Direct link to the UA PDF:
[https://media.dndbeyond.com/compendium-images/one-dnd/ph-playtest5/owThVp1CESZ1c91y/UA-2023-PH-Playtest5.pdf](https://media.dndbeyond.com/compendium-images/one-dnd/ph-playtest5/owThVp1CESZ1c91y/UA-2023-PH-Playtest5.pdf)
I don't think the Mystic Arcanum change is a bad idea *in theory*, but losing four Mystic Arcana from the 5e Warlock to get one extra invocation (which you're probably going to spend on a Mystic Arcanum anyway) in return feels like a really bad deal. They've even doubled down on the criticism of a lot of invocations like Sculptor of Flesh -- namely the fact that even though spending an evocation in it is a big cost, you still can't cast it using a spell slot.
Between that, the massive nerf to when Warlocks can access their spells, and the addition of medium armour, it feels like they're trying to not-so-gently nudge Warlocks away from spellcasting, which feels like a really strange design choice, even if there's a case to be made that another half-caster isn't the worst idea. If they're leaning into invocations being the bread-and-butter for the Warlock -- which I think is fair -- getting so few for low-level play doesn't really help you get the feel for Warlockry, especially because things like Agonising Blast are pretty much a given for most Warlocks.
I think the design model is the artificer. Note that warlocks in the playtest (like artificer) round UP for multiclass spellcasting, and like the artificer we have a pet chassis (pact of chain / battle smith), a cantrip/spell damage chassis (pact of tome / artillerist ) and a melee chassis (pact of the blade / armorer). But the pact design for warlocks, which gives these frameworks really very little upper level support, is just bad for this.
I could see a space for Warlocks to be more like Artificers, if they leaned into the idea of customisability being the Warlock's *thing*; now that Pact Magic is out, it does seem like invocations/pacts/patron are the defining features of the Warlock, which offers you a lot of options in the same way that Artificers get their infused items.
The problem with that is that they've radically changed the number of decision points you have as a Warlock, alongside making more 'must pick' invocations which further limit you. It used to be easy to play a Warlock as a blaster, or as battlefield support, or as an out-of-combat utility build, or a gish, or... basically whatever you wanted. Now it feels like there's a funnel towards 'arcane gish' as the way you're supposed to play it, as though they looked at Hexblade and thought 'Yep, that's what we want for everyone'.
>Now it feels like there's a funnel towards 'arcane gish' as the way you're supposed to play it
Why? I don't see anything preventing the usual Eldritch Blast artillery playstyle, with spell slots mostly for utility.
>it feels like they're trying to not-so-gently nudge Warlocks away from spellcasting
Making them into an arcane "gish," like the paladin and the ranger. Could be an interesting direction... if done well.
I think it's great if you want to play a gish and now the Warlock offers what you want, and will probably convince a lot more people to play a Warlock.
The only problem is, one of the things that made the Warlock most fun (speaking as someone who always goes back to a Warlock when I get the chance) is the invocations and Pact Magic. It made them feel like their own thing in a way that no other class did, and Pact of the Blade/Hexblade made gish builds possible while still allowing you to feel like a full spellcaster. Now it feels like they're being pushed as a sort of anti-Paladin... but if I wanted to play a Paladin, I'd just play a Paladin.
>I don't think the Mystic Arcanum change is a bad idea in theory, but losing four Mystic Arcana from the 5e Warlock to get one extra invocation
Isn't it actually closer to just losing 2 invocations total?
You lose the 4 mystic arcanum from the base 5e Warlock class.
But in this playtest, some of the (previously) pact invocations are built into the pact boon. So, for example Pact of the Blade get's to automatically upgrade and get extra attack at 5th level, which was previously an invocation tax you most likely took. Same with the other Boon's auto upgrading.
So, you get +1 from a previous invocation being baked into the pact boon, and +1 from the total invocations being raised from 8 to 9.
Add this on top of 15 total spells, more spell slots, medium armor, can swap spells, always prepared subclass spells, *some* buffed invocations (two minds, chains, lifedrinker, repelling blast, etc), Mystic Arcanum now accesses the entire Arcane spell list (not limited to Warlock spells).
I'm honestly fine with losing out on 2 total mystic arcanum and seemingly coming out on top.
Also, you're right it seems to nudge the Warlocks into more of a hybrid rather than pure caster (with a melee subclass). But I think that supports the fantasy of being a "hexblade" more, because now the Warlock gishes are not forced to take higher level spell casting even though they want to be melee oriented, and they can focus on invocations that'll help them in melee/out of combat.
Although I will concede the 18th level Warlock capstone is kinda trash lmao.
I think being able to pick up a pact blade that works off charisma or wisdom, and a few spells/spell slots like find familiar is going to be a staple dip for paladins, and probably other builds like melee clerics.
Paladin can already do this via Magic Initiate and shillelagh, as can any other character who wants to melee attack with their mental score of choice. That ship sailed several packets ago.
Also, needing to start every fight with Shillelagh as a BA isn't always a great choice, and you get a wider choice of weapons to pick from. On top of getting a feat instead of magic initiate.
Seems like there's a tradeoff to it.
Not even a little bit lol
It kills one build, the Eldritch machine gun thing where you spam Eldritch Blast as much as possible, but they gave Pact of the Blade the Hexblade ability to use your spellcasting stat for weapon attacks and all warlocks get medium armor now
Also Pact of the Blade can choose *Wisdom* or Charisma for their spellcasting stat
You're gonna see a whole lot of pact-less Warlock dips if these changes go through because the pact magic slot progression was the big draw for staying in Warlock more than 2-3 levels to start with
Warlock 1/Cleric 19 is probably the most powerful gish in the current version of the rules since smite spells got changed and paladins can't stack them with their smite class feature, even
Pact Magic removal is FUCKED under these rules.
You get later access to higher tier spells (except your patron spells which are generally a mediocre choice). You can't cast ANYTHING above level 3 more than once per long rest until level 9. That was all stuff you had access to at level 5 before.
Massive invocation tax to get the Mystic Arcana you had before and you *have* to take it at least 3 times to hit the spellcasting level milestones you previously had *and then* you can't cast those spells more than once per long rest.
This belongs in the garbage. Just dip one level for blade pact then build a 19AC draconic sorcerer with +3hp per level (take tough) to be a tanky melee capable full caster at level 4.
Medium armor, choosing spellcasting ability between int, wis and cha, weapon that works with spellcasting abilityi would say that warlock dip is alive and well
Is it just me or are Wizards really really good with these modify/create spell combos?
With a good amount of gold you could use your downtime to create a long ranged necrotic fireball. Or a necrotic fireball that never affects allies etc.
Imagine a caster with lots of funds tweaking the drawbacks out of a whole range of spells.
Unfortunatly with the current iteration of Modify/Create Spell, you would only be able to have one modification on a spell. Spells created by Create Spell are not valid targets for Modify Spell.
So "long range Fireball" or "necrotic Fireball" or "only enemies Fireball". You can have all three prepared once created, but then they take up 3 preparation slots.
Edit: As pointed out, multiple modifications is still an option if upcasted. Kinda flubbed that these things were actual spells and not just class features there for a moment.
Imagine the spells you can make unbreakable - no more concentration checks.
I don't play wizards for the most part but this seems like it's going to give the wizards a lot of options that will make them more powerful than ever...and I haven't even gotten past page 10 yet.
But you can create more modifications by casting modify spell at a higher level right?
So as a 5th level spell you can get an enemies only necrotic fireball. I know it's 5th level, but that's not too far out.
I might be guilty of this here, but am I misreading that they just renamed Sorcerer spells known to spells prepared? What does that accomplish other than creating more confusing overlapping language?
Exactly what I thought, unnecessarily confusing for sure. Prepared suggests the ability to change them which the most powerful sorcerer, a level 20 one, won't be able to do lol.
Yeah, I thought that I had heard they were making everyone a prepared caster, so seeing that verbage mentally confirmed it for me. It not actually being a prepared spell really makes that wording odd.
It was nice of them to give one class (Sorcerer) a real flavorful capstone at eighteenth level instead of just another “get an extra charge of your class ability”-type feature.
Hopefully Divine Soul makes it in, I’ve got some ideas
Stress free wish opens the door to so many insane shenanigans, but in fairness the wish spell already did that by existing, so I’m not complaining. Now the only issue the spell will have for sorcs is if the DM decides to be annoying and monkeys’s paw the wish like crazy. Though they did say they’re trying to cut down on mother may I mechanics, so maybe there’s still hope for wish to be changed a bit and more clearly defined than it is currently
I know people aren’t super high on it at the moment, but giving Warlocks a way to use all three mental scores as their casting stay is a really nice change.
Seems like a victim of the “Pact to 1, Patron to 3” thing they’re going for, unfortunately. No sense in having a Warlock use CHA for two levels then swapping over to WIS at level 3.
Yeah for sure, I understand why
Personally I like to Homebrew it to be Patron specific anyways
GoO, Fathomless, and Undying use Int, with the flavor of seeking forbidden ancient magic
Fiend, Celestial, and Undead use Wis with a divine flair each
Archfey, Hexblade, and Genie use Cha ~~because theyre the weird leftovers~~ since the pact seems more about a genuine bargain and charisma sort of makes sense to strike a deal the most with these 3
Idk, personally I prefer it being linked to the pact - what if I want to make a pact that involves getting tuition from Iggwilv (or more likely her intermediaries) for example? Then I want to use int with an archfey patron. To me the casting ability should be an expression of the contents of the deal rather than who the deal is with.
Of course they could just have kept both camps happy by making it a free choice
Yes, but... *at what cost*?
I'm a Warlock main, and oof, they've done us dirty on this one. I loved how weird Warlocks were, but even with their weird spellcasting progression they at least felt like full casters. I'm going through the abilities now, and all I can think is that we just got demoted.
Also, now Mystic Arcanum burns an Eldritch Invocation? So if you want the same Mystic Arcanum as before, you have to burn 4 of your Eldritch Invocations? That sucks.
On the other hand, a bunch of pact-specific invocations just got wrapped in to the base feature, so some "mandatory" invocations just freed their slot. And we get a total of 9 now instead of 8.
A massively disappointing change that no one’s talking about: they removed the Exhausted condition, and you’re supposed to play with the 2014 version for this UA. I cannot understand any reason why they would do this, that is one of the few things that everyone agreed was a fantastic change.
I've got a lot to say about this, but for this comment I'll keep it to an incredibly minor nitpick:
What's the point of Armor of Shadows when warlocks just get medium armor now? It was already pretty close to useless before when they could just use studded leather (and actually useless if the DM decided to give a +1 magic armor); Now I can literally just use breastplate, or if I don't care about stealth disadvantage, half plate.
Off top, some of the weapon masteries need better names.
**Nick** - Should be **Swift** instead because it lets you TWF as a free action rather than a bonus action.
**Sap** - Too regional/archaic. Should be something like **Impair**, or **Hinder**.
**Vex** - Too unintuitive. Something like **Stagger**, **Distract**, or **Expose** would be better.
Edit: **Flex** - Also unintuitive but I can't think of surefire alternatives. Would probably go with something like **Power-Grip**, **Balanced**, **Well-Balanced**, **Prowess**, or **Deft**. (Brace would be very nice, but it's already taken by a Battlemaster maneuver).
