RPGBOT.Podcast

At levels 1 through 4, the 2014 Monk is a beautiful dream: you punch, you kick, you spend ki like a raccoon with a stolen credit card. Then levels 5 through 20 arrive, and suddenly the class asks, "Would you like to stun a dragon, run across a lake, catch a missile, become immune to poison, astral project emotionally, and still somehow worry about running out of ki before lunch?" This episode dives into the Monk's awkward, glorious, high-speed middle and late game, where every turn is a choice between tactical brilliance and blowing your entire budget on Flurry of Blows because punching four times feels spiritually correct.

In this episode of the RPGBOT.Podcast, the team continues the 2014 DnD 5e Monk breakdown by moving beyond the early levels and into the part of the class where things get weird, fast, and occasionally very effective. Levels 5 through 20 are where the Monk picks up its signature battlefield identity: mobility, disruption, defensive tricks, and the ability to make enemy spellcasters deeply regret standing within sprinting distance.

The discussion centers on what Monks actually do well once Extra Attack, Stunning Strike, and higher-level ki features come online. This is not just about throwing more punches. It is about choosing when to spend ki, when to conserve it, which enemies deserve a Stunning Strike attempt, and how to use the Monk's speed to pressure weak points instead of face-tanking like a fighter with worse armor and better hamstrings.

The episode also looks at the Monk's scaling problem. The class gains a lot of flavorful and useful features, but its damage can start to lag behind other martial characters unless the player leans into the Monk's strengths. That means playing like a skirmisher, controller, mage-hunter, and mobile problem solver rather than trying to win every fight by standing still and trading hits.

By the late game, features like Evasion, Diamond Soul, Empty Body, and improved movement turn the Monk into something incredibly hard to pin down. You may not always be the biggest damage dealer at the table, but you can be the character who crosses the map, ruins the villain's concentration, survives the fireball, and then politely explains that gravity is more of a suggestion than a rule.

• Level 5 is the Monk's big glow-up. Extra Attack and Stunning Strike dramatically change how the class plays, giving the Monk real battlefield control instead of just more ways to punch things.
• Stunning Strike is powerful, but expensive. It can shut down dangerous enemies, but burning ki on every hit is a fast road to becoming a lightly armored commoner with martial arts branding.
• Monks are skirmishers, not front-line tanks. Their speed, mobility, and defensive tools work best when they pick targets carefully, disrupt key enemies, and avoid getting surrounded.
• Ki management is the entire game. Flurry of Blows, Patient Defense, Step of the Wind, Stunning Strike, and subclass abilities all compete for the same limited resource, so every choice matters.
• The Monk is excellent at harassing casters and fragile backline enemies. High movement speed and multiple attacks make the Monk great at reaching enemies who thought they were safely hiding behind the big monsters.
• Defensive features become a major strength. Evasion, Stillness of Mind, Purity of Body, Diamond Soul, and Empty Body all help the Monk survive effects that can ruin other characters.
• Damage scaling can be frustrating. The Monk gets more options and survivability, but it may struggle to keep pace with optimized martial builds in raw damage.
• Ability scores are tight. Monks usually want Dexterity, Wisdom, and Constitution, which makes feats tempting but costly.
• Late-game Monks are weird in the best way. Running up walls, ignoring poison, surviving saving throws, turning invisible, and resisting damage all support the fantasy of a supernatural martial artist.
• The best Monk play is tactical, not automatic. The class rewards players who think about positioning, target priority, resource timing, and when not to spend ki just because the button is shiny.

Welcome to the RPGBOT Podcast. If you love Dungeons & Dragons, Pathfinder, and tabletop RPGs, this is the podcast for you.

Support the show for free: Rate and review us on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or any podcast app. It helps new listeners find the best RPG podcast for D&D and Pathfinder players.

Level up your experience: Join us on Patreon to unlock ad-free access to RPGBOT.net and the RPGBOT Podcast, chat with us and the community on the RPGBOT Discord, and jump into live-streamed RPG podcast recordings.

Support while you shop: Use our Amazon affiliate link at https://amzn.to/3NwElxQ and help us keep building tools and guides for the RPG community.

• Tyler Kamstra – Master of mechanics, seeing the Pathfinder action economy like Neo in the Matrix.

• Randall James – Lore buff and technologist, always ready to debate which Lord of the Rings edition reigns supreme.

• Ash Ely – Resident cynic, chaos agent, and AI's worst nightmare, bringing pure table-flipping RPG podcast energy.

Join the RPGBOT team where fantasy roleplaying meets real strategy, sarcasm, and community chaos.

How to Find Us:

In-depth articles, guides, handbooks, reviews, news on Tabletop Role Playing at RPGBOT.net

• BlueSky: @rpgbot.net
• TikTok: @RPGBOTDOTNET

• Professional Game Master on StartPlaying.Games
• BlueSky: @GravenAshes
• YouTube: @ashravenmedia

• BlueSky: @GrimoireRPG
• Amateurjack.com
• Read Melancon: A Grimoire Tale (affiliate link)

• @Lzr_illuminati

This week on the RPGBOT.Podcast, the hosts ask the eternal tabletop question: what happens when your beloved fantasy RPG grows up, gets a driver's license, discovers firearms, and immediately becomes everyone's problem? We begin with PishPash My Memory is Trash merch, accidental mug design crimes, Pride, wizard bazookas, and Ash's long-simmering legal case against the movie Bright. Then we get to the real issue: how do you let someone fight Tiamat with an Uzi without turning your campaign into a spreadsheet, a war crime, or Shadowrun with the serial numbers filed off?

In this episode, the RPGBOT crew takes a deep dive into adapting fantasy tabletop RPG systems like D&D and Pathfinder to other technology levels, including modern fantasy, science fiction, cyberpunk-adjacent worlds, post-apocalyptic settings, and anything else where a greatsword might have to share table space with a grenade launcher.

Tyler walks through the history of previous attempts to drag D&D-style mechanics out of the dungeon and into other genres, including d20 Star Wars, d20 Modern, Star Wars Saga Edition, Star Wars 5e, and the often-forgotten Modern Magic Unearthed Arcana. Along the way, the hosts dig into how those systems handled things like armor, hit points, wounds, vitality, class design, talents, occupations, reputation, and the eternal question of whether getting shot with a blaster should feel worse than being poked with a longsword.

The conversation turns into a practical design checklist for anyone trying to run fantasy rules in a modern or sci-fi setting. The big issues are weapons, armor, hit points, movement, vehicles, skills, tools, hacking, currency, magic, classes, monsters, and access to dangerous gear. A gun that does more damage than a sword is easy to write down. Making that gun fun, balanced, available, expensive, illegal, scary, and not immediately campaign-breaking is the actual work.

The hosts also wrestle with the big philosophical question: at what point have you changed D&D so much that you should just play a different game? Tyler's rule of changing three major things makes its return, Ash argues for fantasy with modern aesthetics, Randall brings up comet-based magic awakenings and Maximum Overdrive, and everyone briefly imagines what happens when a party of adventurers has to fight a kaiju from inside a tank.

