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The RPGBOT.Podcast is a thoughtful and sometimes humorous discussion about Tabletop Role Playing Games, including Dungeons and Dragons and Pathfinder as well as other TTRPGs. The discussion seeks to help players get the most out of TTRPGs by examining game mechanics and related subjects with a deep, analytic focus. The RPGBOT.Podcast includes a weekly episode; and The RPGBOT.News and The RPGBOT.Oneshot. You can find more information at https://rpgbot.net/ - Analysis, tools, and instructional articles for tabletop RPGs. Support us at the following links: Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/rpgbot BlueSky: https://bsky.app/profile/rpgbot.net TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@rpgbotdotnet The RPGBOT.Podcast was developed by RPGBOT.net and produced in association with The Leisure Illuminati.

  1. 8h ago

    DnD 2014 WIZARDS featuring TREANTMONK - Levels 8 - 20 (Remastered)

    I based this on the full RPGBOT transcript, including the spell drafts, subclass progression, Spell Mastery, Signature Spells, the almost-unthinkable moment when Wish nearly went unpicked, and the continuing transformation of Tyler's Manifest Mind into an arcane attack drone. (RPGBOT) Cold Open Last time, we built Wizards who could survive long enough to become dangerous. That was apparently a mistake. Treantmonk is back as we take our 2014 D&D 5e Wizard builds from level 8 all the way to 20, where spell selection stops being a question of how to win a fight and becomes a question of how creatively we would like to ruin reality. Tyler is operating his floating spellbook like a magical Predator drone. Ash has discovered Bigby's Hand and immediately found exactly the wrong way to describe it. Randall continues turning Magic Missile into a personal philosophy. And Chris is here trying to explain responsible Wizard optimization while the rest of us draft spells specifically to hurt each other's feelings. By the time we reach ninth-level spells, Wish almost goes undrafted. That sentence alone should tell you how this episode goes. Welcome back to the RPGBOT.Podcast. We made it to level 20, nobody died, and reality is now more of a suggestion than a rule. Show Notes Treantmonk returns for Part 2 and the conclusion of our 2014 D&D 5e Wizard optimization builds, picking up at level 8 and taking our Wizards all the way to level 20. At this point, the training wheels are gone. Fifth-level spells bring Wall of Force, Bigby's Hand, Wall of Stone, and increasingly aggressive spell drafting. By sixth level, the choices get even nastier, and picking the right spell becomes almost as important as making sure someone else doesn't get it first. Contingency gets selected partly because it is useful and partly because denying Tyler something he wants is apparently a valid optimization strategy. That pretty much sets the tone for the rest of the episode. As our D&D 5e Wizard builds move into the high levels, each character leans harder into their particular brand of nonsense. Ash embraces illusions, confusion, and magical hands. Randall continues finding ways to make Magic Missile everybody else's problem. Treantmonk builds around control, restraint, and smart high-level Wizard spell selection. Tyler keeps sending his Manifest Mind into places he absolutely does not intend to visit personally. Then we reach seventh, eighth, and ninth-level Wizard spells, where things get properly ridiculous. Maze, Sunburst, Demiplane, Foresight, Shapechange, Power Word Kill, Meteor Swarm, and Wish all enter the conversation as the builds start moving from battlefield control into reality control. And somehow Wish almost doesn't get picked. We also get into one of the most interesting parts of high-level 5e Wizard optimization: Spell Mastery. Unlimited access to carefully chosen first and second-level spells opens up some disgusting combinations, especially when Shield, Web, Tasha's Mind Whip, Vortex Warp, Phantasmal Force, and other low-level favorites no longer need spell slots. Finally, we hit level 20 and Signature Spells, where everyone chooses their third-level favorites and collectively realizes that the Wizard's actual capstone might not feel nearly as exciting as what they received two levels earlier. After two episodes of ability scores, feats, subclasses, Wizard spell selection, optimization, and increasingly questionable tactical decisions, our Treantmonk Wizard builds are complete. The Wizards have reached level 20. The spellbooks are full.The laws of physics have filed a formal complaint. Key Takeaways High-level Wizard optimization is less about dealing more damage and more about having exactly the right tool when everything goes wrong. Spell selection gets increasingly competitive as the builds advance. There are plenty of good Wizard spells, but everyone starts wanting the same exceptional ones. Wall of Force remains exactly the kind of spell an optimized Wizard hates leaving on the table. If nobody else takes it, somebody eventually has to. Sixth-level spells show just how different optimized Wizards can become. Mental Prison, Contingency, Mass Suggestion, Disintegrate, and other options push each build further into its own playstyle. High-level D&D 5e Wizards stop merely controlling encounters and start controlling circumstances. Maze, Demiplane, Shapechange, Foresight, Wish, and similar spells fundamentally change what the party can accomplish. Wish is incredibly powerful, but the discussion with Treantmonk highlights the practical problem with having nearly every lower-level spell available on demand: you still need to remember those spells exist when you actually need them. Spell Mastery may be one of the strongest pieces of the entire Wizard class. Turning excellent first and second-level Wizard spells into effectively unlimited resources creates some absurd possibilities. Shield becomes even more ridiculous when you can cast it without spending spell slots, especially if Randall is nearby with Magic Missile and bad intentions. At level 20, Signature Spells are useful, but after getting Spell Mastery at level 18 they do not exactly feel like the grand finale of becoming one of the most powerful spellcasters in Dungeons & Dragons. The biggest lesson from the complete Treantmonk Wizard build is that there is no single correct way to optimize a 2014 D&D 5e Wizard. Control, illusions, damage, summons, utility, mobility, and general magical nonsense can all work if the spell choices support the character you actually want to play. And if all else fails, become a Wizard with a remote-controlled spellbook, hide around a corner, and make the dungeon somebody else's problem. Welcome to the RPGBOT Podcast. If you love Dungeons & Dragons, Pathfinder, and tabletop RPGs, this is the podcast for you. Support the show for free: Rate and review us on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or any podcast app. It helps new listeners find the best RPG podcast for D&D and Pathfinder players. Level up your experience: Join us on Patreon to unlock ad-free access to RPGBOT.net and the RPGBOT Podcast, chat with us and the community on the RPGBOT Discord, and jump into live-streamed RPG podcast recordings. Support while you shop: Use our Amazon affiliate link at https://amzn.to/3NwElxQ and help us keep building tools and guides for the RPG community. Meet the Hosts Tyler Kamstra – Master of mechanics, seeing the Pathfinder action economy like Neo in the Matrix. Randall James – Lore buff and technologist, always ready to debate which Lord of the Rings edition reigns supreme. Ash Ely – Resident cynic, chaos agent, and AI's worst nightmare, bringing pure table-flipping RPG podcast energy. Join the RPGBOT team where fantasy roleplaying meets real strategy, sarcasm, and community chaos. How to Find Us: In-depth articles, guides, handbooks, reviews, news on Tabletop Role Playing at RPGBOT.net Tyler Kamstra BlueSky: @rpgbot.net TikTok: @RPGBOTDOTNET Ash Ely Professional Game Master on StartPlaying.Games BlueSky: @GravenAshes YouTube: @ashravenmedia https://ashelydm.com/ https://ashelydm.com/ Randall James BlueSky: @GrimoireRPG Amateurjack.com Read Melancon: A Grimoire Tale (affiliate link) Producer Dan @Lzr_illuminati

