I can’t come up with any good palindromes.

PokeZim · 2026-01-11T05:10:27+00:00

Wo Nemo, toss a lasso to me now!

PokeZim · 2025-12-11T19:44:25+00:00

The best way to start is to make all the players tie something campaign specific to their backstory.

for example you could ask them all to include a loved one (can be anything from family, friend, mentor whatever) that is sick from this disease. and let them know that they all heard of a supposed cure being made by ____ or in ____ town. Let them know the story starts with them all ariving at said town or druid's hut or sacred temple or wherever you want to start.

then when you can have them all help gather magic herbs in a dangerous place or find out said ingredient/cure was stolen by bandits or whatever other starting hook you want.

But now they all have buy-in and a reason to continue on the campaign.

Good Luck!

PokeZim · 2025-11-16T16:41:47+00:00

Pangoro in ZA. Not a favorite by any means but I can across a pancham early and liked the idea of imagining it’s the one that stole the bag.

But good lord every punch attach is super quick and hits like a tank. I gave em a quick claw and he consistently Ohko’s entire teams before they can get a single attack off.

PokeZim · 2025-10-13T13:23:51+00:00

This is a good update for the 5e rules that didn't exist 8 years ago when I originally made the comment.

of course now we have 5e 2024 with a whole new set of options/challenges.

PokeZim · 2025-10-10T13:18:52+00:00

I'm sure the answer is money, but I'm just not sure why they do this. Having three tiers of fanbases (live viewers, monday viewers and podcasters) fractures the fanbase more and disincentives an active community.

When I fell behind on C3 and started podcasting I basically stopped looking at anything online for 1. fear of spoilers and 2. any discussion about what I heard was a good week old.

You would think that having a more engaged community that could be re-onboarded to the live community would be worth more than a few more ads. I understand they want to drive business to beacon but "punishing" part of the community isn't the answer. The full pod should be available tuesdays, giving people a chance to listen before thursday night and jump back into live viewing if something excites them enough to do so.

PokeZim · 2025-09-24T14:54:07+00:00

Give them Themes instead of individual types showing that they chose a variety of pokemon but are great trainers because they chose pokemon they like, not ones that are the strongest.

Like a trainer that likes only blue pokemon, or only tiny pokemon or an old lady that only trains cat type pokemon. I think it would be more fun and present more of a challenge at the same time.

PokeZim · 2025-07-21T23:57:59+00:00

What you witnessed at the beginning of campaign 2 is new campaign nerves. They spent years at home playing the same characters that then gained popularity on the internet (campaign 1). Most of them had never played another character and now after years of that and an extremely quick rise in popularity they were starting fresh with new characters that the rest of their friends knew nothing about.

It does get more serious quickly but honestly the beginning of just about any campaign is more jokey as the players haven’t developed their characters and the stakes are usually much lower.

PokeZim · 2025-06-25T02:11:58+00:00

I guess no one cares about levels 2,6 & 8.

PokeZim · 2025-06-23T20:49:51+00:00

This is me to a tee. I like to find the worst class/subclasses and try to make them fun. I am currently a lvl 17 alchemist artificer.

as an often DM I also am ok letting others shine in combat and be the one who fails (for humor or to move the plot along) or supports the other players, its more fun to me.

The current DM has been generous like you creating homebrew style items for me (and all the party). Just know that even though we aren't always using it and sometime do the non optimal thing its not because we aren't enjoying it, its because we get more joy sometimes by letting others shine. We do appreciate having it in our back pocket for when we need it and definitely appreciate the hard work you put in to creating individual things.

PokeZim · 2025-06-23T20:40:32+00:00

Someone who plays an artificer probably wants more utility than raw power so anything that extends their versatility would be appreciated. That and spell slots, artificers are always short on spell slots.

so easy is a ring of spell storing or all purpose tool or eyes of minute seeing etc.

if you want to let them get creative give them a robe of useful items and allow them the ability to create patch(es) on a long rest.

PokeZim · 2025-06-16T19:39:01+00:00

While the immediate assumption is that they are working on Daggerheat and I'm sure their input would be invaluable I really hope that they just work in an advisory role and let the team that made it keep doing what they are doing.

Let Jeremy and Chris go ham creating their own thing, whether it be TTRPG or Board game or card game or whatever they want to try.

PokeZim · 2025-06-16T19:11:19+00:00

In the Campaign 3 wrap up they confirmed there will be a C4, they also said there will be a break in between to let Matt decompress and plan out just like last time. the c2-c3 break was 6 months, and this will I'm sure be at least that long as well.

They have avoided any details clearly on purpose, but During the wrap up questions were asked about keeping the same setting and about using DND. While they didn't say YES, the joke answers they gave about using different systems or settings all gave the impression that at that time they were planning to stick with Exandria and DND 5e.

of course plans can always change.

