Rogue Deep Dive

 The Rogue is one of the most unique classes in D&D, as the only martial/physical damage dealer that doesn't get extra attack, but can deal massive bursts of damage, as well as having tons of capabilities outside of combat, with a strong emphasis on skills. As Jeremey Crawford says in the beginning of today's deep dive on the 2024 Rogue, the main goal was simply not to break what already worked.

Rogues will be getting the shiny new toy that is Weapon Mastery, as all non-Monk martial classes do. I think it's worth noting that the Vex mastery can be very good for Rogues - it causes you to gain advantage on the next attack you make against that target, meaning that a Rogue who hits with a Vex weapon could be setting themselves up for Sneak Attack turn after turn if they keep hitting. While other Masteries will certainly have their appeals for the Rogue, Vex feels particularly built for them.

The other really awesome new feature coming in for all Rogues is Cunning Strike. Gained at level 5 (and with additional options coming in at later levels, including from subclasses,) this allows the Rogue to essentially spend Sneak Attack dice as a resource on a hit. For example, if you landed a Sneak Attack on a target, you could forgo one of your d6s (of which you'd be getting 3 at level 5) to force the target to make a Dex save or be knocked prone. (The DC is determined by your Dexterity, so note that Arcane Tricksters will need to be aware of two separate DCs, one for your spells and another for your Cunning Strike).

What I think is really cool about this is that the Rogue remains endlessly renewable - while Arcane Tricksters and Soulknives will still have some diminishing resources to track, other Rogues will basically be fully capable as long as they've got their Hit Points all day long - the resource this feature spends is one that is generated in the moment with each sneak attack.

Steady Aim, an optional feature from Tasha's Cauldron of Everything, will also be making it into the base Rogue, so you can forgo movement on your turn in order to give yourself advantage on an attack as a bonus action.

Essentially, it'll be rare that a Rogue doesn't get Sneak Attack on their turn, which is pretty good given that's the main way that they deal damage.

    The Assassin has gotten some love. The Assassinate feature is still only going to be relevant in the first round of combat, but given how Surprise has changed, you now simply get advantage on initiative rolls (to help you get the drop on people) and then gain the bonus damage (in the most recent playtest, rather than giving an auto-crit, you now dealt extra damage equal to your Rogue level, which is probably a nerf if you had gotten Sneak Attack, but of course, now you can also benefit from actually critting).

Assassins also got a buff to Infiltration Expert, which still includes some of the mimicry stuff, but also now allows you to use Steady Aim without sacrificing your movement speed. This is, honestly, a simply but potentially really powerful feature - again, Assassins are almost always going to get Sneak Attack. The feature was pitches as allowing you to fight John Wick-style.

Imposter, one of two old Assassin features that I always felt was kind of a "I'd let any character do that" features, has been fully replaced with Envenom Weapons. This interacts with the Poison Cunning Strike option, which, at the cost of 1d6 of Sneak Attack, forces the target to make a Con save or be poisoned for a minute (save ends at end of turn). Now, when the Assassin uses this, the target will take 2d6 poison damage if they fail their saving throw and that damage ignores resistance to poison damage.

So, you actually wind up doing more damage if the target fails its saving throw, but it's a gamble because if they succeed you've only lost that die from the Sneak Attack. Ignoring poison resistance is nice, but I worry that so many types of monsters are just fully immune to poison that this bonus might not actually come up that much.

Death Strike also now only requires you get a Sneak Attack off on the first round of combat - a necessary adjustment given that Surprised isn't a condition anymore, but also this is definitely a buff.

    The Arcane Trickster is largely unchanged - one of those "ain't broke, don't fix" situations. Like the Eldritch Knight, they will now be able to use a spell focus (though I really hope that we can have weapons that double as spell foci if that's the case! I'm tired of dropping my Battleaxe every time I want to cast Shield!) and, also like the EK, they no longer are subject to any spell school restrictions.

One changed feature is that Versatile Trickster now lets you trip a second target when you use the Trip option for Cunning Strike by having your Mage Hand trip them up.

    The Soulknife is getting a couple of changes to Psychic Blades to solve some perhaps unforeseen problems that the original had. You will now be able to make Opportunity Attacks with your Psychic Blades, which is fantastic (I'm curious to know if this will simply be "any time you would make a weapon attack" and thus working on a Battle Master's Commander's Strike, or if it will be solely with Opportunity Attacks).

