What Comes Next | Exandria Unlimited | Episode 8
What Comes Next | Exandria Unlimited | Episode 8
This episode is sponsored by Bethesda and ZeniMax Online Studios. Check out Elder Scrolls Online: Blackwood now at http://elderscrollsonline.com/buy
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Face to face with the foe who has been following them through the jungle, the group must use every ability and asset at their disposal to contend with a force that threatens to tear them apart at the very seams…
Watch Exandria Unlimited Thursdays at 7pm PT on https://twitch.tv/criticalrole and https://youtube.com/criticalrole.
Meet the Players!
Game Master Aabria Iyengar
Aimee Carrero
Robbie Daymond
Ashley Johnson
Matthew Mercer
Liam O’Brien
Original Music by Omar Fadel and Hexany Audio
Main theme by Colm R. McGuinness
Additional music by Universal Production Music and Epidemic Sound
Character art by Hannah Friederichs
Stained glass art by Joanna Johnen
Opening Title by Christian Brown
Character Miniatures by Eldritch Foundry
Miniatures painted by Ian Phillips
GM Screen by Dog Might
Custom map by Noxweiler Berf
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2:43:30 DM Red Flag
I 1000% love ALL the characters but I love Liam’s halfling dexterous fights 10% more and Fearnes absolute chaotic character for Ashely, its one of my favorites as well man. And Mercers fun loving buffoon of more than capable calamity is fun to watch and fun to watch him play. But the newbies. wow Dorian and Opal, very very fun to watch them with the pros and do so well, Loved the whole party But the way Liam made physical combat such a fun ride and to see a…. I wouldn’t say unbalanced druid but one not as the "wise" one was such a refreshing take!
"blood of the mountain in me b****" priceless
Rules nerd notes:
18:12 – She still has bless from Dariax; it’s been less than a minute since he cast it at the start of this combat (last episode), and it lasted quite a bit less than 10 rounds.
So she should add a d4 to this Cha save to find Ted.
22:40 – or wait, Bless dropped? Apparently some time passed while they stood there watching Opal get magically staked to the ground, before going down to save her and collect Mister??
GM (I mean DM) narration to wrap up an episode shouldn’t stop the players from acting when they can see threats and there’s no narrative reason for them not to act. I thought Myr’atta was getting quite a bit of time to do stuff unopposed (multiple stakes), but I figured they’d just leave it for next (this) episode to get into details of what the PCs were doing during that time to finish the last golem and get down. Other than Orym who was already down.
Also, Aimee’s face during this was a journey. Like she thought she was going to get something to help her make saves to be able to act, then her face falls as each successive name is not Opal.
51:15 – now she’s invisible and has both hands free, I thought her next step was going to be to pull out the pieces of residuum, like she planned last turn, and where Aabria said "about time". But now she’s forgotten about that again. Apparently something still stuck fresh pieces into her legs while invisible, so maybe moving first could help to cut off a source of new ranged attacks (if that’s what these are) while she removes the existing ones? IDK, pulling out one with each hand and *then* trying to use normal movement might have made it possible to crawl or roll to one side and still get some residuum out.
55:50 – I think Opal still has a pool of 6HP of healing she can give out (part of) as a bonus action. But yeah, other than that she doesn’t have any usable bonus actions. She’s already used HB Curse, and has no spell slots. And none of her cantrips are bonus actions (few are, except for Magic Stone and Shillelagh, and Grave Cleric spare the dying, so that’s not a sign of bad choices.) Moving Hex from a dead target to a new one is also a bonus action if she had it up.
1:04:00 – A Dire Wolf already has a built-in knockdown (DC13 str save) as part of its bite attack, not just with a running start. So this is fully RAW, no DM generosity needed. (Except for allowing her to shape a CR1 Dire Wolf as a low-level non-moon druid, and to attack in the same turn since only moon druids can wild shape as a bonus action.)
Some other creatures get a knockdown if they hit after moving 20 feet (often called Charge or Pounce), but Dire Wolves just get it all the time. (Pounce also allows a bonus-action attack on prone targets, Charge does extra damage on the hit. Dire Wolves don’t get either of those, and still just have one attack, but they’re very capable beasts all around.)
