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Can't wait for Exandria Unlimited: Divergence? Check out its intro, as posted to the Critical Role socials!

Visual Effects by Christian Brown, 3D modeling by Axolote Gaming, and musical theme by Colm R. McGuinness.

Divergence is a four-part miniseries and premieres tonight, February 13, in all the usual places.

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Tusk Love is becoming a very real novel! Written by Thea Guanzon, with a cover illustrated by Erion Makuo, the favorite novel of Jester Lavorre herself will be published July 1, 2025.

The publisher's summary from Random House Worlds reads:

As the daughter of an ambitious merchant, Guinevere’s path has been predetermined: marry into a noble house of the Dwendalian Empire, raise her family’s station, and live quietly as a lordling’s obedient wife. But Guinevere longs for a life unbounded by expectations, for freedom and passion and adventure. Those distant dreams become a sudden reality when her caravan is beset by bandits, leaving her guards slain and Guinevere stranded alone on the dangerous Amber Road. Her only chance of survival is to travel alongside Oskar, the aloof half-orc who saved her during the attack. Unlike Guinevere, Oskar’s path is not so set in stone. With his mother dead and his apprenticeship abandoned, all that’s left is a long, lonely walk to a land he’s never seen to find family he’s never met. The last thing he needs is a spoiled waif like Guinevere slowing him down—even if the spark between them sizzles with promise. Despite his cold exterior, Oskar is brave and thoughtful and unlike anyone Guinevere has ever met. And while Guinevere may be sheltered, she brings out a softness in him that he has never dared to feel before. As the flames of their passion grow, they realize that soon they’ll need to choose between their expected destinations or their blossoming romance.

You can find more information about this and other Critical Role books at CriticalRoleBooks.com.

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C3E102 Reconciliation

Happy Thursday!

Better hope Delilah rolls worse than last week… Check out our stats for episode 102 now.

...Also better look forward to seeing more of whatever this unholy thing is.

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A new Critical Role short story collection!

To celebrate ten years, Critical Role and Penguin Random House will publish Vox Machina: Stories Untold in March 2025.

This collection features a foreword by Liam O'Brien and ten short stories by Jess Barber, Martin Cahill, Rebecca Coffindaffer, Aabria Iyengar, Sam Maggs, Sarah Glenn Marsh, Rory Power, Nibedita Sen, Izzy Wasserstein, and Kendra Wells.

These stories include, quoting from Penguin Random House:

Shaun Gilmore reflects on the life he has chosen, as told by Aabria Iyengar.

Raishan, racked by a pestilent curse, plots to release the Cinder King from his fiery prison, as told by Rory Power.

Trinket the Wonder Bear accompanies the next generation of Vox Machina on their first adventure, as told by Sarah Glenn Marsh.

You can learn more at Penguin Random House's website for Critical Role books.

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Folks were asking how I came to my thoughts on The Lawbearer...

My basic premise all stemmed from a notion... perhaps the Gods do not choose their pantheons, but the choices they made in the Before Times defined them in ways they never expected... or wanted. And for some of the Gods, their pantheon is not just the source of great power, or a heavy burden of responsibility, but a yoke that they suffer under.

I love backstory, too, I make up head-canon like crazy: I dreamt of titanic battles between The Lawbearer and The Wildmother before they were lovers... when they were mortal enemies, championing their domains... The Wildmother fighting to keep the world natural and feral, The Lawbearer carving out bastions of protection where civilization may take root. But the one cannot coexist with the other. I think those fights scarred the lands of Exandria... massive mountain peaks made from the broken teeth of a Wolf of mythic proportions... canyons and rivers formed from the spinning shards of a Divine Axe, shattered in combat.

Also... The Lawbearer is often depicted fully hooded, wearing a blindfold, or hidden behind an almost mask-like visage... I think her perfectly symmetrical face now bears deep scars from those times. A constant reminder that balance, civilization, and community must be fought for. That peaceful times are bought with the blood of the faithful. And that love often comes with a terrible price.

