Mercer flexes his DM muscles on an episode of Um, Actually! Check out the full episode here: • Jump Man, Folklore, Ho... #mattmercer #matthewmercer #umactually #dropouttv #thepixelists #dnd
@Kakaroto3245 He said pit fiends are immune to non-magical weapons, which is correct. However, silvered weapons also overcome this immunity and does full damage to them as devils are famously weak to silver. Edit: Resistance, not immunity.
@@The_Crimson_Witch Monster Manual page 77: "Damage Resistances: cold; bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing from nonmagical attacks that aren't silvered Damage Immunities: fire, poison" So they will take full damage from silvered weapons. So pretty much everyone got it wrong?
When you suddenly realize that everytime Matt checks the handbook to make a ruling or settle a debate with a player, he actually already knows the answer off the top of his head, and he just doesn't want to come off as a know-it-all... haha
Rather, I assume he checks when there's particular nuance to the rule he needs to be certain of. Playing RAW (Rules As Written) can be real finicky with specific wording and I bet even if he knows for the most part how a mechanic works, he'd rather double-check in really fuckity scenarios.
Nah, as someone who is a know it all at a similar level to Matt, you double check to make sure you aren't missing something you can give the player for free.
And much of what he's doing here is general rules he'd come across routinely as a DM. When he checks the rules, it's usually in cases dealing with specific builds. Unless you're a player in a class, you're not going to get to put the thought through the intricacies of the subclasses.
@@its_sisha_not_chair505Surprisingly, intimidating is a word you can use as it includes the act of overawing as much as it does frightening or threatening. And, I can add "overawing" to my vocabulary today.
19, his statement about clerics not being able to cast fireball was wrong. But the rest about the spell slot level was correct. Both light and zeal domain clerics can cast fireball but as 5th level slot. (While Zeal is only semi-official, Light is in the PHB)
@@kohakuaiko yes, but in the situation of Mike Hunt. which, wasn't actually his name it just sounded like it, it was a character simply calling for him. carefully enunciating would just bring more attention to it.
@@kohakuaiko In fairness, I think the name was meant to be something like Miqant. Although, to me, the easy fix would be saying 'mee-kahnt' in that case.
Matt has that "I know it all" knowledge that some nerds have. But NONE of the negative "i'm better than you because of it" aura that most nerds have. None of the elitism or "gate keepism". Which just makes it so darn impressive
Yeah, it’s honestly quite relieving. It’s like he’s saying “I know everything there is to know about this… would you like me to teach you so that I may share this immense burden?”
I think it's because he's not really interested in what was, or even what is, but what we can make moving forward. All the rules that have already been laid out are nothing but foundations to him. We build upwards. And then, we turn it into the foundation we will teach to somebody else, pass the torch, and see what they build on top.
That's because Matt isn't a know-it-all. He just knows a lot (has a lot of D&D knowledge). Know-it-all's pretend to know it all and therefor stop learning/looking for more answers.
Unrelated but how do we feel about people who have the knowledge but instead of being normal or feeling superior, still see themselves as lesser than? Asking for a friend.
@@MmrikDimension 20 is also about as good as Critical Roll. The DM is Brennan which is the guy you hear talking in the background who says that Matt found one they missed.
I met Matt Mercer long ago, before Critical Role blew up, at a convention wherein I worked behind he scenes. I can tell you that he's just as nice out of the sight of the fans and the cameras. Just an all around very pleasant person.
Well critical role is amazing but the players are constantly breaking both the homebrew rules and the normal game rules so Matt has the eyes of a Hawk and the ears of a Fox and the knowledge of Gandalf when it comes to rule breaking.
Oh for sure-like for example I know most played D&D games (off-camera anyway) remove the rule that potion drinking is an entire action. Players are allowed a free object interaction on their turn (which is why you can open a door while running away and blasting fireball behind you), so modern D&D nerds tend to rule/homebrew that a potion is an object interaction and therefore doesn't take a whole turn. (If you're forcing someone else to drink a potion that's a different matter, like feeding a health potion to a KO'd party member, but I don't think anyone expected otherwise there)
@@dracos24 Of course but the job of the dm is to keep things fun and rules are part of the challenge. So Matt takes concentration limits and movement speed and spell level limits and actions vs bonus actions etc seriously and calls the players out when they're breaking rules. He certainly stretches the rules for fun and flavor but he's also great at catching when they're being stretched too far.
But then again, Matt's wrong on that one. Pit fiends are not immune to weapon damage at all, they're only immune to fire and poison. They do have resistance to non-magic weapons, except for, well... silvered ones. His mastery of the rules is still impressive, though, and he's my favorite DM from actual play shows. He's a really good storyteller.
