Delving into the Rules Glossary in Expert Classes UA

 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).

Arcane, Divine, and Primal Spell Lists in the Expert Class UA

 Ok, we've covered the three classes and the feats, now we just have the spells and rules glossary. The latter is going to be a little more complex, so we're going to take a look at the spell lists.

If we are to take the Ranger and Bard as models for the way that spells are distributed moving forward, it looks like these lists/categories will replace class spell lists. As I mentioned in an earlier post, this actually does some future-proofing for the game - it's easier to add spells now without having to have a big section for class spell lists - each spell just comes with two relevant tags: School and Type(s).

Now, because this is now going to work with a broad rule rather than a designating each spell for specific classes, there's a possibility that classes will lose (or gain) spells with this change.

And because I'm that obsessive, I'm going to go down the line and take a look at what this means for PHB spells for the two classes we have.

Bards get access to Arcane spells, but they only get half the schools of magic (outside of their Songs of Restoration, Magical Secrets, and Further Magical Secrets features). Bards can only prepare spells of the Divination, Enchantment, Illusion, and Transmutation schools.

This actually applies to Cantrips as well - both in that they're restricted by school and you can prepare different ones each day.

So, let's look at the Bard list (using the Tasha's-era expanded spell list, but still limited to the PHB spells) and compare it with what you get in this UA. (We'll include the Songs of Restoration, as all Bards will get those (Healing Word, Lesser Restoration, Mass Healing Word, Freedom of Movement, and Greater Restoration). Also note that some spells have had their school changed - Thunderwave, for example, is Transmutation now (which seems odd, but it does mean Bards get to keep it):

Bard Gained Spells: Hex, Jump, Alter Self, Blur,  Darkvision, Magic Aura (Nystul's?), Rope Trick, Blink, Fly, Gaseous Form, Haste, Phantom Steed, Water Breathing, Arcane Eye, Fabricate, Stone Shape, Stoneskin, Contact Other Plane, Creation, Passwall, Telekinesis, Flesh to Stone, Reverse Gravity, Sequester, Simulacrum,  Control Weather, Telepathy, Shapechange, Time Stop, Weird

Bard Lost Spells: Blade Ward, Light, Mage Hand, Animal Friendship, Bane, Faerie Fire, Heroism, Speak with Animals, Unseen Servant, Aid, Animal Messenger, Cloud of Daggers, Heat Metal, Locate Animals or Plants, Silence, Zone of Truth, Bestow Curse, Dispel Magic, Feign Death, Glyph of Warding, Leomund's Tiny Hut, Nondetection, Plant Growth, Stinking Cloud, Dimension Door, Awaken, Mass Cure Wounds, Planar Binding, Raise Dead, Teleportation Circle, Eyebite, Find the Path, Guards and Wards, Heroes' Feast, Forcecage, Mordenkainen's Magnificent Mansion, Mordenkainen's Sword, Prismatic Spray, Regenerate, Resurrection, Symbol, Teleport, Mind Blank, Power Word Heal, Prismatic Wall

    Hoo boy, that was a lot. As you can see, Bards lose out on more spells than they pick up. However! I think it's also important to note that the new way that Magical Secrets works will help pick up a ton of slack. You can take your magical secrets in any of the three spell lists, and this allows you to prepare two spells a day that are from that list and aren't restricted by school. It seemed to me that losing out on particularly Conjuration and Abjuration spells removed a lot of options from the Bard, but you can get the ones you need pretty easily with Magical Secrets. The other big restriction is that you're now purely on the Arcane list, which has some surprising absences (like Silence). But Magical Secrets lets you pick any of the three lists, and is unbound by schools. And because you prepare these each day, rather than just learning a set number and stopping there, I think you might be in decent shape.

Now, let's look at the Ranger. With fewer spell levels to look through, as well as less of a restriction on spell school, I actually expect the Ranger to get more spells. But let's see.

Rangers can learn any Primal spell of an appropriate level (max 5th) as long as it's not of the Evocation school. Also, consider that Rangers now get cantrips, and so obviously you're adding a fair number with that.

