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Mage_Boy posted:The Wil Wheaton trial of the take episodes are fun to watch if only to see how impossibly bad his terrible dice luck is. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=um7uTlb_i28 Episodes 4-6 were loving amazing, goddamn. So loving thrilled to see the Sun Tree bit in the show, that was done so well.
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Feb 4, 2022 20:28
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Phylodox posted:If anyone really wants to get into the gameplay sessions in Critical Role but find themselves bouncing off of the early episodes, I suggest starting with campaign two. It’s miles less janky than the start of campaign one and much more geared towards having a story and an audience. I'd actually suggest people just start with 3 instead of 2 because it only just started. It's way less daunting when it's 10 episodes to catch up than 100+ for a full campaign. The new characters are at the very least as good as two's and Robbie is a great addition.
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Feb 4, 2022 22:02
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I was pretty confused of why Stonefell looked like an ugly bald frogman but I just learned he is voiced by Darin De Paul, who is exceptionally good at voicing weird monster humanoids. They probably changed him for the sake of having Darin voice a nasty little creature. edit: Also Darin is a long-time friend of Matt and played D&D with one of his parents, if I recall correctly
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Feb 4, 2022 22:03
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his mom
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Feb 4, 2022 22:05
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DesertIslandHermit posted:I was pretty confused of why Stonefell looked like an ugly bald frogman but I just learned he is voiced by Darin De Paul, who is exceptionally good at voicing weird monster humanoids. They probably changed him for the sake of having Darin voice a nasty little creature. Yea I don't think they ever described him as a nasty lil frog man in the show but when you've got Darin De Paul as a friend willing to help your cartoon you're gonna let him do either a big buff grandpa or a nasty lil frog.
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Feb 4, 2022 22:39
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DesertIslandHermit posted:I was pretty confused of why Stonefell looked like an ugly bald frogman but I just learned he is voiced by Darin De Paul, who is exceptionally good at voicing weird monster humanoids. They probably changed him for the sake of having Darin voice a nasty little creature. As Darin himself has said, "I look like an accountant and sound like a monster."
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Feb 4, 2022 22:44
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lemonadesweetheart posted:I'd actually suggest people just start with 3 instead of 2 because it only just started. It's way less daunting when it's 10 episodes to catch up than 100+ for a full campaign. The new characters are at the very least as good as two's and Robbie is a great addition. It should be suggested those new to the Vox Machina story wait until the season ends before jumping into campaign 3 because (C3 spoilers) Laudna’s Patron . So give it two more weeks.
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Feb 4, 2022 23:50
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lemonadesweetheart posted:I'd actually suggest people just start with 3 instead of 2 because it only just started. It's way less daunting when it's 10 episodes to catch up than 100+ for a full campaign. The new characters are at the very least as good as two's and Robbie is a great addition. I'd agree with this -- C3 has only had 12 episodes and they are airing new episodes 3 weeks out of every 4, so getting caught up to real time is pretty doable. When I started watching C2 it was past 60 episodes in and the constantly growing backlog of new content was incredibly daunting. Now that it's finished and there's a fixed endpoint it's been easier to pick up again. I'm at episode 70, am really enjoying the ride and recommend it, but watching the new campaign in real time is awesome and given the choice between C2 or C3 first, I'd vote C3 for that reason. C1 I've only seen a handful of clips from, know some broad strokes info about the characters, and mostly am experiencing through TLoVM.
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Feb 5, 2022 02:10
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DesertIslandHermit posted:It should be suggested those new to the Vox Machina story wait until the season ends before jumping into campaign 3 because (C3 spoilers) Laudna’s Patron . So give it two more weeks. I don't think it matters that much unless you're really weird about spoilers and if you are, you're probably a critter already.