Finally, the Question of the Week asks the most important dice-related question possible: what is your favorite die, and which one deserves to be thrown into the sea? Ash defends the d8 and declares war on the foot-stabbing d4. Tyler gives some love to the underappreciated d12. Randall hates the actual d100 because it is basically a tiny chaotic bowling ball that refuses to stop rolling.

• D20 Modern on DMsGuild (affiliate link)

• D20 Future on DMsGuild (affiliate link)

• SW5e

• Bright

• RPGBOT.Store

• DnD 5e modern rules UA "Modern Magic"

• Dan Helmick's update

• IMDB Maximum Overdrive

• Dimension 20: A Starstruck Odyssey

• Dice Miner (affiliate link)

• Adapting fantasy RPGs to modern or sci-fi settings is not just about adding guns. You have to rethink combat assumptions, armor, hit points, movement, skills, equipment, enemies, and the economy.
• Previous d20-based games offer useful examples. d20 Star Wars experimented with wounds and vitality. d20 Modern used basic classes tied to ability scores, occupations, talents, and advanced classes. Star Wars Saga Edition showed some early design DNA that later appeared in 4e.
• Firearms and modern weapons change the math quickly. A pistol, rifle, grenade, or blaster can make traditional fantasy damage assumptions look very strange unless the system accounts for armor, accuracy, availability, legality, and consequences.
• Armor may need to work differently. In a modern game, characters probably are not walking around in plate armor, so armor might reduce damage, resist ballistic attacks, or be replaced partly by class-based defense or plot-armor-style scaling.
• Hit points can still work, but they need a clear interpretation. They might represent luck, stamina, near misses, tactical positioning, or cinematic survival rather than literal meat points.
• Vehicles change encounter design. Horses and overland travel are one thing. Cars, motorcycles, tanks, aircraft, and spaceships make movement, chase scenes, distance, and random encounters much more complicated.
• Skills and tools need updating. Computers, hacking, piloting, driving, engineering, and modern medicine may need to be skills, tool proficiencies, lore-style specialties, or full subsystems depending on how important they are to the campaign.
• The modern world makes Strength harder to justify unless the game gives it a reason to matter. Close quarters, carrying capacity, melee restrictions, grappling, armor, and specialized builds can help keep strong characters relevant.
• Classes may need reskinning rather than replacement. A barbarian might become a super-soldier, a rage-serum bruiser, or a minigun-wielding menace. A cleric might serve an ideal, philosophy, cosmic force, AI god, or belief system rather than a traditional deity.
• Magic can stay magical, become technology, or sit beside technology. Fireball might still be a spell, or it might be a grenade, a rocket launcher, a plasma weapon, or a problem for your insurance provider.
• Monsters still work if you treat them thoughtfully. Vampires, mind flayers, zombies, kaiju, and the Tarrasque can all survive in modern settings if their defenses, tactics, environment, and narrative role make sense.
• Access matters. Just because tanks, RPGs, and military hardware exist does not mean the party can buy them at Fantasy Costco. Price, legality, scarcity, black markets, and consequences are balancing tools.
• Currency may be better handled abstractly. Modern money can become tedious fast, so a wealth stat or resource system may work better than tracking every nickel, dime, credit card, crypto wallet, and suspicious suitcase full of cash.
• Tyler's three-change rule is a useful warning sign. If you need to make three huge changes to force D&D into another genre, consider whether another RPG already does what you want better.
• The episode's greatest lesson may be this: you can absolutely kill Tiamat with an Uzi, but first you need to know what that does to armor class, encounter balance, campaign tone, and the local black market.

Welcome to the RPGBOT Podcast. If you love Dungeons & Dragons, Pathfinder, and tabletop RPGs, this is the podcast for you.

Support the show for free: Rate and review us on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or any podcast app. It helps new listeners find the best RPG podcast for D&D and Pathfinder players.

Level up your experience: Join us on Patreon to unlock ad-free access to RPGBOT.net and the RPGBOT Podcast, chat with us and the community on the RPGBOT Discord, and jump into live-streamed RPG podcast recordings.

Support while you shop: Use our Amazon affiliate link at https://amzn.to/3NwElxQ and help us keep building tools and guides for the RPG community.

• Tyler Kamstra – Master of mechanics, seeing the Pathfinder action economy like Neo in the Matrix.

• Randall James – Lore buff and technologist, always ready to debate which Lord of the Rings edition reigns supreme.

• Ash Ely – Resident cynic, chaos agent, and AI's worst nightmare, bringing pure table-flipping RPG podcast energy.

Join the RPGBOT team where fantasy roleplaying meets real strategy, sarcasm, and community chaos.

How to Find Us:

In-depth articles, guides, handbooks, reviews, news on Tabletop Role Playing at RPGBOT.net

• BlueSky: @rpgbot.net
• TikTok: @RPGBOTDOTNET

• Professional Game Master on StartPlaying.Games
• BlueSky: @GravenAshes
• YouTube: @ashravenmedia

• BlueSky: @GrimoireRPG
• Amateurjack.com
• Read Melancon: A Grimoire Tale (affiliate link)

• @Lzr_illuminati

Before the rogues can reach legendary proficiency, the episode must first survive the real high-level threats: Producer Dan being sleepy, Tyler's aggressively early bedtime policy, Ash explaining the freedom of having no kids, a Starfinder boss who walks through space walls, and the devastating possibility that a spider might disrupt Tyler's routine. Once everyone finally remembers this is supposed to be a Pathfinder 2e rogue episode, the party returns to levels 11 through 20, where rogues stop being "sneaky knife people" and become invisible, paralyzing, truth-proof, pants-stealing engines of felony.

This episode continues the RPGBOT.Podcast Pathfinder 2e rogue build series, picking up at level 11 and carrying the Mastermind, Scoundrel, and Ruffian builds all the way to level 20. Tyler, Ash, and Randall revisit their characters and explore what happens when rogues move beyond "I stab the off-guard guy" and into "I delete actions, rewrite memories, steal impossible objects, ignore magical detection, and turn violence into a pyramid scheme."

Tyler's Mastermind continues to lean into Recall Knowledge, ranged support, and battlefield control. His rogue knows things about things, then stabs those things, then tells his friends how to stab those things better. Randall's Ruffian keeps building into the direct approach: intimidation, bleed, debilitating strikes, reactive setups, and the wonderful simplicity of punching someone so effectively that an ally also gets to hit them. Ash's Catfolk Scoundrel doubles down on deception, stealth, social nonsense, and the extremely upsetting power to convince someone that he has secretly been part of their life the whole time.

