hey everyone and welcome back to the my

girls happy fun hour I remain your host

Mike morals franchise creative director

on Dungeons & Dragons and this week we

are going to continue looking at the

Sion character class we’ve spent a few

weeks on this and before we dive in I

have a quick question for everyone

hello chat the question for you why

you’re all typing in your greetings

consider this so we’ve been doing the

Sion for a while

and I kind of feel like this is probably

the light I think last week I said I’d

maybe spend two more weeks on it but I

think this might be it might make sense

for this week to tackle the the shaper

you can see I have the phrase at whale

summoning and that’s gonna be our first

can trip we’re gonna tackle what I

thought we would do today is go through

and look at some of the canned trips for

summoning what those can look at

essentially well summoning that’s not

really the shippers doing but that’s

mechanically what is the best match and

then talk about what that subclass looks

like and then I think from there it’s

gonna be a lot of just boring desk work

for me so what I like to do what I like

to do is I’m gonna like bring in some

enlightened self-interest I like to

think that as I’m working on my campaign

I’m running a campaign set in an

interval on Fridays if you know that

into your veil it was the world the

fourth edition D&D and I’m adapting what

do you call it the keep on the shadow

fell but I’m making a higher level so I

have some undead monsters I want to

design for it so I thought would it be

fun if after we work on this because

I’ve kind of shown you how to design a

class a very rough way if I did some

monster design so chiming to chat me

think monster designs sounds good as

kind of our next topic so we’ve been

doing character stuff since we started

so the who we got here so let’s see what

monster design however Simoes design

okay I’m seeing all yeses and what I

will do is what I want to do is take a

few of those undead creatures and throw

some stuff around them because I thought

it will be fine yeah

yeah okay so it’ll be fun and I think

will be fun too is I could take I kind

of share the entire process from start

to finish and not just the mechanics but

also how the story works and in this

case I think it would be fun a game

phantom diem but itching for the

artificer you might not well hey I can

spell anything we’ll see we’ll see the

but the one of the nice things about

monster designed as I can kind of show

you what it really looks like in terms

of how we often reproach monster design

having a piece of art working at the

story stuff and then it’s just kind of

walk through some of the mechanical

elements alright so I’m seeing a lot I’m

seeing people like seem to think that’s

cool okay cool um cool nice really

spoiler part of his earner first the

artificer might be uh we’ll see we’ll

see

there might be an artifice or design

somewhere on our network drives that

might be due for you soon I don’t want

to say anything okay I’ll just come on

say it well no I won’t come and say yeah

I’ll come on say it’s an artifice of

design there isn’t it there was a

revision we have made it revision the

challenge now is and this is something

which you look at the process we’re

going through the silent building a

class is a lot to it so where we are

right now at that is it’s got a revision

based on feedback from a lot of sources

from the play test feedback and then

from a few back from other designers and

then now it has to go through a

refinement phase and this is important

at this stage especially it’s something

as big as the artificer if there’s just

some obvious mistakes in the class we

get everything revved up we throw it up

for you a we could ever in prime to play

test and if there’s just obvious broken

stuff that means the play test feedback

is going to be just more right it’s not

gonna go anywhere the they call me Tomo

no spoilers and what the actual casting

thing is I’m not gonna say yeah because

I want Crawford to have a chance to look

through it

I want Kate to have a chance to review

it and really dig into it so I’m not

gonna those some of the things I changed

still stuff might still change but I

have done another draft for the

artificer the so the anyways let’s get

the sign on dunya’s exactly okay so next

we could be monsters

we’ll start doing some monsters I’ll

show you that process but let’s here

talk about the taeyeon so we talked

about the shaper being the subclass that

essentially now mechanically we’re going

to think of it like summoning but what

we want the flavor to be is that I am

plucking things out of my imagination or

your imagination and making them real

and making them do stuff now this is the

important thing I think when we think

summoning it’s very easy to get caught

in I summon a thing and it beats people

up I mean that’s definitely a very

useful version of summoning believe me

but there’s also space for more utility

I summon something that can’t fly so it

picks me up and carries me somewhere so

I want to make sure we’re capturing that

too especially for class that’s gonna be

really a sub classes can be really

focused on this ability putting some

flexibility and they’ll be really good

because then we just don’t have I just

things are doing my fighting for me and

also it gets us maybes we’ll see maybe

some flexibility and how we’re actually

limiting these things so first things I

want to do yeah the are changed Eric

we’re making Foster’s Home for Imaginary

Friends it’s exactly these are this is

your imaginary friend that comes to life

and that’s what I see the at-will

summoning doing oh no don’t I don’t need

a ch3 any core body usually you’re

better behaved than that alright so yeah

that’s basically what any we write you

summon your imaginary friend now if

you’re familiar with our process here

the first thing we need to do we start

designing maybe just a let’s go to new

stuff let’s take a look at what exists

in the game already right there are a

number of summoning spells out there so

we turn to a handy-dandy D&D Beyond

which is and I gotta say I you know a

total commercial mode right now but I

love using the adeney beyond for design

because it does make just searching

yourself easier

the it’s nice being let’s go through all

spells and we are just going to go

through and do our filter up spell

targets right there I always forget and

