D&D General The Resurrection of Mike Mearls Games.

[Zaukrie]

I’m hoping to read it later this evening.

I'm no expert at subclasses, and as he says, he has improved the writing / presentation over time.....but there is some good stuff here....

 

[Zardnaar]

I loved your post on the design of the Ranger class and the issues it has suffered from since 2e.

Link?

 

[EthanSental]

@Zardnaar not sure if it’s a public post on the Patreon site but the link on the first post here takes you to Mike’s Patreon site and see if it’s public or not.

 

[EthanSental]

And looking at the pdf, not to steal Mike’s thunder in future Patreon posts, but the rogue shadow bound subclass reads like a fun class to play!

 

[EthanSental]

Hopefully others have been reading Mike’s design notes and subclasses. Also the monster design sounds interesting and one I’m looking forward to trying.

 

[AdmundfortGeographer]

Agreed on the monster design. What he talked about for the monster could almost get a monster down to the amount of page-inches a monster would fit in a 1e or 2e module’s room.

5E is still dealing with some of the 3e aftermath, and 3e’s monster stat blocks are one where seemed to be a design ideal that monsters should mimic PCs as if D&D could work well as a PvP.

One thing I have long done when preparing a 5E DMing session is hand write on a 3x5 post card the minimal info I need from the monster as I sit at the table. But I see him as correct at simplifying monsters even further and I am here for it.

 

[Zaukrie]

Agreed on the monster design. What he talked about for the monster could almost get a monster down to the amount of page-inches a monster would fit in a 1e or 2e module’s room.

5E is still dealing with some of the 3e aftermath, and 3e’s monster stat blocks are one where seemed to be a design ideal that monsters should mimic PCs as if D&D could work well as a PvP.

One thing I have long done when preparing a 5E DMing session is hand write on a 3x5 post card the minimal info I need from the monster as I sit at the table. But I see him as correct at simplifying monsters even further and I am here for it.

100 percent.

 

[Clint_L]

Agreed on the monster design. What he talked about for the monster could almost get a monster down to the amount of page-inches a monster would fit in a 1e or 2e module’s room.

5E is still dealing with some of the 3e aftermath, and 3e’s monster stat blocks are one where seemed to be a design ideal that monsters should mimic PCs as if D&D could work well as a PvP.

One thing I have long done when preparing a 5E DMing session is hand write on a 3x5 post card the minimal info I need from the monster as I sit at the table. But I see him as correct at simplifying monsters even further and I am here for it.

I get where you are coming from. I think digital changes the equation, though. I use DnDBeyond, so when I am running an encounter, or building one, everything is a click away, or even just a hover away if I want to glance at what the creature can do. There is not the same value for me in having abbreviated lists or descriptions.

 

[EthanSental]

Those 1e/2e stat blocks in adventures conveyed enough that even now if I re-read an old adventure from that era, I know what it means and could run the monster easily again.

 

[Staffan]

Hopefully others have been reading Mike’s design notes and subclasses. Also the monster design sounds interesting and one I’m looking forward to trying.

Agreed on the monster design. What he talked about for the monster could almost get a monster down to the amount of page-inches a monster would fit in a 1e or 2e module’s room.

Could you perhaps elaborate on this? This might just be different tastes, but it sounds to me like he's condensing monster stats to something like AC, hp, saves, attack bonus, and damage (which is pretty much what was in an AD&D stat block). This seems antithetical to interesting monster design to me. I mean, I don't need calculations on how monsters get their stats, but I do want them to have interesting abilities and not just be sacks of hit points the way they often are in 5e. To me, 4e monsters were peak D&D monster design (except they could have used a recalibration of actual numbers).