That was an awesome Happy Fun Hour! Thanks for all the questions. Next week, I'll straighten out how to kick off testing of our new fighter subclass and we'll dive into the nomad.
— Mike Mearls (@mikemearls) September 11, 2018
Unearthed Arcana


UA Beauty Domain for clerics!
Almost done with the new domains I need for to round out my campaign’s pantheon. The Beauty domain is a little bonkers, probably too nutty for a print product. What do you think? Beauty can both bend minds and inspire hearts. It is the force that compels others to lose control and give in to their impulses, but it can also awaken strength and determination to steel a forlorn heart. Clerics of Beauty bring joy and hope to the world. They are the beacon of light that reminds us that some things are worth fighting for. They seek to bring peace and amity among the world’s folk. They fight only when they must, and prefer to use their magic to end fights with as little bloodshed as possible.
Beauty Domain Spells Cleric Level Spells 1st charm person, heroism 3rd enthrall, suggestion 5th beacon of hope, hypnotic pattern 7th charm monster, compulsion 9th dominate person, hold monster Beauty’s Refuge Starting at 1st level, your mere presence is enough to inspire hope and determination in others. When you complete a short or long rest, up to 12 allies of your choice gain temporary hit points equal to your Charisma modifier (minimum 1).
Rebuke the Defiler When you select this domain at 1st level, you gain the ability to rebuke those who lash out at your in violence. As a reaction when a creature you can see within 30 feet of you inflicts damage, you force that creature to make a Wisdom save. On a failed saving throw, it takes psychic damage equal to the damage dealt. On a successful save, it takes half that damage. If the creature made multiple attacks, select one attack to determine the damage dealt. If the creature used one or more effects that damaged multiple targets, choose the damage take by one of those targets from one of the effects. Once you use this feature, you can’t use it again until you complete a short or long rest.
A
Channel Divinity: Beauty’s Truce Starting at 2nd level, you can use your Channel Divinity to quell the flame of violence. As an action, you force all creatures within 100 feet of you to make Charisma saving throws. Each creature that fails this saved is charmed by every other creature that also failed the saving throw. This benefit lasts for one hour. While charmed by this ability, creatures consider all other creatures charmed by it to be their allies. They fight to defend them from attackers. While this ability persists, absent any threat creatures charmed by it will rest, talk among themselves, share stories of their lives, create a communal feast using food and drink they carry, and generally act as if they are old friends, long separated and brought together again for a joyous reunion.
Superior Refuge Starting at 6th level, the temporary hit points granted by your Beauty’s Refuge ability increase to 5 + your Charisma modifier (minimum 1).
Potent Cantrip Starting at 8th level, you add your Wisdom modifier to the damage you deal with any cleric cantrip.
Soul of Beauty Starting at 17th level, you become an avatar of unearthly beauty. Your enemies attack with uncertainty, fearful of damaging the wondrous being they behold, while your magic draws upon your presence to augment its power. As a reaction, you can impose a penalty on a creature’s attacks against you or on its saving throws against your spells and abilities. This benefit lasts until the end of the current turn. The penalty equals your Charisma modifier (minimum 1). pic.twitter.com/DbA9MrPEzP— Mike Mearls (@mikemearls) July 8, 2018
The basic design conceit – give the player the option to turn ANYTHING into a roleplay encounter.
— Mike Mearls (@mikemearls) July 8, 2018
Question on Rebuke Defiler.
If the damage over your Max HP, does it reflect back ALL damage, or just up to what your HP was? I’d run with all damage – the system does care about the overage, since it might instant kill, so that’s not dropped
— Mike Mearls (@mikemearls) July 8, 2018
[Soul of Beauty] says:
“As a reaction, you can impose a penalty on a creature’s attack roll against you [….] This benefit lasts until the end of your current turn.”So this feature doesn’t function against anything but Opportunity Attacks? ‘your’ should be ‘the’
— Mike Mearls (@mikemearls) July 8, 2018
Have you play tested Beauty’s Truce? Do they lose their old allegiances, even if they favour their new as it were? Does it just resolve into a three way fight?
— James Green (@Jim1810) July 8, 2018
None of this has seen play. Darkness and Destruction written Thursday and Friday night, fell asleep at my keyboard on both. Beauty written in between taking the cat to the vet and getting ready for a party this evening. So, use at your own risk until I make revisions. https://t.co/c6Zp4rZMNV
— Mike Mearls (@mikemearls) July 8, 2018

Summon Monster – The Mike Mearls Happy Fun Hour!
Merle’s happy fun hour I am your host
Mike morals
I am the franchise creative director on
Dungeons & Dragons and this week we have
something kind of fun to talk about so
they call me Tim you took dad to off
took time off work early for this why
hope it lives up to it because I think
this is gonna be really fun so the last
week we did some monsters before that we
did some monsters and week before that
we did psionics and as part of psionics
we talked about doing class the shaper
that could create like creatures kind of
like something so the I was thinking a
lot about summoning and if you remember
right I was looking at the summoning
spells like like the casting time is
often like a minute and it seems kind of
random what you get and so I decided hey
would it be interesting to try to tackle
somebody named there’s sort of a
different route the we all said a bunch
of announcements yesterday rabbinic and
Oberon so that’s all I get me excited
and I’ve got this so in chat if you guys
have questions about ever on it in
rabbika I don’t wanna try to hit them
here because I want to focus on what I’m
doing
game design wise here feel free to get
me on Twitter I’m at Mike Merle’s
or if you have questions they go ahead
and chat just talk amongst ourselves I’m
gonna try not to dwell on those though
because I don’t want I know some people
they call me tomu took time walk off
work early for this hopefully this being
the design of summoning and pet stuff so
I don’t want to like it too distracted
and if you’ve watched the stream you
know I’m easily distracted I am actually
chaotic neutral that is my actual
alignment so I don’t want to go
wandering off too far but um yeah so if
you’ve got questions feel free to hit me
up on Twitter and obviously in Chad just
just chat if you guys our questions
answered back and forth I don’t want to
go too uh we should we should probably
do something on settings and stuff at
some point but the I don’t want to go
too far off so game Phantom DM we are
back on the Sion somewhat indirectly
because I think we’re going to spend the
entire hour talking about summoning and
then indirectly talking about
pets and how those can work because I
wanted the I wanted to make sure the
soundex worked really well with this
idea of summoning and creating you know
creatures with sonic energy and it’s
obviously sending them out your enemies
having them do stuff you know a
summoning approach it’s a bit more
flexible than what’s in the players in
book right now kind of tank with the
idea of actually building a druid
subclass the shaman to show this off but
I don’t think we need to do that because
I think we just need to walk through how
I want to approach something lying faith
question here will there be more key in
warlock spell casting classes respects
maybe um the probably those will just
end up within those classes the monk
using key the warlock using ink you know
a short rest recharge on spell slots we
definitely have a real compelling reason
to build an entire new class when that
chassis is already there often we can
get that effect by using with subclasses
even within other classes so and this is
something here where this is gonna work
within our spell slot system so I’m
gonna address it purely with in terms of
just a generic summoning spell and what
that might mean so the game phantom this
is more like a new spell that would just
slot straight into the game it exists so
it’s gonna be we’ll see it’s not really
it’s not meant to replace what’s in
there in the players handbook it’s make
to complement because it’s gonna take a
little bit of a different approach so
you can see looming behind my head and
coming into view is this spreadsheet I
poked away at this last night because I
had this really useful potentially we’ll
see chat you might hate this then well
no it’s not useful but this revelation
about summoning and there’s a table the
Dungeon Master’s guide that it’s this
table right here coincidentally enough I
happen to have a copy on my desktop the
that tells you what I spell slot of a
given level is worth in terms of damage
and what is interesting here is that
this doesn’t apply just damage it
applies to healing and so I was stuck in
traffic yesterday I’m thinking about
this and it’s really hot up here in
Seattle and I’m stuck in traffic cuz I
completely screwed up and went the wrong
way there’s a street shutdown
and for some reason I’m driving toward
that Street rather than away from it
because I’m just being stupid
and I realized wait a second these
dimmers also apply to healing healing
does just hit points coming back into
the system and the characters who can
think of it as a system of hit points
they take damage hit points get knocked
out we throw a healing spell we put it
spit points back in your maximum hit
points are sort of your ceiling you
can’t get too many hit points pop a blob
well these could just be the hit dice or
hit points for a summoned creature and
then some of those dice could just be
the damage that that summoned creature
does and since remember when we were
talking about monsters we said look
really we kind of expect a fight to last
for three rounds three rounds is long
enough that it can feature multiple
abilities off work off a character or
monster it’s short enough that it feels
kind of predictable we can just take
your top three most powerful things once
a fight goes to four more rounds there’s
enough randomness and you’re probably
dealing with a big in a fight and big
enough area that’s it starts to if you
try to model that out too precisely you
just end up with very very scripted
feeling system so we just really look at
your top three things and go from there
well that’s actually kind of a nice
thing because I only have to worry about
those first three rounds of damage if
you get more rounds that’s just bonus
you know well played so what we’re
looking at and rad like asks the
question how do we use multiple summons
love bogging down the action economy I
try to think of that too and I think I
have an answer but we’ll see we’ll see
we’ll see so okay the what this
revelation meant was you could take a
first level spell slot and say hey this
could summon a creature that has one D
ten hit points that’s it’s hid died and
over the course of three rounds
does a total of one D ten damage no
that’s a that’s like whoa hey that could
totally work no that’s kind of a lame
creature though right one D ten damage
it’s like five point five on the average
over three rounds that’s less than two
points of damage great I summon
something with like sixty points that if
it hits those two points of damage
hurray summoning right like that that’s
not exciting then I thought of sanics
we’ve talked about Sonic’s
being able to label ladle on more slots
on two one
effect to change it make it more
powerful so what if we instead said hey
I want some of the creatures so I spend
a first little spell slot to create that
creature summon it it’s kind of weak
it’s whatever it is it’s got one D 10
hit died and it’s doing two dansk around
then I threw another switch first of all
spell slot on it to augment it now maybe
it’s doing four damage per round it has
11 hit points instead of five five or
six and then it started to make sense to
me okay so I have a creature I’m
summoning and I can just put more spell
slots into it to make it more powerful
just like we talked about doing with
psyonix right I have a if you’ve missed
the sonic streams we talked about doing
was having this set of can trips that
required concentration and while you’re
concentrating on that can trip you can
expend spell slots to generate new
effects either completely new effects or
in this case I might have a canned trip
level summon is my imaginary friend so I
kind of thought of it shows up and then
I spend my spell slots to get my
imaginary friend more hit points and
better attack give him special effects
or benefits things like that so there we
go
yeah and Mad Hatter up yet and this is
probably some sort of bonus action
effect right like I just do it ladle it
on top but also I’m doing my critter
runs and does things and I’m still using
spells because this takes concentration
I’m not I don’t have the full access to
everything I could do and there we go it
starts to keep things a little bit
simpler and then since I’m expending my
spell slots there’s a clear cost for
this if I just want to summon a monster
in our creature whatever and say hey I
just want you to block this door if
remember we talked about this last week
this is one of the over couple weeks ago
the the real tricky thing about pets and
monsters is battlefield control it’s not
necessarily the damage output it’s not
necessarily you know the effects they
bring with them though it can be if
there’s that does happen but the real
thing that happens is you can summon a
creature and then just block off part of
an encounter area you can you know you
can summon a creature to have a ghost
scout ahead
you can have it summon a creature have a
ghost set off a trap and it’s a it’s a
10 D 10 damage trap well my three hit
points summon creature goes triggers it
gets killed whatever is just a personal
spell side I don’t care I move on the
and that’s kind of what okay so this is
actually now there is more of a cost to
it rather than what is maybe happen if
something in the past
so going back the trap example what you
might do is I’m gonna summon eight
little creatures now I’ve got eight
little trap trigger guys I can deploy
the next eight traps we are we have a
get-out-of-jail-free cards for them so
this is a way in which hopefully we can
make summoning really fun and compelling
but happy appropriately costed and then
what I actually like about is I thought
about it you know that emotional level
of the design and playtesting will tell
will tell us if this actually works but
I like this idea that I summon a thing
and then it’s like I have a relationship
with it I can give it abilities its
Politan really hurts well I’m gonna
spend a spell slot to give it some more
hit dice that’ll increase its maximum
and current hit points that’s why I
imagine so
my summon creatures guarding the doorway
and the orcs trying to batter through
and he gets really beaten up okay great
my turn
bonus action either a third level slot
on it give him five D ten more hit
points and then I fire bolt the orc in
the face is trying to get through you
know things like that and then my summon
creature takes his turn and smacks the
orc you know things like that so that is
kind of the idea here that could also
apply to a pet creature though I’m not
gonna worry about the pet right now I
really want to focus on the summoning
somebody and how that might work so what
I think this is to start with I’m gonna
make a spell so but I haven’t made a
spell on stream before and I don’t like
making us what I don’t like that only
it’s not expensive I’ll be honest with
you had only designing spells so that
spells the game’s like hundreds of them
why do I need more right the the
incremental benefit of one spell when
you’ve like 5,000 in the game is just
tiny right compared to like adding a new
class we only have like twelve so but
we’ll do this and I’m gonna kind of
write this out I have my word document
here what I want to do is call up DNA
beyond because when you’re designing
something we never we never assume we
remember we always assume we’re gonna
forget so we always go back and we look
at what exists and make sure we’re
