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Author: Dave Friant

Nerdarchy > Articles posted by Dave Friant (Page 15)
5E

Does Party Composition Matter in 5E D&D

What’s the worst statement one player can utter to another at the gaming table? In my opinion it’s when one player looks to another and says “We need a X. You should play that.” This is such a pet peeve of mine. One I hate the formulaic approach to D&D or any tabletop RPG for that matter. Two I’m not overly fond of other people telling others how to play the game.Three why not play the role yourself if you feel it’s so very important to the adventuring party.

We even did a video about D&D adventuring party composition awhile back.

MTV

Chronicles of Shannara By Terry Brooks is Now a MTV Fantasy TV Series


Hello and well met traveler of the Internet,

Nerdarchist Dave here with a bit of a review, my thoughts, or just plain ramblings about the new series on MTV Chronicles of Shannara based off of the novels written by Terry Brooks. I’m going to do my best to stay away from spoilers. If you aren’t familiar with the books or the shows on MTV it’s fantasy TV series. When it  comes to network television we seem to be getting more nerdy goodness than ever.

D&D 5e

Animal Trainer Background for 5E D&D

D&D 5eWelcome to Nerdarchy as we explore creating custom backgrounds for D&D 5e.Backgrounds are one one of the most innovative additions to this iteration of the game.

They combine role-playing elements and game mechanics right in a characters core concept. The inspiration mechanic is also tied to a characters bonds and flaws.

First let me start off by saying this is something I found very challenging.

5E D&D Character Build — The Crossbow Expert

Hello and welcome Nerdarchist Dave here. Today we are doing a character build for an archer character using the seven steps I had laid out previously.  Those seven steps are- race, class, background, ability scores, weapon, archetype, and feats.

1st Level Character Build-

Dungeons and DragonsWe start with human because this build is going to be dependent on feats. I’ve got my eye on three at the moment.

Next we select our class. This is going to be fighter for the fighting style at 1st level. Then we are going to want pick our background. Here we will have a lot more leave way.

In my opinion we do want a background that is going to support our archer character build thematically at least.

D&D archer build

5E D&D Character Build — The Archer

So you’ve come to talk about archer character builds for Dungeons and Dragons 5th Edition? Well you’ve come to the right place.

Nerdarchist Dave’s three character building rules to game by:

Character Builds rule #1 FUN

In my opinion a successful character build is fun to play.

Character Builds rule #2 Effective

The build must excel at what it was created for.

Character Build Rule #3 Multidimensional

I want to build a character I could see myself or someone else role-playing in an actual game and have potential to be more than just stats on a piece of paper.

The Lazy Dungeon Master

How to DM — Cheat With The Lazy Dungeon Master

Hello and welcome fellow Nerdarchists. I’ve got a great way for you to up your tabletop roleplaying game skills. It’s called The Lazy Dungeon Master written by Michael Shea. Don’t worry about which edition of Dungeons & Dragons you are playing. This book is useful. As a matter of fact I’m gonna go out on a limb and suggest you could use nearly all of the advice given for any tabletop RPG. This book is short, sweet and packed with valuable Dungeon Master tips. If you are looking for a how to DM resource this one is at the top of my list. It weighs in at an anemic 123 pages but offers storm giant sized value. If I would have stumbled across this book there is no way I would of bought it, but because a friend recommended it I decided to give it go. At 123 pages I was thinking what the hell is this Michael Shea guy going to tell me about how to DM? I mean, I’ve been gaming for over 30 years at this point.

necro Speak with Dead

Creating the Most Foul 5E D&D Lich Villain Straight from the Monster Manual

Welcome fellow Nerdarchist. Today I’ll be guiding you through the horrors of the fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons Monster Manual as we discuss a villain most foul. Nerdarchy was asked to do a video about a 1,000 year old lich who was a human and is chaotic evil from one of subscribers over at the Nerdarchy the YouTube channel. The request was for both a story and stats.

D&D campaign settings

Top 5 D&D Campaign Settings

Hello and well met. I’m here to discuss my top 5 picks for D&D campaign settings through out my 30+ years of the game. First and foremost we will be skipping Greyhawk and Forgotten Realms. I find these to be the most generic of D&D campaign settings. They could literally be anyone’s homebrew game. Oh wait, Forgotten Realms was Ed Greenwood’s. Nothing against those settings it’s just there isn’t anything really different in them. The only reason Forgotten Realms is interesting at all is because of the amount of detail that has gone into it, with tons of authors having written in that setting. Even with all of that it strikes as being incredibly generic. Personally if I’m going to play in a generic setting I’d rather just run my own homebrew.

D&D

5E D&D Character Builds — Dragonborn Paladin

Hello Nerdarchy reader, Nerdarchist Dave here to talk character builds. I got me a hankering to delve into a dragonborn paladin for fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons. Paladins are an iconic character class harkening back to the very beginning of the game. Dragonborn on the other hand are a bit newer, first appearing in 3.5 D&D towards the end in a different incarnation than the current version. They really came into their own with fourth edition D&D. To be honest it took me a little while to warm up to them as player character race. Honestly it was the 4E D&D art that killed them for me. Two words: dragon boobs! The idea of a mammalian trait slapped onto a reptilian race seemed ridiculous to me. But I’ve decided to grow as a person and get over it. Not too long ago I wrote an article about dragonborn that kind of made me want to play one hence this article where we build a dragonborn paladin.