Archives of Candlekeep: Gnolls and Yeenoghu
This article was first broadcast in Episode Two Hundred and Twenty Nine on 16th November 2022. Note: This article was adapted from an episode script, and so there may be parts that don’t flow well when read, because they were initially designed for broadcast. People always point out that generalizing the behavior of a species based on the most frequently encountered groups or even the majority isn’t fair. Drizzt proved that not all Drow are Lolth-worshiping, murderously conniving slavers, Orc society is much more complex than them just being aggressive raiders that want to kill all the other races and conquer the world, and not all Kobolds are mindless dragon sycophants. On the other hand, there are some species where trying to find the diamond in the rough is a very long, fruitless dig. Locating a sympathetic vegetarian Mind Flayer is going to be a really difficult scavenger hunt; benevolent…
Wisdom of the Masters: You’re Coming With Me
This article was first broadcast in Episode Two Hundred and Twenty Eight on 2nd November 2022. Note: This article was adapted from an episode script, and so there may be parts that don’t flow well when read, because they were initially designed for broadcast. The heroes being captured is a fairly common trope in most adventure stories. Princess Leia on the death star, Merry and Pippin in Lord of the Rings, the dwarves in The Hobbit, or James Bond…practically always. It’s usually used in the story to present an immediate problem for the heroes to overcome, and to showcase their capability when they don’t have all their resources or weapons available. It’s also sometimes used as a way to move the plot forward; either a villain will monologue at the heroes and divulge their plan for ultimate domination, or the heroes come across vital pieces of information while imprisoned, either…
Archives of Candlekeep: Lord Soth (aka Strahd Lite)
This article was first broadcast in Episode Two Hundred and Twenty Six on 5th October 2022. Note: This article was adapted from an episode script, and so there may be parts that don’t flow well when read, because they were initially designed for broadcast. Lord Soth, in Dragonlance, fills in much the same niche as Wormtongue from Lord of the Rings or The Mountain from Game of Thrones; he is a secondary antagonist in most of his appearances, almost always working at the behest of someone else, and their backstory is…fraught. Soth’s first appearance in real life chronology was in the War of the Lance trilogy (The original three). He lived through that conflict (sort of…we’ll get to that in a bit), and became another significant pain for the heroes in the so-called “twins trilogy” that focuses on Raistlin and Caramon…and the short one whose name starts with a “T”.…
Adventurer’s Journal: Tactical Falling
This article was first broadcast in Episode Two Hundred and Twenty Four on 7th September 2022. Note: This article was adapted from an episode script, and so there may be parts that don’t flow well when read, because they were initially designed for broadcast. Falling in D&D is something that’s often overlooked. For it to do a significant amount of damage the fall has to be from a rather high starting point, and unfortunately a lot of scenarios don’t have a great deal of verticality to them. Part of that is often practical; if you play in a game that uses minis on a tabletop or if you’re playing in a Virtual environment that’s top down rather than isometric, conveying height can be difficult. Also, many locations follow the Star Wars school of architecture and interior design; either there are small drops or minor changes in the landscape that are…
Archives of Candlekeep: Fire, Water, Earth and Air – Genasi
This article was first broadcast in Episode Two Hundred and Twenty Three on 31st August 2022. Note: This article was adapted from an episode script, and so there may be parts that don’t flow well when read, because they were initially designed for broadcast. Genasi are one of the more esoteric playable races in D&D, which is saying something given that giant frog and tortoise people are options. Like a number of the more unusual racial options in D&D, the genasi came about once planar travel, and Planescape in particular, became a major fixture of D&D. Possibly due to the gender makeup of TSR in the late 80s and early 90s, it was apparently assumed that if people were able to find exotic beings from other planes, one of the first orders of business would be to…how shall I put this…test biological compatibility. In 2nd edition, if a human got…
Archives of Candlekeep: Orcus the So Very Undead
This article was first broadcast in Episode Two Hundred and Twenty One on 10th August 2022. Note: This article was adapted from an episode script, and so there may be parts that don’t flow well when read, because they were initially designed for broadcast. Demogorgon has gotten a lot of press lately and regularly promotes himself as the Prince of Demons and the strongest, baddest demon in the Abyss. But if you ask the being on the street it’s actually much more likely they’ll have heard of one of his main rivals. Orcus is opposite to Demogorgon in a lot of ways, both in the real world and in lore. He’s also a fascinating character to track through the history of the game because his star, or at least his skull-topped wand, has waxed and waned in popularity a lot through the years. Like Demogorgon, Orcus has the distinction of…
Unearthed Mundana: The Satanic Panic
This article was first broadcast in Episode Two Hundred and Twenty on 3rd August 2022. Note: This article was adapted from an episode script, and so there may be parts that don’t flow well when read, because they were initially designed for broadcast. A much as people whine about psionics or think that 4th edition was a tragic error on many levels, one of the largest impacts on D&D’s publication and future actually had very little to do with the mechanics of the game. Most people who either grew up in the 80s, played D&D, or watched some of the various media that touched on it, such as Season 4 of Stranger Things, are aware of a general event called the Satanic Panic. It was a moral movement and media phenomenon spanning the 80s and it had an irrevocable effect on the game and people’s perceptions of it. However if…
Archives of Candlekeep: The Duality of Demogorgon
This article was first broadcast in Episode Two Hundred and Nineteen on 27th July 2022. Note: This article was adapted from an episode script, and so there may be parts that don’t flow well when read, because they were initially designed for broadcast. Where the Nine Hells have the archdukes of The Hells, if you sail down the River Styx you’ll find a similar but different situation at the other end. That’s assuming you make it, of course; the River Styx is terrible and there are murderous demons on every side and sometimes floating by on other boats. Have we mentioned going to the underworld is a bad idea? Anyway, when you get to the Abyss you will find a much looser hierarchy, but there are several beings that fill much the same role as the archdukes. Those are the demon lords. Now practically speaking there is no demon lord…
Gnomish Workshop: Analysing the Attack
This article was first broadcast in Episode Two Hundred and Seventeen on 13th July 2022. Note: This article was adapted from an episode script, and so there may be parts that don’t flow well when read, because they were initially designed for broadcast. At face value, an attack in D&D would seem to be very simple; there is a creature and another creature they either don’t get along with or would very much like to eat. Sometimes it’s both, like with gnolls. Fortunately, and somewhat unusually, the rules for D&D 5e are also fairly simple, at least to start. When describing combat in the Player’s Handbook, it states: ” if you’re making an attack roll, you’re making an attack.” That means that any spell requiring a roll to hit, rather than the target making a save, counts as an attack. Well things get messy pretty quickly. …
Archives of Candlekeep: Giant Lore, Part 2
This article was first broadcast in Episode Two Hundred and Sixteen on 29th June 2022. Note: This article was adapted from an episode script, and so there may be parts that don’t flow well when read, because they were initially designed for broadcast. As we’ve mentioned before, giants have been around in D&D since the very beginning. The original premise of D&D was to do tabletop wargaming but add basic fantasy elements. Since no one was coming up with beholders and mindflayers yet, Gary Gygax and others had to work with what was available in mainstream myth and fantasy. Anyone alive at the time or who’s looked into the publications of the sixties and seventies can tell you that fantasy had a few basic things without fail. On one side you had wizards, guys with swords, and very, *very* problematically depicted women. On the other side you had dragons, small…