Neverwinter Interview Dragonslayer and the Evolution of the Dungeons and Dragons MMO

Fans of Dungeons and Dragons are having a pretty amazing week thanks to all of the announcements coming out of the DnD Direct event. The upcoming film now has a release date and a title, Spelljammer has been confirmed (for real this time), and that's just the tip of the iceberg. In addition to all of the Dungeons and Dragons announcements in other mediums, video game fans also learned a ton of details about Neverwinter's upcoming module: Dragonslayer.

The MMO' 23rd module, Dragonslayer, thematically follows the events of the last big addition to the game and offers players the chance to become dragon slayers and battle some of the franchise's most epic monsters. The expansion is arriving in June and brings a complete revamp of Neverwinter’s dragons, giving these deadly creatures all-new attacks, spells and the ability to take to the skies. Longtime veteran players and new players can also look forward to a major update for the beloved “Temple of Tiamat” Trial as the new version will feature new mechanics and challenges, along with Normal and Master difficulty options.

To help celebrate the big announcement, Game Rant connected with Neverwinter's Randy Mosiondz (Lead Designer) and Brett Norton (Executive Producer) to catch up and chat all things Dragonslayer (and a bit more about the future of the DnD MMO)...

Game Rant: First, let's talk about some of the biggest changes that were just announced. Can you tell us everything we need to know about the brand-new dragon-hunt system?

Randy: If you played the previous Neverwinter release, Dragonbone Vale, you probably have a good idea of the events leading up to Dragonslayer. Valindra and the Red Wizards of Thay teamed up with the Cult of the Dragon to channel the power of an unearthed Netherese mythallar to cast a powerful spell known as the Scaleblight Mythal to transform dragons along the Sword Coast into dracoliches under their control! While adventurers working with the Shield of the North’s factions managed to interrupt the casting of the mythal, it still affected many of the dragons, causing them to be driven into a rage. Now the heroes of Neverwinter need to help defend against this sudden onslaught of dragons with the help of Smerdiuk Dragonbane and his team of dragonslayers.

Brett: There’s not just one, but five different types of chromatic (typically evil) dragons in DnD, and you’ll get to fight all of them in Dragon Hunts gameplay. Each of the dragons fights a bit differently, and we’re not just talking about their different breath weapons. Each dragon type has unique spells they can cast, so you and your party will have to modify your tactics a bit based on which dragon you’re hunting.

The dragons also come in different age groups, and their spells and abilities get stronger and more diverse as they get older. Young dragons are the most basic of dragons, with only a few special abilities beyond the typical claw/bite/breath you might expect. Adult dragons are more advanced, with a few extra tricks up their sleeve. And of course, the mighty ancient dragons are outright full of tricks, throwing out all kinds of different spells and abilities into the mix.

Game Rant: Are there any particular items or specific monsters from Fizban's that are on the way to the game and you can tell us about?

Randy: We drew inspiration from Fizban’s in terms of the description of draconic abilities and the narrative for Dragonslayer. Part of the reason the dragons were driven to rage was the Scaleblight Mythal disrupted their dragonsight which allowed them to see or communicate with echoes of themselves from other realities. While many were not turned into dracoliches by the spell as intended, they were still drawn closer by these whispers, some of which were already turned into dracoliches within their respective planes!

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Game Rant: How about the new epic lairs? Which books/campaigns are the new ones inspired by and how challenging will they be for players?

Randy: The Dragonslayer lairs were built around the D&D descriptions of the different lair types. This ranged from an icy mountain peak from a white dragon, to lava-filled underground ruins for a red dragon. While we didn’t incorporate specific lair powers, they are certainly fitting for the draconic inhabitants!

Game Rant: Tell us about the new difficulty system. Who is this feature aimed at? Brand new players, super advanced players, or some mix of both?

Brett: Dragon Hunts are designed to be playable by just about everyone that's reached our ‘epic’ level of content (level 20). Whether you’ve just reached epic content, or you’ve been there for years, there are different dragon hunts to jump into.

As mentioned earlier, dragon age plays a big factor in overall hunt challenge. Newer adventurers can cut their teeth on Young or Adult dragons, while the veteran adventurers can party-up and dive into fighting Ancient Dragons.

