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Engagement with the first survey was "through the roof." Over 40k people "engaged with" the survey, over 39k filled it out fully.
The thing that scored the highest, "almost 90% satisfaction": getting a feat at 1st level with a Background
Crawford expected it to be popular, but not to that extent
"The majority of things in this Unearthed Arcana scored 80% or higher"
They were looking for 70% or higher as the threshold for "the community is saying, Yes, more of this!"
80%+ results mean "the community wants EXACTLY that"
"Something in the 60s would be considered to be salvagable" but they need to reconsider the design
Anything below 60% is likely not going to be used, 40% and below is "gone"
"So little was low" nothing was in the 50s or below
Only three things dipped into the 60s:
d20 test rule (1 auto fail / 20 auto success), "was highly experimental"; this was pre-planned to have alternate rules in the first two UAs as a form of A-B testing, then compared to the 2014 crit rules
Aardling
Dragonborn: the Dragonborn scored LOWER than the Aardling
Next UA will include new versions of BOTH races
Crawford thinks they have a good understanding of why those races scored low & what needs to be fixed, thanks to feedback comments.
Calls out the Dragonborn options (Metallic, Chromatic, Gem) as more narrow than the core Dragonborn, so they're going to come up with a new take including a 5th level ability for the race
Aardling pretty clear what was going on: trying to do too many things.
"cousin of the Aasimar while also being a beast person"
Identity will be "much clearer" in the next UA
New Humans scored 83%
Dwarf, Orc, Tiefling & Elf were all "virtually tied" around 80%
Gnome & Halfling tied at 78%
Next UA will have a "surprise guest" (race?) & Cleric class
Will be a little smaller, the first one was "a little chonky"
UA after that will be big again
Crawford is excited to get to Warrior Group UA eventually
New weapon types & new ways to use weapons
Future UA will cover a new optional subsystem about Home Bases
connected NPCs, concurrent downtime rules
called the Bastion system
core character options (especially classes / subclasses) will be covered before this comes out
(Eventual) New encounter building rules for DMs, prep advice, monster customization
(Eventual) New versions of things that appear in the playtest as they iterate & get feedback
Even if people can't playtest, it's still valuable to fill out surveys based on reading the UAs
"People have rightly noticed that eldritch blast has not been in the spell lists thus far. [It] has not been removed from the game! ... When we get to the Mage [Group] UA, people will get to see what we're doing with [it] in the Warlock."
discussion about what does and does not go into the glossary. Just because something isn't in the UA glossary, that does not mean it has been removed or changed, they just haven't covered it yet.
"Mother May I" rules versus things you can just use as described. Things that require DM buy-in to function properly are "unsatisfying." Calling out Thief "use an object" as an example. "All of that is on our list to clear up." Haven't decided if it's going to be revised or just going to "go away."
"If something is going to be removed from the game, we will say so."
2014 Ranger as an example of a class that required far too much DM buy-in and needed revision.
Great Weapon Fighting / Sharpshooter: 2014 version countered damage bonus with to-hit penalty, but the penalty was trivial. They want to instead rely more on class features for their main damage output; do not want players to feel they have to take a feat to optimize damage output.
Feats should be taken because "there is a particular angle you want to accentuate," not must-have damage boosts.
Feel the Warrior UA will make people happy with the change.
Light Weapon property: requiring light weapon users to use a bonus action to get their extra attack created a lot of "bad interactions." Felt like it was paying "a tax" so they made the change.
Again, Warrior UA will touch on tweaks to weapon properties.
Are class spell lists going away?
Wanting people to first get used to the new three spell lists
"Definitely open to" providing a more focused list for each class which incorporates spells from the master list for their group. Ex: Bard may need a list to summarize which spells are available to them from the master lists.
For some classes that won't be necessary. Ex: Cleric can choose from the entire Divine spell list, Wizard can choose from the entire Arcane spell list.
When they get to building the actual books, they'll look more closely at the UI decisions that "make the life of the players who play each class as friction-free as possible."
Crawford is very excited to see how the future UAs are received & incorporate feedback into "new versions of the core books that all of us as a community can be excited about."
Filling out the survey is the most important part, they can't look at every comment elsewhere
Multiple members of the design team dedicated to going through survey results & feedback