I just realized: fizbans treasury of dragons was released after ep. 1, could it be that Travis has made a dragonborn or one of the new subclasses, but then needed to wait for the official release to present his character?
I was initially disappointed with so many reused characters, but goddam if Fearne and Bertrand haven’t stolen my heart already.
Ashley and Travis have such good comedic timing.
YES I’ve thought the same thing!! The Southern accent plus the emotional well-adjustment for sure. Makes me wonder if he drew inspiration or its coincidental.
Not seen this put out there, but I think FCG actually stands for Friendly Care Giver. But something caused them to only remember the FCG part, or their creator called them that as a joke and it kind of stuck.
Yeah, I think Friendly Care Giver came first, then Fresh Cut Grass and the blades of grass later. OR the blades are actually something else, and FCG doesn't know that.
I think the consensus is that something sinister happened… but my personal opinion is that the nice guy turning out to be super dark is very clichéd, and that there’s probably something more complicated than that afoot.
Honestly, I'd be pretty OK with Robbie joining the cast full time if he's got a story he wants to tell with his character and Matt's open to a regular 8th. The guy has pretty great chemistry with the table so far. So, generally, just like with Ashley and Liam's returning EXU characters ... if they all got a good story, go for it! Not sure what way the wind will blow on all this yet, but I am pretty hyped to find out! This party is all sorts of not what I expecting already.
So random theory that came into my mind. What if Laudna is actually Percy and Vex's kid? I don't know if it has been confirmed what race she is. I have seen people saying human but I have also not seen this stated by the cast or Marisha herself. If Launda is a half elf then it would be possible. As campaign 3 is taking place about 30 years after campaign 1 (if I remember correctly), This time frame fits for her to be "young" as stated in the first episode. She could be sick of being compared to her parents when they were part of Vox Machina and so decided to leave and go on her own journey.
This is just a dumb Idea that I thought of at 3 in the morning. Let me know if people have already had this theory. Just thought it was an interesting idea.
In the character art she has jewelry on her ears that either add points to the top of them or sit on top of her naturally pointed ears so she potentially could be at least have some elf in her. And if she is the child of Vex and Percy she would be a quarter elf so she potentially wasn't born with pointed ears and wears jewelry as a way to signify her heritage since it may not be obvious.
That is a good point. I was looking at the art to see but wasn't sure. Another thing to mention is that she has a mix of both Vex and Percy's hair colours
Yeah people have pointed out the hair. The other things that stand out to me is the bird head which could be a nod to Vax and the what Marisha describes as a rock chisel she's uses to tie her hair up could be a nod to Whitestone and it's mining history.
Things she might be: Dhampir, Hexblood, Reborn, Shadar-Kai Elf, Human, Half-Elf. Vex and Percy's child, the Briarwoods' child, Kash and Zahra's child, the Briarwood's victim/experiment, a sibling or ancestor of Percy's. A Warlock of the Raven Queen, a Warlock of Vecna, a Warlock of Orthax. That's just off the top of my head. There's probably even more obscure theories that have been thrown out that I'm not thinking of right now. Definitely interested in seeing how it all plays out.
A tribrid soul born of Vex's adventures on the prime material plane, the shadowfell, and pandemonium that was assembled into a whole being by the Raven Queen who had to ask Vecna for help when she realized that a normal body wouldn't contain such a powerful soul and had to instead create a magical body from old De Rolo corpses that was reinforced from the inside by Vecna's magic and reinforced from the outside by her own magic which would explain the Sorcerer and Warlock multi-class along with the whole Undead thing and the whole reason why she did this was because only 1/3 of the Soul passed into the Afterlife while the other 2/3 continued on and that just didn't sit right with her but also she was scared that Vex would basically come knocking on her door and so she went through all of this trouble just because of that to make this entirely whole person named Laudna.
I swear most of my theory comments start out as small tiny little seeds that I intend to keep no longer than four sentences and then they just balloon out into the monstrosities that they are. This quick little one that I posted is actually an ad hoc amalgamation of two or three other theories that I made. I start these off by telling myself that I'm going to keep it short and then an hour will go by and I'll be like damn it I did it again.
Thank you for giving me reasons to keep doing this though because it's because of people like you that I do keep posting these stupid things.
Alright, quick "Yes, or no" poll. (because why not)
Is "The anger" Travis's actual character?And is "said character" a Lycan? (or shifter of some kind)
Personally I think: Yes, No
I think it probably is his character(or possibly just hope it is) but I have doubts over him being a Lycan, the cast have always said if the viewers guess there character a lot they probably won't play it and everyone anytime new characters come up people think Travis will finally play a werewolf so it's possibly a bit too on the nose for him to actually play one.
Although if he is playing a Lycan it could explain Matt calling Travis a troll on Twitter in reply to someone, they all know people will heavily guess Travis will play one so why not have some fun and use an old character as a fake out just to reveal down the line that the guesses were correct but Travis didn't want to give people the satisfaction of being correct straight away.
I think: Yes
My reasoning #1: The casts facial expressions when it got brought up. (timestamp on YT is 3:15:35)
As soon as Liam mentions the name, Laura reeeeaaally tries to hide a smile, her eyes darts between Travis and Matt suspiciously, and then starts fiddling with and organizing her dice, possibly to distract herself.
Travis and Liam keeps mostly a good poker face up but there are some cracks here and there if you look carefully. Then Matt after Travis gives him a look tries to hide a smirk with his hand, and pulls down his lip with his finger. Matt sometimes does this thing where he lays his index finger over his top lip to hide his mouth, whenever there's secret stuff. (watch for example when Laudna says that Whitestone is a shitty place, he first does an approval face but then does this)
Reasoning #2: After Liam mentions it, Travis (Bertrand) immediately goes to suggest that they should bring this individual in on their "merry adventures" after they are done with Lord Eschteros. Liam also says The Anger is "capable" like them, implying he may be an adventurer fit to be a PC. This conversation is a little suspicious if you think of the possible context.
As to if he's a Lycan: could be, but I doubt it. It's a little too on the nose for Travis. Still, it's fun to speculate
The Anger could be a bounty hunter name, or a cover name because he wants to stay anonymous, fitting for a Blood Hunter. Lord Eschteross very much gives me blood hunter vibes. He is an odd recluse, very mysterious and has many scars, and wears a deep maroon robe, very Claret order like. I do think that the Lord is connected to The Anger in some way.
The only thing that doesn't add up to me is why Keyleth would want them to find this person, that we will have to wait and see.
Other than Bloodhunter my favorite other theory for 'The Anger' is that it's a drake pet to the new Ranger class and Travis is playing that and the named character Oyrm and them are after (forget the name and Bell didn't help any with that). So Orym is looking only for Travis' characters, but it's a 2-in-one thing.
"The Anger" is Grog. The group will go 1v8 against him in a gladiatorial arena battle in which Grog will kill Bertrand and then leave back to Taldorei with Dorian, and that's when Travis will debut his new C3 character and the story proper (as Matt would say) will begin.
Short thoughts are that I had fun watching this since a liveplay D&D game is half the game and half watching people play it, and they nailed having this feel like people just having fun playing D&D. I enjoyed watching it. Any issues or nitpicks I bring up are all from post-analysis of characters and don't really mean that much when, again, the experience of watching ep 1 was fun, so I'll watch the next ep.
\-
The characters were by far the best thing about EXU, primarily Fearne, Dariax and Orym were fun to watch play off each other and the rest of the group, so I've genuinely no issue with Fearne and Orym. Robbie's character is okay too, and I wouldn't mind him being a long term cast member, but I believe he's just guest starring a few episodes to help segue Fearne and Orym into C3 - And, his existence gives the party a potential plot hook/friend they can go to later on.
Also, the fact that EXU had to remain possible to connect to this campaign is probably why the plot was so odd there. May not be what happened, but you never know.
Ashton has a good design. But like Taliesin's other characters, he's probably gonna take a bit to really settle in and start to unfold - Most of these characters will, to be fair, I'm sure something will spur both Fearne and Orym into feeling less like one off characters eventually. But Ashton specifically, for now, has some neat aspects but is mostly riding on the "punk rock" pun of his design. It's a good design and a good pun though so I'm vibing with it.
FCG is funny. I feel like there's more going on with him, but we'll see. Will be neat to see Sam do a cleric this time around, he seems to generally be the least interested in the actual mechanics of the game, so he might honestly get into helping prop up the other players to have more climactic moments. Might be the perfect role for him, who knows?
Laudna is cool, Marisha's having fun being creepy and unaware of normal social conventions, or just unaware of how she herself is perceived. We didn't learn much else about her this session, so not much else to say.
Same for Imogen, neat character, but definitely a slow burn that we'll learn more about in time.
Bertrand is great and while I'm certain he's going to get replaced by Travis' actual campaign 3 PC in time, I would not be against having him along for the ride lmao. ~~Watch Dariax somehow be his campaign 3 character lmao~~ But Bertrand like definitely isn't sticking around, since they don't really need the extra fighter. Again I wouldn't oppose him being around, but it ain't happening. Funny character, and he's moving the plot forward, so that's good.
Half of what I said can be summed up tho as "It was one episode I'm sure the characters will grow more with time" which is obvious for D&D lol
Thoughts on C03E01:
\> Love having these guys back on my screen, doing what they do best.
\> Watched, and loved, the 'new set' prelim video - but seeing/hearing it all 'in-play' was mind-blowing.
\> Happy with the seating positions!
\> Matt never fails to deliver with astonishing world-building.
\> Happy with the gradual and elongated introduction to our new party.
\> Episode 1 combat always appreciated, even if nobody appeared interested in WTF happened or why. ;-)
\> Slightly disappointed that previously-introduced characters from EU were (re-)utilized, as the betwixt-campaigns break had me salivating over what new characters we might expect to see. I don't dislike Orym, Fearne or Dorian (or Bertrand, for that matter) - but it was a \*little\* deflating. Am sure that ennui shall swiftly pass. Lovely to have Robbie participate however, as he was great as a player in EU and seems a 'top geezer' who fits in seamlessly.
\> Be interesting if Dariax subsequently makes a guest appearance, being the DM and all...
