Unearthed Arcana

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There's no snow in Seattle, and Dragon+ is going live FOR REAL this time! @bart_carroll and the sage @JeremyECrawford are answering your #DnD and #UnearthedArcana questions. THIS IS A AN AUTOMATIC CAPTION TEXT from YouTube, so it’s not “perfect”.
My advice is to use it just to help people like me that are not english speaking, to understand the Video/Podcast
hello and welcome back to another

livestream of Dragon plus slash design

plus with me now as always whoops

and I have made a faux pas immediately

by not turning the sound off of my

computer that’s like on sports radio

they’re always yelling at like why are

you watching TV no I was I was because I

was just rewatching the PAX South

acquisitions incorporated a live game

exactly yes which I wanted to ask how

that went I don’t know if you want to

give any spoilers away but from from the

previous live game you know cliffhangers

were resolved journeys

potentially back home were were

facilitated and things ended with yet

another bit of a story cliffhanger I

don’t want to spoil anything because

because people people who haven’t

watched it on YouTube yet is available

on YouTube yes won’t have seen yet how

the previous episodes cliffhangers were

were resolved suffice it to say it was

super fun the players were awesome they

had especially great chemistry they kept

surprising me as DM I had a whole lot of

stuff prepared that just didn’t happen

yes to me is never a bad thing yes I

love getting to the end of a session and

I’m like wow my pockets are still full

yeah and take out half an and all sorts

of things happen that I didn’t expect

and then I can take some of this stuff I

prepared and use it another time

and yes we ended on yet another crazy

cliffhanger and it was it was satisfying

for me that the cliffhanger was so

surprising to some of the players that

they even on stage yes no no we can’t in

there

well they had a bit of a vested interest

in where things went yesterday and Terra

gation

it is both very funny and very dark at

the same time yeah yes so I’ve got the

the chat has been asking

while we were waiting to queue up here

what’s better a dungeon or a dragon oh

well I think the best is a dungeon with

a dragon in it okay ampersand apparently

was also a choice yeah so yes I chose

basically I chose the Empress

bring them bring them together that’s

two for ever since how about well wave

or black raiser apropos of but not nice

yeah cuz one of those for those of you

haven’t seen the latest a kink episode

one of those three weapons makes a

surprise appearance yes I I have a soft

spot in my heart for black raiser simply

because as a kid when I saw the

illustration of it in the original white

plume Mountain yes I just thought oh

that looks so cool plus it’s like storm

bringer see I had never read Elric I had

never read storm bringer but I was the

exact same way

I saw the sword and the way that it was

described as sort of a window into a

starry sky somewhere else it didn’t have

to do anything else right it was wildly

over power fold as well but it was still

very very cool yeah sword as starscape

I’m sold and I found that as both player

and Dungeon Master it’s occasionally the

mechanics that will allure a player to

keeping or using a weapon but it’s just

as often the story or the aesthetics of

a thing this is going to keep it on

there they’re persons oh yeah I mean cuz

even in the tabletop game you see what

so many of us have experienced in video

games and that is so much of it is about

dress-up it’s about what getting that

cool thing and imagining your character

wearing it or wielding it or you know

showing it off or giving it as a gift of

course

so Jeremy Crawford a lead designer of

the players handbook and a lead

rules designer of

engines and dragons as mentioned in the

past couple of weeks we’re going to be

having Jeremy on more regularly

last week we did miss our regularly

scheduled appointment because of

inclement weather yeah we were we were

huddled at home while abominable snowmen

growled by not that I don’t appreciate a

snow day over so often but I looked out

and there was nothing on the ground on

Wednesday when they had called off

really all Seattle schools okay see

where I were I lived it was snowing yes

Diane and I had that was brought to my

attention yeah there is a bigger part of

Seattle than West Seattle the entire

Seattle School District also has to be

taken into account well in any time

there’s snow there’s always a good

chance that Capitol Hill where I live

will get more than other parts of the

city partly just because of higher

elevation right and and then you combine

that with our really steep streets and

some of them are our narrow

nineteenth-century Street yes that then

also get covered with a sheet of ice and

oh boy you’re you are best off staying

at home on those days they’re not

risking slipping and sliding around into

a telephone pole as a dungeon master do

you or how do you incorporate weather

into your games now dungeons of course

are their own thing but they’re you know

they’re the Indoor Stadium of D&D do you

take things to the exterior fairly often

or or how do you play with that so in my

home game in particular I spend at least

half the time doing wilderness

encounters sometimes more than half or

urban encounters you know on city

streets and whatnot and I often like to

describe the weather because weather can

be a great mood piece you can get people

into a particular mood whether you

describe a dreary rainy day or a

glimmering spring morning already those

two descriptions are going to put your

in a different mood it’s then fun to use

the weather as a game effect you know

suddenly the streets are slippery

