We Need To Talk About D&D's New Warriors (Fighter, Barbarian and Paladin) 

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I'm one of those crying Paladin players. My biggest issue is that as a half caster, Paladins only have access to level 5 spells. A literal evil fiend, the Rakshasa, is immune to spells under 6th level. Making it a spell means that a paladin's smite cannot EVER touch one. Same with Tiamat...and I would think smiting a fiend or the evil dragon goddess would be on most Paladin's To Do list.

Barbarian: "I carefully inspect my surroundings for any traps or other dangers." DM: Roll perception... Okay. You see nothing out of the ordinary. Barbarian: (punches himself in the nuts) "I ANGRILY inspect my surroundings for..."

It's worth noting that since the Primal Knowledge skill checks use strength, they will gain advantage from Rage. So it grants you both the use of your better ability score and the advantage, which is pretty substantial. Considering Rage now lasts for 10 minutes, this means you could activate it before combat when you're trying to stealth on an enemy, get the benefits, and then still have the rage for that fight. While yes, it's not gonna be the most useful thing in the world, it's a lot better than it initially seems.

Primal knowledge also gives you advantage, right? Because youre using strenght and are raging

We need to sneak past this guard. Barbarian guy, get super angry.

Damn, your opinions about the new barbarian ignored the MOST IMPORTANT parts: Rage being 10 minutes, advantage, recharge on short rest and etc.

Primal Knowledge is actually fire and I will die on this hill. First, Barbarians actually gain more rages as they level up starting at two and jumping to 3 at 3rd level. You also now regain one use of Rage on a short rest and all on a long rest, so it isn’t nearly as debilitating to spend a rage as it used to be. Next, Rage makes certain ability checks into strength checks specifically so not only do you use your Strength modifier, you also gain advantage due to rage granting advantage to all Strength-based ability checks. Lastly, with Rage lasting up to 10 minutes, you can activate a rage to gain a bonus to Stealth while entering a monster’s lair, gaining a bonus to Stealth, Survival, and Perception checks while exploring and then you already have rage active if and when a fight starts.

I think it's important to mention that barbarian gets rage back on short rest now, so imo it's not too bad to use up a rage for some important skill checks, especially when your DM doesn't throw a lot of combat encounters in a row at you

Treanmonk stated that there is a lot that wasn't unveiled about Rage, notably about recovery. My guess is now you regain one use of your rage after a short rest. Plus rage now lasts 10 minutes so it's got way more use than the 2014 version. That would make barbarians more useful in dungeons and outside fighting. And Brutal strikes actually synergises with weapon mastery so you can get some crazy combo. It gives options and is much more reliable than Brutal critical that happen like 9.75% of the time (assuming you relentless attack every turn).

some notes on barbarian while raging you have advantage on all strength checks, so you have advantage on all those checks too. Rage now also recharges on a short rest, and lasts 10 minutes.

I'd have been fine with making Smite a once per turn thing, but making it a Bonus Action?? And a spell? As if it wasn't bad enough that Bards could steal Greater Steed before Paladins even had access to it!

8:21 its worth opting this is more of a sidegrade than a nerf. Resistance to spells covers a lot more damage types but especially with recent additions, monsters have been using spells less and less, while resistance to a couple damage types is broadly applicable to spells, attacks, legendary actions, lair effects and so on

As Primal Knowledge is worded right now (in the beta), you'd not only use your strength modifier, but you'd be doing a strength check, therefore you'd gain advantage in those checks from being in rage

Barbarians getting a codified version of "using Skills with different abilities" when you could do it already.

I think primal knowledge will be most useful in dungeons between encounters. Now that rage lasts for 10 minutes, it means that a barbarian can make use out of the rest of that time while they look around, interrogate the person they fought and kept alive, sneak up on the next group of enemies, etc. Also, based on what they've said about the new versions of the subclasses it sounds like Barbarian is falling into a similar spot as the Tasha's ranger where it's a pretty good chassis that is brought up significantly with its subclasses

The Ancients aura may not be a nerf in the updated game, a lot of monsters no longer have spells, but magic like effects, so it wouldn't help with those.