Ranger Gained Spells: Druidcraft, Guidance, Mending, Message, Poison Spray, Resistance, Shillelagh, Spare the Dying, Thorn Whip, Create or Destroy Water, Healing Word, Thunderwave, Augury, Enlarge/Reduce, Call Lightning, Dispel Magic, Feign Death (how was this not a Ranger spell before?), Mass Healing Word, Sleet Storm, Conjure Minor Elementals, Control Weather, Giant Insect, Polymorph, Stone Shape, Greater Restoration, Insect Plague, Mass Cure Wounds, Reincarnate, Scrying, 

Ranger Lost Spells: Alarm, Searing Smite, Aid, Gust of Wind, Magic Weapon, Daylight, Wind Wall, 

    So, in the Ranger's case, their spell options expand profoundly, while they do lose a few. Rangers also now prepare spells, rather than simply learning them. They also have Hunter's Mark always prepared. You prepare a number of spells equal to the spell slots you have (and spells of each level for each slot of that level you have,) meaning that the Ranger winds up at level 20 with 15 spells prepared. That's 4 more than you have in current D&D, and you get to swap them out (and you've got 3 cantrips).

So, what do we think about this?

Again, I think that this new system is great for future-proofing, but it also puts us in a position where some things are a bit awkward. For example, Bards are the only class to get Vicious Mockery, currently, but if we assume that Wizards will get access to every spell school, that means they will be able to take it as well. We lose a little specificity.

Going general: again, Eldritch Blast's absence from any of the lists is quite notable. I do think it's very likely going to simply become a Warlock class feature. This will mean other classes can't get it, and it also might not scale up in beams unless you truly commit to getting levels in Warlock. 

It looks like most healing spells have been made Abjuration spells. I'd initially thought this could be used to keep Paladins away from Evocation spells, but then most of the Smite spells are Evocation. Perhaps it just creates some thematic consistency.

I'm inclined to think that maybe Bards are too restricted in their school options, though again, Magical Secrets could be the solution - though the first of those features doesn't come online until level 11, which is pretty far in.

Next post, I'll be looking at the Rules Glossary to see how the base rules of the game shift with this UA.

Expert Class UA Feats

 In the Character Origins UA we got roughly a month and a half ago (I think?) we got a number of 1st level feats - these are feats that players can takes as part of their background (or a second one if you play a human,) and the general intent was for them to be impactful but simple - things like Tough, for example.

The Expert Classes UA brings in a number of new feats. These are "4th level" feats, which means that you can't take them until you hit 4th level, when each class gets its first feat.

In addition to this, there are two other categories of feat - Epic Boons and Fighting Styles. Epic Boons are, essentially, 20th-level feats. Each class' old capstone ability is now gained at level 18 (though I imagine Paladins will be shuffled around, given that their old capstone was a subclass feature, and subclass feature levels are being standardized to levels 3, 6, 10, and 14) and now level 20 is when you get a free Epic Boon, which is a feat that's meant to be particularly huge.

Fighting Styles are special feats that Warrior classes (Barbarians, Fighters, and Monks) get, as do Rangers, despite being Experts, and presumably Paladins, despite being Priests. (I find this rather interesting given that in the 2014 PHB, the only "warrior" class that gets Fighting Style is the Fighter).

The way these work is that 1st level feats, Fighting Styles, and 4th level feats are all added to the pool of feats you can pick up as you level up and get more feats. If you hit level 8, you could take one of the 4th level feats that are generally designed to be the ones you pick up on your leveling journey, but if you feel a strong desire to get another 1st level feat or Fighting Style (and meet the requirements) you can choose those.

But, before we dive in, we should make a couple notes:

The first is that the Ability Score Improvement feature is now a feat. It's presented as the obvious, default choice for feats, but it's now considered just a first among equals, rather than a totally different game mechanic. It works the same as it did - you can raise one ability score by 2 or two ability scores by 1, to a maximum of 20.

However, you might be less inclined to take this for the following reason:

Every single 4th level feat (and again, remember that that's just a minimum level) comes with a one-point ability score bonus.

