Monk | Nerdologists https://nerdologists.com Where to jump in on board games, anime, books, and movies as a Nerd Wed, 07 May 2025 16:17:42 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.8.3 https://nerdologists.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/nerdologists-favicon.png Monk | Nerdologists https://nerdologists.com 32 32 Dungeons and Dragons Player Tools – Character Arc https://nerdologists.com/2025/05/dungeons-and-dragons-player-tools-character-arc/ https://nerdologists.com/2025/05/dungeons-and-dragons-player-tools-character-arc/#respond Wed, 07 May 2025 16:16:35 +0000 https://nerdologists.com/?p=9579 How can you make your character grow in Dungeons and Dragons? A character arc might be the tool you need to plan out that change.

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When I went through all my Dungeon Master tools, one of the big things I talked about was story arcs. I think that something similar can be done for players. There is less control as a player overall for the timeline of it. But as you role play, you create your character and grow them. So what does that look like, how do you plan out a character arc?

The Basis of a Character Arc

Let’s start out with the first one you already have built into your character. If you followed what I suggested for character creation, you have an overall character arc already planned out. Read up on that here. But this is just a starting point.

Example – Bottom-Tier Character Tomozaki

So, I want to give an example from an anime/light novel series that I love. Bottom-Tier Character Tomozaki features a protagonist who doesn’t think that he can “win” at the game of life. In fact, he believes that because of his stats (the body he was born into) there’s no way to get ahead and therefore life is a garbage game. But then he meets the #2 player of a video game in real life, he’s number one, and it turns out that it’s someone he knows. She convinces him to try playing the game of life.

So, how does she do that? Every day is a new small goal to lead towards the big end goal. In the case of Tomozaki, it is get a girlfriend for the big goal. But the smaller goals are improve his looks, get better at talking and engaging with people. And even those often get broken into smaller tasks. And I think that is how you create a character arc for your character.

The Big Arc

The first thing is the big arc. This one is already part of your character creation, like I said. But let’s recap it here because it is important. When you create your character you create two things. The first thing is pretty simple, why am I an adventurer. That is your starting point.

The second one is the thing that gives you a big character arc to go through. What is my end goal. Aka, what keeps me adventuring and when I complete it, I’ll likely be done. It makes sense, this is about the largest thing that your character can do. And that is likely going to tie in with complete the campaign as well, but it might not for all characters.

Breaking It Down

So now you know what you big character arc is going to be. But you want to get there, and you can’t just work towards a single massive goal. Your character is going to stagnate along the way if that happens because you don’t have a goal to get to in between

Your goals should affect your character as you plan them out. There are two types of character arcs that you can create for these smaller goals. The first are ones that you can do. Does your character have a specific goal, like in the example of the monk from character creation, they want to make their monastery financially stable, so they want to fund raise when they go to town, so it might be make connections with people. Or it might be something where you need the Dungeon Masters help. So you talk with them to help make it happen.

So let’s break it down even further here.

  • Keep it actionable
  • Work on it during downtime or in alignment with moving the story forward
  • Know your end condition
  • Know the end result or change
Image Source: D&D Beyond

Example – The Monk

So quick recap. Our monk is adventuring because he needs to help raise money for the monastery that brought him in and raised him. Once he feels like the monastery is in a viable spot financially, he is likely going to retire and go back to train and mentor urchins like he was and give them the opportunity he had.

So let’s create a small goal with that in mind.

Find a potential benefactor and talk with them.

This is actionable as you can go around town and ask people. And it is something that is easy to do in the downtime. The end condition is also set, it is done when you talk to a potential benefactor. Not when you convince them or anything.

So the big question is what is the end result or change for the monk? Well, in this case, I suspect our urchin who lived on the streets and then went into a monastery isn’t that great at talking to people and has a low charisma stat. So the end goal is to get better at talking to people.

This is something that can even play out in your characters stats. This could be a goal until you hit level four, or level eight, or whenever you get your stat bumps. And when you do, if you’ve successfully worked at this, you increase your charisma stat so that it’s less of a negative. But that is optional to tie it in so much.

Final Thoughts on a Good Character Arc

I think that these are important for your character. I talked about it some with bonds, flaws, ideals, and personality traits last week. But it is about the character growth. And using your bonds, flaws, ideals and personality traits, it can be a great way to create more interesting story arcs for your character. You find a flaw and you want to over come it, that is a character arc. Or maybe you have a personality trait that you want to add or a bond you want to add, that is a character arc as well.

