One D&D

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One D&D is the latest attempt by Wizards of the Coast to revamp the soon-to-be 10-year-old 5th Edition and change some rules. The full release will launch in 2024, commemorating the 50th anniversary of this long-running franchise. Playtesting for it began in August 2022, and will likely continue with monthly documents until release.

The main premise for this edition (and the reason why it's using One as a title) is that WOTC plans on not only releasing books, but also an online database that will always be updating. This is so that players don't have to suffer having to wait for years for errata, plus avoiding some of the pain of having to buy both a book and digital rules.

Backwards compatibility?

In numerous interviews, the WOTC team repeatedly said that One D&D stuff would be backwards compatible with old 5e stuff. This was likely told to the public to prevent a massive edition war and D&D exodus. WOTC doesn't want the players to think it will be 6e and suffer a repeat of 4th edition, after all.

In the interim, will it actually be compatible with 5th edition? Well, rather than thinking about it as jumping from 3e to 4e, a jump from 3e to 3.5e would be a better comparison. For player options, 3.5 was much better and more desirable than 3. 3e stuff was still usable, but 3.5 was an upgrade, and so it seems that OneD&D will do the same thing. OneD&D's goal seems to be revamping character creation and making minor tweaks to the mechanics to give the system some much needed freshness. Of course, right now most releases are just first drafts, so there is a lot to criticize before the final release.

On the adventure side, since 5e isn't a very technical terminology-heavy game, often just pointing the DM to the rulebook about how to resolve a situation will do. It is highly unlikely that anything in an adventure book would break, unless stuff like the orc statblock or the stunned condition or Dexterity Saving Throws are no longer in the game. We'll see in time.

More troubling is the possible rumors that Wizards might be outright dumping the OGL and thus everyone's ability to publish 5E materials on their own. This would force everyone to publish any future supplements through their own DM's Guild and thus require any publishers to pay Wizards for the privilege of selling on their storefront. This would also be such a massive slap in the face for absolutely everyone who made anything for them - inevitably leading to the mass exodus of 3PP developers and potentially bringing down the golden age they made merely ten years ago.

Differences from 5e

Playtest 1: Character Origins

Races

Races no longer provide stat boosts, likely WOTC's attempt to decouple genetic lineage and ancestries from influencing how a character is built. At least this makes the message clear as opposed to the way they did it in Tasha's, which reeked of having it both ways.

• Humans are now even stronger than ever, not only gaining the extra skill, but also taking the Variant Human's extra feat as well as gaining Inspiration on a long rest. Curiously, Half-Elves and Half-Orcs are gone, but that's because the document explicitly tells you that you can make any scion of two Humanoid races by taking the crunch of one of the parents and fluffing the visual aspects however you prefer - the given example is the child of a Gnome and a Halfling, using the latter's rules with the former's pointed ears. Humans also can be medium or small size as they now acknowledge dwarfism is a thing.
• Ardlings are pretty much furry Aasimar, being resistant to radiant damage and having limited flight. There are different subraces, but all that changes are which spells they learn as innate spells as they level up.
• Dragonborn remain the same as they have been in the CRB with some of the updates Fizban's provided. Sadly, the subrace variations didn't seem to make it, as they gain no other abilities and all breath weapons now spread out in cones.
• Dwarves lost their subraces but remain pretty strong despite it. While they retain their resistance to the poisoned condition and tool proficiencies, they now improve their HP by 1 each level and have a limited form of Tremorsense as opposed to the situational skill bump Stonecunning used to have.
• Elves remain pretty much the same as ever. High Elves now lost their weapons training, Drow lost their day-blindness and Wood Elves lost their hiding perk, but now all three of them have innate cantrips and spells as they level up. This is particularly effective for the High Elf as they can swap out their innate cantrip with each long rest.
• Gnomes as a whole didn't get changed but the subraces did. Forest Gnomes' ability to talk to animals is now a spell-like ability that can only be used a few times a day while Rock Gnomes now have two innate cantrips at the cost of their situational skill perk.
• Halflings have also lost their subraces, but gained advantage on Stealth checks on top of all their other abilities.
• Orcs are available, retaining their MotM abilities.
• Tieflings are the only race to have outright lost stuff even when compared to their CRB selves. Gone is the default fire resistance and innate spells besides the Thaumaturgy cantrip. While there are subraces available, they only provide new innate spells, including a cantrip and a thematically-linked resistance, intended to represent which underworld they descended from.

