Designing D&D subclasses—that's what I sat down with @ToddKenreck to talk about. Here's part 1 of our extensive conversation: there are many
different stages in the creation process
balance is a piece of that process but
in some ways one of the least important
pieces we like to talk about the initial
drafting phase of a piece of design so
in this case talking about subclasses
and then we talked about finishing the
design every design at least the best
designs they start with a story the
start with something that excites you an
archetype particularly when it comes to
a subclass this is usually going to be a
type of person you’re going to want to
play whether you know it is a wizard
who’s a diviner or a cleric who worships
a god of light or it’s a rogue who’s you
know various thieving sort of person and
and therefore is drawn toward the the
thief subclass in each of these cases
we’re talking about story art types
where you emit you can imagine a person
you can often imagine a costume you can
imagine a personality you can imagine
the types of things this person would be
able to do in combat and out that’s the
first step what’s the story what flows
from there then are things like the text
that describes that story
we sometimes internally we’ll talk about
the little story text that goes along
with the subclass as its sword its
mission statement says this is what
basically this subclass is about here’s
a guy basically for anyone who’s going
to play this subclass to help you role
play this character and also for you to
imagine this character’s place in the
worlds of Dungeons
Dragons that story text though is also
really crucial for us as we do the other
parts of our design because that that
mission statement for the design will
help us and specifically me as the
person who oversees the finalization of
all game mechanics for D&D I always go
back to that story text essentially what
tale are we trying to tell and I need to
make sure that as as well as possible
the game mechanics we then create and
Shepherd through our development process
reflect that story sometimes we’ll end
up making changes to the mechanics that
push the story in a new direction and
then we go back and sort of talking on
the practical side we’ll go back and
actually change that story text so that
it now reflects the new story that the
subclass is telling will then often in
the initial creation process which
people have got to see a little glimpse
of in Mike Murrells happy fun hour on
Twitch where you get to see that sort of
early concept in phase of let’s spit
ball something let’s come up with a
story and then let’s brainstorm some of
the little class features and other
mechanical nuggets that could express
that story and it really is in a way you
just let your imagination run wild with
some limits one of the big limits even
in that initial phase is you’re playing
in kind of a playground that’s already
that already exists any time you create
a subclass for a particular class you
want to make sure you’re familiar with
the subclasses that already exist for
that class because that starts giving
you a sense of the mechanical heft that
a subclass has for a particular class
because the secret is not all subclasses
are created equal
especially when you compare the
subclasses of one class to the
subclasses of another if you look at a
cleric divine domain for instance and
compare it to the barbarians subclasses
the subclasses have different mechanical
heft and what I mean by that is they’re
pulling a different amount of weight
story-wise and in terms of the
capability of that character in each of
those classes what you can do with the
domain even sometimes when it comes to
something as concrete as damage output
might be heavier in the subclasses of
one class than in another some classes a
lot of their mechanical heft their
damage output their healing output their
abilities in an exploration context or a
social interaction context sometimes a
lot of that weight exists in the core
class whereas you come to another class
where a lot of that weight actually
exists in the subclasses of that class
so that’s why it’s really important for
you to understand when you’re designing
for a particular class sort of where in
the power spectrum do the subclasses of
that class tend to fall relative to
other classes the last thing you want to
do is design a a path for the Barbarian
to go back to my previous example and
give it a power level that’s appropriate
for a cleric domain you want to make
sure you’re giving it a power level
that’s appropriate for a barbarian
subclass so that’s sort of step one when
you start you go from story concept to
start dealing with mechanics when you’re
past the spitballing phase the next
thing you want to do is you’re going to
want to make sure you’re filling in any
special buckets that a class might have
in its subclasses clerics again like
clerks are a good one to use because
they have a there’s a unity and to how
in how cleric subclasses are designed
cleric subclasses all need to deliver at
least one channel divinity option so
you’ve got to make sure already in your
design that you’re hitting that checkbox
Clark subclasses also need to give you
either divine strike or potent spell
casting
so you need to make sure when you’re
designing for a class that you’re taking
care of those sort of infrastructural
things now that’s said D and E is an
exceptions based game you could
technically design a cleric subclass
that doesn’t give you divine strike or
potent spell casting and gives you no
channel divinity option might give you
something else but your design better be
aware of the fact that it’s not giving
you those things and where necessary
give you something else to compensate so
you need to make sure when you’re
