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Patreon Q&A Februrary 2025 (Patreon)

Published:
2025-02-03 21:38:54
Imported:
2026-06
Tags:

Content

Hey folks! Dael is going to be live this Thursday February 6th at 4PM Pacific time here on Patreon asking Willy and James your burning questions about wrapping up the Draw Steel core rulebooks and the upcoming summoner class, which we've been working on!

The stream will be hosted here on Patreon. We'll send out a post with the video right before we go live. And don't worry! If you miss the stream, you'll still be able to access the video later.

In the meantime, post your questions for us in the comments below, and Dael might ask them on air! See ya then!

Comments

Micah Peltier

We've seen the Necromancer in playtest; what other subclasses of Summoner are we likely to see when it hits print (or Patreon, or whatever)?

Latsie

Will there be a Goblin (singular) ancestry?

Sam McGurran

Elementalist question! Most of the abilities the elementalist has access to have one element keyword, while a couple of levels have abilities with two. Are the element keywords built into the balance of those abilities, or are they a kind of niche protection for the different subclasses? Could we see hybrid elemental abilities for some of the other levels with future subclasses to allow a less specialised elementalist?

Richard McGain

How does the game cater to different player archetypes: The casual gamer? The multiclass loving character optimiser? The story lover?

Jarod Gallenstein

1. Will there be any official adventures be released with the final rules pdfs? 2. What is the estimated timeline for final release of the pdfs? Super excited and loving the updates, playing my first game in the next couple weeks!!

Bob Driver

Will the codex be optimized for in person play with a communal screen, as well as virtual play, and possibly a hybrid of in person and virtual at the same time?

GubDM

How has the staplebound illrigger been coming along? What's the goal for time from finished pdf to shipped-on-your-doorstep (USA) for future staplebound products, e.g. the summoner?

GubDM

In the playtest, I believe the other two subclasses mentioned were the Fairy Summoner and the Demon/Tentacles/Flesh Summoner

Tim Ashley Jenkins

How do each of the Summoner subclasses differ from each other, thematically and mechanically? How is summoning a horde of sprites different from summoning a horde of skeletons, aside from sprites being objectively superior to all other possible options?

wyatt wustrau

Has there been any interesting "edge" cases about finishing up the core rules?

Markstellar

I've got the same question! What kinda of themes can we expect from other Summoner subclasses: Elementals, Constructs, Gobbos, etc.

Satwant Khangura

Question: are you guys being able to balance for high optimization play, or when there are optimizers and more casual players in the same group?

Satwant Khangura

By any chance are you planning to buff the stability of the Frontline classes like Censor and tactician? Or rebalance combat objectives?

Hive_Indicator

Has there been anything from your video game work that you've been surprised that helped (or surprised it didn't) when fighting something out? [This is for Willy, unless James has a big surprise for us]

Nathan Lee

For products like the Summoner class should Patrons expect play test materials like we got for the DS core rules (with multiple versions and volatile design), or are products like that small and simple enough that we see more polished material. Will Patrons even be used as testers at all, or will it be entirely cycled through the internal and contract testers (a la the 5e Beastheart and 5e Talent)?

JBR

With Summoner being the first non-core class to be worked on, and other rumors about the Beastheart coming soon too, what other Classes or new Subclasses would be following after these 2? New whole Classes or will new Subclasses start trickling down soon?

TenSixteen

With the shift away from the plan to make one big Vasloria Box Set in favor of making multiple smaller products containing Vasloria material, is there any plan for the inclusion of some smaller Timescape/Capital products as a part of the initial wave of releases?

Latsie

During a playtest I did with the latest packet with a Thorn Dragon, I've noticed how the dragon could easily ignore Paragons and Vanguards by simply pushing them away with the Knockback maneuver and then focusing on someone else, like the squishier Elementalist in the back. Is this the expected/intended result?

Tucker Bird

For everyone including Dael: Have you started home games of Draw Steel now that the games are mostly finished, and if so, what has been one of your favorite moments from said home game?

Igor Souza

very excited about the summoner class, but I also would like to ask if we will be able to see something about the beastheart anytime soon

Mattamue

What do James & Willy think will be the first "official" adventures or characters they'll run? Or, if they're past that line already, what were some of the first things they did in the game that felt final -- like what were they playing instead of testing & designing?

Eli Feliciano

As you edit the rules, is your focus more on succinctness or on verbosely covering all edge cases?

ZooSKP

What kinds of last minute balance changes between the December packets and published core rules are likely? Is there any possibility of a changelog being made available ahead of the published pdfs?

