Exclusive Interview On D&D: The Sundering, Part 2

The following is a reproduction of an exclusive interview with Liz Schuh, Head of Publishing and Licensing for Dungeon & Dragons, and Laura Tommervik, Senior Brand Manage for D&D. It was published on ICv2.com, on August 6, 2013. This is the second of a 2-part series.

In this exclusive interview with Liz Schuh, Head of Publishing and Licensing for Dungeons & Dragons and Laura Tommervik, Sr. Brand Manager for D&D, we talk about the Sundering event, and in particular how it’s affecting organized play for Dungeons and Dragons, and why.  In Part 2, we learn more about changes to the D&D Encounters program for The Sundering, the associated miniatures, the book schedule, and the T-shirt.

Turning to Dungeons & Dragons Encounters (for information on how the program is changing, see "Changes to 'D&D' Encounters"), there was some reaction from retailers that the old Encounters program provided play materials that were free as part of the program and now you need to buy specific product in order to run Encounters.  Can you talk about that change and the rationale for making that change?
Schuh:  The Encounters program has always been about providing a great play experience for players and that is still the emphasis and, in fact, what we’ve been able to do by shifting the adventure content out of the kit, is to beef up the contents of those kits and make the in-store experience a very unique and premium experience.  People who play through the adventures at their local Encounters store will get access to augmented items, posters, maps of Baldur’s Gate, some special limited edition dice, all things that really beef up the experience and make it truly the best place to experience the adventure.

By the same token, we’re also making sure that players have access to the adventure even if they don’t have access to an Encounters store.  We know some of our players don’t have nearby stores that they can easily access on a regular basis, and they’ve been asking us since the program started, if they can get their hands on the adventure content so they can play along.  Now we’re able to offer that to players but still keeping the real premium experience at retail. 

So you’re playing the same thing as you’re playing at Encounters, but the Encounters play involves these extra materials?
Schuh:  That’s correct, so for those who want to play it home because they don’t have a store nearby, they still can.  They can participate in these Sundering adventures.  But people who play in an Encounters store, we know that the retailers really provide that extra special experience. 

We’ve heard some reactions that the old Encounters adventures used to be more stand-alone and now players have to be more involved in a more sustained way.  Can you discuss the rationale of involving people in a more engaged way over a longer period, as opposed to more stand-alone?
Schuh:  I think it goes back to the same idea that we’re providing a great entertainment experience and we really want them to enjoy their play at store.  It’s really a whole experience for them to go through week by week. I don’t see a huge change there.

This is the first campaign that we’re aware of that is announced as being compatible with 3.5E, 4E and Next rules.  Can you explain why you expanded the types of rules that can be used with the Encounters program, and are those all in the book or are those in separate materials?
Schuh:  We really wanted to make sure that all D&D players could engage with this great adventure story and so we know that some people are playing with the playtest rules, some are diehard 4th Edition players, and we also wanted to open it up to people who may still be using 3.5 rules.  We think it really expands out the audience and lets all D&D players enjoy the fun. 

A big part of this is shifting our emphasis away from the rules we’re delivering to the great stories that we’re delivering.  This is a great Sundering adventure; it lets people participate in the future of the Forgotten Realms; and for us, whatever rule set is their favorite rule set, that’s great and we don’t want to get in the way of that decision.  We want them to participate in this great story. 

Are the different rules for this in the book itself--Murder in Baldur’s Gate--or are they stand-alone, separate materials?
Schuh:  They can be downloaded from our Website.

You were doing that for the Next rules before, so the change is really the addition of the 3.5 rules?
Schuh:  Yes, just broadening the appeal.

Will there be any interim information available from the Encounters reporting, or is this going to be one big report back to players at the end of the yearlong Sundering event? 
Schuh:  We’ll be sharing the results along the way.  I think it’ll be really neat for the D&D community to see what other players are experiencing.  We also have some other great content in there.  We have some wonderful video assets.  We’ll be doing on-going trivia with people.  People can meet and connect with other adventurers and companions and create a profile.  So really it’s this really great ongoing tool to keep people engaged in the campaign through the great content that we’ll be providing.  It’s really a living, breathing tool that we’re hoping that people will want to stay engaged with over the whole course of the campaign, and mostly to connect with other D&D players in the community.

This is for use by every player, not just the dungeon master or a single person for a group, but by each player themselves?
Correct.  We’re hoping that everybody can engage with it.  We’re hoping everybody wants to. Certainly it’s open to players and dungeon masters and retailers for that matter.   We really just want to hear about people’s adventuring. 

Any other ways The Sundering is going to play out in the marketplace?
Our partner Gale Force 9 (see "'Dungeons & Dragons' Miniatures") is doing a special limited edition run of all The Sundering heroes from the six novels.  They are also doing a limited run of the Isteval character, the paladin that I mentioned earlier.  So the people who really love the hobby of painting their metal miniatures will be able to paint up some of the key heroes from The Sundering adventures and Sundering stories.

When will those come out?
Those will be coming out this fall.  They’ll have a limited number of advance items available at Gen Con, but the products themselves will be launching in conjunction with the novel releases.  The very first one, which is the Drizzt and Guenhwyvar minis series, will be on sale at the end of August.  They’ll do a few presales at Gen Con, but it really launches at the end of August. 