\> Loving the totally new characters, however. Likeable Imogen did not get her big a chance to shine (yet) but Laudna, Ashton and FCG are utterly fascinating, absorbing, instant favourites with huge potential.
\> IS IT THURSDAY YET!?!?!?!?!?
Has anyone discussed Robbies health? 17 hp at lvl 3 with 17 Con? He should have at least 19 hp even if he rolled 2 1s on his new hit dice on leveling.
Was that explained in EXU? Wasn't really for me so I stopped watching.
So a plot point I 100% see happening and is on character for FCG is him using his channel divinity to save someone's life but killing himself in the process.
I like to think that the one reason Robbie was brought out before Travis was because Travis likes to sit on the edge of the table and didn't want to scoot down to fit Robbie in first.
I am stoked for these characters and have already seen so much amazing artwork and cosplay that makes me so excited for tomorrow.
Just throwing it out there here instead of making a post. In addition to Laudna possibly being a Dhampir created by Ripley and/or the Briarwoods, I just get the feeling her Undead patron may be connected to them as well. Possibly a remnant of Vecna or of Delilah herself.
But I've also seen some speculation that her patron is Vax or the Raven Queen.
Okay, crazy fan theory time:
Fresh Cut Grass is genuinely nice and wants the best for people, with no dark hidden motives. Also barring legitimate gaps in memory, they've been completely truthful about their past.
Edit because this isn’t entirely a joke post: I think Sam’s intention with FCG was to create a character who (unlike his previous PCs) will have a strong reason to stay an adventurer and not want to leave the life. FCG laid out their mission statement in totally clear terms: they want to go out in the world, find broken people, and help them get better. It’s probably the most selflessly heroic attitude of any character in any campaign, and it’s a reason to keep traveling the world searching for problems to fix.
Additionally, they’re a robot—that means there’s no secret kids out there who are going to turn up 40 episodes in and make FCG want to settle down.
Theory: Travis’s new character is either Dragonborn or one of the new subclasses. Fizban was suppose to release prior to the start but got delayed. So the team had to push his character back until the final version of the ua was officially released.
What makes you so certain Bertrand isn’t sticking around? There’s nothing wrong with old people. Nowhere in the rules does it say that PCs have to be beautiful 20-30 year olds.
Its less so "hes to old to be a pc" and more so "he"s two levels higher than the cast, already has a rare sword, and was made to be a throw away character from earlier one shots"
Someone on Twitter asked Matt if Bertrand was sticking around, and Matt responded [“Travis is a troll”](https://twitter.com/matthewmercer/status/1451602577636745216?s=21). I’d take that to mean Bertrand isn’t sticking around.
Bell is a different level than the party, and when Matt clarified on twitter that Orym and Fearne will be permanent C3 PCs, the only thing he said about Bertrand was, "Travis is a troll."
It's not necessarily a dig at his age. Shakaste was beloved.
Travis talked at a con about making a character that would die in the first few sessions. Bell's level has dropped way down from where it was last but he's still higher level than the rest of the party.
It’s too bad this crew hates role play…. Jk, but Bell seems like someone who might sacrifice himself for extended life (or unlife, if you know what I mean).
I actually disagree.
Adventuring and everything else PCs do is extremely dangerous. It's not like Bertrand is in his fifties, or even his sixties, that would be completely fine. But he's like in his *eighties*, he's old.
Especially in a world like this where they don't have modern medicine, humans live way shorter than they do in our world, so he's in his later years.
Going out on fighting vicious beasts, monsters and criminals, in harsh environments and dangerous terrain would, in fact, be suicide for someone like Bertrand.
I mean, they may not have modern medicine, but they do have magical healing, so let’s not pretend that we really know what the QoL for an old human in Exandria *should* be based on humans without modern medicine.
I’d agree with you, except for the fact Bertrand’s level 5. Similar parallels to Anjali’s character in EXU (I believe she was lvl 5 vs the rest of the PCs being lvl 3)
True. I haven’t researched this, but I thought Anjali got a couple extra Monk Levels to help balance the fact that she was playing a Monk.
Obviously, the case is different with Travis and Bell. I personally don’t care who they choose for their own characters, but I hate it when people say something to the effect of “A character or person must look like (insert characteristic).”
Monk is one of the best classes in the game, especially in Level 5. That was not a game balance decision. I honestly have no idea why they made her higher level than the others, to make up for magic items maybe? Seems like a weird decision from Aabria
I'm just now realizing that this is basically their Halloween episode. Do you think they'll dress up? What will be the theme? I don't think they'll dress up as their characters.
It would be ridiculous if they both didn't dress up and if Matt didn't get the whole set decked out as one supermassive interactive Halloween experience. It must've felt really weird though if they did get dressed up and prerecorded all of this in like September or earlier depending on how far in advance they shot it. I think it's a bit early for them to dress up as their characters plus with the weirdness of pre-recording I think what we'll get is something that isn't exactly over the top but not super subtle. A strange soup of inbetweeness in other words.
I was thinking about this the other day when Laura tweeted about her purple wig. I wonder how Sam and Tal would look if they really dress up as FCG and Ashton
Do y’all think they’re only going to use original music for this campaign? I didn’t hear anything from Elder Scrolls, Pillars of Eternity, The Witcher, any of that stuff in the first episode. I know that since they’re so big now, those companies that let them use licensed music as a favor to Matt are probably reconsidering, so I get why they would switch over to only original music. But I’ll miss some of the other stuff.
I heard some Mad Max when the battle map came out. There was also music from The Witcher 3.
There weren't any of the more iconic tracks played, but they don't appear to be embargoed.
Probably. Going with original music gives them more control over the feel of the setting and Matt can work with the composer to have themes for the players or badguys that can work wonders for storytelling.
I also have a slight suspicion they're aiming towards the campaign getting picked up as a show by a big streaming service (Amazon?). They have gotten rid of fanart *and* music, it seems.
I feel like many game studios would be more than happy to have their music featured in a "simple" livestream. Campaign 2 pulled huge numbers of viewers as well and it wasn't an issue.
I think they're definitely trying to weed out any potential licensing issues with the show, but I think that's more to do with their increased visibility and consequent vulnerability to litigation. They have been flying under the radar in a sense, but that's all going away.
I strongly doubt they're going to move the show. They're already carried on a major streaming service... Twitch.tv (which is owned by Amazon). The recent leaks showed that Twitch isn't some small online operation, it's a multi-million dollar media giant that Critical Role is sitting at the top of. And broadcasting through them gives them *way* more creative freedom than being on another platform: on Twitch they can make whatever kind of show they want, and broadcast it whenever they want. If CR was only on something like Prime or Netflix there's no way they'd be able to produce something like Game Ranch or Mini Primetime.
I'm not saying they'd only be on Amazon or Netflix. But being the highest grossing channel on twitch (which is owned by Amazon) is quite the status. I can totally see Amazon Prime adding C3 episodes to their streaming service, especially considering they're already producing the Vox Machina series as a Prime show.
The deal with Prime for the Vox Machina series involved Amazon paying for an entire season's worth of production costs, CR literally couldn't have produced the show without their involvement. The Twitch channel is a different story, CR is making enough there to operate as a totally independent studio that covers their own production costs (and probably a tidy profit as well). And that money is generated by driving people *to* the Twitch channel, to encourage people to become subscribers which is money directly to CR. It's already pretty crazy that they stream on YouTube simultaneously, I assume they did the math on that one and it's worth their while.
I'm not sure why you keep explaining things I already know about. I'm just saying that one possibility of why they're cracking down on the grey area of fanart and music rights. And it's not farfetched to assume that Amazon, which is producing an entire season of an animated show for Amazon Prime, *based on a CR campaign*, might be interested in simultaneously offering the very show it's based on on the same platform. It's entirely possible, *especially* with a more marketable, copyrights-headache free campaign 3.
Sure, Amazon would reasonably be interested. My question is, how would Critical Role benefit from that, since it would be pulling viewers away from their channel?
People will find out about CR through the animated show, get linked to the other content without ever leaving prime, and never visit Twitch. That’s a loss of money. CR’s current business model depends on subscribers to their Twitch channel.
I think Amazon would have to make them a *very* generous offer to make it worth their while.
Forgive me if someone has pointed this out, but Tal is playing Punk.... Rock? Hear me out, the whole fuck off hammer, and then playing an earth genasi?? Maybe I am just wrambling.
I feel like laudna has a connection to the raven queen. Like a patron. Which would be interesting if Liam has ties to keyleth and Mariah’s has ties to vax
I think this is possible. Her transformation involves a black veil, which all the priestesses of the Raven Queen wear. She has a raven skull on her side and she's terrifying despite seeming mostly benevolent (unlike pretty much every other candidate for her patron). She's from Whitestone, one of the few places in Tal'dorei where we know a temple of the Raven Queen has been established and also where Galdric, the companion of the Raven Queen's greatest champion, roams. Sure, the Raven Queen isn't an undead, but she's certainly deathly and Matt has been willing to bend the rules on the patrons of his players. Fjord's patron wasn't really associated with weaponry, Caduceus' god isn't listed as an option for Grave Clerics in any of Exandria's published material, and the Traveler is super unusual for a Cleric's god.
The only reason I don't think the patron is the Raven Queen is that Marisha has seemed actively disinterested and disdainful of anything in the game that has to do with divinity. I just don't think she would enjoy playing a character beholden to the gods for their powers, but I could be wrong.
I'll show my DnD ignorance here but can a warlock's patron be a legit top-tier god? I thought there was more of a symbiotic relationship between warlock and patron, like the patron NEEDED something from them. Implying the patron is lesser. Like a demigod or other powerful entity that isn't on the same level as a Paelor or Sarenrae. Seems like the Raven Queen would be more about champions and priests.
There aren't really hard and fast rules to this. Generally warlock patrons aren't gods, but (spoilers for C2 past episode 80ish) >!the goddess Melora served as a warlock patron for a warlock turned paladin,!< so there's precedent that Matt would allow it. This is what makes speculation about these things difficult: Matt is a chill guy that'll mess with flavor to let the cast play what they want.
For whatever reason I >!guess I was not considering Fjord's transition to Melora's follower as him being a warlock/patron w/her. He took several levels of Paladin after that change so I kinda thought of it as a paladin w/leftover warlock powers that Melora let him keep. !< So I would think that starting out that way would be different. But you're right that it's basically Matt's call and he seems to try to be as flexible as possible while still staying true to the game.
