DnDBeyond Archives · Page 17 of 20

the most exciting things that can happen in any DD campaign is that moment you find a magical item especially if it’s rare so I talked to Mike murrells about how magical items can enhance your campaign I find a lot of the items that I’m drawn to are ones that have really big impact and that are very flexible I like items that function like you think of superheroes we have items that are iconic I like magic items that feel that way that really helped define your character who they are but that also by necessity means you don’t want to have like a need of them you know it’s something where the course the campaign you and have won so I like things like the rod of lordly might is interesting so there’s lots of things that can do I like items like arrondissement parks because it has a naturally has a story embedded within it can do a lot of things but then there’s the test of can you actually find all the parts of the thing so I like items that change the character in an interesting way especially in a way that sits outside of like this typical like I’m just gaining experience levels you know so like a +2 sword is fine but a you know a magic sword that lets a fighter become like much smarter than you’d expect in the cast spells but that’s kind of interesting cuz it’s very different fighter you know and it’s fun as a dungeon master extend you can put that in the game and you can kind of break the game by giving players things that are true powerful but you’re the one doing it so you can always just account for it you know it’s up to you whether you want that in your game so a magic item design is very hard so I think if you did for me at least read and asked me to write a bunch of magic items to publish I’d probably make items at most DMS really wouldn’t find useful or it would be like oh that’s too good right and but to me that that’s fun that’s what makes that magic item such a something fun to strive for as a player

college of glamour was a subclass that in our brainstorming came up partly inspired by a bard that was in my previous D&D campaign Michelle Carter one of our editors played a bard in my campaign whose father had been whisked away to the FEI wild and was raised there and throughout the entire campaign we described her bards magic as being suffuse with the power of the Fae and so I thought what if we made a whole College about this that that a College of of bardic magic that would not only be used by people in the mortal world but would also basically be the college that would be engaged in by bards in the Fae Wilde and so thus the the College of glamour was born also aesthetically Mike and I early on talked about essentially having figures like Freddie Mercury in mind you know the so this bard it was just crazy ly fabulous and beguiling and again like like we do with all of the subclasses we wanted it to feel different from the bards in The Player’s Handbook Player’s Handbook we have the College of Valor which is very much about sort of wading into battle and inspiring one’s companions very much kind of a scald in in historical sense we have then the lore bard which is much more about knowing all these great stories and manipulating other people’s minds and emotions a bard who could could be seen as almost a bit of an intellectual but also as sort of a trickster it’s kind of been ended enough that you can push that barred in either direction so we felt there was a place for a bard that instead was all about the beguiling magic of the Fae wild and so the the the college of glamour playtesters really liked it and we refined it to really just enhance what they liked about it and that is this this bard who is able to beguile people using their class features and not just using spells a bar to once they’re high enough level can make it difficult for people to even attack them because essentially the people have become their fans because again again full disclosure in addition to being inspired by stories fake creatures and their beguiling abilities we were also again inspired by the idea of the College of glamour sort of being a pop star and so there’s a little thread in some of the class features of basically people becoming the College of Glamour’s that bards fans and like you know we’re gonna do what you say we’re not gonna hurt you this is the bard who is just unbelievably fabulous and as we say in the book a bard who could be pushed in a heroic or a villainous direction on one hand you can imagine members of this College bringing great delight to people you know the bard who brightens the dreary lives of peasants wherever the Bard goes who has you know just a wondrous colorful magic who Sue’s their their broken hearts you know who brings this music that’s so beautiful it just Pierce’s them and they you know they cry tears of happiness but you can also imagine a member of this College who is manipulating people getting them to do what he or she wants and could be a bit of a terror and in this this part is very much an appropriate sort of representative of the Fae wild itself and beauty that is a double double-edged sword that can you know cut in your favor or it can cut against you and so the this part is an interesting contrast and a very intention contrast with the circle of dreams and the in the druid were there we would leaned into kind of how that the beauty of the Fae wild can soothe and protect here we’re leaning into the fact that that beauty can be perilous and you don’t always know if it’s on your side and and but also with this with this subclass whatever way that that that blade of beauty is cutting it must always be fabulous that was it was though it’s funny College of glamour is actually one of the earliest subclasses we talked about including when we were coming up with the whole set of sub classes for the unearthed Arcana series it just because for some reason it just tickled me and Mike we’re like we we definitely want to do this we hopefully testers like it and thank goodness they did and now it’s in the book so a member of the College of glamour can acquire their abilities in a variety of different ways and we we always like to leave it pretty open-ended for our players to side to decide exactly how they became a member of their subclass in terms of their story for why we give suggestions so one way that a member of the College of Glamour might have become a member is by being from the Fae wold you know perhaps you were whisked away as a baby and you actually grew up in that Fae realm and because of that you are now suffused with this strange magic and it alters what you can do as a bard you can easily imagine though another member of this College who may be studied under a Fae being perhaps you know found a glade in a forest somewhere and heard a dryad singing and became her student and a result of her tutelage became a member of the College of Glamour so I think there there could be a lot of actually really great stories not only for this subclass but for many of the subclasses in the book for how did you become a member of the subclass it’s particularly easier to do that when you’re in a class that does not get it’s up at first level because some classes right is when you pick the class you pick subclass and so often your story for a class like that for why you are a member of a subclass is kind of in extra inning strictly entwined with why you became a member of the class itself in contrast when you’re a member of a class where you pick your subclass at 2nd or 3rd level that little time delay then gets gives you a chance story-wise to think more specifically why am i a member of this subclass and not another and how is how is that related to my characters past how is that related to where my character is going down the line in the campaign how am I in informed the story the DM wants to tell with me about my character because I know a lot of diems like to sprinkle in things in a campaign tied in with each character story I know it’s something I do as a DM I always try to have something in the campaign for every character at the table that relates to their background someone who was important to them in the past might have to do with their sub class and again I think the College of Glamour in particular is very rich in terms of coming up with characters stories you know again it could be it could have been a dryad you studied under it could have been a satyr you heard of satyrs but guy Lang pipes and then wanted to know well how can I be as beguiling as this strange being and again the College of Glamour gives you a chance to play a character who is a bit a bit like a satyr in terms of entrancing people with performance

The College of Glamour is a new bard subclass in Xanathar's Guide to Everything—out this November. #DnD https://t.co/qKAIOTKM94 via @YouTube

— Jeremy Crawford (@JeremyECrawford) September 29, 2017

Prepare yourselves for the Bard: College of Glamour https://t.co/JztO51FnXv pic.twitter.com/K6Jz9zEGMc

— D&D Beyond (@DnDBeyond) September 29, 2017

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