One D&D Playtest 6: Rules, Spells, and Weapons

Here follow my notes on the Playtest 6 Rules Glossary, Spells, and Weapons. This should be the last of the Playtest 6 posts, unless something about the survey process merits one.

For more context and my Standard Disclaimer, check out the introduction to this series.

Rules Glossary

No changes at all since the previous UA. Whew!

I am still salty about the Exhaustion rules being rolled back – the new ones from earlier in the UA process were MUCH better, and I intend to use them in the future.

Spells

Arcane Spell List

  • Five cantrips have been added to the list: Elementalism (new), Frostbite (Xanathar), Mind Sliver (Tasha), Thunderclap (Xanathar), and Toll the Dead (Xanathar).
  • Dancing Lights is now an Illusion spell.
  • Dissonant Whispers is back on the list, after being removed to potentially become a Bard exclusive.
  • Vicious Mockery has been removed (in the prior UA actually) and is now Bard-exclusive.
  • Hex has been removed from the list; it’s now exclusive to Warlocks.
  • Blindness/Deafness is now a Transmutation spell (as it was in the prior UA; it’s Necromancy in the PHB).
  • Flaming Sphere is now an Evocation spell (as it was in the prior UA; it’s Conjuration in the PHB).
  • Shatter and Thunderwave are back to being Evocation spells after flirting with being Transmutation in the UA.
  • Sending is now Divination (as it was in the prior UA; it’s Evocation in the PHB).
  • Stoneskin is now Transmutation (as in the prior UA; it’s Abjuration in the PHB).
  • Contingency is now Abjuration (as it was in the prior UA; it’s Evocation in the PHB).
  • Glibness is now Enchantment (as it was in the prior UA; it’s Transmutation in the PHB).
  • Telepathy is now Divination (as it was in the prior UA; it’s Evocation in the PHB).

Divine Spell List

  • Two cantrips have been added to the list: Toll the Dead (Xanathar) and Word of Radiance (Xanathar).
  • Most Smite spells have been removed from the list as they’re now Paladin exclusives. Only Searing Smite and Wrathful Smite remain open to all Divine casters. (Which now potentially includes Bards!)
  • Find Steed has been removed as it’s now Paladin exclusive.
  • Cure Wounds is now Abjuration (as it was in the prior UA; it’s Evocation in the PHB).
  • Divine Favor is now Transmutation (as it was in the prior UA; it’s Evocation in the PHB).
  • Healing Word is now Abjuration (as it was in the prior UA; it’s Evocation in the PHB).
  • Wrathful Smite is now Necromancy (it was Enchantment in the prior UA, and it’s Evocation in the PHB).
  • Blindness/Deafness is now a Transmutation spell (as it was in the prior UA; it’s Necromancy in the PHB).
  • Prayer of Healing is now an Abjuration spell (as it was in the prior UA; it’s Evocation in the PHB).
  • Crusader’s Mantle is now Transmutation (as it was in the prior UA; it’s Evocation in the PHB).
  • Mass Healing Word is now an Abjuration spell (as it was in the prior UA; it’s Evocation in the PHB).
  • Banishment is now Conjuration an Abjuration spell (as it was in the prior UA; it’s Abjuration in the PHB).
  • Hallow is now Abjuration (as it was in the prior UA; it’s Evocation in the PHB).
  • Mass Cure Wounds is now Abjuration (as it was in the prior UA; it’s Evocation in the PHB).
  • Heal is now Abjuration (as it was in the prior UA; it’s Evocation in the PHB).
  • Mass Heal is now Abjuration (as it was in the prior UA; it’s Evocation in the PHB).
  • Power Word Heal is now Enchantment (it was Abjuration in the prior UA, and Evocation in the PHB).

Primal Spell List

  • Three cantrips have been added to the list: Elementalism (new), Frostbite (Xanathar), and Thunderclap (Xanathar).
  • Hunter’s Mark has been removed from the list; it’s now exclusive to Rangers.
  • Conjure Barrage and Conjure Volley have also been removed for the same reason.
  • Produce Flame is now an Evocation spell (as it was in the prior UA; it’s Conjuration in the PHB).
  • Cure Wounds is now Abjuration (as it was in the prior UA; it’s Evocation in the PHB).
  • Healing Word is now Abjuration (as it was in the prior UA; it’s Evocation in the PHB).
  • Thunderwave is back to being Evocation after flirting with being Transmutation in the UA.
  • Flaming Sphere is now Evocation (as it was in the prior UA; it’s Conjuration in the PHB).
  • Mass Healing Word is now an Abjuration spell (as it was in the prior UA; it’s Evocation in the PHB).
  • Stoneskin is now Transmutation (as in the prior UA; it’s Abjuration in the PHB).
  • Mass Cure Wounds is now Abjuration (as it was in the prior UA; it’s Evocation in the PHB).
  • Reincarnate is now Necromancy (as it was in the prior UA; it’s Transmutation in the PHB).
  • Heal is now Abjuration (as it was in the prior UA; it’s Evocation in the PHB).
  • Earthquake is now Transmutation (as it was in the prior UA; it’s Evocation in the PHB).

