My god, their naming scheme could use some work. Smite and Smite and Smite are Paladin-only but NOT THAT SMITE
Honestly, I wish that they'd just rename those two smite spells so that it's clear that Smiting is a thing that Paladins do. Clerics can Turn, but they can't smite. Unless they're Order Domain, in which case you're using your subclass to dabble in Paladin without missing out on your capstone, so then you'd get Smites.
Hey, not to put down the Abjurer, my favorite Wizard Subclasses are Diviner and Transmuter and I am already prepared for them to be also-rans for the PHB (my guess on the 3rd and 4th would be Illusionist and Bladesinger, but we'll see). I do think we will see a future booster book, and revisiting those.
Abjuration’s likely to be a lot stronger not that almost all healing spells fall under it.
This is what I expect. Abjuration School is for a later book because even though Wizards use the Arcane list and thus explicitly would miss out on the newly-Abjuration healing spells, there's too much thematic overlap between Abjurers and Thaumaturge Clerics for the PHB. Same reason I'm doubting the inclusion of Divine
SoulSorcery and The Celestial Patron.
Instead, you want to be a dabbler in Divine Magic but not a Cleric, Paladin, or multiclass? You can be a Divine Bard!
I LOVE the new Bard Spell list choice. This is the best solve in my opinion for Bards not getting their iconic spells when reducing down to arcane spell list but specific schools and here's some healing spells as well. I still miss 2014 Song of Rest and would like that to return as a Bardic Inspiration-fueled feature (that would roughly balance it), and I sort of hate that Bards only get to change up their spell repertoire 1 Spell/level up instead of 1 Spell/Long Rest like Rangers and Paladins (though I'm fine with Clerics and Druids getting 1 Spell/spell level-hour/long rest as a reflection of their mastery of those variations of magic and I expect Wizards will get to change things up even more so based on their Spellbook). I think ultimately this is the best reflection of the VARIETY of Bards. It doesn't make you more versatile as a Bard from the get-go, but it also doesn't overwhelm the player with options paralysis. It immediately generates new roleplaying ideas that expand the concept of the Bard in ways we haven't since since June 2009's "Class Acts: Bard" by Robert J. Schwalb in
Dragon 376. Blessed Psalmist, Mythic Skald, Daring Blade, and Resourceful Magician were 4 Paragon Paths (essentially higher-tier subclasses that you only get starting 11th level, also akin to 3.5e's Prestige Classes but without using MC rules to replace level progression) created that summer for the Bard, where you leaned into various power sources for the Bard's magic. It was a recognition that Bards are not just Arcane (as presented since 2000's 3e PHB) but have a variety of musical and performative origins. Even the origins of Bard, as they discuss in the video here, was in a Fighting-Man/Thief that progressed with Druid spells. I'm so excited for this version of the Bard; it lets me play my Druidic Bard concept to my hearts content!
Meanwhile Ranger leans all the way into
Breath of the Wild / Tears of the Kingdom Link abilities (well, not his Sheikah Slate / Ultrahand abilities, but his basic functionality and adventuring style and stamina and weapons).
Tasha's had leaned toward this but I'm glad to see this go hard in that direction while also capturing some of the thematic flavour of the 2014 Ranger. I still worry that Foe Slayer is a bit late for the feature it provides, but admittedly I haven't tried how the removal of its usage restrictions rebalances the feature.
I still think the arbitrary separation of Fighting styles between Ranger and Paladin are frustrating to me, though. I think an Archer Paladin should be just fine, but they seem to be dialing it ALL the way back. Can you even get a second Fighting Style via your ASI or Feat choices, or is the language requiring the Fighting Style feature meaning that these feats are ONLY provided when you get a class feature that gives you Fighting Style (thus just making them feats to save space from class to class?).
I'm not sure I love the combining of Thaumaturge and Scholar Clerics but I'm also not sure they were different enough to justify it being a 3-way split a la Warlock Pact Boon. I DO love how Clerics and Druids have parallel progression now for whether they are squishy or Battle-Mages of various flavours. And the idea of representing the 4e Warden inside the Druid rather than trying to push it into the Barbarian, Ranger, or even Paladin (Oath of the Ancients) is brilliant -- Druids already got the 6th-level
Investiture spells that are a direct representation of the core Warden class features from the 4e
Player's Handbook 2 and
Primal Power. Ever since those spells were added to the game, I've been concerned that they were only giving them to the squishy Druid (that was only non-squishy warrior if it was a full-on shapeshifting Moon Druid which wasn't the flavour of the Warden either). The Storm Herald Barbarian and the Oath of the Ancients Paladin and some builds of Ranger APPROACHED the concept, but they were missing these key spells as they were locked out at too high a level.
