D&D 5E Jeremy Crawford Discusses the Wild Soul Barbarian and Path of the Astral Self Monk

[Paul Farquhar]

They made several attempts, which have not been well received. The Generalist is an artifact of 3.x mechanics, really, not a story (he emphasizes the importance of a narrative basis for any Subclass being the consistent feedback in playtest surveys).

The first edition Magic User was a generalist wizard, and it continued to exist in 2nd. And a lot of the negativity towards the Invention wizard was caused by it's Ravnica context being concealed.

 

[Leatherhead]

They made several attempts, which have not been well received. The Generalist is an artifact of 3.x mechanics, really, not a story (he emphasizes the importance of a narrative basis for any Subclass being the consistent feedback in playtest surveys).

The non-specialist as a contrast to a specialist traces it's roots back to the inclusion of the Illusionist, and was properly codified in AD&D.

Most of those attempts were actually testbeds for some entirely absurd mechanics, like the School of Invention being a probe for Ravnica. Which is probably why UA wizards, even the ones crammed with lots of story potential like the Theurge, traditionally don't cross the approval threshold for playtest content. I'm almost entirely sure that the only reason the School of War Magic exists in print is because they had to print a Wizard Subclass for Xanathar's and they ran out of time and ideas for anything else.

And lets face it, those surveys really don't have the level of granularity that they should. The questions are basically "Do you like this?" If enough people (not most mind you, just like 30% or whatever the threshold is) answer 3/5 or less (because being good isn't good enough! it has to be loved~), the entire subclass gets totally scrapped instead of worked on. Even if the reason they didn't like it is because there was that one overpowered ability that they include just to provoke feedback, which obviously needs to be nerfed. Or this armor makes no sense out of context. Or they just don't like the Wizard class in general, so they don't care for any potential Wizard subclass to begin with.

 

[gyor]

Jeremy Crawford sat down with Todd Kendrick to discuss the latest UA. The two ideas were the ideas of Ben Petrisor, and Crawford confirmed the Anime influence. He said they have covered most of the standard D&D tropes at this point in the editions life, and that they felt that it was time to explore some "high magic" concepts that dipped into psychedelia. Frankly, I got the vibe that he may have been coy about what this might be for that they have in the works.

I disagree with Jeremy that they have covered all the major Archetypes, not even close.

 

[gyor]

The non-specialist as a contrast to a specialist traces it's roots back to the inclusion of the Illusionist, and was properly codified in AD&D.

Most of those attempts were actually testbeds for some entirely absurd mechanics, like the School of Invention being a probe for Ravnica. Which is probably why UA wizards, even the ones crammed with lots of story potential like the Theurge, traditionally don't cross the approval threshold for playtest content. I'm almost entirely sure that the only reason the School of War Magic exists in print is because they had to print a Wizard Subclass for Xanathar's and they ran out of time and ideas for anything else.

And lets face it, those surveys really don't have the level of granularity that they should. The questions are basically "Do you like this?" If enough people (not most mind you, just like 30% or whatever the threshold is) answer 3/5 or less (because being good isn't good enough! it has to be loved~), the entire subclass gets totally scrapped instead of worked on. Even if the reason they didn't like it is because there was that one overpowered ability that they include just to provoke feedback, which obviously needs to be nerfed. Or this armor makes no sense out of context. Or they just don't like the Wizard class in general, so they don't care for any potential Wizard subclass to begin with.

The Warmage is actually more popular then many other traditional Wizard schools.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

I disagree with Jeremy that they have covered all the major Archetypes, not even close.

Agreed. We still haven't got a "physical change whilst raging" barbarian for a start. If they have so run out out of ideas that they start coming up with random silliness they need to hire some new staff.

 

[Leatherhead]

The Warmage is actually more popular then many other traditional Wizard schools.

More popular than any traditional Wizard School.
But that's missing the forest for the trees.

Consider this:
Bladesingers are the most popular Wizard School, and they are a race restricted subclass.
Restricted to the least popular PHB race.
A race that is less popular than most splatbook races.
Additionally, it eats up your PHB+1 pick for organised play.

And despite all that, they are more popular than Warmages. Who in turn are more popular than even the bog-standard Evokers, who were included in the Basic rules. This makes Wizards schools an anomaly. Every other class has a PHB option (if not the Basic Rules option) in their number one slot.

I really don't know how its possible to make it any more clear: The demand for non-Specialist wizards is through the roof. Yes, the Specialist schools were an easy and obvious pick for additional subclass options, but WotC absolutely dropped the ball by not including a Generalist Wizard from day one.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

Bladesingers are the most popular Wizard School, and they are a race restricted subclass.

Optional campaign setting specific rule is optional.

 

[Hexmage-EN]

There are some classic concepts still missing, like the sha´ir or a devoted elementalist. I'd like to take a primordial/archomental as my Warlock patron, too, and beyond reflavoring the Fiend Pact for a fire entity I'm uncertain how to accomplish that.

 

[jasper]

Ok, I an old fart. Some the stuff you are mentioning I never heard of. I start back in 1E so what is
Shair?
School of Invention?(sounds like Ravenica )
Artificer (what if get from forums is they create stuff which do spell stuff)
Jolo (I not going to google my mind may not handle the result)
Of course back in the day you could tell my wizard apart from Morrus' wizard. My wizard look like James Bond from the original Casino Royale in a three piece suit and white Persian cat. Morrus' look like the wizard kid from the Saturday morning cartoon but with white hair.

 

[gyor]

There are some classic concepts still missing, like the sha´ir or a devoted elementalist. I'd like to take a primordial/archomental as my Warlock patron, too, and beyond reflavoring the Fiend Pact for a fire entity I'm uncertain how to accomplish that.

Tons of them. It baffles me how Jeremy could actually think that they'd gotten most of them.