D&D Ideas — Poison
Welcome once again to the weekly newsletter. This week’s topic is poison, 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 poison if negotiations between a rescue party and the adventuring party turn hostile the woodland forces deploy special poison to diffuse the situation in Albatross. The imperiled infant heir to an elven nation lands in the adventurers’ hands and the chase is on from insectoid pursuers along with 54 other dynamic scenarios in Out of the Box. 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 Artificer Specialists by a Factor of Three
Over at Nerdarchy the YouTube channel Nerdarchists Dave and Ted enjoy looking at fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons homebrew content contributed to D&D Beyond. While they explore homebrew magic items on the DDB website — including one from Matt Mercer — I’m taking a look at another 5E D&D class and the homebrew subclasses folks created there. (There’s lots of these posts whether for homebrew subclasses, magic items, spells, feats and more floating around for the curious.) This time I’m looking at a D&D class beyond the core classes found in the Player’s Handbook. Artificer made its official 5E D&D debut in Eberron: Rising from the Last War. An artificer creates inventions and magic items of peace and war and the gears are turning as to what I might expect to see from the Top 10 homebrew Artificer Specialists. There’s currently over 350 homebrew of them so let’s get into it.
Expanding 5E D&D Background Characteristics — Criminal
Salutations, nerds! As per the continuing rules of alphabetical order today I’m writing about more suggested characteristics for the criminal background in fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons. From small time pickpockets to hired muscle hopefully you find something here that works for you. When you look at the background options in the 5E D&D Player’s Handbook there are a number of background characteristics suggested for you to help define a character and spark your imagination for roleplaying and in this series I’m creating some additional personality traits, ideals, bonds and flaws for you to play with on the off chance you’ve burned through all of those and are interested in some new ones.
Deepen Your Experiences By Using Languages Effectively in 5E D&D
Languages are staples of human experience. Dungeons & Dragons captures this through the mechanic of languages yet for all of the significance language plays in real life I don’t see languages come up very often in 5E D&D. Over at Nerdarchy the YouTube channel Nerdarchists Dave and Ted talk about special languages in 5E D&D as well from editions past. Secret languages are really languages relegated to specific classes or custom lineages and while the latter can have some elements that entwine in recent hot button debates the former adds some fantastic flavor to your world.
Expanding on 5E D&D Battle Master Builds from Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything
Next to the tremendous number of new fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons subclasses and terrific tools and resources inside Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything one section of the book receives far less attention than anything else. Nestled in the character options between Rune Knight fighters and Optional Class Features for monks the Battle Master Builds presents a dozen packages of fighting styles, maneuvers and feats to represent a variety of warriors and their approach to combat. What can be said of these second edition AD&D-esque kits? A massively mathematical minded person might put together spreadsheets and data to quantitatively assess each one. I’m not such a person and instead I’m curious about taking these 5E D&D Battle Master Builds to the next level. Let’s get into it.
Play Your Next 5E D&D Game as an Elephant in the Room
Over at Nerdarchy the YouTube channel Nerdarchists Dave and Ted lean into an appreciation for puns to sneak in a fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons Elephant in the Room character. This 5E D&D character build focuses on stealth both magical and mundane to demonstrate how with the right training and experience an unusual lumbering giant of a race can vanish before your very eyes. Let’s get into the loxodon master of stealth.
D&D Ideas — Background
Welcome once again to the weekly newsletter. This week’s topic is background, 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 background in Girl with the Dragon SNAFU characters with a background in entertainment gain a leg up in uncovering more about the unusual relationship between a bard and his biggest fan. A mysterious woman holds draconic secrets and a lesser fiend hides behind it all unless characters find the truth and free her along with 54 other dynamic scenarios in Out of the Box. 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 Martial Archetypes by a Factor of Three
Over at Nerdarchy the YouTube channel Nerdarchists Dave and Ted enjoy looking at fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons homebrew content contributed to D&D Beyond. While they explore homebrew magic items on the DDB website — including one from Matt Mercer — I’m taking a look at another 5E D&D class and the homebrew subclasses folks created there. (There’s lots of these posts whether for homebrew subclasses, magic items, spells, feats and more floating around for the curious.) This time around my gaze turns to my favorite D&D class. Fighters come equipped with the best foundation to manage one third of the game. In other words as we like to say around here fighters fight. This leaves tremendous space to add variety to a fighter character. There are fighter subclasses in the Player’s Handbook, Sword Coast Adventurer’s Guide, Xanathar’s Guide to Everything, Explorer’s Guide to Wildemount and Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything and outside of official sources there are countless Martial Archetypes created by players all over the world. We put the finishing touches one of the the ones we’ve created just this past week and shared it along with a bunch of other new subclasses, spells, magic items and creatures. Now it’s time to check out the Top 10 homebrew Martial Archetypes. There’s currently over 325 homebrew of them so let’s get into it.
