Way of the Zen Archer Monastery for 5E D&D
Why not a Way of the Zen Archer Monastery for fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons? With the release of Xanathar’s Guide to Everything for 5E D&D a lot of options have been opened up. The zen archer is a fun archetype for a fantasy game. That wasn’t possible previously. There was absolutely no mechanical reason play a monk who used ranged weapons. But XGtE changed things up by allowing for the creation of the ranged attack-based monks. We can now have a zen archer build. Why not take it a step further and create a monastery of zen archers. We recently did a character build video you can watch down below. We made it Adventurers League legal. We also did a character build guide and put it up over on the DMs Guild.
Armor Up Your 5E D&D Character Sheets With Gauntlets
Our friends over at ArchVillain Games have asked us to sponsor an article to help get the word out about their KickStarter for Gauntlets — Beautiful 5E Character Sheet Cases. I’m not sure how much help they needed though. After only 16 hours Archvillain Games has successfully funded their first KickStarter. Cameron Rout and Konstantinos Martinos are the minds behind Archvillain Games. I know some might be put off by this being a first KickStarter, but Cameron is one the minds behind D&D in a Castle with several more castles planned for next year. He’s got my vote of confidence after witnessing the inaugural D&D in Castle firsthand. Gauntlets are designed to have 5E D&D character sheets inserted in them or they can act as template for your character sheet by just using a blank sheet of paper. They come different options and designs. I don’t think it would be an overstatement to call the Gauntlet an artisanal way of displaying your character sheet either on the gaming table, a book shelf, or anywhere else you keep your gaming gear.
Big Monsters Have More to Love for Exciting D&D Encounters
Part Dungeon Master creativity, part player buy-in, exciting D&D encounters with big monsters in fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons have a lot of moving parts to consider. Whether a low level party needs to deal with an awakened tree situation, or a group of characters at the pinnacle of their adventuring careers take on the tarrasque — or Tiamat herself — there’s more to consider than hit points and armor class. Adventuring ain’t easy, and anything from a pack of goblin bandits all the way up to Acererak itself are dangerous foes. But when huge and gangantuan sized D&D creatures squares off against the party, the threat escalates by orders of magnitude. A clever DM looks beyond the stat block, and collaborates with the players to create an immersive and memorable experience.
D&D Villains: Sympathy for the Devil
Salutations, nerds! Today, I’m going to talk about villains again, and this time we’ll be discussing sympathetic villains in your fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons games. I’m talking about the wizard whose been vivisecting people trying to come up with a cure for his wife’s ailment and save her life. I’m talking about the planar being who has cut a swathe of chaos across the land trying to get home. I’m talking about the blackguard who was betrayed by his people and had his heart stained in darkness. These are the D&D villains you almost want to fix. The ones who tug your heartstrings and make you hesitate to kick their butt. These are the Mr. Freezes, the Princess Lunas, and the Magnetos of your D&D campaign.
Getting New People to Play Roleplaying Games
It is the best time to be a nerd. Personally, I've been channeling my inner Heisenberg for as long as I can remember anytime I'd get the nerd label thrown my way -- own it! Fortunately (or maybe a little unfortunately when we get a...
Secrets of Picking your Dungeon Master for a D&D Game
Like Nerdarchists Dave and Ted mention in the video below, back in the day when I was a young gamer, there was no such thing as picking your Dungeon Master for a Dungeons & Dragons game. If you were interested in playing D&D, and you were lucky, you could muster a group and offer to be the DM yourself, and maybe at some point get one of the other players to take a turn behind the screen running a game. My only other experience finding a new group to play with was through a flyer pinned at the comic book store from a couple of friends looking for more players. And it was a successful run that kept us all rolling funny-shaped dice through most of high school. Back then, there was also an organized play program called RPGA. They ran ads in Dragon Magazine and had their own publication, Polyhedron. But in 2018 the circumstances for hopeful D&D players is vastly improved. How? Let’s get into it and find out.
Play Your Next 5E D&D Game in the Deck of Many Things Magic Item Campaign
For disclosure — in my decades as a Dungeon Master and player of Dungeons & Dragons, I have neither used nor encountered the infamous Deck of Many Things. But after sitting in on video planning and discussing it at length with Nerdarchists Dave and Ted, Nate the Nerdarch and Intern Jake, I want to! The powerful Deck of Many Things has been a part of D&D history since the very first supplement — Greyhawk — in 1975. In every edition of the game since, the deck has caused weal and woe for players and DMs alike. Whether it shows up in a randomly generated treasure hoard or enters a campaign due to DM planning, the Deck of Many Things has major impact. So much so that many DMs outright disavow the legendary magic item. Me? I’m excited at the possibility of basing an entire campaign around it. Am I crazy? Perhaps. Let’s get into it and find out.
