In this episode Crit Academy is joined by a special guest. Gabe from the Inter-Party Conflict Podcast! IPC is designed to answer your questions to help you have the best tabletop experience possible! Check them out here! Together we breakdown the Dungeons and Dragons 5e Wizard Bladesinger Arcane Tradition. In combat, a bladesingers use a series of intricate, elegant sword maneuvers that fend off harm and allow the bladesinger to channel magic into devastating attacks and a cunning defense.
The bladesinger is one of the few full-caster melee combatants. While they are under their blade song, they are juggernauts on the battlefield, adding their Intelligence modifier to their AC allows them to brush aside even some of the strongest opponents. On top of that, having access to shield, mirror images and so much is just the cherry on the top! Listen to the episode to get our full breakdown.
Segment 4: Unearthed Tips and Tricks! (We give you creative content for your next adventure)
Character Concept: Lones Survivor
Character was part of an adventuring party that was massacred.
Maybe the character builds a fear of a particular monster or location.
The character may have single handedly finished off the monster, now considers themselves a slayer of that beast or a general forced to be reckoned with.
They've built up a sense of whether a quest is going to turn sour
Monster Variant: Illusionary Ooze
Origin: Gelatinous Cube
Features:
Permanent Hallucinatory Terrain effect centered on it.
The creature makes natural terrain in a 150-foot cube in range look, sound, and smell like some other sort of natural terrain. Thus, open fields or a road can be made to resemble a swamp, hill, crevasse, or some other difficult or impassable terrain. A pond can be made to seem like a grassy meadow, a precipice like a gentle slope, or a rock-strewn gully like a wide and smooth road. Manufactured structures, equipment, and creatures within the area aren’t changed in appearance.
The tactile characteristics of the terrain are unchanged, so creatures entering the area are likely to see through the illusion. If the difference isn’t obvious by touch, a creature carefully examining the illusion can attempt an Intelligence (Investigation) check against a spell save DC 14 to disbelieve it. A creature who discerns the illusion for what it is, sees it as a vague image superimposed on the terrain. Causes the surroundings to appear like treasure filled room - enticing the characters Once the prey is within reach it engulfs them.
Phantasmal Killer
When a creature is engulfed by the Illusionary Ooze it suffers the effects of Phantasmal Killer spell. The ooze taps into the nightmares of a creature that has been engulfed, the ooze creates an illusory manifestation of its deepest fears, visible only to that creature. The target must succeed a Wisdom saving throw DC 14. On a failed save, the target becomes frightened for the duration. At the start of each of the target’s turns before the spell ends, the target must succeed on a Wisdom saving throw or take 4d10 psychic damage. On a successful save, the spell ends.
Encounter: Public Execution:
The party arrives in town only to find a giant crowd in the middle of town square. To their horror, the center of the square holds a gallows, with a person shackled and with a noose around their neck. The town crier shouts out the criminal's misdeeds and the players may choose whether they think the punishment is worth the crime (or, possibly, they have evidence that the criminal is not actually guilty). If the party chooses to interfere, then town guards arrive with weapons drawn.
For a twist, an adventure could start with a party member being arrested for a crime they didn't commit, and the party has to solve the crime before they get executed.
Magic Item: Bag of Pebbles
A magical leather bag that feels like it's full of rocks (though peering inside it appears empty). Once per round, a player may reach inside and pull out a single pebble, of which the bag has a seemingly endless supply. Thrown pebbles deal 1 damage on a hit, and can also be used as ammunition for a sling. As an action, a creature can dump out the bag, causing the ground to be covered in pebbles (acting as a bag of marbles). Using the bag in this way causes the bag to no longer produce pebbles until the following dawn.
Dungeon Master Tip: Reskin Monsters
You guys have talked about reskinning a lot on the show, but in particular many DMs don't realize how powerful reskinning monsters can be to combat metagaming and to keep the game feeling new and exciting. If your players encounter a troll, describing it as a troll (i.e., large humanoid with grey rubbery skin and claws, and its wounds regenerate as you attack) is going to make many players assume they should be using fire against it. But if instead they encounter, say, a giant two-headed alligator, or some other distinct but foreign creature, then it can behave exactly the same as the troll but players will still feel the "magic" of encountering a new monster.
Player Tip: Don’t be a Dick!
Give your characters relatives: The idea of the PC whose parents were killed by Orcs/Dragons/Whatever is so cliche I've been in groups where all five people at the table were playing orphans. Give your character family, and friends, and associates. Sure, it'll give the DM someone to endanger at a future time, but isn't that better than giving the DM nothing to work with when trying to involve your character in the plot of the campaign? Also, it immediately makes your character more believable in a living, breathing world if they have connections to other people and they're not just some lone drifter who suddenly decides to join an adventuring party because why not.
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