The mid-level progression brings several major rogue upgrades. Critical Debilitation and Bloody Debilitation add nasty new rider effects. Greater Rogue Reflexes turns Reflex saves into a comedy routine where explosions are mostly someone else's problem. Double Debilitation lets rogues stack problems on top of problems. Master Strike gives rogues a terrifying late-game opener that can paralyze, knock unconscious, or kill a target if the dice cooperate.

The episode also highlights how wild high-level skill feats become. Reveal Machinations lets Ash emotionally destroy someone by claiming to be their secret dad. Scare to Death lets Randall intimidate people so hard their hearts may simply quit. Legendary Thief opens the door to absurd theft, including the possibility of stealing weapons, armor, or, naturally, pants. Blank Slate makes Ash so good at lying that divination magic simply refuses to perceive him. True Perception gets called out as a must-have, because permanent true sight is extremely hard to argue with.

By level 20, everyone converges on Enduring Debilitation because sometimes the correct answer is obvious. Extending a debilitation for a full minute is brutal, especially when it means a boss might lose a third of their actions for most of a fight. The hosts also shout out other capstone-style options like Hidden Paragon, Steel Essence, Perfect Distraction, Reactive Distraction, and Craft Anything, showing that high-level rogues can be invisible legends, impossible thieves, decoy-swapping nightmares, or walking item factories.

In classic RPGBOT fashion, the episode is equal parts mechanical breakdown, build advice, and conversational derailment. It is a guide to high-level rogues, but it is also a warning: once a rogue reaches legendary proficiency, the laws of physics, social trust, and basic workplace safety are all optional.

• This episode covers Pathfinder 2e rogues from levels 11 through 20, continuing the three builds from Part 1: Tyler's Mastermind, Ash's Catfolk Scoundrel, and Randall's Ruffian.
• High-level rogues become much more than sneak attackers. They gain stronger saves, better weapon proficiency, powerful debilitations, absurd skill feats, and some truly ridiculous capstone options.
• Incredible Scout is a strong party-facing general feat because it can improve initiative for the whole group when using the Scout exploration activity.
• Critical Debilitation is a standout level 12 option because slowed is one of the nastiest conditions in Pathfinder 2e, and even a success can still matter.
• Bloody Debilitation gives rogues a straightforward damage option by adding significant persistent bleed damage.
• Greater Rogue Reflexes makes rogues extremely hard to punish with Reflex-based effects, especially combined with their already strong Reflex progression.
• Leave an Opening is excellent for team damage because it lets an ally make a reactive strike when the rogue critically hits an off-guard target.
• Double Debilitation lets rogues apply two debilitations at once, but the interaction matters. If one debilitation ends, both end, so sometimes one strong debilitation is better than stacking.
• Reveal Machinations is one of the funniest skill feats discussed. Ash frames it as convincing an enemy that you have secretly been their father, mentor, or recurring trauma goblin all along.
• Scare to Death is both mechanically useful and hilarious. Even when it does not kill something outright, frightened conditions are still valuable.
• Dispelling Slice gives rogues a way to make casters sad by cutting through active magical effects on an off-guard target.
• Legendary Thief opens up absurd theft possibilities, including stealing things that should be impossible to steal under normal circumstances.
• Blank Slate is peak Scoundrel nonsense. Ash becomes so good at deception that detection, revelation, and scrying magic can simply fail to notice him.
• Powerful Sneak makes Sneak Attack more reliable by helping against precision immunity or resistance and improving low sneak attack damage rolls.
• Master Strike is a terrifying level 19 feature that lets rogues add a major incapacitating effect when they damage an off-guard target.
• True Perception gets called out as an incredible general feat because constant true sight is useful on almost any character who can qualify.
• Enduring Debilitation is the big level 20 winner. Making a debilitation last for a full minute can dramatically change a boss fight.
• Hidden Paragon, Steel Essence, Craft Anything, Perfect Distraction, and Reactive Distraction show how high-level rogues can specialize into legendary stealth, impossible theft, crafting absurdity, or decoy-based nonsense.
• The Mastermind becomes a knowledge-based support striker, the Ruffian becomes a fear-and-bleed melee bully, and the Scoundrel becomes a deception-fueled social and stealth menace.
• The real lesson: high-level rogues do not just break into places. They break action economy, memories, magic detection, enemy confidence, and possibly the pants economy.

Welcome to the RPGBOT Podcast. If you love Dungeons & Dragons, Pathfinder, and tabletop RPGs, this is the podcast for you.

Support the show for free: Rate and review us on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or any podcast app. It helps new listeners find the best RPG podcast for D&D and Pathfinder players.

Level up your experience: Join us on Patreon to unlock ad-free access to RPGBOT.net and the RPGBOT Podcast, chat with us and the community on the RPGBOT Discord, and jump into live-streamed RPG podcast recordings.

Support while you shop: Use our Amazon affiliate link at https://amzn.to/3NwElxQ and help us keep building tools and guides for the RPG community.

• Tyler Kamstra – Master of mechanics, seeing the Pathfinder action economy like Neo in the Matrix.

• Randall James – Lore buff and technologist, always ready to debate which Lord of the Rings edition reigns supreme.

• Ash Ely – Resident cynic, chaos agent, and AI's worst nightmare, bringing pure table-flipping RPG podcast energy.

Join the RPGBOT team where fantasy roleplaying meets real strategy, sarcasm, and community chaos.

How to Find Us:

In-depth articles, guides, handbooks, reviews, news on Tabletop Role Playing at RPGBOT.net

• BlueSky: @rpgbot.net
• TikTok: @RPGBOTDOTNET

• Professional Game Master on StartPlaying.Games
• BlueSky: @GravenAshes
• YouTube: @ashravenmedia

• BlueSky: @GrimoireRPG
• Amateurjack.com
• Read Melancon: A Grimoire Tale (affiliate link)

• @Lzr_illuminati

Monks are supposed to be serene masters of body, mind, and spirit, which is adorable because in 2014 DnD 5e they mostly begin life as a lightly dressed Dex-Wis-Con spreadsheet sprinting toward danger with 10 hit points and a dream. This week, the RPGBOT crew enters the monastery to ask the big questions. Can you punch your way to enlightenment? Is ki a precious spiritual resource or just a tiny battery labeled please do not waste on disappointment? And at levels 1 through 4, are Monks ascending to greatness, or are they simply discovering that inner peace does not count as armor?

This episode begins the RPGBOT.Podcast's two-part breakdown of the 2014 DnD 5e Monk, starting where every fragile martial arts legend begins: levels 1 through 4. The crew digs into what makes the Monk exciting, frustrating, stylish, and mechanically hungry enough to eat every good ability score on your character sheet.

The conversation looks at the Monk's core identity as a fast, unarmored martial character built around Dexterity, Wisdom, and Constitution. That sounds elegant until you realize the class wants all three of those stats immediately, then quietly asks whether you also had room for feats, survivability, and emotional support snacks. From Unarmored Defense to Martial Arts, the early Monk has a lot of cool tools, but not always enough breathing room to use them comfortably.

