D&D (2024) One D&D Cleric & Revised Species Playtest Includes Goliath

"In this new Unearthed Arcana for the One D&D rules system, we explore material designed for the next version of the Player’s Handbook. This playtest document presents the rules on the Cleric class, it's Life Domain subclass, as well as revised Species rules for the Ardling, the Dragonborn, and the Goliath. You will also find a current glossary of new or revised meanings for game terms."

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WotC's Jeremey Crawford discusses the playtest document in the video below.

 

[GMforPowergamers]

No pick who you worship at the start (if at all, it's not mentioned).

Then at 3rd level you pick your subclass "of your choice" seems who you worship has no bearing on it. Worship a God of Death and pick the Life Domain ("so a Cleric of any religious tradition might choose it"), worship a Fire deity and pick Water... I hope this gets changed so the choice is limited, it use to read "Choose one domain related to your deity".

I mean worshiping a god of death you get all the healing spells anyway, so if you are going to speclize in a domain I don't see why that is worse then others

Also they mentioned removing the thief cunning action not interacting with use an object being because they wanted to remove "Mother may I?" in the pervious UA feedback video and then they do nothing with "Divine Intervention" for the Cleric. Except make the refresh random for some reason and lower the level it becomes automatic. If "The DM chooses the nature of the intervention" why have a percentage chance at all. Also the guidance is "the effect of any Divine Spell is appropriate." So you use to have an 10-19% chance of a extra cleric spell, now you have an 11 to 17% chance of an extra spell. It's like playing with some minor dials when the whole thing should go. Asking for divine help should be something any player can do and guidance be in the DMG. This weak sauce ability for the Cleric isn't worth having as it is.

yeah I think it should just be "use the wish spell as a guideline"

 

[GMforPowergamers]

Not even that. I never restricted myself to perfect race/class choices.
I had fun with my dwarven abjurer, my halfling monk and my ritual caster variant human rogue...

I have pl;ayed every one of those concepts (the first 2 in 3e though).... I think those ARE perfect race/class choices.
My dwarf staff wizard in 4e was the best wizard we saw in that edition.

 

[GMforPowergamers]

How about: Your multiclass character suffers a –20% penalty to XP for each class that is not within one level of his or her highest-level class. These penalties apply from the moment the character adds a class or raises a class's level too high.

that sounds cool (I think I have heard it before) but what if we let you advance in both classes at once, BUT you have to split your xp and track it separately and your HPs are half from each... not sure how we would handle HD...

 

[Cadence]

Because in some settings, the deities either don't exist or don't have control of the domains.

So have them pick a power source or set of related domains?

In a Norse campaign, you have to worship Thor or his children to get Tempest domain.
In Dark Sun, a cleric can snag any domain they can want as there are no gods holding them hostage.

How is anyone holding anyone hostage? Is that how Warlocks and Patrons, etc... would be described?

 

[GMforPowergamers]

In a Norse campaign, you have to worship Thor or his children to get Tempest domain.

Norse gods all most likely give access to war... so do most if not all greek/roman

 

[GMforPowergamers]

It was terrible how many rog2/ftr2/bbn1/prestige class X builds existed in charops.

I will take that over Wiz (spec)2/FOcus Specilist 5/Loremaster 8/archmage 5 that I swear I saw 100 of between tables... and most had that planed from level 1 or 2 so they could tell you about it the whole campaign even if the campaign ended at 8th level... then they could complain about not getting to finish there 'build'

 

[Neonchameleon]

race, background+feat, class, skills, gear, spells,

is subclass that more of a problem on top of that?

At low level in my experience:

• Race is large and central. It's not a problem
• Background + feat ends up as passive. It's entirely possible to mechanically forget you have a background in play if you've picked something like Skilled. This isn't a problem
• Class is normally not a problem because it's an even bigger central defining characteristic than race
• Skills. People will forget the skill list - but you can point them at the right place on the character sheet and there are no traps. Every character works the same way. It's just static numbers
• Gear isn't often a problem. People have default sets of gear and the impact gets calculated. Or if they want to do something clever with it they either remember it or look it up.
• Spells are sometimes a problem. Your basic attack spells aren't. Your utility and reaction spells can be

And subclass? Subclass combines the worst aspect of class (no two subclasses should work the same way) and spells (not so central to your character concept if you are a beginner so easy to forget when there's already so much). So yes, it can be a significant problem.

The other reason to have the subclass at third level is roleplaying (and the new feats also help). In classic 5e once you've got your class and your subclass you're almost locked in to your progression. Your feats are likely to be ASIs in your primary stat (D&Done improves on this a lot with the new 4th level feats because it means characters grow differently). It's more or less your spells and what you find. Meanwhile your subclass choice is a major choice and represents how you specialise and how you grow during play. Not having one is losing a huge decision point, making the roleplaying experience worse.

 

[UngeheuerLich]

race, background+feat, class, skills, gear, spells,

is subclass that more of a problem on top of that?

In short: yes. It is way more unintuitive.
Also muddies thecore concept of a class based system...
Want to be a rogue? Yes, but you could also be a bard with college of sword. Do you want to be a bard? Yes, but you can also be a rogue/arcane trickster.
Paladin or war cleric?
Ranger or fighter scout?

 

[Juomari Veren]

I guess Goliath is the Critical Role influence?

I was kinda hoping for Goblins.

I think because Pathfinder took Goblins into its core assumption, they probably weren't going to pursue that so as to keep things as distinct from Pathfinder as possible.

 

[Minigiant]

So have them pick a power source or set of related domains?

Maybe.
Every setting doesn't do domains the same.

How is anyone holding anyone hostage? Is that how Warlocks and Patrons, etc... would be described?

I mean the domains. Deities held the domains hostage.
In most official and official historic setting, the deities controlled the domains. So in order to access the Life Domain, you needed to worship a deity who had the Life domain. Because those deities literally had the life domain.

That's why evil deities and patrons were so murderous. It's why most patrons made warlocks: to steal domains and become actual gods.

Norse gods all most likely give access to war... so do most if not all greek/roman

D&Dwise, the Aesir all had War. The Vanir all had Life. The Jotun had War.