Optimizing Critical Role: Fjord
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- Опубликовано: 14 июл 2024
- Let's optimize Fjord using post-Tasha's options and rules. This is meant to be fun theory crafting and not an attempt to prove me right and the Critical Role cast wrong.
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Chapters:
0:00 Intro
1:46 Build
#dnd #dungeonsanddragons #criticalrole #optimization #optimize #characterbuilds #voxmachina #lovm #mightynein #fjord #traviswillingham #fjordstone
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I think Travis choose Half-Orc because of a moment in campaign 1 where (I think) Grog had a fight with a half-orc and after knocking it out, it came back at 1 hit point.
Ahhhh yes! Has that been confirmed? I completely forgot about that.
@@cmccbuilds8229 Yeah Travis and the crew had some back and forth about it--I think it was the episode with the phase spider early on.
Menacing probably had something to do with it too (free charisma skill for a Warlock, yes please) but yeah, after the events of Hubris (Campaign 1, episode 17 in case anyone reading this comment want's to know) I suspect that Relentless Endurance really stuck in his mind and inspired the choice. Sadly I can't find any confirmation but I'm pretty sure this is the moment: ruclips.net/video/QDdT5UqGaDw/видео.html
This is a super late comment, and I think you are 99% right, but I think there is one other small reason he chose it, that I thought was fun.
In the one-shot where Grog ran a game for VM, there was a couple with a baby at the next table. The Couple were a Blue Tiefling woman, and a Half-Orc man. The Timeline seems way off for it to have actually been Jester and Fjord, but Ive suspected ever since that Travis might have settled on that when Laura told him she was playing as a Blue Tiefling in the next campaign.
Travis is funny in that he has pretty decent optimization instincts, but seems to always forget his abilities in actual play. The best example of this is early in C2 where he completely forgot to use relentless endurance at really low level, spawning a huge conspiracy theory about how he wasn't actually a half-orc and was actually a human using disguise self.
This is so true. He definitely reads some stuff and looks into powerful and cool abilities. Then he hits the table and the fun overwhelms him. Gotta love the CEO
Yeah I remember plenty of times he could have used relentless endurance early campaign but he also didn’t use a lot of the Star Razors abilities either. I remember he used faeire fire like once or twice when he first got it and also forgot the hellish rebuke effect it had. He mainly used see invisibility and I don’t ever remember him casting fly with it. He also only used his accursed specter ability once in the campaign but i don’t remember the limitations of the ability and if it only worked on humanoids
I agree with a lot, except the oath of the Ancients choice. This may be a good choice for the Wildmother, defenders of nature, all that is green and wild, but it’s not a good choice for Fjord. He is a wild spirit, always moving, and exploring. He was raised, lived (and died) at sea. Ancients are about preserving life and light, being kind, and a beacon of hope. This isn’t Fjord. He is intimidating, and manipulative. While he won’t abandon orphans in the streets, if it doesn’t align with his current goals, well, tough shit. I personally believe the Open Sea Paladin was made specifically for Fjord’s character, and I think it’s perfect.
But he’s a Paladin of the Wildmother not a Paladin of fjord. It matters what the deity stands for not what the character stands for (or else being a Paladin of that deity doesn’t fit). So it seems to me your issue is with fjord following the wildmother.
Travis has talked about this on Talks. He said it didn’t feel right with his character, and Matt agreed. He even said in this video that the Wildmother is the goddess of nature *and* the sea. With Fjord’s storyline and character flavor, it just didn’t make sense for him to take a plant-based subclass, and Open Sea is still within Melora’s domain. You could say the same about Caduceus not taking Nature Cleric, it’s just not his character
I appreciate your view here. I just think if there is already a subclass that fits with your deity, then that should be the one you go with. I get his (and your) perspective, and know he didn’t like the other subclasses (although I don’t recall him specifically mentioning Ancients, which is odd to me), but for me i try to veer away from homebrew whenever possible.
Not a big deal either way. Just my opinion and preference.
Speaking of Cad…. ;)
@@cmccbuilds8229 I can see your point but Ancients issue is that while presenting the idea that it's about nature. Only one of the abilities it gives relates to nature. On top it's tennants focus on presenting "light" which is implied to be joy and hope none this is specific to the wildmother. Infact the case could be that Ancients paladin fits the everlight or archheart and not the wildmother. So I'd agree with OP oath of open sea is the best choice both thematically and optimize wise since both channel divinities could provide a more substantial benefit to fjord. When compared to that of the Ancients.
Oath of Devotion would be a better fit for Sarenrae IMO
Like the build, I was surprised Travis didn’t go with Oath of Ancients since it still fit with the Wildmother with her being a god a nature so that includes sea and land and all of those abilities would still fit. Idk if he planned on ever becoming a paladin in the future so could explain his low strength and not taking the levels earlier but of course it still could have fit if he did go paladin earlier. He was tempted by Uk’otoa and you don’t take the Oath until 3rd level so could flavor to him preparing to take an Oath with Uk’otoa but then switching to the Wildmother. I think he went with a different Oath just to have a homebrew subclass but he didn’t get to benefit from it until later levels and could have let Matt work on that subclass more.
