girls happy fun hour I remain your host
Mike morals franchise creative director
on Dungeons & Dragons and this week we
are going to continue looking at the
Sion character class we’ve spent a few
weeks on this and before we dive in I
have a quick question for everyone
hello chat the question for you why
you’re all typing in your greetings
consider this so we’ve been doing the
Sion for a while
and I kind of feel like this is probably
the light I think last week I said I’d
maybe spend two more weeks on it but I
think this might be it might make sense
for this week to tackle the the shaper
you can see I have the phrase at whale
summoning and that’s gonna be our first
can trip we’re gonna tackle what I
thought we would do today is go through
and look at some of the canned trips for
summoning what those can look at
essentially well summoning that’s not
really the shippers doing but that’s
mechanically what is the best match and
then talk about what that subclass looks
like and then I think from there it’s
gonna be a lot of just boring desk work
for me so what I like to do what I like
to do is I’m gonna like bring in some
enlightened self-interest I like to
think that as I’m working on my campaign
I’m running a campaign set in an
interval on Fridays if you know that
into your veil it was the world the
fourth edition D&D and I’m adapting what
do you call it the keep on the shadow
fell but I’m making a higher level so I
have some undead monsters I want to
design for it so I thought would it be
fun if after we work on this because
I’ve kind of shown you how to design a
class a very rough way if I did some
monster design so chiming to chat me
think monster designs sounds good as
kind of our next topic so we’ve been
doing character stuff since we started
so the who we got here so let’s see what
monster design however Simoes design
okay I’m seeing all yeses and what I
will do is what I want to do is take a
few of those undead creatures and throw
some stuff around them because I thought
it will be fine yeah
yeah okay so it’ll be fun and I think
will be fun too is I could take I kind
of share the entire process from start
to finish and not just the mechanics but
also how the story works and in this
case I think it would be fun a game
phantom diem but itching for the
artificer you might not well hey I can
spell anything we’ll see we’ll see the
but the one of the nice things about
monster designed as I can kind of show
you what it really looks like in terms
of how we often reproach monster design
having a piece of art working at the
story stuff and then it’s just kind of
walk through some of the mechanical
elements alright so I’m seeing a lot I’m
seeing people like seem to think that’s
cool okay cool um cool nice really
spoiler part of his earner first the
artificer might be uh we’ll see we’ll
see
there might be an artifice or design
somewhere on our network drives that
might be due for you soon I don’t want
to say anything okay I’ll just come on
say it well no I won’t come and say yeah
I’ll come on say it’s an artifice of
design there isn’t it there was a
revision we have made it revision the
challenge now is and this is something
which you look at the process we’re
going through the silent building a
class is a lot to it so where we are
right now at that is it’s got a revision
based on feedback from a lot of sources
from the play test feedback and then
from a few back from other designers and
then now it has to go through a
refinement phase and this is important
at this stage especially it’s something
as big as the artificer if there’s just
some obvious mistakes in the class we
get everything revved up we throw it up
for you a we could ever in prime to play
test and if there’s just obvious broken
stuff that means the play test feedback
is going to be just more right it’s not
gonna go anywhere the they call me Tomo
no spoilers and what the actual casting
thing is I’m not gonna say yeah because
I want Crawford to have a chance to look
through it
I want Kate to have a chance to review
it and really dig into it so I’m not
gonna those some of the things I changed
still stuff might still change but I
have done another draft for the
artificer the so the anyways let’s get
the sign on dunya’s exactly okay so next
we could be monsters
we’ll start doing some monsters I’ll
show you that process but let’s here
talk about the taeyeon so we talked
about the shaper being the subclass that
essentially now mechanically we’re going
to think of it like summoning but what
we want the flavor to be is that I am
plucking things out of my imagination or
your imagination and making them real
and making them do stuff now this is the
important thing I think when we think
summoning it’s very easy to get caught
in I summon a thing and it beats people
up I mean that’s definitely a very
useful version of summoning believe me
but there’s also space for more utility
I summon something that can’t fly so it
picks me up and carries me somewhere so
I want to make sure we’re capturing that
too especially for class that’s gonna be
really a sub classes can be really
focused on this ability putting some
flexibility and they’ll be really good
because then we just don’t have I just
things are doing my fighting for me and
also it gets us maybes we’ll see maybe
some flexibility and how we’re actually
limiting these things so first things I
want to do yeah the are changed Eric
we’re making Foster’s Home for Imaginary
Friends it’s exactly these are this is
your imaginary friend that comes to life
and that’s what I see the at-will
summoning doing oh no don’t I don’t need
a ch3 any core body usually you’re
better behaved than that alright so yeah
that’s basically what any we write you
summon your imaginary friend now if
you’re familiar with our process here
the first thing we need to do we start
designing maybe just a let’s go to new
stuff let’s take a look at what exists
in the game already right there are a
number of summoning spells out there so
we turn to a handy-dandy D&D Beyond
which is and I gotta say I you know a
total commercial mode right now but I
love using the adeney beyond for design
because it does make just searching
yourself easier
the it’s nice being let’s go through all
spells and we are just going to go
through and do our filter up spell
targets right there I always forget and
we’re just gonna go down to
pretty sure summon spinning is a filter
now let’s filter all our spells so this
is a good starting point we want to
check out we want to do is you know if
you’re familiar with the show you get to
hear me say this again what we want to
do is look at what levels do certain
things come in so checking these things
out now we have fine steed find
familiars I’m not I’m gonna ignore that
one because it’s a bit of a outlier in
terms of its utility infestation is
using the summoning key word but it’s
really it’s not actually summoning
things it’s really the flavor and it’s
just driving home that flavor so we’re
gonna skip fine steed well we’ll go back
to it but what I want to focus on is
conjure animals third-level so what
we’re saying here is that with a
third-level spell now uh let’s see I’m
gonna go so my head doesn’t get in the
way I’m gonna do this so I want to take
some notes here just to get us a sense
here of what we have what’s going on and
what we’re saying here with this spell