But with that said, we’re down to our last topic. And that is going to be role playing your character. Everything that we’ve done thus far leads up to that moment. Whether it be the character creation, backstory creation, or figuring out a character arc, it is all going to show up at the table and how you interact with the other players and the Dungeon Master. So join me for that next time.

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Baldur’s Gate 3 – Spider Time https://nerdologists.com/2024/10/baldurs-gate-3-spider-time/ https://nerdologists.com/2024/10/baldurs-gate-3-spider-time/#respond Mon, 28 Oct 2024 14:03:42 +0000 https://nerdologists.com/?p=9235 What story and adventure awaits in the decrepit village? Join us as we play Baldur's Gate 3 and find out.

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Our journey to Baldur’s Gate continued as we go to the formerly nice village that is now overrun by goblins, what adventures, fights and other issues will we come across? Nina and Kaerok are going to have a lot to find out and probably run into some troubles that they didn’t plan. And run into what sounds like a potentially compromising situation. Will they break down the door and see what trouble awaits them?

Our Characters

Just a quick reminder on who we have in Baldur’s Gate 3:

Nina the Tiefling Bard who generally just wants a great story. But she wants to hear about them and not be taking part in them so much. But she has gumption to deal with what comes up.

Kaerok a stoic half elf (I believe) monk who generally is pretty straightforward but not mean in who he is.

Shadowheart is the character who has caught Nina’s eye so she’s paired up with Nina in the adventuring group.

Karlach the character who now Kaerok is going to be taking an interest in.

Baldur’s Gate 3 and Board Game Streaming Schedule

So just a quick reminder of the streaming schedule:

  • Monday around 8-8:30 PM Central Time a small solo game, that’s the current plan. This is also when I mix in things like Balatro and Slay the Spire as well.
  • Wednesday at 9 PM Central is going to be for my Top 100 Games (of all time) 2024 Edition right now. And I want to get back to campaign games, though TBD how that will be working or the day for sure. Might swap Monday and Wednesday streams when that happens.
  • Friday at 9 PM Central my wife, Kristen, and I play Baldur’s Gate 3. So join us as we play a couple of hours each Friday night and tackle that big adventure.

Best way to know when I go live is just to subscribe and click that notification bell. Which you can do that here.

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Baldur’s Gate 3 – A Deal with a Devil? https://nerdologists.com/2024/10/baldurs-gate-3-a-deal-with-a-devil/ https://nerdologists.com/2024/10/baldurs-gate-3-a-deal-with-a-devil/#respond Fri, 25 Oct 2024 15:16:20 +0000 https://nerdologists.com/?p=9233 Adventures continued last week as we met a devil and dealt with some so-called Paladins. Join us for more Baldur's Gate 3.

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What’s going to happen now that we have Karlach in the party? Join myself and my wife as we play through Baldur’s Gate 3. Nina the Bard and Kaerok the monk are on the road with their little tadpole helpers. So what adventures will they get up to and who will they meet?

Our Characters

Just a quick reminder on who we have in Baldur’s Gate 3:

Nina the Tiefling Bard who generally just wants a great story. But she wants to hear about them and not be taking part in them so much. But she has gumption to deal with what comes up.

Kaerok a stoic half elf (I believe) monk who generally is pretty straightforward but not mean in who he is.

Shadowheart is the character who has caught Nina’s eye so she’s paired up with Nina in the adventuring group.

Karlach the character who now Kaerok is going to be taking an interest in.

Streaming for Baldur’s Gate 3

We are going to be streaming every Friday (or most Fridays) at 9 PM Central for about two hours. So it is going to take a while but that is the fun of the game to explore everything, make new choices and see how the story unfolds. The best way to know when we go live is to subscribe to the Malts and Meeples YouTube channel. You can find that here. And then click on that notification bell.

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Support us on Patreon here

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Baldur’s Gate 3 – Nina and Kaerok Meet Karlach https://nerdologists.com/2024/10/baldurs-gate-3-nina-and-kaerok-meet-karlach/ https://nerdologists.com/2024/10/baldurs-gate-3-nina-and-kaerok-meet-karlach/#respond Mon, 14 Oct 2024 15:40:35 +0000 https://nerdologists.com/?p=9205 It's time to explore the Druid's Grove, what story will we find on this weeks Baldur's Gate 3 adventure?

