Player’s Handbook Playtest 8: The Revised Barbarian, Druid, and Monk

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It’s time for another Unearthed Arcana playtest! For our final class-focused UA packet for the 2024 Player’s Handbook, we’re looking at the barbarian, druid, monk, and a few spell changes. Once we’ve gathered the feedback from this playtest, we’ll continue to work internally on the design of these classes and the other nine classes in the 2024 Player’s Handbook.

You can examine the playtest materials for yourself or click below for highlights on key changes in this latest packet, accompanied by insights from Jeremy Crawford.

Class Changes in Player’s Handbook Playtest 8

The following table highlights the more significant revisions to the classes included in this UA. Below the table, you’ll get a more in-depth look at the changes and also learn of the new spells and spell revisions included in the packet.

Player’s Handbook Playtest 8: Class Revision Highlights

Class

Highlights

Barbarian
  • You regain one expended Rage after a short rest.
  • Brutal Strike replaces Brutal Critical and provides tactical options in place of the advantage Reckless Attack grants.
  • Persistent Rage restores all Rage uses once per long rest, and the unconscious condition now shuts off Rage rather than incapacitated.
  • Path of the World Tree subclass features have been updated to be made clearer and allow for more options when teleporting themselves and creatures using subclass abilities.

Druid
  • You learn more Wild Shape forms, get temporary hit points when you transform, and no longer retain your species traits while in Wild Shape.
  • Circle of the Moon has been updated to allow you to cast Circle Spells in Wild Shape and deal radiant damage in any of your forms.

Monk
  • Monk weapons have been reinstated, and you can now apply the Martial Arts die to monk weapons, as well as unarmed strikes.
  • You can take a bonus action unarmed strike without having to take the Attack action.
  • On top of using Dexterity instead of Strength for attack and damage rolls, you can now use Dexterity for Grapple and Shove attempts made with unarmed strikes.
  • Weapon Mastery is cut.
  • Monk’s Discipline (formerly Martial Discipline) includes options that don’t require Discipline Points but can be enhanced if you expend one.
  • Deflect Attacks (formerly Deflect Missiles) and Deflect Energy now work against melee attacks.
  • Stunning Strike deals force damage to the target on a successful saving throw.
  • The new Heightened Discipline buffs your Monk’s Discipline options.
  • Instead of using a bonus action, Self-Restoration now resolves certain conditions at the end of your turn for free.
  • Perfect Discipline now gives you Discipline Points if you have 3 or fewer at the beginning of combat.
  • Instead of using a bonus action, Superior Defense can be activated at the beginning of your turn for 3 Discipline Points.
  • Body and Mind is a new capstone feature that increases your Dexterity and Wisdom by 4, up to a maximum of 26.
  • Warrior of the Hand gets more options, action economy, and flexibility from their subclass abilities.

Spell Changes and New Spells

Player’s Handbook Playtest 8 contains the following new spells for bards, clerics, and druids, as well as spell updates:

  • Fount of moonlight is a new 4th-level spell for bards and druids that buffs melee attacks, provides resistance to radiant damage, and can blind targets.
  • Starry wisp is a new cantrip for bards and druids that deals radiant damage and can prevent a creature from turning invisible.
  • Power word fortify is a 7th-level new spell for bards and clerics that bestows 120 temporary hit points split evenly between up to six creatures.
  • Healing spells like cure wounds, mass cure wounds, and mass healing word have increased their healing dice.
  • “Conjure” spells, like conjure animals, conjure celestial, and conjure elemental, have been redesigned to differentiate them from the “summon” spells from Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything, which will be appearing in the 2024 Player’s Handbook.

Barbarian

Artist: Eric Belisle, John HodgsonA goliath barbarian stands in a frigid landscape wielding a battleaxe

Barbarians are whirlwinds of Rage on the battlefield, and the changes made in Player’s Handbook Playtest 8 ensure plenty of opportunities to harness your barbarian's Rage in combat and channel it into new and exciting ways to crush your enemies.

More Rages, Less Interruptions

"We've now changed the Rage feature so that you always regain an expended use of Rage on a short rest. Playtesters rightly pointed out that over this process, we've made sure that every class has a good reason to take a short rest, except for the core barbarian," said Crawford.

Also, at 15th level, when you gain Persistent Rage, you can restore all of your uses of Rage once per long rest when you roll initiative. In addition, it has been modified to only allow the unconscious condition to end your Rage early, not the incapacitated condition. This is an important distinction because the unconscious condition is less common than the incapacitated condition, which means your barbarian will be raging until they’re knocked out (or put to sleep).

Get Tactical With Reckless Attack

Crawford said, "We wanted to make sure that the Barbarian had something at the levels that were previously occupied by Brutal Critical that was going to be more reliably exciting. And so we have replaced Brutal Critical, at all three of the levels where it appeared previously (9th, 13th, and 17th level), with a brand new feature called Brutal Strike."