we’re just gonna go down to

pretty sure summon spinning is a filter

now let’s filter all our spells so this

is a good starting point we want to

check out we want to do is you know if

you’re familiar with the show you get to

hear me say this again what we want to

do is look at what levels do certain

things come in so checking these things

out now we have fine steed find

familiars I’m not I’m gonna ignore that

one because it’s a bit of a outlier in

terms of its utility infestation is

using the summoning key word but it’s

really it’s not actually summoning

things it’s really the flavor and it’s

just driving home that flavor so we’re

gonna skip fine steed well we’ll go back

to it but what I want to focus on is

conjure animals third-level so what

we’re saying here is that with a

third-level spell now uh let’s see I’m

gonna go so my head doesn’t get in the

way I’m gonna do this so I want to take

some notes here just to get us a sense

here of what we have what’s going on and

what we’re saying here with this spell

is it a third level I can get one cr2

creature so I’m just gonna do a very

quick and dirty table here just so we

can I don’t want h3h3 is just like

busting in today I wants to be

everywhere let’s just go core body easy

let’s go still know this a spell level

and then see our so whatever establishes

and I’m not gonna care too much about

the other ones for right now what I want

to do is just focus on the one for one I

just burned a third level spell I get

one cr2 creature the other two I’ll get

back to those in a sec but we’re not yet

I want to take a look at the other

spells here now whatever you want to do

here I’m gonna skip summon lesser demon

because these are these come with

drawbacks but at fourth we go to mana

elemental and what’s interesting here is

we’re saying at four we’re still seeing

CR two now what’s happening here is

something that I’m gonna say is like a

little it’s soft design what this is

assuming is that elementals by nature of

being the creature type elemental are

going to have more interesting things at

CR two than beasts beasts by design are

very boring they’re generally adjusted

buckets of hit points with some basic

melee attacks

attached to them if there’s any special

abilities they’re pretty minor maybe a

rider on an attack like knocking someone

prone or maybe some sort of sensory

ability so I’m gonna note this right

here that’s CRT that’s a beast and what

I really want here is that you know

what’s just the raw CR so I’m seeing

here before that will spell an elemental

it’s CR 2 so okay it’s not now here’s

the one thing though is it’s not a huge

upgrade going from elephant jarick

elemental to generic beast or vice versa

is not like wow you just doubled its

power it’s more usually what happens is

with summoning one of the things that

will trip you up in D&D is those utility

spells the future might be coming with

and we’ll see that because I think Fay

now phase also at 4th I know this is a

very common problem least I’ve heard

people complained about that some of

these Fei you can bring in you know

you’re dragging in like 8 CR 1/4 faith

at all say can cast cure wounds or

something like that the chat might know

the specific issue people are saying but

and kittens and mittens beets are boring

Merle’s on why wats he hates

Beastmasters range here following that

beast it was the Fae master then we’d be

all we’d be all in so again we’re gating

it here we’re saying a little for spell

that’s worth getting some magic find

greater than greater Steve it’s like the

king of the horses I don’t know what the

spell does oh ok so this is kind of

intro can’t see you know this is gonna

be hilarious because I forgot the spell

exists xanthus got everything on it’s at

Zenith IRAs book they added it’s at

aftermarket like year 3 expansion the so

this is kind of interesting so we’re

getting a kindest thing fight I forget

let’s see 10 is 5 total combat I get

telepathically uber blah drops to

dismiss it okay doesn’t seem to see

anything here that it says I can’t make

this tell us into fight so this is we’re

gonna kind of backdoor this in what’s

the Griffin the CR see ours too great

they’re all gonna be to watch this is

gonna be like every summoning spell just

gets er to the okay yeah they come we’ll

take it can fight okay yeah

last thing I need is Jeremy busting Kyle

just gimme yeah this is a flood well

this is a flying but these are flying

creatures though but that doesn’t why

wouldn’t I just summon these things and

fly them look I’m complaining up my own

game this is classy but wait a sec okay

wait a sec see these conjure and all

does it have a restriction see are two

giant boar and Asura Sabretooth oh these

guys are monstrosity czar they I might

be completely whipping on that is a

Griffin what Strasse monstrosity or is

it a beast

this is gonna be this yeah it’s a

monstrosity okay there we go so again

we’re getting this segregated here so

basically we’re putting a lot of a lot

of weight on that creature type a lot

more than I didn’t I care for personally

not personally professionally saying

like has a dungeon has a game designer

that’s probably more going here so good

ok now we’re up to see our six well

that’s a big jump so we went from so

elemental level 5 up to see our six Wow

okay that’s a big jump this is gonna be

interesting to try to balance well look

at the duration of fine good oh is one

of those things that’s like buried the

durations much longer because I think

I’m just gonna snore m’l eyes my oh this

is a minute

Wow okay this is this is something that

irritate I got it okay so these are all

this is why we have one minute one hour

find greater seat is 10 minutes

instantaneous conjurer’s one minute this

is one action this is it’s a little all

over the place okay so here’s the thing

this is not not a berry this as an

opportunity opportunity for us to make

something work a bit better

yeah Conger Fay a minute I get why it’s

a minute it’s really so you don’t do in

the middle of a fight but it’s

concentration so that’s all really gonna

kind of throttle what else you can do

alright opportunities there’s lots of

opportunities here there is lots of

opportunities here we can do a lot of

stuff here that will make something a

lot more fun because there’s a lot of

like how it takes a minute oh I want to

I want to get a foul on a summon a

Tyrannosaurus Rex hello this is conjure

face

[Laughter]

