In the game, Vax was known for saying, "Dagger, dagger, dagger" for each attack. There is merch with that phrase. I like how when shopping they had him casually say it. 😀
In the live stream, Marisa (who voices Keyleth) covered her mouth when Matt Mercer described the lynching at the Sun tree... And the used that in the Keyleth art when she sees them.
It’s a little bit of a ‘blink and you miss it’ situation but the necklace Lady Briarwood gives the little girl is a replica of Pike’s holy symbol - foreshadowing how the family are going to be dressed as Vox Machina later on.
It's messed up to be sure. What's more messed up is that in the Campaign Pike wasn't present during the courtyard battle. So she was ommited from the morbid sign in that version. In the cartoon she was absolutely present, and the Brierwoods killed 2 children for their message. Friggin messed up XO
This isn't spoilers more lorewise. The reason percy was so shocked seeing the state of the sun tree and then whitestone, is the sun tree was planted by a God. The thought that something this extreme has happened or could happen, never crossed his mind.
@@isaiahwelch8066 Ah, I see, so the Dawnfather they mention is Pelor (I play D&D and watched Vox Machina but never watched the whole Critical Role campaign, just small moments here and there)
In the original stream, the Sun Tree incident was also a warning to the townsfolk: If you help the people who look like this, this will also be your fate.
you've officially reached the scene in the livestreamed campaign where all the players and the audience at home went from "this is a fun little dnd game" to "oh shit this is full on improvised horror storytelling" just like here as matt described all of the bodies hanging on the sun tree marisha/keyleth was the first to realize the bodies described were meant to look like them at which point all the other players were shocked at how dark matt was willing to go. recommend watching it and a few other original stream scenes that made their way into the show when ur done watching this
Not to mention that Marisha, Keyleth's player, had to go back home with Matt immediately afterwards. It was a big shock that ended that game session for both players and critters alike.
I love watching peoples reaction to that part. It shows how well the show is made that everyone has pretty much the same reaction that the players did.
The only reason that Keyleth figured it out on the stream was because the Briarwoods hung a bear as well on the Sun Tree. Which was a detail missing from the animated series.
Yup. This is the moment that I fell in love with Critical Role and, more broadly, D&D. Seeing the reactions it elicited from the players at the table, seeing how deeply and completely invested they were in this game of shared imagination made it clear how special this all is.
@@isaiahwelch8066 they never met the bear in the animated series and it probably would've been obvious that it was them to the actual characters if they were actually looking at it and not having to go off a prolonged visual description
“I wonder how much Gilmore is featured in the campaign?...” Oh you know, nothing special. He’s just the most favorite NPC of the Dungeon Master himself and arguably the most favorite of the players and critters alike as well...😆
@@kurtacus3581 i totally agree with Pumat is on par with Gilmore... I think the only edge Gilmore has with Pumat is that he’s a personal favorite of Matt...he already have him in his head since his highschool days and always wanted to play as him...
Vex and Vax were affected by their trauma differently, that’s for sure. I didn’t watch the campaign yet, but to me it reads as both “I need to protect him” and “please don’t leave me”. To me she seems terrified of being abandoned, being left behind, having Vax choose someone else over her, over *them*. They were always a team, the two of them against the world. She’s terrified of seeing it change.
Eh, it is referenced once. He tells someone that of everyone in Whitestone, they're the lowest on his list. (Not saying anything more because spoilers)
It is interesting to notice how in the show, Vex does seem to be more 'over protective' while in the campaign there were def more protective Vax moments. Love how he says 'Vex'ahlia' when hes worried about her.
It's worth remembering that the Everlight was, in the original stream, the Pathfinder deity Sarenrae. They had to file the serial numbers off, but much of Sarenrae's original symbolism is still present (you can see it in Pike's holy symbol). Sarenrae's virtues are compassion, honesty, and redemption. While the Dawnfather (Pelor) tends to be about the Sun as an expression of nourishing power, Sarenrae tends to be an outgrowth of sunlight as a banisher of darkness, and a figure that brings darkened things into the light. She doesn't condemn but offers redemption even to things that don't want it, only turning to purification when such offers are refused. Right now, Pike is in darkness. The Everlight's nature is to bring things into the light. There is a disconnect between these two facts that doesn't work if one assumes that this is about Pike's belief in the Everlight failing.
“Omg those people are gonna BE the meal, it’s just like that scene in twilight.” Ohhhhh if only they were so lucky… And ever since the recent campaign three episodes, that scene is even more loaded 👀
Gilmore (and in a similar vein, Allura) demonstrate how certain NPCs can evolve over time thanks to the magic that happens as a result of interaction between the players and the DM. Gilmore was a person that Matt Mercer came up with on the fly one day as a man who ran a magic shop...apparently he showed up just a handful of times in their pre-stream home game (& the audience only got introduced to him after the first streamed story arc was done). He was never intended to be as complex or beloved as he became; the players just enjoyed him so much that they invested more time and emotional energy into him, which in return snowballed into Matt just adding more and more layers of complexity and backstory to give them better return on that investment. Fast forwards to the end of Campaign 1 and he's probably the single most popular character they've ever had, outside of the main PCs.
I mean Allura was away more thought out than Gilmore was in the beginning...Allura is Matt's self insert, in a lot of ways. He has said Allura is the most like himself out of ALL his NPCs.
Regarding Percy opening up to the group, not only are they all much closer in the original after being a party for over a year, but they had a weeks warning that the Briarwoods would be in town. So instead of a very panicked Percy finding himself suddenly in a room with his families murderer's with the rest of the group having no idea what's going on - there was instead the time to notice Percys anxiety, talk to him about it and come up with a plan together after he warned them who they were having dinner with. You've mentioned being interested in seeing bits of the campaign so here's the scene of that conversation if you like, its about 10 minutes from 17:20 m.ruclips.net/video/kre27f30IVs/видео.htmlh17m19s
Gotta say as a long-time CR fan I'm loving seeing new people come to the show and fall in love with the world like me and so many others have done over the years! Was gonna try for a long comment and give spoiler-less answers as you asked questions but I'll wait till I get someplace where the keyboard is more forgiving than my phone! Love the content, and you're in for a hell of a ride with this show!
Also, in this episode, one of the Player Characters from the current campaign, (Campaign 3,) appears twice. She also appears in the next episode, (sort of,) and makes another appearance in Episode 9. However in each episode she doesn't Hang around for long. (Facepalms at the pun.)
Gilmore probably did give them a discount, but he still has to make money. He's a businessman, after all. And as for our girl Vex'ahlia, she loves to haggle. Her ideal price to pay for anything is to get it for free. Not steal, convince them to give it to you. If she pays anything more than nothing she'll act like she got ripped off. Which, apparently, is very Laura, because somewhere at a con they were asked about it and Travis said he literally has had to stop her at like the grocery store and go "This is the real world and you're not Vex right now."
"This isn't a homecoming, it's a suicide mission" if one thing you can count on Percy being, is realistic and reasonable. except that one time where he totally reverse-Bugs-Bunny'ed Garmelie? I think even Matt himself was frustrated.
I love how you ladies are talking about the relationships between the characters and while they dont ever do a it's this characters Solo arc but it's peppered through out the campaign. There is a scene further into the campaign where Keyleth asked the group, "Are we even friends?" and Percy is the one to respond, "Worse, we're family." Which has a follow up of Percy talking to Grog saying to him, "I've missed having an older brother." I wont say more but getting invested WILL HAVE PAYOFF.
Oh, don't forget that hanging those effigies also tells all the townsfolk that "if you see these people, look what's in store for you." Just to make sure they don't get allies either... Fun reactions, thanks for sharing!!
And the tiger dude never presented another problem. Ever. No one else pointed out that Vax and Vex sleep in the same position, but Vax gave his sister his cloak as a blanket.
Keyleth is the anti-Batman. Give her time to plan, and she fucks it up. You don’t give her a second and force her to act on instinct, she can do anything.
Gilmore was the cast's favorite npc in c1, he helped them often and is also a fan favorite. You can look for Gilmore's first appearance compared to here on youtube.
The loss of the holy water and other items is a reference to losing a member of the group in the original C1. Tiberius Stormwind who was one of the founding members but left after about 20 or so episodes right when they were on their way to Whitestone.
Episode 27 was his last episode. Also...the one of worst for his behaviour issues at the table. It's a ROUGH episode to get through. Episode 24ish was when the Briarwood arc started so he left right after it started.
So I just did a quick copy/paste from the book, but here's the official description of the deity Pike follows in Mercer's world of Exandria. "God of atonement and compassion, Raei spreads the message of understanding and optimism in even the darkest of places. She believes that the corrupt can be redeemed, a mindset that led to a betrayal by the Lord of the Nine Hells, who decimated her followers during the Calamity. This misplaced trust caused many priests to strike her name from historical records, leaving her title and faith scattered to obscurity for much of the recent age. Only recently has her faith been rediscovered and her temples returned to prominence. The Everlight’s followers are often rural healers and community philosophers, offering a voice of reason and empathy in angry and cynical times."
One of my favorite characters I've made for a DnD game is this warlock kitten. Like literally an actual kitten, only her determination to survive the circumstances of her birth meant she caught the eye of a powerful being that gave her warlock magic. So she's a month old kitten who can make a mage hand and ride around on it. She was called Feline because the first friend she made was a warforged (sentient robot race). Technically she could communicate telepathically, but she mostly wouldn't bother because she could just meow at people. My goal was to be as much a cat as possible while playing her, it was so much fun. Gotta bring her back some time.
One motivation for the tree moment you may not have considered is as a message to the townsfolk. If you help people that look like them, you’ll share their fate.
Two more aspects of the Briarwood's "message" to Vox Machina are this let's all their Lieutenants and minions know what Vox Machina looks like, and tells all the survivors in Whitestone not to help Vox Machina.
that ending, right? it was horrifying watching it play out on stream, but meeting the victims here made it so much worse (fun fact - the little girl was played by the daughter of Scanlan's voice actor, just as his son was in episode one with Vax's VO's daughter.) The arc was already dark, but this moment really ups the stakes. The way they explored Percy's tragic backstory - which was very limited in what Taliesin gave to Matt, and Taliesin himself said how it played out was so much worse than he ever imagined - really shows the versatility of the game and why this story is so beloved.
The Effigies of Vox Machina were a sign to the characters to stay away, a warning of what would happen to them, as well as a signal to the local people to say "these people are enemies, if you see them do not help them or face the consequences".
Mad respect for your views on faith and your opposition towards coerced servitude. It reminds me of my OC Cleric, Thurs Firelight. Thurs spent his years worshipping a horrid fire giant, killing and burning and terrorizing into old age. He realized, after burning his own hometown down, that there was nothing left to burn but himself and his legacy of dark deeds. He set out in search of a new source of faith, a new way to express his inner fire, all the while smoking his lungs away as an internal punishment. Eventually, he finds faith in The Platinum Dragon, puts down the cigars, and picks up performance, telling tales of adventurers fighting for good and glory, doing what he can to be a good person and follow a new light, away from the old flames that once consumed him. He was a complete pacifist, who used a shield and lantern, only ever buffing his allies and causing distraction rather than destruction.
