Crit Academy discusses the hidden easter eggs that we have found within Wizards of the Coasts' Dungeons and Dragons books!
Minor Illusion - Fleece - Pulling the wool over their eyes.
Aid: A tiny strip of white cloth (Think band-aid)
Antipathy/sympathy: Vinegar or honey - Because you catch more flies with honey than vinegar.
Confusion: Three nutshells - Much like the common shifting item under the shells(cups)
Detect Thoughts: Requires a copper piece - Penny for your thoughts?
Fireball: A tiny ball of bat guano and sulfur. Ingredients for black powder.
Passwall: Requires Sesame seeds - Open Sesame!
Lightning Bolt: A bit of fur and a rod of amber, crystal or glass -Used to create static electricity.
Water walk: Piece of cork - Cork floats in water
Water Breathing- a piece of straw or reed - improvised snorkel like in the old cartoons.
Message - copper wire - phone lines and telegraphs use copper wire
Tasha’s Hideous Laughter - Requires tart and a feather - Feather tickles ppl and a pie to the face is an age-old clown joke.
Gust of Wind - Legume(beans) - Beans the magical fruit that makes you toot.
Animal Friendship: A morsel of food - Give your dog a treat when they come - Reinforcement
Polymorph - Cocoon - Caterpillars turn into butterflies
From: Princes of the Apocalypse:
Disclaimer: Wizards of the Coast urges adventurers to remember that not all rock creatures are earth elementals. A talking rock that controls boulders is a galeb duhr. A talking rock wearing jewelry is a dao. A silent rock that’s resistant to non-adamantine weapons is a stone golem. A rock with wings is a gargoyle. A rock without a K is a giant bird. A rock that sits there and does nothing could be just a rock or a balor disguised by an illusion. In all cases, proceed with caution.
Give the video a watch to see all the other goodies we've found. If we missed something, leave a comment on the youtube channel and let us know about them.
Unearthed Tips and Tricks: We bring you new and reusable material for you to bring with you on our next adventure!
Character Concept: Lawyer - short version constantly reminding characters or NPCs what is legal and what isn’t.
Busts out his collection of scrolls on different regions laws, and rulings.
Monster Variant: The Warden
Base: Knight but the plate armor is magic and the knight can give it a command to fly off him and the armor can independently grapple and potentially restrain or immobilize an enemy by putting itself on an enemy. Perhaps this variant can be a prison warden and this method can be used to capture an escaping prisoner or hinder an enemy, especially a spell caster.
Encounter:
Redemption Escort
Listener: Colin Williams
I just listened to the review of the archetypes for the Paladin in Xanathars Guide to Everything and I thought that an encounter for a party that requires them to accompany a Paladin of Redemption on a brief side quest. The trick to this would be that this Paladin would deal with ALL violent action, not just that of enemy combatants. The party would have to figure out how to immobilize, neutralize, or otherwise deal with enemy combatants with minimal violence, or the Paladin will bring down their holy might on everybody. This may result in adventuring parties trying to ditch or otherwise incapacitate the Paladin, but a DM should be able to make them essential to the success of the quest.
The Paladin escort mission, one of the inspirations based off a number of different abilities and spells that allow characters to redirect attacks or spells. Naturally, you'd assume a player would respect to an enemy combatant, but you don't have to! I fully anticipate redirecting a lot of attacks with my gnome drunk monk to friends and foes alike. To the Paladin specifically, it takes the idea of the Redemption archetype and takes it very seriously. There isn't really a good explanation for why a Redemption Paladin would abide violence by one group over another. There's a lot of different ways this could play out: like I said, maybe trying to incapacitate enemies rather than damage them; they could try and distract the Paladin and make secret attacks against enemies (would work well if they weren't up against really squishy mobs of small enemies); or maybe even try and reason with the Paladin to justify the violence. It would be a good way to put in some 'speed bumps' to the rampant murder most adventure parties ended up getting into a pattern.
Magic Item:
Blade of the Vine Master
Greatsword, very rare (requires attunement)
Frenzy Vines. As an attack, you can stab this sword in the ground, causing vines to spread from it in a 20 foot radius. Any creature, other than yourself, that is in this area must succeed a DC 14 Dexterity saving throw, or they become restrained by vines. The vines remain for as long as the sword is in the ground, and it takes a DC 15 Strength check to break them.
On a critical hit, vines lash out from this sword the target must succeed a DC 14 Dexterity saving throw or become restrained.
Dungeon Master Tip:
What about a DM tip. Plan one significant moment for at least one character every session.
Could be tied to background
Tie it to some other event they had a direct impact on
Use of a rarely used skill that saves the day.
Player Tip: Don’t be a Dick
Roleplay; don’t roll to play
When you’re playing your character, just focus on playing the character and taking actions the character would take. Don’t take part of the DM’s job and ask for specific rolls; just do it.
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