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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[Bill Zebub]

And another house rule gets (sorta) codified: Thief can use Dex for jumping.

 

[billd91]

From a usability perspective, I like that they're incorporating the multiclassing implications in each class's description.

 

[WarDriveWorley]

Interesting backslide on spellcasting prep

 

[darjr]

Interesting backslide on spellcasting prep

Can you elaborate?

 

[Ruin Explorer]

Interesting backslide on spellcasting prep

It's not quite a backslide. It's a side-slide. Bards can prep anything on the list. That's a huge upgrade from having a fixed list. They now operate like Clerics/Druids but with an Arcane list.

A backslide would be going back to learning spells.

 

[TwoSix]

1) Not a fan of every spellcaster becoming prepared (or so it seems right now). Would rather go the other way, and have every class be spells known. More specificity over more versatility.

2) Hunter Ranger being able to "downcast" is a novel mechanism that I like. I can see a lot of homebrewers putting this to good use.

The video preview yesterday made me think they might be changing more stuff than this, this is still an overall pretty conservative set of changes.

 

[Ruin Explorer]

So BIG nerf to Rogues which seem to be hitting an awful lot of Martials (it also hits Hunter, but matters far less there):

You have to "Take the Attack Action" to get the Sneak Attack bonus. That means that you can't, for example, get SA on a Reaction or Bonus Attack-based attack (unless they've also changed those).

That's absolutely a kick in the nuts for Rogues. Drastically decreasing their damage potential and increasing the number of rounds where they'll just fail to land SA. Not sure why WotC felt it was necessary, especially as it is MORE complicated than before, and runs counter to the general trend of simplification.

Subtle Strikes and Elusive are pretty good but very high level.

Also gonna be some Spider-Man stuff going down given both Rangers and Thief Rogues and anyone who takes Athlete will have a full-on Climb Speed equal to their speed!

 

[Composer99]

Is it just me, or is the wording of the Dual Wielding feature in the Crossbow Expert feat really weird? Probably something that will get cleaned up down the road, I expect?

 

[Weiley31]

Also, finding it interesting that Monk is part of the Warrior grouping. I mean, it seems a bit obvious it was gonna be slotted in there as it's not a spellcaster, NOR did it really get any skills or what not to make it an expert. So, I wonder how that's gonna turn out.

Also: Barkskin isn't quite useless/confusing now.
Interesting how the Ranger is classified as part of the Expert category.

 

[TwoSix]

Oh, I just caught this...they normalized subclass progression! Every class shown gets subclass features at 3, 6, 10, and 14. That's a big deal!