hello everyone we have a brand new Unearthed Arcana we have classes subclasses we have Feats conditions we have new rules having to do with skill checks and attack rolls as well as how a critical hit functions so let’s just delve in right now and have an overview of all of that this under tarkana is filled with things I can’t wait for people to play test we’re playing testing them internally here at wizards and leading the pack in this play test for the classes are the ranger The Bard and the Rogue people are going to see in the next few months all of the classes from the 2014 Players handbook are going to appear in under tarkana so that people can read them give feedback play test them following after that you’re going to see a series of Unearthed arcanas that also unveil new versions of subclasses as well as some brand new subclasses for those classes the total number of subclasses when all when all is said and done 48. so we have a lot of fun things ahead of us to try out but today we’re focused on our friends The Bard the Ranger and the Rogue along with as you mentioned a bunch of Feats because each of these classes like all of the classes in the game has the option at certain levels of taking Feats including the new ability score Improvement feat which many fans rightly predicted is what was going to be coming and sure enough When You Reach any of the levels that in the past where you would have gotten the ability score Improvement feature now you have the option of taking the ability score Improvement feat does exactly the same thing as the ability score Improvement feature in the 2014 Players handbook or you can take an another feat of your choice if if your group is deciding to go beyond the ability score Improvement feat and the first level feat that you’re getting from your background in the previous unearth Arcana this UA also includes the Arcane Divine and Primal spellless all the way up to level nine and it includes a rules glossary that is filled with even more Treasures than the previous one and here I want to pause a little bit and talk about how do you use these Unearthed arcanots together because now that we have two out as a part of the one DND play test we would love for people to play using material from multiple one DND Unearthed arcanas the one main thing to keep in mind as people play tests is that the rules glossary of each UA supersedes the rules glossaries of any previous one DND uas so we’d love for you to take the character origin options from the previous UA combine them with the classes and Feats in this UA but use only the rules glossary from the new honor tarkana because over the course of the next year and a half we’re going to try out different versions of core rules and then see what people think of those different versions a great example of this is how we’re handling Critical Hits yes so you and I in our video last time uh talked about the fact that the previous Hunter tarkana had a rule that we knew was very experimental and had a good chance of not being what the community was going to cheer for but we were interested in seeing what do people think because there there were some angles to that rule that we were fascinated in seeing how can this serve the game we’ve already seen some of the responses and you’re going to see this time that for the current version of the play test we are using the critical hit role rule as it exists in the 2014 Players handbook so again make sure uh you know if you’re play testing and everyone else is play testing read the new rules glossary where you’ll also see that we are experimenting with different rules uh this time around for the D20 test this time we don’t have the universal rule of a 20 always succeeding and a one always failing instead we are playing around with some other approaches although there you’re also going to find a familiar friend in that we’re largely using the 2014 version of the rule with the catch that this time we’re testing rolling a one on a D20 giving you inspiration yeah that’s interesting uh because we we basically have three different modes we are looking at for getting inspiration in play last time we asked everyone to try out getting it when you roll a 20. this time we’re asking you to try it out when you roll a one we also in the previous under tharkana had another mode in the human of getting inspiration when you finish a long rest we’ve actually considered having that as a potential rule for everybody but right now we want to try out the roll a one rule for everybody and then humans have the special feature of getting it at the end of a long rest now speaking of humans and the other content in the previous undertakana the survey for that UA is still open and the response has been tremendous as of today over 40 000 people have completed the survey we’ll see how many more people uh have completed it by the time the survey closes next week we are then going to go into our investigation of what has everyone said about the different options that were in that UA we will look at all of the satisfaction scores and then in a future video you and I will get together and we’ll talk about what did people say and then at a future point in this journey we’re on together we’ll present a new version of that on Earth darkhana incorporating people’s feedback that’s going to be this cycle that we’re all in together during this long play test just like we did in DND Next we’re going to present something yeah we’re going to get the feedback back we’ll analyze it we’ll do a new version incorporating feedback and then we’ll get feedback on that new version until in a few years time the game coalesces into the new core books we’re also going to have several videos all about this on Earth turkana that will go a little bit more in depth is important to remember like we have had a record-breaking amount of people download The Play test we are very excited and if you’re watching this video please remember like we appreciate all the comments on YouTube and other social networks but what will really help us in the end is if you download the play test and then take the survey that comes out and leave your feedback that is how you help us sculpt the future of d d together yeah filling out that survey is the best way to have an impact on where this is heading now in addition to responding to what we see there we’re also going to continue to do experiments so I mentioned uh we are dealing with the D20 test and getting inspiration differently this time that’s just simply our design process proceeding that’s not even in response to the feedback yet because the survey is still open so people are going to get to see not only new versions of things that we’ve heard from the community that they would like to see you’re also going to see new versions of things based on our own internal play testing and also just different versions of mechanics we want to try out this is a play test and part of that is testing out sometimes multiple versions of things to see which one on its own resonates most for all of us as DMS and players of this game and then even further which options sync up well with the other pieces of the game because d d is a game with hundreds if not thousands of moving parts and we want