Upcoming One D&D: Unearthed Arcana 'Expert' Classes (Bard, Ranger, Rogue)

WotC has posted a video describing the upcoming Unearthed Arcana playtest document which will feature three of the core character classes, each with a single subclass.

This document is the second in a series of Unearthed Arcana articles that present material designed for the next version of the Player's Handbook. The material here uses the rules in the

2014 Player's Handbook, except where noted. Providing feedback on this document is one way you can help shape the next generation of D&D!

Inside you'll find the following content:

Expert Classes. Three Classes appear in this document, each one a member of the Expert Group: the Bard, the Ranger, and the Rogue. Each Class appears with one Subclass. More Subclasses will appear in Unearthed Arcana in the months ahead.

Feats. Feats follow the Class descriptions, particularly feats available to the classes in this document.

Spell Lists. Three Spell lists-the Arcane, Divine, and Primal lists-are featured here. The Ranger uses the Primal list, and the Bard potentially uses all three, thanks to the Magical Secrets feature.

Rules Glossary. In this document, any term in the body text that is underlined appears in a glossary at the end. The glossary defines game terms that have been clarified or redefined for this playtest or that don't appear in the 2014 Player's Handbook.

 

[UngeheuerLich]

It is, it’s in orbit. It just is also falling fast enough to miss.

Imagine. You fall exactly at the right speed to be damned to always miss your target barely... for ever... sounds like an old greek punishment.

 

[UngainlyTitan]

The group sorting strikes me as unnecessary. Like, I can see where it's kinda compulsively satisfying to a certain personality type, but my instinctive reaction is that it isn't needed and doesn't help the game.

That is not what it is for. Again explained in the video, the grouping allows using the groupings as prerequisites for feats and other boons.

It has a whiff of trying to over-curate the table experience (and that does smack of 4E). "Make sure your party ticks these four boxes and has a Warrior, a Priest, and Expert, and a Mage!" One of the things I like about 5E is the "play what you want to play, and don't worry about your 'party role'" ethos.

The many, many subclasses offer the main classes so much versatility that they can often be built to fill different roles.

It is not about roles either but more about hybridization.

 

[darjr]

Imagine. You fall exactly at the right speed to be damned to always miss your target barely... for ever... sounds like an old greek punishment.

Well it is the moon.

 

[Ibrandul]

A nice consequence of the new Ritual Casting rule is that the Forest Gnome's Speak with Animals ability is effectively unlimited as long as you have 10 minutes to chit-chat. You'd only need to burn a use-per-day if you needed time sensitive information.

Assuming that the rules on rituals remain basically the same as in 5e (apart from opening them up to every caster), it’s slightly more complicated than that, because you’ll need ten minutes of ritualing before the spell kicks in, and the animals you might be interested in having a conversation with (or some of them, at least) won’t be inclined to wait patiently for ten minutes while you wave your arms about and mutter nonsense before introducing yourself.

 

[UngeheuerLich]

But it isn’t really falling towards Earth. It’s taking the most direct path past earth in curved spacetime. If it was going slower it would eventually fall into Earth, but it’s going fast enough that it will eventually escape Earth’s gravity well.

It is falling towards earth, but its inertia keeps it going froward at the same time.

 

[Bill Zebub]

New spell idea:

Distract Gamer
Casting Time: bonus action
Components: verbal

You make an off-the-cuff statement about any topic involving science, science fiction, medieval arms & armor, or Tolkien. All Gamers within 30’ who can hear you must succeed at a Charisma saving throw or stop whatever they are doing to argue with you. If they preface their argument with, “Actually…” the caster must also make a saving throw or suffer the effects of their own spell.

 

[UngainlyTitan]

Is it, though? Gating Feats by Class Group just seems like restrictions for the sake of restrictions. The thing I like about Feats is that they can allow you to "play against type" and create some outside-the-box builds. What is the upside of limiting that?

Unexpected cheese. Grouping should make balancing those feats easier.

 

[rooneg]

Is it, though? Gating Feats by Class Group just seems like restrictions for the sake of restrictions. The thing I like about Feats is that they can allow you to "play against type" and create some outside-the-box builds. What is the upside of limiting that?

I'm withholding judgement until I see some of this stuff. There are uses for this type of restriction that aren't keeping you from playing against type, like I could envision feats that explicitly interact with elements of the class group, those wouldn't make sense for characters outside that group, so the restriction serves to keep people from wanting to use those feats when they're nonsensical. I can also envision "starter" feats that unlock access to that stuff, like say there's some Expert only feats that give you abilities that key off of the Expertise feature. I could also envision a "give me Expertise" feat that additionally says "you can take feats that are limited to the Expert group even if your class is not part of that group".

 

[UngeheuerLich]

New spell idea:

Distract Gamer
Casting Time: bonus action
Components: verbal

You make an off-the-cuff statement about any topic involving science, science fiction, medieval arms & armor, or Tolkien. All Gamers within 30’ who can hear you must succeed at a Charisma saving throw or stop whatever they are doing to argue with you. If they preface their argument with, “Actually…” the caster must also make a saving throw or suffer the effects of their own spell.

This is better for the traffic on dndbeyond if we are occupied and not hitting refresh button every 2 seconds.

 

[Charlaquin]

It is falling towards earth, but its inertia keeps it going froward at the same time.

But its trajectory doesn’t actually lead into Earth. Describing that as “falling towards Earth” is misleading. What it’s doing is passing Earth by, but the path to do so requires circling around it a bunch of times, because of the spacetime warping of Earth’s gravity. If you removed that warp and flattened spacetime out, the moon would just go in a straight line past Earth.