The team also explores the Monk's early features, including Flurry of Blows, Slow Fall, and the looming promise of Stunning Strike. There is plenty to like here, especially for players who enjoy movement, positioning, and the fantasy of solving problems with disciplined violence. But the episode also does not shy away from the class's pain points, including limited weapon options, resource pressure, and design choices that make the Monk feel like it is constantly trying to do three jobs while dressed for yoga.

Subclasses also enter the dojo, with discussion of options like Ascendant Dragon, Open Hand, Shadow, Drunken Master, Four Elements, Long Death, Mercy, and Cobalt Soul. Some bring strong flavor, some bring real mechanical value, and some bring the familiar DnD experience of reading a subclass feature and whispering, why would you do this to me?

Along the way, the crew talks optimization, multiclassing, race choices, ability score improvements, and how to build a Monk that can actually survive long enough to become the terrifying battlefield blur you imagined. It is a practical, opinionated, and occasionally exasperated look at a class with fantastic vibes, uneven mechanics, and the eternal promise that someday, somehow, punching a dragon in the ankle will be a sound tactical plan.

• The 2014 DnD 5e Monk has one of the strongest class fantasies in the game, but the mechanics can struggle to fully support it.
• Early Monks rely heavily on Dexterity, Wisdom, and Constitution, making them very ability-score dependent right from level 1.
• Unarmored Defense is flavorful and useful, but it also means the Monk needs strong stats to keep up defensively.
• Martial Arts gives the Monk its core identity, letting the character fight with speed, flexibility, and style without relying on heavy weapons or armor.
• Weapon limitations can make early Monk choices feel narrower than expected, especially compared to other martial classes.
• Ki is powerful but limited, so early Monks need to be careful about when they spend it and when they save it.
• Flurry of Blows is iconic, but it competes for the same limited resource pool as other Monk tricks.
• Slow Fall is useful and very funny when it works, especially if your campaign includes cliffs, towers, rooftops, or poor decisions.
• Stunning Strike is one of the Monk's most famous features, but its effectiveness depends heavily on enemy Constitution saves and ki availability.
• Subclass choice matters a lot because some Monk subclasses help solve the class's problems, while others mostly hand you a decorative ribbon and a bill.
• Open Hand and Mercy tend to offer more reliable mechanical value, while subclasses like Four Elements can be harder to recommend without generous table support.
• Shadow Monk brings strong utility and sneaky fantasy, especially for players who want mobility, stealth, and magical ninja nonsense.
• Ascendant Dragon adds big style and elemental flavor, giving the Monk a more dramatic combat identity.
• Drunken Master, Long Death, and Cobalt Soul each offer distinct flavor and tools, but their value depends heavily on campaign style and player expectations.
• Multiclassing can help some Monk builds, but it can also delay important class features and make an already hungry build even hungrier.
• Ability Score Improvements are especially important because the Monk often needs raw stats more than flashy feats.
• Race choice can make a meaningful difference, especially when it supports Dexterity, Wisdom, survivability, mobility, or extra utility.
• The Monk works best when the player leans into movement, positioning, skirmishing, and selective resource use rather than trying to stand still and trade hits like a Fighter.
• The class is stylish, mobile, and fun, but it asks the player to manage limitations carefully.
• The Monk's biggest tragedy is that it looks like a simple punch class, but underneath the robes is a complicated optimization puzzle doing parkour.

Welcome to the RPGBOT Podcast. If you love Dungeons & Dragons, Pathfinder, and tabletop RPGs, this is the podcast for you.

Support the show for free: Rate and review us on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or any podcast app. It helps new listeners find the best RPG podcast for D&D and Pathfinder players.

Level up your experience: Join us on Patreon to unlock ad-free access to RPGBOT.net and the RPGBOT Podcast, chat with us and the community on the RPGBOT Discord, and jump into live-streamed RPG podcast recordings.

Support while you shop: Use our Amazon affiliate link at https://amzn.to/3NwElxQ and help us keep building tools and guides for the RPG community.

• Tyler Kamstra – Master of mechanics, seeing the Pathfinder action economy like Neo in the Matrix.

• Randall James – Lore buff and technologist, always ready to debate which Lord of the Rings edition reigns supreme.

• Ash Ely – Resident cynic, chaos agent, and AI's worst nightmare, bringing pure table-flipping RPG podcast energy.

Join the RPGBOT team where fantasy roleplaying meets real strategy, sarcasm, and community chaos.

How to Find Us:

In-depth articles, guides, handbooks, reviews, news on Tabletop Role Playing at RPGBOT.net

• BlueSky: @rpgbot.net
• TikTok: @RPGBOTDOTNET

• Professional Game Master on StartPlaying.Games
• BlueSky: @GravenAshes
• YouTube: @ashravenmedia

• BlueSky: @GrimoireRPG
• Amateurjack.com
• Read Melancon: A Grimoire Tale (affiliate link)

• @Lzr_illuminati

Once the table finally escapes the opening chaos and cat crimes, Tyler, Randall, and Ash dive into Pathfinder 2e rogues, proving that the class is not just a sneaky knife gremlin. It is also a walking toolbox, a social menace, a battlefield problem, and so much more

This episode begins the RPGBOT.Podcast breakdown of Pathfinder 2e rogues, covering levels 1 through 10 and exploring how the class develops from nimble opportunist into a precision-damage nightmare with more skills than common sense. Tyler, Randall, and Ash each bring a different rogue racket to the table, with Tyler building a Mastermind, Ash building a Scoundrel, and Randall building a Ruffian.

The conversation starts with the rogue's core identity: Sneak Attack, off-guard targets, excellent skills, strong Reflex saves, and the sheer absurdity of getting skill increases and skill feats constantly. The hosts explain how Pathfinder rogues differ from their 5e cousins, especially around precision damage, surprise attack, and how off-guard creates the opening rogues need to ruin someone's day.

From there, the builds split into very different flavors of criminal excellence. Ash's Catfolk Scoundrel leans into Feint, Deception, diversions, social trickery, and making enemies easier to stab, hide from, or fireball. Tyler's Fetchling Mastermind turns Recall Knowledge into a combat engine, using information as a weapon and building toward automatic knowledge checks, scroll utility, and ranged support. Randall's Human Ruffian takes the direct approach with medium armor, intimidation, two-weapon tricks, gang-up tactics, and eventually debilitation options that make the whole party better at hurting things.

Along the way, the hosts cover important rogue build choices including ancestry feats, racket features, armor considerations, weapon selection, class feats, general feats, and the sometimes painful reality that not every tempting rogue feat is worth taking. Twist the Knife gets called out as a trap compared to easier bleed options, while Gang Up, Analyze Weakness, Clever Gambit, Distracting Feint, Dazzling Diversion, Predictive Purchase, and racket-specific debilitations all get time in the spotlight.

