Down at the docks, Von’thre, Syldi, and Nori seem to have found the right place where Twithel had been working, but now they start finding some more interesting things going on down by the docks.

If you have questions for Nerdologists: Dungeons and Flagons emails them to nerdologists@gmail.com or find us on Facebook or Twitter! We’ll be doing a recap and Q&A every twenty-five episodes.

Our players are:

Ashley – Nori the Mountain Dwarf Champion Fighter

Kristen (@Kefka73) – Syldi the Half-Elf Rogue Thief

Clint – Von’thre the High Elf Divination Wizard

The DM:

Peder (@TheScando)

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The first one alphabetically is the acolyte. You’ve spent time in service to your deity. For example, maybe you started as someone who assisted the priestess as a child and then rose all the way up in the ranks to become the high priestess yourself. As I mentioned, there could be a large gap of time since the period when you were in service to your deity, but even though it could be something you did a long time before you started adventuring, it can still be a part of who you are as an adventurer. It is just a piece that has helped define who you are as a person.

There are a number of obvious classes that make the “most” sense to go with if you are an acolyte, the first being cleric. If you’re a cleric, that’s exactly what your job was in the temple that you served in, and it makes perfect sense. Next, there is paladin. This also makes a ton of sense; you are a knight in service of a deity. And then there is the monk — while the monk in Dungeons & Dragons is as much a ninja as a monk, they can make sense as an acolyte, as they trained in a monastery and have devoted their body and actions to their deity. I’m probably not going to write out much of a background for any of those classes, but I’m going to give you some weirder options or show you how you can play against type. Let’s see what some of those look like now:

I spent so many years in service of Tymora, the goddess of good fortune, and I had worked my way up into the temple. I loved the life as I spent time drinking and eating with the rich and famous of my home city. Life was great, and I was close to becoming the high priestess in my town, until my rival, Gerhim Methezar, lied to the leaders of the religion and told them I’d been preaching lies and accepting bribes. I was branded a heretic and cast out penniless onto the streets. I hate it out here, and I hate Gerhim for what he did to me. In my weakness, a voice came to me and offered me hope, offered me power, and offered me a way to get revenge. I will prove Gerhim for the liar that he is, and regain my spot in the temple of Tymora — until then, I’m going to be a thorn in his side.

Class: Warlock
Alignment: Lawful Neutral

For this one, I really leaned into the idea of being kicked out and wanting revenge as the bond and then loving rubbing elbows with the elite as a personality trait. The ideal that I used was around wanting power in the faith, and the flaw is picking a goal and becoming obsessed with it. I’m not going to break down all of them like this, but I wanted an example of how I wrote a backstory with using specific aspects from the handbook, even though I didn’t pick them out ahead of time.

I’m also going to be adding in alignments. I doubt you’ll ever see any acolyte character be actually evil, but in this case, the character might border on lawful evil at times, especially when it comes to undermining Gerhim and gaining back their old position, because of their obsession with getting their power back.

The gods speak to me and through me. That’s how the temple of Mystra found me. They seek knowledge, and I had a knowledge that they didn’t have access to. I was raised in their temple as an oracle of the gods and never knew what real life was like. Things were great until one of my visions was wrong. I don’t know what happened — maybe we interpreted it wrong, but people lost their lives, and I do not consider that acceptable. I ran away that day, but the visions didn’t stop coming. Now I’ve had another vision, about a lost relic of Mystra. I can prove to myself that I am worthy of returning to the temple if I can find this relic and bring back a piece of lost knowledge.

Class: Wizard – Divination
Alignment: Lawful Good

Life was hard for me growing up; I was living on the streets and having to steal. I made the mistake of breaking into a temple of Bhaal. They had some very nice things in there, but they caught me. According to their beliefs, that would be enough to have me put to death, but instead, they had some pity on me — I guess it was pity, anyway — and they put me to work. Apparently, no one else had ever gotten as far into the temple as I had. I didn’t love the work they made me do; it was messy work, and as my skills were honed, the work became so violent that after one mission I didn’t feel like I could return. So I didn’t. I ran away, and now agents of Bhaal are trying to track me down. But they trained me well, and with a lot of skill and a bit of luck, I’m sure I can stay ahead of them. Time to find a crowd to blend into and pretend like I’ve had a normal life.

