The first of many huge UA articles to test the changes coming in the 2024 Player's Handbook is here. D&D is evolving, but they're not calling this a new edition. The new stuff will be compatible with the old stuff, but with iterative changes to the way the game works.
Still, that's not to downplay how big the changes will be. No, we're not eliminating classes for a fully skill-based system (which I think would just make it not D&D anymore) but we are seeing some major changes to how certain rules work, and changes to some conditions and previously-existing features.
As we saw in Strixhaven, Spelljammer, and the UAs for Dragonlance, Glory of the Giants, and Planescape, backgrounds are now going to come with a level 1 feat. Feats are now arranged by level requirement and potentially prerequisites, and the background you build (or choose from a list of samples) will come with one of these feats as one of its main features. None of the level 1 feats give any ability score improvements - indeed, the old racial ability score bonuses are now part of your customizable background. So, let's go down the list (much of this information you can simply read for yourself in the actual post, but I'll try to pepper in some commentary here for readers' benefits.)
Oh, before we do: one guiding philosophy on the revisions to these feats is that a character for whom it fits thematically should find the feat appealing. For example, Healer was actually pretty useless for actual healer characters, but now gives a benefit that Clerics and other healing classes will want.
Alert: This now lets you add your proficiency bonus to your initiative rather than a flat +5 (a nerf until level 13, and then a buff at 17+) but it also lets you swap your initiative with another party member when combat starts - which can be super useful for tactical purposes. However, it no longer gives you immunity to being surprised.
Crafter: This new feat gives you Tool Proficiency (which has more explicit rules now) with three Artisan's Tools of your choice (should be very popular among Artificers). The other, crazy thing, is you get a 20% discount when you buy any nonmagical item. (Much as Alert has a benefit for the whole party, a party will benefit from having a Crafter there, saving a lot of gold if they let them do the purchasing.) You can also craft items for 20% cheaper if you are proficient with the tool that is used in crafting it (I'm hoping Artificers show up in the new PHB. It should be interesting to see if these stack or if the Artificer's feature is redesigned).
Healer: As before, you can expend a use of a Healer's Kit as an action, and the creature upon whom you use it can spend a hit die to get HP equal to the roll of the die plus your proficiency bonus. However, on top of that, any healing you do with spells or this feature allows you to reroll any 1s you get on the healing dice.
Lucky: You now have Luck points equal to your PB, instead of a flat 3. Interestingly, the wording also suggests that you give yourself advantage on a roll after you make a d20 test (a new catch-all term for attack rolls, ability checks, and saving throws,) which I think might imply that other sources of optional advantage, like Inspiration, might now be usable after your initial roll (probably a good change as that's how players want to use it). The use of luck points is, I think, unchanged, letting you give yourself retroactive advantage or attackers against you retroactive disadvantage.
Magic Initiate: There's no ability score bonus here, but the really interesting thing is that the feat now refers to Arcane, Divine, or Primal spells, rather than the spells of particular classes. You learn two cantrips from that list (which we'll look at below) and one 1st level spell. You can cast the spell once for free per long rest, but you can also now expend spell slots to cast it again (or upcast it). Also, you can swap out one of the spells from this feat once per level-up. You choose Intelligence, Wisdom, or Charisma as your spellcasting ability for this feat. (This could be tempting for my Wizard to get him something like Cure Wounds or Healing Word).
Musician: Another new feat, this gives you proficiency with three Musical Instruments. When you finish a short or long rest, you can play a song that gives a number of allies equal to your PB Inspiration (which works a little differently now, see below). Again, this could actually be very good for a Bard (though I really think they need to change the name of Bardic Inspiration if they're going to be using Inspiration as a bigger mechanic).
Savage Attacker: I think this used to be a Half-Orc racial trait? Anyway, when you take the Attack Action and hit with a Weapon as part of that action, you can roll the damage dice twice and choose which result to use once per turn. As I understand it, this will not apply to Sneak Attack dice, but there's no limit on how many times you can do this overall, which I think makes it pretty darn good. An obvious choice for martial classes (and makes me wonder about the future of certain Fighting Styles).