so yeah it is it is a t-rex okay cool so

anyways this okay okay this is me gender

sputtering on stream right like okay so

you can up gun the spell that’s why the

t-rex shows up okay so let’s go see our

6:00 at 6:00 okay but that’s six there

all right opportunity keep saying that

it’s an opportunity for us to make

something you know this is really funny

because I know people on Twitter

especially it says oh I want to play a

good summoner I’d be like aren’t there

summoning spells in the game but I

personally don’t play a lot of summoners

and this is a corner of the game it’s

like you can imagine if the game is a

house I have I gone into those back

corner room and I’m like it’s really

dusty and like with what’s in here oh

there’s summoning and it takes a minute

I had no idea

I literally last night was cleaning our

garages looking for some miniatures and

this is because I’ve been married for a

while so I’m getting better at this

there was a check my wife did some

photography works someone sent her a

check for it

and I did not know I read I did not

realize I had put the check out in the

garage with some of my miniatures I

accidentally picked it up and put in a

box and so much here’s looking for it

and so when I said I found it and she

said where was it and I said oh it was

behind the fridge I’m not gonna tell her

I took your check and just put it out in

the garage with a bunch of my my rail

parth of miniatures I was sorting

because I’m a goofball like this okay

alright my new this happened it was this

summer I knew I meant to make it this

way and this is here okay it’s a

celestial force in cr4 okay so this is

all over the place this is really

interesting case again opportunity right

what we’re seeing here though is I am

going to just be blunt I’m gonna ignore

these spells beyond getting a sense of

where the CR is because what’s happening

here and this is something that I am not

necessarily a fan of InDesign for old

playing games and I know why we did this

here right and this is a case of you

know we did this five years ago

essentially there would have been some

adjustment in two and fourteen before

the game released but this is something

where don’t be afraid to look back at

something you didn’t go I don’t really

like how I did that that’s okay that

means you’re learning hey I’m learning

right and it’s I’m not I’m not trying to

be lame and be like that’s my excuse for

doing it this way this is something

where somebody was a real Bears

specially in third edition that’s a pun

by the way so you can look him laughs

the COS needs someone to bear the actual

eat someone a whale it’s a whale of a

good time the sum in the whale and you’d

block off a hallway with a huge creature

even bigger and then it would just flop

around and die but still a barrier but

anyway so this is pride era where we’re

very very cautious because in designing

the entire game system the there’s a lot

of questions you have to ask spells in

in particular you know when you look at

the game where we are now in 2018 you’ve

seen a lot more sub classes come out in

terms of you a you have not seen as many

spells in terms of our focus and the

challenge being a single spell can

really disturb the balance of the game

but it’s very tricky to get play test

feedback on say 50 new spells as opposed

to two new subclasses or one new

subclass whatever it is that we’re doing

so with spells in fifth we were probably

a lot not probably I know this because I

worked on the game we were a lot more

cautious about pushing things and

summoning this was a great example of we

decided to throttle back a bit on it to

make it more situational what these like

we know casting times of a minute to

really make it something that you had to

plan on rather than something that you

could just do and I can see here okay so

Kandra woodland being is an action that

that’s what’s going on here

yeah the tricky thing is as a player I

can admit as a player I don’t like

having multiple axes I have to use two

meant to measure things I also don’t

like the surprise factor I like hey if

I’m a player scrolling through

oh hey fine see that looks cool and you

forget it’s got a ten minute casting

time so this is like a warrant warrant

moment in the game you’re like oh hey

the guys are chasing us condors fine

steed i’ll cast will get it warmer so no

it actually takes ten minutes and it’s

got all this stuff what’s going on so

what I want this guy to do is is instant

summons like I want I want this to just

be instantly summon you friend or

servant

that’s what we want now here’s the trick

to this Oh once I regard you – I’m

putting suggest as an H case 2011 action

spider accrual 4080 xx oh yeah so here’s

something I threw about 12 in fighting

on Twitter if you don’t follow me on

Twitter

oh and there’s a question tridents from

black ace 13 and I actually wanna get to

that one the okay so do two things

I suggest don’t weapon fighting that on

Twitter that instead of costing a bonus

action because as I’ve hammered home

many times if you’ve watched the stream

to weapon the bonus action economy can

get kind of messy with two up and

fighting often class features require a

bonus action to activate it something

that can be defining like rage which

means a great weapon fighting character

you feel bad I would like you know how

would that work without a bonus action

so the idea is if you’re – I’ve been

fighting in place of an attack you make

two attacks but your damage gets

decremented down in a well elegant

simple way and the elegant simple way is

what’s kind of struggling here but there

are cases where that could probably lead

to lot of attacks quick question about

the Trident so I’ve seen them a few

people ask well that why is the Trident

such a crappy weapon the Trident is in

the game not because we strive to make

the Trident a an interesting weapon that

sits alongside the spear and the sword

the Trident in the game something

because our aquatic creatures wield it

and it’s really a flavor thing we felt

that putting a lot yeah I felt and

people seem to agree that if we’re gonna

show arts abus to you again or Triton or

merfolk who has a trident

but then call it a spear and thus taplok

that might be a little bit disconnect so

that’s all that weapon is literally in

the game because we have aquatic

creatures that use trident

we actually didn’t want you to make it

feel like he was a great weapon that

would be a natural thing that would use

now you could argue that maybe that

wasn’t a great case but like in some

ways the weapon list serves two purposes

it serves characters basically I like

that what weapon I want to use it and

then it also always serves the monsters

so anyway while that’s going on here’s

we want favor for at will summoning want

clear utility things have a clear use

have a function beyond combat the can

fight instantly summon a friend or

servant I’m probably gonna say you know

restrict this to one creature as default

I think a lot of the shenanigans that

come in or one like I can get multiple

creatures twelve or is it gonna be a non

creature summoning option yeah I think

that’s something which would be cool cuz

essentially these are gonna be

constructs can be almost anything and

that frees up a lot of design space for

us so you could say I’m gonna summon a

dancing sword I’m gonna summon a giant

you know rolling Boulder to crash

through people and move around the got

like a big bees hands say ciao Mart so

gets a good comparison so the this is

essentially what we want to do and when

I think of at will summoning this is

where and this is where I think this

sort of this sort of benefit I get as I

put spell slots into this what I think

at will summoning does is it a costs to

your action that’s like yeah cost your

action action on an ongoing basis higher

level summoning lets you stack things on

top of your actions so what I mean by

that is this I have an apples someone

have this imaginary friend I want to

call into being and make them do

something I think if you think of the

unseen servant spell yeah had her feign

unseen servant being something along

those lines except I wanted to be able

to fight um you know otherwise I don’t

really feel like a summoner if we’re

they what I’m doing is just I can move

stuff around but I can do that with

mange hand so I have this creature I can

bring it into existence like I sculpt it

I can make it fight it’s gonna cost me

