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.

 

[Pauln6]

I thought that Level Up allowing pushing , disarming etc to inflict 1 point of damage plus strength bonus gave a nice damage boost to strength builds.

 

[tetrasodium]

No, I mean, in AD&D. You needed a 17 Charisma to be a Paladin, but what Charisma did for you was largely minor in the games I played- my DM's didn't roll for NPC reactions, but instead decided how NPC's reacted themselves, often based on roleplay (which basically did an end run around Charisma), and having a bunch of henchman was largely discouraged, outside of drawing the Knight card from the Deck of Many Things.

Nobody wanted "roll play" (relying on mechanics) to outweigh "roleplay" in my groups, I guess is the best way to put it. So Charisma was largely a dead ability score. Even when 2e added proficiencies, there was initially no "persuasion" ability, so Charisma was used for Etiquette, Singing, Disguise, Gaming, Local History, that sort of thing.

Later publications would add things like Persuasion, Diplomacy, Rulership, Fast-Talk, and so on, but given that you had to go looking for these abilities, I rarely saw them taken.

That was pretty much my experience in 2e as well. In 3.x there were the usual set of diplomancy type skills that 5e has, but with the -10 to 43(?) DC ladder they tended to be used towards setting up some kind of +2 $type bonus relevant to the situation more often than not and the hardcore diplomancy efforts got laughed off with a lot more tools the dm could use when deciding how to adjudicate those jarring attempts to use diplomancy for mind control.

Now in 5e the GM is very much expected to ignore what few rules exist there and fully roleplay the NPCs up until someone tries diplomancy and suddenly the GM is expected to revert to strict RAW of the DC ladder

edit:holy typo & autocorrect!

 

[Chaosmancer]

Grappling. Tripping. Throwing weapons (a.k.a ranged one handed weapons, which are buffed in 2024 D&D for extra attacks). Other feats of strength besides breaking things. Resisting grapples/trips (often str saving throws), getting out of grapples by shoving the enemy away for an attack instead of an action.
Climbing and swimming, even though you dismiss it because magic.

I did not dismiss swimming and climbing because of magic. I dismissed it because of the rules of climbing and swimming, combined with trivial things like climbing kits.

You can resist and escape grapples with acrobatics. Unless it is a specific strength save ability. And between strength saves to not be Grappled and dex saves versus tons of damage... dex saves are more useful.

Thrown weapons are generally inferior to ranged weapons. And if you NEED to throw a weapon, daggers and darts and slings.

Not sure what you mean by "feats of strength". I may as well Dex gives you "Feats of Dexterity".

Then for dex, we usually have longer range weapons (usually two handed, so say bye to your shield, as swapping costs an action). Sneaking (not needed as low level spells or magic items covers that against most enemies (path wothout trace, boots and cloaks of elvenkind, invisibility, enhance attributes). Initiative (easily to increase with a feat). Dex saving throws, often just to reduce damage, buy a potion of reistance instead or take tough as a feat.

Now I know you will dismiss all strength advantages as irrelevant and say that my logic is faulty regarding dex... same as everytime dex promoters dis str.

You accuse me of dismissing strength climbing and swimming because of magic... and then you dismiss stealth based on magic and optional magic items...

You say dex saves "only" reduce damage, which you can use optional magical items and a feat. Meanwhile the penalty of being Grappled is you are in melee... which a melee character wants. Most Grappled melee characters don't care about being Grappled.

I just don't get your arguments

 

[UngeheuerLich]

I did not dismiss swimming and climbing because of magic. I dismissed it because of the rules of climbing and swimming, combined with trivial things like climbing kits.

You can resist and escape grapples with acrobatics. Unless it is a specific strength save ability. And between strength saves to not be Grappled and dex saves versus tons of damage... dex saves are more useful.

Thrown weapons are generally inferior to ranged weapons. And if you NEED to throw a weapon, daggers and darts and slings.

Not sure what you mean by "feats of strength". I may as well Dex gives you "Feats of Dexterity".



You accuse me of dismissing strength climbing and swimming because of magic... and then you dismiss stealth based on magic and optional magic items...

You say dex saves "only" reduce damage, which you can use optional magical items and a feat. Meanwhile the penalty of being Grappled is you are in melee... which a melee character wants. Most Grappled melee characters don't care about being Grappled.

I just don't get your arguments

The last one is obvious. Lets agree to disagree.

 

[Chaosmancer]

The last one is obvious. Lets agree to disagree.

Sure if you want to, I just don't understand how "You dismissed this strength thing because magic" jives with "because of magic I am dismissing this dex thing" or why "strength is good, because you can take all these feats to make up for not having a high dex" makes sense, when you don't need to take feats to make up for having a low strength. Neither of those seem like good arguments.

And if we are saying that ranged weapons get rid of your shield... so do two-handed strength weapons, and if we aren't using two-handed strength weapons, then we can use one-handed dex-weapons like rapiers and hand crossbows and the weapons I mentioned before.

