Crypt of Knowledge
Season 2 Episode 12 - Beyond the Basics: Understanding Conditions

Conditions in D&D can be confusing. There are many of them, and several overlap and build on previous ones. Despite this, conditions can have a major affect on your characters and the game. From going blind, being stunned, or even petrified, we'll break down all the nasty things that can happen to you on this episode of the Crypt of Knowledge.

00:00 - Introduction
01:17 - What are conditions in D&D?
04:30 - Listing conditions and their effects
38:00 - Exhaustion
44:01 - The long goodbye

We want to thank each and every one of you for joining us on this journey. We hope that we've been able to teach you a few things and enrich your enjoyment of this wonderful hobby. Continue to learn and grow, and may the dice rolls forever be in your favor!

Thanks for joining us! Be sure to check out cryptofknowledge.com for more information, tools, and exclusive member benefits.

Crypt of Knowledge
Season 2 Episode 11 - Class Act: The Rage and Fury of Barbarians

This week we take a deep dive into our favorite raging warrior, the barbarian. 5th Edition has done a wonderful job with adding diversity to the play styles of the barbarian, as well as most of the other classes. No longer are you destined to only smash everything, now you can smash everything with lightning or the help of your ancestors. We'll give you all the tips you'll need to build the best Conan of your dreams, along with breaking down all the subclasses, on this episode of the Crypt of Knowledge.

00:00 - Introduction
02:11 - What is a Barbarian?
03:21 - Who would enjoy playing one?
05:15 - Important barbarian stats
07:29 - Things every barbarian have
27:42 - Path of the Berserker
34:29 - Path of the Totem Warrior
43:48 - Other Primal Paths
53:50 - Possible feats that work well with the class
58:04 - Our top 3 Primal Paths
1:02:18 - Coming up on the next episode

Did you miss our conversation on feats? Be sure to check it out here to learn how to improve your character builds.

Thanks for joining us! Be sure to check out cryptofknowledge.com for more information, tools, and exclusive member benefits.

Crypt of Knowledge
Season 2 Episode 10 - DM Speak: Controlling Unruly Players

If you've played D&D for long, you've probably been at a table that had at least one player that caused problems. It's becoming an increasing problem as more games move online and tables aren't just made up of friends. We'll take a look at seven different types of unruly players and give you our ideas on how to handle them at your tables on this episode of the Crypt of Knowledge.

00:00 - Introduction
01:20 - Stories of unruly players
11:28 - Players with different expectations
13:41 - PVP players
21:45 - Meta gamers
26:33 - Murderhobo
30:09 - Rules lawyers
32:23 - Lone wolves
36:29 - Distracted players
42:27 - Coming up on the next episode

Session Zeros are an important start for any table. If you missed our conversation about them, check it out here!

Thanks for joining us! Be sure to check out cryptofknowledge.com for more information, tools, and exclusive member benefits.

Crypt of Knowledge
Season 2 Episode 9 - Beyond the Basics: Understanding Feats in D&D

Since 5th Edition was released, people have argued over whether it was better to improve your ability scores or take a feat every 4 levels. Feats are powerful changes to the way your character plays, sometimes even adding increases to your ability scores themselves. While sporting a list that includes over 60 published feats, they still seem to be under-utilized in 5th Edition. We'll discuss why they're important to your character build, when the best time to take them is, and give you our list of must haves on this episode of the Crypt of Knowledge.

00:00 - Introduction
02:22 - What is a Feat?
05:13 - The different kinds of feats explained
14:44 - ASI vs Feats
20:50 - Our list of must have feats
35:03 - Coming up on the next episode

Did you miss our discussion on the Fighter class? We went in depth during that discussion about feats that fight that class.

In this previous UA discussion, we talked about changes to some of the feats, including Alert.

Thanks for joining us! Be sure to check out cryptofknowledge.com for more information, tools, and exclusive member benefits.

Crypt of Knowledge
Season 2 Episode 8 - UA Unboxing: Druids and Paladins

Wizards has released another playtest UA for One D&D. This time they're covering druids and paladins. Both classes get lumped in with the cleric to form the Priests subgroup, which might give you some idea as to what they're trying to focus these three classes on. This UA definitely brings some big changes that completely change the way these classes are played, especially the druid. So listen in as we break down everything that changed on this episode of the Crypt of Knowledge.

00:00 - Introduction
01:44 - Druids are now priests
33:27 - Circle of the Moon changes
40:52 - Paladin's get smited
52:58 - Oath of Devotion rework
58:09 - Spell reworkings
1:06:40 - Coming up on the next episode

Did you miss our episode on how martial classes work? No worries, you can find it here!

Want to know more spellcasters like the druid? We've got you covered with this review episode.

Thanks for joining us! Be sure to check out cryptofknowledge.com for more information, tools, and exclusive member benefits.

Crypt of Knowledge
Season 2 Episode 7 - Class Act: Rolling For Divinity With Clerics

Clerics often get the bad rep of only being healers. But with the addition of subclasses in 5E, the cleric has a wide array of play styles to choose from. This week we'll take a deep dive into everything that makes a cleric tick. We'll discuss which stats are most important, the abilities every cleric gets, and break down how each divine domain works on this episode of Crypt of Knowledge.

00:00 - Introduction
01:33 - What is a cleric?
08:05 - Most important stats for clerics
10:31 - Abilities all clerics receive
32:52 - Describing divine domains
36:40 - Life domain
43:54 - War domain
51:35 - Trickery domain
55:45 - Other domains
1:04:43 - Goose and Blake's top 5 domains
1:07:39 - Coming up on the next episode

Thanks for joining us! Be sure to check out cryptofknowledge.com for more information, tools, and exclusive member benefits.

Crypt of Knowledge
Season 2 Episode 6 - DM Speak: Integrating Backstories

Every DM dreams of their players coming to the table with a well thought out backstory. But what happens if they're not comfortable with that type of writing? We'll take a look at how you can help your players write deep backstories that fit into your world, how you can use their background to get started, and why it's important to integrate their backstories into the main story line on this episode.

00:00 - Introduction
06:39 - What is the difference between background and backstory?
10:21 - Why use character backstories?
23:11 - Give players the freedom to fit into your world
35:52 - Try to find connections between backstories
49:27 - Check in with players as their backstories might evolve
54:53 - Coming up on the next episode

Thanks for joining us! Be sure to check out cryptofknowledge.com for more information, tools, and exclusive member benefits.

Crypt of Knowledge
Season 2 Episode 5 – Hack & Slash: Playing A Martial Class

We  reviewed the entirety of the spellcasters recently. Now it’s time to  discuss their counterparts, the martial classes. Since as far back as I  can remember, D&D fans have debated who was better, the martial  classes or spellcasters. The argument has diminished somewhat since  there’s no clear distinction in 5E, but it’s still relevant. We’ll take a  look at each class and give our insight on what stats are best for each  build, what roles they fill in the party, and rank them based on how  easy each one is to play on this episode of Crypt of Knowledge.

00:00 – Introduction
02:45 – What is a martial class?
03:25 – Martial vs spellcaster argument
13:27 – The fighter
18:29 – The barbarian
24:05 – The rogue
33:47 – The paladin
43:45 – The monk
51:11 – The ranger
1:00:18 – The bard and artificer
1:06:19 – What roles can martial classes fill?
1:11:25 – Coming up on the next episode

Did you miss our episode on spellcasters? Go back and listen to it here!

Want to know more about the fighter? We did an entire breakdown of the fighter class you can listen to here!

Thanks for joining us! Be sure to check out cryptofknowledge.com for more information, tools, and exclusive member benefits.