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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[James Gasik]

Published material isn't the right place to be looking, though. It would be very poor design for WotC to create a high level adventure that spans planes without building in a method to get there other than the spell. They have to write those adventures so that a party that consists of a fighter, a paladin, a barbarian and a rogue can finish it.

You have to look at homebrew examples to see if the spell is used and how often.

I agree with you here based my anecdotal experience. Like I said in the other response to you, I've seen it used less than 10 times over the course of the last 39 years. And my groups(DM'd and ones I play in) routinely reach levels where they could cast it.

So it's not a WotC adventure, obviously, but I did recall there is an adventure that requires you to research a new spell. The Spelljammer adventure, Under the Dark Fist, requires you to navigate a dense asteroid field at high speed, the sort of thing that only an idiot would attempt. The adventure requires something similar to eyes of the eagle to do this, and if the party doesn't have that item, you have to research a spell that has the same effect; the only time I can recall spell research being part of an adventure.

 

[James Gasik]

It was probably added because of this:

(From the 2e PHB)

 

[Hussar]

Absolutely not, but also, I don't think it hurts or unbalances anything to take it off either.

That would be my take as well.

 

[Pauln6]

Um... that has nothing to do with the campaign and everything to do with you having a bizarre group?

For this to be true, your cleric has to be at least three levels higher than your wizard. And I have no reason to suspect that your wizard, were they three levels higher wouldn't get Teleport, which doesn't rely on teleportation circles (and in fact I never mentioned teleportation circles) and would be superior for the travel you want. And find steed still works perfectly fine for group travel. Nothing says you can't have multiple castings, or that you can't double up on the steeds.

This doesn't read like "plane shift is indispensable for travel" and instead more like "You use what you can get"

I have played every edition over 33 years with all sorts of group compositions (our wizard is multiclassed, just in case you had overlooked how those rules work - hyperbolic statements rarely carry much weight). Over the years the game has evolved so that having particular group composition isn't required for play. Different ways to reach similar results are fun.

That said, Tree Stride was a more fun way for druids to travel IMO.

Out of interest, do you find Phantom Steed any use for overland group travel? It only lasts an hour in 5e. It was always a thematic way for my shadow mage to travel in previous editions but it feels a pain to have to re-cast it all the time in 5e. Impractical as a ritual and too resource heavy to benefit a whole group?

 

[GMforPowergamers]

Yes and no. It's all relative. There's what? 30 million players? If even 5% of those hit 13th level, that's 1.5 million players hitting 7th level spells in their games. At 5 per group(1 DM and 4 players which I believe is average), that's 300,000 groups which is tons in my book.

again... even if we say it's 10 billion campaigns (its not) most still are not seeing that spell... but lets take your nuumber of 300,000 groups... they ALSO spent 90% of there time not having access...

heck if you have a game that starts at 3rd, and runs through 20 that is 17 levels of play, and for 10 out of 17 of them you don't have access tot he spell

 

[GMforPowergamers]

It wasn't on their 1e and 2e lists, either. Did they have it in 4th?

sort of, it was a ritual anyone could learn (even a fighter)

 

[Maxperson]

again... even if we say it's 10 billion campaigns (its not) most still are not seeing that spell... but lets take your nuumber of 300,000 groups... they ALSO spent 90% of there time not having access...

First, 10% is 2 levels of the game. There are still tons of games that hit 20th, 19th, 18th, etc., so it's higher than 10% of the time with Plane Shift. Second, even if it were only 10% of the time, if 10% is the criteria for not getting Plane Shift, then it's also the criteria for not getting Delayed Blast Fireball, Etherealness, Finger of Death and so on. They would get no spells at all from spell levels 7, 8 and 9. If we're going to accept that they get any spells at all once they hit 13+ level, then Plane Shift is reasonable to include.

 

[mellored]

Just going to say we need a blossom druid, who can wild shape is to a tree.

 

[Bill Zebub]

Just going to say we need a blossom druid, who can wild shape is to a tree.

Yeah that would be awesome.

 

[Levistus's_Leviathan]

Yeah that would be awesome.

It's honestly baffling how there isn't a plant-themed Druid subclass yet. There are a couple for animals (Moon and Shepherd) and even one for fungus (Spores), but we still don't have a Plant Druid. Hopefully the 2024 PHB or a future splat book has one.