- Hi, I'm Jason Charles Miller and welcome
to a new edition of Starter Kit.
This time around were
returning to Dungeons & Dragons
to explore the game a little more deeply
through an urban adventure
with fifth level characters.
The first thing we had to do
was create those characters,
So we brought our players together with
our dungeon master for
this adventure, David Nett.
And we turned those concepts into
full blown Dungeons & Dragons characters.
(dramatic music)
- Hey David.
- Good to see you.
- Good to see you too.
- Let's sit down and make a character.
- Yes, let's do it.
Let's level a character up.
- Yes exactly, so because you already made
a first level character right?
- I did.
- Let's grab that away and just put that--
- There she is.
- So you made your first
level character in D&D Beyond,
so D&D's online tool helps you do it.
I took some of what you
did and I wrote it down
in pencil on the sheet because
we're gonna level her up
manually, the way that God intended.
- 'Cause we need to erase some things.
- Because we're teaching the game.
So we're gonna teach you
what to do stuff here.
So D&D Beyond is wonderful tool but
we're gonna do it live here, so let's--
- Do it live!
- Talk to me a little bit about Eraviel.
- I chose a Wood Elf, Eraviel
she's a Wood Elf warlock.
And warlock is actually my favorite class
in Dungeons & Dragons
and the main reason is
because it has a built in
backstory with a demon.
And there is also, not
that a lot of the classes
don't have built in backstories,
they're all very playable.
But I think for even new
players when you have to have
a demon who's telling you what to do
and giving you your
power, you have to forge
some sort of relationship
away with someone
that you may not necessarily agree with.
- What's interesting to
me about warlocks is that,
so warlocks are relatively
new character class.
They weren't there when I started playing.
They're sort of the the arcane magic.
You have different kind spells,
divine magic and arcane
magic and there's sort of
the cleric of the arcane magic world.
So in divine magic clerics get
their spells from their God.
In the arcane world
wizards study their magic
and sorcerers, it comes from their blood.
But warlocks it comes
from you were saying,
this demon this otherworldly
creature who's your patron.
- Yeah and either the demon
sought you out or you sought
the demon out which is
a different take on it.
But either way it was
not really your choice.
It was kind of one of those a God,
or a Satan or whatever went you.
And you're like oh my God I
have to deal with this now.
- So let's let's talk about Eraviel
and sort of how she
started out in her village,
and how she came to be a warlock.
- Yes, I got a lot of
my ideas actually from
the back stories that they
provide you, which I think
is a great resource for
when you're coming up
with a back story and how
you got to where you are.
She was a war leader
chosen to lead a squadron
of about 12 people to fight
something otherworldly,
and basically she was the lone survivor.
So now she's dealing
with survivor's guilt.
Everyone else died,
she's trying to deal with
how did I survive when they didn't?
That's where she got her demon.
The demon got very obsessed
with the death around
the war and the battlefield
and kind of infected her.
- So you you led your men into an ambush
and experienced their death firsthand.
And instead of becoming President of
the United States you
got a demon and became.
So talk about the the
warlock, your patron,
your otherworldly patron,
yeah you chose the Hexblade.
- Yes and that is definitely
a war like kind of patron.
- So the Hexblade it's a
creature from the ShadowFell
that has a warlike disposition,
it's attracted to war,
it's attracted to death,
it's attracted to blood.
And it's sort of a martial character.
So you get spells and
stuff in magical powers
from the Hexblade but mostly you get
more martial abilities, the ability to.
- Right and the way that I'm
using the metaphor is that
she's a little concerned that
because, she's just cursed,
she was cursed before the demon,
that she brings death with her.
And while she does want to
bulk up and be really good
with her martial skills and
be really kind of formidable,
it's also a double edged Hexblade.
Because then she also would be able to do
so much damage that she might kill people.
And then does death follow her?
Does she initiate death?
Yeah it's a dilemma.
But that's why I warlocks because you
innately have a dilemma to deal with.
- That's awesome, I really
love this character.
I'm super excited.
And I really enjoy warlocks as well.
One of the fun things for
me about a warlock is that
you get sort of two characters
to play in some ways.
You're gonna play your
character Eraviel but then you
also have, well my patron
told me this, or my patron.
And I get a chance to
sometimes play that patron too,
which is to day this is
how your patron intervenes.
But you also have the power to say
my patron intervenes in this way.
So you get that extra layer,
it's a really super fun.
- Yeah the way that I imagine
the patron interacting
is through the fibers of plant life.
So whether it's like the rings of a tree,
or the way the blades
of grass actually form,
and how you can just see patterns,
or even the bark of a
tree, how it just might
form a word or a number or something.
- That's amazing, that's amazing.
It'll be so much to work
with, I'm so excited.
Alright so this is sort of
the first part of your life.
So let's take you from
first level character
up through this traumatic experience,
mechanically now that we've
talked about it story wise.
And so this will be
the the rolling of dice
and making choices kind of part.
So you start as a level one character,
you've got your abilities over here.
You've got your saving throw,
proficiencies are already filled in.
We don't have numbers
here because we're gonna
level you up to five and then we'll do
a bunch of math, off camera mercifully
so we can fill in all of those things.
But you're proficient in wisdom
and charisma saving throws
because those are important for warlocks,
the main ability being
charisma, other abilities,
wisdom is it's a strong
important part of that.
We've got some skills that
you're proficient in already.
You're proficient in insight,
and intimidation, and investigation.
Some proficiencies, warlocks
are proficient in light
and I think light armor, but medium armor
and shields because of
the Hexblade for you.
And then languages, you speak
handful of different languages
including of course Common and Elvish.
You've got some basic
powers at first level.
You've got your your Elf powers,
you can avoid being charmed
and being magically put to sleep.
And you've got your pact
magic from your Hexblade,
and this is the magic that
the Hexblade gives you.
So that's your first level character.
Start with nine hit points
because that's your D8,
which is your hit dice plus
your constitution bonus of one.
So nine is your starting hit points.
But when you move to level
two, so if your level one
level two happens while you're
a war leader and everything.
So we're gonna roll some hit points.
So the first thing you'll do so you can
theoretically take five,
that's a rule in the book.
- I don't want to.
- But we roll dice, that's what we do.
So let's see what we get.
- Mommy be good to me.
- Nice you rolled a
seven, plus one is eight.
So let's uh, let's modify
that guy there and make it.
- Are we just going to two right now?
- Two right now and then
we'll move on beyond that.
So we're gonna kind of walk
through the whole thing.
So the other things that
you get at level two,
we're gonna turn back to warlock here.
And one of the great things about the way
this book is laid out is that you've got
the full progression of your levels,
the mechanical stuff
really easy to follow here.
The story stuff comes from
us, the mechanical stuff
super easy to follow in the book.
- One of things I like doing is,
but making a wish like
I know what's coming up.
So then you're like
okay when I get to this,
this is the thing that I'm gonna--
- Well these will all be super fast then.
(laughing)
So the first thing that
you get at level two
is you get to hit points, we did.
And then you get your
eldritch invocations.
You've got a whole selection of them here.
There's a couple that I
thought might be kind of cool
given the nature of your Hexblade but
you can do things agonizing blast,
which means when you shoot somebody with
one of your spells it
causes them extreme pain.
That's probably not how
your character's gonna roll
given your worry about causing pain.
But you get lots of things
the armor of shadows.
- Well the way I'm gonna
build her actually is
some of the things that
she has isn't her choice,
but the demon is gonna incite some pain,
so she might be a pain
dealer beyond her control.
- The second level you gain
two eldritch invocations
of your choice so we have
to choose two of these guys.
- Okay sweet.
- Anything appeal to you at first glance.
I know you've played a warlock before.
- Oh yeah we have to do, it's
always so new to me though.
It's always--
- That's super fun for everybody.
- So a lot of these have
prerequisites of levels
which I'm not yet so even if
I wanted to do mire the mind
maybe later, 'cause that's a fifth level.
- That's a fifth level one yeah.
- I actually think I want to buff my
eldritch blast which I definitely--
- So that's sort of a default kind of that
a spell caster, a warlock would use.
Just basically a little
blast of eldritch power.
So you're gonna make
that more powerful, okay.
- Yeah but I like the idea,
I think it's, yes repelling blasts.
When you hit a creature with eldritch
blasts you can push the creature.
So in my mind the metaphor would be
I don't want to hurt
you, get away from me.
- That's awesome.
- While I'm doing some serious damage.
- So let's add eldritch invocations
over here to your powers
and then we'll just
start enumerating them,
and the first one is repelling blast.
- Invocation will do.
- That's cool, we can always look it up.
Usually what I do is I put the page in
the players handbook there so
I can quickly flip into it.
- Ooh, not a bad idea.
- Just a little hint there.
- Oh and I get two, oh my God.
- Armor of shadows a big one.
Because you're marshal that's
one that I might suggest.
It just allows you to cast
magic armor on yourself
if you get in place where
you don't have armor on.
- Done, sold.
- The beguiling influence
gives you proficiency
in deception but, no you
don't have that already.
So allow you to beguile and trick people
if you're feeling in that mode.
- No I want to play, I've
never really played a character
who really actually tries
to do everything right.
She might make a mistake but I've been
a little bit like I'm
gonna fuck with things.
- Perfect, I play mostly paladin.
So I'm the opposite of you in that affect.
- I like the idea of armor
shadows, you sold me on it.
- Okay cool.
- So that's just a free
mage armor that doesn't
really count against my spell slots.
- Yep just allows you to cast magic--
- Or does it?
- No it's at will you just
cast magic armor on yourself.
- But that's still in action though right?
- Yeah it would take an action to do so.
- Okay, free mage armor.
- So that's our second level now
while you are still
learning to be a war leader
and getting your command and everything
we're gonna level to third level as well,
and then talk a little bit about that.
- Give me that dice.
- First the thing to do at
third level, exactly that.
You're going to roll more hit points.
- Okay mama, love me.
Okay not the worst but not the best.
- [David] Four plus one, five.
Five more hit points, not so bad.
- So we are at 22 now,
for those of you keeping track at home.
- So the big thing that
you get as a warlock
at third level is your pact boon.
And this is after being a
servant of the Hexblade,
he gives you a boon and the
boon is one of three things,
either the pact of the chain,
which is you get a familiar,
a creature that comes with you.
It's actually a demon
or something like that
manifesting as a cat or a
toad or a dog or whatever.
Pact of the blade,
you get a deeper
connection to your weapon.
And then pact of the tome
where you get more spells,
a spell book with some more spells in it.
So those are your three choices.
Do any of those appeal to you?
- So immediately I'm
going to pact of the blade
just to stay super basic and on track.
- Well for the Hexblade that makes sense.
- Yeah it makes sense
but I also am wondering,
because it's part of character creation.
What other are the other party members?
I want to consider if there are too many
other spell casters or whatever.
- So interesting, it's
an important question.
I think the way that we're doing character
creation for this particular adventure,
because we have to be separate,
is your lives are going to step forward
into the place where
you all come together.
- Oh so it doesn't matter.
- Well I think it
matters for party balance
as your saying, and a conscientious player
I think it matters but
specifically for this campaign.
- I'm a conscientious player.
- You absolutely are.
I didn't expect to say this
to you but clearly you are.
(laughing)
So it's an important
thing as we play together.
But I think for this case I
want it to really be about,
this is the part before
you get to the city,
before you get the rest so what
appeals to you for your character?
- I mean my otherworldly patron,
which I will have to come
up with a name for her,
she's gonna give me a pact
of the blade for sure.
It makes sense for her.
- Yeah absolutely.
And you can use this spell now to create
a pact weapon in your empty hand.
Basically the weapon that you've chosen,
I think you use flail as
your main weapon right?
So cool, so rarely seen, so
flail's a stick with a chain
and then either a ball or
another spike stick on it.
What a cool weapon.
- Which I've been reading
some R. A. Salvatore and he,
I just ran into a character
who slides into battle,
and I'm gonna totally do this,
gets on her back and starts
kicking and using her weapon.
So that I think is gonna
be super inspiring.
- So with the pact of
the blade you can make
that weapon appear in your
hand whenever you want to.
And it counts as magical for the purpose
of overcoming magic resistance.
So there will be some
creatures that you could fight
that maybe you need a magic weapon to hit.
No matter what this weapon
is when you manifest
it in your hand it counts as magical.
So that's the pact of the blade.
- Okay cool.
- Right down pact of the blade there.
- Okay so that's my pact boon.
That's not an invocation, maybe
I'll do that somewhere else.
- The other thing that
happens at this level,
at third level from a story standpoint
is you become a battle
leader at this level.
So this is when you're
giving your command.
This is when you're become a leader.
And this also will be when you lead
your people into this terrible ambush.
But as part of becoming a
battle leader in your tribe
you are gifted a magical weapon.
You get a flail plus one.
- Yes!
- So right that in your gear,
just right in your equipment here.
Flail plus one, and what
that is a plus one to hit,
plus one to damage, we'll talk
about the mechanics of that,
you obviously know it, but
when we get to the game.
But this magical weapon you can turn
into your pact weapon as well.
