@@rightwingersexposed8800 Looks like the damage is only dealt if they succeed on their save, and it's only their martial arts die + their WIS mod, so it doesn't seem too bad at all
If there was 1 change i would make to 5e its this. The iconography of the druid has ALWAYS been tied to nature and usually plants but 5e heavily skewed it towards animals than plants. Each level has 1-2 plant spells and they're mainly small dmg or utility. I want to summon a piranha plant, I want a strong level 1 poison flower themed damage spell and I want to become a Ent by the time i hit high levels.
Fun abilities usually give a player more choices. Brutal critical’s sin is that it doesn’t give the player any interesting choices. Just extra damage that MIGHT eventually happen.
UA8 Barbarian's choices are basically: -Go for a defensive aproach -Go on the offense with more accuracy -Go on the offense with more damage and extra effects. That seems pretty interesting to me, and much better than what we had before.
@@Lucasfghjsokfdkjheu If that was how brutal strikes worked, I might agree. But I see a general theme that people aren't actually reading how Brutal Strikes works. Brutal strikes actually less damage than brutal critical, so you are sacrifiing your chance to hit and your damage to gain the extra effect. This is due to 2 factors that people seem to overlook. 1) Brutal Strikes will negate outside sources of advantage, so if you already have advantage, using Brutal Strikes significantly lowers your potential damage and since you don't have brutal critical, your damage is already significantly lowered if you aren't using Brutal Strikes. 2) Brutal Strikes only works on a single attack, so if you miss that attack, you've lost all that potential damage and since you don't have advantage, the chance you miss out on that extra damage is significantly high.
@@dwil0311 Nowhere does it say Brutal Strike only works on one attack. It doesn't say once per round anywhere, so you could Brutal Strike in all attacks. It just says you can use a single effect from the list per attack. Also you would only use Brutal strike on a situation where you're likely to hit without advantage. Brutal Strike is better than Brutal Critical simply because you have agency in when it happens, even if white room math tells you the damage is a little less. So basically you didn't counter my point at all, all the choices are still there.
@@Lucasfghjsokfdkjheu I do like brutal strike, but you do only activate Reckless Attack ONCE per turn, you dont activate it every attack. Just saying. I still think its very cool
You really did it, now it's a lot of fun to play monk without having to optimize anything or stop using some of your monk abilities or both. I love this new monk so much
Really liking how Brutal Strike sounds because for the longest time it felt like Barbarians got nothing with Brutal Criticals (I get Reckless Attack worked to set it up, but as pointed out it was still up to chance & it wasn't an interactive choice for the player like this new feature.)
If I remember the math correctly, advantage increases your chances to crit from 5% to 9% Improved critical at 3rd level increases it to 10%, and eventually to 15%. Reckless attack just couldn't increase it enough to matter
Something off about this implementation is that it seems to cancel out all advantage, rather than just the advantage from reckless attack. That really makes it a lot less likely to be appealing.
@Zapdos7471 Well, sources of advantage and disadvantage don't stack, though, I do wonder if it would be better to just say "when you have advantage on an attack, you can..." so things line faerie fire and such still benefit you
Brutal Strike sounds like the exact thing Barbarian's needed to be truly fun. This and Rogue Sneak Attack are the things I'll steal from this for my normal games
I’m so glad to hear about the scaling options for the monk. I wanted features like this for a very long time of a baseline bonus action, and a discipline point enhanced bonus action. Some of the other options sound very interesting. I can’t wait to see them.
This version of the druid (especially the moon subclass) for me is finally in a good place with these changes. The only thing I would add is an option to use your spell attack modifier in place of a beast shapes base to hit modifiers as a higher level moon druid. The tankiness and now damage are exactly where they need be, but (especially with the removal of elementals) the scaling of actual to hit modifiers is almost non-existent as it takes until Druid level 15+ before your beast shapes get an increase to their proficiency bonus (of +1) and then never again. As enemy AC scales and all the other characters in your party are getting steady increases to their to hits, as well as potentially magical weapons with further bonuses, you sort of just start roughly equal and then plateau for the entirety of your career. Other than that, love all of the druid changes, both moon and otherwise, and I think you guys did a great job!
They’re still determined to kill Druid as a tanking option. I’ve been tanking alongside a paladin and only holding my own by sinking all the damage. There’s no more option for this. I will do what is demanded, retire the Druid, and play a boring heavy armor class, I guess.
@@gnomeDruid We interpret the rules quite differently. I think the druid is more tanky than ever. The druid can re-wildshape with a bonus action every turn for the cost of only a 1st or 2nd level spell slots (or wildshape charge). By using all wildshape charges + 1st lvl slots + 2nd level slots, the druid can archive the below amount of temporary hp evey day: Level 5: 15 temp hp * 9 = 135 hp Level 7: 21 temp hp * 10 = 210 hp Level 11: 33 temp hp * 10 = 330 hp Level 20: 60 temp hp * 11 = 660 hp This is completely nuts amount of tankiness.
@@zaladar1 The Druid isn’t getting knocked out of form though, so it takes a bonus action to change out and another to change back. So at 5th level, you’re using your entire round just to get 15 temporary hit points with no attack. (Assuming you allow bonus actions on regular actions.) The paladin in our group with the 20 AC doesn’t get hit nearly as often, and still attacks. Not sure why we need affirmative action for fighters and paladins, but here we are.
@@gnomeDruid Ahh, I understand why you might think that you need to EXIT wildshape, before you can wildshape again, but that isnt necesary. The rules state: "You stay in that form for a number of hours equal to half your Druid level or UNTIL YOU USE WILDSHAPE AGAIN, have the Incapacitated condition, or die. You can also leave the form early as a Bonus Action." Meaning you can wildshape from a Brown Bear to a Wolf, without needing to exit the Brown Bear wildshape. Or you can wildshape from Brown Bear into a different Brown Bear (Ending one Wildshape and entering a new wildshape).
I think maybe if a Monk does have a Weapon Mastery, there should be an Unarmed Weapon Mastery, like Punches and Kicks being light weapons and a Body Slam being a heavy weapon.
@@activekiwi1221 I'll explain it slowly for you. They... are... stating... that... the... monk... could... have... different... unarmed... strikes... that... have... the... properties... needed... to... apply... for... weapon... masteries... Thus keeping with the established weapon system in which weapons have properties that allow them to have specific masteries and therefore don't allow a Monk to stack conflicting masteries on their unarmed strikes if they were to multiclass into Fighter. Feel like the concept they proposed isn't that difficult to understand.
@@teknogothyk what? Martial artists 100% specialize in specific weapons. It is extremely common. Many know how to use many types of weapons, but specializing is extremely common. What do you think swordsmanship (like kendo) is? It’s literally sword based martial arts. Martial arts is not just karate, kung-fu, jiujitsu, etc. it really represents all forms of codified combat whether armed or unarmed.
Love all the changes but it isn't just that we didn't realise reckless attack and brutal critical go together but with reckless attack we are talking a difference from 5% to 10% meaning the extra damage would be around 1 point extra pr attack
Adore the monk changes! Just wish they kept the Weapon Mastery because that’s what all classes get from their Warrior category. There’s gotta be a way to make it work!
I know you were joking, but I would play Aberration Druid ngl. My DM's homebrew setting includes playable (non-evil) illithid, and it's a lot of fun trying to roleplay something like that! A Far Realms connected druid would be incredibly interesting in an "opposites attract" sort of way.
One thing someone pointed out to me is that the UA says "chosen from among Beast stat blocks in the *Player’s Handbook*, you may choose from beasts from the Monster Manual *if the DM permits it*" This means that the 'expected' Wildshape forms will be the ones from the PHB, not the Monster Manual. Whereas the 2014 version does not include the limitation of the PHB it just says "you can transform into any beast that has a challenge rating of 1/4 or lower that doesn't have a flying or swimming speed." This suggests that, going forward, curated statblocks might be 'a thing' for the Druid, which means that things like Aberration Druid could be a possibility.
I'd like to revisit the Arcane-Divine-Primal spells. Not as spell lists, but as flavor added to the spells' information block as "nature" or "essence" to denote the origin of the spell in addition to the school (just a "school of magic" feels too arcane-y) so a spell could be known to be a "divine evocation" spell, and some classes could tap into using them as "divine evocation made arcane", by a bard for example... just an idea, but could allow for game development as well, i.e. if an arcane subclass could grab divine/primal spells from a feature despite not necessarily having access to that spell originally without using limited expanded spell lists and allowing players to choose more freely instead, to some extent
I think the main pain point of the moon druid is that you don’t get a scaling attack modifier. Meaning at late levels you simply won’t be hitting anything you come up against.
Yup. They need to get either their own proficiency bonus or the beasts whichever is higher just like skills. It'll open up lot's of options at higher level to use low level beasts and still be viable.
