Welcome to Arcadia! Have a seat, there is plenty to see. Here we talk about Dungeons & Dragons 5e, about how to play D&D or how to be a better Dungeon Master. We tell the lore of Arcadia, the homebrew world I've been creating since I started to play: cool ideas to inspire you, homebrew content for you to use, from original monsters to entire new classes. We also discuss about the art of writing, how to master worldbuilding, how to create exciting adventures, how to bring your own world through life. Maybe you'll even find an unboxing or an art video here and there. And at the same time we slay dragons and stuff. It'll be fun.
First time DnD player here. I’m playing a half-orc cleric that was orphaned and then raised by the Church of Ilmater. So now, he has an internal turmoil between following the ways of Ilmater (helping the oppressed) or Gruumsh.
I mainly just read dnd lore, but maybe Ardlings should have been humans transformed into hybrids due to a cult or mad scientist, or maybe you did it to yourself & you gotta wrestle with this new form. But I agree they should use unique races more, I rather be a strange spider creature with multiple legs or a centaur who has to navigate human cities because it’s different.
We can also ad side quests to unlock new and better Armour and weapons like in ac valhalla to get the legendary sword Excalibur you need to find the treasures of Britain enthen place them in these slots in the stones surrounding the sword this will make it possible to pull the sword from the stone and the best part is none of that has anything to do with the main story and it's an overpowered weapon another thing you can ad is parkour to
The problem with DnD is little tin-gods constant attempts to cripple good out of the box builds. Very few DMs are not obsessed with forcing everyone to play cookie-cutter builds. All for the sake of complete and utter control.
years after this video release and its still helping new Dms/ players get comfortable with Battle. My questions are, as a Dm, if a blow is to almost kill a PC who is new to the game could you modify the amount of damage or just let the dice tell the story?, also, if a weapon or hit says 12 damage (2D6+ X) is that giving the Dm an option to choose between the flat rate damage or the dice roll?
Thank you for the kind words, and sorry for the time it took me to answer :) The DM always has the ability to "lie" about the dice rolled behind the screen, and only them can judge the situation live and decide if that's appropriate or not. To protect new players, I can easily understand the decision, but I would advise caution with that, because it can undermine other aspects of the game, especially if used too often. For more information in that I recommend this video: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-4_g-9FZrgds.html As for the second question, yes! That's exactly what it is. The number before the parenthesis is the average result of that dice roll- Sometimes it's just easier to take it instead of rolling every time.
Terrific video ! About the dwarfs I have 5 things that could shift some perspectives: Dwarfs are a dying race only on his own race - the fact is theirs gene is a strong dominant one, so its rarer and rarer to born a pure dwarf due the fact the gene is struggling itself, but if its added on another race (with few exceptions) its always be a Dwarf with some other racial characteristics like a Dwarf Half human or a Dwarf Half Giant (yes, its possible). The problem is they somewhat abhor changes even if his allmight god approves changes to perceive perfection. Moradin is the most powerful god and here's why: he created and wield the soulhammer and the soulforge and is responsible for reincarnation. He bars some races to reincarnate due respect/enemity of other gods tenets like the ELVES and orcs. Reincarnation offers a new perspective and a new story for the races itself as its allow the human to be reincarnated as a giant for exemple; on elves its not possible to reincarnate on a new race but only as a elf and with the same memories of his previous self and they relive it on his sleeps that is called REVERIE (for DMs and Players: its a race isekai! So you can make a really badass story background and a really sick BBEG Elf that wants to become a lich to break the cycle of the never ending failing glory of the elf race on his current cycle. The most important and prestigious class in a Dwarf society is the Cleric: only dwarven clerics knows about the problem of the race "infertility" and they are responsible to matchmaking and glue the society on a goal to a fact that to be a dwarf king you must have someone of his lineage be a cleric or yourself be ordained. In dwarf society raise a child is a life commitment so powerfull that the reponsible parent or both must forego his passion art and life profession to exclusively raise the child even if you're a cleric! They're commutal and dont perceive money as other races do. As a dwarf always can get more gold and silver from mines they often trade his masterwork arts as the most valuable thing! And it is indeed a masterwork as they trying to put everything on it. So be really happy if you get a gift from a dwarf !