Class: Rogue – Assassin
Alignment: Chaotic Neutral

This is definitely one that you could go evil with — just swap it around so that the temple of Bhaal has burned your character because of some mistake done on an assassination, and now you have a character who is still on the run from them but who enjoys the killing and being a rogue if you’re playing an evil campaign.

I loved living in the church, I spent my youth at the foot of the eldest priest listening to the stories he told. I memorized every single one of them, as I asked him to tell them over and over again. When he passed away, the temple in my little town didn’t get another priest, and I wasn’t sure what to do. I took up traveling. It felt like the right thing to do — seeking out those who are part of my faith so that I can listen to their stories and add them to my knowledge, so I can spread the word to the masses who might not have heard the stories before. There’s a proverb for everything, and I know them all. Unfortunately, life on the road is a bit tougher than life in the temple, but I will not give up my mission to bring these teachings to the masses. However, after a run-in with some people who claimed to be following my deity who then robbed me, I probably should figure out a better way to travel — I’m sure there is someone out there who would let me travel with them and whom I can share my message with.

Class: Bard – Lore
Alignment: NG

How have you played an acolyte before? Is your character a strict follower of some deity, or a former disgraced member who has been kicked out?

Share questions, ideas for articles, or comments with us!

Email us at nerdologists@gmail.com
Follow us on Twitter at @NerdologistCast
Message me directly on Twitter at @TheScando
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The Queen’s Retreat is under attack and it’s up to Von’thre, Syldi, and Nori to stop the robbers from taking away Mun Dangerous’s hard earned money. Can they stop him, and why would someone rob a tavern that they are in?

If you have questions for Nerdologists: Dungeons and Flagons emails them to nerdologists@gmail.com or find us on Facebook or Twitter! We’ll be doing a recap and Q&A every twenty-five episodes.

Our players are:

Ashley – Nori the Mountain Dwarf Champion Fighter

Kristen (@Kefka73) – Syldi the Half-Elf Rogue Thief

Clint – Von’thre the High Elf Divination Wizard

The DM:

Peder (@TheScando)

Please give us reviews and let us know how you listen to the show!

You can find us on iTunes

Or on Stitcher

Reviews help with the algorithms that allow more people to find our show. Every review you give helps, and we thank you for them! We have three reviews currently on iTunes; once we get five, we’ll be able to see them, and properly thank those who have given us reviews.

Share questions, ideas for articles, or comments with us!

Email us at nerdologists@gmail.com
Follow us on Twitter at @NerdologistCast
Message me directly on Twitter at @TheScando
Visit us on Facebook here.

We are trying a new thing with Amazon Links. If you’re interested in what we talked about in our articles or used for the podcast, please consider making a purchase through our links. Purchases help support our website and offset our costs. Thanks!

[amazon_link asins=’0786965606′ template=’ProductGrid’ store=’nerdologists-20′ marketplace=’US’ link_id=’af579ac7-db9a-11e7-961e-c1f10fdecb87′]

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The Wizard is one of the classiest classes already without doing much to class it up (well, kind of…mainly I just want to write this sentence). There is some truth to this,though, because Wizards, as magic users, don’t get their power by an act of a god, through nature, by making a pact, or by a twist of fate. They are the scholars of the Dungeons & Dragons world. Wizards put time and effort into learning spells, honing their skills, and focusing their studies. Wizards cast based off of their intelligence, and can learn many spells by translating them into what they need it to be to cast the spell. This means that the wizard doesn’t have as hard a cap on spells known as some of the other classes.

Because it is more of a scholarly pursuit, there are a number of different courses of study that a wizard can go into. They could study evocation or divination or necromancy, and whatever they’ve chosen to study, they become better at that area than other wizards. This does in some ways limit the logical routes for backgrounds and backstories. As a wizard, you have to have at least some level of knowledge and schooling to be able to cast spells and learn spells. How you can change it up is how you learned, where you learned, and whom you learned from. You can also, especially with races that live longer like Elves and Dwarves, have been out of school for a long time. A human wizard is likely going to be more recently out of school.

