#because i also just rolled a monk for a different campaign

[ragsy]

workin' on a fresh new dnd character! M.A.G. (Maggie) the warforged paladin. who is also kind of a large bug, in a way

[broken-footstool]

could you write a tale about m! Kylar forcing the m! PC into a lewd D&D campaign and jacking them off under the table? I just imagine kylar makes the Pc run into tentacle monsters every seven seconds

I'm gonna be real, this one kinda got away from me a bit

Kylar chewed the already mutilated eraser of his pencil, fumbling with a set of dice in his other hand. It was Friday, a time of the week that he looked forward to often. Not because it meant that the weekend had finally arrived, but because it was the one day Kylar got to spend without being alone. By some random stroke of luck, he had managed to find a friend named Ivan. And by even more luck, this friend wanted to spend time with him outside of classes. Ivan had bonded with Kylar over their love of tabletop games, specifically Dungeons and Dragons. As they got closer, Ivan suggested a one player campaign which led to the two meeting at Kylar’s house every Friday afternoon. 

Now that time had come once again. Everything had been set up and prepared prior, and yet nerves still had a hold on Kylar. They were good nerves, but nerves none the less. Today, he had planned something a bit different for the campaign and was unsure how it would work out. Ivan was a nice boy and made Kylar feel…good inside. It only seemed fair to return the feelings. 

Ivan sat across the table from Kylar, half of a sausage roll hanging from his lips. The visual sent a strange flutter through Kylar’s chest and he had to adjust his gaze to keep cool.

“Ready to start?” Ivan asked around a mouthful of bread and meat. 

Kylar only nodded behind his screen, flipping open his notebook that contained the story so far. He briefly explained the situation of a dark, empty cavern. There was a small amount of light coming from the end, but it was impossible to tell how far away it was. The ceiling was damp and there were puddles of some sort of liquid all over the floor. It sounded a bit clique, but it worked well for a single player adventure. 

“Can you roll for dexterity?” Kylar asked, flicking his D6.

With a confident grin, Ivan tossed his D20 on the table. His heart sank almost immediately to his ass as the die showed a bright yellow “2.” His luck always seemed to falter in battle scenarios, as if the gods themselves wanted him to die. Nearly biting the eraser tip off, Kylar’s face became covered in a nervous sweat. 

“A grell descends upon you and restricts your limbs with its tentacles.” Kylar’s voice was trembling with excitement. “You’re completely at its mercy.”

Rolling his D20 between his fingers, Ivan tried to think of a solution. His character couldn’t speak Grell, so persuasion was off the table. They also weren’t magic based, being that they were a monk skilled in hand to hand combat, so projectile spells also wouldn’t work. The best choice he had was to attempt an escape.

“Can I roll for dexterity again?”

“You’d need a 15 or higher,” Kylar responded, sounding a bit disappointed. 

Ivan took a deep breath and clutched his D20 hard. There was a slim chance that he would escape this encounter, but it was his only hope. From how suspicious Kylar was acting, he assumed that there were more than of these creatures lurking in the shadows, ready to attack. He took his chance and tossed the die, watching it noisily clatter on the table. The last bit of hope in his heart died out like a flame as his roll fell just short of 15. Even his dexterity modifier couldn’t save him. Kylar perked up at Ivan’s failure from behind his dungeon master screen, struggling to contain himself.

“Your character squirms and twists, back can’t break free.” Squeezing his thighs together, Kylar’s teeth finally broke through the top of his eraser and snapped it in two. 

Stretching his leg out under the table, Kylar timidly pressed his foot against Ivan’s crotch. Ivan didn’t seem to notice, far too wrapped up in planning his next moves, and Kylar took this as a sign to keep going. He worked his foot up and down, his movements rough and uncoordinated. A dark red blush crept up Ivan’s face, but he still didn’t say anything about what was happening.

“I’m gonna keep doing this until I’m free,” he panted after a moment, leaning over the table a bit more than earlier. “It’s my only hope.”

A nod was all Kylar could muster and he tossed his D20 from behind his screen. Ivan followed suit, meekly spinning his die on the table. 7. Great. A somehow worse roll than before.

“The grell works a tentacle past your lips and down your throat.” Kylar increased his movement speed, applying a bit more pressure as he worked. “It’s rough and thick, nearly choking you.”

Something was growing within Ivan. It was desperation. An undying need for release. Release from what? From his horrible luck with rolls. From this damned floating brain with its tentacle down his throat. 

“One more time.” Ivan’s voice was now trembling as he bit back a moan.

Kylar went to speak up, but found it more amusing to watch Ivan try over and over again. The way Ivan’s eyes would sparkle with hope and determination before darkening with defeat. It did something to his heart, and he couldn’t find it within himself to deny Ivan a chance. Nodding his head, Kylar tilted his foot so that his ankle was caressing Ivan’s testicles. Ivan jumped at the sensation as he threw his die, nearly tossing it off of the table.

16. Finally, Ivan was getting somewhere. The determination inside was growing more and more, and he felt a tingle of hope. 

“You manage to free one of your arms.” Kylar moved his ankle side to side as he spoke. “What’s your next move?”

Straightening his posture, Ivan thought for a moment. Now would be the perfect time to strike, or at least try to. But would that work? His character only had one hand free and was slowly being suffocated. Anxiety burned in Ivan’s stomach. For some odd reason, his thoughts seemed clouded and heavy. Was it the anticipation? The urgency to make a move? Gripping the sides of the table, Ivan gasped as an orgasam rocked his body. A sizable wet patch formed on the front of his pants, soaking through the fabric and partially through Kylar’s sock. Ivan fell back against his chair, out of breath and sweaty. The rush of a long awaited victory must have gotten to him, sending him straight over the edge. He ignored Kylar’s presence all together as he recollected himself, enjoying the afterglow. Once it began to fade, however, Ivan became aware of the very obvious issue he had.

“Can I use your bathroom?” Ivan finally asked, standing with his hands in front of his crotch. He barely waited for an answer, awkwardly shuffling out of Kylar’s room and into the dark corridor.

Once Ivan was gone, Kylar slipped the sock from his foot and placed it in his pocket, saving it for later.

[doberbutts]

aydenburd

Oooo who's your Pathfinder character? (if u want) >:D

We just started a campaign last session so this is a new character to me and I haven’t fleshed him out pretty much at all yet. He’s a dwarven monk with a kobold friend who likes to punch shit and achieve spiritual awakening by getting high. His name is Flytt as given to us by our DM, supposed to be pronounced “Flit” but I think [Flytt] would think it’s hilarious to mislead people and tell them his name is “Flight” because he is roughly 4 feet tall and built like a brick and not like something that can fly. His athletics and aerobatics are off the charts and today he one-two punched two different enemies to death on my first attempt with double crit rolls.

Previously I’ve played tiefling monks and rogues but I’m actually kinda liking the dwarf build, also I think it’s hilarious that my miniature is always roughly ass-height compared to all the rest of the non-small-humanoid models (like regular-sized people) and so the image is usually that I’m punching them directly in the tailbone or spine.

[nagalias-mindscape]

So. I haven't made any posts about the all-tiefling campaign recently.

things have been happening. god lord things have been happening.

Medli died for good, i think. It was a glorious almost TPK explosion of necrotic damage that had built up over the course of her not being able to stay dead for good. It's only fun in hindsight, though. I was a little aghast when it happened out of nowhere.

Everyone had to roll three different checks (even me) that we all failed, so no explanation on why she died out of nowhere. She's now being controlled by the DM- as in a spectral corpse since her body is gone-, but I was pulled aside and informed of some things that make me hopeful.

In the meantime, I was given leeway to play a couple NPCs and enemies just so i'm not being excluded from the group because I died. I'm having fun with it. That said:

I apologize to anyone in any of the three groups for that particular campaign that may have dealt with a certain Aarakocra Monk / Cleric who just could not be hit. I was told before the session to be 'as brutal as you can be. Knock them out as quickly as you can. Just make sure to use Spare the Dying when you do. This character has reason to not kill them'.

Self-casting Shield of Faith on myself to bring my AC to an 20 was just too good to pass up. I may have legit forgot about the combat-specific disadvantage i imposed on you all with my use of thaumaturgy before hand to intimidate you all that first time.

The other two were because the DM loved it. I still can't believe only one person managed to beat my intimidation roll of 13 (rolls were 18, 13 and 14), which was enhanced by a wonderful +0 (they needed to roll either an arcana check or an insight check that passed my 13).

Aarakocra had 75 health and whopping (boosted) 20 AC when everyone (minus one) had disadvantage on hitting me. Also had channel divinity to restore 25 health, Wholeness of Body (restore 21 health), 7 ki points, the ability to do slashing and bludgeoning damage with a single action, and the tried and true open hand technique where I just knock everyone prone without rest. Don't worry about the spells- they're all either healing, or party buffing. Or concentration, which would have dropped my AC down to 18 if I had used... which I probably should have, now that I'm thinking about it.

The one 'combat' spell I had, didn't feel fair to use. Spiritual Weapon.

I'm sorry the fight took two-three sessions. That was not my intention. Group two managed to subdue the bird (which is, subsequently, the group with the party member who rolled an arcana of nat 20 and thus didn't have to roll to hit me with disadvantage). Groups one and three are now separated and in cells.