D&D Villains: The Enemy With the Inhuman Face
Salutations, nerds! I want to talk a little bit more about designing and running the bad guys in your fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons game. Specifically, I want to talk about the kinds of bad guys that cannot be reasoned with. Dark creatures that could never be mistaken for “human.” I’m talking dark gods. I’m talking the tarrasque. I’m talking the massive thing on the horizon that just swallowed the cathedral and made the party feel so small in Session One in a single bite, yes. I’m also talking about smaller demons. I’m talking about the insectoid creature that keeps hollowing out people’s bodies and using their meat puppets to its own ends. These are the inhuman monsters so alien there is no connecting with them and the only chance you have is running them through before they do more damage. If you even can. If you’re even sure where to hit it.
5E D&D How to Pick your Character Class
Dungeons and Dragons Character Creation can be an agonizing decision for any nerdy ass gamer like myself. Whether it’s your first D&D Character or your 1,000,000th D&D Character these can be tough decisions. So how is gamer to decide?
Let’s start off by asking ourselves some questions before jumping into Dungeons and Dragons character creation process?
- Do we want to base our D&D character on Story Elements or Mechanical Elements?
- What role do want to fill Warrior, Spell Caster, or Skilled character?
We can further break things down mechanically by narrowing down your choices. There is also modeling the mechanics to the story elements you are interested in.
Dungeon in a Box Unboxing — August 2018
There are several subscription crate services out there that cater to us the gamer. The lovely folks over at Dungeon in a Box decided to send me a copy of what they do so I can share my unboxing with all of you who like these type of things. This being my first adventure into Dungeon in a Box I am not as familiar with them as I am with other monthly subscription boxes. If my information is correct Dungeon In a Box is supposed to offer everything you need to run the adventure within. So you open the box and you are prepared to play some games.
Methods of Choosing Your 5E D&D Character Race
Based on the placement in the fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons Player’s Handbook, choosing your character’s race is a top priority in character creation, second only to generating ability scores. The chapter begins by illustrating the diversity within the D&D multiverse, describing exotic places from the Waterdeep in the Forgotten Realms to Sigil in the Planescape campaign setting and the myriad races living in those places. Only after painting the picture in your mind of fantasy races like dragonborn, tieflings, gnomes and dark elves — “people of varying size, shape, and color, dressed in a dazzling spectrum of styles and hues” — does the PHB mention humans. That’s pretty significant. So if choosing your character’s race in D&D is so important, how do you make such an impactful decision?
Dungeon Crate Unboxing — August 2018
Hello happy gamers. It is that time for another unboxing of a Dungeon Crate subscription box. Dungeon Crate is an awesome gamer crate designed to get you awesome adventures, swag and gaming accessories to use at your gaming table delivered to your door every month. I personally have received every crate — and even helped curate one — since the first box has gone out. Each Dungeon Crate typically features 5 to 7 items to use at your gaming table.
Dungeons & Dragons — Your Fun is Wrong?
As fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons YouTubers we get the question of whether content is official pretty often. Honestly the only time it really matters is when you are playing organized play like Adventurers League. Anything else really is homebrew Dungeons & Dragons even if you are playing prewritten D&D 5E adventures set in an official D&D campaign setting.
Legendary Dragons Kickstarter from Jetpack 7 Takes Flight
Coming on the heels of their most recent Kickstarter Masters and Minions, the Jetpack 7 team is right back at it with a brand new project. Legendary Dragons: A 5th Edition Supplement puts all the focus squarely on the most iconic creature in all of fantasy — dragons! All the majesty, terror and epic peril of a dragon confrontation will claim its rightful place as the most extraordinary encounter a D&D adventurer can face. Legendary Dragons: A 5th Edition Supplement for the world’s greatest roleplaying game is live right now, so go check it out and help dragons become the feared, world-shaking menaces they are meant to be.
Warforged Druid 5E D&D Character Build
Nerdarchy has been doing 5E D&D character builds on YouTube for over four years now for the Nerdarchy and Dungeons & Dragons community. We have made 5e D&D character builds of super heroes, sci-fi heroes, and characters from novels. Sometimes we make optimized builds. Other times we make what we call our unorthodox character builds. Recently we started a new 5E D&D character build series — our Adventurers League Legal series. It started with a request to make a paladin/College of Whispers bard multiclass. We followed that up with our zen archer build. Then we took another request for a Gloom Stalker ranger/Assassin rogue build. The most recent one we created was a warforged druid 5E character build.
