D&D (2024) New Unearthed Arcana Playtest Includes Barbarian, Druid, and Monk

The latest Unearthed Arcana playtest packet is now live with new barbarian, druid, and monk versions, as well as new spells and weapons, and a revised Ability Score Improvement feat.

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WHATS INSIDE

Here are the new and revised elements in this article:

Classes. Three classes are here: Barbarian, Druid, and Monk. Each one includes one subclass: Path of the World Tree (Barbarian), Circle of the Moon (Druid), and Warrior of the Hand (Monk).

Spells. New and revised spells are included.

The following sections were introduced in a previous article and are provided here for reference:

Weapons. Weapon revisions are included.

Feats. This includes a revised version of Ability Score Improvement.

Rules Glossary. The rules glossary includes the few rules that have revised definitions in the playtest. In this document, any underlined term in the body text appears in the glossary.

 

[Neonchameleon]

STR needs better melee weapons(read; more damage) so utility in Dex can take a melee damage penalty.
Since we removed the 1+1/2 bonus to damage of 2Handed melee attacks, 2Handed melee base damage could get a die category bump up, or two.

I.E: greatsword can go from 2d6 to 2d8.
2d6+7(+5 with +1/2 added) and 2d8+5 is same average damage.

The problem isn't that the best melee combatants don't use strength. Great Weapon Master and Polearm Master both require strength builds. I suspect that vex-rapiers are going to be strong, but there is limited feat support for them; the only two dex melee combat feats are Sentinel and Defensive Duelist that both take up your reaction. After that it's things like Athlete, Skulker, or Mounted Combatant that are possibly useful (Skulker is a mostly ranged feat but comes with blindsight; it's a rogue's best friend, probably even ahead of sharpshooter).

The problem is that if you aren't a fighter, barbarian, or paladin Dex >>> Str.

 

[Chaosmancer]

STR needs better melee weapons(read; more damage) so utility in Dex can take a melee damage penalty.
Since we removed the 1+1/2 bonus to damage of 2Handed melee attacks, 2Handed melee base damage could get a die category bump up, or two.

I.E: greatsword can go from 2d6 to 2d8.
2d6+7(+5 with +1/2 added) and 2d8+5 is same average damage.

Feels like that kind of misses the point.

If you want to make this about damage, then 2014 was a tie between PAM+GWM and handcrossbow expert + SS. Greatsword never played into the top spots.

Now, you could increase greatsword... and nothing would likely change from 2014. Your change is pretty small after all (+2 per hit). Increase PAM? Then you are just leaving everything else further behind because they aren't even close right now.

Does 2024 change all this? Yeah. Hard to sat how much, but it made a lot of changes. But I don't think "more DPR" is really any sort of solution. People aren't using rapiers because the damage gap is too small.

 

[Mistwell]

I think they made it easier to knock foes prone, which helps melee and hurts ranged attacks.

 

[Chaosmancer]

I think they made it easier to knock foes prone, which helps melee and hurts ranged attacks.

Sure, but time will have to tell on whether than means that we get fewer ranged builds (which includes many casters) or if fewer people use the knock prone options because they aren't useful for their party composition.

 

[Horwath]

I think they made it easier to knock foes prone, which helps melee and hurts ranged attacks.

In that case, I see final draft of Sharpshooter ignoring prone condition of the target.

 

[Neonchameleon]

Feels like that kind of misses the point.

If you want to make this about damage, then 2014 was a tie between PAM+GWM and handcrossbow expert + SS. Greatsword never played into the top spots.

That depended on your level and, to a lesser extent, your class.

For "build complete" characters there were four top tier ASI options for the Str/melee and the Dex/ranged path, and characters at the top had all four of two primary stat buffs (one of which might only be a +1), and either GWM+PAM or SS+XBE. It's worth noting at this point that if you take baseline assumptions for the game with no real synergies the feats are balanced, but -5 to hit and +10 damage gets really good with accuracy buffs (such as easy access to Advantage) while an extra attack at the cost of reduced main damage isn't that good without static bonuses on your attacks. But few people play build complete; the average game ends by level 10, at which point most PCs only have two feats/ASIs.