I’ve been off-and-on watching your channel for a while, but watching you guys do this series has really sealed the deal of my enjoyment of your content 💙 I’ve played dnd and other tabletops and roleplaying games since I was in diapers, so I’ve had a plethora of characters. My favorite is probably my most recent one. Her name is Mageau Flintdream Thunukako, but she goes by “Flint”. She’s a Goliath Rune Night, and she struggles with speaking common, because her family never taught their 8 children anything but giant. She’s covered head to toe in tattoos of runes that activate and have different effects in battle. About halfway through the campaign, my friend started playing a rock genasi barbarian names Ausraliana, and they immediately hit it off and recently got engaged in the campaign. The dynamic she has with her Fiancé and party mates is adorable, especially ‘cause her teammates are a 4-foot-tall cleric, and a 2-foot-tall frog man, both of which small enough for her to carry in a backpack. 💙
Regarding the construction of Percy's character(no spoilers)... I think the two of you will find this interesting, considering how much you like the construction and development of character. First of all, Matt(DM) and Taliesin(Percy) have known each other for many, many years. They had been very good friends long before this campaign began, and Taliesin had been playing TTRPGs since he was in high school. So when it came time to make a character, Tal trusted Matt and also had a ton of experience in what worked and what didn't. Tal had started a novella in high school(?) about a guy that invented the first firearm. He thought this would have to be an interesting and terrifying character. Anyone intelligent enough to come up with the first gun, would also have to be smart enough to realize the horrible damage it would cause. They would have to know it would be copied by others and cause endless death and destruction down through the ages. To still build and use that terrible invention would mean they just didn't care. What type of character would that be? That's what was going through Taliesin's head as he started building Percy. The other half of this is Percy's backstory. Tal decided to only give Matt the info that Percy would have known. Percy was a younger son of the family that ruled an isolated city-state(Whitestone). He had several older siblings, so he knew from childhood that it would never be his responsibility to rule. That freedom, plus his natural intelligence, led him to be interested in things like engineering and tinkering. One evening some guests arrived at Whitestone. They were a visiting pair of minor nobles(plus a small entourage) named Lord and Lady Briarwood. Either that night, or a few nights later, the Briarwoods and their party brutally murdered Percy's family with the help of some of the de Rolo's trusted servants and took over the city. Percy and his sister survived initially, but she was killed during their escape. Percy's desire for vengeance led him to later invent this world's first firearm. Note that there is no mention of a vampire or necromancer in this backstory. Percy didn't know that, so Tal didn't include it. Tal knew there was always the possibility they might be more than human(this is D&D after all), but Percy didn't. So Tal left all of that up to Matt. There are some other things along these lines about Percy, but those would be spoilers. The takeaway here is that Percy is a true collaboration between Tal and Matt. And much of it was created in real-time at the table. Tal wrote a partial backstory at the start of the campaign and gave it to Matt. Matt surprised Tal by twisting some of it on its head literally years later(the game had been running about two years before the Briarwood Arc started). And then Tal ran with what Matt had done and kept evolving the character through those new experiences. I'm not going to go super deep into this next part because this is already a dissertation(lol), but there's a reason Percy is the most developed character at this point in the campaign. First, Taliesin had the most TTRPG experience at the table by far when the game started; most of the rest had zero experience. Second, Percy was the second to last character to be added to the group(Pike was last, but Ashley also had zero TTRPG experience). Most of the rest were created for the very first game, and that was intended to be a one-time event. That's why most of the characters fall into standard archetypes. Sam especially didn't take things seriously. Scanlan was created as a joke character in every possible way. Calling him one-dimensional at the very start of the campaign would be an understatement. As the game went on, Sam actually had the hardest time developing Scanlan because there was just no meat to start with. Matt eventually helped him out with a big plot twist that should happen in season two or three, and that kickstarted Scanlan's character development. Anyway, while most of the rest of the characters were built under the belief that they would only be used one time, Percy and Keyleth were created by experienced players after the game had transitioned into an ongoing campaign. And if you watch for it in the livestream, you can see those two had a jump start on their character development because of it. Everyone got there eventually, but those two had a head start. Sorry about the length.
Matt's NPC creation process... Matt has discussed this on several (many) panels that you can find on RUclips, however, the most succinct version is from a DM guide series he did for Geek and Sundry (ruclips.net/video/-UA5eajTRIA/видео.html). The moment at the Sun Tree... They did such a great job animating this for the show, but there is just something extra about the moment as you watch the cast come to the realization of what is going on. SpeckoVids did us all a favor by putting the two events together to compare the moments (ruclips.net/video/HGgpO13Icu8/видео.html)
OC: Devlinarian Thistledew the 16th, esquire. An "eladrin" (elven) courtier of a fey court, he foolishly challenged another member of court to a duel. As the challenged, she claimed choice of weapon, chose "dares," then dared him to tell her a story that's never been told before. This is a problem in the Fey realm since every story imaginable happens there over and over again, just with different details (which don't count). "There is nothing new under the sun," which is why the Archfey are so bored all the time. Determined to accomplish the dare so that he can take his turn next (and dare her to marry him, which he's convinced she'll refuse), he's traveled to the prime material plane, since it's the only place where new stories are born. His queen has granted him magic to survive on this quest, making him a warlock of the fey.
About the glorious Gilmore he appears quite a bit in the campaign and he does go through a bit of an arc alongside vox Makina we do learn more about his khaki and is home later on.
If you want, you can watch the character intros they played in the break during their first campaign where they tell a snippet of their characters backstory. That way you can understand them a bit better if you want. Don’t know how they're gonna show it in the series
I love how some of the monsters, like the dragon and these demon dogs or whatever are done in a different style of animation. It reminds me of how in some horror, monsters are so alien that the protagonists brains can't quite take it in.
Enjoying your exuberant and thoughtful reactions to the series! As a long time Critter it's wonderful seeing the cast's excellent story telling skills finally getting the wider appreciation they deserve. When you've finished the series you should check out the watch-alongs that Critical Role hosted for each.set of 3 episodes (on their Twitch channel.and also posted here on RUclips) - you'll get to hear more details from the cast and crew about the process of creating these characters as well as adapting for the series. Really good stuff!
Wait...I have a question. Do you two ladies not know that Laura Bailey was Abby in The Last of Us 2, or that the whole reason that CR exists was because of the vast majority of people on CR voice-acted in Resident Evil 6? Hell, Matt Mercer played the primo badass himself, Leon S. Kennedy. By the way, one of the best multi-character stories that I love? Firefly. It had enough of a story to give every MC the spotlight, but it did something else I think a lot of writers overlook: Making a character out of something like a spaceship. In Firefly, Serenity was a character all her own -- and I don't think I know of anyone who became invested in the story and characters that didn't cry in the episode titled Out of Gas. Serenity became that much of a character people cared about. Lastly, now that you've seen it, I can give one difference between the game and the animated series: In the game, Trinket had gone to Whitestone with Vex. As a result, the Briarwoods had even hung a bear on the Sun Tree. In the animated series, they skipped that, despite the fact that the hung bear was how Vox Machina, in-game, figured out that those hanging from the Sun Tree was a message for Vox Machina. Edit: I hear you on religion. I have my own personal beliefs that are more fantastic and wondrous than mere theology. What I believe is simple: Religion is science that hasn't been explained yet. But the point is this: I think a lot of the whole "submission" stuff happens is because of both James and Hebrews (speaking to traditional Mosaic Jews in Jerusalem, which has remembered being in both Babylonian and Egyptian slavery), as well as books like Ephesians, which talk about wives submitting to husbands and children submitting to parents. The problem is, each part of a family, of a faith, has its own responsibilities. And human nature, being what it is, will jump to conclusions and assume something is true before getting the whole story. For instance, in Ephesians, it says that: 1) Children should not exasperate their children, and vice versa; and 2) That wives are supposed to respect their husband, while a husband is supposed to love his wife. Why is this mentioned? Because what each is to do is actually hard for each to do. It is easy for a husband to respect someone, being male, while it is easy for a woman to love. On the other hand, it is hard for a man to show love, and hard for a woman to actually show respect. I think it also has to do with dominance and submission, as loving someone is being submissive, when respecting someone is accepting dominance. Point is, the Bible is taken out of context by people all the time, because they are biased in terms of looking for faults, while also not getting the whole story -- and just like the whole Jewish language with individual words that can have more than one meaning, context is everything.
Last of Us has tons of connections to Critical Role. Laura Bailey ( Vex) did numerous voices in the first game and played Abby in the second. Liam Obrien (Vax) and Sam Riegel (Scanlan) were voice directors, and Travis Willingham (Grog) and Matt Mercer (DM/Silas Briarwood) voiced a number of minor characters
Hello. You asked about characters we have played. I was playing D&D shortly after it came out. My original and favorite character was a half human half orc fighter named Bear (my own nickname in HS). His strength was magically enhanced to 18 (max). Bear's primary weapon was a battle axe. It was a magic item with a speed factor of zero - No other weapon was faster (Much to the shock of his opponents). Bear was quiet, protective of his group, and had no patience for bullies. In battle, he was a tactical tank. Bear would use the battle field and things around him to his advantage.
My favorite character is an Aarakocra (bird person) monk. He grew up in a remote monastery after being attacked in the wild and being cursed as a were bear. All the monks at the Pan'da monastery seek to control their curse. He left to find other hidden werebear monasteries to gain knowledge they had on the curse. And on his journey mysterious people started hunting him down. I never found out why but I assume it was due to his monstrous nature... It all started because I thought it would be funny to make a king Fu panda but that character always meant a lot to me.
My newest character that I just finished playing: **Fune Earl** (funeral) Fune is an oathbreaker paladin/necromancy wizard multiclass. He was something of a folk hero where he came from since he was able to defend his little village from a horde of zombies. Inspired by the attack, he left his village behind to follow his dreams: to become a restaurateur. Now he runs a fully sustainable, farm-to-table restaurant thats run entirely off of undead creatures. The zombies work the farm as their rotting flesh helps fertilize the soil. The skeletons run the kitchen as they are able to quickly cook the food and the ghosts are the wait staff as they are able to pass through tables and whatnot to get you your food as soon as possible. While on adventures, his primary goal is to find more bodies to get more free staff for his restaurant and farm. He's a creepy little halfling that prefers to speak into your minds telepathically than talk out loud. He's also definitely *not* evil ;)
Most miss it, the gag of the tongue going into Scanlan mouth serves dual purpose. It’s comedy because of course the Overly sexual gnome would enjoy that. But, it kept him from singing which is how he would cast his spells to escape.
My OC is a green slaad wizard called Bargle (A slaad is a frog-like creature who lives in the chaotic plane called Limbo). He was born from a human wizard named Berry Spellweaver who, as a result of injuries sustained while fighting a different slaad, mutated into the green slaad. Bargle used to guard one of the natural entrances into Limbo, however he was kicked out due to constantly letting people into Limbo in exchange for stories of the other planes, which Bargle finds so fascinating because they are so unlike Limbo. Now Bargle finds himself trapped in a strange place known as the material plane, or what we all consider to be the normal world, and he uses his ability to change his form to go about as the wizard Berry Spellweaver, from who he was born, as he does his best to fit into this world, though it's usually awkward. Also, never thought about this until now, but if you were to have a prince become a slaad and pretend to be that prince, you would have the reverse of the frog turning into a prince where in this case the prince would technically turn into a frog.
So a few people have mentioned the Sun Tree moment and y'all should check out the live moment, I'll make it easier for you. Here's a stitched together vid of the moment from the campaign and the animated made by the Critters beloved overwatcher, Arsequeef. ruclips.net/video/pfrPtggg6kQ/видео.html
Gilmore shows up fairly often during the series, more and more as the story comes to a close. Some great character development and surprises in store there.
Honestly reminicing back to one of my still unfinished homebrew campaign, i really miss the character i played named Otto Morris, a Changeling Rogue (that multiclassed into warlock later). He had to go through two alignment changes because of how his group interacts with him. He was an orphan abandoned on the streets that grew jaded by all the interactions of the people he's met in the town and decided that the only person he can trust is himself. He prefers to manipulate the people around him into doing the things he wants and usually cuts and runs once the relationship becomes "useless" to him. Throughout the campaign he becomes very close to one of his groupmates, a half-elf bard named Ju'Rael who then became his lover. Unfortunately, since the campaign is still unfinished, the last thing that he had to go through before we stopped was having to drag the dead body of Ju'Rael to a temple of the Raven Queen and leave him there with a diamond in hopes that there are well practiced clerics who could bring his lover back to life. He does not stay though. He instead runs away before seeing if Ju'Rael could be revived. Extra Above table content: Otto was multiclassed into a warlock of the Raven Queen. He didn't become a paladin of the goddess because of the way he carried himself so instead made a pact as a warlock instead. Because of this, Ju'Rael was able to be brought back on a favour of his patron but has lost all his memories pertaining to Otto. I really miss playing him because of how snarky he can be and i hope that my group can get back together and play again.
Yeah, they hanged a bear also because Trinket was there at the banquet fight in the campaign...he wasn't there in the show ...so no hanged bear on the tree.
yeah the moment in the original campaign when matt mercer described the people hanging from the tree dressed like vox machina made all the players and a lot of the audience go 'what the actual fuck matt?!?!'
