“Chickening Out”- Out of the Box D&D Encounters #1
We’ve all had those moment. Writer’s Block. You’re out of ideas. Something unexpected happens and you’re not sure how to handle it. A player takes your story down an unintended path and the urban adventure you planned on is now on the road.
Buyers Guide- 5E D&D for Dungeons and Dragons for Beginners
Nerdarchy has been asked many times what do I need to play Dungeons and Dragons 5th Edition. Before I get into that last week we covered non combat encounters.
Dungeons and Dragons RPG has been around for a long time. For as long as it has been around to be a player all you need is a players handbook and a set of polyhedral dice. You can grab the products here.
The players handbook has all the rules you need to play the game with loads of race and class options. With the many different races and a dozen classes there are more options then a person can play over the years.
So lets actually talk some numbers. If you count subraces you can technically play 24 different races. That is a ton of options. While there are 12 different classes in 5th edition Dungeons and Dragons they have options within each class giving you even more options and flavor. If you count all the archetypes available you actually have 40 choices in classes. So if you want to count alignment out of the equation that is potentially 960 mechanically different race class combinations. If you do add alignment into it is over 8500 possible combinations.
Rethinking Finesse in 5th Edition D&D
A brief history of Finesse
A brief history of FinesseThe idea of using Dexterity to influence melee attacks in Dungeons & Dragons officially came about in Third Edition D&D with the Weapon Finesse Feat. Before that, all melee attacks were based upon Strength unless one’s DM came up with a house rule. For the first time, this allowed lighter combatants to stand toe to toe against heavier opponents, at least if wielding a rapier, dagger or a handful of other weapons.
Along comes Fifth Edition, and instead of making Finesse a Feat, it becomes a property of particular weapons (All in all, I personally consider this an improvement, though I have a quibble or two I’ll mention later). However, there is a subtle difference between how Finesse works in Fifth Edition than in earlier editions.
In Fifth Edition D&D, Finesse weapons use not only Dexterity, but can also use Strength. This might seem a minor difference, but it can be an important one.
The Fifth Edition Difference
The notion of Finesse as a Dexterity modifier for attacks seems to continue to hold, at least in my experience. Most wielders of Finesse weapons tend to be of the lighter sort, your Fighters with rapiers, Rogues with shortswords and daggers, etc. This makes a certain amount of sense because the majority of Finesse weapons are of the lighter sort and more fitting to agile combatants.
A boy needs a home… (How to find people to game with in a new town or city)
“At fourteen, in 1985 a boy woke up in a new town, in a new apartment. That day he met another boy living in the next-door building who had the same interests. The new boy introduced him to Dungeons and Dragons 2nd edition and that’s all she wrote. Sense then I’ve moved quite a few times and each time I found myself looking for new friends and people to game with.”
The times have changed and over the years finding like-minded people to game with became both easier and harder to find in some aspects. I’m writing this article to hopefully make things a little easier rather than harder for us nerds.
Recently I just moved from Houston Texas back to a different side of town in Phoenix Arizona. After the move I got things in order and sat down to looks for a place to go be nerdy. Fortunately in this day and age we have FaceBook and Google so things are just at our fingertips and we don’t have to listen in on people’s conversations at school or join clubs to find places to express our hobby.
The first thing I want to let everyone in on is the FaceBook search engine, and how it helped me. For starters Wizards of the Coast has been kind enough to help people put together FaceBook pages for most major cities for the Dungeons & Dragons 5e Adventure’s League. This format of D&D 5e lets players play pre-constructed campaigns and sends their results in to WotC to be posted for all to see. On the WotC website is also a “Store Finder” that shows stores how have WotC recognition and host those events on a regular basis. This is a good way to find gamers or at least to find people who play RPGs in general.
WotC Store Finder: http://locator.wizards.com/
FaceBook: D&D Adventure’s League (Phoenix)
In gaming as in literature, the villains make the heroes
Can you name this villain? Here’s a hint: He’s a certain Canadian mounty’s worst nightmare.
What is a hero without a villain? Not much, I’d say. Oh, a character can still be the main actor of a tale, the protagonist of a story, but without that villain, the hero can’t really be heroic.
Some might argue there are tales of heroes without a villain, such as survival stories in which the hero bests the elements to save the day, or maybe a romantic tale in which there is only a misunderstanding between love interests though eventually one or both of them proves their heroism by overcoming that misunderstanding. To that I say the villain is still there, but is not so readily seen. In the survival story, the elements themselves can be the villain. In the love story, if there is not an out-and-out villain, the misunderstanding that brings about conflict can be the villain. Sometimes the villain is the hero’s own inner struggle.