getting it right so what I want to do
here is just look at all my spells I’m
just gonna grab a summoning spell at
random right well nice things on Deenie
beyond is that I can go to my advanced
filters go to tags and I’m pretty sure
I’ve got a summoning tag handily and
quite usefully added
and then I’ll just come down here and go
both my spells let’s see what we got
all right and so I’m gonna grab now want
this be a bonus action no there’s no
bonus action summoning spells in the
game right now so I’m just going to grab
the closest element I’m gonna stay away
from the the grave the demon spells just
cuz I know those come with a cost
the so I’m gonna throw up here and go
hey look we got Condor animals is one
action great boom so I’m gonna use this
as my guide
now make this at the actually wearing
two columns so we should be fine okay
I’m gonna try to keep an eye on where my
head is so actually know what I’ll just
reverse these because the spell is not
as important as the so what I want I’m
just gonna call this monster summoning
or I guess we do like verb than thing
that’s coming out of it so I’m now gonna
murder our format because I forget what
the actual format looks like the I’ll
clean it up so summon monster this is
when you spell that scales up just like
a lot of our spells do we imagine miss a
lot of that connect spells come in at
low levels and scale up this would be
the same thing the you know actually
it’s really fun to consider like this
format is not the permit we use in our
book so I’m just gonna make something up
the information is going up on screen
will see it it’s it’s cool I’m a
professional don’t worry
the is I find it weird sorry the comic
tome and see this is funny once i like
call it someone like i keep seeing the
thing yeah psychokinesis Terkel apathy
those are act we did touch on those the
question is why haven’t i touched those
yet those when we did do the wizard one
i touched on that a bit it’s interesting
cuz it’s not really something that is
like massively new but it gets into the
what i want to talk in with sign axes
like this solve summoning solve the
things that are like we can’t do right
now then everything else will fall into
place so the only take a quick looks you
have any questions so far so then make
sure I’m not lying the fake up a
question show the very to really be we
work and said you should the Beastmaster
me work that’s an interesting you know
it might be the depend on this
expiration we might find there’s a
better way to approach the Beastmaster
style design and just do a new subclass
which would actually solve a lot of our
the issues that we see
monka for ailments rework I don’t you
know I think it’s more likely
and the chamber warlock – something
falling under here what I would want to
do let’s say I do this stuff and it’s
amazing I never was like this is how
everything should be done from beginning
this is the most likely just to end up
in new options you can add to the game
we’re trying to avoid going back and
rewriting the players handbook we’ve
sold a lot of players handbooks and we
don’t want to create a disconnect in the
audience whenever possible we can solve
a problem by offering you a new feature
that can rest aside the existing
features but that’s hitting the target
of what people want that I feel is a
good good path forward and as I
mentioned went back we’re looking at the
Ranger if we had something which we felt
really was just a pure replacement we
would try to get that out there for free
right we wouldn’t expect you like hey
you really like playing like you know
the Beast Master Ranger you really like
it but you’re really frustrated we’ll
make it available to through DMS Guild
and through DDD Beyond without charge
because we that’s kind of a make good
you know we kind of promised you you
could play this and if you’re trying to
play it and you’re frustrated by it
we don’t you feel like oh now you have
to go buy this book to make the game
work you know that that’s never feeling
we want people to have so the it is
funny – they can we think of things that
are broken one thing I will say I was
making up some pre gen characters over
the weekend and you know I know the
champion is a design that I’m not
necessarily crazy about and I know
people have some issues with but I made
like a half work champion and you know a
half work on a crit gets an extra extra
die of damage and that half work
champion with a great axe like that’s
funny up that’s a go okay this is where
this could work you know it’s hard for
us to just say like something just
doesn’t flat-out work because might be
someone out there playing that you know
a character who’s built to do crits
who’s playing a champion who feels like
oh this is great it’s exactly I want I
like creating a lot this is really
working the but yeah so it’s that we
don’t want to just erase things and put
new things like putting things alongside
then essentially letting the market
place you players everyone watching
includes me – I play the game and let
them just kind of decide what they want
so okay so looking down here would be
possible some of the creature and just
have a really high AC but no attacks
like ten eight points it’s High Noon
that is a great question because what we
want to make sure in this system is we
don’t let you change a weakness into a
strength by that I mean often in games
and we have this concept of hey you give
up this to get that which can work as
long as the this year giving up is
something you value in competitive games
what players will always attempt to do
is say I want to give up something I
don’t care about and get something I
really care about so I’m always wary of
that approach because it is easy to put
yourself in a position of let’s go back
my earlier example my summon creatures
blocking a doorway
I just want to max out it’s it’s AC and
it’s hit points and pour resources into
that I would want that to be something
where you just are expending resources
to get that not well normally this is
the number of points I’d get for a third
level slot but I’m I’m getting that with
a first or second level slot because
I’ve decided to not give it an offensive
upgrade
I prefer especially needy to just say
this is what this costs and it just you
know let’s not attach the drawback to it
so try to avoid that because again then
you just end up in situations where
let’s erase the drawback now I’m ahead
of the curve it makes all the sense in
competitive games because that’s part of
the puzzle but not necessarily doesn’t
necessary fit into D&D so I prefer that
to be more restrict acting like when
you’re playing the game you realize hey
we can normally this would be a weakness
but because of the situation we’ve
engineered through clever play we’ve
been able to overcome this drawback so
yeah things like you know turning the
narrow hallway only one you know the
only one monster can approaches at a
time things like that it’s more tactical
rather than it’s just baked into my
character that I just I just have this
button I press and this thing happens so
okay so let’s talk about the spell so I
wanted to be a first level conjuration
spell
get my formatting everything’s me off
because I’m just taking notes here I’ll
pretty it up and maybe posted to Twitter
probably later on this week the casting
time it’s going to be an action to
summon and then bonus action Dogman
and we want our range you know we don’t
want the creature to be like just stuck
next to you then it spends its first
turn just running up things I think like
60 feets pretty reasonable that’s the
range on Kandra animals components
verbal and somatic that seems fine
duration when the thing pops in I think
I want this to be something the basic
last 24 hours and it’s gonna be
concentration schools give me
conjuration get us just notes here
attack save there’s nothing damage a
factory it’s a summoning so I’m not
gonna worry about that and so okay so
here’s what we go what I want need to do
is the you cast the spell you get a
creature you’re going to get a basic
creature based on the spell slot then
when you add spell slots you get to
decide what augmentation you want to
give the creature the ICO is the
question hell okay that’s I thought this
question here the all about the
eastwards thing Brian O’Brien gold the
CEO of Hazzard was on I did an interview
state time to eat sports waste eSports
and D&D means more streaming so that’s
not it’s just more when you’re on TV
live TV give me an interview you’re not
gonna take like hey let’s explain
everything across the board though an
east they will be kind of interesting we
were talking about that this morning
what would like a battle royale game
look like for D&D what we settled on was
you get to play as a bunch of monsters
so the maybe you start out as a kobold
and you level up to like him at should
become a beholder
or maybe just start as a beholder cuz
that’d be fun and then you play all the
crazy wacky monsters the anyways the
yeah so it’s not like DNA like we don’t
see competitive D&D you know it’s not
something we see as we wouldn’t do they
would just depend on the platform and
where we’re trying to go for though uh
yeah if people really want to do
something along that line and there’s
been events you know that people have
brought that but yeah it’s not if we did
something that it wouldn’t it wouldn’t
change the role-playing game the
role-playing game is what it is that
wouldn’t you know I guess it was less we
saw a demand for it people we really
want to try this then we try to find a
way to make it work so okay so this is
basically my skeleton here and so I’m
gonna bullet point out
so there’s gonna be things you spell
slot determines the few effects I’m not
gonna start adding layers of bullet
points buts gonna be size hit points
protects the rest of the stuff will kind
of get to will see but this is this is
enough for the chassis to build the
creature we want the when are the Matt
question is this gonna be a
concentration loss means monster goes
poor a monster goes berserk good goal
that’s and should me think okay I think
it’d be this concentration I don’t want
you just to lose the spell so oh maybe
this shouldn’t be a concentration spell
you know exercise I think about it I
think making this not a concentration
spell actually might make more sense
because it’s got hit points and someone
could just smack it and kill it so I’m
gonna take concentration off you know
what call me crazy chat go ahead type in
I’m crazy
but I’m gonna take that off cuz I think
it’s unfair if I summon the creature I
want to throw a Sheila faith on it why
not why can’t I do that I’m not gonna
say you can’t I’ll have to play dice to
tell me we can the and so the what we
got here so then basically what we need
to do is take this table that I have in
PDF format here and just again I’m just
gonna rough out what these things might
look like so let’s go over to here it’s
your my head my heads clipping the level
five and lower off so I’ll just so as a
rough estimate I’m just gonna create
create really I’m actually you know
we’re in hack ville or just hacking
around if we actually build a table
using the MS or a table tool because
those do not transfer over to our layout
at all so I’m gonna go full screen so
I’m trying to run with the table tool is
here we go so obviously I want a table
that’s gonna be for cross and let’s just
do this number down so spell level
sighs uh-huh cancel pit points and then
tax and slash damage so what I want to
do with this table is just really here
I’ll do this oops
very quickly translate over this now my
head’s in the way so we’ll go over here
my giant block yeah there we go so let
me walk you through what this
spreadsheets doing the I don’t take a
quick look any questions in chat let’s
see how many summons can I have a good
question
Beauty do be the UM I think I’m gonna
limit you don’t want to start with we’ll
start with one and then we’ll see can
you do multiple summons the main thing
is handling time and then just that area
control I’d rather have you scale up a
monster size and say now I control more
of the battlefield of the counter area
rather than say you get like eight
summons because it also really can
really slow the game down very quickly
the be persnickety and I just want to
bold this just my things so then we’ll
just go hey one two three four five six
let’s see it looks like okay cut off a
little bit I’ll do the rest we get to it
so I think what we want to start with is
I just do here
it’s gonna start it’s assumed size
medium until I have a reason to do
otherwise and so then this is our basic
entry-level summoned creature so I
summon a creature what do I get
the augments will use a different table
again this is just what kind of Hagin
this thing together see what we end up
with so looking at the spreadsheet this
one I worked on last night
I just took spell level I took that
table earlier we said we saw how many D
tens of damages spell is worth put that
here these are our D tens I did not
write 15 D 10 because I want to be able
to write Excel equations without having
to like wear what strip out the D 10
notation so I just threw in the number
of D tens here we go we’ll do this this
would be clear and then this was an
estimate now these numbers are actually
a kind of bogus because this is just the
assuming all those get get got turned
into hit points so it was a deed to D 10
creature it had 98 points I don’t want
that I wanted to be 5050 so guess what
you get to watch me very carefully right
there very complicated Excel equation I
know if you can see this what I’m
writing is I’m going to multiply the D
tens row the number of dice by 4.5 which
is a d8 reserved size medium hit die and
then I’m just going to divide it by two
because basically what I’m doing is I’m
splitting in half the value of the spell
slot between attack and defense this is
a bit bogus because I don’t think my
damage I want my damage to scale up that
way but it’s a good starting point and
then I actually have to do the same
thing over here I can’t just
whatever we’ll just do this goals gonna
take B to multiply it by 4.5 I’ll just
use D eights cuz that’s no this is D
tens loops look like that and then
divide by 2 so this is a sort of total
damage output you’d expect the spell to
have now because we expect this thing to
last three rounds the tip of a fight
the we would have divided by three so
this is just going to be equals this now
that’s a really low number we’re not
surprised that’s only a first of all
swimming so this gives us our baseline
the okay so what we’re looking at here
is we’ve got given a spell of level X 1
to 9 if I was just to take the die
expression from the dmg the number of D
tens that this is worth and then say how
many hit points for this thing have and
how much damage should it do total and
then per round for three rounds and in
fact to be fair I should probably
actually make this 5 it should just be
equal so essentially use some of the
creature and it’s going to have hit
points and then it’s going to do damage
equal to its hit points but we’re
breaking that up for three rounds the
nice thing about this though is you can
see if I have a level one summon it’s
gonna have about five or six eight
points it’s doing two damage around so
it’s like doing a one D for damage with
no modifiers we’re got to kind of hack
things up it’s not gonna be like a
monster in full like minister I’m adding
modifiers and whatnot
to its damage just again I just want to
get this thing a functional I’m not
gonna try to get it perfect
but that is not necessarily super
exciting but it’s a starting point often
just getting the first sort of pylons
down your foundations there and I can
start building on top of it that’s what
you need what starts getting interesting
to me though is again
what I can do to augment these because
what I imagine is getting a creature and
having it hanging around 24 hours is
really good it’s very useful so the and
so I imagine is you probably don’t want
to invest a couple spell slots into
attacks to make this shine now one thing
that the members with the keep an idea
in context oh and I’m gonna just make it
up myself leaning baseline AC speed etc
so some point we have to decide what’s
our starting point to give you a sort of
preview we’d assume that AC should be
something reasonable it’s not like oh
it’s a c10 that does this expend a spell
to make it not terrible it’d probably
come in like what I would do is take a
look at like what’s a C 15 or 16 to be
good starting point that’s what an AC
