Only one more hour until the @mikemearls Happy Fun Hour at 1pm PT! Today, Mike is working on the Rogue Acrobat and Giant Soul Sorcerer subclasses! Tune in to watch live
hey everyone welcome to the Mike mearls
happy fun hour each week I take some
element of the fishin D&D game and build
something new that we will eventually
share on Arthur Arcana for playtesting
the purpose of this show is to give you
a sense of the design process behind
creating new content for DD 5th edition
and some of the thinking behind the game
why we did things the way we did and
then how we create new content for the
future and I notice enchants someone
asked like if you could bribe me with
with Mick riddles you definitely can
Mick riddles are one of my many eating
guilty pleasures so if you can somehow
set me up with McGriddle x’ i will
definitely probably just do whatever
subclass or feature that you want for me
from the future so that’s like what one
of my one of my many culinary weaknesses
so the iifa my role in the team I was
one of the co-lead designers on 5th
edition I did a lot of the initial
design the concept behind how things
work so it’s fun to go back and take a
look at the game and see where things
are and how we got there so you might
notice right now I’ve got my handy dandy
D&D Beyond window open and I was
actually just looking at the wizard
class because I wanted to start this
week by talking about about the wizard
and the sorcerer and what we see the
difference between the two being and how
that feeds and do how people feel about
the sorcerer because I think one of the
important things is that about working
on D&D is understanding that so much of
what balances two players comes down to
how do things feel when I sit them next
to each other for instance if you follow
uh north dark a know we did a new
fighter subclass called the brute I can
show you a spreadsheet that proves I’m
gonna put proves in quotes because it
doesn’t really but it does if you look
in the game a certain way that the brute
is balanced with the other types of
fighters but what we saw in the play
test feedback people were really
negative about it because I didn’t feel
balanced can enter the other fighters
the brute had a mechanic where every
time a brute hit with a weapon that
character just got extra damage compare
that to the champion who gets more twice
as many critical hits now if I say twice
as many critical hit so you think oh
that sounds great because I must get
like I mean I’m a really good DD player
so I get tons of crits every every game
session right that sounds great but in
practice what it means is rather than
creating when you roll a natural 20 you
create when you roll in 19 or 20 natural
19 natural 20 mathematically this
doesn’t quite balance out it actually
leaves the champion a little a little
bit behind the battle master but when I
look at the battle master the brute and
the champion together they’re all
basically playing in the same
neighborhood but the important thing is
the perception is if I’m playing a
champion and you’re playing a brute
every time you hit someone you’re
rolling an extra die for damage which
means when you use action surge to take
an extra action and you hit someone
you’re getting an extra die of damage
when you’re using multi attack you’re
doing extra damage that’s something that
you get all the time when I crit yeah
sure I get I crit twice as often but I’m
only creating 10% of the time I could
through no fault of my own though you
know we I like to joke that rolling is
the plays that’s your skill as a player
in D&D right can you roll high but you
might just roll lots of eighteens right
that’s awesome
rollin 18 every time you roll a d20 or
getting an 18 that’s great you’re we’re
hitting you’re succeeding but you’re not
getting that special benefit that makes
your character stand out so it feels
weaker and that’s an important part of
game design it’s not just looking at one
piece of the puzzle in this case a
spreadsheet it’s looking at the entire
experience so the entire thing of this
sort of preamble is to get into when we
look at the wizard I want to take a look
at the sorcerer and the wizard together
so if you’re worth us last week we
touched on the acrobat subclass with a
Brogue and we’ll get back to that near
that yet I’m gonna reverse the order
from last week and then we started to
looking at the Giant soul option for the
sorcerer and I mentioned early on that
we see out there
that people aren’t necessarily happy
with a sorcerer and they specifically
think the sorcerer just doesn’t get
enough spells so I’m gonna walk you
through why I think that is and what
that means in terms of how we designed
the wizard in the sorcerer and and what
that might mean for our giant soul
subclass that we’re gonna work on
together the yeah so actually a question
here so say from Oh glorious segfault
I’m imagining that’s a glorious
segmentation fault which as a former
programmer I am very familiar with
segmentation faults the so is the brute
opie or is the champion weaker I think
it’s actually the champions weaker
because I think not only does getting
twice as many crits really maybe not
deliver the power you want it is that
element of I could roll very well but
not amazing and I never actually feel
like I’m getting my ability and that’s
not necessarily a place where you want a
player to be because if you were if
you’ve been with me the past couple
weeks or third episode we talked about
subclasses we talked about especially
subclasses that are really helping to
define who your character is you want a
game mechanic that you get to use a lot
because that starts to make you feel
like I’m thinking like my character
using the Acrobat as an example we’ve
worked up a mechanic where the Acrobat
gets to kind of do these short burst
flies flight you know sort of things
that mimic this idea of using parkour
bouncing around that starts to make you
feel like oh I’m thinking like my
character I’m gonna look at the
situation the dungeon masters narrated
to me and I’m going to think the way we
built the mechanic was it was one short
flight than a second short flight so you
can imagine your move has been broken up
into two pieces all right I want to
evolve over the ogre and then bounce off
the wall behind it and then run up the
side of the opposite wall to get up to
this ledge you’re thinking like your
character would think you’re looking at
the situation thinking oh here’s my
character would think here’s how my
character would read how things are
going on and here’s how I would act the
challenge of the champion is that key
feature you don’t get to choose to use
it it just I roll the die and it told me
now you get to feel like a champion and
then the further end of it is well
treating more often does that really
feel like a champion in almost in some
ways
makes me think of an assassin or maybe
like a swashbuckler feature right I find
a gap in your armor with my rapier it
feels a little more elegant
so doesn’t necessary speak to being what
a champion is and so that’s an important
part of the design is when you tell
someone you’re playing a champion they
can think I know what that means
I can think like that person so I can
portray that person in the game and then
my game mechanics are backing that up by
enforcing this idea that I’m going to
think like this character act like that
character and then be mechanically
rewarded by having my bonus comes into
play at a time that feels appropriate
it matches the this sort of story path
I’m going to take my character down the
and so I want to talk a little bit then
about the sorcerer and wizard in light
of all that that that preamble to get at
why do people feel that the sorcerer
doesn’t get enough spells now there’s
also another sort of kind of important