Will There Ever Be 6th Edition Dungeons and Dragons
I’m nerd and I like to speculate over nerdy stuff like what imaginary character can kick what other imaginary character’s ass. Recently we did just one such speculation video. But this time it was about if a sixth edition Dungeons & Dragons will come out to kick the current edition of D&D’s ass? Sorry 5E D&D. To be honest we probably never would have done the video but our friend and guest Scott requested it. Being D&D nerds it wasn’t very difficult to get us talking about our favorite tabletop roleplaying game. That is not quite an accurate description of the video. It was more about if we think they’ll put out a new edition of D&D and how long before it happens.
Junk Goblins and The Inspiration Train
How do you make the old seem new again in your Dungeons and Dragons game? This can be a huge struggle for a Dungeon Master. Any and every Dungeons and Dragons player worth his D20 knows a goblin or kobold when the DM starts describing them.
How often as the Dungeon Master have you gotten half way through your monster description when your players are calling out the monster name and maybe even the page number of it’s Monster Manual entry?
So how do we fix this in our games to avoid it? One things is to shake up your game a bit and let yourself be inspired from unlikely sources. Come with me my friend along this inspiration train of thought that has lead us to the Junk Goblin.
5th Edition Dungeons and Dragons Feat Trees- Do We Dare Go There
Prestige classes, feat trees, and endless multi-classing are things that got quite out of hand in previous editions of Dungeons and Dragons. Do we dare bring them back? Recently a fellow Nerdarchist and myself had a discussion pertaining to creating feat trees and the possible ramifications.
Our specific discussion was about adding an Improved Ritual Caster Feat to the game. Check out the discussion in the video below.
Fausthaven a City on Fire- Adding a Little Hell to Your Dungeons and Dragons Game
What do you get when you introduce steam punk, aristocrats, and infernal powers into your Dungeons and Dragons game? Fausthaven is such a place. It’s located in a northern region nestled within a valley referred to as the Cauldron.
Quite sometime ago myself along with the rest of Nerdarchy did a video inspired by real life events in Centralia P.A. Where coal mines have been burning for decades.
Instead of coal fires burning under Fausthaven we have our own source of fire and heat. Long ago a trans-dimensional accident transposed sections of a lower plane a in a portion of our version of the Underdark that we refer to as the Beneath.
Player Tips – Adding more Class to your Class – Fighter
Happy Friday it is almost the weekend. I am continuing my series on adding more class to your class. Last week we braved the jungle of the Druid class. You can check that one out here.
Today we are going to delve deep into the fighter.
How do You add More Class to Your Class with the Fighter?
Just as the cleric offers different domains, fighters have different types of weapons, fighting styles and archetypes to choose from. Each one of these choices will mean something to a character and tell us something about them.
Ecology of the Abizder – Dungeons and Dragons 5th Edition Monster Mash Up
Hello out there in Nerdarchy Land. Last week Dave talked you about Rest and random encounters. You can check that out here. Today I am going to get down and dirty, with our fast and dirty monsters.
Let me present the ecology of the Abizder.
Dungeons and Dragons 5th Edition Monster Mash Up
Oljatt Century Armor – A Dungeons and Dragons 5th Edition Artifact Magic Item Collection
Hello Nerdarchist Ted here and I am going to present a new article series written by guest DM on our channel and frequent guest on our video Scott Garibay. Scott proposed to make this armor in one of my most recent sessions and while the idea was not fitting for our low magic world of ‘Chimes of Discordia’ it was a great concept that Scott wanted to take further. So without further ado.
The Oljatt Century Armor, an unprecedented collection of 100 artifact level magic items, were built over a 25 year period by the citizens of the city of Oljatt.
This is the first in a series of articles that will define the following for the Oljatt Century Armor –
Who’s Job is it to Start The D&D Party- Getting the Adventuring Party Together
Fantasy Live Role Playing Characters, Hardenstein 2014
How many games of Dungeons and Dragons have you played in that have started with? “So you look around and find yourself in a tavern.” My guess is to many, but who’s fault is it?
Player Tips – Adding more Class to your Class – Bard
Last week I started off a new series exploring new ways of looking at classes. I started off with the barbarian and you can read that article here. Today i am going to strut my stuff and talk about the most diverse class in the...
Does Party Composition Matter in 5E D&D
What’s the worst statement one player can utter to another at the gaming table? In my opinion it’s when one player looks to another and says “We need a X. You should play that.” This is such a pet peeve of mine. One I hate the formulaic approach to D&D or any tabletop RPG for that matter. Two I’m not overly fond of other people telling others how to play the game.Three why not play the role yourself if you feel it’s so very important to the adventuring party.
