Dungeons and Dragons is releasing its second set of playtest material for One D&D, its evergreen evolution of 5th Edition. The Expert Classes Unearthed Arcana introduces many new rules, but will focus on the reworks for the Bard, Ranger, and Rogue classes for Dungeons and Dragons.
The new Expert Classes Unearthed Arcana goes live on September 29 and will be free for all players to download and playtest, with an optional feedback survey available a couple of weeks later. Ahead of the full PDF release, Dungeons and Dragons released a video overview of the content coming in the playtest material.
The new One D&D playtest material sounds like it will be even larger than the first, which detailed character origins and rules. This new Unearthed Arcana expands upon those rules with new ideas and alternative options. In addition, a new class framework for the Expert classes–Bard, Ranger, and Rogue–will appear in the PDF, as well as their subclasses and new class-specific feats. As the Bard and Ranger are both spellcasters, the new Arcane, Divine, and Primal spell lists will appear in their entirety, as will rules on how they interact with the new One D&D spellcasting classes.
As Dungeons and Dragons continues to roll out One D&D playtest content, it will continue to develop the system updates until it is satisfied enough to put out the new rulebooks. Some new Unearthed Arcana will provide new or alternative rules to those in previous PDFs, which Dungeons and Dragons hopes will allow players to try different options so the final rules are the most popular and fun choices.
Dungeons and Dragons received over 40,000 completed surveys from its last One D&D Unearthed Arcana–more than any other playtest material in its history. Players are humming with excitement to see what is in store for them with the One D&D playtests. Dungeons and Dragons lead rules designer Jeremy Crawford mentioned a few things in store for players in future Unearthed Arcana, including magic items, spells, and a total of 48 subclasses across the 12 base classes.
Of course, some players have concerns over the One D&D playtest material. The previous Unearthed Arcana caused no small amount of waves in the community between some unpopular rule changes and some potentially problematic design choices regarding race and background. However, it is important to remember that Unearthed Arcana is essentially a beta test for One D&D. By participating in the surveys and playtests, Dungeons and Dragons fans can make their voices heard and help make sure One D&D becomes a better product for everyone.
One D&D is in development.