So I just found out Centaur are classified as Monstrosities in the Monster Manual.
Processing this is hard. I can’t figure out why they AREN’T Fey creatures?
It makes logical sense for them to be Fey!@mikemearls @JeremyECrawford I know you probs hate me, but throw me a bone here that’s my preferred take, honestly. at the time we leaned in a more traditional direction

— Mike Mearls (@mikemearls) May 15, 2018

Are Centaurs considered mounted for the purposes of wielding a lance, for example? Nope.

— Jeremy Crawford (@JeremyECrawford) May 25, 2018

Was the Centaur climbing penalty being an extra “4 feet” an intentional pun? Yep! James and I giggled when we settled on that. 🐎

— Jeremy Crawford (@JeremyECrawford) May 14, 2018

Seems like centaurs should be large creatures. Horses are large. Unless the centaurs are like pony size

— Dennis Williams II (@dfwilliamsii) May 14, 2018

In D&D, some horses are Large (warhorse), and some are Medium (pony). Similarly, some centaurs are Large, and some are Medium. #DnD https://t.co/h8LtYBgpKP

— Jeremy Crawford (@JeremyECrawford) May 14, 2018

There’s really no reason why centaurs need to be medium sized creatures, Jeremy. It’s silly. You'd prefer them to be Large, I take it. Why is that?

— Jeremy Crawford (@JeremyECrawford) May 15, 2018

1 it’s not “a race” of centaurs. It’s centaurs. There’s a consistency issue

2 horses are large so centaurs must be as large or larger logically

3 an adult human top on a pony bottom is kind of a silly looking concept

I don’t think it ruins the build or anything it’s just oddThere are three horse stat blocks in the “Monster Manual”: pony (Medium), riding horse (Large), and warhorse (Large). Horse does not equal Large.

— Jeremy Crawford (@JeremyECrawford) May 15, 2018

can I play an elf centaur? Is that a thing? Your centaur can definitely have extra pointy ears! 🧝‍♀️ 🐎

— Jeremy Crawford (@JeremyECrawford) May 15, 2018

OK, so this is quickly getting absurd, but here's my quick and dirty Photoshop exploration of centaur size. Here's a horse and rider (from https://t.co/URl6fnIW6R). Scale bars added, putting the horse at about 16 hands (5' 4" at the shoulder). (1/4) #dnd #wotcstaff #mediumcentaur pic.twitter.com/lZIXHHE5aP

— James Wyatt (@aquelajames) May 16, 2018

Here's the rider alone, a little under 6'. Allow for some error in putting the joints together after I cut her up in pieces. (2/4) #dnd #wotcstaff #mediumcentaur pic.twitter.com/C3pdRXyO0Z

— James Wyatt (@aquelajames) May 16, 2018

If you posit that a centaur is a human-sized human torso on a horse-sized horse body, here's what you get. (3/4) #dnd #wotcstaff #mediumcentaur pic.twitter.com/Lk3XKDaNTP

— James Wyatt (@aquelajames) May 16, 2018

But if you scale the horse body to look like you probably imagine a centaur looking, it's a lot smaller: 4' at the shoulder, and less than 5' from front of the horse's chest to the back of its rump. (4/4) #dnd #wotcstaff #mediumcentaur pic.twitter.com/meTtP6hC5h

— James Wyatt (@aquelajames) May 16, 2018

For the record, I *really* wanted centaurs to work as a Large race. I am now an enthusiastic convert. #dnd #wotcstaff #mediumcentaur

— James Wyatt (@aquelajames) May 16, 2018

Ugh, you're right. pic.twitter.com/xzRvXgRNJd

— James Wyatt (@aquelajames) May 16, 2018

catching up on the Warlord subclass development. I have a question. Do abilities like advance allow a Warlords allies to maneuver into their tactical focus while they are frightened? My guess is no, but I thought I would ask. no, they would not be allowed to move closer to something they are frightened of