conceptual thing to think of no one
comes to Dungeons and Dragons especially
a new player thinking I know how many
spells a sorcerer should have right we
don’t have magic around us right
we know that in fantasy if you will if
you’ve read any novels or watched movies
there spellcasters who weave spells we
just know that and we know that the
stronger you are more skilled you are
probably the more powerful magic you can
wield but the details we don’t really
know so now that’s something we’re
thinking about because we want to make
sure that we’re not betraying an
expectation when we say something the
players go oh this is how this character
should work as an example we say if
you’re playing a rogue and if you played
a memo’s you just read novels do you
think oh this is my characters kind of
like a thief sort of person they should
be stealthy or at least I should be able
to easily make my character stealthy so
that’s something it’s kind of coming
from outside of the game but this is
something that I feel is clearly coming
from within the game you don’t have
expectations for how many spells a
sorcerer should have because there’s no
real common cultural touchstone someone
could point to that tells them how many
spells a sorcerer should have so
therefore it’s something in our game
that’s creating this disconnect the
question we’re humorless paradis do you
think the champion would feel better if
there was a way for them to get
advantage more often yeah that might be
something we’re for we to think of a
champion and this kind of goes back
to the the concept of feeling like your
character if we refine the champion a
bit more to be like you’re the party’s
protector you champion your champion the
sense of like you’re the person of the
frontline you’re leading the attack you
could for instance make a mechanic where
if your friend gets hit and you get
advantage so therefore you can maybe add
a little tankyness to it and you’re also
telling the champion character maybe you
don’t want to be an archer maybe you
want to be someone who mixes it up and
close now that might spawn some other
issues of since this is a player’s
handbook subclass and one that’s meant
to be easy to play do you want to tell a
player hey you’ve picked fighter but now
maybe we kind of told you with type of
fighter to play but it is you know it’s
one of those things where you’ve got to
really think through the full player
experience and one of the things we have
now we have four years of experience now
almost with the game being released we
can see a lot more of these sort of I
like to think of as like lower tier not
the sense they’re less important but in
the sense that the game might look fine
then you play it for a year then you
realize oh this is something that maybe
isn’t quite working or you bring in new
players and you’re really getting a lot
of new players coming in and you’re
starting to see a little friction where
when you’re doing a play test especially
early on with with fifth most play tests
the public play test was conducted by
you know people like yourselves even
playing D&D for a while probably we had
tests with new players but that’s more a
group of four new players have come in
we observed them they’re not gonna be
able to find although issues with the
classes that’s just not practical
alright so let’s see I want to go in and
talk a little bit in the sorcerer in the
wizard and note that perception issue so
the challenge we have is people look at
the sorcerer and they say not everyone
but this is the general trend sorcerer
doesn’t get enough spells so we have
this thing to ourselves we think this is
a problem that’s coming because it’s
within the game itself
people aren’t arriving to that
conclusion based on movies or comics or
something like that so let’s take a look
at the other classes and the immediate
comparison is the wizard wizard and
sorcerer very similar not in how they
kind of look but kind of the role they
play in a story and this is pretty easy
using my handy dandy dandy beyond links
I can just go right to class features
and let’s take a look how many spells
does
wizard yet so I go down here to
preparing and casting spells well
actually let’s take a step back under
the spell book at first level I get six
first level wizard spells
that’s a pretty good number right it
probably lets you take a couple
offensive spells some that are more
utility or that are kind of speak to
your character’s nature or background
and maybe a couple defensive spells but
that’s a fair number right six it’s
pretty good alright if I said my
fighters walking around with six
different weapons you might even think
that might be more than I need but what
the wizard me now spells a lot of spells
if you look at the list things like
charm person versus fireball well not
fireball first level it’s a magic
missile very different use so you can
kind of see why we arrived at that
number we want to give you some variety
so let’s take a look at your spell slots
here can you get your spell slots like
everyone gets and you can prepare the
wizard spells equal to your intelligence
modifier plus your wizard level all
right so at first level if I’ve had the
16 intelligence I’m preparing for spells
that’s kind of interesting right I have
six first level spells for which I’m
gonna prepare it first level let’s
assume 16 intelligence maybe three even
if you’re playing a wizard of the 15
intelligence if you’ve said I want to
play I’m gonna choose a character who
doesn’t get a bonus to intelligence but
I’m gonna try to drop my highest stat
they’re probably fifteen or sixteen
that’s still half that’s pretty good a
typical player might say I wanted a
shield or Mage Armor say maybe magic
missile or sleep and then maybe
something that’s a little tricky like
charm person and then I know I have a
bench of three or so spells or two or
three I can go back to depending on the
nature of the adventuring day you know
we’re back in town investing in a
mystery I know what spells I want to
prep so we see the wizard as a pretty
fair number of spells to start with and
you can prepare prepare enough of them
to feel that real sense of flexibility
now the interesting thing about this
though is that the number scales up with
your level basically one per level right
it’s intelligence modifier plus wizard
level so barring increase increases to
intelligence score I’m going to be able
to prepare one additional spell per
level so I don’t like to go to 20th
level as a comparison point because it’s
that’s where things kind of already know
20th levels meant to be a little broken
but let’s say 10th level by then you
probably have an 18 intelligence or 16
we’re looking and I have prepared 12 or
13 spells so in 12 of 13 and then let’s
take a look at the spell book and this
is why we always look things up because
I’m trying to remember every time I gain
a level I believe I add two spells to my
spell book so she could confirm that
though and I’ll take a look at shad I
don’t know what kind of delay were on
but if someone in chat wants to chime in
how learning spells our first level and
higher each time you gain in wizard
level you had to wizard spells so I
started with six every time I gained a
level so I’ve gained nine levels in its
first level that’s 18 additional spells
I’ve added for free
I got a spell book of 24 spells that’s a
lot of spells I probably have a lot of
either either I’m doubling up a lot of
like offensive spells because I want to
do a lot of energy types or adding more
and more niche spells knowing that since
I can prepare my spells each day I can
cover a lot more situations kind of have
a core of spells I see as my this is how
I play a wizard I have my core spells
and so to define my character and I have
a lot of more specialized spells that I
