The funniest part about this is that Brennan says later that he knew they would have fire immunity specifically for one of porter's attacks which he was totally ok with. His mistake wasn't forgetting that they would get immunity to fire damage, his mistake was forgetting that lava does fire damage which is way funnier
just incredible sequencing by ally. Starts to read off the spell, people are not into it, gets a die, rolls damage for the whole party to take, people are trying to distance themselves, and THEN say what the actual good parts are and everyone gets back on board. pausing to find a d12 to roll damage kills me
Also the fact that Brennan gave them the spell card in the beginning of the season and Ally themselves only read the first part and didn't read the rest for the ENTIRE season
Zac: "(charmed) Mistress, should I go into a rage and fuck them up?" Brennan: "Yes, go into your rage! And fuck them up!" Zac: I go into a rage, and since I have Mindless Rage, I can't be charmed or frightened... :-O
I also have a kind of fun little conspiracy theory about this in Brennan's case. Think about it: 1. Brennan is a well-known master of the rules who has played D&D, mostly as a DM, since childhood. 2. He is also famous for his deep preparation hidden behind tiny little details, like the Lava monster or the Vulture Dimension. 3. He has talked before about how he hams up his reactions for dropout and D20 because it's fun for the audience and the players. I think sometimes (not always) when he has those shocked Pikachu moments, he already knew they were possible and set them up so that if someone figured it out that player would feel amazing.
@@jonathankorman4031 He says in an afterward he was aware Ice Feast would make them immune to the stun and fire damage of the boss, but he forgot about lava, hence the "This [stage hazard] is only bad for my guys?!"
Brennan's "I ge- I don't know how many times I have to say you gotta read ice feast!" Cracks me the fuck up. His exasperation and joy that they're finally using his homebrew spell comes through so clear.
And he’s so excited about it he doesn’t even for a second seem to think about… oh wait… this combat is highly fire related… maybe I should change tactics…
@@catherineelmore2004 Exactly! If even a seasoned DM like Brennan can overlook some things while in the thick of things, I find it somehow reassuring about my own fears as a new DM.
@@weepingwalnutdefinitely! I’m pretty sure that’s why Brennan decided to make Porter show them the stun ability, when he thought he got the goddess’ name. Then, his fire attack was gonna be the surprise “you take 50 damage of a type you’re immune to, thanks to a bit you made a season ago” moment, but he completely forgot lava too deals fire damage, making the absolutely clever and mad arena into a hazard only for his villains. Genius of unplanned entertainment
@@hiimshana The thing is; lava should deal more than just massive Fire Damage, but also a mild amount of Poison (and maybe Acid) Damage from the toxic gasses releashed, and a moderate amount of Bludgeoning Damage if you're submerged in it from the fact that you're getting 'crushed' on all sides by molten rocks. Also, depending on how you're immune to Fire Damage (in this case with a Cold/Ice spell), this would mean that you're likely not taking damage by remaining perpetually colder than the lava. This means that the lava closest to your body would start to solidify, hindering your movement, making you sink as the hotter lava would rise to the surface to take your place. Basically; 1. If you're standing or walking (not running, jumping, or falling) on the surface of already semi-solidified lava, you're 'only' at risk of Fire and Poison (and maybe Acid) damage. 2. If you break the surface of the lava and are at least ankle deep, you'd have severely reduced movement, and need a Strength or Dexterity check to stop from sinking further. (In addition to the previous effect). 3. If you're more than waist deep, you are now Restrained and need to make a saving throw against Strength or Constitution to keep from being Petrified. (In addition to the previous effects). 4. Failing this, you are both Petrified and Suffocating, and begin Bludgeoning damage. (In addition to the previous effects.)
Its such a beardsley thing to be like "i cast a spell to give everyone a level of exhaustion and take 7 points of cold damage" and then does nothing else just to fuck with you, so i too was excited when the spell went on
Ice Feast having a 24 hour duration means you can cast it right before a long rest which cures the exhaustion and 1d12 cold damage, then wake up with 16 hours of only the benefits. Then it expires right when you're about to start another long rest, so you cast it again.
YOOO!!! That's absolutely OP!! You're right!! My new head cannon is that they kept that strategy up during the night yorb quest (I'm assuming Kristen somehow somewhere got Ice Feast during that) hence the absolute EXHAUSTION at the beginning of Junior Year. Then finally, after recovering from basically months and months of constant exhaustion, they were finally mentally ready to continue that strategy; that's why they hadn't cast it until now!
Yeah, it’s extremely powerful. It’s similar to a 17+ level Wizard casting Simulacrum via Wish every day, like if you’re playing “optimally” it would 100% be a part of your character’s daily routine. The only “downside” is that you basically lose a (presumably) 6th level spell slot, since you want to ensure you have the ability to cast Ice Feast right before your long rest. That said, we don’t know what the spell components are, if we assume it’s similar to Heroes’ Feast, it’s a 1000gp commitment every time you cast it.
I love how he's always a mixture of annoyed, amazed, and delighted in these situations, and then he leans into it in the narrative. He loves it when his friends pull one over on him 😂
It’s every DMs favorite when their players just do some absolutely fucked shit we weren’t expecting. So long as it fucks, they can fuck up the plans I had as much as they want!
@@ClintYeastwood420as a newbie DM, I have never been both happier and more frustrated then when my players fuck over my immaculate schemes to fuck them over. It’s a great feeling
I have two competing images in my head. One is Riz frantically trying to swim under the surface and getting nowhere because he definitely doesn't have the density to actually sink in lava. The other is Riz slowly rising up out from under the surface like Martin Sheen in Apocalypse Now with a deranged "cut his head off so they can't revivify him" look on his face.