The episode closes by emphasizing that while these builds are combat-focused, rogues are not limited to combat. With their enormous number of skill feats and skill increases, rogues can be investigators, con artists, diplomats, criminals, spies, consultants, bullies, burglars, or social wrecking balls. In true RPGBOT fashion, the takeaway is clear: you can optimize the stabbing, but you still have plenty of room left to optimize the nonsense.

• Pathfinder 2e rogues are skill monsters. They gain more skill increases and skill feats than almost anyone else, making them great in combat, exploration, social encounters, and weird niche problem-solving.
• Sneak Attack is the rogue's core damage feature, but it depends on the target being off-guard and on using the right kinds of weapons or attacks.
• Surprise Attack helps rogues get Sneak Attack early in combat by making creatures off-guard if the rogue rolls Deception or Stealth for initiative and acts before them.
• Rogue rackets dramatically change how the class plays. Scoundrels manipulate enemies with Feint and Deception, Masterminds weaponize Recall Knowledge, and Ruffians use intimidation, armor, and heavier weapons to bully the battlefield.
• Ash's Scoundrel build focuses on Charisma, Feint, Deception, and making enemies vulnerable through off-guard, dazzled, Reflex penalties, and tactical debilitations.
• Tyler's Mastermind build turns Recall Knowledge into a combat strategy, using it to make enemies off-guard, trigger extra movement, support allies, and set up extra damage through Analyze Weakness.
• Randall's Ruffian build leans into durability, melee pressure, medium armor, intimidation, Gang Up, and debilitation options that add weaknesses or penalties to enemies.
• Medium armor can work for a rogue, especially a Ruffian, but noisy armor is a bad idea if you still want to sneak.
• Weapon choice matters. Kukris, shortbows, agile and finesse weapons, and qualifying Ruffian weapons all interact differently with Sneak Attack and critical specialization.
• Analyze Weakness is a strong rogue feat for builds that can reliably identify enemies, adding extra precision-style damage when the rogue wants one hit to matter more.
• Gang Up is excellent for melee rogues because it makes off-guard easier to trigger without needing perfect flanking positions.
• Twist the Knife sounds fun, but the hosts flag it as a trap because weapon runes can often provide better bleed damage with less action cost.
• Debilitating Strike at level 9 is a major rogue power bump, letting Sneak Attack also impose conditions like speed penalties or enfeebled.
• Level 10 racket-specific debilitations make rogues even nastier. Masterminds gain support-focused options, Ruffians can add damage weaknesses or clumsy, and Scoundrels can shut down reactions or flanking.
• The builds in this episode are combat-focused, but rogues can easily become outstanding social and exploration characters because they have so many skill feats to spend.
• Rogues are not just sneaky stabbers. They can be detectives, con artists, crime lords, rich bullies, diplomats, vault testers, information brokers, and every other flavor of charming disaster.

Welcome to the RPGBOT Podcast. If you love Dungeons & Dragons, Pathfinder, and tabletop RPGs, this is the podcast for you.

Support the show for free: Rate and review us on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or any podcast app. It helps new listeners find the best RPG podcast for D&D and Pathfinder players.

Level up your experience: Join us on Patreon to unlock ad-free access to RPGBOT.net and the RPGBOT Podcast, chat with us and the community on the RPGBOT Discord, and jump into live-streamed RPG podcast recordings.

Support while you shop: Use our Amazon affiliate link at https://amzn.to/3NwElxQ and help us keep building tools and guides for the RPG community.

• Tyler Kamstra – Master of mechanics, seeing the Pathfinder action economy like Neo in the Matrix.

• Randall James – Lore buff and technologist, always ready to debate which Lord of the Rings edition reigns supreme.

• Ash Ely – Resident cynic, chaos agent, and AI's worst nightmare, bringing pure table-flipping RPG podcast energy.

Join the RPGBOT team where fantasy roleplaying meets real strategy, sarcasm, and community chaos.

How to Find Us:

In-depth articles, guides, handbooks, reviews, news on Tabletop Role Playing at RPGBOT.net

• BlueSky: @rpgbot.net
• TikTok: @RPGBOTDOTNET

• Professional Game Master on StartPlaying.Games
• BlueSky: @GravenAshes
• YouTube: @ashravenmedia

• BlueSky: @GrimoireRPG
• Amateurjack.com
• Read Melancon: A Grimoire Tale (affiliate link)

• @Lzr_illuminati

Welcome to Forgotten Odysseys, the game where surviving the Trojan War is apparently the easy part. Adam Bradford, also known as BadEye Adam, has created a MÖRK BORG-compatible Greek fantasy nightmare where the gods hate you, the sea hates you, the dice hate you, and sometimes your own party decides that prophecy is just a polite suggestion to commit murder. In this episode, the crew sets sail for home, immediately gets distracted by pork, insults a goddess, and proves that if Odysseus had access to a live Twitch chat, he probably would have died even faster.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/badeye/forgotten-odysseys

This week on the RPGBOT.Podcast, we dive into Forgotten Odysseys, the creation of Adam Bradford, also known as BadEye Adam, and currently funding on Kickstarter. Adam joins the show to talk about building a brutal, mythic Greek journey home from the Trojan War using the bones of MÖRK BORG, then Josh Simons of Broken Door Entertainment takes the helm for a live play demo that immediately proves why sailors should fear gods, storms, wild animals, and shirtless leadership.

Adam walks through the inspirations behind the game, from The Odyssey and Bronze Age Greek culture to Blood of Zeus, 300, Xena, and the gloriously doomed charm of MÖRK BORG hacks. The result is a sword-and-sandals survival game where the goal is simple: get home. The problem is Eris, goddess of strife and chaos, who believes you cheated death at Troy and would very much like to correct that oversight.

The episode also explores the game's seafaring tests, deadly mishaps, journey map, mythic art direction, character classes, boons, curses, legendary items, and armor system. Then the actual play begins, and the party creates Dome, Demos, and Dephobos, three heroes whose collective survival strategy includes playing "Yankee Doodle Dandy" on a lyre, hunting boars in a storm, yelling at divine fog, and ultimately fulfilling a betrayal prophecy with alarming efficiency.

If you like Greek mythology, doomed sailors, lethal rules-light games, gorgeous art-heavy books, and tabletop sessions where a boar fight becomes the emotional centerpiece of the evening, this one is for you.

