High Rollers DnD - Baldur's Gate 3 Cast play D&D #1 (Part 1) | High Rollers Presents: Shadows of Athkatla

Episode Date: September 23, 2023

All 6 Origin Characters from Baldur's Gate 3 join High Rollers to play a game of D&D for the first time EVER! When Tav gets hit by a powerful spell it's up to Astarion, Gale, Karlach, Shadowheart, Wyll and Lae'zell to gear up and save the day! HUGE thanks to Larian Studios for making this possible! Support the High Rollers and get early access to podcast episodes and more on our Patreon: www.patreon.com/HighRollers Dungeon Master - Mark Hulmes Gale Dekarios - Tim Downie Astarion - Neil Newbon Lae'zel - Devora Wilde Shadowheart - Jennifer English Karlach - Samantha Béart Wyll - Theo Solomon Narrator - Amelia Tyler Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Pickaxe. regular world today because we have very kindly been approached by Larian Studios and some rather fine guests to run a little D&D one-shot and speaking of those guests here they are let us start and have them introduce themselves and who they will be playing starting with Mr. Theo please take us away Hello everybody my name is Theo and I'll be playing Will Ravengard, the Blade of Frontiers. The Blade himself is here. And yeah, moving on, please take us away. Hi, I'm Samantha Bale, I play Karlak.

She is a tiefling barbarian, formerly of Baldur's Gate, recently of Hell. Amazing. barbarian formerly of Baldur's Gate recently of hell amazing and I'm Jennifer and I'm playing shadow heart God's favorite princess that will probably have already happened and then on our goes out there. Yeah, perfect. And then on our other side. It's Debra, a.k.a. Dev, playing Laizel of Kreshkalea, the fiercest and best Githyanki in all the land. Oh, the voice. I love it, love it.

And then moving on. Hello, I'm Neil Newborn, and I play possibly the greatest vampire in the world a starian hello darling too natural now oh my god it's a bit weird i know it's very accessible it's terrifying i actually have his giggle now i started no i started doing that like on a thing well and then plenty to look forward to yes, last but certainly by no means least, please, Tim. Well, I'm Tim and I am Gael Dacarius of Waterdeep, the greatest wizard.

Bar none. And I'm totally overmistressed, so let's not talk about that anymore. Absolutely. Totally over it. Not a big deal. Not a deal. Not a thing anymore.

He's not making up for it by eating all the magic items. Yeah, Absolutely not. Does Gale do the equivalent of high fantasy ice cream moments? Oh, without a shadow of a doubt. Surrounded by Tressums. Crying into a book. Oh, this is going to be a very special item. Oh, yeah.

Amazing. But, yes, so thank you very much, Larian, for helping us put this together. And this is our Baldur's Gate cast D&D one-shot, which I've given the title The Echoes of Ath Catla, which will all make sense to come to be. And yeah, thank you, Larian, for sponsoring this as well. Just as a warning, there may be some mild spoilers.

If you've not finished Baldur's Gate 3, especially Act 1, there might be a couple of little tiny spoilers here and there but hopefully you've all got past that point and you've got out of character creation and actually played a bit of the game uh so that won't matter too much um now this is normally where i as the dungeon master would read you a little introductory thing to kind of set the scene to kind of set up where you're gonna be oh yeah but I'm not gonna be giving you guys an introductory little readout today because I've got somebody who can do a far better job than me hello hello i've got text he's written me some things hi i'm amelia tyler i'm the

narrator of boulders gate 3, or your Dungeon Master. I give you authority sometimes. And right now, I'm going to be doing some sight reading for you. Apparently. Oh, God. Okay. You've got this. Okay. Somewhere in the worlds of the Sword Coast, you have made camp for the night. The stars overhead flicker and glimmer as you rest peacefully,

recovering your strength from the arduous battles and adventures the last few days. You awaken just as the sun begins to crest over the horizon, spilling its pink and orange light over your bedrolls and tents, birdsong fills the air in this idyllic scene as you don your armour and prepare for the day ahead. And then the piece of this moment is broken. Your companion, the hero who shares an illithid tadpole connection with you, is suddenly engulfed in a sickly green and yellow light. It pours over their

body like liquid metal, silencing their screams as it pours into their mouth and over their face. The violent jerk, their body is lifted up into the air and hovers in place. Yeah! As the internet breaks. Amazing. Wow. So good. Oh, I'm never gonna be able to live that up.

No. Sorry. Yes, you'm never going to be able to live that up. No, sorry. Yes, you have all awoken this morning at your camp in the Wilds of the Sword Coast, and this moment of peace is shattered as Tav, the hero that has been accompanying you, is lifted into the air, their body completely covered by this magical flickering green and yellow light. It pours into their mouth, almost like liquid metal, kind of like filling their face. You hear just the briefest scream before it's silenced. And then they're lifted into the air, hovering in place.

And all of you are present. You see this happen. And now I ask you the most important question. What would you like to do well we all saw this coming didn't we tab is currently floating up in the middle of the camp uh their body kind of almost like twisted and contorted you can almost see pressure being exerted on them um and you can see this happen would anybody like to do anything Would anybody like to do anything? Kill.

How? I'm thinking I should probably do something like detect whatever magic is on you. Yes. Yes. Absolutely. So there's a couple of ways you can do that, Gael of Orzi. You could use your detect magic spell if you have one. If you have the detect magic spell you can cast that. Or could just make an arcana check and you could just kind of maybe use your knowledge your

training as a wizard to try and figure out what might be going on let's do that let's lean into that great we're gonna make our first roll of the game and it was Tim's first roll ever I was concerned that I would have to go first. No, I'm beholding it. I'm going first. Shall I cast Guidance? Right. Well, now all souls will play the game. I've been researching.

So, Jen, you absolutely can do that. So, this, and what we're going to do is we're going to kind of almost, I'd like to know, what does this look like? So, Shadowheart, like, you see Gale kind of approaching, maybe kind of pondering, thinking over what's happening. How does Shadowheart help you offering this Guidance? You help help gail i'll deal with this no but but i will help because i have guidance good point well made we should we should probably do this yes how do you imagine uh shadow hearts magic to look like as you kind of pull this energy from

sha the goddess like you know what does it look look like you have an idea of how like you might do it or like what the spell might look like I'm imagining I'm imagining some like purple gorgeousness yes like surrounding Gael you're playing D&D so you feel this kind of come over you so what this means Gael for the guidance cantrip allows you to add a default which is a tiny pyramid dice to your arcana check so when we do this I'd like to also add moral support by a slow clap very well done thank you that's going to be most useful you hear this as you're pretty sure you hear one of tabs bones like but moving on from that you have this is what we call an ability check and gave a skill check right so

this is Gail using his arcane knowledge to try and figure out what's going on and there is a chance that Gail might not know what what is happening so you can take your big dice the d20 you're gonna add your guidance which is the d4 which is the little pyramid this one yep and then you're gonna look for under your skills your arcana skill and you're gonna see that that has a bonus yeah plus five plus five so you're gonna roll those dice together and you're gonna add plus five to the roll okay and I have a number in my head that you're trying to beat and I will tell you if you succeed or fail so I've a 17. okay so add it all up together 22. and then how does this you add that so that's

14. yeah 26. your number means nothing to gail 26. indeed it doesn't gail you are a master of the arcane art i told you you are a wizard of great skill and knowledge and you begin looking over to have this champion you've been traveling with and there's a couple of things that immediately become apparent to you through your training lodge and perhaps also shadow hearts spell almost helping clear your mind allowing you to think clearly as you do and your clap is being really appreciated so So you know a couple of things. First of all, you know this spell is very, very powerful and very rare. This is not traditional magic in any sense. It has elements of different schools of magic

kind of merged together. But you also, with such a high roll, you know that this spell is somehow being channeled from a great distance this is not being channeled from anyone nearby this is miles and miles and miles away that this spell has somehow anchored itself to tav and is affecting it and you think what it's doing is it is taking over their body and their mind It's almost trying to replace it with that of somebody else. Right? And that is kind of what you know. So whilst Gale is doing that,

and Shadowheart, you're helping with the guidance spell, I'd like to kind of go around the table and find out what everybody is kind of doing. And you do see that as Gale's kind of pondering and thinking and maybe weaving arcane runes to try and figure this out, you begin to see like Tav's body almost shaking and sort of spasming and you know, dead violently, like you see like the bones almost

threatening to kind of like snap and break. So let's go round, unless anybody wants to volunteer themselves with an idea. Okay, let's go with Neil and Sarah, please. So can we all sense that even though, well we can all make up well obviously this is heavy magic yes and gales free you can you could have shed you can say I'm gonna make that information absolutely big magic people when I hear

him say it's big magic I'm gonna take a few steps back I was like the camp area just specifically I'm also going to have a little look around and see if taft's stuff is like and oh well do you know what i think because i feel that tav hasn't been completely honest oh well i feel like a detective well i just feel that maybe tav was holding on to some items that really could be better served well i think that there's a lot going on right now so why don't you make me a perception check, Astarion, and to see if you do notice where Tav might have left that pack last night.

