The @mikemearls hey everyone and welcome back to the mic
girls happy fun hour I am your host Mike
whirls
I am the franchise creative director on
Dungeons & Dragons and I’m your host
today and for our happy fun hour of
building out happy fun disaster
barbarians yes that’s right disasters
officially branded now is fun in the
world of D&D I guess they’re fun
depending on if you have the magic and
abilities to handle own otherwise a
disaster is no fun no of no fun let’s
not have disasters let’s hope the stream
isn’t a disaster huh so anyway listen
let’s make sure we spell disaster
correctly in their notes so if you earth
me last week we spent most of the stream
last week talking about the disaster
barbarian and the concept behind it and
the idea is that this is a barbarian who
when they go into a rage channels the
destructive power of nature it’s not
just an environment like or it’s not
just an aspect of an animal but it’s
something that’s a lot more aggressive
that can destroy the area around it but
still very much part of the natural
order and what we settled on was this
idea that as a several of our barbarian
subclasses operate when you pick the
disaster barbarian which is not the
final name we’ll come up with something
better that you pick a one of four
subtypes so and so essentially we’re
building a sub class where you have four
class features then each one has within
it four options to give you that sense
of a different flavor we also often do
this when we have things where like you
say all our barbarian who’s you know
fueled by disasters and you can think
well there’s lots of different types of
disasters do you really want to make
four separate subclasses do they share
enough conceptual space that you can
take these class features and give them
a little bit twist to make them feel
really distinct the and that’s what
we’re doing here so last week we work
through our third level of ability
avatar of disaster now when you’re
working on a barbarian subclass it’s
very important protip you have to try to
make all of your class features sound
like the titles of heavy metal albums
because that’s just what a barbarians
are they’re kind of like I mean you
could argue warlocks or maybe more like
death
you know but I’m talking like you know
just that like over-the-top like you
know giant speaker banks and you know
ear splitting noise like that level of
heavy metal that so the barbarian does
so that’s we gonna make sure all our
class features are names if they can be
pompous heavy metal album titles so
avatar of disaster that’s our first one
the oh yeah crazy yeah
warlocks being more emo rock I could see
that I think it depends on the type of
warlock you are the are you more on the
kind of touchy-feely morose side or you
more like destroy I guess like if you’re
well anyways I could probably talk at
length about the different music that
different character classes listen to
but that wouldn’t be really a happy fun
hour for anyone who’s tuning in to watch
me build a subclass so let’s do a quick
recap because last week we we covered
our third level ability and I’m gonna be
honest I’m not necessarily crazy about
where we ended up I think it’s a good
starting point I liked one of my
principles is that done is a very strong
argument that if you can just finish
something even if it’s not exactly what
you want at least it’s done and you have
something you can start testing or
something you can see in its full form
and then start making decisions that
maybe are more strategic where you’re
changing the entire subclass in one go
and getting much broader
across-the-board improvements rather
than just tinkering with one small
ability over and over again so we’re
gonna take this third level ability my
recap it and then we’re just gonna move
on we’re gonna tackle levels 6 10 and 14
today rather than just continue to just
go back and forth over these abilities I
recount them that’ll give you a quick
insight into like why I’m not
necessarily happy with them so a third
level kind of capturing the the typical
barbarian subclass these are all
features that when you rage they kick in
and they change your rage in some way so
our volcano barbarian your rage bonuses
fire damage your range bonus to damage
then when you dues reckless attack
you’re getting double that damage which
is really good and then once during your
rage and this is kind of a pattern we
somewhat repeated decided that when you
rage you get like this extra special
power you can activate
at one point during the rage and this
one is you double your damage and then
triple it if you’re using reckless
attack so and that’s a benefit last
until the end of your next turn it
doesn’t have an action cost so you can
just do this and then still use to up
and fighting or anything else you want
to use your extra action with you could
also like enter a rage and immediately
use it which I imagine was a lot of
people will do they want to get that
extra damage out there as quickly as
possible to drop that that powerful
enemy you’re facing or whatnot our
vortex barbarian I kind of imagine like
you know that sort of swirling body of
water the Whirlpool kind of thing going
on or like the storm of tornado maybe
your rage bone is your rage bonus
damages lightning damage your speed
increases by 10 so kind of getting that
idea of the storm moving around quickly
and when you use reckless attack
creatures you hit have their speed
reduced to zero until the end of your
next turn so that’s the idea of the
vortex grasping things people or ships
or whatever and keeping them close
drawing them in you can’t escape from
the vortex once you’re trapped with it
and once during your rage is a bonus
should say boys action now this is just
pseudocode I didn’t try action writing
it out but this idea that hey I can just
accurate is a bonus action everyone next
to me can’t move away basically dropping
their speed to zero so we might let you
move around but that’s more detail again
this is a good example of something
where like I’m not gonna spend too much
time right now trying to make that
usable look so I’m not sure if this is
where I want to go it’s good enough now
to get a sense of how the class will
shape up the let’s take a look at
earthquake this is a bonus to a C equal
to half your rage damage bonus you
started to see now kind of coming in we
have four options we want to make them
distinct our first one was very much
damaged focus let you throw it as much
damage as possible quickly as possible
our vortex is much more control I keep
people from moving around and now you’re
seeing what’s the more defensive so you
can Macy bonus DAC bonus increases to
your to be equal to your full rage
damage bonus when you use reckless
attack so there’s a nice combo there I
grant advantage to my attackers but my
AC is much higher potentially very much
higher at high levels
once during your age you can cause your
melee weapon attacks to knock creatures
prone that probably some sort of CDC
attached to that and that benefit lasts
until the end of your next turn so
you’re gonna get it basically you’re
gonna use it the start of one turn get
the benefit kicks in your next turn
starts up that benefits gonna end at the
end of that turn so you keep using it
nicely meaty benefit and then tsunami
this is one where we talked about making
