Tabletop Builds on One D&D Druid, Paladin

kobo1d
We’re back for another round of discussion on One D&D playtest rules, similar to the fivethirtyeight.com articles where they just have a slack discussion with long answers, edit it slightly, and post it to the site. Today we have a handful of Tabletop Builds writers and editors (a.k.a “carpenters”) joining us for a chat. The topic this time is the fourth One D&D playtest packet, “Druid and Paladin.”

Discussion section shortcuts:

• Druid Discussion
• Paladin Discussion
• Feats and Spells
• Rules Glossary

Druid Discussion

kobo1d
There is a lot in this month’s PDF, so I know this chat is going to be long. We should probably try to move straight into specific sections quickly. But just in case someone had an opening statement in mind…really quickly, opening thoughts?

Everice
Moon Druid sucks.

seacliff
I personally like the revised smite spells.

Quetzalcoatlus
Okay, should we start with the positives first? That should be done very quickly. I’d say the change in the grapple rules was for the better.

Icebrick1
I have mixed feelings overall. There’s some good ideas in this, but a lot of poor execution. Compared to some previous PDFs we’ve gotten, I don’t think this is the worst.

Lilith
The class design has a few interesting improvements, but they also seem incredibly conservative and the progression feels worse overall. Also, in terms of flavor and customization, it’s a very mixed bag on where the devs want to draw the line.

Quetzalcoatlus
They seem to be pushing in the direction of making “flavor” a “do whatever you want with the very bland mechanics presented”, which I’m not very fond of.

kobo1d
With Cleric last time combined with Druid and Paladin now, I think Priests as a group have done a lot better than Experts as a group.

Quetzalcoatlus
There’s still the concern that we do not have enough context to judge whether Rogue and Ranger will be able to do much of anything depending on what they do to martial weapons or how the rules for weapon swapping evolve in the future, but I guess this also applies to possible spell reworks that would apply to the priest group and we haven’t yet been given

kobo1d
Let’s channel nature and dive into the primal priest class first. Which Druid changes do you like, and which do you not? (And why?)

seacliff
I appreciate the removal of the “Won’t Wear Metal Armor” text on the Druid’s Armor Proficiency and simply having Light Armor and Shields. It gives the Druids the same starting AC the devs likely intended without having to cause unnecessary discussion between players and DMs.

kobo1d
No medium armor, but without any metal restrictions seems like a net gain given the ease of picking up armor training in One D&D so far. I’m a big fan of the reduction of table variance and ambiguity on this topic.

Quetzalcoatlus
Definitely, I was previously worried they would keep that in since every other spellcaster presented so far had really easy access to 19 AC, without even dipping.

Lilith
At last, no more 30 minutes argument at every table between RAW and RAI and flavor and lore for 3 AC difference.

Icebrick1
The changes to armor are good. Light Armor + Shield means all the Druids aren’t wearing half-plate by default while also sidestepping the weirdness which was the “Druids will not wear metal armor” rule.

We should probably talk about the other uses of Channel Nature a little. They’re nothing amazing, but I guess it’s nice to give Druids something aside from their spells if they aren’t big Wild Shape fans. It would probably be good if Healing Blossoms scaled at some point, perhaps they could become d6, d8, and end at d10s at like 17th level?

Lilith
Healing Blossoms! I can see some attempts from WotC to incorporate keywords into their writing, but healing blossoms goes all the way back to their classic verbiage. “Choose your flavor from this bland option” But also “You channel healing energy that appears as blooming flowers. Choose a point within 30 feet of yourself, and spectral flowers appear for a moment in a 10-foot-radius sphere centered on that point.” It’s funny to see that clash of ideology within the same pdf.

Icebrick1
I think the standardized statblocks for Wild Shape are a good idea, very poorly executed. Players should generally not have to dig into the Monster Manual, and it means that printing a certain Beast can’t suddenly break Druids. However, they are absolutely flavorless, and quite weak. There’s no reason you would ever use any of these forms for combat; they grant you no extra HP, ruin your AC, all for a tiny bit more damage than your cantrips (in melee only), and a little bit of mobility. It’s hard to tell what exactly the community at large thinks about a change, but this seems to be a popular opinion. I have hope feedback will help Wild Shape in future, boosting its defenses a little and perhaps letting the Druid give the Wild Shape some abilities from a list to emulate the flavor of particular animals.

