Drunken Tactician: Character Build for Adventurers League D&D 5e
Unearthed Arcana — Class Feature Variants remains the gift that keeps on giving this week. We took a look at the fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons ranger a few days ago with an eye towards creating a spellcaster focused ranger character and had a lot of fun exploring those ideas. So while Nerdarchists Dave and Ted discuss the drunken tactician character build for Adventurers League over on Nerdarchy the YouTube channel, I’m going to dive back into Unearthed Arcana and see what we’ve got available there for this character concept. More fighter tactics? More monk drunkenness? Let’s get into it and find out.
Nerdarchy the Convention is the Ultimate Way to Stay Nerdy
Have you been keeping up with Out of the Box: Encounters for 5th Edition? We experienced phenomenal success with our first Kickstarter, and because of that we were able to grow as an entity in so many ways. Not the least of these is hiring me as a full-time Nerdarchy content director, at least in my opinion! We’re incredibly excited about the book we’re putting together. Seeing all the extraordinary art being created to bring all 55 encounters to vivid life on the pages, the evocative maps and all the bells and whistles like custom Nerdarchy dice really make us proud of this project and we cannot wait to get these things into your hands and on your gaming tables. But we’d be lying if we didn’t say we’re overjoyed about our ultimate stretch goal — Nerdarchy the Convention!
DMs Guild has Eberron Covered for the D&D Community
In just a few days Eberron: Rising from the Last War releases and we’ve been abuzz around Nerdarchy HQ. We’re all excited for the unique, compelling campaign setting to get official fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons support. But there’s a whole lot of content out there already for the Eberron campaign setting, and thankfully the Dungeon Master’s Guild collects it all for the D&D community. A lot of players today might not have discovered the hobby back then, so there’s literally a whole world for them to explore. Adventures and resources from Eberron’s past offers a tremendous resource to inspire 5E D&D games. And at the moment, the DMs Guild is offering Eberron titles for 20% off. They’ve also curated bundles of classics and other select titles for 70% off!
5E D&D Worldbuilding for a Revolution Plot: Part 2
Salutations, nerds! Last week we talked about setting up for a revolution plot. We explored reasons your power hasn’t been overthrown by revolutions already, and if all that is true, how to motivate your PCs to go ahead and overthrow them in the first place. Today, we’re going to talk more about 5E D&D worldbuilding and what you have to knock out from under your ruler’s legs to disrupt their power base. In other words, the stuff likely to actually happen in the campaign, at the table.
Expanding 5E D&D Ranger Spells Beyond Unearthed Arcana
Over on Nerdarchy the YouTube channel, Nerdarchists Dave and Ted discussed 5 essential 5E D&D ranger spells for tier 1 characters. For a 1st-4th level ranger this means 1st level spells only, with two spells known beginning at 2nd level and a third known at 3rd level. Whenever a ranger gains a level, they can choose one of the ranger spells they know and replace it with another spell from the ranger spell list, which also must be of a level for which you have spell slots. Not a lot of wiggle room for a tier 1 ranger when it comes to spellcasting. There’s 17 1st level spells to choose from in official 5E D&D material, and with the video highlighting five standout spells, where do we go from here to continue the discussion?
How to Add Emotion and Depth with Fantastical Mounts
“Come on, Herbie! Just a little more!”
Herbie unleashed a thunderous grunt, his six massive legs sinking into the soft, wet earth. Mud clumped his thick fur, the torrential rain mingling with his sweat as the gantuan struggled to pull the carriage from the mire.
Panic gripped Wally’s heart as the family inside the sinking carriage clung to one another. The child, a little girl with her father’s broad features and her mother’s elven ears, pressed a hand against the glass.
Bounty Hunting like The Mandalorian in 5E D&D
If you’re like me and what I suspect are tens of thousands of other nerds, you fired up Disney+ today and watched episode one of The Mandalorian. And since you’re here I’m going to assume you’re also a fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons player. Taking those two things into account, it can’t be far from the truth that a lot of us were not only blown away by the premiere of this new streaming show and our first thought was “this would make an awesome bounty hunter 5E D&D campaign!” And I just got a copy of Ultimate NPCs: Skulduggery from Nord Games so I’m going to use this Game Master’s Toolbox book to help. If this sounds cool to you, I’ll give you a promo code for 20% off the book and everything else in your cart from Nord Games when we’re done. So let’s get into it. (And don’t worry — no spoilers!)
Celebrate #5yearsof5e and 45 years since D&D’s First Publication
Guess what happens in 10 days? Wizards of the Coast commemorates five years of fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons and 45 years of D&D history since the game’s first publication in 1974 with the D&D Sapphire Anniversary Dice Set. The complete set of luxury aluminum dice is created exclusively for WotC by Level Up Dice, and will be available directly from WotC starting at 11 a.m. PT on Nov. 21, 2019.
Wringing Arcane Juice from Your 5E D&D Warlock Spells
Over on Nerdarchy the YouTube channel, Nerdarchists Dave and Ted discussed 5 go-to Tier 2 spells for warlocks in fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons. Warlocks are unusual spellcasters in 5E D&D. With far less spell slots than their spellcasting colleagues, warlocks make up for this by casting all their spells at their most powerful iteration, and getting all their precious spell slots back after a short rest. Warlocks get a lot of mileage from spells that scale at higher levels, with effects that stick around for a while and don’t require concentration to interfere with keeping hex, darkness, fly, hunger of Hadar or any other useful spells going.
D&D Ideas — Beacons
Welcome once again to the weekly newsletter. Here is the quote that inspired this week’s newsletter.
“Aragorn: The beacons of Minas Tirith! The beacons are lit! Gondor calls for aid!
Theoden: And Rohan will answer. Muster the Rohirrim!”
We were goofing around in our weekly meeting and this quote came up. Next thing we know we’ve agreed to make it our weekly D&D idea for the newsletter and Running D&D video. You can get the Nerdarchy Newsletter delivered to your inbox each week, along with updates and info on how to game with Nerdarchy, by signing up here. But before we jump into this week’s newsletter a quick reminder. You can still back Out of the Box: Encounter for 5th Edition. Or if you already did you can fill out your survey and make sure you get your stuff. Here is a link to the Pledge Manager. There is also a free encounter you can download in the Pledge Manager. This is available to anyone; it doesn’t matter if you backed the Kickstarter or not.
