In the original game, they used Dimension Door to get inside the dragon and Matt did make them roll to connect on the no-look teleport. In the show, they've used the Hand as a catch-all for many of Scanlan's spells to streamline things for unfamiliar viewers.
And because I think they're trying to do a "They have to learn their spells" approach, which is actually pretty cool. Plus teleporting is pretty OP, especially if the audience doesn't understand that he can only do it a limited number of times and there's a limited range etc. It could lead to a lot of "Well why doesn't Scanlan just teleport in and do blah blah blah." They're doing a decent job of establishing a magical limit with Pike's healing spells so hopefully by the time we get there people will understand. I'm sure he'll learn it eventually (maybe from Allura!) but saving it for when they're more powerful isn't a terrible idea.
there was lots of overlap during the campaign, it wasn't just Keyleth and Pike, but Vex, Scanlan, and eventually Vax could all deal out some form of healing lol
That makes perfect sense. Liam the gamer is making it so Vax is just experiencing stuff lucky. He doesn't know or think it's luck, and after he becomes her Champion, of course it would all seem like fate. :)
@@ccloudleaf It's even more fitting than that. In universe, Vax is a fate-touched, and has the ability to bend the threads of fate. That's exactly what the lucky feat does, it bends the outcomes in his favor.
@@Chaosm03 i think that was more so bc Sam never used it in c2 (used it once or twice out of spite but for 99% of the time it was never touched, actively refusing to use it)
Scanlan's Hand is the shows version of the spell Bigby's Hand for 5e a 5th level mage spell that he can use as part of his bard subclass. it just changed to Scanlan's name for copyright and lore issues.
I don't think it was changed for copyright reasons. I think they changed it to "Scanlan's Hand" to imply he came up with the spell himself. Much like they with did with a lot of Caleb's spells.
I've always imagined the Matron of Ravens facepalming in embarrassment at the fact that she got Vax to finally accept being her champion, and roughly a day later, said Champion flings himself into a dragon's ass.
To be fair, they dimension door into the dragon's stomach and abdomen in the campaign( Scanlan making it to the stomache and Vax unfortunately getting stuck in its abdominal muscles outside of the stomache..... But yeah they did make it a little bit funnier and more facepalmy by going through the dragon's ass in the show.
I mean...at least he didn't go alone. And there was a plan to get out. They succeeded because they were meant to, so she probably just shook her head at her champion still being dumb like every other mortal. 😂
When Kaylie says to Scanlan, "I leave you with this burden - it's yours now", I think it was more about her letting go of her own trauma. She'd likely been imagining how this interaction would go her entire life, and imagined it would be some great catharsis. I don't think it went down quite how she expected, but she decided in that moment that she just wanted to be done with it all and get on with her own life.
They've done a really good job of setting up Raishan's reveal. If you remember back to the first ep of this season, she recognized Keyleth and realized that this must be the group that killed Brimsythe. With that in mind she actually let them escape when they decided to run from her. If she really wanted them dead, there's no way they would have out run her. Later in that episode we see a very angry, very green-eyed little girl come through the tree with them into Whitestone. She's been watching them this whole time, evaluating their potential as allies against Thordak. And if they came up short, then she had all that intel on Whitestone in her back pocket to further ingratiate herself with the Conclave. They've changed it enough from the campaign that I don't know who else she may have been along the way. I'm wondering if she was actually the halfling in Vasselheim that told them to seek out the Slayers Take. I know it was originally supposed to be Kima's cousin, but maybe they cut that for a reason. It would also give more meaning to him asking them to forget they ever met. She wouldn't want them talking to the real guy back in the council chamber and realizing something was up.
Funny that you mention Dimension Door as in the table top game that's how they got *into* the dragon. And it was an Immovable Rod and not a sword. But the end effect was the same, they got stuck in the stomach and had to "fist the wound" to get out. Oh and in the game it's "Bigby's Hand" but since Bigby is a D&D wizard they had to change the name for copyright reasons.
That and I think either just Sam or they both had to roll an intelligence check to accurately land in the stomach, and Scanlan got in, but Vax got stuck between the skin and the muscle wall. It really was pretty insane. Going up the butt was somehow a lot cleaner (heh) than how this went down on the stream.
Dimension Door is actually how they got into the Dragon during the campaign but they have seriously nerfed a lot of the spells all the party members have. Scanlan can cast healing spell in the campaign but for the show only Pike can. Love how in Season 1 Vex had an almost adversarial relationship with Keyleth but now she considers her a valued friend and knows her capabilities. Ready Kiki... Great stuff. In the campaign they took a short rest before going after Umbrasyl and when they fought him they realized he was not as hurt as he had been and Matt was all, well, you guys had time to heal and so did he...
Remember when they first got to Percy's homeland, and Grog spoke to a little scowling girl with brilliant green eyes? That was the dragon in disguise. Someone also mentioned a dragon infiltrating towns during the Chroma Conclave's continued invasion.
I’m honestly glad that compared to last season, Vex basically gave Kiki her approval, encouraging her that she shouldn’t let go of Vax. And Kiki had already overcome her fear of the Aramenté so this is the next hurdle. That, and Vax finally got his answers and understands the true nature of his calling… and now he’s no longer distant from everyone. So that is a good sign for their relationship going forward into next season. We love it when we see Team Half-Elf receiving simultaneous resolutions. Hell, they paced their relationship well over the past two seasons, and we are certainly going to get a payoff in Season 3. As for the ending itself, it was perfect. For you have now been properly introduced to the fourth member of the Chroma Conclave: *_Raishan, the Diseased Deceiver._* And yes, that reveal was just as shocking in the campaign proper. And I wasn’t even expecting our first inter-party kiss to be with the gnomes! But they’ve earned it.
All of the DMs in the world shuddered at once when Clarus uttered "If he's not thinking about flexing his sphincter, I don't know why he would be...". I can't count the amount of times my players have asked if it'd be a Dex or Con save to keep them from dungeon delving into another creature's orifice, it's something that will haunt me until the end of my days
15:46 I will call on the words of Master DM Brennan Lee Mulligan and quote "Now I have to question which roll to use for entering a Corn Golem's butthole... That's wild"
Those wings from the Deathwalkers Ward + his Boots of Haste effectively made Vax broken in the campaign as he could move 480 feet of movement in 1 round. He also had a cloak of displacement so he couldnt be hit either lmao
Him in the battle royale episodes was so frustrating to watch because he had such insane stealth and speed that he was basically invisible and could be anywhere followed with insane sneak attack damage then disengage to not be hit leaving by reactions was nuts.
Lucky for the Mighty Nein. They had a natural counter to any overpowered character in PVP. A monk. Seeing Vax get nerfed by Beau's stunning strikes was so satisfying after all the attempts at hitting him missed 😂
@@uninterruptedrhythm4104 Been a while since I watched it but I'm 99% sure Laura meta-gamed the hell out of the VM vs M9 by dispelling the boots of haste which Jester wouldn't have had any information on.
@@khain37 I'm 99% sure Vax wasn't supposed to have the Boots of Haste at that level. I don't remember when, but I know he gives them to Vex and never gets them back.
Honestly, I feel like he was probably telling the truth about Lea. I think Scanlan did romanticize what ever happened with her. The problem is just that was the wrong woman!
@@AnxietyRat Actually it was both. He rolled high on Persuasion but then told her to stab him. He undid his own success with his wording. The Natural 1 just put it back in Scanlan's favor.
No surprise that Kiki’s thirsty, there was a brief shot of her in “Those Who Walk Away” after Vax kills the Onlooker (the beholder on a budget) and her face was… wow. And of course, those moments with the tavern and the wings… yeah, now that she’s overcome her fear of the Aramenté, she truly is falling in love with that bird boy.
@@DanielODea it's also a way for her to manifest her rage. Which will only make the rage she exhibits just as her normal half-elf self all the more dangerous... for her enemies.
