Today at 1 PM Pacific time on Twitch – Happy Fun Hour! Join me as we design a new subclass for the rogue – the acrobat. It will be fun or it will be a disaster, but in either case it will be worth watching.
hey everyone welcome back to the Mike
Mearls happy fun hour I’m your host
Mike world’s creative director on
Dungeons & Dragons so this show we
features a design of a new subclass each
week we’re going to take a different
character class from finish in D&D and
build a new subclass and if you follow
me on Twitter it’s Mike morals is my my
twitter handle I announced earlier today
we’re gonna be tackling a new subclass
for the rogue the Acrobat but first if
you’re with us last week you would have
seen we’re working on the Kraken patron
for the warlock so what I wanted to
start with was to show you after our
sort of discussion last week of what we
ended up with as some not quite final
design this would be the first draft of
a design but this would be the state in
which you’d expect something to then
move over to internal review and
eventually for external play testing so
if you can check it out right here my
word window I’ll expand it up a bit and
actually I’ll make that the entire
screen so hopefully you guys can read
again don’t worry you’re not expecting
to read the text I will also to go along
explain everything I remember this is
confidential information do not
distribute so hopefully the Internet
that’s really it’s not good at like
logging information for long periods of
time right it just felt kind of goes
away anyways so for the Kraken what we
talked about last week was this idea of
a warlock striking a pact with a Kraken
and Krakens being very powerful
creatures of the the Seas of the world
of dungeons worlds of Dungeons and
Dragons
and having the ability to control the
weather in the area around their
territory and in the threat realms
having this real appetite for
information and so playing with some of
those ideas and coming up with a warlock
who reflects the sort of many tentacle
nature of the Kraken in a way that’s
reflected as a warlock who’s very good
mechanically at controlling crowds of
enemies I did a little more refinement
and I’ll walk you through some of the
changes you’ve seen since last week
we met so to start with this elaborate
text is intentionally very short because
I want to fit everything on one page so
would look neat so but you know it and
then actually the flavor text is one the
last things will write typically because
we don’t exactly know what we have until
it’s finished so it’s just a matter of
you know there’s no no need to make this
any prettier that it needs to be at the
start we have our notes we have our
concept but we don’t want to fill this
in until we know it’s good to go the
spell list didn’t change I know there’s
a lot of options especially at fifth
level we talked about we could change
things but I don’t want to spend too
much time there cuz it’s not as
interesting from your viewpoint of like
wanting to learn about about sub class
design so the grass for the Krakken
that’s right named our first ability if
you remember we wanted something that
was an at-will ability that this warlock
could use to reflect the idea of a
grasping tentacle now when we did our
first draft we didn’t yet have a real
sense of what this mechanical niche that
this class would fill we knew the story
elements but we hadn’t didn’t have a
mechanics of really being a warlock
who’s good at controlling crowds so what
we ended up with was we started with
something that was a single target and
as we talked it through it felt like
someone who was you know an ability that
was very good at restricting some
mobility would be really useful and also
distinct compared to other warlocks so
what I ended up with was an ability that
is fairly cantrip like it allows us
warlock on an annual basis to create
grasping tendrils of spectral ones that
manifest to grapple everyone within 10
feet of them it doesn’t do damage so it
doesn’t step on the toes of things like
elders blast or your other kin trips
you’ve chosen or spells but it does let
you really shut down the enemy’s ability
to maneuver it also is useful outside of
combat if you’re in a tavern trying to
track down to calm a criminal or find
someone to question them this is a great
way to keep them in place the important
thing here is and this is Annie I
mentioned last week you know this will
be something you’ll hear me say again
and again and again always go back and
read the rules no matter how comfortable
you are with them and this is a great
example when you’re dealing with grapple
eyes to this all the time designers make
this mistake go back review the grapple
condition and reread the graph
to make sure you’re covering all your
bases because I can guarantee you if I
was to do this over to like Jeremy
Crawford or Kate Welch for their review
they’d probably find something I missed
but I want to try to make sure that’s as
I miss as little as possible so this is
an example of providing a DC to escape
making sure that’s in there in this case
we’re gonna base it off your spell save
DC and also making it clear what the
duration is so here what I’ve designed
is your grappled for one minute
or until you use this ability again so
the idea being I can I thought about
originally making this that the grapple
would last for until your next turn but
I like the idea that especially in a
role-playing scene you know if you’re
trying to capture let’s say the thief
who knows the location of some hidden
jewels but he’s been grabbed by some
other faction you might grapple him and
then turn and deal with like a more
combat threat he’s grappled he’s held in
place he can’t escape and now you’re
dealing with something else I’m now
you’d still want to keep an eye on him
though because as with the grapple
grapple just has a sort of on board you
can attempt a strength or dexterity
check to try to escape it so we also
needed to provide that DC because in our
combat chapter it says under the grapple
action here’s just a thing you can do
any creature can do against essentially
any grapple to try to break free so even
to ride that DC provide a duration
ending in durations or something which
people always forget it’s so easy to
overlook because I think it’s one of
those things that when as you’re writing
you have it in your head and you picture
the ability and you balance the ability
but it’s very easy to overlook actually
saying what that duration is so this is
something that’s meant to be used that
will to really restrict mobility to set
you up to do other things but it being
it will really defines what you are for
our 6 availability a lot of the warlock
packs had elements of escape or
protection we’re going with a classic
being cloud that’s something we
associate with squids so it makes sense
since kraken are inspired in part by
real-life squids and octopuses octopi
this is simply as a reaction you get to
cast darkness it’s it’s has to be within
5 feet of you so it covers who you are
it covers you and it lasts until the end
of your next turn you you might remember
last week we talked about trying to
restrict this a bit so that you couldn’t
turn it into a combat like an ability
that gave you a
to your offense but in looking it over
and looking at the other abilities I
really felt a reaction made the most
sense and therefore is a reaction it
felt really lame to say it ends at the
start of your next turn that could be
very unsatisfying if you’re fighting
against say one big creature or there’s
only really one creature threatening you
you use it before you can take advantage
