D&D (2024) New Jeremy Crawford Interviews

[Micah Sweet]

Of course there are other options. Options which are adding an unnecessary level of complexity, limitations and really messes up multi classing.

How one feels about complexity is very subjective, of course. I'm much more comfortable with it than you tend to be, for example.

How does it mess up multiclassing?

 

[Parmandur]

They "solved" the problem by completely changing how it works -and that's apparently acceptable.

However, any suggestion that there may have been other ways to approach the issue = "holy moly, the entire game is breaking!" Wtf?

•complete overhaul of race/species - fine
•complete overhaul of backgrounds - fine
•redesigning and rebalancing feats - fine

"Hey, maybe there are ways to have the 5e paladin continue to do the things people liked about it without needing to use more spell slots."

"No way, man! You're breaking the game. Do you have any idea how hard using something other than spell slots would be?"

Probably about as hard as the multiples other options within 5e that already accomplish that.

It isn't really a big change, though, Divine Smite always uses Spell Slots...because it is balanced as a Spell, and Paladins have Spell Slots.

Only reason I can think of that Divine Smite wasn't always a Spell is to keep it away from Bards and Magic Initates...but that has been solved.

No way a spell-less Paladin would have passed UA.

 

[TiQuinn]

It isn't a matter of liking it or not. It is a matter of the compatibility and the power of the class as a whole. Just as yet another example, currently Paladins work with the multi-classing rules, with their spellcasting and smites operating under that system. Making a piety point system that works like the 4 elements monk (which as a system was largely panned for how bad it was) would throw that completely off and need to be addressed.

This is the big thing, IMO. Every new subsystem brought into the game has to stand up to multi-classing and that gets difficult to balance. I’d personally love it every class had a different way of casting or using abilities that made them unique. It’s why I feel that psionics in 5e are watered down - they just feel like arcane spells and they are - because creating something whole cloth creates a lot of trickle down problems elsewhere.

 

[Micah Sweet]

This is the big thing, IMO. Every new subsystem brought into the game has to stand up to multi-classing and that gets difficult to balance. I’d personally love it every class had a different way of casting or using abilities that made them unique. It’s why I feel that psionics in 5e are watered down - they just feel like arcane spells and they are - because creating something whole cloth creates a lot of trickle down problems elsewhere.

Fixing those problems as they occur is juice worth the squeeze for me. WotC 5e is too focused on simplicity of design over robust and verisimilitudinous mechanical representation for my tastes.

 

[Oofta]

How one feels about complexity is very subjective, of course. I'm much more comfortable with it than you tend to be, for example.

How does it mess up multiclassing?

If I have PP (paladin points) to cast spells and switch into cleric, I now have two completely different sources. So if my paladin had Heroism because they're oath of the crown. Now I have to remember that I can't cast that spell because it's not on the cleric list. Or worse, I have to decide every time I cast Cure Wounds whether I should use PP or a spell slot. In addition, with things like Cure Wounds that can be cast at a higher level, how do PPs work?

It's completely unnecessary. If you only have a few abilities that are specific to your class (e.g. monk, sorcerer points) that's fine, they aren't features shared by other classes. The majority of spells available to a paladin are shared.

 

[Micah Sweet]

If I have PP (paladin points) to cast spells and switch into cleric, I now have two completely different sources. So if my paladin had Heroism because they're oath of the crown. Now I have to remember that I can't cast that spell because it's not on the cleric list. Or worse, I have to decide every time I cast Cure Wounds whether I should use PP or a spell slot. In addition, with things like Cure Wounds that can be cast at a higher level, how do PPs work?

It's completely unnecessary. If you only have a few abilities that are specific to your class (e.g. monk, sorcerer points) that's fine, they aren't features shared by other classes. The majority of spells available to a paladin are shared.

Perhaps they should be a different effect then. Again, "simplicity above all" is what I see as the issue here.

 

[Oofta]

Perhaps they should be a different effect then. Again, "simplicity above all" is what I see as the issue here.

Complexity has to be justified. A smite currently uses a spell slot, making it a spell is a minor change that lowers complexity. Rewriting the class to use a different power source adds a ton of complexity for little reason.

 

[Micah Sweet]

Complexity has to be justified. A smite currently uses a spell slot, making it a spell is a minor change that lowers complexity. Rewriting the class to use a different power source adds a ton of complexity for little reason.

Simplicity also has to be justified. It all depends on what your priorities are. When it comes to logical mechanical representation of a setting element (which to my mind all PC elements are in the D&D I prefer), I'm willing to accept and even appreciate a good amount of complexity.

WotC has different priorities than I do, and I'm sure you do too.

 

[Oofta]

Simplicity also has to be justified. It all depends on what your priorities are. When it comes to logical mechanical representation of a setting element (which to my mind all PC elements are in the D&D I prefer), I'm willing to accept and even appreciate a good amount of complexity.

WotC has different priorities than I do, and I'm sure you do too.

One change is minor and has little material effect. The other is a dramatic change that breaks all sorts of precedence and established patterns while also having unintended side effects.

I don't believe in complexity for the sake of complexity, the vast majority of people that play D&D can barely understand how 1 character class works.

 

[Micah Sweet]

One change is minor and has little material effect. The other is a dramatic change that breaks all sorts of precedence and established patterns while also having unintended side effects.

I don't believe in complexity for the sake of complexity, the vast majority of people that play D&D can barely understand how 1 character class works.

Fair enough, but you know I value in-setting logic and verisimilitude over gamist simplification, no matter what the "vast majority" of players think (assuming you have the right to even speak for them).