One D&D: Deal Breaker #1

Aw, hell no!!!

https://screenrant.com/one-dungeons-dragons-spells-categories-arcane-divine-primal/

I am sorry, I hit my first deal breaker for One D&D. You can take your consolidated spell lists and go back to AD&D 2nd Edition with that idea. They did that then, and they are doing it again, and it is still a terrible idea.

Bards lose their spell list?

Warlocks lose their spell list?

Illusionists?

Paladins?

I love for my bards to have all sorts of flavorful spells with song-like names, lyric of the magnificent, ballad of the virtuous, song of the sky, and you want them to use "arcane spells" like any other run-of-the-mill Gandalf?

Same with paladins, to make them different than clerics, let's give them holy sword, armor of the righteous, guardian aura, and all sorts of incredible paladin-specific abilities.

Warlocks, too; let's make them spooky and flavorful with their signature spells. Creeping hand, the aura of the possessed, mask of darkness, and other incredible warlock powers.

And I can buy 3rd party books that add to my spell lists for one class or another.

Now we have to sort through massive spell lists and look for particular sub-schools of magic we can pick from? Um, you get illusions but not divinations; please have fun and waste time sorting through a massive list of spells from now on. They made spell selection more tedious? To simplify things?

And worse yet, all the bard, warlock, and other unique "arcane power" spells wizards and sorcerers will get as well? Gandalf over there be singing my bard music? I cast, "copyright strike!"

They brought in a diverse set of game designers from the top of their fields to create D&D 5th Edition, and the success of the game shows that process created a legendary edition of the rules. 

This version seems like a "power shuffle" to break the OGL and a bunch of simplifications made by programmers and tech people to make Wizards' digital efforts easier and our lives worse. I can see it now, a bunch of programmers and 3d artists complaining they will need to create unique spell effects and assets for every class, complaining to management, and management pushing three combined spell lists as a compromise.

"It's cheaper to develop a virtual tabletop this way."

And today's designers cease becoming designers with their articles and playtest material; they are just marketers trying to sell us the horrible ideas the digital division needs to reduce the costs of the virtual tabletop they are coming out with.

And there is a proposed bard power to "borrow" any spell from other caster's lists at the higher levels. This again feels like a way to give bards powers without giving them anything, and again, I bet we will see a lot more of this "power borrowing" in other classes as the designers try to find ways to make the digital transition less costly. This is less "One D&D" and more "D&D Digital Edition," as if Ubisoft or EA redesigned the game to be cheaper and easier to create digital platforms.

Borrowing powers and unified spell lists to remove class diversity and identity is not cool.

I am not regressing my game back to AD&D 2nd edition. The spell lists in 2E were a huge step back and made casters act and feel the same. Why do I need an illusionist again? Wizards are much more capable and can cast the same spells.

5E and the class-specific spell lists forever.

And I am feeling better and better about my choice to stick with OGL 5E.