this one a little more
oh I’m sorry the vortex is the one where
it’s a little bit more enduring rather
than volcano earthquake and tsunami
which are events so that’s why you get
this sort of you know your speed is
always ten feet you know I’m sorry you
always get a 10 foot bonus kind of
giving you a bit more staying power and
for the tsunami one we’re talking about
movement you can move through any one
space this idea that you can kind of get
to where you want that might be
something which we detach to activation
arcs are your tsunami I think that we
talked about would be the one that was
uh enduring I forgot it’s been chat chat
can remind me the I’ll take a peek over
after I’m done reading this but the more
texts that one felt like could be more
enduring than a tsunami which happens
and goes away anyway um so yeah moving
through some one space kind of get into
that idea of the tsunami just rolling in
nothing being able to stop it you know
the are changed Eric yeah yeah it was
vortex okay thanks so yeah the I think
that’s where we ended up so the tsunami
you can just move in nothing can stop
you kind of like the idea of the tsunami
is sweeping in off the coast when you
reckless attack you knock the target
away in a straight line so again that
idea of you buffeting force and once
during your rage a cone effect similar
to thunder wave so almost feeling like a
spell you can cast while you’re raging
then you get to cast once so I think
that’s like a good starting point my
main thing is I don’t know if these feel
transformational enough you know I kind
of like the idea that the the body cyrus
barbarian ibanez Rocksteady I like that
the that’ll be our next step subtype
will be pop star barbarians the wrecking
ball right yeah the you know I I don’t
know if these are necessarily
transforming enough but maybe I think
for now it’s enough I don’t want to just
go back and forth trying to shine this
up to be
where I want it to be because I think
it’s a good starting point like I said I
think there’s something good about when
you’re working on something see if you
can just get into a position where it’s
done and then you can look at it as a
whole and make decisions that are going
to affect more pieces of it at once
rather than just focusing on one sub
piece so the let’s talk about our six
level ability and from here let’s go to
our sources it’s go to the players
handbook because as usual we don’t want
to try to recall the rules we will get
the rules wrong when we just try to
think of them let’s just read the text
because it’s there we didn’t be read the
Reggie has a comment about those watched
in the last few episodes of development
and I had an idea relate to the Nova
that’s we’ve got here instead of a big
bump and rage damage if he’s once maybe
a big damage up with a tender age
oh so this is something we talked about
last time in play test so far we’ve
found that things that end your age are
really tricky to balance a lot of it is
because what it can do and I’m going to
read the rest you’re coming forward
Scrolls off the screen the so yeah
there’s two things the main thing going
on there is what what has what happened
in play test we tried similar effects
was that players would treat their rage
as just the Nova ability they would rage
and immediately activate that ability to
get the huge boost in power and then let
their rage end and then trying to put
drawbacks on that actually makes people
like less likely just use the ability as
a whole so I like the Nova ability and I
think that’s a good instinct and I think
that might be something we’re missing
but might be something though we add in
later on because I do like I especially
like the tsunami thing here like the
once during your rage you essentially
cast Thunder wave um I think there’s
something really fun there that would
make your rage feel much more distinct
than maybe it does now compared to the
other types of barbarians so but yeah I
think the Nova thing there’s something
there we just haven’t quite made it work
yet the but like I think I mentioned a
couple times last week just because
something doesn’t work once doesn’t mean
we just give up on it we’re always
trying to think how can we don’t really
deliver this because it’s it’s fun
narrative you think like oh you’re gonna
go into the second massive Nova you know
it’s over 8,000 kind of thing
and going super saiyan is fun but how do
you mitigate that so it doesn’t feel
like well it’s just transferring my rage
into this that these just instant
abilities that just kind of almost start
to feel like like spells so the let’s
see here what I want to do is take a
look at the path of the totem warrior in
the past we’ve looked a lot at like the
path of the Berserker is our comparison
but I think the totem war is a better
one because structurally it looks more
like the disaster barbarian so let’s see
it’s six level the path the total
Warriors are pretty much just like
almost all just ribbons a ribbon is
something which is a class feature that
isn’t really meant to be I think it is
load-bearing it’s not delivering power
in a way that really changes how
powerful your character is compared to
other characters at the same level so
the taking a look at after the beast we
have basically an iSight benefit you can
see up to one mile away the wolf you can
track other creatures while traveling a
fast pace you can move stealthily Imola
traveling at normal pace I mean those
are nice they’re useful but they’re not
necessarily changing your power a lot
and the bear is I think I may just
mention this last week
whenever we’re referring the carrying
capacity rules we’re kind of telling you
this is not something which were even
remotely considering to be a power
element it’s really just flavor but yeah
the bear can carry more stuff most
groups don’t track that so it’s like
nice but it’s we’re kind of building
things here they’re just meant to be
really flavorful you know not that this
you’re getting nothing but you’re not
getting something that’s really like
keeping this class up power wise the now
the one thing here you might say well
why would you do that compared to what
we’re getting over here these classes
all give you pretty good raging benefits
the so a lot of that is sort of the
balance across the subclass like we’re
okay with subclasses giving like maybe
this benefits a little bit better than
what another subclass might give you but
then if this level the benefit maybe
isn’t quite as good as long as it is not
hugely distant such a huge disparity
that you know
this is just the best option it doesn’t
matter what the rest are doing even if
there’s zero power level the the don
seeker i think using the dust devil
spells a template for the vortex be a
good starting place yeah that’s kind of
interesting you might be kind of it
might be interesting to fix I always
like to spell dust double leg spells to
create things and maybe that’s something
to do like when we look at this
transformational aspect to find things
that feel a little bit more enduring and
that are just doing a little bit more
then I see what dust devil is if I
remember right actually I don’t have to
remember cuz what do we do we always
look things up let’s take a quick look
at that spell and I said I’ve always I
think that spell I remember first
encounter gate and second edition DD way