Aabria’s GMing style, and the play-style for this table of players, very much doesn’t seem to be about optimal tactical moves to see if they can win, it seems more about telling the story of how the players win. So bending the rules isn’t really problematic in terms of fun for this table.
Ouch, unlucky for Robbie to roll 1+1 on the 2d4 for his healing potion. He did confirm that he added the +2.
1:24:00 – yeah, you didn’t use your pool of healing. Aimee asked if she could when Dorian went down, but was told it wasn’t her turn. Literally 5 seconds later, it is her turn and she’s comes up with 3 other things to do, and picks 2 of them, apparently completely forgetting about getting her unconscious team-mate back. I have ADHD myself, but this was ridiculous. The last words she heard before "Opal, it’s your turn" were "Dorian, you fall unconscious". (Maybe guess as a new player, "unconscious party member" isn’t automatically pegged at the top of her priority list?)
Dariax is pretty tapped for spell slots, Fearne’s in wolf form (so would have to shift out to heal, and she doesn’t have any uses of Wild Shape left since she used on on herself, one on Mister). So it’s really bad for Opal to not heal.
1:29:40 – No, Dire Wolf doesn’t have Multiattack. Its bite hits for 2d6+3, and has a knockdown, and is very fast. The brown bear, also CR1, does have multiattack, 1d8+4 bite and 2d6+4 claws, but without the knockdown or pack tactics. Some other CR1 beasts have less damage on each attack and don’t have multiattack, like the Lion, so are basically weaker, only getting to make 2 attacks on prone targets. So Brown Bear is very good for straight damage output, with a +6 to hit as well as multiattack with those high-damage attacks. Even some CR1/2 beasts have multiattack, and CR1/4 Giant Badger.
1:36:34 – 2 failed death saves? Cone of Cold wasn’t a crit (and can’t be since it’s a save not an attack), so RAW that’s just 1 failed death save. I don’t think she’s rolling in something she forgot to add earlier, like fall damage from getting KOed while flying.
Also, Matt’s reaction to hearing it was CoC is correct; I was like "I know some of these characters are in campaign 3, so how the hell is this not a TPK?" It’s a 5th-level spell. (Like Animate Objects.)
The average roll of 8d8 is 8 x 4.5 = 36. 8d8 has literally a 0.02% chance of rolling 14 or lower. Even rolling under 21 damage is a 1.15% chance. (Probabilities from anydice)
This is about 10x rarer than rolling a nat20 with disadvantage (1 in 20 squared = 0.25% chance)
1:38:30 – that thing is the real Ted? Or that thing is what Ted is being drawn into? I had figured something truly wild could have happened to her that was letting her grant at least low-level warlock spells/abilities to her literal sister. But now that I think about it, it makes a lot of sense if Opal’s sister wasn’t truly human, like an avatar of something. But not a false memory; the people of Byroden seem to have heard of her. Anyway, I guessed there was some story there, but I was *not* expecting it to come out right now. I thought the elves were capturing her to extract into something, not manifest into gargantuan-sized corporeal form. So this is a cool surprise!
1:57:06 – Bless doesn’t end for a target when they’re knocked unconscious, only if the caster loses concentration or it’s dispelled from that target. You could even *cast* Bless on someone at 0HP, if you only have that and not a healing spell, to help them with death saves.
I have zero clue why both Aabria and Matt would think that Bless wasn’t active on Dorian. He didn’t die and get revivified, in which case there might be a question, he just went unconscious temporarily.
Or at least Aabria thought that, and Matt went along with it because he’s not in the GM’s seat. He’s much better than I’d ever be about holding his tongue at other GM’s tables, when not actually asked for help with a rule. Often that’s good for the game running smoothly without stopping to correct rules that don’t really matter, but sometimes I think it could be done simply and respectfully. IDK about this case, fine for the story either way.
2:03:52 – Mister’s in his fire elemental form, you’d think he’d be immune to poison damage. But no, the statblock for a Wildfire Spirit only lists immunity to fire damage. (Condition immunities to charmed, frightened, grappled, prone, restrained but not to the poisoned condition either.) Some of the other TCE "spirit" creatures, ones summoned by spells like Summon Elemental or Summon Fiend, are immune to poison.
If Ash wanted to haggle, she could point out that this large form is closer to a true elemental than normal, so maybe should get more benefits.
