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Critical Role |OT| Is It Thursday Yet?
- Thread starter Dream Machine
- Start date
- Video/Streaming OT
Not knowing much about a Gorgon how screwed is the group? Petrifying breath seems like a TPK situation unless the monster is weak. Since we know Matt buffs his enemies and SilentMike03 pointed out it's wearing plate armor it doesn't look good at all.
Hard to say without knowing any additional effects, or the DC on the Con save, but single monster fights really aren't that tough. I guess it depends what you mean by screwed - if both clerics get petrified then it'll be a really long detour to find someone to cast Greater Restoration. A standard gorgon (CR 5) already has iron plates on as its 'natural armor' and their breath weapon recharges like a dragons (on a 5-6).
I haven't watched the second half of the show so I didn't hear the Gorgon description, but Matt would have to do a decent amount of work to buff it up where it would challenge the party on its own.
That's just how gorgons are. Big weird bull monsters covered in metal plating with petrifying breath.
Also, as far as it just being a mindless animal goes, I used one in my home game a few weeks ago and the base version has an INT of around... 2. They're pretty mindless and typically seem to just act on instinct like an animal.
It could very well be a temporary TPK if Matt had buffed the save high enough, it requires 2 saves to petrify. I can't imagine many double failures of the save if it is still 13, even if the gorgon breathes multiple times. But if the save is much higher it could result in a TPK or everyone "dying" except 1 or 2 people who escape.
If a TPK happens, I imagine this will just cause a time jump where the M9 are out of action for 2-10 years until someone finds them and starts to depetrify them. I can't imagine him doing any longer than that because so many of the party's backstories resolve around NPCs currently alive, ie, Matt won't do a 100 or 1000 year time skip unless time travel becomes a story focus lol.
If a TPK happens, I imagine this will just cause a time jump where the M9 are out of action for 2-10 years until someone finds them and starts to depetrify them. I can't imagine him doing any longer than that because so many of the party's backstories resolve around NPCs currently alive, ie, Matt won't do a 100 or 1000 year time skip unless time travel becomes a story focus lol.
even with the current DC (13) , it will be rough. It's a constitution save, and Yasha is the only one with proficiency in that, so at best anyone else has +2 on that roll.
It will be Yasha and Caleb only who survive, as Caleb has extra to saves via items and he potentially has proficiency in Con saves via transmuter stone. A duo of self loathing!
Fjord might be okay. He has 18 Con so that would be a plus +4 to the roll, so as long as he rolls a 9 or higher he could be safe. Beau, Cad, Nott, and Jester might be in some trouble though. I don't think Matt will let them use Polymorph to break out of it like he did with the webs from last week.
That would be an amazing strategy if it worked. Completely anticlimactic, but really effective.
You know Fjord's track record with turtles... particularly polymorphed ones
Lol, he would be too scared to go pick it up.
Also, lakes wont work with this idea due to how weird D&D is with time and movement. A creature with +4 con bonus can hold its breath for 5 minutes which is 50 rounds.... Movement speed at half movement underwater is still 20 ft per round for a gorgon and if you take dash action then that is 40 feet per round, so in 50 rounds the gorgon can swim 2000 ft. Deepest lake in US is 1900ish ft and most lakes average depth is far below that...
Got me there, no idea...... He could run along the lake bed and sort of swim leap up some of the steeper inclines? I think Matt would just make it so the battle was delayed for 5-10 minutes, except to depetrify Cad's family and do whatever Cad needs done is going to take allot longer than that. Who knows, the Gorgon could even be the guardian of the Stone family and they might have to deal with hostile Stones.
That just reminds me of a hippo - they can't swim, they just walk along the bottom of the lake/river. That'd probably work.
Hate to be the barer of bad news here, but hippos are actually pretty powerful swimmers. A lot of the time they just don't need to, as they can often stand in the portions of rivers and marshes they hang in or do their creepy underwater jogging/push-off thing. They're a nightmare given flesh...
As for Gorgons, yeah, it'll probably just slowly climb its way out of the water.
So basically a semi-decent, but not too serious, threat that can't necessarily be cheesed. I'll keep my expectations at "decent opening battle."
Managed to catch up now. Those silverfish enemies were pretty interesting. End of the day you need combat encounters in order to get the party to expend their skills/slots, otherwise the climactic encounters would be too easy.
Really interested to see what lays in store next week. Has to be a tweaked Gorgon, or their is something more sinister waiting in the cave.
Really interested to see what lays in store next week. Has to be a tweaked Gorgon, or their is something more sinister waiting in the cave.