back in the day what I liked about it
was it’s a lot like flaming sphere and
that it creates a thing so you pick it
unoccupied a five-foot cube of air that
you can see anything it ends its turn
within five feet must make a saving
throw can take some damage to be pushed
away that’s kind of an interesting idea
the one thing I want to try to avoid is
something it’s feels too much like an
aura but this might be something yeah
might be something here I think I think
that’s an interesting thing to take a
look at and think about what is what
could we do to make you know what I have
an idea okay here’s what we’re gonna do
because you know what my first of all is
well actually I really like the spell
dust devil and I’m thinking of flaming
sphere what if instead of changing the
environment around you you’re at higher
levels you created like elemental forces
that went out and did stuff that you
could control checked you like that what
I’m kind of picturing here is let’s say
I’m the vortex barbarian and I rage I
can spawn like some number let’s say
three that’s probably too many but like
little dust devils that then go out and
they’re like summon minions that do
stuff around me I’m thinking the volcano
guy that we get we get the idea of the
lava streaming out the earthquake I like
tremors moving around that would be kind
of fun and the tsunami you picture like
waves like oh that’s kind of yeah okay
I’m gonna see does anyone yeah like
minor intervals yeah MD Suraj yes I’m
kind of thinking of it might it might
not it might even have a little stat
block maybe we’ll figure out like some
just stats you can use it all of them
the well I’m like yeah many guys got
it’s an aha moment but it’s thanks to
chat let’s give credit to who throughout
the idea of the dust devil spell I’ve
lost track there’s so much chat going on
but yes points to that captain Zack
doesn’t hate it but that’s good that
means you’re not saying no so I think
I’m gonna run with that as a yes for now
the dawn seeker thank and a subscriber
thanks man
so or yeah yeah I think that’s a really
cool idea and I think that’s getting at
this idea of the disaster spreading
which I like without creating the zone
effect I didn’t want to step on the toes
of the barbarian some zenith arse so
here’s what we’re gonna do
oh and this is the thing I really want
to I want to put it six level so you get
it really quick but I think that might
be a little too good but you know what I
could do so you know this is where we
get to be clever and lazy I don’t think
I’m gonna do this but here’s a good
example of a wave if you find something
that a subclass is working really well
with just a couple mechanics a very
useful tool is to use your higher level
slots to just upgrade past effects so as
an example my first feeling is like if
you’re changing a bit at third level
that at higher level you’re kind of
spawning these allow elemental forces I
don’t know if I really need a lot at
sixth and fourteenth that are going to
relieve have even more complexity to
your character so what I might do is it
six say hey here’s an upgrade to your
prior your third level ability at tenth
level drop in this sort of little
elemental swarm you create and then 14th
upgraded one of the things that is a
drawback to working on a level based
system where you have twenty levels to
fill and you say here’s our barbarian
and we know here’s where things drop in
from the core class and your subclass
has to have four things the temptation
is always to say well then you need four
things regardless of all things being
equal four separate things the drawback
of the approach is it means you need to
spread your complexity out across four
concepts and you may find that’s not
what you want to do this is something
that is really gets focused you know I’m
not at this stage of development
designing a thing but more where we get
to editing in playtesting we really
start thinking about that complexity
budget and so if you have a complex very
complex thing players can tap into one
of the ways you can keep the complexity
ceiling low of getting out of hand is to
just upgrade that one feature rather
than start adding a lot of other things
so so anyways that’s something which I
think might do here because I feel like
right now there’s a lot going on with
this class with a subclass I don’t
really necessarily want to start adding
even more things but that idea of I’m
gonna call it swarm of devastation
because again we have to make everything
sound like a cheesy heavy metal band
album and I am not even to try to design
a stab lock for you guys because that
would be nuts to do it live on camera
it’ll be wrong so I’ll just say that’s a
tenth level when you rage you tap into
the essence of the elemental chaos at
your bidding swarms of primordial
creatures emerge into the world and Rick
I think I spelt that wrong but yes I did
wreak havoc at your command and what
I’ll just do here since I don’t want to
try it’ll have a staff lock or just a
volcano and I’m just gonna write down
the names of his couple spells just to
get this idea across what I’m doing this
is flaming sphere effect I want little
elementals that move around lava guy
blobs of lava that move around and do
damage in an aura we’re gonna say vortex
it’s dude dust devil oh I am blocking
yours thank you to Jeremy my co-pilot
here pointing it out not Jerry Crawford
different Jeremy dust devil effect so I
want these to be knocking people around
doing some maybe doing some damage maybe
not but this is also something where
I’ll write down this idea then when we
start looking at the spreadsheet effect
does this do damage or not I mean
obviously the fire one would but maybe
the other ones don’t
earthquake
mobile tremors so these are probably
knocking people over and then for the
tsunami probably like maybe like
barriers or mobile lives pipe the slash
and the or this is probably never strict
movement almost like gonna be like maybe
a little miniature walls and our dust
level effect is probably forced move me
oh this is really nice because this this
is really fitting into three very
distinct effects so we’re gonna do is
create little creatures probably
something like that’s a two or three hit
dice you might want us probably let the
barbarian reach some of them if they get
destroyed but gonna be taxing out with
an action
I’ll make notes of that because what
what you want to do is say two to four
hit dice can be re summoned action
destroyed basically if you’re fighting a
dragon it breeds on the party you can
let the barbarian go okay don’t wanna
keep fighting or do I want to do some of
the elementals the one thing is I think
the it’s probably isn’t a bonus action
for them to act they pride just act on
your turn and get pretty simple actions
the one thing we definitely learn from
these master Ranger as currently
published having to choose between does
my wolf attack or do I attack players
don’t like that choice they want to do
both so we will this would be balanced
to let you both will you operate with
barbarian takes a turn and then these
little elemental guys take a turn the oh
how about a drop back let’s see a share
DVI damage Delta barbarians dealt to you
all that’s actually pretty good
that would be a good balancing thing and
it would be something where we could
like kind of keep these alive I’m gonna
