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.

​

 

[Hussar]

Do people really track time that closely in their games? I get wanting short rests to be a thing, but, seriously? Most of the time don't games more or less progress at the speed of plot and if the players take a short rest when it's fairly logical, they just do it? Sure, if you're in that enemy stronghold being actively hunted, a short rest probably isn't in the cards. But, by the same token, if you're exploring some abandoned area, there's no time pressure and it's not really going to change anything, does anyone actually care if you take short rests?

I guess my question is, does it really matter that a short rest is exactly 60 minutes? Isn't that just mostly shorthand for "A bit of time passes when it seems fairly plausible that a bit of time can pass at this point"? Are people writing adventures with that much detail in them that an hour would actually make much of a difference?

I get wanting to make things clearer, but, realistically, IME, games progress at the speed of plot and short rests are taken when it's plausible. Same as long rests.

Do we actually need hard and fast rules here?

 

[Alby87]

Do people really track time that closely in their games? I get wanting short rests to be a thing, but, seriously? Most of the time don't games more or less progress at the speed of plot and if the players take a short rest when it's fairly logical, they just do it? Sure, if you're in that enemy stronghold being actively hunted, a short rest probably isn't in the cards. But, by the same token, if you're exploring some abandoned area, there's no time pressure and it's not really going to change anything, does anyone actually care if you take short rests?

I guess my question is, does it really matter that a short rest is exactly 60 minutes? Isn't that just mostly shorthand for "A bit of time passes when it seems fairly plausible that a bit of time can pass at this point"? Are people writing adventures with that much detail in them that an hour would actually make much of a difference?

I get wanting to make things clearer, but, realistically, IME, games progress at the speed of plot and short rests are taken when it's plausible. Same as long rests.

Do we actually need hard and fast rules here?

The real need is for dangerous places where the DMs rolls for random encounters, or when time is essentials. I personally use a file with a string of tens of minutes (6 5 4 3 2 1) were I delete a digit every ten minutes in game. You can print this one from OSE (Old-School Essentials Dungeon Time Tracker) if you want one on paper.

If you are not in hurry, then a 5 minute or a one hour short rest is no different

 

[Stalker0]

Do people really track time that closely in their games?

Are there occasionally plots where an hour of time going by matters..... yeah plenty of times.

5-10 minutes not so much.

 

[Hussar]

Are there occasionally plots where an hour of time going by matters..... yeah plenty of times.

5-10 minutes not so much.

I guess I’m just going by the modules I’ve played or run in 5e. Most of the time it really doesn’t matter. Sure there are times when it does. But those times, 20 minutes or an hour doesn’t matter. There’s no time to rest so you push on.

I guess my point is, if you have 20 minutes, you very likely have an hour.

 

[mamba]

Do people really track time that closely in their games? I get wanting short rests to be a thing, but, seriously? Most of the time don't games more or less progress at the speed of plot and if the players take a short rest when it's fairly logical, they just do it?

agreed, most of the time, you simply take a SR when you need one.

I do not like the different recharge schedules. I do not like the idea of taking one after each encounter because that is optimal for the chars. I want them to manage their resources, and having one long rest per day only to me fixes all of this.

There is a reason why WotC tried to get rid of recharge on short rests with 2024. Too bad they do not stick to their guns on things.

I feel we have a lot of nonsense grandfathered in that never reached 70% approval, and now we cannot fix it because that somehow requires 70%, even when what we have would not get 70% either.

Game designers could get rid of that, game pollsters cannot.

 

[Hussar]

agreed, most of the time, you simply take a SR when you need one.

I do not like the different recharge schedules. I do not like the idea of taking one after each encounter because that is optimal for the chars. I want them to manage their resources and having one long rest per day only to me fixes all of this.

There is a reason why WotC tried to get rid of recharge on short rests with 2024. Too bad they do not stick to their guns in things.

I feel we have a lot if nonsense grandfathered in that never reached 70% approval, and now we cannot fix it because that somehow requires 70%, even when what we have would not get 70% either.

