RPGBOT.Podcast

Welcome to Night City, where housing is a shipping container, breakfast is kibble, and your most reliable neighbor is a rat named Greg. This week, Marky Day and Dave Costanzo accept a perfectly normal freelance job involving stalking, blackmail, corporate espionage, breaking and entering, and possibly assault. Fortunately, Marky has love in his heart, a mandolin in his bag, and the negotiating instincts to voluntarily reduce their payment by half. Dave, meanwhile, is an elite Netrunner capable of defeating corporate security, provided nobody asks him to walk quietly across a lobby without falling directly onto his face.

Marky Day and Dave Costanzo officially enter Night City for their first Cyberpunk RED adventure, but not before Tyler reveals that peer pressure convinced him to contact Brennan Lee Mulligan and possibly recover DiceGoblin.com. Having exhausted all responsible business decisions, the group finally turns to crime.

Marky wakes in his increasingly hot storage container, works out, eats some kibble, and contemplates writing a song about how love could solve society's problems. He is a rockerboy, vigilante, and aggressively compassionate street philosopher who will never judge someone too harshly, though he may beat them up for their own personal growth.

Next door, Dave Costanzo lives among cables, computer equipment, and spilled kibble. His breakfast is quickly claimed by Greg, the local rat and apparently the most dependable member of the team.

Their morning changes when Marky receives a call from J-ZK, a colorful fashion designer and 3D weapons artist who helped support his music career. A rival artist calling himself Gangster 3D has been stalking her, threatening her, attempting to hack her agent, and using stolen private material to blackmail her. She believes he may also sabotage an important presentation to Sanroo.

J-ZK asks Marky and Dave to break into the Discom corporate building, find Gangster 3D's operation, and steal the incriminating information from his computer. She initially offers them 5,000 eddies, but Marky decides that is far too generous and successfully negotiates their pay down to 2,500 each. Somewhere in Night City, a fixer feels a sudden disturbance in the economy.

To get inside, Marky uses Charismatic Impact to locate one of his corporate fans at the Afterlife. John John may not work for Discom, but he works for Biotechnica and is willing to escort them to the building and vouch for them at security. Marky supports their cover story with a crumpled folder of sheet music masquerading as confidential briefing documents.

Once inside, the pair begins searching for a network access point. Marky moves through the lobby like a seasoned professional. Dave rolls a critical failure on stealth, falls directly onto the floor, and explains to the nearby security guard that his shoe came untied. This works because security in Night City has apparently seen much worse before lunch.

While Dave connects to the building's network, Marky provides cover by pretending to conduct an important corporate conversation. Dave bypasses a password, takes control of an employee-only door, and searches the network for information about Gangster 3D.

He discovers the appointment calendar of Mr. Fromider, an executive on the twentieth floor. Fromider has met with Gangster 3D five times in the past two weeks and has also been meeting with several minor local artists. The pattern suggests that Gangster 3D may be involved in poaching artists like J-ZK for some larger corporate scheme.

Marky and Dave slip into the private elevator, but Marky's incredible perception reveals a hidden sleep-gas system designed to incapacitate unauthorized passengers. Dave disables the device by cutting the correct wire, proving that he is significantly better at defeating electronic security than standing upright in public.

The elevator still requires authorization, forcing Dave to jack into the network again. This time he must pass a Wisp Black ICE program to reach the elevator controls. He activates his Armor program, races past the hostile software, and successfully takes control of the elevator.

The Wisp catches him before he can escape and attempts to damage his brain while reducing his available Net Actions. Dave's Armor absorbs the damage, allowing him to slide away from the pursuing program and safely jack out.

The episode ends as the elevator begins climbing toward the twentieth floor. Marky and Dave are officially inside, Mr. Fromider is waiting somewhere above them, and the part of the mission where everything becomes violent has probably just begun.

• The episode demonstrates how Cyberpunk RED combines social interaction, stealth, investigation, physical security, and Netrunning within the same mission.
• Marky's Charismatic Impact turns his fans into useful contacts. John John helps the team pass the building's first layer of security without violence.
• Marky and Dave complement each other well. Marky handles persuasion, distractions, and social situations, while Dave manages computers, access points, and electronic security.
• Critical successes and failures have immediate narrative effects. Marky repeatedly notices hidden dangers, while Dave's critical stealth failure nearly exposes the mission.
• Netrunners connect through physical access points and enter a layered Net Architecture containing passwords, files, control nodes, and Black ICE.
• Pathfinder allows a Netrunner to map parts of the architecture before moving deeper, reducing the risk of blindly encountering dangerous programs.
• Control nodes connect the digital and physical environments. Dave uses them to unlock an employee door and activate the private elevator.
• Disconnecting from a network resets most changes. A Netrunner must reach the bottom of the architecture and install a virus to create a lasting effect.
• Black ICE can attack a Netrunner directly, causing brain damage or interfering with their available Net Actions.
• Dave's Armor program completely absorbs the Wisp's damage, demonstrating the value of choosing and activating defensive programs before engaging hostile architecture.
• The team learns that Mr. Fromider has met repeatedly with Gangster 3D and several local artists, suggesting a broader scheme beyond J-ZK's personal blackmail problem.
• The adventure closes on a cliffhanger as Marky and Dave ascend toward the twentieth floor, having successfully completed the portion of the infiltration where nobody has shot them yet.

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

The ranger's journey from level 5 to 20 is a majestic tale of growth, survival, and discovering that Hunter's Mark may not actually deserve permanent custody of your concentration. Randall's Gloom Stalker becomes an invisible crossbow machine, Ash's Drakewarden takes to the skies aboard a fire-breathing murder lizard, and Tyler spends sixteen levels converting every available feat, spell slot, and medical supply into increasingly desperate attempts to keep one flying snake alive. By level 20, two of these characters are legendary hunters. The third is still shouting, "Don't worry, buddy, I have Cure Wounds!" while filling out another pet insurance claim.

In this episode, we continue building our 2014 DnD 5e rangers, taking Randall's Gloom Stalker, Ash's Drakewarden, and Tyler's original Player's Handbook Beast Master from level 5 all the way to level 20. Extra Attack immediately improves everyone's combat potential, although Tyler is mostly excited because he can finally attack without ordering his flying snake to do it for him. From there, we examine the spells, feats, subclass features, and questionable design decisions that define the ranger's later levels.

