New Dungeons & Dragons Playtest Has a Nod to Baldur's Gate 3

A new Dungeons & Dragons playtest contains one subclass with naming ties to Baldur's Gate 3. Today, Wizards of the Coast released its newest Unearthed Arcana playtest for updates to the core rulebooks set for release in 2024. The playtest included the Path of the Wild Heart Barbarian subclass, a renamed version of the Path of the Totem Warrior subclass originally released in the Sword Coast Adventurer's Guide. Interestingly, the renaming had already been previewed in Baldur's Gate 3, with D&D lead rules designer Jeremy Crawford personally overseeing that change. "I personally worked with Larian to name this subclass," Crawford said in a video released today. "We knew we'd unify the name in the 2024 rulebook changes."

The new Wild Heart subclass did receive something of a nerf, at least in regards to the powerful Beast Heart option. In the 2014 rules (and in Baldur's Gate 3) a Wild Heart Barbarian with the Bear Heart option has resistance to all damage but Psychic damage. In the proposed rule changes, a Wild Heart Barbarian chooses two damage types besides Force damage and Psychic damage to become resistant towards. While a strategic player can still make good use of this ability, it's certainly less effective than it was before. 

Dungeons & Dragons 2024 Core Rulebook Changes Explained

Originally called One D&D, the 2024 Core Rulebooks are an upcoming set of revisions to the three main rulebooks used to play Dungeons & Dragons. To date, Wizards of the Coast has released seven playtests mostly focused on the Player's Handbook, with many of the changes focusing on better balancing certain classes and subclasses or tweaking spells. While at one point the playtests seemed to suggest bigger changes were in store for Dungeons & Dragons, the 2024 rulebooks are now being described as revisions rather than a more radical change. Most importantly, the 2024 rulebooks will still be for Fifth Edition, the popular version of Dungeons & Dragons that's been in use since 2014.