I am looking forward to seeing the new Conjuring spells and what area effects it’ll possess. A Spirit Guardians -like similar effect for Druids and Rangers allow for a new utility, instead of “I summon X many Giant Wasps and they take initiative after me or a new initiative.” The big headache of DMs and players. I’m ALL ON BOARD for these Monk changes. As I’m playing a lvl 20 Cobalt Kobold Monk, Way of the Cobalt Soul taking place in Exandria, the 2024 PHB Monk would make this feel like a very fun utility Monk. Especially with the changes of using Dex over Str for other effects than just Monk weapons and fists. I WANT A 2’4” KOBOLD TO GRAPPLE A GOLIATH!
I HATE the current conjure spells, and I always despise my players who try to use them. "8 giant badgers please!" I try to convince them to use the much better balanced Summon spells, but alas. Now the awful conjure spells are re-worked entirely! I'm not sure I approve of them still being called Conjure... but that's only done to fit within their "backwards-compatible" limitation.
If you actually played a character that uses the Conjure options, you'll see it's really not. They can't try and change the Conjure spells without touching stuff like Planar Binding.
@@Wannybooi except they didn't. Not in this UA. They removed the Conjuration spells to put these flavorless "Spirit Guardians" knock-offs that all feel the same.
I would like to say, for the record, I apologize for everything I said about the person in charge of designing the monk. I'm sure they were doing what they believed best within the constraints set for them. Now, with everything looking like this, Monk doesn't just look usable, it looks fun. If this was printed word for word in the new players handbook I would want to play it and am already thinking about a drunken master where their monk point are drinks they have on them. Thank you for these changes.
I do think the druid still needs to have the stat blocks for beast forms printed alongside the class itself, so players don't have to go hunting through the monster manual for them. And then maybe spells and monsters could have some kind of "wild shape" tag attached to them, so that as new spells and monsters are added to the game in other sourcebooks or adventures, it's easy to tell at a glance which new ones can be used by druids. Also maybe this is just me but I never felt like the Moon druid needed literal "moon" theming. For me, lycanthropy/shapeshifting is the theme of the subclass, not moonlight.
They normally publish the wildshapes/familiar statblocks in a Appendix of the Players Handbook. But a better option is to get the DND Creature Cards instead of the Monster manual as you can easily sort them by beast/CR if you are a druid... Hopefully they'll print the wildshape/familar statblocks in the new PHB in cardstock that can be removed - like they did for all the conditions/magic items in the Essentials Kit.
@@pedrogarcia8706 I just double checked for you and my PHB was is August 2014 edition and contains Appendix D: Wildshape creature statblocks. Maybe it was missing in the very first printing if you don't have it?
Please add something with options like the rogue cunning strike and the barbarian brutal strike to the ranger. It's the class that needs more flavour and combat options, both UA when is presents seems unfinish and without a core mechanic.
Honestly I love the new monk changes, feels so much better and more viable! The only very small change I would personally make would be to make patient defense either be disengage OR dodge as a bonus action without a ki point, instead of just disengage. Then the spending is to do both. Step of the wind would be fine as just dash then adding disengage because functionally it would be redundant if seperated like patient defense was. I don't think it would be game breaking and would allow for more options without being forced to spend a ki point to use the dodge action as a bonus and miss out completely on needing disengage as part of that. Every other change though I'm a pretty big fan of!
JC: "People aren't seeing that Reckless Attack sets up Brutal Critical" Sorry, who isn't seeing that? Find me a single D&D player that doesn't understand that very simple concept. The issue with Brutal Critical is that it is mathematically insignificant and not worthy of being a core feature of a class on its own. Maybe that's too subtle for him to see but people have been saying it for years.
No no no, it really is that subtle. Just like See Invisibility not negating the effects of the Invisibility spell was very intentional. You just don't get it silly.
I appreciate this video guys. Really wish there were nice neat properly labeled chapters to sort through when sharing your content from long format like this.
Can I just say Thank you! For changing all those conjuration spells? All they ever did was slow the game down to crawl or broke the game. This is MUCH MUCH better!
It is good to see that they are making positive changes here, but I am far more concerned and invested in the Warlock. I hope that they don't wait very long to put out another UA for them.
This will be the last UA for classes/player options. The Warlock already scored high enough that it has moved on to the 2024 PHB in its most recent UA's form.
I really hate that Chris [Edit: Jeremy] continually acts like we're idiots. Maybe players did notice that Reckless Attack and Brutal Critical works well together and yet like me they thought nonetheless that Brutal Critical all in all isn't a good ability.
We’ll probably keep the 2014 version in our group, maybe add in some of the new stuff. It’s probably fine if you’re being the WoW-equivalent kitty Druid, but not bear Druid.
So so happy they're giving martial characters more specialized combat feature, being able to toss an enemy on an attack or deflect an attack altogether are really cool additions that will hopefully bridge the gap between martials and spellcasters
I don't like the changes to the conjure spells, as the versatility and flavor is being gutted from them. From a balance perspective I understand why simplifying it down to circles and numbers instead of hit points and multiple creatures controlled by a single player would make sense, especially because the prior iteration of these spells were often a pain to manage (and you might want to look into Animate Objects too in that case). However, if this change goes through there will be a need to be an update to the Shepard Druid, as every creature summoning spell available to them will now no longer use hit die. That is a bit of an issue, as their 6th level class feature "Mighty Summoner" specifically references the hit dice of their summoned Beasts or Fey creatures. So without hit die on these summoning spells to reference, they lose half of the benefit from this class feature. Side note, it is probably a wording error, but the new Conjure Animals spell summons a group of "nature spirits" which isn't ever specified in the spell as either Fey or Beasts, so their ability wouldn't even interact with that spell anymore. Also, assuming this change goes through, I'd highly suggest adding the word "spirit" to the updated spell names. The name "Conjure Woodland Beings" no longer makes much sense when it does not conjure multiple beings, but actually summons a swarm of fey spirits, so something like Conjure Woodland Spirits would be a more apt name in this case. Same with Conjure Minor Elemental, Conjure Celestial etc. etc. I'd love to summon some spirits, this sounds like a great idea for spells, but I wish the execution of this spell re-work did more than just circles of damage and healing.
Talking about Flurry Of Blows like that's actually a noticeable change? Sounds pretty much exactly like it has always been, except the pre-reqs are gone like the normal BA attack.
Yeah, I was confused by that too. Do they mean you get to choose to use Flurry of Blows after you've already made your regular BA unarmed strike? That would be great QOL, letting you save ki if your first unarmed strike kills the thing.
That's because it is, he's saying what this functionally does is bring SotW and Patient Defense in line with the same principle as Martial Arts BA attack vs Flurry of Blows - for each *kind* of thing (safety, maneuver ability, offense), there's a simple version that doesn't require a Discipline Point (Disengage, Dash, or Unarmed strike as BA) or an Empowered version that does the job even better at the cost of a Bonus Action (Patient Defense, Step of the Wind, Flurry of Blows). It's more a design ethos statement than a tangible rules statement.
This vast improvement to an already solid tabletop game system has me on the edge of my seat waiting with baited breath to see it's full release! Wizards of the Coast made such wise decisions with this tabletop game. I can't wait to try out my new D&D One campaign and play the dashing elf bard!
The new conjuration options sound like a great way to tie mechanics to new lore. Distinguishing physical manifestation versus spiritual/energy manifestations. Actually has a lot of interesting, implications, and nuance to it.
They fixed the conjure spells by not allowing you to summon multiple creatures to crash the action economy but also gave them benefits to make them worth casting.
Hard disagree. The conjure spells are no longer really conjure spells. They aren't worth casting, and those were the backbone of the druid class. No point playing one now.
1. I love the new Barbarian & think that the World Tree subclass is now pretty great! 2. The new Druid is the best version in any edition. Easy to play & good choices. 3. Monk - excellent changes. Level 1 remains weak (glorified commoner). I recommend Expertise in class skills only. 4. Conjuration Spells - PCs trying to attack a conjured foe will be nightmarish. Other spells are nice & clear, & solid!
I like a lot of these monk changes, although I feel like it should probably still just as a base, give you monk level +1 or +2 discipline points, thosw first few levels are quite tight.
@@leodouskyron5671 Never had a problem with Ki/DP usage personally. And with the new monks ability to fully restore it 1/LR and the fact it all comes back every short rest anyway I can't see the new monk really having much of a problem with it
@@dwil0311As a person who enjoys Barbarian, trading advantage for more damage and an additional effect is a worthy trade. I’m playing for my massive hp pool so I’m gonna use my massive hp pool. Plus rage makes healing more effective on a Barbarian as most enemies deal bps damage
@@dwil0311 it means that you can get advantage from other sources to make up for it. It adds a reason to pay attention to teamwork, support spells, magic item abilities, and the environment that the Barbarian didn't get to care for because they could always give themselves advantage
@@Wyrmshield No, becuase you can't use these abilities if you get advantage from other sources. Any additional source of advantage that you'd get would cancel with reckless attack regardless of whether or not you use this new feature.
