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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[Hussar]

PC's randomly traveling to another plane isn't fundamentally different than the PC's randomly heading out into the wilderness. In either case it's up to the DM if they want to run an adventure there or just treat it as downtime.

Plane shift lets high level PC's take the fight to extraplanar adversaries without relying on the adventure handing them a method to travel there. It and similar spells like Teleport should probably be on every class spell list considering how they allow the PCs to approach adventures in new ways, this shouldn't be gated to the wizard.

Again, I have to repeat - it's never used. Sure, great, you can travel to some plane. But, the point is, it's NOT USED. Removing it from a class' spell list will have virtually zero impact on the vast majority of games. It just won't. I mean, good grief, did you even notice that it was gone before someone pointed it out to you?

Heck, I didn't even know that druids COULD cast it before this thread.

Personally, I would rather spells like this and Teleport took a long walk off a short pier. They negate so much of the game, removing interesting challenges.

I mean, good grief, Teleport negates the need for Spelljammer. Why would anyone bother with Spelljamming if you can just teleport to another planet on the same plane? As written, Teleport makes the entire Spelljamming system superfluous. People keep talking about how things like Exploration get bypassed by the game. But, sure, let's make sure that the group can completely ignore travel as soon as they hit a certain level. Yeah, that's fantastic.

I have zero problems with short range teleports like Misty Step or Dimension Door. Those are interesting. But Teleport (teleport circle, teleport, Dream of the Veil or whatever it's called, etc)? All they do is make world building a joke and remove most of the exploration pillar from the game.

 

[Var]

Small thing to note - with Smites open to Unarmed and Ranged, Paladin Multiclass requirements should probably be amended to STR/DEX + CHA to allow Dex builds to be viable. Easy enough to houserule, but why not make it official while we're at it.

Probably should be considered on all Martials tbh.
They're trying to get rid of the frontloading, which is good in my book. That should in turn open up the door to MAD classes actually mixing and matching the way the player feels like without mechanical hurdles.
Monkadin should be a thing (and still requires 4 stats, assuming we don't dump CON) STR Rogue/Monk should be a thing and so should Dex Barb. It should not automatically be viable or even on the same powerlevel as the "default" option for a class, but I don't see why we shouldn't open up base classes to have more designspace with subclasses down the road.

 

[Pauln6]

My guys just use it to save long journey times. Camp out in the Beastlands. Pop back the next day and your journey time is a few days rather than a few months.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

So, basically, it's a spell that tells the DM, "Sorry, we don't want to do whatever it is you've got planned. We want you to create adventures on the fly because we want to randomly jump to various planes for ... reasons."

No, it’s a spell that allows players to go where they want in the cosmology of D&D, gated by the DMs willingness to allow them to find an object from that plane.

Yeah, not a surprise I've never seen it used. Again, sorry, but, how often have you seen it used?

Every campaign that has reached the teens in a world with a multiverse of planes. (not all of our campaigns even have other planes) so, more than half our 5e campaigns. Also, quite a lot on Critical Role.

I'll more than willing to bet dollars to donuts that it's almost never used as a travel spell by players. It's one of those vestigial spells that gets kept in the game, not because it's actually used by players, but, because it's not annoying enough to take out.

Maybe I'm wrong. Maybe there are tons of groups out there that are using Plane Shift routinely. But, I'm very, very much willing to take that bet. I find it endlessly baffling that people are so resistant to the idea that there are things in the PHB that aren't really seeing the light of day and probably should get pushed out in favor of stuff that actually MIGHT get used at the table.

But, hey, tradition for the win I guess.

Lol yes of course anything you don’t like and use is only there because tradition.

 

[Sorcerers Apprentice]

Again, I have to repeat - it's never used. Sure, great, you can travel to some plane. But, the point is, it's NOT USED. Removing it from a class' spell list will have virtually zero impact on the vast majority of games. It just won't. I mean, good grief, did you even notice that it was gone before someone pointed it out to you?

I've seen it used many times, both by players and NPCs.