because of the downpour or you know on a

long trek through the wilderness because

of the the high heat and the sunlight

people might be getting dehydrated

quicker I might not do any real concrete

game effect in the case of like

dehydration but sometimes just

describing that will put the players on

edge and and heighten the drama and

usually that’s what I’m aiming for it’s

let’s heighten the drama and let’s also

make it immersive let’s right people

feel like they’re there and a big part

of being in a place in our world is

weather mm-hmm and for the players I

know as well it’s also just a good

improv book where the weather is this

they’ll spin it in their own way well my

character is going to be acting this way

or looking for this or however they want

to have to take things in that that area

it weather is also a great way to create

excuses for certain types of monsters to

show up like if there’s a sudden

unexpected snowfall in a city like we

just had in Seattle well that might be a

way to incorporate some snow themed

monsters in an environment that you

wouldn’t normally wear you wouldn’t

normally see them like typically people

will encounter white dragons for

instance you know high up and

snow-capped mountains but what if

there’s a snowpocalypse like we just had

in a city and a white dragon wanders

into town you so again you can do some

fun stuff like that change the situation

play with people’s expectations because

of changes in weather or of course why

is the weather this way and why is it

encroaching on the town yeah why are the

Druids mad at us and what are they

trying to bring into the city

whatever the hook is so right right

before Christmas at home I ran the first

of a two-part one shot the first episode

of a two-part one-shot and we’ll be

doing the second episode I think next

week and it’s funny it’s almost like

part have you been reading my notes

because weather is actually crucial to

the story there and I was partly

inspired by our inclement weather and

also just how weather is in Seattle

every winter

there is a mysterious snowstorm and a

big part of the adventure is figuring

out why and can they stop it because it

one of all said the fun things in D&D is

if you have magical weather mm-hmm you

can make it over the top right you know

this is this is snow that’s piling up

way faster than it would in the real

world things are icing over like visibly

like you can see the ice forming I

always love it when in the games I’m

playing or running or when I see other

DMS really embracing the fantasy of D&D

and realizing you know you’re not bound

by how these things work in the real

world you can push it you know really

amp up the drama the excitement the

horror the humor I might be stating the

obvious but for my players at least half

of the fun is the first part of figuring

out what is happening and then the

second part well okay let’s let’s make

the the action to make the day right or

what have you but yeah just the mystery

of something is wrong or off there’s a

lot of fun I’ve not been reading your

notes but I have been eating your Tim

Tams oh yes I I opened your bag of

Tempest is starving yes thank you if

you’re watching the fan from Down Under

who sent Tim Tim Tams to the office

through me

it’s very appreciated yes those are good

cookies super tasty I forgot that in

some countries calories are calculated

differently and so I read the energy

because it’s called energy on the packet

and it was per cookie it was like 438

and I thought that was calories and I’m

like oh my god we’re gonna all end up at

diabetes in these cookies they said two

pop-tarts condensed and yeah then I went

online and did a conversion like okay

these cookies are safe to eat

but on that note it’s also a Girl Scout

cookie season which is bad news for my

in my house yeah I’ve got to pretend

that’s not happening otherwise I’m gonna

end up with a freezer half full of Thin

Mints we’ve had this discussion we have

the garbage cookie

it’s s’mores it’s the s’mores well let’s

get to your questions what we wanted to

do was circle back around to some of the

unanswered questions that we had from

the last few discussions and unearth

archanis and in recent days we’ve also

just dropped another unearthed Arcana

you know that we do need to get into

available now on many parts of the

website yeah D&D wizards calm

we were fighting with some of our

indexing but you can look for subclasses

part one there with a super cool I’d

maybe just because I play a were like a

lot of super cool warlock it’s a noble

genie yeah so let me let me start off

with a couple of you questions if you do

have another question please do put it

in the chat please do preface it with

question we do compile them as we go

along the way I know we’ve been babbling

on but we’ll also have one giveaway that

will be taking place during this live

stream I’ve got an unopened copy of the

D&D essentials kit so for anyone looking

to get their hands on that we’ll be

giving away a copy

what’s a chapel ttan because we we liked

his name this is in regards to the on

earth Arcana class feature variants and

chaplain asked we talked a little bit

about the feedback and survey process

generally last time specifically for the

class future variants has the feedback

overall been generally positive or

negative in regards to the versatility

and buyer’s remorse that it seeks to

rectify so the class feature variant UA

received I think more play test feedback

than any UA we’ve ever done Wow and was

also one of the most positively received

on earth arcanas we have ever done and

so the short answer is yes people have

really taken to those versatility

features and they want us I’m not

surprised yes

yeah and I mean cuz as always we’re

ready for people to not want them or you