to make sure that if anything shifts things are are really running together in a way that’s going to make people feel in the end this game is exactly what I want it to be so this time around what we’re asking people to look at are these classes which also are framed in a way that is new for the current version of the game let’s go ahead and dig into the classes then so we have we’ve got three of the classes here and then we’ve got subclasses attached so tell me about what’s changed so one of the first things is that framing that is going to be new for people and that is that these three classes are presented as experts so people are going to see in this on Earth Arcana that the 12 classes of the player’s handbook as well as the artificer who while not in the player’s handbook gets mentioned in this UA each of these classes is now a part of a group in this play test the ranger the Rogue and The Bard are part of what’s currently called the expert group so hence the name of this Unearthed Arcana the expert classes in future undertakanas you’re going to see the other class groups featured but we wanted to start with the experts now this new concept of class group new for the current version of the game is something that has appeared in dnd’s history at various times going all the way back to even the second edition player’s handbook grouped classes in a similar way big question is here what do these groups mean the main thing that they do for us is provide a way to deliver groups of classes certain elements of the game collectively so you’re going to see in this very under tarkana some of the Feats for instance have certain class groups as prerequisites you’ll see a feat where it says you maybe need to be a member of the expert or the warrior group to take this feat what that does is it allows us to serve up options to multiple classes simultaneously and also serve classes like the artificer that might not be in the same book as the 12 classes that are in the player’s handbook because since we indicate here in this UA that the artificer counts as an expert that means anything that members of that group qualify for the artificer qualifies for and if we were able to make a new class and put it into one of these groups then suddenly it is able to tap into the shared Tech of that group you’re going to see this in the next year or so where you’ll see magic items that rather than having a particular class or a particular feature as a prereq will have one of these groups or multiple groups as a prerequisite you’re also going to see that in many cases while the classes have retained their distinctiveness and their delightful asymmetry where they you know they work in the ways that are most appropriate for those individual classes you’re going to see more common pieces so one example of that in this current unarth Arcana is all three of the expert classes have the expertise feature the expertise feature is the signature feature of experts and so that means even the ranger now has it The Bard and the Rogue already had it in the 2014 Players handbook well now the ranger gets it too because one of the aspects of the Rangers class fantasy is being the best in a group particularly at things like survival stealth uh so that the ranger can be fantastic at what is Iconic for them and expertise is one of the ways that we do that another thing that the experts all have in common is that they are polymaths they like to have pieces within their classes that are reminiscent of things in other groups so it is by design that all three of the experts have components within them that are reminiscent of things that you might see in the Warrior group the Mage group the priest group but here mixed together in a way that is unique to each of the expert classes now we can dive in to each of the classes individually and their subclasses uh uh but that that overview I think is exciting because it shows that we’re not only thinking now of the classes as individuals and also then as a whole family but then also in these subgroups and we can leverage these groups in a variety of ways that I think are going to be really fun not only in terms of the options that we’ll be able to give people but even when it comes to party building something we know in in this current article is that when you’re building a party now if you want to create sort of a classic balanced DND party one way you can do that is make sure you have a member in your group from each of the class groups also something that people are going to see in both the Ranger and The Bard in in the sun earth darkhana is a list of suggested prepared spells one thing that we have seen over the last eight years very clearly is that sometimes playing a spellcaster can be a little daunting right right and so what we’ve done to make it a bit easier to ease into playing a spell casting class that you’ve never played before is we provide from level one all the way up to level 20 a set of suggested prepared spells for the class so again you’re going to see that here on The Bard you’re going to see it in the Ranger and in future under dark hanas when we get to other spell casting classes you’re going to see it in them as well where we take some of the most iconic spell options and put them on a list so that again whether you’re a new player or a veteran who may be just like I don’t feel like making a choice please d d book tell me you can go to that class look at the suggested list of prepared spells and just start with that you still have of course the option every time you finish a long rest to change that list but it gives you a nice starting point so that you maybe don’t have to do quite as much homework when you decide to dive into a spellcasting class that’s new for you so ritual spell casting has changed or rather people have more access to it yes so uh one of the many goodies in the rules glossary is the simple but important note that we are play testing currently that basically if you can cast a spell and it has the ritual tag you have the option of casting it as a ritual in the past a character had to have a feature that specifically unlocked rituals for them and we’ve decided to experiment instead with just the ability of again if you can cast the spell and it has the ritual tag you have the option of casting it as a ritual and just have that turned on for spellcasters of all sorts and all the classes eventually get in we didn’t touch upon this also can get access to Epic Feats or epic Booms that is right now every class what was previously their 20th level feature right they now get an 18th level and instead now at 20th level those epic Boons that are in the 2014 dungeon Masters Guide you now get one when you hit 20th level now we have a suggested one for each class but when you hit 20th level you now get to pick and those epic Boons have been reimagined as Feats and many of them are also available in this on Earth Arcana My interview with Jeremy Crawford on the upcoming Unearthed Arcana that dives into expert classes, feats, rules and more. https://t.co/etJootshGv. pic.twitter.com/Ma5fc94rxM
— Todd Kenreck (@ToddKenreck) September 28, 2022
Check back with us tomorrow for the new playtest!
— Dungeons & Dragons (@Wizards_DnD) September 28, 2022