use as the situation warrants okay so
that’s a pretty good number of spells
we’re thinking you know a good
comparison I’d like to do sometimes is
to think of a trading card game like my
game like Magic the Gathering if I have
a deck of 24 cards that’s a fair number
of cards it’s not a full size a typical
magic deck I believe is 60 cards but
once you account for land you’re looking
more like 36 cards or picking typically
I’m sure there’s people would tell you
otherwise but it’s just the basic rule
of thumb I’ve used so those numbers are
kind of looking similar by the time you
get to level 20 you’re probably to be
you know you’re adding 10 more to that
it’s not unmanageable but essentially
we’re saying it’s on the higher level of
complexity level in terms of how many
things to track so here we go let’s then
compare this to the sorcerer so I’m
gonna go back to the top here go to my
capes over here to character classes and
go down to the Sorcerer’s let’s see what
the source was getting
in comparison so let’s go to our class
features so everything is very handy
Dandeli linked over here very easy to
navigate so let’s take a look at spells
known well okay first level you know –
first level spells so right now we’re
going I know two verses the wizards six
of a spell book and preparing probably
three or four so I’m clearly behind the
interesting thing about knowing two
spells – is if we think of a sort of
classic three categories offense defense
and utility probably gonna have to
choose one category I just don’t have
that spell and then more importantly I
don’t have that reserve of my spell book
to fall back on once I’ve chosen those
these spells that’s it so that’s pretty
straightforward and then looking at
let’s see so then we have a spells now
in column so that’s pretty handy dandy
we can see we started to and we’re
gaining one spell per level now the
challenge here is that’s like
essentially well I’m at half the rate of
the wizard in terms of spells I have
access to whether it’s getting to I’m
getting one in terms of preparation it’s
almost the same the wizards adding an
intelligence modifier where the sorcerer
your charisma doesn’t doesn’t factor
into it it’s just this is the number you
get so you can see now how that’s
starting to create a real feeling that
the sorcerer feels really cramped when
you think of those three categories when
you think of comparing it to the wizard
what the wizard it’s almost I don’t know
say what the wizard would might be
overly generous we’re giving you a lot
of flexibility and with the sorcery
going from all this space to play with
his wizard – now a very tightly
constrained space it’s a very dramatic
change and I that might be what we’re
looking at here is the real root problem
is the comparison is just so steep now
practically speaking once we get to 10th
level I do have 11 spells known that’s
probably enough right it’s you know if
we look at it break it down by level
that’s about 2 per level I can take with
say when I hit 9th level I can take a
fifth level spell
attempt I take a second fifth little
spell in terms of hitting offense
defense and more utility spells I have a
little more flexibility but there is one
thing to keep in mind the sorcerer has a
lot of pressure at low levels to take
spells that scale up and here’s why when
I’m taking that first spell for my next
level you know I hit third level I have
access to second level slots I’m only
gonna have one second level spell to use
them on I choose something that’s a
utility spell that’s all I can use my
second level slots on unless I say chose
a spell like magic missile that spell
that scales well or even a spell like
shield that actually doesn’t scale but
it does because it makes an attack miss
which is probably always good but it
does mean that you’re spending a lot of
time as a sorcerer worrying about your
spells because you can see that there is
essentially a not gonna say correct way
to do it but there’s a optimal way to do
it which if you do it optimally you’re
gonna have a lot more fun than if you
make some choices that you end up
regretting so there is a little bit of a
landmine here and with the wizard we’re
so generous that you can just ignore
that with the sorcerer we’re so
constrained here to think about it a lot
so I think that’s why we see that that
perception and that complaint about the
character class that you really it’s
really feast or famine there really
isn’t a middle ground between these two
classes it’s almost like you know the
two edges of like a letter U and we’re
missing the middle ground so this brings
us back to the oh and someone asks do
you get a if you pay for DME beyond to
get access to more than one subclass I
believe if you buy this they’re
different resources so right now I have
this as everything loaded up into it so
it’s it’s up-to-date and current the but
you do have to pay for Zenith ours and
to get access to everything I believe
that me someone in chat will correct me
but the but so we’re dealing with
something where as a sorcerer you really
have to manage us a lot at higher levels
though and this is where we might now
have a way forward for our design you
see if you remember back way back in the
misty days of 2014 2000
fifteen we play tested the storm
sorcerer and storm sorcery is now in the
game it showed up in the Sword Coast
adventurers guide and we also picked it
up for Zenith ours it was fairly popular
and people liked the theme so we’d
wanted to make sure it’s something that
was more widely available originally
this sorcerer at first level got a list
of additional spells we said oh great if
you play a storm sorcerer you get someti
Matic spells like lightning bolt you
just get those for free because we knew
people were complaining about how
constrained the spell selection was but
you know in the end of the day we were
really nervous about making that the
actual official rule because we didn’t
want to create a sorcerer subclass that
seemed so much better than the ones that
came before it and we really didn’t want
to go back in errata The Player’s
Handbook because while the sorcerers
choices are constrained the class is
still balanced mathematically and it’s
not perfect but we didn’t feel the issue
is big enough that we had to go back and
issue a major errata and then make these
people feel like they had to buy a new
players Handbook
that’s always when you think of the
balance of the counterweight we want to
make a change is it worth going out and
telling people you might want to
consider buying a new players handbook
has to be a really big change and it has
to have a huge qualit quality life
improvement for everybody not just for
someone who wants to play a sorcerer we
also know that people do play sorcerers
it’s not a case where just no one’s
playing the class maybe just not as many
people it is also when you look at the
perspective on the game looking at all
angles you can still play a wizard you
might be disappointed that you wanted to
do go with the sorcerer but didn’t you
just didn’t want to have to wrangle your
spell’s well then you could turn around
and play a wizard play a similar
character and still have a good time
with the game so it’s not perfect but
it’s not at a point where we really need
to get everyone to go out and update
their rulebook but whenever we see a
demand where someone’s like hey I like
this class to do something along these
lines in this case have a little more
access to spells we try to meet it now
what it means though is we have to be a
little more tactful of what we’re gonna
do
I think the mistake with the storm
sorcerer was to just give you a whole
raft of
I believe that really the sorcerer
problem exists mainly at low levels
it’s those first couple levels where you
just feel like I’m not getting enough