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Thanks everyone for checking out our Baldur’s Gate 3 video and streams as they are happening. It’s been a blast thus far. We spend a bunch of time this session at the Druid Settlement with the druids and the Tieflings. But we end up meeting an important character to our story, Karlach, at the end. Join with us and see what adventures happen and how our story unfolds.

Catch up with our characters over on YouTube by looking for Malts and Meeples and meet the characters and experience our early adventure.

Our Characters

Just a quick reminder on who we have:

Nina the Tiefling Bard who generally just wants a great story. But she wants to hear about them and not be taking part in them so much. But she has gumption to deal with what comes up.

Kaerok a stoic half elf (I believe) monk who generally is pretty straightforward but not mean in who he is.

Shadowheart is the character who has caught Nina’s eye so she’s paired up with Nina in the adventuring group.

Karlach the character who now Kaerok is going to be taking an interest in. But right now it’s been Laezel and Wyll who have been traveling with Kaerok, especially for the story points when we meet with Karlach.

Streaming for Baldur’s Gate 3

We are going to be streaming every Friday (or most Fridays) at 9 PM Central for about two hours. So it is going to take a while but that is the fun of the game to explore everything, make new choices and see how the story unfolds. The best way to know when we go live is to subscribe to the Malts and Meeples YouTube channel. You can find that here. And then click on that notification bell.

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Support us on Patreon here

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Baldur’s Gate 3 – Nina and Kaerok Meet Withers https://nerdologists.com/2024/10/baldurs-gate-3-nina-and-kaerok-meet-withers/ https://nerdologists.com/2024/10/baldurs-gate-3-nina-and-kaerok-meet-withers/#respond Mon, 07 Oct 2024 15:53:44 +0000 https://nerdologists.com/?p=9191 We're off to meet the wizard, I mean Withers. Join us and see what adventures unfold as we play Baldur's Gate 3.

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Things worked well this time. Technology win, finally. No issues this time, let us know how the audio sounds. But we’re getting into the game. We meet up with the grumpy old man Withers and we make it all the way up to the Druids Grove. Join us and see how our adventure to Baldur’s Gate goes and who may not make it along the way.

Join us every Friday, or most Fridays, from 9 PM central time to 11 PM central. Actual hours may vary, but we’ll try and keep it around two hours. You can always find us over on the Malts and Meeples YouTube channel. Subscribe to the channel and click that notification bell to know when we go live. You can do that here.

Meet the Characters

Nina – Nina is a tiefling bard who just want to enjoy life. She was on the road prior to getting snatched up in the Nautiloid. So not from Baldur’s Gate originally she’s travelled through there multiple times with a mentor or for a show or festival. She doesn’t really call anywhere home, but that’s okay because it’s more exciting to go on an adventure. She’s an optimist, but if push comes to shove, she’s going to side with the tieflings.

Kaerok – Kristen’s character so I’m going to write up less. But he’s a more stoic character who is focused on the business that needs to be taken care of. That serious nature serves him well with his disciplines.

If you’ve missed any of the previous videos, catch up here. Note that there are technological issues in this one. Mainly that it drops a few times and there are a few videos and once it drops once it keeps dropping. So those are cut-up and not that great. But we appreciate everyone who is checking out the stream. And I plan on trying to improve our audio so we’re a bit louder, so right now you just need to crank it.

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Baldur’s Gate 3 – Meet the Party https://nerdologists.com/2024/09/baldurs-gate-3-meet-the-party/ https://nerdologists.com/2024/09/baldurs-gate-3-meet-the-party/#comments Mon, 23 Sep 2024 11:34:40 +0000 https://nerdologists.com/?p=9169 Malts and Meeples channel as Baldur's Gate 3 streaming now on it. Join us as we play through a campaign.

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We’ve kind of soft launched something new on the Malts and Meeples channel. I say kind of, because well there have been a few hiccups with it. But as I talked about before, we, my wife and myself, want to do a live stream/game play of Baldur’s Gate 3. So that is officially under way, though there is one video to upload still to wrap up character creation. But checkout the videos that are done thus far on Malts and Meeples.

Streaming Schedule and Issues

The plan is to stream every Friday evening on this, generally starting around 9 PM Central, though that time is going to be flexible because it depends on our kid. And we might also stream other nights as well. So be aware that it’s just going to pop up when it pops up.