We also commit ranger heresy by asking whether Hunter's Mark is actually worth using. Magic Weapon offers better accuracy, reliable damage, an hour-long duration, and none of the constant bonus-action reassignment that interferes with Crossbow Expert, companion commands, and other important ranger abilities. As the builds gain more attacks and begin using Sharpshooter, improving the chance to hit becomes increasingly valuable, leaving Hunter's Mark standing in the wilderness wondering why nobody invited it to combat.

The three subclasses develop very differently. Randall's Gloom Stalker continues doing Gloom Stalker things, including attacking repeatedly, disappearing into darkness, gaining Greater Invisibility, and generally becoming Batman with a crossbow. Ash's Drakewarden gains elemental damage, a flying companion, and a breath weapon that can turn a battlefield into an aerial geometry problem. Meanwhile, Tyler's Beast Master slowly crawls toward competence, eventually allowing his snake to attack twice and share spells, assuming it survives long enough to enjoy either feature.

At the highest levels, the ranger's progression becomes much less exciting. Fifth-level spells offer a few useful options, Feral Senses arrives with awkward limitations, and the class gives players several excellent reasons to multiclass after level 15. The journey concludes with Foe Slayer, a capstone so underwhelming that the group proposes replacing it with a legendary death arrow capable of instantly killing enemies, because a level-20 ranger should receive something more exciting than occasionally adding Wisdom to one attack.

Finally, the Question of the Week examines why players reacted differently to the DnD 2024 rules and the Pathfinder 2e Remaster. The discussion explores community expectations, the circumstances behind each revision, compatibility concerns, and the uncomfortable space occupied by an update that changes too much to feel like ordinary 5e but not enough to feel like a genuinely new edition.

• Hunter's Mark is not mandatory. Rangers have several competing uses for concentration and bonus actions. Magic Weapon, Elemental Weapon, Guardian of Nature, and subclass abilities may provide more value depending on the build.
• Accuracy becomes increasingly important. Extra Attack, Crossbow Expert, Sharpshooter, and subclass features reward effects that improve the chance of landing multiple attacks rather than adding modest damage to only one target.
• The original Beast Master demands too much maintenance. Tyler considers healing feats, defensive buffs, and other resources simply to keep his low-CR companion alive, although the subclass eventually gains respectable features such as Bestial Fury and Share Spells.
• Gloom Stalker remains extremely powerful. Additional attacks, darkness-based invisibility, Stalker's Flurry, Greater Invisibility, and strong action economy allow the subclass to remain dangerous throughout the ranger's progression.
• Drakewarden delivers the strongest companion fantasy. Its drake gains mobility, elemental abilities, flight, and a flexible breath weapon without requiring the ranger to build an entire emergency medical system around it.
• Ranger spells are useful, but spell slots are scarce. Pass Without Trace, Spike Growth, Lightning Arrow, Elemental Weapon, Guardian of Nature, and other options can be excellent, but rangers need to make each limited spell slot count.
• The late-level class features are underwhelming. Feral Senses has frustrating restrictions, and Foe Slayer offers too little for a level-20 capstone, especially for rangers making numerous attacks every round.
• Subclass choice dramatically changes the ranger experience. One ranger becomes Batman, another gets an airborne dragon flamethrower, and the third spends sixteen levels inventing increasingly elaborate snake-based healthcare.

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

Character creation in Cyberpunk RED is simple. First, choose whether you want to be a violent criminal, a corporate criminal, or a musician who can accidentally start a cult. Then roll enough childhood trauma to explain why you live in a shipping container. This week, Randall creates Cyberpunk Mr. Rogers, a relentlessly loving rockerboy whose most treasured possession is a weapon, while Tyler creates a fashionable netrunner who values money, wants power, steals programs from people he brain-burns, and has somehow made a mortal enemy entirely through bad vibes. Meanwhile, Riverside attempts to achieve sentience by transforming Ash into a robot every time he says something useful.

In the second installment of our Cyberpunk RED Quickstart, Ash guides Randall and Tyler through character creation while Riverside fights desperately to prevent the information from reaching anyone.

We begin with Cyberpunk RED's three character-creation methods. Streetrat gets a character onto the streets quickly with mostly predetermined options. Complete Package gives experienced players much more control over their statistics, skills, equipment, fashion, and cyberware. Between them is Edgerunner, which provides meaningful choices while keeping new players away from the most dangerous form of cyberpsychosis: analysis paralysis.

Ash introduces the game's roles, including Solos, Netrunners, Techs, Medtechs, Medias, Execs, Lawmen, Fixers, Nomads, and Rockerboys. Randall briefly considers playing an Exec before discovering that a Rockerboy can become a cult leader through Charismatic Impact. At that point, the decision is effectively over. Tyler chooses a Netrunner, giving the team one character who gathers followers and another who steals people's files.

The Lifepath system quickly demonstrates why Cyberpunk characters rarely arrive in Night City emotionally healthy. Randall develops a silly, free-spirited rockerboy who values friendship, believes every person matters, and loves everyone too much to name a single favorite person. He grew up around comfortable corporate technicians before living aboard a traveling ship, where musicians taught him to perform.

Then the ship sank.

His family and mentor died, but Randall's character survived by floating to safety on his mentor's acoustic guitar. After living freely on an island, he was eventually rescued and returned to a society he no longer believes anyone needs. His new mission is to escape life on the street and bring everyone else with him. He is essentially Cyberpunk Mr. Rogers, assuming Mr. Rogers had piercings, cyberware, and a guitar that kills fascists.

Tyler's Netrunner develops in the opposite direction. He is sneaky, deceptive, fashionable, motivated by money, and interested in gaining power and control. He grew up in a nomad pack among ruined settlements before his family lost everything through betrayal. He works alone from a workspace full of gamer debris, accepts jobs from media figures and political or law-enforcement contacts, and has local gangers protecting his territory.

He also steals programs from Netrunners after brain-burning them, which raises several questions about why anyone continues giving Tyler characters unrestricted access to technology.

