Experience the Horror Firsthand with Survivors in Van Richten’s Guide to Ravenloft
Van Richten’s Guide to Ravenloft offers a menagerie of tools to help Dungeon Masters and players of fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons sink their teeth into genres of horror. We’ve already written about preparing horror games, running horror games with atmosphere and pacing to enhance the experience of your 5E D&D group. However, if you really want to sell the horror flavor and show players how grim and unforgiving the world can be then Van Richten’s Guide to Ravenloft suggests the use of survivors.
Top 10 5E D&D Homebrew Transmutation Spells by a Factor of Three
You thought this week would be conjuration spells didn’t you? Those who follow along each week might notice my penchant for following alphabetical order so I’m mixing it up this week to check out what rose to the top when it comes to homebrew transmutation spells for fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons. Over at Nerdarchy the YouTube channel Nerdarchists Dave and Ted snuck a look at homebrew Roguish Archetypes for 5E D&D from D&D Beyond. 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.) Incidentally our upcoming July rewards include a bunch of new spells we created ourselves and several of them are transmutation spells so changing the properties of creatures, objects or environments is already on my mind. There’s currently over 10,180 of them at DDB, which I believe may be the highest number of anything I’ve looked at here before. So let’s get into it.
Play Your Next 5E D&D Game as an Extreme Brawler
Over at Nerdarchy the YouTube channel Nerdarchists Dave and Ted knuckle down to punch up a fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons character. One of the Fighting Styles in Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything creates an opportunity to explore a popular concept and one we think is really fun and cool and now it’s got mechanical support — no reflavoring necessary! Woe be to the unfortunate enemy squaring off
against the Extreme Brawler character whose fists become deadly weapons. These 5E D&D brawlers are tough enough to stay in the fight no matter the odds. Let’s get into it.
Dark Gifts Await 5E D&D’s Haunted Heroes with Van Richten’s Guide to Ravenloft
The Mists of Ravenloft swallow adventurers from across the multiverse to pit them against whatever horrors the Dark Powers conjure. Van Richten’s Guide to Ravenloft describes these Domains of Dread and the Darklords who both rule them and remain imprisoned by their own nightmare realms. The fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons Haunted Heroes facing such horrors can gain an edge though. Whether their origins lie in the same tales of terror or the Dark Powers of Ravenloft grant a Dark Gift these 5E D&D characters forge ties to the grim and haunted domains and gain a double-edged connection to these genres of horror. Let’s get into it.
Transform your 5E D&D Characters Through Lineages from Van Richten’s Guide to Ravenloft
Salutations, nerds! Today I’m looking at the Lineages for fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons found in Van Richten’s Guide to Ravenloft. I’ve got a player in a weekly game I’m in who went with one of these lineages for their character. They didn’t tell any of us up front so we played several sessions assuming the character was human until he opened his entire head and bit a minion’s face off. I can already tell this is going to be a fun one.
Manage Fear and Stress in 5E D&D with Van Richten’s Guide to Ravenloft
Van Richten’s Guide to Ravenloft brings the trappings of horror to your fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons games. To aid Dungeon Masters with running horror with their own groups the book offers a step-by-step walkthrough of how to run a 5E D&D horror game. Thus far, we’ve talked about preparing for a horror game and running a horror game with atmosphere and skillful pacing using the steps in Van Ricthen’s Guide to Ravenloft as a framework. But what about after the horror is over? Fear and stress are staples of the horror genre. They’re the proverbial nuts and bolts of how it works. Experiencing fear and stress can leave players… well, stressed and fearful. Thankfully, Van Richten’s Guide to Ravenloft offers some advice for this as well.
Play Your Next 5E D&D Game as a Beast Binder
Over at Nerdarchy the YouTube channel Nerdarchists Dave and Ted attract a menagerie of pets for another fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons character. Lots of 5E D&D players love befriending and collecting critters throughout their adventures. We thought it would be fun to create a Beast Binder character whose career is focused on discovering new creatures, researching them and gathering pets, allies and friends along the way. Let’s get into it.
D&D Ideas — Potions
Welcome once again to the weekly newsletter. This week’s topic is potions, 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. Potions offer a potentially unlimited variety effects and creative Game Masters can get a lot of adventuresome mileage from these consumable magic items. Tonic of Hair Growth is a potion that puts a bit of beardomantic power in anyone’s hands. Bad haircuts are a thing of the past with a bit of this arcane tonic and practitioners of the beardomantic arts can find the added length and volume useful foci for weaving their magic. Originally created for our Beardomancy book this potion more recently became one of our monthly Magic Item Cards. 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 Abjuration Spells by a Factor of Three
Over at Nerdarchy the YouTube channel Nerdarchists Dave and Ted sneak a look at homebrew Roguish Archetypes for fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons from D&D Beyond. 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.) This time around discrete magical effects — single shapings of the magical energies suffusing the multiverse into specific, limited expressions — get the spotlight when I check out out the Top 10 homebrew abjuration spells for 5E D&D. There’s currently over 5,560 homebrew of them so let’s get into it.
Play Your Next 5E D&D Game as a Champion of the Wild
Over at Nerdarchy the YouTube channel Nerdarchists Dave and Ted get wild with another fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons character. When we were working on a video about what classes are best for an aasimar character we noticed their traits like Healing Hands and Radiant Soul would work while Wild Shaped. So we got the idea for this Champion of the Wild 5E D&D character as a divine guardian of nature ready to lay down the hurt on those that would despoil the land. Let’s get into it.