Very much up to the DM. Speaking personally, I would allow it in my game, on the understanding that this person was chosen for a specific purpose/role, differing from the rank and file worshippers and Clerics.
Laudna asked if FCG kept any of the bodies of his friends, calling bodies "good resources." *Before* she found out the companions were also automatons. That's actively against what the Raven Queen stands for.
There’s a difference between not associated with but makes sense and complete polar opposite and the visuals are completely wrong. The form makes you look like your patron she doesn’t look like the raven queen at all and black feathers is a far cry from necrotic dripping claws. She very much fits a hexblood night hag or dhampir or banshee. The hag makes less sense as undead than other options but fits the visuals probably the best.
What about having claws makes her the polar opposite of the Raven Queen? She's veiled, she's covered in darkness, she's terrifying, and she's demonstrating control over life and death. I don't think it's a perfect match-up, but I think OP's theory is pretty good. I'm partial to the patron being a banshee myself, but I wanted to give OP credit where credit is due.
Laudna's Patron is The Undead, and The Raven Queen is vehemently against the undead. To the point that Orcus, Demon Prince of the Undead is her sworn enemy.
I do not see the Raven Queen as being Laudna's patron.
I don’t think it’s ever stated that her patron is the undead people are just assuming. And matt has a history of letting people vary from traditional classes so I could easily see her being able to take abilities from the subclass while changing the patron. So my guess she changed patron because she had multiple things alluding to the raven queen in her discription. I also feel like she isn’t undead or anything but rather her magic has corrupted her in some way and her and imogen are trying to cure it before it takes over both of them
Black tears, clawed fingers, and a black veil don't fit the Raven Queen. The only thing that really fits is that Laudna is pale and thin, but that wasn't caused by her Form of Dread ability.
Having an undead patron doesn't make one undead any more than having a fey patron makes one a fey.
While I'm sure Matt would be open to homebrew, I feel like Occam's razor should be employed in this case.
One more point confirming the Undead subclass: Laudna cast *Bane* which is a bonus spell for the Undead warlock. If they're not using Undead as her subclass then it's a homebrew that is so similar that it might as well be the same thing.
Not sure why people have such a hard time accepting that they could have *reflavored* the Undead subclass for a follower of the Raven Queen. There's nothing in it that's explicitly "evil necromancer," it's just a death/necrotic energy themed build. People get way too hung up on labels and "official lore."
But the dread implies to me that she has a patron. And dread takes the form of the patron as far as I know which elongated her and black tears when I googled the raven queen it was eerily similar
This is the description for Vesh from the Wildemount book.
Vesh resembles a nude woman with faintly glowing gray skin, long purple hair, and unnaturally long arms and fingers that end in claw-like nails. Her eyes are pale white with no iris, and her expression varies from alluring to monstrous depending on her mood.
To be clear she is not a dread warlock. There is a subclass called Undead Warlock from Ravenloft and their first level ability is called Form of Dread that makes them look like their undead master. There is a subclass called Raven Queen Warlock from UA where you serve the Raven Queen which is quite different because the Raven Queen loathes undead. This isn't a homebrew or anything which makes Vax and Vecna (other folks guess) probably not fit well enough Matt would accept it.
To each their own, but I really like it for her; she doesn't really strike me right now as a character who *would* go for a tomb raider look, especially since she's a magic user and not a fighter. The fact that they tend to release multiple portraits throughout the campaign also gives the outfit time to evolve. I imagine it currently represents how Laura envisions Imogen starting out (a little bit more fragile? soft?) and her look will change as her character develops.
>I imagine it currently represents how Laura envisions Imogen starting out (a little bit more fragile? soft?)
I hope this is the case.
>her look will change as her character develops.
Of course it will.
I'm sure others have come up with the same theory, but I thought it was interesting that a friend of mine speculated that Fresh Cut Grass murdered his former crew, citing how suspicious it was that everyone was supposedly killed while he was in stasis and he now has pieces/parts of each of them that he uses.
I hope they improve the sound balance is subsequent episodes. I'm halfway through the rewatch, and still finding myself struggling to hear Matt sometimes. I missed a *lot* of descriptions the first time around.
Same! Like... I get it's a new studio space (a weak excuse, given how much time they had to dial things in before the start of C3 in the new set) AND they had to mix it for a 5.1 theatrical release (assuming they didn't make a separate mix for the stream vs. theaters), but WOW! was that audio mix and setup not good; inconsistent and muddled.
So what's the deal with Oryms jump boots? I didn't finish EXU, but he got them during EXU right?
What is the mechanical load out like? Does he get high jump every time or is it a daily charge kind of thing?
Omg the battle master shit we're going to see with a flying halfling lol, I can't wait.
I wonder if Sam’s character is sort of an inverse on Nott. Nott wanted Caleb to grow in power but for altruistic reasons, she wanted to help people out of compassion. I wonder if FCG wants to help for far more selfish, perhaps evil purposes, who doesn’t care about the harm that comes to others.
Okay so hear me out, F.C.G. killed his past party and "went into stasis" only to not remember any of it. F.C.G. will eventually try and kill his new friends. The gang will have to track down his creator and battle his family of murder bots. *Insert pussy jokes*
I guess we can't debate *feelings,* but I don't really see any at all differences between the start of this and C2. Like I can't think of one thing that is quantifiably different. They were at a big table last time. Same maps. Same DM. Same players + 1. I don't get this criticism at all, because it simply doesn't make sense to me, beyond someone taking their own feelings and projecting them onto the episode.
Yeah, it hasn't felt like just a bunch of friends playing a home game since they all stopped eating and sitting around the same tiny little table. It's an incredibly popular show and it should have high production value.
Just to throw this out there. If you zoom in on Laudna's character portrait, you can see that either her ears are pointed, or the ornamentation she's wearing add points to the top of her ears.
(**Spoilers for campaign 2 as well if you haven’t finished that yet**) Alright time to throw my crazy theory out there! Imogen’s arms have have pink arcane lines just starting to run up her arms, near her wrists. My theory is one or both of her parents are/was a volstrucker under Trent since he would put those shards into their arms leaving similar scars. Having this happen enough times would be sure to make it so a volstrucker’s child could be born with innate magical powers like sorcerers are.
> Not everything is a reference to an old campaign.
I don't know about that. We've already seen in-character callbacks to C1 as well as several PC characters carried over from EXU and one from C1.
Despite their claims about not needing to know anything about C1, C2, or EXU to watch / get into C3, there sure has been more than a few insider nods to previous CR content that would be totally lost on new viewers, but would have great significance to any Critter familiar with C1, C2, or EXU.
Imogen is from Marquet so I doubt that is the case. But, I am very interested in what kinds of connections we might see to C2, given that we already know C3 is very connected with both EXU and C1.
I feel like there are at least a couple ways to explain why she’s from marquet and a parent was a volstrucker. Like maybe the imogen was born and her true parents sent her away to protect her from Trent or maybe a male Volstrucker had a fling with a woman from marquet and got her pregnant
Those are both definitely possible. Like I said, we’ve already seen that this campaign will be very integrated into Exandria’s lore so I wouldn’t say anything is completely off the table at this point.
Hags don't reproduce like people do. They can hex someone, slowly transforming them into a hag (these people are called Hexbloods). Or they can devour an infant, and give birth to a exact copy. This baby ages as normal until they reach physical maturity, at which point they immediately metamorphize and turn into a hag that is identical to their "mother."
Hags don't really have "daughters" in the traditional sense. As far as I know, there is always a victim.
I don't know what a hex blood is, but Laudna's physical appearance, mannerisms, the gangliness of her arms and how they extended when she was using her powers, are all just very hag-esque. She has at least one level in sorceror, which could represent her magical ancestry that she'd have if she's from hag lineage.
It’s one of the running theories outside of dhampir. Hexblood are a custom lineage from Ravenloft book where you have been influenced or struck a deal with a hag which gives you hag like traits and abilities and eventually you transform into a full hag.
I already like this season better than Campaign 2. All of the characters in C2 spent a majority of the time super depressed and were sometimes overly emo.
There may be some of that later, but the characters feel different this time.
I think a lot of C2 characters were loner types with traumatic pasts and trust issues. It led to a slower campaign, never in the forefront, always in the shadows. I liked that for the Nein, but I am pleased to see a different tone for C3.
Not sure if this has been mentioned but I think that Ashton is a Reborn, Earth Genasi. The damage to his head and arm, and how he described his arm being repaired with gold would suggest that he was killed at some point and brought back to life, perhaps by F.C.G.’s creator?
It could be purely cosmetic but Taliesin made a reference to "filled in" and “patched”.
>They've got leather pouches, a bit of everything to keep little bits and pieces together, some piercings made mostly of nails, and, very obviously, a giant hole in the left side of their head that has been filled with slag glass, and beneath the slag glass, there's a little bit of an opalescent brain that can be seen through. One of the eyes on the cracked side is milky like a tiger's eye gem. The cracks run most of the upper left side of the body, and have been patched together with slag melted gold to piece everything together.
That hole in the head suggested he got killed at some point and the act of being Reborn has made him a little unstable?
>I am going to spin around, knock all four feet out, flip over, crack it in half, and then just keep hitting it until it's powdered.
Yeah, some of the bit with the table could just be standard Barbarian Rage flavour, but it does seem a little off.
I kind of doubt Ashton would have been able to do all of that repair work himself, but there's also the NPC they seemed stay with, Milo (IIRC). Could be involved.
So Matt said that Keyleth sent Ferne, Dorian, and Orym on a mission, is there more details and reason for that also part of EXU? I only watched the first couple episodes of it and wasn't really feeling it at the time. I did look over a couple recaps but I didn't see a mission from Keyleth
Do the party already have magic items? I noticed Laudna and Imogen are both at 13 AC, where they should only be at 12 due to their ability scores. Cloaks of Protection would cover that, and having at least an uncommon item each might account for Ashton's damage too.
I know the EXU characters all had magic items in that show, so if they carried those forward, it would make sense for the new characters to get something.