I absolutely adore that he completely gets so distracted with the fact that Ally never read the team the spell before that he doesn’t stop to think “Oh wait… this is a fight where immunity to fire is going to *really* help them and screw my villains… Oops!” He’s so focused on “Yea, they’re finally using the spell I made them!” that he doesn’t even have time to contemplate how that’s going to affect this particular combat!
not enough love given to the like. 2 full seconds where Brennen is going along with Murph’s call but has not remembered they are immune to fire damage yet. Truly what a face at 15:23
@@Loumenn Dropout Discord is switching to read-only, then shutting down soon-ish. It's sort of splintering into a few different servers now that you can join from the main one.
@@futchslug The irony being that there's a joke out there somewhere about... Iyengar & Mulligan & Thompson being the name of their rules lawyering firm (I remember this from somewhere and I don't know what but I swear it's real, Iyengar of course being Aabria).
@@jdk2535 It originally started as Iyengar and Mulligan in the D&D Beyond short series Battle for Beyond. Thompson was added during Burrow's End, and I believe that Nick Marini has also made partner after that insane build he had going on in Downfall on Critical Role.
Adding in the gorgug getting his axe in sophomore year and then every time he crits on a 19 or knocks someone prone (or just the bits from the last stand episodes) would be the cherry on top to this video.
Love that these examples weren't just the two main clips on their own, but that you gave a bunch of extra context/clarification to these moments that explain to anyone that doesnt know whats happening, and elevate the moment to be more exciting as a result
so, I had completely forgotten that Ice Feast was a random guess at a spell Ally made and thought the spell was a reference to the time they tried to eat the melting ice cream in their bag after getting downed. Made the unseasoned ice part much more confusing
I'm so glad that Brennan doesn't pay attention to, like, equipment and clothes and shit, because Riz has so much non-lava-safe shit on him when he just jumps on in there. I was so scared the whole time that Brennan was gonna go "okay, your gun melts now what".
@@keithkent366 this is the right take, if you had fire immunity and got hit with a fireball, I'd be hard pressed to find a DM that would then say "okay well all your clothes burn up and you're naked now." At the end of the day it's a game, and the assumed mechanics of items and clothes is that they are all a part of your person. We can interpret that however we want (i.e. magic shielding, tough clothes, etc.), but thems the mechanics.
people get so pressed abt it but like. fantasy high is not a setting where 1) death is all that permanent and 2) death is a genuine threat like ACoC. and even IN acoc, when murph succeeded on the roll, brennan honored his cleverness!! so it didn’t surprise me that brennan let everything on riz be fireproof for the Rule of Cool!
I don't know if it counts, but in Bloodkeep Ify uses his homebrew sword to stab himself while falling into the abyss to teleport himself back 'safely'.
The whole 'Reaction to move and block an attack with your body' is *extremely* useful - Been play a ruleset for some time that has something like that as one of the core class features, and it's always been super clutch
Honestly I think Swirlwarden was actually a great method for Brennan to make a bodyguard into something useful to the whole team. That it came with a fun corner case use is just gravy.
can't believe i slept on a crown of candy for so long. i thought the candy setting would be too whimsical for me but it's easily become my favorite season
2:25 I like this talk about tanks. It goes for all kinds of games, not just DnD roleplays, and it's tricky to discuss because hundreds of games, hundreds of diff mechanics and ideas, but most designs are pretty similar I suppose. One thing that can expand on the usefulness of tanks is to make them more active disruptors on the field instead of merely being passive disruptors. Some games will use taunt as a distraction, but tanks can be more flexible. Have them disable skills. Have them stun. Have them repeatedly react to incoming damage as counter measures for both themself and allies as they take damage. Tanks don't have to just be a wall. They can be actively mobile traps that can frustrate and dismantle/disable opponentw for the team.
TF2 does this by making Ignoring the Heavy a really bad thing to do if you want to survive for more than 0.3 seconds Pokémon does this by having tanky mons be really fucking annoying to leave alive, dropping all kinds of status moves and making the life of the person ignoring them a living hell Inscryption does this by making cards that are super bulky usually have another very bothersome or impactful utility those are the only 3 examples of games that make tanks anything more than "lots of HP lots of defense go nuts"
Yep, and you can just look at most mobas (I'll mention Heroes of the Storm because that's the one I played) and games in general, but tanks, beyond great survivability, need to be threats, and that often comes up in crowd control and initiating skills. That way, you can't really avoid tanks, as they usually control the battlefield and engagements. Their job is to get on the frontline, lock an enemy in place, or maje it extremely dangerous to dive past them. I mean Diablo has two control spells that will either stun or displace an enemy, Imperius has a dive that roots, Varian has a taunt, Stitches has his hook + eat, Tyrael can jump across, lock a zone and boost movement speed, Rexar has an easy to hit stun, D-VA reduces the enemy damage, Muradin has a stun, a zone slow, a jump to initiate or flee, and his ulti to strand an enemy hero, ETC is basically only CC, Anubarak has two stun, Arthas roots, Garrosh can grab and throw, Johanna has a blind as well as a tool to group enemies on her... Basically, tanks shine most when they need to be taken care of because they enable plays.
In the MMO Rift way back in the day, Rogues had a tanking skill tree which is something I'd never seen before. And like you said, they weren't a wall. Warriors were the wall. The rogue tank tree was about throwing up energy shields to absorb hits and teleporting to a targeted ally to pull heat off of them. It was incredibly cool.