Both characters somehow roll three friends, multiple enemies, and enough tragic relationships to support several seasons of prestige television. One shared rival may merely insult Randall's rockerboy but wants to murder Tyler's Netrunner on sight, apparently because Tyler's personality failed a vibe check so badly that it became a capital offense.

The episode finishes with statistics, derived attributes, skills, weapons, armor, fashion, housing, and cyberware. Randall's Rockerboy receives an audio recorder, chemskin, a cyberaudio suite, and tech hair. Both characters begin life in cargo containers, because even in the dark future, affordable housing remains the most unrealistic part of science fiction.

Finally, Randall names his new rockerboy Marky Day, short for Marquette Lafayette. The stage is set for Marky and Tyler's deeply suspicious Netrunner to enter Night City, find work, make enemies, and enjoy the approximate life expectancy of a mayfly standing beneath an Arasaka boot.

• Cyberpunk RED offers three approaches to character creation: the fast Streetrat method, the guided Edgerunner method, and the highly customizable Complete Package.
• Edgerunner is presented as the strongest option for new players because it offers choices while keeping characters functional in their selected roles.
• Roles define much more than combat abilities. They determine how characters influence the setting, find work, form connections, and solve problems.
• Execs can be challenging for inexperienced players because their corporate loyalties may clash with the anti-establishment motivations of other characters.
• Rockerboys use Charismatic Impact to influence fans and larger groups. They do not need to be musicians and can instead be poets, artists, dancers, political speakers, or cult leaders.
• The Lifepath system is the heart of character creation. Random results establish personality, cultural background, clothing, relationships, family history, enemies, romances, goals, and role-specific connections.
• Players are not always required to accept a random result literally. The group frequently interprets, expands, combines, or rerolls results to create a more coherent character.
• Randall's Rockerboy becomes a hopeful, compassionate performer whose optimism is supported by a profoundly tragic history.
• Tyler's Netrunner becomes an ambitious and morally questionable hacker with criminal contacts, a messy workspace, stolen programs, and multiple people who want him dead.
• Fashion has social importance. Clothing affects how characters are perceived by corporate employees, street contacts, potential clients, and criminals.
• Characters must balance equipment and cyberware against their available money and Humanity. More cyberware provides useful abilities but gradually reduces the character's Humanity and Empathy.
• Starting characters begin at rank four in their primary role ability. Lower ranks exist partly to support acquiring abilities from additional roles later.
• Both characters begin in cargo-container housing, establishing their place near the bottom of Night City's economic food chain.
• Character creation succeeds because the mechanics generate story hooks rather than merely numbers. Before the game begins, the characters already have friends, enemies, trauma, ambitions, rivalries, and several excellent reasons for everything to go terribly wrong.

Tonight, we're talking vampires, history's greatest transformation from suspiciously bloated corpse to immortal bisexual aristocrat with a castle, a cape, and absolutely no respect for personal boundaries. We dig into garlic, holy symbols, counting mustard seeds, bricks shoved into mouths, and the alarming number of vampire prevention methods involving someone's severed head near their butt. Then we compare D&D's growing collection of bitey hit-point bags with Pathfinder's bold decision to let you turn almost anything into a vampire. Grab a wooden stake, protect your neck, and remember: the undead pyramid scheme is not a scam if every wight gets eight zombies beneath them.

Vampires have been haunting folklore for centuries, but before they became wealthy, seductive goth icons, they were mostly blamed on misunderstood decomposition, disease, and humanity's long tradition of confidently inventing explanations for things it did not understand. We explore the regional beliefs surrounding vampires, including animal transformations, compulsive counting, invitations, running water, graveyard horse tests, and the creative methods people used to keep corpses from returning. Apparently, garlic was not enough. Sometimes you needed decapitation, holy water, a brick, and a very specific head-placement strategy.

From there, we follow the vampire from folklore through The Vampyre and Dracula, then directly into tabletop gaming. Strahd is examined as D&D's legally distinct Dracula, complete with an Eastern European castle, disposable vampire brides, an unpleasant servant, and an unhealthy obsession with one particular woman. We discuss why vampires make such effective villains, whether they should always be irredeemably evil, and how their intelligence, charisma, resources, and ability to escape make them more interesting than another monster waiting patiently to be reduced to zero hit points.

Tyler walks through D&D's increasingly crowded vampire bestiary, including vampire spawn, familiars, mind flayers, Nosferatu, infernalists, wardens, spellcasters, warriors, umbral lords, hopping vampires, and several versions of Strahd. Ash discovers that many updated vampires lost their regeneration and responds with the measured restraint everyone has come to expect. We also uncover the Jiangshi's undead pyramid scheme, where drained victims become wights, wights create zombies, and everyone receives an exciting opportunity to become their own boss.

Pathfinder 2e takes a more flexible approach with vampire adjustments that can be applied to nearly any living creature. Want a vampire dwarf, vampire monster, full vampire character, Dhampir, or suspiciously blood-focused animal companion? Pathfinder has paperwork for that. We compare its vampire families, weaknesses, regeneration, player archetypes, unusual feeding options, and the many ways players can embrace eternal life without being reduced to a single edgy species choice.

Finally, the Question of the Week asks how to deliver a satisfying campaign ending. The hosts discuss final boss battles, player-driven epilogues, heroic sacrifices, closing character arcs, carrying consequences into future campaigns, and giving everyone enough closure to explain what their character does after saving the world. Tyler also recommends a total party kill, because rocks falling remains the most efficient form of narrative finality.