But that’s not all, there’s another tier of challenges called modifiers! Adventurers can spice up their hunts by applying up to three unique dragon modifiers. There’s roughly 10+ different modifiers, and each one you add to a hunt increases its rewards.

And there’s even more scalable challenge beyond that! Each modifier can be powered-up several times, giving you the option of trying a hunt with no modifiers, some modifiers, all modifiers, and powered-up modifiers!

There’s a lot of combinations to try and a lot of different rewards to earn!

Game Rant: Much like DnD has over the course of 5e, Neverwinter has really evolved a ton over the last few years (and since its roots in 4e). What sort of next steps do you see coming as the game continues to grow and DnD continues to change?

Brett: Neverwinter always tries to keep pace with the thematic changes that occur in the DnD tabletop game, but due to differences in medium, we’re not trying to mirror it. Much like how Neverwinter evolved from its 4e roots to try and better-match 5e a few years back, we’ll continue to incorporate new themes and content from the sourcebooks. But in the end, Neverwinter is an MMORPG, and we have to stay true to those core elements while incorporating as much ‘newness’ from DnD tabletop as it fits.

Game Rant: There are a lot of rumors and speculation about DnD 5.5 or some "next phase" of current DnD, how do you expect Neverwinter to be impacted by whatever comes next for the TTPRG?

Brett: It takes a bit of time to change a video game with nearly 10 years of development behind it, but as new potential rulebooks are released, we’ll bring in what works to Neverwinter. Fortunately, most rules changes and sourcebook updates are pretty open to interpretation, and WotC gives the Neverwinter team a lot of creative leeway in how we interpret the sourcebooks (as long as we stick true to the heart of the IP).

Game Rant: The multiverse is a big place - do you see Neverwinter branching out into other realms in the future for particular adventures? Dark Sun, MtG planes, or other settings?

Brett: As a personal fan of Dark Sun’s world of Athas, I would love to visit it, but it’s a dark and grim place that we might struggle to represent well in Neverwinter. It may not be in Neverwinter’s future to visit the Sea of Silt on Athas, but, we can all secretly hope that somewhere at WotC there’s a secret Dark Sun project in the works.

But as to the larger DnD multiverse, thanks to the interplanar adventures that have occurred in Neverwinter, it’s not off the table for us to visit different planets / planes. We’d obviously love to visit many of the different DnD realms, whether it’s Krynn, Wildspace, Sigil, etc. Wizards of the Coast is very understanding when it comes to ideas, and as long as we can work strong contextual reasons into Neverwinter for why we’d visit a specific plane/planet, we can likely make it work.

Game Rant: Do you consider Neverwinter to be a new-player friendly game? What sort of experience could someone brand new to the game expect to experience if they wanted to get started today?

Brett: We don’t consider Neverwinter to be a super-easy game that’s trying to hit a very casual gaming audience, but at the same time, we have a completely free, 10+ hour long adventuring experience that nearly all gamers could (and should!) complete. The adventuring phase takes you across the Sword Coast, letting you slowly master the skills and earn the experience levels you need to become an epic adventurer. Once you hit level 20, you can begin our epic adventures and campaigns, which are a bit more challenging, but still very doable by most players.

And as noted, this is all completely free. There are no paywalls or gates that prevent you from accessing any of the content, zones, maps, etc. The ‘good stuff’ isn’t locked away; everyone gets access to it all. So, if you’re curious as to what Neverwinter has to offer, jump in and try! Even if you just play for a few hours to enjoy the solo-friendly leveling adventures, we’re happy to have you aboard.

Game Rant: Is there anything else about the current and future state of Neverwinter that you'd like people to know?

Brett: We’re working on long term plans for Neverwinter, some that will be really fun and wild. Our development roadmap leading up to, and just beyond, our 10th anniversary next year is shaping up to be stellar. For our fans reading, we hope the next year gives you some great new adventures and takes you to some places you’ve really wanted to see in Neverwinter for a while. And to those who haven’t tried Neverwinter, now is a great time to jump into the game and start leveling a character so you’ll be ready for Dragonslayer when it’s released!

Neverwinter is free-to-play on PC, PlayStation, and Xbox consoles. Dragonslayer releases on PC and consoles this June.

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