Critical Role's Most Supportive Guest Player? Vox Machina, Ep. 55 | Critical Role Demystified

[@SupergeekMike]

Who is your favorite Critical Role guest star?

[@connormonk7079]

Aimee Carrero or Robbie Daymond, its a toss up.

[@Koobly]

If we are counting the non-main campaigns, I really liked Lou Wilson in calamity. I think having him and Robbie at the same table would be legendary.

[@thor30013]

Wil Wheaton. I know he only got the one episode, but I liked how he managed to have fun in spite of his poor dice rolls.

[@Grazzt_Is_My_Daddy]

Robbie Damon and TJ Storm. Gods both are amazing in such different ways ❤

[@charlesbryant5897]

Jon Heder, hands down

[@alexpietsch7997]

My sister and I are both chronically anxious, so when we start spiraling in a doomsday scenario we'll look at each other and quote Shale "Focus on the dragon!" On my wedding day my MIL was a monster during preparation. My wife was fully in tears going to get ready. I'm up in my prep room freaking out and my sister comes up to me "Mom and Dad won't kick me out and I could care less what (my in laws) think of me. For one day of your life you just focus on getting married, I'll take care of the dragon"

[@DannyMakesVideosIGuess]

That's awesome.

[@zippomage]

daaaawwwwww

[@optimus2200]

a bad ass dragon slayer that sister of yours

[@user-jt1js5mr3f]

Things like this make me so grateful for my in-laws

[@joeymcmanus3333]

Underrated comment from Shale when they ask if her staff has a name and she says "only men do that"

[@stingerjohnny9951]

*Arya has left the Chat*

[@lokilucario]

Big game of thrones vibe lol

[@jenny_of_oldstones3523]

Chris Perkins listens to his wife... I love the end of this very "This is the beginning of a beautiful friendship" between Shale & Zanror beautiful RP!!!

[@EmethMatthew]

YES!

[@GradualGhost]

Keyteor totally laid the groundwork for the goldfish. I will die on this hill.

[@stingerjohnny9951]

Which then lead to Beauregard

[@braydenchadwick9836]

Literally any elemental form would’ve saved her is the funniest part, 2 fly, and 2 can merge into the two different things she’s diving into I now realize she had no reserve wildshapes, but a fire elemental if she’d been one at the start has the 1 inch squeeze feature and can fly, not too bad to have in intestines in a flying thing like the original plan and if it went bad like it had, she could at least had an out All of this being said, I absolutely love Marisha and it’s hilarious how much d&d makes your brain not work 😂

[@ellabartal4652]

This is the legendary origin of "Guiding Bolt Right Up The Butt™©®"!!!! This fight is kind of a slog, but the kill is incredible.

[@svearaldblood-anvil8403]

I absolutely love Shale! She was so funny and Chris Perkins is a legend. The old magic bit might be my favourite one in C1

[@smoogieboogie1694]

It's crazy how far Keyleth falls in this episode. I sure hope she doesn't end up making a habit of it. That would be crazy.

[@dsoegijono]

"And Vax broods through the air" made me laugh

[@GrimnirTheWhite]

The words "We're gods" come to mind as Keyleth Meteors to the ground

[@stingerjohnny9951]

Pride cometh before the very…VERY steep fall.

[@SomethingWellesian]

@@stingerjohnny9951Pride cometh before the leap?

[@jenny_of_oldstones3523]

❤🎶Gonna GUIDING BOLT HIM RIGHT UP DA BUTT🎶 An old Taldore classic heard as far as Wildmount & Marquette!!

[@bristowski]

This is a good channel. This is a good series. I like Mike.

[@Kuribohcoast]

Long Live the Keyteor

[@wolfox7776]

The absolute horror on Matt's face when Sam says he wants to "fist the wound" is what makes this fight worth watching again. And again. And again.

[@telarr9164]

The Jorel damage scene definitely plantts the seed of the goldfish plan! I'd forgotten about this 😂

[@DannyMakesVideosIGuess]

I completely forgot about Shale! Another reason why this recap series is so great, as I don't have as much time anymore as I did when I binged Campaign 1 I can't justify rewatching it.