spells or feel really constrained I’m
not feeling like a powerful sorcerer I’m
feeling like a character who keeps
having to make really narrow really
limited choices and it feels like it’s
really imperative fun with this
character class so all that in mind
really less than there being context is
everything especially in game design
let’s take a look at our giant soul
sorcerer and let’s see if we can solve
this issue here so last time we took a
look here we had this idea that the
Giants all sorcerer would have a sub
selection within it that let you pick
which type of giant your character would
have a connection to we settled on this
idea that the stone giant would be a
little tougher and tankier the fire
giant would be a bit more offensive
oriented and that the frost giant we a
little bit more control oriented now the
question here from like in 1:20 why do
you not just release a UA with extra
spells that was something we that we
thought about having an optional rule
but we thought it would cause confusion
because it would just create a what
seemed like an instant upgrade for one
class and then we’re sort of back in the
position of like okay everyone has a
player’s handbook here’s something we
kind of expect you all to have which and
a lot of times this goes back to a new
player someone coming into the game with
the first time we don’t want them to
feel like in order to play the game they
then they bought their players handbook
they now need to go do a bunch of other
stuff we realize it’s not ideal for
players like you know people who see
this as a problem hey you solve this
problem for me but we do have to when
we’re talking about anything that’s
changing the players handbook that’s to
solve a problem for everybody not just
for a subset just because it can cause
confusion or resentment and so and like
I said it’s a class that’s in a kind of
a funny position because it is sort of
competing with the wizard so it’s not as
high a priority you know it doesn’t
carry as much weight as say let’s just
say we had something completely bonkers
broken the fighter had some ability that
said you have +10 AC that some
we horribly messed up an end up in print
that would be something we’d look at
changing because it might be a big
enough magnitude that everyone would be
happy to see it changed so thankfully
thank the play test we didn’t have
anything bad that messed up show up the
players handbook so what I’ve done is
sort of walk you through this in a show
I think the problem really rests at low
levels what that means is I feel a
little bit more confident now
introducing a option as part of this
character subclass that can give you a
few more spells but it’s not going to
just be like here’s a bunch more spells
to be a little bit more tactical and
then hopefully if we’re doing this right
a bit in flavor for what we’re talking
about for these characters and it’s
gonna have to come at the cost of a
little bit of power because we know we
don’t just want to say blanket wise this
subclass is better or more powerful than
the other ones very well very well may
end up there we don’t want it to be
obvious we want to be more in the sense
of where as close as we can get to
balanced and functional so that our play
test is as productive as possible so how
do we thread this needle okay so here’s
what I’m thinking we talked about and
this is actually now I’m gonna also show
this is where I get to feel clever so we
talked earlier about at first level
because your giant soul we feel like
okay I like the idea giving you the +1
hit point per level to make you feel
tougher we’re stealing that from the
dragon sorcerer but I felt like it’s
also Giants and Dragons they’re both big
tough monsters excuse me well what if
instead of doing this AC bonus thing
here and plus offense and plus control
we just made this some additional spells
we gave you that fanatically fit in with
the Giants the nice thing here is if we
think of let’s just say durability these
are pretty easy things to latch on to is
this as a sorcerer and at first level
with your spell selection so constrained
you’re gonna get a lot of mileage out of
the spell cuz we’re saying you know an
additional spell or two so this is
that’s the path I’d like to go I don’t
think it changes the higher levels yet
and actually in some ways it might mean
that the higher levels we might tap into
those spells again to encourage you to
cast them but let’s take a quick look
here go to
spell list just scroll the top yeah oops
okay I see I made the spell I made the
window smaller so I don’t have quavering
out spells official spells let’s go by
class and let’s say the sorcerer I don’t
know if I want to go so far start giving
you non sorcerer spells but let’s start
with a sorcerer level so we’re gonna
take a look at spells by level here we
go
just took it first and let’s filter all
right so here we go so what I’m looking
for is a spell or two I’d say 1st and
2nd level with a 4 stone giant I want to
make you more durable for the fire giant
I want to increase your offense and for
the frost giant I want to make you a bit
more control so the idea is you know
these spells should be thematically time
tied to both the giant and that concept
and I’m giving you some more tools to
play with now normally with you we are
giving you more ways to use your spell
slots so it’s an existing resource we’re
giving you more options for so this is
why this probably isn’t good enough to
sit on its own it sits alongside the hit
point increase giving people more ways
to use their existing resources is
really for most players they feel like
that’s not that’s somewhat power neutral
if you were here or last week and I
talked about the the sorcerer the idea
of using your sorcery points having more
ways to use them just doesn’t connect
with players that’s probably another
issue the sorcerer face is a bit that as
opposed to the wizard who generally just
gets things that add to that character’s
potency all right so taking a quick look
oh look burning hands this is easy right
so for fire I’m just gonna know let’s
give me burning hands that’s easy it’s a
fire spell and it does a bunch of damage
and it’s in a cone fantastic
might be all we need right there then
taking a look I want some it’s ctrl e
earth tremor now this is that’s a little
that really fits stone but might be I
know it’s a spell that’s a bit hey look
we just expand it and take a look at it
this is doing budgeting damage and
knocking people prone causes a sort of
localized earthquake and it’s not quite
hitting the durability know what I want
for the stone giant so let’s just take a
look over false life this might be a
nice one to throw any
one day 4+4 temporary hitpoints the
duration it makes it tougher now you are
already getting possible hit point per
level so I’m not gonna write that one
down yet but that’s a candidate that
makes you feel tougher ice knife that
might be a good spell is this ctrl e
let’s see what we got here you’re doing
damage to nishal target if you hit then
doing additional damage an area around
it the cold thing fits but it’s not
quite hitting that control element that
I’d like like to see from Frost
it might be I can’t hit it but I’m gonna
try mage armor is an interesting choice
for the stone giant because it’s such a
useful spell a lot of players for them
it’s an instant take and this is
essentially giving you get to you for
free as a sorcerer player you might feel
like this is pretty nifty just to get
this readout right out of the gate it’s
a spell I’m gonna use a lot eight hours
basically means I expend one spell slot
and then I just keep going the rest of
the day using my other spells so that’s
one definitely to think of and then I’ve
got Thunder Wave and this might be one
that I would consider for the frost
giant unfortunately it is more