You know, Gorgon from Lancer does this very well. It can jump in front of allies being targeted and then make the enemies lifes a very short lived hell
The Adversary Toolkit book for the FATE rpg system even describes the conceptual template of the Threat - an enemy whose job is twofold; they have to be able to soak damage whether by means of a stunt or just having more stress boxes and/or consequence slots than average, but they also need at least one stunt that’s designed to make the players want to prioritize taking them out of the scene as fast as possible (whether it be AOE attacks, reinforcement timers, creating/enforcing really debilitating aspects, etc.). And I’m sure a player can use those same principles when designing a protector-type character.
I know Brennan is emotionally attached to his clothes but he needs to seriously consider getting rid of that one maroon raglan shirt. It's clearly cursed, my guy.
I think the logic is "if you've eaten that much ice, then you've powered through world-ending brain freeze, and it'll take you 24 hours to be able to deal with anything else." I however have never gotten brain freeze in my life so not sure if that's how that works.
So fun fact, there was a case where I was trying to convince a player to give up an artifact to try and further a certain subplot in the narrative of a campaign. The player really had not much use for it, but was mostly keeping it around since it could use things like raise dead and animate dead for an HP cost. Eventually, I gave him a potent boon from the NPC he gave it to that did the following... He had immunity to cold and necrotic damage. Additionally, all undead would not attack him. Needless to say...this resulted in a few instances of...shenanigans leading up to the campaign's conclusion.
2:05 In D&D 5e, you can make a character tanky, but there isn't much to support the actual role of a tank. Aggro control/taunting just doesn't really exist in a meaningful way, so while you can survive almost anything, everything can just ignore you until you're all that is left. The closest you can get to an AoE taunt, is the Barbarians Reckless Attack giving enemies advantage against you. Other options like Panache, the Sentinel feat, or the Compelled Duel spell, are only able to effectively taunt one enemy, which still leaves the rest of your team open against a lot of threats.
@@fugyfruit I did not know about that one. Thanks for pointing it out! It's still not great though, only keeping them from leaving your area of influence rather than incentivising them to fight you, meaning you either want to be fighting alone on the front lines with ranged support, or you use it to allow allies to potentially escape a dangerous situation while you sacrifice yourself. It being a Paladin Channel Divinity is also a downside, with you only being able to use it once per short rest, and it competing with a bonus action AoE healing for any targets in range that can hear you (ask your DM for whether this applies to unconscious characters; if so, it's insane, but if not it's still okay and likely better than the taunt; notably, the design intent according to Jeremy Crawford is that being unconscious does not deafen you, which is why it's not part of the description of the unconscious state).
Paladins, clerics and artificers make weirdly more effective tanks than straight class fighters. Paladins get compelled duel, clerics and artificers get warding bond, Sanctuary and command (halt buys you 6 seconds to get your principal out of there). Artillerists can use their turret to cast a protestive bubble of temporary hit points and refresh it every round. 3 levels of one of these classes in your bodyguard build makes a big difference
One of my favorite minor examples of this is in The Unsleeping City. Alejandro trying to get Pete to sleep. "I'm gonna be up for another like 90 minutes" "No Pete...SLUMBER!" *Casts sleep* "Yeah my bracelet makes me immune to sleep based harm" "...this usually works! SLUMBER!!!!"
"I've made my character into a defensive bulwark and now what happens as a result of that is I just watch all my friends die" This happened to my level 14 totem barbarian in our homebrew 5e game. At a certain point he just had so many hitpoints and a high enough ac that bosses would just ignore him, because there's no tanking abilities in 5e to force someone to engage with you and he couldn't put out enough damage to be a bigger threat than any of the fullcasters. We'd frequently end fights with everyone in the low single digits and he hadn't even been hit once.
I wondered if gorgug axe that can auto crita on inanimate object in the last episode of nightmare King arc is also homebrewed Since it also taken Brennan into surprised when gorgug hit the tree
If I recall correctly- the gnomes gave him an option to choose between two different axes , both of which were homebrewed by Brennan with different stats. And he got to pick the one he liked better- and went with the gravity axe.
While it may be homebrewed that effect is a property of any adamantine weapon in 5e (source: Xanathar's guide to everything) so it might just have been made of adamantine in addition to its homebrewed features
There's a homebrew kamen rider class (Masked Hero on Homebrewry) and it's main secondary ability is an ability that lets you make an attack against an incoming enemy attack as a reaction. This will allow you to take the damage like with swirl warden, but on critical hits you just completely negate the damage. It's a very anime, power of friendship move and honestly very fitting for D&D
HOW DOES ONE HAVE THAT MUCH STORAGE IN THE BRAIN?! I simply cannot. After a long life and death finally succumbs this man- we must examine his fucking brain. It’s too complicated.
Ice feast should be a reflavoring of Create Food and Water for a winter-themed cleric that creates a bunch of food made out of snow. (Still fills you up like food)
Props to Brennan here, alot of DMs would just reply with "no you can't do that" I have had it happen with core class features, but Brennan doesn't just shrug it off but rolls with it making a amazing scene.
Well, disadvantage on all ability checks from exhaustion is brutal, so they had to spend 6 high level spell slots to cancel out that exhaustion. It’s a huge investment with an opportunity cost that is essentially All of Kristen’s high end firepower.
Also, this is the absolute ideal battle for it. The stunned condition was bound to come up and the floor is lava. There are much more busted 7th level spells. Such as the being casting ice feast. A simulacrum.
It's basically based on Heroes Feast, and the damage and exhaustion absolutely balance it out, maybe even to the point that it's underpowered and niche compared to Heroes Feast. But Brennan gave them the spell for a reason!