Keyleth is also canonically demisexual, and that tends to mean that the more you get close to someone emotionally the more sexual feelings you have for them. Plus, I at least thought that it was made very obvious in season 1 that it wasn't that Keyleth didn't like Vax...she just had major problems with anxiety induced paralysis (remember her freezing up in fights many times!), which really kept her from feeling like she would even be able to pursue a relationship, so it makes complete sense to me that as she's overcoming her anxiety problems she's getting braver in other areas too!
@@sandpiperr I don't think keep its anxiety plays a part in her not wanting to be in a relationship effects at all. It was a big part of season one but I don't think it had anything to do with her not wanting to pursue a relationship. It's more so that she KNOWS that she has a responsibility. A big one. She has to finish her Aramenté and then leave the group to lead her people. That's what's the most important thing to her. She literally can't let herself get distracted because she's kind of the only other option her people have. Her mother went on her Aramenté and seemingly failed to complete it so Keyleth is next in line. She feels she HAS to finish it. And a relationship would just distract from that one task. But yes, she does have feeling for Vax. That is her thought process early on in the campaign, anyway.
For a while, after Grog got Craven Edge, Pike was actually the strongest character in the group. Grog needed an attunement slot so he gave Pike his bracers which increased her strength to 19. This put Grog back down to 18 (I believe), which was fine because CE had a strength bonus when it was fed blood in combat. But out of combat Pike was the strongest for about 3 episodes 🙂
Scanlan's hand is actually Bigby's hand, a fifth level wizard spell that he took with the 10th level bard feature Magical Secrets. Because of trademark, they can't use the name of the spells in the show, so they renamed it.
Funny lil tid bit when Scan-Man and Vax were about to leave the wound-hole and he said "Aww man, why does it always have to be fucking acid!?" It wasn't just about the Dragon, is the final episodes of Season 1 (was it 9 or 10?) they had an encounter with that massive acid pit that Grog dove into! Haha he's just pissed it's acid AGAIN with these villains lmaoo
Huge appreciation for how they presented the Matron of Ravens. Truly get the vibe of goddess... beautiful, powerful, intimidating, but with a gentle guiding wisdom. Gorgeous animation concept! Excellent decision to do the PENULTIMATE and final episodes together, because it would suck to be left on the cliffhanger mid battle lol As for the finale, broody half elf dark goth emo boy gets wings and Vax fans worldwide swoon in unison. That key sure looked pretty magnificent. Might go to a magnificent door... in a magnificent... large home. Remember the little girl with green eyes that glared at Grog when they escaped the initial dragon attack? That was Raishan! fun trivia: The sphinx that Umbrasyl killed and kept the head as a trophy? He was voiced by the same guy that played El Jefe in The Three Amigos, the one that didn't know what a plethora was!
Yea I think in the stream they Dimension Door'd inside, but if you're visual media, Bigby's(Scanlan's) Hand proctologist style is too good an opportunity to pass up
Yep and that Immovable sword Kaylee gave him was actually an immovable rod they had acquired elsewhere and so Scanlan got the idea to dimension door the rod inside of him to keep him in place. I love how they adapted that idea.
The main thing is, Scanlan *does not have* any kind of Teleportation abilities in the cartoon, so they realized they needed to figure out how to make that scene happen. And then they got this idea. And once they stopped laughing, they basically went "okay, so WE'RE laughing this hard at the idea..."
There was a Q and A with cast and animators where one of the artists commented that animal transformations were really hard, so they use tricks to not show them. I feel like they were just teeing up to flex on this keykey wildshape.
You know season 2 is good when it gets you to commit to watching/listening to hundreds of hours of the live campaign I liked season 1, more so on a second watch, but season 2 blew it out of the water and then i had to recommend it to all my friends lmao. Loved the reactions every week! I listened to alot of the podcasts on my way to work and such to get caught up, but try and watch when you can... atleast some of the bigger episodes... im sure there is a list out there for the must-watch ones :D
10:25 I think it's just the soft warm lighting pouring in from the windows, he's kind of light stone grey so his skin'll pick up other colors fairly easily. The attention to lighting and color detail in this series is phenomenal so far.
Very glad they put Scanlan in the limelight this season, he was the one character who had almost zero character development in season 1. Originally it was Vax who killed Brimscythe but they chose to give everyone a big moment in S1E2. In the campaign, it was Grog who killed Umbrasyl (by splitting his head, the way he killed Brimscythe in the show). Now, had it been Grog splitting Umbrasyl's head, we'd all say "again, really?". So having Scanlan do it as the peak of his character development was really well done.
I mean I wouldn't say that, he had Waaaaay more development and screen time than Vex or Vax or Grog in season 1. In fact in order of screen time/ development character ranking for season one I'd probably say it goes Percy (obviously), Keyleth, Scanlan, Pike, then the others about equally. I've found some of what they've done with Scanlan annoying and some of it really good, it's hard. I found the "Giving him the big kill to signify he's overcoming his cowardice" kind of annoying at first but it's slowly growing on me. I know exactly what they're trying to do but It's a little TOO different from the campaign for my personal taste.
@@mayaenglish5424 Grog had four HDYWTDTs in a row in this portion of the campaign (inc. Kevdak of course) and half of Scanlan's total from the entire campaign have been wiped for the show (had 8 total, two in the Kraghammer arc and two were actually in the Pyrah fights, which Keyleth got in the show and his only *really* notable one was that he had the very first). It's kinda only fair he gets this one.
@@AmazingChi I mean, Scanlan's main strength was never the HDYWTDT's. He was a battle field tactician, they should Really be leaning into THAT much much more if they want to to the character justice. Have him do spells that block the other characters from harm or divert the enemy's attention in an important moment or something. But sure, this is a much simpler way of giving a character a defining moment than trying to figure out a way of visualizing Scanlan manipulating the battlefield. Spoilers for Campaign 1: I do think it takes away from the uniqueness of the fight with the Pit fiend later on though. But whatever, we'll cross that bridge when we get to it!
I would love to see Critical Role videos on this channel. Every 10-15 episodes that he/they watch of Campaign 1, they put out a video summarizing their thoughts and feelings regarding what they watched.
“Another Vestige for my collection” by Umbrasyle is my favourite quote so far. Who thought to put a General Grievous quote in Vox Machina and also no one notices it in the heat of the moment.
@@nyghtmoon I am sorry if I spoiled anything. My thinking was just to point out (seeing it is the last episode and Raishan was reveled as shape shifter) a clever forshedowing. Mostly made for Critters who watch the campaign. So new Critters can appreciate the focous on detail and their dedication to both old and new audience. However I can see it could be considered a spoiler if they want to play with it more in future seasons. And for that I am sorry...
Sam: I would like to fist the wound... Matt: *horrified face* Travis and Ashley: *happy approval* Liam and Laura: *pained laughter* Taliesin and Marisha: *die immediately*
in the campaign it was a dimension door into the dragon, not Scanlan's hand... I think it was a spellcasting ability check for scanlan (so a Charisma check) to accurately teleport inside
The actual spell Scanlan used is Dimension Door the dragon butt was completely new for the show. And Scanlan's Hand is actually the Spell Bigby's Hand in D&D (copyright).
LOL, I'm with Nerdy. This rectum maneuver was the most unexpected and brilliant idea they've had. If I remember correctly, the difference in the podcast/game was teleport or something similar instead of Scanlans Two Finger Special, and the immovable sword was the immovable rod instead. Plus, the teleport had a bad roll, and Vax and ScanMan ended up inside Umbrasyl's muscle walls instead of the actual innards. They activated the rod, and then barely managed to hack their way out with some very narrow dice rolls.
"You leave when Scanlan Shorthalt tells you to leave." If I remember correctly; originally, Scanlan had given the dragon his alias, Burt Reynolds, attorney at law, and the line was, "You leave when Burt Reynolds tells you to leave." In the campaign the spell was Bigby's Hand - they go into the dragon using Dimension Door (Vax having used a Potion of Diminution so Scanlan could bring him along), used an Immovable Rod to try to pin it in place, then used Bigby's Hand first to open an airhole and then to punch their way out.