And you’ll also see that chunks are missing. Right now the computer that we’re using keeps on dropping wi-fi connection. When it’s connected it’s working great, when not, it happens randomly. And there is no good reason for it, as far as I can tell. I can reconnect no issues, it might just be the machine itself is going to struggle. We have another machine that we can try as well, and the possibility to hardwire that one into the internet to avoid the issue. So next stream might start even slightly later than normal but with that fix in place.

Meet the Baldur’s Gate 3 Adventuring Party

So let’s meet the party as it stands thus far. We might go back and tweak and replay some, TBD, because of a choice that we made. But let’s talk about the party.

I play Nina a Tiefling bard. We went with the two character classes who aren’t party members in Baldur’s Gate 3. Bard being one where if you play Durge it’ll be in the party so you can play with them. But there isn’t an option for it across the game even then. So let’s play around with that one.

My wife is playing Kaerok a half elf or elf, I forget which, monk. Another character that there is no companion who is a monk. This one there is no way to work in a character like that. So if you want to play with a monk, you need to play one on your own.

No plan to spoil who we are romancing. That will unfold as we play our characters. But we both have a plan/idea where we think it makes sense for our characters to go.

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Chronicles of Drunagor – Game Play 1 https://nerdologists.com/2022/11/chronicles-of-drunagor-game-play-1/ https://nerdologists.com/2022/11/chronicles-of-drunagor-game-play-1/#respond Thu, 10 Nov 2022 12:29:42 +0000 https://nerdologists.com/?p=7525 Dive into the world of Chronicles of Drunagor with me over on Malts and Meeples. It's time to start on the next epic campaign.

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It’s time for a new campaign game on Malts and Meeples. I have a lot to choose from, but Chronicles of Drunagor has come in recently and that one is the game to hit the table. This is a massive fantasy campaign game. One with some darker themes or at least more darkness than others. How did the first game go, and what are my first impressions?

The Game – Chronicles of Drunagor

Initial impressions are favorable but also leave me questioning how long I’ll stream it. The reason for those questions is the size of the game. There are so many components on the table at all times that it’s hard to manage all of it.

Ease To Solo

Plus, one of the cool features, the doors that hide the information, don’t make for the best during the stream. I dislike needing to get up, block lights, be moving around and setting too much up while I am trying to stream.

Now, that’s often a negative of a lot of campaign games, not while streaming. There is a lot to keep track of and a lot to set-up. Some of them, Gloomhaven, Stars of Akarios, Aeon’s End Legacy, all of those balance pretty well for solo play and keeping the game play simple enough. I think that Chronicles of Drunagor just because of a few things probably makes better for multiplayer, even if it’s two.

This isn’t to say that the solo mode and what the monsters did didn’t make sense. I think that those instructions were easy enough to follow. But just from what you need to set-up a new room it’d be nice to have someone else helping with that.

Game Play

I do, however, really like the game play loop. It’s not a difficult loop once you are into it. You go in initiative order and really need to remember, two cube actions and one free move. That part is not hard to do. And while I clearly leaned into certain combat skills, I do think that the play is pretty clever with it.

The cube system works well. I blocked off ranged attacks that I wouldn’t do when I rested and that’s okay. The first scenario in a big campaign, I want to learn from. And they do a solid job of teaching you. I wish that there had been a bit more story in the “learn to play” section but overall easy enough to go to the book.

And I really like the status effects. Playing a controller, I thought about defense, is interesting. The Monk, my character, can hit pretty well, but could easily be overwhelmed. Especially with higher damage enemies. I don’t have much armor. But if I can survive that first turn, well, then I can start to control or lock down the battlefield. The knockdown and stun work really well to keep things in check depending on enemy types.

Initial Impressions

Overall, game play is good, I like what it is doing. And I like the story that you have as well in the game. My only concern will be the amount of work to play it solo and I think that’s more of a consideration because I’m streaming it. I don’t want downtime as I’m trying to find things. It reminds me of Gloomhaven, though, in the amount you need to set-up. Sometimes with Chronicles of Drunagor, though, it happens more mid session.

Upcoming Streams

Next this up is next Monday when I’m going to be streaming my 30 through 21. You can click the notification bell here and know when I go live. I hope that you can join and say “hi” in the chat. It’s always fun to see what games are catching people’s eyes.