It really feels like ice feast should have had teifling rules where you just take half damage or something lol, like come on he should have known that total immunity would bite him in the ass
redemption paladin has always and will always be my favorite class/subclass to play. I just get to pump con and save my party multiple times an encounter. and if i ever crit I can pump up a max level smite and still deal damage.
Don't forget in Starstruck Odyssey when ally is trying to intentionally trigger the corn mascot's attack of opportunity, and brennan is clearly bewildered, only for ally to use their "call the guards" reaction, not only causing the attack to target murph instead, but giving murph a free counter attack if (when) it misses.
There's plenty of ways to mechanically represent being a protector. Interception Fighting Style. Cavalier Fighter, Armorer Artifier, Ancestral Guardian Barbarian, Redemption & Crown Oath Paladins, the Warding Bond Spell. I would like to see more, though. I like this magic item. I think it's cool. Just remidning my fellow tank players that these things exist! :)
The funniest part about this is that Brennan says later that he knew they would have fire immunity specifically for one of porter's attacks which he was totally ok with. His mistake wasn't forgetting that they would get immunity to fire damage, his mistake was forgetting that lava does fire damage which is way funnier
love that it's always murph figuring out how to manipulate Brennan's homebrew stuff against him
iyengar & mulligan have acquired a new partner at the firm for rules lawyers
Friendly fire between DMs
Tbf Mulligan came on NADDPOD with one of the most broken characters I ever heard of.
I mean, the lava protection was all Emily.
@@MrBEEOUTCH all i need to hear to get into NADDPOD immediately, thanks
Again, Zac has been killing it this season. "Loser says what?"
He’s gone full bully!
OHHHHHH
What?
Zack has been killing it all season. Especially after figuring out barbificer. Damn near soloing a purple worm is ridiculous in the first place.
"Do you have a warrant?"
That "Losersayswhat" moment is so real highschool energy. Like, in that moment Zac became a highschooler
Literally he was possessed by the spirit of a 16 yr old
No, Junior year? Nah, Ghost of a 17 year old
@@christiangarza8122 plenty of ppl r 16 in junior yr loll
just incredible sequencing by ally. Starts to read off the spell, people are not into it, gets a die, rolls damage for the whole party to take, people are trying to distance themselves, and THEN say what the actual good parts are and everyone gets back on board. pausing to find a d12 to roll damage kills me
“Nah, here you go guys. 7 points of damage”
Brennan’s face while Ally read it off cracks me up every time
They are the true embodiment of gremlin energy
Also the fact that Brennan gave them the spell card in the beginning of the season and Ally themselves only read the first part and didn't read the rest for the ENTIRE season
Absolute baller confidence
Zac: "(charmed) Mistress, should I go into a rage and fuck them up?"
Brennan: "Yes, go into your rage! And fuck them up!"
Zac: I go into a rage, and since I have Mindless Rage, I can't be charmed or frightened...
:-O
The best part is that isn't even homebrew... that's the sixth level feature for Berserker Barbarians.
Them's the brakes... 😂
Broke: thinking players are fucking over the DM
Woke: the DM is giving his players things that are actually useful for the game.
Yeah! Eg using the power of protecting another to drag yourself out of the water to defend them is very flavorful, actually!
Bespoke: The DM is giving his players things that are better for the game than he intends.
@@Landis963 After a toke: What?
I also have a kind of fun little conspiracy theory about this in Brennan's case. Think about it:
1. Brennan is a well-known master of the rules who has played D&D, mostly as a DM, since childhood.
2. He is also famous for his deep preparation hidden behind tiny little details, like the Lava monster or the Vulture Dimension.
3. He has talked before about how he hams up his reactions for dropout and D20 because it's fun for the audience and the players.
I think sometimes (not always) when he has those shocked Pikachu moments, he already knew they were possible and set them up so that if someone figured it out that player would feel amazing.
@@jonathankorman4031 He says in an afterward he was aware Ice Feast would make them immune to the stun and fire damage of the boss, but he forgot about lava, hence the "This [stage hazard] is only bad for my guys?!"
"Fight me in the lava" is the new "Fight me in the sky!".
Brennan's "I ge- I don't know how many times I have to say you gotta read ice feast!" Cracks me the fuck up. His exasperation and joy that they're finally using his homebrew spell comes through so clear.
And he’s so excited about it he doesn’t even for a second seem to think about… oh wait… this combat is highly fire related… maybe I should change tactics…
@@catherineelmore2004 Exactly! If even a seasoned DM like Brennan can overlook some things while in the thick of things, I find it somehow reassuring about my own fears as a new DM.
Ice Feast hard countering the final boss’s status effect AND the final boss arena’s hazards is just…
Beautiful
I’m pretty sure the status effect counter was planned by Brennan, but the hazard counter definitely wasn’t.
@@weepingwalnutbrennan says as much, actually! he says it was to counter a fire attack the BBGE has, but he just didn’t account for the lava.
@@weepingwalnutdefinitely!
I’m pretty sure that’s why Brennan decided to make Porter show them the stun ability, when he thought he got the goddess’ name.
Then, his fire attack was gonna be the surprise “you take 50 damage of a type you’re immune to, thanks to a bit you made a season ago” moment, but he completely forgot lava too deals fire damage, making the absolutely clever and mad arena into a hazard only for his villains.
Genius of unplanned entertainment
@@hiimshana
The thing is; lava should deal more than just massive Fire Damage, but also a mild amount of Poison (and maybe Acid) Damage from the toxic gasses releashed, and a moderate amount of Bludgeoning Damage if you're submerged in it from the fact that you're getting 'crushed' on all sides by molten rocks.
Also, depending on how you're immune to Fire Damage (in this case with a Cold/Ice spell), this would mean that you're likely not taking damage by remaining perpetually colder than the lava. This means that the lava closest to your body would start to solidify, hindering your movement, making you sink as the hotter lava would rise to the surface to take your place.
