"There are so many stories where some brave hero decides to give their life to save the day and because of their sacrifice, the good guys win, the survivors all cheer, and everybody lives happily ever after. But the hero never gets to see that ending. They'll never know if their sacrifice actually made a difference. They'll never know if the day was really saved. In the end, they just have to have faith..... Ain't that a bitch." ~ Epsilon/Church.
When Matt said "the charred body of Otohan thul" you could feel the disdain he had for the very character he created. It just serves as a reminder, the DM is not your enemy. They are playing the game with you. Amazing scene.
I don't believe he disliked the character. She was always meant to be a persistent, deadly enemy. This is the 2nd time she alone nearly wiped the party. He's giving FCG's sacrifice the gravitas it deserves.
Normally I'd believe that, but this fight was awful. 9 years. There have been some really rough episodes, some fights that were absolute slogs. There have been lots of mistakes. There have been some really questionable decisions. This is the first time I would ever say, this was bad DMing. He built a broken, way too overpowered character and threw her at a party that was already half down, with no avenue for escape. This was a slaughter. The only question was how many would die, whether or not it would be a TPK.
@@jonathanhibberd9983 It was not bad DMing (come on, man). And Otohan was not overpowered, she was merely VERY challenging and these guys were underestimating her. They had plenty things to use against her and they decided not to prepare properly for the fight, even despite saying pre-campaign that they wanted to be challenged (and boy, did Matt deliver). For example, they tried way too hard to force attack rolls (which in second phase was NOT the best move since she had 25 AC), Imogen wasted a WHOLE ROUND on Sending and tried, of all spells, SHOCKING GRASP against her and never moved away (like, come the hell on, Otohan had NO REACTIONS) and the last two rounds they were discussing running away instead of plain focusing on damage. Plus, Ashton didn't stay on melee range either when he went down (which was also not good). So I blame it more on them not taking Otohan seriously and less on Matt making Otohan work as intended.
@@DiscoSamurai Let's examine it, shall we. Major problems: Ashton collapsing the tunnel not having any effect. "I collapse the tunnel." "Ok, there's another one right next to it, and she's right on top of you." Bullshit. Your player did something smart, reward that. Have her delay getting there so there's a chance of escape. Or have it collapse on top of her so she takes damage. He threw a fully rested level 20 character against exhausted level 13 characters. Being so much lower is already a disadvantage. Being down in abilities and health is even more so. He gave her a weapon and abilities that, with their level disparity, means that she is always going to hit, always going to knock them down, giving her advantage on every subsequent attack, and always going to do significant damage. With her abilities, she minimum does 130 damage per round, with a max of 312. A tarrasque only does 98 minimum, with a max of 358 per round. Even at minimum damage, takes down at least one, maybe 2 characters per round. Despite all that, they were holding their own. This was a battle of attrition, and they were managing to stay slightly ahead of her. So Matt brings out this ridiculous exultant mode. 25 AC - which is the same as a tarrasque resistance to all damage - a tarrasque has a limited list of resistances restoration of action surges, giving her back her 12 attacks per round (4 base attacks, 4 surge attacks, 1 bonus attack, and 3 legendary actions) - a tarrasque has 8 with its multi-attack and 3 legendary actions. And again, despite being unhittable, undamageable, and able to down 1-2 characters per turn, they STILL held their own in this battle of attrition. If that had been it, they probably would have been able to down her through conventional means. Maybe they lose someone, maybe not, but it would have been, if not a fair fight, at least not ridiculously broken. Then Matt breaks out a homebrew potion that has twice the healing dice of the biggest potion in the game. It undid half the damage they had done that fight with one potion. This was a broken, overpowered, badly DMed battle. If anyone else were to describe this battle on a forum, you absolutely would say they fucked up.
@@jonathanhibberd9983 According to the step by step analysis of the fight, I still do not think it was "badly DM'ed" as you so desperately want to claim. They did poorly despite WANTING a deadly challenge and, because of their own fuck ups, Sam decided to blow FCG up. Sure, it didn't help Matt rolled high on certain things, but they were NOT ready for the deadly encounter they so desired. A sorcerer does NOT stay in melee ranged after a Shocking Grasp and Ashton should have stayed in front all the time. Plus, Passwall was used with the staff and they couldn't use it either. Matt didn't fuck up, they did. As such, the consequences of their actions bit hard and it showed. Next time, plan a strategy instead, specially when you're going against someone like her (and who you know is gonna be deadly).
I have to admit, this even though was sad, FCG’s Sacrifice was the most courageous act of heroism I’ve ever seen in a Dungeons and Dragons game. Godspeed you magnificent robot.
I always knew it was gonna be fcg giving up his life for his friends … at first I thought it was cause he thought he was lesser. But it was still very well played as always by Sam.
Watching this back with the context that Sam needed to go away for a bit to take care of his health hurts more and is even more tear jerking than watching it live.