know saying thanks but no thanks

but with these they were like yes give

us give us this ability to modify our

characters over the course of a campaign

because I think I think many people have

found exactly what I’ve mentioned in one

of our previous episodes that campaigns

advance at different paces and sometimes

if you go by just you know what’s in the

players handbook you might be waiting a

long time if if your character has to

wait for a level up to change something

right and then in a few cases in the

players handbook we don’t even give you

the ability to change something so I

think people are really excited about

gaining this ability in a potential

future product yes versatility is a good

fun thing I dragon wood with my family

it’s a card game you draw cards get the

same color number blah blah blah which

is fine but at some point during the

game the house rule is well what if I

started trading cards well now I’ve got

more versatility in my hand mm-hmm and

it makes the game I’m not I don’t have

to wait just for my turn to draw another

card yeah so there you go chapel 10 TP

kill has a question this is in regards

again to the class future variants

specifically regarding spell casting why

do you think that the cleric cantrip

spell list would bring more

possibilities to the Paladin guidance

aside no paladin would change his might

possibility for a sacred flame for

example so why give the paladin cantrip

versatility and is a great question and

I was hoping you would answer that

question I mean it asked me that

question

partly because they’re really two things

to address one is there are people who

play paladin’s who simply want again

we’re gonna go to the versatility theme

they’re gonna want the versatility that

access to that can’t replace gives them

it can be difficult to remember

sometimes especially if you’re in a

group that prioritizes combat over

exploration and social

interaction in the game that there are

groups that actually highly value social

interaction in their role-playing and

exploration and might value the

versatility that you get from things

like utility can trips more than they

might value upping their damage a little

bit and so really that leads to the

other part of this question I wanted to

address we always have to be careful as

fans not only of the idea of really of

anything of projecting our tastes onto

the entire fandom because one thing the

DND next process taught us and that we

learn over and over and over again in

every undercut continent we do is that

the D&D audience is wonderfully diverse

and likes many different ways of playing

and so if you see something that’s not

to your taste that’s fine because

there’s usually something else that is

and sometimes people will have what is

to me a mystifying anxiety about someone

else enjoying something they don’t like

and the key is just enjoy the thing you

enjoy and D&D is a big enough game that

it can accommodate many tastes is this

another Star Wars discussion I’m not I’m

not gonna like suddenly pull back the

curtain and say now Bart what we’re

going to interrogate your very strong

opinions about Star Wars no again I

think particularly in D&D where we

consciously have given options that that

appeal to different play styles and

different ways of building characters

it’s natural that everyone is going to

come across something that’s just not

for them that that’s actually by design

as long as you as long as you are

finding some things in the game where

you read it and you’re like that’s

awesome that’s for me then our design is

succeeding because our design goal is

not that everybody is everything is for

everybody right instead it is our goal

is design something in the game to

appeal to as many very D&D tastes as

possible or again not mechanic

optimized there might be story reasons

or other reasons that you would like to

craft your character well and and and

even there we have to be careful because

often people will say like mechanical

part of me optimization and really what

they mean is how much damage they deal

in combat yes

forget what I mean yeah exactly

forgetting that being optimal

mechanically can mean different things

in different D&D campaigns because you

might be in the D&D campaign where your

group’s victory is not measured by how

many monsters you slay and how quickly

you slay them it might instead be how

many warring factions have you persuaded

to pursue peace it might or in another

campaign campaign might be how good are

you at solving different mysteries and

some of that might be resolved in play

through role-playing but it might

instead be resolved through use of

skills use of non-combat class features

there’s a lot in the game that speaks to

non-combat and there are many campaigns

where there’s non-combat abilities

we’ll actually see more use and have

ultimately more plot impact than the

fact that Clara the Paladin is able to

deal one additional more point of damage

per hit than the other character next to

her we just Greg Tito just ran us

through a one shot on Friday where it

was investigation it was exactly that

you needed to use your your deductive

reasoning and animal handling has it

turned out right there was no combat up

until I think the last 10 minutes yeah

and and think about it if somebody

through clever roleplay and use of

skills like persuasion or deception or

performance is able to essentially make

a battle not happen mm-hmm that is a way

more powerful ability than +1 per hit a

super hit you know and again I’m not I’m

not saying that exactly but sort of that

kind of thing right and so anyone out

there who is sort of massing it be very

careful because remember there is way

more to the game than going toe-to-toe

