D&D (2024) Playtest: Is the Human Terrible?

[Parmandur]

Though interestingly, you can get Deep Gnomes from SCAG a la carte. Duergar, Aquatic Half-Elf, Ghostwise Halfling, Drow Half Eld, High Half-Elf, Wood Half-Elf, Variant Tiefling. And Feral Tiefling are all still rorschach individual sale, though.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

We have a precedent for what looks like it's happening. This happened already with 3.0 to 3.5.

There being precedent doesn’t mean the exact same thing will happen again.

In fact, it’s at least as likely to mean that whatever mistakes they make in 2024, they probably won’t be the same ones they made with 3/.5.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

Can someone explain what they think the reasoning is for wizards to put out a playtest document that can’t be played wholly on it own, and explicitly tell playtesters to use the existing rules and options to test the UA ideas, if they don’t intend on the new ideas being backward compatible?

 

[Maxperson]

Can someone explain what they think the reasoning is for wizards to put out a playtest document that can’t be played wholly on it own, and explicitly tell playtesters to use the existing rules and options to test the UA ideas, if they don’t intend on the new ideas being backward compatible?

So that they can test the pieces in time to make sure they are right, before going on to systems that rely on them.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

So that they can test the pieces in time to make sure they are right, before going on to systems that rely on them.

But if they aren’t going to keep the same system beyond some updates, that wouldn’t get them useful or reliable data.

 

[Maxperson]

But if they aren’t going to keep the same system beyond some updates, that wouldn’t get them useful or reliable data.

It would, because they are just testing the UA. That's why people shouldn't be mixing 2014 PCs and UA PCs for playtesting. They should be using only the UA rules and then 2014 rules for the rest of it. So no races, backgrounds, feats, etc. from 2014 should be used by playtesters.

They aren't going to be looking at the difficulties or ease of combat due to the new crit rules yet. They're going to be focused on "Did you like the backgrounds?", "What did you like most about them?", "What did you like least about them?" and so on. Once they have the feedback on those, we will get a revised version and test that. When that's finalized, they can move on to classes, monsters, etc.

 

[Chaosmancer]

Small point of order, SCAG is still available in print (currently #4,831 in all books on Amazon!), and from Beyond.

Good to know, I rarely hear anyone ever talk about it, and I figured it had fallen out of print by this point

 

[Parmandur]

Good to know, I rarely hear anyone ever talk about it, and I figured it had fallen out of print by this point

Nope, it is still going...7 years in print.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

It would, because they are just testing the UA. That's why people shouldn't be mixing 2014 PCs and UA PCs for playtesting. They should be using only the UA rules and then 2014 rules for the rest of it. So no races, backgrounds, feats, etc. from 2014 should be used by playtesters.

If that were the case they’d have said so.

They aren't going to be looking at the difficulties or ease of combat due to the new crit rules yet. They're going to be focused on "Did you like the backgrounds?", "What did you like most about them?", "What did you like least about them?" and so on. Once they have the feedback on those, we will get a revised version and test that. When that's finalized, they can move on to classes, monsters, etc.

That doesn’t track with what JC said in the video announcing the playtest.

 

[Maxperson]

If that were the case they’d have said so.

They did.

"The material here uses the rules in the 2014 Player’s Handbook, except where noted."

Followed immediately by noting Character Races, Character Backgrounds, Starting Languages, Feats and the Rules Glossery.

When they get to classes they will say the same thing, because they want you to test what they are putting out.

That doesn’t track with what JC said in the video announcing the playtest.

Putting out everything to test at once would be dumb. First it would be overwhelming for a lot of people to track what they like and where. Second it would create problems like people really liking the monsters, but not how classes work. Then when classes are changed, the changes now make it unfun to fight the monsters. So they change monsters and now they don't like how the classes interact again. They need to playtest piecemeal and nail down classes, then they can put out monster stuff until people like both.