This playtest packet is great. The only criticism I have is that limiting Wild Shapes to just those in the PHB (MM being locked behind DM permission) severely hurts the Moon Druid if the player has an inflexible DM. In such a game, Circle Form doesn't provide any real benefit except for the temp HP and decent AC beyond 5th level due to the fact that none of the Beast stat blocks in the current PHB have a CR higher than 1 and the attack bonus of these beasts being too low to hit anything at higher levels. I think that the easy way to address this is to either permit MM by default (either for all Druids or just the Moon Druid), add all the beast stat blocks in the MM to the PHB or let the Moon Druids use Spell Attack bonus for the Wild Shape's attacks.
A really important thing is that even more mastery property options could be added to versatile weapons. A fighter being able to add graze or cleave in addition to the already possible sap, slow and topple properties strengthens the idea that these weapons were created for a wider range of occasions.
"That interaction - what we have found - is too subtle for some people. They're not seeing that Reckless Attack sets up Brutal Critical." Gotta love that tone deaf player blaming.
Bastions and Cantrips came out Oct 5. Where are you seeing a release date for Playtest 8? Edit - Oh wait, the video description. Nevermind, ignore me. I was looking at the playtest stuff on dndbeyond.
It’s a small thing; but the “Starry Wisp” cantrip (for Druid’s and Bards) is simply neat. A radiant cantrip that isn’t tied to a Dexterity or Constitution saving throw…but rather to an Attack roll…is a fantastic addition. It’s also just a neat visual…a Druid or Bard flinging a bit of starlight through the air…or a Bard weaponizing an actual floating musical note.
Barbarian and Druid look amazing now. No more expectation of book diving for forms! Barbarians at high level look exciting now! Cant wait to playtest this!
You re making a good work, but i would like to point that I believe it is important to give the Druid the option to use his spell DC qnd spell attack in any option he uses DC from iis wild Shape. At high levels, the abilities of animal forms are extremely low, making most DCs and attacks obsolete. Allowing you to use magic attack and spell DC solves this very easily.
They heard that players were asking to use weapon mastery and martial arts die at the same time and they just wanted to get our hopes up for a few seconds before completely shutting that down.
Brutal strike with weapon mastery seems cool, but doesn't it sound like something a fighter should be doing? Pairing different effects on hit for tactical advantage and creative combos. Feels like fighter and barbarian should exchange names at this point, because now fighter feels like the dumb "I hit things 6 times" class, while barb combines different maneuvers for cool tactical play.
Definite improvement for the Monk. Still think the ki points should be monk level + prof. Bonus + wisdom score and then they don't even need to be a short rest class. 6 or 7 points at level 2, 18ish points at level 10 and 31 points at level 20 feels right for a full rest
In all my monk homebrews, they always get Ki/Discipline points bonus equal to their wisdom modifier. This alone gets them through the "low ki/discipline points" problem at lower levels. Proficiency bonus-scaling features have been generally disliked because these still improve even when multiclassing out of the class that grants the feature - this being Ki/Discipline Points and the Monk.
@@wtchrol7864 I don't hate that though. It just keeps the ability useful and it's not like prof bonuses get out of pocket ever. We're talking a couple extra flurry of blows per day
@@Devgal89 I agree with proficiency bonus scaling, but the design team initially granted this to clerics, then took it back and removed it from other classes' features as well. From that perspective, they wouldn't tie Discipline points to proficiency bonus anymore.
Legit, better healing spells is healthy for the game. If you have heals be more worth it, spellcasters will be more invested in healing. Taking away from their extremely OP options and making the martials feel better simultaneously.
In comparison, seeing the Barbarian and Rogue receiving a toybox that works by foregoing one benefit in favor of another (Brutal Strike and Cunning Strike), I'm even more convinced that Weapon Adebt from Playtest 5 should be kept in the 2024 fighter base class. The feature is balanced, guarantees this constant versatility of benefit present in the barbarian and rogue, and also reinforces the fighter's identity. Weapon Adebt should even come at a lower level (like seventh or ninth), there is no need for a previous feature that REPLACES mastery properties instead of ADDING them.
Another really important thing is that even more mastery property options could be added to versatile weapons. A fighter being able to add graze or cleave in addition to the already possible sap, slow and topple properties strengthens the idea that these weapons were created for a wider range of occasions.
You shouldn't have removed Weapon Mastery for monks it's really in theme, imagine a monk toppling an adversary with a quarterstaff. It really on point. It just doesn't really mesh with Open hand but that's ONE subclass. There is other that can benificiate from it. Also there is a lot of martial artists using weapons particulary in East Asia thinking of shaolin monks and kungfu in general but also Chinese and Korea fantasy regulary have a Sword Saint or a Spear expert focused on their dedication on the mastery of a weapon. You can just have this feat at level 1 and not upgrading it. It really goes in flavor with dedication fighters. It's a bit redoundent with other features as well but maybe the problem is that monk has to be considered being played with a weapon and certain feat should be Unarmed strikes only (wich doesn't change much since every monk does unarmed strikes even with a weapon I agree). Or make it part of Martial arts : You can use the Mastery property of 2 Monks weapons per day.
I was just browsing DnD Beyond, and Circle of Moon Druids still have quite a bad problem with scaling. CR 2 and 3 Beasts just do not scale very well. I'm so confused why introducing Stat blocks was so frowned upon by everyone. Not gaining Multiattack in CR 2 and 3 Beasts makes the CR 1 Brown Bear still look good; the Giant Scorpion is good, but then... you have to be a Giant Scorpion. You don't gain any benefit unless you optimize, and that's taking away any flavor you may want. And sure, most DMs would allow you to just say, "You can say it is X creature instead but keep the mechanics," but that's exactly what the Stat blocks did anyway.
The melee deflect attacks was in my opinion the smallest change they could've made to improve the monk the most. The new version still has a lot of problems, but it actually has stuff going for it now.
Options like cunning strike and brutal strike are the way for martial artists to shine. Half Casters can work with spells or features that involve them (hunters mark or smite for example). If the fighter starts to make more constant use of multiple mastery properties, I think it would be cool.
I have to say I love the new Monk, just please fix the feature progression for the Open Hand subclass, and it's golden. I have been brutally honest about how bad the monk design has been up until now, including how the last UA featuring the monk literally made it worse than its 2014 version, which was already the worst class in the game by a gigantic margin. But this UA seems right on the money. Congrats! What I love the most is that the monk finally feels like it can take advantage of its mobility in a way that other classes can't. One big struggle in 5th Edition combat is the notion that any time your character is not doing damage, it is probably wasting time. I don't like that mindset, and prefer for players to have options that let them find meaningful and helpful respites mid-combat. This new monk can run into the fray, punchy punchy punchy, and run out safely, taking an ally along for the ride, and being a constant threat that draws enemy attention. You can even choose to either run out of enemy range carrying a wounded ally, or run into range carrying a much beefier ally into the fun zone, and dodging attacks the whole time. This is awesome.
Those changes seem awesome, the only painpoint I have with all of this now is, the barbarian seems to do more weapon mastery stuff than the fighter, how did that happen? XD
*** Conjure Spell Name *** You may want to drop the use of major and minor as key words in the spell names which may limit your ability to name things. Maybe you can use: Minor for levels 1-2, Lesser for 3-4, no modifier for 5-6, Major for 7-8, Titanic, Dire, Mythic, or something similar for Level 9 craziness? This could carry over to summons and other similar spells too. Some suggestions for name changes so that they are more explicit and the player knows what they are getting and for consistency: Change Conjure Celestial to Conjure Major Celestial Radiance Change Conjure Animals to Conjure Lesser Animal Swarm Change Conjure Minor Elementals to Conjure Lesser Elemental Swarm Aura (or something similar) Change Conjure Woodland Beings to Conjure Woodland Swarm Aura (or something similar) *** Or, if you use the lesser, minor, etc to talk about the relative powers of the creature as compared to others of its kind, then maybe have the names be something more like, "Summon Demons, Minor", "Summon Demons, Lesser", "Summon Demons", or "Summon Demons, Greater", etc... would work and be more consistent. - Summon , . I like this naming convention better. Conjure Elemental - There is no movement option? Should there be? The others have a movement option. Honestly, when it makes sense, merge All of these conjure options into one line of spells for each level and/or have it scale with each level which will make it easier to update and to add options. ** Cure Spells ** Loving the cure spells update. Now I will not be annoyed with Healing Word.
I have been thinking this since we first saw the updates to the Two-Weapon fighting via the Light Weapon Property in the Expert UA, but I really feel like the Unarmed Strike Bonus Attack of Monks wording should be updated to grant them the ability to use Unarmed Strikes via the Light Weapon Property, followed with an update so that Flurry of Blows grants 2 attacks via the Light Weapon Property, whether those attacks are with weapons, or Unarmed Strikes... Like make it a two bullet points feature "Your Unarmed Strikes count as a weapon with the Light property for making attacks via the Light Weapon Property", and "you can use a Bonus Action to make an attack via the Light Weapon Property, even if you did not take the Attack Action" I would love it if there was a way to apply the Nick Weapon Mastery to a weapon, and/or Unarmed Strike, and then spend a point to make two additional attacks as part of the Attack Action, leaving your bonus action free for the other monk features people rarely use.
