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.

 

[Levistus's_Leviathan]

It has clearly gone back and forth. It could be argued that 3.0 and 3.5 were "backwards compatible". I won't argue it, but I think 2024 will be a new edition too, so what do I know?

I don't know? What do you know about the nature of edition changes that WotC doesn't?

Because that's what you're arguing here. You're saying that you know better than the designers of the game when it comes to edition changes. And, by your definition, they've made 4 different editions of D&D. Wouldn't they know the meaning of "edition" better than you do?

 

[Micah Sweet]

I don't know? What do you know about the nature of edition changes that WotC doesn't?

Because that's what you're arguing here. You're saying that you know better than the designers of the game when it comes to edition changes. And, by your definition, they've made 4 different editions of D&D. Wouldn't they know the meaning of "edition" better than you do?

Yeah, I think they're wrong, and this won't go the way their promotional videos claim. That's my right. I know you don't agree. That's your right.

 

[Staffan]

I get that. I just always used homebrew (which I believe the majority of tables still do), so this was never a problem for me. The settings were chapters in a cool story and ideas for home games. None of us felt the story in the products hurt our gaming experience.

Here's a story where metaplot caused actual problems for me.

I was planning on running a campaign in the Forgotten Realms, and I had been reading through the 2e boxed set to figure out what region looked best. After some thought, I settled on Tethyr, because I figured I could get quite a bit of juice out of the civil war going on there with numerous nobles all jockeying for advantage, while the PCs could help the downtrodden and/or ally with one warlord over the rest and so on. That seemed like a cool campaign premise. And hey, there's a new boxed set out that's about Tethyr and Amn, Lands of Intrigue. I'm sure that's going to have lots of useful info on the different warlords and their territories, let's check it out.

And then I learn that no, the civil war is over. One of the nobles went off to Waterdeep to recruit mercenaries and allies, and while she was at it she married the Rightful Heir to the throne who had been hidden away and had spent the last decade or so in hiding as the scribe to frickin' Elminster! So now all was well in the new realm, and all the former warlords had either sworn fealty to the new King and Queen, or been either killed or sent into exile, and the low-level ranks of nobility had seemingly been removed and replaced with elected Sheriffs, and I don't know what else. And all that happened off-screen in some novel trilogy.

Needless to say, that campaign didn't happen.

Eberron is a horrible comparison because it's been explicit from day one that the novels weren't canon, it's one of the reasons the novel line failed.

The opposite has been true of FR and Dragonlance, the novels have always been canon, it's a core part of those settings and part of why those novel lines succeeded, they actually meant something.

Given that TSR's novel line was the immediate cause of the company's failure, I'm not sure I'd say the novel lines "succeeded" when taken as a whole.

Yes, there were multiple causes, as there often is. But the actual blow that, in game terms, put TSR at 0 hp was that Random House got tired of taking payment for unsold novels in new novels that didn't sell either, and demanded that TSR repay them with actual money – money they didn't have.

You are allowed to like metaplots in stories. There are some serious ones out there including the Arrowverse, the Star Wars EU and Star Wars Disney continuity, the MCU, the Marvel and DC continuities, numerous video game series from Super Smash Bros and Kingdom Hearts onwards (and no that first one wasn't a joke).

I'm pretty sure that's not metaplot. That's just ongoing plot. Metaplot is, at least according to Wikipedia, a term that's specifically about overarching events in RPGs.

 

[Levistus's_Leviathan]

Yeah, I think they're wrong, and this won't go the way their promotional videos claim. That's my right. I know you don't agree. That's your right.

Why is your opinion more valid than the people who have designed entire editions of the game?

 

[Hussar]

Is this the entire PHB errata https://media.wizards.com/2021/dnd/downloads/PH-Errata.pdf on five pages?

It feels like whether they are printing the errata for the 2024 printing going all the way back, and if so how long it is relevant? At some point with enough errata doesn't it become no longer compatibile in a practical sense? (I have no idea how long that is).

Hm. When did they get rid of trap the soul?

Well it’s relevant for adventurers league. You haven’t been able to use a 2014 phb since at least 2018.

Since that’s being touted as the standard for edition and all.

 

[Faolyn]

Only if they're really chill players who don't care about "balance," I think. I'm not that chill. If I think we're playing 1D&D and make a Lore Bard and you bring in a 5e Lore Bard, I'm going to be slightly miffed.

That's up to the players to work out, though. And in reality, how likely is it that two players are going to both want to play Lord Bards?

 

[Cadence]

Well it’s relevant for adventurers league. You haven’t been able to use a 2014 phb since at least 2018.

I only did one Adventurer's league years ago (maybe pre-2018) and didn't know that. Do you have a favorite reference as to needing the 2018 or newer one? Or do the errata not go back all the way to the 2014 one?

What happens now if a player shows up with a 2014 PHB?

Since that’s being touted as the standard for edition and all.

I don't think it's necessarily a standard, but it feels like it could be insightful as to how they're viewing the new version/printing/reorganization/whatnot.

 

[Greg Benage]

That's up to the players to work out, though. And in reality, how likely is it that two players are going to both want to play Lord Bards?

In my games, about 87%. I think 1D&D might solve that, though.

 

[Micah Sweet]

Why is your opinion more valid than the people who have designed entire editions of the game?

Their experience might be more valid, but their opinion is no better than mine.

 

[Levistus's_Leviathan]

Their experience might be more valid, but their opinion is no better than mine.

Weren't you saying that they were wrong to not call it a new edition? So, their opinion isn't more valid than yours (even though they have more experience with this subject than you do), but yours is somehow more valid than theirs?