Epic Level Battle Royale One-Shot | Critical Role RPG

[@KCBCollier]

2:58:55 Travis splashes into the ocean, sinking into the embrace of a Kraken...And wakes up on a beach a few weeks later as Fjord.

[@roberthomewood4766]

Mind = blown

[@MultiDante333]

so you're saying Grog got Isekai'ed

[@supernova6871]

Years later*

[@hostile_prof]

@@supernova6871 years passed from Grog to Fjord, but only weeks passed for Travis. I think that's what they're talking about

[@justinmorlock4281]

Campaign 2 is just a dream. lol. that would be trippy as hell

[@ScorchHellfire]

Sam is so committed to not meta-gaming that even after they all found out about the healing area, he kept spamming Healing Words on himself and never tried to go to the top of the tower. :P

[@djmccarthy4859]

Yeah, Sam and Travis are the best players at the table most of the time, they NEVER meta game even when it is blatantly obvious to their characters if they don't have the ability score to understand it... They're my favorites if it isn't obvious

[@bananafish58]

@@djmccarthy4859 Same here!

[@forthelols9176]

Thank you for pointing this out, it had slipped my notice. This makes me feel a bit better after the extremely irritating greedlemind.

[@SocialistSadako]

Sam's the best, man.

[@k0pstl939]

@@SocialistSadako Sam's the best man

[@turkishcoffeeguy]

Grog dies, drowning and eaten by a kraken, only to return as a warlock sworn to some eldritch aquatic entity. Hmmmm

[@articbass4875]

Fjord

[@ArshikaTowers]

@@articbass4875 Perhaps Grog IS Fjord's patron......?

[@zanderbarnwell1887]

Yes

[@ryandowling3897]

when you accidentally look 2 inches down on the screen and see a major spoiler in the comments.

[@ashu21]

@@ryandowling3897 I swear to God, man

[@timthechef9242]

Can't wait to see the all rogue battle where everyone just silently texts Matt.

[@BaTeOo7]

tom gulino honestly would be better than this

[@Bluecatte]

you two clowns have obviously never played proper rogues. that is a VERY common occurence, especially when the rogue is in a circumstance where he cant talk to the party. prevents Metagaming.

[@toshomni9478]

Good players and a DM to keep them honest would also prevent Metagaming. Everybody accuses Critical Role of doing it but there were several occasions in this battle alone when the players avoided having their characters act on knowledge that they had no way of knowing. I think they could have been trusted.

[@quinnwilder6990]

Was really surprised at Liam's behavior in this video. Suddenly he became one of those annoying rules lawyers who thinks it's okay to argue with the DM and quote the rule books as if they are the final arbiter.. Stealth is not the same as invisibility and you can't just disappear when you are in plain sight of everybody.

[@alexwilliams8577]

Tosh Omni yeah but it's difficult in this situation. If you're randomly moving around the map and you know where he is, it's hard to say if your character would or would not go there. And if you go near the stealth person everyone thinks you're metagaming

[@schmithy]

I'm just watching this and I can't be the only one who noticed how Grog, Scanlan and Vax died in ways that basically formed their M9 backstories. Grog in the water with tentacles, Vax and the fire and Scanlan face down in water.

[@inigmianstudios2771]

Bro Nice eye. I didn't catch that

[@skullsquad900]

Dope

[@andrewclark1645]

Percy also claims he's going to invent ghost bullets so he can shoot ghosts, and Molly ends up being an Order of the Ghost Slayer Blood Hunter

[@Jenthura]

And Scanlan was killed by Percival. After he dies, at 4:04:18, Scanlan says "I cast Slowly Decompose." predicting Caduceus.

[@zorasilver1519]

Percy dies squashed by earth and rocks. Molly wakes up buried underground.

[@oIPsychotixIo]

I love how matt was hinting RIGHT at the start that they should probably kill Keyleth first. "You've heard tale of certain powerful arch-druids that could wild shape as many times as they want" HINT HINT

[@BabyBull72]

Yeah, they should have just agreed to made it a battle of everyone vs Keyleth, either that or tweaked her wild shape. That whole HP regen for a BA is absolutely broken.

[@leavethekidsalone]

Yeah. Would've been the first player I targeted

[@absintheminded8466]

Plus, didn't she meta game last time?

[@JubioHDX]

@@absintheminded8466 not really tbh, people mention that she spread a firestorm in a certain direction and asked if she hit taryon as well, but even if it was in the correct direction he was flying 30 feet up and wouldnt have gotten touched by a spell that she chose to stay touching a surface (the wall of the tower/ground, and not going through the air), and she didnt even target the smokescreen he attacked her from behind after he did it TWICE in a row, staying faithful to the fact that she shouldnt know exactly where the prismatic sprays came from

[@aaronwild2894]

Right. Don't worry about the Goliath barbarian, that may or may not like to rage. It's not like he's resistant to damn near everything and will only take half damage from almost any attack.

[@cultistoddish]

the SECOND she started reseting every wildshape shift they should've made an alliance against her...

[@mbalazs3544]

yep :D pore decision making was in character do :D Grog still slouchy on Scanlin, Percy loner, Vax doing cray stuff, the only person was not in character was Keyleth for she played effectively for change and I loved that. :D

[@Medaumplay3]

Yeah, that was the best decision for all of them long term, which is hard to do in the heat of the battle. Also, Scanlan was calling it from minute 1

[@Z03Y_1S_H3R3]

@@mbalazs3544 i agree, but i would have loved for keylith to start of with her shapechange and just BURN through high cr forms, and then doing all the wildshape shit when her shapechange has run out or was reduced to 0. like, she is an archdruid, yes, but she did not use her 9. level spellslot the whole game, wich i think is kind of sad.

[@PVilla27]

@@mbalazs3544 what an asshole way to make a positive comment

[@frechjo]

They all knew they had to do that. Even if they would have realized it late, Sam was calling for that from the beginning. It was a conscious decision on their part not to team up. It could have been for a number of reasons: to keep the battle "fair" (for some sense of fair, each one counting only on their own abilities); for RP; a previous agreement on not making alliances; or to not upset Marisha by ganging up against her. Judging by how they tend to care about strategy during battles, and not just RP, given that the battle was already completely unbalanced, that nobody said they shouldn't make alliances when Sam suggested it, and seeing how Marisha usually reacts to perceived unfairness against her, I think it's simply that nobody wanted to piss her off. In the end, losing a game already unbalanced against you might be less important than keeping a good relation with your friends/coworkers.

[@howtheygotthere]

I love how everybody sends everything in on a rouge in a lvl 20 PvP but barley touch an all powerful druid with an essential infinite health pool

[@k0pstl939]

Rogue*

[@sovereign9529]

@@k0pstl939 roougee

[@Ailieorz]

And complains about said rogue being a rogue and not the said druid

[@XP_Goblin]

She really only has around 300hp. The elementals are "relatively" low at like 126 then plus her druids hp which is like 170ish. To kill her you have to deal all the damage before her next turn or prevent her from taking a bonus action

[@braydenchadwick9836]

@@XP_Goblinunless they use a vulnerability, I’m not sure if that damage has been done on cr yet lol

[@MayFlowers429]

God bless Sam Rigel for taking shit in stride and keeping the mood up.

[@YourGoodTwin]

I've said it before, Sam Riegel is the best D&D player I've ever seen. It's for many different reasons but this is one of them. He always does his best to keep the mood light and fun.

[@deandentist1038]

I know right? Sam is such a fucking national treasure.

[@andruloni]

@@deandentist1038 Why you reserve him for a nation, man? :|

[@bananafish58]

Ditto, ditto, ditto!!!

[@j.a.6310]

Literally first turn of the tournament and marisha insane level metagames him goober style.

[@Sanguine_Entertainment]

If I were Scanlan, I would have "wished" for Grog to appear directly behind Keyleth, and then ended my turn and pointed out that Grog's combat turn comes directly after Scanlan's. : )

[@binnieb173]

Sanguine Entertainment Not a bad idea. Or 2 grogs ... then kelith might have died in a round.

[@johnsorrows8998]

Or or here me out wish for her death if the dm doesnt allow it wish to remove he wild shape abilitys if that doesnt work fucking send her to the 9 hells with banish or something

[@AlphaEmery]

You clearly don't know the downsides to using Wish.

[@jacobroy5390]

He could have just power word killed her as soon as any damage was done to the fire or air elemental forms, or even the earth form if more substantial damage was taken.

[@obsidianthe7th]

@@jacobroy5390 A. Wish can only replicate 8th level spells or lower. B. Power word kill only works on creatures with less than 100 hit points and she mentioned having 115 after the psychic damage from feeble mind so that wouldn't work anyway.

