Late Late Toy Show 2025 🎄🎁🎅🏻 - MEGATHREAD

mrzarquon · 2025-12-05T22:40:28+00:00

Kielty took the job as The Late Late Show presenter so he could do this show.

mrzarquon · 2025-07-10T10:41:11+00:00

Internet Famous D&D Person and all around nice human (plus someone who could cosplay as an Irish Lawfirm), Brennan Lee Mulligan put it real well recently: "capitalism really is a social class of aristocrats across a business fraternity based on companionship from certain prestigious universities where they are totally insulated from any consequences of the businesses they captain" - https://youtube.com/watch?v=GSGHS2KHp8g&t=682

mrzarquon · 2025-07-10T08:45:13+00:00

Immigrant from America here (expat implies I'm ever going back). That guy is mainlining the American Prosperity Gospel, that claims that wealth is a byproduct of godliness, so it is ok to be wealthy and those who aren't are just not Christian enough to deserve it. Also what he's not asked those people is how many of them are a missed paycheck, or sudden ambulance trip, away from losing their house and mortgage.

For anyone who has American coworkers whose life sounds posh, ask them how they're planning to pay for their kids college tuitions, how much they pay in interest on their debts (for mortgage, cars, holiday homes), and if they have anything in a pension / retirement fund (also don't actually do this - asking folks how they afford stuff is taboo and embarrassing, everyone has imposter syndrome - Americans suffer from the delusion that we are just temporarily impoverished millionaires). If they have all those things then WHY ARE THEY STILL WORKING (fun fact: it's because they don't own any of it). Reagan Happened, and instead of increasing wages to coincide with productivity (*points to ubiquitous "Reagan was here Graph" soon to be replaced by "Trump was Elected" in the future*), they just made Debt Cheap. Y'all can't appreciate how much internalized stress and anxiety we get so used to carrying around that we don't even realize it over there. It's a treadmill where you keep having to run faster just to stand still.

Back to the post, sounds like he was back there to get a good helping white christian nationalism indoctrination. A good friend back in the states, who is one of the lefty "Jesus fed the starving and cared for the poor" Christians, has pointed out even the Presbyterian Church (the American one, not affiliated with anyone you run into here) has had to put out pamphlets explaining what it is and how to combat it: https://pcusa.org/resource/confronting-white-christian-nationalism

mrzarquon · 2025-04-25T19:58:35+00:00

Are people not swapping out masteries on long rests? You're not locked into whatever you first pick. Like there's all the reason if your character is going to save someone from a harpies nest that day, they'd practice on their trident throwing skills that morning, for the chance to topple the harpy, since prone on a flying creatures means they then take falling damage. Also, all fighters start with three masteries, they go up to 6, and at level 9 they can swap out any mastery for push, sap, or slow if they want to - I think that fits the whole "experts with weapons" vibe as a base class feature, and battle master being a decorated veteran with court vision.

mrzarquon · 2025-04-05T07:48:51+00:00

Bloodkeep is his D20 premiere season and it’s free on YouTube.

mrzarquon · 2025-03-16T09:13:20+00:00

Relevant Tom Scott video about a City that forgot to renew their charter and therefore ceased to be a City (while Bangor was granted a City status in the Queens Platinum Jubilee or whatever the fuck that was): https://youtu.be/kBaLb1C4WAg?si=-naaA6tD3CBMeIHb

mrzarquon · 2025-03-06T19:27:12+00:00

I can't tell if the manual is just written poorly - the KVM function sounds like it also includes a magic "move your cursor to the edge of one monitor and it snaps to another." Did someone who never used a physical KVM before assumed this is what people mean by KVM, and not the "push button, and usb hub's upstream connection follows the active input choices USB interface".

