Gunpowder Plot: Part 1 | Critical Role: VOX MACHINA | Episode 31 

That’s why I never get why people want to play melee fighters. Spell casters are absurdly more impactful. A mid level fighter can kill a man in one round, a mid level Wizard/Sorcerer/Bard can destroy an entire town.

@@trapical its not about power its about the feeling

@@trapical How abt level 20 Scanlan altering the whole world

when you can teleport instantly 500 feet away in the same turn that you can create an AoE crowd control ability, being a distraction is the easiest thing in the world when no casters are present. Thats why his first question was if there were any obvious spell casters around. 1 counterspell and he was dead.

Technically you can't do that, @Alex Gulino! If you want to cast 2 spells in the same turn (one Bonus Action spell, one Standard Action spell), one of them has to be a Cantrip; you can't have 2 slot-using spells on the same turn! Matt allows it, and that's fine, but rule-wise you can't do stuff like that! Otherwise you end up with a Tiberius situation where he can cast 2 Fireballs on the same turn with his Sorcerer abilities, and that gets way too strong! As for @trapical's comment: Games like D&D are not about being the strongest! Sure some people like to play it that way, but it's in large part a role-playing game! So a martial class might fit the role you want to play than a caster! For exemple, if you're making a former gladiator, or an ex-military soldier, or even a mercenary: Wizards and Sorcerers don't fit that role at all, but Fighter and Barbarians would!

Stunning...

The beginning of the gunpowder treason and plot, on the fifth of Gnomevember

The gunpowder treason and plot. I know no reason why the De Rolo Treason should ever be forgot

I laughed entirely too hard at this

Oooohhhhh...

I thought the exact thing. I was like it's crittmas so it must be a long episode. Only 2 hours haha I was cool im on the binge train.

😂😂😂 same!

I literally just said that to myself XD

@@777goodgirl haha did exactly the same

A year later and I did the exact same thing lmao. Thought "oh, this is a short one!". Weird, that. Some videos are 10 minutes long and feel way too stretched out, but CR videos could go on forever and I wouldn't be bored.

Gooooooooooaaaaaaalllllllll!

Homerun!!!!

D&D is the closest nerds get to sporting events. :)

Sophia Lindfield eSports: 👁👄👁

I've heard/read that fantasy football, basketball, etc. is just D&D for sports fans. An extension of this would be sports games like Madden, where you can pick a player to control, increase their stats, change their gear, etc. Basically sports rpg.

Orion stopped trying to upstage him lol

Its funny because 3rd edition Bard was nothing to scoff at if played well (had to get creative with illusions, he had no blasty spells like Lightninf Bolt). But, in 5e, he's a BEAST Never played Pathfinder but I'll guess, since it's a revision of 3e D&D, that bard shared similarities. That and Orion doing all kindsa stuff must have contributed to Scanlan thinking his class was weak

YEUP! GO SCANLAN GO!

@@jordanw2009 I mean, sorcerers are basically designed to be blasters with the potential to dish out a lot of damage per round, over a wide area. Bards, meanwhile, are primarily meant to be more of a support, buffing allies or debuffing enemies - especially the kind of bard Sam made. They're far from weak or helpless, but you'd have to pick a very specific set of spells and tune your bard very particularly to outshine a dedicated blaster sorcerer. Orion didn't even need to really try that hard to have Tiberius overshadow most of Scanlan's magic contributions. That said, it's nice to see Sam flexing Scanlan's magic more now that he's the party's only source of arcane magic. Tiberius isn't there to dish out the arcane pain, so Scanlan has to pick up the slack.

@@mrcopycat2355 I played a bard in pathfinder once. It was years ago so I don't remember all of the specifics, but the highest level ability basically involves matching the tempo of a performance with a musical instrument to an enemy's heart beat and just gradually speeding up the tempo until the enemy's heart explodes.

Season 2 its chairs xD

DOORS ARE EVIL

@@timfrank7461 Campaign 3 will likely be tables.

Critical Role cast: Flies Vox Machina: Doors Mighty Nein: Chairs (which the final boss mastered btw)

Honestly anything made of wood is just a nightmare for them across every game

On my first watch of season 1 and that was my single favorite moment from season 1 or 2 as of now.

Two excellent story tellers at the peak of their craft!

Don't mean to drag Orion's name in the mud more than it already was in his final episode, but it's pretty apparent what people are more willing to watch. Would you rather watch someone shop around for something for obvious power-gaming reasons, fail at most of them because the ideas were ridiculous, then constantly try more things that aren't working and wasting everyone's time? or Would you rather watch someone run for their life with cards stacked against them, then miraculously fight the odds and manages to take on the entire house with clever spellcasting? I think it goes without saying which is more fun.

Travis wasn't bored for a change.

Yeah and it was Orion no one would have cared

You see all these dirty farmhands toiling in the -- PRESTIDIGITATION -- all these clean farmhands toiling in the mud.

And one of those times it actually made it worse. At least let him finish describing before you do that otherwise it could be a situation where you walk into a room where enemies are doing something in pitch black and you're gonna immediately reveal your position.

@@danielboyle435 Something I had to learn the hard way when playing a wizard, lol. It's not a great idea to immediately light up a dark room all willy nilly. Got the group ambushed that way twice before I learned to knock it off and let the darkvision and stealth crew have a look around before I throw spells into the mix. I understand the need to help the group, but sometimes I forget that others have useful abilities they'd like to use as well and in some situations, theirs are more useful than mine. But after getting a slap on the wrist, I do learn not to do it again.

The night is dark and full of terrors

​@@mancerayder8010 For the the night is dark and full of terrors. 🤲

When I played my Bard my first rule of playing him was "WWSD?"