Backgrounds

Backgrounds are a lot more critical to a character's development, as they are now what provides the stat boosts that formerly would have just attributed to races, meaning that it's now the upbringing that defines a character rather than heredity. In addition, instead of the vaguer narrative abilities, each background now automatically provides a feat, language, and tool proficiency. Building your own custom background is the default but UA provides some pre-made examples if you can't decide:

• Acolyte +2 Wis +1 Int. Gives the Magic Initiate (Divine) feat, giving you a bonus Divine spell to cast, which might be handy for paladins.
• Artisan +2 Int +1 Cha. Gives the Crafter feat, not only providing proficiency with several different tools but also makes crafting faster and more efficient.
• Charlatan +2 Cha +1 Dex. Gives the Skilled feat so it's a decent all-rounder to take for a ton of skills.
• Criminal +2 Dex +1 Int. Gives the Alert feat to not only improve Initiative (Only adding +Proficiency bonus instead of full advantage) as well as the ability to swap Initiatives with someone else if you're feeling greedy (or charitable).
• Cultist +2 Int +1 Cha. Gives the Magic Initiate (Arcane) feat, giving you a bonus Arcane spell to cast.
• Entertainer +2 Cha +1 Dex. Gives the Musician feat, not only providing proficiency with multiple instruments but also the ability to give allies Inspiration after a rest.
• Farmer +2 Con +1 Wis. Gives the Tough feat for more HP.
• Gladiator +2 Str +1 Cha. Gives the Savage Attacker feat to re-roll weapon damage once per turn.
• Guard +2 Str +1 Wis. Gives the Alert feat to not only improve Initiative (Only adding +Proficiency bonus instead of full advantage) as well as the ability to swap Initiatives with someone else if you're feeling greedy (or charitable).
• Guide +2 Wis +1 Dex. Gives the Magic Initiate (Primal) feat, giving you a bonus Primal spell to cast, which might be handy for rangers.
• Hermit +2 Wis +1 Con. Gives the Magic Initiate (Primal) feat, giving you a bonus Primal spell to cast, which might be handy for rangers.
• Laborer +2 Con +1 Str. Gives the Tough feat for more HP.
• Noble +2 Cha +1 Int. Gives the Skilled feat so it's a decent all-rounder to take for a ton of skills.
• Pilgrim +2 Wis +1 Con. Gives the Healer feat for some non-magical healing.
• Sage +2 Int +1 Wis. Gives the Magic Initiate (Arcane) feat, giving you a bonus Arcane spell to cast.
• Sailor +2 Dex +1 Wis. Gives the Tavern Brawler feat to provide improved unarmed combat and ways to use improvised weapons.
• Soldier +2 Str +1 Con. Gives the Savage Attacker feat to re-roll weapon damage once per turn.
• Urchin +2 Dex +1 Wis. Gives the Lucky feat for some re-rolls to impose upon yourself or the enemy.

Other changes

• Rolling ability checks, attack rolls, or saving throws are now classified as d20 Tests. A DM can warrant a player making a d20 test as long as the DC is not less than 5 (so trivial that failing would make you look incompetent) or 30 (an impossible task you can only accomplish by breaking the game).
• Rolling a nat 1 on a d20 Test is an automatic fail. Everyone already thought it was a thing, so the devs decided to embrace it.
• Rolling a nat 20 on a d20 Test is an auto success (but doesn’t bypass limitations on the test, such as range and line of sight, (looking at you bard)). It also gives the player a point of inspiration.
• Inspiration is being more encouraged as a mechanic, with more ways to get it like rolling a nat 20, and you can give another player inspiration if your single slot is full.
• Spell attack rolls don't benefit from critical hits (for now).
• Monsters no longer roll critical hits for attacks. (That is what the recharge mechanic is for.)
• Like Pathfinder 2e, spells available are divided into three main lists (Arcane, Divine, and Primal) rather than each class having its own list. PCs will draw most of their spells from one of the three based on class, with additional spells added from the race, feats, and additional class abilities.
  • However, the Experts UA did reveal that the spell lists for the individual classes will be more restricted, with some classes being forbidden from prepping spells from specific schools in the place of the class-specific lists.
• The incapacitation condition also adds the following penalties: Your concentration is broken, you can't speak, and you have disadvantage on initiative checks if you are incapacitated when it starts.
• If a long rest was 1 or more hours in before being interrupted, the PCs gain the benefit of a short rest.
• Combat immediately resets the 8 hours needed to gain the benefit of a long rest instead of part of the 1 hour of strenuous activity.
• Reintroduced the Slowed Condition: Creature must spend 2 feet of speed to move 1 foot, attack roll hit with advantage, and they roll Dexterity saving throws at disadvantage.
• Clarified Unarmed Strikes are not Weapon attacks. Also, Grapple and Shove are additional options when an Unarmed Strikes hit instead of choosing to inflict damage. Now Grapple and Shoves scale off (Str + Proficiency) vs (enemy AC) instead of Athletics vs enemy Athletics or Acrobatics. There will likely be more options for the monk.
• Grappled Condition now: prevents you from change(?) (probably polymorph or misspelled charge? Didn’t list it in the glossary), have disadvantage on attacks not against grappler, the grappler gains the slowed condition (see above) while dragging the enemy they grappled. Escaping a grapple uses a Dexterity or Strength saving throw instead of Athletics or Acrobatics.
• Athletics and Acrobatics have been nerfed, as they are no longer used to make or escape a grapple. RIP using expertise to be grapple king.