You get plenty of rages per day now because you get one back on a short rest, you don't have to worry about rages Like, one of the reasons to get more rages is because of the out of combat uses Smite being a bonus actipn spell lets them build in lay on hands as a bonus action, because the limitation was always meant to be no lay on hands in the same turn as smite, now you can make your attacks regardless, letting you feel like a true divine spellblade Also, everyone else at the party doesn't like you double critical oneshotting the final boss before they got a turn, (happened to me)

The Ancients Paladin damage resistance isn't *strictly* a nerf, since it applies to non-spell damage, unlike the previous ability.

always great to see you make a rewview on dnd books

I was just the other day discussing the idea of fighter multi-attack being able to burn a cantrip as one of the attacks, so that is actually a neat idea to see implemented. Like Primal Savagery being combined with a weapon strike

For the Paladin, I will remind of a few things. 1) Nick property means Paladins can TWF just fine and still smite, TWF doesn't take a bonus action with Nick 2) I ran the math on PAM vs Divine Smite. PAM is less damage, can miss, but does more damage if you crit. Divine Smite is automatic damage (because it triggers on a hit) and more damage than baseline PAM. True, you can't do both, but you also can't PAM and drink a potion, or use lay on hands. Overall, if you aren't planning on smiting PAM is still a good at-will ability 3) Remember, Counter-Spell is likely changing to a Con Save, and you don't lose the spell slot. Sure, a lich might use a 3rd level slot to force a Con save that gets boosted by your aura, and you might fail the save and not deal your extra damage.. but I'd argue the lich got the worse end of that exchange.

You hit it on the head where I feel weird about the Zealot

@DnDShorts I really just wanted to stop by and say I appreciate your videos and more importantly your delivery. Keep on making your quality content it is appreciated whether it’s stated frequently or not! 😁🍺

Assuming the stuff Crawford left out from the UAs went through, most of your issues are being addressed. Barbarians: Crawford forgot to mention it, but barbarians rage now lasts for 10 minutes and also they get one charge of rage back each short rest. Regarding Primal knowledge - while raging you have advantage on strength checks. Turning a check into strength means not only are you using your primary score but you're getting advantage on it. Regarding berserker: The "little" extra damage is a number of d6s equal to rage damage modifier. A great sword does 2d6 + mod damage. At level 3 this is almost a great sword attack. At lv 9 it's 3d6. Wildheart: You change your animal every time you rage. Not on short rest. Also all the animals have changed. Crawford mentioned stuff like gaining climb and swim speeds. You can change your passive boost on long rest (the part not tied to rage). Regarding paladin: You said no two weapon fighting. Two weapon fighting is changed. Paladins can now use any weapon mastery and any fighting style. So you can pick a two weapon fighting paladin with the nick weapon mastery and smite just fine. Yeah polearm master paladin is dead, but doesn't effect too much else. Personally, I'll take bonus action smite in exchange for more smites per day, free mount spell cast, way better channel divinity usages, very buffed subclasses and of course weapon masteries. Smite was toned down so that everything else could be better. EDIT: If you still want to make three attacks per turn as a Paladin and still smite, The answer is two weapon fighting. Go strength or dexterity. It doesn't matter, Just pick a weapon with the Nick weapon mastery. It will still synergize with the level 11 Paladin feature which adds radiant damage onto each hit.

All they had to do was limit Smite use to once per turn. Why did they change so much to bring them down? Edit: My biggest issue with that is that Barbarian-Paladins can no longer smite while raging.

RIP Paladin/Barbarian multiclass

Good summary. Thanks for the video!

You actually have, by far, the most creative, interesting, and funny 'sponsored ads' in your videos.

If i remember correctly, and it has not been changed. Counterspelled spells do not take the spell slot.

I love the barbarian changes, my favorite class got buffed and it’s great

I love ALL DnD Shorts videos!

Wait, free re roll every turn for a champion fighter that gets an expanded crit range? Critfisher build seems primo

Just going to ignore smite changes, otherwise good enough

Is it just me or the Path of the World Tree Barbarian sounds like it was pulled from the new Elden Ring DLC?

I feel like the 2024 editions will be more useful for new players who don’t want to burden themselves by mixing and matching things from old and new books and Unearthed Arcana.

I may steal a few of these (free smite/rest and eldritch knight are pretty dope) but I'm not sold on the 5.5 changes overall. Cheers for sharing the info!