that a lot of characters can hit pretty
easily at first level you figure a rogue
with leather armor at a deck 16 is gonna
have an AC 14 anyone heavy armor is
gonna have AC 16 or out of the box 18
with the shield even a wizard or any
caster with me armor can hit that so
it’s not it’s not that super super crazy
the and so with that in mind let’s take
a look at the spell progression for
let’s say a wizard or let’s say druid
right cuz druids and something were a
kind of a thing that feels kind of like
that somatically feels like you know
appropriate that doesn’t matter they all
at the same spell progression I just we
haven’t talked about the druid in the
stream before so why not show the druid
off can see this cool art the my head’s
not in the way okay so let’s take a
quick look at the spell progression so
let me see if I can explode this up
there we go yeah it looks pretty real
so we see a first of all Germans gonna
have to first level spell slots by the
time you get a third level you for first
level on to second level so if we assume
that you’re gonna have to invest to
spell slots at a minimum you know first
of all spell slots just to kind of get
something that’s not it can be a bit
more active the that seems kind of
reasonable around third and fourth
levels when you first start actually
doing this a lot I’m okay for not doing
this at first and second level all that
much because when we think of summoning
it’s adding complexities of the game
it’s giving the party more stuff to do
we said it said we have more actions we
have more battlefield control which
having more people and just gives me
more options right you can just get this
thing can just it’s it’s another
character you get the boss around the
other nice thing is we do need have
designed the game set first and second
that will sugar by go by pretty quickly
so I’m not too worried if a lot of
casters are waiting now if you are
really dedicated to seminole what I
probably want to do is create a subclass
that in augment your ability to summon
and maybe you are the player at first
souls just like no I’m spending both my
first of all spell slots to summon
something and then I might have a class
feature
depending on the class I’m playing that
improves that but but I’m okay with you
not being so great at it out of the gate
it probably means something like a you
know a healing class with summoning like
there’s gonna be a natural tension there
but that exists anyways you know we
don’t assume people are healing we
assumed they’re their cannon because
they want to we don’t sort of make other
things cheaper to encourage you to heal
we just make everything cost whaa costs
and you decide what you want to do so
okay let me do a quick look of questions
here the okay so there we go so I feel
like that’s a half tease in place so I
go back to here and my my table here
oops my spreadsheet here and I put this
over here
if I was just to translate this over I
could prop a cat at first level again
just going straight by this have a
creature with 11 hit points and that’s
doing like 1b 4 damage per strike it’s
not super good but it could be useful as
soon as I get a second level spell slot
I’ve got a creature with 90 points now
the damage here this is probably a
little too
well it’s only 2.8 I think back the
envelope but I’d want to do is that
you’re getting about it know if this a
second level spell slots probably get
you a d6 we’d probably just round up I’m
not too worried about over the course of
three rounds or doing an additional 2.1
damage that’s not it’s not the end of
the world we don’t we don’t get that
finicky it isn’t until level fourth
double slot this always throws me off by
the way that the that’s a row five
little four is getting a d-10 so what
that tells me is I’m probably gonna make
this you know what I think this is
probably maybe even approach you the
base summoning spell is gonna give you
this things form its hit points and its
size and then what I probably want to do
then is have an augment to give it an
attack because then even at low levels
okay this thing’s kind of durable I can
still use it to like defend I can still
use it to like a lock down an area I can
still have it scout ahead things like
that the yeah magda but you can stick
and drop will someone I just grab them
and help out the rest the party
grappling in fifth all it does is it
reduces your speed to zero it doesn’t
give it’s not until you get to the not
entangled I was restrained that you’re
actually giving out advantage so that’s
actually something that could um that
could work pretty well okay so here’s
what we’re gonna do here we’re gonna
blow this is we’re gonna add another
column here who fancy when insert a
column and then what I want to be able
to do is just say total value so what
I’m doing is I’m gonna make a column
that just shows my total sort of hit
point and damage value combined just for
use a reference here keep that point
duplicate that and rather than just have
a raw calculation I want to that want I
want a g4 of damage and I’m okay with
that being 5.5 coming out of this and
want the rest going into head points so
I’m just gonna say this is five point
five because I what I want to do then
say is this equals c2 minus e2 there we
go and now I’m getting numbers that look
a bit more useful in terms of hit points
so scaling up much quicker especially at
low levels because I’m keeping my
damaged static so this is my damage my
total damage takes a big chunk out but
then as I just everything else gets
pushed over to hit points I see a nice
quick bump here
so my first of all spot my first of all
summons stays the same but my second
level summons has 11 hit points for that
spell slot and a D for day and it so
this is yeah so this feels pretty good
if I’m coming with a base summoned
creature this is the number of hit
points I’m getting on that creature and
it’s got a D for attack without a
modifier it gets one attack if I want to
make it offensive I had to put a spell
slot into it if I wanna make a defensive
about to put another spell slot into it
and defensive imagine would be it has
more hit points and maybe has an ability
to protect people around it so yeah I
kind of like that how do you guys feel
about that the they call me tell me why
is this someone looking so much
phenomenally better than say fine grater
steed this isn’t flying on if I remember
right from fine grater steed that is
flying is very expensive in 5th ed
paranthas oom dunder so I can see
everything here flying you you get
charged a lot to fly that’s why there’s
like some DMS really don’t like the Eric
okra the they find out yeah it’s just
too good at first so a creature that
just at first of all can just fly
that TRO a lotta DMS really just feels
like it’s just – it’s two fleets it’s
far too flexible for the party to have
access to so when you’re going yes you
get a pair eaten I mean you can get a
Rhino like so here’s how this spell
works you can choose a Griffon a Pegasus
or Parrington or you can choose
something else really because the flying
creatures on the list here it pushes it
up the now we look at the saber-tooth
tiger
this thing has 52 hit points and let’s
see let’s actually look at its full step
like this is our fourth level spell 52
hit points and it’s dealing 10 damage on
a hit
okay so 52 and 10 for level 4 let’s look
at our spreadsheet level for spell so
actually we’re getting this thing is
actually coming up behind it so now the
other thing to keep in mind here is that
this is also a 1-minute spell casting
time sorry casting time 10 minutes so
you’ve got to be ready like you need a
lot of time to bring this thing in the
yeah now that is something that we have
to keep in mind this is all sort of
theory crafting then we have to actually
look at the spells that are here the
cossack 1:59 you can I summon a level 2
creature but with two levels added to it
so here’s how I would want this to work
going back to our spreadsheet I cast an
initial summoning spell that’s summoning
spell based on its level here and is
that big enough yet it looks like it’s
big enough to OPI chiming in shadow this
is big enough
cast a spell I pick the the spell slot I
want to cast that gives me some initial
values I can then expand further spell
slots to augment its hit points it’s a
it’s attack or them potentially give it
other special abilities and I pictures
being dynamic that I can probably expend
spell slots to essentially yeah peel it
there should be a healing effect I can
basically replenish its hit points
probably to discount because you’ve
already committed to the creature to
keep it standing so and these would be
one action to summon and they act as
soon as they show up so the so yeah and
it might be beauty by approach it might
be the idea
ten minutes summon and then you keep it
around and then Ahmad wenting is in
action will see part of it’s going to
come down to how these stack up to
everything that’s out there because of
the existing you know let’s just do that
right now why am I sort of beating on
bush let’s reset all our filters then
let’s vote you are summoned tagged and
let’s just see where we ended up all
right I’m gonna choose I’m gonna go with
well we have one actually ever Kandra
animals its duration is an hour
let’s just go challenge two so and
challenge two giant boar let’s go the
giant boar so an ax murder I forgot
what’s fellas level to spell right
little three spill some this is what
Mike my level three summon currently
gets me and hear what I’m saying is 28
hit points and one D for damage so here
I’m pretty far by on hit points I’m at
28 verses 42 so this is this armor class
is 12 which is lower than what I was
looking at as the standard this thing
can charge and it’s doing 10 damage on a
hit so we’re not super far off we are a
little bit behind but we’re not so far
off and I’m like oh this is just a bad
approach this just needs some more
refinement what I suspect is happening
here that I’m undervaluing the dislike
I’m sorry overvaluing damage right now
sticking you in a d4 in a in a vacuum
makes sense because I’m just saying hey
what’s the mathematical value of this
but we have to keep in mind there’s a
number of things going on in here this
this could be killed so I’ve made an
investment for three rounds worth of
attacks and I got one
we don’t worry about missing because we
just kind of assume like we don’t try we
don’t normally really like super
penalize your offense like your accuracy
to give you much bigger damage we do
that sometimes it’s not standard
typically we just assume a about
essentially assuming a plus 3 or plus 4
ability modifier and then
the appropriate proficiency bonus based
on the character level of the effect so
for instance a third level spell we’d
assume like okay a fifth level character
so proficiency bonus two plus three
probably a plus four modifier from a
stat so it’s acting its attack when it
should be about plus seven so this is
probably one thing that’s that I’m off a
bit here with this dim it should
probably be higher and I’m gonna
arbitrarily because there’s nothing
nothing more fun than just making
arbitrary decisions you know this d4 is
probably good here but it’s well but
it’s it points are lower there’s a funny
thing here it has lower hit points it’s
more likely to get splattered but in
theory it’s fighting weaker creatures so
less likely to kill it one blow but that
probably tells me these are probably
like it might have to start higher and
not scale up as quickly because even
like me with 44 hit points for the fifth
able spell there aren’t too many things
unless you’re really focusing fire
typically your tax get broken out rather
than just being one big attack that
deals 44 you’re dealing like four
attacks that do 11 each at like you know
see our nine creatures and that in that
neighborhood so it’s gonna hit you with
everything or two hits in a crit
thereabouts so it’s a very long way of
saying I think that this damage has to
start higher and can scale up slowly
because the threat of the creature
getting struck down in one round does go
down a little bit as I go up in level so
I’m gonna get more reassured payback on
my my investment for three rounds of
damage so I’m gonna arbitrarily do this
this is always this is a fun thing
that’s when you’re like doing some real
deep game design I do this I’m just
gonna peg the damage at d6 to start with
I mean sometimes you just sort of like
you take an estimate and it you see
where it goes let’s do one d6
let’s do one D 8 D 1 D 10 and let’s keep
it at 1 d 10 for a few levels let’s go
up to 2 d6
again this is just back the envelope
right here it’s the Wild West but I had
that to me starts to be more of a
reasonable thing we might even want to
add your caching ability mod to this
because we might find it’s just not
quite having the impact we want again
we had while this is the strict map
mathematical reflection of the value
it’s not capturing the context again you
could just kill the creature then you’ve
lost your investment the and the
important thing there is that’s an
opportunity cost the monster has
attacked the creature rather than attack
a party member which is nice but that
could also be an AoE that’s capturing
the creature regardless so there’s
really is no opportunity cost there and
you have spent a spell slot on it so you
should get some more reliable return on
your investment unless the enemy is also
using for instance a counter spell or a
disability they’re burning a limited
resource to deal with it so it’s not an
exact thing you know this is gonna be
kind of one of the things we get to kind
of look at it and get a sense of the
feel of how this is gonna play out what
typically happens my experience is you
kinda have this phase to start the math
you go to this phase where chuckling
dealing what feel then you’re gonna loop
back to the map once you start actually
playing and you just yeah this is kind
of thing it’s gonna feel too good or too
weak and then you’ll take a look at the
math and you’ll see okay here’s where
it’s happening we need to bump this up
by a kadai or bump it down by a couple
points so the okay so we have here a
model we have here a creature that I can
get with a third level spell I’m looking
at my third level spell here and seeing
one d-10 damaged it’s not too far off
it’s like half the damage here again
this guy might be a little inaccurate
compared to where this guy is gonna end
up but we are we are not home yet but
we’re in the right neighborhood so I
feel like that’s a pretty good starting
point so then what I want to do is what
I imagine how the spell will work is let
us be a table you have a stop lock and
then you have a table that’ll tell you
here the pieces to drop in so any
questions so far let’s see where we got
here the
well pokeballs comes an arcane focus our
train Derek I guess they could write the
over super you skip what you also can’t
buff a conjurer element with other
spells that’s right because you’ve got
if I remember right these summons are
concentration so that is also a benefit
you’re getting with this spell so and
again that’s one of those things that
you can’t really put a hard cost on it
too easily you’re you can’t put a hard
cost on it that is it cost the system
math tells you you have to kind of
estimate it based on your field all
right so the tennis Toto
summoners con mod to hit point and in
modded image yeah I think will do
something like that I like the feeling
of like that your ability scores matter
and so I think it might just be casting
stat all the way around because I just
might be a little easier that is a
bigger number it might distort the hit
points here but we have ways which we
can kind of if we’re using hit dies can
kind of decrement those a little bit to
account for a mod coming in that’s also
why we wouldn’t well we wouldn’t a Sarah
want to use two mods like say hey it’s
your casting mod for this and your con
mod for that because that’s less
predictable and if this is something
it’s me very signature for people we
want the nature the effect to be fairly
predictable in the sense of I just seem
a summoning druid I just max on my
wisdom I know my summons are gonna be as
tough and is damaging as they need to be
I don’t then have to because of a spell
and start thinking of another ability
score that’s why in fifth edition if
you’re a wizard and you make an attack
with a spell user intelligence modifier
rather than your dexterity and three
five used your dexterity but what it
