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twilight cleric counters that charm so hard ^^ hopefully none of my future players forthat campaign take that subclass

I would love to hear more about your wife Opal's builds. For example, the fighter/rogue combos you mentioned early in the videos ☺️ is there already a video on that?

If you homebrew darkness on Strahd, kind of puts a damper on Sunlight Artifacts.

K78 is a fucking TPK and no one talks about it.

I am prepping for my very first CoS campaign to run for my group, and came across the fact that Strahd's curse is perpetual apparently and I didn't really like that idea. While I still intend to use this idea, I wanted to come up with a way for a more satisfying resolution. And then I realized that Strahd's powers pretty much was a deal that he made with the Dark Powers that are sealed within the Amber Temple. SPOILERS BELOW, READ AT YOUR OWN RISK: I also realized that the wizards that were supposed to guard it fought each other not only because some of them were corrupted, but because of differences of dealing with the Dark Powers permanently. One group wanted to actually banish the Dark Powers in a separate realm to be imprisoned there for all eternity, but another faction wanted them to be just in the Amber Temple for the knowledge they might be willing to share. This created a violent schism between the wizards that killed them off. So I am now cooking up a homebrew penultimate quest for the players to go back to the Amber Temple once they realize that Strahd may be resurrected again. Maybe I will set up an ultimate battle that involves sealing the Dark Powers for good to cleanse fully Barovia of the curse. There might be something that is written, or even a surviving wizard that knows the secret of the "Grand Banishment" spell they created but was not able to use. This may require having Strahd completely give up his whole existence to break the deal, since his deal involves bringing as much darkness as he can gather for the Dark Powers to consume. This will help weaken the Dark Powers enough for the Grand Banishment Spell to work. The lich, Exethanter almost was able to discover this secret, but was never able to. There's probably this single door, or s single box he cannot open, because it needed a missing piece, a soul ever hungry, which might be Strahd himself, which could motivate the players to seek Strahd again. I may even have Strahd help the players as a sort of redemption arc for him. Even if it means losing his whole existence and the people's memory of him, especially the Barovians he served prior to his turning to darkness. Maybe now that he will be potentially finally fully put to rest because despite everything he did, he's just a tired old man which is something he denied for so long. With his withered, powerless state, he will assure the players that he no longer a threat, and hoped that since the players are strong enough to defeat somebody like him, they MAY have a chance to take on the Dark Powers. This could be a grand battle with the players, the surviving Barovians, the redeemed Vistani, the allies you come across CoS, and what little of forces Strahd can muster to weaken the Dark Powers enough for the Grand Banishment Spell to work.

Recently started playing as a lycanthrope character, specifically a Wereraven. Twist is that her humanoid form is chaotic evil and raided a Kindness of Wereravens for their loot before she got pecked and "cursed", with the Wereraven instead of increasing her bloodlust increasing her capacity to be a good person since it's the tiny speck of good in her that's getting bigger and bigger (and she's now broke because when transformed she keeps giving away all her treasure) and in Werebeast form is a Redemption Paladin of Selune (in humanoid form she's a Wildfire Druid but instead of trying to harmonize with nature she's more abusing her power over nature as a flex like "yeah I can bend the elements to my will because I'm better than you" in a very "survival of the fittest" mindset, so she ironically acts a lot like an evil-aligned lycanthrope as a normal person). In the meantime also Selune is ragdolling her in humanoid form every time she tries to do something cruel which makes for some really fun slapstick. She is going to get taught a lesson for being a trash person by golly! (yes, this was inspired by the Lawful Good Rampage post)

Don't be afraid to slowly transform your players. Make them FEEL the cursed transformations they are being subjected to.