• Vampire folklore varied dramatically between regions, but blood drinking, animal transformations, compulsions, returning corpses, and elaborate burial precautions appeared frequently.
• Many historical vampire scares were fueled by misunderstandings about decomposition, disease, bloating, and blood appearing around a corpse's mouth.
• Bram Stoker's Dracula established many of the traits associated with modern vampires, including wealth, sophistication, seduction, immortality, and aristocratic menace.
• Strahd is essentially D&D's version of Dracula, enhanced with wizard abilities, legendary actions, extensive resources, and enough emotional baggage to fill Castle Ravenloft.
• Vampires make strong recurring villains because they are intelligent, charismatic, difficult to permanently destroy, and capable of retreating to fight another day.
• D&D offers numerous vampire variants, but several newer designs reduce them to durable biting monsters, and the removal of regeneration makes them feel less distinct.
• The Jiangshi can create an expanding hierarchy of wights and zombies, producing what can only be described as an undead pyramid scheme.
• Pathfinder 2e's vampire adjustments allow GMs to apply vampire abilities to existing creatures instead of relying entirely on separate stat blocks.
• Pathfinder also provides more vampire-related player options, including the Dhampir heritage, vampire archetype, vampiric companions, and blood-draining spells.
• A satisfying campaign ending should extend beyond defeating the final boss and give players room to resolve relationships, describe their futures, and address the consequences of their choices.
• Asking characters what they hope to do after the adventure can help the GM build meaningful rewards and bring long-running stories full circle.
• Heroic sacrifice can create a powerful bittersweet ending when the choice belongs to the player rather than being forced upon them.
• Plot holes may be forgotten, but players remember when an old joke, promise, relationship, or seemingly insignificant choice returns during the finale.

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 Ranger levels 1 through 4, where you can become a deadly shadow archer, command your own miniature dragon, or sacrifice your entire action so that a flying snake with the structural integrity of wet parchment can participate in combat. In this episode, we explore Favored Enemies nobody tracks, terrain nobody visits, spells competing for the same concentration slot, and the revolutionary discovery that the Ranger becomes significantly better when you replace most of the Ranger. Grab your longbow, release your drake, and prepare to whisper, "Go get 'em, little buddy," moments before your animal companion is killed by incidental damage.

The Ranger has spent years carrying a terrible reputation, but is the entire class actually bad, or did everyone read the original Beast Master, experience psychic damage, and refuse to look at the class again?

In this episode, we begin our journey through the 2014 Ranger from levels 1 through 4. We break down the class's ability scores, armor, weapons, skills, Fighting Styles, spellcasting, and its awkward position somewhere between Fighter, Rogue, and person who remembers to bring enough trail rations.

We examine the original Favored Enemy and Natural Explorer features, which are extremely useful when the campaign takes place in one specific biome against one specific enemy and the DM insists that every mile of travel be handled in real time. Then we look at Tasha's optional features, including Favored Foe and Deft Explorer, which give Rangers abilities they might actually use during an adventure.

At level 3, the builds split dramatically. Randall embraces the darkness with a Gloom Stalker built around stealth, hand crossbows, and making an alarming number of attacks before the enemy understands that combat has started. Ash chooses the Drakewarden, gaining a durable dragon companion that can attack, support allies, and generally behave like a functional subclass feature.

Tyler, meanwhile, voluntarily builds the original Player's Handbook Beast Master. Armed with determination, optimism, and a flying snake that can be eliminated by an aggressively closed door, he attempts to prove that the subclass can work. It technically can, provided your definition of working includes surrendering your action, protecting your pet at all costs, and carrying its body around until the DM allows you to find another one.

By level 4, the difference is impossible to ignore. The Gloom Stalker is attacking repeatedly from the shadows, the Drakewarden is firing arrows while a dragon controls the front line, and the Beast Master is pointing toward the enemy and asking his snake to please do something useful. Two Rangers are ready for the next tier of play. One Ranger needs to lie down.

• Dexterity is usually the Ranger's best primary ability. It supports ranged and finesse weapons, Armor Class, initiative, Stealth, and several important saving throws without demanding the impossible ability spread required by most Strength builds.
• The original level-one features are painfully campaign-dependent. Favored Enemy mostly helps with tracking and recalling information, while Natural Explorer becomes relevant only when the party is traveling through the terrain you selected.
• Tasha's optional features are major improvements. Favored Foe provides extra damage without consuming a bonus action, while Deft Explorer gives the Ranger expertise in a chosen skill and helps it better occupy the party's scout role.
• Bonus-action management matters. Hunter's Mark, two-weapon fighting, Crossbow Expert, and companion commands can all compete for the same bonus action, so your build needs a clear plan for how its turns will work.
• Archery remains an excellent Fighting Style. The attack bonus is reliable, useful at every level, and especially valuable for builds planning to use powerful ranged feats later.
• Ranger spells should provide more than damage. Healing, control, mobility, and utility can offer better value than repeatedly concentrating on Hunter's Mark, especially when Favored Foe can handle shorter fights.
• Most Ranger subclasses are functional or strong. Gloom Stalker offers excellent opening-round offense, Drakewarden delivers an effective companion, and even Hunter remains playable. The original Beast Master is the feature responsible for much of the class's terrible reputation.
• The original Beast Master has a brutal action economy. Commanding the companion to attack consumes the Ranger's action, leaving the character watching their pet play D&D on their behalf.
• Modern companion subclasses demonstrate what Beast Master should have been. The Drake can act through a bonus action, contribute extra damage with its reaction, support the front line, and survive encounters without requiring constant emotional and medical supervision.
• Your build should have a recognizable combat loop by level 4. Randall attacks rapidly from hiding, Ash fires from range while the Drake fights up front, and Tyler commands a snake while quietly reconsidering every decision that brought him here.

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

Wizards of the Coast has revealed its plans for the future of Dungeons & Dragons, and apparently the strategy is simple: fix D&D Beyond, return to Gen Con, outsource adventures to people who know what they are doing, cross over with World of Warcraft, and traumatize a convention hall full of children with a Dark Sun trailer featuring a freshly removed spine. Tyler attended the secret briefing and emerged with five pages of notes, several enormous announcements, and absolutely no idea what D&D Icons are. So prepare yourselves for new books, old settings, digital upgrades, live puppies, and enough upcoming content to make your wallet roll a death save.

• EnWorld: President of WotC Steps Down
• Forbidden Lands (affiliate link)

Wizards of the Coast has revealed its roadmap for Dungeons & Dragons through 2027, and Tyler is here to unload everything he learned during an embargoed presentation. We begin at Gen Con, which Wizards plans to turn into the recurring home for its annual D&D announcements. There will be a massive convention presence, live events, streams, adoptable puppies, and something called D&D Icons. Everyone involved seems extremely excited about Icons. Unfortunately, nobody appears capable of explaining what they actually are.