thunderous than a you know under damage
theme rather than frost it does have a
sort of control effect I’m knocking
people away from me so I’m gonna just
for now type in mage army here from the
stone giant this is one danger you have
that when you sort of dive into the
spell list you’re not always gonna find
stuff that’s like really on point for
your flavor you might have to kind of
bend things a bit so people can go okay
I kind of see what you’re doing
like for instance maybe like ray of
sickness might be you know I’m poisoning
someone but does that really feel like a
frost guy so this is an area where
Micah’s we didn’t build the spell that’s
assuming that I’m then gonna come along
and build this giant soul sorcerer we
built it just to create the spells also
one of the things I know that ice knife
is a from the elemental evil players
companion and so now what we would do if
we were printing this for a product we
would just pick the spell up maybe in a
sidebar we only assume you ever on the
players handbook so you know another
spell to consider would be fog cloud
that can be pretty useful in terms of
controlling the battlefield and it’s
pretty good utility because it does
heavily obscure an area
I’m gonna pencil it in right now cuz I
can also can kind of see myself feeling
like well Frost has to do with
manipulating water fog is you know it’s
fog it’s water vapor so there’s a
connection there so I’m gonna put that
in there for now but you know what one
of the things remember why when I took a
look at the spells I was really looking
at the sorcerer what if instead we
looked at our classes you know just
spells in general so what I want to do
here is go over to spells and she’s go
to official and let’s just go to all
spells rather than just letting it
sorcerer spells so I’m kind of throwing
a little bit more of a wider net let’s
look at first of all spells and let’s
filter them so I’m just gonna take a
quick look through hero armor of Agathis
that’s that’s that want to be very nice
it’s got a cold damage on top of it and
you get temporary hit points
unfortunately I see now this is where we
get kind of like do I want to change my
focus a little bit I might consider that
but it’s it’s this is an area where it’s
it’s a little dangerous this is a very
nice the mattock feel for like a tougher
sorcerer
it’s a warlock spell so you don’t
normally get it so it feels even more
special and I have to make sure I’m not
just letting it go cold is control like
I’m not letting that drive too much so
I’m gonna kind of put that one in my
back pocket but I also don’t to make
sure that I’m suddenly making a big
design changes just based on one spell I
have to see that consistent pattern
before I might go back and do that the
and I’m gonna take a quick they’ll
hopefully that doesn’t give you a motion
sickness as I flipped through its go to
the second page see if there any other
spells that show up that really balanced
these other these spells out of the way
say armor Agathis you know it’s kind of
feeling maybe I do want to make a change
Hicks I’m seeing a spell so here’s what
I’ll do I think what I want to do is
give you first and second level spells I
think I want to keep it to that I don’t
think I want to start going up to third
because I feel once you’ve hit third
level you have a pretty good selection
of spells and I’m not as worried about
giving you a broader selection of magic
but let’s see there’s ice knife again
lungs page armor sanctuary now that’s
not really durability it’s more
come over charm effect shields always
good but shield might actually be too
good that’s that’s a discussion when we
talk about spells sleep now doesn’t only
fit in there we’ve unseen server in
which bold all right so you know what
I’m going to do I’m gonna leave these
here for now I’m not seeing anything
that’s so awesome
armor Baga this is kind of tempting me
but then I’m also not seeing well
there’s that that earth tremor spell for
for for stone giants here let’s do this
let’s take a look at our second level
spells because I decided I want to give
you a first level spell in the second
level spell now let’s see what we got
there
for our selections so agonize a scorcher
that’s probably a pretty easy one for
fire nicely what fire is it is just
generally it’s when we think of Firefly
flavor-wise it generally does like lots
of damage so we got here 30 feet long
five feet wide big it’s a line three
date fire damage the one thing that
could be a little bit lame here is that
you’re getting you know two spells that
are fairly similar so I’m gonna write
this one down but I don’t know if I
necessarily want to keep it one of the
tricks when you’re building a spell list
like this is you want to give players
variety because burning hands can scale
up with a higher level spell slot I
don’t want to just give you burning
hands and then another take on burning
hands for a wizard this might make sense
where maybe I didn’t take an AoE spell
at first love for my first level spells
now that I’m third level I might take
scorcher because it just fits in better
with my spell selection the let’s see
what else we got here blur yeah cloud of
daggers that’s a dark vision I’m looking
for a stone spell and a frost spell the
let’s see we got here track Dragon’s
Breath ain’t just the name we ready but
dragon sorcerer it’s a good example of
like I don’t think whatever the spell
does it just feels too much like another
subclass it’s always good to be aware of
what other options exist out there and
think about just how does something fit
together dust devil might be one for a
cloud giant but we’re not talking that
yet ooh
earth bind Oh
okay so this is gonna take away
someone’s flying speed this is one which
it sounded cool earth bind oh it’s like
something kind of cool with rocks it
might be the stone giant but it’s it’s
this is clearly a spell designed for for
wizards yes a sorcerer couldn’t take
this but you’re taking one of your few
spells and saying I can shut down your
fly speed it’s pretty specific this is
probably not what I want to do I don’t
want to give this spell to you to make
you feel like you have more flexibility
if I give you this spell and here’s more
flexibility you can make people not fly
kind of telling you that I don’t like
you right I’m giving you stuff you don’t
want
so enlarge reduce might be one to look
at but I think this the spell rages are
we gonna capture that and I don’t know
which china to give it to you like all
of them
maybe we’ll see well I’m gonna get to
the end of this list and I’m gonna
figure out what I’m going to do Oh
flaming sphere here we go this is a fun
spell I love flaming spirits one of my
absolute favorite spells because it’s a
damaging spell that’s also got a little
bit of a control element to it and so I
don’t have to just give you burning
hands and burning hands 2.0 I can give
me burning hands and flaming sphere so
now I feel like there is a distinction
between these two spells the oh wow chat
asks what are we making monsters we
might do that after we do classes
because I don’t want to just stay on the
character side of the DM screen for too
long even though that’s where a lot of
of the dis content design for the game
rests we might do monsters after we do
this sub classes or maybe take a break
right well kind of we’ll think about it
maybe I’ll throw a poll up on Twitter in
a couple weeks there’s a couple of
specific classes I want to hit though
but they’re definitely like things I
want to work on and then so let’s see
rolling art along we got gust of wind I
could kind of squint didn’t see how that
could be a frost giant thing but maybe
not heat metal might be another one fire
giant one but I like the burning hands
flaming sphere divided levitate there
might be another one I keep finding ones
