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While I have a hard time imagining how Eurogames' approach to randomness (randomized options with deterministic resolution) would apply to RPGs in general, it does occur to me that this could be an interesting approach to spellcaster class design. Imagine if a Sorcerer, for instance, chose some...

This, I think, is the reason the developers' descriptions of their survey analysis methods bother me. If the first version of Mechanic X receives 55% satisfaction, for instance (however % satisfaction is actually defined), it would be perfectly reasonable for the developers to say that based on...

I'd say the biggest unanswered question is how much spells will change. Spells make up a significant fraction of the PHB by page count, and constitute the overwhelming majority of class features for many classes. But whereas we've seen playtest versions of almost every non-spell class feature...

Class balance will never be perfect, but it should be a goal that designers aspire to. If some characters are intended to be objectively stronger than others, that can be represented by making those characters different levels, or by giving them features independent of their classes (higher...

As far as I can tell, it's completely arbitrary. And not arbitrary in a remotely useful way. The class figure expands the 0-100K range to fill 2/3 of the y-axis, even though there's only one data point falling into this range . The variation among the remaining 12 classes thus has to be...

I think the expected length of the campaign is probably an important variable. A per session or per encounter risk level that results in 50% survival for a 10 session campaign would make character death a near guarantee in longer form campaigns. I also think it's important to avoid conflating...

If gold is expected to be accumulated at rate corresponding to level progression and magic items are expected to be available at specific prices, then magic items are a de facto part of level advancement (with a couple of intermediate steps that add unnecessary constraints to worldbuilding)...

As far as I can tell, the only substantive roadblocks you've described are layout issues with the books and character sheets. There's certainly room to improve these, but describing formatting and editing issues as "passive aggressive efforts to remove magic items" is not a constructive way to...

It seems odd to say the developers are trying to remove magic items from the game while at the same time noting that they've devoted over 100 pages to them. One can dispute whether magic items should be a standardized part of level advancement or an orthogonal, campaign-dependent axis of...

If you compare the wizard's damage in their best two rounds to the fighter's damage over a full adventuring day, of course the fighter's going to come out ahead. The wizard also has 3 lv2 spells, 4 lv1 spells and unlimited cantrips to contribute to those 6 encounters. Depending on encounter...

I would reject the premise that simple weapon proficiency should be available to all characters. Anyone can pick up a spear and use it, but using it with your proficiency bonus should require some level of training from your class or background. That said, I wonder if the penalties for using a...

I think the Ancestral Guardian would also be a strong choice, especially if they're looking for something with protection oriented abilities.

Yes, this is a very encounter dependent ability. It won't do as much as the Barbarian's range against focus fire or the Rogue's uncanny dodge against a single large attack. If, on the other hand, you're getting attacked once or twice per round for a small to moderate amount of damage, its likely...

I think it's largely a question of how one expects the spell list to be used. If one is browsing the class spell lists and then looking up spells based on those lists, then listing the classes in the spell description is redundant. If one is browsing the spell descriptions themselves for...

In addition to the Barbarian, Druid and Monk, the playtest packet includes changes to a number of spells. The largest number of changes are to conjure spells. I think it's a bit odd that the summoned entities can't be interacted with by attacks or most spells, but otherwise I generally like...

One thing that I miss are the alternate ways of using the wildshape resource. While shapeshifting is important to many Druid character concepts, there are definitely players who prefer to focus on the nature mage side of the class. Being able to recover spell slots, heal, or interact with a...

To help keep the discussion of the UA8 playtest packet organized, here is a thread for discussion of the revised Barbarian. To begin, here are my thoughts on some of the features: Rage: Maintaining rage as a bonus action was a good addition, and it's elegantly presented here. With the reduced...

On Earth, we know that species originate through evolutionary processes, including natural selection, mutation, and genetic drift. In D&D settings, one can make a wide range of assumptions about the degree to which this is true. So long as living things survive and reproduce at variable rates...

The framing of this discussion seems very odd to me. If you go adventuring to find gold and are then expected to spend most of that gold on enhancing your adventuring abilities (so you can find more gold and enhance your adventuring abilities even more...), that's a treadmill. If gold is...

The Star Wars prequels needed more focus on political dynamics, not less. As @Autumnal notes, the prequels capture many elements of democratic collapse and rising fascism, but I think they often fail to place these elements against a cohesive background. In Attack of the Clones in particular...