Basically;
1. If you're standing or walking (not running, jumping, or falling) on the surface of already semi-solidified lava, you're 'only' at risk of Fire and Poison (and maybe Acid) damage.
2. If you break the surface of the lava and are at least ankle deep, you'd have severely reduced movement, and need a Strength or Dexterity check to stop from sinking further. (In addition to the previous effect).
3. If you're more than waist deep, you are now Restrained and need to make a saving throw against Strength or Constitution to keep from being Petrified. (In addition to the previous effects).
4. Failing this, you are both Petrified and Suffocating, and begin Bludgeoning damage. (In addition to the previous effects.)
@@IronDinoit’s technically the blood of the goddess in the form of lava, but whatever, that’s also just not how d&d lava works
"Theo taking that damage for you just saved his life" that's the funniest shit.
Its such a beardsley thing to be like "i cast a spell to give everyone a level of exhaustion and take 7 points of cold damage" and then does nothing else just to fuck with you, so i too was excited when the spell went on
real "i fall from the crow's nest" energy
Between using Swirlwarden to leap out of the ocean and that scene when he used Knock, Theobold was an absolute beast this season
honestly theo is one of my all-time fav intrepid characters...
He proved that knock is way better than people want to give it credit for
Ice Feast having a 24 hour duration means you can cast it right before a long rest which cures the exhaustion and 1d12 cold damage, then wake up with 16 hours of only the benefits. Then it expires right when you're about to start another long rest, so you cast it again.
they couldnt go for a long rest because they only had time for an hour of short rest.
@@santiv4 Depends when Ice Feast was made available.
YOOO!!! That's absolutely OP!! You're right!! My new head cannon is that they kept that strategy up during the night yorb quest (I'm assuming Kristen somehow somewhere got Ice Feast during that) hence the absolute EXHAUSTION at the beginning of Junior Year. Then finally, after recovering from basically months and months of constant exhaustion, they were finally mentally ready to continue that strategy; that's why they hadn't cast it until now!
Yeah, it’s extremely powerful. It’s similar to a 17+ level Wizard casting Simulacrum via Wish every day, like if you’re playing “optimally” it would 100% be a part of your character’s daily routine. The only “downside” is that you basically lose a (presumably) 6th level spell slot, since you want to ensure you have the ability to cast Ice Feast right before your long rest. That said, we don’t know what the spell components are, if we assume it’s similar to Heroes’ Feast, it’s a 1000gp commitment every time you cast it.
@@DuckDoolittle 1000gp? that's about 3 Gilear Revivifications and some change right? hefty commitment
I love how he's always a mixture of annoyed, amazed, and delighted in these situations, and then he leans into it in the narrative. He loves it when his friends pull one over on him 😂
It’s every DMs favorite when their players just do some absolutely fucked shit we weren’t expecting. So long as it fucks, they can fuck up the plans I had as much as they want!
@@ClintYeastwood420as a newbie DM, I have never been both happier and more frustrated then when my players fuck over my immaculate schemes to fuck them over. It’s a great feeling
As he said in an Adventuring Party, he loves it because once the players do it it becomes fair game for _him_ to do it as well
@@bubbledoubletrouble as I have reminded my party consistently over the years. “You can create water in someone’s lungs, yeah. But then so can I.”
He's like one of those trickster fairies from old folk stories who are more impressed when the hero pulls one over on them than upset.
I have two competing images in my head. One is Riz frantically trying to swim under the surface and getting nowhere because he definitely doesn't have the density to actually sink in lava. The other is Riz slowly rising up out from under the surface like Martin Sheen in Apocalypse Now with a deranged "cut his head off so they can't revivify him" look on his face.
both are truly wonderful. lives in my head rent free now.
8:25 "That'll teach me for homebrewing magic items..."
It, in fact, did not
The immediate turn around as soon as Ally said "Immune to being stunned." This party has PTSD when it comes to being stunned. 😂
Antiope's bow from the seven also screwed him as a homebrewed item
Honestly that’s on him for making an item that Insta kills flying creatures and then making the first fight a flier
I absolutely adore that he completely gets so distracted with the fact that Ally never read the team the spell before that he doesn’t stop to think “Oh wait… this is a fight where immunity to fire is going to *really* help them and screw my villains… Oops!” He’s so focused on “Yea, they’re finally using the spell I made them!” that he doesn’t even have time to contemplate how that’s going to affect this particular combat!
not enough love given to the like. 2 full seconds where Brennen is going along with Murph’s call but has not remembered they are immune to fire damage yet. Truly what a face at 15:23
He is TRULY like “what a wild fucking choice, but who am I to stop you”
"What an absolute king move, King. Let me roll some fire dam YOU FUKKA!"
Same shirt, different incredible homebrew moment
As soon as it’s pointed out to him, he’ll never wear that shirt and have a homebrewed anything at the same time XD
Someone on the discord mentioned that one is emerging and the other is submerging
Whether it’s e or sub, Murph always be mergin’
RIP Discord 😢
@@NiaNeuman wait what
@@Loumenn Dropout Discord is switching to read-only, then shutting down soon-ish. It's sort of splintering into a few different servers now that you can join from the main one.
I'm confused; what is emerging and what is submerging?
That's what you get for homebrewing items with two Supreme Crit Justices (and one lower magistrate) at your table
I think literally everyone at the table has been on dungeon court except Brennan & Siobhan, we got a party full of rules justices
@@futchslug The irony being that there's a joke out there somewhere about... Iyengar & Mulligan & Thompson being the name of their rules lawyering firm (I remember this from somewhere and I don't know what but I swear it's real, Iyengar of course being Aabria).
