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.

 

[Vaalingrade]

If the worry is that a character that can fly will break your encounters get over it.

Absolutely.

Fear of flying is the ultimate in white room thinking.

The flier apparently doesn't care about the rest of the party, never goes indoors or near trees, and enemies never master rock throwing technology. If a flier is ruining your encounters, you ruined your encounter long before they showed up.

 

[Bill Zebub]

I want game designers to all look into the mirror for an hour each morning and repeat after me:

"New Players Are Not Stupid."

How many times this morning did you repeat into the mirror: “My preferences are not popular.” ?

 

[Neonchameleon]

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.

They're taking orcs as a core assumption.

The hybrid Goliath/Genasi they presented are because Goliaths and Genasi are both inside the top 10 D&D races by D&D Beyond statistics (behind 8 of the 9 PHB races, but ahead of Gnomes).

 

[Bill Zebub]

Fear of flying is the ultimate in white room thinking.

And yet more assumption-making about what other people think. There is an awful lot of that going on.

Why the compulsion to psychoanalyze (with unflattering conclusions) the preferences of others? How about just sharing your own thoughts and opinions, without trying to generalize others’?

Some of us just don’t like the high-fantasy aesthetic of flying being unexceptional.

EDIT: And even then, I am able to shrug and concede that my opinion is not popular, without hypothesizing about the inferior mental abilities of those who like flying.

 

[Vaalingrade]

How many times this morning did you repeat into the mirror: “My preferences are not popular.” ?

Less than some of us apparently repeat 'I'm gonna harass some dude on the internet'.

 

[GMforPowergamers]

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?

so the fighter (battlemaster) 4/ Wizard (warmage)/4 compared to the fighter (eldritch knight) 8 or the Wizard (Bladesinger) 8 is confusing enough... but what about the Fighter (eldrtich knight) 5/Bard (swords) 3 or the Fighter (eldritch Knight) 3/ rouge (arcane trick) 3/ Ranger 2 or the Artificer (battle smith) 3/Wizard (blasdesinger) 5 or some other combo there of...

I mean there are like 100 combos for gish, each with pro and cons.

 

[Micah Sweet]

Temporary largeness is very different from permanent largeness.

Temporary large has all the positives and negatives in combat, but nothing outside. It doesn't solve anything. They should have just let golisths be large.

 

[Micah Sweet]

. . . That's exactly what D&D 5e does. Your change would mess that up.

What people have been mentioning, the more squares you occupy on a battlefield (i.e. if you're of a larger size than medium), then your auras consequently get to effect more squares on the battlefield. And you get to reach more squares on the battlefield with your attacks.

It's not "complicated", it's just a consequence of how sizes work in D&D 5e. And it's not necessarily a bad thing, but it does make balancing Large races a problem.

Not enough to matter, imo.

 

[mellored]

I will agree 100% that armors are mostly trap option.

but I would like to keep more options with weapons: light, finesse, reach, thrown, some special ones than single choice of damage vs AC

Sounds like you'll get your wish, except they will be class features.

Which, I guess if fighters chose weapons like casters get spells, wouldn't be the worst.

 

[Maxperson]

- Ardling more clearly just a catchall Anthropomorphic Animal option, not Planar now.

It is still planar. It's just a planar animal relative rather than being like Aasimar.

"Celestial animals roam the Beastlands, a plane of untamed beauty and wild nature. Many of those otherworldly animals serve the Beast Lords, and in the early days of the multiverse, some of the animals evolved into bipedal forms. Among their number are Ardlings, people with beastlike heads, keen senses, and an innate connection to divine magic."

"Animal Ancestry. You are descended from a Celestial animal."