    DnD 2014 WIZARDS featuring TREANTMONK - Levels 8 - 20 (Remastered)

  2. 2d ago

    DEADFALL: ARCANA UNLEASHED - Seize the Means of Undead Production

    Welcome to Thay, where the dress code is red, the government is run by homicidal wizards, and your spy agency's severance package is either magical memory loss or death. Arcana Unleashed: Deadfall takes D&D 5e from cloak-and-dagger espionage to rebel wizards, pirates, demon-powered skeletons, legendary magic items, and eventually a full-scale assault on Szass Tam's evil wizard lair. Along the way, we discover that the real secret to saving Faerûn is apparently making friends with pirates, hoarding magic items, and knowing when not to punch the lich who can cast Finger of Death whenever he feels like it. Also, there's a dragon turtle named Bitey. Obviously, this is serious espionage. Arcana Unleashed (affiliate link) Arcana Unleashed: Deadfall (affiliate link) Forgotten Realms Wiki Szass Tam Show Notes We're wrapping up our Arcana Unleashed review with Deadfall, a high-level D&D 5e adventure that drops characters into Thay for an espionage campaign involving Red Wizards, political scheming, undead armies, absurd amounts of magic, and the small problem of Szass Tam attempting to take control of everything again. Before the spying begins, we dig into Thay itself, including the Zulkirs, Red Wizard society, Szass Tam's long history of being spectacularly evil, and why living in Thay mostly involves keeping your head down and desperately pretending you didn't see anything. Deadfall also offers advice for running a D&D espionage adventure, complete with secret identities, codenames, magical disguises, compromised covers, hidden bases, and consequences when the party inevitably decides subtlety is for NPCs. Once the campaign gets moving, Deadfall becomes a rapid-fire series of covert missions. The party hunts spies, blackmails messengers, recruits dissident Red Wizards, collects increasingly ridiculous magic items, befriends pirates, meets a dragon turtle named Bitey, and watches their earlier choices come back in meaningful ways. The adventure even accounts for the traditional player solution of murdering someone important to the plot, which earns it considerable respect from the group. The campaign moves quickly from level 11 to level 20, giving characters access to legendary equipment and some genuinely dangerous high-level D&D encounters. The final stretch turns the spy thriller into a full assault on Szass Tam's stronghold, culminating in a brutal boss fight involving powerful undead, demons, environmental effects, necrotic damage, and consequences tied directly to allies the characters helped or ignored earlier in the campaign. We also talk about why Deadfall works surprisingly well as more than a single adventure. Its missions can be pulled apart and used as D&D one-shots, adapted into an anthology-style campaign, or mined by Dungeon Masters looking for a useful Thay campaign setting reference. There are a few missed opportunities, particularly with some disappointing monster design, but the amount of usable material, meaningful player choice, high-level treasure, and contingency planning left us pleasantly surprised. If you're looking for an Arcana Unleashed Deadfall review, a D&D 5e high-level adventure, ideas for running an espionage campaign in Dungeons and Dragons, or an excuse to send level 20 characters after Szass Tam and the Red Wizards of Thay, there's a lot here worth stealing. Preferably before the players steal it first. Key Takeaways Deadfall is a level 11 to 20 D&D 5e espionage adventure set in Thay, centered on stopping Szass Tam and his latest extremely reasonable plan for world domination. Thay gets enough background material that the book can double as a useful Red Wizards of Thay campaign reference for Dungeon Masters. The espionage mechanics include disguises, codenames, secrecy, compromised identities, hidden bases, and ways to recover after blowing your cover. Player choices matter. Allies, side missions, failures, and earlier decisions can significantly change later encounters and even the difficulty of the final battle. The adventure anticipates players going off-script surprisingly well, including what happens when important NPCs die or the party chooses violence over diplomacy. Deadfall hands out a huge amount of high-level D&D magic items, including very rare, legendary, and even artifact-level equipment. The adventure's monster design occasionally disappoints, especially when flavorful concepts turn out to use fairly ordinary existing stat blocks. The campaign moves extremely quickly through high-level play, making the proposed session count ambitious for groups that like exploring every corner. The final Szass Tam encounter actually feels dangerous, with multiple enemies, nasty environmental effects, and consequences based on what the characters accomplished earlier. Deadfall can work as a complete campaign, a collection of connected D&D one-shots, or a source of missions and ideas for a homebrew espionage adventure. Most importantly, make friends with the pirates. Seriously. Make friends with the pirates. Welcome to the RPGBOT Podcast. If you love Dungeons & Dragons, Pathfinder, and tabletop RPGs, this is the podcast for you. Support the show for free: Rate and review us on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or any podcast app. It helps new listeners find the best RPG podcast for D&D and Pathfinder players. Level up your experience: Join us on Patreon to unlock ad-free access to RPGBOT.net and the RPGBOT Podcast, chat with us and the community on the RPGBOT Discord, and jump into live-streamed RPG podcast recordings. Support while you shop: Use our Amazon affiliate link at https://amzn.to/3NwElxQ and help us keep building tools and guides for the RPG community. Meet the Hosts Tyler Kamstra – Master of mechanics, seeing the Pathfinder action economy like Neo in the Matrix. Randall James – Lore buff and technologist, always ready to debate which Lord of the Rings edition reigns supreme. Ash Ely – Resident cynic, chaos agent, and AI's worst nightmare, bringing pure table-flipping RPG podcast energy. Join the RPGBOT team where fantasy roleplaying meets real strategy, sarcasm, and community chaos. How to Find Us: In-depth articles, guides, handbooks, reviews, news on Tabletop Role Playing at RPGBOT.net Tyler Kamstra BlueSky: @rpgbot.net TikTok: @RPGBOTDOTNET Ash Ely Professional Game Master on StartPlaying.Games BlueSky: @GravenAshes YouTube: @ashravenmedia https://ashelydm.com/ https://ashelydm.com/ Randall James BlueSky: @GrimoireRPG Amateurjack.com Read Melancon: A Grimoire Tale (affiliate link) Producer Dan @Lzr_illuminati

