D&D 5E Mike Mearls Happy Fun Hour, Nov 27 2018

Leatherhead

Possibly a Idiot.
Wherein, Mearls gives us the story behind why the Trident is so bad, Alternate Ranger Build-a-Beasts are explored, and the Brute is reincarnated into the Weapon Master.

[video=youtube;EeV5aZX1mqg]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EeV5aZX1mqg[/video]

[video]https://www.twitch.tv/videos/341529191[/video]
 
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Eubani

Legend
A few things I would like to hang Mike up by his feet for are (beware of paraphrasing for simplicity/ wall of text sake) his comments around weapon and martial abilities Vs spells, spells will always win. History Vs fighter getting something cool, history will always win and a advanced weapons system would be great for fighters so cannot happen. Its seems that martial/fighter design will never be as good as they could be.
 


Garthanos

Arcadian Knight
A few things I would like to hang Mike up by his feet for are (beware of paraphrasing for simplicity/ wall of text sake) his comments around weapon and martial abilities Vs spells, spells will always win. History Vs fighter getting something cool, history will always win and a advanced weapons system would be great for fighters so cannot happen. Its seems that martial/fighter design will never be as good as they could be.
And he does that periodically
 

gyor

Legend
Lots of different interesting stuff. The reason why the Trident ended up like it did is that it was mostly an after thought, they put it in because various monsters used it.

And they thought of making it do straight up 1d8 damage, but felt that would make it the best thrown weapon in the game, so they decided that the least disruptive way to deal with how the elements of the Trident interact was to just leave it like the spear.

Also the way Ranger Alternate class features and subclasses interact was interesting. Like if you take the animal companion subclass and feature you get pick a higher CR animal, if instead go Gloom Stalker and Beast Companion Alternate feature, which causes issues with the Gloomstalkers bonus spells know which normally would be useless if you traded your spells for a companion was to allow you to cast each of the bonus spells known once per long rest without slots. I really liked it.

And of course the Great Weapon fighter seems to be progressing well.

Oh and a Whirling Blade Fighting style was shown, only wear light or no armour and you can use two weapon attack without expending your bonus action, and you get ability mod to off hand damage.

He also explained the math of replacing spell slots with a none spell slof class feature. For thr beast companion class alternate feature, the Beast Companion for example make it's attacks without using your action, and eventually get more hit dice as it levels.
 

Baumi

Adventurer
Thanks! Seems like a really interesting Video.

I once tried to make a more balanced Weapon Chart .. which I thought that couldn't be so hard, but it was actually really problematic since you don't have many Options to balance if a Weapon gets a feature.
 

doctorbadwolf

Heretic of The Seventh Circle
So, if you take the beast master subclass, without the build-a-beast alternate feature, you’re still stuck with the phb?
 

Parmandur

Book-Friend
Lots of different interesting stuff. The reason why the Trident ended up like it did is that it was mostly an after thought, they put it in because various monsters used it.

And they thought of making it do straight up 1d8 damage, but felt that would make it the best thrown weapon in the game, so they decided that the least disruptive way to deal with how the elements of the Trident interact was to just leave it like the spear.

Also the way Ranger Alternate class features and subclasses interact was interesting. Like if you take the animal companion subclass and feature you get pick a higher CR animal, if instead go Gloom Stalker and Beast Companion Alternate feature, which causes issues with the Gloomstalkers bonus spells know which normally would be useless if you traded your spells for a companion was to allow you to cast each of the bonus spells known once per long rest without slots. I really liked it.

And of course the Great Weapon fighter seems to be progressing well.

Oh and a Whirling Blade Fighting style was shown, only wear light or no armour and you can use two weapon attack without expending your bonus action, and you get ability mod to off hand damage.

He also explained the math of replacing spell slots with a none spell slof class feature. For thr beast companion class alternate feature, the Beast Companion for example make it's attacks without using your action, and eventually get more hit dice as it levels.

One of the most interesting things I've learned from these videos is what math the designers use and have found to matter in play.
 

Parmandur

Book-Friend
So, if you take the beast master subclass, without the build-a-beast alternate feature, you’re still stuck with the phb?

OK, so, build-a-beast is a replacement for spellcasting as a Class feature. You can take the beast instead of spellcasting, separate from subclass. If you want spellcasting, and choose the Beastmaster subclass, then the PHB still applies across the board. You can also choose build-a-beast and any subclass, like Hunter or Gloomstalker, and forgo spells. But the design will let the Beastmaster stack with the build-a-beast, like the Hexblade and Pact of the Blade.
 

doctorbadwolf

Heretic of The Seventh Circle
OK, so, build-a-beast is a replacement for spellcasting as a Class feature. You can take the beast instead of spellcasting, separate from subclass. If you want spellcasting, and choose the Beastmaster subclass, then the PHB still applies across the board. You can also choose build-a-beast and any subclass, like Hunter or Gloomstalker, and forgo spells. But the design will let the Beastmaster stack with the build-a-beast, like the Hexblade and Pact of the Blade.
So, then, yes. Got it.

Not interested. The other features are great, but the beast master subclass is underpowered and fails at making a companion that fights beside you. If they aren’t willing to directly address that, instead of trying to make us choose between having spells and having an effective companion, I really don’t care if this ever sees publication.
 

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