Going LIVE on https://t.co/2KBortnMNv!
There's no snow in Seattle, and Dragon+ is going live FOR REAL this time! @bart_carroll and the sage @JeremyECrawford are answering your #DnD and #UnearthedArcana questions. THIS IS A AN AUTOMATIC CAPTION TEXT from YouTube, so it’s not “perfect”.
My advice is to use it just to help people like me that are not english speaking, to understand the Video/Podcast
hello and welcome back to anotherlivestream of Dragon plus slash design
plus with me now as always whoops
and I have made a faux pas immediately
by not turning the sound off of my
computer that’s like on sports radio
they’re always yelling at like why are
you watching TV no I was I was because I
was just rewatching the PAX South
acquisitions incorporated a live game
exactly yes which I wanted to ask how
that went I don’t know if you want to
give any spoilers away but from from the
previous live game you know cliffhangers
were resolved journeys
potentially back home were were
facilitated and things ended with yet
another bit of a story cliffhanger I
don’t want to spoil anything because
because people people who haven’t
watched it on YouTube yet is available
on YouTube yes won’t have seen yet how
the previous episodes cliffhangers were
were resolved suffice it to say it was
super fun the players were awesome they
had especially great chemistry they kept
surprising me as DM I had a whole lot of
stuff prepared that just didn’t happen
yes to me is never a bad thing yes I
love getting to the end of a session and
I’m like wow my pockets are still full
yeah and take out half an and all sorts
of things happen that I didn’t expect
and then I can take some of this stuff I
prepared and use it another time
and yes we ended on yet another crazy
cliffhanger and it was it was satisfying
for me that the cliffhanger was so
surprising to some of the players that
they even on stage yes no no we can’t in
there
well they had a bit of a vested interest
in where things went yesterday and Terra
gation
it is both very funny and very dark at
the same time yeah yes so I’ve got the
the chat has been asking
while we were waiting to queue up here
what’s better a dungeon or a dragon oh
well I think the best is a dungeon with
a dragon in it okay ampersand apparently
was also a choice yeah so yes I chose
basically I chose the Empress
bring them bring them together that’s
two for ever since how about well wave
or black raiser apropos of but not nice
yeah cuz one of those for those of you
haven’t seen the latest a kink episode
one of those three weapons makes a
surprise appearance yes I I have a soft
spot in my heart for black raiser simply
because as a kid when I saw the
illustration of it in the original white
plume Mountain yes I just thought oh
that looks so cool plus it’s like storm
bringer see I had never read Elric I had
never read storm bringer but I was the
exact same way
I saw the sword and the way that it was
described as sort of a window into a
starry sky somewhere else it didn’t have
to do anything else right it was wildly
over power fold as well but it was still
very very cool yeah sword as starscape
I’m sold and I found that as both player
and Dungeon Master it’s occasionally the
mechanics that will allure a player to
keeping or using a weapon but it’s just
as often the story or the aesthetics of
a thing this is going to keep it on
there they’re persons oh yeah I mean cuz
even in the tabletop game you see what
so many of us have experienced in video
games and that is so much of it is about
dress-up it’s about what getting that
cool thing and imagining your character
wearing it or wielding it or you know
showing it off or giving it as a gift of
course
so Jeremy Crawford a lead designer of
the players handbook and a lead
rules designer of
engines and dragons as mentioned in the
past couple of weeks we’re going to be
having Jeremy on more regularly
last week we did miss our regularly
scheduled appointment because of
inclement weather yeah we were we were
huddled at home while abominable snowmen
growled by not that I don’t appreciate a
snow day over so often but I looked out
and there was nothing on the ground on
Wednesday when they had called off
really all Seattle schools okay see
where I were I lived it was snowing yes
Diane and I had that was brought to my
attention yeah there is a bigger part of
Seattle than West Seattle the entire
Seattle School District also has to be
taken into account well in any time
there’s snow there’s always a good
chance that Capitol Hill where I live
will get more than other parts of the
city partly just because of higher
elevation right and and then you combine
that with our really steep streets and
some of them are our narrow
nineteenth-century Street yes that then
also get covered with a sheet of ice and
oh boy you’re you are best off staying
at home on those days they’re not
risking slipping and sliding around into
a telephone pole as a dungeon master do
you or how do you incorporate weather
into your games now dungeons of course
are their own thing but they’re you know
they’re the Indoor Stadium of D&D do you
take things to the exterior fairly often
or or how do you play with that so in my
home game in particular I spend at least
half the time doing wilderness
encounters sometimes more than half or
urban encounters you know on city
streets and whatnot and I often like to
describe the weather because weather can
be a great mood piece you can get people
into a particular mood whether you
describe a dreary rainy day or a
glimmering spring morning already those
two descriptions are going to put your
in a different mood it’s then fun to use