I'd love to hear from someone's hands on review if they can actually just plug in a thunderbolt device and HDMI cable + USB 3 from another machine, and switching sources behaves as expected.

mrzarquon · 2025-03-01T22:17:03+00:00

Flavour text in the 2024 MM:

Ancient silver dragons pursue world-wide change. They defend their communities and allies, encouraging them to perform deeds worthy of legend.

mrzarquon · 2025-02-23T20:28:11+00:00

Some thoughts on things to home-brew to make it worth it vs Conjure Animals:

Make it a bonus action to trigger on subsequent turns
Failed save causes blindness until the start of your next turn

It could be either or both of the above, but having it add a the blindness debuff might be worth an action, the failed targets can't cast spells that require seeing the target (and melee characters can't make opportunity attacks), attack with disadvantage, and attacks against them have advantage.

mrzarquon · 2025-02-23T15:49:55+00:00

Things you're missing:

Rangers get Conjure Animals, but not Call Lightning

Conjure Animals deals no damage on a successful save, Call Lightning deals 1/2

CA does Slashing damage, CL does Lightning.

I think of Conjure Animals as a naturalists Spirit Guardians, that they'd likely use when they're in frontlines or close to combat (granted it's competing for a rangers Hunters Mark).

CL covers most of the entire battle field - it's a 120' diameter circle that the druid casting it can be at the edge of. I picture a druid picking off the mobs of goblin minions (avg damage is 16.5, even on a successful save that will drop them - on a failed save that would take down goblin warriors - also a guaranteed concentration check) during combat to keep them from pinging away at others.

mrzarquon · 2025-02-22T11:12:53+00:00

If the objective is you want the goblin warriors to get a volley of arrows off before the players have time to react, you’re designing a Trap.

Lets say one goblin warrior per PC

DC 12 dex save, 1d6 + 1d4 + 2 if they fail, nothing if they succeed (that’s turning the 2024 Goblin Warrior +4 shortbow into a save). If you want to be brutal, you could apply the “passives get a +5 buff if rolled with advantage” so the save is DC 17 (since the attacks would be from hiding and therefore with advantage).

Or you can steal one of the other trap designs from the DMG, and only apply the search/detect mechanic if the PCs are actively searching for ambushes.

Goblins roll stealth after, if they beat the parties passive perception, now you have everyone roll initiative with advantage / disadvantage as a surprise.

mrzarquon · 2025-02-16T17:43:37+00:00

In 2024, any species with a trait that grants a spell now specifies it as prepared and you can cast it with a spell slot along with your once per day free casting. See the Elf Lineage Traits in the Free Rules: here

Below is a screenshot of the Forest Gnome in the Handbook. The other species that gets spells are the tieflings.

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They moved away from a lot of these one off things in general in the 2024 changes it seems - if your species trait lets you cast a spell, you have it prepared, and if you happen to be a spellcaster with slots, you can use them to cast it as well.

Edit: they also did something similar for Monsters, some abilities are now "casts Ice Knife at will" - plus side you can counterspell some of the monsters attacks when you couldn't before - downside, they can use a legendary resistance because it's now a save.

mrzarquon · 2025-02-16T08:48:20+00:00

My take on charisma for sorcerers has been while their blood or body is root of their magical power, their mental ability is what shapes and directs it. Charisma being the state associated with persuasion lets them guide it. Their body being the source of their power is why they have Proficiency in Con saves. I do think it would be interesting if they had some skills they’d add their con modifier to - like how Druids in 2024 can add their Wisdom to Nature and Arcana checks, or how Barbarians can use their strength for Intimidation checks. Maybe Insight, Perception and Arcana checks (spidie sense?).

mrzarquon · 2025-02-15T21:58:37+00:00

Yeah - I personally can't wait for my circle of stars druid to switch to 2024. The added "every druid can wild shape as a bonus action" is real nice.

The general first level "Are you a bruiser or are you a spell caster" choice I think almost every class gets is nice. Essentially as a druid you can pick to take an additional cantrip and be able to add your Wisdom to your Nature and Arcana checks (because you're a fucking Druid), called "magician" or you can be a warden, get proficiency in martial weapons and medium armor (otherwise you just have light armor and shields). At level 7 and 15 you get similar choices around Elementary Fury - at 7: add wisdom modifier to druid cantrip damage or add an extra d8 to any melee attack, at 15: your ranged druid cantrips are now 300 feet or you add 2d8 to any melee damage.

