This month, Todd Kenreck sat down with Jeremy Crawford, Game Architect of Dungeons & Dragons, to talk about the results of the final playtest survey for the 2024 Player's Handbook. The survey covered materials found in Player's Handbook Playtest 8, which explored the revised barbarian, druid, and monk, as well as tweaked healing and summoning spells.
You can watch the interview below, or scroll down for a breakdown of what was discussed:
The Revised Barbarian, Druid, and Monk
Player's Handbook Playtest 8 revisited the barbarian, druid, and monk. The barbarian received a new mechanic, Brutal Strike, and saw changes to the Path of the World Tree subclass; the druid's iconic Wild Shape feature and the Circle of the Moon subclass were updated; and the monk saw a variety of changes, notably to address the class's reliance on Discipline Points and to streamline features.
Each of the three revised classes in Player’s Handbook Playtest 8 all had high satisfaction percentages in the 70s or higher among survey respondents. "Our goal is for things to score a 70 percent satisfaction score or higher," Crawford said. "We view that as a floor."
Notably, the monk scored in the 80s and 90s. "It's really unusual given the size and diversity of our audience for something to generate so much unified satisfaction for it to start approaching 100 percent satisfaction," he said. Given its scores, the monk unseated the ranger as the most improved class in this Unearthed Arcana series.
But the work isn't done. Survey results are a key step in the game development process. Teams responsible for internal development and playtesting look to survey results and see how they can deliver more on what fans loved.
Revised Healing and Summoning Spells
Player's Handbook Playtest 8 also saw updated versions of core healing spells, including cure wounds and healing word, as well as new takes on conjuration magic. These changes all scored in the 70s and 80s in terms of percent satisfaction.
Notably, this playtest packet updated 2014 spells that allow you to summon one or more creatures, an effect that can be fun but also disruptive to the flow of the game. "We experimented with some new takes on those spells ... that moved away from summoning a stat block and instead summon a special effect that's themed to Fey, animals, or Elementals," Crawford said.
But if you love your summoned creatures, worry not. The Player's Handbook will include the summoning spells from Tasha's Cauldron of Everything.
More Surprises in Store for the Player's Handbook
Everything in the 2024 Player's Handbook is getting a careful polish for its release later this year. Although we have not yet announced a release date for the core rulebooks or shared their cover art, we promise you that we're looking to deliver the best core rulebooks that D&D has seen yet, and just in time for the game's 50th anniversary.
If you've been following the release of UA content for the Player's Handbook, we thank you. You'll be delighted to find new surprises when the rulebook hits shelves. Among these are new spells and features. You'll also discover a wealth of brand-new artwork, including a piece for each of the subclasses found within its pages.
What's in Store for D&D This Year
High scores across the board for the Player's Handbook Playtest 8 allow us to end this UA series on a high note. But there's plenty more work to be done, and not just on the upcoming Player's Handbook.
"As we continue to refine elements of the Player's Handbook, we are also doing tons of internal playtesting on the revised monsters that will be in the Monster Manual," Crawford said. He also noted that the Dungeon Master's Guide will include new and revised magic items and a new approach to encounter building that will streamline the process.
"There's a lot going on, but it's exciting," he said. "For us on the design team, it's a really wonderful way for us to be spending our time during the game's 50th anniversary." To honor the game's history and celebrate its fans, we aim to deliver exciting core rulebooks that will expand and streamline the way you play.
There's even more to come for the game's 50th anniversary. Keep an eye out for announcements and events over the course of this year.
Michael Galvis (@michaelgalvis) is a tabletop content producer for D&D Beyond. He is a longtime Dungeon Master who enjoys horror films and all things fantasy and sci-fi. When he isn’t in the DM’s seat or rolling dice as his anxious halfling sorcerer, he’s playing League of Legends and Magic: The Gathering with his husband. They live together in Los Angeles with their adorable dog, Quentin.
So, uh... Are there plans to at least attempt to make a psionics-based class again (a balanced one this time), or have you just abandoned the concept altogether?