OC submission and some storytime regarding CritRole from me: I have played some other systems before, but last year, through the discovery of Critical Role me and a friend of mine got heavily into DnD. It's been almost exactly 13 months to the day since I started and today, I finally finished all of Campaign 1 and 2 (on top of watching C3 every week). I am also currently planning two campaigns, Call of the Netherdeep (which is the first officially WotC licensed adventure set in Exandria, the world of Critical Role and Vox Machina) and one set in my very own world, Aventuria. This sadly means I'll probably be the forever-DM of my group and I won't be able to play many (if any, lmao) of my OC's I create in my free time. But what I can do is put them in as NPC's and villains, which is exactly what I'm planning with one of my favourite OC's I've written to this day: He's going to be a major NPC in my homebrew campaign, starting as one of the higher-ups in the church of the main god of my world and ending up as the penultimate villain of the story. Now that I think about it, this is more of a lore dump than an OC, but I hope you like it anyways! His name is Ingidius, a red-skinned Tiefling Paladin, Oath of Conquest for stage 1 and Oathbreaker Paladin / Hexblade Warlock for stage 2 (more on the stages later). He grew up as an orphan in the city of Perricum, where he frequently escaped from the orphanage with a few friends, causing trouble in the city. During one of these escapes, he met the street girl Riana who came to Perricum as the lone survivor from a ship that sunk during a storm just off the coast of Perricum. Riana apparently doesn't remember much more other than her name and that she is from the Al'Anfa empire in the south. As they grew older, they became very good friends and, although he never told her - Ingidius had a huge crush on Riana. They promised each other that one day, they would visit Al'Anfa together to find Rianas family. At some point, the orphanage had enough of Ingidius' shenanigans and gave him over to the local temple of Praios, highest of the 12 gods and God of the Sun and the Law. There, he found equilibrium in prayer and swordsmanship and got his brash personality under control. While Ingidius trained under the priests and paladins of Praios, Riana grew into a beautiful woman and became Perricums most sought-after concubine. When it was time to finish his training, Ingidius had to go to the main temple a few hundred miles away and when he came back to celebrate with Riana, she was nowhere to be found. At first, this angered him as he thought she had run off with some man that paid to be with her, but over time he grew very worried as she was not seen anywhere in the country. After months and months of searching for her, Ingidius gave up and took on his duties as paladin. He quickly rose through the ranks and became one of the most prominent figures in the Praios-church. (This is the point where my campaign will begin - the year is 1031 after the fall of Bosparon, exactly one decade ago, the evil necromancer Borbarad and his armies were defeated and the 12th age had begun. Necromancy had been put under heavy restrictions and all known records on it destroyed. However, a few weeks ago, a certain disease started plaguing a number of villages. The disease was not natural and clearly necromantic in nature.) The continent can be roughly described to be split in 3 parts - northern, middle and southern. While the northern and middle parts believe Praios, god of Sun and Law is the patriarch over the 12 gods, the south worships Boron, god of Sleep and Death as the highest of the gods. This has always lead to tensions in the past but now, the followers of Praios are accusing the south of using necromancy to weaken the middle and northern empires. The harbinger of light (basically the pope of the Praios-church) appoints Ingidius as the "First sword of Praios" and sends him on a mission to confront the leaders of the Boron-church in the southern Al'Anfa empire, to which he wholeheartedly aggrees. Ingidius, of course not only hopes to settle the argument between the two churches, he also hopes to find Riana - which he does. When he was away to finish his training, she was found by an uncle of hers and brought back to Al'Anfa (which is why he could never find her, the north and south aren't exactly on good terms). There, she trained to be a fighter for the Golgarites, one of the two military units under the control of the Boron-church. (Now comes the part for which I have rough outlines but since I don't know what will happen in the campaign yet, it can change) Ingidius reunites with Riana and converts to the Boron-church which will make him an Oathbreaker. He will then also become grand master of the Basaltfist (the second military unit of the Boron-church). This will lead to him aquiring Ravenfeather - the very sword that slew the evil wizard Borbarad. However, Borbarad somehow found a way to preserve his spirit, which is now trapped inside Ravenfeather. This is how Ingidius becomes a Hexblade warlock with Borbarad as his patron. Borbarad makes Ingidius think he's Boron and manipulates him and Riana into using the combined strength of the Basaltfist and the Golgarites to overthrow the leaders of the south. A war breaks out between the north and middle empires on the one side and the south on the other. Borbarads plan is to use this war to find a suitable vessel for his spirit so that he can start another attempt at enslaving the world.
The Dinner guests apparently had a wonderful dinner, it was a meal fit for Kings including Lobster and all manner of gourmet foods. if you look closely you see a trickle of Blood meaning they were not fed in by Sylas, so the Briarwoods just straight up killed them to send a message. Fun Fact: all there best kills happened during the stream with the exception of Scanlans, though Vaxs has the best story to it.
At the age of 16 Bregin a member of the Mud People from Continent of Truth, set out on a journey of knowledge and self discovery. Along the way he made noted documenting what he saw and experienced, in the hopes that this information would some day get back to his people. He made stops in Aydindril, The Peopls Palace in D'Hara, Tanimura, finally making his way all the way to Slumberhaven where he boarded a ship across the ocean to Baldur's Gate. Upon arriving there he found a large source of knowledge where he spent time pouring over the books that he had access to. Still desiring further knowledge He joined the Cobalt Soul as a scribe. After spending 2 years under the tutelage of Bren Kindlkind, once again set out on a journey to gain knowledge on a mysterious amulet of power. Travelling south from Baulder's Gate along The Coast Way he stopped at the Cloak Wood. Where he by chance stumbled across a small child like individual. being attacked by a Dire Bear. After a hard fought battle he managed to overcome the creature. He took the little person home after learning her name was Charlette. She was greeted by her people with joy upon hearing of her tale. When an older gentleman came up to Bregin, and introduced himself as the tribe chieftain and father of Charlette. And as a reward for saving his daughter they were to be wed at the next full moon. During the time before the wedding they spent time getting to know each other. Their affection grew and grew. And still grows to this day. A year after they were married. Charlette gave birth to a small boy who they named Gimble. From an early age Gimble had shown signs of intelligence. And an eagerness to learn much like his father. Every night his father would sit him down on his lap and tell him stories of his people and of his grandfather. He would tell him of the things he has seen and tasted. And as Gimble sat on his lap his eyes would be filled with stars and wonder as he drank in the stories. So at the tender age of 13 his Father took him to Baulder's Gate with the permission of Charlette, to The Cobalt Reserve where Gimble would start his training as a Monk of the Cobalt Reserve. When Gimble turned 18 he headed home to speak to his father, about the possibility of making a pilgrimage to the Continent of Truth. As his father did not want to leave his mother. He gave his blessing on the condition that, he deliver some tomes to the Mud People. Gimble agreed to this request and set out out carve his own path in the vast world.
In our main campaign, I am playing a young half-elf paladin (of vengeance, so godless) named Tarron. Grew up with his human father on the deck of a merchant ship, unknown elven mother. The father ends up marrying another human woman but she dies giving birth to his younger half-brother (who he sees as a brother, plain and simple). Kinda poor family, the father dies of illness leaving Tarron to take care of his baby brother. Trying to make a living and survive, he leaves his brother to the care of the neighbors for a few weeks to sail and gain a bunch of gold that could feed them for a month. But when he comes back, the village has been attacked and he finds his brother dead. The few survivors talk about some cultists that came and killed almost everyone. At that moment, he left everything and is trying to find those cultists, taking the Oath of Vengeance. He tends to hate seeing his allies get hurt instead of him - trying to make amends for not even having a chance to try and protect his brother. He is trying to be responsable but he is also very reckless xD and right now, the party is stuck on an island full of cultists and a locked gate to the Abyss they are trying to open and he feels so helpless. The party is looking up to him because... paladin... but he doesn't know what to do except SMITE. We recently had a fight were all the party members fell unconscious except him (they are all glass canons) and seeing them all down really hit him hard (everyone survived, the boss was almost dead but close call). I am really curious where this will all go.
Since I see people are telling stories about their characters, the first one I made since D&D 5e: An Half-Elf Fighter named Aineyn, she was a former slave-gladiator, forced to fight in the arena for the enjoyment of the crowd, in a town that was very pro-human (and thus anti-anything else, so her elven heritage, well... you get the idea!). But she formed bonds with the other gladiators and, eventually, they all rebelled and broke out of that town! She then vowed to use the skills she learned in the arena to fight oppression wherever she sees it. Not the most original character concept I guess, I've made a lot of weirder stuff since (I have a Warforged (the closest there are to robots in D&D) Wild Mage Sorcerer, for example! :p ). Still, she was my first D&D 5e character, so she has a special place in my heart, and wouldn't mind bringing her back to different groups once in a while! :)
OC submission (warning, it’s kinda long): So, one character I made and hope to play one day is mountain dwarf fighter barbarian, named Roughmead Firebeard, a green-eyed and unusually average sized dwarfette from a family of famous blacksmiths known for their bright crimson hair (I’ve been playing a lot of elden ring lately so that’s aesthetic has been my jam), who watched over a sacred forge known as the “bright-fire-forge”, whose ever-burning fire was said to have been first made by merging the energies from a celestial plane with those from the elemental plane of fire. Mechanically, this means if you touched it, you would not only take fire damage, but radiant damage as well, as the forge essentially functions as a miniature sun. All this to explain why her family are unusually dark skinned for mountain dwarfs. As you can imagine, being the eldest child to a famous noble family meant that, set to eventually inherit the forge itself, she was rather privileged, and, even though she did spent a lot of her youth practicing to join the family business, her early life was rather cozy. The only real issue she had being a troubled relationship with her younger brother, Hotwine (totally not inspired by marvels loki) Firebeard, who was largely suspected to have been the result of adultery with a passing group of traveling halflings, Hotwine himself suspecting his parents to have preferred Roughmead over him. So there’s that, but then, later in life, Roughmead would be accused and framed for several crimes she didn’t commit, each spaced about a year between each-other. Now, fun fact about dwarf culture in dnd, when you’re taken to court, the case is typically handled by a group of the oldest dwarves in the hold, known simply as the elders, who will decide whether you are declared innocent or guilty, or, unproved, where they can’t prove you did do it, but they can’t prove you didn’t either. A sentence of unproven essentially marking you as someone untrustworthy for something you might’ve done, or at least a bad omen for having such things happen around you. A declaration of unproven is a stein on a dwarfs record, and something to feel shame over. If you suffer several declarations of unproven, the council may even decide you are a risk no longer worth taking, and banish you from the hold. When a dwarf is banished from their hold, they are still allowed into any other dwarf hold, were they will be provided with all basic dwarfen hospitalities, but even if you try and hide why you’re there, they’ll quickly see that you’re alone and depressed, and figure out pretty quickly you were banished, causing them to see you as a potential threat, and will keep one hand firmly on their weapon, and won’t be too subtle about the fact you should probably get going as soon as you can. Long story short, this happened to Roughmead, and while she was never able to find enough evidence to make even herself certain, she was pretty suspicious that it was Hotwine’s doing. The council of elders, many of which were her own ancestors, banished her from her home, the only place she really knew anything of, and while she expected her friends, or at least her beloved parents, to object, or say anything in her defense, even just say goodbye, nobody said anything. She tried staying at other dwarf holds for a few years, but quickly realized she would never really be welcomed, and after one too many side-eye glances, swore off dwarfen holds all together, and because no other dwarf had really ever been kind to her since her banishment, she decided she would lend them the same courtesy, and kinda became racist against her own kind. From that moment on, she mainly stuck to human towns and cities, where she would party to forget, and drink to drown her sorrows, before slinking back into the wilderness to brood where no one else could see her. In her eyes, her life was ruined, she blamed her brother, she blamed her family, her hold, the practices of dwarf society, and to some extent, all of dwarf kind. Later on, while she was traveling by herself, sleeping atop a hill under the moonlight, her campfire crackling away beside her, she