the weather as a game effect you know
suddenly the streets are slippery
because of the downpour or you know on a
long trek through the wilderness because
of the the high heat and the sunlight
people might be getting dehydrated
quicker I might not do any real concrete
game effect in the case of like
dehydration but sometimes just
describing that will put the players on
edge and and heighten the drama and
usually that’s what I’m aiming for it’s
let’s heighten the drama and let’s also
make it immersive let’s right people
feel like they’re there and a big part
of being in a place in our world is
weather mm-hmm and for the players I
know as well it’s also just a good
improv book where the weather is this
they’ll spin it in their own way well my
character is going to be acting this way
or looking for this or however they want
to have to take things in that that area
it weather is also a great way to create
excuses for certain types of monsters to
show up like if there’s a sudden
unexpected snowfall in a city like we
just had in Seattle well that might be a
way to incorporate some snow themed
monsters in an environment that you
wouldn’t normally wear you wouldn’t
normally see them like typically people
will encounter white dragons for
instance you know high up and
snow-capped mountains but what if
there’s a snowpocalypse like we just had
in a city and a white dragon wanders
into town you so again you can do some
fun stuff like that change the situation
play with people’s expectations because
of changes in weather or of course why
is the weather this way and why is it
encroaching on the town yeah why are the
Druids mad at us and what are they
trying to bring into the city
whatever the hook is so right right
before Christmas at home I ran the first
of a two-part one shot the first episode
of a two-part one-shot and we’ll be
doing the second episode I think next
week and it’s funny it’s almost like
part have you been reading my notes
because weather is actually crucial to
the story there and I was partly
inspired by our inclement weather and
also just how weather is in Seattle
every winter
there is a mysterious snowstorm and a
big part of the adventure is figuring
out why and can they stop it because it
one of all said the fun things in D&D is
if you have magical weather mm-hmm you
can make it over the top right you know
this is this is snow that’s piling up
way faster than it would in the real
world things are icing over like visibly
like you can see the ice forming I
always love it when in the games I’m
playing or running or when I see other
DMS really embracing the fantasy of D&D
and realizing you know you’re not bound
by how these things work in the real
world you can push it you know really
amp up the drama the excitement the
horror the humor I might be stating the
obvious but for my players at least half
of the fun is the first part of figuring
out what is happening and then the
second part well okay let’s let’s make
the the action to make the day right or
what have you but yeah just the mystery
of something is wrong or off there’s a
lot of fun I’ve not been reading your
notes but I have been eating your Tim
Tams oh yes I I opened your bag of
Tempest is starving yes thank you if
you’re watching the fan from Down Under
who sent Tim Tim Tams to the office
through me
it’s very appreciated yes those are good
cookies super tasty I forgot that in
some countries calories are calculated
differently and so I read the energy
because it’s called energy on the packet
and it was per cookie it was like 438
and I thought that was calories and I’m
like oh my god we’re gonna all end up at
diabetes in these cookies they said two
pop-tarts condensed and yeah then I went
online and did a conversion like okay
these cookies are safe to eat
but on that note it’s also a Girl Scout
cookie season which is bad news for my
in my house yeah I’ve got to pretend
that’s not happening otherwise I’m gonna
end up with a freezer half full of Thin
Mints we’ve had this discussion we have
the garbage cookie
it’s s’mores it’s the s’mores well let’s
get to your questions what we wanted to
do was circle back around to some of the
unanswered questions that we had from
the last few discussions and unearth
archanis and in recent days we’ve also
just dropped another unearthed Arcana
you know that we do need to get into
available now on many parts of the
website yeah D&D wizards calm
we were fighting with some of our
indexing but you can look for subclasses
part one there with a super cool I’d
maybe just because I play a were like a
lot of super cool warlock it’s a noble
genie yeah so let me let me start off
with a couple of you questions if you do
have another question please do put it
in the chat please do preface it with
question we do compile them as we go
along the way I know we’ve been babbling
on but we’ll also have one giveaway that
will be taking place during this live
stream I’ve got an unopened copy of the
D&D essentials kit so for anyone looking
to get their hands on that we’ll be
giving away a copy
what’s a chapel ttan because we we liked
his name this is in regards to the on
earth Arcana class feature variants and
chaplain asked we talked a little bit
about the feedback and survey process
generally last time specifically for the
class future variants has the feedback
overall been generally positive or
negative in regards to the versatility
and buyer’s remorse that it seeks to
rectify so the class feature variant UA
received I think more play test feedback
than any UA we’ve ever done Wow and was
also one of the most positively received
on earth arcanas we have ever done and