He's great, to be sure. But if it came to it, I'd prefer Travis, Laura, or Liam. They're more players, and Sam's more a comedian, if you take my meaning.

@@magonus195 yeah no. Sam has just as many impactful and emotional beats as any of them excpet maybe Liam. AND on top of that he's a comedian, episodes without Sam even feel like less. he's an essential part of the dynamic.

Sam also (mostly) _refuses_ to metagame!

@@kaneo1 you know what...I think we have Orion to thank for that. I think it may have been Orion's absurd level of metagaming that annoyed Sam to the point he now point blank refuses to do it.

Which part?

@@kevinobill4818 Beginning of Scanlan's one man wrecking crew section of this episode.

This was epic. Only wish: that Scanlan had lightning bolted the guards while they were line up, before dimension dooring to the roof. ONLY thing that could have made it better.

@@UrbanJackal I think matt was trying to push for that because he kept emphasizing that the guards were essentially in a straight line from Scanlan

@@kaeleastlord I think he wanted him to trample them

I wish he would have used the triceratops a little more though. He was a 115 HP meat shield since he would revert back to full heath Scanlan if dropped to 0 in triceratops form. He should have stayed in that form and held his action so that when they were all lined up outside the dining room door he could have trampled through the line of them.

@@joedabro9969 This guy is really min-maxing a tabletop RPG

Well, technically he said "network television." So he was mostly right. lol

I'm making my way!!!

​@@Frreak0zoid ~ makintheirway ~

🐻

Sam/Scanlan is a national treasure.

Drew Sherod My issue is that they're not fun unless you role-play the shit out of them.

To be entirely honest, while I like the Bard class, what Scanlan did in this episode for the most part was just a clever use of his arcane spells and potions. Nothing a Wizard or a Sorceror could also do, probably in a more effective way. Bards certainly have things that render them unique and cool, but what was shown in this episode is not particularly evidence of that.

Merp321 however if you look at scanlan as a whole over the series, Sam does consistently show that he can play a bard perfectly and makes the bard naysayers wrong in that instance. I would agree though that this episode just shows off how cool arcane magic is if you get inventive

Also the College of Swords archetype did a lot improve the bard’s viability by making them strong in melee while also being full a full spell caster, also college of Lore bard getting access to six spells from any class is really good.

No one has thought Bards are a 'weak' class since early 3rd edition, and even back then it was already basically a meme referencing the fact that it was objectively true in 2nd ed (an edition in which balance was not even an objective of the game design)

ok a year late from responding to this comment and 20 years too late from the ep lol but i swear this is my frist time watching today 4/28/2022. why didn't anyone catch on to the fact matt was handing them the information on a silver platter that they have a spy among those townspeople that knew they were going to attack.

@@pleton80 there's a mole in the town? I have just started the episode but so far I haven't noticed a spy amongst the villagers in the past episodes in all honesty.

Awww, good old art dad, murdering the bad men 😊

@@pleton80 Yeah I'm wondering why none of them seemed to pick up on that. He made mention of them knowing they were due to make an attack at least two times but none of them asked who told them.

I’m not a father, but I am with Liam 100,000%

"at least he was". Im only starting with critical role (while waiting for new episodes of High Rollers), is he even cooler later??

@@gothmissstress it gets quite awesome

@@gothmissstress Clear Skies my friend, I'm doing the same thing

Triscanlentops....nice. 😄👍

​@@gothmissstress It's his whole ass job now. Making maps is all he does

Now thats called a scanlan

high level bards are nothing you want to mess with

Bards, especially high-level Bards, are improvisational masters if played properly. Add to the fact that he's being played by Sam, and. It's no wonder that Scanlan is so good.

I might have spoiled myself by scrolling down into the comments, but this only brings a wide grin across my face in expectation of things to come in this episode.

@@brandongalvan6603 It's possibly one of the most badass things Scanlan has ever done... No amount of spoiling will take that away, so I think you're fine.

In a sense, he's a true hero for that. He's not doing it for glory necessarily, but to better the overall situation.

@@DACnumber1 For real, dude. Like even after they link back up in after their battles, he doesn't really play up what he did to the rest of the party. He's just sort of like "'Sup, guys?" I love how low-key tactical Sam is, even though he never played any campaigns before this one. The jolly singing, real-life bard Sam, kid star on broadway and all that, is actually a genius tactician when it comes to playing his class mechanics. But he always just does what he can as best as a he can without drawing too much attention to the brilliance of it, and he's so silly about it, the silliness sort of glosses over his creativity as a dynamic player. It's only, I think, in the final episode when he is openly being smug about how awesome he is, but by then everyone, including Matt, respects him so much they totally accept it. Because by then he's totally earned it.

It’s a game. Quit examining everything. What a loser.

@@nickxcaliber7991 It's a game, but it's also a story. And stories are great to examine! :)

@@nickxcaliber7991 Its a comment! Stop being an asshole! What a loser.

YES!!! I remember she said something like "it's 18, I can't remember why I put 20 on the side" the first time the AC was brought up and I just thought, oh, that's the armour! Can't believe they forgot about it. Trinket's a beast, he's stronger than they remember and that makes me sad.

I think the +2 note was once trinket got stoneskin casted on him

​@@andresarevalo8430 No its not, read stoneskin description. It has nothing to do with AC

@@thespankmyfrank They forget a lot of things that bite them in the butt and it makes me sad. I'm not very knowledgeable about the rules, but trinket attacks an enemy that is currently grappling grog and while previously they've been given advantage when attacking an opponent who's grappling trinket is not given advantage. however, the enemy who is stated to be gripping grog, is STILL able to land an attack of opportunity on trinket. poor trinket gets screwed over every time, which makes trinket seem useless, which is why scanlan is always like "leave trinkett" I feel like some effort should have been made to ensure trinkett wasn't useless. But this is not the first time that they have made poor decisions or forgotten things that hurt them. Forgetting buffs, forgetting hunters mark, not using abilities, not absorbing or understanding matt when gives them blatant hints/advice. makes me sad because I am always rooting for them.