The upshot of this is that feats like Great Weapon Master (which works a little differently - let's wait to see the full picture on weapon mechanics before we lament the loss of the -5/+10 mechanic) now inch you along toward a higher Strength modifier - you're going to hit 20 strength later if you use these feats instead of the Ability Score Improvement one, but you can still get there eventually while picking up some awesome features along the way.

Feats can certainly feel costly the way the game currently works, but this encourages players to use them a little more, and I actually think you'll probably see some very powerful character builds that take a non-ASI feat every time.

Now, the full list of feats is far too much for me to go into every tiny detail. I'll highlight that I think Heavy Armor Master is way better now (reducing incoming bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing damage by your PB, rather than a flat 3, and also working on magical weapon attacks).

Also, several feats now include the "no disadvantage from ranged attacks while in melee with an enemy" that Crossbow Expert has - the odd thing that would often encourage spellcasters who'd never use a crossbow to take the feat. This is now rolled into both Spell Sniper and Sharpshooter (the latter of which, like Great Weapon Master, also no longer has its -5/+10 feature).

Fighting Styles' only requirement is that the character be a member of a class in the Warrior group - though Rangers, despite being Experts, can also use them (presumably Paladins will get a similar exception despite being classified as a Priest class). While I have no trouble seeing how Barbarians will benefit from having Fighting Styles, I'm curious to see which will look the most appealing to Monks (obviously, we're getting the Ranger-facing Fighting Style feats right now, so look forward to the Warrior UA for more). Among the options here, which are Archery, Defense, Dueling, Great Weapon Fighting, Protection, and Two-Weapon Fighting, the only one that I could imagine being useful for a Monk would be Dueling (most work as they normally do, though Protection is a little different).

Epic Boons are also limited by class group - as such, we're really only seeing the ones with no prerequisites or that are available to Experts.

In a very real sense, these are "level 20 feats," and while obviously in most situations you're not going to have other opportunities to pick them up, as with the old Epic Boon mechanics, if you earn a bunch of XP at level 20 (or, I suppose, you hit milestones your DM deems appropriate) you can get these multiple times.

While the level 20 feature is not simply "feat," it effectively is - you can choose lower-level feats to pick up at 20 if you really want to - though I think the Epic Boons are strong enough that you would probably be best off taking them. (Interestingly, the Epic Boon of Fortitude raises your max HP by 40, which technically makes it identical to the Tough feat given that you're level 20 - but you can pick up both, raising your max HP by 80 total if you want to be an absolute damage-sponge). (This one actually exists in the DMG already).

As a last little observation: Lightly Armored is a new 1st-level feat added in this UA. It's significantly buffed - it now grants Training (a new term for being able to use armor, given that "proficiency" with armor didn't use your proficiency bonus) with Light as well as Medium Armor and Shields. Essentially, this combines Lightly Armored and Moderately Armored from the current game. I actually think this is huge, because some classes really struggle to get a decent AC, especially if they're not a Dexterity-based class, and taking this feat at level 1 makes it pretty easy to get an AC of 18 from the word go.

As is evident here, feats are obviously no longer an "optional rule" in One D&D, which is probably fine given that I don't think I've ever played in a 5th Edition game where they haven't been allowed.

In the long run, I think this will make it a little more challenging for new players to build their characters, even if it doesn't technically make things more complicated than they already are. I love that 4th-level feats come with an ability score bonus, as it makes them less punishing to pick up. But at the same time, that makes it harder to ignore them and just go with a full ASI.

Still, I think this is a net positive for the game.

Class Groups, Spell Lists, and Future-Proofing One D&D

 5th Edition has been highly conservative when it comes to adding classes to the game. To a large extent, this is mitigated by the fairly constant release of subclasses.

Coming into D&D as a World of Warcraft veteran, the idea of subclass was not new to me - in WoW, each class has a number of "specializations" (typically 3) that can change the way you play. WoW has fairly strict group roles, so, for example, the Paladin has the Holy, Protection, and Retribution, which are designed to allow you to be a healer, tank, or damage-dealer, respectively. But other classes, such as the Warlock, for which all three specializations ("specs") are damage-dealers, nevertheless distinguishes each of its specs through a different emphasis and vibe - Affliction is all about using damage-over-time abilities to achieve a death of a thousand cuts, while Demonology is all about summoning a swarm of demonic minions to attack your foes, and Destruction is about landing massive, devastating spells that blast your foes away.