— Mike Mearls (@mikemearls) March 27, 2018

I had a ton of fun designing the psychic warrior on the stream today. This has been easily the most enjoyable stretch of work since the Happy Fun Hour started. Thanks to everyone who takes part in chat! welcome back to the micros heavy foot
hour I’m your host Mike miles I am the
franchise creative director on Dungeons
& Dragons apologies for being 59 seconds
late today actually it was all my fault
I had a meeting up in Seattle and I was
a little late getting back here down to
lovely Renton for the stream but here I
am and here we are and if you look at
our screen here we’ve got our from last
week our psychic mage so we had a lot of
stuff happened last week I started off
designing a wizard subclass that was
meant to be kind of like the psionic
wizard I didn’t think he would work and
I didn’t think people would be
interested in it but I think what we saw
through chat was there is some interest
in this idea of rather than thinking of
psionics as requiring whole new classes
now that doesn’t mean it can’t be whole
new classes and I think that especially
when we talk about dark Sun we would see
a sign of class but there seem to be
some amount of interest for Dungeon
Master’s the sense of give me the option
to have sign X in my campaign without me
as dungeon master needing to learn an
entire new system sort of the middle
ground approach if you want psionics but
you want it more closely adhering to the
core of the game so you get that flavor
without needing to do too many new rules
it’s kind of we’re looking to build out
here now like I said earlier this
doesn’t mean that like the Mystics going
away there are some settings where I
think it makes a lot of sense to have
soundex as its own thing and really
express a full full range of abilities
that are very much specifically tailored
for it but what we’re doing here
is kind of is this hopefully fun
experiment of going through we built the
a wizard who focuses on soundex and you
know we’re not I’m not gonna say we’re
faking it you know it’s not as what’s
the word everyone uses today
oh I forget there’s somewhere that means
all customized and it’s it’s a buzzword
they use now for everything someone in
chat might pop it up but the anyway it’s
not as super customized or as expansive
as a full system would be but I was
actually pretty happy with how so did
this chassis going over the wizard class
produce something I felt pretty good for
like a bespoke thank you automatic Bisou
de that is the act that I was looking
forward to spoke so this sort of froze a
cap on top of the wizard seem to do we
actually a half decent job of making a
sanic character let’s do a quick recap
what we’d end up doing was since you’re
your focus your subclasses the wizard
comes at level two that’s where this
comes in and what I wanted to do was
really give you really equip the
character with this real feeling of I am
psychic one of the things pointed out
was this idea that at low levels we
really especially the can trip level we
don’t have too many can trips that are
really specifically psionic in nature so
what I have in my notes here is we’d
want a psychic damage can trip some sort
of like mine blast some some ESP can
trip that allows for like very basic
mental connection we have me H and that
kind of basically covers our telekinesis
so that felt like it was covering those
we’d have to add those this job and
designed them but we’ll get to them and
then for the second 6th and 10th and
14th abilities wizard subclasses get
forced lots of things we can drop in we
just take a pretty straightforward
approach and I you know this is
something where I think the
and so maybe some of you have felt this
I see that I have a subclass it has four
positions or I can put things I always
feel this pressure I wanna make four
really unique special things but I think
what this might show is sometimes if you
have two very strong concepts let’s so
essentially at second level we’re giving
you a modified version of detect
thoughts that you can use to get across
this idea that you have ESP then it’s
six level we’re giving you a a similarly
modified version of the spell
telekinesis to give you a feeling of
your telekinetic – very classic sonic
abilities and then really at 10th and
14th we just improve those a tenth your
ESP ability gets better gets more
flexible gives you some more benefits
from using it and at 14 you’re at six
level we have to give you a reduced
version of the telekinesis spell since
it was I believe a fifth level spell at
14th now it is a lower than your highest
spell salt level spell we can up gun
that a bit we can make it a bit more
expanded and I think that really
sometimes for players that’s really all
they need you know if you have very
strong abilities at low levels you can
just improve them at higher levels the
players really enjoy using them rather
than giving them something else that
just complicates things they have a
track maybe it’s not as exciting no just
take the thing people really like and
make it better
so that’s why it was an interesting path
I did not think we’re gonna get there
but I think we did but we’ll see oh and
I also see under psychic and trips like
a force push ability can’t I’m a train I
can’t use on creatures so I kind of felt
we maybe we want something whereas I
can’t trip I can like push people around
or hold them back you use that that
mental telekinesis sort of feel the
clockwork this old this is not a
replacement for the mystic and I I still
right now feel de mystic will be
something we will explore more but I
really want to make sure we’re exploring
it in the context of dark Sun of athis
the world that really prominently
featured Sonics and also within ever on
thinking how would play on never on so
the but the fun thing here is this this
means we can just start playing with
Sonics right now we don’t have to wait
to get entire an entire character class
play tested especially with one that
needs so many essentially spells like
the mystic that’s a lot of work and
that’s kind of what we found to divert
for a second
the Mystics main issue right now is
it doesn’t have a strong identity it’s
kind of doing everything we really got
mystic pizza the Julia Roberts film from
early 90s or late eighties a Miss I am
as old as I look
that the the the the challenge of mystic
is getting that really finely tuned
identity in place that’s really came
through a lot in the play test feedback
I think people generally liked the
mechanics unbalanced they still need to
be refined but there really was we
really got a very consistent message
from the community that there was just
too much going on and I think for
Dungeon Master’s that yeah the Baker is
coming for you the mystic felt like two
or three classes I think it’s exactly it
you know em Dre code mystic is a bad
name actually it’s like point pushed my
glasses actually I was talking to a DNA
historian and that was mystic was the
name that they originally were
considering using for a Senate class way
back in the 70s but that’s also some in
which I think points to mystic just
being too broad what if he really did
zero in on that scientific feel having
this design might allow us to do that
because if you really want soundex but
really grounded in fantasy and the
system the game as is maybe you could
just use these subclasses if you really
want to explore it more and take a very
the more scientific terms the more stuff
especially from the second edition
execution of psionics then maybe that’s
where the mystic can come in and really
be true to that and maybe we can just
call the scion because now we know it’s
a different flavor Sonic’s so I could
sit here and give you a believe me I
could talk all stream long history of
B&E cuz turns out I’m a gigantic nerd I
hope I’m not letting any of you down by
admitting that yeah I don’t know if any
of you guys maybe you were watching to
get tips on haircare and stuff but uh
it’s not really my strength my strength
is nerding out about D&D and there’s no
better way to narrow down a nerd out
about D&D than making stuff for D&D so
I’m gonna scroll down the next page
because we’re gonna work on this week
psychic warrior let’s build a psychic
warrior because I want one
that said this is really the the main
tension between you know Jeremy is the
rules finisher often like I just want to
do stuff because I want it Jeremy
might not be the best thing for the game
yeah but the best for my game so that’s
why I run my own campaigns so this is
something here where I want to be a
psychic warrior because I also someone
in chat recommended last week we do a
warlock pact with an elder brain which
we’re going to do how could we not do
that but I want to do the psychic
warrior next cuz I feel like the scion
and the psychic warrior are kind of like
your foundational abilities for psionics
especially coming out of what we did the
third edition and then I want to start
looking at other classes and seeing
where we can build them now I did think
about which class this should be
attached to and I thought about
attaching it to the monk but I decided
not to because the thing with the monk
when I really when we look at the monk
and how we define it
while the Kensei is a subclass we
presented in Zen if there’s guide to
everything we do really think of the
that being an exception the monks are
generally unarmed so I think there is
space for a monk who has a sonic feel
but I also feel that the monk an idea of
the key Coldfire son to make the soul
life something like that might be
actually might have a really great home
in the monk because it’s a bit more
specific it’s a bit more speaking to
like this idea of a monastic tradition
and it could be something that really
plays well with the monks unarmed
component where that that that sonic
knife ability could play very well off
of unarmed attacks what I wonder if the
psychic warriors do a very very
straightforward take on the class as
presented in the third edition and there
was also the I think was the battle mind
the fourth edition that has had a
similar thing going on
so the exactly north and Kyle points out
monks don’t wield lightsabers but we
will let them do sort of construct
constructed blades and they’re fighting
the because often and I see that all the
time is this idea the psychic warrior
feels like a Jedi if you imagine in Star
Wars the idea that Jedi can they take
tremendous leaps they can throw enemies
away from them they can throw their
lightsaber and rip it and control it
very much you know when Star Wars was
creating the 70s very much tying in this
popular idea of ESP and
mental powers especially when you would
see a lot of science fiction that strays
a little bit in that science fantasy
territory where you know psychic
abilities are real mind-reading and
things like that you know very much as
affecting the world around them so
that’s we’re kind of aiming for yes I
did League Afrin any Blue Oyster Cult
references will win points with me
better than the psychic Wars got a love
like late 70s early 80s heavy metal the
it’s a it’s imperative now you must but
anyways and as I mentioned I think it
was with the disaster barbarian every
ability had to be the name of the
potential metal album okay so let’s get
into it let’s go to our handy dandy
dandy beyond window right over here and
let’s take a peek at the fighter we’ve
already got a fighter we did the warlord
which was like the most complicated
yes Manila Road thank you stabby road
games a falling me on Twitter but free
vanilla road I don’t know if you’d
listen to them before but middle road is
a fantastic band so if you just if I if
I help you discover them then awesome if
you already knew them that even cooler
but I awesome either way the let’s take
a look at our classes we’re gonna slide
over to the fighter so it’s a little bit
interesting we weren’t in a fighter but
this is actually it can be probably a
simpler implementation because the
warlord needed kind of like the the
mystic but you know a lot of stuff built
around it for it to work so in contrast
to the mystic the world had a very clear
identity and I think that the warlords
sort of zone of control mechanic was
something like me the mystic might need
something similar but I guess I don’t
want to just go to mystic let’s talk
about our psychic warrior which I think
psychic warrior totally fits that’s to
me is a very serviceable name tells you
what it is if you know about it from
playing in 3rd edition you’ll get it
battle mine was a cool name from forth
but I just always like psychic worry and
I think I would have called the class
and forth psychic warrior if I could get
away with it but I think at the time
that was like a big there are many wars
fought over names during that time
period like you know the history of
Dungeons and Dragons I originally wanted
to call it the iron jacked which no one
liked I thought that sounded cool like
Jack of Irons kind of thing but anyways
a loss that fight pretty decisively all
right so let’s go to the fighter let’s
take a look at our subclasses now what
we’re going to do is very similar to the
the warlord we’re gonna build this guy
off the elder tonight because I think
this is a spellcaster yeah this is a
character we want to be able to wield
magic essentially which we’re gonna
flavor Sonic’s pretty clearly that’s
where that works we’re not gonna base it
on the brute because I think I mentioned
this before but man you guys hated the
brute you would I could say that the
brute feedback was brutal so let’s not
use it there but which is funny that’s
another entire show to talk about the
brute and what that tells us about what
how people value things but anyway we’re
not gonna go there today because today
we’re talking the second courrier but so
let’s go to the elder tonight now the
big thing that this gives us is our
spell casting this is the really nice
thing about getting using off-the-shelf
parts and like reading up on stuff for
use it what this lets us know is this is
gonna give us a can I make some notes
here because I just what we’re gonna do
is going to talk through the class
features then we’re gonna go look at
spells I’m a hundred percent confident
that we will probably end up making
making this a subclass that has a
dedicated spell list well we’ll just go
through and say here are the spells you
get and if I have time I’ll start doing
that but this is something I’ll just do
it off camera and then just didn’t show
everyone next week because again my
impression is that watching me like
silently page through lists of spells is
probably not the most exciting point a
part of the micros happy fun hour but
hey you never know
maybe you guys will really enjoy that
the so okay let’s just make a quick note
here that here’s our spell casting and
again I was like my bullet point lists
so start it oh wow I used to drive when
whoever worked the help desk whoever I
worked I Drive nuts cuz I’d pry the caps
lock key off of my keyboard and
depending on other stuff is on my
keyboard I would pry other pieces off
too for a long time I used to work and I
was a programmer and I worked in a Linux
environment and so I wasn’t used to
having all these fancy keys at all this
fancy stuff I just needed you know an
open shell window and do my stuff from
there reading my email in pine and all
that but that’s way in the past the and
I’m not gonna start a virus in emacs war
on the stream but if chat if you want to
have one
that’s a great way to fill up the chat
if you’ve got any of those references
then kudos to you for being a tech
person okay so we get starting at third
so you’re gonna get canned trips too at
third I just make these notes I can kind
of member this as I go through and
design the rest of the stuff and then
our spells are another indent this is
something I like to do when I’m working
on a class especially I’m looking at the
class features this just grounds me on
so I can understand where spells are
coming in so one of the things that’s
really important is when you’re getting
spells that’s essentially a class
feature that’s how we treat it a new
level of spells if you look at the
wizard that’s one of the reasons why the
class doesn’t have a lot of class
features outside of its its subclass is
just because getting safe if little
spells that’s really powerful it’s also
decisions for the player to go out now
and familiarize themselves the new list
of spells and then pick a few they want
to be on the cast that’s enough
excitement for a level you know as far
as where we’ve calibrated the game in
terms of complexity away from the table
all right so I’m just gonna note here
the my spell casting here’s what I’m
getting so when I go through and you’ll
kind of see this come through a little
bit in the class features here you’re
getting spells and so the eldritch night
this is another handy reason why it’s
great to build off existing pieces
because these class features are already
built
assuming you’re getting all the power
from your spell slots so I don’t need to
worry about if I was like basing this
off of like the champion in looking at
those class features I might be seeing
well these feel weak yeah they’re weaker
because you’re getting all these spells
that getting these first second third
and fourth level spells these are really
that’s really the meat of what you’re
getting here all right so let’s take a
look so we’ve got each coming at 3rd 7th
10th 15th and 18th fighter since it
normally does not get spells has a lot
of space to fill in with class features
at third level if you’re an elder
tonight you get a weapon bond it’s a
ritual that this is really not
necessarily meant to be a load-bearing L
in the class it allows you over the
course of a short rest to essentially
create a bond with a weapon you can’t be
disarmed if you’re using that weapon
unless you’re incapacitated if it’s on
the same plane
you can summon it as a bonus action
causing to teleport instantly to your
hand you can have up to two bonded
weapons so I think the this is maybe
something what we can do with I don’t
want to just go out and do a weapon bond
immediately but I think what I want to
capture here outside of your spell’s so
one of the things that this class is
gonna be able to do is you know we
talked about a bullet points up top
quick review of those we’re looking for
incredible athletic ability so we’re
looking for the psychic were able to
transcend the bounds of what other
warriors can do really breaking laws of
physics and at least some minor way
psychic themed attacks that make sense
physical feats that astound and I think
our spells will capture a lot of that
but I think that we want to make sure
that we have some of that always going
on in the background so what I thought
about doing here was I want to affect
that’s flashy but not very powerful so
something I would throw in here the
first thought I had was essentially run
on vertical surfaces services surfaces
it’s funny if it sounds similar
nothing like so this is something I want
to start with now this might not be
again there’s what word the challenge we
have here since the spells carry so much
power I want you to be to do something
that’s flashy and fun but isn’t really
very powerful and being able to move
along walls is essentially something
that isn’t covered by spells so I’ve