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Ayden’s Build 

TL;DR: Barbarian 1, Druid  2 (Circle of the Stars), Paladin 8 (Oath of the Ancients), and Cleric 9 (Peace Domain). Feats: Squire of Solamnia, Remarkable Recovery, Warcaster, Knight of Crowns, Spelldriver, Tough.

Building Ayden was a joy and a journey. To begin we were told we had 20 levels to work with and stats of 20 across the board. The only thing I knew about Ayden from the session 0 was that he was going to be a Cleric of the Everlight and that I wanted to make him the best support character I could. I also knew that the Dawnfather was aware of the mission briefing and so would have directed his growth to the task at hand. 

Stats of 20 meant multiclassing into any class was possible and that any ability score based bonuses or proficiency based abilities were going to be very good. I figured that with a warlock and a sorcerer we’d have some pretty good counterspelling and 9th level spell access, so I didn’t worry myself about either of those, instead focusing on making sure we all survived. 

The Dawnfather and The Everlight share 2 of 3 Domains. Life and Light. The Everlight’s 3rd domain is Peace. The Peace Domain cleric is an excellent subclass and its 6th level ability, Protective Bond, was something I knew I wanted to build around. The ability to take hits for, and aid, my siblings while teleporting around the battlefield is an excellent support ability and it also lets allies in the bond do the same, fostering sibling unity and cohesion.

With the Dawnfather having Nature as his unique domain separate from the Everlight, and literally sending himself to Exandria to infiltrate a city full of the greatest mages of the age, the Oath of Ancients Paladin seemed like an obvious path. It is the nature Paladin, (his domain) and 7 levels gives you both Aura of Protection and Aura of Warding. This means as Ayden moves through the battlefield with Protective Bond he will be granting allies +5 to saves from his cha as well as resistance to damage from spells. Incredibly good going up against the wizards of Aeor he knew he would encounter. I didn’t want to go to 10 with Paladin because I didn’t want to be immune to frightened. I just felt that fear played too large a role in the reasons the gods were here and although aura of courage is probably my favorite ability going back to 3rd edition, I felt like it wasn’t right for Ayden. He had to fear in order to reinforce his need to hope. 

These two classes were set relatively quickly and then I began looking at how else I was going to build him out. 

I really liked the idea of being able to grant my allies some extra attacks and so I was looking at battle master to get commanders strike and goading attack as well as maneuvering attack to help take hits for and position my allies. Action Surge is also a great ability that could really come in handy if I needed to save someone and needed one extra action to do so. 

I was also looking at the 2nd level Divination Wizard ability Portent. The ability to fully dictate 2 rolls is very powerful in certain circumstances, especially if the numbers are very high or very low.

Both these seemed good but weren’t feeling totally right from a character perspective. They felt too forced.

As I was playing around with these two classes I was also building Aydens backstory. I really liked the idea of him being agriculturally focused, as this aspect of the Dawnfather is actually his youngest. Sun begets days, and thus time and seasons, and as civilization evolves agriculture follows. The fighter levels lent the idea that he has spent some time training under a knight or some such warrior, and I knew that he would eventually find his way to Trist to begin his tutelage and become her cleric. I liked there being these different eras of his life. 

It was around this time that I got an awesome email asking me to describe Ayden visually so that the incredibly talented Hannah Friederichs and Cael Lyons could begin to bring Ayden and the Dawnfather to life. I wanted Ayden to be a simply dressed with a shield he took from his mentor, but no sword for striking. They sent 4 sketches and told me I could mix and match as I desired. Image #1 however was exactly as I had envisioned him. It was the simplest and had this depth to his eyes that told the story of a much older soul in this 15 year old body. It was so perfect that it made me realize I had been going in the totally wrong direction with fighter and wizard. The concepts of nature and agriculture were suddenly staring me in the face. It was not wizard, but druid, and his mentor could have taught him to be a paladin as easily as fighter, but if he is the bringer of agriculture who has he brought it to? A remote tribe still hunting and gathering was the answer. Barbarian therefore replaced fighter. I can’t tell you how influential the sketch I received was. It felt like a bolt of lightning suddenly clarified everything. 