so the short answer is yes people have
really taken to those versatility
features and they want us I’m not
surprised yes
yeah and I mean cuz as always we’re
ready for people to not want them or you
know saying thanks but no thanks
but with these they were like yes give
us give us this ability to modify our
characters over the course of a campaign
because I think I think many people have
found exactly what I’ve mentioned in one
of our previous episodes that campaigns
advance at different paces and sometimes
if you go by just you know what’s in the
players handbook you might be waiting a
long time if if your character has to
wait for a level up to change something
right and then in a few cases in the
players handbook we don’t even give you
the ability to change something so I
think people are really excited about
gaining this ability in a potential
future product yes versatility is a good
fun thing I dragon wood with my family
it’s a card game you draw cards get the
same color number blah blah blah which
is fine but at some point during the
game the house rule is well what if I
started trading cards well now I’ve got
more versatility in my hand mm-hmm and
it makes the game I’m not I don’t have
to wait just for my turn to draw another
card yeah so there you go chapel 10 TP
kill has a question this is in regards
again to the class future variants
specifically regarding spell casting why
do you think that the cleric cantrip
spell list would bring more
possibilities to the Paladin guidance
aside no paladin would change his might
possibility for a sacred flame for
example so why give the paladin cantrip
versatility and is a great question and
I was hoping you would answer that
question I mean it asked me that
question
partly because they’re really two things
to address one is there are people who
play paladin’s who simply want again
we’re gonna go to the versatility theme
they’re gonna want the versatility that
access to that can’t replace gives them
it can be difficult to remember
sometimes especially if you’re in a
group that prioritizes combat over
exploration and social
interaction in the game that there are
groups that actually highly value social
interaction in their role-playing and
exploration and might value the
versatility that you get from things
like utility can trips more than they
might value upping their damage a little
bit and so really that leads to the
other part of this question I wanted to
address we always have to be careful as
fans not only of the idea of really of
anything of projecting our tastes onto
the entire fandom because one thing the
DND next process taught us and that we
learn over and over and over again in
every undercut continent we do is that
the D&D audience is wonderfully diverse
and likes many different ways of playing
and so if you see something that’s not
to your taste that’s fine because
there’s usually something else that is
and sometimes people will have what is
to me a mystifying anxiety about someone
else enjoying something they don’t like
and the key is just enjoy the thing you
enjoy and D&D is a big enough game that
it can accommodate many tastes is this
another Star Wars discussion I’m not I’m
not gonna like suddenly pull back the
curtain and say now Bart what we’re
going to interrogate your very strong
opinions about Star Wars no again I
think particularly in D&D where we
consciously have given options that that
appeal to different play styles and
different ways of building characters
it’s natural that everyone is going to
come across something that’s just not
for them that that’s actually by design
as long as you as long as you are
finding some things in the game where
you read it and you’re like that’s
awesome that’s for me then our design is
succeeding because our design goal is
not that everybody is everything is for
everybody right instead it is our goal
is design something in the game to
appeal to as many very D&D tastes as
possible or again not mechanic
optimized there might be story reasons
or other reasons that you would like to
craft your character well and and and
even there we have to be careful because
often people will say like mechanical
part of me optimization and really what
they mean is how much damage they deal
in combat yes
forget what I mean yeah exactly
forgetting that being optimal
mechanically can mean different things
in different D&D campaigns because you
might be in the D&D campaign where your
group’s victory is not measured by how
many monsters you slay and how quickly
you slay them it might instead be how
many warring factions have you persuaded
to pursue peace it might or in another
campaign campaign might be how good are
you at solving different mysteries and
some of that might be resolved in play
through role-playing but it might
instead be resolved through use of
skills use of non-combat class features
there’s a lot in the game that speaks to
non-combat and there are many campaigns
where there’s non-combat abilities
we’ll actually see more use and have
ultimately more plot impact than the
fact that Clara the Paladin is able to
deal one additional more point of damage
per hit than the other character next to
her we just Greg Tito just ran us
through a one shot on Friday where it
was investigation it was exactly that
you needed to use your your deductive
reasoning and animal handling has it
turned out right there was no combat up
until I think the last 10 minutes yeah
and and think about it if somebody
through clever roleplay and use of
skills like persuasion or deception or
performance is able to essentially make
a battle not happen mm-hmm that is a way
