Eldamir the wise! | Excelsior | Exandria Unlimited: Calamity | Episode 1 (P4) [Reaction]
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#CriticalRole #ExandriaUnlimited #Episode1 - Zábava
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7:00 So for dice rolls, there are really two kinds of rolls from a DM's point of view - rolls against a DC, and contested rolls. A roll against a DC (difficulty challenge, I think?) means the player's roll has to meet or beat a certain flat number. Sometimes the DC is determined by stats (for example, rolls to hit in combat are against the character's armor class, which serves as the DC, or rolls to save from a spell are determined by the caster's spell save DC) but sometimes it is at the DM's discretion, in which case they would use the scale Brennan has mentioned, from easy tasks (DC 5) to very difficult tasks (DC 20) to near impossible tasks (DC 30).
A contested roll, on the other hand, has two players or a player and the DM rolling against one another. The rolls made depend on the type of contested check, which is determined by the rules in the handbook and/or by GM discretion. Commonly, a contested Strength check (for grappling over an item, shoving someone around, etc.) would use the same ability and be a Strength roll vs. a Strength roll, while lying to someone uses opposing abilities - a Deception roll vs. an Insight roll. However, DMs always have discretion and can determine what the check will be - so they could change which ability is used if there's a narrative or mechanical reason for it.
Whether a check is against a DC or is contested depends, again, on both the rules in the handbook and on DM discretion. So sometimes the DM is rolling against the player; sometimes they just have a number in their head or on paper that the player needs to beat.
Brennan Lee Mulligan is one of my personal heroes and inspirations. Such an amazing storyteller.
I am sure you will get these answers elsewhere, but just in case. To answer the questions that you brought up, without spoilers.
1) 9th level spells are the highest possible without god level help/items. 10th level spells are constantly being attempted by the wizards of this age, because they all think they can do it (that is the mention of the "crack godhood" thing)
2) The highest a skill check can be, following the rulebook, is a 32. As a general rule, a DM will set a difficulty for a roll based on the situation. That difficulty is already "set" by whatever the NPC was doing, so if they are hiding info or stubborn or whatever, the difficulty of the roll already accounts for that. The DM won't have a player roll Vs an NPC unless its a combat roll usually.
3) The Septariat are the 7 ruling mages of this city. Amir (the guy who had the statue made of himself) was the very 1st ruler of the city, the 1st of the Septariat, before his death.
4) "One of the TRUE seven for Eldamir the wise just means he is one of the original 7 Septarian. With how long an elf lives, Eldamir is just one of the last few people who knew Patia's grandfather personally
5) There are 3 major flying Cities at this time. The one this game takes place in, and Aeor are the ones mentioned here. Aeor is rumored to be working on some "great weapon" hence why its so generally important (its also information relevant for Critical Role's mani campaign)
6) The Matron is the last human person who cast a 10th level spell, and she killed a god & stole their divinity for herself. Ever since then, other humans have been trying to figure out their own way to do the same. She lost her human name in the process & is only remembered by her godly name now "The Matron of Ravens"
7) Loras is not offering the position as an apprentice to Portia - He is illegally trying to SELL the position to Portia for having her coverup the investigation into Vespin Cloris. He is trying to make a deal for some reason.
The mages of this time period felt that they had surpassed the gods in terms of power. True hubris at its finest.
fun fact: Patia was supposed to be played by Laura but she had a busy schedule so Marisha steped in for her, they basically created the character together.
yeah, I think she had the basic premise for Patia and then Marisha fine tuned and made it her own. The result is amazing.
If you wanna see some dimension 20 (the first episodes of each campaign are free on youtube) with a heaping helping of this same cast:
- misfits and magic (aabria, brennan, lou)
- a court of fey and flowers (aabria, brennan, lou)
- a court of candy: ravening war (matt, aabria, brennan, lou)
- pirates of leviathan (brennan, marisha, matt)
- burrow's end (aabria, brennan)
Most of the "main" campaigns have brennan and lou. ("fantasy high" and "unsleeping city" have full seasons for free on youtube)
Aabria is actually also in POL! The games she runs (Mismag, and ACOFAF specifically) tend to use none DnD systems of play so its also a fun way to get a look at other ttrpgs
Finally got through all the pc intros!!! Wooohooo. Now on to the story. Lmao this next half of episode 1 is going to be great and I hope you enjoy it as much as we all did.
im really enjoying these reactions! Calamity is quite possibly my favorite piece of content ever and its great to get to experience someone else watching it for the first time.
loving your thoughts and how much you pay attention to the details, because there is a lot of info packed into these episodes
about brennan’s incredibly glided word choices, for context brennan was homeschooled, started college at 14 at the state university of new york for his associates degrees (graduated at 17), then got his Bachelor’s for fine arts (specifically in Film) at 21. so that should put it into perspective.