I think everyone is going to homebrew divine smite to be the same that was in 5E. Is probably a universal thing, like the bonus action potion.

Its kind of strange that vow of emity and sacrad Weapon do not require actions, but input some Divine energy to a strike needs your BA

great summary!

I skipped most 2024e videos so far, but watched that one because I trust your opinion. And now I don't know what to think. So much is about to change? Well, if I want to learn a new system, I just might chose Pathfinder or in a little while MCDM.

Simply put, they should've just said "you can only smite once per turn" and then it at least becomes a reasonable nerf instead of a paizo level nerf that it currently is. Smite now is counterspell-able, doesn't work in an antimagic field, can't be used on opp attacks, can't be used if you want to use your BA for anything else, if the weird BA spell rule is still there then it conflicts with that, it can be silenced now since it requires a vocal component, and creatures like tiamat and rakshasas are now immune to divine smite because they're immune to spells of 6th level or lower and paladins only get up to 5th level slots. Needless to say if I play in this new edition I'm just letting someone play a 2014 paladin and i won't ever play a paladin in 5.5. It sucks. I hope they don't keep making this game more like pf2, but based on the paladin nerfs I'm worried for all my favorite classes now. I hope this is the most substantial change they've made cuz I don't enjoy the "we must bow at the feet of the optimization channels who complain every moment about how strong the hexblade is" direction they're going in rn.

Very unhappy with the divine smite nerfs.

I love how every video you make ends with variant of "REMEMBER, NO PREORDERS" 😁

I feel a bit validated. Throughout the playtests, I kept saying how bas Primal Knowledge was, as it basically costs a range or 1 check. Remember that ability checks usually represent cumulative effort, and you often would just get to keep trying a check until you get it. You can probably only make 1 initmidation check against a given creature, and if it fails, it won't work for a while. Ysing one of your few rages (and having a rage limit even at 20th level) makes the feature suck. Additionally, the 2014 PHB had a variant rule for mixing skill checks. It allowed you to make a skill check with a different abaility, with the in text example being a Barbarian trying to make a Strength(Intimidation) check. Because the feature now exists, DM will likely not let Barbarians use the variant rule since it will feel like they they are using their class feature without its restrictions or its cost.

You got the barbarian all wrong First of all now the rage recharge 1 use After a short rest making It more easy to use it outsider of combat. Second Primal awarness make you use strenght so they now count as a strenght check and with your rage you do them with advantage, so it's not changing your +2 for a +4 (even if you have to tell me Witch barbarian have also a +2 in charisma for intimidation check for example) but you also do them with advantage. Third now rage last 10 minutes, and not 1 so even outside of combat It could be useful

Barbarian and Fighters: Frolicking in the fields Paladin: crying in the shower.

Also with primal knowledge, depending on the dm and the check, you can already do that. Strenght or contritution for an intimidation check come to mind.

The real issue with the Paladin nerf is that in these days. The Full casters especially Wizard's and Sorcerer's still are ahead of the curve damage wise regarding higher levels. In the first tier, many parties are kept alive from their frontliners. As the tiers progress, the power curve goes to the caster. If this is supposed to make it more balanced, I have yet to hear of a buff for the Paladin's at the higher tiers. Take away the Divine Smite just using a spell slot, that reduces one of the fun aspects of being a Palidin. Then possibly allowing other classes to pick it up. The Paladin is diminished even more. Lastly, I haven't followed the Playlist updates. But I am surprised that the Conquest Paladin did not make the cut. That was a bit disappointing. Overall, I find several if the choices they kept, suspect.

RIP man too angry to die, *dies*

1:11 the whole point of that new ability was so that the Barbarian doesn't have to feel like a 5th wheel out of combat. So now on days when there's no combat occurring (days spent in town or similar) you can still use your Rage for something useful. Yes, of course on days when you expect to be in combat you will save your Rage for combat.