    DEADFALL: ARCANA UNLEASHED - Seize the Means of Undead Production

  3. 5d ago

    ARCANA UNLEASHED Part 3 - Everything was fine until Tyler read the rules..

    We survived the subclasses. We survived the wizard subclasses. Now Arcana Unleashed Part 3 asks the truly dangerous questions: What if every wizard got a Pokémon? What if every magical faction agreed that the Ninth Quill sucks? And what if an invisible imp could carry your entire adventuring party through a wall while you relax inside a genie lamp like the world's most heavily armed first-class passengers? This week, we're digging into the rest of Arcana Unleashed, including new backgrounds, feats, spells, magical factions, evolving magic items, monsters, and a dungeon puzzle whose greatest challenge is apparently identifying which end of a snake has the head. Welcome aboard Infernal Air. Please keep your arms, legs, and extraplanar vessels inside the familiar at all times. Arcana Unleashed (affiliate link) Arcana Unleashed: Deadfall (affiliate link) Fizban's Treasure of Dragons (affiliate link) AmateurJack.com - Recovery Long Rest - Cozy D&D Business Sim Show Notes We've covered the Arcana Unleashed subclasses. We've given Tyler an entire episode of wizard content. Now it's time to dig through everything else Wizards of the Coast packed into the book, and there is a lot more here than we expected. We start with the new Arcana Unleashed backgrounds and origin feats, where the results range from flavorful-but-forgettable to options that could seriously change how characters are built. Familiar Friend immediately gets our attention, especially once the rest of the familiar feats enter the picture. Arcane Warrior opens wizard cantrips to characters with Fighting Styles, while the new school-specific Adept feats offer spellcasters ways to steal spells and tricks from outside their usual class options. Then things get weird. Battle Familiar might be one of the strongest new D&D 2024 spells in Arcana Unleashed. It looks suspiciously like Summon Beast, except it does not require concentration, which means there is very little reason not to have one running whenever possible. Add familiar feats, Conjurer interactions, Necromancer options, and Pact of the Chain nonsense, and suddenly your adorable magical pet is an active participant in breaking the action economy. We also discover that Otherworldly Familiar lets a familiar move through walls, which naturally leads to an invisible imp carrying a Genie Warlock's vessel, and potentially the entire party, directly through the dungeon. Congratulations. You have invented Infernal Air and apparently solved dungeon crawling. The new Arcana Unleashed spells keep the chaos going. Detonation inspires the return of bag-of-rats logic, Mordenkainen's Lucubration provides an expensive way to trade higher-level spell slots for lower-level ones, and Summon Dinosaur requires very little explanation because sometimes the spell name is already doing all the work. Beyond character options, Arcana Unleashed includes advice for building magic-heavy campaign settings, creating magical traditions, defining society's relationship with magic, and using group patrons. The magical faction system expands that idea with organizations tied to each school of magic, complete with goals, renown rewards, relationships, player options, and Bastion facilities. Some are noble. Some are creepy. The Crucible Keepers apparently treat magical disasters like sporting events. The Bringers of the Cosmic Dawn have decided transmutation needed more body horror. The Covenant of the Grave gives necromancy a surprisingly thoughtful treatment. And nearly everybody hates the Ninth Quill because, as it turns out, being an organized magical crime syndicate is not a great way to make friends. We also dig into the new D&D evolving magic item rules. There are several premade examples, a simple system for upgrading items into higher-rarity versions, and a more flexible framework for adding new powers as an item grows. The concept is useful, particularly for DMs building long-term rewards, even if we wish the book gave us a lot more material to work with. Arcana Unleashed also brings back creatures like the baelnorn, introduces archmages themed around the schools of magic, and includes the level 1 adventure Tomb of the Shadow Serpents. Venger has apparently created a multiversal dungeon-based recruitment program where surviving a few traps and assembling three pieces of a snake qualifies you for employment in an evil organization. Which explains a lot about Venger's career. By the end of our Arcana Unleashed Part 3 review, the mechanics remain the strongest part of the book. The feats offer some genuinely interesting character-building options, the familiar material could have a major impact on D&D 5e character optimization, and the spells contain several standouts. The magical factions and worldbuilding material provide useful starting points for DMs, while the evolving magic item system feels like a good idea that we wish had been given more room to grow. And Battle Familiar probably needs concentration. Seriously. Key Takeaways Arcana Unleashed adds ten backgrounds and origin feats, with Familiar Friend standing out because it dramatically improves familiar survivability and unlocks the book's additional familiar feats. Arcane Warrior gives Fighters, Paladins, Rangers, and other characters with Fighting Styles access to wizard cantrips, opening up plenty of new D&D 2024 character build options. The school-specific Adept feats provide new spells and magical abilities, effectively offering lightweight versions of the eight schools of magic to characters outside the Wizard class. Battle Familiar is one of the biggest mechanical standouts in the book. Its lack of concentration creates extremely powerful interactions with familiars, summoners, Conjurer Wizards, Necromancer Wizards, and Pact of the Chain Warlocks. The Arcana Unleashed magical factions give DMs ready-made organizations for Abjuration, Conjuration, Divination, Enchantment, Evocation, Illusion, Necromancy, and Transmutation, complete with renown rewards and faction-specific Bastion facilities. The new evolving magic item rules provide a solid framework for D&D campaigns where weapons, armor, wands, and other magical equipment grow alongside their owners, although the system could use more examples and options. Tomb of the Shadow Serpents is a simple level 1 dungeon crawl built around Venger recruiting adventurers for future schemes. The loot is surprisingly generous, the encounters are straightforward, and the snake puzzle may be the greatest threat ever posed to player overthinking. Overall, Arcana Unleashed Part 3 reinforces the book's biggest strength: mechanics. The feats, spells, familiar options, and character customization tools are much stronger than the lighter worldbuilding material, and several options look likely to become significant parts of the D&D 5e 2024 optimization landscape. Welcome to the RPGBOT Podcast. If you love Dungeons & Dragons, Pathfinder, and tabletop RPGs, this is the podcast for you. Support the show for free: Rate and review us on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or any podcast app. It helps new listeners find the best RPG podcast for D&D and Pathfinder players. Level up your experience: Join us on Patreon to unlock ad-free access to RPGBOT.net and the RPGBOT Podcast, chat with us and the community on the RPGBOT Discord, and jump into live-streamed RPG podcast recordings. Support while you shop: Use our Amazon affiliate link at https://amzn.to/3NwElxQ and help us keep building tools and guides for the RPG community. Meet the Hosts Tyler Kamstra – Master of mechanics, seeing the Pathfinder action economy like Neo in the Matrix. Randall James – Lore buff and technologist, always ready to debate which Lord of the Rings edition reigns supreme. Ash Ely – Resident cynic, chaos agent, and AI's worst nightmare, bringing pure table-flipping RPG podcast energy. Join the RPGBOT team where fantasy roleplaying meets real strategy, sarcasm, and community chaos. How to Find Us: In-depth articles, guides, handbooks, reviews, news on Tabletop Role Playing at RPGBOT.net Tyler Kamstra BlueSky: @rpgbot.net TikTok: @RPGBOTDOTNET Ash Ely Professional Game Master on StartPlaying.Games BlueSky: @GravenAshes YouTube: @ashravenmedia https://ashelydm.com/ https://ashelydm.com/ Randall James BlueSky: @GrimoireRPG Amateurjack.com Read Melancon: A Grimoire Tale (affiliate link) Producer Dan @Lzr_illuminati