The other great change is that the Psychic Blades will now come with the Vex property, so Soulknives will be able to benefit from the fun of Weapon Mastery. While they won't be able to pick and choose other options (I sort of wish they could pick one from a curated list of Rogue-appropriate masteries at the end of a long rest to apply to their blades) Vex is probably the one they'd most likely be going for, and because you can make a second Psychic Blades attack as a bonus action, Vex will be pretty good for setting up Sneak Attack if you didn't get it on the first hit.

    Thieves got a few feature reshuffles.

Fast Hands can now activate magic items as a bonus action - though I'll note that the later feature of "Use Magic Device" has been altered a little, so you won't be a Rogue going around with a Staff of the Magi (I guess ignoring class restrictions is now the exclusive domain of the Artificer).

Second-Story Work now simply gives you a Climb Speed (which it did already but for some reason didn't word it that way) and also lets you use your Dexterity score to determine jump distance - meaning you'll be quite good at hopping from rooftop to rooftop. Almost makes me sad that all Rogues don't get this feature (much as Monks will be able to Grapple and Shove using Dexterity).

Thieves will also gain a new Cunning Strike option, called Stealth Attack, which allows you to remain hidden if you hit a target while hiding from them. This has the potential to be very helpful, but you had better hope you hit when you're hiding from that Beholder, because if you miss the jig is up!

Use Magic Item has been pretty seriously redesigned: you can no longer ignore attunement restrictions, but you get a fourth attunement slot. Also, when you use a magic item that expends charges, you have a 1 in 6 chance to not spend any charges. Finally, you can get a little extra magic, as you'll be able to use Spell Scrolls of other classes. If the spell scroll is for a cantrip or 1st level spell, you can simply do it anyway, but if it's higher level, you need to make an Arcana check with a DC equal to 10 plus the spell's level. Notably, as this comes on at level 14, a Thief might consider getting at the very least proficiency in Arcana, as Reliable Talent will make any spell of 5th level or lower an automatic success even with a +0 to Intelligence.

    And there we have it! I think the Rogue is looking pretty good in the new PHB. Cunning Strikes seems very fun.

Messmer Down

 I suppose this is a spoiler, but those who are familiar with FromSoft's tendencies when making DLC should have seen it coming: Messmer, who dominates the marketing for Shadow of the Erdtree, is not its final boss.

And, it's the first Remembrance boss that took me more than one try. I've actually been pleasantly surprised that the DLC here is not ass-stompingly difficult. I've done some thorough exploration, leveling up a bit (not a ton, but maybe 6-7 levels) and gaining a lot of the Scadutree Blessings (I'm up to 11).

Spoilers Ahead:

Shadow of the Erdtree: The Vastest DLC Ever? (Not Counting World of Warcraft Expansions)

 The Lands of Shadow are enormous.

Now, to be fair, unfamiliarity makes a game's area feel bigger. While the Lands Between of Elden Ring's base game are unquestionably huge, playing through the game an eighth time will make it seem small simply because you know where things are - yeah, I know about those two Pumpkinheads in that one ruin early on in Caelid, or where to find Goldmask up in the Mountaintops of the Giants.

Spoilers Ahead

Barbarian Deep Dive

 So, again, for those of us who kept up with the Unearthed Arcana process, there aren't a ton of surprises here on these deep dives, but I think there are some points to touch on that bear consideration.

The Barbarian is, I think, a reasonably popular class. Every Critical Role campaign has had one, an honor I think might only be shared by the Cleric and (if you count multiclassing) Rogue - actually, there's another but I don't want to spoil it because the reveal was only available to the public as of last night. But at least to me, it has always had some issues that held it back compared to other tanky melee classes like the Paladin or Fighter (or Armorer Artificer).

However, the new version is going to address some of those issues in a way that I think will make me more interested in actually creating a Barbarian character (I actually have an aesthetic/backstory that could be very cool and very weird).

So let's knock out the big ones:

The first is a major change to Rage. Rage can now be extended by simply using your bonus action. This, frankly, is enormous. While Barbarians eventually get a feature that allows their Rage to continue even if they're not hitting things or getting hit by things, for most of a Barbarian's career (especially given that most campaigns don't go past level 10 or so - though I hope we'll see more high-level campaigns with the new rules) they can very easily lose their core class feature.