I, uh, am glad all of you had fun, though. Small spoiler I was allowed to post: To all three groups, enjoy your new traveling companion. She's going to be your guide to the outside world- If you manage to get there.

Also was allowed to post the following, so on the off chance you actually are part of said D&D campaign, enjoy the stat page / spells I could have used under the readmore.

EDIT: only realized this afterwards, but there's a spell missing on this list that I forgot to snap a pic of. Here it is:

The critical Shield of Faith.

[kaerran]

i sure have had a lot of dnd posts (especially about the movie) come across my dash and man my experiences are nothing like the typical

my Actual DnD campaigns (as opposed to any other system) were:

1) a... probably 2nd ed campaign with a very established party (like they were on their second high levelled characters and their first ones were gods or something) and they let me play a half-dragon (NOT dragonborn, which i’m not sure existed yet?? wiki says they only were created in 2006 in a 3.5 supplement and i’m sure this campaign happened before 2006) because i’d be so behind anyway, and i remember nothing else besides having a great deal of fun. i didn’t get to keep that sheet and i’m still sad

2) a 1st ed campaign run by my dad, which featured me (a cleric/ranger), my mom (newly buddhist and therefore playing a mostly pacifist [refused to kill people, refused to ambush anyone] monk), my sister (thief), and 3 friends (i honestly don’t remember what my sister’s friend played but my friend played a wizard and his friend played a paladin), which featured such things as: I was the only one who rolled decent enough stats to play and therefore I was the only one without an 18 (because after that debacle dad gave everyone a premade set to distribute), we also all had psionics (dad kept claiming he rolled them legitimately and only one person DIDN’T get them but later admitted that in actuality i was the only one who DID roll ‘em) which over-supplemented our actual characters (i could heal and speak to animals psionically, so i literally never healed with my cleric spells, the thief and monk both could go invisible but mom refused to use it to actually sneak attack), and he was giving us all REALLY DIFFERENT exp via passed notes (he was giving me nearly double exp partially because i was actually rping lawful good and also to ensure that i wasn’t falling behind, and he was massively penalizing the paladin for playing the world’s worst paladin)

3) a 4th ed campaign where i was playing a warforged... something...... and i spent the entire time just so uncertain of what was going on i learned nothing. it’s a bit of a shame because mayan robotstatue was kinda fun (ok not really mayan, but i took the name from my then-recent mesoamerican classes for funsies)

4) i am brand newly in a 5th ed campaign where i’m playing a dragonborn thief, which sure is a funny pairing but i saw dragonborn and went “soooo can i?” and tat said sure! have fun! my parents are playing a human ranger/sorcerer and a half-elf bard (and both of them are struggling with spell and cantrip choices), and then there’s also a dwarf warrior and i THOUGHT nadia was playing a gnome wizard but she is actually playing a tiefling druid? this is fine. we may or may not have another person joining we’ll see. his character is not in the google docs folder yet. we’ve had one session and it’s gone okay, but i’m having to Adjust from my other group’s mostly narrative style to actual dnd’s actually-pay-attention-to-the-dm style (and actual initiative! it’s so weird i’m used to our made-up-on-the-spot-because-the-system-forgot-to-specify-how-to-determine-initiative card draws)

the point is: uhhhh i don’t actually know what spells exist (which is a thing i’ve seen several times re: the movie, that you can identify the spells and i’m like lol no i can’t) or how most groups play or even how most games flow

[sabresanddungeons]

Beginner’s DND

So, you’ve heard about Dungeons and Dragons. You’ve seen the first episode or all of the episodes of Critical Role then The Adventure Zone then Not Another DND Podcast then ect. then ect. Maybe you played back in high school with second edition or 3.5 and are wanting to check out 5e. There’s also the possibility you’ve been abducted by your friends to join a session with them since you feigned interest 3 hours ago and can’t back out now. Whatever your reason for coming to the table, we welcome you.

But, now, it’s time to get to the meat of the issue: what do I do? You’ve gone to the store to purchase the Player’s Handbook. There’s a character sheet in your hand, but once you opened that book, it’s a bombardment of information and a feeling of impending doom.

First off, take a deep breath. We’ve all been there. We’ve all been the newest player at the table before. Don’t worry. When I made my first character, I cried. I was so overwhelmed and stressed out by the race options, classes, spells, backgrounds, roll tables, pictures, equipment, dice, hit points, starting trinkets, names that I just broke down and scared my friends. They helped me get through it, and I’ll help you.

The first step is to close the book and think about some of the fantasy concepts you already know. What is there? You may think of Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings, World of Warcraft, Witcher, The Dragon Prince, Journey to the West, Game of Thrones, so what characters are in there? Humans are the most prevalent, but commonly, there are elves, dwarves, hobbits, and orcs. They come in different flavors too: sword wielders, magic casters, healers, musicians, sneak thieves, bowman, and ninjas. Okay, you have a base knowledge of what’s going on.

Keep your book closed, but of those options that I wrote down, what calls to you? Aragon from Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter from Hogwarts, Ezran from The Dragon Prince, Areo Hotah from Game of Thrones, or Jaskier from The Witcher? You should have some ideas flowing at this point and know what you want to pursue, so open that book.

The races in DND have different skills and bonuses to stats. Of the races, there are Halflings, Gnomes, Dwarves, Elves, Half-Elves, Tieflings, Humans, Half-Orcs, and Dragonborn. Of those names, two stand out, Tiefling and Dragonborn. Tieflings are devil touched, whether in their bloodline or through some choice/accident. Dragonborn are dragon humanoids with breath weapons such as fire or acid. Of all the races, each has a unique attributes and bonuses that improve your statistics.

Classes have varying rolls in the party dynamic with strengths and weaknesses. These classes are Barbarian, Bard, Cleric, Druid, Fighter, Monk, Paladin, Ranger, Rogue, Sorcerer, Warlock, and Wizard. Most of these classes are self-explanatory, but the two I want to touch on are Sorcerer and Warlock. Sorcerers, unlike other magic users, are born with innate spellcasting ability. Warlocks make a pact with typically an evil or old god to gain magic power. What should you play though?

For your first DND campaign, I recommend playing a martial class like Barbarian, Fighter, Monk, or Rogue. Although Wizards and Druids sound super awesome, picking spells can be an arduous and nerve-wracking task that may add to the stress level, but if that’s what you want to be, go for it! You’re the one playing the game, remember?

Backgrounds. Ah, the backgrounds. These will add some flavor to your character, bolster their proficiencies, put some gold in their pocket, and say where they came from and maybe why they’re adventuring. It’s good to be motivated! Those background options are Acolyte, Charlatan, Criminal, Entertainer, Folk Hero, Guild Artisan, Hermit, Noble, Outlander, Sage, Sailor, Soldier, and Urchin. I wanted to point out Charlatan, Criminal, Outlander, and Sage to you because they may be the least known or confusing. Charlatans are street performers trying to take money from the people while Criminals are going out to burgle. Outlanders were raised in the wilderness, and Sages are well-read and nerdy. Choose something that fits in with the character that you’ve created or don’t! That’s the beauty of DND.

We’ve returned to the end which is the beginning. Confusing? I know. There’s much more that can be discussed, but I will leave you with these parting words. For as imposing as the game seems, it is a game, and games are meant to be fun. If you don’t understand what’s going on, ask your fellow players and dungeon master. If you need to take a break, ask, and if you need to grab more chips, don’t. You can just grab those because snacks and DND are plentiful. So, have fun and make some memories.

[ace-beef]

The Gang Plays Dungeons and Dragons

so my silly little brain loves to just take a group of characters and go “what if they played DnD together?” and that is exactly what I’ve done here with the characters from Always Sunny. Might turn this into a fic but idk yet 

Charlie  - was the one who suggested playing it because he happened to discover it one day and as the funky lil creative he is, he's prepared a homebrew campaign that is absolutely nuts and doesn't always make sense - as he can barely read he hasn't exactly got the best grasp on the rules. He might go and find some videos to explain it better to him but he also does have a shit attention span so he probably gets a little bit bored - basically he found out about a game for adults where you can acceptably play make believe like a kid and really liked the idea of it - a somewhat fair DM but gets frustrated when the others inevitably deviate from the plot a lot, like I feel like he also threatens to kill people's characters if they continue to completely ruin stuff - really works hard on doing different character voices and describing different characters and places, even down to having props, costume parts, maps etc - draws everyone’s characters 

Mac  - starts out complaining that he "doesn't want to play some shitty nerd game" but then gets shown the barbarian class and all the weapons his character could use and then he gets fully into it - briefly thinks about being a monk instead but gets very put off when reading about Ki and just doesn't understand it at all - builds a Dragonborn or Half Orc barbarian beefcake, his highest stats are strength and dexterity, and he has weapons that use a d10 or a d12 for damage - he never really gets into the roleplay aspect and gets kinda bored when there hasn't been any combat for a while which means that he often starts combat himself, like they're all yelling at him not to and he just attacks anyway and rolls his dice and then Charlie just yells like "OKAY FINE ROLL INITIATIVE" - constantly tries to do cool stunts (you know he’s physically demonstrating them too the best he can) and gets very mad when his dice roll low, and so he probably flips the table at least once every session - doesn't ask to roll for intimidation (or any other skill but he uses intimidation way more than the others) he just does it anyway and announces it - Mac: I rolled a 12 so I intimidate the guard with my big muscles and he cowers before me Charlie: nO dude that’s not how it works, I decide whether he’s intimidated by you aaand *rolls dice* he’s not  Mac: WHAT??? That’s bullshit Charlie you KNOW how big my character’s muscles are! *proceeds to flex irl* 

