One D&D has completely reworked the bard, ranger, and rogue classes, as well as altering a lot of elements for the spellcasting and warrior classes.
The second Unearthed Arcana article for One D&D has been released, revealing the preliminary changes to the bard, ranger, and rogue class in the upcoming Dungeons & Dragons 5e revision. The article also contains new rules that involve the melee fighters and the spellcasters in the game. All the information in the article is considered to be playtesting material and anyone who wishes to express their opinions on its content should fill out the feedback survey when it's released.
One D&D has broken classes into groups, with barbarians, fighters, and monks being Warriors, clerics, druids and paladins being Priests, and sorcerers, warlocks, and wizards being Mages. The fourth group are known as Experts and it contains the artificer, bard, ranger, and rogue classes. The Experts are classes who rely on their sharp skills to save the day, as they possess a wide-range of abilities that can handle any problem the party comes across.
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The new versions of the bard, ranger, and rogue are all leading up to the release of the D&D 5e updated books for the 50th anniversary in 2024, so these iterations of the classes will likely be changed by the time those books are printed. There are a lot of positive changes here, as well as some that fans are likely to be unhappy about. As previously mentioned, participation in the feedback survey on the One D&D website is vital for those who agree or disagree with the changes.
There are new requirements in place for characters who want to multiclass. The character must now have certain stats to be able to multiclass, with the bard requiring a Charima of 13, the ranger requiring a Dexterity and Wisdom of 13, and the rogue requiring a Dexterity of 13. It's odd that these restrictions are in place, considering how open D&D is about different race/class combos, so this is something that could easily be cut in the future.
One D&D has changed Feats and made them mandatory, with characters receiving one for free as part of their Background. A character can choose to take the Ability Score Improvement Feat whenever they receive a Feat, in keeping with the old system from the Player's Handbook. The Fighting Style class feature used by many classes is now considered a Feat used by the Warrior group, though rangers are able to ignore this requirement.
One change that "Expert Classes" has introduced will affect every class in the game. In One D&D, the 20th-level abilities that character classes received in the Player's Handbook have now been pushed down to level 18. Instead, characters will now be able to choose an Epic Boon Feat when they reach level 20. Epic Boons are powerful Feats, such as the Epic Boon of Speed adding 30ft to the character's movement or the Epic Boon of Fortitude adding 40 hit points to the character's maximum score.
One D&D is making bards different in a number of ways. Bards now prepare spells like a cleric or wizard, instead of gaining them at a specific pace, like sorcerers. The trade-off is that their spell list only pulls spells from the Arcane list and only from the Divination, Enchantment, Illusion, or Transmutation schools of magic. To make up for this, bards get the Songs of Restoration ability at level 2, which gradually adds healing spells to their list for free, similar to a cleric's Domain spells. This means they get healing word at level 2, lesser restoration at level 4, mass healing word at level 6, freedom of movement at level 8, and greater restoration at level 10.
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A lot of the bard features have been shuffled around. They get Expertise at level 2 instead of level 3, Jack of All Trades is now level 5 instead of level 2, Font of Inspiration is now level 7 instead of level 5, the 2nd Expertise is level 9 instead of level 10, the 3rd subclass feature is now received at level 10 instead of level 14, Magical Secrets is level 11 instead of level 10, and the 2nd Magical Secrets is level 15 instead of level 14. The D&D bard class did lose some power, as they have lost the Countercharm, their third instance of Magical Secrets, and Song of Rest abilities. Bards have lost weapon proficiency with hand crossbows, longswords, rapiers, and shortswords.
Some bard class features are now different, with the most notable being Bardic Inspiration.In One D&D, Bardic Inspiration now has two uses that are different from how they worked in the Player's Handbook. Bardic Inspiration dice can now be used as a Reaction whenever a character within 60ft fails a d20 test (attack roll, saving throw, or skill check), in order to potentially let them pass the check. A D&D bard character's Bardic Inspiration power can also be used as a Reaction whenever a creature within 60ft is damaged, and it will heal them. The Font of Bardic Inspiration is the same, except that anytime a character rolls a 1 when using a Bardic Inspiration dice, then it's not counted as an expended use of the skill. The Superior Bardic Inspiration ability now gives back two uses of Bardic Inspiration upon rolling initiative. Finally, the uses of Bardic Inspiration are tied to the Proficiency bonus and not the Charisma modifier, which means players will likely have few uses of it than they did in the D&D 5e rules.
"Expert Classes" only lists the College of Lore D&D subclass for bards. The Cutting Words feature of this subclass can no longer reduce damage from damage rolls. The College of Lore bards no longer gains the Additional Magical Secrets feature, as this has been replaced with Cunning Inspiration. This is actually the better skill, as Cunning Inspiration essentially gives advantage on Bardic Inspiration rolls. The College of Lore Bards now gain the Improved Cutting Words ability at level 10, which adds psychic damage to any use of Cutting Words. The Peerless Skill feature is now used whenever the character fails an ability check, and it can be used to try and improve it.
The ranger has received even more changes that the bard. This isn't surprising, as D&D 5e's ranger is considered the worst class in the game and it was in dire need of an overhaul. In terms of new features, rangers now start casting spells at level 1 instead of level 2, they get the Expertise feature at level 1 and again at level 9, they get a subclass feature at level 6 instead of 7, they get a new ability called Roving at level 7, they get a new subclass feature at level 10, they get a new ability called Tireless at level 11, they get a new ability called Nature’s Veil at level 13, they get a subclass feature at level 14 instead of level 15, they now get Feral Senses at level 15 instead of level 18, they get Foe Slayer at level 18 instead of level 20, and they get an Epic Boon Feat at level 20. The ranger class has also lost some features, as Natural Explorer, Land's Stride, Hide in Plain Sight, and Vanish are all gone.