with monsters with your weapons out and

your spells prepared

even though that is also an awesome part

of the game yeah this is why I love D&D

that all of those experiences can feed

into an amazing D&D playthrough I was

just looking at the chat really quickly

chapel tonie’s in the chat today so we

can hopefully answered your question to

your satisfaction I see El arias as well

I will answer your question offline and

then this one was off-topic but it

struck me as an interesting one oh where

did it go for for Dungeon Master’s and

how you might run the game no I’m sure

your players wouldn’t do this but Zul

asks they are running the tomb of

annihilation or take any dungeon

scenario their players have reached the

tomb and it’s clear that one of them has

read the adventure mmm how is it Dungeon

Master might you handle that make the

traps deadlier leave them as is remove

the player something else entirely um I

would feel it out so if the player is

clearly having a good time and they’re

not spoiling other people’s time by by

sharing the knowledge they have you

could possibly run the adventure as

written if they’re a fun person to play

with but their their knowledge is

bubbling out of them and disrupting play

don’t stop there right if that’s going

on then I would say DM don’t hesitate to

just change things play with their

expectations I I love doing this so the

thing is I actually delight in it when I

know that somebody has read something

I’m running because then I mess with

that and there are I mean sometimes it’s

just there are some classic adventures

out there right that a lot of us have

have run and and read but we want to

play them as well yeah so I did this

recently in my home campaign the group

went to castle Ravenloft two hundred

years after the events of curse of

strawed two of my players were Chris

Perkins and James Wyatt

Chris who worked with me on cursive

straud James Wyatt who worked on

expedition to Castle Ravenloft in third

edition these are players who know that

castle inside and out yes they have a

poker game with strata every census so

so what I did is I used that knowledge

against them because they’re like things

were not where they expected them to be

in the castle plus 200 years had passed

and the law was going on in that castle

that they did not expect I mean it you

know including when they got to the

crypts and discovered it had been

converted into a large refrigeration

unit and all the crypts instead had

barely alive people hanging on hooks you

know just preserved away for the

vampires to feed on them I mean it was

just one thing after another like that

so you can actually turn a player’s

familiarity with a published module into

a fun thing of subverting their

expectations and then creating a fun

surprising experience because keep in

mind I say this often yeah the people

who haven’t read it have no idea what’s

on the page right so DMS never hesitate

to change things because I always feel

for dm’s and want to give them a hug

when they feel like oh my gosh I have to

run it as written it’s like you don’t

you don’t have to run it as written your

players don’t have the text in front of

them even if they did you or your job is

not to be sort of a to a mouthpiece for

what is on the page your job is to take

what’s on the page be inspired by it and

run the adventure you want to run and

just have a ball with it I was gonna say

and tomb of annihilation is a bit of a

an odd choice there because that

actually does take and subvert some of

the the the text from tomb of horrors

right knowing that some players will be

familiar with it and and attempting to

do exactly that when its avert a little

bit of the expectations to the surprise

and delight and challenge both of the

players who might be familiar with so

yeah subvert the sub subvert the

subversion when you can even with tomb

of annihilation you could actually if

you’re you know running for

group that has read tomb of annihilation

or you know have someone in the group

one of the many things you could do to

subvert their expectations would be to

run most of the situations the way they

were in the original tomb of horrors

which is going to be far more deadly Oh

so yes sir so there you go yeah that’s I

I’ve I have not encountered players like

that except for folks that have read the

adventures lovingly and they are cursed

with the knowledge rate of what the

module contains let’s look at

unimportant hero and this is going to

our psionics based class features asks

and tangential there’s a tough word

tangential to psyonix because space why

do you think contemporary D&D players

are latching on to spell jammer with

such fascination when it was largely

seen as a weirdest stepchild of D&D in

ye olden ad and e2e days so why the the

nostalgia for a bit of an offshoot

setting so first off full disclosure I

love to spell jammer when it came out

but that’s partly because I I like any

expression of D&D that embraces the

multiverse is why I also love Planescape

and Planescape and spell jammer really

are two ways of looking at the multi

world setting that is the D&D multiverse

Planescape is really about journeying

through the outer Plains in the inner

planes

whereas spell jammer is much more

focused on getting from one of the

worlds in the material playing to

another and you know it’s just cool

having these these magical ships soaring

through space visiting different worlds

and then if you combine that with you

know trips to the outer Plains you can

have a really marvelously trippy D&D

experience my theory for why people

often bring up spell jammer as well as

Planescape as something they have loved

from the

is because they just they dig the DND

multiverse one of the things D&D has

that many fantasy settings don’t have is

