Wizards of the Coast has been slowly testing potential changes to 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Dungeons & Dragons for its next revision, due next year. Not all of the proposed changes will come to pass - many are contradictory and cannot coexist. To date, all of these changes (Unearthed Arcanas, the name given to these playtests) have been for the Player's Handbook. With 1🧸68澳洲幸运5开奖网:changes to existing classes or subclasses, or 168澳洲幸运5开奖网෴:even introducing💫 new subclasses entirely, the plan was to get through all the Player's Handbook ones, take on feedback, and then move on to the Dungeon Master's Guide UAs based around broader parts of the game. However, the latest one, Playtest 8, is being described as a “bonus” UA, and finally shifts the focus to DMs.
There are two major changes proposed in , one of which tweaks an existing mechanic, and one of which is entirely new. This latter introduces the idea of a 'bastion', essentially a homestead or keep complete with possible upgrades for your party to work towards. It's the sort of thing that puts extra work on a DM to incorporate into their game (hence why it's a DM UA rather than a PHB one), but with a group that loves storytelling, it seems like it could be very rewarding. We're only told about this mechanic in broad strokes, and already it seems like it has a lot of depth. As a DM myself, it feels like the sort of thing a whole campaign could be built around.
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Each player can have their own bastion, or the party collectively can have one, although there are some limitations around which classes can use which bastion. The example given is weapon proficiency, so I suppose if your bastion is supposed to be a war keep, it doesn't do for a bard and wizard to be running the show. Bastions also get a 'turn', although since they can use this once every seven days that might not be the correct term, and there are already questions of how this will fit in with Faerun’s famous 10-day week. With hirelings able to maintain the bastion when you’re away, it remains an active part of your story even when you’re not in it.
A big thing bastions allow for is those preparations or activities that happen in 'downtime', which many adventures don't allow for. With a bastion, you can set this preparation going, and then reap the fruits on your return. Bastions also earn bastion points with their actions, which can be spent on multiple things - including having dead heroes revive at home, like respawning in a video game. This makes it a game changer of a mechanic, and offers a vital tool to adventuring parties. These bastions "stand on their own" according to WotC, so we can put them into any existing campaign and they will meld into the world.
Bastions seem like the biggest change put forward, because it introduces something that did not exist before, and that a whole campaign can be designed around. That's a major addition, but it's also completely optional. I've rarely given much thought to where my playable characters come from or live, and that means you need to reshape how to play and how you build your campaign setting to include bastions. Some won't, as it’s a lot of work to incorporate bastions, and so this change won’t impact their experience at all. But the second change Playtest 8 brings is to cantrips, a core part of any Dungeons & Dragons game, and therefore could have a huge impact.
Cantrips have been reexamined in order to overhaul how the least effective ones functioned. Cantrips - spells that don't use a spell slot - still work in the same basic way, but individual ones have been tweaked. Acid Splash, for example, has a minor change to it. Originally able to target two creatures, it now has a radius of 5ft., meaning it could hit up to four medium creatures, or more if they're smaller. True Strike, next to useless thanks to its reliance on actions, has been changed so that the casting of the spell and the damage itself are the same action, not separate - apparently True Strike was a victim of the "caution" around advantage rolls in 2014 that the team is now moving away from.
My favourite of these, though, is Blade Ward. Right now, Blade Ward is an action, and gives you resistance to bludgeoning, slashing, and piercing damage - AKA all basic weapon damage. But because it's an action, it's rarely used. In this new design, it's a reaction, and it increases in range as you level up, turning it from a wasted slot into a must-pick cantrip for any squishy caster.
The changes to individual classes and subclasses have been bumpy, as WotC tries to offer new experiences while appeasing traditionalists and balancing playstyles with so many moving parts that some use for roleplay adventures, and others only care about as a vector for combat victory. Responses to the seven previous playtests have therefore been mixed at best. But these two changes seem like slam dunks, and I'm sure I’ll be sliding bastions straight into my next campaign.