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One D&D has changed ranger abilities. Favored Enemy has been changed, so that rangers now always have the hunter's mark spell prepared and it doesn't require concentration, allowing them to maintain concentration on another spell if needed. Rangers now prepare spells like clerics instead of gaining them when they level up, and they now cast spells from the Primal list rather than having their own dedicated spell list. One big change is that rangers can now use a druidic focus for their spells, which was a sticking point in regular D&D 5e, as some players were caught out by the fact that they didn't have a substitute for components.
The new Roving ability grants an additional 10ft of movement if the ranger isn't wearing heavy armor, as well as giving them a climb and swim speed if they don't have one. The new Tireless ability lets the ranger gain 1d8 + Proficiency bonus in temporary hit points or as part of D&D's deadly Exhaustion points mechanics when taking a short or long rest. The Nature's Veil ability lets the ranger spend a spell slot and a Bonus Action to become invisible until their next turn. The Feral Senses ability now grants 30ft of blindsight and Foe Slayer now makes hunter's mark deal an additional 1d10 instead of 1d6 damage.
"Expert Classes" only features the Hunter subclass. In One D&D, the Hunter's Prey ability only has the Colossus Slayer option from the Player's Handbook, with the only change being that it can now be used with an Unarmed Strike. Instead of Defensive Tactics, they now gain Hunter's Lore at level 6, which lets the ranger learn all the enemy's Immunities, Resistances, and Vulnerabilites when affected by hunter's mark. Hunters now get Multiattack at level 10, it has been changed to always give them conjure barrage as a prepared spell, and it can be cast at a lower level for less damage. Hunters now receive Superior Hunter's Defense at level 14 and it works similarly to Uncanny Dodge, except they transfer the other half of the damage to another creature within 5ft.
One D&D's rogues' new rules made them powerful, but they've gotten the fewest changes in "Expert Classes", as the D&D developers and the fans have expressed satisfaction with the version in the Player's Handbook. The One D&D version of the class has received a few changes. Rogues now get a subclass feature at level 6 instead of 9, they get Expertise at level 7 instead of level 6, they get Evasion at level 9 instead of level 7, they get a subclass feature at level 10, they get a new ability called Subtle Strikes at level 13, they get a subclass feature at level 14 instead of level 13, they now get Elusive at level 17 instead of level 18, they now get Stroke of Luck at level 18 instead of level 20, and they get an Epic Book at level 20. Rogues no longer get the Blindsense feature.
One D&D has changed character languages, with the Thieves Cant feature now provides an additional bonus language, since Rogues are now proficient in weapons that have the Finesse property. The new Subtle Strikes ability gives rogues advantage on any attack against a creature within 5ft of an ally, making it a lot easier for them to perform Sneak Attacks. The Slippery Mind feature now gives advantage on both Charisma and Wisdom saving throws, and Stroke of Luck can now be used to turn any d20 test roll into a 20.
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"Expert Classes" only features the D&D rogue's stealth-style Thief subclass. The Fast Hands feature can now be used to perform the new Search action. Second Story Work now grants the rogue a climbing speed and lets them use Dexterity for any ability check involving jumps. Supreme Sneak now gives advantage on Stealth checks without impeding speed, but it can’t be used when wearing Medium or Heavy Armor. Use Magic Device is totally different, as it now lets the rogue attune to four items, they roll a d6 whenever a magic item charge is used and a roll of 6 means it’s used without expending a charge, and they can use spell scrolls. Thief’s Reflexes is now totally different, as it lets the character take an additional Bonus Action, so long as it’s one of their Cunning Action types. This can be used a number of times equal to Proficiency bonus.
One D&D's new class guides are also introducing something that will be making its way into the future Player's Handbook in 2024. One D&D broke spells into three categories, and all classes will now have a list of prepared spells, which offer suggestions as to what a character should pick when they level up. This makes things a lot easier during character creation, especially for new players, as it offers solid suggestions for what they should choose, and veteran players are free to ignore them. The other big change is that all spellcasters now have access to Ritual spells. In the D&D 5e Player's Handbook, only certain spellcasting classes have access to the Ritual Spellcasting feature. This allowed them to cast spells with the Ritual tag by performing a ritual, which took longer but didn't expend a spell slot. In One D&D, all Dungeons & Dragons spellcasters can now cast spells as Rituals.
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Source: One D&D
Scott has been writing for Screen Rant since 2016 and regularly contributes to The Gamer. He has previously written articles and video scripts for websites like Cracked, Dorkly, Topless Robot, and TopTenz. A graduate of Edge Hill University in the UK, Scott started out as a film student before moving into journalism. It turned out that wasting a childhood playing video games, reading comic books, and watching movies could be used for finding employment, regardless of what any career advisor might tell you. Scott specializes in gaming and has loved the medium since the early ‘90s when his first console was a ZX Spectrum that used to take 40 minutes to load a game from a tape cassette player to a black and white TV set. Scott now writes game reviews for Screen Rant and The Gamer, as well as news reports, opinion pieces, and game guides. He can be contacted on LinkedIn.