had a dream, one where she encountered a disheveled nobleman, who promised to give her what she wanted. When she awoke, she recognized that figure as the faerunian god of vengeance, Hoar (whose name I didn’t want to risk saying something offensive by saying out loud, so I exclusive refer to them by their nickname of “the doombringer”), and she was immediately filled with inspiration by this clear visit from one of the gods while she slept. Swearing herself to devotion to the doombringer, she quickly traveled to a larger human settlement, and offered her services in exchange for using one of the local blacksmiths forges, and over the course of a few weeks, went about putting those lessons from her youth to good work. She forged a stone-maul she named mourne, whose bludgeoning-sections were both carved in the likeness of ghoulish faces, one an elderly man weeping, the other an angry devil, while the sides were engraved with the names of those that she felt had most wronged her, her family, those who sat upon the council of elders, and those guards and soldiers who acted as enforcers of the councils decrees. She promised herself she would go out, get stronger, and one day return home to claim vengeance. Thus begins her journey, as she seeks to work as a monster hunter, in hopes it will help her eventually become strong enough to overpower her old dwarfen hold and all those within. I plan on playing her to where you would never guess she had such a tragic past based on your first interaction with her, as she tends to be a friendly, bubbly, and amicable person who is always down to party. Partially as a means of coping, but mostly because that’s genuinely just who she is at heart. She’s a little bit of a “manic pixie dream girl”, as the kids like to say. But if the subject of her past ever gets brought up in any really significant or meaningful way, you can rest assured that she will be one part angst, and one part fury. I wanted to play a barbarian not just because I find them cool, but also because I have a few personality disorders, and tend to get a little overly emotional. It only really makes sense for me to play a character like her who has big emotions, given I have big emotions myself. I think she’s a really good example of that thing you guys were talking about, where I’m not “her”, and she’s not me. For starters, I’m not a girl, nor am I attracted to men like she is. But with our similarities, I feel she would be a very easy character for me to play, or maybe it should be “I would be a very easy character for her to play”? As for her backstory, obviously I’d leave it up to the DM how and if they’d want to incorporate it, but if they did, I’d be really interested to see how they would, as I purposefully left several elements ambiguous, just incase the DM wanted to throw me a curveball, and added some potentially interesting things like the bright-fire-forge I could easily see them using in clever, cool, or unexpected ways. Anyways, thank you to whoever managed to read through all this, and also, sorry, I know this probably won’t get read out, being almost definitely too long, but I really just wanted to get this all out there. But yeah, thanks for reading. If you couldn’t tell, I’m a bit passionate about this character. She’s got really girly pigtails and really manly muttonchops :3
so ... I don't know if you've seen or heard anything about it, but there's an anime about a support class character that manages to do more than the typical 'hero' classes heroes ... its called The Rising of the Shield Hero
OC, not an Original Character but an Original Creature, a monster I made for my homebrew 5e campaign. *The Babblelocker* A gaunt, hunched figure with a pronounced spine stalks through the misty halls of an ancient labyrinth. The massive, glowing rune where its face ought to be casts wicked shadows against the bodies that line these dusty paths. One is fresh, a wizard sent by some distant guild to investigate the multitudes of adventurers that have gone missing down here. Wizards are its favorite meal. One look and he had slumped, unconscious. A flash from the rune and his voice was stolen. A spellcaster with no voice. A fish on a hook. Gutting the former requires little more effort than the latter. The terrible aberration cracks backwards, the wide maw across it's stomach now stretched open as it slides the body inside. A satisfying meal. The creature turns as it hears other voices calling. It calls back with the wizard's voice. "I'm over here, help me please!" Then it vanishes into the mist, appearing elsewhere in the maze. Another call in another voice, this one many years old; split the party, take their voices, consume their flesh. It's all this monster knows. One by one they will fall to its eye. One by way it will silence them. One by one, gone into the depths of these ruined catacombs. Babblelockers are particularly effective against spellcasters due to their ability to steal a creature's voice, rendering spellcasting impossible. Once they have taken a voice it belongs to them, naturally theirs as opposed to copying, and they reproduce it perfectly. There is no limit on the number of voices they can possess, and when they steal a voice from a creature, they become fluent in all languages that the creature spoke. They stalk through any structure that is sufficiently maze-like or confusing to navigate, using their ability to navigate perfectly by memory and the innate confusion such a place creates to isolate individuals, then take their voices and eat them. They are particularly common in any such structure wherein there are stores of wealth, knowledge, or other such bounties, because these often attract scholars, too weak to pose a real threat. They are highly intelligent, and immensely strong despite their frail appearance. The only way to retrieve your voice from a Babblelocker is to kill it, but this is unlikely to occur, because it can only take your voice if you are unconscious. This is where the Anticonsciousness Cone comes into play. Similar to an Antimagic Cone, but it puts you to sleep. I had my players exploring an abandoned city full of lost knowledge, an ideal place for Babblelockers to set up. Wandering the streets were about 18 of these things, spread all throughout the area. Once our Wizard (level 17 btw) was rendered permanently mute and the Babblelocker teleported away, my players were far, FAR more careful about how they explored the place.
Wasn't it during the Chroma Conclave arc? So pretty much smack dab in the middle when they went to Marquet for the first time? So that'll probably be in season 2 already.
@@topkekbieri Chroma Conclave was where most of the Worldbuilding took place. Grogs past, KiKis Trails, the twin's history, not sure 12 episodes will do.
Now that I look at the list of episodes on the wiki, you're probably right. I just finished watching campaign 1 in about 3 months, which is why everything feels like one big clump of story in my head lmao. Thought the Marquet stuff happened earlier on in the quest of aquiring the vestiges
Just thought I'd pop in here and give you a little bit of enticement, lol. I hear you guys talk about various anime on your reactions to The Legend of Vox Machina, and I have a challenge for you: Watch the rest of the season, and see how many DBZ references you can find. Because I'll say this: They are there, you just have to find them.
Hey! Theo's player here again - to answer what you said about representation, I'd worried that it might be seen as appropriation of a sort. But I created him partly in homage to our group's prior DM, who passed away two years ago after a long fight with lung cancer. He was twenty, and it never stopped him making amazing stories with us, even when our antics made him laugh so hard he collapsed a lung mid-game. He was a goddamn hero.
For the purpose of TTRPGing I tend to not favor TOO high-concept characters from the get-go. I feel it narrows the directions a GM can guide a campaign if your character is just ALL about having to do the very specific thing 'lest they be cursed forever or something. It's good to have potential for story hooks that can come into play and play out through the course of the campaign, but it just feels like the ol' novella of backstory isn't the best approach.
Did you know Travis voices Roy Mustang, or was that just a call on recognition? :) Like did you know it basically WAS sad Mustang or was it LIKE sad Mustang?
All ages of geek RULE NUMBER 2 Never fight a Healer EVERRRRRRR. why? Brawler "Hahaha ten silvers to whomever can knock me out." The Healer "Ok I'll do it." The Musketeer "Healer down girl that that Brawler doesn't need a blow to his ego." The Healer "But I need the money." The Archer "But there are other jobs we can do that'll pay well." The Healer "Yes but the item I want is a limited time offer, it'll be gone for good if I dont get the money right now I have an hour left. I promise I won't get hurt." The Great Swordsman "I'm not worried about you I'm worried about what you'll do to the Brawler." The Healer "Either way I'm getting that item one-way or another and you better bet on me or else. The Healer stepped into the ring The Brawler "Ha ha this little Pipsqueak is going to knock me out I like to see you try in fact I'll give you one free hit." The Healer "I have to warn you I won't go easy on you." The Brawler "Ha ha that's rich I bet you can't throw a punch. WHAT THE F**......" The Healer "HYDUOKEN!!!!!!!!!" The Brawler went out like a light The Gambler "You are Terrifying." The Item The Healer bought was a Military Grade multi-arm backpack complete with tentacles and a direct line to the great old one. The Durid "Are you sure you're not Chaotic Evil?"
Don't know if this guy will be seen, but I'll give it a go. The world setting is RWBY -like in it's nature. People of remnant escaped the planet and crashed on a distant new world and are starting over. Henry Periwinkle is a blue cat faunus that joined B.L.A.D.E. Military Academy, a place designed to train soldiers to go out into the untamed wildness and help humanity's settlements in this alien world. He mostly did it for the money to help support his single mother and his two younger siblings, despite his mother's strong objection to the idea. Once he got enrolled, he found that he'd been selected to be part of a special class of students with more unique and advanced skill sets, being the normmie of the bunch. He was selected because of his down to earth personality and medical training to help patch people up since Aura, Semblance, and Dust don't work in this new land. He's not the best in a fight, but he's gonna do what he can to make sure as many of his squad mates get home from the expeditions as possible. As for what these expeditions this class is for...signs of OTHER intelligent life have been found. Unearthed ruins and artifacts have been found (and the existence of them kept out of public eye to avoid causing panic) and the had to form a team to look into it. It is squad 7's mission to locate, make contact with, and possibly peacefully negotiate with the indigenous people of this strange new world
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In the game, Vax was known for saying, "Dagger, dagger, dagger" for each attack. There is merch with that phrase. I like how when shopping they had him casually say it. 😀
hahah love it! Also feel free to join our server if you havent already discord.gg/AeTVnEkU
In the live stream, Marisa (who voices Keyleth) covered her mouth when Matt Mercer described the lynching at the Sun tree... And the used that in the Keyleth art when she sees them.
It’s a little bit of a ‘blink and you miss it’ situation but the necklace Lady Briarwood gives the little girl is a replica of Pike’s holy symbol - foreshadowing how the family are going to be dressed as Vox Machina later on.
And it hecked me uuuuuuuuuup.
amazing writing!! Also feel free to join our server if you havent already discord.gg/AeTVnEkU
It's messed up to be sure. What's more messed up is that in the Campaign Pike wasn't present during the courtyard battle. So she was ommited from the morbid sign in that version.
In the cartoon she was absolutely present, and the Brierwoods killed 2 children for their message. Friggin messed up XO
This isn't spoilers more lorewise.
The reason percy was so shocked seeing the state of the sun tree and then whitestone, is the sun tree was planted by a God. The thought that something this extreme has happened or could happen, never crossed his mind.
The Sun Tree was planted by Pelor, the Dawnfather.
@@isaiahwelch8066 that's it!! I wanted to say dawnbreaker but knew it was wrong so I just said a god lol
@@isaiahwelch8066 Ah, I see, so the Dawnfather they mention is Pelor (I play D&D and watched Vox Machina but never watched the whole Critical Role campaign, just small moments here and there)
@@robertolanzone : It's no different than Vecna being called "The Whispered One."
@@robertolanzone There's also the mention of the Everlight who is Saraenrae from Pathfinder
I think the creepiest thing in the ending is you can hear the rope as they hang on the outro
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In the original stream, the Sun Tree incident was also a warning to the townsfolk: If you help the people who look like this, this will also be your fate.
you've officially reached the scene in the livestreamed campaign where all the players and the audience at home went from "this is a fun little dnd game" to "oh shit this is full on improvised horror storytelling"
just like here as matt described all of the bodies hanging on the sun tree marisha/keyleth was the first to realize the bodies described were meant to look like them at which point all the other players were shocked at how dark matt was willing to go. recommend watching it and a few other original stream scenes that made their way into the show when ur done watching this
Not to mention that Marisha, Keyleth's player, had to go back home with Matt immediately afterwards.
It was a big shock that ended that game session for both players and critters alike.
I love watching peoples reaction to that part. It shows how well the show is made that everyone has pretty much the same reaction that the players did.
The only reason that Keyleth figured it out on the stream was because the Briarwoods hung a bear as well on the Sun Tree.
Which was a detail missing from the animated series.
Yup. This is the moment that I fell in love with Critical Role and, more broadly, D&D. Seeing the reactions it elicited from the players at the table, seeing how deeply and completely invested they were in this game of shared imagination made it clear how special this all is.
@@isaiahwelch8066 they never met the bear in the animated series and it probably would've been obvious that it was them to the actual characters if they were actually looking at it and not having to go off a prolonged visual description
“I wonder how much Gilmore is featured in the campaign?...”