What is the schedule for the novel releases?
It’s about every other month.   Salvatore in August. In October we have Paul Kemp; in December, we have Erin M. Evans; in February Richard Lee Byers; in April we have Troy Denning; and then Ed Greenwood wraps the story up in June of 2014. 

We’re also be debuting a Sundering t-shirt at Gen Con.  This t-shirt will feature Drizzt and Guenhwyvar  from the cover of The Companions, and it has a cool Sundering logo on it.  That will be a t-shirt that carries the whole Sundering campaign through to apparel.  That’s from our partner, Araca.

Exclusive Interview On D&D: The Sundering, Part 1

The following is a reproduction of an exclusive interview with Liz Schuh, Head of Publishing and Licensing for Dungeon & Dragons, and Laura Tommervik, Senior Brand Manage for D&D. It was published on ICv2.com, on August 6, 2013. This is the first of a 2-part series, with Part 2 being published tomorrow.

Wizards of the Coast is launching Dungeons & Dragons:  The Sundering, a transmedia gaming event that spans game and fiction products, aggressively integrates organized play and mobile gaming into product development, and incorporates a licensing stream tied to the event.  The Sundering was first announced almost a year ago at Gen Con as a storyline for Forgotten Realms that would include six novels by different authors and two game products (see “The ‘D&D Next’ Keynote”).  But as the full scale of the event unfolds, it’s clear that those are only two aspects of a much bigger program leading to the Next edition of Dungeons and Dragons.  
 
The first product in The Sundering, R. A. Salvatore’s The Companions:  The Sundering Book 1, launches today, and the first game product, Murder at Baldur’s Gate, in two weeks on August 20. 
 
In this exclusive interview with Liz Schuh, Head of Publishing and Licensing for Dungeons & Dragons and Laura Tommervik, Sr. Brand Manager for D&D, we talk about the Sundering event, and in particular how it’s affecting organized play for Dungeons and Dragons, and why.  In Part 1, we get a birds-eye view of the event, begin to learn how D&D Encounters and mobile gaming will affect the story, and find out the role that comics will play.  In Part 2, we learned more about changes to the D&D Encounters program for The Sundering, the associated miniatures, the book schedule, and the T-shirt.

The Sundering has morphed into something bigger than the fiction and role-playing adventures.  Can you tell us about the overall program?
Schuh:  We’ve got a lot of exciting things coming up to support “The Sundering.”  For us, most exciting and most current is the release of The Companions: [The Sundering] on August 6, which is the first of The Sundering novels.  It’s also the latest from R.A. Salvatore.  But along with that, we’ve got two great Sundering adventures. We talked about adventures coming last Gen Con, but obviously we have more detail now.  The first is Murder in Baldur’s Gate, and that releases this month.  It’s followed by The Legacy of the Crystal Shard, which releases later this fall, and that adventure is set in and around Ten Towns in Icewind Dale. 

We’re really taking players to iconic locations within the Forgotten Realms and letting them play very exciting adventures that tie to The Sundering, but aren’t directly connected to the events in the novel.  So players don’t have to read the novels; we certainly think they will enjoy the novels and it will give them a very nice overview of everything that’s going on related to The Sundering. The adventures are stand-alone stories that they can play through and really enjoy as bite-sized stories set in the time and the backdrop of The Sundering events.   

What is The Sundering?
Schuh:  The Sundering is the last of a series of ground-shaking events.  It really affects the whole world of the Forgotten Realms in a major way.  You may remember when the Spell Plagues began, the two worlds of the Forgotten Realms, Abeir and Toril, crashed together.  That created both geographic changes (the map of the Forgotten Realms and Faerun actually changed due to that collision), and also changed the way magic works.  It changed the pantheon of the gods.  The Sundering is all about those two worlds separating –coming apart—and the process of that separation is really the story that we’re telling over the next year.  At the end of this story arc, Abeir and Toril will be separate again, and many of the things that happened when they crashed together will go back to the way they were before.  So magic will be much like it was before the Spell Plague. Markings that marked spell-plagued people and animals will fade and go away. 

It’s really about moving the Forgotten Realms forward, but also about bringing it around to the most beloved and most fondly remembered Forgotten Realms.

What can you tell us about the coordination between fiction and the new game products?
Tommervik:  One of the things that’s really exciting about this campaign is  players are going to have the opportunity to impact and shape the future of The Forgotten Realms and make their stories legend.  And so the way that these products all interact, the players, through their play at D&D Encounters will be able to go in and play and then report back the outcome of their play.  We’re going to be collecting that data over the course of the campaign. 

What does it mean to “report the outcome of their play”?
Tommervik: We’re providing an online reporting tool, essentially.  It’s called The Sundering Adventurer’s Chronicle.  This tool will be accessible to everyone.  It will provide updates on The Sundering story as we go through the course of this yearlong campaign.  It will also provide players, on a weekly basis, to report what they experience at D&D Encounters, and we’ll share those results with the broader community so people have a sense of how things are evolving.  And at the end of each of the Encounter seasons, we will share with all the players, ultimately, what the results of their aggregate actions were. 