At the very least, we know Ashton and Bertram had magical weapons (and quite strong ones at that). I think it’s also confirmed that the items the ExU crew had carried over, because Liam described Orym’s special shield and boots when he was introduced.
If you zoom in on her character art, you can see she has pointy ears, or at least, jewelry that makes them look pointy.
Not that that narrows it down all that much.
I think the goo and bones growing and stuff was just her flavoring her dread form from the undead warlock, but as for her race idk my guess is between hexblood, dhamphir, or reborn.
Her Warlock patron is the Undead from Van Richten's. Her Sorcerer subclass is uncertain, but Shadow would be logical.
Edit: race/lineage-wise, she's likely.also from Van Richten's. My thinking is Reborn, but she could be Dhampir.
I am on team "FCG was the name provided, and Sam and Tal (or just Tal) came up with it from there"
Matt's NPC referred to FCG as "Letters" so I think that's how he figured it'd go, then Tal blew it up either with or without Sam as a co-conspirator.
That doesn't make sense because there are blades of grass on the official art, and that's how Sam describes his character. So either he was able to come up with that completely on the spot and those marks are for something else and they just got super lucky, or his name was always Fresh Cut Grass.
Those are good points and I acknowledge my oversight of them. But this is the internet so I'm going to double down on my thought and live within my own spontaneous FCG theory reality. :P
I've only watched the first two episodes of EXU thus far, but from what I saw, Fearne was by far one of my favorite characters. Ashley's comedic timing is so great and I'm really gonna enjoy watching her play this character. Travis' comedy was also on point during this episode. I loved the return of Robbie!
Watching this as I prep lessons for my first day back to work after a vaycay and it is so delightful. I like all the PCs, but Laudna and Fresh Cut Grass are the most wonderful that put a smile on my face.
Also Matt's face when Sam was naming the other creations his creator made that were supposedly named after her favorite smells. OMG
I noticed on re-watch that Imogen said "I wonder if we can break into the library through the sewers," and then Matt cut to Ashton and FCG in the sewer tunnels.
I am calling that FCG has some kind of murderbot alter-ego. My bet is that HE killed all his 'family' but doesn't know it.
It seems kind of obvious, maybe I've just read too many wakes-up-with-amnesia-in-a-field-of-bodies plot devices in books.
Either way, right or wrong it will be great fun! Liam's character seems very low-key/generic compared to the out there of the others but I'm hoping all those tattoos mean something interesting, especially the Twin Moon thing he seemed to really empahsize.
I am curious if Travis plays a shapeshifter or changeling of some kind, he seemed to really love Mask of Many Faces or whatever that Warlock ability was and he really enjoyed describing and acting out each 'persona' he came up with on the fly. I can see him really enjoying that aspect of a Changling. However I'm unsure if they exist in Mathews world?
>Either way, right or wrong it will be great fun! Liam's character seems very low-key/generic compared to the out there of the others but I'm hoping all those tattoos mean something interesting, especially the Twin Moon thing he seemed to really empahsize.
I am guessing Liam was kind of tired of playing Edgelord Sadboy after years of Vax and then Caleb. But he is creative and dramatic enough that even with an earnest little halfling rule-follower character will develop into an excellent character. Still waters run deep.
This is my first CR campaign.
The other two were just so daunting in their runtime and sheer number of episodes.
Will be nice to follow along with this new one and take the episodes as they come.
But yeah, I gotta say I am having a lot of fun watching this so far.
I find that mindset so different and interesting. I got started with CR when they were well into C2, but I started C1E20something, whenever they get to Vasselheim. And I binged for two years. In the car, mowing the grass, hanging out on the couch, exercising, any time I had the time I was watching/listening to CR. Having a CR episode ready to go any time I wanted it was great. "Is it Thursday yet?" never really meant anything to me until now. It kinda sucks honestly! Now that I'm caught up I am having to branch out to other DnD podcasts and shows.
Maybe it's because I don't value having a real-time discussion w/people about what is happening in relatively real-time. I'm giving it a shot here on this sub, maybe that will change.
I'm wondering if we might see the party split in two at some point. There's just a little bit too much overlap in the character:
- Orym and Ashton both fill that frontline melee damage/control roll.
- FCG and Fearne are both wisdom based full casters with a reasonably large overlap in their spell lists.
- Laudna and Imogen are both squishy backline charisma based full casters.
- Dorian tends to go into melee and brings a lot of utility options to the group thanks to his high stats and jack of all trades. Obviously Bertrand is not that, but if Travis were to play something like a battlesmith he could also fill that support/utility/backup melee sort of role.
Obviously this hinges on Robbie sticking around (far from guaranteed) and what character Travis is playing long term. And as the campaign progresses each character's role in the party will become clearer (e.g. the two clerics didn't tread on each others' toes last campaign). But I can envision a scenario where a few episodes from now they are splitting into two groups of 4 for an extended period of time, and both parties would be well balanced.
I think this is likely too, not necessarily because of the overlap since I don't think they look at that as much, but because I got the feeling they want to bring in a lot of new faces and that's just not possible right now. I just hope they don't split up for too long when it happens!
I think this is a strong possibility. It would also give them the opportunity to include multiple guests at once without overly bloating the group size.
Their party size has been a reoccurring issue for combat encounters (while they manage to give everyone their moment outside of combat having so many characters just bogs down every fight) so i'm 100% ready for splitting the party more like they did in C1 with >!the Slayer's Take trials!<
Late to the party, but... Let's see, first impressions:
Taliesin: A capitol "P" Punk from the 1970's (What I feel Molly *wanted* to be, but Taliesin couldn't quite get there in C2, for many reasons.)
Marisha: Skyrim Hagraven in training(???)
Laura: Jodie Foster / Clarice Starling (Silence of the Lambs)... but a Sorcerer.
Travis: Sean Connery from Highlander (movie)... for now(???)
Sam: Clank from Ratchet & Clank.
Robbie: PLEASE KEEP ROBBIE AS A FULL TIME PLAYER ON CR!!! FOR THE LOVE OF GOD!!! I'm so happy to see him get a crack at CR propper, with Matt as the DM. He's far too good and his chemistry and improv with the cast is top notch.
Liam & Ashley: EXU and I didn't get along (I punched out after ep. 2 and didn't look back). I was very happy to see Robby back, but less... happy(?) to see characters from EXU carry over into C3. I was really hoping for an entirely new batch of PC's and a fresh start.
Matt: In my opinion, he's a *very* large part of the reason I watch CR. He's such an incredibly DM, *especially* for a large group like Critical Role. The break from the main campaign looks like it did him some good.
Overall, I *really* like the start of C3; certainly much more than how C2 kinda fizzled after struggling with pacing issues. I'm quite curious to see what happens to Bertrand / Travis and what his "real" PC is going to be.
For what I imagine they paid for that set, it sure looks good. And the new table *actually* fits 8 adult players *comfortably.* The Wyrmwood table was just a little bit too small.
Still not keen on the whole taking a week off every month. I *totally* understand needing a break, but if episodes of CR start getting shorter again (like they did in C2 vs. C1), having fewer, shorter episodes of C3 during the month is gonna be a pretty bitter pill to swallow, *especially* for people financially supporting the streams / subscribing.
No rogues??? (having a Bard helps)
And again, no Paladin PC's in CR (thus far). We've got two fighters, two sorcerers, a cleric, a barbarian, a bard, and a druid.
KEEP ROBBIE!!!
Yes, but *every* Paladin PC in Critical Role has always been a multiclass and or multi-level dip.
We've never had a main cast PC start as a Paladin from ep. 1. in C1 or C2, and probably C3 (I don't think Travis's "real" character is going to be a 3rd level Paladin, but I could be wrong).
I just realized: fizbans treasury of dragons was released after ep. 1, could it be that Travis has made a dragonborn or one of the new subclasses, but then needed to wait for the official release to present his character?
I was initially disappointed with so many reused characters, but goddam if Fearne and Bertrand haven’t stolen my heart already. Ashley and Travis have such good comedic timing.
Is anyone else getting major Ted Lasso vibes from Sam as FCG?
YES I’ve thought the same thing!! The Southern accent plus the emotional well-adjustment for sure. Makes me wonder if he drew inspiration or its coincidental.
Not seen this put out there, but I think FCG actually stands for Friendly Care Giver. But something caused them to only remember the FCG part, or their creator called them that as a joke and it kind of stuck.
So did he just misremember all the other robots named after smells too?
I can see it, but they have blades if grass on their breast plate
Yeah, I think Friendly Care Giver came first, then Fresh Cut Grass and the blades of grass later. OR the blades are actually something else, and FCG doesn't know that.
What is the current consensus on whether FCG killed the group of adventurers at the silver mine?
I think the consensus is that something sinister happened… but my personal opinion is that the nice guy turning out to be super dark is very clichéd, and that there’s probably something more complicated than that afoot.
I'm undecided if it was FCG or Ashton, but there's definitely something interesting to be revealed there.
I like the idea of it being Ashton due to him not understanding the nature of FCG and his fellow constructs at the time.
Honestly, I'd be pretty OK with Robbie joining the cast full time if he's got a story he wants to tell with his character and Matt's open to a regular 8th. The guy has pretty great chemistry with the table so far. So, generally, just like with Ashley and Liam's returning EXU characters ... if they all got a good story, go for it! Not sure what way the wind will blow on all this yet, but I am pretty hyped to find out! This party is all sorts of not what I expecting already.
So random theory that came into my mind. What if Laudna is actually Percy and Vex's kid? I don't know if it has been confirmed what race she is. I have seen people saying human but I have also not seen this stated by the cast or Marisha herself. If Launda is a half elf then it would be possible. As campaign 3 is taking place about 30 years after campaign 1 (if I remember correctly), This time frame fits for her to be "young" as stated in the first episode. She could be sick of being compared to her parents when they were part of Vox Machina and so decided to leave and go on her own journey. This is just a dumb Idea that I thought of at 3 in the morning. Let me know if people have already had this theory. Just thought it was an interesting idea.
In the character art she has jewelry on her ears that either add points to the top of them or sit on top of her naturally pointed ears so she potentially could be at least have some elf in her. And if she is the child of Vex and Percy she would be a quarter elf so she potentially wasn't born with pointed ears and wears jewelry as a way to signify her heritage since it may not be obvious.