I love the sound of brutal attack. If it is as great as it sounds, this could be the reason to play a barbarian into higher levels. I wonder how it works when you have double advantage. If you forgo advantage from your reckless but would still have advantage without it.
There is no such thing as double advantage. "If circumstances cause a roll to have both advantage and disadvantage, you are considered to have neither of them, and you roll one d20. This is true even if multiple circumstances impose disadvantage and only one grants advantage or vice versa. In such a situation, you have neither advantage nor disadvantage" - PHB, Advantage section
@@The_Crimson_Witch Yes but it is all a question of wording. It could say 'if you forgo the advantage granted to you by reckless attack' and you have an advantage from the creature being blinded, you would still have an advantage in my book. That is why I think it should be clarified to avoid unnecessary discussions that I can already see play out.
oh yeah can't wait for everyone be wild shape moon druid... awesome meanwhile all the other subclasses are just dead and half the classes are well just useless compared to this
@@rightwingersexposed8800Circle of the moon druid is genuienly not that bad or unbalanced even within other druid subclasses a bunch of temp hp is not the same as 2014 moon druids turningninto giant squids every combat and never losing any true resources
3:27 Very insulting to say the least, sure you can gain a higher chance at criting thanks to reckless attack but it’s not a 50% chance to crit, it’s not a 30% chance to crit, it’s 11% chance to crit and that means when it happens it’s great but it’s not often it’s still really rare, but here you are acting like everyone is an idiot for not seeing your genius. It really in the end is not a setup, a set up should guarantee a crit not give a marginal chance to get it. If you wanted it to be setup then why not make it something like “Forgo one of your attacks and instead get an guaranteed crit if you hit your target” that’s something that’ll set it up not reckless attack.
I like what they're doing. I'm glad they seem to be hearing people's feedback. Wizards get Wish at 17th level and can cast it every day as a base class feature. Are you doing Wish-level things at 17th level? Probably not. Monks should be Goku or Chuck Norris at 17th level. You're barely a Ninja Turtle. Make them Chuck Norris, then back them off to Wizard-level characters.
The issue is that this was powerful like a Wizard casting a fireball … and that is the level spell effect they have to provide while being table friendly. I have to do some math here
Choosing what to Conjure* at what CR depending on what you need for the situation better not be dead and gone. 38:00 Knowing about creatures you can conjure and coming up with different things like mounting conjured creatures or have them use their spells is what made the playstyle valuable and quirky. I really hope they expanded this new summoning options. God forbid players might do something instead of rolling damage dices like a braindead
I kind of feel that unarmored AC calculations should be tied to proficiency bonuses to let them scale on their own. Something like 10 + proficiency bonus + ability score. For Druids in Wild Shape use Wis, for Monks have them choose Dex or Wis and for Barbarians have them choose between Con and Dex. Thoughts?
The summon spell reworks are actively ruining the spells. Why does "Conjure minor elementals" give a bonus to melee damage? Who thought that was a good idea? What about conjuring minor elementals makes one think "Oh, now my fists do lightning damage?"
Would really prefer something like the Dazed condition on a success for Stunning Strike rather than damage. Makes sense too that I don't fully stun them, but I kind of do.
Since GWM is gone (well, "gone"), I feel much better about Reckless Attack. Previously, it was a no-brainer - you want 10 extra damage per swing, and Reckless Attack soaks up the -5 penalty to hit. Now that there are no self-imposed penalties, and GWM's damage has been folded into Weapon Mastery, the notion of forgoing advantage for a Brutal Strike is really interesting!
At minutes 35-40 you get to listen to a man spend 5 minutes explaining that mass summoning spells have been removed in favor of the Tasha’s summoning spells, but provide no specifics. Just 5 solid minutes stating and re-stating that actually summoning a creature will be done through the Tasha’s spells, the conjure whatever spells now do a different thing. What is that thing? Dunno, he somehow didn’t get to that in the 5 minute description!
35:27 This talk of conjuration spells makes me wonder about one aspect of Prestidigitation, say you conjure a pen, pencil(modern setting), ink-bottle/quill(classic), and write with it on non conjured paper, when the writing instruments vanish does the ink/graphite on the paper also vanish?
Barbarian and monk changes are great. Given that these changes exist along side rather than replace 2014 options though, I still see very few compelling reasons why you would play a 2024 Druid over 2014 one. WOTC should have provided a compelling template form option for 2024
Patient Defense still requires a point if you want to bonus action dodge even if you don’t want to disengage. Instead they should have the choice to dodge or disengage free and then to do both at a cost of one point.
How so? They don’t generally have exceptional HP or AC for a martial class. They already have the ability to take dodge as a bonus action instead of an action like every other class it simply costs a resource. It’s also a choice they have to make between doing that or taking a bonus action attack or any other bonus actions they may want to take.
More flavour to classes… that is the way! 😊 Barbarian doing brutal things with a risk, monk being the super fast million hits per round whirlwind, dodging and blocking at incredible speed. Druids being magic users that also can chape change. Keep on painting classes to with these brushes!
As someone who's played as a monk for the past 2 years and DM'd for a monk about half that, I'm extremely excited for the new monk changes
i am so excited as a DM for the monk to stun the main boss and deal a ton of damage to it now
i am so excited as a DM for the monk to stun the main boss and deal a ton of damage to it now
@@rightwingersexposed8800 Looks like the damage is only dealt if they succeed on their save, and it's only their martial arts die + their WIS mod, so it doesn't seem too bad at all
@@101Fisan Except you get to deflect weapons and so on
Glad they brought back Monk weapons instead of Weapon Mastery.
I would love to see a plant-based druid that summons plants and/or can use wildshape to turn into a plant or summon a large plant around them
It’s wild to me there hasn’t been a truly plant themed Druid. I mean there is Circle of the Land and some of the biomes are very planty, but still.
the new land druid lets you sproud trees with wildshape
And you *can* speak, but only if the words are exclusively "I", "am", and "Groot".
Are you a plant?
If there was 1 change i would make to 5e its this. The iconography of the druid has ALWAYS been tied to nature and usually plants but 5e heavily skewed it towards animals than plants. Each level has 1-2 plant spells and they're mainly small dmg or utility. I want to summon a piranha plant, I want a strong level 1 poison flower themed damage spell and I want to become a Ent by the time i hit high levels.
Fun abilities usually give a player more choices. Brutal critical’s sin is that it doesn’t give the player any interesting choices. Just extra damage that MIGHT eventually happen.
UA8 Barbarian's choices are basically:
-Go for a defensive aproach
-Go on the offense with more accuracy
-Go on the offense with more damage and extra effects.
That seems pretty interesting to me, and much better than what we had before.
@@Lucasfghjsokfdkjheu If that was how brutal strikes worked, I might agree. But I see a general theme that people aren't actually reading how Brutal Strikes works. Brutal strikes actually less damage than brutal critical, so you are sacrifiing your chance to hit and your damage to gain the extra effect. This is due to 2 factors that people seem to overlook. 1) Brutal Strikes will negate outside sources of advantage, so if you already have advantage, using Brutal Strikes significantly lowers your potential damage and since you don't have brutal critical, your damage is already significantly lowered if you aren't using Brutal Strikes. 2) Brutal Strikes only works on a single attack, so if you miss that attack, you've lost all that potential damage and since you don't have advantage, the chance you miss out on that extra damage is significantly high.
@@dwil0311 Nowhere does it say Brutal Strike only works on one attack. It doesn't say once per round anywhere, so you could Brutal Strike in all attacks. It just says you can use a single effect from the list per attack.
Also you would only use Brutal strike on a situation where you're likely to hit without advantage.
Brutal Strike is better than Brutal Critical simply because you have agency in when it happens, even if white room math tells you the damage is a little less.
So basically you didn't counter my point at all, all the choices are still there.
@@Lucasfghjsokfdkjheu Yeah I'm referring to the original Brutal critical, not the UA8 Brutal strike.
@@Lucasfghjsokfdkjheu I do like brutal strike, but you do only activate Reckless Attack ONCE per turn, you dont activate it every attack. Just saying. I still think its very cool
You really did it, now it's a lot of fun to play monk without having to optimize anything or stop using some of your monk abilities or both. I love this new monk so much
Very happy we are getting great new features this late in the playtest. Great work Jeremy and team.
Really liking how Brutal Strike sounds because for the longest time it felt like Barbarians got nothing with Brutal Criticals (I get Reckless Attack worked to set it up, but as pointed out it was still up to chance & it wasn't an interactive choice for the player like this new feature.)
Right, and at tables that use the optional Flanking rule, advantage is fairly common to have already, and then this feature is even less useful.
If I remember the math correctly, advantage increases your chances to crit from 5% to 9%
Improved critical at 3rd level increases it to 10%, and eventually to 15%.
