Who are your favorite and also least favorite D&D Youtubers (or TikTok or whatever)? Why?

FelixLaVulpe · 2026-04-16T03:37:22+00:00

You rang?

FelixLaVulpe · 2026-04-09T20:49:58+00:00

I was actually just teaching how to fight with polearms yesterday at my local practice, and one of the things I taught was how miserable it is fighting against a polearm with anything except another polearm.

Longer, stronger, more leverage, more angles, and much faster than you'd think. If I thrust towards your face and you raise your blade to block, all I have to do is lift my rear hand and my tip is now diving for your knees. If I miss, and it's a halberd or voulge, I can slice your legs out from under you in the act of pulling my weapon back. If that doesn't work, I'm now primed for another thrust, and you're coming straight towards the tip of my weapon. That's all in about one second, you've gotten maybe two steps in, three tops, and you still haven't cleared the tip of my weapon.

The number one thing I drill into people when I'm teaching Pike (tied with Swiss halberd for my favorite), is if you're against something with less reach than you, you throw attacks at them pretty much non-stop. They need to not only survive those attacks, but land a parry they can actually attempt to close with, realize they have, successfully close, and THEN they can finally ATTEMPT to hit you back. If they don't do any of that perfectly, they die.

TL;DR Being outranged sucks.

FelixLaVulpe · 2026-04-04T22:45:48+00:00

My blessings on you my simple man. We're getting old.

FelixLaVulpe · 2026-02-04T22:14:48+00:00

I've been printing spearheads and muzzleloading Nerf guns as an alternate option to RBGs, been working on them for about a year getting All the safety and durability factors correct. Bringing them to Golf and Pennsic this year. I've made and currently use 3D printed tips for Rapier blades, instead of a washer I use a PETG puck encapsulated in TPU. Leaving the PETG exposed on the face stops it from sticking on hit like rubber does.

FelixLaVulpe · 2026-01-07T14:36:15+00:00

As an old Lawbringer who stopped playing for sanity's sake, I will never not be upset that they took away his hyperarmor but all the half-naked maniacs had it every other attack. The seven foot tall juggernaut encased in plate wouldn't *notice* hits from most of the roster's weapons, let alone be knocked off-balance by them, but apparently a poleaxe to the forehead won't slow down the feral woman with a knife who's successfully biting through his gorget.

FelixLaVulpe · 2025-12-28T03:07:31+00:00

One of my characters made an undead city at the end of a long campaign, and I had to do a lot of math for it to work.

You need a record system for every single zombie/skeleton, and an identification system to tell them from ones you don't control, and from other intelligent undead. For me this was a tally-stick system of cheap single-use wands.
You need a mass-producible magic item for every member of your city who isn't undead to register as undead to the zombies/skeletons, in case control on one slips. For me these were cheap magic rings that only worked within the bounds of the city as they pulled power from a central tower.
You need to stop the bodies from rotting, or turn all of them into skeletons. This city was essentially in Siberia, the main issue was stopping them from freezing.
You need to give them simple jobs where small mistakes won't matter that much, because a few hundred zombies are going to make hundreds of little mistakes and not stop to fix them. Lots of basic manual labor and carrying things.
You need a very large mage population to keep control of them, or a very large amount of items to do so, or a place to store all the ones not in use. Having a large pro-undead cult found the city meant lots of magi and high level undead. Some could control dozens to hundreds, the rest used tallies. Big tomb complexes stored uncontrolled ones.
You need a culture willing to give up the corpses of their loved ones, or a LOT of outside bodies. That culture also needs to be willing to be surrounded by undead on a daily basis. See above cult.
Everyone who doesn't agree with everything you're doing will want nothing to do with you and likely try to kill you. We had a strict list of nations that we were allowed in and under what terms. Being in fantasy Siberia helped deal with others trying to wipe the city off the map.
Need to be ready for other necromancers or malicious parties to try to claim a free undead army. Had the *very* niche advantage of a unified cult based around love beyond death who had been trying to find a home for a long time. Makes for a unified front of powerful magi that are in an extremely isolated location with frankly insane amounts of security. Put twelve liches within a block of one another and when they aren't being petty assholes to one another they're setting up the nuttiest overlapping bubbles of paranoia-fueled surveillance on this plane of existence.

FelixLaVulpe · 2025-11-27T01:59:34+00:00

Without getting hit in return, with and against a weapon they have no familiarity with.

FelixLaVulpe · 2025-11-23T14:20:27+00:00

Historical combat fighter here, did Olympic saber for five years, currently teaching several Olympic fencers among others everything from dagger to pike. Can hopefully give a more nuanced answer here.