In WoW, they've added a total of three classes over their 18 years (with a fourth new class coming in November with their next expansion). But they don't add new specs to existing classes (the only time they did that was to separate out a single Druid spec that, depending on how you built it, would be either a damage dealer or a tank, but didn't work with a redesign to how specs worked.)

D&D, in 5th Edition, has gone the other route. Generally, they've added new subclasses to the classes, but have only introduced a single brand-new class to the game.

I wonder, though, if they're planning on doing more of that.

The Artificer will, unfortunately, not be showing up in the new PHB (at least that seems to be the current plan, but I wouldn't hold my breath). However, the playtest documents do refer to the Artificer with some of the new tags: They are an Expert class that uses Arcane spells.

If the Bard and Ranger in the new playtest document are anything to judge by, it looks like class spell lists are going away. Instead, we'll be using those three spell lists - Arcane, Divine, and Primal - but certain classes will be limited in what schools of magic they can use.

Thus, we can sort of approximate class lists - the Bard, for example, has always been limited a bit in what kind of spells they can cast (outside of Magical Secrets). They're full casters, but they don't get Fireball, because that's not really what a Bard is meant to be using.

Now, I think you could make an argument that restricting Bards to half the schools of magic is a blunt way of approaching this (not letting them cast Summon Fey seems wrong) but what it does do is it makes it very simple for WotC to add new spells to the game. Xanathar's Guide to Everything (and, to a lesser extent, Tasha's) has pages just listing all the spells that various classes can use - pages that they wouldn't need if each of these spells just has two tags: their school of magic and the type(s) of magic they are.

Fizban's Treasury of Dragons introduces, among other things, a spell that Artificers can use. Thus, it's making a reference to a class that they cannot assume all players have access to. Not the end of the world, to be sure, but slightly inelegant.

But also, this creates a pressure whenever they add new spells to the game - do we give it to the weird class that's not in the PHB? Indeed, what classes do we give it to?

If Artificers were introduced after these changes go into effect, you could probably use some basic rules about their spells: maybe it's Arcane Spells that belong to the Abjuration, Conjuration, Evocation, and Transmutation schools (or whatever). Now, adding spells to the game no longer requires you to consider Artificers specifically - if they fit in those categories, you're golden.

The same applies to feats. If they add more of these to the game, the fact that Artificers are already Experts means that you can just grab any new thing that is given to Experts.

So, let's say that I want to add another class to the game. We'll say Shaman (which is a WoW class). The Shaman would obviously be a Primal spellcaster. Maybe, like the Bard, we'd want to limit them to a certain type of spellcasting to push them into particular group roles. Perhaps not so much Enchantment or Illusion, but they'd have full access to the other Primal spells that a Druid gets.

    Side note: I assume that Clerics and Druids, being the only full casters of their respective spell categories, will simply get access to all Divine and Primal spells, respectively. I'd assume that Wizards will get all Arcane spells. What I'm less sure about is if Sorcerers will be limited (perhaps emphasizing things like Evocation over, say, Conjuration) and likewise Warlocks. Notably, the Eldritch Knight Fighter and Arcane Trickster Rogue already kind of work this way, though they use the Wizard spell list rather than the Arcane list (obviously, because it's only now being introduced).

We haven't yet seen new magic items, but in a similar manner, by linking these to class categories rather than, perhaps, specific classes, you can easily make an item that works for any Priest, which means that it'd work for Clerics, Druids, or Paladins, but also our new Shaman, which would probably fall into that category.

This really frees them up to throw out new classes with less infrastructure than you typically need to bring to make them work.

Now, will they actually do that? I don't know. But this at least leaves the option open in a simpler, easier way than they had in the past.

New subclasses could also make use of these. Much as the current Divine Soul Sorcerer gets access to Cleric Spells, that would simply be "Divine Spells" now. You could imagine redesigning the Storm Sorcerer to now have access to Primal Spells (perhaps limited by school).