that are great for like the clown giant
the let’s see this is what all backs
millions earth in grasp
Maximillian please save us you choose a
five-foot Square unoccupied space on the
ground you can see within range big hand
comes up you gotta make a string saving
throw or I bludgeon you and restrain you
you know what I’m kind of think I’m
hearing seeing the writing on the wall
here I think
our stone giant might end up being a bit
more control I’m gonna worry about the
flavor later and I’m just gonna write
earthen grass because it’s new and a
spell Maximilian’s right on stream
unless you want to see me type and
delete a bunch so and I’m gonna here’s
what here’s one of my little tricks I do
I’ll put like first level I’ll put it
all in caps I know I’ve not forgotten
then I go back and try maybe I’m gonna
shift stone giant this is one of the
challenges of whenever you decide hey I
want to actually start naming spells and
subclasses you don’t necessarily know
you’re gonna find the spells because
again we didn’t make the spell lists for
this perfume we didn’t think ahead that
this is how this would work out alright
so now I’m kind of like more summing for
the frost giant but now you know and I’m
actually just gonna go back right here
in put armor Magath this because that’s
a cool spell and it’s got great flavor
so we’re looking a little bit more
durability now for the frost giant which
kind of fits they’re sort of a Viking
thing in the ordinance ort of cultural
compass that Giants use to tell them
where where they fit in with their caste
system
Neelix snowball swarm see five foot
radius three to six cold damage now
that’s fine but they see it’s a it’s are
damaging cold spell
maybe my theme I’m trying to force this
a little bit too much I might just pick
up spells that just make logical sense
rather than trying to be a fancy fancy
here the alright and that’s we got to
the end of the list so I didn’t really
find it so you know what I’m just gonna
say I’m gonna throw snow much snowball
swarm here because on the other hand too
I don’t want to get too fancy because I
am just trying to give you more spells
to help your character feel a bit more
versatile I am gonna go back there real
quick and let’s find another earth spell
so these are subject to change but again
this is always something that’s a little
bit tricky so because the spell list
wasn’t necessarily built for this so
let’s go back and let’s find a I want a
pretty good control spell so let’s see
what we’ve got here
languages try not alright not so much to
control spell I guess you could talk to
somebody tell them what to do control
them that way let’s go there with tremor
because that’s another one this is let’s
see
it is also an AoE it looks like it’s an
AoE you caused a tremor on the ground
within reach each creature of the new in
the area yeah okay so this is a little
bit area spell the knocks people over
all right that feels pretty good so I’ve
kind of tilted my stone giant to be a
little more controlling and my fire
giant guy is still like I do damage and
my frost guy is getting a little
controlling little so alright so that’s
where we are with our spells so
hopefully this is something that feels
good it doesn’t feel so good that it’s
making me regret picking other sorcerers
subclass options this is something we
would definitely have to play test right
we would have to get a really good sense
in the audience from everyone know if
they’re watching does this just make you
feel like I’m not gonna take the other
sorcerers now because this is such a
pain point for us it’s also where I
really see the design we do with
unearthed Arcana it’s really is it’s a
conversation with the audience with
everyone out there playing and DMing the
game it helps us get a sense of where
the community sits you know what’s going
too far what’s not enough you know what
hits at that point just correctly so
this is actually something I’d be really
anxious to play a test to really just
get a sense of is this a good sort of
solving the problem without making it
solved so well that you just feel like I
would just always take one of these Club
feed this subclass over the other ones
all right so we’re making you tougher
because you’re a giant soul and we’re
giving you some extra spells that are
kind of on point the for what your giant
type is doing filtering through like
okay we have these three categories that
kind of shift it around but I think
flavor-wise you know one of the things
seems the stone giant is they are
artisans so the idea of shaping the
earth and controlling it but then the
effect being kind of control affect that
fits you know fire giants work forges
that were heavy armor they do just like
to you know they’re very warlike and
frost giants do this idea of toughness
and stuff with the armor value this kind
of comes through you know they are a bit
more rustic compared to fire Giants
again they’re almost like giant
barbarians culturally alright so let’s
take a look now we’ve got six level we
have this idea that you enter a spell
range go size large
and that there’s something that’s gonna
be triggered on your spell’s
that gives you a benefit now last time I
talked we have this sense that maybe
sighs huge we’d have to come in at level
18 but remember we have to go back and
keep an eye on the other subclasses so
I’m gonna do this real quick let’s stack
up we use the dragon sorcerer as our
comparison and if this is your first
time watching what I always say we
always compare to the players handbook
because that to us is our foundation we
don’t want to start drifting by
essentially making a copy of a copy by
for instance comparing these to the
subclasses from Zenith ours like for
instance the Divine’s the the divine
soul nothing around with the divine soul
we just always want to make sure we’re
using the same test case to validate is
our design within the right neighborhood
have correct so let’s go right down the
dragon and so we have elemental affinity
you can cast a spell when you cast a
spell the deals damage of the type
associated with your drew comic ancestry
so fire for instance if you had a red
dragon ancestor you add your charisma
charisma modifier to one damage roll
that spell so you just you get to do
extra damage dragon wings at 14 you can
fly that’s really good and Juke onic
presence this is one where you’re
spending sorcery points to essentially
cast a spell so the jury is out like I
don’t quite not quite sure where I want
to drop this but in looking over these
three I was thinking a little bit a
little bit about this I don’t think we
necessarily have to tie the size
increase as something that comes in when
you start your spell rage the this is
something where we maybe can dis make it
disconnect between the two so let’s do
this let’s give you size huge at 18th
and let’s give you size large at 14th
okay I’m gonna keep that
now throw that here I don’t know this
note is and it’s gonna save it in case
it’s something really smart and then so
let’s go here it’s soso spell rage what
do you on spell rage to be what I think
what I have in my mind is that when you
spell range it’s a once per long rest
which I like it basically means you
channel the power and magic of your
giant that’s about ancestors in quotes
because no you’re not literally
descended from Giants so this is where I
can give you something that enhances
what you the nature of being a stone
giant fire giant or frost giant soul and
the other end of it too is I want to try
to give you something that’s a little
bit persistent so you activate this you
get to keep using it probably for the
length of an encounter the now the one
thing I took to keep in mind is the the
Dragons soul the dragon sorcerer is
getting bonus damage whenever they cast