Man this hits so different now. For all they knew at the time, they could have been saying goodbye to not just FCG, but to Sam himself. He's not out of the woods yet, but knowing his surgery went well and he is responding well to chemo is wonderful news
This hits so much harder now after Sam's cancer announcement, this wasn't just a character heroically sacrificing himself to save his friends this was a man facing down his own mortality and telling his closest friends how much he loves them
I always enjoy how Travis just loves the chaos and seeing the other people shine in their moments. " do you have this", was such a wait, is this an ability you have or something off the fly you trying
That and his character was already down, so he wasn't mentally in-character seeing his friend die. He was a player watching his friend come up with an incredible story beat.
I fucking swear if next episode is the one where Chetney rolls a 1 in his sleep the couple episodes would be probably the most brutal I have seen emotionally.
My heart just crumbled down with FCG's blaze of glory. Sam played the scene like nobody else could, he always delivers the BEST speeches! Still recovering from it, so absolutely heroic and heartbreaking!! Also... Imogen would be the "vessel" instead of Liliana? The way her mother said this, felt like her daughter is even more powerful than she is. VERY CURIOUS about this.
Yeah, that was the most heart breaking because he was the first to realize what Sam was trying to do and what it meant. You can almost pinpoint the second he knows.
FCG is also my favorite, but I hope they don’t bring him back. I like the idea of him having died not only after reaching a conclusion to his “am I machine?” thesis, but also saving all of his friends.
They way Matt was asking Sam if he was sure what it meant to go out the way he was doing it makes me believe that Matt wanted to confirm and convey "there is no coming back from this, there won't be anything to come back to".
Healing 66 hp and then being hit for 79 means the hp was super tight. I'm going to instead believe Matt gave FCG this victory because of the level of emotion he was able to conjure. Amazing display, thank you ❤️
He did say they were close a few times to finishing her, but ANY DM would've ignored the numbers at that point, whatever he rolled for it would've been enough
@@artloveranimation Yes because at the end its about having fun and epic moments even if the reality of the dice would say otherwise. Sometimes you have to ignore the dice for the sake of the game itself.
This one was a doozy. I was watching by myself in the hotel room with headphones cuz everyone else was sleeping. I have NEVER BEEN SO STRESSED OUT! I really hated Otohan, she was the worst besides Ludinus. I was hoping that Imogens mom could get there in time and save everyone or do something, certainly wasn’t expecting FCG to do that! And yes, I cried. A lot. Woke up my mom and she asked why I was crying. I told her somebody just died on CR and she gave me a hug and a back rub. She doesn’t watch CR but she understands my passion for it. I had no idea that Sam had cancer! I don’t use social media anymore, too much stress for my taste, so I was quite surprised by that. Much appreciate you for doing these recaps, I do miss marisharaygun quite badly but understand needing to step away.
The inly thing i absolutely DESPISE about this ep is the ppl who said this was "Bad DMING" the message that Otohan was an incredibly deadly enemy was made clear from ep 33. Shes not going to be a pushover. She wasn't then, she wont be now. Stop complaining and enjoy the damn show
I honestly wondered when Sam would hit the big feels button... fuck dude On a side note I'm interested to see his new character (unless he's out for good??? That'd suck...)
Campaign is almost over. I cant imagine him coming back at this point. Hes out for at least 4 to 6 weeks assuming the campaign has 6 months left in it. 🤷♂️
no way is he out for good, and also idk why but i get the feeling that matt has a trick up his sleeve after ruidis. no way is predathos the end of this campaign.
I made the mistake of listening to this at work. I had to step away from my desk and find a place I could just cry. First off, FCG amazing character, Sam has always done amazing.. well all of them do really with their characters but that one seemed to be the bright spot. His speech at the end left me sobbing. I am so going to seriously miss him.
Holy....aside the sacrifice, Fcg just bypass nana mori's deal with orym. So orym will not stay with nana mori when this campaign ends. The deal as broken by FCG.
@@camgor4048 nope the deal stated that orym will be nana's helper in the manor "IF" they all come back together safe, and orym expressed to her that "all of them".
SAM on the turn before took the last stress point for a mear +1D6 help point to get him at this point. (which is thought was horrible choice) but i didnt realize that was part of his plan.
Well if you're reading this I'm assuning you were spoiled already. What Fresh cut grass did was absolutely phenomenal. Yes, maybr they could've eventually killed her, but probably have 3 or 4 more deaths beforehand, and that assuming murder-robot doesn't finish them off. He was heroic, precise and ruthlessly effective, and took down the legend of the peaks. The rest of the HB now stand on the shoulders of a giant
Honestly I personally think if it was not his sacrifice, the seven of them would all die in this battle, unless Matt narratively got them out someway. She was still holding up well while the rest of them started running out of their things😢
@@lanmu738 it would be up to the dice I'm sure. It's definately possible they would have enough in the tank to kill her, but if they gave her two or three more turns it would be at the very least 4 deaths. But you're right, the TPK was more probable Edit: I forgot FCG was already berserk. Yeah they needed a miracle.
I feel like this campaign is/should end like Star Wars Rogue One where every one sacrifices themselves to save the world. I feel that would be a fitting end to a band of broken rejects
Sam always makes me cry. His charecters are epic and show incredible growth and RP at the table. He’s the reason I played a bard first and wanted to show a bard is more than sex puns.