[@OfficialPieGuy]

New Critical Role Desmystified = Instant Watch + Geralt is Saved 🙌I have only seen Chris Perkins as a Guest in Campaign 1 but from what I've heard of Campaign 2 I appreciate how in both Campaigns he comes in as humor, hype the main cast up and then dip which isn't anything against the bigger guests who do more or have larger impact but to come in for however little he does and yet still does so much without being considered like a "main" guest is really amazing.

[@DarcOne13]

His campaign 2 appearance was the shortest guest appearance on record until Echoes of the Solstice. It was *great*.

[@cameroncrouch5843]

I love the focus on Chris here. As a DM, I know I always struggle cuz I want to give my guest players the cool final hit. I mean, they are here for only a session, so I want them to feel awesome. But I forget that it is ok for a guest character to just elevate the party

[@golbez1583]

21:21 “Remind yourself that overconfidence is a slow and insidious killer”

[@tonyzacker8946]

Yet another great episode of CR-Demystified! I love Ep. 55 of the Vox Machina Campaign. Especially Shale's quote to Zanror, goning along the lines of "Hey, a dragon got killed. This is a good day!". I don't know, I just think, this is pretty profound advice.

[@k1tkat-kate]

4:37 - Mike, I need to hold you accountable for the ABSOLUTE CHOKING HAZARD THIS IS!!! 🤣🤣🤣 Scanlan might not have made it out, but I definitely took damage on that one... (Sweet tea burns if you choke on it you guys, just so you know🙊)

[@PhosphorusWhite]

See I use milestone leveling because the hassle of rebalancing things with a mid session level up is wild, I always wait till the party accomplishes something then tell them at the end of the session they have leveled up. It can feel a little unfair sometimes for them to do something cool and not immediately get more powerful but I think it really balances itself out in the long run to just give them the level at the end of a session instead of in the middle.

[@chippymann7600]

The way I'm currently running my game is that the players reach "level up thresholds" where they have enough xp or story progress to level up, but to properly advance past the threshold they must take some amount of downtime. This allows for them to come up with training montages for their characters, and also add in other smaller details of character growth without needing a full scene. Though I would only recommend this approach for adventures that allow for 5-10 day gaps in the story.

[@tonysladky8925]

I think this might have been the one and only Campaign 1 episode I watched live.

[@SLorraineE]

It's so fun to watch this while being current with campaign 3 and seeing how they've gron iver the years. The set, the video quality, and the players have all grown so much!

[@smoogieboogie1694]

Also since my other comment is a joke, I want to say that I prefer how this episode had Grog kill Umbrasyl rather than Scanlan getting the kill in the tv show. It felt like the bombastic conclusion of the Grog arc we'd been going through, and it was especially great how Shale lied about killing Umbrasyl being Grog's destiny only for her to be right. Also Scanlan being the first to kill one of the dragons casts a bit of a wrench into *his* later arc about feeling useless.

[@lacrosseman02]

9:55 I've had different DMs do this bizarrely. I had a DM have us level up as we were rolling initiative because he forgot, and I have had a DM forget to level us up for like 6 months lol. In defense of the 2nd DM, we had been adventuring in and around the same city for that whole time, so if we had gotten like 5-6 levels in that one city, we'd quickly overpower everything he had planned and that wouldn't have been fun either.

[@dannylawley765]

leveling up in the middle of combat feels either too video game-y or sometimes animesque, in a way that isnt my preferred style. however, vax emerging from the dragon accepting his allegiance to the raven queen is a great moment

[@johnnye87]

I'd go so far as to make a homebrew rule where if you time a pivotal moment of true character development for right when you have the XP to level up, you get to do it then and there. No new spells, spell slots or HP but you can use new abilities. Either the timing is totally serendipitous (as was the case here) in which case it's fun to celebrate that, or else the player is deliberately delaying their level up in order to have a cool moment, in which case it's fun to reward that.

