UPDATE: Find the link to the survey HERE

Here it is, the final post of this series on the “Character Origins” Unearthed Arcana article. After covering the Races, and then the Backgrounds and Feats, it’s time to dive into all those juicy new rules slipped into the Rules Glossary! Follow along to see what changes have been made, so that you’re ready to give informed feedback in Wizards of the Coast’s playtest survey when it comes out next week.

That’s a Capital Idea!

First off, you’re going to notice that WotC has decided that Lots of Things Need to be Capitalized. Specifically, the game mechanic terms. While at first it feels a little bit distracting, with seemingly random letters jumping out of your screen and into your eyeballs, I’m pretty sure it’s actually a quality of life change that most people will get used to.

Since the beginning of its time, 5e has drawn some confusion with its choice to use natural language in its rules. This was largely a move to distance itself from 4e, which utilized deliberate layout combined with carefully defined game terminology to explain itself. So the natural language seemed like a breath of fresh air at the time, but hidden within the flowing wordscapes was a certain lack of clarity. For example, what’s the difference between a weapon attack and an unarmed strike? That question alone has spurred arguments all over the web, even after multiple errata and Sage Advice answers.

So drawing attention to game terms via capitalization is an understandable measure, particularly given that other roleplaying games have had success with the very same thing. Whether you love it or hate it, be sure to speak up in WotC’s survey when it drops!

We’re going to go through and at least touch on each of the glossary entries. Some will be treated shortly, while others expounded upon. Well. With that said, on with the main course!

Arcane Spells

As mentioned in past blog entries, this article includes Spell Lists for Arcane, Divine, and Primal Spells, for such purposes as the Magic Initiate Feat.

Having grown up reading D&D novels and playing D&D games, and then being formally introduced to D&D 4e, I was thoroughly steeped in the lore even of editions that I wasn’t as familiar with. And there was always a meaningful divide between Arcane and Divine magic.

This distinction was especially important in anything Dragonlance-related, because Divine magic had vanished from the world and was only gradually being reintroduced. That’s basically the entire plot of the first novel/adventure, and a major theme in most of the others. I’m sure that one reason Wizards of the Coast is reintroducing Arcane Spells vs Divine Spells now is to pave the way for the upcoming Dragonlance: Shadow of the Dragon Queen adventure, so that players more easily understand the adventure’s plot elements.

In any case, the glossary entry refers to the Arcane Spell List at the end of the document. It’s unclear yet how Class Spell Lists will interact with the Arcane List, but the entry specifically calls out Artificers, Bards, Sorcerers, Warlocks, and Wizards as drawing on this kind of magic. Jeremy Crawford hinted in his video interview with Todd Kenreck that this is something we’ll learn more about in future Unearthed Arcana articles.

Watch that interview HERE

Artisan’s Tools

It’s now firmly and clearly set in the game rules that Artisan’s Tools are a category of Tool Proficiencies, which are specifically different from Skill Proficiencies. This is one case in which I think the capitalization helps to distinguish between terms that all sound pretty similar, so I’m all for that.

It’s interesting that now we are to disregard all prices of Artisan’s Tools in the 2014 Player’s Handbook, and instead assume that each set of Artisan’s Tools costs 15 GP. Honestly, with the exception of some additional rules in Xanathar’s Guide to Everything, concrete rules about how and when to use Tool Proficiencies in-game have been pretty spare. I’m hoping that by giving them specific distinction that the design team will give us a more fully-developed system to use these Tool Proficiencies.

Creature Type

Though it didn’t appear in the 2014 Player’s Handbook, this isn’t really new information here. The Monster Manual laid out these same Creature Types and explained them a little. Most if it is fairly intuitive, though there is some understandable initial confusion over what exactly a Monstrosity is compared to the other Creature Types. Aren’t all or most of these creatures ‘monsters’, after all? But a Monstrosity (note the capitalization!) is better distinguished as a specific kind of monster.

Perhaps the most noteworthy thing here is the line, “Most player characters are of the Humanoid type.” In the original Player’s Handbook, all the Races specified that your character was Humanoid. I’m glad for this small reminder that as 5e goes on we’re getting more varied Creature Types to play as, such as Fey and Construct.

