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.
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...
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.
Taking Advantage of Metaphorical Ruins for 5E D&D Characters
Over at Nerdarchy the YouTube channel Nerdarchists Dave and Ted excavate ideas and concepts about ruins in fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons. If I’m honest after our recent live chat on the subject and accompanying newsletter I’m tapped on fresh ideas about ruins in 5E D&D at the moment. Fortunately I recently binge watched a terrific series and came up with a sideways approach to the topic I think can be useful for players and Dungeon Masters alike. So let’s get into it and see what we can takeaway from Marvelous Mrs. Maisel when it comes to ruins for our 5E D&D characters and campaigns.
Play Your Next 5E D&D Game as a Dagger Master
Over at Nerdarchy the YouTube channel Nerdarchists Dave and Ted sharpen their blades and dissect a dagger master character build for fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons. The Quick Toss maneuver and Thrown Weapon Fighting options available through Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything create a new opportunity for a 5E D&D character equally deadly in close quarters combat and at range with daggers and other throwing weapons. The Dagger Master Character Build Guide cuts to the quick with a narrative thread and mechanical progression from 1st to 20th level making it useful for any tier of play. Plus as always we created an NPC creature version for Dungeon Masters too. So let’s get into it.
Transforming Worldbuilding Lore into a New 5E D&D Paladin Sacred Oath
Over the past several days I’ve been doing a challenge for 30 days of worldbuilding and one of my viewers shared how she is building two worlds at once with this challenge. This inspired me to do the same. So while I have been building a comedic fantasy world through YouTube videos and exercises I’ve also been building a dark fantasy world called Aulmn for my second project. Part of worldbuilding is developing your own lore surrounding… well, everything. My launch point for this dark fantasy was a history of oppressive spellcasters leading to magical revilement. Then I started thinking about how spellcasting classes fit into the world and everything just snowballed from there. Recently Nerdarchists Dave and Ted talked about using Dungeons & Dragons lore and making up your own. This video hugely inspired many aspects of my worldbuilding. Today we’re covering one aspect of this lore and how it led me to develop a new paladin Sacred Oath for fifth edition D&D.
Opting for 5E D&D Character Options from Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything
Hey folks! With the release of Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything for fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons players and Dungeon Masters alike have been given a number of exciting new character options for Customizing Your Origin and creating a Custom Lineage. Strangely these new options seem to be met with mixed responses but like any optional rules they are merely a source of inspiration and variation to be adopted or not as individual groups of players see fit.
Fluff Like Your 5E D&D Character Backstory is the Game Too
Over at Nerdarchy the YouTube channel Nerdarchists Dave and Ted examine how a fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons character’s backstory functions as a tool for the player and Dungeon Master alike. Comments on the video run the range from enthusiasm for this component of 5E D&D character creation to dismissal completely. The modular and adaptable nature of the game itself makes all these perspectives valid but from my perspective backstory is like a lot of other elements of 5E D&D — sitting right there in the open but often glossed over because there’s no pluses and minuses attached. So let’s get into it.
Incorporating Lore into 5E D&D Experiences Invites Engagement with Worlds Both Real and Imaginary
Over at Nerdarchy the YouTube channel Nerdarchists Dave and Ted go to the well to discuss lore in fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons. In general lore is a body of traditions and knowledge on a subject or held by a particular group and typically passed from person to person by word of mouth. This definition applies in our 5E D&D games too and encompasses both the lore presented in the game materials produced by Wizards of the Coast as well as the details specific to your world whether it’s your version of existing settings like Forgotten Realms or something you’ve created wholecloth. So let’s get into it.