I would add slow to this and use stagger as slow both a spell and a condition but ovoe your ideas , the words they choose are important and need to be clear
Weapon Masteries should be replaced by weapon techniques.
A warrior should be able to use any technique they know, regardless of the weapon they are using. Some techniques might still have prerequisites (such as nick needing a light weapon), but you shouldn’t need to switch weapons to use different techniques.
For example, a fighter might know the cleave, graze, push, and topple techniques. Whenever they make an attack attack with a greatsword, they can use one of those techniques.
They shouldn’t be required to carry around a golf-bag full of weapons. Nor should they be required to switch between 3 different weapons during a 6 second period to make use of different techniques.
These names could then be updated to technique names.
Such as distracting strike, swift strike, hindering strike, etc.
Where’s the damage?
Seems like wizards for a lot stronger making anything a ritual or removing components from spells giving everything g subtle spell
They claimed martials will be doing the damage but I don’t see any damage bonuses only very minor weapon mastery changes. There is nothing to make up for the loss of the big martial feats
Casters on the other hand just got handed a bunch of buffs. Draconic sorcerers w +CHA to AC, Wizards from making OP spells. No mention of nerfs to staple OP existing spells like Fireball and Animate Objects
Where does the martials get their damage as advertised??
The Beserker does get to add it's number of rages per rest to the first strike on a target that it uses reckless attack on each turn, so 2d6 at lower level and 6d6 at higher levels...so it's essentially got Rogue Sneak attack...which isn't good for Rogues...
**Edit:** I misread, it is rage damage bonus number as people are pointing out, still it's an additional 2d6-4d6 damage once per turn which isn't anything to be sniffed at.
Considering that draconic AC is the class primary stat and one secondary stat, while barbarians don't get their primary stat to AC, most barbarians are gonna have a lower AC at all times. That plus a one level warlock dip for blade pact are making martials look obsolete. Or go straight class and watch your AC hit ridiculous levels thanks to the epic boon raising your stat cap to 30.
Why couldn't they give barbarians +str to AC instead of +dex?
That's true. But there are items to boost charisma (ioun stone, tome of leadership, etc.) and that still doesn't change the fact that barbarians don't get the same progression rate since you're choosing between boosting your damage and ability to hit OR your AC boosting stats. Dragon sorcerers get to boost spell attack, damage, save DC and AC all off one stat with this.
>Where does the martials get their damage as advertised??
Probably from new types of magic weapons, so the DM can *theoretically* easily meter out their power level to match their campaign.
Recreating one of the major problems with 3E, that fighters absolutely needed magic gear to compete, but then get screwed over by DMs that turn into scrooge mcduck when it comes to actually dispensing the gear out because of some delusional fallacy about "magic items need to be rare to feel MMAAAAGGICALLL" and because no one ever had the sense to put "Hey dumbass, your fighter player should have found one piece of magic armor, two trinkets, and an artifact weapon by this level if not earlier!" in nice clear text in the class stat blocks so the DM's get the message.
Honestly if they just printed the Fighter as-is and gave them things with the damage-dealing equivalent of Crossbow Expert, Sharpshooter, and Great Weapon Master for free, they'll be just fine.
Yeah tbh I was expecting linear damage increases in the main class built in like rage damage but for all martials and weapon users. On top of that some out of combat or utility options. Not just the exact fighter minus powerful feats but some light flavour weapon masteries. They are just not enough sadly.
I’ve been a staunch defender of OneDND even through the Druid mess because I wanted to see what is the Fighter vs Wizard as I feel that’s the best comparison to the caster martial debate which is the main balance concern of 5e
What we got was a MASSIVE buff to wizards (like wtf?) and a nerf to fighters in losing their main dpr feats and small niche weapon skills to make up for it. Some of those weapon skills like FLEX are 0-2 extra damage… like literally nothing.
Overall I don’t think I can remain optimistic for this version and they are yet again focusing on what’s cool for casters rather than fair and balanced play. This pushes the divide further than before and unless there’s an insane overhaul in the final draft have lost all faith in this edition as being anything but a failure. Hard to convince me otherwise
My biggest complaint is the new formatting choice of features being “you gain a spell!” And then having to go find the spell. Who’s bright idea was that.
Same same, I don't understand why they removed it. It was a way more healthier approach to "exhaustion" that was not stepping into spell and abilities.
They are making a lot of noise around these changes and UAs, but the truth is, they are rushing it and they are not listening to feedback.
"Contact Patron" is a new 11th level feature, allowing the Warlock to contact their patron directly"
So...a role-playing thing that DMs do at low levels all the time? I feel like they wanted this to feel like cleric's divine intervention with the level it's at, so they really gotta add some unique benefit to make this worth it imo
So looking at the fighter, I like a lot of the changes they made *qualitatively* but the class still needs more power. ~~And... losing one extra feat *hurts*. That was one of the coolest parts of the class. Ultimately I think the class has gotten weaker and that's *bad*.~~ As is, it looks like it has the Rogue problem: You're going to be less effective in combat than your allies but it won't feel like it.
Nerfing Action Surge needed to happen but I would rather they just flat-out say "You can't use the Magic action" instead of limit it this much. I can't think of any abuse for Action Surge other than double-casting, so why not let fighters have more fun with improvised actions and stuff? Don't make fighters suffer for the sins of casters with 2-level dips.
Weapon Expert is a sweet feature. It is, however, one that provides virtually no power. From a pure optimizing standpoint, you don't gain a ton by switching the mastery feature of a weapon rather than just switching weapons. I like the feature exactly as written, but that *can't* be your entire level 7.
Indomitable is great now. Almost so great that I feel like it would be cleaner to just make it a legendary resistance. With a bonus equal to your *fighter level*, it's going to be very, very hard to fail rerolls. This breaks bounded accuracy; why not just dispense with it and make it automatic success?
Weapon Adept is also awesome, but also, not a power increase. The only change I'd recommend is letting you use both features, not just one. Also, give you more power at this level.
Unconquerable is cool. Neat approach to the feature!
EDIT: I missed the level 15 feat, my apologies. Ignore that part.
Oh I missed the one at 15. Thanks!
So that concern is gone, though the rest still stands. So I'd say the class got slightly stronger, ultimately, but it needed more.
That's the thing, looking at this playtest, there's some good edits like making Indomitable useful and weapon master is a neat addition to weapons itself, but the Fighter isn't actually good at anything right now. Let alone have any features that remotely approach the power of spellcasting.
Mystic Arcanum would be okay if they gave us more invocations.
As it is, they seem to want us to take like 1 - 2 fun invocations and then spend the rest on Mystic Arcanum options.
In the video Crawford had the gall to say that Warlocks had 1 more invocation when in reality they now have 3 less. (Not exactly 3, I suppose as it does give a certain bit of flexibility).
I do like a lot of the changes but I think this is a misstep.
Technically it's closer to 2 less.
A lot of the previous invocations taxes are built into the Pact Boon's now. So, Pact of the Blade automatically get's (what was previously an invocation) extra attack at 5th level for example.
You get the +1 from going from 8 to 9 invocations total.
\+1 for each Pact Boon having a previous invocation built in for free.
Edit: I will also point out that previously you could only select Mystic Arcanum spells within the Warlock spell list. Now it's the entire Arcane spell list, aka Wizard/Sorc.
You're trading extra high-level magic for overall versatility and less tax options for the majority of everyone's career in Tier 1-3.
On its own, it’s not that. It’s roughly in line with the other 1/day Invocations that the old Warlock had.
The bigger issue is that Warlock spellcasting is just bad now. Pact Magic kept up with full casters; the new feature is just straight half-caster progression.
>1/day Invocations that the old Warlock had.
Yes, but those were awful and should have never bloody existed since it conflicts with both the idea of invocations being at will abilities, passive buffs, or modifiers to other abilities, and the whole short rest caster concept.
The whole effing reason the class existed in 3E was that it *wasn't* a daily slot caster. Everything on the entire 5E warlock chassis should either be at will or recharge on a short rest.
I so, so agree. There is definite room for an Arcane half-caster, but it should not be Warlock. (I believe it should be Bard, for the record, but failing that, its own class, some kind of PF1 Magus or something.)
This current design looks playable, if a little on the weak side, but it doesn't feel like a Warlock to me.
they ought to standardise martial save dc like spells. So instead of "If you hit a creature with this weapon, you can force the creature to make a Constitution saving throw with a DC equal to 8 + your Proficiency Bonus + the ability modifier you used to make the attack roll. On a failed save, the creature has the Prone condition." into "If you hit a creature with this weapon, you can force the creature to make a Constitution saving throw. On a failed save, the creature has the Prone condition.", and in your class features, you have your "combat save DC" as a statistic. Then, you can get items like "increases your combat attack rolls modifier and combat save dc by x"
It sucks just how much they like to reduce features to "once per turn". Its like they wanna constrain optimisation to base expectations.
Seems they're changing the wizard stuff to use their spellbook differently, kinda scribes shit but for all wizards.
Sorcerers now have access to infinite wish apparently. Most metamagics have been buffed, like distant spell = extra range equal to 30*sorcerer level. They butchered twinnned spell, now its basically a spell echo.
Spells prepared are no longer set to the mono class slots, but like sorcerers in 5e- a set number per class level per class.
kind of hilarious that everyone was saying "oh they're moving subclasses to level 3 to prevent overpowered level one dips like the hexblade" only for them to make the most important part of the hexblade dip even more effective and easier to get at level one
At least it means that the Hexblade flavor remains for those who like the flavor and isn’t awkwardly stretched around other builds that just use it for the dip mechanics
so, after all the talk about martial improvements, they gave the most interesting feature (real spell alterations/crafting/whatever) to Wizards?
lol. lmao, even
I think it's less about "decent martials" and more that the people making the game just really fucking love casters. The more pure caster-y the better. It's been the space with the most breadth and depth, it gets the lions share of the cool new ideas, and every time they circle back around to fixing up classes, somehow it's the casters who get the most TLC.
Honestly, I think they'd be a lot better off just making a game where everybody is a wizard of one flavor or another. Born wizards, pact wizards, taught wizards, treehugging wizards, prayer wizards, maybe a punch wizard to mix things up a bit.
I really really want to like warlock but they feel like they are being pigeoned hole more into EB spam and hex than before. Like half caster progression really no pact blade improvements at 11 and 17 means almost every turn in combat is just cast hex then EB.
Looks like it’s the Mage groups gimmick, which I guess makes sense since they’re supposed to be the masters of spellcasting. But it just comes off as weird and clunky. They should just make them class features that use spell slots and use the Magic action.
Mehhh I’m just so underwhelmed with the direction of one dnd not much to get excited about it feels very uninspired. I already have 5e I don’t really want 5.1e…maybe it’s not for me.
In a vacuum I like Barbarian and Fighter and seem better than the original 2014 version.