[@futurecaredesign]

Excited to hear your thoughts on this one. I thought Perkins was a very laid back guest.

[@trealosgaming3345]

I mean in a Mines of Phandelver campaign the party I was in had a very effective plan for opening doors. It was dubbed FBI open up. Cleric would unlock or open the door, Ranger/cleric(me) would be first attack where I tend to deal massive damage, Monk/rogue would follow up to clean up those that survived, and Barlock would occasionally have a straggler to finish.

[@sparklefulpaladin]

Shale is great and she's one of my favorite guest characters of all time (I've seen pretty much all of the three main campaigns). There's another in c2 who is both a badass and, in my opinion, makes the cast feel like badasses, as well... and when you get to c2, I'd love to hear your take on him, as well!

[@Wanderinpaladin]

My group calls their maneuver "6 seconds of death". It harkens back to Pathfinder and they were sneaking around in an invisibility 10' radius they'd pop visible and boss or guards would be dead in one round. They did that twice, but never successfully pulled it off, but if a fight lasts one round they still call it out.

[@TectonicImprov]

Vax revealing his level in paladin is one of my favorite moments in the show. I'm a huge fan of paladin redemption arcs (one of the first games I ever saw was Final Fantasy IV lol) so to see Vax break out a divine smite was super cool.

[@RedCoyote]

With the question of when to level up, I think it's a more complex answer. When my DM and I played a two person run of The Hidden Shrine of Tamoachan, we had two level 4 characters, and levelling up (because sometimes they'd get enough exp in the middle of a room) unlocked at that moment but wouldn't refresh resources/hp. So like, the warlock would get more spells, but if she used a spell slot before that level up, she's still down a spell slot till a rest. For that temple run it was very needed; they were two lvl 4 characters in a temple that expected a group of lvl 5-7, and by the end they were level 7 nearing level 8 lol. As for our main campaign, our milestone leveling is done with an in-game week of rest because our campaign is a sort of Monster of the Week set-up, and taking a some vacation after a few jobs is healthy.

[@tiredtortoise3396]

For chase sequences, the best method I have found is Side Initiative - the chased take a simultaneous turn, then the chasers take a simultaneous turn. It is far from perfect, but tends to work better than other methods I have tried, such as having all normal movement happen at the top of the round. On an unrelated note, due to the music in the background of the first section of this video, half of my brain is just playing the cooking gag scene from episode 19 of If the Emperor Had a Text-to-Speech Device on loop. As for the level up question, here is how it works in my settings: After a milestone, the party is considered in a position to level up. They can then spend a number of days equal to that new level training for it (e.g. 5 days for level 5), or if a party member achieves something particularly characterful after reaching the milestone but before levelling up, they instantly gain the level, regain hit points, and get some of their class abilities (for example, getting new spell slots but not new prepared spells). Some of the ways the party members have done this: - A Beast Barbarian/Fighter ran up a wall, leapt off, grabbed onto her hovering (Swarmkeeper Ranger) evil twin, dragged her down to the ground and tore her throat out, dealing over 80 damage with crits and Action Surge. - A Warforged Tempest Cleric with a new personalised magic item scoring a critical hit with it at disadvantage against a demon. - A dragon-hating Aasimar Battlemaster Fighter slaying a wyvern with a very reckless aerial assault that left him on single-digit hit points. - A character sacrificing their life to get the party through a cursed room that could have done any number of awful things to them, with the party narrowly succeeding in saving his soul.

[@daytonjob5519]

My car just got on fire, but that's not gonna stop me from watching the new ep

[@tenkiforecast]

"Okay, well, the snake plan didn't work..." "Alright." "I would like to cast...Bigby's hand." "Okay, you wave your somatic components and manifest the hand inside the dragon." "Alright. *draws breath* I would like...to FIST the WOUND." *Matt, look of absolute horror and disgust while the entire table dies laughing* "Just, jam it, find a finger and go like EEEEEEERRRRRRR" ... "This wound will never heal." "Yeah, uh...nope. nope..." It's both one of the funniest and most depraved moments of Critical Role.