And you know, you're very seasoned, so you know what this is, but this is the same thing as an ability check. So it's a D20 plus the roll, and then we compare it with a discovered. Okay, so will this be stealth or sight theft? So, well, this is perception. So you need to see if you can find

Tam's pack somewhere. My perception is plus three. And this is a wisdom roll as well, right? So it's just the add to the plus three, because it's all pre-built into your skills down there. It's all pre-added. That's three, that is five. Five total.

Five total. Oh, yes, so you're... Yeah, go on, I have a thing for this. Yeah, please yeah please yeah so i start looking surreptitiously around and then i start i start looking as i'm doing this i noticed around i noticed gail's boots i go because he's doing all this stuff yeah he's actually he's waked up his clothes a little bit and i realized they're really nice they're very nice i get a little transfixed with this okay yeah the point where i can't quite look away from them the stitching is exquisite you know it's double double sticks i wonder how often he takes them off so yeah i'm a little fixated so yeah you're fixated on that so we're staring kind of looking for tabs gear to obviously check and make sure everything's all

in order um you are distracted by by gail's boots unfortunately you do not seem to be able to find tabs back now maybe if you know when you can spend some more time you'll probably be able to search it and find it easily but in this minute like in a quick glance you'd see no sign of it um what about lazel carlack of the uh sorry or will uh get in my head character minds anything that you guys think your characters might do in this scenario i'm telling gail to hurry the up we don't have time and neither we do we have time for a starion to be looking at people's boots this seems like quite an urgent potentially life-threatening situation certainly does and i don't know why you're taking so long so while you're kind of like speaking to these guys this is not easy it should be for a wizard

um well what you can do is there's a couple of options if you want to like you can obviously just be yelling at gail to hurry up and things like that um but you could also you know you could try and uh sort of you know motivate him yeah you and there's a thing in the game called the help action which is uh you know it doesn't sound like that's what you're going for but it's a great chance to bring it up yeah yeah and what that would do is if you do take the help action not necessarily now but in the future you can give somebody advantage to a roll advantage means is you roll twice and take points all right so keep that in mind for the future laser but for now we're gonna assume that laser is just sort of next to Gael's shoulder like come on hurry up and yelling.

Closing his head, you've got to go into your mind palace you're like. Right perfect what about uh Carlyle and Will? Um oh I love that he's in I love it. After Gael's told us that somebody could be casting this spell on Tav I'm having a little look around the area. Oh, brilliant. Because potentially that person casting that is close, so I'm a little bit on edge just having a look around. If you're having a look around,

then it's just like a staring, there's a skill called Perception, and that is literally to notice stuff going on around you. So I think we're going to make this a Perception skill roll. So it's a d20, it's the big dice, and then on your list of skills, you've got the big long list of the tables of skills. That's the big dice and then on your list of skills you've got the big long list of the tables of skills uh that's the right one there and look for perception

tiny font I do apologize yeah yeah so what bonus do you have for that just plus zero plus zero so this is just a straight d20 roll um so you're gonna roll that and then we'll see what we get I've got an eight you got an eight I'm gonna say with an eight there's you don't notice the sign of like you don't see any shrouded figures well you don't see anybody like you don't see any hooded figures or anything like that weaving spells but i'm gonna give you one thing for an eight you because you are you're a warlock you forged this pact you are probably a little bit sensitive to like magical energies and things like that because you you hunt down fiends and devils and these kind of magical creatures

you do notice that there are these standing stones near the camp you can almost like there's like a fizzy taste in the air and a smell of sort of raw power, almost like that kind of sizzling iron and sort of strange smell that, you know, company's magical energies gathering. And you can you can tell that these standing stones kind of have that effect. You don't see anybody around you. All right. And again, you guys can just we can just say will would tell that to everybody i will which i you don't have to specifically like say anything

you can just be like yeah i tell everybody what's going on whatever but yeah you kind of sense that and like uh they're kind of spread out to the edges of the camp you know near the trees and near the sort of like edges of it and things like that you guys watch and as you're doing this uh you know tav is at this point like twisting and like shouting and is it almost like twisting so violently there's a serious threat that they might like kind of like you know twist their neck or like their arm or something like that um it's clearly building whatever this spell is like the longer and longer it goes on like it seems to be like really causing some sort of effect um what about is there anything karlaka lights do you say carl's gonna say oh not again

and she's gonna take a step back seeing this lot concentrate maybe have a little look around and ready herself okay all right just get the x out do you want to like make a perception or is this you just like if anything comes out you want to be ready to fight kind of thing i want to see if someone's coming towards us maybe distracting us yeah great well then let's uh let's another have some guidance well guidance has already been cast on gail in this little moment unfortunately it's not like the video game just like every time every time but yeah but i would say that like you've already like will's done the same thing and picked up that there might be this strange energy so i will give you advantage on the role because i think like

will might you can see will is like there's something that's bothering I call on carl actor come and investigate the sounds perfect was just like, yeah, I think I'll get it when we get into it. I told him. Straight in. Amazing. But yeah, so yeah, let's give a perception check with advantage, I think, on Karlak. And let's see what we get. So 16.

16, that's pretty good. And I've got a three perception. So yeah, so 19 total. Well, with advantage, you get to roll twice and take the highest. So let's see if, because you could get high and you could get. No, I didn't. No, I didn't.

So yeah, you begin looking around and you're like like maybe this is a distraction or something like that and will kind of calls you over and mentions this like strange energy and you're beginning you see will didn't kind of pick up on this but you see maybe it's the years spent in avernus kind of always watching your back and you're familiar with powerful creatures that can use magic and there is this like just very faintly in the air as if something is about to arrive and that is the point when as will and carl acker looking at these stones and Gail is examining Tav and like beginning to see this kind of spell take an effect to stare in your admiring the boots Shadow heart is providing Gale with a swirl of magic. Lae'zel is just berating him over his shoulder

That is the point when the air seems to almost tear and rip in the air as around these sending stones the very fabric of The of the earth and the land begins to open and creatures begin to emerge and this is where we're going to do that wonderful thing that we call in dnd and it's quite quick but we want to introduce you to your first combat we're going to roll initiative and uh to explain this uh this is going to basically be where we're going to determine the sort of order of combat, basically, of how things go down. So we're going to have, so everyone is going to take the d20, and you have a thing called initiative on your character sheet.

It's in the middle at the top next to your armor cost and hit points. So you're going to roll the d20 and then add that bonus, and then... I got crit one. Oh no. What did you get? One. You both rolled a one. Oh, amazing.

You don't need me, do you? No matter your bonus. And we got a natural 20 over here with Dio as well. That makes sense. We both got one which makes yours a two and mine of four yeah but it's a crit one so it's a different one all righty uh so uh if i go around so find them please i think what do we get there's a total forget total 17 17. all righty perfect and then staring we have a natural one but that you do get a bonus four a four well that might help you go quicker than lazy who also got one

plus one two two and then what about shadow heart uh i've got six plus two eight okey dokey and you're still berating like 14. makes sense that carl and will are probably a bit more ready for this because you're in there yeah yeah yeah sometimes the dice sometimes the dice really line up really nicely and then will we add an actual 20 for a total of no 22 22. because i might probably get the muscle 20 on my ones as well probably get the muscle on my ones as well all died and they all died tbk first game of the year so let me describe a couple of things of what you guys see but before i do that we can't do a d d combat without you guys having some miniatures yeah what i would like is for you to take your character um and place them them roughly where you think they would be.

I'm going to give you a representation of where they would be. They would be this little spooky ghost in the middle. So if you wouldn't mind taking... Oh. Oh, that. Look at that. That is lovely. And could you...

Hello, beautiful. It's so cool. Is that your green base? Green base. There we go. One to four. Your slave. Look at her face. You might need to. Now we've made these ones. These are going to be slightly bigger than the other enemies just so you stand out a little bit more. In case you wonder why you're giant compared to everybody else. But yeah, if you guys would like to place yourselves bigger than the other enemies, just so you stand out a little bit more, in case you wonder why you're giant compared to everybody else.

But, yeah, if you guys would like to place yourselves where you think you would be on this wonderful map, these are the standing stones, and there's another set of them over here as well. I'm also going to point out that in your camp, there is also Scratch, the dog, is here. And you also have Vol volothem geddard the sort of traveling uh uh black art who writes books and things like that he's been staying at your camp as well um so

we have will and kai over here by the tables uh near these kind of standing stands here and probably like oh yeah yeah yeah yeah that's fine I can move you guys we've got a little tracer camera up there at a distance wizarding yeah yeah you're wizarding you're admiring boots and this way round we're back to tap okay nice yep

I'm on the table you're on the table shouting shouting hurry up if you don't do this I will end you I then next to you i'll have myself a lot of pressure on me next to a step okay um i like the idea as well that uh vodafone is like terrified of lazelle so he's currently like crouched underneath the benches as you're stood over

uh lingering and then what you guys see is tactically brilliant position oh perfect tactically brilliant so then they emerge you've got this right so what you see emerging from this portal is five, I would call them spirits, but they almost look like more magical energy than actual like ghosts.

