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Film, TV and Video

Nerdarchy > Film, TV and Video (Page 38)
D&D Magic

Magic Through the Editions of Dungeons and Dragons

We recently did a video about 5E D&D spells and how they affect the game. There is a huge difference between D&D magic now and throughout the editions of Dungeons and Dragons. We were discussed different effects various 5E D&D spells have on editions of Dungeons & Dragons compared to earlier version of the game. One of the comments I saw over and over again was some version of  “that’s just a bad Dungeon Master”.

I find it to be odd people think it’s a lazy DM issue, because a DM might want to challenge players with things that are negated by spells. Couldn’t the same be said about simply overcoming random encounters during watch? What about wanting to introduce survivalist elements to the game even if only for a short time.
Sure a DM could temporarily nerf 5E D&D magic in order to do this but that seems even worse to me. I don’t find either methods pleasing and think we’ve gotta look a little deeper into D&D spells and magic.

New Circle for Druid 5E D&D — Worshipping the Froghemoth

Nerdarchy recently partnered with Pacesetter Games & Simulations as well as Vallejo Paints. Use the promo code staynerdy15 for a 15 percent discount on their products. We’ve taken this partnership and built some and cool content for 5E D&D. We kicked things off with Horris the Horned Lord. Most recently we moved on to Abalor the Abhorrent and a dark druid 5E Circle — the Circle from the Beyond. Abalor is based off of the froghemoth model from Pacesetter. It’s a great looking model. You can see it below as painted by Jake Kosman using Vallejo Paints. The froghemoth D&D monster was reintroduced into 5E D&D in Volo’s Guide to Monsters. Part of the awesome Nerdarchy, Pacesetter, and Vallejo team-up is a contest to win a froghemoth both painted, unpainted, and the paints to paint your very own froghemoth miniature. There’s a bunch of ways to enter the contest to win the minis and paints. Check it out here.

D&D Fighter

D&D Fighter — Best Race in 5E Dungeons & Dragons

Our Best D&D Races for the fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons classes seems to be a pretty popular series on our YouTube channel. This time we will delve into the D&D fighter. The fighter in 5E D&D is so much more interesting over the previous editions of Dungeons and Dragons. Because in 5E D&D a fighter can be built with either Dexterity or Strength as the primary ability score it makes for a lot options. Only the ranger is as flexible. Yes, I know other classes can be built using an alternate ability score but they usually are more interesting than optimized. But in the case of the ranger and fighter they loose any of their optimization.

We came up with 40 official D&D races optimized to play a fighter. That is a lot variety. When you factor in the seven different martial archetype subclasses to choose from you’ve got a lot of combinations.

D&D Magic Items

Crafting D&D Magic Items for the Wizard

The wizard one of the most iconic classes of the D&D game. An iconic image is the wizard holding an arcane tome aloft while speaking aloud an incantation. We took that as inspiration for creating some new D&D magic items — in this case specifically, the tome of holding. These magic items could be used by wizards for multiple functions.

D&D World Building

D&D Worldbuilding — Kobolds on the Path of the Dragon

D&D world building is all about making the game your own. It’s your chance as the Dungeon Master to lay brush to the canvas of the world and paint your own Mona Lisa. In this case Nate the Nerdarch came up with this idea, the Path of the Dragon. The concept is kobolds are hatched in clutches of eggs. But not all from kobold eggs, some emerge from dragon eggs. Sure, kobolds are still popping out of eggs laid by kobolds as well. Dragons in our world were banished by the gods and locked away in pocket dimensions to keep them out of trouble. A sect of dragons banded together an enacted a ritual to avoid the banishment.

Kickstarter Korner for November 2018, Week 4

Each week during the Quests & Adventures live chat, Saturday at 2 p.m. eastern, Nerdarchists Dave and Ted and Nate the Nerdarch hang out live with fans from the Nerdarchy YouTube channel. It’s a chance to share announcements and news, answer questions from the live chat and generally just hang out and talk nerdy with the Nerdarchy community.

In the description of each weekly video, Nerdarchist Ted compiles a list and links to all the videos and website content from the week. But he also shares a selection of cool Kickstarter campaigns. As an avid Kickstarter supporter, he’s happy to share his favorite RPG and gaming-related Kickstarters with you, the Nerdarchy community. Enjoy!

Better D&D Dungeons with ZFigs Interlocking Dungeon Tiles

Waterdeep: Dungeon of the Mad Mage has just been released for Dungeon Masters to test their players’ mettle with. D&D dungeons are a tried and true staple of the game. Over the years there has been D&D dungeon after D&D dungeon. From the Tomb of Horrors to today’s modern Dungeon of the Mad Mage. And over the years Dungeon Masters have used a ton of different methods for representing their dungeons. Now there is another one from Toy Vault live on KickStarter. Their new ZFigs Interlocking Dungeon Tiles is affordable 3D dungeon terrain for everyone’s tabletop games. There are some really nice high dungeon tiles and sets out there, but they aren’t also within the average gamer’s budget. 