D20 Test

I’ve referred to this term in past blog posts of this series, but never went into much detail. The truth is that there has been quite a bit of confusion over the differences between ability checks, attack rolls, and saving throws, each of which require a roll of the d20. Not only that, but theses would get confused with any other occasions that you might roll a d20, such as the Divination Wizard’s Portent rolls.

It’s been very common to hear, for example, that you can use Inspiration to grant yourself advantage “on any d20 roll”, when what people mean to say is “on any ability check, attack roll, or saving throw.” But who wants to say that mouthful every single time?

But now we have this great (short!) umbrella of a game term that encompasses those kinds of rolls; they’re d20 Tests. It’s so much easier to say, and it that simple word ‘test’ states exactly what it is: using the dice to determine an uncertain outcome.

As you can probably tell, I’m a fan.

But wait, there’s more! Included in this glossary entry are some other extremely important (and controversial) rules changes. Because now, officially, rolling a 1 or a 20 on any kind of d20 Test results in automatic failure or success (respectively). It’s an example of the game designers noticing that most players were simply not using the rules correctly, and so they went ahead and just changed the rules to accommodate the way the game is actually played. So that’s all fine with me.

The real doozy in here is the change to how Critical Hits work. There are no more Critical Hits with Spell Attacks; they simply can’t crit. Now, only Weapons and Unarmed Strikes are able to score Critical Hits. And all those extra handfuls of dice you got to roll when you crit with a Sneak Attack or Divine Smite? Those are gone. The only extra dice you get are the ones you would use for the Weapon itself.

Trying to swallow that is a chore in itself, which perfectly sets us up to be floored by the next change: only player characters can score Critical Hits. It’s a special ability reserved only for player characters now. Monsters cannot crit.

At first, I didn’t like this. At all. I’m a Dungeon Master about as often as I’m a player, and the thought of taking away that joyous, somewhat sadistic moment of dealing unexpectedly heavy damage to player characters that are usually pretty invincible in 5e… How dare the designers take that away!

The things is, the player characters aren’t invincible. Especially at low levels. A critical hit from even a lowly goblin could mean death for an unfortunate 1st-level character. I know this from personal experience. My very first 5e character, Rimsky-Korsakov (“Kov”) the Half-Orc Bard was brutally murdered by a pair of goblins in the wilds outside Phandalin. He never even saw his enemies before his eyes closed forever in death, two arrows protruding from his noble chest. And who was left to care for his beloved goat Ophelia?

As you can tell, it’s an experience that changes you, stays with you.

On a more serious note, Jeremy Crawford in that linked interview above talks about the reasoning behind taking away monster crits. He points out that the Dungeon Master already has a tool for dishing out attacks that are more powerful than normal: Recharge.

Whether it’s a dragon’s Breath Weapon or a mind flayer’s Mind Blast, there are numerous monsters that have some sort of powerful attack that relies on this Recharge mechanic in order to be used successively. This, essentially, is to become the monsters’ equivalent of a Critical Hit. The DM chooses when to unleash that big attack, and then still has moments of surprise as he or she waits for the ability to Recharge and become usable again.

At least, that’s the designers’ explanation.

Personally, I’ll have to think on it a lot more and do some actual playtesting to see how it works out at the table before I can say whether or not I agree. One thing I’m sure of though, is that this could very well be a rule that, if implemented, will likely be ignored by a great number of game tables.

What do you think? Should scoring Critical Hits only be the purview of the player characters? Feel free to leave a comment with your insight, and be sure to let WotC know in that survey when it comes out!

Divine Spells

This was already touched on pretty well in this article, and there’s a lot more to talk about, so we’ll leave it be.

Gaming Set

Similar to the Artisan’s Tools, Gaming Sets are tools you can gain Tool Proficiency with. Again, I hope that this deliberate distinction is a sign of good mechanics to come!

Grappled [Condition]

Oh boy. This one is going to result in some fights—both in-game and on the internet.