put that fact
that’s that that’s interesting idea cuz
barbarian also in an enrage would have
resistance we might put a loop through
that so that does feel like it’s not
just straight up on blocking off areas
like there is a risk here that is always
one of the risks with anything like an
animal companion or summon creature is
the classic thing you do with them is a
tactical fight you just have the lock
down a flank and then you stop worrying
about them essentially it’s a very low
resource you’re expending to really
control the battlefield so maybe
something like that we’re like when they
get hit or when they get destroyed maybe
you take some damage and they pop back
up and have to move them back into
position so the dungeon master one of
the things I think frustrates me as a
dungeon master when I’m running a game
and the players using a lot of summon
creatures I have this in an ever on game
I ran ages ago one of my players under
3rd edition would summon like this hoard
of like 12 celestial monkeys and just
have them block locations right so if I
have this like a big half troll fighter
he’s spending his time killing these
monkeys and I as a DM just like it just
it seems a little silly its narrative
wise and as a DM it’s a little
frustrating so I just feel like the sky
is just turning into a joke rather than
the real threat the I saw someone in
chat mentioned could we a can maybe have
the elementals turn against you that’s
another thing to look at I can maybe if
the barbarian is knocked out but the
light will stick around they maybe could
go rogue I think one thing though that
they would do because I think the
barbarian is not a very precise
character effects are against creatures
not enemies so this idea of a precision
being I threw out this thing it’s
knocking people over it’s it doesn’t
care who you are if you are the fighter
moving up to engage or you know somehow
this is the next to the wizard it’s
gonna zap a character or a monster
doesn’t care so you have to be as a
player a little more careful again I
kind of think of that as a barbarian
thing they’re not barbarians are at the
precise strike that say a rogue can
deliver or even a warlock who’s like I’m
under you know I know I have my magic
and I’m really focusing it there a
little bit more like a wild mage it’s an
indiscriminate damage
all right cool so that’s something which
I won’t try to design on an on stream
because it’s just a lot of boring math
to get to get the numbers right but
would I would like to create a staff
block for these so it says boom his
little creature and the way I would do
this is I would just make one snap lock
and then just say volcano gets say
immunity to fire and this special
ability
vortex gets you know whatever you just
here’s your snap lock then plug things
in it’s one of the things where in a
digital environment like andini beyond
you probably would just give the full
just up stat block but in a book where
space matters we always try to be
efficient without being obscure so all
right so that there you go that’s pretty
cool now this going back to six level
real quick I like the idea of having
some sort of movement ability especially
something that is it’s not necessarily
gonna be used on your aging and I think
that’s where I want to go for 6th and
14th is abilities that are clearly like
when you’re not raging here’s something
you’d use and I would like to make them
non combat abilities cuz this is a
character who has got a lot going on
during a fight and I think we’re really
gonna satisfy players you’re like hey I
just want a barbarian who just beat
stuff down I think we’ve got a lot of
stuff going on here and I think that’s
enough so like the idea of a movement
ability at six level we’re gonna call
this when you get a heavy-metal name for
this and you’re just moving around not
killing stuff will just Apokolips
okay this is stupid we would not name it
this but that’s the heavy metal of them
I’m sure ya know that’s a dumb name but
I’m just gonna keep it cuz why not I
like sometimes you have to give us
things dumb names because anyways I
never we want to next topic cuz that’s
nonsense next level you gain the ability
to better survive okay that makes no
sense either but I’m just gonna keep
typing in your disasters whatever this
is all just pure nonsense you’re getting
to see this is actually the dark side of
creativity when we totally lose our
thread the I talk better survive to
better maneuver in your disasters
environment
so what I wanted to say here is volcano
this we talked about this a couple weeks
ago this idea that the volcano above
every an could like jump over lava flows
things like that so we’re gonna say
better jump and fire resistance let’s
see oh yes we have ignored difficult
terrain actually we could do that let’s
do that for the earthquake guy because
that’s kind of fitting into earth so
ignore difficult terrain also because we
don’t have earth damage it’s just you
bash someone with a rock it’s budgeting
damage the so with the hits very hard to
do like four elements with four damage
types now that doesn’t work water it’s
kind of the same way to I guess like
acid is like dangerous water but water
is dangerous you could drown but yeah
we’re not gonna do something where
you’re mean to being drowned now what we
would say is the the more elegant more
elegant approach to saying you cannot be
drowned is you could read the water and
we’ll give you a swim speed and then for
vortex vortex is kind of air we’ve got
the better jump with volcano to kinda
have that explosive thing well let’s see
the vortex I’m tired just gonna give you
you know I’m gonna throw this in here oh
yeah yeah nice yeah I like that so arch
raged Eric throat no falling damage yeah
that’s useful that’ll actually probably
play the one thing what no falling
damage it’s one of those does things you
design it you think okay you don’t take
damage from traps like you really try to
can you try to contextualize it to a
very specific event in an adventure but
then what you forget are things like
wait this opens up some interesting
tactics in I use ever on as an example
because I just use that drug thinking
about my old ever on campaign
Sharan the city of towers it’s very
vertical city it’s like skyscrapers you
think oh great a character who doesn’t
take following damage can actually do a
lot of interesting things with ambushing
people from above well I’m gonna climb
to the top of this tower like the stairs
and jump on a window and land in the
middle of my enemies so it’s something
where it might not seem impressive
mechanically but I think it opens up a
lot of options that players would
otherwise wouldn’t think of using when
they’re dealing with a more sane
strategic you know how do we get into
this place or how do we you
kidnapped this person or how do we
contact this person who’s got a bunch of
guards around them so anyways I think
I’m gonna throw that in there and keep
it there and at 14th I think the other
non-combat you know this would be kind
of a fun thing what if we gave you at
14th level I’m gonna call this soap
elemental soul which is I am sure we’ve
used somewhere else but I saw someone in
chat point on this idea like what if you
had you took on a more elemental
characteristic I’m gonna give me a fun
thing to do here at fourteenth level you