more powerful ability than +1 per hit a
super hit you know and again I’m not I’m
not saying that exactly but sort of that
kind of thing right and so anyone out
there who is sort of massing it be very
careful because remember there is way
more to the game than going toe-to-toe
with monsters with your weapons out and
your spells prepared
even though that is also an awesome part
of the game yeah this is why I love D&D
that all of those experiences can feed
into an amazing D&D playthrough I was
just looking at the chat really quickly
chapel tonie’s in the chat today so we
can hopefully answered your question to
your satisfaction I see El arias as well
I will answer your question offline and
then this one was off-topic but it
struck me as an interesting one oh where
did it go for for Dungeon Master’s and
how you might run the game no I’m sure
your players wouldn’t do this but Zul
asks they are running the tomb of
annihilation or take any dungeon
scenario their players have reached the
tomb and it’s clear that one of them has
read the adventure mmm how is it Dungeon
Master might you handle that make the
traps deadlier leave them as is remove
the player something else entirely um I
would feel it out so if the player is
clearly having a good time and they’re
not spoiling other people’s time by by
sharing the knowledge they have you
could possibly run the adventure as
written if they’re a fun person to play
with but their their knowledge is
bubbling out of them and disrupting play
don’t stop there right if that’s going
on then I would say DM don’t hesitate to
just change things play with their
expectations I I love doing this so the
thing is I actually delight in it when I
know that somebody has read something
I’m running because then I mess with
that and there are I mean sometimes it’s
just there are some classic adventures
out there right that a lot of us have
have run and and read but we want to
play them as well yeah so I did this
recently in my home campaign the group
went to castle Ravenloft two hundred
years after the events of curse of
strawed two of my players were Chris
Perkins and James Wyatt
Chris who worked with me on cursive
straud James Wyatt who worked on
expedition to Castle Ravenloft in third
edition these are players who know that
castle inside and out yes they have a
poker game with strata every census so
so what I did is I used that knowledge
against them because they’re like things
were not where they expected them to be
in the castle plus 200 years had passed
and the law was going on in that castle
that they did not expect I mean it you
know including when they got to the
crypts and discovered it had been
converted into a large refrigeration
unit and all the crypts instead had
barely alive people hanging on hooks you
know just preserved away for the
vampires to feed on them I mean it was
just one thing after another like that
so you can actually turn a player’s
familiarity with a published module into
a fun thing of subverting their
expectations and then creating a fun
surprising experience because keep in
mind I say this often yeah the people
who haven’t read it have no idea what’s
on the page right so DMS never hesitate
to change things because I always feel
for dm’s and want to give them a hug
when they feel like oh my gosh I have to
run it as written it’s like you don’t
you don’t have to run it as written your
players don’t have the text in front of
them even if they did you or your job is
not to be sort of a to a mouthpiece for
what is on the page your job is to take
what’s on the page be inspired by it and
run the adventure you want to run and
just have a ball with it I was gonna say
and tomb of annihilation is a bit of a
an odd choice there because that
actually does take and subvert some of
the the the text from tomb of horrors
right knowing that some players will be
familiar with it and and attempting to
do exactly that when its avert a little
bit of the expectations to the surprise
and delight and challenge both of the
players who might be familiar with so
yeah subvert the sub subvert the
subversion when you can even with tomb
of annihilation you could actually if
you’re you know running for
group that has read tomb of annihilation
or you know have someone in the group
one of the many things you could do to
subvert their expectations would be to
run most of the situations the way they
were in the original tomb of horrors
which is going to be far more deadly Oh
so yes sir so there you go yeah that’s I
I’ve I have not encountered players like
that except for folks that have read the
adventures lovingly and they are cursed
with the knowledge rate of what the
module contains let’s look at
unimportant hero and this is going to
our psionics based class features asks
and tangential there’s a tough word
tangential to psyonix because space why
do you think contemporary D&D players
are latching on to spell jammer with
such fascination when it was largely
seen as a weirdest stepchild of D&D in
ye olden ad and e2e days so why the the
nostalgia for a bit of an offshoot
setting so first off full disclosure I
love to spell jammer when it came out
but that’s partly because I I like any
expression of D&D that embraces the
multiverse is why I also love Planescape
and Planescape and spell jammer really
are two ways of looking at the multi
world setting that is the D&D multiverse
Planescape is really about journeying
through the outer Plains in the inner
planes
whereas spell jammer is much more
focused on getting from one of the
worlds in the material playing to
another and you know it’s just cool
having these these magical ships soaring
