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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[Hussar]

Paizo wasnt…owned by Hasbro under the auspices of Wizards. That’s a rather significant difference.

No, that's true. But, while independent, it was still very closely tied to WotC. And filled with talent from WotC. And the source of pretty much all the "official" alternative rules for 3e. But, your point is well made. It's all in the details. I'm not saying it's impossible, but, more just sort of playing Devil's Advocate for what counter arguments there might be.

OTOH, I'd absolutely love to see it. And, there is lots of precedent as well. Comic book companies had all sorts of imprints that worked exactly like this. Dark Horse and DC, Marvel and... ah shoot, the name escapes me right now. So on and so forth. A sort of Art House imprint for WotC where they get freer rein to experiment would make me a HAPPY camper. An imprint that can use WotC IP and just go nuts with it.

I think that would make a LOT of people happy.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

No, that's true. But, while independent, it was still very closely tied to WotC. And filled with talent from WotC. And the source of pretty much all the "official" alternative rules for 3e. But, your point is well made. It's all in the details. I'm not saying it's impossible, but, more just sort of playing Devil's Advocate for what counter arguments there might be.

OTOH, I'd absolutely love to see it. And, there is lots of precedent as well. Comic book companies had all sorts of imprints that worked exactly like this. Dark Horse and DC, Marvel and... ah shoot, the name escapes me right now. So on and so forth. A sort of Art House imprint for WotC where they get freer rein to experiment would make me a HAPPY camper. An imprint that can use WotC IP and just go nuts with it.

I think that would make a LOT of people happy.

Absolutely. You know some of that experimental stuff would eventually filter into D&D , too.

 

[Hussar]

Absolutely. You know some of that experimental stuff would eventually filter into D&D , too.

Sure. It would be a great way to testbed some of the more ... controversial material that gets UA'd now.

Again, I do think that they see DM's Guild as this. But, you're right. Most of the DM's Guild stuff doesn't have the money to promote and market it like a WOtC release. Even the "Million Dollar Kickstarters" often don't see a lot of love outside of their niche. Having that "Official D&D" tag on stuff makes an ENORMOUS difference.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

Sure. It would be a great way to testbed some of the more ... controversial material that gets UA'd now.

Again, I do think that they see DM's Guild as this. But, you're right. Most of the DM's Guild stuff doesn't have the money to promote and market it like a WOtC release. Even the "Million Dollar Kickstarters" often don't see a lot of love outside of their niche. Having that "Official D&D" tag on stuff makes an ENORMOUS difference.

Yep, as does having the funding to hire editors and artists and contract designers for a specific project and run longer playtests and all of that.

 

[Pauln6]

Would not a good compromise be to give the base fighter a basic suite of abilities that give choice when building but less choice when playing?

• Application of disadvantage on opportunity attacks - that's the DM'S problem.
• Boost to DC on shove, disarm, overrun etc. Inflict unarmed combat damage when using.
• Look at the most popular Battlemaster manoeuvres. Pick 3, give a choice of 1 without the damage boost.
• Add intelligence or wisdom to initiative

That sort of thing.

 

[MonsterEnvy]

Yup. No point in continuing with WotC if you want even moderate innovation.

2e to 3e, 3e to 4e and 4e to 5e all were pretty innovative.

I am not expecting as drastic a change with 2024, but I did expect more than the minimal tinkering we seem to end up with

I keep seeing people on his form telling them not to change things.

Though I think more change is happening than either of you are giving credit for.

 

[Micah Sweet]

I keep seeing people on his form telling them not to change things.

Though I think more change is happening than either of you are giving credit for.

Drive-thru. They're not going to make a proper edition break, I don't see any value to anyone other than WotC themselves in what they're doing.

 

[tetrasodium]

I keep seeing people on his form telling them not to change things.

Though I think more change is happening than either of you are giving credit for.

Depends on if you are primarily player or gm. Sure there is massive change for players in the form of additions, especially those who can't trace l memories back to the massive additions of 3.x splatbooks.

For primarily gms though there is almost no meaningful change. Even the exceptions seem to be still functionally identical or appear to be getting rolled back in this packet. To that group wotc started out very small and is already saying that the time of "big"* change is over

* Pretty sure that was the word Crawford used in the video a few weeks ago

 

[mamba]

I keep seeing people on his form telling them not to change things.

I also see people telling them the opposite…

Though I think more change is happening than either of you are giving credit for.

going by playtest 6, I am pretty comfortable with my statement, all the actual changes were thrown out, what is left is a bit of shuffling stuff around. We will see what we get in the end

 

[Hussar]

See the whole thing with the 70% approval bar means that change really is very difficult.

Imagine that fandom is split evenly. 1/3 hates change and wants the game to stay as much the same as possible. 1/3 really wants new stuff. And 1/3 is somewhere in between.

To block change, the 1/3 that doesn’t want change only has to convince about ten percent of everyone else and changes won’t happen.

For a change to go through, the pro change side not only has to convince all the fence sitters but also some of those that do t want change.

Change is going to be very slow and very incremental.