Sub–Zero Tips For Ice Cold DMs

Episode  |  July 3rd, 2020  |  55 mins 19 secs

cold, dungeon master's guide, environmental hazards, icewind dale, rules, tips

This week, we discuss tips for concerned DMs and talk about incorporating environmental hazards into your campaign, especially focusing on how cold climates may pose a threat in the new adventure book coming to 5th Edition D&D, Icewind Dale: Rime of the Frostmaiden!

Going Crazy With Weapons: Unmounted Cavaliers & Holy Fishermen

Episode  |  June 26th, 2020  |  59 mins 19 secs

equipment, fighter, paladin, rogue, rules, steal this character

This week we discuss a handful of character builds with a major thing in common; weaponry. We explore making a bugbear cavalier who forgoes riding a horse to hit enemies with a polearm from over 20 feet away. In addition, we find ways to challenge the status quo when deciding what weapons to pick during character creation.

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.

Enchanters Are The True Evil Wizards

Article  |  June 2nd, 2020
By Jay
charm person, enchantment, enthrall, friends, incite greed, modify memory, pumat sol, suggestion, vicious mockery, wizard

Everybody treats the necromancer with disdain -- but they are sweethearts compared to enchanters.

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.

How To Play A Short Game: The 1-on-1 Fight Night

Article  |  May 26th, 2020
By Jay
1-on-1, battlemap, fight night, homebrew, playtest

Whether it’s because of the lockdown, or maybe you just don’t have the time or number of people you need to launch a big campaign, it doesn’t mean you can’t have fun playing D&D for a couple hours with just a single friend. Welcome to 1-on-1 Fight Night!

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.

Combat Rituals: Free 1-Action Spells for Your Scribe Wizard

Article  |  May 19th, 2020
By Jay
1-action, ritual, scribe, spell casting, telepathic bond, wizard

Scribes have the ability to cast ritual spells without the extra 10-minutes. Some Ritual spells only take 1-Action to cast. But would any of these be of use in battle?

Play Like a Pro: 5 Spellbooks That Aren't Even Books

Article  |  May 17th, 2020
By Jay
order of scribes, spellbook, ua, wizard, xanathar, xgte

The New UA Wizard subclass Order of the Scribes get's the Like Dragon Like Son treatment: we imagine what it might be like if the Scribe didn't use quill and parchement, but some other form of a so-called "spellbook", like pearl beads, a conque shell or crochet blanket?

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.

Steal This Character: Strength Ranger Knight

Article  |  May 12th, 2020
By Jay
heavy armor, monster slayer, steal this character, strength ranger, zephyr strike

We look at an alternative way to build a full-plate strength fighter, but not using the usual classes of Fighter or Paladin. We instead build a tank on top of a Ranger undercarriage. Forget about Divine Smite, and say hello to Zephyr Strike. This is a build you'll want to steal.

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.

Would You Be Willing to Switch The Sunsword For The Duskcrusher?

Article  |  May 5th, 2020
By Jay
cos, magic items, remix, two generations

Some might call it blasphemy, but we call it fun: take a shiny new magic item that has just entered the D&D canon, and replace a classic item beloved by those who have been playing the game for decades. So, please my Dread Lords, keep an open mind as we compare the Duskcrusher and the Sunsword for use in Curse of Strahd.

Would you let players exploit this loophole in Spell Bottle?

Article  |  May 3rd, 2020
By Jay
counterspell, magic items, spell bottle, wildmount, wish

New magic items sometimes come with small loopholes in their rules. Spell Bottle has one such poorly chosen phrase which sets the bottle up to capture one of the most powerful spells in the game. The question then becomes: whom does that spell now serve?