And next Wednesday, more Chronicles of Drunagor. Join me in this next dungeon or map and let’s see how far we can get. I made it through one scenario this time, but my guess is some chapters will be split into more parts. Plus, let me know what you think of the game play. It makes me really want another camera as I’m filming it now.

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Board Game Unboxings – Chronicles of Drunagor and ISS Vanguard https://nerdologists.com/2022/10/board-game-unboxings-chronicles-of-drunagor-and-iss-vanguard/ https://nerdologists.com/2022/10/board-game-unboxings-chronicles-of-drunagor-and-iss-vanguard/#respond Thu, 27 Oct 2022 11:39:44 +0000 https://nerdologists.com/?p=7499 It's time to open up some games. ISS Vanguard, Chronicles of Drunagor and a small game, Mask of the Pharaoh are on docket for today.

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A few very big games have come in, so I have a little bit of unboxing to do with these games. The two big ones being Chronicles of Drunagor from Creative Games Studio and ISS Vanguard from Awaken Realms. Both of these are epic campaign games, but I also have Mask of the Pharaoh from Hasbro as well which I picked up. I give a reason why I grabbed this littler game and why it’s part of the unboxing.

The Games

Mask of the Pharaoh

Mask of the Pharaoh is an outlier compared to the other games that I have on the list for unboxing. It isn’t a big and epic game. In fact, the box is quite small. But there is one thing that made me want to buy it. And that is that it uses an app. But it isn’t just that it uses an app, but how it uses the app.

Originally a game called Mask of Anubis coming out in 2016, it was picked up by Hasbro as Mask of the Pharaoh. The game uses an app, not as something to assist the game but as a core piece to the game. One person is navigating and looking around a tomb via the app. They give directions to the other players how to set it up. This is just novel for a board game, so I wanted to try it. Chronicles of Crime uses an app in a similar way, and I want to try it as well.

ISS Vanguard

Now onto the bigger games. ISS Vanguard is certainly that. I didn’t get everything you could in wave one, and I’m okay with that. Everything I didn’t get is not as important for game play. I received the core box, the miniatures, which look cool but also not important and the Personnel Files.

ISS Vanguard is an epic space adventure game. That premise is a signal was sent to Eartha and hidden within the DNA of humanity. It is discovered and uncoded. That leads humanity on a mission using and alien ship to find these coordinates. There, well, that is where the game begins.

There is a lot going on in the game. From exploring planets, flying to different solar systems, and unraveling the mystery. I like that you don’t play as a specific character, but as a specific part of the crew. You might be recon or engineering or security, but you get to pick. I also enjoy that you encounter a planet, but you also encounter things as you maintain your ship or upgrade your landing vessels.

Chronicles of Drunagor

Chronicles of Drunagor
Image Source: Creative Games Studio

Final game getting unboxed is Chronicles of Drunagor. Chronicles of Drunagor didn’t show up as recently, it has been on my shelf for a little bit. But it is one that I’m going to be playing soon for Malts and Meeples. In fact, it should get started next week. I just need your help figuring out who to play. See the section below to vote.

But Chronicles of Drunagor is an epic fantasy game where you build out 3D maps, unlock doors, fight monsters, and level up the characters. Two things stand out to me as really interesting in this game. The first being darkness. The idea of the darkness is that it pushes you forward in the dungeon. As you explore and fight, darkness is filling in behind you. So you can’t take too long, because if you do, it catches you and bad things happen.

And then the character game play. The game uses a cube system for what you are doing. You play with certain powers, which certain color of cubes needed to activate those various powers. For example, I might have a healing power that needs a yellow cube. I can only activate that if there isn’t already a yellow cube on there and I have a yellow cube. So it is a puzzle of when to activate things, when to not, or when to spend a turn to pull back cubes. But when I do that, I lose access to an ability and I pick which. Seems like an amazing puzzle to me.

Picking a Chronicles of Drunagor Character

Like I said, this is the game I’m playing next on Malts and Meeples. There are 12 different classes and 23 different characters. Help me pick two classes.

Upcoming Streams

So, next week, I will not be streaming on Monday. A week off from my Top 100 games because, well, next Monday is Halloween. So I am going to be busy with that. And then probably relaxing or editing podcast after that. But the following Monday, November 7th, at 8:30 PM, join me for a stream of 40 through 31 in my Top 100 Games (of all time) 2022 Edition.