Furthermore, Rage (here I'm cribbing from the UA, but I think this remains true) now lasts 10 minutes, meaning that it can potentially last through multiple combats and might also remain relevant in the middle of exploration.

Rage is also going to be more useful outside of combat thanks to a redesigned Primal Knowledge. This will allow the Barbarian to elect to use Strength rather than the typical ability for several Barbarian skills, including Stealth, Intimidation, and others. In the UA, at least, this required the Barbarian to be raging, but we'll see how the final version works.

    I will note that in the 2014 rules at least, a DM can assign atypical ability scores to skills - I like the idea of a Charisma (Stealth) check to try not to be noticed by blending into a crowd rather than trying to go truly unseen (though I can also imagine simply using Deception or even Performance for that). I hope this doesn't imply that DMs won't be allowed to do that in the 2024 rules, but instead that Barbarians have a means to bypass DM approval to use what is likely their best stat on these checks.

I can't recall if it was confirmed here, but another huge change in the UA is that Barbarians will be able to get a Rage back on a short rest. There is a bit of a question here, of course: how often do we want Barbarians not to be Raging? So much of the class is built around Rage, but it's also a limited resource (unlike, say, Unarmored Defense, which is fully passive). It seems like the intent is that a Barbarian should be able to Rage in every combat over the course of a day,

Another welcome change is the replacement of Brutal Critical with Brutal Strikes. While Brutal Critical could be very fun when it actually went off (and in a pre-Weapon Mastery world was the only advantage that the Greataxe had over the Greatsword) the fact that it relied on an event that only had a 4% chance of happening meant that its impact was not nearly as felt as other mid-level boosts to melee characters like a Paladin's extra d8 of radiant damage or a Fighter's third attack.

Brutal Strikes allows you to use Reckless Attack to fuel extra damage and some bonus effects, but you forgo the advantage on your attack. In some ways, it's a little like Great Weapon Master. What I am still not 100% clear on is whether you forgo this on both of your attacks - by level 9, you'll have Extra Attack already, and this only works on your first attack. So, unless the language is cleaned up, as a DM I'd assume that you'll still get advantage on your second strike, but won't be able to gain the bonus damage and effects from Brutal Strike on it. Likewise, I'm waiting to get a clarification on whether you merely give up the advantage from Reckless Attack but might still get it from attacking a prone creature or attacking a foe with Faerie Fire on it, or if it is impossible to actually make your Brutal Strike with advantage.

I do worry that this might be a "feel bad" ability - paying the price for Reckless Attacks and then missing on your attack is going to suck. And giving up your advantage will make you more likely to miss. Still, I think this becomes an interesting tactical choice that will probably pay off more than Brutal Critical did.

Regarding subclasses:

The Totem Warrior has been renamed as the Wildheart, and has gotten some cool changes. First off, the animal spirit choices at each subclass level have been renamed to avoid confusion - there's only one "Bear" feature and it's at level 3. The problem was that some players assumed that they just picked one animal and had to take all of its features on each subclass level (not unlike the Storm Herald's different types of storm). That was never the case, but the choices presented had allowed for that confusion - now it won't be possible. More substantially, though, Wildhearts can actually swap out their animal spirit choices on a long rest. While I imagine the Bear's wide-ranging damage resistance will still be the default choice for most people, there might be times where you pick a different one.

The Berserker got a huge upgrade by fixing Frenzy. The feature no longer imposes Exhaustion - a brutally terrible hiccup in the otherwise mostly decent 2014 class design - and, as of the UA, rather than granting you a bonus action attack, will instead give you extra damage dice on the first hit you land on your turn (I believe it's d6s equal to your Rage bonus, which is pretty decent). Their Intimidating Presence feature is also now a bonus action, and can hit all creatures you choose within range. Furthermore, forcing a creature to make a saving throw will extend your Rage (though at this level you might have the feature that keeps it going anyway - can't recall).

The third subclass for the Barbarian in the PHB will be the Zealot. It looks like this is getting a bit of a redesign.

Finally, Barbarians are getting a brand-new subclass called Path of the World Tree, which honestly looks amazing, where you can manifest the branches and roots of the World Tree both to extend your reach and pull enemies (or allies) to you, but also to allow for some teleportation effects, getting you into the battle, potentially along with your friends. The World Tree Barbarian looks like it will be a very strong defender, and I think it even has longer reach than a Path of the Giant Barbarian, so I might have to play with that Bugbear Polearm Master build and use this subclass instead.