meant was kind of hidden within the game
you had to figure out that if I was
going to take scorching Ray that I
needed a good dexterity to actually make
that work
the so we wanted to move away from that
but just keeping things more
straightforward so okay they call me
Tommen would disavow magic and this yeah
it actually it would the as written
right now and
you know I’d have to think about what
we’d want to do the one where II there
would be I stack multiple slots into it
to some of the creature and then one
spell counters act that might not be
what we want so don’t think about it it
is a little bit so alright so the what
might be to speak you know I could this
is something I could imagine easily is
that what it might do is might dispel
one of the effects on it and you have to
like you take out each spell at a time
the but that’s something which we do
more in the refine in phase so this is a
half-decent starting point I’m
comfortable here using this I am just
gonna throw in these numbers here for
now my notes my spreadsheet to refer to
needless to say this is something we
require a lot of testing the it’s a
great example of something where math
well mathematical analysis of system is
very good if you’re dealing with two
existing practices because that’s a like
versus like we’re dealing with something
that’s doing something essentially
completely new or the comparisons like
the existing summoning spells are so
different that you can’t be confident
that that is a one-to-one relationship
it gets a little bit harder to just
sorta to theory craft that’s a theory
crafting is very useful it gives you a
very good starting point especially for
what your issues might be but it doesn’t
it’s more theory crafting is very good
to determine what you’re now going to
argue about then rather necessarily tell
you what the answer is
the but like I said it’s still it’s very
it’s a useful tool to have I’m gonna
keep this damaged these hit points where
I’m just sort of charging you 5.5 total
damage even though this is going up
again that’s kind of reflecting my I
think that this initial approach was
under was attaching too much value was
overvalued undone driving over valuing
the damage output from the summon
creature so I’m gonna let that slide I’m
not going to try to try to tank with
eight points so I’ve got my raw numbers
up here still well
I think I’m not too worried about this
because I look at like the second double
spell slot 11 hit points with one d8
damage that’s essentially a first little
character get swatted down in one hit
pull out of the time but I think I’m
okay with this because I think I’m okay
if the typical operating procedure is
you want to put two spell slots into
this to get something that’s gonna be
really durable for your your group the
so I think I’m okay with that so now I
want to add another column here know
what ten minutes okay good oh let’s see
let’s insert a column to the right and
I’m gonna call this points this is
pretty simple what we want to say is how
many if I expend a spell slot to buff my
summon creatures hit points how many
points are to get and that’s really easy
cuz it’s this column right here right
it’s just the numbers right there so I’m
just gonna try this a little voodoo and
I try to copy a page between programs
and see what happens there girls just
did it so that’s just how many points
you should get we talked with buffing
damage this is probably where we need to
be a little more precise so I am once
again I don’t need this what I’m going
to do is I’m gonna change this so
instead of dividing my my leftover
damage by three I’m just gonna divide
the total value of the spell by three
and see what like that number okay and
I’m seeing some numbers here that
already make me pretty happy so the
because they are and they are sort of
human readable numbers I got a three
point seven is great that’s a d6 so the
sort of column to the right
that’s really tiny because of my thing
watching me resize do it this is why it
tune in right to watch me move there we
go let me buff damage and so if if it’s
first level spell saw it gives me three
points seven days per round that’s easy
that’s plus twenty six
it’s my tax in additional d6 damage five
point five that’s easy that’s plus one
need ten now we start getting these
bigger numbers what I’d like to do is
since I’ve got I know I’m doing I might
start giving you extra attacks so I know
that the let’s see 9.2 that’s still it’s
gonna say plus 2 D 10 well now I can’t
because it the next it’ll cost you 10 I
don’t want to give you a tax a lot of
extra tax until a higher level that’s to
d8 so anyways that’s math we can go
through the interesting thing will be
once we get up to here when I’m doing 28
extra damage per round I probably want
to start making this extra attacks and
extra damage and that’s to avoid just
the wif factor the one thing that would
then say is I can’t throw in a buff that
gives me a bunch of extra tax then
thrown another buff that further
increases my damage so we probably need
a rule that says if you apply a buff you
use the biggest buff rather than just
you can stack all these up we wouldn’t
want to do is say like I just pour a ton
of low-level slots into a monster my
summoned creature now it’s just doing
ungodly damage you know it might
overshadow the rest of the party so I
think what I think we could do is also
put it a spell level cap on it you could
say for instance if the number gets too
big over here we’ll just start saying
look you can only go up to a fifth level
it’s a little too good to give you this
damage all the time because it’s gonna
last
I mean I’m projecting for three hours
per fight but I know ideally if you’re
playing smart you want to keep this
around for a long time
you’re good it’s an interesting thing
we’re sort of plays skill we’ll get a
better value return here I don’t want to
let that return get out of hand so and
once I’m seeing plus 2d ten damage on
top place so it’s 3d ten damage per hit
here that doesn’t feel noxious that
feels like okay I feels pretty good I’ve
invested a fourth levels two fourth of
all spell slots to get this that feels
okay
but I don’t want these to start turning
into this thing is just a you know the
damn it starts to feel out of control
so okay so let’s take a look at fifth
that’s a fourteen point seven damage
that’s plus 46 I wanna try to keep it to
one attack to so I can avoid that
stacking yeah okay I’ve just talked
myself into an out of giving this thing
multiple attacks especially for handling
time I’m okay if you get a little
unlucky and you get stuck with okay this
thing just whiffed and did no damage I’m
okay with that because you know this is
something it’s gonna stick around for a
while and you’ll have an opportunity
next round to have it punch someone else
so MD sir ah gee maybe limit limit the
duration of the augmentation perhaps I
do kind of like the idea that I just
alter the stop block then I don’t worry
about it again but yeah but that’s
something that is actually good lever to
have if we find it’s getting out of
control we can we can flip that over so
I had a fan question can other spells
affect this yes enlarge reduce haste
slow I’d expect this should be a
creature that I can throw their spells
on tower mirror thoughts on actual
creature type summoned thinkin it might
be you know I could see four druids at
their beasts I could see four Wizards
their elementals I really would want the
flavor to drive that so let’s see this
is oh yeah this was supposed to be for
the shaper so that would yeah the sonic
version a probably construct the yes and
barracks silver bird this is the shaper
Sion this is essentially the spell we’re
building out that the shaper is gonna
use and that we could potentially adapt
to a summoning spell for other casters
too let’s see
um let’s see what that could think about
here anybody questions um does this end
on a long rest or can I sleep with it
guarding and regain the slots probably I
would do is specify that it ends with a
long rest
the Jessie you’re not carrying it over
probably with the began the nice thing
is you could have it just keep guard
yeah so I’d probably if you if you take
a long rest you regain your spell slots
that that breaks the duration the yeah
so this is okay cool
oh it’s in my head to the way the bottom
table you let’s swap these over so yeah
okay you can see the full table here so
yeah kind of think and stop here and
it’s one thing which probably do is I
thought I would let you buff hitpoints
and probably I’m okay with you pouring
lots of spell slots to increase its hit
points because the what I often find for
players in DMS things that feel broken
to them are things with more extreme
burst potential doing 100 points of
damage in a single attack as opposed to
the fighter model which is just
consistency and giving you more hit
points lends itself more consistency you
know I can hold down this area I could
block the story for a long while well
the party hides behind the creature of
things like that the saw I think I’ve
earned the side of making it more
durable rather than letting it just
throw out tons of damage the oh and the
I hit 24 yes okay probably iterations
probably 24 hours or a long rest so
whichever comes first the will it be
able to go get talk about the Vienna
document I think well that’s kind of
funny things I think you’d want it to be
like pretty independence you can have a
go around and do stuff because in I feel
like oh I’ve got my pot of summoned
paddock and go do stuff for me you can
clean my room right the so yeah the will
the be any way to add special features
monster with just basic attacks nothing
else is pretty boring honestly yeah that
is exactly what I’d want to do and
that’s where I would see the shaper
effects coming in we talked about things
like
I’m not giving people motion sickness by
going up and down this file um like the
vision I had the kind of the iconic
thing was the shaper looks across the
room into the eye of the you know the
ogre chieftain and plucks out his
greatest fear and then shapes a creature
summon creature that looks like that
thing and the ogre chicken screams in
terror right
so definitely and that’s where I see a
lot of the additional spells on the
spell list for the shaper being these
augments what I wanted to build today
was just the basic chassis to get a snap
lock in your hands for summon creature
so this is a pretty good starting point
we’ve got our weight and I think that
this spell comes with buffing damage and
buffing hit points and I imagine when
you throw a buff hit point on the
creature you’re increasing its current
in maximum it’s probably another column
here that’s a healing column where you
might get this at a bit of a discount it
might shift up one column that might be
too good the but you’re probably if
you’re not increasing your maximum
you’re just filling back up to it I
think it’s me worth of it more than this
the yum this might be something where
you also you only take the highest one
you’ve given like the damage I can’t do
46 then pop two for several slots
ditional to d6 so that would make the
healing a bit more useful the human owe
to someone who’s is yeah I think this
was kind of a fun thing is now as I’m
thinking about it is there might be ways
to like essentially put templates on
these things and it might be you could
learn them by class you can learn them
at a spell you learn like there could be
someone who’s there could be summon
beast and then you get some basic
flavorful elements like the use might be
its basic attack is acid the beasts
would be like your choice of bludgeoning
piercing or slashing so I think it’s
probably like this chassis would then
get adapted yeah that might make a lot
of sense where the shapers might be like
some an astral construct and it gives
you a construct with some basic thing
maybe it’s doing a psychic damage with
its attacks and then we can make one for
Druids you can make for druids could
have summon beast and like maybe summon
totem wizards could get like summon
elemental source wizards and sorcerers
warlocks could get like summon fiend and
then you get some other cool effects I
really want this in my game now I really
want this in my game that’s the fun
thing about it is you could really gate
access to the spell
through subclasses or through choices so
how do you feel about this everyone feel
like this is making sense does this feel
like a good place to start I mean
obviously the math I just can’t I just
want to get in the neighborhood it’s not
necessarily coming home yet
the zones fact meeting right who’s that
ever again it’s not concentration
barbarians okay now I want to make that
we did that remember the disaster
barbarian we had this idea that he could
like summon creatures like I loved it
the Barbarian radio is like a fire
lentil appears around him it’s just
someone oh and I actually want to I want
to design that okay okay so I think
we’re pretty good okay so this is
something where we’re gonna play around
with it
yeah alder brain warlock could summon a
gaze to see is a child our King
Butterfree thanks always appreciate the
compliments okay cool I think yeah I was
to me this is something I get excited
this at the stage in design when it’s
like I want to make a bunch of things
using this the danger is you don’t want
to fall so in love with this that you
just then start charging forward even as
cracks start to appear so this is
something where playtesting is really
going to start giving us some proof
points here and while I let’s say this
is this is something I was working on
like a product at this stage I’d want to
just like stop make the simplest
implementation of this table and the
spell you see and do some testing with
it just build out what are these stat
blocks look like look at them compared
to think this is when you have to
don’t rush ahead don’t start getting the
specific concepts of cause I’m in fiend
7 news someone this and that some and
everything right we want to take a
moment go duh is this a strong
foundation let’s bang on this a bit do
these numbers hold up does this feel
good in play then put the energy indeed
those flourishes don’t don’t start
decorating the cake before it’s baked
right you don’t want to like you’ve got
your batter and it’s cooking you’re
throwing the frosting and the decorate
now it’s gonna be a mess so let give it
time
let it bake it’s you know if if you
watch baking shows or you know it’s like
baking it’s been more art than science
or is it the reverse either way
give it time give it time in the oven
put the hard work into it test it out
don’t what often I find was and
designers have problems is they fall in
love with an idea
they throw a ton of work into it too
early they haven’t proved out the basic
foundation so they throw in all this
flourish work and then they start
throwing good good effort after bad it’s
a path that really like no it’s time to
fall back and take a new route beef like
I put so much work into a nod I’m
throwing all this stuff out you want to
be cautious at the initial stages of
this design it’s good that I’m feeling
excited but it’s also a warning sign
that I need to make sure I pump the
brakes don’t get too far ahead of myself
and make sure I’m doing the frankly it
would be kind of boring work of
verifying that this is functional it
probably needs some more tweaks but
before I start going hog-wild with it
I’ve got to make sure that I’ve got a
strong foundation of building on all
right yeah shell off the magnanimous
sunk cost fallacy but in design exactly
so so that’s it for this week next week
we’ll pick this up this coming actually
I think I’m on the next segment for the
stream we’re gonna talk about the
founders of legends day this coming
weekend on Saturday I’m going on to LA
to stream another D&D game not quite
following up with the same basic concept
as the stream of many is we’re gonna be
celebrating the legacy and memory of
Gary Gygax and other folks who helped
create Dungeons and Dragons so I’m super
excited I’m gonna probably have to go
next door to start streaming over there
I try to get a lot of water first though
I am partial as they say so um I will
see you all next week and on Twitter if
I have any more breakthroughs with this
stuff I’ll tweet I’ll tweet them out I
made a Mike mortal soul one word all
right so until next week take care and I
will see probably a few even just a
couple six around I’ll just see you in a
couple more minutes so take care

UA Destruction and Darkness domains for clerics!
