Expanding 5E D&D Background Characteristics — Outlander
Salutations, nerds! The unassailable law of alphabetical order dictates looking at the Outlander background in fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons. These are characters who come from outside what most people in your setting would consider civilized society and scoff at your use of silverware! Maybe. I haven’t actually played a 5E D&D outlander myself and perhaps tinkering with it will give me a new appreciation for the background. Who knows? I’ll may have to add something else to my list of things to do. Let’s get started.
Worldbuilding and Character Development for 5E D&D Inspired by Game of Thrones — Padded Armor
I recently started rewatching Game of Thrones all the way through for a second time. I’d bounced off the series twice and gotten hooked on my third attempt watching the series. Watching it again now engages me in different ways. For one thing it’s fun knowing the fate of the characters and seeing how each step of their journey influences their outcomes. For another I simply missed a lot of the nuance the first time around. Like countless fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons nerds the show appeals to me as a source of inspiration for gaming too. One thing about the show that stands out particularly to me is the armor worn by warriors across Westeros and Essos. There’s a wealth of worldbuilding and character development potential for 5E D&D through armor and I’m excited to explore them so let’s get into it.
D&D Ideas — Wondrous Items
Welcome once again to the weekly newsletter. This week’s topic is wondrous items, 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. The Clockwork Frog is one of our own most wondrous items, which functions as a vehicle for up to two creatures. Originally created for our Muckwuggle the Frog God book this wondrous item more recently became one of our monthly Magic Item Cards. 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.
D&D Ideas — Rings
Welcome once again to the weekly newsletter. This week’s topic is rings, 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. A Ring of Stoneshielding protects adventurers from the dangerous effect of creatures like basilisks and keeps a hero’s body flexible and limber whenever effects seek to restrain them in place. Originally created for our Garden of Statuary book this ring more recently became one of our monthly Magic Item Cards. 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.
Dr. Benard Finklestien’s Catalog of Quality of Life Improvements
One of the easiest ways to add some fun and spice to gameplay is to create dynamic and mysterious NPCs and maybe add some fun items. Easy items to add would be minor but interesting items that just improve the adventurer’s quality of life, like a magnifying glass for example. You would not want anything game breaking or changing, but instead something simple that adds to the gameplay.
D&D Ideas — Rods, Staves and Wands
Welcome once again to the weekly newsletter. This week’s topic is rods, staves and wands, 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. Rods, staves and wands are all powerful arcane implements but there’s plenty of variety and opportunities for those who don’t use magic to make use of them too. 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.
Experience the Horror Firsthand with Survivors in Van Richten’s Guide to Ravenloft
Van Richten’s Guide to Ravenloft offers a menagerie of tools to help Dungeon Masters and players of fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons sink their teeth into genres of horror. We’ve already written about preparing horror games, running horror games with atmosphere and pacing to enhance the experience of your 5E D&D group. However, if you really want to sell the horror flavor and show players how grim and unforgiving the world can be then Van Richten’s Guide to Ravenloft suggests the use of survivors.
Manage Fear and Stress in 5E D&D with Van Richten’s Guide to Ravenloft
Van Richten’s Guide to Ravenloft brings the trappings of horror to your fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons games. To aid Dungeon Masters with running horror with their own groups the book offers a step-by-step walkthrough of how to run a 5E D&D horror game. Thus far, we’ve talked about preparing for a horror game and running a horror game with atmosphere and skillful pacing using the steps in Van Ricthen’s Guide to Ravenloft as a framework. But what about after the horror is over? Fear and stress are staples of the horror genre. They’re the proverbial nuts and bolts of how it works. Experiencing fear and stress can leave players… well, stressed and fearful. Thankfully, Van Richten’s Guide to Ravenloft offers some advice for this as well.
D&D Ideas — Potions
Welcome once again to the weekly newsletter. This week’s topic is potions, 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. Potions offer a potentially unlimited variety effects and creative Game Masters can get a lot of adventuresome mileage from these consumable magic items. Tonic of Hair Growth is a potion that puts a bit of beardomantic power in anyone’s hands. Bad haircuts are a thing of the past with a bit of this arcane tonic and practitioners of the beardomantic arts can find the added length and volume useful foci for weaving their magic. Originally created for our Beardomancy book this potion more recently became one of our monthly Magic Item Cards. 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.
Expanding 5E D&D Background Characteristics — Noble
Salutations, nerds! This time around I’m looking at the Noble background in fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons. For all of you who like to play characters from rich families with expectations, buckle up. I definitely am and this is probably the background I’ve used the most out of all of them. The background options in the 5E D&D Player’s Handbook offer suggested characteristics to help define a character and spark your imagination for roleplaying. Let’s get started.
D&D Ideas — Weapons
Welcome once again to the weekly newsletter. This week’s topic is weapons, 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. Magical weapons can be transformative treasures for any character and become a core part of their adventuring identity. Glaive of Wizardry is a magic weapon designed for squishy spellcasters to give them a cool melee option. Nerdarchist Ted created our very first Monthly Magic Item Card as the signature weapon of a powerful hobgoblin antagonist in a monthly game he ran on Nerdarchy Live and decided to share it with the D&D community. Beware the wizard wielding this legendary weapon! 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.
Top 10 5E D&D Homebrew Arcane Traditions by a Factor of Three
Over at Nerdarchy the YouTube channel Nerdarchists Dave and Ted explore homebrew feats for fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons from D&D Beyond. We have a lot of fun checking out the 5E D&D content folks come up with and sharing their homebrew creations. (There’s lots of these posts whether for homebrew subclasses, magic items, spells, feats and more floating around for the curious.) This time around I’m peering into the subtle weave of magic that permeates the cosmos to check out the most scholarly class in 5E D&D — the wizard — and checking out the Top 10 homebrew Arcane Traditions. There’s currently over 1,500 homebrew of them so let’s get into it.
Talk Your Way Into 5E D&D Adventure with Social Interaction
Not a day goes by when I don’t come across a fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons Dungeon Master seeking help dealing with a character’s unusual features. One of these reached meme level long ago and doesn’t show any signs of going away any time soon — the Persuasion Expert. Many are the threads of lament and lengthy discussions on how Persuasion isn’t hypnotism, it’s too powerful, it’s abused by players and so forth. By the end of this post I suspect readers will tire of reminders about how it’s the DM — not the player — who determines when skill checks are made. Believe me when I tell you following the proper paradigm enhances the whole 5E D&D experience. But if you don’t I’ll employ a College of Eloquence bard’s Silver Tongue to show how. Let’s get into it.
Discover Your 5E D&D Character’s Horror Background with Van Richten’s Guide Backgrounds
Salutations, nerds! Van Richten’s Guide to Ravenloft sets up backgrounds a little bit differently from other fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons books. There are two in particular with suggested characteristics but as far as background features go there’s a list of those you can use for pretty much any other set. I like this. As someone who generally uses custom backgrounds anyway simply having the background feature to choose from is cutting out the middle man so to speak. Let’s take a look at what Van Richten’s Guide to Ravenloft reveals about backgrounds in this 5E D&D horror campaign setting.
Play Your Next 5E D&D Game with Pride as a Rainbow Domain Cleric
Happy Pride Month! As a proud member of the Queer+ community and a Nerdarchy staff writer I really wanted to do something special for Pride Month this year — something that screams “I love Dungeons & Dragons and rainbows and all of that!” I kept wracking my brain of what we could do to offer some Pride positivity into the 5E D&D sphere. Chromatic spells are an obvious hook but they’re not quite potent enough for what I wanted to create. The more I thought the more the notion of a subclass surfaced in my mind.