Oh you know, nothing special. He’s just the most favorite NPC of the Dungeon Master himself and arguably the most favorite of the players and critters alike as well...😆
And, respectfully, i would say the only rival fan favorite being Pumat Sol...respectfully
@@kurtacus3581 I would argue Artagan, but probably not quite as high as Gilmore and Pumat, (Potentially)
Also Allura and Essek
@@kurtacus3581 i totally agree with Pumat is on par with Gilmore...
I think the only edge Gilmore has with Pumat is that he’s a personal favorite of Matt...he already have him in his head since his highschool days and always wanted to play as him...
Not one mention of Victor, how sad lol
Vex and Vax were affected by their trauma differently, that’s for sure. I didn’t watch the campaign yet, but to me it reads as both “I need to protect him” and “please don’t leave me”. To me she seems terrified of being abandoned, being left behind, having Vax choose someone else over her, over *them*. They were always a team, the two of them against the world. She’s terrified of seeing it change.
There is an official Canon novel about what happened. Kith and Kin. I highly recommend the audiobook.
cant wait to learn more about them!!! Also feel free to join our server if you havent already discord.gg/AeTVnEkU
The reason Percys gun has the names on the barrels isn't mentioned in the show but in campaign it was known as The List
Eh, it is referenced once. He tells someone that of everyone in Whitestone, they're the lowest on his list. (Not saying anything more because spoilers)
good to know! Also feel free to join our server if you havent already discord.gg/AeTVnEkU
It is interesting to notice how in the show, Vex does seem to be more 'over protective' while in the campaign there were def more protective Vax moments. Love how he says 'Vex'ahlia' when hes worried about her.
agreed. Love them cant wait to learn more about them. Also feel free to join our server if you havent already discord.gg/AeTVnEkU
It's worth remembering that the Everlight was, in the original stream, the Pathfinder deity Sarenrae. They had to file the serial numbers off, but much of Sarenrae's original symbolism is still present (you can see it in Pike's holy symbol). Sarenrae's virtues are compassion, honesty, and redemption. While the Dawnfather (Pelor) tends to be about the Sun as an expression of nourishing power, Sarenrae tends to be an outgrowth of sunlight as a banisher of darkness, and a figure that brings darkened things into the light. She doesn't condemn but offers redemption even to things that don't want it, only turning to purification when such offers are refused.
Right now, Pike is in darkness. The Everlight's nature is to bring things into the light. There is a disconnect between these two facts that doesn't work if one assumes that this is about Pike's belief in the Everlight failing.
“Omg those people are gonna BE the meal, it’s just like that scene in twilight.”
Ohhhhh if only they were so lucky…
And ever since the recent campaign three episodes, that scene is even more loaded 👀
yeaaaah excited and scared to see them progress as villains Also feel free to join our server if you havent already discord.gg/AeTVnEkU
Gilmore (and in a similar vein, Allura) demonstrate how certain NPCs can evolve over time thanks to the magic that happens as a result of interaction between the players and the DM. Gilmore was a person that Matt Mercer came up with on the fly one day as a man who ran a magic shop...apparently he showed up just a handful of times in their pre-stream home game (& the audience only got introduced to him after the first streamed story arc was done). He was never intended to be as complex or beloved as he became; the players just enjoyed him so much that they invested more time and emotional energy into him, which in return snowballed into Matt just adding more and more layers of complexity and backstory to give them better return on that investment. Fast forwards to the end of Campaign 1 and he's probably the single most popular character they've ever had, outside of the main PCs.
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I mean Allura was away more thought out than Gilmore was in the beginning...Allura is Matt's self insert, in a lot of ways. He has said Allura is the most like himself out of ALL his NPCs.
Regarding Percy opening up to the group, not only are they all much closer in the original after being a party for over a year, but they had a weeks warning that the Briarwoods would be in town. So instead of a very panicked Percy finding himself suddenly in a room with his families murderer's with the rest of the group having no idea what's going on - there was instead the time to notice Percys anxiety, talk to him about it and come up with a plan together after he warned them who they were having dinner with. You've mentioned being interested in seeing bits of the campaign so here's the scene of that conversation if you like, its about 10 minutes from 17:20 m.ruclips.net/video/kre27f30IVs/видео.htmlh17m19s
Gotta say as a long-time CR fan I'm loving seeing new people come to the show and fall in love with the world like me and so many others have done over the years!
Was gonna try for a long comment and give spoiler-less answers as you asked questions but I'll wait till I get someplace where the keyboard is more forgiving than my phone!
Love the content, and you're in for a hell of a ride with this show!
thank you!!!! Can't wait to see more Also feel free to join our server if you havent already discord.gg/AeTVnEkU
Also, in this episode, one of the Player Characters from the current campaign, (Campaign 3,) appears twice. She also appears in the next episode, (sort of,) and makes another appearance in Episode 9. However in each episode she doesn't Hang around for long. (Facepalms at the pun.)
Grog is voiced by Roy Mustang, but also Vex is voiced by Lust! (And they're married irl)
Gilmore probably did give them a discount, but he still has to make money. He's a businessman, after all.
And as for our girl Vex'ahlia, she loves to haggle. Her ideal price to pay for anything is to get it for free. Not steal, convince them to give it to you. If she pays anything more than nothing she'll act like she got ripped off. Which, apparently, is very Laura, because somewhere at a con they were asked about it and Travis said he literally has had to stop her at like the grocery store and go "This is the real world and you're not Vex right now."
Although, she has been know to steal 😆
hahah love it! Also feel free to join our server if you havent already discord.gg/AeTVnEkU
Season 2 will have some of Grog’s backstory. I’m so looking forward to it! You are going to love it!
cant wait! Best boy! Also feel free to join our server if you havent already discord.gg/AeTVnEkU
"This isn't a homecoming, it's a suicide mission"
if one thing you can count on Percy being, is realistic and reasonable.
except that one time where he totally reverse-Bugs-Bunny'ed Garmelie?
I think even Matt himself was frustrated.
The story that Grog tells about the bullette-like creature- that’s later became armor for Trinket.
I love how you ladies are talking about the relationships between the characters and while they dont ever do a it's this characters Solo arc but it's peppered through out the campaign. There is a scene further into the campaign where Keyleth asked the group, "Are we even friends?" and Percy is the one to respond, "Worse, we're family." Which has a follow up of Percy talking to Grog saying to him, "I've missed having an older brother." I wont say more but getting invested WILL HAVE PAYOFF.
cant wait to see what happens next Also feel free to join our server if you havent already discord.gg/AeTVnEkU
34:50 - And this is why I love watching reaction videos. "Fucking, WHAT?!"
HAHAHAH Also feel free to join our server if you havent already discord.gg/AeTVnEkU
Oh, don't forget that hanging those effigies also tells all the townsfolk that "if you see these people, look what's in store for you." Just to make sure they don't get allies either... Fun reactions, thanks for sharing!!
And the tiger dude never presented another problem. Ever.
No one else pointed out that Vax and Vex sleep in the same position, but Vax gave his sister his cloak as a blanket.
Keyleth is the anti-Batman. Give her time to plan, and she fucks it up. You don’t give her a second and force her to act on instinct, she can do anything.
keyleth is cursed with great power, glorious purpose, and crippling anxiety.
Overthinking, indecisive and insecure. Powerful character needs big flaws.
@@Bloodyshadow1 very relatable.
Let's not forget what happens when Keyleth uses Heat Metal.
Gilmore was the cast's favorite npc in c1, he helped them often and is also a fan favorite. You can look for Gilmore's first appearance compared to here on youtube.
love him! Also feel free to join our server if you havent already discord.gg/AeTVnEkU
I always enjoy watching a newcomers’ reaction to the Sun Tree!
HAHAHA....pain! Also feel free to join our server if you havent already discord.gg/AeTVnEkU
The loss of the holy water and other items is a reference to losing a member of the group in the original C1. Tiberius Stormwind who was one of the founding members but left after about 20 or so episodes right when they were on their way to Whitestone.
Episode 27 was his last episode. Also...the one of worst for his behaviour issues at the table. It's a ROUGH episode to get through. Episode 24ish was when the Briarwood arc started so he left right after it started.
So I just did a quick copy/paste from the book, but here's the official description of the deity Pike follows in Mercer's world of Exandria.
"God of atonement and compassion, Raei spreads the message of understanding and optimism in even the darkest of places. She believes that the corrupt can be redeemed, a mindset that led to a betrayal by the Lord of the Nine Hells, who decimated her followers during the Calamity. This misplaced trust caused many priests to strike her name from historical records, leaving her title and faith scattered to obscurity for much of the recent age. Only recently has her faith been rediscovered and her temples returned to prominence. The Everlight’s followers are often rural healers and community philosophers, offering a voice of reason and empathy in angry and cynical times."
For what its worth, all the Craziest Kills they were talking about...except Scanlans actually happened in game. Nice little easter eggs.
Scanlan had one of the craziest kills in Campaign 1 and nobody outside the group believes him.
One of my favorite characters I've made for a DnD game is this warlock kitten. Like literally an actual kitten, only her determination to survive the circumstances of her birth meant she caught the eye of a powerful being that gave her warlock magic. So she's a month old kitten who can make a mage hand and ride around on it. She was called Feline because the first friend she made was a warforged (sentient robot race). Technically she could communicate telepathically, but she mostly wouldn't bother because she could just meow at people. My goal was to be as much a cat as possible while playing her, it was so much fun. Gotta bring her back some time.
Also feel free to join our server if you havent already we love chatting about our OCs there! discord.gg/AeTVnEkU
They were also warning the populous that if they help these people, they will die too.
One motivation for the tree moment you may not have considered is as a message to the townsfolk. If you help people that look like them, you’ll share their fate.
That undead dog is the best boy. Smashed in half and STILL got the book for mom.
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Scanlan is like, the sole reason this show is R rated 😂
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Two more aspects of the Briarwood's "message" to Vox Machina are this let's all their Lieutenants and minions know what Vox Machina looks like, and tells all the survivors in Whitestone not to help Vox Machina.
that ending, right? it was horrifying watching it play out on stream, but meeting the victims here made it so much worse (fun fact - the little girl was played by the daughter of Scanlan's voice actor, just as his son was in episode one with Vax's VO's daughter.) The arc was already dark, but this moment really ups the stakes.
The way they explored Percy's tragic backstory - which was very limited in what Taliesin gave to Matt, and Taliesin himself said how it played out was so much worse than he ever imagined - really shows the versatility of the game and why this story is so beloved.
cant wait to see how this show progresses...Incredible so far! Also feel free to join our server if you havent already discord.gg/AeTVnEkU
It's actually a little disturbing how often the animators "kill" their kids.
So slight spoiler:
The pendant they gave the little girl is the same design as Pike's pendant.
The Effigies of Vox Machina were a sign to the characters to stay away, a warning of what would happen to them, as well as a signal to the local people to say "these people are enemies, if you see them do not help them or face the consequences".
Mad respect for your views on faith and your opposition towards coerced servitude. It reminds me of my OC Cleric, Thurs Firelight.
Thurs spent his years worshipping a horrid fire giant, killing and burning and terrorizing into old age. He realized, after burning his own hometown down, that there was nothing left to burn but himself and his legacy of dark deeds. He set out in search of a new source of faith, a new way to express his inner fire, all the while smoking his lungs away as an internal punishment.
Eventually, he finds faith in The Platinum Dragon, puts down the cigars, and picks up performance, telling tales of adventurers fighting for good and glory, doing what he can to be a good person and follow a new light, away from the old flames that once consumed him. He was a complete pacifist, who used a shield and lantern, only ever buffing his allies and causing distraction rather than destruction.
love this. Also feel free to join our server if you havent already we love chatting about OCs discord.gg/AeTVnEkU
I’ve been off-and-on watching your channel for a while, but watching you guys do this series has really sealed the deal of my enjoyment of your content 💙
I’ve played dnd and other tabletops and roleplaying games since I was in diapers, so I’ve had a plethora of characters.