You’ll get no disagreement from me on this. Watching the rollbacks just keep rolling in.

 

[DEFCON 1]

"Managing resources" is a plot device that a lot of modern players (and indeed a lot of us 'Olds') couldn't give two shites about.

"Managing resources" was lovely to use as a big deal 40 years ago, but after decades of doing it (tracking ammo, tracking encumbrance, tracking handedness, tracking rations, tracking healing and resting) it's no longer intriguing or interesting or dare I say it "enjoyable" (for a lot of us). It's a story roadblock that has been overused to the point where it's a waste of time and energy for a lot of us and not at all interesting. Just like 'pit traps' for example-- another relic of an older time of gaming where tapping in front of you with a 10' pole was the highlight of genius back in 1982, but now is just a sad and eye-rollable trope. Yeah, we know how to get around pit traps. We get it. It's probably time to change our creativity up a bit.

If some of you wish to still play this way... good on you. But you might just have to do the work yourself to get there, rather than relying on WotC to provide the rules for you to do it. Or if you really need in-depth rules on managing resources... you might just need to go back a couple game editions where they put more of a premium on them back when they weren't overdone.

 

[mamba]

"Managing resources" was lovely to use as a big deal 40 years ago, but after decades of doing it (tracking ammo, tracking encumbrance, tracking handedness, tracking rations, tracking healing and resting) it's no longer intriguing or interesting or dare I say it "enjoyable". It's a story roadblock

I am not tracking ammo or rations, never did, not in 1e, not now. But I refuse to pretend everyone is at full everything for every encounter. There should be some level of resource management.

It’s not so much about tracking resources as it is about consequences and agency. Having all powers back each encounter eliminates one aspect of that.

If you do not like that and they get SR whenever, then I see no problem with you giving them a LR whenever either. Your approach sounds like you do that already anyway, so all getting rid of SRs does is increase the distance between two rests, which in your case is entirely irrelevant anyway.

 

[DEFCON 1]

You're right, I am almost always unconcerned with how or when the party rests, because if I want to interrupt them or stop them from getting them as a plot device within the story of the campaign... it's going to happen regardless of what the rules say is "normal". I'll just do it as the next narrative beat and roadblock the party has to deal with and overcome.

But since 5E14 had short rests and long rests (both at various lengths if any DM was actually willing to use the Variant Rules in the DMG which specifically lays out you are allowed to), there's no reason to change things away from that in 5E24. Why mess with any potential compatibility concerns for no good reason? And if a particular DM wants to eliminate one of them from their game (shorts rest or long rests)... they are more than able and wiling to do so. They just might have to spend an hour outside of the game designing rules themselves on how they want to do it.

 

[mamba]

You're right, I am almost always unconcerned with how or when the party rests, because if I want to interrupt them or stop them from getting them as a plot device within the story of the campaign... it's going to happen regardless of what the rules say is "normal".

then I am not sure why you would object to getting rid of SRs, it sounds like it should not matter to you whether they exist

But since 5E14 had short rests and long rests (both at various lengths if any DM was actually willing to use the Variant Rules in the DMG which specifically lays out you are allowed to), there's no reason to change things away from that in 5E24. Why mess with any potential compatibility concerns for no good reason?

I gave my reasons, having everyone on the same recharge schedule, having more consequences from player decisions (if you want to / have to use all your resources in this battle you can, the Warlock can get more than two spells in if needed)

You might not consider them worthwhile, but that does not mean there aren’t any

I see no compatibility concern. Adventures do not really prescribe SRs anywhere, and the increase in resources for eg Warlocks accounts for the fact that they will get fewer SRs (ie only to heal).
If anything, it balances things better, because the number of SRs is not affecting char power levels any more.

Also, I see no reason why you would care given your approach (see above), so if your only real objection is ‘tradition, though’, then that is one I do not care for. ‘We have always / never done it that way’ is not a reason to keep doing it that way