Ok, this should be the last really deep dive into the specifics of the Expert Classes UA. The Rules Glossary on its surface might not seem so terribly important, but in the long run, this is where the game well and truly shifts - beyond the mere modular elements like classes and spells.
While some of the elements here are fairly straightforward (Artisan's Tools, for example, are listed again, but I don't know if they're any different than they were in the Character Creation UA) I'm going to go down the list and take note of anything important here.
Ability Checks: Most of this is pretty straightforward and familiar, but I think something that is noteworthy is the section marked "Action Required." The Rules Glossary will introduce a number of actions that are associated with ability checks such as "Search," "Study," or "Influence," which clearly delineate how the various skills are used. Some of these are bound to be controversial (we'll look at "Influence" further down here) but I also think it's interesting that they're introducing a bit of formality into the use of ability checks. Making them take an action, for instance, means that in general, for example, if you're in the middle of combat, "Searching" to find a hidden enemy will take your full action unless you have some feature that lets you do it as a bonus action. Note here, though, that the entry explicitly says that the DM can override this, allowing an ability check as part of a bonus action or even no action at all. But it sets up a certain default assumption.
It also sets 15 as a kind of "default" DC for ability checks, with lower or higher ones depending on how difficult it should be. This is really more of a suggestion, but I honestly think it's not a terrible place to start off new DMs who haven't gotten the hang of setting DCs on the fly (at this point, I'll automatically think of a number while I'm calling for the check).
Armor Training: This is pretty straightforward: Armor proficiency is now called Armor Training, because it doesn't use your proficiency bonus so they didn't want people to get confused. Wearing armor you're not trained for still prevents you from casting spells, and now imposes disadvantage on any d20 test that uses Strength or Dexterity (it occurs to me that a Hexblade Warlock could wear plate if they didn't mind having disadvantage on Strength or Dex saves and being unable to cast spells- likewise a Battle Smith Artificer). Lacking training in a shield simply makes the shield useless when worn - you just don't get its AC bonus.
Attack: The interesting thing here is that you can equip or unequip a weapon as part of your attack action (even if it's with an unarmed strike). That seems to suggest that you no longer need an "item interaction." This happens before or after any attack you make - which means that you can equip two weapons if you have more attacks. This, along with the Light Weapon change we'll see later, is showing some love to dual-wielders. The rule also makes it explicit that you can break up your attacks and moves (I'm really curious to see if Eldritch Blast is explicitly designed to work with the Attack action so that you can break it up similarly - I've had DMs who felt that you needed to declare all attacks before you see which hit and which enemies survive, which I think goes against the intent, which is to make Eldritch Blast work more like a Fighter's attacks).
Attack Roll: Very simple, but the UA reverts all the critical hit elements of the previous UA. NPCs and Monsters can crit again, spells can crit again, and bonus damage dice like Divine Smite and Sneak Attack can crit again. This is all good to see.
Arcane Spells: We now know that this broad list is going to serve as the class list for any Arcane spellcaster, with classes limiting things by school. Arcane spells are the domain of Bards, Sorcerers, Warlocks, and Wizards, as well as Artificers. (Presumably this will also apply to Eldritch Knight Fighters and Arcane Trickster Rogues, with similar school restrictions.)
Barkskin: The Barkskin spell has been significantly redesigned, and is actually pretty good now. As a bonus action, you touch a willing creature (with more creatures when upcast past level 2) and grant them temporary hit points at the start of each of their turns equal to your Spellcasting Ability Modifier plus your Proficiency Bonus. And it lasts an hour. So, you're giving them a regenerating shield for an hour. That's really not too bad.
Blindsight: I don't know if this has changed much (other than moving it from the Monster Manual to, presumably, the PHB,) but it explicitly allows you to see Hidden or Invisible creatures (the hidden thing is something that I think might be new - no sneaking up, ever, on someone who has blindsight unless you're behind total cover).
Climb Speed: This is fairly straightforward. You can move up vertical surfaces (interestingly, there's no mention of having to have any footholds, so you could climb a totally smooth surface). The feature also mentions Spider Climb as a kind of enhanced Climb Speed, while drawing that distinction.
Creature Type: This just lists and defines them, and makes it clear there are no inherent rules to them, but how they work as tags.