I was for sure cleric 6, Paladin 7 and now looking at druid and barbarian. 

I didn’t know Druid subclasses very well but Circle of the Stars jumped out from the pack just with its name. The Sun after all is a star. When I read its 2nd level abilities Starmap and Starry form it was so obvious. I can cast Guiding Bolt to set up those attacks I wanted to grant, and I can glow instead of wild shape and either heal more or have a massive bonus to maintain the concentration spells I knew I wanted to cast. For the keeper of time to know how to read the stars just felt right. It also feel right that the druids of a tribe that had been hunting and gathering during the tumultuous Calamity would have learned to navigate by the stars, a singular constant in an every changing age. 

Barbarian has a number of interesting subclasses but none felt like they clicked. 1 level of Barbarian though, for a character with 20 dexterity and 20 constitution, catapults your AC to 20 and it also gives you a proficiency in Constitution saving throws if you take it as your first class, again reinforcing those concentration rolls. He was found as a child by this barbarian tribe and his first class is also his first community. Barbarian was the strong foundation I would build upon. 

I was now Cleric 6, Paladin 7, Druid 2, Barbarian 1. Reorganized to be the order Ayden would have taken them in it becomes the following:

Barbarian 1, Druid  2 (Circle of the Stars), Paladin 7 (Oath of the Ancients), and Cleric 6 (Peace Domain)

4 more levels to distribute. As a player who has mostly played 3.5 (I think downfall just about doubled the amount of 5E I have played) feats are my absolute favorite things, so getting to multiples of 4 in class levels to grab some was something I wanted to do (also I didn’t have to worry about ability score increases)! I had already given one feat up by taking barb and druid but I made up for it with the human variant. I also took the Knight of Solamnia background to give me Squire of Solamnia, the prerequisite for Knight of the Crowns which would give me the ability to grant attacks to my allies without needing battle maneuvers. 

So I upped paladin from 7-8 for a feat and then decided to take Cleric from 6-9 because it gave me a feat and access to the spell Dawn. I mean the Dawnfather should be able to cast Dawn after all! 

Now to feats

1) Background: Squire of Solamnia to give me the prerequisite for Knight of the Crowns

2) Human Variant: Remarkable Recovery. I knew I’d be taking extra damage so having 5 extra hp from any healing I get might just be the difference. It also plays into his background. He had to leave the Barbarian tribe he brought agriculture to because his skin could not retain the ceremonial tattoo ink that would have symbolized his initiation into the community. 

3) Cleric 4 Warcaster to get advantage on those concentration checks, that along with proficiency and starry form of the dragon means I need to take 28 damage (56 if it’s a spell) to even have to roll, and when I do I get advantage and proficiency on the check. Getting me to lose concentration is gonna be a task. 

4) Paladin 4 Knight of the Crown getting to grant an attack proficiency times per day combos wonderfully with Starmaps free guiding bolt, conveniently also proficiency times per day. 

5) Cleric 8 Spelldriver I’m gonna be casting a bunch of spells so the ability to cast multiple each turn is going to make my support spells come out much faster. I have a big fam to take care of!

6) Paladin 8 Tough I really went back and forth between this and Inspiring Leader. Granting all my siblings 25 temp hp is amazing but ultimately I decided that as I’d be tanking a bunch of damage I’d need toughness. Toughness gave me 15 more hp than Inspiring leader would have, and I ended up going down to 14 at one point so it was a decision that very much paid off by a single HP! Don’t wanna pop a deathward if you can help it!

Last but not least we were granted 2 magic items. One very rare and one uncommon. For my uncommon I chose a cloak of resistance, a parting gift from the tribe that Ayden could not join. This upped my saves to 11s or 17s and took my AC to 23. For his very rare magic item I took a spellguard shield, inherited from the knight who brought him from the remote tribe to Trist‘s school, giving me advantage on saving throws vs spells and magical effects and inflicting disadvantages on spell effects targeting me. Combine that with resistance to spells from Aura of Warding and that’s a nasty nasty combo v wizards. 