So this is a weapon that exists in sort of
an extra dimensional space
until you call upon it.
- Yeah and then I can dismiss
it too, I'm done with you.
- It's more than five feet away from you
for any amount of time
it disappears by itself
so nobody else can steal
it so this is your,
the weapon that you and your
Hexblade master sort of share.
- That's so cool.
- Yeah awesome, so after the
stuff that we talked about in
the story in her life she leads
her party into the ambush.
They are all killed except for her.
She's traumatized deeply.
What we were talking about we
talked about this character
is that would be when
she sort of gets out.
She leaves her tribe, she leaves her home.
- By the way we're kind of reducing it.
She definitely fought, they
fought, everyone fought.
It wasn't just like ah ambush,
they're dead, oops bye.
(laughing)
I think the next thing is Dr. Hamilton.
You just charge and leave
and you're out of there.
- Exactly.
- No so she fought
valiantly, the party died.
- She wanted to save
people, she tried real hard.
- But in her shame and
guilt she had to leave.
She couldn't even stay with her tribe.
She makes her way to the city.
Now we're playing in
Greyhawk but not the Greyhawk
necessarily that's the one
that was the published,
well published once upon a time.
But it's the Greyhawk world that
I've been playing in since I was 12.
So my friends and I have
affected this world dramatically.
The Greyhawk we're
playing in 30 years later
is much different from the
Greyhawk that you remember.
But the the Free City of Greyhawk
is still at the center of the planus.
It's still the most important
city in the planus arguably.
It's about a quarter of a
million people at this point
and this is sort of where you end up.
And I think seeking--
- And we're about to affect your world.
- You're gonna affect our world.
You may run into some
of the old characters
that I played with, it's all super fun.
So you make your way
to the city and I think
given your background,
your martial background
and everything it makes sense
as you try to find employment,
probably some bodyguard work,
maybe guarding some caravans
and eventually you find your
way into the city guard,
and sort of rise up the
ranks from a beat cop,
they're called the Crimson
Cloaks in my version of Greyhawk.
Beat cop up through, maybe you're flirting
with the idea of becoming a Griffon Guard,
which is sort of the elite fighting squad.
But I think because of
your arcane background,
people notice your magical
abilities and stuff
and direct you into the Inquisitors.
And the Inquisitors are
a magical investigation
group basically that you belong to.
So you become an Inquisitor
during this time.
So that's levels as you move
into level four and level five.
So let's mechanically deal
with those guys here too.
So level four, you're gonna add
hit points obviously, as we always do.
- Alright treat me right.
Oh my God, always talk to your dice.
That's a seven on the die.
- Plus one for your constitution.
- [Amy] So that's eight, we're up to 30.
- Up to 30 hit points, awesome.
At level four you get some
more spell stuff going on.
But the big thing that
happens at level four
isn't a power that's
associated with warlock.
At level four, when you reach
fourth level in any class
you get the option to add
some ability score points.
Basically you've been
training your abilities.
There's an alternate
rule where you can add
feats instead of ability scores.
We're gonna stick to the main rule here so
what you basically get,
is you get two points.
You can add them both to
the same ability score,
or one to two different ability scores.
So let's look at what
you've got going on here.
- Also my flail I think,
I really don't remember
but are flails finesse?
Like I can use my decks to--
- I think so, let's find that out.
- Just want to make sure.
- Let's do the ability
add first and then we'll
find out if you're
allowed to use your flail.
- No let's do that because
I've got a negative one strike.
- So what we're gonna do
is we're gonna go into
the book here and we're
gonna look for your weapon,
which is right here in the weapons table.
- And finesse means I can use the hex or?
- So what finesse means, a finesse weapon
you can use as a strength thing,
you can do primarily with strength.
Or you can use it with dexterity finesse.
This is sort of the Arya
Stark sword fighter.
A flail, right here, it's
just a bludgeoning weapon.
It's only strength based.
- [Amy] Oh okay, sure.
- You're not super strong now
so that might be something
that you would consider changing.
- That is 100% what I am going to do
because I'm at negative one strength now.
But I'm not mad about
it, obviously I'm not
super well trained in it but I like
people with flaws or
lower scores in things.
So we're gonna add two to my strength
which is an eight right now.
So we're gonna give her a 10.
- And that'll be plus a zero
then to your constraints.
So you got no modifiers
but also no penalties.
- But I do got a magical flail plus one.
- Yes you do, and so basically the idea,
this is you're training
yourself, you're fighting,
you're doing training
with the other City Watch,
bodyguard duties and
all that kind of stuff,
and just buffing yourself
up, you're going to the gym.
(laughing)
And then the last thing is
you made it to level five.
While you are an Inquisitor you're
gonna level to level five.
And at level five you
again add hit points.
- Alright.
Love me.
No, no David!
- So here's the thing.
- That's a one by the way.
- Because I ask my players
to roll hit points instead of
just taking five because I
like to see the dice roll too,
One of the things that
I always do for them
is if you roll a one, let's reroll it.
I want you to be able to
stand and fight and have fun.
So let's reroll that one.
On your hit points only.
- Yeah ones are no fun.
- It won't happen in the game.
- Alright what did I say last time?
- If you roll a one again though it's.
- Don't screw this up.
Okay a six.
- And then plus one for your
constitution so that's seven.
- I have 37.
- 37 is great.
And then the only thing
that happens at level five
is mostly you just get more magic so again
because you're a spell caster
you're getting more magic.
So let's flip over to your spell sheet
which is the third sheet on here,
and just talk really
quickly about your spell's.
Now mostly, the big hardest thing
is going to be choosing spells.
And that's a task we're
gonna do off camera.
There's so many spells to choose from.
You're gonna get a lot of spells.
So that'll be your homework between
now and when we play together.
But in the short term
we do need to talk about
your spell casting a little bit here.
So your spell casting class is warlock.
And warlock is a charisma
based spell casting.
So it's an innate relationship
between you and your Hexblade patron.
So your spell casting ability is
charisma if you write that there.
And then the other thing
that's important for--
- Actually I've decided that my
otherworldly patron, her name is Cha now.
- Cha?
- Cha.
- Make sure you mark that
down so we don't forget that.
- I'll remind you, I'll be happy to.
Actually it's Cha-Cha.
- Cha-Cha, oh perfect.
- Yeah if you imagine
her, she wears a boa.
- That's Hexblade flavor all over.
(laughing)
And the last things we need to do here
are your spell save DCs,
now if you cast a spell
that somebody can resist against,
they need to resist against this number,
and this is eight plus
your proficiency bonus.
At level five this will be plus three.
So let's write that in right there.
That's part of the math we'll
do later but this one we need.
So plus three because you're level five,
plus eight, so 11, plus
your charisma modifier.
- Is right now two?
- So 13 is that number.
So they have to roll higher
than 13 to resist your spells.
- Perfect.
- Similarly if you make an attack spell,
that eldritch blast we talked about,
you're gonna have to roll the hit.
So you're getting a spell attack bonus,
and that is your proficiency
bonus plus your charisma bonus.
- That is eight plus five.
- Plus five, and then we'll chose spells
and you'll be able to cast a
certain number of spells a day
and that'll all come in
the homework as we do
between us between now and when we play.
- Sweet.
- So that's your character.
I'm really excited about this.
I love the idea of a character
whose personal nature
is very different from
her patron and there's
a little bit of tension between there.
So I think this is gonna super fun yes?
- Yeah.
- Okay, the last thing as you're part of
the Inquisitors, you're a level five now.
You become an important part
of an elite command squad,
and we'll talk about this more on the day,
but one of the things that you're granted
at this point is a horn of silent alarm.
So on your gear over
here on the first sheet
in the center just write
horn of silent alarm.
- Oh my gosh that's awesome.
- And what this does is it
allows you to blow the horn,
and you can send a silent
alarm to anyone within 600 feet
of you that you choose,
one person within 600 feet.
And you can do it four times a day.
- My horn of alarm will take
the form of a subtle fart.
- Yeah perfect, this is building up
to be just a beautiful thing.
(squealing)
- Danger.
- I'm so excited for your contribution
to the dignity of the Inquisitors.
(laughing)
It's gonna be awesome.
(dramatic music)
- Ashley hey.
- Hey, good to see you.
- Alright let's sit down and
play some Dungeons & Dragons.
Thank you for joining me
here in my humble home.
You haven't played Dungeons
& Dragons before have you?
- Nope.
- Have you played, are
you a video game person?
- I've watched a lot of video games.
I really grew up watching
my brother play video games.
He didn't let me play very much.
- You can work that aggression today.
- But I was very helpful
'cause I'd be the one
going well why don't you try that door?
He'd be like oh there's a door there.
Oh you're welcome.
- So paying attention is
your strong suit then?
- That is a strong suit of mine yes.
- Perfect.
So I'm super excited to be able
to play with you for the first time.
One of my favorite things is
teaching new people to play.
- Well I'm so glad.
- I've been doing this for a long time
so I'm excited to do this.
So when we talked about your character
I asked you what kind of
character you wanted to play.
Let's talk about that.
- Yeah coming at this
without really knowing
a whole lot about it, you
used to very helpful in for me
which was saying well who do
you love on Game of Thrones?
And I was like, well can
I be Daenerys, is that?
And then so we really
started talking about
what I love about her
and how she's strong,
how she's a leader but
she's compassionate.
She has this family legacy to overcome
and really prove that she's more than
what some of her family
members may have done.
And really finding her
place in the world that
honors that legacy but also is her own.
- Yeah so this is really exciting for me.
I love the idea of that heroic character.
I play lots of paladins in the game,
paladins are heroic knights.
And I find that lots of
people, I mean people
want to play interesting cool characters,
different races and lots of weird things.
But just that that pure heroic character
is really fun for me to explore with you.
So I really appreciated
that so I get to dig in.
And so when we we looked
at all of those things
it made sense to us,
and it made sense to me
as kind of guiding you through this
that you would be a human,
because that's what Daenerys is.
and that we would choose fighter.
And fighter is sometimes
dismissed as a character class
because it seems the most basic thing.
You're a man of, or a woman of fighting.
But fighter's a really versatile class.
And it allows us to put it in
place and let the character
that you're choosing sort of
shape how this thing works.
The other thing that was
important that you talked about
was the family legacy
part and I loved that
because we're gonna be
playing in a big city.
We're playing in a world called Greyhawk,
and it's a version of Greyhawk.
So Greyhawk was the
original Dungeons & Dragons
world that was published but
it's also the first world
that I started playing and when I was 12.
And so the version of
Greyhawk we're playing in
is the one that I've been
playing in for over 30 years.
And it has all the
backstory and all the things
that have happened since
I've been playing the game.
Which means it's nothing
the Greyhawk world
that you would see now
but it will be fun for us.
And we're gonna play in the city called
the Free City of Greyhawk,
which is this big
King's Landing style city which is partly
why I asked you about Game of Thrones.
And we're gonna be City Watch characters.
So hearing the kind of character
that you wanted to play
in conjunction with the
adventure that we're gonna play
I wanted to create a really
heroic police person.
So that's what this character is.
And let me show you this character.
So what did you name her?
- I named her Leona Amblecrown.
- That's so awesome.
- Leona for lion, and
Amblecrown from a list
you gave me which was very helpful.
Because I had to ask even like
do I have a last name, is that a thing?
I really liked the way that sounds.
- That's awesome, and it's
important that it sounds cool.
That's the most important thing
for all of our first characters.
So we rolled some ability scores.
So your basic character is here.
This is your first level character,
or the skeleton of it anyway.
You've got your name and
that you're a fighter,
and you're a soldier and
all that stuff up here.
Down the sides here you
have your ability scores.
And now when we rolled
ability scores it was crazy.
So the way that we did ability scores
is we rolled 4d6, and
subtracted the lowest one.
That was the standard
when I was first playing.
There's lots of different ways
to do it but that's how we did it.
When we rolled your ability
scores they were off the charts.
I mean you are a super--
- I'm very impressive.
- Yeah you're a super heroic character.
- I'm so strong.
- You're incredibly strong,
you're incredibly resilient, you're smart.
Well all of this reflects you,
that's the important part of it.
In the story of the game you
are a member of the City Watch.
We talked a little bit about how you
became a member of the City Watch
or why you became a
member of the City Watch.
- Well I'm a legacy
member of the City Watch.
My whole family's been in the City Watch.
My father was in the City Watch,
and my brothers are all in the City Watch.
So it seemed like a natural
thing that I was gonna do.
But my grandmother was
also in the City Watch.
And she been a real
role model to me because
she was a really powerful woman.
And she actually rose to be a Captain.
- Oh awesome, cool.
And so we talked about your brother
and father sort of being like beat cops,
kind of like knock heads kind of guys.
- Yeah they don't ask a lot of questions.
- So you joined the City Watch as part
of this legacy, it's what you do.
And you spend your first
couple years of your career
growing into your combat abilities,
into your leadership style.
Like you said you're
emulating your grandmother.
So while you've got your
knucklehead brothers
there kind of encouraging
you to be a beat cop
the way that they are,
you have higher ambitions.
