Crit Academy: A Dungeons And Dragons Podcast

In D&D tools help you to do something you couldn’t otherwise do, such as craft or repair an item, forge a document, or pick a lock. Your character features give you proficiency with certain tools. Proficiency with a tool allows you to add your proficiency bonus to any ability check you make using that tool. Tool use is not tied to a single ability, since proficiency with a tool represents broader knowledge of its use. For example, a GM might ask a player to make a Dexterity check to carve a fine detail with their woodcarver’s tools, or a Strength check to make something out of a particularly hardwood. We discuss a short list of just some of the things you can do with the different tools. Some of which, aren’t as obvious. Xanthar’s Guide gives us a great starting point. Join us, as we discuss these options and add our own ideas into the mix. Come and join us live and share your own thoughts and ideas.

D&D Advice: Progress Clocks | Unearthed Tips and Tricks Podcast Crit Academy drops a new encounter, monster, magic item, and tips and tricks to help improve your Dungeons and Dragons game. We discuss progress clocks, a phenomenal Dungeon Master tool we borrow from the great game of Blades in the Dark!

Wondrous Expeditions: Forests Forests are more than a collection of trees-they are the feeling of dew-slicked moss yielding beneath your feet, the subtle smell of petrichor, and the beams of golden sunlight that filter through the canopy. It’s the lively cacophony of birds and insects in a summer-soaked glen and the erie, muffled silence of mist-covered deadwood broken only by the groans of dying beeches and the mocking squall of ravens. Join us as we discuss how to turn overland travel into an extraordinary experience.

D&D Advice: Of Quartz we'll find it | Unearthed Tips and Tricks Podcast Crit Academy drops a new encounter, monster, magic item, and tips and tricks to help improve your Dungeons and Dragons game. Our encounter 'Of Quartz We'll Find it' is a fun race against another adventuring party vying for the same prize.

Nonplayer characters (NPCs) are the supporting cast in the drama that stars your players’ characters. While you probably create important ones as needed. Having a simple guide can help flesh them out and even create them on the fly. Today we provide you with a Handbook on NPCs.

D&D Advice: Redefine Races and Lineage | Unearthed Tips and Tricks Podcast Crit Academy drops a new monster, magic item, and tips and tricks to help improve your Dungeons and Dragons game. Our DM tip is a simple but extremely effective tool to bring your world to life and help it stand out among others is to simply redefining the races and their origins.

Do you love hunting massive monsters and using their corpses to craft rare and fantastical weapons? Do you wish D&D 5e included good details for this? Well, strap in as we delve into Amellwind’s Guide to Monster Hunting! As part of its core gameplay, players use loot gained from slaying monsters, gathering resources, and quest rewards to craft improved weapons, armor, and other items that allow them to face more powerful monsters. Pick up Amellwind's Guide to Monster Hunting here!

D&D Advice: Spell Reagents, Brodents and more | Unearthed Tips and Tricks Podcast Crit Academy drops a new monster, magic item, and tips and tricks to help improve your Dungeons and Dragons game. Our magic item the spell reagent Death Blossom is the perfect exploration reward to enhance even the weakest necromancy minion.

Lair actions, introduced in D&D 5th Edition, give shape to epic battles by introducing new gameplay mechanics which the players will associate with a boss monster for years to come. However, despite the fact that player characters face off against boss monsters at every tier of play, only a small portion of creatures, most of which in the 3rd and 4th tiers of play, were given lair actions. Homefield Advantage provides a collection of over 250 unique sets of lair actions, covering more than 320 of the most iconic D&D creatures, so that you can create thrilling boss battles for every tier of play, and breathe new life into some of your old favorites. Get Home-field Advantage!

D&D Advice: Points of Interest | Unearthed Tips and Tricks Podcast 3 Crit Academy drops a new monster, magic item and tips and tricks to help improve your Dungeons and Dragons game. Our monster, the Shadowborn undead will hunt down the bastard who betrayed it while it was still living. No matter who gets in its way...

The best information adventurers in Dungeons and Dragons seek isn’t found in a Tavern or an Inn but inside a seedy dive. Stick around as we delve into how to create a great seedy dive for your more unscrupulous characters to gather information or pass their downtime.

Unearthed Tips and Tricks Podcast 2 Crit Academy talks about the multiple benefits of using animate dead spells that are more than just zombie meat shields and so much more.

Fixing Problem in a Dungeons and Dragons Adventure Occasionally, the characters decide to go exactly the wrong way, pursuing a path not covered in the adventure at all. They discover a shortcut that the adventure designer or GM didn’t anticipate and skip right to the climactic battle of the adventure. They traipse through encounter after encounter without breaking a sweat. What do you do? We answer this question and more.

Unearthed Tips and Tricks Volume 1 Podcast Crit Academy brings you a body-snatching ooze, roleplaying advice, a unique spell reagent to enhance your magic spells and so much more for your Dungeons and Dragons game.

How to create your own alphabet for your stories and campaigns. Have you ever designed your own fictional alphabet for your Dungeons and Dragons world? Well, strap in as we discuss doing just that. These simple steps will bring a level of awesome to your campaign that you will never forget.

In 5e the single largest lackluster choice is the weapon. There isn’t much in the way of uniqueness to separate them, except for maybe the damage die and a few restricting traits. Not to mention, some of the weapons are literally EXACTLY the same (looking at you polearms). Today we discuss Exotic Equipment Perks! Make your choice of weapon and armor matter!

Wizards have announced the next evolution of Dungeons and Dragons, and it isn’t a new Edition! Today we discuss the first of many pieces of playtest material for the 2024 update for the Player’s Handbook for the world’s greatest roleplaying game, Character Origins. As always, the Unearthed Arcana material is playtest and is subject to change. Should mechanics and concepts pass onto the next steps of developing their strength with being rebalanced to have an appropriate level of power when compared to similar characteristics. The Crit Academy Team delves into these changes and provides some of our own thoughts on it.

How do I Run Monster Hordes in D&D? Looking to pit your characters against the creatures of hell flooding through a rift? Well, today we teach you a simple technique to do just that. Join us as we share How to Run Monster Hordes in Dungeons & Dragons.

Building an entire world for your roleplaying game is a HUGE amount of work. What if, with a click of a button you could have a world map, regions, cities, towns, villages, and more all created in just seconds? Well, with Azgaar’s Fantasy Map Generator, you can do just that! There are thousands of map generators in the world. But few in our experience can provide as much detail as Azgaar’s. So, what does it do? Well, it of course automatically creates an entire world map. Immediately the map is created and an overview is given. In the overview, we can see all of the major kingdoms and their borders. The map and the details take on a watercolor-like art style, which is really nice. The different kingdoms have slightly varying colors that really stand out quite well. Right from here, the brain can start processing the vastness of the world. One that was created in seconds. Each of the names can easily be edited so you can add in your own special names where your stories take place, but reduces the extra workloa

The Wonders of the Multiverse continue to grow! The new Unearthed Arcana playtest is here! Stick around as we delve into a new race, the fate domain cleric, backgrounds, feats and more.