New 5E D&D Feats for the Goatfolk
When we revamped Nerdarchy the Patreon, revising our monthly rewards was one of the most exciting parts of the process. For Patreon supporters this meant they’d receive the entirety of the rewards package with new Fifth Edition content ready to drop right into your game, at the lowest tier. Previously, supporters at the $3 level received the Mage Forge supplement with new magic items. But for the past couple of years now we send the entire digital product — 15-30 pages with full color art — to all supporters at the $3 level and above. Order of the Wizened was one of the earliest revised rewards packages. I take particular pride in that one since I had free reign to create the content from soup to nuts. Since then we’ve created a ton of content for Patreon supporters, and these products eventually make their way to Nerdarchy the Store. With the content available to everyone now, we thought it would be fun to revisit these earlier products and create some enhanced content for them right here on the site. So let’s get into it and create some special new feats for 5E D&D.
D&D Party Composition — Playing an All Warlock Party
Over on the Nerdarchy YouTube channel Nerdarchists Dave and Ted explore the idea of an all warlock party for fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons. We had a lot of fun thinking about an all bard party and a bunch of people asked to see more like this so here we are. In 5E D&D warlocks are a very customizable class. Combinations of patrons and pacts, spells and invocations create a lot of options for players to put together. Warlocks choose their subclass at 1st level, represented by the Otherworldly Patron providing their power through a supernatural pact. Once characters reach 3rd level, they choose their Pact Boon — Blade, Chain or Tome. In the video they discuss D&D party composition and the different roles warlocks can play in a party. But I’m sticking with the scenario I imagined in the All Bard Party post here on the site. So let’s get into it and see what an all warlock party composition for 5E D&D could look like.
D&D Ideas — Aliens
Eladrin Teleport Specialist Covers All the Bases for 5E D&D
Over on the Nerdarchy YouTube channel Nerdarchists Dave and Ted took a deep dive into what I’ve long considered the No. 1 absolute best super power ever, teleportation. Flight, regeneration, invisibility, reading minds — they all pale in comparison and don’t even come close to the ability to instantly transport from one place to another. And with all the different ways a fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons character can teleport, creating a character who bamfs around as casually as walking is within our grasp!
Where Conflict and Tension Comes From in 5E D&D
Salutations, nerds! Today we’re going to be talking about conflict in fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons. I’m not talking about the big bad evil creature and the general conflict of the campaign, of course. I mean the scene-to-scene conflict. Have you ever found yourself sitting at the gaming table in a scene where everyone was hanging out and nothing was going wrong? It can be pretty good once in a while just to hang out in character and let your party chill together, but if it goes on too long it starts to drag. If you have a conflict in every scene, however, even the minutiae of shopping for supplies can be made tense and interesting.
D&D Artifacts That Will Damn Your Soul
Full disclosure the temptation to title this post “How to be an utter bad ass evil son of a bitch in D&D” was hard to resist. We had a lot of fun planning for the video over on the Nerdarchy YouTube channel and looking over all the artifacts in fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons. In another video Nerdarchists Dave and Ted talked about D&D magic items that will damn your soul. While there wasn’t much explicit indication of any soul damning, a character using those magic items definitely wasn’t winning any points in the good department. D&D artifacts raise the bar orders of magnitude. There is no question with these evil artifacts — a creature who uses them puts their soul in peril in a multitude of ways. But for a creature placing power above all else, employing the Book of Vile Darkness, Hand and Eye of Vecna or Wand of Orcus most certainly qualifies for the title of utter bad ass evil SOB.
Unearthed Arcana — Rune Knight Fighters, Swarmkeeper Rangers, and Revived Rogues
I know what you’re thinking: “Did Nerdarchy cover five Unearthed Arcana or only four?” Well, to tell you the truth, in all this excitement, I’ve kinda lost track myself. But Nerdarchists Dave and Ted discuss Unearthed Arcana — Fighter, Ranger, Rogue in today’s video, and we all speculated about what it could have been last week, so it’s only fair to share the space here on the website to take a look at Rune Knight fighters, Swarmkeeper rangers and Revived rogues.