So a few things are the same. While Grappled your Speed is 0, you can be moved by the grappler, and the grapple can be broken if somehow you leave the grappler’s reach.

Here are the big changes.

While Grappled, you have Disadvantage on attack rolls against any target other than the grappler.
The grappler suffers from the Slowed Condition while moving (more on this later, but it basically means attacks against the grappler have advantage).
You no longer need to use your action to escape the grapple; you get to make a Strength or Dexterity saving throw at the end of each of your turns to end it. Interestingly, it doesn’t say how to calculate the grapple’s escape DC. That’s found under the Unarmed Strike entry.

I like how while grappling a creature you inflict Disadvantage on attacks against others. This gives bodyguard-type builds a very nice tool to direct the grappled creature’s attention away from anyone you’re trying to protect. It’s almost like half of the usual Restrained Condition, leaving out the part where attacks against the Restrained creature would have Advantage.

We haven’t really gotten into the new Slowed Condition yet, but it’s quite punishable as it makes attacks against the Slowed creature have Advantage. This potentially paints an enormous target on the grappler’s back, which seems perhaps too punitive. Then again, the Slowed Condition only applies here while the grappler is moving… which is a bit vague. Does this mean that an attacker would only benefit from the grappler being Slowed while making an opportunity attack, or if the grappler moved at all since its last turn? Without further clarification, it’s hard to say.

Making a ‘free’ saving throw at the end of your turn to escape a grapple is much more forgiving than spending your entire action to try and then failing, which usually results in the turn feeling wasted. At least now you can try to do something on your turn, and then still have a chance to end the Grappled condition.

These rules also interact strongly with the Unarmed Strike rules, which are coming up!

Incapacitated [Condition]

This one’s largely the same, preventing the Incapacitated creature from taking Actions or Reactions or concentrating on spells (although the concentration thing was never explicit in the 2014 Player’s Handbook’s Incapacitated rule, you had to look under the rules for spellcasting to understand that).

This version also says that the Incapacitated creature can’t speak, which probably would have changed some important events in games I’ve participated in. The creature also has the “Surprised” tag, which in this glossary entry indicates that it would have Disadvantage on Initiative checks. Given that there are no other rules for ‘surprise’ in this document, it makes me wonder if creatures surprised in combat will just be Incapacitated until the end of their first turn. That’s mere speculation though, and we’ll have to wait until more playtest rules are released to know for sure.

Inspiration

This stuff is new, too! As I’ve mentioned in past blog posts, the design team has noticed that Inspiration is mostly forgotten about at the table, or used incorrectly. DMs are inconsistent in giving it out, and players hoard it and never use it… until they fail a d20 Test, and then they say, “Oh! I have Inspiration! Can I reroll that?”

These new rules are supposed to fix those problems.

You can spend Inspiration to give yourself Advantage on a d20 Test. It looks like in spite of what goes on at most tables, WotC is sticking to their guns about how Inspiration must be used before rolling the die. No retroactively deciding to use it, that’s reserved for the Lucky Feat.

One big change is that now the “main way” a character gets Inspiration is no longer a reward from the DM; you get one by rolling a 20 on a d20 Test. A DM can still give it out when they want to, but at least this way gaining Inspiration isn’t reliant on the DM. So ideally gaining and having Inspiration will just happen more often at the table.

But will players remember and use their Inspiration?

These next rules should encourage players to spend Inspiration once they’ve got it. As has always been the case, you can never have more than one Inspiration at a time. You either have it, or you don’t. If you already have Inspiration and would gain it again, you can now choose to immediately gift that Inspiration to another character who doesn’t have Inspiration.

Lastly, whenever you finish a Long Rest, you lose any Inspiration you might have. So definitely spend it before taking a Long Rest, or you it’s wasted. It’s there to be used!

I’m a fan of these rules, though I’m sure people will probably still not abide by the “decide to use Inspiration before you roll” rule. Most of us have been trained and conditioned to just use it as a free reroll. Thinking about it, I suppose that being able to use it as a reroll means people are more likely to hoard it and wait until they fail some nasty d20 check. You know, just in case. But having to decide to use it before you roll takes away that option and the mentality that goes with it.