2:09:03 – flying up into the open sky like a skeet-shooting target, not in range of allies to help you, or of the baddie? Ok, that’s a choice. A better choice might have been to get some cover out of her line of sight, as you get closer to try to do something. (Getting behind cover before healing would have avoided counterspell.) Also, he doesn’t have any ranged abilities? No Vicious Mockery cantrip I guess?
I don’t think we know what bard college he picked; presumably one focused on melee combat, like Valor, but we haven’t seen Combat Inspiration yet (adding it to damage instead of attack). Possibly college of Swords, but we haven’t seen any Blade Flourish moves either. Otherwise he’s going to want to pick up a ranged cantrip at some point; spell slots aren’t endless especially at low levels. He gets another cantrip at lvl4, but it has to be a bard cantrip unless he uses Magical Secrets or a feat to get it, both probably not worth it.
2:11:56 "as you finally bring your scattered mind to a single purpose". Gotta love the subtle shade towards the scattered player decisions built into that narration of the character’s action. 😛 If you want to read it that way. I don’t think it was really meant in a mean way.
(For all Aimee’s indecision and scattered decision making, I like the character beats she put together for Opal, of starting out very confident not apologizing, but realizing her mortality a bit. Still doesn’t have a tactical instinct to save her life, except when it comes to flipping crocodiles, but that seems in character for Opal. I fully realize it’s her first time playing D&D so I don’t expect her to play a tactical-genius character. It’s still sometimes interesting to think about what the choices were, which might have led to different stories, or in some cases just gotten the job done with less damage taken by the party.)
Watching Matt DM is like watching a story teller try to adapt to his friends story. Watching Aabria is like watching someone purposely try to hinder the story to sway the outcome. Both are legitimate ways to dm, but one feels like a cooperative story and the other feels like constant argument. You can play DM vs PC’s but I prefer the co-op
2:43:19 This is Exandria!
Don’t catch you slippin’ up,
don’t catch you slippin’ up,
look what Aab’s whippin’ up.
Yeah, this is Exandria.
That circlet is scary, ya.
But Ted’s gonna die:
Op, you gonna wear it yet?
Whenever Matt looks proud of his fellow players, it gives me life. He always has to play it so deadpan as dm, and it’s phenomenal, but it’s nice to see him get to be part of the joy!
Finally caught up today and I don’t know what it is, but EXU really got me in my feelings. Aimee was incredible, I could really feel her emotions in this last ep, especially toward the end. I was tearing up with her. I loved all the players and characters in this so much! Aabria is just so amazing. I can’t wait for more Exandria ❤️
I absolutely loved Aimme and her learning the game. Also her Opal character.
Opal’s arc was such an interesting and moving story! Thanks so much to Aabria and the cast for this campaign!
At the end of this little series, I wanted to make some observations.
Aabria is phenomenal at hyping her players. I like her DM style quite a lot and (much like Matt Mercer) I hope I can implement some things I’ve learned from her in my own games.
Finished this episode on March 2nd 2022. A little later than I wanted, but still made it! On to the wrap up for this series, and then onto C3!
Aimee: "I’d like to slit her throat"
Robbie: *shocked pikachu face*
Is it just me or has Aabria been railroading and quite mean to Aimee this entire campaign? Whenever Aimee wants to do something Aabria shuts her down in a not so passive aggressive manner. It has been quite uncomfortable listening to this.
Shout-out to the captioner for these cause I was not expecting these impressively long videos to be fully captioned. My ADHD brain appreciated it and I’m sure any deaf critters did too. <3
Matt Mercer, the CEO of "Add a d4"
That was a really fun story and journey!
The comedy of the Pageant and moments like "Nancy!". The tension and horror of the crown and it’s potential corrupting influence by seeing Dorian switch alignments and Fearne being taunted with the darksided version of herself. Only for it to all come together with Opal and Ted. Early on Opal really reminded me of my Sister when she was a teenager. She was funny and frustrating. But seeing her develop over eight episodes. Growing to apologize to and appreciate her Sister, growing to understand the feeling of home again, to appreciate the her friends and found family. Doing whatever she could to save the Sister she resented and feuded with at the beginning. It was a great and unexpected emotional tether and character arc. And I’m really happy it finished with everyone alive, planning a band, and another season coming in the future.
why doesn’t the ring require attunement?