@@chicogomes0 Incredible- you fact checked rules with the vast internet at your fingertips compared to relying on only your game knowledge live, in person. The pointless comment level is astounding. 10/10, you got em
@@chicogomes0I guess depends on the version. Almost guaranteed they weren’t talking about AD&D but just as an example Pit Fiends cannot be hit by weaker than +2 weapons in AD&D
@RunningwithRelic oh no, someone corrected your internet idol whom you have formed a parasocial relationship with and now you have to come running to defend them
they stipulated before this, to not assume anything based on added features. as fireball is only a cleric spell on the extended list via light cleric. in this context it is not a cleric spell.
they literally do it left, right and centre in their show. Keep 3 concentrations at once, spells do whatever they want, getting a sneak attack with disadvantage, etc.
Oh I feel like he notices. If it's clever enough, he just goes, fuck it roll for it. But he doesn't rule his tables with an iron fist either, rule of cool often wins out.
Matt has big uncle energy. He feels like a real life uncle grandpa character, but for DnD and voice acting, not for solving cosmic problems with chaos magic.
I think pit fiends do take full damage from nonmagical silvered weapons though. On DnDbeyond for pit fiends it says "Damage Resistances Cold; Bludgeoning, Piercing, and Slashing from Nonmagical Attacks that aren't Silvered".
@@SuscriptorJusticiero Silver Weapons were buffed greatly in 5th Edition, this video came out when 5th Edition was still new. So both him and Brennan are referring to their knowledge from past editions. Pit Fiends weren't immune to Non-Magic/Silver, but they would heal back up to 30 damage from any weapon attack caused by such weapons.
To be honest, the guy has been playing the role of a Dungeon Master for (as far as mid 2023 regarding this message) 7 or so years since the first campaign. I’m waiting till campaign 3 gets more episodes to binge on, but out of 1 and 2, campaign 2 definitely kept this man on his toes with the level of shenanigans the party threw out, both in combat and out of it. Edit: In response to the first two comments, I only got introduced with DND about half a year ago, so I'm not fully aware of Matt's personal experience as a DM (I just know he's good at it). However in response to saying Matt has 30 years of experience, I wouldn't put it past it if he jumbled old rules with the current ones. There are plenty examples of him being corrected thanks to the internet/stream's chat (Minor Spoiler Example: "We're Gods" in Campaign 1 where Matt got chewed out for the fall damage)
He might have been playing since highschool but that would have been very on and off. However, he’s got more then a decade of experience since the Vox Machine campaign which started in 2012, and he hasn’t really stopped so at the very least he’s got 10+ years of constant DM’ing under his belt, once a week for four hours up until recently. Edit: Oh, and Matt is fully aware of how fall damage is supposed to work, but he purposely disregards the limit so you can’t just have higher level characters be able to survive any fall.
@@willeh1947 He was already a known and respected DM when he began playing with the VM group. That's why they wanted him to do Liam's birthday party. Liam was already kind of a bigshot in the voice actors' community.
@@happyclam1266 I know, but it still most likely wouldn’t have been at the regular level that he currently plays at. My point is merely, at a bare minimum - discounting games he may have run before CR - he still runs 4 hour sessions nearly every week for the past -10 years- 8 years since they started streaming, which is a vast amount of experience under his belt.
@@paselitoru had to look up pit fiends as some enemies can in fact attack and cast a spell in the same round, that said hold monster is an action and pit fiends do not have the capability to both cast the spell and make their 4 attack in the same turn.
@@digitaldude22 Okay the context of him using an action spell was discussed as a counter already since I said a creature can attack and cast a spell if they use a bonus action. Appreciate the clarification of spell though.
The first time I saw this clip I didn't really know anything about Amy and Murph. This is even more impressive knowing they're such awesome D&Ders in their own right.
I don’t know dnd. I don’t personally play it myself, but I’m a fan of Matt Mercer, and watching him break down all these different aspects is completely satisfying.
A pit fiend isn't immune to all non-magical weapons, t's only got resistance to all non-magical(and non-silvered) weapons. This also means that a silvered axe WILL damage the pit fiend just as well as a magical weapon, hence why it wasn't on the card.
True, I think Brennan was intimidated by Matt and just assumed that Matt was right, but the whole point of silvered weapons is that they are a cheaper way to deal with magical resistance on certain magically resistant creatures at lower levels without giving your lower level characters bonuses to attack or wild magical weapons. The other classic for low level partys is moon touched magical weapons.