Is it a narrative or a form they fill out to report what happened?
Tommervik:  They’ll be given a series of questions, and it will be very obvious to the players based on the way that we’re posing the questions in terms of what their group experienced.  These adventures are incredible.  They’ve been designed in a special way such that we’re able to track this information and ultimately, at the end of the day, what the most players experienced, world-wide, will become canon.  The results of that play will be reflected in future products and program offerings for Dungeons and Dragons.  So essentially we’re giving the Realms back to the D&D community and allowing players to really shape the future and make their stories part of the legend of Dungeons and Dragons. 

Schuh:  The stories they tell in their adventures are just as important as what our authors are telling in The Sundering novels, and that some of our other partners are telling in other products that are part of The Sundering launch. 

Mobile gaming and comics are two other categories that were mentioned as being involved with The Sundering.  In the case of the comics, are they going to tell stories that are related to The Sundering? And what’s going to happen in the mobile games?
Schuh:  I’ll start with the comics.  Our partner, IDW, is releasing a new series called Thieves of Calimport (a city in The Forgotten Realms) and that series is written by Richard Baker, who’s one of our fan favorite Forgotten Realms authors and game designers.  So he’s got a unique and different perspective on the events of The Sundering that he’ll be telling through those comics.  The series really explores another personal story with the backdrop of The Sundering events.  The interior art will be by Robert Gill, and we’re still working out some of the details.  We’ll be able to announce soon who’s doing the cover art and some of the other details of the release.

When is it launching?
Schuh:  We’re working with IDW to set a launch date, but it will definitely be within the window of Sundering events.

Which is a year?
Schuh:  Yes.

This will be a four or six book miniseries?
Schuh:  Correct. It will be similar to the [Dungeons and Dragons:]Cutter series.

What about the mobile game?
Tommervik: We’re really excited about it. It’s called Arena of Warand this is the first free Dungeons and Dragons game to come to the mobile platform.  It’s going to be a 3-D battle roleplaying game, and it does take place in The Forgotten Realms.  It does reflect all of the current events in The Sundering, and as Liz mentioned, The Sundering happens on many levels all the way from the common adventures to all the way up to the gods, so you have a power struggle between the gods of good and evil in the events of The Sundering.  And players in the mobile game will essentially be fighting on behalf of good.  So they’ll go into the mobile game and be able to customize a powerful warrior and send them into battle.  And because of the platform that Arena of Waris on we will, of course, be able to track player’s play and the outcomes and those will also impact the fate of the Realms that will also be reflected in later products including within the mobile experience itself.

Schuh: So it’s another avenue for players to really get involved in determining the fate of The Forgotten Realms. 

Tommervik: And you’ll see a key character that we’ll be using throughout this campaign. His name is Isteval and he is a paladin who acts as a guide through the campaigns.  He guides you through your quests and provides hints and tips in the Arena of War game. He also appears as an NPC in the tabletop RPG adventures, and you’ll see him popping up in videos and other venues on our Website as well.

D&D Next Chat Summary & Full Transcript

Earlier today, I took part in the D&D Next online chat with Mike Mearls and Jeremy Crawford.  Salient things to me where:

The detailed 4E style of combat resolution will most likely be offered as an optional module that you and your gaming group can choose to incorporate.  It will not be part of the core rules.

Wizards at-will abilities may be a bit overpowered right now.  Specific reference was made to the auto-hit magic missile.  However, their current design philosophy is start powerful and then tone down, if necessary.

The design team is currently working on a combat maneuver system that will form part of the playtest later on.

Some races will have a cultural affinity for certain weapons. This cultural affinity will give them a bigger damage die when using those weapons, like a halfling using a sling has a 1d8 damage die instead of the regular 1d6.

Different possibilities for Attacks of Opportunities were discussed.  Bottom line, current design team does not want everyone to be able to have them as part of the core rules, but they expect certain characters and monsters to be able to do them as a special ability.

As far as playtest schedule goes, they expect to put out big updates every 5 to 6 weeks.  Upcoming are more fighter options and a tactical rules module.

There was good discussion on background and themes.  Can't summarize it all here but suffice it to say that themes and their perks will improve as you level up and rules are being considered for allowing a player to have more than one theme as the character develops.

They recognized that the Ambusher rogue ability is currently "very lame in practice".  It will be either revised or eliminated.

It is likely that long term wounds will not be part of the core rules.  Optional wound rules may be provided for the DMs to incorporate in their campaigns.  Mike Mearls has toyed with the idea of a "wound system where you get some effect each time you drop below 0 hp, to represent a bad injury, For instance, broken bones, strained joints, concussions, etc."

The "long rest heals everything" rule may be dialed back.  Under consideration are rules that will allow you to heal a specific number of hit dice only, based on CON or class.

A lot more stuff was discussed.  You will find the full transcript of the online chat below.


FULL CHAT TRANSCRIPT

11:42

Trevor: 

Welcome to this week's D&D Next Playtest Q&A. Mike and Jeremy will be joining us shortly. This is a moderated chat, which means we will see your questions and comments, but the room won't see them until we push them live so Mike and Jeremy can give you an answer. 

11:45

Trevor: 

And the stars have arrived! Let's get a brief introduction from the two of you and then jump into some questions!

11:45

Mearls: 

Hey everyone. My name is Mike Mearls and I am the senior manager for the D&D team.

11:46

Jeremy Crawford: 

I'm Jeremy Crawford, head of development and editing for D&D.

