We’re still looking at design goals for the core classes, so this week Mike tells us about the rogue. Just the fact that we’re talking about the rogue, not the thief, says more about the design goals then most of the rest of the post. The difference between a rogue and a thief is in the context implied by the class: playing a thief says something about who your character is and what they do, playing a rogue just says what they do. So far, with the possible exception of the cleric, all of Mike’s design goals have been very much about the function of the class: how it fights, uses skills, and casts spells (if it does cast...

This week Mike continues his look at the D&D Next core classes with some thoughts on the design of the Fighter. Mike’s first four points (The Fighter Is Best At Fighting, The Fighter Draws on Training, The Fighter Exists in a World of Myth) all seem pretty predictable to me. These are core elements of the Fighter. The other three made me pause a bit. First up, #4: The Fighter Is Versatile. This is tough because I can totally argue both sides. Let’s start with the positive: the fighter should be versatile because it fits into the game better. Assuming some kind of proficiency rules (where, say, Wizards can’t use swords...

I’m more than a little late getting around to talking about Mike’s post about Cleric design goals. It’s been a busy week! I gave a talk on software testing at my alma mater, saw some old friends, and Dungeon World has gotten a fresh round of buzz. The up side to posting so late is that, having seen this week’s post, I know that we’re going to be covering more classes in future articles, so I can set a bit of precedent here on how I’ll post about each class. The nature of Mike’s posts themselves are interesting, given that they recently announced a release date for the public Beta. He’s kind of...