And that's our class preview for the week. I believe we start off on Monday with the Rogue, which should be enjoying its awesome new Cunning Strikes feature (if you don't know what it is, get ready - it's really cool).

...And I've Already Screwed Up an NPC Questline

 PSA: if you find a sleeping Pest creature out in the world in Shadow of the Erdtree, don't kill it. Evidently these guys an actually be friendly, and beyond that, killing them will cause Moore, the quiet, heavily-armored scavenger/vendor to invade you.

Sigh.

Shadow of the Erdtree is very impressive so far - it really feels like a vast new area of the game. It's also not as brutally difficult as I had worried - we're talking more Old Hunters here than Ringed City, and even then, maybe not quite as tough.

Case in point: I beat my first two Remembrance bosses without dying, killing each in a single attempt (with an NPC ally on each and my trusty Mimic Tear). My Scadutree Blessing is up to 5, I think, and my Revered Spirit Ash buff is at 4, so I imagine these might be very frustrating if you hadn't buffed up.

I've been trying to explore as much as I can before taking down any major bosses (I actually traversed Belurat Tower Settlement and the... er... the fortress that Rellana is in - can't recall the name - up until the boss room before facing either of them.

I'm sure I've missed a few things in each dungeon (Rellana, despite being a Remembrance boss, is in a dungeon I'd consider more of a "medium" dungeon akin to Castle Morne or Caria Manor) but the only thing that really stood out to me was that in Belurat there was a locked door down in the sewers that I couldn't get into.

For a while, I was using the Death Knight's Twinned Axes, which have a cool ash of war, but when I swapped back to my Blasphemous Blade/Gargoyle Greatsword jump-attack dual-wield combo, it just did so much more damage that I decided to go back to it until I can find a weapon that truly blows me away.

Anyway, I'm bummed that I messed up an NPC storyline, especially one who seemed pretty charming. Luckily I have a bunch of other characters to bring in here.

Scratching the Surface of the Land of Shadow

 Well, as I was watching the live episode of Critical Role tonight, I was only able to play the new Elden Ring expansion, Shadow of the Erdtree, for about an hour (I have roommates and can't hog the TV at all times).

So far, I've collected enough Scadutree Fragments to buff myself three times. I've faced one minor "dungeon" boss (not really a dungeon boss, more akin to those "ruin bosses" you often find in basements of ruins in the main game. I've gotten a single buff for my Summons and Torrent, and I've met two NPCs (not counting the one you find at Mohgwyn Palace who tells you how to enter the DLC).

I decided to take my Blasphemous Blade dual-wielding jump Strength/Faith build, on a character named Brunus of Ord, who was my first character to beat the game. I think at this stage every weapon I've found is actually wieldable by him, but most have been somewhat mundane physical damage weapons. The downside to this choice, of course, is that the Blasphemous Blade is so good, both dealing lots of damage and really helping with survival, that it will be hard to wean myself off of it and take a new weapon on.

I did get one of the Messmer Knight Greathammers, or whatever they're called, which is shockingly lighter than the Blasphemous Blade, and deals a mix of physical and holy damage - pretty good for my Str/Faith character. That said, it doesn't have a particularly interesting move set or innate ash of war.

I have gotten the Backhand Blades (the namesake of their own weapon category,) which are cool but feel like they're probably built more for a Dex build - they just have pretty low stat requirements.

The very first enemy I faced was a sort of masked omen assassin, and that was genuinely a close fight. However, it also seems to be something of a showcase enemy, and most of the foes I have faced have been pretty reasonable.

I did struggle a bit on the spirit knight found in a mausoleum, who has a rapid-fire crossbow and a heavy sword, taking three or four attempts before I could get him down (I swapped out my Claw Talisman for the one Iji sells that makes ash of war abilities cheaper and more or less spammed Taker's Flame). The knight dropped his sword and his cool armor, which is something of a sidegrade for me.

There's a ruined sort of gate town in the middle of a field that you'll find early on where I was able to climb to the top and get a talisman that increases damage done after dealing a critical hit.

