One D&D Playtest Notes: Character Origins
Races, Backgrounds, Feats, and more are different in the upcoming edition of the game.
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It’s crazy that we’re coming up on a full decade since Dungeons & Dragons 5th Edition hit our shelves and game tables. It’s been my favorite version of the game since AD&D 2nd Edition, both capturing the “feel” at the table I was looking for with mechanics I intuitively understand as a Dungeon Master and game designer.
Now a new edition of D&D is on the way in 2024, currently called “One D&D” the same way 5e was branded in playtest as “D&D Next.” Wizards of the Coast is following a similar model as before with a huge, open playtest and inviting feedback from the community. They are also making it clear that the products will be backward-compatible with D&D 5e and won’t be a huge break with the previous version of the game like we saw in 2008 with Fourth Edition.
Note: The following is a “first impressions” set of notes I made as I was reading through the material. It’s not the result of any study, deep thought, or actual playtesting. My opinions will no doubt evolve over time as I do all of the above.
Today I'm looking at the Character Origins playtest document.
The very first question I’m asking is if this “One D&D” will be analogous to D&D 3.5 — a refinement of the original 3rd edition system, or more akin to the relationship between AD&D 2nd edition to 1st. (It was very clearly a new edition of the game that streamlined, consolidated, and made changes without fundamentally changing the assumptions of mechanics of the game.) The playtest document intro tells us that this document will cover character creation material for Races, Backgrounds, Starting Languages, Feats, and a Rules Glossary. It warns us that this is unrefined playtest material and that game balance (“power level”) will likely be tweaked before final publication.
Determining Your Origin
Origin comes after picking class, but I assume the classes are in upcoming playtest documents, and encompasses Race, Background, and a language. An overview table tells us that Race is broken down into some standard traits: Creature Type, Size, Speed, Life Span, and any Special Traits. Creature Type is our first asterisk! Creature type looks pretty similar to to the list in 5e and is essentially a tag that interacts with other rules.
Another table for Background Trait offers ability score bonuses, skill proficiencies, tool proficiencies, language, feat, and equipment. We’ll see when we get to the detailed section later but it appears the importance of Background in character creation has been boosted in the new edition.
Character Races
Soapbox: I understand that D&D characters have been defined at their core by 3 terms: race, class, and level since the 1970s. But it’s time to let go the term “Race” because it’s inaccurate, insufficient, and one that lots of gamers understandably aren’t too crazy about these days. I think the title of this section is a worthy replacement: Origin. This means you can use the same rules to differentiate characters from wildly different species (halflings, thri-kreen, and warforged are all “races” in different versions of D&D), ancestry, and culture. In the Birthright campaign setting for AD&D 2nd Edition, for example, several human cultures were presented with the same distinction as character race, and the Lost Citadel setting from Green Ronin does something similar in 5th Edition. I think Origin or another umbrella term that can encompass all of the above should replace the term Race once and for all.
With that out of the way, let’s look at Race purely in terms of rules. The core list includes Human, Ardling, Dragonborn, Dwarf, Elf, Gnome, Halfling, Orc, and Tiefling. And if you’re wondering why no half-elves or half-orcs are on the list, it seems they’ve designed the racial traits to be modular so you can make a half-anything using the new rules. So go make your half-dragonborn, half-tiefling you beautiful edgelord. I like it. Looks like racial ability score bonuses are a thing of the past, as those now come courtesy of your character’s Background instead.
Each race also has a section talking about how they fit in on different worlds (campaign settings).
Humans
As the “generic” D&D race, this version carries on the tradition of giving humans versatility in their starting builds. In addition to an extra skill proficiency and a bonus 1st level feat, humans gain Inspiration at the end of a long rest. And Inspiration is similar to how it worked in old 5e, except that it goes away when you begin a long rest, and if you gain Inspiration when you already have it, you can donate it to another player character. Interesting that you can now choose to be either Medium or Small as a human (which I suppose could either mean playing a child or a little person—a fantasy lit example being Tyrion Lannister).
Ardling
I’m really disappointed that this isn’t a race of aardvark people. So ardlings are meant to be the angelic counterparts to tielfings—weird when the aasimar where right there in previous editions. These folk have animal heads, however. They are connected with a category of higher planes through “celestial legacies.” And those grant cantrips and gain more powerful spells at 3rd and 5th level. They also get radiant damage resistance.
Dragonborn
Dragonborn are back and they look pretty consistent with the 5e version, though their breath weapons are a always a cone now.
Dwarves
Heigh-ho! Dwarves can see in the dark, are resistant to poison, get bonus hit points, tool proficiency, and Stonecunning now gives you limited Daredevil-vision. No dwarven subraces are to be found.