Danny N Thach-Song

I saw the summoner live stream, but didn't catch it all. Curious if summoner class would support a Final Fantasy esque summoner type?

Ori Klein

My friend group and I are currently starting a small adventure as I get ready to run a big homebrew campaign using Draw Steel. The short adventure should take around 2 months. Do you think we should wait a bit longer for the official release, or should we use the final Patreon iteration?

Emma Stanhope

Aside from the summoner, what other classes are you excited to make that haven't already been made?

Callum Grier

I’ve noticed that things like Vampires and Werewolves are missing classic weaknesses (like sunlight and silver), assuming this is intended, how should a director handle players working to craft silvered weapons for a werewolf fight?

Callum Grier

How have solos changed since the last playtest packet?

K9ten

I think the Operator is such a cool concept, I hope it’s still on the table

Rise Heroes Rise!

I'm going to be running a 10th-Level party through storming the Chrysopolis and killing Ajax (or die trying)! What advice do you have for me before I take the plunge? Thanks!

Desieslonewolf

My play group has voiced some concerns that as you advance in your class, your abilities are more wide than deep. Basically worried that they'll be consistently doing the same thing every encounter. How are you combatting that to make sure combat stays fresh?

atomicsorcery

My group has decided on a pitch that has us dealing with Timescape rather than remaining on Orden. Are there resources you’d recommend for diving into the chaos and order of the worlds above?

Maximilian Tagher

What issues showed up with Solo monsters in the feedback, and can you give a draft of what changes you want to make? I am home brewing several solo monsters and don’t want them to be overpowered

Robert Lane

Now that the team is starting to branch out into other projects, what are you most excited to work on next? Looking back, what are you all most proud of?

Samuel Galan

What are your plans for localization of Draw Steel in other languages? I'm bilingual, and have been running the game with some spanish-speaking friends, thus I've had to do a lot of translation work myself when it comes to character sheets and abilities. I've had fun doing it, but I am wondering if there are plans for official translations of the game into other languages. Thank you!

Shadowhand Gaming

What class are you most pleased with how they changed over the course of the playtests?

Antan Karmola

Any chance in a new cheat sheet? I found those really useful!

Samuel Galan

Are there any plans for "play aids" such as cards or tokens for the game? (similar to separately purchasable sets of spell cards in d20 fantasy games) Thinking back to the Talent class for 5e, I fondly remember the Talent Power Cards that MCDM released to be used alongside the class. I really liked using cards to keep track of my powers, and I think having those kinds of physical accessories could lend itself well to Draw Steel given the almost standardized formatting of many of the game's different abilities.

Hakkai

I have a question about future ancestories. I Have friends/players who have been playing beast people for almost a decade now and gravitate to beast racial options, will there be any cat/beast people in the setting possibly coming down the pipeline?

Ryan Williams

Clearly, you intend to release more player options after the game's release. How do you prioritize these releases? For example, do you think it's more important to release new classes or subclasses for the existing ones? How do you decide what to do first?

Ormus Erebus

Can you speak to how the game plays at a physical table, with paper and pen(cil) ? Having only seen streams of playtests via Owlbear, I'm concerned that without digital tools, the game may be hard for me to bring to my group of friends that don't play via VTT.

Kyman201

So many of us have heard about the Summoner and the Operator. What other class ideas have you been booting around? Even if it's vague like "Some kind of psionic tank"

KevIn oreilly

Pretty certain Dael is “live” every Thursday

Dudimus

Do you think there is room for a summoner variation that summons just one powerful monster at a time, or will it be singularly focused on hordes of minions? Or would that be trampling too much on the Beastheart's territory?

GoldenGram93

I'm curious about what the other summoner subclasses will be, and if "arcane" style casters will always have essence as their heroic Resource going forward

Pool Time with Swim Allen

Would you rather fight 8 summoner minion sized beasthearts, or 1 beastheart sized Summoner?

Patrick Boyle

Is there any sense of how much later the second wave of the Ajax edition might be? Thinking about getting an extra hardcover to tide me over if it's a while

Benjamin Gothman

The team has done an incredible amount of work getting the game to its current state. But, you’ve mentioned in past streams how it’s possible for the community to “reverse engineer” the mechanics to create their own classes, subclasses, ancestries, kits, and more. Now that the core rules are becoming solidified and nearing release, are there any design spaces you’re particularly interested in seeing what the community cooks up as the game matures?

Hakkai

You have my attention, care to elaborate?

Robert Lane

No questions, just tell me everything there is to know about the summoner and no one gets hurt. By which I mean me. I need to know, I'm dying with anticipation.

