There are certain business and legal questions we can't answer (for business and legal reasons). And if you have a specific rules question, we'd rather point you toCustomer Service, where representatives are ready and waiting to help guide you through the rules of the game. That said, our goal is provide you with as much information we can—in this and other venues.

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 With the exploration and interaction rules in mind, what might a monster entry look like? Do you expect monsters will have a combat block and then text about their exploration and interaction habits?

This is something we’re still working out, but one of the things we’ve discussed is that a monster’s entry might not contain just one stat block, but actually multiple distinct blocks of information (along with descriptive text, story hooks, ecology information, etc.). Of course, the combat stat block is the one that most people are already familiar with. We’ve also talked about creating a separate block of information that contains mechanical information used in the design of adventures and encounters; for example, where level and XP are currently a part of the combat stat block, that information might move into a second block, sitting alongside things like environment, frequency, number encountered, and similar information. Likewise, we are considering having another block of information where you would find much of that interaction material; though for many creatures, especially beasts and mindless creatures, these sections would be more limited, for others they could serve as a real asset to Dungeon Masters trying to run a monster during a scene where the players decide to talk their way past the obstacle, rather than going in spells-and-swords-a-blazin’.

 Will some classes be better at interaction and exploration and have more abilities for those pillars than others? If so, how do we adjust for games that focus less on those pillars?

We certainly expect certain classes to have more tools for succeeding in the interaction and exploration portions of the game than others. For example, rangers are likely to be extremely valuable during exploration, and we’ve been thinking of bards a lot like “social rangers” in that you will be very happy to have a bard along with you during interaction scenes. Of course, just like everything else in the game, this design is about finding the right balance where the class can exceed in these pillars without falling too far behind in combat. While it’s true that campaigns that focus less on interaction and exploration will make reduced use of features geared toward those pillars, the same can be asked of campaigns that rarely have combat; does the fighter feel diminished in a campaign that only sees combat once every few sessions?

The goal we’re working toward is making sure there are enough options out there inside the classes so that a class can excel at one pillar and still contribute to the others, and that goes for all three pillars. This is one of the reasons why we’re looking at putting more interaction and exploration abilities in classes like the fighter; for example, we’ve been exploring allowing the soldier subclass of the fighter to be really good at keeping watch, a reflection of the sort of awareness that comes with being a seasoned warrior with formal training. These kinds of features might be fewer and have a lighter footprint than, say, the kinds of abilities you would see in a class focused toward a particular pillar, but they should be good for helping players feel like they can always contribute to the party’s success.

 How do the designers feel about random tables as DMing tools (random treasure, wandering monsters, 1d100 adventure hooks, etc.)?

Though I can’t speak for everyone, I would say that generally we feel very positive about them. One of the things that is often of some concern to us is the speed with which you can get an impromptu game of D&D going. It’s easy to fill a few hours with a board game because there’s no prep time and everyone just jumps into the game, but it’s much tougher to do that for D&D. This is one of the areas where DM tools like random tables shines; the DM doesn’t need to figure everything, he or she just needs to roll on a few tables and then stitch things together. It’s not a total solution to the pick-up-and-play challenges, but it certainly does contribute to a solution.

That’s to say nothing of their benefit to Dungeon Masters while running a game; when the game takes a left turn into unexpected territory, a few well-stocked random tables can give the DM enough of a nudge to keep the game going smoothly. Moreover, those random tables can also serve as great inspiration for DMs who are doing prep work in advance. While having a total blank slate works great for some DMs, there are others (me included) who like being able to flip through a few pages of other peoples’ ideas for inspiration.

Personally, I also really like the creativity that comes out of being forced to figure out how things fit together; I will sometimes use random tables to stock dungeons, build magic items, etc., taking the randomly generated parameters and then exercising my creativity to figure out how it all works together to form something cohesive. It is one of the things I really like about the random table-based character generation from the Gamma World game we released a few years ago: rolling two halves of a character (say, Felinoid and Swarm) and coming up with an explanation of how they fit together (“My character is a sentient hive-mind pack of kittens.”).

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How can I submit a question to the D&D Next Q&A?

Instead of a single venue to submit questions, our Community Manager will be selecting questions from our message boards, Twitter feed, and Facebook account. You can also submit questions directly to dndinsider@wizards.com. So, if you’d like to have your question answered in the D&D Next Q&A, just continue to participate in our online community—and we may select yours!