Reckless attack just couldn't increase it enough to matter
Something off about this implementation is that it seems to cancel out all advantage, rather than just the advantage from reckless attack. That really makes it a lot less likely to be appealing.
@Zapdos7471 Well, sources of advantage and disadvantage don't stack, though, I do wonder if it would be better to just say "when you have advantage on an attack, you can..." so things line faerie fire and such still benefit you
Brutal critical is finally gone. The curse has been lifted!
Unfortunately, a little too late in the development
@@UltimosGabrielthis sentiment makes no sense to me.
@@YamiYaiba shorter time for adjustments.
Tbh im ok whit that feature..its a cool ribbon featur.not a main one
@@yuvalgabay1023i agree, the only problem was that it was not paired with another feature.
Giving barbarians more rages is definitely a good move. Brutal strike seems very very cool, love it. The Monk changes seem pretty cool as well?
Monk changes seem awesome, so glad to see them getting this love and attention! Thank you to the whole team behind all this fantastic work 🎉
Brutal Strike sounds like the exact thing Barbarian's needed to be truly fun.
This and Rogue Sneak Attack are the things I'll steal from this for my normal games
I’m so glad to hear about the scaling options for the monk.
I wanted features like this for a very long time of a baseline bonus action, and a discipline point enhanced bonus action.
Some of the other options sound very interesting. I can’t wait to see them.
This version of the druid (especially the moon subclass) for me is finally in a good place with these changes. The only thing I would add is an option to use your spell attack modifier in place of a beast shapes base to hit modifiers as a higher level moon druid. The tankiness and now damage are exactly where they need be, but (especially with the removal of elementals) the scaling of actual to hit modifiers is almost non-existent as it takes until Druid level 15+ before your beast shapes get an increase to their proficiency bonus (of +1) and then never again. As enemy AC scales and all the other characters in your party are getting steady increases to their to hits, as well as potentially magical weapons with further bonuses, you sort of just start roughly equal and then plateau for the entirety of your career.
Other than that, love all of the druid changes, both moon and otherwise, and I think you guys did a great job!
They’re still determined to kill Druid as a tanking option. I’ve been tanking alongside a paladin and only holding my own by sinking all the damage. There’s no more option for this. I will do what is demanded, retire the Druid, and play a boring heavy armor class, I guess.
@@gnomeDruid
We interpret the rules quite differently.
I think the druid is more tanky than ever.
The druid can re-wildshape with a bonus action every turn for the cost of only a 1st or 2nd level spell slots (or wildshape charge).
By using all wildshape charges + 1st lvl slots + 2nd level slots, the druid can archive the below amount of temporary hp evey day:
Level 5: 15 temp hp * 9 = 135 hp
Level 7: 21 temp hp * 10 = 210 hp
Level 11: 33 temp hp * 10 = 330 hp
Level 20: 60 temp hp * 11 = 660 hp
This is completely nuts amount of tankiness.
@@zaladar1 The Druid isn’t getting knocked out of form though, so it takes a bonus action to change out and another to change back. So at 5th level, you’re using your entire round just to get 15 temporary hit points with no attack. (Assuming you allow bonus actions on regular actions.) The paladin in our group with the 20 AC doesn’t get hit nearly as often, and still attacks. Not sure why we need affirmative action for fighters and paladins, but here we are.
@@gnomeDruid Ahh, I understand why you might think that you need to EXIT wildshape, before you can wildshape again, but that isnt necesary.
The rules state: "You stay in that form for a number of
hours equal to half your Druid level or UNTIL YOU USE WILDSHAPE AGAIN, have the Incapacitated
condition, or die. You can also leave the form
early as a Bonus Action."
Meaning you can wildshape from a Brown Bear to a Wolf, without needing to exit the Brown Bear wildshape. Or you can wildshape from Brown Bear into a different Brown Bear (Ending one Wildshape and entering a new wildshape).
A flat buff to healing spells would actually be pretty nice, lay on hands completely blows all healing out of the water at almost all levels anyway
Looks like I'll finally be make a healing support next year
I think maybe if a Monk does have a Weapon Mastery, there should be an Unarmed Weapon Mastery, like Punches and Kicks being light weapons and a Body Slam being a heavy weapon.
I don't get, what you mean with it being a light weapon. It basically is. You hit guys and then hit them again as a bonus-action
@@activekiwi1221 Well, if it's a light weapon, your punch could, say, have the Nick property, so you don't even have to spend the bonus action.
@@rpghorrorstories but that's weapon MASTERY and not weapon PROPERTY. Those are two different things
@@activekiwi1221 I'll explain it slowly for you. They... are... stating... that... the... monk... could... have... different... unarmed... strikes... that... have... the... properties... needed... to... apply... for... weapon... masteries... Thus keeping with the established weapon system in which weapons have properties that allow them to have specific masteries and therefore don't allow a Monk to stack conflicting masteries on their unarmed strikes if they were to multiclass into Fighter. Feel like the concept they proposed isn't that difficult to understand.
@@teknogothyk what? Martial artists 100% specialize in specific weapons. It is extremely common. Many know how to use many types of weapons, but specializing is extremely common. What do you think swordsmanship (like kendo) is? It’s literally sword based martial arts. Martial arts is not just karate, kung-fu, jiujitsu, etc. it really represents all forms of codified combat whether armed or unarmed.
This may be the very first UA that I think actually might interest me in the game, aside from the one that introduced the masteries.
Love all the changes but it isn't just that we didn't realise reckless attack and brutal critical go together but with reckless attack we are talking a difference from 5% to 10% meaning the extra damage would be around 1 point extra pr attack
Adore the monk changes! Just wish they kept the Weapon Mastery because that’s what all classes get from their Warrior category. There’s gotta be a way to make it work!
I know you were joking, but I would play Aberration Druid ngl. My DM's homebrew setting includes playable (non-evil) illithid, and it's a lot of fun trying to roleplay something like that! A Far Realms connected druid would be incredibly interesting in an "opposites attract" sort of way.
One thing someone pointed out to me is that the UA says "chosen from among Beast stat blocks in the *Player’s Handbook*, you may choose from beasts from the Monster Manual *if the DM permits it*" This means that the 'expected' Wildshape forms will be the ones from the PHB, not the Monster Manual. Whereas the 2014 version does not include the limitation of the PHB it just says "you can transform into any beast that has a challenge rating of 1/4 or lower that doesn't have a flying or swimming speed."
This suggests that, going forward, curated statblocks might be 'a thing' for the Druid, which means that things like Aberration Druid could be a possibility.
@@luketfer Theres Definately been a need for some more beast stat blocks so heres hoping.
I'd like to revisit the Arcane-Divine-Primal spells. Not as spell lists, but as flavor added to the spells' information block as "nature" or "essence" to denote the origin of the spell in addition to the school (just a "school of magic" feels too arcane-y) so a spell could be known to be a "divine evocation" spell, and some classes could tap into using them as "divine evocation made arcane", by a bard for example... just an idea, but could allow for game development as well, i.e. if an arcane subclass could grab divine/primal spells from a feature despite not necessarily having access to that spell originally without using limited expanded spell lists and allowing players to choose more freely instead, to some extent
@@Michael-fd1gx yes
Thank you Jeremy for listening to basically all the points i specifically pointed out about the Monk. I'm excited to check out the actual UA now
I think the main pain point of the moon druid is that you don’t get a scaling attack modifier. Meaning at late levels you simply won’t be hitting anything you come up against.
Yup. They need to get either their own proficiency bonus or the beasts whichever is higher just like skills. It'll open up lot's of options at higher level to use low level beasts and still be viable.
But the wildshape do get the druids proficiency bonus now? Is the problem not fixed with latest playtest?
@@zaladar1 only for skills and saving throws
You joke, but now I want an Aberration Druid.
That and an aberration ranger.
I want subclasses for every class themed around the creature types except for humanoid, frankly.
I am looking forward to seeing the new Conjuring spells and what area effects it’ll possess. A Spirit Guardians -like similar effect for Druids and Rangers allow for a new utility, instead of “I summon X many Giant Wasps and they take initiative after me or a new initiative.” The big headache of DMs and players.
I’m ALL ON BOARD for these Monk changes. As I’m playing a lvl 20 Cobalt Kobold Monk, Way of the Cobalt Soul taking place in Exandria, the 2024 PHB Monk would make this feel like a very fun utility Monk. Especially with the changes of using Dex over Str for other effects than just Monk weapons and fists. I WANT A 2’4” KOBOLD TO GRAPPLE A GOLIATH!
The conjure change sounds like a really great solution to keep both summon x and conjure x around
I HATE the current conjure spells, and I always despise my players who try to use them. "8 giant badgers please!" I try to convince them to use the much better balanced Summon spells, but alas. Now the awful conjure spells are re-worked entirely! I'm not sure I approve of them still being called Conjure... but that's only done to fit within their "backwards-compatible" limitation.
If you actually played a character that uses the Conjure options, you'll see it's really not.
They can't try and change the Conjure spells without touching stuff like Planar Binding.