11:46

Jeremy Crawford: 

Bring on the questions!

11:46

Trevor: 

Starting up the questions now!

11:47

Comment From Mike Looney  I've noticed that to hit doesn't seem to go up with levels or with monster's hit points. Is this in fact correct or is it an artifact of the play test material being for 1-3rd level only?

11:48

Mearls: 

You don't see those number rise at levels 1 to 3, but we are overall toning down numerical advancement. The classes generally get more stuff to do, rather than bigger numbers. With a flatter curve, we can make monsters and characters scale much better. For instance, a 10th-level party can still take on orcs as a viable threat, they'll just fight a ton of them. 

11:48

Jeremy Crawford: 

Yeah, we want to see less number inflation throughout the system.

11:49

Jeremy Crawford: 

Except for the number of monsters, that is. :)

11:50

Comment From Brian  Can you explain where the extra +2 damage for the fighter comes from (beyond Weapon Focus)? Will we get an explanation of the racial benefits to damage and hit dice soon so we can understand what to do as characters change equipment?

11:50

Jeremy Crawford: 

The fighter's bonus comes from the class's advancement table. It's a class feature.

11:51

Comment From mepstein73  Hello! Just wondering why the wizard's cantrips are so strong. Ray of Frost can end combat pretty quickly, and Magic Missile is very powerful if it's unlimited/day.

11:51

Jeremy Crawford: 

As for the racial benefits, there will more explanation when we release the information on building your own character. 

11:53

Mearls: 

I think that for at-will abilities, we might have made them a little overpowered a bit in terms of math and feel. For instance, does it feel OK that magic missile does auto damage every round? The speed thing on ray of frost is tricky, because it can vary from being very powerful to being useless.

11:53

Mearls: 

I think getting the minor spells right will take a few iterations. NQ.

11:53

Jeremy Crawford: 

When we playtest things, we prefer to start powerful and tone things down, rather than starting weak and beefing things up, hence the spells' potency.

11:53

Comment From lucinian  Thanks for taking the time to do these chats. They're very informative, and help let us know you really care what we think. My question: There seems to be, overall, very little from 4E that's made it into the core rules for D&D Next. What can 4E fans expect going forward?

11:54

Jeremy Crawford: 

Things we love about 4th Edition continue to work their way into the design. The at-will spells are a great example of such a thing. 

11:55

Mearls: 

There are quite a few core 4e changes that are in the game - at will magic, the hit die mechanic, the clarity of the combat rules. These are all trend lines that started with 4e and have moved forward. In terms of powers, we're working on a combat maneuver system right now and will show that off as part the ongoing playtest.

11:55

Mearls: 

Also, I did some work over the weekend on the tactical rules options. In many ways, the depth of 4e's approach to combat and options will sit atop the system you've seen so far as rules modules.

11:55

Jeremy Crawford: 

Our current work on monsters is also being informed by some of the advances that 4E brought to the presentation of monsters' abilities. 

11:56

Mearls: 

That's right - monsters haven't seen much work yet, so you'll see a 4e influence there, too. NQ

11:56

Comment From Guest  One of my questions is this... in the weapons descriptions the sling is listed as a 1d6 weapon. However, with the rogue character it is a 1d8. Why is that?

11:57

Mearls: 

Races that have a cultural affinity for weapons get a die bump in damage. So, halflings are good with slings and therefore use a bigger damage die. NQ.

11:57

Comment From NumberOneTheLarch  Hello and thank you for answering our questions. I wanted to ask about skills themselves. In the playtest, your skill bonuses are derived from your Background. In your plans for DnD Next, is this the only source for skill bonuses, or will there be an option or implementation to select individual skill bonuses through other means? Thank you again!

11:57

Jeremy Crawford: 

Also, one of our developers is currently doing a review of every weapon. Expect some of the dice to change. 

11:58

Mearls: 

You can gain more skills through your class and through your theme. 

11:58

Mearls: 

The samples we showed off don't happen to offer that. But as an example - the rogue class receives a few bonus skill, and you can expect the same for the ranger. NQ. 

11:58

Jeremy Crawford: 

We will also provide an option for you to build your own background, which effectively means you can choose skills a la carte.

11:59

Comment From Rheim  I have a question about Armor balance. From the playtesting guide, it seems that there isn't a good balance between Light/Medium and Heavy Armors. Are there revised rules coming out on this? Right now there seems little advantage to wearing say, Heavy Armor versus Medium Armor.

12:00

Jeremy Crawford: 

Armor--that's going through the same review with weapons, so I expect changes there too. 

12:00

Mearls: 

Yes, armor will go back to the drawing board. We included it in the document as a reference, but it hasn't received a lot of attention. I'd like to see if we even need medium armor in the game. Starting gear might also change - you might start lower on the totem pole and buy your way up to better armor over the first few levels. NQ. 

12:00

Comment From Roll 3d6  I like where this edition is going. Thank you! Had a question regarding the Guardian Talent for the Cleric. We saw that there is currently no limit for how often the Cleric can shield someone. Should this be 1x/round?

12:01

Jeremy Crawford: 

That ability requires the cleric to use it as a reaction, and a character can take a reaction only once per round.

12:02

Jeremy Crawford: 

Next question! 