Pike has healed a foot before. It took about a month of daily healing, if I remember correctly. If you're watching Kraghammer, you might have seen it already. I think someone stepped into lava during that arc. Edit: Obviously wrote that before you mentioned it. 😁
Background on Exandrian deities and lore. The gods are held behind something called the "divine gate" which limits their influence on the world. This was put in place to prevent another war of the gods, like what happened during the divergence or the calamity. Pike couldn't communicate directly with the Everlight in Season 1 and Vax couldn't communicate directly with the Matron of Ravens until each of them went to the temple of their god, where they can pierce the divine gate for that direct contact.
You guys' reaction was one of my favorites to watch! I'm so glad you loved the season, everything about it was so satisfying as someone who watched the whole first campaign. The changes feel organic and not out of place at all, it's just so good. I understand that Scanlan's role in this version of the show as the comic relief was even more amped-up because it's a cartoon for adults & they can't always do all the intricacies, but I'm super excited for every detail they've laid down to hint at certain things Critters will know about. "Going to Scanlan for advice" was also not at all unheard of in the campaign itself, and I hope we get more of that and the why in the 3rd season, but who knows! Sorry if this is cryptic but I don't want to spoil anything for y'all 😂
In game his spell is called Bigby’s hand. 5th-level evocation Casting Time: 1 action Range: 120 feet Components: V, S, M (an eggshell and a snakeskin glove) Duration: Concentration, up to 1 minute You create a Large hand of shimmering, translucent force in an unoccupied space that you can see within range. The hand lasts for the spell’s duration, and it moves at your command, mimicking the movements of your own hand. The hand is an object that has AC 20 and hit points equal to your hit point maximum. If it drops to 0 hit points, the spell ends. It has a Strength of 26 (+8) and a Dexterity of 10 (+0). The hand doesn’t fill its space. When you cast the spell and as a bonus action on your subsequent turns, you can move the hand up to 60 feet and then cause one of the following effects with it. Clenched Fist. The hand strikes one creature or object within 5 feet of it. Make a melee spell attack for the hand using your game statistics. On a hit, the target takes 4d8 force damage. Forceful Hand. The hand attempts to push a creature within 5 feet of it in a direction you choose. Make a check with the hand’s Strength contested by the Strength (Athletics) check of the target. If the target is Medium or smaller, you have advantage on the check. If you succeed, the hand pushes the target up to 5 feet plus a number of feet equal to five times your spellcasting ability modifier. The hand moves with the target to remain within 5 feet of it. Grasping Hand. The hand attempts to grapple a Huge or smaller creature within 5 feet of it. You use the hand’s Strength score to resolve the grapple. If the target is Medium or smaller, you have advantage on the check. While the hand is grappling the target, you can use a bonus action to have the hand crush it. When you do so, the target takes bludgeoning damage equal to 2d6 + your spellcasting ability modifier. Interposing Hand. The hand interposes itself between you and a creature you choose until you give the hand a different command. The hand moves to stay between you and the target, providing you with half cover against the target. The target can’t move through the hand’s space if its Strength score is less than or equal to the hand’s Strength score. If its Strength score is higher than the hand’s Strength score, the target can move toward you through the hand’s space, but that space is difficult terrain for the target. At Higher Levels. When you cast this spell using a spell slot of 6th level or higher, the damage from the clenched fist option increases by 2d8 and the damage from the grasping hand increases by 2d6 for each slot level above 5th.
In second edition, there were a variety of Bigby hand spells, that did everything from holding to lifting to pushing. I'm sure some weird variation of that is what was used for the magical butt play
FYI, in the original campaign, Vax and Scanlan dimension doored into the dragon's stomach. They must have changed it for the show because, well, because it's fucking hilarious.
Scanlan's Hand is a reflavored Bigby's Hand spell (bassically a big boy version of mage hand). To get into the dragon they used dimension door, and sword replaced immovable rod.
In the original campaign, Keyleth, Scanlan and Vex all had some sort of healing, but not as much as Pike did. It seems they decided to take those minor elements out. But druids, bards and rangers do have healing spells.
So Vax’s speed is a variation of the Haste spell. In the campaign he has boots of haste which they have changed to a feature of the armour in LOVM. Scanlan’s hand is the Bigby’s hand spell renamed and in the campaign they didn’t get in the dragon that way. They shrank themselves and used dimension door.
The spell was Bigby’s Hand (or Arcanist’s Hand if we want to go with the setting-non-specific name). I think the original plan was for Scanlan to take Vax and Dimension Door into the belly, but as a gnome Scanlan is size category Small and as a half-elf Vax is size category Medium, so Scanlan couldn’t teleport with Vax using that spell, and therefore they had to do it the physical way
14:13 Well that might make sense for the show. However that plan was completely different in the game. First of all it was Wax´ses plan. He had aquired two objects: A wand of immuvabillity & a potion of diminution. That means a potion that makes you really, really small. So they did not in fact go up the actual asshole of Umbrazil. Scanlan can cast the spell "Dimension Door" & thus teleport himself & any other being his size or smaller. So the idea was that Wax would drink the potion of diminution, then Scanlan would use dimension door to teleport them into Umbrazils gut. After that Vax would use the other object: The Wand of Immuvabillity. This was supposed to keep Umbrazil at ground level at all times. So in this scenario Vax is actually tini-tiny. A bit shorter than Scanlan....whom when presented with said plan originally goes: "NO!!! What!!? are you crazy??" then agrees to it because he is best friends with Liam/Vax & also states after Vax has become super small: "Arrrgh...I dont like short people" After that well. Lets just say it did not go to plan. An immuvable rod cannot keep an ancient Dragon down at all...Spoilers
"Maybe they get a baby dragon!" I was once in a campaign where I almost did exactly that! I played a neutral good psionicist, but was getting sick of some power-gaming glory-hogs in the group -- and the DM shared my annoyance. He allowed me to secretly change to lawful evil after dying and being brought back (via Raise Dead), on the understanding that true evil masterminds will masquerade as good until their plans reach fruition. Meanwhile, we'd recently recovered a clutch of silver dragon eggs from a parent who'd died before our arrival. I and one other PC were very interested in hatching one of these, but the DM wasn't on board ... until he heard my plan. Over the course of several IRL months of gameplay, I used a homebrew variant of the Simulacrum spell to slowly erase an unborn dragon's mind and replace it with a copy of my own. It remains one of my biggest D&D regrets that we graduated college before finishing the campaign. I left for my long-planned Eurotrip, and everyone else finished the last few sessions without me. My guy became an NPC, and rather than go with my planned "I'm the new party leader, muthafuckas -- mua ha hah!", the DM turned my former character into the campaign end-boss. That psionicist dragonrider didn't win, but only because every remaining player drew from the Deck of Many Things. They _all_ died, heroes and villain together.
On taking a long rest - Matt is usually more circumspect but he said during this that BBEG are just like PCs. They can spend hit dice during a short rest and get spell slots too back by long rests. The party realized long rest = fully powered dragon. They decided on a short rest to avoid resetting his "use it once a day" spells he already used up. Umbrysll took a short rest too and healed 574 HP.
In the campaign they did use dimension door to get inside the dragon. Matt did make Sam make a roll since he used Dimension Door to get into a space he couldn't see.
Your conversation about what mechanics to use to get the desired effect on the dragon's butthole was brilliant. I realize it was different in the campaign, but honestly, your conversation sounds exactly like the types of inner dialogs I have all the time as a DM! Reward creative players even if it breaks rules as written!!
The spell Scanlan uses is basically a reskinned Bigby's Hand... so Bigby's Forceful Hand in this case, heh. It's not how they actually got inside the dragon in the live game, but funnily enough it IS related to a somewhat obscure meme from old D&D where epic level Escape Artist checks could be used to squeeze through a 2" hole... to make characters that were specialized around *ahem* "internal combat"
In the campaign, they try to dimension door inside the dragon. Here it looks like Scanlan tried to use the show's version of Bigby's Hand, but they have to call it "Scanlan's hand" in the show because of copy rite reasons.
37:40 That is perfectly healthy. It's called ADD and that's the same way I coped with it since high school. Especially in college, I couldn't focus on the lectures if I didn't have an earbud in and a margin full of doodles.