Dennis  - also "doesn't want to play some shitty nerd game" and takes more convincing than Mac, but eventually what sways him over is the fact that his character can seduce as many people as he wants, and he probably sees some raunchy artwork of a tiefling woman and decides that he'll play - Aasimar Bard that has a very high charisma stat and is quite possibly the horniest bard you have ever seen, although he's not seducing dragons and monsters because he "has standards" - uses 'vicious mockery' constantly and comes up with the most incredible insults, and often threatens to use it on his party members  - never gives inspiration dice to the others (except maybe to Mac on occasion) - probably a bit of a rules lawyer but only when it benefits him or ruins someone else - surprises himself a little bit and the others when he ends up getting very into the roleplay part of the game, oftentimes completely forgetting that he's just effectively flirting with Charlie in a wig - therefore gets Very into character and ends up becoming weirdly attached to and protective of his character so gets genuinely upset when his character is near death “heal ME! I’m clearly the best member of the party!” - very detailed and descriptive roleplay, sometimes too descriptive 

Dee  - also also "doesn't want to play some shitty nerd game" but particularly when Mac and Dennis get roped into it she doesn't want to get left out and joins anyway, plus she very quickly realises that it's a perfect opportunity to demonstrate her acting skills - therefore very much enjoys the roleplay aspect and often gets very intense which the others (except Dennis) aren't quite sure what to do with since they're just goofing around for the most part - would argue with Dennis about being a bard but eventually she gets bullied into settles on being a Tiefling Sorcerer because it "seems pretty cool" - the others joke about how she should be playing an Aarakocra though, "oh wow Dee look! They based an entire race on you!" - argues with Charlie A Lot about various different things that she supposedly can and can't do (tbf they all do but she is The Worst) - has an incredibly long and fleshed out backstory written down for her character and she keeps asking Charlie when he’s going to bring it up and use it in the plot of the campaign  - not so interested in combat since she can never quite get her head around the magic system but she does laugh at and berate the others about not being able to solve 'simple' puzzles

Frank  - has absolutely no idea what DnD is or what he's doing but he's playing just for Charlie and because Charlie was so enthusiastic about it - when making a character he probably asks stuff like "so which class has the most sex appeal?" / "Which one of these will get me to bang the most fantasy broads?", which inevitably means he gets involved in the ‘Who Gets To Be The Bard’ argument with Dennis and Dee but backs out very quickly because honestly, he's not That invested - I would say he gets 'lumped with the healer role' because of this but you just KNOW that the gang has absolutely no idea how to build a good, co-operative party and therefore has the most chaotic and messy party you've ever seen - ends up being a High Elf (so he can be "tall and sexy") Rogue so he can be crafty and steal a bunch of money from people, which also includes his fellow players and they get very mad about it - Mac: hey you can't steal from me! I attack him with my greataxe *rolls dice* Charlie: no Mac he rolled a 15 whereas you rolled a 2 your character didn't notice him steal from you Mac: but I just watched him say he stole from me! Charlie: YOU did but your character DIDN'T! Dennis: Mac buddy he's right you just didn't roll well enough! Frank: *cackling* I just stole all of your money! DEAL WITH IT! Mac: *standing up* WELL I ROLLED WELL ENOUGH TO HIT HIM! I GOT A 19! Charlie: *overlapping* YOU DON’T HIT SHIT! Dennis: *overlapping* METAGAMING! THAT'S METAGAMING YOU CAN'T DO THAT!

[eponymous-rose]

A Critical Role Campaign 2 Mechanics Primer

Got a request from a new Critical Role viewer for some clarification re: rules and characters, and dang, yes, there’s so much stuff to deal with as a new viewer at the moment. So here’s an attempt at clarifying some stuff!

How does D&D work?

Fundamentally, one person (the DM) sets the scene and the players riff off that scene by acting out what their characters would do in response. Whenever a player’s actions would lead to an uncertain result, the DM can call for them to roll a die and try to hit a predetermined target number to see if they succeed. The players’ individual characters have abilities that boost certain categories of rolls and penalize others; a very strong character is more likely than a scrawny one to be able to open a jammed door, but they could still have an unlucky roll. It’s the DM’s job to incorporate the sometimes-absurd results of those die rolls into a coherent story.

Combat is the most “gamey” D&D gets, where everyone has a turn set aside to act (with an order determined by the “initiative” roll that starts combat). This is where character classes come in handy: magic-users cast spells, fighters jump in with their weapons of choice, and so forth. Each character has a set of hit points, and once those reach zero, the character is unconscious and possibly dying. But combat ain’t just hack-and-slash: there can be conversation, strategy, manipulation, collaboration, and all sorts of weird subtleties going on. Fundamentally, players’ actions are limited only by their imaginations.

It can be super weird getting into a D&D show even if you have played a bit because everyone plays the game a bit differently. Critical Role’s gameplay leans hard into roleplaying and character beats (there are episodes with basically no dice rolls) but also leans hard enough into the rules that a random bad or good roll can completely derail the story; rolls aren’t fudged or handwaved for the sake of a predetermined narrative, which means nobody playing (including the DM) knows how things are going to end up. This makes for a viewing experience that is a cross between dramedy improv and live sports; the cast plays out long scenes of conversation, but their characters could also permanently die at any time, adding to the high stakes. It’s also totally unedited, which accounts for the absurdly long runtime. 

If any of that isn’t for you, there are a lot of great D&D podcasts out there (often labeled “actual play”) that run the gamut from silly with minimal rules to mechanically involved but edited down. It’s a cool time to get into D&D!

Okay, so how exactly do these characters do their thing?

One of the more confusing aspects for new viewers of the second campaign of Critical Role is that they’re using a fair amount of content that’s not in the baseline ruleset - some character races and classes are coming from expansion content, and some are from Matt Mercer (the DM’s) homebrew. Here’s a quick summary of what each character has going on at the start of the campaign, moving from left to right in the first episode’s seating arrangement.

Fjord (played by Travis Willingham)

If you’re watching the show in video form, Travis is the big guy who looks like he could throw a football real far. If you’re listening to the podcast, his character voice has a Texas twang.

Fjord is a half-orc warlock. A half-orc typically has green skin and tusks but otherwise looks fairly close to a garden-variety human. Warlocks are magic-users who gained their abilities from a bargain with a mysterious (generally somewhat malevolent) being of great power. Mechanically, they rely a lot on what are called cantrips (spells that can be cast an unlimited number of times a day) since the number of more powerful spells at their disposal is very limited. However, unlike most other casters that have to get a full night’s sleep to regain their stronger spells, warlocks just have to rest for an hour or so and they’re good to go. More specifically, Fjord is a hexblade warlock. Hexblades are warlocks who have a particularly strong bond with their weapon of choice and can summon it from nothing.

Beauregard (played by Marisha Ray)

If you’re watching the show in video form, Marisha is the woman who often perches on her chair like she’s about to take flight. If you’re listening to the podcast, her character voice is a bit gruff with a sarcastic drawl.

Beau is a human monk. Both humans in this campaign use a variant version of human that allows them to pick a feat at the start of the campaign: Beau has some extra expertise in investigative and athletic abilities. Monks are preternaturally powerful martial artists; what some classes do with magic, they do with unarmed combat. Mechanically, they rely on an ability called ki points, which are a stockpile of points that can be used for extra-powerful abilities such as being able to hit extra times on an attack or being able to stun an enemy. More specifically, Beau is a Way of the Cobalt Soul monk, which is a homebrew from Matt and means she’s essentially a warrior-monk-librarian whose key abilities center around rooting out useful information.

Caleb (played by Liam O’Brien)

If you’re watching the show in video form, Liam is the guy who perpetually looks like he’s about to launch into a Shakespearean monologue. If you’re listening to the podcast, his character voice is soft with a German accent.

Caleb is a human wizard. His variant human feat gives him an eidetic memory and the ability to always know what time it is. Wizards are magic-users who got to where they are with careful study; Caleb has to keep track of his spells by transcribing them into a spellbook. He also has a familiar in the form of the cat Frumpkin, although Frumpkin can also change forms. Mechanically, wizards can pick up spells from a lot of different sources to learn them, but again, the cost in time and materials of transcribing them into a spellbook can be substantial. More specifically, Caleb is a transmutation wizard, which means his wizardry focuses around the act of transforming one thing into another.

Nott (played by Sam Riegel)

If you’re watching the show in video form, Sam is the guy with an alarmingly big smile and a comically oversized flask. If you’re listening to the podcast, his character voice is high-pitched with varying levels of Cockney accent.

Nott is a goblin rogue. Goblins are small and quick, and may or may not be well-received depending on the location. Rogues are sneaky individuals who do best when striking from the shadows or scouting ahead to investigate potential traps and unlock doors. Mechanically, they get a huge bonus in combat if they attack when unseen or when an opponent is distracted by an ally. They’re also very good at avoiding attacks and at hiding from view. More specifically, Nott is an arcane trickster rogue, which means she also dabbles in magic related to illusions and enchantment.