• Forgotten Odysseys is Adam Bradford's mythic Greek, MÖRK BORG-compatible game about soldiers trying to survive the journey home after the Trojan War.
• The game is currently on Kickstarter and is published in partnership with Broken Door Entertainment.
• Adam wrote, illustrated, laid out, and designed the game, giving it a strong personal visual identity inspired by Greek myth, comics, public domain art, and brutal sword-and-sandals drama.
• The central premise is not "become a hero." It is "get home before the gods, monsters, sea, dice, or your friends kill you."
• Eris replaces Poseidon as the primary divine antagonist, hunting the characters because they survived when fate said they should have died.
• The game keeps the deadly, strange, art-heavy spirit of MÖRK BORG while adding Greek myth flavor, seafaring rules, Bronze Age gear, legendary items, boons, curses, and a journey map.
• Seafaring tests let everyone contribute to survival, whether they are rowing, navigating, inspiring the crew, helming the ship, or playing music to keep the oars in rhythm.
• Character creation leans into randomness, misery, and personality, which is how the table ends up with Dome, Demos, and Dephobos, three names that sound like they were cursed before the dice even hit the table.
• The live play shows off the system's fast combat, player-facing rolls, armor tiers, and high stakes, mostly through the sacred Greek tradition of nearly dying to pigs.
• Demos learns that boars are dangerous, Dephobos learns that prophecy is inconvenient, and Dome learns that leadership is easier when nobody questions why someone was stabbed and thrown into shallow water.
• The episode is a strong showcase for the game's tone: mythic, deadly, beautiful, ridiculous, and always one bad roll away from becoming a cautionary tale.

Welcome to the RPGBOT Podcast. If you love Dungeons & Dragons, Pathfinder, and tabletop RPGs, this is the podcast for you.

Support the show for free: Rate and review us on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or any podcast app. It helps new listeners find the best RPG podcast for D&D and Pathfinder players.

Level up your experience: Join us on Patreon to unlock ad-free access to RPGBOT.net and the RPGBOT Podcast, chat with us and the community on the RPGBOT Discord, and jump into live-streamed RPG podcast recordings.

Support while you shop: Use our Amazon affiliate link at https://amzn.to/3NwElxQ and help us keep building tools and guides for the RPG community.

• Tyler Kamstra – Master of mechanics, seeing the Pathfinder action economy like Neo in the Matrix.

• Randall James – Lore buff and technologist, always ready to debate which Lord of the Rings edition reigns supreme.

• Ash Ely – Resident cynic, chaos agent, and AI's worst nightmare, bringing pure table-flipping RPG podcast energy.

Join the RPGBOT team where fantasy roleplaying meets real strategy, sarcasm, and community chaos.

How to Find Us:

In-depth articles, guides, handbooks, reviews, news on Tabletop Role Playing at RPGBOT.net

• BlueSky: @rpgbot.net
• TikTok: @RPGBOTDOTNET

• Professional Game Master on StartPlaying.Games
• BlueSky: @GravenAshes
• YouTube: @ashravenmedia

• BlueSky: @GrimoireRPG
• Amateurjack.com
• Read Melancon: A Grimoire Tale (affiliate link)

• @Lzr_illuminati

Welcome to the Abyss, the multiverse's least relaxing vacation destination, where every layer is somehow worse than the last, the locals are made of teeth and bad decisions, and the gift shop only sells trauma. This week on the RPGBOT.Podcast, we descend into the infinite chaos of demonic nonsense to ask the important questions: how do you survive a plane that actively hates zoning laws, why are demon lords like this, and at what point does a heroic expedition become an HR violation with initiative rolls?

This week, the RPGBOT.Podcast heads screaming into the Abyss, home of demons, demon lords, infinite layers, and the kind of cosmic chaos that makes ordinary campaign planning look like a polite neighborhood association meeting. The hosts explore what makes the Abyss such a dangerous and compelling place for tabletop adventures, from its shifting geography and endless hordes to the major powers that call it home.

Along the way, we look at how different games and editions have handled demonic lore, including DnD 5e, classic 3.5 material, and Pathfinder's take on demon lords, qlippoth, and the Outer Rifts. It is a tour through madness, violence, temptation, and worldbuilding opportunities, with just enough useful advice to make you think visiting the Abyss might be survivable. It is not. But it might make a fantastic campaign arc.

Whether you need a terrifying destination, a villainous power structure, a planar survival nightmare, or just a place where every bad idea gets promoted to management, the Abyss is ready to ruin your party's day in spectacular fashion.

• DnD 5e

• 2014 Dungeon Master's Guide (affiliate link)

• Monsters of the Multiverse (affiliate link)

• 3.5 Expedition to the Demonweb Pits (affiliate link)

• Pathfinder Wiki

• Demon Lords

• Qlippoth

• Outer Rifts

• The Abyss is more than just Hell with worse branding. It is chaos given geography, full of infinite layers, unstable rules, and creatures that treat morality like an optional splatbook.
• Demons work best when they feel unpredictable, destructive, and hungry for escalation. Devils make contracts. Demons kick in the door, eat the contract, and set the room on fire.
• Demon lords are excellent campaign villains because they combine cosmic power, personal obsession, and the emotional stability of a cursed chainsaw.
• The Abyss gives DMs a huge toolbox for adventure design: survival horror, planar exploration, corruption arcs, cult plots, boss fights, doomed expeditions, and the classic question of why did we open that portal?
• Older DnD material and Pathfinder lore both offer rich inspiration, especially if you want the Abyss to feel bigger, stranger, and more awful than just a monster closet with lava.
• Qlippoth and other ancient horrors are useful when you want to remind players that demons are not necessarily the bottom of the cosmic barrel. Sometimes the barrel has teeth underneath it.
• The best Abyss adventures should feel dangerous before initiative is rolled. The plane itself should be part of the threat, not just the room where the demons are standing.

Welcome to the RPGBOT Podcast. If you love Dungeons & Dragons, Pathfinder, and tabletop RPGs, this is the podcast for you.

Support the show for free: Rate and review us on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or any podcast app. It helps new listeners find the best RPG podcast for D&D and Pathfinder players.

Level up your experience: Join us on Patreon to unlock ad-free access to RPGBOT.net and the RPGBOT Podcast, chat with us and the community on the RPGBOT Discord, and jump into live-streamed RPG podcast recordings.

Support while you shop: Use our Amazon affiliate link at https://amzn.to/3NwElxQ and help us keep building tools and guides for the RPG community.

• Tyler Kamstra – Master of mechanics, seeing the Pathfinder action economy like Neo in the Matrix.

• Randall James – Lore buff and technologist, always ready to debate which Lord of the Rings edition reigns supreme.

• Ash Ely – Resident cynic, chaos agent, and AI's worst nightmare, bringing pure table-flipping RPG podcast energy.

Join the RPGBOT team where fantasy roleplaying meets real strategy, sarcasm, and community chaos.

How to Find Us:

In-depth articles, guides, handbooks, reviews, news on Tabletop Role Playing at RPGBOT.net

• BlueSky: @rpgbot.net
• TikTok: @RPGBOTDOTNET

• Professional Game Master on StartPlaying.Games
• BlueSky: @GravenAshes
• YouTube: @ashravenmedia

• BlueSky: @GrimoireRPG
• Amateurjack.com
• Read Melancon: A Grimoire Tale (affiliate link)

• @Lzr_illuminati

Welcome to Part 4 of our Ravenloft: The Horrors Within review, where the real horror isn't Strahd. It's Ash's campaign. In the span of ten minutes, his players accidentally created Baba Yaga, nearly invented a magical nuclear weapon, tried to break the multiverse "just to see what happens," and immediately asked if they could automate it with a Rube Goldberg machine. At this point, the Dark Powers aren't tormenting the players. They're trying to survive them.

