D&D 5E (2024) New One D&D Playtest Includes 5 Classes & New Weapon Mastery System

The latest playtest packet for One D&D has just landed, and features five classes (Barbarian, Fighter, Sorcerer, Warlock, and Wizard) and the new Weapon Mastery system.

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 the rules on the Weapon Mastery property, updates to weapons, new and revised spells, several new feats, and five classes: Barbarian, Fighter, Sorcerer, Warlock, and Wizard. You will also find an updated rules glossary that supercedes the glossary of any previous playtest documents.

Claim Unearthed Arcana now! - D&D Beyond

www.dndbeyond.com

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[Remathilis]

No, I'm saying sentiments like "warlock is half caster and has lost access to higher level spells" is ignoring that they deliberately shunted some of those features into a different place, while combining them with others. So now warlocks get standard half casting for most of their spell slots, and then a single source of higher level faux slots, rather than having a bunch of different features and invocations that replicate that same basic utility.

It's fine if you don't like the specific implementation, but just looking at the warlock table and jumping to conclusions - which is what a number of people seem to have done - isn't really telling the whole story.

Which is funny, since most people who are unfamiliar with pact magic assume the table is wrong anyway since the table says Max Spell Level is 5th but the warlock spell list went to 9th, not realizing that 6th-9th level spell slots were hidden in Mystic Arcanum.

 

[Weiley31]

Okay: not gonna lie.....

I'll keep the old Pact Boon/Maximized spell slot from before and add it on top of the UA 2023 half-caster Warlock with the 15 Spellslots.

 

[Zaukrie]

dying isn't a condition anymore? Nor exhausted (I admit I'm not sure either matters as a condition).

 

[OldSchoolGamerGirl]

But next, they'll start formatting all special abilities into little blocks that look like spells, and we all know where that leads.

if you give them flavor of things other then spells I wouldn't mind

 

[Charlaquin]

oh so counterspell the wizard scribing a spell into his book is cool in your mind?

I mean, seems like a poor use of Counterspell to me, since the wizard can just… Go somewhere else and do the ritual again. But having magical features consistently be spells is cool to me.

 

[Zaukrie]

Warlocks choose their patron at 3rd level? So what exactly is a first level warlock? Where does their magic come from? Why do they need a patron at all?

That's in the description......

 

[OldSchoolGamerGirl]

Warlocks choose their patron at 3rd level? So what exactly is a first level warlock? Where does their magic come from? Why do they need a patron at all?

in the video they said you made a lesser pact maybe not even with the same entity but it;s not important

 

[Ghal Maraz]

Seeing people amazed by weapon mastery makes it clear how many of them never tried anything outside of 5e. Which is a bit sad.

 

[TwoSix]

oh so counterspell the wizard scribing a spell into his book is cool in your mind?

Actually, I'm pretty OK with it. It creates a fiction where "spells" aren't just chemical formulae or a recipe, they're actually more akin to spiritual/metaphysical constructs that the wizard has to master and can slowly grow and shape over time.

 

[DarkCrisis]

This is always 100% what WotC and TSR before it have meant by "backwards compatible." It confuses me a little that people don't understand that. It's exactly what it meant with 4e & Essentials. It's exactly what it meant with 3e and 3.5. It's exactly what it meant with 1e and 2e. It's exactly why the Monster Manual was the same for OD&D, B/X, and AD&D.

Imagine DMing a 2E game and a player says they are playing a 1E Elf Fighter/Wizard because he can wear ANY armor while casting spells. Backwards compatible! Sure technically.