12:02

Comment From The rogue  Why did you decide to remove the different types of actions? (Standard/Move/Minor/Free)

12:03

Mearls: 

Two reasons. First, we wanted to speed up play. We found that some players felt that they had to use each of those actions, and would slow the game down trying to find things to do. Second, we decided to start with simple rules and see what people felt they needed added to the core, as opposed to a rules module, through the test. Sometimes, having the action buckets led to design that existed only to fill those buckets, rather than design that made the game more fun or more interesting. 

12:04

Jeremy Crawford: 

We have played with several versions of the action system. The one you're using now is the simplest. We want to see how far we can go with it. 

12:04

Jeremy Crawford: 

Next question! 

12:04

Comment From Guest  About hiding. When I try to hide it is an action. If no-one see me (no LoS) I guess it's no roll and no action, right?

12:05

Jeremy Crawford: 

The thing to keep in mind is that hiding involves being both out of sight and silent. 

12:05

Jeremy Crawford: 

If you're out of sight, you aren't necessarily hidden. You could be making a bunch of noise.

12:06

Jeremy Crawford: 

Hiding is something you do consciously and carefully, hence it requiring an action. 

12:06

Jeremy Crawford: 

Next question!

12:07

Comment From Pentadrone  How will low wisdom rogues be able to scout effectively? Feats? Will you be adding skills back into the mix so characters can overcome stat deficiencies?

12:08

Mearls: 

Obviously, the pregen isn't the best scout. We had talked about giving the rogue class an extra bonus to finding traps, so that's something we'll look at. The key with the rogue will be in making sure that the class does the things people expect. The error might simply be in treating Wis as the dump stat for the pregen. We've also thought about letting rogues use a different stat to find traps, such as Intelligence. NQ. 

12:10

Comment From Darklight  Q: When are we going to be given the chance to provide some actual feedback, and when do you estimate the next phase of the playtest will take place?

12:12

Mearls: 

I believe that the first survey launches later this week, plus we're watching forums and blogs for reactions. Posting a playtest recap in a forum or blog is great, because we get to read it and it helps get people talking about issues.

The next phase will depend on what the feedback looks like. I'd like to start pushing out some more fighter options and perhaps show off the tactical rules module.

As far as an actual schedule, we're aiming at a big update about every 5 to 6 weeks. NQ.

12:12

Jeremy Crawford: 

Mike is typing away. 

12:12

Comment From Scipio202  Right now there are no rules that give a downside for moving in combat. Opportunity attacks can get complicated quickly, but are you considering a simple version for the core rules? (e.g. the mover is only subject to OAs from enemies that made a melee attack at them within the last round)

12:14

Mearls: 

A rule for breaking away from melee is something we've seen come up a bit. It's a tricky thing to navigate. It might come in as a rules module. The hard part has been finding a rule that works that also doesn't feel too restrictive. For instance, for a while the rule was that your movement stopped if you entered a hostile creature's reach. However, that feels a little artificial. 

12:15

Jeremy Crawford: 

We have experimented with a number of opportunity attack alternatives. Ultimately, we don't want everyone in the core system to make such attacks, but we expect certain characters and monsters to be able to do so as a special ability. 

12:15

Mearls: 

Another one we talked about - leaving a creature's reach is an action. If you don't use that action, it gets a free hack at you. So, you can't attack and move away without a return attack. This is an area where after playing without such a mechanic, I'd like to put it out there as an option and see if people want it as an option or in the core. NQ. 

12:15

Comment From Jon  Can you talk about the motivation behind the advantage/disadvantage?

12:17

Mearls: 

This was a contentious issue on the design team. Basically, we wanted to do two things -

1. Make modifiers much more important, rather than relying on lots of little ones that don't have a big effect but require a lot of bookkeeping.

2. Introduce a benefit or disadvantage that you can apply after you rolled and forgot about it. I like that if you forget advantage or disad, you can just throw another die and resolve it. I've found in my games that sometimes people roll, announce a result, pick up their dice, and forget what they had when someone points out a missing mod 5 seconds later.

NQ 

12:18

Comment From The rogue  Can distance be measured in squares instead of feet? As a european/non-american it's hard to convert from feet all the time>. In squares it's rather universal.

12:18

Jeremy Crawford: 

Sure! The rule of thumb is that 5 feet equal a square. 

12:19

Jeremy Crawford: 

When we break out miniatures and a grid, we find ourselves saying "squares" instead of "feet." It's been easy, thankfully, to switch back and forth. 

12:20

Mearls: 

We tried to keep things at a 5 feet minimum because we felt that both with and without minis, that's the easiest distance to imagine in your head.
Personally, I actually like meters because if you draw a map with one meter per square, the dimensions of rooms are more realistic. Alas, we're based in the US and people like their non-metric measures here.
It might be something we'll look at for translations and such in the future. NQ. 

12:20

Comment From Lyrant  As my group and I were going over our character sheets for the playtest we noticed a few numbers that were higher than anything on the page said they had a right to be. For instance, the Cleric of Moradin had a +2 to AC that couldn't be found anywhere, and some other characters had similar bits with their damage, whassup with that?

12:21

Jeremy Crawford: 

The bonuses are coming from a variety of sources, especially class and race.