of it it goes away so I own it down a
little bit to say it’s shorter long rest
it only lasts for that time period but
it does apply on your turn so you could
in theory use this to gain advantage on
a creature that can’t see you because
this this casting of darkness you can’t
affect your ability to see so it does
give you that advantage I just kind of
felt like it wasn’t really doing enough
without that this is a great example of
what playtesting would come in and give
us a good sense of does this feel fair
and that’s a lot of what playtesting
does especially the player standpoint is
you have a sense of what does this feel
useful do I feel like I want to track it
is it worth writing down in my character
sheet at tenth w talked about this is
where we give you water breathing but
we’d give it to you as part of a bigger
package of abilities primarily because
this pact would match up very well with
races that would have water breathing
from the get-go we don’t want to give
you something where the thematic choice
is giving you something that’s not very
useful so here you get water breathing
you get a swim speed we have to think a
lot of characters who take this option
might already have those so you also
gain immunity to lightning damage and we
talked last week about implementing them
the next feature immunity lightning
damage is a little bit niche so we
wanted to give you an excuse to maybe
trigger yourself by casting a lightning
spell that may actually damage you or
using a similar effect so in this case
if your immunity reduces damage for an
effect to zero has a reaction you can
cause creatures that you choose within
an area around you to take some
automatic lightning damage I threaded
that for the reaction specifically to
put a little bit of a control on it to
know that no more than once per round
could you actually use this so that
means if your party loads up on
lightning abilities you can’t have a
situation where ever in the party is
just hammering you with lightning damage
and you’re just looping massive amounts
of damage to to all the creatures are
fighting and it also means it does kind
of interact with Enki escape
but in a way that I like you’re going to
choose do I want to do damage from
getting hit by lightning or do I want to
cast darkness and protect myself it’s
also one where while they both compete
for the reaction they’re very different
in nature ones very specific to a damage
type the darkness effect is much more
broad so we don’t necessarily doing a
lot of competition we just have to be
aware of it
I would for instance be leery of adding
another reaction ability in the subclass
because even if these two don’t compete
much the third one crowding into that
space might just be frustrating to play
so then the final one and actually I
Gaius Octavian points out you know
shocking grasper I want to surround
myself with minions of shock and grasp
exactly right that’s what you’re looking
forward to control is that at will
ability because you know with casters
you can do elemental damage types so you
wouldn’t want the fight to be the the
warlock standing in middle of the room
and a bunch of guys slapping him with
shocking grasp and that’s roasting all
your enemies yeah that’s one of the
things in balance and in thinking of
these you want to you want to avoid
things where for you to think of this as
a scene from a novel or a comic or in a
film that would just look ridiculous and
especially something can use all the
time because now every fights going to
look ridiculous as you shocked the
warlock and kill all your enemies so so
then our final abilities unleash the
Kraken this idea was since you’re your
patron is someone who lives in the
material world you can ring them up for
a favor and in this case we originally
talked about this being a big attack
tentacles manifest slap around your
enemies what I decided that was also to
add a little bit of utility to it so the
idea being and it’s actually hard to see
cuz I need to highlight these so you can
kind of see the header here this and we
would use an inline header here so it’s
easy to pick pick out but the fury
option is the one that essentially we
talked about last week where a portal
opens and tentacles emerge and slap your
enemies around I also ordered a
transport option where you can use this
ability and have the crack and instead
of attacking creatures it can pick up
you and your allies and essentially
teleport you it opens a portal somewhere
else transports you briefly through the
the ocean depths and then deposits you
somewhere else so that just felt like a
little bit of and it’s since it’s an
ability which and as you know
my I don’t have the maybe you can’t see
it cuz the screen resolution but I did
forget to say this is the ability to
regain only in a long rest so long rest
abilities within a subclass sometimes
it’s fun to give you an option because
depending on the adventure or the
campaign you might find we’re fighting a
lot so I want to use the fury option a
lot or you might find this is a campaign
that’s more focused on exploration
interaction the transportation option is
much more useful so it lets you lets the
big effects have more broader use two
different effects competing for the same
usage I mean that’s a good way to make
your class broader without necessarily
increasing its raw power so that is
where we ended up right now the Kraken
packed the Kraken Kraken patron for the
warlock and this is something we’ll look
at maybe doing in you a probably not
this month we already have a article set
up for this month but maybe in the
following months depending on our needs
I know we have a couple things that we
are having the queue but we’ll probably
look at it getting this up because I’ll
be really cares to be fun to top of the
play test process but we’ll get to that
later right now this is our shiny new
subclass I’m just gonna hit save here
and so yeah there we are the Oh question
from alpha stream is a question about
complexity yeah that’s actually a really
good question to think of in terms of
how these abilities work together so if
I was to do a complexity pass on this
what I would think of is the first thing
I start with is what types of actions
are these these abilities use and then
what is the context in which I would
consider using these options for
instance let’s imagine if I decided each
of these required an action and each of
them are very focused on combat IRB
really worried them about our complexity
load because I’m essentially adding four
new options for you to consider in
addition to your spell’s as a warlock
and in addition to your your other
warlock abilities that you have to think
of each time you take a turn in combat
what we found in general is that players
really like to avoid complexity during
combat but are okay with complexity
outside of combat and I think that’s
because of the time pressure
in a fight everyone’s it’s your turn
everyone’s looking at you the faster you
go the fact that sooner the next person
gets to take their turn so I think the
in general players like to have a few
very big effective options things that
they can quickly move through and in for
the warlock because you have spells
competing in that space to those spells
you cast and they go away until your
next short rest but we would be a little
sensitive to like here’s four things
that are actions in combat so an easy
way is just to spread them out across
actions which is what we’ve done here of
these four abilities two of them are
reactions one of which is a general use
reaction you know protecting yourself
with darkness but also once you use it
you need to take a rest to get it back