    ARCANA UNLEASHED Part 3 - Everything was fine until Tyler read the rules..

  4. Sep 19

    2014 DnD 5e WIZARDS Levels 1 - 7 with Treantmonk! (Remastered)

    Treantmonk joins us to talk about Wizards, which means we're about to spend an unreasonable amount of time discussing concentration saves, initiative bonuses, spell selection, and why standing anywhere near the enemy is a terrible lifestyle choice. We're taking the 2014 Wizard from levels 1 through 7, starting with a fragile academic who can be killed by an aggressively thrown sandwich and ending with a battlefield-control monster who can Web half the room, Fireball the other half, and still have enough magic left over to argue about which subclass is best. Along the way, we discover the Muscle Wizard, question why Medicine is still a skill, turn a spellbook into an arcane Predator drone, and once again prove that the strongest Wizard strategy is simple: Go first. Stay far away. Don't lose concentration. Easy. Show Notes Treantmonk joins Tyler, Ash, and Randall as we start building the 2014 D&D 5e Wizard from levels 1 through 7. We kick things off with ability scores, skills, defenses, and the eternal Wizard question: how much effort should you put into not immediately dying? That leads naturally into armor dips, Constitution saves, initiative, and why keeping concentration is often more important than squeezing out a little more damage. Then we get into subclasses. War Magic gets plenty of attention for its defensive tools and initiative bonus, Divination continues being Divination, Illusion gives Ash plenty to work with, and Order of Scribes eventually lets Tyler use his spellbook like a magical surveillance drone. Transmutation is also discussed. We'll leave it at that. Then comes the real Wizard experience: picking spells. Shield, Mage Armor, Find Familiar, Absorb Elements, and Magic Missile get us started before the gloves come off and everyone starts fighting over Web. From there we hit Fireball, Hypnotic Pattern, Slow, Fear, Counterspell, Tiny Hut, Summon Undead, Arcane Eye, Sickening Radiance, Greater Invisibility, Banishment, Polymorph, and enough other spells to remind everyone why building a Wizard takes three hours and a spreadsheet. By the end, one thing is very clear: Wizards don't need to solve every problem with damage. But they absolutely can. Key Takeaways The Wizard's biggest class feature is still its spell list. Your subclass matters, but your spell choices matter more. Protect your concentration. Positioning, Constitution saves, Shield, Absorb Elements, and simply refusing to stand next to angry monsters will keep your best spells running. Going first is incredibly powerful. War Magic gets a lot of love because dropping battlefield control before the enemy gets moving can completely change a fight. The classic Wizard staples are classics for a reason. Shield, Find Familiar, Mage Armor, Absorb Elements, Magic Missile, and rituals give you a ridiculous amount of mileage at low levels. Web is excellent. Everyone knows Web is excellent. This becomes a problem when multiple people are drafting spells and everybody wants Web. Third-level spells are where the Wizard really starts showing off. Fireball is Fireball, but Slow, Hypnotic Pattern, Fear, Counterspell, and other control options can be even more important depending on the fight. Don't build around a single saving throw or status effect. Having multiple ways to attack a problem keeps you useful when monsters inevitably refuse to cooperate with your favorite spell. Utility spells are a huge part of what makes Wizards so good. Scouting, teleportation, rituals, summons, battlefield control, and information gathering often solve problems before initiative is even rolled. Order of Scribes gets wonderfully weird once Manifest Mind enters the picture. Your floating spellbook can scout and act as the point of origin for your spells, turning your Wizard into a magical drone operator. And remember: dealing damage is technically a form of support if the thing threatening your party is no longer alive. Welcome to the RPGBOT Podcast. If you love Dungeons & Dragons, Pathfinder, and tabletop RPGs, this is the podcast for you. Support the show for free: Rate and review us on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or any podcast app. It helps new listeners find the best RPG podcast for D&D and Pathfinder players. Level up your experience: Join us on Patreon to unlock ad-free access to RPGBOT.net and the RPGBOT Podcast, chat with us and the community on the RPGBOT Discord, and jump into live-streamed RPG podcast recordings. Support while you shop: Use our Amazon affiliate link at https://amzn.to/3NwElxQ and help us keep building tools and guides for the RPG community. Meet the Hosts Tyler Kamstra – Master of mechanics, seeing the Pathfinder action economy like Neo in the Matrix. Randall James – Lore buff and technologist, always ready to debate which Lord of the Rings edition reigns supreme. Ash Ely – Resident cynic, chaos agent, and AI's worst nightmare, bringing pure table-flipping RPG podcast energy. Join the RPGBOT team where fantasy roleplaying meets real strategy, sarcasm, and community chaos. How to Find Us: In-depth articles, guides, handbooks, reviews, news on Tabletop Role Playing at RPGBOT.net Tyler Kamstra BlueSky: @rpgbot.net TikTok: @RPGBOTDOTNET Ash Ely Professional Game Master on StartPlaying.Games BlueSky: @GravenAshes YouTube: @ashravenmedia https://ashelydm.com/ https://ashelydm.com/ Randall James BlueSky: @GrimoireRPG Amateurjack.com Read Melancon: A Grimoire Tale (affiliate link) Producer Dan @Lzr_illuminati