@@gregortheoverlander4122 I'll assume you meant to write non-magical resistances. Regardless, they're not a direct alternative but rather there are specific non-magical resistant creatures that are susceptible to silver(in some cases weak to silver), whereas others are resistant to silver just as well as other non-magical materials. I didn't know about the moon touched weapons, but that's pretty cool(and assumedly cheaper than a +1).
Yup: Damage Resistances Cold; ’Bludgeoning, Piercing, and Slashing from Nonmagical Attacks that aren't Silvered’ Matt is great, but not in the right in that instance.
@@stormbard Silver Weapons were buffed greatly in 5th Edition, this video came out when 5th Edition was still new. So both him and Brennan are referring to their knowledge from past editions. Pit Fiends weren't immune to Non-Magic/Silver, but they would heal back up to 30 damage from any weapon attack caused by such weapons. He's not right in terms of 5th Edition. But Descent into Avernus didn't release until about 2 years after this video, and were kind of the "Official" introduction to 5th Editions version of Pit Fiends.
Fireball can be a cleric spell but only if you take the light domain and reach the relevant levels needed (don't know if that'd ever specified in the panels just going off this clip) him finding extra that weren't on the list is wild though, mega props to matt 👏👏
"There is something satisfying about watching someone be very good at something." DAMN RIGHT. That's why professional sports or competitions of ANY kind are so much fun :D
It’s not included in this snippet but in the rules of the game it’s stated that relevant special subclass/item/etc information would be specifically mentioned if applicable, and in this case the cleric was of the Forge domain
Pit Fiend: Damage Resistances Cold; Bludgeoning, Piercing, and Slashing from Nonmagical Attacks that aren't Silvered - Monster Manual,77 Light Clerics can use Fireball at 5 level.
Ironically, it does so with a lot of Matts own homebrews. For example, in BG3 you can critically succeed or fail a skill check, like Deception, by rolling a 1 or 20. That's something Matt Mercer maybe not "invented" (Surely someone will claim they did that at their table for years before Matt) but for sure popularized to the point where few people even noticed the rule change in BG3 and a lot of people assume it to be RAW.
Matt is the true difference between someone who is an expert from years of practice and repetition and someone else who claims to be an expert because of their ego
While Fireball is not a standard Cleric spell, it is available to the Light Domain Cleric and does technically count as a Cleric Spell because of it. I don't know however if the domain of the cleric in question has been established in this segment or not.
@@gabrielrognon6238 Yeah but can't really assume that because gods have multiple domains so can't really use that as an example. It is very plausible that a fire focused light domain can be in a forge god's domain.
D&D isn't like other fandoms, out here we know the GOAT, and that's Matt. There are other who are so damn good, Brennan for example its I think my favorite of all the DM's ive seen trought the years, but Matt just does it so perfectly, and at the same time, he can adapt to a lot of styles of DMing. As I said, we stand the GOAT.
@@joelharris4446 He's only slightly wrong because checking that kind of stuff live is not exactly the easiest thing. It has *resistance* against all non-magical weapons, but it was still an error that the crew didn't account for.
@@Tawleyn I dunno if this was specifically from 5e, but if it is, he's still wrong because the Pit Fiend has resistance against all non-magical bludgeoning, piercing and slashing damage that *aren't* from silvered things. It's a minor thing tho, especially since he aced everything else and this literally wasn't on the cards lol
@@DjGameKing Nah, it's a thing in the base 5e Monster manual. There are no mentions of being susceptible to damage from silvered weapons. But I did poke around a little, and it is new to 5e. Before, the Pit Fiend didn't have resistance to those types of physical damage at all, but in 3.5e, it actually had 15 damage reduction against good-aligned characters and *silver* (and other things) which is weird to think about.
@@Tawleyn not even Zariel has resistance to silvered weapons, let alone pit-fiends - silver pierces physical resistance for all devils which have official statblocks in 5e (unless there's any in DiA with resistance to silver, I'm not checking statblocks from there since my party isn't done with that campaign yet).