Lilith
For the typical D&D players, a large part of the Druid fantasy and class identity is in the wild shape ability. Part of that excitement for me and many is in looking at the animal options and finding ones that have special utilities. New wild shape is much more devoid of options, and is now just a longsword and some speed. And then the -4 AC.

Everice
Which, given how utterly useless Wild shape is outside of specific subclasses, is pretty strange. You are losing access to random things like blindsight, that’s true.

The wild shape template change has its pros and cons. On the one hand, it’s consistent, and it’s future-proofed against stuff like Tressym being quietly changed to ‘monstrosity’ in a later publication. It also prevents the ‘system mastery’ of being able to trawl through a giant list of useless animals until you find a good one. On the other hand, you can make the case that it’s boring. They don’t do much, either, but baseline Wild shape never really did much besides mobility/scouting potential and arguing with the DM about how inconspicuous rats are in a given place.

kobo1d
Lilith, it’s actually a big debuff too because you lose every non-wildshape feature in this version. Saving throw proficiencies? (Probably) gone. Feats? Gone. Class or racial features that might have interacted with old Wild Shape? Gone.

Quetzalcoatlus
About looking at the animals options, Lilith: That could have been easily done with a list of potential special traits you could choose from when wild shaping, and as you’d level up you’d be able to acquire more options and use more than 1 trait.

The fact that Wild Shape now acts as an effective debuff for yourself in combat and has had its out of combat utility severely limited is a big problem design-wise.

Icebrick1
It is easy to forget the Wild Shape isn’t just a self-debuff, it’s a self-debuff which takes up your action for that turn and a limited resource (though Channel Nature isn’t doing that much else).

seacliff
Doubling down on Wild Shape as the core Druid feature is more of a mixed bag. The cookie-cutter stat blocks make the effects of the wild shape very bland until Swim and Fly speeds are later obtained. That said, Druid has always been able to ignore WIld shape. It’s hard to give final judgments on the class until we have more info on specific spell changes.

kobo1d
I think the way it’s presented here makes it clear they think of Wild Shape as a core element of the class identity, but the power level of the feature is now even reduced from in 5E. In 5E, Wild Shape is already nearly a ribbon for most subclasses. Having such a weak feature here taking up so much of the “text budget” for the class is definitely going to make a lot of people upset.

Icebrick1
I would argue it’s not really “doubling down” on Wild Shape as the core Druid feature. It’s pretty much the same as PHB Druid, but the blank levels are replaced by Wild Shapes features (which do about as much as the blank levels previously did).

seacliff
That’s true. Wild Shape in 5e simply told you what features you will eventually get on tables.

Everice
And this is where we get to Moon Druid. Now you can go into melee with d8 hit die HP and 13 AC. Moon Druid was overrated already, but at least having 35 HP at level 2 wasn’t a meme. In standard (low) difficulty games Moon Druid did have some decent power as a melee/tank/whatever thing.

Quetzalcoatlus
Moon Druid now grants the player the ability to severely nerf themselves, and if you ask me this is a meme.

Lilith
Before, the Druid class didn’t really do the “Turn animal and wreck stuff” fantasy because the numbers were weak, but the community managed to make use of the utilities and still fulfill some of that transformation power fantasy. Now they removed all the utility potential to give you a bland featureless stat block, and built it like a boring cantrip that’s also a big debuff. To compensate, moon druid now gets 3 longsword attacks at level 5 instead of 2, hooray. That’s it folks, wild shape is dead.

Quetzalcoatlus
Not really, because it loses the bonus attack feature once it wild shapes. It can, however, use an unarmed strike as a bonus action in humanoid form.

Everice
You know, vs the longsword and board fighter builds. Now Moon Druid is worse than the sword and board fighter if it tries to actually use wild shape for combat like it’s supposed to.

Icebrick1
To comment on Moon Druid specifically, it is a joke. The features don’t work properly (As Quetzalcoatlus said, Quick Attack currently only works while you’re not Wild Shaped) and the features are far too weak for the debuff that Wild Shape is. Even as a Moon Druid, you’re better off not using Wild Shape and just staying in humanoid form.

kobo1d
I don’t know how to top what Everice started the whole conversation with–Moon Druid sucks. I wouldn’t ever play one as written. Find Familiar was my favorite generic use for Wild Shape uses before, and still is here.

Everice
Yes, the Find Familiar usage was clearly the best option outside of subclass specifics. All of the benefits of scouting as rat or owl, with none of the personal risk involved with wild shaping and doing it yourself.

seacliff
Having the Familiar of Wild Companion last until the end of the next long rest is a nice buff. Though I’m wondering why they won’t just give Druids the spell at this point.