I forgot Fjord had a shield since he was always two handing the Star Razor when he got his fighting style so could explain the great weapon fighting style but of course dueling would have been taken when he was using the falcion and could have just improved the damage of Star Razor rather getting a chance to roll higher
I love how you break things down and yet don't take away the core of the character. Critters, rper's and optimizers alike should get something from this......however I'm a little *more* excited for your next 2 based on the clue you gave us 😊
I think Traviss choice to play half orc was simply that he was a Goliath in the previous playthrough as Grog, and yes he did want to play as far from Grog as possible... but I think it's also because he was min maxing a bit with Grog in that he was unstoppable in a physical confrontation so he was basically nerphing himself by not just playing a caster type with a low strength but also by choosing a race with bonuses normally associated with strength to make it a lil more challenging as well as great fodder for comedic effect everytime Fjord rolled bad on an athletics check.
Edit: also just read that comment about his confrontation in the previous campaign and yeah I think I vaguely remember the conversation with Travis noting that feat the half orca have
Fjord is my favorite character in campaign 2, but his build was a bit of a mess. I say that with all the love I can give.
Great video, only thing I would have tweaked would be to try and get 7th level of Paladian because of the subclass aura ancients gets. Resistance to spell damage for you and friendly creatures within 10ft of you is HUGE and thematic for the wild mother. Not to mention it would make him a pretty solid tank along with the changes you made in the video. I’m not a optimizing expert but figured I should at least mention it and it doesn’t detract from the video at all. Keep up the great work.
Very good point.
I recall that on Campaign 1 they run into a couple at a bar, a Half-orc and a blue tiefling that were pregnant. it was an easter egg to them having a baby. I thought they wanted to go with Half-Orc and Tiefling from that. But also that he was so impressed by the Orc in C. 1 during their hand-to-hand duel and Travis was so impressed. :) Can be wrong though. It was so long ago I've forgotten if it was confirmed or not. Entertaining video, personally, I am not much into 'perfecting maximum damage/effecientness' in a concept, and a more loosey goosey play what you think is fun. Still fun video tho.
Great video breaking down Fjord's build. Campaign 2 is the one I'm least familiar with so its great to learn a bit more about these characters and how they evolved. Can't wait for the next video!
I am so eager to see your video for Vax! I'm adding a character very similar to him in my Strahd campaign and would love some ideas
Might be a while before I get to campaign 1 unfortunately
This series is revealing something really wholesome: it didn't require rules lawyers and power builders to create the beautiful story and community that is Critical Role. It was just some imperfect nerds being themselves and doing what they loved.
I feel like Fjord only summoned a Spector once, and I can only remember him summoning a demon once, or twice, but I very much remember him getting a lot of milage out of misty step, and kinda disagree with trading it out for a summon spell. Not to meantion it's a good spell for a gishy spell sword types like hex blade paladins to get in and out of melee.
I didn’t mention the Accursed Specter ability for that reason. Travis did cast Summon Greater Demon 6 times during the campaign, which is more than any other 4th level spell combined (not including the 13 free castings of Control Water) And he gets misty step as an auto prepared spell. I believe I mention the reliance on teleportation spells. Misty step is great.
Interesting concept. Just wanted to point out that all the characters had the opportunity to increase an ability score of choice by 1 - via tattoos. Travis chose not to get a tattoo - much to Laura's disbelief. If you had taken it, where would you have placed it?
Probably intelligence just to get rid of the negative mod.
It likely wouldn't have helped much, but you mentioned here that Yasha was mind-controlled a lot. That was partly due to low rolls. Had they remembered she had Fanatical Focus, she likely could have made a few of the saves.
I think he might have avoided lifedrinker because the big bad at that point was immune to necrotic damage, right? I agree that it’s an odd choice not to take, but that may have been his reasoning.
Good point. Lucien was resistant to necrotic
@@cmccbuilds8229 oh true, not immune just resistant. Psychic was the immunity. Tbh, I’d still have taken it in that circumstance regardless. It’s just so good!
Great vid as always, look forward to seeing your channel grow :)
Thank you!
8:20~ I believe the Booming Blade may not be cast as part of War Caster RAW, since the target of the spell is self.
Optimize Chetney would be fun as hell
Lqtm they should call you "the accountant" and you should change your name to the D & D accountant cause it seems you know exactly where to spend those points
I'd suggest warcaster, resilient(focusing con), slasher(focusing strength to round it out), and fey/shadow touched(bumping that cha to a 20 and taking silvery barbs or inflict wounds respectively) because half feats are my bread and butter
Why strength? Completely unnecessary on this build.
Half feats are nice though.
@@cmccbuilds8229 it doesn't say the weapon has to use either which is nice, and given how you put together his stats(which I fully agree with) it would boost his dex to a 15 or his strength to a 14, the latter proving useful for the rare instance of a check or a saving throw
Yeah, investing in strength at all doesn’t seem optimal to me on this one - unless there’s a great reason to do so.