so that’s also another way to reduce
complexity is to say look when you use
it it’s gone you can stop thinking about
it
now there is something that could be
concerned about the player has to assess
is it worth using this in right now that
can slow play down to you’ll want to use
that too often but I think in this case
having one ability that functions like
that works up pretty well because it
also is a very clear utility and then
sign of the Depp’s is nice because it’s
just based on lightning damage you’re
not having yeah you’re not even gonna
think of using it until you take
lightning damage now that does have the
hidden cost you have to remember when
you take that lightning damage hey I
have this ability so having one of those
four subclasses probably good again this
is dead that’s definitely something
where you would not want four because
it’s just a bear to remember people will
forget them and that’s we’ve seen that
in play tests and we’ve had people come
in and we’ve observed them playing it
really helps to have like one big
trigger that’s dependent on something
kind of rare happening it’s more likely
to happen it’s more like you’d remember
that or someone else at the table might
remember it there’s something we think
of but if you have three or four
triggers then it just it’s very hard to
track them all or even worse you’ll get
it wrong you’ll think oh wait my
abilities work sir I think let me look
it up and then you’ve probably game to
look something up and gain nothing
because what you found was oh I was
wrong it’s like this is a bonus action
on a reaction or it applies to fire
damage not Thunder damage or whatever it
is so and then so and then now at least
the Kraken that is an action but since
its daily it essentially is like having
an additional spell slot for one
specific effect so these things here I
would say
absent playtesting because play testing
is really the best way to determine
where you are complexity wise but I feel
like this is a pretty good target to aim
for and that will ability that’s a
little specific and how you’d use it
that sits well alongside Eldridge blast
or any other cantrip a defensive ability
and I think it’s it’s this is this is
essentially mirrors a lot of the design
in The Player’s Handbook which I think
came around B we have a good structure
so that’s another good way to avoid
complexity is if you have existing
things that are functioning well using
that structure and just putting new
content in it can be a good way to to
keep your complexity within what people
expect for the character class so yeah
so that’s why we had the reaction very
similar to the existing subclasses more
static effects III think of the reaction
since its that will the lighting damage
as a static effect like giving you a
swim speed it’s just always on your
write it down your character sheet and
just need to remember it when
appropriate and then essentially the the
daily ability a big effect you’re gonna
pull this out when it’s a serious fight
or you really need to change the tenor
of how things are progressing so I would
say probably pucks dy is I feel pretty
comfortable at this but again we need to
test to get there the oh yeah I’m gonna
get this wrong vine vine Aries as I’m
gonna France her name you know we should
get Jeremy hood that would be
interesting we’ll see if he’s available
it’d be kind of fun to for Jeremy to
take this text and go through I know he
has talked about we’ve been doing some
videos on YouTube rather than something
live so we can have a little more
control over the flow of it of some
instructional videos on here’s like you
know for his half so to give you a sense
of it this is what I think of as content
design I’m creating a new subclass I’m
using the existing system to build
something but I’m not trying to reinvent
the wheel Jeremy really focuses on how
do we extend the system as needed to
accommodate new concepts now this one is
pretty straightforward though unleash
the Kraken is a bit different and really
it would be about okay his grasp of the
Kraken is that implemented correctly to
interact with the grappling rules but
his sort of system design mind would let
him go okay this is implemented
correctly or here’s how we do need to
build new rules here’s how we build them
to accommodate the new content so that’s
essentially that’s how the two of us
work together and that’s how a content
designer on D&E and now we think of as a
narrative designer
that might seem kind of weird because
there are mechanics here their existing
mechanics it’s really the the narrative
that’s important versus a systems
designer who is going to extend the
rules to accommodate these new things in
the old days I’m you we probably would
have thought if he played third or
fourth edition someone who was an editor
back in third and fourth edition we
really think now is a systems designer
because we think of the English language
that’s our coding language that’s our
development environment so you know some
some game designers work in unity we
work in English or whatever language
we’re being translated into so yeah so
there we go that is our patron the
Kraken
so that’s the past let’s close literally
close the window on that and let’s talk
about the thief Acrobat the thief
Acrobat was a character class from a D&D
also one of the characters in the Dini
cartoon show Diana the thief Acrobat and
the Acrobat is always fascinated me
because it’s one of those those
subclasses for the rogue that comes up a
lot but I’ve never really been super
happy with the implementation in part
because I think when you tell people
things like you can normally jump eight
feet now you can jump twelve like in the
real life that’s incredibly impressive I
think it’s hard in a game like D&D where
we usually think in five foot increments
to really get oh I can jump one extra
five foot square that seems
underwhelming right so the challenge I
had in looking at the Acrobat was said
what can I give you that feels really
crazy like almost feels broken to the
point where you want to play it but
knowing it’s actually broken because
we’re gonna balance it and our system
designers gonna make sure it’s all
working so what we’re gonna start with
is I want to take a look at the rogue
character class so I’m gonna go to my
handy-dandy web browser again don’t
worry if you can’t read the screen I’m
not gonna just like okay now read the
screen while I take a nap I’ll walk you
through everything as we go through sort
of have the screen up so if you can see
it you can look where I’m looking in the
in The Player’s Handbook text but really
walking you through this so our first
step is to take a look at our character
class and also the existing subclasses
and you’re gonna see some actually
really stark differences between the
rogue and the Warlock that I’m going to
I took notes so I’m gonna nerd out over
this so I hope you guys are ready for
some like real deep talk with the
classes because it is actually really
interesting to me when you look at the
rogue versus the warlock you actually
and I picked rogue intentionally to
showcase this difference you’re going to
see two very different approaches to
class design structurally in D&D with
the warlock the patron is a choice you
make at first level it is something very
important to your identity as a
character
the rogue doesn’t pick the subclass
until third level so what we’re saying
to you when we make that distinction of
a first level subclass choice versus a
third level subclass choice is that the
class core class identity for the class
that chooses its third is much more
distinct much stronger and much more