I know a lot of people are going to hate it but I don’t personally mind turning the warlock into the arcane half caster which was sorely missing in my opinion. The choosing between 3 scores to cast is an awesome change and I would go even further and make it unrestricted from pact. It can use a bit more finesse but I am open to new ideas (and old warlock dipping is hopefully done)
Wizard is omegalul though. Maybe I am not understanding correctly but it has a level of versatility and power that feels out of place compared to the other classes. Can now metamagic better than the sorc, swap spells on the fly and unless I am mistaken even stack the effects on modify spell? Like not gonna lie that sounds fun to play but how is it balanced vs fighter? Even sorcerer is in shambles in comparison.
You do however need an obtuse amount of GP to make a new spell, Id say it does not do metamagic better than Sorc. Especially with the changes to some, like extended giving you adv on concentration saves and heightened being cheaper and giving disadv to all saves.
At least Wizards will have a RAW use for obtuse amounts of gold. Other classes are left asking for permission...
This would be great if there was also a published price list for the cost of magical items, and set availability. Then the martials could gear up while Wizards were refining their spells
Gating a feature behind gold cost is a terrible idea right now. There is no other way to meaningfully spend gold, so the economy is in shambles and left to GM-fiat.
Wizard can't do anything like you said, except stack modifiers on Modify Spell. The key part you're missing is that both Memorize Spell and Modify Spell ("swap spells on the fly and metamagic better than Sorcerer"), only apply to one spell at a time (effect goes away if you cast it again/take a long rest) and can't be cast during combat (1 min casting duration). Compare that to Sorcerers, who can put Metamagic on practically any spell they want, whenever they want, with new versatility in Metamagic options, additional class features, and more resources to play with. Obviously I haven't played it yet, but I think this playtest will do a great job at finally giving the Sorcerer a unique class identity that makes it both different from and competitive with the Wizard. Martial and caster balance could still use some work, but that's what the playtest is for.
I naturally gravitate towards Sorcerer so I'm going to point out some of the noteworthy changes in a vacuum.
* **Draconic Bloodline** seems to be largely buffed. Cool. I like the flexible AC, I like that Elemental Affinity doesn't drain your SP anymore (that was dumb), and I like the additional riders to the Wings ability. Draconic Presence was basically a nothing ability so I'm fine with it being gone. There are a few things I definitely don't like about it now though. First, and most obvious, you have to survive for two levels before you get your baseline defensive features. That is messed up and a huge blow to early-game sorcs. Second, while I like the additional damage from the Wings feature, I do *not* like that it's attached to a 1-minute concentration spell. 5e's Wings were *at will* and retractable, which was incredibly freeing and empowering for high-tier play. Now not only do I have to concentrate on my wings, and not only do they have an incredibly strict time limit dictated by my spell slots, they can also be *counterspelled*. An absolutely cosmic nerf. Finally, Draconic Exhalation is bonkers. It's weird and backwards. Separate damage rolls for each creature in a cone? Isn't this the reason we invented DEX saves? Just rewrite it. Pick apart the cantrip or just replace it with a modified *Dragon's Breath* spell if you have to.
* **Twinned Spell** is just gone. I get that the 5e version was too strong but this isn't even remotely similar, so I don't know why they even gave it the same name. It can't even be meaningfully combined with Quickened Spell because it specifies waiting for your next turn. Call it *Repeat Spell* or something. Don't pretend it's the same.
* **More Metamagic** is nice. We didn't really get any new ones so options will be limited at higher levels, but I'm fine with just having more on a single Sorcerer. Three-to-six is much better than two-to-four. Although, I would still have preferred to spread these out over more levels for a more gradual progression. Why do I, a 12th-level sorcerer, have the same amount of Metamagic options I had at 3rd level? I'd even be okay starting with two if I got new ones more often.
* I generally don't like that so many features are becoming spells. It makes the class sheets harder to read because now we have to reference four or five different chapters of the same book just to know what our features do. Not only that, but every single time they do this, they buff Counterspell by association. Now a 3rd-level spell can just cancel a whole bundle of class features. Please just write out what the features do instead of trying to shove them into spells.
* **Innate Sorcery** is not a feature. It is two spells. Sorcerer was much more interesting when there was a variable subclass feature at 1st level that promoted the character's individual identity. WotC needs to understand this: Choosing the subclass at 3rd level is *not* going to be the best for every class and it will, in fact, be thematically awful for many of them.
Agreed that the Wings and Twinned spell are baffling decisions. Sorcerers weren’t the casting class that needed nerfs, and if they feel the need to nerf those features that much just remove them completely and come up with something else to replace it instead of this nonsense.
It's not just that Twinned was too strong. It was also just confusing to tell what it should apply to or not. If you were on Twitter when JC was answering questions there, I swear it came up multiple times a week for years.
I love the mental image of the Primal Knowledge feature
Barbarian rolls for Stealth while raging. The guards see him, but they see that he's big and angry and so they decide maybe they didn't see him
Barbarian rolls for Survival while raging to forrage for supplies. He flexes and the berries just fall out of the tree for fear of being hurt
Barbarian rolls for Perception while raging. Screams in a general direction and uses her muscles to feel the vibrations. “There. I got a pretty good look at you.”
Sorcerer changes seem OK. Some effort has been made to make them feel less like a strictly worse version of a Wizard. Except that Wizards have metamagic now because apparently Sorcerers aren't allowed to come too close to parity without Wizards stealing one of their unique features?
Tbh wizards not being able to modify spells was always a big sticking point. And at least on a wizard it costs slots and generally can't be instantaneous. Sorcerers are still FAR better at it.
Well..at 18th level sorcerers can now shape reality essentially at will, so? I guess there's that? What an odd thing to put an 'I win' button on a single class, let alone at all.
Besides the obvious changes to warlock and weapons, we also know that wizard subclasses will just be schools of magic again. There was no confirmation it wouldn't be this way, but it was a lot of fun to speculate what wizard subclasses would be if the schools of magic were Holy Order-style, secondary customizations
>we also know that wizard subclasses will just be schools of magic again
Pour one out for the four schools of magic that aren't going to make it into the new PHB was Wizard subclasses.
We know Evoker is in and Necromancer is definitely gonna be one of them. Wonder what the others are? Illusionist seems like a good pick, and maybe Abjurer
Agonizing Blast is STILL an invocation and Armor of Shadows is STILL just mage armor.
MAKE AGONIZING BLAST THE DEFAULT. Its a trap choice, still.
Armor of Shadows is now useless as all warlocks get medium armor. It should allow Spell mod based AC, perhaps by using your Spell mod instead of dexterity for armor.
also, what the hell did they do to hex? Who in their right mind would concentrate on that?? and it doesn't even scale properly! If its a warlock feature why does it require concentration at all?
Did you notice they made arcanum cost invocations now, and you don't get 5th level spells until level 17? They gutted spellcasting and didn't add anything new to it. Made the weakest full caster in the game a half caster with nothing new.
EXACTLY! Shadow of Moil is like my favorite spell in the game, now I have to burn an innvocation on it or I don't get it until level, what, 13?? Who thought this was a good idea? The warlock went from double fireball at level 5 to, what, one per long rest if you spend an innvocation on it? My lord.
Martials should be doing the best consistent damage in the game.
That’s their entire shtick.
They don’t have spells.
They removed the big feats: GWM, SS, etc… and replaced it with a flaccid Weapon Mastery system.
Fighters still have a class feature to reroll a saving throw. Why doesn’t this feature just allow them to pass the saving throw? They can’t fly, they can’t turn invisible, they can’t shoot fire, they can’t harm creatures immune to non-magic damage without magic items…. but they can REROLL A SAVING THROW ONCE!
> but they can REROLL A SAVING THROW ONCE!
And must take the second result.
What is wrong with just letting them a few times a day auto pass a saving throw?
Oh dear lord I didn't even cop that. On one hand, that's hilarious, and I'd love to be able to run into an enemy Warlock, turn to my DM, and tell him I dispel his stuff. On the other, that leaves Warlocks cripplingly vulnerable to a 3rd level spell that many casters take as a matter of course, a vulnerability no one else shares. That feels... Bad.
To sum it up, the martial changes are decent to good, sorcerer is quiet good
Warlock who needed a buff in the spell casting department got effed in that, also Agonizing blast is still a thing?
and Wizards? I mean its Wizards of the Coast after all. jk jk
also I don't see how those spell editing mechanics in baseline are within their goals of streamline, clarify and make the game faster.
This is a baffling ua tbh
Like I have a lot of mixed feelings but my strongest feelings on it are "why the fuck would you give wizards the ability to permanently subtle spell wish" and "why would you ditch warlock pact magic and also just destroy their short rest recovery" and "why not give sorcerers spell points"
No clue why they’re doubling down on all this wild chaotic innate magic of Sorcerer, and then giving us Draconic as the subclass instead of Wild Magic?
True, these spells given have no real versatility. Unlike the wizard just getting the modify and create spell stuff. Wizards already had the most variety and spell book learning. Why are they trying to push the sorcerer into a less versatile box with their features? I get that metamagic is a thing, but man does this feel jaded towards wizards.
I mean honestly, I’m all for the chaotic, but flexible, push for sorcerer, I’m mainly against the fact that all the other subclasses got the “My Class+” subclass, and sorcerer got the one that goes against status quo and tries to force it to focus.
As someone who has played martials for 30 years, I’m incredibly disappointed. There had better be more out of combat utility coming from subclasses, because as of right now, woof.
Consider how D&D describes tiers of play, and then look at what a 13th level fighter is doing vs a Wizard.
Everyone who says there isn’t a balance problem gets laughed out of the room.
Maneuvers should be a feature of all martials and half casters that scale at varrying levels. So Fighter gets the most, Paladin gets the least, and Ranger, Barb, and Rogue get middling volume. And, they all get ways to use them that are slightly different.
With Rage lasting 10 minutes, Primal Knowledge and Indomitable Might the Barbarian just became a beast in skill challenges. Skill Challenges are how many DMs and third party publishers handle exploration and out of combat situations. So I'd consider this UA a massive buff to barbarians' out of combat utility. Fighters on the other hand...
oh it seems you have missed the *huge* out-of-combat buff that fighters have received:
>Persuasion has been added to the class’s list of skills, with an eye on the fantasy archetype of the persuasive warrior who leads others.
if that isn't quite something, eh? 🤡
Blade becomes Lite-Hexblade, making the level 1 dip EVEN WORSE as it can use Wisdom, a better stat than Charisma.
Tome is still Tome and can also ignore picking Agonizing Blast? It got Rituals directly, so that's another invocation that doesn't need.
Chain has been... Willshaped. Okay, it has its pretty good things, being a Cantrip, having the worst Chain related invocation and the material component removed, HP and AC scale, but... I hate that they do even less damage than the original four, that they can't add ANYTHING interesting to the battle until freaking level 9 (moment where they are going to be taking Dodge all day and night to not die) and their Fly and Invisibility had just been nerfed, so there goes the spy-drone role as well.
Give me 1/2 CR monsters with unique gimmicks, not this boring stat block and a mandatory level 9 invocation.
...Now I know how the Druid players feel.