And then of course, on Wednesday, it is diving into the dungeons of the Chronicles of Drunagor. I likely will play the tutorial scenario first to learn the game. So that might be on camera, or I might try and play that myself so I can delve into the bigger campaign with you all. To be determined with that. But 8 PM on Wednesday for that stream.

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Dungeons and Dragons – Easy to Hard Classes https://nerdologists.com/2021/05/dungeons-and-dragons-easy-to-hard-classes/ https://nerdologists.com/2021/05/dungeons-and-dragons-easy-to-hard-classes/#respond Tue, 11 May 2021 13:36:03 +0000 https://nerdologists.com/?p=5638 Which Dungeons and Dragons classes are the easiest and which are the hardest. I take a stab at ranking them to see which ones beginner friendly.

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If you are wondering how I come up with all of my great ideas, the answer is sometimes I get asked questions, and this is one that a new Dungeons and Dragons player asked on the GloryHoundd discord servers. I immediately came up with my easiest and hardest, but rankings as a whole, I had to think on that. So today’s article is going to be ranking the base classes in Dungeons and Dragons from easiest to hardest. That means the ones that you can find in the players handbook, not stuff like the Artificer that came out in supplements or the other versions of the classes that have come out in the other books.

Easiest To Hardest

Image Source: D&D Beyond
Fighter

The first two on the list are by far the easiest to rank. Fighter is not a difficult class to play, mainly because it’s the most common thing that we’d know of. We can think of fighters in basically any movie set in a fantasy setting or a medieval era. And the mechanics are pretty simple as well, most of what you will be doing is fighting with your main weapon. Now you can make it more interesting by adding in additional types of weapons or customizing your attack style in a different way, but mechanically it is a pretty straight forward class to play.

Barbarian

Next up is the Barbarian, much like the fighter they are basically all about fighting in their fairly basic way. The fact that they add in the rage, that makes it very slightly more complicated. Same with the natural defense that they have, but neither of those really make it more difficult to play, they just change is up from how most other classes handle your basic fighting. Once you have the concept of rage down, the Barbarian is as easy to play, or maybe even easier, than the fighter.

Rogue

Next up I went with the Rogue. Now, I do think that the Rogue is a slight step up in terms of complexity. But again it is still going to be more of a standard fighting class. The rogue, however, is shiftier and interacts with their adventuring party more in combat than other classes. They like to focus on enemies are already facing off against someone else to get that sneak attack damage. But they can also go and hide to get bonuses and get away from someone they are fighting easier. It if a little more to keep track of, and they aren’t going to be able to tank like a Fighter or a Barbarian can.

Cleric

Our first spell caster is on the list and it’s the Cleric. Mainly because the concept of a cleric is pretty simple to grasp. The cleric is going to be pass out some buffs, but really, they are going to keep the party on their feet. So slinging around healing spells and making sure if someone gets knocked out they can get back up again, that’s going to be the clerics main focus. There are types of clerics who can fight solidly as well, but most clerics will focus on healing.

Image Source: D&D Beyond
Paladin

The Paladin is much like the cleric in that they are good at healing. The difference is they are a half-caster class versus a full caster and that means they have access to fewer spells. Adding in the fighting that a cleric can do, it is definitely a step up in complexity, but not that hard. The main thing to know is that Paladins can convert their spell slots into more damage, so there are two types of Paladins. The first is going to be the type that heals and the other is going to be the type that fights, and generally stick to one instead of trying to do both. But once you pick, then it becomes real easy.

Ranger

Next up we have the Ranger. The Ranger is another half-caster class and can be a bit trickier. There is the Beastmaster Ranger who can have an animal companion which gives them more to do. However, for the most part the Ranger will use a few standard spells, like Hunter’s Mark, and a bow and arrow to deal with their enemies. Some of what becomes trickier are their other abilities. The favorite terrain, how do you work that into a campaign or use that meaningfully. Those are the questions for the Ranger player and DM.

Image Source: D&D Beyond
Monk

After the Ranger comes the Monk. These two and the next one are all really close in complexity if you ask me. The Monk is another fighting class. Like the Barbarian it has it’s own way to calculate defense. Where the complexity comes in is the chi that the Monk has. Basically it is a way to manipulate attacks and attackers. Some of the disciplines of the monk give you lots of ways to manipulate your chi so you really need to think about how you spend it.

