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Dungeons & Dragons: World of Warcraft's class designer 'crammed as much' of the MMO into it so that even veteran tabletop players can experience something new
The upcoming book introduces dozens of new subclasses, spells, and more to D&D's ruleset.
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James Wyatt, the principal game designer and project lead designer of the upcoming Dungeons & Dragons: World of Warcraft book was already running games in Azeroth long before he took on the project. For him, the fun of bringing WoW to the table is not to ignore the flexibility of D&D but to embrace it.
"Part of the beauty of playing D&D in the world of Azeroth is that you can do things in D&D that you can't do in a digital game because the options haven't been programmed for you," he said in a recent presentation attended by PC Gamer.
On November 12, you'll be able to see how Wyatt and the other designers mixed the two RPGs by "paraphrasing" the MMO into the tabletop ruleset. But Wyatt and senior game designer Ben Petrisor gave us a peek into how their approach affects the classes you can play in D&D: WoW.
WoW's classes are thematically similar to D&D's, and that's part of what makes the collaboration so fitting. However, WoW's classes have to fit into restrictive roles, like a tank or a healer, that don't really exist in D&D, so the D&D: WoW designers decided to return to some of the class customization that was introduced with 2020's Tasha's Cauldron of Everything.
Paladins won't have to give up their usual kit when they invest in WoW's holy specialization, for example. Wyatt explained that a lot of the unique abilities and talents WoW classes have access to have been translated into options players can incorporate into their characters. A holy paladin in D&D: WoW will still smite their foes into piles of ashes but they'll also have stronger ways to heal their allies than they normally would.
The same goes for classes like wizard that can pick up the Fingers of Frost feat at level 4 to lean harder into mastering frost-based spells like a frost mage would in the MMO. Beast master rangers can see what it's like to have a pet with its own weapon mastery on top of your own, emulating the tight bond WoW hunters have with their companions. There are dozens of new subclasses, spells, and additions to the core D&D classes like these, each pulling directly from the most iconic parts of WoW.
"We really crammed as much of the impactful talents across each WoW class into this book," Petrisor said.
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