[@coreyway1349]

Rewatching this god bless Sam and Travis for being the only people who took their crap at face value with little anger or frustration and kept the mood light and fun and god bless them for not scoping other peoples HP and doing meta stuff these two are absolute treasures of players please lord give us more like them

[@shadowpsykie]

What crap

[@julieraimbaud5567]

Timestamps 9:10 Ultimate shirtception 10:45 Cloaked figure 12:30 Let's begin ! 15:10 Crazy initiative 17:55 Teleporter 24:50 First blood (other than the door) 29:14 Texting starts 30:45 No deck tonight 31:40 Magic dispelled, ruining Percy's stuff 34:00 What happens if Vax dies ? 40:20 First crit 45:12 Irresistible dance 51:00 Percy gets his stuff back 52:10 The door doesn't take psychic damage 53:52 Matt always has a dragon at the ready 55:35 M'lightning bolt 59:10 Mime 1:04:10 Here's that crit for real this time 1:10:30 Matador pun 1:23:30 Playing it safe 1:36:08 Liam's RP is on point 1:41:40 Reverse gravity 1:44:00 Yoyo 1:50:27 LAPD 2:10:40 Break ends 2:18:02 Vax is still stealthing 2:20:50 Rogue song 2:23:40 Who dis ? 2:42:50 First blood on the rogue ? 2:46:14 Uncanny dodge rules check 2:50:20 Still no damage 2:55:30 Some actual verbal instructions from Liam ! 2:57:05 Planeshift 3:02:25 Manners 3:08:00 Vax finally attacks 3:14:30 Caster solidarity 3:18:09 Feeblemind, 2nd attempt 3:24:00 Prediction 3:34:20 Let's break the tower 3:42:00 Player down 3:57:30 Death 4:04:19 Sam and Marisha bond over what could have been 4:15:30 Third unconscious 4:17:10 Third death 4:33:00 Percival sandwich 4:34:01 Bye Percy 4:37:00 The Feeblemind Queen

[@SageSchispell]

Everyone needed to focus Keyleth after Scanlan pulled that clutch move... but instead she was still allowed to beast shape... which by the way the book says you have to have seen the creature to turn into it, implying you have to KNOW WHAT IT LOOKS LIKE... at 1Int you barely know what YOU look like...

[@CommMolander]

Thank you ma'dam

[@johnjustjohn5866]

@@SageSchispell barely? They definitely wouldn't know what race they even are.

[@anthonymodak2957]

You forgot Sam's announcement for Marvel Puzzle Quest at the beginning

[@ikeekieeki]

bumpity bump

[@timrobinson3072]

04:08:07 "Weirdly taking away all of Keyleth's intelligence has made her a more effective fighter"

[@Cultureghost]

How convenient

[@robertharvey9509]

It’s almost like she and the person to her right and out left and HUGE meta gamers

[@PVilla27]

@@robertharvey9509 your comment makes no sense

[@SocialistSadako]

personally i don't mind as long as she took out percy

[@n0dash18]

It’s basically the D&D equivalent of mashing one button in a video game and winning. Fun, and you don’t actually need to think.

[@bananafish58]

1:51:25 Matt is so awesome! Taliesin says he is proud of what he's done so far, and Matt acknowledges what he said by saying, "I know." Then he replies to Marisha, who said she thinks she's been playing aggressively by saying that "You have been...You and Scanlan both have been doing pretty well."

[@dominichoward4833]

Travis: "Probably not kill the other caster"... what I was thinking the whole game.

[@arnulfogalaxy3879]

Who else was hoping Scanlan would wish back grog

[@theanyktos]

OOOOOHHH, Mr Percival I-never-rely-on-magic de Rolo III getting hit by the anti-magic thing and being not completely, but pretty crippled is the funniest thing.

[@IanDaviesRules]

I mean, if he really thinks that his effective range with a pistol is 400 feet while running around a battlefield ISN'T magical... he just doesn't realize that he's been using magic all along. Seriously, go to an outdoor gun range and set up a target 400 feet away and try to hit it with a handgun. You won't.

[@azrielslytherin2604]

@@IanDaviesRules ...you do realize that prety much all of these people and dnd characters in general are supernatural...right?

[@IanDaviesRules]

@@azrielslytherin2604 i mean, that was kind of my point. Percy's not just a good shot, he's a supernaturally good shot. A 400 yard shot with a pistol using no optics while moving is not just difficult, it's virtually impossible. Then do it a few times, all in a 6-second window. You would need magic to land those shots. I think we're saying the same thing, unless you have a different definition of "magic" and "supernatural"

[@MOsesIcan]

Travis got soooo bored / feel so bad for him

[@robwong7206]

Surprised he didn't just get up and go to the kitchen for some food to pass the time. XD Honestly surprised none of them did that. I mean if you're not able to play anymore, why stick around the table? Shouldn't have to just because there are Cameras. They don't do that when a character is dead in the Campaign till they are brought back, so why stick around when you're dead in a battle royal, right?

[@PaxIesus]

I finally finished it. I was as bored as he was. (actually, not true, I stopped watching after it was clear Percy and Vax weren't going to kill Keyleth...for whatever reason, despite what Scanlan kept telling them)

[@mcgenius99]

imagine a battlefield that was more restrictive with movement and no flying ...he could destroy some shit

[@ethanpatten6005]

I feel bad for him because that planar shift was bullshit, didnt have the component to cast it, didnt make an attack role and its charisma saving throw not wisdom.

[@TheRedAzuki]

Didn't the same happened to Taellis / percy last time?

[@romantheflash]

Sam was right, Keyleth was going to win unless everyone ganged up. Nice Feeblemind though

[@firefly8767]

Sam could have used wish to kill keyleth or just win the entire game but he is just too good of a player and I hated how Percy had no strategy this time if he had done 106 or whatever damage to keyleth then Scanlan could have power word killed her !

[@djmccarthy4859]

@@firefly8767 I don't think he took that...

[@adahnyemeth6317]

@@djmccarthy4859 wish spell gives you an ability to cast any spell, it is primary use of wish.

[@jackwhitneyVO]

@@adahnyemeth6317 Any spell of 8th level of lower, PWK is a level 9 too.

[@zanealberts3829]

@@jackwhitneyVO You can still cast any spell with it, using it for a 9th just runs the risk of never being able to cast it again/any of the other penalties. Wish is literally anything.

[@angelofdusk13]

"Jumping around all your booms" is the best description of a rogue ever. Our rogue in our last campaign routinely rolled in the 30s for stealth; we joked that we didn't actually know if he was still with us, we just assumed because we never saw him.

[@mattbriddell9246]

Wish they could have gotten Matt Colville or Pat Rothfuss to DM this one so Matt could have played as Gilmour.

[@Evija3000]

A lvl 20 Gilmore? That would be badass.

[@antuzagruiescu4913]

OMG YES

[@KingGayCockroach]

I think he would obliterate them

[@zytosaur]

Holy heck that would have been awesome!

[@dudemcfurgusson7179]

A level 20 sorcerer would have destroyed the party. Twinned disintegrate would have outright murdered some people.

[@PhantasyHero22]

4:12:16 Pretty much sums up the entire episode. It was a bit entertaining for the first bit but after the realization that Archdruid Keyleth can Wild Shape despite Feeblemind made it all a foregone conclusion and dull. At least they weren't really playing for anything and they said they had fun. The Talks Machina for this is gonna be real interesting to see the questions they pick from the community.

[@Atheismo9760]

Yeah Travis had all the fun. And Liam hiding all the time because he's scared and doesn't want to attack Marisha, shows just how much fun he had. Sam not casting wish so that he doesn't ruin the game, had loads of fun. It was super fun for Persy to do Marisha's bidding so she would spare him until the end. And it was all so fun to watch.

[@egget999]

Would she really be smart enough to use the right forms with 1 int? Feels like that was an opportunity missed.

[@Bingquillin]

@@egget999 Matt ruled that it doesn't have requirements about int so it wouldn't matter. I would personally agree that she would be to stupid to transform.

[@finnaboophammondium326]

I think the only way for them to win was to somehow wish to stop wildshape and put feeblemind on her

[@maboyles90]

@@Bingquillin you keep all your mental traits in wild shape.

[@tylorclark3520]

Man, I haven’t seen Travis’ face this upset since a certain Sorcerer needlessly assisted Laura’s 36.

[@alexanderbyrne9684]

What is that in reference to?

[@tylorclark3520]

@@alexanderbyrne9684 Early Campaign 1 things. Laura’s character rolled a 36 for a skill check, but another player tried to steal her spotlight through his PC’s actions.

[@alexanderbyrne9684]

@@tylorclark3520 Thanks but could you be a bit less vague. I watched both campaigns so no worries about spoilers. Thanks again

[@tylorclark3520]

@@alexanderbyrne9684 Gotcha! Thanks for letting me know! • SPOILERS (S1) FOR ANY READING • I’m referring specifically to when Vex shot an arrow into a cog that would stop a trap in the Temple of the Platinum Dragon. Tiberius decided to needlessly cast Telekinesis on the arrow - *after* Laura had rolled the 36 - to guide the arrow true. Travis’ face was pure silent rage.

[@alexanderbyrne9684]

@@tylorclark3520 thanks for the clarification. I will def rewatch it.

[@rabbidowl1235]

Travis was at sac anime and signed my brother's Fullmetal Alchemist poster as grog by accident

[@humbletreestump8134]

RabbidOwl lol

[@nicholasfotou2980]

I wouldn't even be mad

[@markky3050]

@@nicholasfotou2980 Nope, no mad to be had here. Id be fucking thrilled having something signed by grog.