So let's do some mechanical
work about moving your character
from that first level and
a little bit higher up.
So we've got the first
level character here.
When you become a second level fighter
a handful of things mechanically
happened in the game.
and the first thing is you're
gonna roll more hit points.
You're hit die are a d10,
and what that just means
is that fighters are resilient,
you have a lot of hit points generally.
And so whenever you roll hit
points you're gonna roll a d10.
You could choose just to
take, I think it's six
hit points for a fighter
instead of rolling the dice.
That's one of the perfectly valid ways
in the game to do additional hit points.
However, I like to roll dice and so
I'm gonna make you roll dice as well.
So let's roll that d10.
Alright so eight, fantastic roll.
You've already got, you
start with 13 hit points.
So you're gonna add your
constitution bonus to this roll.
So you've got a plus three there.
- 11?
- So 11, plus your 13, so you've got 24.
- And I write that here?
- So just erase that
guy and turn it into 24.
- This is why we do it in pencil.
- Yes, so hit points are the first thing.
Now you have 24 hit points.
And that'll be at second level.
- Impressive.
- There's a couple things
that you get from powers
at second level too and
these are just powers
granted to you because you are a fighter.
The big one is that you get
what's called an action surge.
So over here is where
your powers are listed.
If you want to write
action surge there for me.
And what an action surge is,
it means that once per rest,
you can use it once and
then you have to rest again
to use it, you can add
another action to your turn.
So if you're in combat and you
want to use your action surge
you can take another attack,
or you can do another movement.
You basically get to do more
stuff in the middle of combat
because you're a trained
specialized fighter.
In combat you can really take charge.
So that's what action surgeon is.
So just add plus one action in combat.
So that's second level.
So you're kind of becoming a
more versatile fighter here.
You're moving up through the ranks.
You're thinking about
where you want to go.
Again your brother's
encouraging you to stay there,
your dad is, I think we talked about
your dad being a sergeant
before he retired.
And so there's definitely
legacy in the Crimson Cloaks
which are the base
level of the City Watch.
They're the beat cops.
But you also have your eye
on, there's the Griffin Guards
which are the elite, sort of the SWAT team
or the elite strike
force of the City Watch.
And then there's the Inquisitors which are
the detectives and
investigators and stuff.
So you're moving up through second level
and then we move into third level.
And third level is where, for a fighter,
you get a whole bunch
of decisions to make,
and a whole bunch of new powers,
kind of come into your own as a character.
It's also where you're
gonna choose sort of
the direction of your
career in the City Watch.
So by this time you've proven yourself.
You're obviously, just from a
pure talent standpoint you've
got a lot of abilities,
you've got this family legacy.
So now you're being recruited
by the Griffin Guard
who wants you as part of
their elite strike force.
And you're being recruited
also by the Inquisitors.
The Inquisitors investigate
murders and magical crimes
and stuff, and while you
don't wield a lot of magic
you are an impressive
member of the City Watch.
So you kind of a decision
to make here about
which direction you're gonna go.
We talked I think about
your oldest brother
being a member of the Griffin Guard.
Your younger brother's
in the Crimson Cloaks,
your oldest brother as a
member of the Griffin Guard.
So he really would you to
join the Griffin Guard.
But there's this
Inquisitor thing over here.
And your grandma didn't take
the knocking heads path.
She was more of an Inquisitor.
- I see myself following in
my grandmother's footsteps.
- Yeah, okay cool.
So this is the point where
let's do the mechanical
work then and this is how you'll grow
into an Inquisitor in the City Watch.
So at third level the first
thing always is roll hit points.
So you get more hit points.
So roll that d10 again.
Another eight, fantastic.
You're adding a constitution
bonus again, so it's 11.
- So now I'm up to 35?
- [David] 35 hit points, at third level
35 hit points you can
take a lot of punches.
And then the big choice for
a fighter at third level
is what will your marshal archetype be?
So let's look at the fighter book here.
So we're in the book, this
is a player's handbook.
This is fighter.
It's laid out really well,
there's a little table
here at the top that tells you
what happens at each level.
This is the mechanical stuff.
All of the story stuff comes
from us, all the mechanical
stuff is laid out really
cleanly here in the book.
But when you reach third level,
you get a marked marshal archetype,
and there are three in
the players handbook.
We're gonna stick to those core ones.
The first one is a champion,
a champion is just sort of
you are the elite fighter,
you could be a gladiator.
You are the best combatant in your unit.
You're just an elite combat character.
There's the battle master.
Battle master is more about leadership.
You've got lots of cool
tricks and maneuvers
and stuff that you can do in combat.
You can also help your companions,
lead them through combat
and make them more powerful as they fight.
So it's more of a strategic role.
And then the last one
is an Eldritch Knight.
An Eldritch Knight tonight
takes your fighting powers
and adds a little magic on top of it.
So you wield a little
magic on top of there.
So do any of those appeal to you
or feel like where Leona would go?
- As much as magic sounds fancy,
I feel like Leona's a battle master.
She's really about using
her intelligence in the way
that she fights because that's
how you minimize casualties.
- Yeah that's awesome, I love that.
And she's definitely got the
intelligence to back it up too.
She's got a 15 intelligence
as a fighter, exactly.
So a battle master, so
there's a couple of things
that you get when you
become a battle master.
So the two big powers are
let's see student of war
is the first one it has a student of war
you understand sort of the
world and the history of war.
Mechanically it only
gives you a small thing
but from a flavor standpoint
this is you're studying
about war and combat
tactics and strategies.
Mechanically you gain a proficiency
with one type of artisans tools.
So this is sculptors
tools, painters tools.
You could be in blacksmithing
or leather working
or any of those kinds of things.
So is there anything that flavor wise
kind of appeals to you for your character?
- Well first I have a
question as a newbie.
Does what I choose is that
something that might come up?
It'll be oh thank God, you
know how to do leather work?
- It's probably not
gonna matter in combat.
But there's lots of aspects of the game
apart from just fighting other creatures.
There's interactions with other people.
You do the adventure in a city.
So you'll interact with other people.
You'll have to investigate things.
You're an Inquisitor
so you'll investigate.
If you think about the flavor
of the rest of the things
that we can do and how
that impacts our lives.
- You said blacksmithing?
- [David] I did yeah.
- I like blacksmithing for
this because that's getting
in touch with how you forge
the tools that then you use.
- That's awesome, I like that very much.
So let's, down here by your proficiencies,
let's write artisans tools, blacksmith.
- That means anytime that we need
to question a smith I'll be like yo.
- Or if you need to repair
your armor you got it too.
All of that stuff, you've got all that.
You're in touch with the things
that make you who you are.
The other thing that you
get is combat superiority.
And what this essentially
is as you as you said before
you are an intellectual in combat.
You're thinking about your moves.
You're thinking about your strategies.
And so you get this thing
called superiority dice.
So I would write combat
superiority over here
by your powers and leave
a lot of room below
because we're gonna add
a bunch of stuff to that.
So the first thing is superiority
dice, right below there.
And you have four of them,
and they are d8s right now.
And what that means is
that when you when you
do these maneuvers, and we'll
talk about it when we play,
when we all get together to
play but you're gonna roll
extra dice when you do
different maneuvers,
and they're gonna have different effects.
There's a whole bunch of these here,
so I'm not gonna have you
read all of these maneuvers.
But these are the kind of
things your character can do.
But I pulled a few out that I thought
might be interesting to you.
The first one is commanders strike.
So what commanders strike
allows you to do is
if you take an action on
your turn you can use a bonus
action to direct one of your
companions to strike as well.
So you take a combat
action and then you can let
one of your companions on
your turn also take an action.
Kind of taking a
leadership role in combat.
You've got distracting strike.
Distracting strike is
when you hit a creature,
they're gonna have a harder time
avoiding other people's attacks.
You've attacked them in a way that
makes it easier for
other people to hit them.
- Oh that's also very like
part of the team, leading.
- That's very much part of the team.
You've got parry, pretty basic thing.
When somebody tries to hit you
you can parry the blow
instead of taking the damage.
Precision attack is just some more,
again using your intelligence
finding a weakness
and making this precision strike.
You've got rally where you rally
your party to work better in combat.
You've got repost which
is if somebody attacks you
you immediately attack them right back.
And then the last one's a sweeping attack.
Which is you make an
attack, but you attack
a crowd of people instead
of just one person.
And you get to choose three of them.
And I know it's not a lot to choose from
but there's no wrong choice
here, everything is awesome.
So do any of those sound
like things you might want?
- So commander strike means I can
give up my strike to someone else?
- So look right here,
it says when you take
the attack action, so that
means you're attacking,
you can forego one of
your attacks and then use
a bonus action to have one
of your companions attack.
So I feel like--
- Like if someone was bigger
or stronger or something.
- Yeah maybe, or if
you're in a flavor place
and you kind of lunge in a little bit.
And then you instead tell
your friend to attack.
So instead you're attacking you're
telling your friend to attack.
So yeah you give up one of your attacks
in order to have somebody
else attack in your place.
- Which is similar to distracting strike.
- The distracting strike
is you're gonna actually
hit a creature, so you're gonna
attack and hit a creature.
But when you hit them
you do it in such a way
that they have a hard time defending
themselves against other people.
So on their turns it'll be easier for them
to hit that creature, or that person.
Okay I like distracting strike.
- Okay we'll make a mark there.
- I definitely like parry, it seems smart.
- Yep, that makes sense.
- And then, oh you
explained things in a way
that makes much more
since then using the book.
Well I mean we'll learn
this stuff as we go,
I'm summarizing but the precision attack
just makes you better at attacking.
You're using your intelligence, targeting.
Rally helps your crew work better.
Repost was just attacking back
when somebody attacks you.
Instead of trying to defend yourself
you just smack him right back.
And then sweeping attack was--
- I'm gonna go with riposte because
that's very much my personality.
You touch me and I'm gonna hit back.
- That sounds like the
right thing to do in combat.
So write the repost there.
And this is also the time when like I said
you're moving from being a beat cop,
a Crimson Cloak into the Inquisitors.
And I think in this moment
as you make this choice
you move up while you're brother
is disappointed who's
in the Griffon Guard.
And your father wanted you to be
a beat cop but he's secretly proud.
I think your mother interjects here,
and she has a gift for you,
and it is your grandmother's sword.
So as you make this choice
about being an Inquisitor
you're gifted with your
grandmother's sword.
And it's a long sword, but
it's a magical long sword.
It's a family heirloom.
No one has earned this to this point.
She tells you that this is something that
your grandmother, she
hoped for this for you.
But nobody wanted to push you into this.
But now that this has happened
here is your grandmother's sword.
Let's write that down
in your gear right here.
So just put long sword plus
one and you can add flavor
to tell that it's your
your grandmother's sword.
Yep just right there in your equipment.
And we'll talk about what that
means when we play the game.
- Long sword plus one?
- Plus one, that means
it's a magical sword
so it's gonna be easier
to hit things with it.
And it's gonna do more damage
to them, this fine beautiful
silver hilted sword that
belonged to your grandmother.
So you move into the Inquisitors,
at first it's difficult.
You are a combatant, the Inquisitors are
an investigation squad and
they deal a lot with magic.
So this is a point where
you learn a lot about
the world of magic, your
horizons expand a little bit.
However, again given
your natural tendencies,
your determination, you
really excel in this role.
And because you've chosen battle master
you become put more and more
in leadership positions.
While you don't have magic
and you don't know as much
about the arcane when
you investigate things,
what you do have is a lot of presence,
a lot of charisma, a lot
of leadership ability.
So that's how you move up the ranks
as we go into level four and level five.
So let's do mechanically
your level four stuff here.
So the first thing always,
you got hit points.
A little bit lower roll this time.
You're focusing more on your studies
and more on the arcane this time around.
But you still get to add plus three.
So that's a six total.
- 41.
- You got 41.
And the other big thing that happens when
you're at level four,
and this is for anybody
who reaches level four in their class
is you get an ability score bonus.
There's an alternate rule in the game
where you could take a feat instead.
And feats are just cool
things that you can do
but it opens up a whole
can of worms for us.
So I want to stay to the straight
and narrow the basic rules
so we'll add an ability
score bonus at level four.
What that means is you get two points
that you can add to any
of your ability scores.
You can add one to two different scores
or you can add two to one score.
Now you already have an eighteen strength,
you're incredibly strong.
You can raise that if you wanted to
but you're incredibly strong.
Your dexterity is a 14
if you're wearing armor.
That's about as as high an
index as you need because
anything higher than
that your armor is gonna
keep you from getting
some of those bonuses.
Your constitution is 16 that gives you
a plus three to your hit points.
You could raise that to an 18
to get some more if you wanted to.
That's your resilience,
your ability to take damage.
Your intelligence is a 15.
Now interestingly your
intelligence is the first
odd number that we've got here.
And the bonus is mechanically in the game,
the bonus is raised at even numbers.
So if you added one point to here
you're gonna get a plus
three instead of a plus two.
So you're gonna want to think
about where we want to be?