it has multiple worlds these these

metaphysical dimensions you can visit

other planets I mean it it has so much

variety with all of these different

subgenres a fantasy represented by you

know the different worlds there’s really

nothing quite like it in fantasy yes

because most most fantasy settings just

have a single world whereas when D&D we

have many worlds and the implication is

of course that one of those worlds is

your homebrew world out there right that

there is even a place for your homebrew

in this multiverse yeah that’s a good

point it has an equally valid place in

the multiverse there’s many worlds and

many ways to travel between them and

reach them it’s also fascinating to you

to the game as well yeah and that and

what it means is that in D&D literally

this the sky is the limit where well

although even the sky is not a limit

since you can actually step out of out

of your plane of existence into another

but you can go into the sky and find out

what’s out there and go adventuring in

another world or alternatively spend

your entire campaign on just one world

and dig deep but d with its great

breadth of opportunity for storytelling

allows you to go super deep in a single

world I mean heck you could do an entire

campaign in a single you know

municipality but alternatively if you

want you can hop around from one plane

of existence to another from one world

to another travel around on a ship I

think people really more and more

appreciate that side of D&D because it

is something really precious and special

about about Dungeons & Dragons see it’s

funny because for me it I that the point

taken it’s about having being able to

access the multiverse what might be some

of the appeal to spell Jemma and for me

it was like what is this thing

of course Bart Planescape guy but I mean

ultimately which is a very similar thing

right just how do you get to these

different girls is it through through

magical means or through more you know

the actual physical nautical means in

right way right exactly and it’s okay

for you to not totally dig you know what

spell jammer is offering because going

back to what I was saying earlier D&D

again is so great that you decide what

you’re gonna eat from the D&D buffet yes

you it it’s okay for me to be over here

getting a second helping of spell jammer

while you might be going back for thirds

over there and the the sigil plate I see

I think back when I was a second edition

it was like my need my Dungeons &

Dragons serious it’s serious dark

fantasy and now it’s like oh that gift

looks fantastic I’m putting him in a

game somehow somewhere yeah but here’s

the thing you could also you can still

have super serious D&D because if you

want your story to be zeroed in on one

world and it’s you know hardscrabble

existence for some of the people there

or the dark politics or the you know the

dark magic that’s occurring all of that

is also possible in D&D you if you if

you want to ignore what’s going on and

the great beyond

I’m can alright well there we go we’ve

got a few questions we do have several

more remaining but what I thought we

would want to do in the time remaining

is at least pay a little attention to

the most recent unearthed star canna

that has come out this is the first

first unearthed Arcana of 2020 in his

subclasses part one which immediately

begs the question is there going to be a

part two I sure hope so otherwise we

were very confused when we put that part

one there but in part one we cover

subclass options for the Barbarian the

monk the Paladin and as mentioned the

warlock that’s right so where would you

like to maybe dabble in first let’s

start from the top

and we we go right into the path of the

beast this is a fun one for anyone who’s

ever wanted to play a character who

might be descended from a lycanthrope or

a some other sort of shapeshifter or

maybe you’ve got you were blessed by you

know an ancient fate being to be able to

adopt various animal aspects this

barbarian path gives you those those

juicy options this was this was

something we talked about in a design

meaning a while ago I was like I’d I’d

really like to see this Dan Dillon took

it and ran with it and then the team

iterated on it and we ended up with this

you know you get to sprout claws if you

want get a swimming speed you know

scramble up walls leap leap fart you

know far distance infect people with

your fury give your friends some of your

reckless attack it’s I think a ton of

fun and really is a way for a barbarian

to take the sort of primal energy that

we often talk about being an aspect of

the barbarian and wearing that on the

outside because we often we often in

narrative terms will refer to rage as

you know being a sort of a feral you

know fury that kind of thing well in

this subclass you literally become feral

ya you you know you partially transform

and everyone’s gonna see it so it is a

very conspicuous form of rage because

you know you rage and then adopt these

animal aspects if anyone’s wondering how

is this different from the path of the

totem warrior in the players handbook

well the difference really is there in

the conspicuousness the path of the

totem warrior might have certain feral

qualities to them but ultimately the

totem warrior is all about channeling a

nature spirit of some kind and

manifesting different abilities here in

the path of the beast you are literally

because

like these creatures whether it’s you

know spawning a tail or you know your

your nose elongating you know that’s

this kind of thing you are you are

becoming pretty monstrous and it’s

possible that a barbarian who follows

this path like terrified towns folk you

know it could be there could be some

stories where the barbarian flies into

the rage and transforms a bit there