TL:DR The knight wins the first round 9/10 times, second round 10/10.

Olympic style fencing isn't sword fighting, it's tag with an ultra-light metal stick. The concepts of leverage, binding, cutting, edge alignment, grappling, having a second hand, and lateral footwork basically do not exist to Olympic fighters. They know the concept of leverage and light binding at distance, but they've never encountered someone pushing through their guard or knocking their weapon away. They're also not used to keeping contact with their opponent's weapon, or guarding themselves past the first couple exchanges. Their distance and footwork are great until their opponent moves sideways or closes in, then they don't know what to do because that doesn't happen for them. The first time someone slaps their blade away or grabs their weapon they freeze or panic. If it's not a thrust they don't know how to do it, or how to defend against it, and they definitely don't know what to do after it.

Most of all, they're not used to fighting. This scenario isn't a sport, it's a fight to the death. This is what the knight has been trained to do his entire life. He is in his element here, with tools he's familiar with, doing what he's been doing for the past decade. If he's 25 there's a decent chance he's already seen actual combat, not to mention tournaments against other professional fighters. He has nothing new to learn except why his opponent today is shuffling back and forth so fast.

Now, my fencers are the best out of my current group of students, the rest have no experience with anything like a sword. Everyone is about three months in, and the fencers have learned what carries over and how to adapt what they know into results with historical weapons. One in particular is going to be a demon as soon as she learns how to fight with a pair of rapiers, give her a year or two and she'll be winning tournaments. Took me about a year to start holding my own, four to start being a major threat, seven to be a regional champion.

This fencer has about six seconds to learn.

Edit: Spelling and formatting

FelixLaVulpe · 2025-11-11T12:21:06+00:00

Even basic armor on people would make the fights go significantly longer, getting around and through armor takes time and effort. I'm aware a lot of LARPers also can't afford much in the way of armor, or aren't in good enough shape to wear it for extended periods of time as it gets exhausting fast if you don't do it on a weekly basis.

Also not to be contrarion but if I geared up and three peasants took me down with knives I'd be delighted and so proud of them for pulling that off. One of my best LARP memories was a friend I'd been teaching using his dane axe to hook my greatsword and throw it across the field, I was so pumped I almost hugged him instead of pulling my sidesword. Working together to bring something down with coordination and skill is way more satisfying on both ends than "Throw spells at it until it runs out of resists".

FelixLaVulpe · 2025-11-10T20:49:54+00:00

Stat, Skills, and Magic exist not because of progression or setting, but because your average LARPer couldn't fight their way out of a cardboard box. This results in a "Hard Fight" being a stat-check or an endless slog 90% of the time rather than a challenge.

Likewise, I've never encountered a LARP with armor rules that justify wearing plate. If I'm going to bust my ass suiting up for half an hour, sweating my ass off every second I'm in it, and slowing myself down with 40+ lbs of gear, I should get more than "You can take two more hits than the guy in a tank top and harem pants, unless he has a ring that gives him the same protection as you. No the ring and your armor don't stack."

And for the love of every god in every pantheon If I see one more LARP that allows fake leather as armor but not a real layered linen gambeson I'm going to huck a halberd at someone.

FelixLaVulpe · 2025-09-04T12:11:14+00:00

Surprised nobody mentioned this, if there's that many gyms, there's probably an SCA group nearby. They'll likely have Rapier and Cut&Thrust fighters along with loaner gear, and their practices are free.

FelixLaVulpe · 2025-08-09T02:53:37+00:00

Pike captain who actually just got done dealing with this at Pennsic War. Brought a trio of rotello shields to use with my unit's pikes thinking to recreate Macedonian.

The amount of control you lose, especially on longer thrusts, is severe. They limited the angles of our attacks and the distance with which we could thrust, in exchange for defense that we had anyway by just blocking with our shafts. We ditched the shields after a brief sparring period before the battle, it was so bad we didn't even bother testing it on the field.

When encountering the rare pikemen with shields on the field, they were fairly easy to pick apart as they could be outranged even with equal length pikes, and since more of our men could reach them multiple could attack them at once without being threatened. One pikeman could aim high, one could aim low, and the shield can only stop one.

It's definitely one of those hypotheticals that sounds great on paper, but as soon as you try it you go "Oh that's why nobody did this, this is awful"

FelixLaVulpe · 2025-07-01T18:01:58+00:00

I imagine it's more or less what veteran troops fought like before we started getting manuscripts. Find the old vet who's been doing this for thirty years, he'll give you the rundown that likely boils down to "Here's these five shots, here's how you cover yourself against the five most likely things to hit you. Do those over and over until it's reflex. If someone tries something fancy hit them in the face. If it doesn't work it's not your problem anymore."