Just saying they have a week in-between each episode, as opposed to us who are probably binge watching these. However, I agree and got upset about that too when she mentioned the circled 20 and he told her to go with the 18. As well as everytime they forget the resistance from the armor.

underrated Scanlan vs Door joke

The Scanlan vs doors sent me!!!😂😂💀🥀

And Marisha becomes a monk because bashing a guy's head in as Keyleth

Nah Liam chooses Sam's class and even race sometimes

They MUST animate that scene

@@alexas1173 We unlocked absolutely everything that happened during the Briarwood Arc, so expect it to be animated. ;)

Personally I look forward to Vax, Percy and Scnalan vs the door ;) But Scanlan's epic fight is a very close second

I definitely want Percy to say Matt's line or a narrator to. That they fought illithid, kvarn, but this door, this door has bested them!

Me too

"You're mad!" "Well thank goodness for that, cos if I wasn't, this would probably never work."

Very much so! Love how much they leaned into that in the adaptation, too.

Yeah the Scanlan stuff this episode was fun, but to me it paled in comparison to Percy having apparently taken a level in warlock between sessions and is out here hexing fools now?! That is just so great from both a story and mechanical perspective

@@xMarvel-gq6vd its the feat, magic initiate: warlock, so no repelling blast shenanigans unfortunately

I have to say grog is basically the violent one like he gets a pass barbarians and beserkers don't care they just love the fight

So what now, feeling bad for dominatrix vampires?, this is ludicrous.

Against the people that they got in trouble for being violent against.

lol for sure, Keyleth evaporates a dude who’s trying to surrender, Vax slits some crippled guy’s throat, then Keyleth turns, “Percy are you sure you can keep your darkness in check... you’ve got to control yourself...” o-o

Well Grog enjoys violence, Scanlan enjoys fun in every shape or form, Percy is possessed by some demon of vengeance, Vax doesn't particularly care about the lives of their enemies, Vex cares a little bit more than Vax, but not really that much, and Keyleth often struggles to get get her point across persuasively enough to change the others' minds. This group is bound to be more violent than necessary.

I spit out my water so hard

Its just BFG Division now

@@grayfarron5077 Genius and glorious

*Aggressive vibing*

Thanks!

I really appreciate it because I'm starting over from the beginning again and thanks

+

Awesome! Thanks!

Thanks for this! 1:19:50 - is for when newly levelled up Percy uses his Hex for the first time which gets everyone else’s immediate attention…

After all he did. Wowza.

Has higher HP then Boromir. 😂

@@AlaskanCookie In his defense, Boromir was a Ranger and iirc a semi-pro estimate of the party at the time placed them around Level 4

@@Metal_Slyme i’d say he had extra attack. Aragorn, Legolas and Gimli were definitely higher leveled though

I would fear if grog was a druid barbarian. Rage and wildshape is a pain. Though last night i brought a druid barbarian out of bear form two times.

@@Metal_Slyme In LotR basically everyone is a Fighter or maybe a Rogue, there are almost no magical items, and only Gandalf can cast any spells (and he seems to be limited to Daylight ;)). Hence, a large group of any type of enemy is a big threat. Gandalf's problem is that he has to protect a number of lower-level squishy people all the time - that's why most of the journey is running from things :)

Thats because orions 10 minute round is "Ok i cheat using x y and z hoping you dont notice, wiat you noticed z? ok so scrap all of that i did none of it. Now i cheat in a different way"

From what I’ve heard there was also some real-life tension with Orion so that probably didn’t help, whereas everybody seems to like Sam

the most refreshing part is he didn't try to use any of his abilities to do shit they don't actually do. Orion, Marisha, Laura and Taliesin did that shit all the time.

@@Keira_Blackstone it seems to me like Sam actually knew what his character could do and paid good attention to his abilities. Marisha and Laura didn’t fully pay attention and forgot some stuff often. And it seemed like Taliesin mostly got confused with the pathfinder/dnd change. Orion seemed wholeheartedly intent on misusing abilities and items. That’s just what it appeared to be to me.

biggest difference is that orion would legit try to fight all those enemies on his own and multiply the time of the scene by atleast 5

Don’t forget “Your soul is forfeit!”

Dagger Dagger Dagger is a t shirt

Or one shirt! Just have something from everyone!

@@ilana3783 "The butt flap is down!"

"Can we leave trinket behind?"

Dude, everyone except Travis was telling him how stupid an idea it was, and to run away so he didn't die, while face palming. Travis was the only 1 who believed in him. Everyone else was acting pretty shitty until they realized how well he was doing. At 1 point Marisha even mocked him saying "I told you last week I'd go with you but said you didn't need any help etc etc." It was condescending AF

@Paden Bang This was a really old comment, so I probably don't remember everything, but my original comment wasn't meant to reference how they reacted to his plan or lack thereof. I totally agree it WAS a stupid idea to go into a dangerous setting with zero backup, a giant enemy, and unknown amount of guards. And I think the rest would've said that no matter whose idea it was. In fact they did complain about Vax doing similar stuff. I also disagree on Marisha being condescending. If I was in a group and a member wanted to go into very dangerous territory and i offered backup, and instead of "thanks but no thanks" or explaining a plan of any sort, they just repeated "I don't need help"...I'd be annoyed too. My comment was in regards to when things went well, everyone was cheering him on and not acting like Matt was focusing too much on one player. It was fun.

