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Author: Dave Friant

Nerdarchy > Articles posted by Dave Friant (Page 8)
necromancy

Creating a Good Necromancer for Fifth Edition Dungeons & Dragons

We decided to take a stab at creating a good necromancer for fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons. Nerdarchy has had a cantankerous relationship with our fans when it comes the wizard tradition of necromancy. We are of the philosophy of if you animate dead you are creating evil creatures, which is an evil act.

D&D monsters beholder

Making the Beholder an Even Scarier D&D Monster

D&D monsters — the game is full scary ones, but sometimes you need to ramp things up a little more. Or maybe you want a particular monster to fit a specific role or theme. For instance you want a beholder that has been touched by the demiplane of shadow. We had a viewer to challenge us to just do that: merge the undead shadow D&D monster with the iconic beholder. Nerdarchist Ted and I accepted this challenge and did it as part of the Nerdarchy Fast and Dirty D&D Monsters series.

Create Plot Hooks and Adventures in Your D&D Campaign Through Crime and Punishment

We like to do Game Master Tips via videos over on the Nerdarchy YouTube Channel. You can check out a playlist here with well over 200 videos on Game Master tips. As a matter of fact when we first met Satine Phoenix who took over GM Tips on Geek and Sundry from Matt Mercer she told us something that completely blew us away.

Free D&D

Enjoy a Free Download For Your D&D Game From Nerdarchy

Nerdarchy has been putting together content for your D&D game via Patreon for several years now. Like with everything we do we constantly strive to improve and get better to provide higher quality value to our fans. To that end we’ve changed our process creating Patreon content. We have enlisted the writer Sean McGovern from the Dungeon Master’s Guild and PowerScore RPG Blog.

warlock

Making a Villain of the Warlock with a Little Help from our Friends

Warlock is probably one of the most popular fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons character classes. It didn’t come into existence as a character class until the later part of 3.5 D&D. Fourth edition D&D made it a core class in the fourth edition Dungeons and Dragons Player’s Handbook. [NERDITOR’S NOTE: According to April’s And Beyond live stream with D&D Beyond lead Adam Bradford, warlocks are the No. 1 most created character class over there.]

D&D Games

Playing D&D Games without All the Party Roles is Out of Control

Jumping back into playing D&D without filling out all the party roles we’re taking a look at the controller this time, typically a role filled only by wizard in D&D games. Up until the launch of 3.5 Dungeons & Dragons it was either wizard or druid exerting control on the battlefield, and later came the sorcerer. You could always get some control from your cleric too, but that means they won’t be laying down the healing during your D&D games from them.

Exploring D&D Party Roles with the Healer

Our Running D&D Games without Filling Party Roles series continues. This time we look at the healer. When I think healer in fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons I think cleric, druid, and maybe bard. Then there’s what I consider the secondary healers of D&D – bard, paladin, and ranger. Notice bard is included in both. Bard is a super versatile character class in D&D and has the ability fill several party roles.

Unearthed Arcana

Unearthed Arcana Order Domain for D&D Cleric Lays Down the Law

The latest Unearthed Arcana came out so of course we took a close look and weighed in on the new Order Domain for the fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons cleric. It was first presented during The Mike Mearls Happy Fun Hour, which streams live every Tuesday at 4 p.m. eastern on the D&D Twitch channel.

shadow magic

Empowering Your D&D Spells with Shadow Magic from Kobold Press

A couple of months ago we began reviewing the Deep Magic series for 5th Edition from Kobold Press. These are short PDFs over on DriveThruRPG and their own site. You can check out our playlist for the Deep Magic series on the Nerdarchy YouTube channel. These books are full of new D&D spells to add to your game. These e-books contain more than just new spells, feats, monsters, magic items, wizard traditions, sorcerer origins, warlock pacts and patrons, and more. This our ninth video review on the Deep Magic series from Kobold Press. I usually don’t care for a lot of third party products, but Kobold Press is one of the exceptions.