Do I want to just be
stronger and more resilient
or do I want to raise any
of these other scores?
And there's no wrong answers
again here especially
since you already have
such high abilities.
- So what's the real difference
between intelligence and wisdom?
- That's great, so intelligence is sort
of knowing things, it's the book learning,
it's your capacity to
learn new things quickly.
Wisdom is a lot more your
relationship to the world,
your insight to other people,
your sort of gravitas.
And even in some cases your
willpower and self control.
- Well relating to other people does
sound like it's gonna be important.
- So charisma also falls into that.
So charisma is, this is more
insight into other people.
Charisma is more your
interactions with people
like you would think of for charisma.
This is more how people view you,
how you are able to make friends
and do that kind of stuff.
So again with leadership as you say
charisma is probably important as well.
- And interrogating suspects.
- Exactly it also works, and
it works the other way too.
It's not just will people like you,
it's can you intimidate someone?
Do you understand them enough to?
- So because these are odd
I might as well split them?
Give one point to each?
- Absolutely, that seems
like a good strategy.
So your wisdom goes up to 14 from 13.
And you become a plus two
there so this is plus two.
And then your charisma goes from 15 to 16
and your a plus three,
again just an extraordinary
set of abilities for this character.
And then finally you rise into the ranks.
You're part of the Inquisitors.
You are asked to join an
elite squad of Inquisitors.
So you have regular people
you're working with,
which is where we will start the adventure
when we see each other next.
And so we'd have one last
mechanical bit to do,
and that's the level five mechanics.
And there's two big
things that happen there.
The first is yes, hit points again.
Oh and there's a 10.
No that's not a zero, that's a 10 yeah.
But I like the impact because
I get to surprise you.
It's a 10 so 10 plus
your constitution bonus.
So it's 13 more hit points.
So you're sitting at a solid 54 now.
You can take a lot of
damage, and then the other
big thing that happens because
you're a marshal character
at level five is that
you get an extra attack.
So when you take the attack action now
you get two attacks, not just one.
So we'll add that over here
in your powers, extra attack.
And that's just again something
that marshal characters
like fighters get at level five.
The last thing that happens at this point
is you're kind of rising in the ranks.
Now you're becoming an important
part of the Inquisitors.
And you are able to draw from your
different armories when
you're on missions.
You're discovering lots
of magic and crazy stuff
and some of that stuff ends belonging to
the Inquisitors and to
the City Watch in general
because it helps you with your work.
And one of those things is you end up,
because your fighting
style we talked about
a dueling fighting style
when we talked originally.
You fight with a sword and a shield,
kind of a standard
powerful warrior character.
You've got your grandma's magic sword.
So you come across a
magical shield as well.
So in the equipment there I want
you to write sentinel shield.
And what the sentinel
shield is gonna do for you,
you just write this down
and we'll thing we'll deal
with what this means when
we play this next time,
is you have advantage on
initiative and perception.
And so just quickly what that means,
initiative is the order
that you act in combat.
So you're gonna have
advantage there to act first,
to be the decisive leader again in combat.
And perception is just seeking things out
and noticing things, you
have advantage there as well.
And we'll speak about what
advantage means on the day.
So mechanically that is your character.
So the story comes from us like I said.
The mechanics come from the book.
But this is what your
fighter character is.
So Leona now is fifth level.
She's established in the Inquisitor.
She's a powerful character,
this is a lot of things.
She's very resilient in combat,
she's becoming really wise over her time,
very charismatic leader.
And this is the place
where we'll find ourselves
when we get back together and meet
the rest of your party when we play.
Did all this make sense and it seemed fun?
I mean obviously it's a lot for right now.
- You've built me an incredible character.
I just hope I live up to her.
- I think that you will, I mean the idea
from it is from you so
this beginning thing,
this thing that you wanted to play.
And again I'm really
excited because these are
the kind of characters
that I love to play,
these paladin's, these
paragons of sort of virtue,
wade in and protect other people.
So I really love that you're doing that.
And I'm excited to see you do it.
Thank you so much for hanging
out and doing this with me.
- Thanks for having me.
Thanks for inviting me to
your well established world.
(dramatic music)
- [Jason] Dave.
- How are you?
- Good.
- It's good to see you.
Let's make a character.
So you and I been doing this a long time.
I'm not gonna ask you
how many games you played
or how long you play Dungeons & Dragons
because it's as long as I have
which is a really long time.
But let's talk about,
so we spent some time
working on a character recently
together for this game.
You want to talk a little bit
about that character for me?
- Yeah so, the Gith race has been
traditionally just a monster race.
And they've recently opened
it up that you can play
as either a Githyanki or a Githzerai.
And when we were talking
about party makeup
it looked we were gonna need a healer.
So to me playing a Githzerai probably was
more appropriate because they're more zen.
The Githyanki are the warrior, crazy guys.
And the Zerai, arguably just
as crazy but more in a zen way.
- And we talked a little bit about how we
felt about the Gith because
you and I've been playing
for a long time like you said
and they used to be monsters.
In fact I have with me here
my original fiend folio.
(grunting)
- Yeah I know that scared
the crap out of me as a kid.
- Technically this is a Githyanki.
So in the old game they
didn't look exactly the same.
The Githzerai looked a little different.
- The Zerai looked a little more--
- Like hooded yeah.
So were you always interested in the Gith?
- They just fascinated, I
think I was afraid of them
for a long time because of that cover.
And so they fascinated
me but the idea was that
they were a slave race
of the Mind Flayers.
They broke free of that
but they couldn't agree
on what direction to take so
they split into two factions.
- Normally the Gith live
in limbo which is one of
the planes, the prime material plane that
our players will live in,
that our world takes place in.
But the Gith live in limbo.
- Well the Githzerai live in limbo
and the Githyanki live
in the astral plane.
- And the Githzerai the big
thing about the Githzerai
is that in limbo they
have to harness the chaos
and draw things out of it in
order to live a stable life.
Because limbo is just filled with chaos.
So your name is--
- Narlak.
- Narlak, and here's the
beginnings of your character sheet.
So we talked about this.
We talked about Narlak
starting in a traveling--
- Right a traveling fortress.
They travel around and
they often the Githzerai
come from limbo in search of Mind Flayers,
in search of Githyanki to fight.
Those are their two main focuses.
And my idea was that he
would have been a cleric
for them on one of these missions.
The first time he sets foot on the prime
material plane something happens to him,
something starts to
bubble up in his blood.
- Okay well that's cool.
Let's put a pin in that there
and then let's talk about,
let's bring our character from
that first little character
traveling around with his
troupe up to that point
so we can kind of see the
decisions and see us leveling up.
We've got the beginnings of
our first level character here.
And this is what you and
I worked on together.
So I got a pencil for you,
we got some dice, good d8 for hit points.
And so let's start with
this first level character
and just kind of talk
through it we've got here.
And then we're going to step through
the decisions that you'll make as we level
this character up to
level five so we can play.
So these are basic first level
stuff, your abilities here.
You rolled all those abilities
and we've assigned them.
We've got what skills were proficient in.
We've got some background information
and then we've got your powers over here.
One of the important
things about the Githzerai,
or Githzerai is that you've got
a couple of cool psionic powers.
So with your powers, and
this is for the Gith.
this is because they were the
slaves of the Mind Flayers.
So the Mind Flayers are a psionic race.
They use their mental
powers, not magic like
we traditionally think
about but mental powers.
And the Gith that spent a lot of time
training in the same manner.
So I just want to talk about
a couple of your powers
that are a little bit different from
what other people might
have at this first level.
So you have something at first level
that's called Githzerai psionic.
And how that manifests is
they use a magic spell,
the spell mage hand that
lets you move small objects,
but we're calling it psionics
for the Githzerai right?
So that's something
you get at first level.
That's really cool.
And as you get into higher level
you get more psionic powers as you grow.
So we'll come back and talk about that.
But I just wanted to call that
out because that's different
from the other magic that
we'll be talking about.
- Right.
- Got all that stuff for first level.
So let's talk about what
happens to you at first level.
You begin traveling with your troop.
You go on a couple of
missions and adventures,
probably fight some
other Githyanki perhaps.
And then it comes time you've
become experienced enough
to move from a first level character
to a second level character.
Now there's a handful of things
that happen to a second level.
It's right here in the players handbook.
So if you're walking through a character,
The player's handbook
does a really good job
of laying out a table that
shows you exactly what happens
as you progress through
your character level.
So you're a, we've got
the cleric table here.
And at second level you
gain a couple of things.
First is new hit points,
every time you raise
a level you're gonna
increase your hit points.
So we start with 10 hit points
because you are a cleric
and you've got a plus two to your
constitution, and your hit dye is a d8.
And then for hit points you
can do a couple of things.
You can choose just to
take in this case a five.
The book tells you you
can just take five more
hit points and add your
constitution bonus.
But I really to roll dice, that's the way
we used to play back in the day so
so let's roll some hit
points for this level.
- [Jason] Yeah alright.
- Your constitution is 14 so you have
a plus two bonus to your hit points.
So let's add eight more
hit points to right there.
- [Jason] Now I'm at 18.
- We're gonna walk this
up, every time we level up
we'll do a little fun roll right here.
The other big things that
you get at second level are
the big thing is your channel divinity.
And when clerics channel divinity
they draw upon the divine
powers around them.
Now you chose to be, what new
cleric, your divine source?
- Life.
- Life cleric.
So Githzerai don't really
worship gods generally speaking.
They have Zirth who
they kind of talk about
but mostly they're about discipline,
and spirituality, and mentalism and stuff.
And so when we talked we
talked about just drawing,
your divine life powers
come from just drawing
from the chaos of the cosmos
and finding the threads of life
and that's where your
divine power comes from.
So at second level you
get to channel divinity.
And the channel divinity takes two forms.
And the first one is turning undead.
So write down on your power sheet, yeah.
So write channel divinity, turn undead.
And with channel divinity you get
to use it once every time you rest.
So if you rest a short or
long rest you can do it again.
Turning undead means you can just drive
undead away from you, skeletons
and zombies and stuff.
- [Jason] And then when you become
a higher level you can
actually destroy them.
- Exactly, exactly.
The other thing that you get
with your channel divinity
because you are a life cleric is you can
preserve life with your channel divinity.
So we'll add that under your channel
divinity as well, preserve life.
And that lets you heal your
party kind of en masse.
The same way that the channel divinity
works you can heal your party.
The other thing that happens
to you at second level
is on your first major mission as part of
your training and
equipping of your mission,
you're gonna get a drift
globe, this is a magical item.
So I'd write this under
your equipment, drift globe.
And what this is is just a little globe
that you can make light up at will,
and once a day it can cast full daylight.
and it floats along in the air behind you.
So it kind of follows you--
- How long does that last?
- It can float as long as it wants to
and then the light spell
can happen at will.
The daylight is just once a day.
So any time that you want you
can have a drifting around.
It's important when you're sailing
the seas of chaos in limbo to have light.
- Gotta have clear sight.
- Yes exactly.
So there's som missions
going on and you're
out with your caravan we're talking about.
And you're traveling the
plains in search of danger
and maybe trade with your group.
- Learning how to heal my party.
Learning how to be the,
make sure everyone's okay.
- And you're drawing from the chaos
like we talked of drawing
healing from the chaos.
So you work through your second
level a bunch of missions
and then we move to level three.
Level three is an easy level for clerics.
In level three you gain
hit points and more spells.
And we'll talk about your spell casting
kind of at the end of
this but all along here
because you're a cleric
you're drawing divine spells,
you're getting more and
more powerful spells.
So the big things here are
let's move to level three,
we're gonna roll more hit points.
- [Jason] Come one. (grunts)
- Two, plus two for your
constitution so four more.
- 22, not too bad.
- And the other big power
here is you just add spells.
So we're just adding more spells and again
we'll take care of those
at the end of this,
once we've calculated everything else.
Now when you're a third level cleric,
and you're a powerful
cleric now you're going out
on more important missions and everything.
Talk to me about this first mission
to the prime material plane.
- It's the fortress lands and Narlak
already feels something different.
And when he sets foot on
the prime material plane,
which is basically our
planet, the planet that
our adventure's going to take place on.
- We're playing in Greyhawk so this is,
they call it the planus, so yeah.
- And when he first
sets foot he just feels
something different, he feels almost like
an electricity flowing through his blood.
And he deserts his troop.
At his first opportunity he just
runs off into a forest like a madman,
and doesn't stop running
for hours and hours.
- Now when we talked about this,
so we talked previously that the Githzerai
live in limbo which is a plane of chaos.
There's a group among the Githzerai
called the the anarchs who
help to harness the chaos
and kind of centralize the society.
And that's something that is
naturally present in some Githzerai.
And what we were kind of talking about
is that maybe that there was
that spark of that anarch,
that ability to harness
the chaos and really
connect to the chaos in
Narlak and when you hit
the prime material for
whatever reason the combination
of that ability to harness the chaos
and the way the prime material plane works
just exploded sort of the chaos
in his brain and in his blood.