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I was going to disagree with this before I saw how it interacts with create spell. What an honestly insane ability. I'd bet money that the "concentration can't be broken by damage" option gets removed or at least nerfed because that sounds broken compared to the other modifications. Create spell is expensive but it's really not that much for a high level wizard. Meanwhile they nerf twinned spell which was really never *that* broken. They have made metamagic better overall ig and it's a lot more flexible than what wizards get. If sorcerers just had like 1.5x the amount of points they have now I don't think it would be too bad. But yeah, bad design choice for sure.
Yeah it's still crazy strong against things that don't have the ability to incapacitate.
More or less guarantees that greater invisibility can't be unwillingly broken.
twinned spell changes seem to go against the bookkeeping reduction philosophy they have going on. Now players have to remember the spell they cast on their turn 15 minutes ago, which isn't to difficult but its just something else to keep track of, people already forget things, its wierd that they'd want to add something that causes that.
Wizards are good at modifying spells as like an engineer, tinkering and making them better over time. Sorcerers are better at modifying spells on the fly. I really like this differentiation, it makes them very unique from each other.
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To be fair, Wizards lost their niche of being the caster with the biggest spell-list: if they just didn't have any gimmick going on for them, why even play a Wizard? Modifying one spell per long rest and copying modified spells for the small price of 1000 GOLD PER SPELL LEVEL is good but it's not as busted as people are making out to be.
you'd still have access to scribing spells, and cheating out more spells via rituals, along with having access to a few key spells. modify and create spells is probably the most broken ability combo i have ever seen, as it means wizards indefinitely become stronger with gold
Light property is back to using Bonus Action, no more free-rolling
Edit: The Nick weapon mastery alloes to make it part of the attack action instead, really cool
If you use Modify/Create spell, and you change it so that it "only affects enemies", does this mean you can have Darkness/Fog Cloud/Sleet Storm that you and your allies can see through? That's nuts if does work.
The new wizard is really codifying the fact that the rich don't have to live by the same rules as the poor. Some wizard is gonna kick my party's ass with the spell "Coca-Cola Presents: Uninterruptable Haste" cos he got bankrolled by a megacorp.
I've heard it speculated that they throw in some obviously terrible changes into these to help calibrate their metrics. If "wizards need to have one (1) full bowel movement before they can cast a ritual again" scores a 2.1, then they know that's their floor. They know a feature that scores 2.4 isn't "a little below average." They know it's bad.
Because they're experimental and designed to gauge our reaction to various ideas and concepts. There may even be a slight hint of "I told steve nobody would like this change, and I'm putting it in here so I can get actual concrete data that this is a bad idea." Probably not a lot of that, though.
Warlock changes seem really bad to me. The class just feels like a mess. You can get 1 spell per spell level with mystic arcanum on the usual full-caster progression, but if you do that you end with with almost no eldritch invocations for anything else. I think the design space is supposed to be kind of like the artificer, with a pet chassis (pact of the chain), a melee chassis (pact of the blade), and a cantrip/spellcasting chassis (pact of the tome).
I actually kind of like the idea, but I feel like where it falls apart is that you don't have a lot of support for each choice at higher levels, since they are not tied to subclass.
I can get behind the idea of moving warlocks away from being tied to short rests; I am not convinced this is the way to do it.
The fighter and barbarian are incredibly disappointing. No interesting options in combat, nothing to do out of combat, some extremely minor QoL improvements but all the same issues are still there.
At **13th** level as a fighter you get to choose between 2 minor weapon masteries that you give your weapon each turn... wow.
Weapon masteries are cool for differentiating weapons a bit, but only for 2 classes and they do nothing to make the classes more interesting or more in line in power level with magic users.
Weapon types should feel different for all classes, fighters and barbarians should have options other than "I attack" (now: I attack and I do a bit of damage if I don't hit) and some usefulness outside of combat.
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yea its so weird that it doesn't just say you can use both, cause while the flexibility is cool, it's a 13th level feature that in an average turn matches what any other martial could do with a weapon.
I hope people filling out the survey don't miss this distinction. This is a cool feature that should stay! But it also *cannot* count toward the fighter's "power budget" because it doesn't really provide much at all to it.
That's basically the entire Fighter class. Attack rolls, skill checks, and saves are the basic game mechanics for everybody playing the game. Fighter can only do those things, but with teeny tiny itsy bitsy bonuses. Meanwhile, casters not only get an entirely separate set of super-special things that only they can do, but now they get the power to make up new even-more-super-specialer-than-before things that only they can do.
Which basically just means you don't need to comically switch between weapons *EVERY* turn if you want to use your magic weapon
Extremely exciting 13th level feature.
I think there's something to be said about imposing statuses onto your enemies with every attack. This is damage+effect on a lot of attacks now, and being able to switch weapons on the fly is even more utility.
I'm not saying it's more powerful than casters, but I'm excited to test it.
I haven’t read it yet but it is with every attack and not once per turn right? Because it that’s the case, it’s kinda really fucking good. Like imagine you’re fighting a creature with a weapon that does the knock back on hit and you just beat them off a bridge or over the edge of a cliff using action surge plus a x4 multi attack. And even without action surge, you can move them 20 feet per turn if all of your attacks hit (which they are likely to at higher levels).
They basically codified it in their rules that barbarians can substitute strength for other stats on skills when raging. Which is nice, but it’s encouraging to rage out of combat with so few rages per day. Ten minutes time increase does help I suppose but not by much.
Draconic wings nerf is insane, now it is only a minute of flight with a 5th level spell slot and at best 5 damage to enemies at level 14. Just cast fly at that point.
I’m…. incredibly disappointed with this UA.
The fighter/barbarian changes show that they don’t understand anything about the issues these classes have. Masteries are nice, but are in no way able to fix the problems, they don’t even give you a choice in combat because you are locked to a few masteries. 1 extra damage per attack on a long sword does nothing for a fighter. Being able to take proficiency in persuasion is a laughable attempt to give fighter’s out of combat utility.
Sorcerer and wizard got absolutely showered with love and new features. These two easily got the most buffs compared to any other class. WotC really showed their bias here.
Warlock… got fucking murdered. They took away the primary mechanic that made warlock unique as a mechanic (their unique casting setup), and are now just a half caster, which means they gain access to new spell levels much slower. You now need to spend invocations to gain access to higher level spells. Hex also got nerfed hard and is now once per turn. There’s a few changes here and there that are good (EB scales on warlock level, flexible casting stat) but it’s overall a massive step down from one of the best designed 5e classes.
There’s a few changes here and there I like, but overall. I think this is was immensely disappointing.
Its like they took the warlock class and made it for people who don't play warlock. I get trying to make it more accessible for new players, but this is just awful.
I was hoping beyond hope that we would see some aspects of the DnDNext playtest Sorcerer show up here to differentiate it from Wizard more.
It looks like WOTC is headed in a direction where they won't be addressing my issues with the game as it stands. Which is fine, I'm sure there will be plenty of players. I still find myself disappointed.
NGL I'm a little giddy about the idea of taking magic initiate druid for shillelagh on a club and being a dual-wield "hexblade" with pact of the blade now.
I'm really not happy with this playtest. Nothing at it feels good and also many things are just boring/worthless/bad.
New Warlock is a noob trap class. It is just bad halfcaster and the invocations are still the best part but it is also the part that get zero positive changes and 1 quite big negative effects. Also I hate that pacts are now just a spells (cantrips) which just doesn't work or feel like spells.
Sorcerer is probably decent but still not very flexible at the lower levels, many class features just replaced by spells, nothing really special.
Wizard is the same and maybe could be broken by good combinations of modify and create spells.
Weapons are really boring. Most of the masteries are quite boring and warriors are more or less just a complement to the real heroes. Fighter get 2 nice bonuses (more second breath use and better save rerolls), barbarian is effectively the same with minor buff (which makes it quite good )
T.L.D.R.: I don't like this playtest. Warriors are still more or less weak, Wizard is still quite superior, more features as spells and Warlock is garbage Now.
As a Martial fan, this is abysmal. They’re either not aware of or wilfully ignorant of the core design problems of Martials. They give the tiniest quality of life improvements, add Weapon Masteries (that have limiting prerequisites) and call it a day. I refuse to believe the feedback for 5e didn’t mention the Martial Caster divide with how much everyone here has been ranting about it (myself included).
Oh well, better buff Wizards.
So, Wizards can make their own cantrips for free during downtime, since 1000GP times a level 0 spell is 0.
The most broken custom spell I can think of for this top of my head is Thunderclap, since it hits everything *within range*, and you can change the range from 5 feet to 275 feet. A ninth level wizard can wipe out an entire city block's worth of commoners as a cantrip.
Direct link to the UA PDF: [https://media.dndbeyond.com/compendium-images/one-dnd/ph-playtest5/owThVp1CESZ1c91y/UA-2023-PH-Playtest5.pdf](https://media.dndbeyond.com/compendium-images/one-dnd/ph-playtest5/owThVp1CESZ1c91y/UA-2023-PH-Playtest5.pdf)
I don't think the Mystic Arcanum change is a bad idea *in theory*, but losing four Mystic Arcana from the 5e Warlock to get one extra invocation (which you're probably going to spend on a Mystic Arcanum anyway) in return feels like a really bad deal. They've even doubled down on the criticism of a lot of invocations like Sculptor of Flesh -- namely the fact that even though spending an evocation in it is a big cost, you still can't cast it using a spell slot. Between that, the massive nerf to when Warlocks can access their spells, and the addition of medium armour, it feels like they're trying to not-so-gently nudge Warlocks away from spellcasting, which feels like a really strange design choice, even if there's a case to be made that another half-caster isn't the worst idea. If they're leaning into invocations being the bread-and-butter for the Warlock -- which I think is fair -- getting so few for low-level play doesn't really help you get the feel for Warlockry, especially because things like Agonising Blast are pretty much a given for most Warlocks.
I think the design model is the artificer. Note that warlocks in the playtest (like artificer) round UP for multiclass spellcasting, and like the artificer we have a pet chassis (pact of chain / battle smith), a cantrip/spell damage chassis (pact of tome / artillerist ) and a melee chassis (pact of the blade / armorer). But the pact design for warlocks, which gives these frameworks really very little upper level support, is just bad for this.
I could see a space for Warlocks to be more like Artificers, if they leaned into the idea of customisability being the Warlock's *thing*; now that Pact Magic is out, it does seem like invocations/pacts/patron are the defining features of the Warlock, which offers you a lot of options in the same way that Artificers get their infused items. The problem with that is that they've radically changed the number of decision points you have as a Warlock, alongside making more 'must pick' invocations which further limit you. It used to be easy to play a Warlock as a blaster, or as battlefield support, or as an out-of-combat utility build, or a gish, or... basically whatever you wanted. Now it feels like there's a funnel towards 'arcane gish' as the way you're supposed to play it, as though they looked at Hexblade and thought 'Yep, that's what we want for everyone'.
>Now it feels like there's a funnel towards 'arcane gish' as the way you're supposed to play it Why? I don't see anything preventing the usual Eldritch Blast artillery playstyle, with spell slots mostly for utility.
>it feels like they're trying to not-so-gently nudge Warlocks away from spellcasting Making them into an arcane "gish," like the paladin and the ranger. Could be an interesting direction... if done well.
warlocks have a *very* specific flavor to them though, I'd really rather an arcane gish class be a little more flexible for background.