This might sound really unintelligent, but I hope for one of the new books to be something along the lines of Fantasy Western. New firearms, and possibly rules for said firearm would be a treat. I would like more rules, and possibly new effects weapons can give out, maybe even modifying them easier would be a treat. Since it's difficult to run a campaign with weapons, and if you were going to gift players with a "Grave Gatling" it would be quite difficult to conjure up with the current custom item tools, since firearms are still barebones. Also, will the gunslinger have new rules, or will they downgrade it more? Speaking as someone who uses Gunslinger quite a bit.
This would probably make more sense.
I would still prefer multiple lower-level castings instead (better defense against multiple enemies), but I know the original spells were changed exactly to prevent slowing the game down by needing to track multiple creatures.
The new books are going to represent an updated Player Handbook, DMG, and MM. Accordingly, they are going to focus on the core fantasy elements of D&D and will not be adding any western elements in these releases. Additionally, Gunslinger is not one of the subclasses which will be in the book, nor could it be as it was not a Wizards-created subclass, but one created by Critical Role. As such, it will not receive any subclass-specific changes from Wizards, and it seems unlikely Critical Role is going to update it.
However, it will receive two additional updates by operation of other elements of the game being revised. First, the base Fighter class will receive some revisions, which means any Fighter features of Gunslinger will receive a makeover (as is the case with every Fighter subclass). Second, Muskets and Pistols are receiving Weapon Mastery traits, giving them additional effects on a hit. This will be a strict upgrade for Gunslingers using pistols and muskets (and you will have to talk to your DM about applying these traits to tools like the Pepperbox--Wizards is not going to write special rules for someone else's content).
Regarding setting, nothing in these books is going to create a Western setting, and it is almost a certainty there will not be Western-themed items when the items are revealed. What you are looking for is probably more of an adventure book or a setting book in a Western-inspired plane/area. No such book has been announced thus far for 2024, and it seems unlikely such a book will come anytime soon (with the small exception that Magic the Gathering is doing a Western-themed plane later this year, and D&D is overdue for a MTG crossover... but I would be surprised if they did a brand new plane rather than a classic one they have not visited yet. Granted, they did Strixhaven when that plane was still new, so there is always a slight chance they could port their new Western MTG plane into D&D).
really hope they don't stick with the in my opinion worse names for monk subclasses and renamed ki, but if i had to put up with one of them i would definitely prefer that the way subclasses are named not be changed to warrior, as that takes away so much of the nuance of the monk class and does it honestly a disservice as monks are not just warriors, they are just as much rooted in philosophies and teachings as anything else and martial arts does not typically lend itself to violence or combat except as either sportingly or a last resort or means of self defense, monk is one of my favorite classes and to me, the mechanical improvements will be meaningless if it also takes away such iconic an nuanced parts of their identity for no adequate reason, i mean they at the very least could explain the reason behind these name changes if they feel they are actually necessary when they do the videos and the like covering the ua for the revised versions, there is no reason for not being transparent about such minor but easily noticed changes that to me and anyone i know at least do not need changing in terms of names
You've got a point - it's not fun to summon "animal spirits" instead of actual animals, or "dragon spirits" instead of actual dragons. Why nerf fun?
Because this increases the net fun for the table. No more having four people wait around while the person casting the spell suffers from decision paralysis of what monster to use. No more “oh, I have not used this stat block before, can you all wait for me while I read it?” No more “okay, one sec, not used to this, let me remember how to pilot it.” No more, “darn, the animal I wanted to use does not have a stat block, hey, DM, can I use this animal instead? Or maybe this one?”
The Tasha spells streamline a lot of the problems which resulted in slow, inconsiderate, and sometimes downright rude play by giving a singular base stat block the player could be familiar with, then giving some interior customisation so they can summon exactly what they want, no matter how outlandish it might be. This both speeds up play, improving the net experience for the table, and allows the summoner to exercise the full range of imagination, not hampered by “what has a stat block or a near-equivalent stat block.”
And for those responsible players who both enjoyed the old versions of the spell and could use them without making everyone else miserable? Nothing was taken away from them - those spells all will work exactly the same way under the revised rules, so you can just port them into the revised system with no modification and play them. No fun lost; those responsible players can play exactly as they want due to the compatibility of the revised system.