Oath of the Ancients Paladins could get some Primal spells. A hypothetical "Circle of the Cosmos" Druid might get access to Arcane spells.

The possibilities really open up here, and even though it's jarring to see class spell lists being phased out, I think this is the sort of change that might feel weird now, but wind up being really good for the game.

Expert Class: The Rogue in One D&D

 Turns out these write-ups aren't quick and easy!

In his interview with Todd Kenreck, Jeremy Crawford identified the Rogue as one of the classes that most players find satisfying from the 2014 PHB. As such, the intent here was not to reinvent the wheel, seeking to retain most of what works about the Rogue and just make little tweaks here and there.

First off, the Rogue somewhat infamously currently has to wait for 9th level before they get their second subclass feature (consider that Artificers get their third at that level,) which has been a bit of a frustrating element to the class. Well, with subclass features now all showing up at 3rd, 6th, 10th, and 14th level, that's no longer an issue.

Rogues also, interestingly, get access to any martial weapons with the finesse property, which... might actually be the case already.

Sneak Attack, the core of the Rogue class, is, as far as I can tell, completely unchanged. However, at higher levels (13) the two modes of sneak attack - either having advantage on the attack or having a non-incapacitated ally within 5 feet of the target - combine, so that now the ally being there gives you advantage, which is great for getting to hit with your one attack.

Another change noted with Rangers is that the bonus attack you get with a Light Weapon while dual-wielding no longer takes your bonus action, but simply comes as part of the attack action (still only once per turn). Thus, you can still use your Cunning Action while being a dual-wielding Rogue (which is practically like having advantage on your Sneak Attack).

Now, some things have been shuffled around a little. Evasion doesn't come online until level 9, compared with level 7 - which is now when you get your second Expertise (which is odd, given that Bards and Rangers get it at 1 and 9).

Slippery Mind now also grants Charisma saving throw proficiency - which is rare, but will protect you against things like Bane or Banishment.

Interestingly, Blindsense is gone, which is certainly a nerf (though you're also getting Subtle Strikes - the aforementioned advantage on attacks against targets within 5 feet of an ally).

The phrasing on Stroke of Luck is simplified, but seems to introduce a new oddity: it changes the roll of any failed d20 test into a 20. Naturally, getting to use this on saving throws is nice (a kind of legendary resistance, in a way) but also... does this mean you can automatically crit once per short rest? Somehow this reminds me of the ending of Big Trouble in Little China (though that's of course really more of a Deflect Missiles thing). Like all level 20 capstones, this now comes at level 18, with 20 being the level for Epic Boons.

So, when all is said and done, the Rogue looks almost unchanged, except for a little shuffling. That works out.

Now, I'd kind of hoped to see the redesigned Assassin, which I think is in dire need of big changes, but instead we got the Thief to check out.

    The Thief:

Fast Hands has been subtly shifted around, clearly defining picking a lock as a Sleight of Hand check that also uses Tool Proficiency with Thieves' Tools. It also allows you to use the Search Action as part of your Cunning Action, which entails all manner of Insight, Medicine, Perception, or Survival checks (the Rules Glossary actually does a really good job of distinguishing Perception and Investigation as being part of the "Search" versus the "Study" actions).

Second Story Work now explicitly gives you a climb speed. It also allows you to use Dexterity rather than Strength when taking the Jump Action (interestingly, Acrobatics now seems to be more associated with Strength, though this means you don't have to worry about that).

Supreme Sneak does away with the requirement to move at half speed, and now simply gives you advantage on Stealth checks as long as you're not wearing medium or heavy armor (which I doubt most Rogues would be wearing).

Use Magic Device has been somewhat substantially changed. First off, you get to attune to a fourth magic item (still not beating Artificers, but not bad). You can also potentially avoid spending charges when using a device that has charges - you roll a d6, and on a 6, no charges are expended. Finally, you can use any spell scroll with a cantrip or 1st level spell, and then you can attempt an Intelligence (Arcana) check to cast higher-level spells with a DC equal to 10 + the spell's level. On a success, you cast it with Intelligence as your spellcasting ability. On a failure, the scroll crumbles.