AltheDM

Any other player ancestries your are brewing?

Alexis

What part of the game rules would you say still needs the most amount of work/attention?

Alexis

What part of the rules are you most excited about when you are teaching a new player how the game works?

Ben Milne

How does the team intend to plan future supplemental release? If a class is solely finished while others are still in early development, does that class get released as its own supplement a la the beastheart and Illrigger, or will it be saved for a larger collected release like a heroes 2. Additionally do you see player content being released alongside lore/setting centric releases such as the Vasloria box?

Stefan Ursem

the werewolf gets damage weakness x would be my idea

David Penguin

In the post talking about the summoner briefly, a picture of a certain King of Games set my mind afire in adoration of the class as a concept. Will we have iconic summons beyond just minions at higher levels, or is this a nightmare from a tracking perspective for things like Stamina? Will we see combat mounts in the monster book, or is this something we might see with the beastheart? If goblins get to ride giant spiders into battle, so should we! (Okay, maybe not spiders).

Dragons everywhere, man

I'm currently starting a campaign set in Dalrath, but finding lore bits about the region is hard. Will the patrons get lore writeups as Vasloria content gets approved?

Troy Walsh

Apologies if I'm too excited for the future but now that core classes are being finalized and the summoner is under development (very excited). Are there any conversations around prestige classes or something similar. i know Matt and James have said they liked them, but currently are they being considered?

Eran Arbel

How locked down are the rules at present? If a mechanic doesn't flow in testing or getting bad reviews, is it still subject to change?

Brandon

Is the game still being actively playtested while being edited? Also, are discussions from reddit/discord being taken as potential feedback, even though surveys are closed? Since the patreons only had a few weeks to test levels 3-10, I'm concerned that higher level PCs and monsters have significantly less testing behind them. I've seen a few people say they wish they noticed X or Y problem while the surveys were still open.

Daniel Dias

I think we might see the operator when they start working on Timescape stuff

Anastase - Alexandre Charantonis

The summoner class sounds very cool! I am a bit miffed that the Necormancer summons its undeads instead of raising them, though? Was that more of a game balance issue or a flavor choice? What will the other subclasses be and how will they differ?

Melissa Harden

Will the Armory Operator and Beast Heart be apart of the Summoner second wave of Classes? The past example of the Armory Operator was either Iron Man or Mining Rig codded. Do you think there's a version/subclass of the Operator that's more Ruin, sigual, &/or Enchantment based?

Aidan

Are there any hero/class fantasies you think aren't yet accounted for in the current roster + summoner and operator? And/or are there any you're looking forward to designing in particular?

BRex

Will the books/pdfs be available in other languages? If yes, which ones?

Bernardo Rodriguez

Two quesions from me: Now that you guyas are at the final stretch, looking back were there any "happy accidents" you found while making the game, unexpected interactions or idaes that worked surprisingly well that you didnt expct or sutff like that? Can you share anyhing that we havent seen yet? a piece of art or a page of the books or something like that? Would be fun. (extra qustion because I couldnt help myself) Are we getting more James streams in the future, those were super fun and interesting, and I miss them. Thanks for everrything, I ran my first game recently and I had a blast, it was aamazing!

Aidan

What is your opinion on the risk of power creep in the design as new classes and player options are released? E.g. 5e player options in 2014 vs 2023.

Rebecca P.

After listening to the hosts of Mastering Dungeons reminisce about their days in serial Organized Play campaigns, it sounds like running that sort of event is a related-but-still-different animal than designing a game. If DS does well, do you think a DS Organized Play campaign would be best run as an in-house product or best run by a different organization who specializes/focuses on it?

Lorenzo Cannafarina

Somewhere i remember talks about the "wizard of some kind" class, if the elementalist is using the elements doing blasting, battlefield-control and in the green some supporting Question :*What kind of place/spot would a Wizard have in Draw Steel, both lorewise and as a class compared to the others?* Would their magic be modifying the fabric of reality!?Illusions,Enchantments,Conjurations!?

Maximilian Tagher

Compared to d&D, it seems like there are fewer “exploration” spells like invisibility or spider climb. Do you agree, and if so was that an intentional decision the way not having Legend Lore esque spells was?

That black guy

How strange is it to finally be developing an official version of the Tomb adventure that Matt seemingly threw together? Have there been any interesting "oh well I've played it and I did x, not y but that's awesome !"

That black guy

Side question : are Goblin (multiple) ancestries something you're looking at down the line ?