They're kind of a prismatic in color. They're constantly shifting in hue. Their bodies almost seem to like flicker and glitch almost, but they're definitely humanoid in shape. Some of them more than others, all different types of races tieflings elves dwarves men women some look younger some look older but in the middle of them is a very bizarre creature and the miniature is not quite accurate but what you see is almost like a statue of a glass warrior

like made purely from glass and crystal with a glass sword and glass shield stands in the middle of them very impassive just sort of scanning around and it points with its swords towards tav's body and you watch as the spirits forget such and that is where our combat is going to begin um so uh because we have uh mr will blade Blade of Frontiers, going up first, let's go over a couple of things about combat in D&D games. This is, you guys are learning for the first time. Probably we've got a few people at home learning for the first time as well. In combat in D&D, we take turns.

So you're up first. On your turn, you can do a move, you can do an action, and you can do a bonus action. An action is things like attack with a weapon or cast a spell. Bonus actions are things that are specific on your character sheet. You normally have a spell or an ability that will say, as a bonus action you can do this.

And then moving is you can move your speed. So I think for your speed for this example, it's normally at the top of your sheet, 30. Each square on our little battle map that we have here is five feet. So you can move six squares. Yep. Right?

You've put yourself very close as you were investigating this strange effect. Good luck. Yeah, basically. And so, yeah, you can do that thing. There are different types of actions you can do beyond just attacking and casting a spell. There's things like dashing and disengage. But I think we're going to kind of try and keep things simple for now. You guys do have your little cheat sheets as well if you want to look those up.

But the main question is, well, what would you like to do? And they're advancing on us right now. Yeah, they seem, it looks like the spirits almost, the creature didn't even seem to pay much attention to you. It pointed its sword towards Tav in this kind of like state of them being taken over by this spell and the spirits look almost like they're gonna rush past you okay can I cast darkness absolutely and then they wouldn't be able to I'm gonna cost darkness That's it. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

This is it, baby! So, in fact, I might even have a little thing for this. And we're very proud. Yes. The baby warlocks all grown up. I can show you. I'm going to use this to show you. So, you, so, first of all, let's get into the narrative of it, right?

What does it look like when Will casts a spell? Like, what do you imagine that looking like? Like, is this a gesture? Is this his eye you know goes black and inky like the night he's about to conjure is this like smoke trailing out of his hands his eyes go black his other eye like rolls back into his head puts his hands like to the sky and he sort of like draws draws the magic down from the heavens and he watches the light in the area almost seems to dim like it's night, but just in this small part.

Nature itself bending itself to Will's strength, and you hear that feminine devil voice whispering. Nothing intelligible, but just you feel her presence, your patron's presence in the back of your mind. And darkness would cover an area like this. So where would you like to kind of like center this spell? Like you can have it right on the middle of them you could have it so it more is affecting like you would like less you and carl act like where roughly would you like no literally like right on top of my top of there stood like disorientate yeah yeah yeah absolutely so you conjure this darkness now you have a special ability

well which allows you to see in magical darkness. Yes. Unfortunately, Kite does not. So, but we have this darkness in place, so Kite, you are suddenly plunged into night as this shroud, this umbral shroud encapsulates all around you. But Will, you see the spirits, like these unstable spirits

do seem to be disorientated. Like, suddenly something has changed. You don't necessarily get the impression that they can see, but their magic is still obscuring their, like, vision or their sense of where they are. But that glass knight looks directly at you as if it can see through the darkness, and it just levels its blade,

almost like a challenge towards you. So that was your action. I've used my action. I've used my action. You've used your action, you cast darkness, and that's one of your spell slots as well. So you've used one of your two spell slots, so that's gone, just as a reminder. Gotcha.

But you can still move, and you still have a bonus action. Would you like to move the tool? I don't think, yeah, okay. I'm gonna move. We're gonna, we'll remove this temporarily so we can see where everyone is on the map. Yeah.

So, just back it right up so just to clarify you're gonna pull down this unmodel shroud surround the area with eggs and then Will's like see ya garlic garlic garlic on the right and that's absolutely fine if you want to do that the blade of

france how far is uh is is this guy from me this guy yeah he is currently so five ten feet from you so you were about here so each square each square is right okay so i can't cast the spell on him right now can i uh you just is right okay so I can't cost the spell on him right now you just cast on it and it's good this is like you know it helps you you guys this your first TD combat yeah it's like we're taking it's like a tactical repositioning yeah so yeah I'm gonna back up yeah six minutes I'm gonna move so you can go so one two three out of the darkness in it and like hopefully some others catch my attention

others catch my attention amazing amazing uh well next up so uh so that's your turn if you had something you could do as a bonus actually you could do a bonus action as well i think for this time we'll just kind of get things fairly simple um we go to the next thing the initiative order is gail of waterdeep uh so you've seen all this happen this is all happening in about madness all around this is all happening in about... Madness all around me. All madness all around you. This is all happening in about six seconds. So the turn takes like simultaneously. Like this all happens all at once. But you've seen Will pull down this humble shroud and then run back out of it.

And he turns around. But he turns around and there's his blade ready for it. And you saw briefly this conjured spirit host in this glass night on the inside of that darkness. Yeah. Seeing as this knight is made of glass, I'm thinking I shoot a ray of frost and freeze it. That sounds really good.

That's why you're paying the big money. That's why you got this, fella. That's where you're going to go. Now, this is an excellent plan. There is a slight complication. There always is. There always is. Because the darkness is over excellent plan. There is a slight complication. There always is. There always is. Because the darkness is over it, you can't see into the darkness.

Imagine like a big orb of black, like orb of night. You can still try it because you knew where the night was, but it affects your accuracy and you roll with disadvantage on the attack because you are effectively blind. So you can still try it. You're like, well, I think he was 20 degrees this way. But you've got to hope that he hasn't slight or this creature hasn't moved i'm going to hit something can i do guidance because

i'm right next to it unfortunately so because we're now in turn based thing you can't until you're dead also guidance doesn't affect attack rolls but you do have a spell that does affect attack rolls what's my spell that's the one we took so guidance is for like skills and roleplay that's the one we took so guidance is for like you have the greatest spell of all a cell swords I know you but we'll get into it so you have something called battle master in your business you can do some very but yeah let's do our let's you get a can I hold back until the flesh you could do if that's if you think that that's what you have yeah absolutely yeah i would like to assume yeah but i can i would not like to respond one spell right you could you have your action and casting a spell as your action it's tricky

isn't it because shield of faith is very good as well it's really good and i was like i was gonna shield i was gonna shield uh tap because i can see through the dark that this is magical darkness so only the only one who can see through this darkness is will and he's running away i'm not gonna labor the point no i feel like will has done his thing let's leave it let's leave it by the way i've lost a lot of respect for well Let's leave it, let's leave it by the way. I've lost a lot of respect for Will. Your warden here running out going, I've made some darkness, so it's there for what I want. Okay everyone, let's not have a doubt about you. So it's Gail's turn, so you can have a little bit of tactical chat of like, oh can you do this, can you do that.

I'll give you bless. Alright, yeah, let's do that. Let's hold back. Let's hold back and let's do that. Bless. Hashtag bless. Yay that so Gail Chris your action I'm gonna hold your action until you get the bless from Shadowheart and then you're gonna try and break frost the glass right all right would you like to move you can still move on your turn that doesn't affect it physically move

your character like around so every square is you have a speed of 30 feet so you can have six squares and i'm still trying to work out with the magic you feel like you've worked out as much as you can like this is a very ancient but like you kind of figured out that yeah it's been cast from very very far away um it's slowly taking over their body and their mind it's extremely powerful tastes like purple yeah right now right now it looks like the other thing i would say because you did roll like at 26. um you have a feeling that seeing those spirits appear you have a feeling that if they were to like harm tab it will speed up the process if they were able to like reach and physically harm tab it will speed up whatever process this spell is trying to do okay

i'll tell you that for you right now yeah is he telling us that that's up to him i've tell you that for you right yeah is he telling us that that's him i've told you time too so what's the plan well what he said i think we all understand that yeah tadpole chat yeah so that's what's happened there so do i move do i move uh joe i'm not gonna move okay because if because i've got the angle and if I move my throat it might throw the angle off this all happens very quickly that's happened I don't want to throw it off so I'm gonna hold off all right in that case that is appreciate Gale's go we go to colic I rolled very badly for the monsters by the way so we go to colalec who is currently in darkness there's two things I'd like to do yes does order matter you tell me and I'll

figure it out I would like to rage against the dying of the light I would also like to move out of it so I can gotcha gotcha gotcha basically put myself between absolutely Tav and these creatures just the darkness yeah so if you would like to rage I believe it says if you want to read it out on your little ability then I think it says what if it's a bonus action action there you go so yeah it's a bonus action you can do these in any order you can move attack burn section anyway you like to you rage as bonus action do we kind of imagine like the flames kind of coming out of the engine venting heat off your body maybe seeing

some of the steam of the morning sun kind of thing. I think that would be pretty much your character, wouldn't it? It would be pretty good. We'll stay with fire, shall we? And so you kind of, you know, begin to rage, you gain the benefits of that, which we'll go into if that comes into effect, and then you would like to move, so please feel free to move yourself around. You have enough spatial awareness that you're like, I remember where behind me was. Two, yes.

