My D&D Group Was Amazed They Had to Fight Angels.

[@ScythianGryphon]

I like that you have mentioned that the players were not appreciating your efforts. It's a perfect illustration for the fact that in life one can face negative results despite the best effort. It's a type of story that is not very popular nowadays, yet is essential for understanding life.

[@VideoClam]

Esper the Bard is the best, most authentic D&D channel on KZbin! His friends are incredibly lucky to have such an outstanding DM.

[@esperthebard]

That is very kind of you to say!

[@manfredconnor3194]

​@esperthebard I am not convinced you are the best yet. I do not watch enough, online DMs to know for sure, but I am sure you are in the top 20 and will let you know as my analyses and evauations continue! ❤ 😅😊

[@Motavian]

I still hit up your old videos all the time. Your 4e era stuff got me into this game and I can't thank you enough for it.

[@esperthebard]

That is wonderful to know!

[@Marpaws]

great video ! i used angels recently, the players had to find an artefact in a sinking dungeon / temple of Heironeous. The guardians angels there were being killed and tortured by yuan-tis trying to get to the final vault. The angels went crazy because they would go back to the Celestial planes then be sent back and would attack everyone, thinking they were yuan-tis spies. The players managed to talk to 2 of them, the rest were too far gone. They went to the final parts of the dungeon and got the artefact they wanted, beating an hydra being ''blessed'' by demogorgon that the yuan-tis were worshipping. And the dungeon was full of puzzles and traps. it was a very cool dungeon.

[@KermodeBear]

D&D by Candlelight is a fantastic idea - using candles for actual light sources, etc. It's so obvious and yet, until now, I've never seen it! Amazing work. Your players are so lucky.

[@guanglaikangyi6054]

I recommend using flameless eletric candles. Fire and paper is not a good combination.

[@KermodeBear]

@@guanglaikangyi6054 I think a half dozen adults around a table can handle some tea lights. 🐻

[@guanglaikangyi6054]

@@KermodeBear Everyone makes mistakes sometimes.

[@HenriFaust]

@@KermodeBear Maybe if they are all chemists, outdoorsmen/Boy Scouts, or women who normally cook with a gas stove. Otherwise I would keep any open flames out of arm's reach from your players. You'd be surprised how foolishly adults act when they haven't had fire safety drilled into them. It's often at Alec Baldwin levels of stupid.

[@jasonhull8075]

You are an absolute wellspring of creativity and ideas, thank you Esper for taking your time to help all of us Dungeon Masters!

[@raytheerudite5252]

Great work, I remember seeing this adventure on your channel, years ago.

[@esperthebard]

Yeah it's an "old" one (in gaming years).

[@ScythianGryphon]

Thank you for the inspiration. Candle lights, prism you have done some serious preparation! This adventure sounds like DnD at it's best!

[@drekbleh7081]

Solving puzzles without having to look at a character sheet I think is a underrated skill for DMs. Being able to physically play with puzzle elements helps with me a lot mostly because I'm was(still am?) a lego kid and need to hold things in my hand to help understand it

[@HierapolisPhrygia]

Great video, this gives me a lot of inspiration for my Planescape Campaign

[@JAH711]

Reminds me of the Cathedral of Saint Vitruvio in Dungeons of Drakkenheim with the rays of light. You took the idea much further, sounds like an engaging puzzle for the party!

[@lucasmesmo]

New câmara!

[@esperthebard]

New câmara and new câmera⚡What do you think?

[@lucasmesmo]

@@esperthebard you look dope!

[@esperthebard]

@@lucasmesmo Thanks! It was the first attempt with the new set-up, I still have to learn some things with the camera.

[@KEEPRUOLING]

That's amazing ;-) happy to hear that!

[@TYBERIUS777]

Do you have a copy of this adventure somewhere? It’s an awesome series of encounters! I struggle the most with making very complex dungeons because I am always scared the players will get stuck or bored and begin to complain like it seems your players might have. Either way this was a great video and I would love to hear more from regarding designing a themed dungeon maybe with creatures who are rarely featured in published material.

[@esperthebard]

Alas I don't have such a copy or notes from those days. However, if you watch the linked video, you'll get a pretty good visual understanding of it, and I bet you could make your own rendition from that.

[@TYBERIUS777]

@@esperthebardsounds great. Thanks!

[@Jader7777]

A tale of the pearls and the swine.

[@esperthebard]

A lesson learned, for sure.

[@helixxharpell]

Love everything that Esper does here! Great stuff!

[@JormRising]

Yeah that session sounds like top tier dming and experience for the players. Who else but the bard himself eh.

[@valiantgm]

This is so cool and so creative! Thanks for the video - defiantly gets me inspired :D

[@BIGBENMACDOUCE]

Love your take on bringing celestial into the game. Its sometimes hard to figure how to fight one in a manner that makes sense. If ever you have time to look it up, a good way to spice the game is with the new ttrpg DC20 by the dungeon coach. Look it up, he’s got a good way to enhance the dnd experience!

[@sko_psy]

Absolutely awesome!

[@Dusty_Hikers]

Great video! Great ideas!