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Feb 5, 2022 05:38
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sexpig by night posted:yea the entire purpose of this show has always been to create a more broadly appealing narrative product out of the hundreds of hours of improved silliness and storytelling so that both fans of the show and people who've never seen it can enjoy the campaign's overall story. It was always going to be a scripted and edited thing. I think it's also for the team -- I believe Matt said something along these lines during the watch party thing -- they get a chance to revisit these characters they spent years playing and polish up the story they jointly created during the campaign and share it in a new medium and a new telling with some tweaks and adjustments. So it doesn't have the some of the spontaneity of the gaming table version, but it also can be coaxed into a form that feels more like a story than a gaming session, able to be enjoyed by new audiences as well as old fans in a new way. Having just caught up on episodes 4-6, I'm definitely enjoying the ride and am happy to see they're willing to let it breath a bit between the action and mayhem bits.
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Feb 5, 2022 07:39
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Quinton posted:I think it's also for the team -- I believe Matt said something along these lines during the watch party thing -- they get a chance to revisit these characters they spent years playing and polish up the story they jointly created during the campaign and share it in a new medium and a new telling with some tweaks and adjustments. So it doesn't have the some of the spontaneity of the gaming table version, but it also can be coaxed into a form that feels more like a story than a gaming session, able to be enjoyed by new audiences as well as old fans in a new way. The new episodes have been balancing the horror and humor pretty well. The tone doesn't feel disrupted. The writers know when to take their time after the horror moments to calm down and then try something funny. And even the few jokes during the tense parts don't break the flow. What I thought was amusing about the camp scene of Episode 5 was that Keyleth's story was dialed down from the campaign version because originally she tried to Gust of Wind the duergar down into the magma and it ended up cooling it and solidifying his horrified form in rock Han Solo style .
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Feb 5, 2022 08:15
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After finding the [ep 5 spoilers]various undead including zombie giants underwhelming in the original, the show did a great job of selling how absolutely terrifying they are. Really enjoyed these 3 episodes.
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Feb 5, 2022 09:00
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So what's the episode count for this season?
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Feb 5, 2022 15:05
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12, so we're halfway through.
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Feb 5, 2022 15:12
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Man, they could do the vestiges of divergence as a season on it's own. The Deathwalker's Ward sequence needs to be told.
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Feb 5, 2022 16:41
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Philthy posted:Man, they could do the vestiges of divergence as a season on it's own. The Deathwalker's Ward sequence needs to be told. I mean really, that's the beauty of drawing on 115 episodes plus the pre-stream game. They've got so MUCH to draw on. And if they go long enough, hell, they can just roll into campaign two and eventually, campaign three!
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Feb 5, 2022 16:54
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The entire Briarwoods arc 'officially' consists of episodes 24-38 but that's including one filler episode early in the arc where Taliesin couldn't make the session so they fundamentally couldn't progress the story without Percy being present (this was between the Feast and them leaving Emon for Whitestone and was cut from the cartoon for obvious reasons), a Christmas episode after the end of the arc, and two episodes of dithering and minor subplots before the next arc started, so without those four, it's functionally only 10 episodes long (which still makes it a good 35-40 hours in total since CR streams are 3-4 hours long). The next major arc is 44 episodes long. No filler. It's not high octane action 100% of the time of course, that'd be unsustainable, but it's never not focused on that plot and those villains are never not a threat until VM deals with them. You can mentally split it up into sub-arcs pretty easily (roughly 16-15-13, so seasons 2, 3, and 4) but that's still a loving lot. And that's still not the end of the first campaign.