[@tbcmallett]

The third guest player goal is simply a chance to play a tabletop game, which is how I ended up joining my current group after two years of searching.

[@juanheloreloaded]

The battle from the inside was super interesting for😊 me.

[@Spark_Chaser]

A lot of the issue with the Lair actions is this isn't really the dragon's home terrain. Black dragons are swamp stompers, not mountaineers.

[@SupergeekMike]

That’s a good point!

[@gorax8784]

Dang I remember when I was just starting watching critical role like in january maybe and I started from episode 30 I believe due to the better quality and found your channel, I would watch your demystified vids from the first 30 episodes just to know what happened back then and later I would first watch the episode and then watch your demystified of that episode. Now I'm on episode 61 so a little bit ahead of you (A little bit lol with a vid every two weeks I'm almost 3 months ahead) and it's such a shame you don't make these videos weekly yet, I'm sure it'll happen sooner or later but damn I just can't wait for that moment to happen

[@blkriku]

19:15 I'm just now realizing this is the foreshadow to the goldfish incident and suddenly it all makes sense XD

[@bdletoast09]

To be fair toward Matt, the Lair Actions Umbrasyl used in this fight are those listed in the Monster Manual, so he just played the rules as close to truth here. But I agree that they're a bit disconnected to the black dragon's ablities and DM should feel free to create their own lair action to better represent the personnality of their dragon.

[@anewhero1216]

As far as levels, I’ve always used milestone levelling, so I haven’t had to think too hard about level up timing lol

[@WesTheMesMorgan]

To your question about leveling up. I usually say you can have access to your hip points whenever. But to gain abilities spells and such, you have to complete a long rest.

[@VincentTheWordsmith]

Regarding when is a good time to level up during a session: I've only DMed one-shots where leveling up was a non-factor (that may change soon), but being a player, it always feels weird to level up without a long rest involved. Adding new stuff onto a character sheet that's ragged from a day of adventuring can complicate things, whereas ending a long rest with a level up means that everything is topped off across the board.

[@simoncrawley1152]

In regards to level up. I use milestone so I would tend to give them the level up at the end of the session. If that happens to be mid encounter I would just let them fully reset with a lvl up. Will give the players more things to do and I’m happy to increase the CR on my encounter

[@GeeBeeOhThree]

I usually have my players level up instantly, but they don't gain any limited resources that level would grant (ie: ki, wild shapes, spell slots, sorcery points, etc), they start out depleted

[@EmilyGamerGirl]

always love these! Can't wait for more!

[@TheMikeLyons]

Re: the disadvantage inside Umbrasyl issue: I totally respect that Vax can't move around. On the other hand, Umbrasyl can't see him, and therefore he gets advantage on all his attacks... Advantage and Disadvantage cancel each other out, so he "should" have been rolling straight (RAW).

[@jenny_of_oldstones3523]

"Oooooooold Magic" 😂😂😂😂😂

[@GAdmThrawn]

In my campaign, it is milestone leveling. I tend to wait until a plot point has finished either for the main story or for a character moment such as a side quest that took longer than intended. Once everyone is back and taking a rest or downtime then I will give them that time to level up. None of my players' characters are religious. Actually, scratch that, one is a demigod but he acts like one as long as it benefits him. This is due to his upbringing in a part of the world where there aren't a whole lot, if any, worshippers of his godly parent. But they haven't really looked into their parentage or where they came from, so I didn't have an opportunity to rp as a god. 19:59 I forgot about this moment. Well, now we know how the idea of keyfish started.

[@AdellRedwinters]

Technically with legendary actions, I think the dragon could put some distance between it self and the players by using its “wing attack” every round. That would give the dragon a fly speed an extra 40 feet of movement for a total of 120 feet! Add in a dash for a total of 200 feet, and yeah if the dragon was focused purely on escaping, it would escape.