12:21

Mearls: 

I think I know where that comes from. Dwarves get +1 AC in medium and heavy armor. Also, I think that the armor chart in the test is 1 point off from the armor as given to the characters. When in doubt, use the character sheet number. That's what we based the monsters off of. 

12:22

Mearls: 

This stuff will all make sense when we move to letting people make characters for the test. NQ.

12:22

Comment From Guest  What makes a good theme or background? What do you look for?

12:23

Jeremy Crawford: 

A good background says something evocative about a character's place in the world, especially the character's place before the campaign started. 

12:24

Jeremy Crawford: 

The background should have skills, a trait, and starting equipment that all say something flavorful about a character.

12:25

Mearls: 

A good theme should be evocative and really speak to how your class operates. The themes we have right now are mostly mechanical in nature, but as we flesh them out you'll see more evocative ones.

For instance, I like the idea of a necromancer theme that alters all of your spells in some minor way. For instance, when you damage a creature with a spell you get some small healing. Or, if you kill a creature with a spell it pops back up as a skeleton or zombie.

If a class says what you can do, a theme says how you can do it. So, the paladin, fighter, or ranger who is a two-weapon duelist looks much different than the character who took the guardian theme and is an expert with his or her shield.

What it boils down to is that the theme does something interesting or fun that rests outside character class. Think of it as the sum expression of your feats. NQ.

12:25

Jeremy Crawford: 

In many ways, backgrounds can be a guide to roleplaying. The commoner fighter and the noble fighter, for instance, are likely to have very different motivations. 

12:25

Comment From August  In the 'How to Play' section (page 7), it notes that if you attack a creature from whom you are hidden, you gain advantage. That makes sense. But doesn't it make the Thief's 'Ambusher' power completely irrelevant?

12:26

Mearls: 

Since the core math advancements rests only in class, we can afford for themes to be much more flavorful and specialized. 

12:27

Jeremy Crawford: 

One more thing about backgrounds and themes: A background, ultimately, describes who you were before you started adventuring, whereas a theme flavors how you adventure. 

12:27

Mearls: 

There's a subtle point to Ambusher that make make it fairly lame in practice.

When you're hidden, you are no longer hidden the moment that you are no longer obscured from view. So, if you hide and then step out into bright light to stab an orc, the orc sees you as you attack and you lose advantage.

Ambusher negates that - you keep advantage until your turn ends, so you can step out into the light and then attack with it. I think the rule might be a little too fiddly, though. NQ. 

12:28

Mearls: 

Just testing my connection. I think I lost something I tried to post. 

12:28

Comment From SlyFlourish  Is the plan to give each PC something exciting each level and how do you plan to put that burden across race, class, theme, and background?

12:28

Comment From SlyFlourish  Is the plan to give each PC something exciting each level and how do you plan to put that burden across race, class, theme, and background?

12:30

Mearls: 

We're definitely aiming for something at each level, and you can expect that to be spread across class and theme. Race does not automatically give you something, but we've talked about race-based themes (dwarven defender) that speak to your race abilities.

So, you could imagine that at each level you get either a class thing, a theme thing, or an improvement to an existing ability. I do believe that your skill bonuses increase at a couple, specific levels, so backgrounds do improve. NQ.

12:32

Comment From Guest  Will characters only have one theme or background over their character life or will they be able to add more later? What about changing them out as the character changes over the story?

12:33

Jeremy Crawford: 

We expect certain characters to have more than one theme, and we are exploring the concept of advanced themes at higher levels.

12:33

Mearls: 

Background is a level 1 choice that represents what you did before becoming an adventurer, so it doesn't change. However, you can gain access to more skills and traits at higher levels through class and theme.

For themes, you can pick one and advance in it, mix a couple, or build your own by selecting feats a la carte. I also hope that DMs see them as a tool to create custom themes for their campaigns. 

12:34

Jeremy Crawford: 

We have even talked about fighters getting two themes at 1st level. 

12:34

Mearls: 

As far as changing stuff, that is an option we'll include. The first step will likely be, "Talk to your DM", but it makes sense to give people the option to do-over choices. NQ. 

12:34

Comment From ExtendedRest  Is there a plan to deal with long term wounds? Right now having all health and everything reset after a long rest seems a little too easy. Especially with as little healing options as a Next party have access to on their own right now.

12:36

Jeremy Crawford: 

We're not likely to make long-term wounds a part of the core, but we have discussed providing a wound option for DMs to incorporate into their campaigns. 

12:36

Mearls: 

We erred on the side of letting long rests heal everything, primarily because we were fairly split on how to treat it. Personally, I'd like to see a rule where you get back a certain amount of hit dice each extended rest. It might be based on Con and/or class. I have to admit that the current rule picks at my sense of realism. 

12:37

Mearls: 

To follow-up what Jeremy said, I've toyed with a wound system where you get some effect each time you drop below 0 hp, to represent a bad injury, For instance, broken bones, strained joints, concussions, etc. NQ. 

12:37

Mearls: 

But that would be a rules module. 

12:37

Jeremy Crawford: 

This is another example (the long rest) of us leading with the powerful version of something with the expectation that we might end up dialing it back, based on playtest feedback. 

12:37

Comment From Duskreign  How exactly does the cone from Burning Hands look? We had a few issues with how it is supposed to look on the grid.