D20 Tests: Gone is the automatic fail or success on natural 20s (I still think I like that as a homebrew rule as long as the DM is the one calling for the rolls and setting the parameters for what success or failure means). Inspiration has been renamed Heroic Inspiration (perhaps to make it easier to distinguish from Bardic Inspiration) and you now automatically get it on a Natural 1 rather than a Natural 20 (which might be better as a kind of bad-luck protection).
Dash: This is now phrased that it gives you a bonus Move on your turn (note the capitalized words - they're clearly using this to make meaningful rules-words stand out).
Difficult Terrain: Once again, the definition here is that you spend 1 extra foot of movement for every foot you travel through difficult terrain, and that a space either is or isn't difficult terrain. It also gives some examples of difficult terrain.
Divine Spells: Like Arcane, it's another spell list that is for Clerics and Paladins.
Exhausted: Exhaustion has been simplified, and now works a bit like Stress from Van Richten's Guide to Ravenloft. With each level of exhaustion, you simply subtract your exhaustion levels from every d20 roll you make, as well as the DC of any spell you cast. And if you hit 10 levels of exhaustion, you die. I think this is going to make it way easier to use Exhausted, as you won't have to constantly refer back to the different things the condition does. It's also going to be, I think, less devastating as a condition, at least in those first couple levels. Honestly, I think this makes it a lot easier to give monsters the ability to sap PCs' energy - I could see some kind of incorporeal undead or monster from the Shadowfell whose attacks come with a Constitution saving throw that gives you a level of exhaustion on a failure. As before, finishing a long rest will reduce your exhaustion by 1, and you no longer have the condition if you hit 0.
Expertise: Now that this is available to three classes, there's a broad definition. It's unchanged.
Fly Speed: Pretty much unchanged here. You will fall if incapacitated or restrained, unless you have the Hover trait.
Gaming Set: I think this is more or less unchanged from the Character Origins UA, unless the price has changed.
Grappled: I believe this is also unchanged from the Character Origins UA - which is a pretty significant redesign compared to the current version, but I don't see any change from the one we got a month and a half ago.
Guidance: The Guidance spell has been redesigned. It is... I think most people will consider it a nerf, and I think they'd be right. But I also sort of hate Guidance as it is now, and so I will kind of cackle madly with this change. Here's how it works: Guidance is now a reaction when you see a creature fail an ability check. They roll a d4 and add the value to the check, potentially turning it into a success. This part's a buff - you no longer need concentration (though I guess you can't toss this on the Rogue and have them go off to scout out before using it on a Stealth check). However, once a creature rolls this die, they cannot benefit from this spell again until they finish a long rest.
Let's unpack that: My biggest problem with Guidance is the fact that you can spam it. In practice, parties will simply act as if every ability check they make outside of combat has an extra d4 added to it, which I find really tedious. On the other hand, I think that this more or less makes this... effectively not a cantrip anymore? Yes, you could cast this on an entire village, but in your adventuring party, you can only use the spell a few times a day. That almost makes it feel like this has become a trap spell - it's way, way worse. But it was maybe too good originally. I imagine this is one that will get the torches and pitchforks out from those who love the spell, while I'd be inclined to just quietly remove the spell entirely.
Help: First off, this incorporates one of my own homebrew rules - you can only assist on an ability check if it uses a skill that you yourself are proficient with. The Fighter with an intelligence of 8 who has never seen an arcane rune in his life probably can't meaningfully help the Wizard on an Arcana check, right? Helping on an attack roll is, I think, unchanged.
Heroic Inspiration: The new name for Inspiration. The big change here is that you decide whether to use this immediately after rolling the d20 on a d20 test. It still uses the term Advantage, but clearly this now allows it to grant it retroactively. Having to use Inspiration before you actually make the roll is a big part of why people tend to forget they have Inspiration. This is one of those "make it play the way it feels like it should" changes that I'm 100% on board with. The automatic gain of Heroic Inspiration that in the previous UA you got on a Natural 20, you now get on a Natural 1. (It also explicitly says you can't then use that Heroic Inspiration to get rid of your natural 1, which is something I thought of immediately before reading that sentence - note that this means that Halflings are very unlikely to earn Heroic Inspiration this way thanks to their racial lucky feat, as you need to use the natural 1 in order to gain the Heroic Inspiration).