    2014 DnD 5e WIZARDS Levels 1 - 7 with Treantmonk! (Remastered)

  5. Sep 17

    ARCANA UNLEASHED Part 2 - Necromancer's Finally Get Nice Things

    Four Wizards walk into Arcana Unleashed. One teleports around insisting that swapping places is exciting. One looks like somebody's tiefling dad going through a stage-magic phase. One brings an army of disposable skeletons specifically so he can blow them up. And the last one turns into a T-Rex and starts casting Disintegrate. Somehow, this is still a more functional party than most adventuring groups we've played in. Welcome back to Arcana Unleashed, where today's lesson is simple: Wizards apparently needed more things to do. Show Notes Part Two of our Arcana Unleashed review is all Wizards, all the time, and Tyler finally gets his moment. We start with the Conjurer, which continues its identity crisis between "master summoner" and "person who is really, really enthusiastic about Misty Step." Benign Transposition and its upgrades make teleportation useful, especially once Randall figures out how to combine swapping places with summoned monsters. But the real excitement comes later, when Durable Summons, Focused Conjuration, and Splintered Summons finally let the subclass lean into what everyone actually came here for: putting more creatures on the battlefield. Then we meet the Enchanter, whose artwork immediately gets described as a middle-aged tiefling dad who took up stage magic during a midlife crisis. The subclass gets better social skills, a much more playable version of Hypnotic Gaze, and some frustratingly limited spell-twinning. Things improve considerably at higher levels, especially when Alter Memories turns magical manipulation into full-on fantasy Men in Black nonsense. Necromancer is where things get wonderfully irresponsible. Undead familiars can finally contribute, Animate Dead gets stronger, summoned undead become tougher and hit harder, and eventually your disposable corpse army becomes a collection of walking necrotic grenades. Tyler tries repeatedly to explain the mathematical shortcomings of undead attack bonuses while Ash tries repeatedly to enjoy himself despite Tyler's best efforts. Finally, the Transmuter arrives with the traditional Transmuter's Stone, some questionable attempts to make Alter Self exciting, and a substantially improved Empowered Transmutation. Things really come alive with Shapeshifter, which lets the Wizard Polymorph themselves while keeping their mental abilities and continuing to cast qualifying Transmutation spells. Which leads to the discovery nobody knew they needed: T-Rex. Casting. Disintegrate. Arcana Unleashed (affiliate link) Arcana Unleashed: Deadfall (affiliate link) Fizban's Treasure of Dragons (affiliate link) AmateurJack.com - Recovery Long Rest - Cozy D&D Business Sim Key Takeaways Conjurer is much better when it remembers that people choosing Conjurer probably want to summon things, not just teleport slightly differently. Enchanter has some weak spots, but Instinctive Charm and Alter Memories offer genuinely fun tools for manipulation, infiltration, and absolutely horrifying roleplay possibilities. Necromancer may be the standout of the bunch. Stronger undead, useful familiars, better Animate Dead support, and exploding minions finally deliver the "commander of the dead" fantasy. Transmuter still has an unhealthy emotional attachment to its rock, but Empowered Transmutation and Shapeshifter give the subclass some genuinely exciting options. The most important rules discovery of the episode is that turning into a T-Rex apparently does not prevent you from solving problems with high-level Wizard magic. Tyler likes Wizards. Ash would like Tyler to stop explaining why the things Ash likes aren't as good as Ash thinks they are. Welcome to the RPGBOT Podcast. If you love Dungeons & Dragons, Pathfinder, and tabletop RPGs, this is the podcast for you. Support the show for free: Rate and review us on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or any podcast app. It helps new listeners find the best RPG podcast for D&D and Pathfinder players. Level up your experience: Join us on Patreon to unlock ad-free access to RPGBOT.net and the RPGBOT Podcast, chat with us and the community on the RPGBOT Discord, and jump into live-streamed RPG podcast recordings. Support while you shop: Use our Amazon affiliate link at https://amzn.to/3NwElxQ and help us keep building tools and guides for the RPG community. Meet the Hosts Tyler Kamstra – Master of mechanics, seeing the Pathfinder action economy like Neo in the Matrix. Randall James – Lore buff and technologist, always ready to debate which Lord of the Rings edition reigns supreme. Ash Ely – Resident cynic, chaos agent, and AI's worst nightmare, bringing pure table-flipping RPG podcast energy. Join the RPGBOT team where fantasy roleplaying meets real strategy, sarcasm, and community chaos. How to Find Us: In-depth articles, guides, handbooks, reviews, news on Tabletop Role Playing at RPGBOT.net Tyler Kamstra BlueSky: @rpgbot.net TikTok: @RPGBOTDOTNET Ash Ely Professional Game Master on StartPlaying.Games BlueSky: @GravenAshes YouTube: @ashravenmedia https://ashelydm.com/ https://ashelydm.com/ Randall James BlueSky: @GrimoireRPG Amateurjack.com Read Melancon: A Grimoire Tale (affiliate link) Producer Dan @Lzr_illuminati