Looking at just the main cast of campaigns 1-3 there has not been a Dwarf or Elf race nor a Paladin class (not counting multiclassing). So if there is no way to bring FCG back then it would be cool to see Sam play either a Dwarf or Elf Paladin
I am so glad that my instincts were to finish this episode when I did. I hate that youtube recommends spoilers all of the time. Thank god I didn't skip this one like I did the previous week.
This was the most uncomfortable I've ever felt watching a Critical Role fight. I was honestly wondering if Matt had a TPK plan ready. Otohan's title in hindsight should have been Hopetaker.
ooo what if the Changebringer sends an emmisary down to the party who has FCG soul/memory as its base, so it feels a connection to party but doesn't understand why and thinks it's just doing what the changebringer has ordered?
My problem? So Matt is really good at informing the party about damage reductions and immunities... and factoring every reduction Matt told us about (which I think were the ONLY reductions) Otahan had taken (after reductions) 418 pts of damage when she used the Superior Potion. Taken her down to 352 after the heal. Was brought back up to 409 pts of damage before FCG's detonation for 79 damage... so Otahan's HP between 419 and 488! What the F***?!?!?
With a party this size at their level, enemies with only a couple hundred hp don't last more than a round or two on average. Sure, this paired with being a level 20 fighter with an ascended form capable of being Ludinis' left hand makes for a really overpower build. However, things like this is how you make combat matter and be impactful at the higher levels in 5E.
It can be seen like that if your party's expectation is to in the end have everyone survive, however, early on in the campaign the cast was talking about what the expectation was, and they all wanted more. Yes, Matt designed Otohan to be lethal, but that was the intention. They are experienced players at a large table who wanted more danger in this campaign. From the first introduction of Otohan with the first almost TPK and character loss, they knew this game was more lethal. I highly recommend watching the 4-sided dive episodes because they do end up talking about this.
People are supposed to die in the campaign, this brings challenge and brings your party together, if he didn’t make lethal villains it’d be boring af, your party shouldn’t be babied
@@Nyx_404 there's a difference between lethal and bs. Like go read some ttrpg horror stories and come back and look at Otohan. I find it funny that because its critical role, this type of character is deemed "ok" to have. It's a level 20 fighter with level 6 sorcerer abilities and the 18th level barbarian berserker rage with the titan stone knuckles. plus it resists necro and force damage, so it's better than what Grog had at level 18 with a legendary item. And that all without her pack that gives teleportation and clones. It's just a funny little double standard, cause if this was any other dm they would get so much hate because of this character.
All you beautiful people, I know that said encounters should be scary. I'm talking about DESIGN. She has no weaknesses nor ways to circumvent her strenghts. She is essentially a gestalt character with legendaries
Otohan was designed to be the pinnacle of Ruidis strength while needing to be able to solo the likes of Keylith and Vax and likely other level 20 characters. She served her purpose through and through. She was a cold and very effective killer. Likely only those of Ludinis and Imogen's mother could stand up to her solo. It would likely take the combined efforts of a few level 20's to put her down.
I know im going to get hat for this, but if the Otohan fight was on ttrpg horror stories everyone would be hating the dm. But because its Matt and critical role everyone praises it. Like lets put the facts on the table. Otohan: -is a level 20 fighter, thats why she had 9 attacks -has sorcerer abilities -can at will for free gain a 80 foot fly speed -get resistance to ALL damage in her "super" form -has 3 or 4 legendary actions -has 3 legenday resistances -regains BOTH action surges -has 300+ hp -all of her attacks can now trip and push automatically And that only 2/3rds of her kit, if she had her pack she also would have -3 or 4 clones -if each clone has even 1 attack, that 12 or 13 attacks at minimum -the ability to teleport to any of the clones If any other dm had this character in their game everyone would hate them for it. Its just crazy to me how people feel like this was a fun fight. Theres nothing fun about watching a level 20 beat up on level 13s. Like if fcg hadnt sacrificed themselves it would have been a tpk, they literally had no way of beating her except that. And a good boss fight has more than 1 way to win and definitely not at the cost of a pc.
My problem? So Matt is really good at informing the party about damage reductions and immunities... and factoring every reduction Matt told us about (which I think were the ONLY reductions) Otahan had taken (after reductions) 418 pts of damage when she used the Superior Potion. Taken her down to 352 after the heal. Was brought back up to 409 pts of damage before FCG's detonation for 79 damage... so Otahan's HP between 419 and 488! What the F***?!?!? But what's more? Their first fight, Matt was clear that it went the way it did because the party scattered, leaving her free to bounce around the map and OHKO players. So this fight, the wrecked her backpack before she could utilize it, fkrst thing... then pinned her against a wall... and still the fight seemed entirely out of there depth. And you cannot convince me that Matt didn't fudge the HP and let them off the hook with FCG's sacrifice. "She looks like she's taken some hits" was at 384 damage. So if he used that to signify 1/3rd health remaining... that means her HP would be 584... and like I pointed out above, if FCG damage wasn't reduced, that would have been 488... double damage would have been 567.