D&D Beyond is also getting a substantial overhaul. Wizards plans to introduce tools for finding groups, allow local game stores to advertise events, and form an official partnership with StartPlaying. The mobile app is being redesigned, the character builder and rules engine are being rebuilt, and new DM tools, improved search, and campaign-creation features are somewhere on the horizon. Several details remain vague, partly because the presentation's prerecorded D&D Beyond video stopped working halfway through. Technology!

On the video game side, Wizards appears to be pulling back from its plan to release a major game every year. Several projects have reportedly been canceled, but Warlock and Exodus remain in development. Warlock will feature a protagonist whose patron is Tasha, while Exodus is shaping up as a science-fiction RPG with strong Mass Effect energy and a tabletop tie-in that nobody on the podcast entirely understands.

The tabletop schedule begins with Arcana Unleashed, a large rules expansion containing eight subclasses, ten backgrounds, twenty-nine feats, thirty-three spells, group patrons, magical factions, forty-seven magic items, and nineteen creature stat blocks. It will also introduce evolving magic items that can grow alongside the characters using them. Its companion campaign, Deadfall, is an espionage-focused adventure running from levels 11 through 20. The characters must save Thay by opposing Szass Tam, which means the situation has become so dire that saving Thay somehow qualifies as the good outcome.

The Season of Champions brings a full Dungeons & Dragons crossover with World of Warcraft. The book is being led by longtime D&D designer and Warcraft fan James Wyatt and will include eleven species, six subclasses, iconic locations, recognizable characters, dungeons, monsters designed to provide a raid-like experience, a DM screen, and a map pack with a digital adventure. It will also come in three different editions, allowing Horde and Alliance fans to continue fighting the most important battle of all: which logo belongs on the front of the book.

Then comes Dark Sun. Wizards is presenting Athas as the first mature D&D setting, complete with shrink-wrapped books, content warnings, extreme violence, and a trailer that apparently wastes no time separating people from their spinal columns. Dark Sun will receive separate setting and gameplay expansions, a limited-edition Player's Handbook, a new Scion class, a DM screen, maps, and some form of adventure support. The gameplay material alone is expected to approach five hundred pages, suggesting that Wizards is not returning to Athas quietly.

Greyhawk will also return during the 2027 Season of Sword and Sorcery. Crown of the Witch Queen is a 160-page adventure featuring Tasha's daughter as its central antagonist, supported by a map pack and DM screen. The final 2027 season, the Season of Rebellion, was announced without details, leaving everyone to speculate angrily until Wizards decides to explain itself.

Perhaps the largest long-term change is Wizards' plan for annual setting support produced in partnership with established third-party publishers. Ghostfire Gaming will work on Ravenloft, Visionary Products and Designs will handle Eberron, and Kobold Press will support the Forgotten Realms. Wizards is also developing something with the Hickmans, although details remain scarce. The approach could finally give neglected settings regular adventures and character options, but it also raises questions about outsourcing, quality control, digital-only releases, and whether D&D is about to recreate the overwhelming flood of material from the third-edition era.

Despite those concerns, the group is cautiously optimistic. Wizards seems willing to experiment, work with proven creators, support more settings, focus on tabletop products, and admit that maybe trying to become a video game company was not the best use of everyone's time. It could produce an exciting new era for D&D, or it could become an exhausting avalanche of crossovers and subscription content. Either way, Ash will be waiting for the D&D and Family Guy campaign setting so they can finally say they warned us.

• Gen Con is becoming D&D's annual announcement hub. Wizards intends to reveal future product roadmaps there instead of relying on scattered online presentations.
• D&D Beyond is being extensively rebuilt. Planned improvements include group-finding tools, local game-store listings, StartPlaying integration, a redesigned app, a new character builder, a new rules engine, better search, DM tools, and campaign creation.
• Arcana Unleashed is a major player-focused expansion. It includes subclasses, feats, spells, backgrounds, factions, patrons, dozens of magic items, and new rules for items that evolve with their owners.
• Deadfall finally supports high-level campaigning. The adventure runs from levels 11 through 20 and sends the party into an espionage conflict against Szass Tam in Thay.
• The World of Warcraft crossover is a full product line. It includes numerous playable species, subclasses, famous locations, raid-inspired encounters, accessories, digital content, and three different cover editions.
• Dark Sun is returning without being noticeably softened. Wizards is positioning it as a mature setting with separate lore and gameplay books, graphic content warnings, hundreds of pages of material, and promised adventure support.
• Greyhawk returns with Crown of the Witch Queen. The adventure will feature Tasha's daughter as the antagonist and lean into a colorful, operatic sword-and-sorcery style.
• Classic settings may receive annual support. Wizards is partnering with experienced publishers to produce new Ravenloft, Eberron, and Forgotten Realms material, with another Hickman-related project also in development.
• Third-party partnerships could solve D&D's setting problem. Instead of leaving worlds unsupported for years, specialized publishers can create material while Wizards focuses on core rules and major releases.
• The biggest risk is content overload. More books, digital releases, partnerships, settings, and crossovers could strengthen the game, but they could also recreate the crowded and difficult-to-navigate release schedule of earlier editions.
• The overall mood is cautiously optimistic. The announcements suggest that Wizards is taking creative risks, investing in tabletop content, and making decisions that could benefit both players and the wider TTRPG industry.

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
• https://ashelydm.com/
• https://ashelydm.com/

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

• @Lzr_illuminati

Welcome to Night City, chooms, where the sky is red, the rent is due, your landlord is probably armed, and health care arrives by helicopter only if your credit score has a body count. In this episode, Ash introduces Randall and Tyler to Cyberpunk Red, a game about surviving late-stage capitalism after it bought a katana, installed cyberlegs, and decided empathy was bad for quarterly growth. The internet is dead, the new internet is haunted, corporations have private armies, your apartment is a cargo container, and if you get shot badly enough, your best hope is that Trauma Team thinks your subscription tier is worth the bullets. So chrome up, talk before you glock, and remember: in Cyberpunk, the future is not here to save you. It is here to invoice you.