Rock Gnomes seem like natural allies of dwarfs, after all, dwarfs stick to home, the gnomes can go trade, not to mention, work as gemcutters? And they don't even overlap in terms of living area, they're really just neighboring communities.
Ah the Roper! I’m going to DM one in the Tyranny of Dragons. That campaign SPOILER makes its roper intelligent and talking and PCs face it at lvl 3. So PCs are supposed to talk to it and not fight. Hopefully I won’t have to use your tactics. Although it would be interesting for the roper to encounter the PCs at higher level. Although having the roper move to a different is a little problematic. Maybe a portal in the under dark? Anyway thanks for the vid. I like this direction. 👍🏻
Hey nice video, ropers are a favorite deadly encounter of mine (especially when home brewed with a flying speed). Somewhat off topic, I just made this yt channel and posted about the forge of fury which has a roper encounter but I'm at a loss for how to advertise my channel? Sitting 0 0 views lmao. How did you advertise when just starting out?
7:27 in regards to crafting with weapon parts, whips are typically considered *THE **_WORST_* weapon type in DnD…but a whip made of Roper tendrils that could grapple on a hit and retains the strength drain properties would probably prove rather effective. Either crafted by the party, or perhaps found in the hands of a Drow Slaver.
Once again another great video! Could also bei the start of a great series. I did already hope for my players to engage in a redemption arc for their current BBEG that would lead them into the underdark. Now I hope that even more.
What about proficiency ? lets say my rogue does 1d4. 4 damage has +3 ability modifier thats 7 damage. wont i need to add additional proficiency bonus ?
No, that is a common question, but in most cases you only add your ability modifier to the damage roll, none others. I believe there is a feat or some special feature that does allow you to add profficiency to damage too, but that's the exception, not the norm. Hope I helped!
@@TheFirstArcadianDnD i just read the 5th edition ruleset and it seems like rogue has proficieny with simple weapons which includes daggers ad finess weapons allowing Them to add proficiency bonus too. Not sure if this is exactly the official rules but to me that would make sense
@@Baither Rogues have proficiency with simple weapons + hand crossbows, longswords, rapiers and shortswords, meaning any attack done with these weapons adds the proficiency bonus to hit. So, for example, if your rogue has a +4 dexterity modifier and a +3 proficiency bonus, and you attack a creature with a weapon you're proficient with (let's say, a shortsowrd), you will roll 1d20 + 4 + 3 to hit, and in case you hit you'll deal 1d6 + 4 (assuming this is your main hand weapon attack, since attacking with the off-hand weapon doesn't benefit from the ability bonus)
This was very interesting, and I will consider this when crafting a dwarf for another role playing game. The dwarf philosophy of perfection is definitely something I will use.
My Tiefling warlock was born to normal humans (who actually accepted their child as he was, but his father was quite severe because he did not want his son to become as bad as some people think of Tieflings) and also subject to racism - going so far that a gang of racist thugs tried to hunt him down and kill him. This was the moment when he made his pact - and then fled the town because he killed one of these thugs in self-defense with his new Hellish powers. He is neutral in alignment, but tries to be a hero despite his pact - his part of a bargain is to send evil souls to the Hells for his patron to use, and being an adventurer is a great way to encounter plenty of evil people. My HC is that Tieflings with their fire resistance are enjoying warm climates and heat - imagine how awful Barovia feels to him. He is the one who always sits right beside the fireplace or campfire, needs almost boiling water for his bath etc. We seem to have had the same idea in this regard. But he finally found himself a group of friends who are accepting him (=the party) and probably even the love of his life (our bard), and he is very grateful for that and is in turn very loyal to them.
You actually gave me a great idea for a twist on a Strahd campaign: imagine there is a tiefling faction that wants to take him down not because of concepts of good and evil, but because of a biological need to reclaim a more temperate weather? What if they're also evil? What will they do about the power vacuum once Strahd is defeated?
RWBY had been fun, but I lost interested in Rooster Teeth when they moved off RU-vid for the most part. I didn't even knew they did any TTRPG stuff, but I barely watch actual plays and I usually am more interested in other games than D&D.