[@raymonholt69]

That poster has to be worth so much more now because how many posters could he have signed with the wrong signature? It's like a misprinted coin. Priceless

[@herbertkraft7379]

That's such a grog thing to do.

[@fartingjellyfish7102]

2:10:40 if anybody want to know when the break ends

[@AustinNelson60]

+

[@HoobtheNoob]

Thanks!

[@Cheesusful]

I wish they showed Liam's texts on-screen

[@lifelongmonolog]

I came to watch Grog smash things... :(

[@warlordghandi3590]

well he did destroy a few doors....

[@MistahBryan]

@@warlordghandi3590 and a Potion

[@Alekranidos09]

Yea poor guy didn't manage to do much

[@caden903]

Me to man me to

[@brettharrison8478]

I get why the table doesn’t like Liam’s text gameplay, but he’s honestly got a point: Being stealthy is all he’s got.

[@PapaBear_Gaming]

That and it was very.... very clear that taliesen was 'cheating' level metagaming and actively helping marisha and encouraging her only the entire game. He literally tried to rig and then take a dive for her to win one.

[@BD-uo9po]

to be fair though, dnd 5e rules assumes that actual players know where an invisible/hidden foe is. Unseen provides advantage to hit and disadvantages to getting hit, players not knowing where a stealthed opponent is really isn't how invisibility/sneaking meant to be used.

[@agoose5678]

@@BD-uo9po not entirely true, you get disadvantage on a shot if you know their rough location but you can't see them so you're just shooting in the dark, but if they sneak away you just wouldn't get to attack cause you have no idea where they are

[@dudemcfurgusson7179]

@@BD-uo9po if your dm is letting you know exactly where a stealthed or invisible enemy is at all times, your dm is not using those mechanics correctly. Forcing perception checks to be able to see the enemy is one of the biggest draws to those mechanics. Also, imagine the salt a player would throw if the dm says that his monsters automatically know you're there even if you're invisible.

[@Saiku]

@@PapaBear_Gaming Taliesin always metagames like crazy and makes it uninteresting.

[@chrisbratton4295]

Man I can totally relate to Travis as a player, he cracks me up with his frustrations.

[@SeventhGate008]

I'm going to pretend that Keylith actually did send Grog to the Fae wild where he happily lives the rest of his days with his beloved water nymph

[@TheReaver1234]

Hell yeah

[@BiggySn1p3r]

Scanlan was the only one that could defeat Keyleth...also poor Travis just sitting there.

[@ErixTheRed]

And he shouldn't have died. Percy's trigger was "black feathers" aka Vax, not "anybody"

[@Evija3000]

I think he said "black feathers" a turn or two back when he was holding his action the last time. This time I don't think he specified either way.

[@zexionthefirst6767]

The black feathers trigger was triggered by Vax. Vax attacked, and Percy got to attack back (this was where Vax used his last luck, to reroll Percy's crit)

[@Solidude4]

Scanlan wasted his wish spell. He should have used it to transport her to a different dimension.

[@Evija3000]

Nate O. He didn't know feeblemind would have such a small effect. He thought she'd become super dumb and useless and he chose it because Keyleth tried feebleminding him right before and this would be a kind of revenge for that. I don't think it was a bad move. How could he know she'd still be able to change shapes, use elemental abilities and strategize...

[@NepetaLejion]

Matt’s “I’m sorry, WHAT.” is perfect. it’s terrifying. its the snapping point.

[@JY-gs9gr]

3:10:30 for those wondering

[@Yutah1981]

btw the ironic thing about this scene is that after all this talking about 'it's all in the book' and 'completely right' he actually used two bonus actions - Vow of Enmity and Hide.

[@sonnentausnest]

@@Yutah1981 Also at 2:46:56 : Matt: "Lvl 20 rogue. Playing this for 5 years. Still don't know how Uncanny Dodge works." Liam: "I never claimed to memorize this book, people." 3:10:57 Also Liam: "Everybody thinks I don't know what I'm doing." I enjoy Liam's roleplaying, but his knowledge of the rules isn't the best, bless him 😅

[@santosflores2590]

Seriously no one attacks the druid who is OP but kill each other

[@jasonthegentleman2992]

Right? Really lame how OP druids are at this point, but if they had just focused her it would have been an actual fight vs. a boring battle of attrition. Biggest let down of the entire series. But, in a way, that is a good thing.

[@SuperSpells]

Actually, Sam had a very good way to get rid of her. Her Charisma is crap, he could've banished her and just held concentration for one minute and she would've been gone for good.

[@humbletreestump8134]

SuperSpells yeah but Sam plays for the narrative make it fun and interesting. Unlike keyleth. Sam could have wished keyleth out of existence but he played for entertainment. Percy really threw this for everyone.

[@SuperSpells]

True enough but really there's not much of any other way to kill her that they had available if they weren't all going to work together.

[@MadManMatrix]

Also keyleth meta hard by knowing scan was invisible so switching to tremor sense earth elemental also knowing where Percy had just come out and sunbeam him without knowing anything about the doorway knowing the chests were poisoned so throwing grog into knowing she was immune honestly as a dm I would have disqualified her from the skirmish with all that nonsense it just ruins it for everyone.

[@Whothefisalice]

When talisan says "this is not how i wanted to go out" did anyone else just immediately think what about Travis?!

[@TwoKnowingRavens]

Travis is a good sport and never complains when things don't go his way. Marisha basically beats Matt around the ears whenever she doesn't get her way and Talisen is probably next in line for begging favors of the DM. And Arch-Druid is just the silliest thing on the planet. Infinite HP, no saves, interruptions or removal possible by the other players. Only Grog had a chance of doing enough damage in one round to kill her if he crit and would likely need more than one crit. But because Marisha is prone to fuss, the other players didn't want to gang up on her.

[@benglishchinese6961]

I agree but i dont understand why everyone is just so hyped about lvl 20 druid... druids are op end of, of course lvl 20 is infinitely more op but its still clear and evident at all levels.

[@mitchellmarquardt9499]

Benglish Chinese I beg to differ with level 20 in ranger, bard, monk, or sorcerer. All of those level 20 abilities pale in comparison to Druid

[@robertharvey9509]

Benglish Chinese I kinda understand what your saying but at the same time that just silly, they have infinite hp, come on

[@godturkey4098]

@@mitchellmarquardt9499 Whoa you take bard of that fucking list right now. Ever heard of the spell Wish?

[@TheLordHighNoob]

If you felt this was boring, anti-climactic, slow or dissatisfying, this took less than 3min of real time. So, play it at 75X speed and you'll get the genuine experience

[@AJaxdoesgaming]

And by "real time" you mean fake time

[@skullsquad900]

Wow, ur right! It's so much better now!

[@codytheisen5655]

@@AJaxdoesgaming "Real time" as in each 'round' of combat in D&D is about 6 seconds, so from the characters POV this would less than 3 mins.

[@daniels8618]

I'm not watching 5 amazing heroes battle it out in a battlefield for 3 minutes, I'm watching 5 assholes be rules-lawyering metagaming assholes for 5 hours. Still love em though

[@SocialistSadako]

no worries, i played it at 2x the whole time.

[@entreriii]

watch the lvl 17 one if u haven't seen it this one is just a bunch of sitting around.

[@BlueDually4x4]

That one was by far the best.

[@r4ureviews]

Agreed, lvl17 one is amazing.

[@mindremote]

Second battle was better

[@creature3628]

I wish I wasn't 4 hours and 30 minutes in before reading this :/

[@benjaminolson7206]

Fighting a 20th Level Moon Druid: basically the one time you don't regret taking Power Word Kill.

[@shanefunakoshi2832]

That was depressing to watch.Travis sitting there for majority of the episode after getting shafted that hard is crazy and the fact that the other 3 really stayed there to watch Keyleth wild shape away all her damage... It makes me wish Laura had been there to stick keyleth in the necklace.

[@batwomanbeyond7901]

I DMed a one shot and a player chose druid, we decided to do a high level, like 19 or 20, one shot, cuz none of us have ever gotten that high. Three brass dragons in the middle of a lake, and she just kept wild shaping so she never lost any hit points, was pretty really annoying. It's like Liam texting Matt and saying 'sneaking is all I have' or whatever. Druids wild shape.

[@n0dash18]

Wild Shape is busted. Especially with Circle of the Moon. You just... *don’t* die.

[@troodontalon5990]

It's not like that would have done anything. Apart from sticking her in the necklace not counting as a win (as established when Vex did that to Grog), it's a DC 10 Wisdom save to avoid being trapped. Between Keyleth's +6 proficiency modifier as a level 20 character and her +6 modifier from her Wisdom score of 22, she literally couldn't fail that save apart from getting a natural 1 (and that still wouldn't fail if they went by RAW).

[@Arcenture]

@@nox9775 Intelligence vs wisdom. You don't need to be able to understand why you're hurt (intelligently aware which bones are broken), only that changing form means you don't feel hurt anymore (wise enough to understand that shifting means you hurt less).