My favorite is probably my most recent one. Her name is Mageau Flintdream Thunukako, but she goes by “Flint”. She’s a Goliath Rune Night, and she struggles with speaking common, because her family never taught their 8 children anything but giant. She’s covered head to toe in tattoos of runes that activate and have different effects in battle. About halfway through the campaign, my friend started playing a rock genasi barbarian names Ausraliana, and they immediately hit it off and recently got engaged in the campaign. The dynamic she has with her Fiancé and party mates is adorable, especially ‘cause her teammates are a 4-foot-tall cleric, and a 2-foot-tall frog man, both of which small enough for her to carry in a backpack. 💙
Critical Role and their sweetheart barbarians! Grog, Yasha, and Ashton ❤️
Regarding the construction of Percy's character(no spoilers)...
I think the two of you will find this interesting, considering how much you like the construction and development of character. First of all, Matt(DM) and Taliesin(Percy) have known each other for many, many years. They had been very good friends long before this campaign began, and Taliesin had been playing TTRPGs since he was in high school. So when it came time to make a character, Tal trusted Matt and also had a ton of experience in what worked and what didn't.
Tal had started a novella in high school(?) about a guy that invented the first firearm. He thought this would have to be an interesting and terrifying character. Anyone intelligent enough to come up with the first gun, would also have to be smart enough to realize the horrible damage it would cause. They would have to know it would be copied by others and cause endless death and destruction down through the ages. To still build and use that terrible invention would mean they just didn't care. What type of character would that be? That's what was going through Taliesin's head as he started building Percy.
The other half of this is Percy's backstory. Tal decided to only give Matt the info that Percy would have known. Percy was a younger son of the family that ruled an isolated city-state(Whitestone). He had several older siblings, so he knew from childhood that it would never be his responsibility to rule. That freedom, plus his natural intelligence, led him to be interested in things like engineering and tinkering.
One evening some guests arrived at Whitestone. They were a visiting pair of minor nobles(plus a small entourage) named Lord and Lady Briarwood. Either that night, or a few nights later, the Briarwoods and their party brutally murdered Percy's family with the help of some of the de Rolo's trusted servants and took over the city. Percy and his sister survived initially, but she was killed during their escape. Percy's desire for vengeance led him to later invent this world's first firearm.
Note that there is no mention of a vampire or necromancer in this backstory. Percy didn't know that, so Tal didn't include it. Tal knew there was always the possibility they might be more than human(this is D&D after all), but Percy didn't. So Tal left all of that up to Matt. There are some other things along these lines about Percy, but those would be spoilers. The takeaway here is that Percy is a true collaboration between Tal and Matt. And much of it was created in real-time at the table. Tal wrote a partial backstory at the start of the campaign and gave it to Matt. Matt surprised Tal by twisting some of it on its head literally years later(the game had been running about two years before the Briarwood Arc started). And then Tal ran with what Matt had done and kept evolving the character through those new experiences.
I'm not going to go super deep into this next part because this is already a dissertation(lol), but there's a reason Percy is the most developed character at this point in the campaign. First, Taliesin had the most TTRPG experience at the table by far when the game started; most of the rest had zero experience. Second, Percy was the second to last character to be added to the group(Pike was last, but Ashley also had zero TTRPG experience). Most of the rest were created for the very first game, and that was intended to be a one-time event. That's why most of the characters fall into standard archetypes. Sam especially didn't take things seriously. Scanlan was created as a joke character in every possible way. Calling him one-dimensional at the very start of the campaign would be an understatement. As the game went on, Sam actually had the hardest time developing Scanlan because there was just no meat to start with. Matt eventually helped him out with a big plot twist that should happen in season two or three, and that kickstarted Scanlan's character development. Anyway, while most of the rest of the characters were built under the belief that they would only be used one time, Percy and Keyleth were created by experienced players after the game had transitioned into an ongoing campaign. And if you watch for it in the livestream, you can see those two had a jump start on their character development because of it. Everyone got there eventually, but those two had a head start.
Sorry about the length.
Matt's NPC creation process... Matt has discussed this on several (many) panels that you can find on RUclips, however, the most succinct version is from a DM guide series he did for Geek and Sundry (ruclips.net/video/-UA5eajTRIA/видео.html).
The moment at the Sun Tree... They did such a great job animating this for the show, but there is just something extra about the moment as you watch the cast come to the realization of what is going on. SpeckoVids did us all a favor by putting the two events together to compare the moments (ruclips.net/video/HGgpO13Icu8/видео.html)
OC: Devlinarian Thistledew the 16th, esquire. An "eladrin" (elven) courtier of a fey court, he foolishly challenged another member of court to a duel. As the challenged, she claimed choice of weapon, chose "dares," then dared him to tell her a story that's never been told before. This is a problem in the Fey realm since every story imaginable happens there over and over again, just with different details (which don't count). "There is nothing new under the sun," which is why the Archfey are so bored all the time. Determined to accomplish the dare so that he can take his turn next (and dare her to marry him, which he's convinced she'll refuse), he's traveled to the prime material plane, since it's the only place where new stories are born. His queen has granted him magic to survive on this quest, making him a warlock of the fey.
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@@AllAgesofGeek
Nah, I was just like you're reading them on your intros so I'll throw one in but then you stopped so
About the glorious Gilmore he appears quite a bit in the campaign and he does go through a bit of an arc alongside vox Makina we do learn more about his khaki and is home later on.
If you want, you can watch the character intros they played in the break during their first campaign where they tell a snippet of their characters backstory. That way you can understand them a bit better if you want.
Don’t know how they're gonna show it in the series
Heck yeah! Thanks for another great upload queens!
that's the team I'd like them to use on the elfquest audiovisual masterpiece when they get to their senses and get started.
I love how some of the monsters, like the dragon and these demon dogs or whatever are done in a different style of animation. It reminds me of how in some horror, monsters are so alien that the protagonists brains can't quite take it in.
Enjoying your exuberant and thoughtful reactions to the series! As a long time Critter it's wonderful seeing the cast's excellent story telling skills finally getting the wider appreciation they deserve. When you've finished the series you should check out the watch-alongs that Critical Role hosted for each.set of 3 episodes (on their Twitch channel.and also posted here on RUclips) - you'll get to hear more details from the cast and crew about the process of creating these characters as well as adapting for the series. Really good stuff!
Wait...I have a question.
Do you two ladies not know that Laura Bailey was Abby in The Last of Us 2, or that the whole reason that CR exists was because of the vast majority of people on CR voice-acted in Resident Evil 6? Hell, Matt Mercer played the primo badass himself, Leon S. Kennedy.
By the way, one of the best multi-character stories that I love? Firefly. It had enough of a story to give every MC the spotlight, but it did something else I think a lot of writers overlook: Making a character out of something like a spaceship. In Firefly, Serenity was a character all her own -- and I don't think I know of anyone who became invested in the story and characters that didn't cry in the episode titled Out of Gas. Serenity became that much of a character people cared about.
Lastly, now that you've seen it, I can give one difference between the game and the animated series: In the game, Trinket had gone to Whitestone with Vex. As a result, the Briarwoods had even hung a bear on the Sun Tree. In the animated series, they skipped that, despite the fact that the hung bear was how Vox Machina, in-game, figured out that those hanging from the Sun Tree was a message for Vox Machina.
Edit: I hear you on religion. I have my own personal beliefs that are more fantastic and wondrous than mere theology. What I believe is simple: Religion is science that hasn't been explained yet.
But the point is this: I think a lot of the whole "submission" stuff happens is because of both James and Hebrews (speaking to traditional Mosaic Jews in Jerusalem, which has remembered being in both Babylonian and Egyptian slavery), as well as books like Ephesians, which talk about wives submitting to husbands and children submitting to parents. The problem is, each part of a family, of a faith, has its own responsibilities. And human nature, being what it is, will jump to conclusions and assume something is true before getting the whole story. For instance, in Ephesians, it says that: 1) Children should not exasperate their children, and vice versa; and 2) That wives are supposed to respect their husband, while a husband is supposed to love his wife. Why is this mentioned? Because what each is to do is actually hard for each to do. It is easy for a husband to respect someone, being male, while it is easy for a woman to love. On the other hand, it is hard for a man to show love, and hard for a woman to actually show respect. I think it also has to do with dominance and submission, as loving someone is being submissive, when respecting someone is accepting dominance.
Point is, the Bible is taken out of context by people all the time, because they are biased in terms of looking for faults, while also not getting the whole story -- and just like the whole Jewish language with individual words that can have more than one meaning, context is everything.
Last of Us has tons of connections to Critical Role. Laura Bailey ( Vex) did numerous voices in the first game and played Abby in the second. Liam Obrien (Vax) and Sam Riegel (Scanlan) were voice directors, and Travis Willingham (Grog) and Matt Mercer (DM/Silas Briarwood) voiced a number of minor characters
you really need to watch the stream. You will just love it.
heheh we plan on it! Also feel free to join our server if you havent already discord.gg/AeTVnEkU
Hello. You asked about characters we have played. I was playing D&D shortly after it came out. My original and favorite character was a half human half orc fighter named Bear (my own nickname in HS). His strength was magically enhanced to 18 (max). Bear's primary weapon was a battle axe. It was a magic item with a speed factor of zero - No other weapon was faster (Much to the shock of his opponents). Bear was quiet, protective of his group, and had no patience for bullies. In battle, he was a tactical tank. Bear would use the battle field and things around him to his advantage.
Feel free to join our server if you havent already we love chatting about OCs there too! discord.gg/AeTVnEkU
Whenever i see that scene on the tree, i think of Laudna.
My favorite character is an Aarakocra (bird person) monk. He grew up in a remote monastery after being attacked in the wild and being cursed as a were bear. All the monks at the Pan'da monastery seek to control their curse. He left to find other hidden werebear monasteries to gain knowledge they had on the curse. And on his journey mysterious people started hunting him down. I never found out why but I assume it was due to his monstrous nature... It all started because I thought it would be funny to make a king Fu panda but that character always meant a lot to me.
Quick DND rule of thumb: never get emotionally attached to horses. They will inevitably die, run away, or be forgotten about lol
During Episode 14 of Season 3, one of the characters actually uses an item that he acquired from Gilmore's.
The sacrifice my ears must make to complete these reactions is worth it seeing two new critter plunge in head first.
My newest character that I just finished playing: **Fune Earl** (funeral)
Fune is an oathbreaker paladin/necromancy wizard multiclass. He was something of a folk hero where he came from since he was able to defend his little village from a horde of zombies. Inspired by the attack, he left his village behind to follow his dreams: to become a restaurateur. Now he runs a fully sustainable, farm-to-table restaurant thats run entirely off of undead creatures. The zombies work the farm as their rotting flesh helps fertilize the soil. The skeletons run the kitchen as they are able to quickly cook the food and the ghosts are the wait staff as they are able to pass through tables and whatnot to get you your food as soon as possible.
While on adventures, his primary goal is to find more bodies to get more free staff for his restaurant and farm. He's a creepy little halfling that prefers to speak into your minds telepathically than talk out loud. He's also definitely *not* evil ;)
Feel free to join our server if you havent already we love chatting about OCs there too! discord.gg/AeTVnEkU
Well, in the campaign their horses go eaten by harpies sooooo... maybe falling to death was better
Most miss it, the gag of the tongue going into Scanlan mouth serves dual purpose. It’s comedy because of course the Overly sexual gnome would enjoy that. But, it kept him from singing which is how he would cast his spells to escape.
Though I’m convinced he does give bardic inspiration to Vex right before that last bow shot.
My OC is a green slaad wizard called Bargle (A slaad is a frog-like creature who lives in the chaotic plane called Limbo). He was born from a human wizard named Berry Spellweaver who, as a result of injuries sustained while fighting a different slaad, mutated into the green slaad. Bargle used to guard one of the natural entrances into Limbo, however he was kicked out due to constantly letting people into Limbo in exchange for stories of the other planes, which Bargle finds so fascinating because they are so unlike Limbo. Now Bargle finds himself trapped in a strange place known as the material plane, or what we all consider to be the normal world, and he uses his ability to change his form to go about as the wizard Berry Spellweaver, from who he was born, as he does his best to fit into this world, though it's usually awkward.
Also, never thought about this until now, but if you were to have a prince become a slaad and pretend to be that prince, you would have the reverse of the frog turning into a prince where in this case the prince would technically turn into a frog.
