- Recently, you had some
revised Unearthed Arcana,
you had three subclasses
that you showed off again,
and we've seen some not
only mechanical changes,
but also some thematic changes as well.
I'm super excited about the wizard,
but we will let's start off with aah
what was once the revived rogue,
correct?
Is now something entirely different.
- Yeah, some months ago,
we released this rogue,
whose whole story was that
they suddenly discover
that they've actually died before
and they have returned to life
and they have various deathly powers.
And what we found is
that people really liked
the kind of spooky mood of that subclass,
but they were not quite
clicking with this,
the story
of I wake up one day and realized I died.
In which makes sense given
than the fact that rogues
get their subclass at third levels.
So it's kind of, you know, you're playing
even for a few levels before
making this discovery.
And so what we did is we
looked at the feedback,
and we saw people overall,
really dug sort of the general
direction we were going in,
but again, we're bouncing
off the narrative.
And so we thought, how can
we take this spooky mood,
some of these features people
really liked in the revived,
but recast them with a different story.
And that's how we ended
up with the Phantom,
who is this sort of ghostly rogue
who you know can eventually
gains the ability
to like pass through walls
and you know could be you know,
the companion to a necromancer.
And also we really wanted to amp up
the roguish quality of it,
because in addition to people,
bouncing a little bit
off the revive story,
the question that came up
and I thought it was a good question
in the play test feedback
often was, how is this a rogue,
versus a member of some other class?
Like you know couldn't this be,you know
a new type of necromancer
in the wizard or a spooky
sorcerer or something.
And so really, that was a great reminder,
we need to make sure it's
clear why this is a rogue.
And we always conceived of it as a rogue.
And that's why we went all in on this idea
of even snatching information away
from the spirits of the dead.
So you know, this is
a rogue who's not only
aah you know taking things
from the living, but also taking things
from the realms of the dead
and I love where this ended up.
This you know,
this is
you know,
clearly a rogue but a rogue
with a very gothic mood.
I can imagine, I can imagine rogues
who have a vaguely
sinister mood taking this
but I can also see rogues
who are heroic, having this
you know, where they using information
from the realms of the dead.
They use that to fight injustice
and villainy in the D&D multiverse.
- Yeah, certainly, I mean,
I always like to go against type too
like, what feels like
a villain making that
you know heroic character
or vice versa, like the Celestial Warlock.
I love playing as evil
for example, that can be deliciously fun.
(laughing)
- Game angels gone bad.
- Yeah, well, someone needs to
do the dirty work right, so,
- Right, right.
- The sneak attack is terrifying.
- Oh, yes, yes.
So, aah the the sneak attack,
which we decided to give,
a sort of vague nod to Banshees,
this time around deal psychic damage,
because of you know people hearing
the whales of the dead around
the person you sneak attacked
and that causing psychic damage
and people have asked since
we released the Phantom
you know why is it psychic damage,
instead of necrotic damage
now and this was a great suggestion
from a designer on staff team or raman
of why not have this sort of
Banshee like thing going on
and hence the psychic damage now.
- It makes it so much scarier.
It makes the sneak attack scary.
(laughing)
You got stabbed so hard I got hurt.
(laughing)
- Yes well and imagine,
imagine it's already horrifying
if like your companion just
got attacked by somebody.
But then your mind suddenly gets jolted
and you hear weird ghostly screaming like,
- Yeah,
- I'm the other person.
Get me out of here.
- Yeah, my adventuring days are done.
You're gonna say, you were gonna say
something about playing
against subclass type,
when I brought the Celestial
Warlock being evil like...
- Oh, oh, oh simply that aah, you know,
angels falling is of course a
powerful mythological trope.
And, you know, we we as
humans, we love stories
about not only the mighty falling,
but then even more so
about the lowly rising
and and so I think that's
why it resonates with us.
You know it's it's partly
why so many people play
heroic rogues because like
on the on the surface,
the rogue class In like, everyday life
has a lot of villainous seeds within it.
But what I love is that
traditionally in D&D,
the rogue is a hero.
You know this person who uses
these these sneaky abilities,
almost always to the world's world's good.
Of course, people also play mischievous
or and even villainous rogues.
But I think there are
more heroic rogues and D&D
than villainous ones.
And, and again, that
is just an example of,
of the allure of playing against type.
- It reminds me of a I guess a
very old movie now Ladyhawke,
Matthew Broderick plays a
rogue ,essentially a thief
that is unwillingly a good character.
(laughing)
- And and one of the things
I like about that movie
is we get to see that
character's progression
from ,not necessarily villain but I mean,
he's not he's not doing anything
we would refer to as heroic
(laughing)
at first, but, but but becomes
an admirable person over
the course of that story.
