grandad was a bard

priceless

This fits that theme very well!

A weird mind is a creative mind. Milk it for all its worth.

I'd play that outright. Nice one.

I am thinking maglubiyet is going to be pissed.

Your goblin: you are being rescued. Other goblins: what? Your goblin: please do not resist.

Totally. Ride that lightning.

So how did the characters work out? Im looking toward playing something LE myself in the future :)

Thanks Troy! Finally we have a username! No more unreadable url, now we're officially kzfaq.info! Merry Xmas to us, haha.

They sure do pal. Wonder whats got them on such a Shadowfell kick these days. There are so many other worthy planes that should get attention.

Yeah I think you're right Warspud. Charred stick, haha.

Warspud723 It was, same as Sun Soul. I'm pretty sure they did that for the Adventurer's League, because you can only use the PHB +1 other official sourcebook.

Its an unspoken rule, actually. By speaking it you've invalidated it. Now I need to shave. (:

"And so it became known that he, Zachary Bolstad was indeed the Deus Machina that would bring about the ruin of the Bearded DM Empire"

Let that hound run!

Tyler Janssen what cleric would you multiclass with it for strahd? I'm a duergar and going to play it.

Huge bonus, that ac boost.

That's an awesome character definition :)

Thanks man! Playing it in a strahd game with a bunch of friends. Its been super fun!

Where are you getting the player race details for the awakened tree? Or is it homemade?

I am just using a homebrew treant build i found online. In creating my character, it was originally just a treant, but treants look more humanoid than they did trees. Im still using the features of a treant, but my character looks more like just a tree than a treant. The one thing that I home-made for my character is that he can transfer his consciousness to any part of its body. I did this because, as a tree, my character is over 12 feet tall, which really inhibits him from going into any doorway, so i made it has a feature that it can take a part of its plumage and make a little tumbleweed. I can use that tumbleweed to actually move instead of the main tree (which i would have to plant somewhere out of the way) and move around as a little tumbleweed. Of course the little tumbleweed form has a much lower strength and con, but a much better dex.

Thats a very cool addition Vortexx. Very creative.

I love Divine/Arcane crossovers too.

it's a cool concept but being basically only able to choose 15 out of soooo many spells intimidates me

Love it.

Titan Bear Gaming Thanks.

Nice duality, Jubes.

Thanks Shane - I can totally see what you mean. Welcome to the adventure party!

Dark, murderhappy, sign me up.

Ralek Kelar have you played it?

Sean Heath Nope lol

Lean into that theme -- make a pseudonym 'The Unkillable', and take a banner of something death / blackness inclined. Channel the conqueror idea on an extra level by intentionally creating and spreading your reputation to the far reaches of the world.

Titan Bear Gaming thanks for the additional insight! I also like the added flavor Xanathar's gives for shadow sorcerer. I'll be specifically using the one where I barely bleed when injured so that I appear immortal to my enemies.

Great thematic element mate.

A lot of folks feel like that was a missed opportunity. I'm sure it'll surface again :)

Hopefully sooner rather than later.

Mastermind. I think granting advantage to an ally through a bonus action every round could be put to great benefit.

Thanks Thomas! Welcome to the party.

Folks seem to have differing (and sometimes strong) opinions on whether its a DM roll or a player roll.

I'm playing my first ever campaign and picked wild magic sorcerer as my class and I'm loving it. I've almost turned into a sheep, had grease appear while fighting someone in a small room, randomly teleported and had a couple of other instances, so far all from having to roll because tides of chaos. My DM and I discussed it for my character and because in my back story my abilities tie a lot into the chaotic nature of things, I roll the d20 when needed but they roll anything on the surge table because my character is never quite sure what will happen. Once I'm level 14 and controlled chaos comes into play, he'll give me context clues like what energies I sense in relation to the surge and if I have felt them before or not.

I really like the cooperative element you have with your DM here. The concept of sensing ambient energies is really slick way to help the player feel more masterful of the character they've spent so many hours on, while still keeping to the mad-mage concept in theme. Love it shadowman21282.

I quite like the new Ranger options, I think players will find all of those new options to be intriguing and rewarding in gameplay. Plus the Ranger really needed some love, class definition wise, so its some water for the thirsty in a sense. Second would be the new Sorcerer options, for similar reasons :)

I too agree that the Sorcerous Origins need some help in letting the lesser-used origins come forward a bit in use.

I was really hoping that Phoenix Sorcerer would've made it in. I think I'll just choose Divine Soul and play it off as a Phoenix

That would work :)

Joe M. Honestly, me too. When he said Wild Magic made most people become Dragon Sorcerers, I thought "No, it makes me pick Wild Magic all the time!"

Very rich character idea RobDogg!

Oh yea? What different thematic element would you aim for?

The quirks gave me the impression that the character would seem almost undead in certain aspects. I would have liked it to be a kind of sorcerer's equivalent to the necromancer. Not to shamelessly plug, but I made a homebrew Sorcererous origin that I felt was more in line with what I expected form the Shadow Sorcerer after reading the quirk table. (for those interested: homebrewery.naturalcrit.com/share/B1svJiwHG)

I hear this a lot about Sorc in 5e, Santiago. Its a tough problem to crack. One easy change to Sorc that I find useful is to make it so Sorcs can learn new spells the same way as a Wizard, by finding them in the world. Since Sorcs are innately magical, they should be able to exert themselves toward casting an unknown spell, and once they figure it out they add it to their spells known. Use your discretion for how quickly/often you choose to do this. Bridging the breadth of wizard spell options with Sorc metamagic goes a long way toward making it viable as a player option.