Jester (played by Laura Bailey)

If you’re watching the show in video form, Laura is the one who may or may not be instigating every round of giggles at accidental innuendo. If you’re listening to the podcast, her character voice is bubbly with an Eastern European accent.

Jester is a tiefling cleric. Tieflings essentially look like brightly-colored humans (Jester has blue skin) with horns and a tail; they’re the result of infernal ancestry and also may or may not be well-received. Clerics are magic-users who derive their power from the blessing of a deity or other extremely powerful entity. Jester’s divine patron is the Traveler, a mysterious trickster with an affinity for phallic graffiti. Mechanically, clerics have a massive stable of spells from which they can choose a subset every morning; their abilities range from healing wounds to causing devastating harm. More specifically, Jester is a trickery domain cleric, which means her spells have a strong focus on illusions and pranks.

Mollymauk (played by Taliesin Jaffe)

If you’re watching the show in video form, Taliesin is the one who looks like he may be some sort of ancient fey creature who’s come to our realm to play D&D. If you’re listening to the podcast, his character voice has an Irish accent of varying intensity.

Molly is a tiefling blood hunter with purple skin. Blood hunters are a custom class Matt created that can use their own blood (in a process called hemocraft) to augment their combat abilities. Mechanically, blood hunters are high-risk high-reward; they can perform devastatingly brutal attacks, but often only at the cost of shedding some of their own blood to do so. More specifically, Molly is an Order of the Ghostslayer blood hunter, which means he’s got an affinity for things relating to the moment of death.

Yasha (played by Ashley Johnson)

If you’re watching the show in video form, Ashley is the one who isn’t around for a little bit (she was splitting her time with a TV show on the opposite coast) and then SHE’S BACK AND I’M STILL SO HAPPY ABOUT THAT. If you’re listening to the podcast, her character voice is soft with a faint Scandinavian accent.

Yasha is an aasimar barbarian. Aasimar are the semi-divine counterpart to tieflings, although Yasha is a fallen aasimar with a fairly different aesthetic. Barbarians use their rage to enhance their already fierce battle prowess. Mechanically, barbarians in a rage take less damage and deal more damage, and also embrace a high-risk high-reward playstyle as tanks in the middle of the fray. More specifically, Yasha is a Path of the Zealot barbarian, which means her battle rages are fueled by the influence of a divine being.

Interested in watching from the start of campaign 2? The show has a YouTube channel with each episode posted in its entirety, and all episodes are also available in podcast form (they did jump channels partway through, but you can usually find a playlist that has them all). If you want to delve into campaign 1, I highly recommend it, but be aware that they’re still figuring out tech stuff and you’re also jumping in partway through the game they started years earlier at home. Campaign 2 starts 20 years after campaign 1 on a different continent of the same world, and is intended to be an appropriate jumping-on point for new viewers.

Interested in catching up faster so you can watch live with friends? Search Critical Recap for a series of recap videos on YouTube, which then becomes a series of written summaries on the CritRole website after episode 88. There are also great summaries on the Wiki, and many people have put together catch-up guides for new viewers. 

There’s A LOT of content out there. Don’t let anyone make you feel bad for skimming the early stuff if you want to get in on the new episodes sooner. <3

Episodes air at 7 PM Pacific every Thursday on Critical Role’s Twitch and YouTube channels; the VOD goes up for free on YouTube the Monday after. In the last few months, the cast has been distanced at the studio (all on separate cameras) and episodes have been pre-recorded several weeks in advance; normally, the show is streamed live and everyone is around the same table.

Hope that helps! If you have any questions, let me know. This is a fun show to get into, and a great all-consuming massive body of entertainment if you have the time for it.

[thegalleonsnest]

DUNGEONS & GRUMPUSES

You bet I just drew the Bugsnax crew playing D&D! This was something I sketched out a few weeks ago but finally got around to it! Haven’t done a large piece like this in awhile, especially with so many characters! I tried drawing each Grumpus with different pieces of cosplay that tell you how committed they are to the game. These are just random little headcanons for how I think about them playing D&D.

I’ve got a whole list written out for each Grump’s class they picked and why, so keep reading if you wanna know who’s who!

Starting from the front left to the back, you got:

Filbo; Sorcerer: He’s trying his best while working with a slightly below averaged charisma modifier. He doesn’t play often, so he’s gets confused about what he can do and how to properly build characters, but he’s learning.

Wambus; Paladin: He pretty new to it, so decided to go with the simplest one that was all about being good. Mainly followed Floofty & Snorpy’s instructions on how to make a good starting character. Triffany; Wizard: She’s just as new to playing as Wambus, but hopped on board super hard after learning that you could be a necromancer. Loves getting into character. Gramble; Druid: After raising his barn full of Snax, felt natural to play as a class close to nature itself. He had friends who were into playing D&D, but rarely participated and just watched. Mainly acting as support rather than being front and center. Wiggle; Bard: It’s pretty self explanatory lol. She spends more time playing music & setting the tone during sessions, but surprisingly, she’s super into role playing. Cromdo; Warlock: When something stinks of opportunity, why not take advantage of it? Even if it means making deals with various demons/gods/whatever is willing to make a blood pact with him for some easy riches? Used to play back when he was way younger, but life became a bigger factor.

Beffica; Rogue: Gotta get that perf dirt without getting caught, you know? Might take advantage of the party, who knows? Barely had any interest in playing, but why not use this opportunity to learn some things about your local residence?

Shelda; Monk: She’s more of a pacifist, spreading the word of Mother Naturae, and still spouting metaphors and riddles. She has no idea how to play, but she’s surprisingly effective at confusing any NPC for whatever reason. Eggabell; Cleric: Resident doctor is your resident healer of the party. And managing a party of 12 in a campaign is stressful as heck. Might crack under pressure deciding who to heal. She’s always liked fantasy stuff, so of course she still had some props for cosplay should could use. Elizabert; Barbarian: Adventurous and reckless by nature, so it was an obvious choice for her. Usually the one to start attacking without asking too many questions. Used to play a lot of D&D back in high school, so she can get pretty into it. Barrowed some of Eggabell’s old cosplay material for a sweet ’tume (If you get that reference, you’re a legend) Snorpy; Artificer: Veteran D&D player; grew up playing with Floofty. You gotta have your engineer on the team to think outside the box (and correct you on the rules constantly and make sure your dice rolls are correct). He likes dressing up for the part to really get into it. It’s the few times he is actually calm and having fun. Chandlo; Fighter: Plays with Snorpy from time to time. As long as you have the highest constitution & strength modifier, you can take the hits and throw them back at them pretty hard. His Wisdom is pretty high for a Fighter as well. Teams up hard with Liz & Wambus to protect the group

Floofty; The DM: Veteran as well, and yes, they would totally be the one to run a D&D campaign as way to run “hypothetical” experiments/test that would otherwise be rejected if performed in real life. I would also think just because of their personality, they would rarely ever be a player because of the number of disagreements that would come up during normal play with other people, unless it’s with a good group that knows each other.

[dmsden]

A History Lesson - Looking back at D&D’s history

Hullo, Gentle Readers. Well, this is the 5th Monday in March, and that means I get to write about anything I want! It’s also my birth month, which means it’s my anniversary of getting into D&D (42 years!), and that has me feeling nostalgic. Coupled with a discussion I had recently with some friends, I thought it would be fun to look back at the various editions of D&D and give you all a bit of history. I’m not going to get into Gygax vs Arneson or any of that. I’m only talking about the published game itself, not its creators or its storied origins.

The original D&D (or OD&D as it’s sometimes called) came in a small box. It had three booklets inside - Men & Magic, Monsters & Treasure, and The Underworld & Wilderness Adventures - along with reference sheets and dice. Each was softcover and roughly the same dimensions as a DVD/BluRay case. The game was pretty rudimentary - for one thing, it assumed you already had a copy of Chainmail, D&D’s direct wargame predecessor. It also recommended you have a game called Outdoor Survival for purposes of traveling through the wilderness. It had only three classes - fighting man, magic-user, and cleric - and nothing about playing other races. It did have the insane charts that 1st edition would ultimately known for, and it was possible to play a pretty fun game of D&D with it, as its popularity would come to show.

The game expanded through similar chapbooks - Greyhawk, Blackmoor, Eldritch Wizardry, Gods Demigods & Heroes, Swords & Spells. With the exception of the last one, each brought new facets to the game - new classes like Thief and Monk, new spells, new threats. It was clear the game was going to need an overhaul, and it got one.

I consider this overhaul to yield the real “1st Edition”, as so much of the game didn’t exist in those original games. The game split into a “Basic” game, just called Dungeons & Dragons and Advanced Dungeons & Dragons.

The basic game was a boxed set that included a rulebook, a full adventure module, and dice...or, well, it was supposed to contain dice. The game was so popular and new in those days that demand for dice outstripped production. My copy of D&D came with a coupon for dice when they became available and a sheet of “chits” - laminated numbers meant to be put into cups (we used Dixie Cups with the name of the die written on it), shaken, and a random number pulled out without looking. It was meant to introduce new players to the game, so it was a trimmed down version. Races were human, elf, dwarf, and halfling, and classes were fighter, cleric, magic-user, and thief. The box only included rules for going up to 3rd level, with the intention that players would then graduate into AD&D. This is where I joined, with the old blue cover box set and In Search of the Unknown, before Keep on the Borderlands even existed.