seen it I think I’ve seen a couple of
suggestions of like hey maybe we keep
some people jump or some extra speed
those are things right now they’re
resting in the spell list so what what I
want to try to do is find things that
aren’t dispel but are still pretty
interesting now when we look at the
spells and that’s why I only do a I’m
gonna go back on it we’re gonna look at
the spells I’m gonna have we have to
look at the spells we don’t have a
choice
but I want to do is come up with a few
simple ideas for things that will make
you really feel like this is really cool
this is different but I’m not just
casting sin the jump spell and I’ve
pointed that at a couple times I’m
always a little disappointed when a
class feature just replicates a spell I
think sorry
I’m disappointed when it replicates a
spell by explaining what the spell does
and building this big wall of text to me
if that happens it’s best
to say you can cast the spell well on
whatever cooldown short rest long rest
or whatever but just lean into it don’t
try to get people to relearn something
you might create a weird gap you might
create some weird exception so you know
lean into the spell list when you when
you assume with the psychic warrior pay
players are saying yes I want to do the
cast spells leaving psionic themed
spells so don’t try to confound them by
trying to giving them a spell that’s not
a spell or vice versa war magic though
here’s something which we might just
steal when using your action cast a can
trip you can make one weapon attack as a
bonus action I think that would be
something that is you know we’ll just
pick up for now it’s serviceable and it
works and it may be less you feel like a
warrior animage a tenth bubble we’re
getting Eldred strike definitely you
learn how to make your weapon strikes
undercut it creatures resist your
spell’s when you hit a creature with a
weapon attack who tries disadvantage and
that saving that makes against the spell
you cast before the end of your next
turn this is another one which is very
useful we’re gonna be competing directly
against it because we need to convince
players but hey elegant right school but
psychic warriors cool also so this is an
area where we run into a little bit of
danger potentially if we make we could
just copy ll did strike but I’m gonna
write that down as an option but now we
might be hitting the point where people
like what’s the point like you just
created a subclass that is the subclass
I already have but the challenge we have
here is I want someone doing a direct
comparison to see why they should choose
one and not the other the what I’m
thinking of doing is Haven 9 to 3 throw
those this idea like once per tak allow
me to add some psychic damage something
like that I think would be cool because
I think this is kind of pointing out
that you are a psychic warrior that
psychic damage is something that you can
do and so what I wanted to do is maybe
something that does additional psychic
damage or that confers vulnerability to
psychic damage I’m a little leery of
just again it’s got to be something that
stands up to Eldred strike disadvantage
and a saving throw is really good now
the one challenge with this is that it’s
a little bit
slow if you’re looking at it
mechanically I hit you then I have to
cast a spell the so I have to wait to my
next turn most likely now I might have a
bonus action spell that might fit in
well with what I want to do but chances
are especially when a third debuff on
you now someone up and shed also
mentioned that and I think this is
something that is interesting about
interesting in a way that can be really
a bug or it could be a feature depending
on you cut it right now the eldritch
Knight doesn’t really care about
intelligence you know it doesn’t really
show up anywhere it’s one of those areas
where a fairly subtle design decision
can really have more inflam influence
than you’d expect on your future design
with the psychic warrior I think we want
intelligence to be important again we go
back to though someone’s comparing the
Elgar’s Knight to the psychic warrior
the second query has clear attribute
dependence on intelligence is that
helping or hurting us it’s another thing
for us to consider so what I want to do
is let’s run through these and see what
we get then let’s take a look at the
spells then we’ll think about what role
we want intelligence to play the you
know it’s a little it’s a little tricky
you know because again you always have
to keep in mind this is one where we
have a very clear forerunner for what
we’re doing so this is design requires a
lot of thought ahead of time millwork
saying intelligence two weapon attacks
you know it’s in interest it’s actually
an idea that I think could work we
already did it now I know we did this
with the Warlock and the hex blade and a
lot of people a lot of people on who
take a very system approach to the game
would tell you that might be too good
that it’s very easy to become single add
single attribute dependent but the thing
is it really works well for that
character in terms of the story I don’t
know if the psychic warrior shouldn’t
look big and bulky the other challenges
that this comes in at third level so
again if you’ve I’ve talked about this
before I don’t like if it’s when you get
a subclass it really changes your
character dramatically almost like a
paper doll perspective imagine like your
first fight at first levels wearing
heavy armor and has got an axe and a
shield then you hit third level you take
let’s say we made a theoretical brawler
subclass and suddenly your characters on
and is punching people all the time I
don’t like that that feel the could the
psychic were throw up and have a return
ask the bassist Eric Baker is coming for
you yeah and I think that’s something
which we might there might be another
thing to to look at a variation on the
weapon bond I’d be a little worried that
it might be too specific to make a class
feature but we’ll see let’s look at 15
to 19th because the one thing I could
say is the 18th double feature is also
in a similar position as war magic and
other strike we’ll get to him in a
second though 15th double arcane charge
you gain the ability to teleport up to
30 feet to an unoccupied space you can
see when use your action surge you can
tell it but before after the initial
action
well this one’s nice because this is
giving us a lot of space to play I don’t
know if we necessarily need action surge
to come online here but I think what
we’d want to do this might be we just
give you a speed bonus and augment your
jump or we really just allow you to move
around pretty freely because you’re
doing these sort of astounding stunts an
18th level the night gets improved war
magic when used your action to cast a
spell you can make one weapon attack as
a bonus action basically as an upgrade
to war magic I think we would need this
now what I want to do here that was give
it a psychic a psychic feel without see
this is a trick we have to make it a
psychic feel about making it just more
powerful the you know what you could say
is like plus speed with contra something
really small like that again the danger
here there’s people look at and go this
is just strictly better what’s what’s
coming before I’m not gonna worry about
finessing this too much right now oh my
god delete the wrong thing the yeah so
this is this is why this is the sort of
thing you run into when you’re making
subclasses that are close to each other
it’s why you generally find we try to
push our design really far apart so the
yeah keeping a cube and 99 pointing at
you keep in mind controlled Mike of mine
spells like dominate monster like how
could these interact with these we’re
kind of leaning on the physical side of
it and we’ve got our 7th and 18th level
abilities sort of getting drawn into the
existing
tonight infrastructure to make it sound
really fancy but I think this is at
least playable one of my things which I
said before is that done I’ve said this
much times but like finished is a very
powerful argument right if something’s
done then at least you just move on
right like if you get it finished that
gives you a sense of the full universe
what’s going on and it lets you go back
and tinker in a more holistic manner so
let’s let’s just kind of pause here and
go you know what the we’ve got stuff
here that’s functional it might not be
exactly right but we’ve got something
here we know where we’re stealing some
things from the Eldridge night there’s
real pressure on us to do that you might
want to go back my priorities from here
would be revised 7th at 7th and 18th
humble in a way that makes them feel
distinct without making them clearly
better or worse and then refine 3rd 10th
and 15th to give us really decided we
want to give you more than athletic
ability here I still I still think
that’s kind of the direction I’d want to
go because I think that means I can do
these things I can be you know these
astounding physical feats without using
my spell slots I can focus those on more
things that I feel more powerful more
like telekinesis that well you won’t get
telekinesis you only get at level four
spells but the things like you know ESP
style effects charm effects so anyways
let’s go here and let’s take a look at
our spells so the spell is probably as
we found last week with us with the
psychic wizard the we didn’t have a easy
breakdown by school of magic they’re
kind of all over the place so what I
want to do is have it all spells using
my handy dandy spell filters here for
DNA beyond I’m just gonna dive straight
into first of all spells because we
already I would just the can trips I
mentioned for the this the psychic mage
are just ones we would need for the
second warrior two so let’s take a look
at my spell level and let’s just take a
look at all of our first level spells
well filter and then let’s take a look
what so what we’re gonna do is just kind
of what I want to do with this stage is
just go through and I’m not trying to
spill the entire spell list what I want
to do is just go and focus on a few
spells that I think would be very
important to make sure that we have
access to
so I want to try to avoid these like are
these very warlock spells like my
magnificent towers of Hadar because that
that’s flavor really meant for the
warlock that’s not quite on point of
what we want but it see catapult let’s
see
choose an object weighing 105 pounds
applies the straight line up to 90 feet
in the direction you choose before it
falls okay that’s cool that feels like a
sort of telekinetic ability let’s throw
that on our list cause fear I think we
want that emotion control I think that’s
close enough here that one make sure we
have that charm person you know do you
think they charm people or to think they
cause fear or to think we don’t care I
think we don’t care I think we’re going
to put down strong person
chromatic orb color spray command is
another one compelled dual I’m writing
that one down but I’m going to open it
up because remember we never assume we
remember correctly but I think this one
it’s an enchantment this might be really
on point compel a creature into a duel
one creature you can see makes the
wisdom save it fails drawn to you now
this is irritating because it does say
divine demand we don’t know what spells
what classes we’ll get this how can we
say it’s divine but the anyways it’s the
detail so yeah forces you to fight that
feels very psychic warrior I’m using
essentially mind control to lock you
down comprehend language is a good
example of a kind of spell I want to put
on there just to make sure that you got
stuff to do that’s at a combat
craig destroy water that doesn’t quite
feel on point on brand for us the let’s
see who else cure wounds no i don’t
think your wounds would belong on there
i could see some healing that you do on
yourself
maybe that’s something for us to look at
for class features myself detection
spell disguise self this guy self is
really to know loot I don’t that’s quite
they’re defined favorite earth tremor
and snaring strike next time you hit a
creature with a weapon tap for the
Savelle ends writhing mass thorny vines
appear this is another one where the
flavor isn’t quite right but it might
make sense for us as a psychic Billy I’m
gonna say no I think conjurations are a
little they feel I don’t see the second
we’re creating
things exhibitions retreat the
transmutation spells in general we’ll
probably see a lot here and what would
be nice is if we saw the schools of
magic of emerge pretty pretty clearly in
terms ones we could just give you false
life yet some I think someone in chat
pointed that one out that’s a great one
yeah invigorate myself make myself Tom
Tucker further follow I think maybe
transportation might come in and this is
the case so in this case I got in like
two more spout pages of spills I’m gonna
stop here real quick good my handy-dandy
adventures I’m going to take a look at
all the transmutation spells at first
level and just see do I just want to
give all of these to you well look at
the wizard ones only to start with and
so catapult so all of these all of these
would fit in so I may just want to say
school now the one thing I do want to do
though wizard spells are not necessarily
tuned for a melee character so let’s
take a look at all of them and what are
we getting here we’re getting good Barry
okay so good Barry I don’t think no I
don’t wouldn’t want you to get good
Barry okay I think these are actually
maybe for strike you move like the wind
until the spell ends your movement
doesn’t provoke opportunity attacks
it’s a one-minute spell concentration
once before the spell ends you can give
yourself advantage on one weapon attack
role so I think just that the presence
of this spell alone tells me I maybe I
don’t want to just go through and say
wizard transmutation spells because this
would be a spell that feels very psychic
warrior yeah and right now L just nights
refer exclusively to the wizard spell
lists are changed Erica they’re good
Barry’s Mike they are good berries
they’re not necessaries for our psychic
warrior okay so at least I have one
pattern there but I think this does tell
me trying to say just by school in class
it’s not gonna work I don’t want to say
all transmutation spells in the game
though because it just this just doesn’t
enough of these if you don’t feel on
point for flavor creators straight
waters a similar thing
I don’t want to just have a blanket
thing all right so let’s just to go back
to our spells advanced filters and let’s
just so what I’m new here is just look
at the rest of the list and see do any
more patterns show up we were on page
two but my sense is we’re gonna have to
like handcraft this spell list
especially retreat that’s kind of there
if I’m familiar fog cloud no I don’t
think see I don’t see the second way of
making things seem with Greece when
guiding bolt hail of thorns hellish
rebuke terrorism that’s an enchantment a
willing teacher you crutches willing
teacher you touch as a Buddha pray Bree
I could see that I’ll throw this on the
list and misspelled so it’s it’s doing
everything wrong it can see hideous
laughter should the psychic warrior be
able to use hideous laughter I think so
I think this is kind of comes into the
case of one things you have to one of
the things I least for me what I find
with myself when I’m working in a
character like this I start to develop
in my mind of image of this character
that’s very useful but there are times
you might find that it gets overly
defining I think I might be not putting
enough thought into maybe the more mind
control II psychic warrior let’s look at
hex – yeah I think I don’t think I’m
paying enough attention day enchantment
spells you place a curse on a creature
you can see within range that doesn’t
really feel like a psychic warrior thing
because of the interaction with curse so
I think I may have to go back so this is
but you know in a hunter’s mark I’m not
crazy about because it’s pretty it’s a
signature spell for the the Ranger so I
don’t want to give it out unless it’s
like a really big decision ice knife can
I don’t think you’re making stuff jump
and long Strider oh right there we had
those in our transportations I won’t
blog writing them down remember we’ve
got our transmutation spells I said I’m
not trying to build the entire list and
just trying to get a sense of like which
spells should be here ray of sickness
sanctuary searing smite um some of these
smite spells should probably be here
I’ll just make a general note
summate spells and let’s go to the
fourth page sing Joey yeah you know what
that might be who shield I definitely
want to throw in there let’s take a look
this is sanctuary sanctuary you have the
right field we want it’s an aberration
you wore to creature within range
against a taxi this is though I think
it’s since it’s 30 feet away that
doesn’t feel quite and this was an
enchantment spell I think I’d be much
more open to it but being 30 feet away
that doesn’t feel like something a
psychic warrior does I’m having a little
trouble with the narrative there sleep
that doesn’t quite feel psychic enough
to me the illusions don’t quite feel
that way
shield of faith we had something that
was more transformational rather than an
aberration again I don’t like the idea
of the psychic we were touching someone
and giving them the bonus it feels like
this is something where see what does di
arranges 60 feets not even touching let
me doing it from across the room that
doesn’t quite feel like a psychic
warrior Tosh is hideous laughter well we
already have to use softer tensors
floating disk
I don’t think you’re making stuff smites
we’ve got thunder wave that’s probably
gonna be our signature text all kind of
see there’s a telekinetic wave unseen
serving I don’t think you make stuff the
unseen servants not really a thing it’s
more like a little magical force and so
yeah and then Zephyr strike and I throw
this one down here just remember so what
we’re seeing here is a combination of
spells that are there’s some amount of
mind control
just Antigua mentioned something a
suggestion I think yeah suggestion would
fit in well with this this character
because I think this is the mind control
I’m seeing in my mind for the psychic
warrior and maybe understanding mind
control by a psychic worries making me
say this terrible joke but the is this
idea that it’s not there is definitely a
sense if I can I can alter your moods I
can change who you are and I can change
who I am I can sort of transform myself
I don’t see this as a character who kind
of like the shield of faith example
shows yes you can skin it differently
but I don’t picture the psychic warrior
from across the room pointing at an ally
and going okay now you have an AC bonus
what I’d see instead is something like
I can deflect attacks that are meant for
you things like that like I could
potentially see this character using
shield and other characters and that’s
something which I’m gonna throw in here
is my other thing you know that might be
something which is fun enough that I
could just make it a class feature and
the nice thing about it is its power
neutral that’s the great thing about it
it’s really good
don’t get me wrong it’s very powerful
but I’m still charging with spell and
I’m forcing you to decide I can protect
