Unearthed Arcana — Class Feature Variants Impact on 5E D&D
Over on Nerdarchy the YouTube channel, Nerdarchists Dave and Ted took a long look at the most recent Unearthed Arcana — Class Feature Variants. There’s a ton to unpack in the 13 page playtest document. For me these class feature enhancements and replacements illustrate more of fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons original design intent of modular content for our games than the actual core rulebooks. Sure, there’s feats and multiclassing and stuff, but I’ve been playing 5E D&D since the D&D Next days and I’ve only met one person for who really considers those optional and not included in their games. Even the Uncommon Races (dragonborn, gnome, half-elf, half-orc and tiefling in the Player’s Handbook) allude to them as optional, and in practice they’re essentially ubiquitous. Two concerns come to mind as regards Unearthed Arcana — Class Feature Variants. And since Dave and Ted break down what these variant options are, let’s get into what they might mean.
D&D Ideas — Kingdoms and Warfare
Random Encounters like The Mandalorian in 5E D&D
When it comes to fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons I tend to run a lot of one shots and shorter campaigns. I like this scenario just fine because I’m always finding inspiration for new campaigns and gaming with new friends. After watching chapter one of The Mandalorian last week my first thought was wow! This Disney+ show is incredible. And my second thought was this would make an awesome 5E D&D campaign. A party of bounty hunters navigating the underbelly of scum and villainy sounds like tremendous fun to me. I found a lot of inspiration from Nord Games Ultimate NPCs: Skulduggery for a bounty hunter campaign. Now with two chapters of The Mandalorian available for viewing, we’ll match it with a second chapter developing this idea. So let’s get into it. (And don’t worry — still no spoilers!)
Mashing Up Milestone XP and Inspiration in 5E D&D
It’s a fact of life — there isn’t an tabletop roleplaying game out there someone, somewhere hasn’t tweaked in one way or another. Opinions and perspectives are multitude. The value of these outlooks varies, and their worth only truly judged in a public forum through playtesting. To this end, I would like to offer a few fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons house rules regarding milestone XP and inspiration that have existed at my table for a few years now, with the same expectation other Dungeon Masters further tinker with them to suit their own needs. This is only logical; not every rule fits ever table.
Drunken Tactician: Character Build for Adventurers League D&D 5e
Unearthed Arcana — Class Feature Variants remains the gift that keeps on giving this week. We took a look at the fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons ranger a few days ago with an eye towards creating a spellcaster focused ranger character and had a lot of fun exploring those ideas. So while Nerdarchists Dave and Ted discuss the drunken tactician character build for Adventurers League over on Nerdarchy the YouTube channel, I’m going to dive back into Unearthed Arcana and see what we’ve got available there for this character concept. More fighter tactics? More monk drunkenness? Let’s get into it and find out.
DMs Guild has Eberron Covered for the D&D Community
In just a few days Eberron: Rising from the Last War releases and we’ve been abuzz around Nerdarchy HQ. We’re all excited for the unique, compelling campaign setting to get official fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons support. But there’s a whole lot of content out there already for the Eberron campaign setting, and thankfully the Dungeon Master’s Guild collects it all for the D&D community. A lot of players today might not have discovered the hobby back then, so there’s literally a whole world for them to explore. Adventures and resources from Eberron’s past offers a tremendous resource to inspire 5E D&D games. And at the moment, the DMs Guild is offering Eberron titles for 20% off. They’ve also curated bundles of classics and other select titles for 70% off!
5E D&D Worldbuilding for a Revolution Plot: Part 2
Salutations, nerds! Last week we talked about setting up for a revolution plot. We explored reasons your power hasn’t been overthrown by revolutions already, and if all that is true, how to motivate your PCs to go ahead and overthrow them in the first place. Today, we’re going to talk more about 5E D&D worldbuilding and what you have to knock out from under your ruler’s legs to disrupt their power base. In other words, the stuff likely to actually happen in the campaign, at the table.
Expanding 5E D&D Ranger Spells Beyond Unearthed Arcana
Over on Nerdarchy the YouTube channel, Nerdarchists Dave and Ted discussed 5 essential 5E D&D ranger spells for tier 1 characters. For a 1st-4th level ranger this means 1st level spells only, with two spells known beginning at 2nd level and a third known at 3rd level. Whenever a ranger gains a level, they can choose one of the ranger spells they know and replace it with another spell from the ranger spell list, which also must be of a level for which you have spell slots. Not a lot of wiggle room for a tier 1 ranger when it comes to spellcasting. There’s 17 1st level spells to choose from in official 5E D&D material, and with the video highlighting five standout spells, where do we go from here to continue the discussion?
How to Add Emotion and Depth with Fantastical Mounts
“Come on, Herbie! Just a little more!”