@@Rohhvm i definitely assume planar binding will be touched.
@@Wannybooi except they didn't. Not in this UA. They removed the Conjuration spells to put these flavorless "Spirit Guardians" knock-offs that all feel the same.
I think they should be more streamlined to be upgraded spiritual weapons. Like how scorching ray is to fire bolt and so on
I would like to say, for the record, I apologize for everything I said about the person in charge of designing the monk. I'm sure they were doing what they believed best within the constraints set for them. Now, with everything looking like this, Monk doesn't just look usable, it looks fun. If this was printed word for word in the new players handbook I would want to play it and am already thinking about a drunken master where their monk point are drinks they have on them. Thank you for these changes.
I do think the druid still needs to have the stat blocks for beast forms printed alongside the class itself, so players don't have to go hunting through the monster manual for them. And then maybe spells and monsters could have some kind of "wild shape" tag attached to them, so that as new spells and monsters are added to the game in other sourcebooks or adventures, it's easy to tell at a glance which new ones can be used by druids. Also maybe this is just me but I never felt like the Moon druid needed literal "moon" theming. For me, lycanthropy/shapeshifting is the theme of the subclass, not moonlight.
It seems like they were in this playtest and taken out last second. There’s references to a lunar swipe that I can’t find anywhere
They normally publish the wildshapes/familiar statblocks in a Appendix of the Players Handbook. But a better option is to get the DND Creature Cards instead of the Monster manual as you can easily sort them by beast/CR if you are a druid... Hopefully they'll print the wildshape/familar statblocks in the new PHB in cardstock that can be removed - like they did for all the conditions/magic items in the Essentials Kit.
@@ether4211 they did not do that in 2014
@@pedrogarcia8706 I just double checked for you and my PHB was is August 2014 edition and contains Appendix D: Wildshape creature statblocks. Maybe it was missing in the very first printing if you don't have it?
@@ether4211 mine only goes up to appendix c WTF
Please add something with options like the rogue cunning strike and the barbarian brutal strike to the ranger. It's the class that needs more flavour and combat options, both UA when is presents seems unfinish and without a core mechanic.
Well, now I just really want an aberration druid.
Honestly I love the new monk changes, feels so much better and more viable! The only very small change I would personally make would be to make patient defense either be disengage OR dodge as a bonus action without a ki point, instead of just disengage. Then the spending is to do both. Step of the wind would be fine as just dash then adding disengage because functionally it would be redundant if seperated like patient defense was. I don't think it would be game breaking and would allow for more options without being forced to spend a ki point to use the dodge action as a bonus and miss out completely on needing disengage as part of that.
Every other change though I'm a pretty big fan of!
JC: "People aren't seeing that Reckless Attack sets up Brutal Critical"
Sorry, who isn't seeing that? Find me a single D&D player that doesn't understand that very simple concept.
The issue with Brutal Critical is that it is mathematically insignificant and not worthy of being a core feature of a class on its own. Maybe that's too subtle for him to see but people have been saying it for years.
No no no, it really is that subtle. Just like See Invisibility not negating the effects of the Invisibility spell was very intentional. You just don't get it silly.
As a current Dm of a Monk, and a Monk player wannabe, I love every single new thing that I saw there
I appreciate this video guys. Really wish there were nice neat properly labeled chapters to sort through when sharing your content from long format like this.
This is by far my favorite UA since they rolled back a lot of the sweeping changes. I miss some of those so much, but this looks great!
I don’t see how no change is good. But I am used to change. What change bothered you?
@@leodouskyron5671 I mean that I liked a lot of those changes, but since they've rolled them back, this is the UA I've liked the most.
I really wish deflect attacks was baked into patient defense so it can be used against multiple attacks
Agreed
Good idea for a subclass
Can I just say Thank you! For changing all those conjuration spells? All they ever did was slow the game down to crawl or broke the game. This is MUCH MUCH better!
It is good to see that they are making positive changes here, but I am far more concerned and invested in the Warlock. I hope that they don't wait very long to put out another UA for them.
This will be the last UA for classes/player options. The Warlock already scored high enough that it has moved on to the 2024 PHB in its most recent UA's form.
@@wtchrol7864 I can't find this info, which video did they discuss the latest UA version of Warlock survey results?
@@johnfree1717 Search for the video discussing the results from 2024 Unearthed Arcana 7.
I really hate that Chris [Edit: Jeremy] continually acts like we're idiots.
Maybe players did notice that Reckless Attack and Brutal Critical works well together and yet like me they thought nonetheless that Brutal Critical all in all isn't a good ability.
His names Jeremy. But yeah, I almost turned the video off when I thought he was going to be that detached from reality.
@@matiskrawiec Thanks, I believe I confused Chris Perkins with Jeremy Crawford.
As a long time Moon Druid and someone who submitted feedback, I feel really good about the direction of my favorite subclass. 🤘
We’ll probably keep the 2014 version in our group, maybe add in some of the new stuff. It’s probably fine if you’re being the WoW-equivalent kitty Druid, but not bear Druid.
Life-Giving Force's LEVEL 3: VITALITY OF THE TREE still mention 10 feet even though the design notes said it's been improve from 10 to 20'.
The starry wisps cantrip is spectacular!
I'm excite.
Barbarian Brutal Strike sounds somewhat fun. Druid still awful.
So so happy they're giving martial characters more specialized combat feature, being able to toss an enemy on an attack or deflect an attack altogether are really cool additions that will hopefully bridge the gap between martials and spellcasters
Love the idea of grabbing the meta effect of the conjure spells! Yes!
I don't like the changes to the conjure spells, as the versatility and flavor is being gutted from them. From a balance perspective I understand why simplifying it down to circles and numbers instead of hit points and multiple creatures controlled by a single player would make sense, especially because the prior iteration of these spells were often a pain to manage (and you might want to look into Animate Objects too in that case). However, if this change goes through there will be a need to be an update to the Shepard Druid, as every creature summoning spell available to them will now no longer use hit die. That is a bit of an issue, as their 6th level class feature "Mighty Summoner" specifically references the hit dice of their summoned Beasts or Fey creatures. So without hit die on these summoning spells to reference, they lose half of the benefit from this class feature. Side note, it is probably a wording error, but the new Conjure Animals spell summons a group of "nature spirits" which isn't ever specified in the spell as either Fey or Beasts, so their ability wouldn't even interact with that spell anymore.
Also, assuming this change goes through, I'd highly suggest adding the word "spirit" to the updated spell names. The name "Conjure Woodland Beings" no longer makes much sense when it does not conjure multiple beings, but actually summons a swarm of fey spirits, so something like Conjure Woodland Spirits would be a more apt name in this case. Same with Conjure Minor Elemental, Conjure Celestial etc. etc.
I'd love to summon some spirits, this sounds like a great idea for spells, but I wish the execution of this spell re-work did more than just circles of damage and healing.
Talking about Flurry Of Blows like that's actually a noticeable change? Sounds pretty much exactly like it has always been, except the pre-reqs are gone like the normal BA attack.
Yeah, I was confused by that too. Do they mean you get to choose to use Flurry of Blows after you've already made your regular BA unarmed strike? That would be great QOL, letting you save ki if your first unarmed strike kills the thing.
That's because it is, he's saying what this functionally does is bring SotW and Patient Defense in line with the same principle as Martial Arts BA attack vs Flurry of Blows - for each *kind* of thing (safety, maneuver ability, offense), there's a simple version that doesn't require a Discipline Point (Disengage, Dash, or Unarmed strike as BA) or an Empowered version that does the job even better at the cost of a Bonus Action (Patient Defense, Step of the Wind, Flurry of Blows).
It's more a design ethos statement than a tangible rules statement.
But now looks like you can use Flurry of Blows even if you didn't take the Attack Action.
This vast improvement to an already solid tabletop game system has me on the edge of my seat waiting with baited breath to see it's full release! Wizards of the Coast made such wise decisions with this tabletop game. I can't wait to try out my new D&D One campaign and play the dashing elf bard!
The new conjuration options sound like a great way to tie mechanics to new lore.
Distinguishing physical manifestation versus spiritual/energy manifestations.
Actually has a lot of interesting, implications, and nuance to it.
Then create a third kind of summoning spells. Don't break the Conjurer builds with planar binding.
Wow super excited for the new conjure spells. Gish builds are about to get wild.
They fixed the conjure spells by not allowing you to summon multiple creatures to crash the action economy but also gave them benefits to make them worth casting.
Hard disagree. The conjure spells are no longer really conjure spells. They aren't worth casting, and those were the backbone of the druid class. No point playing one now.
1. I love the new Barbarian & think that the World Tree subclass is now pretty great!
2. The new Druid is the best version in any edition. Easy to play & good choices.
3. Monk - excellent changes. Level 1 remains weak (glorified commoner). I recommend Expertise in class skills only.
4. Conjuration Spells - PCs trying to attack a conjured foe will be nightmarish. Other spells are nice & clear, & solid!
I like a lot of these monk changes, although I feel like it should probably still just as a base, give you monk level +1 or +2 discipline points, thosw first few levels are quite tight.