Lilith
Tiny size is its own feature because the Thanos ass-plosion is too OP for level 2!

Everice
Not that a druid can wild shape into a rat or an owl anymore, or even pretend to, because no Tiny size allowed. Super perplexed by this decision, I just don’t get it.

kobo1d
I agree that tiny size at 11 is perhaps the most baffling decision.

Icebrick1
It feels like the thing some video games do where they take away quality of life features so you can level up and unlock it later so it feels like progression.

Lilith
They realized that the community was using OG wild shape for its utility right? So what ended up happening was fragmenting a few of those utilities into their own abilities, and spread them way too thin across the level progression. Level 13 you can get out of that debuffed state after you’re done with whatever theoretical utility you gained a turn after. Level 13, where you get 7th level spells.

Quetzalcoatlus
I guess it encourages good play by making a familiar to scout instead, but the decision to then have a class feature enabling being tiny at 11th level just sounds like a fever dream.

kobo1d
We should get into Paladin soon, but before we do, any final thoughts on Druid?

Quetzalcoatlus
I would say that we lack the context to say whether or not it will come out good because we don’t know future reworks of spells, but if the spells are as good as on the PHB, it will remain one of the strongest classes in the game. Just one that never wild shapes

kobo1d
I agree. Despite all the changes, I actually think it’s still a very strong class. Wild Shape being lame is not really a dealbreaker for me, because I already considered it pretty lame in 5E. We’re missing what really matters: language of their most important spells.

Icebrick1
Compared to PHB Druid, Druid didn’t really lose out on all that much except Wild Shape, and gained a few minor things. It’s just that Wild Shape feels majorly bad.

seacliff
I still want to see if spells like Conjure Animals and Pass Without Trace are altered in any way before I make any final judgments on Druid. I’m almost certain they will be, but if the Druid’s spell list still remains strong, whatever abilities it gets alongside that is simply extra.

Paladin Discussion

kobo1d
To fulfill my oath that Paladin was next: same questions as before, which changes you like, which do you dislike, and why?

Everice
I’ll confess guys, I haven’t read the playtest. I have been operating on fragments of third-hand information this entire time. I don’t know anything about the Paladin changes.

Icebrick1
For Druid I saw good ideas with bad execution. Paladin is just all mixed for me. For example, all the Smite features and spells working on ranged are kind of cool. I want to play a Ranged Paladin, but it also doesn’t fit with the “core” Paladin fantasy and it’s not like we needed to remove one of the few reasons to use melee weapons.

The designers have decided that the subclass aura is tied to Aura of Protection, which means they can’t give it before level 10. I think this is a real shame, it was one of the cooler features for Paladin subclasses, but now you won’t see them for such a long time.

kobo1d
I am excited that bow / crosssbow / gun Paladin is more viable, but am hesitant that it’s now looking pretty clearly optimal. I think looking at nerfs to Paladin is missing the point. Why would you want to play another weapon user? To me One D&D Ranger is a big loser here.

Xenken
Well ranger does get hunter’s mark in a no BA universe with the weird draw/stow 3 attack ranged dual wielding right? That is a thing.

Quetzalcoatlus
On a short rest recharge.

seacliff
Aura getting delayed a level because every subclass needs to have an ability at Level 6 is one thing, but subclass Auras getting delayed until 10 hurts.

Quetzalcoatlus
I am happy they at least have Aura of Protection still be an amazingly strong ability, I was worried they would change it to proficiency bonus or make it entirely useless. So I can live with a 1 lvl delay.

Lilith
Smite is now once per turn to prevent the evil powergamers from destroying bosses completely! Has there been any effort to fix melee at all? This smite change is consistent with that lack of caring attitude. Find steed being a staple class feature is reasonable at least, and a free casting to make using it even smoother. Abjure foes is a design that we could use more of in 5e. Save or suck but some effect still stick. I like it, a strong impactful ability without huge variance that comes at an appropriate level. An extra 3rd level spell slot in functionality.

Icebrick1
Abjure Foes is ridiculous. it would be a really really good 3rd level spell. It dazes all foes within 60 feet for a minute with no saving throw. A dazed character can’t take reactions or move and attack on the same turn. It immediately makes any melee monster harmless with no way of avoiding it. Well, unless your DM allows the monsters to punch themselves.

seacliff
It’s a number of foes equal to your Charisma Modifier, rather than all, but still plenty powerful.