my action to make it fight the benefit I

get benefit I get that was that creature

is gonna occupy a space so if I’m you if

you’re miniatures player if you use

miniatures in your game you probably

instantly need to know that benefit as a

party we can control an extra square we

probably have to put a tax on that

though

so I’m going to throw this other thing

in here at will summoning comes with

some damage feedback what does that mean

you might ask well I think what that

what that means is that if I summon a

creature and it’s at will I haven’t

invested any magic into it my name our

resources that could you gets killed I

need to take a drawback that could be

damage it could be something like I lose

concentration for a time I’m in favor of

damage that’s fast and easy as a player

to assess I’m not looking for this to be

a lot of damage what I just want to do

is stop you from infinitely blocking a

doorway the size limit northland Cal

that’ll be something that we’ll play

with as we go to higher levels so that’s

something where we don’t want you to

just round up to round him to keep

blocking the doorway and essentially

have a damaged sponge because that’s the

other benefit and let’s actually take a

quick step back so I realized I’m doing

all this stuff thinking of the benefits

of summoning this is why summoning is so

tricky because it’s got a lot of

follow-on benefits you know a fireball

just does damage that’s it’s doing

damage if you want it to do something

else like set a building on fire or

something the DMS to kind of start

adjudicating this but summoning comes

there’s a lot of things baked in it’s

extra hit points for the party so a

summoning a summon creature comes with

having hit points so I can attack it I’m

essentially creating a buffer for the

party

if so think of this scenario the party

is in a dungeon they open a door there’s

five goblins the shaper goes first they

throw a summon creature into the doorway

the goblins rush up with their swords

one or more of the goblins has to spend

their actions essentially dealing with

that summoned creature again it’s very

powerful a can trap and lets me cancel

essentially it’s letting you cancel an

attack at no cost is very good canceling

an attack at a cost so in this case

damage means I can use that but I have

to use it judiciously and if I’m using

it a lot it’s going to drain other party

resources so what we want to make sure

is we’re just not giving you a very big

benefit and denying attacks is a big

benefit if you can put your enemy in a

position where they cannot attack you

that’s and you can attack them back

that’s fantastic that something you’ll

do all day

so we’ve got to make sure that we take

an account into that it’s more area

control so again it’s if think of if

you’re using grid grid in a minute and

miniatures

it’s another miniature on the table for

the party the so that’s not as big but

it still can be pretty useful and it’s

extra actions just do more stuff right

if you have your adding essentially

member to the party it just gives you

more flexibility if you think of the

party has it’s a group that has X number

of actions to use each round adding more

actions that’s always just a good thing

there is vanishingly few cases that

aren’t contrived we’re having those

extra actions is actually drawback I

mean at worst it’s neutral example you

need to open a door that’s one action

okay I could have 50 actions or five

actions or one as long as I have one I

can open the door so but typically

scaling those up I have more actions

means I can open that door we can go

through and I can do something else so

now there are some limits to it but

we’re not those limits look more like

adding eight to twelve extractions not

one one is always always beneficial so

we have to account for that too and

that’s why you see often you know the

actually here’s something really we

should look at let’s say and someone

mentioned it because of the fae in the

beasting let’s take a look at everyone’s

favorite character class the Ranger

everyone for definitions of people who

like Rangers you see a lot of the

discontent people who don’t like the

Beastmaster almost all the things that

they don’t like about this design and go

back to that list that I just rattled

off so let’s take a look at our

companion though a third level you gain

a beast companion that accompanies you

on your adventures and is trained to

fight alongside you choose a beast that

is no larger than medium so that’s an

important thing we don’t want you

getting a large beast large creatures

especially use miniatures are super

useful to have in your party because

they just they command four spaces party

of four that’s essentially I’ve doubled

the number of spaces I can control an a

grid it makes it very easy to clean

clothes off passages things like that

challenge one quarter or lower oh that’s

something I’m gonna write down there too

that’s going to be kind of our

I’m trying to put Ranger here to note

that and set 1/4 that’s a little 3

there’s gonna do note that I’ll remember

or chat you’ll remind me ok so so you

get some bonuses ok we’re adding your

your proficiency bonus just because we

want to make sure it doesn’t go you know

sideways so we’re giving it some hit

point cushioning here but our base thing

is 1/4 so this is essentially the hit

points and the proficiency are just

there to let this thing’s scale up so

it’s not you do have to recycle it or

you don’t have to worry about it it’s

becoming useless the lot of people to

argue this is just not very useful to

start with it can understand you sure it

can spend hit dice so it takes its turns

on your initiative though it doesn’t

take an action less you command it to on

your turn you can verbally command the

beast or to move no action required by

you you can use your action to verbally

command it to attack – whatever take

much of actions the and that’s using

your action and so it’s getting back

this idea of adding extra actions to the

party pool the thinking here and you can

see that same reluctance to really

embrace this idea of summoning that we

saw in the spells with like the 10

minute casting times and cr2 being kind

of our ceiling and once we hit CR 2 we

just started changing other things in

the spells to make them better

casting time or type of creature you’re

seeing this play out here in the Ranger

and you’re seeing based on what we saw

in the reaction to this design a lot of

people just not happy with this they

just didn’t feel like they were getting

a creature that was their companion they

felt like they were getting a robot with

a remote control attached to it and you

were remote controlling a robot I think

that for me that’s kind of

metaphorically where I feel it is and

yeah it’s and that share DVI this is a

great point all right the problem is

this is made for people who want a pet I

want to pet and then I get a pet and I

get a kind of a pet that sort of lame

and I was just having the discussion

with someone today about a character

race someone was working on and

realizing that the way the design was

configured if you rarely played that

race like maybe you played that race

once it was work fine but if you’re the

type of player who said oh this is my

favorite type of character to play oh

I’m gonna play these guys and connect

year I’m gonna play four different

characters and all them will be this

type of character ooh the way it was

designed is like oh that’s actually

feels kind of lame like it feels fun the

first time but the second when you make

I feels a little to say me so that is

definitely something that is designed

you need to think about that in terms of

the player that you’re aiming to act not

just in terms of what they like but in

terms of over the course of several

campaigns how will this stand up so he’s

0 cuz spiritual basically spiritual

weapon is a streamline but pseudo

version of summoning there might be

something there the well I want to take

a look that actually bring in creatures

I want to make this work because I think

we can make this work that’s a win I

think there are players up there who if

we can make this work would say finally

I can play the character I always want

to play I get to play the character who

has pets and as someone who has two dogs

and four cats I can understand that you

like I mean pets around unless they wake

up at both like 3:00 a.m. and 5:30 a.m.

