D&D Court: Invisible T-Rexes, Potion Cocktails, and a Visit to Swords R' Us

These podcasters are truly amazing because when Boston Powers comes up you can actually hear the light leave Murph's eyes

I doubt anyone cares at this point, but in British Columbia, Canada there is a Boston bar. That's the literal name of the city

Really late to the game, but I had to look up kayfabe....it gives me the Wiggins for some reason, possibly bc it has no real etymology and nobody knows exactly how it came into being. It's not even an old word...it's from the 80s. It's cursed and I hate it

Playing an assassin with that crit rule and being able to deal 8d6x2+48 functionally once a combat feels a little broken. And a paladin that crits is dealing plus 70 damage for two seconds level spell slots with divine+branding smite. That's potentially what 210 damage?

I use two variant crit rules in a couple of games I run. In one of them when someone gets a crit they get max on the initial die and roll to add to it. In another game we double the damage die and they explode on a max roll. Both are very fun and take away the sting of getting a crit and rolling super low.

If there's anything we all learned from Breath of the Wild it's that a) you can absolutely find a random sword in the swamp while pursuing other interests and b) that sword will be rusty and nasty and break within a day. This DM screwed themself into giving the player a nicer quality weapon.

See, my DM does a rule where a nat 20 is max on the first damage roll and then whatever you roll as the second dice roll. So if it's a 2d6 damage attack, you get 12 plus whatever you roll. So it could be 24 if that second roll is also a 12, so it isn't too crazy until you stack on all the extra stuff you can add at higher levels. So far everyone at the table has loved the rule. Even for a character that doesn't do as much damage as the barbarian does, it's still exciting to get that extra little boost from the rule. And with spells like silvery barbs, you can take crits away from an NPC, and there's other ways to impose disadvantage. That being said though, if the whole table isn't enthusiastically for a homebrew, don't force it on them.

Lost it at Murph's "Goddamit" when they all gang up like idiots and say murph invented No, But

Looking forward to emilys next oneshot being the team play aquatic creatures in dnd. 😀😈

Fun fact: octopi have actually been known to battle each other using improvised weapons such as rocks!

Point of order: do we necessarily need to submit a case for consideration, or can we just lob insults at Jonk if we’re feeling cheeky? Asking for a friend.

We need a Flintstones/Austin Powers crossover episode so that Emily and Murph can enjoy a nice couple's vacation

Shout out Bogstown, MN.

Can we please get a "pickle your dice" hoodie in the shop? I would buy it and wear it everyday of my life. I would wear it to my wedding.

Allllllsoooooo.... If you're gonna buff crota to that level it's fine - just buff HP improvements too. The way Jasper does it with max+roll isn't stat breaking because it's already possible. ... Whilst it's similar to the half orc buff where crita add an extra damage die it still feels a litter "extra" for everyone to have that.... Imo

Interesting noone is pointing out polymorph is a SIGHT spell and if the target is invisible... Unless the wizard has true sight, they would not see it this not being able to cast the spell at all. I appreciate the dispute is over invisibility semantics but ... If you're gonna nit pick with one thing.... 🤷🏼‍♀️

I can’t believe they forgot about swordfish!!

the wizard would have broken their invisibility by casting Polymorph, and the property damage via t-rex would still be considered an attack. Did the t-rex get to roll damage dice? I would say the only party member still invisible should have been the bard

In regards to the first case Even if the dm wanted to shoe-horn that, 'no battle had ever taken place here', he could even use it as a really cool mystery plot point, 'As you say that to your new companion you actually remember a conversation you had last week. There village boy who wanted to become a great Warrior and your grandmother remarked to him. "There's never been a battle here ever. Not even my grandparents saw battle",' It only just now occurs to you, the sword is too new for your grandmother to not have known of an origonating battle. There was far too little rust or wear from time when you first found it. So you think where did this sword come from?

i do something similar as the homebrew crits in my game. except it’s max damage and then roll damage on top of that. so it’s like doubling dice but one roll is max damage.

In the Trinyvale X bahumia Jens gets the berserk sword doesn't he ?

Might not mean much, but I did some improv stuff at Second City for 3-4 years, definitely heard No, But all the time.

Boston Powers completely got me omg

Austin Powers one shot confirmed??