Cyberpunk: RED Core Rulebook (affiliate link)

This RPGBOT.Podcast Quickstart kicks off our Cyberpunk Red arc, with Ash taking the GM chair and immediately shoving Randall and Tyler into a glittering corporate hellscape where every system has failed except capitalism, which unfortunately got promoted. This is the concepts and themes episode, so before anyone gets to build a tragic little neon goblin with a gun, Ash walks us through the setting, the history, the tone, and the important survival lesson that being cool does not make you bulletproof.

The episode starts in peak RPGBOT fashion: no one is ready, Producer Dan scares the cast, Evil RPGBOT becomes a conspiracy board, and the crew somehow detours through Taylor Swift, soccer, the metric system, and America's inability to understand that a third of a pound is bigger than a quarter. Eventually, because someone has to be the adult and it sure is not going to be capitalism, Ash drags everyone into Cyberpunk Red.

Cyberpunk Red takes place in 2045, during the Time of Red, after the Fourth Corporate War and the pocket-nuke-sized corporate tantrum that helped turn Night City into a smoldering lesson in why companies should not have militaries. The old Net is gone, rogue AIs lurk behind the Black Wall, and the new Net is a bunch of local data structures that Netrunners have to physically approach because apparently even hacking needed to become a contact sport.

Mechanically, the game runs on D10 checks and D6 damage, which sounds friendly right up until someone explains combat. Fights are fast, violent, and deeply uninterested in your character arc. Armor helps until it gets chewed apart. Critical injuries can cost you limbs, senses, or dignity. Death saves are less a dramatic countdown and more a paperwork-light way of saying congratulations, you lived long enough to regret this.

Ash also digs into Netrunning, Black ICE, cyberware, humanity loss, and cyberpsychosis. Netrunners are basically hackers with a death wish and a brain cable. Black ICE is corporate malware that wants to delete either your programs or your thoughts. Cyberware lets you replace your sad meat parts with upgrades, but too much chrome can eat away at your humanity until you become less person and more violent product recall.

By the end, Cyberpunk Red comes across as stylish, brutal, roleplay-heavy, and aggressively allergic to the idea that anyone is having a good time for free. It is a game about survival, reputation, scarcity, and looking incredible while the world collapses around you. Next up: character creation, where Tyler will almost certainly try to become some kind of cyber-wizard trash gremlin and everyone will pretend to be surprised.

• Cyberpunk Red is set in 2045 during the Time of Red, which is what happens when the future catches fire and nobody with money feels personally inconvenienced enough to fix it.
• The setting is corporate dystopia with the safety rails removed. Governments are weak, corporations are terrifying, and basic human needs have been turned into subscription models with worse customer service.
• The old Net is dead because a vengeful hacker released digital nightmares into the system. Now the Black Wall keeps the murder-AIs in the internet basement, where they are definitely fine and nothing bad will ever happen.
• The new Net is localized, which means Netrunners have to get physically close to access points. Hacking is no longer safely done from your couch. Now it comes with floor plans and gunfire.
• The core system is simple: roll a D10, add your stat and skill, and try to beat the difficulty. The consequences, however, are very committed to ruining your evening.
• Combat is deadly, fast, and rude. Armor degrades, bullets hurt, and the game strongly encourages the sacred cyberpunk tradition of not starting a gunfight unless you are ready to become street decor.
• Critical injuries are nasty. Cyberpunk Red does not ask whether you are emotionally attached to your arm before it starts making suggestions.
• Trauma Team can save you, but only if you can afford the good plan. In Night City, even emergency rescue has premium tiers, because of course it does.
• Netrunners are terrifying little brain-goblins who can hack systems, fight programs, and potentially ruin someone's cyberware from the inside. They are cool, useful, and absolutely one bad roll away from becoming soup.
• Cyberware is powerful and stylish, but it has a humanity cost. Replace too much of yourself and the game starts asking whether you are still a person or just a problem with optics.
• Cyberpsychosis is not just a punishment for wanting cool robot arms. The episode points out that the game treats medical prosthetics and elective combat chrome differently, which gives the system more nuance than just metal parts make you evil.
• Cyberpunk Red is roleplay-forward. Rent, lifestyle, jobs, reputation, hustle, and survival all matter. You are not just adventuring. You are trying to make it to next month without being evicted, harvested, hacked, shot, or monetized.
• The next episode moves into character creation using the Edgerunner method, because apparently everyone agreed that dying in Night City should at least be efficient.

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 Pandemonium, the plane where the wind screams, gravity is a rumor, and every emergency exit has a reasonable chance of dropping you directly into the Abyss. Tyler explains the cosmology, Randall attempts to locate something resembling a usable map, Ash discovers that the wind is made from every scream anyone has ever screamed, and Producer Dan quietly realizes this entire episode will require aggressive noise reduction. Pack darkvision, ear protection, and a backup character. The weather is hostile, the architecture hates you, and even the demons would rather be somewhere else.

This week on the RPGBOT.Podcast, we descend into Pandemonium, the endlessly dark maze of caves where hurricane-force winds carry ancient voices, communication is nearly impossible, and prolonged exposure can leave travelers deaf, insane, or both. The crew explores the plane's four layers, from the enormous caverns of Pandesmos to the narrowing tunnels of Cocytus, the marginally more gravity-compliant Phlegethon, and the sealed chambers of Agathion, where forgotten horrors wait patiently for some adventurer with a shovel and poor judgment.

Along the way, we examine Pandemonium's strange inhabitants, exiled gods, nihilistic settlements, bizarre monsters, and oddly specific afterlives. We also follow the River Styx, investigate portals that treat destinations as optional suggestions, and discover a magical shouting spot that lets you insult someone anywhere in the multiverse, provided invisible shadow demons do not eat you first.

Finally, the episode turns to using spells against player characters. The hosts discuss why illusion magic becomes terrifying in the hands of a villain, how Pass Without Trace can transform ordinary goblins into a tactical nightmare, and why Dungeon Masters should give enemy spellcasters clever strategies without simply making the players miserable.