All in all Ayden’s build is an incredibly hard to target tanky support character who can move through the battlefield protecting his allies and being an absolute nightmare for enemy spellcasters. The only thing I really didn’t fully consider was just how much damage he would take from Warding Bond which totally bypasses all those wonderfully crafted defenses. As crazy as it is, I think we barely got to scratch the surface of Aydens full potential and it’s probably good those mages decided to cast spells at everyone else because Ayden was going to be a tough character for a spell caster to crack. The Commanding Rally did get to shine allowing characters who specialized in weapon attacks to get a little extra out of those 20 level commitments. Ayden’s build was crafted to keep his siblings alive and let them shine as bright as possible together. I’m very proud of him!

If you read all this then you’re as nerdy as me and deserve a reward!

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C3E101 Downfall: Part Three

Fun factoid from the archive: tracking stats for Level 20 combat is actually as hard as Level 20 combat itself!

...

Kidding, but C3E101 Downfall: Part Three sure was a doozy. Thank you for your patience; our stats are now online.

As no one could have foreseen, least of all the Knowing Mistress, there were some... pretty high rolls this episode.

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Going to be doing an AMA tomorrow! Will def talk build as well as whatever wonderful questions I’m sure you will all ask!!!

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If Essek's caprine set-baa-ck has you thinking about goats in Exandria, these articles will certainly float your goat. 🐐

Cliffneck goats, also called Flot goats, are found in the Flotket Alps of Wildemount. They're large and sturdy, and they're characterized by a large wreath of fur around their heads. The famed Jerry was a Flot goat.

Sillgoats are common in the Oderan Wilds of Marquet. They're often used instead of horses to navigate the inclines of Jrusar.

The goat-knight steeds of the Peakclimber Knights of Kraghammer in Tal'Dorei are actually celestials! They help patrol the Cliffkeep Mountains with ease and are the characteristic mount of the knightly order.

Goats are also the namesake of goatball, a sport played by half-giant clans in Tal'Dorei.

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If you enjoyed Queen By Midnight, you'll be thrilled to hear that Darrington Press is releasing a standalone expansion pack, Queen By Midnight: Quarter Past, written and designed by the game's creator Kyle Shire!

According to the announcement, Quarter Past features four new princesses, a new set of bazaar cards, and a smaller Clock Board for travel friendly play. These new cards can be played with the original Queen By Midnight or on their own in standalone play.

It releases November 13, 2024, and Guild Stores will have promotional foil editions of the Princesses.

Check out the blog post at Darrington Press for more information, including game credits.

You can also watch the little teaser video — again narrated by Laura Bailey, as Boss No from the original set and featuring the return of the musical theme composed by Colm McGuinness!

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C3E100 Downfall: Part Two

It's Thursday! Last week's stats for C3E100 are now online. Don't forget that we are now posting Flando's time stamps for each episode alongside our usual battle maps, NPC lists, HDYWTDTs, etc.

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For all of you keeping tabs on the cartoon adaptations of your favorite campaigns, there's a real treat for all of you today with a new sneak peek at season three of The Legend of Vox Machina, featuring the party and Gilmore in Ank'Harel...

...and a first look for Mighty Nein, featuring Jester and Fjord — our first proper peek at the series!

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We've heard that tonight's episode of Downfall is six and a half hours on Twitch. Even accounting for Twitch's intro and outro reels, this makes it certainly one of the five longest episodes on the channel!

This means that, once the VOD hits YouTube, three of the five longest episodes will feature Brennan Lee Mulligan — two as a GM with "Downfall: Part Three" and Exandria Unlimited: Calamity: "Fire and Ruin" (6:07:33) and one as a player with Candela Obscura: Circle of Needle & Thread: "Broken Path" (6:13:12).