Next, you can always just… ignore the spirit flavour. That is just flavour and not substantive, and Tasha’s rules specifically allow you to change the flavour of the spell. Thus, you can just say the creature you summoned is an animal, not a spirit, and your entire problem is solved.
Honestly, this is such an easy set of problems to solve that the only folks who really “lose fun” are the jackwagons who want to play with the old spells… but who were inconsiderate to others when using those spells. I don’t think game design should take those folks’ opinion into account—except to ensure the default rules do not enable such problematic players.
Uh, what are you talking about? There are already two psionic classes in the new core (Aberrant Mind Sorc and GOO-Lock), and we might even get a third if they add Psi Warrior to replace Brawler.
1) They were always "spirits." Try re-reading the very first sentence of 2014 Conjure Animals again.
2) I imagine the reason they were spirits, aside from explaining where these animals even came from to begin with, is so that Druids don't feel like nature-hating animal abusers when they summon a poor wolf to hold off the enemy while they and their allies run away. (Note that this is something that, again, the Tasha Summons still let you do.)
I mean, it's certainly true you don't have to care about what the lead designer thinks; that's why houserules and homebrew exist after all.
I don't care what outdated former editions did, I'm talking about D&D 5th Edition. Find Familiar in 5e has always been a spirit too.
I'm not especially excited about any "surprises," since a lot of untested surprises ended up as broken spells in the original 5e PHB, but overall, I'm very impressed with OneD&D's changes, especially the spells.
It kinda sounds like you should just stick to base 5e, my dude.
"Surprises" better not mean "Microtransactions on the redundant "official" VTT that's going to cause a frickton of VTTs to have the rug pulled".
I'd HOPE it means "free Beyond copy with the physical book".
Likewise, This is looking more & more like errata being sold as a paid update patch being sold as a book.
My hotfix?
Free PDF with all the errata, make it *optional* for AL & other official/sponsored events, don't charge a dime.
Also, Legacy content can only last so long before said Legacy is purged in the name of profit. Remember the Bilgewater subclass purge!
Nah, they have sensitivity readers for that sort of thing. And while a debate about the merits of paying people to help be more inclusive is certainly worth having, it’s not really on-topic.
All of these examples are huge oversimplifications of what’s really going on. Take the hadozees as an example — the issue wasn’t the race itself, but the language used to describe the race. In particular, they were enslaved and through their enslavement transformed from mindless savages to thinking people. They also included minstrel art that was eerily similar to historical, racist blackface minstrel art. Same pose and everything.
If you can’t see the real-world connections there, there’s really not much use in trying to explain. If you’re going to dumb down everything without bothering to check the real story, there’s no point in engaging.
And if you’re really so against the mitigation of racism in official books, you need to stop and reconsider your own values.
For anyone following along, actually trying to learn about the topic, and thinking this is a good point, it is not. The old spells were in the basic rules, and thus continue to be avail Lee for free online from non-Wizards controlled sources. Accordingly, they will always be available and always be able to be inputted into homebrew. No new players will suffer if they want to use the old spells.
You explicitly can as long as it is personal use (i.e. not published.) The mods themselves have said this. Moreover, the old conjure spells you're so enamored with are SRD/Creative Commons anyway.
Unless you're playing AL, where most likely legacy rules will be barred from play a few months after the release of the new rulebooks. That's the only reason any of this bothers me. Otherwise, I agree with everything you said. It's worth noting that RAW, you don't choose what animals Conjure Animals summons anyway; the DM picks for you. For that reason, Summon Beast is not as much of a loss as you might think, unless you specifically want to summon multiple for crowd control (which unfortunately is the usual reason I use the spell 😬).
For Monk's 80-90% ratings, it's possible that the players that didn't like the direction just stopped caring about UAs.
Would there be an upgrade option for those who already have the 5e content? Since this is more of an "update" than a new ruleset......
Gotta be real with you, friend; anyone who didn't understand the problems with the old Hadozee lore (and racism in D&D lore in general) has had plenty of time to learn by now. The people still complaining in 2024 are those who do not want to learn.