Three. Four. There. Four there. All righty. that you're like I remember where behind me was for that all right and like out just say that you're gonna be just out basically I'll take half as much damage yeah and also like if these things were forward they might rush past you and that's what we call an opportunity attacking the creature moves past you get to kind of make a free swipe against it so the tactical reason exactly guys long term long anything you'd like to do on an action like i'm just gonna yell off okay yeah at the darkness all right okay i do every night um yeah intimidate check for me yeah as an action let's have you because you're like you know you're scary uh d20 yeah so d20 plus your intimidation so that's 11 plus three

plus three okay um i might be a bit upset might be upset let's find out so i'm gonna i'm gonna roll to see how scared these spirits might be it's pretty good unfortunately you kind of don't see anything but you don't hear any sounds that they've been affected by like I kind of shouting at the works nothing definitely definitely what does happen next is exactly what car gets my favorite spirits rush out of the darkness kind of panicked by it as they but they do so blindly so what I'm gonna do is I'm actually gonna have them see what they can do

Chinti Chinti Yes No Chinti That's not good and then i'm gonna do something i'm gonna have them use their action to do something called dash which lets them move again so instead of attacking or casting a spell they again and so carlack and will you guys as two of them actually kind of rush past you and out what we call your threatened area which is basically five feet around you two of them have moved beyond that so carlack and will you both get to make free attacks against these creatures this is a weapon attack so it has to be with one of your weapons so your greataxe I

believe car like and your rapier will this is to see if I actually see if you hit yes yes exactly the attack bonus on the middle column you should have great tax no that's alright we're learning column you should have Greataxe. No, that's alright, we're learning. So it should have the name of the weapon, Greataxe, and then the next column is the hit bonus. And then you have the damage. Alright? So what do we get for Will? 12 plus 5, 17. 17 is a hit against these creatures. I'll come to the damage in a minute, we'll see if Carmack hits.

15 plus 4, 19. 19, you both hit. So the rapier kind of strikes in piercing through this and you see almost like glitch become distorted the great-axe swings through similar kind of thing this time now you're gonna roll damage so the damage is the next column along each weapon has a different amount of damage it can do they does appear to be so that it's weird they have the appearance of ghosts but they almost look like they're made of magic and they they seem to be so. It's weird, they have the appearance of ghosts, but they almost look like they're made of magic, and they seem to be affected by weapons and

everything else that's normal. Yeah, so that one's that, and then what's the bonus you add to it? So it says the damage bonus. 1d, 8 plus 3. Plus 3, so you're going to roll that, add 3 to it, and that's how much damage you do. Ah, 2. 2, so plus 3 is 5. Yeah. So you

strike this thing, and you watch it kind of dissipate a little bit, but it's almost like parts of it are left, like it's been fragmented, but the whole thing hasn't quite dissipated entirely. But it does look very badly damaged. Very, very badly damaged. And what do we get for car axe damage? It's a three. Plus two.

Plus three, so five. So same thing. You're going to swing the axe down. Same thing happens. Oh, but you are raging. Oh, yes. And you do get a damage bonus to rage. So what it says on your rage, it says that you get a bonus to your damage rolls. In a rage, you deal plus two damage with your attacks, take half damage from everything except psychic damage, and have advantage on strength checks.

So it was five plus another two for your rage, so it's actually seven points of damage. Because you add two to every attack you make and that is enough. You watch, Carlag, as this thing runs past you, you kind of swing the axe down and it just like a gust of wind it kind of just disperses this creature entirely. It's amazing. It's amazing. There's a however when this type of creature when this creature in particular is destroyed it erupts in magical force and I need you you and

will I need you both to make dexterity saving through So this is a type of role we do to see like, I've got to dodge out of the way. You're like John Woo leaping out of the way or like deflecting something away from you. You're using your agility and your reflexes to kind of prevent yourself from being harmed. And you have a little column up the top above your skills of saving throws.

So it's a d20 plus your dexterity bonus. Seven. Plus your dexterity bonus seven plus your dexterity bonus plus one that's one eight is not enough i'm afraid that's gonna be a failure 15 plus two 15 plus two so carlick you managed to kind of like throw your body to the side um and you don't take any damage from this thing as it blows up you kind of kind of like as you disperse it that radiant energy that was left kind of crackles in the air and then ignites and you feel this kind of concussive force. Will, unfortunately, you kind of are surprised by this. It kind of catches you in the blind side. And you are going to take...

I get to roll some dice. Okay. You're only going to take three points of force damage. It kind of concusses you ever so slightly. Okay. But yeah yeah so with that you mentioned to think they use their action to dash they can't do anything else this turn you did that on their turn those spirits they're done

turns over so we go to shadow heart next hello we are working together aren't we done yeah so I'm gonna bless you what go on so if you want to just read out the spell bless because it's good for like people at home everything else if you really yeah material a sprinkling of holy water you bless up to three creatures so you get Gail but you can pick two more as well right okay so we've got meals making he's like right okay what about tough thanks I'm concerned about tax could absolutely but yeah you can still target tab as well they are heading for tab yeah and this will give them a bonus to their saving throws and

things like that as well yeah so I think Gale, and then who else is near me? Well, yeah, you've got a Staren, you've got a Lae'zel. This spell has like a range as well, so you can hit any of your allies. You can also include yourself. Oh! Game changer! Game changer! Yeah, I think me.

Okay, great. All right. And then if you want to read out just what the effect of that is as well. Oh yeah, the effect. You bless up to three creatures of your choice within range. Yeah, that's good because also I'm in range with me. Whenever a target makes an attack roll or a saving throw before the spell ends, the target, oh it's carrying on, the target can roll a d4 and add the number roll to the attack roll or saving threat yeah so it's like a super guidance you actually get to add it to attacks the same those but it affects multiple people as well so any attacks you make or any saving throws you make you get that extra d4

but important things over the spell is called a concentration spell if you take damage there's a chance that you might lose your focus and that spell will go so something important to remember likewise if you cast another concentration spell it overwrites it all right keep that in mind and do i do i do guidance on this one as well uh so guidance is a concentration but if you were to cast guns you would get rid of the bless it would overlap oh you don't want that you don't want that exactly all right guidance though don't you yeah taught people that guidance is one of the greatest things um all right so uh so that is your action to cast bless also what does this look like so we've seen you kind of pull this shadowy magic is there a different look to this is the same sort

of thing so i think for bless so i'm throwing holy water right so i feel like it's a more like outward spell yeah then I feel super soakers very bad for you so that's your action to cast bless we see you kind of spray this out I'm you still have a move action if you would like as well if you'd like to move anywhere. I'm quite happy with where I am because I know my strength isn't great so I don't feel like putting myself between Gael and the monsters is a good idea. So I'm gonna stick where I am now. do I have any more things that I can do? So you could do a bonus action as well. So sometimes you have a spell that's a bonus action, like Shield of Faith, but it's a concentration spell.

But also, like, you don't have to use a bonus action. You can just sort of, like, you've done a cool thing. You can move on. Why do I want to milk it? I want to do all the things. Why won't the game let me do all the things? What about invoking duplicity? Would that help? I I mean if you would like to do that you can totally do that if it's a bonus action like I could just come I feel like these guys are

reasonably easily confused so like by adding another like person in the mix for them to like concentrate on then they can like they then they can leave will and call up a lot of it that sounds very sound like I love it yeah so I'm doing that okay all right so you would like to invoke duplicity we're gonna use another one of these little spectral spectral feature new research where would you like the the duplicate to appear like between tap like in front of tab between but learning my answer to shop so in between tab and the blue ones almost you guys will see this almost near-perfect replica of shadow heart just sort of spring into existence, this illusory version of Shadowheart, kind of with mace and shield, like, threatening them and stuff like that.

And you can control, you can move it around later on on other turns. But, right, so you summon this, you call upon Sha, and you feel the shadow almost, like, the shadow itself forms into Shadowheart, right? Yeah, great. Very cool, very, very cool. All righty, so we're going to jump back in. And actually, we forgot, Gale, you had held a readied action for when you got blessed. So let's do that before anything else, because Shadowheart's just blessed you.