Naturally, I haven't hit any major bosses yet or anything, and I'm very much in the opening stages of just trying to explore and get a sense of the lay of the land. There are a lot of places you can go, but I don't want to go too far lest I trigger some story event that makes me miss a quest.

Really, the biggest thing is that, after two years and... like 300 to 400 hours playing the base game, I've become so familiar with the layout of the Lands Between that I can map out the most efficient route between all of the mini dungeons, knowing where to find just about everything I need for a new character.

Here, though, it's all new. I thought I did a pretty thorough job searching the starting area (I think called the Gravesite Plains) but I'm sure I'll discover that there were actually several Sites of Grace, items, and mini-dungeons that I ran right past.

I'm eager to get father into it - while there's no way I can expect this to be a full Elden Ring II, I've also gotten the sense from reviews that this DLC is genuinely massive - like 40-50% the size of the base game. That suggests to me that this is going to be some real meaty stuff.

Why I Might Bring My Least Favorite Character into Shadow of the Erdtree First

 I love FromSoft's games. Despite not generally having any real affinity for difficulty - I had zero interest in Alan Wake II's "Nightmare" difficulty setting added with the Final Draft update - there's something so deeply satisfying about their games (and not just Soulsborne ones, as I'd extend this to Armored Core VI) that I'm willing to tolerate the punishing difficulty.

I also think it's notable that I don't actually die all that often when I start a new Elden Ring character. For sure it's not like Final Fantasy I, where in my entire playthrough I only once saw my Black Mage go down and suffered no other deaths. I'll still get taken down by an Erdtree Watchdog or have to give a boss two or three tries.

But it's a game where deep knowledge and familiarity with it can really make the experience smoother and, frankly, easier.

One aspect of their games I'm not so happy about is how easy it is to miss content.

My first Elden Ring character started off as an Astrologer. He's always been a primarily Intelligence-based character, and was truly a primary spellcaster until very late in the game, when I switched him to a build centered around the Darkmoon Greatsword (to give you an idea of how late in the game, I think this was after I had beaten both Malenia and Mohg, the latter of which I did by cheesing Comet Azur with the crystal tear that makes your spells free briefly).

But, because I too-eagerly pursued Ranni's quest chain before I finished Seluvis' quest to turn his mistress into a puppet, I missed out on an item that is generally considered crucial to any intelligence-based build, which is the Magic Scorpion Charm. While this character is still quite good and powerful, there's a little asterisk that sticks in my head knowing he could be a little more effective if I hadn't screwed up that quest early on.

According to Fextralife (the site that, if I'm honest, I get most of my builds and info about the game from,) the DLC will actually have a lot of these missable character quests. In other words, it's likely that I'll blunder into some form of progression that has me miss my window to complete one of these quests.

And so, for that reason, I'm tempted to set aside my favorite characters in favor of a less-favored one so that, should I screw something up, I'll be able to correct the mistake when I take the other character through.

Thus, I'm tempted to let my Darkmoon Sorcerer chill out, along with, probably, my Strength/Faith greatsword-dual-wielding guy with the Blasphemous Blade (who was the first character I beat the game on). Instead, I might go for my Faith/Arcane Dragon Communion caster (who also used Rivers of Blood for a little) and perhaps see if I can find a weapon or set of spells that feel a little more broadly useful with a Faith/Arcane set-up. I also have an Intelligence/Faith caster with a bunch of Death Sorcereries. And then there's my Faith-focused Pyromancer, who I think maybe had the easiest time with the late game of all my characters. I also have a Dex/Int build that uses Moonveil and I suspect could easily adapt to other equipment (he also has a fully upgraded Wing of Astel that he's capable of using effectively).

I think my goal is to try to avoid fully respeccing any of my characters and instead finding new DLC weapons and spells that fit into my existing attributes. (Though if we see Int/Arcane spells that are worth trying, I might be tempted).

In anticipation of the DLC, I have a new character who is a Strength/Intelligence build, but he's still in the mid-game, having jumped around a little (he's done most of Volcano Manor without actually doing anything outdoors in Mt. Gelmir) in order to get the equipment he needs for his build. Point is, while he has Radahn down, he's a ways off from being able to take on Mohg (though thanks to Varré's quest in Liurnia, he's already made it to the Mohgwyn Dynasty Mausoleum and made ample use of that one bird you can shoot with an arrow to get a little over 10k runes).