Critical Role DEVASTATES Cast and Fans...And Changes The Show FOREVER... (SPOILERS!) 

Did you make it through the episode without sobbing? (Spoiler alert...we didn't). And what do you think happens now for Bell's Hells? Let us know.

It's poetic that after being unable to save Vac as Scanlan vs Vecna, that Sam has finally saved Liams character from a deal

I wonder if Sam purposely saved Chetney just to troll Travis....it seems like something he would do.

Sam Riegel can really deliver great performances in that manner. Scanlan's Bard's Lament is still my top moment. And his changeling during the city-wide broadcast? Man...

FCG pulled a Gandalf the Grey from Fellowship of the Ring. And Otohan was the Balrog.

I like how it was FCG who took her out, of all the characters that who were connected to her in some fashion, it came down to self sacrifice of the one most faithful care givier.

This is when the DM allows the 'rule of cool' to override the actual rules. So what if it technically wasnt enough damage? It was a beautiful RP moment and sometimes those and the story are more important than the actual numbers.

There are several ways in DnD to bypass damage resistances, and often self-damaging effects specifally do so. I don't think its cheap at all for Matt to decide that an aeormaton's core self detonating to bypass damage resistances.

It should be a permanent death. I hate saying that but it would be an insult to that characters sacrifice. Tpk was and always was a possibility for campaign 3 all of warned that stakes are higher and the gloves are off.

I feel like this whole narrative of "C3 and Bell's has been getting away with too much!" Is utter nonsense. Compared to the other Campaigns, the C3 party has arguably had it the worst out of everyone in terms of threats and near death experiences. Vox Machina's hardest moments were during the Chroma Conclave and Vecna arcs. And in all that time the party had MAYBE 1 or two deaths in their hardest fights, all of which had some means to bring them back. And lets not forget they were a party that each held at least one vestige each and more magical items than any of the other parties and at least three PC's walking around with the boons of their chosen gods for a "super mode" they could use if needed. Campaign 2's toughest fight was against the Tomb Takers and no one even died as a result of the first encounter. Against Nonogan Lucien Jester died but was brought back mid combat. They also have only one vestige in their group and while at least three received the favor of the gods, none of them received a super mode boon. Campaign 3 has no vestiges, not nearly as many powerful magic items, no godly boons and yet has had multiple near TPK's, the party was forcibly split after LOSING the fight with one of the main antagonists, 3 characters died in the first fight with Otohan, and while two were brought back the third required a more involved process that in order to succeed meant keeping a dangerous entity alive as well. The second Otohan fight leads to two more deaths, one of which was a sacrifice play because it looked like another TPK, that is seemingly permanent. Bell's Hells have not had any solid wins for a long time. If they ever had, because whenever it has mattered the most, they AT BEST get a pyrrhic victory. So regardless of whether you love or hate C3, narratively and mechanically, people need to take off the rose tinted glasses and recognize that this party in this campaign have had the toughest go of things, with seemingly the highest stakes yet. There has been nothing "easy" about this campaign.

I think you probably misunderstood or forgot but Otohan healed 66 points witch with her resistance would actually represent 122 points, before the damage FCG did, witch was the 79 you mentioned, she had already suffered around 150 damage that with her resistances would be around 63 points of damage, so they were pretty close to getting to where they were before she took the potion and she probably didn't have much HP before, hence the healing potion. Als Matt mentions at the end of the session that "she was pretty close a couple of times" or something, meaning she was probably low on health. And after that she took the 79 points of damage from FCG, that even halved, I believe should've been enough for the kill (I don't believe they should be heaved as it was a PC sacrifice and perma death that made sense). I've seen a lot of people saying that Matt saved the party and that she still had a lot of the HP she healed left when FCD self-destructed, and that is mathematically just not true, it's important to pay attention to these things before having expressing "opinion", specially if you are a content creator... the damage she took is as follows: Ashton: 46 -> 23 attack Orym: 10 -> 5 attack Laudna: 7 -> 3 eldrich blast Laudna: 11 -> 5 eldrich blast Fearne: 9 -> 4 opportunity attack Chet: 19 -> 9 shatter Fearne: 48 -> 24 -> 12 blight ---------------------------- TOTAL 150 -> 63 FCS: 79 blaze of glory See ya. PS: I'm not trying to offend anyone, it's just that I was able to gather this information in less than 15 minutes and I think that talking about things as they happened enriches the dialogue, instead of just saying what we feel is the truth.

