10 New 5E D&D Magic Items from Icewind Dale: Rime of the Frostmaiden
The latest fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons campaign adventure conceals horror beneath the icy tundra north of the Spine of the World. Icewind Dale: Rime of the Frostmaiden pulls adventurers in a terrifying tale threatening to cover the frozen North of Faerun in everlasting night. Designed as a complete campaign, 1st level characters who brave the cold touch of death discover fantastic secrets and treasure entombed in the dark heart of a glacier as they advance up to 12th level. Frozen wilderness hazards and dangerous new creatures along with paranoia inducing isolation challenge characters but new rewards await those who overcome the dangers. Here’s the ten new 5E D&D magic items waiting for heroes to discover in Icewind Dale: Rime of the Frostmaiden.
Play Your Next 5E D&D Game as a Fey Court Mage Slayer
Over at Nerdarchy the YouTube channel Nerdarchists Dave and Ted dispense with mirth in favor of misery for a long awaited Character Build Guide for fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons. This CBG honestly felt like an oversight on our part. With over three dozen of these things we were frankly shocked when we noticed there weren’t any characters focused on combatting spellcasters (at least not without copious amounts of magic themselves). The 5E D&D Mage Slayer CBG rams through this deficit with grim efficiency to neutralize and take out filthy mages from character creation to 20th level. And as always we create a special NPC or creatures inspired by the character build for Dungeon Masters ready to drop right into your game. So let’s get into it.
Rock Your 5E D&D Game with a Heavy Metal Warlock Campaign
Red Opera beckons fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons players to strike a bargain with Apotheosis Studios for an extensive, innovative and thrilling campaign setting ready to drop right into your games. The Last Days of the Warlock encompasses a deeply developed setting, story beats, new character options and so much more all inspired and thematically designed alongside the heavy metal album by DiAmorte. The Red Opera album tells the tale of two fallen kingdoms in a dying land locked in an eternal conflict known as The Great Divide. On the horizon looms a dark, insidious force that influences and corrupts the powerful, accursed lord and through him seeks to destroy all humanity and life including his beloved human shield maiden, that new life may begin again. The Red Opera Kickstarter thrusts 5E D&D adventurers into the thrilling drama of the Shadelands, a new realm you can add to any campaign setting where your stories will unfold.
Creating 5E D&D Beastlands Goblins Through Worldbuilding
Over at Nerdarchy the YouTube channel Nerdarchists Dave and Ted take a look at the small, black-hearted, selfish humanoids that lair in caves, abandoned mines, despoiled dungeons, and other dismal settings in fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons. Goblins have been a staple of D&D and fantasy in general forever, usually as a threat to heroes because of their vast numbers and malice. Interestingly enough 5E D&D hasn’t expanded a whole lot on goblins beyond the regular old goblin in the Basic Rules and goblin boss in the Monster Manual, mechanically anyway. Instead goblins are explored more culturally like the Batiri goblins from Tomb of Annihilation and this is exactly the kind of path Dave and Ted take even further in the video to illustrate how any creatures — even ubiquitous ones like goblins — can be reimagined in exciting new ways for players and Dungeons Masters alike by adding just a few simple details.
Never Leaf Home without One! | Tool Time with Herbalism Kit in 5E D&D
Plants are one of those things in fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons that perpetually perplex me. Many fantasy video games with a crafting system incorporate herbalism and have at least a small list of specific plants used as ingredients in various potions, dyes and the like. However, 5E D&D hasn’t provided extensive coverage for plants as of yet (at least, not at the time of this writing). What’s more it’s explicitly stated in official materials that proficiency with an herbalism kit allows you to concoct healing potions at half cost. It absolutely blows my mind how many people don’t know this or think it’s tied to alchemist’s supplies. As a quick disclaimer, while proficiencies are a core mechanic of 5E D&D, tool proficiencies are distinctly more nebulous than those for skills or weapons and your own Dungeon Master might rule how to apply tools differently from how we present here. With that out of the way let’s talk about the herbalism kit.
Play Your Next 5E D&D Game with Snakes on the Brain and Cast More Snake Magic Spells
Hey folks! In the first Snakes on the Brain installment I introduced you to several snake themed spells commonly used by reptile and serpentine monsters and races. These spells came from Dragon Magazine No. 235 and provided a cool flavor to the tried and true spell lists we have from official fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons content. In this part I’ve pulled some spells from Dragon Magazine No. 330 as well as a bit of lore and a new way to cast spells with a snaky vibe. These snake magic spells could also be encountered in the hands of those who associate with serpents and would be perfect in the hands of a yuan-ti backed snake cult. Combined with the spells from the first go around these spells also make a great framework for a snake themed spellcaster in 5E D&D. I can imagine a druid draped in snake bones and living snakes making his way through a dungeon dealing out coiling, venomous wrath upon all his opponents.