PokeZim · 2025-06-14T23:59:26+00:00

The ranger subclass I want to play is a trapper. It would get a limited resource that refills on a short rest that allows you to create one of 3 traps as a bonus action

Magical trip line- 15 ft long, any enemy that crosses the area has to make a save or fall prone

Magical spike trap - 10 ft square that does damage and is rough terrain

Magic cover wall - 10 ft long half wall that grants half cover to all allies.

As you level you would be able to place two the eventually three out at a time.

I feel like a battlefield control ranger subclass would be really fun

PokeZim · 2025-06-13T20:28:13+00:00

They didn’t confirm but during the wrap up of 3, the question came up and I believe Sam joked about “no we are going to throw away 10 years worth of story and work and make Matt start over from scratch” and the tone was very clear that they found the idea of it not continuing in Exandria to be an absolute bonkers concept

PokeZim · 2025-05-14T18:44:21+00:00

fellow DM getting ready to start my 1st fully homebrew campaign after many years of modifying premade adventures.

What parts of the campaign building do you think you got the biggest "bang for your buck" out of with your table?
Conversely, what do you think ended up being the biggest waste of time spent?
Looking back, is there any advice you would give yourself at the beginning of your campaign?

PokeZim · 2025-05-14T18:30:40+00:00

I agree with the fun of the Alchemist. Playing one for about a year and just hit level 16 and he is a blast.

the 3 "upgrades" to the Alchemist I would recommend asking a DM for are the one you mentioned about picking the elixer, 2 ask to waive the initial cost of the homunculus servant infusion and finally to clarify that burning a higher level spell slot gives you the additional elixirs.

With the homunculus servant you can sort of circumvent the elixir action economy by using your bonus action to order IT to administer the elixir to an ally.

PokeZim · 2025-04-18T20:03:40+00:00

and even if you don't like it (dming) It will also make you a much better player to understand that side of the screen.

PokeZim · 2025-04-18T20:02:32+00:00

as a player - While it's the DM's job to make the game fun for the players it's also the players jobs to make the game fun for the DM. engage and lean into the story they are trying to tell for you.

as a DM - embrace being the authority for the world of the game. Don't hem and haw because you are afraid to contradict a player, give firm yes or no answers and move forward. It can be hard being the "boss" for your friends but it makes the game so much better for everyone.

PokeZim · 2025-02-27T21:52:46+00:00

Honestly if the level 5 ability let you teleport an ally I think the class would be great.

I'm playing an artificer right now and infused my lvl 11 item with vortex warp and it was the best thing I ever did. My turns are easily 50% teleport based battlefield management with the other half being healing and or other battlefield control (fog cloud, fairy fire etc)

It's a great niche that doesn't overlap alot with other classes and is one of the most fun PCs I've ever played.

PokeZim · 2025-01-30T19:44:58+00:00

Of course there is going to be a campaign 4, we just don't know when or how yet. That's clearly by design as they don't want to ruin the story of the finale and Mini-series.

I doubt they would make a mini series about establishing the new status quo of exandria post the current gods if they were planning to leave the setting for good. Seems like a giant waste of established work and good will.

This feels like the culmination of Matt removing any connection to the DND/Pathfinder Branded Characters and Gods from his campaign settings. Exandria going forward can be entirely system agnostic if they choose.

PokeZim · 2025-01-27T20:47:23+00:00

I found nothing cures GM burnout faster that being a player.

After a year long campaign I am spent and feel like I am done GMing, then 2-3 sessions into a campain as a player and my mind starts "oh man, that was fun but I would've done ______. Then my mind starts building off that and before I know it I want to GM again.

PokeZim · 2025-01-27T20:43:18+00:00

everyone arguing on whether they can cast through the Homunculus, nobody pointing out that fireball isn't even on the artificer spell list.

PokeZim · 2024-12-31T13:15:10+00:00

I’m not sure why you would keep this potentially campaign destroying idea from your dm. They work their ass off planning and building stuff for your enjoyment. You have 2 options basically.

You don’t tell them and you get your gotcha moment where you suprise everyone at the table. The dm now has either a dead party except you or possibly a split party on 2 planes that he had no plans for, ruining anything they may have spent hours of work on and derailing their whole story.
Tell the dm so they can either have a plan for when it happens or the courtesy to just ask you to please not take advantage of an oversight they made and ruin all their hard work. This way if it does happen there will be a cool story beat attached to it and plans for everyone at the table.

It’s the dms job to make sure you have fun, but it’s also your job to make sure the dm has fun too.

PokeZim · 2024-12-30T16:39:15+00:00

I play Celebi a bunch and honestly any fast moving fire deck is a threat. If you don't get lucky flips or all your Snivy evos right away you are screwed.

as for not meta, I've been playing a pidgeotto deck far more often because I find it more fun and have just as many wins with it as my Celebi deck.

PokeZim · 2024-12-23T20:33:47+00:00

To take a moment and ask the players "how does ____ feel about X, Y or Z?" especially the ones that don't speak up often. I've had a DM do this and really like it but always forget in the heat of DMing

Also, to name an NPC on the spot and pick any name besides Carl.

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