So you wanted to cast Ray of Frost on the Glass Knight. Yep. And you now have Bless, so you get to add a d4 to the attack roll. So you're going to use one of your cantrips. This is the first time we're going to be seeing an attack cantrip. So cantrips are like spells that you can cast as many times as you want. They don't cast spell slots. And your Ray of Frost one has information on your attack column

in the middle of your sheet. You should have Ray of Frost. So what's the bonus that you normally get? Plus five. So you're going to roll a d20, plus five, and another d4 because of the Bless as well. So that's 15, 20. And then add the d4. Let's bless as well all right so that's 15 20 20 and then add the d4 let's get into good habits of adding our blessings yep this is one little pyramid

two 22. all right now remember this is at disadvantage so if you're gonna roll that d20 again to see if you get a lower result than a 15 because you're at disadvantage so you roll twice and you take the lowest because you're currently unable to see the the glass night in the darkness but that that bless is still going to add two eight eight so it'd be eight plus two from the bless plus five because your attack bonus 15 15. not bad yeah mine still Yes! Yes! Thank you. So you cast him and flip him off immediately. Almost imagine this, like, into this sphere of darkness, imagine just a completely

opaque, vantablack kind of globe in the middle of this field, and you watch Gael, you're kind of angling it, and just see the trigonometry in your mind, and then... Yeah, do you have an idea of how Gael might channel a ray of frost you know ray of frost I think you would bring it up from the depths and then just yeah nice so we kind of get this like freezing beam of

cold so how much damage does rare frost do right 1d8 yep so that is the little trapezoid diamond thing this guy this little diamond thing yeah the little diamond guy um i'm gonna tell you a little thing because you were quite right ice glass this creature has got a trait called is vulnerable to cold damage and maybe other types of damage as well which means it takes double damage yeah so you're gonna roll this and whatever you get we're gonna level it So you're gonna roll this and whatever you get, we're gonna level it. You're gonna need a bigger boss. Yeah. One.

That's a two! Two damage. It's going so well. Although I feel it's in keeping with our party's vibe. We're doing really well. So we watch as this, you know, almost impossible angle, like tracing it without even being able to see it. And we just get this, you know, maybe the ray kind of diminishes as it gets to the end and it freezes like a piece of the pauldron,

kind of frosts up a little bit like a nice Christmas ornament, but sadly doesn't seem to have a huge... Yeah. It does strike. He goes like... Not too much damage, I'm afraid. And that was... So that was on shadow hearts go because you'd held your action um after shadow hearts go it is actually the glass knight itself is gonna go

and it is gonna make its way it moves towards will and it is going to try and you pissed it off that's what happens yes it is going to make an attack roll against will so kind of like you guys when you attack the monsters do the same thing um and i am trying to beat your ac so what's will's ac it's at the top uh above your hip point 13 13. so that represents like your armor and your agility and how hard you are to hit right so i need to roll a d20 and i need to be a 13. um and the the first attack i make is indeed a 13 because i meet it i beat it is the way to remember it okay so i am going to do some damage to you but this thing gets to make two attacks so i'm going to see if it hits you on its backswing uh and that is also going to hit unfortunately with a 17 to hit so it strikes you

once and on the back hand it kind of brings this blade against you again so that is going to be uh five points of damage and then another three points of damage so eight points of damage total wham wham it's this glass sword kind of slices into you will um but that's it it just moves up it makes those two attacks uh you can see its movements are very sort of rigid and robotic like you know it is it doesn't have the flow and the fluidity of an organic creature it's very sort of rigid in its mindset um then let's kill this guy we finally reach lazel and sarah so lazel you were up first and then sarah and you were going to be last in our order so lazel uh no sorry other way around a steering first then lays out my apologies

dyslexia it's a hell of a thing when you're reading lots of numbers and names right so yeah a staring you are up what would you like to do look at Gail look at will just go I'm gonna do something which is probably gonna not work I'm gonna try anyway so what'm going to do something which is probably going to not work so what I want to do I have cunning action

so certain actions that would normally take up my action I can actually use it as a bonus action including dash question for the DM I would like to as I see all this going on and I realise how vulnerable these things are and that car lack is a heavy hitter but that will potentially may have bitten off more than you joking. I'd like to, actually,

because Gale's, like, sort of in front of me doing this thing, like, Ray of Frost is coming out. Yeah. So I don't want to go in front of him. So what I'd like to do is sort of, like, do a hop, jump, and a skip, and then leap off here.

Oh, yeah. Pull my short bow out and do a John Woo dive to the side and try and hit past Will to hit the glass dude. Oh glass oh yeah I love it I love it very much can I use my dash therefore to do that action yeah with a little acrobatic absolutely and then use my action I'll tell you what I'll do even better so you can move through allies you can move through buddies by the way so like if they're

blocking a path you move through them cost you a little bit of extra movement it costs double movement yeah but you're dashing you've got plenty of movement to get up here past laizel and then dive over the vote who is cowering on the floor i'm going to use volo to launch myself even shorter you know what this is all going to happen 100 you're going to do this but to see if i can you can get maybe that jump that extra height will give you maybe a bonus on the attack make an acrobatics check for sure thing well my acrobatics is very good it's plus five plus five all right so d20 plus five plus five that is 19. that's 20. can i also give uh as i do that can i just give gail a wink uh you see him as he leaps over you gail

are you thinking about the boots again i think it's changed his relationship to you not that kind of wink more like a watch this kind of wink you're pretty sure that at some point maybe just in the trees a couple of doves just happen to fly past in fact what i see them flying past

and i time my jump as the doves just go So you fly and soar through the air Launch yourself over because of that great acrobatics wrong they give you advantage on the attack roller staring because so as you fight through you've Got enough got like a height advantage, but you're shooting down onto this thing. It is next to will as well Okay, I'm so advantage you roll twice you take the highest. What's your bonus on your short? They're plus five plus five so d20 plus five trying to beat its ac yeah and then i get to roll twice because of advantage you do yeah you take the highest first roll this is really first roll is five plus five it's ten uh second roll thank god is 13 plus five that's 18. 18 is a hit uh so you watch as the arrow flies out of this i'm not even

looking i'm like like winking at him actually that's it i don't even look i see where he is and as i go past i look at gail wink and then release not even looking where the arrow is i love it ah this the arrow flies true it strikes in the creature now there's a couple of things here as it flies through a couple of things because it you have advantage on the attack but it's also next to an ally and you're a rogue hysterian yes it means you get sneak attack which is your kind of special class thing which is extra damage yeah so what's your normal damage on the short bow uh normal damage is 1d6 plus three and then how much is your sneak attack just two plus 2d6 you can ask some of your friends to lend you some extra d6

you can roll it all together i'm just gonna take yours and i'm gonna take you stealing your dice right i'm taking your dice do it no not even asking not even asking but Not even asking. But yeah. So 3d6. And then plus the 3, right? That is shit. Okay, yeah, cool. That is, wow, that is three fours. That's 12 plus 3. It's 15. 15 points of damage.

Hot dice, hot dice. All right. So you watch as this arrow thuds into the glass kind of like chest plate of this knight and you watch as it cracks. Maybe the little bit that Gale had frosted over just gave enough. Just saying. That's why I win.

That's why you win. That's the place to hit it. All right, and Saren, would you like to do any more movement? You probably have about 10, 15, 20. You've probably got another 30 feet of movement. You've got another six squares you can move. What I'd like to do is because he's focused, even though I've hit him,

he's focused on Will. They're in combat. So I want to flank him from maybe like, from behind. Do you want to move in for melee or would you like to stay at range? I think range because I'm probably going to be at the moment a little bit better.

Would you like to like duck behind him for some cover potentially? Yeah. So the jump happens. I'm still doing this. I look up gale wink fire I land in a rock tuck roll and then just like just vault over yeah I am living out so many fantasies right now amazing just vault over that thing yeah great it's a great also it's a

great chance so for you guys like if you're behind something like a stone wall you can gain a bonus to your defenses called cover and you can kind of you know if somebody's shooting arrows that you can duck behind it so if these guys would start like maybe throwing magic or something else he might get a slightly higher defense bonus right because of it great perfect stuff then we come to last but by no means least place out waiting i know let us pray that the dice uh rewards you for waiting so long well now i was relying on gail to do a little bit more frosting so then i could go in and smash those guys to pieces um however he did not deliver unbelievable it's pretty standard i would say yeah yeah i mean yeah no action these guys

guys so and now i seem to have a lot of things that i can do yes i'll give you the short of it yeah i'd like to sort of charge in right in the middle there so we're talking like against all of these guys here or against this night well um probably against those guys there yeah they seem charging into the so the spirits, these unstable spirits that are attacking, going for Tav basically, so we watch as Laysa leaps off of the table, great sword pulled out you land in the middle, you've got two of them within

reach, what would you like to do? smash them great smash you've got a couple of choices. Because you're a fighter, you can just make a normal attack and just attack with your greatsword. But you can also do these things called battle maneuvers, which are like, you could knock

enemies, you can disarm them and things like that. They're all in your little middle column. In your middle column, they should be written down. I'd love to use a menacing attack. Yes! That sounds menacing. Very good. So these you can trigger, like when you make an attack yes very good so these you can trigger like when you make an attack when you hit you can choose to then you can basically say

I'm gonna point to do it basically okay it means that you get to add extra damage but also menacing attack you might make an enemy frightened of you like they make a saving through nice I hope so i hope so so this is the d20 this is the big dice and then you're going to add what's your bonus for your great sword middle column oh it's a plus five there plus five not a bad one i'd love to see it so we're gonna roll this plus five it's a what is that oh it's a four sorry it was upside down i was like what is that strange symbol uh that's a nine then a nine so it's the leap. Sorry, it was upside down. I was like, what is that strange symbol? That's a nine then. A nine.