[@Nikotheleepic]

@@Arcenture You are beyond deceitful to warp the perception of the rules in order to cover something that would obviously be metagaming if anyone else were to do that. You can literally make the same argument about ANYTHING THAT APPLIES TO INTELLIGENCE, you hiding behind an apparent gap in the rules to cover someone screwing up the entire game is very sad. Grog had high wisdom, how often did he make mistakes, how often did he not take the most efficient course of action even if it were to have helped him. how often did he pull a card from the deck of many things, even though according to you he would have the "wisdom to understand something" YOU ARE TREATING THEM BOTH AS THE SAME THING WHEN THEY CLEARLY AREN'T lol

[@cyrusambrose4547]

For those who don't understand it, a lot of people who complain about the lack of genuine repercussions for Feeblemind aren't saying that we think Feeblemind prevents the use of Wild Shape. It is known that, RAW, it doesn't. However, look at the precedent that the Feeblemind ability has in the show - Allura was acting practically like a toddler, and Raishan like a feral animal. With an intelligence of one, you would not have any tactical knowledge. The thought of bouncing between forms to fight in the terrain was well beyond what she should've been with the stats. Personally, I would have ruled that, because her intelligence and charisma - her knowledge and personality - have been reduced to the lowest possible for a living being, she wouldn't know that she wasn't the elemental that she was when the spell was cast on her. I'm all for allowing things based on RAW, but give a decent explanation for it. If Scanlan had been effected by Feeblemind, I'm pretty damn curious how he would've even thought to use Cutting Words, much less how he would've done it.

[@TheMainLoL]

Last battle Royale Matt called out the plane shift, saying until everyone is dead no one wins, so if you just shift people you can't win until you kill them, they are still there you just displace them until you're ready to fight them, that's what should of happened.

[@enderdragonash8148]

@@0tohemineurasthenia right but I think they are talking about this battle royale and how grog was just kinda dismissed and instantly killed instead of being placed somewhere safe being able to still fight and come back later.

[@agilemind6241]

@@enderdragonash8148 Grog had no way to come back, though with the shrinking arena and his Con modifier, Grog could have held his breath longer than the rest of the battle.

[@enderdragonash8148]

@@agilemind6241 to be completely honest I don't remember exactly what I was ranting about I think I wasn't disputing the fact that in this scenario yeah he was dead but it just was more so not fair to be like oh we got you cya later nerd and have him wait the rest of the time out that's what I was trying to get at I believe he took it with a grain of salt but nevertheless like a champ proud of him just no one deserves that

[@mr.bobdabbalina1246]

At my table the distortion field would have prevented extra planar travel. Or just banned. No reason for it in a battle foyale, she has ample assets to fight. At the very least she would haVe been punished for it by the evil dude who brought them there.

[@jus4677]

That's why she didn't put him in the fey

[@moss5386g2x]

Coming to this after watching the lvl 17 one wasn't a great idea.

[@ThatBritishMexican]

Level 17 battle royale was much more entertaining. There was actually a fight there. The argument of "We didn't go after Keyleth together because this is a Battle Royale not a Boss fight" holds no ground, they were pretty much doing PvP inside a Boss room, killing each other while the boss was just looking and healing itself. It's not a boss fight if you take down the most dangerous enemy first then turn on each other, it's just strategy for survival, otherwise you are just handing the game to the Boss. Also: Int 18 Keyleth = Goldfish Int 1 Keyleth = Professional Tactician Soldier Math Professor

[@benglishchinese6961]

Glad to see there are several comments pointing things like this out it really did ruin the final thought on vox machina to see such a poor display when once again sam is the one trying to push everyone in the right direction and everyone ignores him.

[@HeavensOfMetal]

I don't get all the "Keyleth was playing too smart" comments after her feeblemind. How intelligent do you have to be to recognise, "That man is hurting me, I will run over there and slam him with my fists as fast as I can". Most D&D beasts have an intelligence of 1 or 2, they're not smart, but they're not drooling corpses, they still attack people using all they've got. Sure, it made for a boring fight, but it was within rules.

[@TheLetsplayerwannabe]

It was the use of wild shape to tactically maneuver, use special elemental abilities and attacks as well as immunities to her advantage, and the self-healing every time she got hurt that was being too smart. If you argue that she only thinks she's the elemental that she currently is, then she has no reason to think she can shift in order to heal. If you argue that she still understands that she has the wild shape ability, I would argue that she knows she's safe as long as she's an elemental and thusly wouldn't feel compelled to change shape just to heal. Plus, an unthinking beast like a frog (with an int of 1) wouldn't think to crush percy against the outer wall like that at the end, and even if she did the wall definitely should have broken and freed Percy as a result. There were a couple bad rulings by Matt in my opinion, but it happens from time to time as a DM, and I doubt he was playing favorites like everyone says. Overall, this was a session that didn't even matter, so if the rulings were a little off who cares?

[@coolkiddjt]

Intelligence and charisma are dropped to 1 because of feeblemind, and as we all know druid skills are based off of wisdom. We are all entitled to our opinions, but the argument stands that she would be wise enough to figure out tactics. Wisdom is instinct, and thats why druids are in tune with nature, because they trust instinct over strict intelligence.

[@jcoonie2]

I mean her being able to constantly shift to reset her hp pools which are far from easy one shot capable in the first place was kinda bogus to begin with lol then again DnD pvp rarely works out in fun ways unless you just have a full out punch out

[@lauramartin1902]

"I'm sorry... WHAT?" the one time I feel like Matt really lost his shit. And that was three hours in. He's so patient.... LMFAO

[@TheOriginalElkstone]

At 3:10:30?

[@KnightWhoSaysNi]

Liam did 2 bonus actions and 2 actions and who knows how much movement... Such a fucking boring game just because of Vax

[@NightSterling]

Welcome to level 20 fights where everything is balanced by having everything unbalanced

[@randomcracka3]

@@KnightWhoSaysNi and keyleth

[@Backsquatch]

@@KnightWhoSaysNi This was boring because of Marisha. If she and Taleisen hadn’t been metagaming and all-knowing the whole time he wouldn’t have needed to hide his actions. Just look at her first turn if you need a reminder for what she does when they take actions she wouldn’t know about.

[@EternalCreator]

You check your pockets and notice all of your potions are gone. The druid will have infinite health btw

[@firefly8767]

I love Sam's commitment to not meta game Matt after Scanlan suffered 106 or something damage even placed the bronze dragon in front of him saying well I will just keep it here as if to say remember true polymorph Sam? Yet he didn't do it.

[@1987jaffa]

Scanlan: 'never seen someone so disappointed by stairs before'. Sounds like Sam hasn't played Borderlands2 yet.

[@thomasokeeffe5050]

The look on Marisha's face when she heard that Evasion has unlimited uses

[@TodayLifeIsGoood]

What this game taught me is that an evil lvl 20 Druid makes for a great final boss of a campaign^^

[@theceleryman]

I don't have all of the facts and figures with me at the moment, but I remember working out that an Archdruid could theoretically 1v1 a Tarrasque and walk away without a scratch on them. They're so damn strong. Not to mention how cool it would be thematically to have a druid as the ultimate BBEG.

[@TheRealDerohneNick]

@saltyeyes An Archdruid could not even be knocked out of their Earth Elemental form by a Tarrasque due to the resistances.

[@honestbenny]

Depends. If your party have Wizard level 17 with Power Word Kill then it's easy kill. If your Wizard have Force Cage - it's also game over for a Druid. You can just ignore him and move on. Same with Wall of Force.

[@RedBlitzen]

Especially if they're Circle of the Moon too.

[@Corvothing24]

@@honestbenny imprisonment or power word kill definitely does annihilate them, however if the boss was a lvl 20 character then the party would likely not have 9th level or even 8th level spells, and a moon druid would definitely have misty step for circumventing wall of force/force cage,

[@benporter4155]

lvl 20 druids are ridiculously op.

[@oOPPHOo]

What makes them OP is that you have to put her out of her elemental form every round. They can thus beat every other class 1on1 in a PvP environment. In a Battle Royale though, that should be a huge disadvantage. You're the biggest threat to ALL the others individually and they should thus unite to bring you down. Most didn't. Also, keep in mind that WotC didn't ever claim that the classes were balanced for PvP. Against typical encounters on that level, the other classes hold their own about as well, so they are at least not _ridiculously_ OP in that sense.

[@aleror1]

Well an elemental has about 100 hp and an avrage AC of 16. Every turn Marisha can heal 100 hp + getting some really good abilities Then add if she ever feels threatend she can turn into a Dragon gaining their ability etc with about 300-400 hp. Her human form has over 100 hp That what's make her broken. Compair that to a Cleric who NEEDS to spend spell slots to heal every round mostly as an action and you'll see how OP that actually is. Wouldn't mind if she could turn up to 4 elementals (One of each or whatever) With just a bonus actions then need to spend actions to turn into elementals. This would balance out the problem here. They needed to burst down 260 hp if she was an earth elemental which is resistant to Bludgeoning, Piercing, And Slashing From Nonmagical Weapons, that means percy would deal half damage on every shot. Kinda broken imo. If she was in her dragon form they needed to burst about 430-530 Damage in ONE ROUND for not to heal back up to her elemental form. An avrage hit from grog is maybe 24 + 24 = 48. Scanlan maybe 35-50 damage if not resistant. Percy maybe 24 total with resistant. And if REALLY LUCKY Vax would deal 100 damage in a crit sneak attack which is hard to get in a situation like this. THEY ARE BOUND TO DIE

[@arcticwulf5796]

they all have magical weapons at this point, even percy has one pistol that is magical dmg by the way so 6-8 hit burst depending on it if jams. 3 characters focus one round and she would have been dead, could have been done with 2 if they were lucky. Nobody ganged up on her so she won because of it.