    ARCANA UNLEASHED Part 2 - Necromancer's Finally Get Nice Things

  6. Sep 14

    D&D ARCANA UNLEASHED Part 1 - The Best Arcane Archer Ever Is Still an Arcane Archer

    Arcana Unleashed is here, bringing new subclasses, spells, feats, magic items, and—most importantly—fresh opportunities for Tyler to find loopholes Wizards of the Coast absolutely did not intend. In Part 1, we discover that Clerics can apparently wizard better than Wizards, the Arcane Archer has finally been upgraded from "why?" to "okay, I guess," Monks can punch people and cast spells at the same time, and Warlocks can carry around the fading remains of a dead god like a supernatural emotional-support animal. Also, somewhere at Wizards of the Coast, an editor just felt a disturbance in the Force because Tyler realized you can shoot a magical darkness arrow into someone's shield. Show Notes We kick off our review of Arcana Unleashed, the new setting-agnostic collection of character options, rules, spells, magic items, factions, monsters, and other magical nonsense for D&D. The book isn't quite Tasha's-sized, but there's plenty here to keep us busy—which is why this review is absolutely becoming a series. Part 1 is all about subclasses, starting with the Arcana Domain Cleric. The old "what if my Cleric wanted to be a Wizard?" concept finally feels like it knows what it wants to be. Great Wizard spells, a nasty saving-throw penalty through Channel Divinity, and eventually access to high-level Wizard spells make this an extremely strong hybrid. Tyler immediately starts planning for Contingency and Wish, because of course he does. Then we revisit everyone's favorite subclass to forget exists: the Arcane Archer. It is unquestionably better than the 2014 version, which unfortunately clears a bar located somewhere beneath the basement. More Arcane Shot uses, better utility ammunition, and some genuinely cool later-level abilities help, but the subclass still struggles to generate much excitement. We also spend far too long discovering that Darkening Ammunition can apparently stick to any "solid surface," which means shields, possibly whales, and whatever other nonsense your table is willing to litigate. The Warrior of Mystic Arts Monk fares much better. Mechanically, it's essentially the Monk answer to the Eldritch Knight: punch things, cast Sorcerer spells, and eventually do both with increasingly ridiculous efficiency. The old Tattooed Warrior concept may have been more flavorful, but the finished version is clean, effective, and potentially terrifying once its spellcasting and Monk abilities start feeding into each other. Finally, we meet the Vestige Patron Warlock, where your patron is also your pet because apparently the traditional Warlock power dynamic wasn't complicated enough. Your Vestige can shift between Celestial, Fiend, and Undead forms, bringing different abilities along with it, and eventually gets some impressive summoning upgrades. Ash begins thoroughly uninterested and ends up won over almost entirely by the possibility of worshipping the forgotten god of toads. Which, frankly, is the strongest possible argument for the subclass. We wrap things up before reaching the Wizard subclasses, mostly because making Tyler wait another episode to talk about Wizards is funny. Stuff for the Show Notes Arcana Unleashed (affiliate link) Arcana Unleashed: Deadfall (affiliate link) Fizban's Treasure of Dragons (affiliate link) AmateurJack.com - Recovery Long Rest - Cozy D&D Business Sim Key Takeaways Arcana Domain Cleric is excellent. It finally delivers the Cleric/Wizard hybrid fantasy without feeling like somebody stapled a spellbook onto a holy symbol. Arcane Archer is substantially improved, but "best Arcane Archer ever" still isn't the ringing endorsement Wizards probably hoped for. Darkening Ammunition should never have included the phrase "solid surface" anywhere Tyler Kamstra could see it. Warrior of Mystic Arts trades some of the Tattooed Warrior's flavor for straightforward mechanics, but those mechanics are very, very good. Spellcasting plus Monk action economy gets increasingly ridiculous at higher levels, and everybody seems fine with that. Vestige Patron is mechanically solid, narratively weird, and significantly better once you realize your patron can be the forgotten god of toads. The subclasses covered so far are generally simple, approachable, and effective without introducing a pile of unnecessary new systems. Wizards are next, assuming Ash eventually stops tormenting Tyler and allows him to talk about them. Welcome to the RPGBOT Podcast. If you love Dungeons & Dragons, Pathfinder, and tabletop RPGs, this is the podcast for you. Support the show for free: Rate and review us on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or any podcast app. It helps new listeners find the best RPG podcast for D&D and Pathfinder players. Level up your experience: Join us on Patreon to unlock ad-free access to RPGBOT.net and the RPGBOT Podcast, chat with us and the community on the RPGBOT Discord, and jump into live-streamed RPG podcast recordings. Support while you shop: Use our Amazon affiliate link at https://amzn.to/3NwElxQ and help us keep building tools and guides for the RPG community. Meet the Hosts Tyler Kamstra – Master of mechanics, seeing the Pathfinder action economy like Neo in the Matrix. Randall James – Lore buff and technologist, always ready to debate which Lord of the Rings edition reigns supreme. Ash Ely – Resident cynic, chaos agent, and AI's worst nightmare, bringing pure table-flipping RPG podcast energy. Join the RPGBOT team where fantasy roleplaying meets real strategy, sarcasm, and community chaos. How to Find Us: In-depth articles, guides, handbooks, reviews, news on Tabletop Role Playing at RPGBOT.net Tyler Kamstra BlueSky: @rpgbot.net TikTok: @RPGBOTDOTNET Ash Ely Professional Game Master on StartPlaying.Games BlueSky: @GravenAshes YouTube: @ashravenmedia https://ashelydm.com/ https://ashelydm.com/ Randall James BlueSky: @GrimoireRPG Amateurjack.com Read Melancon: A Grimoire Tale (affiliate link) Producer Dan @Lzr_illuminati