impactful in the character than it is
for the class when you pick at first
level think of a cleric if I’m a cleric
of the God of War versus a cleric of the
god of time you may you might be
thinking of two very different
characters if your mind when you think
of them I know for me what I picture is
a cleric God of War cleric and heavy
armor the big mace and maybe an axe god
of time I might be thinking of someone
in robes who looks more like a scholar
and I’d expect an adventurer that may be
doing very different things the cleric
of the god of time might be coming up a
lot of lore might be very good at
solving puzzles clarify got a war base
and no surprise is probably good at
beating down monsters there might be
very different characters but we’d say
in the world of Dungeons and Dragons
that they’re both clerics because
they’re both deriving their power from
the gods what we say about rogues is the
opposite if we have two rogues an
assassin a thief
they’re both probably wearing like
leather armor they both probably have
knives rapiers bow similar weapons they
look the same but how they achieve their
mastery in this case rogues they’re very
good with skills robes are very good at
skill checks a rogue who chooses to
focus on a skill is probably the best
character in that skill in the party the
assassin versus the thief there’s going
to be just some differences in how they
specialize but they’re specializing in a
very similar context a very similar area
of the game and that’s really where you
see that third level subclass pick come
in that we’re saying the class has a
very strong identity independent of the
subclass versus a class where that
subclass
really
the character’s identity so let’s take a
look at the rogue and and you can see it
we go down to the rogue archetype so I’m
gonna take the thief versus the assassin
this Derrick Cain trickster bets a
little bit of an outlier because it uses
spells and I’ll get to that and glass
but I wouldn’t what I’d like to do is
focus on the assassin the thief the
assassin at third level gets bonus
proficiencies and the assassinate
ability the assassinate ability
basically models the the idea that the
assassin if the assassin can gain
surprise on a foe can score one very
devastating hit that in some cases would
just instantly kill potentially the
target you can imagine an assassin of
moderate level striking a commoner
essentially a the mayor of the town who
has no marshal training and is not a
spell caster is just you’re maybe one or
two hit die human could be killed in one
shot thinking that’s really you know or
if it’s someone who is drew is trained
or head is a little more powerful it’s
an opening attack that can essentially
tilt the fight so far in the assassins
favor that it’s going to end in that
characters for that character winning
then we compare this to the oh we have
the action we have all the ones here
today and the mastermind the inquisitive
gonna go down to the thief though those
are some of the zennith arse ones and
the thief at third level gets fast hands
so with cunning action which we’ll talk
about when go back to the the core class
you can make you can disarm a trap you
can use an option so I use an object or
I use sleight of hand presumably for
instance two pickpockets and you also
can climb faster so you’re pretty good
at escaping and when you go to jump you
can jump an additional distance now we
talked with a Acrobat the second story
work ability that improves your jumping
and your climbing immediately kind of
goes away two sec we have to watch out
because the Acrobat might want to do
something similar we don’t want to just
copy with a thief does in fact good to
make sure that our ability for the
Acrobat is clearly better than what the
thief gets because we want the person
who says I want to be the really mobile
character to pick Acrobat and not thief
that’s a subtle but very important thing
in fifth edition design we want you to
if you picture a character to very
quickly find the option that matches
that character in your mind
rather than have to compare two things
that look very similar and try to figure
out which one is actually the better
choice now kind of going on this idea
that the subclass does not carry as much
weight we don’t get our next ability
until ninth level and you can see for
the thief its supreme sneak you can
advantage on on stealth checks cool well
it’s only if you only move up to half
your speed so we’re giving you something
really useful but there is a restriction
on it which might seem a little like ok
we’re not just giving you this big buff
we’re giving this buff when you move
very slowly
which could be really something to kind
of work around it’s not just a pure
powerup at 13th level we give you use
magic device for the thief this is
really based on the legacy of the game
and this is not something that probably
if you’re doing new design at this stage
have to worry about but this is really
to make sure that thieves know when the
when the class was called thief and not
rogue this is an ability characters had
it is to make sure that the narratives
of D&D that were from the 70s and 80s
they still make sense tonight if in a
D&D novel it talked about a rogue or
thief using activating a wand this is
accounting for that that you can
improvise the use of magic items even
when it’s restricted like you know you
have to have a class race or level
requirement so it’s useful but it’s also
kind of like we knew when we’re
designing the core game that it’s useful
but it’s not really a core feature no
one’s saying oh I play a road just to
use this ability right but it’s 17th
level this is where it looks a little
odd though okay so up to this point
we’ve been giving you some useful things
but not things that compared to say
conjuring tentacles that grab people or
calling a Kraken to show up and lay the
smackdown anyone around you we do get a
17th level and we have a thief reflexes
we give the ability to take two turns
during the first round of any combat
okay let’s compare this the first round
of combat you get two turns
prior to this we gave you advantage on
stealth when you moved half speed
magnitude very much a shift there huh
like we’ve gone from giving you
something a little someone could
probably argue with me that use magic
device and supreme sneak maybe aren’t
worth writing down your character sheet
for a lot of people but these reflexes
yeah this is something where if you’re
playing a seventeen level game this is
something to come up all the time and
fights and be
really big it’s gonna be very useful
it’s gonna really tilt things so we go
from a couple useful things you have
access to all the time so things that
are a little more like useful when you
can use them but maybe you might never
actually use them if you were to forget
to use and use these abilities your
character might not actually be really
hindered that much to Wow
you can kill dudes and the in your first
turn attack twice in a row which is very
good with sneak attack now let’s compare
that over for good luck with the
assassin I’m gonna scroll up for hope
you don’t get motion sickness and the
text flying by but we see a similar
pattern
the assassins 9th and 13th abilities
infiltration expertise this is great
essentially allows you to adopt the
false identity but it’s a little it’s a
little corner case it’s something that
we don’t say oh it’s really important
you use this every adventurer or your
character will feel really weak like
know where this is more storytelling
tool its kind of thing I think you might
think to yourself hey I this is