@@jdk2535 One of the stoatal recalls iirc
@@jdk2535 It originally started as Iyengar and Mulligan in the D&D Beyond short series Battle for Beyond. Thompson was added during Burrow's End, and I believe that Nick Marini has also made partner after that insane build he had going on in Downfall on Critical Role.
Adding in the gorgug getting his axe in sophomore year and then every time he crits on a 19 or knocks someone prone (or just the bits from the last stand episodes) would be the cherry on top to this video.
The knocking people prone on a crit is from a different item. But that combination is a sweet set of bs.
@@stevenharper9108 ah, thank you. I didn't know that. What part does the knocking prone on a crit?
The mixtape he got from Zelda makes people go prone.
Love that these examples weren't just the two main clips on their own, but that you gave a bunch of extra context/clarification to these moments that explain to anyone that doesnt know whats happening, and elevate the moment to be more exciting as a result
so, I had completely forgotten that Ice Feast was a random guess at a spell Ally made and thought the spell was a reference to the time they tried to eat the melting ice cream in their bag after getting downed. Made the unseasoned ice part much more confusing
I'm so glad that Brennan doesn't pay attention to, like, equipment and clothes and shit, because Riz has so much non-lava-safe shit on him when he just jumps on in there. I was so scared the whole time that Brennan was gonna go "okay, your gun melts now what".
I mean it's magical fire protection, I'd assume that like invisibility, it'd apply to your clothes and gear if we're gonna be fair
NSFL - Not Safe For Lava
@@keithkent366 Like--we Could? But it doesn't say anything like that on the card so I dunno.
@@keithkent366 this is the right take, if you had fire immunity and got hit with a fireball, I'd be hard pressed to find a DM that would then say "okay well all your clothes burn up and you're naked now." At the end of the day it's a game, and the assumed mechanics of items and clothes is that they are all a part of your person. We can interpret that however we want (i.e. magic shielding, tough clothes, etc.), but thems the mechanics.
people get so pressed abt it but like. fantasy high is not a setting where 1) death is all that permanent and 2) death is a genuine threat like ACoC. and even IN acoc, when murph succeeded on the roll, brennan honored his cleverness!! so it didn’t surprise me that brennan let everything on riz be fireproof for the Rule of Cool!
I don't know if it counts, but in Bloodkeep Ify uses his homebrew sword to stab himself while falling into the abyss to teleport himself back 'safely'.
Sometimes, you gotta crack a few eggs to _not_ make an omelet.
The whole 'Reaction to move and block an attack with your body' is *extremely* useful - Been play a ruleset for some time that has something like that as one of the core class features, and it's always been super clutch
Is this a ruleset for DnD or a different system? If so what is it cause it sounds damn cool 😮
his evil grin when ally read ice feast vs his look of defeat when it is used against him
Honestly I think Swirlwarden was actually a great method for Brennan to make a bodyguard into something useful to the whole team. That it came with a fun corner case use is just gravy.
can't believe i slept on a crown of candy for so long. i thought the candy setting would be too whimsical for me but it's easily become my favorite season
It is the most emotional and devastating season they’ve made
Doing their gritty anyone can die Game of Thrones season in candy get up.
2:25 I like this talk about tanks. It goes for all kinds of games, not just DnD roleplays, and it's tricky to discuss because hundreds of games, hundreds of diff mechanics and ideas, but most designs are pretty similar I suppose. One thing that can expand on the usefulness of tanks is to make them more active disruptors on the field instead of merely being passive disruptors. Some games will use taunt as a distraction, but tanks can be more flexible. Have them disable skills. Have them stun. Have them repeatedly react to incoming damage as counter measures for both themself and allies as they take damage. Tanks don't have to just be a wall. They can be actively mobile traps that can frustrate and dismantle/disable opponentw for the team.
TF2 does this by making Ignoring the Heavy a really bad thing to do if you want to survive for more than 0.3 seconds
Pokémon does this by having tanky mons be really fucking annoying to leave alive, dropping all kinds of status moves and making the life of the person ignoring them a living hell
Inscryption does this by making cards that are super bulky usually have another very bothersome or impactful utility
those are the only 3 examples of games that make tanks anything more than "lots of HP lots of defense go nuts"
Yep, and you can just look at most mobas (I'll mention Heroes of the Storm because that's the one I played) and games in general, but tanks, beyond great survivability, need to be threats, and that often comes up in crowd control and initiating skills.
That way, you can't really avoid tanks, as they usually control the battlefield and engagements. Their job is to get on the frontline, lock an enemy in place, or maje it extremely dangerous to dive past them.
I mean Diablo has two control spells that will either stun or displace an enemy, Imperius has a dive that roots, Varian has a taunt, Stitches has his hook + eat, Tyrael can jump across, lock a zone and boost movement speed, Rexar has an easy to hit stun, D-VA reduces the enemy damage, Muradin has a stun, a zone slow, a jump to initiate or flee, and his ulti to strand an enemy hero, ETC is basically only CC, Anubarak has two stun, Arthas roots, Garrosh can grab and throw, Johanna has a blind as well as a tool to group enemies on her...
Basically, tanks shine most when they need to be taken care of because they enable plays.
In the MMO Rift way back in the day, Rogues had a tanking skill tree which is something I'd never seen before. And like you said, they weren't a wall. Warriors were the wall. The rogue tank tree was about throwing up energy shields to absorb hits and teleporting to a targeted ally to pull heat off of them. It was incredibly cool.