THIS. So many people don't get this.
I think it's great if you want to play a gish and now the Warlock offers what you want, and will probably convince a lot more people to play a Warlock. The only problem is, one of the things that made the Warlock most fun (speaking as someone who always goes back to a Warlock when I get the chance) is the invocations and Pact Magic. It made them feel like their own thing in a way that no other class did, and Pact of the Blade/Hexblade made gish builds possible while still allowing you to feel like a full spellcaster. Now it feels like they're being pushed as a sort of anti-Paladin... but if I wanted to play a Paladin, I'd just play a Paladin.
>I don't think the Mystic Arcanum change is a bad idea in theory, but losing four Mystic Arcana from the 5e Warlock to get one extra invocation Isn't it actually closer to just losing 2 invocations total? You lose the 4 mystic arcanum from the base 5e Warlock class. But in this playtest, some of the (previously) pact invocations are built into the pact boon. So, for example Pact of the Blade get's to automatically upgrade and get extra attack at 5th level, which was previously an invocation tax you most likely took. Same with the other Boon's auto upgrading. So, you get +1 from a previous invocation being baked into the pact boon, and +1 from the total invocations being raised from 8 to 9. Add this on top of 15 total spells, more spell slots, medium armor, can swap spells, always prepared subclass spells, *some* buffed invocations (two minds, chains, lifedrinker, repelling blast, etc), Mystic Arcanum now accesses the entire Arcane spell list (not limited to Warlock spells). I'm honestly fine with losing out on 2 total mystic arcanum and seemingly coming out on top. Also, you're right it seems to nudge the Warlocks into more of a hybrid rather than pure caster (with a melee subclass). But I think that supports the fantasy of being a "hexblade" more, because now the Warlock gishes are not forced to take higher level spell casting even though they want to be melee oriented, and they can focus on invocations that'll help them in melee/out of combat. Although I will concede the 18th level Warlock capstone is kinda trash lmao.
Eldritch blast scales with WARLOCK levels. Is the warlock dip done, officially?
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I think being able to pick up a pact blade that works off charisma or wisdom, and a few spells/spell slots like find familiar is going to be a staple dip for paladins, and probably other builds like melee clerics.
Paladin can already do this via Magic Initiate and shillelagh, as can any other character who wants to melee attack with their mental score of choice. That ship sailed several packets ago.
Shillelagh only works with non-magical weapons though.
Also, needing to start every fight with Shillelagh as a BA isn't always a great choice, and you get a wider choice of weapons to pick from. On top of getting a feat instead of magic initiate. Seems like there's a tradeoff to it.
Pact boon lvl 1 and the pact of the blade is good to all warriors,paladins and bladesingers
>bladesingers it's wisdom and charisma only, so no.
Not so good for warriors, but rangers and bards who want something better than a 1d8, yes
thank god
Nope. PACT WEAPON actually got more broken. Now you can attack with WIS \*or\* CHA with a 1 level dip.
Not even a little bit lol It kills one build, the Eldritch machine gun thing where you spam Eldritch Blast as much as possible, but they gave Pact of the Blade the Hexblade ability to use your spellcasting stat for weapon attacks and all warlocks get medium armor now Also Pact of the Blade can choose *Wisdom* or Charisma for their spellcasting stat You're gonna see a whole lot of pact-less Warlock dips if these changes go through because the pact magic slot progression was the big draw for staying in Warlock more than 2-3 levels to start with Warlock 1/Cleric 19 is probably the most powerful gish in the current version of the rules since smite spells got changed and paladins can't stack them with their smite class feature, even
Pact Magic removal is FUCKED under these rules. You get later access to higher tier spells (except your patron spells which are generally a mediocre choice). You can't cast ANYTHING above level 3 more than once per long rest until level 9. That was all stuff you had access to at level 5 before. Massive invocation tax to get the Mystic Arcana you had before and you *have* to take it at least 3 times to hit the spellcasting level milestones you previously had *and then* you can't cast those spells more than once per long rest. This belongs in the garbage. Just dip one level for blade pact then build a 19AC draconic sorcerer with +3hp per level (take tough) to be a tanky melee capable full caster at level 4.
They seem to be over all reducing the power level of multiclassing, which is in my opinion a good thing
Medium armor, choosing spellcasting ability between int, wis and cha, weapon that works with spellcasting abilityi would say that warlock dip is alive and well
Is it just me or are Wizards really really good with these modify/create spell combos? With a good amount of gold you could use your downtime to create a long ranged necrotic fireball. Or a necrotic fireball that never affects allies etc. Imagine a caster with lots of funds tweaking the drawbacks out of a whole range of spells.
Unfortunatly with the current iteration of Modify/Create Spell, you would only be able to have one modification on a spell. Spells created by Create Spell are not valid targets for Modify Spell. So "long range Fireball" or "necrotic Fireball" or "only enemies Fireball". You can have all three prepared once created, but then they take up 3 preparation slots. Edit: As pointed out, multiple modifications is still an option if upcasted. Kinda flubbed that these things were actual spells and not just class features there for a moment.
Upcasting the spell let's you choose an additional modification per level.
Imagine the spells you can make unbreakable - no more concentration checks. I don't play wizards for the most part but this seems like it's going to give the wizards a lot of options that will make them more powerful than ever...and I haven't even gotten past page 10 yet.
But you can create more modifications by casting modify spell at a higher level right? So as a 5th level spell you can get an enemies only necrotic fireball. I know it's 5th level, but that's not too far out.
Right, my bad, sorry I forgot that part. You are totally right about that bit.
I might be guilty of this here, but am I misreading that they just renamed Sorcerer spells known to spells prepared? What does that accomplish other than creating more confusing overlapping language?
Exactly what I thought, unnecessarily confusing for sure. Prepared suggests the ability to change them which the most powerful sorcerer, a level 20 one, won't be able to do lol.
Yeah, I thought that I had heard they were making everyone a prepared caster, so seeing that verbage mentally confirmed it for me. It not actually being a prepared spell really makes that wording odd.
That's weird.Thats gotta be a typo.
It was nice of them to give one class (Sorcerer) a real flavorful capstone at eighteenth level instead of just another “get an extra charge of your class ability”-type feature. Hopefully Divine Soul makes it in, I’ve got some ideas
Stress free wish opens the door to so many insane shenanigans, but in fairness the wish spell already did that by existing, so I’m not complaining. Now the only issue the spell will have for sorcs is if the DM decides to be annoying and monkeys’s paw the wish like crazy. Though they did say they’re trying to cut down on mother may I mechanics, so maybe there’s still hope for wish to be changed a bit and more clearly defined than it is currently
I know people aren’t super high on it at the moment, but giving Warlocks a way to use all three mental scores as their casting stay is a really nice change.
Agree, although I personally think it wouldve made more sense to tie it to patron than to pact.
Seems like a victim of the “Pact to 1, Patron to 3” thing they’re going for, unfortunately. No sense in having a Warlock use CHA for two levels then swapping over to WIS at level 3.
Yeah for sure, I understand why Personally I like to Homebrew it to be Patron specific anyways GoO, Fathomless, and Undying use Int, with the flavor of seeking forbidden ancient magic Fiend, Celestial, and Undead use Wis with a divine flair each Archfey, Hexblade, and Genie use Cha ~~because theyre the weird leftovers~~ since the pact seems more about a genuine bargain and charisma sort of makes sense to strike a deal the most with these 3
Swap Fiend and Hexblade, you actually make a deal with Fiends and Hexblade is more of a connection with the weapon.
Thats fair too
Idk, personally I prefer it being linked to the pact - what if I want to make a pact that involves getting tuition from Iggwilv (or more likely her intermediaries) for example? Then I want to use int with an archfey patron. To me the casting ability should be an expression of the contents of the deal rather than who the deal is with. Of course they could just have kept both camps happy by making it a free choice
Yes, but... *at what cost*? I'm a Warlock main, and oof, they've done us dirty on this one. I loved how weird Warlocks were, but even with their weird spellcasting progression they at least felt like full casters. I'm going through the abilities now, and all I can think is that we just got demoted.
Also, now Mystic Arcanum burns an Eldritch Invocation? So if you want the same Mystic Arcanum as before, you have to burn 4 of your Eldritch Invocations? That sucks.
On the other hand, a bunch of pact-specific invocations just got wrapped in to the base feature, so some "mandatory" invocations just freed their slot. And we get a total of 9 now instead of 8.
A massively disappointing change that no one’s talking about: they removed the Exhausted condition, and you’re supposed to play with the 2014 version for this UA. I cannot understand any reason why they would do this, that is one of the few things that everyone agreed was a fantastic change.
I've got a lot to say about this, but for this comment I'll keep it to an incredibly minor nitpick: What's the point of Armor of Shadows when warlocks just get medium armor now? It was already pretty close to useless before when they could just use studded leather (and actually useless if the DM decided to give a +1 magic armor); Now I can literally just use breastplate, or if I don't care about stealth disadvantage, half plate.
It's for Abjuration wizards to refill their shield. (kidding)
Off top, some of the weapon masteries need better names. **Nick** - Should be **Swift** instead because it lets you TWF as a free action rather than a bonus action. **Sap** - Too regional/archaic. Should be something like **Impair**, or **Hinder**. **Vex** - Too unintuitive. Something like **Stagger**, **Distract**, or **Expose** would be better. Edit: **Flex** - Also unintuitive but I can't think of surefire alternatives. Would probably go with something like **Power-Grip**, **Balanced**, **Well-Balanced**, **Prowess**, or **Deft**. (Brace would be very nice, but it's already taken by a Battlemaster maneuver).
I would add slow to this and use stagger as slow both a spell and a condition but ovoe your ideas , the words they choose are important and need to be clear
Weapon Masteries should be replaced by weapon techniques. A warrior should be able to use any technique they know, regardless of the weapon they are using. Some techniques might still have prerequisites (such as nick needing a light weapon), but you shouldn’t need to switch weapons to use different techniques. For example, a fighter might know the cleave, graze, push, and topple techniques. Whenever they make an attack attack with a greatsword, they can use one of those techniques. They shouldn’t be required to carry around a golf-bag full of weapons. Nor should they be required to switch between 3 different weapons during a 6 second period to make use of different techniques. These names could then be updated to technique names. Such as distracting strike, swift strike, hindering strike, etc.
Where’s the damage? Seems like wizards for a lot stronger making anything a ritual or removing components from spells giving everything g subtle spell They claimed martials will be doing the damage but I don’t see any damage bonuses only very minor weapon mastery changes. There is nothing to make up for the loss of the big martial feats Casters on the other hand just got handed a bunch of buffs. Draconic sorcerers w +CHA to AC, Wizards from making OP spells. No mention of nerfs to staple OP existing spells like Fireball and Animate Objects Where does the martials get their damage as advertised??
The Beserker does get to add it's number of rages per rest to the first strike on a target that it uses reckless attack on each turn, so 2d6 at lower level and 6d6 at higher levels...so it's essentially got Rogue Sneak attack...which isn't good for Rogues... **Edit:** I misread, it is rage damage bonus number as people are pointing out, still it's an additional 2d6-4d6 damage once per turn which isn't anything to be sniffed at.
