D&D: WotC Walks Back Big Changes to Warlock, Wizard, and More
The Unearthed Arcana survey for Playtest 5 is in, and the results see WotC walking back many changes, with little time to make more.
People fear change. It represents the unknown. A risk. Nobody fears change more than an executive sitting up in an office somewhere, drinking from the infinite fountain of revenue. So it’s little wonder then, that the more we see of the new D&D playtest changes, the more it looks almost exactly like D&D 5th Edition.
In a video covering the results of Playtest 5, WotC explains why they’re walking back many of the big changes made to classes like the Warlock and Wizard. While some were unpopular, many of the changes being reverted to vanilla 5th Edition made the playerbase happy. And with little time remaining to expand on the player-facing content, many in the community are worried about the 2024 version of the rules.
Unearthed Arcana Playtest 5 Survey Results
In a new video released over the past weekend, the D&D team sat down to talk about the results of Playtest 5. And by and large a number of the changes are getting reverted to their 2014 iterations. For better and for worse.
First, let’s talk about the good. Weapon Mastery is here to stay and will be a core feature in the 2024 5.5E Player’s Handbook for six of the classes. Which is most likely Fighter, Barbarian, Rogue, Paladin, Ranger, and Monk.
Also everyone loves the Barbarian. The Frenzied Berzerker, in particular, saw a big glow up, hitting 84% satisfaction as opposed to the 29% satisfaction rating it got in the 2020 Big Class Survey. The Barbarian in general is much improved from its previous incarnation, and it looks like the powerful punch it packs will be here to stay.
The universal spell lists that WotC has been playtesting for the last year or so are slated to vanish, though. This is one of the bigger walkbacks in the video. The Arcane, Primal, and Divine spells as a concept seem to be going away, instead, each class will have its own specific spell lists. A big part of this is Wizards.
Wizards and Warlocks – Ctrl + Z
That’s right, Wizards. Their overall satisfaction score took a dive from previous surveys. With players feeling dissatisfied with many of their options. Including wanting a Wizard-specific Spell list, not a shared Arcane list. Or so they say in their reasoning for changing the universal spell lists back.
It couldn’t possibly be that Wizards had all their class features suddenly become weird little spell things. And spell things that made them markedly more powerful, even.
Warlocks got the other short end of the change stick. They also got a mixed score. And as a result, Pact Magic is coming back, and the new Warlock will feel “more like the 2014 version.” This isn’t necessarily what people are asking for, but that does seem to be the core direction WotC is following. If something isn’t working, step back to the 2014 version.
Although they do promise that the next Warlock we see will have more Eldritch Invocation options, which is always good.
The problem is time. WotC themselves have said there are only three playtests left focusing on player-facing material, with the remainder for the DMG and Monster Manual before the new core books launch in 2024. That’s a very tight deadline and turnaround. And because the new core books are aimed to launch for the 50th anniversary, there’s no wiggle room. WotC will have to work fast.
What do you think of the survey results? What do you want to see out of D&D’s next edition?