You know, Gorgon from Lancer does this very well. It can jump in front of allies being targeted and then make the enemies lifes a very short lived hell
The Adversary Toolkit book for the FATE rpg system even describes the conceptual template of the Threat - an enemy whose job is twofold; they have to be able to soak damage whether by means of a stunt or just having more stress boxes and/or consequence slots than average, but they also need at least one stunt that’s designed to make the players want to prioritize taking them out of the scene as fast as possible (whether it be AOE attacks, reinforcement timers, creating/enforcing really debilitating aspects, etc.). And I’m sure a player can use those same principles when designing a protector-type character.
“the kramer of dice rolls…”
“you can’t call *yourself* the kramer of dice rolls”
“AND I DIDNT”
such a good beardsley bit
swirlwarden causes some of the best moments in the whole season i love it
"Hey! I fucked myself!"
-Brennan Lee Mulligan 2024
You know, Brennan.. Maybe Ice Feast should have given RESISTANCE to fire.
Fight me in the lava......the most D&D line in this entire video
Love your segment titles. "oops yogurt" "bamboozled" and "bamboozled again" are all very good
lol, I didn't even catch that Ice Feast originally started as Ally just fully making up a spell name
The fact that he's wearing the same shirt
I have had Ally saying "Fight me in the lava!" stuck in my head since Wednesday and I want it on a shirt or a sticker or something.
Not Brennan wearing the same goddamn shirt for both of these clips.
I got an ad for Game Changer before the video. The algorithm is working.
I know Brennan is emotionally attached to his clothes but he needs to seriously consider getting rid of that one maroon raglan shirt. It's clearly cursed, my guy.
Or it's lucky... Just for his team and not him.
It is cute though, like objectively, I'd wear it. It looks comfortable. 😂
Lou's quote to sum up A Crown of Candy: "We live in the damn Box of Doom"
‘You absolute GOON!’ Is etched into my memory forever
Brennan didn't have to make Ice Feast make one immune to stun - like, it doesn't make as much sense as immunity to fire - but he did
I think the logic is "if you've eaten that much ice, then you've powered through world-ending brain freeze, and it'll take you 24 hours to be able to deal with anything else." I however have never gotten brain freeze in my life so not sure if that's how that works.
"why did i do this?"
lmao lol, even hah
So fun fact, there was a case where I was trying to convince a player to give up an artifact to try and further a certain subplot in the narrative of a campaign. The player really had not much use for it, but was mostly keeping it around since it could use things like raise dead and animate dead for an HP cost. Eventually, I gave him a potent boon from the NPC he gave it to that did the following...
He had immunity to cold and necrotic damage. Additionally, all undead would not attack him.
Needless to say...this resulted in a few instances of...shenanigans leading up to the campaign's conclusion.
There's a reason that only, like, 1-2 things in the entire game give you immunity to fire damage. Even WISH only grants resistance
Brennan needs to stop wearing this red shirt, it's his "I'm about to be bamboozled" shirt apparently
omg there was an ice feast origin story? With how badly Brennan got fucked by that it just makes it so much funnier
This is literal journalism my guy.
Love Brennan’s react to Murph saying he wants to submerge himself in lava. Going from “okay, where’s he going with this?” to “OH FUCK.” Was so funny
unseasoned ice. not unflavored. unseasoned.
I fucking love "a member of the house of rocks is in danger" as he bursts out of the water.
As much as he shouts against it, I think Brennan's homebrewed "oopses" make for a more exciting and cinematic game. xD
2:05 In D&D 5e, you can make a character tanky, but there isn't much to support the actual role of a tank.
Aggro control/taunting just doesn't really exist in a meaningful way, so while you can survive almost anything, everything can just ignore you until you're all that is left.
The closest you can get to an AoE taunt, is the Barbarians Reckless Attack giving enemies advantage against you. Other options like Panache, the Sentinel feat, or the Compelled Duel spell, are only able to effectively taunt one enemy, which still leaves the rest of your team open against a lot of threats.
The Oath of the Crown Paladin can taunt in a 30 ft radius with their channel divinity
@@fugyfruit I did not know about that one. Thanks for pointing it out!
It's still not great though, only keeping them from leaving your area of influence rather than incentivising them to fight you, meaning you either want to be fighting alone on the front lines with ranged support, or you use it to allow allies to potentially escape a dangerous situation while you sacrifice yourself.
It being a Paladin Channel Divinity is also a downside, with you only being able to use it once per short rest, and it competing with a bonus action AoE healing for any targets in range that can hear you (ask your DM for whether this applies to unconscious characters; if so, it's insane, but if not it's still okay and likely better than the taunt; notably, the design intent according to Jeremy Crawford is that being unconscious does not deafen you, which is why it's not part of the description of the unconscious state).
Paladins, clerics and artificers make weirdly more effective tanks than straight class fighters. Paladins get compelled duel, clerics and artificers get warding bond, Sanctuary and command (halt buys you 6 seconds to get your principal out of there). Artillerists can use their turret to cast a protestive bubble of temporary hit points and refresh it every round. 3 levels of one of these classes in your bodyguard build makes a big difference
I forgot how bad the old captioners were at captioning Siobhan, these people had never heard a British person speak in their life.
No need to find somebody to blame, it was just auto generated.
Couldn't stop singing "Piragua, piragua. New block of ice, piragua..." at the time for Ice Feast.
Nice to see an In The Heights song!
One of my favorite minor examples of this is in The Unsleeping City. Alejandro trying to get Pete to sleep.
"I'm gonna be up for another like 90 minutes"
"No Pete...SLUMBER!" *Casts sleep*
"Yeah my bracelet makes me immune to sleep based harm"
"...this usually works! SLUMBER!!!!"