is it a third level I can get one cr2
creature so I’m just gonna do a very
quick and dirty table here just so we
can I don’t want h3h3 is just like
busting in today I wants to be
everywhere let’s just go core body easy
let’s go still know this a spell level
and then see our so whatever establishes
and I’m not gonna care too much about
the other ones for right now what I want
to do is just focus on the one for one I
just burned a third level spell I get
one cr2 creature the other two I’ll get
back to those in a sec but we’re not yet
I want to take a look at the other
spells here now whatever you want to do
here I’m gonna skip summon lesser demon
because these are these come with
drawbacks but at fourth we go to mana
elemental and what’s interesting here is
we’re saying at four we’re still seeing
CR two now what’s happening here is
something that I’m gonna say is like a
little it’s soft design what this is
assuming is that elementals by nature of
being the creature type elemental are
going to have more interesting things at
CR two than beasts beasts by design are
very boring they’re generally adjusted
buckets of hit points with some basic
melee attacks
attached to them if there’s any special
abilities they’re pretty minor maybe a
rider on an attack like knocking someone
prone or maybe some sort of sensory
ability so I’m gonna note this right
here that’s CRT that’s a beast and what
I really want here is that you know
what’s just the raw CR so I’m seeing
here before that will spell an elemental
it’s CR 2 so okay it’s not now here’s
the one thing though is it’s not a huge
upgrade going from elephant jarick
elemental to generic beast or vice versa
is not like wow you just doubled its
power it’s more usually what happens is
with summoning one of the things that
will trip you up in D&D is those utility
spells the future might be coming with
and we’ll see that because I think Fay
now phase also at 4th I know this is a
very common problem least I’ve heard
people complained about that some of
these Fei you can bring in you know
you’re dragging in like 8 CR 1/4 faith
at all say can cast cure wounds or
something like that the chat might know
the specific issue people are saying but
and kittens and mittens beets are boring
Merle’s on why wats he hates
Beastmasters range here following that
beast it was the Fae master then we’d be
all we’d be all in so again we’re gating
it here we’re saying a little for spell
that’s worth getting some magic find
greater than greater Steve it’s like the
king of the horses I don’t know what the
spell does oh ok so this is kind of
intro can’t see you know this is gonna
be hilarious because I forgot the spell
exists xanthus got everything on it’s at
Zenith IRAs book they added it’s at
aftermarket like year 3 expansion the so
this is kind of interesting so we’re
getting a kindest thing fight I forget
let’s see 10 is 5 total combat I get
telepathically uber blah drops to
dismiss it okay doesn’t seem to see
anything here that it says I can’t make
this tell us into fight so this is we’re
gonna kind of backdoor this in what’s
the Griffin the CR see ours too great
they’re all gonna be to watch this is
gonna be like every summoning spell just
gets er to the okay yeah they come we’ll
take it can fight okay yeah
last thing I need is Jeremy busting Kyle
just gimme yeah this is a flood well
this is a flying but these are flying
creatures though but that doesn’t why
wouldn’t I just summon these things and
fly them look I’m complaining up my own
game this is classy but wait a sec okay
wait a sec see these conjure and all
does it have a restriction see are two
giant boar and Asura Sabretooth oh these
guys are monstrosity czar they I might
be completely whipping on that is a
Griffin what Strasse monstrosity or is
it a beast
this is gonna be this yeah it’s a
monstrosity okay there we go so again
we’re getting this segregated here so
basically we’re putting a lot of a lot
of weight on that creature type a lot
more than I didn’t I care for personally
not personally professionally saying
like has a dungeon has a game designer
that’s probably more going here so good
ok now we’re up to see our six well
that’s a big jump so we went from so
elemental level 5 up to see our six Wow
okay that’s a big jump this is gonna be
interesting to try to balance well look
at the duration of fine good oh is one
of those things that’s like buried the
durations much longer because I think
I’m just gonna snore m’l eyes my oh this
is a minute
Wow okay this is this is something that
irritate I got it okay so these are all
this is why we have one minute one hour
find greater seat is 10 minutes
instantaneous conjurer’s one minute this
is one action this is it’s a little all
over the place okay so here’s the thing
this is not not a berry this as an
opportunity opportunity for us to make
something work a bit better
yeah Conger Fay a minute I get why it’s
a minute it’s really so you don’t do in
the middle of a fight but it’s
concentration so that’s all really gonna
kind of throttle what else you can do
alright opportunities there’s lots of
opportunities here there is lots of
opportunities here we can do a lot of
stuff here that will make something a
lot more fun because there’s a lot of
like how it takes a minute oh I want to
I want to get a foul on a summon a
Tyrannosaurus Rex hello this is conjure
face
[Laughter]
so yeah it is it is a t-rex okay cool so
anyways this okay okay this is me gender
sputtering on stream right like okay so
you can up gun the spell that’s why the
t-rex shows up okay so let’s go see our
6:00 at 6:00 okay but that’s six there
all right opportunity keep saying that
it’s an opportunity for us to make
something you know this is really funny
because I know people on Twitter
especially it says oh I want to play a
good summoner I’d be like aren’t there
summoning spells in the game but I
personally don’t play a lot of summoners
and this is a corner of the game it’s
like you can imagine if the game is a
house I have I gone into those back
corner room and I’m like it’s really
dusty and like with what’s in here oh
there’s summoning and it takes a minute
I had no idea
I literally last night was cleaning our
garages looking for some miniatures and
this is because I’ve been married for a
while so I’m getting better at this
there was a check my wife did some
photography works someone sent her a
check for it
and I did not know I read I did not
realize I had put the check out in the
garage with some of my miniatures I
accidentally picked it up and put in a
box and so much here’s looking for it
and so when I said I found it and she
said where was it and I said oh it was
behind the fridge I’m not gonna tell her
I took your check and just put it out in
the garage with a bunch of my my rail
parth of miniatures I was sorting
because I’m a goofball like this okay
alright my new this happened it was this
summer I knew I meant to make it this
way and this is here okay it’s a
celestial force in cr4 okay so this is
all over the place this is really
interesting case again opportunity right
what we’re seeing here though is I am
going to just be blunt I’m gonna ignore
these spells beyond getting a sense of
where the CR is because what’s happening
here and this is something that I am not
necessarily a fan of InDesign for old
playing games and I know why we did this
here right and this is a case of you