Considering Reliable Talent and Expertise, by this level, with Proficiency in Arcana, you could automatically succeed on this check, which is pretty cool.

Finally, Thieves' Reflexes has been rather dramatically redesigned. This now lets you take a second Bonus Action per turn if it uses one of your Cunning Action options, which you can do a number of times equal to your proficiency bonus per long rest.

While there are certainly cases where this will be a life-saver - maybe letting you Disengage and Dash on the same turn to get away from a deadly enemy - I do feel like this is mostly a nerf. The nova-damage potential of a whole second turn on the first round of combat is a big thing to give up.

In comparison to the other classes in this UA, this one is certainly the most familiar - which is probably fine, given how effectively designed the Rogue already was. I'm very eager to see how the other subclasses look. I'm very happy to see subclass features coming earlier here, too (I still think Soulknife is my favored subclass to play if I play one, but it'll be very nice to get Homing Strikes at 6 instead of 9).

With that, we're through the class overviews. There are still a ton of feats to cover, as well as the Rules Glossary, which is arguably the most important part of these documents.

I suspect we'll be seeing classes previewed by Category - I wonder which one we'll see next.

Expert Class: The Ranger in One D&D

 Well, well, well. The Ranger has suffered in 5th Edition with the impression that it's underpowered - fairly or otherwise. This will, I think, probably change that.

While still built on the chassis of "basic martial abilities plus spellcasting" as a damage-dealer, the weird, idiosyncratic abilities of the 2014 PHB have been mostly replaced with the more broadly-applicable ones from Tasha's - something that one might be tempted to lament, but remember that this is why the class is so unpopular in the first place!

Let's start with Spellcasting:

There are two big changes here. The first is that, like Artificers (and, one presumes, Paladins once we get a look at them) you now get Cantrips and you also get spells starting at level 1.

The second is that you now prepare spells each day, rather than only learning a set number. This means that by level 20, you'll be able to prepare 15 spells, rather than the current 11, and of course, you'll more flexibly be able to swap between them.

Rangers can prepare any Primal spells they have spell slots to cast, except Evocation spells. Compared to the Bard's restrictions, this is pretty generous - you'll still be able to grab all those fun Conjuration, Enchantment, whatever spells. Just no Call Lightning (EDIT: whoops, that's not evocation. Imagine I said Moon Beam) and its ilk (note that healing spells have largely been reclassified as Abjuration, so no worries there).

Notably, because you can pick up Primal cantrips, this makes it very easy to pick up Shillelagh if you want a Wisdom-built Ranger (though your bonus action economy might be a little taxed).

Now, the one Ranger replacement-feature from Tasha's I really didn't like was Favored Foe. It felt like a poor man's Hunter's Mark that was overly restrictive and would become irrelevant at level 2.

The new Favored Enemy feature recognizes this and synthesizes it into something straightforward: You now simply automatically learn Hunter's Mark at level 1 (it doesn't count against your spells prepared). But even better, you don't have to concentrate on it to maintain it - Hunter's Mark simply lasts its full duration unless you end it as a bonus action or you become incapacitated.

This is excellent - it's still limited by your spell slots, so you might choose at higher levels to forgo it, but the lack of concentration on it means you can use it along with all manner of other spells - solving one of the biggest issues with Favored Foe. At level 18 (all the level 20 capstones were moved to level 18 to allow for Epic Boons as level 20 feats) Foe Slayer now simply raises the bonus damage to a d10 for you, rather than a d6 (while other people using the spell will be stuck with d6s).

Fighting Style is now technically a kind of feat - usually these are reserved for Warriors (Barbarians, Fighters, and Monks) but Rangers get an exception (presumably Paladins will as well,) and while you get one for free at 2nd level, you can also pick up additional ones at each feat level.

Roving from Tasha's is buffed slightly, giving you 10 feet of extra movement instead of 5. (You don't get the bonus if you're in heavy armor, but Rangers usually aren't).

You now get Expertise at levels 1 and 9, like Bards and Rogues.

