The Dungeons and the Dragons of Dungeons & Dragons: Green Dragon Lairs
There are many concepts and values I find important to playing Dungeons & Dragons. This may shock you, but two things high on that list are dungeons and dragons. I like taking the dragons listed in the Monster Manual (and even beyond) and creating their D&D dragon lairs, sprawling dungeons with varying levels of complexity. This segment we’ll head back to the Monster Manual proper and take a look at the green dragon. What makes this dragon so unique and it’s lair deadly in it’s own right? Let’s explore introducing a dragon and green dragon lairs, together.
Make Combat More Interesting with Monster Abilities for D&D Creatures and NPCs
Hey nerds! I’ve been playing Diablo 3 recently and that has inspired me to create about a dozen new special monster abilities to add your D&D creatures and NPCs in fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons. These abilities are designed to make combat more interesting and probably harder. I have not done any playtesting of these, so feel free to send me a message on Twitter with your thoughts.
Quick and Easy D&D Adventures Redux
Hello! The following post originally appeared on my own site The Long Shot. At the time, I’d gotten back into tabletop gaming a few months earlier after a long time away, first through D&D Adventurers League when I lived in Austin, Texas. That’s when I first discovered Nerdarchy, which inspired me to start running fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons games when I got back home to Cleveland, Ohio. These days I’m all in here as nerditor-in-chief, but I got an alert that traffic was booming over on The Long Shot because of this post on creating quick and easy D&D adventures. I thought it would be fun to revisit the topic, with commentary on how my perspective might have changed on creating great adventures, and share it here with y’all. And there’s a TL;DR at the bottom to help make quick and easy D&D adventures even quicker and easier.
WizKids Miniatures Review – D&D Icons of the Realms – Monster Menagerie 3
I know everyone who collects or uses miniatures on their gaming table buys them in different ways. If you are a casual user or player you might buy a few things here or there. I have done a couple of articles so far where I bought the booster brick, which comes with 8 boxes, of minis. I feel this is a good method to really see what the set is all about and gauge what the split is going to be much easier than if you buy a single box every so often. But that is my strategy. Please feel free to do as you like. Today I wanted to talk to you about D&D Icons of the Realms: Monster Menagerie 3, a series of WizKids miniatures for use with Dungeons & Dragons or any tabletop roleplaying game. This set was released in March 2018 and I have bought some previously but recently I got a booster brick to really get into the heart of it. You can take a look at the full gallery of miniatures in the set over here.
WizKids Miniatures Review — Pathfinder Battles — Jungle of Despair
Hello again. I sometimes feel most of the articles I write seem to be reviewing products but I am certain I do more than that. Today however, as I am certain you can see from the title, it is another review. This time I am diving into the Pathfinder Battles series of WizKids miniatures and looking at Jungle of Despair. It is a great set and you can see the full set listed here.
The Art and Science of D&D Encounter Building
The question recently came up at Nerdarchy whether the fifth edition D&D encounter building system is art or science with regard to the experience point guidelines set out in the Creating Encounters section of the Dungeon Master’s Guide. I am in the camp that says it is both art and science.
Monster Combinations in D&D — The Witch of Flame Skull Peak
I was sitting with the Nerdarchists talking about effective monster combinations for fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons and we came up with a lot of really cool ideas. Some of those ideas were displayed in the recent Monster BFF video, but my thoughts kept racing, creating all manner of scenes I really need to share with all of you to calm my turbulent mind. So, together we will go through a few more ideas for monster combinations in D&D that were brought up during the discussion and put them together into a scene I hope you’ll use in your campaign, or at least just find some inspiration and enjoyment.
Mordenkainen’s Tome of Foes Stone Cursed Finds a Rock Solid Friend
Nerdarchists Dave and Ted are at it again, and they’ve jumped back into Mordenkainen’s Tome of Foes. This time we’re looking at a curious fifth edition D&D monster entry, the stone cursed. The Nerdarchists threw out some great ideas that got me thinking how I would use this entry. I’m a sucker for using under appreciated monster entries and I intend on throwing a creature of two that you might not have seen or used yet. Let’s get into the Stone Cursed and their presence in this encounter line.