know we did this five years ago
essentially there would have been some
adjustment in two and fourteen before
the game released but this is something
where don’t be afraid to look back at
something you didn’t go I don’t really
like how I did that that’s okay that
means you’re learning hey I’m learning
right and it’s I’m not I’m not trying to
be lame and be like that’s my excuse for
doing it this way this is something
where somebody was a real Bears
specially in third edition that’s a pun
by the way so you can look him laughs
the COS needs someone to bear the actual
eat someone a whale it’s a whale of a
good time the sum in the whale and you’d
block off a hallway with a huge creature
even bigger and then it would just flop
around and die but still a barrier but
anyway so this is pride era where we’re
very very cautious because in designing
the entire game system the there’s a lot
of questions you have to ask spells in
in particular you know when you look at
the game where we are now in 2018 you’ve
seen a lot more sub classes come out in
terms of you a you have not seen as many
spells in terms of our focus and the
challenge being a single spell can
really disturb the balance of the game
but it’s very tricky to get play test
feedback on say 50 new spells as opposed
to two new subclasses or one new
subclass whatever it is that we’re doing
so with spells in fifth we were probably
a lot not probably I know this because I
worked on the game we were a lot more
cautious about pushing things and
summoning this was a great example of we
decided to throttle back a bit on it to
make it more situational what these like
we know casting times of a minute to
really make it something that you had to
plan on rather than something that you
could just do and I can see here okay so
Kandra woodland being is an action that
that’s what’s going on here
yeah the tricky thing is as a player I
can admit as a player I don’t like
having multiple axes I have to use two
meant to measure things I also don’t
like the surprise factor I like hey if
I’m a player scrolling through
oh hey fine see that looks cool and you
forget it’s got a ten minute casting
time so this is like a warrant warrant
moment in the game you’re like oh hey
the guys are chasing us condors fine
steed i’ll cast will get it warmer so no
it actually takes ten minutes and it’s
got all this stuff what’s going on so
what I want this guy to do is is instant
summons like I want I want this to just
be instantly summon you friend or
servant
that’s what we want now here’s the trick
to this Oh once I regard you – I’m
putting suggest as an H case 2011 action
spider accrual 4080 xx oh yeah so here’s
something I threw about 12 in fighting
on Twitter if you don’t follow me on
oh and there’s a question tridents from
black ace 13 and I actually wanna get to
that one the okay so do two things
I suggest don’t weapon fighting that on
Twitter that instead of costing a bonus
action because as I’ve hammered home
many times if you’ve watched the stream
to weapon the bonus action economy can
get kind of messy with two up and
fighting often class features require a
bonus action to activate it something
that can be defining like rage which
means a great weapon fighting character
you feel bad I would like you know how
would that work without a bonus action
so the idea is if you’re – I’ve been
fighting in place of an attack you make
two attacks but your damage gets
decremented down in a well elegant
simple way and the elegant simple way is
what’s kind of struggling here but there
are cases where that could probably lead
to lot of attacks quick question about
the Trident so I’ve seen them a few
people ask well that why is the Trident
such a crappy weapon the Trident is in
the game not because we strive to make
the Trident a an interesting weapon that
sits alongside the spear and the sword
the Trident in the game something
because our aquatic creatures wield it
and it’s really a flavor thing we felt
that putting a lot yeah I felt and
people seem to agree that if we’re gonna
show arts abus to you again or Triton or
merfolk who has a trident
but then call it a spear and thus taplok
that might be a little bit disconnect so
that’s all that weapon is literally in
the game because we have aquatic
creatures that use trident
we actually didn’t want you to make it
feel like he was a great weapon that
would be a natural thing that would use
now you could argue that maybe that
wasn’t a great case but like in some
ways the weapon list serves two purposes
it serves characters basically I like
that what weapon I want to use it and
then it also always serves the monsters
so anyway while that’s going on here’s
we want favor for at will summoning want
clear utility things have a clear use
have a function beyond combat the can
fight instantly summon a friend or
servant I’m probably gonna say you know
restrict this to one creature as default
I think a lot of the shenanigans that
come in or one like I can get multiple
creatures twelve or is it gonna be a non
creature summoning option yeah I think
that’s something which would be cool cuz
essentially these are gonna be
constructs can be almost anything and
that frees up a lot of design space for
us so you could say I’m gonna summon a
dancing sword I’m gonna summon a giant
you know rolling Boulder to crash
through people and move around the got
like a big bees hands say ciao Mart so
gets a good comparison so the this is
essentially what we want to do and when
I think of at will summoning this is
where and this is where I think this
sort of this sort of benefit I get as I
put spell slots into this what I think
at will summoning does is it a costs to
your action that’s like yeah cost your
action action on an ongoing basis higher
level summoning lets you stack things on
top of your actions so what I mean by
that is this I have an apples someone
have this imaginary friend I want to
call into being and make them do
something I think if you think of the
unseen servant spell yeah had her feign
unseen servant being something along
those lines except I wanted to be able
to fight um you know otherwise I don’t
really feel like a summoner if we’re
they what I’m doing is just I can move
stuff around but I can do that with
mange hand so I have this creature I can
bring it into existence like I sculpt it
I can make it fight it’s gonna cost me
my action to make it fight the benefit I
get benefit I get that was that creature
is gonna occupy a space so if I’m you if
you’re miniatures player if you use
miniatures in your game you probably
instantly need to know that benefit as a
party we can control an extra square we
probably have to put a tax on that
though
so I’m going to throw this other thing
in here at will summoning comes with
some damage feedback what does that mean
you might ask well I think what that
what that means is that if I summon a
creature and it’s at will I haven’t
invested any magic into it my name our
resources that could you gets killed I
need to take a drawback that could be
damage it could be something like I lose
concentration for a time I’m in favor of
damage that’s fast and easy as a player
to assess I’m not looking for this to be
a lot of damage what I just want to do
is stop you from infinitely blocking a
doorway the size limit northland Cal
that’ll be something that we’ll play
with as we go to higher levels so that’s