my friends or I can track myself because
this is taking up my reaction and it’s
taking up a spell slot the and Draco has
mentioned you know the palin is a
template might better fit you know and
that’s actually something i was thinking
of because the paladins access to to the
standard smite smite ability but i think
there’s just too much baggage there with
the oaths and the codes that go with
them that just didn’t feel right for
this class the oh and major might be
another one Levi No thank you for the
suggestion to I don’t know if I think a
lot of characters will won’t take it
though just wear armor but it’s still
useful to have that as an option
so the yeah I don’t know a piece
Centennial you know spending reaction to
cast self react and spells and other
people we liked we try to avoid
open-ended abilities like that and in
the game because it puts like you’re
kind of seeing this here right now we
try to avoid the design that is going to
constrain future design so what that
would mean is whenever we did us a
reaction spell that had the target
itself we’d have to say hey what happens
if you cast this on someone else so
that’s an area where if we’re breaking a
very fundamental rule the game we try to
be very specific and for an instance in
this case we might give you a specific
list of spells that you could do that
with therefore on one hand you could
argue well it’s a little disappointing
if you do some more some new spells they
don’t just glide into this effect
seamlessly but we’re willing to trade
that away for the the ease of play of
not having to figure out as a dungeon
master wait a sec this the spell was
clearly not designed with this ability
in mind but yet they’re trying to
interact what happens next
so the major armors are ritual the I’ll
leave out yeah that’s a that’s an
interesting idea
I froze it on here and that’s a good
example what I was just talking about
we’ll just say hey you can cast some
spells you can’t normally house it’s
ritual will let you cast as ritual but
the end we would be specific not mage
hand that would be terrible ritual
because it’s just a can’t trip I guess
if you wanted to when it’s been an hour
whatever takes the yeah date and date of
the swing you know it is people play
classes because of the story elements
the this is a very important
philosophical thing which we have
embraced the player who can pull things
apart and reskin Andrey flavor that’s a
very advanced player it’s not someone
who needs a lot of support from us for
if you’re in that category what we try
to do is just give you pieces that you
can play with but we’re always gonna
give them wrapped up in a really
distinctive story element because for
all our other users that story element
really helps them understand it grasp it
and then really that’s what sparks that
interest because our feeling is if
you’re used to hacking then you can just
ignore that flavor you know there are
people would say you know and I’ve heard
this feedback from the community
like hey stop I don’t need this the
world detail around the hears that you
have this stuff what works I don’t need
that and yeah it’s right you don’t need
it
right but a lot of other players really
enjoy it and when I say you I mean like
the specific person giving you that
feedback and it’s one of the challenges
we have is we need to make things that
speak to enough of the audience that a
thing we make has a home but it’s very
rare that we make something where we’re
like everyone’s gonna like this
you know I guess we said free cake for
everybody but then maybe someone is
trying to watch their weight like I
don’t if we think so the free cake now
I’m off my diet right couldn’t resist
right even things that seem very benign
can you know can do that if you look at
zen affairs guide to everything i think
is the best example so far but both we
made where you it shows the real of the
range what we’re building and i think in
my mind
Dilek Afrin yes bring up the brood again
the Zan’s shows what we were trying to
do with that book was my idea behind it
when i was first thinking of it and as
it worked with jeremy and chris and the
rest of the team was this idea of if
people if any
indeedy and we’re player looked at this
book inside I really like 60% of this
book and I’m gonna use it like a lot the
other 40% I don’t know right then I feel
like we’re hitting it like that would
mean we’ve got a really wide audience
the name appendices in the back Penda
C’s in the back are a great example of
that a lot of people especially if
you’re a longtime dungeon master you
maybe already have naming resources
you’ve built up or you just used to
coming up with names off top of your
head and then so do you like I don’t
really need this but for a beginning
player a player who’s more just focus on
look I just play I like to make up my
character a dungeon master whose world
building really doesn’t like you know
straight toward toward naming things
like that who is more focused on plot
things like that like that’s just you
know not a strength of ayres they you
know we’ve seen really positive response
from those players and so you’re going
to see a lot of stuff where some people
look at and go I don’t need this but
what we want to is make sure if we give
you anything 60 Plus percent of you are
happy to have it and want it so anyway
there’s a very long depression thing to
get into this idea that everything has
its place but not everything we make is
gonna appeal to every person and we’re
okay with that so anyway we’ve got our
class here so I think let’s take a look
back now that we have a kind of a
profile for our spells
what we want is transmutation leading
offense we want is mind control we want
to get make sure we get that sort of
telekinetic field and it calls like the
brute force movement of other things
especially like attack spells we want
you to augment your physical abilities
so this seems to be the kind of the the
categories and I’m gonna throw in a
little summon okay transformation so
this kind of I think overall is getting
at what the nature of the spells are so
now we can go back and take a look at
our class features and I think yeah like
this the casting shield and others
that’s really fun major armors ritual
kind of now you know this is fun this is
a great place to be because I have more
things that I want to do then I have
space for which is great I think what I
want to do is combine shield and mage
armor into one thing this run
vertical surfaces thing I am always a
fan of because it’s just fun but maybe
we’ll make it come in at low at a higher
level
I really like the utility of giving you
spells and then giving you new ways to
use them that to me feels like not only
is it simpler for a player to learn but
it also gives you something that’s
pretty focused on hey I have these
spells now they’re kind of like my
abilities I’m expressing them the so
let’s do this but ya know I’m casual and
others and Mage Armor has a ritual we’ll
just throw that in there might not be we
finally go for but I like that idea of
the interplay between the spells with
more magic looking at these ones here
you know casting a can trip and swinging
Europe and that’s really good that’s
definitely something that is that’s a
load-bearing part of your character in
terms of your power but I want to go in
a very different direction I think what
I want to say here is because we’re
talking about a psychic character the I
think that the gravity shift ability
someone you’re sorry just missed your
name in chat asked about that but I
think we’re gonna put that at higher
levels and let you just do it all the
time I made me give you a speed boost
let’s get there first but I want to do
here is do what I’m calling splash
psychic damage so what I’m picturing is
with attack or spell deal psychic flash
target so basically if I’m shooting to
fight someone I’m also I can I can name
a very simple way to put this would be
one target of spell or attack take
psychic damage
I think that’s giving you a nice psychic
feel it’s also getting across the damage
output we need from the seventh level
ability in a way that’s more flavorful
than just picking in psychically a
Scholastic the let’s see then I’ll just
strike here so this was the ability that
let you give disadvantage on saving
throws I think what we want to do here
looking at are other things we’ve got
going on here what if we did the same
thing goes it’s very useful this
character is using some nice shut down a
bit
but I just don’t want to just copy that
so what if instead would know what have
we put a self-healing ability here I
mean that feels like a very psychic
warrior thing you can just heal up you
get some extra reserve to keep yourself
going mmm
I think I know what that one’s stand
right here what I want to be throw here
is ignore gravity I don’t know what that
is but this is the psychic ability to
just move I don’t want to just give you
a fly speed cuz I just feel like in fly
speed but doing something here where you
can just
oh yes yes self-healing oh that’s right
we already have a second one so let’s do
okay what if we did something with with
with second wind let’s go look up second
one before we start tinkering with it
remember we always look up things but I
have it I have an idea for something
which was probably broken so I’m
probably not gonna do it but let’s take
a look
that’s very funny I was about to like
let’s just redesign second wind because
the fight already has that so one of the
nice things about second wind is it’s a
bonus action so on your turn you can use
a bonus action TV game he points equal
to 1 to 10 plus or Foe fighter level
let’s do this with I’m gonna call it
psychic wind though it’s not
that’s what colleagues that sounds kind
of weird what if we did this what if we
improved you’ll know that’s lame no no
no let’s do this I don’t I don’t think
we can give you a spell back I think
that’s too good that was my first thing
was when you take a second wind I don’t
know what if we know what if we’d in
place of healing get a spell slop ok
here’s what I can do i that looking at
that one D 10 plus your fighter level if
we do the math very quickly a tenth
level that’s a 1 that’s 11 to 20 points
of healing I think that we can 100% give
you a spell slot back the because I
think that that will work math why is it
go up in level in actually know what I’m
gonna do I’m gonna say in addition to
Ealing
I think I’m gonna give you spell slot
back the yeah 10 10 to 20 points in our
chakra that’s more than cure wounds so I
think we might be able to do something
with this I’ll map it don’t worry about
it but I like the idea of giving you a
spell blitz lot back because and I feel
like that feels psychic to me this idea
that I can go into a trance for a moment
and I regained some of my energy and
maybe have to require some some
finessing spell slot for short rest that
might be a little too good if you look
at the wizard the wizard has arcane
recovery and that’s kinda basically like
writes the book on how those abilities
will typically look pop over that was it
real quick we saw so taking a look at
arcane recovery this yeah this is
essentially are sort of like gold
standard for these abilities when your
each second level nope that’s arcing
tradition sorry arcane recovery this is
the feature that gives you your spells
back and in just one arcane tradition
you have learned to regain some of your
magical energy by studying your spell
book once per day when you once per day
when you finish a short rest important
thing it’s only once per day you don’t
you can’t quite finesse this you can
choose expended spell slots to recover
the spell slots can have a combined
level of this equal to or less than half
the irizar level and none can be six
level or higher you see this a lot we
really are pretty rabid about letting
you only cast six level spells and
higher once per day so this challenge
here is that there does require some
finesse in the players part you can only
use this once so you can’t for instance
it’s not a pool of points you can expend
across multiple short rests you
basically get one so the but this one’s
pretty generous and what it’s giving to
you so I think saying that with
essentially once a short rest when you
second win you get a spell slot back
that’s not crazy we’ll have to take a
look I think it’s gonna be restricted to
first and maybe like it 17th or higher
it gets to be a second double spell slot
the nice thing about this though since
it’s a bonus action you can use during a
fight if you want to do something like
use a false life Exodus just retreat you
can kick in one of those buffs basically
for free once for short rest which I
like and shields also cool boy this is a
good spell
might be one of the most for its pound
per pound one of his powerful spells in
the game and especially we can let you
cash fuel than others then your Wow
that’s even nicer I can get a I can
I get an extra shield protect my friends
that’s kind of where the battle mine
flavors coming in fourth but I might and
forth was it was a very defensive
character so that’s some of that flavors
getting him through there see if you’re
playing a battle night and forth this is
maybe starting to get some that flavor
okay so fifteenth we’ve got you ignoring
gravity then an eighteenth this is when
we say when you cast a spell you’re
getting but you know what could we just
say no I don’t think we can say with
casting a spell at seventh because then
you’re gonna be stacking it on top of
like you’re really powerful spells so I
think the this is gonna have to be on
camera
the something we have throw in here the
you know we could just let you write
grant psychic vulnerability with attack
or spell failsafe bill so basically my
attacks up on I can throw this on them
so basically I’m gonna it’s probably any
short rest cooldown but if I hit someone
or throw a spell on them then I can give
them vulnerability to psychic damage
which means the all psychic party the
old sanic party is pretty potent this is
your warrior and he’s coming pretty well
with the with the psychic mage the all
right so the one thing I think we are
missing is yeah am draco see a force
push with attacks that is something
which that’s another really see there’s
so many good ideas here that would be a
fun thing to throw it first level the
third level but I kind of like these two
I’m gonna bake these in here too cuz I
have other sub classes to build and I
don’t want to use all of our good ideas
at once but that’s also another fun
thing yeah what I’m always looking for
third and this is one thing that’s give
me a little pause about these third
level abilities I want something that’s
a bit more activated all the time rather
than something that’s dependent so I
think I am gonna put the
use this in place of major mirza ritual
cuz i do want something that’s not super
high-powered but is on all the time to
make you feel like a psychic warrior I’m
a little worried we might lose some of
that flavor but this has built but and
then this is probably maybe an op gun
version of it maybe this even lets you
phase through things and stuff like that
again it would require cooldown now
nothing would make DMS tear their hair
out and yell at me more than saying
players can just walk through dungeon
walls the oh and mad hatter him a
levitated weapon attacks melee weapons
arranged that is something which we want
to throwing weapons so this in here this
almost feels like there might be enough
stuff in here that okay now I’m getting
more ambitious than maybe I should I
could see the psychic warrior getting a
set of stunts that you could pick from
that are about my minor psychic
abilities that we could just so many of
these are really power neutral being
able to throw your great sword we gave
it a 30-foot range it’s a great example
of something which the system would see
that is entirely power neutral right we
really don’t know we slash don’t slash
shouldn’t really shouldn’t tax you for
using a range weapon versus close in if
anything closing is better because I’m
exerting my zone of control there might
be enough ideas here that this might be
a little bit like the warlock and that
it just gives you access to maybe some
sort of town like a talent system but
just you know I don’t want a list of
forty but there might be like ten ideas
here but if I’m getting a talent or two
a third and then a talent or to it like
fifteenth you know it’s not a lot but it
might be just enough fifth like I you
let players sculpt their character a
little bit more the OH
stabby rogue games what if all classes
could pick in the same list of psychic
stones that max you might be a fun way
to bring these things into their own
little self-contained universe that
would be fun cuz then you would know
it’s like a static class has this
distinctive thing that brings
all together that’s cool idea okay well
leave it there
we’re at five of this is our traditional
stopping point I’ll give me an extra
fifty seconds to make up for running
late today again sorry about that the
we’ve actually been early I think a
couple times but the in any case this
though has been a ton of fun to work on
so we’ve got our basic skeleton what
structure were looking for in spells we
kind of know like okay beyond the lip up
her spells that match this kind of
description but it’s very it’s a vague
enough description they’re gonna bring a
lot of people in it’s not just one
person we’re looking for
we’ve got some come class features here
we’ve got a very potentially interesting
idea for extending this stuff across
multiple character classes in a way that
is really gives you a sense of okay
these are the psychic subclasses here’s
something they share so that’s that’s
fun that’s nifty in a kind of this is
coming out you know not quite what I
expected but like better than I expected
so next so we’ll do some more refining
work on the psychic warrior I might just
jump ahead and take a look at the monk
or the warlock next week I think if we
hit embracive about four classes I think
we’re good for now I don’t I don’t to
turn this into the Mike Romero’s happy
fun psionics hour for like the next
eight months but it’s a good sign that I
feel like I could write I think I could
almost do this rummy character class the
so thanks for stopping in thanks for
watching I’ll do some more refining work
on this so we’ll tackle um see monk or
warlock hit me up on Twitter on the
comments when this gets posted to
YouTube I guess you can also throw up in
chat I think I if I go back I think our
episode capture captures the chat to the
the yeah we could use like that tons of
suggestions here it’s always fun and
this is something we should probably
look at maybe getting this up in the DM
z– guild somehow too so people can
start playing with it because I’m seeing
definitely a lot of ideas in chat let’s
see a lot of suggestions for monks we
see a monk or warlock we’ll see okay
anyways thanks everyone for tuning in
and I’ll head out and again hit me up on
Twitter where I am Mike Morell one word
comments on the YouTube video or just
comments here in shacks I believe if I
go back and look I can do a quick count
hi very highly scientific you know plug
in all the numbers figured it all out
it’s been a ton of fun thanks for
joining me and I will
Hach everyone next week
[Music]

