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.

Unearthed Arcana Playtest

Unearthed Arcana Playtest Materials Get Unearthed Arcana playtest content, try it out in your game, and provide feedback! Check back regularly for ...

www.dndbeyond.com

 

[darjr]

I'm saying that combat, as in every edition, got the lion's share of the rules, and everything else was handled, as in every other edition, via RP and some underbaked subsystems.

Skill challenges were about the best it ever got (and 5e threw them out the window because 4e bad).

Skill challenges were so bad they had to fix them several times and still never got them working. Organized play stopped using them, the one play format they would have been great for. The non combat stuff in 4e was bad.

But I’ve derailed this enough.

 

[Haplo781]

Skill challenges were so bad they had to fix them several times and still never got them working. Organized play stopped using them, the one play format they would have been great for. The non combat stuff in 4e was bad.

But I’ve derailed this enough.

Mmm, nope.

 

[Eric V]

Skill challenges were so bad they had to fix them several times and still never got them working. Organized play stopped using them, the one play format they would have been great for. The non combat stuff in 4e was bad.

But I’ve derailed this enough.

No, it wasn't.

DMG2 had awesome advice for skill challenges, better than anything we've gotten for 5e, sadly.

 

[darjr]

Mmm, nope.

No, it wasn't.

DMG2 had awesome advice for skill challenges, better than anything we've gotten for 5e, sadly.

OK, I’ll bite. But then I’m really done. This time I really really mean it.

DMG2? That was, what, the 3rd or 4th revision of them?

As released they were too difficult, then, too easy, then revamped again and yet again for DMG2.

Why would a core pillar of the game need such advise in DMG2? Of all things.

And finally they never fixed the “we are in skill challenge mode” clunkyness, imho. And I think I was far from alone.

What was wrong with skill challenges

I played 4e very briefly, but I remember my group really got into the skill challenges part, even if the rest of the game didn't really engage us. I have read on here a few times that the skill challenges system was broken somehow, but it has been so long I barely remember how they even worked...

forum.rpg.net

 

[darjr]

So how many folks know about the Down Level casting introduced in this playtest?

Down Leveling spells, from the Expert Classes playtest.

From the playtest. I haven’t seen this discussed much. Has anyone tried this in play yet? I wonder if this would mean spells level ranges might get rearranged. Was anyone doing this as a house rule? edit to add a link to the point in the video where they say it's something they are...

www.enworld.org

 

[Parmandur]

You say well designed? Maybe for a very narrow niche.

That's a microcosm of the issues at that time: well designed, but aimed at a narrow niche.

 

[Vincent55]

I hardly ever took the ability increases, as I thought the feats were a better option, I also favoured only one class and never liked multiclassing as it tended to cause you to not be able to gain many of the top abilities in a class. Being old school from 1st on, the ability increase just felt like too much gain with ease, no working for it. And in the old days, the only way to increase abilities was with a wish or tombs of gainful exercise and such. Some of the changes are as if they are returning some of the old options from earlier editions, like criticals only doubling the weapon damage dice. The free attack with an off-hand with a light weapon, while seems right, but only I would think with training.

 

[darjr]

I hardly ever took the ability increases, as I thought the feats were a better option, I also favoured only one class and never liked multiclassing as it tended to cause you to not be able to gain many of the top abilities in a class. Being old school from 1st on, the ability increase just felt like too much gain with ease, no working for it. And in the old days, the only way to increase abilities was with a wish or tombs of gainful exercise and such. Some of the changes are as if they are returning some of the old options from earlier editions, like criticals only doubling the weapon damage dice. The free attack with an off-hand with a light weapon, while seems right, but only I would think with training.

Interesting. Makes me wonder…. Huh?

 

[Vincent55]

The issue I have is that the game started like chess and is moving more to checkers, streamlining and making the game less complex to appeal to a greater mass of people well you get what you give. Mind you you just have to look around at other systems which are very simple to play, and the more complex ones and most do not play both.

I have run many games in my time starting in the late 80's with the 2nd edition and have tried every version of D&D since, have to say the 4th was the worse as it was like an MMO in RPG form, but despite that, it had some good parts. I really think they could use more skills and combining them was a mistake, and shifted or lost much of the exploring and creativeness of the game. It has since become a game on autopilot in many ways, with the short rest and people being able to recover hit points many times during the day without a skill check or magical healing. Tieing the medicine skill to recover works a bit, but should be limited to once per combat, and can only be recovered after not during combat. I would let someone use it to stabilise during combat but that's it, eliminating a short rest from the system i feel would fix this as well and give things that were dependent upon these uses per day like back in older versions. I think they are going to do this for some creatures to help the "new" DMs better deal with the abilities of the creature.

Personally, this never affected me as a dm as i always utilised the environment and all the creature's abilities and tactics in my games, part of being a DM is being creative and knowing your materials. But like I said much of the oversimplifying of the game brings with it those who can't do this or think on their feet and problems solve. In the last few games, I have run I have seen this on more than one occasion the player just stands there confused and unable to do anything but swing his sword and attack. Now not all have been like this only a few in each group had an issue but in doing so cause a few others to suffer due to their inability to think and do something else.

What i plan to do is never buy another version of D&D ever again as the 5th was my last time, and from here on I will take what rules I see i like from this new one to fix the Frankenstein version I have cobbled together to make it better. So good luck wizards and as i see it people will become tired of the constant flip flop and the gutting of the rules that at some point the game will become unrecognizable. Anyway, that's my take but who really knows what the future may hold we might very well end up with the final last edition of this game ever, yeah and i will win the lotto, lol.

 

[Uni-the-Unicorn!]

Really you can’t do Low Fantasy anymore in D&D. Every class has some kind of magical effect or at least near supernatural.

That 5th Ed version of Lord of the Rings coming down the pike looks really good. Especially if you want something a tad less Warcraft.

We play low magic in 5e, does that count? Not sure what you mean by low fantasy.