to be let out so much but that might be

them kind of trying to tell you

something and that might be our older

dog and happy that we have a puppy in

the house so used to getting older but

still a puppy so yeah so this is really

where you’re seeing the tension come in

and I feel pretty confident that we we

were cautious here and I think that

caution was warranted I would stand by

that decision I think if we went back to

2013 and whatever revised this we would

revise it because we learn things since

then not because there’s really any

insight that we just flat-out missed

when this sort of thing goes wrong it

goes wrong in a way that makes the DM at

least really irritated because I have

played in the campaign with the broken

summoning with somebody something that

felt broken and in this specific case

Elvis find it has something that just

felt like ridiculous and it was doing

things that felt far beyond what you’d

expect from the character to do I had a

friend of mine who would use multiple

summonings to like summon just hoards of

low CR creatures and just have them all

use the help action and third edition if

I remember right the help action stacked

or it was like the hinder action stacked

so there’s just ridiculous you know but

it was a good example like a low-level

spell that was producing like +10 attack

bonuses which

third edition were great because then

your your iterative attacks we’ve got

multiple attacks in third edition your

attack bonus went down dramatically so

getting a big bonus was huge it meant

you were going from hitting one and a

half times per round to like hitting all

three times with your attacks so it

could be really big the all right so

yeah I know a frog wheeler a Wyson a

character to scout when you have

disposable NPCs another good example

right that comes into the action sort of

thing I have more actions I have actions

I don’t mind sending out to die I were

playing a game with a druid who was

summoning animals and sending them down

to trigger traps and a tumor in which

was just sort of hilarious I am the

guardian of nature animals I love you

plants come to me I will I will take

care of you protect you accept you fight

Oh run down that hallway and let me know

if anything jumps out and stabs you so

again that gets back to this idea of

putting the bet penalty on it you know

this idea that if it’s free summoning I

want to throw a some sort of I wanted in

your resources in some way because I

want to avoid hey I have this guy get

some time at well someone him and have

him run down the hallway to trigger

traps we have them open doors we have

them you know there’s a switch maybe we

should pull it well let’s have a summon

creature do it right and then you don’t

want to deal with coming up all these

weird rules like this creature can

attack but it can’t pull a lever and

they can’t walk down a hall and whatever

right it when you when the restrictions

on an ability start to be the bulk of

its rules that to me is like you’re

doing something very wrong you either

you’re doing something just by its

nature just isn’t gonna work it’s gonna

be disrupting the game or you’re doing

something in a way that really what you

want to do is just penalize people in

some way for abusing it so just make

that as simple and direct and obvious as

possible

because players will always find ways to

get around like very specific drawbacks

but it’s harder to get around like look

II just taking damage if you can get it

you’ve been getting around taking damage

then that’s great you’re gonna win you

know in a lot of fights the so John

Herzog artists are their penalties for

letting the imaginary-friend die then

read something later I don’t I’m not

crazy about X I do like the idea that

this is something that’s here for me and

what I think I might do is this all

right so are at will summoning

here’s the mean version so I’m gonna do

like I’ll do like version one but it

takes damage you take that damage now I

don’t want to do this because we have a

d6 class then I mean like well I need to

give you more hit points well now I have

you the entire dat separate pool eight

points maybe you’re tracking where so I

don’t wanna deal with that it’s that

what I wanted what I would like to say

is when it is destroyed you take some

damage and lose maybe your focus for

around I think I want I kind of do both

so it’s not just gonna come back so

you’re gonna yeah I think actually yeah

so I want to lose your focus which means

in your concentration in focus so you’re

not gonna be cavalier about it if you’re

in a situation though where you do want

to look I’m mission to sacrifice my

summon character and this is at will not

the other ones we’ll get to those in a

sec I think that it’s open what I like

about this is that you can decide

tactically okay I’m gonna take this hit

because I do need to keep the goblins in

the room where I want to block the door

and you know I’m gonna take a drawback

here but it is gonna be useful to keep

these guys out um let’s see Oh Morey I

think it’s what you the greens a little

hard to read what it was xx damage I

like the overkill it feels a little

fiddly to me I think I’d rather just

make it a flat number so I don’t have in

a situation where well they’re goblins

only doing like say 1 d6 + 3 damage and

I’m like the higher level I don’t care

if these guys keep killing my summon as

opposed to I’m really worried if the

dragon kills it I’d rather just know

that there’s just a flat a flat thing so

we’re not like this weird scaling thing

taking effect where some things are

really nervous about attacking your

summons and others you’re not so I just

specify that the and I think looking at

its benefits I’m probably gonna go say

that you’re at will summon as a baseline

is that the app will summon is a Buddist

is a CR at 1/4 creature

now what I mean by that is we’re gonna

figure out either pull staff locks I’m

not gonna go to any step locks today I’m

just gonna use I’m just knees challenge

as our as our baseline so the so that’s

basically our entire thing here you know

a CR 1/4 creature you and you have to

spend your action to make it it’s been

it’s action essentially what we’ve done

is we’ve created a can trip what I

imagine using this can trip will be a

bonus action so I can summon it in and

then have it attack somebody or I can

have it do something well also gonna do

is try to restrict range she’s gonna say

10 feet or even adjacent I don’t want

this to be like hey there’s a chasm and

there’s something on the side we need I

will summon and my guy shows up and does

something know again I want you to spend

a resource for that I have to spend a

spell slot or spell points or whatever

it is because again if it’s at will at

will things DMS have a higher high

allergy to real good utility net will

because it just distorts the entire

design process of your adventures so so

yeah so I think we want to restrict

range I’m sure this is a great example

playtesting will start revealing other

things that’ll come up all right so then

let’s just do a very simple thing here

I’m gonna delete this because I don’t

really care not that I don’t care but

it’s just yeah and what I want to do is

look at what my level so if I know level

0 is see our 1/4 essentially can’t rip

I’m just gonna this is like this is

where we start getting into like rough

justice right we have a spell system

here that is trying to do summoning but

is maybe not pulling its full weight in

terms of what people want I am pretty

much committed to saying I don’t want

you to summon multiple creatures unless

I want to handcraft that I don’t want to

make it as a look at the spells what

they’re doing is they’re giving you this

sort of progression that here

