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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[Faolyn]

Except the character class versions... Have magic!

But that does help prove my point: any character can be proficient in performance and be an entertainer, but what makes a Bard head and shoulders above them is magic. Same with a priest and a Cleric, a woodsman and a Ranger.

Excellent example. Well done.

So a bard with the Religion skill is also a cleric?

 

[Remathilis]

So a bard with the Religion skill is also a cleric?

A Bard with religion could be a priest, but they are not a Cleric.

 

[Haplo781]

Except the character class versions... Have magic!

But that does help prove my point: any character can be proficient in performance and be an entertainer, but what makes a Bard head and shoulders above them is magic. Same with a priest and a Cleric, a woodsman and a Ranger.

Excellent example. Well done.

And I suppose everyone with Sleight of Hand is a rogue too?

 

[Haplo781]

A Bard with religion could be a priest, but they are not a Cleric.

Hmmm. Sounds like magic is not, in fact, the defining factor.

 

[Faolyn]

A Bard with religion could be a priest, but they are not a Cleric.

So another character with Nature, Animal Handling, and Survival could be a woodlander, but not a Ranger.

 

[cbwjm]

So another character with Nature, Animal Handling, and Survival could be a woodlander, but not a Ranger.

Just gonna jump in with my own 2 cents. Someone with those skills might be a ranger, but not the ranger class. By that I mean they could belong to an organisation called the King's Rangers which might have people from multiple classes who call themselves rangers (in the fiction) without having the mechanics of the ranger.

 

[Parmandur]

So another character with Nature, Animal Handling, and Survival could be a woodlander, but not a Ranger.

Not without magic, no.

 

[Minigiant]

Do most rangers need to remove curses, meld with stone or trees, turn their weapon into an energy weapon, or scry or defeat scrying in order to be a ranger?

A D&D one yes.

What if you run into stuff in the wild that give curses like werewolves and mumies?
How do you track a teleporting flying evil mage?

I'm not saying that magical rangers are objectively bad, and I know that lots of people like them. But, well, they're not really needed to fill the "wilderness warrior" niche. Level Up has a nonmagical ranger with one third-caster archetype.

Hot Take: The Level up ranger is a poor ranger for D&D. IT ony works because the Level up team included optional exploration rules in the adventure guide.

Without those rules, the level up ranger starts failing at rangery stuff after level 10.

 

[Faolyn]

A D&D one yes.

What if you run into stuff in the wild that give curses like werewolves and mumies?
How do you track a teleporting flying evil mage?

You get druids to help.

Or, you make bane items. The old 2e Van Richten's Guides always had weaknesses like that for all sorts of monsters, not just lycanthropes and wolfsbane. Then you can make weapons out of the substance, or coat them with the stuff, or make wards out of them.

Then the ranger becomes someone who has to think and plan around their monster, not just someone who can cast a spell and be done. Your ranger wants to hunt a mummy, then they have to know what mummies in general are weak against and if this particular mummy has any other weaknesses. I'd find that more interesting than just casting a spell that, quite likely, several other classes can also cast (there are very few ranger-only spells). I'm pretty sure that bane items could be very easily be made official.

Hot Take: The Level up ranger is a poor ranger for D&D. IT ony works because the Level up team included optional exploration rules in the adventure guide.

Without those rules, the level up ranger starts failing at rangery stuff after level 10.

Sure, I'll accept that. But that just means that D&D needs better exploration rules.

 

[UngainlyTitan]

Sure, I'll accept that. But that just means that D&D needs better exploration rules.

Say it again brother, and in the survey.