Elf
Not merely content to live in trees and bake crackers, all “elven lineages” in One D&D are meant to be on par with the drow. The dark elves get their usual abilities (spaced out identical to the ardlings at 3rd and 5th level) and so to now do the High and Wood elven varieties.
Gnome
At first glance they seem very similar to how they are presented in 5e, with two lineages to choose from.
Halflings
… like dwarves are currently streamlined. There are no game difference between Stout halflings or other types, for example. Their racial traits are quite familiar to 5e players.
Orc
Now we get orcs as a core PC race—creating a half-orc means making a unique one yourself. Orcs get Adrenaline Rush (Dash as a bonus action + temp hit points!), count as a size larger for carrying and lifting, and get the popular Relentless Endurance feature.
Tiefling
Just like their angelic counterparts the ardlings, the D&D One tieflings choose a fiendish legacy—abyssal, chthonic, or infernal. This gives them damage resistance and a cantrip at first level, plus more spells at 3rd and 5th levels.
Character Backgrounds
Backgrounds were one of the new ideas (for D&D anyway) introduced with 5e. And they have proved popular and important enough to justify a bigger role in character creation, mechanically speaking. Like races, Backgrounds now have more defined and modular conventions to give players more choice. You can just grab a pre-made Background, create one yourself, or use the rules to tweak an existing background to match your character’s weird backstory. You’re encouraged to think about your Background in roleplaying and story terms before jumping into game mechanics. Now all backgrounds include the following:
Ability Scores. Instead of Race granting bonuses, they now come from your Background. You get 3 points to divide between abilities, with max +2 allowed.
Skill Proficiencies. Choose two.
Tool Proficiencies. Choose one.
Language. Choose one.
Feat. Choose one 1st level feats from a few options. (Feats are now explicitly designed with level requirements in mind, it seems).
Equipment: You get 50 gold to spend on your starting gear, allowing you to pocket the rest.
Sample Backgrounds
All designed to fit the rules are above are the Acolyte, Artisan, Charlatan, Criminal, Cultist, Entertainer, Farmer, Gladiator, Guard, Guide, Hermit, Laborer, Noble, Pilgrim, Sage, Sailor, Soldier, Urchin. That’s 18 backgrounds — five more than included in the original PHB. While some are missing on this list, it would also be a snap to recreate them with these rules. So far all the character roleplaying trait stuff is NOT included, perhaps because Inspiration-for-roleplaying was a cool idea that didn’t work well in practice. It looks like Inspiration is a much more tightly-defined mechanic in this new edition than original 5e. We’ll see as we get farther along.
Starting Languages
Every character begins play knowing three languages: the Common tongue, one language provided by character Background, and more chosen from the Standard Languages table. The languages look quite familiar with the addition of “Common Sign Language” — which offers some interesting possibilities. The Rare Languages are also ported straight over from the earlier version of the game. Everyone can read and write.
Feats
In original 5th Edition feats were a relatively short section of the Player's Handbook and presented as entirely optional, with most of the power gamers I know snubbing them for the raw mechanical advantages that come simply with taking the ability score bonuses every four levels. But I always used feats for my characters (and the ones I design for events) because they help further distinguish characters of similar builds from each other. (Your barbarian might be a talented campfire cook, for example, while mine is a skilled battlefield healer.) Feats are now included as standard at 1st level, included with your character’s Background—with humans getting an extra just as in previous editions. The list of feats in this document is rather short, but continues with the theme of tightening game concepts and making them easier to design alternatives that are balanced. Flat bonuses provided by previous versions (such as Alert) now use your character’s proficiency bonus.
Now feats come with a level requirement (and those in the playtest document are all 1st), other prerequisites, and tell us whether you can take it more than once to “stack” its effects. Here’s a quick look at the handful of Feats we have for now:
Alert. You get a bonus to initiative and you can swap your place in the turn order with a willing ally.
Crafter. You gain proficiency with some artisan’s tools and you can craft items one-fifth faster than mere mortals.
Healer: Your bandages now grant what we would have called a Healing Surge back in 4th edition—meaning the creature can spend a hit die for immediate healing, with a chance to reroll if if someone only rolls 1 point of healing.
Lucky: Luck points are back, working pretty much as before.
Magic Initiate. Your character knows a little magic from one of the three spell lists: Arcane, Divine, or Primal (which I’m sure we’ll be talking more about below)—two cantrips and one 1st level spell.
Musician. You know how to play a few instruments, along with the ability to play some inspiring camp music to help your friends.
Savage Attacker. Once per turn you essentially get Advantage on an attack’s damage dice.
Skilled. Grab three more skill proficiencies, nerd.
Tavern Brawler. The name really doesn’t fit and should be changed to just Brawler to match the rest of the more generic terms. This gives you fists like a 1st level monk, a chance to reroll crappy unarmed damage, the ability to shove someone you punch, and a more tightly defined improvised weapon feature.