could be you know villagers who might

mistake this barbarian for a lycanthrope

of some kind so you might have already

touched upon this a little bit but clam

laminae it’s not calamity it’s clam

lemony I like that

well I had a question about I suppose

the discussion process of it goes into

the back end about some of the classical

archetypes that fit with the classes so

when we talking about the barbarian and

the lycanthrope why the barbarian as

opposed to say the Granger has a

subclass for this so there are a number

of subclasses that quite honestly could

go into a number of different classes

and sometimes we actually do explore

similar themes in subclasses for

different classes but when we don’t do

that and we just say we’re gonna take

this theme and focus on this one class

it usually is about zeroing in on a

particular aspect and here we were

zeroing in on beastial transformation

and also really leaning into there being

some element of it feeling a little

dangerous and those thematically those

bits relate very well to the barbarians

rage rage also gave us a mechanism for

you know giving you this transformation

that piggybacks on something you already

have so then you know rage can serve as

the conduit for this plus again the

narrative of the barbarian versus the

ranger is that barbarians are filled

with this primal energy Rangers

sometimes that’s their story but the

Ranger story tradition

has been much more you know you are a

person who is you know at peace mm-hmm

in the wilds and and who is a survivor

whereas the Barbarian might be a

manifestation of the wilds that to me is

that’s the important difference you know

the the Ranger is the one who who goes

out into the far wilderness and

befriends the Beast there the Barbarian

might be mistaken especially this

barbarian for one of the beasts out

there and then the druid might pop up

and say hi I was over here eating an

acorn in squirrel form as I pondered the

secrets of the universe so you know we

have these three different classes with

all an important relationship to nature

but they their relationship is is

different I would watch that movie like

an incredible journey style trip through

the wilderness with three very different

glasses fixed parts yeah all right so

that is the the path of the beast for

the barbarian anything else you wanted

to add or touch quickly upon the monk

the last thing I’ll say about the the

path of the Beast is going back to our

theme of versatility I loved here that

we give the player choice you decide

when you transform which of the

transformation options you’re going to

use because what we’ve done here is

we’ve we’ve made it so that you have

options that could be useful in and

outside of combat we we often want to

make sure that for certain class

archetypes we are we are designing

things that are useful in multiple

pillars of the game and again those

pillars being exploration social

interaction and combat so the monk way

of the way of mercy a way of mercy this

is a this is a monk I’ve wanted us to

actually explore for a while been Petrus

or took the lead here

after we discussed having a monk that

would in many ways lean more on sort of

a European aesthetic than an Asian

aesthetic the monk has often relied on

different Asian Ark types for its

identity and here we wanted because you

know Western Europe has had a long

tradition of monks but it’s it’s

confusing because in in Western Europe

that word means a different yes very

much so and we thought well what if we

kind of merged these and so what we

started to explore is this idea of you

know imagine Europe during the Black

Plague and this figure who walks among

the plague bearers wearing a potentially

spooky mask who with one hand is able to

provide healing and another hands

provide a different kind of mercy in the

form of a quick death and we

specifically wanted to explore this in

the monk because we wanted a character

who was not not a spellcaster still

using a mystical power source in this

case the monks key who would also have

this sort of dual nature of life and

death the sort of those two two

different sides of Mercy in Troy because

going back to cook lamb lamb ADIZ

questions sort of it might have gone

cleric but you decided I mean it was

decided no no this feels more monk for

this particular so absolutely because we

we already have healing covered in the

cleric and and because any and anytime

we do anything for the cleric healing is

assumed you know because healing is

always an option for a cleric when

they’re preparing their spells right no

we you specifically wanted to create a

monk for somebody who might love what a

monk offers but wanted to like have a

monk in sort of like a you know a

European friars robe who you know

doesn’t use weapons

has the unarmed fighting capabilities

that the monk class offers but marries

those capabilities to this again ability

to to provide the you know soothing

healing or to hasten someone’s death

and I feel this is a perfect place the

perfect class for this subclass certain

now that you say that though I now want

to see that movie where it’s a version

of like name of the rose yes but they

have martial art abilities that they’re

so so name of the Rose was for me one of

the aesthetic inspirations when I first

brought the idea of this to the team

right movie I love that movie and and

those characters are called monks and of

course they’re not the same as D&D monks

cuz right although we don’t know they

never have a fight maybe some of them

are awesome and unarmed combat and plus

what many people don’t know is medieval

Europe also had traditions of unarmed

fighting not nearly as in my opinion

beautiful as the traditions of unarmed

fighting in the east but the West also