You can learn more about the longest (and shortest) episodes on the Critical Role channel at our article.

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Critical Role schedule for the week of July 8, 2024

The return of Campaign 3 with Downfall, Part 1, the Midst Season 3 Roundtable, 4-Sided Dive, and a special message from Sam are the highlights this week.

Monday, July 8 — The Re-Slayer's Take: Episode 7 and, for Beacon members, The Re-Slayer's Take: Episode 9

Monday, July 8 — "It's Been A While": A special message from Sam Riegel!

Tuesday, July 9 — Critical Role Abridged: Campaign 3, Episode 12 and, for Beacon members, Campaign 3, Episode 30

Tuesday, July 9 — Daggerheart 1.5 Update with a live Q&A with Matthew Mercer and Spenser Starke

Tuesday, July 9 — 4-Sided Dive: Episode 25 with Sam Riegel, Matthew Mercer, Taliesin Jaffe, and Travis Willingham

Wednesday, July 10 — Midst: Season 3 Roundtable with Third Person, Marisha Ray, and Liam O'Brien

Thursday, July 11 — Critical Role: Campaign 3, Episode 99, Part 1 of Downfall with Brennan Lee Mulligan, Laura Bailey, Nosir Dalal, Taliesin Jaffe, Nick Marini, Abubakar Salim, and Ashley Johnson.

Friday, July 12 — Critical Role Abridged: Campaign 3, Episode 31 for Beacon members

Further details are available at the blog post on the official website:

You can check out what else is happening in the future at the upcoming events article at Encyclopedia Exandria!

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Critical Role schedule for the week of July 1, 2024

Between the Fourth of July in the United States on Thursday and Midst's conclusion last week, the channel is rather quiet this week.

Monday, July 1 — The Re-Slayer's (Bonus) Take featuring Matthew Mercer and, for Beacon members, The Re-Slayer's Take: Episode 8

Tuesday, July 2 — Critical Role Abridged: Campaign 3, Episode 11 and, for Beacon members, Campaign 3, Episode 28

Friday, July 5 — Critical Role Abridged: Campaign 3, Episode 29 for Beacon members

Next week, we can look forward to 4-Sided Dive and Campaign 3, Episode 99 with part one of Downfall, featuring Brennan Lee Mulligan, Laura Bailey, Noshir Dalal, Taliesin Jaffe, Ashley Johnson, Abubakar Salim, and Nick Marini.

Further details are available at the blog post on the official website:

You can check out what else is happening in the future at the upcoming events article at Encyclopedia Exandria!

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Wiki Push: The Nine Eyes of Lucien

Hey everyone! As this and almost certainly next week are going to be off weeks, and with Downfall coming up, we're going to try to get our coverage of The Nine Eyes of Lucien in order. Given its ties to Aeor and the fact that we've been hoping to be able to get around to it for a while, it seems like a good time!

Let us know here, on the wiki, or in our discord if you're interested in helping out. One of our admins plans to work on the actual summary (unless someone else is passionate about doing so) but we are looking for help with character, location, and faction pages. If you've read the book, or if you're going to use this mini-break to catch up on it, please join us!

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Critical Role schedule for the week of June 24, 2024

Monday, June 24 — The Re-Slayer's Take: Season 1, Episode 6 and, for Beacon members, Episode 7

Monday, June 24 — Fireside Chat with Marisha Ray for Beacon members

Tuesday, June 25 — Critical Role Abridged: Campaign 3, Episode 10 and, for Beacon members, Campaign 3, Episode 26

Tuesday, June 25 — Candela Obscura: Game Master Roundtable

Wednesday, June 26 — Midst: Season 3, Episode 19, the series finale!

Thursday, June 27 — Daggerheart Cooldown: Ménagerie a Trois for Beacon members

Friday, June 28 — Critical Role Abridged: Campaign 3, Episode 27 for Beacon members

Further details are available at the blog post on the official website:

You can check out what else is happening in the future at the upcoming events article at Encyclopedia Exandria!