a spell so I’ve got to make sure that
I’m balancing something I can use once
per day versus something I’m getting all
the time now luckily that damage bonus
it’s really useful for your can trips
it’s not as useful for your other
abilities so it’s a little bit trade-off
6 level though you have enough spell
slots that your me casting a lot of
spells I’m rather than relying on their
can trips as much so it’s a little bit
of a it’s what I think it was a lumpy
ability like it’s really noticeable then
it kind of fades away if you’re xx level
you’re probably not really stressing
about adding say you know plus 40 or
cantrip damage you’re probably instead
slinging a third level spell at somebody
but at lower levels it is something that
will have more of an impact all right so
what we had here originally was this
idea that there’s a stone giant you’d
get a reserve of temporary hit points
that might be something now I’m gonna
throw that on the frost giant because
I’m thinking it’s more about durability
so and I like this mechanic of when you
cast a spell you get some benefits so
here and you cast the spell I’m gonna
fit based on its lock keep in mind we
can’t just use level because a can trip
is also a spell and we want contra to
count toward this we don’t want you to
enter your spell rage then you’d
actually don’t
benefits from it so so let’s just say
preserve temper hip points equal to one
or let’s say two plus syllable this is a
starting point might not actually be
good enough um you know actually know
what onager little nuts because the you
know what the dragon gets it all the
time I’m gonna say you just a speller
angel lasts all the time why not right
this is pretty small right it’s not I
mean it’s nice chat am I going crazy
maybe because what I can just do right
here for the fire giant so I can just
give you the dragon benefit right and
I’m gonna say it’s actually equal to
slaw level this actually should probably
I’ll just note I want to make sure this
is a spell slot this is a case where I’d
make sure and I talked to someone like
Jeremy Crawford or Kate Welch to make
sure that i phrase this properly so we
know it’s based on the spell slot not so
if I cast a burning hands with a fifth
little slot
it’s me treating it as level five
whatever this numerical thing is so the
and then for frost giant so okay all
this stuff is gonna go in and I drop
this down here oh now we need a control
effect actually for frost giant oh
here’s something actually kind of fun
let me just drop this down plus AC based
on spell humble daddy being maybe you
get a coat of frost over you that’s
that’s protecting you
oh wait no I had frustrating this is
what stone giant apologies stone guy
getting a control effect that’s that
scales with spell level probably points
to maybe why control wasn’t because
there’s no real simple numerical thing I
can use to represent control as a
generic element of the game so I’m gonna
throw in a see just cuz I you’re made of
stone right that’s cool so this isn’t
your spell rage thing that’s just going
to recast a spell
now I’m gonna take a look here and I
want to make sure that these spells here
now if I want to be fancy which I always
want to be fancy
well it doesn’t want to be fancy right
is make sure that these spells scale but
we I don’t think I wanna spend another
20 minutes of me flipping through spell
lists but that’s something I’ll note
myself so I want these spells to scale
so that my six little availability the
next thing I’m gonna make is is that my
six of the ability works well with these
in the sense of I think hey the
situations in which I want to get this
benefit they work pretty well with when
I’m casting these spells so I’m gonna
kind of tuck that away and maybe refine
this again kind of see a it’s not always
we might we might spend a couple weeks
on this but next we’re going to do
something completely new
trust me the because we’re almost done
with this one but that’s something that
I’ll take a look back and I can I can
look at spell lists when I’m not
streaming okay so this is our thing I’m
just gonna get benefit and then my spell
rage and this is this makes me feel a
little happier with the spell orig thing
coming in because I am really worried I
don’t want a fighter or barbarian just
getting size large I want you to earn it
he hit 14th level and sorcerer now go
play as a barbarian and so this spell
orig then would be once per day I become
size large probably want to give you a
benefit to strength checks and saves
maybe just advantage but we’d see extra
hit points yeah I’m gonna give you a
bunch increase current and Max probably
by like +2 per hit died a little
question mark there I don’t think any
damage reduction here but what I might
do then is say frost since we’re all
about kind of durability you might
double and actually I think all them we
might just say this wild enrage double
the six double benefit and then here I
can eat spell rage size huge I’d let you
choose you want to be huge or large
because there might be situations where
like there’s not enough space to go huge
you never want to give someone a really
cool toy at a teens level that they then
say I don’t want to use this let me off
this thing right so boost 14th
availability and now go huge and then
what we’re gonna say is
probably extend let’s say advantage to
con checks and saves and then you know
the extra hit points can go to plus
three or you know end up with plus four
X I like doubling things and then all
and this will prior to just do is triple
six level benefit so now here we go
as I gain levels I get more untouched my
giant ancestry when I get to basically
become a giant I’ve become a in ogre at
14th and at 18 I’m a giant I’m sized
huge the so yeah that’s where we’ve got
this so really now we’ve got our theme I
take a look at chat see was everyone
like is outraged and what I got here is
this feeling pretty good right the oh
the what’s the benefit of becoming large
Furnas any core I’d have no idea for
pronounce that right we would probably
just mention that you can use weapons
size to bigger creatures which do lots
of extra damage yeah we might want to do
something here the rather than advantage
that’s a numerical benefit so I’m
getting a bonus Twilight attacks with
strength and my damage rolls because I
yeah I’m in this giant person I’m more
accurate but I’m not hitting harder it
doesn’t quite feel so damned rolls
question mark there and we’re letting
pitch works over here Mike thank thanks
i i g IG snz for the warning so but this
is why we play test right the nice thing
is it’s so easy to be wrong at this
stage this is the fight one message
anyone out there wondering do I want to
do design work be wrong in this stage be
aggressively terribly wrong because
that’s why you have people read this and
tell you that you’re wrong that’s why
you play test it and yet people tell you
you’re wrong now you do want to make
sure before for instance this is
something which we would other people in
the team would take a look at we want to
get as close to as close to balanced and
as close to perfection for playtesting
because that’s how we get really great
feedback that really digs deep into a
subclass or any other game element the
more obvious that things are messed up
the less actionable to feedback because
for instance let’s say I put this
sighs huge thing at first level it’s the
same like without size huge what could
go wrong aside from everything all the
feedback would just be this is broken
we’d get very low rate ratings people
would just be obviously look you made I
dipped into this as a barbarian or as a
paladin and then started walking around
with a size huge axe and you could
picture the character right I can I can
try can grow to size huge once a day for
a minute so you see before you a a proud