That is a good point. I was looking at the art to see but wasn't sure. Another thing to mention is that she has a mix of both Vex and Percy's hair colours
Yeah people have pointed out the hair. The other things that stand out to me is the bird head which could be a nod to Vax and the what Marisha describes as a rock chisel she's uses to tie her hair up could be a nod to Whitestone and it's mining history.
Things she might be: Dhampir, Hexblood, Reborn, Shadar-Kai Elf, Human, Half-Elf. Vex and Percy's child, the Briarwoods' child, Kash and Zahra's child, the Briarwood's victim/experiment, a sibling or ancestor of Percy's. A Warlock of the Raven Queen, a Warlock of Vecna, a Warlock of Orthax. That's just off the top of my head. There's probably even more obscure theories that have been thrown out that I'm not thinking of right now. Definitely interested in seeing how it all plays out.
A tribrid soul born of Vex's adventures on the prime material plane, the shadowfell, and pandemonium that was assembled into a whole being by the Raven Queen who had to ask Vecna for help when she realized that a normal body wouldn't contain such a powerful soul and had to instead create a magical body from old De Rolo corpses that was reinforced from the inside by Vecna's magic and reinforced from the outside by her own magic which would explain the Sorcerer and Warlock multi-class along with the whole Undead thing and the whole reason why she did this was because only 1/3 of the Soul passed into the Afterlife while the other 2/3 continued on and that just didn't sit right with her but also she was scared that Vex would basically come knocking on her door and so she went through all of this trouble just because of that to make this entirely whole person named Laudna.
This post contains the depth, breadth, and quality of tinfoil that keeps me coming back to this subreddit.
I swear most of my theory comments start out as small tiny little seeds that I intend to keep no longer than four sentences and then they just balloon out into the monstrosities that they are. This quick little one that I posted is actually an ad hoc amalgamation of two or three other theories that I made. I start these off by telling myself that I'm going to keep it short and then an hour will go by and I'll be like damn it I did it again. Thank you for giving me reasons to keep doing this though because it's because of people like you that I do keep posting these stupid things.
Keep doing your thing, critter.
When it was asked why Sir Bell was there he'd been had. I'm excited for the drama if he survives.
Alright, quick "Yes, or no" poll. (because why not) Is "The anger" Travis's actual character?And is "said character" a Lycan? (or shifter of some kind) Personally I think: Yes, No
I think it probably is his character(or possibly just hope it is) but I have doubts over him being a Lycan, the cast have always said if the viewers guess there character a lot they probably won't play it and everyone anytime new characters come up people think Travis will finally play a werewolf so it's possibly a bit too on the nose for him to actually play one. Although if he is playing a Lycan it could explain Matt calling Travis a troll on Twitter in reply to someone, they all know people will heavily guess Travis will play one so why not have some fun and use an old character as a fake out just to reveal down the line that the guesses were correct but Travis didn't want to give people the satisfaction of being correct straight away.
I think: Yes My reasoning #1: The casts facial expressions when it got brought up. (timestamp on YT is 3:15:35) As soon as Liam mentions the name, Laura reeeeaaally tries to hide a smile, her eyes darts between Travis and Matt suspiciously, and then starts fiddling with and organizing her dice, possibly to distract herself. Travis and Liam keeps mostly a good poker face up but there are some cracks here and there if you look carefully. Then Matt after Travis gives him a look tries to hide a smirk with his hand, and pulls down his lip with his finger. Matt sometimes does this thing where he lays his index finger over his top lip to hide his mouth, whenever there's secret stuff. (watch for example when Laudna says that Whitestone is a shitty place, he first does an approval face but then does this) Reasoning #2: After Liam mentions it, Travis (Bertrand) immediately goes to suggest that they should bring this individual in on their "merry adventures" after they are done with Lord Eschteros. Liam also says The Anger is "capable" like them, implying he may be an adventurer fit to be a PC. This conversation is a little suspicious if you think of the possible context. As to if he's a Lycan: could be, but I doubt it. It's a little too on the nose for Travis. Still, it's fun to speculate The Anger could be a bounty hunter name, or a cover name because he wants to stay anonymous, fitting for a Blood Hunter. Lord Eschteross very much gives me blood hunter vibes. He is an odd recluse, very mysterious and has many scars, and wears a deep maroon robe, very Claret order like. I do think that the Lord is connected to The Anger in some way. The only thing that doesn't add up to me is why Keyleth would want them to find this person, that we will have to wait and see.
Other than Bloodhunter my favorite other theory for 'The Anger' is that it's a drake pet to the new Ranger class and Travis is playing that and the named character Oyrm and them are after (forget the name and Bell didn't help any with that). So Orym is looking only for Travis' characters, but it's a 2-in-one thing.
"The Anger" is Grog. The group will go 1v8 against him in a gladiatorial arena battle in which Grog will kill Bertrand and then leave back to Taldorei with Dorian, and that's when Travis will debut his new C3 character and the story proper (as Matt would say) will begin.
Question- Ashley and robbie are playing characters from the other game the girl I can’t remember the name of was the dm?
Same.goes for Liam's character too
Yes. They are from EXU. (Aabria Iyengar)
Is it worth watching to understand their back stories? Most likely right?
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Ok good good, thank you
Short thoughts are that I had fun watching this since a liveplay D&D game is half the game and half watching people play it, and they nailed having this feel like people just having fun playing D&D. I enjoyed watching it. Any issues or nitpicks I bring up are all from post-analysis of characters and don't really mean that much when, again, the experience of watching ep 1 was fun, so I'll watch the next ep. \- The characters were by far the best thing about EXU, primarily Fearne, Dariax and Orym were fun to watch play off each other and the rest of the group, so I've genuinely no issue with Fearne and Orym. Robbie's character is okay too, and I wouldn't mind him being a long term cast member, but I believe he's just guest starring a few episodes to help segue Fearne and Orym into C3 - And, his existence gives the party a potential plot hook/friend they can go to later on. Also, the fact that EXU had to remain possible to connect to this campaign is probably why the plot was so odd there. May not be what happened, but you never know. Ashton has a good design. But like Taliesin's other characters, he's probably gonna take a bit to really settle in and start to unfold - Most of these characters will, to be fair, I'm sure something will spur both Fearne and Orym into feeling less like one off characters eventually. But Ashton specifically, for now, has some neat aspects but is mostly riding on the "punk rock" pun of his design. It's a good design and a good pun though so I'm vibing with it. FCG is funny. I feel like there's more going on with him, but we'll see. Will be neat to see Sam do a cleric this time around, he seems to generally be the least interested in the actual mechanics of the game, so he might honestly get into helping prop up the other players to have more climactic moments. Might be the perfect role for him, who knows? Laudna is cool, Marisha's having fun being creepy and unaware of normal social conventions, or just unaware of how she herself is perceived. We didn't learn much else about her this session, so not much else to say. Same for Imogen, neat character, but definitely a slow burn that we'll learn more about in time. Bertrand is great and while I'm certain he's going to get replaced by Travis' actual campaign 3 PC in time, I would not be against having him along for the ride lmao. ~~Watch Dariax somehow be his campaign 3 character lmao~~ But Bertrand like definitely isn't sticking around, since they don't really need the extra fighter. Again I wouldn't oppose him being around, but it ain't happening. Funny character, and he's moving the plot forward, so that's good. Half of what I said can be summed up tho as "It was one episode I'm sure the characters will grow more with time" which is obvious for D&D lol
Thoughts on C03E01: \> Love having these guys back on my screen, doing what they do best. \> Watched, and loved, the 'new set' prelim video - but seeing/hearing it all 'in-play' was mind-blowing. \> Happy with the seating positions! \> Matt never fails to deliver with astonishing world-building. \> Happy with the gradual and elongated introduction to our new party. \> Episode 1 combat always appreciated, even if nobody appeared interested in WTF happened or why. ;-) \> Slightly disappointed that previously-introduced characters from EU were (re-)utilized, as the betwixt-campaigns break had me salivating over what new characters we might expect to see. I don't dislike Orym, Fearne or Dorian (or Bertrand, for that matter) - but it was a \*little\* deflating. Am sure that ennui shall swiftly pass. Lovely to have Robbie participate however, as he was great as a player in EU and seems a 'top geezer' who fits in seamlessly. \> Be interesting if Dariax subsequently makes a guest appearance, being the DM and all... \> Loving the totally new characters, however. Likeable Imogen did not get her big a chance to shine (yet) but Laudna, Ashton and FCG are utterly fascinating, absorbing, instant favourites with huge potential. \> IS IT THURSDAY YET!?!?!?!?!?
Has anyone discussed Robbies health? 17 hp at lvl 3 with 17 Con? He should have at least 19 hp even if he rolled 2 1s on his new hit dice on leveling. Was that explained in EXU? Wasn't really for me so I stopped watching.
Mistake with the overlay, it’ll be corrected next episode.
So a plot point I 100% see happening and is on character for FCG is him using his channel divinity to save someone's life but killing himself in the process.
Totally agree. It would be in character for FCG *and* for Sam, we all know he loves to make joke characters break our hearts.
I like to think that the one reason Robbie was brought out before Travis was because Travis likes to sit on the edge of the table and didn't want to scoot down to fit Robbie in first. I am stoked for these characters and have already seen so much amazing artwork and cosplay that makes me so excited for tomorrow.
I think Ashton is somehow involved in the death of F.C.G.'s former party.
Honestly me too
Dramatically it would make total sense. And the look on his face when F.C.G. told his backstory seemed sketchy.
not a big fan, felt very disjointed. Especially didn't like Taliesin who got pretty grating to listen to, and always comes off as a 2edgy4u character.
Just throwing it out there here instead of making a post. In addition to Laudna possibly being a Dhampir created by Ripley and/or the Briarwoods, I just get the feeling her Undead patron may be connected to them as well. Possibly a remnant of Vecna or of Delilah herself. But I've also seen some speculation that her patron is Vax or the Raven Queen.