something where we don’t want you to
just round up to round him to keep
blocking the doorway and essentially
have a damaged sponge because that’s the
other benefit and let’s actually take a
quick step back so I realized I’m doing
all this stuff thinking of the benefits
of summoning this is why summoning is so
tricky because it’s got a lot of
follow-on benefits you know a fireball
just does damage that’s it’s doing
damage if you want it to do something
else like set a building on fire or
something the DMS to kind of start
adjudicating this but summoning comes
there’s a lot of things baked in it’s
extra hit points for the party so a
summoning a summon creature comes with
having hit points so I can attack it I’m
essentially creating a buffer for the
party
if so think of this scenario the party
is in a dungeon they open a door there’s
five goblins the shaper goes first they
throw a summon creature into the doorway
the goblins rush up with their swords
one or more of the goblins has to spend
their actions essentially dealing with
that summoned creature again it’s very
powerful a can trap and lets me cancel
essentially it’s letting you cancel an
attack at no cost is very good canceling
an attack at a cost so in this case
damage means I can use that but I have
to use it judiciously and if I’m using
it a lot it’s going to drain other party
resources so what we want to make sure
is we’re just not giving you a very big
benefit and denying attacks is a big
benefit if you can put your enemy in a
position where they cannot attack you
that’s and you can attack them back
that’s fantastic that something you’ll
do all day
so we’ve got to make sure that we take
an account into that it’s more area
control so again it’s if think of if
you’re using grid grid in a minute and
miniatures
it’s another miniature on the table for
the party the so that’s not as big but
it still can be pretty useful and it’s
extra actions just do more stuff right
if you have your adding essentially
member to the party it just gives you
more flexibility if you think of the
party has it’s a group that has X number
of actions to use each round adding more
actions that’s always just a good thing
there is vanishingly few cases that
aren’t contrived we’re having those
extra actions is actually drawback I
mean at worst it’s neutral example you
need to open a door that’s one action
okay I could have 50 actions or five
actions or one as long as I have one I
can open the door so but typically
scaling those up I have more actions
means I can open that door we can go
through and I can do something else so
now there are some limits to it but
we’re not those limits look more like
adding eight to twelve extractions not
one one is always always beneficial so
we have to account for that too and
that’s why you see often you know the
actually here’s something really we
should look at let’s say and someone
mentioned it because of the fae in the
beasting let’s take a look at everyone’s
favorite character class the Ranger
everyone for definitions of people who
like Rangers you see a lot of the
discontent people who don’t like the
Beastmaster almost all the things that
they don’t like about this design and go
back to that list that I just rattled
off so let’s take a look at our
companion though a third level you gain
a beast companion that accompanies you
on your adventures and is trained to
fight alongside you choose a beast that
is no larger than medium so that’s an
important thing we don’t want you
getting a large beast large creatures
especially use miniatures are super
useful to have in your party because
they just they command four spaces party
of four that’s essentially I’ve doubled
the number of spaces I can control an a
grid it makes it very easy to clean
clothes off passages things like that
challenge one quarter or lower oh that’s
something I’m gonna write down there too
that’s going to be kind of our
I’m trying to put Ranger here to note
that and set 1/4 that’s a little 3
there’s gonna do note that I’ll remember
or chat you’ll remind me ok so so you
get some bonuses ok we’re adding your
your proficiency bonus just because we
want to make sure it doesn’t go you know
sideways so we’re giving it some hit
point cushioning here but our base thing
is 1/4 so this is essentially the hit
points and the proficiency are just
there to let this thing’s scale up so
it’s not you do have to recycle it or
you don’t have to worry about it it’s
becoming useless the lot of people to
argue this is just not very useful to
start with it can understand you sure it
can spend hit dice so it takes its turns
on your initiative though it doesn’t
take an action less you command it to on
your turn you can verbally command the
beast or to move no action required by
you you can use your action to verbally
command it to attack – whatever take
much of actions the and that’s using
your action and so it’s getting back
this idea of adding extra actions to the
party pool the thinking here and you can
see that same reluctance to really
embrace this idea of summoning that we
saw in the spells with like the 10
minute casting times and cr2 being kind
of our ceiling and once we hit CR 2 we
just started changing other things in
the spells to make them better
casting time or type of creature you’re
seeing this play out here in the Ranger
and you’re seeing based on what we saw
in the reaction to this design a lot of
people just not happy with this they
just didn’t feel like they were getting
a creature that was their companion they
felt like they were getting a robot with
a remote control attached to it and you
were remote controlling a robot I think
that for me that’s kind of
metaphorically where I feel it is and
yeah it’s and that share DVI this is a
great point all right the problem is
this is made for people who want a pet I
want to pet and then I get a pet and I
get a kind of a pet that sort of lame
and I was just having the discussion
with someone today about a character
race someone was working on and
realizing that the way the design was
configured if you rarely played that
race like maybe you played that race
once it was work fine but if you’re the
type of player who said oh this is my
favorite type of character to play oh
I’m gonna play these guys and connect
year I’m gonna play four different
characters and all them will be this
type of character ooh the way it was
designed is like oh that’s actually
feels kind of lame like it feels fun the
first time but the second when you make
I feels a little to say me so that is
definitely something that is designed
you need to think about that in terms of
the player that you’re aiming to act not
just in terms of what they like but in
terms of over the course of several
campaigns how will this stand up so he’s
0 cuz spiritual basically spiritual
weapon is a streamline but pseudo
version of summoning there might be
something there the well I want to take
a look that actually bring in creatures
I want to make this work because I think
we can make this work that’s a win I
think there are players up there who if
we can make this work would say finally
I can play the character I always want
to play I get to play the character who
has pets and as someone who has two dogs
and four cats I can understand that you
like I mean pets around unless they wake
up at both like 3:00 a.m. and 5:30 a.m.