It's always Murph that figures out how to take advantage of something he has in a situation that would be dire otherwise. Good shit.
"I've made my character into a defensive bulwark and now what happens as a result of that is I just watch all my friends die"
This happened to my level 14 totem barbarian in our homebrew 5e game. At a certain point he just had so many hitpoints and a high enough ac that bosses would just ignore him, because there's no tanking abilities in 5e to force someone to engage with you and he couldn't put out enough damage to be a bigger threat than any of the fullcasters. We'd frequently end fights with everyone in the low single digits and he hadn't even been hit once.
After having watching the Ravening War. Seeing Matt just pull the rug on Brennan multiple times was so great.
I wondered if gorgug axe that can auto crita on inanimate object in the last episode of nightmare King arc is also homebrewed
Since it also taken Brennan into surprised when gorgug hit the tree
If I recall correctly- the gnomes gave him an option to choose between two different axes , both of which were homebrewed by Brennan with different stats. And he got to pick the one he liked better- and went with the gravity axe.
While it may be homebrewed that effect is a property of any adamantine weapon in 5e (source: Xanathar's guide to everything) so it might just have been made of adamantine in addition to its homebrewed features
Love that he's wearing the same shirt both times
the hard cut from Siobhan to Murph: "Yup." "Yup." is some masterful editing
2:14 There is actually, the Oath of Redemption subclass lets you take the damage as a reaction of anyone in your Paladin aura
“Beyold thee ice feast, guvna” never fails to make me giggle
I didn’t even know that ice feast was from a joke from sophomore year 😂 makes it even better
There's a homebrew kamen rider class (Masked Hero on Homebrewry) and it's main secondary ability is an ability that lets you make an attack against an incoming enemy attack as a reaction. This will allow you to take the damage like with swirl warden, but on critical hits you just completely negate the damage.
It's a very anime, power of friendship move and honestly very fitting for D&D
The fact that he has on the same shirt 🤣
Prestidigitation to season the ice feast
HOW DOES ONE HAVE THAT MUCH STORAGE IN THE BRAIN?! I simply cannot. After a long life and death finally succumbs this man- we must examine his fucking brain. It’s too complicated.
I've got it too and let me tell you there's no room for song names only the seven languages I speak
Ice feast should be a reflavoring of Create Food and Water for a winter-themed cleric that creates a bunch of food made out of snow. (Still fills you up like food)
This edit demonstrates such a virtuoso recall of D20 moments. Love it.
Brennan's face after murph says "can i use swirwarden?" is so good lmaooo
The *anguish* in Brennan’s voice when he realizes they’re fireproof 😂😂😂
The anguish wasn't from the fireproofing - that was intentional. The anguish was forgetting how Lava works.
Props to Brennan here, alot of DMs would just reply with "no you can't do that" I have had it happen with core class features, but Brennan doesn't just shrug it off but rolls with it making a amazing scene.
This season was so stressful but damn was it incredible
honestly I am just happy with a anti-stun spell because a whole ep of stun PC is boring to watch
Yeah, Stunned is such a frustrating effect as players, too
"Jet what if you immediately die"
Oh honey
Everyone so mad about ice feast like this isnt a game Brennan wrote to play with his friends, and he clearly isn't mad about how it went. Chill.
For a 7th level spell - Ice feast is absolutely broken
I mean if immunity to stun wasn’t so good it probably wouldn’t be
Well, disadvantage on all ability checks from exhaustion is brutal, so they had to spend 6 high level spell slots to cancel out that exhaustion. It’s a huge investment with an opportunity cost that is essentially All of Kristen’s high end firepower.
Also, this is the absolute ideal battle for it. The stunned condition was bound to come up and the floor is lava. There are much more busted 7th level spells. Such as the being casting ice feast. A simulacrum.
It's basically based on Heroes Feast, and the damage and exhaustion absolutely balance it out, maybe even to the point that it's underpowered and niche compared to Heroes Feast. But Brennan gave them the spell for a reason!
@@jtjpro13 Exactly
Shout out to PF2 and Lancer for having proper protector tanks
It really feels like ice feast should have had teifling rules where you just take half damage or something lol, like come on he should have known that total immunity would bite him in the ass
Emily wasn’t gonna stop saying it until everyone knew that’s why she was trying to get a dex save lol
I'm still not used to hear Siobhan cussing
brennan wearing the exact same shirt
It’s that two tone red shirt, both times!
ice feast is the funniest possible concept for a spell
redemption paladin has always and will always be my favorite class/subclass to play. I just get to pump con and save my party multiple times an encounter. and if i ever crit I can pump up a max level smite and still deal damage.
I hadn’t realized that Ice Feast was a call back all the way to sophomore year 😂
Don't forget in Starstruck Odyssey when ally is trying to intentionally trigger the corn mascot's attack of opportunity, and brennan is clearly bewildered, only for ally to use their "call the guards" reaction, not only causing the attack to target murph instead, but giving murph a free counter attack if (when) it misses.
13:25 I wonder if they could stack ice feast, 2 feasts in 16 hr, potential 40 extra HP max for the next 8 hours.
he could have scared them s bit by saying the cold protective aura begins to cool the lava creating a quickly hardening shell of lava rock around you.
There's plenty of ways to mechanically represent being a protector. Interception Fighting Style. Cavalier Fighter, Armorer Artifier, Ancestral Guardian Barbarian, Redemption & Crown Oath Paladins, the Warding Bond Spell.
I would like to see more, though. I like this magic item. I think it's cool. Just remidning my fellow tank players that these things exist! :)
2:20 Nick Marini figuring this shit out as the dawnfather with 4 classes