Six barrels, five names… think about it. 33:13
So a few people have mentioned the Sun Tree moment and y'all should check out the live moment, I'll make it easier for you. Here's a stitched together vid of the moment from the campaign and the animated made by the Critters beloved overwatcher, Arsequeef.
ruclips.net/video/pfrPtggg6kQ/видео.html
Gilmore shows up fairly often during the series, more and more as the story comes to a close. Some great character development and surprises in store there.
Honestly reminicing back to one of my still unfinished homebrew campaign, i really miss the character i played named Otto Morris, a Changeling Rogue (that multiclassed into warlock later). He had to go through two alignment changes because of how his group interacts with him.
He was an orphan abandoned on the streets that grew jaded by all the interactions of the people he's met in the town and decided that the only person he can trust is himself. He prefers to manipulate the people around him into doing the things he wants and usually cuts and runs once the relationship becomes "useless" to him. Throughout the campaign he becomes very close to one of his groupmates, a half-elf bard named Ju'Rael who then became his lover. Unfortunately, since the campaign is still unfinished, the last thing that he had to go through before we stopped was having to drag the dead body of Ju'Rael to a temple of the Raven Queen and leave him there with a diamond in hopes that there are well practiced clerics who could bring his lover back to life. He does not stay though. He instead runs away before seeing if Ju'Rael could be revived.
Extra Above table content: Otto was multiclassed into a warlock of the Raven Queen. He didn't become a paladin of the goddess because of the way he carried himself so instead made a pact as a warlock instead. Because of this, Ju'Rael was able to be brought back on a favour of his patron but has lost all his memories pertaining to Otto.
I really miss playing him because of how snarky he can be and i hope that my group can get back together and play again.
fun fact the person who voices the little girl that was made to look like Pike is actually Sam Riegal's daughter, Sam voices Scanlan
Of course the bard takes any chance to make an entrance
In the game they also hung a bear to signify that Trinket was also on the Briarwood's hit list
Yeah, they hanged a bear also because Trinket was there at the banquet fight in the campaign...he wasn't there in the show ...so no hanged bear on the tree.
16:00 He was a major NPC so quite a lot of appearences.
It’s amazing this didn’t need any censoring
The necklace is the symbol that pike is wearing
yeah the moment in the original campaign when matt mercer described the people hanging from the tree dressed like vox machina made all the players and a lot of the audience go 'what the actual fuck matt?!?!'
OC submission and some storytime regarding CritRole from me:
I have played some other systems before, but last year, through the discovery of Critical Role me and a friend of mine got heavily into DnD. It's been almost exactly 13 months to the day since I started and today, I finally finished all of Campaign 1 and 2 (on top of watching C3 every week). I am also currently planning two campaigns, Call of the Netherdeep (which is the first officially WotC licensed adventure set in Exandria, the world of Critical Role and Vox Machina) and one set in my very own world, Aventuria. This sadly means I'll probably be the forever-DM of my group and I won't be able to play many (if any, lmao) of my OC's I create in my free time. But what I can do is put them in as NPC's and villains, which is exactly what I'm planning with one of my favourite OC's I've written to this day:
He's going to be a major NPC in my homebrew campaign, starting as one of the higher-ups in the church of the main god of my world and ending up as the penultimate villain of the story. Now that I think about it, this is more of a lore dump than an OC, but I hope you like it anyways!
His name is Ingidius, a red-skinned Tiefling Paladin, Oath of Conquest for stage 1 and Oathbreaker Paladin / Hexblade Warlock for stage 2 (more on the stages later).
He grew up as an orphan in the city of Perricum, where he frequently escaped from the orphanage with a few friends, causing trouble in the city. During one of these escapes, he met the street girl Riana who came to Perricum as the lone survivor from a ship that sunk during a storm just off the coast of Perricum. Riana apparently doesn't remember much more other than her name and that she is from the Al'Anfa empire in the south.
As they grew older, they became very good friends and, although he never told her - Ingidius had a huge crush on Riana. They promised each other that one day, they would visit Al'Anfa together to find Rianas family.
At some point, the orphanage had enough of Ingidius' shenanigans and gave him over to the local temple of Praios, highest of the 12 gods and God of the Sun and the Law. There, he found equilibrium in prayer and swordsmanship and got his brash personality under control. While Ingidius trained under the priests and paladins of Praios, Riana grew into a beautiful woman and became Perricums most sought-after concubine. When it was time to finish his training, Ingidius had to go to the main temple a few hundred miles away and when he came back to celebrate with Riana, she was nowhere to be found. At first, this angered him as he thought she had run off with some man that paid to be with her, but over time he grew very worried as she was not seen anywhere in the country. After months and months of searching for her, Ingidius gave up and took on his duties as paladin. He quickly rose through the ranks and became one of the most prominent figures in the Praios-church.
(This is the point where my campaign will begin - the year is 1031 after the fall of Bosparon, exactly one decade ago, the evil necromancer Borbarad and his armies were defeated and the 12th age had begun. Necromancy had been put under heavy restrictions and all known records on it destroyed. However, a few weeks ago, a certain disease started plaguing a number of villages. The disease was not natural and clearly necromantic in nature.)
The continent can be roughly described to be split in 3 parts - northern, middle and southern. While the northern and middle parts believe Praios, god of Sun and Law is the patriarch over the 12 gods, the south worships Boron, god of Sleep and Death as the highest of the gods. This has always lead to tensions in the past but now, the followers of Praios are accusing the south of using necromancy to weaken the middle and northern empires. The harbinger of light (basically the pope of the Praios-church) appoints Ingidius as the "First sword of Praios" and sends him on a mission to confront the leaders of the Boron-church in the southern Al'Anfa empire, to which he wholeheartedly aggrees.
Ingidius, of course not only hopes to settle the argument between the two churches, he also hopes to find Riana - which he does. When he was away to finish his training, she was found by an uncle of hers and brought back to Al'Anfa (which is why he could never find her, the north and south aren't exactly on good terms). There, she trained to be a fighter for the Golgarites, one of the two military units under the control of the Boron-church.
(Now comes the part for which I have rough outlines but since I don't know what will happen in the campaign yet, it can change)
Ingidius reunites with Riana and converts to the Boron-church which will make him an Oathbreaker. He will then also become grand master of the Basaltfist (the second military unit of the Boron-church). This will lead to him aquiring Ravenfeather - the very sword that slew the evil wizard Borbarad. However, Borbarad somehow found a way to preserve his spirit, which is now trapped inside Ravenfeather. This is how Ingidius becomes a Hexblade warlock with Borbarad as his patron. Borbarad makes Ingidius think he's Boron and manipulates him and Riana into using the combined strength of the Basaltfist and the Golgarites to overthrow the leaders of the south. A war breaks out between the north and middle empires on the one side and the south on the other. Borbarads plan is to use this war to find a suitable vessel for his spirit so that he can start another attempt at enslaving the world.
The Dinner guests apparently had a wonderful dinner, it was a meal fit for Kings including Lobster and all manner of gourmet foods. if you look closely you see a trickle of Blood meaning they were not fed in by Sylas, so the Briarwoods just straight up killed them to send a message.
Fun Fact: all there best kills happened during the stream with the exception of Scanlans, though Vaxs has the best story to it.
At the age of 16 Bregin a member of the Mud People from Continent of Truth, set out on a journey of knowledge and self discovery. Along the way he made noted documenting what he saw and experienced, in the hopes that this information would some day get back to his people. He made stops in Aydindril, The Peopls Palace in D'Hara, Tanimura, finally making his way all the way to Slumberhaven where he boarded a ship across the ocean to Baldur's Gate.
Upon arriving there he found a large source of knowledge where he spent time pouring over the books that he had access to. Still desiring further knowledge He joined the Cobalt Soul as a scribe. After spending 2 years under the tutelage of Bren Kindlkind, once again set out on a journey to gain knowledge on a mysterious amulet of power.
Travelling south from Baulder's Gate along The Coast Way he stopped at the Cloak Wood. Where he by chance stumbled across a small child like individual. being attacked by a Dire Bear. After a hard fought battle he managed to overcome the creature. He took the little person home after learning her name was Charlette. She was greeted by her people with joy upon hearing of her tale. When an older gentleman came up to Bregin, and introduced himself as the tribe chieftain and father of Charlette. And as a reward for saving his daughter they were to be wed at the next full moon. During the time before the wedding they spent time getting to know each other. Their affection grew and grew. And still grows to this day. A year after they were married. Charlette gave birth to a small boy who they named Gimble.
From an early age Gimble had shown signs of intelligence. And an eagerness to learn much like his father. Every night his father would sit him down on his lap and tell him stories of his people and of his grandfather. He would tell him of the things he has seen and tasted. And as Gimble sat on his lap his eyes would be filled with stars and wonder as he drank in the stories. So at the tender age of 13 his Father took him to Baulder's Gate with the permission of Charlette, to The Cobalt Reserve where Gimble would start his training as a Monk of the Cobalt Reserve.
When Gimble turned 18 he headed home to speak to his father, about the possibility of making a pilgrimage to the Continent of Truth. As his father did not want to leave his mother. He gave his blessing on the condition that, he deliver some tomes to the Mud People. Gimble agreed to this request and set out out carve his own path in the vast world.
In our main campaign, I am playing a young half-elf paladin (of vengeance, so godless) named Tarron. Grew up with his human father on the deck of a merchant ship, unknown elven mother. The father ends up marrying another human woman but she dies giving birth to his younger half-brother (who he sees as a brother, plain and simple). Kinda poor family, the father dies of illness leaving Tarron to take care of his baby brother. Trying to make a living and survive, he leaves his brother to the care of the neighbors for a few weeks to sail and gain a bunch of gold that could feed them for a month. But when he comes back, the village has been attacked and he finds his brother dead. The few survivors talk about some cultists that came and killed almost everyone. At that moment, he left everything and is trying to find those cultists, taking the Oath of Vengeance. He tends to hate seeing his allies get hurt instead of him - trying to make amends for not even having a chance to try and protect his brother. He is trying to be responsable but he is also very reckless xD and right now, the party is stuck on an island full of cultists and a locked gate to the Abyss they are trying to open and he feels so helpless. The party is looking up to him because... paladin... but he doesn't know what to do except SMITE. We recently had a fight were all the party members fell unconscious except him (they are all glass canons) and seeing them all down really hit him hard (everyone survived, the boss was almost dead but close call). I am really curious where this will all go.
Since I see people are telling stories about their characters, the first one I made since D&D 5e: An Half-Elf Fighter named Aineyn, she was a former slave-gladiator, forced to fight in the arena for the enjoyment of the crowd, in a town that was very pro-human (and thus anti-anything else, so her elven heritage, well... you get the idea!). But she formed bonds with the other gladiators and, eventually, they all rebelled and broke out of that town! She then vowed to use the skills she learned in the arena to fight oppression wherever she sees it.
Not the most original character concept I guess, I've made a lot of weirder stuff since (I have a Warforged (the closest there are to robots in D&D) Wild Mage Sorcerer, for example! :p ). Still, she was my first D&D 5e character, so she has a special place in my heart, and wouldn't mind bringing her back to different groups once in a while! :)
I wish I could give you a million likes on that discussion of faith and how The Lord preaches to let others find it if their own free will.
I'm guessing they're planning on playing a campaign on stream?
OC submission (warning, it’s kinda long):
So, one character I made and hope to play one day is mountain dwarf fighter barbarian, named Roughmead Firebeard, a green-eyed and unusually average sized dwarfette from a family of famous blacksmiths known for their bright crimson hair (I’ve been playing a lot of elden ring lately so that’s aesthetic has been my jam), who watched over a sacred forge known as the “bright-fire-forge”, whose ever-burning fire was said to have been first made by merging the energies from a celestial plane with those from the elemental plane of fire.
Mechanically, this means if you touched it, you would not only take fire damage, but radiant damage as well, as the forge essentially functions as a miniature sun.
All this to explain why her family are unusually dark skinned for mountain dwarfs.
As you can imagine, being the eldest child to a famous noble family meant that, set to eventually inherit the forge itself, she was rather privileged, and, even though she did spent a lot of her youth practicing to join the family business, her early life was rather cozy.