Wizard

Now we are into caster territory, and the second easiest caster is the Wizard, in my opinion. The Wizard could even go higher, but I think that casters tend to be a bit trickier than some of the other classes. Why is it easier than some of the others, how it casts is very simple. Simple use of spell slots and not much else that a Wizard does besides cast. It just depends on what type of caster you want to be.

Bard

The Bard is also a pretty straight forward casting class. Again, like the Wizard it is just spending spell slots. Where it adds is Bardic inspiration. Bardic Inspiration is basically a way to help your party do better. It gives them a die to spend on a check and the Bard has a limited number. As you go, it can even do more depending on the college you went to as a Bard. Not too complex to play but adds in a little more to do, and a Bard can also get into the fray with combat more.

Druid

These last three could have gone in most any order, but I’m placing the Druid as my third most complex. The reason that it’s sitting here is that the Druid can go in two different ways. There are caster druids and there are wild shape druids, basically think shape shifting. While the caster has some wild shape, they will focus on casting. Whereas a wild shape Druid will cast, but the wild shape is a key to a lot of what they do. Definitely adds in complexity with what creatures you can turn into with your wild shape and when you do.

Warlock

Next is the Warlock, I think that the Warlock could be simpler than some of these, except that it’s casting works very differently than other classes. You have fewer spell slots, they are always as the higher level and you get them back on a short rest. Plus they have their pact and different benefits that they get from what. Once you can wade through how the class plays, there are some solid and simple combos out there, mainly with Eldritch Blast you can take advantage of.

Sorcerer

Finally we have the Sorcerer. I put this one as the most complex even though it’s base casting is simple. You spend a spell slot and cast it. The difference is they have meta magic with sorcery points. You can convert spell slots to points and back. And you pick which meta magics you want to use. So there are more choices to consistently make than other classes, in my opinion.

Are Any Too Complex For A Beginner?

To wrap this up, let’s talk about this question, are any of the classes too complex for a first time player? Yes, but it depends on the player. I wouldn’t give someone who is casually interested in Dungeons and Dragons any of the last three classes. The Druid, Warlock and Sorcerer are probably just a bit too much, and I would maybe shy away from the Ranger and the Monk as well.

However, a player who is really excited about Dungeons and Dragons, they can play any class. No class is too hard out of the box for a player to pick up. Some of them are just going to require a little bit more work to learn than others.

Now, I skipped the Wizard, I think the concepts of the Wizard a good for a new player. And I think that they are pretty easy to learn, they just have a lot of choices. For a new player that might be too many choices, or it might be just fine. But I think even a somewhat interested new player will be able to figure it out, leveling up just might take longer.

Which is your favorite class to play? Are there any that you avoid because they are too simple or too complex?

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Top 10 Favorite Dice Throne Characters https://nerdologists.com/2021/03/top-10-favorite-dice-throne-characters/ https://nerdologists.com/2021/03/top-10-favorite-dice-throne-characters/#comments Mon, 01 Mar 2021 14:53:16 +0000 https://nerdologists.com/?p=5394 Roll on into Dice Throne with me as I take a look at my 10 favorite characters for this fighting dice chucking board game.

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Now, I could delve into all of the characters, there are 16 of them in between the two seasons. I have played all of the characters at least once which makes Dice Throne one of my top 2-3 games played over the past year or two. And Dice Throne is a game that I still always want to pull out and play.

What is the Game?

So Dice Throne is a battle game where you generally play 1 vs 1 in a dice chucking fantasy setting. It has some feel of a video game like Mortal Kombat. Your turns are spent upgrading your attacks, playing cards to heal, or manipulate your dice during attacks, and then your opponent rolling dice for their defense. It has a kind of Magic the Gathering flow with how the turns work, but this is a pure dice chucker. You can also play on teams, or with an odd number of players play King of the Hill where you attack one person and you can choose, but there is a benefit to attacking the person with the most healthy. The last character standing is the winner.

The Top 10

10 – Moon Elf

We start with a pretty easy character to play, the Moon Elf. They are one of the first ones that they recommend that you play, and they are just fun. I like that they give you a wide variety of tokens that you can use some of them help with the defensive side of things, like evasive, and others like blind and entangle are negative. I really think that the more defensive nature of the character is interesting. You really are looking to reduce damage a lot of the time when attacked versus others that are wanting to push out damage.