We wrap up our four-part review of Ravenloft: The Horrors Within by touring the remaining Domains of Dread, digging into the new monsters and NPCs, exploring haunted Bastions, and deciding whether Wizards of the Coast finally delivered the definitive Ravenloft sourcebook.

Before the review even begins, Ash recounts the latest catastrophes from his home Ravenloft campaign. His players accidentally elevate a coven of hags into a new Baba Yaga, nearly tear open reality with artifacts capable of destroying demiplanes, and somehow conclude that the obvious solution is building a magical doomsday device. As always, the greatest threat to Ravenloft isn't the Dark Lords. It's the player characters.

The panel finishes its tour of the remaining Domains of Dread, highlighting favorites like the haunted countryside of Mordent, Arthurian-inspired Shadowlands, Lord Soth's Sythicus, the folk-horror nightmare of Tepest, and the deadly jungle hunts of Valachan. Each domain receives new maps, campaign outlines, adventure hooks, and fully realized Dark Lord stat blocks that make them dramatically easier to run than previous editions.

Attention then shifts to the new DM tools. Haunted Bastions become an instant favorite, adding supernatural events, cursed facilities, and even Backrooms-inspired liminal spaces to the 2024 Bastion system. The group also praises the new patron mechanics, expanded horror guidance, and dozens of flavorful campaign-building resources for Dungeon Masters.

The bestiary proves equally impressive. New horrors range from Lovecraftian monstrosities and terrifying Relentless Killers to updated versions of classic Ravenloft creatures like the Dullahan and Grimishkas. Several monsters introduce brutal mechanics involving exhaustion, possession, regeneration, and instant death, giving horror encounters a unique identity beyond simply dealing more damage.

Finally, the hosts deliver their verdict on the book. While the player-facing subclasses receive mixed reviews throughout the series, everyone agrees that The Horrors Within is a massive upgrade for Dungeon Masters. Between expanded lore, stronger adventures, memorable monsters, and fully developed Domains of Dread, this may be the best Ravenloft campaign resource Wizards has published for Fifth Edition.

• Ravenloft: The Horrors Within (affiliate link)

• RPGBOT.store - Pish Pash, My Memory is Trash!

• Other Stuff

  • Rikki Tikki Tavi

  • Roxane but it gets faster

  • Spirited Away

• Content from RPGBOT.net

  • DnD 5e Dark Gifts Guide

• Ash's home campaign continues to prove that players are more dangerous than any Dark Lord.
• The remaining Domains of Dread receive substantial expansions with maps, adventures, and campaign frameworks.
• Shadowlands, Tepest, Mordent, and Valachan each offer unique horror genres beyond gothic vampires.
• Haunted Bastions are one of the most creative additions to the 2024 Bastion system.
• The liminal-space Bastion facility is basically the Backrooms for D&D.
• The bestiary introduces memorable new horrors, especially the Relentless Killer variants.
• Updated classic monsters receive more interesting mechanics while remaining faithful to their original themes.
• Named NPCs like Van Richten, Ez, Madame Eva, and the Weathermay-Foxgrove twins finally receive dedicated stat blocks.
• The book is packed with campaign hooks, DM tools, and adventure ideas that make Ravenloft easier than ever to run.
• Final verdict: player options are somewhat uneven, but for Dungeon Masters this is an outstanding sourcebook and one of the strongest setting books Wizards has released for the 2024 rules.

Welcome to the RPGBOT Podcast. If you love Dungeons & Dragons, Pathfinder, and tabletop RPGs, this is the podcast for you.

Support the show for free: Rate and review us on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or any podcast app. It helps new listeners find the best RPG podcast for D&D and Pathfinder players.

Level up your experience: Join us on Patreon to unlock ad-free access to RPGBOT.net and the RPGBOT Podcast, chat with us and the community on the RPGBOT Discord, and jump into live-streamed RPG podcast recordings.

Support while you shop: Use our Amazon affiliate link at https://amzn.to/3NwElxQ and help us keep building tools and guides for the RPG community.

• Tyler Kamstra – Master of mechanics, seeing the Pathfinder action economy like Neo in the Matrix.

• Randall James – Lore buff and technologist, always ready to debate which Lord of the Rings edition reigns supreme.

• Ash Ely – Resident cynic, chaos agent, and AI's worst nightmare, bringing pure table-flipping RPG podcast energy.

Join the RPGBOT team where fantasy roleplaying meets real strategy, sarcasm, and community chaos.

How to Find Us:

In-depth articles, guides, handbooks, reviews, news on Tabletop Role Playing at RPGBOT.net

• BlueSky: @rpgbot.net
• TikTok: @RPGBOTDOTNET

• Professional Game Master on StartPlaying.Games
• BlueSky: @GravenAshes
• YouTube: @ashravenmedia

• BlueSky: @GrimoireRPG
• Amateurjack.com
• Read Melancon: A Grimoire Tale (affiliate link)

• @Lzr_illuminati

Ravenloft is a setting built on fear, tragedy, and impossible choices. Naturally, we spent the first ten minutes arguing about whether Florida is its own Domain of Dread, listening to Ash tell a story about getting magically demoted from noble to peasant, and debating whether "lofting ravens" is a real phrase. Honestly, the Dark Powers couldn't have written a better introduction.

In Part 3 of our review of Ravenloft: The Horrors Within, we finally leave the player options behind and dive into the heart of the setting itself. Wizards of the Coast dramatically expands the Domains of Dread, providing campaign frameworks, detailed gazetteers, new maps, Dark Lord stat blocks, horror advice, Tarokka options, and enough adventure hooks to keep a party terrified for months.

We begin by exploring the overall structure of the book and immediately appreciate how much more usable it is than Van Richten's Guide to Ravenloft. Every major domain now includes lore, locations, horror themes, campaign outlines, one-shot adventures, and, perhaps most importantly, fully realized stat blocks for the Dark Lords themselves. No more "just use the Spy stat block."

From Barovia to Lamordia, we tour some of Ravenloft's most iconic locations. We revisit Strahd's eternal torment, explore the political nightmare of Borca, marvel at Darkon's crumbling reality, survive Falkovnia's endless zombie siege, admire Har'Akir's gorgeous redesign, and gush over Lamordia's expanded support. Along the way we discover that some Domains received spectacular glow-ups while others inspired... spirited debate.

Not every addition lands equally. The panel spends considerable time discussing Innsmouth and Cthulhu's inclusion, questioning whether cosmic horror fits Ravenloft's core theme of ironic punishment and personal damnation. The conversation turns into an entertaining deep dive on what actually makes a Dark Lord compelling and why some monsters work better as unknowable forces than boss encounters.