D&D Ideas — Unearthed Arcana Speculation
Tier 2 Bard Spells and Spellcasting in 5E D&D
Over on the Nerdarchy YouTube channel one of our popular video series is Go To Spells for fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons. Nerdarchists Dave and Ted go through each D&D spellcaster class and discuss the most all-around useful spells, divided by the tiers of play. Tier 1 is 1st-4th level, tier 2 is 5th-10th, tier 3 is 11th-16th and tier 4 is 16th-20th. They choose go-to spells for attack, defense, buff and utility plus an iconic class spell. I am involved with the video planning, so we’re all on the same page with the selections. Instead let’s look at what tier 2 spellcasting means in terms of tier 2 bard spells for 5E D&D.
Unearthed Arcana — Heroism Paladins and Eloquence Bards
The round of Unearthed Arcana playtest content with new subclasses for each class in fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons has come and gone. D&D players had opportunities to read through them, discuss them and playtest these new D&D subclasses, and provide feedback to the D&D design team through surveys. On the Nerdarchy YouTube channel we’ve got videos about each of the Unearthed Arcana playtest packets for these new D&D subclasses too. I always like to imagine how new content adds to a D&D campaign, and also speculate on what sort of product playtest material could be part of down the road. So let’s get into it with the Oath of Heroism paladin and College of Eloquence bard.
D&D Party Composition — Playing an All Bard Party
Over on the Nerdarchy YouTube channel Nerdarchists Dave and Ted explore the idea of an all bard party for fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons. In 5E D&D bards are arguably the most versatile class. The core class features offer a remarkable mix of magic, martial prowess and skills. Once characters reach 3rd level and choose their Bard College the options continue to flourish. Bards can focus on one of those three areas or diversify their features even further. In the video they discuss D&D party composition and the different roles bards can play in a party. But when I think of an all bard party for 5E D&D my thoughts go a different way. So let’s get into it and see what an all bard party composition for 5E D&D could look like.
Are Tool Proficiencies Worthless in 5E D&D?
Whenever I see tool proficiencies in fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons come up in online conversations, I make a point to participate. Tool proficiencies, along with backgrounds, are one of my favorite things about 5E D&D. To me they represent a character’s hobby or vocation and add a significant lens for a character to view the world through. When we choose tools for our live chat and newsletter topic recently, it was a real joy to engage with the audience in the live chat and later share my own thoughts. We incorporated tools into our October Patreon rewards, and in a few days our November rewards build on those concepts. And today we took a closer look on the YouTube channel with a follow-up here to discuss if 5E D&D tools are worthless.
Tier 2 Cleric Spells and Spellcasting in 5E D&D
Over on the Nerdarchy YouTube channel one of our popular video series is Go To Spells for fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons. In the series Nerdarchists Dave and Ted go through each D&D spellcaster class and discuss the most all-around useful spells. The discussions are divided by the tiers of play. Tier 1 is 1st-4th level, tier 2 is 5th-10th, tier 3 is 11th-16th and tier 4 is 16th-20th. For each discussion they choose a go-to spell for attack, defense, buff and utility plus an iconic class spell. Since I am involved with the video planning, we’re all on the same page with the selections. So let’s look at what tier 2 spellcasting means for the D&D cleric.
D&D Ideas — Words of Power and the Power of Words
Welcome once again to the weekly Nerdarchy Newsletter. You can get the Nerdarchy Newsletter delivered to your inbox each week, along with updates and info on how to game with Nerdarchy, by signing up here. This week we delve into the power of words. Before we do we’ve got a freebie to offer up. Over on the Pledge Manager for the Out of the Box: Encounters for 5th Edition we put a free download of a new encounter. Grab it here.
D&D Adventurers League Witch Doctor Delivers Instant Funk
Of all the Adventurers League Character Build Guides we’ve done, this one might be my favorite. I should preface by letting you know I think this almost every time. What captures my attention more than anything in these guides are the character backgrounds and narratives we come up with for each one. Whether it’s a pure class 1-20 levels or a mashup of several classes, each choice from race to deciding between ability score improvements or feats and go-to spell loadouts make every character unique. The thing I love about the witch doctor is before Nerdarchists Dave and Ted get around to choosing their first class level, the character already has a rich story, fertile grounds for roleplaying and an impressive set of skills and knowledge.