For a normal party of 4-5 people, this would be overkill for sure. For a party of 7 at their level and this being an individual they were likely never intended to fight until way later. This is just a natural close of events. I think you are trying to to stir a fire here that was caused by the party's overall choices. This was a recon mission only. They chose to stay. Chose to get involved with an insurgency on ruidis. Chose to start getting into fights. Chose to join along a rescue and sabatoge mission. Chose to trust Ira again after being betrayed once by him. Chose not to work harder to trap Otohan and escape. Last time they fought Otohan killed 3 of the party members. The only right choice they made in the fight was to remove the backpack and ability to make her clones. The trade off is they still took down the left hand and central leader of the military force while convincing the right hand to join the cause and turn on prodathos and ludinis.
This episode, while good is one of the most sus episodes. They were calling for FCG to "detonate" then when he does it they act all suprised. If it wasn't written, how did they know he could even do it? It's clear they have been play testing some daggerheart mechanics during the game for some time, and blaze of glory is one of them. But them calling for him to do it, then acting shocked at the outcome, they knew what they were saying, they would know what the outcome would be, just seems like a setup to me.
I'm almost positive Fern is the worst character love Ashley to death her last 2 campaign characters were amazing but Fern only uses scorching ray which is quite a let down she has more spells for damn sure
To be honest, all of the characters are pretty mediocre and/or cliché. Fearne and Ashton are probably the only characters that has nothing to do with previous campaigns/side one shots.
@@scott898586 why does their connection mean anything? I mean the context helps but their backstories are explained either way, I never watched the first two campaigns but I understand fully what’s going on
@@Nyx_404 It means a lot in terms of being able to connect to the characters on an individual level. This makes the slow campaign feel even worse than what it really is. People are just tired of living in campaign 1 and 2 while sitting through 3. Campaign 3 still lacks its own identity after nearly 100 episodes. It is still just campaign 1 and 2 being relived from another outside perspective in a very slow crawl of a campaign.
@@scott898586 I’ll agree it’s a bit slow, but I think it’s you living in the previous campaigns more than the campaign itself is, the only reason C2 didn’t have references was because Matt wanted to make sure C1 wasn’t an anomaly, this feels like a natural progression and the old pcs coming back as npcs does feel natural for the world and story
![Coheed and Cambria - Searching for Tomorrow [Official Video]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/hDsYGLbmadg/mqdefault.jpg)
It might not be a Smiley Day today, but it was necessary for a Smiley Tomorrow.
I was just about to do okay and then I read this. That's beautiful. Damn you.
Travis’s “MARISHA” when she asked if they could bring him back up… that was a great representation of my left and right brain at the time :’)
Such a dad tone, too.
Travis: "Almost soloed me in one round"
Matt: "Action Surge"...
Epic
"There are so many stories where some brave hero decides to give their life to save the day and because of their sacrifice, the good guys win, the survivors all cheer, and everybody lives happily ever after. But the hero never gets to see that ending. They'll never know if their sacrifice actually made a difference. They'll never know if the day was really saved. In the end, they just have to have faith..... Ain't that a bitch."
~ Epsilon/Church.
exactly the quote I was thinking
And then there is Chiaotzu...poor little Pokemon...
I like to think that, of the pieces of FCG that survived, the piece that said “Faithful” in Faithful Care Giver definitely did.
YESSS! The BEST fucking quote for this!
FCG is a literal example of "I will beat you with the power of friendship and this nuke I found"
When Matt said "the charred body of Otohan thul" you could feel the disdain he had for the very character he created. It just serves as a reminder, the DM is not your enemy. They are playing the game with you. Amazing scene.
I don't believe he disliked the character. She was always meant to be a persistent, deadly enemy. This is the 2nd time she alone nearly wiped the party. He's giving FCG's sacrifice the gravitas it deserves.
Normally I'd believe that, but this fight was awful. 9 years. There have been some really rough episodes, some fights that were absolute slogs. There have been lots of mistakes. There have been some really questionable decisions.
This is the first time I would ever say, this was bad DMing. He built a broken, way too overpowered character and threw her at a party that was already half down, with no avenue for escape. This was a slaughter. The only question was how many would die, whether or not it would be a TPK.
@@jonathanhibberd9983 It was not bad DMing (come on, man). And Otohan was not overpowered, she was merely VERY challenging and these guys were underestimating her. They had plenty things to use against her and they decided not to prepare properly for the fight, even despite saying pre-campaign that they wanted to be challenged (and boy, did Matt deliver).
For example, they tried way too hard to force attack rolls (which in second phase was NOT the best move since she had 25 AC), Imogen wasted a WHOLE ROUND on Sending and tried, of all spells, SHOCKING GRASP against her and never moved away (like, come the hell on, Otohan had NO REACTIONS) and the last two rounds they were discussing running away instead of plain focusing on damage. Plus, Ashton didn't stay on melee range either when he went down (which was also not good).
So I blame it more on them not taking Otohan seriously and less on Matt making Otohan work as intended.
@@DiscoSamurai Let's examine it, shall we.