Things were rocky, but still feeling doable...until that potion went down. Once that happened you could definitely feel the mood shift and true hopelessness set it.

Travis is an absolute legend for posting that Vegeta gif

I said on twitter, but we all knew that Sam was going to absolutely RUIN us with that small little robit, we just didn’t know how. I was moved for Mollys death, but didn’t cry….Sam describing FCG’s final moments had MANY tears rolling down my face.

My name is Fresh Cut Grass, mon ami. Remember it.

Wow. I went in acknowledging spoilers. Wow. I caught a clip of THAT moment with Scanlan in campaign one. It was so emotional and powerful then. Man o man.

sam is a master of delivering devastating final speeches

After the episode, I came back to Churches monologue from the end of red VS blue (don't at me) and I think I'd love to hear Sam read it verbatim as fcg for the campaign epilogue. 'you know. There's so many stories where some brave hero decides to give their life to save the day. And because of their sacrifice, the good guys all win. The survivors all cheer. And everyone lives happily ever after. But the hero never gets to see that ending. They'll never know if their sacrifice made a difference. They'll never know if the day was really saved. In the end, the just have to have faith. Ain't that a bitch"

I hadn’t checked in on an episode of Campaign 3 for a while, much less a livestream, but my God, that episode was worth it! It was actually the first time in a while that I was really caring about these characters again. I might actually stick around for the rest of the campaign this time!

So glad you posted this today because I so needed someone to talk about last night’s episode but no one I know has seen it yet!

Just to note when she drank the potion she got 66 HP back (basically double that because of her resistances so 132) they ended up chipping away at her HP until the 66 HP that she got was now down to 22 HP (132 down to 44 because resistances) then FCG did 79 Damage (even if it was halved that is still 39 and she had 22HP so she would have taken 17 more Damage) and if it wasn't halved she would have taken 57 more Damage... Also to note that we don't know what her HP was at before she drank the potion but I'm guessing she was in the single digits or something because that's when you would use something like that... So just saying FCG totally could have legit killed her...

Thank you so much for this video! Not only was is so quick, but I missed the first half so I didn't know what else happened! Thank you for catching me up so quick!!! Great video!!!!

Yeah, that broke me. That was the first CR death I saw, not knowing the story already. Some real tears, but I am excited to see how Frida takes this and what Sam comes up with for his next character.

Called Shot: Taryon Darrington joins Bells Hells.

I’ve been thinking about FCGs death and I wonder if he would be able to be reincarnated since we’ve never seen it used in the show and would be an interesting Pinocchio situation with FCG becoming a real boy.

I have been watching C3 since it started and while it has had its problems, this was one of the greatest moments of the campaign. There is no denying this fight was painful and rage inducing to watch, but considering who Otohan was and her abilities, as I'm pretty sure she was CR 23 if not higher, this was going to be an ugly fight no matter how strong the party was. Thematically though, what the Hells accomplished on what was meant to be a SCOUTING mission, as there will be repercussions for the Vanguard and Imperium losing key personnel and an unknown amount of resources, is nothing to sneeze at even with the cost that was paid. This was a Triumph.

Orym made a deal with Nana that all his allies get back safe, I bet she will have a say in FCG's demise or rebirth

I hate my work schedule being a back-half one. I don't get to stay up for all the episodes anymore. ;_;

I had to sleep in the middle of the battle, but when I watched the recap, I was shocked as hell that happened. The fact they barely survived a TPK, is impressive but that was one hell of a sacrifice. Though I don't like what has happened throughout some parts of Campaign 3, this was something really made it something emotional, and solidified why I liked FCG more as the story went on.

Rules vs narrative done so right

Sam is a Master Improv. He knew what he was doing and will probably have one hell of a way to keep FCG going or one hell of an interesting new character either way.