So, what are some backstories that you could use?

You don’t know who your parents were. You don’t even know what town or country you are from, really, though you’ve started to search out clues. Being kidnapped as a young child is always terrifying, even more so when you are kidnapped by a mad wizard who wants to eventually put her mind into your body and become an all-powerful lich. She didn’t want the body of a child though, so she trained you and taught you so that you could help her. That was all that you needed — when you figured out what she was planning, you started planning as well. Then, as she got weaker and it grew closer to the time when she was planning becoming a lich and steal your body, you struck first. You killed her — or at least, you killed her human form. But what you hadn’t realized was that she was prepared to become a lich even if she couldn’t get your body. Now you’ve got to learn more so that you can destroy her and the power you unleashed upon the world.

Background: Folk Hero(?)/Haunted (from Curse of Strahd)
Wizard Class: Necromancy

School was not your thing. It wasn’t that you were a bad student, but it was so boring and dry. You wanted your life to be more exciting, so you goofed off in class, always making amazing illusions that you entertained your classmates with. This didn’t really endear you to the teachers, and before you were set to graduate, you were expelled for causing one too many disruptions. That was okay; you’d learned what you wanted to know. You took your show on the road and performed all over, from small towns of simple villagers to big cities in front of nobility. Life was great. Then you started to notice strange things happening in a number of the small towns and villages you went around to. You weren’t sure what was going on, but with your entertaining, you can open doors and talk to people. Now you just need someone who is better at investigating to help you figure it out.

Background: Entertainer
Wizard Class: Illusion

You remember that day so well. It stands out in your mind; you’ll never forget it. There was nothing that you could have done; you were so young. But one day, the goblins found you and your mother in the woods. She told you to run, and you did, but not too far — you watched as she tried to hold them back so they wouldn’t go after you. They killed her, but she had bought you your life with her blood. It still stands out in your dreams, and you rarely get a good night’s sleep. You went and joined up with the local militia, and they taught you how to destroy. You were able to fight and defeat many a goblin, but that didn’t bring your mother back. You vowed to let no one else die, and as you learned that you had magic abilities, you started spending your time figuring out a way to change the future. You, along with your teacher, were able to see a major tragedy that was coming to the school. Your teacher sent you away to get help, but while you were gone, your teacher died. Now you have to figure out how to stop this event on your own and find out who killed your teacher.

Background: Sage
Wizard Class: Divination

Share questions, ideas for articles, or comments with us!

Email us at nerdologists@gmail.com
Follow us on Twitter at @NerdologistCast
Message me directly on Twitter at @TheScando
Visit us on Facebook here.

We are trying a new thing with Amazon Links! If you’re interested in what we talk about in our articles or use for the podcast, please consider making a purchase through our links. Purchases help support our website and offset our costs. Thanks!

[amazon_link asins=’0786965606′ template=’ProductGrid’ store=’nerdologists-20′ marketplace=’US’ link_id=’edd5fd71-db9a-11e7-88a1-d70a450710e0′]

[amazon_link asins=’0786966114′ template=’ProductGrid’ store=’nerdologists-20′ marketplace=’US’ link_id=’a0a43b17-ea6a-11e7-8d29-3ff1ed9217a5′]

[amazon_link asins=’0786965983′ template=’ProductGrid’ store=’nerdologists-20′ marketplace=’US’ link_id=’206f0624-01dc-11e8-b501-371c5856c559′]

The Wizard is one of the classiest classes already without doing much to class it up (well, kind of…mainly I just want to write this sentence). There is some truth to this,though, because Wizards, as magic users, don’t get their power by an act of a god, through nature, by making a pact, or by a twist of fate. They are the scholars of the Dungeons & Dragons world. Wizards put time and effort into learning spells, honing their skills, and focusing their studies. Wizards cast based off of their intelligence, and can learn many spells by translating them into what they need it to be to cast the spell. This means that the wizard doesn’t have as hard a cap on spells known as some of the other classes.