9 – Artificer

While the Moon Elf is a simpler character, the next two are going to be much more complex. The Artificer is all about building up three different robots and using them. or placing nanites on your enemy and then exploding them. There are a lot of moving pieces that you need to keep track of. But I like trying to figure out that puzzle, what to spend my synth on, which is what you use to build, activate and possibly use other abilities as well. The more you need to manage the more interesting it can be for me.

8 – Treant

Like I said, I like to manage a lot of things, but the Treant simplifies it a little bit from the Artificer, where it has seedlings that just grow every turn. And it also can heal a lot. But do you grow a seedling up to the largest level or do you keep them smaller and have more. There is certainly a puzzle to it as you have to decide at times between three things for how to use your seedlings. The Treant also has more ability to heal than a lot of other characters as well. They can put together a good defensive battle quite often.

7 – Ninja

Packaged with the Treant is the Ninja in the duel packs, and I have both in my Top 10. Now that’ll happen some more, but I’ve only gotten to play the Ninja with a physical copy recently. I like the abilities that the ninja has, the delayed poison adds a twist because it’s one of the few abilities that triggers at the end of a round. They aren’t the most defensive character, but a well times smoke bomb can be a big win for them. But I really like them because they can push the offense with the delayed poison and the ninjitsu.

6 – Shadow Thief

The Shadow Thief is a weird one and in a really good way. The Shadow Thief gets so much of it’s power from combat points. The combat points are normally just used to get cards into play, but the Shadow Thief generates damage based off how much CP it has and it can gain even more CP based off of attacks. It used to be able to steal a lot of CP from other players, but they have limited it now, it’s still a great time because it gives you so many options. I feel like the Shadow Thief is one of the most flexible characters.

5 – Vampire Lord

Now, some of the characters that heal, I don’t like that well. But the Vampire Lord makes it fun because they heal by draining others, as you’d expect. They have a lot of blood powers, and mesmerize which is a fun power. They also deal maybe smaller amounts of damage but there is a lot that’s undefendable which means that they can at times get more damage through consistently. Overall just a fun one to play, and I really like the ones that have powers or tokens that stack up and can do more the more that you have.

Dice Throne Moon Elf
Image Source: Dice Throne
4 – Cursed Pirate

This is another one that is out there. All the characters have ways to upgrade your attack spots and defense, except for the Cursed Pirate side. The Cursed Pirate has a side and then a Ghost Pirate side that you can flip to. It has an interesting push your luck element to it as you want to become the Ghost Pirate but if you do, you start taking damage on your turn, and there is no going back. So it creates a timer, but the abilities on that side are better, so do you rush it and shoot for big hits or do you keep yourself just cursed and try and survive longer that way.

3 – Monk

The monk is probably the most defensive character on the list. They get Evasive that allows them to potentially take no damage. They have chi which will block damage, and they can cleanse negative affects off themselves. Again, that Chi gives them a resource that is interesting to use and gives them so much survivability in this game. The Monk can draw things out until you can upgrade a lot and get some big hits in of your own. Normally I don’t always love a ton of defense, but the monk is definitely interesting in how it does it.

2 – Pyromancer

So I go from a defensive character to a completely offensive character. On defensive rolls the Pyromancer can’t stop incoming damage, they can just deal damage back. And I think that it feels like a rush as you try and push out as much damage as possible and race to the end. They also give you fire mastery to mess around with. This again goes that resource management where you need to know how to spend them or when you should horde up more of them to get a bigger hit later. And while a lot of these resources that stack up add over time, the fire mastery reduces every turn so timing up the big hits is key.

1 – Gunslinger

Finally, number one, we have the Gunslinger. It is really close between the Gunslinger and the Pyromancer. The Gunslinger just feels like a jack of all trades. You can get bounty on people will will do more damage and I love the defense on the Gunslinger which is just a duel or a roll off that can greatly reduce damage. It feels so thematic, which all of the characters do, which is impressive for a dice chucking game.

Some of the characters I don’t have on the list are generally ones that I need to play more. The Huntress I think is very interesting, I just need to spend more time figuring out that character and her tiger pet which is really interesting. The Seraph and Paladin can both be more defensive as well. And the Tactician and Samurai I just haven’t played with enough. The Barbarian is fine as well, just more of a basic character, good for new players.

What is your favorite Dice Throne character?

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