Major problems:
Ashton collapsing the tunnel not having any effect. "I collapse the tunnel." "Ok, there's another one right next to it, and she's right on top of you." Bullshit. Your player did something smart, reward that. Have her delay getting there so there's a chance of escape. Or have it collapse on top of her so she takes damage.
He threw a fully rested level 20 character against exhausted level 13 characters. Being so much lower is already a disadvantage. Being down in abilities and health is even more so.
He gave her a weapon and abilities that, with their level disparity, means that she is always going to hit, always going to knock them down, giving her advantage on every subsequent attack, and always going to do significant damage. With her abilities, she minimum does 130 damage per round, with a max of 312. A tarrasque only does 98 minimum, with a max of 358 per round. Even at minimum damage, takes down at least one, maybe 2 characters per round.
Despite all that, they were holding their own. This was a battle of attrition, and they were managing to stay slightly ahead of her. So Matt brings out this ridiculous exultant mode.
25 AC - which is the same as a tarrasque
resistance to all damage - a tarrasque has a limited list of resistances
restoration of action surges, giving her back her 12 attacks per round (4 base attacks, 4 surge attacks, 1 bonus attack, and 3 legendary actions) - a tarrasque has 8 with its multi-attack and 3 legendary actions.
And again, despite being unhittable, undamageable, and able to down 1-2 characters per turn, they STILL held their own in this battle of attrition. If that had been it, they probably would have been able to down her through conventional means. Maybe they lose someone, maybe not, but it would have been, if not a fair fight, at least not ridiculously broken. Then Matt breaks out a homebrew potion that has twice the healing dice of the biggest potion in the game. It undid half the damage they had done that fight with one potion.
This was a broken, overpowered, badly DMed battle. If anyone else were to describe this battle on a forum, you absolutely would say they fucked up.
@@jonathanhibberd9983 According to the step by step analysis of the fight, I still do not think it was "badly DM'ed" as you so desperately want to claim.
They did poorly despite WANTING a deadly challenge and, because of their own fuck ups, Sam decided to blow FCG up. Sure, it didn't help Matt rolled high on certain things, but they were NOT ready for the deadly encounter they so desired. A sorcerer does NOT stay in melee ranged after a Shocking Grasp and Ashton should have stayed in front all the time. Plus, Passwall was used with the staff and they couldn't use it either.
Matt didn't fuck up, they did. As such, the consequences of their actions bit hard and it showed. Next time, plan a strategy instead, specially when you're going against someone like her (and who you know is gonna be deadly).
I have to admit, this even though was sad, FCG’s Sacrifice was the most courageous act of heroism I’ve ever seen in a Dungeons and Dragons game.
Godspeed you magnificent robot.
I feel so bad for FRIDA. Effective immortality sucks when the boyfriend you were supposed to spend it with blew himself out.
I always knew it was gonna be fcg giving up his life for his friends … at first I thought it was cause he thought he was lesser. But it was still very well played as always by Sam.
Watching this back with the context that Sam needed to go away for a bit to take care of his health hurts more and is even more tear jerking than watching it live.
Man this hits so different now. For all they knew at the time, they could have been saying goodbye to not just FCG, but to Sam himself.
He's not out of the woods yet, but knowing his surgery went well and he is responding well to chemo is wonderful news
I just realized that Sam is going to have to find a new flask! No more gas can!
This hits so much harder now after Sam's cancer announcement, this wasn't just a character heroically sacrificing himself to save his friends this was a man facing down his own mortality and telling his closest friends how much he loves them
@@jimmy_the_squid9456 Sam is the best!
I love how whenever all of them are crying, there's always travis having the time of his life😂
He loves that SHIT
I always enjoy how Travis just loves the chaos and seeing the other people shine in their moments. " do you have this", was such a wait, is this an ability you have or something off the fly you trying
Because he's having fun playing an epic game.
That and his character was already down, so he wasn't mentally in-character seeing his friend die. He was a player watching his friend come up with an incredible story beat.
Travis' high on emotional damage
I fucking swear if next episode is the one where Chetney rolls a 1 in his sleep the couple episodes would be probably the most brutal I have seen emotionally.
Opposite. Travis said it's 100 (triple 0s) that will kill Chetney. Closest he's come is like 96.
My heart just crumbled down with FCG's blaze of glory. Sam played the scene like nobody else could, he always delivers the BEST speeches! Still recovering from it, so absolutely heroic and heartbreaking!!
Also... Imogen would be the "vessel" instead of Liliana? The way her mother said this, felt like her daughter is even more powerful than she is. VERY CURIOUS about this.
Only in death that FCG felt alive, understood what being alive means.
A Noble Sacrifice. That was the only way they were going to kill her otherwise it would have been a TPK!
They only had that 1 chance and fcg took it …I’m going to go cry some more.
Otahan used Super Potion!
FCG used Explosion!
It's super effective!
Its more like a moomoo milk
The slow change on Matt's face as he realizes what Sam is doing
Yeah, that was the most heart breaking because he was the first to realize what Sam was trying to do and what it meant. You can almost pinpoint the second he knows.
It sucks losing your favorite character! I want to believe everyone brings FCG back, someway somehow. First Gambit now FCG.
