Newest 5E D&D Unearthed Arcana Provides Path to Draconic Power
New playtest documents for fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons have been rolling out recently and presenting new options for characters to explore. Unearthed Arcana 2021 — Draconic Options is the latest one to continue the trend with new race options, which revamps the dragonborn and kobold races for players. Both of these, especially the former, have widely been considered weak options despite the great affection players hold for them. It’s also interesting to note the alternating approaches as either lineage or race. Along with these fresh takes on draconic races this Unearthed Arcana presents a handful of feats and seven new spells for 5E D&D. So let’s get into it.
Expanding 5E D&D Background Characteristics — Charlatan
Salutations, nerds! Alphabetical order dictates that today I’m writing about the charlatan background for fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons. When you look at the background options in the 5E D&D Player’s Handbook there are a number of background characteristics suggested for you to help define a character and spark your imagination for roleplaying and in this series I’m creating suggest some additional personality traits, ideals, bonds and flaws for you to play with on the off chance you’ve burned through all of those and are interested in some new ones.
Take to the Skies of 5E D&D as a Flying Character with This New Feat
Flying characters aren’t nearly as good as you think in fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons. I know, I know — coming out the gate with a polarizing statement like ths immediately raises eyebrows. However even Nerdarchists Dave and Ted agree with this much as evidenced by a recent video on flying characters in 5E D&D. While I wouldn’t necessarily say I’m an expert on the matter I do play a flying character in our Those Bastards! campaign, as Prudence the feral tiefling. As such I feel I can offer some key insights into playing and running 5E D&D games with flying characters.
Getting More from 5E D&D Monsters — Kangoram
Kangorams make spirited mounts. These bipedal creatures reach heights over 10 feet tall and their powerful legs mimic the bounding gait of part of their namesake while thick skulls and curling horns belie the other half. A ridge of bony plates runs down their back to the tip of their tail, which they balance on to deliver powerful kicks. Druids who understand these unusual beasts know the way to train them as a powerful mount lies in steering them away from their forward focus to exert control. These beast monsters appear in Chimes of Discordia: Fantastical Mounts, one of the digital fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons products we create for Patreon supporters and later for Nerdarchy the Store. Here you’ll find expanded 5E D&D content inspired by these exotic beast creatures along with the stat block as it appears in the book ready to drop into your games.
The Secret to the Best D&D Character Flaws
Salutations, nerds! A while ago I did a post about 10 flaws you can give your character that won’t bog down your game. Today I want to write about another school of thought regarding fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons character flaws. The goals here are to add another dimension to your character, not make you think too hard about adding something entirely new and avoid complications at the table. Make your 5E D&D character flaw a part of their best quality.
Looking Forward to Dungeons & Dragons: Adventures in the Forgotten Realms and Strixhaven: School of Mages for MTG Arena
While it’s true creating content related to fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons and Fifth Edition generally keeps Nerdarchy the Lights on we all enjoy plenty of other games too. And since this site remains primarily our blog it’s fun to share those other game experiences from time to time. Makes us relatable and whatnot. Way back when I was a junior in high school and got into Magic: The Gathering with the Revised Edition it was exciting to eagerly await The Dark’s release. Here I am 26 years later looking ahead to a Dungeons & Dragons: Adventures in the Forgotten Realms in a few months along with Strixhaven: School of Mages at some point. I’ve dug when the MTG multiverse crosses over with the D&D one and it’s neat to see worlds colliding the other direction now too. But most of all I’m wondering what juicy bombs I’ll find in those sets.
D&D Ideas — War
Welcome once again to the weekly newsletter. This week’s topic is war, which we discussed in our weekly live chat. We hangout every Monday evening at 8 p.m. EST on Nerdarchy Live to talk about D&D, RPGs, gaming, life and whatever nerdy stuff comes up. Speaking of war in Dogs of War adventurers who come upon a grisly scene may find themselves going to war with a dangerously deceptive adversary. When heroes find a scene of animal attack, a duplicitous shapechanger lures them in for a howling kill along with 54 other dynamic scenarios in Out of the Box. Find out more about it here. You can get the Nerdarchy Newsletter delivered to your inbox each week, along with updates and info on how to game with Nerdarchy plus snag a FREE GIFT by signing up here.
Top 10 5E D&D Homebrew Ranger Archetypes by a Factor of Three
Over at Nerdarchy the YouTube channel Nerdarchists Dave and Ted have taken a shine to my posts over here looking at fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons homebrew content contributed to D&D Beyond. There’s lots of these posts whether for homebrew subclasses, magic items, spells, feats and more floating around for the curious. Since spring is in the air and I’ve been out working the garden this week I’ve got the natural world on my mind so today I’m focusing on the 5E D&D ranger. (Druids got their fair share already!) There are ranger subclasses in the Player’s Handbook, Xanathar’s Guide to Everything and Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything and outside of official sources there are countless Ranger Archetypes created by players all over the world. We put the finishing touches one of the the ones we’ve created just this past week and shared it along with a bunch of other new subclasses, spells, magic items and creatures. I’ve definitely got the 5E D&D ranger on my mind and I’ll pluck out the Top 10 homebrew Ranger Archetypes. There’s currently over 925 homebrew of them so let’s get into it.
Enter Aizendore’s Vault of Tragic Treasure — If You Dare
We are all familiar with the ending of Raiders of the Lost Ark. (Pop culture is a powerful thing, eh?) We see that guy — a “Top man” — carrying the Ark of the Covenant away, then the camera zooms out, revealing countless more crates stretching as far as the eye can see. “What artifacts are locked away in all those other crates?” We hear you ask. Today we are presenting you with our very own “Top man” and he too safeguards countless dangerous and deadly artifacts. His name is Aizendore, a formidable wizard and his Vault awaits.
Failure is Fun in 5E D&D
Failure is fun. You read right — one of my favorite things in fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons is failure. What’s more critical failure is one of my favorite optional rules to use in any 5E D&D game. Pulling from the Nerdarchy vault today I discovered a video from our archives that exemplify much of what I’m saying. Let’s talk about why.