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Feb 5, 2022 17:52
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CuwiKhons posted:The entire Briarwoods arc 'officially' consists of episodes 24-38 but that's including one filler episode early in the arc where Taliesin couldn't make the session so they fundamentally couldn't progress the story without Percy being present (this was between the Feast and them leaving Emon for Whitestone and was cut from the cartoon for obvious reasons), a Christmas episode after the end of the arc, and two episodes of dithering and minor subplots before the next arc started, so without those four, it's functionally only 10 episodes long (which still makes it a good 35-40 hours in total since CR streams are 3-4 hours long). It does make me worry how much might be cut for the Conclave arc. (Major campaign spoilers) When VM isn't fighting the Conclave, they're looking for the Vestiges. Umbrasyl's part will be the easiest because it covers Grog's backstory, provides a Vestige and advances against the Conclave all together. Then the Conclave and Vestige progress parallel splits because they have to go through the Feywild, deal with Dr. Ripley and then go to the City of Brass before finishing off the Conclave. . Best case scenario is that they get 3 seasons to cover it. Otherwise they might have to alter the story structure and try to run them the storylines more together to keep things moving. Just the struggles of putting what is at least 120 hours into about 8 or maybe 12 hours. DesertIslandHermit fucked around with this message at 19:59 on Feb 5, 2022 |
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Feb 5, 2022 18:47
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3 more fun episodes. I enjoyed the character bits around the campfire particularly. My husband and I are looking forward to learning what is Percy's Deal with the smoke and whatnot. Husband suggested a cursed artifact? Sad to hear it's only going to be 12 episodes, but I do like having more than one at a time to watch. That's a real bummer with a half hour show. Edit: we're still playing What's That Spell. We think Keyleth cast daylight. Wondering what level everyone is supposed to be though, because Bigby's Hand is a 5th level spell. Tinydryad fucked around with this message at 20:01 on Feb 5, 2022 |
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Feb 5, 2022 19:29
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Tinydryad posted:Sad to hear it's only going to be 12 episodes, but I do like having more than one at a time to watch. That's a real bummer with a half hour show. Two seasons were ordered to begin with, so after this 12 episode season there will be at least one more 12 episode season.
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Feb 5, 2022 20:06
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Tinydryad posted:3 more fun episodes. I enjoyed the character bits around the campfire particularly. My husband and I are looking forward to learning what is Percy's Deal with the smoke and whatnot. Husband suggested a cursed artifact? 9 or 10 at the point they were in the campaign, but it's also largely because Bigby's Hand was kind of Scanlan's signature spell. (Sam Riegel pretty quickly clued into how versatile it is). Similarly Keyleth cast Call Lightning in the first episode, because Marisha Ray used it as a go-to for Keyleth a lot too. (And the 'clench fist, yank down as if pulling the bolt down' gesture is directly from her)
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Feb 5, 2022 20:14
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DesertIslandHermit posted:It does make me worry how much might be cut for the Conclave arc. (Major campaign spoilers) When VM isn't fighting the Conclave, they're looking for the Vestiges. Umbrasyl's part will be the easiest because it covers Grog's backstory, provides a Vestige and advances against the Conclave all together. Then the Conclave and Vestige progress parallel splits because they have to go through the Feywild, deal with Dr. Ripley and then go to the City of Brass before finishing off the Conclave. . Best case scenario is that they get 3 seasons to cover it. Otherwise they might have to alter the story structure and try to run them the storylines more together to keep things moving. Just the struggles of putting what is at least 120 hours into about 8 or maybe 12 hours. If I don't get Pokeball Grog doing a death from above I am going to be heartbroken
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Feb 5, 2022 23:26
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DesertIslandHermit posted:It does make me worry how much might be cut for the Conclave arc. (Major campaign spoilers) When VM isn't fighting the Conclave, they're looking for the Vestiges. Umbrasyl's part will be the easiest because it covers Grog's backstory, provides a Vestige and advances against the Conclave all together. Then the Conclave and Vestige progress parallel splits because they have to go through the Feywild, deal with Dr. Ripley and then go to the City of Brass before finishing off the Conclave. . Best case scenario is that they get 3 seasons to cover it. Otherwise they might have to alter the story structure and try to run them the storylines more together to keep things moving. Just the struggles of putting what is at least 120 hours into about 8 or maybe 12 hours. There's probably some things they can cut out but I think realistically, there's a few things we have to see because they're just too important:
Beyond that, there's definitely stuff that's cutable. We don't need to deal with the Sphinx - they could get the info about the Vestiges from Allura or something, as much as I hate to admit it, we don't need to bring in Kash and Zahra, nor do we need Kerr or Shale, they're going to have to plant the Artagan seed if they want to do anything with Campaign 2 but there's a lot of dithering in the Feywild that can get cut, we don't have to spend much time loving with the Ravinites because Tiberius is nonexistent so his death is meaningless (although we loving better get Yenk vs Vorugal, I need that poo poo to be animated), and the whole Fort Daxio episode was just a diversion. I watched the Youtube video of the cast watchalong and they mentioned that before they wrote out the Briarwood arc, they rewatched it and made a list of all the important moments they had to hit so they could determine would would be cut down. Seeing how they've handled it so far, I think I trust that the next arc can be done to satisfaction, even it'll take like 3 seasons. The real trick would be how much to include about the 'filler' arc that sits between that arc and the final one. Because that one was mostly just them mopping up side issues and resolving character quests.
