One D&D Playtest 5: Survey Results

Here follow my notes and thoughts about the One D&D Playtest 5 survey results video that Wizards of the Coast released in August 2023.

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

Weapon Mastery was enthusiastically embraced and will “definitely be in” the 2024 PHB. They will continue to refine it. It scored 80% satisfaction overall, and all mastery properties were 80% or higher – except for Flex, which didn’t score well, and Cleave and Nick were at 76%. Flex was meant to be “the simple option”, but people want it to feel more interesting. Six of 12 PHB classes will get it built-in, with opportunities for other classes to benefit from it via Feats… as well as one or two classes that will “dip their toes” into it in the “very nigh” Playtest 7 packet.

Barbarian tested very well overall. 77% overall, with most features over 80%. Path of the Berserker scored 84%! This is a huge, huge improvement over the 2021 survey where this subclass scored only 29% satisfaction. A big component was decoupling Rage from Exhaustion – so players can lean into it without feeling overtaxed. There’s still some refinement to do, and the rest of the subclasses are coming soon.

Fighter scored 75% overall, and, like the Barbarian, almost all features were over 80% satisfaction. Survey respondents expressed interest in Weapon Expert and Weapon Adept to be tuned up, which they’re looking into. The Champion subclass scored 74% , up from 54% in the 2021 survey. They still see some opportunity for improvement and will work on getting it tuned, though they still want the Champion to be the “pick up and play” easy subclass.

Sorcerer scored 72%, up from its 2021 score of 60%. This signals they can improve things even further. There was a mixed response to new Sorcerer spells, but an almost entirely enthusiastic response to Metamagic. Careful Spell scored 89%! Many are 85% or higher. In the past, they’ve struggled to get above 70%. Seeking Spell scored 74%. Twinned Spell scored 60% – which means it’s “improvable” but not “go back to the drawing board”. Crawford again claims it was too good for its cost and that it needed to be redesigned for years. It will be worked on. Sorcerer-specific spells will get more attention as well. Draconic Sorcery got 73% satisfaction. Draconic Resilience and Elemental Affinity scored in the mid-80s. Lowering the overall satisfaction was Dragon Wings depending on one of the new spells, and that wings weren’t out all the time. Crawford says that in Playtest 5, the wings weren’t out all the time because they came online at a lower level (which, again, is untrue). They will revert to always-out in the next packet.

Spell Lists will go back to being class-specific in the next playtest packet! Survey responses have indicated that having multiple classes share the same spell list (whether Arcane, Divine, or Primal) diluted the classes’ identities.

Warlock’s score wasn’t cited, but results are driven by the change of Pact Magic to Spellcasting. The new approach gave the Warlock more spell slots than ever before, and gave the Warlock more reliable output over an adventuring day, but it took away from Warlock being different about how it casts spells – this idiosyncrasy apparently is a big thing that people liked in Warlocks. Players also really like the Warlock’s modularity; expect more Eldritch Invocations in the next revision. They did a lot of experiments in the UA5 Warlock, many of which will be reverted in some way. Mystic Arcanum will be a class feature again, Pact Magic will return, and they’ll be back to a single spellcasting ability (losing the choice of spellcasting ability). But they’re still committed to giving Warlocks more frequent access to their spellcasting. Lots of feedback about Hex – it needs “more oomph”, and it will get it. They want to “deliver the Warlock that Warlock players desire”.

Wizard surprised them with the mixed reactions it garnered, scoring only 70%. Historically it’s one of the most popular classes. The core of the Wizard was liked, but there was “mixed response” to the new spells. The main issue was wanting Wizards to have their own spell list, and that sharing the full Arcane spell list with other classes took away from the Wizard’s class identity. The Evoker scored well, in the 79-80% range across the board. They’re looking to fine-tune it to see if they can get the satisfaction up higher.

Hot Takes

I’m very glad to see that Weapon Mastery will be sticking around and that Flex will be reworked.

It sounds like the Barbarian is on the right track. I was pretty happy with what I saw. Ditto the Fighter, though with so many classes getting access to Weapon Mastery, I am still reserving some judgment until I see how the Fighter can still be special among the six (or seven, or eight…) classes that will be able to use this system in some way. Shall we speculate on which classes that’ll be? We already know about the Barbarian, Fighter, Monk, Paladin, Ranger, Rogue, and the War Domain Cleric, so that’s seven. Bladesinger Wizards, maybe?

On the Sorcerer, I still strongly disagree with Crawford about Twinned Spell, but I’m glad to see they’re going to try to redeem it somehow. But they have GOT to have him stop trotting out his misinformation about the level of Dragon Wings. It was 14 in the PHB, it was 14 in the UA, and now it’s “back” to 14 again. DUDE. Stop. Gaslighting. Your. Customers. (I also liked not-always-out Dragon Wings, so… enh.)

I liked the Arcane, Divine, and Primal spell lists, so reverting to class-specific spell lists feels like quite a let-down to me. In particular, I loved the idea of Bards getting to pick which spell list to specialize in, so rolling back here almost certainly means that baby is out with the bathwater. Boo! Boo, I say! If I weren’t feeling particularly charitable, I might assume that this reversion is due to Wizard players whining about not having the biggest spell list any more.

Warlock must have really been a disaster for them to not even disclose its satisfaction score. Their hearts seem to be in the right place with trying to give the Warlock more frequent spellcasting, and I think it’ll be better for that to have the right Warlock flavor, but I thought that being able to pick a spellcasting ability was interesting, so I’m sad to see that leaving.

With the Wizard, they were again very careful about what scores were revealed. They mentioned “mixed responses” for the new spells – ie, the ones that govern scribing and modifying spells – but didn’t cite any numbers. From the context clues throughout the video, it seems clear that “mixed” is a euphemism for “not good”. I know I had some tough words on the subject, and it sounds like I wasn’t the only one.

Lukewarm Takes

So… it’s a bit of a mixed bag. Some things are looking quite positive. Some things aren’t quite there yet. Some things I find disappointing, but I’m not going to cry (too much) about it. Folks on Reddit, as you might imagine, are pouring out endless reams of “they’re reverting everything” and “what even was the point” and “I’m not buying new books just for glorified errata” and “I wish I were playing Pathfinder instead”. Personally, I think they like getting worked up about D&D more than they like playing it. As always, I aim to engage earnestly with the process and see what the final outcome will be. In the mean time, I’m having a great time playing 5E with my friends.