Nathan Lee

I'm excited for the starter adventures MCDM have talked about (Fall of Blackbottom and Delian Tomb). But I've already run both of those for my current players. What's the team's expected timeline for adventures that aren't those two? Is the plan to release those adventures and then focus on player options before a third adventure is developed? I like rolling my own adventures and using community ones, but I *really* like the polish of MCDM adventures.

Jonathan Rowan

In a similar vein, where in the design space do you see turning into a werecreature or vampire? Something new like prestige classes, or something current like, say, a title or chain of titles?

Josh Rodell

So far, all the classes you've talked about have their origins in a time before anyone knew what Draw Steel was going to be. Have you found any inspiration for potential future classes or subclasses specifically from thinking about the mechanics as they have ended up?

mcdm

FYI, I (Matt!) will make a good-faith attempt to come back here after the livestream and *try* to address *some* of the questions that didn't make it to video. I can't promise answering every question, there's a lot. :D

Roman Penna

This was the first time this team created a TTRPG together, what do you feel you have learned from creating the two core rulebooks and what would you change if you could have your time again?

Ernge

The effort is appreciated!

Ernge

In the Echelons section of the Heroes manuscript we got, you mention that future products could possibly include levels beyond 10. What might make you decide that it's time to go to 11?

Joshua Baker

Willy has posted that yugioh image a few times when the summoner has been brought up: is he inspired by that fantasy of the creatures you summon being things you've collected (or people you've met) along the way? Might there be a subclass that doesn't just learn new minions as they level up, but learns minions based on what they find in the world?

Ernge

I'm not the one who brought up Memonek, but I agree. The signature traits of the Memonek make them feel lightweight, and some of the purchased traits can make your character feel more like a cat too, like the ones that make you faster and more alert. Just erase the word Memonek and write Catfolk.

Ernge

That being said, I also think cat people are cool and it would be great if they created an ancestry that was actually meant to be a cat person.

Bestest Fin

For Willy: What lead to some monster warbands all being the same level, as opposed to others that are a range of levels in the same echelon?

Oakwoody

There's a tremendous amount of content (especially complications and rewards) which is awesome! How much of that have you been able to try out in a playtest session?

The Yaki

Since the open rules allow for a fair amount of Homebrew do you envisage this living on the discord or a Draw Steel version of the DMs guild

Ernge

Yeah this kind of thing will likely determine whether I keep paying the $8/month

AngelPlayer

It seems like combat, negotiation, and crafting are thoroughly 'solved' for Draw Steel. Are there any plans to build further subsystems in future game expansions, such as for rearing monsters, solving mysteries, or running a barony?

mrubash

What MCDM support will be given to help accelerate onboarding post release? As an example, Matt has talked about his class creation cards with the question, "why did WotC not makes these?" What official support tools does MCDM want to make to tackle this lesson learned?

Ernge

Oh, turns out Matt addressed in the Summoner playtest stream from a few days ago. https://twitch.tv/videos/2368896409 At 2:09:00-2:09:30 he says that once the testers have pounded on it, the Summoner will go to the Patreon patrons for more testing!

Dillon

With the summoner and presumably the beast heart later do you plan to have a meatier product or just a pdf of the few pages of class choices

Dillon

Do you envision racial supplements akin to the 5e class supplements, do you see them strictly as parts of regional expansions?

Callum Iles

Having used the Codex a few times now it's really cool and being able to import someone's map as a module is mindblowing - has the team considered collaborating with Map makers to have pre-made "instances" be available on the Codex's full release so that DMs can just drag and drop a series of encounters into their game for incredibly fast prep?

Vitruvian Link

Working with the summoner, how do you design around the unique challenge of the class inherently adding so much stamina per round, when other classes use recovery to add stamina?

Vitruvian Link

I summon you, white eyes blue dragon!

Vitruvian Link

I've played both and have found in-person easier.

David Penguin

Oh man, now I'm thinking about raising a dragon skeleton and then riding that into battle.

Tom Flynn

Do you think we'll ever see the Mech class Matt talked about when you were finding ways to flesh out the Heroic Resource nearly a year ago? (The one with the Dwarven Mining Apparatus that definitely didn't seem "core" to heroic fantasy but was nonetheless badass)

Ernge

Wait is there a public version of the Codex? Where do I go to play with it?

Ernge

Its name was the Operator, if you were trying to remember it

DimaJeydar

There are mentions of wyrd that are not related to the concept of fate. (The Elementalist has the Wyrding feature, there’s a High Elf mage called Wyrd, and one of the Hag’s Malice option is called Hag Wyrd.) What does this word mean in Draw Steel exactly? Is it another word for “magic/spell”?