"the game is pretty balanced" Caldwell has never done a DPR calc in his life

That HBS tease…. PLEASE give us more I beg you.

Murph has become a dice Christ sin eater.

Clarification on the first case: everyone was invisible and THEN the wizard cast polymorph. Rules as written, you have to be able to see the creature to cast polymorph. I propose that everyone is wrong in this case :)

How do you get a 20 on initiative as a level 14 monk (22-25 initiative) and then get subjected to 7 dex saves before your turn starts? Some key info seems missing

I love using the variant crit rule both as a player and DM. They make the game have higher stakes and let you actually kill and be killed. However I'm fine with moving into new characters and usually have a revive mechanic in my campaigns

There’s a Boston in Lincolnshire, UK. Maybe you should do an ‘All Boston’ world tour

15 rounds of combat is frankly a unhinged amount of combat stun or not how did that even happen? I’ve played 4-5 sessions of straight combat that only reach 9 turns maybe 10 of combat max in like a crazy big battle; I can’t imagine playing a game where that happens so casually.

Let's replacing talking about "the elephant in the room" with "the invisible T-Rex."

The trex case is being argued for all the wrong reasons. Everyone is arguing the invisibility but polymorph requires you to see the target. Invisible = no polymorph

Emily please don’t joke about more hot boy summer. Just do it!! One of my all time favorites things you’ve all done and everything you all do is a banger. More hot boy summer please 😁

wait for the Posessed barbarian case (around like 37:00) when they said 15 rounds did they mean like 15 rounds of going through the entire party and the enemies and then back to the barabrian is 1 round? because if it was that i don't think i have ever experienced a combat that has taken over 15 rounds before. And if the barbarian did 15 separate checks to try and succeed and the DC was 10 without modifiers the chance of failing 15 times in a row is 1/32768 and since they probably had modifiers so it would probably be even greater. My question is thought what do they mean when they say 15 rounds of combat?

That crit damage rule would be a sick rule while in a level of hell or something

The first GM (pathfinder) is probably misinterpreting lore. The grippli are peaceful and try hide rather than fight because they're aware they're small, but the Mwangi Expanse is DEFINITELY a place of several battles, most recently an invasion by the devil worshipping Cheliax Empire

I'll be so sad if there isn't an Austin Powers reference when you guys come to Boston now 😂

There is a Boston Canada by the way not many places for a live show but there is a church haha

Merfolk aren't using swords on each other Murph? Come on. :D

Bastard sword is like a lot of weapons in D&D it sounds, a d8 with one hand or d10 with 2

I have a modified crit rule that maxes the base dice and let's you roll the dice like normal. So a 2d6 greatsword is 12+2d6 instead of 4d6. Crits that roll no damage are sad. I only do that crit rule for "named" npc and bosses so a bandit doesn't kill my players randomly

How did no one bring up swordfish

YES I love DnD court. I wish my players would prosecute me. 💦 Ithink I'm going be gradually more and more out of pocket and plug NADPOD in order to subtly arrange this. Jk Denis and Greg pls don't hate me if gnolls kill you

To Murphs credit I’ve heard “no but…” on the dungeon and daddies podcast a few years ago. They’re mostly made up of writers then improv people. However every time someone explains “yes and…” I say “no but…” they crack up because most people haven’t heard that before.

How did the judges miss that polymorph requires you to see the target so with already being invisible the PC wouldn't of been able to be targeted.

PLEASE come to Vancouver CANADA 😭

My DM, on a crit, has a home brew rule of full damage on one dice and then roll the rest. So you don’t get the sad feels when you roll bad and feel like you’ve wasted a nat 20, but you still get to roll and make that gamble. It works really well in our group!

The auSTANs will be after Murph on this one ..

Yes and, no but, maybe or should be Murphy's Law.

boston powers made me SNORT bless you emily

In regards to the mistrial. After hearing the facts I have come to a conclusion the Crit didn't mention. Invisiblity drops when a target attacks OR casts a spell. The wizard did indeed CAST polymorph on the barbarian. Therefore the wizard, of his own decision, dropped invisibility. If the DM would dictate that the T Rex lost his invisibility, then the bard would be the only player still invisible

I agree with them that rolling a nat 20 on initiative feels like a letdown most of the time

Thank you Murph for taking on my burden.

