D&D (2024) New One D&D Playtest Document: 77 Pages, 7 Classes, & More!

There's a brand new playtest document for the new (version/edition/update) of Dungeons of Dragons available for download! This one is an enormous 77 pages and includes classes, spells, feats, and weapons.

Unearthed Arcana Playtest

Unearthed Arcana Playtest Materials Get Unearthed Arcana playtest content, try it out in your game, and provide feedback! Check back regularly for ...

www.dndbeyond.com

In this new Unearthed Arcana document for the 2024 Core Rulebooks, we explore material designed for the next version of the Player’s Handbook. This playtest document presents updated rules on seven classes: Bard, Cleric, Druid, Monk, Paladin, Ranger, and Rogue. This document also presents multiple subclasses for each of those classes, new Spells, revisions to existing Spells and Spell Lists, and several revised Feats. You will also find an updated rules glossary that supercedes the glossary of any previous playtest document.

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[Gorck]

I've been thinking about this Warlock vs. Wizard power comparison. So I did a little fiddling in Excel and created the following:

The YELLOW section is the Wizard Spell Slots and what I call "Power Level" which is just the cumulative total of the number of slots times the slot level.
The GREEN section is the same for Warlocks, but with Mystic Arcanum included.
The BLUE column is the "SR Ratio" or how many Short Rests it would take for the Warlock's Power Level to equal the Wizard's Power Level. As you can see, it builds up from 1 at 1st level to 3.1 at 10th level (before the Warlocks gets their 3rd spell slot and before Mystic Arcanum kicks in). It then rapidly drops to 1.2 and eventually less then 1.0 from 13th level onward.
The PEACH section was me toying with the idea of increasing the Warlock's spell slots by 1. That would cause the SR Ration to top out at 1.7 at 10th level.

Hopefully this makes sense to someone other than myself. Also note that this doesn't take into consideration Invocations. By my count there are 54 Invocations in PHB, XGE, and TCE. 13 offer the casting of a leveled spell at will, while 10 offer the casting of a leveled spell once per day, refreshing on a Long Rest.

EDIT: I should probably note that I used the 2014 sourcebooks since the 2024 ones are still WIP.

 

[Emberashh]

All this arguing over rests and Im just reminded of when I asserted we should just drop the cruddy outdated mechanic and got dog piled for wrongthink.

 

[SkidAce]

Two short rests a day, Con check if you want to benefit from a third.

 

[mamba]

I've been thinking about this Warlock vs. Wizard power comparison. So I did a little fiddling in Excel and created the following

so the Warlock starts needing one SR, which eventually climbs to 3 by level 10, then drops back to 1 and past level 14 means he is either under- or overpowered, as even 1 SR makes the Warlock OP (if we assume that the total number of spellslots available is a good representation of power)

 

[mamba]

All this arguing over rests and Im just reminded of when I asserted we should just drop the cruddy outdated mechanic and got dog piled for wrongthink.

that something needs / benefits from tweaking is not an indication that you should get rid of it, try that with your car engine sometime

 

[Emberashh]

that something needs / benefits from tweaking is not an indication that you should get rid of it, try that with your car engine sometime

But if your "engine" is a wind up monkey banging snares together you probably need something better.

 

[mamba]

But if your "engine" is a wind up monkey banging snares together you probably need something better.

now you only need to convince me that 1) what we have today is a monkey banging snares and that 2) what you want is not a dead skunk in its place

 

[Emberashh]

now you only need to convince me that 1) what we have today is a monkey banging snares and that 2) what you want is not a dead skunk in its place

Well thats easy. 1, just refer to the last couple pages of back and forth going no where. And for 2, what I want is immaterial. Theres a lot of ways to replace it, up to and including completely abandoning the notion the game is just extremely glorified resource management (ie, don't hinge balance on whether or not someone has enough Widget Points).

 

[doctorbadwolf]

All your arguments still only amount to ‘it is not quite as bad as you make it sound’…

None of my arguments are anywhere in the vicinity of that. .

Short rests alongside long rests and downtime (which should matter more and include an extended rest that is needed to get to 100% after a draining/challenging adventure) provide room for more types of abilities, more design freedom in terms of effects and power level compared to “everything must be balanced only for recharging on a long rest”, allow better pacing of the adventuring day (which is not narrative pacing, it’s literally just preventing PCs using 100% of thier power all at once, and then sleeping to do that again the next day), give players more choice and thus more agency in choosing and building characters, and in the adventuring day, and more besides. Meanwhile every downside you list is, as far as I can tell, hypothetical.

 

[bert1001 fka bert1000]

2 short rests possible between every long rest. 5 min short rests.

Gives you basically guaranteed 3x usage of short rest abilities and differentiate them from dailies as you can't nova all in 1 encounter.

Design with that in mind. 6 spell slots daily is a little better than 2 spell slots short rest recharge so need some compensation for lack of nova.