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5LREL_rZ_400x400Today I wanted to take a look at what we learned from the 4th level pregens that Kobold Press released ahead of the release of Tales of the Valiant. The pregens have their own names and backstories, and the company even has its own name, the Valiant 6. I know Pathfinder still has their iconics, but I kind of miss that on the 5e SRD front, so I’m happy to see that tradition revived.
I know my suppositions and observations are going to be moot in probably under a month, but I can’t help it, I like digging into new releases. All of the pregens are 4th level, so we’re not going to get a deep look at any of these classes. That was one of my laments, that most of what we saw in the playtests were lower level options, except for the full 20th level progression we got to see for the Cleric, Fighter, Rogue, and Wizard.
I’m not going to example the backstories of the characters too closely, and I’m not looking at backgrounds much, since we know that provides some skills and a talent, and I’m not all that interested in reverse engineering the exact skills, tools, languages, and talents that go to those backgrounds. I’m also going to look at these in segments, rather than as a whole. In other words, I may not specifically reference who has what talent, or who is carrying what piece of equipment that I’m commenting on. This isn’t a review of the pregens so much as looking at what these character sheets tell us.
General Observations
My first observation is that all of these characters are 4th level, and all of them have XP listed. The XP listed for each of the characters is the same amount of XP you would need to reach 4th level in the 2014 version of the D&D rules. It doesn’t look like we’ve got a radical reimagining of advancement, although we’ll likely get options like milestone and story based advancement in the full rules.
Ability scores, ability score bonuses, and saves look unchanged. I know the playtest was allowing fighters to pick Dexterity or Strength as one of their saves, but our pregen uses strength. Skills also look unchanged. No new skills, no changes to the assumed ability score for a given skill. As much as I can tell from the character sheet, tool proficiency works the same as it does in the 2014 rules. That said, there is a talent in one of the character sheets that says that if something you are doing could use either a skill or a tool proficiency, you get advantage on the roll, which means Tales of the Valiant is turning something that was an optional rule in Xanathar’s and was floated in the 2024 D&D playtest into something you only get if you have a specific talent.
I did notice that there are passive score boxes for Perception, Investigation, and Insight. I’m curious to see if this is just because some abilities grant bonuses to their passive use, or if we’re going to have different rules about passive scores (i.e. if you have a passive score it becomes the “floor” for your results, which has not been one of my favorite 2014 era rulings).
We see a few examples of armor, and it doesn’t look like there are a lot of changes there, except for clarifying some rules associated with the armor in the 2014 rules with defined qualities. For example, leather armor has the natural tag, which I assume is referenced for druids, and splint mail has the noisy trait, which just lets you know what armor causes you to have disadvantage on dexterity (stealth) checks, something that’s already in the 2014 D&D rules. I like having these defined with tags more than catching a reference on a chart or in the item description.
The character sheet has a Death Saves section, which shows three successes and three failures, which may indicate there isn’t much of a change in how Death Saves work. Exhaustion also still has six levels, although we don’t get a definition of the levels or any kind of calculation when you check a box (not saying the sheet is bad for not doing that, its just a data point that could have been mined if it did autocalculate). Luck appears to be enshrined and is replacing inspiration. You have four boxes, because when you get your fifth point of luck, you have to roll to reset how much you have, or at least you did in the playtest, which implies that Luck still works the way it did previously.
Weapons don’t look much different, as they aren’t picking up the same kind of traits that the 2024 playtest was playing with. We do get an official 5e SRD scythe, and my main takeaway from that is that it doesn’t have the same stats as the scythe that appeared in the Book of Blades supplements from Kobold Press (which is good, because it was a bit overpowered in that source).
While we have a few spellcasters, we don’t get a lot of information on spells. From some of the other blogs recently, we know that spells are still sorted into groups like Arcane, Divine, Primal, and Wyrd, rather than having class lists. Wyrd almost seems like its still a class spell list for Warlocks, until I see something else in the rules that references it. We appear to have the terminology for “spell level” officially shifted to “spell circles.” The playtest rules introduced the idea that spells that could be cast as rituals would just be ritual spells, which are tracked separately, and that appears to have made it into the final rules.
I thought that Doom as a monster mechanic was going to be optional, with some of the special abilities triggered by Doom removed from some of the stat blocks we saw earlier in the playtest. While this is related to one of the heritage abilities, I wanted to point this out here, because either there is a heritage ability that interacts with an optional rule, which feels like it would be disappointing for a player that picked that background, or Doom is no longer optional, even if monsters don’t have special Doom triggered abilities.