I mean it's stuill free on RT(Till it's shut down on like the 10th of may 2024) and chunchy roll... But yeah all their TTRPG stuff is on there own site and will likely be lost if no one saves it.
There's a lot of TTRPG exclusively in their website, some of which behind the "first" paywall, but the one that actually exposed me to D&D, Heroes and Halfwits, was free on Achievement Hunter. It was just Geoff, Gus, Michael and other being stupid together, and though the story was quite average, it was just fun watching them goof around together
You can leave a comment on one of their D&D streams 100% they will see it... But yeah I love RT and wish WB would reconsider shutting sdown one of their biggest assets for a tax write off... But yeah it's too late for that things are in motion... How ever to be honest I didn't watch the RWBY D&D show because I feel they should have used one of the few OG RWBY TTRPG made by fans instead... Oh well and I'm glad this channel came out of it... But yeah I would not be a writer,artest,musicain and game dev with out RT as I too would love to have a studio similar to theirs just better... Anyway thanks for this video.
It really is a shame, I feel like it's the funeral of a piece of internet history. I just hope someone picks up the franchises they left without an ending, and that everyone can find a job quickly
You could place an hourglass at the edge of the DM screen and let your players forget about it until is too late, and you start dimming the lights and your hardcore save file is lost forever...... But jokes aside, my goal with this video was to show how we could take some small elements of subnautica and use them to improve "regular" D&D campaigns. If you wanted to actually emulate a subnaautica campaign in a ttrpg, I'm not sure D&D would be the best system to do it, since Subnautica is notoriously non-violent while D&D is just way too much combat oriented
I think Pathfinder explained gnomes' curiosity really well with the bleaching. Gnomes are originally from the feywilds and have brightly coloured hair, but when they get stuck in a rut and stop exploring and adventuring, they slowly lose their colour and then die. So the inquisitive nature is born out of desperation in a sense.
@@TheFirstArcadianDnD Yeah, someone at Pathfinder must have been asking themselves the same question you did: why are gnomes so inquisitive? The answer they came up with is poetic and a bit tragic. Some gnomes start cooking up trouble and basically becoming chaotic evil just to keep the thrill in their lives and stop them from bleaching.
@@Vuizendrecht the best concepts are always those which are complex and ambivalent. The hero with a dark secret, the villain with a sad and tragic past, the miracle that comes at a big cost, the great power with an even greater responsability <3
My tiefling bard character was based on the following writing prompt: [A woman makes a deal with a demon to have his child in exchange for immortality, then sells her firstborn to a witch for unimaginable riches. After the birth, the mother leaves the child with the witch (druid) for her and demon to fight over. You, a half-demon, have grown up under shared custody.] Only difference is, her father and adopted mother have a FANTASTIC relationship as they raise this girl and she's loved deeply by them, even if society isn't a big fan. She just knows she can't change everyone's minds and tries to build her own status as a talented musician and not let the stereotypes of her ancestry or her class get the better of her. So far, she's been doing very well and I've had a lot of fun developing her character more.
@@TheFirstArcadianDnD I found it while browsing on Reddit. I find similar ones on Tumblr as well. The second paragraph in the original comment was my own interpretation of how I would have written the story in general.
Currently writing up a teifling wizard who has two human parents who are part of a devil worshipping cult so obviously infernal runs in the mix somewhere. She thinks they're fools and meets a benevolent witch who lives gardening and cooking and is loved by the locals. She leads by example and the teifling is inspired ✨️
Very helpful - thank you! Question: if a spell caster is attacking with a spell/cantriip that must “hit” an opponent’s armor class, does the spell caster get their proficiency bonus added?
You're welcome :D Yes, casters normally add their profficiency bonus when rolling to hit enemy ACs (they're always proficient in their own spells). The only situation where that may not happen is when they use spells that are not "theirs", like when they cast through a magic item, some wierd feat, or something like that.
Sounds like throwing the baby out with the bath water. A slight difference visually than full orks would make so much more sense in addressing your points. Much like minorities in America. If you are half of two races, you are more likely to suffer prejudice from both of your races. There are amazing role playing opportunities there.