to be let out so much but that might be
them kind of trying to tell you
something and that might be our older
dog and happy that we have a puppy in
the house so used to getting older but
still a puppy so yeah so this is really
where you’re seeing the tension come in
and I feel pretty confident that we we
were cautious here and I think that
caution was warranted I would stand by
that decision I think if we went back to
2013 and whatever revised this we would
revise it because we learn things since
then not because there’s really any
insight that we just flat-out missed
when this sort of thing goes wrong it
goes wrong in a way that makes the DM at
least really irritated because I have
played in the campaign with the broken
summoning with somebody something that
felt broken and in this specific case
Elvis find it has something that just
felt like ridiculous and it was doing
things that felt far beyond what you’d
expect from the character to do I had a
friend of mine who would use multiple
summonings to like summon just hoards of
low CR creatures and just have them all
use the help action and third edition if
I remember right the help action stacked
or it was like the hinder action stacked
so there’s just ridiculous you know but
it was a good example like a low-level
spell that was producing like +10 attack
bonuses which
third edition were great because then
your your iterative attacks we’ve got
multiple attacks in third edition your
attack bonus went down dramatically so
getting a big bonus was huge it meant
you were going from hitting one and a
half times per round to like hitting all
three times with your attacks so it
could be really big the all right so
yeah I know a frog wheeler a Wyson a
character to scout when you have
disposable NPCs another good example
right that comes into the action sort of
thing I have more actions I have actions
I don’t mind sending out to die I were
playing a game with a druid who was
summoning animals and sending them down
to trigger traps and a tumor in which
was just sort of hilarious I am the
guardian of nature animals I love you
plants come to me I will I will take
care of you protect you accept you fight
Oh run down that hallway and let me know
if anything jumps out and stabs you so
again that gets back to this idea of
putting the bet penalty on it you know
this idea that if it’s free summoning I
want to throw a some sort of I wanted in
your resources in some way because I
want to avoid hey I have this guy get
some time at well someone him and have
him run down the hallway to trigger
traps we have them open doors we have
them you know there’s a switch maybe we
should pull it well let’s have a summon
creature do it right and then you don’t
want to deal with coming up all these
weird rules like this creature can
attack but it can’t pull a lever and
they can’t walk down a hall and whatever
right it when you when the restrictions
on an ability start to be the bulk of
its rules that to me is like you’re
doing something very wrong you either
you’re doing something just by its
nature just isn’t gonna work it’s gonna
be disrupting the game or you’re doing
something in a way that really what you
want to do is just penalize people in
some way for abusing it so just make
that as simple and direct and obvious as
possible
because players will always find ways to
get around like very specific drawbacks
but it’s harder to get around like look
II just taking damage if you can get it
you’ve been getting around taking damage
then that’s great you’re gonna win you
know in a lot of fights the so John
Herzog artists are their penalties for
letting the imaginary-friend die then
read something later I don’t I’m not
crazy about X I do like the idea that
this is something that’s here for me and
what I think I might do is this all
right so are at will summoning
here’s the mean version so I’m gonna do
like I’ll do like version one but it
takes damage you take that damage now I
don’t want to do this because we have a
d6 class then I mean like well I need to
give you more hit points well now I have
you the entire dat separate pool eight
points maybe you’re tracking where so I
don’t wanna deal with that it’s that
what I wanted what I would like to say
is when it is destroyed you take some
damage and lose maybe your focus for
around I think I want I kind of do both
so it’s not just gonna come back so
you’re gonna yeah I think actually yeah
so I want to lose your focus which means
in your concentration in focus so you’re
not gonna be cavalier about it if you’re
in a situation though where you do want
to look I’m mission to sacrifice my
summon character and this is at will not
the other ones we’ll get to those in a
sec I think that it’s open what I like
about this is that you can decide
tactically okay I’m gonna take this hit
because I do need to keep the goblins in
the room where I want to block the door
and you know I’m gonna take a drawback
here but it is gonna be useful to keep
these guys out um let’s see Oh Morey I
think it’s what you the greens a little
hard to read what it was xx damage I
like the overkill it feels a little
fiddly to me I think I’d rather just
make it a flat number so I don’t have in
a situation where well they’re goblins
only doing like say 1 d6 + 3 damage and
I’m like the higher level I don’t care
if these guys keep killing my summon as
opposed to I’m really worried if the
dragon kills it I’d rather just know
that there’s just a flat a flat thing so
we’re not like this weird scaling thing
taking effect where some things are
really nervous about attacking your
summons and others you’re not so I just
specify that the and I think looking at
its benefits I’m probably gonna go say
that you’re at will summon as a baseline
is that the app will summon is a Buddist
is a CR at 1/4 creature
now what I mean by that is we’re gonna
figure out either pull staff locks I’m
not gonna go to any step locks today I’m
just gonna use I’m just knees challenge
as our as our baseline so the so that’s
basically our entire thing here you know
a CR 1/4 creature you and you have to
spend your action to make it it’s been
it’s action essentially what we’ve done
is we’ve created a can trip what I
imagine using this can trip will be a
bonus action so I can summon it in and
then have it attack somebody or I can
have it do something well also gonna do
is try to restrict range she’s gonna say
10 feet or even adjacent I don’t want
this to be like hey there’s a chasm and
there’s something on the side we need I
will summon and my guy shows up and does
something know again I want you to spend
a resource for that I have to spend a
spell slot or spell points or whatever
it is because again if it’s at will at
will things DMS have a higher high
allergy to real good utility net will
because it just distorts the entire
design process of your adventures so so
yeah so I think we want to restrict
range I’m sure this is a great example
playtesting will start revealing other
things that’ll come up all right so then
let’s just do a very simple thing here
I’m gonna delete this because I don’t
really care not that I don’t care but
it’s just yeah and what I want to do is
look at what my level so if I know level
0 is see our 1/4 essentially can’t rip
I’m just gonna this is like this is
where we start getting into like rough
justice right we have a spell system
here that is trying to do summoning but
is maybe not pulling its full weight in
terms of what people want I am pretty
much committed to saying I don’t want
you to summon multiple creatures unless
I want to handcraft that I don’t want to
make it as a look at the spells what
they’re doing is they’re giving you this
sort of progression that here