12:38

Jeremy Crawford: 

We will eventually show you how we expect things like cones to look on the grid. 

12:39

Mearls: 

Yeah, we'll figure out if its a template or if we draw it to fit the grid. NQ. 

12:39

Comment From Jon McCarty  Given the feedback about Save or Die mechanics, I sort of expected we might see something a little different in the bestiary. From what I've seen, it appears that only the Medusa really has such a mechanic, and it appears to be the old sort without anything like an HP threshold. Do we have anything more forgiving coming up? Are Stirges supposed to be a less direct save or die monster?

12:39

Jeremy Crawford: 

As we've mentioned before, the rules do not assume the use of miniatures, but we will provide support for the use of miniatures. Almost everyone in the office likes to use minis at some point during an adventure. 

12:41

Mearls: 

Monsters are still a work in progress. With the medusa, we tried a mechanic where a character can choose to take a risk or avert his eyes and suffer a drawback. The stirge also shows something of a 4e approach, with a condition that gets worse and can scale up. It does have an issue with stacking, though, so the final form might be a save or check each round, rather than a situation where three stirges pounce on and kill a character. NQ. 

12:42

Comment From Stephen  What was the thought process behind brining electrum back into D&D?

12:43

Jeremy Crawford: 

Bringing electrum pieces back is a nod to the game's history. The coins also have a nice story now; they're remnants of lost kingdoms and fallen empires. 

12:44

Jeremy Crawford: 

In other words, we don't expect electrum pieces to be part of a kingdom's normal economy. They're exotic. 

12:44

Jeremy Crawford: 

Next question! 

12:45

Comment From Guest  Are critical hits always only maximum damage, i.e. is there every anything additional? Criticals seem noticeably weaker and more boring than in past editions.

12:45

Jeremy Crawford: 

We've playtested more critical hit systems than I can count. :) 

12:45

Mearls: 

This is another area where we kept it simple and will see what kind of feedback we get. NQ.

12:46

Trevor: 

Alright, one last question then we'll let these guys get back to work. 

12:46

Comment From Felix T. Katt  What has the quality of the playtest feedback been so far? Are there things you would like the community to sound off more or less about?

12:48

Jeremy Crawford: 

Mike is typing a novel.

12:48

Mearls: 

The feedback so far has been good. The big thing is to write about the conditions of the game - did you play it like a regular session, was it just a test of the combat rules, and so on. It also helps to get a sense of what you want and where the game failed to deliver it.

Really, everything is useful. It can range from doing some math and finding something that looks to good to coming across an unclear rule in play. For instance, the questions about the Ambusher ability show us that it isn't clear and might be too fiddly.

The feel is very important, too. Does this feel like D&D? Are you missing rules? Did rules get in the way?

The big thing is to avoid snark and an overly antagonistic attitude. We're human, and it's easy to tune out someone who comes across as a crank.

12:49

Mearls: 

So, basically play the game, read over the rules, ask questions, and post your thoughts. This is a big undertaking - the biggest tabletop gaming play test ever - and we're committed to making it work.

12:50

Mearls: 

Thanks for the questions, everyone! It's great to see what issues are coming up and how the game is playing.

12:50

Jeremy Crawford: 

We also like it when people make a distinction in their feedback between their reading of a rule and their play of it. The two experiences are often quite different from each other.

12:50

Jeremy Crawford: 

Yeah, thanks, everyone! We hope you're enjoying digging into the game. We look forward to your feedback now and in the months ahead.

12:51

Trevor: 

That wraps our this Q&A. Thanks much to everyone for being a part of this and the D&D Next playtest! We'll keep you updated on the upcoming chats and other communications!

D&D Next Chat Today With Mike Mearls & Jeremy Crawford

Wizards of the Coast's Mike Mearls and Jeremy Crawford will hold an online chat today to discuss the newly opened D&D Next playtest.  The chat will take place from 11:45 to 12:45 PDT, which should be 2:45 to 3:45 p.m. on the East Coast.

For a chance to comment and get your questions answered about D&D Next, or simply to see what the community has to say as well as Mearls and Crawford's responses, go to:

http://www.wizards.com/dnd/Article.aspx?x=dnd%2F4news%2Fdndnextchat2

D&D Next: Kobolds Bleed Red

Yesterday, was our first playtest of the Caves of Chaos adventure included with the D&D Next playtest materials.  It is an 11-cave complex that is home to bugbears, owlbears and more.  We followed the smallest set of tracks to the entrance of a cave.  Before long, we spotted a small band of 8 kobolds leaving the cave, so we decided to raid the cave and the kobolds remaining inside.

In true kobold fashion, the cave entrance was rigged with a pit trap. Our rogue spotted it but then activated it while trying to disarm it. Using the simplified long jump rules, we were able to jump over the side of the pit and engage the two kobold guards on the other side.  Before long, the two kobold guards were joined by about 6 more kobolds and it was time to paint the mother red...  red with kobold blood and intestines.  However, the true test of D&D Next combat came later on, when we faced about 10 kobolds in a more open space and the 8 kobold patrol that returned to the cave just as we were finishing this second encounter. These are my observations.