[@alchemicpink2392]

When it comes to leveling up I require that my players long rest. And I have one player who really bristles against that which makes me regret the exp route, on the other hand they're the type to get mad at milestone leveling taking too long. (Otherwise they're completely fine as a player, this only came up twice when they smelt a boss battle after reaching the exp threshhold) Now, if I were running a slower game in general I would probably use really old school leveling up mechanics where a level gain involves actually learning, putting into practice and finetuning the things they get from the level up (i.e. Wizard gets time to further their grasp on the weave, gaining additional spell slots while the fighter discovers their internal Athlete's Go-Button to learn Action Surge.) So it really depends on the game, my personal recommendation: Don't be afraid of a Second Session 0. You can change up how it works and it doesn't hurt your game to take time out of a session or to ask for people to come in half an hour earlier to go over changes to how things work.

[@Lurklen]

I'd argue, I don't even think that the eagles could even carry the rest of the party. But I agree, placing both groups on the table is what I would do. I might also run it as a chase (but not exactly using the rules as those are...difficult) and have Umbrasyl be pulling some aerial tricks that keeps things dynamic. I also go back and forth on levelling up. I grant xp for completed arcs and kills, and usually require a long rest, but sometimes it just fits a moment to have everyone level up right then. I also do milestone in some games, and then it's not relevant. My general rule though is xp until level 10, and then milestone from then on.

[@Dunybrook]

It's always very hard to play ancient dragons properly. Generally, I think they are too smart to face a party attacking them in their lair alone without lots of minions around to even the odds.

[@kylebeardsley6200]

Leveling up is tricky for me, because it involves increasing your max hit points and spell slots, so the question of "do I get all my hit points back if I level up during the adventuring day" makes it tricky to think about how much danger I can throw at the party. I do milestone leveling in the dungeon crawl campaign I'm running, so I prefer to wait until the part is at a long rest before I'll give them the level-up, but that isn't always feasible if they just took a long rest before hitting the new milestone. Ultimately it's a judgement call, but that's just me.

[@vinigmoura]

I think Mat was nice to even allow Vex to have the chance to cause some damage in the first place. The insides of the dragon (at least as I understand he was in this situation) was not like Majin Bonn's inwars, he was veeeeeery tightly squeezed, almost couldnt move at all...

[@dolphin64575]

*Vax?

[@vinigmoura]

@@dolphin64575 Yep!! hehe

[@Treebohr]

In my current game, the party has to go back to town and spend a week resting and training in order to level up.

[@savnana3605]

I think chase scenes are FANTASTIC at low levels, but the moment things like dimension door are in play, chase scenes become near impossible to govern fairly.

[@guamae]

I ran a semester of 7th Sea, and I thought it was a really great system for Fantastical Swashbuckling!

[@bryanduncan6954]

I played 7 seas with its creator, John Wick, once… fantastic game, fantastic GM.

[@MrSilvUr]

How does the "unseen attacker" advantage work for being inside the target? Honestly, there are a number of places where it seems like "unseen attacker" could come up, but it isn't talked about...

[@GeekMasterGames]

I allow PCs to level up between sessions, even if it's as a battle is changing like the example here

[@OceanusHelios]

Two things can happen in a chase scene and only two things. There is gap between the one chased and the ones chasing. That gap either expands or it contracts. How do you simulate this? You could have two D20s. Dm rolls one and the Player rolls one. If one die is higher that means the gap is smaller, or greater depending on who rolled it. Make an adjustment, advance time, and roll again. Modifiers include the base speed. Or you could just handle it like combat, in a way, only the descriptions are different. Instead of hit points representing damage, the HP that is whittled down...or something equivalent to HP could be the gap between the chaser and the chased.