through space visiting different worlds
and then if you combine that with you
know trips to the outer Plains you can
have a really marvelously trippy D&D
experience my theory for why people
often bring up spell jammer as well as
Planescape as something they have loved
from the
is because they just they dig the DND
multiverse one of the things D&D has
that many fantasy settings don’t have is
it has multiple worlds these these
metaphysical dimensions you can visit
other planets I mean it it has so much
variety with all of these different
subgenres a fantasy represented by you
know the different worlds there’s really
nothing quite like it in fantasy yes
because most most fantasy settings just
have a single world whereas when D&D we
have many worlds and the implication is
of course that one of those worlds is
your homebrew world out there right that
there is even a place for your homebrew
in this multiverse yeah that’s a good
point it has an equally valid place in
the multiverse there’s many worlds and
many ways to travel between them and
reach them it’s also fascinating to you
to the game as well yeah and that and
what it means is that in D&D literally
this the sky is the limit where well
although even the sky is not a limit
since you can actually step out of out
of your plane of existence into another
but you can go into the sky and find out
what’s out there and go adventuring in
another world or alternatively spend
your entire campaign on just one world
and dig deep but d with its great
breadth of opportunity for storytelling
allows you to go super deep in a single
world I mean heck you could do an entire
campaign in a single you know
municipality but alternatively if you
want you can hop around from one plane
of existence to another from one world
to another travel around on a ship I
think people really more and more
appreciate that side of D&D because it
is something really precious and special
about about Dungeons & Dragons see it’s
funny because for me it I that the point
taken it’s about having being able to
access the multiverse what might be some
of the appeal to spell Jemma and for me
it was like what is this thing
of course Bart Planescape guy but I mean
ultimately which is a very similar thing
right just how do you get to these
different girls is it through through
magical means or through more you know
the actual physical nautical means in
right way right exactly and it’s okay
for you to not totally dig you know what
spell jammer is offering because going
back to what I was saying earlier D&D
again is so great that you decide what
you’re gonna eat from the D&D buffet yes
you it it’s okay for me to be over here
getting a second helping of spell jammer
while you might be going back for thirds
over there and the the sigil plate I see
I think back when I was a second edition
it was like my need my Dungeons &
Dragons serious it’s serious dark
fantasy and now it’s like oh that gift
looks fantastic I’m putting him in a
game somehow somewhere yeah but here’s
the thing you could also you can still
have super serious D&D because if you
want your story to be zeroed in on one
world and it’s you know hardscrabble
existence for some of the people there
or the dark politics or the you know the
dark magic that’s occurring all of that
is also possible in D&D you if you if
you want to ignore what’s going on and
the great beyond
I’m can alright well there we go we’ve
got a few questions we do have several
more remaining but what I thought we
would want to do in the time remaining
is at least pay a little attention to
the most recent unearthed star canna
that has come out this is the first
first unearthed Arcana of 2020 in his
subclasses part one which immediately
begs the question is there going to be a
part two I sure hope so otherwise we
were very confused when we put that part
one there but in part one we cover
subclass options for the Barbarian the
monk the Paladin and as mentioned the
warlock that’s right so where would you
like to maybe dabble in first let’s
start from the top
and we we go right into the path of the
beast this is a fun one for anyone who’s
ever wanted to play a character who
might be descended from a lycanthrope or
a some other sort of shapeshifter or
maybe you’ve got you were blessed by you
know an ancient fate being to be able to
adopt various animal aspects this
barbarian path gives you those those
juicy options this was this was
something we talked about in a design
meaning a while ago I was like I’d I’d
really like to see this Dan Dillon took
it and ran with it and then the team
iterated on it and we ended up with this
you know you get to sprout claws if you
want get a swimming speed you know
scramble up walls leap leap fart you
know far distance infect people with
your fury give your friends some of your
reckless attack it’s I think a ton of
fun and really is a way for a barbarian
to take the sort of primal energy that
we often talk about being an aspect of
the barbarian and wearing that on the
outside because we often we often in
narrative terms will refer to rage as
you know being a sort of a feral you
know fury that kind of thing well in
this subclass you literally become feral
ya you you know you partially transform
and everyone’s gonna see it so it is a
very conspicuous form of rage because
you know you rage and then adopt these
animal aspects if anyone’s wondering how
is this different from the path of the
totem warrior in the players handbook
well the difference really is there in
the conspicuousness the path of the
totem warrior might have certain feral
qualities to them but ultimately the