let me I’ll show it to you we’ll take a

look at one right this progression of

the number of creatures is going to end

up with things that you’re unhappy with

as a DM because there’s no way that

under conjure animals or any of them

like okay

be really fast contra elementals that we

can really consistently say that hey

eight one-quarter challenge rating

things are equivalent to one two yeah

they’re tax and damage might be but as

soon as I have a spell on her ability

resting here eight of those is just

better than one and I’m sure right now

if I just did a search for monsters I

can find an example here so let’s go to

elementals there might not even be a one

eighth LCR elemental how do we got some

right here yes let’s get the mud method

and then Mitch it’s got some sort of

special ability a mud breath so it can

restrain creatures now eight guys who

can show up and restrain you so

basically means every round I’m

restraining a lot of creatures for a

long time so this just really kind of

breaks down that idea of like the swarm

summoning because we’re not gonna say

our elementals don’t get abilities and

this is what kind of makes them fun so

I’m gonna be pretty focused on just

doing this a one-for-one the so so let’s

go through and now going to assist do

some rough justice here so this is gonna

be spell level so I’m just gonna go

through and add my to hear three four

five six seven eight nine and I’m just

gonna sort of back the envelope what I

think oh my god my computer froze this

has been my thing today my my outlook

just was like weirdly frozen I thought I

broke it and an email is trying to

respond to and oh no there we go

I’m not in trouble 99 oh well that’s

that’s now the new feature here right we

did d-104 like the commoner so now the

the the shaper gets how it’s getting

really slow okay check in and just send

all my data to the NSA make sure they

have it all right so we send a level

let’s see it’s never forgotten what does

the

let’s go back here it’s back in again to

our spells so we set here under conjure

animals cr2 is a third little spell

should make sure had that right so I’m

just gonna arbitrarily say that that’s

gonna be one and arbitrarily say that’s

half and I’m just gonna again equally

arbitrarily just increase this by one no

I don’t think this is actually going to

work but it’s it’s a handy enough

starting point this is also case now

what I would probably do in play test is

just come up with some generic stat

blocks they’ll just get across this

damage armor class and hit points I can

finesse this later but this is what I’m

basically going to look at use if you

spend a spell slot of this level you get

this step this corresponding stop lock

to give you it now let’s take let’s do a

quick reality check here to give you a

sense let’s take a look at some CRE

creatures and what I want is a CR eight

beast because as I mentioned before

beasts tend to be very simple so let’s

go to monsters official and let’s go to

beasts you know let’s just look at all

the challenge unless is the Billy know

there should be a lot of cluttered so

let’s just do challenge rating eight

like a look all right so we’re saying a

t-rex with a knight the whole spell 136

hit points a C’s pretty lame it’s gonna

get hit pretty quickly it’s got one bite

in one tail this is I don’t know if its

restriction carries any real bite but

we’ll see +10 433 you can grapple +10

420 so seven hinges to the seventeenth

level getting this that feels probably

weak so I probably need to boost that up

a bit

let’s take a look at what did I am I

sort of totally fake math give a game of

CR for for a level 5 spell so that’s a

9th bubble so let’s take a look what

that creature looks like

let’s see how what the damage is there

and I just can I just want a bruiser

whoa okay yeah okay elephant okay it

doesn’t get any more comp case guy is AC

1276 hitpoints yeah I don’t think I

think this actually feels pretty for a

fifth level caster this is my big

creature I get getting seventy six extra

hip points it’s nice and that’s nice

durability +8 419 it’s got this

traveling charge ability DC 12 though so

I’m not too worried most creatures in

let’s take a look at uh there’s a giant

subterranean lizard simpler

it’s the AC 1466 hitpoints one bite in

one tail okay Gordon one of my kids oh

it’s so so plus 7 for 16 + plus 7 for 12

one target not crapple by the lizard

that’s kind of funny it’s very specific

lizard grab me grapple me now you can

hit me with the tail oh that you can

swallow me in that pain alright so that

that this feels reasonable so let’s take

a quick thing here a very rough estimate

of what this matches up if this is a

fighter say typical fighters probably to

have + 2 hit points per hit die and

beginning about 8 hit points per level

so this is actually pretty good

avian +3 so let’s say 9 so level you

know if the fighter the party probably

has 80 to 90 to make a point so I’m not

overshadowing the fighter but that’s

still pretty good the cleric and the

party probably has about let’s say again

this is 9th level so 60 something sacred

cleric and roguish hit points the art

class is really the hard thing here most

beats up pretty lame armor classes

oh it’s also huge my phone is ringing I

thought it told it – wow that’s pretty

funny sorry but it’s the first time

that’s happened but it is four months

it’s the first time someone’s actually

tried calling me I put on do not disturb

the this is an easy thing to overlook

this is huge so ok that’s not actually

this is really good at locking down a

big air of the battlefield ok so I feel

actually that’s pretty good this guy’s

gonna really tank up and he’s gonna dish

out some ok hits I mean here’s his other

main thing he’s only a plus 7 to hit our

party members at 9th level are probably

to be around probably I think nine or

ten maybe ish around there depending up

the up magic items and stuff but this is

yeah someone’s trying to summon you

through your phone true enough of our

serious the this is a good example of

I’m getting a text to my wife can’t find

her computer I have no idea where it is

the so she’s texting me now to the can

this wait 17 minutes actually it can’t

chat I can talk while I do this because

I’m gonna tell her I think it’s on the

couch so but what we’re seeing here is

what we’re getting for summoning is a

really big huge creatures great that’s a

three by three grid that’s like nine

size medium creatures so I feel pretty

good you know so I want to pay attention

to like the the opto level ten beyond

that I think we just need to get the

numbers right but this feels pretty good

for a fifth level spell slot to get a

challenge for creature

yeah I’m not offended by it the I’m just

gonna put a little like – they’re here

just let me know that I need to verify

below oh and even Kyle and I’m gonna

tell her because she probably needs it

for work

anyway I’m probably be getting other

things I am gonna have to go silent you

guys get to watch me texts okay anyway

it’s very it’s like this week we have a

holiday here and if you’re not if not in

the States

12th of July is tomorrow it’s a

Wednesday it basically it’s like two

working weekends back to it’s very

strange

this entire week feels very splintered

all right so hey I have to be mortified

if she knew she was on stream okay so

here’s our basic thing now this may

sound like we haven’t got a lot done we

got actually had a ton done because

here’s what we’ve done all I want to get

to say is I can add will summon we’ve

got some basic parameters for that then

if I put a spell slot into this I up gun

my summon creature and then I can drop

these restrictions right so I’m not

gonna say like you know I’m just gonna

say lose these with a spell slide I