So it's the leap off the table. You're a skilled warrior. You know what you're doing. But that leap just gives you that slight momentum where this spirit almost glitches to the side and the great sword thuds into the grass, missing, unfortunately. You look awesome. Well, well, well. I've got some good news for you though oh go on you have an ability because

you're a fighter called action surge oh yeah and action surge lets you take another action action so you can make another attack if you want to after a short rest after a short rest yeah you get it back after a short rest it's a short rest to tell gail to off and um here we are we're back short rest short rest to tell gail to fuck off and um here we are we're back so i don't know what i hate for you today it's usually direction that first roll like you know just nailed it so yes you'd like to use your action surge and try again i would love to let's do it so another attack it's another form it's another four! ohhhhhhh well

welcome to D&D surely he now has advantage on everything I don't like this game do I still have my greatsword bonus? uh no wait this is a different thing yeah no so you didn't spend those points because you didn't actually hit so you don't need to worry

about your menacing attack you've missed unfortunately you still add the five but it's only gonna be a nine and that still misses unfortunately yes I have not you basically tell me I have nothing I've done nothing you've looked really bad we are going slow we're kind of teaching everybody to get through a little bit quicker. At the very end of the round, Volo is going to run behind here next to Astarion. Oh good, Mr. Astarion, I see that you've had the tactical decision to retreat to the end of the field as well. And he kind of like ducks down and takes his hat off.

Without you doing any damage, after you said that, I'm just gonna stare at him and just slap him. Oh! And then just turn back to the fight. Oh yes, I suppose I could lend a hand. He's sort of like whimpering as he does. And then Scratch is going to-

Oh! Save the dog! Save the dog! And Scratch is gonna make an attack. Oh, yes's Scratch! You know, he's a tab. Best boy. Best boy.

Would one of you like to roll for Scratch, in fact, actually, rather than me? Oh, then Jen, please. They have a plus three to hit, so if you just roll the d20, and then you're going to add three to it for me. Scratch, eight. Eight plus three is in 11 which is enough to hit these unstable spirits but yeah scratch kind of leaps up and

yeah these things he seems to bite into it like it's physically there and if you can roll the d6 which is the normal dice the one that everyone knows and loves and this is plus one damage three so four points of damage so you watch this scratch kind of but like bites into one bears it down and then you know kind of like wow wow wow wow wow and it's like barking and trying to ward them away from Tav the spirit sort of looks down at this this dog like almost confused on its face like not sure what it's been attacked by And that is gonna be the end of our first round of D&D combat bit of a slow one But that's okay because we're learning the game. I do have some bad news though

The start of the second turn this other standing this other standing so these look very similar to the spirits that these unstable spirits but these don't look human these look like they've been stitched together by you know the wing and an arm of an owlbear and a crocodile's head like these almost horrific experiments but spiritual and made of magic almost and they kind of glitch and you can hear like noises but it's echoey and distorted as they do um as they begin to kind of move forward but that's gonna bring us all the way back up to the top with will blade of the frontiers i'm gonna attack this guy the glass night yeah I want to take this glass knife sure sure sure yeah okay well how would you like to

attack miss this with a rapier what would you like to do he's close to me isn't yeah he's right next to you yeah he's right next to you he's up in your face like swords clashing you know imagine because also like this is six seconds like you've probably exchanged like you've carried and blows yeah like Zell you miss was attacked so you're probably still like fending off your attacks yeah like like Zell you miss with those attacks but you're probably still like fending off your own attacks and stuff like that as well imagine cool cinematic combat I'm gonna pull my rapier and I'm gonna attack the glass knight okay did you say anything or is this just like you know lunge with a parry or you know something like that

I'm just gonna say you'll pay for that oh nice I love it all right so this is plus your rapier's attack bonus so d is plus your rapiers attack bonus so d20 plus your rapier attack bonus 18 18 plus 5 23 easily hit easily and then plus plus 3 6 9 points of damage so you watch as you you'll pay for that you thrust and where the arrow shot from a staring kind of cracked it a little bit of frosting from gail thank you the cracks almost touching from your two strikes and as they do the whole night just bursts into pieces just shatters in front of you like an ornament. Turning to dust. However, the spirits don't seem to be, you know, they're still going about their business. Like, they don't seem to be, like, disappearing now that the knight is gone.

But, yeah, this creature, which you saw, like, took some pretty big swings at you, like, is now destroyed. That's how it's done, guys. That's how it's done. That's why you came back. Yeah, exactly. Long time. Would you like to move or do a bonus action, Will?

I would like to... Now, keep in mind, you do have a couple of these guys next to you, so if you move away, they might get an opportunity attack at you. That's basically what they call it, like Karlak and you did. When something moves past you, if you move away, they'll get to do the same thing. If you want to, you can risk that free attack from the spirit to move somewhere else, or you can stay where you are and just next turn keep fighting.

I'm going to stay where I am. Alrighty, perfect. That sounds great. In that case, we go to Gale of Waterdeep. Okay. What would you like to do? Yes. Oh, I love it. I love it. No, he's looking. He's ready.

I'm mixing it up. I'm going to try and mix it up. I'm tempted, with the new ones that have just arrived, doing some sort of thunder wave. Moving them as far away. Mixing it up. I'm going to try and mix it up. I'm tempted, with the new ones that have just arrived, doing some sort of thunder wave. Moving them as far away. That'll be good. Now, I'm going to tell you the way the thunder wave works. If you want to read it out for us,

because there's a little bit about the area that it affects. Yes, it's each creature in a 15-foot cube originating. Yeah, so the way that that works, Gale, for you, is imagine from your miniature, you draw like a little 15 foot so three square nine by nine cube directly connected to you right so if you wanted to do that you can continue just reading so we get the rest of the effect. Right. So on a failed save, a creature takes 2d8 thunder damage and is pushed 10 feet from you. Nice. On a successful save, the creature takes half as much damage and is pushed. Constitution saving.

Constitution saving. Yes. So I have to make that, so we're going to do that. The other question I'm going to introduce, because we're kind of slowly learning mechanics, is you can cast that at first level and it will do 2d8 Thunder damage yeah if you cast it at second level because you're a third level wizard you can do it 3d8 Thunder damage you get extra damage but you've only got a couple of second level slots this is the choice but if you want to do that you could wipe all three of these things out in one spell do it

let's do it on the second, do it, do it. Second level spell. Let's do it. On the second sheet of your character sheet, you have something called your spell save DC written up at the top, very top. Spell save DC, yes. What number is that?

13. 13, so that's the number I have to beat for these monsters to resist it. And I will tell you that their constitution save is zero. So I don't get a bonus. So I have to roll a 13 or higher three times for these creatures to save first one succeeds i roll a 17. the second one fails i roll a five and the third one succeeds i roll 16. so they take half damage the ones that succeeded

are going to take half damage the one that failed takes the full amount of damage so it's uh you're crossing at second level so 3d 8 so you just like Neil stole your dice you can still I bequeath it and if it can you pass yours down as well it's like the diamond he shaped one perfect sharing is caring everyone that's what we love to see right and see how much damage we get what's that six eight eleven eleven points of damage so you watch and they're pushed back if they fail they're also pushed back uh ten feet as well so you watch this one is pushed back and it evaporates immediately and because you pushed it back when it dies its explosion doesn't

hit you because you launched it away from you sending it flying there you go and then lands off in some bushes somewhere the other two more because they take the squirrel just flies out they take five because we always round down yeah right so they are still up and they don't get pushed back see they're heavily damaged kind of almost like pieces of these creatures a feathered arm a kind of scaly tail have been blown away and almost dissolved, but they are still and now they look at you with hungry eyes, kind of like

shuffling towards you. Hungry eyes. Does Gale's hair also get like a little bit of like Oh yeah, there's definitely like, all of you would hear this cacophonous as this like wave of force emanates from Gael's hands,

his robes blown back and everything as you... The boots revealed. The boots fully revealed. They are gorgeous. As a reaction of Star Aegis has a single tear down the eye and goes, sumptuous. Amazing. So Gael you've moved, you've cast a spell, that was one of your second level spells, so make sure you mark off your spell slot as well. So it was one of your second spells you've marked off. Alright, we go to Karlak next.

The problem with destroying whatever those things are next to me is I'm going to kill Scratch. They blow up. And the poor dog doesn't know that that's not going to be so so quite inspired by gail i'm going to throw a javelin at the one that's just sitting in the doorway just saying oh the one that gail's just that they just kind of blasted or a different one there's one in front that hasn't come off the board that's banging between the ascending stuff these ones yeah yeah perfect okay also like if you want to do something that's not on your sheet like if you i don't know want to try and pick up scratch i'm on fire i can't touch the things i love um yeah absolutely so yeah if you want to pick up that javelin and play flaming javelin

yeah absolutely now the only thing going to remind you you have an enemy within range of you range attack you're gonna be at disadvantage because the spirit might use that opportunity to try and attack you i don't want the doctor you don't want to talk to me it's almost like i moved the dog in on purpose to make things interesting i wonder if it's a stupid dog i can use the um training whistle that i've been using on the side when you get scratched to train you to get out of the battle. Absolutely, you can do that. Yeah, absolutely, you can do that. We'll do that as an animal handling check.