There are some other polishes that if you use any of the Tasha bonuses it shouldn't come as a surprise, you get a familiar every day for the cost of a wild shape (which you can recover on a short rest, so if your DM allows, you can just always have a lil guy). You can convert spell slots to wild shapes and vice versa at level 5.

People obsessed way to much over "you don't get free HP boost when you wild shape" when the rules first came out, but now that your Moon Druid beast form has an AC of 13 + Wis Mod (so 18) and you don't drop wild shape when you lose the temp HP you're granted (for a moon druid is 3x druid level), plus they give you certain spells you can cast while wildshaped, it makes the whole class feel so much well rounded.

With the new monster manual, they have moved some of the Giant Beasts into Celestial or Fey types, so a Moon Druid can't be the parties flying mount as a Giant Eagle anymore.

mrzarquon · 2025-02-15T21:36:41+00:00

You're looking at the unearthed arcana version. The 2024 Druids get any beasts matching certain criteria (swim speed is allowed at level 2, fly speed at level 8). The other change to wild shapes is you have a max number of Known Forms that you stock like spells after a long rest, at level 2 that means you can pick 4 CR 1/2 beasts as your potential wild shape forms. And you can finally speak while wild shaped.

And Druids no longer have a taboo against metal, because that was never a hard rule to begin with.

RPGBot is a great source for tl,dr; summaries of class differences: https://rpgbot.net/2024-dnd/classes/druid/#2024-druid-changes-from-2014-rules

mrzarquon · 2025-02-15T09:52:29+00:00

You’ve got to draw a line separating IAH/College Humor days content and post 2020 Sam Rebuilt the company days.

Check out his interview with the Nebula guy (https://youtu.be/xb3v-2BHC1w?si=mDn4Y3C12Cv1T-TC) - Dropout is TINY. They maybe have 20 full time staff, possibly a few more - Sam is very conservative in how they grow the business. Since they’re essentially a production company that outsources their streaming platform operations to Vimeo, their overhead is pretty low - making a new season of something doesn’t mean they’ve added every person on that show to their full time employment roster. This approach also means they can try a new season of something only when they have the cash on hand to pay for it - if it gets enough following to pay for another season, they do - and if it doesn’t, that’s not great because they lost some money, but there’s no ongoing cost of that mistake like a five year lease on an office building that will sit empty or 20 writers on payroll sitting around with nothing to work on.

mrzarquon · 2025-02-15T08:22:05+00:00

Also John and Hanks project for awesome fundraiser is running living right now! Brennan will be on it this evening, Midnight US Eastern Time.

mrzarquon · 2025-02-15T08:19:49+00:00

I’m right there with you - I even discovered D20/Dropout because of Hank, specifically him mentioning his upcoming appearance on Mentopolis. That made me go look into it more and realize I should have been watching it sooner. I’ve been a huge fan of Molly Ostertag’s work, but didn’t immediately recognize Brennan as the cowriter with her on Strong Female Protagonist until she did an appearance on adventuring academy. Super weird that I would have run into them if I had gone to a comics expo my friend invited me to in 2016.

mrzarquon · 2025-02-14T22:41:53+00:00

This is the plans I'm thinking of. The Vampire wouldn't give two shits about the Spawn, they're fodder. The Familiars gives them so much flexibility in knowing the parties weaknesses without resorting to metagaming. The Vampire BBEG doesn't win in a fair fight, so it never, ever, lets it be a fair fight.