think we’re gonna put the note here is

uh stays where so that’s it this is like

our first big step forward so then

because I was thinking about this in

terms of what the SONA CR to bard the

seven bards ever just runs away in

horror the so the main thing here is

that we kind of have a rough outline for

our creatures are gonna look like what I

think I will do is rather than say hey

go into the monster menu I’ll put a snap

lock I think because this thing is

constructed I’m we’re gonna give you

stat blocks that you will use I think

it’ll be faster to reference plus when

we go to the next thing because I think

some names gonna really show off the

basically the idea of augmenting

abilities the what I want to do is I

want to know if I have and we know about

some right here cause fear increase

image extra actions like they’re just

you know buffs in general we can give

these things I want to know the

destination and that’s one of the

trickiest things in role-playing game

design with a system that is allowing

for more character customization is if

you take something you want to know

where is it going

as an example imagine

have an ability that says whenever I

roll my damage dice if I roll the

highest damage die I get to roll another

die whatever it could do that once it’s

very simple stuff but but you thinking

okay that usually means one extra die oh

wait what about if someone has a 2d six

damage sword yeah the great sort how

does that work you know and if you’re

gonna say well we treat each die

separately that ability is much more

useful for someone with a great sword

than it is for someone let’s say a great

axe where the great axe is gonna get an

extra die of one and twelve yeah

exploding die Zack may right whereas

there’s a one in three chance for you

know I have one in six chance normally

of that happening in a six signer but

I’m willing to

so roughly I’m getting twice as many

chances

one out of three top rounds I’m doing an

extra d6 and then there’s you know one

out of 36 issue runs that I’m getting

extra to d6 right so it’s just that’s an

area where knowing the destination

really gives me a real sense of the the

power this thing’s going to be so that’s

why rather than have you go to the

Monster Manual I want you going to these

kind of pre-built stat blocks it makes

it clear what’s gonna happen these these

stab blocks can be kept very simple and

utilitarian and then we can kind of get

a sense of what does it mean like to

increase your AC things like that I kind

of know what AC is a great example a +5

bonus to AC if your AC is like 11 and 12

and that’s good but for AC is already 20

you know you might be shifting your

bonus up your AC up to the point where

monsters need to start rolling just 20s

to hit you right look the elephant or

whatever was it was a +7 so I mean it’s

obviously a bonus Tacey is always great

but you don’t want to end up with

frustration of just like the creatures

just can’t hit this guy because we push

the AC too high that’s kind of why we

have the sort of this idea of keeping

hackers seeing bonuses narrow so then

let’s do a quick thing what I want to do

is cause fear and other emotions I want

to be let’s say hey I’m gonna give this

creature an aspect that makes it scary

Oh a dead in seconds shape your class

features I’m gonna get to that next

actually so what I wanted to do is bang

out what I wanted the spells to do

increase damage indeed this is just

general buffs either

do that extra actions I think that’s

another thing you could say I burned a

spell slot I could you gets to go again

or it’s a spell whatever it is and that

could even scale up so we have some

pretty obvious things we want to do oh

and then we could offset up augment and

other ways no utility comes to mount

flies skills or detection abilities this

is a lot of stuff we can give it here by

essentially having targeted buff spells

that augment my guy so what do we want

to do for the shapers clients features

well what I thought would be kind of

interesting was the I’m just gonna copy

and paste the Nomad here because this is

fully new just you know we’re gonna do

here right everyone’s favorite word

that’s it bonus disciplines that’s just

become a basic thing so we can give you

two extra shaper disciplines and so what

I like to do think between the Scion who

focuses on shaping and the creature they

actually shape or the thing they

actually shape so I thought about like

maybe like like someone mentioned doing

sane you get some like some spell slots

just for augments only the abhorson I’m

a little worried about that because

that’s just a very clear power up over

what other characters are getting a way

to think of it is what that what that

was that you do is I can use my spell

slots to augment my thing and I’m gonna

use my other spells on top of it even if

you’re specific about those bonus spell

slots it’s still just opening up your

bandwidth overall so what I want to try

to do is give you things that improve

the relationship between you and the

creature so and again things that

wouldn’t just be spells so a very simple

thing to do

Chicanos augment and shaping and I like

things that are simple indirect so at

first level your summon features gain

advantage on attacks against pictures

within this might not be the best thing

but this is kind of direction where I

want to go because what I’d like to do

here and work on here is this idea that

I can kind of combo up with Mike and my

creature especially by summon one that’s

doing its own thing now 10-feet might be

too close so an alternate might be pick

a target how can they say get them and

my guy is really good at getting that

guy well that might be need a cool-down

a another thing we could do is this sort

of free buff the rather than say hey

like here’s some extra small slots

cheese’s you want which but I think

maybe we can do basically when you

summon it

you just get a free benefit so so maybe

you can like increase max HP grants some

extra game I don’t wanna do get some

extra damage because that’s just makes

your firepower better yeah so I think

you can increase max HP you could also

like share your skill proficiencies so

if you can do something you can do

something so that might be kind of

useful to I can actually kind of like

that the the divination spells load

though those degrade that is a good

point the important the I think what

were you’re seeing there is since

they’re degrading what it’s saying is

these spells might not have the impact

that say a fireball would have we’re

incentivizing you to use really

high-level spells for what’s really in

character for you knowing that he was a

player don’t and aren’t necessarily

losing out on firepower that you could

use later on the but I can’t remember if

well I’ll live it up later cantide it

doesn’t it says only when you use the

divination spell you get as a lower

level slot back right you don’t have to

it doesn’t say then you’re locked into

using it the rest but anyways the but

yeah it’s definitely a it’s a tricky

thing I’d rather just do it by giving

you just the benefit because again you

also now you want you know what’s going

on you know that

donation you know the benefit you know

where it’s going so I think it’s

augmenting your summons in some simple

ways let’s see

another thing we could let you do is at

six level you get additional reaction

you know I’m gonna throw this because I

think this is interesting

let’s say you can grant oh no I have

seen additional actions as a spell

ability you know what I don’t know if it

that’s actually works and here’s why if

you were last week I talked about how

like in in games that like magic be an

example or any game where the hey I put