I live for everyone's reactions at the table. Matt's storytelling is badass and there have been many quiet moments and combat scenarios like this one where a particular player or two gets to shine... But my favorite thing about this show is, during all of those moments, how supportive and reactive everyone at the table can be. I sometimes run back scenes several times just to take in everyone's reactions. 🙂

Almost, but just as epic

They pretty much did.

@@Stronghand-yw1lk It was even better

Scanbo is my favorite part of season 1.

tv is dead, maybe a Netflix deal

How about Amazon Prime?

All hail Caleb Widowgast

Even Amazon Prime couldn’t capture it in all its glory but it sure held a candle.

And then some!

I was sad he didn't lightning bolt them all after the DM said "they're all lined up for a lightning bolt."

...oh shoot you're so right 🤣🤣🤣

Don't think Seeming works once you Polymorph into a differently shaped creature. Not sure how it would work witht that spell though.

@@dig8634 During the cows episode matt said that Sam and Marisha both still looked like cows even though they polymorphed and beast shaped

@@walfman100 Well, that is his perogative as dm to make that decision, but given how seeming can't significantly alter your shape from bipedal to quadropedal or things of that nature, I don't think it RAW would let you do that. Beast shape and polymorph could be fine if the things they changed into had four legs and weren't too small or large relative to a cow? I think you are talking about giant birds though?

I know this is 2 years late but "...and it looked like that vampire was killed by a donkey" made me snort laugh reading it. Thank you.

Also forgetting to roll concentration checks when damaged while polymorphed. Not having to role play the low INT of animals he turns into. Casting polymorph while in dragonfly form. Also the enemies not moving out of the stink cloud (which only makes you lose your action, not your movement). Yes he plays smart, but there's also some rules being ignored.

​@@BravoSquid ​Man, are you sure this show is for you? By the looks of it, seems you probably rule-rage during most of the show instead of having fun with it😂😂😂😂😂

He also works a lot with Matt outside the sessions to plan things out and save time. Like when he tries to design something, he always says: "I'm trying to build that thing we talked about" and that's that. I really like that, compared to, say, Orion who constantly did crazy shit without talking to Matt beforehand like "I'm buying 1500 mirrors".

Taliesin is the best kind of player. Willing to try new ideas but has the forethought to consult the DM before the session starts. I wish some of the people in my group were more like him.

Its because he's DM'd a lot himself. He understands all the stuff Matt has to do in order to make this all happen.

They are all awesome in many ways. Taliesin has the most experience next to Matt I think. I am in a game now in the same position, an old hand player with a bunch of newbies. It can be a lot of fun watching players new to the game scamper around like kittens, reacting to everything with a "Bahhhhhhh! What the hell is that?" Seeing monsters for the first time, ect. I play a Mage. Best to have an experienced player run the spell caster, they can get killed to quickly otherwise and spells can be tricky.

Daniel McGillis Don't remind me. The noob spellcasters in my group could remember their spells just fine but one of them wouldn't think of the consequences when using them. Consequences like casting fire spells in a highly flammable grass fields where some of allies were hiding. -_-

HAHAHAHHAAAAAA

It's amazing. I struggle a lot with Doors in Pen and Paper. Like A LOT. I'm not the only one xD

The saga of the door returns

I think it's doors take pefered enemy scanlin

REVENGE

We got scanbo!!!!

I come from the future… it’s so good. It’s so fucking beautiful

I gotta say... Scanbo MIGHT be my favorite episode

@@DAUGHTERofIRIS It's mine

I'd have stayed a dinosaur until my hit points ran out as a dinosaur. They were all lined up for a perfect charge. Stinking cloud was good yes, but he should have left himself a couple of more spell slots to work with.

Except that when you're Polymorphed you keep the entire stat sheet of your creature, including it's intelligence, so when he turned into a dragonfly, which has an intelligence of 2, he should have completely forgotten what he was doing and flown aimlessly for an hour until Polymorph ran out and his entire incursion never should have happened. It took them the entirety of campaign one and until Jester got Polymorph to finally realize this.

Not entirely, he wasted 1 invisibility on the roof. Other than that, preety damm good.

He could totally of cast dimension door at higher level tho, other then that it was a very good side mission.

@@CelineWhitetail Matt's ruling is that when you self polymorph or polymorph an ally you maintain your sentience and self control. Its how hes portrayed it throughout the whole campaign, essentially a higher cost beast form. Its definitely not accurate but its fun.

he doesn't he traded it to tibs for that ion stone thing

That IS the Ioun Stone....

that's what I was thinking... he used it once. it gets mentioned a few times in later episodes but not used.

I believe Matt mentioned before as well (to Tiberius) that unused spells in the spell-storing stones or rings lose their charge after so long of non-use. In other words he hasn't used it in so long that he probably doesn't have a charge left anymore anyway.

Yeah, really love them as tablemates in this campaign. A good mnemonic for "Taliesin" is that, being an Eldritch Goth Lord, his name naturally contains the words LIE and SIN. >:-D

Well, he has mentioned that he occasionally needs to remind Welsh friends to "stop saying it right!" XD (Tal-YES-in being the traditional pronounciation, rather than Mr. Jaffe's TAL-isin.)

If only

There should be a "Captain" in there somewere ;)

Major Shirow omfg whyyy didn't he think of this?!?! omfg I would have exploded.

MrRovag correction, there should be an esquire in there 😂😂😂

@ Major Shirow, yes this!

I noticed this, also I have no idea why he's asking if Unseen Servant has mass and I'm sat here like "You have Bigby's hand already there for another 54 seconds, it has mass and can carry you exactly like you want for 720ft. Oh wait you've decided to jump off the roof instead."