@@cmccbuilds8229 I consider it a nifty addition to what I'd really want out of the slasher feat, those being the speed reduction and grievous wound functions
Doing this again (also somewhat binging these because I found your hexadin build and heard the mention of your critical role build and was like well I gotta check this out) and gave "critiques" on the yasha build, and giving general opinions.
1: I think repelling blast is a weird choice for fjord, since I would think that as a hexblade that wants to hit people with a sword he'd rather use grasp of hadar to pull them in. And this "weirdness" makes me think that masque of many faces would've been a fine choice to keep.
2: Rather than a critique, something I'd honestly agree with you on, WHY would he forget to use booming blade? This is one of the things that I had figured out on my own hexadin concept that led me to your channel in the first place.
3: The choice of Summon Shadowspawn is interesting over blink since that actually seems like the LESS optimal option, but I love the description you gave for why.
4: The Multiclass choice is... Honestly Fine in regards to general choices, though the note that he was basically making a straight hexblade build until Matt handed him an in-story reason would make me hit that over the head. Though you also have a point.
5: Yea, gift of the depths being literally redundant is fair.
6: Honestly the bit about Oath of the Ancients is fair, though at the same time, getting a whole subclass built just for you is an honor that I would not turn down.
7: I... didn't even realize the Mariner's Breastplate was worse than half-plate. Mostly because I didn't realize that half-plate was medium armor until fairly recently. So I had basically already assumed he was optimal, so a fair change.
A lot less to actually critique about this build, and a lot more to actively praise. Though I'll admit my hopes were extremely low because I honestly assumed you were going to try to say his sword should've been a Trident to make him a PAM fighter.
Did you stop here :)
@@cmccbuilds8229 hm?
I meant, did you watch anymore :)
@@cmccbuilds8229 well it was the middle of the night when I was watching so I kidna put it down to go to bed
I had originally thought they de leveled travis when he switched to paladin to show him being empowered by his Patron, but that didn't seem to be the case
Yeah he lost all his powers for a period.
You can burn 2 slots and use both warlock and paladin smites at once
Like this series
I'm not sure when Fjord cannonically breaks his pact with Uk'otoa, as from my records he keeps taking Warlock levels right up to 14th level, leaving only 2 levels afterwards. If that's the case, I would say that taking all of these earlier levels in Paladin that are more than what Fjord actually took is simply not possible. It seemed like Fjord took his Oath because he chose to leave Uk'otoa, and we can't build a Fjord that left his Patron earlier because then that's not Fjord. I still think that Warlock 12/Paladin 4 is the best we can accomplish. If he broke his pact earlier than 14th level WHAT IS FJORD DOING GETTING MORE WARLOCK STUFF!?!?!? XD But if we cuts off Uk'otoa at 12th (W10/P2) then Fjord's power would have been so much higher at 16th level. Also, changing his ability scores feels better because Fjord wasn't an overly intelligent character, even if Caleb wasn't there to show him up. I don't know much about Chetney, but I imagine that's the character Travis should play if he wants to have high INT
Travis took warlock levels AFTER breaking his pact. He finished with a 12/4 split.
I thought only caring about Min-Maxing your own character and not caring about RP and such was highly looked own upon in DnD circles?
I’m not min maxing or not caring about RP.
It depends on your table. The two aren’t mutually exclusive. Some people enjoy role playing, but they still enjoy having a powerful character. It’s not an inherently bad thing. It only becomes a problem when one player dominates play.
@@polygon2745 Yep, that literally describes me. I love optimization, but I also love writing, so it's always both for me. Though I purposefully sometimes make choices that the optimization community probably wouldn't agree with because I want to do stuff that I've never seen done in DnD before. I think the key is knowing what kind of character you want, then focusing on how to optimize that so it's fun for you to play mechanically and feels rewarding.
I dislike this so much. Taking away investigation just because there's two people in the party that can do it just makes each individual person completely dependent on others in the world. That's just not how the fantasy world, nor the real world works.
I didn’t take away investigation.
I would also argue that complimenting each other with a variety of skills is a big part of what fantasy is all about. The adventuring party itself is entirely about a variety of characters with differing skills, coming together to form a cohesive unit.
Go outside
He didn't take away the investigation skill cause anybody can investigate. He's not proficient in it cause searching for things was never Fjords specialty at any point in his life. A cop is proficient in investigation a detective is an expert but regular Joe shmoe is just not that good. And in terms of a D&D party putting resources into a skill your team already has 3 (not 2) people who are great in is terrible teamwork. Especially since you don't need the whole party rolling investigate for most things. Bad take all around.
Who’s the third? Nott?
@@blackpeoplestorytime802 What this guy and you are talking about is not character optimization, but party optimization which is a big difference. It's not a bad thing, it's always done, optimizing the party takes away the characters own agency and background "life choices" though.
If you're upset by the colloquial (sp) use of the term "taking away" Im sorry that you didn't understand the use. Not my problem though. However, by making it an untrained skill means that many instances where Fjord is off doing some kind of side quest with someone, such as when Beau and he were off doing some detective work at the ball (while Beau was high as balls) would have been much worse. Even their detective work during the opening few sessions would have been worse and would have left Fjord to feel like more of a background character than anything else.