Unearthed Arcana: How New Rules Live, Die and Evolve I think that the well the mass
combat rules they went over like a lead
balloon so that that really was a real
miss but some of the more obvious and
we’ll probably take another stab at it
you know sooner or later in terms of
subclasses though you know it’s funny I
have a very I don’t really get too
invested in the individual design I’m
pretty flexible about just though it’s
just redo it the I don’t think there
were any that I was really attached to
that is really rooting for looking back
on just things in the character classes
typically you know I think there is
definitely a sense like when you’re
right when you’re writing it if you feel
it coming together and I think the
players feel that too they can kind of
see it real cohere I don’t think there’s
anything where I was like oh I think
this would be great and it turned out to
get bad ratings I also don’t think the
opposite was true we’re like oh this is
feeling a little wobbly and that turned
out people loved it the I think the monk
ones were just a little disappointing
this in the sense of I don’t think they
were adding the drunken master in the
second phase I don’t think they were
quite as evocative as they could have
been and I think the mechanics were
pretty wobbly but we tighten nothing
that’s the great thing when Plato’s
feedback is gives us a chance to really
zero in on where the issues are so
typically what we’ll do there’s two
paths we’ll have for a revamp on one
side we might see let’s say a concept
people really like they’re excited about
and we usually see it and might get like
overall very high ratings like so when
we do a survey will ask people how do
you think this overall right at 1 to 5
then we’ll ask them well now rate the
individual components sometimes you’ll
see the overall rating very high but
there are a couple components that are
rated very low and usually what’s
happening there is we when you actually
create a character and play them you
might find some of mechanics clash so
for instance let’s say you have a
character who has a lot of abilities
let’s say so it’s a wizard are you know
was your school had a lot of really
great abilities for close-up spells but
there’s no way to buff the character’s
armor class so you might see people
going well this is fun I like the idea
but in
character is really hard to keep alive
so it’ll highlight something that is
okay we need to address this or it might
be haters character has three really
interesting abilities but they all need
bonus actions to use you can’t use all
at once and it would be really cool to
somehow stack them up so that means
something we’re okay we’ll let you stack
them up but we’ll adjust the power so
it’s not broken if you use all three at
once or it might transform more okay
it’s a 1 ability and the later features
you get rather than being new features
improve the original feature you got so
it’s a bit it smoothes the presentation
makes it easy to use at the table
usually if something goes wrong it’s
maybe just because none of the mechanics
are quite hitting the mark so
conceptually we need to start over again
or it just might be something like the
concept itself isn’t really a character
that people find appealing and that’ll
be usually something where maybe the
overall rating isn’t very high and then
usually the overall rating establishes
your ceiling so the individual mechanics
it’s rare that’s something let’s say
might get an overall approval like you
know 60% approval but then individual
components are above 60 usually its
overall rating as your ceiling and then
everything else kind of falls behind it
so that’s kind of where we get the sense
of is this even something people want to
play so I think it was like the the
marksmen for the fighter just really got
beaten up in the ratings and they had
some mechanical issues but I think
people also felt like well the archer
specialists I’m more of a ranger and
that’s a good example I think players
are very acutely aware of this idea what
is each class representing and and also
if something’s too powerful we might get
something that concepts good but right
the mechanics get rady pretty low
because it’s either disruptive to the
table it’s too complicated or it’s just
way too powerful all right so the
Sharpshooter did in their fear a little
bit with the Ranger bizarre keen archer
different than that regard I think the
arcing arch adds two things going for it
it was present in the game in third
edition and so I think it was something
that we saw in our research that people
who played the addition really liked
arcane Archer as a concept so I think
and since the arcane Archer and third
was you know it you could be a fighter
and become an arcane Archer you could
also be a ranger but mechanically it fit
in better with the fighter because we
could afford to sort of make the arcane
archery abilities
more powerful because the interesting to
the arcane Archer in third edition was
it wasn’t a spellcaster it was it these
special abilities do not clear arrows so
he felt B to be consistent with a
character concept as originally created
the fighter was a good match and so I
think people who knew it an arcane
Archer was understood that and sort of
resonated with them it made sense I also
think that when you think of it in terms
of conceptually who this character is
there’s nothing about arcane archery
that that says necessarily you’re a
wilderness character I think it kind of
speaks more to the fighters idea of
really mastering a weapon mastering a
fighting technique where Rangers have a
few things if they’re more diverse in
their talents so I think that made sense
people to think arcane archery you’re
really defined by this one very unique
ability as opposed just archery in
general or people think okay the guy
character he’s good with a bow it’s
probably a ranger feels like a ranger
rather than a fighter the or or the
other side is a fighter you could be
good with a bow but it felt like it was
over overly specialized starting to feel
more like a more like a ranger we
actually what’s funny when you get to
the guts of the system is we any first
level spell is meant to be balanced
against any other first level spell sort
of healing or damaging spell or a charm
we don’t differentiate between well
cleric spells or on one you know balance
schedule versus wizard ones but there
it’s almost an interesting one is we’re
considering the next step so ever or
whatever its next step might be I’m
actually changing the name because we
found that while it rated really well
there was a good-sized chunk of the
audience that wasn’t too happy with it
because they wanted the favorite soul
from third edition like more faithfully
recreated where the favored souls
presented and stiff is much more know
you’re really a sorcerer first the
favored soul and third was a bit more
like a cleric in that they would have
weapons and armor and things like that
so that’s something where like the
arcane archerd helped the arcane Archer
in some ways it’s kind of hindering the
favored soul because people think
there’s a chunk of the audience things
favored soul okay great I’ll be happy
playing a character with Armour and
amazed and I’m a cleric but what the
different approach to casting my spells
and it’s not a direction we want to go
with the sorcerer because the sorcerer
already has the the dragon sorcerer
who’s like that character so we didn’t
want to duplicate the felt was treading
too closely what I really emphasized
of divine heritage element of it
you
#dungeonlife #dnd https://t.co/BNkHs7I71j via @YouTube— Todd Kenreck (@ToddKenreck) June 15, 2017