Requests for Darkness and Destruction. Working on Moon, conceptually trickier, want to hit the right tone with that one. Maybe tomorrow. Destruction Domain
Custom built for clerics of Grummsh, and perhaps Tiamat
Destruction Domain Spells aeric Level spells 1st inflict wounds, wrathful smite 3rd enlarge/reduce, shatter 5th fireball, lightning bolt 7th ice storm, staggering smite 9th doud kill, destruct. wave Armed for Destruction When you choose this domain at 1st level, you gain proficiency with martial weapons.
Destructive Fury Starting at 1st level, you can channel divine energy to enter a destructive frenzy. As a bonus action, you gain 5 temporary hit points and a +1 bonus to weapon damage rolls. This benefit lasts for one minute. Once you use this ability, you cannot use it again until you complete a short or long rest. When you use this ability, you can expend a spell slot to augment its effects. You gain additional temporary hit points equal to three times the sloes level and a bonus to weapon damage rolls equal to half the sloes level (minimum 1). This benefit lasts for one minute.
Channel Divinity: Sundering Invocation Starting at 2nd level, you can use your Channel Divinity. to channel destructive energy. As an action, you touch a creature or a an unattended object within reach. A creature must make a Constitution saving throw, taking 5 times your cleric level thunder damage on a failed saving throw and half as much on a successful one. An unattended object takes 5 times your cleric level thunder damage.
Appetite for Destruction Starting at 6th level, your destructive acts fuel further expressions of devastation. If you kill a creature or destroy an object with a weapon attack, you can use your reaction to immediately make one additional weapon attack.
You can use this ability a number of times equal to your Wisdom modifier (minimum 1). You regain all expended uses when you complete a long rest.
Divine Strike Starting at 8th level, you gain the ability to infuse your weapon strikes with divine energy. Once on each of your turns when you hit a creature with a weapon attack, you can cause the attack to deal an extra 1d8 thunder damage to the target When you reach 14th level, the extra damage increases to 2d8.
Hand of Devastation Starting at 17th level, your spells deliver exceptional power. When you roll damage for a spell, roll twice the listed number of dice. You then choose from among the rolled dice the results you wish to use to determine the spell’s damage. You must select dice that match the quantity and type normally rolled to determine the spell’s damage.Darkness Domain
u A.
Confidential information of Wizards of the Coast LLC. Do not distribute.
Custom built for clerics of 4clis, and perhaps Lolth.
Darkness Domain Spells Cleric Level Spells ist arms of Mg”, hex 3rd blindness/deafness, darkness Sth fear, vampiric touch 7th blight, Cvard’q black tentades 9th contagion, enervation Child of Night When you choose this domain at 1st level, you gain the chill touch cantrip. If you do not have darkvision, you gain it with orange of 30 feet Shield of Ineffable Darkness Starting at 1st level, you can invoke the power of darkness to punish anyone fool enough to harm you. As a reaction when a creature you can see damages you, you cause that creature to become blinded until the end of your next turn. Once you use this feature, you can’t use it again until you complete a short or long rest.
Channel Divinity: Shadow Spawn Starting at 2nd level, you can use your Channel Divinity to fade into the darkness. As a bonus action, you become a creature of darkness that can blend into the shadows. You gain advantage on all Dexterity (Stealth) checks. If a creature cannot see you, your spells and attacks deal maximum damage to them. The shadows seem to draw around, as if they seek to protect you. This benefit lasts for one minute.
Hungry Darkness Starting at 6th level, your Shield of Ineffable Darkness becomes more powerful. When you use it, you can select up to three additional, hostile creatures you can see within 30 feet of you. They are also blinded until the end of your next turn. Potent Cantrip Sorting at 8th level, you add your Wisdom modifier to the damage you deal with any cleric cantrip.
Soul of Darkness Sorting at 17th level, you gain strength from darkness. As a bonus action, you fade into the shadows. You regain hit points equal to your cleric level and gain resistance to all damage for one minute. In addition, while this duration lasts you can use a bonus action to teleport up to 30 feet to an unoccupied space you can see that is in dim light or darkness. pic.twitter.com/iewjiEVdvq— Mike Mearls (@mikemearls) July 8, 2018
Hand of Devastation is simultaneously confusing, too good, and too weak. Might make it much lower level. Basic idea – roll twice the dice, pick the highest half for each die type. Felt pretty chaotically destructive to me, might knock it down to 1st level, since it just scales up
— Mike Mearls (@mikemearls) July 8, 2018

The Mystic Class – The Mike Mearls Happy Fun Hour!
hey everyone and welcome back to the
micros happy fun hour I’m your host Mike
Murrells franchise creative director for
Dungeons & Dragons I and if maybe
perhaps and we watched the stream of
many I is the last you saw of me on this
stream I was having my three shadow
dragons and my minions of a I guess I
won’t try to beat around the bush of
Vecna who is lurking out in the negative
Material Plane fell to the combined
efforts of four mighty 18th all
characters I hope you tune in if you
haven’t if you didn’t turn it in I check
out the videos we have here on twitch.tv
slash D and E to catch up on all the
action I was but one of many Dungeon
Master’s who ran sessions over the
weekend I had a great time I hope if you
had a chance to check to check it out
and tune in that you had fun and so now
I’m kind of riding my post stream of
many eyes hi to roll on in to some more
design work here on psionics and if
you’re looking I mean obviously the
screens up
I see behind my big blocky head we have
the mystic clasp and a blank Word
document well not quite blank it’s blank
say for two words mystic notes so that
might give you a hint as to what we’re
gonna talk about here today chat we’re
actually to talk about the fighter know
the and we’re gonna talk some more about
say onyx hey so hey it’s good to be back
it’s good to be back in the chat you
know tired of the stream was Ord I
actually I flew back yesterday so I had
a chance to get a good night’s sleep it
turns out don’t sleep very well in
hotels but I sleep pretty well when I’m
at home and our Sheltie puppy is jumping
on my head
chewing on my ear so some reason that
was very relaxing I slept very well the
welcome to any new viewers I hope you
have fun essentially our goal with this
stream is for me to show you live the
creation of essentially the first draft
of new stuff for dd5 right now we’re
doing lots of subclasses we’re doing
psionics right now and what we’re gonna
do today is I’m gonna walk through the
mystic character class
I’ll provide a recap of what we done
with sine X so far surfer Nass context
if you’re new viewer not gonna make it
go back and watch all the videos but
what I want to do today is given what
we’ve done so far let’s take a look at
what the state of the mystic last year
at the end of 2017
what we had and what might change as we
look at the subclasses we’ve built so
the so yeah OMI is my audio coming
through I see doom Drake I’m very quiet
guys if you shot if you’re getting
issues we did have we’re running late
because we’re having some issues with
the mic not this mic the mic that
captures the noise I am the mic that
makes the noise at least on this stream
so anyone else having issues with some
audio just chime in on chat Jeremy here
is keeping an eye on things and we’ll
make sure that we’ve got some looks like
okay so may just be my projection – I
did kind of the Southern California very
dry climate now we’re getting some folks
hearing that it’s a little bit quiet so
I will try to project Oh Jeremy’s
getting up this is getting serious now
so people don’t just lose our audio but
I’ll just keep talking so we have a good
testing the smidge quieter than usual
it’s a little quiet how’s it going now
anyone dmn chime in is a spat tk-421 of
you guys is it getting better I want to
see a couple folks who are still a few
things coming in and I’m quiet this
would be now the first hour it’s a bit
quiet for max volume yeah it does looks
like it’s a bit muffled oh okay much
better now it sounds so it sounds like
everyone sitting getting better now
louder better much better better I think
we’re good alright yes better and
clearer heart rate is Derek cuz I’m
gonna turn it down a bit
alright here we go alright you got if
anyone out there in chat just let me
know if my voice starts to tail off
written like that just let us know like
I said we do kind of coming in we’re a
little bit late cuz I the heroes that
support this stream this week it’s
Jeremy well making sure we get getting
everything going and rolling fine
alright so even loud loud even which is
appropriate come in laude knock loud
noxious so
okay excellent all right so I’ll keep an
eye on shad as we go like I usually do
but again just in case any technical
issues just sound off we’ll see what we
can do to fix them up all right
so let’s recap what we’ve done so far
first of all we’ve had a number of
subclasses we’ve built for existing
character classes that are going to use
psionics Oh
share DVI did Scion beat mystic yes it
did so I think it pains me I’m gonna
tell you Chad it pains me I think we’re
gonna call the class to Sion in my
defense I know initially mystic was not
the most popular choice that’s what they
were gonna call the sanic class back in
the 70s but each generation of gamers
gets the D&D that they need so we’ll
pivot to Sion no problem this is kind of
a case to where as a designer and my and
where I’m sitting I can’t really get
attached to names you know we put things
out there often will like the mystic is
a good example of we could have called
it Sion up front we knew that would have
gone over well sometimes it’s best to
test the change even if you’re not
confident in it just because in this
case since we’re play testing it gives
us the chance to see well how would
people react so anyways yeah we’re gonna
call this class the Sion because that’s
what everyone wants and why not do it
that way right make everybody happy
the now it doesn’t mean the mystic can’t
come up somewhere else as a subclass or
is a name but I think one of the pieces
of feedback I got from people was mystic
sound didn’t quite sound like the flavor
of this class and that’s the big thing I
want to talk about today what is the
flavor of this class we’ve walked
through so far and I’m gonna types I
just like typing as I talk someone at
the stream remarked was kind of like Bob
Ross it was soothing as I’m gonna try to
like not get too high energy today but
it also I find as is my type while I’m
going not only do the notes help me but
it is kind of soothing for me Keith keep
the mind focused so we’ve got the
psychic warrior who’s our fighter
psionic fighter we have the soul knife
who’s our psychic monk and we had the oh
now I’m totally blanking we had the the
name of the psionic Wizard was someone
from someone from chat named this class
and I’m forgetting the Mentalist
Mentalist
so essentially we’ve got our classic
telepath we’ve got our sort of you know
an ecologist the psychic martial artist
and we’ve got our psychic bruiser
I think these archetypes are captured
pretty well so far
obviously pending playtesting but I feel
like the the concept behind them fits in
well and so that this is something where
I don’t necessarily feel like we’re
gonna revisit it the specific
implementation might shift but I think
we’re starting to kind of carve out
where these things fit good parallel for
you is the this idea of imagine if we
were inventing D&D from scratch and we
said hey who uses magic right and we had
divine magic in arcane magic and we’re
starting to hold the cleric can heal and
the Wizards more about blasting and the
oh well go on like what about the
warrior mage how do we want to handle
that well that’s maybe you know the
eldritch Knight and the fighter it’s
it’s kind of the process we’re going
through here right now we’re asking
ourselves where do these where these
concepts best served now I’m gonna give
you a little bit of a a forward-looking
thing we you know kind of see where I
think we might go with with subclasses
we talk about a warlock having like a
pact of the missile called the aberrant
just relax by the words but this could
be a warlock has a pact with say like a
AB Aleph or an elder brain so now the
interesting thing about this is I don’t
think conceptually this warlock is
necessarily has a super clear place like
for instance the psychic warrior
imagines we have a lot of abilities that
augment their physical prowess just like
in the wizard spell list we have spells
like shield that are useful for a mage
but also really great for a frontline
warrior so I’m not saying we’re breaking
up lists of spells it’s more saying what
subclass what subclasses within the Sion
so I really need to worry about
supporting so I don’t think the warlocks
poaching any of those within the rogue
I’d like to do there was a class in 3rd
edition called the lurk
and that the kind of way I’ve been
thinking about that character is the
sort of psionic psionic invisibility
this is the character who essentially
erases evidence that they’re around
right their invisibility is more you
don’t perceive them in the sense that
they’re messing with your mental
processes I would imagine this will
probably also lend itself to like I’ve
taken something and you don’t know it’s
gone I open a door and you think it’s
still closed things like that so that’s
kind of where I see that coming in that
sort of information hacking it’s another
thing I kind of thought about it I mean
that’s moving far more science fiction
but it’s that’s kind of the concept the
character who goes in and comes out
without without your knowing and then
looking at the other classes for
barbarian and bard
and like I don’t know if we need sanic
subclasses there there are ones we can
do but the the approach being I don’t
think that they’re gonna intrude on the
course I on class druid so is very same
situation since in such a nature focused
class as with the cleric focused on the
divine I don’t think we necessarily need
that crossover if it’s there it might be
some sort of sonic theme domain for the
cleric it may be aberration theme for
the druid but I don’t think that’s
necessarily taking conceptual space in
the Sion we think of the rest of the
classes the sorcerer and I think the
sorcerer is in a space similar to the
warlock
it’ll probably patterned after something
existing in D&D like aberrations for
instant it would probably more of a look
at the warlock and sorcerer how can they
express that differently and so I think
looking at the classes this is these are
probably the ones so I’m actually gonna
erase warlock not that we’re not gonna
do this but I think what I want to do is
of these four I think these are covering
concepts that I don’t need to cover
directly within the Sion
so yeah in same failure automated air
effect the Ranger a pallid I think it’s
a similar thing if we were to do
something like this it may either be
more response to the flavor around
soundex
or would be taking that existing
character class and finding a way to
express it sonically rather than saying
get think of the eldritch night versus
the wizard we had a long discussion of
should the
warrior mage and the players handbook be
a fighter subclass or a wizard subclass
if you own the Sword Coast adventures
guide you see what the wizard would look
like if you did take that path of the
warrior mage as a wizard subclass with
the Blade Dancer but we felt that was
very realm specific so we’re okay
putting it there we felt the most direct
path for a new player would be llama
warrior first who uses spells also
because if you look at the blade dancers
class features they are require a little
bit more of an advanced sort of grasp of
mechanics like how to make these things
work together where the eldritch night
it’s pretty straightforward you play as