So. Watching this again. And seeing what has transpired.
SPOILERS!!………
………
……….
…….
if you haven’t seen the rest of episode 8 or EXU Kymal.
When Dariax was unconscious and held by myrutta and all Dorian wanted to do was heal Dariax and said he’d be willing to do anything for that. And SPIDERS come out of Myrutta’s mouth to stop her from counterspelling Dorian’s cure wounds and Lolth proceeds to tell Dorian" that’s a promise"… does that mean he owes the Spider Queen. He’s in her debts right now.. bc he already broke his promise to give her Poska ( to be her champion) bc she has Opal. He still didn’t fulfill the first deal and now he’s made another promise. PLUS INSULTED her by telling her to " f*ck off" and he didn’t want the power. So I think Dorian is not finished with the Spider Queen. Especially during Kymal part 2… the way she says Dorian’s name under her breath. Oh boy. If she’s known to want to seek vengeance on the people who betrayed or turn their backs on her. Dorian is in a DEEP spider pit. And ik " why would she bother with Dorian when she’s got what she wanted. She wanted a champion and got one" but think of the DRAMA. What reprecussions could someone get for breaking a deal with a betrayer Goddess and is now in her debt for helping him and INSULTED her and denied her. Idk why but I LOVE those kinds of tropes in animes and movies and books. Am I the only one who wishes to see more of Dorian and the spider queen?
I took the whole show to love these characters, but God am I happy I pushed through. You guys are amazing.
compassion for life ? ok… says the druid who brutally murderered people without hesitation and treatened much more XD !!!
What a finale!!!! Oh my god my sock draw is totally empty!!!!
I was wondering why Future Matt was dressed as K’thriss Drow’b
I love how they start by trying to get Matt to create another cosplay outfit. Personal I would love to see the group do the 1983 D & D cartoon cosplay. Matt of course as dungeon master. Sam Regal as cavalier. Liam O’Brien as presto. Lora as the acrobat. Marisha as the thief. Travis as the ranger. And Bobby the Barbarian by Ashley.
Liam plays a fucking ninja.
HAHA MR It is TIME TO THROW SOME SHIT
Aabria’s smile when they do anything is just stunning. It is beautiful and wonderful! I’m not crying, your crying! One chapter ends, another begins, and the cycle continues.
I loved this arc so much. Way more than I thought Ii was going to. Can’t wait to follow further
Aabria is so goddamn good at this. Generous and patient but creating immense stakes and drama. I adore her, and I aspire to be at her table one day.
Analysis paralysis. Poor Aimee.
Ohhu my godness! Cozy Matt!! Is AMAZING!!!! 0____0!!!
There’s a lot of wonderful moments in this episode, but my favorite has to be when it clicks for the rest of the table what Dorian is trying to do with the residuum after the battle. Like, you can see the pride in Aabria as one of her players uses all the information she’s given over the months to solve a problem in a way that’s absolutely thinking outside of the box with the tools you’re given, and Matt looks so deeply endeared by the choice too. I think this is some of the magic and life new players bring to the table. Older players who are more familiar with the traditional uses of residuum might never have thought of it, and Aabria might not even have meant for them to be able to make a rune themselves, but it’s just such a good bow on the story, using the lore given, that you just have to reward it. One of my favorite DM decisions of hers too is, when Dorian rolled low on his attempt, to offer the group a chance to help him in whatever way makes sense to them. The ritual was such a unifying act and absolutely made the campaign and story for me. Bless this table and their openness and heart.
HEY, there might be some SPOILERS under the thing
1:50 Doriatt announces stuff
4:35 Intro cinematic
6:10 Episode Starts
8:00 Recap Ends
9:20 We respect a crit in this house
12:50 Fearne is very dense
16:05 Alphabetical coordination
20:20 Double D
21:55 Battle begins
25:50 A flight of pigeons
28:40 Thank you for finally trying to do something about the needles
30:35 Emotions are high
33:20 Battle map out
34:30 My favorite character archetype
35:25 Get’em Nancy
37:45 Fearne locks and loads
39:05 Scatling gun
44:30 Yam phobia
48:20 HDYWTDT
53:40 Opal calls to Dariax
59:05 But can I move farther though?