AD&D was the game in its full glory. Along with the races I mention above, we got half-elves, half-orcs, and gnomes. The four basic classes also had sub-classes, like paladin and ranger for the fighter, druid for the cleric, illusionist for the wizard, and assassin for the thief. There were rules for multi-classing, as well as “Dual-classing”, a sort of multi-class variation for humans only, which, when done in the correct combination, could yield the infamous bard...which didn’t actually yield any bard abilities until around level 13 or so.

This edition had 5 different saving throws for things like “Death Magic”, “Petrification & Polymorph”, “Spells”, and so on. It had the infamous Armor Class system that started at 10 and went down, so that having a -3 AC was very good!  It also had specific attack matricies for each class; you would literally look on a table to determine the number you needed to roll on a D20 based on your class, your level, and your opponent’s armor class. It was fun, but it was very complicated.

It also had some, frankly, shitty rules. There was gender disparity in terms of attributes, which my group totally ignored. Because the game designers wanted humans to be a competitive the game, and because non-humans had so many abilities and could multiclass, non-humans were severely limited in the levels they could achieve in most classes. In fact, some classes, such as monk and paladin, were restricted only to humans.

As the years went on, things got a bit muddled. It probably didn’t help that the rules in Basic D&D and AD&D didn’t perfectly line up. In D&D, the worst armor class was a 9. In AD&D, the worst armor class was a 10. All of this led to an overhaul, but not one considered a separate edition. AD&D mostly got new covers and new books, like the Wilderness Survival Guide and Dungeon Survival Guide, Monster Manual 2, and the Manual of the Planes. It got a number of new settings, too. In addition to the default Greyhawk setting, we got the Forgotten Realms setting for the first time, details of which had been appearing in Dragon Magazine for years, thanks to the prolific Ed Greenwood. We also, eventually, got the whole Dragonlance saga, which yielded the setting of Krynn.

In this new version, Basic D&D broke off into its own game system to some degree. Elf, Dwarf, and Halfling started being treated like classes rather than races, with specific abilities at different levels. Higher level characters could be created using progressive boxes - Expert, Companion, Master, and Immortal, each with its own boxed set and supported by Mystara, a completely different setting that got its own updates over the years. It was odd, because D&D essentially was competing for players with AD&D, and I remember arguments with friends over which version was better (I was firmly in the AD&D camp.)

In 1989, when I was in college, they finally brought forth 2nd edition D&D. This streamlined things a little. Armor Class still went down, but now attack rolls boiled into a single number called To Hit Armor Class 0, or THAC0. It made the whole process of figuring out what you needed to roll a bit less cumbersome, but it was still a bit awkward. The classes got a lot of overhaul, including making Bard its own core class. But what I remember best about 2nd edition was the boom in settings. This was the age of settings, and many beloved ones got started, including Dark Sun, Planescape, Ravenloft, and Spelljammer.

It was also the age of the “Complete Handbooks”. They brought out splatbooks about every class and race in the game, as well as books expanding several concepts for the DM, such as the Arms & Equipment Guide, the Castle Guide, and the Complete Book of Villains. There were also splatbooks about running D&D in historic periods, such as Ancient Rome, among the ancient Celts, or during the time of the Musketeers. The game got new covers for the rule books again, and a bunch of books about options started coming out. It was a boom time for books, but many people complained there was too much.

Without going too deep, TSR ended up in severe financial troubles. They declared bankruptcy, and there was real fear of the game going away. And then Wizards of the Coast (WotC) stepped in. They helped TSR get back onto its feet, and they helped produce some modules specifically engineered to help DM’s bring an end to their campaign...possibly even their whole campaign world...because something big was coming.

That something big was, of course, 3rd edition D&D. The game got majorly streamlined, and many sacred cows ended up as hamburger. AC finally started going up instead of down. Everything was refined to the “D20″ system we’ve been playing ever since. Races could be any class. There were no level or stat limits for anyone. After years of the game being forced into tight little boxes, it really felt like we could breathe. I had stopped playing D&D, but 3rd edition brought me back into the fold. I often say that 3E was made for the players who’d felt constricted and wanted more flexibility.

The trouble with 3E, and its successor 3.5, is that it was still a dense and difficult game for newcomers to get into. It’s been acknowledged that D&D essentially created many of the systems we see and know in other games - experience points, leveling up, hit points, etc. But trying to break into the experience for the first time was difficult. The look of 3E was gorgeous, but I understood that it must seem awfully daunting to someone who’d never played.

4E and its follow-up, Essentials, was an attempt to course correct that. They tried to make this edition incredibly friendly to new DMs, and, frankly, they succeeded. By creating player classes and monsters and magic-items that were all very plug and play, they did a great job of creating a game that someone who had never DMed before could dive into with no experience or mentor and start a game pretty easily. Encounter design was given a lot of ease, and there were promises of a robust online tool system that would help out with many of the more tedious aspects of playing.

There was also a lot of shake up in terms of choices. Suddenly, new classes and races were proliferating like crazy. We got the dragonborn, the tiefling, and the eladrin right in the core book, but we said good-bye to the gnome and half-orc at first. Suddenly the warlock was the new class everyone wanted to try. We got paragon paths and epic destinies that would really shape a character as time went on. The game went very tactical, as well, which some of us loved. The concept of rituals came into the game. Later books like the Player’s Handbook 2 and 3 gave us back gnomes and half-orcs, and also gave us minotaurs, wilden, shardminds, and githzerai. We got new psionic classes, brand new class concepts like the Runeknight and the Seeker...

But there was a tremendous backlash. People felt that, in making the game so very plug and play, they’d taken a ton of choice away from the players. Without the tools (which were never that robust, frankly), it was almost impossible to navigate the massive panoply of options. And, worse, it was harder and harder to develop encounters without those tools. People complained that the game had gone more tactical in order to sell miniatures and battlemats. Given that I have never played the game without miniatures and battlemats (since I started in the days when D&D was still half-wargame), I found this odd, but I also understand my style of play isn’t everyone’s.

The one argument I will never understand is that it didn’t “feel” like D&D, or it was somehow ONLY a tactical game and not a role-playing game any more. Again, given that the original game didn’t even call itself a role-playing game, this felt odd. Personally, I roleplay no matter what game I’m playing. If I’m playing Monopoly, I’m roleplaying, doing voices, and pretending to be something I’m not. I honestly enjoyed 4E, and I know a lot of folks who did, too. A lot of it may simply come down to style of play. But I also enjoyed all the games that came before, including Pathfinder. To paraphrase the YouTube content creator The Dungeon Bastard, “Does your game have dungeons? Does it have dragons? Great. I wanna play.”

As a sidenote, in the months leading up to 4E’s release, a lot of internet videos were released by WotC emphasizing the nature of change and talking about differences in the rules. They also released some preview books showing the direction they were heading. WotC must have anticipated that people were going to find this edition very different indeed. They also cleverly brought in some very funny folks - Scott Kurtz from PVPOnline and Jerry Holkins & Mike Krahulik from Penny Arcade - and got them to play D&D for podcasting purposes. Looking back, this must’ve brought in a lot of listeners who might never have played D&D and given them a reason to try it out.

After its release, WotC clearly noted that missteps had been made, as this edition of the game was losing them players. They began work on what they referred to as D&D Next, and, this time, they did massive amounts of playtesting, some of which I participated in.

I don’t feel like I have to describe 5E to any of you, Dear Readers, as you could go to virtually any store and pick it up. I am a big fan of 5E’s simplicity and elegance, and I suspect this is the edition of D&D we’re going to have for some time to come, especially given its popularity. Given the effect of podcasts like Critical Role (and I might save an article on Critical Role’s importance to D&D until my next Freestyle article), D&D is likely more popular now than it’s ever been, with a much wider and more diverse audience than ever before.

I know I’m painting with broad strokes here, but I hope this was, at least, entertaining, and maybe you learned something, Gentle Readers. Until we next meet, may all your 20s be natural.

[sun-critrole]

Inspired by extracandy’s awesome twitter thread about the passage of time in Campaign 2, I thought I would utilize Critrolestats’ exhaustive data pool to have some fun.

Keep in mind that the data we have access to is skewed, since it depends upon the players self-reporting their rolls. Not every natural roll is announced out loud. These numbers are also only correct up through episode 139.

The way I’ve chosen to interpret the data is using ratios. Theoretically, if you roll a d20 a lot and record all the times it lands on a 1 or on a 20, those numbers should be about the same. On a 20-sided die, you would expect each face to pop up about once every 20 rolls (about 5% of the time).

I did a quick sample of this: I rolled a d20 200 times. I rolled 13 nat 20s and 10 nat 1s, which is pretty close to what the statistics told me to expect. My 20-to-1 ratio was 1.3 to 1. This means, for every nat 1 I rolled, I also rolled 1.3 nat 20s. That’s a really small sample size, but each of the CR cast has rolled a d20 way more than 200 times in Campaign 2. (If I kept rolling forever, I would expect my ratio to eventually be 1 to 1 - for every natural 1 I rolled, I also rolled about 1 natural 20.)