dwarven warrior with his his plate male
and his axe and shield and he’s dragging
behind him that’s like 15 foot long
battle ax what does he need that for
right okay he’s gonna grow or maybe his
weapons grow lefting into the details
and say what’s going on with that but
suddenly you’re just you’re you’re doing
like triple damage with your attacks so
that’s that’s yeah that’s really good
now quick aside why do we have that in
the system and I’m glad I asked myself
that so I can tell you the answer the
it’s to help monsters scale we know that
as monsters gain in power we want them
to have attacks that deliver higher
damage we didn’t want to just
arbitrarily decide that the Minotaur
swinging his great axe is just doing 2d
12 plus 5 whatever the number is because
we we thought and I still believe this
as a dungeon master is anyone designing
a monster you need at least some
framework to understand like why things
are the way they are so the idea we came
up with is a great axe does one d12 a
great axe for a size large creature does
2d 12 a great axe for a size huge
creature does 3d 12 otherwise if we
didn’t do that you would see creatures
like a hill giant have multi attacks or
like it’s doing seven attacks because we
need to get its damage up so it’s
actually a threat that’s appropriate to
its power level so tinkering with that
let us collapse the number of attacks
down quite quite significantly boost the
damage per attack in a way that was sort
of aesthetically pleasing and that had a
pattern to it so if you’re home brewing
hey I have a I’m creating my own giant I
liked the death giant some third edition
and fourth edition
I want to adapt them they’re gonna be
size huge they’re these cool two-headed
giant actions whatever weapon you’re
giving to them you have a pretty easy
way by just following the design pattern
we’ve established to avoid that
potential pitfall oh oh and it’s got a
multi attack of
making eight battle-ax attacks because
that’s what it needs to do to feel like
a threat to a temp double character on
its own the and so the Oh a that’s
another Graham question black ace
thirteen what’s the reason for temporary
hit points not stacking that is
basically there because we wanted to be
able to give you the ability to have
multiple features with temporary hit
points without our really having to
police them too thoroughly so we’re very
liberal with stacking in the game
because typically when I use something
that’s giving me a benefit it’s either
magic item epi’ tuned to so there’s an
opportunity cost there or I’m expending
a spell slot to cast a spell we really
wanted to try to find a way to have
healing be something that was a little
bit easier to access in the game but
once you give people the way to heal up
for free this goes back to the
perception of balance people always feel
that that’s broken people don’t like the
idea in general it’s not every player
but in general players and DMS feel like
hey if we can heal up to maximum for
free or for a very low cost and it just
feels too good it feels like we should
be paying a price for if we get into a
fight or deal with the trap that does a
bunch of damage to someone that we’re
gonna expend some resource that we can’t
just immediately get back so then I said
what temper hitpoints is by not allowing
them to stack it means we can be
somewhat liberal we can have like
features that say hey every round you
get some more temporary hit points so
you feel more durable it’s persistent
but we don’t have to worry about who I
use that outside of combat and now I’ve
uncapped my hit points because that’s
essentially what temporary hit points
could in theory let you do they could
let you access what is effectively
infinite hit points and so we just
thought to ourselves the fact that this
mechanic and it’s sort of decision tree
of things that could cause one of those
potential causes is infinite hit points
like outcomes let’s just chop off an
entire branch of the tree so you just
can’t go there in order to get
effectively infinite hit points you
would have to design an ability that
said you get infinite temporary hit
points or a number of big enough that it
feels infinite what that does is it
ensures that designers are designing
with real clarity of what the impact of
this ability might have it’s not perfect
it’s something you strive for and
building your course system
but whenever you can you want to when
you are introducing limitations to a
system especially limitations that
aren’t necessarily intuitive for
instance I mentioned earlier this idea
that people feeling when people say
sorcerer doesn’t have enough spells
what’s causing that well it’s probably
not pulp culture you know it’s not
comics or movies because comics and
movies don’t tell you how many spells a
sorcerer sure to have just this concept
is the idea of a sorcerer is pretty
generic and in D&D it it’s it’s very
specific right here is what a sorcerer
is indeedy but in pop culture a sorcerer
can be many things so people coming to
the game are learning from the game that
it feels like it has too many too few
spells rather than saying hey when I
look at all these literary sorcerers and
all these movie sorcerers those
characters had access to lots of
different spells why don’t I hear so
it’s all about when you can localize an
issue if you’re gonna include something
that people don’t intuitively know it
has to be really worth it in some other
area so temporary hit points are
probably one of those things I imagine a
lot of people play probably a I would
say 25% of D&D tables out there stack
temporary hit points so we have to be
aware of it but the nice thing is if it
isn’t a problem for the dungeon master
I’ll just play the rule incorrectly but
it’s not having an effect on play
because presumably everyone’s just going
along playing and enjoying the game if
it does become a problem
then when the dungeon master looks the
role up they see oh hey here’s what
we’re doing wrong these shouldn’t add up
it’s right there in the players handbook
therefore that’s resolved when it
becomes a problem it’s kind of we feel
like when things become a problem that’s
when people go to the book and we want
to make sure the book has a clear answer
that’s gonna improve your game you know
if you if you need that correction to
the rule that you might not be applying
correctly all right so um that’s where
we are
Oh stabby road games yeah you missed it
no we were just finishing the so sorry
about that but this is gonna show up on
YouTube I usually you should show up
early tomorrow
Pacific time in the morning well we’ll
get this posted up so I’ve got my giant
so I got to tell you chat I am super
motivated to get this up for playtesting
so I’m actually really curious II what
people think about
especially our little spell solution
here that we’ve cooked up and let
allowing you to get bigger this is one
that we’re nowhere near publishable stay
right this is exactly how how we’ll
print it in a book right like go back
and watch the YouTube channel this will
explain what this all this little stuff
means if only was that easy so thanks
for joining us and joining me this is
really great really enjoying the series
on next week we didn’t get to the
Acrobat I wanted to resolve it’s hot
it’s its capstone ability we’ll talk
about that next week and then we’ll talk
about the next character class which
might feature a special guest star in
the form of an Excel spreadsheet that
I’m gonna use to get a little deep geek
on some of our system stuff but we’ll
see we’ll see what the the queue will
look like for some classes thanks
everyone enjoy the rest of your day and
look forward to seeing you next week
[Music]
#DnD design on https://t.co/2KBortFoc5! pic.twitter.com/LuWYlRZGia— Dungeons & Dragons (@Wizards_DnD) February 20, 2018