Wringing Out 5E D&D’s Eldritch Adept Feat for More Eldritch Invocations
Over at Nerdarchy the YouTube channel Nerdarchists Dave and Ted contemplate the potential of the Eldritch Adept feat for fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons characters. The new Eldritch Adept feat found in Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything is available for 5E D&D characters with the Spellcasting or Pact Magic features and allows them to learn one Eldritch Invocation option of their choice from the warlock class. Let’s get into it.
Fancy Familiars for 5E D&D
Most of us know when it comes to fifth edition Dungeons & dragons usually you cannot directly pick your familiars. The familiars more or less choose you. This mystery and gamble so to say offers a lot of suspense and curiosity to the general game play. The great thing about any 5E D&D game is you can always expand and allow for more options of course within the agreed upon terms with your Dungeon Master and fellow adventurers.
D&D Ideas — Tragedy
Welcome once again to the weekly newsletter. This week’s topic is tragedy, 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 tragedy in Mirror, Mirror adventurers encounter a forlorn spirit with a tragic tale they can help resolve. A Hearth Hope reflects on their former life and seeks to carry out one last task 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.
Firearms Create Fantastic 5E D&D Storytelling Opportunities
Over at Nerdarchy the YouTube channel Nerdarchists Dave and Ted get locked and loaded for a discussion of the place for firearms in fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons. They go over where and how firearms appear in 5E D&D and touch on perspectives related to included them in games. For me the question of whether firearms feel appropriate for D&D brings up a broader view of just what kind of fantasy D&D represents. So let’s get into it.
D&D Ideas — Comedy
Welcome once again to the weekly newsletter. This week’s topic is comedy, 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 comedy in Wooden Dragon clever kobolds use a quirky magic item and ingenuity to make their way in the world. Kobolds pilot a wooden dragon construct to terrorize travelers and exact a toll to pass 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.
Play Your Next 5E D&D Game as a Bardbarian
Over at Nerdarchy the YouTube channel Nerdarchists Dave and Ted pluck a chord discussed in a video from long ago and give it the ol’ Character Build Guide treatment for fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons. A bardbarian is a multiclass mashup of bard and barbarian (duh) and beyond this parameter the 5E D&D conceptual space remains wide open. In the video the character build they come up with incorporates a little trick to overcome one of the challenges to syncing these two characters classes up. So let’s get into it.
Quantum Leap into Your Next 5E D&D Campaign
While talking with a friend recently I mentioned the idea of a fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons campaign based on the totally awesome science fiction television series Quantum Leap. This is a friend who’s played in my campaigns many times over the years yet never stepped into the role of Dungeon Master. Our conversation was aimed at encouraging him to run a game sometime and after playing a session I showed him my notes to illustrate how it’s nowhere near as complicated as he suspected. I could tell he was still unconvinced but when I mentioned creating a campaign inspired by Quantum Leap his whole demeanor changed. If he’ll ever run such a campaign (or any campaign!) remains to be seen but it seemed like a cool idea so I’ll share it here too. Let’s get into it.
Imbue a 5E D&D Warlock with Eldritch Invocations from Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything
Over at Nerdarchy the YouTube channel Nerdarchists Dave and Ted took my pitch for the Ever Living One Character Build Guide complete with Mumm-Ra and Ma-Mutt inspiration and instead dove deeper into the key part of the concept. Gift of the Ever-Living Ones is an Eldritch Invocation for warlocks in fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons found in Xanathar’s Guide to Everything. Perhaps in the future we’ll give it the full CBG treatment and maybe we’ll add the Sword of Plun-Darr to the Sword of Omens and Claw Shield we translated into 5E D&D too. But there’s eight new Eldritch Invocations in Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything though and they’re on the list to cover here on Nerdarchy the Website and this video provides an easy segue. So let’s get into it.
Weird and Wonderful Warlock Otherworldly Patrons of 5E D&D
Over at Nerdarchy the YouTube channel Nerdarchists Dave and Ted talk about splashing some levels in warlock to gain the Gift of the Ever-Living Ones Eldritch Invocation from Xanathar’s Guide to Everything. A warlock in fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons makes pacts with beings more powerful and ancient than the mind can fathom. Rivaling the power of the gods warlock Otherworldly Patrons in 5E D&D are wily, wonderful and sometimes downright weird. Seeing this conversation got me thinking about the nature of splashing classes by taking only a few levels in a class to gain access to a particular feature and what that might look like in roleplay.
Dumbest Character Death Experiences in 5E D&D
Over at Nerdarchy the YouTube channel Nerdarchists Dave and Ted regale you with tales of woe from fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons all the way back to first edition Advanced D&D. They each share stories of ignominious character death from their time playing throughout all the editions of D&D. It happens to all tabletop roleplaying game players at some point (unless you play games without permanent death mechanics). Character death never bothers me all too much. Adventuring ain’t easy I always say and I don’t feel especially strongly that character deaths ought to be meaningful or impactful in an epic way. So let’s get into it.
D&D Ideas — Inns & Taverns
Welcome once again to the weekly newsletter. This week’s topic is inns & taverns, 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 inns & taverns in Keeper’s Teavern at a strangely opportune moment a magical tea house appears with an archmage within. A bit of tea to gain new powers? Yes, please. A supernatural guardian of the universe who knows the exact time and place certain people need to be at certain times appears 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.
3 Places of Power to Drop Into Your 5E D&D Game
Over at Nerdarchy the YouTube channel Nerdarchists Dave and Ted explore places of power for fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons. Discovering strange locales, forgotten sites and other regions rife with unusual energies comes up pretty often in 5E D&D games. Like any other sort of encounter these places of power represent a point in the story where forward progress stops to allow players to describe their characters’ actions. Engaging with places of power and interacting with what they find there can be a great benefit. Sometimes these benefits are mechanical in nature and sometimes characters walk away with intangible rewards like knowledge, a contact or a special new quest. So let’s get into it.
Play Your Next 5E D&D Game as a Know It All
Over at Nerdarchy the YouTube channel Nerdarchists Dave and Ted indulge the latter's love for highly skilled characters in fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons. An optional class feature for rangers in Tasha's Cauldron of Everything gives the class access to Expertise in a roundabout way...
How Hogfather and Terry Pratchett’s Discworld Offer Hope for 2021 and Beyond
Recently on our second channel Nerdarchy Live Nerdarchist Dave and Nerditor Doug talked about comedy in tabletop roleplaying games. Since I’ve written my own comedic fantasy book and the genre niche is my jam I simply had to talk about it. Talking about comedic fantasy reminds me of one of my favorite movies of all time, which also happens to be a holiday favorite, Hogfather. Or as I like to call this movie — How Death Saved Fantasy Christmas.
Taking Stingy Jack from 5E D&D Warlock to Patron to Creature and Beyond
Over at Nerdarchy the YouTube channel Nerdarchists Dave and Ted take inspiration from an old Irish story for fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons. Stingy Jack — sometimes called Jack o’ the Lantern — is a mythical character associated with All Hallows Eve and in fact the Jack-o’-lantern may be derived from this story. In the video they discuss the legend and come up with several different ways to incorporate this figure of folklore into 5E D&D games. I came up with another one too. In this scenario Stingy Jack is neither a creature to fight nor an NPC to engage with. Not exactly anyway. So let’s get into it.