Newest 5E D&D Unearthed Arcana Provides Path to Draconic Power
New playtest documents for fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons have been rolling out recently and presenting new options for characters to explore. Unearthed Arcana 2021 — Draconic Options is the latest one to continue the trend with new race options, which revamps the dragonborn and kobold races for players. Both of these, especially the former, have widely been considered weak options despite the great affection players hold for them. It’s also interesting to note the alternating approaches as either lineage or race. Along with these fresh takes on draconic races this Unearthed Arcana presents a handful of feats and seven new spells for 5E D&D. So let’s get into it.
Expanding 5E D&D Background Characteristics — Charlatan
Salutations, nerds! Alphabetical order dictates that today I’m writing about the charlatan background for fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons. When you look at the background options in the 5E D&D Player’s Handbook there are a number of background characteristics suggested for you to help define a character and spark your imagination for roleplaying and in this series I’m creating suggest some additional personality traits, ideals, bonds and flaws for you to play with on the off chance you’ve burned through all of those and are interested in some new ones.
Take to the Skies of 5E D&D as a Flying Character with This New Feat
Flying characters aren’t nearly as good as you think in fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons. I know, I know — coming out the gate with a polarizing statement like ths immediately raises eyebrows. However even Nerdarchists Dave and Ted agree with this much as evidenced by a recent video on flying characters in 5E D&D. While I wouldn’t necessarily say I’m an expert on the matter I do play a flying character in our Those Bastards! campaign, as Prudence the feral tiefling. As such I feel I can offer some key insights into playing and running 5E D&D games with flying characters.
Getting More from 5E D&D Monsters — Kangoram
Kangorams make spirited mounts. These bipedal creatures reach heights over 10 feet tall and their powerful legs mimic the bounding gait of part of their namesake while thick skulls and curling horns belie the other half. A ridge of bony plates runs down their back to the tip of their tail, which they balance on to deliver powerful kicks. Druids who understand these unusual beasts know the way to train them as a powerful mount lies in steering them away from their forward focus to exert control. These beast monsters appear in Chimes of Discordia: Fantastical Mounts, one of the digital fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons products we create for Patreon supporters and later for Nerdarchy the Store. Here you’ll find expanded 5E D&D content inspired by these exotic beast creatures along with the stat block as it appears in the book ready to drop into your games.
The Secret to the Best D&D Character Flaws
Salutations, nerds! A while ago I did a post about 10 flaws you can give your character that won’t bog down your game. Today I want to write about another school of thought regarding fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons character flaws. The goals here are to add another dimension to your character, not make you think too hard about adding something entirely new and avoid complications at the table. Make your 5E D&D character flaw a part of their best quality.
D&D Ideas — War
Welcome once again to the weekly newsletter. This week’s topic is war, 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 war in Dogs of War adventurers who come upon a grisly scene may find themselves going to war with a dangerously deceptive adversary. When heroes find a scene of animal attack, a duplicitous shapechanger lures them in for a howling kill along with 54 other dynamic scenarios in Out of the Box. 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 Ranger Archetypes by a Factor of Three
Over at Nerdarchy the YouTube channel Nerdarchists Dave and Ted have taken a shine to my posts over here looking at fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons homebrew content contributed to D&D Beyond. There’s lots of these posts whether for homebrew subclasses, magic items, spells, feats and more floating around for the curious. Since spring is in the air and I’ve been out working the garden this week I’ve got the natural world on my mind so today I’m focusing on the 5E D&D ranger. (Druids got their fair share already!) There are ranger subclasses in the Player’s Handbook, Xanathar’s Guide to Everything and Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything and outside of official sources there are countless Ranger Archetypes created by players all over the world. We put the finishing touches one of the the ones we’ve created just this past week and shared it along with a bunch of other new subclasses, spells, magic items and creatures. I’ve definitely got the 5E D&D ranger on my mind and I’ll pluck out the Top 10 homebrew Ranger Archetypes. There’s currently over 925 homebrew of them so let’s get into it.