    D&D ARCANA UNLEASHED Part 1 - The Best Arcane Archer Ever Is Still an Arcane Archer

  7. Sep 12

    2014 DnD 5e BARBARIANS Levels 5 - 20 (Remastered): Woohoo! Smash, smash, smashy smash!

    At level 5, the Barbarian unlocks a revolutionary new combat technique: hitting the problem twice. From there, things escalate exactly as responsible game design intended. Randall gambles his way through Wild Magic, Tyler perfects the ancient martial art of being an unbearable pain in the ass, and Ash becomes a house-sized fairy with tiny butterfly wings, a returning elemental pike, and enough reach to poke somebody from the next county. Then Brutal Critical shows up and somehow the math becomes angrier than the Barbarian. Grab your greataxe, start screaming, and remember: if smashing something once didn't work, the rules now officially support smashing it again. Show Notes We're back with the second half of our 2014 D&D 5e Barbarian builds, taking Randall's Path of Wild Magic, Ash's Path of the Giant, and Tyler's Path of the Ancestral Guardian from level 5 all the way to 20. Extra Attack immediately delivers exactly what everyone came for: more smash. From there, the builds start developing very different personalities. Randall embraces the chaos of Wild Magic and Great Weapon Master, Tyler becomes increasingly obnoxious to anything trying to hurt his friends, and Ash discovers that being a flying, increasingly enormous fairy with a throwable elemental pike is every bit as ridiculous as it sounds. We dig into Instinctive Pounce, subclass features, feat choices, Relentless Rage, Persistent Rage, and the glorious absurdity of Primal Champion. We also spend a healthy amount of time asking why Brutal Critical is supposed to be exciting when critical hits refuse to happen on command. By the end, we have battlefield control, flying giants, magical gambling, angry ancestors, Polearm Master shenanigans, and Barbarians who are extremely difficult to kill. Basically, the class gets tougher, weirder, and significantly better at solving problems with repeated applications of a large weapon. Key Takeaways Level 5 is huge. Extra Attack effectively doubles the Barbarian's basic offense, while Fast Movement helps get the angry person into smashing distance faster. Instinctive Pounce is an excellent quality-of-life feature, letting you Rage and immediately move toward whatever has made the poor decision to exist nearby. Ash's Giant Barbarian becomes increasingly ridiculous. Elemental Cleaver turns his pike into a returning elemental weapon, and later features let his flying fairy become enormous, extend his reach, and attack enemies from extremely inconvenient places. Randall's Wild Magic Barbarian is built around controlled chaos. Bolstering Magic helps attacks and ability checks, while later features let him reroll Wild Magic effects and improve his odds of getting something useful. Tyler's Ancestral Guardian becomes an excellent defender. Spirit Shield reduces damage to allies, and Vengeful Ancestors eventually makes enemies regret hurting anyone except Tyler. Brutal Critical is the problem child. The crew likes the fantasy of gigantic Barbarian crits but argues that the feature arrives too rarely and scales too poorly to carry high-level damage. Polearm Master, Great Weapon Master, and eventually Sentinel turn the builds into increasingly nasty melee threats, particularly when combined with Reckless Attack and extended reach. Relentless Rage keeps Barbarians standing after hitting zero hit points, Persistent Rage finally makes Rage easier to maintain, and Primal Champion delivers a genuinely satisfying capstone with massive Strength and Constitution boosts. The overall verdict: Barbarians remain wonderfully straightforward at their core, but the subclasses are doing a lot of the heavy lifting at higher levels. Fortunately, sometimes all you really need is Rage, Reckless Attack, and another opportunity to smash something. Welcome to the RPGBOT Podcast. If you love Dungeons & Dragons, Pathfinder, and tabletop RPGs, this is the podcast for you. Support the show for free: Rate and review us on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or any podcast app. It helps new listeners find the best RPG podcast for D&D and Pathfinder players. Level up your experience: Join us on Patreon to unlock ad-free access to RPGBOT.net and the RPGBOT Podcast, chat with us and the community on the RPGBOT Discord, and jump into live-streamed RPG podcast recordings. Support while you shop: Use our Amazon affiliate link at https://amzn.to/3NwElxQ and help us keep building tools and guides for the RPG community. Meet the Hosts Tyler Kamstra – Master of mechanics, seeing the Pathfinder action economy like Neo in the Matrix. Randall James – Lore buff and technologist, always ready to debate which Lord of the Rings edition reigns supreme. Ash Ely – Resident cynic, chaos agent, and AI's worst nightmare, bringing pure table-flipping RPG podcast energy. Join the RPGBOT team where fantasy roleplaying meets real strategy, sarcasm, and community chaos. How to Find Us: In-depth articles, guides, handbooks, reviews, news on Tabletop Role Playing at RPGBOT.net Tyler Kamstra BlueSky: @rpgbot.net TikTok: @RPGBOTDOTNET Ash Ely Professional Game Master on StartPlaying.Games BlueSky: @GravenAshes YouTube: @ashravenmedia https://ashelydm.com/ https://ashelydm.com/ Randall Jamesd BlueSky: @GrimoireRPG Amateurjack.com Read Melancon: A Grimoire Tale (affiliate link) Producer Dan @Lzr_illuminati

