Two playable options from Greek myth clip-clop into Unearthed Arcana today: centaurs and minotaurs. Give them a read and let us know what you think in the survey later this month: https://t.co/KKIOaWW9eQ #DnD pic.twitter.com/xRj11CeeV2

— Jeremy Crawford (@JeremyECrawford) May 14, 2018

Meet the Giff in 'Mordenkainen's Tome of Foes.' @JeremyECrawford talks with our own @ToddKenreck about this unusual space-faring race. https://t.co/iq8TtmE8H6

— D&D Beyond (@DnDBeyond) May 15, 2018

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

that leaves the players imagining it
long after the adventure is done on the
topic of dungeon design the editors of
dungeon gave me some advice early on
which which says think of your location
as a character and as having a
personality and then try to bring that
character and personality out in the map
design like if your villain is a mad
wizard who is built a dungeon that
dungeon probably isn’t symmetrical
because mad Wizards don’t think
symmetrically and frankly symmetry can
be death in a dungeon design because
then the players can meta their way
through it but if a dungeon was built by
you wan T what does that actually mean
well I doubt you want to you would use
stairs generally snakes don’t like
stairs they probably have lots of ramps
everywhere things to coil around there
might be basically fire poles like
pillars with Geyer shapes in them so
that you want you can coil their way up
to higher levels around these pillars
but like players are like how are we
gonna are we going to deal with that I
think that thinking about the dungeon as
a as a as a being or an entity or a
character to be fleshed out is good
because then you can start making notes
to yourself of what are the types of
things I can put in the dungeon that
really bring it to life so you’ve got a
good hook to bring the characters into
the adventure you’ve got good villains
or good villain pairing or a villain
with a twist to sort of inspire the DM
to run that adventure because they love
the villain so much and you’ve got a map
that is a character in and of itself
that a DM says I love this map I can’t
wait to run this adventure because this
just seems like a cool location do you
need to have all those things
no do you need to start with all those
things absolutely not
whenever I come up with a new adventure
there’s always just one idea in my head
and it’s usually a villain or a location
or a quest and I take that idea and then
I just build around it and often the
first things I build around it I don’t
particularly care for and I throw away
it’s like oh I want to haggle and uh but
I’ve I’ve done hags in this other
adventure I don’t want to do them again
or hags have been done to death over
here I have an idea for a vampire
villain but I just did you know we just
went through burro via and straw and all
that I don’t want to do a vampire again
Oh unless it’s maybe a dwarf vampire I
haven’t seen one of those in a while
there right yeah you know or or I mean
what other kinds of vampires are out
there could you have a vampiric treant
probably never seen that before this is
a bit of a plug but the Monster Manual
contains a wealth of adventure hooks
every monster entry if you were to read
it invites the DM to take that monster
and build something with it there’s
there’s something there it talks about
that what you know what the monsters
like what they hate what they do why
they do it just by reading one of those
monster entries you can typically come
up with two or three good adventure
ideas and that’s a good way to sort of
start with a villain first approach in
some cases you just want to create a map
of something I’m like this I solve the
time for things and I don’t even know
what they’re for like I don’t know what
the end game is with the map there’s no
adventure to go with it and as I’m
drawing the map it’ll occur to me what
lives there and why and then the
adventure becomes well why is this
interesting to the characters
why do they want to go to this location
Thank You Kris Birkins for being on Dean
D beyond I’m Todd Kendrick thank you for
watching
Designing Dungeons to Inspire Stories in Dungeons & Dragons with @ChrisPerkinsDnD https://t.co/PPfWxqWE60

— D&D Beyond (@DnDBeyond) May 3, 2018

Making Your Dungeons & Dragons Villains Unique with @ChrisPerkinsDnD https://t.co/DS4ipMRIDR