totem warrior is all about channeling a
nature spirit of some kind and
manifesting different abilities here in
the path of the beast you are literally
because
like these creatures whether it’s you
know spawning a tail or you know your
your nose elongating you know that’s
this kind of thing you are you are
becoming pretty monstrous and it’s
possible that a barbarian who follows
this path like terrified towns folk you
know it could be there could be some
stories where the barbarian flies into
the rage and transforms a bit there
could be you know villagers who might
mistake this barbarian for a lycanthrope
of some kind so you might have already
touched upon this a little bit but clam
laminae it’s not calamity it’s clam
lemony I like that
well I had a question about I suppose
the discussion process of it goes into
the back end about some of the classical
archetypes that fit with the classes so
when we talking about the barbarian and
the lycanthrope why the barbarian as
opposed to say the Granger has a
subclass for this so there are a number
of subclasses that quite honestly could
go into a number of different classes
and sometimes we actually do explore
similar themes in subclasses for
different classes but when we don’t do
that and we just say we’re gonna take
this theme and focus on this one class
it usually is about zeroing in on a
particular aspect and here we were
zeroing in on beastial transformation
and also really leaning into there being
some element of it feeling a little
dangerous and those thematically those
bits relate very well to the barbarians
rage rage also gave us a mechanism for
you know giving you this transformation
that piggybacks on something you already
have so then you know rage can serve as
the conduit for this plus again the
narrative of the barbarian versus the
ranger is that barbarians are filled
with this primal energy Rangers
sometimes that’s their story but the
Ranger story tradition
has been much more you know you are a
person who is you know at peace mm-hmm
in the wilds and and who is a survivor
whereas the Barbarian might be a
manifestation of the wilds that to me is
that’s the important difference you know
the the Ranger is the one who who goes
out into the far wilderness and
befriends the Beast there the Barbarian
might be mistaken especially this
barbarian for one of the beasts out
there and then the druid might pop up
and say hi I was over here eating an
acorn in squirrel form as I pondered the
secrets of the universe so you know we
have these three different classes with
all an important relationship to nature
but they their relationship is is
different I would watch that movie like
an incredible journey style trip through
the wilderness with three very different
glasses fixed parts yeah all right so
that is the the path of the beast for
the barbarian anything else you wanted
to add or touch quickly upon the monk
the last thing I’ll say about the the
path of the Beast is going back to our
theme of versatility I loved here that
we give the player choice you decide
when you transform which of the
transformation options you’re going to
use because what we’ve done here is
we’ve we’ve made it so that you have
options that could be useful in and
outside of combat we we often want to
make sure that for certain class
archetypes we are we are designing
things that are useful in multiple
pillars of the game and again those
pillars being exploration social
interaction and combat so the monk way
of the way of mercy a way of mercy this
is a this is a monk I’ve wanted us to
actually explore for a while been Petrus
or took the lead here
after we discussed having a monk that
would in many ways lean more on sort of
a European aesthetic than an Asian
aesthetic the monk has often relied on
different Asian Ark types for its
identity and here we wanted because you
know Western Europe has had a long
tradition of monks but it’s it’s
confusing because in in Western Europe
that word means a different yes very
much so and we thought well what if we
kind of merged these and so what we
started to explore is this idea of you
know imagine Europe during the Black
Plague and this figure who walks among
the plague bearers wearing a potentially
spooky mask who with one hand is able to
provide healing and another hands
provide a different kind of mercy in the
form of a quick death and we
specifically wanted to explore this in
the monk because we wanted a character
who was not not a spellcaster still
using a mystical power source in this
case the monks key who would also have
this sort of dual nature of life and
death the sort of those two two
different sides of Mercy in Troy because
going back to cook lamb lamb ADIZ
questions sort of it might have gone
cleric but you decided I mean it was
decided no no this feels more monk for
this particular so absolutely because we
we already have healing covered in the
cleric and and because any and anytime
we do anything for the cleric healing is
assumed you know because healing is
always an option for a cleric when
they’re preparing their spells right no
we you specifically wanted to create a
monk for somebody who might love what a
monk offers but wanted to like have a
monk in sort of like a you know a
European friars robe who you know
doesn’t use weapons
has the unarmed fighting capabilities
that the monk class offers but marries
those capabilities to this again ability
to to provide the you know soothing
healing or to hasten someone’s death
and I feel this is a perfect place the
perfect class for this subclass certain
now that you say that though I now want
to see that movie where it’s a version