something want to plan for because
you’ve got to spend seven days doing
this so this is not something you can
necessarily just do with a drop of a hat
if you need to sneak into candlekeep
you’ve got to spend a week creating an
identity as a scholar or a sage to
actually use that to help get getting
get your way in and a lot of adventures
you just don’t have that much time but
again it’s a useful option but it’s not
a load-bearing option and then the
imposter ability of 13th builds off of
that the idea here is that you can make
a specific person the now you have to
spend at least three hours studying the
person so again it’s not something you
do instantly but it is more like
tactical within a day of adventuring
than infiltration expertise and then
here’s our seventeenth level ability if
you hit someone when they’re surprised
you might just kill them so again we go
from a couple abilities that if you
would tell me the assassin my game never
uses infiltration expertise or imposter
it’s like well okay that’s you know I
hope that they don’t feel disappointed
it’s not affecting their power to you
kill dudes so again what you’re seeing
here is a patterns very different with
the warlock hat you’re seeing a couple
abilities that are useful but niche
you’re seeing in general ability that
kind of expresses the flavor but it’s
not overpowering and then you’re seeing
something very powerful so what’s going
on with our core class because clearly
something is different here compared to
the warlock
and when we go to the the rogue general
progression we start to see what’s going
on since this is a class that you don’t
make your choice till third level
you’re getting very powerful abilities
at all rogues share so expertise is you
get that at first level and it’s you get
to double your expertise your
proficiency bonus with a couple of the
skills of your choice
that’s very useful like you’re basically
busting the curve for what checks look
like and you’re basically saying if I
the skill I choose I am quite likely by
far the best person in the party at that
you can imagine a road with a 16
dexterity who chooses expertise and
stealth is getting a +7 bonus to their
checks where the next best person the
party is obviously getting +5 they’d be
2 points behind but a lot of characters
getting like a plus 1 or even a minus 1
if their dexterity 8 and they might even
have disadvantage depending on their
armor so it’s even if first of all it’s
giving you a nice gap that only gets
bigger at 20th level that’s probably
gonna be a plus 17 bonus if I’m
remembering my proficiency bonus of plus
6 right and a 20 versus the plus 11 for
a character who is a 20 Dex and is still
so proficient versus that fighter who
still may be at minus 1 or plus 0 so
this is something that grows over time
it’s very its class defining and then
sneak attack basically says this is how
you fight rogues are very good at
dealing 1 attack that deals lots of
damage this here it’s very impactful but
it’s also the kind of thing where you
get expertise and sneak attack a sneak
attack is really just there to make sure
that you keep up with your combat skill
versus other characters so we don’t
really rate it too high in terms of like
oh we don’t want to give you something
else
thieves can’t is purely what we call a
ribbon it’s something that gives you a
nice little toy to play with
if you meet other rogues you share a
secret language but it’s not something
we account for in balancing the class
I’m in at second level ok we just gave
you your the bested skills in the game
and then in second level were like a
bonus actions great basically do things
with bonus actions that other people
will have to use their action for like –
just to disengage and hide that’s very
powerful
disengage alone means you can attack and
move away without getting attacked back
you’re basically breaking the game in
terms of opportunity attacks and that
you can ignore them if you want
now it’s important to point out though
that this is using the bonus action
which means if I in my subclass make
anything that uses the bonus action it
has to be really worth it to get you to
ignore using coming action you’ll notice
that the thief’s subclass is instead of
saying here’s a competing bonus action
said we’re going to extend the list of
things you can use cutting action on and
I think that’s a that’s a good approach
because it makes it easier to understand
and also in design wise forces you to
look at those options and make sure that
they all they are all things that don’t
compete with each other they just
brought in the situations in which
you’re cutting action is really paying
off then scrolling down when I skip a
few things like the Braga shark type
that’s just your subclass ability score
improvements that’s what everyone gets
you can uncanny dodge which is a
reaction you can when you get hit with
an attack take half damage from it again
that’s another thing which is like oh do
you really want to use reactions for
your subclass abilities because now I
have this really good reaction I might
use every single round of a fight so you
can see this class is core abilities
unlike the warlocks are really filling
in our actions they’re accounting for
them in ways that make it difficult for
the subclass to compete evasion is
another defensive ability basically if
you have the dexterity saving throw you
succeed but it says you still take half
damage this is no don’t worry about you
take no damage a little niche but also
pretty good considering rogues aren’t
attained kiyose characters it gives you
another area where you’re very good at
something and this gives you insurance
makes even better at it because you’re
more often they’re not going to succeed
in those saving throws reliable talent
says your d20 can result in less than a
10 on your role so it ensures a floor of
expertise that combined with you’re
doubling proficiency bonus means you’re
always going to be delivering really
high like 20-plus results at high level
blind sense is another thing that it
lets you you’re aware of invisible
creatures of the ten feet makes it very
again just plays in the fact that rogues
a little crunch here this is more
defensive ability it’s hard to sneak up
on you
using invisibility you know or anything
that’s hidden so Rogue vs. Riven fights
go kind of well it means you’re good at
taking on other roads
Slippery mine gives you proficiency in
wisdom so again we’re bolstering one of
your saves a lot of defensive abilities
are coming in here this is a class that
is good at avoiding getting hit which
would be important we talk with our
Acrobat and then elusive you know you
the no attack girl has advantage against
you while you aren’t in the path stated
again you’re very hard to get an edge on
you and then we start to see why this
the capstone ability the final ability
of the subclass is so huge because
here’s stroke of luck it’s your 20th
level ability if your attack misses a
target within range you could turn this
into a hit turn ability if you fail an
ability check you can treat the d20
rolls of 20 very useful very cool but
it’s on a short or long rest timer so
you have to take a rest to get this back
it’s very powerful it’s very useful but
it’s something that you know in terms of
caps turn ability your you’re not
unhappy to have this but it does leave a
little space power wise for the subclass
to deliver something that’s always on or
effectively always on and very powerful
so the one of the things this means is
that our subclasses have to be a little
bit more neesh and have to deliver some
real impactful design but within a
little bit more of a constrained design