Monstrous Humanoids in 5E D&D

Over the years Dungeons & Dragons has offered many different races for players to choose from. I know that some Dungeon Masters are very much against anything that does not look normal. Let’s forget the dragonborn and tielfing and play with humans, dwarves, elves, gnomes and halflings. With those races there are plenty of options even without all the subrace choices. But if you are like me you enjoy all the choices and you want to play the things that are bizarre and interesting. If you happen to look around this site you will see many different monstrous humanoids I statted out for 5E D&D and even made up some of my own, so feel free to poke around. I’ve had a fondness for monstrous humanoid races from the beginning of my roleplaying days. The Complete Book of Humanoids was always my favorite, with races like the wemic, the ogre mage and of course the dino people — saurials. I used this book over and over again playing second edition AD&D. And now Deck of Many has an free PDF designed for anyone who enjoys anthropomorphic characters for 5E D&D.

Kickstarter Korner for November 2018, Week 3

Each week during the Quests & Adventures live chat, Saturday at 2 p.m. eastern, Nerdarchists Dave and Ted and Nate the Nerdarch hang out live with fans from the Nerdarchy YouTube channel. It’s a chance to share announcements and news, answer questions from the live chat and generally just hang out and talk nerdy with the Nerdarchy community.

In the description of each weekly video, Nerdarchist Ted compiles a list and links to all the videos and website content from the week. But he also shares a selection of cool Kickstarter campaigns. As an avid Kickstarter supporter, he’s happy to share his favorite RPG and gaming-related Kickstarters with you, the Nerdarchy community. Enjoy!

wizards of the coast

New D&D Campaign Setting — Guildmaster’s Guide To Ravnica

We got our hands on the new D&D campaign setting — Ravnica from Wizards of the Coast, aptly named Guildmaster’s Guide to Ravnica. It is a great resource for players and Dungeon Masters alike. It’s full of D&D monsters, subclasses, spells, backgrounds, and more. Ravnica is a fantastic setting. Different from any other D&D campaign setting. It’s a whole planet that is a city — a city run by guilds and full fantastical creatures and beings. Guildmaster’s Guide to Ravnica is Wizards of the Coast’s first official Magic: the Gathering and Dungeons & Dragons mash-up.

She-Ra and the Princesses of Power as a 5E D&D Campaign Setting

She-Ra and the Princesses of Power dropped on Netflix today and although I’m only a few episodes into season one’s 13 episode run I am hooked. Big time. It’s got awesome characters, a terrific fantasy setting, great villains and a wonderful story of heroism. So naturally, my first thoughts are how to turn this into a 5E D&D campaign setting and adventures. Let’s get into it and see what comes about on the fly.

adventurers league

Adventurers League Lizardfolk 5E D&D Character Build

The 5E D&D character build is something Nerdarchy is kind of known for. More recently we’ve decided to start doing Adventurers League legal character builds. It started off as just a 5E D&D character build fan request with the extra stipulation that it be Adventurers League legal.

Turns out we liked the idea of making builds within the constraints of AL so much so we decided to turn it into a playlist on our the Nerdarchy YouTube Channel – Adventurers League Legal 5E D&D Character Builds. One of our recent Adventurers League 5E D&D character builds is the Scaled Skald. We also referred to this build as our warrior poet build. You can check out the D&D Beyond character sheet, and get the Adventurers League legal Scaled Skald 5E D&D character build guide that includes an NPC version for Dungeon Masters over on the Dungeon Master’s Guild for pay what you want.

Kickstarter Korner for November 2018, Week 2

Each week during the Quests & Adventures live chat, Saturday at 2 p.m. eastern, Nerdarchists Dave and Ted and Nate the Nerdarch hang out live with fans from the Nerdarchy YouTube channel. It’s a chance to share announcements and news, answer questions from the live chat and generally just hang out and talk nerdy with the Nerdarchy community.

In the description of each weekly video, Nerdarchist Ted compiles a list and links to all the videos and website content from the week. But he also shares a selection of cool Kickstarter campaigns. As an avid Kickstarter supporter, he’s happy to share his favorite RPG and gaming-related Kickstarters with you, the Nerdarchy community. Enjoy!

D&D Race

Absolute Best Race to Play for the Paladin 5E D&D Character Class

Nerdarchy set out to come up with the best races to play a paladin. We had to comb through all the current D&D books to find the answer to the question. The purpose of our discussion is to figure the optimal mechanical D&D race selection.

Disclaimer: Best is for the most part subjective. We are speaking purely from a mechanics stand point. Fun is a personal matter for each person to determine for themselves.

Below we’ve broken down our race selections based on different criteria. Those criteria are relevant ability score modifiers, racial traits, and thematic elements. In this case for the paladin we are looking at Charisma as the prime ability score, followed by strength. We also include a Charisma- and Dexterity-based build as well. Finally there is the concept of the unorthodox character build that doesn’t worry about ability score placement as heavily. 

Kickstarter Korner for November 2018, Week 1

Each week during the Quests & Adventures live chat, Saturday at 2 p.m. eastern, Nerdarchists Dave and Ted and Nate the Nerdarch hang out live with fans from the Nerdarchy YouTube channel. It’s a chance to share announcements and news, answer questions from the live chat and generally just hang out and talk nerdy with the Nerdarchy community.

In the description of each weekly video, Nerdarchist Ted compiles a list and links to all the videos and website content from the week. But he also shares a selection of cool Kickstarter campaigns. As an avid Kickstarter supporter, he’s happy to share his favorite RPG and gaming-related Kickstarters with you, the Nerdarchy community. Enjoy!