let me I’ll show it to you we’ll take a
look at one right this progression of
the number of creatures is going to end
up with things that you’re unhappy with
as a DM because there’s no way that
under conjure animals or any of them
like okay
be really fast contra elementals that we
can really consistently say that hey
eight one-quarter challenge rating
things are equivalent to one two yeah
they’re tax and damage might be but as
soon as I have a spell on her ability
resting here eight of those is just
better than one and I’m sure right now
if I just did a search for monsters I
can find an example here so let’s go to
elementals there might not even be a one
eighth LCR elemental how do we got some
right here yes let’s get the mud method
and then Mitch it’s got some sort of
special ability a mud breath so it can
restrain creatures now eight guys who
can show up and restrain you so
basically means every round I’m
restraining a lot of creatures for a
long time so this just really kind of
breaks down that idea of like the swarm
summoning because we’re not gonna say
our elementals don’t get abilities and
this is what kind of makes them fun so
I’m gonna be pretty focused on just
doing this a one-for-one the so so let’s
go through and now going to assist do
some rough justice here so this is gonna
be spell level so I’m just gonna go
through and add my to hear three four
five six seven eight nine and I’m just
gonna sort of back the envelope what I
think oh my god my computer froze this
has been my thing today my my outlook
just was like weirdly frozen I thought I
broke it and an email is trying to
respond to and oh no there we go
I’m not in trouble 99 oh well that’s
that’s now the new feature here right we
did d-104 like the commoner so now the
the the shaper gets how it’s getting
really slow okay check in and just send
all my data to the NSA make sure they
have it all right so we send a level
let’s see it’s never forgotten what does
the
let’s go back here it’s back in again to
our spells so we set here under conjure
animals cr2 is a third little spell
should make sure had that right so I’m
just gonna arbitrarily say that that’s
gonna be one and arbitrarily say that’s
half and I’m just gonna again equally
arbitrarily just increase this by one no
I don’t think this is actually going to
work but it’s it’s a handy enough
starting point this is also case now
what I would probably do in play test is
just come up with some generic stat
blocks they’ll just get across this
damage armor class and hit points I can
finesse this later but this is what I’m
basically going to look at use if you
spend a spell slot of this level you get
this step this corresponding stop lock
to give you it now let’s take let’s do a
quick reality check here to give you a
sense let’s take a look at some CRE
creatures and what I want is a CR eight
beast because as I mentioned before
beasts tend to be very simple so let’s
go to monsters official and let’s go to
beasts you know let’s just look at all
the challenge unless is the Billy know
there should be a lot of cluttered so
let’s just do challenge rating eight
like a look all right so we’re saying a
t-rex with a knight the whole spell 136
hit points a C’s pretty lame it’s gonna
get hit pretty quickly it’s got one bite
in one tail this is I don’t know if its
restriction carries any real bite but
we’ll see +10 433 you can grapple +10
420 so seven hinges to the seventeenth
level getting this that feels probably
weak so I probably need to boost that up
a bit
let’s take a look at what did I am I
sort of totally fake math give a game of
CR for for a level 5 spell so that’s a
9th bubble so let’s take a look what
that creature looks like
let’s see how what the damage is there
and I just can I just want a bruiser
whoa okay yeah okay elephant okay it
doesn’t get any more comp case guy is AC
1276 hitpoints yeah I don’t think I
think this actually feels pretty for a
fifth level caster this is my big
creature I get getting seventy six extra
hip points it’s nice and that’s nice
durability +8 419 it’s got this
traveling charge ability DC 12 though so
I’m not too worried most creatures in
let’s take a look at uh there’s a giant
subterranean lizard simpler
it’s the AC 1466 hitpoints one bite in
one tail okay Gordon one of my kids oh
it’s so so plus 7 for 16 + plus 7 for 12
one target not crapple by the lizard
that’s kind of funny it’s very specific
lizard grab me grapple me now you can
hit me with the tail oh that you can
swallow me in that pain alright so that
that this feels reasonable so let’s take
a quick thing here a very rough estimate
of what this matches up if this is a
fighter say typical fighters probably to
have + 2 hit points per hit die and
beginning about 8 hit points per level
so this is actually pretty good
avian +3 so let’s say 9 so level you
know if the fighter the party probably
has 80 to 90 to make a point so I’m not
overshadowing the fighter but that’s
still pretty good the cleric and the
party probably has about let’s say again
this is 9th level so 60 something sacred
cleric and roguish hit points the art
class is really the hard thing here most
beats up pretty lame armor classes
oh it’s also huge my phone is ringing I
thought it told it – wow that’s pretty
funny sorry but it’s the first time
that’s happened but it is four months
it’s the first time someone’s actually
tried calling me I put on do not disturb
the this is an easy thing to overlook
this is huge so ok that’s not actually
this is really good at locking down a
big air of the battlefield ok so I feel
actually that’s pretty good this guy’s
gonna really tank up and he’s gonna dish
out some ok hits I mean here’s his other
main thing he’s only a plus 7 to hit our
party members at 9th level are probably
to be around probably I think nine or
ten maybe ish around there depending up
the up magic items and stuff but this is
yeah someone’s trying to summon you
through your phone true enough of our
serious the this is a good example of
I’m getting a text to my wife can’t find
her computer I have no idea where it is
the so she’s texting me now to the can
this wait 17 minutes actually it can’t
chat I can talk while I do this because
I’m gonna tell her I think it’s on the
couch so but what we’re seeing here is
what we’re getting for summoning is a
really big huge creatures great that’s a
three by three grid that’s like nine
size medium creatures so I feel pretty
good you know so I want to pay attention
to like the the opto level ten beyond
that I think we just need to get the
numbers right but this feels pretty good
for a fifth level spell slot to get a
challenge for creature
yeah I’m not offended by it the I’m just
gonna put a little like – they’re here
just let me know that I need to verify
below oh and even Kyle and I’m gonna
tell her because she probably needs it
for work
anyway I’m probably be getting other
things I am gonna have to go silent you
guys get to watch me texts okay anyway
it’s very it’s like this week we have a
holiday here and if you’re not if not in
the States
12th of July is tomorrow it’s a
Wednesday it basically it’s like two
working weekends back to it’s very
strange
this entire week feels very splintered
all right so hey I have to be mortified
if she knew she was on stream okay so
here’s our basic thing now this may
sound like we haven’t got a lot done we
got actually had a ton done because
here’s what we’ve done all I want to get
to say is I can add will summon we’ve
got some basic parameters for that then
if I put a spell slot into this I up gun
my summon creature and then I can drop
these restrictions right so I’m not
gonna say like you know I’m just gonna
say lose these with a spell slide I