There are certain business and legal questions we can't answer (for business and legal reasons). And if you have a specific rules question, we'd rather point you to Customer Service, where representatives are ready and waiting to help guide you through the rules of the game. That said, our goal is provide you with as much information we can—in this and other venues.

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Are there plans for a permanent wound and injury module?

It’s one of the things we want to explore in a rules module. Such a thing would probably also not be just one set of rules, but a spectrum, allowing people to dive as deeply into lingering wounds as they like. For example, one group might want more consequences for being injured in a fight, but not be interested in highly specific injuries, ( “Ooh, critical hit, looks like the orc crushes your collarbone!” ), while another group might want to combine everything from hit locations to lingering wounds and slow healing all together to create a really gritty game. That’s fine—and we hope that you can use a single module, or combine modules, to get the kind of game you want.

Will a halfling barbarian be able to contribute to the group as much as a human barbarian?  Are certain concepts designed to be sub-optimal?

While there are always going to be some combinations that work together more naturally than others, we’d like to think that playing an oddball combination doesn’t mean you can’t contribute. For example, in the case of the halfling barbarian, while you certainly won’t have the strength of a half-orc, you could still be very effective by option to use a two-weapon fighting style (with, say, two short sword) since some of the heavy weapons like the greataxe are off-limits. Every possible combination is not going to be equal, but the goal is to make sure that any given basic combination of choices can feel good about contributing to the adventure, even when playing a less common combination.

 Could humans have subraces or would those be better expressed as cultural details?  Could half-races and planetouched be expressed as human subraces?

We’re pretty happy with how easy-to-use humans are right now, and how they help make character generation go quickly. Right now, we think that the half-races (like half-elf and half-orc) work better as their own race choices; the same goes for the planetouched races. That way, we can focus on getting the feel of each of those races right, without the need to worry about how certain racial traits affects the normal human.

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How can I submit a question to the D&D Next Q&A?

Instead of a single venue to submit questions, our Community Manager will be selecting questions from our message boards, Twitter feed, and Facebook account. You can also submit questions directly to dndinsider@wizards.com. So, if you’d like to have your question answered in the D&D Next Q&A, just continue to participate in our online community—and we may select yours!

There are certain business and legal questions we can't answer (for business and legal reasons). And if you have a specific rules question, we'd rather point you to Customer Service, where representatives are ready and waiting to help guide you through the rules of the game. That said, our goal is provide you with as much information we can—in this and other venues.

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Just how much can a subclass change a core class?

When we look at a class, its features should say, “This is what is true about all members of this class.” When we look at a subclass, its features say, “This is what can be true about certain members of this class.” Moreover, the important thing to know about a subclass is that it’s not about mechanics, it’s about the archetype. That’s why we want to look at things like “Knight” for a subclass, not “Defender;” the word “Knight” puts a face on the subclass and describes its place in the world.

So, the priority for a subclass’s mechanics is to live up to the archetype. If that means very different mechanics sitting inside two different subclasses, we think that’s OK. What unites the subclasses is what sits at a higher tier, inside the class itself. For example, we know we want fighters to be extremely good with weapons of all kinds; we know they should be versatile in combat, and they should be among the most resilient and defensive of the classes. Those are things that we think all fighters need, so that’s something all fighters get. When you look at a knight, for example, you’d expect the knight to have those things…and also a number of social features that tie into the knowledge of courtly manner, etiquette, royalty and nobility. A gladiator, on the other hand, doesn’t need any of those things, but what the knight and the gladiator share, as members of the fighter class, are that same skill, resilience and versatility that the class itself provides.

Will different subclass abilities be available a la carte?

Right now, we are designing the subclasses as a complete package that you buy into completely or not at all. The reason is that this allows us to take a look at the whole picture of a subclass’s features, looking not just at their individual effects but the effects of their combination. Moreover, some subclasses might have more complex or involved subsystems within them, and need more interlocking features than another subclasses, whose features might be perfectly functional independent of one another. What we plan to do, instead of treating the features like interchangeable parts, is provide information for Dungeon Masters to work with players to design their own subclasses, using the same kinds of guidelines we are using for designing them internally. We still have feats available for fine-tuning characters, and want to continue exploring (as we have up to this point) the occasional dipping into other archetypes and mechanics with feats as a means of providing tweaks to your character concepts.