space the warlock pact when we designed
the pact of the kraken laqueer the
kraken are calling a packer lets us be
tracking patron but whatever the that
this is a little bit more difficult of a
needle to thread because we have smaller
design space that’s being constrained
not only in terms of power but in terms
of what actions we have available to
play with so our reaction is quite
likely being eaten up by uncanny dodge
or at least being compared to it do i
take half damage for an attack or do
this other thing you’re trying to
introduce to me my bonus action is being
eaten up by my my cutting action this is
a very useful abilities like it’s always
almost always good to dash or disengage
or hide rogues once they get this use
this ability always essentially and then
my sneak attack I would even argue your
sneak attack is really competing for
that action in a fight at least
you want to make an attack that’s a
sneak attack so we don’t have a lot of
space to play with
unlike the warlock who had a lot more
you know ways in which they could use
their actions the robe is a lot more
scripted so that means designing
subclasses for the rogue it’s very
important to have a very clear direct
simple archetype that people can
understand quickly and can understand
how their sus to use it with their class
because they are really coming to the
table saying my class I picked rogue I
know what that is that’s filling in a
lot of my blanks unlike the Warlock I
have smaller conceptual space and
smaller game design space so what does
that mean X I promise I’m gonna do the
Acrobat well it means it’s impossible
we’re gonna spend the rest of this this
stream I’m just gonna stare off into
space
no it’s what it means is that we have to
be a little more clever in how we
implement things and so I’m gonna open
up my 5e template and we’re gonna start
doing a little writing so this is our
template file it’ll select all and
delete so I thought a lot about the
Acrobat and I thought a lot about how
the thief is kind of Horning in our
territory
with those bonuses to jump and bonuses
to climb and yeah happy happy fostering
contest I’m just staring in this little
window in the corner try to figure where
I’m supposed to look the so what I
thought about was yeah it’s all stare
into my eyes and it’s my eyes are to
distract you from like my reverse
balding mohawk I’ve got going up here
the BIA which I love to shave my head my
wife my wife wants to hold my food a
whole lot of my hair while lasts which
won’t be much longer anyway so the after
that Super Bowl – uh anyways the so I
had this crazy idea what if we just
flat-out said we’re gonna start with our
our end effect and figure out can we get
there and what I thought was you know
with the Acrobat we could really try to
find a way to make jumping and climbing
and all this other stuff work even
though the thief has it and I said
forget it what’s the ultimate what is
the most flexible way to move in
Dungeons and Dragons bar ring no okay
we’re not gonna make our acrobatic bar
room that’s kind of funny though I kind
of want to do it but we’re not going to
know it’s flight what if we could fly
like flying is great if I could fly I
guess I’d take that free of any other
restrictions but obviously that robes
not magical if you just said acrobats
just fly
like that’s that’s a little strange
right we talked about clearly the Kraken
it has an ability where all your all the
Kraken warlocks friends just sit around
shocking grasping them until they’re
gonna be shocked to death we don’t want
to have like acrobats just flying around
but what if we gave you a limited fly
what if we said that in place of moving
you can fly but now that we know that we
just want you flying around like
Superman or someone else you want to put
some restrictions on it to say that this
flight while mechanically you’re flying
we’re gonna throw a little few
restrictions on it so it just feels like
you’re being really acrobatic the
important thing about this approach and
why it appeals to me and why I am now
I’m going to try live on camera to
implement it without looking like a
complete dork is that it gives the
Acrobat player a ton of flexibility
right you’re not today or going on is
okay so I have us a climb speed add to
get into the intricacies of that
movement they’re just thinking out of
I’m here I want to be there I just
essentially mechanically you’re flying
but we know in the movie of the game
maybe you’re diving off of you’re
leaping onto the shore or shoulders then
jumping onto the ogres head then leaping
up on to the parapet you’re trying to
reach we’re gonna lean a little bit on
our players to give us a little bit of a
narrative to say how did you get up
there but we’re gonna give you something
that’s really powerful and best of all
none of the other rogue subclasses give
it to you and this is now I and this is
where I could feel clever cuz I’m
starting to feel confident about this it
deals just with your movement we’re not
gonna touch your bonus action your
action or your reaction because the
roads kind of released stolen those see
what I did there but it also means this
could potentially work very well with
your cutting action and that’s for
classes designed this way where your
subclass choice comes in a third if you
can build in a feature that makes your
the big features you got at first and
second level feel even better that’s
really great design for these classes
because are you opted in and said hey I
want to be a rogue because I like
cutting action that’s cool and now I’m
telling you hate cutting action is now
even more useful because if you dish
disengage or dash and then you fly now
you’re getting even more utility out of
it so things are flowing together really
well
okay so now how we’re gonna do this okay
so then I’ve to actually the right this
dang thing so let’s just go up here I’m
gonna grab my heading
– and just right in Acrobat and I’m
gonna capitalize the secret so I do and
flavor text will go here yes we are we
are so story different first that this
is our flavor tax did Blair but we’ll
get to that you’ll see that next week
I’ll try to write something nice there
so let’s just go I’m gonna call it
aerial artistry I just made that up
that’s that’s creativity in action right
and now this is remember last week if
you’re here I’m not gonna actually gonna
write a paragraph of rule stacks I’m
just gonna hit the bullet points so
don’t want you to do is you can fly
excavation but that’s worth an
exclamation point so I’m gonna throw
that in there but we’re gonna say with
restrictions what I think we want is you
have to end on solid ground we don’t
want you to just end up you’re an
acrobat which means you’re just floating
in air now because we’re a turn-based
game you could say hey in the flow of
things like yeah you’re you’re in midair
at the end of your term but really it’s
suppose you’re in the middle those giant
somersault it’s just cleaner and easier
let’s get you your feet back on the
ground
so we’re gonna say you have to end on
solid ground and we don’t want to say
anything what opportunity text if I said
hey no opportunity text well now I’m
kind of stepping on the toes of cutting
action which lets you disengage so I
don’t want to say that now this the
distance and speed oh yeah
docker Rock a good point all right at
your speed let’s look at your speed
because what this means now is if I use
my cutting action to – I’m gonna
increase my speed which increases the
distance I can fly so you have to end on
solid ground now we have to keep in mind
this is gonna basically obviate things
like climbing but hey that’s cool you’re
