D&D Players Split As Abundance of Magic “Cheapens” Class Fantasy

Dungeons & Dragons players aren’t impressed with the most recent changes Wizards of the Coast has made to classes in the latest playtest material. One fan was annoyed enough by the changes to post about it on Reddit, and the entire D&D community has flooded it with hundreds of comments expressing similar views.

Wizards of the Coast has added some form of magic to every class in the latest D&D changes. While this may solve a few problems and make the game more accessible to newcomers, it’s a huge shift from the established norm for almost all players, and they’re not too pleased about it.

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The D&D Fan Base Can’t Decide If Magic for All Classes is a Good or Bad Thing

User CountLugz created a post on the D&D Subreddit discussing the addition of magic to almost every class in the game. Their major complaint is that Wizards of the Coast has implemented this widespread change in a lazy attempt to have a big impact on how people play. In reality, most fans want unique mechanics for their classes that don’t rely on spells or an existing core system in D&D.

While not all fans agree that the addition of magic for classes is bad, they do all align with the idea that there are so many better ways Wizards of the Coast could have changed D&D. One user commented, “Magic is cool and having multiple classes that use it in unique ways is fun. But like you said, that’s where they seem to stop with mechanical creativity, and magic is like a duct tape solution that WotC uses far too much.” The biggest problem, as far as fans are concerned, is a lack of creativity in the new mechanics being added by Wizards of the Coast.

D&D is an incredibly open and accessible game. Players get to craft their own character that’s completely unique, with its own backstory, set of skills, and history that influences what they do, say, and how they act in each campaign. New mechanics, such as real psionics or special maneuvers for martial artists, would change the way everyone approaches each encounter, puzzle, and conversation with an NPC.

Some players don’t have a problem with all classes having access to magic, but they still agree that the same outcome could have been achieved with more creativity and thought for classes that haven’t used magic until now. “I’m not going to fault WOTC for giving people who might want their class to have access to magic. But I just wish they did it better or made the styles feel more unique and versatile. I very much agree the repeated way they implement the same things in each class does feel repetitive and creatively barren.”

Wizards of the Coast hasn’t addressed these complaints, and whether the company will acknowledge them is unknown. With so many IPs to monitor and expand, including Magic: The Gathering, it’s possible that more creative changes aren’t feasible at this point in time.