The spell that Scanlan used in the live stream is called Bigby’s Hand. They call it Scanlan’s Hand to avoid having to pay copyright fees to WoTC. In fact in the third campaign CR is moving away from using D&D traded marked names and terms to ones they have created for their game. For example, in CR the Matron of Ravens is named the Raven Queen in D&D. But since Raven Queen is trademarked name they changed it for the live stream as well as TLoVM. This is potentially a hint that CR is in the process of creating their own game system and if this is true, will likely switch over to it when C3 is done.
The original spell for Scanlan's hand is called Bigby's Hand or nowadays Arcane Hand. And the depiction on the show is pretty accurate of what it is in the game.
The first 10 episodes of Season 1 were funded by the Kickstarter. Amazon signed them up for two additional episodes of Season 1, and all 12 of Season 2 and Season 3. I think the budget shows. My prediction is 5 seasons of VM, and then who knows how many of Mighty Nein. All good.
Strictly speaking, the Matron of Ravens is not that ancient of a deity. She used to be a mortal woman, and a powerful mage in the time before the Calamity (though not very long before that). She ascended to godhood by usurping the power and role of the old god of death, because she disapproved of the way he was conducting his duties. Upon her ascension she erased his name (as well as her own mortal name) from creation. In a way the Calamity happened because people were trying to emulate her feat.
He-who-shall-not-be-named actually did have a pet baby dragon, Lockheed (he was a big X-Men fan). And there is a winter holiday, Winter's Crest. It's mentioned a few times throughout the campaigns, but I think we've only seen it once or twice. Season one was a great way to introduce people to the story and the characters, by keeping it focused. I think if they had started with something like season 2, it would have been too much for a new audience. Who is this, where are we now, what's going on?
You joked if we might see the gnome full frontal this episode - but it already occurred in season 1 episode 1 - there's a single frame that episode as he's being tossed out of the tavern
I don't notice any "Rise of Skywalker" joke. Maybe that counts as a "bad" comment. Back in episode 1, after they escaped to Whitestone through the tree portal with a few refugees, Grog noticed an angry-looking little girl with bright green eyes among them...
4:30 The gods in Exandria unfortunately don’t have a direct communication channel with the mortals. This is due to a barrier that was erected after the Calamity, called the Divine Gate. Following the devastation of the war, the gods decided divine presence posed too much of a risk to the safety of mortals, and created the Divine Gate, that prevented ANY divine beings, evil or otherwise, to have direct influence on the mortal realm. This event became known as The Divergence, and hence the Vestiges of Divergence. In any case, the reason the Raven Queen has issues clearly communicating with Vax is due to this barrier, and requires Vax to be receptive and answer in kind.
More reasons for holiday special: Winter's Crest is a Christmas-adjacent holiday in Tal'Dorei, so that's already there for the picking! Get Matt on the phone ASAP!
A moment that the show doesn't capture as well is that Matt actually rolled to hit Scanlan when he told Kaylie to strike him down. Matt just rolled a nat 1 on that attack.
If they keep the fights with the other members of the Chroma Conclave even close to how they go down in the campaign, the fight with Vorugal (the white dragon), as well as the lead up to it, will be insane to watch. Also ideally, the show will run for 5 seasons imo; the last major arc will take at least as long as the Chroma Conclave to tell in a satisfying way.
They managed to make the season feel wrapped up, but there are still plenty of plot threads hanging and cliffhangers. Raishan's betrayal (is it true, is it not, what's her game?) Thordak's master plan, Ripley's still skulking in the shadows and we know from Victor that she's been buying black powder. We also saw that even one ancient dragon is almost enough to kill them at this point. They need to power up a bit if they want to take on the other three. I'm not sure if they're ever going to mention it in the show, but I think they're subtly showing that the vestiges have different levels of power and in order to unlock higher levels you need to prove yourself. Vax had to accept the matron of ravens and his role as champion to unlock the flying. Scanlan had to make the decision to be a hero to unlock more power from Mythcarver. I genuinely don't know if they're keeping that element of the vestiges in the show, but I think their narrative way of tying in awesome vestige power moments to beats of character growth and realisation works with that. The next season is going to be insane. There are are a couple of really intense things I'm looking forward to that I'm pretty sure will be in next season. 'How do you, Vox Machina, want to do this?' is absolutely one of them. And a few others, but I think that's the only one I can work out how to mention obliquely in a way that won't spoil it. Also, a shopping episode would be amazing. The shopping episodes of the show were great, even though Travis would groan. We really haven't had a chance to see Vex the treasurer in the show or Vex the negotiator, really. And she still owes Scanlan that favour. Hehe.
In Critical Role Land, they call it Critmas in December, and they always do a Critmas stream, so the idea of a special Critmas animated episode is not at all far off!
Guys this is a very serious moment. I need you to make a reflex save to see if you can flex your sphincter fast enough to avoid the proctoligist exam. Only in TTRPG's
I man, technically, The Matron of Ravens is the *least* ancient deity in the pantheon but, from all accounts, she wasn't much of a talker even before she became a god.
In the original game, they used Dimension Door to get inside the dragon and Matt did make them roll to connect on the no-look teleport. In the show, they've used the Hand as a catch-all for many of Scanlan's spells to streamline things for unfamiliar viewers.
And to get passed those pesky copyright laws.
Also in the original it was Bigby's Hand.
And because I think they're trying to do a "They have to learn their spells" approach, which is actually pretty cool.
Plus teleporting is pretty OP, especially if the audience doesn't understand that he can only do it a limited number of times and there's a limited range etc. It could lead to a lot of "Well why doesn't Scanlan just teleport in and do blah blah blah." They're doing a decent job of establishing a magical limit with Pike's healing spells so hopefully by the time we get there people will understand.
I'm sure he'll learn it eventually (maybe from Allura!) but saving it for when they're more powerful isn't a terrible idea.
I like that they didn't give him healing spells. Would have been too much overlap.
there was lots of overlap during the campaign, it wasn't just Keyleth and Pike, but Vex, Scanlan, and eventually Vax could all deal out some form of healing lol
Vax's "There's no such thing as luck." is kind of funny because Liam O'Brien always used luck for Vax.
That makes perfect sense. Liam the gamer is making it so Vax is just experiencing stuff lucky. He doesn't know or think it's luck, and after he becomes her Champion, of course it would all seem like fate. :)
@@ccloudleaf It's even more fitting than that. In universe, Vax is a fate-touched, and has the ability to bend the threads of fate. That's exactly what the lucky feat does, it bends the outcomes in his favor.
@@bouboulroz Yeah 100%, I honestly was gonna go on about that but already felt the comment was too long. I love this shit too much lol.
Orym also has Halfling Luck. Liam has habits that are hard to break.
@@Chaosm03 i think that was more so bc Sam never used it in c2 (used it once or twice out of spite but for 99% of the time it was never touched, actively refusing to use it)
"We really saw Scanlan mature." I agree, but there's a great irony to that statement when the last thing we saw is Scanlan fingering a Dragon's ass
Scanlan's Hand is the shows version of the spell Bigby's Hand for 5e a 5th level mage spell that he can use as part of his bard subclass. it just changed to Scanlan's name for copyright and lore issues.
I don't think it was changed for copyright reasons. I think they changed it to "Scanlan's Hand" to imply he came up with the spell himself. Much like they with did with a lot of Caleb's spells.
@@Agent719 It was both for sure, until about 2 weeks ago Bigby's Hand was copyrighted by Wizards of the Coast.
@@Agent719 Same as grog being half gigant and not goliath and monster inside crypt was not beholder. 100% legally reasons
That's also why there's no Burt Reynolds. 😢
@@Agent719I think it's more so that he made the spell his.
I've always imagined the Matron of Ravens facepalming in embarrassment at the fact that she got Vax to finally accept being her champion, and roughly a day later, said Champion flings himself into a dragon's ass.
To be fair, they dimension door into the dragon's stomach and abdomen in the campaign( Scanlan making it to the stomache and Vax unfortunately getting stuck in its abdominal muscles outside of the stomache..... But yeah they did make it a little bit funnier and more facepalmy by going through the dragon's ass in the show.