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Feb 6, 2022 05:15
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eke out posted:e4 written by ashly burch, cool She wrote the "Everlight" episode of Mythic Quest too. I like her work and I hope she gets more writing gigs in the future.
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Feb 6, 2022 09:18
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Ended up watching all the released episodes yesterday, craving for more. Never watched Critical Role, but I have played a bunch of D&D and the show's still very juvenile fun. Some nice nods to awful dice rolls and weird player escapades. If you don't have any experience with the podcast or table top gaming, I imagine the show wouldn't really work. I guess they're putting out a few episodes every Friday?
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Feb 6, 2022 15:44
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I don't get people saying that you need to be a critter or into ttrpgs to enjoy this. My wife has no interest in the actual play or D&D and she likes the show. It seems to be doing okay without that requirement given the reviews I've seen too.
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Feb 6, 2022 16:21
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I like the cartoon and don’t like Critical Role at all. I’ve played table top games but it’s not something I do with any regularity. Pretty much just once a year at my friend’s big game night he likes to throw. It does make the little jokes like spells failing or not being able to open a door kinda funny, but even knowing I’m missing a bunch of inside jokes I’m still enjoying this. It’s entertaining, pretty funny, and the story feels like its got a bit of meat on the generic D&D adventure bones. I’m definitely gonna finish out the season and if the next batch of episodes keep up the same pace and quality I’ll probably stick around for another season too.
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Feb 6, 2022 16:43
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DanTheFryingPan posted:Ended up watching all the released episodes yesterday, craving for more. Never watched Critical Role, but I have played a bunch of D&D and the show's still very juvenile fun. Some nice nods to awful dice rolls and weird player escapades. If you don't have any experience with the podcast or table top gaming, I imagine the show wouldn't really work. Looks like 3 a week, possibly as a compromise to the Kickstarter backers, so you can technically watch the entire season off a single month Prime trial. EDIT: Also, watching some reaction vids and such, it makes me  to see people be so into Keyleth given how much unwarranted poo poo Marisha got during the actual game. DOUBLE EDIT: OMG I just got the linking motif of the opening titles. (MAJOR SPOILERS FOR CR) The golden threads that flash past them all come from a black bird. Presumably a raven. Maybe they'll lean harder into the Raven Queen (or presumably 'Matron of Ravens') being more of a patron to the whole group against the Whispered One to shortcut some stuff. Gaz-L fucked around with this message at 18:05 on Feb 6, 2022 |
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Feb 6, 2022 17:35
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Gaz-L posted:
So I've only seen Campaign 2 and the start of campaign 3 (and this show, which I'm loving), but why would people have issues with Marisha? She seems awesome
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Feb 6, 2022 18:27
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I picked up CR at campaign 2 and only know tidbits about campaign one but nothing major or super detailed. As someone not familiar to story, I think it is fantastic. First few episodes felt a little adult saturday morning cartoon but then last 3 really got the ball rolling and has me hook. The tree scene was unexpected and horrific. Also, from being on twitter, seems to have little nods and background easter eggs to the campaign like Arcane did with LoL. Overall though I think if people had no idea this was based on a twitch streamed tabletop game that they would still enjoy it.