I dont hate Primal Knowledge, I really dig it actually. I will wait until I see it in print to say for sure though of course. Using strength and I believe getting advantage on that is a pretty good buff to any roll for a barbarian, especially if it hits some useful skills for social encounters. Maybe its not as dramatic as the rogues expertise or as dynamic as a wizard with spells, but it doesnt need to be. My biggest issue playing a barbarian was feeling like I needed to sit in a corner for more than half the adventure unless I wanted to accidently knock stuff off a shelf during a shopping trip or whatever. As far as it using rage, I think that will be less impactful than people think since they come back on short rest now and it is not like you are garrenteed to have fights in every town you go to. Afterall, how many of us have had entire campaign sessions without any combat whatsoever? The rage being a method of a person tapping more into their primal awareness is okay too as that has been in the flavor text the whole time. The only critque I have to admit is yes, it would be nice if these were always on rather then using a rage and then effectively using your "bonus action" outside of initiative to keep it going. However, they said using a class resource in other ways is a bit of a theme they had going with 2024, so that is probability why.

Very happy with the Eldritch Knight buffs

5e 2024 is touting weapon masteries as their big revolutionary feature of the new edition. I would love to see you do a comparison video with DC20 and how they do weapon/attack maneuvers, to show how it's being blown out of the water by the new system.

For barbarians I would put as long as you have a single rage you get the benefits of primal knowledge when you run out you don’t get the bonus anymore Or the other way around if you run out of rage you get the benefits of primal knowledge

Do you remember when One DnD was first announced and WotC promised us that they were not going to be changing anything and would only be adding features to the game? So much for that.

First Note: Rage is now tied to a short rest. Second Note: I believe Rage has a longer duration now. This could just be me mistaking it for my ttrpg system, but it can also be sustained with a Bonus Action which is much better. That's all I had.

It would have been interesting if, like Insight Check said, WOTC had instead made Paladin Amite remain as a class feature, but limit it to one use per turn, so it could still work with opportunity attacks/crit-calls, and even on top of other Smite spells. Then, it would have felt akin to a Rogue's Sneak Attack, but requiring resources to use instead of careful setup. It would also be somewhat synonymous with other subclass/spell features that have been changed to deal extra damage when you hit once per turn (like Zealot/Berserker, or the UA Hex/Hunter's Mark)

Before watching: i liked Fighter and Barbarian very much. Let's see if i let something pass D:

The Ancient's Aura is only going to feel like a nerf until you run into a mind flayer or like creature. The old version did not protect you from psionics.

The other Paladin change is mounts from Find Steed use regularised opposed to specific creature stat blocks.

I like the idea of nerfing the nova damage of the paladin while buffing the rest of the kit, but i don't like how they went about it

So I've already decided if I buy the DnD 2024 players handbook. I will use the things I like from it to benefit the classes from 5e. But completely ignore the things I don't like. Cause I was originally curious to see what they would do with each class to make improvements. But when I saw Paladin I realized that I definitely wasn't going to be most, if any of the 2024 version of DnD. And it's all because of Divine Smite. Divine Smite being able to be Counterspelled shenanigans aside. You're telling me that the Paladin of Bahamut can't Divine Smite Tiamat because of her Limited Magic Immunity? And that the Barbarian or Fighter will be able to do more damage with just one hit the knight who has vowed to destroy Tiamat in the name of their god? Definitely not a feature I will be using in my games.

Something else about Divine Smite: it's a bonus action that PAIRS with another attack. So it uses your main action too, not even making it part of an attack like Booming Blade for example. Smiting now limits your action economy.

I'm subscribed to the channel, I clicked the bell icon and still I did not get notified nor saw this video on my main page! WTF RU-vid?!

So they reduced the paladin damage output and multi-class potential but do they get any additional protection? Feels a bit bad that you need to risk it being in melee just to be rewarded with (maybe) 1 smite per turn?

While I do recognize divine smite has been nerfed and am very sad about that, I do play with a player who is not very knowledgeable of game mechanics including class features who likes to play paladins for some reason even though they always look for divine smite in their spell list and don't use it correctly. This change also gives wotc the oportunity to buff the other smite spells and you basically get to choose which smite you use rather than stack them. Less nova, but probably better balanced for it.

The new oath of the ancient and bear totem barbarian is a great multiclass. 3 levels into path of the totem barbarian and 7 levels into oath of the ancient paladin, now you have resistance to all damage types in the game.