of like name of the rose yes but they
have martial art abilities that they’re
so so name of the Rose was for me one of
the aesthetic inspirations when I first
brought the idea of this to the team
right movie I love that movie and and
those characters are called monks and of
course they’re not the same as D&D monks
cuz right although we don’t know they
never have a fight maybe some of them
are awesome and unarmed combat and plus
what many people don’t know is medieval
Europe also had traditions of unarmed
fighting not nearly as in my opinion
beautiful as the traditions of unarmed
fighting in the east but the West also
has traditions of unarmed fighting so it
it is possible to have a monk who is a
master at unarmed fighting who does not
necessarily have to have an Asian
aesthetic now they box old yeah they
could be a pugilist because because we
don’t tell you in the monk class
description that you are you know
necessarily you know doing karate or
kung fu or you know Aikido or some other
you know martial art from Asia you might
be you know a a european-style pugilist
or doing some of the unarmed fighting
styles that the ancient Greeks deployed
or the Romans there’s a lot in the West
as well that can be leaned upon in a
class like the monk but here again this
for your touchstone think of plague
doctor and by the way the monk is
one of the reasons also why we loved
putting this in the monk is the monk is
in some ways the perfect person to be
wandering among the ill because over
time you know monks bodies just sort of
become you know superhuman and their
resilience they’ve been exposed to too
often just things yeah yeah you can
imagine a monk and a paladin walking
through you know a disease-ridden city
and there they’re gonna be fine I the
the aesthetic of the of the plague mask
has always been I think particularly
compelling you know to to fantasy fans
as well yeah what was the reason for I
you know I have not studied the reason I
mean I can certainly guess
or we could google it but you know it
could have been to dampen the odour
because one of the things we often
forget is cities and centuries past
often wreaked because of maybe the
sewage although many of those cities
actually had better sewage systems than
we realize it was tended to be the
smaller towns that would have like open
you know sewage drains that kind of
thing but also just because people did
not bathe as much as they do now so just
the amount of body odor and also animal
odor because animals were were around
much more sure and so if you’re in a
city then you add onto all of that a
city where people there’s plentiful
death because of some kind of epidemic
you can imagine wanting to you know
maybe have a perfumed mask on shore that
makes it so that you can withstand at
the reek a bit of a bit of a gas mask
yeah I also like it too because since
back then surgeons you know sometimes
we’re not entirely trusted because they
might be showing up too you know saw
your arm off without anesthesia you
could also see why maybe they would wear
masks now this month doesn’t do that but
this mug does have the hands of harm you
know so or this noxious or so watch out
all right so that is a quick look at the
monk shall we touch upon the appellate
I’m we’ve got 10 minutes remaining yes
yeah so the oath of the watchers yeah
this this some of the initial design
here was done by Bill Benham and then
you know the team we took it and sort of
poked and prodded to explore this idea
of a group of paladin’s
who are essentially the Watchers at the
gate what I mean by that is they are
they are guarding against extra planar
incursions and they are especially good
at going up against things like
elementals Fae fiends aberrations at you
know banishing them at turning them they
of course have other abilities that are
good in other situations but these these
are the paladin’s who are basically
saying you know don’t don’t come into
this world and mess it up especially if
you’re a malign force like a fiend
they’re gonna say get out of here and
you know I can see them you know making
nice maybe with elementals and Fae
unless those elementals if they cross
the line but again they this name comes
from the oath of the Watchers they are
the Watchers at the gate and the gate
here meaning really any pathway from an
outer plane or an inner plane or the Fae
wild or the shadow fell into the
Material Plane I can imagine like a men
in black style or a hell boys no no no
we’re regarding this war yep against
everyone else there they you get yeah
exactly you think of the oath of the
watchers as the planar cops you know you
can visit but but don’t destroy the
cities yeah yeah hey I’m brushing amber
ation please do not extract brains while
you’re visiting so some of their powers
they’ve got some channeled divinity
options here and yes well yeah extra
alertness and
their vigilance and I of course it’s
because it’s awful 20 they always jump
to the big juicy ability of mental yes
yes where they are I have true sight
they have advantage on their attack
rolls against these extra planar beings
and they also can just whack somebody
and say get out of here and banish them
back to their home plane really again
fulfilling this sort of class fantasy of
the planar cop so that is the paladin
subclass and then we get to the warlocks
noble genie yes so the noble genie is a
fun exploration of you know what would
happen if your patron as a warlock was a
genie yes a a genie who has this opulent
realm somewhere in the inner planes
where you can potentially send people to
for the genie to be amused that’s
actually one of my favorite things in
