Heroes Rise two hundred and twenty sixth entry: Charisdom of the Experts
Welcome, brave adventurers, to Heroes Rise. This is the 226th entry into our chronicle, recorded on Saturday October 1st, and released Wednesday October 5th over at heroesrisepodcast.com. In this week’s Adventurer’s Pack, Ostron’s been keeping a database of critters… Hopefully that’s a list of creatures, and not a list of Critical Role fans… Anyway Next we check out some D&D News as we take a look at how the next edition is going back to the future, with the latest Unearthed Arcana for the OneD&D Playtest: Expert Classes. After that we take a Short Rest and head into the Archives of Candlekeep and learn all about Lord Soth (aka Strahd Light); before finally heading into the Scrying Pool to see what you [all] have to say. Community Questions The new UA is out! What do you think about the new classes? Do you agree the ranger has a role now?…
Heroes Rise two hundred and twenty fifth entry: Wisdom of the ROSTRO
Welcome, brave adventurers, to Heroes Rise. This is the 225th entry into our chronicle, recorded at various points over the last 5 years, and released Wednesday 21st September over at heroesrisepodcast.com With one host missing and a lack of sulpherous stand-ins, Lennon and Ostron help Bloodlake out with some DM tips… At least until Ostron falls asleep. Zero Triggers The Tone of Your Campaign New Players and Combat Intelligent Villains Winging It The Future of Heroes Rise As you may have noticed in recent months, Wizards of the Coast has been a little slower to release content. When Heroes Rise started, Wizards’ marketing strategy relied much more on being constantly in the public eye. That is no longer how Wizards operates. Their approach now seems to be more of a blitz, where tons of content will drop all at once, and then they go quiet for weeks or even months…
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…
Heroes Rise two hundred and twenty fourth entry: Hadozee-do
Welcome, brave adventurers, to Heroes Rise. This is the 224th entry into our chronicle, recorded on Saturday September 3rd, and released Wednesday September 7th over at heroesrisepodcast.com. This week we’re going to wander into the Market of Minauros to see what mysterious and magical items have filtered up for sale. Sebastian Crowe’s Guide to Drakkenheim Amethyst Revelations Dungeon Delver’s Guide Next we check out some D&D News as we discuss Wizard’s of the Coast’s latest terrible idea: Spelljammer origin lore for the Hadozee. After that we take a Short Rest and open our Adventurer’s Journals for a class in tactical falling; before finally heading into the Scrying Pool to see what you [all] have to say. Community Questions What’s your story of when the biggest enemy your character faced was gravity? Was it a nice, gentle conclusion or a hard stop at the end? Are you familiar with Advanced 5e?…
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…
Heroes Rise two hundred and twenty third entry: One D&D To Rule Them All
Welcome, brave adventurers, to Heroes Rise. This is the 223rd entry into our chronicle, recorded on Sunday August 27th, and released Wednesday August 31st over at heroesrisepodcast.com. In this week’s Adventurer’s Pack, Ryu… OK, Ryu has clearly been rifling through my stuff… AGAIN! (Beneos Battlemaps, Beneos Battletokens) Next we check out some D&D News as we dissect and discuss the first entry into the One D&D Playtest: Character Origins After that we take a Short Rest and head into the Archives of Candlekeep as we bring the four elements together and learn all about the Genasi; before finally heading into the Scrying Pool to see what you [all] have to say. Community Questions The first official piece of the next evolution, or One D&D, is now live. What are your thoughts? Are criticals and failures ruined forever? How well will the feats fit into new character builds? What do you…
Heroes Rise two hundred and twenty second entry: The Gravity of the Spelljammer
Welcome, brave adventurers, to Heroes Rise. This is the 222nd entry into our chronicle, recorded on Sunday August 21st, and released Wednesday August 24th over at heroesrisepodcast.com. In this week’s Adventurer’s Pack, Ostron plays with the market. Next we check out some D&D News as we take a look at the recently released Spelljammer: Adventures in Space, and tell you the One thing we learned at Wizards Presents With so much news we’re skipping the Short Rest segment, so after the news we’ll be heading into the Scrying Pool to see what you [all] have to say. Community Questions What are you most excited about from the announcements out of Wizards Presents? New Dragonlance adventure? Heists? Or are you biding your time for Planescape? Spelljammer’s here; Ostron could not stop it. So what do you think? Do you share his and Tony’s gripes about gravity, naming, and playing fast and…
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…
Heroes Rise two hundred and twenty first entry: Just Getting Started
Welcome, brave adventurers, to Heroes Rise. This is the 221st entry into our chronicle, recorded on Saturday August 6th, and released Wednesday August 10th over at heroesrisepodcast.com. In this week’s Adventurer’s Pack, Lennon gets six different kinds of mappy Next we take gather around the campfire and engage in some Dissonant Whispers, reminiscing about our first times playing D&D After that we’ll take a Short Rest and head into the Archives of Candlekeep to get the low down on Orcus, the so very undead; before finally heading into the Scrying Pool to see what you have to say. Community Questions So what was your first fifth edition character? Did they joyfully climb to the heights of accomplishment and vanquish all their foes with friends aplenty. Or were they an abject failure, relegated to obscurity and death and replaced at the earliest opportunity? What’s your latest experience with the undead? Were…
Heroes Rise two hundred and twentieth entry: I Can’t Believe It’s Not Demons
Welcome, brave adventurers, to Heroes Rise. This is the 220th entry into our chronicle, recorded on Saturday July 31st, and released Wednesday August 3rd over at heroesrisepodcast.com. This week we’re going to wander into the Market of Minauros to see what mysterious and magical items have filtered up for sale. Druid Wild Shape Reference Deck Maps and Monstrum Compendium A Guide to Guilds Next we take a Long Rest and digging up some Unearthed Mundana as we discuss the Satanic Panic. And after that we’re heading straight into the Scrying Pool to see what you [all] have to say. Community Questions So Mrs. Pulling was convinced D&D was a gateway to demon worship and Satanism. How about you? What do you think D&D creates for the players? What organization will you create to make people aware of this? Wrong answers only. Heroes Rise are always on the lookout for new…