Hidden: Ok, this is actually pretty big: being Hidden is now a condition that you can get, and is no longer just a relationship between you and the thing from which you're hidden. We'll see what this means with the Hide Action below, but Hidden gives you these benefits: You are concealed, meaning you aren't affected by any effect that requires the target to be seen. If Hidden when you roll Initiative, you have Advantage on the roll (this seems to be the new meaning of "Surprise."). You have advantage on attack rolls, while attack rolls against you have disadvantage. And the condition ends after any of the following occurs: you make a sound louder than a whisper, an enemy finds you (likely involving the "Search" action, as below,) you make an Attack Roll, you cast a Spell with a verbal component, or you aren't Heavily Obscured or behind any Cover.
There's a lot to unpack, but let's cover the Hide action first.
Hide: To hide, you must make a DC 15 Dexterity (Stealth) check while you're Heavily Obscured or behind Three-Quarters or Total Cover, and you must be out of any visible enemy's line of sight - if you can see a creature, you can discern whether it can see you. On a success, you're Hidden. The result of your Stealth check sets the DC for a creature to find you with a Wisdom (Perception) check.
Ok, let's unpack. By making Hidden a condition on you, things get significantly simplified. However, it also creates some weird edge cases: If you hide behind, say, a big sarcophagus to avoid being seen by the Necromancer on the other side of the crypt, but there's an invisible Poltergeist that is also behind that sarcophagus, the way this is written, you can still gain the hidden position even if you hide while the Poltergeist is literally staring right at you - because as long as you cannot see the Poltergeist, you can take the Hide action. Technically speaking, this means that the Poltergeist - who is literally staring right at you - needs to make a (potentially high DC) Search-action Perception check to find you.
Obviously, this is why having a DM around to rule on things like this is important. I do think it's also a bit weird that your ability to hide from something is totally divorced from their passive Perception. A DC 15 is pretty easy to hit for a character that likes to hide - a Rogue is literally never going to fail to hide once they get reliable talent unless they've built their character in a baffling way, even if they're hiding from "Panopticon, the Lord of Eyes." The Blindsight change might be a counterbalance to this, but we'll see. I expect to see iteration on this concept.
Incapacitated: The one change here is that this gives you disadvantage on initiative rolls. I suppose the fact that Ability Checks now typically take an action also means that you're a little more helpless in this state.
Influence: This one is probably going to be the most controversial. This is the first of several ability actions (I guess technically Hide is one as well,) with this one covering most Charisma checks. Notably, this explicitly says you can only use it on creatures controlled by the DM (no "I roll to Persuade you" between player characters). It also explicitly says it's not mind control - you can't force a creature to do something counter to its nature. In a lot of ways, this introduces ideas from the DMG regarding an NPC's attitude. Influence is broken down into three parts: Attitude, Interaction, and Ability Check. Attitudes can be Friendly, Indifferent, or Hostile, which determine how inclined the NPC is to go along with what the player wants, and what they'd be willing to do for them. Interacting through Roleplay is an opportunity for the DM to decide if the check is made with advantage or disadvantage (or neither) or to shift the creature's attitude based on how the interaction goes. Notably, the Charisma skill proficiencies listed here are Animal Handling, Deception, Intimidation, or Persuasion - Animal Handling being primarily used for Beasts or Monstrosities - but interestingly seeming to have moved Animal Handling to be a Charisma skill. Based on the creature's attitude, there are results given for DCs of 10 or 20 for each attitude.
This creates much more explicit mechanics for social interaction in a player-facing way. In a sense, I admire the intent here - which is to make things clearer and more easy to adjudicate for less experienced DMs. But I can also see a lot of people bristling at the notion that these things are so uniformly laid out (especially the explicit DCs). Obviously, I imagine a lot of people ignoring this - though I'm tempted, as a fairly experienced DM, to actually try adhering to this system and seeing the results.
Invisible: This condition is more or less what you'd expect, though the interesting thing is that it has some redundancies with the Hidden condition. You can't be seen for effects that require one sees their target. You have the new Surprise (advantage on initiative,) and you have advantage on attacks while attacks against you are at disadvantage. Interestingly, this does not give you advantage on the Hide action - but then, you basically already have all the benefits of the Hidden condition anyway - only it can't be ended by someone just looking for you and you don't need cover or to be obscured.