Yep.. this looks like a cool idea.. I would make them try to recognice the spell that some other arcain caster is casting and if they are able to do it then they may use some sorcery points (depending of the lvl of the spell) to engrave it in their memory.. sounds good, interesting and funny.. and it cleary enforces the theme of the sorcerer!! Ill try it at the table!! thank you Alex!

You're welcome pal, nice incorporation of the sorcery points in the process. Let me know how it goes :)

@@TitanGamingTV I would probably add to the Sorcery points cost (since you regain those points) with an XP cost a little costlier than for a wizard. So you'd be able to learn new spells but would level a bit slower.

I certainly appreciate the Storm Sorcerer thematically for Xerath.

That's how I feel about it, and why I'm so torn on the matter. I've also considered Stone Sorcerer from the UA, for the 13+Con formula for AC. I'll just make one of the Spells Known Mage Armor, and use the Warlock slot that I have for the character interpretation that I've made for him to cast that at the start of the day, then take a short rest while the rest is waking up to replenish my spent slot.

Sounds well thought out, amigo. I like those options better than forcing the Draconic bloodline, just for the defensive bonuses.

Well, Draconic would also get me Charisma modifier to my Lightning damage, since that's what I'd wanna focus on. Hence my looking into Storm Sorcerer. And I do a great deal of theorycrafting on characters I want to play. I currently have about 6 character ideas in varying states of readiness to be played.. And about 10 or so more that I haven't statted out, but are pretty solid ideas for me to work from. My general MO for character creation is come up with an idea, or a character from a game or movie that I'd like to play as.. Then refine the character to do what I want it to do, and how to get the basic idea online as soon as possible. A character idea that needs to be level 15 before it does what I want it to, is not worth playing. Since most games never get past level 12.

Yea that or divine soul

@@goldengaruda8935 ye

Unfortunately, both are Archetypes, so it would have to be a houserule.

Love home rules.

I think Hound of Ill Omen adds a lot of possibility to the archetype -- nice pairing with Hold Person :)

It is interesting what they consider 'core' material -- results in funny reprints like this.

Thanks mwsnail :P Welcome to the adventure!

Thanks! I've played AD&D and Pathfinder for a long time and am eager to try 5e.

Its a pretty strong ruleset -- power of gameplay through simplification. Not easy to achieve, but WOTC somehow managed. Feel free to ask questions here, on socials, or on discord :)

Y'know these are great Q's, Raven. I think for now it's a casualty of WOTC trying to drive new directions forward for their game, which does mean leaving some things behind that people actually appreciated but didnt fit with the new vision. I think Wizard is going to be one of the first areas that gets some attention when WOTC digs in to change the magic system. They've really painted themselves into a corner with Wizard archetypes -- they can't release anything significant without severely overpowering the other classes. Complicated stuff.

I agree, I just think that DEX is now the go to stat as it is useful in virtually any situation while INT is now only useful to wizards predominantly and has very little real-world application (and even for wizards it's quite limited). Additionally, they keep downplaying the wizard by making a class that is too physically weak to want to play. What I think they should do for starters is make a class called something like "Battle Necromancer" which is a purist necromancy based wizard type class which gets the starting martial proficiencies of a Paladin (ie can wear all types of armour, can use a shield, etc), give it a fighting style like the Paladin at level 2, and then make a majority of new spells aimed at augmenting its fighting capabilities. This still wouldn't make the necromancer as strong as a paladin in close-quarters combat, as it would still have the HP of a wizard (1D6 compared to 1D10) however, it would increase the appeal of making a sort of summoner that fights alongside the creatures they summon. If they gave a class like that abilities that protect or grant advantage to summons in close range (similar to the protection fighting style of the paladin, but with spells that enhance this aspect) they would have a new class that people would want to play that isn't overpowered. A wizard at the end of the day is still a glass no matter how you look at it, but there are ways of making it a more fun class to play. Anyway, I love D&D regardless; I just love the wizard but hate how linear they've made the wizard's play style. I can think of 5 other types of wizards that would similarly not be overpowered yet would be fun to play; another fun type would a wizard that specializes in making golem/artifact creature based summons. In any case don't take this as a jab against your video by the way; I like your content. I just thought I'd mention it, since it's been one of the observations I've made regarding Xanathar's guide to everything.

Don't worry you aren't risking offense :) I love the spirited conversation. Welcome to the party, Raven.

Thanks TBG; I'm glad to be part of the party. :-) I'm enjoying your videos; I hope you keep making content. Cheers!

If you want a heavily-armored martial necromancer, be an Eldritch Knight and take Necromancy spells. It'll take a while to actually amass an undead horde for your deathknight to lead (since Animate Dead itself is 3rd level) but slashing an enemy and then following up with Toll The Dead, or opening combat with Ray of Enfeeblement are nice tricks for a front-line fighter. If you want a little less martial prowess and a lot more necromantic options, there's always a Death Domain cleric: medium armor, martial weapons, shields, and all the necromancy on the cleric list. If you have to rock full plate, it's only one feat away,

No offense was intended toward the one-eyed, six-toed magic-using community.

@@TitanGamingTV Funny thing is that in ye olden days, those signs were used as excuses to shun or outright abuse/kill people, so maybe it still isn't the best choice of things to use. Me, I'd use things that don't follow normal human mutations, like abnormally pigmented skin or hair or eyes, glowy auras, that kind of thing. When having an extra toe could lead to your hanging for being a "witch", well...