asking for a player, What would the proper guild for a clockmaker/inventor be? Her character is a locksmith but she wanted her character to work out of the shop of a Gnomish Clockmaker. and I thought they’d be in the same guild, but now im not sure. Indeed. The Guilds of Waterdeep provide an inadvertent lesson in the politics of embracing advancing technology, as guilds seek to either stamp out or embrace newly popular things within their own purview (and not that of another guild, or allowing an entire non-guilded market).
— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) October 20, 2018
DnD
“It’s GOT to be a pirate ship. Black sails, no flag…pirates.”
1)
“It’s GOT to be a pirate ship. Black sails, no flag…pirates.”
“You really think a pirate’s going to be that obvious? It’s probably some timid merchant who wants us all to THINK he’s a pirate, so we’ll leave him alone.”#epic fantasy— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) August 15, 2018
3)
“No timid merchant is going to fly BLACK sails. Not unless he’s so timid he’s a smuggler, har har. So we have to assume it’s a pirate ship, and flee like hell!”
“Look, they’re hailing us! White flag on a stick, and waving… …all frantic!”
“That’s no pirate, you dolts, it’s a PLAGUE ship! Have a look, through the spyglass! LOOK at them, along the rail!”
“I am. Not plague victims, though I’ll grant they may be POST-plague victims. Yon are undead.”#epic fantasy— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) August 15, 2018
5)
“Undead! UNDEAD! FLEEEEE!”
“No, wait, LOOK! The woman on the end, watch her! She waves, she shoves a potion down the face of one of the undead, and they come back to life! Elixir of Life, that is! It’s a POTION SELLING SHIP! “I’m getting dizzy…well, we’ve wasted too much time and she’s overhauling us now. Hey, lady, you a potion seller? You know, good, fair, SAFE?”
“No, I’m a necromancer. And YOU…are doomed!”
“Oh, that’s all right, then. Oh, wait…”#epic fantasy— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) August 15, 2018
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Is it game breaking for a PC to constantly be using their familiar to grant advantage for themselves in combat?
Is it unreasonable/game breaking for a PC to constantly be using their familiar to grant advantage for themselves in combat (via the ‘Help’ Action)? And is it also fair to say that a monster will attack the familiar in their face? I wouldn’t say it’s game breaking at all. Most familiars will be one-shotted by a foe if they remain in range enough to grant advantage with the Help action, so it has its balance.
— Matthew Mercer (@matthewmercer) September 12, 2018
Thanks. I have an Eldrich Knight trying to abuse it, who has actually raged hard at me for having monsters swing at the familiar. He tries to argue that “it’s on my shoulder!”… not realizing that if it’s helping him, it has to be in the monster’s face… and he also actually got mad at me when a monster in a Curse of Strahd game took a swing at it. It’s a raven, and you know what that means in Barovia…
— 👻 Jordan 👻 (@HowlVakarian) September 12, 2018
Ha! On your shoulder only further clarifies that it would be within range to be attacked. The familiar is helpful because it can lend that aid, and creature have to actually choose between it an PCs (so either it draws an attack away from others, or it keeps helping)
— Matthew Mercer (@matthewmercer) September 12, 2018
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Why did you decide not to give the Magic Stone cantrip any level scaling power increase like other damaging cantrips?
@JeremyECrawford why did you decide not to give the magic stone cantrip any level scaling power increase like other damaging cantrips?
— Matt Petruzzelli (@mpetruzz) October 3, 2018
Some cantrips scale with level and some don't. The ones that don't scale have an effectiveness that doesn't diminish as you gain levels. #DnD https://t.co/C8dHwy4Vrj
— Jeremy Crawford (@JeremyECrawford) October 3, 2018
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Is there anything you think 4e did better from a design point of view than 5e?
Question: Now that we have a few years of perspective. Is there anything you think 4e did better from a design point of view than 5e?
Like, something that was removed or modified that you wished had stayed a core aspect of the game design?Hard to answer, because the 4e I wanted to do and the 4e we ended up publishing were different on a fundamental level. I wanted classes to have different power acquisition schedules, and more thematic ties between power types.
— Mike Mearls, but Spooky (@mikemearls) October 8, 2018
Example – In the wizard, your daily spells would unlock words of power, the component words needed to cast the spell, as encounter powers. The idea was you’d cast part of a daily spell as an encounter power.
— Mike Mearls, but Spooky (@mikemearls) October 8, 2018
The 4e we ended up designing lost a lot of thematic power concepts that I think would’ve made the core design a lot stronger.
— Mike Mearls, but Spooky (@mikemearls) October 8, 2018
That said, skill challenges were an interesting concept, but we simply lacked the time to properly tested them and had this bad tendency to post errata for them without giving it a proper. I‘ve tinkered with a new approach in my Nentir Vale campaign that is working well so far.