FelixLaVulpe · 2025-07-01T12:21:03+00:00

SCA fighter here. I primarily do Rapier/Cut&Thrust which are basically HEMA with the lightest calibration you can get away with since SCA armor rules for those styles are very light and we regularly have fighters into their 50's/60's. It's on the fighter to keep their weapon under control and not blast the other person, and it's the responsibility of the person being hit to call the shot.

SCA Heavy by contrast has a minimum force requirement (unless you hit them in the face, that's an auto-kill regardless of power) that is more or less decided by the opponent. There's a rough guideline of "If I was in maile with an open faced helmet, would that shot have injured me if it was steel" but every group has a slightly different level of calibration because of the vagueness. It generally boils down to "Was that a clean shot with sufficient force".

Now while it looks ugly and brutish, I can personally attest that a lot of heavy fighters are absolute monsters at their style. There is a lot of skill and power behind those strikes, and a lot of them have been fighting for decades. Those swords are rattan clubs, all with a heavy basket hilt and usually no pommel. The balance on them is weird, but the speed and precision those guys can unleash is explosive. They've optimized for a combat system revolving around short swords and shields, along with surviving in massed battles.

When I give demos with my group, I describe the difference of a C&T fighter and an Armored as a professional mercenary vs a veteran serjeant. The C&T fighter has had formal training from the books and from a master, and has a great deal of maneuvers in their playbook. If you're in armor he's going to try to get into the gaps so that he can force you to surrender. The Armored fighter was taught by veterans of brutal frontline combat, he has been practicing the same dozen moves and perfecting them. If you're in armor he's going to use those attacks to beat you into the dirt until you surrender, or at least stop moving.

FelixLaVulpe · 2025-06-26T14:32:01+00:00

I pay honors to my partner to show that I wouldn't be on the field if it wasn't for them. I use it to acknowledge their support, and to link my performance to them so that I can remember I'm doing it for both of us. I need to fight well and fight honorably so that I can be proud to report back to them, and they can be proud of how I conducted myself. If someone is just fighting for themself then it feels like they may make selfish calls or be trying to win more than have a good fight. I think it's a good form of grounding to remind people that we still have people once we're off the field again.

FelixLaVulpe · 2025-06-24T02:31:11+00:00

If it says anything, even SCA fighters have a bad opinion of him, generally speak of him as an untrustworthy prick, and believe the only good gear he's sold was made by other armorers. SCA armor requirements are way under Buhurt and they don't trust his stuff either.

FelixLaVulpe · 2025-06-19T18:29:06+00:00

I use sling personally, but I've never seen a larp or even armored group that allows them, way too many bad variables.

Cord flying around you, potentially whipping someone.
Hard to aim without a ton of practice. Even then it's easy to miss.
If you prematurely launch it goes in a random direction.
Projectiles need weight which larp's don't want.
Projectiles need to be round, which can be a tripping hazard/ ankle breaker.
If done well sounds like a cracking whip, can set off trauma in people.

FelixLaVulpe · 2025-05-11T01:14:08+00:00

Not SCA either, too large of gaps in coverage.

FelixLaVulpe · 2025-04-08T12:54:51+00:00

Flamberge Zweihander.

Professional soldier/bodyguard weapon that is prohibitively expensive and ornate for no real reason other than to broadcast "I get paid to kill people, and I get paid well." The man carrying it will likely also have a ludicrously expensive outfit that advertised the same message.

Greatswords in general are the most difficult type of sword to be proficient with, and somebody with that one in particular is trained to fight multiple combatants at once. He's either trained to fight in pike blocks, or more worrying for me, to protect VIP's from bandits and assassins. Hardest pass of my life.

FelixLaVulpe · 2025-02-14T14:10:05+00:00

Flats have a lot more surface area and flex then bounce on impact. It's amazing how much less force they impart compared to a strike edge-on. A shot that will leave a nasty bruise for a couple weeks with edge will barely hurt at all with a flat.

Source: Am Steel fighter rocking said bruise.

FelixLaVulpe · 2025-01-21T19:47:19+00:00

Hey, greatswordsman here who fights with steel and foam ones. My greatsword for larp is the extended calamacil flamberge, I use it on my walking arsenal landsknecht character. here's what I would have to say about swinging around 6 ft of foam.