By the end of the episode, one thing is clear: even with a few controversial choices, The Horrors Within dramatically improves Ravenloft as a campaign setting. Better maps, better adventures, better stat blocks, and substantially more support make this feel like the definitive version of the Domains of Dread.

• The setting chapters are the standout portion of the book.
• Every major Domain of Dread receives significantly expanded support compared to Van Richten's Guide.
• Every major Dark Lord finally has a unique stat block worthy of an epic confrontation.
• New maps, campaign outlines, and one-shot adventures make the book far easier to run.
• Tarokka cards now tie directly into individual Domains and Dark Lords, adding flavorful campaign tools.
• Horror guidance remains solid, especially for GMs running gothic horror for the first time.
• Several redesigned Domains, especially Har'Akir and Lamordia, receive high praise for their presentation and atmosphere.
• Innsmouth and Cthulhu spark the episode's biggest debate, with questions about whether cosmic horror belongs in Ravenloft's established mythology.
• Lamordia emerges as one of the panel's favorite sections thanks to its expanded lore, updated locations, and memorable adventure hooks.
• Despite a handful of criticisms, the group considers the setting material a substantial improvement over previous Ravenloft sourcebooks.

Welcome to the RPGBOT Podcast. If you love Dungeons & Dragons, Pathfinder, and tabletop RPGs, this is the podcast for you.

Support the show for free: Rate and review us on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or any podcast app. It helps new listeners find the best RPG podcast for D&D and Pathfinder players.

Level up your experience: Join us on Patreon to unlock ad-free access to RPGBOT.net and the RPGBOT Podcast, chat with us and the community on the RPGBOT Discord, and jump into live-streamed RPG podcast recordings.

Support while you shop: Use our Amazon affiliate link at https://amzn.to/3NwElxQ and help us keep building tools and guides for the RPG community.

• Tyler Kamstra – Master of mechanics, seeing the Pathfinder action economy like Neo in the Matrix.

• Randall James – Lore buff and technologist, always ready to debate which Lord of the Rings edition reigns supreme.

• Ash Ely – Resident cynic, chaos agent, and AI's worst nightmare, bringing pure table-flipping RPG podcast energy.

Join the RPGBOT team where fantasy roleplaying meets real strategy, sarcasm, and community chaos.

How to Find Us:

In-depth articles, guides, handbooks, reviews, news on Tabletop Role Playing at RPGBOT.net

• BlueSky: @rpgbot.net
• TikTok: @RPGBOTDOTNET

• Professional Game Master on StartPlaying.Games
• BlueSky: @GravenAshes
• YouTube: @ashravenmedia

• BlueSky: @GrimoireRPG
• Amateurjack.com
• Read Melancon: A Grimoire Tale (affiliate link)

• @Lzr_illuminati

So today's episode is about the Help action, the mechanic that exists so your party can finally contribute after rolling three consecutive natural 2s. We'll answer life's toughest questions: Is sacrificing your turn to give someone advantage actually worth it? Can an owl legally become the MVP of every combat? And how many class features can be stacked before your DM quietly starts targeting the familiar instead? Grab your emotional support Help action, because we're about to optimize teamwork so hard your rogue might actually say 'thanks.'

The Help action looks simple on paper: spend your action so someone else can do better. In practice, it's one of the most misunderstood and surprisingly powerful mechanics in D&D 5e. This week we dive into every angle of helping, from the basic combat rules to the mountain of class features, feats, spells, familiars, summons, and character builds that can turn a supporting role into the strongest play at the table.

Along the way we discuss when giving advantage is mathematically better than attacking yourself, which subclasses excel at battlefield support, why certain familiars have become infamous for abusing the Help action, and how teamwork changes depending on your party composition. Whether you're building a dedicated support character or just trying to squeeze more value out of your turn, we break down when helping is heroic, when it's optimal, and when you're just enabling the barbarian's bad decisions.

As always, expect plenty of rules discussion, optimization advice, friendly arguments, and a few detours into the weird corners of D&D design.

• The Help action is stronger than many players realize. Giving another character advantage is often worth more than making a mediocre attack yourself.
• Action economy matters. A Help action isn't free. The value depends on what you're giving up and what your ally gains in return.
• Advantage scales with powerful attacks. Helping a rogue land Sneak Attack or a paladin land a massive Smite is often far more valuable than helping someone make a routine weapon attack.
• Familiars are support superstars. Features like Find Familiar, particularly with mobile options such as owls, can generate enormous tactical value by delivering Help while staying relatively safe.
• Some classes are built to support. Bards, certain Clerics, Battle Masters, Mastermind Rogues, and other support-focused subclasses have numerous ways to improve allies beyond simply casting buffs.
• Positioning is everything. The best support characters understand movement, sight lines, opportunity attacks, and initiative order just as much as damage optimization.
• Support isn't passive play. A well-played support character constantly makes tactical decisions that influence the entire battlefield.
• Not every Help action is a good Help action. Sometimes attacking, casting a spell, controlling the battlefield, or eliminating a threat is the better choice.
• Build synergy beats individual optimization. Characters designed to complement each other routinely outperform groups built around individual damage numbers.
• Helping extends beyond combat. Outside encounters, the Help action can dramatically improve skill checks when the assisting character can meaningfully contribute.
• Know your table. Some groups naturally coordinate tactics, while others benefit from discussing teamwork before combat begins.
• The best support players make everyone else look awesome. Good teamwork often creates the most memorable moments in a campaign, even if the support character never lands the finishing blow.

Welcome to the RPGBOT Podcast. If you love Dungeons & Dragons, Pathfinder, and tabletop RPGs, this is the podcast for you.

Support the show for free: Rate and review us on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or any podcast app. It helps new listeners find the best RPG podcast for D&D and Pathfinder players.

Level up your experience: Join us on Patreon to unlock ad-free access to RPGBOT.net and the RPGBOT Podcast, chat with us and the community on the RPGBOT Discord, and jump into live-streamed RPG podcast recordings.

Support while you shop: Use our Amazon affiliate link at https://amzn.to/3NwElxQ and help us keep building tools and guides for the RPG community.

• Tyler Kamstra – Master of mechanics, seeing the Pathfinder action economy like Neo in the Matrix.

• Randall James – Lore buff and technologist, always ready to debate which Lord of the Rings edition reigns supreme.

• Ash Ely – Resident cynic, chaos agent, and AI's worst nightmare, bringing pure table-flipping RPG podcast energy.

Join the RPGBOT team where fantasy roleplaying meets real strategy, sarcasm, and community chaos.

How to Find Us:

In-depth articles, guides, handbooks, reviews, news on Tabletop Role Playing at RPGBOT.net

• BlueSky: @rpgbot.net
• TikTok: @RPGBOTDOTNET

• Professional Game Master on StartPlaying.Games
• BlueSky: @GravenAshes
• YouTube: @ashravenmedia

• BlueSky: @GrimoireRPG
• Amateurjack.com
• Read Melancon: A Grimoire Tale (affiliate link)

• @Lzr_illuminati