can channel essence a disaster to alter
your physical form so what I’m thinking
here is it’s a non combat transformation
that just gives you abilities that are
very much focused on utility rather than
combat so valve volcano when I’m
thinking of is you know we’ll give you a
we give you resistance to fire so in
this moment in this form you are immune
to fire and let’s see I want to say can
swim through lava but I think that’s
maybe a little too focused let’s just
throw that there for now because that’s
that’s kind what I want to capture this
idea that I mean being a mean to fire is
kind of nice but oh yeah you oh yes
the wrath oh yes you can turn into a
liquid creature so Arafa throughout hey
what if you became a news and like oh
yeah okay we’ll put a period there
because that’s enough for now
yeah that’s cool and basically okay and
that’s a good template so what we’ll do
is we’ll have you transform into
something that can’t really fight but
can for instance the volcano creature
you could see through a crack hurricane
you can fly and gaseous form outside say
well when you form so you can fly around
again you can’t fight earthquake you can
borrow through the ground you bit see if
you turn yourself in like a seismic wave
– travel great distances as a seismic
wave and then tsunami that’s pretty easy
just you become a wave travel across
water and wave maybe and I think as a
wave form you might be the likely to
take a ship with you so the idea that
you can turn into wave you can catch
other things up and then you carry them
along the really nice thing about this
is that the it’s clearly not to be used
in combat we could even say like you
know it takes a minute to assume one of
these forms actually I don’t want to say
that because then it just feels like you
know we’re I’m cornered by the guards oh
I’m on the volcano guy so I turn into
lava and shoes through the crack so you
know action to enter but you can’t fight
and we’ll say this used once per day
well which we mean which actually
invoked once for long rest so there I’m
feeling pretty good about that now the
the this feels like it’s starting to hit
more that transformational event I was
looking for here and I’m gonna use no
and don’t use I’m going to use my in
nine sub-header here which should be
followed by a period not a colon Jeremy
Crawford was here he would just be very
disappointed with me the as he should
because we should know that’s how we do
our headers it’s funny how much you when
you think about it the it’s not to the
point where it’s like oh suffocating but
a lot of the value you can when you’re
working in a group where if someone does
hear someone does task a then someone
does task B the more you can just keep
your workspace clean so the person doing
task be like in this case people don’t
have to come along and mess in fix all
white inline subheads just makes
everyone’s life easier which means the
editor the next designer who’s
implementing its play test feedback
they’re not wasting their time messing
with something I should have just done
myself they can spend a lot more time
getting the language right you know
hitting lip not just the top three play
test concerns concerns with the top five
so definitely I like to think it is keep
your workspace clean when you’re working
in a group always make always do a pass
you’re like I’m just here to make life
easier for every new comes after
the because that that’s how I believe in
a group environment you go from good
work to great work is how much did I do
upfront to make life easier for everyone
coming after me all right so I feel like
we’ve got a good pretty good place here
there’s a lot of design that has to take
place that’s really gonna be spreadsheet
focused and maybe I’ll try one of those
on streams someday but I think today
like I don’t want it to have to go into
the server and grab a file it also would
look really boring the first parts would
just meet me fumbling with numbers going
who wants to look at that maybe you do
we’ll have a stream of like Mike morals
is like uncertain like furrowed brow
hower but for now I think we’re in a
good place we have enough design here
and actually feels good example avatar
of disaster I felt like this doesn’t
feel quite right what it’s doing but now
I’m like oh now I really feel like it’s
actually maybe I think it feels really
good now because I see the fun stuff
that’s coming later on and I feel like
okay maybe this isn’t delivering on 100%
this transformative aspect but by the
time I hit 14th level
I’m really feeling that I’m feeling
pretty good about it
so yeah Mike Romero’s happy math hour
thanks mo crazy exactly let me the next
show we do just me doing see at this
stage I’ve lost so much of my math
skills from high school in college I
think I could definitely do algebra and
maybe without spreadsheets is like I
don’t know how to do this help all right
so I feel pretty good about this I’m
gonna conveniently leave this up on
screen so in case anyone wants to oh
wait let’s get rid of this if anyone
wants to do a screencap Oh what you know
conveniently I’m leaving everything here
for you to look at so and maybe so yeah
well but I’m not getting all the text
well anyways between these two I think
if anyone wants to like type you know
someone’s gonna for some reason type
these up and put them somewhere like on
reddit I think I’ve left the text up on
screen long enough and motionless enough
that that should be possible so so that
brings us we’re only a half-hour in we
have about 20 more minutes so I was
thinking about this I talked a little
about backgrounds last week and there’s
something I’m doing with backgrounds in
my home campaign that
working out pretty well but I don’t
think I’m ready to like do something
with it on stream because I think it
just it’s not quite formed yet the in
yoga three one eight
you mentioned homebrew classes and doing
the math at one point I think I would
like to do an entire class on stream so
I would like to get to that and that
that would show off some of the math but
what I’d want to do there is uh come
prepared with some spreadsheets
pre-built if you remember when we talked
about the warlord I had my spreadsheet
kind of already like all the work wasn’t
done but it just showed you as a
starting point I wouldn’t want to be
like oh here I am filling in a
spreadsheet and it’s just kind of boring
it’s a lot of just kind of grad work I
don’t think would be entertaining so the
sorry III was looking at maybe doing
something last week I mentioned with
backgrounds I don’t think that’s fully
baked yet but then I was having a
conversation with someone about psionics
I’m not doing the mystic sorry I should
have framed this by saying we’re not
doing a new subclass I’m not doing the
mystic this week we’ll eventually get to
it but what I thought was I know a lot
of people are like anxious to get the
mystic well what if we just did a really
quick and easy this is really just us as
chat and me hanging out what if we just
did a quick and dirty wizards subclass
that got you like two-thirds of the way
there to feeling like a mind mage type
again this is not I know someone’s gonna
quote this in like selectively quotes it
makes it look like we’re not doing the
mistake we’re not doing sonics and now
we’re just doing this wizard subclass
okay we’re not doing that like what I’m