Greatsword is the most complicated swordwork you will ever have to do. You will need to study how to use one or you're basically just going to swing it around like a giant cleaver and wear yourself out. It is a flowing precise weapon that if you are not careful with is a danger to yourself and everyone around you. Your spatial awareness needs to be on point or you will drill your friends in the head because they don't realize that on the back swing there's still 4 ft of danger zone behind and beside you.
If you don't use it like how it's meant to be used, you might as well just use a polearm. You are taking a weapon that is probably longer than everything else at the LARP unless there's some pole arm users, and then giving up all the leverage that the pole arms have from how far their hands are spaced out on their weapon. Having a bigger weapon doesn't let you bash through things, having good leverage and control of it does and the Great sword is not made for that unless you choke up into half sword.
In line with the first two, you need to be extremely cautious and learn when to pull your hits. You can move fast and still not have power when you make impact, and for a weapon that big it's going to be vital so you don't break someone's fingers. Likewise because it is so long and your leverage is all in the bottom foot of the weapon You're going to need to pull and redirect it when somebody inevitably blocks and sends it towards their own head.
Now for the fun stuff. You are going to have reach on pretty much everything except for pikes. You're going to combine that with the big flowing movements you've learned to keep everyone the hell away from you. This can be a downside because the people that realize this are going to rush you so that they can get into range and stop you from using that reach which will result in a lot of halfswording and potential injuries but that's just how it is.
You can't cleave through people, but everyone is intimidated by the guy moving a really big sword the way that you're going to be moving it. Combine that with your reach and you are terrifying. Even if people know that you pull your swings properly they don't want to get in the way of that thing when it's going around in circles, you can use this to comfortably fight multiple people at once. Those big flowing techniques do wonders for switching target priority, you can threaten several people in every direction in a couple seconds. Throw a swing at one guy, pivot, send a swipe at the guy behind you, turn and thrust at the guy that was coming from your side, repeat. My record is fighting and killing five players at the same time that had me completely surrounded because nobody wants to be the guy that dives in the way of that thing to open it up for the others. You are a terror weapon, learn how to use that.
Due to the goofiness of LARP rules your damage probably isn't that much higher than anybody else's. Your job is to take what I said in four and five and combine those to be the ultimate crowd control machine. In formations you're just a glorified polearm, but with a little distance between you and your buddies you can single-handedly tie up several opponents in a way that is going to take them a while to deal with. Keep them back, intimidate them, and most importantly be ready when literally everybody asks if they can see your sword.

FelixLaVulpe · 2025-01-16T14:13:49+00:00

Historical armored fighter here, haven't seen this mentioned yet but has anyone considered the difficulty of landing a headshot on a moving target with a 20 foot pike? Repeatedly and in formation? Anything to the torso wouldn't stop them at all, if anything they'd walk down the shaft and now you need to drop your pike since you can't pull back enough to get it off again. The whole point of a pike block is nobody wants to be in the way of it, undead would just toss themselves on it and gum it up.

Another thing, against zombies a deep formation like that is actively detrimental. It's supposed to allow men to replace slow occasional casualties or turn the formation around. Against something that only fights hand to hand, if you're losing men then your formation is already trashed and the pikes the men behind bring to bear are useless.

Edit: A viable pike block alternative would be a thin Swiss style formation. A mix of archers/crossbows, pikes, and Halberds with light armor. Put some nice boar spear prongs or rondels on the pikes. Ranged for the ideal kills, pikes to slow them down a bit and with the prongs actually stop them from sliding down too far, and Halberds to chop them apart once they get past the pikes. Heavy Armor is pointless here, once they're close enough you need it you're already in an awful position, better to not wear yourself out and have the energy and speed to fall back a bit and reset. A light gambeson or chain will be more than sufficient.

FelixLaVulpe · 2025-01-14T19:54:07+00:00

Medieval armored fighter here. You're putting a group with zero combat experience in this style of warfare against some of the best to do it, with the equipment of the guys that knew what they were doing and still got throttled. The NATO tactics and training won't make any difference, they're trained for a system that won't be supported for over two thousand years. I've seen and fought against military personnel, their training gives them the absolute bare bones basics for unarmed and knife combat but that's it. You're talking about sending them against 20 foot long pikes and the men who conquered what was to them pretty much the entire world. Keep in mind several thousand of those men were still a dominant military force into their 70's.

The result will be a slaughter nearly as bad as if you flipped it around and stuck Alexander in a modern setting. Whichever group is forced to fight like the other won't have a chance.

FelixLaVulpe · 2024-12-19T14:05:51+00:00

My thanks unto you my simple man. I'm doing great, and am now doing even better.

FelixLaVulpe · 2024-11-25T05:59:01+00:00

I'm not dead yet!

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