has traditions of unarmed fighting so it

it is possible to have a monk who is a

master at unarmed fighting who does not

necessarily have to have an Asian

aesthetic now they box old yeah they

could be a pugilist because because we

don’t tell you in the monk class

description that you are you know

necessarily you know doing karate or

kung fu or you know Aikido or some other

you know martial art from Asia you might

be you know a a european-style pugilist

or doing some of the unarmed fighting

styles that the ancient Greeks deployed

or the Romans there’s a lot in the West

as well that can be leaned upon in a

class like the monk but here again this

for your touchstone think of plague

doctor and by the way the monk is

one of the reasons also why we loved

putting this in the monk is the monk is

in some ways the perfect person to be

wandering among the ill because over

time you know monks bodies just sort of

become you know superhuman and their

resilience they’ve been exposed to too

often just things yeah yeah you can

imagine a monk and a paladin walking

through you know a disease-ridden city

and there they’re gonna be fine I the

the aesthetic of the of the plague mask

has always been I think particularly

compelling you know to to fantasy fans

as well yeah what was the reason for I

you know I have not studied the reason I

mean I can certainly guess

or we could google it but you know it

could have been to dampen the odour

because one of the things we often

forget is cities and centuries past

often wreaked because of maybe the

sewage although many of those cities

actually had better sewage systems than

we realize it was tended to be the

smaller towns that would have like open

you know sewage drains that kind of

thing but also just because people did

not bathe as much as they do now so just

the amount of body odor and also animal

odor because animals were were around

much more sure and so if you’re in a

city then you add onto all of that a

city where people there’s plentiful

death because of some kind of epidemic

you can imagine wanting to you know

maybe have a perfumed mask on shore that

makes it so that you can withstand at

the reek a bit of a bit of a gas mask

yeah I also like it too because since

back then surgeons you know sometimes

we’re not entirely trusted because they

might be showing up too you know saw

your arm off without anesthesia you

could also see why maybe they would wear

masks now this month doesn’t do that but

this mug does have the hands of harm you

know so or this noxious or so watch out

all right so that is a quick look at the

monk shall we touch upon the appellate

I’m we’ve got 10 minutes remaining yes

yeah so the oath of the watchers yeah

this this some of the initial design

here was done by Bill Benham and then

you know the team we took it and sort of

poked and prodded to explore this idea

of a group of paladin’s

who are essentially the Watchers at the

gate what I mean by that is they are

they are guarding against extra planar

incursions and they are especially good

at going up against things like

elementals Fae fiends aberrations at you

know banishing them at turning them they

of course have other abilities that are

good in other situations but these these

are the paladin’s who are basically

saying you know don’t don’t come into

this world and mess it up especially if

you’re a malign force like a fiend

they’re gonna say get out of here and

you know I can see them you know making

nice maybe with elementals and Fae

unless those elementals if they cross

the line but again they this name comes

from the oath of the Watchers they are

the Watchers at the gate and the gate

here meaning really any pathway from an

outer plane or an inner plane or the Fae

wild or the shadow fell into the

Material Plane I can imagine like a men

in black style or a hell boys no no no

we’re regarding this war yep against

everyone else there they you get yeah

exactly you think of the oath of the

watchers as the planar cops you know you

can visit but but don’t destroy the

cities yeah yeah hey I’m brushing amber

ation please do not extract brains while

you’re visiting so some of their powers

they’ve got some channeled divinity

options here and yes well yeah extra

alertness and

their vigilance and I of course it’s

because it’s awful 20 they always jump

to the big juicy ability of mental yes

yes where they are I have true sight

they have advantage on their attack

rolls against these extra planar beings

and they also can just whack somebody

and say get out of here and banish them

back to their home plane really again

fulfilling this sort of class fantasy of

the planar cop so that is the paladin

subclass and then we get to the warlocks

noble genie yes so the noble genie is a

fun exploration of you know what would

happen if your patron as a warlock was a

genie yes a a genie who has this opulent

realm somewhere in the inner planes

where you can potentially send people to

for the genie to be amused that’s

actually one of my favorite things in

the subclass is one of the ability to go

into the descent yes send someone away

and basically for the for the genie to

be like you can imagine sometimes the

genie would be like oh you’re fun and

there are other times like oh boy you’re

boring hands and hope hope the the

ability will expire soon so you’ll get

out of the genocide the you know it

naturally because this is leaning into

genie lore big big feature of this

subclass is selecting a vessel

associated with the genie whether that’s

an oil lamp a you know low hollow

statuette and ornate lantern and I

really love how we explore have using

that vessel to create a tether between

you and another creature that can be

beneficial or again you can use it to

send people away for a while you can you