a fighter for your first couple levels
then you pick up a couple of spells and
then you’re going from there
conceptually it’s pretty straight
forward rather than they think of the
resource management when do I use my
blade dance what am I in the front line
what am i in the back how do I manage my
spell list typically mechanical options
that require more of that meta thinking
we see as being the next step beyond the
players handbook the wizard and the sort
of classic I’m the kind of glass cannon
II spell caster
that’s about as techy as we want to get
the players handbook all right so the oh
uh LT virus no sign of healing at all
well no we’ll probably see some flavor
started killing and that’s what actually
a great question – oh it’s blade song
not blade dance did I get it completely
wrong see that’s why I’m the creative
director because now the directive is
please everyone pull out your copies of
sword custom you know I’m horrible with
names
see that’s why changing mystic design
doesn’t bother me because I don’t
remember any way so the but yeah so we
added a question about sonic healing so
what we’re gonna do today and next 40 or
so minutes on a walk through the
existing mystic character class and
we’re gonna we’re not I’m not saying
we’re redesigning the class we’re kind
of redesigning the class oh I think
we’ll probably end up keeping a lot of
this but what I want to do is is touch
on something that C is very important to
tabletop role-playing game design in
specific and role-playing game design in
general
and that’s when you think about it when
you’re designing a role-playing game
there are two main tasks you have in
front of you and I’ll zero in on
tabletop role-playing the first thing
you need to do is determine who are the
players going to portray what are your
archetypes in our game in our world who
is it that what are the roles who take
on and there’s a lot behind that
question this is not a question okay
what’s just this thing right I mean
you’re that’s may see your world
building but it gives direction to it it
makes you think about who do I want to
portray and ideally you’re going to
create those roles in a way that people
who are think about playing your game
would think wow I want to portray that
now you might have a very like Dungeons
& Dragons high adventure you know I’m
gonna go to dungeons battle monsters
okay great I want to be a warrior I want
to be like and you might pull in
characters from movies and think oh my
character to be like I want to be the
plain elf like Legolas I want to play
out like a powerful wizard man be cool
and a thorough volts of energy and just
you know things like that I want to play
the cunning road you know and so when
you come up with those those arc types
you’re essentially deciding this is what
I need to design for my players so that
they can go through pick these things
out and portray them that even applies
to much more sort of if you’re gonna
make a much more sane dramatic game I
call my game doesn’t have violence it’s
all about portraying the corruption of
you know the organized crime the 1950s
you’d still think okay I want to play
the undercover cop or I want to play the
you know the hitman or I want to play
the the mastermind or I’m gonna play the
criminal lawyer you know things like
that you’d still think of it that way
and that’s how I would approach it now
keep in mind that’s my approach
everyone’s approach is gonna vary but
that’s how I sort of my creative voice
flows I like to think of that so what
we’re gonna do here is walk through our
mystic impact answer that question if I
want to play a site-to-site on not
mystic if I’m gonna make a sign a
character who do I want to portray and
it’s essentially with these these
subclasses have shown us all what here’s
here’s roles you that you can portray
you can be the big bruiser tough guy you
can be the martial artist
can be the classic telepathic you know
Professor X character and then what the
road we got this kind of criminal
mastermind
you know just disappearing into the
firmament so what I want to do first
taking here at the draft of the mystic
and zoom back is we’re actually gonna go
to the subclasses first because this
really this is a stage we already have
our classes designed I’m not going to
design a bunch of new ones
okay what about the immortal is a barbed
subclass that actually might be
something to as we go through these we
might end up finding homes for some of
these if we think we want to keep them
but what we’ll talk about that
so the orders are the the subclasses
here the and Daedalus wing how is it
different that’s really something that’s
important here because that’s going to
tell us what we need to get to do here
is we look at these these subclasses if
we let’s say the order the avatar is up
on the screen so I’ll just dive into
that one if we look at this and say yeah
we think this is a character people want
to play now here’s the important thing
ideally your target is people who
haven’t they’re not familiar with the
concept of psionics yet there’s gonna
look at this as a piece of art and a
page and read the description and think
wow i really want to play that person
it’s really helpful if you’re pulling in
examples from pop culture characters
they already know but since this is an
expansion to an existing game we already
have our players handbook out there it’s
not as important if we’re making a game
from scratch you know going back to the
organized-crime game i talked about
where it’s oh I want to play the the
undercover you know the informant right
I’m coming I don’t know your game I just
know the genre I know the story I’m
thinking of the characters I want to
play we’re going a little bit deeper
here because Dungeons & Dragons has
already captured a lot of those sort of
knee-jerk responses you play a fantasy
adventure game kind of like World of
Warcraft Lord of the Rings or Conan the
Barbarian who don’t to play right and
you’re gonna say Archer I wanna be a
warrior right I want to be we’ve already
got those covered so we can be a little
more esoteric with these the important
thing is that we have a clear identity
for all of them
quick question from aids Apia how do I
feel the disaster Baron is coming along
the I’m glad you liked it it’s a little
bit on the back burner for getting it
finished
because I’m really focused right now I’m
getting this the sonics thing is
sprawled out a bit more
we do have almost everything though in
the queue to come out as an on earth
Turkana the scheduling the one thing to
keep in mind we since we do do use an
Arthur canna to play test things for
upcoming products there is a little bit
of a traffic jam there everything is
eventually going to show up in you a
unless in chat we just saw hey this
wasn’t working at all
which I don’t think is the case for
anything we worked on I think everything
that just didn’t work out we revised and
took a different path but so it’s just a
matter of sequencing and when stuff
shows up but I’ve been pretty happy with
the design we’ve done for almost
everything so far so I think it’s all of
its in us in the space now where it’s
ready to go to a UA it’s to matter of
traffic because well you guys don’t know
the schedule I know the schedule and I
know it’s coming up so it’s a little bit
crowded right now but everything will
eventually make its way out there I’m
also considering the Giants or sure
speed rules I love I was actually I’m
super excited about the kid that went
out there I’m thinking about maybe for
extra life in the spirit of being sort
of I’d like to call it enlightened
laziness saving myself time but then
doing something useful and maybe tying
some of these things to to extra life
maybe putting together a PDF source up
on DMS guild and like for a nominal
donation letting people grab an edited
version of some of the stuff I’ve done
I’m not sure yet if I’d want to do that
you know here’s the thing I chat feel
free to sound off how you guys feel
about this but this is my kind of
reaction to it I didn’t want to do that
with Sonics I know that could be a
really juicy thing I think soundex is
big enough but I just want to make it
freely available I think that it’d be
kind of fun to do a sort of donation
thing for other material but also just
if you think that the entire thing like
you know just let me know how you feel
you throw in chat I’ll keep an eye on it
anyhow probably ask on Twitter too later
I want to make sure that what we do for
extra life I know last year for instance
we auctioned off a personalized subclass
for everyone now which the everyone I’ve
heard from so far has agreed that those
subclasses will be released to the
general public so I might do those with
extra life too we’ll see I just don’t
want people to feel like Oh sound ex
we’re doing this together
on stream I don’t want people to feel
like on now have to pay make a donation
even though it’s a donation I don’t I
don’t want to take it you know I don’t
force anyone you know to get access to
things where they kind of feel it’s more
in the community space so so now that
I’ve walked it through maybe I’ll just
do it with the the four subclasses from
last year but the yeah and I think I
hadn’t found I think that’s kind of an
ideas we’d really want to get these as
wide exposure as possible that’s always
that’s something I struggled with last
year and that’s why I made the four
subclasses just for one person you know
one before them each one person was that
the we weren’t putting people in the
position of what we need to play test
this so I paid money for something but
now it’s going to play test so I didn’t
have to pay money yeah it’s something a
little bit tricky I don’t want to go to
the extent of writing a full adventure
because that takes a lot of energy and
if you watched my for instance the the
tanks game on Sunday I had like a page
of notes for that I am very much a
middle is DM so I could run into bench
everything turn it into an actual
adventure that you guys could use that
take a lot of work so I want to make
sure anyways oh yes so datalist we are
getting distracted so come on let’s
buckle down okay so what we’re gonna do
first is let’s take a look at existing
Scion special subclasses let’s take a
look at the Avatar so what I want what I
like to do when I think of this is I
write down the Avatar I think myself who
is this person right without looking at
the text this is somebody who embodies
virtues or beliefs inspires others is
the and I really think was psionically
it’s the walking manifestation of
emotion that’s kind of how I think of it
the glad people enjoyed the game I had
awesome players they made it so easy for
me I literally told them beforehand like
you know the first half hours is gonna
be you guys being you guys don’t you
know I’m not I’m not there to get in the
way it’s a different approach to DMing
than maybe for a home game but
especially we have such talented people
I mean I’ll say I don’t know if people
were expecting from Ron’s paladin I
think he was probably the least
well-known of those characters but when
when I heard about his character and
that’s character he plays in Joe’s
campaign this is gonna be easy
and then the Big Show was super he’s oh
he’s a hardcore gamer we had a nice
conversation but building his character
and he on phone about tweaks before and
he was really excited and so I was so
much fun
the it’s fun to be in front of an
audience I gotta admit the okay so let’s
take a look with the avatar
now here’s one thing here knows that our
avatar is Mashable for elements that’s
terminator 455 that’s correct I never
watch that show I need to I’m waiting
against my daughter’s old an apple-pie
watch together so okay so this is
something which now here’s one thing
gonna throw in here when I think of this
this might actually be a bard subclass
that’s one thing I threw out there
because we talked about bards who talk
about inspiring bards are all about you
know bringing out emotion in others so
this might be something which we want to
throw out there as a bard subclass
rather than necessarily nesting it
within the sion now quick side note as
part of what we’re doing here one of the
big flaws I felt with the what was
called the mystic was it was trying to
do too much and it meant that the core
of the character class was all over the
place so the oh and uh
Mirek the Arctic might actually just be
the avatar and maybe we’ll change the
name up what yeah so that in there that
was that was of the fourth edition
character class so what I want to do is
go through and find out which of these
subclasses I can only express within a
new character class I’m sure there’s
others other ones that we have not
accounted for might might float to the
surface and I’ve already thinking of a
few it sounds like it should be named
Bastion I don’t know the Bastion is a
can transform into a turret so that’s
next
overwatch reference for anyone out there
I had opportunity to go to the overwatch
League Denham Elia but just was too busy
too much too much stuff going on next
time I’m down there I do want to check
it out though I do i do love eSports I’m
a big sports fan so naturally alright or
to be awakened this is the character
that I think the The Mentalist has sort
of taken over the awakened is all about
you know bending minds using sanic
attacks so I’m gonna write this down but
I think pretty quickly I would really
intend that The Mentalist picks this up
and here’s why
when I picture there’s a reason why
in x-men professor axe is depicted you
know classically I have not follow
comics in a while but he’s depicted as
hey he’s this incredibly powerful
psychic figure but he’s not physically
he’s not meant to be imposing and I
think when this was a great example of
something where game wise this character
felt like they wanted to have light
armor or no armor few weapons a d6 hit
died and putting it in this class that
was kind of built on a cleric style
chassis was really working against it so
I think that what I would like to do is
just sort of say look let’s let’s put
the awakened over to the mental let’s
not try to follow up on this one the so
then let’s go out to our next one order
be immortal and this is another one
where this is all about using sonic
energy – oops – sustain your your
physical form and I think someone in
chat throughout that maybe this could be
a barbarian I could actually see that a
barbarian that the rage is like some
sort of is a psionic state I could see
that I could also see the psychic
warrior picking some of this stuff up
the that really the mastery of the
physical form i thinkin this is another
one where I wanted the immortal I check
check on chat Titan look at this right
bonus disciplines immortal durability
right starting at a first level your hit
point maximum increases by one per
mystic level this is the fifth edition
designer talk for I really wish I could
give you a bigger hit die but I can’t
because this class is d8 this is one
also when you’re aren’t wearing armor
wearing a shield your base AC equals 10
plus 2x plus con this is essentially
getting at the the aesthetic sort of
choice I was looking for here is that
typically these characters didn’t wear
armor it starts to look a bit like a
monk you know so I think if you’re
playing a soul life maybe that gets so
oldest if you’re playing a psychic
warrior and you just want to go with
light or no armor and build your
character that way or maybe the bar oh
you know what Dov this is the barbarian
so I think maybe the super durable
psychic guy I think that might be able
to go over there
the
yeah okay so I’m seeing I’m not seeing a
riot and shot yet for somebody’s okay
now come to the Nomad this is one thing
where things get a lot more interesting
so we think of the Nomad this is a
character who can bend space and maybe
even been time they’re good at using
soundex to essentially manipulate the
concept of space and time around them
not necessarily you know making like a
wall disappear per se but more I’m gonna
twist twist time in space to just move
to where the wall isn’t if that makes
sense so the our notes here they keep
their mind is a strange rarefied state
they seek out knowledge they perceive a
bizarre living with knowledge they call
the noosphere it’s getting a little
nerdy there but that’s I always want to
drop into a D&D book the so this is all
