D&D (2024) New One D&D Playtest Shows Us The New Druid & Paladin

WotC has released the fourth One D&D playtest document. This 29-page PDF includes the druid and the paladin with Circle of the Moon and Oath of Devotion subclasses.

Druid. The Druid class and Circle of the Moon subclass are ready for playtesting here.

Paladin. The Paladin class and Oath of Devotion subclass are ready for playtesting here.

Feats. Several revised feats appear here for your feedback, with more revised feats coming in future articles.

Spells. More spells are ready for playtesting, with a focus on smite spells, Find Familiar, and Find Steed.

Rules Glossary. The rules glossary has been updated again and supersedes the glossary in previous Unearthed Arcana articles. In this document, any underlined term in the body text appears in that glossary, which defines game terms that have been clarified or redefined for this playtest or that don’t appear in the 2014 Player’s Handbook.

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[Remathilis]

And you can no longer tank. Sorry moon druids (i.e. most druids), your preferred way to play is now gone. Time to re-roll a barbarian.

Good.jpg

Next I'd like to see wizards stick to their lane rather than being automatically better than most classes at the same shtick.

 

[Faolyn]

I am finally getting to the point where I remember to award inspiration to people who do especially good roleplay or come up with amazing ideas, and they're turning it into something more focused! (Which is a fine idea, but come on!)

Our table would just award two inspiration at the end of every session--one awarded by the DM and one by the players--with a max cap of 3. On rare occasions, everyone would get an inspiration, usually when everyone was just totally top-notch.

It made inspiration really easy to hand out, since it was done at the same time each game.

 

[cranberry]

"Hi there. I see you're new around here. My name is Ranger . What's yours?"

"My name is Druid"

"Welcome to the club Druid. It was getting lonely down here at the bottom. It's nice to finally have company."

 

[doctorbadwolf]

The familiar doesn't get you INSIDE a location, or let you escape super easily.

Wild Shape shouldn't really be more central than Turn Undead. It's something you get on top of being a 9 level caster. A half caster or non-caster is a good spot to explore wild shape as a major feature.

Completely disagree. As written it doesn’t even measure up to healing blossoms, the secondary channel nature feature.

And the Spellcasting trait is not so powerful that full casters can’t also be interesting classes.

As for escaping as a mouse, the wizard can do it with polymorph multiple levels earlier, using a less significant resource. Many characters can do it using teleportation.

 

[Clint_L]

Good.jpg

Next I'd like to see wizards stick to their lane rather than being automatically better than most classes at the same shtick.

Okay, well that is really empathetic towards players who have been using their characters for years. And if druids are so amazing, why are they one of the least played classes? Let's look at tier rankings and see where druids generally place:

Moon druids: S tier at very low levels and very high levels. A-B tier for the rest. Every other druid sub-class: lower.

Not that it matters; this obviously isn't going to fly as written.

 

[OB1]

Druid spell changes. I will say that some of the spell additions make up for the Wildshape changes, but some of the high level spell loses are rough, especially considering you don't need to worry about a Ranger getting those.

2024 Druids lose
1 - Charm Person
2 - Hold Person
4 - Confusion
4 - Hallucinatory Terrain
5 - Contagion
5 - Geas
5 - Planar Binding
6 - Heroes Feast (!)
7 - Mirage Arcane
7 - Plane Shift (!)
8 - Feeblemind (!)
9 - Foresight (!)

2024 Druids Gain
0 - Spare the Dying
1 - Ensnaring Strike
1 - Hail of Thorns
1 - Hunters Mark (this at least works well with the new Wildshape)
2 - Augury
2 - Cordon of Arrows
2 - Enlarge/Reduce (okay, so you can get a tiny wildshape at 3rd level)
2 - Gentle Repose
2 - Silence
3 - Conjure Barrage
3 - Elemental Weapon
3 - Lightening Arrow
3 - Mass Healing Word
3 - Nondetection
3 - Revivify
5 - Conjure Volley
5 - Swift Quiver
6 - Wall of Ice
9 - Power Word Heal

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

I guess we know why druids would be super into guarding standing stones that work as planar gates, then. (A trope I've seen a lot over the years.)

 

[Stalker0]

Druid spell changes. I will say that some of the spell additions make up for the Wildshape changes, but some of the high level spell loses are rough, especially considering you don't need to worry about a Ranger getting those.

2024 Druids lose
7 - Plane Shift (!)

2024 Druids Gain

2 - Enlarge/Reduce (okay, so you can get a tiny wildshape at 3rd level)
3 - Revivify

These are my biggest notes from that list. Plane Shift is a big one, as that's just one of the high level travel staple spells.

The reduce spell is a big note, and yes if you can use that to get the tiny wildshape, looks like druid's can rejoice. Revivify is a pretty big one, that's literally a lifesaver for the party, but it also means the druid can get guilted in to always having that prepared.

 

[Uni-the-Unicorn!]

Okay, well that is really empathetic towards players who have been using their characters for years.

Can’t they just use the 2014 Druid then? It is still there and still useful.

 

[OB1]

These are my biggest notes from that list. Plane Shift is a big one, as that's just one of the high level travel staple spells.

The reduce spell is a big note, and yes if you can use that to get the tiny wildshape, looks like druid's can rejoice. Revivify is a pretty big one, that's literally a lifesaver for the party, but it also means the druid can get guilted in to always having that prepared.

Yeah, overall the changes pull the Druid more towards the Cleric role, but at the same time, can't replace the cleric in the party at high levels due to the loss of Heroes Feast and Plane Shift. Weird.

Also, it's weird that they've pivoted so hard away from one of the most popular druids in the game. Keylith of the Air Ashari would be a VERY different character under the new Druid rules.