Of the crits and crit fails acknowledged on stream, Beau has the most of both. This tracks - monks roll a lot of attacks! 136 nat 20s divided by 104 nat 1s place her success-to-failure ratio at roughly 1.30 to 1. That’s about the same as what I got in my small practice roll session.

Do that math for every player character, and here are the numbers you get:

Beau - 1.30:1

Fjord - 1.58:1

Caleb - 1.23:1

Nott/Veth - 0.95:1

Jester - 0.75:1

Yasha - 1.09:1

Caduceus - 1.45:1*

Mollymauk - 2.27:1*

*Here, the math begins to break down a bit. Mollymauk only ever rolled 11 natural 1s and 25 nat 20s, which is a pretty small sample size compared to the rest. I would say that even Cad’s 29 natural 1s is too small. If we add all Taliesin’s rolls for the whole game, across both characters, we get a far more reasonable 1.68:1.

Matt’s DM rolls are a much bigger sample size, as he rolls more than any given player character in most sessions. His ratio comes in at 1.96:1. Nat 20s are announced by Matt about twice as often as nat 1s.

There are some fun questions brought up by looking at this set of data.

Why is it that most players have announced more nat 20s than nat 1s?

I can guess that most of it has to do with mechanics. The CR cast doesn’t tend to have something awful happen with every critical failure, like dropping a weapon instead of attacking. There isn’t much of a difference between rolling a 1 or a 2 on a perception check - they both fail. However, when rolling a natural 20, you do the best you possibly can do. Matt has chosen to sometimes grant players special rewards for rolling a nat 20 on a skill check. This doesn’t even take into account that, in combat, nat 20s do double dice damage, so they are always announced. Nat 1s may often be glossed over with a “No, that doesn’t hit” comment. 

If that’s the case, why is Sam’s and Ashley’s ratios about equal for 20s and 1s?

I think a lot of the variation in ratios here comes down to play style. Sam loves to fail, as proven by his refusal to re-roll 1s as a halfling. The 1s are just as fun as the 20s for him, so it makes sense that he’s announcing them at roughly the same rate. I may be wrong in this, since it’s not tracked by Critrolestats, but I feel like Ashley is more likely to announce her natural rolls, regardless of the result? If that’s the case, it makes sense that her number would also be closer to a statistically balanced ratio. Again, this comes down to how she chooses to play.

Okay  so, why is Laura’s ratio so messed up?

And to this, dear reader, I have no answer. Maybe someone with more math knowledge than me can talk about statistical significance. Jester has rolled 61 nat 20s and 81 nat 1s. Maybe that’s too small a sample size to really get helpful data from. Maybe the way Laura plays means she is more likely to announce nat 1s, because she is more disappointed in her dice.

But maybe, just maybe, Laura Bailey’s dice bag is cursed. Not quite Wil Wheaton mega cursed, but cursed all the same.

[metamagic-adept]

thoughts on druids (the class!) :)

thank you jack 💛💕

you know i love giving my thoughts on all things dnd builds

Stars and Spores are my favorite subclasses because they offer alternative uses for Wildshape. (Wildfire does too, but having a wildfire spirit, essentially a familiar who can fight, just isnt super appealing personally. Although having Revivify as a Circle Spell is tempting.) I love wildshaping into animals for utility, but not so muchfor combat. If you want to fight in Wildshape and keep up with your martial classes at higher levels, Circle of the Moon is the best choice. I've seen a Moon Druid/Bear Totem Barbarian absolutely tank in Wildshape, because she's raging and resistant to almost everything.

But back to my faves. Spores is fantastic because in the symbiotic entity you get the HP boost benefit of a Wildshape but can still cast spells, and is good for a melee build bc of that extra d6 necrotic damage on hits, and the halo of spores reaction. (The Unearthed Arcana version is better, and a bit broken, with Halo of Spores being even more damage without a save.) The only "problem" with Circle of Spores is that naddpod's Moonshine Cybin is so iconic in my mind that for a long time I couldnt think of a character concept that felt distinct from her. I finally fixed that with Daffodil Pickle, who is a Spores druid/ monk, but flavored like a Swarmkeeper Ranger. Instead of fungal spores, they are just surrounded by butterflies at all times.

In a combat heavy campaign, Stars is the best/strongest of the subclasses. Getting a guiding bolt, that doesnt even eat up spells slots, is fantastic. The constellations are each useful and having three options make your druid extremely versatile. The chalice makes for a great healer (i would know, Yarrow is the party's only one) and really stretches those healing spells. The archer's artow attack is the equivalent of a decent cantrip as a bonus action. And the dragon. The fucking dragon- not being able to roll below a 10 on concetration means, at minimum, a foe would need to do 20 damage in one hit to make you at risk of losing concentration. If you have a good con and proficiency (Multiclass or reslient feat) or Warcaster then youre looking at maintaining concentration after hits of up to 35 or 40 damage. That is clutch for some high lvl spells. Yarrow hasnt had much chance to use the Dragon yet, but I'll be so excited if we survive to higher levels. If i wasnt already playing Yarrow, I'd make a Stars Druid/Ranger multiclass for another game. I still might tbh, or at least plot it out just for fun.

I also like that all the subclasses have very different flavors. Nature has many different forms and i like the ways that informs backstory, aesthetic, and personality.

I originally wanted to do Circle of Dreams for Daffodil Pickle because it fit the Fey Vibes but it seems fairly underpowered in combat compared to a lot of the other subclasses.

[aliveahahafuck]

Okay okay okay!

I just realised I could do this again because it was my biggest regret of the last campaign to not do it, so here we go,

SESSION RECAP!!!!!! :D

So we're running beyond the witchlight and its session 1 so the session starts while we're in line at the ticket booth

So we're next in line but rather than buying tickets, everyone just sees these two, completely identical, 5 foot tall figures arguing about who's fault it was that they had basically no money and who would get in the most trouble, all while insulting eachother and their mother?

This, my dear readers, was Pen; my friends character, and Crow; my character. Two completely identical drow twins (like, they're even dressed the same, only difference is their hair and cloaks of slightly different colours with different crests) that compliment each others individual skill set; Pen, the younger twin, is a socially awkward, but extremely protective and intelligent barbarian, and Crow, obviously the older twin, is a charming and kind ball of energy put to good use as a bard.

They also perfectly embody the concept of "the smart one, and... atleast you're pretty"

Deadass Pen has negative cha and Crow has negative int lmao

Anyway someone pushes past us because we're taking too long and we suddenly realise that we're next so we go up and ask for two tickets, we're told 8gp so we give that and then we're told that that was only one ticket

Cue us, mostly crow, trying to persuade the goblin manning to booth to honour the 8gp price he initially said because we did ask for two

It works! Sorta? Goblin gets told off by some invisible being and hands over the tickets, saying that an anonymous benefactor has already paid for our entry.

Suddenly we hear squaking behind us and turn to see a 5 foot tall hawk arakocra and a 6foot tall cheetah tabaxi behind us insisting that they're with us

This is the other half the party, Birb and Juniper Skies, who are both monks. Birb is exactly which one you'd assume.

After a bit of banter and them also reciving tickets from an anonymous benefactor we go to enter the park but stop by the map on the wall, noting that there's no more hand held versions left.

Well everyone else looks at the map, crows looking around at the surroundings excitedly.

When crow finally looks at the map he immediately notices the tent labeled as the hall of illusions and starts dragging Pen in that direction, birb and Juniper follow/ take the lead when they realise where we're heading.

And well

We get there and, guys, our characters haven't been in the park for 10 minutes and Birb is already being monitored by security and we are like 3 steps in the door to the hall of illusions when a miscommunication causes birb to sucker punch Pen in the throat.

"As soon as I register what happened I'm going to Pen and casting healing word; 'What the fuck?'"

"How aggressive are you saying that to me?"

"Not aggressively, more like wtf is going on"

"Gotcha"

*rolls dice* "Pen, take 6 healing-"

"OH, THATS YOURE HEALING WORDS!" *laughing*

Idk why that surprised him, not like I don't do that all the time lmao

Anyway security gets called on us, they get placated and we're told no violence

Pen accidentally ruins a proposal, somehow only Crow and Birb pass the int check (both have negative int, the other two dont) and only Crow passes the wis save; with a nat 20 too bayyyyybeeee

Cue tashas hideous laughter hitting everyone but me and bird, but birb laughing anyway

Anyway, we go through this magical house of mirrors, where juniper has to stop birb from fighting his reflection, and when we go out help the woman who's proposal that Pen fucked find her mortified husband

And ngl, that's about as far as we got in 4 hours lmao

[lostinthosebrowneyes]

Pedro Character HCs | The Boys as D&D (5e) Classes

Dave York

Rogue. Dave is a soldier who specializes in the silent kill. He knows all about a life of murky morality and thrives in the darkness with his expertise in stealth. But get him up close and away from his teammates and their flanking advantage and it’s game over for him. He’s the classic high risk, high reward class with melee and range versatility, specifically the Assassin archetype who makes the most of drawing his weapon first.