I think in that moment, Sam was trying to find a way out that wasn't suggested by the rest of the party who isn't there. Sam always comes across as staying true to no outside influence and since only Scanlan was there, he had to cook up something else that wasn't shouted at him to do to get out.@@nervesconcord

Yeah it makes no sense that you can't use more magic to cast easier spells. It tracks if he's tired and exerting more effort to cast simpler spells

Especially since, in the previous episode, they were attacked by vampires hiding in the mist. Grog even went "Can I do a nature check to tell him it's just fucking fog" and got jumped. And then they got told by Archibald that if they see mist, they should avoid it because it surrounds the minions of the Briarwood.

Matt has PTMSD from Orion

I came back to rewatch campaign 1 after watching most of 2 and all of 3(that exists at this point). There's so much bargaining to do almost anything not perfectly within the game mechanics here which is absent in other seasons. I don't know what changed, but it's nice to know they grow together as a group to trust and work together better. Hopefully I'll notice changes during my re watch.

I thought the same thing she would have seen mist or fog and thought vampire!

Very frustrating that after Liam and Tal are told they can't shout what's going on to Keyleth on her turn, they don't think to do it on theirs either 🤦

I read this comment just when it happened 😂

Gilmore: ... A strange marketing tactic, but I'll allow~!!!

Do you know why you lost this battle? Because you didn't buy from Gilmore's Glorious Goods.

Also you can ALWAYS cast a spell using a higher level spell slot, but not all spells have enhanced effects from it. Bigby's hand also allows you to move it AND cause an effect as a bonus action on subsequent turns.

Wh...whyyyyy would it be an issue for Keyleth to figure out that the mist was a vampire, technically it's a cloud the size of a person, not some short low to ground thing like Matt described it, and they're fighting vampires, anyone would probably sunbeam/light the mist just to be safe, especially there to kill a person who may or may not be a vampire and fighting has been going on in the other room for 18-20 seconds. Also they've passed random information off on each other out of turn order all the time, but this one time Matt took offense, maybe it finally got on his nerves enough, but I imagine there were bigger plans for that NPC and he got really Meta strict all of the sudden.

Grog and trinket entered by another entrance though. How would Keyleth know how long they had been in the room? As far as she knows, they could have just arrived, the enemy they were fighting could have just dimensioned away or it could be there invisible, etc. It’s asking a lot to turn the corner into a battle scene, focus on the subtle mist in the air and immediately think vampire.

@@amendment5604 hell no. Setting aside how they're expecting vampires and there's a cloud of fog indoors, party members are saying there's a vampire and calling for a sunbeam. That should have been it. It shouldn't have required a check, let alone a check that 17 wouldn't be good enough for. This is the problem with worrying too much about metagaming, where charecters are excessively limited to avoid the slightest wiff of it. Here it put keyleth in a position where sensible options weren't available to her because it would look like metagaming. If you described an unnatural mist in the centre of the room without context, and you know vampires emerge from mist after a fight just a few hours ago, and you're expecting to run into more, then blasting it with a sunbeam just in case is 100% a sensible decision. Instead, because all players know there was a vampire there, a very rationable thing for Keyleth to do is no longer an option because Matt ruled she wouldn't know for sure, and Marisha now has to worry about a metagaming accusation (which to add insult to injury she still gets from Matt despite complying with the ruling).

Damn it, I have to give you a like for that one. But I'm not happy about it!

It's not like you got short changed on the humour value of it.

The Gnomepowder Treason and plot

your pf pic is so great

@@Lexiy76 Gnome Fawkes.

I am ashamed, I had to stop and think about it for a minute 😭😅🤣🤣

I think he said "Leg-o-less" alluding to Legolas and also the fact that he has no legs. Sam has the most top-notch jokes consistently, he's amazing lol

Yes I vaguely rember that. The Sarenre priest that helped Vax

She also had a room full of allies telling her that the mist was a vampire (including Percy who was literally standing right next to her when she walked in the room). So that 17 should have been PLENTY to know that Vex telling her to sunbeam the mist meant she should sunbeam the mist lol

Disagree that situation was chaos. I have done this when my players try to.meta game

They dealt with the mist previously so I lean towards not metagaming, but since she did just walk into the room and didn’t really know what was going on I’d say it’s a wis roll and then RP the roll. Teammates in character screaming out of turn is against the rules however. PHB p.190 “You can communicate however you are able, through brief utterances and gestures, *as you take your turn*” highlighted important part. Though Matt himself admits this campaign is a rules nightmare (and lets be honest it really is) so that part doesn’t really matter, what matters is rule 0.

I realize this campaign was years ago but this call really did upset me. I was frustrated that he didn't let her do it but was going to shrug it off, the meta gaming call made me so upset though. I'm only just getting back into DnD so while I don't know all the rules, the RP made total sense. Ignoring anything said by other players, this is my understanding of her perspective. They discussed a sabotage with Scanlan. He was supposed to cause a fire in the other house. Percy intended her to create the sky written symbol in the smoke from the house they were attacking, she consistently misunderstood and thought she was supposed to do it from the house Scanlan was attacking. She kept checking for that smoke because that was the only task she was given in this thrown together plan. Failing to see any, she rushes in. With both Pike and Scanlan absent, she is her party's best bet at healing. Seeing many enemies not looking at her, she immediately looks for her party members with healing in mind. They were just outside, there was no mist. As she walked in, there was no mist. Now, she sees Grog, Vex, and Trinket by an unknown and isolated mist. That's not much, BUT Grog is in a frenzied rage and while not at risk of falling, he is damaged. All the men on the balcony have crossbows and no signs of magic use but Grog has wounds from both bolts and what look like claw marks. He and Trinket aren't fighting and Vex isn't crying so no reason to think Trinket did it under possession or otherwise. Further evidence, no visible magic users why else would her friends all be ignoring the men on the balcony for some strange mist? They fought misty vampires and saw them dissipate just the night before. Honestly arguing that she DIDN'T make that connection is way harder. I'll admit Marisha is a very casual player, but this call was beyond sound.