Nature's Veil (from Tasha's) has been made baseline, though it now expends any spell slot instead of having limited uses per day.

You also get 30 foot blindsight at level 15.

As you can see, the class is not so dramatically changed, but a lot of the fat has been cut out and it's now built to play into its strengths a lot more.

Given the emphasis on Hunter's Mark, the changes to Light Weapons are also quite nice: rather than using a bonus action to make your off-hand attack, you now get that attack as part of your attack action, though still only once per turn. This means that a dual-wielder can now much more easily cast and then reapply Hunter's Mark without giving up their off-hand attacks. Given how synergistic that extra attack is with Hunter's Mark, that's quite nice.

Now, one of the ways in which Rangers have actually caught up in power since 2014 has been in the design of subclasses. I wouldn't be shocked to see the Beast Master as pretty similar to what we got in Tasha's, but let's take a look at the Hunter:

    Hunter:

While the Hunter has always been, in theory, the no-frills Ranger option, the various sub-choices within the subclass were often heavily weighted to a single choice being best. Here, the fat is cut out and we get buffed and revised versions of the various best Hunter features.

At 3, you get two things. Hunter's Prey is basically Colossus Slayer, dealing an extra d8 once per turn to a creature you hit that's below its maximum hit points. This works on weapons as well as unarmed strikes.

Also at 3, you get Hunter's Lore. When you mark someone with Hunter's Mark, you automatically know its Immunities, Resistances, and Vulnerabilities, if any. This takes one of the best aspects of the Monster Slayer - I love having a mechanical way to discover those elements of a monster (I wonder if immunities includes condition immunities?)

At 6 (remember, all subclasses get features at 3, 6, 10, and 14 now) you get Multiattack. This one's weird: You automatically know Conjure Barrage, which doesn't count against your spells known. But the weirdest thing is that you can now "downcast" it, using 2nd or 1st level spell slots, and subtracting a d8 for each lower spell level.

Finally, at 14, you get Superior Hunter's Defense, which lets you use your reaction to take half damage against an attack that hits you, but then also lets you redirect the remaining damage of that attack to another target (other than the attacker) within 5 feet of you.

Putting it all together, a 9th-level Hunter Ranger could do the following: get Hunter's Mark up on their target, cast Elemental Weapon at 3rd level, and then hit with a longbow for 1d8+1d6+1d4, plus 1d8 on one of their attacks. Not too shabby.

I think it's interesting to see this idea of leaning into class mechanics as spells - Favored Foe in Tasha's seemed to really go out of its way to avoid simply being Hunter's Mark, and here they've just acknowledged that that's what it should have been in the first place (while also meaning that Hunter's Mark can play well with other concentration spells now!)

This class redesign is probably going to be the most radical, but nevertheless it has me very excited to see what is coming with the other classes.

Expert Class: The Bard in One D&D

 The Bard is one of the three classes that has been released for testing in the second One D&D playtest document.

Bards retain their support-role focus, with Bardic Inspiration remaining a major class feature gained at level 1. The overall shape of the class is going to look familiar, but there are a few tweaks.

First off: let's look at how Bardic Inspiration works.

The biggest change here is that, rather than giving it to an ally on your turn as a bonus action, you now use a reaction to immediately give it to someone who fails a d20 test. This means that you're basically never going to have a BI die sitting around doing nothing because the non-Bard player who has it has forgotten it exists (or has been hoarding it for a "really important" roll).

Additionally, BI can now be used to instantly heal someone as a reaction when they take damage. This is huge because you can hold off on using this until they take a blow that reduces them to zero hit points (you need to be able to see or hear them, but they don't need to be able to see or hear you, which means that works!) This can be an absolute life-saver and do a ton to keep a character from dying and keeping things working in the party's favor.

Later on, at 7th level, you get BI back on a short rest - which is two levels later than before. Also, you now get PB BI dice, rather than your Charisma modifier, which means a little less early on, but ultimately more (and favors a multiclass dip). However, in addition to this, if the roll is a 1, you don't expend the die (the +1 bonus is still applied).

Next, another big change: Spellcasting.