gonna do is just show you if you want to
get soundex into your game as soon as
possible with something that has a bit
more of a stronger foundation beneath it
let’s do the exercise of building a
wizard subclass that is focused on mind
magic and I think one of the fun things
about it is I thought about it was it
might kind of show the limits of when
you have a class that you’re trying to
take to a concept where it might not
quite match up so let’s do this real
quick I’m gonna open up oh let’s see
oh I thought I had opened some but you
know what although I just reopen though
the the Barbarian just save
the here I’m gonna save as and we’ll
just say wizard damaged enumerate
psyonix that’s not quite exactly what
we’re going to do alright and then we’ll
just dude hi Gaspard select all delete
and we’ll just go over here to our
heading to and say psionic page so what
I want to do here is kind of show off
like a volcano visited if dr. deck
whoops everything’s volcanoes now it’s
I’m a officially I’m a one-trick pony
volcano clerics volcano robes volcano
peasants so um wizard class subclass
design like if you have read Zenith ours
guide to everything you may have noticed
we had all of one subclass for the
wizard in part because there are already
eight subclasses for the wizard in The
Player’s Handbook and that’s if you’re a
wizard fan you’re welcome a lot of that
was driven by oops where am I doing here
she won compendium a lot I was just
driven by the idea that we have the
schools of magic it made sense for the
Wizards subclasses to be based on them
and it just felt goofy to like only give
you four right like that would give you
all eight because that we don’t know
what so glad what school of magic you
like we’re not gonna try to guess it
does mean designing wizard subclasses is
its own kind of pain and the but because
you got eight things to look at now I
always usually I just cheat and I do my
first pass by comparing it to the
invoker the Evoque is kind of like the
baseline wizard if you have looked at
the Dini basic rules the Evoque errs the
wizard you get there but realistically
what will happen is you will end up
accidentally duplicating things some
other subclasses so first things first
let’s take a look at our wizard
character class and what we see is that
the wizard is getting its arcane
tradition it’s the name of their so
class at second level now we’ve talked a
bit about how most classes give you a
subclass at first or third the wizard is
giving it to you its second however we
think of them as being first level
selections in terms of the design
and their impact on the character class
the arcane tradition comes in its second
level primarily because the wizard class
he already has enough stuff going on
that we didn’t really feel the need that
complexity wise we didn’t need to put it
at first it would have been a little too
much stuff we fell and because we really
wanted you to get our car cane recovery
very early because it’s a very nice way
to keep the wizard powered up now arcane
recovery if you’re not familiar with it
it’s a class feature that when you take
a short rest once per day you can regain
expended spell slots so we thought that
was pretty important to get in at low
level and we felt the arcane tradition
it could wait we wanted to make these
meaty but we didn’t want to compete with
the rest of the conceptual stuff that
was going on with wizard so we delayed
it but essentially it’s treated as a
first level choice in terms of how
character defining it is the so because
if you see otherwise you know let’s look
take a look here’s the rest of the
wizard class features you get your
arcane tradition you get some ability
score improvements an 18th level okay so
we’ve just jumped from second level to
18th again just to show you this is how
important our King tradition is it’s it
is the load-bearing element of this
class in terms of class features I am
actually really happy with the design of
the wizard I think it’s of the spell the
cleric is probably my favorites the
Wizards right up there in terms of
delivering the subclass character class
pieces where the wizard is like look you
get arcane spells and then the subclass
the arcane tradition is like and here
the spells that you prefer or the style
of smell you prefer so I really like how
it works together it does mean though
that it’s a lot it’s a lot of features
and it’s a lot of sub subclasses to
compare to so the first thing I want to
do is and I think of a psionic mage we
obviously are thinking of psychic
abilities with the schools of magic the
first thing you do we did let’s go look
at our spell list so let’s do that right
now so what we really want to say is
this is a made
or wizard who captures the feel of
psionics feels the feel of Sonics and I
want to ma’am make a list of signature
spells we’re gonna go through the spell
list and we’re gonna take a look at
which spells we think would fit as being
sort of psionic in nature another thing
to do
we’ll look at the spells then we’ll take
a look at some of them our sort of
iconic sonic monsters and see which ones
are Oh like the mind flayer has the
spell or this ability let’s make sure we
have a spell that looks like it alright
so starting off with can trips now
there’s a little bit of a trick here
because I’ve done a little bit of this
investigation earlier because what we’re
gonna find is with can trips of these
canned trips that’s the acid splash no
blade Ward bloomin blade she’ll touch
control flames I’m just doing a quick
surface thing I’m not gonna try to like
sort of get into the details just say
hey based on the name friends I guess
kind of yeah it’s sort of like bending
mine’s frostbite gust infestation light
lightning they’re a mage hand machen
yeah it’s kind of feels like telekinesis
bending messages message does that show
up in your mind or is its whispering I’m
gonna be like I’m at the m’s and still I
have three kind of minor illusion mold
earth poison spray prestidigitation so
here’s where we fronted the first
challenge we have because I’m getting
into shape water shock grass sword burst
it’s really just me an hour reading
spell names I’m not seeing necessarily
the at-will abilities I’d want here so I
think friends may chant and message
start to get out what we want but we
really want is a psychic damage can trip
and we want some sort of ESP Kenshin
so this is okay I’m not worried about
saying I need to add some spells because
I think this is sort of showing us hey
right now in the system even if you’re
like willing to say look just give me a
wizard subclass that hits what I’m
looking for them the Sion oh yeah let’s
just call this guy the Sion the class
kameena mystic but we’ll just say this
is the Sion we’re already kind of on
shaky ground
we don’t really know keep in mind this
is the players handbook the spell lists
are made for the eight schools of magic
but it is something that will often come
up when you’re thinking of a new wizard
subclass especially a wizard subclass
that deals with a style of magic we
might just not have spells in the system
but unless you design them that really
match the flavor you want for instance
you might say let’s do a wizard who’s
all rune magic that sounds cool but
again you kind of run into this idea of
like well they’re the can trips and the