The same player was even in both situations.

Welcome to Vox Machina

Ouch. Truth hurts, yo.yo. 😆

Scanlan certainly did a lot, but he didn't kill anyone in his house.

@@zacharydunn6577 didn't he technically burn them all alive as they were trapped in the house...?

ROFLGoblin but the Bigby swag exit was so much better anyway.

Matt fucked up a lot on this episode.

No, Matt didn't misunderstand the question, Sam flat-out just asked the wrong one. Sam asked if he could cast the spells at a higher level, not whether or not he could cast the spells with a higher level spell slot. There is a difference, especially because the language of the first question("at a higher level") is specifically used when casting spells with more/stronger effects at higher levels. He should have asked if he could use an X level spell slot to cast the spells he was requesting. That way it's clear what he's asking.

It was pretty clear why he was asking though, so a "no, but you can use a higher level slot to cast it" would have been the appropriate response, especially since the next thing he says is "Well I guess I can't use my spells anymore then" or something to that effect.

@@JD2jr. True, but then again, these things are always much easier to see after the fact. Even if for no other reaaon than that we have more time to think about something that occurred for them maybe only for a few seconds.

Yep, because Laura only wrote down "New armour 1AC 18 (20)" she didn't mark that extra one down. However, I'm not surprised at all; Given how perplexed she is whenever it's her turn, and she fumbles hopelessly through what she can do, instead of just learning the few two-three skills she almost always end up using.

Archmortal add Matt says a lot, if you don't write it down you don't have it

I've been screaming that at the screen for weeks now

Archmortal No one cares enough to remember it 😂

Scanlan remembers...

I mean, it’s in your name

Timestamp?

wow, thats wild! hahah im happy we are in this timeline and got to see this beautiful world being brought to professional animation 😭

Oh you don't have to dream now

@@Spiffy35 it might. The tv series is supposed to do the briarwood arc

"We have an army!" "We have a Scanlan!" "...We would like to negotiate our immediate surrender."

@@oninoni this... this is the Briarwood arc.

@@bobbysingh6052 i know. Will be fun.

Lux E. Yeah Liam/Vax gets a lot of shit for that among the Tiberius, and Percy crowd, but it makes sense for a good character to slit the throat of someone who helped kill a child.

@@awesomechainsaw yes, but dammit, he should have gotten more info out of him. Who the hell is telling the Briawoods about them? How did they know they were coming? The rest of the group needs to have someoneelse interrogate people going forth.

@@Kasino80 I was thinking that exact same thing, though from an RP standpoint I can understand how it would be more in-character for him to be impulsive as a reaction

@@awesomechainsaw yeah I don't get why that is Liam is a dad irl and Vax moral alignment is mostly good so expecting him not to get upset about it is kinda bullshit

@@Kasino80 I see your point, but Vax is generally speaking one of the better ones of the group at intimidation. He’s great at the bad-cop routine, knows the right questions to ask and (generally) isn’t the hot-headed type. As far as I recall, this is the first time we’ve had a rash reaction from him during an interrigation, and as the mother of a 1 1/2 year old boy, I was clapping my little hands when this happened 👍🏻👍🏻

Yeah it sucks, D&D is hard give her a break.

She really does turn into the new Orion, tho not as bad I think

@@arieltorres3594 how does she turn into the new orion?

@@Rekabeck352 trying to do too much and somewhat metagaming. Even mat calls her out, don't know if it wa in this one or the next. Maybe she let's off later down the line but that's what I see. She def no where near as bad as Orion but it's there.

@@arieltorres3594 that's funny you know. She's no angel but biggest metagamer after orion is definitely Liam and metagaming and 'doing too much' still doesn't excuse the treatment she got

I loved that part! I thought the same thing! “And Kiss him”

@@mixmastertdawggyd it was ths windwall damage that was bludgeoning damage

Non-magical bludgeoning damage. Wind Wall deals magical bludgeoning damage

And an AC of 20 on top of that. Or that there are people in the way of her arrows like 90% of the time. As much as I like Laura's rp, her combat is atrocious And the fact that the entire group has to babysit a fucking bear the whole time does not make it better. It's cumbersome and always just drains resources for useless shit.

@@user-lt6ho5kt7v People in the way of her arrows? That's not actually a thing in 5e. I believe there is a halfling trait that lets you get half cover behind medium sized allies, but otherwise there is no rule that people can block line of sight. Matt sometimes rules differently, but that's his discretion as DM. Or are you just talking about that single barrage? Cause that really didn't matter at all. Her allies had high health, almost full, and the enemies had low health, same for that lightning arrow the other episode. Someone mentioned that she pointed out the 20 AC written in parentheses and Matt said that was wrong, so she erased it. I don't remember that, but if that's true it's not on her. The whole group is awful when it comes to remembering rules (how many times did Matt say crits double only the dice the last three episode?), so remembering why that 20 AC was there is not that bad. I think she wrote it in parentheses because they hadn't picked up the armor yet when she wrote it, but that could be wrong. The bludgeoning thing I can't say anything about. Maybe she didn't write it down, or maybe she wrote it somewhere she hasn't spotted yet. And Trinket is generally a liability, but that's not really her fault. Ranger is pretty crappy built, and you can't expect her to factor that into her decision when this character was her first one. Keep in mind I'm not saying she's brilliant. They are not exactly strategic masterminds, but I think calling her especially bad is not all that fair, and I think expecting any more than what we are getting is too much. You can expect more if you really want to, but that means you should watch another show, not complain about this one. The very first thing Matt said in the first episode was that number-crunchers should turn that off. Complaining is pointless and worthless.