PLEASE give us more hot boy summer. The world needs it

I feel for that dice christ confession so much. I'm playing a wild magic sorcerer and I can't make a perception check or attack roll to save my damn life, but I keep critting on my wild magic rolls, which is just blue balling both me and my DM 🤦‍♀️

I'm partway through the first case and I gotta say Emily is 100% right on the sea battle thing especially as this case is about Pathfinder/Golarion and I know there have been undersea wars fought there between Merfolk and Sahaugin Empires!

“No, but…” - Brian Murphy

You can’t unravel a sweater if you don’t have a plan to put on new sleeves!!!! ❤️😤🧶😌💖⭐️🪄🙏💯🥵🎊🤷🏻‍♀️

I'm only 12 minutes through, but the fact that they are naming fish who would fight with swords, and no one mentioned the literal swordfish is crazy.

Emily trolling Murph about "no, but" is outrageous. I'm dead.

The crit homebrew is just not tuned well. It's one thing if you want to say that you get the max damage on the weapon die added to your normal damage roll, but giving max damage of the total dice is already too much and adding double the normal number of dice on top of that makes it extreme.

So at my table when there's a crit we call them crunchy crits and I have adopted this from another DM. When you crit, it's Max damage plus a normal dice roll. The math, 1d8+3 becomes, 11 + 1d8+3 rolled. It's worked out nicely for both my tables but at times, I feel like it could go bad fast

That crit rule sounds like the rule they use on a different DND show called High Rollers. Mark Hulmes is the dm and he experiments with all kinds of homebrew (with the enthusiastic participation of the players of course). It's one of my favorite shows! Anyone interested in seeing the rule in action should check it out!

On the topic of deadlier crits (that max damage + double dice), that's always going to end up hurting the players. Back in 3rd edition D&D and 1E Pathfinder, you had to confirm crits (when you crit, roll another attack and bypass the AC or it's a normal hit) and players would initially not like that because it can negate their crits... but weapons in those editions can have x3 or x4 multipliers on crits. No confirmation on crits meant a lot of dead players, and I saw this first hand when we threw that confirmation rule out. Deadlier crits are going to hurt players because the DM simply rolls more dice

That crit rule would be wild, especially at mid to high CR. A fire giant rolling a nat 20 with a rock throw would go from doing 51 damage on a crit on average, to 91, which could easily one-shot people at around that level.

This is the second time the “no, but” has been introduced by Murph and Emily says “I’ve never heard that before”. Love the continuous gaslighting from our girlboss!!

Boston, Ontario. Just outside of Hamilton.

The DM in the KayFabe case is a great friend

Austin Powers being Murph's Flintstones is giving me life.

I had trouble listening to the judges answering the very first question, because I was distracted daydreaming about all the fun story possibilities of sword finding that don't move the physical location of any historical battles. Maybe someone given a Boromir funeral floats by or sadly ran aground or sank, and he robbed the grave of the nice sword balanced on the breast of a warrior laid to rest. Maybe you could have the original owner be angry that he took it. So much fun to be had, and the DM says 'no'.

re: invisible T-Rex. many people here point out that in order to cast polymorph, you have to see the person you cast it on. while the rules say that invisible creatures are invisible to all except those who have innate or magical ability to see invisibility, I have played at a table where the dm ruled that creatures made invisible through the same spell could still see each other, there could have been a homebrew rule like that active. if it were up to me, the wizard would have lost invisibility in casting polymorph and I would have allowed the polymorphed player a choice: let’s keep the ground smashing and have it do damage, in which case they lose invisibility, or rule that the dino-destruction is just flavour, in which case the dino stays invisible. ps: Hearing you jokingly gaslight the hell outta Murph is always hilarious, keep it up

Letting the T-rex deal immediate extra damage when they polymorphed was a Nice Gift from the DM, it makes sense for it to have the pretty minor cost of losing advantage on one attack. All the DM did mechanically was upgrade the invisibility advantage to a free aoe attack, which created a cool moment and only made the polymorphed T-rex more effective that first turn, so really the players can't complain. (This is assuming only the T-rex lost invisibility.)