Din Djarin

Fighter. Nobody beats the humble Fighter in terms of battle versatility. Din is more than a mercenary, he’s a true warrior. An expert in all manner of weapons, just put something that kills in his hands and he’ll make it sing. The Fighter is the workhorse of any D&D campaign, a classic and always welcome addition, he does his job with maximum efficiency be it solo or as part of a team. He has no need for fancy spells or gimmicks, his job is to take the pain and dish it out in equal measure. He will outlast all of the showy casters and niche glass cannons on the battlefield, taking his Second Wind while they’re making death saving throws. Din would probably also have the Sentinel feat because he particularly shines as a protector and is a selfless member of any party, ready to take up the slack and have your back when you need him. This is the way.

Ezra

Bard. Ezra is a talker. In a sticky situation? Try to talk your way out of it. Looking for information? Say just the right words to try and get what you need. Whether he’s good at it is debatable and he’s rolled a lot of Nat 1s in his life, but Ezra has the spirit of a Bard inside him. He’s a lateral thinker, lives by the philosophy of taking the unspoken third option and he seems like the type of person who invests in obscure lore. In the Green there is no magic to save you, only hard work. But could you imagine Ezra’s sheer power if he could speak cutting words that actually physically killed people? He would be unstoppable.

Frankie Morales

Ranger. Whether it’s up in the sky, armed with a rifle or just socializing with friends, Frankie seems to like to navigate his way around danger and keep it at arms’ length rather than face it head on. He’s found his way through quite a few wild and dangerous terrains through his career in the military, from jungles to deserts, and surely knows a thing or two about roughing it. He’s quiet, thoughtful and down-to-earth, and he seems to make his biggest mistakes when he’s around other people. Peer pressure can’t hurt you when you’re in the wilds on your own, I’m just saying.

Jack “Whiskey” Daniels

Blood Hunter. I’m going to be blunt, Blood Hunters are zealots who pick a particular type of target and hunt them to the ends of the earth. Jack clearly has an issue with black-and-white thinking and can’t let go of a good (or even a really stupid) vendetta. Particularly, Jack would be Order of the Profane Soul, because he would clearly sell his soul to the devil to wipe his enemy from the face of the earth. Blood Hunter also fits Agent Whiskey’s fighting style as they are generally Dex-based (aka, agile) fighters who sacrifice their own health to do intense amounts of damage; the riskiest daredevils of all D&D classes. Jack Daniels is a bloodhound, when he’s got his target’s scent he will finish the job or die trying.

Javier Peña

Paladin. Here we have the somewhat nobler take on the black-and-white morality man on a mission. Javier is a Paladin all the way. On a good day, Javi would be Oath of Devotion, the most romanticized version of his ideals and goals. But most of his days are bad days, so Javi chooses the Oath of Vengeance; committed to seeing evil pay no matter the cost, making restitution for the things he must do in their pursuit only after he’s taken his foes down by any means necessary. Javier has a bit of a white knight complex at times, an overdeveloped sense of justice that just doesn’t jive with how the real world works. Sometimes he realizes that, but other times it eats him up inside. As a Paladin he would have a host of spells and tricks under his belt specifically to help him root out his elusive targets, echoing the arsenal of espionage tactics he has access to in the show.

Marcus Moreno

Paladin/Sorcerer Multiclass. I couldn’t pick between the two for Marcus M, luckily these two produce a very strong multiclass! Marcus is the product of strong bloodlines like a Sorcerer and his magnetic talent is an innate part of him just as a Sorcerer’s magic is. However, this power is not his strongest asset. His leadership abilities and protective instincts are what make him who he is more than superpowers and that’s his Paladin side coming through. Marcus Moreno is the quintessential hero and a high Charisma type, but in the unassuming way that he’s just a nice dude who people naturally like... unless you’re Miracle Guy, I guess.

Marcus Pike

Rogue. Oh man, Marcus Pike was the hardest to pick of all. He’s in a law-oriented job but is impulsive and intuitive. He has combat training but he is not aggressive. He’s passionate but not over-emotional. He has a love for the arts but no desperation for the limelight. Eventually I settled on a specific Archetype: The Rogue Inquisitive. A detective flavor of the Rogue, the Inquisitive is more reliant on Wisdom than his sneakier brethren. His skills are in honing in on the truth, both of his situation and the hearts of those around him. He’s insightful, steady and trusts his gut for good or ill. The Rogue is more than a criminal or a killer, the Rogue is also the classic jack of all trades. Marcus as a Rogue is someone who loves sampling many different interests and avenues, surprising people with his versatility of talents. He’s always up for a new challenge and adventure, he’s always got an arrow in his quiver you didn’t know about. And yes, sometimes he’s a bit low-key, but you really want that in a Rogue.

Maxwell Lord

Warlock. Maxwell is the perfect Warlock cocktail of willing to make a deal and too arrogant to realize it’s a bad one. Warlocks are greedy for power, too ready to take shortcuts and often needy for attention, even if it’s the wrong kind of attention. His short rest spell slots make his magic a quick fix for sticky situations but just as quickly depleted. Maxwell is willing to get his head in way too deep in order to get what he wants and what he wants is always just out of reach, but that taste of power from his patron is enough to keep him going.

Oberyn Martell

Monk. I know what you’re thinking: “What?? The hottest man in Westeros, known hedonist Oberyn Martell as anything but a Charisma-based class???” Well here’s the thing, Oberyn is a lover and a fighter, and nobody does what he does better than a Monk. Peak physical condition, baby. Those acrobatic moves? Dexterity-leaning Monk class has it covered. Oberyn is a clever man and he uses the science of poisons to get to his enemy’s weak points. Similarly, the Wisdom-based Monk uses a blend of magic and science to exploit pressure points and Stunning Strike their enemies into submission. They are experts of the human body, what more need I say? At higher levels they literally have a class feature to stay fit and sexy for the rest of their lives. Add onto that, the Monastic Tradition Way of the Sun Soul uses explosive bursts of fire and light against their enemies in a way that’s pretty thematic for the Prince of Dorne and his fiery personality.

[tigerkirby215]

Building Hank before Consternation (Madness Combat build errata)

(Artwork by OctoCryptik on Newgrounds.)

My initial build for Hank, while effective at capturing all of Hank’s abilities (and a good build in its own right imo) is... quite messy, admittedly. There’s a very big shift in Hank’s abilities after his death in Madness 7 and revival in Madness 9 and while I tried to capture the pre-revival Hank as much as possible in my build there’s no way to take the Armorer subclass without immediately buying into the flavor.

Truthfully if I were to play Hank in a campaign with as much accuracy and representation as possible I’d consider Madness 7 Hank and Madness 9 Hank as two different characters (same name different build) with the revival machine essentially being a way to bring back an old character after their death and swap their build. (Hell you could even play Deimos until reviving Hank.)

I think that if you want to play a post-Madness 9 Hank then the original build I made is quite good but to play a pre-Madness 7 Hank I’d give him wildly different abilities. So here’s another build that won’t be made as detailed as my usual ones but will still give a level by level analysis of how to build Hank... again!

GOALS

I still basically want a build that can use all weapons and is really good at using them. I also still want some stealth abilities.

RACE

Still a Variant Human, with +1 in DEX and CON. Take whatever language you want and the Medicine skill to patch yourself up.

For your feat talk to your DM about getting a Repeating Hand Crossbow or otherwise being able to ignore the loading property on a Hand Crossbow. If they’re willing to give you a handgun (or let you ignore the Loading property via the Gunner feat) grab the Gunner feat for obvious reasons. However if they’re not willing to let you use a Hand Crossbow without having to reload it I’d suggest the Sharpshooter feat instead.

Why aren’t we taking Crossbow Expert? Well you won’t be able to use the Bonus Action much for reasons that will be illustrated in the build. Other than that you don’t need the ability to shoot in melee range (you’ll have weapons and your fists) which means the only ability of value you’d get from Crossbow Expert is the ability to ignore the Loading property, which isn’t worth losing a potential ASI. Better to grab Sharpshooter early and use something other than a Hand Crossbow.

ABILITY SCORES

Hello Standard Array my old friend! Since this build isn’t nearly as MAD (ironic) you can afford to go for Standard Array! But of course feel free to roll for stats if you so desire or use point buy.

15; DEXTERITY - You’re still going to be focusing on guns, and you’ll be able to use your DEX for a lot more weapons in this build.

14; WISDOM - Still used for Perception and Survival, and is far more useful for this build than the other one.

13; CONSTITUTION - It’s good to not die and you don’t need the other stats as much.

12; STRENGTH - In case you grab a Strength weapon you aren’t proficient in.

10; INTELLIGENCE - Strength felt more important than Intelligence.

8; CHARISMA - You’re still a psychopathic mass-murderer.

BACKGROUND

Same background as last time: Criminal with Intimidation, Slight of Hand, and Land Vehicle proficiency.

Apparently if you don’t have Thieves’ Tools proficiency (from Artificer lol) you get it from the Criminal background? That works really well for us too.

(Artwork by DonCroco on Newgrounds.)

THE BUILD

LEVEL 1 - MONK 1

Starting off as a Monk so you can actually throw a punch and dodge attacks while actually unarmored. Take proficiency with Acrobatics and Stealth (why the hell do Monks get Stealth proficiency?) and Smith’s Tools, under the context that they’re gunsmith tools.

The fun thing about Monk is that simple weapons honestly cover most of Hank's weapons (club, quarterstaff, hand axe, etc) so you can use most of them with DEX thanks to Martial Arts.