ALSO the leaders of the city of Avalir are the Arch Mages of the Septarion aka The Ring of Gold
the Apprentices of the Septarion are the Ring of Silver (this is the job opening that Patia was told about)
the party members (Nydas/Lou, Patia/Marisha, Zerxus/Luis, Loquatius/Sam, Laerryn/Aabria, Cerrit/Travis) group is named The Ring of Brass (akin to the names of Vox Machina and The Mighty Nein, and the remaining group name of the Campaign 3 party)
A little clarification, because they were throwing names around like crazy, Thre are Seven Archmages that hold the title of Septarian, these are the top of the top, most powerful and influential wizards in a city of powerful and influential wizards/magic users (Eldamir is one of these, as was Paitia’s grandfather.) Then there are those wizards who are apprenticed to the Septarian, like Loris, or who have in some other way made a name for themselves, they belong to the Ring of Gold, then behind them are those mages who hold lesser political clout who belong to the Ring of Silver, and then there is everyone else. Our party calls themselves the Ring of Brass but that isn’t a real title within the city (you can even hear Loris make fun of Paitia for it a little), but in a lot of ways they are the ones that actually make the city function with basically the City Protector (Xerxes), the head of the media (Loquacious), the head engineer (Layren), the head of commerce (Nydas), the chief of police (Cerrit), and the lead librarian/historian (Paitia).
Brennan does rambling characters so well 😂
Great reaction so far, I cannot wait for you to watch the next one! You are going to have so much fun watching Travis react to things lol
7:45 Yes, non-player characters also have stat bonuses for checks they make. Often a DM will have simplified character sheets prepared for important NPCs, containing info like skills, abilities, spells and attacks. Ofc you can never prepare for everything your PCs will do, and in that case you just make it up as you go. The amount of stuff you prepare before a session is just a matter of preference, and how comfortable you are improving vs. running prepared material.
Can't wait to see your reaction to the end of this episode!!
Spells have a lot of capabilities that are difficult to compare depending on what they're meant to accomplish. Comparing the power of a Shield spell to protect yourself vs a Disguise spell to let you move in places you wouldn't be allowed can be very contextual. In terms of simple destruction though?
Magic Missile, a 1st level spell, basically stabs someone 3 times with a knife with how much harm it does (3 four-sided dice +1 per die., 3d4+3)
Fireball, a 3rd level spell, will ignite a small house. (8 six-sided dice in a 20ft radius of Fire damage, 8d6)
Cone of Cold, a 5th level spell, will freeze a larger area for the same Measure of damage of a different type (8d6 Cold Damage) with a 60ft Cone AOE.
Firestorm, a 7th level spell, throws 7 ten-sided dice of Fire damage (7d10) in ten 10x10ft squares (1,000 cubic feet).
Meteor Swarm, a 9th level spell, generates 4 meteors that land and deal 20d6 Fire & 20d6 Bludgeoning damage in a 40ft radius around each of the 4 impacts.
Applying that scale, a 3rd level Transmutation spell "Fly" lets someone fly freely for 5 minutes.
A 5th level Enchantment spell, Dominate Person, gives full mind control over the target for a day.
A 7th level Necromancy spell can bring someone back to life that has been dead for nearly a century.
A 9th level Conjuration spell "Gate" can connect other planes of existence and call entities of tremendous power to answer.
And while it was in an earlier edition of the game, the only recorded (official) 12th level spell, called Karsus' Ascension, or Karsus' Folly depending on who you ask, was the "Become a Deity" spell. The current editions of the game stop at 9th for a number of reasons. And while the context of Avalier is different from the older versions of the game, the kind of spell used to Cut a Mountain from the ground and Levitate it permanently into the air would be Proctiv's Move Mountain spell, 10th level.
Nerd stuff outta the way; I'm Very happy to see someone enjoying the Calamity in this format. Hope you enjoy the whole ride!
I don't usually comment on rules stuff but I'm here first so: the GM (Brennan) doesn't have set stats that he uses like a PC would. If it's a fight, each enemy will have stats. For ability checks (like the investigation Travis rolled a 31 on) or saving throws, Brennan will decide how hard a challenge it is and set the DC accordingly. If the PC is looking for something easy, it will be a low DC (10 is about right for an easy check). If it's something difficult, the DCs can go up to 25/30, or higher if the PC wants to do something nearly impossible.
