Ten Commandments for DMs (and when to break them)

Episode  |  June 19th, 2020  |  37 mins 28 secs

paper, rules, xanathar's

This week we pick up our copy of Xanathar's and begin to peruse. The first thing we hist are some important basic rules/principles (commandments?) for DMs to remember. We go through the list and share our experiences with them.

Grab Your Friends: School's Out And It's Time To Play More D&D

Episode  |  June 12th, 2020  |  56 mins 49 secs

new players

With summer travel still under lock down, that means more time for adventuring! This might also be the chance you've been looking for to introduce some new players to the world's greatest roleplaying game. Tune in to hear J&J's advice on how to get summer started with new players!

Warping Our Minds: Building a Psionic Soul Sorcerer

Episode  |  June 5th, 2020  |  55 mins 54 secs

playtest, steal this character, subverting tropes, tips, ua, weirdness

We dissect the new UA rules for psionic soul sorcerers, and discuss ways we could make it better. We compare a character built with the old version with the new version, and show how you can still build a fun, cool character, even if the new rules aren't ready for prime time.

School Tours: Where is Your Young Wizard Going To Enroll This Fall?

Episode  |  May 29th, 2020  |  1 hr 9 mins

components, schools of magic, wizard

It's the time of year when many high school grads must decide where they are going to go to school next. It's much the same when you start building a new Wizard character. What are all those schools about? Which one is right for my next character? And how can a DM incentivize players to go deep into School Spirit? We dig into the basics of building a great wizard -- but you might want to give Enchantment a miss, unless you're evil.

Gem Dragon Bloodline: A Sapphire Sorcerer is Born

Episode  |  May 22nd, 2020  |  46 mins 4 secs

Can digital dice ever replace the feel of real dice? Do you feel as lucky with random number generators? We talk about playing 1-on-1 battles in lock down. We look at how to start with a random character and shape them into something cool. And we dig into how to make the Sapphire Dragon work as a bloodline for a Deep Gnome sorcerer.

New UA Subclasses: Souls for Beers, Teenage Bedrooms Inside Magic Lamps, and Tiny Cowboys Riding Your Wizard's Familiar

Episode  |  May 15th, 2020  |  1 hr 6 secs

genie, order of scribes, phantom, review, rogue, unearthed arcana, warlock, wizard

This week we dive into the new Unearthed Arcana subclasses: the Phantom, the Genie, and the Order of Scribes. We talk about the use by all three of a new mechanic that ties the scaling of feature use to proficiency bonus. We compare what has been lost and gained by each subclass since their previous iterations. And we decide to trade souls for beers and have our tiny Manifest Mind constructs look like cowboys to ride our familiars.

Ready For Hell: The Heavy Metal Holy Ranger

Episode  |  May 8th, 2020  |  43 mins 12 secs

paladin, point buy, ranger, steal this character, subverting tropes, tips weirdness

For the love of all things holy, stop pretending to roll your stats: nobody gets three 18s at level 1. We talk about our process for building characters, about rolling hit points at the table, and we build a holier-than-thou ranger who gets suited up in full plate.

Exploring New Frontiers

Episode  |  May 1st, 2020  |  52 mins 19 secs

barbarian, battlemaps, fantasy grounds, firbolg, magic items, wildmount

In the age of social distancing, we talk about our first impressions (and frustrations) with playing D&D online. And we go into another new world, and discuss some exciting magic items from the Explorer's Guide to Wildemount sourcebook.

Firbolg Scout: The Stealthiest Giant

Episode  |  April 24th, 2020  |  41 mins 15 secs

adding flavor, background occupation, rogue, scout, skulker, steal this character, subverting tropes, tips, weirdness

Why play a sneaky little rogue when you can play an 8' tall one who carries a heavy crossbow? Meet Captain Forrester, a firbolg scout, who can slip into the shadows at a moment's notice -- then drop huge sneak attack heavy bolts from cover. On top of that, we discuss the ranger class in 5e D&D, and what to consider when playing one -- or playing something even better.

Playing All The Three Pillars

Episode  |  April 17th, 2020  |  47 mins 55 secs

adding flavor, investigation, perception, playtest, three pillars, tips, unearthed arcana, weirdness

There has never been a better time to play D&D -- but only if you touch all the Three Pillars of Game Play: Exploration, Roleplay (social interaction) and Combat. We look at which classes are best at bringing each pillar into your game, and make your next campaign even more interesting.

Two Generations Talking D&D

Episode  |  April 10th, 2020  |  44 mins 44 secs

adding flavor, background occupation, fitnuts, point buy, steal this character, subverting tropes, tips, weirdness

In this episode, we discuss getting started, give a walkthrough of a 'starlock' character build (a Strength Warlock with a therapy healing dog), and drop some hints and tricks on how to really stand out with your next character.