Quetzalcoatlus
Also, adding on to the ranged Paladin debacle, Abjure Foes leans even harder on that playstyle.

kobo1d
Speaking of third level spells: Paladin has full access to the Divine list now.

Xenken
SPIRIT GUARDIANS. Ranged pally keeps winning.

seacliff
Spirit Guardians on every Paladin do make the wait for the Level 10 Subclass Aura significantly more palatable.

Lilith
We have not gotten the Spirit Guardians update have we?

Quetzalcoatlus
Which means Spirit Guardians Paladin on a steed, and that brings me joy. Upcasting the Find Steed spell as you keep leveling up is pretty much free, and helps it get more robust (and eventually fly). The new abilities on the steed are also cool, even though they’re a 1/long rest deal.

kobo1d
…if they work. We need the new mounted combat rules.

Lilith
Upcasting permanent summons so they have a tiny bit of scaling with your spell progression is a welcoming touch. Find familiar gains some scaling, and it also has 1/day death escape which is handy. The scaling doesn’t do much but it adds that bit of growth with your character, instead of just one and done from level 1.

Xenken
I will miss the steed actually attacking, even if that was pretty jank. The FF scaling does not matter. Frankly I wish they didn’t bother there.

Icebrick1
Well, they did give the steed an attack. It’s unclear what the intention is on how that can be used.

Quetzalcoatlus
Unless they change controlled mount rules to allow for attacks later on, which I very much doubt is the case.

Lilith
It can attack if you’re incapacitated.

kobo1d
I think I will be a bit annoyed changing the AC on my familiar or mount each day, depending on which slot I had left over last night, but it’s worth having the scaling still I think.

seacliff
Overall, I believe find familiar and find steed to still be good spells in spite of using the stat-block Summoning Format introduced in Tasha’s.

Quetzalcoatlus
I’d agree, those may have been the first spells to have ever been Tasha-fied without becoming bad.

Lilith
I wouldn’t have had any issue with Tasha summons if they were not painfully boring. At least add a little table with abilities for you to pick from. Like, c’mon, how much more bland can you make your stat blocks?

Everice
I wouldn’t be surprised if the “Conjure” spells got completely scrapped and replaced with their “Summon” counterparts at this rate.

kobo1d
They will keep the conjure X names for “backwards compatibility” with supplements but yeah I expect a Tasha-summon-style gutting for conjure animals and friends.

All the stuff combined in this PDF makes single class Paladin (or Paladin with a small dip) a lot more enticing. I think I’m in disagreement with the majority here because I think it’s in a great spot compared to other material we’ve seen for this new edition.

I’ve seen a lot of consternation online about Cleric out-Paladin-ing the Paladin though, with the new smite spells and find steed both scaling faster for them. Every packet makes me dislike the shared spell lists a bit more.

Xenken
Yeah!! I know this is paladin changes, but wow tier 2 to early tier 3 clerics are gonna be a menace with these spells. They roll up to you with their 60hp flying mount they got yesterday, zone you with SG, and then proceed to nova by hitting you with a staggering smite for a non-conc ranged stun.

Icebrick1
Yeah, I still see no reason for the combined spell list. They said some stuff about it being easier to say a new spell is “an Abjuration spell on the Primal Spell List” but I really don’t see how that’s better than “This new spell is on the Druid, Cleric, Warlock spell list…” etc. It sacrifices the differences between classes and their ability to fine-tune how they give out spells for no discernable benefit.

Xenken
It’s odd that smite spells can probably crit while smite itself probably can’t. But I’ll take that honestly.

Lilith
Well, the staple smite spell we use like wrathful smite is now a lot less sticky. But removing concentration from some of them and casting on hit is a big improvement for this spell archetype.

kobo1d
Casting on hit, I think everyone likes that change, right? That seems pretty universally appreciated.

seacliff
I think the interesting change is not just casting on a hit, but using a Bonus Action to cast the spell rather than a Reaction.

kobo1d
Little discussion here on Oath of Devotion, any thoughts? Seems as solid as ever to me. I like the Sacred Weapon buff.

Lilith
Sacred weapon is no longer an action, which is a lot less annoying.

Icebrick1
It’s basically okay. The free casting of one of your Oath Spells is nice. Smite of Protection is a new feature, but nothing really exciting.

seacliff
Sacred Weapon only needing a Bonus Action is nice, but there is currently no -5 to Hit/+10 Damage Feat to get the most out of it. I would have liked to see Smite of Protection target multiple allies, at least.