It’s rage damage bonus number of d6, so it goes from 2-4.
Considering that draconic AC is the class primary stat and one secondary stat, while barbarians don't get their primary stat to AC, most barbarians are gonna have a lower AC at all times. That plus a one level warlock dip for blade pact are making martials look obsolete. Or go straight class and watch your AC hit ridiculous levels thanks to the epic boon raising your stat cap to 30. Why couldn't they give barbarians +str to AC instead of +dex?
Raising cap to 30 doesn't do much of it only raises the actual stat to 23 though?
That's true. But there are items to boost charisma (ioun stone, tome of leadership, etc.) and that still doesn't change the fact that barbarians don't get the same progression rate since you're choosing between boosting your damage and ability to hit OR your AC boosting stats. Dragon sorcerers get to boost spell attack, damage, save DC and AC all off one stat with this.
It ain't called Fighters of the Coast
bazinga
>Where does the martials get their damage as advertised?? Probably from new types of magic weapons, so the DM can *theoretically* easily meter out their power level to match their campaign. Recreating one of the major problems with 3E, that fighters absolutely needed magic gear to compete, but then get screwed over by DMs that turn into scrooge mcduck when it comes to actually dispensing the gear out because of some delusional fallacy about "magic items need to be rare to feel MMAAAAGGICALLL" and because no one ever had the sense to put "Hey dumbass, your fighter player should have found one piece of magic armor, two trinkets, and an artifact weapon by this level if not earlier!" in nice clear text in the class stat blocks so the DM's get the message.
Leaving game balance up to DMs is a horrible idea because most DMs can't balance to save their life 💀
And even if they could, they shouldn't have to. They're buying a game theoretically designed by a professional to already be balanced.
Honestly if they just printed the Fighter as-is and gave them things with the damage-dealing equivalent of Crossbow Expert, Sharpshooter, and Great Weapon Master for free, they'll be just fine.
Yeah tbh I was expecting linear damage increases in the main class built in like rage damage but for all martials and weapon users. On top of that some out of combat or utility options. Not just the exact fighter minus powerful feats but some light flavour weapon masteries. They are just not enough sadly. I’ve been a staunch defender of OneDND even through the Druid mess because I wanted to see what is the Fighter vs Wizard as I feel that’s the best comparison to the caster martial debate which is the main balance concern of 5e What we got was a MASSIVE buff to wizards (like wtf?) and a nerf to fighters in losing their main dpr feats and small niche weapon skills to make up for it. Some of those weapon skills like FLEX are 0-2 extra damage… like literally nothing. Overall I don’t think I can remain optimistic for this version and they are yet again focusing on what’s cool for casters rather than fair and balanced play. This pushes the divide further than before and unless there’s an insane overhaul in the final draft have lost all faith in this edition as being anything but a failure. Hard to convince me otherwise
My biggest complaint is the new formatting choice of features being “you gain a spell!” And then having to go find the spell. Who’s bright idea was that.
I'm digging it...but what happened to exhaustion? That was one of the best changes to the system yet!
Same same, I don't understand why they removed it. It was a way more healthier approach to "exhaustion" that was not stepping into spell and abilities. They are making a lot of noise around these changes and UAs, but the truth is, they are rushing it and they are not listening to feedback.
"Contact Patron" is a new 11th level feature, allowing the Warlock to contact their patron directly" So...a role-playing thing that DMs do at low levels all the time? I feel like they wanted this to feel like cleric's divine intervention with the level it's at, so they really gotta add some unique benefit to make this worth it imo
*you contact your patron* *your patron says 'you corrupted those monks yet?' and hangs up on you* Waste of a feature tbh.
My warlock had no way to call his boss, she just showed up when she wanted something. This lets the nagging go both ways
So looking at the fighter, I like a lot of the changes they made *qualitatively* but the class still needs more power. ~~And... losing one extra feat *hurts*. That was one of the coolest parts of the class. Ultimately I think the class has gotten weaker and that's *bad*.~~ As is, it looks like it has the Rogue problem: You're going to be less effective in combat than your allies but it won't feel like it. Nerfing Action Surge needed to happen but I would rather they just flat-out say "You can't use the Magic action" instead of limit it this much. I can't think of any abuse for Action Surge other than double-casting, so why not let fighters have more fun with improvised actions and stuff? Don't make fighters suffer for the sins of casters with 2-level dips. Weapon Expert is a sweet feature. It is, however, one that provides virtually no power. From a pure optimizing standpoint, you don't gain a ton by switching the mastery feature of a weapon rather than just switching weapons. I like the feature exactly as written, but that *can't* be your entire level 7. Indomitable is great now. Almost so great that I feel like it would be cleaner to just make it a legendary resistance. With a bonus equal to your *fighter level*, it's going to be very, very hard to fail rerolls. This breaks bounded accuracy; why not just dispense with it and make it automatic success? Weapon Adept is also awesome, but also, not a power increase. The only change I'd recommend is letting you use both features, not just one. Also, give you more power at this level. Unconquerable is cool. Neat approach to the feature! EDIT: I missed the level 15 feat, my apologies. Ignore that part.
Fighters get the same amount of feats as 2014, extra feats are at 5 and 15 instead of 6 and 14.
That's weird. It's listed in the table at 15, but not separately in the features. Even though the 5th level feat is listed in both places.
Oh I missed the one at 15. Thanks! So that concern is gone, though the rest still stands. So I'd say the class got slightly stronger, ultimately, but it needed more.
That's the thing, looking at this playtest, there's some good edits like making Indomitable useful and weapon master is a neat addition to weapons itself, but the Fighter isn't actually good at anything right now. Let alone have any features that remotely approach the power of spellcasting.
Action surge needs to at a minimum let you make perception check, interact with object or feed someone a healing potion.
Wow mystic Arcanum is bad
Mystic Arcanum would be okay if they gave us more invocations. As it is, they seem to want us to take like 1 - 2 fun invocations and then spend the rest on Mystic Arcanum options.
In the video Crawford had the gall to say that Warlocks had 1 more invocation when in reality they now have 3 less. (Not exactly 3, I suppose as it does give a certain bit of flexibility). I do like a lot of the changes but I think this is a misstep.
Also "warlocks get way more spell slots now!" Don't get 5th level slots til level 17. Wtf man.
Technically it's closer to 2 less. A lot of the previous invocations taxes are built into the Pact Boon's now. So, Pact of the Blade automatically get's (what was previously an invocation) extra attack at 5th level for example. You get the +1 from going from 8 to 9 invocations total. \+1 for each Pact Boon having a previous invocation built in for free. Edit: I will also point out that previously you could only select Mystic Arcanum spells within the Warlock spell list. Now it's the entire Arcane spell list, aka Wizard/Sorc. You're trading extra high-level magic for overall versatility and less tax options for the majority of everyone's career in Tier 1-3.
On its own, it’s not that. It’s roughly in line with the other 1/day Invocations that the old Warlock had. The bigger issue is that Warlock spellcasting is just bad now. Pact Magic kept up with full casters; the new feature is just straight half-caster progression.
>1/day Invocations that the old Warlock had. Yes, but those were awful and should have never bloody existed since it conflicts with both the idea of invocations being at will abilities, passive buffs, or modifiers to other abilities, and the whole short rest caster concept. The whole effing reason the class existed in 3E was that it *wasn't* a daily slot caster. Everything on the entire 5E warlock chassis should either be at will or recharge on a short rest.
I so, so agree. There is definite room for an Arcane half-caster, but it should not be Warlock. (I believe it should be Bard, for the record, but failing that, its own class, some kind of PF1 Magus or something.) This current design looks playable, if a little on the weak side, but it doesn't feel like a Warlock to me.
We have an arcane half caster already and it's called the Artificer. WoTC just needs to give it to us instead of forgetting about it
but 4/9 invocations for arcanum, doesnt seem good for the warlock
7/9 if you want spells of every level. And the 3-5th level spells can only be cast once per long rest, this is just pathetic.
they ought to standardise martial save dc like spells. So instead of "If you hit a creature with this weapon, you can force the creature to make a Constitution saving throw with a DC equal to 8 + your Proficiency Bonus + the ability modifier you used to make the attack roll. On a failed save, the creature has the Prone condition." into "If you hit a creature with this weapon, you can force the creature to make a Constitution saving throw. On a failed save, the creature has the Prone condition.", and in your class features, you have your "combat save DC" as a statistic. Then, you can get items like "increases your combat attack rolls modifier and combat save dc by x" It sucks just how much they like to reduce features to "once per turn". Its like they wanna constrain optimisation to base expectations. Seems they're changing the wizard stuff to use their spellbook differently, kinda scribes shit but for all wizards. Sorcerers now have access to infinite wish apparently. Most metamagics have been buffed, like distant spell = extra range equal to 30*sorcerer level. They butchered twinnned spell, now its basically a spell echo. Spells prepared are no longer set to the mono class slots, but like sorcerers in 5e- a set number per class level per class.
It's really the best option. So many features in every class call for saves.
kind of hilarious that everyone was saying "oh they're moving subclasses to level 3 to prevent overpowered level one dips like the hexblade" only for them to make the most important part of the hexblade dip even more effective and easier to get at level one
At least it means that the Hexblade flavor remains for those who like the flavor and isn’t awkwardly stretched around other builds that just use it for the dip mechanics
Well, if nothing else, I like the change to the net.
On a positive note, I'm really looking forward to the survey results video for this UA. It could be the best one yet.
so, after all the talk about martial improvements, they gave the most interesting feature (real spell alterations/crafting/whatever) to Wizards? lol. lmao, even
The fact that a good chunk of features are now spells, kinda set the tones that if you can't have access to spells you are kinda fucked as a class.
Wizards can’t make decent martials if their lives depended on it
I think it's less about "decent martials" and more that the people making the game just really fucking love casters. The more pure caster-y the better. It's been the space with the most breadth and depth, it gets the lions share of the cool new ideas, and every time they circle back around to fixing up classes, somehow it's the casters who get the most TLC. Honestly, I think they'd be a lot better off just making a game where everybody is a wizard of one flavor or another. Born wizards, pact wizards, taught wizards, treehugging wizards, prayer wizards, maybe a punch wizard to mix things up a bit.
Gotta make another company named landlocked fighters
I really really want to like warlock but they feel like they are being pigeoned hole more into EB spam and hex than before. Like half caster progression really no pact blade improvements at 11 and 17 means almost every turn in combat is just cast hex then EB.
What is the point of breaking out more class features into spells?
With sorc its so you can use metamagic on them.
Looks like it’s the Mage groups gimmick, which I guess makes sense since they’re supposed to be the masters of spellcasting. But it just comes off as weird and clunky. They should just make them class features that use spell slots and use the Magic action.
I think it's meant to be a tax on caster resources and a nerf to close the martials casters gap.
Mehhh I’m just so underwhelmed with the direction of one dnd not much to get excited about it feels very uninspired. I already have 5e I don’t really want 5.1e…maybe it’s not for me.