800 dmg did to her , 4 attacks, 4 surges (she got +2 when she went crazy) legendary action's, legendary resistices, each attack did 24+ per hit, WITHOUT THE FUCKING BACKPACK OF BULL**** my god this was insanse

We were watching it live and after my gf and I both had exhausting work days (I had an 11 hour shift, she had a 2 hour travel to and then from a gig). She was nodding off during the Otohan fight but snapped awake with FCG's final stand... and she fell asleep in tears. She is buying the FCG plushie today as it had been on her list of wants.

This was the one time matt overestimated his players. He thought they could take otohan, and buffed thull to hell and back I mean 4 action surges wtf

Watching this after watching the latest X-Men ‘97 (ep. 5) … it has been a day! RIP FCG; may not be the GOAT, but came pretty darn close.

I'm glad Bells Hells took Ludinus' knight and possibly converted the Queen, but was it worth losing their bishop? EDIT: Are we sure 40 damage wasn't enough to drop her? Or that Otohan's resistance applied to what basically equaled a tactical nuke? It was never really discovered if there was a damage type that wasn't resisted or what type of damage an Arcane Core does when it explodes.

OK, Now I'm excited to sit & view the next installment. This is the pay off I've been waiting for! I'm going to need some preparation snacks! #91 is lit!

Technically Tyberious was the first PERMA death in CR

I thought at first, they would TPK so they could put Daggerheart into play. Then the way the dice rolls went...it would be showing how the game (anyone's game) can turn...Then it would be Chetney that would go...Just as Travis and Matt planned it. Now I don't see a better outcome could happen. The story has changed in ways that makes it a must see show again!

i think brennan said it in calamity that sometimes a player just earns a nat 20 with out having to roll it.

Talk about how good that death mechanic worked out though...i mean DANG that was so cool and awesome

I was balling my eyes out 😢😢😢😢😢😢

Waiting for D to repair FCG to become Faithful Care Giver with the same soul, but little to no memory of its second (third?) life.

I think the maximum number of hp she had at that point was 60, but I believe it was lower. Still, even before daggerheart, you'd have to be heartless not to honor a sacrifice like that.

in the first campaign he used his last wish to stop Vecna and in doing so sacrificed a friends life. And now he's sacrificing himself to save a another friends life.

You sure Otohan's death was DM fiat? Ashton immediately took off 23 of the 66 from the potion, and FCG's would've taken off all but 3. We don't know what Otohan was at before she drank, but there was quite a bit of chipping between Ashton and FCG, definitely more than 3.

Now let's wait ten years for it to happen on screen. About the next Sam's character I think the party still needs healer, but he doesn't have to be fully fledged one. Anyway his new character may still follow a god. I have couple of gueses, besides another cleric it may be a paladin(don't know which one was the most supportive), a monk(the one with punch heals/or long death for tankiness), or zealot barbarian(just for keeping religious arc), another option is for Sam to pick artificier again, and this time use him as a way to bring back FCG to working again, but I doubt Sam would do that, he rolls with consequences.

Possible TPK? More like a smiley day.

Fcg could totally pull an altered carbon or surrogates for the uninitiated. Waking up in an aorin factory in either another different robot body or in cryosleep as a flesh and blood creature that fcg didn't know they were

Travis' tribute to FCG via Vegeta's sacrifice was on point.

I was a bawling mess when I saw it live, and I was a bawling mess again from this 5 minute video.

FANTASTIC episode!

3:10 - I was wondering if the damage would've been enough, then again, the cave probably should've collapsed on top of her from the explosion which would've killed her anyways, but I think Matt wanted them to be able to get the items.

FCG, you are witnessed go forth into Valhalla shiny and chrome

Damn, i had a session 0 before i could finish the game and missed that. Figured the twamnwould turn it around, but a for that to happen, wow.

I’m hoping he does something like a Paladin build. It’ll replace some of the healing from FCG, I think by level 13 paladins have revivify and he would be the second tankiest (highest AC though) of the group

Dice Giveth Dice Taketh away!

This was really emotional, but when I thought of F.R.I D.A., I really teared up.

That "Everyday Smiley Day" line absolutely shattered Liam...