Everice
Pre-casting no longer being mandatory for Sacred Weapon is definitely a good change.

Quetzalcoatlus
The change to Sacred Weapon was pretty good, the Smite add-on was forgettable, the Oath spells are okay… Not having a subclass feature at 20 and instead at 14 is pretty cool too, although that was completely expected in light of previous pdfs

Lilith
It does seem like the Paladin’s intended gameplay loop involves smiting each turn now, with smite of protection adding another incentive. Since you now have to divide them between turns, players would feel more inclined to keep using smites cause the risk of running out of resources is less apparent

kobo1d
That’s what people in 1 encounter per day games do now already!

Lilith
Well we did optimize that formula to: save resources and blow smites on high threat you want to remove fast.

Quetzalcoatlus
Yeah, both Divine Smite and Smite of Protection are looking extremely underwhelming

Everice
‘Smite of Protection’ is a really lame name.

kobo1d
I actually noticed a lot of the ability names in this packet seemed like placeholders too. Or they just really phoned them in. 

seacliff
Smite of Protection is also similar to Oath of Glory’s Inspiring Smite Channel Divinity.

kobo1d
Well after all this, I get the feeling we are not all in agreement for this new Paladin. Any final thoughts on the class or how it might fit compared to the rest of the new edition?

Lilith
Divine sense is no longer literally useless.

Everice
Divine Sense had a use case: hitting random NPCs with the vibe check to see if they needed murdering or not.

Lilith
Overall, Paladin looks like shuffling a bunch of things around and not accomplishing much in strengthening the class fantasy, and missing the chance to address many of the game’s design problems. Cheaper paladin dip is now on the table, and the class isn’t gutted as hard compared to our experts.

Oh, almost forgot, they did address the “Peace dip” problem of proficiency scaling.

kobo1d
Wizards of the Coast may finally be getting a handle on their PB/LR addiction.

Everice
Paladin buffs/QoL is good but making a ranged Paladin playstyle optimal is… not a good thing. We’re lacking a huge swathe of context in terms of spell text and what monsters will look like in One D&D, but if it follows the 5e trend then melee Paladin has little-to-no-reason to exist.

Seems likely to fit right in with the continued era of ranged-damage firing squads where melee martials monsters are gunned down in the street without mercy like the dogs they are.

Paladin gets to reliably hang out with the Wizard and buff his concentration saves, now. Previously, Paladin actually had to be more than 10 ft away from the rest of the party in order to do his job sometimes. Important to note, as it’s not just “ranged paladin is better”, it’s also a direct buff to ranged party composition as a whole.

seacliff
Paladin has its ups and downs but ended up a lot better than Ranger. But as Lilith foreshadowed, if Spirit Guardians end up getting changed in a way where it’s no longer worth casting, that would definitely influence if I wanted to play a Paladin at higher levels.

Quetzalcoatlus
Yeah, Paladin definitely didn’t end up as bad as Ranger. You now spend more time leveling up Paladin rather than jumping ship after 7, which is good. But you also build ranged weapon Paladin as the spiritual successor to Eldritch Blast Paladin, except you can now use nerfed Smite. Also has a way to generate advantage for the party with Glimmering Smite, which ended up pretty good.

kobo1d
And unlike basically every other “top tier” class in 5e, which are still missing key spells, Paladin’s main deal is already printed right here in Aura of Protection.

Everice
We’re still lacking monster context but with ‘backwards compatibility’ in mind I doubt the fundamental design flaws are going away. Ergo, Paladin is probably the only class we can confidently say is good at this juncture.

Feats and Spells

kobo1d
We have 3 new epic boons this month, and a promise in the sidebar to make them more epic going forward. This is something we definitely complained about in past packets. Did they succeed in making them more epic here?

Lilith
Epic boon of fate gives you a couple roll-fixing Spell recall gives you some 25% more low level slots Truesight’s just truesight. They’re useful I guess. I’d still like to image epic boon as some incredible impactful perks like jumping mountains, smashing craters, and augmenting spells in interesting ways. A moderate performance boost is what the devs are going for it seems.

Icebrick1
The Epic Boons are a little bit more Epic, and I’m glad to hear they’ll attempt to make the other ones cooler too. Fate and Spell Recall are fairly good, but Truesight is pretty weak by comparison. I think I’d probably take them over a normal feat when I reach level 20.