[@squidlivers5677]

My party tried has gotten very egotistical as of late and with there consent I am sending them against an ancient black dragon (at level 9) this was perfect timing

[@ItsScottish]

Got 4 games and most of them are tour standard "you get more powerful after that" In my 4th game the players need to be "safe" to level up - like a short rest- and to Multiclass they need to be in a city/town to speak to that type of person, have been using downtime to research that type of thing, or have a party member who can "train" them

[@aquawoelfly]

I like the cobalt that lasted..... 10mins? He can guide us in the cave.. how far have you traveled? Over there Uh.... How long to cobolts live? 11 days How old are you 11 days We are going to make this the best day of his life! Oh look orcs that like smashing cobalts [smash] .... Or his last....

[@RottenRogerDM]

Short Rest at least but generally long rest to level up.

[@wesleykushner8028]

I let them level up when they have the xp or milestone without a rest needed but it wouldn't be in the middle of an ongoing encounter. That's a little intense.

[@Hakasedess]

As a small comment on the "the inside is softer than the outside" thing, it's actually not entirely relevant While yes, the toughness of a creature's hide\scales\armor is a big factor in AC, MECHANICALLY speaking, AC is actually about whether you hit at all, not how well your blow lands. Humans are soft on the outside and the inside both, but as an example: If I shoot a crossbow at you from 50 feet away, your AC is effectively whether I hit you in a way that does damage at all. For those without armor, it literally is whether I miss you entirely or make contact. You either take damage, or you do not. But if I am miniaturized and shunted into your body, and I fire off a crossbow bold at complete random, I *will* hit something so long as my crossbow even fires at all. Your AC from the inside has to be 0 for the mechanics to make any sense whatsoever. I will hit something, I literally can not miss because every direction is your internal organs, at absolute best for you I cause some amount of internal bleeding and paid. Of course you can't actually do that, because the game becomes lopsided in favor of going minimode and teleporting into a person's body, then ripping them apart because you're guaranteed to hit SOMETHING, which leads to... some really wonky disconnect between the mechanics of the game and what's happening in narrative. For this reason, more than anything else, I think allowing the players to actually teleport into another creature should be a hard no. It's easy enough with a sword, sure, you can just be unable to maneuver it because your arms are in an awkward position, but what if they teleported Percy in there, hand holding the gun with his finger on the trigger? All he needs to do is squeeze and he will, without question, make contact no matter how awkwardly tied up he is once he emerges within the creature. Are you just going to have his gun jam repeatedly because he's... in an awkard position? You can handwave it as his gun failing to fire due to the moist environment, and that works mechanically, but in terms of the narrative you're now having a guy with a gun roll on whether squeezing the trigger results in the gun firing or not. Fail one roll, the gunpowder is too moist and doesn't fire, next round it fires just fine potentially just because he... squeezed better? It's fine to do it, but it makes the narrative portion of the fight really... dumb, for lack of a better word, it stops making much sense because of how contrived your explanations have to become. And this isn't even getting into how bizarre things have to reach for once you get spells involved.

[@Keovar]

15:20 - Reminds me of "Flowers for Algernon". For a brief time, Grog was smart enough to see what he's been missing - and to know that night will fall once more. The Immovable Rod idea reminds me of the 5th novel of the Critical Failures series. Despite the series name, the plan worked much better for the Critical Failures crew. Content Warning: To say that the humor in Critical Failures is rude would be a significant understatement. Many of the characters (particularly Denis/e) are intentionally unlikable.

[@ShyyGaladriel]

I was just thinking of Flowers for Algernon too.

[@Reaper_Lord]

I’ve been watching this series along side the Vods, up to the point the animated show has reached. Unfortunately with the series 3 delay, we’re almost caught up. Gonna be hard to stop watching until season 3, this series is excellent

[@SupergeekMike]

Actually, the next arc is the Feywild, which was adapted as the Fey subplot in season 2, so you still have a little time!

[@Reaper_Lord]

@@SupergeekMike Oh yes of course Fethris, and now we have a season 3 release announced! Phew!