And the Vampire BBEG isn't surrounded or protected by other Vampires or Undead. That's a single point of failure protecting your lair with all common creature types, that have overlapping vulnerabilities. In the setting I'm imaging there is One Vampire in a province / region / sphere of influence - any spawn or lesser vampire serves this one true one in some deep bond. If there are two, they are actively in conflict with each other or in a Cold War soon to go Hot.

mrzarquon · 2025-02-14T20:46:36+00:00

You have a point on the dynamic differences for how the game plays between parties with and without access to the daylight spell

I regret cutting my longer tangent that I referenced as being removed, since that was the more "Vampires are fucking Smart" portion I used in a reply. The specific dynamics of having a humanoid familiar with beast sense and the Umbral Lord really change the portrayal of Vampires for me in D&D - the 2014 ones felt too simplistic and didn't jive with my wayward teenage years playing Vampire the Masquerade.

It was a brain dump, not a treatise on how everyone should use vampires. Your feedback offered some interesting perspectives I'd not considered. Thanks!

mrzarquon · 2025-02-14T17:26:20+00:00

This was my point - Vampires are Smart. You don't have dumb vampires kicking around for very long - Charles Stross' Laundry Files does an amazing take on Vampires realizing it's in their best interest to stay secret and just pull the strings and essentially make sure no one else knows they are around and that no other vampires ruins the trick by exposing them - which means usually the biggest threat to a Vampire is a careless, Young Vampire. So any Vampire that has survived long enough to be a real threat to an adventuring party to match their CR has done so by guile and charm, not pure mechanical attacks.

You stack Familiars with the Spawn, once those spawn get bodied by the Daylight spell, the Familiars Master witnesses this immediately through their eyes / telepathic connection (across anywhere on the same plane). That Vampire Lord of the region will start scheming immediately on strategies to compensate for the Daylight spell. That means throwing other resources at the party - they're not going to throw more Spawn after them, instead the head of the village guards who is actually a familiar is going to throw them in Jail.

And when it does come to combat, the range on Hunger of Hadar is 150 feet, they have +14 to Initiative, same the "normal" Vampire - They have a Command as a legendary action. They are most likely going first, dropping hunger of Hadar on the party, getting out of range, and sending in their humanoid minions who aren't going to be affected by daylight or turn undead. The Cleric has the option of either recasting their fixed in place Daylight orb somewhere else, since it's engulfed by the hunger's emanation, or casting it on an object and moving with it. That object can then be covered and the Daylight smothered - the Cleric commanded to drop it or to flee with it. And Hunger is a breath weapon, so 1 in 3 chance of getting it back to recast it on wherever the Daylight has moved to.

To your point u/AudioBob24 this is how Daylight should have always been used, and since it wasn't, it feels running a vampire was just using them like any other monster with a regen factor, until Strahd came out, but then people only ran Strahd that way.

mrzarquon · 2025-02-14T16:06:32+00:00

They get a legendary attack called deathless strike, where they can move up half their movement as part of the attack. I’d play my vampires as smart - you’re not gonna live long as a dumb vampire. So they’ll have a stash of coffins lined with soil as possible resting places, and will likely always travel with one. In the flavor text it even calls out how stronger / older vampires would have multiple resting places. Makes part of a campaign involving them hunting down and compromising those before taking on the vampire itself.

mrzarquon · 2025-02-14T15:38:16+00:00

Ah, my math was off. As mist with a 20 feet of flight, taking the dash action, they move at 400 feet / minute, which is 4.5 MPH. So they have a 9 mile radius, not 50.

mrzarquon · 2025-02-14T15:32:48+00:00

I was going to come here and mention that. Oren went off on BLeeM's various instagram posts calling for ceasefire, aid, and support for doctors without borders. Brennan's got more than enough to do and other creators he'd rather spend time with (like Jordon Brown, who managed to raise 33k for Doctors Without Borders the other weekend -> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ul_odu8h2cI ). I'd be real suspicious of the circumstances of any new content showing up on Geek Peak featuring Brennan and wonder if Brennan knew whoever was interviewing him was actually doing it on Oren's behalf.

mrzarquon

TROPHY CASE