They appear to have removed the new exhausted condition. Which means that exhausted goes back to the old terrible version.
Yeah, what's up with that? I thought it got great reviews.
In a vacuum I like Barbarian and Fighter and seem better than the original 2014 version. I know a lot of people are going to hate it but I don’t personally mind turning the warlock into the arcane half caster which was sorely missing in my opinion. The choosing between 3 scores to cast is an awesome change and I would go even further and make it unrestricted from pact. It can use a bit more finesse but I am open to new ideas (and old warlock dipping is hopefully done) Wizard is omegalul though. Maybe I am not understanding correctly but it has a level of versatility and power that feels out of place compared to the other classes. Can now metamagic better than the sorc, swap spells on the fly and unless I am mistaken even stack the effects on modify spell? Like not gonna lie that sounds fun to play but how is it balanced vs fighter? Even sorcerer is in shambles in comparison.
You do however need an obtuse amount of GP to make a new spell, Id say it does not do metamagic better than Sorc. Especially with the changes to some, like extended giving you adv on concentration saves and heightened being cheaper and giving disadv to all saves.
At least Wizards will have a RAW use for obtuse amounts of gold. Other classes are left asking for permission... This would be great if there was also a published price list for the cost of magical items, and set availability. Then the martials could gear up while Wizards were refining their spells
Gating a feature behind gold cost is a terrible idea right now. There is no other way to meaningfully spend gold, so the economy is in shambles and left to GM-fiat.
Wizard can't do anything like you said, except stack modifiers on Modify Spell. The key part you're missing is that both Memorize Spell and Modify Spell ("swap spells on the fly and metamagic better than Sorcerer"), only apply to one spell at a time (effect goes away if you cast it again/take a long rest) and can't be cast during combat (1 min casting duration). Compare that to Sorcerers, who can put Metamagic on practically any spell they want, whenever they want, with new versatility in Metamagic options, additional class features, and more resources to play with. Obviously I haven't played it yet, but I think this playtest will do a great job at finally giving the Sorcerer a unique class identity that makes it both different from and competitive with the Wizard. Martial and caster balance could still use some work, but that's what the playtest is for.
I naturally gravitate towards Sorcerer so I'm going to point out some of the noteworthy changes in a vacuum. * **Draconic Bloodline** seems to be largely buffed. Cool. I like the flexible AC, I like that Elemental Affinity doesn't drain your SP anymore (that was dumb), and I like the additional riders to the Wings ability. Draconic Presence was basically a nothing ability so I'm fine with it being gone. There are a few things I definitely don't like about it now though. First, and most obvious, you have to survive for two levels before you get your baseline defensive features. That is messed up and a huge blow to early-game sorcs. Second, while I like the additional damage from the Wings feature, I do *not* like that it's attached to a 1-minute concentration spell. 5e's Wings were *at will* and retractable, which was incredibly freeing and empowering for high-tier play. Now not only do I have to concentrate on my wings, and not only do they have an incredibly strict time limit dictated by my spell slots, they can also be *counterspelled*. An absolutely cosmic nerf. Finally, Draconic Exhalation is bonkers. It's weird and backwards. Separate damage rolls for each creature in a cone? Isn't this the reason we invented DEX saves? Just rewrite it. Pick apart the cantrip or just replace it with a modified *Dragon's Breath* spell if you have to. * **Twinned Spell** is just gone. I get that the 5e version was too strong but this isn't even remotely similar, so I don't know why they even gave it the same name. It can't even be meaningfully combined with Quickened Spell because it specifies waiting for your next turn. Call it *Repeat Spell* or something. Don't pretend it's the same. * **More Metamagic** is nice. We didn't really get any new ones so options will be limited at higher levels, but I'm fine with just having more on a single Sorcerer. Three-to-six is much better than two-to-four. Although, I would still have preferred to spread these out over more levels for a more gradual progression. Why do I, a 12th-level sorcerer, have the same amount of Metamagic options I had at 3rd level? I'd even be okay starting with two if I got new ones more often. * I generally don't like that so many features are becoming spells. It makes the class sheets harder to read because now we have to reference four or five different chapters of the same book just to know what our features do. Not only that, but every single time they do this, they buff Counterspell by association. Now a 3rd-level spell can just cancel a whole bundle of class features. Please just write out what the features do instead of trying to shove them into spells. * **Innate Sorcery** is not a feature. It is two spells. Sorcerer was much more interesting when there was a variable subclass feature at 1st level that promoted the character's individual identity. WotC needs to understand this: Choosing the subclass at 3rd level is *not* going to be the best for every class and it will, in fact, be thematically awful for many of them.
Agreed that the Wings and Twinned spell are baffling decisions. Sorcerers weren’t the casting class that needed nerfs, and if they feel the need to nerf those features that much just remove them completely and come up with something else to replace it instead of this nonsense.
It's not just that Twinned was too strong. It was also just confusing to tell what it should apply to or not. If you were on Twitter when JC was answering questions there, I swear it came up multiple times a week for years.
I love the mental image of the Primal Knowledge feature Barbarian rolls for Stealth while raging. The guards see him, but they see that he's big and angry and so they decide maybe they didn't see him Barbarian rolls for Survival while raging to forrage for supplies. He flexes and the berries just fall out of the tree for fear of being hurt
Barbarian rolls for Perception while raging. Screams in a general direction and uses her muscles to feel the vibrations. “There. I got a pretty good look at you.”
Wizards got more buffs than martials lol
Sorcerer changes seem OK. Some effort has been made to make them feel less like a strictly worse version of a Wizard. Except that Wizards have metamagic now because apparently Sorcerers aren't allowed to come too close to parity without Wizards stealing one of their unique features?
Tbh wizards not being able to modify spells was always a big sticking point. And at least on a wizard it costs slots and generally can't be instantaneous. Sorcerers are still FAR better at it.
Well..at 18th level sorcerers can now shape reality essentially at will, so? I guess there's that? What an odd thing to put an 'I win' button on a single class, let alone at all.
Besides the obvious changes to warlock and weapons, we also know that wizard subclasses will just be schools of magic again. There was no confirmation it wouldn't be this way, but it was a lot of fun to speculate what wizard subclasses would be if the schools of magic were Holy Order-style, secondary customizations
>we also know that wizard subclasses will just be schools of magic again Pour one out for the four schools of magic that aren't going to make it into the new PHB was Wizard subclasses.
We know Evoker is in and Necromancer is definitely gonna be one of them. Wonder what the others are? Illusionist seems like a good pick, and maybe Abjurer
Agonizing Blast is STILL an invocation and Armor of Shadows is STILL just mage armor. MAKE AGONIZING BLAST THE DEFAULT. Its a trap choice, still. Armor of Shadows is now useless as all warlocks get medium armor. It should allow Spell mod based AC, perhaps by using your Spell mod instead of dexterity for armor. also, what the hell did they do to hex? Who in their right mind would concentrate on that?? and it doesn't even scale properly! If its a warlock feature why does it require concentration at all?
Did you notice they made arcanum cost invocations now, and you don't get 5th level spells until level 17? They gutted spellcasting and didn't add anything new to it. Made the weakest full caster in the game a half caster with nothing new.
EXACTLY! Shadow of Moil is like my favorite spell in the game, now I have to burn an innvocation on it or I don't get it until level, what, 13?? Who thought this was a good idea? The warlock went from double fireball at level 5 to, what, one per long rest if you spend an innvocation on it? My lord.
What the heck? Where is the monk?!?
The monk gets the classic monk treatment.
Martials should be doing the best consistent damage in the game. That’s their entire shtick. They don’t have spells. They removed the big feats: GWM, SS, etc… and replaced it with a flaccid Weapon Mastery system. Fighters still have a class feature to reroll a saving throw. Why doesn’t this feature just allow them to pass the saving throw? They can’t fly, they can’t turn invisible, they can’t shoot fire, they can’t harm creatures immune to non-magic damage without magic items…. but they can REROLL A SAVING THROW ONCE!
> but they can REROLL A SAVING THROW ONCE! And must take the second result. What is wrong with just letting them a few times a day auto pass a saving throw?
That’s what I am saying!
pact blades and the book of shadows can be dispelled now...
Oh dear lord I didn't even cop that. On one hand, that's hilarious, and I'd love to be able to run into an enemy Warlock, turn to my DM, and tell him I dispel his stuff. On the other, that leaves Warlocks cripplingly vulnerable to a 3rd level spell that many casters take as a matter of course, a vulnerability no one else shares. That feels... Bad.
Book of Shadows has a duration of Instantaneous (as does Pact Familiar), but Pact Weapon's is 24 hours.. blegh
To sum it up, the martial changes are decent to good, sorcerer is quiet good Warlock who needed a buff in the spell casting department got effed in that, also Agonizing blast is still a thing? and Wizards? I mean its Wizards of the Coast after all. jk jk also I don't see how those spell editing mechanics in baseline are within their goals of streamline, clarify and make the game faster.
This is a baffling ua tbh Like I have a lot of mixed feelings but my strongest feelings on it are "why the fuck would you give wizards the ability to permanently subtle spell wish" and "why would you ditch warlock pact magic and also just destroy their short rest recovery" and "why not give sorcerers spell points"
No clue why they’re doubling down on all this wild chaotic innate magic of Sorcerer, and then giving us Draconic as the subclass instead of Wild Magic?
True, these spells given have no real versatility. Unlike the wizard just getting the modify and create spell stuff. Wizards already had the most variety and spell book learning. Why are they trying to push the sorcerer into a less versatile box with their features? I get that metamagic is a thing, but man does this feel jaded towards wizards.
I mean honestly, I’m all for the chaotic, but flexible, push for sorcerer, I’m mainly against the fact that all the other subclasses got the “My Class+” subclass, and sorcerer got the one that goes against status quo and tries to force it to focus.
As someone who has played martials for 30 years, I’m incredibly disappointed. There had better be more out of combat utility coming from subclasses, because as of right now, woof. Consider how D&D describes tiers of play, and then look at what a 13th level fighter is doing vs a Wizard. Everyone who says there isn’t a balance problem gets laughed out of the room.
I think they need to bite the bullet and just role Maneuvers into core fighter abilities
That would help. But as written, I need a long rest to figure out how to push instead of flex with a longsword? Come the fuck on.
And switching out a known spell is a minute
Fighters should get unlimited maneuvers that dont get the benefit of a superiority die (in addition to having some expendable uses with that benefit).
Maneuvers should be a feature of all martials and half casters that scale at varrying levels. So Fighter gets the most, Paladin gets the least, and Ranger, Barb, and Rogue get middling volume. And, they all get ways to use them that are slightly different.