THE GOOD

First, combat is really fast.  As melee, you only have your 2-handed battleaxe (dwarf warrior) or your battlehammer (guardian cleric) to swing.  No plethora of powers like in 4E.  This didn't make the combat feel boring.  Maybe because time wasn't spent pouring over powers, combat felt quicker. You definitely had to wait less between turns.

Second, fighters are deadly.  At 1st level, the provided pregen fighter was swinging a 2-handed battleaxe with a +6 to hit and doing 2d6+7 damage. Every time it crit, it made spaghetti out of the kobold.

Third, a wizard in time saves 5. Our wizard filled all three of his spell slots with burning hands, forsaking shield and sleep.  There's no doubt that the wizard was the MVP of the raid.  Also, the return of actual cones for spell coverage provided not only a dose of realism but actually made you think carefully of character placement and facing to ensure adequate spell coverage.

Fourth, did you say cleric tank?  Yes, I did... and what helluva a job!  While D&D Next does not provide for roles like defender, leader, striker or controller, it appears you may actually choose to go any of those routes through themes and specialization.  Our cleric of Moradin's chainmail and shield gave him the best AC so he stepped into the role of the defender.  He also had the Guardian theme, which gave him the Defender feat.  This feat allows the cleric, as a reaction, to interpose his shield when a creature within 5 feet of him is attacked. This gives the attacker disadvantage, which means the attacker has to roll another d20 and take the lowest roll as his attack roll.  Of the several times he used the Defender feat, only once did the disadvantage result in a missed attack.  This certainly makes the D&D Next defender much weaker than the 4E one, since depending on the 4E defender all attacks that don't target the defender made by a creature in the defender's aura have a -2 penalty to the attack roll, where the defender may get a free AoO against creatures in their aura in certain situations, or where they can absorb the damage inflicted by a creature on a nearby ally.

Fifth, no AoO can equal ouchie for the ranged/casters. You don't need minis for D&D Next. It can be a true throwback to OD&D and that can be huge fun! However, we decided to use minis to truly gauge the difference between D&D Next and 4E combat. No Attacks of Opportunity means you have to be more conscious of character placement to protect your squishy wizard and healer.  It can be quite disconcerting when you see a stream of four kobolds rushing past you on their way to your healer and wizard, and you are unable to smack them as they run past you, or do anything at that precise moment to stop the flow.  I imagine that WotC will provide a feat you can train that would grant you an AoO in certain situations.  Anyway, at third level the guardian cleric gains Hold The Line and the hold person spell, which should help a bit with this. Notwithstanding, no AoO is not necessarily bad. It made combat more fluid, forced our front line to re-evaluate its priorities and forced the rear line to react and improvise in order to hold off the rushing attackers while the fighter and guardian cleric disengaged and rushed back.  I only have one word to describe this new element of hecticness: MUCHO FUN!  (Ok, that's two words.)

Sixth, healing in combat was fluid. I don't think the mechanics of that one have changed much.  It certainly didn't seem alien to me, unlike the breaching kobolds.  Also the combination of a guardian cleric with a healer cleric worked much better than I expected.  The guardian cleric's healing word is a very small heal when compared with the healer cleric's cure light wounds (1d6 versus 1d8 + your magic ability modifier).  However, healing word allows the guardian cleric to make a ranged attack, melee attack or cast a minor spell after casting the healing word.  Fighting 8 and 10 kobolds at a time, it wasn't long before our healer cleric ran out of cure light wounds spells.The guardian cleric's clutch heal allowed him to keep our wizard alive and also inflict damage on the surrounding kobolds, all in the same round!  This truly felt heroic when I did it.

Seventh, the healing kit brings heroes back to the mortal world.  I described this healing mechanic in our blog entry three days ago, so I won't do it again here, but I will tell you how it worked out last night.  Our dwarf fighter, named Dwarfo (hey, give me a break, we were testing WotC's originality in their new rules, not my originality naming characters!), fell below 0 hit point in our last encounter.  He was brought to about 8 hit points in mid fight thanks to a cure light wounds spell.  After the fight, we barred the doorway to the encounter room and took a 10 minute rest.  Using a healing kit, Dwarfo was able to heal himself for 1d12 + his constitution modifier.  However, being a level 1 character, this means that Dwarfo would not be able to benefit again from a healing kit until after a long rest.  This is very different from 4E, where you can have 6 healing surges and use them in different short rests.  Now, Dwarfo must rely on magical heals until tomorrow, when he regains the hit dice used and can benefit from the healing kit again.


THE BAD

I can't say there's anything really bad, right now.  The lack of AoO or other manner for guardian clerics to control enemies before level 3 is new and may be something you just have to get used to.  It can be countered with forethought and proper character positioning and, in any event, it added a helluva lot of fun to the fight when those kobolds ran through a hole in our front line.  At level 3, the guardian cleric can use Hold The Line as a reaction when a creature his size or smaller enters his reach.  This causes the creature to lose the rest of its movement on that turn.  He also gains the hold person spell.  If successful, the target of the spell can be paralyzed or held in place, depending on its hit points, for up to 10 rounds.  However, the creature gets a saving throw on each round so this spell may not be the most reliable form of crowd control.


THE GAMER

As a player, last night's game was a lot of fun.  Combat was quick and fast, which is a nice change from 4E.  However, this may change at higher levels.  Next Sunday, we'll try for creatures a bit more challenging.  We'll see how we like D&D Next then.