@@dig8634 Also they’re just people having fun, playing Dnd, and literally no one in the group would claim Trinket is there for the fights. He’s there because having a pet in the story makes Laura happy (if not evidenced by her attachment here, then later by the following campaign when she gets... Sprinkles, I believe is the name of a ferret I’ve only heard of but not “seen”). Even if she was a DnD expert and knew the in’s and out’s of classes and optimal building, that isn’t always the greatest desire for players (and in my opinion, shouldn’t be) and more likely she was more motivated by the creative and narrative implications of being a Ranger and it’s associated abilities/visual. Obviously a player with a masterful control of their build and an understanding of how to bend the rules of the game is really impressive, but this is again, just a group of friends having a good time together that we’re being allowed to enjoy, and if all the choices they made in DnD were based around the strongest choice in the meta, they’d end up being pretty creatively limited (and I’m going to go out on a limb here and say we’d be pretty bored). I do wish they remembered things that help keep Trinket alive, just because the emotional state of the characters is impactful, and my attachment to their well-being like most viewers means Trinket getting hurt is stressful. But remembering the sheer amount of stuff they have to, in the heat of the moment, with multiple other people around you to pay attention to, and with the subliminal pressure knowing they’re on live camera... I doubt I’d be any better.

I really wasn't keen on his character at the start but he quickly became one of my favourites.

This is exactly how I feel. Was at the bottom of my list at the start, but now he's near the top.

Started from the bottom now he's there

Scanlan has been at the top since day 1 for me

@@zachnightingale8156 He's a top man, knows his business. I mean, he's a total asshole, but he's really good at his work. He's good at what he does, when he can do it. Started out as a bottom-man, now he's a topman. Worked his way to the middle, mostly. Middleman. Top of his field as a middleman, top of the middle, worked his way from the bottom. Started from the bottom, now he in the middle, man. Top of it.

We get to hear elder scrolls music now. YES

+Steven Ritter they were expecting six humanoids. Not one triceratops.

Me too

Was that bit a reference to something?

@@vampiremage2 don't believe so, but it was a line that could be interpreted in a more...intimate way, and I think Taliesin and Travis went there.

@@Kasino80 Thank you kindly.

@@Kasino80 Either that or it was a lowkey dig at Orion's playstyle. Though, knowing these people, it was probably the potty humour, which is just endearing.

Utter bs. He’s just being salty that his fight wasn’t tough enough.

Oh well. His table. Not ours. Seems to have worked out just fine.

Thank you!

Boostin

Bumping timestamps.

Bump bump

Thanks

It annoys me a lot that 31 sessions in the players STILL don't know this rule.

I read that as "... or just die?" like double or nothing, which kind of sums up their playstyle as well 😂

@@essexfuzz It's a lot more than 31 sessions in, remember they played at home before going live. However, this just makes it better, because it's a lot more human. Not everyone is going to memorize every tiny rule when they have an entire life.

@@seaborgium919 They played Pathfinder before they started recording, and changed to D&D 5e. You double everything in Pathfinder (with some exceptions).

Scanlan is similar to a bard I played for a bit. Not super strong but scrappy as hell and completely full of shit.

There is no better 5e debuff than Counterspell. And he casts blindness and dominate all the time. Both are killer spells a lot of players (including myself, TBH) overlook in favor of nuking.

Well he actually seems to rely mostly on support and utility spells

I have a kobold wild magic sorcerer who I'm using in Tomb of Annihilation that's just as crazy but half as effective. A trap is going to kill him soon...

That happens at a lot of tables, unfortunately, as it can be a bit confusing if not read through properly. I think it also got errata'd at some point to be easier to read? Could be mistaken on that point, though~

This is probably one of the very few episodes where I feel like Matt made a noticeable amount of rough calls. At the very least let Grog re-roll his two other attacks or make it where only the first attack on Grog gets advantage. Glad someone mentioned that since most seem to be bringing up Keyleth not knowing the mist in the middle of Vax, Grog, and Trinket is a Vampire even with a 17 INT check

i am. she wrote a (20) next to his 18 and forgot why she did it so she erased it forever. what a waste of a +2

@@agustinmolina6660 to be fair a few episodes ago Matt asked for Trinkets AC and she mentioned the 20 in brackets and he said no his AC is 18 I don't know why you wrote that

@@Rekabeck352 Bulette armor got his AC up to 20, but they forgot about that.

I am more annoyed at the fact that it solidifies trinket as a useless resource dump more than anything else

he must have

Will's blessing is him drawing out all the low rolls from it, making the dice only ever roll above 5 and consistently above 10 for the rest of time.

He to the reason

Consider all those natural 20s he rolled when attacking Grog with tons of guards, yeah, no.

Will Wheaton deserves his terrible luck

@Isrel156 Classic case of a DM railroading his players. A 17 should have been a successful check given their research, the information they were given and the fact that the vamps appeared from the mist 12 hours earlier. Matt made his encounters too weak and tried to impede the party at several points.

@@hahmann last episode there was the whole "you know moving water is hurtful to vampires, as such pee counts", but sure, evil Marisha. /s

Yeeeah I think Matt had some pretty janky, possibly even unfair calls in this episode. He generally does a pretty good job though, so he can be forgiven for occasional lapses

He's human. He gives his players advantage and tweak the rules sometimes in favor of them. A mistake is bound to happen so I wouldn't give him shit too much.