[@madmoo1111]

Arcticwulf even with all 3 focusing her she just drops form and then druids have healing spells they could literally attack her each round and she can just heal it by using a Druid heal spell and then using her bonus to go into form again. A level 20 Druid cant be killed unless you output more then 100 damage per round. Let’s say a lv 20 Druid has an average of 120 hp (5hp per level) if you do 101 damage each round it would take 120 rounds to kill her that’s not assuming she used any of her spells to heal.

[@oOPPHOo]

Tyler, her healing spells will either take up her action or bonus action so she can't attack. You can damage more than she can heal. Healing spells are not really great in the middle of combat unless you're a high Wis life domain. It's often better to try and dwindle the numbers of your enemies so that they can do less damage that you'll need to heal.

[@Reblwitoutacause]

3:35:40 shout out to the camera operator for shaking the camera when the tower shakes!

[@blakwhithammer9448]

Oooooooh... FIRST BLOOD

[@samtrue3]

BlakwhitHammer when

[@blakwhithammer9448]

every one, my dude

[@jobro8546]

If I recall feeble mind was used previous episodes and Matt called for the characters to be too dumb to use any spells or sort of intelligent actions. Scanlan with feeble mind should have knocked out Keilith game over. Also scanlan was a class act not to use wish and win the game. Really lvl 20 bards can take a Druid out and bypass the hit points, he just didn’t want to cheese it.

[@drefk1973]

Wildshape isn't a spell, it's an inate ability and not effcted by feeblemind. Gratz Kiki

[@NoNamesLeftFuk]

i just remembered that druids get absolutely destroyed by anti-magic fields.

[@r4ureviews]

Yeah except after Percy went in it she "magically knew" not to go anywhere near them. Shame really

[@McBabe12329]

Kahn how would she remember to use that ability over and over if she was as smart as a piece of wood? I have the learned ability to play the guitar, if I got hit in the head and was turned stupid, I'd probably not be able to play anything on the guitar.

[@sqzme4147]

So did everyone (espescially Sam being the other big spellcaster) and at worst you would have to blame Matt. He would need to tell Taliesin in private so the others wouldn't know. But then we would get a whole table worth of text messaging and that would have been way worse. I personally hated Vax's turns more. (No offense to Liam or anything as hiding is what rogues do anyway). No need to blame Keyleth though.

[@sonnentausnest]

I had some fun thinking of ways to defeat lvl 20 Keyleth with Freedom of Movement cast on herself. Take away her ability to Wild Shape (to stop her from basically regenerating her HP every round). You'd have to incapacitate her to do that. The conditions "paralyzed", "petrified" and "stunned" cause "incapacitated", meaning she can't do any actions (that includes bonus action Wild Shape). Freedom of Movement makes her immune to "paralyzed" and I can't think of any player ability or spell that causes "petrified". (Well, except for polymorphing into a basilisk, maybe? Not sure about CR restrictions there.) That leaves "stunned". There is "Power Word: Stun" at lvl 8. Scanlan could cast it using his Wish spell. The target's HP have to be 150 or less, that's the case for all her elemental forms and afaik also for Keyleth herself. She gets to make con saves at the end of each of her turns, but her con saves aren't huge, so there's a good chance it stays for a while. Still, Scanlan isn't exactly a huge damage dealer, so while he could cast the control spell, the others would have to help with damage, otherwise she probably does get to save before she's down. The only other way I could think of is to do more damage each turn than her elemental forms have. Those range from 90 to 126. Grog and Percy could technically deal that much damage *if* they were able to reach and hit her on a consistent basis. Without getting planeshifted, otherwise controlled or outright killed, that is. TL:DR: I really think they would have had to work together to defeat Keyleth. Archdruids, man. Edit: Also gotta respect Travis' patience here. This can't have been fun for him. His table manners are excellent, love to see it.

[@brunox794]

Percy could have killed her in the turn that he throwed the Iron Bars i think, with Action Surge and some good rolls.

[@TheBiggreenpig]

Percy could have won this if he isn't so bent on destroying Scanlan.

[@CajinVaren]

It just looked like petty revenge and he got what he deserved for it.

[@nik700]

I don't know if Percy could deal the amount of damage needed in only one round, because I think he was out of action surges

[@r4ureviews]

and if Talisan didn't want Marisha to win so badly. Same happened in the last battle royal where he helped after Percy died.

[@Atheismo9760]

More like bent on not attacking Marisha.

[@CrypteGardien]

More like crushing embarrassingly hard

[@ireful2617]

Percy nearly kills Scanland at the start. The round that he has clear view on Keylath's humanoid form and has action surge he doesn't shoot her once. Last game we ever got from Vax Machina probably. Such a dissapointment. Sorry Grog btw.

[@Wookie_oo7]

He did shoot her once, he started that round with trying to dump a massive amount on her but found out that his cabal's ruin was on the fritz and his normal attack did half damage on her, so he switched to Scanlan.

[@Powwer69]

Idk exactly how percy works, i started watching in campaign 2, but could he even attack the turn he lit up sam for 140+ damage? At the start of the turn, he used his action to open the chest and get the potion, ran out, attacked sam 3 times, then reloaded and ran back in the building.

[@ForeverDegenerate]

@@Wookie_oo7 One problem with your argument here. Percy used the Cloak on Scanlan. That means before he even picked his target, all his magic gear turned back on. And Keyleth was still standing there. Why he chose to go after Scanlan instead of trying against Keyleth again is beyond me, but I don't buy the whole, "Taliesin was throwing to help Marisha" argument.

[@TheGoondas87]

Taleisan just thinks he is smarter than he is. He does stuff without thinking. But then claims it was all part of some grand plan. Watch how he starts shooting Scanlan, and was fully ready to use his last attack to shoot again, but then Travis comments "we need him to beat Keyleth" and which point Taliesan is like "Yeah I know, and im not using my last attack." He then continuously claims the plan was to "soften Scanlan up" so Scanlan and keyleth can kill each other. As if Scanlan was the one needing softening for that clash. Same in the Level 17 battle royal. He kept acting as if he had a plan for Grog and that he could have killed him in one round if he stunned him with diplomacy. But even with a stunned grog and ALL crits from Percy, Grog still wouldnt lose all his hit points, and Grog proved in that fight he can rinse Percy in one round. But dont tell Taleisan that, because he can EASILY beat Grog according to him.

[@valeclaw1697]

I feel like Percy just understood that Keyleth wasnt going to die and would just heal again next time she wild shapes. Damage on her didnt matter as much because Archdruid is so OP

[@darthchewee]

Gonna try and keep this constructive: 1) the whole concept of this battle royale is very meta as why wouldn't the first thing everyone does is gather around keyleth so she can plane shift everyone home? Because they want to kill each other. But narratively, plane shift should have been dispelled to prevent everyone from escaping. 2) I have no problems with a feeble minded keyleth being able to wild shape but I do question the occurrences of it as Int impacts reasoning so I don't think she should have been able to do it just because she wanted to heal back up. 3) Like Sam said, this was not a feebleminded archdruid, this was an archdruid who ran out of spell slots. Marisha was putting WAY too much thought into everything she was doing at that point. 4) I would put forward that a feebleminded archdruid would attack in their shifted form until it gets dropped, then could shift again, maybe unless there is a life threatening instance like a fire elemental being forced into water?

[@rock21611]

I feel like some of that could be explained well enough to allow, but mostly I’m just happy to find at least one person who knows how to disagree with the rulings without being absurdly toxic about it.

[@deathtoll2001]

Yep, this precisely. I had no issue whatsoever with Keyleth using wild shape or Vax texting, but they both power gamed it instead of RP'd it and the session suffered greatly for it. Matt tried to limit the stealth play, but kinda gave up, and he straight up enabled Keyleth's metagaming. Vax got aggressive when questioned about his more complex turns and just needed to calm down a bit. No one made major mistakes or did anything worth getting toxic over, but they did do things they should be willing to not do in the future.

[@IanDaviesRules]

I think the feeblemind should have made her forget about the scenario of killing her best friends for some weird reason. Shouldn't she have recognized her friends as allies, and not seen any threats on the battlefield and just basically sat there? She totally forgot that she had to make a melee spell attack against Grog to plane shift him, AND it should have been a charisma save, not a wisdom save.

