DnD Playtest 8 features changes to Barbarian, Druid, and Monk classes—but it’s a mixed bag

DnD‘s newest playtest, Playtest 8, has just hit Unearthed Arcana, and it features big changes to Barbarians, Druids, and Monks.

Barbarians and Monks walk away as huge winners, gaining resource regeneration, while Druids limp along with wrist-slaps to Wild Shape utility from their DnD 5E counterparts, instead getting casting potential.

Unearthed Arcana has been running a series of playtests for the next revision of DnD 5E. These playtests largely focus on improving the experience of playing a non-caster class while offering a few big changes to casters to buff underpowered options. However, some casters were knocked around due to their strong options.

This most recent playtest features three classes: Barbarians, Druids, and Monks. Of them, Barbarians and Monks are getting extremely powerful buffs that make them feel much better in short and long-term conflicts. Here are some highlights:

Barbarians are being quite heavily pushed this playtest. Their Rage now regenerates one charge during Short Rests, letting them more commonly utilize their strongest class feature. They can get all uses of Rage once per Long Rest at level 15. The Weapon Mastery feature expands their palate with specific weapons.

Further expanding their palate is a new way to Reckless Attack, replacing the Advantage with the ability to shove enemies around and deal extra damage. This is also another iteration of the new Path of the World Tree archetype, offering a new way to tank as a Barbarian through teleportation and temporary health regeneration—a bit different from Path of the Storm.

Monks got a similar facelift. Their weapon pool has expanded to basically all Light Weapons, which is great. They have much better resource regeneration, able to gain all of their Discipline Points—renamed from Ki Points—once per day. By level 15, they’ll rarely have below four Discipline Points, since they regenerate on every Initiative call.

They don’t need to Attack to get a bonus action Unarmed Strike, can Disengage or Dash as a bonus action without spending resources, and reduce damage from melee and ranged attacks as a Reaction. Eventually, they can even parry magic.

Stunning Strike got some damage added while Flurry of Blows now improves to three Unarmed Strikes, letting them scale better into late-game. Their new capstone is just a flat ability score bonus—a bit lame, but nice to see on a class so focused on Dexterity and Wisdom.

This isn’t even mentioning Monks’ improved magical item selection, which allows their fists to (finally) gain generic plus-one, plus-two, and plus-three bonuses to attack and damage.

Druids got nerfed from 5E, though this is a buff from previous playtests which hammered Druids way too hard. Fans of the class from 5E will notice the Primal Order feature, which separates Druids into a Caster and a Weapon-based focuses. Wild Shape got huge changes; mainly, you are limited in forms you can become and you don’t get the animal’s HP as an over shield. You also regenerate charges slower, though get more Wild Shapes over time.

Wild Shape is now a more potent damage option, getting some elemental damage on each swing. Circle of the Moon Druids get the ability to have static AC that is Wisdom-based, helping the animal’s durability significantly. They also get a few spells that they’re allowed to cast even while Wild Shaped, like Vampiric Touch. And they can wear some magic equipment now, which is cute.

Caster Druids are eating a bit better now. In addition to better aggressive cantrips, you get the ability to turn a Wild Shape into a spell slot once per rest. You also get free casts of Speak with Animals and Commune with Nature, which is nice flavor.

Some spells also got changed. “Conjure” spells no longer summon creatures but instead stagnant effects which range from damaging to healing. Healing got a big buff as well, with Cure Wounds and Healing Word getting an extra dice of health.

It’s an enjoyable playtest, which is a great sign for new horizons. Druid is stabilizing from previous hits while Barbarian and Monk are really starting to grow into fully-fledged classes for late-game experiences.