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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[Parmandur]

Which was ultimately my point; a large chunk of the audience wasn't ready for something like 4e yet...The time was wrong for a 4e style evolution and the audience wasn't there yet.

That assumes the audience is going to want that someday in the future...?

 

[Remathilis]

That assumes the audience is going to want that someday in the future...?

Honestly? I think the success of Pathfinder 2e, which borrowed heavily from 4e design, shows that there is a market for a more 4e-style of D&D. Not exactly what 4e in 2008 looked like, but a lot of good ideas are there and were overlooked. I do think it was ahead of its time as far as some ideas are concerned, enough that even if 4e in 2008 looked more like Essentials it would have been better received.

I suspect though that 6e, whenever it arrives, will have far more 4e DNA than 5e does currently.

 

[Parmandur]

Honestly? I think the success of Pathfinder 2e, which borrowed heavily from 4e design, shows that there is a market for a more 4e-style of D&D. Not exactly what 4e in 2008 looked like, but a lot of good ideas are there and were overlooked. I do think it was ahead of its time as far as some ideas are concerned, enough that even if 4e in 2008 looked more like Essentials it would have been better received.

I suspect though that 6e, whenever it arrives, will have far more 4e DNA than 5e does currently.

Pathfinder 2E has had some success, but not necessarily at a scale that would work for WotC. And at this point, assuming that there will be anything like a "6E" seems a bit if a stretch. I don't see any reason to believe that WotC hasnsucceded in laying the groundwork for an Evergreen ruleset.

 

[Emberashh]

Let me give you a taste: Snyderverse.

Snyderverse was affected by being rushed. It may not have been the most popular direction to take the source material but like the Frank Miller material it was deeply influenced by, it doesn't mean it wouldn't have been good if it was allowed to be.

Jumping into BVS and then JL almost immediately after had wayyy more to do with the problems in those movies than Snyders vision did.

 

[tetrasodium]

Politics be damned. You should see what they have done when companies ignore their audience in favor of a single creative team's vision.

Let me give you a taste: Snyderverse. Ghostbusters 2016. Dark Universe.

Zack Snyder Shares The Superman Idea He Couldn’t Use Because It ‘Broke’ The Studio’s Minds

Yeah, we can understand that.

www.cinemablend.com

Funny how cutting out like 3 hours from the plot or trying to cram multiple superhero movies into one makes the rest kinda lacking in places. It's a lot like how 5e oversimplified till it created as many or more problems than solved

 

[Hussar]

Honestly? I think the success of Pathfinder 2e, which borrowed heavily from 4e design, shows that there is a market for a more 4e-style of D&D. Not exactly what 4e in 2008 looked like, but a lot of good ideas are there and were overlooked. I do think it was ahead of its time as far as some ideas are concerned, enough that even if 4e in 2008 looked more like Essentials it would have been better received.

I suspect though that 6e, whenever it arrives, will have far more 4e DNA than 5e does currently.

Whereas I see all sorts of 4e dna in 5e but it’s rather cleverly hidden.

Two step recovery- the whole short rest thing we’ve been discussing- is a purely 4e thing. The shift away from items to class powers and the standardization of those powers is very much a 4e thing.

Why do you think we really only have three classes in the game? Full caster, half caster and martial. Each one has a standard framework. A cleric Druid, sorcerer and wizard are pretty much mechanically identical. Paladin and ranger are mechanically the same. Fighters barbarians and rogues all follow the same framework.

There are 4e fingerprints all over. Non-magical healing. Hit dice. Short rest recovery. Skills.

The problem with 4e had little to do with mechanics and 5e is proof of that.

 

[Remathilis]

Pathfinder 2E has had some success, but not necessarily at a scale that would work for WotC. And at this point, assuming that there will be anything like a "6E" seems a bit if a stretch. I don't see any reason to believe that WotC hasnsucceded in laying the groundwork for an Evergreen ruleset.

There will be a 6e eventually. Audience attitudes will change and eventually they will find they need more than some minor tinkering to keep things fresh. It's probably not happening for a while, but eventually it will come.

 

[codo]

Whereas I see all sorts of 4e dna in 5e but it’s rather cleverly hidden.

Two step recovery- the whole short rest thing we’ve been discussing- is a purely 4e thing. The shift away from items to class powers and the standardization of those powers is very much a 4e thing.

Why do you think we really only have three classes in the game? Full caster, half caster and martial. Each one has a standard framework. A cleric Druid, sorcerer and wizard are pretty much mechanically identical. Paladin and ranger are mechanically the same. Fighters barbarians and rogues all follow the same framework.

There are 4e fingerprints all over. Non-magical healing. Hit dice. Short rest recovery. Skills.

The problem with 4e had little to do with mechanics and 5e is proof of that.

The actual core rules for both are remarkably similar. Take 4e and swap attacks against Fort, Reflex, and Will with attribute saves, drop the +1/2 level bonus for every d20 roll, and swap lots of small bonuses for advantage, and you are already most of the way to the 5e core rule.

Obviously the classes, monsters, and spells in the 2 systems are very different, but at their core they are surprisingly similar.

 

[Emberashh]

Ive said it before but theres a reason people keep reinventing 4e. Its because 5e is just 4e with a light brain scrambling.

 

[Parmandur]

There will be a 6e eventually. Audience attitudes will change and eventually they will find they need more than some minor tinkering to keep things fresh. It's probably not happening for a while, but eventually it will come.

Seriously, my prediction is that changes will become even slower and more fine as the decades wear on: sire, there will be nee publications, similar to new Call of Cthulu editions. But nothing like a revreoll of the game entire.