D&D 5E Next UA on February 6

[Azzy]

I am just saying, if they are making us wait, it better be one of the good ones.

Entitlement issues?

 

[Gadget]

[MENTION=697]mearls[/MENTION] has said we are getting a 20-level version, with 5 or 6 sibclasses and a Fighter subclass with Mystic traits, at some point. He has been working on it for UA release, and drubbing out details from his Twitter feed.

I think I remember hearing that, which is why I feel we won't see more of it until it is officially published (barring teaser sneak peaks). Unless he indicated they were going to put it back up on UA? I kind of got the vague impression that they may not want any more public input (not that it couldn't benefit from it, ymmv) and are fine with whatever their closed/internal play testing entails.

 

[Parmandur]

I think I remember hearing that, which is why I feel we won't see more of it until it is officially published (barring teaser sneak peaks). Unless he indicated they were going to put it back up on UA? I kind of got the vague impression that they may not want any more public input (not that it couldn't benefit from it, ymmv) and are fine with whatever their closed/internal play testing entails.

They were going to put it out on November, but pushed it; he still talks about working on the next Mystic playtest document for UA...

 

[Al2O3]

About the "it better be good" thing:
I think that Crawford tweeted something indicating that he was sick and at home (on the level of a nasty cold or whatever). That might be part of why there was nothing last week. Then suddenly conventions and other travel which I assume messed it up for this week. Unless Meals finished the Mystic on the plane to Korea I am not really hoping for anything more the delay than what we would get without it.

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[McTreble]

I was honestly under the impression that since each class was getting its due every week (in alphabetical order, no less) that these were already done and ready to be uploaded on a weekly basis, and that it was a good time for them to be working on other stuff. I think it was implied when they went monthly to weekly that this stuff was in the hopper since a week is very little time to get things right enough for us to look at things. Guess I assumed wrong.

I don't care either way. I'm not about to change classes anytime soon; just was wondering if anyone else got this impression too.

 

[CapnZapp]

I was honestly under the impression that since each class was getting its due every week (in alphabetical order, no less) that these were already done and ready to be uploaded on a weekly basis, and that it was a good time for them to be working on other stuff. I think it was implied when they went monthly to weekly that this stuff was in the hopper since a week is very little time to get things right enough for us to look at things. Guess I assumed wrong.

Well, most of the UAs are on the level of merely throwing out ideas to see what sticks.

The actual implementations are simplistic in the extreme*, and could well have been developed from back-of-napkin status to UA in a week.

* Consider this: Pick a subclass, any subclass. Now imagine the PHB was shipped without this subclass. Now imagine this subclass being presented in an Unearthed Arcana. You should immediately see that such an UA would stand head and shoulders (and torso and legs) above almost every UA given so far in regards to new mechanisms, level of detail and polish.

Not that there's anything wrong with that. UAs are after all free, and playtest only. But that's my point - they are very far removed from something I would actually be exited about.

My biggest issue is that the published new subclasses (in SCAG, mostly) are not up to my expectations of PHB-level quality. Most SCAG subclasses are nothing more than polished UA level subclasses, and that's simply not interesting for me. There are very few things the new subclasses offer that the existing ones doesn't already let you do, and often better.

 

[Aldarc]

My biggest issue is that the published new subclasses (in SCAG, mostly) are not up to my expectations of PHB-level quality. Most SCAG subclasses are nothing more than polished UA level subclasses, and that's simply not interesting for me. There are very few things the new subclasses offer that the existing ones doesn't already let you do, and often better.

I agree with this sentiment. Apart from a few exceptions (e.g. Arcana and Forge cleric), I have found most of the UA or SCAG subclasses relatively lackluster (mechanically and in terms of fluff) in comparison with the standard PHB options. While on one hand that speaks to the robustness of the PHB options, on the other, that also speaks negatively of the new materials. I would personally prefer if they made fewer subclasses, but made them as broad and robust as they did many of the PHB ones. (Of course, I would also like to see them address some of the issues of the suboptimal or problematic subclasses in the PHB.) I'm sure one can easily get the impression that poor WotC can't win, as people complain about too few or too many options, but I suspect that we can all agree that regardless of quantity, we want quality options for 5E.

 

[Li Shenron]

Well, the weekly one would be the Sorcerer; but I wonder of they might give us the big Mystic document [MENTION=697]mearls[/MENTION] has been talking about,and then get back to the spell casters. Based on the descriptions teased on Twitter, that's gonna be a big one.

[MENTION=697]mearls[/MENTION] is in South Korea at the moment, so that's a big part of the delay. If it is Sorcerer...maybe it will be jumbo sized, due to all the open subclass space.

I am rather expecting a single last-of-the-series UA article covering Sorcerer, Warlock and Wizard at once. One subclass each (maybe 2 for the Warlock). The Ranger+Rogue combination gave me the impression they are getting tired of these articles.

 

[Sword of Spirit]

I'm expecting when we get the sorcerer it will have about 1 and a half subclasses, and the 1 will be one no one even wants..and I'm hoping we'll get a nice selection of a few good subclasses, because sorcerer is the one class that most people seem to agree needs more subclasses. Low expectations and high hopes are a great pair.

(And I'm not really implying that WotC always falls way short of expectations, they've done a lot of great 5e content.)

I tend to think that the next time we see the Mystic it will be in fully published form in whatever spat-type/adventure book it gets slotted into. I don't think we'll get anything like the final form of the class on UA. They gave us a couple of swags at it to get a general idea, they're not going to give us access to the fine tuning. I would like to be surprised on this front, but I don't think I will be (with the possible exception of "teaser" type releases to promote whatever upcoming product it appears in).

Nope. Mike Mearls said there would be at least 2 more mystic playtests. It's always possible that they'll leave the last one to internal testers, but its also possible we'll be looking at February's and then a couple more revisions. They are giving psionics the full shebang of refinement and playtesting this time around. Nothing has been this thoroughly playtested since the PHB.

 

[CapnZapp]

(And I'm not really implying that WotC always falls way short of expectations, they've done a lot of great 5e content.)

That goes for me too. I'm generally more than pleased with the PHB.

But that was 2014 and this is 2017.

Not only has there been precious little crunch since then... it hasn't actually been all that precious.

My point is that the PHB design appears daring and innovative compared to later efforts. For a series of low-stakes *free playtest* that's a low grade.

Whatever reason WotC has for either holding back the UA designers, or not putting the right designers on the job, it's high time for that to change.

(Yes, I'm aware the UA team is the same team that made the PHB. So perhaps that's the reason: they've already burnt all their dry powder...?

Perhaps it's time to put a fresh hungry talent on UA duty instead...)


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