not mad right so now actually what we’ve
done is we’ve said jumping and climbing
which the thief gets some benefits to
this just clearly is better alright I’d
rather be the fly than jump or climb in
the I think that’s it now this is a
great area we’re having are sort of warm
systems minded people
they’ll probably punch a million holes
in this but for the purpose is what
we’re doing right now
this is fine it’s all we need the I’m
just going to also make a note up here
this is first level this is this is all
we need right now because we’re just
thinking conceptually this would be an
area where if in playtesting or the next
round the feedback it’s really nice to
have the the
conceptual framework we just talked
about in place so then let’s say if
there’s pushback on hey this might be
too good we’re not quite sure how to
implement it we understand well really
what’s at stake here is and this is the
big ability you’re getting so it’s
important we find a way to execute on it
that makes it feel really good because
when we look at the rest of our
abilities at 9th and 13th remember our
9th and 13th abilities are really small
right that when we looked at our other
subclasses there was not these are
things are super niche to the point
where I’m just gonna skip them right now
because while hey that part of the game
and want them be good they they aren’t
really really load-bearing I’m gonna go
straight to our final ability at 17th
level which we now we know to recap
let’s think where are their 17th
abilities the thief gets an extra turn
it’s pretty good and the assassin kills
people also pretty good so we have some
serious competition to go against and
the challenge we have with something
like the Acrobat is okay the assassin is
killing people what can the Acrobat do
how the Acrobat can do a really fancy
handstand like no we need to come up
with something really huge here and the
you know the the the challenge here is
what is something of a magnitude that
would pay off say being the equivalent
being of the murder someone and the I
very helpfully wrote in my notes as I
was thinking about this a flavorful
capstone yeah I think thanks bypassed
Mike who was think you know this that
that’s really pulling its weight but uh
as we’ve talked through this what my
immediate thought is you can stay
airborne
okay we’ve we you have a little labored
for 17 levels under the fact that you
can fly but the end of your movement
you’ve got to land with your feet in the
ground what I’m now saying is no you can
stay airborne probably like as long as
it at some point you touch the ground
but now I’m gonna let you that’s my
initial thing is essentially I’m gonna
let you stay in midair that now this
might not be powerful enough again we’re
in a world well if you could fly that
sounds really great with a kind of minor
restriction but again we’re comparing it
to you get to murder people or you get
to go twice
which are both really good abilities to
have on all the time but I think that is
it’s a good a good point to be at so
again the idea is if we were to start
admitting to singing as long as at some
point in your movement you touch the
ground or a solid object you could stay
aloft now this is also a great example
of where play testing comes through
right because we are dealing with
something very abstract as we’re
addressing it now is this satisfying to
players and play does it turn ridiculous
this is an area where mathematical
balancing really won’t solve our
problems what we’re really worried about
is the narrative integrity of this
subclass in the sense of if you think of
the game it’s narrative is this
ridiculous that this person is
essentially flying around or is it like
wow great and that’s something which we
have to look at so this is the kind of
thing which a lot of play testing might
be very pointed to make sure it’s really
capturing feedback that’s useful for us
the and it’s it’s probably the trickier
things to play test for play testing for
damage is pretty straightforward people
can just tell us it’s doing too much
damage it feels too powerful but
conceptual stuff like this you’re on
shaky ground all right so let’s knock
out those 9th and 13th of abilities at
ninth level there’s a pretty
straightforward one we can do we can
just say you don’t take falling damage
and we of course have to say well
conscious because that’s always
something which we remember hated the
characters unconscious what are they
doing right hey we have a you know
whenever someone whenever you take
damage you get a free attack while
conscious because while it’s hilarious
that the unconscious person like stands
up and stabs you then falls back down it
again breaks the narrative so that’s a
pretty simple one there and it’s also
something where since you are spending
so much time in the air you might be
worried about falling and then your 13th
level ability we can probably just give
you a speed bonus just up your speed
these two can probably swap again
because the 9th and 13th of abilities
they’re not carrying a lot of power
I might even actually be here by giving
you just like bonuses and stuff that
aren’t quite so fluffy kind of going
against the the grain of this of the
general road design but we always have
to remember that the important thing is
implementing the specific design
for this character for this for this
subclass it might make sense to give you
some more more crunchy benefits here
because they’re just making you better
the thing we’ve already given to you
which is already a little borderline
might actually just be broken out of the
box but it’s it’s what you signed up for
and it’s what really makes you special
and when you think of like say the
assassins abilities like those are not
about murdering people but they’re about
setting up your ability to get in that
that assassination attempt and the
Rogues funny cuz it does it is driven so
much by legacy and making sure that past
characters can carry forward that it’s
not this is an area where it’s maybe
it’s not as useful model the assassins
probably a better one to look at because
it’s not trying to like make hey I’m
converting my character in the second
edition does that character work it’s
not worry about answering that question
so so precisely oh I knew Lex can
suggest how come how about you can’t be
knocked down that’s another that’s a
good one I make a note of it here will
maybe figure which one we’d settle on
because that’s another one and that’s a
really that’s like what I really liked
about that subject I really like well
that suggestion is this character
doesn’t want to be slowed down so you
might even want to think about you know
avoid things that lock down your speed
freedom of movement type effects this
character wants to be mobile the player
is also saying hey I like this idea I’m
moving around and flying around
essentially things that shut that down
are really shutting down what makes my
character fun to play and it’s also
something that is pretty straightforward
in the sense of its empower and neutral
in terms of beating down monsters but
does open up a lot of a lot of
conceptual space and that sort of non
combat air is the game in exploration
and even even potentially an interaction
if you think of interaction like well
you know I need to get to this guy you
know he’s locked away in a tower how can
I go up and how could I meet him right
and we have to regroup on the timer
Rapunzel’s tower well the acrobats
person can do that and they do have fun
even making a check they just do it the
now there’s a couple people like a
branch where I notice and hey if you use