OK I'm rewatching the VOD because I totally tuned out for 80% of the episode. Artagan did say "this is one of many prime materials". He mentioned other planes but then expanded it to "other worlds". Sigil/Planescape when
Well one would have to assume Toril exists in this canon as another material plane given Arkhan appearing in the Descent to Avernus campaign with the hand of Vecna
Didn't enjoy this week's AWNP. It was kinda fun in the beginning with the dopey guy and his ghost house. The medium at the end ruined it for me. Those people are scum who prey upon the emotionally vulnerable. She also wasn't very good at her attempts to cold read Liam. There was a brief shot where she starts to do her read and brings up a possible relative. Laura is generally having fun throughout the night, but that one brief moment her face goes hard as she's looking at Liam to see if this was going to cross the line. My mind immediately went to his mother who passed away a couple years ago and I think Laura had the same thought. She looked ready to shut that shit down.
Matt just confirmed on Talks that it's not a normal Gorgon, calling it "more than a Gorgon"
So obviously it's been buffed.
So obviously it's been buffed.
The most interesting part of the fight will definitely be attempting to steer clear of any statues, specifically Cad's family but I'm sure they wouldnt want to destroy random humans/races too. I hope Matt puts down some figurines to display them and see if the gorgon charges through any, smashing em in the process.
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petrify half the party and have the VM M9 crossover be them getting Alura to convince VM members to help them go in and rescue the petrified party members
Jester does have the Mending spell though, which could probably fix things like limbs broken off but probably not statues being completely pulverized.
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Jester would put something on wrong as a joke but it would turn into a cronenberg movie
Didn't they try to do that to Liam's oneshot character in The Search for Bob? Jester would probably try to take a bunch of parts from all the stone animals and create a brand new species. It would probably be the most horrific thing ever.
It may be because I've been reading a lot of the Dr. Stone Manga recently. But it really makes me wonder how a broken statue would work in DnD. Like I guess if you had your arm broken off and were unpetrified, you would be armless and probably spewing blood everywhere. But would there be a way to repair a statue before you unpetrified them?
Like could a spellcaster cast Mending on a statue before a Greater Restoration to restore a broken limb? What if they lost their head? If the statue was smashed to bits and pieces and you took several days to mend it back together? Would be interesting to see how a DM would rule that.
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Well they freed that map maker guy in C1. I think his stump was fine, just cut off. Mending is a cantrip so it would be really dicey, I wouldn't say it's possible if its smashed but maybe a single arm or leg might be easy enough to fix. It's only meant to fix things like a leaking waterskin or a tear in a cloak.
I don't really know what a petrified creature feels, but I assume it's a condition that spreads throughout their entire body and "freezes" it. Knocking off their head and mending it back would probably be fine, but unless you have it exact, that person is probably going to have some fucked up spine or neck issues for the rest of their life. There's a recent unearthed arcana that features a sorcerer of a Clockwork origin that allows them to repair objects in a large cube using tiny spirits/modrons. Something like that would be able to fully restore a handful of statues without any issue I think, but that's also an 18th-level feature.
If you are going by the rules, petrified creatures still have their same stats that they have while normal (hit points, armor class, etc), just somewhat modifed.
Notably, all attacks have advantage against them, but they have resistance to all damage (meaning all incoming damage is halved).
So if the Clay family is even moderately leveled they should be perfectly fine against some collateral damage in this fight.
Notably, all attacks have advantage against them, but they have resistance to all damage (meaning all incoming damage is halved).
So if the Clay family is even moderately leveled they should be perfectly fine against some collateral damage in this fight.
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It's probably a story the traveller would have told you
that's exactly how I feel. Wish they wouldn't give people like that publicity, no matter how much fun it is for you "personally".
Like, it might be fun for them to go to pyramid scheme sales event knowing what it's about, but giving publicity to them given how many people's lives they ruin is a bad thing.
Seems like the cast is having a little trouble growing the brand in a healthy way given their recent Wendy's controversy as well.
Or maybe I'm just reading too much into it.
Or maybe I'm just reading too much into it.
TBF even calling the Wendys thing a "controversy" VASTLY blows it out of proportion, I personally felt like nothing was wrong with that. I liked that one a lot.
Maybe, but it feels like things have grown pretty well since they started their own channel. The Wendy's thing wasn't great, but they responded pretty quickly and I don't think it really hurt them in any meaningful way. This episode of AWNP had a solid first half, it was just the "Medium" that brought it all down, at least for me.
With things like the new Wildmount book, the animated show, and merchandise being sold in actual retail stores, things seem to be going pretty well. Superficially these seem like good signs for the brand, but I honestly have no idea really. It's been less then two years since they left Geek and Sundry, but it definitely feels like CR has become at lot bigger then it was back in Campaign One.
I started around campaign two and can confirm they feel like a juggernaut compared to two years ago.