So it's a bonus action. Yeah, it's quite quickly. Like, you've got a little whistle. You kind of blow it, and that's you've been trying to scratch, like, you know. Let's do that first. Sure. All right. I'll let you do that.

Give me an animal handling check. That'll be a plus three. Plus three. That's pretty good. To a D20. D20. Yeah, plus three plus three is pretty good d20 yep plus three and it's gonna be a low DC myself loading 14 plus easily enough you're gonna play out this loud like in fact scratches that layers pop up and he knows and I'm just gonna let free disengage and that was your bonus action um so now you've got your action free and uh yeah

feeling kind of so sorry i'm trying to see what i can see so they're still up they're still in battle those two are still that one that's furthest away i want to just push them back these four this one is uh sorry i think like this one is badly injured but like yeah these you might have it on the next go the difficulty is the choice now that now that sorry I think like this one is badly injured but like yeah these difficulties the choice now that the dog is safe yeah chop chop change everything that I've said yes I'm gonna go back to them yeah let's let's just great acts it in the face all right great let's go for it yeah d20 plus your great axe attack bonus these things aren't that hard to hit and this one's pretty badly damaged as well d12 is like the one that looks

like a d20 yeah it looks like a d20 but it's not the re plus five that's enough Two. Five. That's enough. I'll do it. Yeah. Shatters. And again, unfortunately, I'm going to need Karlak and Will as you are both within 10 feet to make a dexterity saving throw as Karlak's axe dissolves another one of these spirits

as it's reaching out, probably for the invoke duplicity actually rather than Tav, but it's reaching out. Yeah, you chop it and it bursts into magic. Dexterity saving throws from you both please yes please yeah plus your dexterity damage another eight from will as well I take half you do you do yeah yeah so both fail unfortunately that is gonna be only two points of force damage each it's just kind of like a buffet of energy you are spending it you were so brave

i like the idea at the end of this like combat everybody's like you're right well i will say some of you might be joining Will because as these spirits go, these two are going to rush up on our monsters. And these ones here, two of them are going to attack Tav. This one

is going to attack the illusion of the Invoked Duplicity. And it just goes through the illusion. Because it's not real, so the creature attacks, it wastes its attack. The ones that attack Tav, because Tav is paralyzed, I'm going to have them hit it automatically.

Yeah. And you see that that swirling pattern of magic, and, like, you see almost like their fingers bend way too far backwards. And their neck kind of crickets, and something is happening to them. And you can see that whatever spell is as Tav's life is probably, you know,

they're taking damage is growing and speeding up. The other two are going to attack poor Gale of Waterdeep. After all I've done. After all you've done. Unbelievable. So I'm going to roll. I need, what is your AC, Gale? And you have

two, so one is with mage armor, one is your AC, Gael? And you have two. So one is with Mage Armor, one is without. You're currently without your Mage Armor. Currently without. 12, 15. 12, so yeah, it's the first one. 12 is without Mage Armor. Yeah. So I need to be at 12.

And I do for the first spirit and for the second spirit. I do again, unfortunately. This game, honestly. That's going to be six points of damage from the first. Oof. And three points of damage for the next, so nine in total. But yeah, six and three. So you watch as Gale is buffeted by these spirits,

and these kind of horrid creatures. So they slam into you as they do so. However, that is all of the spirits I have now. God, that guy's dead uh so we go to shadow heart right here we go i love it so i got here pass without trace okay nice which is a veil of shadows and silence radiates from you masking you and your companions from detection for the duration each creature you choose within 30 feet of you that's quite a big that would be everybody that would be everybody uh has a 10 plus 10 bonus

to dexterity stealth checks and can't be tracked except by magical means the creature that receives this bonus leaves behind no tracks or traces of its passage so I think right we're kind of fucked at the moment so let's hide essentially let's get everyone out of the way especially tab so I'm gonna recruit who got nearby baby Baydale we can grab it because he's like floating in the air yeah yeah yeah well then it's it's we do for that because then it could be anyone's town it's the idea that yeah they're completely covered by this illusion so we don't so we can like you just grab them and just yeah and i think they are floating up i think we get the out the way okay that's what you would like to do yeah you can discuss it briefly i was doing my hair what did you say you're so exhausted

we get i'm putting a spell on all of us so that we can't be tracked by this. I'll tell you what, actually, Jen. Have Shadowheart make an Arcana check for me. Okay. So roll a d20 plus your Arcana skill bonus. What's my Arcana? So it's on your skills. None.

So it's just a d20. What's the roll? Eight. Eight. Yeah, you know that the Pass Without aace spell is very good at helping people camouflage. It doesn't render you invisible or things like that. There's a chance that these things are tracking Tav by some magical means, and that's why they gunned for Tav initially. So they might be able to follow it still, but there's also a chance that Pass Without a Trace might negate that

if they are using some sort of magical means to trace, and it completely they might not be able to sense tav at all if you cast a spell on them you don't know if you had rolled higher i might have i might have been able to say that oh like actually you think this will work or you don't think it will i could i could use mirror image which would put three duplicates yes because that's only cast on yourself unfortunately yeah you can't cast it on someone else and create images of them you can create three images of yourself and it kind of helps protect you you should give it a go all right then let's give it a go all right okay i am gonna do this as because this is very this is like an unusual use of this spell but i love it i love

the concept of it so you can definitely do it no no no're doing it wrong. No, no, no. We're going to clap you along. I want to make it clear. You are not doing anything wrong. It's just unexpected. So what I'm going to say is you can definitely grab, tap, and try and hide as well. But I'm also going to roll for these spirits. And I'm going to roll to see if they have some means of, like,

detecting, you know, if it's a magical way that they're tracking tap. Or if it's just visual sight. Because if it's visual sight, they can still see them, like, if they're tracking them through some sort of magical sense, this might just mean that these spirits can't see any of you, so I'm gonna roll, I'm gonna roll and see, okay, I'm gonna say that they unfortunately can't, I rolled very high, if I roll low, if I roll,, so basically I was doing like a, if it's above 10, they can. If it's under 10, they can't.

This case, yeah, you cast the spell, you feel the shroud kind of cover you all, making you feel like you can blend in, that you can hide. But these spirits

still seem to be aware of what's going on until you physically maybe can get into the woods, get behind like a tent and try and hide or something like that. Then you'll have the plus 10

for the stealth. Would that therefore affect me as a oh yeah you are definitely like easily able to hide if you would like to on your turn but it has to be on your turn all right um would you like to move never mind yeah um what would you like to move to i would like to move i want to go and protect tab a bit i don't know why i'm so protective well i think to make it clear so that there's a very good reason for you guys to want to eventually you all know that like to have someone who's helping you deal with this you know problem this tadpole problem things like that there's some sort of connection and that you're probably going to need them alive so sometimes you just hand wave the reason

she's probably romancing yeah there you go yeah yeah pretty much all of us money yeah yeah there you go yeah absolutely lots of money still didn't find that pack still don't know where that is um actually unless it's behind where i am right now could be could be all right let's find out on your turn let's do it it all right so shadow heart unfortunately but still gaining the benefits of the the possible trace but i did it was very very creative i really liked it uh that is them uh we go to they're dead uh asterion staring um what would you like to do cool okay so perceptive search search like perceptive ssr actions they're not actually passive on them i'd say you could do it as a bonus action okay um in this instance a quick a quick cursory glass so we're at camp yes i don't know why i was saying we're at camp

these things can be hurt by weapons weapons and magical means and pretty much anything we throw at them as i'm by the log that looks like a pile of logs over there which is which would be for our camp uh fire it would send because obviously a bit of a danger that it would stand to reason that any oil or any something like that lamp oil or something would also be down there yeah i'd say that stands to reason yeah yeah I'd say that stands to reason yeah yeah there's logic there okay you're not going to like this so what I'm thinking not again I'm thinking he's got the baby oil again so I'm thinking we're thinking of one or two things I can either just do a hot shot at one of those things there to help alleviate.

Or I could do something even more fun, which is throw a lamp, like a lantern, at those two. And if you allow me or not to then shoot the lamp in midair to cover them in oil, that he could then set them on fire. I would say, I'm obviously going to allow it, but this is pretty tricky. It's going to be a twofold thing, right, as your action. And you've not used your bonus action to sponsor it, but this is pretty tricky. It's going to be a two-fold thing, right, as your action. Yep. And you've not used your bonus action to sponsor it, and you didn't do that, so I'd say you just curiously lose. I would say that what this would be is you're going to give me two attack rolls. Yep.