the subclass is one of the ability to go
into the descent yes send someone away
and basically for the for the genie to
be like you can imagine sometimes the
genie would be like oh you’re fun and
there are other times like oh boy you’re
boring hands and hope hope the the
ability will expire soon so you’ll get
out of the genocide the you know it
naturally because this is leaning into
genie lore big big feature of this
subclass is selecting a vessel
associated with the genie whether that’s
an oil lamp a you know low hollow
statuette and ornate lantern and I
really love how we explore have using
that vessel to create a tether between
you and another creature that can be
beneficial or again you can use it to
send people away for a while you can you
know gain the elemental resistance of
your choice that may or may not be
associated with your genie but certainly
is associated with the inner planes that
we’re where genies typically reside and
I also really love the flavor we have
here and
and the 14th level feature of being able
to basically wire money to your two year
patron through your vessel as a part of
using collectors call this which again
sounds a lot like a collect call yes
that you you use at higher level this
subclass also does something fun that we
have not done a whole lot of with our
warlock patrons and that that is we
really treat the patron as a sort of
concrete being and what I mean by that
is in many of our patron options the
patron we very purposefully treat as
this sort of shadowy being that may or
may not have any direct involvement in
your campaign mm-hmm we did that on
purpose especially in the players
handbook because we wanted warlock
players to decide how much they’re
actually connected to their patron
because there’s actually no requirement
in the Warlock class that the Warlock
could be on good terms with their patron
because the Warlock unlike a cleric you
know cleric serves their deity a warlock
made a bargain with somebody that
doesn’t mean they have to like each
other they might not be on speaking
terms with each other they basically
they signed a contract together you know
it feels very episode 4/5 Darth Vader
and the Emperor you know it’s almost
conceptual out there and Darth Vader you
don’t even know if he likes the guy
right right but that’s that’s his patron
at the moment yeah whereas here we
rather than your patron you know being
somewhere out there in the multiverse
and you may may or may not ever meet
them here you are sending them literally
to you know your patrons these people to
your patrons house or sending money in
there it you know it’s very concrete
which felt appropriate for a subclass
that’s also grounded in this very
concrete thing on the oil lamp or you
know that kind of thing
it also it felt like an interesting
story twist for me you think of a genie
it’s usually in the role of their
subservient whoever finds them they’re
granting you wish
they again might not like working with
you but they’re bound to and in this
case it’s it’s a bit of a role reversal
yes it’s interesting yeah where the
genie is the one collecting people and
things and yeah it you could almost
imagine maybe the warlock is the one who
pops out of the lamp I can imagine the
genie is the middleman here sends you on
quest because it has to fulfill that
wish for somebody else right I need you
to go find this thing because I owe it
to this other group yeah yeah and by the
way those of you watching if you’re
curious to know more about genies in D&D
take a look at the Monster Manual we
have a whole section on them because
they are they are really fun parts of
the D&D multiverse and have always been
part of it
it’s funny people will look at the first
edition Dungeon Master’s guide and think
that that tall red being with the horns
is some kind of fiend yes it’s not it’s
a genie that is that is that is one of
the efreet ii and with you know if on
the back covers the city of brass so I
it’s I I remember that because growing
up during the satanic panic and having
somebody looking at that cover and see
look there’s even a devil on this book
and I you know I was a kid you know sort
of pushing up his glasses actually
that’s a genie and that is not hell on
the back that is the plane of fire I’m
sure you convince them in a sense of the
game with that well we’re getting close
to 2 o’clock here at the top of the hour
we’ve touched very briefly on the four
new subclasses that had have appeared in
the most recent on earth dark Anna so I
will mention for folks that do have
questions regarding this or any other on
earth or Canada if you got a moment
please do put it in chat our moderators
have been diligently collecting the
questions and sending them our way so
thank you very much for that and we try
and get through as many as we can if we
don’t get to your question hopefully we
will
in a future date in the meantime I will
just reiterate the unearthed Arcana
subclasses part one is available now on
the D&D website will also make sure to
really PSA’s at the end of February we
had our December issue come out and so
we’re gonna wait until February for
issue 30 as well so on behalf of myself
thanks for everyone for tuning in and
for the PAX South a game you can watch
that now we won’t give any spoilers so
so watch it on YouTube I was wanted to
know and of course the twitch pax
channel in the the video archives was
where I was catching that so it’s a
crazy episode how they all are I’m not
Anna in a delightful way so we’ll see
you again next time and we’ll see Jeremy
next time as well bye everyone
thanks everyone
— Dungeons & Dragons (@Wizards_DnD) January 22, 2020