 

[UngeheuerLich]

Sure if you want to, I just don't understand how "You dismissed this strength thing because magic" jives with "because of magic I am dismissing this dex thing" or why "strength is good, because you can take all these feats to make up for not having a high dex" makes sense, when you don't need to take feats to make up for having a low strength. Neither of those seem like good arguments.

And if we are saying that ranged weapons get rid of your shield... so do two-handed strength weapons, and if we aren't using two-handed strength weapons, then we can use one-handed dex-weapons like rapiers and hand crossbows and the weapons I mentioned before.

Really. I meant it honestly. Lets just stop.

 

[Neonchameleon]

80lbs are faster used up than you might think, if you really keep track. If you value stealth on a cleric, ok. But it really depends on the challenges set. And the kind of campaigns. If you like your clerics weak, I can´t help you. I guess you don´t want help anyway.

As I said. Both have advantages and disadvantages. I prefer heavy armor most of the time.
Another rule variant we use: if you are unconscious, no dex bonus to AC.

So you use two variant rules to boost Str against Dex. I'm not saying this isn't a good idea - but I am saying that one's a very rarely used official variant and the other is a pure house rule. As for valuing stealth, it's one skill you sometimes want on as many people as possible.

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

Half the classes? In my experience

• Barbarians are always Strength primary and normally dexterity and constitution secondary
• Fighters are normally Strength primary
• Inexperienced paladin players go strength primary sword & board; experienced ones go charisma primary with about an even split between strength and dexterity secondary, normally looking at Spear/PAM using Hexblade.
• Clerics are the rarest class in the game; the only one I recall DMing for was a halfling (and low strength). I know that the stats say artificers are followed by druids, but in my experience clerics are even rarer than artificers and druids are in the normal range.
• Every single other class is played with Dex secondary unless they are a dex based class (rogues, rangers (I have never seen a Str-ranger), monks, and a few fighters) and strength in the 8-12 range.

Which is total bollocks.
It is just that some people ignore everything Str gives. And seem to only be playing in sneak around and alphastrike games.

You literally have to house rule the game and use unpopular variant rules to prioritise strength. And it's not "sneak around and alphastrike games" so much as not playing characters so brash that they won't sneak around where it is appropriate. Discretion is the better part of valour and not everyone plays hack and slash games where going through the enemies and fighting by the Queensbury Rules is the only way.

 

[Yaarel]

Barbarian can be Strength and Martial, but Berserkar should be Charisma (Intimidation) and Primal.

 

[UngeheuerLich]

So you use two variant rules to boost Str against Dex. I'm not saying this isn't a good idea - but I am saying that one's a very rarely used official variant and the other is a pure house rule. As for valuing stealth, it's one skill you sometimes want on as many people as possible.

Half the classes? In my experience

• Barbarians are always Strength primary and normally dexterity and constitution secondary
• Fighters are normally Strength primary
• Inexperienced paladin players go strength primary sword & board; experienced ones go charisma primary with about an even split between strength and dexterity secondary, normally looking at Spear/PAM using Hexblade.
• Clerics are the rarest class in the game; the only one I recall DMing for was a halfling (and low strength). I know that the stats say artificers are followed by druids, but in my experience clerics are even rarer than artificers and druids are in the normal range.
• Every single other class is played with Dex secondary unless they are a dex based class (rogues, rangers (I have never seen a Str-ranger), monks, and a few fighters) and strength in the 8-12 range.

Already said it was a typo.

You literally have to house rule the game and use unpopular variant rules to prioritise strength. And it's not "sneak around and alphastrike games" so much as not playing characters so brash that they won't sneak around where it is appropriate.

Both variant rules have not been applied for several years now. Still str also has advantages.
But I won't argue anymore.

Last posts show what I said earlier. Advantages and disadvantages are valued differently. It is certainly not skewed toward dex for classes that can make good use of str for our games (even without those house/variant rules). Your games are different. So lets also agree to disagree.

Discretion is the better part of valour and not everyone plays hack and slash games where going through the enemies and fighting by the Queensbury Rules is the only way.

Good thing we don't play hack'n'slash or use queensbury rules and discretion has different aspects that does not involve sneaking all the time.

 

[Stalker0]

I have been in a single game that attempted to care about Encumbrance. It didn't last, no one in the party cared. Tried to join a group once, realized it was impossible to make an Artificer that wasn't slowed by his own equipment, utterly killing the character idea.

I know you play with it, and the dozens of others like you, But for the vast, vast VAST number of people, encumbrance is taken out of the game. Because it is nothing but a penalty that you have to figure out a way to ignore to play the game.

While I do agree with you in general (I don’t do strict encumbrance either), if I had a player trying to wear heavy armor wjtb an 8str I would give it at least some lip service, and do a quick check of the general weapons and equipment they have.

That said I do agree 5th is the worst edition for dumb stats in a while.

1) strength - used to affect all damage (even ranged and finesse). Now does not.
2) int - used to effect your number of skills. Now does not.

So these stats are a lot more dump-able than they used to be.