D&D 5E New Unearthed Arcana: Wonders of the Multiverse

WotC has posted a new Unearthed Arcana featuring the Glitchling race, the Fate domain, and a handful of backgrounds, feats and spells.

In today’s Unearthed Arcana, we explore D&D character options from across the multiverse. This playtest document presents the glitchling race; the Fate Domain cleric subclass; and the gate warden, giant foundling, planar philosopher, and rune carver backgrounds. Additionally, a collection of new feats provide links to giants and other primordial forces of the planes, while a selection of new spells highlight the power of fate and chance.

Wonders of the Multiverse | Unearthed Arcana | Dungeons & Dragons

Explore character options related to the Wonders of the Multiverse! This playtest document presents a new race and subclass and a collection of new backgrounds, feats and spells, all for use in Dungeons & Dragons.

dnd.wizards.com

 

[Mind of tempest]

Too much spell slots in 5e, too much reliance on spells to do everything, and they put too many 'Psionic' ability in spells already and gave them to like... Wizard and Warlocks. Should have kept some stuff in reserve so a proper Psionic class could have unique stuff.

But 'people don't like to learn new system' -_- I actually liked the psi dice mechanic! It felt fresh!

they are all called wizards of the coast for a reason, and they do seem to like making everything the same it honestly is tiring as they try very little innervation at all.
I found mystic far more intuitive than spell slots but that might just be me.

I've come to the conclusion that WotC made a mistake in publicly playtesting their psionics rules at all. They should have just developed what they wanted in-house and released it. Nothing they developed would have passed muster with enough folks to for them to feel comfortable with it anyway.

most people would have complained but felt satisfied also long as we either never knew anything else or it had the broad list of sub-classes mystic had, even I a nearly never satisfied man would have been okay with it.

You could very well be correct but they had a lot of success and generated a lot of goodwill by public playtesting before that and before they tried with psionics neither they nor us appreciated how divided people were on the topic.

I can understand picking a thing and doing it but why did they have to pick the shallow option.

 

[GMforPowergamers]

I've come to the conclusion that WotC made a mistake in publicly playtesting their psionics rules at all. They should have just developed what they wanted in-house and released it. Nothing they developed would have passed muster with enough folks to for them to feel comfortable with it anyway.

i feel that way about fighter too

 

[Micah Sweet]

You could very well be correct but they had a lot of success and generated a lot of goodwill by public playtesting before that and before they tried with psionics neither they nor us appreciated how divided people were on the topic.

True, but to be honest every historical precedent should have told us what was going to happen. So now we have the first edition of D&D since 1e without a psionic class.

 

[Jer]

I've come to the conclusion that WotC made a mistake in publicly playtesting their psionics rules at all. They should have just developed what they wanted in-house and released it. Nothing they developed would have passed muster with enough folks to for them to feel comfortable with it anyway.

There's value in getting feedback from an audience that you know wants your game, but if the feedback you're getting is essentially the Itchy and Scratchy kids focus group scene from the Simpsons, you've got to cut your losses and move on because you're not going to get a direction from it.

Too many people want too many different things.

 

[Malmuria]

Although I do agree with the sentiment that many fiddly bonuses are annoying, I think we are far away from it.
Regarding the sentiment, tha prof bonus per day is hard to keep track of without DnDBeyond, I think it is ridiculous.
How hard ist it to write down an ability and mark it each time you use it.
I'd even say, that it is easier to keep track of as a mixture of atteibute bonus per long rest, prof bonus per long rest, once per shirt rest, twice per short rest and so on. At least it is a lot more consistent.
A bit more boring? Maybe... but not more difficult to manage.

I agree that there isn't much of a difference between long rest and short rest abilities in terms of tracking. However, I can look at these options and see that, for my table, it would lead to a slow and overly complex game. Any individual feature is not too much to track, but when you add it all together it becomes laborious. By mid levels, players have a fairly extensive menu of options (from race, background, class, and feats), all of which key on different types of actions (action, bonus, reaction), have different ranges and conditions, last for varying amounts of time, and give benefits to others in the party that they have to keep track of. Meanwhile there's that much more to track and resolve each turn in combat.