Chainmail & along beard? Your bravery always impresses me 😊

I actually really like the buff to second wind. Overall I think the fighter improvements are definitely good, as apposed to the paladins trash (although I like the find steed for free)

I think 5.5e looks great so far. Let’s see what else they reveal next week!

Seems like Primal Knowledge should just be a separate ability with it's own pool of uses, equal to your pool of Rage uses. If you can Rage 3 times for 1 minute per LR, you also can PK 3 times for 10 minutes per LR. (And keep Rage 1 minute since should just be for combat)

You can get one use of rage back on a short rest, counterspell requires a saving throw on the affected creature, and should said creature fail the save they don't lose a spell slot.

I dunno if all that changes to paladin can compensate for the huge nerf at divine smite yeah free ride, spells slots at level 1 already and better channel divinity are cool, but I'm gonna miss spamming smites

i love balancing paladin's smite, honestly one smite per round seems fair(so many combo's currently allow 3-4 smites per roundattack three times with polemaster and use a reaction is a simple example). The main issue is requiring the Bonus action for it. This kills so many fun options. A dex paladin rogue multiclass to bash/disengage after smiting? nope. Barbarian Paladin, raging on a turn? no smite for you! any multiclass that uses a bonus action? nope! feats like shield master to knock people over? nope. etc etc etc. sure its is a choice to either smite or not but most combat's only last a few turns and putting out good single target damage is part of paladin's role/power fantasy. but now it limits massive swaths of character options between doing your main source of damage or not. imo it boils down to this: if we want smite to now be a more consistent sustained bursts of damage, it should be easier to activate not harder. Hope i am explaining that well. it seems counter to what they are going for in the design change itself. thoughts?

Question: Can you still use any of the old subclasses that haven't been rewritten with the new rules? Like a Path of the Giant Barbarian?

i know we have to wait to see how it works, but i will appreciate your thoughts about backwards compatibility (:

Thanks for making this video. I didn't realize they took away the berserker's extra bonus action attack and the zealots too- angry-to-die swagger And Crawford said really liked playing barbarian. It's like he looked around and said "OMG people are having too much fun. Quick, we've got to put a stop to it!" I don't get how they could add all of these new mechanics and rules (and nerfs), but still not add taunt and a defensive fighting style that scales with how many enemies are attacking you in melee. So I just started playing TT D&D again 2 months ago after not having played since AD&D. After finding out that rangers were finally good, I was lured back in. I spent a lot of time creating and planning my character, a gloom stalker ranger. My DM helped me with my backstory by asking really great questions that should lead to great narrative. But after seeing what they did to paladins, I think I know what's in store for my character from reading the testing UAs. I'm so discouraged and depressed, I don't feel like I want to play anymore

The not being able to smite multiple times per turn kills my desire to play a 2024 Paladin which is a shame because most of the changes for the 2024 are good.

I like the changed for base barbarian. they increased the duration of rage to 10 minutes so primal knowledge could get some good use in non combat situations and I understand limiting it during rage can feel frustrating but it would be worse if is was a passive feature that anyone who does a 3 level multiclass in barbarian could use the ability just as well. Staying barbarian increases your uses of rage and how often you can use the feature. They also made it so rages restore on a short rest in the play test and I can't imagine they would remove that so that should make it a bit easier to use too. Also flavor is free your bonus action to maintain rage can be flavored as punching yourself at no extra cost!

Some things about the paladins smite. If they keep the counterspell changes then you don't lose your bonus action if the counter spell succeeds. Two weapon fighting is rumored to no longer cost a bonus action. and arguably the paladin class got a major buff overall so limiting smite only makes sense from that perspective.

Me the second i see paladins mentioned in a video *_click_*

The Smite nerfs is unforgivable.

They mentioned in the video about barb that rage was getting a time increase

I imagine the logic behind Primal Knowledge using Rage is because you can replenish them on a Short Rest now. I'm straight up going to ignore the Paladin Smite nerf though; it's not like your aren't getting your damage for free since Paladins only get so many slots.

Looking at the nerfed divine smite: "i recognize the council has made a decision, but given that its a stupid ass decision ive elected to ignore it!"

I got over hyped and ordered all three books in limited edition, on the plus side I got them from my local so.... Yay for helping?