At 9th level, when barbarians gain Brutal Strike, they can forgo the advantage granted by Reckless Attack to gain an extra 1d10 of the weapon’s damage and additional effects.

Your first choice, Forceful Blow, sends your target flying 15 feet (without a save, I might add), and you can pursue them up to half your speed without provoking opportunity attacks. Your second choice, Hamstring Blow, reduces the target’s speed by 15 feet until the start of your next turn.

You get even more Brutal Strike options at 13th level when you gain access to Brutal Strike Improvement. Staggering Blow gives the target disadvantage on their next saving throw, and they can’t make opportunity attacks until the start of your next turn. And Sundering Blow gives an ally a bonus to their next attack roll against the target equal to your Rage damage until the start of your next turn.

Teleport Yourself and Others With Path of the World Tree

"We've gone through each of the [Path of the World Tree's] features and tuned them up in some way," said Crawford.

On top of some minor changes, like Vitality of the Tree providing temporary hit points instead of regular hit points, there have been some modifications to the ways Path of the World Tree barbarians can move themselves, allies, and even enemies around the battlefield.

First off, the 6th-level Branches of the Tree now activates at the start of the creature's turn, allowing you to transport your ally to the best location for their upcoming actions or move enemies away before they can attack. You can also reduce the speed of the creature you transport to 0, ensuring that the foe you moved out of the way can’t get back into the fray.

The 14th-level Travel Along the Tree has also been redesigned to allow you to teleport up to 60 feet as a bonus action as many times as you want while raging. Once per Rage, when you teleport in this way, you can instead choose to teleport up to 500 feet with up to 6 allies.

In addition, there have been modifications to the 10th-level Battering Roots feature. These changes specify that your range only increases on your turn, you can only use this property with heavy or versatile weapons, and you can use two Weapon Mastery traits when you hit.

Druid

Artist: Lie SetiawanA green-haired druid sits in a glade surrounded by woodland creatures

The druid’s Wild Shape is their most unique feature and is a crowd favorite among players. The updates in Player’s Handbook Playtest 8 boost the druid’s shapeshifting powers and introduce new features to everyone’s favorite Wild Shaping subclass, Circle of the Moon.

More Beast Forms and Temporary Hit Points

Regarding the revised druid, Crawford said, "You're going to be able to know more Beast forms than you could before, and we have heard people's desire to have more resilience in Wild Shape even if they're not a member of the Circle of the Moon."

In the redesigned Wild Shape feature, druids now gain access to a number of Beast forms equal to half their druid level, plus 2. This will give you 6 known forms by 8th level, instead of the previous 5, and increases to 12 Beast forms by 20th level. By the time you reach Archdruid, you’ll be a walking zoo!

Using Wild Shape now also gives you temporary hit points equal to your druid level to help tanky Wild Shapers.

Moon Druids Get More Moon Attacks and Spells

Speaking of tanky Wild Shapers, Circle of the Moon druids see a number of changes in this packet.

"We keep refining, trying to get Circle of the Moon to the place I think that will really resonate with people who love this subclass," explains Crawford, "and so one of the things we've done is introduced a set of spells that the druid can cast while in Wild Shape."

This spellcasting takes the form of the druid's 3rd-level Circle Spells feature. This ability grants you extra prepared spells, and, most notably, you can cast these spells while in Wild Shape. This is instead of being able to cast Abjuration spells while in Wild Shape, but the list still provides the ability to cast cure wounds.

On top of this, Combat Wild Shape has been trimmed and revised to streamline the Circle of the Moon druid's Wild Shape abilities in combat.

Crawford said, "When you adopt a Beast form [you can choose to] have an AC that equals 13 plus your Wisdom modifier. We're doing this because often the stat blocks that the druid player will select might have a pretty lousy AC, especially for a druid who is higher level."

In addition, Circle of the Moon druids gain access to Improved Circle Forms at 6th level, which allows them to add their Wisdom modifier to Constitution checks when Wild Shaped to help with those pesky Constitution checks to maintain concentration. They also get Lunar Form at 14th level, which allows them to deal 1d10 extra radiant damage when they attack with their Wild Shape form.

Monk

Artist: Bryan SolaA monk strikes their opponent in the chest with a swift blow

The monk class is a unique martial class, focusing on swift movement and lightning-quick reflexes for attacks and defense.

Regarding the changes to the monk class in Player’s Handbook Playtest 8, Crawford said, "We have gone through the whole class and have made quite a few changes, many of them aimed at addressing the Discipline Point issue that many people have had with the class. [...] The class simply does not have enough points to spend to keep up with other classes, and looking at the underlying math of everything that the class does, we agree."

He continued, "Also, one of the other things we were looking out for [was] making sure the class [did] not have too many competing bonus action options because that was another big piece of feedback we got."

Unarmed Strikes Get Buffed, and Monk Weapons Are Back

"We brought back the notion of monk weapons to the Martial Arts feature," Crawford said. "People really missed having their Martial Arts die interacting with their weaponry, and so we brought that back."