— Mike Mearls (@mikemearls) May 9, 2018

Watch The Mike Mearls Happy Fun Hour, 5/1/18 from dnd on www.twitch.tv

That was a great stream! Working through psionics with chat was very useful in surfacing some new ideas and getting a good sense of how DMs as a group approach psionics. Thanks to everyone who took part!

— Mike Mearls (@mikemearls) 1 maggio 2018

Curious. I thought there was an episode of the #happyfunhour where you discuss designing a custom race but I don’t see it in the playlist. Did I just dream that happened or am I missing something.it’s a dream… or perhaps a vision from the future

— Mike Mearls (@mikemearls) 5 maggio 2018

The @mikemearls hey everyone and welcome back to the mic
girls happy fun hour I am your host Mike
whirls
I am the franchise creative director on
Dungeons & Dragons and I’m your host
today and for our happy fun hour of
building out happy fun disaster
barbarians yes that’s right disasters
officially branded now is fun in the
world of D&D I guess they’re fun
depending on if you have the magic and
abilities to handle own otherwise a
disaster is no fun no of no fun let’s
not have disasters let’s hope the stream
isn’t a disaster huh so anyway listen
let’s make sure we spell disaster
correctly in their notes so if you earth
me last week we spent most of the stream
last week talking about the disaster
barbarian and the concept behind it and
the idea is that this is a barbarian who
when they go into a rage channels the
destructive power of nature it’s not
just an environment like or it’s not
just an aspect of an animal but it’s
something that’s a lot more aggressive
that can destroy the area around it but
still very much part of the natural
order and what we settled on was this
idea that as a several of our barbarian
subclasses operate when you pick the
disaster barbarian which is not the
final name we’ll come up with something
better that you pick a one of four
subtypes so and so essentially we’re
building a sub class where you have four
class features then each one has within
it four options to give you that sense
of a different flavor we also often do
this when we have things where like you
say all our barbarian who’s you know
fueled by disasters and you can think
well there’s lots of different types of
disasters do you really want to make
four separate subclasses do they share
enough conceptual space that you can
take these class features and give them
a little bit twist to make them feel
really distinct the and that’s what
we’re doing here so last week we work
through our third level of ability
avatar of disaster now when you’re
working on a barbarian subclass it’s
very important protip you have to try to
make all of your class features sound
like the titles of heavy metal albums
because that’s just what a barbarians
are they’re kind of like I mean you
could argue warlocks or maybe more like
death
you know but I’m talking like you know
just that like over-the-top like you
know giant speaker banks and you know
ear splitting noise like that level of
heavy metal that so the barbarian does
so that’s we gonna make sure all our
class features are names if they can be
pompous heavy metal album titles so
avatar of disaster that’s our first one
the oh yeah crazy yeah
warlocks being more emo rock I could see
that I think it depends on the type of
warlock you are the are you more on the
kind of touchy-feely morose side or you
more like destroy I guess like if you’re
well anyways I could probably talk at
length about the different music that
different character classes listen to
but that wouldn’t be really a happy fun
hour for anyone who’s tuning in to watch
me build a subclass so let’s do a quick
recap because last week we we covered
our third level ability and I’m gonna be
honest I’m not necessarily crazy about
where we ended up I think it’s a good
starting point I liked one of my
principles is that done is a very strong
argument that if you can just finish
something even if it’s not exactly what
you want at least it’s done and you have
something you can start testing or
something you can see in its full form
and then start making decisions that
maybe are more strategic where you’re
changing the entire subclass in one go
and getting much broader
across-the-board improvements rather
than just tinkering with one small
ability over and over again so we’re
gonna take this third level ability my
recap it and then we’re just gonna move
on we’re gonna tackle levels 6 10 and 14
today rather than just continue to just
go back and forth over these abilities I
recount them that’ll give you a quick
insight into like why I’m not
necessarily happy with them so a third
level kind of capturing the the typical
barbarian subclass these are all
features that when you rage they kick in
and they change your rage in some way so
our volcano barbarian your rage bonuses
fire damage your range bonus to damage
then when you dues reckless attack
you’re getting double that damage which
is really good and then once during your
rage and this is kind of a pattern we
somewhat repeated decided that when you
rage you get like this extra special
power you can activate
at one point during the rage and this
one is you double your damage and then
triple it if you’re using reckless
attack so and that’s a benefit last
until the end of your next turn it
doesn’t have an action cost so you can
just do this and then still use to up
and fighting or anything else you want
to use your extra action with you could
also like enter a rage and immediately
use it which I imagine was a lot of
people will do they want to get that
extra damage out there as quickly as
possible to drop that that powerful
enemy you’re facing or whatnot our
vortex barbarian I kind of imagine like
you know that sort of swirling body of
water the Whirlpool kind of thing going
on or like the storm of tornado maybe
your rage bone is your rage bonus
damages lightning damage your speed
increases by 10 so kind of getting that
idea of the storm moving around quickly
and when you use reckless attack
creatures you hit have their speed
reduced to zero until the end of your
next turn so that’s the idea of the
vortex grasping things people or ships
or whatever and keeping them close
drawing them in you can’t escape from
the vortex once you’re trapped with it
and once during your rage is a bonus
should say boys action now this is just
pseudocode I didn’t try action writing
it out but this idea that hey I can just
accurate is a bonus action everyone next
to me can’t move away basically dropping
their speed to zero so we might let you
move around but that’s more detail again
this is a good example of something
where like I’m not gonna spend too much
time right now trying to make that
usable look so I’m not sure if this is
where I want to go it’s good enough now
to get a sense of how the class will
shape up the let’s take a look at
earthquake this is a bonus to a C equal
to half your rage damage bonus you
started to see now kind of coming in we
have four options we want to make them
distinct our first one was very much
damaged focus let you throw it as much
damage as possible quickly as possible
our vortex is much more control I keep
people from moving around and now you’re
seeing what’s the more defensive so you
can Macy bonus DAC bonus increases to
your to be equal to your full rage
damage bonus when you use reckless
attack so there’s a nice combo there I
grant advantage to my attackers but my
AC is much higher potentially very much
higher at high levels
once during your age you can cause your
melee weapon attacks to knock creatures
prone that probably some sort of CDC
attached to that and that benefit lasts
until the end of your next turn so
you’re gonna get it basically you’re
gonna use it the start of one turn get
the benefit kicks in your next turn
starts up that benefits gonna end at the
end of that turn so you keep using it
nicely meaty benefit and then tsunami
this is one where we talked about making
this one a little more
oh I’m sorry the vortex is the one where
it’s a little bit more enduring rather
than volcano earthquake and tsunami
which are events so that’s why you get
this sort of you know your speed is
always ten feet you know I’m sorry you
always get a 10 foot bonus kind of
giving you a bit more staying power and
for the tsunami one we’re talking about
movement you can move through any one
space this idea that you can kind of get
to where you want that might be
something which we detach to activation
arcs are your tsunami I think that we
talked about would be the one that was
uh enduring I forgot it’s been chat chat
can remind me the I’ll take a peek over
after I’m done reading this but the more
texts that one felt like could be more
enduring than a tsunami which happens
and goes away anyway um so yeah moving
through some one space kind of get into
that idea of the tsunami just rolling in
nothing being able to stop it you know
the are changed Eric yeah yeah it was
vortex okay thanks so yeah the I think
that’s where we ended up so the tsunami
you can just move in nothing can stop
you kind of like the idea of the tsunami
is sweeping in off the coast when you
reckless attack you knock the target
away in a straight line so again that
idea of you buffeting force and once
during your rage a cone effect similar
to thunder wave so almost feeling like a
spell you can cast while you’re raging
then you get to cast once so I think
that’s like a good starting point my
main thing is I don’t know if these feel
transformational enough you know I kind
of like the idea that the the body cyrus
barbarian ibanez Rocksteady I like that
the that’ll be our next step subtype
will be pop star barbarians the wrecking
ball right yeah the you know I I don’t
know if these are necessarily
transforming enough but maybe I think
for now it’s enough I don’t want to just
go back and forth trying to shine this
up to be
where I want it to be because I think
it’s a good starting point like I said I
think there’s something good about when
you’re working on something see if you
can just get into a position where it’s
done and then you can look at it as a
whole and make decisions that are going
to affect more pieces of it at once
rather than just focusing on one sub
piece so the let’s talk about our six
level ability and from here let’s go to
our sources it’s go to the players
handbook because as usual we don’t want
to try to recall the rules we will get
the rules wrong when we just try to
think of them let’s just read the text
because it’s there we didn’t be read the
Reggie has a comment about those watched
in the last few episodes of development
and I had an idea relate to the Nova
that’s we’ve got here instead of a big
bump and rage damage if he’s once maybe
a big damage up with a tender age
oh so this is something we talked about
last time in play test so far we’ve
found that things that end your age are
really tricky to balance a lot of it is
because what it can do and I’m going to
read the rest you’re coming forward
Scrolls off the screen the so yeah
there’s two things the main thing going
on there is what what has what happened
in play test we tried similar effects
was that players would treat their rage
as just the Nova ability they would rage
and immediately activate that ability to
get the huge boost in power and then let
their rage end and then trying to put
drawbacks on that actually makes people
like less likely just use the ability as
a whole so I like the Nova ability and I
think that’s a good instinct and I think
that might be something we’re missing
but might be something though we add in
later on because I do like I especially
like the tsunami thing here like the
once during your rage you essentially
cast Thunder wave um I think there’s
something really fun there that would
make your rage feel much more distinct
than maybe it does now compared to the
other types of barbarians so but yeah I
think the Nova thing there’s something
there we just haven’t quite made it work
yet the but like I think I mentioned a
couple times last week just because
something doesn’t work once doesn’t mean
we just give up on it we’re always
trying to think how can we don’t really
deliver this because it’s it’s fun
narrative you think like oh you’re gonna
go into the second massive Nova you know
it’s over 8,000 kind of thing
and going super saiyan is fun but how do
you mitigate that so it doesn’t feel
like well it’s just transferring my rage
into this that these just instant
abilities that just kind of almost start
to feel like like spells so the let’s
see here what I want to do is take a
look at the path of the totem warrior in
the past we’ve looked a lot at like the
path of the Berserker is our comparison
but I think the totem war is a better
one because structurally it looks more
like the disaster barbarian so let’s see
it’s six level the path the total
Warriors are pretty much just like
almost all just ribbons a ribbon is
something which is a class feature that
isn’t really meant to be I think it is
load-bearing it’s not delivering power
in a way that really changes how
powerful your character is compared to
other characters at the same level so
the taking a look at after the beast we
have basically an iSight benefit you can
see up to one mile away the wolf you can
track other creatures while traveling a
fast pace you can move stealthily Imola
traveling at normal pace I mean those
are nice they’re useful but they’re not
necessarily changing your power a lot
and the bear is I think I may just
mention this last week
whenever we’re referring the carrying
capacity rules we’re kind of telling you
this is not something which were even
remotely considering to be a power
element it’s really just flavor but yeah
the bear can carry more stuff most
groups don’t track that so it’s like
nice but it’s we’re kind of building
things here they’re just meant to be
really flavorful you know not that this
you’re getting nothing but you’re not
getting something that’s really like
keeping this class up power wise the now
the one thing here you might say well
why would you do that compared to what
we’re getting over here these classes
all give you pretty good raging benefits
the so a lot of that is sort of the
balance across the subclass like we’re
okay with subclasses giving like maybe
this benefits a little bit better than
what another subclass might give you but
then if this level the benefit maybe
isn’t quite as good as long as it is not
hugely distant such a huge disparity
that you know
this is just the best option it doesn’t
matter what the rest are doing even if
there’s zero power level the the don
seeker i think using the dust devil
spells a template for the vortex be a
good starting place yeah that’s kind of
interesting you might be kind of it
might be interesting to fix I always
like to spell dust double leg spells to
create things and maybe that’s something
to do like when we look at this