a sphere or staff do you get some extra
movement that’s really iconic to the
class it’s tricky though you know in in
fifth edition we’ve tried to avoid
mandating equipment it’s one of the
challenges we have
with the warlord from 4th edition was
it’s it’s the character class its
identity was really really driven by the
weapons it used at least being involved
those design discussions as we expanded
it that it was well it’s the archer
warlord it’s the warlord with the sword
the warlord with a battle ax or you know
a tune and weapon or warlord with the
shield that sounds a lot like a fighter
like the fighter is in 5th edition those
weapon style choices Drive you know what
the fighter with the fender subclasses
look like and so we try to avoid that
because that’s kind of a fighter thing
but I’ll throw it down in here cuz it’s
something we’re thinking of because you
know that ok I mean this is the kind of
thing when you have a game that’s like
you know over 40 years old you realize
when you say Acrobat long time players
are gonna think of the cartoon and that
might be something to think of that we
you might not normally consider using
that as part of your design but it is
something that would resonate you know
people we talked earlier about we want
players to I picture a character in my
mind and I can make that character
easily without having to like really
rack my brain of how to make this work
that might be a good example of people
just thinking oh I want to play an
acrobat Eimer the a craft the cartoon I
want to play a character like her so I
growling I have a quarter staff well
right now a quarter staff might not be a
sensible choice for a rogue so we might
want to make that something that
functions for this character you know it
is it’s tricky because we don’t assume
the use of feats and we wouldn’t wonder
then although you know put a feed in
that enables that and because then
you’re now now you’re forcing players to
kind of hunt down making that work and
then rely on a DM who’s using feats so
we wouldn’t necessarily want to put that
in there but so I’m gonna note that
we’ll see where we end up when I show
off this more more refined design next
week but as you can see though the
Warlock some class design had we really
powered through that right what we ended
up with was really refined version of we
talked about last week the Acrobat has
more questions and again I think that’s
something which you will just see in
character classes where the subclass is
smaller there is an irony that it’s a
smaller design so it’s much harder it’s
if you have ever tried writing you’ve
probably heard people talk about this
idea that it’s much easier to write a
novel than it is to write a short story
and that’s how I like to think of the
difference between designing
class for class like the Warlock that’s
a lot more like writing a novel it’s
really a lot more like creating a
character from scratch with a much
blanker piece of paper we’re starting
with versus designing something for a
class like the rogue where our
conceptual space is much smaller we
don’t have as many things to play with
and we have a lot of really big options
within the character class that are
really pushing into the space the
subclass occupies in other character
classes so this is one where it takes a
little more thought and we have to
really kind of put some really like yeah
we want a big effect but we want a big
effect in the small space how can we
pull that off so where does that lead us
well it leads us here with our initial
design this idea that this character can
fly next week I’ll show off some the
implementation of how we make this work
but you can as we talk through it’s
really okay you can fly and now let’s
put a couple sensible restrictions on it
that’s also an element of oh that’s
right third Keith’s a man thanks porting
out I’ve just talked endlessly about how
this comes in at third then I wrote down
first it’s their level it’s not versus
all you get this
the really having that conceptual space
making it work and really what you want
is ideally this is where having rules
that sort of start to simulate the real
world helps you don’t wanna go too far
because you don’t have detail but if
someone can think he illogically here’s
what should happen and the rules just
make that happen
that’s how you get to click cases in
tabletop role-playing games where you
don’t need to refer to the rules as
often because rules just mimic what you
expect to have happen that’s also why we
try to avoid things like our example
from the the Kraken warlock hey
everybody start shocking me because
that’s how we’re gonna defeat these
creatures rights free damage right so we
try to find ways where like I feels a
little silly like that that’s not really
what we want to have happen it’s D&D
funny things will happen in D&D all the
time and we do deal in some areas of
humor but we don’t wanna make a
character who’s just who’s core ability
it just seems ridiculous and then as a
DM is just irritating to deal with so
that’s where we are we’ve got a
characters and be flying with some
restrictions to really capture this
really distinct ability our 17th level
ability and it really 9th and 13th
double abilities we’re just gonna build
off of that
again because with with our sort of more
restrained conceptual space within the
road character class we want to find one
big thing and make that thing as big as
we can make it so this brings us up just
about two o’clock we’re gonna call it
there though I think I’m believing I’m
gonna be hearing on dragon plus to talk
a little bit more about Morden cannons
to mofos and I hope you guys enjoyed
this and I’ve had a lot of fun working
on this character so class and as we did
last week for the next character class
and subclass you want me to tackle if
you tweeted something at me feel free to
tweet it again I’m getting enough
followers now on Twitter that I can’t
just reply to everything the Ordnance I
remember what came in the past so hit me
up tweet at me or put in the comments in
the video on when it’s on YouTube the
name of the class that you want me to
tackle and the name of the subclass just
that don’t try to explain what the
subclass does because part of the fun I
think is seeing where I take concepts
and where you may have taken it I’m sure
there’s a lot of people watching this
who think oh and act right well here’s
what I would have done and that’s part
of the fun part of game design right is
like the scene where those concepts of
urge it’s also important as a game
designer to kind of have that resilience
like we might play test this and it
everyone hates it but they want an
acrobat they might the feedback like we
saw this for some of the class up
classes that didn’t make the cut Medina
thar’s people liked the concept but they
don’t like the implementation it means
back the drawing board and having that
resilience and ability to go hey let’s
let’s take a stab at this we’re not
gonna let you know hey this didn’t work
out but we learned something from it so
now let’s move forward refine our design
and and keep improving so that’s where
we are at about two o’clock ish since I
have to get out of here and go to the
room next door so probably a little bit
delay we’re going to talk a little bit
about warden can estimate OS with myself
and Bart Carroll so I will see you there
I’m gonna depart twitch for a few
moments then pop back up so thanks for
joining it I remember I hit me up on
Twitter or the the YouTube comments name
of the class name of subclass we’ll see
well tackle next week thanks everyone
https://t.co/N9IZaEW5FO— Mike Mearls (@mikemearls) February 6, 2018