Skilled: Works basically the same. You get two new skill proficiencies.
Tavern Brawler: This one's pretty broad. First off, you can now deal 1d4 + Strength with your unarmed strikes instead of normal damage (note that Unarmed Strikes now encompass shoves and grapples as well, but this is just for when you're dealing damage.) You can also reroll 1s when you get them on an Unarmed Strike (which makes this very attractive for Monks, actually). Once per turn when you attack and deal damage with an unarmed strike, you can push the target 5 feet away (perhaps with no save?) And finally, you can wield furniture as a weapon, with Small or Medium objects counting as Greatclubs and Tiny objects counting as Clubs. That means that, rules as written, I believe a Monk can use tiny objects a monk weapons (Greatclubs, sadly, because they have the heavy and two-handed features, aren't monk weapons).
Tough: This works the same, increasing your max HP by twice your level.
As we've seen in UAs, there are potentially a bunch of other level 1 feats, such as Scion of the Outer Planes, that are meant to fit into this mold. We don't know what level or prerequisites other feats will have - when do you get to pick up Great Weapon Master, for instance, and does it have a prerequisite?
Most of these feel simple enough to be relatively easy to pick up for a new player. Feats becoming a core rule rather than technically an option is a big change, but I think probably a good one.
Moving on, we get to the Rules Glossary. Here, a few terms are defined, and you'll note that some have differences with how the current game works.
Arcane Spells: These are spells associated with Bards, Sorcerers, Warlocks and Wizards (they mention Artificers as well, but not as part of that list... we'll see when they put out a class-focused UA). However, the Arcane List is its own separate thing from the class lists, and basically just creates a new tag for other features to tie into (like the new Magic Initiate).
Artisan's Tools: All tools now cost 15 gp a piece, with the same tools as in the 2014 PHB.
Creature Type: This defines creature type as a tag that doesn't carry any inherent rules meaning, and lists the fourteen existing creature types.
D20 Test: Here, ability checks, attack rolls, and saving throws are now given the umbrella term d20 test (they still exist as separate things, but this gives us a quick term for referring to all three). It also suggests that a d20 test should not have a target less than 5 or greater than 30. The huge change here bring in a house rule that a lot of people already use (and maybe think is already true). Rolling a natural 1 will now mean an automatic failure on any d20 Test, not just attack rolls. Rolling a natural 20 now automatically succeeds (though doesn't bypass common sense limitations - getting a nat 20 on a Perception chck doesn't let you see through walls). The other huge thing is that a nat 20 will give you Inspiration.
Critical Hits: Here's another pretty huge change (and one Jeremy Crawford was careful to remind us all is not set in stone). Now, only attacks by player characters with weapons and unarmed strikes can get a critical hit on a natural 20. That's right, the Tarrasque can no longer crit you, but also, a spell like Guiding Bolt can no longer crit either. Regarding monsters, Crawford said that the logic was that Recharge abilities are a much more exciting way for monsters to do a big and terrifying action, and that it's not terribly fun when you first level Sorcerer is taken down by a Zombie who just happened to roll a natural 20 on their attack. Initially, I felt like this was a pretty cruel nerf to Warlocks, but we're going to have more mysteries surrounding them when we get to the spell lists.
Divine Spells, like Arcane Spells, are one of the new spell categories, these typically associated with Clerics and Paladins.
Gaming Sets now all cost 1 gold, and are another thing with which to get Tool Proficiency.
Grappled: The grappled condition now has a few more rules associated with it. As usual, your speed is reduced to 0 and cannot change. You now also have disadvantage on attacks against any target other than the one grappling you. The grappler can drag or carry you, but they suffer the new "Slowed" condition while doing so unless you are Tiny or two or more sizes smaller than the grappler. Also, you now make a Dexterity or Strength saving throw against the grapple's escape DC at the end of each of your turns, ending it on a success (this also happens if the grappler is incapacitated or something moves you out of the grapple's range without using your movement.