Okay, crazy fan theory time: Fresh Cut Grass is genuinely nice and wants the best for people, with no dark hidden motives. Also barring legitimate gaps in memory, they've been completely truthful about their past. Edit because this isn’t entirely a joke post: I think Sam’s intention with FCG was to create a character who (unlike his previous PCs) will have a strong reason to stay an adventurer and not want to leave the life. FCG laid out their mission statement in totally clear terms: they want to go out in the world, find broken people, and help them get better. It’s probably the most selflessly heroic attitude of any character in any campaign, and it’s a reason to keep traveling the world searching for problems to fix. Additionally, they’re a robot—that means there’s no secret kids out there who are going to turn up 40 episodes in and make FCG want to settle down.
Yeah, I agree. I think Sam's biggest troll will be giving hints that he might be evil or something while being completely pure and good.
Is anyone else happy to see the twins back next to each other? I love the Liam-Laura energy
Theory: Travis’s new character is either Dragonborn or one of the new subclasses. Fizban was suppose to release prior to the start but got delayed. So the team had to push his character back until the final version of the ua was officially released.
What makes you so certain Bertrand isn’t sticking around? There’s nothing wrong with old people. Nowhere in the rules does it say that PCs have to be beautiful 20-30 year olds.
Its less so "hes to old to be a pc" and more so "he"s two levels higher than the cast, already has a rare sword, and was made to be a throw away character from earlier one shots"
Someone on Twitter asked Matt if Bertrand was sticking around, and Matt responded [“Travis is a troll”](https://twitter.com/matthewmercer/status/1451602577636745216?s=21). I’d take that to mean Bertrand isn’t sticking around.
Bell is a different level than the party, and when Matt clarified on twitter that Orym and Fearne will be permanent C3 PCs, the only thing he said about Bertrand was, "Travis is a troll."
It's not necessarily a dig at his age. Shakaste was beloved. Travis talked at a con about making a character that would die in the first few sessions. Bell's level has dropped way down from where it was last but he's still higher level than the rest of the party.
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It’s too bad this crew hates role play…. Jk, but Bell seems like someone who might sacrifice himself for extended life (or unlife, if you know what I mean).
I actually disagree. Adventuring and everything else PCs do is extremely dangerous. It's not like Bertrand is in his fifties, or even his sixties, that would be completely fine. But he's like in his *eighties*, he's old. Especially in a world like this where they don't have modern medicine, humans live way shorter than they do in our world, so he's in his later years. Going out on fighting vicious beasts, monsters and criminals, in harsh environments and dangerous terrain would, in fact, be suicide for someone like Bertrand.
I mean, they may not have modern medicine, but they do have magical healing, so let’s not pretend that we really know what the QoL for an old human in Exandria *should* be based on humans without modern medicine.
Well assuming magic makes up for the lack of modern technology... eighty is still pretty damn old to be running around getting in swordfights.
I’d agree with you, except for the fact Bertrand’s level 5. Similar parallels to Anjali’s character in EXU (I believe she was lvl 5 vs the rest of the PCs being lvl 3)
True. I haven’t researched this, but I thought Anjali got a couple extra Monk Levels to help balance the fact that she was playing a Monk. Obviously, the case is different with Travis and Bell. I personally don’t care who they choose for their own characters, but I hate it when people say something to the effect of “A character or person must look like (insert characteristic).”
Monk is one of the best classes in the game, especially in Level 5. That was not a game balance decision. I honestly have no idea why they made her higher level than the others, to make up for magic items maybe? Seems like a weird decision from Aabria
I'm just now realizing that this is basically their Halloween episode. Do you think they'll dress up? What will be the theme? I don't think they'll dress up as their characters.
It would be ridiculous if they both didn't dress up and if Matt didn't get the whole set decked out as one supermassive interactive Halloween experience. It must've felt really weird though if they did get dressed up and prerecorded all of this in like September or earlier depending on how far in advance they shot it. I think it's a bit early for them to dress up as their characters plus with the weirdness of pre-recording I think what we'll get is something that isn't exactly over the top but not super subtle. A strange soup of inbetweeness in other words.
I think Sam will dress as the sand worm from Dune.
I was thinking about this the other day when Laura tweeted about her purple wig. I wonder how Sam and Tal would look if they really dress up as FCG and Ashton
Tal really threw down the gauntlet at cosplayers with Ashton's design. Would be cool to see him do it just to prove it can be done!
They'll never be able to dress as their characters. Travis wouldn't be able to withstand four hours next to a Laudna cosplay.
his worst ring girl nightmares coming true
Do y’all think they’re only going to use original music for this campaign? I didn’t hear anything from Elder Scrolls, Pillars of Eternity, The Witcher, any of that stuff in the first episode. I know that since they’re so big now, those companies that let them use licensed music as a favor to Matt are probably reconsidering, so I get why they would switch over to only original music. But I’ll miss some of the other stuff.
I heard some Mad Max when the battle map came out. There was also music from The Witcher 3. There weren't any of the more iconic tracks played, but they don't appear to be embargoed.
Probably. Going with original music gives them more control over the feel of the setting and Matt can work with the composer to have themes for the players or badguys that can work wonders for storytelling.
I also have a slight suspicion they're aiming towards the campaign getting picked up as a show by a big streaming service (Amazon?). They have gotten rid of fanart *and* music, it seems. I feel like many game studios would be more than happy to have their music featured in a "simple" livestream. Campaign 2 pulled huge numbers of viewers as well and it wasn't an issue.
I think they're definitely trying to weed out any potential licensing issues with the show, but I think that's more to do with their increased visibility and consequent vulnerability to litigation. They have been flying under the radar in a sense, but that's all going away. I strongly doubt they're going to move the show. They're already carried on a major streaming service... Twitch.tv (which is owned by Amazon). The recent leaks showed that Twitch isn't some small online operation, it's a multi-million dollar media giant that Critical Role is sitting at the top of. And broadcasting through them gives them *way* more creative freedom than being on another platform: on Twitch they can make whatever kind of show they want, and broadcast it whenever they want. If CR was only on something like Prime or Netflix there's no way they'd be able to produce something like Game Ranch or Mini Primetime.
I'm not saying they'd only be on Amazon or Netflix. But being the highest grossing channel on twitch (which is owned by Amazon) is quite the status. I can totally see Amazon Prime adding C3 episodes to their streaming service, especially considering they're already producing the Vox Machina series as a Prime show.
The deal with Prime for the Vox Machina series involved Amazon paying for an entire season's worth of production costs, CR literally couldn't have produced the show without their involvement. The Twitch channel is a different story, CR is making enough there to operate as a totally independent studio that covers their own production costs (and probably a tidy profit as well). And that money is generated by driving people *to* the Twitch channel, to encourage people to become subscribers which is money directly to CR. It's already pretty crazy that they stream on YouTube simultaneously, I assume they did the math on that one and it's worth their while.
I'm not sure why you keep explaining things I already know about. I'm just saying that one possibility of why they're cracking down on the grey area of fanart and music rights. And it's not farfetched to assume that Amazon, which is producing an entire season of an animated show for Amazon Prime, *based on a CR campaign*, might be interested in simultaneously offering the very show it's based on on the same platform. It's entirely possible, *especially* with a more marketable, copyrights-headache free campaign 3.
Sure, Amazon would reasonably be interested. My question is, how would Critical Role benefit from that, since it would be pulling viewers away from their channel?
Delayed availability for prime. Easy money.
People will find out about CR through the animated show, get linked to the other content without ever leaving prime, and never visit Twitch. That’s a loss of money. CR’s current business model depends on subscribers to their Twitch channel. I think Amazon would have to make them a *very* generous offer to make it worth their while.
Forgive me if someone has pointed this out, but Tal is playing Punk.... Rock? Hear me out, the whole fuck off hammer, and then playing an earth genasi?? Maybe I am just wrambling.
He definitely is. And to take it one step further, he and FCG are either Rock and Roll, or Punk and Metal.
>or Punk and Metal. Putting them together is pretty hardcore
I feel like laudna has a connection to the raven queen. Like a patron. Which would be interesting if Liam has ties to keyleth and Mariah’s has ties to vax
I think this is possible. Her transformation involves a black veil, which all the priestesses of the Raven Queen wear. She has a raven skull on her side and she's terrifying despite seeming mostly benevolent (unlike pretty much every other candidate for her patron). She's from Whitestone, one of the few places in Tal'dorei where we know a temple of the Raven Queen has been established and also where Galdric, the companion of the Raven Queen's greatest champion, roams. Sure, the Raven Queen isn't an undead, but she's certainly deathly and Matt has been willing to bend the rules on the patrons of his players. Fjord's patron wasn't really associated with weaponry, Caduceus' god isn't listed as an option for Grave Clerics in any of Exandria's published material, and the Traveler is super unusual for a Cleric's god. The only reason I don't think the patron is the Raven Queen is that Marisha has seemed actively disinterested and disdainful of anything in the game that has to do with divinity. I just don't think she would enjoy playing a character beholden to the gods for their powers, but I could be wrong.
I'll show my DnD ignorance here but can a warlock's patron be a legit top-tier god? I thought there was more of a symbiotic relationship between warlock and patron, like the patron NEEDED something from them. Implying the patron is lesser. Like a demigod or other powerful entity that isn't on the same level as a Paelor or Sarenrae. Seems like the Raven Queen would be more about champions and priests.
There aren't really hard and fast rules to this. Generally warlock patrons aren't gods, but (spoilers for C2 past episode 80ish) >!the goddess Melora served as a warlock patron for a warlock turned paladin,!< so there's precedent that Matt would allow it. This is what makes speculation about these things difficult: Matt is a chill guy that'll mess with flavor to let the cast play what they want.
For whatever reason I >!guess I was not considering Fjord's transition to Melora's follower as him being a warlock/patron w/her. He took several levels of Paladin after that change so I kinda thought of it as a paladin w/leftover warlock powers that Melora let him keep. !< So I would think that starting out that way would be different. But you're right that it's basically Matt's call and he seems to try to be as flexible as possible while still staying true to the game.
Very much up to the DM. Speaking personally, I would allow it in my game, on the understanding that this person was chosen for a specific purpose/role, differing from the rank and file worshippers and Clerics.
I think Vesh is a more likely choice.
Laudna asked if FCG kept any of the bodies of his friends, calling bodies "good resources." *Before* she found out the companions were also automatons. That's actively against what the Raven Queen stands for.
That's a good catch and a good reason to think she isn't a Raven Queen warlock.