existing spells capture the flavor we
want I’m willing to the first three
levels of spells because since we are
and we have about twelve minutes left I
don’t want to spend the entire stream
and actually I might even start stop at
first level and just do that the first
the second level of feature same thing
let’s Gianna do a quick thing quick look
at our first level spells anything here
that feels really like ESP I guess cause
fear kind of feels that way it’s I’m
influencing emotions charm person same
thing let’s see again I’m not seeing
anything here that to me screams
psionics
hideous act it really just feels like a
charm to me though I’m not gonna put it
down maybe I might go back and do it
again if I’m missing things may I read
now the thing to keep in mind though is
I’ll comprehend languages yeah I could
see that
we’re not saying these the only spells
you can get but I’m just looking for
spells that start giving me a theme I
can build around I’m not really seeing
thunder wave I guess could be like and
maybe unseen serving but again what I’m
seeing is when I look at these I’m
seeing of the same thing kind of come up
again and again I’m getting very limited
emotion control and I’m getting a very
like I have to kind of twist things to
make them feel like telekinesis let’s
see
gromer riff Grom ralphus does that barb
might be more fruitful good call you
know what let’s do that let’s hop over
to the barn list because I think that
might be
oops no but I want the what I need to do
is come over here to my spells let’s
check out that barn list do we have some
things here that look more more
promising I do a quick look through here
vicious mockery maybe for a canned trip
but it’s so iconic to the bard I don’t
know if it’s gonna I just feel like I’m
dipping the bard list let’s see
dissonant whispers okay yeah I think I
saw that come up in chat too let’s throw
that one in there the earth tremor fury
fire and I think we said that’s
something now let’s take a look what
does dissonant whispers doing let’s see
yes / discordant melody that only one
creature choice can hear causes great
pain let’s pick a wisdom saving throw
taking psychic damage yeah let’s do that
I must merely use this reaction to move
somebody you’re driving away that’s cool
but you know what what we couldn’t do
here is let’s do this let’s look at all
our spells and say all spells and let’s
look for psychic damage because that’s
PI also another indicator that we’ve got
a spell that is doing something that
might feel psionic so damage tight
and luckily handy-dandy D&E beyond lets
us filter spells by damage type all
right so we’ve got chaos bull distant
whispers feeble my oh it’s lovely
let’s hear it sort by level so vicious
mockery there we captured chaos both
interesting I we’re not a guest chaos
vault did oh I see because it’s the
damage type is random so that would not
miss a be a sonic thing wrath will smite
and okay there we go mine spiked at
second level halo that’s definitely a
sign exciting spell I think phantasmo
for something either that makes sense
but you can see there’s nothing at third
level so we’ve got a limit of our work
cut out for us so one of the things the
first thing that makes me think then is
maybe we should take a look at saying
hey you’re the scion again this is kind
of hacky this is not our official
response to Sonic’s this is just
something which let’s throw this
together to see how this can work
let’s take a look maybe there’s some way
well you know maybe there’s some way we
can add sonic damage to your spell’s and
maybe that’s one of the first things you
get so let’s take a look we’re in the
wizard and let’s take a look I like it I
like to use the evoker as the baseline
because this is where having work on the
game I know the evoker was the first one
we designed and it’s the one we balanced
all the other ones off of when you’re
dealing with eight subclasses it’s nice
to have like well here’s this the
starting point within the players
handbook so the first thing he vocations
savant when you select the school at
second level it’s cheaper to add spells
into your spell book we don’t have a
handy hook for psionics but what I think
I might do here is maybe do something
with it has to do with the mind in
storing spells we’ll get to that in a
sec and then sculpt spells beginning at
second level you can create pockets of
safety within the effects of your a
vocation spells when you cast one of
those spells you can choose a number of
creatures equal to one plus the spells
level those creatures automatically make
their saving throws and take no damage
if they would normally take half damage
on the successful save this is a very
useful feature it might not seem like
that at first but really what it lets
you do is indiscriminately drop
fireballs or any other AoE on your
your allies and with without worrying
about harming them so what we’re seeing
here what I the important thing about
this feature is it shows off the design
concept behind the wizard subclasses as
a whole and rather than say you get this
benefit with a vocation spells now this
one does right when you cast in he
vocation spell but the idea was to say
what are benefits we can give you that
rather than make you think Oh spells
more powerful by throwing more dice on
them
what are how do you want to use those
spells and how can we make it easier to
use those spells that’s really what
we’re trying to get here is that we’re
gonna make you feel like oh yeah when I
you I want to use those spells as often
as I can cause I’m just really good at
it but they’re not just power levels
stronger that may be more versatile now
at higher level the temp/w you add your
intelligence mod but it’s not that’s not
a lot it’s actually really nice leader
it’s really mourning but your can trips
the six level your can trips do half
damage but again that’s not really
that’s kind of power neutral it might
not sound like it but it’s actually kind
of like it’s your can trip set of your
base level damage you’re doing less than
that so it just it feels nice but it’s
not necessary something like well that
makes your character more powerful no
one wants to miss or have their enemies
make saving throws this is just sort of
mitigating that and then the over
channel is basically lets you throw out
a really big boom at a cost
this is a good example of this over
channel feature we could have just said
when you cast up there was a wizard
spell of 1st through 5th level you can
maximize the damage do that once prolong
rest but the idea behind evoker was to
make them feel a little dangerous let’s
make their main magical field a little
unstable
so the flavor we’re delivering here
saying look you can do you can try doing
this more than once but you start taking
damage so and I saw suggested in chat
hell la night demon give them subtle
spell yeah I think that’s pretty cool I
think that’s the kind of thing we want
to do here is like just make this the
guy who can do stuff without gonna start
getting noticed so let’s throw two
things here let’s do our second level
abilities and then see that’s the kind
of direction I want to go so the first
thing the first thought I had was since
we don’t have an easy way to describe
these spells as Scrolls was to say oops
let’s do this every psychic library what
I want this to do is essentially create