Would wizard subclasses be a means by which wizards utilize non-Vancian casting options?

That is an avenue we’re exploring right now, yes. A big part of the class-subclass design process is deciding which features are essential to all members of the class, and which ones are desirable for only a portion of the members of that class. Certainly we think that the ability to cast arcane spells is an essential part of the wizard class; the means by which it obtains the spells themselves, and the resources with which the class casts those spells, may be more flexible. It’s something we plan to experiment with and playtest.

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How can I submit a question to the D&D Next Q&A?

Instead of a single venue to submit questions, our Community Manager will be selecting questions from our message boards, Twitter feed, and Facebook account. You can also submit questions directly to dndinsider@wizards.com. So, if you’d like to have your question answered in the D&D Next Q&A, just continue to participate in our online community—and we may select yours!

There are certain business and legal questions we can't answer (for business and legal reasons). And if you have a specific rules question, we'd rather point you to Customer Service, where representatives are ready and waiting to help guide you through the rules of the game. That said, our goal is provide you with as much information we can—in this and other venues.

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With skills as an optional add-on, will characters not using the skill system be playable at the same table as characters who are?

Right now, we’re thinking that using the optional skills system will be a table-wide decision, not a character-by-character decision. Feedback from the playtest has clearly indicated that the players and DMs who want a skill system want one that is robust and one that replaces ability checks as the core resolution method, with the DM calling for, say, a Stealth check instead of a Dexterity check. Since it’s likely that the optional skill system will go so far as to change the way the players and the Dungeon Master interact like that, it’s probably a decision the entire table makes as a group, and then abides by.

Are skill dice going away completely?

Not entirely. Right now, we’re looking to preserve the basic concept inside of some of the classes more often associated with skills, including the bard and the rogue. We’re experimenting with having something like the skill die inside of those classes (and potentially expanded upon inside certain other class features) to help give those classes an edge over other characters in certain arenas. Of course, this doesn’t preclude us using other mechanics in other classes to reflect non-combat expertise (for example, giving out additional proficiencies and areas of knowledge).

Will backgrounds be the only means by which to gain proficiencies?

No. Both areas of knowledge and proficiencies can potentially come from race, class, background, or feats. We want to give these out where it’s appropriate, and are not limiting them to coming from a single source.

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How can I submit a question to the D&D Next Q&A?

Instead of a single venue to submit questions, our Community Manager will be selecting questions from our message boards, Twitter feed, and Facebook account. You can also submit questions directly to dndinsider@wizards.com. So, if you’d like to have your question answered in the D&D Next Q&A, just continue to participate in our online community—and we may select yours!

There are certain business and legal questions we can't answer (for business and legal reasons). And if you have a specific rules question, we'd rather point you to Customer Service, where representatives are ready and waiting to help guide you through the rules of the game. That said, our goal is provide you with as much information we can—in this and other venues.

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How much gold should a new character created above 1st level have?  How many and what kinds of magic items should they have?

The game balance answer is: starting gold and equipment works at any level. We make very few assumptions about the presence or absence of gear in the game right now, so you should be OK just starting with what you would have at 1st level. However, there may be story and world reasons why you would want the more experienced adventurers to start with better gear. However, that falls more into the realm of DM advice, and will likely have to wait for a more thorough treatment in our DM materials. 

What are the current plans for Paragon Paths and Prestige Classes? Are they now going to be emulated by feat chains?

It’s likely that their concepts will find homes in a couple of different places. While many of their abilities are likely to find their way into feats, we’re also looking at integrating some of them into the base classes. We’ve shown several choice points in our classes up to this point, and many of those prestige classes and paragon paths could reappear as choices inside of the classes.

If a character takes "add +1 to an ability score" at every feat slot, will that character "break" bounded accuracy?

No, for the simple reason that we have ability score maximums in place. Since you cannot improve an ability score above 20 without some magical means, we aren’t concerned about players reaching high primary ability scores, because the highest they can go is still capped.

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How can I submit a question to the D&D Next Q&A?

Instead of a single venue to submit questions, our Community Manager will be selecting questions from our message boards, Twitter feed, and Facebook account. You can also submit questions directly to dndinsider@wizards.com. So, if you’d like to have your question answered in the D&D Next Q&A, just continue to participate in our online community—and we may select yours!