The only real issue she had being a troubled relationship with her younger brother, Hotwine (totally not inspired by marvels loki) Firebeard, who was largely suspected to have been the result of adultery with a passing group of traveling halflings, Hotwine himself suspecting his parents to have preferred Roughmead over him.
So there’s that, but then, later in life, Roughmead would be accused and framed for several crimes she didn’t commit, each spaced about a year between each-other.
Now, fun fact about dwarf culture in dnd, when you’re taken to court, the case is typically handled by a group of the oldest dwarves in the hold, known simply as the elders, who will decide whether you are declared innocent or guilty, or, unproved, where they can’t prove you did do it, but they can’t prove you didn’t either.
A sentence of unproven essentially marking you as someone untrustworthy for something you might’ve done, or at least a bad omen for having such things happen around you.
A declaration of unproven is a stein on a dwarfs record, and something to feel shame over.
If you suffer several declarations of unproven, the council may even decide you are a risk no longer worth taking, and banish you from the hold.
When a dwarf is banished from their hold, they are still allowed into any other dwarf hold, were they will be provided with all basic dwarfen hospitalities, but even if you try and hide why you’re there, they’ll quickly see that you’re alone and depressed, and figure out pretty quickly you were banished, causing them to see you as a potential threat, and will keep one hand firmly on their weapon, and won’t be too subtle about the fact you should probably get going as soon as you can.
Long story short, this happened to Roughmead, and while she was never able to find enough evidence to make even herself certain, she was pretty suspicious that it was Hotwine’s doing.
The council of elders, many of which were her own ancestors, banished her from her home, the only place she really knew anything of, and while she expected her friends, or at least her beloved parents, to object, or say anything in her defense, even just say goodbye, nobody said anything.
She tried staying at other dwarf holds for a few years, but quickly realized she would never really be welcomed, and after one too many side-eye glances, swore off dwarfen holds all together, and because no other dwarf had really ever been kind to her since her banishment, she decided she would lend them the same courtesy, and kinda became racist against her own kind.
From that moment on, she mainly stuck to human towns and cities, where she would party to forget, and drink to drown her sorrows, before slinking back into the wilderness to brood where no one else could see her.
In her eyes, her life was ruined, she blamed her brother, she blamed her family, her hold, the practices of dwarf society, and to some extent, all of dwarf kind.
Later on, while she was traveling by herself, sleeping atop a hill under the moonlight, her campfire crackling away beside her, she had a dream, one where she encountered a disheveled nobleman, who promised to give her what she wanted.
When she awoke, she recognized that figure as the faerunian god of vengeance, Hoar (whose name I didn’t want to risk saying something offensive by saying out loud, so I exclusive refer to them by their nickname of “the doombringer”), and she was immediately filled with inspiration by this clear visit from one of the gods while she slept.
Swearing herself to devotion to the doombringer, she quickly traveled to a larger human settlement, and offered her services in exchange for using one of the local blacksmiths forges, and over the course of a few weeks, went about putting those lessons from her youth to good work.
She forged a stone-maul she named mourne, whose bludgeoning-sections were both carved in the likeness of ghoulish faces, one an elderly man weeping, the other an angry devil, while the sides were engraved with the names of those that she felt had most wronged her, her family, those who sat upon the council of elders, and those guards and soldiers who acted as enforcers of the councils decrees.
She promised herself she would go out, get stronger, and one day return home to claim vengeance.
Thus begins her journey, as she seeks to work as a monster hunter, in hopes it will help her eventually become strong enough to overpower her old dwarfen hold and all those within.
I plan on playing her to where you would never guess she had such a tragic past based on your first interaction with her, as she tends to be a friendly, bubbly, and amicable person who is always down to party.
Partially as a means of coping, but mostly because that’s genuinely just who she is at heart.
She’s a little bit of a “manic pixie dream girl”, as the kids like to say.
But if the subject of her past ever gets brought up in any really significant or meaningful way, you can rest assured that she will be one part angst, and one part fury.
I wanted to play a barbarian not just because I find them cool, but also because I have a few personality disorders, and tend to get a little overly emotional.
It only really makes sense for me to play a character like her who has big emotions, given I have big emotions myself.
I think she’s a really good example of that thing you guys were talking about, where I’m not “her”, and she’s not me.
For starters, I’m not a girl, nor am I attracted to men like she is.
But with our similarities, I feel she would be a very easy character for me to play, or maybe it should be “I would be a very easy character for her to play”?
As for her backstory, obviously I’d leave it up to the DM how and if they’d want to incorporate it, but if they did, I’d be really interested to see how they would, as I purposefully left several elements ambiguous, just incase the DM wanted to throw me a curveball, and added some potentially interesting things like the bright-fire-forge I could easily see them using in clever, cool, or unexpected ways.
Anyways, thank you to whoever managed to read through all this, and also, sorry, I know this probably won’t get read out, being almost definitely too long, but I really just wanted to get this all out there.
But yeah, thanks for reading.
If you couldn’t tell, I’m a bit passionate about this character.
She’s got really girly pigtails and really manly muttonchops :3
Feel free to join our server if you havent already we love talking about OCs there! discord.gg/AeTVnEkU
is it Tuesday yet?
so ... I don't know if you've seen or heard anything about it, but there's an anime about a support class character that manages to do more than the typical 'hero' classes heroes ... its called The Rising of the Shield Hero
Now check out the players' reaction to the Sun Tree in the original stream...
OC, not an Original Character but an Original Creature, a monster I made for my homebrew 5e campaign.
*The Babblelocker*
A gaunt, hunched figure with a pronounced spine stalks through the misty halls of an ancient labyrinth. The massive, glowing rune where its face ought to be casts wicked shadows against the bodies that line these dusty paths. One is fresh, a wizard sent by some distant guild to investigate the multitudes of adventurers that have gone missing down here. Wizards are its favorite meal. One look and he had slumped, unconscious. A flash from the rune and his voice was stolen. A spellcaster with no voice. A fish on a hook. Gutting the former requires little more effort than the latter. The terrible aberration cracks backwards, the wide maw across it's stomach now stretched open as it slides the body inside. A satisfying meal. The creature turns as it hears other voices calling. It calls back with the wizard's voice. "I'm over here, help me please!" Then it vanishes into the mist, appearing elsewhere in the maze. Another call in another voice, this one many years old; split the party, take their voices, consume their flesh. It's all this monster knows. One by one they will fall to its eye. One by way it will silence them. One by one, gone into the depths of these ruined catacombs.
Babblelockers are particularly effective against spellcasters due to their ability to steal a creature's voice, rendering spellcasting impossible. Once they have taken a voice it belongs to them, naturally theirs as opposed to copying, and they reproduce it perfectly. There is no limit on the number of voices they can possess, and when they steal a voice from a creature, they become fluent in all languages that the creature spoke. They stalk through any structure that is sufficiently maze-like or confusing to navigate, using their ability to navigate perfectly by memory and the innate confusion such a place creates to isolate individuals, then take their voices and eat them. They are particularly common in any such structure wherein there are stores of wealth, knowledge, or other such bounties, because these often attract scholars, too weak to pose a real threat. They are highly intelligent, and immensely strong despite their frail appearance. The only way to retrieve your voice from a Babblelocker is to kill it, but this is unlikely to occur, because it can only take your voice if you are unconscious. This is where the Anticonsciousness Cone comes into play. Similar to an Antimagic Cone, but it puts you to sleep.
I had my players exploring an abandoned city full of lost knowledge, an ideal place for Babblelockers to set up. Wandering the streets were about 18 of these things, spread all throughout the area. Once our Wizard (level 17 btw) was rendered permanently mute and the Babblelocker teleported away, my players were far, FAR more careful about how they explored the place.
You meet Gilmore's mom and dad by the end of campaign one.
Wasn't it during the Chroma Conclave arc? So pretty much smack dab in the middle when they went to Marquet for the first time? So that'll probably be in season 2 already.
@@topkekbieri Chroma Conclave was where most of the Worldbuilding took place. Grogs past, KiKis Trails, the twin's history, not sure 12 episodes will do.
Now that I look at the list of episodes on the wiki, you're probably right. I just finished watching campaign 1 in about 3 months, which is why everything feels like one big clump of story in my head lmao. Thought the Marquet stuff happened earlier on in the quest of aquiring the vestiges
Just thought I'd pop in here and give you a little bit of enticement, lol.
I hear you guys talk about various anime on your reactions to The Legend of Vox Machina, and I have a challenge for you:
Watch the rest of the season, and see how many DBZ references you can find. Because I'll say this: They are there, you just have to find them.
Hey! Theo's player here again - to answer what you said about representation, I'd worried that it might be seen as appropriation of a sort. But I created him partly in homage to our group's prior DM, who passed away two years ago after a long fight with lung cancer. He was twenty, and it never stopped him making amazing stories with us, even when our antics made him laugh so hard he collapsed a lung mid-game. He was a goddamn hero.
Bless him for his amazing work 🙏 thank you for sharing his and your story
For the purpose of TTRPGing I tend to not favor TOO high-concept characters from the get-go. I feel it narrows the directions a GM can guide a campaign if your character is just ALL about having to do the very specific thing 'lest they be cursed forever or something. It's good to have potential for story hooks that can come into play and play out through the course of the campaign, but it just feels like the ol' novella of backstory isn't the best approach.
Clearly the surprise is a DnD game of some kind.
Did you know Travis voices Roy Mustang, or was that just a call on recognition? :) Like did you know it basically WAS sad Mustang or was it LIKE sad Mustang?
All ages of geek RULE NUMBER 2
Never fight a Healer EVERRRRRRR. why?
Brawler "Hahaha ten silvers to whomever can knock me out."
The Healer "Ok I'll do it."
The Musketeer "Healer down girl that that Brawler doesn't need a blow to his ego."
The Healer "But I need the money."
The Archer "But there are other jobs we can do that'll pay well."
The Healer "Yes but the item I want is a limited time offer, it'll be gone for good if I dont get the money right now I have an hour left. I promise I won't get hurt."
The Great Swordsman "I'm not worried about you I'm worried about what you'll do to the Brawler."
The Healer "Either way I'm getting that item one-way or another and you better bet on me or else.
The Healer stepped into the ring
The Brawler "Ha ha this little Pipsqueak is going to knock me out I like to see you try in fact I'll give you one free hit."
The Healer "I have to warn you I won't go easy on you."
The Brawler "Ha ha that's rich I bet you can't throw a punch. WHAT THE F**......"
The Healer "HYDUOKEN!!!!!!!!!"
The Brawler went out like a light
The Gambler "You are Terrifying."
The Item The Healer bought was a Military Grade multi-arm backpack complete with tentacles and a direct line to the great old one.
The Durid "Are you sure you're not Chaotic Evil?"
You're analysis of Vex's mindset is the closest I've seen out of any reactors
hahah! great love to hear it! Also feel free to join our server if you havent already discord.gg/AeTVnEkU
I have no faith; I do not want it and I am not lost. Thank you very much
Don't know if this guy will be seen, but I'll give it a go. The world setting is RWBY -like in it's nature. People of remnant escaped the planet and crashed on a distant new world and are starting over.
Henry Periwinkle is a blue cat faunus that joined B.L.A.D.E. Military Academy, a place designed to train soldiers to go out into the untamed wildness and help humanity's settlements in this alien world.
He mostly did it for the money to help support his single mother and his two younger siblings, despite his mother's strong objection to the idea.
Once he got enrolled, he found that he'd been selected to be part of a special class of students with more unique and advanced skill sets, being the normmie of the bunch.
He was selected because of his down to earth personality and medical training to help patch people up since Aura, Semblance, and Dust don't work in this new land. He's not the best in a fight, but he's gonna do what he can to make sure as many of his squad mates get home from the expeditions as possible.
As for what these expeditions this class is for...signs of OTHER intelligent life have been found. Unearthed ruins and artifacts have been found (and the existence of them kept out of public eye to avoid causing panic) and the had to form a team to look into it. It is squad 7's mission to locate, make contact with, and possibly peacefully negotiate with the indigenous people of this strange new world