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8 months ago ::
Oct 04, 2012 - 8:28AM
#1
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Date Joined:
Jun 22, 2007
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In this week's D&D Next Q&A, Rodney gives us some insight into specialties as miniature multiclassing, varying advancement rates, and the challenges of designing small player races.
Trevor Kidd
Community Manager
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8 months ago ::
Oct 04, 2012 - 8:43AM
#2
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Date Joined:
Mar 22, 2008
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Yes! This one’s easy for us to address. We can provide alternative advancement rates for whatever pace people want to set for their campaigns. We’ll probably pick one as a default for Organized Play, but otherwise that’s a great example of something that we can provide relatively easily—a chart and an explanation of the impact it will have on your game, and you’re ready to go.
I hope that puts to be the mistaken assumption by certain people here that there won't be default rules.
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8 months ago ::
Oct 04, 2012 - 8:53AM
#3
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What are the challenges of figuring out how to handle small size player character races like halflings in D&D Next?
The biggest challenge is finding out just how light of a touch we can put on those mechanics and have them still feel satisfying to players. In general, the smallness of the small races has the potential to be so detrimental that it deters players from playing them: if the penalties for playing the race are too stiff, why bother? On the other hand, ignoring the smallness is ignoring a defining trait of these races. Plus, we want to make sure that the characters make sense mechanically given their small stature. So, looking at the halfling, we nod to the smallness as a detriment by barring them from heavy weapons (something likely to only affect classes like the fighter and the barbarian), but we also turn it into a boon with their Nimble trait. I think when we look at the gnome, we’ll likely try and achieve the same kinds of things.
Good to hear that you are working on ways to keep the small characters from being less proficient with certain classes. Players hate disadvantages and will reject class/race combinations that are inferior just because of the race choice. I don't see that Halfling Nimbleness makes up for not being able to use the best weapons. If that were the case, then the halfling would be overpowered in any build that does not use a heavy weapon, and that does not seem to be true. If nimbleness is the advantage for being small, then that should be part of the small trait so people have a better understanding of the pros and cons of being small. Personaly I think that if you can't figure out what advantages there are to being small, then there should not be disadvantages. Just make it so that small creatures have to resize any 'heavy' weapon down to a smaller size before using it, but keep all the same weapon stats. If you want to come up with complicated alternate rules for size advantages/disadvantages let the DMs decide if they want to add them into their campaign.
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8 months ago ::
Oct 04, 2012 - 8:58AM
#4
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Some questions I had no interest in at all... 
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8 months ago ::
Oct 04, 2012 - 9:09AM
#5
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Date Joined:
Aug 22, 2007
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So Small is a flaw feat which lets the race gain an extra bonus feat.
Orzel, Halfelven son of Zel, Mystic Ranger, Bane to Dragons, Death to Undeath, Killer of Abyssals, King of the Wilds.
Constitution Based Class for Next!
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8 months ago ::
Oct 04, 2012 - 9:18AM
#6
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So Small is a flaw feat which lets the race gain an extra bonus feat.
I like the idea of adding flaws into the game. That way the guys who have a backstory that includes things like 'fear of spiders' or 'bi-polar' could get some goodies for making a character with flaws.
I don't think 'small' makes a good flaw however. Having a penalty that does not affect your class (weapon restrictions and push/knockdown limits) would be nice for those who want a free feat.
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8 months ago ::
Oct 04, 2012 - 9:21AM
#7
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Date Joined:
May 12, 2009
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I am glad to hear they consider implementing alternative advancement rates with XP table variants for people to opt for the pace they prefer.
Yan
Montréal, Canada
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8 months ago ::
Oct 04, 2012 - 9:24AM
#8
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Date Joined:
Dec 20, 2011
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I am really sorry for going off topic but im loving watching Lokiares signature go up. Truly mixed reviews there.
Actually on topic, I think there needs to be a HUGE list of minor flaws, such as the fear of spiders and such as mentioned above for a DM to pull on and could have lots of practical uses such as random effects of potions / fear effects and the odd permanent effect on a player who takes it. Small shouldnt be a special detriment, it should be one of the many detrimental effects in the game that most people contend with at some point.
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8 months ago ::
Oct 04, 2012 - 9:28AM
#9
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I am really sorry for going off topic but im loving watching Lokiares signature go up. Truly mixed reviews there.
Actually on topic, I think there needs to be a HUGE list of minor flaws, such as the fear of spiders and such as mentioned above for a DM to pull on and could have lots of practical uses such as random effects of potions / fear effects and the odd permanent effect on a player who takes it. Small shouldn't be a special detriment, it should be one of the many detrimental effects in the game that most people contend with at some point.
Why not get one for yourself? Its free, just click it and create one...
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8 months ago ::
Oct 04, 2012 - 9:42AM
#10
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Date Joined:
Nov 19, 2007
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Specialities: I like having them, I hope there will be rules (or guidelines) for making our own, and options for not using them at all without losing something significant.
Level Progression: Love the idea of having different progression rates.
Small: I have been and continue to be against banning heavy weapons from small characters. There's no reason behind it that I can see other than "they're too big for Halflings to handle" (and to scrape up a reason to make Small PCs different from Medium ones). Fie! Halflings have weaponsmiths, and any decent weaponsmith can make a 2-handed sword exactly to a Halfling's measure. For that matter, a good smith would be able to make a two-handed sword to the measure of the person commissioning the weapon, be it Halfling, Human, or Ogre.
WotC, PLEASE don't base use of a weapon on the assumption all weapons are made for human-sized people. If that were the case, how do giants end up with giant-sized weapons? Fine, Halflings can't use human-sized large weapons. But there's absolutely nothing keeping them from using Halfling-sized large weapons.
In memory of wrecan and his Unearthed Wrecana.5e should strongly stay away from "I don't like it, so you can't have it either."
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