Your cos ideas are amazing. Can i hire you for personal consulting of my campaign? I have the craziest party just starting the module and i really really need to ramp things up. I love the night hag hook to cause tension there. Difficult decisions that are compelling are the best. The werewolf den politics are great for that too. Makes it very murky waters for decision making. I have also had to change the werewolves attacking them on the road to VoB to be magic users in hybrid form because one of the players is unhittable with his AC! So heat metal and up casting magic missile will be the trick. I am trying to scare them into going to TserPool camp to have their weapons silvered.

I think there was some confusion of casting time vs maintaining that confused people. To clarify: You may concentrate on only 1 spell at a time. This means: You may cast a spell with a long casting time OR maintain a spell you have already cast. You cannot do both in the same round since they both require concentration to do. The spell will tell you if it is one or both, i.e. it requires concentration to cast, maintain or both. The other difference is casting requires an action for each round of the casting time while maintaining does not. This is why most ritual spells are done outside combat.

One of my favorites & frankly, newer warlock characters that I've made in recent memory, is that of a fiend patron warlock. Since "spooky season" just passed, I choose to model him after the character from Irish Folklore: Stingy Jack or as he's otherwise known as: Jack-O'-Lantern. Yes, he's still a man that tricked the devil twice, sly/cunning & a mean drunk, but in my backstory, he's at the very least trying to be good. At best a line from the '07 Ghost Rider Movie can summarize him. "God knows I've made my share of mistakes, and I've been trying to make them right ever since. Guess all I've to do now is hope He sees fit to give me another chance." - Carter Slade

The Seelie court is generally treated as the less violent and more subtle court. They're more Summer-aligned and glamourous. They're still dangerous as Hell, just in a beautiful way.

Mechanically speaking, suppose you build a Runechild Sorcerer with the “Rune Carver” background and the “Rune Shaper” feat from “Bigby presents Glory of the Giants”.

You look like you smell nice.

IMO Strahd played correctly in a fight inside Castle Ravenloft is almost unkillable.

new subscriber, would love for you to do a build for Demyx from kingdom hearts, a water/bard <3

I love this module and have DMed it twice (though the first didnt get to the end). I have to admit i had a terrible time in the final battle, so this video really helps remind me for my next time. I did have one extremely good battle with Strahd and my players where one player was knocked out and the Tank was charmed. Strahd vanished with both of them back to the castle and ended up turning the charmed one into a vampire spawn 😈

Great video but I feel like any X-Men team without Cyclops just isn’t the X-Men.

I was glad that I managed to get my players to immediately hate strahd.

I was hoping to one day DM for a curse of Strahd campaign, and honestly I think the best way to make certain situations unique it to use the tables the module seems to have. Want to make an interesting narrative for the players travel times? Roll random encounters along the rode for every hour, and use only the ones that you could see working as a general theme pops up. Werewolves and traps alone the road? Have some Barovian Hunters tracking wolves and they find something they weren’t quite expecting and struggling to kill the Lycan. A trail off the road? Have some Druids waiting near a trap with a Berserker or a Strahd spy lying in wait.

Mordenkainen is from Greyhawk, not Forgotten Realms. He was literally Gary Gygax's PC. If the Mad Mage was supposed to be a FR tie-in it should have been Elminster, not Mordenkainen. It makes his inclusion even more inexplicable though.

Is the "spell casting ability" really JUST the stat bonus? I thought it also had level proficiency too. You say at 6:38 for that example they would just roll an INT check for the fireball.

oil lasts for a minute on direct hit, 2 rounds if on the ground when lit. think soaked into clothing. think it and alchemist fire should cause disadvantage for putting out the fire but thats just me.

I once saw somebody turn into red mist just touching a wrong tile but part of the reason why he looks so weak now is because players were so challenged to beat him, they did, and now everybody isn't scared of him.

The best part of thism spell for me ism with KeenMind you can study books for knowledge Only thng is idk if you still the long rest

I'm about to GM this in 3 days ... this video got me super excited for it. I never realized half these thematic symbols.

Hey flutes, do you mind if I put this revised version on D&D beyond for convenience?