And I think that that's
a really cool tie back
to the Giths themselves as well as
getting you into the world
that we're going to play in.
- Because why is this Gith here?
You have to have a good back story.
- And so the other thing that happened
when we talked is we
talked about you wanted
to multi class your character.
So what that means is
you started as a cleric,
you spent three levels as a
cleric but when you move into
fourth level, you decided you
wanted to choose sorcerer.
So you're going to have
three levels of cleric,
and then you're gonna move to sorcerer.
So this makes you a third level cleric,
and a first level sorcerer.
So we've got the sorcerer table here,
sorcerers have the same
thing the clerics do.
You've got a little table telling you
what you do when you go there.
Among the first things that
you get when you're a sorcerer
is you're gonna get some more hit points.
Now you're not gonna
roll the same hit dice
you did for a cleric, sorcerers don't have
as many hit points as clerics do.
So now you roll a six sided die.
So let's get those hit points.
So two, so that's another four.
- Right because I'm still
gonna be able to use
my constitution no matter what.
Should we talk about the sorcerers first?
- Yeah let's talk about
sorcerers right now.
So we have the hit points.
The next thing you get
is a sorcerers bloodline.
So a sorcerer is a magic
user kind of like a wizard
but it's innate magical power.
And it's based upon
something in your past,
your history, your ancestry or whatever.
They call it the sorceress bloodline.
Now we've been talking about--
- Chaos, makes perfect sense.
- Absolutely and so one of the
sorceress bloodlines is chaos
that you've got just roiling
chaotic magic in your blood
in your veins and that's
where your power comes from.
So we're gonna choose chaos
as our font of sorcery,
or as our sorcerers bloodline.
Your spell casting can
unleash chaos essentially.
So whenever you cast a spell I can choose,
as the dungeon master, to
have you roll on a table
that your spell can have
unpredictable outcomes.
So I'll choose that probably most likely
when you're under stress,
when things are critical,
at all the worst times
that bad things can happen,
that's when you'll have to roll and see.
- I think a lightning
bolt's gonna come out
and then a bunch of
butterflies fly out my finger.
- The good thing about this
edition too is that mostly
those chaos effects happen in addition
to the spell actually working.
- Okay good.
- Rarely is it I try
to catch lightning bolt
and I turn you into a goat instead.
It's more other things
happen in addition to.
You also have a thing
called tides of chaos.
And when you want to use
tides of chaos you can
choose to add the advantage on an attack.
Well basically you're gonna draw in
those threads of chaos that you pull,
you're gonna make a magical attack,
and then you're going
to add advantage to it.
And we'll talk about advantage in the game
but it makes it more likely
for the attack to work.
When you use that however,
you have to roll on the chaos table.
So something else might
happen alongside of it.
So those are the things
that kind of happen
at first level for that sorcerer
with your bloodline anyway.
Additionally, now because
chose a multi class,
you become a broader sort of
jack of all trades character.
You don't get as deep a
power set as everybody else,
who will move up to fifth
level in their main class.
But you broaden your power set.
So some more things happen.
You're gonna be more
proficient in more things.
Proficiency is an important
mechanic in the game
and basically it helps you roll higher,
it adds to your to your rolls.
And so you become proficient
in additional saving throws,
we'll talk about saving
throws in the game,
but constitution and
charisma saving throws
you become proficient in as well.
You're already proficient
in wisdom and charisma
because of cleric but you're gonna add
constitution to that set as well.
So what we do is we fill
in this little circle
next to constitution right there.
You're gonna get some
more skills so you're
more proficient in more
skills again broadening
that set of powers, becoming
more of a jack of all trades.
We're gonna add arcana and deception.
You already had the other skills
that sorcerers have access
to so we'll add arcana as
proficient, and deception.
You've got sorceress origin and you're
gonna get a second
sheet of spells to cast,
and we'll talk again about spells--
- Crazy, all the spells, I want them all.
- So that's how you move into level four.
You come to play to the
prime material plain,
you go crazy and so, as
I talked about before,
we're gonna be playing
an adventure in Greyhawk
on the planus in actually
my living version
of Greyhawk that I've been
playing in since I was 12.
And this is the one I've
been running games in and so
I will just give a
disclaimer that it is not
the standard version of Greyhawk.
It is a very very--
- But that's okay, in D&D
you can make it your own.
- Anything that you want.
It is very far from what the standard is
after 33 years of playing in this world.
But you're in Greyhawk and you're gonna
make your way to the
Free City of Greyhawk.
There's a bustling city in my world
of about a quarter of a million people,
sort of King's Landing in
the middle of the planus.
It's a Free City state filled with people
from all over the place
and and while Gith are not
unheard of on the prime
material plane, they are rare.
The Free City is a place
where you might end up
and feel a little bit less of an outcast.
- Well Gith, luckily they are humanoid.
So with a heavy robe and a hood over top
he could pass as a human.
- Exactly and lose yourself in
the throngs of the big city.
- No one's gonna notice or care.
- And so I feel around this
time when you're in the big city
this is when you're beginning
to harness those powers,
those things that made you crazy.
So at what point do
you think it turns from
I'm crazy running in the forest to
I'm getting this under control?
- Well I think actually he had
quite a stint in the forest,
that he sort of was wandering for a while
and luckily with his cleric powers
and spells he could sustain himself.
And when he snapped out of it,
and when he came to the city
he would have earned maybe that
fourth level on his sort of
solo adventures re-harnessing
his lawful nature,
and trying to get it under control.
- And he has the great
discipline of the Githzerai
because of that's where he came from.
And because of being a
sorcerer is more of a natural
source of magic than
wizardry which is studied,
he can do that on his
own in the wilderness.
So I think he gets to
the Free City of Greyhawk
and maybe begins looking for a place
to find a place in society.
- He knows he can't go
back, or at least he feels
that he can't go back to limbo.
But he still, now that his
brain is back to normal,
he wants to start doing
something for society again.
- And a good place for that
might be the City Watch,
the Free City of Greyhawk City Watch.
With the City Watch there are
a couple of different factions
there's the regular City
Watch that they call
the Crimson Cloaks, again in my Greyhawk.
There is the elite sort of
SWAT team of the City Watch,
those are the Griffon Guards.
And then there's a third piece,
and those third piece are
called the Inquisitors,
and their job is to
investigate magical crime,
horrific and magical crime.
And so I think given
the power that he's got,
given his origins and
trying to find a place
in the world he would have
maybe gravitated toward
a place where he could contribute.
He is after all a cleric of life.
He's still I think someone who wants to,
based upon all the things
that you've told me,
someone that wants to contribute and help.
And so I think maybe he made
his way to that City Watch
and offered services even to that group.
Do you feel like that's maybe something?
- That sounds totally
within what he would do.
- And so once they
evaluated you and found out
how powerful a sorcerer you
are, and a powerful cleric
that you were you would
have been welcomed to,
and may be assigned as temporarily
to a mission with the Inquisitors.
Because that's where we're gonna find you
when we all get back together.
So we've got one more level to do
and this is your fifth level.
We'll move you into a
fifth level character.
And so this is a level two sorcerer.
Technically you're a
third level cleric again
Now you're a level two sorcerer.
So we add a few more things,
first again hit points.
So sorcerer hit points.
- [Jason] Yeah.
- Oh yeah so you rolled a six, plus two.
You got eight more hit points there.
The most you could possibly
have given your constitution.
- [Jason] That's a pretty good
about then, 34 hit points.
- And then you get a couple of things
as a sorcerer at second level.
And this goes in the vein
of what we talked about
about sorcery being a natural magic.
It's less of a studied magic
and more natural magic.
It isn't as rigid, it's
a lot more flexible.
So you get something called font of magic
that comes with second
level, if you want to write
this down under your powers
as well, font of magic.
And what comes along
that is sorcery points.
- Right, those are cool.
- So you get two sorcery
points and what these are
is these are points that you can spend
to do cool things with your spell's,
especially as you
advance in higher levels.
But even at this point you can
do cool things with your spells.
The first thing is you've
got a thing called flexible
casting that you get away
at second level sorcerer,
which allows you to
create a new spell slot.
So all people who conduct
magic and use magic,
whether it's divine magic your cleric,
or arcane magic like your
sorcery, you've got a certain
number of spells that you can cast a day.
Your body just can only channel
a certain amount of spell energy.
And when you're multi class
you are there's a special table
way back here that tells you
how many spells you can cast.
So we've got some homework to do
this next week to deal with that.
But what this does, this
flexible casting allows you to do
is it allows you to
spend two sorcery points
and get another spell slot back.
So it'll add the ability
to cast one more spell.
In desperation you'll dig deep into
your body and cast just one more spell.
So that's your big thing now
is that flexible casting.
And you can spend sorcery
points to add spell slots.
I think the other thing
that that you've done,
as you're kind of
searching around the city
and looking to what you want to do is
some of the money that you had with you,
some of the valuable
metals and valuable gems
that you brought with you from limbo,
you bought something for
yourself as you joined
this new life as part of the City Watch.
And this is a cloak of protection.
- Magic barrier.
- Add that to your list here.
- [Jason] Very good.
- So whatever armor so whatever
armor you decide to wear,
whatever else we're gonna
have when our standard gear
you're gonna have a cloak of protection.
And this gives you a bonus to both
your armor class and
to your saving throws.
So whether you're protecting
yourself against weapons
or against magic you're going
to have extra protection.
So the one other thing that I want to do
before we finish up today
and then do our homework.
I'll assign you some
homework about picking
spells and things and
doing some math here,
is I want to talk about your spells.
So you have two kinds of spells.
With your cleric you'll have divine magic
and with your sorcerer
you have arcane magic.
So what I've got here in
this pile is to spell sheets.
If you want to pull those guys out.
And there are a couple
of important numbers here
that are based upon your
level and the things
that we have for your sorcerer,
and for your clerical.
And since we have the
book open at sorcerer
let's start here with sorcerer.
And up and top here we have
your spell casting ability.
This will be your sorcerer side,
so spell casting class is sorcery.
Spell casting ability is
charisma for sorcerers.
So you're using your
innate natural ability
to channel magic, and we're
gonna use charisma for that.
So then we do a spell
save DC and what this is
some of the spells that
you cast people are
gonna have to make a saving throw against.
And again we'll get into this
when we get into the game.
But the higher that difficulty check is
the more powerful you
technically are as a wizard,
the more powerful your spells are.
So your spell save DC is eight,
plus your charisma modifier.
- Two so 10.
- Plus your proficiency
bonus which is three, so 13.
So if you cast a spell that needs a save,
they have to save versus a 13 and again
we'll get into that in the game.
The other thing here is
a spell attack bonus.
Your spell attack bonus
is if you're casting
a spell that makes you roll
an attack, you're gonna
shoot somebody with a ray
or something like that.
And that is your proficiency bonus.
- Okay three.
- Plus your charisma modifier.
- So plus five.
- So it'd be plus five.
If you're gonna make a spell
attack you're plus five.
On the cleric side we have
something very similar.
These are divine smells, so divine spells
instead of being based on
your personal inmate charisma
they're based upon your
wisdom, your ability to
like we we're talking about,
pluck the threads of chaos
and find the life, the life
lines in those threads.
And so your divine spells are based upon
the same kind of thing eight,
plus your proficiency bonus
which is the same three, plus
your wisdom modifier now.
- Right which is higher, another three.
- So it's eight plus
three plus three, so 14.
- [Jason] And by the way
the ability would be wisdom.
- Wisdom is the ability yep.
The DC is 14, and now
your spell attack bonus
again is calculate in the same way.
It's your proficiency bonus
plus your wisdom bonus.
- Great, so it's a plus six.
- So if you're casting
offensive cleric spells
you'll have a plus six for those spells.
And that's the kind of
the basic of your magic.
Now the big task that you're gonna have
is gonna be choosing spells
and there's a lot of those.
We're not gonna do them here now
because it would take us a long time,
you have a lot of spells to choose from.
But I want to talk just a
little bit about choosing spells
and one of the things
that new players do a lot
when they're choosing
spells is they will look
just for the spells
that do the most damage.
They're gonna look for offensive spells.
And I think that that's
okay if you're playing
a very aggressive offensive character
and that's how you want
to roll as a sorcerer.
It's harder as a cleric
to do that of course.
But I want to just
remind you that when you
choose your spell's let's
choose some offensive spells
but also some spells
that don't necessarily
have offensive or healing components
that you might be able to
use in other circumstances.
- Sure yeah.
- So just to make sure that
the play is not just combat,
and especially in our adventure
where we're gonna be in a big city.
There's gonna be a lot of
conversing with other people.
There's gonna be a lot of
environmental things that happen.
And so just to remember that
play is not just combat.
- Oh yeah.
- This is an awesome
character, I'm super excited.
- Me too.
(dramatic music)
- How's it going David?
- How are you?
Good to see you.
Come on let's play some
Dungeons & Dragons.
- I'm super excited about that.
- So first I want to ask you
what's your experience
with Dungeons & Dragons?
Have you played the game before,
other role playing games?
- I must have played a round
or two when I was like 12.
I did a lot of Marvel
superheroes as a kid.