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Feb 6, 2022 18:28
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Polaron posted:So I've only seen Campaign 2 and the start of campaign 3 (and this show, which I'm loving), but why would people have issues with Marisha? She seems awesome just your bog standard "when women roleplay characters dumbass men online think they are those characters" the same people also hated beau for the same reasons, despite being essentially the opposite of keyleth in most every way eke out fucked around with this message at 18:51 on Feb 6, 2022 |
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Feb 6, 2022 18:48
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The only problem I've ever had with Marisha is that she had an issue paying attention to things other players would do. From what I've seen in Campaign 2 it's not as bad but at one point even Matt got snippy with her in the episode with the kraken because she just wasn't paying attention to anything that was happening.
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Feb 6, 2022 19:11
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There was also a soupcon of "she's getting preferential treatment 'cause she's the DM's girlfriend" which is... yeah.
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Feb 6, 2022 20:04
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I was going to post something about how weird it is to get upset about a D&D game you’re not involved with at all, but then I remembered a solid two minute rant I went on in a bar about a first round draft pick of a team I don’t follow so I’ll just say: Man, fans get weird about poo poo.
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Feb 6, 2022 21:14
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Push El Burrito posted:The only problem I've ever had with Marisha is that she had an issue paying attention to things other players would do. From what I've seen in Campaign 2 it's not as bad but at one point even Matt got snippy with her in the episode with the kraken because she just wasn't paying attention to anything that was happening. I think the problem was Keyleth as a spellcaster and a druid specifically had so MANY options that to not slow the game down for the audience, she had to be planning her turn while everyone else was going.
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Feb 6, 2022 21:14
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Robobot posted:I was going to post something about how weird it is to get upset about a D&D game you’re not involved with at all, but then I remembered a solid two minute rant I went on in a bar about a first round draft pick of a team I don’t follow so I’ll just say: Man, that got super intense when the game first launch. I'm sure it still goes on but when CR just dropped, oh, lord, you'd think Laura forgetting to use her Hunter's Mark was a crime worthy of the gallows.
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Feb 6, 2022 22:13
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This shows great. Scanlon is the worst character ever created. He's worse than Elfo.
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Feb 6, 2022 22:41
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Gaz-L posted:I think the problem was Keyleth as a spellcaster and a druid specifically had so MANY options that to not slow the game down for the audience, she had to be planning her turn while everyone else was going. Dawgstar posted:There was also a soupcon of "she's getting preferential treatment 'cause she's the DM's girlfriend" which is... yeah. These were by far the two biggest things, along with the fact that because she was a druid, she had so many options that naturally people criticized every combat choice she made because "You're an idiot, this spell would have been better for that situation." I was not at all surprised she went monk in Campaign 2 to avoid having to deal with spells at all, not that that helped. They just started calling Beau a bitch instead. Doltos posted:This shows great. Scanlon is the worst character ever created. As someone who spent a really long time hating Scanlan, he does get better but not like, quickly or in great leaps and bounds. He was very much Sam Riegel's first ever D&D character and he was not taking the character seriously at all until a specific thing happened that suddenly made him care a whole lot.
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Feb 6, 2022 23:26
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Druid is a hard class to play if you are more new to D&D. You could see a lot of Marisha getting stuck on the spot in Campaign 1 but as someone who has had choice paralysis over playing a Wizard, I absolutely do not blame her. But also people got mad at her for just about anything from bad calls of a spell to personal character choices. It got to the point that Sam and I think Liam made fun of haters live on stream. Beau was fun and I am glad she is trying a major spellcaster again with Laudna. You can see how more confident she is now. Plus Laudna’s a riot (and scares the hell out of Travis).
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Feb 7, 2022 06:11
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Long time TTPRG player, don't follow CR or any gaming streams or podcasts, seen up to episode 6 of the cartoon and like it very much. Thought that Pike was a wizard fronting as a cleric, using a magic item to do the healing, since it looked like she was casting Shield in battle. My library's digital catalog has the Vox Machina Origins graphic novel available. Should I read it, or will there be spoilers for the cartoon?
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Feb 7, 2022 07:50
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