— D&D Beyond (@DnDBeyond) May 1, 2018

Exploring the "Why" of D&D Mythology in 'Mordenkainen's Tome of Foes' why do dwarves act the way they act
right that’s what the question we’re
asking and then we’re then taking that
and saying given what we know about
dwarves you know if they act this way
and now we know why they act this way
what is this a but how they might act in
the future so it’s all about giving you
as a dungeon master a framework within
which you can work and both lay out what
here’s the past of my campaign but
here’s how I think my campaign might go
I know that dwarves are essentially
homebodies they don’t like to leave
their their fortresses they like
stability they like reliability so now
when I’m portraying a dwarf of have
these big truths in mind I can make up
any dwarf I want but what is hopefully
interesting is you then contrast that
dwarf to dwarf culture you know if I
have a dwarf who’s Khattak neutral how
did they end up that way what does it
mean in this characters relationship to
other doors and what does it mean for
how they might act in the future you
know if I have a lawful evil elf what
does that mean you know and instead of
saying here’s all these very specific
points dwarves have six toes and doors
always put their beards in braids that
look like this we focus a lot instead on
giving you the bigger more far-reaching
truths like dwarves like stability
because I think my hope is as a dungeon
master or a writer or whomever is
working on the game you can take that
truism and think about how it affects a
specific character so we don’t want to
tell you what each specific dwarf is
like we want to tell you in in the
generalities of dwarves backed up with
mythology that says here’s their
mythology and that explains why they are
this
because D&E is a mythic universe right
the gods exist there there we you can
meet the person who made all the dwarves
Morden exists right so mythologies
incredibly important it’s very vivid
it’s basically it is DNA doesn’t have
history it has mythology and then then
once you know that you have a framework
with which a lens you can use to
understand things and then start
changing it right you can make now I
know what dwarves are in general now I’m
gonna make a specific dwarf with that
knowledge and then I can play a contrast
I can lean into that I can do one tweak
things like that you know this like so
one of the things that falls out of this
you know is dwarves really like toil
they like to work they generally enjoy
working you can imagine a red dragon
somehow taking the word dwarf stronghold
and the dwarves actually growing to like
the dragon what if the dragon gave them
security and gave them purpose and said
sure you can obey all your customs I
just you can imagine a very clever
dragon doing this just think of me as
the king of this clan now and I will now
owe you everything that a king goes to
you but you will owe me everything that
is owed to the king in turn and you can
imagine dwarves who happily serve a
dragon the dragon protects them it keeps
the other enemies away so now they have
stability the dragon is very smart the
dragon makes good decisions right the
claim is prospering well what does that
look like in your world you’ve made
something which might be really
interesting to play with in your
campaign and then you can see why it’s a
kind of you know warped Ark of dwarves
but you can see how it fits in right you
can imagine in a human Kingdom the elf
character you know the elves who live
next door to human Kingdom might support
like the Robin Hood esque figure who’s
trying to lead an insurrection against
the king because the elves just believe
everyone should be free and happy right
why would you need this king who’s
collecting taxes that’s just wrong right
and then the elves end up in a war with
the human Kingdom over that right you’re
supporting the insurrection right well
of course they would that’s just elves
and even with that that elven society
some elves might say we should help
these humans are there I was like no we
shouldn’t and then you start seeing that
that friction evolved it’s all about
building mythology that asks more
questions then it provides answers the
only guideline we have is we will tell
you about the mythic past we will try to
do it in a voice that isn’t judgemental
there’s actually someone on line got
kind of fussy about it like the mind
flayer entry
bolos they all this is TV saying mind
flayers of the good guy like no we’re
not saying anything why don’t say there
are good guys are bad guys will throw an
alignment on people say lawful good
lawful evil we try not to be judgmental
because we tell you the mythic past but
the future is yours to write so that’s
why we try to do things like rather take
dwarves are good they love puppies and
they help hold it across because they’re
good we’d say no no no doors are lawful
good doors are nice to each other and
they are nice and gentle to the world
but really what they like is stability
that’s what they want so that’s how you
end up with a dwarf clan ruled by a
dragon because they like stability in
the dragons offering stability and that
to me is why we and why do they like
stability and then you then trace it
back here’s the mythology who’s the the
mythic foundation of dwarves in their
society and that’s I think a big change
4d indeed it was really funny I never
thought about this way until we started
doing a lot of research D&D used to have
this very scientific approach to world
building you’d ask how do things work
right how does this work how does a
dragon fly physically how does that
happen
how does the dragon’s breath weapon work
what glands does it have in its organs
and now we asked why why do dragons fly
why don’t they just crawl or burrow
why do dwarves live in mountains by
themselves why haven’t the elves just
taken over every world of D and E they
live the longest to the eldest they have
powerful magic so we ask a lot of Y and
then invariably it’s because here’s the
myth here’s the myth here’s what
happened and that’s what set these
people in a course so rather than look
at biology we’re look at culture right
there’s the thing I’m like orcs act the
way they are because well that’s the
culture because there’s a god groomed
who literally lives in the other planes
who tells them what to do and he has a
plan right and then lurking behind
grooms is Lucic who she has a smarter
plan right but that if you took an orc
and raised it in human society he would
just be like a human I mean obviously
would be an orc biologically but it
would just there’s no reason why work
couldn’t be raised by you know but in
work society and be like an or a dwarf
and I just like toil and I like work and
this is what I was taught right the
because then then you’re talking about
something which is much more more formal
right you just say dwarves are capital G
good no matter what
oh these dwarves are ruled by a dragon
Oh must be a silver dragon right like no
it’s it’s a blue dragon well how does
that work that’s impossible right now
but instead you focus on that mythic
layer you focus on cultures and
societies and asking lots of questions
we I like to think we ask a lot of
questions and we provide just enough of
the answers that you can answer the rest
of the questions yourself
binky Mike Murrellshttps://t.co/zoBasmrGGw

— D&D Beyond (@DnDBeyond) April 26, 2018