Hexblade warlock multiclass ?

@@bastien1591 hexblade subclass didnt exist then its more likely a homebrew style feind

I think you mean what the HEX is going on.

@Jacob Treuer I imagine because there wasn't a way for him to pull warlock with his fighter and how he was building it then. There are homebrew evocations, one of which let's you make a firearm your pact weapon. Meaning yes now you can make a fighter/warlock like percy.

I just Keep thinking Hero Squad when they put a illusion hat on a warforge

I love how Grog's says Great Axe and Rage

Despite not having used a Great Axe for ages.

OrionX700 Tibirius' was metamagic and spells.

BoZoiD57 Yeah, but I'm just picturing Vex swinging Trinket like a flail

Trinket isn't a weapon it's a vanity pet

If they do the entire briarwood arc, it will be, as this is part of them taking the town back.

@@darkvizardking69 Woohoo! 🥳

Matt is officially playing Silas Briarwood in the series .... So it's ON.

Hello from 2022, How does it feel to get your wish?

@@jeremyblack1929 AMAZING!!!!

The players all pause, as if there is a voice that only speaks in a whisper. If they strain themselves, they swear it says, "oh, well then I don't do that."

Good riddance I say so happy he’s gone

Just reached this part in the video. Ouch but that was one of the things that bugged me about Orion.

Bahahahahaha 😃

I always felt like people took the "glory hog" meme with Orion too far, I don't think his intent was always quite *that* selfish. But I did find it somewhat tiring at times when he'd describe an elaborate plan and go "I don't do that. Instead I..." Sometimes it was fair enough to not do something, the others have reversed decisions as well, but he definitely needed to just roll with the punches sometimes and play along. I always felt like Orion's issue was more just a general lack of self awareness in a social situation. (Which is why Tiberius's wisdom was so low I bet.)

He didn't have his beret

I think we can just appreciate the whole man.

Definitely and if I was in a fight in a town known for vampires and one of my friends walked in mid fight (like K) it would definitely be plausible that I would warn them that the mist was a vampire even if I was mid attack. They also fought vampires that formed out of mist in the tunnel so it seems reasonable that mist inside a building would be another one.

This. It feels to me that Matt’s ego gets in the way some times. Keyleth isn’t stupid they know they’re fighting vamps and she specifically got info on how to kill them. Mist doesn’t just happen to be in the middle of a house foyer surrounded by your battle beaten Ally’s. Wtf.

@@tribelevy2854 They're in the middle of a fight with 10 random mfs- a lot of stuff can create mist or something that looks like it. It could be from any spellcaster, any source of fire, a couple of items, Percy's gun, like Percy literally creates black smoke IN THIS FIGHT when he hexes someone, why wouldn't she assume that was a vampire??? It's not as crazy as you think *allies

@@chrisfull7034 you’re on something bro. Just look at the difference between smoke and mist. Percy is making black smoke. The 10 crossbow men ain’t making smoke or mist anyhow and a 11th level adventurer would know what’s smoke what’s mist and what is vampire mist considering they just barely fought them and witnessed them mist out. It’s not smoke. There’s no fire. Mist and smoke are different. Keyleth would know to zap it. You have no ground to stand on. Keep sucking that critical role dick though

Felt like he was super hard on her specifically this episode. Like she was paying for all of Orion's past mistakes. Or worse--he was answering the chats unwarranted complaints about her from previous weeks.

Strictly speaking he didn't do much damage to enemies or kill anyone, but it was nonetheless an extremely badass sequence

Bards are insane.

I played a bard in Neverwinter nights for many years, now granted bards in a video game are significantly different than table top rules, but I still was one of the most powerful pcs on that server for a lot of years, my inspiring song could do some MAJOR buffs to friendlies, and my curse song hurt the enemies so much it was nigh ridiculous. Plus pretty much nothing could save against it. About the only thing I had to worry about was something casting silence.

Don Lawson i would like to see a truly lawful dnd group tho XD without anything you can argue about

Yannik this has never existed, the closest you get is someone who nails Paladin RP and (unsuccessfully) admonishes the group on acting evil

@@leavy The last Paladin I played was with 3.5 rules (Lawful Good and one strike and you're out of powers!), and he never lost his powers, never left his path, and the party loved him to bits. Admonishing the group does nothing, it's better to just be an example and let them see what rewards you get for it. Let them follow freely instead of tying a leash on them.

@@gambit4021 That would be a pretty difficult group to keep alive as a DM.. no rogues to help parties get around without fights every damn time.

And then the Mighty Nein came around

(That scene with thanos)

@@evilwarrior9522 "now dig on this" *pelvic thrusts rhythmically*

*finger guns*

I know comment is year, but they were just recently told some vampires turned into mist. . . They were there to kill Vampires. Should have know when she mad the int role and a he should have known just in general.

that part got me so annoyed like she shouldve very easily noticed that

Basically. It was a Horse-shit call.

No he was correct to call this. No matter how obvious it was, she rolled for it and she failed the roll. Therefore she has no right to complain She was metagaming and got called out and punished for it

@@apophis456 you must be real fun to play with. Do I have to roll to breathe in your games?

James Haughney I mean you can insult me all you want and sit on a high horse but he gave her a chance, she failed and that’s that. You’re thinking about it because you know it’s a vampire, but Keyleth runs into the room and while Marisha is focused on the fact that there’s a cloud of mist (and a small one at that) during a rain storm while her friend is riddled with crossbow bolts and there’s 7 guards shooting at him - she failed the roll and didn’t know it was a vampire. Tough luck try again next time

@@apophis456 The roll was rigged, no way the DC should have been higher than 17.