Most of the changes I see here I’m okay with. While I like Arcane, Divine, and Primal as definitions of sources of spells, I’m still not sure about using those in lieu of class spell lists, and I need to see more of some additional classes to really get a feel for how much I like this. I’m not a big fan of Wyrd as a power source (i.e. your magic comes from Lovecraftville). I hope we don’t run into too many “we’re quantifying something you may just let players do, or something you have the flexibility to use at your discretion, into a talent.” When those build up too much, as a GM, I almost feel like I need to be less flexible with my rules interpretations because otherwise I’m not honoring some of the mechanical choices my players are making.
Class Observations
We already learned this from the blog posts, and from the preview of the Mechanist, but the subclass progression is standardized across classes, which for these characters means they get their subclasses at 3rd level. When it comes to things like hit dice, hit points, saves, and proficiencies, there doesn’t appear to be too much different here, although it looks like they reversed the “wizards don’t get any weapon proficiencies” trial balloon from the playtest.
Cleric
This cleric has proficiency with the Scythe in addition to simple weapons, and I’m not sure where that comes from. The backstory seems to reference it as a weapon associated with a specific god, which makes me wonder if beyond domain, there will be a god specific boon, or I could have just missed the proficiency from somewhere else.
Clerics get their bonus melee (and maybe an option for cantrips) radiant or necrotic damage earlier than 8th level. Channel Divinity still has the baseline ability to turn, but it includes fiends and not just undead.
As part of their Light Domain subclass, they get light and dancing lights as free cantrips, and they don’t need to concentrate on dancing lights. Overwhelming Flash uses a reaction to impose a -3 to an oncoming attack, and blinds the foe if they hit. I have no idea if that -3 is just standard for the ability, or if it’s derived from something. The extra Channel Divinity from the Light Domain damages foes that are within an existing light source, in bright light.
I like the flavor of the range of an ability being limited to already existing light, but I’m not a fan of the oddball -3 from Overwhelming Flash, and I hope it’s not a sign of more specific +/- effects coming back into the game.
Fighter
Fighters have the second wind replacement from the playtest, which lets them spend up to their proficiency bonus number of hit dice when they are bloodied, once per long rest. It also looks like the shift from combat styles to abilities that require you to spend a bonus action to activate has made it through into the rules, as this fighter has the ability to impose disadvantage on attacks against them for allies that are within 5 ft. of them, from enemies within 5 ft., on the first attack. Action Surge is still part of the fighter and looks unchanged.
The Weapon Master subclass is the “sort of” replacement for Battle Masters, except that, at least in the playtest, all of the abilities were focused on boosting the fighter, themself, rather than allies. We get a note that the fighter can use stunts PB +1 times per day, once per turn, but we have no definitions for any stunts. The Weapon Master subclass also grants mastery in multiple weapons, allowing the fighter to reroll damage with those weapons, and also allows them to roll damage with stunts that don’t normally do damage.
In the playtest, some Fighter options felt more powerful than they were before, but only in limited circumstances, and other abilities had additional limiters. I don’t think fighters are overpowered at all in the 2014 rules, but I do like the feel of spending hit dice and using actions to set up abilities, rather than having second wind exist outside of existing rules, and having abilities that are passively modifying the fighter’s abilities. Without definitions for stunts, though, that means this pregen doesn’t really do much until we see the full rules, without using the last round of playtest rules.
Mechanist
We already got a preview of the Mechanist, but if you were wondering how this would be different than Artificers, the Mechanist isn’t a spellcaster. They get light and medium armor, shields, simple, and martial weapons. Mechanists have a d10 hit points, which means they are positioned as a front line fighter.
The mechanist can detect the magical properties or spells that are active on an item. They can use an object as a bonus action, which will be handier when they get magic items. There is also a note that they can use “weapon options” with a bonus action, which seems like it’s referencing some of the rules that appeared in the Tome of Heroes. These are special abilities that aren’t tied to a weapon, but are limited to certain types of weapons (like two-handed weapons, or slashing weapons). The mechanist has a Shard of Creation, something they can reshape into objects three times per rest.
The mechanist can spend an hour to infuse an item with an ability, which can vary from adding special sight abilities to something the character looks through, providing a +1 bonus, or giving an item with the loading property an automated loading function. They can also use a reaction to lessen an incoming damage type, which then gives them resistance to that damage type for the next minute.
I have no idea how these will play. I know that this particular Mechanist does feel like it would be more at home in a less “steampunk” or “clockpunk” setting, and works as the more standard fantasy “smith that learns legendary techniques.” I like Artificers, but I also like the idea that you can have a creator/magic infusion class that doesn’t require quite as much pushing on an established setting’s feel, if it doesn’t make room for mechanization.