• RPGBOT.Podcast Episodes

• The Abyss

• Arborea

• Archeron

• Arcadia

• The Beastlands

• Bytopia

• Carceri

• Celestia

• Elysium

• The Ethereal Plane

• The Feywild

• Gehenna

• Hades

• Hell Part 1

• Hell Part 2

• Limbo

• Mechanus

• Pandemonium

• Plane of Air

• Plane of Fire

• Shadowfell

• Pandemonium is an environmental threat before combat even begins. Darkness, deafening winds, madness, and unpredictable gravity can challenge a party without requiring constant monster encounters.
• The plane contains four layers: Pandesmos, Cocytus, Phlegethon, and Agathion. Each becomes more difficult to navigate, survive, or pronounce.
• The wind does more than make noise. It carries voices, screams, threats, and other sounds from across history, creating an endless supernatural chorus capable of destroying a traveler's sanity.
• Navigation is nearly impossible when characters can walk along cave walls and ceilings and rivers can flow in whatever direction they feel like flowing.
• Most of Pandemonium's inhabitants are exiles, prisoners, refugees, or creatures that arrived accidentally and cannot leave. Nobody appears to have moved there because of the excellent schools.
• Agathion's sealed pockets make excellent prisons, vaults, and adventure locations for ancient beings that absolutely should not be awakened.
• The River Styx and Pandemonium's portals provide possible escape routes, but memory loss, random destinations, and ambush predators make every option terrible in a different way.
• Pandemonium works best when the plane itself feels like the primary antagonist. The monsters should be additional complications, not the only source of danger.
• Enemy illusionists can create memorable encounters, but Dungeon Masters should apply the same standards to NPC illusions that they apply to player illusions.
• Smart enemies using stealth, terrain, traps, and spells such as Pass Without Trace can turn supposedly weak creatures into serious threats without artificially increasing their statistics.

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

Tonight, the RPGBOT.Podcast enters the discourse arena, where Paizo is financially bleeding, Archives of Nethys accidentally brought a flamethrower to a contract negotiation, and the internet has already decided who the villain is without reading past the headline. Ash arrives with enough hot takes to melt adamantine, Tyler desperately attempts to preserve nuance, and Randall keeps feeding increasingly tortured metaphors into the Wayback Machine. Grab your popcorn, silence your notifications, and remember: the rules are still free. Everyone can please stop screaming now.

UPDATE: Joint announcement from Paizo+AoN on Juy 24th

• Impossible Magic on paizo.com

  • Amazon: Impossible Magic (affiliate link)

• Paizo Announces Layoffs June 8th

  • Reddit thread with links to support affected people

• Archives of Nethys announcement July 14th
• Paizo blog post about Archives of Nethys July 15th
• AoN FAQ July 17th
• UPDATE: Joint announcement from Paizo+AoN on Juy 24th
• More Info

• • Ronald the Rules Lawyer on the Paizo layoffs

Paizo has ended its eight-year official licensing partnership with Archives of Nethys, and the Pathfinder community reacted with all the restraint and careful consideration of a barbarian discovering Reddit. We break down what is actually changing, what is not changing, and why Archives of Nethys is not being deleted, destroyed, paywalled, or dragged behind Paizo headquarters. The site can still provide Pathfinder and Starfinder rules for free, but it will lose access to most official artwork and will no longer receive books early enough to guarantee new content on release day.

To understand why Paizo would make such an unpopular decision, we climb into the Wayback Machine and revisit the Diamond Comic Distributors bankruptcy, millions of dollars in inaccessible Paizo inventory, costly legal disputes, tariffs, financial losses, and the recent layoffs affecting roughly 15 percent of Paizo's staff. Paizo says the Archives of Nethys license required legal, financial, and administrative resources that the company can no longer justify, especially when the expected royalty payments never materialized.

We also examine how both sides handled the announcement. Paizo communicated poorly, chose terrible timing, and apparently believed email was the ideal tool for navigating a beloved eight-year partnership during a financial crisis. Archives of Nethys responded emotionally, published its announcement without giving Paizo advance notice, omitted important context about ongoing negotiations and a six-month transition period, and then buried much of the clarification inside a video and forum comments. The result was a community firestorm in which everyone was angry, nobody had the complete story, and Diamond somehow remained the least surprising villain.

Ultimately, this is not Paizo attempting a Wizards-style crackdown on free rules access. It is a struggling company cutting expenses while two groups of exhausted people make imperfect decisions under enormous stress. Support Archives of Nethys through Patreon or by disabling your ad blocker, purchase Pathfinder products directly from Paizo when possible, and perhaps give everyone enough time to get on a video call before declaring the death of the entire hobby.

• Archives of Nethys is not shutting down. Its existing Pathfinder and Starfinder rules content will remain freely accessible.
• The major changes are the loss of most official Paizo artwork and the end of early PDF access, meaning new rules may no longer appear on release day.
• Paizo's decision comes amid severe financial pressure caused by the Diamond bankruptcy, inaccessible inventory, legal expenses, tariffs, losses, and staff layoffs.
• The license produced no royalties because Archives of Nethys operates through donations, advertising, and unpaid volunteer labor rather than as a profit-making business.
• Paizo says the relationship still required legal, licensing, financial, and administrative work, including policing unauthorized reuse of artwork taken from the site.
• Archives of Nethys presented an incomplete version of the situation in its original announcement, including leaving out ongoing negotiations and the six-month grace period for removing restricted artwork.
• Paizo also deserves criticism for poor communication, bad timing, and allowing an important partnership discussion to stall through email.
• The backlash was intensified by fear and incomplete information, not by evidence that Paizo intends to eliminate free access to its rules.
• Both organizations say they remain open to finding another arrangement, and the hosts believe a compromise may still be possible.
• Fans can support both sides by contributing to Archives of Nethys, disabling ad blockers on the site, and buying products directly from Paizo rather than through Amazon.
• Tyler proposes that Paizo create an affiliate program so Pathfinder creators can direct customers to Paizo's store while earning revenue and helping more money reach the publisher.
• The true villain remains Diamond, with capitalism receiving a strong honorable mention.