Playtest 2: Expert Classes

Bard

• Bardic Inspiration's uses per day are now capped by proficiency rather than Charisma.
  • Bardic Inspiration can also be used as a budget healing spell rather than augmenting a healing spell.
  • Bardic Inspiration can now only be used as reactions, cutting down on the prep time of casting and hoping it'll see some use in some set period of time.
• Song of Rest has been axed, but now the Bard has certain spells (Healing Word, Restoration, and their variants) as spells that are always prepped.
• College of Lore doesn't give you free reign on bonus skills anymore, restricting you to Arcana, Nature and Religion (unless you already got one of them, then you can just pick whatever you want)
  • Rather than crib extra spells from other classes, the level 6 feature lets you re-roll Bardic Inspiration.

Ranger

• Fighting Styles are now considered feats, and while the Ranger picks up one as part of their class features, more can always be taken as bonus feats.
• Rangers gain cantrips by default rather than getting them via a fighting style. Also helping things is that they actually get casting from the start instead of needing to wait a level, though it's not as many slots as a full-caster would have available.
• A lot of the Tasha's revamps to the Ranger are now default, which is a sizeable step up.
  • Hunter's Mark is now a spell that's always prepped, with the added bonus of not needing to concentrate after casting it. At level 18, it bumps up to dealing 1d10 extra damage.
  • Roving boosts speed by 10 feet, but only outside of heavy armor.
  • Primeval Awareness has been absolutely axed.
  • Nature's Veil now expends spell slots. But y tho?
• Hunter's bonus damage to wounded enemies is now the only choice, because nobody really bothered with the other two. Same goes with the subclass' capstone only being halved damage for a reaction.
  • Level 6 now lets you identify some key features of an enemy you target with Hunter's Mark.
  • Rather than an extra stack of multiple attacks at level 10, you instead always get Conjure Barrage as a prepped spell that can go in any spell slot, though it deals less damage if used as a level 1 or 2 slot.

Rogue

• Thieves' Cant provides proficiency in an extra language.
• Level 13 provides a new feature that grants advantage to attacks against enemies engaged with your friends - aka, advantage on sneak attacks.
• Thief now grants an actual climb speed rather than just no movement penalties to climbing.
  • Supreme Sneak now grants advantage on all Stealth checks regardless of movement, but now does not work when wearing anything heavier than light armor.
  • Use Magic Device now provides an extra attunement slot, the chance to use a magic item without wasting a charge and the ability to use scrolls despite being a non-caster if you pass an Arcana check.
  • Thief's Reflexes now provide a second reaction to use on the stuff Rogues do, but only for a few times a day.
  • The ability for a Thief to use an object as a bonus action or use magic items without usual restrictions is gone.

Other Changes

• Classes in general have gone back to categorization with the AD&D groupings of Warrior, Expert, Priest and Mage.
  • Experts are all tied to their usage of Expertise.
• Ability Score Increase is now a feat, though its purpose is identical to before.
  • To make the decision between stat boosts or feats less of an extreme trade-off, the majority of feats now grant a minor stat bump.
• Each class now gains an Epic Boon feat, which provides some super endgame buff at level 20.
• The additional attack from using two light weapons is now part of your attack action instead of eating your bonus action. Dear god...Dual-Wielding is actually viable...!
• Charger now gives a boost to Dash distance (not really necessary unless you have some means to dash as a bonus action, such as a Roguish Action), the attack bonus from charging now deals extra damage or the shove instead of the hit bonus.
• Great Weapon Master loses its Power Attack abilities, instead providing proficiency to damage on one attack each turn.
• Heavy Armor Master now reduces damage by Proficiency, which is a serious upgrade.
• Medium Armor Master doesn't help with Stealth.
• Protection Fighting Style now gives a flat -2 to an enemy attack, which is a straight downgrade to the original version's disadvantage.
• Polearm Master restricts applicable weapons to those with Heavy and Reach, barring this from being used on Spears and Quarterstaves and thus being used with shields or the Duelist and Protection fighting styles. More importantly, the ability to whack things that enter engagement range doesn't count as an Opportunity Attack, thus breaking any synergy with Sentinel.
• Ritual Caster no longer ties the casting ability of these spells to the class it was taken from, plus it gives you a 1/day ability to cast a ritual as if it were a normal spell.
• Sharpshooter no longer works as a ranged power attack, but only gets no penalties for shooting at long range.
• Shield Master now forces enemies you attack to make a Strength save or else get shoved or knocked down, which is...a bit naff to any character that isn't maining Strength (i.e. Clerics)
• The Spells Known column seems to have been axed, which now breaks the cap of what spells can be prepped each day. How this will affect the Wizard, which was notorious for the broken number of spells that they can learn via writing into their spellbook, is yet to be determined.
  • At least for the formy the Spells Known class, reminiscent of older additions but still way more flexible, you can only prepare a number of spells of each level equal to the number of the spell slots you have for that level. This will mean by 5th level a bard can only have a max of 4 different 1st level spells and 3 different 2nd level spells prepared for that adventure day.
• Guidance now uses a reaction to cast instead of requiring concentration, but it now cannot affect any one target more than once a day. retconned as of the Cleric & Revised Species doc.

