Balancing Monster Descriptions with World Knowledge in 5E D&D
There is a strange tradition in Dungeons & Dragons of withholding monster identities from players and their characters. This often takes the form of a somewhat tedious cat and mouse game of selective description that seems to serve no other purpose than to gaslight the players. While I recognize this is generally intended to instill a sense of in-world wonder and mystery I also have to wonder if it is really all that necessary or even realistic.
Travel Through the Veil to Discover Treasures of the Feywild for 5E D&D
Salutations, nerds! I’ve been given the opportunity to look over another fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons product from the Dungeon Masters Guild — Through the Veil: Treasures of the Feywild! One of the most common complaints I hear from people is there aren’t enough magic items in 5E D&D and if you are looking for a good fey flavored compilation you cannot go wrong with this one. Through the Veil: Treasures of the Feywild is 175 pages packed full of magic items high level and low, as well as full sets of magic items. I’ve got a few of these fingered for future use in games, myself, in fact.
D&D Ideas — Cold
Welcome once again to the weekly newsletter. This week’s topic is cold, 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 cold in Gang of One a highly intelligent chimera uses the cold environment, deception and flight to assail heroes with all its cunning along with 54 other dynamic scenarios in Out of the Box. 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 Evocation Spells by a Factor of Three
Manipulating magical energy takes center stage for this week’s look at homebrew spells for fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons. There’s currently over a whopping 20,320 homebrew evocation spells at D&D Beyond so while Nerdarchists Dave and Ted examine the bloodlines of homebrew Sorcerous Origins for 5E D&D at Nerdarchy the YouTube channel I’m channeling magic in this post to blast through the most blasty magic around. We get a kick out of checking out the 5E D&D content folks come up with and sharing their homebrew creations. (There’s lots of these posts whether for homebrew subclasses, magic items, spells, feats and more floating around for the curious.) Let’s get into it.
Enduring the Elements of Weather Adds to Immersion in Your RPG Experiences
Get your ponchos and snow boots ready because we are about to get wet as we brace for all sorts of inclement weather. The one aspect of roleplaying games that always keeps me coming back for more is the opportunity for creativity. The opportunity to create worlds, characters and entire universes is really awesome. With these opportunities the weather is a factor I personally do not see frequently in games. Attention Game Masters — this is the perfect way to lead to a TPK. Just kidding about that, but adding weather elements is a way to spice up your game. Match the weather to the environment and see what happens. Descriptive weather can add to the story and immersion of your game without any additional mechanics added.
Multiclassing Should Always be Allowed in a 5E D&D
Multiclassing in fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons always seems to polarize a Dungeon Master when it comes up. I’ll admit I’m no exception to this rule. In fact I’m so much in favor of multiclassing in 5E D&D I sometimes ask my players why they aren’t multiclassing. They say the grass is always greener on the other side of the fence but for my part, my grass is looking pretty darn green. Regardless of what side of the multiclassing fence you find yourself on I’m going to try to convince you my grass is clearly the greenest.
Shed Your Thoughts and Let MTG Adventures in the Forgotten Realms Mind Flayer Flow Through Your Deck
Creating content related to tabletop roleplaying games and fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons in particular is Nerdarchy’s bread and butter but we all enjoy plenty of other games too and it’s fun to share those other game experiences from time to time. I wrote a while back about how excited I was for the Dungeons & Dragons: Adventures in the Forgotten Realms expansion for Magic: The Gathering and since then the set released, which I’ve been enjoying immensely. Tapping lands for mana to invoke all manner of awesome D&D creatures, magic items and spells brings an extra layer of nerdy satisfaction. Let’s get into it.
Play Your Next 5E D&D Game as a Haunted Rogue
Over at Nerdarchy the YouTube channel Nerdarchists Dave and Ted skulk through the shadows to create a fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons Haunted Rogue character build. This character emerged through a request from one of our Patreon supporters. The request was simple: “How would you build a rogue with Shadow Magic Sorcerous Origin multiclass?” This leaves a lot of room for flexibility. Leaning hard into an
affinity for gloom this shadowy sneaker emerged with a compelling narrative and this 5E D&D character became a Silver Best Seller very quickly. Let’s get into it.
Show, Don’t Tell, Your Tabletop Roleplaying Game Character’s Fear
Salutations, nerds! I’ve got ideas about roleplaying to share once again and this time I’m touching base on fear rather than anger. These two in particular popped out at me because they’re the ones I’ve noticed people hesitate most to get in there and play out. Of course it’s easy to say “I’m afraid” but roleplaying fear without being a ham about it is a whole other matter. How subtly you can get away with roleplaying fear depends on the length of your campaign and a party’s awareness of one another. Without farther ado let’s get into some basic tips and tricks for roleplaying fear.
Expanding 5E D&D Background Characteristics — Sailor
Salutations, nerds! And hello, sailor. That’s right, I’m offering expanded personal characteristics for the Sailor background for fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons as suggested by the unassailable pattern of alphabetical order. Let’s pull anchor and set sail for traits to suit your next 5E D&D character!
