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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[Weiley31]

Look at this rate with DND 5E, I'm gonna reserve my judgement until I can see more of Tales of Valiant from Kobold Press. I'll probably take stuff from Valiant, Cubicle 7, and stuff from the Playtest packet for classes like the Monk.

That is my current game plan with staying with 5E long term will be.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

My real-world comparison of the currentView attachment 289117 D&D game.

Mod Note:

A little soon for this, here & now.

 

[Parmandur]

It's barely more than 5e with Tasha's and MotM. It's 5.11 for workgroups. It doesn't even rise to the level of 5.5, let alone 6.

It really shows how silly the "3.5" software metaphors always was, when Evergreen was an option.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

View attachment 289121

Mod Note:

Just because a meme contains political figures, it is not inherently political. However, if you report someone for tasteless (in your opinion) humor, don’t provoke them to “do better”. Odds are good that- unless you’re a mod- they’re going to take that as a challenge. That won’t have the results you’d want.

 

[Bill Zebub]

I picture it as "You were trained in all the weapons, but you can only stay at peak performance with a couple of them at once. The rest of them, the ones you're not using regularly, you're just a little rusty with. Not so much you lose proficiency, just enough that you can't perform at the absolute pinnacle without taking a day to refresh your memory and do a few drills to shake off that rust."

Mastery is what is says, the true master level of performance. You can't be a swordsman for a year, then pick up an axe and expect not to need even a little time to reacclimate yourself. I mean, a high level Fighter might be able to, because they get enough additional Mastery slots they can stay in practice with a wide range of weapons at once. But someone low level, or who isn't a Fighter? You gotta run some drills.

That’s a helluva stretch to wrap a veneer of realism around weapon mastery.

 

[Kurotowa]

That’s a helluva stretch to wrap a veneer of realism around weapon mastery.

Realistic enough for a game where holding martials to a higher standard of realism is already a problem. I mean, if I pick up a video game I haven't played in a few months, it takes me a little while to get back in the groove. I don't even want to think how long it would take me to brush off my fencing skills again. Skill rust is very much a thing. And unreasonable standards of simulationism for martials is the enemy.

 

[tetrasodium]

Realistic enough for a game where holding martials to a higher standard of realism is already a problem. I mean, if I pick up a video game I haven't played in a few months, it takes me a little while to get back in the groove. I don't even want to think how long it would take me to brush off my fencing skills again. Skill rust is very much a thing. And unreasonable standards of simulationism for martials is the enemy.

No not really because in order for a PC to change their weapon mastery they need to go through an arduous & difficult quest that might consume a significant chunk of a campaign where they need to go on a long trek to literally anywhere and undergo the unheard of superhuman task of sleep for at least 6 hours and perform no more than 2 hours of light activity.

 

[Kinematics]

A slight side effect of the changes in UA6 is that, to pick up a Fighting Style feat — which were all level 1, and thus available at character build — you now have to have the Fighting Style feature.

That means the barbarian can't grab Dueling or Two Weapon Fighting anymore, if trying to put together a slightly off-brand build. (This takes these off-brand builds' DPR ratings from "interesting" to "questionable".) It also means a paladin or a ranger can't pick up a fighting style as a level 1 feat, since they don't get their Fighting Style feature until level 2.

While it might have been worth picking up a fighting style as a level 1 feat for some builds, I rather doubt there's any value in requiring a level 4+ feat to grab one.

 

[Kurotowa]

No not really because in order for a PC to change their weapon mastery they need to go through an arduous & difficult quest that might consume a significant chunk of a campaign where they need to go on a long trek to literally anywhere and undergo the unheard of superhuman task of sleep for at least 6 hours and perform no more than 2 hours of light activity.

If you choose to adhere to the absolute minimum mechanical requirements while eliding any related flavor narration, that's on you. You might as well complain about how PCs level up and unlock new skills just by killing some goblins, with no training or practice involved. You as well complain about how Wizards spontaneously generate new spells when they level up, rather than having devoting long evenings over their notes experimenting to develop them.

The mechanics can't enforce flavor or context. That's on us. Ignoring it and then complaining that it's gone is not a problem with the game.

 

[tetrasodium]

If you choose to adhere to the absolute minimum mechanical requirements while eliding any related flavor narration, that's on you. You might as well complain about how PCs level up and unlock new skills just by killing some goblins, with no training or practice involved. You as well complain about how Wizards spontaneously generate new spells when they level up, rather than having devoting long evenings over their notes experimenting to develop them.

The mechanics can't enforce flavor or context. That's on us. Ignoring it and then complaining that it's gone is not a problem with the game.

The mechanics can however be structured in a way that makes it needlessly difficult for the GM to limit something & do so in ways that create entirely predictable results as they do in both 2014 & 2024 rulesets.