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 ...

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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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[Gladius Legis]

Searing Smite is still absolute trash, when the Paladin could just smite for certain damage right now.

I love how they kept it on the Divine list and didn't bother to make it part of the Paladin's Smite kit.

Hey, Cleric, wanna Smite? Cool, you get Searing Smite, which is still light years inferior to even the Paladin's nerfed Divine Smite.

 

[fluffybunbunkittens]

Monks do get one thing. As written, they can now Stunning Strike with ranged attacks with Simple weapons.

 

[LuisCarlos17f]

Well ... this new Druid has problems then. Back to MM statblocks means no Owlbear and Doric's escape from the tower uses 6 forms (fly, mouse, hawk, cat, deer and ... chocobo?). I know, the movie and RPG aren't the same things, but it's just funny that the current design doesn't take that into account.

She used some special item, and she could spend spell-slots to reload the wild-shape. I guess.

 

[Mistwell]

Hah, remember when people thought they'd be revising a lot of spells. That said...

I am nearly positive that is coming in another packet. Like 99% sure.

 

[Mistwell]

How they're not passing this off as 5.5, or even 6e, is the biggest joke of these playtests entirely.

Everyone Else: They've toned things way down from the prior playtest packets to make all of this much more compatible with 2014 material.
Erdric Draign: See it's 5.5 or 6e! [Crying laughing]

 

[Mistwell]

She used some special item, and she could spend spell-slots to reload the wild-shape. I guess.

I am told there is an entire novel explaining how she does that.

 

[Kurotowa]

I love how they kept it on the Divine list and didn't bother to make it part of the Paladin's Smite kit.

Hey, Cleric, wanna Smite? Cool, you get Searing Smite, which is still light years inferior to even the Paladin's nerfed Divine Smite.

I mean, yes? That's absolutely necessary, because Clerics get full spell progression and will have more and higher level spell slots. A Cleric who could do full Paladin Smites would be a terror.

Weapon Mastery is headed in an interesting direction, but there's still some sore points. Like, Monks get it, but have little use for it. Unarmed Strike is just so good now, and a lot of Simple weapons have traits that aren't useful for Monks like Flex and Nick. OTOH, War Clerics get it, which is cool. Does that mean Blade Warlock will too in their revision? I can only hope so.

The Fighting Style feats got their prerequisite changed from "Warrior class group" to "Has the Fighting Style class feature". Which kind of makes sense, if you think about it. Most Warriors never had Fighting Styles before, and there were definitely balance concerns with Barbarians and Monks picking up Dual Wielding. Meanwhile it left out classes that got it natively, which is Paladins and Rangers. This change means the feats are for branching out into additional Fighting Styles instead of picking it up when you normally wouldn't get it. Though there's now the problem that you can't take it as your free 1st level feat, but maybe that's a feature and not a bug.

I like a lot of the new or promoted subclasses. Good that Way of Mercy is making the big leagues, and College of Dance is pretty neat. Definitely in that Bladesinger "You want to be spellcasting first and kicking people as a backup" zone, but still neat.

 

[Sir Brennen]

I guess what I mean is the divine smite exploit is gone. No more "Oh, I rolled a crit! I'm going blow my biggest divine smite!" It says it's a bonus action, which reads me not part of the actual attack action that triggered it. So no bonus damage from the crit.

That may be up for debate. From the spell description:
As you hit the target, your strike glows with divine power. The target takes an extra 2d8 Radiant damage from the attack. The damage increases by 1d8 if the target is a Fiend or an Undead.

Sounds to me like the damage is part of the same attack, and therefore the smite dice are doubled on a crit too.

 

[Micah Sweet]

Healing with a bonus action doubles their hitpoint pool, which would be silly on its own, but now imagine just how many times they can pop up an unconscious party member.

Thank goodness! 5e desperately needed more in-combat healing!

 

[Micah Sweet]

Stunning Strike got the nerf it needed, which is that you can't spam all your Ki points in one round trying to get Stunning Strike to stick. Which is less about nerfing for power and more that it was just an unpleasant play loop.

Monk is better than it was, but it's still only a 4 out of 10 instead of a 2 out of 10. I have an alt-monk I use in my home games, and nothing they've done here would drive me to switch.

Level Up's Adept is all-around a better take on the concept.

Gotta stay on brand, you know.