Playtest 3: Cleric & Revised Species

Cleric

• Generally got a lot shifted around in some attempt to mirror other classes.
  • Domains are now selected at level 3 like other classes instead of being picked out at creation.
  • Channel Divinity now works at level 1, with your default options being Turn Undead and a second ability that's essentially Cure/Inflict Wounds except not as a spell, healing or dealing d8xProficiency HP.
    • Turn Undead now dazes those that fail the save (except they can still run away). While it can no longer out-right eradicate lesser undead as you level up, it does deal more damage to all undead as it levels up.
    • Channel Divinity now has a number of uses a day equal to Proficiency bonus rather than a fixed number based on progression. With the new Channel Divinity feature, this has become absolutely necessary if you want to be anything close to a healer.
  • Level 2 gives them a sort-of variant to what Fighting Styles used to be, giving an option between heavy armor and martial weapon proficiency, two skills and +Wis to any checks using those skills, or an extra cantrip and the ability to recover a use of Channel Divinity each short rest. You get to pick a second at level 9.
    • This is likely to separate the domains from certain locked archetypes, or other weird ideas like Life Clerics wearing heavy armor despite being medics or Forge Clerics getting heavy armor but no martial weapons.
• Blessed Strikes is now default to the class rather than a domain-exclusive deal.
• Divine Intervention now has a cooldown of 2d6 days rather than a week, with the capstone feature shortening the cooldown to 2d4 days.
• Due to being activated later, Life Domain's first Channel Divinity (the big pool of healing) gets punted further down the progression line.
  • This similarly goes without saying, but Cure Wounds is no longer on the domain spells list, and thus makes the domain no longer an absolute auto-pick for a healbot. Life Domain still puts a lot more mileage into heals though.

Species

With all the other hubbub about the terminology of Race, it was a bit odd that Wizards, who spearheaded this whole PC movement of divesting from the idea of Race being an absolute identifier, still used the term (or maybe it isn't odd because we've seen how lazy they are). Instead, they're being renamed into Species.

• Ardlings: Here on account to their utterly underwhelming reception in the first playtest. All of them now have proficiency in Perception and an innate divine cantrip, and now each subrace has special features that aren't spells (Climb speed and bonus unarmed damage, vestigial wings for Feather Fall and advantage on Athletics checks to jump, increased Dash speed, or water breathing, swim speed and Cold resistance).
  • In exchange for this, they lost their flight and radiant resistance, making them even more like furries.
• Dragonborn: Here on account of Wizards forgetting some other features Fizban's gave. Now Breath Weapon's damage scales differently (not necessarily better) and can be either line or cone without being trapped to either. On top of that, they can actually fly for ten minutes each day when they reach level 5 with spectral wings that appear to be made from the same energy as their breath weapon.
• Goliath: The only new species in the list. Lost advantage on Athletics, but Wizards felt so addicted to Powerful Build that they forced it into advantage to escape Grappled. Goliaths also gain a special power based on their subrace of giant as well as the ability to effectively use Enlarge as an innate ability once per day after level 5.

Other Changes

• You can fail the Banishment spell willingly, and the permanent banish effect of the Banishment now works on Aberration, Celestial, Elemental, Fey, or Fiend creatures, even if native to your current plane, sending them to a random location associated with a plane associated with their type, but they now get 10 chances to break out, you can't permanently banish other planar creatures that are not of the listed creature types.
• Barkskin no longer gives a flat AC16, instead giving THP every turn. On one hand, this makes it a lot less viable on any self-buffing Druid, but on the other hand, this is a lot more usable for any beatsticks, including rangers.
• Prayer of Healing now lets others benefit from a short rest on top of the HP recovery.
• Resistance is now a reaction, making it actually usable.
• Spiritual Weapon requires concentration.