I"ll also say you don't need to worry too much about the in-world tech/politics/government stuff because it gets pretty dense and a lot of it is flavor. If Brennan or a PC mentions something a few time it's probably important. There's not a lot going on that you would need prior CR knowledge for, it's set up to be kind of standalone if you're not watching the main campaigns. References will come up once in a while, for the CR fans that do keep up with the main story.
Thanks for sharing. I appreciate you taking the time to let me know
I'll add that if its pc vs pc a deception check is typically against insight, or maybe perception. so if the DM is rolling, its usually that
yes it is also the case that 9th level magic for D&D is the highest on record tier of magic that can be cast in D&D's worlds, only certain powerful entities, creatures and gods, and sometimes PC's (player characters) get up to that level of magic at best. the players being 14th level means depending on the class they can cast up to a range of 4th - 7th level spells at a good rate.
Yo, Joe. Let's gooooo!
Yeah, d&d lore says 9th lvl spells are the hardcap, since the last 10th lvl was what triggered magic to fail momentarily, causing the engines holding floating cities aloft to crash to the ground, and simultaneously loosing every arcane lock, allowing dangers of all manner to run rampant, plunging a golden age immediately into a post apocalyptic nightmare that the heros work to repair.
In critical role lore im less versed, but i imagine it may help to think of the matron's ascension ritual to be a 10th, 11th, maybe 12th level spell; as to summon, hold, harm, consume, and apotheate into replacing a whole divine(or profane) entity sounds like an appropriately sufficient magical woking to require such a base level of such legendarily intense power.
Hope this helps you understand.
More Calamity lets go Joe 🎉🎉❤
You've gotten some answers on it, but I'ma try to be specific to the example in your question:
Orwyn, Cerrit's old partner, (theoretically) has a character sheet with stats just like the Player Characters. The stat that detects lies is "Insight". (Theoretically,) Brennan added Orwyn's "Insight" modifier to his roll, the same way that Travis added Cerrit's "Deception" modifier to his roll.
(But GMs do what they want, and they do it behind a screen. So who knows.)
The "true" Seven is just a thing people say that makes them sound important, I think.
Also, it's a way of legitimizing them above others. As in 'The seven? You mean Janet's seven kids?' "No you hoopleheaded simpleton, the _true_ Seven! The Seven of the Septarian!"
If Aeor attacking Lathras is indeed a "test" or "dry run", then the implication is clear: Avalir would (eventually) be next.
If they take a shot they better not miss, that's all I'm sayin'. Yeah yeah Aeor's got some dope robots or whatever, but Avalir's magic is on some otha shit. Come correct or get wrecked, robot-land.
When trying to deceive an NPC, you are correct, it's the Character adding their Charisma bonus, and to roll against it, the DM would usually roll and add the NPC's Charisma bonus.
They both use charisma like a charisma challange.
I'm not going to offer any commentary on your assessment of the characters or lore - I'm enjoying following your intuitive responses and look foward to seeing how those are born out by the rest of the piece.
To your more technical questions, Ninth level spells are the highest level and require the character to be level 17 to cast.
As for the deception rolls, the counter to deception would be insight. This would be a wisdom based check to counter a charisma based check. But if a character was not suspicious, then it might be set against passive perception, just to see if they notice anything. This npc is also a rogue, and, like Travis's character, an investigator, so high dex and high intelligence, but perhaps a lower wisdom.
Alternatively, a dm might just set a dc based on how tough a sell they think something might be. Outlandish lies requiring a greater dc just because of how outrageous they are.
Can't wait for the next installment.
Green is also my favorite color! Do you play D&D, or are you just an enjoyer of Dungeons and Dragons streaming? Would you ever consider playing if you haven't?
I've never played dnd. I got into this whole genre and community from a reaction I did to the season 1 trailer of Vox Machina. Ever since then, I've been going down the rabbit hole and getting to know the cast. I did reactions to all of the main cast's between the sheets interviews for that reason. They all seemed like genuinely cool people and I admired their talent and tremendous dedication. Other than that, I'm just a layman who is along for the ride lol. All that said, I'd absolutely consider playing once I committed the basics of the game to memory. As you can see, some things I remember. There's a lot that I don't lol. I wouldn't want to ruin the experience for the group I play with. I feel like I'd disrupt the flow of the game.
Most tables are fairly welcoming to new players. In fact, there are even some tables with all beginners learning the basics together! You’d have your character sheet in front of you with all your stats, and my personal recommendation is having a “cheat sheet” of all your abilities, magic items, and racial features handy. That way you have it at your finger tips what you can do at any given moment. And just know that you don’t have to have an accent or be amazing at acting. Those types of things you’ll become more and more comfortable with as you play.