I think if this was a normal death there could be the chance of bringing him back, but the sacrifice makes that unlikely I think.
@@TheeSweetboy I know, I just want to live in my little fantasy. This sucks so much.
FCG is also my favorite, but I hope they don’t bring him back. I like the idea of him having died not only after reaching a conclusion to his “am I machine?” thesis, but also saving all of his friends.
@@SevillaLorenzo-kd2ef I guess that is true. Wonder what Sam's new character will be.
They way Matt was asking Sam if he was sure what it meant to go out the way he was doing it makes me believe that Matt wanted to confirm and convey "there is no coming back from this, there won't be anything to come back to".
Sam normally makes people laugh but today he made us all cry 😭
Healing 66 hp and then being hit for 79 means the hp was super tight. I'm going to instead believe Matt gave FCG this victory because of the level of emotion he was able to conjure. Amazing display, thank you ❤️
He did say they were close a few times to finishing her, but ANY DM would've ignored the numbers at that point, whatever he rolled for it would've been enough
@@artloveranimation Yes because at the end its about having fun and epic moments even if the reality of the dice would say otherwise. Sometimes you have to ignore the dice for the sake of the game itself.
24:36 I would pay thousands of dollars to hear Matts thoughts through this
Everyday is a smiley day ❤
Well… orym gets to walk free when he next meets nana morri
bells hells already returned to exandria with all 7 still alive. he does not.
remember the portal with the water? when they tried to rest off of ruidus? that was exandria.
the face of matt realizing that a whole subplot of aiorian lore blows up together with his dmpc is priceless ...damn
This one was a doozy. I was watching by myself in the hotel room with headphones cuz everyone else was sleeping. I have NEVER BEEN SO STRESSED OUT! I really hated Otohan, she was the worst besides Ludinus. I was hoping that Imogens mom could get there in time and save everyone or do something, certainly wasn’t expecting FCG to do that!
And yes, I cried. A lot. Woke up my mom and she asked why I was crying. I told her somebody just died on CR and she gave me a hug and a back rub. She doesn’t watch CR but she understands my passion for it. I had no idea that Sam had cancer! I don’t use social media anymore, too much stress for my taste, so I was quite surprised by that.
Much appreciate you for doing these recaps, I do miss marisharaygun quite badly but understand needing to step away.
The inly thing i absolutely DESPISE about this ep is the ppl who said this was "Bad DMING" the message that Otohan was an incredibly deadly enemy was made clear from ep 33. Shes not going to be a pushover. She wasn't then, she wont be now. Stop complaining and enjoy the damn show
I honestly wondered when Sam would hit the big feels button... fuck dude
On a side note I'm interested to see his new character (unless he's out for good??? That'd suck...)
Campaign is almost over.
I cant imagine him coming back at this point.
Hes out for at least 4 to 6 weeks assuming the campaign has 6 months left in it. 🤷♂️
no way is he out for good, and also idk why but i get the feeling that matt has a trick up his sleeve after ruidis. no way is predathos the end of this campaign.
I have a feeling he’ll reprise an old character from another campaign. Of course, could overshadow what the others have got going on
I’m hoping he brings Tarry to the table again
Nah there's no way he's out for good. He'll come back, it just might take a few episodes
I made the mistake of listening to this at work. I had to step away from my desk and find a place I could just cry. First off, FCG amazing character, Sam has always done amazing.. well all of them do really with their characters but that one seemed to be the bright spot. His speech at the end left me sobbing. I am so going to seriously miss him.
As much as I'm going to miss FCG, I know Taryon Darrington 2.0 is coming... and I can't wait
right on! we got goth Tary
Trust me, that day WAS a Smiley Day
F.R.I.D.A. finding out is going to be heartbreaking
Holy....aside the sacrifice, Fcg just bypass nana mori's deal with orym.
So orym will not stay with nana mori when this campaign ends.
The deal as broken by FCG.
FCG frees orym without even knowing.
Same saves Liam again!
Unless temporarily returning from Ruidus through the underwater portal counted.
@@camgor4048 nope the deal stated that orym will be nana's helper in the manor "IF" they all come back together safe, and orym expressed to her that "all of them".
@@rotsenmerecido5334 Yes. It just depends on whether coming back through the portal counted as “coming back” for the sake of the contract.
@rotsenmerecido5334 the point is they already came back together once. And she's a hag, you gotta be careful how you word shit.
The sacrifice of FCG has some serious 'hold my beer' vibes to it.
SAM on the turn before took the last stress point for a mear +1D6 help point to get him at this point. (which is thought was horrible choice) but i didnt realize that was part of his plan.
Sam has always been one of the smartest DnD players when it comes to combat pacing. He's almost always in a clutch position when most needed.
Well if you're reading this I'm assuning you were spoiled already.
What Fresh cut grass did was absolutely phenomenal. Yes, maybr they could've eventually killed her, but probably have 3 or 4 more deaths beforehand, and that assuming murder-robot doesn't finish them off. He was heroic, precise and ruthlessly effective, and took down the legend of the peaks.