So I was really into
comics, so I did that.
But since then I really haven't.
I've recently like edged back into it
and done a couple of PBTA style games.
But I have not played
D&D in probably a decade.
- I'm super excited to
play Dungeons & Dragons.
This is exciting to me.
I love teaching people to
play so this is awesome.
So we've been talking for a
few weeks about your character.
Tell me what you were looking at.
Tell me how you were feeling about it.
- I was looking at a couple of
different kinds of characters
and I always like to play
sort of hybrid characters,
people who are caught between races,
caught between sort of
cultures and species.
And it's just part of my identity
so I always try to bring it forward.
So I was really interested in the Genasi.
They're half genie, half mortal.
And they're sort of
elemental kinds of creatures
tied to the nature, tied to the land.
And that struck me as something that would
be really interesting to play.
'Cause also, yeah
everyone's heard of Elves,
and Dwarves, and Trolls or
whatever and this was like
I did not know this was a possibility.
- And so it's a relatively
new playable race in the game.
And they're also very rare in the world.
So not only are you kind of
like you were talking about,
in that caught between two worlds thing
being a mortal version
of a genie essentially.
But you're also a little
bit alone in the world.
- Yeah could be sad and interesting.
But hopefully I'll have
a good crew with me.
and I thought having something that
singular might be really fun for this.
- And so you chose, which
flavor of Genasi did you choose?
- I chose an Earth
Genasi, so tied to rocks.
I think the name that I
went with was Igneous.
- Yes and I have that character here.
So this is the beginning skeleton of
the character that we put together.
This is your first level
character skeleton.
And we've got some
basic things at the top,
and what class did you choose?
- Druid.
- Yeah, so we talked a little
bit about your connection
to the Earth and to nature
and things but also we spent
a lot of time thinking
about what does that mean?
We're gonna be in a city adventure.
We're playing in a version Greyhawk.
Greyhawk is the first Dungeons
& Dragons published world.
And it's the one I
played in when I was 12,
started when I was 12 and so
this is my living Greyhawk.
This is the same world I've
been playing in since I was 12.
All of the events of all of
the adventures that I ran
and played in as a child or
all part of this timeline.
So this version of Greyhawk
looks very different
from the one that you would
pick up in a published book now.
But this is the world we're
playing and we're playing
in a big city called the
Free City of Greyhawk.
In the center of the world essentially is
this Kings Landing style,
quarter of a million people
jammed between these big walls city.
And you find yourself as a
Genasi druid in this place.
- Exactly, yeah we were
talking about that.
And talking about, it's one of the reasons
I went with an Earth
Genie, or an Earth Genasi
because of the tie to the sort of
the land itself, the
bedrock underneath a city.
I grew up in New York
and so it's a big city
of a lot of concrete but a lot of it
is sort of dredged up from what's beneath.
It all sort of blends together
into this one sort of mass.
I was thinking about a city
that the rocks are pulled
from the bedrock beneath and
feeling that tie to this place,
this particular place, not
just sort of generalized rocks.
But these rocks are my rocks.
- Yeah that's that's really cool.
This is an exciting character for me.
The idea of the druid in the city.
These layers of sort of isolation
but connection at the same time.
- Yeah, and the connection
to all the creatures
and all of the sort of parts of a city,
the park lands, the alleyways, the sewers,
and the subterranean
tunnels, and the crypts,
and whatever else is in there.
Feeling all of that to
sort of flow through me.
- So that's awesome, so
this is part of this story.
This is the beginnings of
who you are as a character.
So let's talk about some of the
mechanical things that go into this.
So we've said before this
is your character sheet.
Basic stuff at the top,
this is who you are,
the name that you chose, you're a druid.
Your background is hermit which is
something that we talked about.
Even though you're in a
city you were isolated.
- Yeah so a sense of separation.
- That makes sense, some
background information
there again based upon
what we had talked about.
You've got your ability scores here.
They're just sort of
your physical abilities,
strength, dexterity, and constitution,
intelligence, wisdom, charisma.
You rolled those when you rolled the dice.
Hit points, skills right here, we'll get
into all this stuff when
we start to play the game.
But this is the framework
of your character.
There are a couple of
specific powers that you have
because you're Genasi you have
this thing called earth walk
that allows you to move
through difficult terrain.
As long as it's earthen terrain,
earth and stone, you
move through it just like
you're normally walking, it's really cool.
You also have this thing
called merge with stone.
So once a day you're able
to pass without traces.
a spell called pass without trace
that lets you to just move
without anybody seeing you,
without anything happening,
without anybody detecting you.
That's part of your Genasi powers.
You also druid spells of course.
- Awesome.
- We'll talk a little bit
about spells today but mostly
this is gonna be our
homework in the next week
is gonna be to pick our spells.
- And then over here you've got weapon
proficiencies and some
armor, druids they don't
have much in the way of armor or weapons.
And then languages you
speak Elvish, and Druid,
and Common, and then Primordial
which is the language of the Genies.
And this is all basic first level Druid,
Earth Genasi stuff as
basic as that can be.
So let's talk about the world that
you're in and living in the city.
When we talked together we
talked about sort of like
being in the parks and
connected to the Earth.
So mechanically speaking
you spend your first while
in the city studying your druid stuff.
- Learning the spells, I'm
learning more about who I am.
I mean as a fairly singular
being in this world.
It's not like I've got a
whole community that can say
these are the rules and
this is how it works.
It was a lot of internal study
and a lot of hermitage basically.
I imagine that there's
not exactly a crypt,
but some sort of underground
room, maybe an old cave
that's part of the oldest
foundations of the city
that I sort of claimed is my own space.
- I think about like the catacombs below
a lot of the big European
cities where the city
is built on top of it,
but these spaces remain.
- Exactly, and there are
those sort of rough hewn,
sort of cave like spaces
underneath a city.
And I figure that's where
I've spent most of my time,
certainly most of my
sort of formative years.
- So let's talk about these
first few levels of character.
Mechanically the first
few levels as you're
living this hermitage,
finding out who you are.
So we've got your level one character,
now we'll move to level two.
So the first thing that
we do when we to get
a new level is we roll hit points.
Now in the game you can roll hit points
or you can just choose hit points.
You have a d8 as your hit
dice, that's this guy.
In the game you can choose to take a five
instead of rolling the dice,
I like to roll the dice,
I like to make my players roll the dice.
So we're gonna roll for those hit points.
So we're starting with
eight, so you're gonna roll.
So four, becomes 12 hit points.
And then we're gonna look to the book here
this is our players handbook.
And the players handbook
is laid out so that you can
mechanically move through
the levels pretty easily.
The story comes from us,
and the characters come from
our brains but this is
the mechanical stuff
just laid out in this nice table here.
So the big things that
you get at second level
is you get wild shape, and druid circle.
So these are some big choices.
So first let's talk about wild shape
because there's nothing
to choose in wild shape.
What wild shape does is at
second level you can use
your action, and we'll talk about actions
and stuff when we get together to play,
to assume the shape of a
beast you have seen before.
Now at first level you can't assume
the shape of a very powerful beast.
You can't say I'm gonna be a dinosaur.
So it's just basically
regular beasts and you can't
assume the shape of anything that flies,
or if you do you can't fly while your.
But basically this is gonna
allow you to take a beast shape.
And you can do this twice, and
you regain that after a short
or long rest, so you'll
be able to do beast shape.
So I would write wild
shape in your powers there.
So all druids have this, and this is
a power that you'll be able to use.
The other thing that you get
to choose is a druid circle.
Now a druid circle would
dictate sort of the kind of
path that you're gonna be on as a druid.
There are a whole bunch
of circles to choose from
but based upon our
conversations I found two
that I think worked really
well for sort of being
in the city and sort of the
background that we looked at.
Well first one's in the players handbook
and it's called the circle of the moon.
This is a lot more about
embracing your transformation
and embracing your connection with the,
in this case the animals in the city,
the rats and raccoons, and mice and crows,
and owls and all of those
things, alligators in the sewers
all this kind of stuff,
really leaning into that.
The other one's here in
the Xanathar's Guide.
And this is the circle of the shepherd.
And this one also sort
of leans into the beasts
and creatures of the place where you live.
But this would be more
about working with them
and communicating with
them and kind of communing
and being allies with
the beasts of the city.
Do either of those appeal to you?
- Kind of like the circle of the shepherd,
fits more of how I've been
thinking about Igneous
as sort of taking on the role of protector
of the city, of that guardian of the city.
- And nature in the city needs a guardian.
- Exactly, things are encroaching,
humans are encroaching.
The space that a wild thing
has is getting smaller
and they need someone to protect them.
- That's wonderful so we'll
do circle the shepherd.
So underneath the powers let's
write circle of the shepherd.
And then you get two powers
that go along with that circle.
So the first one is you get the ability
to converse with beasts and faye.
So you add to your languages over here.
You speak Sylvan, add
Sylvan to your languages.
You read and write Sylvan.
And when you speak with
beasts most animals
don't have long conversations with you.
But you can ask them simple questions.
You can find out where
they've been recently,
maybe what they saw or
heard very recently.
They don't have long memories
but you really literally
can talk with these animals
and ask them questions.
The other thing is you get a spirit totem.
And this is where you can call forth
a natural influence
from what's around you.
You have a spirit, the spirit
comes in and it can help you.
It persists for a minute,
and with that feature,
depending upon the spirit you choose
you get some different
things that you can do.
So you get the bear spirit.
It grants you and your allies
its might and endurance.
You have a hawk spirit which is
a consummate hunter so
it aids you with sight.
You've got the unicorn spirit which is
a spirit of protection to those nearby.
And so any of those three, do
any of those feel like they?
- Kind of like the hawk
spirit, it feels right.
- And I think we might even
for the flavor of the game,
because you are on the city maybe that's
the spirit of the crow or the raven.
- Alright yeah.
- So let's do that.
So it's called spirit totem, raven spirit.
And essentially it's
keen sight and insight.
It's gonna allow you to
be a little bit better
in certain attacks
during the day and we'll
again deal with that
mechanically when we play.
So that's the second level,
so a lot of things happen
for a druid at the second
level as you learn your path.
And this is sort of when you're seeking
enlightenment in the sewers and stuff.
Let's do level three as well.
So mechanically you have
made these big choices
and leaned into them before you move
out to more emergence with the world.
So level three is pretty straightforward.
So level three is hit points out, always.
So we roll that hit dice.
Alright so we're gonna add five to that.
So you go from a 12 to a 17.
And you're gonna get more spells.
We'll talk about spells again at the end
and we'll have some homework about spells.
The other thing that happens to you as you
get ready to emerge from the city.
So you're in contemplation,
you've grown in power,
you understand yourself a little better,
and you become this protector
of animals that need
to move out and move about
the city a little bit more.
The last thing before you sort of,
you still live in the catacombs but before
you spend more time
with the rest of people
is you discover deep in the catacombs
in this search for yourself
a staff, a magical staff.
It's called the staff of
flowers, so I would write that
under your gear here, staff of flowers.
And this isn't an incredibly powerful
magical item but it's a precious one.
What the staff of flowers
does is it has 10 charges
and if you strike the staff of
flowers on any patch of earth
anywhere no matter how large
or small you grow a flower.
And it just allows you to bring
that nature to other places in the city.
So you find a staff of flowers,
you sort of find yourself in this place.
So then as you're emerging
more into the city
and spending a little
more time with the surface
trying to interact with more people's
you encounter a group
of people in the city.
And you've seen the City Watch before
obviously moving about through the city.
But you become known as
a friend of the animals
and a friend of the nature in the city.
And you're asked by an
investigator to help solve a crime,
this is a murder in one of the
small parks in the Free City.
So they reach out to you
because they know you spend time
there and this person is a
member of the Inquisitors.
And that the City Watch
has three sections.
There's the Crimson Cloak
which are the basic City Watch.
There's a Griffin Guard which
are the elite strike force.
And then there's the Inquisitors
and they're the detectives,
they investigate especially magical crime.
And so they come to you as
sort of a beginning to become
known as a protector of
these open spaces of the city
to help them solve this crime.
You work with them a little bit.
And over the course of
that working with them
they invite you to join them.
So this is a place
where you have to decide
do I stay where I am as
the hermit or do I join.
- Or do I join?
I feel at this point for my character
the best way to help protect
the city is to be out
and to be connect with the people.
- Even though that's not
like a natural thing for you.
You're a hermit, you're a
loner, you're an outsider.
- Yes I feel after all
this time in the sort of
internal study even as
an outsider I realized
there's a limit to what
I can do on my own.
- So this is gonna be an
ongoing challenge for you.
On top of being an outsider as a Genasi,
on top of being a druid trying
to protect nature in the city
you now are working
with a team potentially,
maybe not all the time,
sometimes by yourself,
but working with a team as
well so this is another layer.
- It'll be another layer, another sort of
thing to navigate in my
sort of hermit tendencies
and when when do I
retreat and when do I need
to pull back from all of that.
- That's a good story.
- Exactly awesome.
- Okay cool so let's do
some mechanical work then.