If you are comfortable with more crunchy systems it's all manageable, even with pencil and paper, but many people are not. I've introduced players to the game who, 3-4 years in, still struggle with knowing what a spell save DC is. That said, there's clearly a market for people who want more tactical, deep combat (pathfinder 2e, flee mortals, etc), so if they are deciding to go that route, it makes sense.

 

[Mind of tempest]

i feel that way about fighter too

I still do not get why they did not just tell play testers that barbarians were to be the simple fighter it would have fixed the problem perfectly as barbarian players only really want not-die and kills-good as stats.

True, but to be honest every historical precedent should have told us what was going to happen. So now we have the first edition of D&D since 1e without a psionic class.

this makes me sad as this is also my first edition and 5.5 is looking no more likely to have it.

 

[Jer]

I still do not get why they did not just tell play testers that barbarians were to be the simple fighter it would have fixed the problem perfectly as barbarian players only really want not-die and kills-good as stats.

I suspect because the developers have more of a vision for the barbarian as a rage fighter and nature warrior. But they also have the mentality that there needs to be a martial class that is "just a guy with a weapon" with no real special mechanics or story or other elements that the other classes have. The baseline class that all other classes are differentiated from. And since the fighter is the class with the most generic name, the fighter is the one that gets to be the "just a guy with a weapon" class.

 

[Undrave]

they are all called wizards of the coast for a reason, and they do seem to like making everything the same it honestly is tiring as they try very little innervation at all.
I found mystic far more intuitive than spell slots but that might just be me.

The Wizard bias is real and annoying...

As for the Mystic, I think it tried to do too much too quickly.

There's value in getting feedback from an audience that you know wants your game, but if the feedback you're getting is essentially the Itchy and Scratchy kids focus group scene from the Simpsons, you've got to cut your losses and move on because you're not going to get a direction from it.

Too many people want too many different things.

Their goal should have been to introduce the concept of Psionic to the new generation of players in a way that made sense to them, and made Psionic more than just 'themed spellcaster' and not worry about the grognards so much. Their favorite mechanic could be found in third party material.

I agree that there isn't much of a difference between long rest and short rest abilities in terms of tracking. However, I can look at these options and see that, for my table, it would lead to a slow and overly complex game. Any individual feature is not too much to track, but when you add it all together it becomes laborious. By mid levels, players have a fairly extensive menu of options (from race, background, class, and feats), all of which key on different types of actions (action, bonus, reaction), have different ranges and conditions, last for varying amounts of time, and give benefits to others in the party that they have to keep track of. Meanwhile there's that much more to track and resolve each turn in combat.

If you are comfortable with more crunchy systems it's all manageable, even with pencil and paper, but many people are not. I've introduced players to the game who, 3-4 years in, still struggle with knowing what a spell save DC is. That said, there's clearly a market for people who want more tactical, deep combat (pathfinder 2e, flee mortals, etc), so if they are deciding to go that route, it makes sense.

Maybe DnD should move to generalized a stamina system to fuel abilities. Some cost more stamina than others, some don't at all, and there's different recovery options during the day.

I suspect because the developers have more of a vision for the barbarian as a rage fighter and nature warrior. But they also have the mentality that there needs to be a martial class that is "just a guy with a weapon" with no real special mechanics or story or other elements that the other classes have. The baseline class that all other classes are differentiated from. And since the fighter is the class with the most generic name, the fighter is the one that gets to be the "just a guy with a weapon" class.

Augh.

'just a guy with a weapon' should before NPCs -_-

 

[grimslade]

Again I don't know that anyone in the design group actually likes psionics. From what has been released they enjoy the wizard class and spell slots. Sorcerer is a bit underwhelming as a class and poor warlock has a bunch of half-baked ideas pushed into it to fill out. Why is Mystic Arcanum? Why are the Invocations all over the place in power and usefulness? Pact of the Blade needed another subclass to save it. I love the warlock but it was not ready for publishing.
All the iterations for psionics in UA have been rough drafts in entirely different directions. The Mystic stole the Wizard's spot for being better at being than every class. The Psionic Die was a good idea but it needed to be expanded greatly. The subclasses in Tasha's went the reskin for flavor route. They have ideas to push 5E further but they do not want to scare any player away with a new system.

 

[Parmandur]

But 'people don't like to learn new system' -_- I actually liked the psi dice mechanic! It felt fresh!

I mean, the designers can't force people to like stuff, and they only want to make stuff that people broadly like, so...