Neverwinter Interview

IGN is the latest website to question Cryptic Studios COO Jack Emmert about Neverwinter, though executive producer Aaron Brady also chimes in about the online-only RPG. Judging by the fact that they’re implementing “recognizable” D&D monsters, my guess is that we’ll be seeing Beholders, Giants, Kobolds, Drow, Gnolls, Illithid, a bevy of Undead, and, of course, Dragons:

Brady added, “We’re putting a lot of effort into making playing with your friends, or pick-up groups, as smooth and as simple as possible. Ideally, we’ll do this so well that you’ll never want to play alone, but the henchmen should be as good as a decent [pick-up group]. One of my hopes for Neverwinter is that it can be a game that you play weekly with your friends, adventuring and having a fun social experience just like the tabletop game offers.”

Not much is known right now about specifically which monsters will be included in the game, but Brady did mention “One of the design requirements was to put the most recognizable D&D monsters in the game. Don’t want to give away anything, but rest assured, if you’re a fan of D&D, you’ll see all the classics.”

As far as character classes go, “At launch, we’re focusing on five classes: Wizard, Fighter, Rogue, Ranger, Cleric,” said Emmert. “We think these represent the core archetypes of the 4th edition rule set (Controller, Defender, Striker, Ranger Striker, Support). After launch, we’ll be supplementing the game with more and more character classes, so expect to see old favorites like Paladins, Barbarians, Monks and Bards fairly quickly. There is a main storyline, though we’ve also added many side quests to reward the explorers. A dedicated player can follow the major tale, but for people who like to explore, there’s many other tales that players can stumble across.”