Rogue
Rogues may be the least changed of all of these, outside of the changes that happen with subclasses, both the levels at which they grant abilities, and the unique subclasses designed for those assumptions. Expertise, cunning action, and sneak attack are all familiar abilities. Rogues do lose out on using longswords, which don’t do them much good anyway.
The Enforcer subclass seems to be aiming for a similar space as the Assassin, but with a little more reliability. You have advantage throughout the first round of combat, lining you up for more sneak attacks even if you get ahead of the party. You get a crit if you hit someone that’s surprised, which will probably be less useful. You also get to make another attack once per turn if you drop someone to zero hit points, which is less excited when you realize you can’t get sneak attack more than once per turn (but it is turn, and not round).
I’m not excited by the rogue, but I’m satisfied with it. Getting reliable sneak attack damage on round one is one of those “nutritious” options. It’s a good ability, it’s just not flashy.
Warlock
The warlock feels really weird to me, because it’s the same, but has some screenburn from changes that might have been made, and I don’t know what it’s going to do for the class overall. Our example is Fiend patron Warlock, and Warlocks still pick a Pact, which in this case is the Pact of the Chain. The warlock also gets two invocations, and the two that this warlock has, Agonizing Blast and Eldritch Spear, look a lot like the usual versions of those abilities. From the Fiend patron, they also get a familiar looking Dark One’s Blessing, which lets you trigger the ability if anyone in 30 ft. drops someone to 0 hit points, not just you. That’s a good change.
Now here are the changes. Eldritch Blast is a class ability not a cantrip. Warlocks are now a half-casting class . . . but they also have an ability called Pact Magic, which gives them the ability to use two spells at the highest level the Warlock can cast per short or long rest. We don’t know what higher level spellcasting is going to look like since this is just a 4th level character. I’m not sure what it’s going to feel like to give the warlock more spells across the board, but that’s not the thing that’s nagging at me.
Some of the ancillary material talking about the Wyrd power source implies that some casters start dabbling with stuff they shouldn’t be working with, and that many people tapping into this power need to have a Patron to keep them from blowing themselves up or shutting off their brain when they continue to use the Wyrd power source. That’s a lot different than the current Warlock’s story. The warlock becomes someone that didn’t make a deal to get power, they are occultists that natively know how to cast spells, without the patron. It means that no matter what patron your warlock has, they are using mythos magic to power themselves. Let’s assume you end up with a patron similar to the Celestial patron in 2014. Your angelic friend decides to help you continue using mythos magic in exchange for maybe doing some good once in a while? I’m not sure I like that shift in story.
Wizard
As mentioned above, the biggest change we get here is a change back from the playtest trial balloon of removing all weapon proficiencies from the wizard, which has a lot of potential knock on effects, even if I understand the reasoning. The wizard looks pretty standard, with the ability to recover a spell on a short rest. They can also prepare a number of spells that looks like its still in line with their Int bonus plus their level.
The main thing that’s new is the Battle Mage, which appeared in the playtest, and doesn’t look like it was significantly changed. Two times per long rest you can make you and your allies immune to damage cause by your spell, and 2 times per long rest, when you cast a spell using spell slots, you gain a bonus to AC and resistance to piercing, bludgeoning, and slashing damage. This was one of my favorite subclasses from the playtest. The only real negative is that it works better than some of the 2014 subclasses it borrows from, but that’s only a problem if you really want those to remain viable options, and we don’t even know what subclasses we’ll see in the 2024 rules and how they might be changed.
Overall, that means I like what I see in the fighter and the wizard, I’m fine with what I see from the cleric and the rogue, I like the story ramifications for the mechanist and want to see it in play, and I don’t like the story ramifications for the warlock, and need to get a feel for it in play.
Lineage and Heritage Observations
This gets a little hard to evaluate, because some of the Lineage options just don’t have any rules on the character sheet to represent them. Here is our list:
Elf–Low light vision is a thing again, advantage on sight and hearing base perception, advantage on saves versus charms, immunity to magical sleep
Dwarf–Darkvision, advantage on poison saves, resistance to poison damage, +1 hp per level
Human–You got me
Kobold–Apparently there is a choice between options, this one is medium, with natural armor, and resistance to fire
Orc–Not sure
I’m not sure how I feel about elves reintroducing the concept of low-light vision. I kind of like it from a storytelling perspective, especially given the proliferation of darkvision ancestries in the current game. Both of the human characters have two talents, so I imagine humans are just known for being so unnoteworthy that they pick up a trait from somewhere else again. I can’t find anything on the orc’s sheet that looks like it comes from lineage.