An easy enough change for a home game if the players feel it's needed.
@@MainShaneIt is needed and i am guessing most DMs are already doing it and will have to fix D&D to keep it working
@@leodouskyron5671 Never had a problem with Ki/DP usage personally. And with the new monks ability to fully restore it 1/LR and the fact it all comes back every short rest anyway I can't see the new monk really having much of a problem with it
These changes make it easier to restore and/ or not spend DP but if you are still having trouble Monk level + Wis mod is an easy fix.
Beutal strike sounds incredible. I cant believe the barbarian is getting even more tactical than it already is
Sure, but having to sacrifice advantage will still suffering the penalty of advantage on attacks against you? That sounds like a useless option.
@@dwil0311As a person who enjoys Barbarian, trading advantage for more damage and an additional effect is a worthy trade. I’m playing for my massive hp pool so I’m gonna use my massive hp pool. Plus rage makes healing more effective on a Barbarian as most enemies deal bps damage
@@dwil0311 it means that you can get advantage from other sources to make up for it. It adds a reason to pay attention to teamwork, support spells, magic item abilities, and the environment that the Barbarian didn't get to care for because they could always give themselves advantage
@@jasondahfolf4325 The damage is less than you would get with advantage, it's a meaningless trade.
@@Wyrmshield No, becuase you can't use these abilities if you get advantage from other sources. Any additional source of advantage that you'd get would cancel with reckless attack regardless of whether or not you use this new feature.
This playtest packet is great. The only criticism I have is that limiting Wild Shapes to just those in the PHB (MM being locked behind DM permission) severely hurts the Moon Druid if the player has an inflexible DM. In such a game, Circle Form doesn't provide any real benefit except for the temp HP and decent AC beyond 5th level due to the fact that none of the Beast stat blocks in the current PHB have a CR higher than 1 and the attack bonus of these beasts being too low to hit anything at higher levels. I think that the easy way to address this is to either permit MM by default (either for all Druids or just the Moon Druid), add all the beast stat blocks in the MM to the PHB or let the Moon Druids use Spell Attack bonus for the Wild Shape's attacks.
A really important thing is that even more mastery property options could be added to versatile weapons. A fighter being able to add graze or cleave in addition to the already possible sap, slow and topple properties strengthens the idea that these weapons were created for a wider range of occasions.
God I’m hyped for these 2024 rules, each video they release I like what they say even more 😂
"That interaction - what we have found - is too subtle for some people. They're not seeing that Reckless Attack sets up Brutal Critical."
Gotta love that tone deaf player blaming.
States release of October 5th, currently November 27 🤔
Bastions and Cantrips came out Oct 5. Where are you seeing a release date for Playtest 8?
Edit - Oh wait, the video description. Nevermind, ignore me. I was looking at the playtest stuff on dndbeyond.
...jesus christ did the dnd youtube people just copy paste the previous UA video description...
it's been updated. It's coming out today, November 27th
It’s a small thing; but the “Starry Wisp” cantrip (for Druid’s and Bards) is simply neat.
A radiant cantrip that isn’t tied to a Dexterity or Constitution saving throw…but rather to an Attack roll…is a fantastic addition.
It’s also just a neat visual…a Druid or Bard flinging a bit of starlight through the air…or a Bard weaponizing an actual floating musical note.
Barbarian and Druid look amazing now. No more expectation of book diving for forms! Barbarians at high level look exciting now! Cant wait to playtest this!
You re making a good work, but i would like to point that I believe it is important to give the Druid the option to use his spell DC qnd spell attack in any option he uses DC from iis wild Shape.
At high levels, the abilities of animal forms are extremely low, making most DCs and attacks obsolete. Allowing you to use magic attack and spell DC solves this very easily.
They heard that players were asking to use weapon mastery and martial arts die at the same time and they just wanted to get our hopes up for a few seconds before completely shutting that down.
Brutal strike with weapon mastery seems cool, but doesn't it sound like something a fighter should be doing? Pairing different effects on hit for tactical advantage and creative combos. Feels like fighter and barbarian should exchange names at this point, because now fighter feels like the dumb "I hit things 6 times" class, while barb combines different maneuvers for cool tactical play.
Definite improvement for the Monk. Still think the ki points should be monk level + prof. Bonus + wisdom score and then they don't even need to be a short rest class. 6 or 7 points at level 2, 18ish points at level 10 and 31 points at level 20 feels right for a full rest
In all my monk homebrews, they always get Ki/Discipline points bonus equal to their wisdom modifier. This alone gets them through the "low ki/discipline points" problem at lower levels.
Proficiency bonus-scaling features have been generally disliked because these still improve even when multiclassing out of the class that grants the feature - this being Ki/Discipline Points and the Monk.
@@wtchrol7864 I don't hate that though. It just keeps the ability useful and it's not like prof bonuses get out of pocket ever. We're talking a couple extra flurry of blows per day
@@Devgal89 I agree with proficiency bonus scaling, but the design team initially granted this to clerics, then took it back and removed it from other classes' features as well.
From that perspective, they wouldn't tie Discipline points to proficiency bonus anymore.
Glad many of my suggestions made their way in this. Sure, a thousand others probably suggested them, too, but still glad.
Thank goodness the Conjure Woodland Beings + Pixies combo is gone.
Legit, better healing spells is healthy for the game. If you have heals be more worth it, spellcasters will be more invested in healing. Taking away from their extremely OP options and making the martials feel better simultaneously.
In comparison, seeing the Barbarian and Rogue receiving a toybox that works by foregoing one benefit in favor of another (Brutal Strike and Cunning Strike), I'm even more convinced that Weapon Adebt from Playtest 5 should be kept in the 2024 fighter base class. The feature is balanced, guarantees this constant versatility of benefit present in the barbarian and rogue, and also reinforces the fighter's identity. Weapon Adebt should even come at a lower level (like seventh or ninth), there is no need for a previous feature that REPLACES mastery properties instead of ADDING them.
Another really important thing is that even more mastery property options could be added to versatile weapons. A fighter being able to add graze or cleave in addition to the already possible sap, slow and topple properties strengthens the idea that these weapons were created for a wider range of occasions.
Now that there is a monk I want to play. Well done.
You shouldn't have removed Weapon Mastery for monks it's really in theme, imagine a monk toppling an adversary with a quarterstaff. It really on point. It just doesn't really mesh with Open hand but that's ONE subclass. There is other that can benificiate from it.
Also there is a lot of martial artists using weapons particulary in East Asia thinking of shaolin monks and kungfu in general but also Chinese and Korea fantasy regulary have a Sword Saint or a Spear expert focused on their dedication on the mastery of a weapon.
You can just have this feat at level 1 and not upgrading it. It really goes in flavor with dedication fighters.
It's a bit redoundent with other features as well but maybe the problem is that monk has to be considered being played with a weapon and certain feat should be Unarmed strikes only (wich doesn't change much since every monk does unarmed strikes even with a weapon I agree).
Or make it part of Martial arts :
You can use the Mastery property of 2 Monks weapons per day.
I was just browsing DnD Beyond, and Circle of Moon Druids still have quite a bad problem with scaling. CR 2 and 3 Beasts just do not scale very well.
I'm so confused why introducing Stat blocks was so frowned upon by everyone. Not gaining Multiattack in CR 2 and 3 Beasts makes the CR 1 Brown Bear still look good; the Giant Scorpion is good, but then... you have to be a Giant Scorpion. You don't gain any benefit unless you optimize, and that's taking away any flavor you may want. And sure, most DMs would allow you to just say, "You can say it is X creature instead but keep the mechanics," but that's exactly what the Stat blocks did anyway.
The melee deflect attacks was in my opinion the smallest change they could've made to improve the monk the most. The new version still has a lot of problems, but it actually has stuff going for it now.
Options like cunning strike and brutal strike are the way for martial artists to shine. Half Casters can work with spells or features that involve them (hunters mark or smite for example). If the fighter starts to make more constant use of multiple mastery properties, I think it would be cool.
I have to say I love the new Monk, just please fix the feature progression for the Open Hand subclass, and it's golden. I have been brutally honest about how bad the monk design has been up until now, including how the last UA featuring the monk literally made it worse than its 2014 version, which was already the worst class in the game by a gigantic margin. But this UA seems right on the money. Congrats!
What I love the most is that the monk finally feels like it can take advantage of its mobility in a way that other classes can't. One big struggle in 5th Edition combat is the notion that any time your character is not doing damage, it is probably wasting time. I don't like that mindset, and prefer for players to have options that let them find meaningful and helpful respites mid-combat. This new monk can run into the fray, punchy punchy punchy, and run out safely, taking an ally along for the ride, and being a constant threat that draws enemy attention. You can even choose to either run out of enemy range carrying a wounded ally, or run into range carrying a much beefier ally into the fun zone, and dodging attacks the whole time. This is awesome.