Um, Actually, Matt was wrong about the silvered axe. The pit fiend stat block has resistance to "nonmagical weapons that aren't silvered." So nonmagical weapons can still hurt it, and it has no resistance to silvered weapons. Here's all the errors I spotted: Panel 1: 1. That's a lich, not a demilich. Panel 2: 2. Dodge is an action, not a reaction. 3. There was nothing to trigger a reaction. 4. Attacks of opportunity are taken when a creature moves out of range, not into range. Panel 3: 5. Initiative is rolled by all combatants before combat begins. 6. Hold Monster and multiattack are both actions. Panel 4: 7. Gruumsh is an orcish god. 8. Gruumsh is the god of savagery and strength, not the forge. 9. Fireball is a third level spell. 10. Pit fiends have either resistance or immunity to fire damage, so it would not destroy the pit fiend. 11. The spell pictured is too small to be a fireball, and is instead more likely to be Scorching Ray. 12. The cleric is pictured using a spellbook. 13. Fireball isn't a cleric spell, unless the cleric is a light domain cleric. Panel 5: 14. Potions, Benign Transposition, and Invisibility are all actions. 15. Benign Transposition is a teleporting ability. 16. Invisibility has a range of touch, and is pictured being cast at range. 17. Calliope is pictured drinking while casting, but Invisibility has a verbal component. 18. Invisibility has a material component, so Calliope should either be holding said component or an arcane focus. Panel 6: 19. Howl affects all nearby enemies, not just one target. 20. Howl affects everyone that hears it, so is not negated by Invisibility. 21. Howl is a saving throw, so it wouldn't miss, it would be avoided, and still has an affect even on a successful save. 22. Legendary actions are used at the end of other creatures' turns. 23. Vile Curse costs all 3 legendary actions. 24. Vile Curse is a Wisdom save. 25. Demiliches don't have a movement legendary action. 26. The demilich's movement speed is only 30 feet, so it could not fly up 60 feet. 27. A creature cannot use multiple legendary actions on the same turn. Panel 7: 28. Jump is not a skill, it's a spell or a movement option. 29. The demilich was supposedly 60 feet up, not 30. 30. Jump movement does not require a roll. 31. Vertical jump movement is based on your Strength modifier, and cannot get you up 30 feet. 32. A d20 can't roll a nat 30. 33. Turn Undead is a cleric feature. 34. Turn Undead is an action. 35. At its highest level, Turn Undead can only destroy undead of CR 4 or lower. 36. Demiliches have Turn Immunity. 37. The rogue shouldn't have gotten sneak attack, since the disadvantage from Vile Curse would have canceled her advantage from invisibility, making it a straight roll.
True but house rules (common as they may be) are the same as accounting for homebrew, in which case anything is fair game. I'm sure this is strictly Rules as Written for the game.
yeah, i rule like that too... drinking a potion yourself is a bonus action in my games too, but feeding a potion to somebody IS an action, due to it's complicated "don't make the fallen comrade choke on it" thing :D and i think Matt does that too in his campaigns.
If you aren't given any information then you should obviously assume it is irrelevant. You can "but what if.." anything, but it's not adding to the conversation.
I'm sure it will - for the most part, any way - be backwards compatible with 5e and it's rules while changing more smaller rules (dealing with action economy) or adding specific rules to make it their own. To make a system that isn't or can't use the thousands of products available for 5e would be a terrible business choice IMO. I'm not sure if I'd be willing to get rid of the hundreds (if not thousands) of PDF's I have (including from Critical Role itself) just to play another system permanently that has a micro-fraction of the material that I can't use the rest of the material I do have to play. Kobold Press for example, is creating its own gaming system with Black Flag and will more than likely be compatible with all 5e material. On top of that, putting the pressure on Matt to learn an entirely new system of rules for Critical Role would be an incredibly daunting task *unless* those rules were essential 5e but with a twist.
He did the same thing for pathfinder before 5e, and he did it before that for 3.5 before pathfinder. Matt's been in this hobby for a long time. Switching systems isn't a problem for him.
I think most people who idealize Matt Mercer haven't play D&D regularly for more than 3 years. Sure, he knows his stuff, but just as much as anyone with similar time behind a DM screen.
Definitely disagree, the average DM isn’t anywhere near Matt’s level of accessible knowledge. I’ve played multiple full campaigns with DM’s that have run games for decades and they constantly miss very obvious stuff and don’t understand rules or nuances. Objectively, Matt is more on top of his stuff than the vast majority of DM’s
@@danielcolvin1611 Matt is a very good DM. He is definitely above average, but I don't necessarily think he is "the best" or "godlike". In term of knowing the rules, there are tons of DMs that know just as much if not more than him.
I still can't belive all these years later that the guy who voices my favorite charatcer in my favorite video game (Yusuke from Persona 5) is also the guy that brought one of my favorite hobbies into the mainstream. What the fuck.
Matt is a rules lawyer after my own heart. The only one I didn't know was the one about vial curse. Knowing the rules is the most useful tool I have as a DM. I'm not that good at a lot of stuff, but any time my players have a question about what they can do on their turn I can help them. Some DMs underestimate the importance of knowing rules.
It’s way too impressive how many he got, and I can’t imagine getting anywhere close to that many, but the ‘extra’ one he got isn’t right. Silvered weapons do harm pit fiends.