Meet the Jinxed Mutant of Moon Rises
Nerdarchy’s brand new live play series is called Moon Rises. Utilizing Monte Cook Games’ Cypher System, the story is set in the science fantasy post apocalypse of our own Earth. Our intrepid heroes must help the charismatic leader Unic Hopebringer in reclaiming Manhattan to rebuild it as New Manhattan. We interviewed the cast of Moon Rises to get some insights into their characters, the world and the TTRPG system breathing mechanical life into this alien yet familiar world. Today, let’s talk about Blue, the mutant monkey, and his player Nerdarchist Ted!
5 Nature Skill Challenges for 5E D&D
Salutations, nerds. We’re back with another set of five flash skill challenges for fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons. This time we’ll be tackling Nature, which covers quite a few things. Per usual the point here is not to send 5E D&D characters on some epic quest but instead to give them a momentary diversion for those moments in the game where they’re breezing through the adventure too fast and you need to slow things down, or when you have a player who keeps trying to roll a certain skill when you don’t have anything for it so you can give them a little spotlight. So, without further ado, Nature checks.
Exploring Eberron through the Circle of the Forged Druid for 5E D&D
Over at Nerdarchy the YouTube channel Nerdarchists Dave and Ted ride the lightning rail and continue Exploring Eberron through the character options included in the Dungeon Master’s Guild book produced by Keith Baker, the megapopular Dungeons & Dragons campaign setting’s original creator. Eberron is an extremely rich and detailed setting beloved by D&D players from its very beginning. Exploring Eberron illustrates wonderfully how curating character options creates a tremendous opportunity to show, rather than tell, what is special about your world. Exploring Eberron includes several subclasses for 5E D&D characters to choose from specially tailored to the setting, and Nerdarchy plans to explore them all like we do. In the case of the Circle of the Forged druid I’m going through the book to find the connection points between the Druid Circle and the larger world it comes from. So let’s get into it.
D&D Ideas — Campaign Finales
Meet the Deep Diver in Moon Rises Cypher System Live Play
Moon Rises is Nerdarchy’s brand new live play series of Monte Cook Games’ Cypher System! Set in the science fantasy post apocalypse of our own Earth, the heroes must help the charismatic leader Unic Hopebringer in reclaiming Manhattan to rebuild it as New Manhattan. We interviewed the cast of Moon Rises to get some insights into their characters, the world and the TTRPG system breathing mechanical life into this alien yet familiar world. Today, we’re sitting down with the player behind the ancient astronaut with a psychic twist! Today we’re talking about the tanky deep sea diver with an alien wetsuit!
Play Your Next 5E D&D Game as a Mysterious Hypnotist
Over at Nerdarchy the YouTube channel Nerdarchists Dave and Ted mysteriously mystify minds while coming up with a Character Build Guide for fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons. During one of our weekly live chats one of the viewers made the suggestion for a snake charmer CBG we felt inspired to oblige. Certainly there’s enough spells in 5E D&D for any sort of spellcasting character to beguile others with magic but what really intrigued us are the numerous class features capable of clouding minds. This Hypnotist CBG aims to incorporate our favorites into a single character focused exclusively on mucking with minds. Along with the player guide detailing the journey from character creation to 20th level we create special NPCs and creatures inspired by the character build for Dungeon Masters ready to drop right into your game. So let’s get into it.
Deal Magical and Martial Might With This 5E D&D Magic Item Card
Over at Nerdarchy the YouTube channel Nerdarchists Dave and Ted fired up the ol’ mage forge to brainstorm ideas for a fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons magic item. One of Ted’s very favorite things about D&D are magic items. Rewarding adventurers with cool magic items and discovering them when he’s not behind the Dungeon Master screen brings him a lot of joy. But Ted’s never been content with the plethora of 5E D&D magic items in the Dungeon Master’s Guide, other official sources or even the endless vault of creations others share in books, blogs or elsehwere. Creating his own magic items is the juice for Ted so we set him loose at the magic item creation forge and along with Dave came up with a legendary weapon for spellcasters looking to mix it up in the thick of melee.
Adventure Down a 5E D&D Dark Path of Frozen Terror
Winter Lord’s Throne debuted as a new product in Nerdarchy the Store this week. Every month we create new products for our Patreon supporters who get early access to all of these products, which are then released on our store the following month. Each product offers new things for fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons players and Dungeon Masters alike. Winter Lord’s Throne is an adventure I ran, though it is written by the wonderful author and staff writer Megan R. Miller. They are a fantastic writer and Game Master as you can see from Those Bastards! on the Nerdarchy Live channel where we just finished up a 12 session story arc. The adventure is designed for 9th level 5E D&D characters and certainly offers up a nice challenge complete with new monsters and new rules for a condition called frostbite.
Meet the Psychedelic Astronaut in Moon Rises Cypher System Live Play
Moon Rises is Nerdarchy’s brand new live play series of Monte Cook Games’ Cypher System! Set in the science fantasy post apocalypse of our own Earth, the heroes must help the charismatic leader Unic Hopebringer in reclaiming Manhattan to rebuild it as New Manhattan. We interviewed the cast of Moon Rises to get some insights into their characters, the world and the TTRPG system breathing mechanical life into this alien yet familiar world. Today, we’re sitting down with the player behind the ancient astronaut with a psychic twist!