Also the order could vary and be class and subclass dependent. And, importantly, which order you took things in is class and subclass dependent. Notably:

• Barbarians have trivial access to an accuracy booster with their reckless attack, meaning Great Weapon Master's Power Attack for -5/+10 is far more useful than the baseline. By contrast they use their first bonus action to Rage and normally end up in someone's face, so the PAM extra attacks are less likely to trigger. GWM first, PAM last (i.e. possibly only at level 16) and without PAM greatswords and mauls are the best pick.
• Paladins do extra proc damage on their attacks and have no class-based use (including almost no spells or subclass abilities) for their bonus actions or reactions, and might stand close to their allies to give them the aura and to lay on hands. They also have a good bonus to one handed attacks thanks to Duelist style. Spear, shield, and PAM with duelist style is therefore almost certainly their strongest overall choice.

And it's notable that OneD&D has changed both these; the -5/+10s have gone, and there's no more spear-and-shield PAM.

 

[UngeheuerLich]

The problem is that if you aren't a fighter, barbarian, or paladin Dex >>> Str.

If you are not a wizard, wis is better than int...

I'd add clerics on the list where str can be better than dex, if they wear heavy armor.

I think with half the CLERIC SUBclasses having at least parity in str vs dex is not that bad.

D&D has never been famous for stas being exactly equal. Charisma has been a dump stat for quite a while, followed by int (usually now it is reversed).

EDIT: FIXED TYPO

 

[Neonchameleon]

If you are not a wizard, wis is better than int...

Or artificer, but yes. The stats are in two tiers.

I'd add clerics on the list where str can be better than dex, if they wear heavy armor.

I wouldn't. Ring Mail doesn't require Str at all but is only AC 14. STR 13 Chainmail might have a single point of AC more than Dex 13 scale but is 25GP more expensive, 10lb heavier, and has all the other disadvantages. And the STR 15 heavy armours only have +1 AC over Dex 14 medium. Worth for a fighter or paladin who attacks with strength anyway.

What heavy armour allows of course is giving up speed at low STR, low DEX and still being protected.

D&D has never been famous for stas being exactly equal. Charisma has been a dump stat for quite a while, followed by int (usually now it is reversed).

Oh indeed. But currently it's absurd. Probably worse than any other edition.

 

[James Gasik]

Or artificer, but yes. The stats are in two tiers.

I wouldn't. Ring Mail doesn't require Str at all but is only AC 14. STR 13 Chainmail might have a single point of AC more than Dex 13 scale but is 25GP more expensive, 10lb heavier, and has all the other disadvantages. And the STR 15 heavy armours only have +1 AC over Dex 14 medium. Worth for a fighter or paladin who attacks with strength anyway.

What heavy armour allows of course is giving up speed at low STR, low DEX and still being protected.

Oh indeed. But currently it's absurd. Probably worse than any other edition.

At least Charisma does something for certain classes, instead of being a largely ignored prerequisite for Paladins.*

*I know people have argued that 17 Charisma was amazing in their games, but my experience is that most groups pretty much ignored the NPC reaction rules.

 

[UngeheuerLich]

I wouldn't. Ring Mail doesn't require Str at all but is only AC 14. STR 13 Chainmail might have a single point of AC more than Dex 13 scale but is 25GP more expensive, 10lb heavier, and has all the other disadvantages. And the STR 15 heavy armours only have +1 AC over Dex 14 medium. Worth for a fighter or paladin who attacks with strength anyway.

Only breastplate is feasible if you dump str down to 8. (20lb)
scale mail and hafl-plate both weigh 40 (or even 45) lb. That is quite some chunk out of your carrying capacity. If you use variant encumbrance, you are already slowed. So I´d say, you are probably two points ahead with chain armor and with 13 Str for the first few levels you are probably 2 points ahead over a 13 dex cleric until the dex cleric can afford a breastblade (probably the most important levels for AC to matter). You can better use throwing weapons, because when using a shield, ranged weapons are not so great. So the only price you pay is probably -2 initiative if you decide to dump dex to 8. Which is not bad.
There are other advantages and disadvantages. But I´d say it is probably about even, probably better for some cleric builds that want to be in melee.