As a note to your comment about Sam's next character pick, Sam has never picked the character he will play, Liam has done it for him, per Sam's request. Either way, it's going to be interesting, to say the least.

would be funny if Sam chose to play Aarakocra or Kenku character next after despising birds as FCG

They got a druid, reincarnate only needs a piece of the body. He could be a real boy

If or when this episode gets animated itself going to be so SOOOOO tear jerking

Otohan, some legendary warrior. Not taken down by some great king or grand army but by a humble caring robot trying to save its friends.

why did i watch this!? i have the episode half way finished just before this fight it even says spoilers aaaahhhhhhh!!!! NOOOO, FCG!!!!

Sometimes I will watch a few minutes of the current campaign and my first ever watching of CR was a random C3 episode, it's what got me to actually watch the show. I'm not at all caught up and I randomly clicked on the premier of this ep while it was going live. Very first thing I see is everyone crying and Sam giving a speech.... I closed the window but all it took was 2 seconds of reading the room to know I just got a massive spoiler LMAO. Couldn't have been more obvious what just happened. I'm not even a quarter through c2....THIS IS EXACTLY WHY I WANT TO CATCH UP, DAMNIT! Who am I kidding, I would have gotten spoiled anyway.

The cast did make quite a few errors in this fight. They forgot Handbooker Helper teaching them that a death save was done at the start of your turn so Imogen should have been immediately able to act. Also that Shocking Grasp prevents the target from taking reactions so Imogen could have backed away without taking an opportunity attack. I doubt they had it, but since they knew they'd be fighting her eventually Slow would have completely negated the multi-attack, limiting the enemy to one melee attack per round. So somebody should have taken it. And with her having disadvantage because of the hound she would have needed to burn through her legendary resistances much more quickly.

FCG with the I'm taking you with me! But now the bells dont have their damage sponge and healer and with the amount of call backs amd cameos I wouldnt be surprised if one of caduece's brothers or sisters for Sam's next character. And what about Frida!😢

And in pops Scanlan shorthalt to give some much needed inspiration. Or at least that’s what I would laugh to see

I cried!

Haven't watched CR in years now, but I sincerely appreciate their craft, effort and dedication

Didn't she have resistance vs all types except force damage? Which I assume the explosion would be

Emotional damage aside... this took the primary healer from the group, that is going to be a serious issue moving forward. It's hard to see Sam creating another healer for his comeback character. Granted he could be a healer recommended by Keyleth for the group, but it just feels off, even with the campaign being in the sun-setting faze so any new character is going to be more of a short run character.

I want to know if anyone else watched X-Men 97's Wednesday episode, then this CR episode Thursday. Talk about 1-2 gut punches.

It was a beautiful and painful moment. Damn you, Sam!

honestly i wouldnt say it shouldnt have killed otahan bc talisan took a huge chunk (even with the half damage) of the potion that they healed (was about 130 damage including the resistance) needed to be delt, and he did 46 of that, and then a few smaller hits from the crew, i would say if it wasnt just barely enough it would had been close enough not to matter.

I was absolutely heartbroken, FCG was one of my favourite characters in the whole campaign. Sam just takes the cake with every PC he has

I mean I would love to see if this sticks. I have felt that way too many times when characters 'die' (Lauda/Molly/and others) Matthew has them come back in some way. So having it 'stick' would impress me.

😭 I cried like a whimp!!!!

one point: technically we dont know what kind of damage or what resistance rules the blast had.

I think Matt something along the lines of Otohan being at about 40 hp when FCG went nuclear and that he actually did enough damage to her

I just finished the EP I'm broken 💔

Otohan has been one of the best and my favorite NPC/Villians in CR history(along with the Raishan from Campaign 1), I’m glad Matt let Sam take her out in Movie fashion. Will make for a great animated scene in the future haha.

He may not be a large robit, but this certainly was an Iron Giant moment

This is also bad because FCG was their main healer and the only other person with healing and resurrection magic is Fearne. If they don’t bring FCG back Sam needs to build a PC with healing abilities.