designing that you’re very aware of the
environment that you’re designing in and
when it comes to subclass the
environment you’re designing in is the
class you’re designing for okay so let’s
say we have a series of class features
that you’ve spit balled you’ve done your
homework you’ve made sure you understand
how the class works that you’re
designing for you’ve studied other
subclasses for it one of the things
you’re gonna want to do is see do you
have any duplicated design did you
design something that actually that is
actually really close to something that
already exists now I’m going to say
something now that might surprise people
duplication is not in itself bad
sometimes duplication can actually be
really good however subclass is a place
where duplication we have found through
through playtests feedback can be a
little dangerous because people really
like the character arc types that
subclasses represent to feel distinctive
and players will often get cranky if
they feel like one subclass is stepping
on the toes of another so you need to be
careful in sub classes with duplication
that said it is fine once you’ve kind of
dived into the nuts and bolts of a
particular feature it’s okay if it’s
reminiscent of another feature somewhere
if it’s appropriate and you don’t overdo
it
here’s what I mean you could have a
single feature and in fact just
yesterday I did some development work on
something that was concept in the happy
fun hour
started to push it toward more of a
final version one of the features new
features I wrote for it and was for the
order domain for the cleric was a
feature that is a little reminiscent of
a wizard feature that’s fine however if
I had sort of copied the entire stick of
another subclass that would be pushing
duplication too far so it’s okay to use
tech that already exists in the game if
it hits exactly the target you need do
you do need to be careful though about
naming don’t use the same name for
something unless it is indeed meant to
be the exact same game mechanical object
for instance some classes share the
feature evasion and they are all called
evasion that’s on purpose uncanny dodge
appears in more than one place that’s on
purpose but only use the name more than
once if you really mean it all right you
have your your features then people
start wondering are they appropriate
this is where it’s good go back to your
story make sure that all the features
that you now have some of which you
might have gotten really excited about
because it’s like oh this is a really
interesting game mechanic here’s what I
recommend always be very suspicious when
you find yourself saying about your own
design or someone else’s designed that
maybe you’re helping them with be
suspicious when you find yourself
actually saying that’s a really
interesting game mechanic far better for
you for your feeling to be this tells an
exciting story because what we have
found is that when we’re being kind of
armchair game designers and also
armchair game fans and I say this as a
person as a fan of a lot of games I play
a lot of video games I play other
role-playing games I play a lot of board
games I’m very interested by a lot of
different game mechanics you know this
is sort of my game nerd nerds out on
whoo
it’s a fascinating mix of elements
here’s the thing we have found looking
at the play test feedback of hundreds of
thousands of people for fifth edition
over the last wow it’s already five
years what people want is an exciting
story interesting doesn’t necessarily
always deliver the fun and doesn’t
necessarily always deliver a compelling
tale so what you want to pause and think
is does this class feature that you’re
giving a particular subclass or even a
base class if let’s say you work you’re
going wild and you’re making a whole new
character class does it tell an
interesting story a fun story a
compelling story for this character in
the world what’s going on in the world
that’s often the question and I pose to
something I design and when I pose a
question I posted the design that I’m
evaluating by other people what’s
happening in the world of Dungeons and
Dragons when a person uses this ability
what tale is going to arise at the game
table because of the use of this ability
does this ability help me visualize this
character in the movie in my mind that’s
going on of the potential D&D sessions
does it help me visualize them better
because of the wonderful storytelling
that’s hiding out in this design now not
every class feature is going to be a
stellar pillar of game design I
mentioned the clerics divine strike
ability which is basically you deal some
more damage so not every feature has to
deliver you know exciting storytelling
all on its own but it’s a holistic thing
you want to look at the features how do
they all gel together are they all
together contributing to a great story
that and specifically a story that is
true to the archetype that the subclass
is expressing if the features pass the
story test and they actually look like
they’re going to be fun even better if
you actually try them out and play
yourself you know do have a quick
encounter if it’s a combat ability a
quick social and interaction an
exploration scene give
try often a quick try of the thing will
tell you if it if it’s gonna work or not
if it’s too complicated if maybe it’s
flimsy and maybe could use some more
meat on its bones those are all
important things to assess that’s just
part one of our series of videos on
designing subclasses in D&D with Jeremy
Crawford this is Dean Dee beyond it’s
show entirely about D&D and it’s also
the official digital toolset for fifth
edition
Dean D I’m Todd Kenrick thank you for
watching
https://t.co/kfLJUB34ol via @YouTube #DnD

— Jeremy Crawford (@JeremyECrawford) May 11, 2018