I mean...at least he didn't go alone. And there was a plan to get out. They succeeded because they were meant to, so she probably just shook her head at her champion still being dumb like every other mortal. 😂
When Kaylie says to Scanlan, "I leave you with this burden - it's yours now", I think it was more about her letting go of her own trauma. She'd likely been imagining how this interaction would go her entire life, and imagined it would be some great catharsis. I don't think it went down quite how she expected, but she decided in that moment that she just wanted to be done with it all and get on with her own life.
They've done a really good job of setting up Raishan's reveal. If you remember back to the first ep of this season, she recognized Keyleth and realized that this must be the group that killed Brimsythe. With that in mind she actually let them escape when they decided to run from her. If she really wanted them dead, there's no way they would have out run her. Later in that episode we see a very angry, very green-eyed little girl come through the tree with them into Whitestone. She's been watching them this whole time, evaluating their potential as allies against Thordak. And if they came up short, then she had all that intel on Whitestone in her back pocket to further ingratiate herself with the Conclave.
They've changed it enough from the campaign that I don't know who else she may have been along the way. I'm wondering if she was actually the halfling in Vasselheim that told them to seek out the Slayers Take. I know it was originally supposed to be Kima's cousin, but maybe they cut that for a reason. It would also give more meaning to him asking them to forget they ever met. She wouldn't want them talking to the real guy back in the council chamber and realizing something was up.
Funny that you mention Dimension Door as in the table top game that's how they got *into* the dragon. And it was an Immovable Rod and not a sword. But the end effect was the same, they got stuck in the stomach and had to "fist the wound" to get out. Oh and in the game it's "Bigby's Hand" but since Bigby is a D&D wizard they had to change the name for copyright reasons.
That and I think either just Sam or they both had to roll an intelligence check to accurately land in the stomach, and Scanlan got in, but Vax got stuck between the skin and the muscle wall. It really was pretty insane. Going up the butt was somehow a lot cleaner (heh) than how this went down on the stream.
Dimension Door is actually how they got into the Dragon during the campaign but they have seriously nerfed a lot of the spells all the party members have. Scanlan can cast healing spell in the campaign but for the show only Pike can.
Love how in Season 1 Vex had an almost adversarial relationship with Keyleth but now she considers her a valued friend and knows her capabilities. Ready Kiki... Great stuff.
In the campaign they took a short rest before going after Umbrasyl and when they fought him they realized he was not as hurt as he had been and Matt was all, well, you guys had time to heal and so did he...
Scanlan cast a healing spell in season 1 to heal Keyleth when Pike lost her connection to her astral form.
@@Thurrak Keyleth has also showed their ability to heal as well.
In the show looks like he did get a short rest at least while they hiked the mountain.
@@Thurrak Well, he used his magic to charge up the soil and spit ointment that Vax learned from Keyleth.
Vex. It's very important that it's Vex with the adversarial relationship with Keyleth. Vax has always liked her.
Remember when they first got to Percy's homeland, and Grog spoke to a little scowling girl with brilliant green eyes? That was the dragon in disguise. Someone also mentioned a dragon infiltrating towns during the Chroma Conclave's continued invasion.
Oh my god, I didn't realize....that's so cool!
I thought it was a nod to the golden-eyed boy they fought pre-stream.
I’m honestly glad that compared to last season, Vex basically gave Kiki her approval, encouraging her that she shouldn’t let go of Vax. And Kiki had already overcome her fear of the Aramenté so this is the next hurdle. That, and Vax finally got his answers and understands the true nature of his calling… and now he’s no longer distant from everyone. So that is a good sign for their relationship going forward into next season. We love it when we see Team Half-Elf receiving simultaneous resolutions.
Hell, they paced their relationship well over the past two seasons, and we are certainly going to get a payoff in Season 3.
As for the ending itself, it was perfect. For you have now been properly introduced to the fourth member of the Chroma Conclave: *_Raishan, the Diseased Deceiver._* And yes, that reveal was just as shocking in the campaign proper. And I wasn’t even expecting our first inter-party kiss to be with the gnomes! But they’ve earned it.
All of the DMs in the world shuddered at once when Clarus uttered "If he's not thinking about flexing his sphincter, I don't know why he would be...". I can't count the amount of times my players have asked if it'd be a Dex or Con save to keep them from dungeon delving into another creature's orifice, it's something that will haunt me until the end of my days
15:46
I will call on the words of Master DM Brennan Lee Mulligan and quote
"Now I have to question which roll to use for entering a Corn Golem's butthole... That's wild"
They should absolutely watch Dimension 20 and react to it.
Those wings from the Deathwalkers Ward + his Boots of Haste effectively made Vax broken in the campaign as he could move 480 feet of movement in 1 round. He also had a cloak of displacement so he couldnt be hit either lmao
Him in the battle royale episodes was so frustrating to watch because he had such insane stealth and speed that he was basically invisible and could be anywhere followed with insane sneak attack damage then disengage to not be hit leaving by reactions was nuts.
Lucky for the Mighty Nein. They had a natural counter to any overpowered character in PVP. A monk. Seeing Vax get nerfed by Beau's stunning strikes was so satisfying after all the attempts at hitting him missed 😂
@@uninterruptedrhythm4104 Been a while since I watched it but I'm 99% sure Laura meta-gamed the hell out of the VM vs M9 by dispelling the boots of haste which Jester wouldn't have had any information on.
@@khain37 I don’t care
@@khain37 I'm 99% sure Vax wasn't supposed to have the Boots of Haste at that level. I don't remember when, but I know he gives them to Vex and never gets them back.
I believe his persuasion roll with Kaylee was 37. I'd say he's a master BS artists, but Sam really played it as him being heartfelt.
Honestly, I feel like he was probably telling the truth about Lea. I think Scanlan did romanticize what ever happened with her.
The problem is just that was the wrong woman!
I'm pretty sure it was the fact that she roll the 1 on her attack roll. And so COULDN'T hurt him in that moment. Not his persuasion that saved him.
@@AnxietyRat Actually it was both. He rolled high on Persuasion but then told her to stab him. He undid his own success with his wording. The Natural 1 just put it back in Scanlan's favor.
No surprise that Kiki’s thirsty, there was a brief shot of her in “Those Who Walk Away” after Vax kills the Onlooker (the beholder on a budget) and her face was… wow. And of course, those moments with the tavern and the wings… yeah, now that she’s overcome her fear of the Aramenté, she truly is falling in love with that bird boy.
She has been Wild Shaping quite a bit, I have to imagine that gets one's hormones out of balance.
@@DanielODea it's also a way for her to manifest her rage. Which will only make the rage she exhibits just as her normal half-elf self all the more dangerous... for her enemies.
Keyleth is also canonically demisexual, and that tends to mean that the more you get close to someone emotionally the more sexual feelings you have for them.
Plus, I at least thought that it was made very obvious in season 1 that it wasn't that Keyleth didn't like Vax...she just had major problems with anxiety induced paralysis (remember her freezing up in fights many times!), which really kept her from feeling like she would even be able to pursue a relationship, so it makes complete sense to me that as she's overcoming her anxiety problems she's getting braver in other areas too!
@@sandpiperr I don't think keep its anxiety plays a part in her not wanting to be in a relationship effects at all. It was a big part of season one but I don't think it had anything to do with her not wanting to pursue a relationship. It's more so that she KNOWS that she has a responsibility. A big one. She has to finish her Aramenté and then leave the group to lead her people. That's what's the most important thing to her. She literally can't let herself get distracted because she's kind of the only other option her people have. Her mother went on her Aramenté and seemingly failed to complete it so Keyleth is next in line. She feels she HAS to finish it. And a relationship would just distract from that one task. But yes, she does have feeling for Vax. That is her thought process early on in the campaign, anyway.