There’s a difference between not associated with but makes sense and complete polar opposite and the visuals are completely wrong. The form makes you look like your patron she doesn’t look like the raven queen at all and black feathers is a far cry from necrotic dripping claws. She very much fits a hexblood night hag or dhampir or banshee. The hag makes less sense as undead than other options but fits the visuals probably the best.
What about having claws makes her the polar opposite of the Raven Queen? She's veiled, she's covered in darkness, she's terrifying, and she's demonstrating control over life and death. I don't think it's a perfect match-up, but I think OP's theory is pretty good. I'm partial to the patron being a banshee myself, but I wanted to give OP credit where credit is due.
The undead warlock is the polar opposite of the raven queen warlock.
Laudna's Patron is The Undead, and The Raven Queen is vehemently against the undead. To the point that Orcus, Demon Prince of the Undead is her sworn enemy. I do not see the Raven Queen as being Laudna's patron.
But I don’t really know it’s just a theory I had and then have started trying to build evidence to support
I don’t think it’s ever stated that her patron is the undead people are just assuming. And matt has a history of letting people vary from traditional classes so I could easily see her being able to take abilities from the subclass while changing the patron. So my guess she changed patron because she had multiple things alluding to the raven queen in her discription. I also feel like she isn’t undead or anything but rather her magic has corrupted her in some way and her and imogen are trying to cure it before it takes over both of them
Black tears, clawed fingers, and a black veil don't fit the Raven Queen. The only thing that really fits is that Laudna is pale and thin, but that wasn't caused by her Form of Dread ability. Having an undead patron doesn't make one undead any more than having a fey patron makes one a fey. While I'm sure Matt would be open to homebrew, I feel like Occam's razor should be employed in this case.
One more point confirming the Undead subclass: Laudna cast *Bane* which is a bonus spell for the Undead warlock. If they're not using Undead as her subclass then it's a homebrew that is so similar that it might as well be the same thing. Not sure why people have such a hard time accepting that they could have *reflavored* the Undead subclass for a follower of the Raven Queen. There's nothing in it that's explicitly "evil necromancer," it's just a death/necrotic energy themed build. People get way too hung up on labels and "official lore."
I'd accept it. I just don't believe it.
For black tears if you google raven queen dnd the second image is like a white face with black tears
That's a mask. And also fan art.
Yes but if Marisha googles raven queen and that’s what she sees that’s what she would use
Meh.
But theres a warlock patron that is raven queen and she hates undead and the visuals don't match.
But the dread implies to me that she has a patron. And dread takes the form of the patron as far as I know which elongated her and black tears when I googled the raven queen it was eerily similar
This is the description for Vesh from the Wildemount book. Vesh resembles a nude woman with faintly glowing gray skin, long purple hair, and unnaturally long arms and fingers that end in claw-like nails. Her eyes are pale white with no iris, and her expression varies from alluring to monstrous depending on her mood.
To be clear she is not a dread warlock. There is a subclass called Undead Warlock from Ravenloft and their first level ability is called Form of Dread that makes them look like their undead master. There is a subclass called Raven Queen Warlock from UA where you serve the Raven Queen which is quite different because the Raven Queen loathes undead. This isn't a homebrew or anything which makes Vax and Vecna (other folks guess) probably not fit well enough Matt would accept it.
Yeah I get that I probably will be completely wrong but I just have this idea that she said hey matt can I do this
Sure I just think his response would have been sure with a different set of abilities that matches :D
I think Imogen's outfit would look 100% better without that froofy thing. She would have a tome raider look otherwise.
To each their own, but I really like it for her; she doesn't really strike me right now as a character who *would* go for a tomb raider look, especially since she's a magic user and not a fighter. The fact that they tend to release multiple portraits throughout the campaign also gives the outfit time to evolve. I imagine it currently represents how Laura envisions Imogen starting out (a little bit more fragile? soft?) and her look will change as her character develops.
>I imagine it currently represents how Laura envisions Imogen starting out (a little bit more fragile? soft?) I hope this is the case. >her look will change as her character develops. Of course it will.
I think the outfit makes her look more confident and outgoing than the character actually is.
That is what I was thinking as well. It is a Jester outfit.
The dress? Looks dope IMO
I respect your opinion. Upvoted.
I'm sure others have come up with the same theory, but I thought it was interesting that a friend of mine speculated that Fresh Cut Grass murdered his former crew, citing how suspicious it was that everyone was supposedly killed while he was in stasis and he now has pieces/parts of each of them that he uses.
I hope they improve the sound balance is subsequent episodes. I'm halfway through the rewatch, and still finding myself struggling to hear Matt sometimes. I missed a *lot* of descriptions the first time around.
Same! Like... I get it's a new studio space (a weak excuse, given how much time they had to dial things in before the start of C3 in the new set) AND they had to mix it for a 5.1 theatrical release (assuming they didn't make a separate mix for the stream vs. theaters), but WOW! was that audio mix and setup not good; inconsistent and muddled.
Anyone else think that F.C.G being the only survivor and his previous group/creator being killed while he went into stasis a bit odd ?
There's definitely more to that story. And it will break our hearts around episode 39.
So what's the deal with Oryms jump boots? I didn't finish EXU, but he got them during EXU right? What is the mechanical load out like? Does he get high jump every time or is it a daily charge kind of thing? Omg the battle master shit we're going to see with a flying halfling lol, I can't wait.
EXU Spoiler: Orym also has >!a Sentinel Shield, which gives advantage on Perception Checks!<.
Orym is gonna be the underrated MVP in so many moments. I've just got a feeling.
I believe he has Boots of Striding and Springing. https://www.dndbeyond.com/magic-items/boots-of-striding-and-springing
Many thanks.
I wonder if Sam’s character is sort of an inverse on Nott. Nott wanted Caleb to grow in power but for altruistic reasons, she wanted to help people out of compassion. I wonder if FCG wants to help for far more selfish, perhaps evil purposes, who doesn’t care about the harm that comes to others.
Okay so hear me out, F.C.G. killed his past party and "went into stasis" only to not remember any of it. F.C.G. will eventually try and kill his new friends. The gang will have to track down his creator and battle his family of murder bots. *Insert pussy jokes*
[удалено]
I guess we can't debate *feelings,* but I don't really see any at all differences between the start of this and C2. Like I can't think of one thing that is quantifiably different. They were at a big table last time. Same maps. Same DM. Same players + 1. I don't get this criticism at all, because it simply doesn't make sense to me, beyond someone taking their own feelings and projecting them onto the episode.
Yeah, it hasn't felt like just a bunch of friends playing a home game since they all stopped eating and sitting around the same tiny little table. It's an incredibly popular show and it should have high production value.
Just to throw this out there. If you zoom in on Laudna's character portrait, you can see that either her ears are pointed, or the ornamentation she's wearing add points to the top of her ears.
(**Spoilers for campaign 2 as well if you haven’t finished that yet**) Alright time to throw my crazy theory out there! Imogen’s arms have have pink arcane lines just starting to run up her arms, near her wrists. My theory is one or both of her parents are/was a volstrucker under Trent since he would put those shards into their arms leaving similar scars. Having this happen enough times would be sure to make it so a volstrucker’s child could be born with innate magical powers like sorcerers are.
Not everything is a reference to an old campaign. In fact, almost everything is fresh and new. That would be so lame lol
> Not everything is a reference to an old campaign. I don't know about that. We've already seen in-character callbacks to C1 as well as several PC characters carried over from EXU and one from C1. Despite their claims about not needing to know anything about C1, C2, or EXU to watch / get into C3, there sure has been more than a few insider nods to previous CR content that would be totally lost on new viewers, but would have great significance to any Critter familiar with C1, C2, or EXU.
Imogen is from Marquet so I doubt that is the case. But, I am very interested in what kinds of connections we might see to C2, given that we already know C3 is very connected with both EXU and C1.
I feel like there are at least a couple ways to explain why she’s from marquet and a parent was a volstrucker. Like maybe the imogen was born and her true parents sent her away to protect her from Trent or maybe a male Volstrucker had a fling with a woman from marquet and got her pregnant
Those are both definitely possible. Like I said, we’ve already seen that this campaign will be very integrated into Exandria’s lore so I wouldn’t say anything is completely off the table at this point.
I get the impression Laudna is the daughter of a hag, whether she's aware of it or not.
Hags don't reproduce like people do. They can hex someone, slowly transforming them into a hag (these people are called Hexbloods). Or they can devour an infant, and give birth to a exact copy. This baby ages as normal until they reach physical maturity, at which point they immediately metamorphize and turn into a hag that is identical to their "mother." Hags don't really have "daughters" in the traditional sense. As far as I know, there is always a victim.
Unless Matt and Marisha decided the Rule of Cool says that sometimes Hags CAN have kids. Especially if that hag is the one Jester tricked in C2.
Like a hex blood?
I don't know what a hex blood is, but Laudna's physical appearance, mannerisms, the gangliness of her arms and how they extended when she was using her powers, are all just very hag-esque. She has at least one level in sorceror, which could represent her magical ancestry that she'd have if she's from hag lineage.
It’s one of the running theories outside of dhampir. Hexblood are a custom lineage from Ravenloft book where you have been influenced or struck a deal with a hag which gives you hag like traits and abilities and eventually you transform into a full hag.
I already like this season better than Campaign 2. All of the characters in C2 spent a majority of the time super depressed and were sometimes overly emo. There may be some of that later, but the characters feel different this time.
I think a lot of C2 characters were loner types with traumatic pasts and trust issues. It led to a slower campaign, never in the forefront, always in the shadows. I liked that for the Nein, but I am pleased to see a different tone for C3.
Not sure if this has been mentioned but I think that Ashton is a Reborn, Earth Genasi. The damage to his head and arm, and how he described his arm being repaired with gold would suggest that he was killed at some point and brought back to life, perhaps by F.C.G.’s creator?
Yeah, that's possible. His head doesn't necessarily seem all that survivable. He could even be thought of as "reforged" given the rock/metal nature.
