the intrepid heroes run a battle masterclass (fantasy high: junior year ep 15)

Seriously, they were at the top of their game this ep!
Here are my favorite moments from Fantasy High: Junior Year episode 15.
Fantasy High: Junior Year is on dropout.tv! Please support Dropout and Dimension 20 by checking out the full version there.
#dimension20 #dropout
brennan lee mulligan, emily axford, brian murphy, zac oyama, ally beardsley, lou wilson, siobhan thompson, d&d

[@caitthew8223]

this is truly my favourite episode of junior year. i keep imagining kipperlily, invisible, vibrating with rage because oops! it wasn't unfair treatment, the bad kids are just THAT good! they've just been ahead of you kipperlily the entire time and they werent even powerlevelling with a teacher with a god-complex :D it gives me so much vicious joy to imagine it

[@bookwormwithwings]

This absolutely - they do act pretty loopy in their actual schooltime (when school isn't life or death) and it must have been so upsetting to realize they have incredible skill and teamwork going for them.

[@MeggieMooBear]

Forreal like they are actually and genuinely so far ahead of you, girlie, that they don't even know who you are

[@britnicox3929]

Seriously though! They act a little wild but they’re actually incredibly competent when they lock in

[@BouncingTribbles]

And then randomly Ally ate the eye. Hosing her directly for absolutely no reason. Just out of nowhere. Forcing her hand and stopping her sabotage.

[@loglorn]

This makes it so much better lmaooo

[@he.said.teenjiejer]

will never get over the perfect limerick written in mere seconds

[@roderickashcraft7708]

This group was never better than this fight, which is fitting as it was where they needed to be at their absolute best in canon. The Intrepid Heroes were amazing, the Bad Kids were amazing, and Brennan just got to watch the ultimate effort of his show come to fruition here. I'm sure this group can top this moment, and I even think they do later in the season, but this was such a hype fight. Also watching them try to do the math was great. Like half of them doing super well and getting super close and half of them just being like "Nope not in my wheelhouse"

[@hoku_hi]

They had to pull all the stops for those ochre jellies!

[@Neushroom]

​@hoku_hi Um actually, you mean those adorable butter gummies?

[@FaunoAtelie]

Operation Slippery Puppet is a close contestant

[@scooterparsons7221]

Came a long way from tripping on tables lol

[@jdjack519]

Brennan has created monsters. Freshman Year Murph was was the only one with really significant experience. Now Brennan wakes up in a cold sweat from nightmares about Emily and Beardsly ganging up on him.

[@NatiPeltz]

hate to be that person but actually the only person with 0 experience in freshman year was beardsley. zac, emily, murph and siobhan played their first campaign together dm'ed by brennan. lou had also played with brennan before. however im pretty sure both those campaigns were 3.5, not 5e. also im not sure whether naddpod c1 was already underway by the time they begun filming d20, giving murph and emily a bit of an advantage wrt 5e, cause i don't know if im imagining it but i think brennan has said before that freshman year was the first time he dm'ed for 5e as well. if you watch the corn cutie fight back they were either playing very fast and loose with the rules or they weren't very familiar with them yet, which seems to be the case. i swear im not a stalker i just watched all the zoom adventuring parties (each episode was 2hrs long and they went into a lot of detail about a lot of things)

[@TabbyB96]

Ally's uncanny ability to roll nat 20s at pivotal moments was especially traumatic this season, went to see the Live show in London and they pulled it off again, absolutely insane 😂

[@starchball3359]

I had never seen that many crits from one player. Everyone was on fire, but Gorgug especially popped off

[@creditroll176]

this was seriously gorgugs year

[@cantaloupegodling352]

It's All Love Now. I absolutely love how unhinged the Bad Kids are while also being absolutely incredible at their jobs. Gorgug Soloed a purple worm, Adaine's crowd control was amazing, they effortlessly answered every question and they even managed to stop the Ochre Jellies. The Last Stand is so satisfying to watch.

[@SpamSide_B]

I'm sorry, the Ochre what? Do you mean the Butter Gummies?

[@montyr2083]

It's one of my two favorite Intrepid Heroes battles, although I still think that the Battle of the Brands is *slightly* ahead because of how clutch Ally is in that fight. They can be overly goofy but damn were they in the zone with Margaret Encino.

[@Yattatt]

​@@montyr2083 Margaret Encino is probably my favorite Beardsley PC, she'll simultaneously be the most busted character in a fight while also trying to kill a robot by throwing a blackberry at it.

[@Ray-hk1zm]

I love it when Brennan makes a fight like "oh this isn't the HIGHEST stakes, if this goes badly there are consequences but it's more social/academic/financial consequences than life or death stuff, so I'm fine to make this borderline impossible I don't expect them to get a win here" and the Intrepid Heroes just. Destroy it. Between this and Starstruck I think the threat of failure just feeds this group power.

[@coolwizard22]

I think you're right. This fight and the Battle Of The Brands fight are my favourite. Not just because everyone puts in 100% and contributes so much in the ways that their characters are best at. But also because of the absolute insanity both fights had. Operation Slippery Puppet destroying Plinth, the frenzy to get Brutus out of the arena ending with Barry just lifting him and jumping off with him. Adaine giving Fig the Nat 20 on the smite, Gorgug getting crit after crit and then pretty much soloing the Purple worm. It's two amazing fights displaying how well different classes can work together to beat unbeatable odds.