[@facundoarana4140]

@@deathtoll2001 Keyleth did two big mistake, when she did the plane shift, she didn't make the spell attack part, and gave the wrong save (it was a charisma save, not a wisdom one), but yeah, it's a game, being toxic is not the way

[@Tybuscus]

Just a request for the next battle royalle, can we rule out other planes? Whatever god (All praise Matt Colville) trapped them there, should have a barrier from other planes too.

[@ScorchHellfire]

Well, we are probably never getting another VM Battle Royale and none of the Mighty Nein have Plane Shift (yet). So, wish granted?

[@joemcgurk7226]

Plane Shift is on the Cleric, Wizard and Warlock spell lists, so all of M9's casters will be capable of learning it when they get access to 7th level spells at level 13.

[@joemcgurk7226]

Spoilerinos, brother

[@LoveReacts]

@@joemcgurk7226 u right my b

[@T3hIluvatar]

Yeah, planeshift in battle royales could use a little rebalancing. Maybe deal a decent amount of damage instead of just save or die mechanic.

[@TheShortCon]

Disappointing, could have been better if: - Pike and Vex were there too, might have evened out Keyleths' abilities - Bring in Kashaw and Zahra. - Percy wasn't on some personal vendetta against Scanlan - Plane shifts were impossible from the arena (since also a player could shift to somewhere safe, keep all of their HP, before coming back to defeat the only person left).

[@lordhawkeye]

Talisen was going out of his way to make sure his besttie got a win with or without him helping.

[@Pluto-1]

9:10 Ultimate shirtception 10:45 Cloaked figure 12:30 Let's begin ! 15:10 Crazy initiative 17:55 Teleporter 24:50 First blood (other than the door) 29:14 Texting starts 30:45 No deck tonight 31:40 Magic dispelled, ruining Percy's stuff 34:00 What happens if Vax dies ? 40:20 First crit 45:12 Irresistible dance 51:00 Percy gets his stuff back 52:10 The door doesn't take psychic damage 53:52 Matt always has a dragon at the ready 55:35 M'lightning bolt 59:10 Mime 1:04:10 Here's that crit for real this time 1:10:30 Matador pun 1:23:30 Playing it safe 1:36:08 Liam's RP is on point 1:41:40 Reverse gravity 1:44:00 Yoyo 1:50:27 LAPD 2:10:40 Break ends 2:18:02 Vax is still stealthing 2:20:50 Rogue song 2:23:40 Who dis ? 2:42:50 First blood on the rogue ? 2:46:14 Uncanny dodge rules check 2:50:20 Still no damage 2:55:30 Some actual verbal instructions from Liam ! 2:57:05 Planeshift 3:02:25 Manners 3:08:00 Vax finally attacks 3:14:30 Caster solidarity 3:18:09 Feeblemind, 2nd attempt 3:24:00 Prediction 3:34:20 Let's break the tower 3:42:00 Player down 3:57:30 Death 4:04:19 Sam and Marisha bond over what could have been 4:15:30 Third unconscious 4:17:10 Third death 4:33:00 Percival sandwich 4:34:01 Bye Percy 4:37:00 The Feeblemind Que

[@kif1983]

(Spoilers... obviously) They shoulda listened to Sam. As soon as they started to do their own thing it was apparent Marisha would win and that, unfortunately, made it kinda dull. That's just an observation though, I appreciate that we're just looking through a window at people playing a game, they didn't set out to be entertaining and their decisions shouldn't be coloured by the audience. I would say though, I saw elements of meta gaming. Marisha still did things that could be interpreted as intelligent whilst feebleminded. Also, daaaamn, level 20 druids are basically unstoppable and easy to play, unless multiple or extremely powerful things get involved. Is there anything that can block the constant wild shape infinite HP pool?

[@yamcharulez]

I think their mind set was they didn't trust him not to turn on them.Anything that prevents keyleth from taking actions will keep her from wildshaping problem with Druids at level 20 is barely anything does that

[@eirei0789]

Taking away actions help somewhat, and Scanlan did precisely that with Irresistable Dance. But Keyleth can whildshape with bonus actions, and almost nothing really stops that. So yeah, bonus action 120 hp regen. Put to context, Vecna the god had 50hp regen. Yeah, it *really* is stupidly broken.

[@caryaustin9446]

After feeblemind takes away spells you could whittle them down theoretically but it takes 130+ damage every round to make a dent.

[@agilemind6241]

Sleep effects force them out of wildshape as they are technically unconscious (but elves & half-elves are immune), stun would prevent them from changing shape, paralyze would as well but Freedom of Movement makes them immune, and power word kill-ing their form might kill the druid as well.

[@Lithaos111]

Scanlan: I wish Keyleth couldn't wild shape anymore. Boom. Fair game.

[@matthewogden252]

Ok, I'm let's set aside the constant wild shape, I feel like that Plane Shift needed to be homeruled, in this context, it was a seventh level instant death spell which is not fair and had a near full health Grog be instantly killed. I know that that's just the spell but for this context, seems a little unfair

[@blackfang0815]

Other people in the comments are saying that Grog could have definitely beaten a Kraken one on one, plus he has a pretty high Con mod so he could live a long time.

[@AaronWhiting18]

They also did plane shift wrong, she never rolled to attack and made him roll wis instead of cha

[@adamburgers]

@@AaronWhiting18 while i've also mentioned the attack not even part of the spell (which it should've) - Grog's WIS is actually worse than his CHAR so i think even a nat 20 wouldn't technically save against the 21 DC (again, assuming she hit).

[@trevormalkoski1611]

@@blackfang0815 I'd like to think that but a kraken has 470 hp, legendary resistances, muti attacks and legendary actions all while Grog would have disadvantage on all his attacks unless he did reckless. It's no doubt an unwinnable fight. On a separate not I dislike how op lvl 20 druids are and plane shift was a shitty way to go but what happened happened

[@EskChan19]

@@AaronWhiting18 Though Marisha was looking up which save it was until Travis rolled a 5, a Cha roll wouldn't have saved him either.

[@Joe0079]

4:12:15 Sam summarized this match up nicely lol. I loved this battle though, was hilarious! (if they had attacked Keyleth while Scanlan had her forced dancing, the other PCs might have had a chance for sure though.)

[@BelLancaster]

Not sure if they had any 'win' conditions... but judging by the number of rounds that passed and Grog's Constitution of 20 (+5), he could hold his breath for 60 rounds; which is more than enough to have survived until transported back into the arena after Percy's death. I also categorically refuse to believe that a mere Kraken could kill Grog, most especially while off-screen. Therefore, it is with great certainty I declare Grog and Keyleth joint winners of the level 20 Battle Royale.

[@justanothernerdydude4391]

We know for a fact that a mere kraken cannot kill Grog, remember when they went to get the load stones? The others were basically telling him to stop attacking because with every other hit he knocked off a tentacle!

[@Bingquillin]

A kraken is cr 23 so it should be able to kill a lvl 20 char but barbarians are insanely powerful so I do agree he would prob win since krakens doesn't do that much damage to a single target.

[@jeffwithheldforsafety8359]

Grog would not transport back due to being plane shifted not banished

[@lotmyle5465]

@@jeffwithheldforsafety8359 He might not need to transport back... it WAS a FAMILIAR kraken based on what Matt said. Which means Grog had a chance of being near the portal. I envision a dead kraken and the guards panicked opening of a portal when Grog starts trying to smash the heck out of it from the other side.

[@themonarchyofanarchy9041]

@@Bingquillin not only do they do little damage, but grog could half most of it

[@doubled7640]

if only scanlan had true polymorphed into a beholder, keyleth would have been useless

[@locorocky1]

Oh shoot! Good call!

[@alexanderbyrne9684]

That's genius. Wild shape is magical too which means that they could get some good licks in

[@dephony5648]

He would still be very beaten by Percy

[@Volvalex]

Poor Travis, sorry you had to suffer through this one buddy :(

[@Adones09]

ALSO, so glad Scanlan didn't just hide in his mansion and tried to play the game! You rule Sam!

[@SamSphinx]

Plus, isnt his mansion a 1 minute casting time? he wouldn't be able to survive long enough.

[@eirei0789]

I think he has stuff that can keep him safe in the meantime. Otiluke's Resilient Sphere comes to mind. Main reason he lost was him trying his best to lock down Keyleth, but the others ignoring the OP druid and shooting him instead.

[@padaii]

He could have casted wish to give it a casting time of 1 action.

[@serephintheres3066]

He could have also cast wish to make keyleth immune to the effects of wild shape.

[@seanokunbor4580]

Was hoping the whole time that Sam would just wish Keyleth or Percy dead. It would've been a dick move, but with the obvious meta-gaming and the pure overpoweredness of a lvl 20 Druid, I think it would have made for a more interesting/fun experience for everyone. Seeing Travis and eventually Sam just sit there bored out of their minds was just depressing. Looking forward to the new campaign though, but this was overall just a dull last battle.

[@PaxIesus]

Since Travis and Sam are usually the most intelligent players (Sam knew earlier on that Keyleth was the one to kill), and also the most entertaining, I pretty much stopped watching when they were taken out. Not because K won, but because the rest was boring.