So this is level four.
In level four there's
not much that happens
from a mechanical standpoint
for your character.
You get more hit points obviously.
- [Holtham] Six.
- So that's, yeah you rolled a six there.
So you can add that six.
And then at level 4 your
wild shape improves.
And again this is for all druids.
This is just what happens to you.
But you can be slightly
more powerful creatures.
You still can't fly but
you could for instance be,
they use the example of crocodile in here.
We talked about the alligators--
- Oh yeah, that would be great.
- That becomes something you can change
into a crocodile or creatures of that,
maybe a coyote or something you know.
Those things that roam the
streets so a little powerful.
So your wild shape is there and we
already understand what that is.
And then everybody who
reaches fourth level
in a character class and gets
an ability score improvement.
And what this means is just
as you've grown as a person
so to have your abilities or
physical or mental abilities.
And you get two points
that you can use two points
on one ability or spread them
between different abilities.
Your wisdom is your primary
most important ability as a druid.
It's where your spell's come from.
You've already got a 16 in wisdom
so it's pretty high already.
But you could improve
that if you wanted to.
Or you could look to one of
your other abilities and say
I'm going to juice this one a little bit
or that one or more multiples.
Now interestingly, mechanically
this is just pure mechanics
right here, all of your
abilities are even numbers.
So adding one to one of these abilities,
the ability score bumps, the bonus bumps
happen at even numbers
in Dungeons & Dragons.
So adding one point to any of these
doesn't help you mechanically.
It could help you flavor
wise you're growing
but it's not gonna help you mechanically.
So really the mechanical smart thing to do
would be to add two points--
- Add two to one of them.
- The other thing that you
can do at this point is
we could choose a feat instead,
it's a cool thing that
your character can do.
It's an alternate rule
but we're gonna stick
to the straight and narrow while we learn.
So ability scores.
- That makes sense to me.
I'm gonna add two to intelligence.
After all of this study
and after connecting
and looking both inward and outward
I've picked up some more insights.
- So your intelligence
moves from 10 to 12,
and your bonus moves from
zero to one, plus one.
This is the time when you're
invited to the Inquisitors,
you're helping them solve this murder
in the park, you're
becoming closer to them.
You're still trying to
find time to retreat.
You still live in these catacombs
but you're working more with a team.
As you move into level five
you become a more important
part of this and in fact in level five
you're going to be invited
to join an elite squad
of Inquisitors and be part
of this permanent team.
And again still having
the time to yourself,
still being able to retreat,
but part of a permanent team.
So let's do quickly the mechanics of this.
There isn't a whole lot here.
You're gonna do hit points again.
Oh you rolled an eight, perfect.
Best you could do, so you
move from 23 to 31 hit points.
so that's where we'll
stay for when we play
when we get back together.
The other big thing that
happens at level five
is you get a bunch of extra spells.
And again we'll do spells in a moment.
But as you become part
of this elite force,
as you work with the Inquisitors
following these crimes
and solving these things.
There are magical items
and stuff that occasionally
get found and those become
part of the City Watches cache.
They're meted out to
people as they need them.
But you do get an important
magical item at this point.
And if you want to write this under gear
you get a cape of the mountebank.
So with the cape of a
mountebank once per day
you can cast dimension door
and the way it manifests
with the cape of the mountebank is there's
a flash of brimstone, a
little bit Night Crawler,
flash of brimstone, smell of brimstone
and you step through a door.
And you can go 400 feet in any direction
as long as you know
what's on the other side.
So you do it once per
day, that teleportation.
- Oh cool.
- So that was that is given
to you by the Inquisitors
as part of your official
joining of the Inquisitors.
And the last thing that I want to do here
from a mechanic's standpoint
is talk about spells.
So you've got a spell sheet,
the third sheet is the stack your spells.
Second sheet is flavor
stuff for your character,
and the third sheet is spells.
So as a druid we talked
about this, your spell's
are wisdom based, wisdom
is your primary ability.
We're gonna fill in this top
part of the spell sheet here.
You've got your spell casting class.
Where it's druid, you're a
druid, you have druid spells.
And here you got your
spell casting ability
which is wisdom when you're a druid.
So you just write wisdom right in there.
And then there's two important numbers
that go along with your spell casting.
And they are right here.
This is a spell save DC,
and a spell attack bonus.
The spell save DC means
when you cast a spell
that somebody can resist
against, you're trying
to do something to them
that they want to resist.
They need a number to roll against
'cause D&D is a mechanical game obviously.
So this spell said DC is that number.
And the way we find
that is it's eight plus
your wisdom modifier, and
your wisdom modifier is three.
That's 11, plus your proficiency bonus.
Now your proficiency bonus is
right here and you can write
plus three there because at
level five you'll be plus three.
We'll do all the rest of
the math on our homework.
So it's eight plus three, plus three.
- Plus three so 14.
So that's if somebody
needs to save against
one of your spell's it'll be a 14.
The other thing is your
spell attack bonus.
And this is if you're
doing an offensive spell
that you need to roll to attack.
This is your proficiency bonus again
plus your wisdom modifier.
- Plus the wisdom modifier so six.
So plus six right there.
So that's your bonus for that.
Now I said you're gonna have
a whole bunch of spells.
Spells are your primary
interaction with the world.
You have divine spells.
And you've got your wild shape
and your spell's are
your big druid things.
So we'll spend some time this
week talking and choosing
those spells, there are
so many to choose from.
Doing it here would take us forever.
But we'll find some cool spells for you.
The one thing I will say it because
you're a beginning
player is a lot of times
beginning players will
look to the spells and say
which ones do the most damage?
What are the most offensive spells?
Thinking about the combat
nature of the game primarily.
Dungeons & Dragons is
more than a combat game,
combat's an important
part of it obviously.
But there's also a lot of
interaction with other characters,
interaction with the
world, puzzle solving,
solving crimes because
you're an Inquisitor.
So when you're looking
at spells we're gonna
want to look at not just
combat spells but also this
wide range of things that
you can potentially do.
- That's cool yeah definitely
thinking about it now,
thinking about the things
that we're gonna need
to solve crimes to solve problems,
to break through liars
and things like that.
And another interesting
thing that you have
as a druid is you can heal people too.
So that's always an option too,
so how do you want to focus those spells?
I'm super excited for this
character this is great.
I really all the challenges that Igneous
has to work through, his
isolation, as hermitage,
his strange parentage let's say.
All this is cool stuff and I'm really
excited to teach you how to play.
- This is gonna be really great.
I'm really really stoked.
(dramatic music)
- Hey Denise.
- Hi David.
- Good to see you.
- To see you to.
- Alright let's sit down here
and talk about your character.
So we've been working for a couple
of weeks on this character idea.
But one of the things
that I learned about you
when we first started talking is
you haven't played a lot of
Dungeons & Dragons have you?
- I haven't played at all.
I created one character
but I've never played.
- Well I'm extremely honored to be able
to take you through your first
adventure, this is awesome.
One of my favorite things
is teaching new people
to play, which is why we have Starter Kit.
Alright so when we started
talking about this character
you had an inspiration from
World of Warcraft right?
- Yes I play a Blood Elf hunter,
that's my main character.
She's a little, she's not very leveled up.
But I do enjoy the bow and arrow.
I enjoy the ranged weapons.
- So what did we decide to do with
the character in Dungeons & Dragons?
- I decided to stay a little close to what
I'm familiar with and go with a ranger.
And I went Half Elf because I know there's
a lack of acceptance from the
Human world and the Elf world.
- So yeah that's one of the
things we talked about too.
You wanted to be sort of a loner or.
- Yeah a little bit of an outsider,
somebody who doesn't quite fit in,
hasn't been accepted into either world.
And I thought that would be an
interesting direction to take it in.
- And with choosing the
ranger you get the archery
and all of the things that
you're used to and that you like.
- And it also kind of
leans into the fact that
she can sort of still
stay on the outskirts
but be involved if she needs to be.
- Absolutely and can pass in both
Elvish and in Human society too.
So that's great.
So let's grab your character here.
And what did you name her?
- I named her Shywin.
- Awesome, so we took
everything that we talked about
and you rolled some character abilities.
And so we've got this all here.
Your first level character,
we're gonna level her up
to fifth level and talk
about her as she moves
sort of through the city into her life.
So at first level you've got
your ability scores down here.
They are your proficiency,
this is where you know
what weapons you can use,
and what languages you speak,
some background information
about this sort of
lone wolf stuff that we
talked about, and a little bit
of the powers that come
with being a half elf.
You can see in the dark,
you've got faye ancestry
so that it's hard to charm you or
to put you magically to sleep.
And a couple of other things like that.
So this is your first level character.
And let's talk a little bit about
the story as she moves through the world.
So we're gonna set this adventure
in the world of Greyhawk.
Which is the world I started
playing in 33 years ago.
This is my living campaign of Greyhawk
so it's sort of different
from maybe the published world
because all the characters and adventures
I've played in my last 33
years have affected this world.
We're playing in a city called
the Free City of Greyhawk,
this massive city in
the center of the world.
There's about 250,000 people in
this city and this is where you live.
Now one of the things that we talked about
with being a ranger is that typically
they're thought of this forest dwellers.
So a ranger in a city
is an interesting idea.
So tell me about how you think about
how your character moves
through this world.
- I think that living on
the edge of two different
societies that don't necessarily accept,
because that is correct neither society
really accepts the Half Elves.
Being on the outskirts of
that for a really long time,
but still witnessing injustices,
I think she's kind of a champion for those
who can't really champion themselves.
So seeing these things from afar and
kind of trying to affect
maybe stepping in.
And she's able to do
that as a ranger without
really getting closely
involved with people.
Maybe at a certain point
she decides that she
needs to take a more active role
and go into the city and join it.
- And go into the city,
join the City Watch.
- Yes.
- Okay cool.
And so she'll rise up the
ranks of the City Watch.
She starts as like a beat cop,
a regular Crimson Cloak,
rises up those ranks.
So we're gonna start leveling you up
as we go here through this story.
So the first thing that we do is move
to level one, level two.
The first thing that we're
gonna do is roll hit points
and we're gonna do this a
bunch because every time
you level up you become more resilient.
You can take more damage, you can fight
for longer and that's your hit points.
So you're a ranger so you have
a d10 for your hit points.
That means every time you roll you
could roll anywhere from one to 10.
And now you could just take a six
and add your constitution bonus to it.
That's a perfectly fine rule that's
part of what we do here in the book but
I like to roll dice and
I think that's super fun.
- That's part of the point right?
- Exactly, I think so.
So let's roll this and see what we get.
- I'm nervous though because I'm not
necessarily the best at rolling.
- Well it's not gambling, it's just.
Oh and a 10 right off the gate.
Yeah you're terrible at it clearly.
So you would take that 10 and
add your constitution bonus.
Your constitution is 10.
You've got no bonus there
so it's just the die roll.
So you add 10, so you add 10 to your
hit points score there in
the middle of your sheet.
So that becomes 20 just
like that, awesome.
So that's the first thing that
happens when you gain level two.
The next thing, and this is handy because
in the book here, this
is the players handbook,
and your ranger section
here has a nice little table
that tells us all the things that happen
as you move mechanically through the book.
So the story comes from you,
comes from inside our hearts.
And the mechanical stuff
comes from this table
and it's laid out really
well in the book here.
So the next thing that happens
when you reach level two
is you pick a fighting style as a ranger.
Now you've talked about the weapon that
you like to use in
World of Warcraft right?
- Bow an arrow.
- Yeah absolutely.
So in the fighting
styles you have a handful
of different things but one of them,
the first one we see here is archery.
- Oh I think that's perfect.
- So that seems like
the thing for you right.
So in your powers over here on the right
let's write fighting style, archery.
And what that will mean
is when it comes time
to do all the math of the character which
will be part of our homework after today,
you're gonna add a plus two bonus
whenever you attack with ranged weapons.
So with your bow you'll get
an extra bonus to roll to hit somebody.
So that's awesome.
That's your base fighting
style right there.
The other thing that happens for a ranger
at level two is you start to get spells.
Not the same way a
wizard would or a cleric.
So not gonna get a huge
panoply of spells to work with
but you will get ranger spells.
So we're gonna talk some
more about spell casting
at the end of what we're doing here.
But just know in that second
level you gain some spells
and you're gonna know a handful of spells,
and they're based upon your wisdom.
Your wisdom as a ranger is how
you access sort of a natural world.
And that's where your magic
comes from the natural world.
So this time is when
you join the City Watch,
sort of first and second level ranger
is when you're being recruited,
you're doing your training
and you join the City Watch,
you join the Crimson Cloak.
And I think because you're
talking a little bit
about being an outsider
I think maybe you're not
as accepted by your group
as maybe you would like.
And the kind of the beat
cops part of the City Watch
doesn't feel maybe the
perfect place for you.
However because you are an archer,
you've chosen the archery specialty,
you're also you're very useful to them.
They use you as a sniper and
as a guard on roofs and stuff.
And you become very
necessary to their work
even though maybe you
don't like it as much.