Quetzalcoatlus
An interesting thing about Fate is that you can use the 2d4 as a penalty to a failed d20 test, which is super niche

seacliff
They are certainly better, but I don’t think they will prevent me from multiclassing, assuming I do play in a game that reaches Level 20. Something on Par with the best 9th Level Spells would live up to the name.

Icebrick1
Yeah, Epic Boons should really be one scenario where it’s okay to kind of “break” the game, it’s for one level, might as well go out with a bang.

Everice
Speaking of spells – we already talked about some of the new spells, but any other thoughts you have on them that you didn’t get to share?

Quetzalcoatlus
I will take this moment to remind us that the buff on Spare the Dying was ridiculous.

Everice
Grave Clerics be wilin’ out over this one.

kobo1d
I welcome having spare the dying be a cantrip I would actually take. We need more good Divine cantrips.

Lilith
Was it worth a spell slot and an action just to bring someone up from dying? If you’re desperate for options, maybe. Now it’s a staple cantrip. Previously, you could already accomplish the same by spamming healing potions, or rationing the potions to your summons to make action economy even easier. It was limited by gold but if you play by the book gold isn’t that big of a concern. Same for goodberry for tables that run it as allowing you to feed unconscious people (very common house rule) Now that tactic is openly available.

Icebrick1
Mmm… I like cantrips being useful but I think spare the dying might be a bit much. Parties which have a lot of casters with the cantrip might be literally unkillable if the enemy doesn’t have a ton of attacks.

Quetzalcoatlus
It went from “this is stupid” to “this is stupid but in the opposite way”

Everice
Don’t worry guys, when you get healed after being unconscious – you now gain an exhaustion level. I fixed it!

Quetzalcoatlus
With the Guidance buff I wonder if they want to raise the utility levels of cantrips (as if 5E Guidance wasn’t already super useful) or if this is just random mutations.

Everice
The main thing is that Guidance was changed in QoL terms – they made it ranged and a reaction because everyone sane played it that way already. The alternative would be bookkeeping where the Cleric is standing at all times. Spare the Dying just… got a huge buff.

Icebrick1
I can’t wait for the new True Strike which lets you reroll an attack as a reaction, infinite use.

It’s nice to see the buff to Glimmering Smite (formerly Branding Smite). I’ve actually used it a little bit before since it used to be one of the few smites you can use at range, but now it actually has a pretty decent use-case, it gives advantage with no saving throw!

Wrathful Smite got really pulled down, which is kind of a shame because it was a neat spell, but ultimately very understandable. Why exactly did it work in this weird fashion where the enemy needs to use an action to make a check, when almost every other spell just has them make a saving throw at the end of every turn? I have slightly mixed feelings about it, but it’s a pretty reasonable change.

Lilith
Thundering smite now is ranged forced movement! Time for some ranged paladin Charger thundering smite gameplay!

seacliff
The simple change to how Smite spells are cast gives more viability to the Smite spells with actual potential. But ones like Searing and Blinding could use a little more.

Quetzalcoatlus
Searing smite continues to be pretty pathetic, definitely not a winner this time around.

Rules Glossary

Everice
Last, as always, the constantly evolving rules glossary. Any changes here that you liked or didn’t like?

Quetzalcoatlus
I already touched upon that, but the grappled condition is back to requiring an action to attempt to free yourself from, and I think that’s good.

Lilith
The little adjustment to dying is nice. I’ve seen situations where tables can’t get someone up from unconsciousness because they don’t have healing, now it’s less of a weird hiccup. (Ignoring the new spare the dying).

Exhaustion got a lot more streamlined, though it’s still strictly a hindrance that you can’t do much about

Icebrick1
Grappling is different, but not in any ways that I particularly care about. It got better in some ways (action to escape), worse in others (strength save to initiate).

Lilith
It does seem that weapons are getting a rework to create more distinction between them. Hopefully we can finally break away from the samey options with different damage dice. Given that the only one teased is shortsword becoming simple, I’m not expecting much.

seacliff
I would love to see more weapon properties. Though I don’t know if that aligns with their vision of streamlining the game’s rules.

Everice
Well, I think that last phrase, “I’m not expecting much.” is as good a place as any to round the discussion off. The next playtest may well be better than we think, though probably worse than we hope.

kobo1d
They seemed to suggest in a companion video a new bi-monthly release schedule. We’ll have to continue this tradition when we have more of this system-in-progress to digest. Thank you all!