know gain the elemental resistance of

your choice that may or may not be

associated with your genie but certainly

is associated with the inner planes that

we’re where genies typically reside and

I also really love the flavor we have

here and

and the 14th level feature of being able

to basically wire money to your two year

patron through your vessel as a part of

using collectors call this which again

sounds a lot like a collect call yes

that you you use at higher level this

subclass also does something fun that we

have not done a whole lot of with our

warlock patrons and that that is we

really treat the patron as a sort of

concrete being and what I mean by that

is in many of our patron options the

patron we very purposefully treat as

this sort of shadowy being that may or

may not have any direct involvement in

your campaign mm-hmm we did that on

purpose especially in the players

handbook because we wanted warlock

players to decide how much they’re

actually connected to their patron

because there’s actually no requirement

in the Warlock class that the Warlock

could be on good terms with their patron

because the Warlock unlike a cleric you

know cleric serves their deity a warlock

made a bargain with somebody that

doesn’t mean they have to like each

other they might not be on speaking

terms with each other they basically

they signed a contract together you know

it feels very episode 4/5 Darth Vader

and the Emperor you know it’s almost

conceptual out there and Darth Vader you

don’t even know if he likes the guy

right right but that’s that’s his patron

at the moment yeah whereas here we

rather than your patron you know being

somewhere out there in the multiverse

and you may may or may not ever meet

them here you are sending them literally

to you know your patrons these people to

your patrons house or sending money in

there it you know it’s very concrete

which felt appropriate for a subclass

that’s also grounded in this very

concrete thing on the oil lamp or you

know that kind of thing

it also it felt like an interesting

story twist for me you think of a genie

it’s usually in the role of their

subservient whoever finds them they’re

granting you wish

they again might not like working with

you but they’re bound to and in this

case it’s it’s a bit of a role reversal

yes it’s interesting yeah where the

genie is the one collecting people and

things and yeah it you could almost

imagine maybe the warlock is the one who

pops out of the lamp I can imagine the

genie is the middleman here sends you on

quest because it has to fulfill that

wish for somebody else right I need you

to go find this thing because I owe it

to this other group yeah yeah and by the

way those of you watching if you’re

curious to know more about genies in D&D

take a look at the Monster Manual we

have a whole section on them because

they are they are really fun parts of

the D&D multiverse and have always been

part of it

it’s funny people will look at the first

edition Dungeon Master’s guide and think

that that tall red being with the horns

is some kind of fiend yes it’s not it’s

a genie that is that is that is one of

the efreet ii and with you know if on

the back covers the city of brass so I

it’s I I remember that because growing

up during the satanic panic and having

somebody looking at that cover and see

look there’s even a devil on this book

and I you know I was a kid you know sort

of pushing up his glasses actually

that’s a genie and that is not hell on

the back that is the plane of fire I’m

sure you convince them in a sense of the

game with that well we’re getting close

to 2 o’clock here at the top of the hour

we’ve touched very briefly on the four

new subclasses that had have appeared in

the most recent on earth dark Anna so I

will mention for folks that do have

questions regarding this or any other on

earth or Canada if you got a moment

please do put it in chat our moderators

have been diligently collecting the

questions and sending them our way so

thank you very much for that and we try

and get through as many as we can if we

don’t get to your question hopefully we

will

in a future date in the meantime I will

just reiterate the unearthed Arcana

subclasses part one is available now on

the D&D website will also make sure to

really PSA’s at the end of February we

had our December issue come out and so

we’re gonna wait until February for

issue 30 as well so on behalf of myself

thanks for everyone for tuning in and

for the PAX South a game you can watch

that now we won’t give any spoilers so

so watch it on YouTube I was wanted to

know and of course the twitch pax

channel in the the video archives was

where I was catching that so it’s a

crazy episode how they all are I’m not

Anna in a delightful way so we’ll see

you again next time and we’ll see Jeremy

next time as well bye everyone

thanks everyone

pic.twitter.com/M33c75uln1

— Dungeons & Dragons (@Wizards_DnD) January 22, 2020

Sage Advice D&D

Questions on Dungeons & Dragons answered by designers

Widgets

How warlocks of the Genie Lord and the Noble Genie might coexist with each other in a campaign?

Cleric: Unity Domain in D&D’s Unearthed Arcana

Warlock, the Noble Genie: is there any restriction for the treasure sacrificed by genie warlock?

Jeremy Crawford sit down to discuss the latest design work in Unearthed Arcana

How Path of the Beast might stack with Tavern Brawler?

Path of the Beast:does the attack from Form of the Beast have to be from your attack action?

Path of the Beast: lot of debate now about being able to hold a weapon and use the claws

Warlock, the Noble Genie: The collector’s vessel power. Is it assumed that you’re binding a summoned creature or a familiar?

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