Jump: This has become way simpler, and I believe this is one of the most popular changes in this UA. Jumping 5 feet or less now simply counts as difficult terrain. Jumping farther than that requires the Jump Action. You need to have a speed that is greater than 0 (no jumping while grappled) and then you must make a DC 10 Strength (Acrobatics or Athletics) check. If you don't move at least 10 feet immediately before taking the action, you have disadvantage on this check. On a failure, you leap 5 feet horizontally or vertically. But on a success, the check's total is the distance in feet that you can clear horizontally, or half that amount (rounded down) vertically. Jumping no longer costs you movement, though you can't exceed your Speed (if you somehow get more than 30 on your check).
Now, the fact that you don't expend movement here is great, but we should also note that this is now an action to perform - meaning that you're still effectively "Dashing" to do this jump. However, there's no weird use of your Strength score to determine how far you can jump. It also appears that Acrobatics might be more associated with Strength now than Dexterity - which means that I think they'll need to do a better job distinguishing the two, frankly. (One of the features the new version of the Thief has is that they can use Dexterity for jumping instead of Strength).
Light Weapons: This is a wonderful change. First off, "two-weapon fighting" is not really a thing on its own. After all, if you have Extra Attack, there's nothing stopping you from attacking with a Longsword in your right hand and then a Warhammer in your left, with both using your full Strength bonus for damage. Now, however, Light Weapons instead grant you an extra attack, as long as it's made when you A: have a light weapon in one hand and B: make the extra attack with a different Light weapon in the other hand. You don't add your ability modifier to the extra attack's damage, and you can only make this extra attack once on each of your turns. Now, this looks almost identical to the old rule, but here's the big difference: it doesn't take your bonus action to make this extra attack. Thus, a Rogue can use a Cunning action and still make both attacks, or a Ranger can still apply Hunter's Mark and make both attacks. It's subtle, but this really helps with a dual-wielder's action economy.
Long Rest: The big change here is that you now get all of your Hit Dice (now abbreviated as HD) back on a Long Rest, rather than half rounded up. You also explicitly get your Max HP restored, as well as having all your ability scores restored if they had been reduced. I think the other things here were seen in the Character Origins UA.
Magic: This is now an action, where you cast a spell with a casting time of an action, or use a magic item that requires an action to be activated. Notably as well, when casting a spell that takes longer than 1 action to cast, you spend each turn while casting it taking the Magic action, and during this, you need to maintain Concentration while casting the spell. If your concentration is broken, you do not expend the spell slot, though the spell fails.
Now, the huge thing here is that casting any spell that takes longer than 1 action to cast now requires Concentration. This means that a Warlock who's concentrating on Hex would lose that Hex if they cast the 1-minute casting-time cantrip Mending (assuming they don't make Mendng take one action). That aspect of this makes me a little wary of this change, unless we get some change to how Concentration works (which I'd expect we'll get with either the Mage or Priest UA).
Move: This is mostly straightforward, but we get some explicit guidance on moving around other creatures: You can move through the space of a creature that is an Ally, is Incapacitated, is Tiny, or is two Sizes larger or smaller than you. The other creature's space is Difficult Terrain unless the creature is Tiny. And you can't end your Move in a space occupied by another creature.
There's more to this, but let's first examine things: First off, when fighting a Huge or Gargantuan creature, you can now move through their space as Difficult Terrain - fighting between the Giant's legs, for example. Indeed, a Small creature could go through an Ogre's space. I guess one question is whether a dead monster is difficult terrain or can just be ignored.
There's more, though: Climbing and Swimming now costs an extra foot of movement per foot moved. This stacks with difficult terrain, so if you try to swim through difficult terrain, 5 feet costs 15 feet of movement. If you have a Climb Speed or Swim Speed, you get to ignore that penalty (though of course not difficult terrain). Now, the big change here is that you can only use one type of Speed per Move - if my Triton is 15 feet from a Pond, he can use his normal speed to get to the pond, but can't just swap to Swimming to go another 15 feet into it - he'd still be using his normal (walking) Speed, and thus could only go in 7 feet. However, if he Dashed, gaining another Move, he could then use his Swim Speed to go a full 30 feet through the water.