As far as Heritages go, we get these examples:
Cloud–cast minor illusion and disguise self
Diaspora–grant everyone within 5 ft. advantage on saves versus fear
Fireforge–double proficiency bonus with smithing tools, mending cantrip
Grove–climb speed, can hide as long as concealed in natural surroundings
Nomad–advantage on saves versus weather effects, remove exhaustion on a short rest
Supplicant–advantage on ability checks and saves when a creature spends doom, bonus action to move 10 feet without provoking opportunity attacks, do not set off traps when you do this if you know they are there
I’m not sure all of these are equal from an adventuring standpoint. The supplicant background has the best story, basically being a creature that grew up under the thumb of a big dungeon monster. I know these are trying hard to be “general” backgrounds, but I wish they had a little more personality. I loved what https://preview.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/456184/thrones-bones-banner-of-the-bull?affiliate_id=63392did, where the heritage really felt like it represented a fantasy culture that had context in the setting, but I guess that’s the curse of core rulebook functionality.
Talent Observations
It looks like the final rules will continue to organize talents into Magic, Martial, and Technical. I didn’t mind that quantification, because I think as feats (or your replacement for feats) go from being optional in the game to standard, there should be a few more ground rules for how they work and what they get you, and I don’t mind not throwing the gates wide open for everyone. Additionally, it’s pretty easy to pick up a background or a subclass that will get you access to a list if you really want it.
The talents on display are:
Combat Conditioning–extra hit points and a floor to how few hit points hit dice provide
Polyglot–three extra languages and 1/short or long rest advantage on Charisma checks involving speech, at PB to checks to understand unknown spoken or written language
Armor Expert–AC boost and resistant to being moved
Aware–can’t get lower than 10 on initiative, can’t be surprised, and hidden targets don’t get advantage
Trade Skills–double proficiency bonus and get advantage if you could use either tools or a skill to accomplish something
Scrutinous–lip reading, bonus to passive perception and investigation, ask a question after examining an object for one minute
Vanguard–use reaction to counterattack someone that attacks you, get opportunity attacks even if you shouldn’t, get a bonus to hit and damage when you ready an action to attack, and that attack is triggered
These are fun, but not quite as within the same scope. Trade Skills gets the short end of the stick, even if you don’t take the Xanathar’s optional rule into consideration. I’m not a fan of too many ways to double proficiency bonus, but compared to some of these others, it falls behind. I like the roleplaying and story elements you can play with if you have a player that has polyglot, and I like seeing some more open ended benefits, like asking the GM a question about an object. Aware feels like a lot, but I don’t know how often I’ve actually ambushed my players where some of these would come into play. I like the idea of adding more rules options where you have a minimum to you d20 roll. We’ve seen it in a few subclasses, but I like ways to boost the ability to succeed without breaking the ceiling of what’s possible on the roll.
Final Thoughts
It’s weird, because I know this set of rules had a relatively quick turnaround, but it feels like I’ve been waiting to see them for a while. It may be due to the playtest being a little constrained, even for backers. I like that the mechanist has settled into addressing the role, but not the form, of the artificer. I think it may be fun to have more active widgets to play with when running a fighter, and I just like the feeling that the fighter “second wind,” while not called that anymore, actually feels like a second wind because it’s pulling from the character’s hit dice. If the rogue stays consistent with 2014, except for moving up their subclass abilities, as well as adding in the 10th level options worked into all of the classes, I think it will be in good shape. The wizard, the cleric, and the rogue, especially feel like my excitement is going to be invested in seeing their subclasses.
I wish I liked the warlock more. I also hope that rolling eldritch blast in as a class ability is something that we see with the ranger and hunter’s mark. I mentioned that I wanted more flavorful heritage options, but when I was making pregens in the playtest, I really enjoyed being able to mix and match elements with lineage to produce some unique results. I hope more of them have decision points like the kobold (even though we only saw one finalized option here).
I’m looking forward to next month, and also fully prepared to realize that with multiple full 5e SRD fantasy games coming out, my ideal game may exist in a Venn diagram instead of a single source.
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These are my most played with monsters for RPGs, but never got painted. They're Reaper Bones, the white material, and cleaning them up sucked! I ended up slicing as much of the mold lines as I could, then I covered the rest with some thick layers of primer. I took this opportunity to try some speed painting techniques. I used contrast paints (xpress) and oils, but also traditional acrilycs as a final step. Despite my frustrations with the material, I'm very happy with the result (for the time it took) so I think I might try to replicate this process on some other appropriate models (plague bearers??)