transformational aspect to find things
that feel a little bit more enduring and
that are just doing a little bit more
then I see what dust devil is if I
remember right actually I don’t have to
remember cuz what do we do we always
look things up let’s take a quick look
at that spell and I said I’ve always I
think that spell I remember first
encounter gate and second edition DD way
back in the day what I liked about it
was it’s a lot like flaming sphere and
that it creates a thing so you pick it
unoccupied a five-foot cube of air that
you can see anything it ends its turn
within five feet must make a saving
throw can take some damage to be pushed
away that’s kind of an interesting idea
the one thing I want to try to avoid is
something it’s feels too much like an
aura but this might be something yeah
might be something here I think I think
that’s an interesting thing to take a
look at and think about what is what
could we do to make you know what I have
an idea okay here’s what we’re gonna do
because you know what my first of all is
well actually I really like the spell
dust devil and I’m thinking of flaming
sphere what if instead of changing the
environment around you you’re at higher
levels you created like elemental forces
that went out and did stuff that you
could control checked you like that what
I’m kind of picturing here is let’s say
I’m the vortex barbarian and I rage I
can spawn like some number let’s say
three that’s probably too many but like
little dust devils that then go out and
they’re like summon minions that do
stuff around me I’m thinking the volcano
guy that we get we get the idea of the
lava streaming out the earthquake I like
tremors moving around that would be kind
of fun and the tsunami you picture like
waves like oh that’s kind of yeah okay
I’m gonna see does anyone yeah like
minor intervals yeah MD Suraj yes I’m
kind of thinking of it might it might
not it might even have a little stat
block maybe we’ll figure out like some
just stats you can use it all of them
the well I’m like yeah many guys got
it’s an aha moment but it’s thanks to
chat let’s give credit to who throughout
the idea of the dust devil spell I’ve
lost track there’s so much chat going on
but yes points to that captain Zack
doesn’t hate it but that’s good that
means you’re not saying no so I think
I’m gonna run with that as a yes for now
the dawn seeker thank and a subscriber
thanks man
so or yeah yeah I think that’s a really
cool idea and I think that’s getting at
this idea of the disaster spreading
which I like without creating the zone
effect I didn’t want to step on the toes
of the barbarian some zenith arse so
here’s what we’re gonna do
oh and this is the thing I really want
to I want to put it six level so you get
it really quick but I think that might
be a little too good but you know what I
could do so you know this is where we
get to be clever and lazy I don’t think
I’m gonna do this but here’s a good
example of a wave if you find something
that a subclass is working really well
with just a couple mechanics a very
useful tool is to use your higher level
slots to just upgrade past effects so as
an example my first feeling is like if
you’re changing a bit at third level
that at higher level you’re kind of
spawning these allow elemental forces I
don’t know if I really need a lot at
sixth and fourteenth that are going to
relieve have even more complexity to
your character so what I might do is it
six say hey here’s an upgrade to your
prior your third level ability at tenth
level drop in this sort of little
elemental swarm you create and then 14th
upgraded one of the things that is a
drawback to working on a level based
system where you have twenty levels to
fill and you say here’s our barbarian
and we know here’s where things drop in
from the core class and your subclass
has to have four things the temptation
is always to say well then you need four
things regardless of all things being
equal four separate things the drawback
of the approach is it means you need to
spread your complexity out across four
concepts and you may find that’s not
what you want to do this is something
that is really gets focused you know I’m
not at this stage of development
designing a thing but more where we get
to editing in playtesting we really
start thinking about that complexity
budget and so if you have a complex very
complex thing players can tap into one
of the ways you can keep the complexity
ceiling low of getting out of hand is to
just upgrade that one feature rather
than start adding a lot of other things
so so anyways that’s something which I
think might do here because I feel like
right now there’s a lot going on with
this class with a subclass I don’t
really necessarily want to start adding
even more things but that idea of I’m
gonna call it swarm of devastation
because again we have to make everything
sound like a cheesy heavy metal band
album and I am not even to try to design
a stab lock for you guys because that
would be nuts to do it live on camera
it’ll be wrong so I’ll just say that’s a
tenth level when you rage you tap into
the essence of the elemental chaos at
your bidding swarms of primordial
creatures emerge into the world and Rick
I think I spelt that wrong but yes I did
wreak havoc at your command and what
I’ll just do here since I don’t want to
try it’ll have a staff lock or just a
volcano and I’m just gonna write down
the names of his couple spells just to
get this idea across what I’m doing this
is flaming sphere effect I want little
elementals that move around lava guy
blobs of lava that move around and do
damage in an aura we’re gonna say vortex
it’s dude dust devil oh I am blocking
yours thank you to Jeremy my co-pilot
here pointing it out not Jerry Crawford
different Jeremy dust devil effect so I
want these to be knocking people around
doing some maybe doing some damage maybe
not but this is also something where
I’ll write down this idea then when we
start looking at the spreadsheet effect
does this do damage or not I mean
obviously the fire one would but maybe
the other ones don’t
earthquake
mobile tremors so these are probably
knocking people over and then for the
tsunami probably like maybe like
barriers or mobile lives pipe the slash
and the or this is probably never strict
movement almost like gonna be like maybe
a little miniature walls and our dust
level effect is probably forced move me
oh this is really nice because this this
is really fitting into three very
distinct effects so we’re gonna do is
create little creatures probably
something like that’s a two or three hit
dice you might want us probably let the
barbarian reach some of them if they get
destroyed but gonna be taxing out with
an action
I’ll make notes of that because what
what you want to do is say two to four
hit dice can be re summoned action
destroyed basically if you’re fighting a
dragon it breeds on the party you can
let the barbarian go okay don’t wanna
keep fighting or do I want to do some of
the elementals the one thing is I think
the it’s probably isn’t a bonus action
for them to act they pride just act on
your turn and get pretty simple actions
the one thing we definitely learn from
these master Ranger as currently
published having to choose between does
my wolf attack or do I attack players
don’t like that choice they want to do
both so we will this would be balanced
to let you both will you operate with
barbarian takes a turn and then these
little elemental guys take a turn the oh
how about a drop back let’s see a share
DVI damage Delta barbarians dealt to you
all that’s actually pretty good
that would be a good balancing thing and
it would be something where we could
like kind of keep these alive I’m gonna
put that fact
that’s that that’s interesting idea cuz
barbarian also in an enrage would have
resistance we might put a loop through
that so that does feel like it’s not
just straight up on blocking off areas
like there is a risk here that is always
one of the risks with anything like an
animal companion or summon creature is
the classic thing you do with them is a
tactical fight you just have the lock
down a flank and then you stop worrying
about them essentially it’s a very low
resource you’re expending to really
control the battlefield so maybe
something like that we’re like when they
get hit or when they get destroyed maybe
you take some damage and they pop back
up and have to move them back into
position so the dungeon master one of
the things I think frustrates me as a
dungeon master when I’m running a game
and the players using a lot of summon
creatures I have this in an ever on game
I ran ages ago one of my players under
3rd edition would summon like this hoard
of like 12 celestial monkeys and just
have them block locations right so if I
have this like a big half troll fighter
he’s spending his time killing these
monkeys and I as a DM just like it just
it seems a little silly its narrative
wise and as a DM it’s a little
frustrating so I just feel like the sky
is just turning into a joke rather than
the real threat the I saw someone in
chat mentioned could we a can maybe have
the elementals turn against you that’s
another thing to look at I can maybe if
the barbarian is knocked out but the
light will stick around they maybe could
go rogue I think one thing though that
they would do because I think the
barbarian is not a very precise
character effects are against creatures
not enemies so this idea of a precision
being I threw out this thing it’s
knocking people over it’s it doesn’t
care who you are if you are the fighter
moving up to engage or you know somehow
this is the next to the wizard it’s
gonna zap a character or a monster
doesn’t care so you have to be as a
player a little more careful again I
kind of think of that as a barbarian
thing they’re not barbarians are at the
precise strike that say a rogue can
deliver or even a warlock who’s like I’m
under you know I know I have my magic
and I’m really focusing it there a
little bit more like a wild mage it’s an
indiscriminate damage
all right cool so that’s something which
I won’t try to design on an on stream
because it’s just a lot of boring math
to get to get the numbers right but
would I would like to create a staff
block for these so it says boom his
little creature and the way I would do
this is I would just make one snap lock
and then just say volcano gets say
immunity to fire and this special
ability
vortex gets you know whatever you just
here’s your snap lock then plug things
in it’s one of the things where in a
digital environment like andini beyond
you probably would just give the full
just up stat block but in a book where
space matters we always try to be
efficient without being obscure so all
right so that there you go that’s pretty
cool now this going back to six level
real quick I like the idea of having
some sort of movement ability especially
something that is it’s not necessarily
gonna be used on your aging and I think
that’s where I want to go for 6th and
14th is abilities that are clearly like
when you’re not raging here’s something
you’d use and I would like to make them
non combat abilities cuz this is a
character who has got a lot going on
during a fight and I think we’re really
gonna satisfy players you’re like hey I
just want a barbarian who just beat
stuff down I think we’ve got a lot of
stuff going on here and I think that’s
enough so like the idea of a movement
ability at six level we’re gonna call
this when you get a heavy-metal name for
this and you’re just moving around not
killing stuff will just Apokolips
okay this is stupid we would not name it
this but that’s the heavy metal of them
I’m sure ya know that’s a dumb name but
I’m just gonna keep it cuz why not I
like sometimes you have to give us
things dumb names because anyways I
never we want to next topic cuz that’s
nonsense next level you gain the ability
to better survive okay that makes no
sense either but I’m just gonna keep
typing in your disasters whatever this
is all just pure nonsense you’re getting
to see this is actually the dark side of
creativity when we totally lose our
thread the I talk better survive to
better maneuver in your disasters
environment
so what I wanted to say here is volcano
this we talked about this a couple weeks
ago this idea that the volcano above
every an could like jump over lava flows
things like that so we’re gonna say
better jump and fire resistance let’s
see oh yes we have ignored difficult
terrain actually we could do that let’s
do that for the earthquake guy because
that’s kind of fitting into earth so
ignore difficult terrain also because we
don’t have earth damage it’s just you
bash someone with a rock it’s budgeting
damage the so with the hits very hard to
do like four elements with four damage
types now that doesn’t work water it’s
kind of the same way to I guess like
acid is like dangerous water but water
is dangerous you could drown but yeah
we’re not gonna do something where
you’re mean to being drowned now what we
would say is the the more elegant more
elegant approach to saying you cannot be
drowned is you could read the water and
we’ll give you a swim speed and then for
vortex vortex is kind of air we’ve got
the better jump with volcano to kinda
have that explosive thing well let’s see
the vortex I’m tired just gonna give you
you know I’m gonna throw this in here oh
yeah yeah nice yeah I like that so arch
raged Eric throat no falling damage yeah
that’s useful that’ll actually probably
play the one thing what no falling
damage it’s one of those does things you
design it you think okay you don’t take
damage from traps like you really try to
can you try to contextualize it to a
very specific event in an adventure but
then what you forget are things like
wait this opens up some interesting
tactics in I use ever on as an example
because I just use that drug thinking
about my old ever on campaign
Sharan the city of towers it’s very
vertical city it’s like skyscrapers you
think oh great a character who doesn’t
take following damage can actually do a
lot of interesting things with ambushing
people from above well I’m gonna climb
to the top of this tower like the stairs
and jump on a window and land in the
middle of my enemies so it’s something
where it might not seem impressive
mechanically but I think it opens up a
lot of options that players would
otherwise wouldn’t think of using when
they’re dealing with a more sane
strategic you know how do we get into
this place or how do we you
kidnapped this person or how do we
contact this person who’s got a bunch of
guards around them so anyways I think
I’m gonna throw that in there and keep
it there and at 14th I think the other
non-combat you know this would be kind
of a fun thing what if we gave you at
14th level I’m gonna call this soap
elemental soul which is I am sure we’ve
used somewhere else but I saw someone in
chat point on this idea like what if you
had you took on a more elemental