about going out gathering knowledge and
I like this this is a class who I feel
like do bards they’re masters of lore
yeah but they’re not this because these
guys are about themselves they are not
about I’m gonna also inspire others you
know it would be a poor this is a great
example of trying to say build us into
the Bard I think would be a dead end
because you’d have all these bard core
bard class traits that just wouldn’t
support this archetype so I think we
have our very clear the avatar was like
maybe but this one is very clear this is
this a scion subclass um I like the
flavor grapples you know this could be a
ranger but I think this character isn’t
necessarily walking around with a lot of
weapons also again just that flavor of
like I think the difference is the
Ranger I’ll use it here I’ll use an
example the Rangers traveling through
the forest leading the party because the
Ranger knows the terrain the nomads
might have something similar because the
Nomad is using psionics to learn about
the Train as you go using a sort of
clairvoyant style effect or tapping into
the web of knowledge around it so I
think there’s enough of a flavor
difference there that I wouldn’t want to
go Ranger I think this could be pretty
strong within this so this is basically
our knowledge of time and space this is
almost kind of like a maybe yeah almost
like they mean like Doctor Who I mean
it’s not quite there but this idea that
it’s character who knows a lot
and is using Sonic’s for knowledge and a
manipulate space and time I think that’s
I think there’s also something very
distinct we don’t really have another
character that can do that so I think
this is I think it’s a pretty good one
Solon I’ve already picked up so I’m not
gonna bother with it
I will bother in the sense we’ll make it
as a monk subclass and I gotta say
having designed this it works so much
better about subclass the wujin this is
a weird one so this was basically to get
ours our sonic blaster into place I
don’t think we necessarily need it
because if we think sanic that blaster
you know messing with the elements
this is Ono Matt is dr. Manhattan yeah a
human double-o – I like that yeah that’s
pretty cool
the I think that this isn’t necessarily
one we need anymore
because if I’m like hey I want to be a
sonic guy and I want to throw like lots
of energy around I can just play The
Mentalist and then stock up on some Evo
patient spells in addition to whatever
I’m pulling in from the Sonics bellows
so I think the wujin just goes away the
and this is okay so now you might be
thinking okay way to go Merrill’s you
had like six subclasses and you killed
them all
well Leonid demon yes a new subclass
astral constructor right this is work
that’s go in add a few new ones right
the so that’s the first one we talked
about the stream way ago way ago way
back when we first started working on
this there’s two that popped to mind
first is another other word I’m gonna
click on my right window call the
constructor this is something which I
know we get requests all the time
oops look at me using word this is our
summer this is the character I talked
about on stream a few weeks back where
they create psychic constructs and they
can view them with psionic effects the
classic one would be you know the you’re
fighting a group of works they have
their leader you create a sign a
construct it comes into being and it has
a fear of Eket a CH to it because since
it’s an act not just a you know but I
think it should have some of that ESP
mental flavor
and I might say look I’m actually gonna
reach into the mind of the orc chieftain
and pull out the thing it fears most and
that’s what I’ve created the other works
are afraid of it you’re right and it’s
fun thing about this is it’s a summons
and no one is like well was it was it
having tea like up and you know Anna
Vernis when I got pulled through now
this is purely a construct it does some
nice things world building wise it’s
just clean what’s actually going on the
I also want to have some fun with this
cuz here’s my here’s my weird flavor I
was thinking about this that new pistol
that that essentially this is you
bringing your imaginary friend to life I
thought this would be funny this is a
subclass actually had a little companion
there might be purely psionic that
you’re talking to and then you basically
then give it form it springs into being
and it starts doing stuff essentially
that’s your sort of you might have an
at-will ability to bring it into life to
do a limited set of things then use
power on it to make it do cooler things
the yeah
newbee one it looks different ever
that’s easy I think it’s exactly it if
you remember from the stream of my tanks
game that the moat the first mode of
light never looked at it they saw the
thing that was you know that they wish
for yeah I never once saw something
different right and now there’s now it’s
kind of wait I’m just just grabbing it
as like this beam of light I don’t think
I ever described the actual thing
because in theory I’d have to go around
the audience and ask everyone what would
you see so yeah so that’s one of the
first ones the other one this is a
favorite of mine cuz I always like this
and the metamorph I think we want a cool
shape changer this is the character I
think this is kind of taking the place
with the immortal a little bit and where
the immortal was kind of a warrior was
all about I’m durability think I want to
transform this a bit to being C pun this
is someone who can change themselves and
that could be new creature forms
elemental forms if you were watching the
stream so I custom-built for the Big
Show a sort of very crude but functional
the math was there didn’t look like it
cuz he’s actually did it Wow like I was
kinda he was a great example player to
Rex DMS playing out plans sealing up my
that’s what the dragons are so to come
down but closed it all up the this idea
that he could turn
if he caught it and watch the stream he
took a stone for him at one point gave
him a big booster armor class really
dropped his speed and also let him
deflect attacks that would have gone
through him if the dragons had breathed
again you probably have seen it he would
have had an ability to dampen that that
damage in the AOE because of his
defensive form you know things like a
liquid form you know stuff like that and
this is a class again when you look at
what we have out there the druid is a
shape changer but it’s a very directed
shape change you know it’s I am changing
into things that you find in nature this
is a character that I see is changing
into things and arise to the mind so I
think the I think you want to do
creature forms right but I think it’s a
lot more flexible rather than saying I’m
turning into an alligator I’m gonna
think of something dangerous and turn
into that and it’s more general this
might be an error rather than saying use
the alligator snap lock we’re giving you
statin bonuses and changes and it’s up
to the player to describe what did I
just turn into because it’s only it’s
the you know its power of mind right the
yeah turning to I one of the Big Show’s
forms as a fire form you could have gone
into the and yeah liebe Libre zero I
think some of the immortal disciplines
would go under here because I imagine
there’s probably some sort of like
durability aspect to this since I can
change my form you know you throw me
into water I can breathe water you
trying to set me on fire I can turn into
something that’s fire resistant
especially lower levels I think these
might be some of these abilities that
you could layer on all right so what
else we got yeah oh yeah
zap you know turning into an alligator
made of Nightmare fuel and tentacles
think that actually was it’s a good way
to think of it because there’s some of
these abilities is a player you might
flavor this as I turn into a creature
now I’m gonna use a fear effect like if
I’m a different ability that’s not not
one of my shape-changing ones that maybe
happened how you describe it to other
players like this is what I’m doing I’m
changing myself to make myself
terrifying than augmenting that with
sanic power to make all the orcs run
away or whatever it is I’m doing the so
let’s see a k3 one eight my to subclass
thoughts was wondering if you think it
would be interesting for something Jedi
force themed yeah I think that the the
other’s thinking is some of the other
things working with the astral plane
yeah I think the nomads I might actually
throw in something astral here because
I’m kind of thinking that might be how
they get around and also they how they
manipulate time since the astral is a
timeless realm but I think that’s the
sort of final one I want to do here so I
think what I’m gonna do is I’m gonna
throw via weight you know I’m just gonna
cut this so I think we’re good here
I think I’m gonna cut this because I
think we don’t need it and I think the
avatar I’m kind of thinking we might go
this route but I’m not gonna commit to
it yet but I think the final one is the
telekinetic character don’t know what to
call them yet but this is the character
who you know you know I think that
something could be very flexible and we
could do a lot of interesting force
effects that really it is a specific
like I’m gonna use my mind to batter
stuff around and move it and I think you
know I think this one needs a little
more consideration to give it that the
real flavor but I think telekinesis
since it’s here’s the thing this is a
great example of when you’re coming into
an existing system the telekinesis is a
very high level effect even for the the
Mentalist it was not something you got
till six level so getting this at first
level I think would be fun and I think
it would speak to a some would think hey
that’s yeah okay I want to play it on a
character oh cool oh no no I want
telekinesis right the classic Jedi you
know pushing stuff away from me this is
probably a good case where the mechanics
of the game might drive a might drive an
option we build to basically let players
you know
dip in you play a character they want to
play the right now the system just
doesn’t support now the danger here is
we can’t be too mechanical about it
we’ve got to think of a good story I’m
not gonna worry about that too much
right here right now though because I
think we can get to it the but I think
that that is something which we want to
build and it you know it kind of makes
me feel that then I think with if we
have four to start out with it’s a
pretty strong thing to build in I think
that these the Avatar style things we
might just keep the powers in the game
but not necessarily make it something
that is
a subclass so cuz I think maybe the bar
D we could do to the ardent and in swing
that over to the bar tonight I think
that would work alright so what I hope
this is kind of a shown is it mean
character class design often the first
thing you’ll do is you’ll think of the
subclasses you’ll think of who is it
that I am going to play or is that whom
no that’s not yeah who when I you know
what is the role I’m offering to players
you know when we’re doing this what are
the sort of the incentive are you like
to think it’s it’s a casting a movie you
know who but you know who is gonna make
up the cast of this game and what are
the roles that I want to play and so
starting with this starting with
subclasses is nice because it gives you
more specificity and it also starts
showing you what are the core features
of the class and then what are the
things that we need to make specific let
me throw in and come back to it Mike
it’s got a sweet died fellows asking off
to have a question was more coxed
eternal champion idea part of the
inspiration of the session yes 100%
the tower of hopes defiance was
thoroughly inspired by Moorcock and his
approach to the multiverse in the plains
and I’ve always found that I’ve always
really loved that that Michael Moorcock
stories we haven’t read them Elric the
eternal champion well worth reading
fantastic stuff Moorcock’s a great
writer another one that inspired me not
directly here but is uh Zelazny amber
series for me amber is very inspiring
when I think about the Gods my takeaway
from reading amber was that if you were
immortal and you had immortals in your
life whether it’s your family or just
people you know give it enough time
eventually those other immortals would
be both both both your best friends and
your worst enemies because you just have
such a long history that you’d have a
reason to save their lives and give your
life for them and you’d have a reason to
want to kill them you have so much water
under the bridge so yeah definitely more
cockin Zelazny or cheek huge influences
on how I think like cosmic D&D the see
what else we got here the oh cool you
met you met Moorcock that’s know I’ve
never met him I have never not had the
chance so anyway so this is kind of what
we’re looking at here so the next step
work in a character class okay River
this is just how I do it everyone you
know game designs a little bit finding
your own voice so you’re gonna probably
if you’re such if you’re starting out
whether you’re 10 or 50 or whatever
somewhere in between if you haven’t done
a lot of game design we’re doing it for
a while it took me a while to kind of
really establish how I do things I did
it for a few years many years actually
before I really felt comforting oh this
is how I like to do it it’s all about
finding your tools your toolset and what
you do so what I like to do at this
stage is then look here what we’ve got
here I’m actually gonna put this one in
italics just to remind myself that I’m
not really considering it looking at
these were to think to ourselves what
binds these characters together and very
simple stuff we have to do right now but
it’s useful to do this like what kind of
hit die do we expect this character have
so chat feel free to throw in your
thoughts but d68 d-10 maybe even d12
looking at these thinking of the Scion
and thinking of these four subclasses
where do you sit think Oh Ramona are
Bergsma the telepath we actually saw
that being thrown over by the The
Mentalist subclass of the wizard maybe
because we saw the telepath is being
probably physically less capable than
the other subclasses in this class so
I’m seeing some do you say 200 dark
elven double ODST yes there was highly
varying class for hit points would you
roll over here and said that’s like I
below 9800 one oops so I’m seeing a lot
of d8 d6 is 50 tends to d4 gold cliff
trust being I kind of class tyrant we
tried to test that with the Ranger at
one point to d85 people hated it
d6 are dat dark islands still voting for
that d hundred the so I think I’m seeing
a lot of d8 the one line of the druid d6
or d8 I think Daedalus winged miking d6
but d6 I don’t know if it’s well looking
at these subclasses you know here’s
machining I think well hmm d6 I’m seeing
actual eye people going up calling for
d6
that would be interesting because that
would well I don’t know what that would
do the would the wizard subclass we’d
figure it out later all right in a few
da it’s okay you know what I’m gonna
arbitrarily go for ya it might be too
much you actually looking at these
classes we’re not seeing anyone except
the metamorph who’s gonna get up in your
face and do damage to you and with the
metamorph we can build in those hit
points than the powers you know I want
to do this so here’s something I like to
do whenever I have a design where it’s a
though cuddly evil member cezzah
Warriors gonna be over in the fighter so
it’s kind of like having the Elder
tonight over in the fighter so we don’t
worry about the wizard itself being
tanky all right you know car games d4
let’s go back old school I’m gonna throw
in the d6 it done here’s why I think if
you’re you have a choice between
something that brings you more toward
the middle of your existing population
and something that pushes you to the
edge I think it’s good your first try to
go to the edge because that might prompt
something a bit more interesting now
here’s something that’ll definitely
happen though right if we find and I’ve
seen this happen in game design let’s do
a d6 that makes sense okay what’s your
first class feature your first class
feature is you get extra points right
like we no no let’s get rid of that you
know if we were to say we don’t want
this character that armor but then we