[@Desertpuma]

Actually the Wish should have been spent on nullifying permanently any shapechanging or polymorphing powers including Wildshape. ... It would have very effectively knocked out 70+% of her battle strategy

[@TheMrVengeance]

Why would you knock out 70+% of her battle strategy, if you can just wish her dead and knock out 100% of her battle strategy?

[@Desertpuma]

TheMrVengeance because wishing her dead would be too much of a dick move ... It is also not in Sam's character as a human being to do it. ... Alternately, you wish any being having any divine magically ability or spells are unable to use them. This could also be considered a dick move. Important note: this was a friendly competition and not a convention vevent with prizes for knocking out opponents.

[@TheMrVengeance]

A dick move like banishing another player to suffocate in the water realm before he had the chance to have a cool moment in all the game? Or like completely no-selling a Feeblemind spell? Dick moves were present throughout the game, and Matt could've given an interesting side effect to the death Wish.

[@Monty-Python]

"I'm an archdruid!!" - Sums up Marisha's thought process through the whole game. Sam pretty much sums up the fight of what most of us think and are questioning to various degrees "Weirdly, taking away all of Keyleth's intelligence has made her a more effective fighter" I'm salty, I can admit that, but whatever. Sam will forever wear the crown of Kings, long may he reign!

[@theoneandonlymichaelmccormick]

Recently, I’ve been playing Middle Earth: Shadow of War. And Travis plays some of the ors and uruks, and many of them are straight up just Grog Strongjaw, and it’s wonderful.

[@loudmusic4us179]

RIP my guy Travis man, so much fucking hostility and complaining this episode jesus. Props to you Travis and Sam for being cool sports with everything.

[@jayclaude23]

Last battle was way more interesting. Think the inclusion of Vex alone would have been a big change. And Pike would have made things real interesting. Percy just handed the win over focusing too much on Scanlan. And im not just saying that because I'm team Scanlan.

[@Ailieorz]

Vex would have just added more arguments and pouting

[@msstarturtle]

This was the first Critical Role episode I ever watched and I have since gone back and watched every episode of Vox Machina and have fallen in love with D&D and I am starting my own group and taking up DMing thanks to Matts amazing talent. Thank you for introducing me to something I've heard of but never knew anything about.

[@JackBarlowStudios]

“Wiping the inside of your eyelids” Dammit, Mercer. I’m never going to get that image out of my head.

[@cixal4696]

You know what no one has pointed out because it didn't really matter? Earth Elementals are vulnerable to Thunder damage and Keyleth was in Earth Elemental form when Percy used Thunderwave. Vulnerability negates halved succession. Keyleth would of taken the full amount of damage...not that it would matter since Kiki won in the next few turns.

[@DentistInfurnace]

Wow this is such a shame. The level 17 battle royal might have been my favorite episode of CR. I was really looking forward to the 20th level one, but it just ended up being 5 hours of boredom. If you haven't seen it yet, watch the level 17 battle royal. It's miles better.

[@EvanWorden1]

Liams game play really brought it down. Shouldn’t have been allowed.

[@ShockAweGaming]

@@EvanWorden1 Liam did a great job. Marisha's constant rule arguing to try and get extra advantages and metagaming is what did this thing in for me.

[@callumengland6395]

Liam was fine... Clearly they were going for him when he was out of sight... Thought I would have liked it if they had a way to share the texts with the audience

[@thebiggestcarl]

@@EvanWorden1 everybody sucked except Sam and Travis. Sam is just an amazing player, but Marisha played like a dick, Taliesen played like an asshole, and Liam was a douchey coward the whole time. Sam and Travis were the only ones who were fun to watch.

[@kronos1794]

The players sticking to their characters or playing to have fun were at a severe disadvantage.

[@Reblwitoutacause]

kronos1794 I know exactly which two players you are talking about lol

[@forthelols9176]

Yeah, for 2 of the players this is very true.

[@SocialistSadako]

hah. i fucking know right?

[@erichall090909]

Not like it would matter. None of them ever had a chance to win.

[@kairos4484]

@@erichall090909 They did.

[@dilabetes]

The level 17 one was WAY more exciting and actually felt like it could be anyone's game. This was just . . . boring

[@warlordghandi3590]

yeah lv 20 battle royales are not fun

[@30noir]

@cak01vej common misunderstanding, the rage cannot be ended early - it still ends after one minute.

[@KingNefiiria]

I feel like it would have been more exciting if Matt would have just said "no, Sam did it a little bit last time and it was annoying, just trust your friends aren't going to metagame. You are completely aware of what they are doing, it's only fair that they can at least make perception checks when you move outside but are still hidden."

[@greenhawk3796]

thats the problem with 20th lvl druids...

[@comfortablesharpshooter3419]

@@30noir You can "re-enter" rage though. If you do that within you minute, you do not die. Also, infinite rages.

[@VarnFury]

Confused as to why grog didn't pull out a surprise win at the end, even Matt mentioned that it would take about five more minutes for him to drown when they got close to the end. The map should've crushed keyleth and she couldn't use spells. As far the kraken goes, think that was more fluff to say how screwed he was and make his ending sound more epic then what it was. but still... round is 6 sec and he got probly 5 mins of air, he in a safe spot in terms.

[@humbletreestump8134]

VarnFury GF prievlege

[@callumengland6395]

True! What if he was making moves to attack and fend off the kraken till he ran out of air

[@verdurite]

@@humbletreestump8134 bs

[@TheSaltyObjection]

What on earth did Sam do to Taliesin to warrant the nonstop Scanlan focusing?

[@ordainedcrownie8534]

It was probably more of a Percy still harbouring feelings against Scanlan and the culmination of wanting to kill Scanlan due the gnomes actions against the group when he left the group previously or just the fact that Percy wanted to prove he could take Scanlan down. There could be more factors I'm missing on though but seems more RP flavour.

[@highlivin1917]

Salt City Scanlan/Sam is a extremely smart and clever person compared too the rest of the group on the player's side. So Talisen probably thought it would Be best too kill the person who'll become dangerous in the long run. No one else from Critical Role besides Matt Mercer has shown the genius level that Sam shows.

[@Quandry1]

There is also the fact that Scanlan and Percy had a bit of a friendly rivalry type thing going from time to time. Though not quite to the level that Grog and Vax displayed from time to time.

[@mintyalpaca]

Remember when Sam destroyed Tal’s super cool (and super cursed) gun? Yeah, so does Talesin.

[@humbletreestump8134]

Quandry1 I wouldn't call it friendly, Percy is not a good character. And he fully displayed that in this game.

[@artisticsenpai3167]

You can't talk with 1 intelligence

[@kristopherhuff2822]

"Urrrrgggh aaaaaaggh." - Someone who would beg to differ if they actually knew what was going on.

[@justyn.brigham6833]

At a 1 int you couldn’t be any class because the brain can’t hold memory she wouldn’t have been able to win

[@robertharvey9509]

She can’t really do anything because of int of 1, yet it physically dominating the battle field...werid🤯

[@ParadoxicWasHere]

@@robertharvey9509 She moved, and she punched, and used her natural ability to change forms much like how a snake naturally spits venom. No grand strategy, same as when Raishan got Feebleminded and was still theoretically capable of using her Poison Breath

[@XpVersusVista]

@@ParadoxicWasHere using poison breath and using wild shape are 2 extremely different things. poison breath doesn't have a conscious choice behind it, it does what it does and that is it. wild shape on the other hand requires her to know what she wants to turn into and concentrate on it. let alone that she was missing the intelligence to understand the whole "un-wildshape re-wildshape" strategy.... it was retarded, she was meta-gaming the whole time. This whole episode was not enjoyable thanks to key-key and percy meta-gaming.

[@ryanstuck4292]

Love how Travis doesn’t get to do anything the whole time. So much fun ain’t it.

[@lciav]

What the hell was Percy thinking? Like, what was his strategy? Because it seemed like a terrible one

[@crosstar]

I agree, he set the pace for the rest of the game trying to get an alliance with Kiki

[@BaTeOo7]

Cross besties! Lol

[@JH-ml4bh]

lciav I think after the campaign and last couple of battles he realized he's Batman without the preparation or plot armor and would be easily stomped by everyone so he just wanted to do something... He knew he'd lose.

[@lordhawkeye]

You are making a mistake thinking Percy had a strategy. Taliesin went in with the goal to give Marisha the win plain and simple.

[@eczemazem7334]

It made me mad actually, considering Scanlan was the only player other than Keyleth with a CHANCE to win. Even Grog knew that and left Scanlan alone cause he knew he could not kill Keyleth, but Scanlan could. Percy should have been taking down Grog with that 106 damage and letting Scanlan get rid of Keyleth. Then the game would go from massively one sided to very fair.

[@BlueDually4x4]

I feel sorry for Travis as he tried to do stuff and Liam spent the whole game actively not doing anything... So much power to be used, and it never was. The only call that bugged me was the feeble mind, I think Keyleth would have be stuck in one elemental. Because she wouldn't know she could change form, she would believe she was what ever elemental she was when Scanlan caste the spell.