For a while, after Grog got Craven Edge, Pike was actually the strongest character in the group. Grog needed an attunement slot so he gave Pike his bracers which increased her strength to 19. This put Grog back down to 18 (I believe), which was fine because CE had a strength bonus when it was fed blood in combat. But out of combat Pike was the strongest for about 3 episodes 🙂
The spell Scanlan uses is Bigby's Hand! It's basically a large Mage Hand with stats and different combat options for fighting/support
Scanlan's hand is actually Bigby's hand, a fifth level wizard spell that he took with the 10th level bard feature Magical Secrets. Because of trademark, they can't use the name of the spells in the show, so they renamed it.
Funny lil tid bit when Scan-Man and Vax were about to leave the wound-hole and he said "Aww man, why does it always have to be fucking acid!?" It wasn't just about the Dragon, is the final episodes of Season 1 (was it 9 or 10?) they had an encounter with that massive acid pit that Grog dove into! Haha he's just pissed it's acid AGAIN with these villains lmaoo
😂 Scanlan is definitely over acid at this point.
That D&D movie coming out next month is going to have a ROUGH time living up to this! Thanks for the excellent coverage this season!
Huge appreciation for how they presented the Matron of Ravens. Truly get the vibe of goddess... beautiful, powerful, intimidating, but with a gentle guiding wisdom.
Gorgeous animation concept!
Excellent decision to do the PENULTIMATE and final episodes together, because it would suck to be left on the cliffhanger mid battle lol
As for the finale, broody half elf dark goth emo boy gets wings and Vax fans worldwide swoon in unison.
That key sure looked pretty magnificent. Might go to a magnificent door... in a magnificent... large home.
Remember the little girl with green eyes that glared at Grog when they escaped the initial dragon attack? That was Raishan!
fun trivia: The sphinx that Umbrasyl killed and kept the head as a trophy? He was voiced by the same guy that played El Jefe in The Three Amigos, the one that didn't
know what a plethora was!
Yea I think in the stream they Dimension Door'd inside, but if you're visual media, Bigby's(Scanlan's) Hand proctologist style is too good an opportunity to pass up
Yep and that Immovable sword Kaylee gave him was actually an immovable rod they had acquired elsewhere and so Scanlan got the idea to dimension door the rod inside of him to keep him in place. I love how they adapted that idea.
The main thing is, Scanlan *does not have* any kind of Teleportation abilities in the cartoon, so they realized they needed to figure out how to make that scene happen. And then they got this idea. And once they stopped laughing, they basically went "okay, so WE'RE laughing this hard at the idea..."
There was a Q and A with cast and animators where one of the artists commented that animal transformations were really hard, so they use tricks to not show them. I feel like they were just teeing up to flex on this keykey wildshape.
The finale really made me want a Critical Role Land, with a 4D ride based on the Umbrasyl final fight. So much.
I dunno, I think a fight with an acid dragon might not be the best choice for a 4D ride attraction.
You know season 2 is good when it gets you to commit to watching/listening to hundreds of hours of the live campaign
I liked season 1, more so on a second watch, but season 2 blew it out of the water and then i had to recommend it to all my friends lmao.
Loved the reactions every week! I listened to alot of the podcasts on my way to work and such to get caught up, but try and watch when you can... atleast some of the bigger episodes... im sure there is a list out there for the must-watch ones :D
I feel like now that he’s accepting the charge of becoming the Champion of Ravens, Vax can take the armor off now.
He may just be forever attuned to it.
@@PrinceIMC but I think he's be allowed to take it off now.
@@AdamEspersona I agree.
@@AdamEspersona Hopefully, would make peeing really hard otherwise 😂
I love the beat after laughing your asses off about the butthole dragon plan is "We saw Scanlan really mature" 11/10.
The butthole-rabbit hole discussion they went on was hilarious 🕳️
10:25 I think it's just the soft warm lighting pouring in from the windows, he's kind of light stone grey so his skin'll pick up other colors fairly easily.
The attention to lighting and color detail in this series is phenomenal so far.
Again I cannot state how happy I am that princess Kida (Cree summer) is the voice of raishan. It just works for me.
Very glad they put Scanlan in the limelight this season, he was the one character who had almost zero character development in season 1. Originally it was Vax who killed Brimscythe but they chose to give everyone a big moment in S1E2. In the campaign, it was Grog who killed Umbrasyl (by splitting his head, the way he killed Brimscythe in the show). Now, had it been Grog splitting Umbrasyl's head, we'd all say "again, really?". So having Scanlan do it as the peak of his character development was really well done.
I mean I wouldn't say that, he had Waaaaay more development and screen time than Vex or Vax or Grog in season 1. In fact in order of screen time/ development character ranking for season one I'd probably say it goes Percy (obviously), Keyleth, Scanlan, Pike, then the others about equally. I've found some of what they've done with Scanlan annoying and some of it really good, it's hard. I found the "Giving him the big kill to signify he's overcoming his cowardice" kind of annoying at first but it's slowly growing on me. I know exactly what they're trying to do but It's a little TOO different from the campaign for my personal taste.
@@mayaenglish5424 Grog had four HDYWTDTs in a row in this portion of the campaign (inc. Kevdak of course) and half of Scanlan's total from the entire campaign have been wiped for the show (had 8 total, two in the Kraghammer arc and two were actually in the Pyrah fights, which Keyleth got in the show and his only *really* notable one was that he had the very first). It's kinda only fair he gets this one.
@@AmazingChi I mean, Scanlan's main strength was never the HDYWTDT's. He was a battle field tactician, they should Really be leaning into THAT much much more if they want to to the character justice. Have him do spells that block the other characters from harm or divert the enemy's attention in an important moment or something. But sure, this is a much simpler way of giving a character a defining moment than trying to figure out a way of visualizing Scanlan manipulating the battlefield.
Spoilers for Campaign 1:
I do think it takes away from the uniqueness of the fight with the Pit fiend later on though. But whatever, we'll cross that bridge when we get to it!
I love that Mythcarver got to well... Carve a living Myth, the dragon
I think some of their best episodes in all of the campaigns is when they spend the whole episode shopping. I think a Christmas special would be great.
I would love to see Critical Role videos on this channel. Every 10-15 episodes that he/they watch of Campaign 1, they put out a video summarizing their thoughts and feelings regarding what they watched.
Shopping episodes are unironically my favourites, I would watch the heck out of that Winter's Crest special.
(At 13:55) this is the second individual to penetrate a dragon. (First one being Donkey from _Shrek)_
We finally find out this episode our boy Vax is basically Ta'veren. Was so cool to finally see this part finally animated!
Yeah, pretty much. Matts' "Fate Touched" gift to player charaters is kind of similar to that concept in Wheel of Time. 100%.
“Another Vestige for my collection” by Umbrasyle is my favourite quote so far. Who thought to put a General Grievous quote in Vox Machina and also no one notices it in the heat of the moment.
That wird kid coming with them through the tree to Whitestone and Grog talking to in first episode was already Raisan! The green eyes...
Dude Spoilers!
@@nyghtmoon dunno if that’s really a spoiler after seeing that Raishan has taken Keeper Yennen’s place.
@@nyghtmoon I am sorry if I spoiled anything. My thinking was just to point out (seeing it is the last episode and Raishan was reveled as shape shifter) a clever forshedowing. Mostly made for Critters who watch the campaign. So new Critters can appreciate the focous on detail and their dedication to both old and new audience. However I can see it could be considered a spoiler if they want to play with it more in future seasons. And for that I am sorry...
@@MrJohndish No, I apologize for reacting harshly. It was unkind of me given the circumstances.
This was such a banger of a season!! Besides The Last of Us, I can't think of a better show on TV. I'm looking forward to next year.
Sam: I would like to fist the wound...
Matt: *horrified face*
Travis and Ashley: *happy approval*
Liam and Laura: *pained laughter*
Taliesin and Marisha: *die immediately*
The “they fly now” joke triggered a sudden and unreasonable amount of rage inside me.
in the campaign it was a dimension door into the dragon, not Scanlan's hand... I think it was a spellcasting ability check for scanlan (so a Charisma check) to accurately teleport inside
The actual spell Scanlan used is Dimension Door the dragon butt was completely new for the show. And Scanlan's Hand is actually the Spell Bigby's Hand in D&D (copyright).
LOL, I'm with Nerdy. This rectum maneuver was the most unexpected and brilliant idea they've had.