[@Samaru163]

This might be a hot take, but I have never really liked how Matt runs dragons, and the Umbrassyl fight is a good example of it. I feel like he plays them too much like brutes and not like intelligent creatures. Plus, he rarely gives them minions, so it comes down to seven+ players vs 1 dragon, and the only bonus the dragon has is increased hit points. And then, when you watch the animated show and see how intelligent and deadly Umbrasyl is, it just makes his portrayal in the live show even more lackluster. Obviously Raishan is the exception to this rule in the live plays, but I wish the other dragons had some better tactics applied to them. I dunno, it just sucks me out of immersion when an ancient being is so easily cornered.

[@toddrohrer8680]

I think Matt was being very easy on them

[@optimus2200]

spurt still the best guest charcter by far though

[@TheMineyist]

OOOO YEAH DEMISTIFY ME BROTHER!

[@sherbert1321]

They use xp level up in campaign 1??

[@nickbrown638]

They did, you can actually see during the Briarwood’s arc Vax and Scanlan level up to 12 around the same time. (or maybe I’m misremembering lol)

[@Kuribohcoast]

They sure do!

[@dominicpizano887]

Don’t earth elementals have resistance to non magical bludgeoning damage aka falling damage? I don’t know if that’s a rule or something so just wanted to double check

[@sagesaria]

Holy enema, Batman! (I had to, I'm sorry)

[@jenny_of_oldstones3523]

It was so hilariously funny.

[@Lngbrdninjamasta]

I love this channel ❤🎉

[@stephendragonspawn6944]

So many awkward phrases there, Mike! :P

[@IzraelGraves]

Its interesting how much they changed this for the TV series. You'd think that would feel disingenuous to the VAs.

[@SupergeekMike]

The VAs are also the executive producers; their goal is to condense the story so sometimes that means simplifying things and combining moments. They also benefit from the ability to revise the story, since the campaign was fully improvised and that means some moments could be finessed or improved upon, or even just simplified to make more palatable for a broader audience.

[@IzraelGraves]

@@SupergeekMike Like Vax getting wings in this scene?

[@BigKlingy]

I'll always remember this episode, because I left a comment on the video that got a lot of likes. Scanlan bites Umbrasyl from the inside in his snake form and does 1 damage. "It'd be amazing if that was the HDYWTDT."

[@angelsmilkyway4352]

11 DAYS

[@morganer5378]

It's funny to see little details they have change for LOVM season 2: spoilers Vax got his wings after falling from Umbrasyl Scanlan who is the one reluctant to go fight a dragon in his lair etc

[@christianquenan1358]

I am sad, I will need to stop watching your critical role demystify since I want to follow the story through the legend of vox machina show 🥲

[@hannahnethercott8390]

I'm honestly thinking of doing the same tbh :/ so we're in the same boat

[@christianquenan1358]

@hannahnethercott8390 so sad 😞 this serie is the one I prefer from Mike

[@lisaniesen1397]

This is my first series watching him and it's how I found his channel :( maybe something else will catch my interest but for now I don't want to be spoiled

[@trajektoria]

This is perhaps random, but thank you for providing subtitles for your videos. It helps a lot people who are hard of hearing, have trouble processing speech or who are still learning English. Much appreciated. It's always great when a person who talks about accessibility actually puts their money where their mouth is.

[@SupergeekMike]

I’m so glad they help! ☺️

[@corypacheco4107]

​@SupergeekMike I just want to say I am also so grateful for the captions, I'm hearing impaired, I can hear volume fine but I have trouble hearing annunciation. (If your curious what I hear a majority of the time college humor made a video a few years ago called "sorry, what'd you say again" that does a great job showing how I hear people in a humorous way) but it's always really hard for me to follow along with what someone is saying without captions.

[@roguejoe]

@@SupergeekMike I also like them because I like chips too much.

[@BetaBRSRKR]

I love that Chris tucked his arm in his shirt at first. I didn't know much about Chris Perkins at the time but I could tell he was a DM with a rare chance to actually play. I feel like a lot of forever DMs end up elevating the party when they get a chance to play.