    2014 DnD 5e BARBARIANS Levels 5 - 20 (Remastered): Woohoo! Smash, smash, smashy smash!

  8. Sep 10

    CREATURES SHARING SPACES

    Most RPG rules questions start with something reasonable, like Can I jump over this pit? or Does fireball set the curtains on fire? This one starts with a much more dangerous question: How many adventurers can we cram into one five-foot square before the rules collapse? Tyler digs into decades of D&D and Pathfinder rules looking for an answer, while Ash does increasingly questionable celebrity impressions, Randall weaponizes every edge case he can find, and Tyler's cats provide live demonstrations of why personal space is apparently optional. Show Notes This week, we're getting uncomfortably close as we dig into the surprisingly complicated rules for creatures sharing spaces. Can you walk through an ally? What about an enemy? Can a tiny creature just hang out in your square? What happens if somebody gets shoved into someone else? And, most importantly, can another player give you a piggyback ride and technically become your mount? We trace the rules from D&D 3.5 through 2014 and 2024 D&D 5e before arriving at Pathfinder 2e, comparing how each system handles movement, size differences, prone creatures, incapacitated creatures, forced movement, swarms, and all the weird situations where two creatures wind up occupying the same chunk of battlefield. Along the way, Tyler discovers that some rules are clearer than expected and others become significantly worse the longer you stare at them. Pathfinder 2e earns some praise for actually explaining what happens when creatures accidentally collide, while 2024 5e raises uncomfortable questions about exactly who falls prone and when. Meanwhile, Ash turns rules text into an excuse for a parade of impressions, Randall threatens the Grand Canyon with rules exploits, and the cats continue proving that tiny creatures respect neither game mechanics nor boundaries. DnD 3.5: Moving Through a Square DnD 5.x Shifting Combatant 5e: Moving Around Other Creatures 5.5: Moving Around Other Creatures PF2: Tactical Movement https://dicegoblin.com/  RPGBOT.Podcast Episodes Combat Maneuvers Jumping Key Takeaways D&D 3.5 was surprisingly explicit about moving through allies, enemies, helpless creatures, and creatures of dramatically different sizes. 2014 5e simplifies those rules considerably, but that simplicity creates some strange gaps when creatures accidentally or forcibly end up sharing a space. 2024 5e improves several things, especially interactions with Tiny and incapacitated creatures, but its rule about creatures falling prone when a turn ends while sharing a space creates a whole new argument about what exactly end a turn means. Pathfinder 2e gives the GM a clear answer when creatures accidentally occupy the same square: somebody gets moved, somebody may fall prone, and the GM decides how the mess gets resolved. Pathfinder 2e also handles willing creatures, unwilling creatures, prone creatures, Tiny creatures, objects, and forced movement with much more specific rules. Tumble Through exists for a reason. Forced movement in Pathfinder cannot simply put a creature somewhere it cannot normally occupy, which immediately kills several wonderfully stupid launching-people-into-the-air strategies. Swarms are the exception everyone should remember. They want to share your space because getting directly on top of you is how they ruin your day. The ultimate lesson is that creatures sharing spaces is one of those rules nobody thinks about until it happens. Then everyone stops the game, opens three rulebooks, and discovers they've been doing it differently for years. Welcome to the RPGBOT Podcast. If you love Dungeons & Dragons, Pathfinder, and tabletop RPGs, this is the podcast for you. Support the show for free: Rate and review us on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or any podcast app. It helps new listeners find the best RPG podcast for D&D and Pathfinder players. Level up your experience: Join us on Patreon to unlock ad-free access to RPGBOT.net and the RPGBOT Podcast, chat with us and the community on the RPGBOT Discord, and jump into live-streamed RPG podcast recordings. Support while you shop: Use our Amazon affiliate link at https://amzn.to/3NwElxQ and help us keep building tools and guides for the RPG community. Meet the Hosts Tyler Kamstra – Master of mechanics, seeing the Pathfinder action economy like Neo in the Matrix. Randall James – Lore buff and technologist, always ready to debate which Lord of the Rings edition reigns supreme. Ash Ely – Resident cynic, chaos agent, and AI's worst nightmare, bringing pure table-flipping RPG podcast energy. Join the RPGBOT team where fantasy roleplaying meets real strategy, sarcasm, and community chaos. How to Find Us: In-depth articles, guides, handbooks, reviews, news on Tabletop Role Playing at RPGBOT.net Tyler Kamstra BlueSky: @rpgbot.net TikTok: @RPGBOTDOTNET Ash Ely Professional Game Master on StartPlaying.Games BlueSky: @GravenAshes YouTube: @ashravenmedia https://ashelydm.com/ https://ashelygm.com/ Randall James BlueSky: @GrimoireRPG Amateurjack.com Read Melancon: A Grimoire Tale (affiliate link) Producer Dan @Lzr_illuminati

    CREATURES SHARING SPACES
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5
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6 Ratings

About

The RPGBOT.Podcast is a thoughtful and sometimes humorous discussion about Tabletop Role Playing Games, including Dungeons and Dragons and Pathfinder as well as other TTRPGs. The discussion seeks to help players get the most out of TTRPGs by examining game mechanics and related subjects with a deep, analytic focus. The RPGBOT.Podcast includes a weekly episode; and The RPGBOT.News and The RPGBOT.Oneshot. You can find more information at https://rpgbot.net/ - Analysis, tools, and instructional articles for tabletop RPGs. Support us at the following links: Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/rpgbot BlueSky: https://bsky.app/profile/rpgbot.net TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@rpgbotdotnet The RPGBOT.Podcast was developed by RPGBOT.net and produced in association with The Leisure Illuminati.

Information

  • Creator
    RPGBOT.net
  • Years Active
    2023 - 2026
  • Episodes
    678
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Copyright
    © RPGBOT.net
  • Show Website
    RPGBOT.Podcast

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