Spell Descriptions

  • All Smite spells now work with melee weapons and unarmed strikes, but don’t work with ranged weapons. I support this change as it’s something I requested in a previous survey.
  • Banishing Smite requires Concentration (fair), only allows the initial saving throw (cool), and doesn’t perma-banish Aberrations, Celestials, Elementals, Fey, or Fiends (rightly so, this is Banishment’s job). As mentioned above, it’s now a Paladin exclusive.
  • Blinding Smite automatically blinds its target without a saving throw, allowing follow-up saves to attempt to end it. It’s now Evocation as well (formerly Transmutation). As mentioned above, it’s now a Paladin exclusive. Cool.
  • Conjure Barrage now works with any melee weapon (as well as ranged weapon ammo), does more dice of damage, and can be upcast. As mentioned above, it’s now a Ranger exclusive. It’s practically a Ranger Fireball, in a cone!
  • Conjure Volley now works with any melee weapon (as well as ranged weapon ammo). As mentioned above, it’s now a Ranger exclusive.
  • Divine Smite (new) is Paladin-exclusive, moving over to being a spell from being a standalone feature. Now all of a Paladin’s Smites are spells, making their use easier to understand. I support this cause.
  • Elementalism (new) is a cantrip that is basically the elemental version of Prestidigitation. Fine by me.
  • Find Steed now only requires an Action (formerly 10 minutes). Its Otherworldly Maul action has been renamed to Otherworldly Slam but is otherwise unchanged. Its only other change is becoming a Paladin-exclusive spell. This is all good in my book.
  • Hunter’s Mark now only does extra damage once per turn on the first hit, and is exclusive to Rangers. Its damage now increases when upcast.
  • Power Word Heal now has a 60-foot range (formerly touch!). As mentioned above, it’s now an Enchantment spell. Wow!
  • Power Word Kill now does damage to targets that have more than 100 HP (instead of having no effect at all). Also wow!!
  • Searing Smite now does its ongoing damage before letting its target make a saving throw to end the effect. Yeowch!
  • Shining Smite is the new Glimmering Smite, and it both ends invisibility on its target and prevents its target from becoming invisible. Nice (and the name is a lot better). As mentioned above, it’s now exclusive to Paladins.
  • Staggering Smite is unchanged, save for becoming Paladin-exclusive.
  • Thunderous Smite is now Paladin-exclusive and back to being Evocation.
  • Vicious Mockery is now Bard-exclusive, uses d6s instead of d4s, and only scales with your Bard level (too bad, multiclass weenies – myself included here, my one multiclass in 5E was a Bard/Rogue mix). Furthermore, you can now target creatures that you can hear but not see (suck it, invisible annoyances!) and – and I think this last part is weird – your target doesn’t have to be able to hear you. Everything made sense until that part. I mean, as a Bard player, I like it, but it doesn’t make sense.
  • Wrathful Smite removes the Concentration requirement, and as mentioned above, is now Necromancy as it does Necrotic damage.

Hot Takes

  • The Arcane Spell List is looking pretty good to me. I’m happy to see the cantrips that got ported over, the removal-to-exclusives make great sense, and the school changes all seem like solid choices.
  • Ditto the Divine Spell List. I’ve gotten over the Evocation-to-Abjuration changes. Evocation seems to be “do stuff with elements”, and Abjuration seems to be about saying “oh no you don’t” to reality.
  • Ditto the Primal Spell List. Everything here makes good sense to me.
  • Does anybody else miss “downcasting” spells that was in one of the earlier UA packets? I thought it was a cool idea, but it just quietly disappeared.
  • I don’t like slashes in spell names, so I’d prefer Blindness/Deafness to instead be something like “Disrupt Sense”. Likewise Enlarge/Reduce could be “Alter Size”.
  • I’m on board with all the spell description changes until Vicious Mockery. Your target not having to hear you in order to take damage from what you have to say about them just doesn’t make sense.

All in all, things are shaping up well here, though many spells from the PHB are probably due for a rebalancing revision.

Weapons

Nothing has changed here since the last UA. It looks like it’s just a reprint of that material. Whew!

Note that now that many classes offer Weapon Mastery, some interesting new builds are possible.