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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[doctorbadwolf]

Honestly? I think the general theme is one of pulling back from a LOT of changes. Everywhere in the doc, all you see is "This is being reverted to maintain compatibility". Over and over again.

Wait really? That’s your takeaway from the document?

The statement your suggesting is ubiquitous is maybe twice in one class writeup, at the most, usually just the once when talking about subclasses. Meanwhile they gave rogues an entirely new layer of tactical combat play,

 

[Parmandur]

Wait really? That’s your takeaway from the document?

The statement your suggesting is ubiquitous is maybe twice in one class writeup, at the most, usually just the once when talking about subclasses. Meanwhile they gave rogues an entirely new layer of tactical combat play,

Yeah, the new document is chockablock with changes. Lots of small changes, all told, but they add up, and some are quite bold.

 

[Shardstone]

I gotta say though. I just think how they portray some of the classes is a little boring. Is the coolest thing a ranger can get at 13th level really Conjure Barrage? Like it's cool, you get a nice cone attack but, that's it? 7th level spells are things like forcecage, mirage arcane, firestorm, simulcrum, teleport. I'd like the ranger to have a little more pizzaz. And that really goes for every class. I just think the 11th-18th level features, including the subclass features there, are just kinda' unimpressive.

 

[mamba]

I f q that it might be such a regression in so many areas that said survey will have difficulty even convincing a lot of people to bother

Yeah, I know I am close to not bothering, and it doesn’t help that this pack is so large either, the survey for the last one was a chore already

 

[Azzy]

I mean, how many Abjurerer Stan's can there be...?

 

[Hussar]

Which is only to be expected based on the methodology, and Crawford laid this out from the beginning. The starting point was a set of still verynpopular rules: the glass is half full, theybare managing to find the areas that improvement is wanted and implementing it. They can keep this up for decades.

Oh undoubtedly. It’s really a brilliant strategy.

They can toss out play tests of all these different mechanics. Then when the fandom rejects the changes they can rightly say, hey we’re giving people what they want.

All these folks who complain about how “innovation” doesn’t come from WotC miss the fact that WotC absolutely is not allowed to innovate.

 

[Hussar]

I would have preferred that they strayed further out of their lane than they telegraphed originally, but I understand that wasn't a financially viable option for them.

Has nothing to do with finance.

The fandom rejects changes. Full stop. They ran into this in 4e. Then in 2014. Now again ten years later. Thank goodness the internet wasn’t a thing when 3e was released or we’d still have THAC0 and percentile strength.

 

[Hussar]

Wait really? That’s your takeaway from the document?

The statement your suggesting is ubiquitous is maybe twice in one class writeup, at the most, usually just the once when talking about subclasses. Meanwhile they gave rogues an entirely new layer of tactical combat play,

And we’ll see if that survives the next pass.

Any bets?

 

[Levistus's_Leviathan]

Magic has no basis in reality, and thus just has to be consistent, as opposed to realistic.

Which, in effect, means that only the magic dudes get to do cool stuff. Which leads to these two scenarios:
a) Most people getting access to cool abilities through magic (which is why so many martial classes get a magical subclass or two)
b) Non-magical martial characters being boring (champion fighters swing a sword multiple times a turn but aren't good for almost anything else)

And aren't you also one of those people that complains about how many classes and subclasses in 5e get access to magic? The fact that most of the cool abilities in 5e have to be magical is the reason for that issue.

Also, D&D is a fantasy world. You could just have your headcanon be "martial characters are have magical muscles that let them do superhuman things" in order to get rid of any perceived contradictions with a "mundane" character performing superhuman acts.

 

[Hussar]

Just to be clear, I do think most of the changes are fine. They do exactly what they’re supposed to do- improve the experience at the table.

I just wish they be allowed to take it a little further.