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

We return to Wizards of the Coast's Villainous Options, now revised after the first round was lovingly pushed down the stairs by public feedback. Some subclasses survived untouched. Some got a makeover. Some were taken behind the shed, especially the Primordial Patron, which had one great idea and the mechanical confidence of a wet napkin. Good news, though: the demon sorcerer finally feels demonic, the Titan Druid is now a proper kaiju tank, and the Hell Knight has upgraded from flaming disappointment to legally playable infernal gambling problem.

This episode revisits Wizards of the Coast's latest Unearthed Arcana update for Villainous Options, which means the crew returns to the scene of the crime to see what survived the feedback cycle, what got rewritten, and what was quietly removed from the suspect board. The earlier Villainous Options episodes gave us some strong concepts with mixed execution: villainous path feats like the Death Knight and Lich, subclasses like the Titan Druid and Hell Knight, and later options like the Path of Lament Barbarian, Pestilence Cleric, Venom Monk, and the now-defenestrated Primordial Patron Warlock. Some of those were apparently well-liked enough to move forward with little public revision. Others came back covered in red ink and shame.

The episode opens by sorting out what is not in the new UA. Path of Lament, Pestilence Cleric, and Venom Monk appear to have landed well enough that they did not need another public pass, though the hosts still have a few lingering concerns about capstones, wording, and whether weaponized sadness is legally distinct from being a barbarian with theater kid energy. The Death Knight and Lich villain paths also seem likely to continue, though Ash remains skeptical that the Lich is as ready as WotC apparently thinks it is. The Primordial Patron, meanwhile, is gone for now, which hurts because the concept rules, but the subclass itself never really delivered on the fantasy of making a pact with an ancient elemental apocalypse.

Then the real revisions begin with Circle of the Titan Druid, which gets a much-needed identity check. The old version wanted to be a giant monster but had all the durability of a parade float in a hailstorm. The new version leans harder into tanking: better AC, more temporary hit points, stronger damage scaling, a shorter but more practical Titan form duration, and a capstone swallow ability that finally feels like being eaten by a kaiju instead of being mildly inconvenienced by one. Behemoth and Insectoid both look more playable, with Insectoid getting a strong healing identity, while Leviathan still mostly answers the question, "What if your subclass feature was swimming?"

Hell Knight also gets a major facelift, mostly by reducing its dependence on rolling exactly the right number before anything interesting happens. The infernal wounds now feel more like a real subclass engine, with rider effects that happen more consistently and Devil's Luck upgrades when the dice cooperate. It is much better than before, but the table still finds it a little too constrained by resources and a little too enamored with gambling mechanics. It is no longer borderline unplayable, which is progress, but it may still need another pass before it becomes the infernal fighter fantasy everyone clearly wants.

The big winner is Demonic Sorcery. The previous version felt like a melee sorcerer with terrible life choices, a bad spell list, and an aura table that made everyone remember why random subclass tables are rarely fun. The revision gives it Abyssal Rupture, a movable sphere of demonic problems that pulls enemies around, creates battlefield control, scales into difficult terrain, and eventually supports summon fiend in a way that finally screams Abyss instead of discount Hexblade with a concussion. The spell list is also dramatically better, replacing nonsense like Hallow and overused Misty Step with options that fit the theme and support the playstyle. It still needs damage scaling on the rupture, but this is the rare UA glow-up where the hosts go from roasting the thing to wanting to play it.

The episode also touches on the new feats and epic boons, which range from charming people by picking their pockets to setting better hunting traps to becoming weirdly hard to fool, possess, or kill with necrotic damage. The hosts speculate about what book this material is actually building toward, with possibilities ranging from a renamed Book of Vile Darkness to an evil campaign supplement, a fiendish planar guide, or something tied to the Abyss and Nine Hells. Whatever it becomes, the consensus is cautiously positive: WotC seems to be listening, the revisions are mostly moving in the right direction, and the demon sorcerer finally has enough flavor to stop apologizing for itself.

• Cantrip Candles

• https://rpgbot.net/candles

• dScryb

• https://dscryb.com/rpgbot

• HeroForge

• https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Kfhq_rw3Jw85HXMVCsmh7-GXQIS9Jf-JoW5VHcYvrSI/edit?usp=sharing https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Kfhq_rw3Jw85HXMVCsmh7-GXQIS9Jf-JoW5VHcYvrSI/edit?usp=sharing

• This UA is a feedback-driven revision of the previous Villainous Options material, not a totally new batch of evil toys.
• Path of Lament Barbarian, Pestilence Cleric, and Venom Monk appear to have been received well enough that they did not return for major public revision.
• The Death Knight and Lich villain paths seem likely to continue, though the hosts still think Lich needs more work and Death Knight may get broadened for more martial builds.
• The Primordial Patron Warlock is gone for now, which is sad because the idea is excellent, but the original execution did not feel like a pact with an elemental world-ending horror.
• Circle of the Titan Druid is much stronger now and has a clearer role as the tanky kaiju druid.
• Titan Druid's improved AC, temporary hit points, damage scaling, and better swallow feature make the subclass feel much closer to its fantasy.
• Behemoth looks solid, Insectoid now has a meaningful healer/tank angle, and Leviathan still feels like the one you pick because the campaign has too much water.
• Hell Knight is much better because infernal wounds now do interesting things more consistently instead of asking players to roll a six before the subclass becomes fun.
• Hell Knight still feels too resource-limited and may need another pass, especially if the goal is to make infernal wounds feel like the subclass's real engine.
• Demonic Sorcery is the standout winner of the revision.
• The new Abyssal Rupture gives Demonic Sorcery a strong identity built around battlefield control, forced movement, difficult terrain, and demon-flavored chaos.
• The Demonic Sorcery spell list is dramatically improved and now actually supports the theme instead of asking why a demon sorcerer has Hallow.
• The hosts like the revised Demonic Sorcery enough that it went from "why would I play this?" to "I would play this immediately."
• The new feats and epic boons are more mechanically interesting than expected, with a few strong options for social manipulation, traps, protection, and high-level anti-undead or anti-illusion play.
• The likely future product may be an evil campaign book, a spiritual successor to Book of Vile Darkness, or a broader fiendish/planar supplement.
• Overall verdict: WotC appears to be listening, the revisions are mostly better, and the villains are finally getting options that do more than look cool while failing their own saving throw.

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

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

• @Lzr_illuminati