I’m definitely going to playtest these Inspiration rules.

UPDATE: Since writing this article I’ve listened to Mike Shea’s (Sly Flourish) podcast episode about these same topics, and he suggests not awarding Inspiration to a player who rolls a 20, but instead to the character who rolls a 1, as a way to help out a player who’s having some bad luck in that session. I think I agree. If you do as well, that would be a good thing to mention in the WotC survey!

Long Rest

The definition of a Long Rest hasn’t changed and most of it is the same, but there are two notable exceptions:

Any amount of combat now interrupts the Long Rest, meaning you have to start the rest over again in order to benefit from it. So you really need to make sure you’re in a safe place if you want to complete a long rest.
You now officially get the benefits of a Short Rest if your Long Rest was at least 1 hour long before getting interrupted. Yay!

For all the people wondering if Short Rests will be removed from the game, I don’t think that will happen. They might be changed to 10- or 15-minute rests or something instead of 1 hour, but I think they’re here to stay. At least, so far in these Unearthed Arcana articles we have no indication that Short Rests are going anywhere.

Musical Instrument

Once again we have a category of tool you can gain Tool Proficiency in. So far that’s three kinds with their own official Capitalized Game Terms. Also, Musical Instruments are now worth 20 GP each. So, slightly more expensive than the Artisan’s Tools, if that matters to anyone.

Primal Spells

Okay, so aside from 4e, I don’t think that Primal Spells as their own thing have really existed; Druid and Ranger spells before that were considered Divine Spells. But one of my favorite things that 4e introduced were “power sources”.

Each character class and each ability they had came from a power source. As you might expect, Artificers, Bards, Sorcerers, Swordmages, Warlocks, and Wizards drew from the Arcane power source, while Avengers, Clerics, Invokers, and Paladins drew from the Divine power source. Other power sources included Martial, Psionic, Shadow…and Primal.

The classes that drew on the Primal power source were Barbarians, Druids, some Rangers, Seekers, Shamans, and Wardens. They literally drew on the magic of nature and spirits to fuel their abilities, rather than anything Arcane or Divine. It was pretty cool stuff.

As evidenced by this Primal Spells glossary entry and its accompanying Primal Spell List, the designers want to bring this distinction into 5e, distinguishing Druid and Ranger magic from other kinds of magic, and I am all for it! It just builds up the lore of the D&D multiverse in a way that I personally find to be more satisfying.

I know what my feedback on this one will be!

Slowed [Condition]

We’ve already addressed this one in the entry on the Grappled Condition, but there are a couple more things to note. I’ll sum up what the Slowed Condition does:

Slowed creatures spend 1 extra foot of movement for every foot they move. That’s basically treating everything as Difficult Terrain, essentially halving the distance that you would expect to move on your turn.
Attacks against slowed creatures have Advantage.
Slowed creatures have Disadvantage on Dexterity saving throws.

You might realize that this is pretty darn close to the restrained condition from the 2014 Player’s Handbook; your Speed isn’t 0, and you don’t have Disadvantage on your own attack rolls, but it’s still a pretty bad condition to have. I know from DMing experience that monsters really have a hard time ignoring a target that’s granting Advantage on attacks.

Slowed was a fairly common condition in 4e (I know, again with the 4e! Not sorry), but all it did was reduce your Speed to 2 squares (or 10 feet). I’ve often missed it in 5e, rather than doing math about how much Speed a creature has, and how much that Speed might be arbitrarily reduced by. So I’m happy to see it.

I’m also terrified by it.

This is a really strong condition. Are they going to rewrite spells like Ray of Frost to inflict the Slowed Condition rather than reduce the target’s speed? That would be way overblown for a cantrip! So far, all we know is that grappling creatures are Slowed while moving with their Grappled target. I would just like to see where and how this condition might be applied before I vote for it to stay or not.

Tool Proficiency

Here we have it, a real benefit for Tool Proficiencies: If you have Proficiency with both the Tool and Skill that would be used for an ability check, you gain Advantage on that check. So basically, using both is like having a friend take the Help action to give you advantage, only, you don’t need a friend!