One to throw the lamp and see if you can get it in the right area to do it, and then the other one to strike the lantern while it's, like, shoot the arrow and hit the lantern while it's in midair yeah if you fail the first one the lantern will go somewhere where you don't want it to go like it might move more over towards gale it might move away from the enemies yep if you miss on the second one then you obviously just miss the lantern and it will fall down so it's risky but if it does work i will have it do basically like a like a 10 foot cube like an area of like burning oil basically yeah kind of launches down on it that's it uh give me something to think about um I'm prepared to take that risk okay all right perfect so first one and we'll use your short bow attack for both

of these because like you're still going to be proficient in it so throwing the lens in give me an attack roll plus five because I'm very good that is the eight in total eight so with oh away from gail so he wouldn't splash him here ideally away from Gail so it wouldn't splash him so one two three four well that's kind of close to him oh okay so it's actually gonna it's only just slightly off range it's currently gonna if it's gonna be just above this one here you're fine you're fine

just a bit more eyebrows of gold so now to see if you can hit the last one it's basically over this guy if you hit it now it will hit Gale and the two creatures ummm you've got a few seconds it's flying through the air that's a 7 plus 5 that's 13

12 I'm gonna say it's a small do I knock it off do I just knock it in the air and it spins around and hits somewhere else I'm gonna say it's a small... Do I just knock it in the air and it spins around and hits somewhere else? I'm gonna say yeah, it's too small. A 12 is not enough because it's quite a small hard target. You fire the arrow, it flings the lantern off into the far distance, like somewhere over here. And then it says far to the top. That was all our food!

Actually no, I'd say that with that, you hit the metal casing, it doesn't shatter it and just cartwheels it. So there's this lantern that's all bent and buckled, but that's it. But unfortunately, yeah, very cool. Would have been amazing if it peed off. And that's the fun of the indie. As a free action, I'm just going to shout out,

I saved you, Gail! There was a flying lantern at your head. You're welcome. You are so lucky. Laezel, let's make up for it. Let are so lucky. Lae'zel. Let's make up for it. Let's hit big. Right.

Well, so Gale's pretty much fucked, is he? I mean... Yeah, you're dead now. You're all fine now. But you also see these two, the ones in front of you, the ones that attack Tav, and you don't think that if they do that again, that's going to be bad news.

Great, right. So let's get rid of those two then. Let try and um let's try and kill them how do i do that so you can make an attack against one of them uh because you're going to choose which one you're going to attack i can't attack both uh so i do have a long sword you do have a long sword i mean you can try if you want to try and like do like a sweeping cleaving blow yeah sure what I would say with that is you target one if you do enough damage to kill it yeah any remaining damage we're going to the next one how about that all right sure right so this is the big d20 and then what's your great to you and your greats or bonus and it's your

attacking your greats on so you're adding plus one down this time it's another for that dice game down this time it's another for that dice game now this is a great opportunity because you're about master fight you definitely want to make this one of your battle master movies because then you get extra damage on top of it okay so which one would you like to use I'd like to use a menacing attack anything attack great so what damage does your greats will do on your middle five so what's the next column a lot to d6 plus three right so you're gonna need to d6 plus three and then menacing attack two d six plus three right so you're gonna need two d6

plus three and then menacing attack adds a d8 as well so we're gonna roll all of that together so you're gonna need to probably borrow a d6 half nil and then uh get your d6 which is the normal looking the regular monopoly dice and then the d8 is like the little diamond uh the big the middle size diamond yeah that's the one but not this not that okay and then you're gonna add three to this the middle sized diamond yeah that's the one but not this not that okay and then you're going to add three to this holy cow six plus five plus is that a four fifteen is that a four that's a four fifteen fifteen plus five plus five oh no no no plus three plus three eighteen eighteen points you watch as lazelle the first two strikes whiff whiff but then this time you kind of maybe it's the grunt of aggression or something like that. What do you think it is that's driven Lae's out to, like,

make this really powerful blow land? Pure rage at how useless everyone has been. Do you shout something out to the rest of the team? Like, chk, chk. And then you watch as, like, the tight muscles kind of, like, tense your body. You kind of twist your back and your sides into it. You cleave through one, and then with enough momentum, because that was such a big sides into it you cleave through one and then with enough momentum because I was such a big damage roll you cleave into

another and both that does mean that both of them explode you are in range, Karlak you're going to have one of them so I need one deck saved from you Will you're in range of both and Lae'zel you're in range of both so I need you to make two dexterity saving throws both of you please by the way just at a point of order, when you said would you like to come in for a melee attack I do realise now that's why you were trying to come in here. I don't know what it does, but... You're fine. So what did you roll? 18. And then on your sheet, above your skills... I'm right there with you, plus one, 19.

19, see you're getting it, you're getting it. So 19, that's the first one. I need another one from you though, because two of them exploded. It's an 11. Plus... 12. It's a success, you passed both.

Thank you very much. Carlyke, you're one. I'm saving Theo till last. Five. Five plus 12. it's a success you passed both thank you very much car like you're one i'm gonna save i'm saving theo till last five plus two it's not enough i'm going to take damage from this one and then the first one d20 dexterity saving throw bonus is that a one no it's a five a five that not good, that's a fail. That's the first one. I need you to make another one. Did you actually win? That's even worse! Yeah, that's pretty bad.

We did well. So, Karnak, you fail. You take 4 points of force damage. Half. 2 points of force damage. Oh, sorry, actually no, it it's uh so it'd actually be eight you take four right um you take eight points of force damage are you still up yeah just about and then the second one the second one's gonna five oh well you're not dead this is the good point so

what happens is you go to zero hit points you are knocked kind of i think In the raw rules of D&D, you're supposed to go unconscious, and, like, you're, like, knocked out. I don't like that because it means you can't role-play and stuff. So you're kind of, like, dying. You can't do anything. You can't cast spells. You can't do... I'll let you, like, crawl five feet,

but you're basically bleeding out. You're like, oh, like, kind of, like, you know, left for dead, like, in your last moments, kind of, like, last stand. But you can't do anything. You can speak a bit and sort of role-play with your friends you're basically out of the fight if you get healed you come back in you get your hit points your backup and stuff like that right some the help up action uh no so you can stabilize somebody by making a medicine check and that will prevent them getting worse but uh

the only way to get them back up is with giving hit points right so healing spells like your wounds feeding them the magic, that kind of stuff. That's the raw rules of D&D. We're going to use that a little bit because otherwise it gets a bit tricky. But the other thing you need to know is on your turn now for Will, you need to make something called Death Saving, for example. Get into that on your own turn. But you are currently at zero hit points.

As you watch, all of you see the Blade of Frontiers, this blast of these undead of these spiritual creatures knocks it back like a street fighter and we knock you pray martyred on the map avenge me and that was on lazel's go so that was at the end of the round so would you like to move lazel you just chop through these two bam and then you avoid all the damage i have one singular mission that's to get rid of these little blue creatures so apologies if will has to be sacrificed will have to be sacrificed you know sorry um oh sorry um right right what's happening with this little blue guy over there there's one remaining spirit extra car like I'm very heavily injured yeah definitely image

that he was going for but now having sense that it's not real it's probably turning their attention back to tab so they kind of got a turn out of it in fact I think that one has me an injured yet so yeah and then there's two next year but you have to use your action so okay i'm gonna move over to gail because i think he needs all the help he can get and carl i can probably deal with that one yeah yeah so you move up unconscious next to gail uh all good so at the top of the round there is a you kind of hear a crackle and a flash this time it is not from the sending stones instead you see a figure dressed

in a kind of red robe kind of red wizardy hat big white beard as Santa Claus it is effectively the Santa Claus of Faerun as you see and Gael you would recognize this figure immediately as they arrive as Elminster of Shadidon Elminster! You arsehole! Everyone it's Gael's granddad! It's Gael's granddad You call out as he sort of arrives and it's like oh G girl my boy i fear that something has gone terribly wrong

what is happening he sort of like looks around you think yeah he looks around he sees will on the ground and sees these spirits he's like well let's deal with your friend first and with a flash these three remaining spirits he just evaporates with a flash of his hands could have rots off a little bit earlier flash of his hands and I needed to give you an easy way so you watch as elements are kind of like banishes these spirits away even preventing them from exploding to like kind of army almost just banishes them with a spell um and then he looks uh he probably looked you my dear i think that your companion may need a little assistance as you see will kind of like like blood kind of pouring out of him um but any of you can at this point uh

the only thing i want to do before we finish things off because we are going to have to end our first sort of episode around about now. I'll go to break. Yeah, go to break. That's what we're doing. But before we go to break, Will, I would like you to make a death saving throw. So what this is, is you're going to roll a d20. And if you get a nine or lower, you get a mark, like a check mark, a bad mark. You don't want those.

If you roll a 10 or above, you get a good mark, a bad mark. You don't want those. If you roll a 10 or above, you get a good mark and you want those. If you roll a 20, you get back up as if you're alive. If you roll a one, you get two bad check marks. If you get three bad check marks, you're dead. If you get three good marks, you're okay. So roll a D20 and we're looking for a 10 or higher nope what we got well that's a six or a nine

either way it's not good it's not good it's so you watch it's like will's like maybe it's like the color in his cheeks is fading like kind of like you know the bloods your eyes are beginning to kind of waver as you are falling deeper into death um but we will see if the companions we can maybe allies uh can heal or stabilize them uh after our little break here uh thanks for watching for part one we'll be back with ballers gate cast dnd part two very shortly