— Mike Mearls, but Spooky (@mikemearls) October 8, 2018
There’s an entire book I could write about 4e and why it ended up the way it did. It’s a great example of a really good concept falling victim to what felt like every single land mine that plagues game development.
— Mike Mearls, but Spooky (@mikemearls) October 8, 2018
But peeling away from that digression – I’m a little angry at myself for not looting more of the at-will powers. Eyebite is such a fun toy, no idea why we did not pick that one and others up for 5e more often and for more classes.
— Mike Mearls, but Spooky (@mikemearls) October 8, 2018
It was a core concept, but it was somewhat frustrating. 4e had a tendency to build matrices and try to fill them without thinking through whether that was a good idea, especially in a system where each class had an enormous overhead. Forced power design into narrow niches.
— Mike Mearls, but Spooky (@mikemearls) October 8, 2018
I would’ve much preferred the ability to adopt any role within the core 4 by giving players a big choice at level 1, an option that placed an overlay on every power you used or that gave you a new way to use them.
— Mike Mearls, but Spooky (@mikemearls) October 8, 2018
I could definitely see the need to broaden it out and make the whole system more… relaxed, but I really enjoyed the tight structure of it all, especially as a DM. Yeah, it’s brilliant at what it focused on. Best take on D&D combat across all editions.
— Mike Mearls, but Spooky (@mikemearls) October 8, 2018
So, you could have a ranger who had a subclass that made him a Striker, Leader, Controller or Defender? I like that. Yes, exactly. Might be:
Controller – Animal companion
Leader – Aragorn-like herbalism
Striker – Hunter mechanic
Defender – Mobile interceptor (melee or ranged)— Mike Mearls, but Spooky (@mikemearls) October 8, 2018
I loved the combats. They were really dynamic. I’ve been looking at how to make my 5e combats more 4e-like, adding auras and abilities with forced movement and shifting. Here’s what I do – put those things in terrain features. That way, even as enemies drop you don’t lose combos or stuff that drives the action.
— Mike Mearls, but Spooky (@mikemearls) October 8, 2018
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How does the whole process of taking care of a dead body work in Waterdeep?
How does the whole process of taking care of a dead body work in Waterdeep (say, someone killed on the streets)? Contact local temple?Depends. (If finder/perpetrator wants the death hidden or not.) If no one's trying to hide the body, the Watch is always called, and makes a report (cause, identity, precise location found, conjectures/witnesses). Then to temple for autopsy unless magic suspected (to Castle…
— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) October 12, 2018
…for Watchful Order-assisted Watch autopsy). Then family/kin (failing that, business partners, fellow guild members) contacted for burial wishes (temple burial/cremation/critter nibbling to derive bare bones for a bone box), Palace courtiers step in to settle rents, disperse…
— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) October 12, 2018
…personal effects, check on reassignments of deeds/co-ownership shares, debts, etc. (etc = what we would call probating a will).
Most Waterdhavians will be suspicious if they know someone died, but don't see/hear about the Watch being called.
(Hmm. This should've been in W:DH.)— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) October 12, 2018
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Eberron seems to parallel the real-world early-20th century, are there parallels for democracy or socialism?
Socially, Eberron seems to parallel the real-world early-20th century, and the timing of the Last War suggests about 1920 CE. Are there parallels for democracy or socialism in Eberron? (The Russian Revolution having happened by then IRL). Of course, Eberron is not, and should not be, a perfect parallel. I was just curious about the fact that there are no democracies in Eberron; the closest is Breland, a parliamentary monarchy, and Zilargo, which seems to be a police state.
— TristanBomb (@TristanBomb) September 30, 2018
Eberron isn't a direct parallel to our world; just one century ago, Khorvaire was dominated by a single monarchy. Social evolution is active and ongoing; in the last century Thrane has become a theocracy and Breland has a strong movement pushing for full democracy.
— Keith Baker #SHUX (@HellcowKeith) September 30, 2018
Part of what's interesting about 998 YK is that so many things are on the precipice. The feudal structure is being challenged; the balance of power between nations and the Dragonmarked houses is shifting; and you have new nations (Eldeen Reaches, Q'barra, Mror, Droaam).
— Keith Baker #SHUX (@HellcowKeith) September 30, 2018
So part of it was that rather than just making Breland a modern democracy, I prefer to have it on the cusp of change where PCs can be caught up in what happens and potentially shift things themselves… likewise for whether Darguun will survive or collapse.
— Keith Baker #SHUX (@HellcowKeith) September 30, 2018
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How tall is the city of Sharn base to top?
Hey Keith, how tall is the city of Sharn base to top? The towers of Sharn are approximately one mile in height.
— Keith Baker #SHUX (@HellcowKeith) August 30, 2018
