The survey for the Character Origins UA previewing One D&D - the 5.5th Edition we're going to be seeing in 2024 - has now gone up. We don't actually know what the next one will be - it could be a revision of some of the items here, or possibly more Rules Glossary-like clarification and changes.
But I think the most impactful thing we're likely to see is any and all proposed class changes.
Classes, after all, are the most impactful choices you make when building your character.
What we saw with Races in the previous UA was largely an attempt to preserve the overall shape of the existing options - with the exceptions of removing the Half-Elf and Half-Orc (with the intent on making mixed heritage possible between most races, but no longer reflecting that mechanically) and the addition of the Ardling, as well as new non-Infernal legacy options for Tieflings.
If you were already using the Tasha's rules regarding ability score bonuses, in most cases you'll see only minor changes and tweaks.
One D&D is being designed to be, where possible, backwards-compatible, meaning that we should be able to use subclasses out of Xanathar's and Tasha's (and the few subclasses that didn't get reprinted in Tasha's like the Chronurgist, etc.)
What this will require is that, at the very least, classes will have subclass features come online at the same levels, most likely. Personally, I find that a little disappointing specifically for the Bard, who only gets subclass features at three different levels - 3, 6, and 14. Most classes get four, while Fighters and Clerics get five (though in the Cleric's case, the level 8 one is just one of two options that each subclass gets one of or the other).
Where I think we'll see changes is going to be more fundamentally in the general class features.
What changes do I think we have evidence that we'll see?
First off, let's talk Artificers. I really, really hope we see this class printed in the Player's Handbook so that, moving forward, they can add more subclasses and Artificer-specific spells. What I think makes this possibility ambiguous is that, in the Rules Glossary part of the Character Origins UA, when describing Arcane spells, the entry says "Bards, Sorcerers, Warlocks, and Wizards harness this magic, as do Artificers." I could read this two ways: one is that saving Artificers for last is backward-looking and making sure that readers who might never have gotten Tasha's or ERFTLW (just "Eberron" feels too vague for a shortened name, though this isn't great either) realize that they're a thing too, or it's keeping them last because they're categorically separating it as an "other" class rather than one of the primary, PHB ones. So, really, who knows? (I mean, Jeremy Crawford for one, but I doubt he's going to blurt it out outside of an official announcement).
The only other piece of - again, pretty vague - evidence that I can note is the absence of Eldritch Blast from the Arcane (or any other) spell list. Eldritch Blast is a common choice for people who pick up the Spell Sniper feat, or Magic Initiate. But the new Magic Initiate, while arguably a lot more flexible (Shillelagh with Charisma for Paladins, guys!) can't get you Eldritch Blast because it's not on the list.
So, is Eldritch Blast gone? Hell no. It's iconic and so central to the way that Warlocks work. Barring some insane redesign of the Warlock (not that that's entirely off the table, but I'd be skeptical) I think Eldritch Blast must remain part of its toolkit.
The way I see it, though, is that as written in PHB 2014, not taking Eldritch Blast, unless you're a dedicated Bladelock (which I still think works too well with the Hexblade to try it with any other subclass,) feels like a trap. When the Warlock was introduced in 3.5e, Eldritch Blast was a class feature - cantrips were not, I believe, a thing yet, and so other spellcasters like Wizards would have to rely on things like light crossbows if they wanted to preserve their spell slots.
Making Eldritch Blast a class feature does a few things: the first is that no new player is going to forget to pick it up. It makes sure that no matter what, all Warlocks have access to their best damage cantrip and are "armed" properly.
The other thing this could do is encourage players to stick with Warlock for more levels.
Warlocks are a popular multiclass dip - they often have very powerful front-loaded abilities (the Hexblade in particular) that can be very valuable to a character with just one or two levels invested in them. One of the reasons for this is that picking up Eldritch Blast (and especially going to level 2 for Agonizing Blast, along with two short-rest 1st level spell slots) can be very valuable. And because it's a cantrip, Eldritch Blast doesn't care about class levels, only total levels when determining how may blasts it does. Thus, a Sorcerer can dip into Warlock for one or two levels, get Agonizing Blast, and then ignore Warlock and still see their Eldritch Blast grow in power.
If Eldritch Blast is a class feature, you could restrict its growing number of attacks to Warlock class levels, and thus encourage players to stick with it if they want to get their higher blast numbers.
I suppose another change that I noted in the previous post about what changes we could see to the Monk, Unarmed Strikes are a bit different. One thing of note is that an unarmed strike now seems to be something separate from a Weapon Attack (which was always confusing, given that you sort of expected all weapon attacks to involve, you know, a weapon). On top of making that a separate thing, it also folds Shove and Grapple attacks into Unarmed Strikes.
This means a lot for Monks - if we assume that Martial Arts continues to let you use Dexterity for your Unarmed Strikes, this now makes Monks a lot more effective and Shoving and Grappling. (Though keeping a Grappled target grappled might not be very easy, as the escape DC is set by your Strength.) Actually, Grappling requiring a free hand means it'll be harder for people with full hands (using a two-handed weapon or going sword-and-board, etc.) to do so - Monks might actually be the best at this, though I think it'll also give us an opportunity to see more people using the versatile property of weapons like the Longsword, Battleaxe, or Warhammer - you could attack with a Warhammer two-handed (d10) most of the time, but swap to single-handed (d8) when you're grappling someone.
This doesn't necessarily portend any specific Monk changes, but it does open some capabilities up. I also wonder if some of the Open Hand Monk's Open Hand Technique options are altered or re-written. Naturally, these combine the damage from a Fury of Blows hit with the secondary effect, whereas the new Unarmed Strikes makes you choose between one of its three modes (the first being damage,) so this is all still technically a bonus on top of existing rules. But there's enough overlap that I could see them rewriting some of this or tweaking the functionality.
Beyond this, I don't think we've got anything very solid to go on, to be honest (and even these are extrapolations of fairly minor details).
As far as radical class redesigns go, the one that feels the most plausible is the Fighter. The folks at WotC have repeatedly said that they really love the Battle Master design - it's one of the few subclasses that got expanded with Tasha's Cauldron of Everything, and I can imagine that WotC would want to open the door to create new maneuvers in future publications much like they do with Eldritch Invocations for Warlocks. But Eldritch Invocations are a class, not subclass feature.
The Fighter is an odd class - it's a pretty basic chassis on which you can build a lot of different concepts using feats and subclass features. There are basically only three universal Fighter abilities (four if you count their 3rd and 4th Extra Attack). Admittedly, the subclasses and the extra ASIs to help you pick up feats add a bit more, but I wouldn't be shocked if they made Maneuvers a classwide thing and then designed subclasses in the future that work with maneuvers, perhaps even providing unique ones. (Eldritch Knights could be redesigned to have a bunch of magic maneuvers either to supplement or even replace their 1/3 Caster spellcasting capabilities.)
The survey for the Character Origins UA is up for the next two weeks or so, and so I expect we'll see the next One D&D UA either when that ends or perhaps a couple weeks later. Looking forward to it!
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