FoxTrick

I've heard of other adventures given to play testers during the design that the Patreon did not have access to. Would they be available later or updated for official release?

Melissa Harden

Thank you, Dail, for rewording my first question to make more sense with the other questions that were being asked and were answered, making me seem smart.

mcdm

I'm not sure what you're thinking of. Early on we'd give the testers like, some maps with encounters on them, but they weren't proper adventures. Even the Bay of/Fall of Blackbottom was not what we'd call a proper adventure you could publish. It was something of a quick and dirty "series of encounters" without much connective tissue. So I guess the answer is "probably not?" -Matt

mcdm

"Wyrd" can mean fate, or destiny, but can also mean "way of" like the Tao. -Matt

mcdm

Yes I do think you will ever see the Operator. :D -Matt

mcdm

I'm not sure how to answer this question, alas. A Summoner's minions have stamina, but that stamina doesn't belong to the Summoner. -Matt

mcdm

I think in the first instance if you want to learn more about Dwarves in Orden, that information would best "belong" to an adventure where you go to Kas Kalavar. Maybe that adventure would have a Kas Kalavar companion supplement? So no, I don't think you're going to see a "Complete Book of Dwarves" for a while. If the game lives and thrives for many years, it might make sense to collect everything we've ever published about dwarves into one book? But that would be many years from now. -Matt

mcdm

We can't really start thinking about onboarding until we have a broad selection of data showing us where the pain points are. -Matt

mcdm

I suspect you'll get rules for Intrigue, Warfare, and Domain Management eventually. Apart from that...who knows?! :D -Matt

mcdm

Well I think people can already sell their Draw Steel homebrew on DriveThru RPG can't they? If you mean a dedicated site just for third-party Draw Steel content, I think if there's demand for that...probably someone will make it! I think that's how DriveThru RPG got started. -Matt

mcdm

I think it mostly depends on usage. If we see tons of people hitting 10th level and complaining that they wish they had more to look forward to, then we'd seriously look at an Immortals supplement or something similar. That's basically the answer to all "Will you ever....?" questions. Depends on how many people end up playing the game and what they want! -Matt

mcdm

I think it sort of happens all the time. Like we realize "oh hey, the Werewolf should use Ferocity!" But not in any grand sense like a whole new class or subclass born out of realizing a mechanic could work in an interesting way. We have moments where we think "hey what if there were a class that ONLY had triggers. Like, a lot of triggers, but no normal actions?" But so far that hasn't turned into anything actionable. -Matt

mcdm

We don't have an internal timeline yet for future products. That's yet to come. Once we DO have that timeline and it's been approved, we'll probably share it with you. I would expect that to happen no later than April. -Matt

mcdm

It's pretty weird, but no more weird than the rest of the last 8 years. :D -Matt

mcdm

We think the Elementalist IS our Wizard-analog. That's how it came to be. A lot of the first-level Elementalist abilities started off as abilities in the Wizard prototypes. We did a whole series of posts here about that journey and why "the wizard" is just a bad archetype. I think we wasted a few months chasing after it before we realized it was a mistake in the first place and one we didn't want to repeat. That being said, we also like the idea that there are "lots" of different kinds of magic in Orden, so you may see more, different spellcaster classes and one of those might be more Academic? Or..."magic is dangerous" or "magic is unpredictable" classes. Those are three different archetypes though! And we often discover as we drill down on these ideas that there isn't really any "there" there to hang the design of a whole class on. We'll see! -Matt

mcdm

A lot of these questions, the real answer is "Yeah that'd be awesome!" But the game doesn't even exist yet and we are still a very small company. So "Will this ever exist?" "Do you want to do this?" Sure! Maybe! We dunno! :D

mcdm

I expect the design will continue to evolve as long as people continue to use it. It may well be that, years from now, we have to go back and "update" the original classes to make sure they benefit from everything we've learned in the previous years. But A: I don't consider that a problem, that's just normal game development and B: that's only gonna happen if the game is adopted by a lot of people who play it for years and the audience for it grows steadily. In other words, it's the UNKNOWN FUTURE! :D -Matt

Ernge

I can try to elaborate from my own perspective since I'm also curious. Yes, the stamina doesn't belong to the *summoner* but it does absorb damage that the bad guys can spend their actions dealing. So how do you guys approach building a class that has the potential to draw so much fire away from the heroes' stamina pools?

Tom Flynn

Sick. It's up there with Rot Elementalist for the category of "things that are way too metal not to have in my life eventually". Excited for more of your team's work!