Jeremy Crawford On The Dark Side of Developing 5E

WotC's Jeremy Crawford spoke to The Escapist about the D&D 5th Edition development process and his role in the game's production. "There was a dark side where it was kind of crushing. The upside is it allowed us to have a throughline for the whole project. So I was the person who decided if what we had decided was important two years prior was still being executed two years later."


You can read the full interview here, but below are the key highlights.

• Mike Mearls started pondering about D&D 5th Edition while the 4E Essentials books were being worked on in 2010.
• There were "heated discussions" about the foundations of 5E.
• Crawford is the guy who "made the decision about precisely what was going to be in the game".
• Crawford considers D&D's settings as an important pillar.

For another recent interview, see Chris Perkins talking to Chris "Wacksteven" Iannitti.

 

[Nellisir]

For myself, every edition since 2e has failed with regards to the cleric, because I want them much closer to 2e Priests of Specific Mythoi and Specialty Priests in which armor proficiency, attack bonus, hit die were more varied and tied to deity, spell lists were much more limited by deity, and abilities like Turn Undead were specific to certain spheres/domains.

I get a lot of mileage out of reskinning different classes. I realize that's the obvious answer, but it's what I've got. I haven't fully developed my 5e yet, but I anticipate a lot of the customization I made for 3e being able to be carried over into 5e. Warlocks and/or sorcerers might get pulled in as well, as servants of the Typhos (Titans) and Envidier (hero-deities). And there are always paladins, and possibly rangers....

 

[Greg K]

I get a lot of mileage out of reskinning different classes. I realize that's the obvious answer, but it's what I've got. I haven't fully developed my 5e yet, but I anticipate a lot of the customization I made for 3e being able to be carried over into 5e.

Oh, if I run 5e, I will be rewriting the cleric to bring over a lot of work from 3e. I am going to start with my small generic list of cleric spells. Then, I am going to give each deity 3 domains. A clerics spells will come from the small list of generic spells plus the 3 domains of their deity. Like you, I am also thinking of incorporating warlocks and/or sorcerers.