Because it is more of a scholarly pursuit, there are a number of different courses of study that a wizard can go into. They could study evocation or divination or necromancy, and whatever they’ve chosen to study, they become better at that area than other wizards. This does in some ways limit the logical routes for backgrounds and backstories. As a wizard, you have to have at least some level of knowledge and schooling to be able to cast spells and learn spells. How you can change it up is how you learned, where you learned, and whom you learned from. You can also, especially with races that live longer like Elves and Dwarves, have been out of school for a long time. A human wizard is likely going to be more recently out of school.

So, what are some backstories that you could use?

You don’t know who your parents were. You don’t even know what town or country you are from, really, though you’ve started to search out clues. Being kidnapped as a young child is always terrifying, even more so when you are kidnapped by a mad wizard who wants to eventually put her mind into your body and become an all-powerful lich. She didn’t want the body of a child though, so she trained you and taught you so that you could help her. That was all that you needed — when you figured out what she was planning, you started planning as well. Then, as she got weaker and it grew closer to the time when she was planning becoming a lich and steal your body, you struck first. You killed her — or at least, you killed her human form. But what you hadn’t realized was that she was prepared to become a lich even if she couldn’t get your body. Now you’ve got to learn more so that you can destroy her and the power you unleashed upon the world.

Background: Folk Hero(?)/Haunted (from Curse of Strahd)
Wizard Class: Necromancy

School was not your thing. It wasn’t that you were a bad student, but it was so boring and dry. You wanted your life to be more exciting, so you goofed off in class, always making amazing illusions that you entertained your classmates with. This didn’t really endear you to the teachers, and before you were set to graduate, you were expelled for causing one too many disruptions. That was okay; you’d learned what you wanted to know. You took your show on the road and performed all over, from small towns of simple villagers to big cities in front of nobility. Life was great. Then you started to notice strange things happening in a number of the small towns and villages you went around to. You weren’t sure what was going on, but with your entertaining, you can open doors and talk to people. Now you just need someone who is better at investigating to help you figure it out.

Background: Entertainer
Wizard Class: Illusion

You remember that day so well. It stands out in your mind; you’ll never forget it. There was nothing that you could have done; you were so young. But one day, the goblins found you and your mother in the woods. She told you to run, and you did, but not too far — you watched as she tried to hold them back so they wouldn’t go after you. They killed her, but she had bought you your life with her blood. It still stands out in your dreams, and you rarely get a good night’s sleep. You went and joined up with the local militia, and they taught you how to destroy. You were able to fight and defeat many a goblin, but that didn’t bring your mother back. You vowed to let no one else die, and as you learned that you had magic abilities, you started spending your time figuring out a way to change the future. You, along with your teacher, were able to see a major tragedy that was coming to the school. Your teacher sent you away to get help, but while you were gone, your teacher died. Now you have to figure out how to stop this event on your own and find out who killed your teacher.

Background: Sage
Wizard Class: Divination

Share questions, ideas for articles, or comments with us!

Email us at nerdologists@gmail.com
Follow us on Twitter at @NerdologistCast
Message me directly on Twitter at @TheScando
Visit us on Facebook here.

We are trying a new thing with Amazon Links! If you’re interested in what we talk about in our articles or use for the podcast, please consider making a purchase through our links. Purchases help support our website and offset our costs. Thanks!

[amazon_link asins=’0786965606′ template=’ProductGrid’ store=’nerdologists-20′ marketplace=’US’ link_id=’edd5fd71-db9a-11e7-88a1-d70a450710e0′]

[amazon_link asins=’0786966114′ template=’ProductGrid’ store=’nerdologists-20′ marketplace=’US’ link_id=’a0a43b17-ea6a-11e7-8d29-3ff1ed9217a5′]

[amazon_link asins=’0786965983′ template=’ProductGrid’ store=’nerdologists-20′ marketplace=’US’ link_id=’206f0624-01dc-11e8-b501-371c5856c559′]