characteristic I’m gonna give me a fun
thing to do here at fourteenth level you
can channel essence a disaster to alter
your physical form so what I’m thinking
here is it’s a non combat transformation
that just gives you abilities that are
very much focused on utility rather than
combat so valve volcano when I’m
thinking of is you know we’ll give you a
we give you resistance to fire so in
this moment in this form you are immune
to fire and let’s see I want to say can
swim through lava but I think that’s
maybe a little too focused let’s just
throw that there for now because that’s
that’s kind what I want to capture this
idea that I mean being a mean to fire is
kind of nice but oh yeah you oh yes
the wrath oh yes you can turn into a
liquid creature so Arafa throughout hey
what if you became a news and like oh
yeah okay we’ll put a period there
because that’s enough for now
yeah that’s cool and basically okay and
that’s a good template so what we’ll do
is we’ll have you transform into
something that can’t really fight but
can for instance the volcano creature
you could see through a crack hurricane
you can fly and gaseous form outside say
well when you form so you can fly around
again you can’t fight earthquake you can
borrow through the ground you bit see if
you turn yourself in like a seismic wave
– travel great distances as a seismic
wave and then tsunami that’s pretty easy
just you become a wave travel across
water and wave maybe and I think as a
wave form you might be the likely to
take a ship with you so the idea that
you can turn into wave you can catch
other things up and then you carry them
along the really nice thing about this
is that the it’s clearly not to be used
in combat we could even say like you
know it takes a minute to assume one of
these forms actually I don’t want to say
that because then it just feels like you
know we’re I’m cornered by the guards oh
I’m on the volcano guy so I turn into
lava and shoes through the crack so you
know action to enter but you can’t fight
and we’ll say this used once per day
well which we mean which actually
invoked once for long rest so there I’m
feeling pretty good about that now the
the this feels like it’s starting to hit
more that transformational event I was
looking for here and I’m gonna use no
and don’t use I’m going to use my in
nine sub-header here which should be
followed by a period not a colon Jeremy
Crawford was here he would just be very
disappointed with me the as he should
because we should know that’s how we do
our headers it’s funny how much you when
you think about it the it’s not to the
point where it’s like oh suffocating but
a lot of the value you can when you’re
working in a group where if someone does
hear someone does task a then someone
does task B the more you can just keep
your workspace clean so the person doing
task be like in this case people don’t
have to come along and mess in fix all
white inline subheads just makes
everyone’s life easier which means the
editor the next designer who’s
implementing its play test feedback
they’re not wasting their time messing
with something I should have just done
myself they can spend a lot more time
getting the language right you know
hitting lip not just the top three play
test concerns concerns with the top five
so definitely I like to think it is keep
your workspace clean when you’re working
in a group always make always do a pass
you’re like I’m just here to make life
easier for every new comes after
the because that that’s how I believe in
a group environment you go from good
work to great work is how much did I do
upfront to make life easier for everyone
coming after me all right so I feel like
we’ve got a good pretty good place here
there’s a lot of design that has to take
place that’s really gonna be spreadsheet
focused and maybe I’ll try one of those
on streams someday but I think today
like I don’t want it to have to go into
the server and grab a file it also would
look really boring the first parts would
just meet me fumbling with numbers going
who wants to look at that maybe you do
we’ll have a stream of like Mike morals
is like uncertain like furrowed brow
hower but for now I think we’re in a
good place we have enough design here
and actually feels good example avatar
of disaster I felt like this doesn’t
feel quite right what it’s doing but now
I’m like oh now I really feel like it’s
actually maybe I think it feels really
good now because I see the fun stuff
that’s coming later on and I feel like
okay maybe this isn’t delivering on 100%
this transformative aspect but by the
time I hit 14th level
I’m really feeling that I’m feeling
pretty good about it
so yeah Mike Romero’s happy math hour
thanks mo crazy exactly let me the next
show we do just me doing see at this
stage I’ve lost so much of my math
skills from high school in college I
think I could definitely do algebra and
maybe without spreadsheets is like I
don’t know how to do this help all right
so I feel pretty good about this I’m
gonna conveniently leave this up on
screen so in case anyone wants to oh
wait let’s get rid of this if anyone
wants to do a screencap Oh what you know
conveniently I’m leaving everything here
for you to look at so and maybe so yeah
well but I’m not getting all the text
well anyways between these two I think
if anyone wants to like type you know
someone’s gonna for some reason type
these up and put them somewhere like on
reddit I think I’ve left the text up on
screen long enough and motionless enough
that that should be possible so so that
brings us we’re only a half-hour in we
have about 20 more minutes so I was
thinking about this I talked a little
about backgrounds last week and there’s
something I’m doing with backgrounds in
my home campaign that
working out pretty well but I don’t
think I’m ready to like do something
with it on stream because I think it
just it’s not quite formed yet the in
yoga three one eight
you mentioned homebrew classes and doing
the math at one point I think I would
like to do an entire class on stream so
I would like to get to that and that
that would show off some of the math but
what I’d want to do there is uh come
prepared with some spreadsheets
pre-built if you remember when we talked
about the warlord I had my spreadsheet
kind of already like all the work wasn’t
done but it just showed you as a
starting point I wouldn’t want to be
like oh here I am filling in a
spreadsheet and it’s just kind of boring
it’s a lot of just kind of grad work I
don’t think would be entertaining so the
sorry III was looking at maybe doing
something last week I mentioned with
backgrounds I don’t think that’s fully
baked yet but then I was having a
conversation with someone about psionics
I’m not doing the mystic sorry I should
have framed this by saying we’re not
doing a new subclass I’m not doing the
mystic this week we’ll eventually get to
it but what I thought was I know a lot
of people are like anxious to get the
mystic well what if we just did a really
quick and easy this is really just us as
chat and me hanging out what if we just
did a quick and dirty wizards subclass
that got you like two-thirds of the way
there to feeling like a mind mage type
again this is not I know someone’s gonna
quote this in like selectively quotes it
makes it look like we’re not doing the
mistake we’re not doing sonics and now
we’re just doing this wizard subclass
okay we’re not doing that like what I’m
gonna do is just show you if you want to
get soundex into your game as soon as
possible with something that has a bit
more of a stronger foundation beneath it
let’s do the exercise of building a
wizard subclass that is focused on mind
magic and I think one of the fun things
about it is I thought about it was it
might kind of show the limits of when
you have a class that you’re trying to
take to a concept where it might not
quite match up so let’s do this real
quick I’m gonna open up oh let’s see
oh I thought I had opened some but you
know what although I just reopen though
the the Barbarian just save
the here I’m gonna save as and we’ll
just say wizard damaged enumerate
psyonix that’s not quite exactly what
we’re going to do alright and then we’ll
just dude hi Gaspard select all delete
and we’ll just go over here to our
heading to and say psionic page so what
I want to do here is kind of show off
like a volcano visited if dr. deck
whoops everything’s volcanoes now it’s
I’m a officially I’m a one-trick pony
volcano clerics volcano robes volcano
peasants so um wizard class subclass
design like if you have read Zenith ours
guide to everything you may have noticed
we had all of one subclass for the
wizard in part because there are already
eight subclasses for the wizard in The
Player’s Handbook and that’s if you’re a
wizard fan you’re welcome a lot of that
was driven by oops where am I doing here
she won compendium a lot I was just
driven by the idea that we have the
schools of magic it made sense for the
Wizards subclasses to be based on them
and it just felt goofy to like only give
you four right like that would give you
all eight because that we don’t know
what so glad what school of magic you
like we’re not gonna try to guess it
does mean designing wizard subclasses is
its own kind of pain and the but because
you got eight things to look at now I
always usually I just cheat and I do my
first pass by comparing it to the
invoker the Evoque is kind of like the
baseline wizard if you have looked at
the Dini basic rules the Evoque errs the
wizard you get there but realistically
what will happen is you will end up
accidentally duplicating things some
other subclasses so first things first
let’s take a look at our wizard
character class and what we see is that
the wizard is getting its arcane
tradition it’s the name of their so
class at second level now we’ve talked a
bit about how most classes give you a
subclass at first or third the wizard is
giving it to you its second however we
think of them as being first level
selections in terms of the design
and their impact on the character class
the arcane tradition comes in its second
level primarily because the wizard class
he already has enough stuff going on
that we didn’t really feel the need that
complexity wise we didn’t need to put it
at first it would have been a little too
much stuff we fell and because we really
wanted you to get our car cane recovery
very early because it’s a very nice way
to keep the wizard powered up now arcane
recovery if you’re not familiar with it
it’s a class feature that when you take
a short rest once per day you can regain
expended spell slots so we thought that
was pretty important to get in at low
level and we felt the arcane tradition
it could wait we wanted to make these
meaty but we didn’t want to compete with
the rest of the conceptual stuff that
was going on with wizard so we delayed
it but essentially it’s treated as a
first level choice in terms of how
character defining it is the so because
if you see otherwise you know let’s look
take a look here’s the rest of the
wizard class features you get your
arcane tradition you get some ability
score improvements an 18th level okay so
we’ve just jumped from second level to
18th again just to show you this is how
important our King tradition is it’s it
is the load-bearing element of this
class in terms of class features I am
actually really happy with the design of
the wizard I think it’s of the spell the
cleric is probably my favorites the
Wizards right up there in terms of
delivering the subclass character class
pieces where the wizard is like look you
get arcane spells and then the subclass
the arcane tradition is like and here
the spells that you prefer or the style
of smell you prefer so I really like how
it works together it does mean though
that it’s a lot it’s a lot of features
and it’s a lot of sub subclasses to
compare to so the first thing I want to
do is and I think of a psionic mage we
obviously are thinking of psychic
abilities with the schools of magic the
first thing you do we did let’s go look
at our spell list so let’s do that right
now so what we really want to say is
this is a made
or wizard who captures the feel of
psionics feels the feel of Sonics and I
want to ma’am make a list of signature
spells we’re gonna go through the spell
list and we’re gonna take a look at
which spells we think would fit as being
sort of psionic in nature another thing
to do
we’ll look at the spells then we’ll take
a look at some of them our sort of
iconic sonic monsters and see which ones
are Oh like the mind flayer has the
spell or this ability let’s make sure we
have a spell that looks like it alright
so starting off with can trips now
there’s a little bit of a trick here
because I’ve done a little bit of this
investigation earlier because what we’re
gonna find is with can trips of these
canned trips that’s the acid splash no
blade Ward bloomin blade she’ll touch
control flames I’m just doing a quick
surface thing I’m not gonna try to like
sort of get into the details just say
hey based on the name friends I guess
kind of yeah it’s sort of like bending
mine’s frostbite gust infestation light
lightning they’re a mage hand machen
yeah it’s kind of feels like telekinesis
bending messages message does that show
up in your mind or is its whispering I’m
gonna be like I’m at the m’s and still I
have three kind of minor illusion mold
earth poison spray prestidigitation so
here’s where we fronted the first
challenge we have because I’m getting
into shape water shock grass sword burst
it’s really just me an hour reading
spell names I’m not seeing necessarily
the at-will abilities I’d want here so I
think friends may chant and message
start to get out what we want but we
really want is a psychic damage can trip
and we want some sort of ESP Kenshin
so this is okay I’m not worried about
saying I need to add some spells because
I think this is sort of showing us hey
right now in the system even if you’re
like willing to say look just give me a
wizard subclass that hits what I’m
looking for them the Sion oh yeah let’s
just call this guy the Sion the class
kameena mystic but we’ll just say this
is the Sion we’re already kind of on
shaky ground
we don’t really know keep in mind this
is the players handbook the spell lists
are made for the eight schools of magic
but it is something that will often come
up when you’re thinking of a new wizard
subclass especially a wizard subclass
that deals with a style of magic we
might just not have spells in the system
but unless you design them that really
match the flavor you want for instance
you might say let’s do a wizard who’s
all rune magic that sounds cool but
again you kind of run into this idea of
like well they’re the can trips and the
existing spells capture the flavor we
want I’m willing to the first three
levels of spells because since we are
and we have about twelve minutes left I
don’t want to spend the entire stream