Herbie unleashed a thunderous grunt, his six massive legs sinking into the soft, wet earth. Mud clumped his thick fur, the torrential rain mingling with his sweat as the gantuan struggled to pull the carriage from the mire.
Panic gripped Wally’s heart as the family inside the sinking carriage clung to one another. The child, a little girl with her father’s broad features and her mother’s elven ears, pressed a hand against the glass.
Bounty Hunting like The Mandalorian in 5E D&D
If you’re like me and what I suspect are tens of thousands of other nerds, you fired up Disney+ today and watched episode one of The Mandalorian. And since you’re here I’m going to assume you’re also a fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons player. Taking those two things into account, it can’t be far from the truth that a lot of us were not only blown away by the premiere of this new streaming show and our first thought was “this would make an awesome bounty hunter 5E D&D campaign!” And I just got a copy of Ultimate NPCs: Skulduggery from Nord Games so I’m going to use this Game Master’s Toolbox book to help. If this sounds cool to you, I’ll give you a promo code for 20% off the book and everything else in your cart from Nord Games when we’re done. So let’s get into it. (And don’t worry — no spoilers!)
D&D Ideas — Beacons
Welcome once again to the weekly newsletter. Here is the quote that inspired this week’s newsletter.
“Aragorn: The beacons of Minas Tirith! The beacons are lit! Gondor calls for aid!
Theoden: And Rohan will answer. Muster the Rohirrim!”
We were goofing around in our weekly meeting and this quote came up. Next thing we know we’ve agreed to make it our weekly D&D idea for the newsletter and Running D&D video. 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. But before we jump into this week’s newsletter a quick reminder. You can still back Out of the Box: Encounter for 5th Edition. Or if you already did you can fill out your survey and make sure you get your stuff. Here is a link to the Pledge Manager. There is also a free encounter you can download in the Pledge Manager. This is available to anyone; it doesn’t matter if you backed the Kickstarter or not.
Cracking Open the Warlock Grimoire from Kobold Press
It’s hard to believe over two years passed since Kobold Press launched Warlock, a Patreon-fueled project in the form of a booklet containing new maps, monsters, character options and more for Fifth Edition. Like it says on the tin, the most ambitious goal for Warlock is a yearly publication of the Warlock Grimoire, a hardcover collection of the entire year’s booklets plus more monsters, dark lore, secret encounters and Deep Magic. And now Warlock Grimoire exists! I received my copy in the mail and while a wealth of cool content waits within the nearly 300-page pocket-sized edition, my favorite part is the introduction. Why? Because before I interviewed Kobold Press head honcho Wolfgang Baur, someone advised me not to call Warlock a zine, but here in the intro to Warlock Grimoire, Wolfgang himself dubs the monthly booklets zines. Vindication!
5E D&D Worldbuilding for a Revolution Plot: Part 1
Salutations, nerds! I hope you’re ready to do some 5E D&D worldbuilding because today we’re going to be talking about revolutions and empires, and what you need if the tabletop roleplaying game storyline you’re planning on running has to do with unseating someone currently in power. Please note, this is going to be a quick run down, not a comprehensive list. I’ve got the span of a quick article to do this — nope, two. Two quick articles. I’ve done the thing again where I had more to say than I thought I did. Ahem. But. I’m going to try to give you enough to springboard off of and hopefully enough to get the gears turning in your head for what you want to do with your plot. Got your notebooks out? Ready? Let’s dive in.
A Mouthful of 5E D&D Villain Actions Inspired by Matt Colville
When Nerdarchist Ted pitched the idea for a video response to Matt Colville’s Action Oriented Monsters video I was all in. I’d just watched the video myself and fallen in love with the idea of Villain Actions for fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons. We’re no strangers to creating new 5E D&D monsters. And like Matt mentions, making creatures in the style of player characters feels kludgy and needlessly complicated and time consuming. But while we’ve generally kept to the existing monster resources like legendary and lair actions, and striving to include action economy options like bonus actions and reactions, Matt took things to the next level by developing a new kind of action — the Villain Action. Like any good Dungeon Master, when I spot a cool idea I steal it for my game. So while Nerdarchists Dave and Ted discuss the ins and outs of Villain Actions on the Nerdarchy YouTube channel, I’m gonna try my hand at creating some of my own.
Madness in 5E D&D
One of our Patreon supporters had a question for us recently. We discussed it during the Patreon exclusive live chat we do every Monday evening, but since it’s a topic I find really interesting and useful I felt it’s worth exploring a bit further. The question also came from a soon to be first time Dungeon Master for fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons. There’s a good chance they aren’t the only 5E D&D DM curious about it and since any player taking a turn behind the screen is cause for celebration, let’s take a look at their question and come up with some answers for both new and experienced DMs.
“Have you guys ran madness mechanics in your campaigns? About to try my hand at being our DM and was curious how difficult it would be to add that to the campaign.”