[@WilliamSlayer]

Us Forever DMs try our hardest on both sides of the screen for sure...glad you noticed that too! 😅

[@irishwarlock]

Gotta love Perkins as a CR guest, definitely in my top 5 (although I am counting Shale and Spurt together)

[@wumbojet]

Spurt is the best critical role character ever conceived

[@dolphin64575]

11 days!

[@hunterstrunk7516]

Oh hey I just finished binging the last 20 episodes on your channel today

[@stingerjohnny9951]

Almost as much as binging two CR episodes 😜

[@dwdillydally]

hardcore!

[@OldManGamgee]

Hahaha! Pike's Holy enema! Great phrasing.

[@hannahnethercott8390]

I'm a DM in training and I've recently found this series and I have to say I am super super grateful for this series of videos. Now, the leveling during a short rest, during a long rest, or in the middle of an adventure is something a little tricky and it's going to be different for every DM. Cause personally if I was the one DM'ing and my player could justify leveling up in the middle of a combat I might allow it because what Liam did and justified is really fricking cool (in my personal opinion). To expand what I would probably do is let them multiclass (or level up) but not take any of the class "specialties" so if they multiclassed into a Druid, at the most I could see myself allowing is the spellcasting for like one or two cantrips but make anything higher than that something they have to do on a short or long rest. Paladin, Cleric, or Warlock is easier because it's easier to justify with "Oh I call out to the God/Goddess/Patron (whatever)" and I would probably turn into something of a "Blessing" from the God or whatever. That was long, I apologize. Anyway, I'm looking forward to the next videos! :)

[@michaelrussell1672]

Mike! Mike! Mike! Come on everyone! MIKE! MIKE! MIKE!

[@daltonemerson1875]

As the DM for my groups, I prefer to wait for a rest to have characters level up, but I have allowed for immediate level up in situations when the drama of the situation benefitted from it. Life Cleric in my party hit level 5 after beating a monster I threw at them and was able to save several allies who had died in the battle by using revivify.

[@BluejayJunior]

"Broods through the air." That comment had me cracking up!

[@billberndtson]

Fun Fact; Yev Pusin from Backblaze played Shale in "Vox Machina; An Exandrian Musical" by the Cantata Pansophical. 😃

[@dolphin64575]

You're going to make me relisten... So glad to know he was involved ❤

[@billberndtson]

@@dolphin64575 Even 6 years later I still listen to it - the fact that they made it at all, let alone how f*cking good it is, signaled to me that CR had a foundation from which they could launch any vehicle. They have a lot more music, too - The Exandrian Mixtape containing "Congratulations," "The Taryon Darrington Song," and Caleb's version of "Burn," plus the original singles like "In the Cobalt Soul," "I Wear the Mask," and Tiberius' "Vorugal" particularly move me. I love those creative geniuses at CPan almost as much as the gang at CR. ❤🧡💛💚💙💜

[@bradygroves988]

I'm similar when it comes to ruling on incidental damage. IMO Hit Points represent intentionally fatal attacks. This means that unless the INTENT of the hit is to kill in incapacitate, no HP damage is done. In "ball tag" i might rule that you need to make a CON save to see if you can stay upright. Or on a slap across the face I may ask for a WIS save and ask the player to tale that roll into account to determine how their character might react. But either way, no one takes HP damage unless "Serious Bodily Harm" is intended.

[@janus2773]

i don't see a reason to disallow leveling up, even during a fight as long as there is enough time between sessions for the players to update their sheets. one could say "maybe the players would metagame and pick specific options that would help in that fight!", but why not run with it? if a character develops a fitting power in a moment of need, i think that can be kinda epic. in my game my players fought a druid who shape shifted into elementals a bunch and he really did a number on them, but they did very well and played smart. so when the druid did escape as his wildshapes ran out, i gave my players the level up they usually would have gotten after the boss fight, and the next session they ended the fight rather easily.

[@Takashidomo]

31:26 I agree that lair actions were uninspired, but he is using the standard black dragon lair actions from the monster manual. Is this the first dragon lair fight that Matt has run in 5e?