They have been blowing up the brand getting an official D&D source book which is huge (first home brew setting since Eberron from like 2004, I wouldn't call magic the gathering source book homebrew), an animated series on Amazon, clothing at hot topic in addition to their online store (I might get the hoodie if I'm ever randomly in a mall and it's actually in stock), an autobiography type novel published, etc.
Wendy's One Shot was hilarious, I dunno if Wendy's would have still done the one shot with them if the cast announced proceeds would be donated in advance to charity supporting migrant workers. It was mostly a bad look for CR because they only announced the donation after the fact. I also think the Wendy video should have been left on their Twitch channel and put on YouTube, just put the donation thing in front of the video. But maybe Wendy's wouldn't let them put the video up if the donation to the charity supporting tomato migrant workers was mentioned.
Wendy's One Shot was hilarious, I dunno if Wendy's would have still done the one shot with them if the cast announced proceeds would be donated in advance to charity supporting migrant workers. It was mostly a bad look for CR because they only announced the donation after the fact. I also think the Wendy video should have been left on their Twitch channel and put on YouTube, just put the donation thing in front of the video. But maybe Wendy's wouldn't let them put the video up if the donation to the charity supporting tomato migrant workers was mentioned.
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The ad/view revenue likely conflicts with whatever prior agreement they had for this very reason.
I do think there were issues with the promotion itself. The bit of control the sponsor had over the table, moments where the table was a bit uncomfortable beyond Sam being Sam...but overall they seemed to have a good time and it's a shame that it'll remain buried.
I don't really hold the Wendy's thing against them. They're growing and are going to make mistakes. They turned around quickly with an apology and a make good with the charity donation.
The medium thing this episode seemed like they got ambushed a little bit with it. The way it came across to me was they were there to do the ghost thing and they were offered the seance at the house. They didn't go in knowing it was going to be a thing. Probably figured it'd be good content for the show and just went along without having time to really think about it.
The medium thing this episode seemed like they got ambushed a little bit with it. The way it came across to me was they were there to do the ghost thing and they were offered the seance at the house. They didn't go in knowing it was going to be a thing. Probably figured it'd be good content for the show and just went along without having time to really think about it.
Just started on the latest episode. Part of me thinks that since "Traveler" is already bored with being a deity, I can see Jester taking over the roll at the end of the campaign
I mean ... as far as the seance stuff goes it's a little strange to me to go in and goof on like ghosts and stuff super hard but then draw the line at a seance reading being too real or touching too close to home.
Like prior lives or re-incarnation or normal religion or ancient ghost stories or greek myths or whatever. It's all fake garbage... like go in and goof on it hard. Seance is just as silly and stupid as ghost houses and shit like that. I would of had a time of fucking with that lady either way. I guess it just came across as like .. wall to wall ridiculous. Why care/believe any of it honestly?
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The ending of this last game though. Like as soon as they noticed more and more people... and their stances being somewhat guarded .. and them some of them were angry or looking like they were defending themselves or whatever - you could see Cad's face starting to change and get more somber and then BAM ... family statues and BAM... Gorgon up in your face!
Enjoyed the shit out of this episode. I also low key adored Artagan's little display and comments about how easily he could wipe the M9 off the map completely. Like Beau especially but then everyone else wants so badly to kind of quantify or put the Traveler in the box so they can describe his power or presence in a more traditional specific way. Like the little punk monk goes to poke him.. like physically touching him would prove he isn't a god or something? And then he just immediately turns like 30 feet tall makes it very clear that if she ever laid a finger on dude it would be because he didn't care enough to stop her/kill her or whatever.
So fun - can't wait for the rest of these feels and the cave...
Like prior lives or re-incarnation or normal religion or ancient ghost stories or greek myths or whatever. It's all fake garbage... like go in and goof on it hard. Seance is just as silly and stupid as ghost houses and shit like that. I would of had a time of fucking with that lady either way. I guess it just came across as like .. wall to wall ridiculous. Why care/believe any of it honestly?
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The ending of this last game though. Like as soon as they noticed more and more people... and their stances being somewhat guarded .. and them some of them were angry or looking like they were defending themselves or whatever - you could see Cad's face starting to change and get more somber and then BAM ... family statues and BAM... Gorgon up in your face!
Enjoyed the shit out of this episode. I also low key adored Artagan's little display and comments about how easily he could wipe the M9 off the map completely. Like Beau especially but then everyone else wants so badly to kind of quantify or put the Traveler in the box so they can describe his power or presence in a more traditional specific way. Like the little punk monk goes to poke him.. like physically touching him would prove he isn't a god or something? And then he just immediately turns like 30 feet tall makes it very clear that if she ever laid a finger on dude it would be because he didn't care enough to stop her/kill her or whatever.
So fun - can't wait for the rest of these feels and the cave...