[@arcticwulf5796]

Well she did have her super high wisdom score. So she would totally know how to crush everything. It's an inherent ability so it could argued totally knowing how to change forms, not a spell, not a int based thing. Knowing tactics is whats can be tied to int, so knowing what form to take to optimize attacks is, but a high wis, animal level int character would totally still be a super insightful idiot.

[@limemobber]

Intelligence 1 is reef shark or snake, wolves and lions have a 3, horses have a 2. To me Wisdom is knowing how to use the information but Intelligence is completely about having the information. Intelligence one should be purely reactive a basic stimulus/response level. No planning beyond what is very specific to the creature in question. It is a huge grey area in this battle but know to switch to earth elemental to use tremor sense or water elemental to fit through small openings is total meta-gaming and well beyond what a feeblemind should be. This isnt what ruined it though. Honestly is was Liam spending 90% of the battle hiding and texting.

[@SpydersByte]

+limemobber how did Liam "ruin" it? He played the way a rogue *has* to play to have any chance at all of winning. What "ruined" it is Keyleth having unlimited reset buttons and a damage requirement that nobody could fulfill. There was no chance she *wouldn't* win so the whole thing was just working up to that fact.

[@creeperave3768]

limemobber I don't know, I see utilizing the right shapes for the right scenario as being reactive.... I mean, a snake is smart enough to know when it should sit back and be silent until its prey is just within its reach.... it knows when it can fit in a space and when it can't... who's to say that if that snake had the ability to take up less space in order to squeeze through, it wouldn't? Especially if it meant it would be able to get to it's prey....... Also, feeble mind does a lot of things, but it doesn't make you forget who you are or your past experiences.... a creature that vividly remembers being other creatures less than a minute ago, will know that it can be those creatures again.... and since wild shape doesn't have any of the components of magical items or spells (be it key phrases, VSM components, or whatever else is required to trigger those things) it wouldn't be weird to think of it as a natural ability, especially since there are creatures in DnD who do have VERY similar natural abilities

[@briandodd2579]

I agree. I think that at a 1 INT she wouldn't have the mental capacity to determine that she knows that she can change forms. This would also include, going into a wild shape while in her normal form. I think that this was something that turned the tide for the others, and allowing her to do this, solidified the game for her. The others had a very low chance of getting out alive against her, and this basically just told the others to pack up their things and go.

[@charliescheirmann2926]

Scanlan: Guys if we gang up on Keyleth we may have a chance! Percy: *unloads his entire clip into Scanlan* Scanlan: *insert "YOU WHAT?!" spongebob meme* No hate to Taliesin I just thought this was funny

[@David-ob1jc]

I mean…..I get it.

[@josephwilliams5292]

How to beat a 20th level moon druid: Feeblemind, stun, Contagion: flesh rot, banishment, in that order. When they come out, they’ll either have vulnerability to all damage, or you’ll just have wasted several spell slots

[@a.garcha199]

No it's just feeble mind, int 1 creatures can't form conscious though, that alone should knock them out the fight. It just didn't here cause Matt didn't really care.

[@floki_dokie]

Sam Riegel, always the smartest player at the table "Hey guys everyone attack her at once!". Nobody listens..... Literally the only way to beat an Archdruid in this situation, otherwise they're too broken and take the fun out of it

[@spencedavis899]

Couldn't agree more, Marisha just comes across as an overpowered jerk in this. Loved some of the funny moments but she makes it hard to finish watching.

[@saifedaibis5051]

Yea also she got away with some stuff like casting a fire storm while wildshape and other stuff like that stuff

[@saifedaibis5051]

And since you cant drop wildshaped like concentration, casting that spell would have made her fall prone and probobly would have killed her due to the other guys like grog percy and scanlan Skilling her

[@Arcenture]

@@saifedaibis5051 Archdriud Lv 20, quote "ArchdruidPHB, pg. 67 You can use your Wild Shape an unlimited number of times and can ignore V, S, and M (with no cost and aren't consumed) components when casting in normal or wild shape forms." Fire Storm is V/S only, so the fire storm is fine.

[@Arcenture]

She came across as an over powered jerk, for using her class sensibly? We didn't see Vax until the last hour of the game, where is the comment that he's a jerk and OP, and then Liam falls into his usual habits of rogue/paladin mixing that Matt knows is OP?

[@WereDictionary]

1:27:25 This is why I love this constellation. Travis points out that he might have disadvantage because he doesnt want to get a cheap shot in. Matt takes a moment to consult the rules, Travis repeats himself, Matt then lists the things Grog has disadvantage on to be clear and to not rule snipe Grog. And the rest of the table is just sitting there and listening.

[@gingermonster938]

It did not seem like anyone has really had fun in this episode, and it shows.

[@gingermonster938]

i don't blame marisha for any of this, she did finally win a battle royal, but the way this one played out was kind of depressing

[@Evija3000]

Yeah, she basically won for having picked the right class for it 5 years ago. Didn't see any notable strategy moves from her. Sam did something interesting, but didn't get rewarded for it... I think Marisha had fun and maybe Tali. The rest not so much.

[@PvtVallen]

Thats DND PVP for you.

[@leavy]

it’s just another example of how it’s not scripted, for all the conspiracy theorists to conveniently ignore

[@lordchipo]

I felt bad for Travis during this whole thing, two hours of not getting to do anything

[@DanParkerFilms]

Travis really had a rough time with this one. Kudos to him for actually staying at the table and trying to play and not just saying "grog lays down and takes it as he cant do shit."

[@haylox669]

So they were talking about burning their character sheets.... I propose they sell them for charity.

[@samtrue3]

If they did how could they be characters in the next campaign

[@bloodiedporcelain6320]

They aren't going to be playing these characters in the next season.

[@haylox669]

I think Sam was referring to them being NPC’s, and to answer his question, obviously scan and make copies. I have no doubt critters would pay upwards of a $1000 apiece per original for their respective charities.

[@definitelynotabby8555]

Haylox they're not gonna be NPCs, matt isn't allowing anything related to the last campaign

[@Gamemaster6400]

definitelynotabby sorry I'm a bit late to this but matt has said that they could possibly run into the party.

[@SwollaG7]

i was so looking forward to this after finishing campaign one almost two years late. this just didn't do it for me, not at all, as col-veel would say, the juice, for me.

[@mbalazs3544]

well lesson If i ever do a battle royal stealth will be limited and druids cant transform more than 5 times a day (or anyone) otherwise good game, that inverse gravity was beast.

[@runicdreamer]

Percy dying being crushed by rocks and earth is a lot like how Molly woke up...

[@alex_ho]

Now that I think of it, a Feebleminded archdruid is basically a shape-shifting beast that can adapt to its environment. Shame there wasn't a cleric with moonfire.

[@davidnymann6938]

"You CAN move...you just dont WANT to."

[@gregswander2152]

2:46:56 - thank you Matt lolol I can’t describe how frustrating the entire season was with how Liam NEVER could remember how uncanny dodge worked the ENTIRE campaign and it was like his one thing he did lol

[@Joemantler]

Late to the party, I know. But I think it was a fair call on Otiliks Dance vs Free Movement. It's a Charm spell. She just /wants/ to dance. It's not the call I would have made, and I think I would have been wrong.

[@SamundraDarion]

Feeling sorry for Travis - forced to sit there after he's time has come.

[@k0pstl939]

His*

[@agathiandevaraj9757]

I started watching this episode because the last battle royale was great. As soon as the contestants knew who was the greatest threat was (Keyleth), they just jumped her to kill her, which was the better strategy. This one was just everywhere. If a lower level Keyleth was THAT powerful, they should have realised she'd be even more powerful now. But even after seeing that she's practically unkillable, they don't seem to try to make a pact.

[@callumengland6395]

The real question... I could be wrong but the 2 players who didn't really care that Liam was texting his moves are Travis and Sam... Marisha and Talisen were giving him crap but that's cause they would have used it to meta game... Sam and travis don't meta game so they didn't care as much

[@christopherarmstrong8255]

Taliesen and Marisha (esp. Marisha) are definitely the reason Liam had to text his moves instead of describing them

[@jasonandrews1770]

Thats honestly 100% right. Those two are the best at keeping it in character and not cheating

[@KnightWhoSaysNi]

Liam is the one metagaming. He's texting Matt so others won't metagame against him, but he is hearing everything that the other players are saying. Every held action, every movement, he can clearly see everyone on the map regardless of where his character is. He is the one that can metagame. He did it in previous battle royale: for 13 rounds all he did was 1. Attack 2. Move 3. Hide. And then when the other 2 players held their action he also held his action. Why? Because he knew they were waiting for him. Because he was metagaming. Also it makes absolutely no fucking sense to 1. Hide 2. Then run for full movement anywhere and still be hidden somehow.

[@pvtruff6349]

@@KnightWhoSaysNi i mean his character has insane perception and just because your hiding does not mean you can't see and hear your enemies its not like he's in a corner with blindfolds and ear muffs to stay hidden. If you were trying to stealthily kill someone and you see them being very alert and waiting for you would you rush in and stab them?

[@fiercedeitylink2019]

@@KnightWhoSaysNi what else would a rogue do besides those things; its suicide for him otherwise