D&D (2024) What do we know about the subclasses in the OneD&D PHB?

[Twiggly the Gnome]

Yeah, from what we've seen, players that start with the 5.24 books will have less options for Cleric and Wizard subclasses unless they pick up the deprecated 5.14 volume.

 

[Parmandur]

Yeah, from what we've seen, players that start with the 5.24 books will have less options for Cleric and Wizard subclasses unless they pick up the deprecated 5.14 volume.

Instead of "less options" let's say "more focused options"

 

[The Myopic Sniper]

I wonder if they will have evoked diviner abjured and Necromancer.

One of the issues with getting Wizard subclasses past the 70-80 percent acceptance hurdle for Unearthed Arcana is that a lot of people felt that any new subclass broke the symmetry by not being based on one of the spell schools. After "School of Evication," "School of Illusion" and "School of Necromancy" it was kind of hard to get something like "Mushroom Mage" to fit in that scheme. I expect at least one of the subclasses to be based on something other than a spell school so they can kind of reset expectations on what a Wizard subclass looks like. It is probably going to be something like a War Mage or Bladesinger to try to hit that trope in the core. I think they will probably avoid "Necromancer" to stay away from darker themes in the PHB and avoid having to deal with having to deal with another round of arguing over the template issue and summoning balance now and kick that can down the road. Now would probably be the best time to deal with it from my point of view though.

 

[Mirrorrorrim]

I wouldn't be surprised if, for Wizard, they have a "specialist" subclass where you pick one of the spell schools, rather than a subclass for each school.

I much thought the same, but when I tried my hand at designing/rewriting a single subclass that merged 8 subclasses in it, I found that it doesn't work. It still takes 7 subclasses worth of pagespace to get all those different abilities (8 schools, 4 subclass abilities each). The only way to cut space is to cut more of the flavor/descriptive text.

Based on the existence of the playtest Evoker, and their intent for backwards compatibility/comparability, I think they will choose Evoker as a standalone subclass for the baseline/simple subclass for the SRD, like they did before. I think that if they acknowledge the Evoker as its own subclass, the others will one day have their own subclasses too. I think this means they will choose the 4 most popular/spell-supported schools for the 2024 PHB and add the rest later when they add more arcane spells to the game of the schools that have so few spells.

 

[Corinnguard]

I wouldn't be surprised if, for Wizard, they have a "specialist" subclass where you pick one of the spell schools, rather than a subclass for each school.

Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition already has something like this. Arcanist | Level Up A5e's Generalist Wizard is the Mage. Mage | Level Up

 

[The Myopic Sniper]

If they go back to unified subclass progression, I almost hope they would make the wizard "school" based subclasses (Evoker, Illusionist, Necromancer, etc) available as subclasses to all casting classes. It could be fun to throw Illusionist on a Bard, Evoker on a Sorcerer, Transmuter on an Artificer, Diviner or Abjurer on a Cleric or Necromancer on a Warlock to doubledown on certain iconic flavors of those classes or go against the grain and pick something different for variety. WOTC would have to change some of the features to be interoperable among all classes (possibly drop the "Savant" ribbon feature). But it would open up a lot more options for a lot of classes right out of the gate as well as letting the wizard be defined by something other than spell schools. It would also allow them to think about future shared subclasses and what needs to be done to make those balanced.

 

[Parmandur]

I think they will probably avoid "Necromancer" to stay away from darker themes in the PHB and avoid having to deal with having to deal with another round of arguing over the template issue and summoning balance now and kick that can down the road. Now would probably be the best time to deal with it from my point of view though.

Crawford already said in one of the Survey videos that Necromancer is one of the 4 Wizard Subclasses, and that they are tackling those mechanical issues head on.

 

[UngeheuerLich]

I like that they chose evoker. It is one of the most popular subclasses in our parties besides transmuter, enchanter and diviner.
I remember the outcry when the evoker did not get a damage boost at level 2.
I can easily say, taking your fellow adventurers out of you blasts has been worth more than a few points of damage..

 

[HammerMan]

I like that they chose evoker. It is one of the most popular subclasses in our parties besides transmuter, enchanter and diviner.
I remember the outcry when the evoker did not get a damage boost at level 2.
I can easily say, taking your fellow adventurers out of you blasts has been worth more than a few points of damage..

Just remember there is no I in team BUT there are 5 I’s in forget it I don’t care the size of the room I cast fireball.

 

[BookTenTiger]

If they are mining other books for subclasses, any guesses on what will make the cut?

I wouldn't be surprised to see Bladesinger, Astral Monk, or Circle of Spores Druid as I see those referenced a lot.