D&D 5E EN World Interview With Mike Mearls, Lead Designer of D&D Next

dkyle · May 21, 2012

am181d said:
Here's why I don't like this:

Imagine a scenario in which a DM is creating custom Themes for his campaign. Per your preference, he's creating a "topper" ability for each Theme. Now imagine that one of his players come to him with a concept for a new Theme. Does he get a topper ability or not? What if his Theme idea is *based* around the topper? Suddenly you've got this whole other type of ability that you need to consider in character creation, and you haven't solved the original problem.

Custom Theme in my post just means picking feats instead of a published Theme. Well-chosen feats are likely to overpower whatever combinations WotC chooses for their published Themes, if the Theme is just a package of feats.

If the DM wants to houserule new Themes in the vein of the published ones, that's very different. Naturally, as with all houserules, he'd have to use his judgement. If the combination of feats seems sub-optimal, providing some additional bonuses may be prudent.

CleverNickName · May 21, 2012

The surge mechanic was a fighter-only ability that let fighters heal. Based on closed playtest feedback, we added a mechanic that lets all characters heal by resting.

Sounds like Healing Surges/Second Winds made it into 5E.

ColonelHardisson · May 21, 2012

CleverNickName said:
Sounds like Healing Surges/Second Winds made it into 5E.

Which is fantastic. Adventuring parties without a healer of some kind along - like, say, a band of barbaric fighters or a dwarven infantry squad - should be able to push on in a D&D adventure as their literary and legendary counterparts do. Very few such tales ever have a specific "healer" or cleric.

CleverNickName · May 21, 2012

ColonelHardisson said:
Which is fantastic. Adventuring parties without a healer of some kind along - like, say, a band of barbaric fighters or a dwarven infantry squad - should be able to push on in a D&D adventure as their literary and legendary counterparts do. Very few such tales ever have a specific "healer" or cleric.

I completely and whole-heartedly disagree. These mechanics were what bothered me most about the 4th Edition. D&D Next will be a very hard sell for me and my gaming group now.

ColonelHardisson · May 21, 2012

CleverNickName said:
I completely and whole-heartedly disagree. These mechanics were what bothered me most about the 4th Edition. D&D Next will be a very hard sell for me and my gaming group now.

What part do you disagree with? Because it's easy enough to cite the voluminous tales that don't include a healing character. I would hazard a guess that this trope came about only due to the influence of D&D and other RPGs. Certainly there are some examples pre-D&D, but they're rare. The point is that it's one of those self-reflexive D&D tropes that makes D&D too specific unto itself, instead of being a vessel for simulating literature, movies, or one's own take on fantasy. Hit points, levels, and classes are pretty easy to rationalize in the context of any given work of fantasy; requiring a healer is not. By the way, this is a beef I've had with D&D for 30+ years. I'm glad to see an attempt to rectify it.

CleverNickName · May 21, 2012

ColonelHardisson said:
What part do you disagree with? Because it's easy enough to cite the voluminous tales that don't include a healing character. I would hazard a guess that this trope came about only due to the influence of D&D and other RPGs. Certainly there are some examples pre-D&D, but they're rare. The point is that it's one of those self-reflexive D&D tropes that makes D&D too specific unto itself, instead of being a vessel for simulating literature, movies, or one's own take on fantasy. Hit points, levels, and classes are pretty easy to rationalize in the context of any given work of fantasy; requiring a healer is not.

Pretty much all of it. You are absolutely right, this "trope" came about only due to the infuence of D&D and other RPGs. Which makes since, because we *are* talking about them in the context of D&D and RPGs.

I don't want hit points and healing to emulate movies or comic books...I want them to work like they do in RPGs.

Dedekind · May 21, 2012

WotC made a clever move by removing this @GamingTonic's NDA right before the open playtest. It certainly gets me more excited.

ColonelHardisson · May 21, 2012

CleverNickName said:
Pretty much all of it. You are absolutely right, this "trope" came about only due to the infuence of D&D and other RPGs. Which makes since, because we *are* talking about them in the context of D&D and RPGs. I don't want hit points and healing to work the way they do in the movies or storybooks...I want them to work like they do in an RPG.

D&D wasn't created to simulate D&D. It was created to simulate adventures in fantasy worlds like in Appendix N of the 1e DMG. There are few healers in any of those books. D&D simulating D&D is a weakness, not a strength, and is a more recent phenomenon that has limited the scope of the game.

ColonelHardisson · May 21, 2012

CleverNickName said:
I don't want hit points and healing to emulate movies or comic books...I want them to work like they do in RPGs.

I could cite plenty of instances from literature like Lord of the Rings (not the movies, the books) or Conan or Edgar Rice Burroughs' Mars books where the heroes catch a second wind or bring themselves back from the brink due to sheer willpower.

Also, given that Gygax himself cited comic books as an influence, I don't look down on their impact on D&D.

EDIT: By the way, this is getting outside the scope of this thread, so I'll let it rest for now.

CleverNickName · May 21, 2012

ColonelHardisson said:
D&D wasn't created to simulate D&D. It was created to simulate adventures in fantasy worlds like in Appendix N of the 1e DMG. There are few healers in any of those books. D&D simulating D&D is a weakness, not a strength, and is a more recent phenomenon that has limited the scope of the game.

(shrug) That is as good a way to look at it as any, I suppose. I don't really have an opinion on the origins of the game or the history of its healing mechanics. I'm just stating my preference...and I would prefer that they did not have 4E-esque healing in the new edition.

Alas, that is a moot point now.