Bards now get to prepare spells each day, rather than learning a set array of them. Also, as mentioned in an earlier post, they now get access to the entire Arcane spell list... but only half the schools of magic. Bards can prepare any Divination, Enchantment, Illusion, or Transmutation spells.

Note that Cantrips (0-level spells) are also "prepared."

The number of spells you can prepare is equal to the number of spell slots you have - which is actually true of the spells known for the 2014 Bard. However, you now can only prepare a number of spells per spell level that you have of that spell level - rather than taking, say, 5 1st level spells to give yourself more options, you'll need to take 4 1st level spells and, say, 2 2nd level spells if you're level 3.

Magical Secrets has been redesigned, where you can pick any of the three spell lists and prepare up to two of the spells from those lists, with no restriction on school. You get this twice. But these are flexible as you prepare new spells, so this is pretty versatile.

Songs of Restoration seems to replace Song of Rest, and comes at 2nd level. This works similarly to "Domain Spells" in that you get with Cleric subclasses (at least in the current system). These spells don't count against your prepared spells, and add Healing Word, Lesser Restoration, Mass Healing Word, Freedom of Movement, and Greater Restoration - spells you'd typically not be able to get outside of Magical Secrets.

Interestingly, this really makes every Bard an at least halfway decent healer (coupled with the healing use of Bardic Inspiration).

Bards historically have only gotten subclass features at 3, 6, and 14, making them the least subclass-influenced class. Now, subclass features levels are standardized across the board, and they'll be getting them at 3, 6, 10, and 14.

One subtle change is that Jack of All Trades only applies to ability checks that would normally use a skill proficiency you don't have - meaning that you don't get to add half your PB to Initiative rolls.

    So, before we get into the College of Lore, let's talk about this.

I think the most impactful element here is the change to Bardic Inspiration. It's going to feel much more impactful this way. The reactive healing is also incredibly powerful.

Bards here, as mentioned above, now have a pretty enormous array of really great healing capabilities. And if you take Divine or Primal Magical Secrets (and you're bound to get one or the other at least eventually, if not both) you can get the resurrection magic you'd need to really be a full healer (and because you don't have to pick them out when you gain the feature, but only when you prepare the spell, you have every reason to do so).

    College of Lore

So, a few things:

Cutting Words no longer affects damage rolls, but you get to wait and see if the target succeeds before you try it. Also, being immune to the charmed condition no longer prevents this from working.

At level 6, you get Cunning Inspiration, which gives you quasi-advantage on your Bardic Inspiration rolls (roll twice, take the higher number).

There's no Additional Magical Secrets, which makes sense given how flexible the new version of that (which you still get twice) is. Instead, you buff your Cutting Words later on to deal psychic damage to a creature you use it on (this is optional, so you can still use this in a social encounter where you don't want to actually harm the recipient). The damage is equal to the roll plus your Charisma modifier, so not shabby - some pretty hefty, automatic damage.

Peerless Skill is also buffed in a couple ways: like the new BI, you get to see if the check fails before using it, and on top of that, if it still fails, you don't expend the die.

    Overall Impressions:

This feels like it's a buff in most cases. Losing, say Countercharm is not exactly a huge loss given how underpowered that was in the first place. I still think I'm not quite inclined toward the class just as a matter of flavor, but I do think that the core features feel much more usable and effective.

So much of this redesign feels like it's catching those moments of "oh, crap, I forgot to use this ability" and redesigning them so that you can, in fact, use them (the changes to the Guidance spell, which we'll eventually get to, while certainly a nerf, are of the same ilk). Bardic Inspiration is going to make a difference far more than it has in the past.

The flexibility of being able to prepare spells is also a really major change (one we'll also be seeing in the Ranger). While I can imagine some people will lament the identity you can carve out with your selection of spells, I think that this will give players the opportunity to try out spells the might otherwise avoid.

So, my feelings here are overwhelmingly positive. Generally I've had that impression for the One D&D playtest in general, with a handful of issues (critical hits, a change which has notably been reverted in this UA) but overall a feeling of optimism.

Personally, I cannot wait to see the Mage UA, particularly to see how Warlocks are going to look.