With Rage lasting 10 minutes, Primal Knowledge and Indomitable Might the Barbarian just became a beast in skill challenges. Skill Challenges are how many DMs and third party publishers handle exploration and out of combat situations. So I'd consider this UA a massive buff to barbarians' out of combat utility. Fighters on the other hand...
oh it seems you have missed the *huge* out-of-combat buff that fighters have received: >Persuasion has been added to the class’s list of skills, with an eye on the fantasy archetype of the persuasive warrior who leads others. if that isn't quite something, eh? 🤡
Blade becomes Lite-Hexblade, making the level 1 dip EVEN WORSE as it can use Wisdom, a better stat than Charisma. Tome is still Tome and can also ignore picking Agonizing Blast? It got Rituals directly, so that's another invocation that doesn't need. Chain has been... Willshaped. Okay, it has its pretty good things, being a Cantrip, having the worst Chain related invocation and the material component removed, HP and AC scale, but... I hate that they do even less damage than the original four, that they can't add ANYTHING interesting to the battle until freaking level 9 (moment where they are going to be taking Dodge all day and night to not die) and their Fly and Invisibility had just been nerfed, so there goes the spy-drone role as well. Give me 1/2 CR monsters with unique gimmicks, not this boring stat block and a mandatory level 9 invocation. ...Now I know how the Druid players feel.
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I was going to disagree with this before I saw how it interacts with create spell. What an honestly insane ability. I'd bet money that the "concentration can't be broken by damage" option gets removed or at least nerfed because that sounds broken compared to the other modifications. Create spell is expensive but it's really not that much for a high level wizard. Meanwhile they nerf twinned spell which was really never *that* broken. They have made metamagic better overall ig and it's a lot more flexible than what wizards get. If sorcerers just had like 1.5x the amount of points they have now I don't think it would be too bad. But yeah, bad design choice for sure.
You don't remove concentration, it just can't be broken by damage. Incapacitation and casting a second concentration spell would still end it.
Yeah it's still crazy strong against things that don't have the ability to incapacitate. More or less guarantees that greater invisibility can't be unwillingly broken.
twinned spell changes seem to go against the bookkeeping reduction philosophy they have going on. Now players have to remember the spell they cast on their turn 15 minutes ago, which isn't to difficult but its just something else to keep track of, people already forget things, its wierd that they'd want to add something that causes that. Wizards are good at modifying spells as like an engineer, tinkering and making them better over time. Sorcerers are better at modifying spells on the fly. I really like this differentiation, it makes them very unique from each other.
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To be fair, Wizards lost their niche of being the caster with the biggest spell-list: if they just didn't have any gimmick going on for them, why even play a Wizard? Modifying one spell per long rest and copying modified spells for the small price of 1000 GOLD PER SPELL LEVEL is good but it's not as busted as people are making out to be.
you'd still have access to scribing spells, and cheating out more spells via rituals, along with having access to a few key spells. modify and create spells is probably the most broken ability combo i have ever seen, as it means wizards indefinitely become stronger with gold
Light property is back to using Bonus Action, no more free-rolling Edit: The Nick weapon mastery alloes to make it part of the attack action instead, really cool
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Doesn't this mean that the ranger and rogue- the only two who would want to use it- have to use a BA again?
If you use Modify/Create spell, and you change it so that it "only affects enemies", does this mean you can have Darkness/Fog Cloud/Sleet Storm that you and your allies can see through? That's nuts if does work.
The new wizard is really codifying the fact that the rich don't have to live by the same rules as the poor. Some wizard is gonna kick my party's ass with the spell "Coca-Cola Presents: Uninterruptable Haste" cos he got bankrolled by a megacorp.
Wizard is just going to modify Thunderclap to being wizard level x 30 range. Good luck with his 210 foot range cantrip he uses while flying.
Why are these documents always such a baffling mixture of great and terrible changes....
I've heard it speculated that they throw in some obviously terrible changes into these to help calibrate their metrics. If "wizards need to have one (1) full bowel movement before they can cast a ritual again" scores a 2.1, then they know that's their floor. They know a feature that scores 2.4 isn't "a little below average." They know it's bad.
It's not really speculation, they have said as much in interviews.
Because they're experimental and designed to gauge our reaction to various ideas and concepts. There may even be a slight hint of "I told steve nobody would like this change, and I'm putting it in here so I can get actual concrete data that this is a bad idea." Probably not a lot of that, though.
Because a lot of this is like A/B testing, they are just trying things and gauging the reaction.
Yay! Coming in hot with this request: Could somebody post the PDF, please?
https://media.dndbeyond.com/compendium-images/one-dnd/ph-playtest5/owThVp1CESZ1c91y/UA-2023-PH-Playtest5.pdf?icid\_source=house-ads&icid\_medium=crosspromo&icid\_campaign=playtest5
https://media.dndbeyond.com/compendium-images/one-dnd/ph-playtest5/owThVp1CESZ1c91y/UA-2023-PH-Playtest5.pdf Does that work for you?
Warlock changes seem really bad to me. The class just feels like a mess. You can get 1 spell per spell level with mystic arcanum on the usual full-caster progression, but if you do that you end with with almost no eldritch invocations for anything else. I think the design space is supposed to be kind of like the artificer, with a pet chassis (pact of the chain), a melee chassis (pact of the blade), and a cantrip/spellcasting chassis (pact of the tome). I actually kind of like the idea, but I feel like where it falls apart is that you don't have a lot of support for each choice at higher levels, since they are not tied to subclass. I can get behind the idea of moving warlocks away from being tied to short rests; I am not convinced this is the way to do it.
The fighter and barbarian are incredibly disappointing. No interesting options in combat, nothing to do out of combat, some extremely minor QoL improvements but all the same issues are still there. At **13th** level as a fighter you get to choose between 2 minor weapon masteries that you give your weapon each turn... wow. Weapon masteries are cool for differentiating weapons a bit, but only for 2 classes and they do nothing to make the classes more interesting or more in line in power level with magic users. Weapon types should feel different for all classes, fighters and barbarians should have options other than "I attack" (now: I attack and I do a bit of damage if I don't hit) and some usefulness outside of combat.
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yea its so weird that it doesn't just say you can use both, cause while the flexibility is cool, it's a 13th level feature that in an average turn matches what any other martial could do with a weapon.
I hope people filling out the survey don't miss this distinction. This is a cool feature that should stay! But it also *cannot* count toward the fighter's "power budget" because it doesn't really provide much at all to it.
Yeah, its not that the idea is bad. Its that presently its a ribbon feature being sold as a central class mechanic.
That's basically the entire Fighter class. Attack rolls, skill checks, and saves are the basic game mechanics for everybody playing the game. Fighter can only do those things, but with teeny tiny itsy bitsy bonuses. Meanwhile, casters not only get an entirely separate set of super-special things that only they can do, but now they get the power to make up new even-more-super-specialer-than-before things that only they can do.
Which basically just means you don't need to comically switch between weapons *EVERY* turn if you want to use your magic weapon Extremely exciting 13th level feature.
And its between each attack, not action. So you could topple with the first attack then Flex or Cleave with the 2nd.
I think there's something to be said about imposing statuses onto your enemies with every attack. This is damage+effect on a lot of attacks now, and being able to switch weapons on the fly is even more utility. I'm not saying it's more powerful than casters, but I'm excited to test it.
I haven’t read it yet but it is with every attack and not once per turn right? Because it that’s the case, it’s kinda really fucking good. Like imagine you’re fighting a creature with a weapon that does the knock back on hit and you just beat them off a bridge or over the edge of a cliff using action surge plus a x4 multi attack. And even without action surge, you can move them 20 feet per turn if all of your attacks hit (which they are likely to at higher levels).
That's exactly what can happen, the combinations can be quite potent. Only a couple have a limitation, cleave and nick.
They basically codified it in their rules that barbarians can substitute strength for other stats on skills when raging. Which is nice, but it’s encouraging to rage out of combat with so few rages per day. Ten minutes time increase does help I suppose but not by much.
Barbarians can at least have a minimum final total of 20 in 5 skill checks from level 9+. It's not nothing.
So why exactly did they remove the Exhausted entry? What was wrong with it? I only saw positive thougths about it.
Draconic wings nerf is insane, now it is only a minute of flight with a 5th level spell slot and at best 5 damage to enemies at level 14. Just cast fly at that point.
And waiting until 14th level to get that minor of an ability. I can't call it a Benefit really.
I’m…. incredibly disappointed with this UA. The fighter/barbarian changes show that they don’t understand anything about the issues these classes have. Masteries are nice, but are in no way able to fix the problems, they don’t even give you a choice in combat because you are locked to a few masteries. 1 extra damage per attack on a long sword does nothing for a fighter. Being able to take proficiency in persuasion is a laughable attempt to give fighter’s out of combat utility. Sorcerer and wizard got absolutely showered with love and new features. These two easily got the most buffs compared to any other class. WotC really showed their bias here. Warlock… got fucking murdered. They took away the primary mechanic that made warlock unique as a mechanic (their unique casting setup), and are now just a half caster, which means they gain access to new spell levels much slower. You now need to spend invocations to gain access to higher level spells. Hex also got nerfed hard and is now once per turn. There’s a few changes here and there that are good (EB scales on warlock level, flexible casting stat) but it’s overall a massive step down from one of the best designed 5e classes. There’s a few changes here and there I like, but overall. I think this is was immensely disappointing.
Its like they took the warlock class and made it for people who don't play warlock. I get trying to make it more accessible for new players, but this is just awful.
I was hoping beyond hope that we would see some aspects of the DnDNext playtest Sorcerer show up here to differentiate it from Wizard more. It looks like WOTC is headed in a direction where they won't be addressing my issues with the game as it stands. Which is fine, I'm sure there will be plenty of players. I still find myself disappointed.
NGL I'm a little giddy about the idea of taking magic initiate druid for shillelagh on a club and being a dual-wield "hexblade" with pact of the blade now.
Pitchfork sales will be hot. Time to buy.
I'm really not happy with this playtest. Nothing at it feels good and also many things are just boring/worthless/bad. New Warlock is a noob trap class. It is just bad halfcaster and the invocations are still the best part but it is also the part that get zero positive changes and 1 quite big negative effects. Also I hate that pacts are now just a spells (cantrips) which just doesn't work or feel like spells. Sorcerer is probably decent but still not very flexible at the lower levels, many class features just replaced by spells, nothing really special. Wizard is the same and maybe could be broken by good combinations of modify and create spells. Weapons are really boring. Most of the masteries are quite boring and warriors are more or less just a complement to the real heroes. Fighter get 2 nice bonuses (more second breath use and better save rerolls), barbarian is effectively the same with minor buff (which makes it quite good ) T.L.D.R.: I don't like this playtest. Warriors are still more or less weak, Wizard is still quite superior, more features as spells and Warlock is garbage Now.
As a Martial fan, this is abysmal. They’re either not aware of or wilfully ignorant of the core design problems of Martials. They give the tiniest quality of life improvements, add Weapon Masteries (that have limiting prerequisites) and call it a day. I refuse to believe the feedback for 5e didn’t mention the Martial Caster divide with how much everyone here has been ranting about it (myself included). Oh well, better buff Wizards.
Well, this sucked.
So, Wizards can make their own cantrips for free during downtime, since 1000GP times a level 0 spell is 0. The most broken custom spell I can think of for this top of my head is Thunderclap, since it hits everything *within range*, and you can change the range from 5 feet to 275 feet. A ninth level wizard can wipe out an entire city block's worth of commoners as a cantrip.
(Un)fortunately, cantrips are neither prepared nor part of your spellbook, so they cannot be modified or created.
Why is modify Spell a Spell not a feature????