I’m constantly arguing with a player on that creatures don’t take damage immediately as he casts it because it says if “the creature moves into the beam on any turn” which he interprets as the initial casting of moonbeam

Why is no one talking about hex or hunters mark for fey touched. 2d6 more damage plus debuffs of either necrotic or (debatable) lightning/thunder

As of October the 14th 2024 it's only Scanlan we don't really know anything about.

On another note if we bring up Matt Mercer, sometimes a player has said, "oh I kinda put the spear into their chest" and Matt has then embellished that and described it... remembering CR is for entertainment for viewers.

I quite enjoy allowing the DM to describe it, especially if they enjoy it, and have fun doing so. I would enjoy descriptions of killing blows. I also enjoy describing the appearance of a spell the first time I used it at a table. I feel like that may be hogging the limelight. But I've had some good laughs and compliments from other players when I have done this (not over done this!)

I'm a new dm of 3.5 and all my players are also new to 3.5 how should I handle energy drain in that game.

Alright, I am a little late to the party by 2 years... however I had a question. What if a Bard, College of Elequence, and the Actor Feat, tries to persuade Strahd to allow him to use his elegent words to woe the girl though it may be NEAR impossible the Bard cannot roll even if Strahd is hostile less then an 18... he does a roll just to see if he gets above a ten which anything more than ten adds one to the 18. I guess my question would be, by the social interactions rules, he could potentially talk his group out of Barovia.

You have my maul! Grimgar, the barbarian fighter is at your service

what about this boss is easy???

What do you mean by Strahd Zombies are good for pushing grapples away from strahd to break grapples?

I would have renamed C to "You're supposed to get this ally anyway", and then put Stella in a different tier.

Something I did in my campaign was regarding Mordenkainen. When the players fought him, I had him act like he actually had those 5 points of Int. He started the fight up a steep difficult terrain, he opened the fight with Bigbys hand, and he summoned the invisible dog that cant move but CAN opportunity attack. The rest of the fight was him Time-Stopping or Misty-Stepping his way up and down the hill and baiting the dogs opportunity attacks. And that was on top of Bigbys hand.

Going sooner with the option to swap initiative with someone who can use it benefits everyone throughout an encounter. Two extra Tough hp max each level to your own character might matter when you get hit and enable you to survive 1 more damage roll. We all like more HP, but the better advantage for the group and individual will the Alert feat, more often. Counterexamples abound, but occur less frequently. IE. You survive to save your party with remainig 2 or 3 hp... However, you can gain both feats in time, so it's not a hard either/or choice. Even if your group doesn't cooperate in combat, I'd prefer to increase chances of going sooner and trading turn order. @Tomxypdq

A perfect reminder of how to up one's game as DM and/or player. Thank you! As a recently retired teacher, I particularly appreciate your reminder to be comfortable to silence, and to allow people time to formulate meaningful answers and thoughts. Even teachers sometimes fall into the trap of rushing ahead, not giving students time to think. Silly, really. Again, thank you!

love the idea of an artificer pirate, I thought I could say how he uses his creations to hunt for treasure, or even using the treasure he finds to improve his machines but I still feel very new to the game and I'm unaware of how I would go about it

If they use wall of force can't he just go through the ground and escape?

The Cleric/Cleric multiclass is now availiable with the new PHB

the one cool thing this did is make Monks a much better grappling class which is cool as the go to hand to hand fighter now that its classified as an unarmed strike you can use dex. So my stupid 20 Dex Aarakocra Monk can attack 1 = grab someone, bonus action Step of the Wind to fly 30 feet in the air, drop the guy for 3d6 and leave them prone, Reaction slow fall to take no damage, attack 2 = grapple them again with advantage. Giving my friends all a chance to smack him with advantage

I forget, how do scrolls with Reaction spells work?

Wondering what you think of the 2024 Thief? This video a magnificent by the way. Great job!