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.

 

[Incenjucar]

Ideally, players should never have to engage with balance because it's already built into the system and they can just pick the stuff they like instead of having to figure out if it's optimal.

 

[Parmandur]

Ideally, players should never have to engage with balance because it's already built into the system and they can just pick the stuff they like instead of having to figure out if it's optimal.

This, exactly. Because most players aren't going to want to engage on thst level, nor should they have to.

 

[Greg Benage]

The designers care about creating a fair play environment, but they know that very few gamers actually engage with that in a "metagame" sense. See the repeated statements from the designers over the years, but more key the D&D Beyond statistics are revealing.

Can you cite some actual examples?

I've been playing for more than 40 years. I've played with aaaaallllll kinds of players, from grognards who started in the mid-70s to zoomers who started this year. The vast majority of D&D players have cared about balance (compared to almost no one caring about it other RPGs). This doesn't strike me as at all surprising, given the kind of RPG D&D is.

I'll admit I'm not entirely sure what you mean by "engage with that in a metagame sense." They realize they chose a trap option and they want to fix it. They ask to ban twilight clerics because they think they're broken. They ask to start a new campaign because Kevin's CoDzilla is stupid. They say they'll only play casters because they're better and have so many options than martials. They ask to reroll their straight-class paladin when someone brings in a paladin with a hexblade dip. They (we, in this case) decide to only play low-level AL events (or non-campaign events) at conventions because all the optimized characters with all the best available magic items turn us into sidekicks who wouldn't strictly need to be present at all. I could go on.

Is any of that "engaging in the metagame sense"?

ETA: I do appreciate the 180 on the "designers ignore it" bit. My sanity is in a less precarious position, at least.

 

[Greg Benage]

Ideally, players should never have to engage with balance because it's already built into the system and they can just pick the stuff they like instead of having to figure out if it's optimal.

This here, but, to bring it back on topic, balance isn't going to be built into the system if one guy's bringing a 5e SS/XBE hand crossbow archer to a 1D&D game where the other ranged characters are rocking 1d8+Dex attacks.

 

[Incenjucar]

This here, but, to bring it back on topic, balance isn't going to be built into the system if one guy's bringing a 5e SS/XBE hand crossbow archer to a 1D&D game where the other ranged characters are rocking 1d8+Dex attacks.

True. We should expect WotC to nudge players toward adopting the newer rules to bring everyone in line. It's the right path even if you ignore the financial incentive. Not much else to be done without making everyone unhappy.

 

[Aldarc]

They know where the extent of the changes they're proposing. So you're either saying that your opinion is more valid than the game designers', who have designed several editions of the game and very much know what that term means, or you're saying that they're lying.

No, I'm not discussing whether or not the community will call it a new edition or .5 edition (I currently think the published rulebooks will be referenced to with a variety of terms when they're published, like they are now). I'm saying that if you think WotC is wrong to not call it a new edition, you're saying that their opinion is less valid than yours is, even though they have more experience with this subject than you do.

I'm not sure if this is a fair reading, Levistus.

I don't think it's about invalidating WotC's opinion or accusing WotC of being "liars." I don't think that this is an issue of truth or lies at all. I find that to be an unhelpful framework. Nor do I think that having the opinion that "WotC is wrong to not call it a new edition" means "that their opinion is less valid than yours is," though it does seem that you are trying to invalidate Micah's valid opinion with this argumentation. Micah says that he doesn't think that all this will go down the way that WotC thinks that it will. Regardless of whether I agree or disagree with him, I don't think that what you are doing here is cool.

That said, WotC is a corporate entity. There are business and marketing reasons that often go behind calling something a new edition or not that is distinct from the designers' actual experiences with the revised rules. There are a lot of complex behind-the-scenes business "shenanigans" that goes into these sorts of things. While I do want to take the people at WotC at their word, I also recognize that they work at a for-profit business with the lion's share of the TTRPG market so I do prefer having a healthy dose of cynicism when it comes to what WotC as a business says.

 

[FrogReaver]

In a few years they will be telling us, we said 'you can' not 'you should' mix 5e and One character options.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

5e is being replaced in 2024. There have been a bunch of videos and playtest packets about it.

Well, no. It’s being revised and updated.

I think you were misunderstanding what I was talking about. Especially since I was talking to someone who was saying that you wouldn't be able to mix and match classes. You will, and at the least there likely will be no problems is some people prefer to play the 5e version of a class/archetype and some people prefer the One version.

So, what I was specifically reacting to, and should have singled out in the post, was this: “and if someone wants to play, I dunno, a psi knight, they may not be able to do so easily with the One version of the fighter.”

And judging by the UA and dev statements they absolutely will be able to play a psi knight or any other supplemental fighter subclass with the revised version of the fighter.

They can do a lot with the fighter without chanlging the subclasses.

 

[UngeheuerLich]

But...they don't ignore it. They've never ignored it! Like, forever! This is from Holmes' Fantasy Roleplaying Games:

Snip

Maybe "don't care was the wrong words here".

It is rather: "all classes need things they are good at and you are happy to play the class" kind of balance, instead of "class x mist do y damage at level z" kind of balance.
They heavily misjudged that in 4e, where they tried to balance D&D this way.

5e is actually not that bad and from the UA videos it seems, they try to improve both kinds of balance with OneDnD.

But they won't try to achieve perfect balance of the latter type only sane bounds.

 

[UngeheuerLich]

Well, no. It’s being revised and updated.

So, what I was specifically reacting to, and should have singled out in the post, was this: “and if someone wants to play, I dunno, a psi knight, they may not be able to do so easily with the One version of the fighter.”

And judging by the UA and dev statements they absolutely will be able to play a psi knight or any other supplemental fighter subclass with the revised version of the fighter.

They can do a lot with the fighter without chanlging the subclasses.

We are using the UA in our current games, and right now, using war cleric domain is a bit more update work. So we are still usining the old class. I think in some cases, using the old 5e base classinstead of converting might be the better choice. But we actually don't know.
You would still use new spells and feats and grapple rules probably.