I just found you and these videos are so helpful, if you wouldn’t mind sharing your insight I would like know how to better characterize a playable goblin
Not everyone is a reality bending, one man army. Good orcs are the exception to the rule. Would you risk your family's safety because the the concept of a good orc is technically possible even though no one you have ever met had even heard of one?
So what if a Half-Orc goes searching for his identity as a Half-Orc? What do you say to that? "Just be an Orc"? I like to play the Half-Orc Monk. So what's the alternative? I don't want to play a dumb monk. I'd like my monk to have some intelligence. Half-Orcs are my favorite race. As you can tell. I'm biracial irl. And telling me biracial people of any kind shouldn't exist is lacking in taste in my not so humble opinion.
Sorry if I wasn't clear enough, but what I meant was actually the opposite. In my opinion, half-orcs fail as a half-species concept precisely because they aren't more than the sum of both its heritages. An example of a good half-species concept is the half-elf, since they're not really elves, but neither are they humans. They draw from both heritages but at the same time provide a new, different, hybrid concept that brings a completely different roleplaying experience, capitalizing on their close proximity with both different cultures. Half-orcs, on the other hand, fail to be as distinct as a species, and I find that people often play them as humans or orcs, but rarely as their own thing. And note as well that this isn't the half-orc's fault, as an ancestry concept, but rather on WotC for not providing additional lore to help flesh them out better. In your own campaign, this could be easily corrected by homebrewing, but I make these videos using Forgotten Realms lore as a base, so that's all I can really comment on. I also need to point out I never said biracial people of any kind shouldn't exist, and I never will. The purpose of this video was to discuss a fictional fantasy ancestry. Not only it does not reflect anything related to real life matters, but also pertains a hybrid between two different species, not a child of two humans of different ethnicities. I kindly ask that you don't draw those inferences from this video. Not only they are very different from the point I wanted to make, but they don't reflect my personal opinions either.
AMAZING VIDEOOOO!!! I went to having 0 idea of how to turn a normal session into a heist into actually being able to craft a detailed heist one shot :D
Currently playing a Necromancer Deep Gnome, good lore video thnx 👍 still working on personality, trying to tow the line between totally unhinged hermit and beguiling wizard
Just checked out your “roleplay your elf better” video after stumbling my way into an Elf Wizard in BG3. Absolutely fascinating work, super glad I found this place!
I'm with you on the idea of replacing half-orc ancestry with orc ancestry. I'd even go as far as to say there's no need for a half-elf ancestry. And it seems like Wizards of the Coast agree with me. However, there should be a "mixed ancestry system", where different racial features would be marked as primary/secondary or assigned a point-score, so that a player can mix and match the features for their own ancestry. What if I want to play a half-dragonborn half-elf character? Do they get the breath weapon? Do they finish long rests in 4 hours? Is there a damage resistance? Do I get any cantrips from my elven side? DnD 5e doesn't answer any of those questions, only giving a half-elf half-human and half-orc half-human options. If I want to play an elf-orc and take half-elf to represent it, none of the features seem orcish at all. Skill versatility looks more like a human feature to me. And why have these half-races for elves and orcs but not dwarves, or gnomes?
I think that the new D&D interation was attempting to provide a similar framework where people would be able to mix all ancestries in half-half hybrids. I would point one thing in defense of the half-elves, though. Since they go through the whole "part of both worlds but belonging to none" thing, they're actually very interesting to explore psychologically. If they live among humans, they're doomed to see their childhood friends and most people they know (and their children, possibly) age and die before them, but if they live among elves, it seems time is stopped for everyone aside from them, and stays the same while they wither away. In that sense, since they're distinct from elves and humans, it might be worthwhile keeping them as a main playable ancestry.
I just created my first D&D character and played the first session. My character is a Wood Elf Druid. However, because I based her on Rapunzel, she has never been in the outside world before and is super excited to experience it. Also, she loves lettuce 🥬 This lore is still very helpful though - it can inform why she is keen to adventure and collect memories, and sadness can strike her later