The rest of the HB now stand on the shoulders of a giant
Honestly I personally think if it was not his sacrifice, the seven of them would all die in this battle, unless Matt narratively got them out someway. She was still holding up well while the rest of them started running out of their things😢
@@lanmu738 it would be up to the dice I'm sure. It's definately possible they would have enough in the tank to kill her, but if they gave her two or three more turns it would be at the very least 4 deaths.
But you're right, the TPK was more probable
Edit: I forgot FCG was already berserk. Yeah they needed a miracle.
HOLY SHIT! What a fuckin episode Jesus Christ. I shouldn't have watched this at work, I was freaking out, but it was all internal!
I feel like this campaign is/should end like Star Wars Rogue One where every one sacrifices themselves to save the world. I feel that would be a fitting end to a band of broken rejects
*cries every time I smell fresh cut grass*
I can’t wait to see this animated!
man you can see the moment on matts face when he knows whats going to happen and how hes going to have to end fgc and how just broken up he is
That "Marisha..." was so powerful.
FCG took "Going Supernova" to a whole new level
FCG knew to save his friends he would have to become a legend to defeat one.
Sam always makes me cry. His charecters are epic and show incredible growth and RP at the table. He’s the reason I played a bard first and wanted to show a bard is more than sex puns.
when Matt grabs his elbows
Lets get FCG back as a real boy. his soul just gets reborn into another in a later campaign
He will probably be absent for a couple sessions to finalize his new character and how to integrate it to the party. But we'll see him again soon.
I'm on episode 77 why did I click this and immediately read the comments 😭😭😭😭😭😭
At his funeral I hope they plant flowers...blue perineums...also known as smurf's taint, Na'vi gooch, or Cookie Monsters' grundel.
THEY WERE ALIVE!
Looking at just the main cast of campaigns 1-3 there has not been a Dwarf or Elf race nor a Paladin class (not counting multiclassing). So if there is no way to bring FCG back then it would be cool to see Sam play either a Dwarf or Elf Paladin
So scanlan still hasnt made a cameo. What if matt and sam have scanlan finally show up now?
I am so proud of you 😢
😢💔
I am so glad that my instincts were to finish this episode when I did. I hate that youtube recommends spoilers all of the time. Thank god I didn't skip this one like I did the previous week.
This was the most uncomfortable I've ever felt watching a Critical Role fight. I was honestly wondering if Matt had a TPK plan ready. Otohan's title in hindsight should have been Hopetaker.
wasted chance for chetney to say "you're a fool, otohan"
ooo what if the Changebringer sends an emmisary down to the party who has FCG soul/memory as its base, so it feels a connection to party but doesn't understand why and thinks it's just doing what the changebringer has ordered?
I thought a supreme healing potion was 10d4 plus 20? The max it could possibly heal is 60 points even if you rolled 4s on every die
What ability did FCG use? Is that an Automaton or Cleric ability? maybe homegrown?
I think it was just a improvised moment that Sam initiated that Matt decided to roll with
It was established eariler in the campaign that automaton cores detonate explosively when comprimised. During the Basurus arc.
Really hope the next episode is a real big heartfelt funeral for our little buddy/fallen hero 😢
Oh wait...
why Sam why
I don't know why, but FCG sacrifice reminds me of Dom Santiago Sacrifice in gears of war 3.
My problem?
So Matt is really good at informing the party about damage reductions and immunities... and factoring every reduction Matt told us about (which I think were the ONLY reductions)
Otahan had taken (after reductions) 418 pts of damage when she used the Superior Potion. Taken her down to 352 after the heal.
Was brought back up to 409 pts of damage before FCG's detonation for 79 damage... so Otahan's HP between 419 and 488! What the F***?!?!?
With a party this size at their level, enemies with only a couple hundred hp don't last more than a round or two on average. Sure, this paired with being a level 20 fighter with an ascended form capable of being Ludinis' left hand makes for a really overpower build. However, things like this is how you make combat matter and be impactful at the higher levels in 5E.
I mean they always bring back the character he won’t stay dead
I mean, Matt is an amazing GM and all that, but... maybe he went a little overboard designing Otohan?
It can be seen like that if your party's expectation is to in the end have everyone survive, however, early on in the campaign the cast was talking about what the expectation was, and they all wanted more. Yes, Matt designed Otohan to be lethal, but that was the intention. They are experienced players at a large table who wanted more danger in this campaign. From the first introduction of Otohan with the first almost TPK and character loss, they knew this game was more lethal. I highly recommend watching the 4-sided dive episodes because they do end up talking about this.
People are supposed to die in the campaign, this brings challenge and brings your party together, if he didn’t make lethal villains it’d be boring af, your party shouldn’t be babied
@@Nyx_404 there's a difference between lethal and bs. Like go read some ttrpg horror stories and come back and look at Otohan. I find it funny that because its critical role, this type of character is deemed "ok" to have. It's a level 20 fighter with level 6 sorcerer abilities and the 18th level barbarian berserker rage with the titan stone knuckles. plus it resists necro and force damage, so it's better than what Grog had at level 18 with a legendary item. And that all without her pack that gives teleportation and clones. It's just a funny little double standard, cause if this was any other dm they would get so much hate because of this character.