Meanwhile, while Gishy Clerics date back all the way to the origins of the game where they were seen as the middle-ground between Fighting-Men and Mages, I always felt that that overlap was weird with the Paladin's design space, especially when Clerics got smite spells on their spell lists and Domain lists. War Domain and Order Domain in particular felt like they were stepping on the Paladin's toes -- or you could say that the Paladin was added to this space that Clerics already had covered to some extent. I think the adding of more Fighter toys to the Paladin and the removal of Paladin cantrips is a big shift there (though I imagine I'd allowed the Blessed Warrior Fighting style for any Paladin player who really wanted cantrips). I think Order Domain can and should allow Clerics to be a particular flavour of pseudo-Paladin in the way that many subclasses allow stepping on toes, but and the Playtest-6 War Domain gives Fighter toes so it feels a bit more like a Paladin there too, but this split goes a long way to helping define the identity of the Cleric while also showing how Clerics and Druids run in parallel as potentially Gishy Mages. Giving this same split to Druids lets us have the Warden concepts captured within this gishy idea without creating a new class that steps all over the toes of the Ranger and Barbarian, and also without trying to force that concept onto classes that are already trying to be other things. Oath of the Ancients Paladin still exists for those Wardens that want to be even heavier armour with more HP and less spell casting, and I think this allows us to cover all the Green Knight concepts previously allowed in the game, while still being functionally different.
When they do get to playtesting revisions to the Artificer (probably not until later in 2024 as any updates certainly won't be needed immediately), I desperately hope they bring the Cleric & Druid's Squishy/Gish division up front and clear for all Artificers, so that it's not something tied to their subclasses. I think the Artificer being an heir of the Swordmage-type Gish would be even more clear with this sort of class-thematic cantrip/weapon progression split, and I think a lot of people would be more satisfied with the lack of a singular Arcane Gish class if this was written outright rather than hidden inside the Battle Smith, Armorer, (and Forge Adept and Mastermaker) subclasses. It would also allow for interesting Alchemist and Artillerist (and Maverick) martial builds. But doing it this way allows the Artificer to maintain its major different from the other half-casters as it's not by definition a warrior but can be, and it has cantrips and not weapon mastery/fighting style and otherwise gets its special features from its items and infusions rather than smites or Link-esque Stamina abilities. Even then, I could see a new Artificer build that outright gets weapon mastery as a master of weapons and armour that could even be outright called a Swordmage or Spellsword or Battlemage or something.
I kinda wish EVERY class had an early dial like the Warlock, Cleric, Druid, etc prior to their subclass choice. For Fighters, Paladins, and Rangers, I see it as the Fighting Style choice. for Bards its of course their spell list choice. For Rogues, it's the Cunning Strikes. But Monks don't get a real dial before their Way of the Warrior choice, save for maybe a weapon mastery or two which I feel like is not as big a differential between as you can switch them out no problem.
If I had to guess, these would be the remaining subclass breakouts in the 2024 PHB:
Barbarian Subclasses (Primal Paths)
- Path of the Berserker
- Path of the Totem Warrior
- Path of the Storm Herald
- Something New
Fighter Subclasses (Martial Archetypes)
- Champion
- Eldritch Knight
- Battle Master (revised to bring the Monk's Martial Disciplines and BM's Combat Superiority into a shared feature?)
- Cavalier or Banneret aka Purple Dragon Knight (heavily revised to take advantage of weapon mastery and possibly martial maneuvers).
Sorcerer Subclasses (Sorcerous Origins)
- Draconic Sorcery
- Wild Sorcery
- Storm Sorcery
- Lunar Sorcery or Something New
Warlock Subclasses (Otherworldy Patrons)
- The Fiend Patron
- The Archfey Patron
- The Great Old One Patron
- The Undead Patron
Wizard Subclasses (Arcane Traditions)
- Evoker
- Transmuter
- Illusionist
- Necromancer
My rationals:
Barbarian and Sorcerer are like Druid and Bard in that they're somewhat short on subclasses and could lean into new core themes that haven't been explored yet. Celestial Patron Warlock, Divine Sorcery Sorcerer, and Abjurer and Diviner Wizard all carry a bit of a more divine flavour that in games using the 2024 core rules only can be represented by the Thaumaturge Order Cleric. Hexblades will likely no longer be a thing in 2024 as the Pact of the Blade Pact Boon should inherit most of their features (that is to say, they're replaced via soft-reboot) The Undying Patron likely already has been soft-reboot replaced by The Undead Patron, and that's a critical patron concept for Warlocks that probably should be in the core rules. Shadow Sorcery and Clockwork Sorcery are more niche Sorcerer concepts (though Shadow Magic could use an update that doesn't lean so heavily on having a shadow mastiff for some reason; that feels like it should have been an option spell on a bonus spell list for the sorcery type and anyone else doing Shadowfell magic stuff). Psionic things for the most part don't belong in the PHB because we can save their updates for a Psionic book alongside a potential Psion/Mystic class. Great Old One Patron can remain but only because it was in the 2014 PHB and is part of the Warlock DNA going back to the 3e Alienist prestige class and the 4e Starlock.