In this packet, when monks get the Martial Arts feature, they can now apply their Martial Arts die to monk weapons, which are simple melee weapons and martial weapons with the light property.

Furthermore, Crawford explained some ways they've gone about streamlining the monk's features. "The bonus unarmed strike that monks get as a part of their Martial Arts feature, you can now simply do as a bonus action. It's no longer tied to anything."

He continued to add, "We've also made it so that the monk can now use their dexterity to set the DCs of their Shove and Grapple attempts, and so monks now no longer have to rely on Strength to set those DCs."

Discipline Options

Martial Discipline has been renamed Monk’s Discipline, and Crawford explains how this feature has been reworked to fix Discipline Point disparity, "Here we see our first examples of us reducing some of the Discipline Point taxes that were on the monk previously.

"Flurry of Blows, Patient Defense, and Step of the Wind all required Discipline Points. Flurry of Blows still does, but Patient Defense and Step of the Wind now each have an option within them to do something without spending any Discipline Points." 

For example, using Patient Defense without spending a Disciple Point provides the ability to use the Disengage action as a bonus action. But, if you spend the Discipline Point, you can use both the Disengage and Dodge actions with a single bonus action.

Monks now also receive Heightened Discipline at 10th level, which buffs your Monk’s Discipline options. With this ability, Flurry of Blows gives you 3 attacks, Patient Defense gives you temporary hit points equal to two rolls of your Martial Arts die, and Step of the Wind allows you to take another creature along with you while not provoking opportunity attacks.

In addition, there are now more ways to regain Discipline Points. With the 2nd-level Uncanny Metabolism, you can regain all of your expended Discipline Points and heal a number of hit points equal to your monk level plus a roll of your Martial Arts die. Also, instead of giving you Discipline Points when you've got none at the start of combat, the monk’s 15th-level Perfect Discipline now tops you off to 4 Discipline Points if you have 3 or fewer at the beginning of combat.

Activate Abilities Without Giving Up Action Economy

Because monks have so many uses for their bonus action, some of their class features have been moved to activate at the beginning or end of your turn without having to spend a bonus action. For instance, you can now use your 18th-level Superior Defense to gain resistance to all damage except force at the beginning of your turn for 3 Discipline Points, rather than having to spend a bonus action to do so.

This change has also been made to the monk’s 10th-level Self-Restoration, but it can instead be activated at the end of your turn to clear the charmed, frightened, or poisoned conditions.

Other Defensive, Offensive, and Ability Score Resource Buffs

In regards to providing the monk with more survivability, Crawford said, "Deflect attacks can now deflect melee attacks in addition to ranged attacks." Deflect Energy has likewise been updated to work on melee attacks.

Stunning Strike can now deal damage equal to a roll of your Martial Arts die plus your Wisdom modifier if your target succeeds on the saving throw.

And finally, the monk’s capstone feature has been changed to Body and Mind and increases your Dexterity and Wisdom by 4, up to a maximum of 26. That’s a modifier of +8 for those doing the math.

Warrior of the Hand Updates

The monk subclass, Warrior of the Hand, has gotten some updates that improve its flexibility, resource management, and action economy. First, they can now use the Addle option when they hit a creature with their Flurry of Blows. This option prevents the target from making opportunity attacks until the start of its next turn.

"We've made it so that the wholeness of body feature in the Warrior of the Hand doesn't require Discipline Points for its healing," Crawford said. However, you can still only activate this feature a number of times equal to your Wisdom modifier per long rest.

The Warrior of the Hand’s 11th-level ability, Fleet Step ability, gets an improvement as well, allowing you to tack Step of the Wind onto any bonus action you make.

Last but not least, the damage portion of their 17th-level ability, Quivering Palm, can be activated by forgoing one of your attacks when you use the Attack action. This has been revised from having to spend your whole action to inflict the damage. While activating the ability is now more accessible, it costs 1 extra Discipline Point (rounding the total to 4) and no longer adds your monk level to the damage it outputs.

Closing off his statement on the monk revisions, Crawford said, "So again, a number of quality of life improvements here. Also, you see again that continuing theme of looking for places where we can stop charging you Discipline Points unless it's necessary.

"I think when people play the Warrior of the Hand that's presented here along with the base class, you're going to see the monk that we've been seeing in our internal playtests. Which really feels like [they] are firing on all cylinders."

Your Feedback Matters

Whether you’re casually reading through Unearthed Arcana, theorycrafting new character builds based on it, or taking these materials straight into your games, your feedback is paramount to the 2024 core rulebooks.

The best way to get us your feedback are the UA surveys we regularly release. Keep an eye out for a survey on this particular playtest packet coming December 11. When the survey opens, let us know what you dislike, and if you love something, tell us why!

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Mike Bernier (@arcane_eye) is the founder of Arcane Eye, a site focused on providing useful tips and tricks to all those involved in the world of D&D. Outside of writing for Arcane Eye, Mike spends most of his time playing games, hiking with his girlfriend, and tending the veritable jungle of houseplants that have invaded his house.

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