All you beautiful people, I know that said encounters should be scary. I'm talking about DESIGN. She has no weaknesses nor ways to circumvent her strenghts. She is essentially a gestalt character with legendaries
Otohan was designed to be the pinnacle of Ruidis strength while needing to be able to solo the likes of Keylith and Vax and likely other level 20 characters. She served her purpose through and through. She was a cold and very effective killer. Likely only those of Ludinis and Imogen's mother could stand up to her solo. It would likely take the combined efforts of a few level 20's to put her down.
I know im going to get hat for this, but if the Otohan fight was on ttrpg horror stories everyone would be hating the dm. But because its Matt and critical role everyone praises it.
Like lets put the facts on the table.
Otohan:
-is a level 20 fighter, thats why she had 9 attacks
-has sorcerer abilities
-can at will for free gain a 80 foot fly speed
-get resistance to ALL damage in her "super" form
-has 3 or 4 legendary actions
-has 3 legenday resistances
-regains BOTH action surges
-has 300+ hp
-all of her attacks can now trip and push automatically
And that only 2/3rds of her kit, if she had her pack she also would have
-3 or 4 clones
-if each clone has even 1 attack, that 12 or 13 attacks at minimum
-the ability to teleport to any of the clones
If any other dm had this character in their game everyone would hate them for it. Its just crazy to me how people feel like this was a fun fight. Theres nothing fun about watching a level 20 beat up on level 13s. Like if fcg hadnt sacrificed themselves it would have been a tpk, they literally had no way of beating her except that. And a good boss fight has more than 1 way to win and definitely not at the cost of a pc.
My problem?
So Matt is really good at informing the party about damage reductions and immunities... and factoring every reduction Matt told us about (which I think were the ONLY reductions)
Otahan had taken (after reductions) 418 pts of damage when she used the Superior Potion. Taken her down to 352 after the heal.
Was brought back up to 409 pts of damage before FCG's detonation for 79 damage... so Otahan's HP between 419 and 488! What the F***?!?!?
But what's more? Their first fight, Matt was clear that it went the way it did because the party scattered, leaving her free to bounce around the map and OHKO players. So this fight, the wrecked her backpack before she could utilize it, fkrst thing... then pinned her against a wall... and still the fight seemed entirely out of there depth. And you cannot convince me that Matt didn't fudge the HP and let them off the hook with FCG's sacrifice.
"She looks like she's taken some hits" was at 384 damage. So if he used that to signify 1/3rd health remaining... that means her HP would be 584... and like I pointed out above, if FCG damage wasn't reduced, that would have been 488... double damage would have been 567.
For a normal party of 4-5 people, this would be overkill for sure. For a party of 7 at their level and this being an individual they were likely never intended to fight until way later. This is just a natural close of events. I think you are trying to to stir a fire here that was caused by the party's overall choices. This was a recon mission only. They chose to stay. Chose to get involved with an insurgency on ruidis. Chose to start getting into fights. Chose to join along a rescue and sabatoge mission. Chose to trust Ira again after being betrayed once by him. Chose not to work harder to trap Otohan and escape. Last time they fought Otohan killed 3 of the party members. The only right choice they made in the fight was to remove the backpack and ability to make her clones. The trade off is they still took down the left hand and central leader of the military force while convincing the right hand to join the cause and turn on prodathos and ludinis.
This episode, while good is one of the most sus episodes. They were calling for FCG to "detonate" then when he does it they act all suprised. If it wasn't written, how did they know he could even do it? It's clear they have been play testing some daggerheart mechanics during the game for some time, and blaze of glory is one of them. But them calling for him to do it, then acting shocked at the outcome, they knew what they were saying, they would know what the outcome would be, just seems like a setup to me.
I'm almost positive Fern is the worst character love Ashley to death her last 2 campaign characters were amazing but Fern only uses scorching ray which is quite a let down she has more spells for damn sure
How does that make her a worse character, a bad fighter certainly but I quite like Fearne as a character
To be honest, all of the characters are pretty mediocre and/or cliché. Fearne and Ashton are probably the only characters that has nothing to do with previous campaigns/side one shots.
@@scott898586 why does their connection mean anything? I mean the context helps but their backstories are explained either way, I never watched the first two campaigns but I understand fully what’s going on
@@Nyx_404 It means a lot in terms of being able to connect to the characters on an individual level. This makes the slow campaign feel even worse than what it really is. People are just tired of living in campaign 1 and 2 while sitting through 3. Campaign 3 still lacks its own identity after nearly 100 episodes. It is still just campaign 1 and 2 being relived from another outside perspective in a very slow crawl of a campaign.
@@scott898586 I’ll agree it’s a bit slow, but I think it’s you living in the previous campaigns more than the campaign itself is, the only reason C2 didn’t have references was because Matt wanted to make sure C1 wasn’t an anomaly, this feels like a natural progression and the old pcs coming back as npcs does feel natural for the world and story
Fantastic RPing by Sam!
Horrible overacting by everyone else.
So transparent and forced.
"Superman.. "