Bard College of Dance covers Bladesinger concepts for the core rules, Scribe themes are mostly covered in the core Wizard class' newfound rules around Spellbooks, and Warmage themes are covered by various other Gishes for the time being. Evoker and Transmuter were the two Traditions that appeared in the Essentials Kit (which implies Transmuter, Eldritch Knight, Arcane Trickster, College of Valour, and War Domain as the second most important subclasses for those 5 classes), Necromancer is confirmed, and Illusionist is one of the most classically Wizard concepts in the game. Conjuror Wizard is the one I would have picked instead of Necromancer (pushing that to the DMG with the Death Domain Cleric and a few other evil character concepts like the Oath of Conquest Paladin -- replacing the Oathbreaker), but since Necromancer is confirmed, I think Conjuror is just a bit less needed, especially since the Druid does a lot of the elemental conjuring stuff and the Cleric and Warlock do a lot of the outer-planes conjuring stuff.
For Barbarian -- I WISH the Zealot would appear in the book, but I think the Storm Herald is a more classic concept (having been essentially an import of the
Heroes of the Feywild 4e Berserker's terrain-magic rages). Totem Warrior and Berserker were in 2014 PHB of course, and I think something new is most likely here if anywhere beyond the Bard and Druid. I expect they want to try out 2 more brand new subclasses, and maybe even the Path of the Giant which got cut from
Glory of the Giants might find a new home here, maybe with some flavour changes. I think there's still a desire for a giant warrior subclass concept separate from what became the Rune Knight (was originally the Giant Soul Sorcerer). Speaking of Rune Knight, I'm skipping both them and the Arcane Archer because while they're awesome, they're more niche variants on the themes represented by the Eldritch Knight. I think they play out VERY differently from the Eldritch Knight, but for the PHB we're going to focus on covering broad concepts rather than niche variants. We already know Eldritch Knight has to be updated here, so the other specialist magical fighters -- including the Echo Knight and Psi Warrior too -- are almost certainly going to be eschewed in favour of more purely martial concepts.
Of the remaining Fighter subclasses, we have Banneret/Purple Dragon Knight, Cavalier, and Samurai. I think Samurai is probably out because there's been pushback on using terms like Samurai, Kensei, and Ninja alongside the concerns about racist stereotypes inherited from
Oriental Adventures. I think we'll get these subclasses eventually, perhaps under other names. Assassin Rogue already covers "gritty realism" Ninjas, while interestingly the Warrior of Shadow Monk moves further away from Mystic Ninja and closer toward the 3e Prestige Class Shadow Dancer. The reason why I'm divided between Banneret and Cavalier is that I think they'll want to really establish something that's sort of between the two, representing the charismatic 4e "Inspiring Warlord" concept while Battle Master will more closely represent Warrior-Poet "Tactical Warlord" concept. I think both will utilise Martial Maneuvers, and we might move away from Combat Superiority Dice towards a unification with the Monk's discipline points. Perhaps the Banneret or Cavalier will avoid the points and power their maneuvers based on something that's almost more like a Paladin's Lay on Hands or Bardic Inspiration, something very clearly inspiring to give THP and allow instant usage of HD, while the Battle Master will almost feel like a Fighter that is dabbling in Monk. This would clearly differentiate the Battle Master from the Champion while also satisfying all genres of Warlord/Marshal/White Raven/Crusader/Swordsage fans.
As for Lunar Sorcery or something new with Sorcerer, as much as I love every Sorcerer subclass, I feel like the Lunar Sorcery reflects the 4e's Cosmic Sorcerer the most, which was one of the 5 core Sorcerer archetypes in that edition -- Elementalists, Draconic Sorcerers, Wild Mages, Cosmics, and Storm Sorcerers. But I also think with the Druid's Circle of the Stars and newly lunar-emphasized Circle of the Moon, you can represent some of those Cosmic Sorcerers pretty darn well with the Druid instead (and also with Light Domain Clerics, for that matter). And as amazing as that subclass is, they may not want to reprint it so soon as Krynn was very recently released, more so than anything from Tasha or Xanathar or even from Ravenloft (where I speculate a reprint of The Undead Patron to come from). So then they may try to pick up the other side of the Way of the Four Elements monk by leaning into a new forked-choice Elementalist Sorcerer a la what we saw in 4e's
Heroes of the Elemental Chaos. This would allow the Warrior of the Elements to be very much a martial artist that punches fire and ice into your face, while the Elementalist Sorcerer would be the gishy elemental air bender or earth bender casting from the backlines. They may do something completely differently though, since they seem to be going hard on flavour of Druids practicing Elemental Magic in addition to Fey and Nature Magic -- just never restricting themselves to a single Element as that would advance the causes of Elemental Evil. I think then we might get something like a Vampiric Sorcery or Demon Atavism Sorcery or Fey Sorcery, all of which I know I'm not the only one whose been wanting to get my hands on for forever.
www.dndbeyond.com
