Play Your Next 5E D&D Game as a Purveyor of Peace
Over at Nerdarchy the YouTube channel Nerdarchists Dave and Ted touched on playing a pacifist spellcaster in fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons during a video and received a lot of feedback asking for a character build inspired by the concept of a character who has no interest in violence. This Purveyor of Peace character for 5E D&D keeps allies safe from harm and diffuses hostile situations with potential enemies. They have a keen awareness of creatures’ intentions and a powerful focus on preventing violence with abilities and features to back it up. Let’s get into it.
Master the Magical Dance of Bladesinging from Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything
Salutations, nerds! Today I’m going to honor and expand on the elven ways with a closer look at the Arcane Tradition of Bladesinging for fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons. You might be aware that I’m playing one of these wizards, Chessalyne, in our latest Chaos Crew game Untraditionally Arcane where normal magic is on the fritz and those of us who study more obscure magic have been called in to go try to fix it. The campaign is a lot of fun and you should totally check it out.
D&D Ideas — Heaven
Welcome once again to the weekly newsletter. This week’s topic is heaven, 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 heaven for the Perfection Seekers in Bestiary of Benevolent Monsters all paths to perfection lead to Protarch, a cosmic heaven of existence representing the ultimate law and the goodness derived of achieving supreme excellence. You can never have too many monsters for you Fifth Edition game! Bestiary of Benevolent Monsters fills an underserved niche within the game. We set out to construct new and interesting monsters of a good persuasion. Maybe you need to adjust the attitude of some overly aggressive adventurers. You could be running a campaign with evil characters. Or you’d like to set up an epic misunderstanding between the heroes and entities that are champions of good. 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 Monastic Traditions by a Factor of Three
Over at Nerdarchy the YouTube channel Nerdarchists Dave and Ted take a play from the book here at the website and check out the most popular homebrew content for fifth edition Dungeons & Dragon at D&D Beyond. We get a kick out of seeing what folks come up with and sharing their creations. (There’s lots of these posts whether for homebrew subclasses, magic items, spells, feats and more floating around for the curious.) I’m harnessing the mystic energy of ki this time around to see what creations embodying training and asceticism there are for the most disciplined class in 5E D&D — the monk — and checking out the Top 10 homebrew Monastic Traditions. There’s currently over 3,250 homebrew of them so let’s get into it.
Play Your Next 5E D&D Game as a Real Healbot
When Eberron: Rising from the Last War dropped for fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons we wondered if there could be two more perfect elements to create an honest to goodness healbot character within its pages. We’d be proud to join your adventuring party and follow them around making sure their hit points are the top priority with the character build guide for 5E D&D laid out by Nerdarchists Dave and Ted over at Nerdarchy the YouTube channel. Let’s get into it.
Embody the Horror of Ravenloft Through the Way of the Astral Self from Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything
The Way of the Astral Self for fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons monks allows your character to manifest ghostly appendages, gain newfound sight and so much more. With all of its heavy spirit themes this Monastic Tradition is the perfect fit for the Domains of Dread and Van Richten’s Guide to Ravenloft. The latest 5E D&D book embraces the trappings and genres of horror in truly terrifying ways. While it comes as a surprise to many who know me I am an avid fan of horror spliced into other genres and while reading through this monk subclass I was so impressed by how easily this type of character would slot into a horror game. The subclass hails from Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything and Tasha embodies so much of an archetypal witch that this only further leaned into the Ravenloft flavor. Let’s break down some ideas for the Way of the Astral Self and talk about its features.
Genres of Horror Inspires Uniquely Terrifying Adventures from Van Richten’s Guide to Ravenloft
The mists of Ravenloft have arisen to envelop fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons and adventurers must overcome their dread or forever be its prisoner! Van Richten’s Guide to Ravenloft makes a dark promise to provide everything 5E D&D players need to craft horror themed campaigns with new story hooks, character options and campaign customization to bring one of the most exciting and beloved D&D settings to life — including a comprehensive look at all the Genres of Horror with tips, tricks and guidance for evoking them at the gaming table. Let’s get into it.
Command Respect and Fear with the Order Domain from Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything
The Order Domain from Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything feels truly weird in the spectrum of fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons. What I mean is this subclass is tied heavily to law, discipline and command and few other 5E D&D cleric Divine Domains associate so strongly with a particular alignment. For most other cleric Divine Domains we have more general concepts — things like Light, Life and Nature. While I come very close to exploring the notion of how the Order Domain demonstrates the death of the traditional alignment system, that’s too deep a topic for today. Instead let’s talk about first impressions and how this 5E D&D cleric feels almost like the antithesis of another Divine Domain from Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything – the Peace Domain.
Play Your Next 5E D&D Game as a Slayer of Evil
One of our Patreon supporters asked us to come up with a fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons character build for their concept so over at Nerdarchy the YouTube channel Nerdarchists Dave and Ted oblige. They are playing in a Domains of Dread campaign and want to play a Slayer of Evil character focused on the undead, lycanthropes, witches and ghosts instead of demons and devils. Although they don’t play Adventurers League they asked specifically for an AL-legal build, “So, everyone can benefit from this build and use it in their one-shot, campaign, homebrew and what not.” This 5E D&D character brings light to the darkest of places so let’s get into it.
Dive Deep into The Fathomless from Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything
The Fathomless Otherworldly Patron for fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons warlocks immediately evokes Fjord from Critical Role in my mind as an inspiration. Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything offered many subclasses to fil out the class rosters and The Fathomless patron for warlocks feels especially welcome. Something about a warlock making a pact with a sea monster feels dreadful in all the best ways. While there’s no denying many Critters will have a hard time separating this subclass from Fjord, a veritable ocean of ideas surged to mind as I thought of what The Fathomless patron might look like, if not the dread Uk’otoa.