think we’re gonna put the note here is
uh stays where so that’s it this is like
our first big step forward so then
because I was thinking about this in
terms of what the SONA CR to bard the
seven bards ever just runs away in
horror the so the main thing here is
that we kind of have a rough outline for
our creatures are gonna look like what I
think I will do is rather than say hey
go into the monster menu I’ll put a snap
lock I think because this thing is
constructed I’m we’re gonna give you
stat blocks that you will use I think
it’ll be faster to reference plus when
we go to the next thing because I think
some names gonna really show off the
basically the idea of augmenting
abilities the what I want to do is I
want to know if I have and we know about
some right here cause fear increase
image extra actions like they’re just
you know buffs in general we can give
these things I want to know the
destination and that’s one of the
trickiest things in role-playing game
design with a system that is allowing
for more character customization is if
you take something you want to know
where is it going
as an example imagine
have an ability that says whenever I
roll my damage dice if I roll the
highest damage die I get to roll another
die whatever it could do that once it’s
very simple stuff but but you thinking
okay that usually means one extra die oh
wait what about if someone has a 2d six
damage sword yeah the great sort how
does that work you know and if you’re
gonna say well we treat each die
separately that ability is much more
useful for someone with a great sword
than it is for someone let’s say a great
axe where the great axe is gonna get an
extra die of one and twelve yeah
exploding die Zack may right whereas
there’s a one in three chance for you
know I have one in six chance normally
of that happening in a six signer but
I’m willing to
so roughly I’m getting twice as many
chances
one out of three top rounds I’m doing an
extra d6 and then there’s you know one
out of 36 issue runs that I’m getting
extra to d6 right so it’s just that’s an
area where knowing the destination
really gives me a real sense of the the
power this thing’s going to be so that’s
why rather than have you go to the
Monster Manual I want you going to these
kind of pre-built stat blocks it makes
it clear what’s gonna happen these these
stab blocks can be kept very simple and
utilitarian and then we can kind of get
a sense of what does it mean like to
increase your AC things like that I kind
of know what AC is a great example a +5
bonus to AC if your AC is like 11 and 12
and that’s good but for AC is already 20
you know you might be shifting your
bonus up your AC up to the point where
monsters need to start rolling just 20s
to hit you right look the elephant or
whatever was it was a +7 so I mean it’s
obviously a bonus Tacey is always great
but you don’t want to end up with
frustration of just like the creatures
just can’t hit this guy because we push
the AC too high that’s kind of why we
have the sort of this idea of keeping
hackers seeing bonuses narrow so then
let’s do a quick thing what I want to do
is cause fear and other emotions I want
to be let’s say hey I’m gonna give this
creature an aspect that makes it scary
Oh a dead in seconds shape your class
features I’m gonna get to that next
actually so what I wanted to do is bang
out what I wanted the spells to do
increase damage indeed this is just
general buffs either
do that extra actions I think that’s
another thing you could say I burned a
spell slot I could you gets to go again
or it’s a spell whatever it is and that
could even scale up so we have some
pretty obvious things we want to do oh
and then we could offset up augment and
other ways no utility comes to mount
flies skills or detection abilities this
is a lot of stuff we can give it here by
essentially having targeted buff spells
that augment my guy so what do we want
to do for the shapers clients features
well what I thought would be kind of
interesting was the I’m just gonna copy
and paste the Nomad here because this is
fully new just you know we’re gonna do
here right everyone’s favorite word
that’s it bonus disciplines that’s just
become a basic thing so we can give you
two extra shaper disciplines and so what
I like to do think between the Scion who
focuses on shaping and the creature they
actually shape or the thing they
actually shape so I thought about like
maybe like like someone mentioned doing
sane you get some like some spell slots
just for augments only the abhorson I’m
a little worried about that because
that’s just a very clear power up over
what other characters are getting a way
to think of it is what that what that
was that you do is I can use my spell
slots to augment my thing and I’m gonna
use my other spells on top of it even if
you’re specific about those bonus spell
slots it’s still just opening up your
bandwidth overall so what I want to try
to do is give you things that improve
the relationship between you and the
creature so and again things that
wouldn’t just be spells so a very simple
thing to do
Chicanos augment and shaping and I like
things that are simple indirect so at
first level your summon features gain
advantage on attacks against pictures
within this might not be the best thing
but this is kind of direction where I
want to go because what I’d like to do
here and work on here is this idea that
I can kind of combo up with Mike and my
creature especially by summon one that’s
doing its own thing now 10-feet might be
too close so an alternate might be pick
a target how can they say get them and
my guy is really good at getting that
guy well that might be need a cool-down
a another thing we could do is this sort
of free buff the rather than say hey
like here’s some extra small slots
cheese’s you want which but I think
maybe we can do basically when you
summon it
you just get a free benefit so so maybe
you can like increase max HP grants some
extra game I don’t wanna do get some
extra damage because that’s just makes
your firepower better yeah so I think
you can increase max HP you could also
like share your skill proficiencies so
if you can do something you can do
something so that might be kind of
useful to I can actually kind of like
that the the divination spells load
though those degrade that is a good
point the important the I think what
were you’re seeing there is since
they’re degrading what it’s saying is
these spells might not have the impact
that say a fireball would have we’re
incentivizing you to use really
high-level spells for what’s really in
character for you knowing that he was a
player don’t and aren’t necessarily
losing out on firepower that you could
use later on the but I can’t remember if
well I’ll live it up later cantide it
doesn’t it says only when you use the
divination spell you get as a lower
level slot back right you don’t have to
it doesn’t say then you’re locked into
using it the rest but anyways the but
yeah it’s definitely a it’s a tricky
thing I’d rather just do it by giving
you just the benefit because again you
also now you want you know what’s going
on you know that
donation you know the benefit you know
where it’s going so I think it’s
augmenting your summons in some simple
ways let’s see
another thing we could let you do is at
six level you get additional reaction
you know I’m gonna throw this because I
think this is interesting
let’s say you can grant oh no I have
seen additional actions as a spell
ability you know what I don’t know if it
that’s actually works and here’s why if
you were last week I talked about how
like in in games that like magic be an
example or any game where the hey I put