The dm gave them a free attack on the transformation! Polymorph by the book only allows you to transform if you have enough space. The DM gave you free damage, I suppose. If you really wanted to stay invisible you could have declined all the free damage. Anyway I guess I agree with Murph I'm just mad about thus one.

Might be the quickest they have driven Murph into irrate mode

The craziest part is that the Mwangi Expanse, in canon, is absolutely riddled with sites of ancient battles versus demons and cultists. There's a whole creepy abandoned city about it and everything.

Ad&d 2e actually has a section in the dmg about combining potions, it states that the DM rolls a D100 and uses the results in the table, 1 = an explosion (6D10 if swallowed together plus 1D10 to anyone within 5 feet, 4D6 to everyone in 10 feet if it's mixed externally) 2 or 3 = Lethal poison, player dies. 4- 8 mild poison...you don't start getting good results until you roll above 36...even then its pretty lackluster unless you roll 00 which means one of the potions works but becomes permanent. Its on page 142 of the dmg

The invisible T-Rex is a moot question as polymorph requires the caster to be able to see who they're targeting so the target should be out of invisibility in the first place.

a note for if the invisible t-rex mistrial is retried in our esteemed court: to murph’s note about everyone losing invisibility - because the bard held concentration, they should stay invisible, and the wizard would lose it in the process of casting polymorph. t-rex barbarian is contested ofc. the evidence I think is MORE relevant is that Polymorph’s range is a creature you can SEE. so how did the wizard see the invisible barbarian in the first place to even turn them into the that t-rex? 🦖 🧐🤨🤨

Damn, they'll go to Boston (Canada) before they come to Alberta. Please two crew Alberta got way better mountains then Boston (Canada) , and if that doesn't convince you I'll start work on the slideshow now.

On the polymorph case, as soon as the Wizard casted polymorph onto the other player, the wizard would have also lost invisibility

Please more hot boy summer!!!

Murph chiming in as Jake is reading the case of the Shadowed DM with "perfect, we're done!" got me good 😆

Perfect timing for my Friday arvo (🇦🇺), thanks mates!

Gaslight Murph harder please.

Joke's on Murph, Emily *did* "No, But" him. "No, I've never heard of 'no, but', But I bet you invented it."

We used to do a homebrew where the crits had one max die and the rest were rolled. That way we were guaranteed to do some good damage without overwhelming it

Rules as written polymorph requires you to SEE the creature you’re casting it on

Only 6 minutes in and we already got a Murph dog pile I love it

ah...shoutout to my favourite style of sword

Finally, a new episode of my favorite court show!

For invisibility, it's pretty cut and dry. It's only considered an attack if you make an attack roll. It doesn't matter if you deal damage or not.

Jake dropping the Na’vi “I see you” was everything. I see you, Toruk Makto 🦅

Whale-vs-whale battles, their sonic cries shaking apart the lesser minions indiscriminately. Orca assassins crafting chaos behind enemy lines.

so we have a mechanic similar to the crit homebrew called "crunchy crits" where you roll only the normal amount of dice from your attack and then add the max damage from your attack, but you don't double the dice for what you roll. i like this as it doesn't actually add any extra damage to your crits, it just makes you more likely to roll closer to the maximum amount of damage from doubling the dice

the whimper that leaves Murph's mouth after "Get in my belly" killed me, then brought me back to life

Going from 2d6 to 4d6 on a crit into 2d6 to 4d6+12 on a crit is like over tripling damage on average, especially with a paladin in the party if you maxmize smite dice then do double dice on top of the normal weapon dice, that's like 60 damage minimum on a 5d8 smite with a two handed weapon

There’s apparently 28 cities in the world named Boston and only 16 of them are in the US

Just started it, but wanted to say that the town of Portland Oregon was almost named Boston. The two founders (Francis Pettygrove and Asa Lovejoy) both wanted to name it after their hometowns, Portland Maine and Boston Massachusetts. It was decided by a coin flip. I have often wondered what it would be like if the U.S.A had two cities named Boston.

as someone who has done a lot of improv, the "no, but" rule is ABSOLUTELY a thing. i hate to agree with murph, but such is life

Well, Canada does have a Boston Bar and a Boston Creek...but no just Boston that I've been to.

my god the gaslighting this early on is beautiful

Dun dun! Woooooo!

dnd court!! I missed her

Dun dun!!!!!