So, this is interesting. It makes grappled a more serious condition, but also makes it easier to escape - I've run so many fights where players won't use their action to escape a grapple because that action is so precious. Now, it's easier to get out, but the condition is definitely worse. I think a good trade-off.
Incapacitated: This condition has also gotten some changes. You can't take Actions or Reactions. Your concentration is broken. You can't speak, and if you are incapacitated when you roll Initiative, you have disadvantage on the roll. All makes sense, not as big of a change, but good to have it all laid out.
Inspiration: As we saw in d20 tests, there's a new and much more consistent way to gain inspiration. DMs can still give it as a reward, but you can also get it any time you roll a nat 20. If you have inspiration already and would gain it again, you can give it to a player character who lacks it. And you lose it at the end of a long rest (not just at the end of a session, which is nice). I think I'm going to start playtesting this version of Inspiration in my own campaign right away.
Long Rests are, I think, not terribly changed in this definition, though it specifies you have to spend 6 hours sleeping (obviously racial traits can override that rule) and two hours of light activity. It also specifies that a creature has to have at least 1 HP at the start of its rest to gain the benefits (though a stable unconscious person should, if they haven't changed it, get 1 HP after an hour). A break in a long rest of over an hour interrupts it and requires you to start again, but if you had spent at least 1 hour resting before the interruption, it counts as a short rest.
Musical Instruments are now all 20g a piece, and give you a Tool Proficiency (which we're going to get to).
Primal Spells, like Arcane and Divine spells, are the third category of spells, associated mainly with Druids and Rangers. The idea is that Divine Spells are tied to the Outer Planes, Primal Spells are tied to the Inner Planes, and Arcane Spells are tied to the multiverse entire.
Slowed: This is a new condition. You spend an extra foot of movement for every foot you move with your speed (effectively halving your speed). But also, attack rolls against you have advantage, and you have disadvantage on Dexterity saving throws. I imagine the new version of the Slow spell will simply inflict this condition, but it could also apply to things like Ray of Frost or other effects.
Tool Proficiency: Here, we get the way tools work laid out fairly clearly: If you make an ability check doing something that would use a tool with which you're proficient and you have, you can add your proficiency bonus to the roll. If that ability check would also use a Skill with which you have proficiency, you can make the roll at advantage. So, as I understand this, if you, say, are a Bard with proficiency in Lutes and Performance, and you want to spend some downtime busking on the street, you'd be able to make a Charisma (Performance) check with advantage if you're playing the lute.
Tremorsense: This is definite, I believe, in the Monster Manual, but here for the PHB, it shows that you can pinpoint the location of creatures and moving objects within a specific range provided you're in contact with the same surface. You can't detect creatures in the air this way, and it doesn't count as a form of sight (I'd like to see some clarification about whether that means that this doesn't count as "seeing" for spells that require a target you can see. I guess it means that you'd know that an invisible creature is in that spot five feet to your northwest, but you'd still be at disadvantage to attack it?)
Unarmed Strike: Unarmed Strikes are attacks you can make using your Strength and proficiency bonus to hit. On a hit, you can choose one of the following effects: You can deal bludgeoning damage equal to 1 plus your strength modifier. You can grapple the target, with a DC equal to 8 plus your Strength modifier plus your Proficiency bonus, and only if the target is no more than one size larger than you and you have a free hand to grab the target. Finally, you can shove the target 5 feet away or knock them prone if they're not more than one size larger than you.
This is actually a huge expansion of your capabilities. Merely having to hit in order to knock a target prone is pretty big. I'd also say that this arguable de-values Athletics and Acrobatics as proficiencies, but adds a lot of dynamic options.
Ok, I said we were going to get to the Spell Lists here, but this post is also super long. Let's save it for the last one.
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