So let's move from level
two then to level three
mechanically and then talk about
what happens to in this story there.
So the first thing again with level three
is you're gonna add some hit points.
So let's roll those hit points again.
- Okay.
- Four, that's not bad you have four more.
So we get 24 there.
And this is where as a
ranger you start to find out
who you are, you add a
thing called an archetype,
mechanically called an archetype.
We kind of figure out who you are,
differentiates you from other
different kinds of rangers.
And they're a bunch of archetypes
in the players handbook.
There's also some in the
Xanathar's Guide which we're gonna
look at, but there is one
ranger archetype in particular
that I wanted to show yo
and see what you think.
Because you're working in a city
there's a ranger archetype
called the gloom stalker.
And in the first paragraph here,
if you read the first paragraph for me.
Gloom stalkers are at home
in the darkest places,
deep under the Earth, in gloomy alleyways,
in primeval forests, and
wherever else the light dims.
- So to me that gloomy alleyways spoke of
the seedier parts of the city.
So gloom stalkers that's their whole deal
is they sit in the shadows.
If you were a sniper for
the City Watch before
you start to be that
reliable person that can
sneak into the places
that maybe other people
wouldn't be able to go, pass
in those dark alleyways,
find out what's going on in
the seedier parts of the city.
- That's exactly as I saw her.
- Okay perfect.
- So yeah that's great.
- Perfect, that's great.
So we'll be a gloom stalker
then is your archetype.
So in you're powers there I want you
to write archetype, gloom stalker.
It just sounds cool too right.
- It really does.
- Absolutely, and then you get
two things being a gloom stalker.
You get some more magic stuff and again
we'll talk about the magic at the end.
But you get dread ambusher
is one of the things you get
which sounds cool so dread
ambusher there in your powers.
And what this is is you're a
master of ambushing people.
In the game, and we'll find
out this way play together,
you roll initiative to start combat
to see what order people act in.
You're gonna get bonuses
to your initiative.
You'll be among the first
to act all the time.
You're just a master of
that moment of the ambush.
The other big power that
you get when you become
a gloom stalker is something
called umbral sight.
Now what this allows a person
to do is to see in the dark.
Now you're a Half Elf so you have
dark vision up to sixty feet.
However, because this knows that you might
already be somebody who has dark vision,
you get to add 30 feet
to your dark vision.
So you can see further in the
dark than a normal Half Elf.
So you've got your dark
vision already up here.
Just add that to 90 feet now.
And then the last thing
that you get at third level,
there's three basic powers
that you get third level
as a ranger is something
called primeval awareness.
And this is back in the
players handbook again.
You write down your powers.
And with primeval awareness
this allows you to focus
your mind and you can sense
the presence of undead,
or dragons, or demons, or fiends
within about a one mile radius of you.
- Oh that's awesome.
- So you can just sort of quiet yourself
and sense all that stuff.
So all of this happens at third level.
Third level is sort of a
big turning point for you,
you kind of come into
your own as a ranger.
I think this is probably also the moment
based upon us talking
about your trajectory
of your character where you become really
disenchanted with being
a beat cop essentially.
So do you have any thoughts
about how that might occur?
Like what makes you feel
this is not your path?
- So a few things probably happened.
Being a beat cop you only
have so much control.
Once you take the bad
guys in you don't have
much control over what happens to them.
Being on the outside of society,
obviously her charisma is a little low.
Taking orders has been an issue for her.
And if she isn't seeing what got her into
this job to begin with,
if she isn't seeing
the change that she thinks is necessary
then she becomes very
disenchanted with her situation.
There's always the need and the desire to
have more of an affect
on the world around her.
- Okay that makes sense.
Especially if she's a champion for those
who can't really fight for themselves.
I was thinking she kind
of grew up on the streets,
not being accepted
again by either society,
maybe more of an urchen type.
If she has been used to working outside
of the confines of society, being inside
the confines of this particular job.
- That makes total
sense, makes total sense.
- It's too much for her.
- So at this point
right around third level
she comes in to her
powers she's disenchanted
for all these reasons
that we talked about.
So she starts to seek other outlets.
The City Watch still makes
sense, you're still seeking
that kind of protection
and order and stuff.
But looking for other
avenues inside there.
So your two options are the Griffon Guard
which is sort of an elite
SWAT team kind of unit,
Or the Inquisitors and
the Inquisitors are,
they investigate magical
crimes and they go deep
into the thieves quarter
and stuff and take care
of these really horrible horrible crimes.
And try to investigate them
and bring them to justice.
Both groups that would
definitely recruit you.
You're a powerful sharpshooter and archer.
You're super useful to both groups.
But I feel like based
on what you described,
the Griffon Guard's gonna
be more of the same.
Even though you're more powerful
you're gonna be taking orders and doing--
- That's kind of what I
was thinking too yeah.
- But the Inquisitors.
- This is where you're
getting to the real root
of the problem, and I think
that's what she wants to do.
- So as part of this so this, she applies
into the Inquisitors, is
accepted into that group,
and moves into those
ranks of the City Watch.
Part of this is she's
gonna be doing a lot more
kind of undercover kind of work.
So she's granted a magical
item, and this magical item.
- I was gonna ask if
there was undercover work.
- There's totally undercover work.
And this is a suit of
studded leather armor,
that is called armor of glamour.
So if you write that in your equipment
right here, armor of glamour.
- Totally up my alley.
- And so what this does is it's studded
leather armor, studded leather plus one,
so it's more powerful than
normal studded leather.
But at your will it can turn into
looking just regular clothing.
So despite the fact you're
always wearing armor
you appear, if you want
to, whenever you want to,
to be wearing regular clothing.
- That's awesome.
- Yeah it's super cool.
So yeah that's part of
your undercover work
as we move into level three
and move into the Inquisitors.
So as we spend some
time in the Inquisitors
we're gonna move to level four,
we'll do the mechanical
work here for level four.
Level four is again more hit points.
So you've got your d10.
That's a nine, plus your
constitution of zero, so nine more.
You're killing it with the resilience.
You can take a lot of hits,
stand and trade blows, you're up to 33.
The other big thing that
happens at level four,
and this happens to all character classes
at level four when you reach level four
is that you get an ability score bonus.
Now we can do ability score score bonus
or there's an alternate rule
for picking feats as well.
We're gonna stick to
the straight and narrow
and do the ability score bonus.
So you get two points
you can add them both
to one ability score, or you can add one
to two different ability scores.
So if we look at your
sheet here you're doing
pretty well for your dexterity, you've got
an incredibly high dexterity of 20.
So as far as your archery goes
you're taking care of all of it.
Your wisdom's okay, you've
got a plus one in wisdom
and that's see where
your spell's come from.
But you're a little lower
in some other areas.
It seems to me, and
this is sort of the idea
of this ability bonus
is that you've trained,
you've done a bunch of stuff and you've
raised one of your abilities.
So where do you think you might
to increase your abilities?
- Well wisdom is probably
a good idea but also,
and let me know what you think about this,
I'm thinking especially
if she's been in the city
for a little while now and
she's going undercover,
charisma probably should
go up a little bit.
- It's not the worst thing in the world.
Right now your charisma
is nine so you've got
a minus one on those
kinds of interactions.
So raising it to 10 is gonna
put that penalty at zero.
So that's definitely gonna
help in that respect.
So I think that's a solid choice too.
So let's change that nine to 10.
And the the minus one becomes a zero.
- Go away minus one.
- And then you have one more
point to spend somewhere else.
Now I'll tell you
mechanically, so we're kind of
meta gaming here, meta game
is when you use the rules
instead of thinking about
your character as much.
Mechanically speaking the bonuses to
your ability scores
happen at even numbers.
So 10 and 11 have the
same bonus, plus zero.
So you wouldn't raise this guy to an 11,
it's not gonna help you
with anything mechanically.
However you do have a couple of scores
that are all on odd
numbers, you've got two 13's
in intelligence and wisdom,
and you have an 11 in strength.
So any of those are gonna give you
another bonus if you add one to them.
Again your dexterity is
so super high right now.
That doesn't seem to be a place where
you'd want to really bump up.
- I mean, I'm thinking
since it's more detective
work I think either
wisdom or intelligence might be better.
- Those seem solid wisdom is your
spell casting ability as
well so as you cast spells
as a ranger bumping up that wisdom
is gonna help those spells too.
- Let's do wisdom then.
- Alrighty that sounds perfect.
So that becomes a 14 and that's
a plus two now to your wisdom.
I think this is the place you become,
kind of come into your own here.
You're kind of moving
through the Inquisitors.
You get to spend some time
alone as the lone wolf
that you are, doing
investigations, going undercover,
really making a difference in the city,
solving these crimes rather than
just going out and busting heads.
I think this is where you
probably get recruited
into one of the elite squads which is what
we're gonna play with when
we're out there at the day.
So you're recruited in that elite squad.
And then you also raise
yourself to level five.
So this is kind of the
last mechanical piece
that will do here is rising to level five.
Now in level five you'll
roll more hit points exactly.
So let's do those guys.
So that's actually
important, so you rolled.
- I did.
- So because I make my
players roll hit points
when they could just
take that six I don't,
if they roll a one on their
first roll I let them reroll.
Now if you roll a one again,
you're gonna have to keep it.
But I want you to be able to stand
toe to toe with the bad guys.
We're playing a fun game
here so let's reroll that.
Alright so a six much better than a one.
You don't have any bonuses
for your constitutions.
You'll just add six to there
so we're up to 39 now yeah?
So hit points are the first thing
that happens to you in
level five but the big thing
for you as a warrior and
as a martial character,
you've got a character
who kind of mixes it up
and attacks and does a lot of damage,
is that at level five
you get an extra attack.
So I would write that in your
powers here, extra attack.
So when you take the attack action,
and we'll explain this
when we play the game,
you get to take two
attacks instead of one.
So with your bow you're
gonna be up on the roof
their firing those arrows away.
- That's kind of badass.
- It's totally badass right.
So you're stalking in the darkness.
You're jumping out and ambushing people.
You're firing arrows all over the place.
You get a little like Legolas but not
in the sunlight, in the shadows right.
- I like this.
- So it's gonna be super super cool.
So that's your big thing
at level five mechanically.
Mostly what we got on
your character sheet here.
We've got your special armor,
all of your powers and abilities.
I want to move to the
spell casting side now.
So there's a little bit of mechanical
work we need to do for spell casting.
So your spell sheet is the
last sheet in that stack.
And as a ranger you cast spells as we
we're talking about with
wisdom as your primary ability.
So first your class of spell casting,
you're a ranger so that goes there.
And then we just said your
spell casting ability is wisdom.
And your wisdom is going to determine
how powerful your spells
are, how much people
able to avoid them, those kinds of things.
So there's two things
that go along with that.
And the first thing there,
and this is right here
in the book, is your spell save DC.
Now what that's gonna
mean and we'll see this
mechanically when we play the game is that
some of the spells that you cast
people can try to resist those spells.
And so they need a number to roll against
to see if they can resist, and
how powerful your spell is.
So that's eight, plus
your proficiency bonus.
Let's put plus three here right here
where proficiency bonus is,
you're a fifth level character,
you're a plus three proficiency.
So it's eight, plus
your proficiency bonus,
plus your wisdom modifier.
- 11 and this then, so 13?
- So 13, 13 it is, your
spell save DC is 13.
And the other one is
your spell attack bonus.
So many of your spells
may be offensive spells,
shooting blasts and things like that.
So your spell attack bonus
is your proficiency bonus,
plus your ability bonus
there so that's three
plus two, plus five then again there.
So all role playing games
are empathy and math.
That's all role playing games are.
So that's your spell stuff.
We're gonna pick spells as
homework outside of here
because there's so many
spells to choose from
and we'll have probably long conversations
about what spells you want to use.
But I do want to talk about
quickly as we pick spells
you want to think about
who you are as a ranger.
The first instinct a lot
of times for new players
is to pick combat spells,
lots of spells that do damage.
But your primary source of
damage is gonna be that bow.
So as we think about
spells here we're gonna
want to think about spells
that not only do damage,
but also maybe help the other players,
or help you in some way, or
help in situations that aren't
combat because you have
some strong combat powers.
Alright so that's all the mechanical stuff
that we have to do for your character.
So we're basically done here.
We got some homework, we're
gonna choose some spells
and some other things in the coming week.
How does this feel to you?
How does this feel compared
to the blood hunter
that you were talk talking about?
- I like that there's, we're
getting a little more in depth.
You can't really melee and
do ranged weapons anymore
in WoW so this is a
little more well rounded.
- Oh cool, well and that's
one of the important things
about a tabletop role playing
game versus an MMO like WoW
is that you've got some
pretty tight boundaries
in those games, you can
explore a huge expansive world.
But you can only do the things
that the rules allow you to do.
In this game you can do
anything that you want.
You tell me what you want to do
and I'm gonna help you
figure out how to do that.
- Yeah we're fully flushing
her out which is great.
- If you want more details
about these characters
or to see them in action in
a fantasy detective story
join us for Starter Kit, only on alpha.
(dramatic music)