 

[Henadic Theologian]

Thanks, I found Dungeon of the Mad Mage very hit or miss at least at the level I ran it (12 to 17). One of the thing I noticed watching high level CR is that Matt Mercer really throws the kitchen sink at the party and they mostly survive it.

Do you think he has a cotingiency in case of a TPK?

 

[Bill Zebub]

Do you think he has a cotingiency in case of a TPK?

I hear TGI Friday’s is hiring.

 

[Chaosmancer]

PC's randomly traveling to another plane isn't fundamentally different than the PC's randomly heading out into the wilderness. In either case it's up to the DM if they want to run an adventure there or just treat it as downtime.

I don't have a horse in this race either way, but I would say it is fundamentally different from the PCs walking into the Wilderness.

If the PCs walk out of the city of Skairn, there are limited places they can go. North to the plains, south to the forest, or East to the Mountains. And one of those places is a long, long walk so they are likely dealing with something else in the middle of ut.

If the PCs cast Plane Shift, where do the go?

Essentially anywhere. Astral Plane, Feywild, Shadowfell, Elemental Plane of Water, Earth, Air, Fire, Ooze, Ice, Smoke, Magma, Etheral Plane, Avernus, Dis, Malbolge, Stygia, Nessus, Cania, Bytopia, Beastlands, Ysgard, Pandemonium, Archeron, ect ect ect

There are, potentially, hundreds of locations. And you can't have plans for all of them. That is fundamentally different than "make sure you have plans for the immediate places within a days travel of the party.

Plane shift lets high level PC's take the fight to extraplanar adversaries without relying on the adventure handing them a method to travel there. It and similar spells like Teleport should probably be on every class spell list considering how they allow the PCs to approach adventures in new ways, this shouldn't be gated to the wizard.

Eh, yes and no.

Shouldn't be Wizard gated? Agree.

Shouldn't have to handed out in the adventure? Not sure I agree. Yes, it is nice to give the players the option to go to any plane they wish, whenever they wish. But it is also, kind of unnecessary. If I have an adventure focused on fighting a powerful Tyrant lich, I really don't need the players to have the ability to go to any other plane of the existence, and them being able to might be entirely pointless.

And if you are planning a game against Extraplanar forces, you SHOULD hand out ways to get there, because the party of the Ranger, Barbarian, Monk and Rogue aren't going to have access to a 7th level spell otherwise.

 

[Chaosmancer]

My guys just use it to save long journey times. Camp out in the Beastlands. Pop back the next day and your journey time is a few days rather than a few months.

Eh, if you are just talking cutting travel time, other spells do that.

Teleport is more effective, cutting time to potentially minutes.

Wind Walk can give you basically free travel at a pace of 240 to 300 miles a day at minimum (argument can be made that you could travel 480 to 600 miles a day). That is taking a normal 6 month journey to two weeks (a week if you take the higher values)

Phantom Steed can even allow you to massively cut time spent traveling. You can easily get 7 hours of travel on the steed, which is 70 to 91 miles a day. If you decide to fast travel on the steeds, compared to normal marching, you've reduced the time of a 6 month journey to a month and a half. This is for no spells and is available at level 5


Plane shift for fast travel just... doesn't make sense to me.

 

[James Gasik]

Eh, if you are just talking cutting travel time, other spells do that.

Teleport is more effective, cutting time to potentially minutes.

Wind Walk can give you basically free travel at a pace of 240 to 300 miles a day at minimum (argument can be made that you could travel 480 to 600 miles a day). That is taking a normal 6 month journey to two weeks (a week if you take the higher values)

Phantom Steed can even allow you to massively cut time spent traveling. You can easily get 7 hours of travel on the steed, which is 70 to 91 miles a day. If you decide to fast travel on the steeds, compared to normal marching, you've reduced the time of a 6 month journey to a month and a half. This is for no spells and is available at level 5


Plane shift for fast travel just... doesn't make sense to me.

I can think of one use for Plane Shift! When you fail to prevent the Doom Clock from destroying your campaign world, you can use this spell to escape to Sigil and go find a new one!

EDIT: also, going to Sigil is a great way to buy magic items, if your DM is adamantly against magic item shops!