Devexian's not going to let this robot drift off into oblivion just yet.

i think that sam felt the tpk coming, you can even see matt moments before thinking about it. he is thinking about how to avoid the tpk without looking like he is the one saving the group or thinking about how to close the episode talking about how some times these things happen in the best way possible. the rest of the group is also coming to terms to it, nobody has anything else to do and they know that they cant kill otohan before she kills them at that point. sam saved the campaign by giving matt a solution to one of the two above, a way to avoid the tpk that comes from a player, exactly what matt needed. he gave away his character not for the group to live, but for the campaign to continue. maybe it doesnt look like this because he is usually trolling and making jokes, but if there is one person there after matt that is looking after the story itself being good, that person is sam, he understood that the game was about to end due to bad rolls, on their part and good rolls on matt's and matt couldnt really do anything about it, so he did what was needed for that not to happen, and actually did it in a way that would be as memorable to his characters as he could.

Assasin bot's gotta assasin. Killer thematic move. But, I don't think Sam is coming back to the table this campaign. He is busy bringing the toons online.

Even a campaign 3 hater like me enjoyed last nights session. I don’t even care about the rule technicalities. It was just a good episode. I hope the party keeps the momentum and continues to be proactive. I also hope this Matt sticks around because he was being ruthless. I hope FCG enjoys a well earned rest in the halls of the Changebringer.

A lot of people have mentioned how much damage was needed and all that. My question is, would FCG have the presence of mind in his berzerk mode to make a decision like that. The history that was revealed with dancer and the previous party, and the murderbot episodes that he had with bells hells showed him flipping a switch and turning on everybody, but now he feels alive his friends bring him joy and he's willing to make the ultimate sacrifice for them. If anything, it's Sam's actual role play of his character that crosses the boundaries for me. Also, I love the moment, I think it's amazing and I wouldn't change it a bit.

2:01 bro was trying to convince himself it was okay loll

Man I can’t seem to get away from critical role after all this time since episode 51. All I want to know was this encounter a planned ambush with everyone at full hp and resources or was this at the end of a mission with everyone low on stuff like last time?

I noticed Sam was frequently on his phone past couple of episodes. So either checking the Twitch chat, or already building something on DnD Beyond. Which could mean he planned for this if it came to pass. However, I had a horrible yet funny realization today. Sam is master of the long con joke. He's been doing a lot of ad reads as a cat. So I wouldn't put it past him to do a Tabaxi or Leonid, or even another Aeormaton, named or nicknamed "Pu$$y." Which, if as some suspect, campaign 4 will be Daggerheart instead of DnD, it means he may also be doing a conversion character- Daggerheart Katari.

In my opinion exaltant or not, you don't have resistance against nuclear damage. And I'd say the 66 she gained from the supreme potion (we don't know HOW low she was when consuming) then receiving 26 damage from laudna (this was after halved) the 79 damage from FCG with no resistance either put her at 1 hp or close enough to allow matt to make the sacrifice worth killing a legendary otohan.

It may not have had been fudged. Even with the halved damage, they still did 159 points of damage after Otohan took that potion.

Otohahn wasn't even close to full strength when FCG went supernova. She was already near death, but would likely have taken a few of Bells Hells with her if FCG didn't make the sacrifice. As things stand, FCG was on to his last spell slot and he had no more diamonds to do another revivfy. (Although there may have been some ways around that with residuum and Gentle Repose). There's also one other BIG thing to consider...when did resurrection magic start working again? Did it start when they were able to get a Sending to work again? Or...was this another Matt Mercer gift to the cast?

Hmmm, I'm curious.... think he would being one of his old characters or maybe he'll build a sorcerer or something

I hope Travis takes FCG dying for Chetney as an opportunity for Chetney to say he never wanted anyone to die to save him (along with the others), and that he's realized he can't keep up with the goings on anymore. Or something like that to let him retire Chetney. You can tell Matt was trying to help out Travis with the turn one down and kill. He didn't focus anyone else like that for the rest of the fight. Maybe he'll let him retire the character now?

Considering that Matt came up with the number of damage dice on the spot I'm pretty sure he knew it would be a kill shot. If I recall he called for 20 d8s, I'm sure he knows that on average each dice should be 4+ so 80 pts total and Sam rolled 79. That said, I was hoping Chet would die so Travis could move on, baring that Laudna or Ahston just cuase I don't really care for their characters and if someone has to die, may as well be them.

i mean. i think it’s finally time to see scanlan in campaign 3 if you know what i mean. “oh no. your cleric is gone? i mean. i guess i know a guy who can heal”. lol. i look forward to whatever sam does next