D&D (2024) One D&D Expert Classes Playtest Document Is Live

The One D&D Expert Class playest document is now available to download. You can access it by signing into your D&D Beyond account at the link below. It contains three classes -- bard, rogue, and ranger, along with three associated subclasses (College of Lore, Thief, and Hunter), plus a number of feats.

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[Sacrosanct]

The AoE size is what makes the spell, but I don't really see how often a Ranger needs to kill an army of hundreds of 1HD mooks...

It's not just about killing mooks. Many times being able to do an AoE is great. Especially against concentration using casters...

Also, I think probably the biggest buff to rangers here is the ability to use cantrips. That's going to be huge, I suspect, since cantrips scale.

 

[gorice]

Yeah the fact that they managed to, yet again, for what, the fourth time (3E, 3.5E, 5E, 1D&D) make Ranger a kind of mediocre and confused-ass class which few people are likely to want to play is kind of a sad achievement.

I see this as further support for my view that it should just be a fighter sublcass. There isn't enough meat on those bones.

 

[fluffybunbunkittens]

It's not just about killing mooks. Many times being able to do an AoE is great. Especially against concentration using casters...

Yes, but I'd rather do noticeable damage in a smaller AoE, than tiny, piddly damage to an altogether too large an area to be meaningful in normal play.

 

[Uni-the-Unicorn!]

Also, judging by how this packet is laid out, we're getting each of the classes in sets of three.
But goodness, wonder if we'll get ALL the subclasses so far.

They mentioned in the first video that they want to playtest 48 subclasses, 4 for each class

 

[Remathilis]

I see this as further support for my view that it should just be a fighter sublcass. There isn't enough meat on those bones.

In 2036 when D&D Perfected (6e) comes out, maybe they will just smash the three classes in each group into one Superclass (Expert, Priest, Mage, Warrior) then maybe you'll get your wish.

I like the new ranger, fwiw.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

New rules for building a stronghold are coming. Surprised I’m the first to mention it.

I strongly dislike many of the rewritten feats.
Mage Slayer, for instance. Ditch the damn ASI and give back the reaction attack.
Protection Figt Style is terrible. Why make the weakest fighting style worse!?
Heavily Armored and Lightly Armored are still garbage, and should still be folded into a real feat.
Skulker is pure change for its own sake. Wtf is blindsight doing here? Seriously? Not having everything be a damn keyword, just writing things out, is part of what works for 5e.

The Ranger looks good. I’m not sure what people are complaining about.

Moving Evasion back to level 9 sucks for the rogue, as does losing reaction SA damage. They seem to want to reduce reaction attacks generally, which I frankly hate.
Did they kill Mobile for this garbage Speedster!? Stop making things worse!
They nerfed Spell Sniper!? Really!?

The glossary is mostly fine, other than long rests restoring all spent hit dice.

 

[Parmandur]

They mentioned in the first video that they want to playtest 48 subclasses, 4 for each class

4 on average, Crawford didn't say each would have only 4 or a full 4.

 

[fluffybunbunkittens]

Blindsight now automatically reveals Hidden creatures... huh.

 

[Micah Sweet]

I'm a little sad that they didn't include Monk in the list of "Expert" classes. I've always considered them to be a skill-monkey-meets-Fighter class...at least as much as the Ranger is, anyway. Ah well. Minor gripe.

Woah. They included a LOT of feats in this one. But does every feat need to have an ASI attached to it now? I guess so. I don't want to believe the rumors about "power creep" but...well there's this, and there's Heroic Inspiration (that rewards you for failure). It's all little stuff, sure. Probably nothing to worry about at the moment, but little stuff tends to add up over time.

I like the changes to the Exhausted condition...much more streamlined, and probably the opposite of power-creep.

Same for "Interrupting the Rest," which states that if your Long Rest is interrupted by combat, the rest confers no benefit and must be restarted. This makes random encounters so much more dangerous and I love it. "Why yes, players, you can certainly spend the night in the Haunted Forest of Spiders and Nightmares, that sounds perfectly fine! What could possibly go wrong?"

I also like the Study action...it's expensive (it costs your whole action) but I like the way it's structured...and I especially like how it specifically puts "traps and gadgetry" under Investigation, hopefully ending the "why can't I use Perception for everything" argument at my table.

Considering how many people seemed to hate Exhaustion because it "hurt their character's chance of success too much", I would say the new version is essentially a form of power creep.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

They mentioned in the first video that they want to playtest 48 subclasses, 4 for each class

The amount of symmetry and move to normalizing design patterns and using tags even if it significantly changes the mechanic as opposed to just describing an effect, worries me.