and actually I might even start stop at
first level and just do that the first
the second level of feature same thing
let’s Gianna do a quick thing quick look
at our first level spells anything here
that feels really like ESP I guess cause
fear kind of feels that way it’s I’m
influencing emotions charm person same
thing let’s see again I’m not seeing
anything here that to me screams
psionics
hideous act it really just feels like a
charm to me though I’m not gonna put it
down maybe I might go back and do it
again if I’m missing things may I read
now the thing to keep in mind though is
I’ll comprehend languages yeah I could
see that
we’re not saying these the only spells
you can get but I’m just looking for
spells that start giving me a theme I
can build around I’m not really seeing
thunder wave I guess could be like and
maybe unseen serving but again what I’m
seeing is when I look at these I’m
seeing of the same thing kind of come up
again and again I’m getting very limited
emotion control and I’m getting a very
like I have to kind of twist things to
make them feel like telekinesis let’s
see
gromer riff Grom ralphus does that barb
might be more fruitful good call you
know what let’s do that let’s hop over
to the barn list because I think that
might be
oops no but I want the what I need to do
is come over here to my spells let’s
check out that barn list do we have some
things here that look more more
promising I do a quick look through here
vicious mockery maybe for a canned trip
but it’s so iconic to the bard I don’t
know if it’s gonna I just feel like I’m
dipping the bard list let’s see
dissonant whispers okay yeah I think I
saw that come up in chat too let’s throw
that one in there the earth tremor fury
fire and I think we said that’s
something now let’s take a look what
does dissonant whispers doing let’s see
yes / discordant melody that only one
creature choice can hear causes great
pain let’s pick a wisdom saving throw
taking psychic damage yeah let’s do that
I must merely use this reaction to move
somebody you’re driving away that’s cool
but you know what what we couldn’t do
here is let’s do this let’s look at all
our spells and say all spells and let’s
look for psychic damage because that’s
PI also another indicator that we’ve got
a spell that is doing something that
might feel psionic so damage tight
and luckily handy-dandy D&E beyond lets
us filter spells by damage type all
right so we’ve got chaos bull distant
whispers feeble my oh it’s lovely
let’s hear it sort by level so vicious
mockery there we captured chaos both
interesting I we’re not a guest chaos
vault did oh I see because it’s the
damage type is random so that would not
miss a be a sonic thing wrath will smite
and okay there we go mine spiked at
second level halo that’s definitely a
sign exciting spell I think phantasmo
for something either that makes sense
but you can see there’s nothing at third
level so we’ve got a limit of our work
cut out for us so one of the things the
first thing that makes me think then is
maybe we should take a look at saying
hey you’re the scion again this is kind
of hacky this is not our official
response to Sonic’s this is just
something which let’s throw this
together to see how this can work
let’s take a look maybe there’s some way
well you know maybe there’s some way we
can add sonic damage to your spell’s and
maybe that’s one of the first things you
get so let’s take a look we’re in the
wizard and let’s take a look I like it I
like to use the evoker as the baseline
because this is where having work on the
game I know the evoker was the first one
we designed and it’s the one we balanced
all the other ones off of when you’re
dealing with eight subclasses it’s nice
to have like well here’s this the
starting point within the players
handbook so the first thing he vocations
savant when you select the school at
second level it’s cheaper to add spells
into your spell book we don’t have a
handy hook for psionics but what I think
I might do here is maybe do something
with it has to do with the mind in
storing spells we’ll get to that in a
sec and then sculpt spells beginning at
second level you can create pockets of
safety within the effects of your a
vocation spells when you cast one of
those spells you can choose a number of
creatures equal to one plus the spells
level those creatures automatically make
their saving throws and take no damage
if they would normally take half damage
on the successful save this is a very
useful feature it might not seem like
that at first but really what it lets
you do is indiscriminately drop
fireballs or any other AoE on your
your allies and with without worrying
about harming them so what we’re seeing
here what I the important thing about
this feature is it shows off the design
concept behind the wizard subclasses as
a whole and rather than say you get this
benefit with a vocation spells now this
one does right when you cast in he
vocation spell but the idea was to say
what are benefits we can give you that
rather than make you think Oh spells
more powerful by throwing more dice on
them
what are how do you want to use those
spells and how can we make it easier to
use those spells that’s really what
we’re trying to get here is that we’re
gonna make you feel like oh yeah when I
you I want to use those spells as often
as I can cause I’m just really good at
it but they’re not just power levels
stronger that may be more versatile now
at higher level the temp/w you add your
intelligence mod but it’s not that’s not
a lot it’s actually really nice leader
it’s really mourning but your can trips
the six level your can trips do half
damage but again that’s not really
that’s kind of power neutral it might
not sound like it but it’s actually kind
of like it’s your can trip set of your
base level damage you’re doing less than
that so it just it feels nice but it’s
not necessary something like well that
makes your character more powerful no
one wants to miss or have their enemies
make saving throws this is just sort of
mitigating that and then the over
channel is basically lets you throw out
a really big boom at a cost
this is a good example of this over
channel feature we could have just said
when you cast up there was a wizard
spell of 1st through 5th level you can
maximize the damage do that once prolong
rest but the idea behind evoker was to
make them feel a little dangerous let’s
make their main magical field a little
unstable
so the flavor we’re delivering here
saying look you can do you can try doing
this more than once but you start taking
damage so and I saw suggested in chat
hell la night demon give them subtle
spell yeah I think that’s pretty cool I
think that’s the kind of thing we want
to do here is like just make this the
guy who can do stuff without gonna start
getting noticed so let’s throw two
things here let’s do our second level
abilities and then see that’s the kind
of direction I want to go so the first
thing the first thought I had was since
we don’t have an easy way to describe
these spells as Scrolls was to say oops
let’s do this every psychic library what
I want this to do is essentially create
a bank of spells that you can more
easily prepare or maybe swap into so
here’s whatever what I mean by that what
I want to give them this idea is that as
a Sion you really understand your mind
and you know how to manipulate it to the
point where your knowledge and memory is
a bit more efficient than others so
sorry it’s second-level you can swap and
I’m not gonna do the thing because way
up take three minutes I don’t want to
spend the time looking at the rules but
so what a prepared spell for a different
spell once per short rest so that’s what
I’m kind of think of this idea is you’re
really good at your head use your mind
and keeping your memory straight you’re
better at than other wizards I can’t
give you just like cheaper access to
Scrolls what I’ll do is I’ll give you
some more flexibility the and then for
your sort of the real ability let’s do
this the subtle spell thing is nice but
it’s a little situational so I like it I
think it might be something that would
probably just rest on top of your other
spells so here I’ll put this call it
subtle magic and just at second level
and spells without using
will a somatic components that’s really
flavorful but it’s not necessarily power
what I thought about doing was something
with giving you like an ESP at second
level you gain telepathy and and here’s
something I’m thinking about and when
you inflict on a creature and try to you
can bait another effect and here’s just
some a sample so what I’m thinking this
like what’s going on here is I’m very
good at mind stuff the you know I may
have completely messed up
great bulkeley’s I don’t have for PE LC
I may have I may have actually made that
much better because I might let you cast
in armor which I don’t want you to do so
we’ll just here you can cast spells in a
way that makes them hard to let’s do
that cuz again we look stuff up if I
wasn’t rushing to end this before time
is up I would look it up but the app so
I’ll just put that note say that’s what
I’m trying to do it’s hard to tell the
to casting a spell and I think this is
something like what I want you be able
to is you hit someone with psychic
damage so I mean sending you to grab as
many spells with psychic damage as
possible when I do psychic damage to
someone I want to do do things like read
their mind track their location see view
their recent past so this idea being
that you’re kind of like this weird like
knowledge mage because they’re really
good at you know the with psionics
you’re very good at manipulating Minds
maybe you are invisible to them you know
and by that I put a question mark there
to let myself remember I’m not saying do
this but I’m saying directionally do
this I can mess with their senses I
guess I put that but the idea being I’m
really good at
altering people’s minds and when I I
want to incentivize you to look for
certain spells not many of which we have
in the game so when you probably need to
design a few spells to go with this guy
but this is someone who can who can mess
with minds on a level of that that other
wizards can’t so we are at five of which
brings us to the end but you can see
already what I’m hoping you’re seeing
here is why sanics at least I always
felt they would really would deserve
another character class because we when
we were creating the wizard we didn’t
necessarily say don’t do anything that
feels like soundex but we felt like
let’s not try to stretch the spell list
to include that stuff because we want we
want to leave room for sonics eventually
and we didn’t feel like putting it into
the wizard in passing was not something
we wanted to do we wanted to do it more
thoughtfully if there were just a lot of
spells or iconic to the game that felt
psionic great just put them in the game
because people expect them but if not
don’t try to stretch to put the man
there’s plenty of other spells we can do
you can kind of see that’s happening
here within the wizard we just don’t
have any spells that are fitting the
sort of psychic flavor we’re looking for
and our mechanics therefore are getting
a little bit stretch to actually fit
what we want so probably I’ll do next
week is uh show off like how we might
design a couple spells and then to fill
in some of those gaps or maybe another
thing we can do is give a mechanism here
but I don’t like mechanics that are like
your spells now do psychic damage is it
a fire damage or whatever you just end
up with goofy things like it’s a
lightning bolt but instead of being a
lightning bolt it’s doing the psychic –
like what’s the point right so the but
anyways I think this is kind of
interesting since sort of shows this is
a great example of why we end up then
saying do we need a new character class
because you’re looking at the system
going room to really make this work we
have to add a lot of features and we’re
kind of starting to stretch things in
ways they don’t naturally map to the
it’s the same thing why the artificer
makes sense as a class lose I feel
because when you try replicating it in
other character classes you end up like
a nod not it doesn’t feel quite right so
anyway what we’ve got here is we have
our disaster barbarian who’ll get a
spiffed up better name if I have time
supreme is e week
I’ll see if I have time to like spiff up
the barbarian a bit so I can show off
finished form on stream next week I’m
not sure I’ll have time for it but yeah
we’ll do a little bit more on the scion
or maybe the psychic or the mind mage
will kind of I think this is one where
our name will come up later and again
keep in mind this is something which you
will not see this in UA because really
what we’re doing is I’m designing a
subclass to kind of show off like could
you do psionics with the existing rules
an existing character classes I think
the answer is no but I want to kind of
show you like why is it no and hopefully
that’s kind of interesting and then
we’ll dive into the next subclass next
weeks I think we’ll probably spend like
another 15 20 minutes on this one kind
of maybe identify some of the gaps and
then and then move on to something a
little more interesting but the actually
be kind of fun to kind of show off like
why I feel a mystic makes sense as a
class the and then the hopefully we’ll
do some or subclasses and I think you
know what it may be like in a few more
weeks – it will tackle ax maybe we’ll
start doing some stuff for the artifice
you’re on the stream we’ll see the eye
depends on our schedule and depends on
when we want to push out the next play
test version of it but now I think I
think it’d be fun to show off a
character class and how that all works
and then the difference in scope I think
we’ve done enough sub we’re starting to
enough subclasses now that we’re
starting to like say okay now why don’t
we take a next step out and look at what
making a class looks like all right well
thanks everyone for joining in thanks to
chat for chiming in and helping spur
some great ideas I’m pretty excited
about the disaster barbarian and I think
it’s be kind of fun to show off again
there’s some of the limits of the game
and why we see the mystic as a character
class rather than a subclass of other
classes until next week I keep playing
the indie and I’ll see you in Butz but a
week
[Music]
Happy Fun Hour is live right now on https://t.co/2KBortFoc5! Take a peek behind the screen and learn how we approach the process of #DnD design! pic.twitter.com/JKtnj1nCA4

— Dungeons & Dragons (@Wizards_DnD) April 24, 2018

The @mikemearls Happy Fun Hour starts in one hour at at 1pm PT! Watch Mike's #DnD design process before @JeremyECrawford guests on Dragon+ at 2pm PT to explain the development process that happens afterwards. Watch on https://t.co/2KBortFoc5! pic.twitter.com/YXwALp5qrG

— Dungeons & Dragons (@Wizards_DnD) April 17, 2018