Actually, does this mean that if a Rogue has Proficiency in, say, Sleight of Hand and Thieves’ Tools, that they’ll always have Advantage on checks to pick locks or disable traps? I guess it depends on if the DM calls for a Dexterity (Sleight of Hand) check, as I can see DMs going one way or the other on whether or not Sleight of Hand is a reasonable Skill for skullduggery.

Tremorsense

So, previously the rules for Tremorsense were actually in the Monster Manual, but with a remake of the Dwarf Race’s Stonecunning trait, including it in the future Player’s Handbook (or whatever they decide to call it) is probably a good idea.

There are a few changes:

The wording is now more clear that the ability is meant to locate creatures and objects, not just ‘vibrations.’
It specifies that liquid is a valid conduit.
Tremorsense can’t detect any creatures or objects in the air, rather than just flying and incorporeal creatures.
It clarifies that it doesn’t count as a form of sight.

Point #4 is the most interesting change, because it means that detecting the location of a creature with Tremorsense doesn’t mean that you can see it. So if a creature is invisible, you can locate it with Tremorsense (you know where it is well enough to attack it), but you still can’t see it, so your attacks would still have Disadvantage. Similarly, you wouldn’t be able to target that invisible creature with spells that require you to see your target.

As far as I know, this will be news to most people. But it makes sense.

Unarmed Strike

This one, combined with the Grappled and Slowed Conditions (and the Tavern Brawler Feat), is pretty impactful to the game.

Remember how up to this point in 5e, in order to grapple someone you had to make a contested Strength (Athletics) check and if you won, it meant you succeeded in grappling the target? It’s all different now. Grappling and shoving are now done through Unarmed Strikes.

Let’s break it down.

So whenever you hit with an Unarmed Strike, you get to pick one of the following options:

Damage. The target takes the usual bludgeoning damage (1 + your Strength modifier, unless you have some other replacement damage, such as the Monk’s Martial Arts feature).
Grapple. You grapple the target, assuming it’s not more than one Size bigger than you and you have a free hand.
Shove. You either push the target 5 feet away or knock it Prone (again, assuming it’s not more than one Size bigger than you).

The damage option is the same as the previous rules for Unarmed Strikes. The big difference is that the Grapple and Shove options are now accomplished through attack rolls, and not ability checks.

This is significant, because until now players have been able to use all sorts of buffs and bonuses to their ability checks to create effective grapplers - and many of them don’t even require a proper Strength score! Rage, Expertise, Bardic Inspiration, Enhance Ability are just some examples. Counterintuitively, the Bard’s College of Lore has been one of the options for best grappler in the game ever since 5e was released! Given that monsters rarely have Proficiency in Skills (let alone Athletics), they were often easily outclassed by player characters and all of their buffs.

That grappling is now tied to Unarmed Strikes (and attack rolls) means that monsters will be a bit harder to grapple, because the target number is based off of the monster’s Armor Class instead of an opposed Athletics roll. On the other hand, there are also a lot of ways to boost attack rolls, so maybe it won’t end up being so different after all.

I do wonder how Monks, as the masters of Unarmed Strikes, might be affected. They’ll have a lot more battlefield control in their hands (literally) that they don’t necessarily need to spend Ki points on. But I wonder if Way of the Open Hand will feel stepped on, since throwing people around is kind of their thing? Previously, a Way of the Open Hand Monk had to hit with an Unarmed Strike granted by their Flurry of Blows and the target had to fail a saving throw against being knocked prone, and now any Monk can do that just with a successful attack roll. But then, I suppose that Open Hand Monks still deal their normal damage alongside their control effects, so maybe they won’t see any problem with this.

Wrapping it Up

And that’s the breakdown! Three blog posts, covering 21 pages of Unearthed Arcana. Whew! For the most part I like these changes, I’m so excited to see what else is coming our way in future articles. If you have an opinion on any of these topics, please feel free to leave a comment, and definitely complete that WotC survey when it comes out!