a creature into play at a cost there is

invariably a Kevin effect that says I

get to kill any creature for a much

lower cost a potentially much lower cost

they might only cost two or three

resources opposed to like up to like

infinite for a creature the tree thing

with saying hey my creature gets an

extra action is that skills kind of it

does not necessary scale well because we

think of the haste spell and use the hey

spells an example I thought he’s from a

character he’s very specifically says

you get one extra attack there because

we know a lot of the melee characters

they’re getting their benefits for

making multiple attacks now the Rogues

an exception that was my design though

we kind of felt like haste would be

something which throwing it on the rope

oh I’m sorry because that’s only during

your turn sorry did this so even the

rogue falls victim to that then I seen

what the rogue is if they’re getting an

extra attack if they missed and didn’t

get a chance to use sneak attack they

get to attack again and potentially

amount put it on so I think I’m gonna

strike the the spell effect of granting

extra attacks extra actions I’m gonna

strike that make that a class feature

because I think that’s something that I

don’t think scales well and class

features are a good place to put things

that don’t scale well because because of

this follow usually about the seed we’re

an extra action to a summing feature we

gain on long rest

so it’s pretty cool it’s very dramatic

but I can just say look you get it take

a long rest get this back you can’t just

say keep spamming it it’s a good way to

think of an ability that scaling

abilities often have to be balanced at

they’re their mightiest form which might

push something like this I copy to the

seventh level where you only get one of

those per day this lets me go you know

this is gonna scale so I can give it to

you low levels to I just need to make

sure you can only use it once per day

because it needs to behave like those

level 6 plus pills excuse me pardon me

all right let’s ping we got 5 minutes

but you know what it’s a weird holiday

weekend two days on one day off two days

on we’ll go a little late I don’t think

anyone something I’ll bust down the door

and yell at me if I’m going to late um

let’s see oh yeah this is so let’s see

so we’ve got that I’m just gonna just

put it on this action just be very

utilitarian here as I can remember it um

let’s see we’ve got our no man is

getting getting resistance weapon

attacks until the start of your next

turn after you teleport yeah let’s do

this let’s do another let’s do a reverse

reverse damage transference the 10th

level I’m gonna say when you take damage

reaction to have summon feature take all

or some and that’ll that’ll come out in

the wash so bonus extra bonus X Joe what

is it it’s tip bonus in its texture it’s

just double plus more good I don’t know

what it is could be a barrel of toxic

waste but there it is it’s more so I

kind of like the idea giving you a

little more durability you can do this

idea of these as your helpers this might

be one that gets swallowed up by spell

but I don’t think so I like this idea

that it’s there it’s constantly reaction

and especially if it’s a spell sloughing

if I use it to dump the damage back in

my aunt wheel guy then I have damaged

plane back to me again so it might have

to be but we’ll see I’m gonna put a

custom work there alright we have like

four minutes Pelham just step back in

you may have seen a walk behind me I

think about to get kicked off line so

let’s do a fourteenth double thing you

can Joe and this is oh let’s do

something here where well right now you

could summon two creatures because I’m

letting you concentrate twice oh how

would that work because we don’t let you

concentrate twice so it’s never in a

case we have to figure out what happens

my cast of concentration spell again so

you know what I think oh this is the

case oh this is easy well put it a

simple restriction but then we’ll lift

it double summons

so I think we’re gonna have to clear up

that and my impulsive to say you can’t

concentrate in the same spell twice

because I think that it’s going to lead

to shenanigans I can probably prove that

later if I have time but you can now

this and I’m gonna put a big note to

myself because that’s just one of the

things that I really thought about which

would be a big mess we didn’t consider

it that’s why we work this way to make

sure we consider these things can’t

concentrate on same spell points

question mark but I think that’d be a

very simple thing you’d feel very great

at that 14th you know you’ve got your

entire career now I can summon two guys

awesome so then I feel pretty good power

wise it is actually really good so I

think it probably has to sit at 14th I

think we want to say you can’t double

concentrate because flooding the board

with so many guys that’s really good too

huge creatures again if using nature’s

you’re locking down a ton of the board

space so and the rope I mean that for

the actual class feature which I don’t

know if I wrote let me take a quick look

at that did we put your sonic focus

today actually try to write that or did

I just put in the table okay so we are

saying sonic spells they’re not the same

one just throw it in there it’s probably

okay good so I don’t have to worry about

the other summoning spells coming in and

playing poorly with this I can wall

those off all right so we’re at two

o’clock this is a something that I

really doesn’t need some more deep

thinking now that rather than just die I

don’t want to end up on stream just

doing a lot of flailing around and I

felt like I was flailing around a little

more than I wanted want to when I’m

doing something live because there’s a

lot of like moving parts here so I think

it just needs some time to just kind of

kind of come bring everything together

really bake it for a while and then roll

it back out so let’s do neck next week

let’s do some monsters cause monsters I

think will be fun

and I think that it’ll be a bit more

coherent as we go across and I’ll give

me some time to really think about all

the implications because there’s

actually a lot of stuff that’s bubbling

up here this is a great example of a

design that seems reasonable and the

first play test may show that none of

works at all right because there’s a lot

of moving parts here so I think this

needs to go in the oven for a bit it’s

kind of like the Great British Bake Off

this is the part of the show where we

just show the bakers like nervously

waiting for like you know the 40 minutes

for their cake the so yeah maybe we’ll

wait like maybe give it a month or so

and I got a bunch of monsters I need to

design at mine interval campaign so

let’s let’s tackle those over a couple

weeks that can show you some nice range

of critters so fail are we’re getting

next you a next Monday I think we are

getting it next Monday because I know

we’re actually working on it now spoiler

that’s I was talking about a

player-character race so there might be

a player-character race and that you a

so don’t don’t don’t

be sure to race over to our website to

get you way the puns they’re painful

aren’t they they are or is it Tuesday a

camera what day you a is I just work on

it and it wanders off and then a bunch

of things to work on so anyways work two

o’clock thanks for tuning in ahh

next week we’ll do some monsters and I’m

gonna start working on this and let’s

see if we get a bit more of a stable

design here because we’re doing a lot

we’re juggling a lot of things at once

let’s let’s take a break and put get

everything lined up nice and neat and

then come back and look at this in

August

okay well take care everyone and I’ll

see you next week