Mind Flayer Meets the Nerdarchy Homebrew Campaign Setting
I started talking about using the mind flayer and beholder in our homebrew campaign setting in a previous article. Mainly I covered the beholder re-imagined as dread spheres. In the previous article I talked about the idea of a Chaos Realm and powerful beings known as Travelers. One of these creatures took control of an elven city named Karsha Luceen.
The Iconic Dungeons & Dragons Monster – A Love Letter to Them
The beholder was introduced with the first Dungeons & Dragons supplement, Greyhawk in 1975. The mind flayer first appeared in the official newsletter of TSR Games, The Strategic Review No. 1 in spring 1975. These are two of the most iconic Dungeons & Dragons monsters in the game. I’d love to know how many players have met their end to one of these two baddies. Of course D&D is rife with monsters what makes the beholder and mind flayer so special. I think it’s because they are so alien and bizarre that they really capture the imagination of players and Dungeon Masters alike in a way that very few other Dungeons and Dragons Monsters do.
Wizard Willy’s Wily Weasels – Beyond Bandits in D&D
Nerdarchists Dave and Ted are talking about bandits in D&D and giving out lots of great ideas and examples. However, the segment is intended to be monster replacements and it got me thinking about how I would replace bandits without simply going right back to something commonly used like goblins and kobolds. I got to flipping through the fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons Monster Manual, looking for creatures I’d never used to replicate the feeling and challenge of bandits. I came to a rather odd inspiration: giant weasels. How do we use weasels in place of bandits? Let’s explore some ideas together!
Using Exotic Mounts in D&D – The Knights of the Crimson Spiral
Nerdarchy plays fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons in the our own campaign setting Chimes of Discordia. The world is Ulthe-Ganya, a hodgepodge one of our early campaigns we are currently doing in D&D games. In that world there is our god of war Stromguard, the lord of battle, bloodshed, and warfare. He is a brutal being that lives for strife and conflict. It is only fitting he has champions to match his demeanor. His followers are drawn from warriors, soldiers, and more primitive tribal peoples. Mechanically his followers in our campaign setting will be drawn from the barbarian, fighter, and War Domain cleric character classes. Some outliers would be bard (skalds), ranger, monk (brawlers), and paladin. Paladins in fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons have become holy warriors dedicated to a particular oath. The most violent and warlike of these might find that oath sworn before the altar of Stromguard. Two oaths in particular stand out for Stromguard — Oath of Conquest and Oath of Vengeance. These champions are both revered and feared even among the faithful of Stromguard.
The Case for Half-Dragons as a Playable D&D Race
There can be no denying that dragons are a huge part of D&D. After all, they’re half the name. Most of the time they function as adversaries: a monster to slay in order to save a princess or town. In a few cases, good-aligned dragons can function as mentors or allies to a party of adventurers. However, interest in playing a character of draconic descent must have increased in recent years, because the last three editions of Dungeons & Dragons have had playable races of draconic descent, with the dragonborn even being featured in the fourth edition and fifth edition Player’s Handbooks. Dragonborn have continued to be a popular selection for many players. But their inclusion as a mainstream race has always baffled me, because even before they were introduced, there was another great candidate for a playable D&D race of draconic descent: half-dragons, the children of true dragons and their mortal lovers.
The Dungeons and the Dragons of Dungeons & Dragons: White Dragon Lairs
Now that we’ve seen the insidious and torturous nature of the black dragon and the windy torrent of the wind dragon and their D&D dragon lairs, I think we need to cool off. Let’s take this party to the frozen tundra of the north where, shockingly enough, I have no shirtless savages. Instead, there be dragons. Well, just the one really. Let’s talk about introducing a dragon with the vicious, cold, and animalistic white dragon. What do these frost wyrms have to offer, what do white dragon lairs look like, and what servants, if at all do they have? We’re going to jump into my take on this lesser used dragon and try to make a unique adventure.
D&D Monstrous Races Really Miscast My Cantrips
If you’re a frequent reader, you know I like to jump onto whatever topic the Nerdarchists are talking about any given week and throw in my 2 cp. Recently, Nerdarchists Dave and Ted are covered the gith chapter from Mordenkainen’s Tome of Foes and I simply gave a soft sigh. The gith are a combination of just about everything I find uninteresting in fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons. Living in a plane of existence beyond the material, psionics, and being a monstrous race. Let’s dive into why I dislike D&D monstrous races and ways that disdain has made my game better. Well, at least I think it’s better.
