkness?

 

[James Gasik]

old or new world of darkness?

Old, where you have phenomenal cosmic power IF you have the correct Spheres (and the levels of those Spheres) the Storyteller feels are necessary for your spell, then you have to decide if it's Vulgar or Coincidental, then you get to make a high difficulty roll with likely 3-4 dice (Arete and Spheres are very expensive and you actually need permission to gain Arete, as it comes after a personal moment of enlightenment) in a system where if you roll a 1 on a d10, it subtracts a success, and if you have no successes and roll a 1 you botch, which in this game causes you to accrue Paradox which has a good chance of making you explode, implode, get yanked into an Umbral realm, or just about anything else the Storyteller can imagine.

Oh and possibly getting the attention of other Wizards who want you dead, dead, dead, and don't have the same limitations to use their magic as you do, because they more or less control consensus reality.

Which means, at the end of the day, it ends up being a game about playing Wizards who don't Wizard.

(Disclaimer: this is based on my memory of attempting to play and run Mage, the exact mechanics vary from edition to edition and between my mind and reality. Several White Wolf games have this theme of "here, have cool supernatural powers...don't you dare think about using them". YMMV on how much fun this is.)

 

[Velderan]

Oh, and Target Practice.

I assume that one is bard?

 

[Marandahir]

I assume that one is bard?

Yes, but that name fails to recognise how Bards have gone from that role to being the DM-PC + Live Gamer's favourite class and thus gained significant power accordingly.

I don't want to go back to the 3e Bard days for sure. I love that the Bards can almost have it all now. But let's not pretend they're still target practice.

 

[Snarf Zagyg]

Yes, but that name fails to recognise how Bards have gone from that role to being the DM-PC + Live Gamer's favourite class and thus gained significant power accordingly.

I don't want to go back to the 3e Bard days for sure. I love that the Bards can almost have it all now. But let's not pretend they're still target practice.

Oh, I don't pretend. I actualize.

How many dead bards does it take to change a light bulb?

Spoiler

At least 58, because my basement is still dark.