[@unaobrien8168]

A special shout out to Siobhán on this one. Everyone was outstanding but Siobhán absolutely KILLED IT 🙌

[@Eldariel15]

perfect video title, will never get over the absolute perfect gameplay in this episode, the scatter, the limerick, the hasted double sneak attack, the spirit guardians and then of course the dice agreeing they deserve it by giving gorgug a million crits. just. perfect

[@Austin-fh2ui]

I just want to say that the 300 word essay in 5 minutes is a certifiably insane challenge. The average handwriting speed is 13 words per minute, meaning it would take them 23 minutes to complete even without any switching or thinking taken into account. Now the average for their age range and education level is probably more like 30, but even that would require at least double the amount of time given to them. I think the question was either designed for them to use the stamp or that Brennan was judging based on typing wpm.

[@lividlife213]

I think he mentioned in the AP that the essay was one of the questions he set up for using the stamp.

[@kyleowsen]

They also could've cheesed it if they got three of them writing in parallel.

[@brianngov1619]

it's all love now

[@klai2005]

it's all love now!

[@beesbrownies]

it's all love now ❤

[@PDX-Red]

I figured there would have been a secret answer to the train question: they don't because of chronomancy

[@johnathanmonsen6567]

I bet if they'd pulled that, Brennan would have had to give it to them on principle.

[@autumng2573]

sometimes i just rewatch this episode because the bad kids kick so much ass

[@gabrielevirs6603]

Beardsley saying that’s enough had the same energy as Jasper in burrows end when Aabria said lair action

[@TakeWalker]

this is literally just everyone's nightmares about taking exams

[@aricaine5024]

This episode was flawless. The scatter? The crit portent? The pentacorn? The eye of the vulture king? Gorgug basically soloing a fucking purple worm??? (yes there were other contributions but he singlehandedly occupied it for like four rounds) Zac got something like seven or eight crits??? Flawless, great luck, amazing use of mechanics. Probably the most enjoyable episode of D20 imo

[@Talentedstar1]

The multiple crits, Kristen being the one to eat the eye of the vulture, passing literally every question❤ this was such a good episode

[@royal9561]

the way emily says “neither! let’s start with performance!” is SO GOOD

[@J_Squatch]

"No, he looks like a weird, nasty shrimp monster"

[@AdamGaffney96]

7:17 In case you were all wondering (and I'm sure you were), I think the easiest way to work this out is to figure out the distance closed per minute. This comes out at ~2.16 miles/min. The train at 5:05 gets a 25 minute/25 mile headstart, therefore you want to know how long it'll take to cover 110 miles at 2.16 miles/min. This comes out at 50 minutes and 46 seconds. So it's 50 minutes and 46 seconds after 5:30 i.e. 6:20 and 46 seconds. Definitely doable in 5 minutes but I'd probably also take the skip cause effort.

[@zydecomoon2742]

Wait how did you explain this better than any of my math teachers ever?

[@thomasjackson7836]

I'll be honest, I'm horrible at math, but shouldn't it be 50 minutes and 56 seconds?

[@rosedapple7754]

I just gotta say I think it’s sad this doesn’t include Siobhan knowing “friend” in elvish off the top of her head (it is possible that that was in the last episode but either way)

[@meerly_here]

My favorite reaction to a monster was how stressed Murph looked about that purple worm. Dude has put multiple versions/reskins of it into NADDPOD so he knew how devastating it could be. Made Gorgug absolutely solo-ing it that much cooler!

[@ninjamonkey1215]

Favorite episode of Fantasy High, hands down

[@Slimewizard36]

I feel like this was just an excuse to use all the minis they never got to use in the rest of the series.

[@HumanAki]

Guys...do you think...that...it's mostly, if not all, love...now?

[@improbableopera793]

oh no. the ollie joke was in fact for me specifically

[@diegomorones-castillo2225]

12:52 Honor the Cockatrice

[@_Purp_]

8:08 Leaving this for later Edit: it's all love now

[@MeggieMooBear]

Adaines lil bombs were my fav

[@mitchinatr7093]

“Your guy!”

[@nick6063]

Zac was on a fucking roll!

[@vaderwalks]

Junior Year was certainly not my favourite from a storytelling perspective but i can't deny that the battles were anything less than exceptional. It's easy to hate on optimizers and power gamers, but this battle is a perfect demonstration of how much fun it can be to break the hell out of combat in 5e.

[@loglorn]

This is why acoc is still my favourite season, the asoiaf vibes make it so that optimizing and plot are one and the same: you need to be the absolute fucking best to survive everyone betraying you, and on a meta level it feels like beardsley decided "imma learn how to play this fucking game" and the change in subclass is beautifully integrated into the plot i fucking love that season

[@3ndlessL00p]

​@@loglornabsolutely, 1000%. My fav too.

[@3ndlessL00p]

@vaderwalks also I almost want to say, the Bad Kids aren't even really optimized (ok maybe Jorjug once he can keep concentration, and Fabian's build is very good). They're just *REALLY* good at the game at this point, and they're high level, so they have a lot of good spells and abilities. A lot of it is really clever plays. The dust mephits. Fig disguising herself as the proctor. Fucking Kristen having a hunch and spending almost all combat chasing down where Kipperlily is probably hidden. They're both powerful characters AND very proficient players.