Those changes seem awesome, the only painpoint I have with all of this now is, the barbarian seems to do more weapon mastery stuff than the fighter, how did that happen? XD
*** Conjure Spell Name ***
You may want to drop the use of major and minor as key words in the spell names which may limit your ability to name things.
Maybe you can use: Minor for levels 1-2, Lesser for 3-4, no modifier for 5-6, Major for 7-8, Titanic, Dire, Mythic, or something similar for Level 9 craziness?
This could carry over to summons and other similar spells too.
Some suggestions for name changes so that they are more explicit and the player knows what they are getting and for consistency:
Change Conjure Celestial to Conjure Major Celestial Radiance
Change Conjure Animals to Conjure Lesser Animal Swarm
Change Conjure Minor Elementals to Conjure Lesser Elemental Swarm Aura (or something similar)
Change Conjure Woodland Beings to Conjure Woodland Swarm Aura (or something similar)
*** Or, if you use the lesser, minor, etc to talk about the relative powers of the creature as compared to others of its kind, then maybe have the names be something more like, "Summon Demons, Minor", "Summon Demons, Lesser", "Summon Demons", or "Summon Demons, Greater", etc... would work and be more consistent. - Summon , .
I like this naming convention better.
Conjure Elemental - There is no movement option? Should there be? The others have a movement option.
Honestly, when it makes sense, merge All of these conjure options into one line of spells for each level and/or have it scale with each level which will make it easier to update and to add options.
** Cure Spells **
Loving the cure spells update.
Now I will not be annoyed with Healing Word.
I have been thinking this since we first saw the updates to the Two-Weapon fighting via the Light Weapon Property in the Expert UA, but I really feel like the Unarmed Strike Bonus Attack of Monks wording should be updated to grant them the ability to use Unarmed Strikes via the Light Weapon Property, followed with an update so that Flurry of Blows grants 2 attacks via the Light Weapon Property, whether those attacks are with weapons, or Unarmed Strikes... Like make it a two bullet points feature "Your Unarmed Strikes count as a weapon with the Light property for making attacks via the Light Weapon Property", and "you can use a Bonus Action to make an attack via the Light Weapon Property, even if you did not take the Attack Action"
I would love it if there was a way to apply the Nick Weapon Mastery to a weapon, and/or Unarmed Strike, and then spend a point to make two additional attacks as part of the Attack Action, leaving your bonus action free for the other monk features people rarely use.
I love the sound of brutal attack. If it is as great as it sounds, this could be the reason to play a barbarian into higher levels. I wonder how it works when you have double advantage. If you forgo advantage from your reckless but would still have advantage without it.
If you can get advantage from something else and still use Reckless for the optional riders, that makes proning people very enticing. Hmmmmmmm
There is no such thing as double advantage.
"If circumstances cause a roll to have both advantage and disadvantage, you are considered to have neither of them, and you roll one d20. This is true even if multiple circumstances impose disadvantage and only one grants advantage or vice versa. In such a situation, you have neither advantage nor disadvantage"
- PHB, Advantage section
@@The_Crimson_Witch Yes but it is all a question of wording. It could say 'if you forgo the advantage granted to you by reckless attack' and you have an advantage from the creature being blinded, you would still have an advantage in my book. That is why I think it should be clarified to avoid unnecessary discussions that I can already see play out.
All of these changes sound awesome! Can’t wait to read the UA!
oh yeah can't wait for everyone be wild shape moon druid... awesome meanwhile all the other subclasses are just dead and half the classes are well just useless compared to this
@@rightwingersexposed8800Circle of the moon druid is genuienly not that bad or unbalanced even within other druid subclasses a bunch of temp hp is not the same as 2014 moon druids turningninto giant squids every combat and never losing any true resources
@@rightwingersexposed8800 It will be okay. Step away from the comments section and take some deep breaths
@@Awoken0 I have seen 0 people playing circle of the land and I've dmed 100+ games in the past 6-7 years
@@stargrace420 If you don't like what I have to say you know what to do honey buns
2:22 what reason do rogues have to take a short rest?
What reason do Rogues need to take a long rest?
@@Paws42 to not get exhaustion and recover hit dice. Plus a plethora of effects that go away after a long rest
3:27 Very insulting to say the least, sure you can gain a higher chance at criting thanks to reckless attack but it’s not a 50% chance to crit, it’s not a 30% chance to crit, it’s 11% chance to crit and that means when it happens it’s great but it’s not often it’s still really rare, but here you are acting like everyone is an idiot for not seeing your genius.
It really in the end is not a setup, a set up should guarantee a crit not give a marginal chance to get it. If you wanted it to be setup then why not make it something like “Forgo one of your attacks and instead get an guaranteed crit if you hit your target” that’s something that’ll set it up not reckless attack.
I love this UA and this video, it really goes into my concerns so far!
I like what they're doing. I'm glad they seem to be hearing people's feedback. Wizards get Wish at 17th level and can cast it every day as a base class feature. Are you doing Wish-level things at 17th level? Probably not. Monks should be Goku or Chuck Norris at 17th level. You're barely a Ninja Turtle. Make them Chuck Norris, then back them off to Wizard-level characters.
What I'm hearing is that druids can no longer summon up a party of velociraptors 😭
Good.
I'm 100% ok with that. Those conjure spells that added 16 initiatives were compeltely stupid and tedius.
thank god
I mean. You can as long as they fit in a 10ft cube and swarm their target. So maybe Compies instead of Raptors 🙂
The issue is that this was powerful like a Wizard casting a fireball … and that is the level spell effect they have to provide while being table friendly. I have to do some math here
Choosing what to Conjure* at what CR depending on what you need for the situation better not be dead and gone. 38:00
Knowing about creatures you can conjure and coming up with different things like mounting conjured creatures or have them use their spells is what made the playstyle valuable and quirky. I really hope they expanded this new summoning options.
God forbid players might do something instead of rolling damage dices like a braindead
22:42 I think that it’s fine to not have weapon mastery since there is still a feat that can provide it, and/or dip fighter for a level
I kind of feel that unarmored AC calculations should be tied to proficiency bonuses to let them scale on their own. Something like 10 + proficiency bonus + ability score. For Druids in Wild Shape use Wis, for Monks have them choose Dex or Wis and for Barbarians have them choose between Con and Dex. Thoughts?
Give the Circle of Stars Druid the Crown of Stars spell
The summon spell reworks are actively ruining the spells.
Why does "Conjure minor elementals" give a bonus to melee damage? Who thought that was a good idea? What about conjuring minor elementals makes one think "Oh, now my fists do lightning damage?"
Would really prefer something like the Dazed condition on a success for Stunning Strike rather than damage. Makes sense too that I don't fully stun them, but I kind of do.
Ahhh, my dream of a dex-y barb/monk multiclass sounds pretty tasty this "edition"!
Circle of shepherd is really feeling the changes to conjure animals. That's pretty rough for them specifically.
Since GWM is gone (well, "gone"), I feel much better about Reckless Attack. Previously, it was a no-brainer - you want 10 extra damage per swing, and Reckless Attack soaks up the -5 penalty to hit. Now that there are no self-imposed penalties, and GWM's damage has been folded into Weapon Mastery, the notion of forgoing advantage for a Brutal Strike is really interesting!
At minutes 35-40 you get to listen to a man spend 5 minutes explaining that mass summoning spells have been removed in favor of the Tasha’s summoning spells, but provide no specifics. Just 5 solid minutes stating and re-stating that actually summoning a creature will be done through the Tasha’s spells, the conjure whatever spells now do a different thing. What is that thing? Dunno, he somehow didn’t get to that in the 5 minute description!
Quivering Palm is so cool. It's like The Five Point Palm Exploding Heart Technique
I personally love where this is going 💛
35:27 This talk of conjuration spells makes me wonder about one aspect of Prestidigitation, say you conjure a pen, pencil(modern setting), ink-bottle/quill(classic), and write with it on non conjured paper, when the writing instruments vanish does the ink/graphite on the paper also vanish?
12:50 I would really like to see that as something official.
Why are the social and exploration pillars ignored when monk class features are made?
Barbarian and monk changes are great. Given that these changes exist along side rather than replace 2014 options though, I still see very few compelling reasons why you would play a 2024 Druid over 2014 one. WOTC should have provided a compelling template form option for 2024
Patient Defense still requires a point if you want to bonus action dodge even if you don’t want to disengage. Instead they should have the choice to dodge or disengage free and then to do both at a cost of one point.
Would be too strong
How so? They don’t generally have exceptional HP or AC for a martial class. They already have the ability to take dodge as a bonus action instead of an action like every other class it simply costs a resource. It’s also a choice they have to make between doing that or taking a bonus action attack or any other bonus actions they may want to take.
More flavour to classes… that is the way!
😊
Barbarian doing brutal things with a risk, monk being the super fast million hits per round whirlwind, dodging and blocking at incredible speed. Druids being magic users that also can chape change. Keep on painting classes to with these brushes!