LEVEL 2 - MONK 2

Second level Monks get second level Monks stuff. Told you this build would be a lot more basic than usual. Dedicated Weapon from Tasha’s will let you add more weapons to your repertoire, along with your subclass.

LEVEL 3 - MONK 3

Go Kensei because that’s the weapon Monk. Take either tool that you want (doesn’t really matter), a Battleaxe (reflavored as the stop sign Hank used to kill Tricky in Madness Combat 3), and either a Hand Crossbow (reflavored Pistol) or an actual pistol if your DM allows it.

LEVEL 4 - MONK 4

4th level Monks get an ASI: increase your DEX by 2 as that's your main stat.

LEVEL 5 - MONK 5

5th level Monks get an Extra Attack. Also Stunning Strike and stuff, but we’re here for Extra Attack. Remember that you can’t attack twice with a Hand Crossbow without Crossbow Expert, because it’s a crossbow.

LEVEL 6 - MONK 6

6th level Monks get Ki-Empowered Strikes and One with the Blade to bypass Magic Resistance mainly. Deft Strikes also lets you aim for the head.

You can also get another Kensei weapon: grab the Longbow (finally) which will be reflavored as all your rifles... unless you can actually grab a gun.

LEVEL 7 - RANGER 1

Hope you didn’t think this would be straight Monk. Grab Perception proficiency from multiclassing and Acrobatics Expertise from Deft Explorer, along with two languages. Also grab Favored Foe to aim for the head, because Favored Enemy is meh (can’t choose more than two types of humanoids which is basically all you fight) and you can actually afford to concentrate on Favored Foe... Even if the damage is bad.

LEVEL 8 - RANGER 2

Second level Rangers get their Fighting Style: yeah go for Archery because that fits the best. Dueling also works if you opt to play with gun and sword (or more realistically gun and knife.)

You also get Spellcasting: yeah take Hunter’s Mark lol Favored Foe is bad. Other than that? I dunno take Cure Wounds to bandage yourself up in a pinch?

LEVEL 9 - RANGER 3

Third level Rangers get to choose their archetype and it’s me ya boii Gloom Stalker. Same stuff as last time: be better at hiding, get darkvision, get ambushing powers, get Disguise Self as an innate spell.

Also go for Primal Awareness because Primeval Awareness is still bad and Speak with Animals is genuinely more useful. You also get another spell: take like Jump idk all I really want is Hunter’s Mark.

LEVEL 10 - RANGER 4

4th level Rangers get another Ability Score Improvement: time to cap that Dexterity!

LEVEL 11 - MONK 7

So like, every level after this is Monk lol. 7th level Monks can dodge rockets with Evasion.

LEVEL 12 - MONK 8

More ASIs: go for Wisdom now because your Dexterity is maxed out, and Wisdom boosts your skills as well as your AC.

LEVEL 13 - MONK 9

Use the improbability drive to walk on walls and water!

LEVEL 14 - MONK 10

Become immune to disease! Probably a bit late for that but still cool!

LEVEL 15 - MONK 11

You can use Sharpen the Blade to turn your weapon into a +1, +2 or +3 weapon by spending Ki now which is pretty nuts. You can also pick another Kensei Weapon like a Longsword (as seen in Madness Combat 5.)

LEVEL 16 - MONK 12

Wisdom.

LEVEL 17 - MONK 13

Lol like you’re going to be the one talking with your 8 in Charisma.

LEVEL 18 - MONK 14

Here’s the big one: enjoy proficiency in all Saving Throws!

LEVEL 19 - MONK 15

You can’t age, much like Newgrounds. Everything there is fresh to this day, just waiting to be revived.

LEVEL 20 - MONK 16

Just cap your Wisdom as your capstone.

You’re probably wondering why I didn’t take Tavern Brawler: the only improvised weapons Hank really uses are a metal pipe (Madness 4, 6, and 7) and a dude’s head once in Madness Combat 6. Truthfully I’d consider a pipe a glorified Quarterstaff and you’re not going to be ripping people’s heads off in D&D combat. Yes one could argue that the stop sign is technically an Improvised Weapon but both you and Tricky have used it so much it’s essentially become a proper martial weapon for both of you.

Ultimately improvised weapons come up so rarely in 5e combat it’s not worth taking a feat for it. We took it in the original build mainly to get Unarmed strike damage, and being able to beat a man with another man’s head was an added bonus.

FINAL BUILD

PROS

This build is far more focused than the original one, with far fewer dud levels. It lets you become a slaughterhouse fast and is honestly far more proficient with weapons than the original build. You also get 20 AC and +10 to initiative thanks to Gloomstalker, which is cool.

CONS

You don’t get god tier stats like with Artificer, but Artificer kinda cheats tbf. You also don’t have as much spellcasting, and while Hunter’s Mark will carry you far you won’t be able to use it all the time. By far the biggest problem is the limited resources of this build however: limited Ki, limited ammo for your ranged weapons (assuming you don’t get a Repeating Weapon), and notably you can only attack once with a Hand Crossbow if you choose to use one. This build would be really good with an Artificer ally to give you a Repeating Hand Crossbow, or a cool DM who lets you ignore the Loading property for the sake of aesthetic. But I mean you can also use a boomerang or darts or something tbh.

So thank you for joining me for this simultaneously detailed and simplified errata. I hope you can navigate the Monk class without me detailing everything to you!

(Artwork by Neentandoo on Newgrounds.)

[basically-i-write-shit]

PLEASE tell me about the hq dnd au. I’m intrigued

I'VE BEEN WAITING FOR THIS ONE

ok but like genuinely I wrote a little oneshot of how I think it would go for tskym week like...three years ago and I'm disappointed it didn't get as much interest as i thought it would. I got really into D&D when I started listening to The Adventure Zone in 2018 (which, I think it's absolutely crazy that was 4 years ago btw) and I've been obsessed with the idea of the hq gang playing dnd for a while.

The premise of the fic is that the reader is experiencing the campaign, not the process of making it, but through a unique lens: we're watching the PCs instead of the characters playing at the table. Each character's PC is of course created with a class, race, and backstory that is different than their own with unique names- but, because it's still a Haikyuu fic, we're still watching the characters go through these situations.

So like, in my example fic, we read and comprehend that "Tsukishima" and "Yamaguchi" are the ones controlling the narrative, but their characters are the ones experiencing the sensations.

Ex:

The way I would work this is by essentially writing a fantasy Haikyuu fic that loosely follows D&D 5e rules/my small knowledge of how D&D works, and include cut scenes like provided in the example to show the "playing" D&D aspect of the fic. This would also be able to excuse any acts that the "Characters" (PCs with their names changed to reflect the person playing them) do that may seem OOC or weird choices for them to make by blaming it on a "bad roll" or "failed check." Essentially bailing the author out if people complain about a character's actions being "totally OOC for him" lol.

"But 12 people is a lot of people for a D&D party, isn't it?" The answer to that is yes. Having all of one team or multiple teams in one campaign together would be near impossible for an IRL game. Like, not gonna lie there. I would probably have the team split into two separate campaigns that occasionally overlap, with other characters from other teams simply being NPCs that the audience, looking at the story from an outsider's perspective, could potentially identify as another character. Great example would be, if the campaign follows Karasuno, seeing a childhood friend duo could imply either Kuroo and Kenma or Oikawa and Iwaizumi or one of the Miya twins and Aran, depending on the relationship of the duo.

I have a lot of feelings about potentially writing this one day, and the ideas are probably confusing if you haven't read the oneshot I did with the concept, but year. D&D AU.

Additionally:

In a Karasuno-centric version of this, Ennoshita is of course the DM.

They host at Tanaka or Daichi or Yamaguchi's houses the most, because they have a lot of space and their parents aren't home often enough for such a large group meet in.

Another way to shrink the group is to just have Narita and Kinoshita have their own separate campaign that Enno DMs on the side, but I like the idea of an even split for players.

Tanaka has played a dragonborn in every campaign he's ever played and has a custom dice set that looks like a dragon's hoard.

Akiteru DMed a mini campaign for Yamaguchi and Tsukki when they were in middle school, and Enno discovering their minis while studying at Yamaguchi's house is how they get their team campaign going.

Hinata, like everything else, is a complete newbie but somehow manages to rock everyone's shit still. Like, everyone's convinced his dice are loaded even after doing multiple float tests, but he just had great rolls. That is, until he needs to have a good roll in the middle of some important combat and he gets a 3 with a -2 add on and nearly beefs it.

Tsukki has healing spells, which he absolutely should not be allowed to have bc he refuses to use them on anyone anyway.

Tsukki and Daichi are very anti-roleplay. Meanwhile, Suga, Tanaka, and Hinata absolutely love it. Everyone else is neutral with a positive lean.

Yamaguchi is surprisingly the one that romances everyone he sees- surprising because of his general demeanor, but also because I genuinely think he either plays paladin, cleric, or monk. Very non-flirtatious beings, usually.

Yachi and Kiyoko are definitely in this somewhere. I can't decide if I want them actually playing or as NPCs somewhere in the story, but they're definitely there.

I like to think that the other teams also have their own campaigns going on, and sometimes they run into one another at a post-session dinner or something.

This could honestly fit into the highschool canon or in like a college AU.