Tough. You get 2 extra hp per level, just as before.
Rules Glossary
This section is here to tell us what’s different than from the Player’s Handbook as published in 2014.
Arcane Spells. This is now specifically the type of magic used by Bards, Sorcerers, Warlocks, Wizards—“as well as artificers.” (It’s strange and perhaps telling that it just doesn’t include artificers in the ordered list, but we’ll need to wait for the One D&D character classes to understand.)
Artisan’s Tools. This tool category works the same as before, but now all sets of tools cost 15 gp each.
Creature Type. These are familiar to 5e players and function as tags other parts of the game interact with.
D20 Test. The playtest document makes some subtle but important changes to the way the standard “roll a d20 and modify it” mechanic worked in vanilla 5e. The first thing to note is there is no point in rolling if the difficulty would be under 5 (too easy) or greater than 30 (impossibly difficult). With that in mind, here’s how it works now:
Rolling a 1 automatically fails—including skill checks, saving throws, etc.
Rolling a 20 automatically succeeds—including skill checks, saving throws, etc.
Critical Hits are now reserved only for weapon attacks and unarmed strikes, the implication being that cantrips and magical spells will no will no longer be able to crit. And while spellcaster-loving players may wail at this, my gut says this is a good change. Spellcasters already get to do incredible things at the table, and reserving those badass critical hit moments for the PCs getting their hands dirty works for me. (Not mentioned here, I’ve also heard that Critical Hits are going to become the exclusive province of player characters. More thoughts on that later!)
Divine Spells. This is the category of spells used by clerics and paladins.
Gaming Set. All gaming sets now cost a single gold piece. (Standardizing these prices makes sense from a game balance perspective when it comes to character builds, even if it doesn’t match the lore.)
Grappled (Condition). The much-maligned 4th edition had perhaps the only clean, streamlined grapple rules D&D has ever known. Here it’s a condition that better defines it and how your actions and rolls are affected by being put in a chokehold by that halfling monk.
Incapacitated (Condition). No actions, reactions, speech, and you have Disadvantage if forced to roll initiative.
Inspiration. Another featured new mechanic of 5e (replacing hero points and other earlier ideas), Inspiration was intended to usually be a reward for roleplaying—great in theory but difficult in practice. You’ll note the most celebrated DM in pop culture — Matthew Mercer — completely ignores the Inspiration rules in 5e in his game (at least for the time I watched). It’s clear that this new edition seeks to offer clear structure on how Inspiration is gained so it’s baked into the core design and balance of the game. Now you get Inspiration whenever you roll a natural 20, you can donate Inspiration to another PC, and it’s lost every time you start a Long Rest. Speaking of which …
Long Rest. Still defined as an 8-hour time block, a long rest gives you back all your hit points, half your spent hit dice, and can be ruined by interruption.
Musical Instrument. Now all instruments cost 20 gold, regardless if it’s a crude drum or a delicate harp.
Primal Spells. Druids and rangers use this spell list.
Slowed (Condition). Instead of being a specific spell effect, Slowed is now a condition that I bet you a donut will caused by the spell slow. Movement costs extra, attack rolls against you have Advantage, and you have Disadvantage on Dexterity saves.
Tool Proficiency. This defines that you can get Advantage if you’re using a proficient skill and taking Advantage of a tool proficiency at the same time. I bet we’ll see this kind of thing for rogues picking locks.
Tremorsense. This feature lets a creature know exactly the location of creatures and objects that are all touching the same surface (usually the ground). Dwarves get this ability and will almost certainly be used by “blind” monsters.
Unarmed Strike. If you smack someone you can now do bludgeoning damage (1 + Strength bonus), Grapple, or Shove (5 feet or prone, dealer’s choice).
Spell Lists
We are now treated to the three Spell Lists alluded to before—Arcane, Divine, Primal. This early version of the list only includes spells from the 5e Player’s Handbook. Some people object to having three “categories” instead of unique spell lists, but I suspect that class features plus feats can open things up so most people will be able to achieve their desired build. There is also nothing stopping future spell categories to open up. (Who knows, maybe one day we’ll get official Psionics again. Dark Sun is a world they didn’t bring back for 5e after all …) The spells here are pretty much what you’d expect.
Jamie’s Conclusion
So far? In general I like what I’m seeing in the "new' D&D. There’s nothing that makes this a fundamentally different game—while the adjustments and tweaks make sense to me as a guy who’s played, run, and designed material for 5th edition. I’d like to not only see how these changes affect a character on paper, I’d like to do some real playtesting with this material and see if these tweaks translate into genuine improvements. I’m not currently running a campaign, after all … Stay tuned!
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