If I remember correctly, the difference in the podcast/game was teleport or something similar instead of Scanlans Two Finger Special, and the immovable sword was the immovable rod instead.
Plus, the teleport had a bad roll, and Vax and ScanMan ended up inside Umbrasyl's muscle walls instead of the actual innards. They activated the rod, and then barely managed to hack their way out with some very narrow dice rolls.
Yes, Scanlan used to Dimension Door in the campaign to get himself and Vax inside the dragon.
Someone already mentioned the dimension door. And the Hand spell Scanlan uses is called "Bixby's Hand" in D&D.
"You leave when Scanlan Shorthalt tells you to leave." If I remember correctly; originally, Scanlan had given the dragon his alias, Burt Reynolds, attorney at law, and the line was, "You leave when Burt Reynolds tells you to leave."
In the campaign the spell was Bigby's Hand - they go into the dragon using Dimension Door (Vax having used a Potion of Diminution so Scanlan could bring him along), used an Immovable Rod to try to pin it in place, then used Bigby's Hand first to open an airhole and then to punch their way out.
Pike has healed a foot before. It took about a month of daily healing, if I remember correctly. If you're watching Kraghammer, you might have seen it already. I think someone stepped into lava during that arc.
Edit: Obviously wrote that before you mentioned it. 😁
Background on Exandrian deities and lore. The gods are held behind something called the "divine gate" which limits their influence on the world. This was put in place to prevent another war of the gods, like what happened during the divergence or the calamity. Pike couldn't communicate directly with the Everlight in Season 1 and Vax couldn't communicate directly with the Matron of Ravens until each of them went to the temple of their god, where they can pierce the divine gate for that direct contact.
You guys' reaction was one of my favorites to watch! I'm so glad you loved the season, everything about it was so satisfying as someone who watched the whole first campaign. The changes feel organic and not out of place at all, it's just so good.
I understand that Scanlan's role in this version of the show as the comic relief was even more amped-up because it's a cartoon for adults & they can't always do all the intricacies, but I'm super excited for every detail they've laid down to hint at certain things Critters will know about. "Going to Scanlan for advice" was also not at all unheard of in the campaign itself, and I hope we get more of that and the why in the 3rd season, but who knows! Sorry if this is cryptic but I don't want to spoil anything for y'all 😂
In game his spell is called Bigby’s hand.
5th-level evocation
Casting Time: 1 action
Range: 120 feet
Components: V, S, M (an eggshell and a snakeskin glove)
Duration: Concentration, up to 1 minute
You create a Large hand of shimmering, translucent force in an unoccupied space that you can see within range. The hand lasts for the spell’s duration, and it moves at your command, mimicking the movements of your own hand.
The hand is an object that has AC 20 and hit points equal to your hit point maximum. If it drops to 0 hit points, the spell ends. It has a Strength of 26 (+8) and a Dexterity of 10 (+0). The hand doesn’t fill its space.
When you cast the spell and as a bonus action on your subsequent turns, you can move the hand up to 60 feet and then cause one of the following effects with it.
Clenched Fist. The hand strikes one creature or object within 5 feet of it. Make a melee spell attack for the hand using your game statistics. On a hit, the target takes 4d8 force damage.
Forceful Hand. The hand attempts to push a creature within 5 feet of it in a direction you choose. Make a check with the hand’s Strength contested by the Strength (Athletics) check of the target. If the target is Medium or smaller, you have advantage on the check. If you succeed, the hand pushes the target up to 5 feet plus a number of feet equal to five times your spellcasting ability modifier. The hand moves with the target to remain within 5 feet of it.
Grasping Hand. The hand attempts to grapple a Huge or smaller creature within 5 feet of it. You use the hand’s Strength score to resolve the grapple. If the target is Medium or smaller, you have advantage on the check. While the hand is grappling the target, you can use a bonus action to have the hand crush it. When you do so, the target takes bludgeoning damage equal to 2d6 + your spellcasting ability modifier.
Interposing Hand. The hand interposes itself between you and a creature you choose until you give the hand a different command. The hand moves to stay between you and the target, providing you with half cover against the target. The target can’t move through the hand’s space if its Strength score is less than or equal to the hand’s Strength score. If its Strength score is higher than the hand’s Strength score, the target can move toward you through the hand’s space, but that space is difficult terrain for the target.
At Higher Levels. When you cast this spell using a spell slot of 6th level or higher, the damage from the clenched fist option increases by 2d8 and the damage from the grasping hand increases by 2d6 for each slot level above 5th.
In second edition, there were a variety of Bigby hand spells, that did everything from holding to lifting to pushing. I'm sure some weird variation of that is what was used for the magical butt play
FYI, in the original campaign, Vax and Scanlan dimension doored into the dragon's stomach. They must have changed it for the show because, well, because it's fucking hilarious.
Scanlan's Hand is a reflavored Bigby's Hand spell (bassically a big boy version of mage hand). To get into the dragon they used dimension door, and sword replaced immovable rod.
This fight at the table was absolutely Insane! It was over 6-7 years ago at this point and I clearly remember hanging on every move.
The audible "Thunk" sound did it for me.
In the original campaign, Keyleth, Scanlan and Vex all had some sort of healing, but not as much as Pike did. It seems they decided to take those minor elements out. But druids, bards and rangers do have healing spells.
So Vax’s speed is a variation of the Haste spell. In the campaign he has boots of haste which they have changed to a feature of the armour in LOVM.
Scanlan’s hand is the Bigby’s hand spell renamed and in the campaign they didn’t get in the dragon that way. They shrank themselves and used dimension door.
"You can have your shirt back" is the most insulting yet absolutely hilarious way to refer to legendary magic armor 🤣🤣
The spell was Bigby’s Hand (or Arcanist’s Hand if we want to go with the setting-non-specific name). I think the original plan was for Scanlan to take Vax and Dimension Door into the belly, but as a gnome Scanlan is size category Small and as a half-elf Vax is size category Medium, so Scanlan couldn’t teleport with Vax using that spell, and therefore they had to do it the physical way
@13:45 that moment was so unexpectedly hilarious 😂
14:13 Well that might make sense for the show. However that plan was completely different in the game.
First of all it was Wax´ses plan. He had aquired two objects: A wand of immuvabillity & a potion of diminution. That means a potion that makes you really, really small. So they did not in fact go up the actual asshole of Umbrazil.
Scanlan can cast the spell "Dimension Door" & thus teleport himself & any other being his size or smaller. So the idea was that Wax would drink the potion of diminution, then Scanlan would use dimension door to teleport them into Umbrazils gut. After that Vax would use the other object: The Wand of Immuvabillity. This was supposed to keep Umbrazil at ground level at all times.
So in this scenario Vax is actually tini-tiny. A bit shorter than Scanlan....whom when presented with said plan originally goes: "NO!!! What!!? are you crazy??" then agrees to it because he is best friends with Liam/Vax & also states after Vax has become super small: "Arrrgh...I dont like short people"
After that well. Lets just say it did not go to plan. An immuvable rod cannot keep an ancient Dragon down at all...Spoilers
"Maybe they get a baby dragon!"
I was once in a campaign where I almost did exactly that! I played a neutral good psionicist, but was getting sick of some power-gaming glory-hogs in the group -- and the DM shared my annoyance. He allowed me to secretly change to lawful evil after dying and being brought back (via Raise Dead), on the understanding that true evil masterminds will masquerade as good until their plans reach fruition.
Meanwhile, we'd recently recovered a clutch of silver dragon eggs from a parent who'd died before our arrival. I and one other PC were very interested in hatching one of these, but the DM wasn't on board ... until he heard my plan. Over the course of several IRL months of gameplay, I used a homebrew variant of the Simulacrum spell to slowly erase an unborn dragon's mind and replace it with a copy of my own.
It remains one of my biggest D&D regrets that we graduated college before finishing the campaign. I left for my long-planned Eurotrip, and everyone else finished the last few sessions without me. My guy became an NPC, and rather than go with my planned "I'm the new party leader, muthafuckas -- mua ha hah!", the DM turned my former character into the campaign end-boss.