wanted to give them some you know funky
way to get their AC up like that’s we
will do the thing of what you just get
to add a second ability mod to your AC
that’s the easy thing to do if it starts
getting more techy the metals like just
give them armor okay let’s go let’s go
with d6 the you did dark elven do you
made a great case I was so tempted just
go on G percentage no I want to go the
opposite end right we’re gonna go crazy
with lots of hit points but that would
you know I gotta admit it’s kind of
funny to think I now kind of want to
make a character who’s one class feature
is they get like 50 hit points per level
and that’s it like no proficiencies
nothing it’s just you just you just take
up a 5 by 5 by 5 square and that’s your
entire job and it takes forever to kill
you like maybe give you super good
saving throws the
so okay so I think that’s an extra one
what about our armor we’re just talkin
armor throwing does this character get
armor did we think any any armor versus
Oh
eighty-three 180s if we do d6 that might
actually mean then we want to do a
telepath in this class well see though I
don’t want to bite off more than we can
chew at this stage well what I’d like to
do is work for the class features first
and then see and then what implications
that has for the wizard so we’ve got
okay so armor do we guys we got this
character is a default wearing armor
light nah see weighted comp there do ya
like that
the new class the roided counters huge
it’s anti pile of meat no armor light
armor plus it into the bins
okay so yeah I think we’re saying armor
and I think we could if you wanted to
give the inability it’s like int mod two
armor if we wanted to get but that that
might be a choice that actually might be
the sonic version of major armor but
we’ll get to that
okay so normal weapons do we feel like
these guys are using any like basically
we look at do they use swords or are we
just looking at bows I don’t you know
yeah shields no armor yeah no armor but
a really sweet looking at stabby burger
game that’s it gonna be stylish you’re
gonna go to the dungeon simple weapons
dagger staff cleric weapons yeah I think
he okay simple weapons no swords yeah to
have clubs short pros yeah okay so I
think we’re looking it’s it’s simple
weapons I don’t think we need to go as
far as the wizard list with it’s that
kind of funky idiosyncratic list we can
just go simple weapons so yeah weapon is
the mine scarecrow scarecrow King
thirteen thirteen exactly the mind is
the deadliest weapon alright so now
let’s take a quick look back here’s what
we ended up with a mystic and I think
this is where you’re gonna kind of see
some of the tension I felt in the class
so we had d8 hit points so we’re gonna
we might where to try dropping that down
and we can’t blight arm in simple
weapons now this here’s the thing that
when i look at these subclasses i don’t
see any reason why I need to like
address the armor and weapons issue
again that was that’s a good sign of a
class might be stretched beyond its
bounds if you’re like well but this guy
needs armor we did identify the
metamorph might me
more hitpoints but that might be a sort
of a class feature that’s giving healing
or additional polloi and so we can
figure that out but but I feel more
comfortable this because we – tell me
hey here’s our for current subclasses
one of the men the the metamorph has a
recovery feature I mean we already had
this right here as durability and
healing that’s it we’re not doing that
because mechanically we need to patch it
over we’re doing that because we think
it’s in flavor and that’s always a good
place to be if you’re doing things for
subclasses it’s in flavor as opposed to
this guy’s just get in this class is
getting its ass beat in combat we just
we need to give them better armor cuz
cuz otherwise they’re just getting you
know to go you know your flavor is not
working well with your actual story with
your actual mechanics so it’s good here
that if we had a character who could
recover and is durable but it makes
sense it’s the story driving this as
opposed to like well we’re adding it in
just to make it work for instance if you
know you can imagine a world we said
well it’s a shape change you’re getting
claws and a bite and stuff like that we
didn’t really think of durability as
being key that that would be a real
tension with d6 a new armor but I think
we’re good here even the armor part I
imagine when you change you’re gonna get
better armor I imagine that that’ll be a
feature alright good so and I think
that’s probably the no am I gonna bow I
don’t I think that I might would
probably be using more like I’m twisting
space to to hit you from short from long
range
like with short range attacks I we’ll
see we’ll see so the nice thing is when
we go back and look up here right we
could see his psychic warrior we wanted
to armor and more hitpoints so it would
have been pushing against it soul knife
same way they mix it up up close the the
rogue the lurk we’ll probably need some
of that you know because they’re gonna
be off on their own a lot again this is
something where maybe this kind of this
rolls over and becomes I mean we might
keep it we just might see it this is a
good option for if you don’t want to use
the class but you want to use Sonic’s
like you might in your campaign use this
I think we’ll keep it but I’m not too
worried about trying to make it the
defining you know men tools but we’ll
get there it said let’s tackle these for
them then see where that that it should
resolve itself I want to give us the
opportunity if we feel that d6 isn’t
working to go back to a d8 I don’t want
to lock us in quite yet all right so we
get five minutes so let’s take a look at
so this is a very simple case now this
is all it’s a matter of you know killing
your darlings let’s see what we created
last year and let’s see how much wood
survives saving throws intelligence and
wisdom I don’t think that’s gonna change
the sonic class being very mental makes
sense our skills Arcana history insight
medicine nature perception and religion
these are all mental skills without
going to charisma related skills I think
looking at these four right here that
makes sense the avatar is a little bit
of one who is out there like well it
seems like they should be charisma
driven but that’s also a very nice way
to do it too
if you’re looking at a class that is
using magic or has a spell casting stat
and you have a subclass that naturally
seems to want to push that to somewhere
else a subclass is a great great way to
resolve that because if we make you know
the art into subclass of the bard or the
average how would we call it
it’s a charisma casting class that just
takes care of itself
I don’t need to put in some weird thing
here to make your charisma relevant same
thing if we wanted to pick up this idea
of the immortal I could imagine if the
Barbarian if we did is a barbarian that
could specify in its psionics class
feature some class featured that you may
be using Constitution as you’re casting
stat so okay so I think these equipments
whatever that will just be based on the
features here’s a nice table which will
just skip the table is very important
but we don’t need to worry about it
let’s take a look at our class features
so I if you follow the stream for a
while you know there’s a big decision we
have to make up front about our sub
class and that is does your sub class
come in at first level third level or if
you’re the weird outlier that is the
wizard which is one of our core classes
but whatever odd second level and I
think shad sound off I have my
suspicions I don’t think this this is a
super tough question but I’m just
curious to see does the does everyone’s
expectation in chat line up with what
I’m thinking what level do you think you
should be making the the sub class
choice Act first purser second fifth the
banana will go crate just me a level I’m
gonna play for like a couple weeks where
we go third first second third first
looks like first is coming in for a lot
of characters a few points per second Oh
get to the second – oh that’s right
that’s right I get to second but I’m
seeing out of first 20th level red lets
you play this that’s like you know the
reward was now you get a subclass choice
I just love the idea now that that’s
someone would play D&D for a while I
think that’s noir like I was doing
classy no don’t you get a 20th level you
get to pick you know you can be a farmer
or mechanic dark out you know dark out
but down below I got a minute I like the
the the persistence in the number 100
hundred let’s make this a hundred level
class and we can make it I can you XP
table will divide you like your level
divided by five is your actual level or
know what forget it 100 level yours
isn’t your five times stronger the okay
lotsa for D fourth I share DB I will
make it random that would stand out
see you guys you don’t have to read the
feedback when the I read those comments
the special tip of the hat person who
put like I think one time someone put
some erotica in there like oh hey that’s
a nice little you know this is violating
our computer policies here at Hasbro but
the it was definitely a change of pace
okay so I’m seen a lot of boats reversed
in a second the you want more post
twenty Khan say the classicism
guaranteed to go to post twenty I see a
lot I think the manic isn’t waiting for
front I got one very ardent supporter
fifth level ok I think what you know I
think the second level I think actually
is I’m even example what of why second
level was not something that’s gay and
had no fainting at the hitting the nail
on the head first since the subclass
defines the playstyle that’s very true
and that’s a very powerful argument in
favor first and here’s I seeing people
saying first and second and I’m gonna
sort of show you like here’s why the
wizard doesn’t get it at first you wait
until second and that’s really just
because we felt there was enough stuff
going on at first level but we want to
just get in your hands as quickly as
possible that we could afford to wait a
level that we wanted to make any known
animal try to remember how much you know
what this is a little there’s a little
bit of a technical thing right here
excite I’m not oh wait no I think I if I
go to Dena beyond I think I have someone
else’s account up yeah here we go so
let’s take a quick look we have a minute
oops
it’s good at characters and classes
official and let’s go the wizard so if
we take a look at the wizard in its
progression what you see here is arcane
recovery is coming in at first we felt
that was really important for play that
while the arcane traditional stuff was
pretty cool we wanted you to get make
sure you are getting more spells and
tying those spells into the short rest I
mean obviously although the mechanic
works because that’s probably was a good
balance for it but it needed the players
at 451st level you were playing a bit
longer adventurer you had the chance to
rest as a wizard this gave you another
reason to want to trigger one of those
short rests and for any character that
had a short rest stuff going on this
just felt like a good way to get across
a short rests your first level take a
short rest
essentially power back up these are a
little trick I do oh and uh Edna feign
white why does a druid let I’ll take a
quick look yeah but I was little I
kidding I’ll go to the druid um this is
really about teaching about short and
long rests my trick I know first of all
characters are very fragile so typically
when I’m running a first level adventure
I give the players copious chances for a
short rest and I essentially designed
them with you know section of the
adventure short rest finale so I ran a
dungeon like a month or two ago where
there’s all this sort of initial
exploration kind of a mini boss
encounter yet the kind of solid like
it’s a it’s a trap and a Mike of south
and before you go into the final big
room like it’s telling you know here’s
the vault door when you open if there’s
danger on either side but we’ve cleared
out this tomb otherwise so let’s just
take a short rest and for first little
characters that’s essentially powering
back up they’re almost back up to full
so yeah let’s go and now one caveat I
don’t remember if this account has the
that would have the druid available
let’s take a quick look here we go so
now now the second interesting so I
can’t quite remember why we did for the
druid oh because of wild shape coming in
we wanted drew dis yes exactly so this
is a good example of the reverse we’re
keeping things pretty simple for you at
first level we didn’t want wild shape
and spell casting to come in at the same
time so giving you spell cast when you
felt especially for a first time player
and this is a good example of really
designing for the first time player
obviously if we played druids before an
experienced player getting spell casting
in wild shape is probably pretty simple
for you but if you’re a first time
player we didn’t want you to feel like
oh I’m learning spell casting and I’m
learning wild shape since the circle
spoke to wild shape we had to wait until
you got wild shape before your circle
abilities could kick could kick in so
that is really what would determine
whether at first or second for this
character class for the Sion we would
just have to look as we build it out
what are the core features that all Sion
the share and then does it make sense
just to give you hey they’re pretty
light it’s nothing too serious I need to
give you up front so I can give you your
subclass at first which I think probably
is the path bid go down or is there a
reason to delay until second and that
would need to be the subclass is
speaking to a pretty meaty class feature
that’s shared across all characters
width of the class or there’s another
mechanic that we feel like it’d be very
valuable to have a first level to help
you play that character I mean
essentially with the wizard having the
d6 hit points and pour weapons and armor
now compare that the druid was a d8 and
can be effective up front you know
keeping mind druids you know their their
proficiencies you’re getting medium
armor and shields so you are essentially
if you need to be the backup fighter you
can do that where the wizard was very
dependent on spells and encounters so
yeah so we’re at about three minutes to
the top of the hour ah
we’ll call it there we’ve got a pretty
good place now that we kind of see who
this can this character class we see who
it is becoming we’re seeing the
relationship between the subclasses we
built the ones I kind of think um is
like load-bearing subclasses like this
is getting the full suite
across the the concept of sanics in the
game and I think we’re gonna predict it
a place so next week we’ll talk about
core class features for the Sion which
in the process of that will also have to
start thinking about class features that
we’ll need for these the subclasses
essentially that that process will be
what are the things that all of these
characters need to be able to do and
then what are the things that they get
to do themselves so I hope that was fun
for everyone had a great time thanks
taking part chat for helping me solve
some of these issues
and I will see everyone next week so
take care
[Music]
Great stream today everyone! Chat was hopping, and the ideas are flowing. Can't wait for next week.— Mike Mearls (@mikemearls) June 5, 2018

Does the “natural melee weapon” of the minotaur’s horns works with Divine Smite?
@JeremyECrawford Interesting point in Dragon Talk today, you mentioned the "natural melee weapon" language of the minotaur's horns means it works with Divine Smite (and magic weapon?).
That seems at odds with previous answers regarding bite attacks. Is this a revision?
— Dan Dillon (@Dan_Dillon_1) May 15, 2018
Or are PC minotaur horns/centaur hooves somehow mechanically different from a monster minotaur's horns/monster centaur's hooves?
— Dan Dillon (@Dan_Dillon_1) May 15, 2018
That was part of a discussion about the magic weapon spell. I stated that it was meant to be cast on weapons that are objects, but that casting it on natural weapons would break nothing.
— Jeremy Crawford (@JeremyECrawford) May 15, 2018
Gotcha. So paladins can smite with whatever natural weapons by intent, and magic weapon at DM’s discretion? That's right!
— Jeremy Crawford (@JeremyECrawford) May 15, 2018