Musical Instruments: Again, I don't see any change here that wasn't in the Character Origins UA unless they changed the price.
Primal Spells: Likewise, this is a list for Druid and Ranger spells.
Ritual Casting: Every spellcaster can now cast spells as a Ritual if they have access to spells with the Ritual Tag. Sorcerers rejoice!
Search: This is a type of Action that involves Wisdom checks to discern something that isn't obvious. Insight can search a creature's state of mind, Medicine can search for a creature's ailment, Perception can search for a concealed creature or object, and Survival can search for tracks or food.
I actually think that this, along with the Study action (see below) makes the distinction between Perception and Investigation a little clearer, which is useful.
Shortswords: Shortswords are now simple weapons, meaning almost anyone can use them. I actually wonder if we're going to see classes have fewer explicit weapon proficiencies and instead just go for categories in order to allow for new weapons to be more easily added to the game.
Slowed: This new condition came in the Character Origins UA, and I believe is the same as it was there. Again, this uses the phrasing of "1 extra foot of movement for each foot you move using your speed," which means that it will stack with swimming and difficult terrain.
Study: This is another action type, which has you make an Intelligence check to study your own memory, a book, a creature, clue, object, or other source of knowledge and call to mind an important piece of information about it. Arcana checks are for spells, magical items, eldritch symbols, magical traditions, planes of existence, and Aberrations, Construct, Elementals, Fey, and Monstrosities. History is for historic events and people, ancient civilizations, wars, and Giants and Humanoids. Investigation is for traps, ciphers, riddles, and gadgetry. Nature is for terrain, flora, weather, and Beasts, Dragons, Oozes, and Plants. Religion is for deities, religious hierarchies and rites, holy symbols, cults, and Celestials, Fiends, and Undead.
Here, I think, Religion gets a real buff. I think a lot of DMs are inclined to have questions about planar outsiders like Fiends or creations of dark necromantic magic like Undead fall under the Arcana umbrella - indeed, a lot of DMs might not even think of Religion as a "what do I know about this kind of monster" knowledge base. I actually love how this breaks up things by creature type. What I would like to get out of this, though, is examples of the kind of information a DM should provide on a successful check. I like making Intelligence checks give something actionable - if a player does well on a Religion check when asking about the sort of fiends they've been facing, I would be inclined to say "well, you know that this is a Yugoloth, a type of fiend from Gehenna that plays both sides of the Blood War. But also, you know that Yugoloths in particular are impervious to any form of corrosion, which might be why the Black Dragon you've befriended needs your help to fight hem off - her acid breath does nothing to them."
Swim Speed: Interestingly, there's nothing here about the old disadvantage on certain attacks while swimming if you don't have a Swim Speed. I wonder if they're removing that rule to make underwater encounters less painful.
Tool Proficiency: This looks the same as it did in the Character Origins UA. Again, the final sentence "This means you can benefit from both Skill Proficiency and Tool Proficiency on the same Ability Check" is probably just redundant, but introduces a confusing ambiguity if you read this as letting you add your proficiency bonus twice on top of getting advantage. But I think it's meant to just say you get your PB from the skill and advantage from the Tool.
Teleportation: Nothing really crazy here. It just makes it very clear that you aren't using your Speed and you don't provoke Opportunity attacks.
Tremorsense: Another thing from the Monster Manual being defined presumably in the PHB. Tremorsense works the way you'd expect it to, but it also makes it clear that this is not a form of sight - you can pinpoint a creature's location using it, but you can't "see" it for the purposes of spells and the like, and it'll still benefit from being hidden or invisible when it comes to attack rolls.
Unarmed Strike: I believe this is pretty much the same as it was in the Character Origins UA, but the damage of the "damage" option for this is now 1+Str, rather than just your Strength Modifier. The escape DC on grapple is still set by your Strength modifier - I wonder if Monks will get an exception to make them amazing grapplers.
And there we have it! The full Rules Glossary for the Expert Classes UA. As usual, I think the ability checks and the associated actions are going to be the most controversial aspect here, but I'm going to try to adopt an open-minded attitude and see how these fell in play before I get angry.
If we assume a similar timeframe for other UAs, we should get the next one in the middle of November. Fingers crossed for Mage with a redesigned Great Old One Warlock! (Though let's be real, we're probably getting the Fiend as the sample subclass).
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