Love your show mr shorts

Ill be sticking with 5E and homebrew, 6th edition is odd

the paladin nerf to smite is brutal and i very much despise it!. i think this was THE CORE ability for paladins. My Disappointment Is Immeasurable And My Day Is Ruined

About the primal senses, they did give back rages on a short rest now, so I think it may actually be worth it

Are they still planning on making monsters use force instead of magical bludgeoning piercing or slashing? That is a huge stealth nerf to non bear barbarians; on par with making most caster monsters not cast spells but "magical attacks" making the abjurist and war wizards cry.

Divine Smite was always a bit of a noob trap. Anyone who actually burned all their spell slots smiting on every single attack was hamstringing themselves, and the actual experienced Paladins would learn how to leverage their actual spells in the right circumstances, and keep a few extra slots in their back pocket so they could pull out a smite when the most opportune moment presented itself. With these changes, it's become an even bigger noob trap, because anyone who would intentionally burn their entire turn and one of their few spell slots to add 2d8 damage to a single attack obviously doesn't have the experience to know how much a spell slot is actually worth to a half-caster.

As a Paladin player, I am not happy.

I'm happy with the eldritch knight changes. I'm curious about the "able to get spells from any school of magic" and wonder if that means we can get eldritch blast. If not, there is alsways the artofocer multiclass tonget multipurpose tools :D

I will stick with my 1st and 2nd editions thanks.

So Paladin Smite no longer gives you the other smites prepared for free? Only the Divine Smite spell? If so then I’d probably just use the 2014 Divine Smite feature but use the new reworked Smite spells. Disappointed but oh well Other classes look good though so far

Like I said on other talks about this new D&D, I just won't care to play in any game using the nerfed Divine Smite feature, they've basically screwed with the essence of a Paladin and I'm not good with that

I mean, top 2 changes I'd like to see? 1. Paladin Divine Smite going back to free action, just... IF WIZARDS IS REALLY INSISTANT ON LIMITING IT... make it once per turn (so reaction Smiting is a thing and you still keep a Bonus Action), and maybe unlock the ability to Divine Smite twice a turn at higher level? Maybe add a caveat that you can't use Divine Smite if you've cast a spell as a Bonus Action (I.E., other Smites). 2. I dislike Primal Knowledge, for no other reason then it disincentives DMs from rewarding players for being creative. I love letting the Intelligence character use their Int instead of say, Wisdom for Medicine checks if they're knowledge is rooted in anatomy and what they're using *is* that information. Primal Knowledge implies you can't do that unless you have a feature to allow it. Otherwise, yeah, I'd allow it you be effectively permanent, maybe a caveat like "only when it makes sense", like you can't Strength Intimidate someone unless they can see you, etc. Bonus: I feel like the main thing Barbarians need, is just... when combat starts, they get to enter Rage for free. Without expending a use of Rage, specifically. Save the Rage charges for class features which consume them, or if Rage is ended prematurely? I dunno. I think thats OK. But I REALLY dislike the new Zealot feature. Like, I played around with homebrew options based off the playtests, trying to merge them all, and... -> Rage Beyond Dead: When your Relentless Rage fails to restore your Hit Points, a saving throw you can willingly fail, you don’t gain the Unconscious condition, but instead assume the form of a spectral warrior. While in this form, you must still make death saving throws and suffer the normal effects of taking damage while at 0 Hit Points, and if you’d die from failing death saving throws, you don’t die until your Rage ends if your Hit Points are still 0. You gain the following benefits: * You have a Fly Speed equal to your Speed and can hover. You can move through creatures and objects as if they were Difficult Terrain, but you take 1d10 Force damage if you end your turn inside a creature or an object. * Divine Fury now deals a number of d6s equal to half your Rage Damage bonus plus half your Barbarian level (round down), instead of 1d6 plus half your Barbarian level. The form lasts until you’d die outright to damage, your Rage ends, or you regain any Hit Points. Once you use this feature, you can’t do so again until you finish a Long Rest. Even if this is ALSO bad, I like it better then what they're changing it into, and its certainly more 'fair' then the old version.

My only issue with the Paladin changes is the fact Smite is now a spell, which can be counter spelled, kind of removing most of the hitting power for the class entirely if your opponent has the ability to counter spell you