a creature into play at a cost there is
invariably a Kevin effect that says I
get to kill any creature for a much
lower cost a potentially much lower cost
they might only cost two or three
resources opposed to like up to like
infinite for a creature the tree thing
with saying hey my creature gets an
extra action is that skills kind of it
does not necessary scale well because we
think of the haste spell and use the hey
spells an example I thought he’s from a
character he’s very specifically says
you get one extra attack there because
we know a lot of the melee characters
they’re getting their benefits for
making multiple attacks now the Rogues
an exception that was my design though
we kind of felt like haste would be
something which throwing it on the rope
oh I’m sorry because that’s only during
your turn sorry did this so even the
rogue falls victim to that then I seen
what the rogue is if they’re getting an
extra attack if they missed and didn’t
get a chance to use sneak attack they
get to attack again and potentially
amount put it on so I think I’m gonna
strike the the spell effect of granting
extra attacks extra actions I’m gonna
strike that make that a class feature
because I think that’s something that I
don’t think scales well and class
features are a good place to put things
that don’t scale well because because of
this follow usually about the seed we’re
an extra action to a summing feature we
gain on long rest
so it’s pretty cool it’s very dramatic
but I can just say look you get it take
a long rest get this back you can’t just
say keep spamming it it’s a good way to
think of an ability that scaling
abilities often have to be balanced at
they’re their mightiest form which might
push something like this I copy to the
seventh level where you only get one of
those per day this lets me go you know
this is gonna scale so I can give it to
you low levels to I just need to make
sure you can only use it once per day
because it needs to behave like those
level 6 plus pills excuse me pardon me
all right let’s ping we got 5 minutes
but you know what it’s a weird holiday
weekend two days on one day off two days
on we’ll go a little late I don’t think
anyone something I’ll bust down the door
and yell at me if I’m going to late um
let’s see oh yeah this is so let’s see
so we’ve got that I’m just gonna just
put it on this action just be very
utilitarian here as I can remember it um
let’s see we’ve got our no man is
getting getting resistance weapon
attacks until the start of your next
turn after you teleport yeah let’s do
this let’s do another let’s do a reverse
reverse damage transference the 10th
level I’m gonna say when you take damage
reaction to have summon feature take all
or some and that’ll that’ll come out in
the wash so bonus extra bonus X Joe what
is it it’s tip bonus in its texture it’s
just double plus more good I don’t know
what it is could be a barrel of toxic
waste but there it is it’s more so I
kind of like the idea giving you a
little more durability you can do this
idea of these as your helpers this might
be one that gets swallowed up by spell
but I don’t think so I like this idea
that it’s there it’s constantly reaction
and especially if it’s a spell sloughing
if I use it to dump the damage back in
my aunt wheel guy then I have damaged
plane back to me again so it might have
to be but we’ll see I’m gonna put a
custom work there alright we have like
four minutes Pelham just step back in
you may have seen a walk behind me I
think about to get kicked off line so
let’s do a fourteenth double thing you
can Joe and this is oh let’s do
something here where well right now you
could summon two creatures because I’m
letting you concentrate twice oh how
would that work because we don’t let you
concentrate twice so it’s never in a
case we have to figure out what happens
my cast of concentration spell again so
you know what I think oh this is the
case oh this is easy well put it a
simple restriction but then we’ll lift
it double summons
so I think we’re gonna have to clear up
that and my impulsive to say you can’t
concentrate in the same spell twice
because I think that it’s going to lead
to shenanigans I can probably prove that
later if I have time but you can now
this and I’m gonna put a big note to
myself because that’s just one of the
things that I really thought about which
would be a big mess we didn’t consider
it that’s why we work this way to make
sure we consider these things can’t
concentrate on same spell points
question mark but I think that’d be a
very simple thing you’d feel very great
at that 14th you know you’ve got your
entire career now I can summon two guys
awesome so then I feel pretty good power
wise it is actually really good so I
think it probably has to sit at 14th I
think we want to say you can’t double
concentrate because flooding the board
with so many guys that’s really good too
huge creatures again if using nature’s
you’re locking down a ton of the board
space so and the rope I mean that for
the actual class feature which I don’t
know if I wrote let me take a quick look
at that did we put your sonic focus
today actually try to write that or did
I just put in the table okay so we are
saying sonic spells they’re not the same
one just throw it in there it’s probably
okay good so I don’t have to worry about
the other summoning spells coming in and
playing poorly with this I can wall
those off all right so we’re at two
o’clock this is a something that I
really doesn’t need some more deep
thinking now that rather than just die I
don’t want to end up on stream just
doing a lot of flailing around and I
felt like I was flailing around a little
more than I wanted want to when I’m
doing something live because there’s a
lot of like moving parts here so I think
it just needs some time to just kind of
kind of come bring everything together
really bake it for a while and then roll
it back out so let’s do neck next week
let’s do some monsters cause monsters I
think will be fun
and I think that it’ll be a bit more
coherent as we go across and I’ll give
me some time to really think about all
the implications because there’s
actually a lot of stuff that’s bubbling
up here this is a great example of a
design that seems reasonable and the
first play test may show that none of
works at all right because there’s a lot
of moving parts here so I think this
needs to go in the oven for a bit it’s
kind of like the Great British Bake Off
this is the part of the show where we
just show the bakers like nervously
waiting for like you know the 40 minutes
for their cake the so yeah maybe we’ll
wait like maybe give it a month or so
and I got a bunch of monsters I need to
design at mine interval campaign so
let’s let’s tackle those over a couple
weeks that can show you some nice range
of critters so fail are we’re getting
next you a next Monday I think we are
getting it next Monday because I know
we’re actually working on it now spoiler
that’s I was talking about a
player-character race so there might be
a player-character race and that you a
so don’t don’t don’t
be sure to race over to our website to
get you way the puns they’re painful
aren’t they they are or is it Tuesday a
camera what day you a is I just work on
it and it wanders off and then a bunch
of things to work on so anyways work two
o’clock thanks for tuning in ahh
next week we’ll do some monsters and I’m
gonna start working on this and let’s
see if we get a bit more of a stable
design here because we’re doing a lot
we’re juggling a lot of things at once
let’s let’s take a break and put get
everything lined up nice and neat and
then come back and look at this in
August
okay well take care everyone and I’ll
see you next week