That psionicist dragonrider didn't win, but only because every remaining player drew from the Deck of Many Things. They _all_ died, heroes and villain together.
They kinda did the Vax foot melt reference when he kicked the acid blob in the fae realm.
On taking a long rest - Matt is usually more circumspect but he said during this that BBEG are just like PCs. They can spend hit dice during a short rest and get spell slots too back by long rests. The party realized long rest = fully powered dragon. They decided on a short rest to avoid resetting his "use it once a day" spells he already used up. Umbrysll took a short rest too and healed 574 HP.
In the campaign they did use dimension door to get inside the dragon. Matt did make Sam make a roll since he used Dimension Door to get into a space he couldn't see.
"I'm glad not all the vestiges are cursed."
They are worse than cursed.
They come with responsibility.
Your conversation about what mechanics to use to get the desired effect on the dragon's butthole was brilliant. I realize it was different in the campaign, but honestly, your conversation sounds exactly like the types of inner dialogs I have all the time as a DM! Reward creative players even if it breaks rules as written!!
I'm sure that magic key unlocks somdthing....magnificent.
The spell Scanlan uses is basically a reskinned Bigby's Hand... so Bigby's Forceful Hand in this case, heh.
It's not how they actually got inside the dragon in the live game, but funnily enough it IS related to a somewhat obscure meme from old D&D where epic level Escape Artist checks could be used to squeeze through a 2" hole... to make characters that were specialized around *ahem* "internal combat"
In the campaign, they try to dimension door inside the dragon. Here it looks like Scanlan tried to use the show's version of Bigby's Hand, but they have to call it "Scanlan's hand" in the show because of copy rite reasons.
37:40 That is perfectly healthy. It's called ADD and that's the same way I coped with it since high school. Especially in college, I couldn't focus on the lectures if I didn't have an earbud in and a margin full of doodles.
The spell that Scanlan used in the live stream is called Bigby’s Hand. They call it Scanlan’s Hand to avoid having to pay copyright fees to WoTC. In fact in the third campaign CR is moving away from using D&D traded marked names and terms to ones they have created for their game. For example, in CR the Matron of Ravens is named the Raven Queen in D&D. But since Raven Queen is trademarked name they changed it for the live stream as well as TLoVM. This is potentially a hint that CR is in the process of creating their own game system and if this is true, will likely switch over to it when C3 is done.
The original spell for Scanlan's hand is called Bigby's Hand or nowadays Arcane Hand. And the depiction on the show is pretty accurate of what it is in the game.
The first 10 episodes of Season 1 were funded by the Kickstarter. Amazon signed them up for two additional episodes of Season 1, and all 12 of Season 2 and Season 3. I think the budget shows. My prediction is 5 seasons of VM, and then who knows how many of Mighty Nein. All good.
Scanlan's Hand, is a play off of Bigby's Hand, which Sam used often in the campaign, but it is used for a lot more in the show.
Strictly speaking, the Matron of Ravens is not that ancient of a deity. She used to be a mortal woman, and a powerful mage in the time before the Calamity (though not very long before that). She ascended to godhood by usurping the power and role of the old god of death, because she disapproved of the way he was conducting his duties. Upon her ascension she erased his name (as well as her own mortal name) from creation. In a way the Calamity happened because people were trying to emulate her feat.
He-who-shall-not-be-named actually did have a pet baby dragon, Lockheed (he was a big X-Men fan). And there is a winter holiday, Winter's Crest. It's mentioned a few times throughout the campaigns, but I think we've only seen it once or twice.
Season one was a great way to introduce people to the story and the characters, by keeping it focused. I think if they had started with something like season 2, it would have been too much for a new audience. Who is this, where are we now, what's going on?
You joked if we might see the gnome full frontal this episode - but it already occurred in season 1 episode 1 - there's a single frame that episode as he's being tossed out of the tavern
I don't notice any "Rise of Skywalker" joke. Maybe that counts as a "bad" comment.
Back in episode 1, after they escaped to Whitestone through the tree portal with a few refugees, Grog noticed an angry-looking little girl with bright green eyes among them...
4:30 The gods in Exandria unfortunately don’t have a direct communication channel with the mortals. This is due to a barrier that was erected after the Calamity, called the Divine Gate. Following the devastation of the war, the gods decided divine presence posed too much of a risk to the safety of mortals, and created the Divine Gate, that prevented ANY divine beings, evil or otherwise, to have direct influence on the mortal realm. This event became known as The Divergence, and hence the Vestiges of Divergence. In any case, the reason the Raven Queen has issues clearly communicating with Vax is due to this barrier, and requires Vax to be receptive and answer in kind.
More reasons for holiday special: Winter's Crest is a Christmas-adjacent holiday in Tal'Dorei, so that's already there for the picking! Get Matt on the phone ASAP!
A moment that the show doesn't capture as well is that Matt actually rolled to hit Scanlan when he told Kaylie to strike him down. Matt just rolled a nat 1 on that attack.
Vax and Scanlan were also magically reduced in size in the game when they ported into the dragon. And they didn't have a good time in there ;)
Shopping episode, yeah about that ... when you get to a shopping episode in the stream you'll see why they (mostly Travis) might not want to do that!
The spell that Scanlan uses in the campaign is dimension door. Scanlan's hand is a re-skin of Bigby's hand not mage hand.
If they keep the fights with the other members of the Chroma Conclave even close to how they go down in the campaign, the fight with Vorugal (the white dragon), as well as the lead up to it, will be insane to watch.
Also ideally, the show will run for 5 seasons imo; the last major arc will take at least as long as the Chroma Conclave to tell in a satisfying way.
For those who do not know, "Scanlan's Hand" is a rebranded "Bigby's Hand"
13:45 May not have killed the Dragon, but it was a critical hit on Nerdy. Great laugh man!
The spell is Bigby's Hand and it was an attack roll to enter the dragon
In the campaign it's a spell called bigby's hand. But they got inside the dragon
Scanland's hand is Bigbys hand. They had to change it in the show due to WotC copyrights on the spell names
They managed to make the season feel wrapped up, but there are still plenty of plot threads hanging and cliffhangers. Raishan's betrayal (is it true, is it not, what's her game?) Thordak's master plan, Ripley's still skulking in the shadows and we know from Victor that she's been buying black powder. We also saw that even one ancient dragon is almost enough to kill them at this point. They need to power up a bit if they want to take on the other three.
I'm not sure if they're ever going to mention it in the show, but I think they're subtly showing that the vestiges have different levels of power and in order to unlock higher levels you need to prove yourself. Vax had to accept the matron of ravens and his role as champion to unlock the flying. Scanlan had to make the decision to be a hero to unlock more power from Mythcarver. I genuinely don't know if they're keeping that element of the vestiges in the show, but I think their narrative way of tying in awesome vestige power moments to beats of character growth and realisation works with that.
The next season is going to be insane. There are are a couple of really intense things I'm looking forward to that I'm pretty sure will be in next season. 'How do you, Vox Machina, want to do this?' is absolutely one of them. And a few others, but I think that's the only one I can work out how to mention obliquely in a way that won't spoil it.
Also, a shopping episode would be amazing. The shopping episodes of the show were great, even though Travis would groan. We really haven't had a chance to see Vex the treasurer in the show or Vex the negotiator, really.
And she still owes Scanlan that favour. Hehe.
Hahaha that discussion about rulings at around 16:00 was the funniest shit ever LMAO
remember there's also still that spinning orb of death underneath whitestone ;)
Travis hates shopping. He will never sign off on a shopping only episode.
In Critical Role Land, they call it Critmas in December, and they always do a Critmas stream, so the idea of a special Critmas animated episode is not at all far off!
Guys this is a very serious moment. I need you to make a reflex save to see if you can flex your sphincter fast enough to avoid the proctoligist exam. Only in TTRPG's
I man, technically, The Matron of Ravens is the *least* ancient deity in the pantheon but, from all accounts, she wasn't much of a talker even before she became a god.
snrk
The seasons went the way the campaign did. It really was digging into Percy's life, then everyone elses