[@HenriFaust]

Check out the 2e AD&D Planescape _Planes of Law_ supplement on The Internet Archive, if you're having trouble imagining a reason to put a party up against angels. It should disabuse you of many stereotypical DM complaints and objections regarding how to incorporate celestial and lawful creatures as antagonists, as well as demonstrate how to create low-level adventures in the Outer Planes. (In fact, it's worth reading the entire 2E _Planescape Campaign Setting,_ even though a small number of details have been changed by later editions.)

[@andreasaslaksen4430]

Really liked this, lots that I might want to emulate, but have a couple questions: 1) How long did this take? All these puzzles and encounters sounds like it would take at least 3 sessions to get through at my table and 2) You mentioned complaints, but do you know what the complaints were about? Was it having to fight good-aligned enemies, the difficulty of the puzzles or of the overall conceit with the lights and mirrors? (Which I found particularly awesome) Also, new camera makes you look Great!

[@esperthebard]

It was 2 sessions, each decently long like 4-5 hours. Since it was so many years ago, my memory is a bit hazy, but I think the complaints stemmed from two main things: One, I was more of a stickler GM back then when it came to rulings, and I was too controlling at times. Two, the players were just complainers and sorta ungrateful.

[@jacopoarmini7889]

I just had my players fight a celestial in the form of an Avatar of the hindu God Ganesh. They felt really bad about it because the fight was something they couldn't avoid, and Ganesh was nice and understanding... while trying to squash them with his mace and shooting rivers of candy from his slashed open belly (it's something that's lore accurate). I had an actual hinduist role as Ganesh so that he could quote actual pieces of Hindu wisdom.

[@TheDude003]

So Epic

[@LordDany]

Im planing to throw some at some of My players as i Often run sandbox they just have to finger the rigth wasp nest 🤣

[@thedeaderer8791]

Damn bro them eyes the chiseled jaw wtf lol got my ass confused alil bit. Jk lol but for real keep this kinda content coming. Something we can plug and play

[@GeraldMountaindew]

I kind of want to hear your players' persepctive now on what went wrong

[@davidburnett5049]

Surprised to hear you had a sort of rough night. I remember back when I had chances to play, I wasn't a great player. Too immature. Probably too ungrateful too.

[@kapteinkaos6081]

Or just gather your psycho friends and have fun killing elves, ponies fairies, metallic dragons and angels in an evil campaign Just don't forget the booze, the evil music playlist and your book of vile darkness

[@LordDany]

I just have a problem due to how gods of My setting are neither good nor evil 🤣 As such i cant have players face off celestials aligned with lawfull good God 🤣

[@CarpeDiem-rm2vm]

Great Dungeon. Love your ideas - as always. I want to question the basic belief system of "good" and "evil". I think it odd that something as dualistic and artificial (human in our world) can be a base for universal ideas. Maybe Dualism was later superimposed on your world (like I did with mine) but doesn´t it seem odd that such esoteric ideas go all the way back to the basis of the universe? Where was it created? How does the structure work on a physiological sense? Etc. I am quite the meticulous worldbuilder and wanted to know about your thoughts on this topic. Maybe "good" and "evil" were once two sides of the same coin but where did they get intersected? What makes this intersection and how is it defined? Is evil just the pursuit of ones impulses? But what if those impulses are good? This appears to be a basic conundrum - a world that was created on the basis of good and evil needs clear teleological structures for it´s basic parts. Maybe I am missing something but the argument can ultimately not be resolved by a separation of body and mind. It needs a third esoteric aspect. Maybe it´s the divine or maybe it´s the "heart of desire" in the Berserk Manga. Maybe good and evil are inherently human and therefore just constructs but maybe you can find meaning down to the deepest structure. I can´t. In my world "good" and "bad" are interchangable with "us" and "them".

[@Joshuazx]

I'm non-religious, but I like the bible's version of angels way more than D&D's version of angels, so in my mind, if God sends an angel to get you, it means you Effed up and you're about to get ended.

[@OMentertainment]

There's a reason every time an angel shows up it had to start with "be not afraid" - meanwhile they were probably screaming while the angel said this 😅

[@lucasmesmo]

I don’t really get the idea of celestials in RPGs… I am not an RPG player - I wish. So what exactly are they, like? Angles? Demons? Somewhat in between or we are talking about a completely different kind of race? Race? Is that the word?

[@drekbleh7081]

They are "Good" aligned 'Outsiders' or rather sentient forms of virtues either formed naturally from spiritual realms where righteous souls go to rest in the afterlife or they are forged into being by righteous gods, in 3E lawful good gods like Moradin would have almost mechanical looking celestials because of his lawful nature and strict and rigid codes. Corellon a Chaotic good god would create celestials of vibrant nature because he's more of a free and mercurial spirit But in 5E that was simplified into stereotypical angel looking beings with powers of sunlight, mind reading judgment ect. They were like that in 3E too but there was just more variety back then.

[@esperthebard]

The official definition: Celestials are creatures native to the Upper Planes. Many of them are the servants of deities, employed as messengers or agents in the mortal realm and throughout the planes. Celestials are good by nature, so the exceptional celestial who strays from a good alignment is a horrifying rarity. Celestials include angels, couatls, and pegasi.