1:03:15 Human teeth dice
1:10:05 Creepy proto-face
1:11:50 What part of ‘you can’t move’ do you not understand?
1:12:50 Dariax gets fresh
1:14:40 I am become Vax
1:19:25 If only I weren’t invisible
1:24:20 The offer has been withdrawn
1:27:20 HDYWTDT
1:38:30 Ted arrives
1:39:10 Break Starts
1:45:40 Art Montage
1:54:10 Break Ends
1:55:10 …rian
1:55:50 Dorian in another place
1:59:20 Dorian trusts Dariax
2:08:10 Rejecting Matt’s potions
2:10:10 No guilty choices
2:12:10 Ted speaks
2:18:25 Blood of the mountain
2:25:40 Barkour
2:30:10 Many dimensions
2:31:50 I just want to touch Dariax
2:36:00 Dariax is oblong
2:43:10 Roll good or wear a hat
2:51:00 HDYWTDT
2:59:20 Opal’s rune
3:18:05 The spell was inside you all along
3:23:10 We end
3:24:10 Orym is map dad
3:26:05 The Crown Keepers
3:28:55 Black Swan is the new sidequest
3:31:00 Post credit scene
3:32:15 Episode Ends
Any moments I missed? Feel free to post them here. Is it Thursday yet?
I love Aabria and Aimee… "Wait i have healing…"… "Is it your turn right now?!?!"
All i hear in my head is Oooooooooo
What a beautiful ending for this story. This was a such a great and emotional finally for EXU.
I keep saying it, but I love them all so much! I also am excited that we have even more wonderful individuals and characters who have crawled their way into our hearts. Thank you all!
man 5e battles are just so boring (player chars so overpowered) which kinda makes this meh
This is possibly the most unfair and worst things I have ever seen on the CR channel. It was painful to watch through.
This was terribly disappointing. There was a great deal of preparation but as happens often in this group, the DM failed to respect the choices of the players and instead forced her agenda on them. This left me feeling angry, annoyed and disappointed.
Multiply dice rolls for simple actions in order to force them to fail is cheezy. Skipping dice rolls to enable instant success is cheezy. Having ten minute conversions inside a one second sliver of a six second round until you coerce the player into doing the opposite of what she chose is cheezy. Forcing characters into disenfranchized puppetry in order to force from them predetermined outcomes is not how this game is meant to be played.
Despite that Matt knows better he supported the DM by noting that making bad choices makes for an interesting story, and he’s right; but when the choices don’t belong to the players, the whole thing degenerates to mere theater.
I do not appreciate that 70% of the time these sessions are what seems narcissistic self indulgence on the part of the DM. Leaving less than a third of every four hours available to the players to actually play the game so the DM can participate in verbal masturbation hurts player participation and the game.
Between the narcissism and heavy-handed control I can’t consider this artful gaming nor joint storytelling. It is merely drama and would be much better placed in a novel than interactive storytelling. It’s not authentically interactive when you steal the power of individual choice from the players, no matter how much cool the DM had in mind.
Opal chose not to wear the Circlet, and that character was disrespected for the sake of some artful ego-centrism. No matter the product, I think this deeply injures the state of the art of interactive storytelling.
Just watched this episode for the first time. Trying to catch up and this episode def got my feels. It’s taken me days to finish. So many feels.
Opal: Can I use pool of healing?
Opal literally 4 seconds later: Yea fuck that heres some other shit instead!
Me; mouth agape: Astonishing lol
Ok, who else needs just an entire clip reel of all the random shit Robbie says?
Opal is not a team player. Get powers then talk to sister
You know what I’ve thoroughly enjoyed throughout ExU?
The music.
To the people that manifested the lovely auditory beauty that is the music for ExU, this Critter says, "Thank you. It was a lovely treat for the ears."
From watching this, and the rest of the season, I get the feeling that Aabria and Amiee don’t like each other much?
Ok, so Matt hit a nat 20 WHILE he was heavy… shouldn’t the crit have been double then? Seems like it should have done a metric shit ton of damage under those circumstances.
" I never thought I would be this invested in flaming shit" had to be one of the funniest things I think I have ever heard on this channel.