a bank of spells that you can more
easily prepare or maybe swap into so
here’s whatever what I mean by that what
I want to give them this idea is that as
a Sion you really understand your mind
and you know how to manipulate it to the
point where your knowledge and memory is
a bit more efficient than others so
sorry it’s second-level you can swap and
I’m not gonna do the thing because way
up take three minutes I don’t want to
spend the time looking at the rules but
so what a prepared spell for a different
spell once per short rest so that’s what
I’m kind of think of this idea is you’re
really good at your head use your mind
and keeping your memory straight you’re
better at than other wizards I can’t
give you just like cheaper access to
Scrolls what I’ll do is I’ll give you
some more flexibility the and then for
your sort of the real ability let’s do
this the subtle spell thing is nice but
it’s a little situational so I like it I
think it might be something that would
probably just rest on top of your other
spells so here I’ll put this call it
subtle magic and just at second level
and spells without using
will a somatic components that’s really
flavorful but it’s not necessarily power
what I thought about doing was something
with giving you like an ESP at second
level you gain telepathy and and here’s
something I’m thinking about and when
you inflict on a creature and try to you
can bait another effect and here’s just
some a sample so what I’m thinking this
like what’s going on here is I’m very
good at mind stuff the you know I may
have completely messed up
great bulkeley’s I don’t have for PE LC
I may have I may have actually made that
much better because I might let you cast
in armor which I don’t want you to do so
we’ll just here you can cast spells in a
way that makes them hard to let’s do
that cuz again we look stuff up if I
wasn’t rushing to end this before time
is up I would look it up but the app so
I’ll just put that note say that’s what
I’m trying to do it’s hard to tell the
to casting a spell and I think this is
something like what I want you be able
to is you hit someone with psychic
damage so I mean sending you to grab as
many spells with psychic damage as
possible when I do psychic damage to
someone I want to do do things like read
their mind track their location see view
their recent past so this idea being
that you’re kind of like this weird like
knowledge mage because they’re really
good at you know the with psionics
you’re very good at manipulating Minds
maybe you are invisible to them you know
and by that I put a question mark there
to let myself remember I’m not saying do
this but I’m saying directionally do
this I can mess with their senses I
guess I put that but the idea being I’m
really good at
altering people’s minds and when I I
want to incentivize you to look for
certain spells not many of which we have
in the game so when you probably need to
design a few spells to go with this guy
but this is someone who can who can mess
with minds on a level of that that other
wizards can’t so we are at five of which
brings us to the end but you can see
already what I’m hoping you’re seeing
here is why sanics at least I always
felt they would really would deserve
another character class because we when
we were creating the wizard we didn’t
necessarily say don’t do anything that
feels like soundex but we felt like
let’s not try to stretch the spell list
to include that stuff because we want we
want to leave room for sonics eventually
and we didn’t feel like putting it into
the wizard in passing was not something
we wanted to do we wanted to do it more
thoughtfully if there were just a lot of
spells or iconic to the game that felt
psionic great just put them in the game
because people expect them but if not
don’t try to stretch to put the man
there’s plenty of other spells we can do
you can kind of see that’s happening
here within the wizard we just don’t
have any spells that are fitting the
sort of psychic flavor we’re looking for
and our mechanics therefore are getting
a little bit stretch to actually fit
what we want so probably I’ll do next
week is uh show off like how we might
design a couple spells and then to fill
in some of those gaps or maybe another
thing we can do is give a mechanism here
but I don’t like mechanics that are like
your spells now do psychic damage is it
a fire damage or whatever you just end
up with goofy things like it’s a
lightning bolt but instead of being a
lightning bolt it’s doing the psychic –
like what’s the point right so the but
anyways I think this is kind of
interesting since sort of shows this is
a great example of why we end up then
saying do we need a new character class
because you’re looking at the system
going room to really make this work we
have to add a lot of features and we’re
kind of starting to stretch things in
ways they don’t naturally map to the
it’s the same thing why the artificer
makes sense as a class lose I feel
because when you try replicating it in
other character classes you end up like
a nod not it doesn’t feel quite right so
anyway what we’ve got here is we have
our disaster barbarian who’ll get a
spiffed up better name if I have time
supreme is e week
I’ll see if I have time to like spiff up
the barbarian a bit so I can show off
finished form on stream next week I’m
not sure I’ll have time for it but yeah
we’ll do a little bit more on the scion
or maybe the psychic or the mind mage
will kind of I think this is one where
our name will come up later and again
keep in mind this is something which you
will not see this in UA because really
what we’re doing is I’m designing a
subclass to kind of show off like could
you do psionics with the existing rules
an existing character classes I think
the answer is no but I want to kind of
show you like why is it no and hopefully
that’s kind of interesting and then
we’ll dive into the next subclass next
weeks I think we’ll probably spend like
another 15 20 minutes on this one kind
of maybe identify some of the gaps and
then and then move on to something a
little more interesting but the actually
be kind of fun to kind of show off like
why I feel a mystic makes sense as a
class the and then the hopefully we’ll
do some or subclasses and I think you
know what it may be like in a few more
weeks – it will tackle ax maybe we’ll
start doing some stuff for the artifice
you’re on the stream we’ll see the eye
depends on our schedule and depends on
when we want to push out the next play
test version of it but now I think I
think it’d be fun to show off a
character class and how that all works
and then the difference in scope I think
we’ve done enough sub we’re starting to
enough subclasses now that we’re
starting to like say okay now why don’t
we take a next step out and look at what
making a class looks like all right well
thanks everyone for joining in thanks to
chat for chiming in and helping spur
some great ideas I’m pretty excited
about the disaster barbarian and I think
it’s be kind of fun to show off again
there’s some of the limits of the game
and why we see the mystic as a character
class rather than a subclass of other
classes until next week I keep playing
the indie and I’ll see you in Butz but a
week
[Music]
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— Dungeons & Dragons (@Wizards_DnD) April 24, 2018