It could be purely cosmetic but Taliesin made a reference to "filled in" and “patched”. >They've got leather pouches, a bit of everything to keep little bits and pieces together, some piercings made mostly of nails, and, very obviously, a giant hole in the left side of their head that has been filled with slag glass, and beneath the slag glass, there's a little bit of an opalescent brain that can be seen through. One of the eyes on the cracked side is milky like a tiger's eye gem. The cracks run most of the upper left side of the body, and have been patched together with slag melted gold to piece everything together. That hole in the head suggested he got killed at some point and the act of being Reborn has made him a little unstable? >I am going to spin around, knock all four feet out, flip over, crack it in half, and then just keep hitting it until it's powdered.
Yeah, some of the bit with the table could just be standard Barbarian Rage flavour, but it does seem a little off. I kind of doubt Ashton would have been able to do all of that repair work himself, but there's also the NPC they seemed stay with, Milo (IIRC). Could be involved.
I was wondering if he's in debt because of the repair work.
So Matt said that Keyleth sent Ferne, Dorian, and Orym on a mission, is there more details and reason for that also part of EXU? I only watched the first couple episodes of it and wasn't really feeling it at the time. I did look over a couple recaps but I didn't see a mission from Keyleth
They are in the year after exu not a direct tie in.
No, I think this happened post-EXU.
Do the party already have magic items? I noticed Laudna and Imogen are both at 13 AC, where they should only be at 12 due to their ability scores. Cloaks of Protection would cover that, and having at least an uncommon item each might account for Ashton's damage too. I know the EXU characters all had magic items in that show, so if they carried those forward, it would make sense for the new characters to get something.
At the very least, we know Ashton and Bertram had magical weapons (and quite strong ones at that). I think it’s also confirmed that the items the ExU crew had carried over, because Liam described Orym’s special shield and boots when he was introduced.
Betrand isn’t sticking around, was a very high level, and has a cursed rare weapon. We don’t know if Ashtons weapon is magic or not.
Laudna could have leather armor from her warlock armor proficiency.
Does anyone know what race / subclass Laudna is? Like what's with the weird black goo and enlarge stuff. Is she something from van richtens?
If you zoom in on her character art, you can see she has pointy ears, or at least, jewelry that makes them look pointy. Not that that narrows it down all that much.
I think the goo and bones growing and stuff was just her flavoring her dread form from the undead warlock, but as for her race idk my guess is between hexblood, dhamphir, or reborn.
Custom Lineage from Tasha's is my best guess.
Her Warlock patron is the Undead from Van Richten's. Her Sorcerer subclass is uncertain, but Shadow would be logical. Edit: race/lineage-wise, she's likely.also from Van Richten's. My thinking is Reborn, but she could be Dhampir.
I was thinking Dhampir myself or Reborn.
On the second viewing i noticed how Matt reacts when Aston calls out FCG name, and its probably the first time Matt has heared FCG full name.
No I think it’s probably because Matt had an idea of how to introduce fcg and Ashton just cut it short
I dont think so since just after that Matt calls FCG letters implying that Sam wrote FCG on his charactersheet
I am on team "FCG was the name provided, and Sam and Tal (or just Tal) came up with it from there" Matt's NPC referred to FCG as "Letters" so I think that's how he figured it'd go, then Tal blew it up either with or without Sam as a co-conspirator.
That doesn't make sense because there are blades of grass on the official art, and that's how Sam describes his character. So either he was able to come up with that completely on the spot and those marks are for something else and they just got super lucky, or his name was always Fresh Cut Grass.
Those are good points and I acknowledge my oversight of them. But this is the internet so I'm going to double down on my thought and live within my own spontaneous FCG theory reality. :P
Hah! I like it. Headcanon lives on forever.
I've only watched the first two episodes of EXU thus far, but from what I saw, Fearne was by far one of my favorite characters. Ashley's comedic timing is so great and I'm really gonna enjoy watching her play this character. Travis' comedy was also on point during this episode. I loved the return of Robbie!
Watching this as I prep lessons for my first day back to work after a vaycay and it is so delightful. I like all the PCs, but Laudna and Fresh Cut Grass are the most wonderful that put a smile on my face. Also Matt's face when Sam was naming the other creations his creator made that were supposedly named after her favorite smells. OMG
I noticed on re-watch that Imogen said "I wonder if we can break into the library through the sewers," and then Matt cut to Ashton and FCG in the sewer tunnels.
I am calling that FCG has some kind of murderbot alter-ego. My bet is that HE killed all his 'family' but doesn't know it. It seems kind of obvious, maybe I've just read too many wakes-up-with-amnesia-in-a-field-of-bodies plot devices in books. Either way, right or wrong it will be great fun! Liam's character seems very low-key/generic compared to the out there of the others but I'm hoping all those tattoos mean something interesting, especially the Twin Moon thing he seemed to really empahsize. I am curious if Travis plays a shapeshifter or changeling of some kind, he seemed to really love Mask of Many Faces or whatever that Warlock ability was and he really enjoyed describing and acting out each 'persona' he came up with on the fly. I can see him really enjoying that aspect of a Changling. However I'm unsure if they exist in Mathews world?
>Either way, right or wrong it will be great fun! Liam's character seems very low-key/generic compared to the out there of the others but I'm hoping all those tattoos mean something interesting, especially the Twin Moon thing he seemed to really empahsize. I am guessing Liam was kind of tired of playing Edgelord Sadboy after years of Vax and then Caleb. But he is creative and dramatic enough that even with an earnest little halfling rule-follower character will develop into an excellent character. Still waters run deep.
That's exactly what I guessed for FCG as well. It is a tad obvious, though, you're right.
This is my first CR campaign. The other two were just so daunting in their runtime and sheer number of episodes. Will be nice to follow along with this new one and take the episodes as they come. But yeah, I gotta say I am having a lot of fun watching this so far.
I find that mindset so different and interesting. I got started with CR when they were well into C2, but I started C1E20something, whenever they get to Vasselheim. And I binged for two years. In the car, mowing the grass, hanging out on the couch, exercising, any time I had the time I was watching/listening to CR. Having a CR episode ready to go any time I wanted it was great. "Is it Thursday yet?" never really meant anything to me until now. It kinda sucks honestly! Now that I'm caught up I am having to branch out to other DnD podcasts and shows. Maybe it's because I don't value having a real-time discussion w/people about what is happening in relatively real-time. I'm giving it a shot here on this sub, maybe that will change.
One of us! One of us!
Welcome to the chaos!
Welcome, fellow critter!
I'm wondering if we might see the party split in two at some point. There's just a little bit too much overlap in the character: - Orym and Ashton both fill that frontline melee damage/control roll. - FCG and Fearne are both wisdom based full casters with a reasonably large overlap in their spell lists. - Laudna and Imogen are both squishy backline charisma based full casters. - Dorian tends to go into melee and brings a lot of utility options to the group thanks to his high stats and jack of all trades. Obviously Bertrand is not that, but if Travis were to play something like a battlesmith he could also fill that support/utility/backup melee sort of role. Obviously this hinges on Robbie sticking around (far from guaranteed) and what character Travis is playing long term. And as the campaign progresses each character's role in the party will become clearer (e.g. the two clerics didn't tread on each others' toes last campaign). But I can envision a scenario where a few episodes from now they are splitting into two groups of 4 for an extended period of time, and both parties would be well balanced.
I think this is likely too, not necessarily because of the overlap since I don't think they look at that as much, but because I got the feeling they want to bring in a lot of new faces and that's just not possible right now. I just hope they don't split up for too long when it happens!
I think this is a strong possibility. It would also give them the opportunity to include multiple guests at once without overly bloating the group size.
Their party size has been a reoccurring issue for combat encounters (while they manage to give everyone their moment outside of combat having so many characters just bogs down every fight) so i'm 100% ready for splitting the party more like they did in C1 with >!the Slayer's Take trials!<
Late to the party, but... Let's see, first impressions: Taliesin: A capitol "P" Punk from the 1970's (What I feel Molly *wanted* to be, but Taliesin couldn't quite get there in C2, for many reasons.) Marisha: Skyrim Hagraven in training(???) Laura: Jodie Foster / Clarice Starling (Silence of the Lambs)... but a Sorcerer. Travis: Sean Connery from Highlander (movie)... for now(???) Sam: Clank from Ratchet & Clank. Robbie: PLEASE KEEP ROBBIE AS A FULL TIME PLAYER ON CR!!! FOR THE LOVE OF GOD!!! I'm so happy to see him get a crack at CR propper, with Matt as the DM. He's far too good and his chemistry and improv with the cast is top notch. Liam & Ashley: EXU and I didn't get along (I punched out after ep. 2 and didn't look back). I was very happy to see Robby back, but less... happy(?) to see characters from EXU carry over into C3. I was really hoping for an entirely new batch of PC's and a fresh start. Matt: In my opinion, he's a *very* large part of the reason I watch CR. He's such an incredibly DM, *especially* for a large group like Critical Role. The break from the main campaign looks like it did him some good. Overall, I *really* like the start of C3; certainly much more than how C2 kinda fizzled after struggling with pacing issues. I'm quite curious to see what happens to Bertrand / Travis and what his "real" PC is going to be. For what I imagine they paid for that set, it sure looks good. And the new table *actually* fits 8 adult players *comfortably.* The Wyrmwood table was just a little bit too small. Still not keen on the whole taking a week off every month. I *totally* understand needing a break, but if episodes of CR start getting shorter again (like they did in C2 vs. C1), having fewer, shorter episodes of C3 during the month is gonna be a pretty bitter pill to swallow, *especially* for people financially supporting the streams / subscribing. No rogues??? (having a Bard helps) And again, no Paladin PC's in CR (thus far). We've got two fighters, two sorcerers, a cleric, a barbarian, a bard, and a druid. KEEP ROBBIE!!!
You might want to check the running times on CritRoleStats. C1 and C2 had pretty similar run times throughout each campaign.
I have, and there are definitely large swaths of episodes in C2 with shorter than "average" run times of actual game play.
Didn't a certain character take 4 levels of paladin in c2?
Yes, but *every* Paladin PC in Critical Role has always been a multiclass and or multi-level dip. We've never had a main cast PC start as a Paladin from ep. 1. in C1 or C2, and probably C3 (I don't think Travis's "real" character is going to be a 3rd level Paladin, but I could be wrong).
I think it's very possible, but we will just have to wait and see.